Late Victorian and Edwardian Era Letters Home from Australia 1893
Arthur disliked Tasmania, learning the wine trade, enjoys his photography and looks forward to the Melbourne Cup, talk of a gold mine near Launceston ...
March 20th 1893
Tongala Vineyard
Victoria
Australia
My Dear Father
Yrs. of Jan 26th arrived via Zeehan [Tasmania] last Monday. I’m getting on very well here, & like the work, climate, life, & Castella* very much – so I think I’ve made a good move, & I’m very glad to be out of Zeehan & those beastly mines, & back to a decent country.
The vintage is nearly over, just about another week will finish it: we shall all be very glad when it is over, as it is a very messy game making wine, one gets covered all over with juice & wine, & really the only way to get moderately clean after it is to go for a swim.
The pruning of the vine starts early in June, also the ploughing in between is done about then. £160 ought to do me well enough up here, as of course there is nothing to spend much money on. I pay £25 a quarter to Castella which includes everything, & it will give me £15 for myself. My photography does not cost me much, we are going get a piano on time payment of about £2 a month between four of us, or 10/- a piece which I think is quite worthwhile.
I might ask you to add a tenner [£10] to my September remittance as I can have a week or ten days in Melbourne at Cup time about 1st Nov, but I think I’ll stick up here till then – about seven months unless anything particular should take me down.
Black has offered to put me up any time I like to go down, so a trip any time would not cost much. I think if you remit me £40 a quarter it will be the best thing. I have not been to Echucha yet, so don’t know where I’ll bank yet, but I am sure to be going in within the next fortnight.
I hear from Black that the gold mine near Launceston is doing well, & that they are getting splendid gold from the 50ft. level so I do hope it will turn up trumps & be a good thing.
I heard from Gerald at Samoa a few days ago, he talked of getting out at Queenstown & staying a day or two at the Abbey, so by now you will have seen him I daresay, & he will have told you all about it, the tin mine. I find it impossible to explain in writing what all right as far as that goes.
I will write again next mail. It is about 100⁰ in the shade.
Best love
Yr, affect son
Arthur
* François Robert de Castella (1867-1953) Purchased Tongala Vineyard in about 1892
Tongala Vineyard
Victoria
Australia
My Dear Father
Yrs. of Jan 26th arrived via Zeehan [Tasmania] last Monday. I’m getting on very well here, & like the work, climate, life, & Castella* very much – so I think I’ve made a good move, & I’m very glad to be out of Zeehan & those beastly mines, & back to a decent country.
The vintage is nearly over, just about another week will finish it: we shall all be very glad when it is over, as it is a very messy game making wine, one gets covered all over with juice & wine, & really the only way to get moderately clean after it is to go for a swim.
The pruning of the vine starts early in June, also the ploughing in between is done about then. £160 ought to do me well enough up here, as of course there is nothing to spend much money on. I pay £25 a quarter to Castella which includes everything, & it will give me £15 for myself. My photography does not cost me much, we are going get a piano on time payment of about £2 a month between four of us, or 10/- a piece which I think is quite worthwhile.
I might ask you to add a tenner [£10] to my September remittance as I can have a week or ten days in Melbourne at Cup time about 1st Nov, but I think I’ll stick up here till then – about seven months unless anything particular should take me down.
Black has offered to put me up any time I like to go down, so a trip any time would not cost much. I think if you remit me £40 a quarter it will be the best thing. I have not been to Echucha yet, so don’t know where I’ll bank yet, but I am sure to be going in within the next fortnight.
I hear from Black that the gold mine near Launceston is doing well, & that they are getting splendid gold from the 50ft. level so I do hope it will turn up trumps & be a good thing.
I heard from Gerald at Samoa a few days ago, he talked of getting out at Queenstown & staying a day or two at the Abbey, so by now you will have seen him I daresay, & he will have told you all about it, the tin mine. I find it impossible to explain in writing what all right as far as that goes.
