‘Millers Point from Flagstaff Hill’ painted in 1842 by John Rae (1813-1900), who came to Sydney in 1839 as an accountant. He moved into in civic administration in Sydney, and in 1861 was appointed under-secretary for works and commissioner for railways, taking the historic decision to adopt standard gauge. He was a man of letters and an able watercolorist, and twenty-six of his views of Sydney are kept today in the Mitchell Library in Sydney.
Part 1 of 2
“DEAR Wife You can come out to Me as soon as it pleases you and also my Sister and I will provide for you a comfortable Situation and Home as a good one as ever lies in my power, And When you come or send You must come to My Masters House at Sydney. He is a rich Gentleman known by every one in this colony, and you must come out as emigrants, and when you come ask for me as a emigrant and never use the word Convict or the ship Hashemy* on your Voyage, never let it be once named among you, let no one know your business but your own selves, and When you Land come to my Masters and enquire for me and thats quite sufficient.
“Dear Wife do not you cumber yourself with no more luggage than is necessary for they are of no use out here you can bring your bed and bedclothes and sufficient clothes for yourself and family.
* Hashemy was a teak trading ship built in Calcutta in 1817. After Ross, Corbett and Co. acquired her in 1846, she was initially used for transporting coolies (a term coined in India for low-wage labourers, but applied especially to workers of East Asian origin) and subsequently as a convict-transport ship. On February 11th, 1849, she sailed from Portsmouth carrying 237 male convicts, one of whom was our correspondent, reaching Port Jackson (according to him) on June 8th and officially disembarking at Sydney on June 9th. He believed that only two had died on the journey, but records indicated a tally of sixteen.
Précis
At Charles Dickens’s request, Caroline Chisholm regaled readers of ‘Household Words’ with letters from Australian emigrants. In one, the writer urged his wife and sister in England to join him in Sydney, where he could supply everything they needed so long (and he stressed this firmly) as they did not remind anyone that he had once been a convict. (59 / 60 words)
Part Two
Little corellas canoodling, Centennial Park, Sydney. The little corella (Cacatua sanguinea) is a white cockatoo native to Australia and southern New Guinea. These splendid but noisy birds evidently caught the eye of our convict-correspondent in and around Sydney, who likened them to crows back home in England for sheer numbers.
“You can buy for yourself a tin hook pot to hang on before the fire in the Gally to boil tea at times when it is required.* And a few Oranges and lemons for the Sea Sickness* or any thing you please.
“Dear Wife this is a fine Country and a beautiful climate it is like a perpetual Sumer, and I think it will prove congenial for your health, No wild beast nor anything of the Sort out here,* fine beautiful birds and every thing seems to smile with pleasure Cockatoos as plentiful and common as crows in England Provisions of Every kind is very cheap you can buy Beef at 1d penny* per lb flour 1½d per lb tea 2s per lb and Sugar at 2d per lb and other things as cheep, but this is every poor mans diet. Wages is not so very high out here not so much as they are in England.* I have Nothing more to Say at Present more than this is just the country where we can end our days in peace and contentment when we meet.”
* This piece of advice came from the heart. On convict transports such pots were worth their weight in gold, as William Moy Thomas later explained to readers of Household Words through a sobering tale: see Criminal Justice.
* That is to say scurvy, not motion sickness.
* Apart from a few eastern brown snakes, tiger snakes, funnel-web spiders, redback spiders and scorpions, that is. But perhaps these do not count as ‘wild beasts’ in the way that tigers and lions do.
* The word ‘penny’ is superfluous as the abbreviation d means ‘penny’ (literally, denarius). The letter s in this sentence is short for ‘shilling’ and lb stands for ‘pound’. The figures 1½d are spoken as ‘a penny ha’penny’, and 2d as ‘tuppence’.
* The writer manages to use ‘wages’ as a singular noun and also as a plural noun in the same sentence; the plural form is more common nowadays.
Précis
The letter-writer went on to extol Australia’s sunny climate, and guessed that it would be good for his wife’s health. He admitted that wages were not as high as in England, but added that the money went further, and that he looked forward to spending the rest of his days with his family in this new land. (57 / 60 words)
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