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Adelaide,
Sep.
25th, 1851
To Andrew Allan,
Inverlair by Fort William
My dear Parents,
No doubt but you had many anxious thoughts about
hearing from my safety and me. I am again in terra
firma god be thanked after a very pleasant passage
of 99 days from Plymouth.
I will begin by giving you a brief account of
the voyage. We sailed from Plymouth 30th may at
5:00 p.m. Next morning when we got on deck we were
out of sight of land. Tossed on the deck we had a
fair wind across the Bay of Biscay and on the 9th
of June we passed the island of Madeira.
You will perhaps ask how we spent your time to
keep from longing. By day there was plenty of
strange things to be seen. A herd of porpoises
every now and then coming along side and myriads of
flying fish to be seen flying out of the ship's way
Or chased by a dozen or so of dolphins who very
soon caught and devoured them.
Then the things I saw - perhaps a solitary sail
on the horizon helped to pass the time away,
through the day. At night if you liked you might go
to bed or go to prayers that were said every night
in the ship by a few of our countrymen.
When we were near the line the weather was very
hot or at least under the sun north of the line.
Sometimes, tremendous showers of rain fell. You
would perhaps see the sky as clear as could be, and
no wind at all hardly. The captain would call all
hands upon deck to shorten sails, and by the time
they would have down the sail, the rain would be
falling in torrents and the wind blowing a
hurricane. The scupper holes are then generally
stopped, and the people catch the water for
washing. And perhaps an hour from when the storm
began, all is then a great calm, the keel not
moving in the water, perhaps till near night again
when she begins to move a little.
We saw land 3 times since we left home which put
up our spirits.
We got into the river on the 6th of Sept. And we
got ashore on the 8th. I went up to, Adelaide to
see if I could find Mr. Raleigh, but I was
disappointed, he is not in Adelaide at all. The
weather was very unsettled when I landed and I was
afraid of undertaking a journey to Mt. Gambier. I
took a stroll into the country about 60 miles from
Adelaide. I went with a gentleman that had a great
cattle station near Encounter Bay. I stopped there
about 10 days till the weather would settle. I was
out with him hunting cattle on horseback. They are
the wildest animals I ever saw in my life. You talk
about your black-faced lambs being wild at shearing
time, but they best them.
I would have gone to Mt. Gambier before but the
smallest rivulet was, swollen to a good big river
and I thought as well to stop a week or 10 days
when I have nothing to pay for. I am going to start
today for Mt Gambier. It's about 200 miles from
here, (a good long journey to be sure). The country
about there as far as I was looks beautiful, but
everything is uncommonly dull. Just now they had a
very wet winter, which stopped everything. This is
the dull season, but things will get brisk in the
course of a month or so.
Cattle and sheep are rising. Cattle are about 4
pounds, and sheep from 7/6 to 10/-. I cannot give
you a great account of the colony. I can smother
praise or miscall it I tell the truth; I will give
you all particulars in my next. Bread is dear at
present, but it is falling in price. It's about 9d
a loaf.
I will write a letter when I get settled, and I
will send my address then. Give my love to mother,
Isabella, Elizabeth, David & James, not
forgetting yourself. Give my respects to Thomas,
and remember me to Mr. Smith, Mr. Tulloch, to the
Rutherford’s & all acquaintances.
I remain your affectionate son,
Richard Allan
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Richard Allan
York Peninsula
Nov
10th, 1851
My Dear Parents,
I write you these few lines to let you know that
I am God be thanked in good health at present,
hoping that this will find you enjoying the same
blessing. In my last I gave you. a brief sketch of
my voyage. I will now endeavour to give you a
little account of this country.
First as you come up the river to the Port you
will think at first that you are just going into a
desert. At once then after you get up a little
farther, the country seems a little more
Christian-like. When you reach the port to the
north and east are vast plains running as far north
as Gawler Town, and the east and south of Adelaide.
