‘To The Westward’

Meander Valley Heritage Study

Stage 1: Thematic History

Prepared by Ian Terry & Kathryn Evans for Meander Valley Municipal Council October 2004

© Meander Valley Municipal Council

Cover. Looking west to Mother Cummings Peak and the from Stockers Plains in 1888 (Tasmaniana Library, State Library of )

C O N T E N T S

The Study Area...... 1 The Study ...... 2 Authorship ...... 2 Methodology ...... 2 Acknowledgments ...... 2 Abbreviations ...... 3 Historical Context ...... 4 Introduction ...... 4 1.0 Environmental Context...... 5 1.1 Climate and Topography ...... 5 1.2 Flora and Fauna...... 5 2.0 Human Settlement ...... 6 2.1 Aboriginal (Palawa) Occupation ...... 6 2.1.1 Pre Contact History ...... 6 2.1.2 Palawa Resistance and Displacement...... 7 2.2 Settlement Patterns ...... 9 2.2.1 Early Settlement ...... 9 2.3 Convictism...... 12 2.4 Migration...... 14 2.5 Land Selection & Closer Settlement...... 15 3.0 Economic Development...... 20 3.1 Exploration...... 20 3.2 Exploiting Natural Resources...... 20 3.2.1 Hunting...... 20 3.2.2 Fishing...... 21 3.2.3 Mining and Quarrying ...... 21 3.2.4 Timber Based Industries...... 22 3.3 Farming Industries...... 23 3.3.1 Grazing...... 23 3.3.2 Breeding Stock ...... 25 3.3.3 Agriculture ...... 25 3.4 Communication ...... 28 3.4.1 Postal Services...... 28 3.4.2 Electronic Communication...... 29 3.5 Transport ...... 29 3.5.1 Roads and Bridges...... 29 3.5.2 Railways and Tramways...... 31 3.5.3 Air Transport...... 32 3.6 Natural Disasters & Environmental Manipulation...... 32 3.6.1 Natural Disasters ...... 32 3.6.2 Land Clearing...... 33 3.6.3 Irrigation...... 35 3.6.4 Acclimatisation...... 35 3.7 Industrial Development ...... 36 3.7.1 Processing Food and Drink ...... 36 3.7.2 Manufacturing ...... 38 3.8 Finance & Depression ...... 40 3.9 Retailing and Commerce ...... 41 3.10 Media...... 43 3.11 Entertainment Industry ...... 43 3.12 Medicine...... 43 4.0 Township Development...... 45

4.1 Selecting Township Sites...... 45 4.2 Suburbanisation ...... 51 4.2.1 Public Housing ...... 53 4.3 Services...... 53 4.3.1 Light & Power ...... 53 4.3.2 Water ...... 54 4.3.3 Fire Prevention ...... 55 4.3.4 Sewerage...... 55 4.3.5 Garbage Tips ...... 56 5.0 Employment...... 57 5.1 Convict Labour ...... 57 5.2 Women and Children...... 57 5.3 Agricultural Workers...... 58 5.4 Crime ...... 59 5.5 Unemployment...... 59 6.0 Education...... 61 6.1. Libraries & Mechanics Institutes ...... 61 6.2 Schools ...... 61 6.2.1 Government Schools...... 61 6.2.2 Private Schools ...... 62 7.0 Government ...... 64 7.1 Colonial Government...... 64 7.2 Promoting Democracy and Protesting ...... 64 7.3 Local Government ...... 64 7.4 Police and Justice...... 65 7.5 Military...... 66 7.5.1 Preparing to Face Invasion ...... 66 7.5.2 Going to War ...... 67 7.5.3 War at ...... 67 7.6 Conservation...... 68 7.6.1 Conserving Natural Heritage ...... 68 7.6.2 Conserving Historic Heritage ...... 69 8.0 Cultural Institutions ...... 70 8.1 Recreation...... 70 8.1.1 Parks, Gardens and Beauty Spots ...... 70 8.1.2 Organised Sport...... 72 8.2 Agricultural Shows ...... 77 8.3 Tourism...... 79 8.4 Halls...... 82 8.5 Community Associations ...... 83 8.6 Eating and Drinking...... 83 8.7 Churches ...... 84 8.8 Commemorating Significant Events ...... 88 8.9 War Memorials...... 88 8.10 Arts ...... 89 8.10.1 Music, Dance and Drama ...... 89 8.10.2 Art...... 90 8.10.3 Literature ...... 91 8.10.4 Photography...... 92 9.0 Birth And Death...... 93 9.1 Babies ...... 93 9.2 Childhood ...... 93 9.3 Aging ...... 94 9.4 Cemeteries ...... 94

INTRODUCTION

The Study Area The study area comprises the Municipality of Meander Valley as shown in figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Study Area.

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The Study This report contains a brief analysis of the historic development of the Meander Valley Municipality which will assist and inform the identification of its heritage items and heritage areas. It is not intended to be a definitive history of the study area. In particular it analyses the history and historical geography of the municipality, identifying historical themes and outlining the evolution of the municipality’s development. The report concentrates on post settlement history.

Authorship The Meander Valley Heritage Study—Stage 1: Thematic History was prepared by Ian Terry, historian, heritage and interpretation consultant and Kathryn Evans, consultant historian, for Paul Davies Pty Ltd, architect and heritage consultant. Sections 1, 2.1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 were prepared by Ian Terry. The remaining sections were prepared by Kathryn Evans. Overall editing was undertaken by both authors with report production being undertaken by Ian Terry.

Methodology The report aims to identify a historical framework for the study area which will both point to sites requiring further field investigation and contextualise sites identified and recorded during all phases of the study. It employs as its framework the basic themes identified by the Australian Heritage Commission's Principle Australian Historic Themes Project . It also uses the sub-themes identified by the project although these have in places been changed to fit more snugly with the story presented by the municipality. Research began with the identification and analysis of the numerous relevant secondary works written concerning the municipality, followed by the identification of primary sources to fill gaps and to direct attention to thematic areas only briefly covered in the secondary sources. Indexes at the Local Studies Centre, State Library of Tasmanian, Launceston; the Archives Office of Tasmania and the Tasmaniana Library were perused and relevant papers, photographs and maps examined. While it was expected that the Queen Museum and Art Gallery would have substantial holdings related to the municipality these were in storage at the time the report was prepared and so could not be examined. The collections held by the Westbury Historical Society and the Deloraine Folk Museum also proved to be a valuable research source for the study. Maps and plans held by the Department of Primary Industries Water and the Environment were also examined. Records and historical records held by the Westbury Historical Society and the Deloraine Folk Museum were examined with numerous photographs copied. Personal contacts were of utmost importance in this study (see Acknowledgments). Several residents and former residents of the municipality were contacted as were researchers with a long interest in its history and development. Due to time and resource constraints no formal taped oral history interviews were conducted.

Acknowledgments A report such as this, prepared within tight time and budgetary constraints, cannot be undertaken without the willing assistance of many people. In particular we would like to thank: • Max Frost of the Westbury Historical Society • Susan Barter of the Deloraine Folk Museum • Pat and Geoff Woods of Deloraine • Jane Becker of Forestry Tasmania • Peter Hendley and Janet Morley of Meander • Simon Cubit • Phil Dornauf of the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm • Staff of the Local Studies Library, State Library of Tasmania, Launceston • Staff of the Archives Office of Tasmania

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• Staff of the Central Plan Room of the Department of Primary Industries, Water and the Environment • Staff of the Allport Library & Museum of Fine Arts and the Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania • Staff of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Abbreviations AOT Archives Office of Tasmania DPIWE Department of Primary Industries, Water and the Environment HRA Historical Records of JPPP Journals and Printed Papers of Parliament PWS Parks and Wildlife Service

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Introduction The Meander Valley Municipality is a complex and diverse area with the eastern end around Prospect and more lately, Hadspen, aligning itself culturally and economically to Launceston and that city’s services, while the western end focuses on rural, agricultural and resource extraction economies and turns to regional centres such as Westbury and Deloraine. From the mid-nineteenth century the region was divided into two municipalities, Westbury and Deloraine, with differing economic and social bases. This changed with the amalgamation of council areas in 1993. The post-settlement history of the Meander Valley Municipality is inextricably linked to the search for new, fertile land for pastoral and agricultural purposes in the 1820s. Occupation of the plains below the Western Tiers by cattlemen (many of whom were ex-convicts) proceeded ahead of official government surveys and granting of land in the district. From the mid-1820s the development of land routes (at first by the Van Diemens Land Company and later by government convict work gangs) made the area increasingly attractive for pastoralists who began applying for land grants. These were men of capital who quickly established a monopoly over the best agricultural country in the region—a monopoly that stayed firmly in place until the closer settlement and soldier settlement schemes of the early twentieth century. Many of these large pastoral and agricultural estates were sub-divided into smaller allotments and leased to tenant farmers. Convicts provided much of the early labour force for the building of houses and roads, and for agricultural labour. Towns became established at key points along road and, later, rail routes, which provided important conduits for the exchange of goods and services and facilities to meet the spiritual, cultural, educational and recreational needs of the district’s residents. By the 1850s and 1860s smaller parcels of land on the margins of the pastoral estates were being taken up by selectors under the Waste Lands Acts. These ‘cocky’ farmers, who lived a subsistence lifestyle, became established at places such as Liffey, Cluan, Christmas Hills, Selbourne, Westwood, , Western Creek, Golden Valley and Jackeys Marsh. Extraction industries, such as timber getting, as well as hunting and fishing in the highlands supplemented low incomes. The many natural attractions of the area ensured that tourism boosted the local economy from the mid-nineteenth century to present times. More recently forestry and hydro-electric generation have been important industries, with the former still employing a significant number of residents. The historic heritage of the Meander Valley Municipality encompasses the crude timber snarer’s of the High Country to the grand colonial mansions of the landed gentry. Changing patterns of land ownership and farming practices over the past 180 years have left an enduring legacy and distinctive landscape which can be ‘read’ to reveal much about the past. This report attempts to provide an overview to the many processes and events that have contributed to the region’s historic built and cultural environments.

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1.0 ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT 1.1 Climate and Topography Meander Valley is a large municipality with a diverse range of notable physical features. These include four major rivers—the Meander, the South Esk, the Mersey and the Forth—high alpine plains of the Central Plateau behind the dramatic escarpment of the Great Western Tiers and the upper Mersey/Forth watershed, highland peaks and plains of the National Park, the lower Cluan Tier in the east and Gog Range in the north-west, and lowlands comprising of flat to rolling pastoral and agricultural country south of the Bass Highway and hilly mixed farming and forested land to the north. The landscape has been formed by various geological processes resulting in fertile soils in the lowlands, high alpine plains with numerous lakes and depauperate soils in the south, and deep river valleys which have been exploited for forestry and hydro-electric power generation. The municipality supports a variety of land uses including mixed farming in the low country, intensive forestry in the Cluan Tier, the Great Western Tiers, the Gog Range and the upper Mersey and valleys, large scale hydro-electric development in the Mersey and Forth River valleys and extensive areas of land reserved for nature conservation and recognised as being of World Heritage significance. Climatically, the municipality has almost as much diversity as it does topographically with high rainfall in the alpine country to the south-west (Cradle Valley receives an average of 2800mm precipitation annually) and south grading through to relatively low rainfall in the east. The annual rainfall gradient in the lowlands shows a decline from 1270mm in Deloraine to about 510mm near Longford, just east of the municipality. 1 Located over thirty kilometres inland, it experiences cool to cold winters and mild to warm summers with more intense cold experienced in the high plains and mountains. This rainfall and temperature gradient has had a marked effect on land use patterns and farming techniques and practices. 1.2 Flora and Fauna Just as it has great diversity topographically, the municipality features very diverse flora and fauna with altitude, climate, soils and aspect all contributing to highly localised communities. Most significant are its wet forest and montane regions that feature remnants of Gondwanan flora. These have been internationally recognised in the designation of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. 2 While the high country retains much pre-European vegetation, the lowlands have seen substantial changes with the cessation of Aboriginal burning practices and the clearance of extensive tracts of tall forests. 3 Historically, the tall, dense forests were interspersed with several grassy plains which have provided the foundation of human economies from Aboriginal times to the present. 4 The grassy plains were maintained by a combination of Aboriginal burning and climate change after c10,000 years ago. With the cessation of Aboriginal burning in the early nineteenth century rainforest has begun to recolonise other areas not otherwise exploited by European settlers. 5 The district’s fauna has included most Tasmanian bird and marsupial species, including the extinct thylacine which was common at first settlement in the 1820s. 6 Indeed Mole Creek was a centre for searches for the presumed extinct thylacine during the 1970s and 1980s with a bar at the local pub renamed the Tiger Bar.

1 See Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 11; Breen, 2001, p. 66. 2 See Norwood, p. 5-8. 3 Breen, 2001, p. 153. 4 ibid, p. 13. 5 ibid, pp. 21-22. 6 Von Stieglitz, 1950, p. 7.

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2.0 HUMAN SETTLEMENT

2.1 Aboriginal (Palawa) Occupation 2.1.1 Pre Contact History Palawa have used the Meander and Mersey valleys for at least 10,000 years with permanent occupation beginning around 3500 years ago. 7 Ryan postulates that different parts of the study area lay in the territories of the North Tribe’s Pallittorre who were based around , the North Midlands Tribe’s Panninher who were based at Norfolk Plains and the Big River Tribe’s Luggermairrernerpairrer who were based around the . 8 Of these bands the Pallittorre probably held most of the territory covered by the study area, although Breen argues that exact boundaries are uncertain. 9 While Jones calculated that Pallittorre bands probably did not exceed 50-75 people, Breen argues that this number is too low. 10 There were reciprocal access rights with the other two bands although relations between the Panninher and the Pallittorre may have been uneasy. 11 It is thought that the Pallittorre lived in hearth groups of around twenty people each, and constructed villages of bark huts which were lined internally with bird feathers and animal furs and decorated with ochre paintings. 12 One of these groups spent at least part of the year at Native Corner near the Gog Range. The Pallittorre economy centred around the grassy plains of the study area which they kept open by regular firing, and which later attracted European pastoralists. 13 Palawa bands also established and maintained by firing a network of pathways though their land. 14 These pathways later formed the basis for major European transport routes. The Pallittorre were guardians of some of the island’s most important ochre pits, on the Gog Range. 15 These mines extended to several metres underground and were an important trading resource as ochre was exchanged with other Tasmanian tribes. 16 Although little remains of Palawa languages a number of indigenous names for geographic features within the municipality were recorded, largely by . These include: Circular Ponds Peanggilare Moleside Creek Kooperrerpartoleler Country near Mole Loenarpotoppleenno North Esk at Entally Moodronnoe Creek Dens Plain—opp Teeyoulunggarpinene Ochre Mine Toolumenerger side of Mersey Forth River Larturerlyneveve Old Wesley Dale Koodererkentoleler Gads Hill Dealkelar Toppleenerlone lare Timmittertyne Quamby Bluff Lartitickitheker Gibsons Sugarloaf Kobeberrerkattoleler Retreat Clouddegivehe Gog Range Toolumbunner Western Bluff Norbougherway Great Western Norpowwaller Parmonenermeenerway Tiers Hill north of Ashley Lockcruckheyouller Parmeenernorpervoweler

7 Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 17; Norwood, p. 19 8 See Ryan, pp. 15-16, 21-32. 9 Breen, 2001, p. 19. 10 ibid, p. 18. 11 ibid, p. 31. 12 Norwood, p. 20. 13 Breen, 2001, p. 13. 14 ibid, p. 19. 15 ibid, p. 19; Robson, vol 1, p. 21. 16 Norwood, p. 20.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Human Settlement

Liena—opposite Limelinertorehe Tarrernemere side of Mersey at Tellerpangger Western Marshes Marmulipi 17 Carrick at Wyyareroeby Deloraine Mole Creek Hoonooplinker Wyeyareter 2.1.2 Palawa Resistance and Displacement The issue of Aboriginal resistance and their displacement has been the subject of heated and, at times, emotional historical debate since late 2002. Within this debate, incidents in the Meander River valley have provided key points of contention. Opinions range from Breen’s assertion that Pallittorre land was transformed from one of peace and security to one of fear and death in the mid to late 1820s to Windschuttle’s counterclaim that the region was in fact one of the least violent on a notably peaceful Tasmanian frontier. 18 After reviewing the arguments provided by Ryan, Breen and Windschuttle, including Ryan’s archival based rebuttal of the latter, and checking documentary sources this author concludes that the account presented by Ryan and Breen is more reliably supported by the evidence although some may at times be open to alternative interpretations. The story of resistance in the area, as they tell it, is summarised below. It should be noted that Windschuttle disputes almost every point of this. 19 There appears to have been very little conflict on the Tasmanian frontiers until the 1820s when rapid population expansion led to most of the accessible cleared land in the colony being annexed for cropping and pastoral activity. Prior to this some historians have argued that remote stock-keepers on the frontier enjoyed reciprocal relations with Palawa owners in accordance with traditional Aboriginal cultural practices. These relations, however, are thought to have broken down under population pressure which led to conflict over the economic resource of land and game. Breen argues that just such a process occurred in the Meander Valley when violence exploded in the winter and spring of 1827 following indiscriminate killing by Europeans. 20 Sheep were speared, stock-keepers’ huts burnt down and stock-keepers themselves speared while, in retaliation, military reprisals killed an unknown number of Palawa. 21 In the late 1820s, stock-keepers were speared at Glenore, Quamby Bluff, at Simpson’s stock hut east of Chudleigh, Gibson’s stock hut near Gibsons Sugarloaf and at Stocker’s stock hut on Stockers Plain (see figure 2). 22 Disturbed at the increasing violence Lt.-Governor Arthur deployed field police and military parties to the region to ‘protect the settlers from the revengeful feelings of the natives’ and to drive Palawa from the settled districts. 23 The Police Magistrate at Westbury was ordered to exercise more energetic steps than had yet been pursued and to send out military parties to protect the most ‘exposed establishments’ in the district by patrolling the country. 24 White violence increased as settlers saw force as the only practical method of protecting their interests. 25

17 Palawa place names are drawn from Plomley & Goodall. 18 Breen, 2001, p. 24: Windschuttle, p. 278. 19 See Windschuttle, pp. 270-280. cf Ryan in Manne, pp. 236-244. 20 See Breen, 2001, pp. 23-24. 21 ibid, pp. 26-28 22 CSO1/316, pp. 66-68; Manne, p. 238; Colonial Times , 6 July 1827, p. 4; Breen, 2001, pp. 26-27. 23 Garrison Orders for 15 September 1829 in CSO1/317, pp. 67-8. 24 ibid. 25 See Breen, 2001, pp. 28-29 for description of acts against Palawa from the late 1820s and for discussion of published contemporary white attitudes.

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Human Settlement Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History

Figure 2. Sites of black/white violence in the Deloraine/Meander/Chudleigh areas in the late 1820s (from Breen, 2001, p. 26).

The measures had some success as Palawa began surrendering in the face of starvation and attrition. In 1830, for example, John Benfield of Dunorlan was pardoned after handing over a group of Palawa to the military. 26 Local resistance leader, Quamby, was killed in mid 1830. 27 In October 1830, Captain Donaldson passed through Westbury with a detachment en route to Launceston to take part in the Black Line, Arthur’s attempt to drive Aborigines from the settled districts. 28 Nonetheless resistance did continue—300 sheep were speared at the Avenue in 1830 while huts were attacked at the Retreat , Dairy Plains and Native Corner in 1831-32. 29 At the Retreat , the wife and children of stockman, Paddy McCaskell, were killed in February. 30 Another attack, at Dairy Plains, involved Dolly Dalrymple, a notable local Aboriginal woman who was thought to the daughter of a white sealer and Waretermoeteyenner, a woman of the Port Dalrymple people. Dalrymple was living with convict stockman, Thomas Johnston, on Stocker’s cattle run when their hut was attacked by a Pallittorre band. She is said to have defended the hut for several hours and was later rewarded with a twenty acre grant at Perth. 31 In a final postscript, a remnant band of Pallitorre and Big River people took flour from Lieutenant Vaughan’s hut near Chudleigh in 1834. Although pursued by George Augustus Robinson, he found only one woman who showed him a long-term encampment and the Gog Range ochre mines.

26 Breen, 2001, p. 28. 27 Ryan, 1996, p. 139; Windschuttle disputes that Quamby existed. 28 Von Stieglitz, 1946, p. 6. 29 Skemp, pp. 10-11. 30 Von Stieglitz, 1950, p. 9. 31 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 180.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Human Settlement

2.2 Settlement Patterns 2.2.1 Early Settlement European settlement of the district to the westward of Launceston and Norfolk Plains proceeded in a haphazard manner. By 1810 small farmers, many of whom were emancipated convicts, had begun settling the Norfolk Plains district. 32 A few free settlers, men with capital, then began taking up larger land grants in the northern districts. These included Thomas Reibey snr who received a grant for his Entally estate at Hadspen in 1818. 33 By the 1820s the township of Westbury marked the western boundary of official settlement. Beyond it lay the country called ‘the westward’ whose occupation by cattlemen preceded official survey and land grants. By this time cattlemen, such as the ex-convict William Field, Stocker and Capt. Ritchie, had illegally moved into the district seeking grassy plains for their stock and were erecting isolated stock-keepers’ huts, which were often attended by convicts. 34 Widdowson estimated in 1827 that no less than 20,000 head of cattle grazed on or about the banks of the western rivers. 35 The unsettled nature of the area and the district’s bushland also made it an attractive hide-out for bushrangers on the run. In 1823, Lt.-Governor Sorell despatched Capt. John Rollande to investigate the country to the ‘westward’. Although he identified a number of natural plains between the Meander and Mersey Rivers, his failure to identify a route to the north-west dampened government enthusiasm for the area. 36 In 1825 John Helder Wedge was searching the area in pursuit of bushranger Matthew Brady and noted that several stock-keepers’ huts had already been erected at Stocker’s and Ritchie’s grazing lands. Following Brady’s capture, several of the leaders of the search parties applied for land grants in the area, including Capt. Malcolm Laing Smith at Whitefoord Hills’ and Lt. William Gunn at Woodlands on the Meander Ford. 37 During the 1820s the Van Diemens Land Company (VDL Co), which had established itself in the north-west of Tasmania, cut a stock route linking the Deloraine area with North Down (near Port Sorell) and with Emu Bay (Burnie) via Mole Creek and Chudleigh. 38 The company erected a store and at Chudleigh (now Kalingal )39 and also made camps in the Westbury area along its tracks to Burnie and Circular Head. These tracks and stock routes were in use by the late 1820s and made the district more attractive for prospective grantees. 40 In 1823, the Government surveyed a township site for Westbury, which was established soon afterwards as a military and convict post to cut a road to the west using convict labour. 41 From the late 1820s onwards, the area was officially surveyed and land grants issued (figure 3). In the 1820s large grants of land were being taken up at Hagley by Capt. William Lyttleton (2000 acres at his Hagley House estate), ’s 2000 acre Quamby estate and William Bryan’s 1077 acre grant. 42 William Bryan established a mill on the Liffey River at Carrick in the 1820s and there were a few other settlers in the area by 1823. 43 At Westbury, the first land grants were made to W. E. Leith, who built an uncompleted house known as Leith’s Folly, in 1824 and William Field at Westfield in 1825. 44 In the Deloraine district the first grant was made

32 Breen, 2001, p. 22. 33 Rait, 1973b, p. 13. 34 Cubit, 1987a, p. 7. 35 ibid, p. 11. 36 ibid, p. 9. 37 Skemp, p. 5. 38 ibid, p. 7 39 Tasmanian Heritage Register: Kalingal. 40 Rait, 1973b, p. 8. 41 Von Stieglitz, 1946, p. 5. 42 Rait, 1973b, p. 13. 43 ibid, p. 14. 44 ibid, p. 8.

