Diary of a Welsh Swagman

Farm Life in the Clunes District in the late 1800’s.

Joseph Jenkins, a Welsh farmer with a strong literary background, spent twenty-five years in Australia during the period 1869-1894. Most of the time he worked as an itinerant farm labourer in the district between Creswick and Maldon and his diaries provide an excellent insight to farming life in Victoria during the late 1800’s. His grandson, William Evans has abbreviated and annotated the diaries and published them in the book “Diary of a Welsh Swagman 1869-1894”, first published by Sun Books, Melbourne in 1977 and reprinted in 1982. The book was given to me in 1983 by Marion Charles, and I have found it to be an inspiring account of a man’s grateful acceptance of his difficult lot in life, an interesting commentary on contemporary political and social issues (many still of relevance today) as well as a documentary record of farming practice, availability of work, costs of food and the other practicalities of life during the early days of Colonial life. In many respects, the diary can be considered a description of the working conditions experienced by William Hudson between the time of his arrival in Melbourne and the purchase of his farm at Lord Clyde. During this time he is believed to have worked as a farm labourer in the Coghill’s Creek area.

The period described commenced with problems of unemployment for large numbers of miners who had joined the gold rushes in the 1850’s. The period that followed was marked by growing optimism, independence and wealth in Victoria, culminating in boom conditions and spectacular extravagance in public and private expenditure during the 1880’s. A sharp fall in export prices during the period 1884-1893 resulted in falling incomes and unemployment for workers, and the collapse of the land market and falling prices for stocks and shares for the wealthy. Many of the unemployed moved from the land to the cities or to other colonies or countries in search of work.

Joseph Jenkins, at the age of 51, arrived in Port Melbourne on the 22 March, 1869 and joined scores of swagmen on the road looking for work. He walked north to Castlemaine and on to Taradale and Chewton before returning to Castlemaine, observing the dryness of the bush and commenting on the impact of the drought on cattle and sheep. In May, he arrived at Smeaton, where he comments: “Thousands of acres of fertile land around Smeaton, but poorly farmed. The farmers consider it too expensive to cart farmyard manure to the land, so they pay 9s per cwt for potatoes which they are unable to grow. No land is properly cultivated around here except the townspeople’s gardens”. He was employed for a time at “Kangaroo Farm”, Smeaton, one of several owned by Mr George Hepburn; he comments most favourably on the management of the farm. "The main crops sown are corn, wheat, barley and oats.   Mr Hepburn resides in Smeaton in a town house (Smeaton House) with a large orchard, and an adjacent property, 'Tea Tree Farm'”.  He notes an inscription on a monument in the local cemetery - “Sacred to the memory of John Hepburn who departed this life August 7 1860, aged 60 years, etc.” By September the work had cut out and he returned to Castlemaine via Glengower.

After trying his hand at gold mining at Newstead, near Castlemaine, he returns to Smeaton, staying at the Cumberland Hotel, and passes through Creswick and Miners Rest before working at Mount Blow Hard, near Ballarat.   During January, February and March, 1870 he joins a threshing team of eighteen men working on farms at Burrombeet, Creswick, Miners Rest, Ascot, Coghills Creek (Who knows, perhaps he met up with William Hudson here! - DRH), and Lake Learmonth.   He worked at “Spring Vale Farm”, Learmonth from October to December, 1871, and then followed the thresher to other farms in the district. In March, he was employed by Mr McAndrew of “Cattle Station Hill or Five Mile Farm”, between Creswick and Clunes. In April 1871, he was on the road again looking for work in the Bullarook area, and comments that he meets upward of fifteen swagman every hour on the road, and that for every labourer at work, there are five unemployed.

