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of Sydney's public and private buildings between 1816 and 1822: churches, mansions, stables,
barracks, and a lighthouse, most of which were built by convict labour, as were most of the
early stone buildings and bridges in Australia. A government Commissioner sent out from
London, called John Thomas Bigge, succeeded in curtailing Greenway's ideas and activities -
they were 'too grand for an infant colony' - and he was sacked. Slighted thereafter, he died near
Newcastle in New South Wales in 1837. But his buildings and designs eventually won him the
title of 'Father of Australian architecture'.
It is not inconceivable that William Honeycombe, in Bristol from 1841 if not before, knew
Francis Greenway's brothers, and was excited by their talk of the amount of new building being
done in Sydney, and the work opportunities for a stonemason in the developing colony. And
how coincidental it would be if there was a connection between John Bigg of the Haytor letters
and Commissioner Bigge. The latter returned to England in February 1821 and spent the next
two years writing and publishing three lengthy and influential reports on New South Wales. It
was he who proposed that free settlers with money should be encouraged to emigrate and be
offered grants of land in proportion to the number of convicts they employed and the amount of
stock they had. Other systems attracting various types of emigrant were tried out later on.
How odd that a John Bigg(e) influenced the destinies of Francis Greenway and William
Honeycombe and consequently those of their children in Australia.
'Assisted' passages became a matter of government policy in the early 1830s. They were
introduced to attract settlers with the promise of parcels of impoverished land (40 acres for £3)
and a cut-price voyage.
Labourers and craftsmen were in much demand, especially when the flow of convict workers
was cut off in the Australian east. For instance, free passage to South Australia was advertised
in Cornwall in 1840 for 'Agricultural Labourers, Shepherds, Carpenters, Blacksmiths and
Stonemasons and all Persons connected with Building'. Single women, of whom there was a
shortage in the emergent colonies, were also encouraged to emigrate with a reduced payment of
£5, which could even be paid in instalments after they arrived. These women (including widows)
were supposed to be between the ages of 15 and 30. Some who took advantage of this scheme
were older; and several were prostitutes, seeking a husband or a higher income from the better
paid Australian men.
The usual rate for steerage passengers, those travelling on the lower decks, was between £15
and £25. Cabin passengers, lodged in cramped cabins below the poop deck at the stem, might
pay anything from £30 to £90, depending on the quality of the accommodation and the luxuries
provided. It should be remembered that a fair wage in this period was, at most, £1 a week - or
about £50 a year.
32
William paid for himself and his family. As they travelled intermediate or second-class (steerage
was third), he probably paid about £150 for the six of them. Children under 14 were half the
fare. Infants were free. As he was probably earning about £4 a week (or about £200 a year),
the voyage would have cost him three-quarters of his annual income.
The means of travel, apart from its cost, would have been another of William's worries. There
were also the risks involved - of being wrecked for one thing - and various considerations
concerning the type of ship and the route.
In the 1850s, the fastest run made by a saiiing-ship between Liverpool and Melbourne was 63
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