Where does Gippsland start?

I grew up in Cora Lynn and went to school at Pakenham Consolidated School and Koo Wee Rup High, so I consider I grew up in West Gippsland, which to my mind started a bit west of Pakenham and finished a bit east of Warragul, after that you get into the La Trobe Valley.  South Gippsland, on the other hand started around Loch or wherever the hills started after leaving the flat plains of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp and the Lang Lang area. Koo Wee Rup and Lang Lang were thus not part of Gippsland at all, according to my opinion, not sure where I thought they belonged, but I associate South Gippsland with steep hills. So I thought I would find some sources of information, with varying levels of authority, to tell us where the western boundary of Gippsland is. Incidentally, Gippsland was named in honour of Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales from 1838 to 1846.

The book In the wake of the Pack Tracks: a history of the Shire of Berwick (1) says that Bowman's Hotel established in the early 1850s on the Cardinia Creek and the Gippsland Road, at what is now Beaconsfield, was also known as the Gippsland Hotel because Cardinia Creek was the border between the Port Phillip District and Gippsland. When the Bunyip River was later proclaimed the boundary the hotel name was changed (2). The Gippsland Hotel is now known as the Central Hotel. So this source puts the Gippsland Border at the Cardinia Creek and later the Bunyip River.  

Charles Daley, in his book The story of Gippsland (3) has this to say about the western boundary the boundary on the west was the Alps and a line drawn southward to Anderson's Inlet, in proximity to the Bunyip River. Approximately this last boundary would be the present county of Mornington as the limit westward (4). This definition means that the Koo Wee Rup Swamp area and the Bass Valley area would not be part of Gippsland.

  

County of Mornington, 1874.

Creator: F. E. Hiscocks & Co. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/119519

Mr Daley has a chapter on the Gippsland Shires and Boroughs Development Association, formed in 1912 with the object of furthering the progress of Gippsland and Mornington County (5) and both the Berwick Shire and the Cranbourne Shire are members as are the Fern Tree Gully Shire and Dandenong Shire (both of which have part of their area in the County of Mornington). 

A map of the Murray and Gipps Land District, 1866.

State Library of Victoria   http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/120583

The map, above, shows the Murray and Gipps Land Districts and the western border of the Gippsland district is the partially the Bunyip River, and then south to Cape Patterson.  So it does seem that there is a consensus (amongst some)  that the Bunyip River is the western border.

Dandenong used to promote itself as the 'gateway to Gippsland.' The first mention I can find is in April 1919 when in a  report of a Government grant being given to the Shire of Dandenong and the Shire President, Cr Abbot, said it was to be spent in beautifying the 'gateway to Gippsland' (6) Does this mean then that the next Council the old Shire of Berwick, which started at the Dandenong Creek, was Gippsland? 

The Weekly Times featured a double page spread of photographs of Dandenong in their November 20, 1926 issue with this headline - Dandenong may be referred to as the Gateway to Gippsland.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223842996

I have been doing a lot of research into soldiers in the local area and it is interesting to see who used Gippsland as an address. As you might  expect some soldiers from Beaconsfield, Officer, Pakenham and all stops down the railway line to Bunyip used their hometown plus Gippsland as part of their address as did men from Cora Lynn, Iona  and Koo Wee Rup. Less expected was the information that  Sydney Eversley Ferres (SN - Service Number 194) had his address as Emerald, Gippsland as did Thomas Walker (SN 872) whose address is Macclesfield, near Emerald, Gippsland.  Robert Hill (SN 1591) and Francis Joseph Seymour (SN 2391) both have Hallam's Road, Gippsland as their address (Hallam's Road is now called Hallam).  Narre Warren and Narre Warren North are also listed as Gippsland on enrolment papers.  I am surprised that Emerald, Hallam,  Narre Warren or Narre Warren North would be considered Gippsland, but some people thought so 100 years ago.

Back to my dilemma as to where South Gippsland starts - William Lester  Lyons (SN 655) has his address listed on his enrolment paper as Cranbourne, Gippsland and yet Arthur Bell (SN 6956) is Cranbourne, South Gippsland. There are also have examples of Clyde, Yanathan, Tooradin and Lang Lang being listed as both Gippsland and South Gippsland and one example of Dalmore being called South Gippsland.

To add to the mix there are also references to North Gippsland in the enlistment papers of soldiers - these men mostly come from Heyfield, Maffra, Fernbank region but there is  a photograph held at the State Library of Victoria called Bunnyip Hotel, North Gippsland taken by Fred Kruger in the 1880s. This Hotel established by David Connor, around 1867, was on the Bunyip River and the Gippsland Road (Princes Highway) - not what I would consider to be Gippsland North. 

The Bunnip Hotel, described by the photographer, Fred Kruger, as being at Gippsland North.

Bunnyip Hotel, North Gippsland c. 1880s Photographer: Fred Kruger.

State Library of Victoria Image H41138/11

In April 1965, the Pakenham Gazette reported on the upcoming football season and the West Gippsland League included the following teams - Bunyip, Catani, Cora Lynn, Drouin, Garfield, Lang Lang, Longwarry, Koo Wee Rup, Nar Nar Goon,  Pakenham and Yarragon. In my mind a fairly logical range of towns to represent West Gippsland. Yet the South-West Gippsland League had the following teams - Beaconsfield, Berwick, Cranbourne, Doveton, Lyndhurst-Hampton Park, Keysborough, Narre Warren, Officer, Rythdale-Cardinia and  Tooradin-Dalmore - a far less logical name for the League as even though some of these towns could perhaps claim to be West Gippsland, they aren't even remotely South Gippsland. 

The Victorian Places website (6) says that you could define Gippsland by water catchment areas -  From east to west the catchments comprise East Gippsland, Snowy, Tambo, Mitchell, Thomson, Latrobe, South Gippsland and Bunyip. The last one, the Bunyip catchment, consists of several streams that flow into Western Port Bay, as well as the Dandenong Creek which enters Port Phillip Bay at Carrum. With the Dandenong Creek omitted, the balance of the Bunyip catchment (ie eastwards of Cardinia Creek) includes most of Gippsland West (7).  So now we are basically back to our original boundary, the Cardinia Creek, which we started with when we spoke about the location of the Gippsland Hotel at Beaconsfield on the Cardinia Creek.

