Squatters - the Kings at Snake Ridge, Rosedale
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Squatters - The Kings at Snake Ridge, Rosedale On 20 Jan 1853 at Rosedale pastoral run, Mary Anne Peck (1824-1863) married John King (1820-1895) of Snake Ridge run. The Rosedale run had been added by John King and associates the previous year to the growing number of properties under their control. Growing up in Newmarket near numerous racing stables, Mary Anne is likely to have been a good horsewoman and at home in a rural setting. The photo of her with her first child in 1855 shows a slim, well dressed dark haired woman in a pensive pose – no mean feat keeping an infant still for the photograph! Mary Anne and John King had five children of whom two died in infancy: Philip Gidley (1854-1931); Anna Josepha (1856 - 1943); Mary (b 1858 who died an infant); Robert Essington (b 1859 who died an infant); and Menie Agatha (1860- 1940). Mrs John [Mary Anne] King with Philip Gidley King, 1855. Daguerreotype (Source: State Library of Victoria Pictures Collection) Snake Ridge run, covering 60,000 acres, was one of the biggest squatting leases in Gippsland. “In … 1842, John Reeve, an Englishman, pitched his camp at Snake’s Ridge, so called because [Angus] McMillan and Colin McLaren found a freshly killed snake, out of which the fat had just been taken by the natives.” 1 In a new venture beyond his Special Survey at Tarraville, John Reeve in 1842 became the lessee of Snake Ridge run 2, installing the then 22 year old John King as manager. John King was one of the first settlers in Gippsland, arriving overland in 1842 from the drought-ridden Monaro where, since the age of seventeen, he had managed his father’s pastoral station, Gidleigh, near Bungendore. John was well connected in Australian society. John’s grandfather, Governor Philip Gidley King, had travelled to Sydney as a naval lieutenant with the First Fleet, subsequently establishing the settlement on Norfolk Island, before serving as the third governor of New South Wales (1800-1816). John’s father, Rear-Admiral Phillip Parker King had an illustrious naval career, notable for his marine surveying of Australia’s northern coastline (1818-22) and of the coasts of Peru, Chile and Patagonia (1826-30) in command of the HMS Adventure accompanied by the HMS Beagle 3. On completion of this survey, Phillip Parker King returned to live with his family in Australia. He was promoted rear admiral on the retired list in 1855. John King ca 1860. Ambrotype .(Source: State Library of Victoria) Phillip Parker King had extensive pastoral interests New South Wales. In 1806 his father had granted him 660 acres in the west of the Sydney basin (at South Creek near Rooty Hill); Governor Macquarie gave him another 600 acres, and, from Governor Brisbane, a further grant of 3,000 acres was offered. In the 1820s and 30s the King family home was Dunheved, near Parramatta 4. In 1824 Phillip Parker King became a shareholder in the newly established Australian Agricultural Company 5, becoming its Commissioner for ten years (1839-49) following his retirement from the navy. During these years the King family lived at Tahlee on Port Stephens just north of Newcastle, NSW - the then beautiful residence for the Company Commissioner. Several of the Kings’ seven sons spent time working in the pastoral industry. Four came to have substantial involvement in Gippsland pastoral properties. Born at Parramatta, John, the second of the seven sons, was educated in England, returning to Australia in 1835 aged 15 to learn the squatting business on his father's Gidleigh estate. The explorer Count Strzelecki was a friend of John’s father, Admiral King, after whom in 1840 Strzelecki named Lake King, one of the group of Gippsland Lakes 6. Squatting Runs in Sale District, 1857. (Source: Synan, P. (1994) Gippsland’s Lucky City , p.42. Map drawn by Debra Squires) Attracted by Strzelecki's report of good land in Gippsland, John King bought the rights of the cattle run known as Fulham Park in 1842, selling out in 1846. For several years he appears to have been the manager of Snake Ridge run while the lease was held by John Reeve 7. In 1851, with associates Messrs Holt, Croft and Tooth, he formed John King & Co, buying the rights to Snake Ridge run. By 1854 the firm had also acquired the Scarne and Rosedale runs, giving a total of 106,000 acres, running some 7,000 cattle. John King started with sheep, but soon changed to cattle, fattening them for the market in Van Diemen’s Land, and shipping them in their company’s ship, the Helen S. Page, from Port Albert to Hobart 8. Over the years, three of John King’s brothers – William Essington King, Charles Macarthur King and