One day in Hobart Father met a young man from England. He was blonde, fresh and new to Tasmania, a typical British migrant looking for adventure and a new life in a much publicized British colony. He wore a flat straw hat known as a boater. Since he was a qualified engineer and was looking for work, Father brought him up to the Collin’s Cap mill to take charge of our engine and boiler. Ernest Baldwin, tall, boyish, and pathetically unaccustomed to this kind of life, stood above the mill looking over the landscape consisting of dense forest, clothing the hills and valleys in every direction. We wondered how this newcomer would adapt himself to our rugged style of life. Of course he knew more about engineering than any of us, and may even have been related to the famed Baldwin Engineering firm of England. We cared little about his theoretical knowledge. We needed someone competent to cope with our machinery without referring to father every time something went wrong.
Ernie was in his element, moving amongst this heavy machinery, and soon learned the ways of the bush in a mountain setting, nursing its own secrets and mothering its own forms of life. For instance, we grew outsize bull ants in that part of the country. They had a sting that could stab you like a scorpion, so you didn’t meddle with them, but kept your eye on them so that they intruded not on your territory, especially the trouser legs. And there were plenty of them. I saw Ernie pick up an ant one day, an odd, multilegged black inchman with a large square head, slim waste and oblong body, at the rear end of which he carried a cutlass. Just as Ernie was taking a curious interest in this thing it stabbed him with a violent jab that made him winch and fling it from his finger. He said it was hot, and lost interest in the bull ants after this unfriendly encounter.
Ernie was a frequent visitor at our home. He was a perfect gentleman and blended easily into our way of life. Father introduced him to the Adventist faith, which he studied carefully and finally accepted it all. Later he married a young lady from Avondale, after spending some time at the college, and remained a stalwart Adventist all his life. He founded the Baldwin Engineering Company near Sydney, New South Wales, and had a fine family of competent sons to carry on the business.