In summary - with all this evidence coming from various sources, some authoritative and some less so, I'm happy to go with the Cardinia Creek as the (unofficial) boundary of Gippsland.   Firstly, it was the original boundary and secondly, the fact that on a social level, many people in the old Shires pf Berwick and Cranbourne (basically today's City of Casey and Shire of Cardinia) have identified as belonging to Gippsland - even if it was for something as 'trivial' as sport or on a more serious basis, they had it recorded as their address on their World War One enlistment papers.  

Footnotes
(1) In the wake of the Pack Tracks: a history of the Shire of Berwick (Berwick Pakenham Historical Society, 1982)
(2) In the wake of the Pack Tracks, op. cit., pp. 37-38
(3) Daley, Charles The Story of Gippsland (Whitcombe & Tombs P/L, 1960),
(4) Daley, op. cit., p. 170.
(5) Daley, op. cit., p. 193
(6) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, April 3, 1919, see here. 
(7) www.victorianplaces.com.au
(8) www.victorianplaces.com.au/gippsland

A previous version of this post, which I wrote and researched appears on the Casey Cardinia  Links to our Past Blog. 

Fred Tuckfield - the maker of Ty-nee Tip tea and bird cards

I love birds and I believe my interest in birds came from the fact that my mother collected Tuckfield Ty-nee Tips Tea bird cards. They used to be in Tuckfields Tea - Mum and Dad were  prolific tea drinkers, they made teapot tea (tea with loose tea, not teabag tea) and every pack of tea had one card, and they were then placed into albums, which we used to look through as children. This was in the the 1960s and 1970s. My Aunty also collected the cards, so that was a source of 'swaps'.

Tuckfields' Bird Card Album for cards No. 1 to 96.

Some time ago, a friend of mine gave me a set of the Tuckfield albums that he had came across, and I was quite thrilled about that for both the connection to my childhood and my love of birds. 

We will start off by looking at the bird cards - there is a very detailed and scholarly study of the bird cards on a website called Tuckfields Birds and other cards: types, variants, chronology, exchange tokens, albums, and miscellany by Mark Calabretta and Cheryl Ridge (1) - you can access the website, here http://members.iinet.net.au/~mcalabre@netspace.net.au/ They tell us that the cards commenced in 1959 and stopped in 2008, there were five series in all which featured 480 birds. The albums also had 'notes for birdwatchers' which included good bird watching locations,  a list of Bird Observer Clubs, the second album included a foreword by Graham Pizzey, the noted ornithologist. The study talks about card types, printing, variants, storage, identifies differences between particular editions of the bird card albums, lists every card and also talks about the other collectibles such as tea caddies and tea spoons, as well as Mr Tuckfield's career, his passion for camellia growing and personal life.  It is an amazing tribute to the bird cards and Fred Tuckfield.

If the Tuckfield Ty-nee Tips Tea bird cards were not part of your childhood, then this is what the album looks like  - these are birds number 1 to 4 - the Red-plumed Bird of Paradise, the Lonely Little King Bird of Paradise; the Helmeted Honeyeater and the Rufous Fantail.

Fred and his wife, Hilda, originally lived in  a house in Manor Grove in North Caulfield, where they grew many camellias. My friend and I visited Fred Tuckfield's house in Manor Grove in March 2019 and the homeowner kindly allowed us to take some photos of the camellias in the garden, including this lovely specimen, below. There are 15 to 20 camellias, still in the garden and we were told that when they moved into the house around 20 years ago, the back yard was full of camellias - all Fred Tuckfield's work!

One of Fred Tuckfield's camellias in his old house in Manor Grove.

Image: Isaac Hermann

Fred Tuckfield eventually run out of space for his camellias and so he and his wife, Hilda, moved to a property on Manuka Road in Berwick; the house was was built around 1891 for the Greaves family; it then had  a series of owners until 1956 (2) when Mr Tuckfield purchased it. It was named Clover Cottage in the 1930s and was situated on eight acres of land.  In 1974, John and Engelina Chipperfield and their business partner, Trevor Burr,  purchased the property from the Tuckfield Estate and from 1979 to early 2017 operated the Clover Cottage restaurant in a purpose built building on the site (3).

For more information on the  Clover Cottage property we turn to Dr Cristina Dyson of Context and her report on the property for the City of Casey in 2018 (4).  Mr Tuckfield engaged  John Stevens, a landscape consultant, to design his garden. Dr Dyson, says the garden represents one of Stevens earliest large scale residential designs, and is interesting as it demonstrates the two great interests of Tuckfield at the time, his camellia collection and his passion for the environment. From the 1950s onward, Tuckfield encouraged innovative gardening techniques, which would now be considered ‘environmentally friendly’. These included use of trickly watering systems, mulching, banning of pesticides and insecticides and other chemicals. He made a number of passionate public appeals against the indiscriminate use of pesticides, which he believed was rapidly destroying the balance of nature.   Stevens also designed landscapes for a number of prominent architectural firms in Melbourne, including Bates Smart McCutcheon, Roy Grounds, Robin Boyd, Stephenson & Turner. 

Mr Tuckfield's camellia, The Czar, won best bloom at the Royal Horticultural Society's camellia show in August 1952.

The Age, August 22, 1952 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206222316

The garden at Berwick had both a camellia plantation and an area for native plants. Mr Tuckfield was very involved in the Australia Camellia Research Society, he was at one time the President and developed 25 camellia cultivars at the Clover Cottage property (5).

In this advertisement from Ty-nee Tips Teas of 1973, Fred Tuckfield tells us 

that few people realise that the tea bush is related to the camellia. 

The Age August 14, 1973.

Frederick Stevens Tuckfield was born in Sale in 1898 to Fred and Ada (nee Page) Tuckfield. He married Hilda Cader in 1924 and she passed away in 1958. The next year he married Vera Sanders, who died in 1961. He remarried in 1962 to Muriel Dennis (6). Fred began a wholesale business selling tea in 1936, having previously worked for Rolfe & Co Ltd, wholesale grocers. By 1940 he was selling Ty-nee Tips tea. The business expanded in the 1950s and 1959 he introduced the bird cards (7)  which were such a lovely and memorable part of my childhood. Fred Tuckfield died September 19, 1973. 

My friend, Audrey, told me this story about Fred Tuckfield - when she was 17 she worked at Ty-nee Tips Tea in, I think it was Prahran, and Mr Tuckfield came in everyday, would mix with everyone and knew everyone by name. That was around 1953. Audrey also said she earnt 4 pounds, 7 shillings and 6 pence a week and her mother took 4 pounds a week for board!

This is Volume 2 - for cards No. 97 to No. 192.

