Page 13. The Gold Rush had struck. Men and women were arriving in Melbourne en route to the gold fields. The unusual mixture of labour shortage and surging population in the city saw wages and prices soar. During late 1852 into 1853 rents multiplied five to ten times and basic food items more than trebled. The city was considered to be the most expensive in the world in which to live.

Melbourne became filthy. Streets deteriorated under heavy traffic. The town’s water supply was totally inadequate and carters had to travel further and further up a polluted Yarra for fresh supplies. Foul smells were the result of poor sanitation and lack of sewerage. Flies and fleas tormented the population. In an attempt to relieve the critical shortage in accommodation a canvas city of tents and huts was hastily erected in November 1852 on Emerald Hill on the south bank of the Yarra River.

"Canvas Town" between Princess Bridge and South Melbourne in the 1850s.

• Emigration was big business and the number of arrivals seeking gold was so vast that accommodation was a problem. Tent cities sprang up on the southern banks of the Yarra River."(Geoff Hocking, "To the Diggings!")
   
  "The people here are dying by scores of dissentry, fevers, and every other ailment that man is subject to; a more unhealthy place is not to be found in the known world...a person that brings out a family here ought to be shot - he has no place to bring them to. A room in Melbourne could not be obtained for love or money and you would pay two pounds a week for a dilapidated old Tent not even water proof." (a letter from John Hewat to his parents, March 17 1853.)
   
  "On the riverside entrails, blood, gore and the stripped carcasses of rotting animals trailed into the river, creating a malodorous welcome to the newly arrived immigrant...we were getting initiated into colonial prices - money did indeed take to itself wings and fly away." ("A Lady’s Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia".)

William and Sarah must have regretted their decision to travel to Australia. They were living in a cold, leaky tent in Melbourne in May, friendless and exhausted after 102 days at sea and having suffered through the illness of their 13-month-old baby, now dead. Sarah was 36 years old and must have wondered whether she would have more children. I would imagine this would have been one of the lowest moments of their lives.

William Henry Graham, aged 13 months, was buried on May 4 1853 (No. 2219) and the burial recorded in the Parish records of St James church. This church was moved, stone by stone, to the corner of King and Batman Streets, West Melbourne, in 1914 where it stands today. It was replaced as the Cathedral church of Melbourne bySt Paul’s Cathedral in 1891. William would have been buried in the Old Melbourne Cemetery which was later destroyed for the building of the Victoria Markets.

Burial of William Henry, aged 13 months,
registered in the Parish of Saint James in 1853
 

St James church, Melbourne

William and Sarah got on with life. There was plenty of opportunity for a man ready to do a hard day’s work. They found accommodation at Gardeners Creek Road, Prahran and William obtained work as a brickmaker.

• "A man here with a little capital is sure to realize a fortune in a few years with industry and prudence no matter in what branch of industry he engages." (A letter from Melbourne by John Hewat to his parents, March 17 1853.)

On 16th September 1855 a daughter was born to them, Sarah Ann. Sarah was 37 years old when she had Sarah Ann.

Birth certificate of Sarah Ann Graham