CHAPTER VI 



ARRIVAL IN AUSTRALIA 



Sydney Exhibition of 1879 — What we fed on — My Job with the 

 Exhibits — Pickles and Tombstones — A Married Man 



It was in the glory of an Australian winter morning in 

 August that we were towed up Sydney Harbour. It 

 gave me the most favourable impression. I must have 

 been born on a day when the sunlight was streaming 

 in through an open window, for surely never was a 

 man so influenced by it, and yet the very opposite — 

 sitting up all night by an artificial light with non- 

 artificial people — has been an attraction too. First 

 impressions of an Australian city are not difficult 

 to recall. Macquarie Street was delightful ; George 

 Street, Sydney, was interesting, and to see quite well- 

 provided shops ; but towards Redfern Station, and in 

 some parts of Pitt Street, there was something sug- 

 gestive of the Mile End Road in the cheap appearance. 

 But the shop verandahs and the tying-up of horses to 

 iron rings on verandah posts recalled pictures one had 

 seen of real colonial life, and really supplied the little 

 picturesque detail of the streets ; it was obvious that 

 I was not in Europe. 



The Exhibition building of 1879 was approaching 

 completion. It really was a pity that it was erectec^ 

 in those lovely Government gardens, as it spoilt the 

 view from what is a beautiful spot. Nevertheless, the 

 building was burnt down about three years later and 

 with it disappeared the archives of early days and the 

 records of many ancestors of certain leading families, 



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