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sketcher and shepherd(?), drew three crude ink sketches (Mitchell Library) showing an encounter between a shepherd and a stockman in the Burra Burra district of South Australia: Bullock Drivers Encamping near a Sheep Station , Burra Road , and Shepherd’s Hut and Sheep Yard in the District of Adelaide, South Australia . The first is accompanied by an extract from Eliza Cook’s popular lament 'The emigrant’s farewell’, the second by untitled but equally forlorn verses on the transitory nature of human life. The relationship between the drawings and poems seems tenuous but the layout indicates that their conjunction was deliberate. The first drawing is undated, the second bears the dual dates of 1849 and 1850 and the third is dated 1851, so perhaps they were designed as a reflection on the progressive harshness of Thomas’s own fate in the colonies. The extract from Cook tells of an unhappy exile 'in wild Australia wandering searching for independence and a share of plenty’s spoils’ while the third sketch, which includes a numbered key, is subtitled 'Hungry station’.

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Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011