AustLit

In 1884 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, at the age of eighteen, Frederick Hugh Thomas was convicted for a crime that sentenced him to transportation to Australia 'for the term of his natural life'. He lived in Sydney and Tasmania establishing himself as an architect and civil engineer with an interest in poetry, philosophy and Shakespearean tragedy. He met Marcus Clarke in 1866 in Melbourne and during the years from 1869 to 1874 the two men developed an intense literary relationship. Some time later, Thomas and his family departed for Sydney.