Caroline (Carrie) Cakebread (nee Rumbelow) was famous over the Australian continent and far beyond it as Petrel, the heroine of the late Mr. Simpson Newland's historic romance Paving the Way.

She was considered to be the daintiest of the Rumbelow girls, the one who could sew a fine seam, recalls many incidents of the book, in which she figures as Petrel Cleeve. The hero, Roland Grantley, was of course, Mr. Newland himself, and he and Petrel were youthful sweethearts. Many of the incidents related in the book regarding the joys and sorrows of Petrel and Roland are true. "But," declared the dear old lady, with a deprecating wave of the hand, when chatting over old times the other day, "there are many things in the book which are mere romance." 

In Paving the Way, the name of the headman of the whaling crew was given as David Cleeve. Actually there was a member of the crew of the first whaling boat named Bob Cleeve, who some-time acted as headman. 

"I remember Jack Jones, who was also headman at one time, well," stated Mrs. Cakebread, "he lost a leg after being smashed up during an encounter with a whale as described in 'Paving the Way.' He died subsequently in Adelaide.

• Petrel Cleeve - Caroline Cakebread

• Roland Grantley - Simpson Newland

• David Cleeve - Bob Cleeve

Paving the Way, A Romance of the Australian Bush

by Simpson Newland

A romance of the Australian bush. First published in 1893, this is a novel about Australian pioneer life in the 1800s. It follows the life of Roland Grantley, an English youth, who, after being shipwrecked in 1840 near Kingston SE, South Australia and escaping the subsequent massacre, settled at the whaling station at The Bluff. He went on to become a pioneering squatter, developing sheep stations in the Tatiara and the upper Darling River region.

Paving the Way, although a work of fiction, is famous for its sympathetic account of the plight of the Australian aborigines, in particular the Mulla and Wompangee tribes, 'some of the finest tribes of all Australia'.

Simpson Newland brought his own rich life experiences, giving authenticity to the historical background of the book, including colonial attitudes to the conflict between white settlers and the Aboriginal inhabitants. Newland was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, a son of Rev. Ridgway William Newland (died 1864) and his wife Martha Newland, née Keeling (died 1870), who emigrated with their eight children to South Australia aboard the Sir Charles Forbes, arriving in June 1839. 

Available as part of the US Library of Congress Collection:
https://archive.org/details/pavingwayromance00newl_0/page/n11/mode/2up 

Where History Was Made

• The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954) 

• Sat 4 Dec 1926 

HEROINE OF "PAVING THE WAY" HALE AND HEARTY

Romantic Associations of Encounter Bay 

The glamor of old romance hovers o'er Encounter Bay, that quiet stretch of beach where the mighty rollers of the Southern Ocean give their final thrust as they complete the long journey from Arctic climes. Within the sound of the waves rest many pioneers who helped to cultivate tiny patches of soil, or who engaged in the more exciting occupation at whaling before Adelaide was dreamed of.

Not all those who helped to blaze the trail in those far off days have gone to their long rest. Active still, Mrs. Caroline Cakebread, and Messrs. Robert T. Sweetman, and George Honeyman—to mention but three—can clearly recall incidents of the early days. 

Mrs. Cakebread will be 83 this month. Mr. Sweetman has just completed 80 summers, while Mr. Honeyman was born in the district 64 years ago. He is a son of the well known William ("Billy") Honeyman, one of the first white men to set foot on Encounter Bay in the 1820's. 

Still another former resident for many years is Mr. E. R. Bolger, who is 85, but went to Strathalbyn to reside recently. He achieved a rather unique distinction in that he married three sisters, having tied the nuptial knot for the third time comparatively recently. He married in succession Mesdames Weymouth, Jeliff, and Watson. They were daughters of Mr. Malin Rumbelow, a name famous in the district, and were sisters of Mrs. Cakebread. 

Descendants of the early settlers are scattered far and wide throughout the State, and beyond its borders. So numerous are the Rumbelow family that a portion of Encounter Bay is known as Rumbelow Town. 

Mr. Malin Rumbelow, the founder of the family hailed from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, and arrived at Port Adelaide with his wife and children in the Pestongee Bomanjee in 1854, after a four months voyage. The vessel brought out 350 immigrants.

