moyne shire heritage study 2006 fcemeteries stage 2 · crawley, j.w. junior (fl. 1890-1910),...

MOYNE SHIRE HERITAGE STUDY (STAGE 2) 2006

__________________________________________________________________________________ Helen Doyle and Context Pty Ltd 1

Fcemeteries

Moyne Shire Heritage Study 2006 Stage 2

Volume 2: Environmental History

Prepared for Moyne Shire Council

Helen Doyle in association with Context Pty Ltd

2006



Context Pty Ltd 22 Merri Street, Brunswick Victoria 3056

Phone 03 9380 6933 Facsimile 03 9380 4066

email: [email protected]

Helen Doyle & Context Pty Ltd 2006

Project Team:

Project Manager - Helen Doyle

Heritage planning – Chris Johnston & David Helms (Context Pty Ltd)

Thematic Environmental History – Helen Doyle

Architecture & built heritage – Martin Turnor & Natica Schmeder (Context Pty Ltd)

Landscape & horticulture – Lee Andrews

Archaeology – David Rhodes (Heritage Insight)

Historical research – Helen Doyle & Lee Andrews

Helen Doyle 8 Eastern Place, Auburn Victoria 3123

Phone 0419 528994 email: [email protected]

CONTENTS 2.1 The natural setting and land form 3

2.2 Vegetation 4

2.3 The Aboriginal landscape 6

Image 1: A domed Aboriginal hut in western Victoria, sketched by G.A. Robinson in 1841 [SLV] 7

3. European exploration 8

3.1 Exploration by sea 8

3.2 Exploration by land 8

4. Whaling, sealing and fishing 10

Image 2: ‘Belfast, Port Fairy’, sketched by S.T. Gill; published in Victoria Illustrated 1857 [SLV Accession no. 30328102131660/17] 10

5. The pastoral invasion 12

5.1 A ‘park-like’ estate 12

5.2 A rush of squatters 13

Initially, gardens served the utilitarian purpose of food production. Before squatters had been granted security of tenure, the garden plot at the head station was often the only cultivated piece of land. As the number of white women began to increase through the 1840s, and station life became more domesticated, the original huts were extended, or rebuilt entirely, and flower gardens and trees were planted to ornamentation, familiarity and ‘civilisation’. Annie Baxter remarked shortly after her arrival at Port Fairy: ‘I must make “Yambuck” [sic.] as pretty as I can now that I intend remaining there for some time!’ 15

6. Contested land: the contact period 21

6.1 Frontier conflict and massacre sites 21

Clashes between Aborigines and settlers reached a peak around 1842–43. In south-west Victoria, where pastoral settlement was swift and extensive, clashes were frequent. In Portland, the local newspaper claimed that the country ‘might as well be in a state of civil war’. Rolf Boldrewood and others referred to the ‘Eumeralla War’. Conflicts over food sources and access to territory were rife. As more and more pastoralists staked their claim to vast tracts of land, the Aborigines responded with armed resistance. At Port Fairy in the 1840s, settlers petitioned C.J. La Trobe for assistance, complaining of the loss of 3600 sheep, 100 cattle, and 10 horses during a period of only a few months. 21

6.2 Settlers’ treatment of Aborigines 22

7.1 Tenant farmers and freeholders 24

7.4 Farm buildings 28

7.5 Advances in farming technology 30

Table 1. Estates subdivided for soldier settlement following World War II 32

Estate District Blocks 32

8. Rural settlement 33



8.1 Settlement patterns 33

8.2 The Land Selection Acts 33

8.3 Closer and soldier settlement 34

9. Primary Industry 36

9.1 Flour mills 36

37

IMAGE 13: Ruins of a bluestone oast at Vinegar Hill, Wangoom [photo: Lee Andrews] 37

9.3 The dairy industry 37

10. Timber and forestry 41

10.2 Saw-milling 41

42

IMAGE 17: Forestry hut at Framlingham Forest [photo: Helen Doyle]11. Lime-burning and quarrying 42



11. Lime-burning and quarrying 43

11.1 Lime-burning 43

11.2 Quarrying 43

13.2 Defence 50

14.1 The Aboriginal ‘Protectorate’ 51

14.2 Maintaining Aboriginal cultural life 51

15. Community life 56

15.1 Religion and education 56

15.2 Sport and recreation 62

15.3 Community groups and organisations 63

17. A landscape ‘thoroughly European’ 70

17.1 Cultivating an ‘Irish landscape’ 70

18.1 Trees and gardens 78

79

18.2 School gardens and plantations 80

19.1 Conservation efforts 81

20. Holidays, tourism and heritage 83

20.1 Seaside resorts 83

20.2 The appeal of history: the romance of the past 85

20.4 Motor-touring 87

20.5 Festivals 87

21.1 Burial grounds and public cemeteries 89

21.2 Remembering the war dead 91

21.3 Other civic commemorations 92

21.4 Aboriginal burials and remembrance 93

Appendix A: Summary of works by architects, engineers, builders and stonemasons in Moyne Shire, 1853-1955 95

• Square brackets have been used where an architect or builder is likely to be responsible for a particular building, but this is unable to be confirmed at this stage 95

• Note that sites within the former Borough of Belfast have generally been excluded from this list 95



CRAWLEY, J.W. JUNIOR (FL. 1890-1910), ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT, SHIRES OF WARRNAMBOOL AND BELFAST; ALSO WORKED AS ENGINEER FOR PERRY KNIGHTS, ARCHITECT 95

CROLL, D. 95

CROUCH AND WILSON, ARCHITECTS, MELBOURNE 95

DRISCOLL, MAURICE, STONEMASON, PORT FAIRY, FL. C.18 50S 95

BLUESTONE COTTAGE, PRINCES HIGHWAY, PORT FAIRY (C.1856-57) 95

FOX, JAMES H., ARCHITECT PRACTISING IN HAMILTON 95

GEDDES, TOM; GEDDES BROS., BUILDERS, STONEMASONS, MORTLAKE (FL. 1860S-70S) 96

CARAMUT CHURCH OF ENGLAND, CARAMUT (1866) 96

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1825-1901); BORN MOFFAT, SCOTL AND; BUILDER, LATER WORKED AS AN ARCHITECT IN MORTLAKE 1860S (WORKED WITH JAMES GEDDES); COLAC 1871 96

[CARAMUT CHURCH OF ENGLAND, CARAMUT (1866) – POSSIBLE ARCHITECT] 96

HENDERSON, GEORGE (OF DAVIDSON AND HENDERSON, ARCHITECTS, GEELONG) 96

HOWES, DILMOND JOHN; ENGINEER, BELFAST ROADS BOARD (AND SHIRE OF BELFAST) FROM 1853 96

HUNTLY, JOHN LOCKYER, ENGINEER, SHIRE OF MINHAMITE, FROM C.1870 96

ANGLICAN CHURCH, MACARTHUR (1871; DEMOLISHED C.1920; REPLACED 1908) 96

MINHAMITE SHIRE OFFICE, RIPPONHURST (1874; 1872?) 96

METHODIST CHURCH (LATER FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH), MACARTHUR (1883) 96

IRELAND, ROBERT, STONEMASON AND BUILDER, PORT FAIRY 96

JACKMAN, W.T., ARCHITECT, WARRNAMBOOL 96

JOBBINS, GEORGE, ARCHITECT, WARRNAMBOOL, FL. 1870S- 80S; IN NOMINAL PARTNERSHIP WITH JAMES MCLEOD 1885-88 96

KERR, ANDREW (D.1887), SHIRE ENGINEER, WARRNAMBOOL AND



MORTLAKE 97

KERR, ROBERT, ARCHITECT, KOROIT (FL. 1893–1902) 97

KNIGHT, J.M., ENGINEER AND SURVEYOR, PORT FAIRY 97

KNIGHT, John, stonemason, Mortlake 97

KNIGHTS, Perry, architect 97

MASON, JOHN, ARCHITECT AND ENGINEER, PORT FAIRY 98

MERRITT, SAMUEL, BUILDER, FL. 1860S 98

PARKER, SAMUEL, ARCHITECT, WARRNAMBOOL 98

PERRY, JOHN, STONEMASON, PORT FAIRY, FL. C.1850S 98

PLEYDELL, A.D., ARCHITECT, ASSISTANT TO ANDREW KERR , WARRNAMBOOL, 1880S; MORTLAKE SHIRE ENGINEER, 1890S 98

STABLES AND LOOSE BOXES (BLUESTONE WALLS), WOOLONGOON, MORTLAKE (1890) 98

RAWLINSON, THOMAS ELLIS, CIVIL ENGINEER, SHIRE OF BELFAST, 1860S-70S; SURVEYOR, BOROUGH OF KOROIT, 18 70S; ALSO WITH THE ROADS AND BRIDGES DEPT, MELBOURNE 98

SAN MIGUEL, L.D., architect 98

SIMMONDS and HAIN, builders, Koroit, fl. 1900s 99

SMITH, A.C. (AND JOHNSON), ARCHITECTS, MELBOURNE 99

SYDNEY SMITH & OGG, architects, Melbourne 99

TAYLOR, LLOYD, ARCHITECT, COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE 99

WALTER and AUTY, architects 99

WARDELL, WILLIAM W., CHIEF INSPECTOR OF PUBLIC WORK S; PRIVATE ARCHITECT 99

1.1 ARCHIVAL MATERIAL 100

State Library of Victoria 100

Newspapers, journals and magazines 101

Later tourist guidebooks 103

1.3 MAPS 103

Natural landscape 105

Aboriginal and frontier history 105

Deen Maar: http://www.erin.gov.au/indigenous/fact-sheets/deenmaar.html 106

Sealing and whaling 106



Shipwrecks 106

Shipping and immigration 106

Pastoral settlement 106

Religion 108

EDUCATION 108

Scottish settlement and architecture 108

IRISH SETTLEMENT 108

Irish architecture 109

National Parks and nature reserves 111

General local history sources 111

Caramut 112

Grassmere 113

Koroit 113

Macarthur 113

Nirranda and Boggy Creek 114

Nullawarre 115

Orford 115

Purnim 115

Rosebrook 116

Henry, James K. ‘School 526, Rosebrook’. Typescript, c.198-? [Deakin] 116

Tarrone 116

The Sisters 116

Yambuk 116

Yangery and Illowa 116

Deen Maar: http://www.erin.gov.au/indigenous/fact-sheets/deenmaar.html 119

List of Illustrations and Plans

Map 1: Moyne Shire boundaries [Moyne Shire website]

Map 2: Aboriginal language groups in Moyne Shire, extracted from map titled ‘Aboriginal Language Areas in Victoria: A reconstruction’ [Ian D. Clark (Heritage Matters, 1998)] Image 1: A domed Aboriginal hut in western Victoria, as sketched by G.A. Robinson in 1841 [State Library of Victoria] Image 2: ‘Belfast, Port Fairy’, sketched by S.T. Gill; published in Victoria Illustrated 1857 [SLV Accession no. 30328102131660/17] Image 3: The Ritchies’ Boodcarra homestead near Port Fairy, photographed in 1866 [SLV Accession no. H1742] Image 4: The impressive Barwidgee woolshed, near Caramut, believed to have been built in the 1850s [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H93.400/472] Image 5: John Moffat’s elaborate Chatsworth House, near Chatsworth, photographed in 1966 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H94.200/702] Image 6: The Manifold’s Boortkoi homestead, near Mortlake, photographed in 1970 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/904] Image 7: Isabella Park Dawson of Kangertong, near Hawkesdale, recording the languages of the Aborigines [Tower Hill State Game Reserve (Fisheries and Wildlife Division, Ministry for Conservation, c.1985)] IMAGE 8: The roadside grave of George Watmore, located outside Port Fairy [photo: Helen Doyle] Image 9: The potato harvest, reputedly depicting David McLaws’ Rosebank estate at Koroit, published in the Illustrated Australian News, 1881 [SLV Accession no. IAN12/03/81/61] Plan 1: Plan of Dairy Town near Tower Hill, surveyed in 1864 [from Brendan O’Toole, ‘Yangery: The Passing of Time’ (Deakin University, 1979)] Image 10: A simple pattern-book design for ‘a cottage for a man and his wife’ [from J.C. Loudon, Encylopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture (1833)] Image 11: Complex of small timber farm buildings at Koroit, photographed in 1971 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/1900] Image 12: The Mortlake Flour Mill with its tapered bluestone chimney, built in 1858 and used to process wheat into flour for the Ararat goldfields; photographed in 1980s prior to restoration [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H98.250/698]



IMAGE 13: Ruins of a bluestone oast at Vinegar Hill, Wangoom [photo: Lee Andrews] Image 14: Bluestone dairy and dry-stone walls built by John Lamont at Dundonnell in the c.1870s [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H95.200/419] Image 15: Carting milk to the butter factory at Koroit, c.1900s [private collection] Image 16: Bush sawmills at Framlingham, c.1900-1910 [private collection] IMAGE 17: Forestry hut, Framlingham Forest [photo: Helen Doyle] Image 18: A stylised impression of the township of Koroit in 1881, from the Illustrated Australian News [SLV Accession no. IAN12/03/81/61] Image 19: Officer Street, Mortlake, with Mt Shadwell in the distance [Museum Victoria ref. MM 007253] Image 20: An early bluestone dam on the Lamonts’ farm, Dundonnell [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H95.200/426] Image 21: Concrete water tower for the Mortlake town supply, now demolished [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H98.250/679] Image 22: Slab cottage at Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve, c.1920s-30s [Age, 27 February 1995] Image 23: Two timber houses built at Framlingham Mission in the 1930s and removed to a neighbouring farm in the c.1950s; they are now demolished [photo: Helen Doyle] Image 24: The ‘English Church’ at Tower Hill was a pre-fabricated iron building which opened in 1855. Photographed by Joseph Soden in 1866 [SLV Accession no. H1743] Image 25: Hexham Common School No. 296 was built in the 1860s, replacing an earlier building, and then rebuilt in 1884 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/947 IMAGE 26: The Good Samaritan Sisters opened the Koroit Convent in 1906 (postcard, c.1918) [SLV Accession no. H90.160/433] Image 27: The elegant Koroit Mechanics Institute was opened in 1866 and demolished in 1957 [private collection] IMAGE 28: Hexham Temperance Hall, built in 1876 [John Collins Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/942] Image 29: Bluestone milepost, outside Koroit [photo: Helen Doyle] Image 30: Cast iron milepost, near Mortlake [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/951]



Image 31: Circular bluestone bridge, Scotts Road, Kirkstall, photographed in 1983 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/1810] IMAGE 32: Basalt culvert at Langulac homestead, Minhamite [photo: Helen Doyle] Image 33: Ballyhurst, Killarney, built by the Mahony family in 1857 [photo: Helen Doyle] Image 34: Detached kitchen building at Ballyhurst, Killarney, c. 1960s [D.R. Crawford, ‘The Irish at Koroit and Killarney’ (Monash University, 1969)] Image 35: A rare surviving stone cottage at Killarney, as photographed in the 1960s [D.R. Crawford, ‘The Irish at Koroit and Killarney’ (Monash University, 1969)] Image 36: Postcard titled ‘View in Gardens, Mortlake’, showing Elm avenue, c.1907 [SLV Accession Number: H90.160/432] Image 37: Mortlake Gardens showing windmill, water tank and Boer War memorial cenotaph [Picture Australia website: Museum Victoria ref. MM 007254] IMAGES 38 and 39: Extensive homestead gardens at (LEFT) The Union, Woolsthorpe and (RIGHT) Mondilibi, Mortlake [Corangamite Regional Library] Image 40: The school garden at Kirkstall State School, photographed in 1906 [McCorkell and Yule, A Green and Pleasant Land (1999), p. 119] Image 41: A popular local beauty spot in the nineteenth century – Lake Surprise, Mt Eccles, photographed by Joseph Soden in 1866 [SLV Accession no. H1744] Image 42: Peterborough House, Peterborough, built in the 1880s, from a postcard c.1909 (since demolished) [SLV Accession no. H90.160/201] Image 43: The romantic ruins of Bryan O’Linn (O’Lynn), near Purnim, photographed in 1984; demolished in 2005 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H98.250/2297] Plan 2: Tower Hill Cemetery was laid out to a Celtic Cross design (1856) [Historic Plans Collection, Lands Victoria] Image 44: Caramut Cemetery, showing nineteenth-century plantings and gravestones [Photo: Helen Doyle] Image 45: Former avenue of clipped cypress trees in High Street, Koroit, photographed in 1963 [from McCorkell and Yule, Green and Pleasant Land (1999), p. 203].

1. Introduction

The Shire of Moyne in south-western Victoria is a recent aggregation of land that incorporates many older boundaries of human occupation, cultural traditions and local governance. Moyne Shire was created in 1995 as part of the municipal restructure of the Local Government Act (Vic.). Covering an area of 5478 square kilometres, it represents an amalgamation of the former Borough of Port Fairy; the former Shires of Belfast, Minhamite and Mortlake, and parts of the former Shires of Warrnambool, Dundas, Mount Rouse and Hampden. After the first Europeans arrived here, western Victoria became known as the Portland Bay District of the Colony of New South Wales. In 1851, the country south of the Murray became part of the newly established Colony of Victoria. The Western District of Victoria, as it came to be known, quickly became famed for its rich pasture lands and agricultural productivity.

Map 1: Moyne Shire boundaries [Moyne Shire website] _______________________________________________

The land was divided into convenient administrative parcels suited to colonial needs. The first local government district in the study area — and, indeed, the first such district established in the Colony of Victoria — was the Belfast Roads District, created on 29 June 1853, which extended from the Eumeralla River to the Merri River, and to a point just north of Macarthur. A Roads Board for the neighbouring Warrnambool district was established soon after.1 The Belfast District Roads Board was replaced by the Shire of Belfast on 8 December 1863.2 A Roads Board was established further north at Mortlake on 19 July 1860, with the Shire of Mortlake proclaimed on 26 January 1864. Mt Rouse Shire, incorporating Caramut and Chatsworth, was also established in 1864.3 The Shire of Minhamite and the Borough



of Koroit were both created in 1870. The Borough of Port Fairy was created in 1887 to administer the Port Fairy township. While the corporate entity of Moyne Shire has had a relatively short history, the country within its boundaries has a rich, complex and far-reaching past. Its human history has been shaped by its geology, natural landforms and watercourses, and by its climate and vegetation. In turn, its changing landscape reflects the settlement patterns, social life, and industries of past periods of progress and hardship, and of prosperity and decline.



2. Before white settlement

2.1 The natural setting and land form

An extensive volcanic plain, dotted with volcanic cones and crater lakes, covers much of Moyne Shire. Volcanic activity has shaped this landscape for the last 5 million years, leaving a series of volcanic hills rising from the otherwise flat basalt plains. There are over 400 eruption points, including Mt Shadwell, Mt Rouse, Mt Napier, Mt Eccles, and Tower Hill, which boldly punctuate the landscape. Tower Hill and Mt Eccles were relatively recent eruptions that occurred approximately 30,000 and 19,000 years ago respectively.4 The outlines of other distant protrusions are also visible: Mt Elephant to the north-east and Mt Noorat to the east. In the north of the Shire, the rugged peaks of Gariwerd, or the Grampians, rise dramatically on the far horizon. This vast volcanic, or basaltic, plain comprises mainly grassland with a light covering of timber. In parts there are denser forests and elsewhere extensive swamps. Apart from some areas of undulating hill country, such as around Grassmere, and in the river valleys at Wangoom and Salt Creek, the flatness is alleviated here and there with glassy lakes and knolls, as well as the more dramatic volcanic features. There are large sunken crater lakes at Tower Hill, Mt Eccles and Wangoom, as well as the remnant eastern ridges of older lakes, now dried up.5 This landscape is strewn with a profusion of basaltic rock, occurring mostly along ridges. Ancient lava flows have left ridges of large basalt boulders, for example at The Sisters and Tarrone,6 and smaller protrusions that are scattered across the hills and stony rises. Lava flows have also caused the formation of collapsed lava tunnels and caves, as at Mt Eccles and Yambuk, while at Panmure bubbles of lava in the riverbeds have created a deep swimming hole. Hot groundwater deep below the surface around Warrnambool, Tower Hill and Port Fairy may be due to relatively recent volcanic activity.7 Natural springs are also common in the volcanic areas. At Tower Hill and Mt Shadwell spring water has been harnessed for town water supplies.8 Volcanic activity at Tower Hill left a layer of deep volcanic ash, and ejected scoria and tufa across a wide area. Ejected limestone rubble, itself formed in an earlier geological age, also lies on the surface. The lava flow has formed a layer of basalt, which can be very thick in parts. Around Tower Hill and Lake Wangoom there is an additional deposit of lighter tufa stone, or ash, which is much thicker on the eastern sides on account of the predominant westerly wind. The Tower Hill lava flow stops at the Merri River, the banks of which are basalt on the west and hard limestone on the east.9 The flow of basalt rests on limestone, which was formed by earlier marine sediments and marl. Nearer the coast the limestone is closer to the surface. The advance and retreat of the sea over the land has left an extensive basin that was once the ocean floor.10 This landscape, which extends along the coast and inland between Warrnambool and Peterborough, is untouched by the basaltic flows and has a different appearance. Ancient shoreline ridges, left behind after the retreat of the ocean, rise



occasionally from the otherwise flat or gently undulating country.11 Along the coast itself the limestone is dramatic in parts, forming craggy cliffs and caves. Elsewhere, the limestone mostly lies hidden under the heavy flow of basaltic lava. It is visible in road cuttings, such as that between Dennington and Illowa. Limestone caves also feature in inland areas where limestone rises occur, for example at the Eumeralla swamp.12 Extensive sand hummocks form a high divide between the beach and the dense, scrubby coastal vegetation. A series of creeks and watercourses, including the Hopkins — the longest river in Victoria — have channeled a course through the rock while flowing south to the southern ocean, and in several parts they have cut deep gorges.13 Typically, these wind along the coast, flowing parallel with the shore-line for some time behind the sand hummocks before emptying over a sand bar into the sea. Near the outflow point of many of these watercourses — for example, the Shaw (or Eumeralla) River at Yambuk; the Merri River, west of Warrnambool; the Moyne River at Port Fairy; and Curdies River at Peterborough — vast swamps, or chains of swamps, have been formed where the water is trapped behind sand dunes.14 In other places the water flow has been stalled and trapped in swamps caused by the basalt table beneath its course.

2.2 Vegetation

Much of the basalt plain was originally covered in grassy woodland for basalt allows only a light covering of timber.15 Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra), Tussock-grass (Poa labillardieri), wallaby grass, spear grass and other native grasses that grew in profusion were deep and spongy in parts. Early stockmen claimed it sometimes grew as high as their saddles.16 By contrast, in areas of more recent volcanic activity — especially around Tower Hill and Yangery, and also at Mt Eccles and Mt Shadwell — the loamy soil, with its mineral-rich ash residue, supported dense forests and thick, luxuriant undergrowth.17 Common tree varieties included Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), Manna Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis), Sheoak (probably Drooping Sheoak, Allocasuarina verticillata), and Messmate Stringybark (E. obliqua). The vegetation tended to be denser in the coastal areas, described in the 1850s as a ‘fine forest of sheoaks and lightwoods’.18 The scene along the Moyne River at Port Fairy was described as a ‘stately forest’,19 while a thick bush of Manna Gum and Blackwood covered the future site of Koroit. Sheoak, ‘Lightwood’ (a wattle; possibly Blackwood) and Manna Gum, sometimes described as ‘stunted gum’, grew in profusion at Tower Hill, where there was also an array of ‘tree ferns and lady-ferns and staghorns’.20 The sides of Lake Wangoom were ‘clothed with beautiful Lightwood, Wattles and Cherry trees’.21 Between Cudgee and Panmure, deep soils also supported dense forests.22 Along creek beds and on flood plains further to the north were occasional stands of River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis). These grew in places where there was no underlying basalt.23 Swamp tea-tree (Leptospermum lanigerum) and Swamp Gum (E. ovata) thrived in the many swamplands. The coastal areas were characterised by sandy heathlands, where tea tree grew densely and other plantlife was diverse and concentrated.24



2.3 The Aboriginal landscape

For thousands of years the Dhauwurdwurrung, Djabwurrung and Giraiwurrung occupied this rich, diverse, and ancient landscape.25 Their oral traditions, and the names they gave to the local landforms, indicate that they witnessed the eruption of Tower Hill and many other volcanic events that shaped this landscape,26 as well as the advance of the Southern Ocean. Archaeological evidence supports these traditions. The fertile western plains supported the Aborigines’ rich cultural life. Food sources were particularly plentiful in the coastal area around Port Fairy and Tower Hill. The overflow of the Moyne River also formed a large swamp near Tower Hill, which attracted ducks, swans and other sorts of water birds.27 Other lagoons and lakes were also a haven for bird life. A variety of fish and eels were caught in the rivers.

Map 2: Aboriginal language groups in Moyne Shire, ex tracted from map titled ‘Aboriginal Language Areas in Victoria: A reconstruction’ [Ian D . Clark (Heritage Matters, 1998)] Aborigines used fire-stick farming to manage their hunting grounds. They fired the grassy plains before the autumn rains each year to regenerate the native grasses for pasture. Digging sticks were also used as a means of aerating the soil to aid plant growth.28 Roots, including murnong, were harvested from the swamps. Eels were trapped in the Hopkins River, just below the falls at Wangoom, and also at Lake Condah, Salt Creek, and in many of the other streams. During the whale-breeding season, stranded whales near Port Fairy provided an opportunity for feasting. The landscape is marked with evidence of the Aborigines’ rich cultural life. There are earthen mounds, burials and skeletal remains at Koroit, and a highly concentrated number of kitchen middens along the coastline; the middens at Armstrong’s Bay are dated at around 500–5500 years old.29 A number of axe-heads and other tools have been found in the vicinity of Tower Hill, while the remains of eel traps can be seen in the Hopkins River.30



When Chief Protector of Aborigines G.A. Robinson toured the Tower Hill district in 1841, he noted a ‘native village’ on the west bank of Tower Hill, which comprised an assemblage of huts.31 He also visited an Aboriginal village at Mustons Creek. For Aboriginal people the land was an intrinsic part of cultural and spiritual life, with natural features representing deep religious or ‘dreaming’ significance. For Europeans, however, the land was principally the means by which to develop an agricultural economy. The arrival of Europeans, with their hard-hoofed cattle and sheep, was detrimental to Aborigines’ way of life. The introduced animals devoured the native grasses and edible plants, and deprived indigenous animals of grazing land, thus denying Aborigines an important food source. Dispossessed of their lands, Aborigines faced much reduced access to food sources. It became difficult for them to maintain their traditional cultural life, which relied fundamentally on an intimate relationship with the land. In addition to the high mortality rates resulting from European diseases, the early contact period was wrought with severe conflict and loss of life. In addition to the physical effects of illness and hunger, people suffered the devastation of large-scale loss of family and kin, and dislocation from country. [Note: Aboriginal dispossession and resistance is discussed further in Section 6]

Image 1: A domed Aboriginal hut in western Victoria, sketched by G.A. Robinson in 1841 [SLV] __________________________________________________________________________________



3. European exploration

3.1 Exploration by sea

Victoria’s south-west coastline has long attracted European and other adventurers. The story of an ‘ancient’ wrecked vessel in the sand dunes at Armstrong’s Bay — the so-called Mahogany Ship — gave this district an echo of a more distant European history than most parts of Australia could lay claim to. Descriptions of the dark timber wreck suggested that it might have been a Portuguese or Spanish caravel dating to the sixteenth century.32 Other theories suggest that this is evidence that Chinese junks explored the area hundreds of years before the British. Sightings of the dark timbers of the Mahogany Ship were recorded from the 1830s. If there had been survivors from this wreck, they doubtless saw Tower Hill rising from the thickly timbered plains. Early European settlers were intrigued by a local Aboriginal story of the arrival of the ‘yellow men’.33 French explorers, sailing under Captain Nicholas Baudin in the Geographe, had visited the south-west coast in 1802. Baudin charted the coastline between Port Fairy and Warrnambool, and described Tower Hill as ‘a peak of conic form’, naming it Il peak de reconnaissance. The British had despatched their own exploratory party the year before, under Matthew Flinders, due to fears that the French might attempt to claim parts of the Australian continent that were not already secured by the British. The two parties enjoyed an amicable encounter in the course of their explorations. While surveying the south-west coast three weeks after Baudin, Flinders passed Lady Julia Percy Island and also recorded a ‘round hill’, which was most likely Mt Eccles.34 Others learnt about the coastline in the early 1800s. News of a bountiful country spread among the British and American whaling fraternity, and to those in Van Diemen’s Land who were in search of new grazing land. Local historian William Earle proposed that a settlement was established at Port Fairy as early as 1810, but there is insufficient evidence to support this.35 Whalers and sealers, and those who had been left stranded by shipwreck, found themselves on the shoreline of a rich and promising country. They couldn’t fail to take note of the fertile quality of the land. One timber-cutter who visited Tower Hill in the 1840s reported on the rich soil in a letter he wrote home to Scotland, declaring it was a country in which could grow anything.36 New settlers, whether permanent or transient, needed timber and fresh water, and this country provided both. 3.2 Exploration by land

While regular visitors were arriving by sea, overland exploration was carried out under the direction of the New South Wales colonial government. The explorers Hume and Hovell had pushed as far south as Corio Bay in 1824, but had not ventures into the western part of Victoria. The Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Major Thomas Mitchell, was under directions to trace the source of the Murray River, but such was his excitement on climbing Mt Hope, and glimpsing the extensive rich grassy plains to the south, that he strayed off the track to explore the possibilities for pastoral occupation. In western Victoria, he saw and named Mount Shadwell after his



friend, Major Thomas Henry Shadwell Clerke. Mitchell’s exuberance about the potential of the country he named ‘Australia Felix’ brought a stream of south-bound pastoralists from New South Wales.37 The ‘Major’s Line’, as it came to be called by those who followed its deep wheel ruts southwards, skirted around the edge of what is now Moyne Shire, touching on Byaduk at the northern edge of the Shire. Near the present-day site of Byaduk swamp, Mitchell made the solemn decision to abandon the second boat which they carried with them.38

It is unlikely, however, that this relic of early exploration has survived.



4. Whaling, sealing and fishing

4.1 Whaling and sealing

Most of the Europeans who visited the south-west coast of Victoria in the early 1800s were whalers and sealers based in Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales, or were from further afield in North America. Working in the wild waters of Bass Strait was a perilous, but lucrative, business. The valuable products obtained from whale and seal carcasses could be traded on colonial and more distant markets. Seals were hunted mainly for their skins, but their oil was also used in mixing paint. Products from whales included whale oil, ambergris and blubber.39 As whalers and sealers were seasonal visitors, few erected permanent structures. They set up camps at sheltered points along the coast, and built temporary huts from logs and stone. Some built makeshift shelters at Armstrong’s Bay, while others took refuge at the mouth of the Moyne River. By 1802, sealers’ camps were established at Lady Julia Percy Island, where a stone wall and a rock shelter survive today.40

Image 2: ‘Belfast, Port Fairy’, sketched by S.T. Gil l; published in Victoria Illustrated 1857 [SLV Accession no. 30328102131660/17]

Some of these seasonal visitors established semi-permanent settlements with huts and gardens. At Port Fairy, the Mills brothers are reputed to have settled permanently in 1826.41 One sealer, Captain James Wishart, who anchored in the bay in 1828 in his cutter Fairy, gave the name of his vessel to the locality.42 A whaling station was established at Port Fairy in the 1820s, and by the 1830s a small settlement had emerged. In 1836, the Launceston ship-owner and whaler John Griffiths was operating a larger whaling station, financed by the Launceston Fishing Company.43 In 1840, Port Fairy was noted as ‘a small and not very secure harbour … chiefly valued as a whaling station’.44 Back in Van Diemen’s Land, news of fertile pasturelands across the strait was causing a stir. Whalers who camping along this coastline could live off the land to support themselves during the off-season. This prompted the Henty brothers to



establish a whaling station at nearby Portland in November 1834 and, at the same time, embark on a pastoral enterprise. Whaling and sealing operations continued to be important to the local economy in south-west Victoria in the 1840s and 1850s. In the 1860s, whalebone on the beach at Port Fairy was ground down for commercial use as bone-dust.45 As the agricultural hinterland was developed, the fishing industry continued to thrive. The merchant capitalist William Rutledge was one who benefited from the combined prosperity brought by farming and fishing. With the success of his famed Farnham Survey, he developed a thriving business ‘as shippers of wool, tallow, and later gold, and importers of a wide variety of goods’.46 With agricultural development came population growth, which also boosted the local demand for fish. By the 1870s, the importance of the local fishing industry also prompted the government to support improvements to the harbour at Port Fairy. Fishermen continued to occupy makeshift shelters along the coast. Limestone caves were sometimes adapted for short-term housing, for example that occupied by ‘Old Dan’ the fisherman, on the rugged coastal cliffs east of Warrnambool. James Bonwick, who visited this ‘limestone snuggery’ in 1857, was ‘struck with the amount of comfort the good man enjoyed’ but noted that ‘as the house was unprovided with bolts and bars, or even a door or a curtain, the treasury therein was not very carry-away-able’.47 4.2 Commercial fishing

Fishing was an important industry from the 1850s. James Meek, reputedly the pioneer of fish-curing and canning processes in Victoria, set up a fishing operation at Curdies River inlet, near Peterborough, in 1855.48 This was short-lived, but commercial fishing continued to flourish at Peterborough. Port Fairy continued to be an important fishing centre after the decline of the whaling industry. A small fishing fleet was based here by the late 1850s. Barracouta and crayfish caught off Port Fairy was transported by coastal steamer to Melbourne where it found ready markets. Crayfish continued to be a important industry in the 1880s and 1890s.49 The fishing industry declined significantly after World War II as new techniques were introduced.50 Fishermen’s huts built on the beach at Peterborough were still extant in the 1940s, but these have since been demolished.



5. The pastoral invasion From the 1820s, settlers in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land were growing increasingly eager to take up new grazing land beyond the bounds of the existing ‘settled’ districts. While the territory south of the Murray River was prohibited to settlers because it was beyond the prescribed ‘limits of settlement’ (of the Colony of New South Wales), bold land speculators showed increasing determination in the 1830s to depasture their flocks there. While whaling parties reported rich farming lands along the south-west coast, they appear not to have ventured far inland until the arrival of pastoralists. The Henty brothers, determined on pastoral expansion, had set up an illegal occupation as ‘squatters’ at Portland Bay in November 1834. They made several expeditions along the south-west coast, and visited Griffiths’ whaling station, which was already established at Port Fairy. With illegal settlements already established at Port Phillip and Portland, the New South Wales government in June 1836 was forced to officially proclaim the Port Phillip District in the Colony of New South Wales. Excited by Major Mitchell’s glowing reports of western Victoria, more squatters arrived. With their servants and stock, they sailed from Van Diemen’s Land and landed at Geelong, Portland, and Melbourne. Others followed from the north, travelling overland from New South Wales along the wheel-rutted track known as the ‘Major’s Line’. The wide expanse of country west of Melbourne became known as the Portland Bay District in the Colony of New South Wales. 5.1 A ‘park-like’ estate

As they traversed the new country, the lightly timbered plains with their ‘luxuriant’ herbage appeared to Europeans as pre-ordained for the purpose of pastoralism. Major Mitchell’s prophesy for the district, which he named ‘Australia Felix’, recorded in his journal, powerfully expresses this sentiment:

As I stood, the first intruder on the sublime solitude of these verdant plains as yet untouched by flocks and herds, I felt conscious of being the harbinger of mighty changes there; for our steps would soon be followed by the men and the animals for which it seemed to have been prepared.51

Squatters shared these sentiments about the landscape. They saw this country, ‘lying waste and idle’, as theirs to exploit for pastoralism.52 Little work was required in felling timber as the underlying basalt allowed only a light tree cover. This paucity of the timber appealed both to squatters’ nostalgia and their pastoral ambitions. To them, this open grassy woodland was an expanse of rich pastoral land untrodden by man — an Arcadia. Its beauty was intrinsically tied to fertility and potential productivity. Thomas Chirnside lauded the district as an ‘Eden’. He declared: ‘From Lake Colac to Mount Shadwell, Port Fairy, Mount Rouse, Wannon, with the junction of the Glenelg, considering the extent and area, it is the greatest extent of rich country I ever witnessed within my recollections.’53 Another squatter wrote of the Portland Bay



District: that a finer or a more beautiful country cannot be. There are parts sandy and barren, but generally the ground is useful, many parts possessing great advantages for pastoral purposes, I may safely say, without an outlay for grubbing a tree ... The district is exceedingly well provided with water; many of the waterholes are everlasting, and there are besides reaches of rivers and many fine and valuable springs.54

Mitchell and other early visitors regularly compared the country to a ‘nobleman’s park’ or a ‘gentleman’s park’. This likeness was probably most keenly sensed on the rich river flats with their large and majestic River Red Gums — trees that no doubt called to mind the forests of England. Some even expected to come across a grand country seat. As one squatter romanticised: ‘The country between Timboon and the Hopkins River would remind any person lately from home of a nobleman’s park, with the expectation of coming soon to a magnificent house.’55 5.2 A rush of squatters

Each squatter staked out a large area of Crown land and applied to the colonial government for a pastoral license. A reliable source of fresh water was the main criteria for selecting a run. In 1836, the Governor of New South Wales, Richard Bourke, introduced a license fee of £10 a year for pastoral leases on ‘unsettled’ land (i.e. land that lay beyond the ‘Nineteen Counties’). His successor Governor Gipps added an additional fee per head of stock.56 The runs were not properly surveyed until much later.57 This use of the land was a radical departure from what Aboriginal people were familiar with. Pastoral occupation forced most Aborigines off their lands; those who remained were bound by a new code of existence. Many of the early homestead sites, such as Goodwood, Ballangeich and others, were the sites of early and prolonged contact with the Aborigines who belonged to those particular localities, and who lived and worked on the pastoral stations. (This is discussed further in Section 5) While the area now known as Moyne Shire was still largely unsettled in the late 1830s, larger areas came under pastoral leasehold through the 1840s. The last unalienated land in Mortlake, for example, was claimed in 1845.58 The largest lease-holders included the Bolden Brothers, who had arrived in 1839 and claimed a vast area of land around the Hopkins River.59 Others included the Manifolds, the Ware brothers, Captain Webster and Robert Whitehead. By the late 1840s, south-western Victoria constituted a vast jigsaw of squatting runs. Boundaries were mostly determined by watercourses and natural features; squatters also set arbitrary dividing lines, which might be marked by a blazed tree, a plough furrow, or a man-made track. While the land was carved into squatting runs, the country itself remained little changed in the 1840s and 1850s with native grasses still growing over a large area. Scottish immigrants made up the largest group amongst the squatters and, later, amongst the small farmers in south-west Victoria. Historian Margaret Kiddle



estimated that they comprised almost two-thirds of early settlers in the Western District. A large number of squatters had been farmers in the Scottish Lowlands, who were now in search of new land. Many had immigrated to Van Diemen’s Land hoping for a land grant; unsuccessful, they had sailed to Victoria. Other squatters were Anglo-Irish, Protestant Northern Irish, and English.60 Initially, there were few, if any, who were Irish Catholic. Scottish and English placenames dominated in the naming of the early pastoral runs, but in line with the fashion for preserving ‘native’ nomenclature, as advocated by those such as the British writer J.C. Loudon, and supported by many of the early colonial surveyors, it was a common practice for squatters to retain local Aboriginal names for their stations — hence the names Aringa, Boortkoi, Eumeralla, Injemira, Kangertang, Merrang, Minjah, Quamby, Wooriwyrite, and Yambuk. Government surveyors in Victoria adopted the policy of using Aboriginal names where these could be easily identified — in the naming of parishes, townships, rivers and creeks. Derivations of Aboriginal names are also numerous in the naming of towns: for example, Caramut, Cudgee, Kolora, Koroit, Laang, Mepunga, Minhamite, Nirranda, Nullawarre, Wangoom, Warrong, and Woorndoo. Many of these derived from early station names, which had reflected the original (Aboriginal) name of the locality. Other localities and landforms were given names that acknowledged Aboriginal occupation; Macarthur, for example, was originally known as Blackfellows’ Creek.61 5.3 Pastoral stations

Settlers adapted the land to suit their needs and erected living quarters and outbuildings from the readily available materials. The home station began as a rudimentary building of only one or two rooms, typically built of slab, logs, or wattle-and-daub; surface stone was used if it was available. Various earth-building methods were also used. At Tarrone, north of Port Fairy, T.A. Browne’s stockman used ‘clean cut black cubes’ to construct his first shelter, with a roof thatched with grass, and chimneys built using surface stone.62 At Dunmore station, the Scottish squatter Charles Hamilton MacKnight built a number of pisé buildings.63 Interiors were sealed with newspaper, if at all, and the floor was usually earthen. Shepherds’ huts, woolsheds, stables, and other outbuildings also followed vernacular styles. Stone was the preferred material for permanent buildings. Basalt was widely available across much of the district, as was limestone in the coastal areas. Random rubble was the most common early building technique. Roofing was initially constructed using bark or thatching, and later using hand-split timber shingles. It wasn’t until after 1850 that galvanised iron became available.64 Initially very little fencing was needed, except for the stockyards and to enclose an area close to the house set aside for a flower garden and kitchen garden. At Captain Webster’s Mt Shadwell run in the 1840s the only fenced paddocks were the horse and cultivation paddocks at the head station.65 In the more closely settled country along the coast, for example on the Farnham Survey, felled timber was put into use to build log fences. Roughly built dry-stone walls were also probably built during the early settlement period.



