A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

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He wrote to a correspondent who shared his anthropological interest that “we
ploughed out an aboriginal midden here last week and I have secured one very good
stone tomahawk and some flints for you.” 1 He also mentioned the native skulls and
bones which came to light from the same source. Such was his interest in these
previous inhabitants of Gippsland that he made a collection over the years of
newspaper material and notes for a book on the topic. 2
His interest in the district was also very much apparent in his concern for its economic
potentialities. He was ever alert to ways of making money from the land. He gained
an oyster lease in 1916 and in the same year wrote to the Department of Munitions to
enquire about the value of grass-tree gum, having heard rumours that it was an
essential element in the manufacture of explosives. He was given the names of
private buyers but it is not know if he actually sold any of this material, which is
readily available in that area.
After a brief skirmish with several of his neighbours, who resented his illegal use of
the foreshore land in front if his property and organised a petition to have it opened to
public access, Brady’s labours on Australia Unlimited reached completion. This had
been a task which occupied him longer than any other, either before or thereafter.
Relieved at seeing the end of six years’ work he wrote to Prior of The Bulletin:
I am coming at long last to the end of Australia Unlimited and will be free for
a time at least to write what a derned well like. I have bottled up hogsheads of
journalistic copy. If my name is not anathema in the Bulletin office, I shall be
wanting to make a few preachments through the columns of your valued
journal, respected Sir. 3
He still made the occasional trip to Melbourne (“at best a decayed mining village”)
but confessed to Nettie Palmer that he was still not getting along very well with
George Robertson, whom he regarded as unbusinesslike. He complaines to Nettie
that “all publishers are avaricious asses. Probably the result of an asinine Public
which doesn’t know brass from gold.” 4
But in spite of visits to Sydney and Melbourne, Brady’s heart was now in the
Mallacoota district. He became Honorary Organiser of the Australian East Coast
Railway League which sought a direct line to take local produce to Sydney. He
considered expanding his leasehold land to go into partnership with Maitland, one of
the agents who had helped him sell space in Australia Unlimited, but Maitland
withdrew.
Meanwhile, Brady’s interest in literature continued, with regular correspondence with
many literary figures, some of whom discussed a favourite theme of his –hardships of
the Australian writer. Esson summed up the position:
1
Brady to Hare, 40.10.1916, in National Library.
2
My Blackfellow Book was the tentative title to this collected material which is now in the National
Library
3
Brady to Prior, 8.5.1917, in National Library.
4
Brady to Nettie Palmer, 5.6.1918, in National Library