Narre Warren and District Family History Group
Book, Alfred Joyce, A homestead history : being the reminiscences and letters of Alfred Joyce of Plaistow and Norwood, Port Phillip, 1843 to 1864, 1969
A HOMESTEAD HISTORY
Alfred Joyce began a pastoral partnership with his brother in the Upper Loddon early in 1844. His reminiscences reveal events of the venture, from the departure from Melbourne with the completion of a roomy homestead, from the threat of bankruptcy, to substantial success within a decade. In writing them, he was not dependent upon his memories; the many letters he had written to his parents in London had eventually been returned to him, and those written between 1851 and his mother's death in 1858 form a continuation of his own narrative. They describe in vivid detail the upheavals that followed the discovery of gold, the transformation of both town and country, the dissolution of the Joyce brothers' partnership, and Alfred's activities as pastoralist, farmer and miller at Norwood on die Bet Bet Creek.
In this third edition, for which a much wider range of illustrations is available, an epilogue continues the story of George Joyce at Plaistow and Alfred Joyce at Norwood until both properties had passed into other hands. Domestic tragedy overwhelmed the one, while droughts and mortgages eventually ruined the other.
It is a record which, in the words of the American Historical Review, 'would serve as script for a first-class documentary film and deserves high rank, in the literature of pastoral pioneering'. Other reviewers have been equally emphatic: 'The real history of Australia is written very largely in such records as this' (Australian Quarterly); 'of historical documents such as diese we cannot have too many' (Sydney Morning Herald). (back cover)
non-fictionA HOMESTEAD HISTORY
Alfred Joyce began a pastoral partnership with his brother in the Upper Loddon early in 1844. His reminiscences reveal events of the venture, from the departure from Melbourne with the completion of a roomy homestead, from the threat of bankruptcy, to substantial success within a decade. In writing them, he was not dependent upon his memories; the many letters he had written to his parents in London had eventually been returned to him, and those written between 1851 and his mother's death in 1858 form a continuation of his own narrative. They describe in vivid detail the upheavals that followed the discovery of gold, the transformation of both town and country, the dissolution of the Joyce brothers' partnership, and Alfred's activities as pastoralist, farmer and miller at Norwood on die Bet Bet Creek.
In this third edition, for which a much wider range of illustrations is available, an epilogue continues the story of George Joyce at Plaistow and Alfred Joyce at Norwood until both properties had passed into other hands. Domestic tragedy overwhelmed the one, while droughts and mortgages eventually ruined the other.
It is a record which, in the words of the American Historical Review, 'would serve as script for a first-class documentary film and deserves high rank, in the literature of pastoral pioneering'. Other reviewers have been equally emphatic: 'The real history of Australia is written very largely in such records as this' (Australian Quarterly); 'of historical documents such as diese we cannot have too many' (Sydney Morning Herald). (back cover)alfred joyce, upper loddon