Herbert goes to Melbourne

[Archivist]

I am hoping that one of our Australian contingent may be able to help. In 1884, Herbert set sail for Australia and it is recorded that the day after he landed, he went to the running of the Melbourne Cup with his Uncle, with whom he had travelled. I have found out that the Melbourne Cup was run on the 4th November 1884, which would make the date of his arrival in Melbourne the 3rd November. Try as I might online, I cant find a list of ships arriving in Melbourne on that date (and therefore hopefully, a passenger list). Might some kind A7 owner who lives locally be able to undertake a little research for me? I would be very grateful....

Any offers of help or information gleaned can be sent to archivist@a7ca.org please..

thanks very much

Hugh

[jpsmit]

googled around a bit  and saw this here: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collec...=1884-11-3

I am not a member but maybe someone here is


   

[Archivist]

Thanks all. Through the sluething skills of Colin Morgan and Marcus Ling, whose independant repsonses correlated, Herbert travelled to Australia in 1882, not 1884 as oft been stated. He has been found on passnger lists for the Austral that arrived in Melbourne in October 1882, which would have made him 16 when he arrived..

Thanks to Colin and Marcus and jpsmit (sorry, I don't know your first name) for their efforts...

Hugh

[John Cornforth]

Hi

I am a member of Ancestry, but drew a blank with searches last night. From other sources I did get as far as the S S Austral. What strikes me is just how long it took to get there, weeks at sea in something more akin to a lake steamer than an ocean liner. They must have been made of sterner stuff then !

[Archivist]

Here is the SS Austral. I suspect the fact that she sank in 1885 was kept from the passengers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austral_(1881)

The journey is reputed to have taken 2 months...

   

photo credit: State Library of South Australia

[jpsmit]

Genuinely fascinating conversation - and yes, 2 months, amazing!

I ended up doing a similer type of search in the early days of the interwebnet. My father in law had in his possession a nazi sword which he had received as he was, at the end of the war, sent to Norway to receive the surrenders of the occupying forces. He found a ship in a Fiord and the captain surrendered his sword. (As the story goes he and his mate were sleeping in the jeep while the German crew turned out in their dreww whites) - In the process of selling it we tried to establich provenance - I couldn't but did narrow it to two ships (one was the correct one) - the fellow that bought it had in short order confirmed the ship and the officer it had been issued to - resources unavailable to me at the time (and having to navigate neo-nazi sites as well). In my mind I was imagining the volume of ships of Star Wars movies and the volume of travellers of Heathrow - none of which proved to be true. Fascinating.

At any rate back to the Austral and dreaming of a world slow enough to take two months to get to Australia.

JP (John-Peter) Smit