It was impossible not to reflect, as I read the book, of the times before power and lighting came to Geelong; back to the days of Fyans Ford and Balyang.

          I found it interesting to read Philip L. Brown’s advisory comments re Fyans in the Preface, “..... his character as an elderly man, with his active past behind him, seen in the erratic perspective constructed by time and his own anecdotage”.

          It is explained how “Fyans first reached Geelong on foot, and first established himself above the junction of the Barwon and Moorabool rivers, at what became Fyansford. Here in a slab hut, under a Union Jack ceiling, he accommodated James Riley, a boy of eighteen who arrived from Sydney on horseback in June 1839, with suitable introductions….

          Three years after his wedding, Fyans moved his domestic headquarters to        Bell-Bird Balyang, a stone house built for him on 158 acres, still largely open land, bounded by the Barwon river and two straight roads intersecting at right angles ….. The undulations of the original site vanished with the construction of the municipal Balyang Waterfowl Sanctuary in 1973, and the neighborhood of the house is now marked only by a modest memorial close to the river, inscribed: “Hereabouts from 1846 stood Bell-Bird Balyang, home of Captain Foster Fyans (1790-1870), Geelong’s first police magistrate and commissioner of crown lands” (p. ix).

          The reader is advised: “Is it reasonable to suggest that Fyans, who liked companionship, became a story-teller deceived by his own yarns? That an imaginative memory and anecdotal habit betrayed him into a corruption of detail which distorted facts throughout his autobiography, but did not seriously impair its essential worth?” This, I think, helped make the reading less tedious and more enjoyable. I do concede that Fyans' somewhat excessive detail does occasionally deaden his otherwise lively style. It is observed that “Fyans’s reminiscences had to be checked in order to assess their worth as historical material. And that “This checking disclosed considerable and frequent divergence between actual and remembered events, and made it clear that the text, unless fully annotated, must be more entertaining than instructive” (p. xv). I quickly became used to the multitude of annotations and soon came to enjoy the story for what it is – an insight into the man himself…

          Regarding his settlement by the Moorabool Fyans describes how after being told to move on from his original preference  "on one of the flats near the Barrowon river, called Balying ...… we struck work immediately, proceeding to the junction of the river(s) Moorabool and Barrawon, a distance of three miles, to one of the most beautiful valleys in the world, ever after known as Fyans Ford. The change put our party to considerable trouble and labor lost; but we are not to grumble, and to work we went, cutting, sawing, and working. So anxious were the men to get housed that in a short time the huts were in progress, when I was again visited by the same gentleman, with an additional request, to remove to a greater distance, which I flatly declined. However, we parted good friends. He was to send his complaint of my intrusion to V.D. Land. “Very well”, I replied, “but pray place a small codicil on it for the information of Mr. Swanston: that I am here, and determined to remain”.

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          “..... for about two years and a half I resided in this beautiful valley. The hut afforded good accommodation; had two rooms, not very large, only ten feet square each, but sufficiently so for the times. The chimney was prodigious: on the old Sydney plan, made of wood, with a remarkably graceful bend thrown from the building. This was my home, and how happy and comfortable people by prudence can make themselves, by attending timely to wants!”

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          "I found myself with six cows, some giving milk, possessing more real luxury than any person in the country, though almost isolated from mankind, seldom meeting a person to associate with, and few to speak to. I endeavoured to expend my time to the advantage of my employment. A township was to be formed; water was to be found; and notwithstanding the two fine rivers surrounding me, fresh water was not to be had. …”

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          "I am no advocate for convicts in a free settlement, but candidly confess that the party entrusted to my charge behaved well, undergoing many serious privations, little comfort; possessing nothing but poor clothing, with a blanket, a ration of flour, and salt beef. Seldom a complaint or a grumble from them; generally cheerful at work, and at night laying round a fire, some singing, others enjoying a repose after the toils of the day….” (p. 208).

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          He goes on to describe a muster of ‘local natives’ – “275 of all classes” – near the Moorabool River, so that he could distribute among them blankets, clothing, and provisions…. (p. 209).

          In the appendix are a mixed selection of articles and ‘reminiscences’ .           One describes :  " I may here refer to a favorite sentence of Captain Fyans – one he would often give to old hands of either sex whom he considered incorrigible. It was two or four hours in the stocks. Those relics of barbarism occupied a position on a vacant piece of ground adjourning the police court. It was unfenced, and open on three sides to the public streets. A very bleak and exposed spot it was. I have often seen both men and women – not at the same time – with their feet fast in the stocks.” (p.277).

“In his position as police magistrate he showed a certain amount of ability, mixed with a measure of eccentricity. He invariably smoked a short black pipe when sitting on the bench hearing cases, and would often while the evidence was being given, stand with his back to the fire, filling his pipe…” (p. 277)