Just like that, Western District Families has reached its teenage years. Thirteen years ago today I pressed “Publish” on my first post.
April 2011 was a sad time. My interest in the past came from my Nana, her love of old photos, and stories of her early years. This is Nana, Linda Hadden, as a teenager, with her nephew Les.
She inspired me to start Western District Families, but before I pressed “Publish” thirteen years ago, Nana died on 6 April 2011, aged 91. She never got to see the finished product, nor did I get to share with her the wonderful stories I’ve unearthed along the way. But she’s still with me in spirit and this photo of her as a toddler watches over me as I research.
My posts to the site are not as frequent as they were, but Western District Families is not going anywhere. I still have many stories I want to share. The WDF Facebook page continues to go from strength to strength, now with over 14,000 followers, proving there is still a lot of interest in the history of the Western District.
Ideally, I would like to post here once a month. I don’t think I’ll achieve that over the next year, but I’ll try. And even if new posts are few, and far between, there are still over 450 posts from the past thirteen years, the Pioneers’ Obituary Index, and over 160 Hamilton’s WW1 biographies to discover.
Recently I added a Roll of Honour to the “Hamilton’s WW1” section of this site. The page lists the names of 187 men associated with Hamilton who did not return from the Great War. Their names come from the various honour rolls and avenues of honour found in Hamilton.
The youngest of the men were just boys, being just 18 at the time of their deaths. The oldest men were 48. They were born in places across the Western District and other Victorian locations, such as Swan Hill, Shepparton, and Fitzroy. They also came from interstate, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia. Others were born overseas in England, Scotland, and Fiji. Their occupations varied, from boundary riders and farmers to law clerks and teachers. There were five sets of brothers who did not return.
Along with the names, you can also view photos of 71 of the men. The photos come not only from the Australian War Memorial but also from the Hamilton YMCA and Hamilton Fire Brigade honour boards.
You can also read the biographies of 138 of the men, just click on the underlined names.
Find the Hamilton WW1 Roll of Honour on the link below:
The number of photos I have of the Hamilton General Cemetery is mounting, and it’s taking me longer to get through them all. To easily view some of my favourite photos, I created a video and recently uploaded it to the Western District Families YouTube channel. I love wandering around the cemetery and now I can “wander” whenever I desire.
When viewing the video, you’ll notice quotes throughout that I have borrowed from writers who have Hamilton streets named after them-Shakespeare, Dickens, and Tennyson. In fact, Charles Dickens has a link to the cemetery, as his daughter-in-law Jessie Dickens (nee Devlin) was buried there in 1878, during the time Alfred Tennyson Dickens, a son of Charles Dickens, was living and working in Hamilton. You’ll see Jessie’s grave in the video.
Another grave of note you’ll see is that of Alexander MacKillop, who died while visiting Hamilton in 1868. Alexander was the father of Saint Mary MacKillop.
Come with me now on a tour of the Hamilton General Cemetery…
The following photo from the Museums Victoria Collection was one I posted on the WDF Facebook page while featuring photos from Carapook. The description with the photo reads, “Indian hawker and farmer on farm”. The names given are Basil Pearce and Rahn (sic) Singh and the location and date of the photo, Carapook 1924.
I set about looking for more about the two gentlemen. First Bazil, who was born at Gritjurk, northeast of Coleraine, in 1870,1 a son of William Pearce and Ann Watts. Basil married Mary Ellen King in 1904.2 They lived at Muntham, Carapook, and finally, Coleraine.
This is Mary, Bazil’s wife, knitting up a storm in 1941 for the war effort, all done on a single pair of knitting needles.
Bazil and Mary’s married son Bazil junior enlisted only a month after the publication of Mary’s photo. He went to New Guinea with the 2/12 Australian Infantry Battalion and died from wounds there in February 1943.
Bazil Pearce senior died in 1958 at Coleraine, aged eighty-eight.3 Mary died in 1980 at Coleraine, aged ninety-four.4
An increase in migration from India to Victoria in the 1880s saw an influx of Indian hawkers in the Hamilton district by the early 1890s. Trading from carts, or on foot, they made their way around isolated properties in the west of the state selling their wares, including pots and pans, drapery, and clothing.
Each December, hawkers were required to apply for a license. In 1892, because of a rise in complaints to authorities, the government introduced additional conditions to the Hawkers’ and Pedlars’ Act including the need to display a license number.
In December 1893, close to fifty Indian hawkers, mostly Sikh, gathered near the Martin Street gate of the Hamilton Botanic Gardens (below), waiting for their time before the magistrate. In December 1894, there were around seventy. In both years, local photographer John Arnest captured the colourful scene.
VIEW TO THE HAMILTON COURT HOUSE FROM THE BOTANICAL GARDENS
The Indian hawkers were incredibly generous and, like clockwork, each year when they paid their license fee, they also made a contribution to the local hospital. In 1894, Sukbi Nand Verma, the “interpreter for Indian residents in the colony,” wrote to Charles Wiggins, the secretary of the Hamilton Hospital and Benevolent Asylum, requesting acknowledgment of a donation of £11 12s 3d by the local hawkers. One of those he mentioned as having contributed to the donation was R. Singh. An extract of Sukbi’s letter is below,
We, the undersigned Indian hawkers, beg to present our poor and humble donation in aid of the charitable Hospital, Hamilton, with the simple view of encouraging and furthering this laudable public cause. We are not inclined to think that we should get any praise for our so doing, but on the other hand, a sense of universal brotherhood and a sympathy and feeling for the helpless sufferers actuated us to alleviate the sufferings of the poor patients by taking a step in this direction. The sum offered, no doubt, is trifling, considering the solid and substantial benefits which the Asylum confers upon general masses, but, however, let it be understood that it is the outcome of grateful and feeling hearts. Our religion teaches us to always extend a helping hand to those who really stand in need of it, and after giving a fair and deep consideration to this problem, we found none more worthy of our attention and help than this Asylum… (Hamilton Spectator 11 December 1894)
Ran Singh was in Hamilton in December 1896 when he received a license to sell goods on foot, and again in 1897. In 1898, the number of license applications decreased, but Ran Singh received a foot license. However, in 1899, the magistrate did not grant him a license.
In 1902, Ran again received a license to hawk on foot. It seems he then moved to the west of Hamilton. In 1914, Ran was among the gift givers for the marriage of John Quigley and Evelyn King at Merino. In December 1915, Ran and fellow hawkers, including Lucca Singh, donated to the Casterton Hospital after paying for their licenses at Casterton.
It appears Ran’s circuit was between Coleraine to the east and Casterton to the west, and between Carapook to the north (where he met Bazil) and Merino, to the south. There is a photo of Ran at Henty c1925, a location between those places, on the link …Ran Singh at Henty.
By the 1930s, Ran was in his seventies and had suffered some ill health. Locals had suggested he go to a hospital for medical treatment, but he refused. On Wednesday 9 October, Ran drove his horse-drawn van into Coleraine and set up camp in his usual place, a vacant block in McLeod Street. Around 4.30pm that afternoon, Ran went to Trangmar’s store in Whyte Street Coleraine (below).
TRANGMAR’S STORE, COLERAINE
Shop assistant John Brens served Ran, just as he had done many times over the previous fifteen years. Ran purchased a bottle of brandy and Uneeda biscuits. He was very frail and appeared unwell. John helped him down the steps of the store (below).
Ran returned to McLeod Street, and about 5.00pm he went to the home of Henry Hutchins who lived to the rear of the block where Ran camped. Henry had known Ran for about thirty years since he first started camping in McLeod Street. Ran boiled his billy on Henry’s stove and made a pot of tea. He left but returned at 7.00pm and spent an hour with Henry before announcing he was off to bed. Ran returned to his van and arranged the bags he used as a curtain at the front of the van while he slept.
Around 9.45pm, John Heron stepped out into his backyard and saw a glow coming from McLeod Street. He rushed to the front of his house and saw Ran’s van on fire. John tried to prise open the doors, but the heat forced him back. Others, including Henry Hutchins, arrived on the scene with buckets of water, but to no avail. By the time the fire brigade arrived shortly after, it was too late.
Ran’s body was removed to the Coleraine Police Station and his friend Lucca Singh was called in to identify his body. Lucca confirmed he had known the almost 80-year-old Ran since he arrived in Victoria from Punjab, India around 40 years before.
An inquest found Ran had died because of a heart attack and asphyxiation from the smoke. However, the coroner was unsure if the heart attack occurred before the fire. John Heron heard no sound coming from the van when he tried to open the doors, and when Constable John Duffy recovered Ran’s body, there were no signs of a struggle. It’s possible Ran suffered a heart attack and an unattended candle started the fire.
There are few reminders of the time when Indian hawkers were commonplace in the Western District. At the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery, there is a memorial for Gungah Singh. He died of consumption aged 45 and his friends sought permission to cremate his body on the cemetery grounds. The Central Board of Health and cemetery trust approved the request, and the cremation took place on Saturday 7 September 1901. Gungah’s ashes were returned to India to disperse in the Ganges River.
A photo from a place and time your ancestors lived is always interesting. You get a feel for their daily life, the transport of the time, and the fashion. You can see a place as it would have looked through their eyes. If it’s a streetscape, the photo is useful from a local history perspective. This photo, a Rose Postcard held by the State Library of Victoria (SLV) depicting the main street of Hamilton, ticks all those boxes.
