Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 13 September 1913, page 7


MELBOURNE IN INFANCY.

SOME INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS

By A. W. GREIG.

Despite the fact that the date of its foun-dation lies within the memory of men still living, there is a haze of legend surround-ing the very early history of our city. Writers with insufficient data have drawn upon their imagination to complete a pic-ture of the period, and by mistaken infer-

BATMAN'S HOUSE, 1836.

ences have given currency to statements which are absolutely incorrect, while the unreliable reminiscences of early colonists have added to the confusion. A student of the subject therefore finds it hard to avoid the many pitfalls with which he is surrounded. Much is to be hoped for from the researches of Professor Scott into long-buried official records. But since these are confined almost entirely to matters coming under official cognisance, their scope is strictly limited, and any fresh light coming from outside sources with some claim to authenticity should be eagerly welcomed.

It might reasonably have been supposed that at this late hour all possible contribu-tions of this nature had received full pub-licity. Yet in a collection of manuscript notes and water-colour sketches recently acquired by the trustees of the Melbourne Public Library we have material which, dur-ing the 35 years which have elapsed since the author's death, seems to have escaped attention. The notes have little value as a connected narrative, and many of the sketches are palpably creatures of the

artist's imagination; but they are the work

of a man who was in the full vigour of ma-turity of mind and body when he arrived in Melbourne, and who had ample opportuni-ties to inquire into its early history. The settlement was little more than four years old when he first saw it, and nearly all the original pioneers were probably within the circle of his acquaintance.

Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet was himself an interesting figure among the early colonists of the State. Reaching Port Phillip in the ship William Metcalfe in November, 1839, he left a portion of his family encamped upon the Port Melbourne beach, and after a brief visit to Sydney, himself returned to the same spot in Janu-ary, 1840. Here he soon replaced his original tent by a more permanent dwelling, which he later turned into an hotel, and erecting a small jetty, levelling some of the sand dunes, and improving the track leading inland through the scrub, he be-came waterman and mail contractor, be-sides providing a conveyance to take pas-sengers up from the beach to the growing town on the banks of the Yarra.

In all his undertakings, Liardet had the assistance of a family of stalwart sons, and seems to have found leisure to indulge the tastes of a dilettante in music and art. I have it on the testimony of his daughter that he was very fond of making sketches, and always had a portfolio full of them, and in 1843 he produced a view of Melbourne, which was sent to England to be engraved. Specimens of the resulting plate are now rare, but the curious may see a fine example in the Petherick Collection at the Federal Parliament House. In his old age, Liardet projected a history of Melbourne, and pre-pared the series of pictures with which we are now concerned. Internal evidence does not place them any earlier than the year

1875, but it is reasonable to suppose that

they were elaborated from much older, and in many instances contemporary, studies. By permission of the trustees of the Pub-

lic Library, a few have been selected to il-lustrate this article, some explanatory com-ments on which may not be out of place. The artists own notes concerning them show that during his early Australian ex-periences he was both inquiring and ob-

servant.

The first buildings erected on the site of Melbourne, in August and September, 1835, were mere huts of turf and branches, but about the end of the year Batman and Fawkner brought the framework of their houses from Launceston and set about the construction of more substantial dwellings. The Batman domicile was somewhere about the Flinders street end of the present rail-

way offices on the southern slopes of the vanished Batman's Hill; and as it remained in position up to the early sixties, Liardet must have had many opportunities of ob-serving it. Fawkner, on the other hand, chose a portion of the site afterwards selected for a Custom House, erecting his cottage near the south east corner of Flin-ders lane and William street, and from this position he was ousted fully twelve months before Liardet's arrival in Melbourne. If we are to believe "Garryowen," the build-

SURVEYOR'S CAMP ON PORT MELBOURNE BEACH 1837

ing was re-erected for a brief space of time in Market street, and here the artist may have seen it; but that he was dependent upon hearsay for a description of its origi-nal location is evident from the inaccuracy of the picture, in which it is made to face south east instead of due south, as was ac-tually the case. He also seems to have in-troduced a kind of symbolical group in the foreground showing Batman attended by Buckley "the wild white man" conducting his celebrated negotiations with the brothers Jaga Jaga, who rather resemble some of the giants from a childs book of fairy tales; but with all its absurdities the picture has

a value in giving us a glimpse of the original surroundings of the Yarra, with the verdant knoll of "Emerald Hill" in the background. It is interesting to note that neither of the sites chosen for the first two permanent buildings in Melbourne has ever been alien-

ated from the Crown.