The plains are upwards of 30 miles long, and I do
not know the exact breadth of them. The country
seems very fertile all about the Adelaide plains,
and towards the south the same. I was 70 miles to
the south but. the country there is more adapted
for agricultural pruposes than for pastorial. I was
to the east for 70 miles and it is more of a
pastoral country.
I was going to Mt.Gambier but after going to the
river Murray, I was obliged to return on account of
part of the country being flooded with water and
some of the small rivers so high that even horses
could not cross them, so I returned to Adelaide. I
engaged with a Scotchman that has his station about
80 miles across the gulph(sic) from Adelaide. It is
on a peninsula that I am. The wages have lowered
very much since the last 18 months. Shepherds now
get £26 p.a. (I have that), and some get less
than that. 18 months ago they were getting at the
rate of £31/4/-. The wages were lowered on
account of low price for the wool, but they are
expected to rise soon on account of the Sydney gold
diggings. But low as they are, they are better than
shepherd's wages at home.
A man may have a chance of doing something for
himself, but at home he has not. The shepherds have
a very easy life here the sheep are no trouble in
the world. They are well fed and only the best we
eat. We always kill the pick of the flock. We are
set on no allowance, use as much as we can, but
waste none. This would not be the way at home. You
will not even get a sturdy sheep, and when we have
any, we kill them and give them to the dogs. They
are never eaten.
This would be a fine country if there was more
men of capital in it. There are too few men of
enterprise and capital. The poor are plenty, and
them that are steady in a short time are able to
buy a section of their own. And then they work hard
on it themselves and are not able for a while to
employ anyone. There are many of that kind here,
and there has been a great number of people come in
the last 6 months.
There has been on an average 1000 a month into
Adelaide alone. I came in the very worst time.
Everything was at a stand still. Hundreds were
going about Adelaide idle and could not get work.
But by this time they are employed some way or
other. There is a railway beginning between
Adelaide and the Port which will employ a good
many, and the Sydney goldfields is a fine place for
to drain this place of its bad characters and
incentive fellows and then there will be employment
for the more steady and decent people.
My opinion it had better for Sydney if this gold
had never been discovered.It will be the ruin of
the colony. It will gather all the bad characterrs
in the 4 colonies. They will go there and get
disappointed. There will be beggars and then they
will work for almost nothing. The Sydney gold
diggings will ruin 9 out of every 10 that go to
them. South Australia is the best field for a
working man. Labour is dearer in it than any of the
other colonies. Everything in the food line was
very dear this last winter.
Bread was 1/2 for 4lb loaf but it has fallen now
to 9d or 10d. Flour was £30 a ton, it is now
about £20. Wheat about 11/- or 12/- a bushel,
it is now 9/- or 10/-. Meat 3d or 4d a lb, but you
will get as much as you like at 2d. Cattle was
£4 or £5 and sheep from 8/- to 10/- a
head. But everything is cheap enough now. The crops
look splendid. They had a very wet winter here
last. It rained for nearly 18 weeks on a stretch,
and very few fine days in the 18 weeks. And upon
that account there is plenty of grass here now. The
grass grows here in the winter. Summer is coming on
now and it is beginning to be parched up and look
brown. There is no green grass to be seen here. In
summer, all is brown as paper.
Any person coming to Australia are very foolish
to be at great expense with clothes, for the home
clothes are of no use in summer, and the winter is
only 4 months. All that a single man requires in
the bush is 3 shirts - str iped ones. White ones
are of no use to him for he has no wife to wash
them for him. 2 pairs of trousers, a few pairs of
socks, 2 vests, a coat for the winter and a
waterproof would be very useful.
A blue Guernsey shirt or a cabbage tree hat and
a pair of strong navy boots and a belt to buckle
round his waist to keep his blue shirt close to his
body. And a pair of blankets and then if he lets
his beard grow and be all hair about the face, he
will pass for a bushman. It is all foolishness
taking good clothes. Here mine are lying in
Adelaide and I will not see them for the next 12
months and perhaps longer than that. I would never
advise a single man who intends going to the bush
to bring any quantity of white shirts with him for
they are of no use to him.
