Guide to the Letters of David Watson (as filmed by the AJCP)

Series 1. Typescript copies of letters of David Watson to various members of his family in Scotland (160pp), May 1852 - December 1857

The letters were written at Leith, London, Plymouth, Melbourne, Forest Creek, Geelong and Sydney. They refer inter alia to Watson's resignation from his legal firm; preparations for the voyage to Australia; visit to Plymouth; the voyage, including passengers, drunkeness of crew, 'crossing the Line' festivities, reading, seasickness, articles that should be brought by emigrants; first impressions of Melbourne; prices and rents; difficulties faced by emigrants without capital; appointment as a clerk at the Forest Creek Post Office; Forest Creek diggings; landscape; dust and insects; hardships of living in a tent; preachers; mutual friends; Scottish news; misleading information about Australia given to intending emigrants; appointment as bookkeeper in Banner Newspaper office in Melbourne (Oct. 1853); divisions among Scottish churches in Melbourne; Rev. A. Cairns; appointment as clerk in Union Bank (Jan. 1854); economic conditions in colony; affairs of Union Bank; fund-raising for churches; travels in Western District; Ballarat diggings; a walk from Ballarat to Castlemaine; Crimean War; murder of J. Price (March 1857); departure from Melbourne (Aug. 1857); impressions of Sydney and Blue Mountains...