Initially, gardens served the utilitarian purpose of food production. Before squatters had been granted security of tenure, the garden plot at the head station was often the only cultivated piece of land. As the number of white women began to increase through the 1840s, and station life became more domesticated, the original huts were extended, or rebuilt entirely, and flower gardens and trees were planted to ornamentation, familiarity and ‘civilisation’. Annie Baxter remarked shortly after her arrival at Port Fairy: ‘I must make “Yambuck” [sic.] as pretty as I can now that I intend remaining there for some time!’66

Image 3: The Ritchies’ Boodcarra homestead near Port Fairy, photographed in 1866 [SLV Accession no. H1742] Despite the virtual free provision of grazing land, many squatters struggled in the face of myriad hazards. Stock was susceptible to disease, and with scab and foot-rot prevalent, many animals were lost. Over-speculation in property at Port Phillip led to economic depression in the early 1840s.67 Many squatters went bankrupt and abandoned their licenses; many runs were taken over or were amalgamated. Financial difficulties prompted the establishment of ‘boiling-down’ or ‘melting-down’ works, such as that established by James Dawson at Port Fairy.68 These establishments recouped some income from the sale of sheep carcasses, but caused serious environmental damage.69 Security of tenure came in 1847 when an Order-in-Council of the NSW government granted squatters freehold title to a 640-acre (or one square mile) homestead block as a ‘pre-emptive’ right. As a result of this new measure of ‘permanency’, the home station became more substantial by the early 1850s.70 Some faced a major setback with the ‘Black Thursday’ fires of February 1851, which swept through a large part of the Shire, destroying timber buildings and a large amount of stock. Tarrone homestead was completely destroyed in this blaze as was the first small homestead at Injemira.71 Many buildings on pastoral stations were subsequently built of stone.72



Much building went on through the 1850s and 1860s as squatters firmed their hold on the land they occupied.73 By 1857, many had purchased their runs.74 When a new residence was built, the squatter’s original hut was quite often retained for use as a separate kitchen.75 The abundance of bluestone made it the favoured building material. Rarely were squatters’ homes mansions of architectural pretension, especially in the early period. Most built more modest homes with practicality in mind. A typical style, used for example at Aringa, Harton Hills, Yambuk and St Kitts, was a single-storey early colonial style with a wide verandah, extending across at least three sides, and a steeply pitched roof. Although mostly built during the ‘Victorian’ period, there had not been an instantaneous adoption of new styles, and elements of Tasmanian-derived Georgian styles persisted into the 1850s. A record of these early homesteads survives in the numerous sketches and paintings of the period.76 By the 1860s, the typical homestead built in south-west Victoria was sombre and restrained in comparison to the more elaborate styles that were emerging elsewhere in the Western District. They had an element of seriousness about them, with little ornamentation, let alone ostentation. The early homesteads, such as Langulac (1865) and Caramut House (1865), were modest, serviceable buildings, and were rarely double-storeyed. While they were neat and regular, usually of cut bluestone blocks, they were often built to elegant proportions. Wealthier squatters might build a larger, more elaborate villa residence befitting a country gentleman, which would complement the ‘park-like’ aspect of the countryside. One of the most impressive early homesteads was James Moffat’s elegant Chatsworth House (1857), designed by Hamilton-based architect James Henry Fox. As wool sales generated greater wealth for Western District squatters in the 1870s, many erected grander homesteads. Some favoured the Gothic Revival style with its ornate stone turrets and castellations. In Moyne Shire, by contrast, most of the surviving early homesteads draw on Classical, Italianate and other more formal styles.77 Commissioned architects included the firm of Davidson and Henderson from Geelong; and the Melbourne-based A.L. Smith, who designed Greenhills homestead (c.1874) and, with his partner Johnson, the additions to Minjah homestead (1877). Other settlers favoured local architects, including Andrew Kerr, the Shire Engineer at Warrnambool and Mortlake, who designed buildings at several stations, including Merrang, Stony Point and Mount Fyans; the Mortlake builder and later, self-taught architect, Alexander Hamilton, who designed the homesteads at Eeyeuk and Wooriwyrite; George Jobbins, whose first important commission in the district was the Injemira homestead at Grassmere for Robert Hood. Some of these residences were based on pattern-book designs, while others drew on styles brought from ‘home’.78

Many of the home stations on the large pastoral properties developed into administrative centres for these busy estates. In their heyday the larger stations resembled small villages.79 As well as the homestead and numerous domestic structures, such as an underground tank, a gatehouse, school house, and servants’



quarters, there were also stables and coach house, a woolshed, dairy, and other farm buildings, such as men’s quarters and a smithy. The servants’ quarters and other outbuildings also often followed pattern-book designs. In some cases the ‘working’ buildings, especially the woolsheds and stables, appeared larger and more elaborate than the homestead itself.

Image 4: The impressive Barwidgee woolshed, near Ca ramut, believed to have been built in the 1850s [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Col lection, SLV Accession no. H93.400/472] While shepherds and boundary riders continued to be employed on the larger estates, fencing also helped to contain stock. Much land had been fenced by the 1860s, in response to both the rabbit problem and new land selection legislation. Felled timber was the most common fencing material, but stone was also readily available, especially the surface basalt that lay about in profusion in many parts. Early fencing at Tarrone, for example, used large basalt boulders as fence posts, and gate-posts.80 In the 1860s, stricter fencing legislation and the availability of the necessary skilled labour led to the construction of dry-stone walls from surface stone. There are remnants of this intricate form of fencing around Dundonnell, Kolora, Mortlake, on the outskirts of Port Fairy, and at Yambuk. Successful pastoralists continued to embellish their homesteads. Many added ornamental gardens that were landscaped in accordance with current fashions, with broad lawns, rose gardens, parterres, and exotic specimen trees. In some cases, as at Stony Point, west of Darlington, and at Merrang, the garden was bordered with a ‘ha-ha’ wall, which constituted a ditch alongside a low stone wall that served as a barrier for stock. As well as being a practical measure, this allowed the distant fields to be viewed as part of a continuing pastoral landscape, which was part of the then prevailing fashion for the picturesque. The more utilitarian kitchen gardens and orchards were also planted close to the house. Protecting the house, rows of pines and cypresses were commonly planted extensively as windbreaks. From a distance these gave the impression of a landscape broken up at regular intervals with heavy dark green lines.



Image 5: John Moffat’s elaborate Chatsworth House, near Chatsworth, photographed in 1966 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collectio n, SLV Accession no. H94.200/702]

Image 6: The Manifold’s Boortkoi homestead, near Mo rtlake, photographed in 1970 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accessio n no. H97.250/904] Squatters retained considerable holdings in the 1850s and 1860s. Through the ‘dummying’ loophole of the Selection Acts, they were able to acquire further waterfront blocks; these adjoined the original homestead block or pre-emptive rights that generally fronted a river or creek.81 Once freehold title had been taken up, a large part of western Victoria was occupied by only a handful of families, including the Moffats, the Manifolds, the Robertsons, and the Wares, who between them held an extraordinarily large acreage.82 The rise of the squatters’ fortunes over the next forty years is evident in the further embellishments made to their country estates, and in their political power and social prestige.



To a great extent, the lives of the ‘squattocracy’, as it was dubbed, were a world away from the shearers, shepherds, labourers and servants who were employed on the stations. Many pastoral families sought to perpetuate the notion of the ‘big house’ and the associated social conventions of European landed society — a way of life that largely excluded, but depended heavily on, the station workers. The arrangement of buildings and the use and demarkation of space on pastoral stations reflected this social division, with the homestead and homestead garden kept physically separate from the working areas. The large pastoral properties played an important part in the development of townships. Woolsthorpe, for example, was established at the meeting point of three large stations: Quamby, The Union, and Kilmorey. Likewise, Macarthur was a convenient service point for Eumeralla East, Eumeralla West, and Blackfellow’s Creek (later Harton Hills). The pastoral stations provided employment to local people over a long period of time. Local pastoralists also supported (and sometimes funded) the provision of local amenities in the towns, and supported local organisations and social events. Fine wool production from Australian merinos continued to bring prosperity, with a mini-boom in the 1870s. The Western District was popularly referred to as a ‘pastoral Arcadia’ and ‘the garden of Victoria’.83 By the 1880s and 1890s, however, unionised shearers were seriously challenging pastoral interests. A strong union movement was developing around Mortlake, Hexham and Caramut and conflicts occurred on several stations. One local shearer Billy McLean, who was fired at by a non-union shearer in Queensland, became the first martyr for the union cause; his grave at Tower Hill Cemetery became a site of pilgrimage for the labour movement.

5.4 The impact of pastoralism on the landscape

Early pastoral settlement in south-west Victoria brought about dramatic changes to the landscape, primarily through the introduction of sheep and cattle, with which native grazing animals, especially kangaroos, were forced to compete. The early settlers sought to physically transform the new country land into a familiar place. The widespread felling of the original vegetation was an important part of this process. The heavily forested coastal areas were cleared and what little timber existed on the northern plains was significantly reduced.84 Exotic pastures replaced native grasses. In some parts of the volcanic plain, the loss of native grasses combined with the effects of hoofed animals gradually caused the soil to become compacted and eroded.85 Swamp lands were considered unproductive waste lands and were a menace for stock. From the 1870s, many were drained to create new grazing and farming land — for example Lake Wangoom, Tower Hill swamp, Lake Gorrie, Moyne Swamp, and Lake Condah. Creeks and rivers were valued for providing a reliable water supply and for their use as convenient sheep-washes, but as a result became contaminated. With a relatively long pastoral and agricultural settlement of Moyne Shire, very little remains by way of surviving native vegetation. This has, in most parts, ‘been



completely replaced by alien pasture grasses and clovers, crop plants and weeds’. Only in rare cases, through accident or intention, were areas of natural vegetation preserved. In some areas of stony country that has not been cultivated or used heavily for stock, such as around Mt Eccles and the Tyrendarra flows, the native vegetation survives, as it does in a number of nature reserves and Crown land reserves.86 The perceived ‘park-like’ nature of much of the western plains inspired settlers to ‘beautify’ it accordingly. Settlers planted exotic deciduous trees and laid out their gardens in ways that reminded them of home. Some engaged the services of leading landscape designers, such as Edward La Trobe Bateman (in the case of Wooriwyrite). In the place of bush timber, they planted orderly rows of sturdy pines and cypresses as windbreaks. In the 1860s, beautification was also the objective of the acclimatization movement, which introduced exotic animals and birds, including deer, rabbits and blackbirds, and inadvertently created pests of plague proportions. At the same time, settlers enjoyed shooting kangaroos and native birds for sport, and clubbing wombats to death, which drastically diminished their numbers. Some more far-sighted settlers, such as William Lindsay of Quamby, sought to protect the native animals on his estate.



6. Contested land: the contact period Contact and conflict between Aborigines and Europeans on Victoria’s south-west coast began around the early 1800s. The first white visitors included sealers from Bass Strait, whalers from Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales, shipwrecked sailors, and probably a few escaped convicts.87 Some took Aboriginal women to live with them.88 This was the beginning of a long period of cultural contact that had detrimental consequences for the Aboriginal people. It led to widespread infection by foreign diseases, especially smallpox and venereal disease; addiction to alcohol and tobacco; and the sexual abuse of Aboriginal women and the social ramifications of this.89

6.1 Frontier conflict and massacre sites

As European settlers firmed their occupation of south-west Victoria, Aborigines were increasingly denied access to their traditional land and to food sources.90 Frontier conflict was inevitable. In 1837, squatters in the Portland Bay District appealed to Governor Bourke for protection from attacks by Aborigines. A police magistrate was installed at Geelong and a mounted police unit established there in 1838, but frontier violence continued.91 In 1838, a group of 82 disgruntled settlers in the Portland Bay District threatened to declare a ‘black war’ if the authorities did not provide them with adequate protection.92 The need for improved policing, especially in the outlying areas, became critical. As a result, a Native Police Corps, which comprised a brigade of Aborigines under white command, was established at Port Phillip in 1837 (and reformed in 1842). A number of its members were recruited from western Victoria (including several from Port Fairy). A number of police camps were also established.93 Clashes between Aborigines and settlers reached a peak around 1842–43. In south-west Victoria, where pastoral settlement was swift and extensive, clashes were frequent. In Portland, the local newspaper claimed that the country ‘might as well be in a state of civil war’. Rolf Boldrewood and others referred to the ‘Eumeralla War’.94 Conflicts over food sources and access to territory were rife. As more and more pastoralists staked their claim to vast tracts of land, the Aborigines responded with armed resistance. At Port Fairy in the 1840s, settlers petitioned C.J. La Trobe for assistance, complaining of the loss of 3600 sheep, 100 cattle, and 10 horses during a period of only a few months.95 Frontier warfare claimed the lives of a large number of Aborigines and a much smaller number of settlers. Between 1835 and 1848, there were 35 reported deaths of Europeans killed by Aborigines in the Western District; for the same period it is estimated that ‘almost certainly three hundred … and not improbably at least fifty more’ Aborigines were killed by whites. Historical geographer Ian Clark has documented many alleged massacre sites located within Moyne Shire.96 Other examples include the Lake Gorrie area and Mt Eccles National Park.97 The names of some of these sites allude to battle and death, such as ‘Murdering Gully’, near Darlington (c. late 1830s); and ‘Waterloo Lane’, south of Macarthur.98 West of Port



Fairy is the lone grave of George Watmore, who was, allegedly, a white casualty.99 To a large extent, settlers took matters into their own hands. Aborigines’ stealing of stock and attacking of shepherds were followed routinely with retaliatory measures. ‘Hunting parties’ went in search of culprits. Annie Baxter, the wife of Yambuk pastoralist Andrew Baxter, participated in one of these punitive expeditions in 1846.100 On some stations, such as Tarrone, north of Port Fairy, pastoralists resorted to notorious extermination practices, such as supplying Aborigines with flour and mutton laced with arsenic.101 While colonial authorities strongly discouraged such measures, they typically dealt with such attacks ineffectively and the culprits were rarely punished. Aborigines’ familiarity with the country was one of their few advantages. Their resistance relied on their intimate knowledge of the country and its natural defensive enclaves, such as around Mt Eccles and in the stony country.

6.2 Settlers’ treatment of Aborigines

The early administration of Aborigines in Victoria was officially the responsibility of the military and the police, but in the early years of white occupation settlers assumed this role themselves. Common practices from the late 1830s and through much of the nineteenth century included offering gifts to Aborigines in an effort to establish ‘friendly relations’, and distributing ration items, such as blankets, tobacco, flour and shirts.102 The treatment of Aborigines by squatters varied enormously, depending on the character and attitude of individual pastoralists. Men such as John Eddington at Ballangeich, James Dawson at Kangatong, Joseph Ware at Minjah, Colin Hood at Merrang, John Dixon Wyselaskie and Charles G. Burchett of The Gums, saw it as their responsibility to provide Aborigines with food, to allow them to continue occupying their traditional country, and to defend their interests more generally.

Eddington, for example, ‘accepted that they were entitled to a share in some of his stock as he taken their food’.103 Others, such as ‘Port Fairy Campbell’, prohibited Aborigines from the stations.104 By the late 1850s, a number of squatters, like John Ritchie of Aringa and Dawson of Kangatong, were supplying provisions in their capacity as honorary correspondents for the Board for the Protection of the Aborigines. A number of settlers demonstrated a desire to ‘civilise’ the Aborigines. Mrs Dunlop, an English settler who lived at Griffiths Island, attempted to ‘educate’ the Aborigines who lived with her as servants. She attired them in livery, educated them, and had them accompany her to church on Sundays.105 James Dawson showed an unusually high level of cultural understanding and humanitarian concern. Together with his daughter, Isabella Park Dawson, he recorded the language and traditional stories of Aborigines in the Port Fairy district. In 1866, he had part of his pastoral station Kangatong, near Hawkesdale, reserved as an Aboriginal camping reserve.106 European (principally British) settlers generally considered themselves superior to the Aborigines. In accordance with popular racial theories of the nineteenth century, they relegated Australian Aborigines to the lowest rung of human development, while



elevating the ‘British race as be the highest developed type. They regarded the Aborigines’ way of life, their religious beliefs, their method of gathering and preparing food, and other aspects of their cultural life as inherently inferior. In settlers’ minds, this justified their poor treatment of the Aborigines. Nevertheless, some settlers were uneasy about the fact that they had taken Aboriginal land. John Eddington, for instance, acknowledged that ‘he had taken their country’.107 Generally, however, the greed for land and the colonial impulse to prosper at any cost prevailed.

Image 7: Isabella Park Dawson of Kangertong, near Ha wkesdale, recording the languages of the Aborigines [ Tower Hill State Game Reserve (Fisheries and Wildlife Division, Ministry for Conservation, c.1985)] As settlement progressed, new property boundaries and new systems of land tenure were imposed. These had little meaning for the Aboriginal people. While one pastoralist may have meted out one particular kind of treatment, this was not administered centrally, and a change of pastoralist quite often also meant a changed situation for local Aborigines. Aborigines were often pushed off the stations to the outskirts of the townships. They were written about in a patronising manner and were depicted in tourist postcards and became something of a novelty. There are remains of Aboriginal ovens and camping places on many former pastoral stations in the Shire, for example at Ballangeich. In some cases, ovens and fish traps are in evidence, demonstrating ongoing indigenous cultural practices in the post-contact period.

IMAGE 8: The roadside grave of George Watmore, located outside Port Fairy (photo: Helen Doyle)



7. Farming

7.1 Tenant farmers and freeholders

In the early 1840s, when land in Victoria was more commonly being taken up under pastoral lease, a number of tenant-farming schemes were established near Port Fairy. In 1841, under the ‘special survey’ regulations of the NSW government, Irish immigrant James Atkinson purchased 5120 acres of land at Port Fairy, which he leased to a large number of Irish tenants. He named the settlement Belfast after his home town. It is reputed that he arranged for Irish settlers to be shipped from Sydney and ‘provided them with seeds, etc., and means of maintenance till crops could grow’.

Contrary to popular perceptions, Atkinson is thought to have been a fair landlord, who was supportive of his tenants in his commitment to developing the district.108 William Rutledge led a syndicate of northern Irishmen to purchase a second special survey, an area of 5120 acres that stretched from the Merri River to the Killarney Swamp, and bounded by Tower Hill on the north. He named it Farnham, probably after an ancestral house in his home county, Cavan.109 Under the scheme, the purchaser was responsible for the survey. Landowners were also required to provide their tenants with shelter and other assistance to become established.110 Rutledge is believed to have brought out tenant farmers from Ireland at his own expense, and provided them with rations, livestock, implements, seed wheat and potatoes. The Farnham Survey was divided into strip fields, which was a common practice in Irish farming. The influence of the distinctive cultural and social circumstances of this early settlement is evident in the remnant field lines that are still distinguishable south of the Princes Highway at Tower Hill and Illowa. In 1847, the government proclaimed the coastal hinterland between Warrnambool and Port Fairy a ‘settled district’ in an effort to promote small-scale farming. The land was divided up and sold as 320-acre and 640-acre allotments, many of which were leased and sub-leased.111 Settlers mostly operated small-scale, labour-intensive farms and several established tenant schemes. John Fraser, who was born on the Farnham Survey in 1854, recalled his uncle Roderick Urquhart’s ‘good plan to get the land at “Yangery Park” civilised’:

He let it to a number of tenants, about 1,000 acres in all, on condition that they returned it to him at the end of seven years free of all timber of any kind, and with the land having been ploughed at least once; while they were to have the use of the land free of rent for that time. When all the agreements were signed, Mr Urquart [sic.] returned to Scotland, and came back at the end of the seven years. He was very pleased with the prosperous state of all his tenants, and the beautiful appearance of his land.112

Settlement radiated outwards from Belfast (Port Fairy). There were also tenant farming schemes operating in the 1860s in the rich country around Grassmere,113 while further north, early settlers were also attracted to the rich chocolate soil at Mt Shadwell.114 Immigrants arrived at the western ports of Portland and Belfast in the 1840s, and in



even greater numbers in the 1850s on account of the gold rush. The opportunity for leaseholds also encouraged immigrants and industry to these areas. Revenue from the sale of Crown land was used to finance assisted immigration. An immigrants’ depot was established at Belfast in 1855, on the site of the present-day Port Fairy Botanic Gardens.115 The new arrivals stimulated the rural economy. Many filled the demand for farm labourers at Tower Hill, while others took the opportunity to secure a profitable leasehold. A large proportion of the labourers and servants who disembarked at the western ports were from rural areas of south-west Ireland or Highland Scotland. 7.2 Adapting the landscape for farming

Unlike the north of the Shire, where timber was relatively light and grazing was the predominant activity, much of the land in the fertile strip along the coast needed to be cleared for farming. The Farnham Survey, for example, was originally covered in dense timber.116 Likewise, Atkinson’s Belfast survey was formerly ‘a vast forest of Gum trees’.117 Along the coast, ‘sheoaks and lightwood’ (i.e. Blackwood) were felled.118 By the 1870s, the slopes of Tower Hill were ‘partly cleared of timber’. By 1880, one writer claimed that ‘neither they nor the island, which has been swept by frequent fires, are so well wooded as in the days when von Guérard painted the scene ...’119 By the end of the century, virtually all of Tower Hill was denuded. Farming led to other changes. In the 1850s and 1860s new roads were built and fences divided the country into separate parcels; a number of small bridges were also erected. Volcanic landforms like Tower Hill and Mt Shadwell were quarried for road-making. Mt Eccles remained relatively intact on account of the prolific surface stone that made farming difficult.120 Drainage works on the swamps and marshy lands began in the 1850s and created new areas of rich and productive farmland.121 Chinese labourers are believed to have worked on the draining of the Tower Hill Marsh that commenced in 1870. As a result, the vast Koroongah estate became a highly prosperous farm.122 Drainage of the Condah area began in 1887.123 Closer settlement and the establishment of towns in the 1850s made fencing a necessity. Where timber was plentiful, chock-and-log fences were built. Richard Bennett observed in the late 1880s that all that remained of the dense forest in the farmlands around Tower Hill were the thick log fences along the roadsides. The botanist Montague Rupp also remembered ‘log fences along the lanes’ at Koroit in the 1870s.124 The native vegetation, and bird and animal life, were significantly reduced. Kangaroos, wombats and platypuses, for example, were virtually wiped out in many parts. By the twentieth century very little native vegetation remained. Ghostly stands of eucalypts, ringbarked by early settlers, can still be found in the district.



Image 9: The potato harvest, reputedly depicting Da vid McLaws’ Rosebank estate at Koroit, published in the Illustrated Australian News, 1881 [SLV Accession no. IAN12/03/81/61]

7.3 The demand for land

The gold rush triggered a great demand for fresh meat, vegetables and grain. Farmers around Port Fairy prospered with the rapid increase in cultivation and the favourable prices for produce obtained on the goldfields.125 Demand for farming land in the area rose as a result. Small-scale farming schemes were already operating in the district by the 1840s, but many tenant farmers and, by the 1850s, many flush ex-diggers, were nonetheless eager to acquire their own land. These aspiring small farmers, advocating the yeoman ideal, supported the popular movement to ‘unlock the land’. This directly opposed squatting interests, which were intent on maintaining large holdings. Michael O’Reilly, the outspoken editor of the Banner of Belfast, championed the cause of the small farmer.126 The agitation for land in the late 1850s and 1860s was to some extent rewarded in the Tower Hill district, with many tenants successfully purchasing their land if it was offered at auction. By the mid to late 1850s, farmers had established a prosperous agricultural district that was prized for its high crop yields, particularly of wheat and later potatoes, and famed for the high prices of both its freehold and leasehold land. When the Farnham Survey was subdivided in 1876, many ex-tenants were able to purchase allotments.127 Another practice was to subdivide one large parcel of land into a number of smaller allotments, each of which could support a milch cow and a modest crop of vegetables. The ‘new township of Barkly’ at Tower Hill, for example, was proposed in 1858 and sought to attract ‘Market Gardeners, Laborers, and others in search of a Home!’128 ‘Labourers’ villages’ at Koroit and Kirkstall were reputedly established specifically for the needs of local Irish labourers.129 ‘Dairy Town’ (also known as Derrytown or Cemetery Town) was subdivided in 1864 on the east bank of Tower Hill, apparently with a similar scheme in mind.



Plan 1: Plan of Dairy Town near Tower Hill, surveyed in 1864 [from Brendan O’Toole, ‘Yangery: The Passing of Time’ (Deakin University, 1979)]

Small-scale intensive farming proved viable at Tower Hill and Mt Shadwell



(Mortlake), both of which boasted rich volcanic soil. At Tower Hill a patchwork of small properties developed, many leased and sub-leased. Likewise, at Mortlake, Bonwick reported, ‘Farms are rapidly increasing, there being already fifty families around the mount. The yield is forty and fifty bushels per acre.’130 Wheat was initially the major crop. Up until 1859 more grain was produced in the Warrnambool–Belfast district than anywhere in the colony.131 When rust attacked wheat crops in 1864, farmers switched to other crops and vegetables, especially potatoes and peas.132 Dairying and pig-raising also became popular. The area south of Warrnambool was slower to be taken up for farming because of the denser vegetation cover. In 1857, the area around Moonlight Heads and Curdie Vale was recognised as showing great promise for agriculture if it could be cleared.133

7.4 Farm buildings

A number of farmers who purchased freehold land in the 1850s, especially in the fertile country around Tower Hill, erected substantial residences, for example William Anderson (Rosemount, 1852), David McLaws (Rosebank, 1852); Roderick Urquhart (Yangery Park, 1850s); Richard Skilbeck (Yangery Grange, 1852); and the Mahoney family (Ballyhurst, 1858). Freehold farmers also planted gardens, both for utilitarian and ornamental purposes. But the typical farmhouse remained significantly smaller and less elaborate than the grand residences of the squatters. Indeed, the typical small freehold farmer, tenant farmer and labourer, who lived on more modest, and often meagre means, occupied smaller dwellings. They more often erected a simple two-roomed or four-roomed weatherboard cottage. In many cases, farmhouses were based on standard pattern-book designs. The designs in J.C. Loudon’s Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture (1833), for example, were readily available in the colonies and widely used in Victoria in the 1850s and 1860s. The most common type of dwelling was a four-roomed, box-shape cottage of stone or timber, with a symmetrical façade. These were often originally built without a front or back verandah, although these were sometimes added later. The façade of stone cottages was often decorated with quoining, and ready-made doors and paned windows were used. Often a separate kitchen was built, as well as a cool-store and dairy. This style had been common in Tasmania, whence many of the early settlers had come, and which for some years probably exerted more influence than Melbourne on the building styles of south-western Victoria. Additional ‘boxes’ of one or two rooms could easily be added to the rear under a series of hipped roofs.134 Building methods used by farmers and small settlers followed the same vernacular styles adopted by pastoralists. (This is discussed in chapter 2). Naturally occurring materials were favoured, with slab and bark predominating in the early period. The use of bricks was relatively rare, owing to the lack of suitable clay, but stone such as basalt, limestone, sandstone, tufa (or ash stone), and Merri stone (a kind of tufa) was extremely common. Bonwick observed, for example, that Merri stone ‘for quoins etc produces a capital effect’.135 Timber weatherboards and shingles, either hand-split or commercially made, were also used. Thatching was still commonly used as a roofing material in the 1860s and 1870s, from which time corrugated iron became more



widely available.136 Image 10: A simple pattern-book design for ‘a cottage for a man and his wife’ [from J.C. Loudon, Encylopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture (1833)]

Image 11: Complex of small timber farm buildings at Koroit, photographed in 1971 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accessio n no. H97.250/1900]



By the 1860s, many farms in the fertile areas included a dairy or creamery. This was a separate building, usually constructed of stone, or later from concrete blocks, to ensure a cool and stable temperature. The floor was made of brick or stone, and later of concrete. A surviving example of an early stone dairy can be seen at Hawthorn Dene, Koroit.137 In the drier northern part of the Shire, cool rooms were also built to store meat and dairy products; an example survives at the Lamont farm, Dundonnell. Vegetable-growing required timber seed sheds, and later cool sheds. It is difficult to ascertain whether any early potato sheds have survived, but this is probably unlikely. 7.5 Advances in farming technology

Improved farming techniques in the latter nineteenth century vastly increased productivity and returns from farming. The production of potatoes, peas, hay and pasture continued to increase through the 1870s and 1880s.138 Revenue from dairying and pig-raising also grew. (For further discussion of the dairy industry, see Section 9). This period of prosperity dramatically transformed the landscape. From the 1880s, windmills became a common sight. Before that, wells had to be dug, and water raised from whips or whims. New machinery was introduced: the tractor replaced the horse, and disc ploughs replaced the traditional mouldboard ploughs. Pastures were improved with new fertilisers, especially superphosphate.139 In high-yielding districts the land was carved up into small fields, enclosed with fences, and dotted with small cottages. In the 1880s the coastal strip from Warrnambool to Port Fairy was a scene famed for its intense activity and prosperity. Despite some criticisms of the farming methods and housing quality of the tenant farmers and small holders, visitors and travel writers commented frequently and favourably on the area’s remarkable fertility, rich green hues, high yields and soaring land prices.140 In 1887, the view from where Tower Hill meets the Princes Highway was of intensive settlement:

The wide expanse of fertile land seen from this point of the road is everywhere cut up into very small enclosures, and houses are very numerous. The pastures were splendid, [with numerous] stock in the fields ...141

Richard Bennett described the road through Dairy Town as ‘thronged with calves, pigs and goslings’. The Vagabond declared this part of the country ‘an agricultural paradise’ and observed that ‘the cabins have clean white curtains on the windows’.142 To some, such bucolic scenes were not always pretty. Killarney, in particular, for described as a ‘most unlovely’ place. Here, there were ‘pigs that wallow on in the black mud of the ditches on each side of the road, and … swarms of goslings that were busily employed on the roadside pastures’.143 In some cases, holdings were amalgamated to create larger farms. Dairy farmer J.W. Anderson, for example, purchased a large section of the Farnham Survey in 1884–85 and established the successful Tower Hill Park.144 Yet only a handful of farmers in the Tower Hill area built substantial residences, reflecting a democratic land ownership that was uncharacteristic of the majority of the predominantly pastoral Western District.



The picture of contented farm scenes around Port Fairy, Warrnambool and Koroit continued to be strong in the twentieth century. One writer in 1909 enjoyed driving along ‘the gun-hedged road to Koroit, passing, en route, scores of comfortable-looking cabins and well cultivated potato farms’.145 Journalist E.J. Brady, writing in 1918, had high praise of the Koroit district, where there were ‘some of the most productive mixed farms in Victoria’:

Sheep and cattle graze along rolling slopes in lush green herbage. Glossy cows munch contentedly over rich pastures. Lucerne fields hold bounteous promise of winter hay. Potato plants lift their purple-flowering heads down long even rows. Dark green squares of onions patch the hillsides. Fine dwellings, creameries, smart buggies and new motor cars indicate that, whether the land is cultivated to its full extent or not, the Western District men are neither shiftless nor poor.146

This picture of prosperity however, masked the myriad problems that beset the farmer. There were drought years from 1895 to 1902, a rabbit plague that endured through much of the latter part of the nineteenth century, and the recurring threats of fire and flood.147 As historical geographer J.M. Powell has pointed out, cropping was not always an easy route to ‘the quickest and surest return’. The associated problems of poor transport, lack of markets, poor seasons and poor farming techniques ‘were often sufficient to ruin their chances’.148 7.6 Farming in the postwar period

Vegetable growers at Koroit entered into contracts with the Australian Government during World War II. The district continued to be a main centre for potato and onion growing in the 1950s.149 Around Mortlake, flax was grown for the war effort.150 Improvements in agricultural technology continued to make cropping and mixed farming profitable in the postwar period. As the dairy industry developed new technologies and new shed designs, dairy farms became larger and fewer in number.151 Piggeries remained an important element of mixed farming up until the 1950s, but gradually became fewer in number in this period.152 In later years, the trend for closer settlement has been reversed, with many soldier settlement blocks amalgamated in order to make them more productive and profitable.



Table 1. Estates subdivided for soldier settlement following World War II Estate District Blocks Affleck’s Hawkesdale–Caramut 3 Alanvale Macarthur 6 Barnie Bolac Darlington 6 ? Barwidgee Caramut–Hamilton 12 Berrambool Wickliffe–Chatsworth 10 Boonerah 1 & 2 Hexham–Mortlake 10 Boortkoi 1 & 2 Caramut–Chatsworth 24 Caramut North Caramut–Mortlake 14 Cattle Runs Chatsworth–Caramut 4 Chamallak Mortlake 7 ? Condah Heywood–Condah 4 Connabar Mortlake 17 Coomete Mortlake–Hexham 10 Deerhurst Macarthur 2 East Elwood Hawkesdale 6 Eerilya Hawkesdale–Macarthur 6 Geddes’ & Morrison’s Mortlake 12 Glengleeson East Macarthur 10 Glengleeson 2 Macarthur–Broadwater 10 Gordon’s Mortlake 8 Hopkin’s Hill Mortlake 6 Injemira Woolsthorpe–Warrnambool 15 Jellalabad Darlington–Mortlake 10 Kangertong Hawkesdale 14 Kelly’s Purnim–Terang 2 Leura Port Fairy 4 McDonald’s Mortlake 2 Maes-Y-Porth Grasmere–Warrnambool 8 Merrang ` Mortlake–Hexham 4 Minjah Hawkesdale 22 Morpor Hawkesdale–Koroit 12 Mount Fyans Mortlake–Darlington 15 Moyne Falls Hawkesdale 17 Moyne Flats Macarthur 2 Myrngrong Mortlake 9 Myuna Woorndoo–Mortlake 7 Narrapumelap Wickliffe–Chatsworth 22 North Station Mortlake 9 Oblong Koroit 8 Officer’s Willatook–Koroit 3 Salt Creek Woorndoo–Mortlake 13 Spring Creek Hexham–Mortlake 4 Stokie’s Mortlake 2 Stonefield Penshurst–Hawkesdale 10 Tarrone Warrong–Koroit 50 Terrinallum Derrinallum–Darlington 18 Terrinallum West Darlington–Mortlake 5 ? The Gums Penshurst–Caramut 8 Weerangourt Macarthur 10 Whitehead’s Hawkesdale 4 Yamba East Caramut–Mortlake 2 Young’s Macarthur 8 [Source: Rosalind Smallwood, Hard to Go Bung (1992), pp. 242–47]



8. Rural settlement

8.1 Settlement patterns

The European settlement of the Western District is generally associated with the story of large pastoral estates. But in the fertile country that extends along the coastline, especially around Port Fairy, Tower Hill and Yangery, a different pattern emerged. Retired whalers and sealers who settled around Port Fairy initially ran cattle, but quickly realised the district’s agricultural potential. By 1841, Captain Colin Campbell was growing potatoes in the rich volcanic soil at Tower Hill.153 Charles Mills and his wife Olivia leased Lagoon Farm, later known as Woodbine, from 1843. The government declared ‘settled districts’ in Victoria in 1841, which delineated areas where freehold land could be obtained for farming. Small farming allotments in Moyne Shire were auctioned throughout the 1840s and 1850s. Small-scale farming generally provided a modest livelihood but the opportunity to earn a good income in a good year. The establishment of the Villiers and Heytesbury Agricultural Society in 1853 did much to develop farming in the area.154 8.2 The Land Selection Acts

The Selection Acts of the 1860s, passed by the Victorian government, went some way in breaking up the large pastoral holdings into smaller farms. This legislation allowed would-be farmers to select between 40 and 320 acres on reasonable terms. This process often fell prey to the practice of ‘dummying’, however, and pastoralists were heavily criticised for buying up land intended for farming.155 W.J.T. (‘Big’) Clarke, for example, acquired a vast holding near Port Fairy after 1862. The Koorongah Estate, comprising 5000 acres, stood as an example of the way in which large properties could be steadily acquired, piece by piece, through the land selection acts.156 The agricultural statistician for Villiers West in 1865, John Officer, favoured land sale by auction and strongly opposed the land selection system that deprived ‘an industrious rural population’ of land but instead gave it cheaply ‘to graze sheep and cattle the same as before’. He declared angrily that ‘Even greedy capitalists beyond the seas have sent their agents among us to secure as much as possible of the public estate’.157 Some blocks were made available for selection in the Koroit–Port Fairy district, but these were not as numerous as those offered in less densely settled districts. A number of selections were also taken up in the Ellerslie and Woolsthorpe districts.158 Agricultural interests were clearly evident in township development. Farms encroached on town blocks in many areas. Sale-yards were still in operation in many towns in the postwar years, including Yambuk, Mortlake, Ballangeich, and Koroit. Local stock and station agencies were also a common sight. The yards, sheds and enclosures of the local agricultural society were permanent fixtures at many public recreation reserves and showgrounds. To further assist and encourage the small farmer, the Victorian government set aside a



large number of Crown reserves in the early 1860s as ‘farmers’ commons’ — for the purpose of communal grazing and cropping. Here, local farmers who were the owners of freehold land could depasture their stock for a fee, which was payable to the local council, which acted as a committee of management.159 A herdsman was employed to enforce the regulations and to collect the fees. These reserves were established in virtually every locality, including Mortlake, Mepunga, Purnim, Yangery, Yambuk, Tower Hill, Hawkesdale, Kirkstall, Macarthur, Codrington and Ballangeich. By 1865, however, problems had emerged regarding the effectiveness of their management, and their overall viability.160 Many were revoked and re-reserved for other public purposes over the following decades.