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Human Settlement Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History to Gamaliel Butler of the Retreat in 1825. 45 Capt. Ritchie, who had been illegally occupying land for his cattle in 1823, applied for a grant at Chudleigh to legalise his occupation. 46 By c1830 there were land grants to Capt. Laing Smith and Lt. William Gunn, Capt. Moriarty at Dunorlan , Vaughan at Native Hut Point, Thomas (and later William) Archer at Cheshunt , Lt. Pearson Foote at Calstock , Alexander Rose at Bowerbank , Dr Robert Garrett at Garrett’s Plains and Boucher and Gardiner at Chudleigh. 47 In the 1830s additional grants were made to Munce at Drumreagh and Edgecombe at Cotehill .48 During the 1840s and 1850s a boom in Port Phillip (Victoria) led to several properties changing hands, and a number of estates were subdivided into smaller farms at that time. 49 In 1854, Rev. Martin divided up his Exton estate into farms of 200–300 acres 50 while Capt. Moriarty subdivided his Dunorlan estate in 1846. William Bonnily of Evandale bought 800 acres of it together with adjoining Crown Land and built Forest Hall .51 Around this time the Bentley estate and adjoining lands passed into the hands of Launceston businessman, Henry Reed, who established his property, Wesley Dale .52 From the early 1820s colonial policy following the Bigge report ensured that land grants made in the district were characteristically very large, in an effort to establish a landed elite of pastoralists in the colony. Most grantees were men of modest capital from the urban and rural middle classes of , Scotland and Ireland. Many had orders for a free grant of land from the British Government. The original grants were usually added to through additional grants, the purchase of land and the crown leasing system so that by the 1850s the land was to a great extent monopolised by only a few elite families. 53

Figure 3. Quamby Bluff from Westbury in 1838 (Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania)

45 Von Stieglitz, 1946, pp. 8-9. 46 Cubit, 1987a, pp. 11-12. 47 ibid, p. 13 and AOT — Deloraine correspondence file. 48 AOT — Deloraine correspondence file. 49 Skemp, p. 37 50 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, p. 25. 51 Skemp, p. 18. 52 ibid. 53 Breen, 2001, pp. 37-38.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Human Settlement

Figure 4. Map drawn from Land Commissioners’ reports of 1826-28 showing extent of settled lands and the names of major landowners in the district. Note also the VDL Track (from McKay).

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Human Settlement Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History

In the Deloraine district John Field, William Archer and Henry Reed controlled between them almost half the land held under Crown lease.54 The Archer family was first established at Longford. Thomas Archer snr then acquired grants for the Cheshunt estate at Deloraine, which passed to his son, William, in 1853 when it comprised some 14,330 acres. The Field family acquired wealth through contracts held with the commissariat store. Although William Field was an ex-convict (and thus atypical from most of the landed elite in the district) he and his four sons rapidly acquired vast tracts of land. When Field died in 1837 his son, Thomas, inherited Westfield at Westbury. In 1858, John Field owned 12,000 acres in the Deloraine district (including the Calstock and Alveston estates). By 1901, the Field family owned a total of 34,000 acres in the northern districts, including properties at Deloraine, Westbury and Cressy. This monopoly of land by the landed gentry remained intact until the Closer Settlement schemes of the early 1900s.55 2.3 Convictism The country lying to the ‘westward’ of the settled district was an early refuge for escaped convicts, such as Matthew Brady (see s5.4). 56 Stock huts, often occupied by convict servants, provided respite and food for those on the run. 57 Early settlers and property were sometimes the scenes of attacks. In 1834 the escaped convicts, Britton, Jefkins and Brown. attacked Lt. Vaughan’s Bentley property. Despite problems caused by bushrangers, convicts provided much of the initial labour in the district, particularly in developing rural industries. The landed gentry relied heavily on assigned convict labour to build houses, roads and to improve their properties. At Wesley Dale , for example, Henry Reed had about thirty assigned convicts working for him between 1835 and 1840. 58 Convicts were also employed on public works. The first crossing at the Meander River at Deloraine was a stone ford constructed by convicts by c1830 (figure 5). A road party of convicts, under the charge of Robert Notman, then erected the first bridge at Deloraine in 1831. 59 Early road parties were also established at Reibey’s Ford (Hadspen) and Westbury, where the barracks were located on the Village Green.

Figure 5. Remnants of the convict ford across Meander River at Deloraine. Arcoona is at the top of the hill (Weekly Courier , 3 January 1903, p. 19).

54 ibid, p. 38. 55 ibid, pp. 41-42. 56 Skemp, p.12. 57 Cubit, 1987, p.9. 58 Breen, 1990, p. 27. 59 Skemp, p. 14.

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During the 1840s a new system of convict management was introduced into the colony, which was meant to bring an end to the old injustices of the assignment system. Under the new probation system newly transported convicts were sent to work in government gangs for a set period, before being issued with a probation pass (which entitled them to work for settlers for wages). Probation stations were subsequently set up throughout the colony, often re-using former convict buildings. In 1841, when the probation system was still being introduced, road gangs were operating at Westbury and Reibey’s Ford (Hadspen) and plans of the stations were drawn up. 60 The road party at Reibey’s Ford consisted of 12 men under sentence to hard labour. 61 The Westbury road station was situated on an allotment of 7 acres of crown land and was capable of holding 250 men and included a blacksmith’s shop, carpenters shop, bakehouse, mess room and chapel and overseer’s hut. 62 By the mid-1840s probation stations capable of accommodating hundreds of men had been established at Westbury, Deloraine and Kimberley (Mersey Ford). The Westbury Probation Station, which operated from 1842 until 1847, was partly established by local settlers to accommodate a road party, and also served as an agricultural station and hiring depot for convict passholders. 63 In 1842 the buildings of the 1841 road party had been substantially re-modelled and enlarged to accommodate the probation gang, 64 and, by 1847, could accommodate some 400 men. While the Superintendent had a comfortable cottage, other buildings, including the officers’ quarters, cells, hospital and men’s quarters were described as ‘very slight’. Over 100 acres had been cultivated. 65 In 1843, local settlers provided most of the funding for the construction of the Deloraine station on the condition that the convicts were to be used for road building (on roads to Westbury and to the westward). It operated until 1847 (figure 6). 66 The convicts stationed at Deloraine were also used in the construction of a new bridge across the Meander River following the destruction of the old bridge by floods in 1844. 67 The probation station located at Deloraine could hold over 360 men. In 1847 the station had a Superintendent’s house, fourteen overcrowded huts, a small store, cooking and baking houses, three yards, a wooden chapel and some ‘inferior’ solitary cells. 68 Probationary convicts at Deloraine were also assigned out for use by private land holders. Henry Reed used convicts from the station to clear forests and erect buildings at Wesley Dale between 1843 and 1847, while William Archer employed at least nine convicts building fences at Cheshunt in 1847. 69 In 1845-46, the Deloraine probation station was removed to Kimberley (Mersey Ford) which was already a noted crossing point. 70 The station, which was established to construct a better route to the VDL Co holdings at Emu Bay, operated until 1847. 71 In its initial phase the station included a hospital, chapel, separate cells, wood yard, airing ground for bedding, officers’ station as well as accommodation for the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd class of prisoners and the sentenced men. 72

60 see AOT plans PWD 266/1310 and PWD266/1857. 61 Evans, 1996, pp. 105-106. 62 see AOT plan PWD 266/1857. 63 Brand, p. 194. 64 see AOT plan MM71/5. 65 Brand, p. 194. 66 ibid, p. 186. 67 Skemp, p. 19. 68 Brand, pp. 186-188. 69 Breen, 2001, p. 95. 70 AOT Deloraine correspondence file 71 Becker, 1994, p. 22. 72 AOT—CON 1/4462.

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Figure 6. Detail of survey plan showing site of the Deloraine Probation Station (DPIWE—D12).

By 1847 a declining number of convicts in the colony led to the concentration of some stations and the breaking up of others. The probation stations in the study area were broken up at that time. Although convict transportation to Van Diemens Land ended in 1853 ex-convicts remained highly visible in the district for many years.

2.4 Migration The district’s early settlers were primarily of English, Irish and Scottish origins with Westbury and Deloraine having a relatively high proportion of Irish settlers. In the 1850s the Irish exile John Mitchel claimed that Westbury ‘was chiefly inhabited by Irish immigrants’. He noted that ‘One of the peculiarities of the Westbury district is that you find Irish families, and whole Irish neighbourhoods, associating together and seldom meeting foreigners; for even the assigned convict servants whom these people select are all Irish’. 73 Protestant antagonism to the Irish Catholics may have aggravated this segregation. Some Irish settlers at Westbury assisted Irish political exiles, John Mitchel and Thomas Meagher, whilst on the run from authorities. 74

73 Breen, 2001, p. 48. 74 ibid.

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In the Deloraine district Irishmen occupied farms adjoining the property of William Grubb, giving the area the name Irish Town. Irish also settled on the Bengeo , Drumreagh , Dunorlan and Whitefoord Hills estates, at Reedy Marsh and Tongataboo (Weetah), and an area behind Rooke's Retreat which became known as Paddy's Scrub. Most of the Irish settlers were poor farmers who rented small bush blocks. 75 In the 1840s and 1850s assisted emigration schemes brought farmers, tradespeople and female domestic servants to the colony. William Scott, for example, brought his family to Tasmania from Edinburgh under the auspices of the St Andrews Society in the 1850s and 1860s. The Society recruited farm workers to the Launceston area and found William Scott work as a ploughman at Bentley near Chudleigh. 76 In the 1850s a military pension scheme was established at Westbury, whereby military pensioners were re-settled in the colony with a small block of land, a cottage and weekly pension in return for twelve days of military service a year. Over 160 allotments of five acres were marked out on the eastern side of the township and named Queenstown (later Pensioners Bush). Many of the military pensioners who were relocated to Westbury were of Irish origin. 77 A census return for the Westbury district in 1870 shows that of a population of 5839, the majority (3192) had been born in Tasmania and 2479 had been born in Great Britain or Ireland. Smaller numbers of people had been born in the Australian colonies (95), Germany (24), and the East Indies (19). Canada, the United States of America, France and the Fiji Islands were also represented. In the Deloraine district, of a total population of 3670, the vast majority had been born in Tasmania (2225). From Great Britain and Ireland there were 1361 people, and 49 from the Australian colonies. There were also small numbers from Germany, East Indies, Canada, United States and the Fiji islands. 78 In the 1920s and 1930s, a few itinerant hawkers from Asia and China plied the Deloraine area while a Chinese merchant had a shop at Deloraine. 79 Mountain Villa ( Old Wesley Dale ) was apparently used to house migrants (presumably of German origin) from the area during the Second World War. 80 The years that followed World War 2 witnessed a huge influx of immigrants to Tasmania, arriving as refugees or assisted migrants. 81 In 1953, work commenced on a cottage to house twelve child migrants at the Hagley Farm School. 82

2.5 Land Selection & Closer Settlement In 1871 the most fertile land in the Deloraine district was owned by just 5% of the local adult male population, and by about 10% in Westbury. These ratios remained unchanged for much of the century. 83 In the 1830s many of the large estate owners of the district began a system of tenant farming, whereby tenant farmers rented small farms of up to 500 acres on the estates. Many landowners of these tenanted estates lived elsewhere for much of the year, and employed managers to run the home property. Tenanted farms in the district included Henry Reed’s Wesley Dale and Dunorlan estates, Sir Richard Dry’s Quamby and Thomas Reibey’s Entally .84 During the 1880s and 1890s a number of the tenanted estates were broken up, allowing the tenants to purchase their farms outright. 85

75 Bennett, pp. 7-9. 76 Jim Scott, p. i. 77 Frost, 2002a, pp. 87-92 78 Statistics of Tasmania, census of population, 1870. 79 Meander Centenary History Writers, p. 58. 80 Re-Union Committee, p. 8. 81 Robson, vol. 2, p. 513. 82 Tourist and Immigration Department Annual report 1952-1953, JPPP 1953, no. 35, p. 35. 83 Breen, 2001, p. 34. 84 ibid, pp. 47–53. 85 ibid, p. 44.

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Waste Lands Acts 1850s–1870s A series of Waste Lands Acts passed in the 1850s to 1870s opened up more marginal areas for small-scale farming, but did little to reduce the land monopoly held by the district’s elite. Under these Acts small selectors were forced ‘into the rougher back country to carve out a home for himself in the primeval forest’. 86 The How family, for example, was the first to select land in the Mole Creek area. Other small selectors, or ‘cocky’ farmers, settled at Jackeys Marsh, Cluan, Liffey (figure 7), Christmas Hills, Reedy Marsh, Selbourne and Westwood. Life on these small independent farms was often rough and basic, involving unremitting hard work in clearing and cultivating the ground by hand. 87 The Waste Lands Acts created a minor land boom in Tasmania. By 1878, some 2260 selectors had taken up farms around Tasmania, most of them less than 100 acres. In 1878, there were sixteen holdings of 100 acres or less in the Meander district, and forty-one at Golden Valley. By the 1890s this number had risen to thirty-four holdings of 100 acres or less at Meander as well as seventeen at Jackeys Marsh. Selections of more than 100 acres in the Meander Valley were located at Cheshunt estate, Garrett’s Plains, Stocker’s Plains and Golden Valley. 88

Figure 7. The Page family at their farm at Liffey (Westbury Historical Society collection).

Closer Settlement In 1894 the Surveyor General for Lands reported that too much of the best agricultural land, particularly in the older settled districts such as Westbury, Deloraine, Evandale and Longford, was being tied up by pastoralism. This, in concert with unemployment in the 1890s depression and the ongoing battles faced by selectors in the Waste Lands areas, prompted the introduction of a Closer Settlement scheme in 1907 to break up of some of the larger estates into smaller holdings. Under the scheme the Government purchased and subdivided large estates with the aim of creating a ‘prosperous yeomanry’. Bowman’s Cheshunt estate at Meander was the first in the State to be acquired by the newly established Closer Settlement Board. A substantial part of the estate (13,397 acres) was purchased in 1907 and subdivided into sixty-five farms to be held under long term leases (figure 8). The new tenants received assistance with building fences, roads and bridges. A town allotment was surveyed including a school, cemetery and recreation reserves. 89

86 Quoted in Breen, 2001, p. 44. 87 Breen, 2001, pp. 42-43 88 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 27. 89 Breen, 2001, pp. 44-46.

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Figure 8. 1907 plan of Cheshunt Closer Settlement Estate (Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania).

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Human Settlement Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History

Despite the original promise of the scheme, by 1910 less than half of the closer settlement farms at Cheshunt were occupied. The 1910 Select Committee into Closer Settlement found that the system had largely failed due to the poor choice in estates, high purchase prices paid and ‘dummying’ by lessees with little intention of settling. The portion of Cheshunt purchased for Closer Settlement was found to have poor, often swampy soil and was subject to frosts in winter. 90 In 1914/1915 over 760 acres of the Von Bibra’s Selbourne estate at Hagley were purchased and subdivided into 3 farms for closer settlement. 91

Soldier Settlement Following World War 1, a Soldier Settlement Scheme, which aimed to re-settle returned soldiers on the land, replaced the Closer Settlement Scheme in Tasmania. Over 250 acres of William Field’s Whitefoord Hills and 158 acres of Cheshunt, were acquired and subdivided in 1918. 92 By 1923 soldiers had been settled on land at Dunorlan , Kimberley, Parkham, Jackeys Marsh, Montana, Huntsman, East Meander and Hagley. 93 Some of the closer settlement allotments at Cheshunt were amalgamated for soldier settlement. In 1923 Deloraine had at least seventy-one soldier settlement properties—the fifth highest number of any Tasmanian municipality. 94 In 1920 the War Service Home Commission acquired an allotment at Exton for war service homes. However, it appears that this was not developed and the allotment was re- sold in 1934. 95 The soldier settlement scheme, however, had disastrous consequences. The allotments were usually too small to sustain a family and settlers often had little farming experience. By 1928 only 800 of the 2000 soldiers settled under the scheme in Tasmania, were still on their farms. 96 A revised scheme was introduced following World War 2, requiring applicants for land to undergo training. By 1960 five farms at Chudleigh had been established under the revised scheme. 97

90 ibid, pp. 45-46. 91 Annual report of Closer Settlement Board 1914-1915, JPPP , 1915. 92 Annual report of Closer Settlement Board 1917-1918, JPPP , 1918. 93 Breen, 2001, p. 53 and Annual Report of Closer Settlement Board 1918-1919, JJJP , 1919 and 1919-1920, JPPP , 1920; Annual Report of Closer Settlement Board, 1921-1922, JPPP , 1922. 94 Meander Centenary Writers, pp. 29-30. 95 Westbury Historical Society files. 96 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 30. 97 Robson, vol. 2, p. 508.

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3.0 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

3.1 Exploration The earliest exploration in the district came from convict stock-keepers tending illegally depastured cattle and bushrangers seeking refuge. They were followed by Capt. John Rollande who sought grazing lands and an overland route to the north-west in 1823. Further impetus came from the VDL Co’s search for extensive grazing lands on which to found its empire and then land routes to its lands further west. Edward Curr, Joseph Fossey and Henry Hellyer explored the Western Marshes (around Chudleigh) and beyond Mole Creek in 1826, before returning to the Elizabeth Town area and Avenue Plain. 98 A few months later Jorgen Jorgenson crossed the Central Plateau and became the first European to sight the Walls of Jerusalem in the same year. 99 In 1827, Fossey surveyed the VDL Cos road , the VDL Track, from Western Marshes to the company’s Hampshire Block at Surrey Hills. 100 Also in 1826, the government surveyor, Thomas Scott, built a hut at a ford over the Meander at what was to become Deloraine and made it the base for his exploration activities. In 1832 he gave the name of Deloraine to the location. 101 A decade later Nathaniel Kentish used Deloraine as a base for his survey of a new route to supersede the impracticable VDL Track to the west. Kentish spent thirty-three months surveying a route many thought impossible to find. 102 In the late 1840s and early 1850s the surveyor, Joseph Sprent, traversed the district while undertaking the trigonometrical survey of the island. Sprent constructed stone and timber trig stations on several peaks in the municipality, including Ironstone Mountain, Black Sugar Loaf and Cradle Mountain. 103

3.2 Exploiting Natural Resources 3.2.1 Hunting Hunting has had both recreational and economic imperatives within the municipality. While hunt and coursing clubs provided popular recreational pursuits for nineteenth century gentry, the less well-off hunted for food and to make a living. 104 Indigenous wildlife was seen as both a pest and a resource with Tasmanian tigers, in particular, being hunted to extinction in the twentieth century. For small tenant farmers and selectors rabbits and native animal skins provided welcome income from at least 1863 when Launceston furriers sought skins. This coincided with attempts to control rabbits, so that rabbiting became a major employer in the municipality from the 1860s. 105 Following an initial domestic focus the trade became international in the 1880s when skins were sought for the European and North American markets. 106 Tasmanian marsupial skins, particularly those from highland areas of the municipality, were prized as they provided good quality furs. Skin merchants, such as Furmages of Deloraine, visited Mole Creek and Liffey each September to purchase skins from hunters who had spent several winter weeks or months

98 Binks, p. 41. 99 Von Stieglitz, 1950, p. 7; Cubit & Russell, 1999, pp. 17-18. 100 Binks, p. 78. 101 Von Stieglitz, 1950, p. 7. 102 Alan Jones, pp. 122-123. 103 See report dated 21 January 1848 in LSD1/81/2740/423; also ’s map of Tasmania based on the Trigonometrical Survey which shows the major trig stations established by Sprent and his team of surveyors. 104 Breen, 2001, p. 159. 105 ibid, p. 139. 106 Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 23.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Economic Development in roughly built highland huts. 107 The trade peaked in the 1930s when up to thirty hunters operated in the Mersey high plains as far as the Never Never and Pelion Plains. It declined after the 1940s as the international fur trade contracted and farm incomes improved. Snaring was eventually banned in 1983. Successful hunters such as Arthur Youd, Tommy McCoy and, later, Basil Steers became respected figures in the small communities at the base of the Tiers and epitomised these communities’ identification as self-reliant pioneers with a special relationship with ‘the Mountain’ as the high country is known. Basil Steers’s 1974 February Plains #2 hut is a fine example of a snaring hut in the study area. 3.2.2 Fishing Fishing has largely been a recreational activity within the municipality apart from a small level of subsistence activity to supplement food. It became an important driver in the local tourist industry with the stocking of the Chudleigh Lakes with trout in 1891 and the subsequent construction of highland huts at Lake Nameless, Sandy Beach Lake and Lady Lake to accommodate anglers. 108 It also provided some income for boarding house owners on the fringes of the Tiers and employment for experienced bushmen who acted as guides for visitors to the region. 109 3.2.3 Mining and Quarrying The earliest known mines in the municipality were Aboriginal ochre mines on the Gog Range. 110 These included short underground passages and were of central importance to many Aboriginal groups throughout the northern part of the island. Apart from quarrying stone for building, road making and lime burning there has been little mining activity of consequence in most of the district. The earliest known quarry, a slate quarry west of Whitefoord Hills, was recorded by Lt.-Governor Arthur in 1829. 111 Lime was apparently burnt on Gibsons Sugarloaf in the 1830s while R. Boutcher carted tons of lime to Launceston after c1837 from his kilns on Beefeater Hill, four kilometres west of Deloraine. 112 Lime was quarried extensively in the Chudleigh area with kilns on Bentley by 1850 and in Gunn Street from 1861. Other kilns were at Mole Creek, Wesley Dale and Quamby Brook. 113 Other, building related, quarrying occurred in Prospect Vale where clay and sand was excavated for the nearby brickfields in Glen Dhu. 114 Elsewhere some held unrealised hopes for gold at Golden Valley and gold, coal and shale at Quamby Brook. More intensive mining activity occurred in the remote high plains and valleys from the 1880s when the west coast mineral boom led to prospecting throughout the island. In particular, copper and silver were extracted from the Pelion Plains in the 1880s and 1890s, leaving diggings and the as reminders today, while coal was sought in the Pelion and regions. None of these mines proved to be payable in the long term largely due to the fields’ remoteness and concomitant transport difficulties. 115 The Pelion mines were briefly re-opened in 1916 with a track cut by Paddy Hartnett to the field also providing access to a wolfram mine at the upper end of the Forth valley. The wolfram mine operated sporadically over several decades. 116

107 Skemp, p. 40; see also Westbury Historical Society, 2001, p. 14. 108 Re-Union Committee, p. 58; Collett, pp. 5-57. 109 See Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 19. 110 Norwood, p. 5. 111 Skemp, p. 9. 112 Cassidy, 1996, p. 55. 113 ibid, pp. 55, 58. 114 Prospect Vale Planning Committee, p. 7. 115 Haygarth, 1998, pp. 69-82. 116 ibid, pp. 104, 188.

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3.2.4 Timber Based Industries Timber getting and its associated industries have been vital elements in the municipality’s economy since the mid-nineteenth century. At the time of settlement much of the district was covered with dense forests. Cassidy found that there were two general periods of sawmilling up to World War 2 in the Deloraine district. It appears that the same pattern occurred in Westbury. Up to c1900 the industry was local in nature with small mills, often located in forest areas, providing building materials essential for the construction of farms, villages, bridges, railways and fences, as well as providing a source of heating and power. 117 After 1900 the industry expanded and became more outward looking as transport improved. This led to the establishment of larger mills, although most were still locally operated. Following World War Two increased mechanisation led to the demise of the small local mills in favour of larger centralised enterprises, although the industry has been under sustained pressure from conservation groups since the 1970s. Timber has been harvested from most parts of the municipality since the nineteenth century. The Great Western Tiers, the Cluan Tier, the Gog Range and the wooded hills north of the Bass Highway have provided a ready and accessible timber resource for local communities throughout European settlement. Following the district’s first recorded mills, Watkin Roberts’s 1861 Christmas Hills operation and James Green’s 1870s mill at Bracknell, numerous small mills operated throughout, in particular around Liffey, Cluan, Four Springs, Selbourne, Deloraine, Mole Creek, Western Creek, Jackeys Marsh and Meander, by c1900. 118 These included Edward Higgs’s 1895 mill at Western Creek, an unusual mill which straddled the creek and utilised fluming to direct water to a large water wheel which drove the saws (figure 9). From 1910, as the demand for building timber grew with the Closer Settlement Board’s purchase and subdivision of Cheshunt , sawmilling activity moved to Meander. The largest Meander mill was the Huntsman, built on the Meander River in 1918 operating until c1980. 119 It serviced more than the local market with sawn Tasmanian oak, myrtle, sassafras and blackwood being exported to the mainland. Another mill, in Golden Valley in the 1920s, was owned by the Hydro-Electric Department to cut timber for dam works at the Great Lake. 120

Figure 9. Edward Higgs’s water powered mill at Western Creek in 1899 (photograph by Frank Styant Browne, in Richards et al p. 34).

