RETURN TO VAN DIEMEN'S LAND: TASMANIA OVER FIVE GENERATIONS
Abraham Biggs
My great-great grandfather Abraham Biggs arrived in Hobart Town in 1833, with his wife Eliza and six children; these generative shores encouraged him to produce seven more. Abraham was a hell-fire and brimstone Methodist lay preacher who sought, at Lt. Governor George Arthur's request, to wean the convicts from the demon drink with the Mighty Hammer of God's Word (it didn’t work). Abraham begat Alfred who begat Walter who begat Oscar who begat me, the last of this Tasmanian line. I tell the stories of each, but Return to Van Diemen's Land is not a family history; rather, it describes the Tasmania each experienced, giving a unique ground level view of Tasmanian social and political history. I left Tasmania at the time of the notorious Orr Case, returning 40 years later in 2001 to find that much had changed but much had not. Tasmanian politics in the 21st century has been particularly stormy, the mode of operation of government strongly recalling the Tasmania that Abraham knew. He might well look from that distant shore, nod, smile and murmur: plus ça change …
excerpts
My grandfather Walter in a Scottsdale that was a hotbed of outsourced patriotism.
"Pater Biggs" opens his bank and his son Reg catches HRH at it.
My father Oscar goes to University in 1921 and has very good reason to conclude that:
"A degree from the University of Tasmania isn't worth a cracker!"
I return to Tasmania to explore the Tarkine but where is it?
Wilderness: What is it?