I fell in with an old school fellow of yours in
Adelaide. It was my master recommended me to leave
my boxes at his house tat is the way I fell in with
him. He keeps the Edinburgh Castle Inn in Adelaide.
His name is Douglas. He knows Aberchalder well and
he knows all about there. I had not above a half
hour's talk with him all together. I had not time
to stop. I was obliged to go away from Adelaide
about 2 or 3 hours after I saw him.
The best time for anyone to come here is about
Dec. or January. He will be surer to get employment
soon then than at any other time. I came in the
very worst time. Everything was very dull when I
came. As yet the climate agrees with me. It is a
very mild climate. It is something warm through the
day, but the evenings and mornings are beautiful.
There is heavy dews at night here. It is that that
preserves the grass. It is now beginning to get
brown now.
Tell Fisher at Bunroy that I enquired about how
schoolmasters are here. Children's education is
very dear about Adelaide, and out about the country
for a few miles. But it will be hardly worth his
while to come to the place that I am. It is a
peninsula about 100 miles in length. There are only
3 women on it, and only 2 of them are married. They
are a day's journey from one another. I think the
single one will hardly have any children for she is
on the wrong side of 40. So it will hardly be worth
his while to come to York Peninsula, whatever he
may do.
To Adelaide. Perhaps you would like to get an
account of Adelaide. Well, I will begin from the
port. When you go ashore at the port in winter when
you step off the jetty if you do not look out you
will be up to the knees in mud. As you wade along
ankle deep to the road, if you may call it a road.
It is something like the Cournack road as the carts
and drays go along, the wheels will be down to the
knee about. As you go along trying to pick your way
you get up to the ankles and then you very
naturally take a spring to one side. You then get
up to the knees and then you are 10 times worse
than you were before.
Then getting up to the town you expect to have
better footing but you are disappointed. The
streets of Adelaide are something like your back
square in meary time. It is in that state in
winter. Now let us have a glance at it in summer.
You will expect to find it a little more
comfortable then. I will let you judge for
yourself. The sun scarcely hot you go along the
street panting for breath. You try to keep in the
shade or under a row of verandahs. You can hardly
see your finger before you. with dust flying about,
you can not see the passing carriages and vehicles.
You continue to keep the dust out of your lungs by
a continual sneezing. That is the account I give
you of Adelaide. Sticking in the mud in winter, and
being blinded in the dust in summer, and scorched
with the sun, hot winds that blow from the north,
but from no other art.
I think I will stop now, but by-the-by I would
be very glad to have a paper occasionaly that I may
see how things are going on at home. Give my love
to mother and Isabella, Elizabeth, David and James,
not forgetting yourself. Also to Thomas and all the
old acquaintances, to Rutherfords at Crehey.
I Remain,
Your Affectionate Son R.Allan.
Address.
Adelaide Post Office, Adelaide,
South Australia
** To be left till called for.
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Ballarat, Victoria.
Jan 5,
1853
Dear parents,
I received your letter of the 23rd July. It was
sent to me from Adelaide, or I would not get it so
soon. I am glad to see that you are all well, and I
hope this will find you still the same as it leaves
me in the enjoyment of good health which I have
enjoyed, god be thanked, since I came to Australia.
I am glad to see that you have at last made up
your mind to come to Australia, which I hope you
will. I have been in Port Phillip this 12 months
and I will not advise you on any account to come to
Port Phillip as I said in 2 or 3 letters I wrote to
you a short time ago. The country is in a most
lawless state and everything is sold at exorbitant
prices. You cannot get a place to put your head in
either at Melbourne or Geelong. There are thousands
living in tents on the banks of the rivers and for
the country there is no law at all in it.
