On the Wallaby with a Victorian Lady. (2024)

The Victorian Lady was Elinor Mordant although for her book On TheWallaby she used the name E.M Clowes (Clowes being her maiden name). Shewas an English woman who lived and worked in Australia for over eightyears. She was born in 1872 and came to Australia in the early part ofthe 20th century. Here is her introductory paragraph,

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'When I was asked to write something about the country whichhad extended its hospitality to me, and given me bread and cheese,sometimes no cheese, it is true and more often than not no butter, butalways bread, and an ever increasing appetite--I must confess that Ifelt frankly scared.'

'There is a very good, if somewhat vulgar, expression in useout here, which speaks of anyone who attempts what is beyond them as"biting off more than they can chew." And the thoughtfrightened me. There seemed to be so many people who had lived all theirlife in the country, and were therefore much more capable of writingabout it than I could ever hope to be.'

When Elinor Mordant came to Australia in about 1901 Melbourne washer first Port of call. Soon after she arrived she gave birth to a son.She had practically no financial resources. Her husband a resident ofMauritius in the Indian Ocean had left her. She was a very independentperson and did not write to her family in England for help. Sheorganized a passage to Australia and was kindly treated by the Captainand crew of the ship on the voyage. As she reported in her Autobiographyshe undertook a whole series of different jobs and occupations inMelbourne although hampered with a baby son. She couldn't write fora living because she claimed the returns took so long to arrive. She hadin fact recently published in London a book The Garden of Contentmentabout her experiences in Mauritius. She was artistic and began a seriesof artistic works and handicrafts. The elaborate decoration of houseswas popular at the time so she started at designing and paintingfabrics. It was a period of the art nouveau with curving lines offlowers and vines. She also took to designing embroidery patterns forneedlework in the art nouveau style. This gave her enough to eat and aplace to live in a not very nice room in downtown Melbourne.

Her book On the Wallaby is not a fiction book and it is notstrictly autobiography. It is really her impressions of life and peoplein the State of Victoria in the first decade of the twentieth century.This was the period then called Edwardian but now often referred to asthe Federation period. The book gives a fascinating view of Australiansas seen by a working English woman's view. She was certainly not awealthy upper class tourist.

She commences by giving a brief history of the settlement ofMelbourne and then her first impressions of the young city. When theship docked it is the stevedores and dock hands that impressed her andas she said they were incredibly different from those in England. Theywere bigger and broad shouldered and they looked better fed. 'Theywalked with vigour and spring--indeed with a sort of swagger moving morefrom the hip than the English dockhand and less with that weary lurch ofthe shoulders ... above all, they are extraordinarily clean ... whilemany of them were in spotless white overalls. However she did say thatthe Australian workmen were 'bumptious, he is co*cksure, he iscondescending 'I don't mind if I do' is his one form ofaccepting any proffered favour. He also does not cadge for tips andoften resents being offered money. They know their own value they willgive freely but they will not haggle or accept being underpaid.

The women are also commented upon. There is an amusing story ofMrs. Mordant waking the first morning in the Melbourne Coffee Palace.She was hiding under a sheet from the glare, there being no blinds. Themaid awakened her and stood there saying 'My word you do lookcomfy'. She was dressed in 'a neat black dress and apron, witha suggestion of a cap, all quite orthodox but in addition she also worea string of large imitation pearls.. This symbolized the difference inAustralia. It was the same when she asked for some hot water to wash in.The maid gave a surprised stare. Then jerked her thumb in the directionof the door 'Bathroom room turn left.' The maid however didoffer to run a bath for her. Then again the maid commented on her nice'air. Her own hair was fair. Then when she asked how the maid knewshe was from England she got the reply 'Know? Echoed thechambermaid scornfully. 'Why every kid 'ud knowthat--it's sticking out a mile.'

Then there was the man who got in the lift in the Coffee Palace anddid not remove his hat and continued to smoke his cigar. Then she askeddirections to the dining room she was told there were two. One diningroom was up stairs where 'the toffs grub' and one down stairsbut both serving the same food. The price up stairs was high and thedown stairs was 'two courses for a bob' (one shilling) Theonly difference she discovered was that the up stairs the diner wasgiven a serviette, (a table napkin). Ordinary people usually ate downstairs. Paper serviettes had not yet been invented.

