Aside from his trip to the Black Hills, Lawrence went to Circular Head in the northwest, and enjoyed a nine-day walk from Launceston across the Norfolk Plains to ‘Formosa’ and back again. In 1831 he accompanied Mr Collett up to George Town, his father William to Penquite to collect moss and lichen, and went
with Mr Kennedy on another collecting trip along the Cataract Gorge.41 These efforts were all dwarfed, however, by his participation in the ‘Black Line’, the colonial government’s expedition intended to end the violent clashes between the colonists and Aborigines.42
Devised by Lieutenant-Governor Arthur in 1830, the Line involved the strategic placement of soldiers, colonists and convicts across the island, to walk in a pincer-like formation to the southeast, sweeping all Aborigines encountered into captivity on the Forestier and Tasman Peninsula. It was a military operation on a scale never before seen in Australia, involving some 2,200 men, and costing some £30,000, or about half of the annual colonial government budget.43
Lawrence was one of dozens of dutiful colonists who volunteered to lead a party as part of a 350-strong detachment of men charged with walking from Norfolk Plains in the north, through the Western Mountains, between the highland
41 R.W. Lawrence diary 21 Nov 1829; 22-30 Jul 1830; 28 Aug 1830; 5 Oct – 17 Nov 1830; 25 Apr – 2 May 1831; 5 Jun 1831; 6 Jul 1831, QVMAG CHS 53 33/2.
42 Several other attempts to quell the violence had already failed, including the introduction of bounties on Aborigines and the use of roving parties of armed men who scoured the districts to round up the ‘dangerous natives’. N.J.B. Plomley estimated that between 1824 and 1829, 418 separate incidents occurred involving Aborigines and Settlers. In 1829 alone there were 148 incidents. In that year the total adult European population of Van Diemen's Land was approximately 20, 000, and the Aboriginal population approximately 250. Most attacks were aimed at landowners or stockkeepers in isolated huts on the frontier. Due to the small European population, it was likely that every landowner knew at least one person affected by the violence. 1830 saw the highest number of Aboriginal/settler clashes with 222 incidents noted, the August of that year containing 41 incidents – the highest number recorded for any single month between 1824 and 1831. That was approximately six weeks before Arthur announced the beginning of the Black Line. N.J.B. Plomley, The Aboriginal/Settler Clash in Van Diemen's Land 1803-1831 (Hobart, 1992), pp. 25-27.
43 Further description and discussion of the Line and the politics surrounding it can be found in J. Bonwick, The Last of the Tasmanians, or, The Black War of Van Diemen's Land (London, 1870), pp. 134-173; L. Ryan, The Aboriginal Tasmanians 2nd ed. (Crows Nest NSW, 1996), pp. 109-113, 143-55; H. Reynolds, Fate of a Free People (Ringwood VIC, 1995), pp. 51-2, 78, 117-9; Plomley, The Aboriginal/Settler Clash, pp. 5-23; Chapman, P., ed., Historical Records of AustraliaSeries III. Despatches and Papers Relating to the History of Tasmania, Vol 9. Tasmania, January- December 1830 (Melbourne, 2006), pp. 593, 617-20, 628-36 655-9, ns 313, 562-3, 575, 583-4, 589-98, 607-8
lakes, and southeast across the settled districts to Richmond.44 Like many other settlers, he supported the idea of the Line, having personally experienced the threat of attack when out collecting. The blind traveller and observer James Holman noted in April 1830 that Lawrence was ‘one of the best botanists in the island. In the course of his rambles through the woods, he has had two or three narrow escapes from being speared by the natives’.45 Lawrence and his men covered some 250 kilometres in forty-two days on foot, suffering physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. During the expedition Lawrence found solace in
natural history, escaping the rigors of the trek by focussing on collecting new plant specimens.
Lawrence was considered suitably experienced to lead a party of men, despite only having walked as far as the highland lakes in the past. His earlier trips in the field had prepared him for living in the bush, but a six-week
expedition over the central highlands would prove very different to a ten-day trek where Lawrence could shelter at a friend’s house when it rained. He mustered
44 The Black Line was the most significant domestic military operation in Australia until the invasion of Darwin in the Second World War. The desperation of the colonial government was reflected in the ‘volunteer’ process used, whereby all ticket of leave convicts were required to participate, being armed, clothed and fed from the government stores. Despite the enormous resources thrown at the campaign, it was a complete failure, resulting in the shooting of two Aborigines and the capture of two others. See G. Arthur, Van Diemen’s Land: Copies of all Correspondence between Lieutenant-Governor Arthur and His Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the Subject of the Military Operations lately carried on against the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land (Hobart, 1971).