117 Cassidy, 1986, p. 61. 118 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 118; Cassidy, 1986, pp. 61-64. 119 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 118. 120 Deloraine Improvement & Tourist Association, p. 5.

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In the 1920s-1940s several mills operated in the Jackeys Marsh area, although they began to run out of timber in the 1950s and closed down. 121 By 1990 the only mill in use in the area was Neil and Graham Johnston’s 1967 mill at Meander. 122 Timbergetting and sawmilling provided crucial jobs in times of economic hardship. James Green provided work for around a hundred timber workers in the Bracknell/Liffey area from the 1860s, for example, while T.E. West & Sons, for example, provided welcome income for residents below the Cluan Tier during the Great Depression. 123 West’s Cluan mill (which later transferred to Westbury) became a tourist attraction as it utilised timber chutes to deliver logs felled on the slopes of the tier to the mill, located on the valley floor below. 124 Short-lived attempts to establish major timber processing plants occurred in the 1920s with North BHP’s timber lease at Quamby Brook and the Tasmanian Forests and Milling Company’s large mill at Cluan and timber drying kiln development in Westbury. 125 Both enterprises soon failed with the former being acquired by the diversifying Deloraine firm, Furmages, in 1927. Industrial level forestry commenced in the more remote parts of the municipality after World War 2 as increased mechanisation led to the decline of small local sawmillers in favour of large centralised operations. 126 Although the upper Mersey valley forests were first surveyed by the Forestry Department in 1903, accessibility and technological problems forestalled large scale harvesting until the post war years. Road construction into the region began in 1947 with logging commencing on Maggs Mountain in 1960. 127 Forestry has left a rich resource of cultural remains in the study area, including mill sites, tramways, water races, remote timbergetters’ huts and early machinery.

3.3 Farming Industries 3.3.1 Grazing Pastoralism has been central to the municipality’s economy for much of its history. The range of stock grazed has depended on a variety of factors including location, climate, soils and external factors. In broad terms, wool-growing predominated on large properties in the drier open country adjacent to Norfolk Plains while cattle and mutton production occurred on smaller holdings on the smaller connected plains of the damper, cooler we st. 128 Grazing began by the early 1820s as stock owned by settlers such as Thomas Ritchie and William Field, Tasmania’s early nineteenth century cattle baron, were driven into the area from the east and agisted under the care of convict stock-keepers. 129 By 1830 much of the district’s accessible land had been granted with much of it being grazed. In the late 1830s graziers profited from the foundation of the Port Phillip colony and its huge demand for stock, although prices plummeted in the 1840s and bankruptcies were common. 130 A common thread throughout the municipality was the ubiquity of tenant and share farming. In the 1830s, for example, William Bryan entered into share farming arrangements with convicts on his properties at Glenore, Fairbanks and Cluan. 131 Other tenant farms included Sir Richard Dry’s Quamby , Henry Reed’s Dunorlan and William Archer’s Cheshunt . By the 1870s soils

121 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 121. 122 ibid. 123 See Harvey, p. 12. 124 See Examiner , 1 August 1929, p. 4; Harvey, p. 16. 125 Cassidy, 1986, p. 71; Examiner , 7 August 1928 & 1 August 1929. 126 Bird, p. 31. 127 See Cubit & Russell, 1999, pp. 27-29 128 Skemp, pp. 6-7; Breen, 2001, p. 62. 129 see Breen, 2001, pp. 23; 36-37. 130 Skemp, p. 18; Fenton, p. 25. 131 E.G. Scott, p. 5.

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Economic Development Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History became exhausted from continual cropping and many tenant farmers abandoned cropping in favour of raising livestock. 132 Grazing, nonetheless, continued to be important into the twentieth century throughout the municipality with sheep, cattle, horses, pigs and poultry all being raised. 133 The municipality is unusual in Tasmania for its utilisation of the alpine high plains for transhumant grazing. William Field drove cattle through Liena and to the Borradaile and February Plains by the end of the 1840s while graziers from around Bothwell and Hamilton agisted sheep as far west as the Walls of Jerusalem during the same period. The remnants of several shepherds’ huts remain near the Walls. 134 Use of the Central Plateau changed as, first Field displaced the sheep graziers in the 1850s, and then small holders from below the Great Western Tiers acquired grazing leases there from c1877. 135 At the same time, Richard Field and then George Lee selected open plains in the upper Mersey valley. 136 The Paddocks remain as evidence of the Lee’s transhumant grazing through to the late twentieth century. Sheep grazing on the Plateau peaked in the early twentieth century then declined after World War 2 as rising labour costs and farm improvements elsewhere made it less economic. 137 Stock continued to be driven up via tracks over the Tiers and then into the various leases until 1973 when grazing was prohibited above the 3000ft contour (914m). 138 . Dixons Kingdom hut (figure 10) in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park and Ritter’s cairned stock route are remnants of this pattern of use. 139

Figure 10. Dixons Kingdom Hut in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. The hut is a late remnant of transhumant grazing on the Central Plateau (Simon Cubit collection).

The municipality’s rural economy diversified in the late nineteenth century with large landholders, tenants and selectors taking up dairying to tap into the growing butter market. Earlier, dairying was small scale with farmers keeping a few cows for personal use and local sale. 140 Although commercial dairying was concentrated in the Deloraine area, as its cool climate was a significant advantage in the pre-refrigeration era, small herds were also

132 Breen, 2001, pp. 62, 65. 133 Cyclopedia , vol 2, pp. 225, 230; Skemp, p. 38. 134 Cubit & Russell, 1999, pp. 18-19. 135 ibid, p. 19. 136 ibid, pp. 5-11. 137 ibid, p. 20. 138 ibid, p. 7. 139 See Terry & Parham, 2004, passim; Collett, pp. 16-17. 140 See, for example, Bonney, p. 36.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Economic Development established around Westbury to supplement farm incomes. 141 Several large estates, such as Wesley Dale , Bowerbank and Dunorlan , became important players in the industry. Many of these producers initially processed their milk on the farm before the development of a centralised butter factory at Deloraine in 1901 (see s3.8.1). 142 An important adjunct to grazing was the sale of stock. In 1866 John Millar commissioned the construction of sale yards at Carrick. Weekly stock sales from the district took place there and at Westbury from at least 1850 until the 1898 opening of yards at Newstead led to its closure. 143 Further west the Field’s held annual sales on Easter Monday and Tuesday at Calstock , on a site now occupied by the Deloraine Showgrounds. 144

3.3.2 Breeding Stock Livestock breeding has been a significant rural industry in the municipality with the Whitemore/Glenore/Hagley area said to have one of the highest concentrations of pedigree livestock farms in Australia. 145 The Field’s established a notable reputation for race horse breeding, particularly on Calstock and Westfield , while at the turn of the twentieth century Leicester, Lincoln and Southdown sheep, and cattle, racehorses and draught horses were bred around Westbury. 146 By the late nineteenth century, tenant farmers around Whitemore had become highly successful stud breeders, winning prizes at agricultural shows and commanding high prices at sales in and . The number of stud farms peaked in c1950 when there were 100 registered stud farms within five miles of Whitemore. Although this number has fallen the district remains an important national supplier of pedigree stock. 147 3.3.3 Agriculture The Meander Valley is recognised as one of the richest agricultural districts in Tasmania with wheat and sheep providing an early mainstay followed by a greater diversification of crops later. Such was the importance of the region and the strength of its export market to the mainland, by the 1860s Westbury was one of the most important towns in the colony, an importance reflected by the decision to build the railway there. Subsequently, economic stagnation, partly due to the colony’s rural economy being dependent on external markets and soil exhaustion, saw a move to more grazing and mixed farming although cropping was by no means totally abandoned. 148 Cropping was not confined to the drier Westbury area. Wheat was grown at the Retreat near Deloraine in 1830, and at Capt. Moriarty’s Dunorlan and Lt. Vaughan’s Wesley Dale in 1832. 149 By 1901, cultivated acreage in the northern districts (which included the former Evandale and Longford municipalities) reached 156,000 acres with Hagley being the wheat centre of the State. 150 This agricultural economy enabled the region to weather the storm of Tasmania’s late nineteenth century population decline. This despite cereal production slowing in the late nineteenth century due to soils impoverished by poor cultivation techniques and farming practices on small holdings and farmers’ reluctance to mechanise (figure 11). 151 Cultivation practices and holding sizes created the landscape we see today with hedgerows planted between holdings and fields to provide shelter from winds and frosts. Crops so sheltered tended to provide better yields although they slowed the introduction of

141 Cassidy, 1995. p. 120; Badcock, p. 7; Westbury Historical Society, 1999, pp. 60-61. 142 Cassidy, 1995, p. 120. 143 Vernon Jones, pp. 19 & 38; Westbury Historical Society files; a cattle market is marked on the north-western corner of Marriot Street and the Meander Valley Highway on a c1850 plan of Westbury— DPIWE: Westbury 30. 144 Geoff Woods, pers comm, 8 September, 2004. 145 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 16. 146 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 35, Cyclopedia , Vol 2, pp. 225-228. 147 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 16. 148 See Solomon & Goodhand, pp. 125-126; Breen, 2001, p. 63; Blainey, p. 62. 149 Skemp, p. 10; Griffen, pp. 34 & 51. 150 Breen, 2001, p. 62; see Daily Post , 17 January 1914, p. 10; Bailliere’s Gazetteer, p. 50. 151 See Blainey, pp. 62-64; Breen, 2001, pp. 43, 63, 86.

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Economic Development Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History mechanisation. 152 Horse drawn harvesters were introduced in the 1870s while Selbourne’s Harry Cox created considerable interest with his purchase of Tasmania’s first (horse-drawn) Sunshine header in 1922. 153 As with grazing cropping was dominated by tenant farmers, creating a land use pattern of small holdings and a quasi-feudal social structure. 154 Many tenant farmers, particularly in the Deloraine district, successfully pursued almost subsistence agriculture while others had to seek off farm work to survive and so incomes were relatively low. 155 The mid-nineteenth century Waste Lands Acts opened up densely forested land around Mole Creek and beyond, although these too tended to be farmed at little more than a subsistence level. 156 By 1900 tenant farming had declined and the agricultural economy diversified with peas, turnips, potatoes and fruit vying with wheat, barley, oats and hay as major regional crops. 157

Figure 11. Horse powered harvesting at Glenore in (AOT—NS345/43a, p. 26).

Figure 12. Harvesting flax for the Hagley flax mill during World War 2 (Westbury Historical Society).

152 See Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 65. 153 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 24. 154 Breen, 2001, pp. 50-54. 155 ibid, pp. 43, 50. 156 See Cubit, 1987, p. 3; Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 22. 157 Walch’s 1878 Almanac; Cyclopedia , Vol 2, pp. 225, 230; Meander Centenary Writers, p. 37.

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Market gardening has been pursued on a small scale with a Chinese market garden on the Meander River at Deloraine in the 1890s and other gardens at Prospect in the mid-twentieth century. 158 Launceston grocer and market gardener, Chung Gon, established a market garden at Hadspen in the 1950s although this does not appear to have lasted long. 159 Fruit growing has been of minor importance in the region although apples were grown in the Chudleigh and Kimberley areas into the twentieth century and Richard Dry imported and planted blackberries near the river at Quamby in 1843. 160 Most land holders undoubtedly had home fruit gardens— Quamby , for example, was famed for its eleven acres of gardens which included nut groves as well as ornamentals. 161 Westbury farmers experimented with hops peaking with just seven acres in 1877. 162 In the late twentieth century small fruits began to be successfully grown near Deloraine with the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm establishing a successful farm and café business just west of Deloraine. 163 Tobacco proved to be little more enduring than hops with the first crops being planted on Fair View at Quamby Bend in the 1930s. Northern Tasmania’s only tobacco kilns were erected on the property and remain extant as a reminder of this short-lived industry. 164 During World War 2 flax was grown in the municipality with flax mills established at Hagley and Deloraine (figure 12). The Deloraine flax mill still stands, although the buildings now serve as pavilions for the Deloraine Show and the Deloraine Craft Fair. In the late twentieth century opium poppies have been introduced as an important regional and then state-wide industry with Tasmanian Alkaloids establishing the state’s second processing plant at Westbury in 1976. 165

3.4 Communication 3.4.1 Postal Services Postal services in the municipality began at Westbury when Phillip Reibey was appointed postmaster there in 1832. 166 For many years settlers living west of the town had to come to Westbury for their postal business, although a thrice weekly mail service to Deloraine began in 1843. 167 Although other post offices were opened in subsequent years in the larger towns on the main road, smaller outlying communities had to wait until the later nineteenth century to get post offices. In 1865 post offices were open in Westbury, Exton, Hagley, Deloraine, Elizabeth Town and Chudleigh while by 1901 the service had been extended to twenty-nine towns and hamlets throughout the municipality. 168 The post offices became important cultural centres for small communities where news and gossip was exchanged. They were located at railway stations in hamlets on the line, while for those off the rail line mail might only be delivered twice weekly by horseback. More urgent messages were sometimes sent attached to dog collars or by carrier pigeon. 169 Although men were often listed as the postmaster many rural post offices were run by their wives and added welcome income to an almost subsistence lifestyle. 170 Along with the

158 Bonney, p, 15; Prospect Vale Planning Committee, p. 7. 159 Westbury Historical Society files. 160 Cyclopedia , Vol 2, p. 234; Becker, 1994, pp. 53, 69; Vernon Jones, p. 5. 161 E.G. Scott, p. 11; Vernon Jones, p. 31. 162 Evans, 1993, p. 23. 163 Phil Dornauf, pers comm. 164 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 28; Max Frost, pers comm. 165 Department of Primary Industry, Water and the Environment Food and Agriculture website — www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/EGIL-5HU8V4?open 166 Westbury Historical Society files. 167 Fenton, p. 151; Skemp, p. 19. 168 Walch’s 1865 Almanac, pp. 143 & 163, and 1901 Almanac, pp. 326 & 380. 169 Becker, 1994, p. 84; Meander Centenary Writers, pp. 44-45; Westbury Municipal Council, section on Birralee. 170 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 67.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Economic Development rationalisation of other government services from the 1970s, these small post offices began to close, sometimes catalysing the decline of the communities. 171 3.4.2 Electronic Communication Electric telegraph services commenced in Tasmania in 1857 when the first messages were sent between Hobart and Launceston. 172 In 1866, a meeting was called to plan linking Westbury, Longford and Deloraine to the outside world via the telegraph. 173 The district was finally connected to the telegraph with the opening of the Launceston and Western Railway in 1871 when the railway stations at Deloraine and Westbury became telegraph stations. 174 Within a few years other centres were connected with telegraph stations either at the railway station or the post office. By 1901 there were electric telegraph connections at fifteen towns and hamlets in the municipality. 175 Telephone lines followed some years later and gradually extended to the more outlying hamlets. Thus in 1924 F.J.B. Cheverton became the first telephone subscriber at Montana while telephones were being installed in some Chudleigh homes in the 1930s. 176 Initially, most residents used a locality’s single phone at the local post office—this, along with the later institution of party lines, ensured that there was little privacy to telephone communication. Technology was primitive by today’s standards—the first telephone line to Cheshunt ran along the fencetops. 177 In more remote parts of the municipality, such as Jackeys Marsh, it took until the 1970s to be connected to the phone. 178 3.5 Transport In any community the provision and development of transport networks is pivotal to economic and community development. The initial settlement of Deloraine and exploration of the Westward, for example, hinged on the search for land routes to the VDL Co lands in the north- west. 179 Indeed the later development of land routes and villages south west of Deloraine followed the line of the 1820s VDL Track. 3.5.1 Roads and Bridges One of Tasmania’s busiest highways, the Bass Highway, bisects much of the municipality, providing good access to major centres such as Devonport and Launceston. It was not always so. In the 1830s and 1840s the roads of the region, like those of most rural parts of the colony, were notorious for their poor condition. Surveyor Nathaniel Kentish observed that the notoriously steep and difficult VDL Track, cut by Joseph Fossey from the Meander Ford (Deloraine) via Liena and Gads Hill to the Surrey Hills, had long been ‘dignified with the name road’ although it was impassable to stock except in dry weather. 180 In 1834 settlers around Westbury lobbied Lt.-Governor Arthur to replace the rough and circuitous track to Launceston with a better road. A road gang was sent to Westbury and began constructing a new road the following year. 181 Part of their work was to construct a causeway into the Quamby Brook floodplain for a new alignment on the northern side of Westbury replacing the old route which passed along King Street and in front of Westfield .182 Despite this work it was still said to take up to a week for a loaded dray to cart goods between Deloraine and Launceston in the 1840s

171 ibid; Becker, 1994, p. 2. 172 Australian Post Office, p. 41. 173 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 42. 174 Walch’s 1872 Almanac, p. 73. 175 Walch’s 1901 Almanac, pp. 326 & 380. 176 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 67; Re-Union Committee, p. 66. 177 Meander Centenary Writers, pp. 67 & 109. 178 ibid, pp. 37. 179 See Cassidy, 1986, p. 3. 180 Quoted in Allan Jones, p. 122. 181 Newitt, pp. 187-188. 182 Max Frost, pers comm, 7 September 2004; see figure 24 for original road alignment.

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Economic Development Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History while Louisa Meredith wrote in Gothic terms of the horrors of the road west of Deloraine in 1844. 183 The road undoubtedly slowed economic development and settlers paid to upgrade it as far as Deloraine in 1849. Later, the newly formed Devon Road Trust began to clear and form the road beyond Deloraine in the 1850s. 184 Already a new line of road had been surveyed by Kentish in 1842-1845, superseding the old VDL Track. 185 Subsequently, convicts constructed a road on the new alignment, moving to Kimberley in 1846 to continue the route there after William Bonnily had cleared a road to Elizabeth Town in 1844. 186 Toll gates were erected in c1850 at various points of the road to extract tolls from road users. They were located at the Entally Bridge, between Carrick and Westbury, on the boundary of the Quamby and Sillwood estates and near the Bowerbank mill at Deloraine. The gates were dismantled in 1859. 187 Other routes were cut into the hinterland of the municipality—between, for example, the and Deloraine in 1836. 188 From the mid-nineteenth century tracks were cut up to the Central Plateau and the Pelion region to provide access to summer grazing lands and mining fields. Some of these, such as Higgs Track, became well known bushwalking tracks in the late twentieth century, while others provided the route for twentieth century roads onto the plateau. 189 The Deloraine Improvement Association constructed a road to the top of the Tiers in 1896 with the intention to push it on further to Great Lake. 190 Other routes to the highlands were cut in a bid to access the west coast mining fields. 191 The development of motor vehicles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had arguably the greatest single physical and social impact of any change in modern society. John Field and Dr Francis Cole were two of the first residents in the district to own cars and possibly attended an early motor rally at Deloraine’s Empire Hotel in c1910. 192 In the twentieth century roads were gradually improved as motor vehicles became more popular and efficient, particularly late in the twentieth century when towns and hamlets in the municipality became dormitory areas for Devonport and Launceston. Road were also cut into the upper Mersey valley following World War 2 to provide access to forest resources and for hydro-electric dam construction. 193 Bridge construction was central to road construction in this region which was crossed by four major and many minor streams. Bushrangers appear to have been the district’s first bridge builders—John Helder Wedge reported a crossing over the Mersey at Liena, apparently built to drive stolen stock into the interior. 194 Other bridges replaced fords at Deloraine and Kimberley although the first convict built bridge at Deloraine, thought to be the first bridge erected west of Launceston, was swept away by flood in 1844. 195 Other bridges were thrown across various streams throughout the nineteenth century, particularly in its later decades. In 1878, promoters sought new bridges at Deloraine, Entally and Westwood. 196 The Deloraine and Westwood crossings were erected and remain standing (figures 13 & 14). Several crossings were destroyed by flood and had to be rebuilt, generally at a higher level while in the late twentieth century

183 Cassidy, 1986, p. 96; Bonney, pp. 5-10. 184 Cassidy, 1986, p. 96; Fenton, p. 88. 185 Allan Jones, p. 123. 186 Bonney, p. 63. Skemp, p. 20. 187 E.G. Scott, p. 29; Westbury Historical Society, 1999, pp. 44 & 94; von Stieglitz, 1950, p. 32. 188 AOT—LSD1/9, pp. 239-241. 189 See Haygarth, 1998, p. 104; Meander Centenary Writers, pp. 40 & 45. 190 Examiner , 28 December 1896. 191 See Cubit & Russell, 1999, pp. 21-22. 192 See AOT—30/8226; Woods, p. 56. 193 See Cubit 1996, p. 2. 194 Cubit & Russell, 1999. P. 17. 195 Von Stieglitz, 1950, p. 25. 196 Walch’s 1878 Almanac, pp. 198 & 233.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Economic Development highway realignment and replacement of timber structures with concrete spans saw a number of new bridges constructed.

Figure 13. Deloraine and its bridge in c1877 (Deloraine Folk Museum collection).

Figure 14. Detail of 1878 plan of Westwood Bridge. The iron suspension arch has since been removed (AOT— PWD266/1870).

3.5.2 Railways and Tramways Railways As early as 1848 George Whitcomb suggested that Tasmania join the railway age by employing convicts to excavate cuttings for a line linking Hobart and Launceston. 197 Following the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 local landholders expected that a rail link between Deloraine and a seaport would give them access to export markets and rival lines were proposed to Latrobe on the Mersey and to Launceston. 198 Westbury and Deloraine colonists, in particular Sir Richard Dry, lobbied for the Launceston option, although it is arguable that the location of the Westbury and Hagley stations some distance from the town centres did them more harm than good. 199 However, although James Sprent surveyed various routes in 1856, it was not until 1869 that the first section of the privately built Launceston and Western Railway (LWR) was completed and not until February 1871 that the line officially opened. At the same time the Mersey and Deloraine Tramway Company began to construct its line, although

197 Except where otherwise referenced this section on railways is based on Morris-Nunn & Tassell, pp. 268-298. 198 Fisher, p. 1. 199 See E.G. Scott, p. 27; Daily Telegraph , 13 November 1908.

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Economic Development Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History construction ended at Kimberley in 1869. 200 The Launceston and Western Railway Company’s poor financial situation led to a government takeover and the ensuing railway riots in 1873-74. The riots resulted from colonists in Launceston, and the Westbury and Deloraine areas protesting at the Railway Rates raised by the government to pay for the newly acquired railway (see section 7.2 below). 201 The line was extended to Devonport in 1885 and small communities developed around the stations at Kimberley, Dunorlan, Weegena and Moltema. 202 A branch line was built to Mole Creek in 1890 and the Government contracted surveyors to find a route further west to provide a land link with the rich mineral fields of the west coast. Although a route was surveyed as far as the Paddocks and up to Reedy Lake, the Government cancelled the survey in 1891. 203 Another line, proposed to link Westbury with Beaconsfield and Beauty Point, saw the beginnings of a building boom around Rosevale, although it too was never built. 204 The closure of passenger services and stations on the municipality’s two lines from 1960 had a devastating effect on the communities they serviced. 205 Most station infrastructure was removed although some remains at the Oaks, Deloraine and other places.

