Artesian Wells at Sale

I bought this wonderful postcard of the Artesian Well in Sale. It was posted May 21, 1909 and sent to Miss Vera Macfarlan of 223 Fitzroy Street in St Kilda and there is more about Vera at the end of this post. The postcard shows a woman and a little girl in a rather extravagant hat, with her equally well dressed doll. At first I thought these were two girls, but the one on the right has a ring on her wedding ring finger, so I think she is the mother of the little girl. Sadly, I don't know who these lovely people are but I hope they enjoyed their refreshing and health giving drink.

The search for an artesian water source to provide an economical and  consistent water supply was the subject of a report to the Victorian Parliament in April 1857, when the Victorian Geological Surveyor, Alfred R.C. Selwyn, presented his report (1) upon the economical adaptability of the system of Artesian Wells to Victoria, and to furnish a particular enumeration of the localities, if any, therein, in which by that system reasonable hope may be entertained of obtaining a plentiful supply of Fresh Water. You can read the report, here. The use of artesian water was dependent upon the extent of the underground supply, the purity of the water and the ease with which it could be obtained.
Mr Selwyn listed a number of areas where suitable conditions might possibly exist -
1. The Indented Heads and Lake Conneware district.
2. The north and north-eastern side of Western Port Bay.
3. Portions of the east side of Port Phillip Bay extending from Brighton to Point Nepean. 
4. Portions of the country lying between the east shore of Port Phillip Bay and the Koo-Wee-Rup or Great Swamp.
Many parts of Gippsland, and of the basin of the Murray, would also, I should imagine, be districts in which the requisite conditions might be found to exist.

It was over twenty years before the first artesian well was established in Australia and this was at Sale (2).  In March 1879 (3)  John Augustus Niemann (4) struck water at  a depth of sixty feet, near the Turf Hotel (5). The Turf Hotel was located on the south west corner York and  Dawson Streets (6). Mr Neimann  also  received a tender to sink a well at the intersection of Cunninghame and Raymond Streets (7) and at a comparatively small depth he struck a flow of artesian water and the necessary construction with pipes, stand trough and tanks only cost only £280/10/- (8).

In 1880 the Borough of Sale had Niemann put down a bore near the intersection of Raymond and Macalaister Streets. At  a depth of 190' water was struck and rose to 3' above the surface. Drilling continued to a depth of 231', at which point gushed from a pipe 43' in height. The cost of the bore was: for the well 175 pounds; adjusting surface and fence 5 pounds 16 shillings; for stand, horse, trough, four 400 gallon tanks, and pipes for channels and trough, cocks etc, 100 pounds. Total 280 pounds and 10 shillings (9).  A  good supply of water was thus secured, but in time the pipes corroded, the bores became choked and the wells were eventually closed down (10). Our postcard is of this well, located on the corner of Raymond and Macalister Streets (11). The well was described as played out in an article in The Australasian in March 1912 (12).

Artesian Well in Sale. The building behind the well is the Presbyterian Church, which is on the corner of Raymond and Macaliaster Streets. Both these churches are now demolished and the exisiting building on the site was erected in 1956 (13).

Artesian Well in Sale. Photographer: Frederick Cornell. State Library of Victoria Image H87.16/31

The played out well on the corner of Raymond and Macaliaster Streets 

The Australasian March 2, 1912. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/143327643#

In Sale, after this first and other successive wells, a fourth well was sunk near the Railway Yards -  During the year a School of Arts was opened in the upper rooms of the State School, the Victoria Park well commenced to gush its strong-smelling waters, and the enterprising Mr Luke had a well sunk opposite the railway station to supply waters to the public baths (14).  I believe this was in 1884 (15).

When 'The Vagabond', the journalist visited Sale in 1885 he wrote inter alia about the town's abundant supply of artesian water In the gutters there are streams of running water procured from an artesian well sunk by the municipality. Water was struck at a depth of 230ft., and there is now an ample supply. The large tanks in Macalister-street are always filled, from which the citizens can help themselves without stint. Two troughs are also kept brimming over, and the streets thence reticulated (16).

There were issues with artesian water and its use as a household water supply -  the smell, the fact that the bores sometimes brought up sand and this clogged up the pipes and the amount of chemicals in the water had a corrosive effect. Thus in 1888 a water tower was constructed in Sale which supplied the town with water from the Thompson River.  The water supply system and the water tower was designed by engineer, John Grainger (17). This water tower has recently been restored.

The establishment of the town water supply did not stop the construction of artesian wells and in 1905 another well was sunk  in Market Square. This one was not used for a town supply for, although it had a considerable medicinal value, it also carried a strong mineral smell (18). It was reported that this well had a flow of  a million gallons per day and the motive for making this fresh search for artesian water was to fill a swamp, which the drainage of the town ran into, and which in dry seasons was a menace to the health of the public as reported by all the medical men (19).

Artesian well in Market Square, Sale. 

Pictured: Mr. -Joseph Bowman (Supervisor). Mr. Hugh Jenkinson (Expert), Mr. F. A. Pim (Expert), C. Jacobs, M. Laughlan, Mr. K. Keighley (Expert Government Foreman).

Punch August 17, 1905 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/175412051

A sixth well was sunk in 1906 when the Government was induced by the  Council to sink a 238' bore in Victoria Park. To overcome the corrosion problem this bore was lined with Californian red pine. It cost 493 pounds and gave an initial flow of 86, 000 gallons an hour. For generations the overflow of this fountain, to which was attached an iron cup, was directed to the public baths and partly supplied Lake Guthridge (20). The Herald newspaper had a report on Sale - the progressive capital of Gippsland in April 1920 and it had this to say about the Victoria Park well -The present artesian well on the Victoria Park was sunk in April, 1906, by Governmental well experts, assisted by the Mines Department boring plant.... The flow at completion was 80,000 gallons, and after 14 years' running it now discharges 75,000 gallons per day...and is still continuing to flow very freely (21).  The well also supplied a swimming baths which had a year round temperature of 62 degrees Fahrenheit (22).

The Victoria Park well, 1912

The Australasian March 23, 1912  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/143328730#

The Victoria Park well also filled the swimming baths. The John Grainger designed water tower can be seen behinds the baths.

The Australasian March 23, 1912  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/143328730#

This is I believe the Victoria Park well. The photo is dated c. 1920.