I will write again next mail. It is about 100⁰ in the shade.
Best love
Yr, affect son
Arthur
* François Robert de Castella (1867-1953) Purchased Tongala Vineyard in about 1892
Talk of Irish Home Rule, loses a horse, talks of going on a shooting expedition up the River Murray, much talk of the economics of the wine trade...
March 27th 1893
Tongala Vineyard
Tongola
Victoria
Australia
My Dear Father
Yrs. of Feb 9th. From Cas?le arrived last Monday via Zeehan. It will make a difference of about a week or more when my letters start coming direct. Also thanks for the paper with your letter in it. What silly people the Upper ?en must be, I thought they had more sense: however it does no one any harm except themselves. By now Castle* functions will be over much to your relief no doubt.
I see in yesterdays “Argus” that there is wild excitement over Home Rule at home & that a million has been subscribed to the Unionist cause tho’ what is to be done with it we can’t think. I suppose it will get through in spite of everything.
I am sending you several photos by this mail, some I had over from Zeehan, & several Castella & I have taken here. The one of the homestead here is taken from the top of the tank stage before we put up the tank. Another photo or two photos rather, show or bathing place in the creek here where we bathe every morng. & evg. The other photos speak for themselves, & I've written on the back of each what they represent.
We could not go to Church yesterday as one of the buggy horses was lost, & it is too far for one with the heavy buggy. They don’t seem to think anything of losing a horse, it is a most ordinary proceeding, however we found it yesterday afternoon all right, so I hope we shall be able to go next Sunday. I suppose you will be in Rome just now with Mother & have, & no doubt all the Easter functions are very well done.
I’m sorry to hear of Courtnay’s fiasco, it seems funny that both he & Auberon should have been treated the same way; however, perhaps it is just as well.
Glorious weather continues here, & the moonlight nights we are having now are glorious – quite warm, but fresh & as still – you couldn't hear a pin drop , the only sound is a laughing jackass or possum – I often think how such nights would be appreciated in the old country & I long for some of the family to walk about with & enjoy it too.
I see Ld. Gormanston is appointed to Tasmania, I’m sure he will like it, it will be such a nice change after B[ritish] Guiana. I hope he will bring out some of the family as A.D.C [Aide de Camp] – a good show for Courtenay. Perhaps Ld. G. [Lord Gormanston] being out here will induce a few more of the family to travel in this direction.
After Easter we are going for a shooting expedition up the Murray for a week, we were thinking of going by boat, but it is hard work pulling against a 2 mile current in this weather & the river is so low that there is not much chance of our getting a steamer to tow us, so I think we’ll go in the buggy & pair & take a couple of tents with us; we ought to get a few duck & there are also some wild pig about too I believe. I wish I had been up here when Will was out here, I might have given him some better fun & a bit of camping out, than he had at Zeehan. Castilla is a very good fellow & we get on capitally together: the other two are nice fellows, but only just from school, & have school manners & customs which I now feel rather out of, it being nearly seven years since I left Downside, consequently Castella & I pair together. The other fellow that is coming after Easter is about 21. I think, so will be more my age.
Castella is Irish on his mother’s side, & is distantly connected with the Plunketts & knows all about Fingall etc. He told me there are some cousins of his in Sydney who vaguely looked for the title after Fingalls decease; however I told Castella that they had no more show than I had to the title.
I have not been to Echucha yet, we are still pretty busy, however I have a good mind to open an account at the Bank of Australia in Melbourne & stick to the same bank, & will let you know next mail.
I need hardly say that I’m as little keen about being permanently absent from home as you are that I should be, but for a permanent thing I can’t see what I could do at home which would ever lead to much, not from a point of view of not working but I think that if a man is not fairly well adapted to a certain line of business he is not likely to get on in that special line. As far as I can find out & see up to the present, vine growing is by far the most profitable form of agricultural work if a man can make reasonably good wine there will always be a good market for it, no matter how much vine growing is done.
