Found slumbering on the wire wove of an old double bed , an armless shop mannequin standing nearby, our battered copy of the WWll published fictionalised life of Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870) was obtained from Townsville's wonderland ,Virgil's .
It presents a romanticised horse racing mad wild colonial with a factual epilogue detailing the 1934 synchronised ceremonies in Westminster Abbey, London , and Melbourne, Australia , which honoured him, 60 years after his suicide , at the age of 37.
Born in the Portuguese Azores , where his father was a retired captain in the Bengal Cavalry , Adam was educated in England , taught horse riding , his feckless life as an adolescent, he later admitted , leading to " his strength and health broken by dissipation and humbug".
His father obtained a position for him in South Australia ; arriving in Adelaide in 1853, aged 20, he quickly joined the S.A. Mounted Police , serving two years at Penola, in the Mount Gambier District .
While there he came into contact with the controversial Catholic priest , journalist , educationist and scientist , Julian Edmund Tenison-Woods (1832-1889) , who is said to have introduced him to books.
From a prominent Irish religious family, Father Tenison-Woods had worked on The Times , London , before sailing to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania ) with Bishop Wilson .
After arguing with the Bishop, he came to the mainland and went to Penola, where he was closely associated with the nun Mary MacKillop, helped her set up the Sisters of St John of the Sacred Heart . He became director of Catholic schools . She became Australia's first saint , her faded Townsville portrait the subject of a recent post in this blog .
During his time in Australia Father Tenison-Woods produced numerous papers and reports on geology and minerals , including the Northern Territory and parts of Queensland ; he was invited to Malaya by the governor to report on tin prospects .
After Gordon's mother died and left him 7000 pound , he married Margaret Park , a little educated woman from Glasgow, bought a cottage called Dingley Dell , near Port MacDonnell , wrote poetry, dabbled in land ventures, even became a politician. During his time as a politician he indulged his love of daredevil riding , taking part in steeplechases and reckless acts , suffering some bad falls .
After renting out livery stables in Ballarat, Victoria , he joined the Ballarat Troop of Light Horse in 1868, rose to the rank of sergeant , experienced another bad tumble .
The livery stables venture failed, his daughter died , his wife left him, he continued his racing career ,wrote more poetry, published in the Australasian and the Colonial Monthly , suffered another bad fall.
By Peter Simon
His father obtained a position for him in South Australia ; arriving in Adelaide in 1853, aged 20, he quickly joined the S.A. Mounted Police , serving two years at Penola, in the Mount Gambier District .
While there he came into contact with the controversial Catholic priest , journalist , educationist and scientist , Julian Edmund Tenison-Woods (1832-1889) , who is said to have introduced him to books.
From a prominent Irish religious family, Father Tenison-Woods had worked on The Times , London , before sailing to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania ) with Bishop Wilson .
After arguing with the Bishop, he came to the mainland and went to Penola, where he was closely associated with the nun Mary MacKillop, helped her set up the Sisters of St John of the Sacred Heart . He became director of Catholic schools . She became Australia's first saint , her faded Townsville portrait the subject of a recent post in this blog .
During his time in Australia Father Tenison-Woods produced numerous papers and reports on geology and minerals , including the Northern Territory and parts of Queensland ; he was invited to Malaya by the governor to report on tin prospects .
After Gordon's mother died and left him 7000 pound , he married Margaret Park , a little educated woman from Glasgow, bought a cottage called Dingley Dell , near Port MacDonnell , wrote poetry, dabbled in land ventures, even became a politician. During his time as a politician he indulged his love of daredevil riding , taking part in steeplechases and reckless acts , suffering some bad falls .
After renting out livery stables in Ballarat, Victoria , he joined the Ballarat Troop of Light Horse in 1868, rose to the rank of sergeant , experienced another bad tumble .
The livery stables venture failed, his daughter died , his wife left him, he continued his racing career ,wrote more poetry, published in the Australasian and the Colonial Monthly , suffered another bad fall.
On learning he was heir to a family estate in Scotland , it raised hopes it would enable him to secure his wife's financial future. However , he did not receive the inheritance, became depressed.
His Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes was published on June 23 1870 . A fellow poet, Henry Kendall , showed him a proof copy of the enthusiastic review he had written about the collection .
Instead of being elated , the next morning, Gordon went to the beach at Brighton and shot himself .There is a statue of Gordon , by Paul Montford, near parliament house, Melbourne ; the Dingley Dell cottage , in South Australia, became a shrine in memory of the poet.
NEXT : The fascinating life of author Crawford Vaughan , at one stage Australia's youngest state premier , who wrote Golden Wattle Time, in the process expounding an exotic theory about the origin of Australia's wattle.
