This delightful postcard of the Queen Victoria Memorial Gardens in Melbourne was sent to Mrs Alden, of 'Little London', Tyabb on August 5, 1913 from Mary Buckley.
Mary wrote - Dear Mrs Alden,
We arrived safe here. Uncle Jack met us at the station. We got here at ten past seven. We are just going out to look for work. I wonder how we shall get on? I don't think work and I will agree, somehow, after the pleasant time at Little London. I give my love to all,
Yours affectionately,
Mary Buckley
The Alden family settled in Tyabb in 1901. The family consisted of Albert, his wife Mary (nee Newcombe) and children Albert Allen, known as Bert and Ivy Mary. We are fortunate that Albert Alden was interviewed in the Weekly Times in 1913 (1), 1918 (2) and 1933 (3) , so we have some interesting sources of information about the family. Mr Alden had been on a family farm with his father and brothers at Surrey, 7½ miles from London Bridge. The farm grew both fruit and vegetables and twice a week Albert took the produce into Covent Garden market. However, due to the ill health of family members Albert and Mary decided to sell their interest in the family farm and move to Australia.
They purchased 150 acres at Tyabb, and called their property, Little London. The land was situated on a nice elevation within a mile of the Tyabb railway station. The soil consisted of from 12 to 18 inches of friable loam on a substrata of congenial clay (4). They paid just over £6 and acre for the land which had nine acres of apricot trees planted and the rest was was covered in tree and scrub. The Aldens spent another £5 per acre to clear 60 acres to establish the orchard (5). It is hard to imagine Tyabb now in a state of natural bush with the original wildlife, but there was an account in the Mornington Standard in May 1902 of Mr Alden's encounter with this wildlife - Some little time ago Mr Alden secured a splendid specimen of iguana, which measured 6ft 3½ in length and 18in in girth. Having captured it in his own paddock he is justly proud of it, and it is now stuffed and preserved in all its naturalness (6). I wonder what became of this example of the taxidermist's art?
Orchards, of course, take a long time to establish themselves, thus in the early years the family grew vegetables for an income. By 1913, the first interview in the Weekly Times, the Aldens were exporting 2,500 cases of fruit, mainly apples and sending another 500 cases to the Melbourne and interstate markets. Twenty years later, in 1933, it was reported that the Aldens during the past season, 3760 cases having been sent abroad, of which more than 3000 cases were apples of the Jonathan, Five Crown, Dunn's (or Munroe's Favorite) and Sturmer varieties, and the remainder Josephine, Packham's Triumph and Broompark pears (7). The Aldens were not the only orchardists who exported their fruit. Fresh produce was a large export earner for Australia at this time, the 1934 Commonwealth Year book reported that in 1932/33 the value of the fresh apples Australia exported to the United Kingdom was £1,676,525; to Germany it was £169, 631 and to Sweden £28,540 (8).
The Tyabb and Somerville area was well known fruit growing area and in the Weekly Times article from 1933 they reported There are about 125 growers within a three-miles radius of that centre [Tyabb], and the latest crop is estimated at 140,000 cases, of which approximately 85 per cent, was apples. Deliveries at the Tyabb co-operative trading and cool stores totalled 56,000 cases (9).
Tyabb Cool Store, c. 1915, used by the Aldens and other local growers.
The cool store was officially opened April 21, 1914. It is now an Antiques centre.
The cool store was officially opened April 21, 1914. It is now an Antiques centre.
Image: Somerville Tyabb and District Heritage Society
The three Weekly Times articles go into great detail about the varieties planted and the farming methods adopted by the Aldens, but we wont go into that here, we will have a look at their personal and social life. From the start there are accounts in the local papers of the Alden family partaking in community activities. By 1904, Albert was the President of the Tyabb and Hastings Fruitgrowers Association (10) and in August 1911 he was elected to the Frankston and Hastings Shire Council, defeating the Shire President, Cr H.P. Woodhouse in a surprise result (11). Arthur was Shire President in 1917 and 1929 (12) and he retired from the Council in 1938. This was the same year his wife Mary died on August 19, at the age of 80. The local paper reported that Mrs. Alden was an old resident of the district, and was held in high esteem by a large circle of friends (13). Arthur died June 1, 1951, aged 88.
Their daughter, Ivy Mary had married Arthur Edward Benton, of Clifton Park, Tyabb on September 23, 1915 at All Saints Church at Tyabb. It was a very pretty wedding and the church was beautifully decorated with white roses, double white stocks, lilies and marguerites, and, as the occasion was
favored with beautifully fine weather, a large assembly of relatives and friends turned out to witness the ceremony. The bride was given away by her father and was beautifully attired in white silk, orange blossom wreath, and veil, and carried a shower bouquet of white roses, double white stocks and asparagus fern (14). Arthur was also a farmer and an orchardist and the couple had five children, George, Irene, Len, Edna and Myrtle (15). Ivy Mary died on June 25, 1962, aged 69.
Arthur and Mary's son, Bert, who was also an orchardist, became a local councillor when he was elected in September 1942. He had married Ruth Unthank (nee Foubister), a widow with one son, Eric, in 1937 (16). Bert died December 7, 1966 aged 75. Arthur, Mary, Bert and Ivy Mary are all buried at the Frankston Cemetery (17).
What do we know of Mary Buckley, who sent the original postcard to Mrs Alden after her pleasant time at Little London? Nothing, but I hope that she eventually found work which agreed with her.
Trove list: I have created a list of articles on Trove, connected to the Alden family, you can access it here.
Sources:
(1) Weekly Times April 19, 1913, see here.
(2) Weekly Times December 14, 1918, see here.
(3) Weekly Times September 16, 1933, see here.
(4) Weekly Times April 19, 1913, see here.
(5) Weekly Times April 19, 1913, see here.
(6) Mornington Standard March 10, 1902, see here.
(7) Weekly Times September 16, 1933, see here.
(8) Commonwealth Year Book, 1934. Copies of the Year book have been digitised from 1908 to 2010 and are available on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website, here.
(9) Weekly Times September 16, 1933, see here.
(10) Mornington Standard, October 22, 1904, see here.
(11) Mornington Standard, August 26, 1911, see here.
(12) Frankston: Resort to City by Michael Jones (Allen & Unwin, 1989)
(13) Frankston & Somerville Standard, August 26, 1938, see here.
(14) Mornington Standard, October 9, 1915, see here.
(15) Children are listed in Arthur's death notice in The Argus of June 12, 1945, see here.
(16) Ruth's first husband Gordon Percy Unthank died July 22, 1932. His death notice was in The Argus July 23, 1932, see here.
(17) Frankston Cemetery has some on-line records and there are also photos of Albert and Mary's grave; Bert and Ruth's grave and Ivy and Arthur Benton's grave https://www.australiancemeteries.com.au/vic/frankston/frankston.htm
