Discoverers of Port Phillip monument, Sims Street, Footscray

I came across the following in the 1957 book  Peeps into the Past: a book of  Melbourne  Curiosities by  Mary Maxwell (1) -  Remembered yesterday and forgotten today - that is the fate of an obelisk standing  a few yards off the Melbourne Road near the Footscray Swing bridge. Erected by  a patriotic group about  a quarter of  a century ago (the actual date of the unveiling and by whom are obscure) to mark the original junction of the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers, discovered by Charles Edward Grimes in 1803 and rediscovered by Batman in 1835, few people today are aware of its existence. The land was presented to the Old Pioneers' Memorial Fund by the Melbourne Harbour Trust as a site for an historic marking; the memorial was officially unveiled on Sunday, November 23, 1941. Details of a well-known ship which sailed Port Phillip Bay in those days may be found on the back of the monument.

The Discoverers of Port Phillip monument, Sims Street

Photo: Isaac Hermann February 2020

The memorial is in Sims Street, just where it passes under Footscray Road, and was erected in this location to mark the original junction of the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers. The route of the Yarra was altered by the construction of the Coode Canal (2) in 1886 and  you can see the original route of the Yarra in this map, taken from a 1938 Street Directory, below.

The memorial is just south of Sims Street and the 'new Melbourne and Footscray Road' intersection. You can see the old course of the Yarra - it says 'river practically abolished'

Morgan's Official Street Directory, 1938 21st edition

State Library of Victoria  http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/R/?func=collections&collection_id=2982

The monument has two inscriptions    -

This monument has been erected to mark the original junction of the Yarra and the Maribyrnong Rivers which was near this spot. These rivers were originally discovered by Charles Howard Grimes in February 1803 and refound by John Batman in June 1835.

Photo: Isaac Hermann February 2020

Port Phillip was discovered by John Murray in the Lady Nelson in February 1802. The first vessel in Hobson's Bay was the Cumberland with Grimes the Surveyor. The first man o'war was the Calcutta at the end of the same year 1802. The first vessel to ascend the Yarra was John P. Fawkner's Enterprise.

Photo: Isaac Hermann February 2020

Miss Maxwell lists the date of the unveiling as November 23, 1941, in spite of the fact that she said the actual date of the unveiling and the by whom is obscure but never mind. I have found some newspaper reports of the unveiling and who attended the ceremony.

The memorial was unveiled by Mr A. D. MacKenzie, the Chairman of the Harbour Trust Commissioners, whilst the Hyde Street State School band sang Rule Britannia. The Argus reported on the unveiling - Mr Mackenzie said one of the first works carried out in Port Phillip was a wharf built by Capt. George Ward Cole. Mr Isaac Selby, secretary Old Pioneers' Memorial Fund, had wanted a site near the confluence of the Maribyrnong and Yarra rivers for the memorial, but port authorities had to visualise what the port was going to be 100 years hence. Eventually a new dock would be placed in that position, so the trust had found the present site for the memorial, where it was hoped it would be able to remain for ever. Mr Selby said the memorial was due to the generosity of Mr Allan Tye. Mr. Selby suggested that Mr. Mackenzie might make available an area of land round the memorial which might appropriately be named Rebecca Park, after Batman's little vessel. (3)

Mr Augustus Wolskel, President of the Victorian Historical Society; Mr John Gent; William Jacka, Mayor of the City of Footscray; Mr E. W. Mylrea and Miss Helen Baillie, Vice President of the Aboriginal Advancement League also are reported to have spoken (4).  The memorial was, as reported, donated by Allen Tye.

The memorial when it was first erected, you can see it is sitting on a base. I don't know when that was removed. 

The Age November 22, 1941 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/209807009?

We will have a look at the people listed above who were involved with the Memorial.
Helen Baillie   I was amazed that not only was a woman invited to speak but that she would have given a  speech with an Indigenous viewpoint (although Helen Baillie was not Indigenous). Helen Elizabeth Jacqueline Baillie was born February 17, 1893  to William and Mary (nee Fellows) Baillie. The birth was registered in Kettering, Northamptonshire. The family migrated to Australia and after finishing school in Melbourne, she undertook nurse training at the Essex County Hospital at Colchester from 1917 to 1920. From September 1921 Helen undertook a years training at the City of London Maternity Hospital (5).

Interesting insight into Helen Baillie's personality and work ethic from the UK & Ireland, Queen's Nursing Institute Roll of Nurses, 1891-1931 - Roll of Queen´s Nurses, Vol 29 (1922 - 1923) from Ancestry.