Photographer: John E. Hoggard. State Library of Victoria Image H98.56/68

There is another aspect to this story of wells in Sale and that is the South African or Boer War Memorial fountain, the foundation stone for which was laid in October 1909 (23) on the south west corner of Macalister and Raymond Streets (24), the same intersection as the well in our post card. It was unveiled by Colonel Foxton on December 4, 1909 and the first drink was given to Mrs Walter Lyons, who had laid the foundation stone (25).  By 1912 the Memorial was in a neglected state and was later moved to a new location on the corner of Foster and York Streets (26).  There are also accounts of artesian wells in the surrounding area at Clydebank (27) however that is another story.

Before I finish I will show you the reverse of the post card - it was sent to Miss Vera Macfarlan of 223 Fitzroy Street in St Kilda. The short note says - Dear Vera, Coming home tomorrow afternoon train arrives at half past ten. Going to Sorrento Tuesday. Norman is a little better. Yours I.Macfarlan.  Vera was born in 1884 to David and Jane (nee Cooper) Macfarlan. She married Peter Francis Smith in 1916, whose wedding notice appears below.  She died in 1959.  She had a brother Norman, born in 1878, so I presume he is the Norman mentioned on the postcard (28). I haven't worked out who I. Macfarlan, who sent the card is.

Vera's wedding announcement to Peter Smith

The Argus February 12, 1916. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2109546

Trove book list
I have created a book list on Trove of articles relating to Artesian wells in Sale, access it here.

Notes
(1) I found out about the Selwyn report in Daley, Charles The Story of Gipplsand (Whitcombe and Tombs, 1960) He writes about it on page 116. Read the Selwyn report, here.
(2) First Artesian Well in Australia - this is reported in The Argus, January 3 1903 in an article by Professor Gregory Artesian Water in Victoria, see here. Professor Gregory say the bore was sunk in 1880. The 1928 Australian Year Book also uses this date. I believe the 1879 date is correct, see note (3).

Artesian Bores around Sale from Year Book Australia, No. 21, 1928, p. 854. 

There is quite a lengthy article on Artesian water in Australia. Access it here

(3) Green, O.S Sale: the early years and later (Southern Newspapers, 1976); p. 42. Mr Green cites the March 1879 date.
(4) John Augustus Niemann. Niemann was the son of John Heinrich Niemann and Margaret Osterman. John snr died in Bendigo at the age of 87 in 1886. The family arrived in Adelaide in 1846 from Germany. They moved to Victoria around 1851, where they operated a boarding house in Maldon and then moved to Bendigo in 1859. They had three sons and one daughter, Lucy. Lucy married Thomas Devine in 1858. Information from the Bendigo Advertiser of June 24, 1886, see here. In 1881, John Augustus Niemann went to South Australia to find sources of artesian water, see here.
(5) Green,  op. cit p. 43
(6) Green  op. cit., p. 147.  The Turf Hotel was demolished in the demolished in the early 1950s.
(7) Green,  op. cit p. 43
(8) Daley, Charles The Story of Gipplsand (Whitcombe and Tombs, 1960), p. 116
(9) Green, op. cit., pp 42, 43.
(10) Daley, op. cit p. 116
(11) I established that well pictured on the postcard was located on the corner of Raymond and Macalister Streets from this photo from the State Library of Victoria. It is the same well. The building in the background is the Sale Hotel, which was located on the corner of Raymond and Macalister Streets (see Sale Licencing Court hearing from 1884, here)

Artesian Well, Sale. It was located on the corner of Raymond and Macalister Streets.  

State Library of Victoria Image  a11411

(12) The Australasian March 2, 1912, see here. This article also has the Frederick Cornell photo and the postcard photo. The article calls it the first artesian well in Sale, I believe it was the second or third one, but that's neither here nor there.

The Australasian March 2, 1912 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article143327643

(13) You can see a photo of the Presbyterian Church in the booklet In pastures green: the story of the Presbyterian Church, Sale, Gippsland, Victoria by Robert Ingpen. It was published in 1954 and the Sate Library has  digitised it, read it here. The photo of the church is on page 29 of the PDF. The information about the 1956 church comes from Mr Green on page 87.
(14) Green,  op. cit p. 43
(15) Green,  op. cit p. 43
(16) The Australasian December 19, 1885, see here. Mr Green quotes 'The Vagabond' on page 43, that's how I found out the visit to Sale.
(17) Sale Water tower - the involvement of John Grainger was listed here. Information on John Grainger can be found here on Culture Victoria. Information and a photo of the restored Sale Water Tower is here.
(18) Green,  op. cit p. 43
(19) Punch August 17, 1905, see here.
(20) Green,  op. cit p. 45
(21) The Herald April 21, 1920, see here.
(22) The Australasian, March 23 1912, see here. 62 degrees Fahrenheit is about 16 degrees Celsius.
(23) Green,  op. cit p. 45. Also - Schmitt, David Remembering and Forgetting the Boer War: the campaign to erect a Boer War Memorial in Sale published in Gippsland Heritage Journal, No. 27, 2008 (Kapana Press).
(24) Green,  op. cit p. 45
(25) Green,  op. cit p. 45 and the Morwell Advertiser, December 10 1909, see here. Mrs Walter Lyon was the wife of the Mayor and she was responsible for raising the funds for the Memorial -  thanks to David Schmitt's article for this information.  Mrs Lyon (nee Elizabeth Ritchie) died in 1921 at the age of 61. You can read her obituary in the Gippsland Times of November 24, 1921, see here. She was an interesting woman.
(26) Schmitt, David Remembering and Forgetting the Boer War: the campaign to erect a Boer War Memorial in Sale published in Gippsland Heritage Journal, No. 27, 2008 (Kapana Press).
(27) Gippsland Times, March 14 1935 see here.
(28) Information from the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages Index and the Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.

Mary Jane Gardner, Furrier, of Watten Villa St Kilda

Early in 1877 Mrs Mary Jane Gardner took up residence at Watten Villa in Park Road (1) in St Kilda. This was  a detached villa, about twenty rooms, containing every convenience (2).

Advertisement for the newly constructed Watten Villa.

The Argus December 16, 1876  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5912568

She lived there with her four children - ten year old Mary Jane, eight year old Alice, six year old Charles and four year old William (3). The enterprising Mrs Gardner operated two businesses from this commodious villa - a boarding house and a Furrier showroom and workroom.

