Item 29-32 - Four letters from Robert [Leonard]

7 sheets, 4 envelopes

Four letters written from Western Australia, including Carnarvon and Kalgoorlie. Describes heading northwest and hitchhiking, taking up an offer to stay at a farm, which turns out to be 50 miles from any other, though tons of young men arrive when they hear there's a visitor, briefly describes farm auctions, feeding stations, and staying in a shack on the Indian Ocean; his distress at nothing but canned food, sheep sandwiches, and relentless sun and heat. A week later he writes from Carnarvon after leaving Geraldton, is thankful to meet an intelligent woman who works at the satellite tracking station; is staying in a cheap hotel featuring a pool with slime on the top and broken bottles on the bottom; the food is disgusting and upsetting his stomach; the people are very like Californians but age very fast, are ignorant, and have annoying ways of saying yes and thank you, and is happy to meet a farmer from Devon with whom he could commiserate. A few days later he writes more about farmers, their slaughter of wildlife and irresponsible treatment of the environment; hitchhiking to Geraldton, which he describes complete with a hotel he dislikes; has learned to avoid eye contact because strangers will invite him to their house; and ends with the hope that he can meet PS in Singapore. The last letter begins on the train from Perth to Kalgoorlie; describes a flight in a Fokker F28 and observing birds who seemed to be waiting for things to get blasted off the runway so they could eat them; flies that stick to the skin; 'Aboriginals' who have taken to the W.A. culture's sodas, sweets, booze & welfare; a boozy cruise up the Swan River; on to Kalgoorlie by train, though the town itself is too cute; smoked hashish with some chaps and then went to a whorehouse district, and got 'off the hook' by claiming he has gonorrhea; is leaving for Adelaide.

Date of two letters from postmark.