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Illawarra and Shoalhaven 1839 - 1840: The Descriptive Diary of the Reverend W.B. Clarke

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W.B. Clarke - Father of Australian Geology: Bibliography | Calendar of Correspondence | Illawarra & Shoalhaven diary 1839-40 | Lake Macquarie | Kosciusko | Introduction Oh! How this Colony teaches one the depravity of human nature... In these almost despairing words the not-so-young Reverend William Branwhite Clarke addresed his diary for 8 March 1840. Admittedly, on their arrival in Sydney on 27 May 1839, the health of himself, his wife, and young family had been seriously impaired, a condition in no way relieved by finding things far below their expectations. Though he had fallen temporarily the attractive post of headmaster of The King’s School, Parramatta, he already had had occasion to write to his mother on 9 September 1839: I advise no one to come hither. Dirt, disease, bugs, fleas, flies, ants, centipedes, lizards, scorpions, snakes of all descriptions, together with the heat and dust, horrible roads, want of comfort in houses, honesty of servants, and th...