8.3 Closer and soldier settlement

Through special legislation passed in Victoria in 1898 and 1904, a number of large pastoral estates were compulsorily repurchased and broken up by the Closer Settlement Board to allow for small-scale farming. Like the Land Selection Acts of the 1860s, this legislation was born of a renewed belief in the yeoman ideal.161 A number of estates were subdivided to take advantage from new developments in dairy farming. Hexham Park and Kia-Ora, for example, were broken up for this purpose in 1908, and Eumeralla at Macarthur in 1910.162 While new technologies and better access to markets generally made intensive farming more viable, the popular picture of unlimited productivity proved unrealistic, especially in country that had a low carrying capacity.163 Soldiers returning from the Great War were also offered the chance to become yeomen farmers. Under the Discharged Soldier Act of 1917 they were offered land selections on reasonable terms. The War Service Homes Commission was established in 1919 to provide houses for successful ‘soldier settler’ applicants and their dependents. The simple weatherboard cottages they erected, however, proved far from adequate. Woodlands Estate at Willatook was one of the first soldier settlements in Victoria. Other estates acquired by the Closer Settlement Board included Koorongah, Toolong, and Dura, all located near Port Fairy.164 At Mortlake the Government’s Board purchased large areas of the Weatherly’s Woolongoon estate. Lionel Weatherly helped to lay out 39 farms at Woolongoon and to select the successful occupants.165 Overall, soldier settlement in Victoria had a one-in-four failure rate. In Moyne Shire, however, the success rate varied. There were certainly many problems apart from strictly farming matters.166 It was expected, for example, that dairying would provide a successful livelihood for soldier settlers, but in reality many fared badly.167 Nevertheless, the south-west district in 1918 was regarded in popular opinion as ‘an agricultural Utopia’. Given the high rainfall and good soil in many parts, and the ability of local farmers to make a livelihood on a small acreage, some soldier settlers met with success.168 The Woolongoon estate at Mortlake, for example, proved highly successful. Other viable blocks were at Kenna’s and Coverdale’s, Long’s, Ligar or Graham’s, Terrinallum North, and Shadwell Park. The settlement at Mt Violet, near Dundonnell, however, failed dismally owing to the poor quality of the country and the



settlers’ lack of previous farming knowledge.169 When a new generation of returned soldiers took up soldier settlement blocks after World War II, the countryside became more extensively settled.170 Under the jurisdiction of the Rural Reconstruction Commission, and the management of the Soldier Settlement Commission (SSC), this second attempt in Victoria was generally much more successful, with a large number of blocks suitable for sheep grazing, dairying and mixed farming being made available in (what is now) Moyne Shire.171 The Tarrone estate provided 50 blocks, while Minjah provided another 22 blocks. With the benefits of improved farming practices, new machinery, the widespread use of superphosphate, and the allocation of larger blocks than those allocated after World War I, many of these new settlements prospered. They also injected new life into many country towns by boosting the local population, and triggering demands for new services and infrastructure, such as schools, churches, health care and public halls. In the small town of Hawkesdale, where the Kangertong estate alone provided 14 blocks, a large number of new town buildings were erected in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including a high school. The declining village of Dundonnell was also resurrected with new public buildings and services. This second phase of soldier settlement changed the look of the country. There was now a greater concentration of smaller, modern farmhouses, as well as more extensive windbreak plantings, improved pastures, and often an increased stock-carrying capacity. Soldier settlement blocks rarely inherited any existing buildings from their parent estates. The new farmhouses, being built closer to the roadside (to avoid the great expense of building long driveways), were more visible, as were their front lawns and neat clipped gardens. The three-bedroom residences were built in oatmeal brick or weatherboard with a characteristic oatmeal-brick chimney. The SSC also erected dairies, milking sheds, shearing sheds, general-purpose sheds, haysheds, sheep yards, sheep dips and cow yards. An SSC materials depot was established at Darlington, to help speed up the extensive postwar building program in western Victoria.172 A large number of farmhouses survive from the World War II soldier settlements, but there are fewer from the First World War. In some communities it is the memorial hall, where the community met on a regular basis, rather than the farmhouses themselves, that may be considered to best represent this aspect of the district’s history. Many towns erected soldier settlement plaques in the 1980s and 1990s, which list the estates that were subdivided and the names of those who first took up blocks.173



9. Primary Industry

9.1 Flour mills

The first flour mill in western Victoria was a wind-operated, timber structure erected at Belfast in 1847. A steam flour mill began operations on the Moyne River at Rosebrook in 1848, and other bluestone flour mills were erected along the river at Belfast in the 1850s.174 By 1857, there were ‘good flour mills’ operating in Warrnambool, which served the wider district.175 By 1858, mills were also established in the rising agricultural centres, for example, at Koroit and Mortlake. With the erection of the steam flour mill at Mortlake local farmers could more easily access the lucrative Ararat market by road, rather than having to transport their grain to the ports.176 Here, two employees’ cottages were also erected close by.177 Some of the large pastoral stations, for example Spring Creek, also operated their own flour mills.

Image 12: The Mortlake Flour Mill with its tapered bluestone chimney, built in 1858 and used to process wheat into flour for the Ararat goldfields; photographed in 1980s prior to restoration [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H98.250/698]

The grain-milling industry drove other developments in the new townships. Some of the flour mills ceased operations after 1864, when rust attacked the wheat crop. The Rosebrook mill, for example, was adapted for use as grain storage.178 The Mortlake flour mill is an intact surviving example of this early industry. 9.2 Hops and tobacco

In 1865, the agricultural report for the County of Villiers and Heytesbury noted: ‘Onions, tobacco and other crops do not seem to find much favour in this district’, which suggests also the absence of hops.179 Hops, an important ingredient in beer-



making, was grown in south-west Victoria from the 1870s (and possibly the late 1860s), especially in the rich alluvial soil around Panmure, Purnim and Wangoom. While no hops were recorded as being grown in Victoria in 1865, by 1883 there were 1758 acres under cultivation.180 By the early 1880s, a large hops garden of about 32 acres ‘hops kilns and storage lofts’ was established at Henry Phillips’ stud property Bryan O’Lynn on the Merri River. Here, Phillips had established ‘a reputation as a grower of first class hops’. One visitor to the property in 1884 was highly impressed by the quality of the kilns, ‘built by Mr Phillips on approved principals and … reputed to be the finest in the colonies’. A large amount of hops was also grown at Purnim.181 Hops plantations provided seasonal employment for a number of years. Once harvested, hops were dried in a round tower, or oven, known as an oast tower. In south-west Victoria these were typically built of stone, whereas in other parts of the state they were built of timber. The few surviving stone oasts in Moyne Shire, for example those at Vinegar Hill, Wangoom, stand oddly in the Australian landscape, like misplaced medieval structures.

IMAGE 13: Ruins of a bluestone oast at Vinegar Hill, Wangoom [photo: Lee Andrews]

9.3 The dairy industry

Early settlers in the fertile lands of south-west Victoria were quick to find success with dairy farming. The country stretching from Panmure and Purnim, and along the coastal strip from Allansford to Yambuk, proved excellent dairy country on account of the higher than average rainfall and rich loamy soil. Some small dairies were in operation by the 1850s, including one on the Hopkins River at Wangoom and the famed cheese factory at Tooram, south of Allansford.182 By the mid 1880s, there was a thriving community of prosperous dairy farms around Panmure, Garvoc, and on the outskirts of Warrnambool, and cheese and butter production was a growing industry.183



Image 14: Bluestone dairy and dry-stone walls built by John Lamont at Dundonnell in the c.1870s [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Library Collection, SLV Accession no. H95.200/419]

It was not until the late 1880s and early 1890s, however, with the introduction of co-operative ownership of factory infrastructure and revenue, that large butter and cheese factories became feasible. Local farmers’ co-operatives established a number of butter factories in the late 1880s, with Cobden being the first to open in 1888. A factory at Allansford also opened in 1888, with supporting creameries established at Cudgee, Mepunga East, Lake Gillear, and Nirranda. The flour mill at Rosebrook was converted to a dairy factory in 1888, and was served by creameries at Yambuk and Toolong. The Koroit and Tower Hill Butter Factory opened in 1889, with a network of creameries at Woolsthorpe, Crossley, Kirkstall, and Southern Cross. A co-operative factory at Grasmere also opened in 1889, with creameries at Grasmere and Wangoom, and established a long tradition for its high quality butter.184 Creameries also served local farmers at Nullawarre, Allan’s Forest, Ballangeich, Purnim, and Panmure. The introduction of refrigerated railway trucks in 1891 allowed dairy products to be transported directly to Melbourne. In the following decades the industry boomed, but this led to over-stocking of dairy cattle and erosion of the land.185 Other factories opened — Ellerslie and Framlingham in 1891, Macarthur and Yambuk in 1892, Mortlake (which traded under the name ‘Butterfly’) in 1894, Caramut (by 1896), Garvoc in 1900, and The Sisters in 1910.186 Technological innovation continued to speed progress. As large companies took control of butter and cheese manufacture, the co-operative factories were expanded and introduced new products. The Kraft Walker Cheese Company established their first bulk plant at Allansford in 1930, and from 1935 significantly developed the company’s cheese-making facilities. The factory supplied canned cheese to Australian servicemen during World War II. Kraft Walker later took over the factory at nearby Garvoc, but this closed down in 1959.187 The Glaxo company — a rival of Nestlé, which had earlier established a factory at Dennington — opened a factory at Port Fairy in 1923, where milk powder, pre-cooked cereal foods, calcium caseinate, and anti-biotics were produced.188



Image 15: Carting milk to the butter factory at Koroit, c.1900s [private collection]

The prosperity from dairying in the 1890s and into the 1920s is evident in the types of farmhouses built, and in patterns of town development. A number of substantial private residences were erected during this period, for example the Crowe residence (1918) and other Edwardian homes in Koroit, and various homes in Caramut and Macarthur. This prosperity is also reflected in the fine commercial buildings erected during this period. The Koroit Hotel and Mac’s Hotel in Mortlake were also significantly remodelled in the early 1900s. New technology and improved transport — including motor cars, trucks and the railway — greatly benefited the dairy industry in the 1920s, providing more efficient transportation of milk to and from the factories, creameries and small private dairies. Before the improvement of road transportation in the late 1920s, milk products from the Glaxo factory had been shipped to Melbourne via coastal steamer.189 The narrow roadways through the dairying districts connected farmers to wider markets in the larger towns and further afield in Melbourne. Most surviving private dairy buildings, creameries and milk depots stand close to the roadside; many are constructed from cement blocks, which was a popular building material in the 1920s. In 1967, the South Western Co-operative at Port Fairy joined Murray Goulburn. When the Glaxo factory closed in 1970, its suppliers also joined Murray Goulburn.190 The Koroit Butter Factory merged with the Grasmere factory in the 1950s, and later it too was acquired by the growing Murray Goulburn group. In the 1950s, dairy factories were producing a range of products including casein, and dried and condensed milk. Infant formula and invalid food was produced at the Glaxo factory until 1972. In the 1950s, the factories at Allansford and Port Fairy were among the largest in the state.191 Some fabric of several of the early dairy factories survive, including those at Koroit,



Macarthur, Mortlake, and Allansford.



10. Timber and forestry 10.1 Deforestation

Native timber was felled indiscriminately from the beginning of European settlement in efforts to make the land more ‘productive’. Police magistrate Foster Fyans reported on timber-cutting throughout the Portland Bay District as early as 1837. Two years later, he was concerned that squatters were ‘disfiguring the country in cutting and destroying the timber, which is not abundant’. By the late 1840s, he was strongly urging that reserves be set aside for timber preservation west and north of Lake Corangamite.192 By the 1860s Robert Brough Smyth and Ferdinand Mueller described vast areas of the Western District as ‘treeless’ or ‘nearly treeless plains’.193 The Argus warned that “trees are disappearing in a rapidly widening radius around our centres of population”, and urged that timber reserves be set aside to produce moisture, to enhance the appearance of the colony and “for various purposes of public utility”’.194 Yet little was done. As historian Margaret Kiddle explained, ‘Nearly all squatters persisted in their early tendency to eradicate native trees wherever possible, and even when they had not intended to do so the feeding habits of their stock as well as other causes only guessed at brought about the death of many trees.’195 10.2 Saw-milling

Timber was an essential material for housing construction, household furniture, fencing, and a range of other uses. As settlement in the fertile and well-timbered coastal fringe developed through the 1840s and 1850s, a number of commercial saw-mills were established. By the 1870s, saw-mills were operating in the east of the Shire, in the timbered areas around Garvoc, Panmure, Framlingham, Nullawarre and Nirranda. Here, timber was plentiful but was not of a very good quality.196 Remains of the once extensive forest around Laang survives in the roadside reserves.

Image 16: Bush sawmills at Framlingham, c.1900-1910 [private collection]



The first saw-mill at Nullawarre was erected in 1870, and soon after there were four or five in operation.197 By 1875, Alex Spiers was operating the Yallock Saw Mills near Garvoc, and the W. Williams Steam Mills had opened at Panmure.198 The Vagabond described the scene at Panmure in 1885: ‘Many are … engaged in splitting and carting from the thick forest close at hand, and extensive sawmills are situated about a mile west of the township’.199 At Framlingham, a saw-mill operated at the Aboriginal reserve, where Aborigines were made to labour for no pay. The significance of this site is now marked with a plaque.200 Saw-milling continued through the nineteenth century and into the early decades of the twentieth century.201 As the forests were depleted, the sawmills closed down and the industry died out. Accommodation at the saw-milling camps had usually been rough and impermanent. The milling machinery was usually removed once a mill had ceased operations. The name of ‘Henry’s Sawmill Road’, near Nirranda, remains as virtually the only evidence of timber-milling activity in this area. The Framlingham Forest continued to be exploited for timber through the twentieth century. Here there is a surviving Forestry Commission ranger’s hut that was probably built in the 1920s. In 1987, 1130 hectares of Crown land within the Framlingham forest was returned to its traditional Aboriginal owners. Many properties occupying pastoral country have been converted in recent years to timber plantations, mostly Bluegums.

IMAGE 17: Forestry hut at Framlingham Forest [photo: Helen Doyle]



11. Lime-burning and quarrying 11.1 Lime-burning

Lime deposits were not uncommon along the coastal area of Moyne Shire and early settlers exploited these deposits for personal and commercial uses. Lime was an important component of fertiliser and was used widely for building — chiefly in the manufacture of mortar and render used in masonry; but also in the construction of cements and other products; and for street works.202 Several small-scale lime kilns operated around Port Fairy: there was one located ‘near the old race course, behind the water tower’ while another operated ‘behind Allan Willis’ house at Rosebrook’.203 There were also a number of limeworks near the limestone banks of the Curdies River near Peterborough in the early 1900s, including one at Boggy Creek. The name ‘Limestone Creek’, near the Curdies River, recalls the lime-burning industry in this vicinity. Local historian Noel Learmonth claims that there was also a lime-burning operation on the Port Fairy Road, near Macarthur.204 11.2 Quarrying

Surface stone or rubble was widely used in early building, but quarrying was soon commenced to meet the growing demand for better quality building stone. Basalt and limestone were extracted in large quantities at a number of locations. A limestone quarry at Tower Hill, for example, was operating by the 1850s. The softer Merri River stone and volcanic tufa stone from Tower Hill were also quarried early for building purposes at this time. Many pastoral properties drew on the local stone supply for building purposes and a ‘quarry paddock’ was often set aside for this purpose. Well constructed sealed roads were essential for the efficient transportation of produce to the ports and more distant towns. Quarrying and stone-crushing operations for road-making operations were established at Killarney and Tower Hill. Scoria has also been quarried at Mt Shadwell, near Mortlake, and at Mt Eccles, near Macarthur, since the early twentieth century.205 Many small road reserves were set aside for quarrying purposes for road-making, for example at Ripponhurst.



12. Development of towns

12.1 Early towns and villages

Until Warrnambool was declared a township in 1847, Belfast was the only town apart from Portland in western Victoria. James Dawson recalled of the early 1840s that the town was ‘no more than a whaling station, with a few farmers and squatters in the rear’.206 In 1843 it was described as ‘a skeleton town of bark-roofed slab huts’, but a year later it had built up a population of 770.207 Much of the fertile land between Port Fairy and Warrnambool was declared a ‘settled district’ in 1847 and thrown open for sale. As the population grew, the need for public infrastructure like roads and bridges and properly administered services became critical. Belfast encountered some difficulties with local administration because the town was entirely private, but its landlord James Atkinson was generally co-operative in providing land for churches and schools, and public institutions.208 Belfast prospered through the 1850s as the centre of a thriving agricultural and pastoral district, and as a busy port. The Belfast District Road Board, formed in 1853, was the first municipal administrative body in Victoria. While Atkinson’s Belfast Survey formed the foundation of the Belfast township, Rutledge’s Farnham Survey near Tower Hill remained almost entirely farmland. Here, makeshift cottages accommodated tenant farmers and a church–school was built, but a township was not formally laid out. A concentration of building occurred west of Tower Hill, at the settlement, or ‘village’, known as Killarney, but in 1857 the survey of the new town of Koroit pushed future urban development northwards. A concentration of other small settlements sprang up at intervals around the perimeter of the Tower Hill crater — at Bridge End, Emu Flat, and Crossley to the west; at Tower Hill to the south; and at Dairy Town, Illowa, Southern Cross, and Yangery to the east. Here, the rich farming country supported smaller properties and a more concentrated population. In comparison to the situation in the highly fertile country around Tower Hill, settlement across the northern parts of the Shire in the 1840s was confined mainly to the pastoral stations, where most people lived and worked. Slowly, small townships emerged. Mortlake, for example, supported the dominant pastoral industry as well as a number of smaller farms. A township site at present-day Hexham was reserved in 1847 and at Woolsthorpe in 1852.209 Through the golden years of the 1850s enormous wealth was created in Victoria, and the population of the colony grew almost fourfold.210 The gold rush brought heavy traffic from the western ports of Belfast, Warrnambool and Portland. Along the major overland routes that led to the goldfields, taverns or lodging places were built at the major crossing points, where teams and bullock drays could rest overnight — for example, at Muston’s Creek (Caramut); Elephant Bridge (Darlington) on the Mt Emu Creek; Lett’s Ford (Ellerslie) on the Hopkins River; and at Panmure. Before the first bridge was built at Hexham, a ferry carried passengers over the Hopkins River.211



Hotels and stores were built at many other stopping places in the 1850s, including Yambuk, Hexham, Mount Shadwell, Koroit, Purnim, Wangoom, Grassmere and Framlingham.212 These stopping places often determined the site of a future township. The town of Orford was reputedly established as a result of the hotel’s publican losing his license. Bonwick reported that it was ‘said to have arisen from the enterprising exertions and public spirit of a wine merchant, proprietor of the house, who found that a forfeited license could only be recovered by the proclamation of a township, and the purchase of the land on which the house stood’.213

Image 18: A stylised impression of the township of Koroit in 1881, from the Illustrated Australian News [SLV Accession no. IAN12/03/81/61]

12.2 Town surveys

Many new towns were laid out in the 1850s and 1860s, including Mortlake (1853), Hexham (1855), Macarthur (1857), and Hawkesdale (1860). Other inland townships were surveyed later, including Woorndoo (1866), Ellerslie (1867), and Purnim (1860s), probably owing to anticipated population growth associated with the land selection acts. Many towns were slow to develop. Bonwick noted that he passed the township of Panmure in 1857 ‘without being conscious of its existence’. Framlingham, too, was little more than a crossing place.214 In the far south-east of the Shire, from Peterborough to Allan’s Forest, there was less settlement on account of the land being either heavily forested or too scrubby. Elsewhere in the Shire, private speculators perhaps tried to emulate James Atkinson by establishing ‘private’ townships — for example at Garvoc and Purnim, where large landowners controlled a private subdivision that grew into a town. Town surveys typically followed the favoured grid pattern or linear pattern, but they were also designed to suit the particular topography and natural features of a proposed town site. The Macarthur town layout (1857) is an atypical example that demonstrates elegance and flair, with the township planned around paired curvilinear roads that meet up around a central straight road. Its surveyor John Turner perhaps envisaged a central park or reserve, around which the main roads would sweep. The subdivision for Woorndoo, dated 1866, incorporated a central circular space into the standard grid layout. The original survey for Framlingham shows an artistic treatment of the river bend, incorporating the new roads so that they abut the river at each end of its U-bend, creating a symmetrical pattern of road and watercourse. The plan for Mortlake is an



example of the South Australian-influenced ‘parkland’ type.215 Both Macarthur and Mortlake incorporated a ‘market square’ into their town plans.

Image 19: Officer Street, Mortlake, with Mt Shadwell in the distance [Museum Victoria ref. MM 007253]

12.3 Hotels

The hotel or wayside inn was often the first building in a township. Hotels defined the site of a new or potential settlement, and became important stopping places and meeting places. Often they were sited near a waterway and marked a well-used crossing place. They also provided public space for purposes such as a court-room and meeting room, before the appropriate public buildings were erected. Along the track between Tower Hill and Killarney there were three hotels operating in the 1850s: the Plough Inn, the Carleton Inn and the Killarney Hotel.216 These early hotels were fairly rudimentary, built of timber or stone. Some of the earliest surviving hotels in the Shire have been rebuilt several times. By the late nineteenth century, hotels had become numerous in many towns, but particularly in Koroit and its surrounding hamlets. In 1875, Koroit boasted a surprising five hotels for a population of 1470, while Mortlake, with a population of around 500, made do with only three hotels.217 The Vagabond described Macarthur in 1885 as ‘an orderly and moral place’; he noted that ‘a third hotel, a very good building, has recently been shut up for lack of custom, but a temperance building still keeps open’.218 Fervent anti-liquor movements meant that temperance hotels were also popular from the late nineteenth century. Temperance halls opened at Mortlake and Hexham in the 1870s. Many hotels were closed after 1919 with the introduction of new liquor licensing laws in Victoria. Few new hotels were erected after this time, except replacement buildings, such as the Western Hotel at Caramut. 12.4 Town services As townships grew, so too did the demand for services. Within a few years, most townships had a rudimentary store and hotel, and perhaps a post and telegraph office.



Reserves for schools and churches, and other public facilities, such as a town hall, courthouse, mechanics institute, police station, lock-up and recreation reserve, were subsequently granted. Many of the early public buildings located in the Shire date from the 1860s and 1870s, a period when local administration was formalised and growing populations demanded the provision of local services. Mortlake’s public building precinct in Shaw Street, built almost entirely from local bluestone, dates from this period. Other town services, such as piped water and electricity, were introduced later. Electricity was ‘turned on’ in many towns the early 1900s. Before the large-scale soldier settlement that followed World War II, small townships like Chatsworth, Caramut, and Hexham, which were surrounded by large station properties, had served for generations as ‘employee villages’.219 They were closely tied to the pastoral estates, and their churches and institutions were often established by the local pastoral families. 12.5 Public health

As settlement progressed in the 1860s, serious concerns developed about the unsanitary conditions in many the townships. The lack of a reliable source of fresh water, the problem of inadequate drainage, and the presence of excess groundwater were known causes of infectious diseases.220 An outbreak of typhoid fever around Tower Hill in 1888 struck fear into the local community and urged action on the provision of fresh water. As medical practitioners were in short supply and visited a town only once or twice a week, small communities established additional medical services. Bush nursing centres, for example, at Koroit and Hawkesdale, were established in the 1920s, while the Mortlake CWA opened a maternity home with a qualified nurse.221 Modern new hospitals were opened at Koroit and Mortlake in the late 1950s.222 Maternal and infant welfare centres were also established at Port Fairy, Koroit, and Mortlake. 12.6 Water supply

While water supply was at first rudimentary, it critically determined the patterns of settlement. Early settlement sites were invariably located at reliable and ample supply of water. Streams, rivers and waterholes were the chief sources of water. As settlement progressed, settlers were forced to source water by other means. Early settlers built dams and water tanks, and sunk wells, both for stock and human purposes. Examples of early stone tanks survive at the Lamont farm, Dundonnell; Lawrenny, Caramut; and Green Hills, Minhamite. Efficient town water supplies were less reliable and slow to develop. The Koroit Water Works Trust was relatively early, established in 1889, following the typhoid scare. At Mortlake a reticulated water supply was not introduced until 1915.223 In some parts, lakes provided local water supplies for many years, for example at Garvoc (Shenam Dam) and at Woorndoo.224



Image 20 (ABOVE): An early bluestone dam on the Lamonts’ farm, Dundonnell [J.T. Collins Collection, SLV Accession no. H95.200/426] Image 21 (RIGHT): Concrete water tower for the Mort lake town supply, now demolished [J.T. Collins Collectio n, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H98.250/6 79]

12.7 Prosperity and decline

For a brief time in the 1840s, Belfast was the largest town in the Colony of Victoria, outside Melbourne. By 1850 there was a population of 900 at Belfast and 350 at the new port town of Warrnambool. Portland, by that time, had 1000 people.225 In the 1850s, Belfast (Port Fairy) was a bigger, more impressive and more important town than Warrnambool. Bonwick reported that the town ‘presents a substantial appearance, containing some excellent stone and brick edifices’, and declared the Star of the West to be probably the finest hotel outside of Melbourne.226 The ambitious archdeacon of Port Fairy, Thomas Henry Braim, had envisaged St John’s Anglican Church as a cathedral, but this never eventuated. Plans in the 1840s to establish a large private college for western Victoria at Port Fairy were also thwarted by a lack of funds.227 Warrnambool grew rapidly after the discovery of gold, as farmers moved swiftly to produce wheat, vegetables and forage for the highly populated mining settlements. As more land was made available for farming, Warrnambool soon became a busy place of export, largely at the expense of activity at Belfast.228 The rapid development of the port at Warrnambool and the collapse in 1862 of the mercantile operations of William Rutledge & Co., once the largest company in the colony, marked the end of Belfast’s quick rise to prosperity. Belfast nevertheless persevered, and the improvements to the navigation of the Moyne River in the 1870s did much to keep her shipping industry afloat.229 With the death of James Atkinson in 1885, the blocks comprising Belfast survey land were put up for sale by auction. Such was the excitement at this event that the town was re-named Port Fairy. It was hoped that this symbolic gesture would usher in a new period of prosperity. Although in decline for much of the nineteenth



century, Port Fairy refused to relinquish its former glory. Instead, one journalist in the 1890s imagined the town as ‘prophetic of future greatness’:

though we of the first century of its life are regretful of comparative inactivity, we may rest confident in its future great progressiveness. The meandering Moyne will be lined with the world’s merchantmen; warehouses and manufactories will crowd its banks … and everywhere Port Fairy will be a synonym for push, progression and prosperity.230

While Port Fairy’s fortunes dwindled, other towns prospered as farming became more profitable in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The economic growth fuelled by agricultural development allowed schools, hotels and other local institutions to be rebuilt. Commodious bank buildings were erected in Koroit in the 1870s. A greater range and availability of consumer products, and an improved transport system provided by the railways, saw many towns become thriving commercial centres in the early twentieth century. Fine residential buildings reflected local prosperity. Examples include Bethany at Macarthur (c.1880s) and a number of Edwardian timber houses in Koroit built by Simmonds and Hain. Domestic housing styles generally followed broader architectural fashions, with quality reflecting local fluctuations in prosperity. Local builders often employed their own idiosyncratic local styles. General prosperity in the first part of the twentieth century, buoyed by the dairying boom and good prices, was followed by a period of decline in many of the smaller townships after World War II. Some towns began to slowly disappear. At Illowa, for example, there was once a blacksmith’s forge, a hotel and mechanics institute — all now gone. At Ellerslie, more than half of the town’s eighty residences were moved to soldier settlement blocks after World War I231. Elsewhere in the Shire, many primary schools and churches have been closed down or relocated. These sites of lost buildings remain important to local communities. In some small towns, like Woorndoo and Chatsworth, many of the surveyed roads remain unmade, existing today as rough tracks or grassed reserves — the promise of future development remains unmet.



13. Administering settlements 13.1 Local administration

District road boards were set up to govern the new settlements. The Belfast Road Board, established in 1853 (and the first road board in Victoria), became the Shire of Belfast in 1863. Other larger districts were also brought under local government administration. The Shires of Mortlake and Mount Rouse were created in 1864, while the Borough of Koroit and the Shire of Minhamite were both established in 1870. The chief responsibility of these bodies was to collect rates from property owners, and to use these funds for the provision of services and for public works. As the early name of ‘road board’ implies, much of this work involved maintaining roads and bridges, and erecting mileposts. 13.2 Defence

Britain’s involvement in the Crimean War in the 1850s prompted measures to defend the coastline of Victoria, which was a young but relatively wealthy British colony. The Victorian government established volunteer rifle regiments in several coastal towns in 1859 ‘for the purposes of drill and instruction’, including one at Belfast.232 Fears of a Russian invasion in 1885 led to the construction of batteries at Port Fairy, Warrnambool, and Portland. Voluntary rifle corps brigades were established in Mortlake and Hexham, and in a number of other towns.233 Public reserves were set aside as rifle ranges on the outskirts of townships, where rifle matches and drilling took place, for example at Caramut, Hexham, Mortlake, Macarthur, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe, and Yambuk.234 Rifle ranges were popular until the early 1900s, but have now mostly reverted to other uses.235 Fears of invasion re-emerged in the 1940s with the rumour that the Japanese were planning to launch a land attack from Warrnambool or Portland. This prompted a number of security measures, such as changing the road signs and repositioning mileposts a few metres behind their original location.236 An RAAF airbase was also established at Warrnambool Airport, which conducted coastal patrols and where several concrete ammunition bunkers were erected.



14. Administering Aboriginal affairs 14.1 The Aboriginal ‘Protectorate’

The colonial authorities established an Aboriginal Protectorate at Port Phillip in 1838, with the objectives to ‘protect’ the Aborigines physically and to ‘civilise’ them by training them to live a settled European lifestyle and converting them to Christianity. The authorities hoped that this would bring an end to racial violence in the district. Lord Glenelg, the British Secretary of State, proposed for the appointment of five ‘protectors’ whose wages would be financed by the lease and sale of Aboriginal lands. Charles Sievewright was assigned the Western District. George Augustus Robinson was appointed Chief Protector.237 The various language groups within the Shire — the Dhauwurdwurrung, Djabwurrung, and Giraiwurrung — were brought together under this government policy with little consideration of their cultural differences. In 1840–42, many Aborigines in the area were moved to Mount Rouse, near present-day Penshurst, where an early protectorate station had been established by the colonial government. By 1843, however, the Port Phillip Protectorate was ‘financially crippled’. The Mount Rouse station failed to achieve the objectives of the Protectorate system. It closed in 1848 and was converted to a ration depot.238 The Aboriginal population suffered dearly from the impact of European diseases, and their numbers declined dramatically. James Bonwick reported in 1857 that influenza had ‘rapidly diminished their numbers’ in the Warrnambool district, and that they were unable to obtain medicine because to do so they ‘would have to pass through an enemy’s country’. In the police district that extended north as far as Hexham and Elephant Bridge (Darlington), Bonwick noted there were only 53 males and 37 females, and that ‘No black child has been born for a long time’.239 Racial violence and killings also continued through the 1840s, after the establishment of the Protectorate. 14.2 Maintaining Aboriginal cultural life

Although mostly denied access to their traditional lands, Aborigines continued to maintain their cultural practices. They continued to hold great feasts at Tare-rer, the large swamp on the west side of Tower Hill, where there was a village of mostly wattle-and-daub huts. During the whaling season in 1841, G.A. Robinson noted that more than 800 people had gathered here.240 In the drier grasslands to the north, sizable populations were sustained by grazing animals as well as the smaller marsupials, and an abundance of plant and vegetable food sources. Cultural practices associated with birth and death, and with feasting and ceremonies, also continued after white settlement. Aborigines continued to meet together periodically for corroborees, religious ceremonies and other business. At Tower Hill swamp in 1849, the whaler Hugh Donnelly witnessed perhaps the last show of formal combat between the two chiefs, ‘Port Fairy Jack’ and ‘Brian Boru’ (from Mt Rouse).241 Corroborees continued to take place in the 1850s despite a heavily reduced Aboriginal population. Around Port Fairy the ‘last large corroboree’ was reported to



have taken place at Yambuk, ‘when a gathering of the remnants of the Port Fairy tribe was summoned in September 1859’. A ‘great corroboree, in which two tribes participated’ also took place outside of Hexham around 1862.242 Many corroboree sites had become part of pastoral runs, and squatters were often averse to allowing such events to take place on their land. Some Aborigines were permitted to remain living on the pastoral stations. But many of the dispossessed Aborigines were forced to live on the fringes of the invaders’ new settlements. Often they occupied Crown land, especially riverside reserves and the police paddocks (for example at Koroit). At Tower Hill, a site near the Plough Inn served as a popular campsite in the 1840s. Polo Hill at Mortlake was an important camping ground in the 1850s and 1860s, and this was also used as a local ration depot.243

14.3 Reserves at Framlingham and Lake Condah

To replace the defunct Aboriginal Protectorate, the Select Committee on Aborigines of 1858–59 recommended ‘that reserves should be formed for the various tribes in their own hunting grounds … [and] advocated missionaries being put in charge of the reserves and the training of Aborigines to live like Europeans’.244 On such reserves, it was thought, Aborigines ‘could achieve a measure of self-support through combining agricultural and gardening operations with the keeping of sheep and cattle’.245 In south-west Victoria, two areas of land were designated for this purpose in the 1860s — one at Framlingham, north of Warrnambool on the Hopkins River, and the other at Lake Condah, situated between Heywood and Macarthur, just outside the western boundary of Moyne Shire. The Board for the Protection of Aborigines also established a number of ‘outer’ stations or ration depots in more remote parts of the colony, including one at Mt Shadwell, and appointed honorary correspondents to administer these depots, to distribute stores, and to some extent to represent the interest of those Aborigines. The Board also permitted a number of small camping reserves, such as that established at Kangerton (Kangertang), near Hawkesdale, which was gazetted in 1866.246 By the 1860s, most of the remaining Aboriginal people in the eastern part of the Shire had been forcibly re-located to the Framlingham mission station.247 In the west of the Shire, they were moved to the Lake Condah mission once it was established in 1867.248 The Aboriginal population declined rapidly; by the late 1870s most of the remaining Aborigines of the Port Fairy district were living at Lake Condah.249 Aboriginal people were moved between reserves according to the whim of government representatives and with little regard for the profound attachment Aborigines had for their own country. When Lake Condah mission opened in 1867, for instance, the Victorian government decided it would be more economical to relocate the Framlingham residents to Lake Condah, and to close Framlingham. This resulted in tribal disputes which led to the Framlingham people being returned to their original reserve in 1869.250 Many Aboriginal children from Framlingham were also removed to the distant Corranderrk mission at Healesville, north-east of Melbourne.



A strict measure of order was imposed at Framlingham and Lake Condah and a high degree of surveillance in respect of personal life, work and hygeine. By the 1870s and 1880s, these missions were described as ‘villages’, and visitors praised their neat and orderly appearance. The Vagabond described Framlingham in the 1880s:

Many of the houses are models of what a cottage in the country should be in Australia. But these good weatherboard dwellings, with sandstone chimneys, were erected by white labour. Trees and flowers surround them, and inside they are decently furnished. Sewing-machines, perambulators, and parrafine [sic.] lamps evidence the spread of civilisation.251

At Lake Condah slab huts, a mission house, school and dormitory were built in the 1870s, and an orchard planted. New houses of bluestone, timber and limestone were built in the 1880s.252 Framlingham station was closed in 1889 after local farmers successfully lobbied for the establishment of a new agricultural college on the site. Despite fierce opposition by many, including the prominent local Member of Parliament (and later Premier of Victoria) John Murray, a section of the Framlingham reserve was nonetheless sold off and many residents were forced to leave.253 An area of 548 acres remained as the Framlingham Aboriginal reserve.254 People were also forced to leave Lake Condah in 1890. Many settled nearby, and continued to use the church and school.255 Other Aboriginal reserves were also designated for other uses around this time. By 1880 Mount Rouse had become a public park.256 The reserve known as Polo Hill at Mortlake, where Aborigines had camped, later became a golf course.

14.4 Struggle and survival

Following the passage of the Half Caste Act of 1886, only a small number of Aborigines were granted official permission to remain at Framlingham. In reality, however, many more camped on the reserve and in the Framlingham Forest in a situation of desperate poverty.257 Some of the men found seasonal work, such as harvesting and shearing.

Image 22: Slab cottage at Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve, c.1920s-30s [ Age, 27 February 1995] In 1917, the Board



for the Protection of Aborigines sought to consolidate all the Aboriginal population of Victoria, including those of ‘mixed descent’, to one reserve at Lake Tyers in Gippsland.258 Once again the mission stations were threatened with closure. When Lake Condah station was closed in 1918 most of its occupants were moved to Lake Tyers except for four families, who remained ‘in the vicinity of the station’, where they were under the care of a local guardian.259 Some residents of Framlingham refused to move to Lake Tyers. They remained on the reserve, which they considered their home, but now without assistance from the government. Conditions became particularly difficult during the depression of the 1930s, when even seasonal work was difficult to find. In 1938, after much lobbying, the State government built twelve timber cottages on land excised from the Agricultural College land, for which it charged rent. A school was also opened in 1941.260 The occupants of these cottages were evicted in the 1950s and the cottages were removed to neighbouring farms.261 At the same time that Aborigines were being denied land, the Victorian government was providing returned soldiers and their families with farming blocks. At Lake Condah, children were removed from their families in 1945, and in 1948 the school was closed and demolished.262 Aboriginal families struggling to remain at Lake Condah after its closure were forcibly removed in 1949. In 1951 the land was acquired by the Soldier Settlement Commission for allocation to non-Aboriginal returned soldiers.263 The destruction in 1957 of the Lake Condah Church, which was a tangible and symbolic embodiment of that community, was strongly opposed. Its loss was deeply felt. The stone from the demolished church was removed and used to repair a church in a neighbouring parish. Aboriginal people lobbied intensely for land rights through the 1970s. In 1970, Victorian legislation granted title to Aboriginal land at Framlingham as well Lake Tyers in Gippsland. In 1981 a High Court judgement (Onus v Alcoa) supported the interests of the Gundijmara people of south-west Victoria in managing their heritage. This led to the ‘Alcoa Agreement’ signed by the Cain State Government, which provided a means for Lake Condah site to be returned to its traditional owners, and the cultural heritage of the site to be protected.264 As a result, part of the Lake Condah mission site was purchased by the State Government and returned to the Kerrup Jmara Elders Corporation in 1985. The site was developed as a tourist venture and conservation works carried out.265 The government introduced the Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act in 1985, which sought to transfer title from the State of Victoria to the Framlingham and Lake Condah communities, but this was rejected by the Upper House. As a result, the Commonwealth Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act achieved this objective in 1987.266 Strong Aboriginal communities and local organisations are active in Moyne Shire today. Many Aboriginal people maintain traditional practices such as hunting, fishing, and using eel traps in the rivers. As well as managing a successful dairy farm, the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust now also owns and operates Deen Maar near Yambuk as a sustainable farming and revegetation venture, and also runs Eumeralla



Backpackers in the former state school building at Yambuk.267

Image 23: Two timber houses built at Framlingham Mi ssion in the 1930s and removed to a neighbouring farm in the c.1950s; they are now demo lished [photo: Helen Doyle]



15. Community life

15.1 Religion and education

James Bonwick regretted in 1857 that the district of Mortlake was ‘ill supplied with elevating influences’, with only a church shared between denominations and a small private school.268 This was a common problem in new settlements. New churches and schools were considered a mark of civilisation, as providing not only moral and spiritual guidance, but also an organised framework for community life in a district. The arrival of white women was often hailed as the beginning of ‘civilisation in the bush’.269 With women came family life, around which the structures of religion were strongly embraced. The pioneers and mission leaders of the various denominations, such as William Hamilton (Presbyterian) and Father Patrick Geoghegan (Catholic), set off energetically to the new districts, riding enormous distances through the countryside, holding prayer meetings in huts, homesteads and roadside inns, and eventually establishing churches.270 Pastoral stations often provided the venue for early church services as well as rudimentary schooling. The first church buildings were simple timber structures, often barn-like in style.271 Scottish Presbyterians dominated amongst the early landowners in south-west Victoria. Bonwick noted that they generally formed ‘the principal portion of respectable settlers’ in the young townships.272 Many Scots also worked as tenant farmers and farm labourers, a large number of whom were brought out by the Highland and Island Emigration Society in the early 1850s.273 Other Protestant settlers, particularly Northern Irish (or Ulster) Presbyterians, were also prominent. In 1857 the population at Mortlake was described as ‘almost wholly Protestant’.274 The large Scottish component of the settler population meant that many of the more substantial early church buildings were Presbyterian; there are examples at Koroit (1860-61), Wangoom (1861), Hexham (1862), Mortlake (1862), and Macarthur (1874). These were often finely crafted stone buildings built to a Gothic design; they were elegant without being extravagant. The strength of the Presbyterian Church in this part of Victoria is demonstrated by the disproportionately large number of churches in Moyne Shire — and in western Victoria in general — which after 1977 elected to remain Presbyterian rather than to join the Uniting Church in Australia. The Church of England also built some substantial early stone churches, including those at Belfast (1856), Hexham (1864), Mortlake (1865), Caramut (1866), and Koroit (1870). The Irish, predominantly Catholic, settled in a large concentration around Tower Hill and Belfast, with a sizable community also at Yambuk. Bonwick noted in 1857 that most of the population around Tower Hill was either Irish or Scottish, with few English.275 Some played down any suggestion of discrimination and acrimony resulting from ethnic difference. After commencing work at Tower Hill as a farm labourer in 1856, one Scottish emigrant, Alexander Duncan, wrote of his first impressions:



My neighbours are good enough, as far as I see of them. There are two besides me: the one is English and the other Irish. It makes no difference here what country they are. There are all sorts in this country.276

In the parish of Purnim in 1857, James Bonwick observed that ‘Many Scottish Highlanders and Irish Roman Catholics are engaged upon farms’.277 Irish Catholics settlers celebrated Mass in makeshift shelters in the 1840s. By the late 1850s, they formed the largest ethnic group around Koroit and Tower Hill. Catholic churches were built relatively early at Port Fairy (1858), Mortlake (1860), Koroit (1867), and Macarthur (1870; this was rebuilt in 1887). But in many towns substantial church buildings were not built until much later, when Catholic communities had built up adequate funds, for example at Hawkesdale (1966),278 or where settlement was more recent as at Nirranda (both these churches are postwar examples). The Wesleyan Methodists were fewer in number, but reasonable congregations were established at Belfast, and later at Rosebrook (1851), Koroit (1859), Wangoom (1859), Kirkstall (1863), Mortlake (1866) and Woorndoo (1869).279 Although churches could not always be built early, Methodist church services were held from the beginning of settlement, for example at Wangoom from 1859.280 The Baptists built churches at Belfast, Koroit and Cudgee.281 Smaller congregations often shared premises with other denominations or used private buildings. There were few Congregational churches or others of the minor Non-conformist denominations, although a Plymouth Brethren meeting house was established at Garvoc by 1890.282 The Picturesque Gothic was a favoured style for nineteenth-century churches in south-west Victoria. Many were built using basalt, but timber was also used to reduce costs. The ‘English Church’ at Tower Hill, which no longer survives, was otherwise known as the iron or zinc church because of its pre-fabricated iron construction.