On returning to Smeaton in May, 1871 he comments: “The two qualifications required of the young are dancing and piano-playing, not milking and butter- or cheese-making. Smeaton district, once considered the garden of Victoria, is now a ruinous area from continued exhaustion of the land. The farms are over-run by weeds. There are numerous deserted homesteads. Landlords are letting their land for 5s an acre to tenants who have no capital to improve it. Two-thirds of the farmers are unable to pay their rates which only amount to 1s in the pound”. Work was difficult to find during May to October, with farmers unable to pay wages and struggling to survive until their next harvest.   He fells trees, carts hay, ploughs fields, plants potatoes and carrots, and builds sheds while carrying his swag to Carisbrook and Maryborough. In November he picks peas and harvests hay, but notes “hundreds of swagmen pass by looking for work”.

In 1872, he works on farms and again joins the threshing team in the Learmonth district for the summer, but work is difficult to obtain during the winter months. Between December 1872 and February 1873, he works on John Hopkins’ and John Hawkins’ farms at Coghill’s Creek at 4d an hour before joining a threshing team at wages of 2d an hour. He expresses great dissatisfaction with the way that farming is organised: “The land is poorly managed. Land must be exceedingly rich to produce 15 to 24 crops in succession and without farmyard manure. It will be more difficult to bring it under proper cultivation than when it was first cleared of scrub. The parcels of land are too large and their management is undermanned. Relations between farmers and labourers are bad”. And later: “This country’s soil and its climate cannot be surpassed by any country, but the law and the lawless cannot be so classed. So wanting are high principles, humanity and morals, that people from all classes of society hold that no honest man should set foot in Australia. I would not complain of the labourer’s wages, if he were respected and be constantly employed. Now, a labourer is not employed for longer than 12 to 17 weeks of the year. Consequently the land is neglected and exhausted. Presently, one man is allowed to hold a million acres of land with good surface soil without obligation to employ a single labourer, while the same land is neither rated nor taxed. On the other hand, the small farmer has to pay a tax of 1s in the pound to support public roads, although there are no roads serving the squatters”.

 From April to July 1873 , he worked for Mr Thomas McMurray at “Glendanal” near Clunes, despite the fact that that had had no respect for the Master who he describes as “a scoundral, swindler and tyrant”. During the winter he worked at Mount Bolton spitting timber, earning about 4s a day. During November/December he walked the fourteen miles from Mount Bolton to Smeaton to attend the Smeaton National and Spring Agricultural Show, and later worked on farms in the Learmonth district from December 1873 to April 1874. The early winter was spent at a farm owned by a William Clarke between Clunes and Talbot, which he describes as “the most miserable place (he) had ever worked at”. He eventually left and subsequently spent forty days in the Maryborough Hospital at Majorca, suffering from diphtheria. For the remainder of the year he found that employment was difficult to obtain and travelled to Castlemaine, Newbridge, Edington, Deep Creek, Carisbrook and Ballarat before meeting up with John Whelan (whose farm he had worked on in June ,1872), who invited him for Christmas dinner.

 In early 1875 he travelled to Geelong and was employed on a farm for fourteen months, leaving in April, 1876. He returned to the Castlemaine district but found work difficult to obtain, eventually being employed to do piece work on the farm owned by William Clarke, where he had worked two years before. In May, his contract terminated and he walked to Clunes then caught the train to Ballarat where he was directed by the labour exchange to a farm near Bullarook, where he worked until July. His next job was on William Wescott’s orchard near Bungaree, where a large potato crop was cultivated for sale in Ballarat, together with fruit for jam making. He left the farm in September 1878, after a period of more than two years. He spent time in hospital at Ballarat and again in Castlemaine, missing his first summer harvest in Australia. In February 1879, he visits his friend John Lewis (who owed the Swagman money) near Walmer and engages in odd jobs, including the construction of a dairy. He left in October with the bad debts still undischarged.