The Hamilton streetscape has changed somewhat, but it’s instantly recognizable by the twin steeples on Church Hill toward the end of Gray Street. There are various postcard shots of Gray Street, but I particularly like this one for the stripy verandah of the Canterbury Cafe owned by the Roberts brothers, and the Fairleys sign. The photo tells several tales, ranging from a global story to a personal family story.
Rose postcards come undated, but you can narrow down the period. Car makes and models and even the format of the registration plate can help. Shops are useful too. If a digitised version of the local newspaper is available at Trove, search the business names and narrow down the period they operated. Sometimes ladies’ fashion, particularly hats and dress lengths, point to a period in time, but this photo comprises mostly men. Their fashion is harder to date.
This photo has an extra clue at the front of the newsagent. The SLV photo viewer has a great zoom function and if we zoom in, this is what we find.
The headline in TheHerald newspaper on the day of the photo was “World Flier Gassed in Plane”. Trove has digitised editions of TheHerald, so I searched the headline and found the edition. The date was Friday 9 June 1933.
Knowing the date adds more to the story. The world was amid the Great Depression, and aviator James J. Mattern from the United States was attempting to break the world record to circumnavigate the globe, which then stood at just over 8.5 days. He survived the mishap, but his chances of breaking the record were dashed.
On a local level, it was a Friday, explaining the number of men in the street.
In many larger towns, Friday was the day the country folk came to town for supplies. An article in the HorshamTimes from May 1951 bemoaned the traffic jam of people on the Horsham footpaths on a Friday. It was no different in Hamilton.
It was also a popular day for townspeople to head “down the street” and catch up with friends, some back in town for a weekend visit. Hamilton’s own Victoria Cross hero, Ted Kenna, said from the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in 1945, he was looking forward to returning to Hamilton to see the crowds of people “down the street” on a Friday. Almost the whole town turned out, he said. He was reminiscing with a former Hamilton girl, Roma Rainford who visited Ted, and they laughed as they recalled the often-used phrase, “I’ll be at home in Gray Street on Friday”.
There is something else significant about 1933. My grandfather kept a diary in that year which was kept by Nana.
Bill Gamble turned twenty-two in 1933. By then, his father, Joseph Gamble, had left the family after about a decade of coming and going. Bill was the breadwinner and had been for some years. With Bill’s help, his mother, Edith, raised Bill’s six siblings. The youngest in 1933 was Shirley, aged five. Bill started as a delivery boy while still at Hamilton Higher Elementary School, before moving into the shop and learning the butchering trade.
BILL GAMBLE
From Bill’s diary, I found work was inconsistent in 1933. He was picking up bits and pieces at the abattoir, the butcher shop, and wood carting.
HAMILTON ABATTOIR, c1933. Photographer: Bill Gamble
Bill was also a keen photographer and developed films for friends, probably to cover his own photography costs. According to his diary, on 1 April 1933, he and his mate Charlie Stevenson developed five films for Ted Hodges. Then they went to the pictures at the Regent Theatre in Brown Street.
When Bill was not at home or working, he was with Charlie, camping, fishing, shooting, and riding motorbikes. He also spent a lot of time at the home of Charlie’s parents in Digby Road and went there most Fridays for milk. Following his maternal uncles, Bill and George Diwell, Bill played cornet with the Hamilton Brass Band.
Bill also enjoyed going down the street. On Friday 31 March, his entry was “Went down the street for the evening”. He also noted he bought a toothbrush for 2/-. On Friday 21 April, he again went down the street to the bank and Laidlaws (department store). On Friday 5 May, Bill was down the street playing with the Hamilton Brass Band in front of Walker’s Boot and Shoe store in Thompson Street.
I wondered if Bill went down the street on Friday 9 June 1933. I turned the page… no. But he went to Stevenson’s for milk.
The Fairly’s sign mentioned earlier is in the next photo. This is Bill (on left) at Brown Bros. butchers in Gray Street, close to where the feature photo was shot. The Fairly’s sign is reflected in the window.
BROWN BROS. BUTCHERS, GRAY STREET, HAMILTON 1930s
Fairley’s was a drapery run by John Fairley and his wife Lillian. John died in 1939, two years after this advertisement.
The strip of shops was owned by the estate of Annie Destree who died in 1917. Annie inherited them when her husband, watchmaker Adolphus Destree died suddenly in 1875. She also owned Fairley’s building. It was nothing new for the Destree family, with fire destroying their shop and residence in 1870.
The shops were rebuilt as shown on another great postcard of Gray Street, taken only a few years after the fire.
The strip of shops still exists, as seen in this more recent photo taken in a similar spot as the older photos. Plane trees planted in the later part of the 20th century don’t make comparison with the older photos easy. And no longer is the street identified by the iconic twin steeples.
You can read more from the Take a Photo series on the link-Take a Photo
This is my first Broken Memories post in over three years. This story of the Chadwick family has waited in my drafts all that time. There are more Broken Memories stories waiting too, so watch out for those. Hopefully, the wait won’t be as long.
If you would like to know more about the Broken Memories series, follow the link to an introduction covering broken graves, who is responsible for their repair, and the regulations Victorian cemeteries adhere to-Broken Memories…An Introduction. You’ll find links to three previous Broken Memories stories at the bottom of this post.
The story behind the grave of Sarah Chadwick and baby Rae is one about the twists and turns of life and left me wondering, as I do about many graves in the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery, how long since a loved one stood before the grave and remembered those within.
CHADWICK
GRAVES OF SARAH AND RAE CHADWICK, HAMILTON (OLD) CEMETERY
Sarah Jane Morris was born at Geelong in 1858, a daughter of Henry Morris and Susan Best.1 In 1880, she married Englishman Thomas Taylor Chadwick.2 A son Edgar Henry was born in 1885 at Mortlake.3
In 1886, the death of Edgar Henry Chadwick, son of Thomas T. and Sarah Chadwick, was registered in Albury. It seems unfeasible for the Chadwicks to be so far north, particularly when they first showed up in Hamilton in the first half of 1886. However, aside from Edgar’s birth at Mortlake, there is no other reference to him aside from the death in Albury.
The Chadwicks arrived in Hamilton around May 1886 with Thomas taking over the business of John West in Gray Street, next to what is now the National Bank.
The Chadwick family grew in 1890 with the birth of Constance Winifred.4 In 1892, Sarah fell sick, and the doctor diagnosed influenza, but her condition worsened. Sarah had consumption (tuberculosis). She died on 5 August 1892, the day of her thirty-fourth birthday, leaving Thomas and infant Constance. Sarah was buried at the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery.
Thomas could easily have felt cursed when, two months after Sarah’s death, the fire bell he heard on the night of 7 October 1892 from his home in Lonsdale Street was signalling a large fire at his shop. He rushed to the scene to see the building engulfed in flames. The fire started at Miss McGowan’s fancy goods shop and spread to her fruit shop next door, and then to Thomas’s shop. Miss McGowan was in the backyard of her shops in a distressed state, suffering from shock.
Thomas had just received £1500 of his new season’s stock, with a total stock of £5000. A fire sale and his insurance enabled him to get his shop up and running again. A. Miller & Co. owned the building, which was insured.
Thomas remarried in 1894 to Annie Vagg.5 A son Rae Hamilton Chadwick was born at the Chadwick home Olinda on 29 May 18956, but he died a month later.7 Rae was buried at the Hamilton cemetery in an unmarked grave to the left of Sarah’s grave.
Thomas and Annie left Hamilton in the late 1890s for Welshpool in South Gippsland, almost 500 kilometres from Hamilton. Thomas had a career change, taking up dairy farming at Hazel Park on the Agnes River.
In 1903, the Leader newspaper reported Thomas was milking ninety-five cows daily and had built a milk processing factory on his property to overcome the distance to the nearest factory. The same year, a daughter Dorothy was born to Thomas and Annie.8
Fire again brought despair to Thomas’ life in January 1908 when dozens of properties in the district were burnt out. Thomas was one of the “heavy losers”. By 1927, when Constance married 9, Thomas and Annie were living in East St. Kilda. Constance spent her married life in Sea Lake in the Mallee.
Soon after, Thomas and Annie moved to Caulfield North. Annie died in 1950 and Thomas the following year.
Constance, the only known living child of Sarah, died in 1975, aged 84. Her death registration shows her mother’s name as “unknown”.10
It’s been over 120 years since the Chadwicks left the Hamilton district. Life moved on, time passed, and with the barrier of distance, maybe there was never the chance to return to Hamilton to visit the graves of Sarah and Rae. Now, those who remembered them are long gone.
The passage of time has not been kind to Sarah’s monument, with the column having fallen from its mount and the slab broken. It is in the southeast corner of the cemetery, an area with many missing and broken headstones. On the crest of the Coleraine Road hill, this section faces exposure to the weather from the southeast. It is also within easy view of the passing highway, possibly making these graves more vulnerable to vandalism over the years.
I often pass Sarah and Rae’s graves and little changes, but on a recent visit, I noticed someone had plucked an urn from the rubble and placed it on the monument.