Image 24: The ‘English Church’ at Tower Hill was a pre-fabricated iron building which opened in 1855. Photographed by Joseph Soden in 1866 [SLV Accession no. H1743]



Visitors were struck by this church’s romantic siting on the banks of Tower Hill Lake. Bonwick, perhaps forseeing its demise, commented in 1857: ‘It is much to be regretted that a stone edifice of some character of architecture was not placed here in a position so peculiarly attractive.’283 For the sake of cost and practicality, most of the larger stone churches followed designs executed by local men. It was the Shire Engineers who were often approached to carry out this work as a private commission. Although T.E. Rawlinson of Belfast Shire designed the Presbyterian Church at Koroit in 1861 free of charge. Andrew Kerr, who was Shire Engineer of both Warrnambool and Mortlake, was commissioned to design a number of Presbyterian churches, including those at Hexham (1862), Purnim (1870) and Ellerslie (1871). J.L. Huntly, Shire Engineer at Minhamite, designed the Methodist Church at Macarthur in 1883. The Presbyterian Church at Mortlake, completed in 1862, was designed by noted Geelong architect George Henderson. The leading architects for Methodist churches in Victoria, Crouch and Wilson, were responsible for the Methodist church at Koroit, while the noted Gothic revival architect William Wilkinson Wardell designed the Catholic Church of the Infant Jesus at Koroit, and the chancel and sacristy at St Patrick’s Catholic Church at Port Fairy. Both works were carried out in 1866-67. A large number of German settlers of Lutheran faith travelled overland from South Australia in the 1850s, and settled around Hamilton, Horsham and Penshurst. Many also moved into the northern parts of Moyne Shire, including Mortlake, Hawkesdale and Caramut. At Mortlake the Lutherans acquired the former Methodist church and at Hawkesdale a Lutheran congregation was formed in 1939.284 There were also Chinese, Jewish and Indian settlers in the Shire in the nineteenth century, but the extent of their religious practices is little known.285 These groups do not appear to have settled in large enough numbers to warrant the building of their own places of worship. Chinese worked as market gardeners in many towns, including Macarthur and Mortlake,286 and on a number of the large pastoral stations, including Woolongoon, Green Hills, Harton Hills, Mount Fyans and Myrngrong, where they tended vegetable gardens.287 Schools were initially run by the churches or private individuals, and occupied temporary or rudimentary buildings. Catholic children attended school in makeshift accommodation on the Farnham Survey in the 1840s and 1850s. At Chatsworth the Presbyterian church doubled as a school for nearly fifty years, while the state school at Woolsthorpe was used for ‘divine service’ in the 1890s.288 Schoolhouses were also used for other public and social purposes before a hall was available, for example at Koroit.289 Squatters sometimes operated schools for the children of their employees, as was the case on the Chatsworth estate and later at Dundonnell. Squatters’ own sons, such as the Eddingtons of Ballangeich, were sent to Dr Braim’s boarding school at Port Fairy, or to other private boarding schools in Melbourne, Hamilton or Geelong. The very wealthy sent their sons ‘home’ to be educated.290 Daughters of wealthy settlers were taught at home by a private governess or were sent to a school for ‘young ladies’ in Port Fairy or Warrnambool. An effective system of public education was greatly needed. In 1833, the Governor of



New South Wales, Richard Bourke, had recommended the introduction of a public education system based on the Irish National system, which provided government-funded, non-denominational, elementary education, primarily for the poor.291 Following its introduction in New South Wales, the National system was extended to Port Phillip. Whereas in Ireland the system was truly ‘national’, in Australia education was the responsibility of individual colonies. The term ‘National School’ was nevertheless adopted. Hugh Childers, who was Victoria’s Denominational Schools Inspector, reported in 1851 that the new system had many problems, especially in the colony’s country areas. Many schools occupied buildings that served as combined church–schools.292 They were usually poorly ventilated, with earthen floors and poor heating, and were associated with a high incidence of illness amongst the students. Due to the lack of a central controlling body for elementary education, there was often a superfluous sprinkling of small schools through the same district, as was the case around Tower Hill. 293 The new government education system sought to provide a more coherent system. From 1857, all government school buildings were the responsibility of the Board of Land and Works.294 Schools were built as needs required, once residents had petitioned the colonial authorities for a site and building. Government funding was often sought retrospectively; the local community was also expected to contribute one third of the building cost.295 National Schools were built at Tower Hill (1857), Hexham and Mortlake (both 1858), Kirkstall (1862), Woolsthorpe (1864), and Hawkesdale (1866).296

Image 25: Hexham Common School No. 296 was built in the 1860s, replacing an earlier building, and then rebuilt in 1884 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/947]

The town surveys usually made provision for a school reserve, and these were set aside until required. Where settlement was in advance of government survey, the school sometimes pre-dated the town survey and determined the site of the township. Koroit, for example, was laid out in 1857 to incorporate the newly established Tower



Hill Lake National School. Denominational schools were also allocated land within town reserves. Independent non-denominational private schools, however, generally occupied freehold title from the outset.297 National Schools were designed to particular specifications. Some were accommodated in pre-existing church schools, but new buildings were generally built of stone. Typically, they comprised two classrooms, for boys and girls respectively, with one or two rooms for a teacher’s living quarters. There were strict rules about the use of the building, most importantly the prohibition of denominational and political affiliations. Schools were also required to display the words ‘National School’ prominently on the outside of the building.298 By the late 1850s, the government found it inefficient and expensive to resource so many schools.299 Schools were sometimes superfluous. James Bonwick reported that at Tower Hill, for example, that there were five schools for 150 children: two Catholic, one Church of England, one Presbyterian, and one National School.300 The church schools continued to insist that they should not be forced to merge with the government schools. A compromise was reached with the passage of the Common Schools Act in June 1862 and the creation of the Board of Education, which was designed to alleviate some of the problems inherent in the old system. Under the new Act, existing National Schools were converted to Common Schools. New purpose-built Common Schools also opened at Caramut (1869), Panmure (1870), Macarthur (1865), and Ballangeich (1872). By the 1870s and 1880s, population growth in many rural areas necessitated the building of numerous small timber ‘rural-type’ state schools, for example at Codrington, Woorndoo, Yambuk, St Helen’s and Mailor’s Flat. A number of schools were built of stone, especially in the larger towns like Macarthur or where local building stone was plentiful. From the early 1900s, closer settlement and soldier settlement schemes necessitated the enlarging of existing schools and the building of new schools, for example at Toolong (1909), Chatsworth (1909), and Willatook (1922); the small school at Dundonnell also re-opened in the 1920s with the influx of new settlers.301 Many original school buildings no longer survive, but their former sites are often marked to commemorate this use. At the Hawkesdale school site, for example, a large Gum tree planted in 1901 to mark Federation is a reminder of the site’s former use. Many discontinued schools have been converted to public halls, as at Willatook, or private residences, for example at Codrington and Mailors Flat. Religious differences shaped settlement patterns and town development. Large student numbers at a church school was sometimes to the detriment of the local government school. The Crossley State School, for example, was forced to close down in 1872, when almost all the state school students moved to the local Catholic school after the government agreed to continue funding church schools.302 The end of government funding in 1878 launched a fierce local debate. While this forced the closure of some



church schools, Catholic schools were mostly able to continue because of their large student numbers and religious teaching staff.303 During the early twentieth century, a busy network of Catholic schools operated at Illowa, Crossley, Koroit and Kirkstall. The Good Samaritan Sisters who taught at these local schools were based at St Patrick’s Convent at Koroit, where they also conducted secondary classes and music lessons. A convent school run by the Sisters of Mercy opened at Mortlake in 1880.304

IMAGE 26: The Good Samaritan Sisters opened the Koroit Convent in 1906 (postcard, c.1918) [SLV Accession no. H90.160/433]

The former Koroit Common School building was used to accommodate the Koroit High School in 1891; this appears to have operated for several years into the early 1900s.305 Apart from private tuition, the closest available secondary education in the early twentieth century was at Hamilton or Warrnambool, and from the late 1940s, at Timboon. As part of the postwar expansion in secondary education, the State government opened high schools at Hawkesdale and Mortlake in the 1960s. Children traveled by bus to these schools from a wide radius. A consolidated high school operated at Port Fairy in the 1940s and 1950s, which later became a Higher Elementary School. The ethnic composition of the settler population played an important part in the physical development of townships. In the strongly Irish areas around Koroit, Crossley and Port Fairy, small cottages were dwarfed by uncommonly large Catholic Church buildings. At Koroit the Catholic Church also operated the racing club and, later, the local theatre. In the grazing districts around Mortlake, Hexham, and Caramut, the Protestant communities were more dominant, and as such contributed to the development of a different townscape. The Catholic church at Hexham was a small timber building — it was a former school building transported from Ellerslie — and was relatively short-lived, being removed in the 1970s.306 Cemeteries also reflected the ethnic background of settlers. While Tower Hill cemetery is notable for the large, elaborate and crowded tombstones in its Catholic section, the neat and orderly cemetery at Macarthur shows a more even denominational spread, but with perhaps more Protestant graves than Catholic. At Mortlake Cemetery the large number of impressive Presbyterian gravestones is also notable.



15.2 Sport and recreation

From the early days of white settlement, enthusiastic crowds gathered both as participants and spectators at ploughing matches, horse races, and cricket matches. Cricket matches and horse-racing took place at Belfast, for example, from the 1840s. Later, football was particularly popular in the heavily Irish settlements, such as Koroit and Tower Hill, where a team was established in 1875.307 Prior to the formal reservations of public recreation reserves, vacant paddocks provided the venue for early sporting contests. At Koroit, sports days, and hurling and ploughing matches were held at David McLaws’ Paddock.308 The Killarney Sports were held at Gleeson’s ‘Tara’ in the 1880s, and at other times at Mahoney’s Cow Paddock.309 Townships were often allocated a site for a public recreation reserve as part of the town survey, but these needed to be formally reserved and a local Committee of Management established (usually the local council) before they could be developed as such. The reserves accommodated a range of facilities, which grew over the years to include bowling and croquet clubs, tennis courts, football and cricket pavilions, grandstands, ticket booths, bandstands, and tea and coffee pavilions. Horse-racing and other horse sports were extremely popular, with several prize studs established in the district and racing tracks laid out in most towns and hamlets. One of the first sporting events in the infant township of Belfast in 1845 was a horse race at the present Botanic Gardens site. The first race-meeting at Koroit took place behind McLaws’ Hotel in 1870.310 While horse-racing was a fairly democratic activity, with all classes able to participate as riders, punters or spectators, hunting and polo were the particular preserve of the squatting class. A polo club was formed at Mortlake in 1884, which amalgamated with the Caramut club ten years later. Later, after World War II, the club was re-established as the Hexham club.311 Shooting and hunting, of both native and introduced species, were also popular leisure pursuits in the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. Aboriginal teams from Framlingham competed in cricket and football matches against other local teams in the 1870s and 1880s.312 There were also sports days held on the mission. In the main, however, Aborigines were excluded from public recreational activities. Their participation in public sporting events generally remained something of a novelty in the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. The Framlingham Aboriginal team played for several years in the Hampden Football League and won a number of premierships. The Irish formed hurling teams at Koroit and Warrnambool in the 1870s.313 They were also horse-racing enthusiasts.314 At Koroit, where the Catholic Church helped establish the local racing club and racecourse, St Patrick’s Day was celebrated with a public holiday and a major race meeting. The Scots ensured that golf was played, particularly at seaside towns due to the sandy soil and holiday recreational use. A golf club was formed at Port Fairy in 1899, which initially used links at Southcombe Park.315 Other clubs were established at Hawkesdale in 1926, Peterborough in 1931, Framlingham in 1933, and later at Mortlake and Macarthur.



Local sports days attracted large attendances. The now quiet hamlet of Orford hosted several important athletics meetings during the year; its annual Gift was second only in importance in Victoria to that held at Stawell. The annual Ellerslie Sports Day, first held in 1901, was later held on St Patrick’s Day, when events included ‘pedestrian and cycling events plus Highland and Irish dancing and horse events’.316 These local sports days faded away after the Second World War. The number of horse-racing meetings and operating racetracks also declined markedly in the postwar period.317 At Hawkesdale, where the racecourse was transformed into a golf course, the original jockey’s rooms have been retained as the club-rooms. In the postwar years, football and cricket clubs continued to be an important part of community life. Many recreation reserves have survived, at least partially, even in cases where towns have fallen into decline. In the larger towns, notably Koroit, Mortlake and Port Fairy, recreation reserves were considerably developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Recreational fishing is also popular at many of the local watercourses, including the Moyne and Hopkins rivers.

15.3 Community groups and organisations

With many small rural communities at close proximity there emerged a strong community social network. In many towns it was the church and school, and the local hotel, which provided a community focus. These were the public spaces, whether buildings or public reserves in which townspeople felt a part. Social gatherings often took place at local homesteads, for example at Staywood Park, Wangoom. Learning and self-improvement were integral concerns to early settlers, especially for those of the Non-conformist churches. This was the genesis of the Yangery Mutual Improvement Society, which was formed in 1857 by a group of self-improving Protestant families and offering a surprisingly varied lecture timetable and a range of visiting speakers. This was a precursor to the establishment of a mechanics institute in Koroit. Mechanics institutes typically comprised a public hall, where dances, concerts, lectures, classes, and a range of other social activities were held. They also usually provided a small library and a supper room. In larger towns they were often substantial stone buildings. A mechanics institutes was first established at Belfast by 1859, and the new township of Koroit was similarly endowed in 1866. Examples survive at Mortlake (1863), Port Fairy (1865), and Macarthur (1877; replaced 1913). Koroit’s impressive stone structure was demolished in 1957. The Macarthur Mechanics Institute, built in 1877, was rebuilt in 1913. Mechanics institutes won local support because town elders were keen to establish public places for working men that were both useful and respectable. With the ready supply of hotels there was much concern about the effects of alcohol.318 Temperance halls performed a similar social function for the ‘abstaining’ section of the population in the nineteenth century. Predominantly Protestant institutions, they were established in towns with a dominant Protestant population, including Mortlake, Hexham,



Caramut, Darlington, and Woorndoo.319

Image 27: The elegant Koroit Mechanics Institute was opened in 1866 and demolished in 1957 [private collection]

Almost every town, however small, strove to have their own public hall, and these were built, for example, at Nirranda (1895), Kirkstall (1901) and Orford (1909). In districts where soldier settlement had been a significant factor in development, the local halls were often called soldiers’ memorial halls, but these essentially served the same purpose. Local guilds, fraternities and societies provided the foundation of much social activity. A number of these groups were associated with a particular denominational affiliation. While the Freemasons were entirely Protestant, the members of the Hibernian Catholic Benefit Association were Irish.

IMAGE 28: Hexham Temperance Hall, built in 1876 [John T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/942]

By the early twentieth century concerns about the decline of country towns prompted towns to take measures to better promote and support themselves. As a result,



progress associations were formed with the objective to promote local business and local tourism,320 and charitable groups worked to improve the provision of welfare. The Country Women’ Association, which was established at Mortlake in the 1920s, carried out a wide range of activities to benefit the local community, but also provided an important social network for country women who often lived relatively isolated lives.321 15.4 Entertainment

Local communities enjoyed a rich array of entertainment in the late nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth. Dances, concerts, card nights and theatrical performances were the mainstay of many towns’ social calendars. Public parks and gardens were a popular venue for Sunday afternoon performances by local town bands. Entertainment was almost invariably linked to fund-raising—for example, for the local hospital or Red Cross. Touring entertainment was also a regular attraction throughout the district. Various touring groups, such as circuses and boxing troupes, camped on vacant land and added extra excitement and vibrancy to town life. In the 1920s and 1930s, touring film projectors became popular. At Koroit, the botanic gardens were the venue for Scott’s Outdoor Pictures. Baillie’s Western District Touring Talkies showed films in the Hawkesdale Mechanics Institute from the 1930s to the 1950s, while projectionist Roy Ogle and others showed silent films at the Woolsthorpe Mechanics Hall using an engine-driven generator with live accompaniment on the piano.322



16. Transport and communication The first significant form of travel in the European history of Moyne Shire was by sea. Immigrant vessels brought thousands of early settlers to Belfast (Port Fairy) from far-off ports in the 1840s and 1850s. Many did not survive the voyage or met their deaths on the treacherous coastline. An overland route was also established by the 1830s, which followed Major Mitchell’s expedition through ‘Australia Felix’ in 1834 and skirts around the edge of Moyne Shire. This became well worn by the steady march of new arrivals. Before the advent of roads and hotels, rough bush tracks ventured inland, connecting the remote pastoral stations to each other, and linking the emerging inland settlements with the ports. Some tracks followed the established tracks of the Aborigines, who had often acted as guides to explorers and early settlers. Before the construction of bridges, travellers would swim their stock across the creeks and rivers, or cross at a natural ford. The main route west of Geelong that was suitable for ‘wheeled traffic’ was known as the Great Western Road. This followed a track through the Leigh Valley (Inverleigh), to Cressy, Brown’s Water Holes (Lismore), Elephant Bridge, Mount Shadwell and Hexham, then south to Port Fairy.323 Overland travel was slow and difficult. The trip from Melbourne to Port Fairy took about three weeks, while travel between neighbouring stations could take the best part of a day.324 In a letter to the Surveyor-General in 1839, C.J. Tyers wrote that while he had no doubt ‘a direct and good road will be found to Port Fairy south of Lake Corangamite’. 325 An alternative route was indeed made through the Stony Rises, but this was unsuitable for carriages and even hoofed animals found it difficult. The Great Western Road was the favoured route for most land traffic; the section between Darlington and Mortlake in particular was heavily used by stock. Most people moving between Melbourne, Geelong and Port Fairy, however, preferred to travel by coastal steamer. Surveyor Tyers had also noted in 1839: ‘between Port Fairy and Portland Bay I apprehend some difficulty in forming a road; at present the settler’s route is along the sea beach’.326 This earlier route followed the sand hummocks close to the shoreline. By 1850, however, this route was little used as a road had been blazed through the timbered country between Warrnambool and Belfast, passing through Illowa, Tower Hill, and Killarney.327 A road connecting Warrnambool with Allansford had already been formed in the 1840s. In the 1850s, new roads were constructed to carry produce to and from the growing settlements to the north, notably Hamilton (The Grange), and to service the ports at Portland, Belfast, and later Warrnambool. With the gold rush of the 1850s, north–south routes from Belfast and Warrnambool carried the heavy traffic of would-be miners, and goods and supplies, to the diggings at Fiery Creek, Stawell and Ararat. The ‘bulk of the traffic’ to the diggings used the Great North Road, constructed in 1858, which commenced at a point three and a half miles south of Woolsthorpe and roughly equidistant between Belfast and Warrnambool.328



The Belfast and Warrnambool Road Boards, both formed in the early 1850s, employed contractors to maintain and improve the more frequently used roads. They constructed several substantial stone bridges to cope with the heavy loads, for example the Yule’s Creek Bridge at Woolsthorpe (1856), the Burchett Creek Bridge at Caramut (1862), and the timber bridge over the Hopkins River at Letts Ford, Ellerslie (1867).329 Local council engineers like D.J. Howes at Port Fairy constructed a large number of bluestone culverts and bridges, several of them being arched designs, over the myriad drains and watercourses that ran through the rich farming country. As settlements developed into more populous centres, roads were more heavily used. Regular users included the mail coaches, operating out of Port Fairy,330 and the staging coach services of the Royal Mail and Cobb & Co. Stone mileposts, installed by the local councils in the early 1860s, marked the roads at intervals, advising travellers of the distances from the relevant townships. A number of these survive at Mortlake and Woolsthorpe, and along the Princes Highway near Yambuk and Codrington. Greater efficiency in road-making was achieved in 1865 when Daniel Hourigan first demonstrated the stone-breaking machine at Port Fairy.331

Image 29 (LEFT): Bluestone milepost, outside Koroit [photo: Helen Doyle] Image 30 (RIGHT): Cast iron milepost, near Mortlake [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/951]

Travelling on the roads that connected the inland towns with the coastal towns was slow and unreliable, and the timber bridges were often in poor repair. Transport was costly and tolls were sometimes incurred (for example on the Allansford Road). Slow communication by road kept towns relatively separate from one another. In the 1880s, for example, it was three hours’ drive from Warrnambool to Port Fairy.332 While roads were gradually improved and coach services established, it often remained simpler and more efficient to send heavy loads by sea. The coastal towns of Belfast and Portland were initially linked by steamer to Launceston, Hobart, Melbourne, and more distant ports. Harbour improvements to the Moyne River in the 1870s made it easier to navigate and enabled all manner of cargo to be loaded at Port Fairy.333 But Warrnambool by this time had become a more important port, owing to



its superior design and the high vegetable yields obtained from the surrounding countryside. The successful Western Steam Navigation Company, formed at Warrnambool in 1868, captured a great deal of the trade in agricultural produce and saw Warrnambool’s port develop at the expense of Belfast.334 The Belfast and Koroit Steam Navigation Company was established in the 1880s, but this was soon competing with the new railway service to Melbourne. As part of Victoria’s major railway expansion, the line was extended from Camperdown to Terang, then to Warrnambool, and from Warrnambool to Port Fairy, via Koroit, by 1889. Two new branch lines opened in 1890: one connecting Koroit and Hamilton with stations at Warrong, Woolsthorpe, Hawkesdale, and Minhamite, and the other connecting Mortlake with Terang.335 Along the Warrnambool–Port Fairy line there was a busy siding at Illowa, where vegetables were stored and loaded. Mortlake railway station in the early decades of the twentieth century claimed to have had the largest shipments of outgoing wool and incoming superphosphate in the state.336 Outside of Moyne Shire, a branch line was extended to Pura Pura in 1910, which serviced the relatively remote towns of Dundonnell and Woorndoo.337 Once a navigable road had been formed south of Lake Corangamite, through the Stony Rises and on to Camperdown and Terang, this was favoured over the earlier route through Lismore and Darlington.338 This new southern road also serviced freight delivery to and from the new railway stations along this route. As a result, traffic declined on the northern road.

Image 31 (LEFT): Circular bluestone bridge, Scotts Road, Kirkstall, photographed in 1983 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H97.250/1810] IMAGE 32 (ABOVE): Basalt culvert at Langulac homestead, Minhamite [photo: Helen Doyle]

Coastal steamers continued to operate in the early twentieth century, but reduced rail freight charges in the 1920s and 1930s ultimately made steamers unprofitable and they were gradually phased out.339 The loss in 1932 of the S.S. Casino, which had provided



cheap transport for farmers from the south-west for nearly forty years, was a severe blow to the Belfast and Koroit Steamship Company.340 Roads were poor in the more heavily timbered country south-east of Warrnambool. The journey from Allansford to Nirranda, for example, a distance of no more than 12 miles, took a full day. When the road was macadamised in 1917, the journey was reduced to only two hours.341 The improvement and macadamisation of roads eventually made the railways less efficient and under-utilised.342 Motor cars became increasingly common by the 1920s. Many towns were relatively prosperous during this period, and saw the establishment of motor garages and some road improvements. The motor car brought other changes. It contributed to a reduced demand for wayside hotels, which had been in abundance up to that time (although changes to liquor licensing legislation in the 1920s saw the de-licensing of many hotels). While some continued to use horse-power, many of the everyday services of the pre-motor era, such as the blacksmith’s forge, carriage repairs, and commercial stables, had, by the 1950s, disappeared from many towns. Some such establishments nevertheless survived, converted to other uses. A number of narrow lanes and roadways survive in the closer-settled parts of the Shire, for example around Kirkstall and Koroit. By the 1970s, an increased reliance on road transport led to the closing of many country railway stations. The Warrnambool–Hamilton line was closed in 1977.343 The branch line to Port Fairy was also closed. While the lines remain as Crown reserves, only a few of the station buildings, sidings and goods sheds have survived. There are also some surviving ‘railway cottages’, for example at Mortlake, which were built in the 1890s for railway workers, as well as various railway buildings at Koroit, Mortlake, Panmure and Hawksedale. A commercial airport was established at Mailors Flat in the 1940s. This was used as an army airbase during World War II, but subsequently resumed commercial operations.



17. A landscape ‘thoroughly European’ From the beginning of settlement in south-west Victoria, similarities with the landscape of Europe were made much of. The Vagabond, for example, described the ‘small paddocks and fields’ as ‘thoroughly European’.344 While settlement patterns certainly tended towards smaller-sized, more European-style fields, the climate and appearance of the denuded, tilled landscape made the comparison easier. Sometimes these comparisons were unconnected with the ethnic origin of settlers, but were inspired by other foreign places. The perceived grand nature of the landscape of western Victoria so impressed squatter Thomas Shaw of Mt Emu Creek that he saw in it a strong likeness to the landscape of Italy. On his visit to Italy in the late nineteenth century, ‘the plains with their black sheep reminded him of parts of Victoria … while the lava of Mt Vesuvius seemed like the volcanic rock of his own Mortlake and the Stony Rises’.345 Comparisons with the English countryside were common. Historian Margaret Kiddle argued that the Western District remained more ‘Old World’ than other parts of the colony — more connected to the world that had been left behind. This was not just in connection with the physical appearance of the place. Squatter Niel Black had observed in 1873 that the Western District was ‘now more like England than it is like the outlying districts of Queensland or any other young colony’.346 In the 1920s a local almanac proclaimed that the Western District was becoming more like the ‘southern counties of the Motherland’, with ‘unsightly wooden fences … making room for pleasant hedgerows’.347 One tourist guidebook described the dramatic coastline at Peterborough as ‘Victoria’s Cornish Coast’.348 Another observer was reminded of the fertile, cultivated Dutch countryside: ‘Southward stretches a vast expanse of grassy plains, which will remind the tourist for eight months out of the twelve of the fat pastures of the Netherlands … the cattle are as sleek, the windmills are as numerous’.349 The idea that this district had an appearance that was not characteristically Australian remained a popular view in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Township names reflected these perceptions. English placenames were sometimes chosen for their likeness to a place in England, for example in the case of Grassmere,350 and sometimes simply for the nostalgia of the name itself. The town names of Broadwater, Chatsworth, Darlington, Framlingham, Hexham, Kirkstall, Mortlake, Woodford, Woolsthorpe and Peterborough all have English derivations.

17.1 Cultivating an ‘Irish landscape’

In the rich agricultural country around Koroit, Killarney and Port Fairy the comparisons made were overwhelmingly with Ireland, particularly the south of Ireland where many of the immigrants arriving in 1850s had come.351 These comparisons have been enduring and powerful. Place names reflected this Irish heritage. Immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s landed at



a town called Belfast situated on a river named the Moyne. To the east near Tower Hill was a village named Killarney; to an imaginative and nostalgic settler the rugged peaks extending up from an expansive lake were a reminder of home. A number of pastoral properties in the district, which elsewhere in the colony were more often given Aboriginal, Scottish or English names, here took Irish names. Along with the Northern Irish names of the special surveys at Belfast and Farnham, these included St Patrick’s Day, Bryan O’Lynn, Glengleeson, Kilmorey, Moyne Falls, and Dunmore. Other freehold properties were given names associated with the south of Ireland, for example, Ballyhurst and Tara.352 Whilst Scots, English and others also settled around Tower Hill and Koroit, Irish Catholics became the largest single socio-religious group amongst tenant farmers and agricultural labourers who worked on Farnham and the other large estates large properties.353 The greatest influx of Irish immigrants came in the 1850s, mainly from farming areas in the south-east counties of Munster, particularly Clare and Tipperary.354 Visitors to the farming country between Warrnambool to Port Fairy invariably commented on the Irish character of the landscape and buildings. One writer declared that ‘Both Belfast and Warrnambool are strongly Hibernian’.355 Killarney in particular was considered ‘an Irish colony’, though one description of it as a ‘Celtic township, most unlike its namesake’, suggests greater degree of Irishness in its social composition than its appearance.356 Garnet Walch agreed, declaring that the ‘unsavoury, disenchanting spot’ lacked any resemblance to ‘the Killarney of Old Erin’.357 Another writer in 1889 summed up the contributing Hibernian elements of this ‘wayside village’:

the small paddocks enclosed by stone walls the tracts of land devoted to the cultivation of potatoes., the numbers of pigs running about, together with the name of the hamlet, serve to remind one forcibly of the Emerald Isle, of which country the majority of the farmers are natives 358

As a result of the high concentration of Irish settlers in this part of the Shire and their familiarity with a rural lifestyle, they successfully recreated elements of their cultural and architectural heritage. Using the surface stone that lay about in profusion from Killarney to Yangery, they built drystone walls, which reputedly lined both sides of the Princes Highway until the 1950s. The earliest cottages on the Farnham Survey are also believed to have been built from this limestone rubble.359 Most of the early tenants’ cottages were makeshift and have not survived.360 Those that do survive — notably the few rendered examples at Killarney — closely resemble the traditional Irish-style cottage, particularly those of rural south-west Ireland. This style, believed to have evolved from the crannóg of ancient times, has an irregular and asymmetrical form. It is typically low, rectangular, small and single-storeyed, with a large kitchen chimney at one end. Whilst it extends lengthwise, it remains only one room deep, with each room being entered from the next.361 This form evolved largely because of the difficulty of changing the roof line of a thatched roof.



Ballyhurst is one of the best surviving examples of an Irish farmhouse. It was built in 1858 by settlers William and Mary Mahony, who reputedly brought the plans with them from Tipperary. The double-storeyed house was constructed from local stone and rendered with a limestone wash. It features dormer windows, and a rear detached kitchen with an enormous chimney at one end, a design characteristic of the Irish midlands and south-east.362

Image 33: Ballyhurst, Killarney, built by the Mahon y family in 1857 [photo: Helen Doyle]

Image 34: Detached kitchen building at Ballyhurst, Killarney, c. 1960s (D.R. Crawford, ‘The Irish at Killarney and Koroit’ (Monash University, 1969)] Once sawmills were operating, sawn timber rather than stone was used to build houses around Koroit and its neighbouring hamlets. But many of these houses retained elements of the Irish vernacular. Typically, these are small, low, single-storeyed, box-like cottages, often painted white, with wide, externally built, lime-washed chimneys built of limestone or sandstone. What strikes the observer is an absence of verandahs or eaves, a phenomenon that some locals explain stems from an Irish superstition that



devils dwelt beneath the eaves.363 Whereas elsewhere in Victoria the front verandah had become a regular feature of residential building by the late nineteenth century, at Koroit the simple verandah-less style lingered longer. Cottages built in the 1880s, and possibly in some cases the 1890s, often chose to keep with the earlier style.364 While there was often a time lag in the introduction of building styles to country areas, in the case of Koroit there seems to have been the additional influence of an established local Irish-derived style. The district maintained its Irish character well into the twentieth century. In 1909, the road to Koroit reminded one visitor ‘strongly of a highway in Ireland’.365 A romantic account in 1914 described Killarney as:

[looking] like an Irish village picked up and dumped here. The stone walls along the road, the boxthorn hedges, the squat little houses right on the road, all whitewashed and made of big stones, the capped and shawled old woman sitting at the door, [and] the pleasant, jovial brogue of Tipperary and Cork … Many of the children [whose grandparents were born here, still] speak with a rich and unmistakeable accent.366

Vestiges of this accent were noted as late as the 1960s and 1970s. A more recent study of current speakers in the district has found enduring associations with Irish language patterns.367 Whereas an imagined likeness to the English landscape was generally comforting to nineteenth-century journalists and their readers, a likeness to Ireland, to many among the non-Irish, was felt to be a little disconcerting. What was considered ‘Irish’ sometimes drew derogatory remarks. The flamboyant journalist Garnet Walch, for example, was unimpressed with the ‘rude built cabins’ of Killarney tenanted, as he claimed ‘by Irishmen and pigs’.368 Irish farming methods were also criticised. The term ‘cockatoo’ or ‘cocky’ farmer, which appears to have had its origins on Atkinson’s Belfast survey in the 1840s, alluded to tenant farmers, almost certainly Irish, who were criticised for moving too frequently from block to block without improving the soil.369 Some found it difficult to draw clear associations at Koroit and its surrounding country with a particular cultural heritage. The journalist John Stanley James, for example, writing as ‘the Vagabond’ in 1884, found Koroit had ‘a look not at all English, but certainly not Australian’.370 The lack of trees encouraged an impression about the place looking like a European, and more particularly an Irish, village. Nathan Spielvogel observed in 1914 that it was ‘the entire absence of the gums all help the deception’.371 The lack of native timber, the small stone cottages, the farmyards crowded with animals, and the hedges of Hawthorn and African boxthorn planted along the field boundaries and narrow roadways all helped to reinforce the impression of an Irish landscape. There were also similarities in the natural landscape with that of south-west Ireland, for example the ancient limestone beds stretching along the coastline from the Farnham Survey to the Moyne Swamp.372 Such fundamental physical likenesses



invited and encouraged cultural similarities, and no doubt helped to attract Irish settlers in the first place. In his reminiscences of childhood in the 1870s, Montague Rupp wrote: ‘The Irish element was very strong at Koroit.’ He remembered ‘little whitewashed stone cottages, whose occupants betrayed their origin directly they spoke [and that] Pigs and fowls, at least in the daytime, strolled in and out without let or hindrance’.373 There were in fact very few stone-built cottages in Koroit during the period about which he writes (c.1876–83), as timber was in such abundance and stone buildings were considerably more costly to construct.374 Rupp’s memory, however, captures the essence of his interpretation of the place — a memory of Irish inhabitants living in simple, white-painted cottages. The Irish character of the district was recognised in early tourist literature as something of a novelty for visitors. In a local history publication of 1934, attractions such as ‘Irish Scenery’ and ‘Killarney Town’ were described for tourists as ‘Things of interest’.375

Image 35: A rare surviving stone cottage at Killarn ey, as photographed in the 1960s [D.R. Crawford, ‘The Irish at Killarney and Koroit’ (Mona sh Univesrity, 1969)] The romantic legend of ‘Irish cottages’ became enmeshed in Koroit’s folk memory. Whilst some physical vestige of these cottages remains, mostly they neither date back to the earliest settlement period, nor were all built by and lived in by the Irish. Their Irish association seems to have had at least as strong a basis in folk memory. Around Koroit and Killarney a distinctly Irish farming community emerged. As had been the case in rural Ireland, Catholics leased their land from mainly Protestant Irish landlords. The journalist Nathan Spielvogel was struck by the unusual case of land tenure in the south-west, declaring: ‘But this Koroiter is a new type. His grandfather was born in the same house as he was. He knows the blessings and curses of the squire. His father and grandfather have been tenants of his [the squire’s] father and grandfather.’376 Tenants grew potatoes in accordance with the Irish con-acre system, which was common in pre-Famine Ireland and still used around Koroit in the early twentieth century.377 Under this scheme an allotment of land was leased for a set price, on the



condition that the tenant harvested the annual crop by a previously contracted date or otherwise be forfeited by the landlord. The payment made to the tenant depended on the sale proceeds.378 Whilst this scheme had been the cause of poverty and evictions among the tenantry in Ireland, the volcanic soil around Tower Hill ensured high yields that enabled a good living.379 Methods of animal husbandry around Koroit were also comparable with Irish traditions. Stock was not always contained within the innumerable fields but roamed the streets in large numbers. Evidence of livestock on the Farnham Survey being kept in a communal field also suggests links with Irish practices.380 The long narrow fields on the Farnham Survey and at Killarney — where some of the former fence lines and furrows are still visible — can be compared with strip fields in Ireland. This method had emerged in Ireland in the early-Christian period, with the development of the mouldboard on the plough, which necessitated as long a furrow as possible to be ploughed without having to stop the plough-team and turn around. Long narrow fields thus became more common owing to their labour-efficiency.381 Strip fields were particularly favoured for unenclosed common fields, and had been the most typical field system in Rutledge’s native Ulster since the Protestant plantations of the mid 1600s.382 It is likely that other Protestant Irish landowners around Tower Hill divided their tenanted fields in a similar way. New World conditions offered the Irish opportunities that were unimaginable at home, but which they eagerly adjusted to. Continued prosperity from potato-growing allowed the Irish to build up their acreages, with many acquiring freehold land in the 1850s and 1860s. By 1860 many tenants on the Farnham Survey had also achieved sufficiently high returns to purchase their own allotments.383 As they prospered, they gained greater social respect and position. William Crowe, for example, who had emigrated from county Clare in 1855, was a successful, wealthy and well-respected farmer on his death in 1931.384 The success of the Irish relied on their rural background and their industriousness, and also perhaps on the geographic similarities between the new country and the parts of Ireland they had left behind.385 Familiar farming practices — namely patterns of land tenure and potato and onion cultivation — drew further Irish immigrants to the district, as did chain migration. In a self-perpetuating cycle, this helped shape the course of landscape development. Even as late as the 1950s Irish labourers were drawn here to work as rural labourers. Networks of Irish kin also influenced settlement patterns, with many intermarrying, purchasing adjacent allotments, or simply working together on neighbouring farms. Although largely ordained by economic factors, immigrants’ rural Irish background contributed both to their willingness to pursue this style of farming and their ability to succeed at it. There is other physical evidence of a strong Irish influence. A cast iron hitching post outside the Koroit Hotel, for example, depicts a shamrock motif on each panel. The design of Tower Hill Lake National School, comprising two class rooms on either side of a central teacher’s residence, was based on that of the Irish National School



system.386 The brick villa built by William Crowe at Koroit in 1918 features a shamrock design engraved above the front bay window. A shamrock motif also appears in timber fretwork on the verandah of the Shamrock Hotel at Crossley. The dominance of the Irish at Koroit is particularly evident in the size and scale of the Catholic church buildings. In Koroit’s role from 1884 as a mensal parish for the Diocese of Ballarat, a grand, double-storeyed Catholic presbytery was erected. This became the holiday venue for the Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix, and the other Catholic bishops from across Victoria. For many years they spent their summer holidays at the Koroit presbytery, taking over parish duties and fishing at Killarney Beach in their leisure time.387 In the small, predominantly Catholic community of neighbouring Crossley, St Brigid’s church and school dominate the area; this hamlet has had no need for a state school since the 1870s. Other aspects of cultural life in the Koroit district demonstrated a distinctive Irish influence. As well as a hurling team formed in the 1870s and Koroit’s St Patrick’s Day race-meeting, there were strong Irish influences in the musical entertainment and other social activities of the district. In 1880, for example, a night of ‘Grand Irish Comedies’ was advertised with the message ‘Cead Mille Failthr’ [sic.]. In 1885, a year of rising nationalist fervour in Ireland, Koroit theatre-goers were treated to Dan Barry’s Dramatic Company’s evening of ‘patriotic’ Irish drama, as well as performances of Irish music by the Coghlan family.388 Koroit maintained strong ties with Ireland, bolstered by the continuing flow of Irish immigrants to the district well into the twentieth century. Koroit strongly supported the ‘Irish cause’, giving generously to the various fund-raising efforts directed at Home Rule and Independence. Visiting Irish nationalist politicians included Michael Davitt in 1895, and the Redmond brothers in 1911.389 Accusations of disloyalty were hurled at the Koroit Irish during the recruiting campaigns of World War I, on account of low recruitment numbers and alleged disloyal utterances. While the more ‘loyal’ town of Mortlake voted in favour of conscription in 1916, Koroit voted a resounding ‘No’. 390 Ongoing turmoil in Irish politics in the 1920s found sustained interest and support in Koroit. A screening of the propaganda film Ireland Will Be Free in 1921 drew the largest crowd the mechanics institute had ever seen. Koroit’s St Patrick’s Day races that year also drew a record crowd.391 In the 1950s, when local opposition to the Catholic Church’s efforts to purchase the Koroit Mechanics Institute (in order to use it for ‘St Patrick’s Pictures’) resulted in the sale not proceeding and the building being demolished, the Koroit Catholic Church instead built its own local theatre — an action probably unparalleled elsewhere in Victoria, if not Australia. 17.2 Scottish cultural influences

While the Irish exerted a strong influence on the shape of settlements clustered around Tower Hill, other ethnic groups also maintained a strong cultural identity, and influenced vernacular building, the architecture of churches, institutions and private residences, and landscape gardening. A strong Scottish influence is also evident in many placenames, such as Dundonnell, Curdievale, Ballangeich, and Hawkesdale. The works of popular Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott inspired other placenames,



such as Ellerslie and Squattlesea Mere. In many pastoral townships, the Presbyterians often lay claim to the oldest and most substantial church. In several towns, such as Dundonnell, Woolsthorpe, and Chatsworth, it was in fact the only church built. The austerity of Scottish Presbyterianism lent itself to plain, often severe-looking church buildings. They typically followed the Gothic style (though with greater restraint), but also were attracted to neo-classical forms. The Scots and the Northern Irish Presbyterians shared religious beliefs and to a great extent are difficult to separate on grounds on cultural identity. The homes of Northern Irish Protestant settlers like William Rutledge at Farnham, for example, were not dissimilar to the homes of other Scottish settlers. The wealthier settlers tended to be Protestant rather than Catholic and were more often able to commission an architect. Many of the architects and stone masons who worked in the district, like Alexander Hamilton; Davidson and Henderson of Geelong; and Andrew Kerr of Warrnambool, had Scottish backgrounds. Indeed, Scots dominated the architecture profession in colonial Victoria. While the early Presbyterian churches were typically Gothic in style, the institutional buildings with which the Scots and Protestant Irish were so often associated, for example mechanics institutes, temperance halls, and halls for various fraternities, often drew on neo-Classical forms. This followed the close association of secular architecture with Enlightenment fashions that was so much more evident in England and Scotland than in Ireland where the Gothic style dominated from around the 1840s onwards. Vernacular building had Scottish as well as Irish origins. The Scots were responsible for building many of the dry-stone walls in the Shire.392 John Lamont, an assisted immigrant from Loch Broom, Rosshire, was an expert dry-stone waller, and he and his sons erected some fine walls at Dundonnell and in the wider district in the late 1860s and 1870s. Lamont also erected a number of large stone cairns, built in the dry-stone tradition from the surface rubble. These are believed to be ‘similar to those used in Scotland for stock shelters’.393 In terms of the vernacular cottages built by the Scots and the Irish, the two Celtic-derived styles are difficult to distinguish between, but many of these buildings have been attributed to the Irish probably because of their larger numbers. The influence of Scottish Presbyterians was evident in other ways. A large number of Highland Scots were skilled sheep minders and so were numerous in the grazing districts. On one property, Gowrie at Purnim, the occupants were Gaelic-speaking and some of the paddocks had descriptive Gaelic names.394



18. Planting trees and gardens 18.1 Trees and gardens

In the 1880s, scarcely a native tree was observed to be left standing between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, prompting descriptions of the landscape being ‘unAustralian’. At settlers wantonly felled the native timber, they developed greater taste for the accrouements of refinement and moved to change the barren state of the landscape. At Port Fairy, James Bonwick noted in 1857:

Very few gardens meet the visitor’s eye; the leasehold system is said to be the cause. The naked appearance of the country around, without trees and flowers, and nothing but fences, open fields, and houses, is really most unromantic and dull; it was far otherwise when the forest came down to the water’s edge.395

Botanic gardens were laid out at Port Fairy (1859). At Koroit, too, there was great eagerness for a public garden in the early 1860s and for its re-design in 1880.396 Public parks and gardens were set aside in other townships. At Mortlake a botanic gardens was commenced in the 1870s, but this had developed into more of a standard public garden or park by the mid twentieth century.397 In both public and private gardens exotic trees were donated from the Government Botanist Ferdinand Mueller.

