Caleb

Copyright © 2011 by Paul M. Hoskins.

ISBN: Softcover    978-1-4653-0028-7

ISBN: Ebook          978-1-4653-0033-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This story contains some fictional elements and as such has some fictitious characters and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Xlibris Corporation

1-800-618-969

www.Xlibris.com.au

500973

Contents

Preamble

Foreword

Chapter 1:    Early Beginnings

Chapter 2:    Establishing A Life

Chapter 3:    Bullocking

Chapter 4:    The Burra

Chapter 5:    Yudanamutana

Chapter 6:    Blinman

Chapter 7:    Mail Coaches

Chapter 8:    The Overland Telegraph

Chapter 9:    Sliding Rock

Chapter 10:  Wilmington

Chapter 11:  Ruby Rush

Chapter 12:  Railway Years

Chapter 13:  Later Years

Epilogue

Bibliography

Preamble

Caleb \c(a)-leb

Pronounced KAY-leb

Is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is

‘faith, devotion, whole hearted’.

Biblical: Caleb, a companion of Moses and

Joshua, was noted for his astute powers

of observation and fearlessness in the

face of overwhelming odds.

This book is dedicated to

Caleb HOSKINS

6 July 1849-29 July 1926

Frank Stanley HOSKINS

5 July 1886-30 March 1958

Sydney Francis HOSKINS

14 December 1915-8 November 1977

My Great Grandfather

My Grandfather

My Father

To forget one’s ancestors

is to be a brook without a source,

a tree without a root

Chinese Proverb

Foreword

This is the story of Caleb Hoskins a first generation Australian born in Walkerville, South Australia in 1849. He was the sixth child born to Andrew and Ann Hoskins, who raised eleven children in the early years of the South Australian colonisation. This story is a biography of known facts, deduced from wide ranging research, woven through a fictional tale.

Caleb spent his childhood in Prospect village, living in a tent and using the River Torrens as his playground with his younger brother Jim.

The Hoskins’ brothers, Fred, George, Caleb and Jim together with Bill Walkington carted copper via bullock drays from the Kooringa (Burra) mines, Yudanamutana mine and the Blinman and Sliding Rock mines to Gawler/Kapunda and Port Augusta respectively, and partnered with John McDonald to provide horse and coach passenger transport and mail delivery in the northern districts of South Australia during the 1860’s and early 1870’s.

Three of the Hoskins’ Brothers, Fred, Caleb and Jim, together with Bill Walkington made three trips into the Outback by bullock drays, carting telegraph equipment and rations for the Overland Telegraph Line construction, during 1870 to 1872. Their three trips took them from Port Augusta to Charlotte Waters, the Goyder River and Alice Springs. On one occasion they were accosted by aborigines and Caleb’s slight knowledge of their language saved the day when he realised that all they wanted was access to the water that they carried on their drays.

Caleb Hoskins also participated in the ‘Ruby Rush’ into the East MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory in 1887, which proved to be a falsehood once the gemstones were identified as worthless garnets. Caleb then found work on the construction of the old Ghan line, from 1888 to 1890 during one of many economic depressions that affected the colony.

In 1891 the Great Northern Railway line was opened for business from Port Augusta to Oodnadatta and Caleb secured a position as a packer and worked at many railway stations along the track from 1891 until 1914.

Caleb Hoskins passed away at Quorn, South Australia on Thursday 29 July 1926 aged 77 years. Later that same day, on being informed that his brother had passed away, James Hoskins dropped dead aged 72 years.

Caleb and Jim are both honoured with ‘Unsung Heroes of the Outback’ plaques in the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame at Longreach, Queensland for their efforts in the Overland Telegraph Line construction.

Chapter 1

EARLY BEGINNINGS

South Australia was not colonised, as were earlier British States and Territories. Previously Britain used new colonies as penal settlements to reduce the overflowing English prisons. This required support personnel to also be transported to the new colonies, soldiers to maintain law and order, farmers to produce the necessary foodstuff to sustain the colony and government bureaucrats to manage the colony.

