But there Melbourne is, and in spite of all obstacles it is
already the prominent city of the Southern Hemisphere, and Fawkner is
justly its father. When Melbourne's father died, now a good many years
ago, and with not a few of the admitted honours and merits of a long,
laborious, and useful life, I sent authority to friends there to
subscribe for me to the inevitable monument. But my offered money was
never demanded, and therefore I fear that the living busy tide of such a
host of sons has crowded out the memory of the dead parent.
A vision of earliest Melbourne rises before me. Allotment speculators
were bound, within moderate time, to construct a "dwelling" on their
purchase, and in some cases these were made with honest intention, as in
the two adjacent half-acres of Mr. James Smith and Mr. Skene Craig in
west Collins-street. But in most cases these coerced structures were
only shams, which disappeared right early. The only "buildings" on a
good many sections, that are now central and almost priceless, were
post-and-rail fences, somewhat dilapidated at places by our license of
jumping over them for a short diagonal to adjacent streets.
Let me try to recall the Melbourne of 1840, as it looked in that year,
the year of my arrival.
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