This site is not really meant for public consumption. It's a communication between PBK and myself but if you choose to proceed, please excuse any inaccuracies or obscurities. If I err, please let me know. If I offend, please let me know. I shall then determine what action to take. If you are able to assist, your help will be gratefully accepted. The accuracies and academic certainty is Peter's domain. Mine is the rambling research of a novice. If you have helped already and I have not acknowledged it, I apologise right now. Let me know and I will remedy that matter. There are many far more expert and longterm Colonial webmasters out there than I am and I link to them as I encounter them because they are splendid. If you choose to proceed, then do join us in a fine feast of the 19th Century. Yrs Lynne.
I am researching Bryan Overend, one time captain of Lady Nelson and Estramina, and crew member of Emu when it sank at Cape Town 1816. He disappears from sight after this. Do you have any information on Bryan, please.
Due to re-location from Tweed to Clarence, there will be a break between posts. The Clarence residence incorporates a study area of considerable dimensions and a fine view over Big River Country. Bear with me till I am settled in. Many Thanks.
Some movements are taking place on this
river. The Deputy Surveyor General arrived
here lately from Sydney, and the Commisioner
of Crown Lands from New England. Both
these officers are in full communication with the
other authorities in the district, and with the
licensed settlers -a surveying party is encamped
on the land occupied by Mr. Girard, with the
view of preparing plans preparatory to the
formation of a town there, where there are three or
four fresh wator lagoons, which will always
afford an abundant supply of this element of lite
The river is, constantly fresh, and navigable for
boats immediately above. We understand that
the Deputy Surveyor General does not con-
template recommending a town at the South
Head of the entrance, but merely a pilot station
of course he has his reasons for this. The points
to which his intention seems principally to be
directed are Girard’s, on tbe right bank-the
elevated ground about three miles above on the
left bank-the mouth of the great estuary on
the same side-the point opposite the south
east corner of the large Island, and the neighbourhood
of the black’s camp near the heads.
It is asserted that there is a vast tract of fine
country between the Clarence and the Richmond,
this river being represented to be equal in importance
to the former. There are already some
extensive stock stations established upon it, and
the road from the Clarence presents no serious
difficulties, the country being desciibed as toler-
ably level, consisting chiefly of fine alluvial
plains. We hope that the means at the present
disposal of the Deputy Surveyor General, will
enable him to give us an account of a counrty so
interesting.
A very beautiful survey of the right bank of
the Clarence has been made for the Government,
by the Messrs. Wilson, who are residing on the
river, and would doubtless (or a consideration)
afford useful information to intending settlers.
The dairies of Mr. Devlin and Dr. Dobie, would
do credit to any country. Several neat cottages
and farm esttblishments grace the banks of this
beautiful river-and there is still room for thousands
of ¡industrious colonists with moderate
capital, who would have no reason to regret a
location in a country where the immediate necessaries
of life are so abundant and so easy to be acquired.
Clarence is now looking likely as a new dwelling place for us for a time. We had one day at CLARENCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY in SCHAEFFER HOUSE and a brief look for the last home of the Kendalls on the Clarence but opportunity might now present to do some real searching. This time we have been offered a base and will be able to investigate the Gordon Brook, Eatonsville and Orara River locales and perhaps encounter some oral history.
TRISH MAY also contacted us and she has seen the baptismal certificates of the McNally children who were born in Australia and there was indeed a JOHN, of whom we lose track and Judith is listed as JUDITH KILFROY twice in documentation she has seen as well as being noted and JULIA KILROY in another situation. MCDERMOTT appears only to have been used on the voyage out to the Colony.
After a prolonged Summer Break, our minds are beginning to return to the 19 Century. See you there.