Castella is a firm believer in the business, & working it out together we found that wine at only 1/- a gallon would pay handsomely, at present the price is 1/6 to 2/- at eight months to a year old. Vines in proper bearing should give an average of 400 gallons to the acre, & if irrigated well, still more. They reckon it costs 2d a gallon to make & other expenses of the vineyard come to about £5 a year all round.
This is one of the best districts for vine growing, as it is very dry, & diseases are very unlikely to come up here – nearly all vine diseases like a moist climate & soil. The yeald [sic] up here is greater than further south by a good bit, & the wine rather stronger. Good land for vines can be got at £7 to £8 an acre in this district, & even less, C.[astella] only gave £6-10 an acre for this, but the owners wanted to sell.
Vines up here want a good sandy soil of which there is lots about the Goulburn. If I went in for a place anytime, I should like to go partners with another fellow, as two fellows would do a lot of work on a vineyard, a make one pretty independant [sic] of outside labour except in the busy time. Grape pickers can be got at 10/- a week & you feed them. I like this district very much, & if I were going to buy a place, I should certainly try for one about here, & it would be a great thing having Castella near, as he is about the best man with vines in the colony.
My present idea is to stop here till March – one year – then take a trip home for four months or so, then come out here & put in another six months or a year here – six months tho’ would be ample - & then it could be managed – look out for a place, as I ought to know quite enough to start on my own acct. If I did not go home next summer I might not be able to manage it for some time after – probably two or three years, which would make it a bit long.
I can get a saloon return from Melbourne to London for £87, so £170 ought to go a very long way on a trip home, as I should have no particular ambition to spend a month gadding about London etc.
I trust this tin & gold affair will enable us to make some money, as I’m sorry to say I can't look to Zeehan for anything to speak of; if you did not care to hang on to the tin mine , I'm sure you'd treble & more your money in a year, as once it gets a good start it will astonish a good many, whom I'm sure will give a good lot for an interest in it.
Excuse scrawl, but I have more letters to write.
Best love
Yr, affect son
Arthur
* Dublin Castle
Tongala Vineyard
Tongola
Victoria
Australia
My Dear Father
Yrs. of Feb 9th. From Cas?le arrived last Monday via Zeehan. It will make a difference of about a week or more when my letters start coming direct. Also thanks for the paper with your letter in it. What silly people the Upper ?en must be, I thought they had more sense: however it does no one any harm except themselves. By now Castle* functions will be over much to your relief no doubt.
I see in yesterdays “Argus” that there is wild excitement over Home Rule at home & that a million has been subscribed to the Unionist cause tho’ what is to be done with it we can’t think. I suppose it will get through in spite of everything.
I am sending you several photos by this mail, some I had over from Zeehan, & several Castella & I have taken here. The one of the homestead here is taken from the top of the tank stage before we put up the tank. Another photo or two photos rather, show or bathing place in the creek here where we bathe every morng. & evg. The other photos speak for themselves, & I've written on the back of each what they represent.
We could not go to Church yesterday as one of the buggy horses was lost, & it is too far for one with the heavy buggy. They don’t seem to think anything of losing a horse, it is a most ordinary proceeding, however we found it yesterday afternoon all right, so I hope we shall be able to go next Sunday. I suppose you will be in Rome just now with Mother & have, & no doubt all the Easter functions are very well done.
I’m sorry to hear of Courtnay’s fiasco, it seems funny that both he & Auberon should have been treated the same way; however, perhaps it is just as well.
Glorious weather continues here, & the moonlight nights we are having now are glorious – quite warm, but fresh & as still – you couldn't hear a pin drop , the only sound is a laughing jackass or possum – I often think how such nights would be appreciated in the old country & I long for some of the family to walk about with & enjoy it too.
