I promise to write you a letter .....
Letters From Australia
A remarkable collection of letters is the basis for a major historical and cultural project.
Members of the Osborne family from West Cornwall emigrated to South Australia at the beginning of the 1860s and slowly began writing letters back home. The letters speak of the loneliness and hardship of the pioneering life despite the considerable Cornish community that were settling there. The Osbornes brought their mining and farming skills to bear and fully committed every resource to try to eke out a living.
They took their culture with them too, particularly their deep chapel faith. The letters cry out with homesickness and separation, and of dealing with the loss of close kin both in Cornwall and Australia.
The letters span approximately a decade and chart the progress of the emigrants - father and soon-to be-dead mother with small children, older, and alienated children arriving years later, uncle, aunt, neighbours from home, and a new stepmother.
After grinding years of hard physical labour, lapsed faith and alcoholism amongst the elders, the fortunes of the youngsters begins to improve as they seek a new life in the developing town of Ballarat. There are literally hundreds of Osbornes living there to this day.
The letters themselves provide the inspiration and direct source for the creative elements of the project, script, song lyrics and overarching visual motif. Performed by professional Cornish actors and musicians and supported by sound, film and design specialists.
The team behind the project have been exploring innovative ways of bringing these dusty artefacts to life. They have started to create an ‘immersive’ film to be projected in the Immersive Dome in RIO’s refurbished Market Hall in Devonport.
An audio play is now complete. starring Bec Applebee, Steve Jacobs and Miles Sloman. Four songs have been written for the play and the film by Nick Hart and recorded by Elowen Waters, Richard Trethewey, Neal Jolly and Nick Hart. Release date for the audio play and tracks is pending.
We are grateful for the support, through Cornwall Council, of Feast Cornwall, our local agency of Arts Council England.
The project is led by Martin Eddy, Dave Hotchkiss, Nick Hart and Miles Sloman and the members of St Neot Local Historian Society.
A remarkable collection of letters is the basis for a major historical and cultural project.
Members of the Osborne family from West Cornwall emigrated to South Australia at the beginning of the 1860s and slowly began writing letters back home. The letters speak of the loneliness and hardship of the pioneering life despite the considerable Cornish community that were settling there. The Osbornes brought their mining and farming skills to bear and fully committed every resource to try to eke out a living.
They took their culture with them too, particularly their deep chapel faith. The letters cry out with homesickness and separation, and of dealing with the loss of close kin both in Cornwall and Australia.
The letters span approximately a decade and chart the progress of the emigrants - father and soon-to be-dead mother with small children, older, and alienated children arriving years later, uncle, aunt, neighbours from home, and a new stepmother.
After grinding years of hard physical labour, lapsed faith and alcoholism amongst the elders, the fortunes of the youngsters begins to improve as they seek a new life in the developing town of Ballarat. There are literally hundreds of Osbornes living there to this day.
The letters themselves provide the inspiration and direct source for the creative elements of the project, script, song lyrics and overarching visual motif. Performed by professional Cornish actors and musicians and supported by sound, film and design specialists.
The team behind the project have been exploring innovative ways of bringing these dusty artefacts to life. They have started to create an ‘immersive’ film to be projected in the Immersive Dome in RIO’s refurbished Market Hall in Devonport.
An audio play is now complete. starring Bec Applebee, Steve Jacobs and Miles Sloman. Four songs have been written for the play and the film by Nick Hart and recorded by Elowen Waters, Richard Trethewey, Neal Jolly and Nick Hart. Release date for the audio play and tracks is pending.
We are grateful for the support, through Cornwall Council, of Feast Cornwall, our local agency of Arts Council England.
The project is led by Martin Eddy, Dave Hotchkiss, Nick Hart and Miles Sloman and the members of St Neot Local Historian Society.