Footnotes

(1) Tuckfields Birds and other cards: types, variants, chronology, exchange tokens, albums, and miscellany by Mark Calabretta and Cheryl Ridge http://members.iinet.net.au/~mcalabre@netspace.net.au/#guide

(2)  Frederick and Hilda Tuckfield are first listed in the Shire of Berwick Rate Books in 1955/1956 year, when they purchased the property of 8 acres with  a house. The date of transfer was 3/6/1956 and the price listed was £5,500.
(3) The information about the Clover Cottage restaurant comes from Berwick Star News November 2, 2016 https://berwicknews.starcommunity.com.au/news/2016-11-02/cottage-restaurant-closes-shop/
(4) Clover Cottage and Garden, 54 Manuka Road, Berwick: Statement of Evidence, Casey Planning Scheme Amendment C231, 2 March 2018 by Dr Cristina Dyson, Context. https://www.casey.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files-public/user-files/1.%20Dr-C-Dyson_Statement-of-Evidence_Clover-Cottage-and-Garden-and-Appendix-A-2mar2018.pdf

(5) ibid. 
(6) Information about his birth, marriages and death from Residents of Upper Beaconsfield: Upper Beaconsfield One Place Study by Marianne Rocke. https://upperbeaconsfieldhistory.org.au/
(7) Information about Fred Tuckfield's business career comes from the Mark Calabretta and Cheryl Ridge article, see Footnote 1.

Martha King (1790 - 1860) - Pioneer Woman

Martha Jane King took up the lease of the Bunguyan run in 1845. The run was of 15,000 acres and takes in modern day Hastings and Tyabb. Mrs King held the lease until November 1859 (1). It was unusual for a woman to have a lease hold in her own name, so in this post we will look at the life of Mrs King. King’s Creek in Hastings was named for Martha King and her family and was the original name for the township of Hastings (2).

Much of the following information comes from historian, Valda Cole, as presented in her book Western Port: Pioneers and Preachers (3). 

Martha was born Martha Jane Henry in County Down Ireland in 1790 and married Henry King in 1814, who was also from County Down.  They had seven children Mary, John, Sarah, Ellen, Robert, Alexander and James.  

The eldest son, John, came to Sydney in 1838. Whilst in Sydney he heard favourable reports about the Port Phillip Region, so returned to Ireland to pass this onto his family. Thus on August 10, 1840 Martha and Henry King and children, plus John King, his wife Elizabeth (nee Johnstone) and their two children, Frederick and Annie, all embarked for Australia on the Salsette. Martha and Henry’s daughters, Sarah and Ellen, were listed on the shipping records as dairy women and their other daughter Mary as a house servant.

The shipping record for the Salsette, which lists Sarah, Ellen and Mary King under Unmarried Females.  The three women can both read and write.

Public Records Office of Victoria VPRS 14/P0000, Book No.2 Register of Assisted Immigrants from the United Kingdom

Sadly, on the way out Martha’s husband, Henry died on October 30 aged 49. The family landed in Melbourne on January 4, 1841, six years after the region had been ‘discovered’ by Europeans such as John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner in 1835 and four years after Governor Bourke proclaimed the town of Melbourne in 1837. Melbourne’s non-Indigenous population at the Census taken on March 2, 1841 was 4,479 (4)  and the King family would have been counted in this Census, along with many other new arrivals seeking  a new life in a ‘new’ country.

In spite of the fact that Martha was recently widowed and her daughter Mary died in 1842 aged 27, Martha had to continue on.  The family was living in Moonee Ponds and to support her children she took charge of John Pascoe Fawkner's father's dairy herd - 113 head of cattle. John Fawkner had become insolvent and so had had to relinquish most of his farm at Pascoe Vale. The herd provided Martha with a source of income as she could sell the cheese that she made from the milk and the herd also provided employment  for her children – daughters Sarah and Ellen were already experienced dairy women. 

Martha needed a large area of land to run a dairy herd and she had access to land leased by her brother, Robert Henry. Robert had the Cardinia Creek No.1 run of 5,120 acres from October 1842 until May 1851 (5). It was later taken over by Terence O’Connor. This run was based, as the name suggests, on the Cardinia Creek, the west side. It is believed that Martha took on adjacent land on the corner of Pound Road and Thompsons road to look after the Fawkner herd.  However as we know she wasn’t there for long as in 1845 she took up the 15,000 acre Bunguyan lease where the family lived in a cottage on the property whilst they were developing  Bunguyan.  

This is part of the Cranbourne Parish Plan and shows the Cardinia Creek pre-emptive right of 640 acres, which was once part of the 5,120 acres leased by Martha's brother, Robert Henry. Dr Niel Gunson describes the Cardinia Creek run as being north of St Germains (6) so I assume that the original run extended west (perhaps to Pound Road) and possibly north of the pre-emptive right. 

Although Martha took up Bunguyan in 1845, the actual formal application wasn’t lodged until 1850 and it was gazetted on December 11, 1850. 

This is notice in the Port Phillip Government Gazette of December 11, 1850, p. 1040, concerning Martha King's lease of the Bunguyan property, near modern day Tyabb.

http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1850/P/general/52.pdf

In 1856, Martha purchased the 160 acre pre-emptive right of Bunguyan (which was on the south east corner of modern day O’Neills Road and Frankston Flinders Road in Tyabb). The property was sold in February 1860. Martha King then moved to the property owned by her daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Richard Rogers,  Tanti Grange, in Schnapper Point (now known as Mornington.)

Parish of Tyabb, County of Mornington, showing the Bungunyan Pre-emptive Right of 160 acres, purchased by Martha King in 1856.

State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/107773

As you can see from this other copy of the Tyabb Parish Plan, the Kings more than likely selected their pre-emptive right based on the fact that it had permanent fresh water.

State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/160165

Martha King died at Tanti Grange on August 11, 1860 and was buried in the old Melbourne Cemetery which was located on the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street in Melbourne (now the site of the Queen Victoria market).  There is a memorial plaque to Martha King at the Bunguyan Reserve in Tyabb (which I will take a photo of one day and add it to this post).

Martha King's death notice.

The Argus, August 14, 1860 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5687851

Family information on the seven children of Martha and Henry King
Mary - born 1815, died May 5 1842.

Mary's death notice.

Port Phillip Patriot May 12, 1842 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226511277

John  - 1817, died January 26, 1870.  John Charles King was appointed the first Town Clerk of the newly established Melbourne City Council in December 1842 and was later a Member of the Legislative Assembly and later still the business manager of The Argus.  You can read his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography here. You can also read his obituary in The Australasian of January 29, 1870, here.