One of her complaints about the city that will delight Sydneypeople and annoy those of Melbourne. She disliked the orderlyarrangement of Melbourne Streets. She longed for a curve or a square.There was no open space with no trees or spot of green in the centre ofthe city. There were lovely gardens but too far away to be use to sitand have your lunch or just to sit and have peace for a moment or two.The streets were all too long and straight. She would have loved Sydneywith its jumble of streets and its patches of green but she nevercommented on that city. She did discover one 'secret garden'beside St, James Church, the old Cathedral, in the centre of Melbourneand was able to retreat there. It was the only building that gave her asense of age, so dear to the English. Australians always wanted to getout of the city to the bush or the beach on Sundays and not sitlistening to sermons in some brick church. It was this desire to escapeto the bush that fascinated her. She claimed that Australians had thebush in their blood and perhaps they had a different sense of God andNature.

Elinor gave an account of an unusual happening that will give yousome idea of her work. She had created some curtains using dye forpainting with some Tudor roses on them. The woman who had commissionedthem was slow in paying. She recorded that she was reduced to lying inbed for three days out of sheer weakness from want of food. Then'on the fourth morning things changed. She had written a small bookcalled Rosemary and sent it to a local publisher. By the post on thefourth morning there came a postal order for five shillings for somedesign or other; then a cheque for thirty pounds for my book [Rosemary],followed by twelve pounds for the curtains and as well a small chequefrom Heinemann for royalties on Garden of Contentment.' She was tooweak to dress herself so she sent a char woman out for some bread andbutter and half a pound of chops to cook on her gas stove. She thusdemonstrated that she was writing, designing and painting curtains, Shehad never thought of asking for help.

Having dealt with some aspects of Elinor's life in Melbourneshe moves on to Australian politics that produced some amusinganecdotes. First there is the question of 'Empire Preface'.This was an agreement to give British manufactures special preference, areduced tariff to that imposed on foreign imported good. She points outhow British Manufacturers cheat on the system. For example they oftensent cotton material to the Continent to be dyed and printed and thensend it as preference material to Australia that should have beencompletely manufactured in Britain. Then as now businesses usually finda way to cheat. Her other complaint was that Firms in Australia oftencannot obtain what they want from Britain. They are sent any old thing.'That is good enough for the colonials'. When follow up orderis requested the British firms send anything saying the other goods arenot available.

She does get confused at Australian politics, mainly in relation toVictoria referring debates in the House of Representatives as like Alicein Wonderland's Mad Hatter's tea party. The role of theGovernor is another matter for satire.. Qualifications for theGovernor's wife mean she must be of the bluest of blood, she mustdress beautifully, 'for she is of little use unless she wearsthings that other local women can copy.' I quote an account of agarden fete at the State Government House.

'The visitors were so eager for the frivol that they arrivedbefore the scheduled time (3.pm). Motors and carriages were politelydissuaded from entering the gates, while Aides peeped unhappily roundthe pillars of the varandah, and sent agonized messages upstairs. Butthe Carmichaels [Governor and his wife]were getting into party duds asfast as they could. They had been opening the motor drive out to Toorakat 2.30, and the lady's return home and quick change into a dreamof a lilac gown had all to be compressed into one brief hour. When atlast the pair came out, the dress--a trailing circ*mstance of nonchalantcoolness--was received with murmurs of admiration. Someone has beenredrawing the lines of the Carmichael lady's figure; it has a newslenderness necessary for the new dressing.'

She concludes this chapter by saying 'The Bulletin would saythe report was written by a 'wowser'--a wowser being a being,an advocate of everything dry, of temperance and all the virtues, whoexpresses his opinions in such a manner that the good he advocatesappears as offensive as he is himself.

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Elinor Mordant then moves on to a chapter of 'TheWorking-man'. 'The working man in Australia is being made ainto demi-god, with all sorts of frills added, so that the fact of himpossessing feet of clay, like the rest of us, may be hidden even fromhimself. He does not really care about it all. He wants if he is a realworking man to do his job, smoke his pipe in peace, while all he asksfor is fair play, or all he has asked for in the past; because now, likeall spoilt children, he has come to a state of mind when he really doesnot know what he wants. He is like a boy naturally full of the spirit ofadventure, of pluck and endurance, who has been kept at home and paperedby an over fond mother. It is not his fault that he missed the bracingatmosphere of the greatest of all schools the adverse world.'

This is how she begins her chapter on the 'working man'in Australia in 1911, one hundred years ago. She does give a side attackon the British. 'Luckily, the working-man, for the most part,regards his political supporters as any normal John Bull regards hiswomenkind. The are all very well in their way, but they are not, for asingle moment, to be taken seriously and he refuses to be made a foolof.' I am not sure what today's feminists would say about thatstatement from a woman who worked for her living while in Australia.

