Читать книгу Into the Unknown - Joy Dunicliff - Страница 15

Chapter 9 – A Tourist

“Come on Alfred, we need to get started on this tour you promised me. I will accept your suggestion that we start by going to the area you went to first when you came over with your Pa and Charlton.”

Alfred was a bit taken a back, he thought they were to have a leisurely few days at his house. Joe went on to explain, that he was only in Australia for a limited time, and he had some work to do whilst he was there. That was not the whole truth. Joe was looking rather drawn, and at times rather quiet, but at this stage he had not confided in Alfred, as to what the real cause of his concern.

“What do we need to take with us?” asked Joe replied Alfred.

“Nothing much, the weather will be fine, it will be too hot too, so we don’t need much. These days there are places to stop at, hotels or shack that are used as escape from turbulent weather”.

Joe was familiar with some of Australia’s cities, cities where business was done, but for Alfred these were the places he disliked. He was a bushman, a man who was at home in wide open spaces with the love of nature’s own natural noises.

There had always been eating stations along the routes to the mines. They could go and see them, and possibly eat there also. Part of Alfred’s work involved making bridges over streams, cutting the scrub and making roads for the prospectors. He named mountains, streams and gullies, which had no Aborigine name, usually called after men in his party or prominent men in Government. He had climbed the highest mountains in the Victorian Alpine chain, and this was where his favourite story occurred. He was stranded on an icy slope with the gold washing dish in his hands. When he slipped and shot down the hill, only to climb back up again.

Much as he would like to have done, Alfred just would not take Joe to such extreme places, as the rides could be rough and very dangerous. Although he was aware of the dangers he had faced in this wild country, he accepted the risks, and using caution, he had been able to survive without serious mishaps.

Joe would have been interested in such areas, Alfred knew, but he could not take the risk, instead he would take him on the lower slopes of Flinders. Yes I will, Alfred decided himself without discussion, I think it will be very different from anything he has seen before, so he will get some sense of the adventurous thrills I have experienced.

“When we came out with Pa in 1851-84, he wanted all his home comforts” said Alfred. “Did I tell you he brought out his rocking chair from England? At night he lay out his carpet, I don’t know why, then he slept in the chair, placed on the carpet. Possibly he thought it would keep the creepy crawlies away. We used to put up a sort of awning, which helped keep the insects at bay, but it did not keep out the dogs. Charlton kept his yeast, which he had made from scratch, hanging in a jar off one of the guide ropes”.

“Did everyone have set ups like that?” Joe asked. “No, they had more sense. Charlton brought his dog Prince with him, so he had to be fed too.” “What did you give him to eat?” enquired Joe

“Charlton became very good catching possums. They live in hollow trees, at least the ones Charlton caught did. They are nocturnal animals, and made a good meal for Prince. They have lovely fur too, which is very soft and warm, so we skinned them, used some and sold others. Their fur can be spun like wool, and knitted. They are edible for us too, but we found other things nicer to eat. Sometimes we bought food from a store, or fished for our food, and even killed kangaroos to eat. A bit big though, and if it were very hot, the carcass got very smelly. Prince did not object though.”

Actually Charlton had proved to be a very good bushman, as well as being able to support them with food from the wild. Charlton experimented and so learnt and managed, to catch possums, not the easiest creature to catch, for his dog Prince to eat. He went out at night, and found a possum living in a hollow tree, then he had to entice him out, with Prince’s help, and Prince had a meal. They would have eaten possums themselves if need be. Charlton was also a good bread maker too, producing his own yeast, as people had done for centuries past, but and all three of them worked in the gold fields together.

They had sailed on the “Kent”, which had just returned from Peru with a cargo of guano. Alfred had become disillusioned with Elizabeth Fry’s son, who had also been brought up a Quaker, and who had chartered this ship. He did not like what he had seen in the office. Alfred felt that he could teach the people in this office a thing or two. My employers would never have allowed me or anyone else they employed to work in this way he thought. It was however, a better ship than most carrying passengers at that time.

They witnessed one ship being towed by five rowing boats full of passengers! The Kent had been inadequately cleaned so smelt like a chicken house, which was to cause more discomfort for the passengers than normal.