Shortly after arrival one of the Rumbelow girls was married to Mr. Jeliff, and a little later the family, accompanied by the newly wedded pair travelled per bullock dray from Port Adelaide to Encounter Bay, the journey taking a fortnight. 

Of that party, Mrs. Cakebread, who was nine years old at the time, is the only survivor. Where the picturesque town of Victor Harbor now stands was a sandy waste in those days, there being but one house— that occupied by a trooper—on the point of land from which the causeway to Granite Island was begun. It was then known as Policeman's Point. 

Encounter Bay, however, was settled, there being many houses there. Some of these old dwellings, strongly built with a view to withstanding possible attacks by natives, are still used for residential purposes. The quaint old mill, a rounded turret-like structure of two stories, which was worked by wind power, after the manner of the windmills of Holland, is still a prominent landmark, though the last flour was ground there as long ago as 1858. It was built by Porter Hillmore in 1851, and with a favorable wind would grind 20 bushels of wheat a day into flour. 

Mr. Rumbelow senior helped to erect the Port Elliott breakwater. His ambition to become a landed proprietor was early fulfilled. He became the proud possessor of 14 acres of land, and as one after another of his six sons and five daughters were married he gave them an acre of land each as a wedding gift. 

Whaling operations were in full swing when the Rumbelow family arrived, but the industry soon after languished, and it is more than 50 years since a whale was captured there. Portion of the walls of the old shed in which the whales were boiled down is still standing under the lee of the historic Bluff, and a little farther round is all that remains of the old jetty, from which wheat was shipped after whaling had ceased. 

Mr. Rumbelow and his son-in-law, Mr. Jeliff, entered into partnership to engage in fishing, and thus was inaugurated more than 50 years ago an industry which has helped to make Encounter Bay famous, and which has produced some of the finest fishermen in the southern seas. It is chiefly as fishermen that the Rumbelow family is known. In the early days the fish were conveyed to Adelaide in carts, and Mrs. Jeliff hawked it round the metropolitan area. 

Malin Rumbelow, jun., who was a lad of eight when the family came to the State, later joined his father in the business, and later still his sons, Malin, Henry, and Cain, did likewise.  Another son, Godfrey, took charge of the hawking operations, conveying large loads of fish and crayfish to the city.  

Mr. Rumbelow, senior, and his son, Malin, likewise inaugurated the tourist service, inducing the first visitors from the city to spend a vacation at Encounter Bay.  Nowaday Victor Harbor is almost solely dependent on this tourist traffic, which has assumed large proportions, for its existence. 

Malin and Henry Rumbelow, of the third generation, became famous fishermen, the latter especially excelling, and many magnificent catches were made. On one occasion 250 dozen mullet were secured in one haul, and on another occasion 300 dozen were netted. Fierce battles with sharks were frequent, and the two men had several hairbreadth escapes from those brigands of the deep.

Malin Rumbelow, a giant in stature, was brought home one day dead. He had expired suddenly while in charge of a pleasure fishing party.  Nowaday the fourth generation of Rumbelows is carrying on the fishing business. Their children constitute the fifth generation of this remarkable family. 

The most interesting living member of the family is Mrs. Cakebread. Famous over the Australian continent and far beyond it as Petrel, the heroine of the late Mr. Simpson Newland's historic romance, "Paving the Way," she recalls many incidents of the book, in which she figures as Petrel Cleeve. The hero, Roland Grantley, was of course, Mr. Newland himself, and he and Petrel were youthful sweethearts. Many of the incidents related in the book regarding the joys and sorrows of Petrel and Roland are true. "But," declared the dear old lady, with a deprecating wave of the hand, when chatting over old times the other day, "there are many things in the book which are mere romance." 

In Paving the Way, the name of the headman of the whaling crew was given as David Cleeve. Actually there was a member of the crew of the first whaling boat named Bob Cleeve, who some-time acted as headman. 

"I remember Jack Jones, who was also headman at one time, well," stated Mrs. Cakebread, "he lost a leg after being smashed up during an encounter with a whale as described in 'Paving the Way.' He died subsequently in Adelaide.

