Читать книгу Into the Unknown - Joy Dunicliff - Страница 9

Chapter 3 – Relaxing

It was 21^st January, 1863, the day of the big funeral, and now it was over. Alfred Howitt made his way to visit his uncle, where he expected to find Joe and cousin Teddy, who was about Alfred’s age, and had accompanied Alfred on some of his earlier adventures, where he would hear some more news from Joe and update Joe himself. As Alfred was once again using their home for his accommodation, it would be reasonable to find Joe there, as the town was still too crowded to seek out an individual.

Uncle Godfrey had arrived in Australia in 1840, when he set up the first G.P. practice in Melbourne. He had brought a prefabricated house with him, made of a corrugated metal, in which to house his family, his wife’s brothers and a nephew. This would have been expensive, to transport all the way from England, along with contents. At the time of the Howitt family’s visit, a £1,000 house in London, ended up costing £6,600 out in Melbourne.

The population of Melbourne four years earlier had only been 136 people. It was a town that had increased very rapidly especially when gold was first found around 1850 creating a gold rush. The population by then had already increased to 76,000. Now ten years later, what on earth was it now? Alfred had no idea, except it felt over populated and crowded.

Godfrey was the respected medical man of the town, who also worked at the young hospital. He had become the president and honorary physician at the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum in 1847 and joined the new Port Phillip Medical Association. His accolades did not stop here. Between 1853 and 1855 he was the first vice-president of the Philosophical Society of Victoria and a member of its successor, The Royal Society of Victoria, at the time of the famous, but tragic expedition.

Even when in England he had published books on entomology and had helped in the foundation of the Entomological Society of London; he was also a member of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, the city where he had trained to be a doctor, and in 1839, (the year before his emigration), he published “The Nottinghamshire Flora”. Another botanist, named a pale blue, native Australian mallow, a monotypic genus, “Howitta”, in honour of the devotion Godfrey had given to botany. His entomological collection is now in the University of Melbourne, where he also funded a scholarship, which included his other scientific interests geology and zoology.

Godfrey’s family always gave Alfred a welcoming home, especially when things had been tough for Alfred, times when he was homesick in his early years in Australia, periods when he had not money, food or a job. Godfrey, at one time employed him to work on their farm, after Godfrey had obtained more land, which had never been dug. Alfred was expected to turn into a field, and put a fence around it. That had been in the past, may be this is what he would be doing again shortly.

Godfrey had even bought him a farm in Cauldfield, when Godfrey had been expanding his farming business. Alfred had fulfilled his obligations to his uncle, but then there came a period, when there had been a big recession, and the value of the crops he had worked so hard to grow, lost their profit, so he had left the farm.

Alfred had been a restless man when he had first been on his own in the new country. He had arrived with his father and brother, in 1851, but had stayed behind when his family returned to England, but they all knew Uncle Godfrey would be available should Alfred need help or support. His parents felt England was overcrowded, an expensive place to live where there were no jobs; the future was in the colonies.

Joes current job had now finished and he would have to find something else to do, but what. He had told Joe, that he really did not like Melbourne, which was muddy in winter, very hot and dusty in summer; as it was at the current time. It was very noisy too.

The gold diggers brought in their gold, and what a sight those ruffians looked. They often resorted to fights in the street etc., all very noisy. This is where Burke had excelled and been so good with his policing. The gold was running out, so there was a lot of friction between the diggers and those whose seam had run out; as a result there were many unemployed men floating around, taking money and food when and where ever they could acquire it.

That evening the three young men, described their impressions of the town earlier in the day, Joe and Teddy were the onlookers, whereas Alfred was a participant. Teddy had spent just about all his life in Australia, and he was sufficiently in the picture, to make suggestions, and even disagree with Alfred. Melbourne had been and still was in the turmoil of excitement.

“It seemed as if the people do not to want to go home.” Alfred told Joe. “I suppose it is inevitable, because they have never seen anything like it before, and they just felt they should make the best of this opportunity. They don’t know when anything like this will happen again”.