Image 36 (LEFT): Postcard titled ‘View in Gardens, Mortlake’, showing Elm avenue, c.1907 [SLV Accession Number: H90.160/432] Image 37 (ABOVE): Mortlake Gardens showing windmill, water tank and Boer War memorial cenotaph [Picture Australia website: Museum Victoria ref. MM 007254]

The writer Henry Handel Richardson, who lived at the Koroit Post Office as a child in the 1870s, criticised (somewhat unfairly) Koroit’s treeless appearance. However, the natural fertility of the south-west soon proved a boon to gardeners. Savouring its rich agricultural scenery, it became known in the early twentieth century as ‘a natural garden’ and ‘the garden of Victoria’.398



Private gardens, likewise, thrived in areas of rich alluvial soil along the rivers and near the former volcanoes. The wealth of the pastoralists combined with the favourable climate of the grazing districts attracted talented landscape designers who promoted new styles of landscape gardening. Edward La Trobe Bateman, a cousin of Lieutenant-Governor C.J. La Trobe, designed the homestead garden at Chatsworth House in the 1850s and later paid out the garden at Wooriwyrite. William Guilfoyle redesigned the Koroit Botanic Gardens in 1881 and is also believed to have been associated with the garden design of the Andersons’ Rosemount at Southern Cross and the Winters’ Mondilibi at Mortlake. Later, in the 1930s, Edna Walling designed the homestead garden at the Manifold’s Boortkoi, near Mortlake.399 A number of other homestead gardens in Moyne Shire have been identified elsewhere as significant examples of designed landscapes. These include Stony Point, The Union, Minjah, and Goodwood.400 In addition, the gardens at Caramut House, Green Hills, Langulac, Quamby, and many others have also been found to retain historic garden elements, including early plantings, individual significant trees and, in some cases, remnant layouts from the nineteenth century. Cypresses and pines are a dominant feature of the landscape (especially Cupressus lambertiana and Cupressus macrocarpa). Planted in rows, their bold lines punctuated a landscape of fields and paddocks, and marked out homestead sites. Hedgerows of boxthorn or hawthorn were often cultivated instead of a fence to separate the homestead from the paddocks. In townships, Cypresses and pines were planted around sports ovals and as street trees. Clipped cypresses provided another characteristic landscape feature in many parts of the Shire. Examples included the distinctive avenue in High Street, Koroit, which was planted for Queen Victoria’s jubilee celebrations in 1887 (and removed in 1985); the trees encircling the Port Fairy cricket ground in the Botanic Gardens; the Mortlake Avenue of Honour, and in the landscaping of many private properties. The bold form of the Araucarias, especially Norfolk Island Pines (Araucaria heterophylla) — which could perhaps be considered as the signature tree of the Shire — added drama to street-tree plantings and to homestead sites, as did the popular Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis).

IMAGES 38 and 39: Extensive homestead gardens at (LEFT ) The Union, Woolsthorpe and (RIGHT) Mondilibi, Mortlake [Corangamite Regional L ibrary]



Local communities planted specimen trees to mark important events and to memorialise departed townsfolk. At the Hawkesdale state school in 1901, for example, local children planted a gum tree to commemorate Federation.401 Much street tree planting also commemorated those who served and/or died in the two world wars (this is further discussed in chapter 21). 18.2 School gardens and plantations

From the late 1800s and early 1900s there was new enthusiasm for the Australian bush. Tree-planting, both of natives and exotics, was part of a new interest in forestry and land beautification. State schools encouraged this through nature studies, especially through nature walks, outdoor lessons, and the study of live specimens.402 Interest in horticulture and forestry was also fostered through school gardens and the introduction of Arbor Day in 1904.403 Victoria’s south-west region was particularly successful in the school garden competitions of the early 1900s, which were sponsored by the patriotic Australian Natives Association. Hawkesdale and Mailors Flat State Schools were awarded first and second prizes two years running. Surviving photographs also indicate once elaborate state school gardens at Mortlake, as early as 1870, and at Kirkstall (see below).404

Image 40: The school garden at Kirkstall State School, 1906 [McCorkell and Yule, A Green and Pleasant Land (1999), p. 119]

School horticulture and forestry continued to flourish in the 1920s and 1930s, encouraged by the instigation of the State School forest endowment plantations. Many schools, including Mortlake, Hawkesdale and Caramut, established such plantations on plots acquired under permissive occupancy from the Lands Department. Students planted and tended the trees until harvest time. Pinus radiata (Radiata Pine) was the most common species planted for this purpose.405



19. Conservation of the landscape

19.1 Conservation efforts

The desire to preserve sites of natural beauty slowly won out in some cases over the strong push for progress and development. But those places eventually protected as public reserves, such as Tower Hill, Mt Eccles and the Hopkins Falls, had been enjoyed and appreciated as beauty spots and picnic spots since early settlement. The Scottish parson John Dunmore Lang had visited Mt Eccles in 1846, which he described as ‘the most perfect’.406 Once reserved as public land, however, there was often little interest in retaining the indigenous vegetation in such reserves. Tower Hill, for one, was virtually denuded of vegetation. In 1857, James Bonwick had described Tower Hill as ‘the most interesting locality’ he had ever visited and declared it should be ‘an everlasting reserve’.407 Two years earlier, the local pastoralist James Dawson had commissioned the celebrated Swiss artist Eugène von Guérard to capture the view on canvas. Soon after Tower Hill was being used for grazing and cropping, and was regularly burnt to promote pasture growth. Although set aside in 1866 as a public reserve, various exotic animals, birds and fish were introduced to the site under the management of the Koroit Acclimatization Society. Subsequently exploited for grazing and cropping, the site nevertheless remained in public ownership, which eventually made its restoration possible.

Image 41: A popular local beauty spot in the nineteenth century – Lake Surprise, Mt Eccles, photographed by Joseph Soden in 1866 [SLV Accession no. H1744]

In the 1880s, many writers admonished the destruction of the natural landscape. One wrote of Tower Hill: ‘it must have been very beautiful before the hills and island became partially denuded of timber, as they have been by bush fires and greedy axes with no sense of the picturesque — no regard for the future’.408 By a special Act of Parliament in 1892 Tower Hill effectively became Victoria’s first national park.409 All the same, little was done to protect what was left of the native timber and to protect the natural beauty of the place. Instead, pine trees were planted in large numbers in the 1920s.



By the 1920s, some regretted that steps had not been taken to preserve some of the native timber around Port Fairy:

these beauties largely disappeared with the advent of the white man; and to his shame be it recorded, no effort to repair by artificial means the devastation of the natural woodlands, was made to recompense for the lost charms … The laying out of the town necessitated the clearing away of natural beauties of outline; and the inevitable angular highways were substituted for pretty undulating park-like spots.410

A small area of Mt Eccles was gazetted a public park in 1926 at the request of the Minhamite Shire Council. A committee of management oversaw developments at the site, which included a picnic shelter, water tank, fireplaces, and a walking track around the lake. The reserve was declared a National Park in 1960 and was improved considerably with the appointment of a new management committee. The site was enlarged considerably in 1968 and again in 1986.411 It was not until the late 1960s that steps were taken to restore Tower Hill to its original state by replanting the indigenous vegetation. Under the management of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, an ambitious replanting scheme commenced and a Natural History Centre, built to an innovative design by Robin Boyd, was erected at the site for the purpose of providing a place for interpretation and visitor education. 19.2 Nature reserves

Some areas of public land have been inadvertently preserved as rare examples of the vegetation that characterised the country at the time of European settlement, for example the Orford recreation reserve and the Hawkesdale racecourse. Other areas of natural vegetation have been consciously preserved, as at Cobra Killuk reserve, near Mortlake, the Woorndoo nature reserve, the Barnie Bolac Wildlife Reserve at Dundonnell, the Framlingham Forest, and at a number of sites around Nullawarre and Nirranda.412 Apart from the national parks, the Crown land reserves around extinct volcanoes, and along waterways and coastal areas are some of the few pockets of indigenous vegetation that survive in the Shire. Roadside reserves of indigenous vegetation line the roads in some parts, for example between Curdies and Panmure; at Woorndoo; to the area east of Mailors Flat; and between Chatsworth and Dundonnell. In the fertile strip of country between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, and through much of the dairy country south-east of Warrnambool, however, the roadsides are generally devoid of roadside plantations. Whilst private land is characterised by a scarcity of native timber, there have been recent efforts, for example through Landcare and the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority, to remedy this. Deen Maar at Yambuk, owned by the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust, is a notable example of a farmland revegetation project.



20. Holidays, tourism and heritage

20.1 Seaside resorts

The coastal areas of Moyne Shire have long attracted visitors seeking scenic beauty and the opportunity for rest and recreation. Squatters’ families from the inland areas, such as the Eddingtons of Ballangeich, spent their summer holidays at Port Fairy as early in the 1840s.413 Visiting the seaside became enormously fashionable in the late 1800s. Port Fairy served as a seaside resort for the farming community of western Victoria, in the same way that St Kilda and Queenscliff developed as summer watering holes for Melbourne’s urban population. Port Fairy’s swimming beaches (which included bathing shelters from as early as the 1870s); the river and harbour; its celebrated Botanic Gardens; and other recreational facilities drew large numbers of holiday-makers, especially farming people. Popular holiday activities, such as shooting and fishing, and other sports, were also well catered for. Nearby attractions, such as the Crags, Lake Yambuk and Tower Hill, also drew visitors. Domestic tourism grew considerably from the late 1880s and into the early 1900s, under the heavy promotion of the Victorian Railways, and with cheaper travel and increased leisure time. The Railways’ summer ‘excursion trips’ became a popular way to visit beachside towns. The greatly expanded railways published their own regular guidebook, titled Picturesque Victoria and How to Get There, which detailed tourist routes and places to visit. Around the same time, towns began to promote themselves through local progress associations and tourist associations. The establishment of the Warrnambool Seaside Tourists Association by the late 1890s perhaps sparked the formation of a progress association at Port Fairy in the early 1900s, which had ‘the object of bringing the many attractive beauty spots of the town under the notice of the public’.414 East of Port Fairy on the Curdies River, Peterborough also developed as a popular seaside resort for farmers and graziers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The pastoralist Jemima Vans Robertson of Connewarren, near Mortlake, built a holiday cottage here in the 1870s. In the 1880s, local people ‘flocked in the summer’ to Peterborough for the excellent swimming, fishing and hunting, but its special attraction was the scenery, notably the unusual and dramatic limestone cliff formations, peninsulas and islands, such as the Bay of Islands. The remains of early shipwrecks strewn along the beach also provided a novelty to visitors. In the 1920s, seeking a summer seaside diversion from life on the land, local farmers and graziers bought up small cottages at Port Fairy and built seaside shacks at Peterborough to use as holiday houses. These were usually small, simple timber structures, which lacked the refinements of home but were in keeping with a farmer’s sense of austerity. Hotels and guesthouses also thrived during this period. Some took colloquial names such as ‘Doo Drop Inn’, that were popular in the early twentieth century. In 1934, James Irvine’s popular Peterborough Hotel boasted an impressive 80 rooms.



The attractions were the ‘professional kept’ golf course, ‘excellent sea and river fishing’, and open sea and pool bathing. L. and J. Blair’s Blair Athol guesthouse offered ‘excellent meals and attention’.415 Peterborough House, with its wide verandahs overlooking the ocean, was the favoured guesthouse until it was destroyed by fire in the c.1950s.416 Palmyra was another popular guesthouse. Peterborough was much smaller than Port Fairy and remained relatively undeveloped for tourists. The lack of a railway link kept it relatively isolated, and accessible mainly to those with motor cars. Holidaying at Peterborough ‘was severely restricted during the 1940s with the advent of the Second World War with war service, rationing of fuel and other shortages’.417 It has since remained a popular, if not somewhat exclusive, retreat for Western District pastoral families.

Image 42: Peterborough House, Peterborough, built in the 1880s, from a postcard c.1909 (since demolished) [SLV Accession no. H90.160/201]

Killarney Beach was also popular with the local farmers and townspeople around Koroit. It was also the favoured beach of the Catholic Archbishop, Daniel Mannix and his fellow bishops, who were regular summer visitors to Koroit in the 1920s and 1930s. Off the coast at Yambuk, Julia Percy Island was noted in 1910 as ‘a favourite resort for sportsmen, as the island abounds with rabbits and game, and the fishing is excellent’.418 Tourism provided an important source of revenue for many towns on the south-west coast by the 1940s. The progress associations continued to promote local interests.419 Further growth in tourism in the 1950s and 1960s saw more private holiday houses appear in Port Fairy, notably at East Beach and South Beach, and, to a lesser extent, in Peterborough. The completion of the Great Ocean Road, with its terminus at Peterborough, brought many additional tourists by motor car and coach who were eager to view the spectacular coastline.420 This coincided with the completion in 1927 of a very long timber bridge over the Curdies River.



Many of the new developments in seaside tourism at Port Fairy were also geared towards the motoring tourist. One of the first ‘caravan parks’ in Victoria was established in 1938 on the Moyne River.421 In the 1950s the local council appointed a tourist development committee to oversee tourist activities. This led to the Botanic Gardens being opened up to the camping and caravans in the 1950s, a move which greatly boosted tourism but led to the significant decline of the gardens.

20.2 The appeal of history: the romance of the past

The prolific number of shipwrecks along the south-west coast was also an early impetus to tourism. Dramatic stories of survival and the promise of valuable loot drew sightseers and fossickers. The wreck near Peterborough of the clipper Schomberg in 1855 brought large numbers of sightseers to what was then a relatively isolated spot.422 With the popularity of diving and fossicking shipwrecks have continued to provide recreational activity. The story of the Mahogany Ship, whether myth or true relic, has left behind a rich legacy of memory, story and anecdote. The ‘ancient wreck’ was an early tourist attraction. Squatter’s daughter Violet Eddington recalled how travellers along the old coast road between Port Fairy and Warrnambool in the 1840s and 1850s would make a point of reporting whether or not they had seen the wreck: ‘sometimes the Mahogany Ship was covered up by sand & sometimes not, it was always an interest to know if she had been seen or not’.423 Today, the Mahogany Ship Walking Trail at Armstrongs Bay keeps alive this intriguing mystery. History has been an integral component of tourism at Port Fairy. Evidence of the town’s historical associations with the sea — the numerous shipwrecks and the ports themselves — has long been promoted for its appealing romantic character. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whalebones rotting on the beaches, and the ‘dilapidated skeletons of long whaleboats’, were noted for their link with a past whaling age.424 As a result of Port Fairy’s rapid early development and subsequent economic downturn, the town had, by the late nineteenth century, developed a ‘quaint appearance’, which was appealing to the holiday mood, and to those seeking a holiday destination or a place for retirement.425 Its ‘old-fashioned’ character appealed to the romantic imagination. Its popularity as a seaside resort grew through the early twentieth century, mostly with local people from western Victoria. Wistfully regarded by some as a ‘forgotten village’, the town continued to be promoted for its historic character.426 In a 1934 publication, items of interest for tourists included ‘Antiquity’ and ‘Quaint Homes’.427 A tourist pamphlet of 1937 promoted the town as a ‘Haven of History’. Interest in local history grew significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. When the Victorian centenary of 1934-35 lavished great attention on Portland, other towns in the south-west were also keen to promote their own history. A concerted effort was made to find some relic of the Mahogany Ship in time for the Victorian centenary celebrations.428 Some of the Protestant churches, for example at Macarthur and Port Fairy, commissioned commemorative windows to remember the ‘pioneers of the district’.



Image 43: The romantic ruins of Bryan O’Linn (O’Lyn n), near Purnim, photographed in 1984; demolished in 2005 [J.T. Collins Collection, La Tro be Picture Collection, SLV Accession no. H98.250/2297] Although providing a wide range of modern holiday activities and facilities by the 1950s, Port Fairy continued to be described as ‘picturesque’ and ‘rich in historical interest’.429 Some of the new tourist activities threatened to alter the historic character of the town. At the same time, with the postwar focus on progress and modernisation, many dilapidated and deserted old buildings were demolished. These developments met with strong criticism from concerned locals and regular summer visitors, like the writer Stephen Murray-Smith, who sought to preserve Port Fairy’s special character and suggested that the town could ‘still be made into a kind of Australian Williamsburg’.430 The formation of the National Trust in Victoria in 1956 and the subsequent establishment of a local branch at Port Fairy helped promote the idea of heritage tourism. By the 1960s, the town was declared a heritage town and a brochure about the town’s historic buildings was produced.431 Work began on the preservation of Mott’s Cottage, one of the Trust’s first acquisitions and conservation projects.432 An urban conservation study by Cox Tanner Pty Ltd, completed in 1976, was one of the first heritage reports of a Victorian town. Conservation works carried out at Woodbine in the 1970s were also part of the push to value Port Fairy’s heritage. The classification by the National Trust of a number of homesteads and other early buildings in the late 1950s and 1960s helped to generate an awareness of heritage in other towns. The National Trust prepared urban conservation studies for Koroit and Mortlake in the mid 1980s, while Hawkesdale has also established an historic walking tour.



20.3 Aborigines treated as tourist attractions

As Aborigines continued to suffer in the aftermath of frontier violence and dispossession, the image of the romantic ‘noble savage’ remained strong in the nineteenth-century mind. By the end of the century, when Aborigines were thought to be ‘dying out’, curious white people were encouraged to visit the Aboriginal reserves. From the 1880s, for example, the Framlingham Aboriginal reserve was considered ‘well worthy of a visit’.433 It was described as a ‘favourite resort for visitors in the holiday season’ on account of its siting ‘on a picturesque part of the Hopkins’.434 These visitors encouraged demonstrations of fighting, hunting and boomerang-throwing. Here, it was claimed in 1882, ‘may be seen all that remains of the aboriginal and warlike tribes of the west — a decaying race’.435 Like rare and endangered animals, Aborigines were regarded as something to be ‘protected’ and displayed. A Port Fairy visitors’ booklet of 1927 noted that many Aborigines ‘dwelt about the town in mia mias built near the racecourse, and in the Blackwoods’.436 Photographs of Aborigines also featured on tourist postcards in the early twentieth century, indicating that they were regarded as something of a novelty for visitors.

20.4 Motor-touring

Greater use of motor cars impacted significantly on tourism and outdoor recreation, and initiated greater need for motoring amenities, such as improved roads and roadside stops, scenic lookout points, drive-in picnic facilities with fireplaces and picnic shelters, and outdoor furniture and toilets. Motor-touring also encouraged the exploration of historic towns, and tourists were especially attracted to Port Fairy. Postwar prosperity meant increased resources for holidays and leisure pursuits, which meant significant changes to recreational patterns. The widespread ownership of the motor car and the lifting of petrol rationing in 1949 allowed for greater mobility and reliance of roadways. Tourist roads with regular viewing points, such as the ocean road west of Peterborough, improved public access to the impressive coastal scenery. The establishment of motor inns and caravan parks also made motoring holidays more appealing.437 Many local councils opened public camping and caravan parks to boost municipal revenue. The long established botanic gardens, with their mature shade trees and pleasant lawns, were available to motoring visitors with their tents and caravans in several town, including Port Fairy in the 1950s, Mortlake by 1965, and Koroit in the 1970s.438 20.5 Festivals

From the 1920s and 1930s, local tourism was periodically boosted with intermittent ‘back to’ celebrations, when past residents and others would be drawn back to their home towns to participate in a week or weekend of reminiscing, school reunions and other social activities. Such events were held at Port Fairy in 1921 and 1927; at Mortlake at Easter 1923; and Laang in 1924. Later ‘back-tos’ marked local centenary celebrations, for example Mortlake in 1939, Ellerslie in 1948, and Koroit in 1951, and at Mortlake again in 1964. Special trains from Melbourne were hired for these occasions. The regular ‘returning’ to Port Fairy in particular was the



experience of many during the summer holiday period. The Moyneana Festival, first held in 1948, helped maintain summer tourist numbers. The Port Fairy Folk Festival, first held in 1976, has become a successful international event. More recently, the Mortlake Buskers’ Festival (first held in the 1980s), the Koroit Irish Festival and the Tarerer Festival that celebrates the Aboriginal cultural heritage of Tower Hill, both begun in the 1990s, have also become popular.439



21. Commemoration and memorialisation

21.1 Burial grounds and public cemeteries

The early nature of European settlement in the Shire meant that Christian burials often took place before official burial grounds were gazetted. Most pastoral runs allocated a burial area, often with a separate area for Aborigines and Europeans. Some of these sites continued to be used long after a gazetted public cemetery became available, for example at Merrang.440 At the Eddingtons’ Ballangeich station, the family burial ground that had been first used in 1849, was later gazetted as Ballangeich public cemetery. Early burials also sometimes took place at the local police paddock, for example at Woolsthorpe.441 Police paddocks were also used as burial places for Aborigines (this is further discussed below). Once townships were surveyed and settled in the 1850s and 1860s, locals lobbied the government for a site to be reserved for public burial purposes. Where no suitable Crown land was available for public reserves, a site was sometimes donated by a local landowner, as was the case at Hexham and Tower Hill. Even where a public cemetery was available, individuals were occasionally buried in other public places. Local grazier Jemima Vans Robertson of Connewarren, for example, was buried in the grounds of the Ellerslie Presbyterian Church. Burials also took place the large pastoral stations, the best example being the family cemetery at Merrang. There are also reputed to be early burials at Green Hills and other stations. This practice was ceased in the 1890s, after which only public cemeteries could be used for burial. For reasons of hygiene and convention, cemetery reserves were selected at a suitable distance from the settlement, or from anticipated growth areas, on sites with good drainage; convention dictated that a cemetery be placed one mile from human habitation. At Nirranda, the cemetery is perched south of the township on an ancient sand dune or sand ridge. In this otherwise flat and fairly denuded dairy country, this siting is dramatic, being enclosed with a rare pocket of indigenous vegetation. The layouts adopted for public cemeteries in the Shire followed standard designs that were based on popular British models. Public cemeteries had only been newly introduced in Britain in the 1850s, making cemeteries in Victoria among the earliest public cemeteries in the Empire. Victorian cemeteries were typically laid out in a geometric design, with roughly equal sections or ‘quadrants’ allocated to the major Christian denominations: Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, and Presbyterian. Areas for Aborigines, Chinese and ‘others’ were sometimes allocated to plots around the edges. In accordance with popular landscaping fashions of the period, formal ornamentation was designed to complement the functionality of the site. The grounds were made workable with fences and gates, and occasionally a caretaker’s cottage or sentry box, and sometimes embellished with other structures. Picturesque Gothic was the preferred style for structures and furniture. Paths were often serpentine, as at Caramut and Tower Hill, while evidence of a diagonal path design is evident at Mortlake. The various denominational sections were usually marked with brass labels affixed to iron



posts driven into the ground. Some of these labels have survived, for example at Macarthur.

Plan 2: Tower Hill Cemetery was laid out to a Celtic Cross design (1856) [Historic Plans Collection, Lands Victoria] Planting also followed standard designs for cemeteries, especially that espoused by the Scottish-born landscape gardener J.C. Loudon, who wrote the influential book, On the Laying Out of Cemeteries (1843). Loudon recommended that cemeteries be planted with a mixture of exotic and native trees, an approach that was followed in the colonies.442 The cemetery reserves at Nirranda and Macarthur, for example, feature native planting. The choice of exotic plantings was influenced greatly by Loudon, who favoured those species with symbolic associations, such as the Italian Cypress (Cupressus semprevirens), which is well represented, for example, at Caramut. Pines and cypress were planted in many cemeteries in Moyne Shire, especially along boundaries. For Loudon, evergreens were symbolic of everlasting life. Shrubs and flowerbeds were also planted, with particular species advocated for their particular biblical and sentimental associations.443 Ferdinand Mueller of the Melbourne Botanic



Gardens, a local authority on cemetery planting, most likely distributed plants to cemeteries in Moyne Shire from the 1850s until the early 1870s. In some cases, a shortage of funds or a lack of vision left cemeteries largely unadorned. The Tower Hill cemetery, for example, despite an ambitious layout, remained as bare of vegetation as the surrounding tree-less farmland. The Koroit Herald had chided in 1881 ‘now that Trustees have such a handsome balance in hand, would it be trespassing to ask them to spend a trifle in laying out and otherwise beautifying God’s acre’, but there appears to have been little interest in planting out the reserve.444 The distribution of graves within a cemetery varied according to local ethnic influences. A marked imbalance in the denominational spread of burials at Tower Hill cemetery reflects the strong Catholic demographic at Koroit and surrounding hamlets.445 Whilst the various denominations were initially allocated a roughly equal portion of land, the Catholic quarter is significantly more crowded. A rich collection of religious statuary and Celtic crosses towers above the more modest and more dispersed graveyard tributes of other denominations. There is also a dominance of large Celtic crosses at the much smaller Yambuk cemetery. In the pastoral country in the north of the Shire, by contrast, cemeteries more often reflect the more dominant Protestant denominations. At Macarthur, for example, the cemetery is neatly ordered and maintained, with large vacant areas between denominations. Here, the Anglican and Presbyterians sections are more crowded than the Catholic and Methodist sections.

Image 44: Caramut Cemetery, showing nineteenth-century plantings and gravestones [photo: Helen Doyle]

21.2 Remembering the war dead

Within Moyne Shire, there are some early links to the British military with the grave of Richard Jennings, a veteran of Waterloo who was buried in the Ellerslie Cemetery



in 1874, and Charles Pye, a British recipient of the Victoria Cross winner who was buried at Tower Hill Cemetery in 1876. The Boer War of 1896–1902 was the first European war that settlers enlisted for and this was proudly commemorated with a monument in the Mortlake Botanic Gardens.446 In the aftermath of World War I, grieving communities across Victoria erected war memorials and planted avenues of honour to remember those who had died in service. These avenues, standing as living sentinels to the dead, created a sombre but triumphant passage through the town. The earliest avenue of honour in Victoria is believed to have been planted at Eurack (near Colac) in May 1916.447 The idea quickly spread to other parts of western Victoria. Modest avenues were planted in virtually all the townships and hamlets in Moyne Shire, including Ellerslie, Hexham, Koroit, Orford, Port Fairy, and Woolsthorpe. With its impressive total of nearly 200 mature cypresses, Mortlake boasts the largest and most spectacular avenue in the Shire. In many small towns, where a relatively large number of departed young men failed to return home, these avenues became sites of both public and private grief and loss. In addition to the avenues of honour, several Lone Pines, reputedly sourced from the original Lone Pine at Gallipoli, were planted in several locations in south-west Victoria in the 1930s, including Mortlake, Woolsthorpe, The Sisters, and at Warrnambool Botanic Gardens. In the aftermath of the war, memorials were also commissioned by local committees and erected in a prominent place, such as a public park or garden, or at a major intersection. These often took the form of a simple obelisk, such as the memorials at Ellerslie, Hexham and Koroit, or of a soldier, for example at Port Fairy and Mortlake, and the names were inscribed of those who served. Additional names were added after World War II, and subsequent battles. Many towns also dedicated public halls or mechanics institutes to the memory of fallen soldiers, or erected a purpose-built soldiers’ memorial hall where the local honour board took pride of place. Other war memorials were more utilitarian. The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Grandstand, for example, was erected at the Port Fairy cricket ground in the early 1920s. Amiens Avenue in Winslow was dedicated as a war memorial, as was a ‘soldiers’ park’ at Garvoc.448 Following World War II, Koroit dedicated both its new hospital and new picture theatre as war memorials. The Woorndoo community erected memorial gates at the local recreation ground. Remembering and memorialising those who had fought and died for their country continues to be important in south-west Victoria because of both the large enlistment numbers and, later, the socio-demographic impact of soldier settlement, especially after World War II. 21.3 Other civic commemorations

There has been considerable emphasis on civic duty, community achievement and commemoration in the small rural communities that make up Moyne Shire. In 1867, the people of Hexham and Mortlake erected grand archways to welcome the visiting



Duke of Edinburgh. Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1887 was marked by patriotic celebrations in many towns; a commemorative Oak was planted at Mortlake and bonfires were lit on every hill in the district.449 In Koroit, an avenue of cypress trees was planted in High Street to mark the occasion. Meticulously clipped into a barrel shape for one hundred years, these trees formed a distinctive entry into the town. Town and church jubilees have also been occasions for public celebrations, as have visits by regal and vice-regal dignitaries. Locally prominent figures have also been commemorated in many towns with commemorative tree-planting or memorials – for example, the long-serving town clerk of Koroit, Harry McCorkell, and the prominent figure of Peterborough, James Irvine.

Image 45: Former avenue of clipped cypress in High Street, Koroit, photographed in 1963 [from McCorkell and Yule, A Green and Pleasant Land (1999), p. 203]

21.4 Aboriginal burials and remembrance

After the arrival of Europeans, it became more difficult for Aboriginal people to be buried according to their traditional customs. Aborigines were often buried at pastoral stations in the nineteenth century, but their graves were usually set apart from settlers’ graves; at Minjah, for example, such burials were allocated to the ‘Corner paddock’.450 Burial space for Aborigines was provided around the edges of public cemeteries or in sections set aside for ‘Chinese and others’ and for paupers’ graves. Police reserves and police paddocks were also used for Aboriginal burials in the 1850s and 1860s.451 An Aboriginal woman described as ‘Old Mary’ was buried at the Port Fairy Police Paddock in 1864, which suggests that Aborigines were not permitted to be buried in the public cemetery which was by that time operating at Port Fairy. Designated burial areas were set aside for Aborigines at the Framlingham and Lake Condah Aboriginal missions in the 1860s. Here, many of the early burials are unmarked, largely because of the high cost in the manufacture of gravestones.



There are no known memorials in Moyne Shire erected by white people to Aborigines who died in the frontier wars of the early pastoral period. The roadside grave of George Watmore near Port Fairy, inscribed with the words ‘speared by blacks 1842’, is a lone reminder of the numerous deaths during this period. This grave remains a curiosity, however, as there appears some doubt about the identity, and indeed the existence, of George Watmore.452 For Aboriginal people, places of death were remembered and kept sacred. In the later nineteenth century, feelings of remorse and nostalgia amongst white settlers for the ‘disappearing race’ inspired some to erect Aboriginal memorials, notably that erected by James Dawson, formerly of Kangatang, for ‘Chief Wombeetch Puuyuum’ at Camperdown in 1883.



Appendix A: Summary of works by architects, engineers, builders and stonemasons in Moyne Shire, 1853-1955 Notes: • Square brackets have been used where an architect or builder is likely to be responsible for a

particular building, but this is unable to be confirmed at this stage • Some of the sites listed are no longer extant, but have been included here for historical interest • Note that sites within the former Borough of Belfast have generally been excluded from this list • Note: AAA = Miles Lewis (ed.), ‘Australian Architects Index’ (microfiche, held SLV) The consultants would be pleased to hear of any corrections or additions for this list BUTLER, Walter Richmond, architect, Melbourne

[Woolongoon, Mortlake (c.1908)] CRAWLEY, J.W. junior (fl. 1890-1910), engineer and architect, Shires of Warrnambool and Belfast; also worked as engineer fo r Perry Knights, architect

Woolshed at Quamby, Woolsthorpe (1889) Grassmere Butter Factory (1891; demolished) Quamby homestead, Woolsthorpe (1892) [Chaffeur’s House, Quamby, Woolsthorpe (c.1905)] Wollaston Bridge, Warrnambool [query] Grandstand, Warrnambool Racecourse [City of Warrnambool] (query] The Union, Woolsthorpe – additions to the homestead (1906-07) Duffus’s Koroit Hotel, Koroit - alterations and refurbishment (1907-08) Bridge over the Spring Creek, Woolsthorpe (1910 or 1919; now replaced) Rebuilding of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Woolsthorpe (1921-22)

CROLL, D.

