SUNDOWNER GOES ON HIS LAST TRAMP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 550, 31 December 1928, Page 10

SUNDOWNER GOES ON HIS LAST TRAMP

FOUND DEAD IN HUT

ONCE A CAMBRIDGE DON

Alfred Allen, the old hermit of Melton Hills, near Melbourne, one of the last of the picturesque sundowners of Australia, has gone on his last tramp.

Two old swagmen found him dead with a bullet wound over the heart, and the arteries of his hand severed. By him was the barrel of an old muzzle-loading gun. He had apparently poured the powder and the lead down the barrel and exploded it by putting a match to it. Allen was one of the last of the sundowners of the dusty back roads of Australia. Until three years ago he was always on the road. He walked—well, it didn’t matter where —but he walked from early morn until sunset. And at sundown he was always ready to share his meal with any mate who happened to pass. A few* years ago, Allen set out from the w*estern reaches of the Condamine on his long trek south. He went where tl*e wind took him. and stayed so long as R pleased him. He worried about nothing and got all the tea and ’baccy he wanted. During his three years in the Melton hills Allen learnt to love the call of the whip bird and the laugh of the jackass—the birds almost knew him. In the early morning and at sundown he would often be seen sitting on the slip rails feeding the birds and telling the children the mysteries of the bush. , He was educated. He knew his classics and in a Riverina “rubbidy” once he recited “Troilus and Cressida” by heart. Some of his intimates say he was once a Cambridge don. Allen was 60 years of age. After his long tramp through the back country of New South Wales, he decided that life was a little strenuous and built himself a small hut on the slopes of the Melton Hills. There he stayed until a couple of weeks ago w’hen his body w*as found on a bed of leaves.