Trams Numerous tramways were constructed in forest areas to convey felled trees to mills erected on the forest edges. Two of the biggest were to link the Cluan Tiers to Westbury and Deloraine in separate developments during the 1920s. The largest tramway proposal in the municipality, however, was the Latrobe to Deloraine tramway, proposed in the 1850s and officially opened between Latrobe and Kimberley in 1872. 206 The Mersey and Deloraine Tramway Company’s hopes, however, were not realised and the line closed a few months later. Becker argues, however, that the project and the land purchased to construct it led to the opening up of the Kimberley area. 207 3.5.3 Air Transport While air transport has only played a small part in the municipality’s history the district’s residents rushed to the Westbury showground in 1920 to view an Avis bi-plane land there and to the Deloraine showground in 1928 when pioneer airman, Bert Hinkler, landed his plane there. 208 For a few years Westbury residents were able to watch Tiger Moths fly in and out of an airstrip at Westfield which was owned by Tasmanian air transport pioneers, the Holyman family. 209

3.6 Natural Disasters & Environmental Manipulation 3.6.1 Natural Disasters While generally enjoying an equable climate, the stereotypical Australian natural disasters of fire, drought and flood are not unknown within the municipality. Bushfires have been both naturally occurring and purposely lit. Palawa used the firestick to keep hunting grounds and land routes clear, while in the 1850s botanists William Archer and W. Harvey ‘set fire to some rubbish with a view of making a clearance’ while climbing Mother Cummings Peak, only to

200 Fisher, pp. 1-2. 201 Reynolds, pp. 102, 107ff. 202 See Skemp, p. 35; Becker, 1994, p. 84; Hall, p. 11. 203 Cubit, 1987, p. 13. 204 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 18. 205 See Becker, 1994, p. 84. 206 ibid, pp. 23-24. 207 ibid, p. 84. 208 AOT—30/5616; Re-Union Committee, p. 66. 209 Max Frost, pers comm, 7 September, 2004.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Economic Development find the whole country ablaze the following day. 210 Other fires were lit for sport and to improve feed, although during droughts such as in 1888 they could burn for weeks, destroying crops and fencing and providing ‘a weird appearance … [with] smoke, flame and glare of the bushfires and burning logs all around.’ 211 Other fires were both useful and disastrous. In the 1897-98 bushfire season huge fires raged in the Kimberley area and drastically reduced the time needed to clear land for farming. 212 On the other hand the 1913 and 1915 fires swept along the Great Western Tiers causing immense property damage to the small farms and communities which nestled in its foothills. 213 More recently, fires lit by summer graziers swept across the northern Central Plateau throughout the summer of 1961-62 destroying large areas of fragile alpine vegetation and causing major long term erosion problems. 214 Floods have also ravaged sections of the municipality causing substantial damage and occasional loss of life. Floods washed away the Deloraine bridge in 1844 and the Egmont bridge in 1845. In 1863, large floods poured through much of the colony including the Meander valley. 215 In 1906, they were severe enough to wash away a bridge over the Meander River. 216 The April 1929 floods were disastrous and caused significant loss of life in northern Tasmania, including the death of a baby girl who drowned near Hagley. 217 In general, however, although roads, bridges and farmland were inundated, the municipality appears to have fared better than surrounding areas to the east and west where numerous bridges were swept away and the damage was catastrophic. 218 3.6.2 Land Clearing During the colonial period the cessation of Palawa land management together with forest clearance, farming practices and the introduction of exotic flora and fauna led to a radical alteration of the municipality’s ecology. Land clearance was the first imperative for the first colonists who were eager to wrest a living from the soil. On arrival many remarked on the dense forests which covered much of the western half of the municipality. These were cleared, often by ringbarking after 1840, to allow planting of crops and the grazing of livestock. Exotic pastures were planted from the 1820s with men such as James Fenton sowing Dutch clover seed south of Dunorlan and along the Mersey. 219 Early land clearing was accomplished by convict servants and probationers who provided a cheap and ready workforce. 220 Clearing accelerated after the Waste Lands Acts with ringbarking and deliberate and natural bushfires leading to the creation of the farmland around Mole Creek, Weegena, Elizabeth Town, Irish Town, Quamby, Meander, Golden Valley, Jackeys Marsh, Western Creek (figure 15), Weetah and Liffey. 221 While the nineteenth century imperative to clear land was strong, by the 1880s resultant environmental problems and the effects of poor farming practices were being recognised. 222 Nonetheless, clearing continued almost unabated into the twentieth century with the subdivision of Cheshunt by the Closer Settlement Board and after World War 2 with the advent of bulldozers. 223 Land clearing had both economic and aesthetic rationales in the district. In 1899 Launceston pharmacist and

210 Breen, 2001, p. 154. 211 Quoted in ibid, p. 67. 212 Becker, 1994, p. 22. 213 Tasmanian Mail , 12 June 1913, pp. 28 & 39; Jim Scott, pp. 36-39; Re-Union Committee, p. 75. 214 Cited in Cullen, p. 1. 215 Von Stieglitz, 1946, p. 17. 216 Weekly Courier , 20 October, 1906, p. 19. 217 Examiner , 8 April, 1929, p. 3. 218 This interpretation of the 1929 floods has been from reading the various contemporary newspaper accounts of the disaster. 219 Breen, 2001, p. 153. 220 ibid, p. 95. 221 ibid, p. 154; Becker, 1994, p. 22: Skemp, pp. 21-22. 222 Breen, 2001, pp. 76, 155. 223 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 57; Vernon Jones, p. 48.

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Economic Development Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History photographer, Frank Styant Browne, cut down trees to allow a clearer view for photographing and painting the Alum Cliffs near Mole Creek. 224

224 Richards et al, p. 83.

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Figure 15. Higgs farm at Western Creek in 1898 showing ring barked landscape (Richards et al, p. 23)

3.6.3 Irrigation The municipality’s unreliable rainfall led to the introduction of irrigation by the late 1840s. 225 Irrigation near Westbury by 1842 is said to have freed Weston of a caterpillar infestation by drowning them. The municipality’s best known irrigation scheme, however, occurred on Cheshunt where local polymath, William Archer, designed and implemented major works from 1847. Archer was Tasmania’s first native born architect as well as a farmer and noted botanist (see s7.6.1). At Cheshunt he took water out of the Meander River to irrigate approximately twenty-five square miles using dams, channels and gates to regulate the flow of water. The scheme doubled the property’s output and enabled the family to depasture sheep from Woolmers during the dry summer months. 226 Concurrent with irrigation came the need for drainage with the low lying ponds around the base of the Tiers filling with water in the winter and drained to promote farm productivity. 227 3.6.4 Acclimatisation Settlers also introduced many exotic species to the district, often with unexpected and costly results, but also creating the landscape we see today. As noted above James Fenton claims to have introduced Dutch clover into the district, as well as ringbarking. Gorse and blackberries were also introduced, the latter as a domestic and commercial crop. Although soon revealed as a weed, subsistence farmers in the -Chudleigh area picked and sold blackberries to Henry Jones & Co for jam making, while Richard Dry’s experiment at Quamby has already been referred to. 228 Gorse was also recognised as an environmental weed early with the Mercury reporting its unwanted spread around Carrick in 1883. 229 Other introduced plantings have had significant effects on the landscape with several parts of the municipality being notable for their hawthorn hedgerows. Late nineteenth and early twentieth century plantings of radiata and cypress pine windbreaks for paddocks and farm buildings also provide a dominant landscape feature in many parts of the municipality. 230

225 Breen, 2001, p. 59. 226 Mason-Cox, p. 3 227 Breen, 2001, pp. 85, 158. 228 Re-Union Committee, p. 14 229 Mercury , 10 November, 1883. 230 See Becker, 1994, p. 33.

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Rabbits similarly became a major pest, greatly reducing agricultural productivity and leading to Australia’s first Rabbit Destruction Act in 1871. 231 38,801 rabbits were killed in Westbury in 1883-84 with another 60,000 the following year. 232 Hunting rabbits provided welcome income, as well as food, for tenant farmers and town poor who ensured that the pest was not entirely eradicated. A more welcome new species, at least for some, came with the introduction of trout into the Central Plateau lakes from the 1870s. The trout provided sport for local gentry, a food source for their poorer neighbours and income for subsistence farmers who guided tourists to the lakes and provided accommodation in the lowlands. 233

3.7 Industrial Development Throughout the nineteenth century industry was highly localised with most towns of any size and many villages having the full range of industries from flourmills, bakeries, lime kilns, sawmills, blacksmiths, brickmakers, stonemasons, carpenters, coopers, potters, tinsmiths, coachbuilders, wheelwrights, etc to service local needs. 234 The dropping of intercolonial tariffs after Federation in 1901 and twentieth century transport improvements led to increasing centralisation of industrial activities at the expense of regional enterprises. 235 3.7.1 Processing Food and Drink Apart from the local small scale production of bread and meat by bakers and butchers in many of the municipality’s towns, there have been several larger scale food producers in the Meander Valley. The major enterprises, flour milling and brewing, were important local industries prior to World War 2 when rapid improvements in road transport led to their centralisation in major centres such as Devonport and Launceston. Some early bakeries remain with the White House in Westbury still operating as a bakery more than a century and a half after it was first opened.

Flour Mills With the northern districts being an important wheat growing area, numerous flour mills were established in the municipality from its earliest years. By 1835 there were at least 47 grinding mills throughout the region. 236 One of the best known and earliest mills within the municipality, at least in recent years following controversial nearby highway development, was a horse powered mill near Hagley. It operated until the 1870s and is one of only three known horse powered mills in Australia. 237 Other well known mills were William Bryan’s c1828 timber structure at Carrick (figure 16) which was later replaced by a bluestone structure and then purchased by T.W. Monds in 1867. Monds, who became Tasmania’s best known miller, made it one of the best mills in the colony. It operated until 1923 when it was the last water mill still operating in the state. 238 Most early mills were water powered, with steam powered mills beginning to take over from the 1840s. Notable mills within the municipality include the Egmont mill, the steam driven Westfield mill at the White House, Westbury, Noakes mill at Exton, Clayton’s steam mill at Deloraine, the Bowerbank mill at Deloraine and Harvey’s mill at Deloraine. Other small mills were located at Mole Creek and Elizabeth Town. 239

231 Breen, 2001, p. 138; Jones, p. 36. 232 Mercury , 10 November, 1883. 233 See Union Steamship Co, 1898, p. 41; Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 26. 234 See Latona, p. 2. 235 Cassidy, 1986, pp. 4-5. 236 This includes the former Longford and Evandale municipalities — Breen, 2001, p. 80. 237 Cassidy & Preston, p. 232. 238 ibid, p. 231. 239 ibid, pp. 232-237.

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Figure 16. Flour Mill on the Liffey River in c1850 (sketch attributed to Elizabeth Hudspeth and held by the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania).

Figure 17: The Western Co-Operative Dairy Company’s Deloraine butter factory on its opening ( Examiner , 23 February 1901— reproduced from Cassidy, 1995, p. 122).

Dairy Processing 240 Initially, the manufacture of dairy products was a domestic industry for farm consumption with excess being sold locally. 241 In the early twentieth century several farms produced and sold their own cheddar cheeses with about 30 tons of cheese produced annually. 242 In 1914-15 Deloraine produced 17% of the state’s farm produced cheese. Buildings formerly housing farm cheese factories survive on Kinvarra and Hiwiroa . Elsewhere, John Woodberry’s Bowerbank was known for its superior butter and cheese while Caveside’s Warren family stored butter and cheese on shelving installed in one of the Wet Caves on Lingers Road. Concomitant with the move to establishing centralised butter factories, local creameries were established at Caveside in 1892 and adjacent to the railway line at Chudleigh and Dunorlan in 1893. These did not last long and were replaced by other creameries at Caveside and the Needles in the early twentieth century. The Caveside creamery is the only known surviving early creamery. Dairy processing became more centralised after the Western Co-operative Dairy Company built a butter factory on the corner of Deloraine’s West Parade and Goderich Street in 1901 (figure 17). Initially the butter factory had a chequered history, although after renovation in 1931 it prospered and by 1948 only the Smithton factory enjoyed higher production. In 1953 processing was re-located to the Mole Creek Road and the old factory closed and was later demolished. Although production at the new plant peaked in 1974, industry rationalisation, amalgamations and improved transport saw it closed in the 1980s. The factory was subsequently used by the Bendigo Pottery.

240 Unless otherwise footnoted this section is based on Cassidy, 1995, pp. 120-125. 241 Cassidy, 1986, p. 36. 242 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 126.

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Abattoirs and Meat Production Regional butchers usually had their own slaughter houses. In addition to these J. Lockhart established a bacon curing factory at Cluan in the 1880s. 243 It is unknown how long this operated for.

Breweries, Distilleries and Aerated Waters Breweries were commonly established throughout most of nineteenth century Tasmania, although the opening of the railway in 1871 saw the decline of local brewers in favour of larger, more efficient producers in Launceston. There were three breweries in Deloraine in the nineteenth century, one of the first being Adolphus Rooke’s timber structure on the Retreat which was operating by 1851 but was destroyed by fire in 1885. There were also breweries at Hadspen and near the Quamby Brook in Arthur Street, Westbury. 244 The manufacture of aerated waters and cordials was also carried out in the municipality although little is known about them. Cassidy recorded factories at the Retreat and Elizabeth Town in her 1986 study. 245

Other After decades of largely domestic production, commercial honey production began at Mole Creek when Robert Stephens returned to the town from active service in World War 1 and decided to commercialise his bee keeping hobby. Stephens built a as a honey extraction factory and by 1923 had some fifty hives. Selling honey under the Golden Bee brand he concentrated on leatherwood honey from 1951 taking hives to various locations on the west coast. 246 3.7.2 Manufacturing Brickmaking was one of the earliest industries in the district, although it was often highly localised as landowners made bricks for domestic construction. Blacksmiths also plied their trade almost as soon as towns became established (figure 18). In Deloraine, the Eade family operated a smithy for four generations after 1856, the business being located at 110 Emu Bay Road after 1920. 247 Other blacksmith dynasties at Chudleigh and Mole Creek were the Williams and Bellchambers families. 248 Blacksmiths often doubled as agricultural implement makers, an important function in nineteenth century rural districts. Other traditional industries included tanning with tanneries by the river at Carrick and in West Parade at Deloraine. 249 Associated with these were saddlers (figure 19) and bootmakers, etc, many of whom worked from home based workshops. Tailors and dressmakers also often worked from home although Sullivan’s had a large, if short-lived, clothing factory in Emu Bay Road, Deloraine. 250 Plans for a water powered woollen mill on Roxford , some three miles from the Westbury station were made in 1908 but do not appear to have amounted to much. 251 Wattle bark was collected near Hagley and sent to tanneries in Launceston for processing. 252

243 Westbury Historical Society files; Daily Telegraph , 3 November, 1908. 244 Cassidy, 1986, pp. 32-34; Frost, 2002b, p. 94. 245 Cassidy, 1986, p. 34. 246 ibid, p. 43. 247 ibid, pp. 98-100. 248 ibid, p. 105. 249 Ayton, pp. 1-2; Cassidy, 1986, pp. 86-88. 250 Cassidy, 1986, pp. 90-92. 251 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 90. 252 ibid, p. 85.

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Figure 18. A Westbury blacksmith and his son in the late nineteenth century (AOT— 30/4442).

Figure 19. R. Learoyd Saddlers and Harness Makers at Deloraine in 1919 ( Weekly Courier , 22 May 1919, p. 19).

Figure 20. Deloraine’s A.J. Fowler cycle works in 1919 ( Weekly Courier , 22 May 1919, p. 19).

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Figure 21. W.J. Ingamells’s Sirdar Cycle and Motor Works in early twentieth century Westbury (Westbury Historical Society).

Transport industries included coachbuilders and wheelwrights as well as livery stables which were often located at hotels. Some of these businesses changed to motor car garages in the twentieth century as motorised transport replaced horses and bullocks. Deloraine’s first garage was in Vic Horne’s 1913 shed, between 11 and 13 West Parade. Horne moved to new premises at 11 Emu Bay Road by 1918. Horne’s Deloraine Motor Garage, offered chauffeured cars for motoring trips to the lakes and caves as well as the usual car repairs. The business operated under various proprietors until c1958. 253 In Westbury, H.E. Boon purchased Billy Peterson’s garage on the Meander Valley Highway in 1923 and operated it until his death in 1964. This was the town’s only garage for some years .254 Bicycle making became a notable local industry from the late nineteenth century. In Deloraine, A.J. Fowler repaired and built bicycles in the corner of the Empire Hotel from c1917, exporting machines to mainland Australia (figure 20). W.J. Ingamells, of a Westbury family with diverse business interests, operated a cycle and motor works in the early twentieth century (figure 21). 255 Other industries mentioned elsewhere in this report include timber, flax, tobacco and opium poppy processing. At Kimberley the ruins of coke burning kilns remain extant while on Bentley Norman Cameron operated a linseed oil factory from c1888-1925. 256

3.8 Finance & Depression Banking in the municipality appears to have been largely confined to the main centres of Deloraine and Westbury. A house in King Street, Westbury, for example, was opened as the Commercial Bank in 1873 although it later moved to other premises in Lyall Street. 257 By 1885 the Commercial Bank of Tasmania had also opened in Deloraine (figure 22). 258 Like all parts of the country, the Meander Valley Municipality has suffered from periodic economic downturns which have curtailed or altered earlier ways of life. While the gold rushes of the 1850s proved beneficial for many in the municipality with agricultural commodities in high demand, it was a difficult time for many small tenant farmers. 259 Severe economic depression was experienced in the 1890s and 1930s, with the latter heralding the change from

253 Cassidy, 1986, p. 112. 254 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 81. 255 Westbury Historical Society files. 256 Becker, 1994, p. 69; Cassidy, 1986, p. 81. 257 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 40. 258 Walch’s 1885 Almanac, p. 185. 259 Breen, 2001, pp. 54ff.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Economic Development cropping to livestock farming for many of the district’s farmers. 260 Some large scale projects, such as the Cluan Tier and Westbury sawmilling and timber drying project, probably collapsed due to the Depression. Figure 22. Deloraine’s Commercial Bank ( Weekly Courier , 22 May 1919, p. 19).

3.9 Retailing and Commerce Shops began to appear in the larger towns such as Deloraine and Westbury soon after their establishment. Edward Mehegan’s store opened in Adelaide Street, Westbury in 1848, then later moved to William Street. It remained open and in the family until its recent closure. 261 William Bramich established a store west of the Meander River at Deloraine after 1846 while Michael McCormack had a store on the site of the current British Hotel in Deloraine in 1851. 262 At the eastern edge of the municipality, Captain Edward Dumaresq surveyed a village on his Illawarra estate in 1844. A shop was located at the gates of the property at one stage. 263 From the late nineteenth century, the municipality’s remote rural towns were served by a network of small country stores selling a range of products from food through to farm needs and domestic goods. At Meander, a store opened in 1892 while R.G. Weedon’s 1890s store operated in the old Glenore pub until 1952. 264 By 1907 Kimberley appeared destined for great development with a pub, bakery, butchery, blacksmith's shop and several grocery stores. Like many rural hamlets, however, the promise faded and the town’s last store closed in the late 1970s. 265 In areas too small and remote to support a store, such as Jackeys Marsh and Montana, hawkers regularly plied a trade during the interwar years. These were often men from overseas, going by sobriquets such as Jimmy the Chinaman and the like.266 One well known post World War 2 hawker was Roelf Vos, a Dutch immigrant who sold Rawleigh’s products door to door throughout the municipality before going on to establish a major supermarket chain. 267 Another hawker was Mrs Frances Brown who drove her horse and cart around the municipality until the 1940s. 268 By the late nineteenth century larger retail outlets had become established in the larger towns, particularly in Deloraine. The River Don Trading Co had already established at store at

260 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 41. 261 ibid, p. 12; Max Frost, pers comm, 7 September 2004. 262 Skemp, pp. 19-20; Evans, 1998, p. 3. 263 Westbury Historical Society files. 264 ibid. 265 Becker, 1994, pp. 2 & 25. 266 Meander Centenary Writers, pp. 38, 58. 267 ibid, p. 140. 268 Westbury Historical Society files.

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Dunorlan by 1887 when Richard Furmage went into partnership in the store with William Fair & Co. 269 In 1892 Furmage built a store in Deloraine and opened it as the Don Store (figure 23). The business flourished and diversified with Furmage having interests in dealing in skins, furs, fruit, cereals and timber as well as in retail and later, the Deloraine Motor Garage. 270 The original Don Store was demolished in 1957 and new modern premises built. 271 The other major retailer in the district was J.P. Sullivan, the self-styled King of Storekeepers, who had a diverse range of stores and businesses in Deloraine and Westbury (see figure 23). In Deloraine, Furmage’s Don Store was regarded by some as the Protestant store while Catholics were more likely to patronise Sullivan’s. 272 Hardware shoppers might choose to cross the river and visit Cameron’s store on the corner of East Parade and East Barrack Street, where they could linger to choose a coffin against future needs, the store doubling as the town’s undertakers (figure 23). 273

Figure 23. Three important Deloraine stores in the early twentieth century—Sullivan’s, Furmage’s Don Store and Cameron’s store and undertakers (Deloraine Historical Society collection).

269 Gardam, p. 42; Furmage, p. 1. 270 Furmage, pp. 2, 4; Cyclopedia , vol 2, pp. 232-233. 271 Furmage, p. 7. 272 Geoff Woods, pers comm, 8 September, 2004. 273 Geoff Woods, pers comm, 8 September 2004; Meander Valley News , May 2004, p. 15.

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3.10 Media Although the municipality is a rural area several newspapers have been published since the 1890s. The first known was the Deloraine-Westbury Advocate , published for an unknown period from 1893. The Deloraine and Westbury Advertiser followed in 1910-12. More latterly, Geoff Woods published the Western Tiers between 1980 and 2004, while the Westbury Municipal Council’s Quamby Whisper (1990-1993) was replaced with the Meander Valley News after the council amalgamations in 1993. 274

3.11 Entertainment Industry Despite hard work and little free time, the residents of larger towns in the municipality had some entertainment outlets open to them. Pubs provided various shows and theatrical performances in the nineteenth century. Cartwright’s Picture Company showed silent movies to Deloraine in 1911, while at Westbury films were shown at the town hall after it was opened in 1933 with the first talkie screening in 1938. 275 At this time Star Theatres of Burnie operated movie houses across the north of the state, showing films on Saturday nights. 276

3.12 Medicine In the nineteenth century health was always precarious. The Meander Valley had the disadvantage of isolation, with the limited medical services that entailed, but the advantage of a rural environment, far removed from the urban tenements that helped spread epidemics in Hobart and Launceston. Nonetheless, outbreaks of disease such as diphtheria killed several children in the late 1880s, while schools were closed during the 1938 polio outbreak. 277 Strict quarantine was enforced in 1919 when a worldwide influenza pandemic forced the closure of schools, churches and other public meeting places, and the conversion of several buildings, such as the Westbury school and the state farm at Deloraine, into temporary hospitals. 278 The region was luckier than some as there were doctors available relatively early in the larger settlements of Westbury and Deloraine. Dr Jonathan Clerke was appointed District Surgeon in 1832 and arrived in Westbury to take up residence at 3 Lonsdale Promenade, adjacent to the colonial hospital. 279 Other early doctors included Drs. Loane and McCreery. The Westbury colonial hospital does not appear to have lasted long. Later, in 1863, Walch’s noted that a small public hospital was to be established at Westbury although it is unknown whether this actually occurred. 280 A Westbury Memorial Hospital was proposed in 1943 and finally opened as the Westbury Bush Nursing Hospital in 1956. Along with the Mole Creek Bush Nursing Centre and the Deloraine hospital it was placed under the Launceston Public Hospitals District Board in 1968. 281 At some time during the twentieth century a bush nursing centre was also proposed for Bracknell although it does appear to have opened. 282 In Deloraine, the pharmacist Hammond Laws is thought to have been the first to have dispensed medicine in the 1850s, 283 although the convict probation station in the 1840s would undoubtedly have had a medical officer attached to it. The first civilian doctor was Dr J. Browne who practised for a short while from c1854. 284 He was soon joined by Dr Dennis Rock

274 Newspaper references and dates are drawn form the State Library of Tasmania catalogue. 275 Cassidy, 1986, p. 138; Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 84. 276 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 84. 277 Jim Scott, p. 18; Re-Union Committee, p. 28. 278 Kilpatrick, p. 17. 279 Hobart Town Gazette , 22 August, 1832; von Stieglitz, 1946, p. 7. 280 Walch’s 1865 Almanac, p. 162. 281 AOT—TA961. 282 AOT—HSD 6/1/45. 283 Skemp, p. 20. 284 Wood’s 1854 Almanac, p. 70.

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Economic Development Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History who practised medicine in the town for thirty years from c1856. 285 A very prominent doctor and resident of the town in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was Francis Cole who built Arcoona in 1892. 286 Arcoona was operated as a hospital by Sister Brennan for around thirty years from 1937 until a division of the Launceston General Hospital was opened there. It was later used as a geriatric centre for several years. 287 As at Westbury there were several maternity hospitals operating in Deloraine at various times through the twentieth century. These are more fully discussed in s9.1.

