HA 107 - Lithograph of The City Terminus of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Co. 1854

Drawn on stone by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-1880), printed by Campbell & Ferguson and published by James Blundell & Co, Melbourne. The railway opened in September 1854 as the first steam railway in Australia and ran the 2.5 miles on broad gauge to what became Port Melbourne. The letter was written from Tarrangower by William Malloch who was working the quartz reefs to his brother John, a plate layer near Moffat. William was crushing about 50 tons a week for which they charged £4 a ton, grossing about £200 a week, of which the proprietor kept up to £150. He was paid £3 a week and writes that “everything here is selling very dear.. bread here is selling 2/- for a loaf, sugar is 6-8/-, Tea 2/6d - 3/-, Eggs 6d per dozen, Boots 21/- a pair, Trousers 9/6d. The Boots and Trousers you buy here don’t last any time, 6 weeks or 1 month”. The letter was carried on the Black Ball contract sailing clipper “Montmorency” owing to the Crimean War and the mail was landed at Dunmore East near Waterford. Most of the mail was handled in Liverpool or London but because of its destination this letter bears the only known example of Dublin’s Australian Mail datestamp.