She went on to say that in England that 125 people died of sheerwant of food in 1909. From that she goes on to point out at thecheapness of meat in this country as compared in England where theworking-man's family seldom had meat to eat only once a week. Shegives reference to a restaurant in Melbourne where you could get a threecourse meal for 6 pence. Then there is a vivid description of theMelbourne Market especially at Christmas with piles of fruit andflowers. There was only one vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne in abasem*nt that was originally a cellar. She does not describe thecustomers but does say that she preferred the appearance of people who'cheerfully and persistently in the face of all food faddists stillconsume three meat meals a day. What would dieticians of the twentyfirst century say to that statement?

There is a funny description of 'Holts' in Melbourne.Which is a matrimonial agency. The Australian man from the country couldgo there to find a wife. There was no way for a man to meet suitablewomen anywhere else. And in Melbourne there were often sixadvertisem*nts for a wife every day in the daily papers. Some areamusing and some pathetic but they did produce answers. The famousbookseller in Melbourne of Cole's Book Arcade advertised for awife. He found one and they were married and lived 'happily'ever after. A woman whose husband was a metal worker who assisted inarranging the marriage of the successful couples conducted Holts'agency.

The book is filled with lots of statistics on rates of pay for allkinds of workers. Bricklayers and carpenters received 10 shillings a daywith unskilled workers on 6 pence a day. (There were 12 pence in theshilling)

Her comments on living in the bush might echo Henry Lawson.'Poverty at home [England] is truly terrible, but I doubt if anypoverty has ever been as unbearable as the utter loneliness andstrangeness as this country. She does comment on the heat, thedistances. Many men want land to farm but she does say that manyimmigrants would not waste their money buying land. They want thegovernment to break up the great estates and give them the land, Thenthere is a long description about the distance to schools or doctors.'The best and strongest f immigrants will battle on and grow tolove the gum-trees, the sunshine and the silence of the Bush.'

Then there were references to the millions of sheep and thequestion of the shearers. Machinery was use at this time for shearingand many young shearers were unable to use hand clippers any more.Elinor Mordant obviously saw these wool sheds at first hand. Herdescription of the Shearer's accomodation could only have beenwritten by someone who had been there 'The shearer's live,that is sleep and eat, in what is known as 'the Hut', a longnarrow structure with bunks on either side in two tiers ... The tablewhich runs pretty well the whole length of the hut, is made of sheetiron tacked on rough frame, with benches on either side and there islittle else save the atmosphere, which is thick and portentous, anintermingling of tobacco, wool, beer, spirits, clothes, boots, blankets,and men. The better sort of shearers declare the noise and the stench,the constant fidgeting and stirring all night, the snoring, thecoughing, spitting and swearing, make it impossible for anyone to get adescent night's sleep in the huts and retreat to a tent. Theshearer's constant complaint is about the food and the cook a usualcomplaint for any gathering of groups of men.

However after she has given her impressions on the 'workingman' she then produces a chapter on the 'Working-Women'.She is not talking about the 'society women' or the suburbanhousewife. This is about women and girls who go to work in the city ofMelbourne. They are shop girls, typists and telephone girls and so on.By 1910 there were typewriters and telephones in Australian cities, notquite as sophisticated as these are in 2010 bit still the sametechnology.

The life style of these women was not always an easy one. They werefairly well paid and lived often in one room in buildings in the citythat had been adapted for residential occupation but originally designedas offices. They usually had a bathroom on each floor with hot water butthese facilities on each floor were shared by the residents with themale residents on one floor and the women on another. In fact ElinorMordant lived in one of these buildings and describes how everyone usedthe bathrooms for washing their clothes in spite of the regulation thatsuch use was prohibited. These were not slums and were kept clean andtidy and cooking was often done on a gas ring or a primus in even smallrooms. Each room was furnished by the resident with very little in itexcept a bed and some packing cases for cupboards. The girls entertainedfriends including boy friends in these limited spaces. They would put ontheir best dress or blouse and 'play ladies' making anchovysandwiches and sometimes even a bunch of flowers in the vases.'These girls worked incredibly hard and live the straightest,simplest lives, every day of which is a series of petty privations andself denial, in spite of small pleasures. She does say that a few of the'gayer' damsels used this life of liberty to the fullestextent and gave a place a 'bad name'. Many girls were involvedin the dress making trade. There are again lots of statistics in thisbook on the various wages for these workers, even down to those who sewunderclothes and the 'washer' who washes and irons the garmentwhen finished.

