Dimensions
154 x 235 x 24mm
Joseph Jenkins arrived at Port Melbourne on 22 March 1869 and began a series of diaries which were to become an important account of life in colonial Australia.
Working on farms in the Ballarat and Castlemaine area, and later as a street worker for the Maldon council, Joseph was in a unique position to reveal rural life during one of Australia's most formative periods. Gold fever had hit, the Kellys were on the lose and unemployment was spreading amongst farm workers. A man before his time, Joseph was concerned with land degradation, cruelty to animals and the treatment of the Aboriginal.
One of the greatest delights of these diaries, which had lain undisturbed in the attic of a Welsh farmhouse for more than seventy years, is getting to know the absorbing character of Joe himself. A most unusual swagman, Joseph Jenkins was a visionary farmer and hard worker, and an inveterate, prize-winning poet who composed in both Welsh and English.
