"One of 10 children, the author was born at Sudbury in Suffolk. In 1833 when he was four, some of his family emigrated to Van Diemen's Land, leaving him in the care of his grandmother. He followed them in 1837 on the Andromeda and gives a vivid description of the voyage. After arriving at Hobart Town in 1837, he travelled overland to Launceston, where he was reunited with his parents. Shocked by their primitive living conditions, he felt that his parents were strangers and had trouble recognising the 'meanly clad and fragile looking woman' as his mother. He writes graphically of the convict system, which he found deeply repellent, of some of the local characters of Launceston, and of his school experience, partly under the tutelage of Charles Price" (Walsh and Hooton 32).
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.
