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.
Chapter 10 – Founding of Australia
The population in England, had risen very rapidly during the industrial revolution, especially where labour was needed in the factories and cities. For example, one parish in the East End of London, had divided into a dozen within forty years. Also during the 1850’s nearly three million people had emigrated from England to the United States and British colonies. The majority of the people in Australia had gone there voluntarily, and of course, that included all types of people, some of whom were of dubious character, others very industrious, others just greedy, so naturally, the ordinary people, were sometimes taken advantage of, by those with devious minds. Large numbers of people from Germany and other European countries also went out for a better life, or to make their fortune. All this sounds familiar.
It was in 1787, that Britain thought of a new way to banish its unwanted citizens. Many of these were uneducated petty thieves, streetwalkers, orphan chimney sweeps and dashing highwaymen. The idea was ‘out of sight, out of mind’, so why not literally, send them to the ends of the earth, the fringes of the known world? Botany Bay was remote; it was a lengthy journey, and all by sea. These ‘creatures’ would never be able to return to their mother country. Only one European expedition ship had ever anchored at the destination to which the overcrowded, disease-ridden convict ships were bound. Many of these convicts were ill noursihed, and they included a lot of people from Ireland, the land of the famous potato famine of the 1840’s, when Irish families tried to escape the poverty and disease of their homeland. Many landed in Liverpool, and ended up as convicts. A person could be transported just for stealing food for their starving family. What does a mother or father do when their child is wasting away or becoming ill? It was not only the Irish who suffered a potato famine, the same potato disease ravished Scotland. This was exacerbated by the earlier Highland clearances.
Big land owners, cleared farmers off their lands, in order to keep more sheep then rehoused them by setting up small communities along the shore. Beautiful, yes, but to farm you need good soil, which the coast line did not have. They were expected to increase their subsistence diet, through fishing. This did not work, crops failed. Many people were fishing these inlets and bays that became over fished, so they too felt they had to emigrate. Many Scots had gone to Canada, and later some to Australia, but the largest influx from those dreadful times, was from Ireland.
It was not just the Irish and Scots who suffered at this period. People in Britain had left the land to work in the factories, which had sprung up turning small towns into cities. Working conditions were appalling, long hours for all the family including young children, with low wages, and unimaginable housing conditions, far worse than the country shacks, they had previously called home.
These factors, in their turn led to disease and malnutrition, serious accidents were frequent in factories and considered common place, yet acceptable. It was not unusual for a woman to get her hair caught in the machinery, which could result in her being scalped. The children, who had to crawl under the machine, could trap their head or their clothes, clawing and winding that poor child’s clothing and body into the machine.
Fathers did the heavy work, some of it in the yards, loading and unloading carts, which did not stay still. The large carthorses could not be guaranteed to stand still. Injuries received from falling on hard yard flooring or stones, from the top of the cart, could result in serious fractures or even death, again they could be run over by a cart. Even in the days of horse drawn traffic, there existed same or similar road offences those, which exist today.
Without a breadwinner, to pay the rent for the poor accommodation, the family would have nowhere to go when the rent could not be paid, except for the workhouse, so many a family ended up in the dreaded workhouse, their last resort. Families would be split up, their general living conditions no better than they had had before, but at least they were fed, after a fashion. Women and men were separated, children taken from parents and separated from siblings, some of whom were sent to a poorhouse school situated some distance to where their parents were living. No one could leave, unless they could show they could support themselves, and this information had to be supported by someone in authority outside the poorhouse.
Yet these rejects