Heber Hedley Booth

Heber Hedley Booth (2 June 1864 – 9 August 1936) was a Queensland-based Australian poet who wrote under the nom de plume Opal, known principally for his inaugural anthology Opalodes. His poems made much reference to the locations of northern Australia, although several involved political comment of actions at the time. Booth's writings covered the early Federation of Australia from a Queensland perspective, possibly influenced by the earlier 1890s Central Queensland Territorial Separation League and the ongoing North Queensland separation movements.

Personal life

Heber Hedley Booth was one of four surviving children of Ernest Hardwick Booth (d. 1915) and Mary Annie Wilcox (d. 1896). Ernest served as chair for a gold mine, was later an auctioneer, although was insolvent by 1898. Brother James went on to become a surgeon based in Melbourne, and later president of the Australian Literary Society.

First educated at Gympie on a scholarship, he spent three years at the Brisbane Grammar School, before being employed at fifteen years-of-age with the postal service as a telegraphist at Greenmount, near Toowoomba in 1879.

On 30 January 1895, Booth married Harriett Elizabeth de Gruchy, the daughter of John William de Gruchy and Isabella Leslie, of Highfields, Toowoomba. Her father was from Jersey, Channel Islands, and a mother from Dublin, Ireland. Harriett was born in Toowoomba. He was later chosen to take charge of the telegraph station at Junction Creek near Georgetown. Harriett found herself as the only non-indigenous woman in the area for over six months. In July 1900, Booth was transferred to Ingham.

His postmaster postings formed his poems: Boulia, Cooktown, Maytown, Palmer, Richmond, Springsure, Thornborough,

Poetry

It was once opined that Booth, unlike other Queensland poets of the time including James Brunton Stephens (1835–1902) and George Essex Evans (1863–1909), was a Queenslander by birth. Booth's pen name Opal was an association with his State of origin, Queensland; although he had written under Haidee previously. Due to his movement through the State due to his employment, many of his poems referred to northern Australia. and even Henry Lawson. Booth's poems were published under his pen name in the Australian newspapers.

The release of his anthology was considered to be a mixture of 'the gay and the serious' with 'no definite style in the verses'. One critique commented 'For Mr. Booth is content to publish some of the least metrical lines which ever passed for verse'. Ne'er before the world has seen, Australia, Beloved! Such a young and untried Queen, Australia, Our Own, Trusted with such ample sway As is yours to wield always, Through the blinding lightnings play Round your ocean circled throne, Australia— As we list to your bugles blown.

Several of Booth's poems were included in Louis Lataver's collection of the best Australian sonnets. The scrubs were upriven, the plains were part cleared, And soon happy homes o'er the landscape appeared, While the serpentine river—a miniature Nile, Saw the township of Proserpine born with a smile.

So Proserpine grows, scarce three leagues from the sea, And twines round all hearts, for her welcome is free; And the three thousand souls who no further would roam, To thirty shall swell, who will love her as—"Home."

It was suggested that this type of 'conventional Australian verse... will probably win the wider public'.