Mrs Gardner's advertisement seeking boarders

The Herald May 11, 1877  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244265798

It was through Mrs. Gardner's boarding house business that I first came across the English actress,
Emily Soldene who stayed here whilst her Repertory Troupe was playing at the Prince of Wales Opera House in Melbourne. Emily later wrote about her time in Melbourne we lived at St. Kilda, at Mrs. Gardiner's [sic] and she described Watten as  - a long, low house of one storey, built on piles, with a broad passage running down the centre, and ten or twelve rooms opening off on each side (4). You can read more about Emily Soldene, here.

Mrs Gardner's advertisement for her Furrier business at Watten Villa.

The Argus April 17, 1878  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244519053

Mrs Gardner was also a talented furrier, who advertised that she was a Royal Warrant holder - 'by appointment to the Duke of Edinburgh.' Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh (1844 - 1900) who was the second son of Queen Victoria and had purchased some of her furs. The Herald of April 11, 1877 had an article on the rising popularity of furs due to the advent to England of a royal bride from Russia, where the use of warm furs is found so necessary and convenient, caused recently, an unbounded run upon furs by English ladies.....This fashionable mania for furs extended, of course, to these colonies, where the latest fashions in London and Paris are closely watched and quickly assumed (5). The Russian Royal bride was the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, the daughter Tsar Alexander II  who married Prince Alfred in 1874.

The article continues As an instance of the favor which furs at present find in the eyes of Melbourne ladies, it may be mentioned that, within the last few days, Mrs Gardner, of Watten Villa, Park road, St. Kilda, has made, to the order of the lady of an eminent physician in Collins street east, a large seal jacket, which cost no less than 130 guineas. We have seen this beautiful and costly garment, and must say it is most creditable as an article of Victorian manufacture, and would do credit to any London house. The jacket is trimmed with sable tails -which alone are valued at 100 guineas -and lined with black silk. It will readily be understood that Mrs Gardner, having manufactured articles which have been worn by Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, has been well qualified to execute such an extraordinary order as that which she has just completed. During one of his visits to these colonies, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh selected at Mrs Gardner's establishment, which was then in Collins street west, articles of fur, as presents to Her Majesty the Queen, and the Princess of Wales, to the value of £300. 

At Watten Villa there is to be seen a perfect museum of beautiful articles manufactured from the skins of the dingo, native bear, and other Australian animals. The presents which His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh brought home to his Royal Mother and sister-in-law were designed as specimens of Australian natural products, utilised for fashionable attire. Articles made from the dyed skin of the opossum are very much worn in Victoria, and are elegant and expensive. Mrs Gardner's stock includes articles composed of the skins of the skunk, beaver, squirrel, ermine, silver fox, red fox, chinchilla grebe and many other animals; which are turned into jackets, handmuffs, coirnrettea, victorines and so forth. Some of the furs, both native and foreign, shown at Watten Villa are extremely beautiful, and well worthy the inspection of the streams of fashionable ladies that constantly pour into that beautiful villa on the St Kilda beach (5). 

It would appear from the article that Mrs Gardner's business was a profitable one, however according to the City of St Kilda Rate books (6) she is only listed at Watten Villa for 1877. Now is the time to go back to the start of Mrs Gardner's life to see the path that took her to Watten Villa. She was born in Bris in Lancashire in England in January 1833 to Richard and Sarah (nee Axil) Hamer and married William Eddleston in May 1851. They at least one child, a daughter Sarah Ann in 1855. William died in August 1855. All these events occurred in Lancashire (7). The next we find of Mary Jane is that she marries 44 year old Frederick Gardner in Westbury, in Tasmania (8).  Frederick was a furrier and Mary Jane worked with him and learnt the business (9). When Mary Jane arrived in Tasmania and how they meet I cannot tell you.

Frederick was a  furrier of some note according to this article in The Herald of February 15, 1864
A few days ago we examined a quantity of rugs, carriage mats, etc, prepared and dressed by Mr H. Gardner, furrier, 66 Collins street, from furs principally obtained from various Tasmanian animals, including the black opossum, the native cat, the tiger cat, etc. These furs are very much superior to anything of the kind in Victoria, and many of them compare favourably with the Canadian furs. Mr Gardner has carried on the business of a furrier in Launceston for many years, and has recently opened the above establishment, he contemplates offering in the coming winter season a very beautiful selection of furs, for ladies and children's wear (10).

The Great Hall of the Intercolonial Exhibition. Both Frederick and Mary Jane Gardner had displays of fur products at this Exhibition.

Artist: Arthur Charles Cooke. Engraver: Frederick Grosse.

Published in Australian News for Home Readers on October 26, 1877  State Library of Victoria Image IAN27/10/66/8-9

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/237846

Frederick also exhibited at the Intercolonial Exhibition held in Melbourne October 24, 1866 until February 23, 1867. The Exhibition showcased the arts, agriculture and industry of the various Australian colonies and New Zealand and was visited by over 270,000 people in the four months that it was open (11). You can see the full catalogue of the Exhibition, here.  Frederick's exhibition in the 'Animal products' class was listed as a Trophy of Australian opposum rugs and ladies furs. His exhibit won the prize medal in his class for a superior and choice collection of manufactured colonial furs for ladies' wear, and for the general excellence in preparation and workmanship of the black, grey, and ring tailed opossum, cat-skin, and emu rugs. Mary Jane also had an  Honourable mention is also due to Mrs. Gardner for an elaborate and interesting birdskin table cover (12). 

The Intercolonial Exhibition medal, which was perhaps given to Frederick Gardner for his prize winning display of furs.

The medal was designed and modelled by Charles Summers, who created the Burke and Wills statue (13).   The design represents Victoria, receiving her six sisters, who each bring some contribution peculiar to the industries of the several colonies represented on the occasion.

The Australian News for Home Readers, March 20, 1867  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63170725

The couple had the four children Mary Jane, Alice, Charles and William, born between 1866 and 1873; however in October 1879 Mary Jane filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion. Her divorce deposition (14) makes for some interesting reading. Mary Jane alleges that in June 20, 1873 Frederick announced that he was leaving and would no longer support her or the family. He accused her of having committed adultery with His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh when he was on a visit to Melbourne in the year of one thousand and seventy eight and had had  a child of which his Royal Highness was the father. As a matter of interest, Duke undertook the first ever Royal tour of Australia from October 1867 until June 1868. Also as a matter of interest, Mary Jane gave birth to daughter Alice on November 2, 1868. Mary Jane denied that she had an affair with the Duke, which seemed rather implausible.

