George Street, Fitzroy. 4 January 1862
George Street, Fitzroy. 4 January 1862My heart was all a flutter. I met a gentleman at my sister Caroline’s wedding to her sweetheart, John Bulmer. He was a friend of John’s. I wanted to scold Caroline for keeping him from me.
‘He is tall, distinguished, with a dashing moustache and sky-blue eyes,’ I told my fourteen-year-old sister Frances after Caroline’s wedding. ‘He hails from Belfast, he arrived here in 1855 and told me all about his father’s drapery business in Belfast. His brothers have set up a branch of the family business in Nelson, in New Zealand. Imagine that, Frances. He has travelled all the way from Belfast to Melbourne and now has plans to go to New Zealand. I’ve never left Melbourne.’
‘I’ve never left Melbourne either,’ Frances com
