From the Bendigo Advertiser, via the Hamilton Spectator comes a story from  1868 and the Byaduk Caves.  It features an M.P., an ungrateful sheep, plenty of action and athletic prowess and a band of impressed onlookers.

SUICIDE OF MADEMOISELLE MARIE ST. DENIS. (1868, October 26). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 – 1918), p. 3. Retrieved July 20, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87899437

BYADUK CAVES

James Stewart Butters became Mayor of Melbourne in 1867 at the age of thirty-five.  He held the position for a year then moved to the Legislative Assembly in the seat of Portland in 1868, the same year as his feat at the Byaduk Caves.  The following year he found himself caught up in a Parliamentary corruption case and was expelled only to return to his seat a few months later.  He spent time in Fiji and then returned to Victoria and returned to the Parliament.

The events at Byaduk Caves  support his  biography by A.C. Milner in the Australian Dictionary of Biography .  Milner writes

“…this tall, powerful Scotsman displayed immense energy and a bold sense of adventure. The strands of his character were evident in his mountain climbing in Scotland as a boy, investing in the colonies, sailing alone in a Fiji hurricane and tampering with the proper workings of parliament. But an element of recklessness is easily detected, though a hearty and genial personality saved him from much condemnation during his life”.

JAMES STEWART BUTTERS (1867). Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria. Image no. H5672 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/208262