45 Lawrence and his family experienced further animosity between Aborigines and settlers. One of his father’s huts had been plundered in 1829, and in 1831 one of William Lawrence’s stockkeepers was killed with a waddy. Lawrence also described Mr Monagan who was attacked and beaten around the head, and the killing of Captain Thomas and his overseer Parker at Port Sorell in August. J. Holman, Travels in China, New Zealand, New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, Cape Horn, etc.etc, 2nd ed. (London, 1840).p. 432. E. Baigent, ‘Holman, James (1786-1857)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed., accessed 11 Aug 2011,
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13579. R.W. Lawrence diary, 29 Mar, 7 Sep 1831, QVMAG CHS 53 33/2; Plomley, Aboriginal/Settler Clash, pp. 81, 97. See also Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, p. 289.
eight ticket of leave men, a convict constable and two of his assigned servants, including his able botanical assistant Morand for the expedition, setting off on 5 October from Launceston. From the outset his task was not easy, and his party less than willing. Four men ran away before the group had left town, and a fifth conveniently ‘fell behind’ on the walk.
For the next six weeks Lawrence struggled to keep his men mustered together, directing them as best he could. The weather was bad, everything they carried remained cold and wet, the terrain was rough and the company poor. Within ten days the men had started to quarrel so much that they had to be split into separate groups. To make matters worse, the sharp prickles of the vegetation tore their clothes to ribbons and the hard rocks wore holes in their boots.
Lawrence complained about the putrid meat in their rations, and lacking proper directions, a compass or a map, the party got lost several times, extending their trip by days at a time.46
When not looking after his men, Lawrence was happily distracted by the changing landscape he encountered on his way into the mountains:
The Stringy Bark gives place here, to a dwarf species of Eucalyptus; and the dwarf alpine shrubs, together with the snow, give to the place, the air of extreme barenness [sic] and bleakness.47
Aside from carrying equipment and provisions, Lawrence’s party, or at least his two servants, would have been weighed down by the extra burden of seeds and specimens, Lawrence adding all the time to his collection. As they went,
46 On top of this came illness and other problems. Ford, a ticket of leave man, suffered from a ‘severe’ attack of scrofula in the leg and was hardly able to walk. Lawrence’s servant Edward Thornberry apparently suffered from ‘a severe attack of laziness’. R.W. Lawrence diary, 9-17 Oct 1830, QVMAG CHS 53 33/2.
Lawrence took the opportunity to dissect any unusual animals he met with, including snakes and a male echidna. In mid-October he was excited to note a new species of dioecious Casuarina, but was frustrated he could not attend fully to his discovery due to the necessity to fulfil his orders.48
As the trek wore on, Lawrence became increasingly dejected with his task and wrote less in his diary about natural history and more about problems
amongst his men, the rations, and the general confusion the Line seemed to be in. There was little opportunity to indulge in observation and note taking when the group was moving each day. When they reached Richmond, a stay of several days provided Lawrence with the time to collect a new orchid, and as they moved into the southeast he was taken with some of the differing vegetation, including ferns and acacias, and impressed with the large trees, both wide and tall.
Lawrence’s diary for 1830 ended abruptly on 17 November when his party reached Sorell in the south. He no longer wanted to lead his group of ‘disgusted, and grumbling’ men, who in turn only followed him in order to receive their allotted payment. Lawrence was tired and dejected, showing little surprise when he heard the Line had been an abject failure, and that at least two parties of Aborigines were known to have slipped through to safety. The physical effort took its toll on Lawrence who reflected one evening in his camp. ‘I was so
dreadfully fatigued that I was quite unable to accomplish [the] journey, being like some of the men scarcely able to stand’.49
The effort of the Black Line drained Lawrence’s physical and emotional health, and it took two months before he felt ready to recommence his diary,
48 R.W. Lawrence diary, 19 Oct 1830, QVMAG CHS 53 33/2. 49 R.W. Lawrence diary, 22 Oct 1830, QVMAG CHS 53 33/2.
putting the blank between entries down to his state of ‘confusion’. Like all well- intentioned diarists, he launched into the New Year determined to make regular entries, recording everything he did on the farm, in the hope that notes of
successes and failures could be used to draw ‘scientific conclusions’. If Lawrence needed motivation to recommence his botanising, it came first when he received his reply from Hooker in May 1831, and later in the year when he befriended a recent arrival.