A Mountain’s story of human connection, coincidence, continents and time
“And as a mark of respect of that young man I am going to call the highest point we reached on that expedition, Mount Bryan” (from a letter written by Governor Gawler, Governor of South Australia in 1839)
That one line started an adventure to visit the mountain. That young man is my great great great Uncle. My maiden name is Bryan. Can I really have a connection with this Mountain on the other side of the world in Australia?
“To me the hills are part of my history and they’re becoming a part of yours” Tony Sumner commented when we discussed our connection.
“I guess you could say I’m the custodian of the story.”
His family have farmed the land on the Mount ever since that expedition was made in 1839. England had requested that an expedition was mounted to discover further land for agriculture. Bryan, age 19, an aide to the Governor, begged to join the group. Due to a failing horse and lack of water he disappeared and has never been seen again . “What happened to him … where did he perish … the locals have never had closure from his disappearance” Tony says.
It was becoming obvious that if you know this mountain it starts to know you. “It was a high spot, it was respected … would I say it was sacred? I would say a very strong yes”. Tony tells me, acknowledging aboriginals would have lived here.
He continues “there is an aura there … I have seen two storms head to the top and linger there”. It was also becoming obvious that this Mountain had been intertwined with our two families for longer than we had known.
When we travelled to the top of Mt Bryan in utes, with a bounding escort of kangaroos, in between the gum trees, Tony shows us his paddocks. Coming, coincidentally, from a sheep farming family in Dorset farming Dorset Horn sheep I enquire what sheep he farms. Incredulously he says “Dorset Poll” - the only difference being with horns or not.
Once at the top, covered in awe at the far reaching views and the fact that the expedition made it to here. The hot terrain is sparse. Tony tells me “it’s quite untamed. It’s not easy to muster.” But how much more inhospitable would it have been 180 years ago? There is nothing up there apart from a stone chair, a trig point and a modern intrusion of two masts.
Tony says “you must sit in Rex’s chair to which I reply “really” and quizzically “Rex’s chair”. My son is called Rex and Tony’s Uncle, who built the chair stone by stone, is called Rex. My Godfather, also a Dorset horn farmer, was called Rex, and would have been farming at the same time as this “Uncle Rex”.
We discover two of our children are about to start studying at Melbourne University together, starting that following week. They perch on a granite slab laying the foundations for a deep friendship.
And then we are told the Sumner family have just sold the farm and move out in 4 weeks. So we have only just coincided.
What connection got us there 4 weeks before they depart?
How did the two families end up farming the same breed of sheep?
What connection led Will and Lucy to study at Melbourne University at the same time?
How did the connection arise through the name Rex?
Was I just overthinking this or did Tony feel this human connection “oh hell yeah ..
“ … it was like love at first sight …”
… it’s like we’ve known you all our life ...we’ve definitely got a connection”. “I think there is some pull or force that is pulling us together”.
What had created this? The mountain, the aboriginals who had no doubt been displaced with the arrival of Gawler’s expedition or Henry Bryan himself whose body had remained somewhere there for 180 years?
Tom Quinn, a primary producer in Mount Bryan, lives facing the Mount, discusses the mountain “it is always there providing a silent strength to me living and farming in its proximity …(I) am drawn to it with a sense of belonging… I believe there was aboriginal existence”.
It seems everyone in touch with the Mountain becomes part of it.
Tom continues “growing up in the fifties, sixties and seventies, we were taught virtually nothing of the first peoples of this country and we had very little contact with indigenous Australians. So unfortunately I can’t say with any accuracy.” Tony adds “there was a lot of secrecy and a lot not written down, a lot of stuff that is hidden… There’s a lot of stuff we don’t know”.
But whatever we don’t know, we all know we are attached to Mount Bryan. I am drawn back to the landscape regularly in my mind’s eye. I am baffled by the discovered connections. As Tony said “it’s a lot of incidents, a lot of coincidentals that are just almost a little bit mind boggling”.
Tom says “it will always be the recognition that I belong to Mount Bryan and have done so all my life”.
I like to think, there’s no doubt of the human connection, but in my wildest dreams, and despite being across two continents, part of me belongs there too.