Reverend W.B. Clarke - Father of Australian Geology

Introduction W.B. Clarke circa 1939 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 the morality of the public generally render this country the very antipodes of what it is represented. Had I known this I would never have c...