With Anzac Day drawing closer, I thought it was time for an update on the WW1 project I started during the Centenary of WW1 and continue to this day. The initial aim was to collect the names of men and women with Hamilton connections who enlisted for WW1 and tell their stories. To date, the enlisted men number more than 730 and there are forty-eight enlisted women. Their connection to Hamilton could come from their birth in the town, education, or work. Or, it could also be through a parent or sibling living in the town. The names of those who enlisted in Hamilton are included, as are those named on the various memorials and honour boards around Hamilton.
Hamilton’s WW1 is also about the response of the Hamilton townspeople to the outbreak of war and the difficult years that followed. .The Hamilton’s WW1 Facebook page was useful in examining this through a daily post “100 years ago in the Hamilton Spectator” with an article from each edition of the Hamilton Spectator from 1915 to 1918.
There were articles about the football clubs, the local P&A show, and the races, all impacted by the war. Other articles told of the unfair treatment of the Indigenous men who marched from Condah to Hamilton to enlist, and anti-German sentiment particularly evident in Hamilton with German settlements located to the south of the town.
The Hamilton Spectator was a vital source of news from the front. People would gather around boards outside the Spectator office (below) to read the latest edition to ensure friends, work colleagues, or relatives were not on the latest list of wounded, missing, and dead. Everyone would have known someone who was serving. This photo of a small section of Gray Street, Hamilton demonstrates that.
Several men from the Spec office enlisted including apprentice monoline operator William Hind killed at the Nek, Gallipoli on 7 August 1915. Next door was the office of stock and station agent John Fenton. John and his wife Helen saw two boys off to war but only one returned. A few doors to the right of John Fenton’s was the hairdressing and tobacconist shop of Harry Catterson, killed at Bullecourt on 11 April 1917.
In the background is the Hamilton Post Office. Several past and then current postal employees enlisted. Past employee William Head was killed at the landing at Gallipoli and Cyril Iles, a letter sorter at the time of enlistment, was killed at Pozieres in 1916. A bit further along and across the road was the Hamilton State School. Former teacher Walter Filmer was killed at Bullecourt in May 1917 and dozens of pupils had big brothers, uncles, and fathers overseas some to never return. Diagonal to the school was the Hamilton YMCA. Twenty-six members were either killed or died from wounds. So much loss in just half a block of Hamilton’s main street. I could continue in either direction along Gray Street and offer similar examples.
The response at home is also interwoven through the biographies of the enlisted men and women. As well as looking at the subject’s pre-war life, I explore how their enlistment impacted family and friends at home. Impassioned requests for the return of personal effects, family divisions over pensions and medals, and seemingly premature deaths of parents are throughout. Then there were the families of those missing presumed dead. Whether it was the typed letters by Alan Cordner’s father Isiah or the handwritten letters of Richard Hicks’ mother Janet, they were written with raw emotion. It wouldn’t have surprised me to find Isiah Cordner had somehow made it to the Middle East to find Alan, such was his quest for some sort of closure.
Currently, the number of biographies I have written for those men who didn’t return stands at 136 from a total of 183. I have also written a further thirty-five biographies of returned men and nurses, and added seven war memorials and honour boards from around Hamilton. There will be more honour boards to come with only photos needed for completion. The past year has restricted my access to boards but I should be able to start getting photos soon. Longer term, I’m working on bringing together the information gathered from the Spectator snippets on the Facebook page and the collection on this site into a more accessible format.
Below you will find the biographies and memorials/honour boards completed so far. The ranks and units were taken from the AIF Nominal Roll compiled in 1919 with the last rank and unit of each person. Click on the names to read more.
Emma Crouch was born in 1832 in London, England the youngest daughter of Edmund and Matilda Crouch. Her father died while she was still a young girl and her older brothers George and Charles left England for Australia arriving in Portland around 1838. Her sister Matilda married and moved to the United States of America in 1849. Emma continued to live with her mother and they resided at Roxeth, in the parish of Harrow on the Hill in London. By the 1861 England Census, Emma and her mother were living still at Roxeth with Emma was working as a governess. Her mother died two years later.
In 1865, Emma’s sister Matilda died in California, and her children, Arthur McCann aged twenty, Kate McCann aged sixteen, and Eustasia de Arroyave aged eight, travelled to England to live with Emma in Roxeth. The following year, Emma then aged thirty-four along with her nephew and nieces, boarded Great Britain (below) for Melbourne arriving on Boxing Day, 1866.
The brothers had established themselves in Portland. Both were in business and George was one of Portland’s first councillors. The Trangmar brothers James and Charles were their business partners at times and George and Charles each married a Trangmar sister.
Once settled in Portland, Emma started a school in Hurd Street.
The Crouch family connection with the Trangmar family continued in 1876 when Emma’s niece Kate married James William Trangmar, a son of James Trangmar Sr. They moved to Coleraine where the Trangmar family operated a store. In the following years, Emma and Eustasia also moved to Coleraine, around the time James took over full operations of the store. I like to think Emma and her nieces may be in the photo below, possibly in the garden of the adjoining house.
She kept busy in the Coleraine community. She was a member of the Coleraine Glee Club with Kate and Eustasia. The glee club opened the evening entertainment at the Coleraine Presbyterian Concert in 1881, thought to be the best concert held in Coleraine. Also on the bill that night, was Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson Dickens, a son of author Charles Dickens. Alfred was living in Hamilton then and dropped in to read one of his father’s works.
Emma was an active member of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church congregation and ran the local Girls Friendly Society connected to the church. The first Coleraine Industrial Exhibition was held in 1887 and Emma was on the executive committee. For the 1890 exhibition, the walls of the hall were adorned with artworks by local ladies including Emma. At the 1894 exhibition, Emma won first prize with her tortoiseshell cat. She also entered potted plants and cut flowers into shows run by the Coleraine Horticulture Society.
Portland was still close to Emma and she often holidayed there. In 1904, however, Emma fell sick after her return to Coleraine from a summer holiday in Portland. To convalesce, she travelled with Eustasia to Kate’s home in Sturt Street, Ballarat but she died on 11 April 1904. She had remained close to her nieces during their thirty-eight years in Victoria and it was fitting Emma spent her last days with them.
The Portland Guardian reported Emma’s remains arrived by the evening train, then were “resting the night before the altar at St Stephen’s” ahead of the funeral service. The funeral cortege left the church for her burial at the Portland Cemetery.
A memorial service was also held at Coleraine after her death and, on 20 December 1904, a stained glass window was dedicated to the memory of Emma at the Holy Trinity Church, Coleraine (below). It was made by Mr. Montgomery of Melbourne and it depicted the Good Shepherd with the words “To the glory of God and loving memory of Emma Crouch, born Oct. 8, 1832, at rest April 11, 1904”
HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, COLERAINE 1970. Image courtesy of the J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/216987
DRISCOLL Mary(c1828-1908) also known as Mary O’DRISCOLL and Mary WADMORE
Mary O’Driscoll was born in Middlesex, England around 1828. At the age of twenty, she married James Wadmore and they started a family. On 8 November 1854, the couple and baby Mary boarded the Constant at Southhampton with their destination being Portland Bay. James acted as an assistant to the ship’s surgeon on the voyage which saw an outbreak of whooping cough.
James secured work with Charlton Hedditch at Cape Bridgwater, twenty kilometres or so further west. It was an isolated area on the coast, a far cry from Westminster, London. It was there in 1855, a daughter Anne was born. In 1856, James was able to select land at Cape Bridgewater, close to what is now Blowholes Road, in partnership with George Terril. A son William was born the following year and a daughter Sarah in 1859.
A month after Sarah’s birth, James was fishing on the rocks on the west coast of Cape Bridgewater with his mates George Terrill and Robert Wilson.
The sea was rough and the men decided to move from their position as it was becoming dangerous. They set up in a new spot but about ten minutes later James returned to where they were first located. A large wave came up and washed him from the rocks. George and Robert saw him swimming but he soon tired and sank. His body was found washed up on the rocks the following Thursday and an inquest was conducted. Mary’s account was forwarded to Portland’s Police Magistrate and subsequently to the Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser.
That left city girl Mary with a farm and four young children, including a newborn to raise alone. However, with the help of the other women in the district, she soon learned all she needed to run her farm and raise her children in the harsh and often lonely environment she found herself in.
Mary’s care extended beyond her own family. She was known for riding a “spirited bay mare” across the district helping those who were sick. In doing so, she was familiar with the ailments of the local residents. In 1873, Mary was called as a witness at the inquest into the death of young Joshua Black who was found dead in his bed one Monday morning in May. Mary was one of the last people to see Josuha alive on the previous evening, and she was able to say he appeared well and in no pain. With her knowledge of Josuha’s medical history, she was also able to offer the evidence that Josuha’s health at times was fragile and he had previously had a bad cough and some pain above his heart but had been well since the last winter. Margaret’s witness statement is part of the inquest file of Josuha Black held by the Public Record Office of Victoria and available online. In her statement, her opening sentence was, “I am a labouring woman living at Cape Bridgewater”.
When Mary’s daughter Sarah was fifteen, around 1874, the local state school teachers approached Mary with an offer to train Sarah as a teacher. Mary was very proud of Sarah who went on to become the headteacher at Kentbruck six years later. Mary remained at Cape Bridgewater until around 1905. By then, Sarah was the headteacher at Tahara State School and her sister Anne was living with her and keeping the house. Sarah retired from her position and she and Anne moved to Portland. It was planned Mary would move from Bridgewater to live with them. She sold her various farm implements.
