CCanberra The Community That Was The Community That Was 2

Copyright © Greg Wood, 2009 The ACT Government has permanent, royalty-free licence to use, reproduce and disseminate information in all series booklets for its Centenary of Canberra projects. w ISBN 978-0-9807394-1-1 w GPO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2601 w Tel: 13 22 81 w www.canberra100.com.au

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Cover images: locals gather at the Gadara site, near Tumut, to ensure that visiting federal politicians give due consideration to their area as ’s new capital, 1902 (top), image courtesy of National Library of Australia. Canberra The Community That Was

Greg Wood

A publication of the Chief Minister’s Department, ACT Government – to commemorate the Centenary of Canberra, 1913–2013 Canberra The Community That Was 4

On the 1 January 1911, nine hundred and ten square miles of land were excised from to become the Federal Capital Territory and the site of the national capital.1

The Limestone Plains, ca 1910 5 Canberra The Community That Was National Library of Australia

What followed saw an event rare in the post- There was of course an earlier, more profound European settlement of this country. Apart dispossession of Aboriginal people in this from the initial carve up into the six colonies, district. Perhaps one can begin to have an it has been exceptional for Australian territory inkling of the impact on them by better to be abruptly transferred from the control understanding what happened a century later of one legislature to another and for the to a group of people whose circumstances citizens directly affected to have no real say and aspirations are not dissimilar to those of in the matter. Yet this is what happened to most of us today. This booklet looks at what the farming community on the Limestone happened when the young Australian nation Plains, , the one substantial town and the community on the Limestone Plains nearby. To create the capital at Canberra, and crossed paths. the community we’ve now become, another was uprooted, as livelihoods and settled presumptions were turned upside down. Canberra The Community That Was 6

1901: Queanbeyan sitting down to dinner’. After the usual loyal Celebrates Federation toast to the Queen and, for the first time, to the Governor-General, they raised their glasses They left the arrangements to the last minute, to success for the Commonwealth, the Federal but Queanbeyan residents did finally organise Ministry, our commercial interests, the ladies, a celebration to mark 1 January 1901. After the press, our hostess, and the chairman, in all, Australia was federating, the six colonies that order. The evening concluded with all becoming States and, henceforth, part of assembled singing ‘Rule Britannia’. one unified nation. Five hundred people, including a large number of children, attended ‘Admitted’ implies some reluctance. Perhaps a picnic and sports carnival at the recreation the subdued enthusiasm reflected the vote taken grounds. It had rained during the morning, some months earlier when the residents of the threatening cancellation, but later cleared to a Queanbeyan district had opposed Federation; lovely afternoon. There was a marquee under 770 against to 623 in favour. the shade of the trees where the ‘committee Local hesitation notwithstanding, the of ladies was busy making ready the feast Queanbeyan Age ran an enthusiastic description for the young people’. The usual picnic of ’s Federation celebrations. The Sydney games were held, including four heats of the procession on 1 January 1901 was described ‘Commonwealth handicap’, a footrace over a as ‘the greatest event that has ever taken place hundred yards. Toys were awarded as prizes. in the southern hemisphere ... Never before According to the Queanbeyan Age, everyone has such a galaxy of heroism, such a brilliance ‘admitted’ having spent an enjoyable afternoon.2 of colour, or such a collection of soldiers ever That evening there was an ‘impromptu banquet’ graced the streets of a city south of the equator’. at Pooley’s Hotel, with about ‘thirty gentlemen Besides the soldiers, a ‘bevy of brainy men, all National Library of Australia

Martin Place, Sydney, prepares to celebrate Federation, 1 January 1901 7 Canberra The Community That Was

Bullock dray hauling wool, ca 1900 National Library of Australia

the best men of the whole Australasia’, took part The public’s enthusiasm for the soldiers in the in the ceremony. Those ‘quickest recognised procession was fired by Australia’s involvement and most warmly received’ were the leading in a conflict abroad, the Boer War in South federation politicians – Edmund Barton Charles Africa, the Queanbeyan Age commenting that Kingston and George Reid – who, all along the ‘the memory of recent war events was hot with route, had to bow their ‘acknowledgements of the public.’ All six of the separate States had the plaudits bestowed upon them’. sent contingents, the Commonwealth following There was a ‘beautifully arranged car suit shortly thereafter. Included were a number representing Australia, with a lady impersonating of the region’s ‘boys’, some losing their lives. Britannia, surrounded by children representing In this, as in most matters, Britain was the the six States that are federating – a happy reference point for Australians. In 1901 most family’. The shearer’s car was ‘also attractive’, Australians traced their ancestral roots back to containing men working shearing machines, Britain and Ireland, and Australia was proudly followed by shearers arrayed as ‘on the track’ and profitably part of the British Empire. While with their pack horses alongside. Four hundred Federation meant both Australia and Britain were tradesmen in their working clothes represented taking a step toward shedding Westminster’s ten well-known trades. Friendly societies role as the final arbiter of Australia’s affairs, followed. The procession took one and a half for decades to come Britain would remain hours to pass any given spot.3 responsible for Australia’s foreign policy, provide the keystone of Australia’s defence and be our Australia at the Turn of the major trading and commercial partner by a wide Century margin. The burghers of Queanbeyan were not being ironic when they sang ‘Rule Britannia’. There were 3.8 million Australians in 1901. Compared to today, day-to-day life was a This was the era of the ‘golden fleece’, of struggle and very often hazardous. Mr and Mrs Australia ‘riding on the sheep’s back’, with the Average’s lives were twenty-five years shorter country’s prosperity dependent on its rural than Mr and Mrs Average enjoy today, the first industries, wool particularly, though mining was year of life particularly risky. Infant mortality significant and had been since the gold rushes. then was ten times higher than now.4 In marked contrast to now, the country had Canberra The Community That Was 8 more farmers than factory workers and more farm labourers than urban workers. Even so, by 1901, Australia, this country of open spaces and contradictions had almost two thirds of its National Library of Australia population living in cities and large towns, a higher proportion than any other country. Come 1901, eastern Australia was again experiencing drought while still recovering from a banking crisis and a depression that began a decade earlier, causing wages and living standards to fall.

Farming was uncertain, and it was especially tough for small farmers, many of whom led a hand-to-mouth existence. The larger grazing properties could at times be extremely profitable, at other times face bankruptcy. All colonists found the 1890s difficult. In the Limestone Plains district, poor prices and drought were Horse and buggy cautiously compounded by a plague of rabbits which, crossing the Molonglo , within a decade of first being observed, was Apart from word-of-mouth, letters and the 1909. Sketch attributed to Charles Coulter. destroying crops and halving the stock-carrying occasional telegram, newspapers were the only capacity of infested land. source of information. There was no radio, no TV, no computers, no internet, no mobile Here is a routine day’s farming news from the phones, no text messages, no iPods. Where Queanbeyan Age in 1908 (a reasonably good year): we rely on media, they heard first-hand. For Bushfires have been raging across the example, the Queanbeyan Age announced that: during the past few Mr Austin Chapman (the local MP) will days. On Sunday and Monday the heat was address the electors at Tharwa (at Mr John unbearable. Sheedy’s) on Tuesday 22 January at 3pm. 6 The latest phase of the question of the use of the Ladies are cordially invited to attend. Danysz virus to destroy rabbits is a conference Chapman must have been persuasive; he of chairmen of the health boards of the various remained the member for Eden- for States to be held in Sydney. twenty-four years.

