Left Sydney some time in the evening, and I dont know what class of travelling accommodation I had ,but must have been z class as the carriage I was in was open and they had an aluminium container as long as the seats full of hot water to keep feet warm ,but not rest of body, never been so cold in my whole life , travelling through the mountains and all, needless to say this tin hotwater bottle not stay hot for very long, but I had my swag in with me so could at least wrap a blanket or two around me, brrrrr.

Arrived in Brisbane in the morning and the first thing I done was to go and see the shearing contractor and see if they had a pen for me,( a pen means in shearing terms a pen of sheep, in other words a job,)they had but, the shearing season did not begin until another two weeks , so I was stuck in Brisbane for a fortnight with very little money and no prospects either. Managed to find a cheap boarding house that provided meals and so forth, lucky that in those days I neither smoked or drank liquor, which kept the cost down.Dont remember what or how I did during those two weeks ,but do remember going to the horse races one day to see if could build up my kitty, but alas only depleted it more.

About this time also the frogs( french ) were out here playing australia in rugby,( union or league I not know,) any how this was a sport that I knew nothing about ,so left after a while, and continued my trek around the city of Brisbane, wearing out another pair of shoes .

When the fortnight was up and I caught the train I had just fourpence (5 cents ) in my pocket, but this entire train was full of shearers and all the off shoots of the shearing industry, so every one helped each other in their need for food and such forth, the train trip took to where we were going took 19 hours and at times it felt like we could have got out and walked there much quicker. We spent this time playing cards and telling yarns and so forth , there was one yarn that I will always remember which to me was quite humouress, it went like this,

There was this shearer on this train heading out west , and he got to yakking with the other passengers about his capabilities as a shearer, the others did not believe him , so he grabbed his swag and commenced to give them a demostration on how to take the wool of a sheep, he was going flat out keeping his mind on the job in hand so much that when he took the last blow on his swag he opened the door of the train and kicked his swag out of the door , saying see ya next year cobber, wellllllllllll I thought it was funny even if ya'll dont. to be continued.......Emu