I shall never settle in Port Phillip, and I
think the best thing you can do is to come out to
Adelaide. For a poor man has a better chance of
settling there than here. For instance, he can buy
a section of 80 acres of land for very little more
than £1 an acre. And Port Phillip, you will
not get less than 640 acres to buy. So a man can
muster £80 or £100 when he cannot muster
£700 or £800. And then there is a better
government in Adelaide than here. And more than
that, there is none of your life here, far less
your property. The country is swarming with
bushrangers and robbers who commit the most daring
and horrible deeds even with a few miles of the
metropolis.
Adelaide is a more homely place than Victoria.
There are very few old convicts in Adelaide, but at
the present day, Victoria is covered with the scum
of all nations. She has got one thing to charm, but
hundreds to disgust. If it were not for the hopes
of doing better at the digging then any other
thing, I would go too. I could get £80
Or £100 ready enough, but I would not take
£100 and engage for 12 months for I can do
better than that at the diggings. I commissioned
the agent that sold some gold for me to remit you
£50 to help you to come out to Australia. I
have been only once in town since I came to the
diggings, and when I want gold sold, I send it by
escort to some after it is weighed by our gold
commissioner.
I wrote Hunter a short time ago. Donald Grant
(Munessie farm), Donald Mckillop, Duncan and Angus
Rankin are at the diggings. They have done pretty
fair. The Great Britain steamer I see by the papers
sailed New Year's day for old England. You asked
what things would be useful on the voyage out, and
how we were treated.
I will begin with 2 or 3 hams, which will be a
change, (remember you will get tired of the ship's
fare). Also, some coffee, which will be very nice
when the water begins to get bad. (I would have
given anything for coffee). You may bring some
sugar, say 20 or 30lbs, for you will not be served
with too much of that. Also a few nice biscuits for
you will get tired of the ship's ones. You may
bring a few lbs of good tea, say three, you will
get tired of the ship's tea also. And remember to
bring a little carbonated soda and some butter. If
you
Bring the above few things, you will find they
will come in very handy at sea. We were treated
very well in our ship coming out, and we got
everything that was mentioned. I will give you one
advice, which I hope you will take. Do not bring a
great lot of wearing apparel for they are of no use
in this country. If I was to start from home again,
a carpet bag would hold my stock of clothing. You
want 2 complete suits for the voyage. One for hot,
and the other for cold weather. It is very cold in
the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, and you will
find it as hot before you cross the line. The heat
is almost suffocating down below. There you will
see many strange scenes before you see Australia. I
hope you will have as good a passage as I had and
you will feel the voyage just like a pleasant
excursion.
Remember me to all acquaintances at home. To Mr.
& Mrs. Smith at Tulloch, to the Rutherford’s
and tell William that he can do nothing better than
come to Australia. I must now stop. My love to
mother, Isabella, Elizabeth, David and James, not
forgetting yourself.
Your affectionate son, R. Allan.
Address: Adelaide Post Office, South Australia.
P.s. I shall go back to Adelaide before long,
and the best way for you to find me is to call at
the post office. I will send a letter there about
the time I think you will be out.
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Ballarat.
Nov.
6th. 1853.
Dear Father,
I have just received your letter of the 20th may
and I was rather astonished at you not leaving
Inverlair last term. You ask my advice on
immigrating to Australia. Well I will paint the
position you stand in at home if you cannot see it
yourself.
You say that you can get a living by hard work.
I do not dispute you in that but what have you to
do for it? You have to slave and pull the snout of
your hat to a lot of proud masters honoring them
and what do you get for it? Your yearly wages would
not pay my necessary expenses for 2 months. And
then again what prospect is there for your family
at home now? They have to starve for their living
as you have. As you say you are getting advanced in
years and what would become of them if it pleased
the giver of all things to take you away from them.
It will be a long time before they will be all able
to do for them and it looks as if one would never.
What would become of them? Starvation would look
them in the face, nay even death.
Now let me paint you and the family on this side
of the world.