The deposition says that  Mary Jane had supported her family with no assistance from Frederick, that Frederick was violent towards her and that he had returned to live in London in 1875, but returned to Victoria in September 1879 and is now endeavouring to obtain possession of my property and to compel me to return to live and cohabit with him.  The Court found in favour of Mrs Gardner His Honour said he had no doubt that the property was the result of Mrs. Gardner's separate earnings (15). 

So we know that Mrs Gardner was at Watten Villa in 1877 and 1878. In her divorce deposition she describes herself a Hotel keeper. In September 1878 Mary Jane was granted the licence for the Victoria Hotel in Victoria Street, Carlton and began offering good accommodation for boarders (16). The Hotel, sometimes advertised as being in Alfred Place, Victoria Street Carlton, was located between Cardigan and Lygon Streets, on the corner of Orr Street.

Mrs Gardner's advertisement for boarding at her Hotel.

The Argus, January 16, 1879  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5928596?

Mrs Gardner had the hotel for about  a year until October 1879 (17) and after that I can't trace her until January 1888, when she is listed in the Borough of Port Melbourne Rate books at 86 Nott Street, occupation furrier. She is then listed at various residences in Port Melbourne until 1894 (18). I then lose track of her until 1915 when she was recorded as the next of kin on her son Charles' AIF enlistment papers, her address being 1 Fawkner Street, South Yarra. In December 1917, she notifies Base Records Office of her change of address to 200 Marrickville Road, Marrickville in Sydney. Mary Jane dies in Sydney July 29, 1920; while her eldest daughter Mary Jane had been living in Sydney since the mid 1890s (19).  Frederick died on December 9, 1909, aged 94, at the Victorian Home for the Aged and Infirm at Royal Park (20).

I have looked at the history of the first twenty five years of the building and when Mrs Gardner had Watten Villa it was owned by James Maxwell Clow, who had possession of it until 1880 (21).  Clow was the son of  the Reverend James Clow, who conducted the first Presbyterian service in Victoria in December 1837. You can read Reverend Clow's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, here. James Maxwell Clow held a large number of Government appointments, here is  a selection listed in the Victorian Government Gazettes (22) - Appointed Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Goldfields district at Mount Alexander on February 14, 1852;  Resident Magistrate for the Districts of Mt Egerton, Steiglitz and Ballan on May 5, 1856; Warden of the Goldfields January 4, 1858; Chinese Protector February 28, 1859 and Police Magistrate at Steiglitz December 28, 1868

As well as Watten Villa, Clow owned a number of other St Kilda properties. His nephew, Daniel Wilkie, managed these properties from March 1875  to December 1878 and we  know this because Clow went  to Court in June 1879 to recover £5,500 from him. You can read an account of the court case, here. The article also reported that the properties brought in an annual income of £750, which was a substantial income. For comparison a tradesman such as baker, saddle or tanner earnt up to £3 per week or £156 per annum and a house maid only £36 per annum (23). Clow's wife, Jane, died at Kilfern, Mary Street St Kilda in April 1881 and he died at Seacroft, Beaconsfield Parade, St Kilda in April 1894 (24).

The next owner of Watten Villa was St Kilda grocer, Matthew Egan, who had the property from 1881 until 1892 (25) when the St Kilda Rate books list the owner as the A. D.M. Bank. The only other thing I know about Mr Egan was that in March 1892 he took over as ‘the landlord of the Mitre Tavern’ in Melbourne, according to the Prahran Telegraph of March 26, 1892.

Watten Villa was being operated as a boarding house all thorough this time and from various sources (26) I can tell you that the operators were Henrietta McDonald from 1878 until 1879; Emma Mahany from 1880 until sometime in 1883, when Abraham Levy took over. Abraham Levy was a tobacconist and it was Mrs Frances Levy who operated Watten Villa as a boarding house (27).  The Levy's were there until 1892, when Clara Kong Meng took over for a short time.

Mrs Levy's advertisement  seeking boarders at Watten Villa.

The Argus, June 14, 1886  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6098971

The Levy's also advertised Watten Villa in German - '3 minutes from the Station. Pleasant apartment, good German cuisine' according to Google Translate.

The Argus June 4, 1887  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7915854

Around September 1893, the property changed names from Watten Villa to Ancona (28), and I believe this was when the Watt family took over the boarding house. Charles Watt is listed in the Rate books in 1894 and the Watts were there until at least 1901 (29).

Watten Villa no longer exists, but there are two large palm trees and other mature trees on the block. The palm trees especially may have been there when Watten Villa was a boarding house.

Photo: Isaac Hermann.

What was the fate of Watten Villa?  It was in the 1893 Rate Books that the street numbers in the area were first listed and we find that Watten Villa or Ancona was 15 Park Road (later changed to Street). According to a 1897 MMBW plan at the State Library of Victoria, Watten Villa 15 Park Street is three properties from Mary Street and this property today is now 19 Park Street, so at some time the street was renumbered. View the plan here.  The house is demolished and it is now the back garden of a property which faces Beaconsfield Parade.

This crop of the 1897 MMBW plan shows Watten Villa at 15 Park Road, the third property from Mary Street (next to the 615 number)

Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works detail plan, 617, 616, 615, 614, City of St. Kilda, 1897. 

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/120734

Acknowledgment - Some of this research was done either by or in conjunction with my research colleague, Isaac Hermann. He also found the photo of the Intercolonial Exhibition medal and discovered that the street numbers in Park Street had changed so that No. 15 in the 1890s  is now No. 19.

Trove List - I have created a list of articles on Trove, every article referred to here is on the list. Access it here.

Footnotes
(1) Park Road was later renamed Park Street. It is one street back from Beaconsfield Parade, it starts at Fitzroy Street and runs to Fraser Street.
(2) The Argus, December 16, 1876, see here.
(3) The dates of birth of the children come from the Mary Jane Gardner's Divorce Petition, dated October 21, 1879 - Victorian Divorce Records, held at the Public Records Office of Victoria and published on Ancestry.com. Mary Jane (1866-1950) married John Hallihan (1865-1900) in 1888; Alice Maude (1868-1942) married James Frederick Gardiner in 1889; Charles born 1870, I have no other details; and William Gardner (1873-1932) served in the First World War, SN 4493, and had the unusual occupation of a Comedian.
(4) Emily's description of Watten Villa comes her story of her trip from Sydney to Melbourne by Cobb & Co coach in the book They came to Australia: an anthology, edited by Alan Brissenden and Charles Higham (F.W. Cheshire, 1961). Emily's story was published under the title A coach ride to Melbourne.

(5) The Herald, April 11, 1877, see here.

(6) City of St Kilda Rate Books from 1859 to 1900, available on Ancestry.com.
(7) Mary Jane Gardner's family information comes from various sources on Ancestry - mainly the English Birth, Death and Marriage records and Census records. Her daughter by her first husband, Sara Ann Eddleston came to Australia to live in 1866 at the age of 11, accompanied by her maternal grandmother. She married Francis Joseph Fleming in 1873 and died in 1894.
(8) Frederick and Mary Ann's marriage was published in the Launceston Examiner on July 20, 1861, see here.
(9)  Mary Jane Gardner's Divorce Petition, dated October 21, 1879 - Victorian Divorce Records, held at the Public Records Office of Victoria and published on Ancestry.com.  She wrote that  I assisted my husband in his business as a Furrier and that previous to her marriage to Frederick she worked as a domestic servant.
(10) The Herald, February 15 1864, see here.
(11) The Argus, February 25, 1867, see here.
(12) The Argus, February 14, 1867, see here. Mrs Gardner's birdskin table cover was made of Penguin skin.
(13) Charles Summers (1825 - 1878) see his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here. He also gave lessons to William Stanford, who created the fountain in Spring Street whilst he was in Pentridge Gaol, read about this here.
(14) Mary Jane Gardner's Divorce Petition, dated October 21, 1879 - Victorian Divorce Records, held at the Public Records Office of Victoria and published on Ancestry.com.
(15) The Australasian, October 25, 1879, see here.
(16) Mrs Gardner was granted the licence of the Victoria Hotel on  September 17, 1878, see here. The advertisement for board at her hotel comes from The Argus, January 16, 1879, see here  
(17) Charles Smart advertises in The Argus of October 31, 1879 (see here)  that he has taken over Gardner's Family Hotel.
(18) Borough / Town of Port Melbourne Rate Books from 1860 to 1901 available on Ancestry.com
(19) Buried at Rookwood General Cemetery in Sydney - Ancestry.com.
(20) I bought Frederick's  Death Certificate. He was listed as a widower on his Marriage Certificate available on-line on the Tasmanian Archives website and I had hoped that his death certificate may have some detail about his first marriage but it said 'particulars of marriage not known.' It did, however list his occupation as a Furrier so I know I have the right certificate.
(21) City of St Kilda Rate Books from 1859 to 1900, available on Ancestry.com.
(22) Victorian Government Gazette, 1836 -1997, http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/
(23) The list of wages comes from an article in The Argus of January 5, 1868 - The Colony of Victoria in 1878 a look at the history, industry, demographics and other facts about Victoria. Read it here.
(24) Death notice for Jane Clow was published in The Argus, June 19, 1881 and for James Clow in The Argus, April 9, 1894
(25) City of St Kilda Rate Books from 1859 to 1900, available on Ancestry.com.
(26) The names of operator's of Watten Villa come from the City of St Kilda Rate Books; Sands and McDougall Melbourne and Suburban Directory at the State Library of Victoria, see here and advertisements in newspapers on Trove, see my Trove list, here.
(27) Abraham and Frances Levy were married on September 13, 1865 in Melbourne by Rabbi Moses Rintel. She was daughter of William and Sophia (nee Hecht) Neuman. Abraham died November 30, 1911 aged 77 and Frances died March 28, 1926, aged 80. They are buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery. They had six children - Fannie, Minnie, Victor, Tessie, Myer and Jack. [Marriage notice in The Argus, September 19, 1865; Abraham's death notice in the Prahran Telegraph December 9, 1911 and Frances' death notice in The Argus, March 29, 1926. The information about her parents comes from the marriage notice and the Victorian Index to Births, Deaths and Marriages]
(28) The last mention I could find of the building being called Watten Villa was a ‘For Sale’ advertisement in The Herald on February 25, 1891, see here. The first mention of the name Ancona was an advertisement in The Argus September 26, 1893, see here. The name could have changed earlier but I feel it would have been unlikely that the Levy's changed the name in 1892, because they had established their business as Watten Villa.
(29) City of St Kilda Rate Books from 1859 to 1900, available on Ancestry.com. There was also a Death notice of an Arthur Watt, of Ancona, Park Road, St Kilda, the son of Charles Watt, in The Argus, August 29, 1901,  see here.

Miss Emily Soldene and Henry Nelson Weippert

In December 1877 Miss Emily Soldene appeared at the Prince of Wales Opera House in Melbourne. This was the first time Melbourne had seen this famous actress who played the Grand Duchess in Offenbach's comic opera The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. Emily Soldene was born in London in 1838 or 1840 or 1844.  Various dates have been suggested because as Emily said it was a woman's privilege not to give their exact age  and I have a different age for every census. (1). Her family was of a Puritanical background and in 1859 she run away and  married Jack Powell, a law clerk, to whom she had four children, Kate, Ellen, Edward and  John between 1860 and 1867 (2).  During this time Emily also had her first stage appearance in Il Trovatore in January 1865, and this was the start of a wonderful career no doubt due to her possessing a glorious mezzo-soprano voice [to this] she added physical form and handsome features to her other accomplishments, and was soon in the front rank (3). By the time she toured America in 1874/1875 she had her own Repertory Troupe and it was this troupe which toured Australia starting in Sydney in August 1877.

Miss Emily Soldene, 1870s.

Photographer:  Lock & Whitfield. National Portrait Gallery Image NPG Ax7716 www.npg.org.uk

Not only was Emily Soldene (and you can read more about her life and career, here and here) a talented actress and entrepreneurial, but she was also a talented writer. In 1897 Emily wrote a regular column, My Musical and Theatrical recollections which was published in the Sydney Evening News and from 1900 to 1909 she had another regular  column, London Week by Week, also published in the Sydney Evening News.

When Emily and her troupe finished in Sydney in 1877,  most of the company went by sea to Melbourne but she took a Cobb & Co coach to Melbourne which was an adventure that she wrote about as part of her My Musical and Theatrical recollections series and published on May 15, 1897 (4). When the coach finally arrived in Melbourne. Emily wrote,  we lived at St. Kilda, at Mrs. Gardiner's. She was a furrier by trade, had a business in Melbourne, had prepared the furs for his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh when he visited there (1868), and related the episode every day, sometimes twice a day. Some days it was very interesting, other days one found it monotonous; after many days it made one sick.

The St. Kilda residence was a pleasant one - a long, low house of one storey, built on piles, with a
broad passage running down the centre, and ten or twelve rooms opening off on each side. St. Kilda is close to and looking over the sea - so close to the sea, in fact, that a man-o'-war practising miles away had sent a big shot through the local pianoforte shop just before we arrived. It was a delightful place, but we seemed to have a good many hot winds there. They always gave me a horrible headache. 

Emily visited  Mr. and Mrs. Saurin Lyster - the impresario and the namesake of the town of Lysterfield -   We went out to their delightful place at Fern Tree Gully, drove in a four-in-hand down a 'corduroy' road constructed at an angle of 45deg, had a lovely dinner and a lovely day, crept down the gully and saw the huge fern-trees, rode bush ponies over stumps, through and over and under the trees, emulating and nearly sharing the fate of Absalom.

The most amusing apart of Emily's essay was this - During my stay in Melbourne, one day I got a letter from a place called 'Brandy Creek.' It was from Mr. Weippert, once upon a time of Regent-street, London. It was very sad. He said he was there in that God-forsaken place in distress, and needed help to buy a piano to get his living. From his description 'Brandy Creek' seemed to me to be about the last place in the world in which a professor the pianoforte should set up his tent (5).

This is what Brandy Creek was like when Henry Nelson Weippert was living there.

Buln Buln Brandy Creek, c. 1880.  Photographer: Fred Kruger

State Library of Victoria Image H35016  http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/69363

Mr Weippert was Henry Nelson Weippert, and we can place him at Brandy Creek at the time through this Electoral notice, below, where he was the substitute Returning Officer.  Brandy Creek was a small town on the  original coach road to East Gippsland. When the Gippsland railway line to Sale went through in 1878 to the south of Brandy Creek, the nearest station to Brandy Creek was Warragul. The township which developed around the Warragul railway station soon overshadowed Brandy Creek, which is now known as Buln Buln.

Henry Nelson Weippert, substitute Returning Officer

The Argus June 17, 1878   http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5936592

Henry was born in 1840 the fifth of nine children of William and Corunna (nee Bradford) Weippert of London. Henry married Julia Harris in London in 1862 and they had six children John, Annie, Frances, Jane, Edmund and William born between 1864 and 1874. In the 1871 English Census, Henry's occupation was Music Publisher and it was noted that he employed four men and 2 boys. In 1873 he was listed in the London Electoral Registers at 266 Regent Street in London, so sometime between and 1877 he came to Australia.

I am unsure whether Julia went to Australia at all. Julia is listed in the 1881 English Census as living with her mother, Martha Harris and her two sons, Edmund and William and yet at this same time William and 'Mrs Weippert' are living in South Australia (more of which later).  In the 1891 Census she is still in England living with daughters Frances and Jane and son William. Julia died October 18, 1900 in London and her Probate records lists her as widow. She wasn't a widow as Henry was alive and well and living in Australia - but perhaps he was 'dead to her' (6).

So for what ever reason, Henry Weippert finds himself in the small town of Brandy Creek and sends a letter to his old acquaintance the well known actress, Emily Soldene. I don't know whether Emily helped him out in any way but Henry did his best to bring some culture to the small town of Brandy Creek and on December 21, 1877 held a Grand Concert and Soiree Dansante at Bradley's new hall.

Advertisement for Henry Weippert's Grand Conert

South Bourke & Mornington Journal   December 12, 1877 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70010558

In February 1878 the South Bourke and Mornington Journal published an article A trip up the Gippsland Road to Brandy Creek and the writer, who used the pseudonym Nemo, described the trip and also mentioned Henry Weippert - Just opposite [the hall] a school is being erected by Mr. Weippert, who is also a teacher of music and dancing, showing that he has faith in the future of the township (7). 

By the end of 1878 Henry was touring South Australia and Tasmania in a production of The Infant Mozart. His sister, Emma or Madame Weippert Patey, as she was called was also in the production. Henry was a vocalist as well as the conductor. From 1880 to 1882 we can find references to him living, teaching and performing in Nuriootpa, in the Barossa Valley in South Australia and his occupation was Professor of Music. There are also references to a Mrs Weippert, as I said before. This may be his mother Corunna, who had come to Melbourne in March 1864, with her daughters: sixteen year old Corunna and fourteen year old Emma (8).  In the 1890s we can find a Professor Weippert in Castlemaine, and I am assuming this is Henry (9). From around 1904, Henry is in Sydney, where in 1906 at the age of 66 he married 27 year old, Ruth Mildred Major. Henry remained Sydney, living in Woollahra until his death on August 14, 1914 (10).

We will have  a look at some of the other members of the Weippert family. William and Corunna (nee Bradford) Weippert were married on May 18, 1828 in London. William (1809 - 1857) was a Professor of Music. There is an interesting website A biographical register of Australian colonial musical personnel by Dr Graeme Skinner of the University of Sydney, which has information on some of the Weippert family, see it here. He has slightly mixed up the generations, however Dr Skinner says that William was the son of John Michael Weippert (c. 1775-1831), a harpist who was the younger brother of the more famous composer and bandmaster John Erhradt Weippert (1766-1823).  Corunna Weippert was born in 1809, came to Melbourne as we said before with her two youngest daughters and died in South Melbourne, March 19 1889.  She may have spent time in Tasmania, where her daughter Mary lived.

Mary Eleanor Weippert (1833 -1874) had married James Joseph Pollard in 1853 and they arrived in Tasmania in October 1854 and settled in Launceston where James was pianoforte tuner and teacher of music. Mary died in Launceston in July 1874 and James then married her sister Corunna in January 1876. Her occupation was a 'teacher of dance'. Between Mary and Corunna they had at least sixteen children (11) and as the children grew up they were taught music thoroughly, both vocal and instrumental, the latter including reed, string, and brass—each of them being proficient on several instruments. So strict was the father with them that two hours' practice was compulsory before breakfast. The outcome of this training was a family of clever musicians, which, during the middle seventies, became known as "Pollards Orchestral Union." Balls, parties, and theatrical orchestras were supplied, and the production of amateur opera was also a feature of the programme (12). 

Pollard's Lilliputian Comic Opera Company, 1881.

