History

The Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd was established in Dubbo around 1903, a branch of the Bush Brotherhood, an Anglican order that provided priests to minister to remote and sparsely settled areas in Australia.

In the same year the rail line from Dubbo to Coonamble was completed, passing through small villages to the west of the forest such as Mogriguy, Eumungerie and Balladoran, and effectively opening up the Goonoo Forest to intensive logging of its Ironbark for railway sleepers.

Hundreds of sleeper-cutters moved to the area setting up small temporary camps around the northern and north-western fringes of the forest from where they would make forays along the creek lines of Ranters and Denmire Creeks to fell the oldest, tallest and straightest trees to be debarked, trimmed and cut to size before being carted to the rail line for transport to areas where the railways continued to expand.

The experiences of the Brotherhood’s priests and the sleeper-cutters living conditions are reported over the next few decades in the Brotherhood’s quarterly journal, Bush Brother.
Here is a description of a sleeper-cutters dwelling from 1908.

"A true Australian can make a house out of anything, the whole job occupies him a few hours. A rough frame-work of poles is fixed straddle-wise and braced together with cords. This is covered with tarpaulin or canvas or bags, or in fact anything. Where gaps occur, or to improve the shelter, boughs are laid on the top, and the thing is done. The inside, too, is soon furnished. Two planks or pieces of a packing case make a table, the legs may be left in the rough, as they are cut from the nearest tree ; boxes or tins serve for seats, and the stores are stowed under the low parts of the roof. Frying pans and other sundries hang from the rafters. That completes the furniture of the first apartment. The inner division or second chamber of the tent contains beds, sometimes a wire mattress resting on two boxes, sometimes simpler couches spread on mother earth. A candle stuck in a bottle mounts guard over this chamber.

There is not time for too much household decoration, things are for use and not for ornament, it may be necessary to strike camp any day, and all that will be left to show the

site of it is the frame-work of poles, stark and naked by the track from which the wheel marks are fast fading, where the sound of the axe is heard no longer, and the silence of the

Bush reigns once more undisturbed. 

The children brought up in these camps are very shy, the smaller ones cry at the approach of a stranger, and the elder ones are not too ready to make friends. There is often no chance to go to school, and contact with the outside world is infrequent.

But it must not be supposed that camps are necessarily lacking in comfort or even in refinement. Home-made deck chairs screens, curtains, and all manner of neat arrangements

sometimes give quite the aspect of home.  There were two camps where we found babies to be baptised ; the inmates showed signs in dress and person of plenty of hard work and the accompanying wear and tear, and doubted if they could get themselves and the babies ready in a manner befitting the ceremony ; the creek was nearlv dry, the little water left was muddy, a washing day might not have been particularly recent. 

As Bush Brothers we have not of late been fulfilling our mission to these scattered dwellers in bush camps as we ought. There are two difficulties. The first is that the camps are hard to find ; they are there one month and gone the next. The timber suitable for sleepers is all cut, or the water supply has failed, and they have pitched in another part of the bush, perhaps 20 miles away."

Travelling by horse with sulky or cart without maps was difficult in the dense forest as this account from 1909 of a trip up the old “cut line” from Dubbo to Mendooran illustrates. 

"... It was nearly noon when we drove out of the Brotherhood yard. The camp at the “29 mile peg ’’ we thought would be our destination. ‘‘ Comet" was in splendid buckle, and we travelled along at a good pace. At the Talbragar he was able to get water to keep the pace going. For the next twenty-four miles water was off, and “Comet” was beginning to feel it, so were the travellers. We pushed along. ... The track was heavy and travelling uninteresting. We wished for the“29 mile.” At last, the long-looked for peg showed up, but no camp. ... When the “31 mile ” was reached, the situation was still the same : no camp, no water. “Comet ”must have a drink. ... At last a tent was seen, and soon we were pulled up and chatting to half-a-dozen fellows. “ Comet” scored a bucket of water. ... While “ Bill ” fixed up the horse, one of the men assisted me to pitch the tent. Just as we had things fixed up it rained. We had tea round the camp fire. The camp, now wet, looked miserable. ... We spent the evening chatting to a couple of the men, our conversation being mingled with gramophone selections. ... “ Bill” shared a tent with one of the men, and had a good bunk on the chaff spread out in two bags. My tent looked uninviting, the water had sneaked in under the sides, and had left a space of say about the size of a half-tester bed. I spread the cornsacks and a blanket down on this. The night seemed a long one. It never ceased raining, and in the morning it looked worse. After breakfast I trudged through the wet, and visited neighbouring tents. Where the family was camped, I made arrangements to hold a service at 2 p.m. ...There was a congregation of five men, one woman, and a child. “Bill” led the singing; some well-known hymns were used, “Fight the good fight,” “ Sun of my soul,” “ For ever with the Lord.” It was a reverent and simple service, and it seemed to put new life into the camp.

The weather had cleared a bit, so we decided to pack up and move on. Everything was wet ; we walked alongside of the sulky, the track was awful. The road in off the cleared line we thought every moment we would get bogged. Down to the axle a few times. ... As soon as the camp was reached we were made welcome. ... After Evensong we chatted round the camp fire, “Bill” sang a couple of songs, and I was called upon to give a verse of “ Good old Jeff.” The best item was sung by one of the men, “The old bark hut”; the tune was similar to a Gregorian chant. 

As happy as the King that wears the crown, is indeed applicable to these fellows in the bush. They work hard, and put up with many an inconvenience. Literature, sometimes, is never seen, except as one of the men told me, when they look for news on the label of a milk tin! Then, again, in some cases, they have no human companionship. All day long, in most cases, each man works by himself. Yet they are happy as a king. ...

Yours fraternally,

“BROTHER JIM.”

Despite Brother Jim's travails with the weather in the previous section, the lack of a reliable water supply in the forest has always been a limiting factor to its settlement and exploitation.

"The Principal and Brother Jim had a delightful two days' trip through the iron bark forest, visiting the Sleeper-cutter’s Camps. On the way out there was a baptism at Apple Tree Flat. After Evensong and the Baptism we made for the Three- Corner-Water-Hole. The camps were pretty thick there just then. The night was very cold, and the roaring fire in the hut, where we had Evensong, threw a grateful heat and light upon the gathering. 

Water was growing scarce at the Three Corner, and iguanas had been getting into the well, causing sickness among the children. The camp is now broken up. In the morning the traction engine arrived, labouring heavily in the sand, to fetch loads of sleepers. The water difficulty was also a serious one for the engine, though probably it didn't mind a flavour of goana. The forest just then was in its glory; heaths of five or more different colours—red, white, pink, orange and yellow were flowering in profusion. The second day, tracks that were not tracks lead to more camps."

Sleeper cutting continued in the forest for many decades and you can see signs of it everywhere you go. Apart from the obvious large cut tree stumps you will come across many small open clearings sometimes with piles of trimmings left over from squaring the logs. There are also loggers wharves where a large log has been used to create a small embankment so that cut sleepers and logs can be more easily raised to the tray level of a truck.