"Bull arrived in Adelaide with his wife and children in 1838. He conducted a business in Hindley Street and had a share in a sheep station four miles north of Adelaide, before moving with his family to settle on a wheat property near Mount Barker. There he invented a mechanical reaper, the credit for which he claims was appropriated by John Ridley. Bull attempts to write a history of the colony from its earliest days until around 1845, basing his narrative on his own experiences, the experience of others 'taken down from their lips', and from sources such as diaries and newspaper articles. His recollections of events in his own life are detailed and lively; they include descriptions of landing in Adelaide in 1838, attending a ball given by Governor Hindmarsh at Government House. witnessing an execution, the burning of Government House, the opening of the town of Gawler, journeying with his family to Mount Barker, and his farming experiences and inspiration for the invention of his reaper. He also includes gossipy reminiscences of acquaintances such as Governors Hindmarsh and Gawler, the Reverends C.B. Howard and T.Q. Stow, Pastor Kavel and the German settlers at Hahndorf, businessman Emanuel Solomon, William Light, Osmond Gilles and other public officials" (Walsh and Hooton 29).
Sources
Walsh, Kay and Joy Hooton. Australian Autobiographical Narratives : An Annotated Bibliography. Canberra : Australian Scholarly Editions Centre, University College, ADFA and National Library of Australia, 1993.
19th-Century Australian Travel Writing
John Wrathall Bull (1804-1886) was an agent and farmer who influenced the development and use of mechanised farming techniques and co-invented the harvesting machine. Early Experiences of Colonial Life in South Australia was previously published as a serial in the South Australian Chronicle, and later revised, extended, and republished in Adelaide and London in 1884. The work is a retrospective account of the author's adventures and travels within the colony. Romantic and sensational in tone, Bull’s narrative describes crime, bushrangers, clashes between the Aboriginal population and settlers, travels through the bush, and the situation of government in the colony.
