TUESDAY 30/5/22

L&F spend most of Tuesday cleaning up "Wyewurk", which has not been touched since the previous Saturday, when the previous tenants vacated. […F is happy…tidying the house…] They probably do some shopping, and arrange for the various deliveries - milk, firewood, etc - to be made. They are perhaps helped by at least one member of the Friend clan. […afternoon saw Jack and Somers polishing floors with a stuff called glowax…] Lawrence writes three letters - to his agent Mountsier, to his mother-in-law, and to a ship-board acquaintance in Perth, Mrs Jenkins. He begins to think of - and perhaps compose - the novel he has decided to write in Australia. […I am going to try to write a romance…]

WEDNESDAY 31/5/22

Today Lawrence starts writing the first section of the MS text of Kangaroo (session #1, MS pp 1-9[a]: c2000 words - from the Macquarie Street opening, to jogging through town in a hansom cab. [Lawrence misnumbers the MS here, creating two "page 9"s.] He probably spends the morning writing (maybe with a short break - ie, two writing sessions). After lunch L&F stroll along McCauley's Beach, below "Wyewruk", to Sandon Point, where a (joy-ride) plane crash-landed at the weekend. They visit Mrs Callcott, the estate agent and sister of the owner of "Wyewurk", where the dahlia incident occurs. [..."Oh, but these dahlias are really marvellous. You MUST come and look," she sang out to Somers…] Probable visit to shops and local exploration, perhaps including a visit to the railway station to check train times. They return to "Wyewurk" for tea (dinner).

THURSDAY 1/6/22

Lawrence returns, alone, to Sydney by the early (6am-commuter) train. Lawrence has to have his trunks from the Malwa sent down to his address in Thirroul. It is also likely, however, that he has arranged to meet Jack Scott at Mosman that morning (a meeting probably set up during the car-trip back to town on Sunday, when Scott may have intimated to Lawrence that he might have some use for his writing skills). On the way from Circular Quay to Mosman Bay, Lawrence observes a ferry collision. [...One day their ferry steamer bumped into a collier that was heading for the harbour outlet--or rather, their ferry boat headed across the nose of the collier, so the collier bumped into them and had his nose put out of joint. There was a considerable amount of yelling, but the ferry boat slid flatly away towards Manly, and Harriet's excitement subsided...] Lawrence and Scott discuss the possibility of a writing job on a publication Scott has connections with. (In the text, the two main questions Somers is asked are about socialism and Empire - the twin obsessions of the organisation Scott belongs to, and whose journal, King and Empire, is in need of a new editor, or perhaps a contributor.) [..."What do you think of this Irish business?"... "You don't trust socialism then?" ...] Lawrence apparently gives the right answers. […"England has really kept the world steady so far--as steady as it's been"…] Scott invites him to stay with him in his flat at Neutral Bay, a short walk from Mosman Bay. Lawrence probably returned to the city to deal with his trunks, and perhaps to go to Cooks for his mail. He may have had lunch in town with Scott, or Hum. He returns to Neutral Bay by ferry to Cremorne, then by the tram from the wharf up Murdoch Street to Florence Street, from where he walks along Bennett Street to Scott's flat at 112 Wycombe Road. After dinner he climbs the "tub-top" lookout in the back garden and sees [...the view of the harbour from the tub-top of his summer-house…] and the light of the Macquarie Lighthouse across the dark harbour. He stays his first night with Scott. He has a game of chess with him, and is perhaps given a political book (The Sequel) to read, written by the man - George Augustine Taylor - Lawrence may be being asked to replace on Scott's publication...and in which one character is called "Cooley".

FRIDAY 2/6/22

Having decided to remain in Sydney until Saturday, when he intends to accompany Scott down to Thirroul for the holiday weekend (he may have communicated this intention via the Friend family in Thirroul, who probably had a telephone), Lawrence is at a loose end. (It is unlikely he had any writing materials with him, as he had not intended to stay in Sydney.) It may be that he saw Hum again in town, or perhaps went to one of the libraries in Sydney (maybe the School of Arts library in Pitt Street) to do some preliminary "research". There is nothing in the text to indicate what he did during the day. However, he returns to Scott's flat in the evening via ferry, tram and walk to Wycombe Road. He probably had another game of chess with Scott, and a further chat with him, before retiring to bed.