There are other women workers who are described as char-ladies.They were mostly married women with husbands incapable of providingsufficient to keep them and their children with many of them desertedwives whose husbands have 'gone west' looking for a job andnever came back. There was great difficulty for the suburban'ladies' in finding a servant of any kind. At the agency thequestions asked by prospective servants were such as 'Do you keep apiano for maids?' 'Are their children?' 'Is she [themaid] allowed every evening out and half a day a week and all daySunday?' 'Is she expected to wear a cap?' 'They willnot call you madam, says Elinor but say, "Hey, you there" and"all right" in response to an order.' Thus employing amaid and dealing with one was not easy and keeping one was almostimpossible.

There are some married couples living in these chambers in the citybut they also were hard up and scraping together enough money to liveand eat. One of the interesting comments is about the reading habits ofsome of these girls who come in from out of town by train to work. Thepenny English papers like 'Home Chat' were most popular butthe authorsto top the reading list was Mrs. Henry Wood and she wasfollowed by Dickens and Thackeray, no mention of Australian authors.

In On the Wallaby there are chapters on Victorian youths and on thepunishments as well as on children as wards of the state. There are somecomments on education and he behaviour of children indicatingdifferences between Australia and England. For example she speaks ofgirls preceding their mother into a restaurant and examining the menubefore handing it to their parent. She claimed that Australian motherswere meek. She puts all this to the fact that there is no stationaryclass. 'The people are always going up or down in the socialscale.' 'There must be a distinct reason, beyond mere years,to persuade a youth to show deference to anybody, and some reason,beyond that of youth, for humility on their own side.

All of this indicates the emerging sense of equality in Australiansociety. It is firmly fixed in the country before the First World War. Ithink I have given you enough of the observations of Elinor Mordant onlife in Australia.

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Before I finish this article I want to mention some her commentsabout, 'The Amusem*nts and the Arts'. Firstly there is'The Cup', the Melbourne Cup that occupies a central place inthoughts of amusem*nts. Everything closes on that day in Melbourne it isa public holiday and it has a long history. Football and cricket andother sports followed this fixation on horse racing in general. Next inimportance was the theatre as large crowds of people went regularly tothe theatre especially on Saturday night. Special mention is made ofNellie Stewart who was generally adored by theatre-goers. She wasoverwhelmed with flowers but the young girls all admired the actorsespecially if they were handsome. No mention is made of their actingskills. There was one music-hall in Melbourne but it was consideredrathe poor 'but the whole affair is rather dull in comparison withany European show of the sort, and overhung with a rather gloomy air ofmiddle-class propriety.'

It is in literature that she expresses her surprise at its mainquality. As she expresses it, 'It is strange that, that in the faceof all the indomitable pluck, the light-hearted gaiety these peopleshow, that their literature should be permeated with that uncouthmelancholy which gives other nations so false idea of the country andthe people. That it is not prosperity, wide sheep runs, good seasons,horse-racing, and theatre going that has produced the literature of thecountry, but loneliness of heart and soul; the terrifying size of thecountry; the poverty and misunderstanding.. She goes on to mention someof the names of early poets, Harpur and Kendal and Adam Lindsay Gordonwhom she dismisses as English. Then come Henry Lawson and BanjoPatterson. Among the novelists she mentions Marcus Clarke (also English)and then goes on with Mrs. Campbell Praed (new usually called RosaPraed), Mary Gaunt and Guy Boothby, Roderic Quinn, Brunton Stevens andRolf Boldrwood. They are all names still familiar a hundred years later.

Art is usually dismissed with reference to the crudity of NormanLindsay but that Australian's seem to want something pretty andlarge in art. She criticises the Victorian Art Galley for the purchaseof Corot's 'Bent tree' with crowds of people flocking tosee it. Very little admiration was expressed except for the frame, asusual an ornate gold one. Australian had not yet produced any greatcomposers but Mr. Marshall Hall received praise especially for hisconcerts at the Town Hall but is criticised for his erotic writings thatmay surprise some modern readers.

That sums up the opinions on Australian culture in 1910 by ElinorMordant. I wonder how different would be a survey of Australia onehundred years later. Would society and the social structure be the same?What would we say about the youth of today by comparison with Australianyouths of the past. Would working conditions of both men and women beany better? Would restraunts be any different or as cheap? What wouldrural life be like today or politics in such a survey? Perhaps someEnglish lady might come to visit and try and support herself inMelbourne or Sydney and write about Australians today. She probablywould still not find a publisher for her book in this country exect forsome little ephemeral one just as did Elinor Mordant, Her book onAustralia was published in London in 1911 by William Heinemann entitledOn the Wallaby through Victoria written by E. M. Clowes which was one ofher various names.