Drawing a comparison here with the folk tradition of putting the verse to music. Melinda’s COLLIERS’ STRIKE SONG is undergoing that process at this time in long honoured working class tradition. Melinda McNally Kendall’s entire story is one of poverty, struggle and class schisms, possibly even extending to the way in which she was viewed by the Kendall Family and a childhood in which her father was gaoled in connection with a fencing payment dispute in Castlereagh. That incident coincided with her being taken into the HILL household where she is listed as SERVANT on the census. She lived from 1852 onwards as a single mother and two of her daughters were school teachers as was Melinda herself. The Rochdale Cooperative Movement was certainly associated with the Coal Mines of the Illawarra by the 1890s and Melinda had written her poem by 1885 with the inclusion of the chorus known now to have originated in Rochdale in 1795.
Be that as it may, this post includes an audio of an early 20th century poem by THOMAS WILFRED NATHAN. Peter Knox found THE LANE BELOW THE FLATS in a copy of the BULLETIN and in conjunction with members of the band PASPALUM, set it to the music below.
Welcome. This web site is dedicated to the life and work of the Chartist, poet, author, and free thinker, Gerald Massey, and to comparable poets and authors of his era, a number of whom by their protests were to influence political and social reform in Victorian Britain. Most have working-class backgrounds. My aim is to resurrect their writing, much of which has for many decades been unavailable outside of national archives and university libraries, and to place it before a wider audience.
An independent and independent-minded Victorian, who left a legacy of writings and activity in one of the most controversial issues of her age, the employment of women.
ISABELLA FYVIE MAYO is little remembered today, but during the later decades of the 19th century this determined, independent-minded and hard-working woman became a widely published poetess and author, much of her prose output being published ― both in the U.K. and in North America ― under thenom de plume, “EDWARD GARRETT“. She also became a speaker on liberal causes, particularly on the themes of religion, pacifism and animal welfare.
British parallels to Melinda’s lost writing and working class background.
BY 1885, Melinda has in some manner encountered the chorus of
The masters they are grumbling in country and in town
They want to starve the workers by keeping wages down.
Now in some parts of England the men were standing out
Against a great reduction and they’re right without a doubt.
In this happy country, man is treated like a slave
When the master gets the profit and the worker gets the work.
You’ve no right to be happy, no right to be well fed,
If they drop our wages, they must drop the price of bread.
By 1868, The ROCHDALE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IS well established in South Australia and from records so far found, it existed in Illawarra and other NSW area.
British immigrants played an important role in bringing the Rochdale principles to Australia. Retail
co-operatives became a feature of coalmining districts such as the Hunter Valley, the Illawarra, the Lithgow Valley, Wonthaggi in Victoria and Collie in Western Australia. There were Rochdale co-operatives outside these areas. Particularly notable was the Adelaide society, which opened in 1868 and had 9,412 members by 1923.
Thanks to MARK GREGORY’s research, we have been led to a 1795 verse from the ROCHDALE FOOD RIOTS in the UK. This forms the chorus and partial verse of Melinda’s COLLIER’S STRIKE SONG which is written about an ILLAWARRA COAL STRIKE.
The ROCHDALE BUROUGH WIDE CULTURAL TRUST WEBSITE informs us that they located the verse on a typewritten piece of paper in their archives which a long ago librarian had typed up. At this time, that’s all the details we have. Mark and his compatriots see an indication of the ongoing thread of working class folklorist tradition extending to Melinda’s song.
Below are some articles referring to the situation in Rochdale in 1795.
Whitehall Evening Post (London, England), Saturday, July 11, 1795; Issue 7593
The MORNING POST and FASHIONABLE WORLD of AUGUST 6 1795 reported riots in which three people were killed by the VOLUNTEERS. The riots continued after the letters had left.
The COURIER AND EVENING GAZETTE of AUGUST 11(LONDON ENGLAND) gave the names and details of the men killed. One was 80 years old and in no way connected with the riots and other by the name of FLETCHER was equally uninvolved. A boy had his arm broken and many more were wounded by the VOLUNTEER FENCIBLES.
FROM THE STAR Star (London, England), Monday, August 24, 1795; Issue 2189.
SOUTH GRAFTON CEMETERY.
YAMBA LIGHTHOUSE.
