1901-1902 A year in Australia and New Zealand

Gray had an operation having developed a tubercle. He was hospitalised in St. Thomas’s Hospital in London and was finally recommended to go on a long sea voyage. His friend Brocklehurst bought him a ticket for the longest one possible, round the world via Australia and New Zealand. 

After a further operation in Melbourne he traveled via Sydney to visit his half brother Sam who was working on a mine at Borah Creek in northern New South Wales. Gray spells Borah without the ‘h’ in his letters to his Mother, and in his memoirs changes the name to ‘Fern’ for some reason.

‘Howell
Bora Creek Inverell, N.S.W

Sept 8th 1901 My Dear Mother

Here I am, sitting in the shade of a little wooden cottage and Sam basking in the sun, smoking and reading his paper, about 10 feet away! A few log ‘humpies’ and a tent or two are dotted about the clearings made in the Bush which surrounds us for hundreds of miles - we are sixty miles from the nearest Railway Terminus! Sam is very brown and plump in the face and is better than he has been for nine years - I really think he has a good chance of getting the better of the disease which has several times nearly cost him his life. I was horrified to find how ill he has been - it is only lately that he has been able to walk about and even now he goes pretty carefully. The Manager, Mr Grant, who drove me from Inverell, told me that when he engaged him about a year ago he didn’t think Sam would Iive to get to Bora. He thinks the change in him since then is most remarkable.

Alice is such a nice kind woman and evidently been most devoted to him. He has the utmost consideration shown him by everybody and I really think he leads  a happy life - especially now that he feels so much better. On his pegged out claim (1/4 of an acre) he has built a small wooden 3 roomed cottage, which stands on wooden piers, and he has a tent standing at the back. I have made myself cosy in my room - the furniture is primitive, but the bed is very comfortable. I have hung up photos of Dr Ryan and some of the sweet Melbourne girls!

I found the journey from Sydney to Glen Innes rather tiring. Mabel and her Aunt saw me off at the station. The train started at 5 o’clock and arrived at Glen Innes the following morning at 10. There were 4 of us in the carriage so I had to huddle up in the corner. At Glen Innes we had breakfast and then took the coach to Inverell a distance of 42 miles. The road, or rather track, runs through pretty wild country - this was most invigorating and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. On arriving at Inverell I got a letter from Sam telling me to rest there till Thursday morning, when Mr Grant would drive me out in his buggy. Inverell is a sleepy corrugated iron town, but the district is very fertile and reminded me rather of the Sussex Down country. The late heavy rains had made everything very green - fresh grass was shooting up everywhere. On Wednesday evening Grant called and took me round to dinner at his house - they seemed pleasant people and are moving to Bora next week, where he has had built rather a nice house opposite Sam’s. We started for there, next morning at 7.30 taking in a place called Tinga on our way as he had a Court Case on before the Magistrate there. It was a delightful drive everything was so novel. We spent most of the day at Tinga which is a typical mining village peopled mostly by Chinese. Some of the charges were most amusing and the amount of perjury that went on was surprising!

As the sun went down we started for Bora. It was the most exciting drive I have ever had. The track through the Bush was very rough and Grant was rather drunk and reckless and we went over boulders, through creeks and into bogs and it was certainly luck more than skill that keep us from upsetting! It was quite dark when we entered the Township, the road marked by the lights from the tents and humpies of the miners. Sam’s cottage is at the further end of the Town and we soon came within sight of his light in the window. Alice came out to greet me and I found Sam sitting by the fire in the back room and my first impression was that he had altered a good deal, but it was difficult to realise that fifteen years had passed since we said goodbye at the docks.

Of course we had a great yarn - in fact we have been at it ever since.

I found 4 weeks letters waiting and thoroughly enjoyed all the news. You and Ken had just arrived from the country and Liz had departed for Petworth. Nothing is settled yet about the portrait. Sam thinks I look very well.

With my best love to you all, from your loving son, Ronald Gray’

After a few months at Borah Creek he returned to Sydney to fulfil a commission to paint a portrait of Dr.Normand MacLaurin, Chancellor of Sydney University, referred to in the letter above. The following is an extract of another letter to his Mother describing what happened on his return to Sydney.

‘Well the fairy tale is again commencing - on Friday I received a letter from Mr Smith of which the following is an extract: “ At the meeting yesterday I brought the question of the appointment of an artist before the Committee and we unanimously resolved to ask you to undertake the commission of making a portrait of the Hon. Dr MacLaurie on the terms proposed and discussed between us viz £50 down and then if we find the painting satisfactory another £200 for the purchase of the portrait which if not purchased would be your property - you also to paint a replica for £100 if required”. If I fail to make a success of it the story will be spoilt! You may be quite sure that I shall make every effort - wouldn’t it be splendid to make all that money - I could pay all my obligations! Really it is wonderful chance and thro’ no merit of my own - they have never seen anything I have done, that was my strong point! It is rather a jump from drawing for a third rate Sunday paper to painting one of the principal men in Australia - it makes me laugh. The £50 will pay my expenses in Sydney. I shall have to get a suit of clothes as except for one suit I am ragged! I shall just do my best and chance it. Poor old Sam is as pleased as if it were himself. He deserves a good store of luck after the sad time he has gone through, my bad time has been nothing to it!’

This commission was not without complaints from local Artists as to why an unknown from London was favoured over them. Gray completed the portrait and he left Australia to visit a cousin in New Zealand before returning to England via Cape Horn in 1902.