{"product_id":"2940013769168","title":"A Romance of Canvas Town And Other Stories","description":"DWELLERS in Melbourne during 1851 and the immediately succeeding\u003cbr\u003eyears of the golden age in Australia will remember Canvas Town. Good\u003cbr\u003ecause, doubtless, have certain prosperous citizens to recall the\u003cbr\u003estrange suburb of Melbourne across the river, in which they, with\u003cbr\u003ehundreds of strangers and pilgrims, were fain to abide, pending\u003cbr\u003esuitable lodgings or employment. It arose mushroom-like from the bare\u003cbr\u003etrampled clay, a town of tents and calico, at no great distance from\u003cbr\u003ePrince's-bridge, shouldering the road which then led to the\u003cbr\u003efashionable suburb of South Yarra.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts raison d'être was briefly this. When tidings of the wondrous\u003cbr\u003eyields of Ballarat and Forest Creek--of gold dust and ingots, so\u003cbr\u003eprofuse, so easily won--reached Europe, fleets of vessels bearing\u003cbr\u003earmies of adventurers set sail for Eldorado. When the flotilla\u003cbr\u003eanchored in Hobson's Bay, disembarking in crowds, the young and the\u003cbr\u003eold, the rich and the poor, the delicately nurtured with the rudely\u003cbr\u003ereared, there was simply no place to put them, nowhere for them to go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor in Melbourne, houses and cottages, huts and hotels were alike\u003cbr\u003efull, more than full, with legitimate occupants. The verandahs and\u003cbr\u003eeven the back yards were utilized as dormitories. A list of the\u003cbr\u003eextraordinary makeshifts for bedrooms then in common use would read\u003cbr\u003elike a chapter from the Hunting of the Snark or kindred literature.\u003cbr\u003eOnly with this difference, that the nonsense would all be true,--\u003cbr\u003eterribly true.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat, then, was to be done? Filled with auriferous fancies and\u003cbr\u003efables, it was yet impossible for all of these inexperienced,\u003cbr\u003euntraveled innocents to march at once for the diggings. Many had\u003cbr\u003eimagined that they could 'step over,' on arrival, to the golden\u003cbr\u003efields, and commence the colonial industry of nugget gathering without\u003cbr\u003eloss of time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo fathers of families--some of near kin to Mr. Micawber--to raw\u003cbr\u003elads, to the feeble, the sick, the penniless--there were many of these\u003cbr\u003elast--it may easily be imagined how terrible was the first experience\u003cbr\u003eof the strange, inhospitable, and apparently savage land in which they\u003cbr\u003efound themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLanded at Sandridge or on the wharves of Melbourne, in the midst of\u003cbr\u003erude, jostling crowds, what misery must many of them have undergone! I\u003cbr\u003efear me that the complacent colonists, thriving and experienced, fully\u003cbr\u003eaware of the fact that all property, whether of stock, land, stations,\u003cbr\u003eor houses, had become enormously enhanced in value, must have seemed\u003cbr\u003eto the forlorn emigrants hard and unfeeling. There was a savour of\u003cbr\u003eselfishness, surely, about the way in which the herd of helpless\u003cbr\u003estrangers--gentle and simple, good, bad, or indifferent--was permitted\u003cbr\u003eto go its own road, to sink or swim, with but little aid or counsel\u003cbr\u003efrom their countrymen in Victoria.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe deadly wharf-struggle over, it became a vital question with the\u003cbr\u003ehouseless horde where to go and how to shelter themselves. There,\u003cbr\u003eindeed, was the rub! Melbourne, as before stated, was crammed full.\u003cbr\u003eThey could not camp in the streets. They were unprepared for the bush.\u003cbr\u003eThey knew not which way to turn. Whether, in some semi-official way,\u003cbr\u003edirected to locate themselves upon the site, long famous and\u003cbr\u003ememorable, or, whether as being within reach of the Yarra, of the\u003cbr\u003etown, and apparently unoccupied, and unowned, the bright idea of\u003cbr\u003e\"pegging out\" struck some smart pilgrim, and the rest followed suit,\u003cbr\u003ecannot be known. But almost in a night Canvas Town arose, and became a\u003cbr\u003elocalized, tangible fact.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbout that time there lived in the pastoral region of Victoria,\u003cbr\u003eoccasionally visiting Melbourne like his brethren, when a decent\u003cbr\u003eexcuse offered, a squatter named Evan Cameron. This young person had\u003cbr\u003elately brought a draft of fat cattle from his station near the mouth\u003cbr\u003eof the Glenelg. The season being that of winter, the weather bad, and\u003cbr\u003ehis assistant strictly unreliable, he had been sorely tried and\u003cbr\u003eendured hardship. But, as he had sold the drove at an unprecedentedly\u003cbr\u003ehigh price, and was even now enjoying a well-earned holiday, the\u003cbr\u003ememory of his privations was becoming faint and obscure.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070249091312,"sku":"2940013769168","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013769168_p0.jpg?v=1763590013","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013769168","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}