Helen returned to Australia in the 1930s and  it was during her sea journey that she became enthralled by the work of Mary Bennett, an internationally renowned activist on behalf of Australian Aboriginal people. In 1932, Baillie formed the Victorian Aboriginal Fellowship Group and became their Honorary Secretary. In 1933 she also became involved with the Victorian Aboriginal Group; a group with similar objectives to the Fellowship.  (The Australian Women's Register, see here) 

Helen Baillie became a member of other activist groups, including the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Council for Aboriginal Rights. In addition, Miss Baillie volunteered as a nurse for the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War and also worked for the Spanish Relief Committee in Melbourne.  Miss Baillie died in 1970 at the age of 77. You can read more about Helen Baillie's life of Indigenous activism here on the City of Stonnington website.

John Gent  Town Clerk of the City of Footscray for 29 years. He was appointed in 1917 and retired in 1946. He died in 1966 at the age of 90 (6).

William Jacka  Mayor of the City of Footscray. Cr Jacka was the brother of Albert Jacka, V.C. Albert Jacka was also a Mayor of the City of St Kilda, and the first Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross medal in the First World War (read about him, here). William Jacka died in 1979, aged 81. The Jacka brothers grew up in Wedderburn, you can read more of their life in that town here.

A.D (Aubrey Duncan) Mackenzie  (1895-1962).  Civil engineer and Chairman of the Melbourne Harbour Trust. Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

Ernest Wallace Mylrea  Primary School teacher who was at one time at the Hyde Street State School in Footscray. He formed the Hyde Street School band. Mr Mylrea died August 19, 1943 at the age of 71 (7).

Isaac Selby  Secretary of the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund which promoted the study of history. He also led a campaign to save the Old Melbourne Cemetery from destruction and in 1924 wrote the book The Old Pioneers' Memorial History of Melbourne. You can read more about Isaac Selby's colourful life in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, here.

Augustus Woskel   Founded and was the first General Manager of the Phosphate Co-operative Company of Australia. He was also a keen historian, involved with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and President from 1938 until 1942.  He died December 20, 1949 at the age of 82 (8).

Allen Tye  The memorial was donated by Allen Tye. Allen and his brother George, came to Australia from Canada in 1886. They established a company called Messrs Tye and Coy, Proprietary Limited whose big emporiums for the distribution of furniture, vehicles, motorcars etc., are distributed over the city and the principal suburbs (9).  Allen married Cecelia Sullivan in 1894 and they had no children. Allen died on January 16, 1948 at the age of 85 (10).

There is a later edition to the monument - a plaque erected in 1995. It reads - Historical  note 1995 -  When this monument was erected in 1941 it was believed that HMS Calcutta took on fresh water from the Yarra in November 1803. The Calcutta's log indicates that the ship only came as far north as Frankston, and took water from Kananook Creek.The first Man 'o War to enter Hobsons Bay was HMS Rattlesnake (Capt W. Hobson) on  29 September 1836.

1995 plaque, a later edition to the monument.

Photo: Isaac Hermann, February 2020

Acknowledgement - 
My fellow historian, Isaac Hermann, and I wanted to take some photographs of  the memorial. We drove down Sims Street, couldn't see it, drove back up and there it was in a small reserve, currently fenced off due to some infrastructure project. That was disappointing as I thought we would not get any good photos, however lucky for me Isaac decided to climb the fence, strictly in the interests of historical research, and the image (left) shows the difficulties he faced in taking the photos. Thanks, Isaac.

Trove list: 
I have created a list on Trove of articles and websites relating to the monument and people connected with it. You can access it here.

Sources:
(1) Peeps into the Past: a book of  Melbourne  Curiosities by  Mary Maxwell (Heinemann 1957, republished in 1960)
(2) Engineering Heritage Victoria history of the Coode Canal, see here.
(3) The Argus November 24, 1941, see here.
(4) Reports of who would be speaking or who did speak at the unveiling were in The Age, November 20, 1941, see here and The Argus November 24, 1941, see here.
(5) This information on Helen Baillie came from Ancestry - English Civil Registration Birth Index, UK and Ireland Nursing Registers and UK & Ireland, Queen's Nursing Institute Roll of Nurses, 1891-1931
(6) The Age April 2, 1946, see here.
(7) Williamstown Chronicle, August 27, 1943, see here.
(8) Encyclopedia of Australian Science, see here.
(9) The Herald, December 12, 1904, see here.
(10) Marriage and death notices published in various newspapers, they are in my Trove list, see here. Cecelia Tye died July 23, 1947.  I had originally thought that Allen Tye (1863-1948) was married to Carlotta Cadusch, but it was his nephew Allen Charles Tye (1891-1972) who was married to Carlotta. The Carlotta Tye Memorial Church in Selby was erected as a memorial to Carlotta by Allen. Allen was the son of Allen's brother George (1865-1934) who co-established Messrs Tye and Coy, Proprietary Limited. I am grateful to Lynne Bradley and Eileen Durdin of the Narre Warren & District Family History Group for clearing up the Tye family history.