Poster designed by Richard Wendel. State Library of Victoria Image H2000.180/75

The family then formed the Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company and toured extensively, their first production being Gilbert and Sullivan's, H.M.S. Pinafore (13).  The company toured extensively: New Zealand, Burma, Singapore and Calcutta amongst other places. As well as the family members the Company also had other talented young performers in the Company. It was on the way back from Asia that James Pollard died in Charters Towers in Queensland in May 1884 (14). After his death the company went into an hiatus until 1891 when Tom Pollard, Mary and James' son revived  it (15). Corunna settled in Melbourne in Northcote and died in 1906, aged 59. You can read Dr Graeme Skinner's research on the Pollard family, here.

May Pollard - the daughter of Mary and James Pollard in theatrical costume, c. 1885.

Photographer: Bishop-Osborne. State Library of Victoria image H10159

Olive Pollard - the daughter of Mary and James Pollard in theatrical costume, c. 1881.

Photographer: Hemus and Hanna. State Library of Victoria image H10429

Albert Weippert was another son of William and Corunna's who came to Australia. I don't know when Albert arrived but on February 10, 1862 he married Ann Jane Warren at the Presbyterian Manse at Williamstown. In 1865 he was in Launceston, Tasmania - a pianoforte maker, tuner and regulator. Albert died January 15 1897, aged 56. I have no information about Ann.

Albert Weippert - Pianoforte tuner

Launceston Examiner September 28, 1865  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38662607

William and Corunna's last child was their daughter Emma (1850 - 1939). Emma had arrived in Melbourne in 1864 with her mother and sister Corunna. She married Boyle Robertson Patey in 1866. In the late 1870s Emma had toured with her brother Henry, in the production of The Infant Mozart,  but we will let her obituary tell us more of her career in the  Arts - A versatile member of the theatrical profession passed away yesterday after noon in the person of Mrs. Emma Patey, of Speight-street, Thornbury.....A highly accomplished and versatile performer, she was widely popular on both the dramatic and variety stages,as well as on the concert platform. It was she who sang the dedicatory ode at the opening of the Melbourne Town Hall. Amongst her mast noteworthy dramatic successes were Nancy Sikes (Oliver Twist) and Madge Wedfire (Heart of Midlothian). She supported the noted John Dunn in a long round of plays. The deceased lady married Boyle Robertson Patey, well known In Melbourne legal circles, who predeceased her. There were four children, of the marriage, all of whom survive. Mr. Fred E. Patey, well known in broadcasting circles....She was the oldest living actress in Australia (16).

Emma Patey pictured at the Golden Wedding anniversary celebration of her daughter Louise and her husband George Tutton. This is the only photo I can find of  Emma Weippert Patey. 

Emma and her husband, Boyle Robertson Patey had celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary on June 11, 1916 (17). 

The Argus June 3, 1938  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11173786

Acknowledgement 

I came across Emily Soldene's story of her trip from Sydney to Melbourne by Cobb & Co coach in the book They came to Australia: an anthology, edited by Alan Brissenden and Charles Higham (F.W. Cheshire, 1961). Emily's story was published under the title A coach ride to Melbourne.

Sources

I have created a list on Trove of newspaper articles relating to  Emily Soldene and various members of the Weippert family who came to Australia, see it here. Much of  genealogical information came from Birth, Deaths and Marriage notices on Trove; Tasmanian Archives and sources on Ancestry database. 

The website A history of Preston in Herfordshire - Emily Soldene: her life story was useful and interesting, see it here

As referred to in the text this website - A biographical register of Australian colonial musical personnel by Dr Graeme Skinner of the University of Sydney was also both useful and interesting - access the Weippert family entry, here, and the Pollard family entry, here. 

Footnotes

(1) Adelaide Chronicle, April 20 1912, see here.

(2) A history of Preston in Herfordshire - Emily Soldene: her life story, see here.

(3) Adelaide Chronicle, April 20 1912, see here.

(4) Sydney Evening News, May 15, 1897, see here.

(5) Sydney Evening News, May 15, 1897, see here.

(6) Family information comes from various sources on Ancestry database including the English Census, English Births, Deaths and Marriage records, Probate records etc.

(7) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, February 27, 1878, see here.

(8) Public Records Office of Victoria Unassisted Passenger lists - they arrived on the Coldstream in March 1864,.

(9)  Mount Alexander Mail August 4, 1892, see here.

(10) Henry Nelson Weippert is buried at the Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.

(11) Mary had at least 13 children and Corunna had three. They may have had more, but I have only discovered the 16 so far.

(12) Hobart Daily Post March 30, 1909, see here.

(13) Hobart Daily Post March 30, 1909, see here.

(14) Launceston Examiner May 6, 1884, see here.

(15) Hobart Daily Post March 30, 1909, see here.

(16) The Age July 26, 1939, see here.

(17) Preston Leader June 10, 1916, see here.

Pageant of Loyalty, Frankston, September 1917

This photograph  comes from Museums Victoria, and is labelled Armoured Car in a Street, Victoria, 1914-1918. Part of the description offers the suggestion that it may have been taken in Playne Street, Frankston. I assumed it was connected to a procession or fundraiser in World War One, and with some research on Trove I found it was an exhibit in the Pageant of Loyalty held in Frankston on September 1, 1917. 

Imitation tank from the Pageant of Loyalty, Frankston, September 1 1917

Museums Victoria https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/2098766

The Pageant of Loyalty was a fundraiser for the Red Cross effort, to augment the fund for the erection of an honor roll in the town bearing the names of locally enlisted soldiers, and to help the Wattle Club and Australian Club of Frankston, each of which entertains men going to and returning from the war (1). One of the ways that money was raised was through the sale of  a beautiful souvenir [which had] been prepared and will be on sale for 1s. It is entirely original, and contains, besides other treasures, a list of the names of the boys who have gone from the district to fight for us. Everyone should make a point of  obtaining one at least of these books (2). 

The main attraction was a spectacular procession (3) which started at the Frankston State School, wound it's way around the main streets of Frankston and ended up at Frankston Park. There were some special guests, of which the most distinguished were their Excellencies, Sir Arthur and Lady Stanley - Sir Arthur being the Governor of Victoria (4). The Prime Minister, Mr Hughes (5) was also scheduled to attend, but was unexplained absence, however the local M.L.A., Mr Downward (6) was in attendance. The Shire of Frankston and Hastings was represented by Cr Oates, in the absence of the Shire President, Cr Watts (7).