Sarah and Ann purchased, Annesley in Julia Street, Portland, to operate as a private guest house.
“ANNESLEY”, PORTLAND Image courtesy of the J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/233404
Margaret BROWN: (1835-1939) also known as Margaret WALKER
MARGARET WALKER. The Age, 11 August 1939
“As quietly as she had lived for 104 years, Mrs. Thomas Walker, Hamilton’s grand old lady, passed away at her home in Shakespeare Street on Thursday last.” (Portland Guardian, 23 October 1939)
And so began the obituary of Margaret Walker (nee Brown). After fourteen years of the newspapers documenting some of Margaret’s significant birthdays, 90, 99, 100, 101, 103, and 104, they were saying their last farewell to a woman who lived during the reign of six British monarchs.
Margaret was born in Launceston on 11 August 1835 to Scottish immigrants John and Margaret Brown. They had arrived in Launceston in the early 1830s. They headed to Victoria around 1840 on the City of Sydney and John Brown was employed at Customs House in Portland. On 11 August 1852, Margaret’s seventeenth birthday, she married Thomas Walker, a twenty-nine-year-old Londoner who had arrived in Portland in the early 1840s. They were married by Presbyterian minister Reverand Ross at Portland.
The couple settled in Portland and remained there until 1866, when they moved to Hamilton, residing in Lonsdale Street. Thomas made his living as a land agent and was able to acquire land around the town. Margaret and Thomas had eight children. Two died as babies and in September 1880, her eldest son John Thomas died aged twenty-one. Then in July 1900, their son Frederick was accidentally killed at Subiaco, Western Australia.
Close to 1909, Margaret and Thomas went to live at 5 Shakespeare Street, Hamilton and that is where Thomas died in April 1909 at the age of eighty-six. By that time, Mary had one remaining son, George who lived in Geelong, and two daughters, Eliza in Melbourne and Maria who lived with Margaret.
When Margaret was ninety-seven, Maria died on 1 July 1932 at Hamilton at the age of seventy-six. The following year was Margaret’s ninety-eighth birthday and she was given a walking stick. By the time her ninety-ninth birthday came around in 1934, she hadn’t used the walking stick. She also didn’t wear glasses and would spend a few hours in her garden each day. By that time she also had nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Also in 1934, was the centenary of white settlement in Victoria, and an event was planned for Portland on 19 November. Margaret booked her accommodation well in advance. Her name would appear in the Book of remembrance of the pioneer women of the Portland Bay district written to coincide with the celebrations. She was one of only thirty-five female settlers named in the book still alive for the centenary. On the day, she was seated in a special area for those who had lived in Portland prior to 1864.
Margaret expected to be presented to the Duke of Gloucester but organisers overlooked that detail on the day. Word got back to the Royal party and a letter was forwarded to Margaret. She received it from His Royal Highness through his equerry (Captain Schrieber) in December 1934. It read:
The Royal train, Queensland, December 3rd, 1934.
Dear Madam, the Duke of Gloucester is sorry to hear that, owing to an oversight, you were not presented to him when His Royal Highness visited Portland, and he wishes me to congratulate you on attaining the age ninety-nine years, and hopes that you will continue in good health to see your centenary. You will be glad to know that His Royal Highness enjoyed his visit to Portland very much.
It was a busy year. Margaret planted a commemorative tree at the western end of Gray street, Hamilton for the centenary celebrations, and she produced seventeen pieces of eyelet linen work, made to give as gifts to family and friends.
In 1935, Margaret’s 100th birthday celebration was held at the Hollywood Cafe in Hamilton with the Mayor of Hamilton, Cr. Stewart, in attendance. The Hollywood Cafe can be seen on the extreme left in the photo below. The enclosed verandah displayed the name of the cafe, and it shared the ground-level verandah with the boot and shoe store.
After that outing, it became difficult for Margaret to get out on her birthday, so the Mayor of the day would visit her at her home instead. For her 101st birthday in 1936, twenty-five friends and family gathered at Margaret’s home in Shakespeare Street. Highlights were a birthday cake with 101 candles and a telegram from the Red Cross Society. Sadly Margaret’s daughter Eliza died in November of that year.
The next three birthdays were celebrated quietly at home but Margaret continued in good health. That was until only weeks after her 104th birthday. Margaret became fragile, eventually passing away on Thursday 19 October. She was buried the following day at the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery with Thomas and Marion.
GRAVE OF THOMAS AND MARGARET WALKER AND THEIR DAUGHTER MARION WATSON. HAMILTON (OLD) CEMETERY. Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria
Her obituary read:
During the whole of her sometimes eventful life, Mrs. Walker was a lover of all things beautiful, and in quiet contentment, surrounded by her own people and home where she could indulge her liking, which amounted to almost passion, for her garden, she enjoyed to the full her heart’s desire. (Portland Guardian 23 October 1939)
The remaining living member of Margaret’s immediate family at the time of her death was her son George Joseph Walker. He died in 1960 at Geelong.
REID, Isabella (c1873 -1953) Also Known as Isabella Gilhome
Isabella Reid was the daughter of William Reid and Johanna Steven and was born near Heywood in 1874, one of thirteen children. The Reid farm was Athol Hill on the Fitzroy River two miles from Heywood. In August 1917, Isabella then aged thirty-four, married Charles Gilhome of Colac at the Heywood Presbyterian Church. The reception was held at Heywood’s Federal Coffee Palace on the corner of Edgar and Scott Streets and owned by her father.
Isabella and Charles at first lived at Heywood but moved to Bundoora in early 1918. It was then a rural area and Charles ran a dairy farm. Around the same time, Charles began feeling unwell and was diagnosed with a liver condition. That led to depression and in July 1918, his doctor told him he should go away for a while. Charles and Isabella discussed his plight and Charles decided he would go away for a break. But it was too late. He died on Friday 12 July 1918.
Isabella initially stayed in the Bundoora area but returned to Heywood to be with her aging parents. In 1921, her father William died and in December 1922, the property in his estate was put up for sale including Athol Hill and the coffee palace. Isabella went on to purchase the coffee palace and adjoining land from the sale.
Vanda Savill’s book Dear Friends, Heywood (1976) mentions Isabella Gilhome and her sister Eliza Reid ran the coffee palace owned by the Reid family. It’s hard to establish when that was. A newspaper article from the Portland Guardian in 1914 mentions Miss Reid as the hostess, however that could have been her sister Eliza.
Isabella didn’t hold ownership of the coffee palace for long because, in September 1924, it and the adjoining shop was purchased by Edwin Bond.
In May 1925, Isabella’s mother Johanna died aged eighty-three. After her death, Isabella purchased Retreat in Millbanke Street, Portland, and she and her sister Eliza left Heywood.
Isabella again returned to Heywood. As a widowed woman, it was necessary for Isabella to generate an income and she was able to do that with property investment. Later her obituary would read,
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Gilhome took part in many business transactions, becoming well known as a keen businesswoman through the purchase and sale of houses and shops. She was one of the first to recognise the growing land values in a period of rapid development.
In May 1929, Isabella bought a block of land and house in Heywood from the estate of Patrick King with frontages to Edgar and Lindsay Streets.
In 1932, she applied to purchase Crown Land adjoining Scott, Edgar, and Lindsay Streets. While in 1945, she applied to subdivide allotments 4 and 5 of section 7 in Lindsay Street. In 1946, the Portland Shire Council bought a house belonging to Isabella at Heywood for £1300 for use as an engineer’s residence.
Isabella’s activities in Heywood and Portland went beyond business. She was a generous and charitable woman and gave back to the community. In 1927, she donated a blackwood armchair to the Portland Hospital and another chair for the women’s ward at the hospital.
During WW2, Isabella was active with the Heywood Red Cross and was on the committee of the Heywood Returned Soldiers Association Women’s Auxilary She donated money and knitted balaclavas and socks towards the war effort.
William and Johanna Reid were among the earliest parishioners at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Heywood and by 1939, their daughter Isabella was the oldest parishioner. In April 1939, she was given the honour of turning the key at the official opening of St Andrew’s Sunday School. Her connection to St Andrew’s extended to the Heywood Presbyterian Ladies Guild.
Isabella Gilhome died in July 1953 at Heywood aged eighty. She was buried at the Heywood Cemetery.
You can read about more Wonderful Western District women on the link: Western District Women
The year 1870 was wet across Australia. In January, summer storms brought flooding to Ballarat and Bendigo. Then, for several months, floods plagued NSW and Queensland. Winter came and the Western District received more than its share of rain.
The rain continued into spring and the Hamilton Spectator reported on 10 September 1870, “The present extraordinary season, according to many of the oldest inhabitants, has not been equalled in the Western District of Victoria for the last eighteen years.” That came after 1½ inches fell across 4 and 5 September, causing the Grange Burn at Hamilton to swell. Mail to the town was blocked for two days, with creeks along the route on the rise.
The Hopkins River was up and water lapped the back door of the Hexham Hotel. Mail couldn’t get through to Warrnambool from Melbourne and at Allansford, not only had the old bridge washed away but also the new bridge under construction.
The Wannon River (below) was raging and there were reports of trees going over the Wannon Falls. Further downstream, the road from Sandford to Casterton was cut and a bridge at Sandford was washed away.
