Thomas McCombie 1819-1869 An Early Melbourne Writer

MARGIN: Life & Letters in Early Australia, April, 2004 by Caroline Innett

Thomas McCombie was a Scotsman who came to Australia in the very early days of the Colonies and made a substantial contribution to Australian Literature. He was born in Tillyfour in Aberdeenshire in Scotland in 1819 and so he was only 22 years old when he arrived in Australia. He actually arrived in the new settlement of Port Phillip in early 1841 and like many young men on arrival he went out into the country to try his hand as a grazier. At this time Melbourne and Port Phillip was part of new South Wales and his earliest experiences were in country New South Wales. This is probably the reason why his novel Arabin is set in country New South Wales although it was probably set in what later became the State of Victoria. The life of a Grazier dial not suit the young man from Scotland and he returned to Melbourne to make his home in that brash infant town.

What was he to do with himself in the growing settlement on the Yarra River? In 1844 he settled that question and became the editor of the young newspaper The Port Phillip Gazette and in addition also became a part owner. This newspaper had been started in 1838 and was the second newspaper in Melbourne. The first had been started by John Pascoe Fawkner as a hand written newspaper called The Advertiser. The Port Phillip Gazette was not an official newspaper as its title might suggest but had been commenced by an 18 year old immigrant by the name of George Arden a colourful character who was a good writer and a brilliant speaker on literary topics. He had that unfortunate failing of many of our early writers, a craving for strong drink. Due to various financial problems he lost the paper in 1842 and his partner, Thomas Strode a printer also left the newspaper soon after. Strode inserted an advertisement in the September 1846 issue of the newspaper to say he had sold his interest and no longer had a connection with the newspaper.

Thomas McCombie took over as editor and part owner in early 1844 from William Kerr who became better known for his later work on The Argus. In that same year, on 16 October 1844, McCombie married Elizabeth Willis and settled down to family life in Melbourne. He had commenced writing about the settlement of Port Phillip and the Australian colonies before this and published articles some of them in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. He possibly had connections with the periodical or its editor before he left Britain. It was while he was editor of The Port Phillip Gazette that he commenced to write a novel. In 1845 he published his best known work the novel Arabin of the Adventures of a Colonist in New South Wales published in London by Simmonds & Ward. The book includes an essay on the Aborigines as an appendix. Arabin is an interesting account of the adventures of a medical graduate from Edinburgh University. His experiences as a country doctor with a criminal lunatic to cope with make a great story and it is far from dull or pedestrian. Also he was in the novel addressing an Australian audience instead of a British one which adds to its value as part of this early literature. The reason for this Australian focus may in part be attributed to the fact that he was a Scottish rather than English immigrant. Although it is stated that the action of the novel takes place in New South Wales the country setting is now part of Victoria. McCombie may have travelled to Sydney or to the northern part of the colony in his early days in the colonies. There were a number of editions of Arabin which was variously titled. For example one printing was titled Adventures of a Colonist or Godfrey Arabin, the Settler and it was published in London by John & Daniel Darling of Bishopgate Street in 1845 The usual title was Arabin, or The Adventures of a Colonist in New South Wales. With an essay on the Aborigines of Australia, it was published in London by Simmonds & Ward also in 1845. McCombie advertised Arabin continuously in The Port Phillip Gazette in 1846 and added his name prominently under the title as the author.

In 1845 McCombie had published his Australian Sketches. This was a series of essays on topics mainly related to the colony specifically the Port Phillip district. Some of these articles were published originally in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine and other British periodicals. A second edition of the Australian Sketches was published in Melbourne by 'The Gazette' Office also in 1847.

The Australian Sketches were a collection of essays or articles on various subjects related to the colonies. They were a mixture of factual descriptions of aspects of the colonies and character sketches of various 'types' to be encountered. For example in the article headed 'My Neighbourhood' he gives colourful pictures of the grocer (an ex-convict who tried to hide the fact), the local auctioneer, the baker and finally the most important man in the neighbourhood, the hotel landlord. They are well written and amusing.

Another sketch was about Jackey Jackey the Bushranger. There was another Jacky Jacky, known as the Indian Chief (an aboriginal). His description of the outback settler as hairy, dirty and lazy is an amusing description of some of this special type of character. As this outback settler comes to town once a year to sell his wool he could not have been all that lazy. But the sketch makes good reading. Perhaps the best story is 'The Merchant's Bride' and it displays McCombie's skill in telling a good story especially in his use of conversation which catches some of the colonial tuna of phrase.