At 1 00.p.m, that day, the Castlemaine military band, (one of many), had struck up The Dead March of Saul; then the cortege had started to move. The numerous requests from various organizations to join the cortege, had causing some discontent, because many had been refused permission to play, yet the procession was still so long, that it took two and half hours to move the 5 kilometres to the cemetery. A newly constructed vault awaited the coffins, and the bodies, of Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills, the shy loyal English scientist, who had latterly become second in command, were laid to rest.

No one was sure whether Burke was a Roman Catholic or a Protestant, but at that stage in Melbourne’s history, the cathedral, had yet to be built, so the matter was immaterial. Burke himself was a bit of a mystery as far as his past was concerned. He had desperately wanted this mission to succeed, as his main aim in life seemed to be that of being famous, and this trip would seal his ambition. He succeeded in his aim, but not in the way he would have wished.

Here at Uncle Godfrey’s house, Alfred loved to be in the peaceful and relaxed atmosphere. He spent a lot of his time now trying to relax, because he could not forget the activities of the day, and what had gone before.

After a good nights sleep, and a rest from all the razzmatazz, the two young men set off for Alfred’s home, in the Gippsland district. Uncle Godfrey lent Joe a horse for the length of his stay in Australia. They both knew Godfrey would see that Joe would be lent a good horse and he was so pleased when he saw it. They were both good horsemen. Joe had acquired a bush hat, much more in keeping than the city hat he had been wearing, the Howitt family thought so.

Alfred Howitt, had been one of the pallbearers that afternoon, and had watched the melee which followed. He had also witnessed the confusion when Burke’s expedition cavalcade left Melbourne nearly three years ago. Was it really, nearly three years ago, he mused as he rode through the area of the bush called Prince Albert, named after Queen Victoria’s Consort. It was he, who had thought of an idea to show off the Empire, what they did at work and play, food production, making of objects the effects of the industrial revolution, etc. and all this was originally held in Hyde Park. The all new shiny experimental Crystal Palace caused great excitement throughout the Commonwealth. This magnificent structure was eventually moved to Sydenham, after an unhappy life, as it succumbed to its final fire in 1936.

This brought people from all over the world, all in a variety of costumes. Londoners were astonished by the array of nationalities. There were foreigners, with big beards and moustaches, others in queer felt-hats and braided coats; whilst elegant Frenchwomen, in long cloth cloaks with picturesque hoods, and plain drab bonnets with rich interior trimmings, all might be seen in Regent Street and Piccadilly, acting as a foil to Oriental magnates in gold embroidery, flowing silk, and gorgeous cashmere.

Alfred had not approved of all the fuss, although he went to a ball with Joe Todhunter, who would be his friend for life, just before he had departed for Australia with his father and brother Charlton. They had met an assortment of men and women, both in dress and status. Joe’s stay

They were passing though the area on the outskirts of Melbourne where Burke had assembled his party, and it was here, that Alfred started to explained to Joe, how he had watched, wanting to interfere, but knew that would not have gone down well, especially with Burke. Joe was quiet, despite having Alfred with him, and did not appear to be listening to Alfred’s account of Burke’s expedition. Burke had been employed as a policeman, and had also been a source of amusement, as he would tear into town on his horse, jump from the horse, over the police station fence, and in to work. After his shift, he tore home again in the same fashion, removed his uniform, (only some of it would be his own, as he never seemed to have a complete outfit, always having to borrow something), then out into the garden he would go, where he had a bath of water, in which he sat, idling the hours away.

They went along roads some parts of the way, and at other times, left it to take a short cut, something horses could do, without carts, until they eventually reached Alfred’s home. It was just a simple cottage, with just enough space for him and a couple of friends should they need accommodation when they were passing.

There was a small store where he could get most things, but he still liked to kill his own meat when he could, or pick wild food and herbs, the art of which his brother Charlton had been so good at when they was out here with his father. Charlton then had been in charge of providing their food. He made his own yeast, and very good bread too.

Alfred had learnt many things from the Aborigines; who had shown him what was good to eat, and how to cook certain foods that the body could not tolerate unless cooked. That had been Burke’s failing. His team had been forced to eat one of these plants, which gave them no nutrition, so they were eating yet starving at the same time. It was Alfred who was now the cook, as Charlton was now back in England, but not for long.