New Customs | Stories from Custom House

Story: Ian Brown, The Maryborough Storyteller. Image: Courtesy of the Maryborough Wide Bay & Burnett Historical Society

When we arrived, we anchored off the White Cliffs at Fraser Island. The sea was so blue, and all the colours so vivid under the strong sun. Few of us slept that night. We were all so excited. Early the next morning, a steamer came out of the mouth of the river and tied up alongside. First they transferred our luggage, then us, and the last leg of our long journey began.

We all stayed on the deck of the steamer the whole way upriver. It took a few hours, and we began to see farms and sugar plantations along the riverbank, little cottages, and even people, waving to us. We waved back as hard as we could, our hearts near to bursting with joy. When we came in sight of the town, we all began to sing the songs of our old homelands, to show our happiness at finally arriving in what would be our new homeland.

There were many people waiting for us at the wharf. Some already had jobs here, but we were told that most of us would get work right away, and somewhere to live. Everything seemed so raw to us, the timber of the wharves, the houses, it all looked like it was freshly hewn. The roads were like tracks running higgledy-piggledy through what we learnt to call ‘the bush’. This place is very different to our former home, and that is as it should be. We didn’t come all this way for more of the same. The new world begins here.