 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
We do not know much about what John Mereweather thought of his first views of Australia - let
aione what the Honeycombes thought. But a vivid picture has been painted by another diarist,
William Deakin, who arrived on the Samuel Boddington three months before the Honeycombes.
The port', he wrote, (as distinct from the town) 'is very similar to a thriving English village near
London, although some few things give it a foreign aspect, such as buliock drays, the difference
in foiiage and the prevalence of straw hats and pipes and a kind of Yankee independence of
manners... The general appearance of the locality indicates great sterility to a stranger. But yet
when you get into town you wonder where all the fine fruits come from, grapes, tomatoes,
plums, peaches, apples, etc... We have not found it at all unpleasant excepting the dust in the
roads, being of such a light sandy character, is thrown up by the traffic on it.'
Adelaide was stili in some disorder, having been founded but 13 years earlier. Like ail the other
state capitals it was situated a few miles inland, on a piain bounded on the south and east by the
Mt Lofty range. The site was chosen and the city carefully surveyed and planned by Col William
Light. It was named after the then Queen, wife of William IV.
The town Adelaide probably made a poor impression on the Honeycombes, being chaotic,
dusty, fly-infested, and when it rained (the rainy season was about to begin) a morass of mud.
But the autumn there was not unlike a breezy English summer. And the settlement was curiously
full of miners: its port area was stacked with copper ore.
The first copper mine in Australia had in fact, been opened at Kapunda, 70 km north of
Adelaide, in January 1844; that at Burra was begun the following year. Many of the miners
were Cornish. William and his family when on shore may well have come across a family or two
from Calstock itself, who would
76
answer their many questions about work and wages and weather, about aborigines,
accommodation, prices and poisonous snakes.
It is at Adelaide that the Honeycombes enter the Australian records, the South Australian
Register of Monday, 17 June, noting the arrival of the Lady McNaghten, listing the passengers
{'W Honeycombe wife and four children'), and adding: Two children named Kernot died, and
two were born, named Richardson and Chapman.'
There is no mention in the Register of the apprentice who feil overboard or of the still-born
child.
The day before this (16 June, a Sunday) all the passengers were allowed on shore for the first
time. Of this momentous event John Mereweather says nothing, except: 'Went to the church at
Port Adelaide to return thanks to Almighty God for having extended his fostering protection
over me during a long and perilous voyage.'
Did he also give thanks that all his ship companions were also saved? But as many of the
emigrants accompanied him to church, he may have assumed they would give thanks on their
own behalf. The Honeycombes might have gone along, for it was a special occasion; and
perhaps the younger children, Martha and John, had prospered in Mereweather's shipboard
school.
He continues: 'For 138 days we had been exposed to the chances of "lightning and tempest; to
plague, pestilence, and famine." But He who sits above in grandeur inaccessible, had of his
tender mercy delivered us from them all. Unfortunately the holy communion was not celebrated
on that day, so that we did not receive his holy mystery, nor offer and present to the Lord at his
 |