You would get a situation of from £70 to
£100 for a living and David would get £50
or £70 a year. And Isabella might get from
£20 to £30 and again in a few years you
might get a small farm at from 50 to 100 acres,
which would pay well. Surely when wheat' is 10
shillings a bushel and you can get land at a trifle
above the upset price, which is £1 per acre.
This is all in Adelaide. I would not advise you to
come to Victoria. Everything is so enormously high
here. I have not been in Adelaide since I wrote
you. I have not done much since I wrote but I have
always had a good living, a £10 note in my
pocket and my own master.
The servants in this country are nearly their
own masters for if they are dissatisfied with their
employer, they have nothing to do but leave them
and get another. If you come to Adelaide David
might come to the diggings with me. If he did not
choose to take a place the diggings, they are very
heavy work at present. We have to sink as deep as
130 feet, and timber our shafts all the way to the
rock, where the gold lies. The last hole I was in
at work it was 108 feet deep. I am at present on
the lookout for to smith in a place where it will
go a 140.
I expect by the home papers you will see that we
have had a row here about licence and we have
forced the government to reduce the licence to
£6 a year is £18 a year for every man on
the diggings.
We expected to have a regular fight. The
government brought troops from Van Diemen's land,
but we were determined to have it down if we should
fight for it. If there had been a row the diggers
would have upset the whole government. They are not
to be trifled with nor their rights to be trampled
upon for they are the main stay of the colony.
We received a letter from Mr. Hunter and I think
he has been trying to induce you to stop at home.
By what he says this is the country for the poor
man. We are all gentlemen here. One man does not
care a farthing for another here. We do not tip the
snout of our cap here to our fellow worms of the
dust. No, no, an honest man is the gentlemen here.
I must stop. Give my love to mother, Isabella,
Elizabeth, David and James, not forgetting
yourself.
I remain your affectionate son. R. Allan.
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Ballararat
June
18th, 1857
My dear Father and Mother,
I now take this opportunity of writing you a few
lines to let, you know that we are all well at
present, God be thanked. I trust this well find you
enjoying the same blessing. I received your letter
and was glad to see you were all well. David got a
letter from last week also.
I must now inform you that I have had another
addition to my family. My dear Catherine was safely
delivered of a son on the 11th of May. You will be
thinking that we are making a good effort towards
multiplying and replenishing Australia, but there
is plenty of room for them all on the fertile
plains of this country. Dear father and mother I
will give you a small description of the Ballarat
of 1857, and the Ballarat of 1852.
5 years ago when I came here there was a few
tents on the slope of the hill. When the first
payable gold field was discovered in Victoria, all
the surrounding country was a dense forest. The
kangaroo and aboriginal roamed about undisturbed
unless by some stray flock of sheep and its
attendant all was in a state of nature. Half a mile
each way from those few tents, to stand on that
same hill now, what do I behold? Those giants of
the forest, some of them many centuries old, have
disappeared. The axe of the white man has laid them
low and in their stead, a town where all bustle and
life of a large city is to be seen. Handsome
edifices stand now where 2 or 3 years ago the
gigantic gum stood a retreat for the noisy parrots
by day, and the chattering opossum by night.
From the same place the tall stalks of the flour
mills are to be discerned in the distance, emitting
their black wreaths of smoke. While the wheat from
the neighbouring farms is being ground to feed our
sturdy population. You also behold scores of
engines assisting the miner in drawing from the
bowels of the earth, the auriferous soil. Ballarat
has progressed wonderfully considering the
drawbacks she has had in the shape of bad
government and political disturbances. She is the
2nd city in Victoria. Her mining and commercial
population is about 40,000. In her handsome shops,
all that elegance or luxury requires is to be had.
But although all those are to be had, gold is
not so easy got at. It was in 1852 easier got at.
There is plenty of gold here got, but there are
greater natural difficulties to contend with in
some places. There is about 200 feet of hard
basaltic rock to go through (as hard as whinstone
in Scotland). It contains immense bodices of water
which require steam power to pump out of the
shafts, which are very expensive in this country.