Threshing and chaff cutting operations are now The cinema was in its infancy and usually in full swing out Ginninderra way. It is said out‑of-doors: that owing to the higher prices fodder is realising, Hayes Picture Company, so well known and so some of the farmers intend having their wheat popular, were prevented by the downpour of rain converted into chaff. on Tuesday night from exhibiting their beautiful Owing to the continued dry weather and films. The entertainment was consequently destruction by the feathered tribe, the fruit crop at postponed till the following evening.7 Ginninderra is a complete failure. The late potato People were self-reliant and made their own crops, or at least what is left of them by the rabbits, fun. In the small amount of leisure time are also regarded as being beyond all hope. available, they organised dances, played cricket, Tenders for the supply and delivery of forage for enjoyed horse racing, shooting (at almost police stations throughout the State for a period anything), fishing, picnics and made music. of 12 months will be received at the office of the Football, a late arrival, had a growing number of store supply and tender board up to Monday the third of February.5 9 Canberra The Community That Was

adherents. There was a strong community bond, Rail networks were expanding, the line from with churchgoing central to people’s lives and Goulburn finally reaching Queanbeyan in 1887. the focus of social activity: Regrettably, each State had chosen to use a New Year’s Day [1908] was observed as a close different rail gauge requiring a change of trains holiday in Queanbeyan, but there were no if you crossed a State border. Until Federation, attractions except a cricket match ... A number the States maintained tariff barriers and border of members of the Methodist Church formed customs posts against each other, restricting themselves into a picnic party and journeyed to interstate business. Most necessities were brought Canberra, where an enjoyable time was spent. in by rail except that each individual town relied On New Year’s Eve watch-night services were on its local suppliers for fresh farm produce, held in the churches, and the local band played milk, butter, meat, vegetables, hay for horses, the old year out and the New Year in. A few New Year’s revellers paid a visit to some of the firewood, building materials for housing and so business establishments and were given different on. The new capital would need to do likewise. viands, but there was an entire absence of Electricity was mainly used for factories, anything approaching rowdyism. domestic and civic lighting, and tramways. Advertisements illustrate Transmission of electricity was in its infancy. The everyday aspirations and long-distance electricity grid we take for granted preoccupations. They today was not feasible, though it was a gleam show that our thoroughly in the engineers’ eye. Electric power had to be modern forebears liked generated near the consumer. fashionable clothing, patent medicines From 1880 schooling in New South Wales was promising quick compulsory but most children finished school cures, saddles and by age fourteen. There were no secondary sulkies. Bicycles were schools in the Federal (from 1938 known as commonplace and motor the Australian) Capital Territory region, anyone cars were starting to seeking to complete high school having to travel appear but it was still to Goulburn or to Sydney and board. There the horse and buggy were different categories of elementary school, era. Roads were of dependent on the number of enrolments, poor standard and many the smaller schools in remote areas using we take for granted local homes or buildings constructed by the did not exist even as a community to hold classes. So‑called half-time The ‘sale of the century’: horse track, the Federal a typical advertisement in Highway between Canberra and Goulburn for schools in the outlying areas relied on teachers the Queanbeyan Age, this travelling, while larger schools, with twenty-five one from 13 January 1900 example. Accidents were common, often fatal. Mr Chapman, MP, could never keep out of the or more pupils, provided teachers with living news for long: accommodation near the school. While driving down Araluen Mountain on The Commonwealth Parliament met in Saturday morning, Mr Austin Chapman, Melbourne for the first time on 9 May 1901. In Minister for Customs, and Messers Lawson the first ten years of Federation there were nine and Greg, Directors of the Araluen Central Prime Ministerships, shared between five Prime mine, had a narrow escape from serious injury. Ministers. Initially at least, differences between The brakes failed, and the horses raced down ‘protectionists’ and ‘free traders’ were the the mountain. The occupants of the trap delineating political divide.9 A decision on the threw themselves clear, and eventually the location of the national capital was well down driver managed to run the horses into a cutting. The trap was left on the mountain, and the the Parliamentary agenda and not a priority. passengers walked into Araluen.8 Canberra The Community That Was 10

sources. Numbers counted in individual groups, View looking west from Aboriginal Community Limestone Hill, called for example when blankets were issued, fell, Campbell’s Hill, in the Another community long pre-dated the though not to the extent often presumed and Canberra region, with European settlers of the Limestone Plains. the Brindabellas in asserted. the background— a Archaeological evidence suggests that Aboriginal watercolour by surveyor Robert Hoddle, 1832, people had been living in the Monaro region for European assessments of Aboriginal numbers barely a decade after over 20,000 years. Prior to European settlement were recurrently incorrect. For example, as early Europeans arrived in the area to settle. Note native fauna (kangaroos, wallabies, native cats, as 1834, writing about the Limestone Plains, Hoddle’s idealised perspective on race waterbirds, fish) were plentiful, as were edible the Polish naturalist John Lhotsky stated that relations at such an early indigenous plants. Local Ngunnawal people also ‘they [the local Aboriginal people] are no more’. point in black/white interaction. Dispossession harvested an extremely rich source of fat and Sixty years later one elder, Nellie Hamilton, was is not a consideration. protein, Bogong Moths, which clustered in the referred to in the Queanbeyan press as the ‘last high country in summer. Walgalu and Ngambri full blood member of her people’ when her lands adjoined those of the Ngunnawal and death was recorded in 1897. Aboriginal people evidently extended over parts of what became kept away from grazing districts, forming the Federal Capital Territory.10 changing allegiances and connections with other Aboriginal groups, or intermarried. While European inland settlement commenced in numbers declined drastically, the perception the 1820s and, as with the rest of the country, of a total decline in the Aboriginal population was increasingly detrimental to the Aboriginal suited the European notion of civilisation and community. Most European accounts assert that its presumed inevitable impact on so-called there was little direct conflict in the Canberra unsophisticated peoples. region, though by no means was contact conflict-free. Aboriginal accounts refer to the Aboriginal society, with its reliance on oral ‘resistance’. Most commonly, clashes were history, has also been profoundly disadvantaged triggered by shepherds abducting or abusing by public policy. In addition to the direct Aboriginal women, leading to retaliation.11 impact of European settlement, successive There is an account of one thousand people governments implemented an array of policies gathering at Lake George in 1826 to avenge that erased awareness of Aboriginal people and one incident, a gathering that eventually broke culture from Australian society. Amongst these up peacefully.12 Settlers reacted to Aborigines measures were, in the 1880s, changes to the spearing sheep and cattle. Other accounts speak definition of who was ‘Aboriginal’ (no-one with of friendships, for example that between an an ‘admixture’ of heritage); later compulsory Aboriginal leader, Onyong, and the convict confinement to camps and reserves (in this settler Garrett Cotter. Later accounts refer to region mainly around Yass); forcible removal Aboriginal people working on rural properties and institutionalisation of children (the Stolen and to outstanding Aboriginal sportspeople: Generation); exclusion of Aboriginal children Bobby Deumonga, Jimmy Taylor and Johnny from the mainstream State school system; and Taylor being exceptional cricketers.13 In the the application of bans on the use of Aboriginal early days of European intrusion, gatherings languages. Each made capturing the Aboriginal of around five hundred are mentioned, usually record of early contact more difficult. in connection with ceremonial activity. More routinely, the Ngunnawal kept to small family groupings.

Disease had an adverse impact, particularly measles, tuberculosis and influenza and possibly also smallpox.14 So too did grazing and the Ginninginderry [Ginninderra] Plains, indiscriminate destruction of native fauna and watercolour by Hoddle, ca 1835, flora, both greatly reducing traditional food framing the same cultural perspective. 11 Canberra The Community That Was National Library of Australia National Library of Australia Canberra The Community That Was 12

The Limestone Plains The district had been first settled by Europeans in the 1820s, a few years after the initial European exploration. They came to valleys labelled the Limestone Plains, Molonglo Plains, Isabella Plains and Michelago Plains – here, for convenience, generically grouped as the ‘Limestone Plains’.

Probably the first to do so was Joshua John Moore, who around 1823 claimed land and despatched stockmen to a property he called ‘Canbery’, his homestead roughly where the National Museum is today. The origin of the name ‘Canbery’, which evolved later into ‘Canberra’, is still analysed and its meaning disputed – but it is likely to have derived from an Aboriginal word recorded as ‘Kamberi’ or ‘Kembery’.

