GLENELG SHIRE HERITAGE STUDY AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY PART ONE Prepared for Heritage Victoria and the Glenelg Shire October 2002 Prepared by: Carlotta Kellaway and David Rhodes: Illustration by Mandy Jean GLENELG HERITAGE STUDY Study Outline and Preliminary Costings GLENELG SHIRE HERITAGE STUDY AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY PART ONE December 2002 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Individuals: Neil McCulpie Graeme Baugh Gregor McGregor Laura Bell Peter Malcolm Gwen Bennett Margaret Morris Thelma Edwards Angela Munn John Emmerson Ken Nethercote Aunty Iris Gardiner Kevin Onus Madge Gough Ben Rietman Ann Grant Amy Saunders Michael Greenham Kenny Saunders Geoff Elmes Joy Savill Des Hein Gordon Stokes Brendan Jarrett Ruth Thompson Les Jones Cliff Tishner Noel Johnston Betty Vivian John Kellor Barnard Wallace Jim Kelly Don Ward Garry Kerr Beth White Denis Lovett Kevin Wilson Historial Societies and Other Organisations DHAU WURD WURRUNG Casterton Historical Society Elderly Citizens Association Casterton Railway Museum History House, Portland Glenelg Shire Archives, Portland Lodge Museum, Merino (Contact. Jim O’Meara, Records Development Merino Historical Society Officer) National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Portland Family History Group WINDAMARRA Aboriginal Corp. The Glenelg Heritage Study Stage One was carried out between 2001 – 2002 for the Glenelg Shire Council. The study was conducted by Mandy Jean, heritage architect, Gemray Pty. Ltd., Carlotta Kellaway, historian and David Rhodes, archaeologist, Heritage Insight.. The study follows the standard brief for municipal studies developed by Heritage Victoria, which provides for a two stage study. Funding was provided by Heritage Victoria and the Glenelg Shire Council. Photos: St. Peters Church Tahara photo by J.T. Collins State Library of Victoria Merino Winniburn, J.T. Collins, State Library of Victoria Lake Condah mission c 1878 State Library of Victoria Mandy Jean: Gemray Pty Ltd., PO Box 59, Hepburn Springs, Vic. 3461, Email:[email protected] 2 October 2002 Prepared by Mandy Jean, Gemray Pty Ltd., Carlotta Kellaway and David Rhodes, Heritage Insight GLENELG SHIRE HERITAGE STUDY1 ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY Draft Only Environmental history-Carlotta Kellaway Indigenous history- David Rhodes Illustrations -Mandy Jean December 2002 LIST OF CONTENTS 1. GLENELG NATURAL ENVIRONMENT 3 1.1 The environment at the time of European settlement. 1.2 Assessment of the natural environment. 1.3 Altering the environment. 1.4 Appreciating the natural wonders. 2. PEOPLING THE LAND 15 2.1 The Indigenous People of Glenelg 2.2 European Invasion 2.3 Sealers and whalers. 2.4 Early European exploration. 2.5 Overstraiters and overlanders. 2.6 Immigrating to the Shire. 2.7 Squatters and Selectors. 2.8 Closer Settlement and Soldier Settlement. 2.9 Fighting for the land 3. DEVELOPING LOCAL & REGIONAL ECONOMIES 83 3.1 Exploiting natural resources. 3.2 Primary production. 3.3 Manufacturing and industry. 4. BUILDING TOWNS 105 4.1 Town surveys. 4.2 Timber towns. 4.3 Orcharding towns. 4.4 Closer Settlement towns. 4.5 Fishing towns. 4.6 Frontier port town. 1 All references to the ‘Shire of Glenelg’ refer to the former local government area, roughly equivalent to the northern area of the present Glenelg Shire boundary, which predates 1994 when the state government recommended widespread local government amalgamation in Victoria. 4.7 Towns as district service centres. 4.8 Town centres. 4.9 Disappearing towns. 5. TRANSPORT & COMMUNICATIONS 122 5.1 The mail and telegraph service. 5.2 Shipping and coastal traffic. 5.3 Roads. 5.4 Bridges. 5.5 Tramways. 5.6 Railways. 5.7 Motor transport. 5.8 Air transport. 6. GOVERNING 141 6.1 Local government. 6.2 Law and order. 6.3 Defence. 7. EDUCATING 148 7.1 Schools. 7.2 Boarding schools. 7.3 Mechanics’ Institutes. 8. CULTURAL LIFE 151 8.1 Holidaying in the Shire. 8.2 Tourism. 8.3 Seaside resorts. 8.4 River holidays. 8.5 Hotels and guest houses. 8.6 The Shire’s finest homes. 8.7 Sport and public recreation. 8.8 Churches and cemeteries. 9. BIBLIGORAPHY 120 Glenelg Shire Environmental History page 2 1. GLENELG’S NATURAL ENVIRONMENT 1.1. THE ENVIRONMENT AT THE TIME OF EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT When Europeans first arrived in the present Glenelg Shire they found a diverse environment which ranged from coastal dunelands and volcanic plains to areas of thickly-treed forests and woodlands, and grassy undulating plains with rich black soil. The Shire lands were well watered by many rivers – the Glenelg River and its tributaries: the Wannon River, and the smaller Wando, Stokes, Crawford and Chetwynd Rivers, as well as a number of creeks. There were also areas, such as south of Lake Mundi, where there were swamps, lagoons, marshes and heathlands. South of the Glenelg and Wannon Rivers junction might be found ‘open stands of redgum’ which gave way to ‘more densely-wooded stringybark and abundant kangaroo grass’.2 Glenelg Shire was also blessed with excellent rainfall in most areas.3 The biophysical characteristics of Glenelg Shire ‘strongly influenced Aboriginal life and land use, the levels and patterns of pastoral use and selection, resource harvesting uses, and areas remaining as public land.4 The story of the changes made to the natural environment of Glenelg Shire by European occupation and settlement will be discussed in a later section. It has been pointed out by many historians that early assessments of the Shire’s vegetation, water supply, soil and climate were ‘nearly always evaluated in terms of potential land for sheep or dairying’.5 Major Sir Thomas Mitchell, NSW Surveyor-General and pioneer explorer in the 1830s, attracted many early settlers by his description of ‘Australia Felix’ (which included parts of Glenelg Shire). The purpose of Mitchell’s famous journey was not only to expand the Colony of NSW, of which Victoria then formed a part as the Port Phillip District, but to discover potential grazing and farming land as well as sites for new development.6 As Mitchell travelled through the Merino Tablelands near present-day Casterton, he described the area as a place where ‘the hills swelled, the water foamed and glittered, the balmy air was sweetly perfumed, the grass was green as an emerald and ‘covered with a thick matted turf’. He commented that it resembled a ‘nobleman’s park on a gigantic scale’.7 It is not surprising that these were the very lands chosen by pastoral pioneers to establish some of the Shire’s largest and most prosperous grazing runs. 2 K. Hedditch, Land and Power. A Settlement History of Glenelg Shire to 1890, pp.26-28. 3 Ibid, pp.26, 30. 4 Historic Places. South-Western Victoria. Descriptive Report. Land Conservation Council (L.C.C.) Jan. 1996, p.14. 5 Victorian Year Book 1973, p.74. 6 Major Mitchell Trail – Exploring Australia Felix, Department of Conservation and Environment, Melb., 1990, p.1. 7 Hedditch, op.cit., p.23. Glenelg Shire Environmental History page 3 Fig 1 Taken from Greening a Brown Land by Neil Barr & John Carr published Macmillian Education Australia, Melbourne 1994 p. 168 Figure 2 Glenelg River. circa 1895 State Library of Victoria Accession No H84.281 Glenelg Shire Environmental History page 4 Fig 3 ‘The Glenelg River Basin with its tributaries and subdivisions of tablelands, valleys and coastal plains was the first Victorian frontier and main target of the 1860s Selection Acts’ Land and Power by Katrina Hedditch 1996, p. 17 Glenelg Shire Environmental History page 5 1.2 ASSESSMENTS OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT In recent years there have been a number of studies which have examined the diverse Glenelg Shire natural environment. These studies have also examined the effects of European settlement on that environment. They have attributed serious problems of erosion, destruction of native grasses, the denuding of forests and woodlands, and increasing salinity in the Shire’s river systems to inappropriate land use policies of the 1830s, 1840s and later. Katrina Hedditch’s excellent settlement history of Glenelg Shire considers some of these studies, particularly the observations made in The Rural Land Mapping Project, published in 1983 by the Victorian Department of Planning. This project examined the physical characteristics of various parts of Glenelg Shire and addressed the question (both from a social and economic perspective) of how the Shire lands might be used more suitably in future. Hedditch includes a number of useful maps in her history derived from the 1983 project. These maps illustrate different aspects of the Shire’s environment. They include a map showing the rivers and creeks in the Glenelg River Basin. There is also a map of the ‘Physiographic Regions’ in the Shire identified as: Dundas Tablelands, Merino Tablelands, Dergholm Platform (north-west of the Glenelg River), and the Follett Plains (south-west of the Glenelg River). ‘The Soils of the Region’ are shown on another map, the ‘Vegetation of the Glenelg Region’ on yet another. The vegetation map indicates grasslands extending across the Merino Tablelands, woodland areas covering much of the south of the Shire, and stretches of heathland along coastal areas. Hedditch also includes a map showing ‘Erosion Risk’ associated with the banks of the Glenelg and Wannon Rivers, tributaries and creeks. A particularly erosion-prone area was indicated around rivers and creeks in the Merino Tablelands.8 Other important land system surveys relating to Glenelg Shire were noted in the Land Conservation Council’s (L.C.C.) publication Historic Places in South-Western Victoria. These include the pioneering 1964 Gibbons and Downes Study9 and a 1987 work by Jenkin and Rowan.10 The LCC Report identifies the physical characteristics of the Dundas Tablelands and Casterton-Merino Hills; and also refers to Volcanic Plains along the coastal areas around Portland; South West Sands and Coastal Dunefields along the coastal strips from Discovery and Portland Bays to the Warrnambool, Cape Otway and Eastern View coasts.11 This Report also contains brief accounts of the geological history of each area, annual rainfall, soil type and vegetation.