Presbyterian Sunday School, Koroit (1889) Presbyterian Church, Grassmere (1889) Two stores at Koroit for Crammond and Dixon (1889) Alterations to Koroit Catholic Presbytery, Koroit (1894)

CROUCH AND WILSON, architects, Melbourne

Methodist Church, Koroit (1867) DRISCOLL, Maurice, stonemason, Port Fairy, fl. c.18 50s

Bluestone cottage, Princes Highway, Port Fairy (c.1856-57) FOX, James H., architect practising in Hamilton

Chatsworth House, Chatsworth (1857) House five miles from Harton Hills for R.J. Campbell Esq. (1864) Berrambool

FRITSCH, Augustus A., architect

St Brigid’s Catholic Church, Crossley (1913)



GEDDES, Tom; GEDDES BROS., builders, stonemasons, M ortlake (fl. 1860s-70s)

Caramut Church of England, Caramut (1866) Caramut Common School, Caramut (1869) Ellerslie Presbyterian Church, Ellerslie (1870-71)

HAMILTON, Alexander (1825-1901); born Moffat, Scotl and; builder, later worked as an architect in Mortlake 1860s (worked wi th James Geddes); Colac 1871

Carpentry to Mortlake Presbyterian Church (1862) Mill Cottages, Mortlake (1860) [Caramut Church of England, Caramut (1866) – possible architect] Cameron’s Building (Penrose House), Mortlake (1867) Eeyeuk homestead, Kolora (1874) Wooriwyrite homestead, Kolora (1883)

HENDERSON, George (of Davidson and Henderson, archi tects, Geelong)

St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Mortlake (1862) HOWES, Dilmond John; Engineer, Belfast Roads Board (and Shire of Belfast) from 1853

A number of stone bridges in the former district of the Belfast District Roads Board. [Bridge over Goose Lagoon, west of Port Fairy (1855)] Youl’s Creek Bridge (Quamby Bridge), Woolsthorpe (1856) Bridge over Mustons Creek, Caramut (1856; destroyed) [Bridge over the Spring Creek, Woolsthorpe (c.1856-57; destroyed 1946)] Shamrock Hotel, Crossley (1863) [Talara, Port Fairy]

HUNTLY, John Lockyer, Engineer, Shire of Minhamite, from c.1870

Anglican Church, Macarthur (1871; demolished c.1920; replaced 1908) Minhamite Shire Office, Ripponhurst (1874; 1872?) Macarthur Mechanics Institute, Macarthur (1877; later rebuilt) Methodist Church (later Free Presbyterian church), Macarthur (1883)

IRELAND, Robert, stonemason and builder, Port Fairy

Terka, Kirkstall (c.1859) Library and Mechanics Institute, Port Fairy

JACKMAN, W.T., architect, Warrnambool

St Patrick’s Convent, Koroit (1906-07) JOBBINS, George, architect, Warrnambool, fl. 1870s- 80s; in nominal partnership with James McLeod 1885-88

Injemira homestead, Grasmere (1870) Werangourt Office, Illowa (c.1870s) Southern Cross Hotel, Southern Cross (1874) State Bank of Victoria (former Colonial Bank), Koroit (1875) Verandah, Yangery Park, Yangery (1877) Second-storey addition to National Bank of Australasia, Koroit (1887)



KELLARD, W.G., architect, Warrnambool St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Woolsthorpe (1883-84)

KERR, Andrew (d.1887), Shire Engineer, Warrnambool and Mortlake

Additions to Yangery Grange, Yangery (1860) Presbyterian Church, Hexham (1861) Stables at Mount Shadwell Hotel, Mortlake (1863) Bridge at Lett’s Ford (Ellerslie) (1867) [Presbyterian Church, Panmure (1869) - ??] Presbyterian Church, Purnim (1870) Cast iron mileposts, Shire of Mortlake (1870) Mount Emu Creek bridge at Darlington (1871) Terrinallum woolshed and men’s hut, Dundonnell (1872) Brian O’Lynn homestead (18 rooms), Purnim (1872; demolished) Minjah homestead, Hawkesdale (1873) [Temperance Hall, Mortlake (1873)] Stables at The Union station, Woolsthorpe (1875) Kirkstall Hotel, Kirkstall (1874) Additions to Stony Point homestead, Darlington (1874) Stables, Coach Houses, Manager’s Residence, and Gatekeeper’s Lodge at Merrang (1874) Hexham Park, Hexham (1874; demolished) [Temperance Hall, Hexham (1876)] Sunday School for St James Church, Mortlake (1877) Additions to Mortlake Mechanics Institute (1880) Presbyterian manse, Mortlake (1883) Mount Fyans homestead, Dundonnell (1883) Verandah to Mr Ah Chow’s shopfront, Koroit (1884) Rosehill homestead for Mr Nichol, Grassmere (1887)

KERR, Robert, architect, Koroit (fl. 1893–1902)

Butter factory and manager’s residence, Koroit (1893) [AAA] Cottage for Mr Dwyer, Koroit (1896) [AAA] Dwelling for Mr D.G. Duffus at Crossley (1899) [AAA] Dwelling for Mr J. Spring, Koroit (1899) [AAA] Dwelling for Mr T. Gunn, Koroit (1899) [AAA] Kirkstall Hotel, Kirkstall (1899)

KLINGERILDER and ALSOP, architects

Coomete, Hexham (1910) - additions KNIGHT, J.M., Engineer and surveyor, Port Fairy

Boodcarra homestead, Port Fairy (c.1850s)? KNIGHT, John, stonemason, Mortlake

Chimney, Mortlake Flour Mill, Mortlake (1857) Barrel culvert, Ararat Road, Woorndoo (c.1860s)

KNIGHTS, Perry, architect

Yellangip, Darlington (1908)



LAIRD, BUCHAN and PELLOW, architects, [Geelong?] Second storey to Mac’s Hotel, Mortlake (1911)

MASON, John, architect and engineer, Port Fairy

Rosebrook Bridge, Rosebrook (1853; replaced) Post Office buildings, Bank Street, Port Fairy (c.1857) Oddfellows Hall, Port Fairy (1861) Yangery Park, Yangery (1862) Presbyterian manse, Koroit (1864) Rosebank, Koroit (1870) Yambuk Inn (Commercial Hotel), Yambuk (1871) Catholic presbytery, Koroit (1886)

McLEOD, James, architect, Warrnambool; worked with G. Jobbins from 1885-88

Koroit State School no. 618, Koroit (1878) Additions to Western Star Hotel, Koroit (1886)

MERRITT, Samuel, builder, fl. 1860s

Mount Fyans woolshed, Dundonnell (c.1860) Mount Fyans men’s quarters, Dundonnell (c.1860)

PARKER, Samuel, architect, Warrnambool

General Store, Koroit for Mr W.W. Jamieson (1858) PERRY, John, stonemason, Port Fairy, fl. c.1850s

Chimney at Turkish Bath House, Dunmore homestead, Dunmore (1850s) Free Library Lecture Hall, Port Fairy (1880)

PLAISTED, Arthur W., architect, Chancery Lane, Melb ourne

Wirwin, Kolora (1925) PLEYDELL, A.D., architect, assistant to Andrew Kerr , Warrnambool, 1880s; Mortlake Shire Engineer, 1890s

Stables and loose boxes (bluestone walls), Woolongoon, Mortlake (1890) Coach house and other outbuildings (brick), Woolongoon, Mortlake (1891) Museum buildings (brick or bluestone) at Mortlake (1893)

RAWLINSON, Thomas Ellis, Civil Engineer, Shire of B elfast, 1860s-70s; Surveyor, Borough of Koroit, 1870s; also with the R oads and Bridges Dept, Melbourne

Rosebrook Bridge, Rosebrook (1869; largely destroyed in 1946) [Bridge at Goose Lagoon (c.1870?)] Bridge over Woodward’s drain, Port Fairy North (destroyed in 1946) St Paul’s Anglican Church, Koroit (1870) Koroit Mechanics Institute, Koroit (1871 1866?; demolished) Koroit Borough Chambers, Koroit (c.1874)

SAN MIGUEL, L.D., architect

St John’s Catholic Church, Nirranda (1959)



SIMMONDS and HAIN, builders, Koroit, fl. 1900s Koroit Fire Station, High Street, Koroit (1900; demolished 2006) Kirkbrae, 29 High Street, Koroit (c.1900s) Yangery Grange, Yangery additions (early 1900s) St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Kirkstall (1906) Barr’s Stores, 132-34 Commercial Road, Koroit (1906) Hillcrest (later Kincardine), 60 High Street, Koroit (1908) [timber residence, 30 High Street, Koroit]

SMITH, A.C. (and JOHNSON), architects, Melbourne

Green Hills homestead, Minhamite (1872-73) Additions to Minjah homestead, Minhamite (1877)

SYDNEY SMITH & OGG, architects, Melbourne

Additions and alterations to Injemira homestead, Grassmere (early 1900s) [Mondilibi homestead, Mortlake (c.1903-09) - possibly]

TAYLOR, Lloyd, architect, Collins Street, Melbourne

First storey of the National Bank of Australasia, Koroit (1868) WALTER and AUTY, architects

Koroit Memorial Hospital, Koroit (1955) WARDELL, William W., Chief Inspector of Public Work s; private architect

Catholic Church of the Infant Jesus, Koroit (1867) Part of St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Port Fairy



Bibliography

1. Primary sources 1.1 ARCHIVAL MATERIAL

State Library of Victoria Boldrewood, Rolf (T.A. Browne). Letter to the Koroit Sentinel, 1896. Burleigh, James. ‘Early History of Nirranda and District’. n.d. [MS collection]. Childers, H.G.C. ‘Tour of 1851 of Schools Western Victoria’. Donnelly, Hugh. Letters to Richard Osburne. Duncan, Alexander. Letter to his parents from Tower Hill, 20 December 1856. 3pp ts. MS 12358. Jennings, Alan. ‘Notes on the History of Ballangeich and district’ [c.1980], MS 12600. Fraser, John (b.1854). ‘Pioneering Days in Australia’, [n.d.] t.s. MS 12411. Gordon and Eddington Family. Papers. MS 3057. Kemmis, Henry. ‘The Levy, Thomas, Bonnett History’ ‘History of Warrnambool doctors’ and ‘Romantic

landmark at Killarney’. Photocopy of t.s., 1 bound vol., 1889, MS 11774. La Trobe, C.J. ‘Memoranda of journeys, excursions and absences, 1839-1854’, SAFE 3, MSM 541. Terrington, Tom. ‘A history of Framlingham’ [ms] and two scrapbooks, n.d. MS 12610. Victorian Education Department. Collection of histories of state schools and school districts prepared

for the school exhibition, September-October 1922. 5 rools of MF, GM9.

Public Record Office Victoria State School records Pastoral run files. Pastoral run plans. Land records – public land sites, etc

Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbo urne Reserve (Rs) files, various.

Department of Human Services, Melbourne Cemetery files, various. Cemetery Registers.

Police Historical Unit, Victoria Police, Melbourne Files on various police reserves and buildings.

Manuscripts held elsewhere Baxter (Dawbin), Annie. Diary, 1834–1857. Held in the Dixson Library, Sydney. List of Employees and Tenants of the Farnham Survey, August 1876 (copy in possession of Mr J. Ryan,

Belfast SS, Port Fairy). Local History Collection: Files, photographs, and original documents, Warrnambool City Library. McKellar, Miss Nesta. ‘Pastoral Pioneers: Book 1 and Index’. Geelong Historic Records Collection. Tonkin, Ray. ‘Tender Notices from the Warrnambool Examiner and the Warrnambool Standard, 1854-

1894’. 2 vols. Copy kindly lent by Dr Timothy Hubbard.



1.2 PUBLISHED SOURCES Newspapers, journals and magazines Argus (Melbourne). Australian Farm and Home. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), 5 January 1889. Banner of Belfast, 1855–76. Belfast Gazette.

Illustrated Australian News (Melbourne). Koroit Herald. Koroit Sentinel. Mortlake Dispatch, 1884- Mortlake Mercury, 1903- Port Fairy Gazette.

The Link: Magazine of the Warrnambool district schools, a record for students, parents, teachers and friends. Warrnambool Inspectorate, 1921–24.

Warrnambool Examiner.

Index to the Warrnambool Guardian, 1878. Warrnambool & District Historical Society, 2002. Warrnambool Standard.

Index to the Warrnambool Standard, 1853–1859.

Western Historian.

Leader (Melbourne). Victorian Naturalist.

Government publications Victorian Government. Reserves: A return giving particulars of Lands (exclusive of sites for Churches, Schools,

and Public Buildings) permanently and temporarily reserved in the various Electoral Districts throughout

the Colony. 29 Sept. 1881, printed in Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, Session 1881 (1).

Victoria. Government Gazette. Victorian Municipal Directories. Victoria. Parliamentary Papers. Various. Victorian Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

General publications Arden, George. Latest Information with Regard to Australia Felix. Facsimile of 1841 edition, Queensberry

Hill Press, Carlton 1977 (first published Melbourne, 1840). Baxter, Annie. Memories of Tasmania and of the Macleay River and New England districts of New South Wales

and of Port Fairy in the western district of Port Phillip, 1834-1848. Sullivan's Cove, Adelaide. First published as Memories of the past by a lady in Australia, W.H. Williams, Melbourne, 1873.

Critchett, Jan (ed.). Richard Bennett’s Early Days of Port Fairy. Warrnambool Institute Press, Warrnambool, 1984.

Blair, David. Cyclopaedia of Australasia. Fergusson and Moore, Melbourne 1881. Boldrewood, Rolf (T.A. Browne). Old Melbourne Memories. William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1969 (first

published London 1884). Bonwick, James. Western Victoria: Its geography, geology and social conditions. The narrative of an educational

tour in 1857. Updated by C.E. Sayers, 1970 (first edition, Geelong 1858). [Bostock, Augustus]. People and Places: Western Victoria 1854-1865: From diary of Augustus Bostock. Bli Bli,

Qld, 1990. Brady, E.J. Australia Unlimited. Robertson, Melbourne, 1918. Bride, T.F. (ed.). Letters from Victorian Pioneers. William Heinemann, Melbourne 1969 (first published by

the Government Printer, Melbourne, 1898) Brough Smyth, Robert. The Aborigines of Victoria: with notes relating to the habits of the natives of other parts



of Australia and Tasmania, 2 vols. Government Printer, Melbourne, 1878. Brown, Margaret Emily. A Port Fairy childhood 1849/60: The memoirs of Margaret Emily Brown (Youngman),

with an introduction by Jan Critchett. Port Fairy Historical Society, Port Fairy, 1990. Cannon, Michael (ed.). Historic Records of Victoria, vol. 6: The Crown, the Land and the Squatter 1835–

1840. Victorian Government Printing Office, Melbourne, 1991. Cannon, Michael (ed.). Historical Records of Victoria, vol. 2B: Aborigines and Protectors 1838–1839.

Victorian Government Printing Office, Melbourne, 1982. Cannon, Michael (ed.). Vagabond Country. Hyland House, Melbourne, 1981. Dawson, Isabella Park. ‘The Languages of the Aborigines’, letter to the editor, Australasian, 19 March

1870. Dawson, James. Australian Aborigines: The languages and customs of several tribes of Aborigines in the

Western District of Victoria, Australia. George Robertson, Melbourne, 1881. Facsimile edition, Canberra, 1981.

Gavan Duffy, Charles. My Life in Two Hemispheres, 2 vols. T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1898. Earle, William. Earle’s Port Fairy. First published Port Fairy 1896; republished with annotation by J.W.

Powling and edited by C.E. Sayers, Olinda, 1973. Garran, Andrew (ed.). Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, vol. 2. Picturesque Atlas Publishing Co., Sydney,

1886 (facsimile edition, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1974). Hannaford, Samuel. Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria: Being a handbook for those seeking recreation

during the summer months. Facsimile edition, Warrnambool Institute Press, Warrnambool, 1981 (first published Heath & Cordell, Geelong, and J. Van Voorst, London, 1860).

Loudon, J.C. Encyclopedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture. Longman, London 1839 (first published London, 1833).

Loudon, J.C. On the Laying out, Planting, and Managing of Cemeteries. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London, 1843.

McCorkell, H.A. (ed.). The Diaries of Sarah Midgely and Richard Skilbeck. Cassell Australia, Melbourne, 1967.

McLaren, Ian F. (ed.). Visit to Geelong and Western Victoria in 1846 [John Dunmore Lang]. University of Melbourne Library, Parkville, 1987.

Mitchell, T.L. Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia. 2 vols. 2nd edition, London, 1839. Morris, E.E. (ed.) Cassell’s Picturesque Australasia, vol. III. 1997; first published 1889. Osburne, Richard. The History of Warrnambool, capital of the western ports of Victoria, from 1847 up to the end

of 1886. Chronicle Printing and Publishing Company, Prahran 1887; facsimile edition 1980. Presland, Gary (ed.). Journals of G.A. Robinson. Records of the Victorian Archaeological Survey, 1980. Sutherland, Alexander. Victoria and Its Metropolis: Past and present. 2 vols, McCarron Bird & Co.,

Melbourne, 1888 (facsimile edition, 1977). Walch, Garnet. Victoria in 1880. George Robertson, Melbourne, 1881. Westgarth, William. Australia Felix or a historical and descriptive account of the settlement of Port Phillip.

Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1848. Early almanacs, directories and guidebooks Australian Handbook 1890. Gordon and Gotch, London, 1890. Bailliere’s Victorian Gazetteer and Road Guide. 1865, 1868, 1870, 1871–72, 1879. Davies, H.W. (ed.). Picturesque Warrnambool. Places of interest and how to reach them. F.W. Niven & Co.,

Ballarat, 1891. Geelong and Western District Directory. 1866–67, 1886–87, 1890–91. Lindsay, John and John Pinson (eds). Warrnambool Past: The Warrnambool Standard Almanac for 1875.

Facsimile edition, Osburne Group, Warrnambool, 1987. The Railways Guide to Victoria. Victorian Railways, Melbourne, 1885, 1888, 1892. Victorian Municipal Directory and Gazetteer. 1900. Victoria Illustrated 1910. Victorian Government Printing Office, Melbourne, 1909. Victorian Farmers Journal and Gardeners Chronicle. Wise's Official Post Office Directories of Victoria. 1884–85, 1888–89, 1893–94, 1895–96, 1897–98, 1899–1900. Visitors Guide to Warrnambool: to which is added a directory for the Town of Warrnambool. 1882.



Warrnambool Standard Almanac. 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1928. Victorian Railways. Picturesque Victoria. Melbourne, 1905. Victorian Railways. Picturesque Victoria and How to Get There: A Handbook for Tourists. Melbourne, 1912. Victorian Railways. Railways Guide to Victoria. Melbourne, 1885; 1888. Whitworth, Robert P. Official Guide Book to Victoria: Exhibition edition. Melbourne, 1881.

Later tourist guidebooks Blair’s Travel Guide to Victoria and Melbourne Australia, 1987/8 edition. Blair’s Guides, Melbourne, 1987.

Herald Camping Guides, Melbourne, 1930s. White, Osmar. Guide to Australia. William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1968. Winser, Keith. Australian Caravans and Touring, Book 6. Keith Winser, Melbourne, 1954.

1.3 MAPS Parish plans and Township plans (relevant to Moyne Shire).

1:25,000 topographical maps. Map Collection, State Library of Victoria. Bromfield, Astley. Plan of Warrnambool and its Agricultural District. [Warrnambool?] 1856. Ham’s Map of Squatting Runs 1848, 1849. Hiscock maps of pastoral stations in Victoria. [SLV] Historic Plans Collection, Central Plans Office, Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Australian Army. Military Survey Maps, c.1941–46. Country Fire Authority. South-west Directory - Region 5. First edition, 1997.

2. Secondary sources 2.1 GENERAL WORKS Allan, J.A. (ed.). The Victorian Centenary Book: A series of records of people and firms at the time of the

centenary. Tavistock Press, Melbourne, 1936. Bantow, Jennifer, Mark Rashleigh, John Sherwood (eds). Tuuram: Hopkins River estuary and coastal

environs. Centre for Regional Development, Deakin University, Warrnambool, 1995. Bassett, Marnie. The Hentys: An Australian colonial tapestry. Melbourne 1962 (first published 1954).. Beaumont, Carole. Local History in Victoria: An Annotated bibliography. La Trobe University, Bundoora,

1980. Blainey, Geoffrey. Our Side of the Country: The story of Victoria. Methuen Haynes, North Ryde, 1984. Blake, Les. Places Names of Victoria. Rigby, Adelaide, 1976. Bonyhady, Tim. The Colonial Earth. The Miegunyah Press at Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2000. Brewer, Kevin. ‘A bit of land this is the very thing keeping a man poor: Grasslands and other imaginary

places on the western plains of Victoria 1839–1880’. MA thesis, Department of Geography and Environment Studies, University of Melbourne, 1998.

Broome, Richard. Arriving. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, McMahon’s Point, 1984. Cannon, Michael. Life in the Country: Australia in the Victorian age 2. Nelson Aust., West Melbourne, 1978. Carter, Paul. The Road to Botany Bay. Faber & Faber, London 1987. Davison, Graeme, John Hirst and Stuart Macintyre (eds). Oxford Companion to Australian History. Oxford

University Press, Melbourne, 1998. De Serville, Paul. Port Phillip Gentlemen: And good society in Melbourne before the gold rushes. Oxford

University Press, Melbourne, 1980. Faigan, Julian. Colonial Art of the Western District. City of Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton, 1984. Forth, Gordon and Peter Yule (eds). The Biographical Dictionary of the Western District of Victoria. Hyland



House, South Melbourne, 1998. Garden, Don, Hamilton: A Western District history. City of Hamilton, Hamilton, 1984. Gibbney H.J. and Ann G. Smith (eds), A Biographical Register 1788-1939, 2 vols. Australian Dictionary of

Biography, Canberra, 1991. Gilbert, Lionel. The Orchid Man: The life, work and memoirs of the Rev. H.M.R. Rupp 1872–1956. Kangaroo

Press, Kenthurst, 1992. Gregory, J.W. Geography of Victoria. Revised edition, 1912. Griffiths, Tom. Hunters and Collectors: The antiquarian imagination in Australia. Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge, 1996. Hamilton, David. ‘King of Port Fairy: William Rutledge’, Investigator, 5 (2), May 1970, pp. 81–110. Hamilton, J.C. Pioneering Days in Western Victoria. Macmillan, Melbourne, 1923. Harvey, E.W. Victoria’s Oldest Settlement: Portland – 1800 to 1949. McCarron Bird & Co., Melbourne,

1949. Hay, Peter (ed.). Meeting of Sighs: The folk verse of Victoria’s Western District. Warrnambool Institute Press,

Warrnambool 1981. Henderson, Alexander. Early Pioneer Families of Victoria and the Riverina: A genealogical and biographical

record. McCarron, Bird & Co., Melbourne, 1936. Horton, David (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, 2 volumes. Aboriginal Studies Press for the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra 1994. Kiddle, Margaret. Men of Yesterday: A social history of the Western District of Victoria 1834–1890.

Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1967 (first published 1961). Learmonth, Noel. The Portland Bay Settlement, 1800–1851. Melbourne, 1934. Lorck, Walter (ed.). Victoria Illustrated. Melbourne, 1909. McIntyre, A.J. and McIntyre, J.J. Country Towns of Victoria. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1944. Monie, Joanne. Victorian History and Politics: European settlement to 1939; A survey of the literature, 2 vols.

Borchardt Library, La Trobe University, Bundoora 1982. Mowle, P.C. Genealogical History of the Pioneer Families of Australia. 5th ed. Rigby, Adelaide, 1978 (first

published 1939). Mulvaney, D.J. Encounters in Place: Outsiders and Aboriginal Australians 1606–1985. University of

Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1989. Neville, Nanette. An Update of Carole Beaumont's Local History in Victoria. State Library of Victoria,

Melbourne, 1986. Peel, Lynnette (ed.). The Henty Journals. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1996. Pierce, Peter (ed.). The Oxford Literary Guide to Australia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1987. Richardson, Henry Handel. Myself When Young. William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1948. Rutledge, Martha, ‘William Rutledge: An Australian pioneer’, VHM, vol. xxvii, part 3, August 1965, pp.

110–27. Serle, Geoffrey. The Golden Age: A history of the Colony of Victoria 1851–1861. Melbourne University Press,

Carlton, 1963. Shaw, A.G.L. The Port Phillip District: Victoria before Separation. Melbourne University Press, Carlton,

1996. Shaw, A.G.L. and Clark, C.M.H. (eds.). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press,

Carlton, volumes 1–14 (1966 and onwards). Smith, James (ed.). The Cyclopedia of Victoria: An historical and commercial review. 3 volumes. The

Cyclopedia Company, Melbourne, 1903–05. Spielvogel, Nathan. The Gum-sucker at Home. George Robertson & Company, Melbourne, 1913. The Western Horizon of Victoria, Australia: A pictorial presentation of the resources and development of

Victoria's Western District. Australian Publicity Council, Melbourne, 1958. Turner, Henry Gyles. A History of the Colony of Victoria, 2 vols. Longmans Green & Co., Melbourne, 1904

(facsimile ed. Heritage Publications, 1973).. Watson. Angus B. Lost and Almost Vanished Towns of Victoria: A comprehensive analysis of Census results

for Victoria 1841–1901. The author and Andrew McMillan Art and Design, 2003. Wilson, Robert. The Illustrated A-Z of Australian Towns and Places. 1989.



2.2 PUBLICATIONS ON SPECIFIC THEMES Natural landscape Bonwick, James. ‘The volcanic rocks of Rome and Victoria compared’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of

Victoria, 7, 1866, pp. 149–55. Douglas, M.H. and L. O’Brien (eds.). The Natural History of Western Victoria. Australian Institute of

Agricultural Science, Horsham, 1974. Duncan, J.S. The Atlas of Victoria. Victorian Government Printing Office, Melbourne, 1981. Fairley, Alan. A Field Guide to the National Parks of Victoria. Rigby, Adelaide, 1982. Foreman, D.B. and N.G. Walsh (eds). Flora of Victoria, volume 1: Introduction. Inkata Press, Melbourne,

1993. Jennings, J.N. and J.A. Mabbutt (eds). ‘Evolution of the Warrnambool–Port Fairy Coast, and the Tower

Hill Eruption, Western Victoria’, in Landform Studies from Australia and New Zealand. ANU Press, Canberra, 1967, pp. 341–64.

Mulvaney, D.J. ‘Prehistory of the Basaltic Plains’, in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 77: 2, 1964. Orth, Karin and Robert King, The Geology of Tower Hill. Department of Industry, Melbourne, 1990. Reichl, Phyllis. Volcanic Plains of Western Victoria: A study of changing occupance. Thomas Nelson,

Melbourne, 1968.

Aboriginal and frontier history Aboriginal Affairs Victoria in conjunction with the Kerrup Jmara Elders Aboriginal Corporation. Lake

Condah Heritage Management Plan and Strategy. Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, Melbourne, 1993.

Aboriginal History Programme. Lake Condah Mission. Aboriginal History Programme, Collingwood, 1984.

Broome, Richard (ed.). The Colonial Experience: The Port Phillip District 1834-1850. Department of History, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 1997.

Christie. M.F. Aborigines in Colonial Victoria 1835–86. Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1979.

Clark, Ian D. The Port Phillip Journals of George Augustus Robinson: 8 March – 7 April 1842 and 18 March – 29 April 1843. Monash Publications in Geography, No. 34, Clayton, 1988.

Clark, Ian D. Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900. Monash Publications in Geography, No. 37, Clayton, 1990.

Clark, Ian D. Scars in the Landscape: A register of massacre sites in Western Victoria, 1803–1859. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1995.

Clark, Ian D. Place Names and Land Tenure: Windows into Aboriginal landscapes: Essays in Victorian Aboriginal history. Heritage Matters, Clarendon, 1998.

Clark, Ian D. ‘That’s My Country Belonging to Me’: Aboriginal land tenure and dispossession in nineteenth century Western Victoria. Heritage Matters, Clarendon, 1998.

Clark, Ian D. The Port Phillip Journals of George Augustus Robinson: 1 January 1839 – 30 September 1840. Heritage Matters, Melbourne, 1998.

Critchett, Jan. Our Land Till We Die: A history of the Framlingham Aborigines. Deakin University Press, Warrnambool, 1992 (first published 1980).

Critchett, Jan. ‘A dispossessed but not a dying race: Framlingham a case study’, in Sherwood et al. (eds), Settlement of the Western District (1985).

Critchett, Jan. ‘A Closer Look at Cultural Contact: Some evidence from “Yambuk”, Western Victoria’, Aboriginal History, 8:1, 1984, pp. 12–20.

Critchett, Jan. A Distant Field of Murder: Western District frontiers 1834–1848. MUP, Carlton, 1990.

Critchett, Jan. Untold Stories: Memories and lives of Victorian Kooris. MUP, Carlton South, 1998.

Corris, Peter. Aborigines and Europeans in Western Victoria. Australian Institute for Aboriginal Affairs, Canberra, 1968.

Doyle, Helen. ‘Administering Aboriginal Affairs: A cultural sites network study’, prepared for Historic



Places Branch, Dept of Natural Resources and Environment, April 2002.

Jones, Joseph. The Ware family of Koort-Koort-Nong, Minjah and Yalla-y-Poora in the Western District of Victoria and their patronage of the artists Robert Dowling and Eugene von Guérard. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1998.

Kauffman, Paul and Neil Andrews, in conjunction with Kirrae Whurrong Aboriginal Corporation, the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust, Windamara Aboriginal Corporation and the Kerrup-Jmara Elders Aboriginal Corporation. A Review of the Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Canberra, 2000 [Deakin]

Massola, Aldo. Journey to Aboriginal Victoria. Rigby Ltd, Melbourne, 1969.

Reynolds, Henry. The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal resistance to the European invasion of Australia. Penguin, Ringwood, 1983 (first published 1981).

Robinson, Fergus and York, Barry. Black Resistance: An introductio to the history of the Aborigines’ struggle against British Colonialism. Widescope, Camberwell, 1977.

Savill, Vanda. Dear Friends: Lake Condah Mission, etc. Vanda Savill, Heywood, 1976.

Deen Maar: http://www.erin.gov.au/indigenous/fact-sheets/deenmaar.html

Sealing and whaling Chamberlain, Susan. Sealing, Whaling and early settlement of Victoria: An annotated bibliography of historical

sources. Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources, Melbourne, 1990.

McKenzie, J.M. Sealing, Sailing and Settling in South-Western Victoria. Lowden Publishing, Kilmore, 1976.

Townrow, Karen. An Archaeological Survey of Sealing and Whaling Sites in Victoria. Heritage Council, Melbourne, c.1997.

Exploration by land Andrews, Alan (ed.). Stapleton: With Major Mitchell’s Australia Felix expedition 1836. 1986. pp. 172–73.

Cumpston, J.H.L. Thomas Mitchell: Surveyor general and explorer. Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1954.

Eccleston, Gregory C. Major Mitchell’s 1836 ‘Australia Felix’ Expedition: A re-evaluation. Department of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Melbourne, 1992.

The Major Mitchell Trail: Exploring Australia Felix. Community Education and Information Branch and National Parks and Wildlife Division, Department of Conservation and Environment, Melbourne, 1990. pp. 82–83.

Shipwrecks McIntyre, Kenneth. The Secret Discovery of Australia. Pan Books Australia, Sydney 1982. Potter, Bill (ed.). The Mahogany Ship: Relic or legend? Mahogany Ship Committee, 1987.

Shipping and immigration Loney, J.K. Victoria’s West Coast Steamers. The author, 1975. Syme, Martin. Lifeboats for Victoria: The story of lifeboats and their crews in Victoria 1856–1979. Roebuck

Press, Melbourne 2001.

Pastoral settlement Billis, R.V. and Kenyon, A.S. Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip. Stockland Press, Melbourne, 1974 (first

published Macmillan, Melbourne, 1932). Chapman, Nan. Historic Homes of Western Victoria. Colac Herald, Colac, 1966. Forth, G.S. ‘The Pastoral Expansion and the Initial Occupation of Australia Felix’ JRAHS 70 (I), June

1984, pp. 19–29. Freeman, Peter. The Woolshed: A Riverina anthology. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1980. Leake, Peter. Homesteads of Australia Felix. Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1973.



MacInnes, J.D. ‘Some Western District Pioneers’, VHM, June 1927, 11: 44, pp. 259–69. Pastoral Homes of Australia. Vol. 1. Pastoral Review Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1910. Pastoral Homes of Australia. Vol. II. Pastoral Review Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1931. Roberts, S.H. The Squatting Age in Australia 1835–1847. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1935. Shaw, Mary Turner. On Mount Emu Creek: The story of a nineteenth-century Victorian sheep station.

Robertson and Mullens, Melbourne, 1969 (second edition, 1970). Spreadborough, Robert and Hugh Anderson. Victorian Squatters. Red Rooster Press, Ascot Vale, 1983.

Quarrying and lime-burning Harrington, Jane. An Archaeological and Historical Overview of Lime Burning in Victoria. Heritage Council,

Melbourne, 2000. McKenzie, D.A. Scoria and Tuff Quarrying in Victoria. Mines Department Victoria. Geological Survey of

Victoria report 1977/9. 1980.

Land settlement Dingle, Tony. Settling. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, McMahon’s Point, 1984. Keneley, Monica. Land of Hope: Soldier settlement in Western District of Victoria, 1918–1930. Deakin

University, Geelong, 1999. Keneley, Monica. ‘Closer settlement in the Western District of Victoria: A case study in Australian land

use policy, 1898–1914’, Journal of Historical Geography, 28, 3 (2002), pp. 363–79. Lake, Marilyn. The Limits of Hope: Soldier settlement in Victoria 1915–38. Oxford University Press,

Melbourne, 1987. Lomas, L. ‘Graziers and Farmers: In the Western District 1890–1914’, JRHSV, vol. 46, no. 1. Powell, J.M. The Public Lands of Australia Felix: Settlement and land appraisal in Victoria 1834-91 with special

reference to the Western Plains. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1970. Smallwood, Rosalind. Hard to Go Bung: World World II soldier settlement in Victoria 1945-62. Hyland

House, Melbourne, 1992. Wright, Ray. The Bureaucrats’ Domain: Space and the Public Interest in Victoria, 1834–86. Oxford University

Press, Melbourne, 1989.

Agriculture Cherry, Dr Thomas. Australian Settlement: Facts and results in the south east. Oxford University Press,

Melbourne 1935. First published as Victorian Agriculture, Victorian Government Printer, Melbourne, 1913, pp. 73–80.

Godbold, Norman. Victoria: Cream of the Country: A history of Victorian dairying. Dairy Industry Association of Australia, Hawthorn, 1989.

McRae, Heather. ‘Root Crops in Victoria’. Research essay for the Public History Group, Department of History, Monash University, Clayton, 1992.

Powell, J.M. ‘Farming Conditions in Victoria, 1857–1865: A prelude to selection’, The Australian Geographer, vol. x, no. 5, March 1968, pp. 346–54.

Ramsay, J.T. and G.H. Mattingley. Potato Growing in Victoria. Department of Agriculture, Melbourne 1954 (first edn 1942). Includes map showing densest cultivation.

The Cream of the Country for 100 Years: Centenary 1888-1988. Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, 1988.

Architecture and building Apperley, Irving and Reynolds. A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and terms

from 1788 to the present. Darlinghurst, 1989. Boyd, Robin. Australia’s Home: Its origins, builders and occupiers. Penguin Books, Ringwood 1968 (first

published by Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1952). Cantlon, Maurice, Homesteads of Victoria 1836-1900. Georgian House, Melbourne, 1967. Cuffley, Peter. Cottage Style in Australia. Five Mile Press, Noble Park, 1995. Doyle, Helen. ‘The Homestead’, in R. Aitken (ed.), Farm Buildings in Victoria to 1938. Monash Public



History Group and La Trobe University of Northern Victoria, report prepared for AHC, Canberra, 1992, pp. 17–31.

Irving, Robert. The History and Design of the Australian House. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985. Lewis, Miles. Victoria Primitive. Greenhouse Publications, Carlton, 1977. Tonkin, Ray. ‘Three Nineteenth Century Warrnambool Architects’. B.Arch thesis, Faculty of

Architecture, University of Melbourne, 3 vols, 1971. Ballantyne, H.W. ‘Some bluestone homesteads of western Victoria’, History essay, Faculty of

Architecture, University of Melbourne, 1955.

Religion Cave, Donald. Percy Jones: Priest, musician, teacher. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1988. Clark, Rev. H. The Pioneer of Presbyterianism in the Western District: Presbyterian pioneer of the Western

District. Pioneer of the Church: William Hamilton of Kilnoorat. Terang Express, Terang, 1947. De Jong, Ursula M. William Wilkinson Wardell: His life and work 1823-1899. Department of Visual Arts,

Monash University, Clayton, 1986. Ebsworth, Rev. W. ‘Early History of the Church in Victoria’, series published in the Advocate in the

1940s. (including no. 50: Port Fairy; no. 53: Koroit; no. 65: Warrnambool). Huf, Elizabeth, Courage, Patience and Persistence: 150 years of German settlement in Western Victoria,

Sesquicentenary Committee, St Michael’s Lutheran Church, Tarrington, 2003. Lewis, Miles. Victorian Churches: Their origins, their story and their architecture. National Trust of Australia

(Vic.), Melbourne, 1991. Some of the Fruits of Fifty Years. A.H. Massina and Co., Melbourne, 1897. Wood, Chris. ‘Religion’ in Richard Aitken, ‘Talbot and Clunes Conservation Study’, report prepared for

the Shire of Talbot and Clunes, and the Ministry for Planning and Environment, 1988.

Education Blake, L (ed.). Vision and Realisation, vol. II. Victorian Government Printer, Melbourne, 1973. Burchell, Lawrence. Victorian Schools: A study in colonial government architecture 1837–1900. Melbourne

University Press, in association with the Victorian Education Department, Carlton, 1980. Doyle, Helen. ‘Establishing Schools and Places of Higher Education: A Cultural Sites Network Study’,

prepared for Historic Places Branch, DRNE, Melbourne, May 2000. Uhl, Jean. Still Stands the Schoolhouse by the Road. Koroit and District Historical Society, Koroit 1989. Waugh, Max. ‘The National System of Education in Victoria: The Irish connection’, in Philip Bull et al.

(eds), Ireland and Australia 1788–1998 (Crossing Press, Sydney, 2000), pp. 102–12.

Scottish settlement and architecture Beer, Jane. ‘Highland Scots in Victoria’s Western District’, in Jane Beer et al. (eds), Colonial Frontiers and

Family Fortunes. History Department, University of Melbourne, 1989. Kiddle, Margaret. ‘Scottish Lowland Farmers c.1830–50’. Seminar paper, Australian National

University, Canberra, 13 May 1954. Willingham, Allan. ‘Two Scots in Victoria: The architecture of Davidson and Henderson’, M. Arch.

thesis, Department of Architecture and Building, University of Melbourne, 1983.

Irish settlement Coughlan, Neil. ‘The Coming of the Irish to Victoria’, Historical Studies, no. 45, October 1965, pp.68–86.

Crawford, D.R. ‘The Irish at Killarney and Koroit 1841–1881: Their economic life and social progress’. B.A. (Hons) thesis, Department of History, Monash University, 1969.

Doyle, Helen. ‘The Irish landscape of Koroit, Victoria’, in Irish-Australian Conference Proceedings, 1995, Crossing Press, Sydney, 1998, pp. 165–76.

Doyle, Helen. ‘Allegations of disloyalty at Koroit during World War I’, in P. Bull et al. (eds), Ireland and Australia 1798–1998: Proceedings of the Tenth Irish-Australian Conference. Crossing Press, Sydney, 2000.

Forth, Gordon. ‘The Anglo-Irish in Australia: Old world origins and colonial experiences’, in Irish-



Autralian Studies: Papers delivered at the Sixth Irish-Australian Conference July 1990. La Trobe University, Melbourne, 1991, pp. 51–62.

Hogan, James F. The Irish in Australia. London, 1886.

McConville, Chris. Croppies, Celts and Catholics: The Irish in Australia. Edward Arnold, Caulfield East, 1987.

McConville, Chris. ‘Melbourne’s Nineteenth-Century Irish Townscape’ in Noel McLachlan and Chris McConville (eds.), Irish-Australian Studies: Proceedings of the Sixth Irish-Australian Conference. La Trobe University Press, Bundoora, 1991, pp. 92–102.

O’Farrell, Patrick. The Irish in Australia. New South Wales University Press, Kensington, 1987.

Simons, Phyl Frazer (ed.). Tenants No More. Prowling Tiger Press, Richmond, 1996.

Irish architecture Killanin, Lord and Duigan, Michael V. The Shell Guide to Ireland. Ebury Press, London, 1967 (Ist ed.

1962). Mitchell, Frank. The Irish Landscape. Collins, London, 1976. Ó Danachair, Caoimhín. ‘Traditional forms of the dwelling house in Ireland’, Journal of the Royal Society

of Antiquaries, 1972, pp.77–97. -----. Folk and Farms. Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1976. -----. Ireland's Vernacular Architecture. The Mercer Press, Cork 1978 (first ed. 1974). Pfeiffer, Walter and Shaffrey, Maura. Irish Cottages. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1990. Reid, Richard. The Shell Book of Cottages. Michael Joseph, London, 1977. Rothery, Séan. The Shops of Ireland. Gill and McMillan, Dublin, 1978. Shaffrey, Patrick and Maura. Irish Countryside Buildings: Everyday Architecture in the Rural Landscape. The

O’Brien Press, Dublin, 1985.

Public buildings Andrew Ward & Associates. ‘Public Precincts in Victoria’ report prepared for Historic Places Branch,

DNRE, Melbourne, 1998.

Baragwanath, Pam. If These Walls Could Speak: A history of mechanics institutes in Victoria. DNRE, Melbourne, c.2000.

Baragwanath, Pam and Janette Hodgson, ‘An Inventory of Mechanics Institutes in Victoria’, 3 vols. Historic Places Section, DNRE, Melbourne, September 1998.

Barrett, Bernard. The Civic Frontier: The origins of local communities and local government in Victoria. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1979.

Building Services Agency, ‘Police Buildings in Victoria: A survey of types of police buildings’, 1997.

O’Neill, Frances. ‘The Visible State’. M.A. in Public History thesis, Department of History, Monash University, 1993.

Tibbits, George and Roennfeldt, Angela. Port Phillip Colonial 1801–1851: Early government buildings and surveys in Victoria. Port Phillip Colonial, Clifton Hill, 1989.

Commercial buildings Freeland, J.M. The Australian Pub. Revised edition, Sun Books, South Melbourne, 1977. Marriott, Pamela M. Time Gentlemen Please! An history of Western District inns 1840-1915. P.M. Marriott,

Corowa, 2001. Trethowan, Bruce. ‘A Study of Banks in Victoria 1851–1939’. A Report and Card Index prepared for the

Department of Planning and Development, 1976 [Melbourne University Architecture Library].

Transport Donnelly, A. and A. Ward. ‘Victoria's Railway Stations: An Architectural Survey’, vol. 1. March 1982. O’Connor, Chris. ‘Register of Australian Historic Bridges’. 1983.