285 Wood’s 1856 Almanac, p. 66 & Walch’s Almanacs. 286 Woods, p. 5. 287 ibid, p. 5.

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4.0 TOWNSHIP DEVELOPMENT

4.1 Selecting Township Sites The first official township sites in the district were surveyed in the 1820s in line with colonial policy to open up more agricultural land and a road route to the north-west. The district’s largest towns were established on the line of the main route between Launceston and Deloraine with smaller hinterland towns later established to service agricultural areas to the south and north. A government reserve was established at Elizabeth Town in 1822 288 while the Westbury township reserve was first surveyed in 1823, and a town plan drawn up in 1828. The town was established under the orders of Lt.-Governor Arthur as a military and convict base for work on the road to the westward. 289 An 1832 survey plan shows the location of the barracks, a church and parsonage, as well as town common and public pound (figure 24). 290 It was subsequently laid out to an ambitious plan with 126 miles of streets surveyed on a regular grid pattern enclosing five acre blocks. 291 However, development never reached the envisaged potential and the town is characterised by vast unoccupied areas.292 Many township sites within the Meander Valley region were established as service centres for rural hinterlands, mostly at river crossings or where roads and tracks converged. 293 Carrick and Deloraine typify such township development while others, such as Hadspen, grew out of the district’s large agricultural estates. 294 In 1828 the Land Commissioners reported that William Bryan had erected a mill on the Penny Royal (now Liffey) River at Lyttleton (now Carrick) (see figure 16) and recommended that 100 acres on each side of the river be set aside for a township. 295 By 1859 Carrick had a population of 400, a steam mill, water mill, brewery, four inns and many shops. 296 In 1831, surveyor Thomas Scott recommended that 500 acres on each side of the Meander River, where a bridge was under construction, be reserved as a township site (figure 25) to be named Deloraine. John Devlin, one of the first applicants for a township allotment, soon established Deloraine’s first licensed house. 297 After passing through Deloraine in 1844, Louisa Meredith observed the bridge had become ‘the place for a village, or at least a public house’, and added that the town, ‘with its recently erected raw brick and wooden buildings has very much the character of the ugly irregular suburbs of some fast growing manufacturing town’ (see figure 26). 298 The development of Deloraine was initially slow. Alveston (east of the Meander River) was the first area developed with the western side of the river delayed by the existence of the convict probation station (figures 25 & 26). After the probation station was dismantled in 1846 William Bramich purchased the site, subdivided the land and erected new buildings including a general store. By the 1850s Deloraine had become an important commercial centre with a daily coach service to Launceston. 299

288 Von Stieglitz,, 1946, p. 11. 289 ibid, p. 5. 290 DPIWE plan W32. 291 Rait, 1973b, p. 8. 292 Solomon & Goodhand, p. 116. 293 ibid, p. 115. 294 ibid, p. 115. 295 cited in Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963. 296 Von Stieglitz, 1946, p. 37. 297 AOT Deloraine correspondence file. 298 in Bonney, p. 3 299 Skemp, pp. 19 – 20.

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Figure 24. 1832 plan of Westbury. Note the location of the various government and public buildings and paddocks and the original alignment of the road through Westbury to the west which followed King Street (DPIWE—Westbury 32).

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Figure 25. Deloraine in the c1840s (AOT—Deloraine 6).

Figure 26. Alveston in c1858 (Deloraine Folk Museum collection).

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Figure 27. Deloraine in 1876 (Launceston Local Studies Library).

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As the region’s population increased during the 1850s and 1860s, and as new roads were completed and previously unavailable forested areas were opened for selection, new towns grew to meet local demands for goods and services, such as food, clothing and farming supplies. They became focal points in the movement of stock and produce to markets (initially by road, but from the 1870s also by rail). 300 A number of townships were proclaimed in 1866 including Westbury, Chudleigh, Deloraine and Hadspen. 301 From the late 1850s small townships and villages sprang up to service selectors who farmed in districts such as Jackeys Marsh, Golden Valley, Cluan, Liffey, Christmas Hills, Selbourne and Westwood after the Waste Lands Acts. 302 The Victorian gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s spurred an unprecedented demand for Tasmanian produce with huge economic benefits for the region. By 1870 Westbury (and Longford) were Tasmania’s two largest country towns. At a time when the rest of Tasmania was in the grip of depression, the agricultural district stretching from Evandale to Chudleigh prospered and held a fifth of Tasmania’s population. 303 In 1870, the Westbury district’s population was 5839, while Deloraine’s stood at 3670. 304 By the 1880s however, the district’s population was being drawn to newly discovered mineral fields in the north-east and north- west. Soil exhaustion and the loss of the Victorian wheat market contributed to population decline so that by 1890 Westbury had dropped from second largest town in Tasmania to the sixth largest. 305 In 1883 the Mercury correspondent reported on the effect of economic stagnation in the district observing that the lack of buyers on sale day was contrasted with earlier years when ‘sale-day filled the town with people and the yards with stock, the inns of course, doing a swinging business.’ 306 Kimberley village prospered as a service centre for the nearby Armitstead estate, which housed up to forty families as tenant farmers from the 1890s until the end of World War 2 (figure 28). 307 Bracknell underwent a period of sustained development in the early twentieth century (figure 29). Although a township reserve located between the Huntsman Rivulet and the Meander River was surveyed and gazetted in 1901, the site was never developed and the present Meander township site was gazetted in 1907. Originally it was called Cheshunt Town because of its association with the Cheshunt estate. 308 The post-war era has seen a turn around for many of the towns in the district. This has been brought about by the change to livestock farming and new pasture improvement techniques, as well as the growth in popularity of the rural towns (notably Deloraine, Carrick, Hadspen and Westbury) as dormitory towns for commuters to Launceston and also as retirement havens. 309 The Deloraine and Westbury municipalities’ population rose from 5477 and 3621 respectively in 1954 to 5574 and 4581 in 1961. 310 By 1990 Deloraine municipality had a population of 5630 indicating a small and steady growth, whilst Westbury’s population had jumped to 9450—the largest actual increase in population since 1986 of any Tasmanian municipal area. 311 Some areas of Deloraine, such as Jackeys Marsh and Liffey have become popular in recent times with those seeking an alternative lifestyle.

300 Breen, 2001, p. 115. 301 DPIWE town plans 302 Breen, 2001, p. 43. 303 Blainey, p. 62 304 Statistics of Tasmania, census of population 1870. 305 Blainey, pp. 64-67. 306 Mercury 17 November 1883 cited in Westbury Historical Society, 1998 p. 35 307 Becker, Armitstead Heritage Survey , n.d p. 1. 308 Meander Centenary History Writers, p. 28. 309 Solomon, & Goodhand, p. 130. 310 1954 and 1961 censuses. 311 Tasmanian Yearbook, 1992.

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Figure 28. 1889 plan of Kimberley (DPIWE—Devon 81a).

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Figure 29. New buildings in Bracknell in 1907 ( Tasmanian Mail , 26 January 1907, p. 20).

4.2 Suburbanisation The district’s townships have, until recent years, remained country towns serving an agricultural hinterland. While small-scale subdivisions were made over the years, most towns remained unaffected by suburbanisation until the 1950s. In the 1840s Westbury’s Anglican minister, Reverend John Bishton, created several small subdivisions to assist ticket-of-leave convicts and emancipists wishing to settle in the area. The subdivisions, located near the Westbury convict hiring depot (on the southern side of Shadforth Street between William and Mary Streets), became known as St Giles (or more colloquially as Hell’s Kitchen). St Giles consisted of small workers’ cottages, a market garden, general stores, a butcher shop, sly grog shop (and later the General Havelock Hotel). 312 At Alveston (in the Deloraine district) in the 1840s J. McArthur purchased a portion of land, which he then built houses on to let to labourers and tradesmen employed on nearby estates. A village soon sprang up in the neighbourhood including shops, school and public houses. 313 A military pensioner district was formed in Westbury in the 1850s. Known as Queenstown (and later Pensioner’s Bush), it grew out of the British Government’s policy of settling military pensioners in colonial villages to provide a military force able to be quickly assembled in the event of invasion or civil unrest. In return for land, a cottage and weekly pension, soldiers had to undergo twelve days military service a year. Westbury was chosen as one of several Tasmanian towns to receive (mostly Irish) military pensioners (others were Pontville, Kempton, Oatlands, Evandale and Campbelltown). An area on the eastern side of the town divided into 164 five acre allotments with a parade ground, Catholic burial site and government school (figure 30). 314 Several cottages remain and the area is notable for its landscape of hedgerow enclosed allotments.

312 Frost, 2002b, p. 94. 313 Skemp, p. 19. 314 Frost, 2002a, pp. 87-92.

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The town that has been most affected by suburbanisation in the district is Prospect Vale. Before 1961, it was primarily rural, with only a few scattered subdivisions along the Bass Highway. Development, however, gained momentum after World War II as the growing city of Launceston pushed the periphery of suburban development further south. In 1946 there were only seven or eight dwellings located at Prospect Vale between the St Leonard’s boundary and the Longford turn-off (except developments which had taken place at the Mt. Pleasant property). Between 1954 and 1961, some 166 new dwellings were erected in the area and in 1961 a planning scheme was prepared to direct future subdivision and provide for improved water supply, sewerage and open spaces to meet increasing residential demand. 315

Figure 30. Westbury military pensioners allotments (DPIWE—Westbury 23).

315 Prospect Vale Planning Committee.

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4.2.1 Public Housing Public housing in the municipality has been minimal. In 1958 the State Government acquired four Deloraine allotments for public housing purposes and by 1964 four timber dwellings had been completed. 316 By 1985 just thirty-three dwellings had been completed (including nine elderly pensioners units). In that year four dwellings for public housing in Westbury had also been completed. 317 During the 1980s a number of already established houses were also purchased in Deloraine and Westbury as rental dwellings. 318

4.3 Services 4.3.1 Light & Power The first town lighting in Deloraine was by oil lamps. After the completion of Launceston’s hydro-electric power station at Duck Reach in 1885, the Deloraine Council began considering a similar scheme of its own. 319 While several proposals, including generating power from the Montana Falls, were considered, it was not until 1906 that the Council finally adopted a plan for a central power station in Deloraine utilising water from the Meander River and using a suction gas plant and engine. The powerhouse and plant were to be located on the east side of the Meander River in a direct line with the water pumphouse (just upstream of Davern’s flour mill— see figure 31). J.A. Newton of Victoria and W. C. Cameron were engaged to construct the scheme and after some initial technical difficulties, Mrs Cole, the Warden’s wife, officially switched on the electric lighting plant on 16 September 1907. By November the plant was in continuous operation and used for lighting the streets and shops of Deloraine township. The power station, reputedly the oldest existing hydro-generating plant operated by a local authority in Tasmania, operated until September 1928 when the Hydro-Electric Department extended its network to Deloraine. 320 Households in other areas of the district had to wait many years for hydro-electric power. Electricity reached Chudleigh and Caveside in the early 1940s and Meander, Montana and Huntsman townships in the early 1950s. 321

Figure 31. Deloraine in the 1920s, showing the power station, eastern side of the river and the railway bridge and (Valentine Postcard— Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania).

316 Annual Report of Director of Housing 1957-1958, JPPP 1958, no. 59; Annual Report of Director of Housing 1963-1964, JPPP 1964, no. 42. 317 Annual Report of Director of Housing 1984-1985, JPPP 1985 no. 13. 318 Annual Report of Director of Housing 1987-1988, JPPP 1988, no. 68. 319 Skemp, p. 32. 320 Tasmanian Heritage Register: Power station (former); Cassidy, 1986, pp. 131-140. 321 Re-Union Committee, p. 13 and Meander Centenary Writers, p. 54.

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At the turn of the century Westbury had four acetylene gas lamps used for street lighting in William Street. These were replaced in the early 1920s by lights run from a Delco (petrol driven) engine located in the yard of the Berriedale Hotel. 322 By 1928 the Hydro-Electric Department had extended its network to Westbury and over the following decades reached the outlying towns of the district. 323 4.3.2 Water The provision of adequate, clean water to households throughout the district has caused many difficulties for local councils. In the early years of settlement residents had to rely on tanks or carted water from nearby waterways. Work commenced on a water scheme for Deloraine in 1904, although floods washed away the first dam in November of that year. Work on a new dam near the bridge began in 1905 and by March 1906 six inches of water a day was being pumped into the reservoir as well as supplying the town. 324 The water supply’s inadequacies, however, particularly for fire fighting, soon became apparent and improvements made in the 1920s and in 1941 increased water pressure. 325 A new water pumping station in the Meander River in 1957 lifted water to a reservoir at High Plains and then reticulated to the town’s residents. 326 A new water treatment plant for Deloraine was unveiled in 2001. 327 The first steps towards a town water scheme for Westbury and Hagley were taken in 1889, but it was not until many years later, in 1902, that the scheme was officially turned on (figure 32). 328 Improvements made in the 1930s and 1960s included concrete pipes, a new reservoir, booster pumps and chlorination and fluoridation schemes. In 1999 further upgrades were undertaken so as to enable the system to meet the demand of a rapidly growing population. 329

Figure 32. Mrs Hardie turning on the Hagley Westbury Water scheme at Hagley in 1902 (Tasmanian Mail , 24 May 1902, p. 19).

322 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 81. 323 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, p. 42. 324 Cassidy, 1986, pp. 131-140. 325 McNeice, 1993, pp. 212-213. 326 Skemp, p. 33. 327 Examiner , 6 October 2001. p. 15. 328 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, pp. 2 & 43; 1999, p. 46. 329 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 46.

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In the early days of settlement Carrick residents relied on a water cart to transport water from a spot on the Liffey River near the old saleyards. In later years a hydraulic pump was installed to pump water out of the mill dam into served several large tanks on stands. 330 A reservoir was built in 1962 while further work began on an improved water supply for Carrick in 2003. 331 Sir officially opened the Prospect Vale water reticulation scheme in 1961. 332 4.3.3 Fire Prevention The loss of a cottage by fire in Deloraine in 1911 prompted the first calls for an organised fire brigade. Inadequate town water supply, however, hindered initial developments and Deloraine had to wait until 1922 for its first organised town brigade. In that year the Deloraine Fire Brigade Board was formed under the chairmanship of R. Learoyd. 333 A new fire station with a bell tower was built in Church Street in 1943 and was described ‘as a substantial structure which will meet the requirements of the brigade for many years’. During the 1940s the fire brigade at Deloraine attended numerous fires in the township and outlying rural districts, as well as at Westbury and a bushfire that threatened the Rainbow Lodge at Breona. An auxiliary brigade was formed at Mole Creek in 1956 (until being disbanded in 1962 due to lack of local interest). A new fire station was built in Emu Bay Road in 1973. The Meander Fire Brigade was formed in 1972 and a station erected some years later. 334 Until recently the Westbury town and district has largely been serviced by fire brigades at Deloraine and/or Longford. Rural fire brigades, established under the Rural Fires Act 1950 to deal with the outbreak of bushfires, had been formed in many townships by 1970. In the Westbury district brigades were established at Westbury, Carrick, Bracknell, Frankford/Birralee, Rosevale, Selbourne, Whitemore and Westwood, and in the Deloraine district brigades were established at Deloraine, Caveside, Chudleigh, Elizabeth Town, Kimberley, Meander and Mole Creek. A special fire area was declared for the Central Highlands, whereby a special brigade was formed to fight bushfires in that remote area. 335 4.3.4 Sewerage Until recently the townships in the district have lacked comprehensive sewerage schemes. In 1924 the Deloraine Council came under the scrutiny of government authorities as its water supply was highly contaminated with both human and animal wastes. Diphtheria and typhoid were prevalent throughout the state at this time. 336 In 1964 a minor sewerage scheme was operational for the business area of Deloraine, although ratepayers, most of whom used septic tanks, had rejected a more comprehensive scheme for the town. 337 A town sewerage scheme finally received approval in 1980. 338 Carrick still had no sewerage scheme by 1976 although one had been proposed. The lack of an adequate scheme for sewage disposal was hampering residential development of the area. 339 By 1994 it was reported that work was underway on a sewerage scheme for Carrick. 340 In 1961 the Prospect Vale Planning Scheme made provisions for a future sewerage scheme.341 In the Westbury district, the

330 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, pp. 12, 42. 331 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet 1963; Western Tiers , vol. 23, 1 February 2003, p. 21. 332 Rait, 1973b, p. 16. 333 McNeice, 1993, p. 212. 334 ibid, pp. 213-217. 335 McNeice, 1991, pp. 10, 126 & 130. 336 Robson, vol 2, p. 372. 337 Skemp, p. 33. 338 Mercury 20 August 1980, p. 16. 339 Carrick Planning Study 1976. 340 Western Tiers 20 October 1994, p. 2. 341 Prospect Vale Planning Scheme 1961.

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Hadspen sewerage scheme was reaching capacity by 1980 and proposals for a new treatment plant were then considered. 342 4.3.5 Garbage Tips In 1919 a garbage tip was operating near the bridge in Deloraine, possibly providing landfill along the river bank. In that year, the Council decided to close the bridge site as a repository for garbage and to open another tip at the recreation ground. 343 In the 1990s the Deloraine tip, now located on the Quamby Brook road, became renowned as a recycling centre. 344 In 1920 a one acre tip site was gazetted for Westbury in the block of landed bounded by Albeura and Allen Streets. 345

342 Mercury , 11 November 1980, p. 8. 343 Deloraine Council minutes, 10 March 1919 (AOT)MCC42/3/1-10). 344 Geoff Woods, pers comm, 8 September 2004. 345 Westbury Council minutes, 1 March 1920 (AOT AB724/5)

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5.0 EMPLOYMENT The employment profile in Meander Valley has changed markedly over its history. In the mid- nineteenth century many of its workers were unskilled labourers and tenant farmers working on large estates. Many were ex-convicts and poor immigrants seeking a better life. In the late nineteenth century most of the district’s rural workers came from one of three groups, domestic servants and those attached to households, agricultural labourers and non-farm labourers such as timber workers, road builders, etc. 346 The timber industry provided a welcome and important source of employment from the late nineteenth century, employing bushmen, sawyers, splitters, teamsters, mill hands and blacksmiths and helping to create a self image of hardy pioneer bushmen in the small hamlets nestling under the Great Western Tiers. Census figures illustrate the changing nature of work in the municipality during the twentieth century. In 1901 64% of Meander Valley breadwinners laboured in primary industry (98.8% of these worked on farms) 14% in industrial enterprises, 7.4% were domestic workers, 2.5% worked in the transport industry, 4.82% in commercial enterprises and just 4.1% were professional. By 1961 just 42% of Meander Valley breadwinners were farmers, 22.4% worked in construction and manufacturing industries and 13.2% in commerce. 347 Growing farm mechanisation and improved transport links in the late twentieth century, particularly from the period of World War II, reinforced the trend away from rural labour as the municipality increasingly became a dormitory area for Launceston and Devonport.

5.1 Convict Labour The convict system underpinned Tasmania’s early colonial economy where intensive farming practices required the large workforces which could be supplied by indentured labour. Meander Valley convicts were central to its early economic development and worked as labourers and stock-keepers on remote grazing leases where they were at the frontier between black and white. 348 One to two convicts were required even for a small fifty acre farm and, although the colonial government fixed wages for convicts, much of the labour was paid for in kind with food and clothing. 349 Landowners complained that while there was no difficulty in obtaining convicts or ticket-of-leave men, the problem was in getting them to work. Convicts, too, were often suspected of providing assistance and sustenance to bushrangers. 350 Convict women were employed as domestics, and early school teachers, often ex-convicts themselves, had the provision of a convict included in their wages. Male convicts were also employed on essential road and bridge building projects with road and probation stations being established at Hadspen, Westbury, Deloraine and Kimberley to construct the road to the north- west coast. Convict workers were notorious for ‘laziness’, insolence and slow working, although some modern historians see this as evidence of resistance to their precarious situations. 351

5.2 Women and Children While men's work, often hard and dirty, has been celebrated and glamorised, the equally hard and unpleasant work of women and children has been ignored or undervalued. Until recently domestic work was tedious and taxing. Clothes had to be boiled, linoleum polished, clothes ironed with unwieldy steam irons, water gathered, clothes made and food cooked on wood-

346 Breen, 2001, p. 96. 347 1901 census in JPPP , 1903, vol 49, paper 29, p. lxxxix — these figures are approximate averages of the Deloraine and Westbury Municipal Council figures; 1961 census. 348 See Breen, 2001. p. 93. 349 HRA , III, 3, p. 247. 350 Reynolds, pp. 93f. 351 See Breen, 2001, p. 112.

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Employment Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History fired stoves. 352 In addition, in rural areas such as the Meander Valley, help was expected, and provided, in the fields of small and often struggling family farms. Apart from these unrecognised yet essential domestic duties, women have also contributed to family incomes by other rarely recognised means. Butter was churned and sold, poultry raised, eggs sold, jams made and sold, clothes taken in and mended. 353 Paid women domestic workers were often worse off than even itinerant labourers with less dignity and status, poor pay and conditions, and long drudge filled hours. 354 Family farms such as the dairy farms of the municipality required heavy commitments from entire families with children often not reaching school until 10.30 following the completion of the morning chores. 355 Children were expected to contribute to family incomes from an early age. At the turn of the century women's paid work involved domestic service although in rural areas like the Meander Valley there was less of this available than in the cities. Others, sometimes unmarried or widowed women, worked as teachers or ran small rural post offices. 356 These were lowly careers, often forced on women in extremity and allowing only a meagre living. Some women, before marriage, worked in shops and pubs. This kind of work was only available in towns and villages and for many may have been considered unacceptable.

5.3 Agricultural Workers Farm workers were comprised of two main classes in the late nineteenth century— tenant farmers and unskilled itinerant labourers, many of whom were ex-convicts. Increasing mechanisation in the last quarter of the century caused growing unemployment and poverty with a recognised itinerants’ track developing between the Launceston Invalid Depot in winter and the farming districts during the rest of the year. 357 Breen argues that Deloraine had more manual labourers than the other northern districts of Westbury, Longford and Evandale while many emancipists were seen as a threat to landed interests due to their convict past. 358 The casual and seasonal nature of the work inhibited the development of trade unions in the area. 359 Many landowners regarded tenants as cheap labour and accepted grain rather than money as rent. Tenants faced a future almost as vulnerable as itinerant landless labourers with the sale of home estates sometimes resulting in a change of land use and labour needs. Thus tenancies on Henry Reed’s Dunorlan were relet to new tenants in 1861 while, after he purchased Richard Dry’s Quamby in 1869, Victorian grazier J.J. Phelps forced many tenants off their land by changing the focus of the estate from labour intensive agriculture to grazing. 360 Breen concluded that for many tenants in the municipality, life meant ‘unrelenting hard work, grinding poverty, [and] insecurity’. 361 This was not the case for all. Long serving Westbury warden, Daniel Burke, was a successful tenant farmer while others provided the basis for the district’s successful stud livestock industry. 362

352 Alexander, pp. 117f; Gardam (1996), pp. 282ff. 353 Alexander, p. 122. 354 Breen, 2001, p. 101. 355 Robson, vol. 2, p. 266. 356 See Meander Centenary Writers, p. 67. 357 Breen, 2001, pp. 98-100. 358 ibid, pp. 90-92, 100. 359 ibid, p. 93. 360 ibid, pp. 52-55. 361 ibid, p. 172. 362 See s3.3.2.

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5.4 Crime As might be expected crime was common in a convict based society, both during and after the convict period. The country lying to the ‘westward’ of the settled district was an early refuge for escaped convicts, such as Matthew Brady and Blake. 363 Official parties travelled through the district in the 1820s in pursuit of bushrangers. Matthew Brady frequently fled across the Meander to seek refuge at the Avenue Plains (also known as Bradys Plains). Stock huts, often occupied by convict servants, provided respite and food for those on the run. 364 Early settlers homes and property were sometimes the scenes of attacks. In 1834 the escaped convicts, Britton, Jefkins and Brown, attacked Lt. Vaughan’s Bentley property. Other bushrangers menaced local residents travelling the road between Hagley and Carrick up until at least the mid 1850s. 365 . In the 1850s Dalton and Kelly absconded from a probation gang, passed through the Deloraine district and upon reaching the Forth River seized a whaleboat and sailed for Victoria. They were later arrested in Melbourne. Not all bushrangers were escaped convicts—David Hogan was a constable at Deloraine who crossed to the other side of the law and joined Armitage in raiding properties and businesses in the district before later escaping to California. 366 More problematical was a convict mutiny at the Deloraine Probation station in 1845 when twenty-one convicts escaped and joined others at Dunorlan before embarking on a short lived crime spree. 367 Sly grog shops became havens for criminals with Meehan’s tavern near Westbury being a noted safe harbour. 368 Many later nineteenth century crimes were alcohol related and often committed by emancipists. 369 Other crimes were political in nature. Westbury’s Irish tenants hated the British, and eagerly assisted 1848 Young Island Movement exiles such as John Mitchel and Thomas Meagher to escape. 370 Westbury’s Daniel Burke was one who frequently and proudly proclaimed his prominent part in Mitchel’s escape in later life. 371

5.5 Unemployment Like most communities the Meander Valley has had its share of unemployment, although rural areas seem to have fared better than the more industrialised cities during the 1929 Depression. In 1933 just 10.8% of Deloraine and Westbury’s male breadwinners were unemployed, compared with 20% unemployed in Hobart. 372 At 5.4%, female unemployment figures were lower although they are difficult to analyse as participation rates were much lower than for

363 Skemp, p. 12. 364 Cubit, 1987, p. 9. 365 See E.G. Scott, p. 61; Skemp, p. 12. 366 Skemp, p. 12. 367 Breen, 2001, p. 110. 368 ibid, p. 123. 369 ibid, pp. 123-124. 370 ibid, p. 48. 371 Cyclopedia , vol 2, p. 226; see also Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 35. 372 1933 Census.