WANNON RIVER, OCTOBER 2020
Streatham saw the largest flood the inhabitants could remember with families evacuated and the telegraph office flooded. At Skipton, the rise of Mount Emu Creek soon saw the streets flooded.
The Hamilton Spectator‘s Coleraine correspondent summed up the town’s experience during the rains of September 1870, pointing to the rapid rise of the water and the plight of the McCaskill family. He offered a grim assessment…”if the stream had not suddenly fallen, that a coroner’s inquest in the locality would have taken place.”
Bryan Creek, a tributary of the Wannon River, rises up near Vasey about thirty-five kilometres north-east of Coleraine, not far from the Dundas Ranges. Several small creeks run into it as it flows through the valleys of rolling hills. Those open hills enhance the beauty of the district but as Adam Lindsay Gordon wrote in his famous poem “The Fields of Coleraine”, “…the gullies are deep, and the uplands are steep” expediting water runoff into the creek.
As the day moved into night, clouds appeared and lightning illuminated the sky like nothing the residents had seen before. Thunder rumbled for two hours. Rain began to fall “gentle and warm” and then, when it seemed to have past, the people of Coleraine “went to repose, fearing nothing from the weather”.
Among them was Emma Laird, who lay down with her sleeping infants James and Isabella. She lived in a cottage behind the Albion newspaper office (below). The Drummond family, David, Margaret and their children were her neighbours. David’s niece Janet was staying over for the night.
Closer to the creek, carrier William Lewis, William Weaven, and another man were camped on what they thought was high ground near the bridge. There was no sleeping under the stars for them that night, instead they made their beds under the dray of William Lewis to shelter from the storm.
As the town went to sleep, little did they know what they thought was the sound of gale force winds roaring through the trees was actually water raging along Bryan Creek. Heavy rain in the catchment area was rapidly entering the waterway. At Gringegalong close to the creek’s headwater, water was knee-deep within an hour. By midnight Bryan Creek was “a roaring torrent and inundated the sleeping town” having risen five feet in two hours. There was chaos. People ran between houses trying to wake the occupants and soon a crowd was gathering near the lowest part of the town where the cottages were submerged in water.
THE FLOODS. (1870, November 3). Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 – 1843; 1854 – 1876), p. 2 (EVENINGS). Retrieved October 20, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65423451
The Coleraine correspondent for the Hamilton Spectator opened his front door only to be almost swept off his feet by the rush of incoming water. He managed to close the door again, but only with the help of another person. He said outside it was “a sea, roaring and boiling, and crushing all in its course.”
Such was the commotion, the order in which the events of that night occurred differ slightly between eye-witness accounts from the likes of the Hamilton Spectator‘s correspondent and the Coleraine Albion reporter. Piecing the various reports together, I believe this is how it all unfolded.
Around 12.30 am, an attempt was made to rescue residents on the low ground, including those at the residence of Robert Wright, the brickmaker on the banks of the creek, and dressmaker Betsy Gillies. In the nick of time, the Wright family got themselves across the deluge to safe ground. Miss Gillies was woken from her slumber and also escaped. In both cases, another few minutes, and the outcome would have been disastrous.
Attention then turned to the two cottages behind the Albion office, that of the Drummonds and Lairds. By now, the water was knee-deep and the current was too fast to safely cross. Constable James Mahon made a dash for it but was carried away. Fortunately, he managed to land on top of a pigsty and was able to get back to safety. He tried again and was able to save one of the children. Storekeeper Louis Lesser also headed across the water and rescued another child. He was also able to lift Mrs Margaret Drummond out of the water and on to the roof of a cowshed. Her husband, David Drummond got three children to safety and went back for three more, James and Margeret Jr and his niece Janet. He had one on his back and one in each arm as he made his way across. Suddenly, the current caught him, and all four were swept away.
Charles Loxton, the young accountant from the National Bank of Australasia (below). attempted to cross on his horse. They were both swept away, and it was then the rescue was abandoned.
FORMER NATIONAL BANK OF AUSTRALASIA, WHYTE STREET, COLERAINE.
Around 1.00 am the water had fallen enough for another attempt to cross to the cottages. Margaret Drummond was found sitting on the cowshed but the rescuers’ worst fears were soon realised. During all the commotion, Emma Laird and two of her children had washed away on their beds as they slept. William Lewis and William Weaven camped by the creek were swept away from beneath the dray. Their friend managed to get himself to safety.
By 8.00 am on Saturday morning, the creek had “assumed its natural proportions” and the horse of Charles Loxton grazed nonchalantly by the creek. It was as though nothing had happened.
But looking around the town, it was anything but normal. It was devastating. “The scene when morning dawned was heartrending. Men, women, and children were found on chimneys and housetops; and all sorts of property was floating about”. The water was three feet deep in McLean’s timber yard and the store of Edmond Dacomb (below) was also flooded.
Also flooded was the store of Abraham Lesser (below) and his brother Louis, a hero only hours earlier.
The bridge over Bryan Creek on the Penola road was destroyed, and the streets were a mess. Almost ominously, headstones at Alfred Priest’s monumental yard were scattered. There was slime everywhere the water had been. Logs, bales of wool and a haystack had washed down the creek. Further downstream, Murdoch McCaskill’s farm once again suffered damage.
The harrowing task of searching for bodies began at first light, with the whole town turning out even though very few had slept. Holes were checked and logs were turned over. By 6.00 pm on Saturday evening, five bodies had been recovered, all of them children. Five adults were still missing. On Sunday, the bodies of Emma Laird and William Lewis were found. Later, the searchers noticed a piece of clothing pocking out from under a huge log. It took around fifty men to remove the log and expose the body of Charles Loxton
As they were found, the bodies were laid out in McKnight’s “old courtroom” and family gathered around their lost loved ones. George Trangmar, the coroner, issued the certificates of burial. The funeral for eight of the victims took place on Monday 31 October at 6.00 pm. The coffins left McKnights for the cemetery with the Oddfellows in the lead, two abreast, then a hearse with some of the coffins, followed by a wagon with the rest. There was a very large cortege and to emphasise the tragedy, reports mentioned there were thirty to forty women in attendance. It was not customary for women to attend funerals in those times.
COLERAINE CEMETERY
The body of William Lewis was taken to Sandford for burial.
The Portland correspondent for the Hamilton Spectator told of how the news of the lives lost at Coleraine came in by telegram subsequently casting a gloom over his town. He hoped a suitable monument would be erected to remember the bravery of Charles Loxton and David Drummond.
A week on and William Weaven’s body had not been found, but his family kept searching along the creek for him but to no avail. During September 1872, human remains were found in Bryan Creek about five kilometres downstream from the bridge at Coleraine. The local police decided an inquest was unnecessary as it seemed almost certain the remains were those of William Weaven.
THE VICTIMS
DAVID DRUMMOND and his children James and Margaret DRUMMOND.
David Drummond married Margaret Watson in Tillicoultry, Scotland on 12 June 1852 (1) and they boarded the Chance at Liverpool, England on 23 July 1852 (2). It was a difficult journey with forty-six deaths and on arrival in Melbourne on 28 October 1852, the ship was quarantined and remained so for almost three weeks. Once on dry land, the couple made their way to the Geelong district. A son James was born in 1853 but sadly he died the next year (3). Another son Richard was born in 1854 (4) and a daughter Margaret in 1857 (5). James was born in 1862 at Duck Ponds near Geelong (6).
The family moved west to join other members of the Drummond family sometime after 1862 with John born at Casterton in 1867 (7). It was there in the same year, Margaret Jr, aged ten, faced the Casterton Court of Petty Sessions. Her charges of stealing a pocketbook were eventually dismissed. It was also the year David Jr died at Sandford, aged seven (8). The following year, baby John died, also at Sandford. (9) In 1869, another son was born and named David (10). He was born at Dundas suggesting the family had moved to Coleraine, within the Shire of Dundas.
After the tragic death of her husband and children in 1870, Margaret Drummond continued to live in Coleraine. In her old age, she lived with her son Richard. She died on 1 March 1914 her life punctuated with tragedy. She was buried at the Coleraine Cemetery with David, James, and Margaret (11). Richard died on 17 July 1932 at Coleraine (12). Margaret’s other surviving son David Jr. settled at Streatham. He died in 1941 at Sebastopol (13).
Janet DRUMMOND
Janet, the niece of David and Margaret Drummond was born at Branxholme in 1861, the daughter of George Drummond and Margaret Scott (14). Her father owned the Shamrock Inn at Coleraine from the early 1870s and then the Koroite Inn from February 1876.
Emma Jane LAIRD and her children James and Isabella
Emma Jane Laird was born around 1842 as Emma Jane Till. Emma arrived from Middlesex, England in 1861 aboard the Oithona and went to work as a housemaid at Dundas station for Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins (15). She married James Laird in 1864 (16). The following year, a daughter Louisa Matilda was born at Coleraine (17). Isabella Jane was born in 1867 (18) followed by a son James Alexander in 1869 (19). James Snr and Louisa were not mentioned in newspaper reports of the flood. James appears to have worked for a contractor and may have been away working, maybe the same reason Louisa went into the care of her grandparents at Casterton in the years after the flood. That, however, soured when in 1876 Alexander Laird took his son James to court for costs incurred for the board and lodging of Louisa. At the age of eighteen, Louisa married John McCreddan in 1883 (20). She died at Noradjua in 1887 aged just twenty-one (21).
