Читать книгу Into the Unknown - Joy Dunicliff - Страница 17

Chapter 11 – Goodbye to family

William felt he had to visit both Van Dieman’s land and Sydney, something, which he did following both their expeditions into the gold fields. He liked the island, and loved the exciting city of Sydney, so superior to Melbourne, he felt. He described Sydney’s main street, as being like Regent Street in London.

Even when William visited Van Dieman’s Land, fifteen years after convicts had been sent there, they were still being sent. Even so William still had to be examined by prison officers before he was allowed to leave the island or even allowed to board a ship back to Australia proper. Some prisoners did escape, to continue their crimes on the mainland. However, Godfrey’s medical practice was to flourish in Melbourne, where he also helped in the hospital, and by the time of William’s visit, he had acquired a large amount of farmland.

The pair, Alfred and Joe, struggled up tall hills, reaching quite high altitudes. The views had been fantastic, and it was getting towards evening, so they were thinking of where to spend the night. They sat down on the ground taking the last long look of the day with the lowering sun.

“How beautiful”, remarked Joe,

“Yes” was the reply, “one of the reasons, I am pleased I stayed”

“I well remember the day we walked from your office to your warehouse in Wapping”. “Why?” Joe looked at Alfred feeling very puzzled.

“I was scared, really scared” “ I cannot see why?” said Joe.

“It was walking along those crowded narrow unlit streets, lit only by a light here an there from a window or alleyway” Alfred explained.

“So what. I often do it.” was Joe’s reply.

“There are so many undesirables around, ‘women of the night’, pickpockets, knifers those who thought that we might be worth killing for things we might have in our pockets, or use us to sell for dissection at one of the teaching hospitals. I do wish however that it was daylight, and I could have seen the larger commercial ships in port, some in full sail and also those famous Thames barges which work so hard. I hear about them, but have never really seen our docks working. I never want to go there again” Alfred confided.

Alfred looked around him again. He had seen what he thought was one of the now numerous shacks, so often found in scattered in remote areas. They were the abandoned huts of the earlier settlers, who had now moved on, to other areas or other jobs. They were very useful places for an odd night’s stay.

After their evening meal, cooked on the primitive stove within, the two men sat talking about this and that, when Joe asked Alfred, how he felt after his father and Charlton had sailed for England. Did he feel abandoned?

“No, I had been left with uncle, that was OK.” The remark surprised Joe so he asked “but then what?”

“I was free, free of parental control; free to make my own decisions, after all uncles are there, for when things go wrong. You know I have not really thought about how I felt at that time. The one thing I really did miss, and that was you. We have always been on the same wave length, you know, someone I could moan to, disagree with, argue with, and suddenly I had no one. The people I did try to talk to, or exchange a view, always ended up lecturing me. I think I am over that now, I have to be.” Alfred proudly replied.

“How did you get yourself into those scrapes, driving cattle and other jobs?” asked Joe.

“Again, I fell upon them” was Alfred’s reply.

“How?” asked puzzled Joe “I went around asking people if they knew of any jobs going until I found someone who could tell me where there was work.” This remark did not sound silly to Alfred only to Joe.

“How did you feel then?” Joe was pushing Alfred, “Why? How did I feel, did I have any real feelings,” could he remember? Alfred had not analyzed his life in this way before, and his feelings surprised him.

“I was excited, I was going to able to support myself, I would have money to spend, and a great deal of fun. I suppose, I had a degree of euphoria, but at the same time, I was scared. You know I have never admitted that before. Why do you want to know?”