Victoria, as I Found It, During Five Years of Adventure, in Melbourne, on the Roads, and the Gold Fields: With an Account of Quartz Mining, and the Great Rush to Mount Ararat and Pleasant Creek |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adelaide afterwards alluvial asked auctioneer Australia became Bendigo Black Forest blankets brandy brought bush bushmen bushrangers calico called camp carried certainly chums colony comfortable commenced cook crushed digger doubt dray drink driver earth Elizabeth Street England excitement feeling feet fellow felt fire fortune gold fields ground hands Haycock head heard heavy holes horses hour knew land laugh light looked machine Melbourne miles miners morning Mount Ararat mutton chops never night party perhaps Pleasant Creek pounds pounds weight public house purchase quantity quartz mining quartz rock quicksilver rain revolver road rough rush Sandhurst seemed seen sell shout side sleep sly grog shop soon South Australia streets tent things thought ticket of leave told took town tree trooper turned wanted washing week whilst whole wondered
Popular passages
Page 208 - ... to the height of three feet, lining boards are nailed, and over all from top to bottom, calico is stretched; this is papered over and to the eye looks exceedingly well, but if a stranger should tumble against it, a little higher than the lining boards are placed, he would infallibly split the light partition and tumble through into the next room. The ceiling of such a house is simply made by drawing calico tightly across the top of each room, and if this calico is papered the house is considered...
Page 290 - ... anything serious, but you know yourself, quite well, that there was nothing!" He waited for her to speak, but she was silent, looking at the pebbles. He noticed that her breasts made no impression against her dress and he shuddered slightly. "Well," he said, "is that all you have to tell me?" As he waited he wondered how he could have been such a fool as to flirt with her. What a change three years had wrought in the woman that had been the rage of all the young men in Dublin. Her high cheek...
Page 74 - The effect produced upon my own mind by hearing so many life histories, was to increase my distrust of mankind, and paradoxical as it may seem, to increase also my tenderness and love, to look more at both sides of every action, and to try and gain a view of it from the actors...
Page 74 - Around the bush fire men will often, without the slightest reserve, tell the history of their lives, and many a dark tale have I thus listened to, of sin and sorrow. These outpourings came from all sorts of men, and were often, I am convinced, given not so much for the amusement and benefit of the company as for affording relief to their own darkened souls.
Page 149 - both eminently popular, understood the temper of the people, and carried out obnoxious laws with great tact and forbearance. Under different officials at Ballarat, these same laws drove the people to open rebellion'.
Page 208 - ... ultimate in nineteenth-century grace took shape in highly ornate figured cast-iron works on verandahs, windows and roofs, and in the ornamented parapets which crowned an increasing proportion of the houses in 1891. This contrasted with the common 'permanent' dwelling of the thirty years before: 'The framework of a wooden house is generally made of hard wood ; the outside is covered with deal weatherboarding often not more than three quarters of an inch thick. The divisions consisting of hardwood...
Page 342 - ... summer, bearing upon his strong shoulders the seed for his planting and the few household articles that were needed to furnish his home. And hither, also, in the bright October weather, came the maiden of his choice, Rachel Annis no longer, but Rachel Floyd for the years to come. The sturdy young settler had not allowed the grass to grow under his feet. He had, during those few summer months, built a log cabin and a barn, dug and stoned a well, cleared a number of acres of land, harvested thirty...
Page 40 - I found it during five years of adventure that 'what I had learnt was not of the character, in a new colony, either to produce money or pleasure to me, and that many around me, who could neither read nor write, were better educated for the circumstances in which we all stood than any man who possessed mere book learning'.
Page 208 - ... generally made of hard wood ; the outside is covered with deal weatherboarding often not more than three quarters of an inch thick. The divisions consisting of hardwood uprights, put about four feet apart, against them, to the height of three feet, lining boards are nailed, and over all from top to bottom, calico is stretched; this is papered over and to the eye looks exceedingly well, but if a stranger should tumble against it, a little higher than the lining boards are placed, he would infallibly...
Page 173 - Since my former visit to Melbourne, only a few months had elapsed, but there was evidently a great change going on both in the people and the town. New buildings had sprung up as if by magic, the people were better dressed, there was leas drunkenness seen in the streets, and at nighttime more order was kept.