Editing Billy Hughes (section)

===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}}