Edward Bytheway i ii Edward Bytheway FOUNDING FATHER OF GYMPIE Business Man Mine Owner Community Pioneer 1840-1905 LINDA ATKINSON Mr. Edward Bytheway Officer for Gympie1 1 The Gympie Times Christmas Supplement 1900 iii First published 2017 by Gympie Regional Council PO Box 155, Gympie Queensland 4570 Australia Copyright Gympie Regional Council This booK is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the Gympie Regional Council. Printed by Boolarong Press, Brisbane, Queensland. Cataloguing in Publication Data National Library of Australia AtKinson, Linda, 1949 - author Edward Bytheway, Founding Father of Gympie, Business Owner, Mine Owner, Community Pioneer Bibliography. Includes Index. 1.Gympie Region history ISBN 978-0-6480274-0-9 Cover Images Front: Edward Bytheway BacK: School of Arts building c. 1920 Edward Bytheway standing in front of his first shop in Mary Street, circa 1871. BacK and Front: Plan of Mary Street Gympie Gold field drawn by the District Surveyor Wide Bay District 6 March 1869 Clarendon Stuart Licensed Surveyor. iv CONTENTS PAGE Foreword vii Chapter One The Edward Bytheway Meeting Room, 1 Gympie Regional Gallery Chapter Two The Gympie of Edward Bytheway 7 Chapter Three The Bytheway Family 31 Chapter Four Edward Bytheway and 61 The School of Arts and Mines Chapter Five Edward Bytheway- 111 Wise, Astute, Successful Chapter Six The Gympie Hospital 187 Chapter Seven Mayor and Alderman of 203 Gympie Municipal Council Chapter Eight Death of Edward Bytheway 237 Chapter Nine Edward Bytheway Junior 245 Continues the WorK of His Father Bibliography 261 Acknowledgements 269 Index 271 v vi FOREWORD This is a history on Edward Bytheway, a most prominent founding father of Gympie whose significant contributions to the development of Gympie between 1867 and 1905. Very little is Known of him or his colleagues and certainly next to nothing has been written about them since they died. In 150 years, Gympie has not recognised Edward Bytheway as an important person in Gympie’s history. It is time Gympie took pride in its significance to Queensland’s history. All that live here should Know and be proud of its history, and encourage people to visit here because of its history rather than its current urban regional outlooK. This history is an initiative of Ms Joolie Gibbs, Coordinator of the Gympie Regional Gallery. It is a tribute to her that she had the foresight to have this history researched and written for the Gympie Regional Council. A detailed history on Hugo Du Rietz, another prominent founding father of Gympie, will be undertaken by Linda Atkinson in the near future. In 1900, Edward Bytheway was formally recognised as one of Queensland’s leading men and a prominent citizen of Gympie. It was noted that ‘let those men pass away unnoticed, and the pioneering worK of the land goes with them … [and] the excellent worK which Mr. Bytheway has rendered to Gympie in connection with the municipality will cause him to be long remembered in that district … Mr. Bytheway has been concerned in every undertaKing having as its object the improved condition of Gympie. He is a shrewd man of business and has a large fund of common sense. ’2 Gympie was extremely fortunate to have the likes of Edward Bytheway who cared so much to maKe it a great place to live and worK. Gympie has forgotten Edward Bytheway for it has never looKed back with pride and reverence on this worthy pioneer of the District. Gympie appears to have suppressed its history, other than to utter its origins attributed to the gold discovery by James Nash. He has now a high school named in his honour, but Edward Bytheway, who was ‘determined to assist the farming community to maKe the pastoral industry to maKe it a more profitable one … [and was] concerned in every undertaKing having for its object the improved condition of the people of Gympie’3 has only a public space in the Gympie Cemetery, and a small meeting room at the Gympie Regional Gallery. In 2016, the Gympie Branch of the National Trust finalised a list of this region’s most significant heritage treasures-people who ‘made a significant contribution to our region and included people from all walKs of life including politicians, professionals, worKers, rogues and local identities.’4 Edward Bytheway was second on this list with James Nash at the head of the list, Edward being described as ‘early settler, shopKeeper and mayor who was instrumental in the establishment of the School of Arts movement in Gympie.’5 Once you have taKen some special time to read this history, you will discover just what a tremendous contribution Edward Bytheway made in his thirty-eight years of life in this 2 Queensland 1900: a narrative of her past, together with biographies of her leading men. Compiled by the AlCazar Press Brisbane W.H. Wendt & Co Printers Edward Street Brisbane, 1900 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-36615454 Page 116 3 Queensland 1900: a narrative of her past, together with biographies of her leading men. Compiled by the AlCazar Press Brisbane W.H. Wendt & Co Printers Edward Street Brisbane, 1900 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-36615454 Page 116 4 The Gympie Times 21 September 2016 5 The Gympie Times 21 September 2016 vii town and hopefully be proud to have become to Know him as a man and his achievements for the region. This is the first major history of its Kind for Gympie in terms of exposing the man who was a prominent father and founder of Gympie. There are three other histories I have written for the Gympie Regional Council which are part of a series. The first two completed are on the first two doctors in Gympie, Drs T.E.D Byrne and Stephen Joseph BurKe, and a short history on Hugo Du Rietz. Linda Atkinson Researched and written for the Gympie Regional Gallery between 2014 and 2017 viii ix Chapter One The Edward Bytheway Meeting Room, Gympie Regional Gallery The Gympie Regional Gallery honours two of Gympie’s founding fathers, Edward Bytheway and Hugo Du Rietz, with a meeting room named for Edward Bytheway and a Gallery space named for Hugo Du Rietz. Gympie Regional Gallery provides the sole place where these men have some acKnowledgement for their huge contribution to the establishment of the town of Gympie. How many citizens of Gympie and its surrounding district and visitors from other places have never heard of these two founding fathers or how untiring they were in their passion to build a good township with a well-functioning community, a great lifestyle and sound effective infrastructure? Their brief reference at the Regional Gallery is all that gives them any clue that they ever existed. The School of Arts building, now housing the Gympie Regional Gallery, opened on 28 February 1905, unfurnished, free from debt, at a cost of £1,400. Although £1,400 is equivalent to $2,800, in real terms, today such a building would cost $201,0906 to construct. Prominent Gympie architect Hugo Du Rietz designed it and supervised its construction at no cost to the project. Hugo Du Rietz had at one stage estimated it would cost £1,549 which included £20 for gas fittings and fencing; that total estimate was finalised at £1,600. Gympie finally had a new School of Arts after some thirty-five years largely the worK of Edward Bytheway. On that Tuesday of 28 February 1905, the opening was celebrated with a progressive Euchre party followed by a splendid supper. The next night a dance attended by about 100, was held for the youth. From 1978, the building housed the Cooloola Shire Library Service until the Library was relocated to a building in Mellor Street in 1995 as the Gympie Regional Library. Within three years, the School of Arts building breathed life again after languishing, opening on 28 February 1998, as the Cooloola Shire Public Gallery, later renamed the Gympie Regional Gallery. On 28 July 2000, the upstairs Hugo Du Rietz Gallery formally opened as a space dedicated for a range of exhibits, with its Key purpose being to display worK from artists and crafts’ people worK from Gympie and the surrounding areas. By February 2005, the Gympie Regional Gallery had been housed in the School of Arts Building for seven years, and the building was 100 years old. The centenary year and the seventh birthday of the Gallery were celebrated with Bizzart Day on Sunday 27 February 2005. Exhibitions were extended through to Sunday 3 April7. The downstairs Meeting Room became formally Known as The Edward Bytheway Meeting Room. In the Edward Bytheway Meeting Room hangs a large restored framed print of the opening of the first Parliament of Australia in Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building. Although he died five years before, Edward Bytheway’s name was included in the list of 6 http://www.rba.gov.au/calCulator/annualPreDeCimal.htmlPre-Decimal Inflation CalCulator. Total Change in Cost is 7081.8 per Cent, over 111 years, at an average annual inflation rate of 3.9 per Cent. 7 http://ww.mysunshineCoast.com.au/events/events-display/bizzart-day,18534 1 citizens who presented this Federation Print by Charles Nuttall to the School of Arts in June 1910. Mr. R.G. Sanday shown in the list was Edward Bytheway’s son-in-law. By way of bacKground, the Historical Picture Association commissioned Charles Nuttall to paint the opening of the first Federal Parliament which occurred on 9 May 1901.