(the Argus 23 January 1888)
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/6101947
by Telemachus
On the Peat's
Ferry road also there is a quaint natural
amphitheatre, called Judgment-hall Amphi-
theatre, in the rock, where in old days
tribunals were actually held, and just with-
out is the spot where the executioner did his
duty. Grim memories these, and they are
kept alive in such traditions, which some of
the second generation still keep living.
These will—at least, would 10 years ago—re-
late the doggerel rhymes of one Frank Mac-
namara, the convict poet, full of horror and
blasphemy, yet not devoid, therefore, of some
interest to those who seek after the quaint
and grotesque and absolutely original in litera-
ture.
Notes
Francis Macnamara and his "doggerel rhymes" are remembered long after his death.
This detailed and colourful article takes us gazing out of the window on the 1,500 mile train journey from Adelaide to Brisbane in 1888 the centenary year of colonial Australia. Telemachus tells us about the history of the countryside and towns along the way:
The many long winding creeks will preserve their quiet beauty, and the charms of the upper waters will only be enhanced by cultivated and inhabited shores And what stories of history, and the romance of history, linger about here, and seem to recur naturally at this centennial period. It was here that the first free Australian settlers built for themselves a church, resolved to maintain the faith of their fathers, and these were the settlers, it should be rememberetl just now, who swore fealty to that stout hearted Governor Bligh in the days when his enemies and theirs contrived to shift him from their path.