[GOLD RUSH] Lengthy letter written by a newly arrived Scottish immigrant, describing the city of Melbourne in July 1853.

Manuscript in ink, [8] pp., quarto (240 x 200 mm); headed ‘Collingwood, 12 July 1853’, the letter is addressed ‘Dear Cousin’, and is signed at the foot ‘… yours very truly, Robert McPherson’; densely written in a neat, regular hand, on paper that is lightweight and brittle; original folds with a couple of perforations at the junctions,  some minor edge tears, but with no loss of text and overall very well preserved; an accompanying recent handwritten note by a descendant of the letter writer alludes to him as having later served as an officer in the “Bush Police”.

An unpublished letter containing a Scottish immigrant’s first impressions of Melbourne at the height of the gold rushes. Remarkable for the scope and detail of its commentary, it provides us with a snapshot – from a working-class man’s perspective – of a city undergoing huge social and economic changes. It includes lively eyewitness descriptions of the city’s streets deep in winter mud, of its overcrowded and overpriced boarding houses, of tramping the streets in search of employment, and of a chance encounter with an old acquaintance in Little Bourke Street which results in a job making police uniforms. The letter is laced with anecdotes of a sceptical nature about the gold diggings, commercial speculation and fortune-seeking, and the unpredictable and fluctuating markets for all types of commodities.  

Robert McPherson, a tailor by trade, arrived at Hobson’s Bay, Port Phillip from Liverpool on the Marco Polo (Capt. Forbes) at the end of May 1853, after a fast voyage of 75 days (this, in spite of the ship being becalmed at one point for a fortnight). His letter to a cousin back home in Scotland opens with a description of the unhappy voyage out: McPherson reports on the violent behaviour of Capt. Forbes towards both crew and passengers, and his illegal demands for payment from passengers who wished to go ashore in Melbourne. He continues: ‘… we had a dirty bad black cook, in fact all the ship’s officers and servants were detested by the passengers except some rare instances … The only redeeming feature of the whole was the wonderful quick passage we had. There was little or no sickness on board, we had five deaths but none of them could be attributed to ship’s sickness. The first was a child who was sick before coming on board … the second was a woman that had been taken away from her husband by her brothers, shortly after the ship sailed she lost her reason, and after a short illness she died. The third was a Jew from Birmingham [who died of sunstroke]’. The fourth to die was an elderly man who had a fall, and the last was a gentleman whose health was already in serious decline. McPherson describes the passengers as being generally of ‘good class’, but there were also ‘thieves, drunkards and swindlers’ among them, and ‘scarcely a day passed without a fight somewhere’.

The Cape Otway lighthouse had been sighted on 28 May, and the ship entered Port Phillip Heads two days later. At 3 pm on 30 May the ship dropped anchor in Hobson’s Bay. McPherson and some companions left their luggage on the ship and spent their first night in Melbourne in share beds in the Royal Hotel (probably the Collins Street pub of that name). They had their first walk around Melbourne that evening, in the dark. ‘After walking through mud and ditches for some time we came upon a flesher’s shop, among the other things exhibited in the window was pieces of pies a size less than your penny pies. Being hungry one of us went in to purchase some, they were price[d] 6d each. He threw down a half crown piece, they told him they had no change, so he had just to take it all in pies….’

The next day, with their luggage still at the wharf, they searched for lodgings and the first they found was in King street, at ‘£2 10s per week for board and lodgings, for three in a room’; other lodgings were priced at 35s per week but with 8 or 10 men to a room. McPherson at this point describes in considerable detail the crude mode of construction of a stretcher bed.

‘Well we saw that Melbourne was no go so we set off to Collingwood, another town almost joining Melbourne … We after some search found a place to suit our wishes (and indeed we were getting rather humble in our expectations by this time). The place we got was a room where the three of us could sleep by ourselves, and in the daytime it was to be used as a kitchen, so we agreed to pay 35s a week each for bed and board, and got our luggage conveyed to it for 15s. Our landlord is a Scotchman the name of Mackay, he served an apprenticeship in J. & W. Campbell’s in Glasgow, and he has been a commercial traveller in England for a considerable time’. The landlord and his family now survive financially by letting out the spare room in their modest wooden cottage, and through the small amount of income earned by the stepdaughter from her millinery.

McPherson then goes in search of work. ‘I tried all the shops in the town and was unsuccessful … about 2 pm walking down Little Bourke St., careless about where I was, when behold Cook coming up [to] meet me with his hand stretched out and at the same time crying “Good Heavens, McPherson”, as the Irishman said “sure enough it was myself”, and right glad I was to see a “Kent face” [a Scots phrase used when one sees a person they know], his was the first since I parted with Frank and James at Glasgow. Robert Brown and Thomas Hunter were along with him. We all adjourned to Cook’s house, and found his wife as cheery as ever, and improved in appearance since I saw her last. There is no difference in Cook, he is the same old man in every respect. Cook told me that if I would come in with him to Lusk & Haigh’s (the people he works for) that I might perhaps get work at police clothing as they had a contract for them. I accordingly went and got two coats to make for which I received 30s each, but the contract [ran down] and I had nothing to do for several weeks, except an occasional pair of trousers. I tried to get a store man’s situation several times, but found above a hundred applicants….’