The promoter of South Australia’s colonisation was Edward Gibbon Wakefield, an author, colonial promoter and womaniser. When an underage female socialite he had eloped with to Europe returned to her family, Wakefield was arrested and convicted of a statutory misdemeanour and sentenced to three years imprisonment, commencing in May 1827. During his time in prison he wrote a number of papers relating to systematic colonisation. These papers were published in the London Morning Chronicle in 1829 while he was still in prison.

Wakefield’s plan for systematic colonisation was simple and effective. He suggested that instead of granting free land to settlers, as had happened in other colonies, the land should be sold at a ‘sufficient price’. The money from land purchases would then be used to form an Emigration Fund to provide free passage to labourers and their families. Once in the colony the labourers, after working for a few years as indentured workers, would be able to buy land themselves.

On his release from Newgate prison in 1830, Wakefield became involved in several attempts to promote a scheme for the colonisation of South Australia. Initially, he was the driving force but over time lost his influence and finally severed his connections with the scheme.

Robert Gouger, a philanthropist, published Wakefield’s colonisation papers in book form, then promoted and organised societies of people interested in the scheme. In 1834 the South Australian Association was formed and with the aid of several influential figures, including the Duke of Wellington, persuaded British Parliament to pass the South Australian Colonisation Act. The Act incorporated Wakefield’s principles with the control of land sales as a way to finance the development of the colony and encourage the best qualities of British society.

The colonists were to fall into two groups, those who came as free settlers and those who were to be labourers and whose passage was paid for from the sale of land. In a bold piece of social engineering, the Act specified that labourers immigrating to South Australia under the Emigration Fund, should be men and women under the age of thirty, and be of good character and of sound mind and body.

On 19 February 1836, King William signed the ‘Letters Patent’ establishing the Province of South Australia and the first settlers set sail from London to South Australia in early 1836. On 28 December 1836, at Holdfast Bay the Union Jack was raised next to a gum tree and Governor John Hindmarsh proclaimed the Province of South Australia.

My parents emigrated from England in 1839 with free passage under the Wakefield Plan, leaving from The Downs on 27 October aboard a ship named the ‘Rajasthan’.

Emigrants were only allowed twenty cubic feet of luggage or baggage free of charge, and all such items needed for use on the ship during the voyage had to be taken aboard by the migrant and his family. These items were placed in or under a sleeping berth about three feet wide and six feet long that was to be used by one married couple, or two children. This applied to passengers in the steerage section, well below deck.

There were one hundred and sixty men, women and children in the steerage on this voyage, and that is where my parents and siblings spent their time.

Conditions on these voyages were harsh, at a minimum. The passengers were given rations of bread, dried meat and pickled fish, and other condiments with each adult only allowed three quarts of water per day. Most of the food was suitable only for making into a pudding or pie that was tied in strong cloth and boiled. Personal washing was done with seawater.

During bad weather the hatches were battened down and passengers were forced to remain below decks in their cramped, smelly areas.

My parents arrived at Port Adelaide, South Australia on 6 February 1840 after a voyage of just over three months. My father Andrew was twenty-nine years old and my mother Anne was twenty-four years old. My stepsister Octavia, aged seven, accompanied them together with my elder brother Eli, aged one.

Adelaide’s port in the new colony was at first a rather primitive landing place that became known as ‘Port Misery’. The early settlers arrived at a muddy swamp and both passengers and goods were landed unsatisfactorily at the site. Without a wharf at the port, ships could not reach the shore. Goods were ‘floated’ to land and people were carried or ferried in small boats. In mid 1840 David McLaren built the first wharf, which extended into the deeper waters of the Port River, alleviating some of the new arrivals’ difficulties.

In addition to problems with landing from the ships, for several years prior to the completion of a proper road in October 1840, newly arrived migrants had to walk the ten miles to reach the main settlement of Adelaide, on the banks of the river Torrens. Migrants with sufficient finances had their goods transported by bullocks, but many carried their possessions or used wheelbarrows for transport.