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Employment Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History men. The unemployment rate appears to have been cushioned by the 26.2% of male breadwinners recorded as working for themselves. Many of these were likely to have been small farmers who lived existences barely above subsistence levels but who could nonetheless provide food for their families. The rate of unemployment in the municipality varied according to the district. In 1934, for example, only one resident was registered as unemployed in Westbury municipality while 98 were so registered in Deloraine. This was the second highest number of registered unemployed for any rural municipality in the state. 373

373 See Robson, vol 2, p. 434.

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6.0 EDUCATION 6.1. Libraries & Mechanics Institutes The first pubic libraries in the municipality were established in Westbury in 1860 and in Deloraine in 1865. 374 The Westbury library later closed for many years but was subsequently re-established and administered under the State Library system from 1943. 375 These libraries were augmented in the nineteenth century by the Carrick Mechanics Institute which was built by Thomas Reibey for tradesmen in 1859. 376

6.2 Schools In the earliest years of the settlement more thought was given to the instruction of children, than to their education. 377 The first state sponsored schools were poorly regarded with untrained and often ignorant teachers. 378 Schools were significant investments of time and money for communities which had to raise much of the money to establish them and at times to pay teachers. In this environment illiteracy remained high with public education regarded indifferently and trifling excuses able to explain away children’s absences form school. 379 Attendance was subservient to economic necessity, a relaxed approach which remained for many years. Education was not compulsory and a fee had to be paid, although the children of convicts were taught gratis when schooling was available. 380 6.2.1 Government Schools There was no government education in Van Diemen’s Land until 1839 when a Board of Education was established and twenty-two schools opened. These included Mrs Cole’s school at Westbury with its fifteen pupils. 381 In time the school moved into the former military barracks at the hospital in Lonsdale Promenade. It was joined in 1858 by eastern Westbury’s Queenstown school which catered mainly for children of the Irish military pensioners who had settled in that area. 382 In 1889 the two Westbury schools were amalgamated and a new bluestone school erected. It, in turn, was demolished in 1968 having been replaced by a new school building in 1964-65. 383 The first government school at Deloraine opened in 1847. As the century wore on education was made more available to rural children with the construction of small rural schools. The establishment of these schools reflects the ongoing settlement of the more outlying parts of the municipality. By 1878 there were schools at Westbury, Hagley, Exton, Queenstown, Whitemore, Carrick, Cluan, Early Rises, Fernbank, Reedy Marsh, Bracknell and Westwood in the former Westbury municipality and at Deloraine, Brookhead (Weegena), Dunorlan, Red Hills and Golden Valley in the former Deloraine municipality. 384 At the turn of the century these had been added to substantially with schools at Deloraine, Brookhead, Dunorlan, Red Hills, Chudleigh, Mole Creek, Caveside, Parkham, West Meander, Golden Valley, Western Creek, Kimberley, Jackeys Marsh, Dairy Plains, Westbury, Exton, Hagley, Whitemore, Carrick, Fernbank, Cluan, Bracknell, Glengarry, Selbourne, Rosevale, Black Sugar Loaf (Birralee), Reedy Marsh and Westwood. 385 It was hoped that this extension of schools into rural areas would make education more accessible and so mitigate the ‘deplorable’ state of ignorance

374 Walch’s 1860 Almanac, p. 163 and 1865 Almanac, p. 143. 375 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 43. 376 See Breen, 2001 p. 52; Westbury Municipal Council. 377 Robson, vol 1, p. 127. 378 Phillips, p. 9. 379 ibid, p. 52. 380 HRA , III, 3, p. 249. 381 Kilpatrick, pp, 1-3. 382 ibid, p. 6. 383 ibid, pp. 14 & 19. 384 Walch’s 1878 Almanac, pp. 198 and 233-234. 385 Walch’s 1901 Almanac, pp. 326-327 & 380.

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‘which prevailed among the lower agricultural classes’ of the municipality. 386 Many were small one teacher schools, often initially built by parents, which became important community and social centres. 387 Improvements in transport, however, led to the closure of many small rural schools in the 1930s as area schools were opened at Hagley, Deloraine and Mole Creek. Some of the smaller schools were relocated to these and other schools such as Meander, so that today these sites provide the last physical links of education in their hinterland communities. 388 Others, such as the Weegena school, which was opened in 1873, were retained in use as community halls. 389

Figure 33. Fernbank school, Osmaston. Note the residence on the left (Westbury Historical Society)

Specialist farm schools were established at Deloraine in 1914 and Hagley in 1936. 390 The Deloraine experiment failed and the school was reopened as the Ashley Home for Boys in 1925 and is now the Ashley Juvenile Detention Centre. 391 Hagley on the other hand, which opened as one of the state’s first two area schools in 1936 and was hailed as a bold new experiment in Tasmanian education, remains open in 2004. 392 6.2.2 Private Schools Most early schools were private in that an interested citizen gave over a room and some time to instruct local youth. These children were usually those of better-off families as poorer families either could not afford the fees or needed the children to work. Private schools and academies were often operated by single or widowed women and tended to come and go. They were usually the first educational establishments in rural districts in nineteenth century Tasmania. Miss Cole ran a private school in Westbury in the 1830s until it became a Government school under the Board of Education in 1839. Others were opened at Alveston in the early 1840s and at Hagley in 1855. 393 Some landowners built and opened schools for the children of their tenants. Thus Mr and Mrs Bryan opened a school at Glenore in 1862—like others of its kind it was later taken over by the Department of Education. 394 Private schools could be secular or religious although in the nineteenth century the former almost always had a religious underpinning. Secular schools were often funded by local

386 Richards et al, p. 100. 387 Skemp, p. 49. 388 ibid. 389 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 60. 390 Daily Post , 17 January, 1914, p. 11; Maslin, p. 15. 391 Skemp, p. 38. 392 See Maslin, pp. xv, 15ff. 393 Skemp, p. 49; Kilpatrick, p. 3; E.G. Scott, p. 20. 394 E.G. Scott, pp. 24-26.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Education beneficiaries such as Dr Richardson and Messrs East, Clayton, Nickson and Breadon who contributed £50 each to establish the Hagley school in 1855. 395 Reverend McCullock opened the Deloraine Academy in 1872 while the Deloraine Convent School was opened in 1896 and Misses Enid and Elaine Finnis’s St Hilda’s School for Girls operated between 1909 and 1945. 396 At Westbury, there were Church of England schools in the mid-nineteenth century while a convent school opened by the Sisters of St Joseph in 1887 provided Catholic education for the town’s large Catholic population until its closure in 1972. 397 In Prospect children had to travel to Launceston for schooling until the 1950s when St Patrick’s college was built just beyond the municipal boundary. 398

395 ibid, p. 20. 396 Skemp, pp. 49-50. 397 Kilpatrick, p. 11. 398 Prospect Vale Planning Committee, p. 8.

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7.0 GOVERNMENT

7.1 Colonial Government The study area lies within the counties of Westmoreland, Devon and Cornwall, some of the eleven counties created under the land commissioners’ 1826-7 recommendations as a means of dividing the colony up into manageable administrative units. 399 Until self government in 1856 the district was governed by the colonial administration headed by the lieutenant-governor in Hobart. From 1828 the study area came under the administrative control of the Longford Police District. The Westbury Police sub-District was established by 1836 and was retained until municipalisation in 1863 (see s7.3 below).

7.2 Promoting Democracy and Protesting Landholders in the district were active in early steps towards creating a more democratic system in Tasmania. Sir Richard Dry was a prominent anti-transportationist and one of the Patriotic Six, a group of men who opposed Lt.-Governor Denison’s regime. Dry helped draft the Tasmanian constitution and was knighted for his efforts, thus becoming the colony’s first Australian-born knight. He was elected to the House of Assembly in 1861 and became Premier in 1866. Quamby , indeed, was known as the Government House of the north after a visit by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1868 to turn the first sod on the Launceston and Western Railway. 400 Later vociferous protests were raised when the government raised a railway tax after its takeover of the Launceston and Western Railway. While protest was more muted in Westbury and Deloraine this may have been partly due to a nervous government deploying a detachment of territorial police to the district. 401 The district’s tenant farmers sought a political voice in 1888 when a group formed the so-called Hagley clique which strove to improve the lot of tenants. They also demanded tariffs to protect wheat prices, arguing that prices had been depressed by mainland colonies dumping their grain on Tasmania. 402 Subsequently, prominent tenant farmers, such as Westbury warden, Daniel Burke, were noted for their opposition to Federation, claiming that the union would fail to benefit the colony. 403 Voting was hardly democratic in nineteenth century Tasmania with property rights being central to the franchise. Universal suffrage, indeed, was not achieved in Tasmania until Federation in 1901, partially, some argue, as local landowners feared political power being extended to the ex-convicts who made up a substantial part of the colony’s rural population. 404

7.3 Local Government The first modest experiment in local representative government in Van Diemen’s Land arose with the institution of road districts in 1840. Under this system, which was suspended in 1847 but re-implemented in 1851, local boards of trustees were elected by landowners to maintain secondary and bye-roads. The study area’s first road district was the Devon Road District which was established in 1852 and was responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads between Deloraine and Emu Bay. As an example of the confusion which was inherent in this system by 1907 ten road trusts had been constituted in various parts of the district. Trusts remained active until the sweeping local government reforms of 1906-07 and provided a basis for the multiplicity of other single issue boards which mushroomed and complicated local government as the century progressed.

399 Terry, p. 2. 400 E.G. Scott, pp. 13-14. 401 Skemp, p. 35. 402 Breen, 2001, pp. 60 & 68. 403 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 33. 404 Breen, 2001, p. 128.

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Rural districts of Tasmania gained the right to municipal government when the Rural Municipalities Act was passed in 1858, two years after the colony had achieved a measure of independence from England with the establishment of responsible self-government. The Act authorised the formation of municipal councils in towns, electoral, police or road districts upon the petition of at least fifty owners and/or occupiers of property with a rateable value of £20pa. In Westbury and Deloraine large landowners petitioned for the creation of municipalities and dominated the early councils. 405 Both Deloraine and Westbury attained municipal status in 1863 and held their first elections shortly after. Westbury became well known for its long serving warden, Daniel Burke, who lived beyond the age of a hundred. Burke remained warden for forty-two years and was a member of the Hagley Clique. 406 The councils’ duties were to control police services, water supply, public roads and streets, the licensing of butchers, the registration of dogs, the administration of common lodging houses and the impoundment acts. Over the ensuing years these responsibilities altered considerably so that today municipal councils are responsible for major strategic and development planning. The Deloraine and Westbury municipalities remained virtually unchanged for more than a century, until the 1993 Local Government Act which reorganised municipal boundaries. Under this Act the two former municipalities were amalgamated as the . The new council had minor boundary changes losing a portion of the Central Plateau and small settlements in the north such as Frankford and Winkleigh.

7.4 Police and Justice Policing in the study area was originally undertaken by the military with the 63 rd Regiment establishing a settlement at Westbury and building a barracks and watchhouse. Military parties were deployed to farms to guard landowners against Aboriginal and bushranger attack. 407 Police were initially administered from Longford although by 1836 Westbury was the police headquarters for the district with Dr Charles Loane, the police magistrate, having fourteen police constables under him. 408 Deloraine was initially an outstation of the Westbury police sub-district although it had its own constable from the late 1850s. With municipalisation the police organisation was decentralised with each municipality controlling an independent force and the colonial government another tier of territorial police. Police were spread thinly across the district — most constables were stationed in major towns and small one-man outposts in rural areas. 409 Late nineteenth century attempts to centralise all policing under colonial control were resisted by municipal councils although Tasmania was the only Australian colony to adopt a decentralised model. Objections notwithstanding, police were centralised in 1898, ending nearly forty years of localised control in the district. 410 Justice in the district was initially administered by medical doctors attached to military stations, such as Westbury’s Dr Loane or by large landowners such as Glenore landowner, William Bryan, who was the magistrate for Carrick. 411 As well as policing, the newly formed Westbury and Deloraine municipalities were responsible for appointing and paying magistrates after 1863. Breen argues that the local magistracy failed to effectively administer the law, often because of conflicts of interest. 412

405 Breen, 2001, pp. 116-118. 406 ibid, p. 68. 407 Bonney, p. 35. 408 Von Stieglitz, 1946, p. 7. 409 Breen, 2001, pp. 118-120. 410 ibid, pp. 9, 148. 411 E.G. Scott, p. 4. 412 Breen, pp. 115, 150.

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The justice system also involved the incarceration of prisoners. Watch houses were erected at Westbury, Carrick, Hadspen, Hagley, Deloraine and Chudleigh by the mid-nineteenth century to hold convicts being conveyed from one centre to another and those waiting to face the local magistrate (figures 34 & 35). More recently the reform school for youthful offenders was transferred from New Town to the former state farm school at Deloraine. 413 It was renamed the Ashley Home for Boys in 1925 and then the Ashley Youth Detention Centre in the late twentieth century.

Figure 34. Undated elevation of watch houses erected at Chudleigh and Hadspen. Compare with the grander watch house designed by William Porden Kay for Hagley, below (AOT — PWD266/1201).

Figure 35. 1850 plan of the Hagley watch house, designed by the noted colonial architect, William Porden Kay (AOT — PWD266/1312).

7.5 Military 7.5.1 Preparing to Face Invasion In the nineteenth century, imperially minded colonists were frequently concerned with the possibility of invasion. Rifle clubs provided recreation and shooting practice with a view to training a volunteer force. In the Meander Valley Municipality, the Westbury and Deloraine Rifles had been formed under F. Belstead’s command in 1862 as part of the Northern Division Tasmanian Volunteers. 414 By 1900 the district had ‘a fairly important volunteer corps’, now called the Meander Auxiliary Defence Force, which was headquartered at Westbury. 415 Faced with the possibility of Japanese invasion during World War 2, trenches were dug at schools and private residences while emergency plans were made to drive stock into the

413 AOT—TA470. 414 Walch’s 1865 Almanac, p. 99. 415 Cyclopedia , vol 2, p. 225.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Government mountains for dispersal in the event of invasion. 416 Rural barns and the Westbury railway were commandeered and guarded by the military to store food. 417 A detachment of the Volunteer Air Observer Corps was formed at Deloraine and stationed at a hilltop observation post overlooking the town. 418 7.5.2 Going to War Although far away, citizens from the district have left to serve in Australian forces fighting in the various conflicts in which the nation has been involved. This began with the Boer War in 1899, major victories of which were celebrated with fireworks in Deloraine. 419 More residents went to Europe to serve in both world wars (figure 36) as well as in post World War 2 conflicts. Rural servicemen, many with long years of living off the land, hunting and trapping behind them, were particularly well suited to service life and, it has been argued, were better able to survive the horrors of prisoner-of-war camps in World War 2. 420 The conscription debates, which raged throughout Australia in 1916 and 1917, were felt in the municipality with residents of Deloraine voting overwhelmingly for conscription in 1916. 421 In both wars recruitment drives were made throughout the district — Patriotic Recruitment Rallies were a feature of Deloraine life throughout the municipality in 1940 and 1941. 422 7.5.3 War at Home While service men and women faced battle and privation the war at home was equally being waged. During World War 1, Red Cross groups were established to knit clothes and raise money for soldiers and at the war’s end celebrations were held in most towns and communities (figure 37). 423

Figure 36. Troops waiting at Westbury station in September 1914 (AOT— 30/3925c).

416 Westbury Historical Society files. 417 ibid. 418 Australian War Memorial photograph P00024.023. 419 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 167. 420 See, for example, Ray ‘Boy’ Miles of Mole Creek — Terry & Parham, 2003, p. 10. 421 Lake, p. 81. 422 See minutes of the Deloraine War Emergency Committee, passim: AOT—NS775/88. 423 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 66; Weekly Courier , 31 July 1919, p. 24.

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Figure 37. Westbury Peace Celebrations held in 1919 ( Weekly Courier , 31 July 1919, p. 24).

To combat labour shortages which were experienced throughout the state’s rural sector, particularly during harvests, newspaper advertisements called for volunteers to move around the state working on farms. Farmers could request the temporary re-allocation of 18-19 year old servicemen to farms during seasonal peaks and the Australian Women’s Land Army’s mobile unit helped to plug labour shortfalls. Some were concerned that the young women in the AWLA might be corrupted by Italian prisoners-of-war who were assigned to live and work on rural properties throughout the municipality. Although at first opposed locally, farmers soon realised their value and the POWs were employed on numerous farms, particularly during seasonal peaks. Accommodated on the farms on which they worked, they could be withdrawn if their living conditions were deemed to be inadequate. 424 As with World War 1, war’s end was celebrated throughout the district and victory parades were held in Deloraine on 9 May 1945 and 10 June 1946 while at Westbury celebrations included dancing in the streets and bonfires. 425

7.6 Conservation 7.6.1 Conserving Natural Heritage The importance of the municipality’s natural heritage was recognised early with well-known botanist Ronald Campbell Gunn undertaking field trips into the Great Western Tiers and the Central Plateau to collect specimens for British botanist Sir William Hooker. Gunn, who was often accompanied by his friend, William Archer, sent hundred of specimens to Hooker. 426 These probably included the Diselma archerii , or Cheshunt pine, an alpine conifer named for Archer, an accomplished botanical illustrator and donor of specimens to Kew Gardens. Archer, who presented papers on his botanical excursions to the Royal Society, is credited with discovering Meander Falls and of naming several lakes on the Central Plateau. 427

424 AOT—AD515/2/13. 425 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 86; Re-Union Committee, p. 30. 426 See Skemp, p. 15: Gibb, p. 4. 427 Gibb, p. 4.

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Reservation of land in Tasmania began in the late nineteenth century as natural heritage values began to be recognised, even if for their value to humans. Waterfalls, caves and alpine areas have all been reserved for scenic and natural values in the municipality. Conservation issues were raised more forcefully in the late twentieth century, particularly after the intrusion of logging roads into the upper Mersey Valley brought more people into hitherto remote areas. Local conservation groups began to question logging and hydro-electric development and, in 1990, much of the upper Mersey and upper Forth valleys were accorded World Heritage status as part of the Western Tasmania Wilderness World Heritage Area. 428 Recently logging has been joined by the proposed Meander River dam as fiercely debated environmental issues in the region. 7.6.2 Conserving Historic Heritage Although William Archer was Tasmania’s first native born architect who designed important buildings such as Hutchins School, Mona Vale , Cheshunt , and parts of Woolmers and Brickendon , conservation of the municipality’s cultural heritage has only been seriously addressed in the second half of the twentieth century. The first steps towards this was the state government’s purchase and reservation of Entally House in December 1948. Later the National Trust became active, and commissioned and published several heritage assessments of the municipality. In 1986 the Trust engaged Latona Masterman & Associates to prepare a conservation study of Deloraine. 429 Other recent major projects have included a study of the cultural values of the upper Mersey valley by Simon Cubit in conjunction with the University of Tasmania, and a study of traditional practices in the World Heritage Area by anthropologist, Joan Knowles. A protracted conservation battle in the municipality postponed the construction of the Bass Highway’s Hagley by-pass after a very important and unusual early horse-driven flour mill was discovered on the by-pass’s proposed alignment in 1991. 430 The by-pass was relocated and eventually opened in December 2001. 431 The former Deloraine Municipal Council instituted a successful rate rebate scheme whereby owners of listed properties could receive rate relief by undertaking approved conservation activities, such as painting, on their properties in urban Deloraine. 432 Artefacts and photographs are collected by the Westbury and Deloraine Historical Societies who maintain small museums in their respective towns. The Westbury Historical Society is very active with several publications to its credit.

428 Cubit & Russell, 1999, pp. 29-30. 429 See Latona Masterman & Associates. 430 David Parham, pers comm, 30 September 2004. 431 Advocate , 16 December, 2001, p. 16. 432 Geoff Woods, pers comm, 8 September , 2004.

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8.0 CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

8.1 Recreation Until the 1880s recreational activities in the Meander Valley district were primarily centred upon the large agricultural estates, many of which provided facilities such as recreation grounds, horse-racing tracks and cricket pitches. Richard Dry’s Quamby estate had its own farm village with organised social and cultural events, such as the annual Waterloo Ball. John Field’s Alveston and Thomas Reibey’s Entally estates had their own cricket fields and horse-racing tracks on which both private and public meetings were held. An annual New Years Day feast and cricket match was held for the children of the district at Entally , while William Archer held an annual New Years Day fair for the tenants and servants of his Cheshunt estate. 433 The creation of municipal councils in 1863, the growth of country towns and the increasing popularity of spectator sports led to the development of public recreational spaces. Late 1880s legislation enabled municipal councils to develop public recreational spaces and events held on public grounds began to rival (but did not replace) estate based activities. 434 Organised sports such as horse-racing, ploughing matches, cricket, wood chopping, coursing and football have strong and well-established traditions in the district’s communities with clubs and events providing opportunities to develop social cohesion and a sense of pride. 8.1.1 Parks, Gardens and Beauty Spots In Westbury, recreational and social activities traditionally revolved around the Village Green (figure 38). Originally known as Lonsdale Parade, the Green was initially used as a military parade ground and once extended to the town common.435 By the early 1900s it provided an ideal venue for archery, croquet and tennis, as well as social gatherings. 436 Westbury Council developed a recreation ground in 1901, which by 1908, included a cement cricket pitch, a pavilion and cycle track. 437 Most of the district’s smaller towns had acquired recreation grounds, which were often located adjacent to a public hall, by the 1950s. In 1963 there were good grounds at Westbury, Exton, Birralee, Hagley, Whitemore, Carrick and Bracknell although both Prospect Vale and Hadspen lacked appropriate facilities. 438

Figure 38. Westbury Village Green in 1912 (Tasmanian Mail , 11 April, 1912, p. 22).

433 Breen, 2001, pp. 129-130. 434 ibid, p. 130. 435 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, p. 47. 436 Breen, 2001, p. 129. 437 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, p. 43; Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 62. 438 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet 1963.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Cultural Institutions

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In 1886, the Deloraine council acquired seventy-six acres of the Alveston estate on the south side of the Meander River for a public recreation ground (figure 42). 439 It included a horse- racing track and an adjoining recreation ground, which was developed to include a cycling track, cricket pitch, football field and tennis courts. The Deloraine Recreation Ground became a focal point for social as well as sporting events in the district. These included the annual Tasmanian Engine Drivers’ and Firemen’s Picnic (figure 39). In 1948, a small sanctuary reserve was created near the bridge at Deloraine under the Animal and Birds Protection Act. 440 By the 1950s this riverside reserve was being cared for by the Deloraine Improvement and Tourist Association and playground equipment and a bandstand were erected there by 1964. 441 The park, now called the Apex Train Park, is popular with both locals and visitors to the town. The Deloraine Memorial Reserve features a swimming pool that was built by the Deloraine Rotary Club in 1959/1960. The Deloraine Rotary Park was established in 1963-1966. 442 8.1.2 Organised Sport Residents in the Meander Valley Municipality have long been passionate about their sporting activities and achievements. Several prominent sporting events have become entrenched in the local social calender. These include the Deloraine Easter Races which dates to the 1850s, and the Rosevale Turf Club Races, which were first established in 1891 (although horse-racing was dropped from the program in the 1940s and wood chopping, cycling and athletic became the focus). 443 Cluan also had a regular sports carnival until the 1930s. 444 Sports demonstrating the skills and strengths of primary industries such as ploughing and wood chopping have been popular in the district. Ploughing matches were held from the 1850s with a match held at Thomas Field’s Westfield estate in 1853 attracting 80 teams, which ploughed 100 acres. 445 Westbury, in particular, has been noted for its champion ploughmen and, in 1966, the Quamby Bend estate was selected for the first national ploughing championship held in Tasmania due to the district’s historical connections with the sport. 446 Wood chopping has been important in timber-getting communities with the Deloraine district, in particular, having produced many notable axemen. These include pre World War 1 world champion, Joseph Chellis of Huntsman and, more recently, Quamby Brook’s Youd family. 447 Shooting and archery served both to celebrate rural skills and to provide training for citizens’ militias from the mid-nineteenth century. A rifle range was built at Westbury in 1936 and an archery range at Hadspen after World War 2. 448 Tasmania’s first coursing club was reputedly established at Quamby in 1878 with a meeting held in June. The Waterloo Cup has been run annually and many notable dogs have been bred in the area. 449 By 1890 Westbury also had a coursing club (figure 40). 450 Hunting clubs were also popular around the turn of the century.