"Mention of Encounter Bay would, of course, be incomplete without reference to Rev. Ridgeway Newland, father of the late Mr. Simpson Newland, and in a wider sense father of the young settlement, by the members of which he was beloved. He with his family preceded the Rumbelow family to Encounter Bay. 

"We lived in the first house that Mr. Newland built," stated Mrs. Cakebread. 

The Encounter Bay tribe of natives was numerous in those days, and some-times they adopted a truculent attitude towards the whites. "I remember an encounter a cousin of mine had with a native," said Mrs. Cakebread. "She was left home alone, and 'Swell Face Jack,' a huge blackfellow, came along and demanded flour. He was told there was no flour, but noticing a small quantity in the corner of the kitchen strode into the room and took it, despite the threat of my cousin that she would shoot him if he did so. As he was striding away through a field of wheat, carrying the flour, she peppered him with a shot from a shotgun. He dropped the flour and ran. 

On another occasion a native was shot in much the same way, and actually came back and asked for a pin to pick the shot out with!" As a girl Mrs. Cakebread worked in a shop at Port Elliot, which was also established before Victor Harbor. She travelled to and from her employment along the beach, a distance of some miles. She used to do crochet work, and until quite recently, when she had a seizure, was noted for the beautiful lace she fashioned. 

Mr. J. R. Cakebread, her husband, who died 12 years ago, at the age of 77, was a prominent resident of Encounter Bay and Waitpinga, where he had a run. He is best remembered, however, by his long connection with the Roads and Bridges Department, with which he was associated for nearly 40 years. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Cakebread resided at Banbury, Walkerville. 

There is a family of eight boys and two girls—Messrs. Albert, Percival Pullinger, and Stanley James (Victoria), Charles Jeliff and Edgar John (Encounter Bay), Sydney Lawrence (Norwood), Harold Malin (Henley Beach), and John Rymill (Broken Hill), and Mesdames Fanny Martha Bruce (Victor Harbor), and Caro-line Lottie Warland (Encounter Bay). 

There are 46 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. Proud of her family, Mrs. Cakebread is spending the evening of her days in Victor Harbor. Her life has been one great benediction. To be in her presence now is a sweet and uplifting experience. 

Victor Harbor is delighted and honored in having Petrel as a resident. Rev. R. W. Newland was a remarkable man in many ways, and a noted Congregationalist. 

Going to Encounter Bay in 1838, he was pastor of the district for 25 years, and never received a stipend. His name is perhaps best remembered by the Tabernacle he built in 1846, a structure about 28 ft. by 19 ft., with a verandah and French windows. A granite column, erected to the memory of Mr. Newland, who was killed through being throw off the first mail coach that travelled from Adelaide to Port Elliot in 1864, at the age of 74, now marks the site of the Tabernacle, and hard by are the graves of a number of the pioneer settlers. 

Hardy Pioneers "Billy" Honeyman, who hailed from Ayrshire, Scotland, and who landed in Sydney when 12 years old, preceded the Newlands, and was one of the first white men to travel overland from Encounter Bay to Adelaide. The native guide whom he engaged was most anxious that "Billy" should walk in front of him, but the white man had his doubts, which were confirmed later when he observed his dusky guide fondling a heavy waddy. Mr. Honeyman made the voyage from England in an old sailing boat, but decided to leave her when one of the instruments with which the boat was being caulked on Granite Island, pierced the shell-like hull. Later he went to Van Dieman's Land, as Tasmania was then called, trapping birds for a doctor. He returned to Encounter Bay with the whale fishers, and of his deeds as harpooner in the first boat many stories are told. 

George Honeyman, his son, who is still actively engaged in farming at Waitpinga, was born at Port Elliot in 1862. He helped to quarry the granite which was used in the erection of prominent buildings in Adelaide, from West Island, which lies south of The Bluff. He received 5/ a day for working the drills. The syndicate which was quarrying the granite went bankrupt. The face of the quarry from which the blue granite was secured is still visible from the mainland. Holes drilled ready for further charges of dynamite may still be seen in the granite. Transportation difficulties were the chief cause of the cessation of operations. 