Sarah - 1819, died September 7, 1898 at Warragul. Sarah married Richard Pierce Rogers in 1858. He was a Warragul Shire Councillor and died on May 25, 1884. His brother, John, had married Sarah Henry, Martha’s niece.

Sarah's death notice

The Argus, September 8, 1898 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9850534

Ellen - 1822, died June 6, 1903, at Warragul, at Birchgrove, the home of her late sister, Sarah.

Ellen's death notice

The Argus June 10, 1903 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9802190

Robert - 1825, died July 19, 1883. Robert married Annie Henry in 1871. She was his first cousin, a daughter of Robert Henry. Robert and Annie were living at Coorangbong, in New South Wales when he died. 

Application for letters of administration for Robert King who died intestate.

New South Wales Government Gazette July 27, 1883. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221656017

Alexander  - 1827, died December 29, 1885. Alexander married Mary King in 1853; she was his first cousin, another daughter of Robert Henry. In 1853, Alexander and his brother, Robert, started the first general store on Ballarat at the foot of the hill on which Christ Church Pro Cathedral now stands, but after a short time moved on to the Eureka rush, and opened a branch store at Dalton’s Flat. After the Eureka Stockade riots the brothers closed the branch store and moved to Bridge street, where the business has since been carried on. He was a well known Iron-monger. This is from Alexander's interesting obituary, which was published in the Ballarat Star on December 30, 1885. You can read it here. 

Alexander's death notice.

Ballarat Star, December 31, 1885 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206305642

James 1830, died 1831. 

Acknowledgment

Much of this information comes from Valda Cole’s research, presented in her book Western Port: Pioneers and Preachers (Hawthorn Press, 1975). Mrs Cole gave a talk about the life of Martha King and the early history of the Hastings Tyabb area at the South Eastern Historical Association Discovery School held in 2012  and ever since I have been fascinated about Martha and the life she lead as an early pioneer. 

Footnotes

(1) Billis, R.V & Kenyon, A.S Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip (Stockland Press, 1974), p. 93.

(2) Blake, Les Place Names of Victoria (Rigby, 1977)

(3) Cole, Valda Western Port: Pioneers and Preachers (Hawthorn Press, 1975)

(4) Population - https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/sitecollectiondocuments/history-city-of-melbourne.pdf

(5) Billis, R.V & Kenyon, A.S Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip (Stockland Press, 1974), p. 81

(6) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire, 1969), pp. 35-36.

Laying of the Foundation Stone of the Children's Hospital

On April 20, 1898 the foundation stone of the Children's Hospital was laid by Beatrice Maie St John Madden, Ivy Victoria Clarke and Ethel Maie Sumner Ryan. The three girls  carried out their duty on behalf of the children of Victoria. Although these girls represented the children of Victoria, they were not truly representative of the children of Victoria as they were from families belonging to the  squattocracy (1) or 'upper class' - families well connected to each other, to politicians, to power and to money. 

The three girls who performed the ceremony

The Weekly Times April 30, 1898 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221140643/23411263

The Weekly Times of April 30, 1898 (2) reported on the event and the list of invited guests, including the Acting Governor, Sir John Murray and the role of the three girls - After a few words by the architects, the stone was hoisted, and a bottle containing records of the hospital and the newspapers of the day, was placed in a cavity beneath it. The three little girls, who were all tastefully dressed, and carried handsome bouquets, then stepped forward, and very sedately and prettily went through their part of the programme. First of all they carefully measured the stone. Then they were supplied with a spadeful of mortar upon a polished cedar platter, and with their silver trowels they each took up a morsel and deposited it beneath the stone. "Lower, please," called one of the little ladies to the man at the windlass; then "lower yet," and the stone was dropped into its place. Then with serious faces the three took up one after another a miniature spirit-level, and laid it this way and that across the stone. Lastly, with tiny mallets of cedar they tapped the stone, and their task was done. And then they made a speech. At first little Miss Madden was the spokes-maiden, and this is what she said: - "Ladies and Gentlemen, -We three little girls are very pleased and very proud to be allowed to-day to help this hospital. We declare this stone well and truly laid, and we hope that God will bless this building, and that He will save many dear little children from death and pain by its means." Then the three together lifted up their voices, and said: "On behalf of the children of Victoria, we declare this stone well and truly laid." There was great cheering at this announcement, and the little ladies retired, each carrying with her in a silk-lined morocco case the silver trowel which had been presented. (Weekly Times, April 30, 1898, see here)

The foundation stone of the 1898 building.

Image: Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne 1870 - 1970 by Lyndsay Gardiner (3).

The laying of the foundation stone ceremony

The Weekly Times April 30, 1898 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221140643/23411263

The Children's Hospital began in 1870 in  a house at 39  Exhibition Street (then called Stephen Street). In 1873 it moved to Spring Street. This building could accommodate 15 inpatients as well as providing an outpatient service. The hospital moved again in 1876 to Carlton, to a house purchased from Sir Redmond Barry. This new building provided a substantial increase in space, it could house 24 inpatients and was located on the block bounded by Rathdown, Pelham and Drummond Streets. The hospital expanded with the erection of the new building in 1898, designed by Guyon Purchas and William Shields. It remained on this site until January 1963, when it moved to Flemington Road in Parkville (4).  The Hospital became the Royal Children's Hospital in 1953 (5).

The 1898 building

Children's Hospital, Drummond Street Carlton, exterior view, c. 1900.

Photographer: Charles Rudd. State Library of Victoria Image H39357/103

We will have a look at the life of these three girls.
Beatrice Maie St John Madden. Beatrice, born in 1890, was the youngest daughter of Sir John Madden and his wife Gertrude Frances Stephen. She had four older sisters, Amy (born 1873), Gertrude (1875), Sylvia (1876), Ruby (1877) and one brother Guy born 1879. The family lived at Cloyne, in St Kilda and had a country residence, Yamala, at Frankston. Sir John (1844-1918) was a lawyer and was appointed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1893, the year he was Knighted. Lady Madden, who died in 1925 at the age of 72 was the President of the Austral Salon and the Bush Nursing Association. Sir John was described as an indulgent father (6) and Beatrice grew up in an wealthy and well connected household.

Beatrice Madden, aged about six. I believe this was taken at Yamala.

