Originally posted on 4th April, 2019
Review by Jennifer McCoy
This book is an annotated and transcribed copy of significant sections of Niel Black’s journal, that covers his journey here and the first 5 months of his life in Australia, between October 1839 to May 1840; and a shorter section consisting of commentaries by women immigrants. Few settlers left records of this nature, females least of all. Letters went home to England, possibly the hardships they faced left little time for journal writing; perhaps too many may have been illiterate as were my family. Those that have survived offer rare and personal commentaries on their lives in this remote and masculine colony.
The editor has annotated groups of journal entries, introducing us to the social and economic context of the entries to follow. She draws on Margaret Kiddle’s Men of Yesterday, as well as numerous other research sources, to inform her commentaries, explaining certain entries and drawing our attention to particular comments. The book then becomes a valuable social record in itself, as she has made available to us, general readers, the personal experiences of these early settlers, allowing us to understand a little of the people who ventured down here so early in our history and of the challenges they faced. Let me give you some examples:
Take Black’s experiences with and attitude to the Aborigines. She draws attention to his decision to purchase Strathdownie, as his journal entry for Jan 4, 1840 reads : ‘The run is one of the most wonderful in the colony ….The blacks have been very troublesome on it and I believe they have been very cruelly dealt with. The late superintendent ran off from a fear that he would be apprehended and tried for murdering the natives. The poor creatures are now terror stricken and will be easily managed. This was my principal reason for fighting so hard for it’.
Black on women: ‘there prevails here a very general preference for Wives from the Mother Country. Colonial ladies are much more expensive in their habits, pay less attention to their household affairs and are less Stringent in their Ideas of Virtuous Conduct; at least such are the Opinions I have been in the habit of hearing…(Nov 1, 1839)’; and ‘I really believe this is not a place for Girls (generally speaking) making what is called good matches. There are just two things that occupy every young man’s head here, that is Money and Home’ (Nov 6, 1839).
Black’s scant commentaries about women in this masculine world, make the final section of this book particularly valuable. How did women survive here, travelling up country by drays, managing homes that were often primitive by our standards, bearing children without medical help. Mackellar has selected a small range of writings by women describing their experiences.
Apart from perspectives all these writers bring to help understand our early history, I couldn’t help but wonder what personal records will be left for our descendants. Facebook and Instagram have probably replaced journals; how many of us in busy lives overwhelmed with information and technology, ever put pen to paper? Emails have replaced letters today. I’ve come across a great-grandfather’s letter to his wife; a postcard from France to my grandmother from a soldier during WW1; letters of sympathy to my mother when she lost her first child, and I’ve been moved by the words. These family letters lead me to wonder how many of these kinds of records are discarded when we move on? Are there any others lying around in the proverbial attic? And what genuine, personal records are we leaving behind, to give our own perspectives on life today?
Please browse this book, but I strongly recommend checking those attics – and writing the occasional letter.