Mr. Honeyman was married, when he had accumulated £20 and a horse and cart, and went shepherding for Mr. Peter Ferrier, formerly a well known identity in Victor Harbor. Buying a gun for £4 15/, he paid for it in opossum skins, then worth about 4/ a dozen. 

Nowadays they are valued at anything from 40/ to 59/ a dozen. Later he became well known to visitors to Victor Harbor, thousands of whom he conveyed to the beauty spots of the district in his drag. Nowadays his son, Mr. D'Arcy Honeyman, with the more up-to-date motor car, is following in his footsteps. 

Mr. Edward R. Bolger, who is the direct descendant of an Irish lord, carried the mails from Goolwa to Yankalilla in the early days on horseback, and he had to ford the Hindmarsh and Inman rivers, which were no inconsiderable streams.

AUTHOR 80 ON TUESDAY. OLD PIONEERING DAYS.

• The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954) 

•  Sat 30 Oct 1915 

• By Fred Johns.

On Tuesday next Mr. Simpson Newland will celebrate the 80th anniversary of his birth. A fine type of citizen is our friend, who is still hale and hearty. He comes to his office in the city daily, is as active and vigorous as a man of 40, and is keenly interested in life's stirring affairs. 

Mr. Newland is the father of Dr. H. S. Newland, the Adelaide surgeon, who is at the front; of Dr. Clive Newland, of Mr. Phil Newland, the lacrosse player, and of other sons who are well known in South Australia. One is in South Africa. 

Mr. Simpson Newland sat in the South Australian Parliament for Encounter Bay for six years, was Treasurer in the Downer Ministry in 1885-6, and was Chairman of the Select Committee on the Northern Territory, in which capacity he travelled throughout the MacDonnell Ranges, and laid the foundation for much of his subsequent work in the interests of the Territory. 

He has been foremost in urging the proper utilisation of the waters of the Murray, advocating works for permanent navigation from the heads of the Darling and other rivers to the ocean and adequate provision for irrigation. As President of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society for 12 years, as President of the Adelaide Zoological Gardens since 1906, and in other ways Mr. Newland is highly esteemed for his public and patriotic service to his country, and for being among those who blazed the track to lands far out back. 

In his historical and romantic novel, "Paving the Way," now a classic, the author, Mr. Simpson Newland, skilfully depicts in his entrancing volume many stirring incidents in early Australian settlement, and of the pioneer squatting days in South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland. In "Paving the Way" fact is cleverly woven with fiction, and although the narrative partakes largely of romance the incidents are in the main authentic. The characters in the work were mostly drawn from real life. 

A few of the men and women who figure prominently in its pages are still alive, but the author has very properly veiled persons, scenes, and incidents, for, as he explains in his preface, "The time has not yet arried in the life of Australia when the historian or novelist can write with an untrammelled pen." 

The opening scene of the book is laid on Australia's southern coast, near romantic Encounter Bay, a place made historic by the peaceful encounter of those early navigators, Flinders and Baudin. It was at Encounter Bay where in the nourishing days of the whale fisheries Roland and Petrol, the hero and heroine of the story, lived amid the bliss and expectancy of their youthful years. "Paving the Way" reveals much of the author's own personal history, though he adroitly manages to conceal his own character or characters in the book. 

Only a pioneer squatter as Newland was, familiar with bush craft, with the haunts and habits of the native tribes, and with the difficulties and dangers of paving the way in the lonely land of the interior, could have written such a book which sketches with infinite charm, fidelity, and picturesqueness our early squatters' trials and triumphs unknown to the wide world be-yond. 

You read of shipwreck and massacre, of adventure on sea and on land, of visits to the capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, of sanguinary conflicts with the blacks and with bushrangers, of police expeditions to capture freebooters, and to protect drovers, their flocks and herds, of transport difficulties in the Riverina, of perilous rides, and of a hundred and one different things which confronted the early pastoralists who risked their lives and their all to conquer territory intended for the settlement and abode of a white race. 

The author was one of a band of early English pilgrims to settle in South Australia. He was born at Hanley, Staffordshire, on November 2, 1835, a year before the State which has long been his home was proclaimed a British province by Captain John Hindmarsh. who served with Nelson in the Nile. 

