Fr Julian Tenison Woods wrote to Sir William Archer from Sydney on 13 February 1877.
In this letter he expressed his appreciation for the enjoyable time he had spent with the Archer family the month before. He was now in Sydney en route to Bathurst.
Fr Julian described the ship, the Wotonga, in which he journeyed from Melbourne to Sydney as “one of the very best boats you can travel in”. Maybe this was because it was relatively new, only built in 1876. The Wotonga which was owned by the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company in Sydney was wrecked on rocks off Port Macquarie on 2 January 1882. A very descriptive newspaper article about the wreck can be found in the Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser on Tuesday, 10 January 1882, page 3 here: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/846157/38505
In this letter Fr Julian spoke candidly about church personnel in Sydney – his scientific interests hardly rated a mention. It sounds as if he had been busy about more social pursuits.
This month we present a ninth letter, written on 13 February 1877: