This is one of my favourite posts which I researched and wrote for my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. It was posted on November 24, 2010 and is reproduced below, with a few modifications.
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I had an email from the Dandenong & District Historical Society asking if I knew anything about the Quietly Club in Berwick. They had received an email on this subject from Maurice Mishkel from Canada, a collector of stamps and envelopes. Maurice had purchased this envelope, below, addressed to Horace Bennett, Tarcoola Station, River Darling, via Wentworth, New South Wales.
I passed the query onto Judith Dwyer and Corinne Brewis of the Berwick Mechanics’ Institute and Free Library (BMI), in High Street, Berwick. The BMI have scanned their Minute Books and Attendance or Visitors Registers and Judith immediately recognized the art work.
The artist was John Warne (1867-1941), a Berwick painter and decorator, who with his brother Charles, a plasterer, had started a business in Station Street (now Gloucestor Avenue) Berwick in the late 1880s. In 1901, John married Henrietta Searle, the daughter of Henry and Jane Searle. Henry had operated a blacksmiths on the corner of Wheelers Street and High Street (known as Searle’s Corner) in Berwick from around 1860. Sarah and John had four children - Joseph Thomas (known as Tom) b.1902; Marian Hilda (known as Hilda) b.1904; Jack b.1907 and Samuel Charles b.1910. Tom followed his father and also became a painter and sign writer. (1)
From 1893, until she married John Warne, Henrietta Searle was the Librarian at the BMI (2). From the attendance books we know that both Horace Bennett and John Warne were regular visitors to the BMI and that John frequently ‘annotated’ the attendance book, whereas Horace seemed to make jokes about his occupation.
So what was the Quietly Club? – we don’t know but can only surmise it was a bit of an in-joke with John and Horace and the other lads. Perhaps it was to do with Libraries encouraging silence or the Library may have been quiet after Horace left.
Tarcoola Station is near Pooncarie on the Darling River and was firstly occupied by William Campbell. It was taken over by Charles Nicholson in 1851 and at the time consisted of around 30,000 acres. A series of amalgamations with other properties saw Tarcoola having over one million acres in the 1880s, with 21 workmen employed as well as Managers, cooks, maids, grooms, stable hands, a black smith and Chinese gardeners. Tarcoola was broken up in 1918 into ten leases. We don't know what Horace's role was at Tarcoola. An entry in the Attendance Registers lists Horace as a butcher, so may be that was what he also did at Tarcoola, nor do we know when he arrived at Tarcoola. (3).
What do we know about Horace? He was T.H Bennett, and that it is likely his father was also called Horace. I can't find any Bennetts in the Rate Books in Berwick in the 1890s; I can't find a reference to a birth of a T. Horace Bennett in Victoria or New South Wales nor a death, that I can say with any certainty would be him; and the same with the Electoral Rolls. Essentially, I know nothing about him, but that he had a sense of humour.
The Horace Bennett Quietly Club mystery brings up a few issues – first the importance of networks. There are hundreds of Local History and Heritage Societies in Victoria, many of whom keep in touch through regional networks such as the South Eastern Historical Association. We have our own network here in the Casey Cardinia Region, the Local History Reference Group, who meet quarterly. It’s good to know that if you can’t answer a query, then you can pass it onto someone who may be able to help. Secondly, it brings up the issue that the role technology now plays in Local History – without email we could never have passed around this query so quickly and if the BMI had not decided to scan all their records would Judith and Corinne have had easy access to the original registers and recognized the art work? Scanning has made all these old Registers immediately available at the click of a mouse button and another click can have these images whizzing around the world.
Thanks to Maurice for sharing his envelope and giving Horace Bennett and the Quietly Club a place in our history. I would love to hear from you if you know anything about Horace.
Footnotes(1) Early Days of Berwick and its surrounding districts, compiled by Norman E. Beaumont, James F. Curran and R.H. Hughes (3rd edition published by Rotary, 1979); Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; John Warne's obituary Dandenong Journal, March 26, 1941, see here;
(2) Berwick Mechanics Institute and Free Library: a history by Richard Myers (Berwick Mechanics Institute and Free Library, 1999)
(3) The history of Pooncarie and District by Rob Lans, Thelma Smith and Bill Smith. (Pooncarie School Centenary & Historical Committee c. 1988.)
