Australian History

[DrDuck]

Got it in one, GT. Sure was a legend. His autobiography of his early days in Kings Cross is a good read. It's called Sex and Thugs and Rock and Roll.

From the source of all knowledge:

Thorpe also performed as a solo artist; he relocated to the United States from 1976 to 1996 where he released the space opera Children of the Sun,which peaked in the top 40 of the Billboard Pop Album chart in 1979. He worked with ex-Aztec Tony Barber to form a soft toy company in 1987 and co-wrote stories for The Puggle Tales and Tales from the Lost Forests. Thorpe also worked as a producer and composed music scores for TV series including War of the Worlds, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Columbo, Eight Is Enough and Hard Time on Planet Earth.

Did you research the answer, or already know it? It was just a factoid that had for some reason stuck in my head.

 

[goldtruck59]

Dr Duck I have read the Autobiography recently also and knew straight away.
Oh for those days laying on Bondi beach and all the babes at the concerts hey back in the 60's. Give your Karaoke a run for its money LOL
I saw Thorpy at the Sunbury pop festival also when I was a teen.

 

[goldtruck59]

Who am I?

Clue 1

I was an English migrant who came to Australia with my two brothers seeking a better life.
We had a go at digging for gold in SA but failed dismally. I ended up setting up a butchery elsewhere after a long trek on foot, and began to save my money for future investments.

 

[DrDuck]

First thought was Sid Kidman, who set up a butcher shop and subsequently became wealthy, but he was born in SA, and as far as I know, never tried gold prospecting.

 

[goldtruck59]

No cigar mate. Mr Kidman was an amazing man but should not of turned down shares in what was to become BHP.

Who am I?

Clue 1

I was an English migrant who came to Australia with my two brothers seeking a better life.
We had a go at digging for gold in SA but failed dismally. I ended up setting up a butchery elsewhere after a long trek on foot, and began to save my money for future investments.

Clue 2

With Soap making a messy and smelly by-line to our successful butchery, we were forced to move further out of town, which was growing around us quickly due to the Gold rush.

 

[DrDuck]

Good question .... the clue about smell did the trick!

Was it George Lansell?

George Lansell (1823-1906), mining entrepreneur, was born on 24 August 1823 at Margate, Kent, England, eldest son of Thomas Lansell, soap and candle maker, and his wife Elizabeth, ne Budds. At 14 he entered his father's business where he worked until a younger brother, Wootten, who had been a sailor on convict ships to Australia, suggested that his brothers George and William migrate to Australia. They went to South Australia in 1853. For six weeks George sought gold at Echunga but returned to Adelaide and worked at his trade. In 1854 the three brothers walked to Bendigo and set up as butchers and soap and candle manufacturers. The business prospered for three years although they had to move the boiling-down works to a less offensive position away from the developing town. In 1855 stockbrokers who met in his shop persuaded Lansell to invest in small quartz-mining companies. He lost heavily but worked and saved; he then put money into other claims and lost again. About 1860 he realized that the methods of quartz-mining were generally inefficient but he continued buying, increasing his own expertise and knowledge, though losing money through company crashes.

Apart from becoming a major Bendigo Magnate, it is good to see that he looked after widows and orphans of miners, and also lame dogs!

The tide turned in 1865, a disastrous year for Bendigo, when Lansell bought many shares in the old Advance Co. and the Cinderella mine. Now able to dictate policy he instructed his miners to 'keep sinking'; both mines rewarded his persistence with new-found reefs. Most of his large profits were returned to the mines which he pushed ever deeper, and though costs were crippling his determination, common sense and shrewdness usually paid off. In the early 1870s he won a fortune from the Garden Gully mine and then, for 30,000, bought the 180 mine which had already revealed a fortune in gold. He pushed the shafts down to over 3750 feet (1143 m), found lode after rich lode and became a millionaire. Proud of being a 'Bendigonian', he was largely responsible for introducing the diamond drill to quartz mining in Australia. He was famous in Bendigo, not so much for his fortune but for his tireless efforts to maintain the mining industry and thereby to provide employment. Under his influence other companies expanded and he constantly urged his miners to invest in mining stock themselves. 'Buy into stock on a good line of reef when they are low-priced, pay calls and wait' was almost his total business philosophy. He was also very generous and a great helper of lame dogs. He enjoyed his paternalism but it was more than lip service and he created a fund for the widows and orphaned children of Bendigo miners.

 

[goldtruck59]

Awe come on mate. I wanted to get to clue 3 where a little known fact about the coffin gag made him leave for England as he saw it as a death threat !!
Well done mate over to you.
It was George Lansell the quartz king :lol:

 

[DrDuck]

Did not know about the coffin gag, but here is the story, along with a nice statue of him in Bendigo...

http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/industry/display/30374-george-lansell

Now to put my thinking cap on!

 

[goldtruck59]

Two of a few rare references to the coffin gag other than above

"Lansell's first wife Bedelia died suddenly in 1879. Although well loved and admired in Bendigo, Lansell returned to England to live the following year, partly out of grief and partly in response to a mischievous prank that he had interpreted as a death threat."

Not long after purchasing Fortuna, Lansell's frrst wife died after a long illness. ~out 1880 a coffin was maliciously
smuggled into Lansell's stable yard overnight for Lansell to fmd the morning. It was after this incident that he
sailed to London, leaving managers to run his mining business. Settling in London, Lansell met and married
Edith Bcrrford, an English girl he had frrst met some years before when she was living in Bendigo with her
parents. Together they travelled th continent, collecting art objects, pictures and fine jewellery. Two sons and
a daughter were born to the couple and it seemed Lanse11 would remain in England for the rest of his life.
However, in 1887 he received a letter signed by 2,628 Bendigo men, including every figure of consequence in the
mining community, begging him to return to Bendigo. The letter sai~ his absence was 'keenly felt and regretted'
and his return would 'afford the utmo t pleasure and gratification.'

George Lansell

 

[DrDuck]

I was a British miner who visited the Australian gold fields, and wrote a book about my experiences. I observed that many educated new chums lamented their qualifications, wishing they had a useful trade. Who was I, and what was the name of my book?

 

[goldtruck59]

Carnegie spinifex and sand ?

 

[DrDuck]

Good try, GT, but the bloke I am thinking of was here during the earlier gold rushes.

 

[DrDuck]

A clue: My first name was Henry.

 

[Jaros]

Henry Button

 

[goldtruck59]

The diary of Henry Morgan : a life on the Buckland Valley & District Goldfields, 1853-1909
I feel not correct but luckless at the moment for clues and leads. Good question DD.

 

[DrDuck]

Not Henry Button, or Henry Morgan.

THe book was about the Victorian goldfields, alright, and was published in the early 1860's. My surname was a common one!

 

[goldtruck59]

Smith? LOL

 

[DrDuck]

Not Smith, but nearly as common....

 

[outboard]

As British miner Henry NGUYEN wrote while visiting the diggings: "Often have I heard men, who have carried off honours at their colleges say, Oh! If my father had but brought me up to anything useful, either baker, butcher or stonemason, what a fortune I would make.

NGUYEN is becoming the new Smith in the battle for Australian surname supremacy. An investigation into the "lifeline" of surnames has revealed that within 10 years, the Vietnamese surname - linked to the last ruling dynasty in Vietnam - will be more common than Smith in Australian metropolitan areas. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[goldtruck59]

I think you meant Henry Brown LOL
well done outboard, but what was the name of the book?
Victoria, As I Found It, During Five Years of Adventure: In Melbourne, on the Roads, and the Gold Fields (1862)