Chapter 2

ESTABLISHING A LIFE

My father had been indentured to Mr. William Wade, a Prospect farmer and therefore on disembarking the ‘Rajasthan’ on 6 February 1840, had to transport the family and possessions the eleven miles from Port Adelaide to Prospect. At the time Prospect Village was one of a number of villages within a few miles of Adelaide where the local inhabitants were mainly involved in wheat farming, dairy farming, lime burning and timber milling. Lack of a constant water supply and the lack of developed roads were obstacles to early growth in Prospect village and most new areas. Many deep wells were sunk, with a better part of the water requirements carted from the nearby river Torrens.

My father was required to work as an agricultural labourer for a two-year period, for a daily wage of two shillings. To put this wage in perspective, common daily prices for some commodities were, butter—three shillings per pound, eggs—six shillings per dozen, bread—three shillings per four pound loaf, soap—two shillings per pound. There were numerous shortages of all of these goods, including sauces and pickles, with these prices and shortages being exacerbated daily by the steady stream of colonists arriving in South Australia. My father realised he would have to farm his own land to support his family.

The family’s initial lodgings consisted of a tent that they had brought with them from England, which they set up in the Prospect pine forest, on land assigned to them by Mr. Wade. The floor of the tent was levelled dirt, swept and covered with second-hand flour sacks, sewn together and used as floor coverings. Their initial furniture consisted of the boxes and trunks brought with them from England, utilised as tables and chairs. The kitchen was an outside fireplace where the camp oven and billy were used, damper cooked in the coals with the fireplace purposely set-up outside and away from the tent to minimise damage in the event of an out of control fire.

My brother Fred was born in July 1841 and life was still fairly hard as the family endured their second South Australian winter in a tent. One year later in August 1842 my father leased eight acres of land, adjacent to their current abode, for one year for the sum of £19. With no income, as his indentured time with William Wade was complete, my father set about creating his own subsistence wheat farm and market garden, to provide for his ever growing family. My sister Jane was born one month later on 21 September 1842.

By the end of 1842 my Father, with the assistance of friends, had built a wattle and daub house on the leased property. This type of house construction was common in the early days of settlement in Australia. The finished size and outline of the house was normally marked out on the ground with lime, larger posts were driven into the ground at each marked corner and also at doorways and windows. Smaller stakes were then driven into the ground, a few feet apart, between the larger posts. Previously prepared branches and saplings were woven through the posts and stakes to create panels called wattles. A mixture of well-kneaded clay mixed with animal dung was then daubed onto the wattle panels on both sides, with a roof that was fashioned onto sapling rafters using the bark from paperbarks or gum trees.

Their wattle and daub house was built in one day after which a fire was built inside the house and kept burning for twenty-four hours to dry out the daubed walls. The sun dried the walls on the outside of the house rendering them virtually weatherproof. The house they built consisted of three rooms, with a brick fireplace used for cooking and heating. Mr. Thomas Kight had a brickyard at Prospect village and sold bricks for two shillings and sixpence per thousand.

In the South Australian census of July 1843, my family was recorded as living in the ‘Pinery’ at Prospect Village with three and one-quarter acres of wheat, half an acre garden, one pig and one goat. This area, identified as the ‘Pinery’, was one of many throughout South Australia as wherever there were clumps of native pines that flourished on deep, sandy soils, the ‘Pinery’ name was applied. During August 1843 my Father renewed the lease on the eight acres of land, for one year for the sum of £18.

My parents were devout Wesleyan Methodists and became involved in the congregation on their arrival. My father and John Gilbert were Trustees of the Walkerville Wesleyan Church, in Smith Street, that commenced construction in 1841. The church opened its first chapel for public worship in December 1844.

Life at the ‘Pinery’ went on with my father extending his wheat sown area and surviving on the income from the grain and chaff sales and the excess produce from his half-acre market garden. More children were added to the Hoskins family with Rachel born on 2 March 1845 and George on 10 July 1847.

As a trustee and pioneer of