The pilgrim fathers of the settlement, with the untrammelled freedom of squat-ters in virgin country, built their mud huts and frame houses wherever it seemed good to them, and for 12 months they were left in undisputed possession. But early in October, 1836, there arrived from Sydney

in the brig Stirlingshire a party of Govern-

ment officials, who were to bring law and

order to the settlement. Among these were three surveyors—Robert Russell, Frederick Robert D'Arcy and William Wedge Darke—charged with the important duty of laying out a town and one of the most interesting official documents con-nected with the birth of Melbourne is the first map of the district, prepared by Rus-sell, showing the buildings then existing and the outlines of the proposed streets. On this plan we find the "surveyors tents" away in the bush, about the foot of Russell street, but the leaders of the party chose for themselves residences closer to the centre of the settlement. D'Arcy, who had his wife with him, picked a spot on the Market street hill, where he afterwards bought a couple of allotments. Russell had a cottage erected on the south side of the river, quite close to the "Falls," while Darke camped not far away from him, on the banks of the Yarra "basin." Liardet has given us a picture of Russell's "wattle and dab" structure, in all the romance of its early surroundings, and supplies the in-formation that it was afterwards occupied by Mr. William Le Souef, whose son for some time worked a punt or ferry on the river near by — a statement which is cor-

roborated by Mr. Le Souef's grandson, the present director of the Zoological Gardens. The old cottage stood by the falls until 1853 when it was dismantled or swept away by a flood —probably the same inundation which compelled the residents of the origi-nal "Canvas Town" to seek higher ground.

Concerning Darke, the third surveyor, Liardet relates a circumstance which does not seem to have been elsewhere recorded. He states that this gentleman, who seems to have been a bit of a Sybarite in his way,

not caring to submit to the discomforts and insecurity of a tent for himself and the im-

plements of his craft, brought a horse drawn caravan with him from Sydney, and used it as a portable dwelling. It was a part of the routine of the Survey department that harbours, inlets, bays and water-

courses should be surveyed in the vicinity of a new township; and if we imagine Darke to have been deputed to carry out this part of the work in connection with the founda-tion of Melbourne there is nothing im-probable in Liardet's statement that the surveyor camped for some time in his cara-

van on the Port Melbourne beach, where he had the first track cut through the tea tree scrub, and hoisted a barrel on a pole to mark the way to Melbourne giving the locality its original name of "Sandridge;"

in record of which circumstances the artist

ROBERT RUSSELL'S COTTAGE AT THE "FALLS" 1837

has given us a graphic but of course wholly imaginary picture. To Darke's horses Liardet ascribes the destruction of the crop of wheat sown by Fawkner on the south side of the Yarra in the autumn of 1836— not an unlikely thing to happen when we consider that the corn would be

young and green at the time of their re-lease from the confinement of a sea voyage.

Captain Lonsdale chose as the site of his first official residence the grassy plateau lying north of Batman Hill, and here, on the as yet unsurveyed block now bounded by Collins, Spencer, Bourke, and King streets, a cluster of buildings connected with the Government departments soon sprang into existence. These were of no very high order of architecture, being for the most part mere wattle or turf huts for the ac-

commodation of soldiers, working gangs of convicts, &c.; and among them occurred, in April, 1838, Melbourne's first fire. The

growing population had necessitated the erection of a couple of cabins as police office and watch house, the latter being divided into two compartments —one for the prisoners, and the other for the guard. On the occasion referred to this primitive house of detention contained three aboriginal of-fenders, under the charge of a somewhat eccentric constable known as "Blatherum" Hooson, who was nodding comfortably over a fire on his side of the establishment —a cir-cumstnnce which the dusky inmates of the adjoining "cell" observed through a peep hole in the dividing door, and determined to profit by. Drawing some long reeds from the thatch of the roof they thrust them

through the opening, ignited them at Hooson's fire, and with these improvised torches proceeded to an act of deliberate in-cendiarism. Hooson awoke to find the roof ablaze about his ears and his prisoners well on their way to freedom. A dog is said to have succeeded in detaining one of the cul-

FAWKNER'S HOUSE 1836

prits, but the others made good their escape. Liardet's account of the episode, which tal-lies closely with Lonsdale's official report,

adds that the destruction of the building was completed by a settler bearing the after

wards well known name of Hugh GIass, who, passing that way with a bullock team (probably following the old track to the Saltwater River), ran the wheel of his dray

into the ruins.

One important institution lying properly within the functions of the Government

seems to have been for some time without specific local habitation. The collection and delivery of letters appears to have been managed by the settlers themselves up to the beginning of 1837. "Garryowen" men-tions the Batmans, John and Henry, as hav-

ing taken turns at the duty, while Lairdet speaks of its transference to an early Col-lins street merchant, named Eyre. No regular postmaster held office, however, until the appointment in March, 1837, of Mr E. J Foster, as clerk to the police magistrate, the charge of letters being added to his other duties. Little has been left on record concerning Foster's regime as postmaster and clerk of petty sessions, but under Mr Benjamin Baxter, who suc-ceeded to the double office in January, 1838, postal institutions seem to have ac-quired some popularity. At Baxter's resi-

dence, in Flinders street, a small cottage near the corner of King street, Mrs Bax-ter sorted and delivered letters, making up the first mail sent direct to England in January, 1839. It is this building which Liardet has depicted for us as Melbourne's first post office. According to him it subse-quently became the kitchen of the Royal Highlander Hotel.

From the forgoing examples, it will be seen that Liardet dipped with interest into the brief past which was already behind Melbourne when he arrived there. At a future opportunity some idea may be given of the records which he has left of cir-cumstances and things coming under his own personal observation.