Arthur Septimus King - and their families spent time in Gippsland associated with the Snake Ridge run, as also at least one cousin, Robert Copland Lethbridge (who later married Ella Minter, see further below). In the 1840s and early 50s there were few towns in Gippsland, and the pastoral runs were the focus of economic and social life. Many buildings were associated with the homesteads, home to a varied community of people. The original buildings of Snake Ridge no longer exist, but the present day proprietors, the Bowman family, believe they would have stood more or less where the current Ridge homestead stands 9. Diarist Jessie Harrison wrote of Gippsland in the 1850s: “The homesteads of the squatters were generally of the simplest construction, the fireplaces in many cases being made large enough to permit of benches being placed on both sides. The wooden framework of the chimney was carefully guarded from the fire by masses of hardened clay. It was a matter of surprise that the chimney-stack, made of such combustible material as dry sapling and stringy bark, escaped so well the ravages of fire. In the dwelling houses there was generally an attempt at flooring, with either rough slabs or sawn timber, but in the kitchens the earth where the houses stood served for a floor, hardened by use and the liberal application of greasy water. But even with these surroundings it was possible to make a comfortable home, and in those establishments presided over by a lady, the refining influence of her presence was felt in the appointments of the table and the order and cleanliness of the house…” 10 A picture of a typical sequence of housing on the squatting runs is painted by historian Patrick Morgan: “After taking possession of their runs squatters lived for the first few years in a bark hut hastily constructed soon after arrival. … When a squatter had his run more under control, an improved home with slab walls, clay chimney, floors, kitchen and separate rooms made life more tolerable for his family. Gradually a garden with flowers and shrubs and an orchard and vegetable lot were fenced off from the run. …The third house came some decades later, when prosperity and security were guaranteed.” 11 So far as can be established, the sequence of housing on Snake Ridge run followed this broad pattern. In May/ June 1855 a new homestead was erected at Snake Ridge, presumably in anticipation of the needs of the Kings’ growing family – the Kings’ first child had been born in 1854. Entries in the Snake Ridge Day-Book (1854-1863) `for the period include: 31/5/1855 – Timms at work at the fire-place in the new house. 13/6/1855 – J. King papering and canvassing room in the new cottage. 14/6/1855 – Mr and Mrs King moved into the new room. 15/6/1855 – Moving things into the new house. 16/6/1855 – Pulling down the old house. 29/6/1855 – Timms and Stagg cured the chimneys .12 Diarist Elizabeth Montgomery of Heart station (near Sale) noted that: “The Ridge was a beautiful old place on the point of a hill overlooking the Glengarry [now Latrobe] River, well timbered and with a lovely view of the surrounding country.” Montgomery also wrote that for squatters: “Mustering in those early days was great work. All hands were up at daybreak – no eight hour day would suffice for this job – and off for the whole day rounding up, sorting out, branding etc. for six or eight weeks at a stretch. The runs being very large, the cattle strayed far…”13 Station business was recorded in the Snake Ridge Day Books, two of which are now deposited with the State Library of Victoria 14 . These books indicate who came and went, and major happenings, but give few personal details. The Ridge Station - Getting in horses from the home paddock. by Charles H. Phillips. ca. 1860. (Source: State Library of Victoria) Amateur artist Charles H. Phillips, a friend of John King, made a fascinating series of five drawings of life at Snake Ridge in 1860 15 . The pictures show a tight grouping of buildings, with activity clearly centred on horses and cattle. Top: Starting out Mustering. by Charles H. Phillips. ca 1860; Middle: Taking fat cattle from the camp. byCharles H. Phillipsca 1860. Bottom: Running in the stock horses for mustering cattle c. 1860. By Charles H. Phillips(Source of all: State Library of Victoria) At the end of 1860 artist Eugene von Guerard visited Snake Ridge on his travels through Gippsland. His pencil sketch shows a low bridge crossing the La Trobe River, quite close to The Ridge homestead. This first bridge across the La Trobe at Rosedale was built by John King. This area was very swampy, and subject to flooding; a new bridge was built a few years later on this major access route through Gippsland.