Hard on the heels of Moore was a leading Sydney merchant, Robert Campbell, who was granted a 5000-acre land allocation in long-delayed compensation for a ship he owned which had been requisitioned by the New South Wales Governor, then lost at sea. Campbell despatched James Ainslie with a flock of sheep and, on Ainslie’s advice, he chose land on the Limestone

Plains. He called the property ‘Duntroon’, and Betsy Dunn/National Library of Australia Limestone Plains, the it retains that name today. A dozen or so other Klensendorlffe farm, 1913: major landowners took up land in the late 1820s watercolour by H M Rolland During the 1850s ownership of land became and early 1830s so that, by the 1840s, most local a major political issue, ever more colonists land was held by freehold or landowners holding wanting to farm. The solution enacted by large acreages, some leasing small plots to tenant John Robertson, with his 1861 Crown Lands farmers, usually their employees. There were few Alienation Act, offered free selection before small freeholders. A census taken in 1841 gave survey on crown lands and expired leases. the population of the district as 451 people, 359 This type of occupancy allowed for a freehold males and 92 females; 180 of them were convicts, homestead block of 640 acres to be held on some of whom had their tickets-of-leave.15 conditional purchase or leasehold. Freehold, These large estates required workers: shearers, greatly prized, represented outright ownership. shepherds, blacksmiths, farriers, horse-breakers, Conditional purchase was designed to make carpenters, stockmen and grooms. As policies it easier to take a step in that direction for a changed and the availability of convict labour limited acreage: if you paid a deposit of one reduced, free settlers were recruited to work on quarter of the purchase price, the selector lived the properties. For example, by 1841 Terence on and improved the land, with the balance Murray, an Irish proprietor, had a community of owed. The system, as administered, had the some 87 people living at Yarralumla, most Irish occupants identify and register selections on Catholics. A short distance away a similar colony maps available at district land offices, showing of English/Scots workers, mostly Protestant, numbered land portions within civil parishes worked at Duntroon.16 of the counties. The opening up of these 13 Canberra The Community That Was

lands coincided with the peak in immigration, farming communities. Initially there was a particularly from Ireland, and the decline of the blacksmith’s shop, a store, a doctor, then later gold rushes. A new generation of selectors was police and a police magistrate, hotels, banks, attracted, not to the Limestone Plains as such, courthouse and newspapers. Queanbeyan’s where the land was already taken by the large boom time was the 1860s as travellers passed properties, but to the surrounding districts. through on their way to and from the Kiandra The smaller farmers were often engaged in goldfields in the Snowy Mountains. The railway subsistence farming, which for many was reached Queanbeyan in 1887. Other small still a godsend compared to their previous villages developed near major rural properties, circumstances in Europe and Australia. at Tharwa, Ginninderra, Jeir, and so on. Hall More intensive settlement caused increased developed late, formally designated as a village competition for land and inevitably created in 1882, with the first land sold in 1886. tensions between the different categories of At this time ‘Canberra’ was a name on a detailed settlers in the 1860s and 1870s. Another spate of map but lacked even the formal status of a disputes was later triggered by large landowners village. A church [St John’s] had been built fencing their properties, both replacing shepherds there on land provided by Robert Campbell and denying access to what others regarded as established roads and right of way. When taken in 1845, a schoolhouse (two in fact, the first to court, the outcomes almost always favoured burnt down), and later a post office tucked the larger landowners, arguably a systemic bias. under Mount Ainslie. Later still there was a However, by Federation, these major and lesser blacksmith’s shop, but this aside there was no settlers coexisted in reasonable harmony. good reason for the traveller to stop. Why did Queanbeyan notables see it as Queanbeyan for appropriate to toast ‘the Commonwealth’ and National Capital ‘our commercial interests’ together at their Queanbeyan was formally surveyed and first Pooley’s Hotel dinner in 1901? The answer marked out as a town in 1838. The only one is that some of them hoped the two could in the region, it developed to service the local be linked, and that Federation would deliver

Queanbeyan Fire Brigade,

1904 Canberra and District Historical Society Canberra The Community That Was 14 them prosperity if the town or the country Sydney Richardson and Patrick thereabouts became the site of Australia’s Blackall, gave evidence, new capital and potentially deliver boom as did William Farrer, times for local merchants, hoteliers, doctors, the famous surveyor hauliers, land-valuers, lawyers, builders and turned wheat- newspapermen. Patriotism, local pride, and breeder. Others the possibilities of national and international who testified attention were considerations. But when all is were journalists said and done, it’s the truly exceptional person Theophilus Cox who advances a high-minded proposal that runs and John Gale, counter to his own interests. and three local landowners, Some leading Queanbeyan citizens had already Frederick Campbell, signalled the town’s interest in becoming Andrew Cunningham the capital. Late in 1899 they formed the and John Fitzgerald. le a G Queanbeyan Federal City Committee to put hn It was obvious that the Jo their case. In doing so, they joined close to Queanbeyan witnesses had fifty New South Wales communities with a agreed on their testimony in advance. similar aspiration, responding to the possibilities They all judged that the land within the Federal offered by Section 125 of the Australian Territory was worth three pounds an acre, Constitution, which stipulated that the national other than the most likely city site, Duntroon, capital would be in New South Wales, no closer which they assessed at five pounds an acre, than 100 miles to Sydney, and within a Federal excluding the value of the homestead. Similarly, Territory of not less than 100 square miles. all witnesses stated, in virtually identical terms, In November 1899, the Queanbeyan Committee that a town of 40,000 people could be supplied invited Alexander Oliver to visit. Oliver with meat and fresh food from farms within a had been tasked by the New South Wales thirty to forty-mile radius. Frederick Campbell, Government to recommend suitable capital sites, who owned Yarralumla, claimed that in this his search beginning even before Federation. district ‘you could grow anything that can be On his visit, he was escorted by some large local grown in the south of England’. To win over landholders and also visited Queanbeyan to Sydney commercial meet other local proponents of the bid.17 The interests, Campbell one hundred square miles of national capital also commented territory that they proposed was shaped like a that existing railway frying pan, a narrow handle running up from routes meant that Tharwa in the south, the pan including the the proposed site Yarralumla and Duntroon properties. The city was commercially would straddle the south of favourable to Sydney, Black Mountain and Mt Ainslie. Included in less so to Melbourne. the city site was the old Anglican Church of St John’s, the main feature of the ‘village’ of The one jarring note Canberra. The town of Queanbeyan itself would came from the doctors. sit outside the proposed Federal Territory. They asserted that the local climate was Oliver returned in June 1900 and conducted healthy and conducive public hearings into Queanbeyan’s claims. Just to longevity and old by reaching that stage the town had passed age, an implausible a major hurdle: of the fifty or so interested incantation that was communities, he subjected only twenty-three uttered by every to further enquiry. Two local health experts, community aiming 15 Canberra The Community That Was

for selection. More worryingly, however, the Government asked to be expertly assessed by yet doctors acknowledged that typhoid was present another enquiry, conducted by John Kirkpatrick. in Queanbeyan, albeit for the first time in seven This was a good thing in the view of some; or eight years, that diphtheria was a problem they had started to have second thoughts. Like and that pneumonia was more prevalent the Queanbeyan commercial sector, local than normal in the rest of New South Wales. landowners initially had hoped they could profit Queanbeyan’s lack of sewerage almost certainly from proximity to the new capital. Clearly, contributed, with contaminated water draining those who owned the actual capital site would from the town into the Queanbeyan River.18 have to sell and farm elsewhere to allow the When published late in 1900, Oliver’s city to be built, but presumably they N at ion al Lib ra would be compensated fairly. ry assessment of the Queanbeyan o f A u s tr al site was lukewarm. In the ia Hopefully for the others, the southern New South Wales status quo would remain, region he preferred Yass, their freehold land and gave top rating title protected (albeit under Commonwealth overall to Bombala, instead of State legal when that site was jurisdiction), and coupled with a Federal existing (State) land port at Eden. leases transferred and After receiving the extended. Their land report the chairman should zip up in value of the Queanbeyan since construction of