16 horsepower put on the ground cost about 1500
pounds.
The squatters are trying at present to push a
land bill through the assembly and if they succeed,
there will be a poor chance for the small
capitalist to settle in this colony. There are
large meetings throughout the country protesting
against it but unfortunately there are too many
squatters in the council and assembly. The ministry
is in favour of the squatters. If this bill passes,
I will leave as quick as I can, for I do not wish
to see another rebellion which must inevitably
happen if this iniquitous bill passes.
My dear father and mother, I must draw to a
close. Catherine sends her love to you, mother,
James, lsabella, Elizabeth, and I with her also
join.
Your affectionate son.
R.Allan.
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June
10th, 1859
Back Creek,
My dear parents,
I promised to write you by the May mail but this
will go by the June one.
David had a letter that you were all well. I am
health at present and I hope blessing.
My dear Catherine has presented me with another
fine boy. You will be thinking it will not be her
fault if the name becomes extinct. This young
Australian was born on the 19th of April. I think
the best thing you can do is to try and come out to
this country for what claim has any country on the
affections of a man if he sees nothing but hard
work and drudgery for himself and children for
life.himself to go down in poverty to the grave and
the assurance that his family must follow his
steps. If you come we will do all in our power to
assist you here. I will not lead you astray about
what we will do for you. We cannot buy a place for
you at present but we will rent 200 or 300 acres
for a term of years. And we will find all
requisities and give you an equal share within the
leasehold.
And you will have a home with us untill we get a
place of land to suit. If you come out write me as
soon as you receive this stating that you will come
and we will be on the lookout for a farm. And write
me before you start as soon as you know the name of
the ship stating the name of her. Also as soon as
you arrive at Melbourne and one of us will go down
to meet you.the family would do much better in this
country and James would have his health better to
be sure. Bring a few dainties for yourselves on the
passage. I wish you would bring me a few oak acorns
and hawthorn seeds and a few fir seeds and if James
would take the trouble to try and bring a pair or
two of thrushes or mavises. As Rob Burns says if we
had the old and familiar faces and a few of the
song birds of our native land here we would be able
to have a little Scotland or our own in Australia.
Where a few months ago there was nothing but cattle
and kangeroos we have lots of scotch neighbours.
You would be surprised to see how the face of
nature is changed as civilisation advances.
Comfortable homesteads now where a few short months
ago there was dense forest. Towns spring up here as
if by magic. The town of Ballarat 6 years ago there
was not a house on it but a few tents. Now it is
inhabitants number 45,ooo. It is the largest and
best built inland town in the country; I must now
tell you a little about ourselves. We have had a
hard struggle to get through. We got nothing of the
place for 18 months.
We were to get much crop in the first year we
only had a few potatoes for ourselves. We laid
about 950 pounds worth out before we got a shilling
in return. Our land is all heavily timbered but we
have the advantage of having plenty of water on the
ground. Wheat is a good price at present. It is
worth 12/- per bushel but potatoes are as cheap as
at home. We will have about 25 acres of wheat this
season, this is our seed time. Wheat yields well in
this country it runs here from 30 to 60 bushels to
the acre. I may as well mention that the rent of
good land with little timber on it here is from
15/- to 1 pound and acre. If you come out call on
my sister-in-law in Glasgow before you leave.
Andrew is getting a fine stout boy and so is
Alexander - two very mischeivious gentlemen. And
the young stranger Kate says he is to be named
after myself. If you can get out by the colonial
emigrating act you WILL have to pay. The full
amount for yourself and my mother, but Isabella and
Betsy will get out for 1 each, which would be a
great save to you. It is worth writing the
Commission Party, Westminster about it.
Catherine and I join in our love to yourself,
mother, Isabella, James and Betsy.
Your affectionate son,
R. Allan PTO
Other side of letter ?
By the may mail but this will go by the by the
last mail and I was glad to hear happy to say this
leaves us all in good this will find you all
enjoying the same.
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