Editing Billy Hughes (section)

==First years in Australia==
===Queensland===
At the age of 22, finding his prospects in London dim, Hughes decided to emigrate to Australia.{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|pp=11–12}} Taking advantage of an assisted-passage scheme offered by the [[Colony of Queensland]], he arrived in [[Brisbane]] on 8 December 1884 after a two-month journey. On arrival, he gave his year of birth as 1864, a deception that was not uncovered until after his death.{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|p=13}} Hughes attempted to find work with the Education Department, but was either not offered a position or found the terms of employment to be unsuitable. He spent the next two years as an itinerant labourer, working various odd jobs.{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|p=14}} In his memoirs, Hughes claimed to have worked variously as a fruitpicker, tally clerk, [[navvy]], [[blacksmith's striker]], [[station hand]], [[Drover (Australian)|drover]], and [[saddle]]r's assistant, and to have travelled (mostly on foot) as far north as [[Rockhampton]], as far west as [[Adavale]], and as far south as [[Orange, New South Wales]]. He also claimed to have served briefly in both the [[Queensland Defence Force]] and the [[Queensland Maritime Defence Force]].{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|p=16}} Hughes's accounts are by their nature unverifiable, and his biographers have cast doubt on their veracity – [[Laurie Fitzhardinge|Fitzhardinge]] states that they were embellished at best and at worst "a world of pure fantasy".{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|p=17}}

===New South Wales===
[[File:Billy Hughes 1895.jpg|thumb|right|Hughes in 1895 (age 33)]]
Hughes moved to [[Sydney]] in about mid-1886, working his way there as a deckhand and galley cook aboard [[Queensland Steam Shipping Company|SS ''Maranoa'']].{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|p=17}} He found occasional work as a [[line cook]], but at one point supposedly had to resort to living in a cave on [[The Domain, Sydney|The Domain]] for a few days. Hughes eventually found a steady job at a forge, making hinges for colonial ovens. Around the same time, he entered into a [[common-law marriage]] with Elizabeth Cutts, his landlady's daughter; they had six children together.{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|p=19}} In 1890, Hughes moved to [[Balmain, New South Wales|Balmain]]. The following year, with his wife's financial assistance, he was able to open a small shop selling general merchandise. The income from the shop was not enough to live on, so he also worked part-time as a locksmith and umbrella salesman, and his wife as a washerwoman. One of Hughes's acquaintances in Balmain was [[William Wilks (Australian politician)|William Wilks]], another future MP, while one of the customers at his shop was [[Frederick Richard Jordan|Frederick Jordan]], a future [[Chief Justice of New South Wales]].{{sfn|Fitzhardinge|1964|p=20}}