n o the capital would improve committee, Frederick rt a B d the region’s roads and Campbell, wrote to his local un dm member in the New South Wales E infrastructure – and the new Parliament, E W O’Sullivan: capital would need local supplies of milk, meat and fruit, as well as timber, building As chairman of the Queanbeyan Federal site materials and firewood. committee, I beg to request that you will use your undoubted influence ... to restore your However, before long some citizens realised that accompanying the capital would come a electorate to a place in the list of contesting change in the system of land ownership. Even sites ... The claims of Yass had been deservedly before Federation, leading politicians, including heralded over the Commonwealth yet the the first Prime Minister Edmund Barton, argued Queanbeyan site surpasses them: - First in that Federal Capital Territory land should be its water supply, embracing by gravitation leasehold (rented from the Government on the never failing and pure mountain stream short-term leases of just a few years), not of the Cotter ... Secondly in its climate. It is outright freehold ownership. This way, so the cooler in summer ... Thirdly in the beauty of theory ran, the rise in land values generated by the surroundings ... It is already served by the building the capital would be captured for the railway to Cooma which may ultimately be Australian people as a whole, not just by those carried on as an alternative line to Melbourne.19 who were lucky enough to live nearby. This opinion gained support across the political Neither Campbell’s letter nor the Committee’s divides. So too did arguments for a one subsequent activities had any immediate effect. thousand, rather than a one hundred, square Three years later, Federal legislators visited. mile Federal Territory. Some wanted the larger They too gave the Queanbeyan site scant area to limit land speculation, others to ensure consideration. It was not included in a list of the new Federal Territory had control over its eight sites that, in 1902, the Commonwealth river catchments and water supply. Canberra The Community That Was 16

So although commercial interests in small farmers, the deep green patches telling Queanbeyan town remained keen, enthusiasm of intense cultivation ... An indication was for the capital among astute landowners given of the possibilities of Canberra for closer diminished. Others remained blissfully ignorant settlement in the condition of the cultivated of the potential implications. Not that anyone areas in the lower levels of the valley, where fine took a vote on it. Certainly the local press, crops of wheat and oats were growing. One whose owners strongly supported the capital man has cultivated, in the centre of his pasture bid, did nothing to alert residents that, for some, lands, an orchard of about an acre in extent it may prove detrimental. ... In the grounds of the Church of England is an almond tree, today simply a dense mass of 1906: Canberra Emerges white blossom, and giving quite a picturesque touch to the landscape ... The Federal members Federal Parliamentarians had great difficulty were evidently considerably impressed with deciding where to locate the capital. No sooner Canberra, which is now regarded by more than had they settled on the remote southern New one politician as very much in the running for South Wales town of Dalgety, in the final choice, whenever it comes ...20 later 1904, than it was rejected outright by the New South Wales Premier, Joseph Carruthers. Canberra did run successfully, support for it Twelve months later the Carruthers Government growing over the next two years. In December initiated a new spate of site assessments. The 1908 both House and Senate agreed that the upshot was that on 14 August 1906, as guests national capital should be in the ‘Yass-Canberra of the New South Wales Government, some 33 region’, with the Canberra site most generally federal politicians visited a possible national favoured and ultimately selected. A year later, capital site called ‘Canberra’, close in concept agreement was struck with the New South Wales to the earlier rejected site previously called Government to transfer the territory. ‘Queanbeyan’. This time they liked what they Then there was a delay of a year until the saw. According to a press report: Commonwealth Government assumed full In a district of fine landscapes, Canberra is one legal control of the Federal Territory, which of the most picturesque of spots and presented it did on 1 January 1911, exactly ten years a charming spectacle this morning under the after Federation. The Territory covered 2280 sun from an unclouded sky. It was a clear, square kilometres, and included 1714 residents, frosty morning, such as can be enjoyed at approximately 200 landholders, 1785 horses, these high altitudes, where a deep breath of the 8976 cattle and 326,616 sheep. Queanbeyan air is like a draft of champagne. Canberra, Council until then had serviced 200 miles of which lies below Mount Ainslie, and about road (most in bad condition); four bridges (all 200 miles from Sydney, is 2000 feet above in good condition); two street lights (the village sea level ... A couple of miles out on the drive of Hall was the biggest settlement); fourteen from Queanbeyan ... the visitors caught sight toilets of the duplicate pan variety; and there from a high ridge of a beautiful panorama – were millions, possibly billions, of rabbits. an extensive plain ... the white homestead of Commonwealth legislation specified that land Duntroon, nestling beneath a hill whose green within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) dome contrasted in a striking degree with the would be acquired by the Commonwealth higher and rugged peaks behind, and the rich according to its value on 8 October 1908, and blue of the mountain ranges still further off, leased. Technically, about twenty-eight percent with their tops of snow ... The spire of the of FCT land was freehold, twenty-six percent Church of England – a white stone building in in the process of alienation (that is, becoming the centre of the site, surrounded by trees – gave freehold or other forms of private ownership a striking touch to the scene. Here and there, mainly through ‘conditional purchase’), thirty- dotted over the landscape, were the homes of four percent subject to various forms of lease 17 Canberra The Community That Was

and licence, and some twelve percent crown River catchments, in the FCT. Even after the FCT land. There was a bewildering array of lease was formally proclaimed on 1 January 1911, titles (conditional, annual, scrub, improvement the Fisher Government tried to reopen the deal, and special leases), plus preferential occupation like Scrivener arguing for the inclusion of the licences, occupation licences and permissive Queanbeyan and Molonglo river catchments and occupancies. The unoccupied crown land was Queanbeyan. Late in 1910 the New South Wales mainly in the rough hills of the Cotter catchment. Government appeared to agree, then thought better of it. But the uncertainty was prolonged Like the Commonwealth Parliament, the Federal and just who would be affected remained unclear. bureaucracy was in its infancy. Only a few score It was difficult to know where matters stood. worked in the diverse Home Affairs portfolio, Some of the wealthier graziers started hedging the Department responsible for bringing the their bets, buying new properties far removed. national capital into existence. In the early 1900s the Commonwealth drew on State Late in 1910 Queanbeyan residents too became Government expertise. Little thought had been worried. The proposed railway to the new given to the practicalities and neither State nor Federal capital would bypass Queanbeyan. If Federal Governments were well-prepared to that happened Queanbeyan would, in the words provide a just transition. of one, become a ‘wayside town’. Some strongly suggested that Queanbeyan seek inclusion in The Immediate Aftermath: the FCT: for many years much Commonwealth Disenfranchisement business could be undertaken in Queanbeyan. A decision was taken to put the question to a Surely there was no need for any concern? referendum of Queanbeyan residents. This took After all, Parliament had previously voted place early in 1911. Ratepayers rejected the for Dalgety and four years later changed its idea by a wide margin; residents also did so, but mind. Probably it would do so with Canberra. only narrowly. Whatever the effect of the capital Considerable opposition remained in Parliament on others, the residents of Queanbeyan town to a ‘bush capital’, considered by many to be preferred to let well alone. an unnecessary, expensive, inconvenient and impractical idea. Melbourne or Sydney, or both When the dust settled, the shocked residents in turn, could serve as the capital. living within the new FCT found that, first up, they lost all right to the vote. The Queanbeyan For a period it had remained unclear which press, soft soaping, commented that it was part of the broad Yass-Canberra area would be obvious that they would cease to vote in State selected. Similarly, it had been uncertain N at elections, but ‘provisions will be ion al Lib ra whether the capital territory would ry o f A made for the full exercise of their u s tr al cover more than one hundred ia franchise for the forthcoming square miles of territory. Federal election’.21 Nothing District Surveyor Charles of the kind. To their Scrivener’s proposals for extreme frustration, the Territory, first made they lost their vote public in March 1909, in all circumstances: differed significantly in New South Wales from the configuration State elections, in the Commonwealth the local municipal and New South Wales elections (the municipal Governments eventually boundaries were redrawn settled on. For example, to exclude them) and, Scrivener included the most remarkably, in Federal town of Queanbeyan, and elections. r the Queanbeyan and Molonglo he Fis Andrew Canberra The Community That Was 18

