The Howitt’s had spent a lot of money on their expedition already, obtaining the mining tools and camping equipment in England, and more on clothes, because they wanted to look the part. It had taken quite a time collecting all the supplies together for the trip and transporting them to Australia. After their arrival, they had to wait for three weeks, before their goods and supplies could be unloaded from Melbourne harbour, about three miles down river from the town, and everything had to be moved by small boats. Payment was needed for the shipment of their luggage to the town, which had to be by barter, otherwise they could be over charged.
Alfred went on to say embarrassingly “Pa had to bring his rocking chair with him, and a carpet on which to put it, when he went to sleep”. As Alfred thought about that period in his life, not so long ago, he started to visualise life in Australia, as he had first found it. He could even smell it. Ugh, it was revolting. The streets were full of diggers who had long hair down to their shoulders, beards and moustaches, untrimmed and unwashed. Their jackboots with spurs were covered in mud, they carried their riding whips, wore their cabbage tree hats on their heads and had sunburnt faces. Many of them carried their possessions on their back, their implements, tents, bedding etc. Others had it all piled up on carts drawn by a single horse. Big shaggy dogs seemed to be the fashion and their owners were armed with guns and sheath knives.
Then there were the gold escorts, which looked picturesque and were wild looking, galloping up country in a cloud of dust. One of two wore red, had cross belts and cabbage palm hats. With six men in a party, they looked as if they could do anything, all with pistols in holsters and great sabres clattering at their sides. They were mounted on large wild shaggy bush horses, driven at full speed. Of course, no-one in those days moved at normal speed. If you were on foot you ran out of the their way. Alfred was surprising himself more and more, as to how the conditions had changed since his arrival.
He remembered the mud on the streets of Melbourne, dried up with the wind and the warming sunshine of the spring. The city was stifled with the dust in summer, and how he could taste it now, along with the stench of rotting corpses of dead horses lying in the street. The trees were beginning to shoot all gnarled and weather beaten, so there was some colour about, but how monotonous their olive green colour appeared to him at that time.
Many of the people who had travelled to Melbourne with the Howitt family, never saw their possessions again, because there was so much thieving, and bribery. People had to replace goods they had brought with them. Some still had their money, others had drunk it away on the ship on their way out, and others just lost their money by having to buy goods at the unreasonable prices in Melbourne.
He looked at Joe at his side, wondering what he was making of what he was telling him. I must not neglect my friend and visitor; it is so long since we have been able to talk man to man, he said to himself. Alfred had so many things on his mind, it was easy for his thoughts to drift away from the present.
The two men gossiped about the news from London, who had got married, had children, or were travelling around. Joe came from a prosperous, business sector of the community, and had relatives with titles, but the difference in social status meant nothing to these two families. Joe told Alfred, his mother had been round to see Alfred’s mother, Mary, to see how she was. She was as busy as every with her writings, translations and social reform activities. He learnt that his mother was proud of his achievements in his new land and was so pleased to learn he had returned safely from the rescue mission regarding the deceased men, Burke and Wills.
Joe said “I think she ought to be used to your enterprises by now, but she is always relieved when you return from the wild as she calls it.”
“Oh, she is such a worrier; I no longer worry about what she might think. I have come to realize, my life, is my life, and I don’t have to ask her permission any longer, only to be grateful she is there, even if it is thousands of miles away. As you know, I keep in regular touch with her and the rest of my siblings. My sister Anna and I seem to be building up a very close relationship now and she is very keen to help me in my endeavours where ever she can.”
Later in life, Alfred and his sisters, came to the conclusion, that none of them had really shown much love for their mother, in fact, they said they were really rather frightened of her. It wasn’t that she didn’t like children; she had actually said she would like to understand the mind of a child, and in the hope that she did, or would, she wrote poems, stories and books she felt would be helpful for them, like the book recording the activities of nephews and nieces living in America.
So many people had emigrated to that country and Canada, she had felt the cousins would like to know of their life style. Alfred’s aunt, his mother Mary’s, youngest sister Emma, had emigrated to America during the Irish potato famine, They had suffered the problems of Liverpool poverty, including the deaths of some of their children before and after emigrating.
Mary had described the arrival of a baby, as a period of great joy, and of great sorrow, and she wished children could be picked like nuts from the trees. What a silly idea, her children thought. She was always busy, and her children felt she had not had time from her chores, to spend time with them. She wrote poetry and prose, mainly for children, she translated Hans Christian Andersen’s stories into English, which were for children, she fought for women’s rights, at a time when women had no voice at all, even in making any decisions about their children. Her work for children was multifaceted, and her own children were unaware of her love and concerns for them.
“Joe, what do you think the people of Melbourne were thinking, when the women dressed in all their black finery, the largest of their hats, their best black dresses and fans? It might have been a funeral, but somehow it does not seem in keeping. I know it was the biggest and most exciting event ever staged in Melbourne, or was it because there had been so much controversy amongst them, before and after, in the way the Royal Society, who were the initiators and financiers of the expedition, ended up making such a mess of things.”
“I don’t think I can give you an answer to that, any more than you know the answer” was Joe’s reply. “Well do you think they were there to celebrate and to mourn? Mourn failure, mourn courage, celebrate the only exploration, which lost so many lives, what were all these people doing, why had there to be a state funeral in the new state of Victoria, or was it an excuse to dress up. Or again, was it to help to create a spectacle.” Said Alfred.
“Oh stop it Alfred. It is over and finished with. It’s time for you to put it all behind you. While I am here, I want you to show me your country, and tell me why you like it so much.”
Chapter 6 – Joe and Impressions
Joe told Alfred he seemed to have changed since they last met. “You have mellowed, and you no longer wear those colourful, modern style clothes, in fact you are wearing all sorts of clothing, nothing to do with style. Do you remember that bright yellow waistcoat you wore to the 1851 Exhibition at Crystal Palace? Have you any idea why you’ve ceased wearing those type of clothes?”
“I suppose it has something to do with the country itself” said Alfred. “My old style of clothing just would not be practical for me with the work I now do these days. I was presentable today, wasn’t I?”
Yes”. Laughed Joe.
Both men had changed in the intervening years, although they, themselves, were not really aware of it. Joe, the sophisticated businessman, and Alfred, the free and easy man, spending a lot of his time alone, in wide open spaces. His clothes had to keep him covered in searing heat, or on snow covered mountain ranges. The sun was so strong, he would have got burnt, without some sort of clothing to cover himself.
“It is a strange country Joe. It is a mad, wild, exciting place, a place where anything can