Charles Arthur LOXTON
Charles Loxton was born in Liverpool, Lancashire in 1847, a son of George Loxton and Catherine Holland (22). The Loxton family including eight children arrived on the Catharine Mitchell when Charles was three in 1853 (23). It’s not clear when twenty-two-year-old Charles went to Coleraine for work but it may not have bee long before the flood. The National Bank of Australasia where he was an accountant was opened in 1870. Charles’ brother Holland Loxton was the town clerk at Kew. In 1948, Charles’ grave at the Coleraine Cemetery was restored using money donated by then-current and past residents. More about the grave can be seen on the link to Monument Australia – Grave of Charles Arthur Loxton
William LEWIS
William Lewis was a son of Thomas Lewis and Rebecca Braham and was born in Tasmania in1843 (24). At some point, the family travelled to Victoria and settled at Sandford, and William worked as a carrier. On Saturday 22 October 1870, he departed the stores of Stephen Henty in Portland with goods for Coleraine. It would be his last job. William was twenty-seven at the time of his death.
William Eric WEAVEN
William Weaven was a son of Thomas Weaven and Christiana Butcher and was born at Portland in 1844 (25).
FLOODING IN OTHER AREAS OF THE WESTERN DISTRICT
At Brung Brungle Station at Redruth (Wannon) close to Coleraine, and owned by John B, Hughes, employee William DUNTON was drowned while trying to save the station’s stud rams. He fell from his horse into the water and, despite being a strong swimmer and struggling for some, exhaustion saw him and succumb to the waters. William was a local boy born around 1853, a son of William Dunton and Elizabeth Edwards. He was buried at the Coleraine Cemetery on 4 November 1870.
Also at Redruth, trees were washing down the Wannon River and hitting the bridge on the main road to Coleraine. On Saturday afternoon 29 October at about 2.30 pm the bridge, only six years old was washed away. Trees were going over the Nigretta and Wannon Falls. The local correspondent for the Hamilton Spectator ventured to the Wannon Falls and found a “huge boiling cauldron” beneath. Trees from further up the river lay below. He then went to see the bridge on the main road. It was on its last legs and soon it washed down the river towards the Wannon Falls.
With the bridge out, the only way to get the mail through was a rope over the river or behind the path of the falls (below).
At Hilgay not far from Coleraine, John MOFFAT was drowned. A number of horses on the property were in hobbles and stranded in deep water. The owners of two of the horses offered £1 each to anyone who would go underwater and cut the hobbles. Shortly after, John Moffat asked one of the owners for a knife and a pipe of tobacco. He didn’t say he was going to free the horses but instead just “strolled away. Later it was noticed he was missing, and a search was made. His clothes were found on the river bank by his friends, but his body couldn’t be found.
At Roseneath on the Glenelg River north of Casterton, eleven-year-old Lewis Frank Russel RALSTON, a son of Robert Ralston and Jane Ross was drowned in the river.
There was an electrical storm at Casterton and subsequent floods were considered the “greatest floods ever” or at least since 1851. Stores and homes were flooded while at nearby Sandford, the bridge over the Wannon River washed away. At Balmoral, the “old” bridge was gone and around Harrow, the water offered “an almost uninterrupted swim”.
At Hamilton, communications were down and the Hamilton Spectator said it “rained in torrents for hours”.
THE WEATHER AND THE TELEGRAPH.— (1870, October 29). Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918), p. 2. Retrieved October 1, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196304024
One report suggested around 34 mm of rain fell in a short time. The bridge over the Grange Burn on Dunkeld Road (now Ballarat Road) was partially washed away. Further downstream, the Grange Inn on the banks of the creek was in more than a metre of water resulting in the kitchen breaking away and washing down the creek. One of the abutments on the nearby Portland Road bridge had washed away and the roadway had fallen in.
PORTLAND ROAD BRIDGE, HAMILTON
To the east, sheep washes were swept away at Strathkellar and around 600 sheep were drowned at Warrayure. At Portland, the storm was spectacular and around 17mm of rain fell.
There were cries of “Not October storms again” as people recalled the floods in the town the year prior. Then Bridge Street was a river (below) but in 1870, the water level exceeded that high mark.
The people of Coleraine have been no strangers to flooding over the years. For example, there was 1893, 1906, 1983, and more recently 2016, the worst flooding since 1946, the year of ‘The Big Flood‘ across the Western District. Even earlier this month while writing this account, two days of almost constant rain saw the Bryan Creek once again rise, resulting in some minor flooding.
The flood of October 1870 was disastrous and possibly the worst in the town’s history, but as there weren’t official records kept for rainfall and the creek levels, it is difficult to compare. The only comparison can be made with the number of fatalities and fortunately, there has never been a repeat of the loss of life seen in 1870.
You can find more about the history of flooding at Coleraine from the following video prepared for the Southern Grampians Shire Council investigation into the 2016 Coleraine floods. You can read the full report on the link – Coleraine Flood Investigation
* Bryan Creek – While researching the 1870 floods, I came across several variations of the name of the creek which passes by Coleraine, Bryan Creek, Bryan’s Creek, Bryants Creek, Koroite Creek, and Koroite Rivulet. The use of Koroite comes from the Koroite run. The homestead stood on the northern bank of the creek just west of the township once known as Bryan’s Creek from the name of the run taken up by John Bryan in 1837 and later his brother Samuel. In 1937, the Portland Guardian claimed Samuel Pratt Winter said in the Hamilton Spectator in 1878, also the year of his death, that somewhere along the line someone had added a”t”.
Pioneers of Wannon Country. (1937, December 20). Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 – 1953), p. 2 (EVENING.). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64277877
However, going back to 1849 and a description of the boundaries of the Koroite run, both Bryan’s Creek (possibly the aforementioned pastoral run) and Bryant’s Creek are referred to.
Advertising (1849, March 5). Port Phillip Gazette and Settler’s Journal (Vic. : 1845 – 1850), p. 4. Retrieved October 29, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223156343
SOURCES
1. Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910, FamilySearch, David Drummond, 1852, FHL Film No. 1040210
2. PROV, Assisted British Immigration Index, VPRS 14, Book 7, Page 54, Chance, 1852
3. Victorian BDM’s Death Index, James DRUMMOND, 1854, Reg. No. 3277/1854
September Passing of the Pioneers sees ten new obituaries enter the Obituary Index. I started writing in mid-August and between limited time and some interesting stories among the subjects, it’s taken me almost to the end of September to finish. You can read about a father and son, a woman who lost her sons during WW1 and another her grandson, and two young people who did so much in their comparatively short lives. There are also some connections, as there often are. They include two Branxholme pioneers who both operated out of the same shop. One of them became mixed up with rogue Hamilton solicitor Louis Horwitz just as another of the subjects did, however, their experiences were very much different.
WALKER, Duncan Stewart – Died 29 September 1889 at Camperdown. Duncan Stewart was born around 1827 in Argyllshire, Scotland. After the death of his father, Duncan came to Australia with his mother, arriving at Geelong in 1841. Just thirteen Duncan gained employment at Kardinia on the Barwon River, the run of Dr Alexander Thomson remaining for ten years. He then went into partnership with Robert Lowe in a tanning and currier business on the Barwon River. It operated successfully until the river flooded in June 1852. The following year the partnership was dissolved.
Advertising (1853, March 5). Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer (Vic. : 1851 – 1856), p. 2 (DAILY.). Retrieved August 30, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94360577
However, Duncan started a partnership with another member of the Lowe family in 1853 when he married Robert’s sister Margaret. Soon after he bought two lots of land at Lismore in September 1853 at a price of £25. Around 1860, he took over operations of the Leura Hotel at Camperdown and he and Margaret moved to that town
After selling the hotel in 1867 to John Wiggins, Duncan went into partnership with John Paton in the Dixie estate on the Mount Emu Creek near Terang, but eventually, Paton left the partnership. Duncan was elected to the Hampden Shire Council in 1870 and sat until 1888, serving as president for the last two years. He was also the first chairman of directors of the Cobden Cheese and Butter Factory in October 1888.
Duncan was an elder of the Terang Presbyterian Church,(below), and was also involved with the church at Camperdown and Ecklin. He had a special interest in ensuring the religious needs of the Presbyterian community of the Heytesbury Forest were met.
After his death, memorial services were held for Duncan at the Presbyterian churches in the Terang district.
BROWN, Elizabeth Moncreif – Died 2 September 1900 at Hamilton. Elizabeth Brown, known as Bessie was born at Hamilton in1868, the eldest child of butcher Thomas Brown and Mary Ann Cameron. When she was eight, she suffered from a bout of severe inflammation of the lungs damaging one of her lungs permanently. Bessie never married and devoted her life to her faith, charity, and temperance. She was an active member of Hamilton’s St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church as a Sunday School teacher and honourary organist for around ten years.
In May 1900, at the financial business meeting of the church, Bessie was given a purse of sovereigns in recognition of her work as the organist. She was also given a bound copy of the new Hymnary which was making its way into Victorian Presbyterian churches after being adopted by churches in Scotland. Her father spoke on her behalf saying Bessie’s work was “purely a labour of love, and from a sincere desire to advance the welfare of the church.”
