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the bark off each stump, and stacking the pieces around it. Both stump and bark were left to
dry out, as were smaller trees and scrub, which were cut right down to the ground. The biggest
trees were left for the
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burning, which began in February. In West Australia it was an offence to set fire to the land
between mid-November and mid-February.
Dick and Bert took 11 weeks to cut down all the trees on 140 acres, working six days a week
from sun-up to sun-down. How long would it have taken old William Honeycombe, possibly
working on his own?
As for the burning, Bert said: 'You will want two or three men to help you do this, so each time
you go to town, try and make arrangement for them to start, or, if you can manage the finance,
get a man just after Christmas. He can work on the ring-barking and post-cutting as well as
helping with the burning.' And when that was done: 'Before you start to plough the cleared land,
you will have to go over it with a shovel and fill in all the holes that have been caused by some of
the dry stumps that have burnt down into the ground... Four horses will pull a three-furrow
stump-jump plough... and you will want a drill. A 16-run drill is the best, and four horses will
pull the drill with the harrows behind easily.'
Unfortunately for William, the stump-jump plough was not invented (by a South Australian
farmer) until 1876. Its blades were able to hop over embedded roots, especially those of the
mallee scrub.
It cannot have been easy for old William. It apparently took him the last two years of his life to
build his house and dam, and to fence and clear the land. For it was not until December 1876,
that a mere 25 of his curtailed 228 acres were under cultivation -18 acres of wheat, five of
barley and two of maize. And even by then he had been dead for six months.
Perhaps he was ill for part of those two hard years. But it very much seems that, even at his age,
the stubborn old man insisted on doing most of the work on his land by himself.
And in the end it killed him.
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The reality of the Pearse family tradition may simply be that for a few years in the 1870's
George worked on the Roslynmead farm. And who else would have employed him but
Lawrence Mountjoy? He presumably lived with Jane and Lawrence Mountjoy, and their care
or regard for him may have encouraged his brother, Tom, who was five years younger, to come
to Echuca in 1875.
For a short time Tom continued with his previous occupation with Cobb & Co, driving coaches
between Echuca and Swan Hill, along the route of the present-day Murray Valley Highway. It
can hardly be a coincidence that Tom bought the 156 acres south of William Honeycombe's
property, Lot 11 Section 2. This was in 1876, when Tom was 27. That August, he married
Annie McConnachy back at Wormbete - her parents' homestead on the coach road between
Geelong and Birregurra. 'She was 25 and the niece of Robert McConnachy, TB Pearse's young
Irish partner at Angahook and Tom's brother-in-law.
Tom and Annie lived in a bark hut on their Torrumbarry property, and their first child, Thomas,
was born there in 1877. The family history of the Pearses tells how apprehensive Annie was of
the local aborigines, fearing they would steal her baby. She had more cause to fear the harsh
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