AustLit

This poem appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal in March 1878 with typographical errors in both the title and dedication/subtitle, ie.: 'The Nemas Upon the Stone (Inscribed to G.A.F.)'. The typographical errors have been corrected on the clipping of the poem that appears in Kendall's scrap book (held at the Mitchell Library, Sydney). The subtitle/dedication is to Kendall's friend, George Lamb Fagan.

'The poem concerns the carving of initials on a rock near Brisbane Water [near Gosford, new South Wales], now known as Kendall's Rock and Falls. C.H. Bertie obtained the following statement from George Fagan and transmitted it to me: "On Christmas Day 1874 after dinner George Fagan and Henry Kendall went for a walk and when they came to the stone Kendall took Fagan's tomahawk and cut his initials on the rock and under them put X74". The rock lies at the source of Cooranbean Creek' - Reed (1966), p. 226.