N at There was no constitutional ion At a human level, establishing al Lib ra ry o f A requirement that they do so: the u the capital with a leasehold st ra li Constitution left the decision to a system required existing Federal Parliament. However, residents’ land to be the Fisher Government compulsorily acquired judged them to be too few by the Commonwealth in number to warrant a Government, in all Federal representative probability meaning and, for four decades, no they would be evicted subsequent Government, from their farms and or Commonwealth homes. This meant Parliament, thought they would have differently.22 King to discard the hard O’Malley, the Federal work and ingenuity of Minister for Home Affairs generations, lose their at the time, was particularly present livelihoods and unsympathetic. O’Malley had y uproot their families from the lle ’Ma grown up and worked in the United King O homes and farms that stood witness States until migrating to Australia in 1888. As to the ebb and flow of their lives, and which was his habit, the comparison he drew was with nurtured their hived-up memories, both joyous the country of his birth. Just as the 400,000 and sad. Neighbours and friends too would be residents of Washington DC were not entitled to leaving and the once-close community would a vote, nor should the residents of the Federal fragment. If they chose, some could stay, for Capital Territory. At the precise time when a while at least, but only as temporary tenants they most needed political representation, FCT of the Government, every decision requiring residents were disenfranchised and politically someone’s approval, where once they had free powerless, though their erstwhile MP, Austin rein as respected pioneers and freeholders. Chapman, took them under his ample wing. Administratively, land resumption proved to be slow and contentious, and reaching agreement Uprooting and between Government and landowner very Dispossession difficult. The process was starved of funds The implications for landholders emerged and short of the expertise that would have slowly. Late in 1910 the Queanbeyan Age allowed for quick, informed decision-making. Both deficiencies contributed to making the advised that: process unfair. Besides building the capital city, It is provided in the Act passed in 1908 relating Government officials envisaged closer settlement to the Federal Territory at Yass-Canberra that – with many small farmers replacing the few the Commonwealth shall be entitled to resume large ones (pretty little farms supplying food any private lands within the boundaries of the to the capital). As the value of these holdings Territory at a valuation. There is a further increased, their rents would rise in step, proviso that the valuation shall be on the basis of generating revenue for the Commonwealth. the worth of the land at the time when the Act A further complication for landholders was that was passed [8 October 1908]. The Minister ... the FCT was a new sovereign entity. Some farms has instructed Mr Scrivener ... to commence straddled the border between New South Wales preparations for the valuation of all private and the FCT: half the farm now on one side lands within the area ... It is understood that the (freehold), half the farm on the other (leasehold). Ministry’s intention is to resume the alienated The economics of the farm were drastically (i.e. private freehold or leasehold) lands in order affected; it was unlikely anyone would be that a complete system of state ownership and interested in buying the land remaining within 23 perpetual leasing may be established. New South Wales, certainly not for a fair price. 19 Canberra The Community That Was

Administratively, the Government notified the to the High Court risked bankruptcy. Farmers landholder that it had compulsorily acquired requested that a tribunal, with Government and his land, then requested an indication of the local settler representation, be established to settle compensation the landowner sought for losing it. compensation quickly and fairly. It didn’t happen. The Government also made its own assessment of The 1908 valuation date was designed to its value. If the landholder’s figure was less than pre‑empt land speculation and, in concept, was the Government’s, it was accepted. Generally a well-intended. The trouble was that land prices negotiation of sorts was possible, but routinely elsewhere in New South Wales were escalating. the Government had the whip hand and refused The chance that a displaced FCT landholder to budge. Just how the Government determined could buy an equivalent farm elsewhere rapidly its valuation, what detailed judgements and diminished. Either Commonwealth acquisition arithmetic lay behind it, was never explained. of FCT land occurred quickly, or the valuation This made it harder to know if it was fair or date needed to be changed. Again, neither unfair, certainly harder to legally challenge. The happened. In fact, as the years ticked by, the landowners’ only appeal right was to the High 1908 values became increasingly unfair and next

Jeremiah Keeffe and family. Court. That was an extremely uncertain and to impossible to plausibly estimate. Keeffe led the campaign expensive proposition. A small farmer going to secure a fair deal for the One early uncertainty was whether farmers Federal Capital Territory. would be compensated for the improvements they had made: their homesteads and cottages, fencing, sheds and wells, for the years of work that had gone into their land. The law, as initially drafted, made no mention of doing so, though it was later changed. In contrast to the Federal Government, when the New South Wales Government compulsorily acquired land it added ten percent to the valuation to compensate for losses caused by forced sale, legal costs, the cost of moving, and the need to hold a fire-sale of stock and equipment. The Commonwealth didn’t and declined to correct the anomaly.

Land resumed, but not immediately needed for city construction, was leased. To whom and on what terms were obvious questions. Most importantly, could existing landholders remain on their properties once these were compulsorily acquired? Did they have first right of refusal and if so, for what duration? Subject to what stipulations? At what price?

All landowners were vulnerable, especially smaller farmers who lacked financial clout and who were outside the central city area as such. Treasury funding for acquisitions was restrictive, especially after the outbreak of World War One in 1914. Given all the uncertainty, no private buyer would consider FCT land, other than at a heavy discount to its real value. Equally, the existing landowners had no incentive to

National Library of Australia maintain and improve their farms. Canberra The Community That Was 20

Protests and Petitions: the Miller and Scrivener Vigilance Association From the Commonwealth Government’s Local FCT residents did not take all this lying perspective, the sequence and cost of down. On 28 March 1911 Queanbeyan Mayor, resumptions was important, as was the Richard Moore, advised: ability to acquire whole stretches of country, not just isolated parcels of land. First, they I have been requested to convene a public meeting needed to acquire the immediate city area to at Byrnes Hotel on Saturday 1 April 1911 at permit construction to begin, then the land 4 p.m. to discuss the position of landowners and

N north of the Molonglo excluding at ion al others within the Federal capital area ... Li br ar y the village of Hall (which of A u s tr al They duly met, wary, concerned that they may could wait). Some larger ia offend the Federal Government which had the southern properties whip hand over their future fortunes. They were also resumed, for opted to form a ‘vigilance association’, electing a example Tuggeranong small Williamsdale landowner and Yarrowlumla homestead. However, Shire Councillor, Jeremiah Keeffe, as their smaller, southern, President. Keeffe received consistent support outlying farmers from both prominent graziers (such as Crace, were likely to have to Cunningham and Campbell) and from dozens twiddle their thumbs of small-scale farmers.24 It probably suited the for some time to larger landholders to have a farmer of modest come, a fate that was means as the spokesman. draining both their finances and their spirits, Shortly after the Association’s formation the especially given the rise in r Minister for Home Affairs, King O’Malley, visited ille M land prices elsewhere in New avid the Territory. O’Malley had not expected to be Colonel D South Wales. confronted with a deputation of disgruntled citizenry, nor asked to address the human David Miller, the Home Affairs Secretary and consequences of the grand leasehold policy from 1912 the Administrator of the FCT, and design. It wasn’t his finest hour. On the Charles Scrivener, now the Commonwealth back foot, he resorted to bombast. He talked Director of Lands and Survey, were the key about the appalling infestation of rabbits and officials responsible for administering land the poor roads. He said ‘he wasn’t blaming resumption. King O’Malley, too, was closely them for that’, thereby rather implying that he involved when Minister. was. They had nothing to fear from the great In general, Scrivener’s approach to acquisition Commonwealth Government which would treat and management was tough-minded them fairly and certainly far better than had the but meticulously careful. A surveyor by State Government. Again, that was not the point. profession, he was determined to establish the He was unsympathetic to their claim to have exact title and boundaries of land acquired their vote reinstated. Nothing resulted. by the Commonwealth. Valuations were In November 1911 a delegation of three – undertaken by experts, some living locally. Keeffe, Sullivan and Fitzgerald – was selected His approach resulted in a slow resolution. and (almost) funded by membership levies to Miller wanted expedition: city construction go to Melbourne to put the Association’s case to could not commence until the site was Parliament. Refused a request to appear before Commonwealth property. He enjoyed the House of Representatives, they held numerous being centre stage, cutting deals, possibly meetings, including with Prime Minister Andrew bestowing favours. He was determined to get Fisher and O’Malley. They carried with them a land management in his own hands. There protest petition signed by 165 local landowners. is evidence of tension between the two. 21 Canberra The Community That Was