Guano does not carry a pleasant aroma, but at least it was sound

“On some of our journeys in Australia, we had included my cousin Teddy”. Alfred explained. “Charlton and Teddy got on so well together; they behaved like any other young boys playing together, when Pa had nothing else for them to do. They were expected to pull their weight in the digging game.”

“This area has these very deep gullies, wonderful to run up and down, but they can flood very rapidly, and it can come so fast, you can easily get stuck halfway up the sides, and get washed away. Father used to get very cross because other diggers with their poor quality horses, just could not get the carts out of the ruts or gullies, so they took our horses, leaving them too tired to bring our own carts out of such predicaments. In the end, he flatly refused to let anyone else use our horses. You know, that is not like him, he would normally have gone out of his way to help people. He told us these men should have given more forethought to what was required, but had taken the attitude, that it was their right, to help themselves to anything someone else had, should they feel they needed it. It is countermand to stealing! I think these were the type of people who did rob others of the gold they had worked so hard to obtain. Pa was right. They were thieves.”

“At times the boys could be a liability,” continued Alfred, as they rode through this familiar route. “They were like any young boy would be. They would disappear, even if it were just hide and seek, we didn’t know where they had gone, and in such an unusual and hostile environment, they could so easily get lost, and then where would we look?”

“There was another time when one of them got himself in an awkward situation. He got too close to a camp of villains. The men, three of them, had stolen a large nugget of gold from one of the camps, and the men were discussing how they would turn it into money, or how to divide nugget up between them. They were nervous and jittery. Which ever if the boys it was, became very frightened when he realized what they were doing. He appreciated, that if he was found out to be watching them, he would end up dead!”

“Charlton had kept a detailed notebook, which Pa turned into a book, called “A Boy’s Adventure in the Wilds of Australia”. This book is full of information about the flora and fauna of the area, which goes to show what Charlton’s interests really were. He wrote his notebook, not just because Pa did. He thought it was the thing one ought to do in such circumstances. Pa did the same and as you would expect, he wrote his book of the experiences he had had too in “Land, Labour and Gold”.

Then with a sigh, Alfred started complaining about his father.

“Pa had no right to do that. Charlton’s book contained the things he had discovered, his feelings for the place. He was the one who found out how to live out of the bush,, and then when they get home, Pa takes it off him, to write “A Boy’s Adventure in the Wilds of Australia”. I bet Charlton did not have the nerve to stand up against him, which he should have done. “

“We are too used to obeying. You would have escaped that feeling of freedom, when you no longer had your father around?”

“Don’t say things like that. I really did love my father, he was mine, he was special. I was just getting to the age when we could do things together. Don’t forget, I am the eldest, and I have five siblings, with whom Dad also had to share his time. You can imagine the women all thought I should take control, so I tried. Uncle tried to take things off my shoulders, but that did not apply to the house I shared with the rest of the family. Don’t forget Bob was only 2 years old and Charlie was 4 years old. They seemed to get over the shock better than the older children. They did not forget Dad, but to them, they had never really been there.” said Joe. “I’m sorry,” said Alfred “and so you should be. You knew my family well, and should not have to be reminded.” Said a very annoyed Joe”.

“ I had not looked at his death would effect on you in this way. You were still of an age when you really needed a father. Thank goodness you had such a nice uncle, who really did try to take your father’s place until his untimely death. Despite what I have said, mine was always there when I wanted him, but he could also be an obstruction, at least I thought so.” said a thoughtful Alfred.

Alfred went on to tell him some of the problems they would encounter.

“We discovered there were many gullies we had to cross, as you have just seen, and these could fill with water very rapidly when there was rain. You will not see many now, as bridges have been made, where the road crosses the gullies. I remember the first time I saw a station, a lot of which, was in light open forest with no undergrowth, yet the grass was growing beneath the large eucalyptus. It still does grow everywhere, the sheep prefer to graze beneath the trees which keeps them out of the terrible heat.” Alfred explained.

Joe was very quiet, taking all this information in, but asking few questions, so Alfred carried on with his tales of adventure.

