In 1844, Basil Kendall moved his family to the coastal regions of Illawarra in the Clarence River district. Before he got married, Basil Kendall had lost almost all of one lung and, by this time, his health had begun to fail. He found it hard to support his family, which had grown to include three daughters. He died in 1851 when Henry Kendall was 12 years old.
After Basil Kendall's death, Kendall's mother moved her children back to the south coast, near Woolongong, and the family was soon scattered, the children taken in by various relatives who cared for them. Henry and his brother lived with relatives on the South Coast in Illawarra. The area was said to be especially beautiful, and the environment made an enormous impression on Kendall. The lush and beautiful surroundings influenced some of his later landscape poetry, especially in such works as "Bell Birds," "September in Australia," and "Narrara Creek."
In 1855, after a brief education, the 14-year-old Kendall followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and went to sea. He worked as a cabin boy on a whaling brig, the Plumstead, which was owned by his uncle Joseph.
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