439 Breen, 2001, p. 130. 440 Deloraine Town Plan. 441 Deloraine Tourist and Improvement Association; Skemp, p. 33. 442 Western Tiers v. 3, March 1982, p. 14. 443 AOT Deloraine correspondence file; Rait, 1973a, p. 16. 444 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 34. 445 Breen, 2001, p. 129. 446 ibid, p. 20; Examiner , 23 July 1966, p. 32. 447 Skemp, p. 43. 448 Rait, 1973a, p. 13. 449 ibid, p. 13. 450 Walch’s Almanac, 1890.

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Figure 39. Railway Engine Drivers’ and Firemen’s Inaugural Picnic at the Deloraine race course in 1902 (Weekly Courier , 8 March 1902, p. 1884).

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Figure 40. Westfield coursing club in 1901 ( Weekly Courier , 27 July 1901, p. 182).

More genteel sports such as croquet and tennis have been popular since the 1910s with tennis clubs formed at Hagley, Whitemore, Deloraine, Westbury, Bracknell, Whitemore, and Selbourne. 451 Badminton was introduced to Tasmania in 1928 and embraced in the district with clubs at Westbury, Exton, Hagley, Westwood and Hadspen and several notable Australian badminton champions being produced. 452 A croquet club had been formed at Deloraine in the early 1900s while golf clubs were established at Deloraine by 1925 and Westbury by 1935. 453 A bowling club was formed in Deloraine by 1919. 454 Cycling has been popular in a number of centres since the turn of the century. In 1904 a deputation from the Deloraine Bicycle Club urged the council to form a cycling track at the recreation ground. 455 A new cycling oval was completed in the early 1930s and was the setting for the Deloraine Athletic Club Championship Carnival, which included wood chopping, foot running and cycling events. 456 Cycling has also been prominent at Rosevale where road races were held in the late 1930s. 457 More recent sporting events held in the district include motor sports (at Carrick speedway), sheep dog trials, pony clubs and basketball.

Horse-Racing The municipality is nationally renowned for its horse-racing tradition which has provided the backbone of social and sporting life since the 1850s, and has produced several champion horses and racing personalities. Early racing was on private estate based tracks established by the district’s wealthy landowners, such as the Field’s at Calstock and Alveston, and Thomas Reibey at Entally .458 Mayfield also had an early racing track. 459 Although only the wealthy could afford the thoroughbred race

451 Rait, 1973a, pp. 14 – 15 and Walch’s Almanacs, 1915, 1935. 452 Rait, 1973a, pp. 15-16. 453 Walch’s Almanacs 1915, 1925 & 1935. 454 Deloraine Council Minutes 10 February 1919 (AOT MCC 42/3/1-10) 455 ibid, 7 November 1904. 456 Poster for Deloraine Championship Carnival 1932, (TLPE 796.0994631 DEL) 457 Rait, 1973a, p. 17. 458 Breen, 2001, pp. 129-130. 459 Re-Union Committee, p. 68.

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Cultural Institutions horses, the public race meetings could be enjoyed by all classes and by c1900 meetings were being held at Deloraine, Westbury, Bracknell, Carrick, Chudleigh, Meander, Rosevale and the Avenue, which was said to have ‘one of the finest and most charming [race-courses] in the colonies’. 460 In the Westbury district, Thomas Reibey held regular meetings on his Entally race course while the Carrick Racing Club was formed in 1848. 461 In 1859 the Carrick racecourse was described as ‘the best in Tasmania’ (figure 41). 462 Deloraine’s first horse-racing club was formed in 1853 and its first meeting was held in Easter of that year on the Alveston estate race track. Since then Easter meetings have been an annual tradition in Deloraine (although the race track has varied over the years). In 1874 the Deloraine Turf Club was formed with John Field as chairman, and in 1886 the Deloraine Council acquired part of Field’s Alveston estate, including the race course and recreation ground and rented the track to the turf club. 463 A notable race on the calendar is the Grand National Steeplechase in which horses must jump live hedges. The Field’s of Calstock were pioneer horse breeders who produced a number of champion horses, including Malua and Stockwell, who competed with success in Melbourne Cup races in the 1880s, and Floodlight, a champion twentieth century pacer. 464 In 1983, Calstock was sold to a consortium involved in the horse-racing industry, which established a breeding and training centre there. 465

460 Walch’s Almanac 1901; Cyclopaedia , vol. 2. 461 Kelly, p. 5. 462 Von Stieglitz, 1946, pp. 37-39. 463 Skemp, p. 42; Breen, 2001, p. 130. 464 Skemp, p. 42; Geoff Woods, pers comm, 8 September 2004. 465 National Trust of Australia (Tasmania), p. 2.

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Figure 41. Carrick races in 1904 ( Tasmanian Mail , 2 January 1904, p. 18).

Figure 42. Detail of plan of part of Alveston sold to Deloraine Municipal Council, showing the location of the race track (DPIWE—Westmoreland 51). Cricket Initially cricket was also played on the district’s large agricultural estates. Cricket clubs were established in both Westbury and Deloraine by 1865 with games at the former being played on ‘the Swamp’ where a pavilion was erected in that year. 466 In 1868 Deloraine Council acquired land for a cricket ground in Moriarty Street and by 1877 the game ‘was thoroughly appreciated in Deloraine and adjacent townships’ with four clubs and adult and juvenile matches being played. 467

466 Walch’s Almanac, 1865. 467 LSD1/58/196; quoted in Skemp, p. 43.

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By the early 1900s there were cricket clubs at Chudleigh, Parkham, Dunorlan, Meander, Mole Creek, Bracknell, Exton, Hagley, Westbury and Whitemore. 468 By 1955 there were also cricket clubs at Frankford, Birralee, Westwood, Cluan and Selbourne while both men’s and women’s teams were supported at Hadspen. 469 The Exton club produced the district’s most famous cricketer, Jack Badcock, who scored a century against England in a Test Match at Melbourne in the 1930s. 470

Football Australian Rules Football became popular throughout the district from the 1890s and football teams were established at Westbury in 1893, Hagley in 1895 and Bracknell in 1899. 471 The first games in the Westbury district were played in paddocks at Maybourne and Staggard’s until the recreation ground became available in 1898. 472 The Hagley team lapsed during the two world wars, but joined the Esk Association in the late 1940s and won five premierships in succession in the years 1949-1953. 473 Other football associations were formed throughout the district and many small communities fielded teams so that by 1946 there teams from Westbury, Hagley, Deloraine, Elizabeth Town, Meander, Chudleigh, Mole Creek and Kimberley in the Central Association. 474

8.2 Agricultural Shows Annual agricultural and pastoral shows have been important social and cultural events since the 1860s. The Westbury Agricultural Association was formed in October 1863 and held its first show the following year. Initially cattle and sheep were displayed in a paddock adjacent to Lyall’s Hotel, while horses, pigs, farm implements and dairy produce were exhibited in yards attached to the Berriedale Inn. In 1865, the show moved to the present ground. 475

468 Walch’s Almanac, 1901, 1915; Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963. 469 Walch’s Almanac 1955; Kelly, p. 5. 470 Rait, 1973a, p. 7 and Skemp, p. 43. 471 Rait, 1973a, p. 9. 472 ibid. 473 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963. 474 Boxhall, 1995. 475 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963.

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Figure 43. Westbury Agricultural Show ( Weekly Courier , 13 November 1919, p. 22).

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The Chudleigh Show was first held in 1889 with the present ground being established in 1932. 476 Flower Shows were first held in the Deloraine Town Hall in the early 1900s while the Deloraine Spring Show, which became a major annual event was held from 1946. 477 The Westbury Garden Club was formed in 1959 and holds spring and autumn shows each year. 478

8.3 Tourism The municipality’s natural beauty and historic charm have long attracted tourists with the Great Western Tiers, the Mole Creek caves and numerous waterfalls making the Deloraine and Mole Creek areas popular destinations since the 1850s. This popularity led to the establishment of numerous private guest houses, such as Lee’s Mountain View and Howe’s Boarding Houses at Mole Creek. Arcoona was briefly run as a guest house in Deloraine in the 1930s while Coolangatta at Deloraine and Wykeham at Westbury also provided accommodation. 479 The 1920 completion of the Great Lake Road opened the Lakes area for angling and other outdoor recreation. Historic towns and houses have been significant attractions. Westbury’s historic charm with its Georgian architecture and village green have been much admired while the Scenery Preservation Board acquired Hadspen’s Entally as a tourist attraction in 1948 and in 1964 the house was visited by 33,700 people. 480

Bushwalking & Angling The natural beauty of the Great Western Tiers rising up to the high country and lakes of the Central Plateau drew the attention of settlers from the early years of settlement. Ronald Gunn and William Archer were enthusiastic excursionists to the plateau while John West remarked that the Great Western Tiers presented ‘picturesque scenery’ to highway travellers. Walking parties began exploring the area from the 1840s, often using snarers’ and stockmen’s routes such as Warner’s, Higgs and Parson’s tracks.481 In the 1890s Mary Stanley offered visitors food and lodging at her Liena home, while Willow Lodge , run by the Smith family at the base of Warner’s track, provided facilities for visitors to that area. 482 The rivers of the Meander valley and lakes of the Central Plateau have been popular with anglers for over a century. Cucumber herring and blackfish were initially sought after in the district while trout, introduced into the Meander River at Westbury in 1869, the Liffey River in 1870, the Chudleigh district in 1871, the Great Lake in the 1870s and the Chudleigh Lakes in 1891, became a great attraction for both locals and visitors, and helped to create an important local tourist industry. 483 The Chudleigh Lakes attracted a few hardy walkers, anglers and photographers from the 1890s and the Higgs family hauled boats to the lakes for angling. From c1900-1940 Paddy Hartnett and other local bushmen provided guiding services to the lakes and other remote places such as the Pelion Plains, and Walls of Jerusalem. 484 Breen argues that the growing popularity of bushwalking from the 1850s indicates that the new generation of Tasmanian-born colonists were more inclined to develop a sense of belonging in the Tasmanian bush and landscape. 485

476 Re-Union Committee, p. 59. 477 Deloraine Council Minutes, 2 April 1906 (AOT MCC42/3/1-10); Skemp, p. 43. 478 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet.1963 479 see Tasmanian Hotel and Boarding House directories, 1920s-1940s. 480 Tourist and Immigration Department, Annual report 1964-1965, JPPP 1965, no. 38, p. 6. 481 Several other tracks linked lowland hamlets and communities to the plateau. 482 Breen, 2001, p. 161; Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 25; Meander Centenary History Writers , pp. 40–45; Deloraine Council Minutes, 9 October 1911 re Parson’s track (AOT MCC42/3/1-10) 483 Skemp, p. 43; Rait, 1973a, p. 18; Collett, p. 56. 484 Cubit & Russell, 1999, p. 19. 485 Breen, 2001, pp. 162-165.

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Between 1900 and 1920 Tourist and Improvement Associations played a key role in the construction of recreational huts and track improvements on the more accessible parts of the Plateau. 486 Huts were constructed at Sandy Beach Lake, Lady Lake and Nameless Lake in the early 1900s to provide shelter for anglers and walkers visiting the Chudleigh Lakes and beyond to the Walls of Jerusalem. 487 These huts later fell into disrepair or were destroyed, although Lake Nameless and Lady Lake huts have been rebuilt since 1990. The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, which lies partly within the municipal area, has been a popular walking destination after the was developed in 1937 to provide recreational access to the reserve, initially for horse traffic and later for bush walkers. Existing snarers’ and mining huts were re-used as shelters, and influenced the track’s route. Historic huts on the track include Du Cane Hut (1910) and Old Pelion Hut (1890s). Few more recreational huts were built until the 1950s, although others were subsequently built at Junction Lake, Lake Meston, Lake Ball, Tiger Lake and along the Overland Track.

Caves The Mole Creek karst system contains over 300 known caves and sinkholes, including Marakoopa, Kings Solomon, Kubla Khan, Baldock’s and Scott’s caves. The Chudleigh caves (later known as Wet Caves) were discovered c1845 and soon became a tourist drawcard for the area (figure 45). Lit with acetylene lamps they attracted notable visitors, such as Anthony Trollope, Lt.-Governor Sir John Franklin and Bishop Nixon. In 1851, Dan Pickett’s Chudleigh Inn advertised accommodation for visitors to the caves while local residents acted as guides. 488 The advent of the railways to the district in 1870 made the area more accessible for tourists. Following vandalism in the 1870s Deloraine Council acceded to public pressure and adopted responsibility for managing the Chudleigh caves. 489 In 1907, King Solomons Caves were discovered and Hobart speculator, E.C. James, leased the land and built a thirty room hotel at Mole Creek to accommodate visitors. He later discovered that Henry Reed, the land’s owner, had inserted a clause in the contract forbidding alcohol to be served on the site for 75 years. 490 James’s prominent building became Lee’s Mountain View Guest House (figure 48). Baldock’s and Scott’s caves were also discovered in 1907 while in 1911 Mayberry’s Byard family discovered Marakoopa Caves (figure 46). 491 These families opened up their caves and established guiding services, and tea rooms and/or guest houses to exploit the tourist trade. 492 In later years sermons were given and orchestral concerts were performed in Marakoopa Caves. 493 In 1906 the Deloraine Council handed over 300 acres of cave reserves to the Northern Tasmanian Tourist Association and in 1939 the Marakoopa, King Solomons and Baldocks caves were gazetted as cave reserves by the State Government. 494 In 1953 electric lighting was introduced to King Solomons Caves and the Mole Creek caves attracted 6103 visitors. 495 The Mole Creek caves now fall within the Mole Creek Karst National Park created in December 1996.

486 Collett, pp. 56-59. 487 ibid. 488 AOT correspondence file Mole Creek Caves. 489 ibid. 490 Haygarth, 2003, pp. 24-26. 491 Skemp, pp. 47-48. 492 Jim Scott, p. 28 493 Haygarth, 2003, p. 26. 494 Deloraine Council Minutes, 2 July 1906; Scenery Preservation Board AA577/8. 495 Tourist and Immigration Department Annual Report 1952-53, JPPP 1953, no. 35. p. 35.

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Figure 44. tourists camping at the Mole Creek caves in 1902 (Weekly Courier , 8 February 1902, p. 1675).

Figure 45. 1918 map of Marakoopa Caves (DPIWE—Westmoreland 75).

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Waterfalls, Fern Glades and Warm Springs The many scenic waterfalls of the district, such as the Liffey, Meander, Lobster, Westmoreland and Royal Falls have long been natural attractions for locals and visitors. In March 1906, the Mole Creek Improvement Association purchased seventy acres of land at the Westmoreland Falls, which was declared a reserve and vested in the Council. 496 A reserve was gazetted at in 1929, and then under the Scenery Preservation Act in 1949. 497 A reserve at Stella Glen, 1918 (now the Fairy Glade State Reserve) on the Great Lake Road was first acquired by the Deloraine Council. 498 The Kimberley Warm Springs, the only one of its kind in the state’s north-west has been a popular attraction since the surveyor, Nathaniel Kentish, reported their value as a bathing site in 1845. A swimming pool and picnic area was formed at the site in the 1960s. 499 In more recent years reserves have been created at the Meander Falls, Alum Cliffs and Quamby Bluff. These include walking tracks, picnic huts and BBQ facilities. 500

8.4 Halls In pre-electronic media days halls provided important venues of entertainment and social interaction. During the early years of settlement social events and gatherings were held in the barns and halls of large agricultural estates. Churches also provided halls for gatherings while organisations, such as Masonic lodges constructed halls for their members. In Deloraine, both an Oddfellows Hall and Masonic Lodge had been erected by the 1880s. 501 The first Westbury Town Hall was completed in 1863, and the Deloraine Town Hall in 1876. 502

Figure 46. Dunorlan Hall in 1907 ( Weekly Courier , 4 May 1907, p. 19).

496 Deloraine Council minutes, 5 March 1906 (AOT MCC42/3/1-10). 497 Scenery Preservation Board — AA577/8. 498 Deloraine Council Minutes 9 September 1918 (AOT MCC42/3/1-10). 499 Skemp, p. 48. 500 Forestry Commission. 501 Walch’s Almanac, 1875 &1885. 502 Westbury History Society files and Deloraine Council minutes, 2 October 1876 (AOT MCC42/3/1-10)

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By the early 1900s public halls were being built and providing focal points for much of the social life in the district. As well as the Town Halls at Deloraine and Westbury there were smaller community halls at Rosevale, Mole Creek, Meander, Dunorlan (see figure 46), Carrick, Western Creek, Red Hills and Chudleigh. 503 Regular dances, music, meeting, lectures and social gatherings were held there, as well as celebrations such as wedding receptions and birthdays. Memorial halls were built following both world wars (see s8.9) while Westbury Council constructed a new Town Hall, designed by Launceston architect, H.S. East, in 1933. 504

8.5 Community Associations Numerous community organisations have been established in the district since the 1850s with meetings generally held at local inns or libraries until meeting places could be built. Various Masonic organisations as well as benevolent associations, benefit societies, bible societies, veterans’ organisations, mother’s and women’s groups, progress and improvement associations, service clubs, farmers and agricultural societies, and community and youth clubs were established throughout the district to provide a wide range of services, facilities, advice and social interaction.

8.6 Eating and Drinking In the earliest years inns, such as Meehan’s sly grog shop at Westbury, were often regarded as haunts of ex-convicts who were notorious for their heavy drinking. 505 Visiting Westbury in the 1840s, Quaker missionary James Backhouse was struck ‘with the prevailing evils of strong drink. Intoxication, profane language and depravity of countenance bespoke in an appalling manner, man led captive of the Devil at his will.’ 506 Itinerant farm labourers, often emancipists, were attracted by rural public houses, especially during harvest time, where their drinking habits came under the watchful eye of the local police and community. Temperance groups were established in order to discourage the ‘evils’ of drinking. 507 By the mid 1890s hotels had achieved greater respectability. As the emancipist population dwindled and official attitudes to public drinking were liberalised temporary licenses were issued by the local councils for public recreational events, such as horse races, stock sales and axemen’s carnivals. 508 In rural townships, hotels not only offered accommodation and served drinks, but also served as places for public meetings, auction sales and even church services until other buildings were built for those purposes. 509 Public houses were often among the first buildings erected in townships. In Deloraine, Devlin’s crude c1831 inn was one of the town’s first buildings. 510 By 1840 John Bonney had established his Deloraine Inn, ‘a square red brick house looking older than most in the settlement’. 511 The first licensed inn established at Westbury was built as the Commercial Inn in 1833 (later known as Fitzpatrick’s). 512 At Carrick there was an early inn built of adobe (where ‘Hawthorn’ is located). The Carrick Inn was first licensed in 1833 to John Christie. 513 At Hadspen, the Red

503 Westbury Historical Society, 2002, pp. 8 & 46; Deloraine Council minutes, 1 December 1902, 30 July 1907, 11 December 1911, 15 April 1911. 504 Westbury Historical Society files. 505 Breen, 2001, p. 123. 506 cited in Westbury Historical Society, 1998, p. 2. 507 Breen, 2001, p. 127. 508 ibid, p. 130. 509 Cannon, p. 24. 510 Skemp, p. 14. 511 Bonney, p. 56. 512 Rait, 1973b, p. 17 513 AOT correspondence file; Carrick.

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Feather Inn was established c1845 and known as the Hadspen Hotel while the Glenore Hotel at Oaks was also established c1845. 514 By 1877 there was a profusion of hotels throughout the district. These included: Westbury Others Railway and Commercial Inn Marsh Inn (Exton) Berridale Inn Exton Hotel (Exton) Great Western Hotel Royal Oaks (Oaks) Westbury Inn Jolly Farmers (Red Hills) Hope Inn Harborne Hotel (Harborne) Deloraine Shamrock Inn (Hilltop) Deloraine Inn Chudleigh Inn (Chudleigh) Commercial and Family Hotel Saddlers Arms (Elizabeth Town) Great Western Hotel (later Railway) Cricket Club Hotel (Hadspen) British Hotel Entally Inn (Carrick) Oddfellows Hotel Carrick Hotel (Carrick) Criterion Hotel Prince of Wales Hotel (Carrick) Temperance Hotel Rising Sun Hotel (Prospect) Bush Inn (Alveston) Junction Inn (Junction) Plough Inn (Alveston) Enfield Inn (Bracknell) Hagley Inn (Hagley) 515

The opening of the Launceston to Deloraine railway in 1871 however, saw the demise of a number of inns that relied on coaching traffic for business. Economic depression in the 1880s forced the closure of others and by the 1890s Deloraine had only five hotels open. 516 More were opened and others refurbished in the new century as population expanded and new towns were established. These included Walker’s Hotel at Kimberley in 1907 and Slater’s Hotel in Elizabeth Town in c1910. 517 In the late twentieth century Prospect’s Country Club Casino and O’Hara’s Resort and Hadspen’s Rutherglen Holiday Village have expanded the traditional role of hotels.

8.7 Churches Churches provided for the spiritual and social needs of the district from its earliest years, giving emerging towns an air of respectability. The moral ideals they upheld contrasted dramatically with the harsh reality of daily colonial life. Several Christian denominations have established places of worship throughout the district, with the most prominent being the Anglicans (Church of England), Roman Catholics, Baptists and Methodists. Many churches had halls and schools attached to them or often converted early chapels into schools after larger churches had been erected.

514 Rait, 1973b, p. 14; Westbury Historical Society, 2002, p. 10. 515 Based on Bailliere’s Gazetteer of Tasmania 1877 and Hobart Town Gazette Hotel Directory for 1877. 516 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, pp. 35 & 55; Bonney, p. 85. 517 Becker, 1994, p. 25 and Post Office Directory, 1910.

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Figure 47. Advertisement for Slater’s new hotel at Elizabeth Town in 1910 (Post Office Directory, 1910, p. 40).

Figure 48. Mountain View Guest House at Mole Creek (Deloraine Historical Society collection).

Figure 49. Westbury’s Berriedale Hotel (Tasmanian Hotel & Boarding House Directory for 1922-23, p. 112).

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Figure 50. Bishop Nixon’s sketch of St Andrew’s Church at Carrick (Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania).

The first Anglican services were held in various public and private buildings, including the blacksmith’s shop and school house at Carrick, and a shearing shed at Birralee. 518 Gradually, places of worship were built in the towns, often under the patronage of the large landowners of the district, such as Entally ’s Thomas Reibey and Quamby ’s Sir Richard Dry. Many churches took decades to be completed with spires and towers often being the last structures added. Although Lt.-Governor Arthur laid the foundation stone of St Andrew’s church at Westbury in 1836 and the church was opened in 1842, the tower was not completed until 1859. 519 The interior features fine wood carvings, completed in the early twentieth century by local artist, Ellen Nora Payne. 520 St Andrew’s first rectory, completed in 1842 to a design by James Blackburn, was substantially rebuilt in 1867. 521 Thomas Reibey, who later became Archdeacon of Tasmania, was behind the construction and administration of St Andrew’s church at Carrick, which was converted from the old school house and opened in 1845. Its tower was added in 1863 (figure 50). 522 Churches at Hagley were

518 Rait, 1973b, p. 15 and Von Stieglitz,, 1946, p. 35. 519 Rait, 1973b, p. 22. 520 ibid. 521 see plan PWD 266/1865; Tasmanian Heritage Register: St Andrew’s Rectory (former) and stables. 522 Stephens, p. 70

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Cultural Institutions built in 1847 and 1861 although the tower and vestry of the latter were not completed until 1932. 523 Reibey’s Hadspen church had to wait ninety-three years for its completion in 1961. 524 Deloraine’s first Anglican church was erected in 1845 while the handsome and much photographed St Mark’s was opened east of the Meander River in 1859. 525 Other Anglican churches in the district include All Saints Church at Rosevale (1923), Church of the Good Shepherd, Chudleigh (1868), Holy Cross, Elizabeth Town (1893), St Michael’s, Kimberley (1912 and 1949), St Saviour’s, Meander (1898), St Columba’s, Mole Creek (1901), St Alban’s, Parkham (1902), All Saint’s, Dairy Plains (1919), St James, Bracknell (1932) and All Saints, Birralee (1932). 526 Westbury’s Roman Catholic church was founded by Father Hogan, who was appointed to the district in 1850. 527 He also served the Deloraine parish until Father Welsh was appointed resident priest there in 1871. 528 The district’s strong Irish community at Westbury gave support to Catholicism and the first church at Westbury was built c1851. 529 The present Holy Trinity Church was completed in 1874 while the convent of the Sisters of St Joseph was founded in 1887. 530 At Deloraine the Holy Redeemer Church was built in 1886, and the Our Lady of Mercy Convent established in 1896. 531 Other Roman Catholic chapels in the district were erected at Bracknell, Egmont and Kimberley (in 1926). 532 After Rev. Henry Dowling of Launceston conducted the first Baptist service at Deloraine a chapel was built in Barrack Street in 1860, then replaced by a Tabernacle opposite the Deloraine railway station in 1880. 533 Baptists also held services at Quamby Brook, Montana, Meander, Cluan and Golden Valley. 534 Methodism (or Wesleyanism) has a strong tradition in the district with the first services held at the Westbury courthouse in 1837. The first chapel was erected in 1840 and a larger one in 1866, with a parsonage, Wesley House , being erected next to the chapel in 1859. 535 Other Methodist churches were built at Hagley in 1859 and 1957, Chudleigh (near Henry Reed’s Wesley Dale estate), Deloraine (1859), Exton (1855 and 1885), Forest Hall (1884), Chudleigh (1885), Meander (1886), Blackamoor (1887) Parkham (1889), Selbourne (1922), Birralee (1890), Bracknell (1864 and 1922), Whitemore (1857 and 1865) and Caveside. 536 In other towns services were held in private houses and halls. 537 Other churches established in the area include Presbyterian churches at Deloraine (1858), Hagley (1879) and Chudleigh (c1883 but later destroyed by fire); Congregational churches at Deloraine (1860) and Prospect; Churches of Christ at Caveside (1911 and 1956); the Salvation Army at Chudleigh (1878) and Deloraine (1900s); Seventh Day Adventist at Mole Creek; and Gospel Halls at Western Creek and Kimberley (1905).538

523 ibid, p. 72. 524 ibid, p. 93. 525 see plan in AOT—MM71/5; Stephens, p. 73. 526 ibid. 527 Rait, 1973b, p. 23. 528 Skemp, p. 29. 529 Von Stieglitz, 1946, p. 9. 530 Rait, 1973b, p. 23. 531 Skemp, p. 29. 532 Becker, 1994, p. 25, Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963. 533 Skemp, p. 29. 534 ibid, p. 29, Meander Centenary History Writers, pp. 114 & 116, and Rait, 1973b, p. 16. 535 Westbury Methodist Church, pp. 7-11. 536 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963; Skemp, p. 30. 537 ibid, pp. 30, 15 & 16, Re-Union Committee, p. 47, Meander Centenary History Writers, p. 111, Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963. 538 Skemp, 1964, pp. 29–30; Rait, 1973b, pp. 13, 16; AOT Deloraine correspondence file; Re-Union Committee, pp. 50-51 and Becker, 1994, p. 25.

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The district features several churches of architectural note. These include St Mark’s at Deloraine (designed by architect, W.A. Clayton), St Andrew’s at Westbury (the nave of the church and original parsonage were designed by James Blackburn) and St Mary’s Anglican Church at Hagley, for which Henry Hunter adapted the original plans by British architect, R.C. Carpenter. 539 Henry Hunter also designed Deloraine’s Holy Redeemer Church. In contrast, rural churches tend to be small and plain weatherboard structures, usually with timber lining and are places of important if diminishing community importance as church attendance declines.

8.8 Commemorating Significant Events Celebrations in the district have largely revolved around events that were significant to the British Empire. These include the end of wars and the coronation and jubilees of reigning monarchs. 540 The Deloraine Council, for example, commemorated the end of the Boer War and the coronation of King Edward VII with celebrations and planting two memorial oak trees on the recreation ground. 541 In 1954 an archway was erected at Elizabeth Town to welcome Queen Elizabeth II during her Royal Tour of the island (figure 51). 542

Figure 51. Arch raised at Elizabeth Town in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Tour in 1954 (Deloraine Folk Museum collection).

More recently, in December 1963 the Deloraine Municipality celebrated its centenary. 543 In 1973, on the 150 th anniversary of Westbury’s establishment, the residents of Westbury in Wiltshire, England donated a carved maypole. It was erected at the village green and is used in local maypole festivals.

8.9 War Memorials After Deloraine Council planted an oak tree at the recreation reserve as a Boer War soldiers’ memorial, other memorials were erected at Westbury, Hagley, Mole Creek and Deloraine following World War 1. 544 Like elsewhere in the country these memorials were paid for by

539 Tasmanian Heritage Register, St Marks’ Anglican Church, St Mary’s Anglican Church and Grounds, and St Andrews Rectory (former) and stables. 540 See s7.5.3 for end of war celebrations. 541 Deloraine Council Minutes, 22 June 1902 (AOT MCC42/3/1-10) 542 Deloraine Folk Museum. 543 Skemp, p. 33. 544 Deloraine Council Minutes, 22 June 1902 (AOT MCC42/3/1-10)

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History Cultural Institutions public subscription and were moving monuments to the extreme losses suffered. War trophies, such as machine guns, were distributed to several towns in the district, and honour rolls were prepared for Deloraine and Westbury. 545 The Westbury roll, created by noted wood carver, Ellen Nora Payne hangs in the RSL club at Westbury. In 1933 an Anzac Day Remembrance Association was formed in Westbury, which organised an annual march as well as a sports day for the school children of the district. 546

Figure 52. Opening of the Birralee Memorial Hall in 1922 ( Weekly Courier , 18 May 1922, p. 23).

In several country towns memorial halls were built following both world wars. These included Birralee (figure 52), Caveside and Hadspen Halls in the 1920s and Whitemore Hall, Meander, Hadspen Hall additions, Selbourne and Rosevale Hall between 1949 and 1954. 547 Westbury Council also assisted with funds for war memorials at Westbury, Carrick, Selbourne, Rosevale and Bracknell. 548 More recently, a Wall of Valour was unveiled at Deloraine’s RSL Club. The wall honours five RSL Club members including Chudleigh’s Vietnam veteran, Peter Ashton and World War 1 veteran, Jack Walker. 549

8.10 Arts 8.10.1 Music, Dance and Drama Music has a strong tradition in the district with a Westbury musicians’ union formed in 1864 and choral unions and brass bands at Westbury and Deloraine. 550 Local musicians have

545 Deloraine Council Minutes, 11 August 1919, 17 May 1920, 11 October 1920, 10 November 1924 and Westbury Council Minutes, 4 October 1920, 4 September 1922. 546 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963. 547 Re-Union Committee, p. 50; Rait, 1973b, p. 16; Westbury Council Minutes, 7 December 1925, 14 November 1949; Westbury Historical Society, 2002, pp. 20, 24, 38, 46. 548 Westbury Council Minutes 9 December 1946. 549 Examiner , 27 November 2001, p. 31.

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Cultural Institutions Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History regularly performed at dances and concerts throughout the district. A bandstand was erected in the river reserve at Deloraine in the early twentieth century. During the Commonwealth Jubilee celebrations of 1951 the Deloraine convent junior choir won first place in an Australia-wide competition held at the Exhibition building, Melbourne. Later, it sang at the opening of Parliament in Canberra and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. 551 Several talented country and bush musicians and singers have emerged from the district in recent years, the most famous being Meander’s country music star, Jean Stafford. Stafford won three Golden Guitar awards for Australasia’s best female country singer between 1975 and 1981 and has also been successful in the US. 552 The district has proved inspirational to modern composers and dancers—Birralee’s Ron Nagorcka featured the songs of 56 local birds in his CD Secret Places ,553 while the Quamby Bluff area has inspired the work of Australia’s foremost composer, Peter Sculthorpe. Sculthorpe’s family took regular drives from his boyhood home in Launceston through the Great Western Ties to the Great Lake. 554 World-renowned dancer and choreographer Graeme Murphy lived at Meander in the early 1960s and attended Deloraine High School whilst his parents taught at the Meander State School. 555 Drama has long been appreciated in the Westbury and Deloraine districts. Travelling troupes performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the Westbury district from the 1860s while Hadspen’s Red Feather Inn is home to one of Australia’s longest running theatre productions, The Story behind the Red Feather Inn .556 During the late 1930s and 1940s picture theatres were run in the Westbury and Deloraine Town Halls on Saturday nights. 557 Dramatic societies have been established at Westbury and Deloraine since World War 2 with the Westbury Drama Club winning some eighteen awards at drama festivals around Tasmania between 1958 and 1963.558 8.10.2 Art The natural beauty of the region attracted many colonial artists including John Glover, Simpkinson de Wesselow, Louisa Meredith, Robert Beauchamp, Bishop Francis Russell Nixon, Henry Lloyd Grant, Elizabeth Hudspeth and W.C. Piguenit. 559 Hagley’s Lyttleton family were also renowned as artists while Joshua Higgs jnr, whose family moved to the Deloraine district in the 1850s, became a notable painter and art teacher. 560 After his death at Kallista in Victoria in 1931, the cremated remains of renowned Australian artist, Tom Roberts were interred in the Boyes family plot in the cemetery of Christ Church, Illawarra. 561 Well known Australian modernist painter Jean Mary Bellette, attended St Hilda’s school in Deloraine in the early twentieth century. 562 Other well known artists to gain inspiration from the Great Western Tiers included Robert Campbell (1902-1972) who lived in Tasmania in the 1940s, and Geoff Tyson (1911-1986). 563

550 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963; Walch’s Almanac 1880; Cyclopaedia , p. 234; Skemp, p. 43 551 ibid, p. 29. 552 Meander Centenary Writers, p.192;www.countrymusic.com.au/Bellbird/bio_jean_stafford.htm 553 Young, p. 38. 554 ibid, p. 57. 555 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 192. 556 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 63; Tasmanian Heritage Register: Red Feather Inn. 557 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 84 and Meander Centenary Writers, p. 149. 558 Westbury Centenary pamphlet, 1963; Advocate 9 August 1972, p. 12 and Launceston Examiner 24 July 1979, p. 5. 559 Young, p. 62; PictureAustralia Website—www.pictureaustralia.org 560 Richards et al, p. 18; Kerr, pp. 484-487. 561 McQueen, p. 704. 562 Meander Centenary Writers, p. 9. 563 Young, p. 62.

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Ellen Nora Payne (née Field), born at Westfield in January 1865, was a notable wood carver who trained in England before setting up a workshop there. Her work features in the beautifully carved memorial pulpit and ‘seven sisters’ memorial chancel screen in the interior of St Andrew’s Church in Westbury. Her other Tasmanian works include the carved Honour Rolls at Hutchins School and the University of Tasmania and the Coat of Arms in Parliament House, Hobart. 564

Figure 53. Ellen Nora Payne at work in England carving the memorial pulpit for the St Andrew’s Church, Westbury (reproduced from Atkinson, p. 42).

In the late twentieth century, the district developed a thriving art scene and numerous studios and galleries have been established, particularly in the Deloraine area. Local artists with international reputations include watercolourist Tony Smibert, Carmel Burns and Weetah glass artist, Julian Bamping. 565 The Great Western Tiers have provided inspiration for contemporary artists Ray Arnold, Richard Bacon, Johnathon Bowden, Peter Gouldthorpe and Philip Wolfhagen. 566 The Deloraine Craft Fair, which was first organised by the Rotary Club of Deloraine, has become a major drawcard for the region. 567 8.10.3 Literature A literary and debating society had been formed in Westbury by 1890. 568 Several well-known novels have been set in the Deloraine and Mole Creek areas. In 1944 Kathleen Graves moved with her family to Woodlands (at Lemana) and wrote three novels whilst residing there. Two of these were set in the district. Marakoopa Caves provided the setting for best-selling novelist Marie Bjelke-Petersen’s first romantic novel, The Captive Singer (1917). It achieved great success in Australia and overseas.

564 Atkinson. 565 see Western Tiers , vol. 19, no. 9, 1 September 1996. p. 23 and Western Tiers , vol. 22, no. 16, 1 April 2002, p. 17. 566 Young, p. 62. 567 Advocate , 29 October 1985, pp. 16-17. 568 Walch’s Almanac , 1890.

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Local non-fiction writers have included retired Methodist minister Trevor Byard, former clerk of the House of Assembly, F. C. Green, and, more recently, Susan Irvine. Simon Cubit has written evocatively of the history of the high country and the people who have used it. Balladist Tom Squires lived at Birralee in the early twentieth century (figure 54). His work has been published by the Westbury Historical Society in The Bard of Birralee (2000). More recently, the Mole Creek area is home to poet Bruce Penn while the Great Western Tiers have been represented in the works of several Tasmanian poets including R. Davies (1837-1880), James Hebblethwaite (1857-1921), Norma Davis (1905-1945) and Andrew Sant (1950-). 569 Figure 54. Birralee poet, Thomas Squires, in his later days (Westbury Historical Society collection).

8.10.4 Photography The scenic beauty of the Great Western Tiers and Lakes district has attracted the attention of landscape photographers from the 1850s and 1860s to the present. Stephen Spurling II and II were renowned photographers who captured the district’s beauty spots and forest scenes. 570 Launceston pharmacist and pioneer photographer, Frank Styant Browne, produced a series of photographs of the district in the 1880s following a self-styled ‘voyage’ through the district in a caravan with his friend Joshua Higgs. 571 Deloraine’s Dr Cole was an enthusiastic amateur photographer who prepared his own plates in the 1890s and early 1900s while Launceston amateurs, Herbert J. King and Fred Smithies, photographed the area between the wars. 572 In Westbury, Christopher Curtis has left an enduring record of the district’s early twentieth century. 573 More recently, the Great Western Tiers and Central Plateau have featured in the work of renowned wilderness photographers such as Peter Drombrovskis, Chris Bell, Rob Blakers, Geoffrey Lea and Deloraine’s Dennis Harding. 574

569 Young, p. 62. 570 ibid. 571 Richards et. al. 572 Woods, p. 45; Young, p. 63. 573 Max Frost, pers comm, 7 September, 2004. 574 Young, p. 63.

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9.0 BIRTH AND DEATH

9.1 Babies Throughout the nineteenth century women gave birth in their own homes with midwives playing a vital role in the birth and subsequent care of woman and child. In the Westbury district Mrs Sturzaker, often walked many miles to attend a birth and afterwards stayed on to assist other family members, milk the cow, chop wood and the like before embarking on the long trip home. In later years she set up a maternity hospital in Dexter Street. 575 Deloraine’s Dr Cole travelled as far as the Lakes district to attend births. In 1937 Arcoona was converted into a private hospital with the first baby born there in July. 576 Nurse Hardy also had a maternity hospital in West Barrack Street in the 1920s–1940s. Other midwives who operated in the Deloraine district during this period included Nurse Stone, Sister Brennan, Misses M. and R. Harvey (figure 55) and Rosa Howell. 577 By the early 1900s Chudleigh had a registered maternity hospital and midwife, Mrs Briscoe. The hospital was located in Sorell Street and later became the Briscoe’s residence. 578 In more recent years there has been a reversal away from hospital births in areas such as Jackeys Marsh, where those seeking an alternative lifestyle have opted for a home birth, usually with a midwife in attendance.

Figure 55. Undated photograph of Nurse Harvey outside her maternity hospital in Barrack Street (Deloraine Folk Museum collection).

9.2 Childhood Several observers noted the large size of families in the country districts. In 1899 Browne reported that families with nine to twelve children were common, while those with less than eight were considered small. 579 Children were vital to the running of farms and were given duties, such as planting, tending animals and domestic chores from an early age. 580 Ashley Boys Home at Deloraine was opened in 1925, utilising the old State Farm buildings. When the State Farm was subdivided in 1922, ninety acres were set aside for the home, which accommodated boys who were unwanted, neglected, uncontrollable or delinquent. The main building of the State Farm (which had been erected c1913) was re-used as boys’ quarters, while

575 Westbury Historical Society, 1999, p. 88. 576 Woods, 1991, p. 77. 577 Deloraine Folk Museum. 578 Re-Union Committee, p. 64. 579 Richards et. al. p. 96. 580 Breen, 2001, p. 43.

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Birth and Death Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic History the cottages accommodated the matron, farmer and superintendent. In later years it became the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. 581 In the late 1930s the CWA opened a baby clinic at the newly opened Arcoona hospital at Deloraine. 582 The 1930s also saw the formation of a scout group in the Westbury District with a Guide group being established there in the 1950s. Westbury Youth Club was formed in 1962 and the Hagley Junior Farmers Club in 1952. 583

9.3 Aging The aging of the population of Australia in general, and the attractiveness of the district in the late twentieth century for retirees, has made the provision of housing and facilities for the aged an important issue. Following lobbying a geriatric centre was established at Arcoona in 1969/1970. The former residence had already been used as a nursing home for several years. Later the centre was relocated to Sullivan’s former residence which was subsequently extended with the assistance of the Rotary Club. In 1985 it became known as Grenoch Home for the Aged. 584 An elderly citizens club was opened in Deloraine in 1972, and in the same year a number of elderly citizens units were opened by St Marks church. 585 In the 1980s the State Government erected a number of elderly persons units at Deloraine as part of their public housing program. 586 A new Red Cross complex at Westbury was opened in 1977 while the Ainslie Housing Association has also recently established units in Westbury. 587 St Anna’s Home for the Aged was opened Prospect Vale in 1969. 588 More recently the Launceston Retirement Village has been completed.

9.4 Cemeteries The first cemeteries in the district were established by the major religious denominations in the area and usually attached to churches. In 1860 a burial ground attached to the Methodist church at Deloraine had been established. 589 Anglican burial grounds were established in Westbury by St Andrews Church and at Deloraine by St Marks Church. In Westbury, the Council clerk, who recorded births, deaths and marriages, resided in Westbury House (next to St Andrews Church). 590 A ten acre allotment was reserved for a Roman Catholic cemetery at Westbury in the vicinity of the military pensioner allotments (on the corner of Marriott and South Streets). However, this site proved unsuitable and a Roman Catholic burial ground was established when storekeeper Edward Mehegan donated a nine acre allotment on the corner of Dexter and Taylor Streets. 591 Deloraine’s Roman Catholic Church also had a cemetery attached to it. The first burial at Meander’s St Saviour’s cemetery took place in 1891. 592 At Chudleigh the Church of England and Catholic burial grounds were located off Jones Street. Presbyterians and Methodists were buried in the Presbyterian cemetery. 593

581 Canden, p. 14. 582 Woods, p. 77. 583 Westbury Centenary Pamphlet, 1963. 584 Examiner , 5 September 1985, p. 20. 585 Advocate , 1 September 1972, p. 8 and 15 September 1972, p. 9. 586 Annual Report of Director of Housing, 1987-1988, JPPP 1988, no. 13. 587 Examiner , 22 August 1977, p. 8; Examiner , 9 October 1995, p. 6 588 Examiner , 25 November 1969, p. 8. 589 Skemp, p. 30. 590 Westbury Historical Society, 1998, p. 48. 591 Frost, 2002a, pp. 88-89. 592 Meander Centenary Writers, , p. 112. 593 Re-Union Committee, p. 63.

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The Deloraine public cemetery was established in 1886. 594 Cemeteries were established at Sillwood in the early 1900s, Western Creek by 1910 and Mole Creek in 1916. The Mole Creek General Cemetery served Caveside, as well as Mole Creek. 595

594 Walch’s Almanac 1886,p. 281. 595 Walch’s Almanac , 1895; Meander Centenary Writers, p. 49; Re-Union Committee, pp. 64-65.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary The following indexes from the Archives Office of Tasmania were examined. The nature of the study did not allow deeper examination of the various indexes contained within the various series. • Subject Index • Map Index • Plan Inventories • Agency Inventories • Place Index. Files from the following agencies held at the Archives Office of Tasmania were examined. • Deloraine Council • Westbury Council • Meander Valley Council • Lands and Survey Department • Public Works Department • Scenery Preservation Board In particular, images, maps, plans and census data were closely examined. Almanacs and Directories Post Office Directories Tasmanian Hotel and Boarding House Directories Walch’s Almanacs Wood’s Almanacs Parliamentary Papers These include annual reports of various Government departments and instrumentalities Journals and Printed Papers of Parliament Newspapers and Periodicals Advocate Daily Post Daily Telegraph Examiner Hobart Town Gazette Meander Valley News Mercury Tasmanian Mail Weekly Courier Western Tiers Contemporary Accounts BONNEY, K (ed). 1985. Early Deloraine. The Writings of Louisa Meredith and Daniel Griffin . Regal Press, Launceston. WHITWORTH, Robert. 1877. Bailliere's Tasmanian Gazetteer and road guide, containing the most recent and accurate information as to every place in the colony . F.F. Bailliere, Hobart Town. Secondary Tourist Promotional Literature DELORAINE IMPROVEMENT & TOURIST ASSOCIATION. 1922. Deloraine: The Tourists’ Paradise . Daily Telegraph, Launceston

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Meander Valley Heritage Study: Thematic HistoryBibliography

FURMAGE, D.R. 1987. A Brief History of the Business Activities of the Furmage Family in the Deloraine District 1887-1987. GIBB, John E. 1974. A Short History of ‘Cheshunt Estate’ . John Gibb. HARVEY, Gina. 2004. Cluan Tiers—History . Teacher Resource prepared for the Forest Education Foundation. JONES, H. Vernon. 1974. Some Notes on the Early Days of the District of Westwood . H. Jones, Launceston. KNOWLES, Joan. 1997. Traditional Practices in the Tasmanian World Heritage Area: A study of five communities and their attachment to the area . Report for the Steering Committee of the Traditional Practices in the World Heritage Area Project. LATONA MASTERMAN & ASSOCIATES. 1986. Deloraine Conservation Study . Report prepared for the National Trust of Australia (Tasmania). MCCONNELL, Anne & SERVANT, Nathalie. 1999. The History and Heritage of the Tasmanian Apple Industry: a Profile . Volumes 1 & 2. Report to the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery. PROSPECT VALE PLANNING COMMITTEE. 1961. Prospect Vale Planning Scheme: The Report of the Scheme. TAMAR REGIONAL MASTER PLANNING AUTHORITY. 1977. Carrick Planning Study . Tamar Regional Master Planning Authority, Launceston. TERRY, Ian & PARHAM, David. 2004. Dixons Kingdom Hut Plan of Management . Report to the Parks and Wildlife Service. TERRY, Ian & PARHAM, David. 2003. Lake Ball Hut Plan of Management . Report to the Tasmanian Heritage Office. TERRY, Ian. 1998. Local Government Historic Report . Report to Peter Richman Productions, in possession of author. WHITELEY, Terry. 1996. Meander Valley Needs Survey: Main Report . Report for the Councillors of Meander Valley Council. Pamphlets & Leaflets KELLY, Ray. 1966. Looking Back at Hadspen . Produced in conjunction with the Hadspen Centenary Celebrations. Held by the Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania. SCOTT, Gwen. 1998. Irish Military Pensioners at Westbury . Held by the Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania. St Hilda’s School Deloraine, 1907-1946: Dedication of St Hilda’s Chapel, 1 st April 1984 . Held by the Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania. WESTBURY MUNICIPAL COUNCIL. 1963. Westbury Municipal Centenary 1863-1963 — Souvenir . Westbury Municipal Council, Westbury. Held by the Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania.

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