"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

As my time here in Moree begins to get closer to an end, I wondered what this town really has that might be considered "interesting." Lo and Behold, I found something. At least something that I consider interesting. A connection to the author Charles Dickens who wrote Oliver Twist, and A Tale of Two Cities to name a couple.

Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens

Charles Dickens had quite a few children, the youngest being Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens and for some reason he was nicknamed "Plorn." From the brief research I did, Plorn was spoiled and wasn't really very good at anything and failed to impress his father, which was a concern to Charles as it was suspected that Plorn was his favorite child, hence the fact that he was so spoiled. "A shy boy with no idea of what he wanted to do in life, he had been taken out of school at fifteen and was sent to an agricultural college in Cirencester." As pointed out by Claire Tomalin, the author of Dickens: A Life(2011).

Around that time Plorn's older brother Alfred had been living in New South Wales Australia and owned or ran a sheep station. Charles decided to send Plorn here and wrote Alfred asking if he would take care of him, with hopes that maybe Plorn would become something impressive.

From the time Plorn arrived in Australia until his death, his life was filled with business failures and gambling losses. He did hold public office for a brief time as a member of the State Legislature, but was quickly overtaken by a member of the Labor Party. At one point, Plorn borrowed 800 pounds from his brother Harry and for eighteen years he never made any attempt at paying the debt. Just in case you were wondering, 800 Pounds in 1880 would have been worth roughly 40,000 pounds today, which is about 60,000 US Dollars. Some historians expect that Plorn gambled the money away with hopes of bolstering up his failing business dealings.

In the end, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens died with nothing, no money, no children, no property, and was buried right here in Moree, New South Wales.

Another Interesting thing about this town is the Natural Artisan Hot springs. Artisan means that the water from the ground comes to the surface naturally without needing to be manually pumped. Over the years Moree has been famous for these hot tubs, and people come from all over because they think the water will heal them from something. Usually when my roommate and I go it is early in the morning and the pool is filled with old, fat, deteriorating Serbians, but the pool is still hot and relaxing. 

Aisling and Me at the Moree Artisan Hot Pool