Media: paperback 276 pages 
Year: 1997 

From the Foreword

The chronicler of this diary, Charles Trench Armstrong1 was bom on 24 September, 1842 at Portumna, Co Galway, Ireland, one of thirteen children of the Reverend John and Ellen Armstrong. Charles Trench was their seventh son and third youngest of the children. He arrived on the Marie Eliza in the Port of Melbourne after a four month voyage from Liverpool on 22 October, 1853, at the age of 11 years along with two of his nine brothers and his four sisters. One of his sisters was Constance Maria who was to later many Sydney Grandison Watson.

Charles died in 1931 atNyngan aged 89 years, leaving behind written detail which covers almost every day of his life in Australia. Unfortunately floodwaters from the Bogan River have irreparbly damaged some of his written testimony, but what remains forms part of the transcription which follows.

It is believed that the Armstrong family on arrival initially lived at Beechworth before moving in about 1860 to New South Wales and settling at Yarrara. This was not far from Ten Mile Creek or Germanton (now Holbrook) and also where Sydney Grandison Watson had his landholdings on the Upper Murray on the Victorian side.

Following the death on 3 August, 1861 of Sydney Grandison Watson’s first wife Isabella (nee Robinson) he then married Charles’s sister, Constance Maria Armstrong on 8 May 1862 and they had seven children, the last of whom was bom in 1872, a year before Charles came to work for his brother-in-law.

This extract from Charles’ diary extends from 22 September 1873 to 19 November 1878, covering five years of the 15 years he was employed and worked indefatiguably with undivided loyalty to his “Boss” and brother-in-law, Sydney Grandison Watson, as overseer on the Tintaldra run. The Tintaldra run was worked in conjunction with other country in Sydney Grandison’s possession, namely Curyong (sic), Wermatong, Cudgewa, Jerimal and Walwa.

From Charles’ written account of the daily events, Sydney Grandison Watson may not have been the easiest person to work for. However, in spite of their periodic differences of opinion, Charles was always ready to defer and get on with the task in hand. He willingly took on additional responsibilities, including running the local store and one of the early mail runs serving the area.

Charles reminds us of the continuing battle of survival, the importance of the weather and the seasons and the need to attend to those chores on which self-sufficiency depended. The regular salting of a beast, cutting up meat, digging, planting and weeding the vegetable garden and “pulling the grapes” were all an essential part of a routine which had to be fitted in with the regular mustering, branding, sorting and counting of the cattle. ...