Bessie was a member of the Hamilton branch of the Band of Hope, the Hamilton Total Abstinence Society, Society of Christian Endeavour of which she was treasurer, and she was secretary of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) from the time of its inception in Hamilton. At the last WCTU meeting before her death on 14 August 1900. when the time came for Bessie’s secretary’s report, her father was called on to read it, with the chairman commenting he was sorry they could not induce her to read the report herself.
On 29 August 1900, Bessie contracted a cold, and inflammation to her lungs resulted. She rallied for a time, but things took a turn for the worse on 1 September and she died the following morning aged just thirty-two. She was remembered for her quiet, unassuming nature and her devotion and enthusiasm to her various voluntary endeavours. That admiration was evident with the large attendance at Bessie’s funeral. The pallbearers were made up of prominent townsmen including three past and future Hamilton Mayors.
After Bessie’s death, The Band of Hope held a special night of entertainment to honour her work with the organisation. Bessie’s father Thomas died in 1903 and in 1904, memorial windows in honour of Bessie and Thomas were unveiled at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.
RYAN, Anthony – Died 2 September 1901 at Perth. Anthony Ryan was born to Thomas Ryan and Margaret Witherow at Sebastopol in 1871. Thomas worked with Victoria Railway and with the opening up of the railways in the south-west in the late 1870s, the Ryans moved close to Hamilton. Thomas worked as the railway gatekeeper at Pierrepoint on the Penshurst line. Anthony, known to all as Tony, attended the Warrayure State School just east of Hamilton. He was a very bright student and his final marks saw him offered a scholarship to the Hamilton Academy to complete matriculation. While still a student, he was also helping as an assistant teacher, and on finishing his matriculation, he began teaching in his own right at the Academy.
He was then appointed headteacher of St Mary’s School in Hamilton. Around the same time, Tony’s younger brother Edmund was following in his footsteps. He had received a scholarship from the Academy and was dux in 1890. Edmund was then was taken on as an articled clerk with local solicitors Samuel and Horwitz. He showed an aptitude for the law but his life was cut short at just seventeen. Edmund died on 20 June 1892 from rheumatic fever. Tony and Edmund’s mother had only died in the months before.
That same year, Tony left education and himself went in the law, working as a clerk for Samuel & Horwitz and beginning his study for the law examination. When partner Samuel Samuel was elected to Victoria’s Legislative Assembly for the seat of Dundas in April 1892, Tony became his private secretary. Samuel, however, died suddenly in Melbourne on 28 July 1892. Tony got involved with the Hamilton branch of the Progressive Political League. He was appointed acting honorary secretary in January 1893 and in August 1893 was elected president. He was vice-president of the Catholic Young Men’s Society. He was also the secretary fo the Grangeburn Cricket Club and 4 October 1895 turned down a nomination for President because he would “probably leave Hamilton”.
Probably became definitely soon after when Tony aged twenty-four announced he was leaving for the Western Australian goldfields. On 17 October 1895, he was given a send-off at the Caledonian Hotel. It appears he travelled first to Niagara close to 200 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and where gold was discovered in January 1895. It was there he had an interest in a butcher shop with Mr Hill. He then headed to the goldfields further north in the area between Leonora and Laverton, at the Mounts Margaret, Morgans, and Malcolm goldfields.
Tony got into action quickly and threw himself into the community. He was chairman of the first progress committee at Malcolm and chairman of the hospital committee. He contributed to the Goldfields Press and the sporting journal The Umpire. He also joined Charles Geddes in partnership in building the Royal Hotel at Malcolm 1897 which they conducted successfully.
It was eventually time for both Tony and Charles Geddes to move on. They sold the Royal Hotel and in September 1898, they were given a send-off by the people of Malcolm They explained their partnership would continue and they knew of some land which had not been prospected so they were going to try their luck. Two months later it was announced they were opening the Golden Pinnacle mine at the British Flag. Their luck must have been out because Tony apparently ended up at Freemantle working at solicitors firm as an accountant. He then worked with a solicitor in Perth, before joining Dalgety & Co. He then returned to the east and Hamilton.
On 7 March 1899, the Young Catholic Men’s welcomed Tony back to Hamilton and gave a talk about the geography of inland Western Australia, an area he described as the “land of sand and sorrow”. Over summer 1900, as all good Hamiltonians do he enjoyed a holiday in Port Fairy staying at the Star of the West Hotel. He also joined the Liberals and at a meeting in Hamilton in April 1900 to discuss all things political in the Shire of Dundas, Tony was appointed chairman. He also returned to work for Louis Horwitz. It was said he assisted Horwitz on his work “The Consolidation of the Statutes of Victoria.” volumes of which were published in 1898 but also in September 1899. That would have left little time for Tony to contribute.
The goldfields of the west were once again summoning him. At least friends from Mount Margaret who had notified him of a chance for candidature in upcoming WA elections It was an opportunity Tony couldn’t miss. He had a yearning for political life. In February 1901, a group met at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Thompson Street Hamilton to once again farewell Tony before his departure for the west. Louis Horwitz was among the speakers.
Unfortunately for Tony, he was not accepted as a candidate for the Labor party. His time away impeded his chances and he just missed out to fellow candidate George Taylor. Tony joined George’s campaign assisting him in winning the seat. On 16 April 1901, Tony was given a send-off at Lenora before his return to Perth after the elections. He was presented with an inscribed gold locket.
The Mt Lenora Miner, reflecting back only five months before when Tony was leaving Leonora, commented, “frequent were the remarks that the future premiership of the colony was within Mr Ryan’s grasp”. The Mount Morgans Miner remembered him as one of the pioneers of Malcolm. Tony was only thirty when he died but had done so much and had such a bright future. He was likened in several obituaries to West Australian Charles Vosper who died in January 190. They were taking similar paths into Western Australian public life. They were also buried in the same cemetery, both in the Roman Catholic section.
On 5 December 1902, a group of Hamilton townsmen met at the Prince of Wales Hotel to discuss a memorial for Tony. On 10 February 1904, a memorial was unveiled at the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery.
Senator Trenwith was in town at the time so was asked to assist with the unveiling along with Father Shanahan. A letter was read from Louis Horwitz who could not attend.
MEMORIAL FOR ANTHONY RYAN, HAMILTON (OLD) CEMETERY
BEST, Jabez – Died 9 September 1903 at Branxholme. Born in Hastings, England around 1821, Jabez arrived in Tasmania with his parents in 1829. He remained there until 23 September 1843 when at the age of twenty-two, he boarded the Minerva and travelled to Portland Bay. His brother Thomas had arrived there a year earlier on 20 April 1842 also on the Minerva. Thomas had made his way to the area known then as Arrandoovong, later becoming Branxholme. and was running the Travellers Rest hotel.
In 1853, Jabez married Nanny Penrose and they went on to have six children. Jabez ran a store in Branxholme and was also the first postmaster, not to mention the Electoral Registrar, Dog Inspector. the correspondent for the Common School, and Registrar for Births, Deaths, and Marriages something he did for forty years before his daughter Sarah carried on the role. Jabez was a member of the Branxholme Presbyterian Church congregation and was the first secretary of the Branxholme Branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
Jabez, who lived in Wyndham Street, Branxholme was rightly opposed to the poor treatment of the local aboriginals who knew him as “Sixty-Six”. He was an abstainer and member of the Sons of Temperance. At the time of his death, he was the oldest pledged total abstainer in the Commonwealth having attended the first public Temperance meeting held in Tasmanian sometime around 1840.
Jabez left his widow Nanny, two sons, and four daughters to mourn him. He was buried at the Branxholme Cemetery, The Best family are remembered on the Branxholme Pioneer Wall, below.
BRANXHOLME PIONEER WALL
HAMILTON, Barnabas – Died 19 September 1907 at Kirkstall. Barnabas Hamilton was born around 1830 in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland. As a young man, he made a trip to New York but returned to Scotland where he married Ann Hope on 27 May 1854. Not long after, Barnabas and Ann, along with John, Catherine, and Matthew Hamilton, the parents and younger brother of Barnabas, began their journey to Australia. They set off from Aberlady, East Lothian travelling first to Edinburgh then Glasgow and then on to Plymouth, England where they sailed aboard the Oithona on 21 October 1854. They arrived at Portland on 30 January 1855.
John and Catherine went on to Warrnambool while Barnabas and Ann went to Kirkstall as Barnabas had obtained work on the property of Andrew Laidlaw. He remained there for three years before joining a shearing team at William Rutledge’s property Farnham Park between Warrnambool and Tower Hill. Barnabas and Ann settled at Kirkstall and raised six children. Barnabas was an elder of the Koroit Presbyterian Church (below).
Barnabas was seventy-seven at the time of his death and left his widow Ann, four sons, and two daughters. He was buried at the Tower Hill Cemetery. Ann died in 1916.
In 1937, four years after the death of Barnabas and Ann’s son John Hope Hamilton (see obituary below), a dusty box was found amongst his things. Inside was an old diary belonging to Barnabas. It was then found Barnabas had visited New York prior to his marriage to Ann and their departure for Australia. In the diary, Barnabas went into great detail describing the daily routine of the Sing Sing prisoners and the design of the prison. You can read more on the link – Diary of Barnabas Hamilton.
