Henry Kendall’s Recovery at Brisbane Water

When the thirty-four-year-old Henry Kendall arrived in Gosford in late 1873 his life was in ruins. In 1869 he had given up his job in the state government office in Sydney and moved to Melbourne where he hoped to live by his writing. He wrote for a range of papers and magazines but his earnings were never enough to support himself, his wife and their child. He sank into poverty, plunged into alcoholism. His one-year-old daughter, Araluen, died in February 1870.[1] In October he returned to Sydney, his son Frederick was born, and he and his wife separated. Arrested for forging a cheque for £1, he escaped jail only by being deemed insane. Set at liberty, six months later he was committed to Gladesville asylum. The admission sheet recorded, “His habits are intemperate and he frequently takes opium and sedatives in large quantities … He is said to have been violent and to have threatened suicide during the present attack.” He was there for three weeks from July 5 to 29, 1871. In…