He travelled to Creswick and on to Newlyn and Bullarook in January,1880, looking for employment during the late harvest.   He found work near Kingston with Mr J. Glendinning of Summerset Farm, bringing in an excellent oat crop. He notes: “As we worked in the paddock, the funeral of a neighbour filed past;  I counted thirty-one carriages, and there were many people on horseback”; and later, “On this Sunday I climbed on to a hill, 500 feet high, and surveyed the countryside.   It was a very pleasing sight with the paddocks packed with stooks of precious grain, gathered through the assiduous labour of the swagman, whom they variously abuse and call loafer, vagabond, and sundowner”. He spends most of the next few months picking potatoes at 6s per ton (13 bags) at the rate of 6-10 bags per day. These were sold on a depressed, and oversupplied, market at 15s per ton. In November, he was on the road again heading north, and eventually finding work binding, stooking and stacking wheat (prior to the arrival of the threshing team) near Kinneypaniel on the Lodden River. In December, he was off again to Inglewood and Rheola, where he joined his friend David Evans to “dig unsuccessfully for gold on six consecutive days”.

Continued immigration further exacerbated the labour market, and the first few months of 1881 were spent looking for work, with only short periods of casual labouring being available. During this time he travelled to New Bridge, Eddington, Majorca, Mount Cameron, Mount Prospect, Blampied, and Kingston, where he was employed again by Mr Glendinning, and later by Mr Morrish. In April he walked to Creswick and caught the train to Melbourne (single fare 13s) to attend the International Exhibition. During May and June he continued to work on Mr Morrish’s farm, and on an adjacent property, but by July the potato digging had finished and he moved on to Creswick for a few days, before returning to visit David Evans at Rheola. In August, he travelled to Maldon and then to the farm of John Lewis, where he commenced timber splitting, interspersed with casual labouring.   Unfortunately, much of the timber that he split was stolen whilst he was employed elsewhere. He continued these activities for the next year, and in August, 1882 he commenced work on a hut (Ants’ Hill Cottage, Ravenswood, North Walmer), and established a vegetable garden.

His ability to walk long distances was diminishing (he was now sixty-five years old) and, in 1883, he continued to operate from his hut, eight miles north-east of Walmer and eight miles from Maldon, cutting timber and doing casual work. He notes:   “Maldon is a dull place nowadays because the precious metal is no longer plentiful in the rocks”. He also comments:  “...an Irish farmer named Michael Owen was charged with assault on a lady, when he bit her thumb, almost amputating it. He was acquitted on payment of expenses. At the same court, three youths ...were charged with taking ten potatoes which they had cooked directly to appease their hunger. They were committed to jail for three months.   Michael Owen is a good customer at the provision store owned by the senior magistrate”. In September, he is successful in tendering to dig a drain for the Maldon Council, and again in October for a contract to clear thirty chains of road, some three miles from his hut. He walks to and from work each day, but eventually found it too much for him and moved to a stable on a nearer property. During the harvest at the end of the year and into 1884, he worked on several farms in the district. His social comments continue:“No less than five justices of the Peace were summoned last week for cattle stealing, drunkenness, rioting, and other breaches of the law, but they got away from it when judged by their equals”. He continues to do casual labouring, and is successful in obtaining another road-clearing contract from Maldon Council, that occupies him from August to October. In December he tendered for a contract to clean the water channels at Maldon on a daily basis and to keep the pavements in repair. His tender of 3s 4d a day, without board and lodgings, was accepted. He moved to Maldon and worked for the Council until his departure from Melbourne on 25 November, 1894.

From time to time, his diary makes mention of the aboriginal people, whose philosophy of life he supports (eg., in August, 1873, “When a native discovers a (bee) hive he invites the neighbours to partake of the honey, but when a white Christian discovers it, he keeps the produce for himself”.

Throughout his diaries, Joseph Jenkins notes the cost of daily living and the prices of farm commodities. The following table summarises some of those prices and costs and gives an estimate (based on the relative price of gold) of what those prices might be in 1995 dollars. Many prices equate well with those we pay for the same items today, whilst the price of items such as mutton and spectacles seem cheap, and those of cabbage, butter and sugar seem expensive.

Commodity Prices in Rural Victoria (1869-1873)

*(Comparative prices are based on gold values of $8 in 1870 and $500 in 1995)