State Library of Victoria Image H93.236/3

Beatrice married Maurice Howard Baillieu in March 1912 in a fashionable wedding, as the newspapers described Society weddings in those days. It was attended by the Governor of Victoria as well as Dame Nellie Melba, amongst other guests (7).  Maurice was the son of James Baillieu and the brother of William Baillieu, who was a partner in the firm of Munro and Baillieu, prominent Melbourne auctioneers. You can read about the Baillieu family here, in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Beatrice and Maurice had a son John and a daughter Sandra (8). Beatrice died in 1957 at the age of 66.

Photo of Beatrice Madden published at the time of the laying of the foundation stone.

Melbourne Punch April 28, 1898 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/21092377#

Ivy Victoria Clarke. Ivy was the daughter of  Sir William Clarke (1831 - 1897) pastoralist and philanthropist, who in 1874 inherited property in Victoria worth £1,500,000 which is very serious money. In 1881, Clarke was created  a Baronet, the only hereditary title in Australia thus Ivy's background was equally as 'prominent', perhaps even more so than that of Beatrice. Sir William's first wife, Mary (nee Walker) died in 1871 - they had four children - Alice (born 1862), Rupert (1865), Ethel (1867) and Ernest (1869).  In 1872 he married Janet Snodgrass, who had been the governess to his children. She was the daughter of Peter and Charlotte Snodgrass, more of whom later. They had seven children - Clive (1874), William (1876), Agnes (1877), Francis (1879), Reginald (1880), Lily (1884) and Ivy in 1888. The family homes were  Rupertswood in Sunbury and Cliveden (now demolished) in East Melbourne. Lady Clarke was also very philanthropic and was involved with the Austral Salon, the Melbourne District Nursing Society, the first president of the National Council of Women among many other organizations. In 1889, Lady Clarke donated £5000 for the construction of the Hostel for Women University Students, Trinity College known as  Janet Clarke Hall.  You can read her entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, here.

Photo of Ivy Clarke published at the time of the laying of the foundation stone.

Melbourne Punch April 28, 1898 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/21092377#

Ivy married Robert William Knox in 1912. He was a business man, director of various companies and President of the Australian National Theatre Movement. He was Knighted in 1934. Ivy was involved in various charitable and community organisations, including being the President of the Australian Women's National League. She died in 1962 at the age of 74. As a matter of interest, to me at least (9), when Ivy's mother, Janet Clarke, died at the age of 57 in April 1909 she left an estate of  £109,000 and made a number of individual bequests to her children. Ivy received Honiton lace and her mother's diamond tiara. Honiton lace was an English lace and was used on Queen Victoria' wedding gown when she married in 1840. I wondered if Ivy had used the lace in her own wedding gown, but it wasn't, her dress was of satin and tulle and embroidered with pearls (10).  Ivy's life was indeed  a life of privilege however her father died when she was nine, her mother when she was twenty and her son Keith in 1946 at the age of 27, so all the money in the world can't insulate you from the death of loved ones. Keith had served in the War with an English regiment, was awarded the Military Cross and Bar, but died as a result of an operation in 1946 (11). Ivy and Robert had another son, David, and a  daughter Rosemary.

Lady Clarke wearing her diamond tiara, which she left to her daughter Ivy.

Photo: The Long last summer: Australia's Upper Class before the Great War by Michael Cannon (12)

Ethel Maie Sumner Ryan.  Maie as she was known, was born on March 13, 1891 in Melbourne.  She was the daughter of Sir Charles Snodgrass Ryan and Alice Elfrida Sumner.  Her brother, Rupert Sumner Ryan had been born in 1884. Sir Charles was the honorary medical officer to the Children's Hospital from 1883 until 1913, then became consulting surgeon. Sir Charles was the son of Charles Ryan and Marion Cotton. Marion's sister Charlotte was married to Peter Snodgrass and they were the parents of Janet, Lady Clarke. Thus Charles Ryan and Janet Clarke were first cousins. John Cotton, the father of Marion and Charlotte, was a naturalist and had published two books on birds in England before he arrived in Australia. He had plans to publish a book on the birds of Port Phillip, illustrated with his own drawings, but died before this eventuated. His grand-daughter, Ellis Rowan, was also a talented artist, who painted exquisite pictures of  wildflowers and birds. Ellis was the sister of Charles Ryan and  the aunt of young Maie.

Photo of Maie Ryan published at the time of the laying of the foundation stone.

Melbourne Punch April 28, 1898 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/21092377#

Maie married Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey in London in 1926. He was an engineer, a politician and  the Governor General of Australia from 1965 to 1969, you can read about his life and career here. They had two children, Jane and Richard. The Casey family lived at Edrington in Berwick.  Maie's aunt on her mother's side, Winifred Sumner was married to Andrew Chirnside, one of the Chirnsides of Werribee Park. Andrew and Winifred purchased Edrington in Berwick in 1912 and when the couple both died within three months of each other in 1934 Edrington passed to Maie Casey and her brother, Colonel Rupert Ryan, niece and nephew of Winifred. Edrington at Berwick was the family home of Lord and Lady Casey (well one of them, they also owned a house in East Melbourne).  Maie was a talented artist, a writer and  a poet. She also complied and edited Early Melbourne Architecture, 1840 to 1888:  a photographic record (13). Sadly, many of the buildings had been demolished when the book was published,  I'd hate to think how little remains now.  It's a great book, well worth trying to obtain a copy, if you want to see how marvellous Melbourne once was. Lady Casey died in 1983. Read more about her, here.

Lady Casey standing beside a small aeroplane. Both Lord and Lady Casey flew planes. They 

established their own airfield at Berwick, Casey Airfield.

State Library of Victoria Image H2013.295/1

Footnotes:
(1) Squattocracy - what a great word this is - the Colonial Aristocracy. The first evidence of its use was in 1846 according to A dictionary of Australian colloquialisms by G. A. Wilkes (Sydney University Press, 1978) A squatter was a respectable pastoralist occupying Crown land by licence. Most of these squatters then purchased the land at the first Government land sales.  The ownership of land was a source of great wealth, as we can see with Sir William Clarke.
(2) Weekly Times of April 30, 1898, see here.
(3) Gardiner, Lyndsay Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne 1870 - 1970 (published by the Hospital in 1970)
(4) Gardiner, op. cit.
(5) The Children's Hospital becomes the Royal Children's Hospital reported in The Age August 7, 1953, see here.
(6) Sir John Madden, an indulgent father comes from his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry written by Ruth Campbell, see here.
(7) Beatrice Madden's wedding was reported on in The Leader, March 16, 1912, see here and The Australasian, March 16, 1912, see here. The State Library of Victoria has a copy of her wedding photo, see here.
(8) I wondered whether the three girls kept in touch or were friends. I found a report of Sandra Baillieu's wedding to Alexander William Stewart in September 1950. It was a small wedding with family and intimate friends and Sir Robert and Lady Knox were present, so it appears there was still some connection between Beatrice and Ivy. The report was in The Argus November 27, 1950, see here. You can see the photos of 'Melbourne's Society Wedding of the Year', here, in the same paper.
(9) I was interested that Ivy inherited her mother's tiara, because I love tiaras! It's not often you get a chance to write about tiaras in Local History blogs, so even though it is not central to the story, I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass.
(10) Ivy's wedding was reported in Punch November 12, 1914, see here and The Leader, November 14, 1914, see here.
(11) The obituary of Keith Knox was in The Argus November 12, 1946, see here and The Age of November 12, 1946, see here.
(12) Cannon, Michael The Long last summer: Australia's Upper Class before the Great War (Nelson, 1985)
(13) Casey, Maie Early Melbourne architecture, 1840 to 1888: a photographic record (Oxford University Press, 1975)

Cyrus Mason - the Buonarotti Club and 'Woodyats', Tynong

I was going through Trove combining various words with Koo Wee Rup as a search term to see what I could discover and came up with an article in The Argus of August 10, 1929 on the Buonarotti Club - it was titled Buonarotti Club: Bohemians of the 'Eighties - Memories of noted artists by L.T. Luxton (1)

Stephen F. Mead, wrote a  history of the club, The Search for Artistic Professionalism in Melbourne: the activities of the Buonarotti Club, 1883 -1887 which was published in the State Library of Victoria's La Trobe Journal in December 2011, read it here. I have extracted a few paragraphs from his article.

Stephen Mead writes - The Buonarotti Club was instigated by the engraver, draughtsman and artist, Cyrus Mason in May 1883 at the Prince's Bridge Hotel (Young and Jackson's), on the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets, in Melbourne.  It flourished for the next four years, eventually concluding its activities during September 1887. Mason was well acquainted with colonial literary, artistic and bohemian circles long before forming the Buonarotti Club, especially through his membership of Melbourne's Yorick Club. In the 1860s, he was one of the first illustrators of the Colonial Monthly edited by his friend Marcus Clarke, then the source of early Melbourne's Bohemian attitudes.

The Club was a professional artists' organisation that utilised literature and music to build the group into a more comprehensive artistic institution, distinct from other art and cultural societies of the period. Although it was divided into three 'sections' – 'Artistic', 'Literary' and 'Musical'- its membership consisted mainly of men and women who aspired to be professional painters. These included Frederick McCubbin, Louis Abrahams, Tom Roberts and Jane Sutherland. Admittedly literary clubs and societies were very popular in Melbourne during the 1880s, as demonstrated by the existence of the Shakespeare Society, the Shelley Society, the Burns Society and the Lamb Society. It must be stressed, however, that these groups were purely and proudly made up of amateurs, not professional writers. The Buonarotti Club differed from them in that it was artist-dominated, with members who possessed professional goals. These included painters who desired instruction, a cross fertilization of ideas and the opportunity to exhibit and receive critique from their peers to assist them in their participation in the commercial Melbourne art world.

The name of the Club 'Buonarotti' had been proposed by the founder, Cyrus Mason, to honour Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), the great Italian sculptor, painter, draughtsman and architect.

Stephen Mead concludes his article with Despite its early demise, it must be recognised that significant achievements were made of the Buonarotti Club in building up a strong code of artistic professionalism to meet the needs and challenges faced by artists of the period in Melbourne, even fostering a strong sense of artistic bohemianism in the city, and played a pivotal role with that group of artists who formed the now-designated Heidelberg School of painters. (2)

Richmond Road in 1883 by Cyrus Mason

State Library of Victoria Image H2012.271

Cyrus Mason, the founder of the Club, had a property at Tynong where he hosted artists who had painting expeditions to the shores of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp. The Koo Wee Rup Swamp, of 40,000 hectares, was drained between 1889 and 1893, you can read about it here. This means that when the members of the Buonarotti Club saw the swamp it was in its natural state and undrained. How wonderful it would be to see paintings and drawings of that.

The 1929 article in The Argus that I referred to at the start of this post had an interview with a Club member, Louis Lavater, a musician. Louis shared his memories which were of the out-of-doors excursions rather than the social activities of the Buonarotti; of finding a tiger snake as a bed companion on an excursion to Eaglemont and of killing it with a walking stick and nonchalantly turning over and going to sleep again; of happy-go-lucky painting camps on the shores of the Koo-wee-rup Swamp.

"Often we used to set out from Mr. Cyrus Mason's estate at Tynong for the old Koo-wee-rup swamp, with a loaf of bread, a bag of tomatoes, a bag of oysters, bottles of beer and plenty of cigarettes," said Mr. Lavater. "Painting was the first object of the expeditions, but the rough life had a zest all its own which appealed strongly to all of us and the humour! I wonder whether humour is gone from the bush roads when I think of the incidents of those excursions. I remember that there was a dear old couple who lived on an island in the swamp, who received a letter from a Melbourne solicitor stating that they had been left a small sum of money. The old woman, who was aged 84 years - four years older than her husband-was keenly conscious of her husband's youthfulness, and it was with the greatest reluctance that she allowed him to go to Melbourne to arrange a settlement with the solicitor. She used to tell us that every time she thought of her husband among 'those Melbourne hussies' she had a 'paroxum.' Her stern disapproval of our bathing in the swamp apparently caused her a few more 'paroxums,' for she used to come down and seize our clothes and stalk away with them in righteous indignation." (3)

Map of the Colony of Victoria designed, lithographed and printed by Cyrus Mason, 1854.

State Library of Victoria click here to see a high resolution version http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/119498

Cyrus Mason was born in London in 1829. He undertook an apprenticeship as a lithographer and in the May of 1853 arrived in Melbourne. In September 1856 he joined the Victorian Railways as a lithographic draughtsman and set up its lithographic printing branch. He left the Railways in 1864  had various jobs, was a member of different Artist's Societies, undertook freelance work, lectured and as we saw established the Buonarotti Club in 1883. (4) You can read a  more extensive account of Cyrus Mason's life in an article by Thomas Darragh in Design and Art Australia Online here.

Camping on the road. Artist W.H.O., lithographed and published by Cyrus Mason, 1855

State Library of Victoria Image H83.236/2

Cyrus Mason purchased 282 acres of land around December 1876 from William McKeone (5) and he called the property Woodyats. He was listed in the Shire of Berwick Rate books up until the 1898/1899 book; during this time his occupation was initially listed as a Draughtsman, but later changed to Grazier and towards the end it changed to the more refined Gentleman. Thomas Darragh says he returned to Melbourne about 1900, so this tallies with the entries in the Rate books. At Tynong, Cyrus bred Romney Marsh sheep and was a breeder of some note and participated in Stud Sheep sales, as we see from the advertisement, below.

Annual stud sales including Cyrus Mason's Woodyats stud at Tynong

Sydney Mail August 13, 1887 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165222851?

I wanted to find the exact location of Woodyats and the Rate books list the property as Lots 16 & 17, Parish of Bunyip, and it is shown on the 1887 map immediately below. A later map from 1907, created after the Parish of Koo Wee Rup East was established, shows the allotments renumbered as 55C and 55B and part of the new Parish. The property is south-west of Garfield, facing onto what would now be Mont Albert Road. The property was on high ground on  the edge of the Swamp or the on the shores of the Koo-wee-rup Swamp as Louis Lavatar noted (6)

*click on image to enlarge*  An 1887 map showing Cyrus Mason's property, next to what was called Batty Island, the property owned by Thomas Batty. This was before the Koo Wee Rup Swamp was drained, so it would have been surrounded by water. See the 1907 map below, which shows the property in relation to later roads.

Bunyip, County of Mornington,  photo-lithographed at the Department of Crown Lands and Survey, Melbourne,

 by J. Noone 10. 5. 87. [1887] State Library of Victoria Image  http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/204488

*click on image to enlarge*  Cyrus Mason's property, south-west of Garfield, marked with blue stars. I have annotated the map and you can see it is surrounded by the Koo Wee Rup Swamp 

sub-divisions.

Koo-Wee-Rup, County of Mornington, photo-lithographed at the Department of Lands and Survey, Melbourne, by T. F. McGauran, 1907. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/104853  

In June 1893, Mason wrote a letter to the editor of the Leader newspaper about the Public Works Department, their Swamp drainage works, the hardship the new settlers faced and at the same time displaying  a practical knowledge of the area -
Two years back this May The Age published a letter (7) of mine giving the history of the Kooweerup country from 1847, including the various attempts at drainage, and stating that the volume of water always flowing past my property did not reach Western Port Bay. The Public Works department now admits that my statement made then is correct and explains the disappearance of the water by the process of evaporation. As most of the land included in the evaporating area for the calculation made in my presence by a public works engineer is on the south side of the main drain, and has as much to do with the water on the north side as the Fitzroy Gardens, the evaporation theory is valueless. For many years I have endeavored to deter the Public Works officers from blundering into the Kooweerup country without providing a way out. The winter's rains, unhappily, will compel many of the 20 acre section occupiers to find a way out, as they will be surrounded by water— a result not conducive to settling the unemployed upon the land. Last January I wrote to Mr. Webb, hoping through him to save the reputation of the Public Works department by allowing its officers the credit of the discovery I am now compelled to make known, for the Minister of Public Works in four months has not even favored me with an acknowledgment of my letter. Unfortunately it may take another two years and the useless expenditure of many thousands of pounds to force the truth into the official mind, so the sooner stated the better. 

I have discovered a river in Victoria, hitherto not shown on any map, and quite ignored by the Public Works engineers in their drainage scheme. Altogether apart from the Bunyip River, there is another and far larger body of water, which enters below Garfield the Kooweerup country, spreads out in width for half a mile, having four deep channels flowing westward rapidly, gathers into a volume of faster running water 9 feet deep at the south west, corner of my property, and in a mile disappears in an immense reed bed about a mile and a half south of the 42 mile post on the Gippsland railway. This fast running river forms a chord to the curve of what is termed the main drain, out at the east end through high ground, growing timber which required dynamite for its removal. Not 1 gallon of the Kooweerup River water flows into the Government cut except after excessive rains, but passes underground on its way to Port Phillip Bay, as stated in my letter of May, 1891.

It would be laughable, if not too painful and expensive in results, to see the unemployed trying to make what is called a "subsidiary drain " across this large river! A remarkable work to give the unemployed for the privilege of settling on 20 acres when drained, and affords to us an official illustration of Mrs. Partington with her mop operating against the Atlantic. My statement that the Kooweerup River exists is definite, and can be easily tested— (1) By walking from the Bunyip railway station south one mile to the public works main drain, by the track crossing the whole of the Bunyip River water, women and children have used it for months without wetting the soles of their boots by walking over the river on laid saplings. (2) A 9 foot pole will prove the depth of running water forming my south boundary. (3) It is within the knowledge of everyone who has seen the main drain below Nar Nar Goon during April that only a mere dribble of water from the Ararat Creek flowed in it towards Western Port. Had the Public Works officers examined these three points— included in about eight miles— they must have discovered the existence of the Kooweerup River, and refrained from starting the unscientific theory of evaporation. The Kooweerup River will have to be dealt with apart from the present made drain, which is not made large enough to carry the water could it be taken from low to higher ground. As all my efforts with Ministers and officers at the Public Works department have failed in obtaining any recognition of what might be made an additional and valuable river to Victoria, I bring its existence publicly under notice, and conclude my letter with the invitation I gave Mr. Webb last January, feeling sure of courtesy at your hands. I beg most respectfully to invite your attention to what must be considered the key to successfully open the Kooweerup country, and herewith enclose a tracing showing what I actually know as facts, with that hope that you will order an investigation of the correctness of my tracing before commencing subsidiary channels. I shall be happy to lend my boat, or render assistance to yourself or any officer sent to investigate, and if advised, will meet train at Tynong station with my buggy,— Yours, &c, CYRUS MASON. (8)

Cyrus Mason also created a water lifting scheme - a method to transfer water from a creek into a tank and thus to be used for irrigation and stock water, so he was not only a talented artist but inventive as well. The Australasian newspaper, of December 24, 1892 published an article on this invention -
a simple and economical mode of lifting water, the system brought into use by Mr. Cyrus Mason, J.P., on his property, Woodyats, Tynong, is well worth the attention of anyone having the command of a running stream, and desirous of using it for irrigating green crops, small fruits, vegetables, or for watering stock. As Mr. Mason, when building his wheel, was only desirous of proving its capabilities for irrigating an orchard and perfume garden, also obtaining a head of water to work a hydraulic ram, he authorises us to say that he will have pleasure in communicating information to anyone desirous of constructing a similar wheel. (9)

Cyrus Mason's simple and economical mode of lifting water

The Australasian December 24, 1892. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138104822

There were two aspects of Cyrus Mason's life - the engraver and artist who sought the company of like minded people in the Buonarotti Club and the farmer of Woodyats at Tynong. It was his interest in his farm that was, in the end, one of the reasons for the demise of the Buonarotti Club.