‘On the 6th July I thought of going up to the bush to be a “herd laddie” or something of that sort, but before doing so I went down to Melbourne to see what was doing. I called upon Mr Johnstone, late of Johnstone & Lamb clothiers, Edinburgh, trade was improving with him and he gave me a job, and so my bush tramp is put an end to at present. Trade is improving so it is probable that I shall get on well for some time….’

‘Now you will be expecting a description of Melbourne: Well the streets are laid out wide and straight and there are some very good buildings in it, but there are a great number of small wooden houses which mars its appearance very much. It is a large town. It and Collingwood stands upon more ground than Edinburgh, but the most of the houses being small, they cannot contain the population with anything like convenience, though I believe there are more crammed into them. The streets are kept in bad repair, in fact a great number of them has not been repaired at all. In wet weather the people walk ankle deep in mud in the best streets, and in the worst a person may consider himself well off if he has only to wade up to the knee. I’ll give you an instance of it: a man on horseback was riding along the other day (at a rapid rate) he went into a slough before he was aware, from whence he and his horse had to be dragged out … People often run a risk of being drowned, and it is currently reported that some has actually been drowned. Cook tells me that he saved a girl one day from drowning, she was floating down the stream almost unconscious. When it does rain here it is in earnest and it continues for a long time … This is the winter time, equal to your January and at midday it is as warm as ever I experienced it in May at home, and yet all the people say that it is very cold. I wonder what the summer is, if there is as much difference between the summer ad winter as at home, it must be to say the least of it, very uncomfortable….’

‘Now I’ll tell you something of trade and commerce. You have heard a great deal about fortunes being made, there are hundreds here making rapid fortunes. If a man has property to any extent, a yearly rental is a small fortune to him, I know a man in Collins Street, Melbourne, who pays £600 for a shop not larger than one of yours, and he thinks that he has it cheap. In the place where I am lodging (it is a wooden house with three rooms) the rent is £4 10s a week and the rents in Collingwood is said to be much cheaper than in Melbourne. Those who had land near Melbourne before the diggings commenced has only to sell it to realise a fortune, also people who has capital enough to bring out goods from Britain, of the kind suited for the market, they will make money by it. For instance, some weeks ago all the newspapers in the colony was near hard stopped for want of paper, in a week after this it is very probable that if a shipload were to come into the market they could not dispose of a ream of it, things are so fluctuating. The man who hits upon the proper article will make money, but the man who doesn’t will lose it, for instance in Melbourne at present readymade clothes can be got almost at any price. I have seen good linen check trousers sold at 5s the half dozen pairs … readymade clothes are a bad speculation here, the people won’t have them at all if they can afford to order from a clothier. When I came here boots sold at about £4 the pair, now you can get the same kind of boots for 25s. Provisions are very high, but it is owing to the high price of labour and rental combined. There is a good stock in the market at present, and when the roads will permit of them being taken to the diggings, they will be still higher….’

‘Tailors’ wages are rated at £4 10s a week, don’t think by that that there’re a scarcity of tailors, I am certain there are upwards of a hundred of them idle in Melbourne at present, in fact there are great numbers of every class idle. Some days ago there was advertised 100 able-bodied men wanted to proceed to Van Diemen’s Land, and at the hour appointed the street was regularly blockaded in with apple carts. After all I have said, you will conclude that there is sufficient number of people here at present, and that migration may [wait] a little till those that are out get a little settled. Men who left first rate situations at home are in many instances here put to strange jobs. A Cambridge alderman’s son is selling oysters on the streets of Melbourne, a Banker’s Clerk is selling oranges, it is common for men who came out first cabin passengers to go and work upon the roads….’

‘Field [is] down at Williamstown, Thomson & Smith has a store and he looks after it. I have not seen or heard of Alex. McDonald. I have forgotten the name of the ship he came by, would you favour me with his name in your first letter. My dear Bab, I have written you a very long screed of a letter but I am afraid that it does not contain all the information you would wish, the fact is I am not properly settled down yet … I am not at all sorry at coming to Australia, I never was in better health than I am at the present moment, and this is not the climate to admit of low spirits, or depression, a man is always buoyant. Remember me kindly to Father and Mother, and all the Carmichaels … tell them that I have got no nuggets for them yet, but to be in good hopes for I may stumble across some yet. I am but a new chum in the colony. By the by, I nearly forgot all about the diggings. Some of the Marco Polo passengers has been up and unsuccessful down again, and away back to England. This is the worst season for the diggings, in about 6 weeks they will be in a working condition. The old diggings are nearly all wrought out, but it is expected that new ones will be found out….’

‘So I must close this letter with my most heartfelt regards to yourself, may you prosper till we meet again. I am yours truly, Robert McPherson.’

In a postscript McPherson advises his cousin to address correspondence to him care of ‘Mr. Johnstone, Tailor & Clothier, Stephen Street [later re-named Exhibition Street], Melbourne’