Miller opposed existing landowners being Most acquisitions lagged behind the 1908 given priority in lease allocation but, valuation date by five to seven years. In fortunately, was overruled by O’Malley.25 September 1913, Scrivener, writing confidentially Similarly, he opposed the ten percent within Government, estimated that land values in disruption request. He had the opportunity the safer areas of New South to put the case for legislative amendment but Wales had increased by there is no sign he chose to do so. fifty to sixty percent In the event, the Acton estate (the over the previous 27 original Canbery holding of Joshua decade. That John Moore), the large Campbell figure suggests Duntroon and Yarralumla estates, FCT territory and some smaller nearby land owners, properties, were resumed by down the 1913. Tracking the number resumption of property titles resumed (an queue, were individual property may have had losing perhaps more than one title attached to it), a third to it is clear that two were acquired half of their in 1911; thirty in 1912; nineteen investment in in 1913; sixteen in 1914; forty-one their land, more if

in 1915; nine in 1916; and seven in re they were mortgaged. oo M ohn 1917. Between 1918 and 1924 only eleven Joshua J Effectively, they were titles were acquired. There was another spate of being asked to pay draconian activity between 1925 and 1928, when a total of taxes simply for the honour of having their land twenty-four titles were acquired.26 become part of the FCT. National Libraryof Australia

Duntroon Estate, ca 1870s Canberra The Community That Was 22

The Government’s Response

N Most ministerial and parliamentary encounters at ion al Li br ar y with the Vigilance Association engendered of A u s tr al expressions of sympathy, but little changed. ia O’Malley remained unhelpful, almost hostile. The need for a better valuation appeal system was acknowledged, the 1911 Melbourne delegation believing it had a promise from O’Malley on this, but he failed to deliver, a cause of ongoing complaint.28

Some progress was made. The legislation was quickly amended to allow for compensation to be paid for homesteads, fencing, shearing sheds and other improvements. Owners were given first right of refusal to lease their former properties. Robert Garran advised that the (New South Wales) District Court, rather than the High ook Court, could settle certain small claims. Joseph C

Ministerial and official attitudes softened markedly from mid-1914 when Sir John Forrest, N at ion al Lib then the Federal Treasurer, met the Vigilance ra ry o f A u s tr al Association. Afterwards he wrote to Prime ia Minister Joseph Cook: When in Queanbeyan recently, a deputation representing the land owners of the Federal Territory waited upon me ... I promised that I would submit their representations to the Government ... This I now do, and have no hesitation whatever in advising the Cabinet that these lands should be either purchased at once or the act at once repealed, in so far as it limits the price to be paid for land to the price which obtained in 1908. I am sure that everyone must agree that it is most inequitable to leave the land owners in the unsatisfactory position in which they are now placed.29 n arra Robert G Despite this, the fundamental elements of the legislation remained unchanged, the High Court rubbing salt in the wound when, in three cases where landholders challenged the Commonwealth Government, it not only found in favour of the Government but awarded costs, effectively erasing totally the value of a modest property. The Vigilance Association’s correspondence, previously correct and courteous, took on a bitter edge. The experience of some individuals shows us why. 23 Canberra The Community That Was

Personal Stories

Frederick Campbell As regards the selection of this present site for Initially, Yarralumla owner Frederick Campbell the federal capital city we first of all had Mr was positive about the idea of the national Oliver ... He took evidence and in the end capital at Canberra, though he must have condemned it, and we should have heard no understood that his own property and the older more of it except for certain other gentlemen family property at Duntroon were likely to be who found it out ... I do not think it is the wish resumed. Campbell was the first chairman of of the people in other parts of Australia to deal the Queanbeyan Federal Capital Committee and harshly with the people who have lived here all one of those who squired Alexander Oliver on their lives.31 his visit to the Queanbeyan site in 1899. It is obvious that he began to have second Campbell’s strongest reaction was when it thoughts. In 1908 he had the wherewithal appeared he was to be denied the right to retain to purchase another property distant from a parcel of land that generations earlier had been the Limestone Plains and did so. By 1911, originally granted to Charles Sturt, the explorer he too became a member of the Vigilance – most of which was in the FCT, and now to be Association trying to secure a fair deal from the resumed, but some of which was in New South Government. On 6 August 1912 he wrote to Wales. The outcome is not clear but Campbell Charles Scrivener: ‘I note the Commonwealth was well-heeled, able to threaten legal action by notification has resumed my land and wish and influential enough to be heard. they had gone elsewhere for their capital.’30 At a meeting with David Miller, he recounted the history of the Campbell family’s involvement with the district, then commented:

Frederick Campbell (right) of Yarralumla and family. Campbell initially supported the capital at Canberra, but

later regretted doing so. Canberra and District Historical Society Canberra The Community That Was 24

St Johns, Church of England

Like Campbell, the Church of England too had clout. Compulsory acquisition of the Church lands, including St John’s Church, had been gazetted in July 1912. The Diocesan Registrar, the Venerable Archdeacon Ward, wrote to the Minister for Home Affairs: It is of course, fully recognised that with references to most of this land, the trustees have no alternative but to bow to the will of the Authorities in this matter, but with reference to two acres of land occupied by the Canberra parish church and burial ground, there is a very strong feeling indeed ... Relying on the inviolability of the Church’s title to this land, St John’s, at the time of Federation, and (below) today it was solemnly consecrated and set apart for its present purposes between 70 and 80 years ago. It is one of the most historic churches in the State. Interference with this particular piece of land with all its peculiar associations, and the disturbance of its title, would outrage the feelings not only of the direct descendants of those whose remains lie in the cemetery, but would be a source of great scandal to those to whom the church building itself is most sacred ...32

The Government’s response was to offer the Church a lease for ten years with a rent of three percent of the value of compensation paid for loss of freehold title, noting that ‘it will be necessary to prevent further internments in the churchyard after a cemetery for the city has been established.’ After discussion with Archdeacon Ward Archdeacon Ward countered with a proposal I consider that in addition to the offer to dedicate that the Commonwealth pay 10,000 pounds in the area for the church and grounds [in effect, to compensation for the loss of freehold title. give the Church title for an indefinite period of The Government’s offer generated a combative, time] the adjoining allotment ... should be leased hostile petition from 300 parishioners in perpetuity to the Church of England for the proposing, amongst other things, that the purposes of a residence for their representatives, Commonwealth compensate the Church for at a nominal rental, and that a sum of 2000 revenues lost because its parishioners had to pounds be paid to cover the costs of the erection move away as a result of the land acquisitions. of the new Rectory ... 33 Negotiations followed. FCT Administrator David Miller, on the back foot, quickly When it came to the legal documentation, sweetened the Government’s first offer and the Church insisted the dedication of lands be advised the Minister that: irrevocable. Delay followed. Mid-1914 Austin Chapman, the Member for Eden-Monaro, wrote to the Minister: 25 Canberra The Community That Was