“In his book, one of the stories Pa wrote about was a true story we heard. At particular station the shepherd lost several thousand of his master’s merino sheep, the major portion of his herd. The herd was part of a herd of 4000 or so sheep, which had been brought over from England, but only 1500 remained after the drama of that night. The farmer had only recently taken delivery of them. On the night concerned, it had rained, and the shack of one of the workers was flooded. The bedding on which he was lying, was floating in the water. He went to the shepherd and his family, to wake them up, but the family was already up a tree sitting on a branch as a result of the flood.

The family was so frightened, they said they would not come down, so they continued their screaming, for what reason other than fear, as there was no one in the vicinity to hear them.

The two men tried in vain, to keep the sheep from getting caught in the flood. They tried to keep the sheep on higher dry ground, but the sheep would not oblige. They kept turning round to go to the ground they knew at the bottom of the gully. The shepherd and his colleague became exhausted before daylight arrived. When daylight arrived, they were faced with the sad sight of all those drowned sheep strewn all along the gully.”

“What on earth did the farmer say when he heard?” asked Joe “I didn’t hear that part of the story, but I don’t think he was in a position to say anything. After all, the men had tried hard, and I expect he appreciated their efforts” replied Alfred

Alfred’s father, William, had been getting rather tired of writing and thought, that even at the age of 60, it would be an interesting adventure to go gold digging, accompanied by his two sons, Alfred who was then a young man of 21 and his brother Charlton, was just three years younger. Gold digging was in vogue, worldwide. It would also be an opportunity to visit his brother Godfrey, the successful doctor cum farmer in Melbourne.

This arrangement had caused quite a lot of problems for his wife Mary and his two daughters, Anna and Meggie, who were left at home in England. William, in his usual confident way, said he would sort everything out. The strain it was going to give to the women folk did not come into his scheme of things. He just expected them to cope.

They had to move to a smaller house, to cut down on everyday running expenses, and hopefully earn extra, to help pay off the debts the trip had incurred. It was also hoped that the books William would write on his return, would raise the rest of the monies required. In actual fact, not much profit was made, but his books were very successful, and for many years, they were accepted as the only true report of the condition of the society and that of the environment for Australia. He had also spent a few days in Van Dieman’s Land , now known as Tasmania.

The family would have been used to William’s sudden decisions, because he always wanted to be successful in what ever he undertook, but he wanted it to happen yesterday. On this occasion William had tried to keep the enterprise secret from people outside the family. There was a particular person, who would want to go to with them on this journey. In this, William failed, because the man came on the same ship, not by design, but fate. On the journey, and much to Alfred and Charlton’s embarrassment, their father felt he had the power to help all these poor immigrants, to sort out the problems that arose in Australia. He made quite a name for himself, amongst the immigrants, and the officials.

The trip was going to cost a lot of money for the three men to travel all that way. They also needed the equipment, (some which was not needed as they were to find out in Australia), so they had needed to take out loans. This equipment, and other items they had acquired, was sold before they booked their return journey. The women, who were to be left behind, were supposed to contribute to the repayments, as well as support themselves.

Alfred explained all these embarrassing situations to Joe, as it had had something to do with Alfred’s decision not to return to England with his father and brother.

“How?” chipped in Joe.

“It would cost an awful lot money to return,” was the reply. “What if I had made a mistake, and decided after all I did not like Australia. Could I ask my parents to help me raise all that money once more? No. It was up to me now, to look after myself, a grown man does not go running to parents.”

More money, more expense, so he had taken the gamble to stay, hoping it was the right choice. What was there for him in England anyway? Go back to office work, which he disliked so much, yes he was happy now, but there had been times when he was not so sure.

Many years had now gone by now. There were roads between settlements, rather villages and small towns. He had often wondered how long the gold would last, it had run out in America, and was hopefully this would not repeating itself in Australia, but there were signs of it there. There were still unexplored areas, would they have gold? He had often wondered himself, what would happen should the gold diggers run out of areas to mine. Certain diggings had done so, even when his father was out in Australia. How much gold had Australia got any way? Still it was not really his worry. The Californian gold rush, the Australian gold rush, and now New Zealand was hoping for the same. Did all countries have gold, he asked himself of many occasions, but of course, for him at this time, there was no answer.

“Sorry Joe, I was deep in thought, thoughts which continually disturb me” said Alfred.