I see Ld. Gormanston is appointed to Tasmania, I’m sure he will like it, it will be such a nice change after B[ritish] Guiana. I hope he will bring out some of the family as A.D.C [Aide de Camp] – a good show for Courtenay. Perhaps Ld. G. [Lord Gormanston] being out here will induce a few more of the family to travel in this direction.
After Easter we are going for a shooting expedition up the Murray for a week, we were thinking of going by boat, but it is hard work pulling against a 2 mile current in this weather & the river is so low that there is not much chance of our getting a steamer to tow us, so I think we’ll go in the buggy & pair & take a couple of tents with us; we ought to get a few duck & there are also some wild pig about too I believe. I wish I had been up here when Will was out here, I might have given him some better fun & a bit of camping out, than he had at Zeehan. Castilla is a very good fellow & we get on capitally together: the other two are nice fellows, but only just from school, & have school manners & customs which I now feel rather out of, it being nearly seven years since I left Downside, consequently Castella & I pair together. The other fellow that is coming after Easter is about 21. I think, so will be more my age.
Castella is Irish on his mother’s side, & is distantly connected with the Plunketts & knows all about Fingall etc. He told me there are some cousins of his in Sydney who vaguely looked for the title after Fingalls decease; however I told Castella that they had no more show than I had to the title.
I have not been to Echucha yet, we are still pretty busy, however I have a good mind to open an account at the Bank of Australia in Melbourne & stick to the same bank, & will let you know next mail.
I need hardly say that I’m as little keen about being permanently absent from home as you are that I should be, but for a permanent thing I can’t see what I could do at home which would ever lead to much, not from a point of view of not working but I think that if a man is not fairly well adapted to a certain line of business he is not likely to get on in that special line. As far as I can find out & see up to the present, vine growing is by far the most profitable form of agricultural work if a man can make reasonably good wine there will always be a good market for it, no matter how much vine growing is done.
Castella is a firm believer in the business, & working it out together we found that wine at only 1/- a gallon would pay handsomely, at present the price is 1/6 to 2/- at eight months to a year old. Vines in proper bearing should give an average of 400 gallons to the acre, & if irrigated well, still more. They reckon it costs 2d a gallon to make & other expenses of the vineyard come to about £5 a year all round.
This is one of the best districts for vine growing, as it is very dry, & diseases are very unlikely to come up here – nearly all vine diseases like a moist climate & soil. The yeald [sic] up here is greater than further south by a good bit, & the wine rather stronger. Good land for vines can be got at £7 to £8 an acre in this district, & even less, C.[astella] only gave £6-10 an acre for this, but the owners wanted to sell.
Vines up here want a good sandy soil of which there is lots about the Goulburn. If I went in for a place anytime, I should like to go partners with another fellow, as two fellows would do a lot of work on a vineyard, a make one pretty independant [sic] of outside labour except in the busy time. Grape pickers can be got at 10/- a week & you feed them. I like this district very much, & if I were going to buy a place, I should certainly try for one about here, & it would be a great thing having Castella near, as he is about the best man with vines in the colony.
My present idea is to stop here till March – one year – then take a trip home for four months or so, then come out here & put in another six months or a year here – six months tho’ would be ample - & then it could be managed – look out for a place, as I ought to know quite enough to start on my own acct. If I did not go home next summer I might not be able to manage it for some time after – probably two or three years, which would make it a bit long.
I can get a saloon return from Melbourne to London for £87, so £170 ought to go a very long way on a trip home, as I should have no particular ambition to spend a month gadding about London etc.
I trust this tin & gold affair will enable us to make some money, as I’m sorry to say I can't look to Zeehan for anything to speak of; if you did not care to hang on to the tin mine , I'm sure you'd treble & more your money in a year, as once it gets a good start it will astonish a good many, whom I'm sure will give a good lot for an interest in it.
Excuse scrawl, but I have more letters to write.
Best love
Yr, affect son
Arthur
* Dublin Castle