A change of pace for you this week, dear reader, as I am going to take you to the Antarctic in 1911 with Mawson and his men and connect the expedition to Forbes, tobacco and slavery.
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Confused? I don’t blame you. It all started last year when we were performing and recording in Tasmania.
My musical mate, Graham Seal and I along with our respective wives called in to the Mawson Replica Huts in Hobart. During our look around this fascinating exhibition, we noticed a gramophone, records and a pedal organ that Mawson and his men took on their trip.
This got us thinking – what did they do for recreation in the two years they were isolated from the world? No mp3 players, no videos, no internet or youtube – what kept them entertained.
Graham, is a pretty smart cookie, has Professor in front of his name and is a brilliant researcher so between us we scoured diaries from the expedition and found that they were full of descriptions of the songs they sang, the records they listened to and the books they took.
An idea evolved and grew into a full scale theatrical production ‘The Music of Mawson’s Men’ that we will be presenting at The National Folk Festival in Canberra over Easter and also in Tasmania next year.
Take the time and do a search on ‘Mawson 1911 expedition’, as it is too complicated to expand on here. You will not be disappointed.
http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/mawsons-antarctic-expedition
But how does this connect to Forbes and tobacco you ask? The spot that Mawson chose for his main base and where the huts were erected was at Cape Denison.
Being a quizzical fellow I wanted to know who was this Denison bloke who gave his name to the Cape? My thoughts were that he would have been one of the major sponsors of the expedition as Mawson had little or no Government assistance and relied on philanthropists to support him.
I was correct and imagine my surprise when it was discovered that Sir Hugh Denison was born in Forbes. From the Australian Dictionary of Biography: Sir Hugh Robert Denison (1865-1940), tobacco manufacturer, newspaper proprietor, and philanthropist, was born on 11 November 1865 at South Lead, near Forbes, New South Wales, eldest son of Robert Dixson (d.1891), tobacco manufacturer in Melbourne and Adelaide.
Denison was indeed one of Mawson’s major financial supporters and as he made a deal of his money out of tobacco I’m sure they had plenty of weed for the trip. The fact emerged also that his parents were growing tobacco in Forbes at that time. Yes, tobacco and cotton in Forbes in the 1860s!
This led me to more interesting stories. Sydney Mail (NSW 1860-1871), Saturday 15 April 1865: Article regarding Tobacco and Cotton in the Forbes area.
The introduction of this branch of industry (cotton and tobacco) is mainly due to Mr John Taylor and Black Peter, two coloured men and both Americans. Peter was formerly a slave and escaped from bondage. They had had experience in the cultivation of both cotton and tobacco in the States.
It is needless to point out the advantage, not only to Australia but to Europe, that would result from the circumstance that tobacco and cotton can be grown of as good quality and at as cheap a rate, by free labour, in Australia, as the same articles can be grown with forced labour in the Southern States of America. If such a thing can be demonstrated, the gold-fields and mining interest generally will become of secondary importance.
Slavery did not officially end until December 1865, the year this was published so Black Peter would have still theoretically been a slave at the time.
It has been a long trip this week - Antarctica to Forbes via the Southern States of America. No wonder I’m tired.
- Rob Willis