L.T Luxton, the writer of the newspaper article I have referred to at the top of this post, quotes an un-named female member of the club and she attributes the decline of the Club to -
Cyrus Mason's move to Tynong. He was elected president. From that point to the time when Cyrus Mason retired to live in the country and the club 'petered out,' three years elapsed-one year as a men's club and two years as a mixed club. A short life if you like, but a very merry one. (10)

Louis Lavater, in the same article, also attributes the demise of the club to the resignation of key members -
"The end of all clubs," replied Mr Lavater, extending his hands, "Chance carried away a few of the dominant personalities, such as Longstaff, Julian Gibb and Cyrus Mason, and soon there were not enough strong personalities left to carry the dead weight of that section which has to be carried in every club. A slow 'petering-out,' and in a year, or two years - gone!" (11)

Family information

Cyrus married Jessy Montagu (nee Campbell) in 1853. They had, I believe, 10 children - I have listed them here with any details I can confirm (12) - 
Cyrus - born 1854, married Louise Scroggie in 1882 and died in 1931 in New South Wales.
Jessy Harriet - born 1855 and died January 27, 1857.
Arthur John - born 1857, married Hattie Adelaide Devol in Kansas City, Missouri. 
Walter and Willie - born and died in April 1859 - Walter on April 15 at 4 days old and Willie on April 22 at 11 days old.
Laura - born in 1860, married Richard MacDonnell in 1883 and died in 1935.
Herbert Reuben - born in 1861, died in 1885 in Queensland.
Valentine Frank - born 1864, died in 1944.
Constance - born 1866, married Frederick Kneebone in 1890 and died in 1952.
Theodore - born in 1867, died in 1947 in New South Wales.

After Cyrus and Jessy left Tynong they moved to Florence Street, Mentone; then to Gordon Street in Sandringham, and from there to Fitzroy and East Melbourne. (13)

Cyrus Mason died August 8, 1915 at the age of 86 and his wife Jessy died November 21, 1909 aged 84. They are buried at St Kilda Cemetery with little Jessy and the babies, Walter and Willie. Also on the headstone, which is shown below, is their grandson, Arthur Robert Mason, Killed in Action in France on August 28, 1918.  There is also the quite unusual smaller headstone on the same grave for Jessy's daughters from her first marriage to George Conway Montagu - Edith who died at the age of 63 in May 1911 and Jane who died in August 1938, aged 93. (14)

The Mason family grave at the St Kilda Cemetery, with the rather unusual second headstone for the Montagu sisters, the step-daughters of Cyrus Mason.

Photo: Isaac Hermann.

We will finish off this post with this beautiful poem, Noon at Woodyats, Tynong, by Grace Elizabeth Jennings Carmichael (1867-1904) , a member of the Buonarotti Club, published in The Australasian on January 21, 1888, under the name of  Jennings Carmichael (15). Grace died in London just before her 37th birthday. You can read more about her short life in her Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, written by Lyndsay Gardiner, here.

Noon at Woodyats, Tynong
It is a day to dream one dream,
And then in full content to die,
Bearing away in memory
The colours of that cloudless sky;
The odour of the fragrant green
As 'mid its seeded spears we lie,
The motion of those throbbing wings
That up the bluey distance fly.

It is a day to dream one dream
Of earthly peace, forgetting all
The bygone gleam of darker days -
The keen cold blast and sullen fall
Of slant grey rain, the leafless range
Of solemn poplars straight and tall.
The burial thoughts mid-year June,
That wrap the earth with sable pall.

A day to dream one dream of trust,
Untortured by foreboding fears,
To drink in joy the breezy gust
That round this spreading lightwood cheers.
To clasp dear Hope with eager arms.
And look with eyes undimmed by tears,
While memory blots away for once
The sorrow of the yesteryears.

In the broad march the colours glow,
Nut browns and blues and shading gold,
Deep purples fill the dimpling clefts
Between the wooded mountain folds.
On yonder gradual slope the clear
Transparent summer-sunlight holds
No wraith of shadow standing bright
Against the circle of the wolds.

A day to dream one dream of rest -
Oh friends, your happy voices ring
So freshly from the glowing lawn
That glistens through the sombre wing
Of yon old fir; sweet is the sound
The echoes to my senses bring.
Fainting soft pictures of content
That ever to the brain will cling.

I ween 'twere happy so to die.
To see this perfect world alight,
Just as the shadow of th' eclipse
Falls in irrevocable might;
To close loth eyes, their vision rich
With earth sweet largesse, full and bright;
Then in that view to sink away
Into the silence of the night.

Sources:
Darragh, Thomas Cyrus Mason in Design and Art Australia Online, see here.

Mead, Stephen The Search for Artistic Professionalism in Melbourne: the activities of the Buonarotti Club, 1883 -1887 in the State Library of Victoria La Trobe Journal No. 88 December 2011, see here.

Trove list: I have created a list of newspaper articles referenced in this post, access it here.

Footnotes
(1) The Argus, August 10, 1929, see here.
(2) Mead, Stephen The Search for Artistic Professionalism in Melbourne: the activities of the Buonarotti Club, 1883 -1887 in the State Library of Victoria La Trobe Journal No. 88 December 2011, see here.
(3) The Argus, August 10, 1929, see here.  The 'dear old couple who lived on an island in the swamp' were Thomas and Agnes Batty, I have written about them here   https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/battys-island-and-thomas-batty-c-1802.html
(4) Darragh, Thomas Cyrus Mason in Design and Art Australia Online, see here.

(5) William McKeone also spelt as M'Keone advertised his property for sale in December 1876 - it was described as adjoining the Koo Wee Rup Swamp and as one of the nicest little farms within many miles around. I have written about William McKeone in my history of Tynong, here.
(6) The Argus, August 10, 1929, see here.
(7) The Age, May 23, 1891, see here.
(8) The Leader, June 10, 1893, see here.
(9) The Australasian, December 24 1892, see here.
(10)  The Argus, August 10, 1929, see here.
(11) Ibid

(12) Indexes to the Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland Births, Death and Marriages; Personal notices in the newspapers.
(13) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com
(14) St Kilda Cemetery headstone transcriptions on Ancestry.com
(15) The Australasian, January 21, 1888,  see here.