“What are they then” said Joe, his good and faithful friend.

“It is thoughts about the future of the country” said Alfred

“In what way”? asked Joe.

“I am concerned that the gold will run out, just as it has in other countries, like in California. There most of the miners had come from the East coast, speculating, but had been in America for a while. There were fresh incomers yes, but I don’t think they are like some of the incomers over here.” Alfred informed Joe. “So?”

“We started off with many of the new arrivals being criminals, many jumped their ships, when they heard there was gold, and leopards do not change their spots.”

“I see what you mean”. said Joe.

Alfred continued saying “With so many people, of that calibre, with no work or skills, what do they do? They have to live, they have to eat, and with no knowledge of the countryside at home or over here, as so many had grown up in cities”.

“I see what you mean. But I cannot help you on that one.”

Alfred had recently been appointed Warden in the Gippsland Province, where he was respected since he treated all the men fairly, regardless of who they were or where they had come from. This was very much due to his Quaker upbringing. When diggings ran out, he helped the men join forces with another digging where there was still gold, creating a sort of co-operative.

Both men continued their ride in silence, both deep in thought as to the future of this, and other so called new countries.

“Is it your turn to be quiet again now, if so what are you thinking about?” requested Joe.

“Just thinking about Uncle Godfrey, how he came out here after such a difficult start in his career at home.” “Was it?” said Joe.

Alfred replied. “Yes it was, no-one seemed to want to support his practices in Nottingham or Leicester. Patients visited the already settled and established men. I often think it had something to do with him being a Quaker and other times, was it because he did not train in England. Was it because he trained in Edinburgh? something he had to do, because being a non-conformist, everywhere else was barred to him, as you well know. As you also know, any non-conformist is still forbidden to train in any professional occupation at an English institution.”

“Pa had always wanted to study medicine but his father would not let him. It was too expensive to go to Edinburgh, that is why he studied pharmacy, but then he had all that trouble with his eyes. Pa fought his father with all the arguments he could think of, so his little brother was able to train as a doctor.”

“Of course and he is a good doctor too.”

“Yes, and he saved Mary’s Wordsworth life, too.” Alfred reminded Joe.

“Yes, but it did not mean much to me at the time, but it was the beginning of their life long friendship.”

“Pa was so worried about the situation, that he encouraged Uncle Godfrey to leave England. Pa had been his supporter, persuading my Grandfather to allow him to go to Edinburgh to train, and Pa was also his financier for setting up the practice in Nottingham.” replied Alfred.

“Your Father must have felt a great relief when things turned out so well for Uncle Godfrey our here”.

“Yes. Father had put so much into Godfrey, spiritually and financially; he was so pleased when he found his niche in Melbourne”.

Godfrey and his family had decided to move to a new country in 1839. Godfrey’s son was a sickly child and his health was not improving in Leicester. New land, fresher air, and Godfrey hoped there would be more scope for the other things he was interested in. He had published books on natural things, botany, insects and farming etc. in England, and hopefully he would be able to continue these interests in Australia and he did.

They arrived in Port Phillip on the Lord Goderich in April 1840. He settled in Melbourne, which gave Alfred a comfortable feeling, to have a member of his family around as they all got on so well together. Another brother Uncle Richard, had gone to Australia with them, but only stayed a few years, returning to Nottingham, England, where he died.

Godfrey remained in Victoria for the rest of his life. It should be remembered, that Britain had sent the first convicts out to Australia only three years earlier, in 1837 and Godfrey had been one of the first doctors in Melbourne. He bought land at the corner of Collins and Spring Street, where he practiced until he moved to Caulfield in 1869.

He became an early member of Port Phillip’s Medical Association, also a council member of University of Melbourne (1853-71), and was also founded in 1853. He was also the first honorary physician at the Melbourne Hospital and was associated with the Benevolent Asylum. He was also a founder member of the Entomological Society in London, a member of the Edinburgh Botanical Society in 1854, the first Vice-President of Philosophical Society, which latterly became known as the Royal Society of Victoria (1854), the body that organized the failed expedition of Burke and Wills.

Godfrey planted a palm in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, and altogether was a man who contributed in many ways to the building of the new city of Melbourne, and Australia itself.