That's a brief overview of the day and we will have a look in more detail how the day unfolded. The picturesque little town (8) of Frankston was en fete for the pageant - The display of bunting in Frankston had never before been equalled, flags of every color and design being suspended on ropes hung at short, intervals across the street, while the front of the business places were also decked with flags and colored ribbons (9). 

Troops from Langwarrin leading the procession.

Table Talk September 16, 1917 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146477220?#

The procession, which was reported to be a mile and a half long (10) started as we said at the Frankston State School, hence to Davey Street, Bay Street, Playne Street (where the photo of the tank was taken) to the Railway Station, Wells Street, back to Bay Street and onto Frankston Park (11).  It was lead by exhibits organised by the Langwarrin Military Camp -  a Band, headed by pony mascotte; Infantry guard, 2 platoons, under Sgt Tarrant; Army Medical Corps, 3 stretcher squads, cyclist orderly, ambulance waggon and field dressing station, under Staff Sgts Cox and M'Henry. Army Service waggon, 8 horse team, and display of stores, arranged by Supply Officer Nedwell and Transport Sgt Fishwick. Home Service Kitchen, in charge of Sgt Beer. Blacksmith's Forge, Farrier Sgt Blackway. Y.M.C.A. in charge of Mr M. J. Blok (12). 

Following these were the community groups and floats - Mornington Red Cross, Britannia (Soldiers and Sailors), Britannia (The Allies) - The United States and Britannia were both represented allegorically by classically garbed ladies wearing helmets and draped with the national flags (13);  Frankston Red Cross, Frankston Tent of the Independent Order of Rechabites. Next to come were various tableaux showcasing aspects of Australia's history which included Australian Home, Wounded Soldiers, Young Australia, Bourke and Wills and Captain Cook. This was followed by other exhibits such as the Fire Brigade, Company Red Cross Nurses, Company of Boy Scouts, Bugle Band, School children and about 50 cars of the Volunteer Motor Corps with wounded and returned soldiers (14). Another highlight was Loads of pretty girls in fancy costumes, embowered in greenery, wattle bloom and heath (15). 

Some of the pretty girls in fancy costumes in the pageant.

Table Talk September 16, 1917 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146477220?#

The procession ended with the whole winding up with a veritable "Tank," with swivel turret and guns, which were fired at intervals along the route, and created no end of wonderment to the youngsters (16). The tank was built at the Langwarrin Miltary Camp. When the  procession arrived at Frankston Park a number of speeches were made, prayers were offered for the troops serving their Country and the National Anthem and the  hymn, O God, our help in ages past, were sung. The Governor, Sir Arthur Stanley's speech focused on our connection to and love of the Empire, the need to unite in the cause of liberty, equality and fraternity and the fight for freedom.  You can see a report of the speeches, here.

Of course there were many school children present and they had a special treat as during the speeches, the children were marched off to the Anglican Sunday School ground, where Mrs. Deane and Staff Sgt Cox, assisted by a detachment of the Army Medical corps, provided them with the good things so liberally contributed, and which had previously been prepared in bags by a body of workers. 500 bags of cakes, fruit and lollies vanished in the onslaught (17).  The newspapers reported that the pageant was a brilliant display (18) and the afternoon's display was very entertaining, creditable to the organisers, and financially successful, much money being collected by ladies and secured by sales of souvenirs (19). 

I wonder if this tank inspired the Tank Tour around Victoria and New South Wales in 1918?  In that year,  the Commonwealth Government sought to raise 40 million pounds through the  Seventh War Loan. Each state was allocated an amount they needed to raise - Victoria's share was  £13,500,000 and each Victorian Municipality was given a quota to raise money, based on valuations and population etc. One of the ideas to encourage members of the public to subscribe to the War Loan was to have a imitation Tank tour the countryside where at each stop people would hopefully be inspired to subscribe. This idea had also been used in England and the United States the previous year, but were they inspired by the Pageant of Loyalty tank? I have written about this tank tour, and there are photographs of the tanks, in another of my blogs, Casey Cardinia Commemorates: Our War Years, read it here. 

The Tank

Table Talk September 16, 1917 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146477220?#

This is the photograph that confirmed that the Museums Victoria photograph at the top of this post, was the veritable tank of the Pageant of Loyalty, which caused no end of wonderment to the youngsters who saw it. 

Trove list I have created a list of articles on the Pageant of Loyalty on Trove. You can access it here. All the articles referred to in this post are on the list. 

Sources

(1) The Age September 3, 1917, see here.

(2) Mornington Standard September 1, 1917, see here.

(3) Punch August 30, 1917, see here.

(4) Sir Arthur Stanley (1875-1931) and Lady Stanley (nee Margaret Evelyn Evans Gordon). he was Governor of Victoria from 1914 until January 1920. Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here. Lady Stanley was the first President of the Australian Red Cross, Victorian division. Read about the formation of this branch, here, in The Age of August 22, 1914. 

(5) Prime Minister, William Morris Hughes (1862-1952) read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

(6) Alfred Downward (1847 - 1930). Member for the seat of Mornington in the Legislative Assembly from 1894 to 1929. https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/people-in-parliament/re-member

(7)  Shire of Frankston and Hastings - William James Oates, Shire President  1915, 1918, 1931 and 1944. He was defeated after 34 years on the council in August 1944, at the end of term as Shire President. He died in 1958, aged 82 and is buried in the Frankston Cemetery. Cr Watt - I believe this is James Morice Watt, who was an orchardist, from Hastings. He was Shire President in 1917. He died in 1932, aged 67, you can read his interesting obituary here, in the Frankston and Somerville Standard of February 13, 1932. 

(8) The Argus September 3, 1917, see here.

(9) Mornington Standard September 8,  1917, see here.

(10) Mornington Standard September 8, 1917, see here.

(11) The Age September 3, 1917, see here.

(12) Mornington Standard September 8, 1917, see here.

(13) The Age September 3, 1917, see here.

(14) Mornington Standard September 8, 1917, see here.

(15) The Age September 3, 1917, see here.

(16) Mornington Standard September 8, 1917, see here.

(17) Mornington Standard September 8, 1917, see here.

(18) Mornington Standard September 8, 1917, see here.

(19) The Age September 3, 1917, see here.

Alden family of 'Little London', Tyabb

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.

Image: Somerville Tyabb and District Heritage Society

https://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/a-diverse-state/postcards-stories-from-the-mornington-peninsula/

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