His father was the Rev. Ridgway William Newland, a Congregational minister of the old Puritan type, who with many others objected to paying tithes to the Church of England. The rev. gentleman preferred a land of greater freedom, and so came to Australia, bringing his family and a party of some 30 immigrants. They landed at Holdfast Bay from the ship Sir Charles Forbes on June 7, 1839, and transhipping to the coasting brig Lord of Hobart proceeded to Encounter Bay. 

It was here young Newland spent the days of his youth. There were no private or public schools at that time, and the future pastoralist, politician, and author was educated mainly by his mother, a lady of culture and scholarly attainments. His father, whose name is revered in the district, combined agricultural and pastoral pursuits with the pastoral oversight of the young settlement, which, included the men of the whaling fleet and the numerous black population. 

Simpson, after attending to cattle and sheep for some years and farming on his own, rented the family property for a period. As a young man, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Field, he took vessel to Sydney, purchased cattle near Goulburn, and travelled them overland to Adelaide. Later he bought New South Wales sheep, drove them to Went-worth, and they formed the nucleus of flocks for stations on the Darling. This was in the 'fifties. 

More than half a century ago he rode from Encounter Bay through the unbeaten bush land track to his station on the Upper Darling, 700 miles or more. I wonder whether that remarkable saddle journey was performed on the Star, the noble steed which plays such a conspicuous part in "Paving the Way." Darkie's ride across the wide, treacherous Murray month was on the Star, and the man who actually accomplished that startlingly clever feat, as de-scribed in the narrative, was a man with a past, who at one time was employed by a Tatiara squatter now dead and gone. That river ride whick saved the old convict's life, will stand as one of the finest feats by horse and rider in Australian annals. 

Pastoralist and Pioneer. Mr. Newland spent many years in the New South Wales pastoral industry. He was part-owner of the Marra and Warlo Stations on the Darling and of Talreaiye on the Paroo, near the Queensland border. One of the partners was his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry Field, father, by-the-way, of Mrs. Langloh Parker (now Mrs. Percy Stow), author of Australian legendary tales, the Euahlayi tribe, and other works. Mr. Newland had also at partners the brothers Charles and Andrew Chisholm, of a well-known New South Wales family. 

In the late 'eighties the South Australian disposed of most of his pastoral interests in the Riverina, retiring with a sufficiency to spend his remaining years in comfort and peace. His wife, a Sydney lay, daughter of Mr. W. E. Layton, shared with her husband for some years the vicissitudes of the outback life. They now reside at The Terraces, Avenue road, North Adelaide. Among the treasured paintings which adorn the walls of their home are pictures by the English artist W. Follen Bishop, R.B.A., of scenes round which centre so much of the real history upon which Mr. Newland's book was constructed. 

He has the finest canvases in Australia of the bold headland of the Bluff, under whose shadow more than a hundred years ago Flinders and Baudin exchanged greetings, and there is a picture of Petrol Cove, on the western side, named in memory of the old headman's daughter, the heroine of "Paving the Way." Bishop has also depicted the landing place of the pilgrim fathers of '39, a sort of Mayflower band. 

"Blood Tracks of the Bush" is another work by Mr. Newland. This throws a flood of light on pioneering life in the Darling country, Queensland, and the Northern Territory. Such is the popularity of Mr. Newland's works in England that a London publishing house has been pressing him to write another Australian novel. In a chat the other day I said to Mr. Newland that Australians would welcome a book from him on the aboriginal races. He is thoroughly qualified for the task. Like his old father, who befriended and protected the natives 60 or more years ago, Mr. Newland was known among his squatting neighbours for his humane treatment of the blacks. 

It is unwritten history that it was his consideration and solicitous regard for their welfare, that made him a personal force when living in our bushland in preventing disastrous conflicts among the races, and in assisting the authorities to preserve order and subdue native troubles. Though often in extreme peril of his life he was never known to have shot a blackfellow. Twenty years or more of station life must have given him an intimate knowledge of the conditions, customs, tribal rights and legendary lore of the dusky denizens of the interior that possibly very few can have; and Mr. Newiand's literary contribution wonld be a valuable addition to our aboriginal literature standing to the authorship of Dr. Howilt, Professor Bald win Spencer, F. J.'Gillfen, Mrs. liangloh Parker.