SILBERBERG, Mayer Matus – Died 6 September 1908 at St Kilda. Mayer Silberberg was born around 1843 in Poland. While Mayer was still a young child, he and his parents Sciacob (Jacob) and Golda, two elder sisters and an elder brother made their way to England. They then left London on 2 August 1853 aboard the ship Asia bound for Australia, arriving at Port Phillip. They settled in Melbourne and Jacob ran a shop in Queen Street. At one stage the family was living in Bourke Street opposite the Theatre Royal.
When he was fourteen, Mayer’s mother Golda died on 17 August 1857 aged forty. By then, Jacob was running a small shop in Little LaTrobe Street and by 1860, Mayer was working at the pawnbroker’s store of Wolf Brasch in Swanston Street. Wolf was also Mayer’s brother-in-law having married Esther Silberberg in 1857.
Jacob Silberberg moved to Macarthur by 1863 to operate the French General Store and Mayer followed his father.
Jacob built a new store in Macarthur in 1866 which Mayer helped him run. In 1869 and at the age of twenty-six, it was time for Mayer to out on his own and he took over the store of Jabez Best (see obituary above) at Branxholme.
Mayer took over the shop of Mr Maxwell at Condah in 1879. He took out a grocer’s liquor license as he had done with the Branxholme store, something that would not have happened while teetotaller Jabez Best owned it.
Advertising (1899, July 29). Hamilton Spectator (Vic. : 1870 – 1918), p. 3 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR). Retrieved September 6, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225680581
In January 1885, there was a fire at Mayer’s Branxholme store. The family home was attached and they lost all their possessions but Mayer rebuilt.
“Advertising” Hamilton Spectator 14 February 1885: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225661212
Mayer was active in the community. He was a member of the Branxholme Mechanics Institute and a founder of the Branxholme Debating Society. He was secretary of the Branxholme Cemetery trust for seventeen years. On 1 May 1885, a rifle club was formed at Branxholme on Mayer’s suggestion and he was a member of the first committee. Mayer was a Portland Shire councillor for around fourteen years and was president at the time of Australia’s Federation in 1901
In February 1902, Mayer announced was retiring from business and was moving to Melbourne. In March 1902, he resigned from his position on the Portland Shire Council He was described by the Portland Guardian as the “Pooh-Bah” of Branxholme. The following month, on 4 April 1902, a gathering was held at Branxholme to farewell Mayer and Caroline from the district. John Thomson of Monivae presided and various tributes were paid, telling of the charitable work of the pair. They were presented with two silver dishes. The inscription read, “Presented to Mr, and Mrs. Silberberg by the residents of Branxholme and Condah, as a token of esteem and regard, on their departure from the district after a residence of 32 years”. Soon after they moved to their new home in High St, Prahan.
In November 1903, Mayer lent his son Sidney £2000 plus interest so Sidney, a solicitor could enter a partnership with Hamilton solicitor Louis Horwitz. Horwitz guaranteed Sidney a return of £1000 return per annum. In June 1904, Horwitz left Hamilton for Western Australia. Reports came back a week after his departure that had fallen overboard from a ship between Adelaide and Freemantle and drowned. Soon after, Sidney began hearing his partner had misappropriated significant sums of money from many Hamilton and district residents. It turned out Horwitz didn’t drown. He had faked his death and was subsequently brought back to Victoria to stand trial, leading to jail time. That didn’t help Sidney. He was insolvent and his father became a creditor of Horwitz. Sidney faced the insolvency court in 1906.
Mayer Silberberg died on 6 September 1908 at his home in High Street Prahan, leaving his widow Caroline, four sons, and three daughters. He was buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery. Mayer left money in his will to the St Kilda and East Melbourne Synagogues, the Children’s Hospital, and the Melbourne Jewish Philanthropic Society.
The repercussions of Sidney’s failed partnership with Louis Horwitz were still dragging on in 1913, as Mayer’s family were trying to settle his estate. Proceedings in the Insolvency court focused on a second mortgage taken out by Mayer on land in Hamilton and the underestimation of his proof of debt. If you are interested in learning more you can read the related articles on the following links – Insolvency Court 1 – 7 November 1913 and Insolvency Court 2 – The Outcome – December 1913
URQUHART, Alexander Wilson – Died 20 September 1911 at Myamyn. Alexander Urquhart was born in Glasgow, Scotland around 1822. He arrived at Portland in 1853 and got work at Bowett station. Soon after he married Euphemia McDonald of Branxholme. About ten years into their marriage they moved to the Whittlebury district near Condah. Alexander obtained work as a shepherd for Cecil Cooke at the Lake Condah estate. He continued in that work for forty-seven years eventually working for Cecil’s son Samuel Winter Cooke.
In 1901, a bushfire that started at Tahara spread to the Condah area. Alexander’s wife Euphemia had her hands and feet badly burnt and was lucky to be saved by one her sons. Their home was not saved. Alexander and Euphemia took up residence at the Condah Hills homestead where their son John was the manager. Euphemia, who never fully recovered from the shock of the fires, died in July 1907. When Condah Hills was sold by Samuel Winter Cooke in 1911, Alexander went to live with his son but his health quickly declined. Alexander left five sons and three daughters and was buried at the Myamyn cemetery.
BARCLAY, Janet – Died 4 September 1916 at Hamilton. Janet Johnstone was born around 1840 in Scotland. Her family arrived in Victoria was she was still a young child and her father John Barclay operated the Greenvale Inn near Heywood. Janet married James Bannam in 1864 and they went on to have nine children. She was an active woman, often outdoors, and was an excellent horsewoman. Janet had great community spirit and was always ready to help. Back in the times when medical help was still some distance away, she was often called on to for assistance.
In early June 1895, an explosion at the sawmill of James Bannam at Dunmore near Heywood, her son Arthur Bannam was killed along with her brother Robert Barclay. WW1 broke and Janet grandson John died in 1915 from wounds received at Gallipoli. Janet fell sick in September 1916 and was taken from her home in Milltown to the Hamilton Hospital where she died. She was buried at the Hamilton (Old) Cemetery. Janet left her husband James, seven sons, and two daughters.
McPHERSON, Mary – Died 30 September 1920 at Bostock’s Creek. Mary McPherson was born in Canada to Scottish parents around 1848. She arrived in Australia with her parents when she was four. In 1869, Mary married Arthur Clingin. Arthur had discovered the Homeward Bound reef at Hillsborough in north-east Victoria around 1865. They went on to have eight sons and two daughters. Arthur died in November 1897. At the time her youngest child was just five and her oldest twenty-six. Mary made a move to the Camperdown district around 1900. She spent fifteen years living at Bostocks Creek. Tragedy came in November 1912, her son Wilfred, known to the family as “Little Billy” died in Albany, Western Australia at the age of thirty-two,
Mary was a member of the local Church of England congregation and helped out with community events. During WW1 three of Mary’s sons enlisted and she did her bit with the Red Cross. The war, however, took its toll on Mary who suffered anxiety while her sons where away, heightened by the capture of her son George as a POW. George died in a POW camp from pneumonia in 1918. Mary died on 30 September 1930 and was buried at Camperdown Cemetery,
John Hamilton was born at Kirkstall around 1856 to Barnabas Hamilton and Ann Hope. When still a boy, he went to work at nearby Farnham Park where his father also worked. After seven years John was taken on as manager and remained for a further four years. He then rented a dairy farm from William Horne at Allansford sending milk from his cows to the Warrnambool Butter Factory. In 1882, John married Mary Alice Smith of Port Fairy.
John and Mary then moved to Renny Hill on the banks of Lake Bullen Merri at Camperdown, with John taking over the running of the dairy which at the time was at the top of Park Lane, later named Taylor Avenue. Eventually, John became the manager of the whole estate from about 1911. The family lived in the manager’s residence (below). until around 1921 when they moved to their own home in Taylor Avenue opposite Rennyhill.
When John arrived at Renny HIll the cows were mostly Jersey but he purchased a shorthorn bull at the Royal Melbourne Show, greatly improved the herd. He also set about improving the dairy and built a piggery. So successful was his farm management, he won the Leader Dairy Farms Competition, worth 50 guineas, and open to all farms in the State. Mr. Hamilton’s portion of the prize was an inscribed silver teapot, given to him by William Taylor. Photos of Renny Hill also appeared in the Leader newspaper as seen below.
The following year, the Camperdown Chronicle included John in a series “Talks with District Dairymen” and he imparted his expert knowledge of dairy farming. A sample is below
William Taylor wasn’t keen on cropping, but eventually, John convinced him to trial three acres of oats. So impressive was the crop, oat cropping became a regular part of the farm. John also trained sheep dogs and was in demand as a cattle judge at agriculture shows throughout the Western District and the Royal Melbourne Show. He was also involved with the Camperdown Pastoral and Agriculture.
During WW1, George Leonard Hamilton, a son of John and Ann served with the 7th Field Engineers as a farrier reaching the rank of Sergeant and being Mienitoned in Distpatches. Mary died on 11 November 1931. In March 1933, just six months before John’s death, the Camperdown Chronicle ran a story on John, preserving some of his memories. John was seventy-seven at the time of his death on 13 September 1933. He was buried at the Camperdown Cemetery leaving five sons and one daughter.
Western District Families 
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