A Club for Gentlemen, Just Gentlemen

Edward doesn't go into a lot of detail about his time in Sydney, perhaps because it was a location familiar to him and thus in his mind, to others. He does mention that on arrival on the steamboat Coleroy from Newcastle at 10pm The crew, in the spirit of reckless, unthinking insubordination which has prevailed amongst men of this class since the discovery of the gold mines, refused to work, on the plea that it was too late; but the captain eventually persuaded them otherwise. Edward and his horses were soon landed and the animals lodged in the stables of Mr Burt, veterinary surgeon and auctioneer. 

It was fitting then that the day we visited Sydney was the first day of new legislation abandoning Sunday penalty rates for hospitality workers and a variety of other retail occupations. No doubt Edward would've approved this legislation introduced by the government of  fellow Australian Club member Malcolm Turnbull. It would seem that Australia needs the occasional mining boom to keep our wages on an even keel!

What can be said is that in 1854, Sydney was a town with a population of just over 40,000, similar to many medium sized regional centres of today. Now it has a population just over 5 million and would be unrecognisable to Edward. Central Sydney today is a maze of skyscrapers which would undoubtedly impress him.

Just behind the crowd is the door of the Australian  Club in the late 20th century skyscraper I suspect the club owns. The 1891 building was demolished in 1969 and replaced by this tower, completed in 1972. Mounted in front  of the door are two Victorian street lamps which I'm guessing were salvaged from the 1890's building shown below.

Once his horses were secure, Edward now found himself hastening to Bent St, soon found myself enjoying all the agreeable ease and comfort of the Australian Club. Founded in 1838, this club on the corner of Macquarie and Bent Sts is Australia's oldest gentleman's club and while much has changed in Australia since Edward's time, one thing has not. Only gentlemen can be members of the Australia Club. I'm not sure how Edward would've felt about this. He clearly had an eye for the ladies as his journal often contains descriptive passages of women in all the places he visits. He also became father to eight daughters who for the most part appeared to have a reciprocally fond relationship with him but whether he would have enjoyed ladies cluttering up his club. Who knows?

This image describes itself as Australian Club and Creswick Hotel, Bent St, c1870.  The  Club archivist advises that the original Club was down Bent St from todays location so presumably the larger building was the Club.

This photo of the club clearly shows the still existing terraces to the left and is dated mid 1870's. However, the Club archivist advised that the Club moved into what had been the Pultney Hotel in the current location in 1891 so this is probably a later picture. However Edward would've been familiar with this building in the latter years of his life. 

The 1840s terraces that still stand beside the Australian Club and would have been familiar to Edward.

Edward then spent another month or so in Sydney, reuniting with his parents who were also travelling to England with him, but he mentions little of what he did. He was pleased with the prices he got for his horses the best of the day, ranging from 75pounds downward. Given that that was probably a years wages for one of those insubordinate seamen, he had every right to be pleased.

From Sydney it was then off along the south coast of Australia before heading north to Ceylon, which I have covered in previous posts, and then the middle east and Europe beyond.

The Very End of Edward's Journey

While this is not a part of Edward's 1854 trip, as I was visiting Sydney to record his time there after bringing his horses down from the Clarence via Newcastle, I thought I would visit Bowral where Edward died in 1896, forty one years later.

Squatters Castle describes his death as occurring as a result of being thrown from a horse in a railway underpass on the outskirts of Bowral. A train went over head, the horse was spooked and he came off.  He was taken back to the house he was renting for the summer but died there a few days later. Edward was 81 at the time and presumably would have been fit enough to live on for some years more given that riding is not an occupation for the infirm. 

It seems that the railway still pretty well follows the same route as it did in 1854 and I was able to locate the only place where it goes over the road "on the outskirts of Bowral". It is on the Old Bowral Rd about half way between Bowral and Mittagong which are about 5 kilometres apart. 

On the day I visited, another elderly gentleman was experiencing a crisis of his own at this spot. When I pulled up to photograph the underpass an old fellow was leaning on the fence and clearly not feeling the best. He was shaky,  red in the face and having trouble standing, let alone walking. I asked him if he was ok and he replied "not really". 

His name was Patrick and he confessed that he'd decided to walk into Mittagong to visit the shops because they were a bit cheaper but he'd underestimated the degree of hilliness on the road. While it wasn't a particularly hot day, it was sunny and he was wearing a thick oilskin jacket which wasn't helping. He had had the foresight to take a water bottle but had just about emptied that. I asked him if he'd like a lift anywhere. He said a lift to the bus stop would be lovely as he could catch a bus home from there which is what we did. En route we chatted and he told me he was 71. His conversation was sufficiently lucid for me to assess that he was just overcome with the walk and not experiencing anything more serious and that it was safe for me to let him make his way home on the bus. 

Searching the internet I found newspaper references to Edward having taken a house called Fernside for this, and the previous, summer. A bit more internet searching revealed that this house was in Oxley Drive so we went looking for it. Fernside was originally on 15 acres and there was only one house on Oxley Drive in the section indicated that appeared to be old enough to fit the bill. It was just a kilometre or two from the railway bridge.

Fernside, Bowral

No one was home so I left a note with my number and then visited the local historical society. Their files suggested that this was Fernside and a few days later a phone call from the house's current owner Pru, confirmed that it was. Pru believes that the house was only single story in the 1890's the dormer windowed upper section having been added in the early 20th century. 

Pru was keen to chat about her house and coincidentally, her father owns a number of furniture items that were originally at Yulgilbar. He bought them at auction many years ago. I suggested she encourage him to contact the archivist at Yulgilbar as they might be interested in details of these items. 

So as I said, not directly part of Edward's journey but a very significant location in his life, never the less.