I am pleased to announce this historical biography is now available from Amazon.com . It tells the story of my great grandfather, an amazing pioneer who lived in some very remote parts of Australia across three different states. He started out a draper’s assistant in Adelaide, went to Mt Gambier and the copper fields of Moonta as a shop keeper and driving a hawker’s dray. From there he went to Tibooburra and a tiny place called Yalpunga on the Queensland border where my grandfather was born. Here he ran a shop and catered to the local miners and travellers. Next move was as a wheat and sheep farmer for 25 years in the Ungarie district of NSW where everything was still done by hand. Finally he retired to Dromana in Victoria, a seaside resort. In his 80’s he travelled to Great Britain just before the Second World War. He wrote poetry and articles for newspapers many of which are in the book.
The book starts with the reasons for social unrest in the farmlands of England in the 1830’s and the schemes for immigration started by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and Robert Gouger to establish a colony in South Australia. Great poverty was a motivator for emigration to the new colony of South Australia in 1836. The second chapter explains why Charles’ parents, William and Martha Field emigrated to Adelaide despite William’s father, Daniel, owning substantial areas of farmland in a town called Garford in Berkshire (Now situated in Oxfordshire) William did very well in Adelaide and built one of its famous pubs: The Cathedral Hotel, known as the Scotch Thistle Hotel in his time.
Chapter Four details how Adelaide grew in the 1840’s and Chapter Five looks at relations between Aboriginals and white settlers. In Chapter 6, Charles is born and his early years are explained. The rest of the book goes into the history of the places in which he lived and includes lot of documents from the time as well as images to give this history a real vibrancy.
Chapter Eleven is devoted to Charles’ own writings showing his lively mind and sense of humour.
In the course of my research, I discovered a convict in the family and chapter twelve explains who he was and how the convict system was regarded in Australia both by convicts and the authorities.
Extensive notes /references allow the serious historian to see where I got all my information from.
Hoping you will enjoy this very detailed history of Australia over 100 years and my grandfather’s life,
au revoir mes amies
amundr 