O’Connor, Colin. Spanning Two Centuries: Historic Bridges of Australia. University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1985.

National Trust of Australia (Vic.). ‘Timber Bridges Survey’. Ward, Andrew. Railway Buildings in Victoria. Melbourne, 1988.

Gardens, plantings and public parks Aitken, Richard. ‘A Theoretical Framework for Designed Landscapes in Victoria’ (1997). Appendix 1 of

Richard Aitken et al. (eds), A Theoretical Framework for Designed Landscapes in Australia. University of Melbourne, Burnley, volume 1, 1998.

Aitken, Richard and Michael Looker (eds). The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2002.

Christey, Bob. ‘Avenues of Honour in Victoria’ and ‘Lone Pines in Victoria’, copy of reports provided by John Hawker, Horticulturist, Heritage Victoria, 2001.

Dixon, Trisha and Jennie Churchill. Gardens in Time: In the footsteps of Edna Walling. Angus & Robertson, North Ryde (NSW), 1988.

Doyle, Helen, Richard Aitken and Pamela Jellie. ‘Port Fairy Botanic Gardens Conservation Study’. Prepared for Moyne Shire, 1999.

Doyle, Helen, Richard Aitken and Pamela Jellie. ‘Koroit Botanic Gardens Conservation Study’. Prepared for Moyne Shire, 1999.

Doyle, Helen. ‘Organising Recreation: A cultural sites network study’. Prepared for Historic Places Branch, Natural Resources and Environment, 1998.

Haddow, Janine. ‘Avenues of Honour’ in Meanjin, 3 (1988), pp. 421–25.

Hardy, Sara. The Unusual Life of Edna Walling. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2004.

Hattam, Kate. ‘A Survey of Nineteenth-Century Gardens’. n.d. (c.1977–78), MS 10753, vol. II, SLV.

May, Andrew and Sara Maroske. ‘“Horticultural Embellishments”: Public conferment from the Melbourne Botanic Garden, 1870’, Australian Garden History 4:4, Jan/Feb 1993, pp. 8–14.

Neale, Anne, ‘Illuminating Nature: The art and design of E.L. Bateman (1816-1897)’, PhD thesis, University of Melbourne, 2001, vol. I, pp. 155-56.

Watts, Peter and Margaret Barrett. Historic Gardens of Victoria: A reconnaissance. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1983.

Watts, Peter. Historic Gardens of Victoria. National Trust of Australia (Vic.), c.1983.

Whitehead, Georgina (ed.). Planting the Nation. Australian Garden History Society, Melbourne, 2001.

Recreation reserves and sports grounds Doyle, Helen. ‘Organising Recreation: A cultural sites network study’. Report prepared for Historic

Places Branch, DNRE, April 1999. Monro, John P. Handbook of the Sixth Australian Bowling Carnival. Victorian Bowling Association,

Melbourne, 1927.

Cemeteries, lone graves and other burial sites LP Planning. ‘Cemeteries of Victoria: A National Estate Study for the Ministry of Planning’. 1982.

Sagazio, Celestina (ed.). Cemeteries: Our heritage. National Trust of Australia (Vic.), Melbourne 1992.

Symons, Phil. An Historical Graveyard: Some early records of the Port Fairy Cemetery. 1979.

Nigel Lewis Richard Aitken Pty Ltd. ‘Williamstown Cemetery Conservation Plan’. Prepared for Williamstown Cemetery Trustees, Altona, 1994.

War memorials and memorial halls Inglis, Ken. Sacred Places: War memorials in the Australian landscape. Melbourne University Press, Carlton,

1998.



South-west Victoria’s War Heritage 1899–1999: <www.deakin.edu.au/fac_arts/swwh/>, accessed 2004. War Memorials of Victoria. RSL, Melbourne, 1994.

Tourism Davidson, Jim and Peter Spearritt. Holiday Business: Tourism in Australia since 1870. The Miegunyah

Press at Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 2000. Loney, Jack. Peterborough, Port Campbell, Princetown: Tourist, historical and fishing guide. Marine History

Publication, Geelong, [198-?] Moylan, Gabrielle and Watt, Phillippa. ‘Holiday Guest Houses: A statewide typological study’.

Prepared for Heritage Victoria, 1994.

National Parks and nature reserves Bardwell, Sandra. ‘For All the People For all Time’, VHJ, December 1985, pp. 10-18. Brady, Anita. A Centenary History of Tower Hill. Historic Places Section, DCNR, Melbourne, Nov. 1992. Fairley, Alan. A Field Guide to the National Parks of Victoria. Rigby Publishers, Adelaide, 1982. Warrnambool and District Society for Growing Australian Plants. Nature Reserves of Warrnambool and

District [n.d.]

Forestry Moles, Jenny, ‘The Social and Environmental Impact of Plantation Forestry’, National Enrivonment Law

Association, October-November Conference, 2002 (copy in author’s possession).

2.3 LOCAL HISTORIES

Note: The following references have not necessarily been consulted for Stage 1. This list is also intended as much as a guide for future research. Where the source is rare, the library location is also given. Some sources have already been listed above General local history sources Conley, David and Claire Dennis. The Western Plains: A natural and social history: Papers for the Symposium

October 8th and 9th 1983, Colac. Australian Institute of Agricultural Science, Parkville, c.1984. Logan, W.S. ‘The Evolution and Significance of Local Government Boundaries in South Western

Victoria’, Australian Geographic Studies 4: 2, October 1966, pp. 154-70. Marriott, Pamela M. A Shamrock Beneath the Southern Cross: An history of the Shire of Belfast. Amazon

Printing, Warrnambool, 1988. McAlpine, R.A. The Shire of Hampden, 1863–1963: The story of the Shire of Hampden, and the industrial and

social development of the towns and districts within its boundaries, together with its geological history. Hamden Shire Council, Camperdown [?] 1963.

Ross, C.G. Shire of Mount Rouse in the Centre of the fertile Western District of Victoria: Centenary celebrated. Mount Rouse Shire Council, Penshurst, 1966. Sayers, C.E. By These We Flourish: A history of Warrnambool. Warrnambool Institute Press, Warrnambool

,1987 (first published 1969). Sayers, C.E. Of Many Things: A history of Warrnambool Shire. Olinda Books, Olinda, 1972. Sherwood, J., Jan Critchett, and Kevin O'Toole (eds.). Settlement of the Western District: From prehistoric

times to the present. Warrnambool Institute Press, Warrnambool, 1984. Tyers, Miss Grace, ‘Early Days in South-Western Victoria’, JRHSV, vol. 12, no. 47. Vidler, Edward. The Metropolis of the Western District: Warrnambool past and present: (Sixty years of

progress, 1847–1907) Warrnambool, 1907. [RHSV] Western District Centenary Souvenir: One hundred years of progress, 1834-1934. Terang Express, Terang,

1934.

Bessiebelle Pettit, Mrs W.J. (president Bessiebelle CWA). ‘History of Bessiebelle and District’, Port Fairy Gazette, 4



October 1954. [copy in author’s possession] Wallace, Bernard. ‘Boldrewood at Bessiebelle’. [1993] [Deakin]

Broadwater Short History of the Broadwater School (Deep Creek) No. 1250 for the Back to Broadwater Celebrations 1966.

1966.

Caramut [Donnelly, Hugh]. ‘Old Caramut Memories’, Warrnambool Standard, 30 January 1899. Duff, L.P. The History of Caramut. Ararat Advertiser, Ararat [s.n., between 1915 and 1925?]. Duff, L.P. The History of Caramut, c.1914. [SLV LHP box 27] ‘History of Caramut’, produced for the Department of Education for the Jubilee of State Schools in

Victoria, 1922. Kinnealy, Chris. ‘Caramut History’, Mt Rouse & District Historical Society, November 1999. Plenty of Possums. Caramut history project group, Caramut, 1988. [Deakin]

Chatsworth ‘History of Chatsworth’, produced for the Education Dept’s Jubilee of State Schools in Victoria, 1922.

Cudgee Hunt, Jean C. Cudgee Centenary 1864–1964 [n.d. c.1964] [Deakin]

Curdievale Durez, Rosamund, The Story of Curdie’s River. Collett and Bain Printers, Warrnambool, 1972. Back to Curdievale. [Curdievale], 1985. [Deakin]

Darlington Darlington: Taylors River and Mt Elephant Bridge. August 1986. [Mortlake Library]

Dundonnell Cumming, W.H. Dundonnell, Victoria: A history of the district. The author, Darlingon, 1983. Dungey, Judy. Nobody’s Home. Maygog Publishing, Sorrell (Tas.), c.2004.

Ellerslie and Ballangeich The Last Roll-call: A history of the Ellerslie, Ballangeich, Woolongoon, East Framlingham and The Sisters

Primary Schools. Back to Ellerslie & District Reunion Committee, Terang, 1993. Jennings, Alan. ‘Notes on the History of Ballangeich and district’ [c.1980], MS 12600, SLV. Jennings, Margaret. Ellerslie, Ballangeich & District: Brief historical outline. Back to Ellerslie Celebration

Committee, Mortlake, 1948. [Deakin] Ellerslie primary school centenary booklet. Ellerslie primary school committee, [1974] [Deakin] Scots Church, Ellerslie: The first hundred years. [Ellerslie], 1971. National Trust of Australia (Vic.). ‘Ellerslie Bridge’ citation.



Framlingham Framlingham Centenary, 1872–1972. Back to Framlingham and Centenary Celebration. Back to Framlingham

and Centenary Celebration Committee, 1972. [PM] Terrington, Tom. ‘A history of Framlingham’ [ms] and two scrapbooks, n.d. MS 12610, SLV.

Garvoc Meade, Adrian. Garvoc Revisited, March 11, 12 and 13 1989. [Back to Garvoc Committee] Star Printing,

Terang 1989. [SLV] ‘Centenary Presbyterian Church, Garvoc’. c.1971.

Grassmere Grassmere School Council. Grassmere State School No. 1817 – Records 1877–1985. Warrnambool:

Corangamite Regional Library Service, 1986. [Deakin] Ryan, Agnes (edited by Jean Dooley, illustrated by Lyle Russell). Grassmere. Back to Grassmere

Centenary Committee, Grassmere, 1977.

Hawkesdale and Kangertang Murnane, Margaret. ‘Kangertong: A by-gone era’. Local History Project, WIAE, 1977. [Copy held at

Minhamite Shire Office] Towler, R.J. ‘Hawkesdale: Some early notes’, unpublished typescript. 1973 [copy formerly held at

Minhamite Shire Office] ‘Hawkesdale Historical Trail’, 2001.

Hexham Cooper, John. At the Hopkins: History of the Hexham district 1839–1989. Star Printing, Terang, [c.1989]. ‘Hexham War Memorial, Victoria’. Transcribed by Tony Miller. 1982. [GSV] St Andrews Presbyterian Church. The First Hundred Years. Hexham Victoria 1862-1962. Camperdown

Chronicle Print, Camperdown, 1962.

Kirkstall Kirkstall Primary School: 125th anniversary, October 17, 1987. [The School, Kirkstall, 1987]

Koroit Back to Koroit, November 1951. Centenary of local government, 1851–1951. 1951. Back to Koroit Centenary Publication: Koroit Primary School no. 618. 1878–1978. June 2, 3 and 4. Doyle, Helen. ‘Koroit: A heritage study’. 2 vols, MA in Public History thesis, Department of History,

Monash University, 1993. Koroit Heritage Trail. 1989. Koroit Primary School No. 618: Centenary 1878–1978. [The School], Koroit 1978. McCorkell, H.A. A Green and Pleasant Land: Or the story of Koroit, 1836–1970. Koroit Sentinel Press,

Koroit, 1970. McCorkell, H.A. and Yule, Peter. A Green and Pleasant Land. Revised 2nd edition, Warrnambool, 1999. National Trust of Australia (Victoria), ‘Koroit: Urban Conservation Study’. Melbourne, 1985. Peirce, R.F. “Scots Presbyterian Church, Koroit: The History of a Century’. Koroit, 1959. Russell, J.J. “Journey in Faith”: Koroit Catholic Parish 1886–1986. Timothy J. Auld, Warrnambool, 1986. Savill, B.J. ‘A Brief History of the Courthouse Hotel Koroit’. Copy of ms. in author’s possession. Weekly Times Magazine, 24 June 1933.

Macarthur Booklet to Mark 100 years of St Malachy’s Catholic Church, held by Macarthur Historical Society. Dalton, Simone P. Boring?, Not Likely: Great characters of Macarthur. Macarthur & District Historical



Society, Macarthur, 2005. Learmonth, Noel F. Four Towns and a Survey. Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1970. McPherson, Mrs Gordon. Valley of Plenty: Saga of foundation and progress of Macarthur. Back to Macarthur

Committee, Macarthur, 1971. Presbyterian Church Macarthur: Historical sketch on occasion of 70th anniversary of church building, 1875-

1945. Anniversary Committee, Macarthur, 1945. [RHSV] Presbyterian Church, Macarthur, Victoria, Australia: Historical sketch on the occasion of the Church's centenary

1875–1975. The Anniversary Committee, Macarthur, 1975. [Deakin] Risk, Vera (ed.). Macarthur / Byaduk Districts, Western Victoria: Newspaper reports 1881 to 1897 from

the Western Agriculturist. The author, Macarthur, 2001. Christ Church Macarthur 1870-1970 (centenary brochure). 1970.

Mepunga Back to Mepunga East Celebrations March 11 & 12, 1978. Mepunga East 1978.

Minhamite Ross, C.G. Shire of Mount Rouse in the Centre of the fertile Western District of Victoria: Centenary celebrated.

Mount Rouse Shire Council, Penshurst, 1966. Yule, P.L. From Forest, Swamp and Stones: A history of the Shire of Minhamite. Warrnambool Institute Press,

Warrnambool, 1988.

Mortlake ‘Back to Mortlake, Easter 1923’, in The Link, vol. 1, no. 7, September 1924, p. 23. Centenary Committee. Souvenir of the Centenary of St. James’ Church Mortlake: Being a record of 100 years

1865–1965. [The Church, Mortlake, 1965]. [Deakin] ‘Centenary of Mortlake’, 1939 [souvenir published in Mortlake Dispatch]. Centenary of the Presbytery of Mortlake: Order of service for the pilgrimage to Darlington Centenary

Celebrations and unveiling of the stone and plaque to the pioneers of the church, May 3rd, 1959. Presbyterian Church of Victoria, [Mortlake] 1959.

‘History of Mortlake’, produced for the Department of Education for the Jubilee of State Schools in Victoria, 1922. [SLV]

Hood, R.A., Armstrong, M. and Gray, W.J. Mortlake Shire Centenary: A brief history of the Shire of Mortlake 1864-1964. Shire of Mortlake, Mortlake, [1967].

Mortlake High School ‘Mortlake History Trail’ (pamphlet) [c.1986]. Mortlake Industrial Exhibition: Literary, musical, fine arts, and general competition: To be opened in the

Mechanics' Institute on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 1896. W. Manson, Mortlake, [1896]. Mortlake Methodist Church Centenary Souvenir: Being a record of 100 years 1866-1966. [Mortlake Library] Mortlake Presbyterian Charge: Comprising Hexham, Mortlake, Woorndoo: Annual report and financial

statement, 1965. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Mortlake. [1966?] [Deakin] Murdoch, J.R. Mortlake: A township of the plains. Albert J. Mullett, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1921.

[Deakin]. Published in Victorian Historical Magazine, vol. VIII, no. 3, October 1921). Murdoch, J.R. Fifty Years of Presbyterianism in Mortlake, 1847, 1897. [J.R. Murdoch, Mortlake] 1917. Mortlake Historical Society. Pastures of Peace: A tapestry of Mortlake Shire. Shire of Mortlake, 1985. National Trust of Australia (Vic.). ‘Mortlake. Shaw Street Precinct. Urban Conservation Area’. 1988. Schneider, Yvonne. ‘Mortlake – Shaw Street Precinct’, Trust News, November 1988, pp. 23-26. St Colman’s Parish Primary School Mortlake 1951–2001: Golden jubilee year. Mortlake, 2001. [GSV] Wagg, J. Souvenir of the Jubilee of S. James’ Church, Mortlake: Being a record of 50 years, 1864–1914. Dispatch

Print, Mortlake, 1914. [Deakin] Notes on various sites, provided by Jeff Grey and Craige Proctor, Mortlake Historical Society.

Nirranda and Boggy Creek Burleigh, James. ‘Early History of Nirranda and District’. n.d. [SLV MS collection]. Delaney, Joe. Delaney's Corner: The story of John and Bridget Delaney and family from New Hill, Tipperary and



Nirranda, Victoria. Penfolk Publishing, Blackburn, 2004. Nirranda Mechanics Institute and Free Library through the Years: 1895—Nirranda Hall—1995 [s.n., Nirranda,

1995?] [Deakin] McAlpine, R.A. The Shire of Hampden, 1863–1963: The story of the Shire of Hampden, and the industrial and

social development of the towns and districts within its boundaries, together with its geological history. Hamden Shire Council, Camperdown [?], 1963.

Nullawarre Dunn, S. ‘Nullawarre School No. 1652’. Thesis, WIAE, Warrnambool. Glover, P. (ed.). Nullawarre School Centenary and District History: ‘Back to’ celebrations, Easter 1975. Collett

& Bain, printers, Warrnambool, [1975?] ‘History of Nullawarre’, produced for Education Dept’s Jubilee of State Schools in Victoria, 1922.

Orford ‘History of Orford’, produced for Education Dept’s Jubilee of State Schools in Victoria, 1922.

Panmure Friebe, Dedy. School on the Rise, Panmure Primary School 1079: Celebrating 125 years of service to the

Panmure community. 1870–1995. (Research Bev Moore). Collett Bain and Gaspars, [Panmure, 1995].

Peterborough and district Fletcher, Jack S. And We Who Followed: A history of Heytesbury, 1921–1987. Shire of Heytesbury, Cobden,

1988. Fletcher, Jack S. The Infiltrators: A history of the Heytesbury 1840–1920. Shire of Heytesbury, Cobden, 1985. Loney, J.K. Peterborough, Port Campbell, Princetown: Tourist, historical and fishing guide. J.K. Loney,

Dimboola, [1971?]. Mackenzie, Margaret E. Shipwrecks: Being the historical account of shipwrecks along the Victorian coast from

Peterborough to Cape Otway 1843–1914. 2nd edition, The National Press, Melbourne, 1956. ‘Reminiscences of Bonnie Mackenzie and John Irvine whose families ran guest houses in the early

1900s’ [Age, 12 January 1989, p. 6] Moore, Michael. ‘Peterborough Heritage’, typescript, 2 May 2002. Moore, Michael. Various items of private research and research notes (copies in author’s possession)..

Port Fairy (Belfast) Back to Port Fairy, 10–19 November 1921 [Port Fairy Gazette, November 1921] Back to Port Fairy, 21–28 March 1927 [Port Fairy Gazette souvenir], Port Fairy, 1927. Carroll, J.R. ‘The Foundation of Port Fairy’, VHJ, 1985. Carroll, J.R. Harpoons to Harvest: The story of Charles and John Mills, pioneers of Port Fairy. Warrnambool

Institute Press, Warrnambool, 1989. Collins, Ron (ed.). A Special Survey: Aspects of the development of Port Fairy from 1993. Borough of Port

Fairy, Port Fairy 1993. Powling, J.W. Port Fairy: The first fifty years 1837–1884. William Heinemann, Melbourne, 1980. Sayers, M.C. and Jan Neil. Port Fairy: Pioneer Whaling Station. Mullaya Publications, Canterbury, 1973. Syme, Marten A. Seeds of a Settlement: Buildings and inhabitants of Belfast Port Fairy in the nineteenth

century. Roebuck Society Publication No. 43, Melbourne, 1991. Victoria Railways. Port Fairy: ‘Haven of History’. Victoria Railways, Melbourne, October 1937.

Purnim Pickett, Laraine et al. St. Marcellus School Purnim 1886–1986. St Marcellus School, Purnim, 1986.



Rosebrook Henry, James K. ‘School 526, Rosebrook’. Typescript, c.198-? [Deakin]

Tarrone Robertson, Wally [?]. Tarrone: A brief outline surrounding settlement. Souvenir of ‘Back to Tarrone’. 1983.

Tower Hill Brady, Anita. A Centenary History of Tower Hill. Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources,

Melbourne, 1992. Downes, Max C. ‘What Happened at Tower Hill?’ Fisheries and Wildlife Dept, Melbourne, 1960. [SLV] Downes, Max C. ‘The History of Tower Hill to 1892’. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Melbourne,

1961. Downes, Max C. ‘Tower Hill: Historical material from History of Tower Hill to 1892’. Imperial Chemical

Industries of Australia and New Zealand, [197-?]. [SLV] Hansen, David. Tower Hill and its Artists. Warrnambool Art Gallery, Warrnambool, 1985. Hart, T.S. ‘Notes on a Visit to Tower Hill, Koroit’, Victorian Naturalist 17, 1901, pp. 157–60. Orth, Karin and Robert King. The Geology of Tower Hill. Department of Industry, East Melbourne, 1990.

The Sisters Attrill, Glorrie. Sunset Serenade: The autobiography of Glorrie Attrill, 1911-1975. Terang, c.1975. ‘History of The Sisters’, produced for Education Dept’s Jubilee of State Schools in Victoria, 1922.

Wangoom A Century of Methodism in Wangoom: 1859–1959: Centenary Celebrations March 28 – 30, 1959. Wangoom State School. 122 Years at Wangoom S.S. No. 645. Wangoom State School, Wangoom, 1974. Forward Little Town, Waterhole, the Big Grey Possum: Stories and events of 3 small places 100 years ago [re:

Wangoom]. Photo-Art Printers, Warrnambool, [197?]. [SLV]

Woolsthorpe Bennett, R.M. Glimpses of the Past: A history of Woolsthorpe. The author, Warrnambool 2002. Bennett, Mary and John Brereton. ‘Woolsthorpe: A panoramic history’. R.M. Bennett, Woolsthorpe,

1991. The History of the Presbyterian Church Woolsthorpe. The Church, Woolsthorpe, 1984.

Woorndoo Green, Mary. Paninga, the History of Woorndoo and District. Mortlake Publishing Company, 1969. Green, Mary. History of Woorndoo Presbyterian Church. 1992. [Mortlake Lib] ‘History of Woorndoo’, produced for Education Dept’s Jubilee of State Schools in Victoria, 1922. McIntyre, Karen (ed.). Legends of the Lake: the pioneer histories of eight Lake Bolac families, Lake Bolac

and District Historical Society, Lake Bolac, 1999.

Yambuk ‘Back to Yambuk’, Age, 25 January 1988, p. 5. ‘History of Yambuk’, produced for the Dept of Education’s Jubilee of State Schools in Victoria, 1922. Compiled by district residents. Yambuk and District, 1839–1988: A local history. Yambuk Book Committee,

Yambuk 1988; second edition 1994.

Yangery and Illowa O’Toole, Brendan. ‘Yangery: The passing of time’. Bachelor of Architecture elective, Department of

Architecture, Deakin University, Geelong 1979. Hall, Carmel. ‘The Yangery and Illowa District’. November 1977.



2.4 FAMILY HISTORIES Absalom 3rd, William. In the Shadow of the Mount. Philprint, Warrnambool 1986. [SLV] Allen ,Win and Kaye Scholfield (eds), Beyond Belfast: The history of the family of Joseph and Helenah

Hammond, 1840 to 1990. Privately circulated, 1991. Bennett, R.M. Aboard the Athletae: The diary of Thomas Dickson en voyage Glasgow to Port Fairy, Australia, to

settle at Caramut. The author, Woolsthorpe, 1993. [SLV?] Campbell, G Wallace. Campbells Come to Yangery 1854. G.W. Campbell, Ballarat, 1994. [SLV] Charles, Ian and Pearl. Patersons' Progress. 1989. Corry, Merrilyn. From County Clare to Killarney: The story of James Corry's children. Corry, Picola, 1986. Cumming, W.H. A Short History of the William Cumming Family of Mount Fyans, Stonehenge, Myrngrong,

Wooroglin, and including Strathallyn ... W.H. Cumming, [Point Lonsdale], 1998. Davies, S.J.J.F. The Jellies of Warrnambool: A short history of the family of James Jellie, 1787–1862 from the

records collected by Arthur Bligh Jellie. [A.B. Jellie, Geelong], 1962. [SLV] The Delaney/Dunne reunion 1978. Delaney Reunion, Koroit, 1978. [SLV] Farthing, A.A. ‘A Family History’, c. 1948 MS (copy in author’s possession). Fitzpatrick, David. ‘Coming Down the Hill of Life: The Hammond Circle, 1843–64’, in Oceans of

Consolation (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1995), pp. 361–89. Gleeson, J. Mahoney Family, Victoria: 1837–1979. 1980. Good, Margaret Josephine Kenrick and Merran Samuel. The Good Family Tree: Descendants of seven

pioneers, 1821–1982. [M. Good, Woolsthorpe 1982?]. [BL] ‘Hammonds of Framlingham’, Roots and Branches 6: 1 (March 1991). [GSV] Hood, Robert. Merrang and the Hood family. Deakin University Press, Warrnambool, c.1991. Manifold, W.G. The Wished-for Land: The migration and settlement of the Manifolds of western Victoria.

Neptune Press, Newtown, 1984. McKellar, Ian C. £37 a Year and a Free Passage: The McKellar family of Warrnambool. Ian and Margaret

McKellar, Heathmont, 1989. [SLV] Miller, Beverley. From Montrose to Rosemount: The Anderson family history. B. and G. Warnock,

Koroit, 1996. O’Callaghan, Mary. A Long Way from Tipperary: An illustrated history and tree of John and Bridget

Delaney and their descendants. M. O’Callaghan, [Warrnambool], 1983. [SLV] Stainsby, John. The McGuires of Garvoc and ‘Tara’: A family history of James & Ellen McGuire (née)

O'Flaherty. J. Stainsby, Maidstone 1989. [Baillieu AB collection] (with map that includes Koroit and Tower Hill)

Uebergang, Anthony (ed.). The Uebergang Families in Australia, 1848–1985. Uebergang History Committee, Miles (Qld), c.1985.

Whitehead, Diana & Wendy. The Whitehead family on Spring Creek. The authors, Warrnambool, 1986. Williams, Mrs P. Our Pioneer Families 1849–1989. c.1987-88.

2.5 HERITAGE SOURCES

Heritage databases Aboriginal Affairs Victoria. Aboriginal Historical Places Programme: Registered Aboriginal Post-contact

Sites/Places. Australian Heritage Commission. Register of the National Estate. Heritage Victoria. Victorian Heritage Register. Heritage Victoria. Register of Shipwrecks in Victoria. National Trust of Australia (Vic.). Register. National Trust of Australia (Vic.). Timber Bridges Study. National Trust of Australia (Vic.). Significant Tree Register. National Trust of Australia (Vic.). Various building files. Historic Places Branch, Department of Sustainability and Environment - public land sites.



Department of Planning and Housing files, held Heritage Victoria, Melbourne.

Heritage reports Cox Tanner Pty Ltd. Port Fairy: A study. Conservation for an historic Victorian seaside town. Australian

Heritage Commision, Canberra, c.1974 [1976?] Doyle, Helen; Richard Aitken and Louise Honman. ‘Warrnambool’s Heritage’, prepared for the

City of Warrnambool, 2001. Graeme Butler & Associates. ‘A Study of Places Relating to Selected Historic Forest Themes in the West

Region Victoria’. Prepared for Environment Australia and Natural Resources and Environment, Victoria, as part of the Comprehensive Regional Assessment: National Estate West Regional Forest Agreement, 1999.

Hubbard, Timothy & Associates. ‘Warrnambool Heritage Study, Stage 1’, prepared for Warrnambool City Council, 2004.

Jean, Mandy and Carlotta Kellaway, ’Glenelg Heritage Study, Stage 1’ – Draft Environmental History, prepared for Shire of Glenelg, c.2002.

Lake Condah Heritage Management Plan and Strategy: ‘A Conservation Analysis, Policy and Management Plan’. Aboriginal Affairs Victoria 1991. Lake Condah Mission Conservation Plan, 2000.

Land Conservation Council. Historic Places: Special Investigation: South-Western Victoria. Proposed Recommendations. Land Conservation Council, Melbourne, June 1996.

Land Conservation Council. Historic Places: Special Investigation: South-Western Victoria. Final Recommendations. Land Conservation Council, Melbourne, January 1997.

National Trust of Australia (Victoria). ‘Notes on Port Fairy and Portland: Via Camperdown, Port Campbell and Warrnambool, and including notes on Mount Richmond, Lower Glenelg and Mount Eccles National Park’. National Trust of Australia Victoria, Melbourne 1978 [2nd] rev. ed. [Deakin]

Warmington, G. and A. Ward. ‘Australia Post Survey of Historic Properties in Victoria’. vol. 1. Melbourne, 1990.

Willingham, Allan. Camperdown: A Heritage Study: Assessment of places of cultural significance in the town of Camperdown. Corangamite Shire, Camperdown, 1999.

Heritage issues Australian Heritage Commission. Australian Historic Themes: A framework for use in heritage assessment and

management. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2001. Lennon, Jane. Our Inheritance: Historic Places on Public Land in Victoria. Department of Conservation and

Environment, Melbourne, 1992. Johnston, Chris. What is Social Value?: A discussion paper. Australian Government Public Service,

Canberra, 1992.

Research tools Askew, Fahey and Hibbins. Local History: A handbook for enthusiasts. George Allen & Unwin, Sydney,

1985. Cabena, Peter et al. The Lands Manual: A finding guide to Victorian lands records 1836–1983. Royal

Historical Society of Victoria, Melbourne, 1992. Davison, Graeme and Chris McConville (eds). A Heritage Handbook. Allen & Unwin, St Leonard’s

(NSW), 1991 Sagazio, Celestina (ed.). The National Trust Research Manual. Allen & Unwin, St Leonards (NSW), 1992.

2.6 WEBSITES

Australian Heritage Commission, Australian Heritage Database (formerly Register of the National Estate): http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl



Ballarat Avenue of Honour at http://www.ballarat.com/avenue.htm Births, Deaths and Marriages recorded at Port Fairy in 1842: http://www.genseek.net/port42a.htm Burials in Port Fairy Sandhills Cemetery: http://members.datafast.net.au/marrtronics/PORTFRS1.HTM Boer War Memorials, Victoria: http://users.netconnect.com.au/~ianmac/memorial.html Bostock Family History website: http://birrell.1hwy.com/pg000003.htm Deen Maar: http://www.erin.gov.au/indigenous/fact-sheets/deenmaar.html Heritage Victoria: http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au

Ian Marr. Cemeteries of S.W. Victoria: http://members.datafast.net.au/marrtronics/CEMINDEX.HTML Jenny Fawcett’s website - http://www.genseek.net/index.htm

Judy Dungey’s ‘Nobody’s Home’ website: http://www.nobodyshome.com.au Mortlake & District Historical Society: http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mdhs/web/index.html Mortlake: A tapestry of history: http://www.geocities.com/mortlakevic/history.htm Moyne Shire: www.moyne.vic.gov.au

Mount Rouse & District Historical Society: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~penshist/ National Library of Australia Picture Collection: http://www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/

National Trust of Australia (Vic.): http://www.nattrust.com.au/ National Heritage List: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/national/index.html Nye family history website. Picture Australia: http://www.pictureaustralia.org RSL Victoria, ‘Victorian Memorials’: http://www.rslvic.com.au/ South-west Victoria’s War Heritage 1899–1999: www.deakin.edu.au/fac_arts/swwh/, accessed 2004.. State Library of Victoria Picture Collection: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/catalogues/index.html A Stone Upon a Stone: http://www.astoneuponastone.com/index.html Western District Large Land Owners 1912: http://www.hotkey.net.au/~jwilliams4/wbool9.htm



Endnotes 1 Warrnambool was proclaimed a municipality on 6 December 1855, and a Borough on 1 October 1863. The urban centre of Warrnambool (outside Moyne Shire) was declared a town in 1883 and a city in 1918 [see C.E. Sayers (ed.), in James Bonwick, Western Victoria (Heinemann Australia, Melbourne, 1970; first published 1858), pp. 68, 94].

2 Ron Collins (ed.), A Special Survey: Aspects of the development of Port Fairy (Borough of Port Fairy, 1993), pp. 7–8. 3 Les Blake, Place Names of Victoria (Adelaide, 1977), pp. 37, 180. Shire of Mount Rouse 1864: Centenary celebrated (1964)

4 David Conley and Claire Dennis (eds), The Western Plains: A natural and social history (Australian Institute of Agricultural Science, Parkville, 1984), p. 7. Karin Orth and Robert King, The Geology of Tower Hill (1990), p. 2; Mt Eccles National Park (Parks Victoria, reprinted 2000).

5 Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 6.

6 Bonwick (1970), p. 39. 7 Orth and King (1990), p. 16. 8 There are such springs at Panmure and at Tea Tree Swamp, Mortlake. Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 3; Lionel Gilbert, The

Orchid Man (1992), p. 105. For ‘Tea Tree Swamp’ at Mortlake, see plan dated c.1872 in Reserve file 5959 (held DSE). 9 Bonwick (1970), pp. 50, 49.

10 Conley and Dennis (1984), pp. 2, 6.

11 Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 6.

12 Bonwick (1970), p. 88.

13 J.W. Gregory, Geography of Victoria (1912), pp. 97–98; Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 143.

14 ‘Dammed up behind sandunes the Curdies River forms a large lagoon beside which Peterborough is sited.’ [ Blairs Guide

1987 (1987), p. 223] 15 In newer geological areas, on the basalt plains and the stony rises, the tree coverage was relatively light. [Foreman and Walsh

(1983), p. 113] 16

J.R. Murdoch, ‘Mortlake: A township on the plains’, Victorian Historical Magazine, October 1921, no. 3, p. 96. One squatter, for example, recalled that much of western Victoria was covered in rich kangaroo grass ‘three and four feet high’ [Bride (1983), p. 184]; Foreman and Walsh (eds), Flora of Victoria, vol. 1 (1993), p. 185; Pastures of Peace: A tapestry of Mortlake Shire (Shire of Mortlake, 1985), p. 5; Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 17.

17 See Anita Brady, ‘The Centenary of Tower Hill’ (1992); J.D. Lang’s account of Mortlake in Ian F. McLaren (ed.), Visit to

Geelong and Western Victoria in 1846 (University of Melbourne Library, Parkville 1987), pp. 41, 43; Jan Critchett (ed.), Richard Bennett’s Early Days of Port Fairy (1984), p. 20.

18 Critchett (1984), p. 20.

19 Alexander Sutherland, Victoria and Its Metropolis, vol. 1 (Melbourne, 1888), p. 271.

20 Critchett (1984), p. 20; Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 30; Gilbert (1993), p. 135. 21

Bonwick (1970), p. 50. This is probably Cherry ballart (Exocarpos cupressiformis). 22

Bonwick (1970), p. 41. ‘The forest country thence contains some noble spars, especially on the Brucknell creek, and towards Mount Warrnambool near the Hopkins. The vegetation in the bottoms is almost tropical in luxuriance, and the soil is of great depth; the moisture is considerable.’

23 Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 2. 24

Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 27. 25

These are the major language groups, within which there are smaller clans and dialect groups. The Dwauwurdwurrung are also ‘more commonly known as “Gunditjmara”’ [Ian D. Clark, Place Names and Land Tenure (1998; 2000), p. 51]. See also Ian D. Clark, Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900 (Monash Publications in Geography, No. 37, Clayton, 1990).

26 Alan Fairley, A Field Guide to the National Parks of Victoria (1982), p. 59; Ian D. Clark, ‘The Aboriginal Heritage of Koroit’ (1990), pp. 2–3 [also published in Ian D. Clark, Place Names and Land Tenure (1998; 2000), pp. 43–47].

27 Critchett (1984), pp. 37, 89.

28 Foreman and Walsh (1993), pp. 5–6. 29

Duncan, The Atlas of Victoria (Melbourne, 1981), pp. 68–69; Max Downes, ‘A History of Tower Hill’ (1961), p. 4. 30 Helen Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part A, p. 6. 31

Ian D. Clark, ‘The Aboriginal Heritage of Koroit’ (1990), pp. 3, 4. 32 Kenneth McIntyre, The Secret Discovery of Australia (1987) strongly argues the case of its Portuguese origin. 33

McIntyre (1987). The Hentys made the same claim; see Blair’s Guide (1987), p. 274. 34 Graeme Davison et al. (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History (OUP, Melbourne 1998), p. 257; Fairley (1982), pp.

58–59; Downes (1961), pp. 10–11. 35

See Powling (1980). pp. 8–10 and Critchett (1984), p. 34. 36 Leishman family story, quoted in H.A. McCorkell, A Green and Pleasant Land (Koroit 1970), pp. 19–24. But note that this

account is questioned in McCorkell and Yule, A Green and Pleasant Land (revised edition, 1999), p. 15. 37 Mary Turner Shaw, On Mount Emu Creek (Robertson and Mullens, Melbourne 1969), p. 20; ‘Mortlake: A tapestry of

history’: http://www.geocities.com/mortlakevic/history.htm



38

See T.L. Mitchell, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia…, vol. II (1839). I am grateful to Timothy Hubbard for pointing this out.

39 Blairs Guide (1987), p. 224. 40

Karen Townrow, An Archaeological Survey of Sealing and Whaling Sites in Victoria (c.1997), pp. 13–15, 25–27; Margaret Kiddle, Men of Yesterday (1967; first published 1961), p. 31; Downes (1961), p. 12.

41 A.G.L. Shaw, A History of the Port Phillip District (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1996), pp. 41, 62; Mary Ryllis Clark, Discovering Historic Victoria (1996), p. 33.

42 Historian William Earle in Earle’s Port Fairy (1896) proposed an arrival date of 1810, but there is insufficient evidence to

support this. See Powling, Port Fairy: (1980), pp. 8–10; and Critchett (1984), p. 34. 43 Shaw (1996), p. 90. Griffiths was assisted in this venture by Michael Connolly and Captain John Mills. 44

George Arden, Latest Information with regard to Australia Felix (Melbourne, 1840), p. 41. 45 Back to Port Fairy 1927 (1927), p. 4. 46 Bonwick (1970), p. 92n. Though Rutledge’s business empire collapsed in the mid 1860s. 47

Bonwick (1970), pp. 63, 64–65. This site appears to be just outside the Moyne Shire boundary. 48

Gordon Forth and Peter Yule (eds), The Biographical Dictionary of the Western District of Victoria (Hyland House, South Melbourne, 1998), pp. 108–09.

49 Bonwick (1970), p.95n; Syme, Seeds of a Settlement (1991), p. 54; Powling (1980), p. 290.

50 ‘Rollicking fish tales from the past’, Warrnambool Standard, 29 March 2003.

51 Major Mitchell, Three Expeditions, reproduced in Frank Cusack, Bendigo (1973), p. 7.

52 Bride (1983), pp. 184–85.

53 Bride (1983), p. 336.

54 Bride (1983), p. 182.

55 Bride (1983), p. 184.

56 Michael Cannon (ed.), Historical Records of Victoria, vol. 6 (Melbourne, 1991), pp. 130–31; Conley and Dennis (1984), p.

91. 57 For an explanation of how Foster Fyans marked out the pastoral runs, see Critchett (1984), p. 26. 58

Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 18. 59 Bonwick (1970), p. 68n. 60 Kiddle (1967), pp. 22, 24. 61 Critchett (1984), p. 31; for place names, see James Dawson, Australian Aborigines (1881). 62

Rolf Boldrewood [T.A. Browne], Old Melbourne Memories (1969; first published 1884), p. 38. See also Miles Lewis, Victoria Primitive (Carlton, 1977).