The church people are very much put out about Jeremiah Keeffe this matter ... I have been pressed to bring the It was the smaller landowners who encountered whole matter before the Parliament and wish to most difficulties. The experience of the avoid doing so ... President of the Vigilance Association, Jeremiah 35 He also enclosed a letter from Archdeacon Ward Keeffe, provides a sample of the human cost. that read in part: Keeffe was born in 1871, the eldest son of James Keeffe and Elizabeth Curran in a family of eleven We cannot understand the delay in dealing with children. The parents moved in 1875 to Guises the Canberra church lands question ... We Creek, Williamsdale, securing small portions unhesitatingly refuse the substitute of a mere of selected land. James Keeffe also conducted privilege for our freehold title without some an inn on the roadside of the Monaro Road at compensation ... If the present ministry for one Guises Creek, a staging post for horse coach moment imagines that the Church of England is services. The arrival of the railway to Cooma going to be deprived of her rights without more about 1887 both took away the road trade and than merely vigorous protest they are very much bisected the property. mistaken. If this diocese finds it impossible to get justice, the matter will be referred to the ‘Mine host’ James Keeffe met a tragic end, Church people of the Commonwealth without thrown from his buggy in the darkness of night. further delay.34 Eldest son Jeremiah, then aged nineteen, took over the care of the family and the property. There could be no counter to this threat. Even He had gained some secondary education in so, the settlement process dragged on for 1885-86 at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill, and years, complicated by funding constraints, soon became involved in local public life, being disagreements between departmental officials elected to the first Yarrowlumla Shire Council and Walter Burley Griffin, and by the latter’s in 1907 at the age of 36, and then becoming insistence that the rectory not be located in a Shire President in 1911. Keeffe submitted his way that interfered with his design. But there resignation as President when it became evident was no doubt who ultimately would win. that his property would be within the FCT, and slated to be resumed.

The Keeffe family Inn at

Williamsdale, ca 1900 private collection Brian Maher, Father Canberra The Community That Was 26 Rev. Brian Maher, private collection Brian Maher, Rev. Farms such as the Keeffe properties, which One Keeffe land holding was resumed in May There were similar exchanges for a number of comprised a patchwork of land titles, often straddled 1913. However, two other portions of land, years. Later, ministerial agreement to acquire the newly created New one owned by Jeremiah and another by his was given ‘subject to funds being available’, South Wales/Federal Capital Territory border mother, Mrs E Keeffe, were not acquired until which they weren’t. This, and six similar cases, November 1917, and then after long petitioning were only resolved after being taken to Cabinet. and delays. These holdings were troubled by The family had scattered. Jeremiah Keeffe moved federal boundary lines which left some portions his wife and eight children to Queanbeyan in in New South Wales, others in the FCT. The 1912. His mother and four sisters moved to ageing Elizabeth Keeffe administered the estate Sydney and began to run the ‘Yass Canberra of her late husband, its finalisation urgent so Boarding House’, used by many district residents the beneficiaries of the will, two of whom had on visits to the city until the late 1920s.37 His died in the interim, could be recompensed. She youngest brother, James, went share farming wrote in 1915 that ‘owing to Federal Legislation to Queensland as available opportunities were we are deprived of the open market and hence lacking at home.38 According to the Queanbeyan ask the Government to make the resumption.’ community, the capital should have been having David Miller advised the Minister that: the opposite effect. ... though it would be a convenience to the family if the Commonwealth were to acquire the land, there are many other similar cases. I therefore advise that the request be declined as no reasons for special consideration have been disclosed.36 27 Canberra The Community That Was

Samuel Shumack

Many smaller landowners left with bitterness. Samuel Shumack’s son recorded that: ... the price paid to landowners at the time may be said to have been decided by the well-being and benevolence felt by one man pulling a good meal and congenial company. The one law for the big man another for the small man now operated. Frederick Campbell, by threatening legal action, did force the Government to raise its price, but the small man could not challenge the Government in this matter.39 Samuel Shumack But the dimension that mattered most was that: The resumption of their land by the Federal Government came as a profound shock to the older farmers. That they could stay on as tenants made no difference to their way of thinking. From the day of selection they had been free men on their own holding. With their own hands they had cleared and ploughed the virgin soil, built their houses, dug dams, and in general moulded the selection to their heart’s desire. There they married, experienced joy and sorrow in rearing their family, and having their own ‘vine and fig tree’ was no empty phrase. Now all this was changed. They would Robert Kilby’s ‘Land’s End’ property, at the time of Federation be under the control of an outsider. They couldn’t even cut down a tree without permission – those whose whole life had been a battle against the scrub. In August 1915 Robert Kilby from Land’s End rode up

to Springvale [Shumack’s property] to say National Library of Australia goodbye to his old friend. Mother asked what he intended to do. He was silent for some time, staring at the floor, then said, ‘I don’t know where I am going, but I am not staying here’. He rode sadly away. In three months he was dead.40

Wearing their Sunday-best: students from the weatherboard school near St John’s, 1908 Canberra The Community That Was 28

McIntosh’s Farewell

The Queanbeyan papers describe emotional community farewells as individual landowners who had settled up, moved away. They recur with increasing frequency until swamped by similar events for soldiers leaving for the front in World War One. John Gale, the Queanbeyan newspaperman and a leading town proponent of Canberra as capital, spoke at one such farewell about a family, the McIntoshes, whose forebears had first come to the district in 1837: Already [the region] had sustained serious losses Canberra and District Historical Society ... and now while another was being added to McIntosh farm at Majura, 1895 the list they knew it was far from being the last ... There were no gains without pains. It was a distinguished honour of which they might well be proud, that Canberra had been brought into prominence in the eyes of the whole world by selection as the capital of the great Australian Commonwealth.41

Gains? Perhaps, eventually, but not without considerable pain being incurred by many.

John Gale 29 Canberra The Community That Was

Selwyn Miller Postscript Local dissatisfaction was inflamed by one Somewhat ironically, late in 1923 the Mayor particular transaction, with questions being of Queanbeyan, Alderman Harris, called for asked in Parliament. Surplus land, after the establishment of a vigilance committee to purchase, was leased. Selwyn Miller, David protect the interests of the town of Queanbeyan. Miller’s son, was allocated short-term leases over By then, Canberra businesses were being established and administrative decisions made a total of 5000 acres. According to Hansard, the by Canberra officials favouring local business land went to tender for a twelve-month lease were detrimental to Queanbeyan commerce. in mid-1913 and Miller Jr submitted the high They moved to establish yet another vigilance bid. Again, according to Hansard, Scrivener association, ‘... to assist the local Parliamentary recommended the outcome, though the files are Representative in watching the commercial and not clear-cut on this. Certainly it was O’Malley industrial interests of citizens of Queanbeyan who decided the land allocation, wording his and other residents of the State, during the approval explicitly to state that Miller’s father initial stages of the building of Canberra.’ The had no direct involvement in the decision. tide had turned. A new concern had developed, However, beyond question, O’Malley believed one that still endures. that he was doing David Miller a favour, and his agreement (which appears to apply to a five-year Membership of the original Vigilance then the ten-year, not a one-year lease) is dated Association lessened by one for each property two days after the letter of application from resumed. Perhaps its ultimate legacy was Selwyn Miller. to create an awareness that, to establish the Canberra we know today, a small but proud At a minimum, the Selwyn Miller lease was community was fractured and disbanded – as decided with implausible speed. Even if every indeed had another, the Aboriginal community, aspect was above board, to resentful people on an infinitely more profound scale eighty being hustled off their farms, the transaction years before that. Canberra’s role as Australia’s was a provocation. Someone close to the centre capital, and its place in the hearts of today’s of power was benefiting from their discomfiture. community, is in no way diminished by our A barbed exchange, almost certainly between acknowledging that establishing it came with a David Miller and Austin Chapman writing under heavy human cost through the uprooting of the pseudonyms, appeared in the Queanbeyan Age.42 ‘community that was’.

