"I hope I may say a few words now," said Mr Landon. "Charles, you may have found these three, but I claim them as mine as well. Friends," he said, looking around him, "I tell you that watching these three boys, and to me they always will be boys, grow up out of the life they were living, has been both a privilege and an example. A privilege to me for they were always so eager to make the best of adversity, and they had plenty of that, and an example to all who follow on in this new land of ours. As you know, so many of the population of this country started without any assets at all. So many have come here, many against their will, to make their way in the world. I call this the land of opportunity, a land that gives freedom and opportunity to everyone who will work, and I think that our three boys here are an example of what this land will be in the future. In England it is so hard for a working man to drag himself out of the state they were born in, but in this country it depends only on what a man puts in to life as to where he arrives. So I salute you, Ricky, Tad and Will as symbols of the future of this great nation. Friends, I ask you to drink a toast to "Terra Australis Espirito Santo" "The Great Southern Land of the Holy Spirit".
Ricky thanked John, for saying what he did ,but suggested that it was not their collectives skills that had got them along in the world but their friends who had helped them. He continued, "I now have some proposals to make and I ask your permission to activate them. You know that we are interested in helping our young people to be better citizens and have several institutions where they can be fostered, be taught and to be encouraged, well, we would ask your permission to name the various places after you, our friends. You know we have three houses here, the boys hostel to our left and the girls hostel to our right. Dimity and Will wish to live here and will do so for as long as they desire. But I foresee that some day they will wish to live elsewhere and that Will shall begin an Art School here, then the three houses will be a whole. We would like to name these three, "The Fishbon Centre" with your permission, Mr and Mrs Fishbon."
"Oh, Ricky," Mrs Fishbon said.
"We do not deserve it, Ricky, but, yes, you may. We are honoured," said the old man, emotionally.
Ricky continued. "Sir," he said looking straight at John Landon, "we thank you for all your help over the years and ask you may we name our boys and girls orphanages the "Landon Homes"? The babies home we ask if we may call it "Sadie House"?"
"My dear boy, we are honoured, aren't we, Sadie?" Mr Landon said. Mrs Landon's eyes filled with tears. "Dear children," was all she said, smilingly.
"We are planning a training centre for boys that will be rather like a cadet training for the army and as Tim is about to retire from the regiment we are settling this centre up on the farm he is to live on and will be called "Hinds". Tim , of course, knows of this already."
Tim nodded agreement and said, "Yes, Jane and I were wondering what I would do when I left the regiment and this is a marvellous opportunity for us. Thank you, Ricky."
"We are also establishing a school for prospective writers and Mr Hughes will give his name, his talents and time to oversee this. Thank you Mr Hughes. And at Rocklea where we will have our country orphanages they will be called Forrest Houses. So for those who didn't know of these proposals, I hope you will agree to all these, and I thank you."
"And, dearie," said Mrs Fishbon, "where will your names be on these wonderful projects of yours?"
"Dear Mrs Fishbon," said Will, "we will just be passing on the wonderful name of English that Ricky gave us, on to our children. You see, Tad and Amabel have started with Henry. Ricky and Jenny have already begun and Dimity and I now announce that we too are having a family and the Art School will not begin until we have filled this happy place with so many children that we can't fit in anymore."
Dimity laughed and then the friends too roared with laughter. It was so like Will to have the last word.
Sheila Hunter
1924 - 2002
Sheila Hunter was passionate about her family and loved to research their history. During this research she often read stories of street waifs who often got into trouble in Colonial Sydney. Ricky is a fictitious story centered around some of these street urchins. The convict towns of Sydney and Parramatta were dirty, smelly and dusty places with all sorts of desperate and despicable characters the street urchins were often caught pick pocketing or stealing from store keepers and street vendors. Occasionally these children were not really ‘base born’ or convict offspring, but just orphans left with no one to look after them! Life was very hard for them! No one looked out for them and it was survival by wits alone. Ricky is a child who stole Sheila’s heart! He was the epitome of everyone or thing she would loved to have helped. If she had lived in this time I’m sure she too would have helped Ricky teach other children from the streets.
Sheila was born in New Zealand to Australian parents, Murdoch and Mabel McDonald (or Macdonald as they were known before they went to NZ) moved back to Melbourne Australia with her family when only 4 yrs old. She was a nurse by training, but an adventurer in her life! A wife and mother she was a great story teller, often making up very long stories for both her children and grandchildren. They would listen enwrapped within the stories of her telling.
In 1999 Sheila was awarded one of 20 Federal Recipients of the Year of the Senior Citizen Awards. She was an amazing woman! Life was tough - growing up during WW2 in a single parent family (her dad had left them to beck to the two children in New Zealand, from his first marriage). They lived on the docks in Melbourne in a family Service Station. She went to school during the day and worked in the Service Station after school, weekends and at nights. She won a full ‘Cello scholarship about this time but it was during the war and on arriving home one day found that her mother had sold her ‘Cello to help pay the household bills! Yes life was hard! On leaving school she enrolled in Nursing only to be the butt of jokes from her family, but she not only succeeded but excelled at this caring role, ending up as acting Matron of “Roma” Private Hospital in East Gosford NSW.
Sheila, married Norman M Hunter in 1955 and they lived in Avoca Beach all their married life and had two children, Norman Jnr and Sara. Norman and Sheila were a well known couple on the Central Coast NSW with Norman a well know Real Estate Agent also owned and operated Avoca Beach Picture Theatre in Avoca, as well as amassing an amazing Natural History Collection that was known and studied world wide and together they were part of many groups and associations in the area. It was while researching Normans Convict Family that she first came across the reference to street urchins in the many stories she read about.
Sheila also wrote other novels based on other periods of the Infant Australian Colony and also some children’s stories and these are in the process of being published! Look for “Mattie” is due out in 2015.
In 2000, her beloved husband and fellow adventurer, Norman, died from Dementia and she unfortunately followed only two years later from Cancer.
Sara Powter 2015
and I am proud to be her daughter!
Also By This Author
“Mattie” - the Story of an Australian Convict Child
Available from Kindle and Amazon –
also available in large print paperback.
“The Heather to the Hawkesbury”
Following some Scottish families from Skye to NSW
also available in large print paperback.
Coming Soon
“Reef Holiday”
Adventures of children discovering
The Great Barrier Reef in Qld.
* * *
[1] Andrew Lenehan (c1815-1886) who was a cabinet maker in Market St Sydney
[2] Dharug people are a group of indigenous people of Australian Aborigines that were united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans scattered throughout much of what is modern-day Sydney.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darug
[3] Sydney's first rail line connected
Sydney and Parramatta Junction near Granville and opened on 26 September 1855. It was extended to the current Parramatta station on 4 July 1860
[4] food
[5] Pregnant.
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