63 A.G. Willingham, ‘Architecture of the West’ in Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 63.

64 Willingham (1984), p. 63; Miles Lewis, in Sagazio (ed), National Trust Research Manual (1992), p. 52.

65 Critchett (1984), p. 57.

66 Annie Baxter (Dawbin), Diary, 3 October 1844. 67

Willingham (1984), p. 63; A.G.L. Shaw (1996), chapter 8. 68 See Portland Gazette and Belfast Advertiser, 13 November 1844. 69

Pastures of Peace (1985), pp. 17–18. 70

J.M. Powell, The Public Lands of Australia Felix (Melbourne 1970), p. 26; Willingham (1984), p. 63. 71

Peter Yule, From Forest, Swamp and Stones (1988), p. 36; Forth and Yule (1998), p. 51. 72

Bonwick (1970), p. 87; Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 17. 73

Willingham (1984), pp. 65, 67. 74

Victoria, Agricultural and Livestock: Statistics of the Colony of Victoria, for the Year Ended 31 March 1857, No. 32a (Government Printer, Melbourne, 1857), p. 55.

75 Kiddle (1967), pp. 95–96; Helen Doyle, ‘The homestead’ in Richard Aitken (ed.), ‘Farm Buildings in Victoria’, prepared for

the Australian Heritage Commission (1992), p. 17. 76

Eugène von Guérard, for example, painted Wooriwyrite in 1857 [Turner Shaw (1969), p. 137] and Robert Dowling painted Minjah. An early painting of Harton Hills by an anonymous artist is reproduced in Julian Faigan, Colonial Art of the Western District (City of Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton, 1984), folio 1.

77 Doyle, ‘The homestead’ (1992), p. 20. Willingham (1984, p. 65n) notes ‘A general survey of homesteads and townhouses

constructed in the Western District in the 1840s and 1850s indicates a preference for the picturesque domestic Gothic mode.’

78 Willingham (1984) p. 64; Forth and Yule (1998), p. 51. See also Ray Tonkin, ‘Three Nineteenth Century Warrnambool

Architects’, B.Arch thesis, Faculty of Architecture, University of Melbourne, 1971; and for George Jobbins, see Sutherland (1888),vol. 2, p. 35.

79 Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 50. 80

See, for example, ‘Faulkeners Road North’ (Heritage Victoria Inventory); see also photo in Pamela M. Marriott, A Shamrock Beneath the Southern Cross (1988), p. 100.



81

‘Dummying’ was a practice used by squatters to acquire additional land adjoining their existing freehold. The squatters used ‘dummy’ purchasers, who were often family members or paid agents. See Tony Dingle, The Victorians: Settling (Fairfax Syme and Weldon, Sydney 1984), pp. 61–62; Turner Shaw (1969), pp. 104–05.

82 Dingle (1984), p. 82.

83 E.E. Morris (ed.), Cassell’s Picturesque Australasia, vol II (1888), p. 228.

84 Conley and Dennis (1984) p. 27; Turner Shaw (1969), p. 191.

85 Monica Keneley, ‘Closer settlement in the Western District of Victoria: A case study in Australian land use policy, 1898–

1914, Journal of Historical Geography, 28, 3 (2002), p. 367. 86 Foreman and Walsh (1993), pp. 112–13. 87

Cassandra Pybus, Community of Thieves (1991), p. 34; Michael Christie, Aborigines in Colonial Victoria (1979), pp. 4–5; Richard Broome, Arriving (1984), pp. 17–18.

88 For example William Dutton at Portland Bay; see Jan Critchett, A Distant Field of Murder (Carlton 1990), p. 121.

89 Part of this section and other sections relating to Aboriginal history are drawn from a report by the author entitled,

‘Administering Aboriginal Affairs’, prepared for DNRE, final draft report, April 2002. 90

Christie (1979), pp. 41–42. 91

Shaw (1996), pp. 113–14. 92

Governor George Gipps to Lord Glenelg, 21 July 1839, in British Parliamentary Papers: The Colonies, Australia (vol. 6), p. 397.

93 Frances O’Neill, ‘The Visible State’ (M.A. in Public History thesis, Monash University, 1993), p. 21; Critchett (1990), p.

171; Marie Hansen Fels, Good Men and True (1988). 94

Quoted in Robinson and York, Black Resistance (1977), pp. 34, 35. See also Boldrewood (1969). 95

Henry Reynolds, The Other Side of the Frontier (Penguin Books, Ringwood 1982), p. 168. 96

Shaw (1996), p. 132. See also Ian Clark, Scars in the Landscape (1995); Critchett (1990); Richard Broome, ‘Massacres’, in Davison et al. (eds), Oxford Companion to Australian History (1998), p. 415

97 LCC, Historic Places: South-western Victoria (July 1996), p. 130.

98 For ‘Murdering Gully’, see AAV site documentation and Blake (1977), p. 194. The Waterloo Lane massacre site was

nominated for inclusion in the Moyne Shire Heritage Study at the Macarthur community meeting, December 2001. See also Simone Dalton, Boring, Not Likely (2005), pp. 18–24.

99 The identity of ‘George Watmore’, however, remains unconfirmed (Neil Martin, pers. com., 19 November 2002). 100

Annie Baxter (Dawbin), Diary, 4 June 1846. 101

See Critchett (1984), p. 31. 102

Such exchanges are often recorded in diaries and in later narratives and reminiscences. 103

Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 56; Ian Clark, ‘That’s My Country Belonging to Me’ (1998), p. 157; Robert Hood, Merrang and the Hood Family (1991), p. 33. The quote from Eddington is from Forth and Yule (1998), p. 39

104 Otherwise known as Captain Campbell; from Ian Clark, ‘That’s My Country Belonging to Me’ (1998), pp. 154, 155. 105

See Back to Port Fairy, 1927 (1927); Margaret Emily Brown, ‘Memoirs’, p. 27. 106

Their work was published as Australian Aborigines: The languages and customs of several tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia (Melbourne 1881). An area of 111 acres at Kangertan, also known as Kangertang or Kangertong was temporarily reserved in 1866 for the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines [VGG (1866), p. 1113]; it was revoked soon after. It was possibly located near the site of the Springs. See also Jan Critchett, Untold Stories (1998).

107 Annie Grace Gordon, Reminiscences [c.1923?], pp. 3–4. 108 Bonwick (1970), p. 79; J.W. Powling, Port Fairy: The first fifty years (1980); Shaw (1996), p. 160. 109

There is some uncertainty about this date. Whilst Downes (1961) claims 1841 (p. 20), C.E. Sayers, Of Many Things (1972) suggests it was ‘probably in 1843’ (p. 38). For Farnham in Ireland, see Lord Killanin and Michael V. Duigan, The Shell Guide to Ireland (London 1967), p. 159.

110 Martha Rutledge, ‘William Rutledge: An Australian Pioneer’, Victorian Historical Magazine (vol. xxvii, part 3, August

1965), p. 114; Sayers (1972), chapter 4. Rolf Boldrewood claims that Rutledge’s land had previously been known as Campbell’s Farm [Boldrewood (1969), p. 19].

111 D.R. Crawford, ‘The Irish at Killarney and Koroit’, B.A. (Hons) thesis, Department of History, Monash University, 1969, p.

16. Most land around Tower Hill was sold by 1853. 112

John Fraser, ‘Pioneering Days in Australia’ (n.d.), p. 1. 113 Sayers (1972), p. 83. 114

Victoria. Agricultural and Livestock: Statistics of Victoria for the Year Ending 31 March 1865, No. 2 (Government Printer, Melbourne 1866), p. 94.

115 Helen Doyle, Richard Aitken and Pamela Jellie, ‘Port Fairy Botanic Gardens Conservation Plan’ (Prepared for Moyne Shire, 1999), p. 9; this plan is held in the PROV.

116 H.W. Davies (ed.), Picturesque Warrnambool: Places of interest and how to reach them (1891), no page nos.

117 Bonwick (1970), pp. 78, 79. 118

Critchett (1984), p. 20. 119

Victorian Municipal Directory (1880), pp. 101–02. (Eugène von Guérard had painted Tower Hill in 1857.)



120 Fairley (1982), p. 55. 121 Bonwick (1970), pp. 78, 79; Davies, Picturesque Warrnambool (1891), no page numbers. 122

Critchett (1984), p. 89; Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 93; Back to Koroit (1951), no page nos. 123 E.W. Harvey, Victoria’s Oldest Settlement: Portland – 1800 to 1949 (1949), p. 32. 124

Critchett (1984), p. 20; Gilbert, The Orchid Man (1993), p. 134. 125 Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 17. See also, Critchett (1984), pp. 53–54; Crawford (1969), pp. 14, 18. 126 Crawford (1969), pp. 47–48. 127

Crawford (1969), p. 30. 128 Belfast Gazette, 30 April 1858. 129 [Name withheld], pers. com., 2001; Marriott (1988), pp. 112–13. 130

Bonwick (1970), pp. 32–33. 131 National Trust of Australia (Vic.), ‘Koroit Study Notes’ (c.1985), p. 2. 132 Crawford (1969), p. 28. 133

Victoria, Agricultural and Livestock: Statistics of the Colony of Victoria for the Year Ending 31 March 1857, No. 32a (Government Printer, Melbourne, 1857), p. 54–55.

134 Doyle, ‘The hometead’ (1992), pp. 20, 26, 27.

135 Bonwick (1970), p. 51.

136 This is taken from Doyle (1992) p. 27. 137 Doyle (1992), p. 27. Hawthorn Dene was the farm of James Downey; see Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part B,

pp. 20–21, 143–44. 138 National Trust of Australia (Vic.), ‘Koroit Study Notes’ (c.1985), p. 2. 139

Conley and Dennis (1984), pp. 91, 19; Dingle (1984), p. 113. 140

Garnet Walch, Victoria in 1880 (1881), for example, noted the ‘greenness of the country along the road approaching Warrnambool from the East’ (p. 74).

141 Critchett (1984), p. 83.

142 Critchett (1984), pp. 82; Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 93.

143 Critchett (1984), p. 88.

144 Critchett (1984), p. 82.

145 Walter Lorck, Victoria Illustrated (1910), p. 48.

146 E.J. Brady, Australia Unlimited (Sydney 1918), p. 327.

147 Norman Godbold, Victoria: Cream of the Country (1989), pp. 98–99. 148

Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 18, drawing on J.M. Powell (1970). 149

Back to Koroit (1951); The Western Horizon, p. 51. 150 Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 89. 151

Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 20. 152 Uhl (1987), p. 15. 153

See Boldrewood (1969), p. 105. 154

Crawford (1969), p. 19, from Kiddle (1969), p. 462. 155 Dingle (1984), pp. 61–62. 156

Marriott (1988), p. 87. 157

Victoria. Agricultural and Livestock: Statistics of Victoria for the Year Ending 31 March 1865, No. 2 (1866), p. 101. 158

For selections around Koroit and Port Fairy, see the list of available allotments, ordered by Parish, published in the Belfast Gazette, June 1865. For Ellerslie, see Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 37. For Woolsthorpe, see Warrnambool Standard Almanac 1875, p. 80.

159 Commons had been a tradition in Scotland and England. See, for example, Warrnambool Examiner, 26 April 1861. Town commons were also set aside for townsfolk to graze animals.

160 Victoria. Agricultural and Livestock: Statistics of Victoria for the Year Ending 31 March 1865, No. 2 (1866), p. 102.

161 See Keneley, ‘Closer settlement in the Western District of Victoria’ (2002), pp. 363–79. 162 Cooper (c.1989), p. 17; Forth and Yule (1998), p. 162; Keneley (2002). 163 Keneley (2002), pp. 365, 366. 164 Marriott (1988) pp. 91, 105; Belfast Parish plan. 165

Pastures of Peace (1985), pp. 76–78. 166

Jackie Templeton pointed out that some settlers were successful, but noted that settlers’ experiences needed to be considered in the context of a particular district or locality. [Templeton, VHJ (1988), pp. 45, 47] See also Marilyn Lake, The Limits of Hope (1989).

167 Godbold (1989), p. 95.

168 Brady (1918), p. 325.



169

The Western Horizon (1958), p. 55 (includes photo of Willatook); Marriott (1988), p. 91; Blairs Guide (1987), p. 199; Pastures of Peace (1985), pp. 76–77, 78, 140–41; Forth and Yule (1998), p. 163; Dungey, Nobody’s Home (Maygog Publishing, Sorell, Tas., 2004), pp. 91-92.

170 Blairs Guide (1987), p. 199.

171 Rosalind Smallwood, Hard to Go Bung (1992), pp. 61, 242–47. 172 Smallwood (1992), pp. 84, 163. 173 For example, at Willatook, Macarthur, Hawkesdale, Woorndoo, and Injemira. 174 Critchett (1984), p.15; Crawford (1969), p. 13; Marriott (1988), pp. 133–34; Shaw (1996), p. 160; Syme (1991), p. 52. 175 Bonwick (1970), p. 52. 176 Bonwick (1970), p. 34. 177

Blairs Guide (1987), p. 198. 178

Critchett (1984), p. 92. 179

Victoria. Agricultural and Livestock: Statistics of Victoria … 1865, No. 2 (1866), p. 101. 180

Fensham (1992), p. 134, citing Helen Pearce, The Hops Industry in Victoria (1976), p. 73. 181

Warrnambool Standard, 1 October 1884 and 2 October 1884 (I am grateful to Merran Adams for these newspaper references); Victorian Municipal Directory (1885), p. 363; Sayers (1972), p. 86.

182 Astley Bromfield, Map of Warrnambool and Its Agricultural District (1856).

183 Conley and Dennis (1984), p. 18; Godbold (1989), pp. 45–47; Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 92.

184 Godbold (1989), p. 24; The Western Horizon (1958), p. 41. 185 Godbold (1989), pp. 27, 30. 186 The Western Horizon (1958), p. 41; Godbold (1989), pp. 36, 37; Blairs Guide (1987), p. 199. 187

Godbold (1989), pp. 49, 50, 162. 188

Godbold (1989), p. 83. 189

Godbold (1989), p. 83. 190

Godbold (1989), p. 175. 191

The Western Horizon (1958), pp. 4, 41, 60; Godbold (1989), p. 83. 192 Wright (1989), pp. 44–45. 193

Wright (1989), p. 149, ref: Brough Smyth, ‘Distribution of Forest Trees’, 24 October 1866, revised 15 January 1869, 820 GCRA 1869, Map Collection, SLV; see also J.M. Powell, New Zealand Geographer, 23, 1967.

194 Wright (1989), p. 153.

195 Kiddle (1967), p. 317.

196 Joe Delaney, Melbourne, pers. com., December 2002.

197 Nullawarre school history (1922), pp. 1–2.

198 Warrnambool Standard Almanac 1875, p. 70, 76.

199 Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 92. 200

Neil Martin, pers. com., 19 November 2002. 201

The Yallock sawmills at Garvoc, for example, were still operating in the 1890s [Victorian Municipal Directory (1890), p. 498].

202 See also Harrington, Limeburning in Victoria (2000), pp. 51–53; Jane Lennon, Our Inheritance (1992), pp. 37–38.

203 Marriott (1988), pp. 72, 129.

204 Noel Learmonth, Four Towns and a Survey (Haathorn Press, Melbourne, 1970).

205 Blairs Guide (1987), p. 199; Parks Victoria, Mt Eccles National Park Visitors Guide, c.2005.

206 Critchett (1984), pp. 19, 45. 207 Shaw (1996), p. 159. 208

Doyle et al., ‘Port Fairy Botanic Gardens’ (1999), p. 9. 209 Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 149; Mary Bennett, Glimpses of the Past (2002), pp. 16-17. 210

During the years 1851–57; from Ray Wright, The Bureaucrats’ Domain (Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1989), p. 65. 211

Peter Smid, Moyne Shire, pers. com., May 2005. 212

Jane Beer, ‘Highland Scots in Victoria’s Western District’ in Beer et al. (eds), Colonial Frontiers and Family Fortunes (Melbourne University History Department, Parkville, 1989), p. 18.

213 Bonwick (1970), p. 87.

214 Bonwick (1970), pp. 41–42. 215 LCC, Historic Places (January 1996), p. 85. 216

Crawford (1969), p. 35. 217

Warrnambool Standard Almanac, 1875, pp. 71, 73. 218

Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 95. 219 Quoted in Smallwood (1992), p. 189.



220

Syme (1991), p. 30. 221

Dungey (2004), p. 96. 222

Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 84. 223 McCorkell and Yule (1999), p. 100–101; Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 64. 224

Bev Moore, pers com, 2001; Chris Fitzsimmons, pers com., 2001. 225

Geoffrey Serle, The Golden Age (Melbourne University Press, Carlton 1963), p. 4. 226

Bonwick (1970), p. 80. 227 Bonwick (1970), p. 82; p. 95n. 228 Bonwick (1970) p. 51. 229 Critchett (1984), p. 36. 230

Back to Port Fairy, 1927 (1927). This first appeared in Earle’s Port Fairy (1896). 231 The Last Roll Call (1993), p. 3. 232

Powling (1980), p. 129; Warrnambool Examiner, 22 July 1859. 233

Warrnambool Examiner, 22 July 1859; Don Garden, Victoria: A history (1985), pp. 256–57; Pastures of Peace (1985), pp. 47–48.

234 Helen Doyle, ‘Organising Recreation’ (prepared for DNRE, 1999), pp. 68–69; Cooper (c.1989), p. 54. The Macarthur Rifle

Club was formed in 1885. [Risk, Macarthur/Byaduk Districts Newspaper Reports (2001), p. 9]; Duff, The History of Caramut (c.1914) p. 11.

235 Lennon (1992), p. 65; see also LCC, Historic Places (January 1996), pp. 69–70. 236

Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 89; ‘ Stone Mileposts, 222 Caramut–Warrnambool Road, Caramut’ (VHR No. H1700). 237

Christie (1979), pp. 85, 87–88, 89, 118; Richard Broome (ed.), The Colonial Experience (1997), p. 51. 238

LCC, Historic Places (January 1996), pp. 66–67; Christie (1979), pp. 97, 104; Kiddle (1967), p. 127. 239 Bonwick (1970), p. 66. 240

Downes (1961), p. 5; Neil Martin, pers com., 19 November 2002. 241

Ian D. Clark (1990), p. 4. ‘Brian Boru’ was named after an Irish king (d. 1014), no doubt on account of the large concentration of Irish in the area. Brian Boru defended his land against the invading English army.

242 Back to Port Fairy 1927 (1927), p. 16; Duff, The History of Caramut (c.1914), p. 3.

243 Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 57. This site is now the Mortlake golf course. 244

Critchett, Our Land Till We Die (1992; first published 1980), p. 7. 245

LCC, Historic Places (January 1996), pp. 67–68. 246 VGG, 21 June 1866 (the reserve was still operating in 1872). See Duncan, Atlas of Victoria (1981), p. 73. 247

For accounts of the post-contact racial conflicts in this locality, see Critchett (1990); for an account of Framlingham Mission, see Critchett (1992).

248 Most of the former Lake Condah mission is situated within the boundaries of the neighbouring Shires of Glenelg and Southern Grampians.

249 Clark (1990), p. 5. 250

LCC, Historic Places (January 1996), p. 68. 251 Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 78. 252 Context Pty Ltd, ‘Lake Condah Mission and Cemetery Conservation Management Plan’, May 2000, p. 8. 253

Forth and Yule (1998), p. 113. 254

See Critchett, Our Land Till We Die (1992). 255 Context Pty Ltd, ‘Lake Condah Mission and Cemetery Conservation Management Plan’, May 2000, p. 8. 256

Victorian Municipal Directory 1880, p. 202. The Mt Rouse park lies outside Moyne Shire. 257 Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 58. 258

Phillip Pepper with Tess De Araugo, You Are What You Make Yourself To Be (Hyland House, Melbourne 1980), p. 78, cited in AAV Aboriginal Historic Places no. 6.1–1 ‘Lake Tyers’.

259 AAV Aboriginal Historic Places, Site no. 6.1–6 ‘Lake Condah Mission’; LCC, Historic Places (January 1996), p. 68.

260 Warrnambool Standard, 1 February 1941, p. 4; 6 February 1941, p. 2; 10 February 1941, p. 2; AAV Aboriginal Historic

Places, Site no. 6.1–5 ‘Framlingham Aboriginal Mission’; Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 58. 261 Forth and Yule (1998), p. 19; Neil Martin, pers. com., 19 November 2002. One of the last known examples of these cottages

was demolished during the course of Stage 2 of this Study. 262 Context Pty Ltd, ‘Lake Condah Mission and Cemetery Conservation Management Plan’, May 2000, p. 9. 263

AAV Aboriginal Historic Places, Site no. 6.1–6 ‘Lake Condah Mission’; A Review of the Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987 (February 2000), p. 12.

264 A Review of the Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987 (February 2000), p. 14. 265 Context Pty Ltd, ‘Lake Condah Mission and Cemetery Conservation Management Plan’, May 2000, pp. 9–10. 266 A Review of the Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987 (February 2000), p. 14.



267

http://www.erin.gov.au/indigenous/fact-sheets/deenmaar.html 268 Bonwick (1970), p. 34 269 See, for example, Kiddle (1967), chapter 6. 270

Bonwick (1970), p. 45n. 271

Chris Wood, ‘Religion’ in Richard Aitken, ‘Conservation Study of Talbot and Clunes’ (1988), p. 100. 272

Bonwick (1970), p. 54. 273

Jane Beer, ‘Records of the Highland and Island Emigration Society arrivals to western Victoria’ (as part of research notes for her M.A. thesis ‘Scottish families in Victoria’s Western District’, University of Melbourne, 1985). Copy of notes in author’s possession.

274 Bonwick (1970), p. 34.

275 Bonwick (1970), p. 70.

276 Alexander Duncan to his parents, Tower Hill, 20 December 1856.

277 Bonwick (1970), p. 50.

278 Although an earlier Catholic church had opened at Hawkesdale in 1901; from Bennett (2002), p. 51. 279 Bonwick (1970), p. 55; Warrnambool Examiner, 5 April 1859; H.A. McCorkell (ed.) The Diaries of Sarah Midgley and

Richard Skilbeck (1967), pp. 153, 203; Forth and Yule (1998), p. 171; Ray Tonkin, Tender Notices, vol. 1; A Century of Methodism in Wangoom: 1859–1959 (1959); Risk (2001).; Hood et al., History of the Shire of Mortlake (1964), p. 42.

280 Sayers (1972), p. 152; A Methodist church was to be built at Macarthur in 1884. See Risk (2001), pp. 6, 8 - gives location on corner of Eversley and High Streets, facing High Street]

281 A site for a Baptist church at Koroit was reserved in 1868 [VGG (1868), p. 1868]; a church was erected in the early 1880s (McCorkell and Yule, pp. 41, 42); the church building was moved to Garvoc in 1986.

282 Australian Handbook 1890 (London 1890), p. 251.

283 Bonwick (1970), p. 71.

284 ‘Hawkesdale Historical Trail’ (2001); Forth and Yule (1998), p. 141.

285 Ah Chow, for example, was a shopkeeper in Koroit in the 1870s and 1880s. See also McCorkell and Yule (1999), pp. 118–19. Indian hawkers are also mentioned in Turner Shaw (1969), p. 142 and Pastures of Peace (1985), pp. 79–80.

286 Simone Dalton, Boring, Not Likely: Great characters of Macarthur (2005), pp. 29, 70. 287 See, for example, Dungey, Nobody’s Home (2004), p. 69. 288 Chatsworth school history (1922); Australian Handbook (1890), p. 282. 289 Jean Uhl, Still Stands the Schoolhouse By the Road (Koroit and District Historical Society, 1987), p. 41. 290

Kiddle (1967), p. 173. Some schools on pastoral stations continued into the twentieth century. 291

Max Waugh, ‘The National System of Education in Victoria: The Irish connection’, in Philip Bull et al. (eds), Ireland and Australia 1788–1998 (Crossing Press, Sydney, 2000), pp. 102–112.

292 Les Blake, Vision and Realisation (Melbourne, 1973), pp. 27, 29; Uhl (1987), p. 25.

293 Uhl (1987), p. 17.

294 Wright (1989), p.79.

295 Hyams and Bessant, Schools for the People? (1972) p. 38.

296 There was also a school at Wangoom in 1855–56, but it is unclear whether this was officially a National School.

297 This paragraph is taken from Doyle, ‘Establishing Schools and Places of Higher Education’ (2000), p. 8.

298 Uhl (1987), p. 32.

299 Kiddle (1967), p. 448.

300 Bonwick (1970), p. 71; Blake (1973), p. 51.

301 Dungey (2004), p. 94.

302 J.J. Russell, ‘Journey in Faith’: Koroit Catholic Parish 1886–1986 (1986); Advocate, 7.12.1878, p.7; see also Blake, Vision

and Realisation (1973). 303

E.A. Doyle (ed.), The Story of the Century (1951), p. 102; Blake (1973), pp. 231, 233; government funding to religion had been abandoned in 1870. This section is taken from Doyle, ‘Establishing Schools and Places of Higher Education’ (2000). Note that many of the small Catholic schools in the district have since closed.

304 Mortlake Shire Centenary 1864–1964 (1964), p. 36. 305 The teacher was J. Marychurch Jenkins. Other references also suggest that the school building was converted to a high

school in the 1890s and early 1900s. [See Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part B, p. 53] 306 Cooper (c.1989), pp. 42–43. 307 Koroit Herald, 23 April 1885. 308 For example, Belfast Gazette, 25 August 1865, Koroit Herald, 23 May 1878. 309 Koroit Herald, 1 November 1880, Belfast Gazette, 14 November 1882. 310

For Belfast, see Critchett (1984), p. 39; for Koroit, see McCorkell and Yule (1999), p. 79 311 Sayers (1972), opposite p. 13, p. 80; Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 153; Cooper (c.1989), pp. 68–69.



312

McCorkell and Yule (1999), pp. 77–79; Richard Osburne, The History of Warrnambool (Warrnambool 1980; first published in 1887), p. 196.

313 The first hurling match was noted in Koroit Herald, 18 April 1878. See also McCorkell and Yule (1999), pp. 80–81. 314

Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 70. 315 Marriott (1988), p. 122. 316

The Last Roll-Call (1993), p. 11; Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 144; Mortlake meeting, PDF MD4. 317

Koroit racecourse, for example, ceased operating in 1969 [Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part B, p. 47]. 318

For example, see Bonwick (1970), p. 84. 319 See LCC, Historic Places (January 1996), pp. 70–71; Cooper (c.1989), p. 30–34, 40. 320

The Port Fairy Progress Association, for example, was formed in 1909. 321 Pastures of Peace, 1985, p. 85. 322

Helen Doyle et al., ‘Koroit Botanic Gardens Conservation Plan’ (1999), p. 23; ‘Hawkesdale Historical Trail’ (2001); Mary Bennett, Glimpses of the Past (2002), pp. 66-67.

323 Turner Shaw (1969), p. 68.

324 Osburne (1980), pp. 187–88; Turner Shaw (1969). 325

Quoted in Noel Learmonth, The Portland Bay Settlement (Melbourne 1934), p. 111. 326

Quoted in Noel Learmonth, The Portland Bay Settlement (Melbourne 1934), p. 111. 327 Downes (1961), p. 26. 328

Warrnambool Standard Almanac, 1875, p. 80. 329 For the history of the Belfast Road Board, see Marriott (1988). All bridges mentioned are on the VHR: see H1457, H1856

and H1029. 330

The mail was conveyed by coach from Belfast to outlying towns. 331 Osburne (1980), p. 125. 332

Garran, The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, vol. II, reproduced in Australia: The first hundred years (1974), p. 261. 333

Critchett (1984), p. 36. 334

Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 67. 335

‘Hawkesdale Historical Trail’ (2001); Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 47. 336

Mortlake Historical Society, Pastures of Peace (1985). 337

Dungey, Nobody’s Home (2004), p. 70. 338

Turner Shaw (1969), p. 195. 339

J.K. Loney, Victoria’s West Coast Steamers (1975), p. 15. 340 Loney (1975), pp. 12–14. 341 Nullawarre school history (1922), p. 3. 342 Godbold (1989), p. 89. 343

‘Hawkesdale Historical Trail’ (2001). 344 The Vagabond, ‘About Warrnambool’, Argus, 13 December 1884. 345 Geoffrey Blainey, Our Side of the Country (1984), p. 130; probably taken from Thomas Shaw (junior), ‘A Visitor from the

Western District’, A Victorian in Europe (Geelong 1883). 346

Quoted in Kiddle (1967), p. 479. 347 Warrnambool Standard Almanac, 1928 (1928), p. 3. 348 Herald Road Guide (c.1930s). 349 Smith, Cyclopedia of Victoria, vol. 2 (1903), p. 428. 350 Sayers (1972), p. 83. Grasmere was the home of the English poet William Wordsworth. 351

Neil Coughlan, ‘The Coming of the Irish to Victoria’, Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand, vol. 12, 1965, p. 73, found that Irish immigrants to Victoria during the 1850s came mainly from the southern counties of Clare and Tipperary.

352 P. Gleeson’s Tara was a double-storeyed stone house on Killarney beach. It was already in ruins in the 1920s and thought to

be haunted. [See Kemmis, ‘Romantic landmark near Killarney’; Marriott (1988), p. 57]. 353

On the Farnham Survey in 1856, for example, 9 of the 17 tenants had Irish Catholic names. See Astley Bromfield’s Map of Warrnambool and its Agricultural District (1856). Although the combined English and Scots contingent in the district outnumbered the Irish Catholics, the latter group was the largest single group. In 1850, for example, when the average Catholic–Protestant ratio in Victoria was 1:5, in Koroit it was 1:3.

354 Coughlan (1965), p. 73.

355 E.E. Morris (ed.), Cassell’s Picturesque Australasia, vol. III (1997; first published 1889), p. 86.

356 Garran, The Picturesque Atlas of Austalasia, vol. II (1886–88), reproduced in Australia: The first hundred years, p. 262;

Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), p. 93. 357 Walch (1881), p. 81. 358 Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), 5 January 1889, p. 26.



359 Interviews with Judith Bilstza, Melbourne, 15 October 1992, and Arthur Jellie, Warrnambool, 15 August 1992, taken from

Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part A, p. 18. 360 Of a total of 21 dwellings at Killarney in 1861, 14 were described as one-roomed huts with canvas roofs, from Census of

Victoria, 1861; taken from Helen Doyle, ‘The Irish landscape of Koroit, Victoria’ in Richard Davis et al. (eds), Irish-Australian Studies (Crossing Press, Sydney, 1998), p. 227.

361 Doyle (1996), p. 227. 362

Pfeiffer and Shaffrey, Irish Cottages (1990), p. 64; Henry Kemmis, ‘Romantic Landmark at Killarney’; Marriott (1988), p. 62.

363 Doyle (1996), pp. 227–28. 364 For example, 89 High Street, Koroit, built c.1882 and 19 Spring Street, Koroit, probably built after 1888. 365

Lorck (1910), p. 48. 366 Nathan Spielvogel, The Gumsucker at Home (1914), p. 116. 367

Crawford (1969), Introduction; Herald, 20 September 1969; Linguist Joanne Winter has recently published her research on Koroit speakers in two articles.

368 Walch (1881), p. 81.

369 W.S. Ramson (ed.), Australian National Dictionary (1988), p. 153; Bonwick (1970) criticises ‘cockatoo farming’ (pp. 56–57).

370 Argus, 20 December 1884.

371 Spielvogel (1914), p. 116. 372 Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part A, pp. 17–18. 373

H.M.R. Rupp, ‘Retrospect’ (written November 1948 – January 1949 and amended 1950s), in Gilbert (1992), p. 137. 374

The Census for Victoria 1871 found that 88 per cent of all residences in Koroit were built from wood, iron or lath and plaster, and only 4 per cent from brick or stone.

375 Western District Centenary Souvenir (1934), no page numbers.

376 Spielvogel (1914), p. 106. 377 For example, John Moloney advertised conacre leasing in the Koroit Sentinel, 19 February 1921. 378 Rutledge (1965), p. 114. 379 Coughlan (1965), p. 70. 380 Crawford (1969), p. 57. 381 Frank Mitchell, The Irish Landscape (1976), pp. 171–72; taken from Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part A, p. 19. 382 Mitchell (1976), pp. 197, 201. 383 Doyle (1996), pp. 225–26. 384

J.A. Allan (ed.), The Victorian Centenary Book (Melbourne, 1935), pp. 298–99. 385

See Cannon (ed.), Vagabond Country (1981), pp. 68–69. On the campaign trail in 1856, the politician Charles Gavan Duffy noted the thrift, frugality and prosperity amongst Irish farmers around Tower Hill.

386 See Uhl (1987), p. 26; Shaffrey and Shaffrey, Irish Countryside Buildings (1985), pp. 82–83.

387 Donald Cave, Percy Jones (Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1988). The multiple-car garage at the Koroit Presbytery was probably built for this purpose.

388 Koroit Herald, 3 May 1880 (‘Cead Mille Failthr’ is an Irish expression of welcome); Koroit Herald, 19 March 1885, 23 March 1885, 10 October 1885.

389 Port Fairy Gazette, 4 June 1895; and 1911. 390 Dungey (2004), p. 80; Doyle, ‘The Irish landscape of Koroit’ (1998). 391 Koroit Sentinel, 1921; 19 March 1921. 392

The Scots had been responsible for these walls in the neighbouring Shire of Corangamite; see If These Walls Could Talk (Corangamite Arts Council, Terang, c.1995).

393 W.H. Cumming, Dundonnell, Victoria: A history of the district (The author, Dundonnell, 1983), p. 6. 394 Sayers (1972), p. 81. 395

Bonwick (1970), p. 81. 396

See Doyle et al., ‘Koroit Botanic Gardens’ and ‘Port Fairy Botanic Gardens’ (both 1999). 397 Reserve file no. 5959 (DSE). 398 Brady (1918), p. 325. 399 Sara Hardy, The Unusual Life of Edna Walling (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2004),. Walling’s plans for the Boortkoi garden are

held by the State Library of Victoria. 400

Richard Aitken, Jan Schapper, Juliet Ramsay and Michael Looker (eds), ‘A Theoretical Framework for Designed Landscapes in Victoria’, Appendix 2 of Volume 1 (prepared for the AHC, March 1997), p. 47.

401 ‘Hawkesdale Heritage Trail’ (2001).

402 Blake (1973), p. 347.



403

Libby Robin, Building a Forest Conscience (Natural Resources Conservation League of Victoria, Springvale Sth 1991), pp. 12, 30.

404 Suzanne Hunt, ‘Where the Sweet Australian Peas Bloomed: State School gardens in Victoria 1901–1914’, in Georgina Whitehead (ed.), Planting the Nation (Australian Garden History Society, 2001), pp. 15–16. Hawkesdale Head Teacher Mr Williamson was responsible for the students’ success. Photo of Kirkstall state school garden in McCorkell and Yule (1999), p. 119 and of Mortlake state school garden (1870) in Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 28.

405 Susan Priestley, Making Their Mark (1984), p. 194; Doyle, ‘Establishing Schools’ (2000), pp. 55–58.

406 McLaren (ed.), John Dunmore Lang: Visit to Geelong and the Western District of Victoria in 1846 (1987), p. 45. 407

Bonwick (1970), pp. 70, 77. 408

Garran, The Picturesque Atlas, vol. II, reproduced in Australia: The first hundred years (1974), p. 262. 409 Fairley (1982), p. 11. This point has been disputed. Some argue that Ferntree Gully was Victoria’s first National Park,

gazetted for the express purpose of a ‘national park’ in 1882. Tower Hill had been set aside earlier, in 1866, and only strictly became a national park later, by default.

410 Back to Port Fairy, 1927 (1927).

411 Fairley (1982), pp. 59–60; Aboriginal Affairs Victoria in conjunction with the Kerrup Jmara Elders Aboriginal Corporation, ‘Lake Condah Heritage Management Plan and Strategy’ (1993), p. 16.

412 Warrnambool and District Society for Growing Australian Plants, Nature Reserves of Warrnambool and District (n.d.). 413

Sayers (1972), p. 18; Gordon and Eddington Papers. 414

J. Jordan, A Souvenir of Warrnambool and its Exhibition (1897); Lorck (1910), p. 52. 415 Western District Centenary Souvenir (Terang 1934), no page nos. 416 Michael Moore, ‘Peterborough Prior to 1950’. I am grateful to Michael Moore for sharing his knowledge about

Peterborough’s history. 417 Moore, ‘Peterborough Prior to 1950’. 418 Lorck (1910), p. 48. 419 McIntyre and McIntyre, Country Towns in Victoria (Melbourne 1944), p. 105. 420

A Trust was appointed to create the Great Ocean Road from Torquay to Peterborough [Jim Davidson and Peter Spearritt, Holiday Business (Melbourne University Press, Carlton 2000), p. 163] The road was planned in 1916 and the first part completed in 1922; it was later extended to Peterborough.

421 Davidson and Spearritt, Holiday Business (2000), p. 177.

422 Blairs Guide (1987), p. 223.

423 Violet Eddington, Reminiscences ([1923?]), p. 4.

424 For example, Walch (1881), p. 88; The Link, vol. 1, no. 4 (August 1922), p. 20; Back to Port Fairy, 1927 (1927).

425 Australian Council of National Trusts, Historic Public Buildings of Victoria (1971), p. 110. Mention of its ‘quaint

appearance’ comes from Victorian Railways, Picturesque Victoria and How to Get There (1897), p. 80. 426

Spielvogel (1914), p. 116 described Port Fairy as a ‘forgotten village’. 427

Western District Centenary Souvenir (Terang, 1934). 428 Herald, 28 October 1933. 429

Keith Winser, Australian Caravans and Touring, Book 6 (Melbourne 1954), p. 6; Western Horizon (1958), pp. 66, 74. 430

See , for example, Stephen Murray-Smith, letter to the editor, Port Fairy Gazette, 28 January 1965 (also 17 January 1966); Stephen Murray-Smith in John Button (ed.), Look Here! Considering the Australian environment (F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1968), p. 23.

431 Port Fairy Gazette, 26 April 1965.

432 See Mary Ryllis Clark, In Trust: The first forty years of the National Trust in Victoria 1956–1996 (Melbourne 1996).

433 Walch (1881), p. 78. 434 Osburne (1980), pp. 197, 194–95. 435

See, for example, Walch (1881), p. 78 and The Visitors’ Guide to Warrnambool (1882). 436 Back to Port Fairy, 1927 (1927). 437

The drive-in motor inn was first introduced into Australia in 1956. See Davidson and Spearritt, Holiday Business (2000). 438

See Doyle et al., ‘Port Fairy Botanic Gardens’ (1999), pp. 22–23; ‘Mortlake Public Park and Gardens’, Reserve file no. 5959; Doyle et al., ‘Koroit Botanic Gardens’ (1999), pp. 24–25.

439 Koroit held an ‘Irish Weekend’ in January 1988 and January 1992. The more ambitious annual ‘Koroit Irish Festival’ was first held on 25–26 April 1997. For Tarerer Festival, see Warrnambool Standard, 18 February 2005.

440 Hood (1991), p. 32.

441 Mary Bennett, pers. com., 6 December 2001.

442 Peter Hey (ed.), Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996), p. 71. 443 Nigel Lewis Richard Aitken Pty Ltd, ‘Williamstown Cemetery Conservation Plan’ (prepared for Williamstown Cemetery

Trustees, 1994), p. 33. 444 Koroit Herald, 10 March 1881, quoted in Doyle, ‘Koroit: A heritage study’ (1993), Part B, p. 71.



445

Using the Tower Hill Cemetery burial records, D.R. Crawford (1969) calculated that 65 per cent of burials from 1856–1969 were Catholic [p. 3].

446 Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 62.

447 ‘Eurack Avenue of Honour’ (H2102), Statement of Significance, Heritage Victoria website. 448 Warrnambool Standard Almanac (1930), pp. 71, 100. 449

Pastures of Peace (1985), p. 49; Jeff Gray, pers. com., March 2006. 450

There is evidence of Aboriginal burials at numerous pastoral stations, including Ballangeich, Quamby; the burial of Jeanie Farie at Hexham: See the many pastoral stations and farms (56) listed on the AAV Register, Aboriginal Historic Places. Note on the Minjah burials, name of informant withheld, Koroit community meeting, 7 December 2001.

451 The burial of ‘Old Mary’ at the Port Fairy police paddock; Belfast Gazette, 23 June 1865, from Doyle et al., ‘Port Fairy

Botanic Gardens’ (1999), p. 8. 452 Neil Martin, Framlingham, pers. com., 19 November 2002. Further research is required to confirm Watmore’s identity.

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