Queanbeyan Age offices, corner Monaro and Crawfords Streets, about the time of Federation Canberra The Community That Was 30

Endnotes

1 The Territory became known as the Australian Capital 20 Daily Telegraph, 14 August 1906. Territory in 1938. Until then, the nomenclature was QA the Federal Capital Territory. 21 , 11 February 1910.

2 Queanbeyan Age (QA), 5 January 1901. 22 Canberra residents got partial representation in the House of Representatives in 1948, and full voting rights 3 ibid. in 1968. Senate representation was secured in 1974.

4 Infant mortality is defined as death within the first year 23 QA, 2 September 1910. of life. Statistics quoted in this section are from: Wray Vamplew, ed., Australian Historical Statistics, Fairfax 24 Committee members from 1911 to 1914 included Syme Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1987. Edward Brennan, Fred Sullivan, T. Woods, John Gallagher, Everard Crace, A. McKeahnie, John 5 QA, 21 January 1908. Fitzgerald, John Morrison, W. Ginn, William Bates, 6 QA, 12 January 1901. James Cunningham, J. Ryan and John Woods. Other well-known Canberra names appearing on Vigilance 7 QA, 2 December 1910. Association petitions include Blundell, Shumack and 8 QA, 21 January 1908. Sheedy.

9 Protectionists and free traders held close to equal 25 Minute: David Miller to O’Malley 26/3/1913, NAA numbers in the first Commonwealth Parliament, the A206/1 Volume 8. Labor Party holding the balance of power. Labor, with 26 Report on Agricultural and Pastoral Leases in the Federal the support of Alfred Deakin’s Protectionists, briefly Capital Territory, 13 December 1929, Commonwealth assumed office in 1904, only to lose it after five months Parliament. Joint Committee on Public Accounts. in the constant shifting and reconfiguring of the three- way split. Politics evolved into a more stable two-party 27 NAA, Series A202 Control 1914/3884. Despite this system from 1909, with the key divide then becoming calculation, Miller advised his Minister [William Kelly] Conservative/Liberal on one side, Labor on the other. in November 1913 that ‘... no serious hardship would accrue’ from concentrating systematic acquisition 10 Published sources on the Aboriginal people of this north of the Molonglo River. Slowness was unfairness, region, both pre-and post-European arrival, are heavily particularly affecting those in the southern Federal reliant on European accounts and need to be read with Capital Territory. that subjective viewpoint in mind. 28 The Government transcript (predictably) suggests 11 Brown, Halloran, Monaghan, Phillips, Stories of the something less. Ngunnawal, Journey of Healing ACT Inc, Florey (ACT) 2007. 29 NAA, Series A100 Control FC 1912/2797.

12 David Horton, ed., Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, 30 NAA, Series A357 Control 1. Aboriginal Studies Press, 1994, pp.789-790. 31 NAA, Series A202 Control 1912/531.

13 Samuel Shumack, Tales and Legends of Canberra Pioneers, 32 NAA, Series A196 Control 38. Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1967, ibid pp.149-150. 33 . ibid 14 Debate continues whether smallpox predated European 34 . arrival in Australia. It seems to have reached the 35 Keeffe family information draws on advice from Rev. Limestone Plains before European exploration of the Brian Maher. See acknowledgement above. district. 36 NAA, Series A196 Control 204. 15 Lyall Gillespie, Canberra 1820-1913, Australian 37 The boarding house was at 557 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1991, p.33. 38 In an irony of history, James’s son, James Bernard 16 Data and information courtesy of Rev. Brian Maher. Keeffe, returned to Canberra as a Queensland Senator 17 Gillespie, p.228. and later became President of the ALP.

18 Evidence included in Alexander Oliver, Report of the 39 Schumack, pp.165-70 Commissioner on Sites for the Seat of Government of the 40 ibid. Commonwealth of Australia, William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, Sydney, 1900. 41 QA, 16 June 1914.

19 New South Wales Archives (NSWA), Premier’s 42 Series of exchanges written using pseudonyms in the Department Special Bundles relating to National Capital Queanbeyan Age, commencing 3 November 1914. Site Selection. Letter is dated 17 June 1901. 31 Canberra The Community That Was

Acknowledgements

The three authors of these booklets wish to acknowledge the generosity and commitment of the Centenary of Canberra team within the Chief Minister’s Department, ACT Government. Each of the members of this energetic team contributed in ways that were appreciated by all authors, but special mention should be made of Shirley McDonough, who was always on hand to address any special requests made of her with efficiency and cheerfulness, from start to finish of the project.

We would also like to acknowledge a number of institutions for making their collections available. The visual quality of the five booklets is primarily due to the rich resources of the National Library of Australia (NLA). Extensive use was made by the authors of material from the Pictures Branch of the NLA (Linda Groom, Sylvia Carr and staff), the Maps (Martin Woods and staff) and Newspapers sections in: w The Community That Was (pp.1,3,4-5,6,7,8,11,12,14,15,17,18,19,20,21,22 and 27); w Maps and Makers (pp.3,6,9,10,11,12-13,15,18,22,25,27 and 28); w Crystal Palace to Golden Trowels (pp.1,3,5,6,9,10,11,12,14,17,22,26,27 and 28); w Those Other Americans (pp.3,5,6,9,10,11,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,25,26,27 and 28); and w Think of it! Dream of it! (pp.1,3,4,4-5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,16,17,18-19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 and 32-3).

We also acknowledge the following material from other institutions: from the National Archives of Australia (Maps and Makers, pp.4-5,18-19,20-21,22 and 23; Crystal Palace to Golden Trowels, p.4 and Those Other Americans,p.6); from the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University (Crystal Palace to Golden Trowels, pp.18-19,20 and 21; Those Other Americans, p.24); from Parliament House/Art Services (The Community That Was, p.1; and Think of it! Dream of it! pp.30 and 31); from the Canberra and District Historical Society (The Community That Was, pp.13,23 and 28); from the National Capital Authority (Maps and Makers – surveyors’ chain on the cover); and from Prosper Australia (the Henry George photograph on pp.4 and 12).

We were also grateful to receive permission from the following individuals to use images from their private collections: Betsy Dunn (two paintings of H M Rolland); Patrick Barnes (building on 178 Collins Street, Melbourne); Wes and Liz Kilby (photograph of ‘Land’s End’) and Rev. Brian Maher (two images used in The Community That Was, pp.25 and 26).

Finally, we would like to personally thank our graphic designer, Mariana Rollgejser, who committed herself to this project in a manner which went well beyond her professional responsibilities. Mariana was wonderful throughout: creative, imaginative and endlessly patient. This was a team effort, and she was an invaluable member.

I am indebted to Rev. Brian Maher OAM for the information included in this paper on the Keeffe family, of which he is a descendant, for general information on European settlement in the region, and for his scrutiny and comments on this text.

Greg Wood CCanberra The Community That Was

About the author… Other publications in this series Greg Wood CCanberra CCanberra 5IJOLPGJU%SFBNPGJU Greg Wood is a former senior public .BQTBOE.BLFST *OTJYTOBQTIPUT servant, international trade negotiator and diplomat. Building on a long-standing interest he has been researching Canberra history, concentrating on primary sources, the original documents, files and cartography generated by the site-selection debates and the early development of the national capital at Canberra. He has been publishing his findings in journal articles, delivered the Sir John Butters Oration to the Canberra Branch of the Institution of CCanberra CCanberra Engineers and was the curator of Far Sited: $SZTUBM1BMBDFUP(PMEFO5SPXFMT 5IPTF0UIFS"NFSJDBOT the Maps that Made Canberra, an exhibition at the National Library of Australia which opened in September 2009.

Contact us … Centenary of Canberra Unit ACT Chief Minister’s Department

n GPO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2601 n t 13 22 81 n e [email protected] n w www.canberra100.com.au