History revisited - Ursulines forged a future from Armidale

Count Otto von Bismark was an iron willed, bigoted man.

The German Empire he helped create with its pride, military power and weak democratic structures would have a dramatic impact on Armidale through the First World War, the war of the European dynasties. However, Bismark had another and far more positive impact, one that affects Armidale to this today.

In 1870, Bismark’s intrigues sucked Emperor Napoleon the Third of France into declaring war on Prussia. Swept by patriotic fervor, the other German states came to Prussia’s aid. French Imperial pride was crushed, a defeat that changed the political landscape of Europe.

The French Empire was destroyed. A second, the German, was born. On 18 January 1871 in a symbolic gesture that would haunt European politics for seventy years, King William of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Bismark had achieved his political objectives, but he had still to create a unified German state. As part of this, in 1871 he launched an anti-Catholic Kulturkampf ("culture struggle") in Prussia. Partly motivated by fear that Pius IX and future popes would use papal infallibility as a weapon for promoting a potential "papal desire for international political hegemony", it was also intended to help create a unified state.

Kulturkampf led to confiscation of church property and the exile of many clergy. Finally, the waves reached the ancient Hanoverian town of Duderstadt, forcing a small order of nuns, the Ursulines, into hurried exile in London.

On the other side of the world, Armidale’s newly created Roman Catholic Bishop Elzear Torreggiani had a problem. In 1879, Archbishop Vaughan of Sydney and his three suffragan Bishops issued a joint pastoral letter that condemned State schools, among other things, as “seedplots of future immorality, infidelity and lawlessness”.

The letter raised a storm of controversy, for it played into the local sectarian and anti Roman Catholic feelings that had been inflamed by the decisions of the first Vatican Council. One result was the passage in NSW of the Public Instruction Act of 1880, withdrawing all state support for church schools.

The Roman Catholic response was immediate. “I will solve the school question in a way that will astonish them,” Vaughan declared. The solution lay in the creation of a new school system. This was a tad of a problem for Bishop Torreggiani in Armidale, for he had no money, no buildings and no teachers!

Torreggiani set about raising money and acquiring buildings. To attract teachers, he wrote to the exiled Ursulines in London inviting them to come to Armidale. They accepted the call, arriving in Armidale in September 1882. Their impact was profound.

Today we see this in buildings, but it was far more than that. The Ursulines were highly educated middle class women with a far broader view of women’s education than was common at the time.

They and their girls contributed to every aspect of Armidale and New England life. At a time when the Church’s view of the role of women was very limited, the Ursuline girls were entering university. I think that’s rather wonderful.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 23 October 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013.

History revisited - Torreggiani makes his mark

In my last column, I referred to the unfortunate political circumstances that led to the sudden departure of Armidale’s first Roman Catholic Bishop, Bishop O’Mahony. I also suggested that Elzear Torreggiani was selected as replacement because he was neither English nor Irish!

Aloysius, he received the name Ezra when he joined the Order of St Francis, was born in Italy in 1830. After studying philosophy and theology at Ancona, he volunteered for the foreign missions. To his surprise, he was sent to England: “I knew it must be the will of God” he said later, “because there was none of my own in it.”

His success in Wales and England as a missioner and administrator drew him to the attention of Archbishop Vaughan of Sydney as a possible replacement to Bishop O’Mahony. Torreggiani accepted the call, arriving in Sydney in March 1879.

Torreggiani’s new post was a real challenge. It was geographically huge, covering the Western Slopes, Tablelands and much of the North Coast, with no railways and very few defined roads. There were some 10,000 Catholics in the diocese, served by only nine priests and two schools. He had to heal the divisions created by the disputes over Bishop O’Mahony, while managing fundamental changes in the Church itself.

The new Bishop decided that his first task must be to visit every corner of his vast territory. Over the next three years, he traveled by steamer, by coach, in buggies and by horseback, crisscrossing east to west and north to south. In all, he covered over 64,000 km (40,000 miles), returning to Armidale briefly in breaks to carry out necessary business.

Torreggiani’s weight (133 kg) added to his difficulties, but he seemed to thrive. Later, he would delight in recounting stories of his travels. He had, he would say, wrecked two buggies and almost wrecked two steamers, one of which had run aground on a sandbank near Lismore.

To those who feared for his safety during this time, he said that instead of getting killed he had become stouter and was increasing daily in health and strength!

Torreggiani’s personality shines through in the stories about him. In the twenty-five years he shared a house with the Bishop, Patrick O’Connor later wrote, he had never seem him once ruffled despite circumstances that would almost tempt a saint.

As we shall see next week in the last episode in this story, Bishop Torreggiani would need those strengths.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 16 October 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013.

History revisited - even the church couldn't escape political infighting

Short of height but large in girth, he tipped the scales at 127 kilos (twenty stone), Bishop Elzear Torreggiani arrived in Melbourne in November 1879. Two weeks later, he arrived in Armidale to take up his new bishopric. This was, in some ways, a very political appointment, but also an inspired one.

The Catholic diocese of Armidale was created in November 1862, but the first bishop, Dr Timothy O’Mahony, was not consecrated until 1869. Bishop O’Mahony’s arrival in Armidale was delayed by his attendance at the First Vatican Council (December 1869- October1870). Finally, on 23 March 1871, he took possession of his new see.

Bishop O’Mahony threw himself into the organisation .and development of the Armidale diocese. However, scandal now intervened. To understand this, we need to understand a little of church politics.

The then head of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia, Archbishop John Polding was an English Benedictine. Polding’s views on the role of the Church were opposed by some of the majority Irish clergy. In February 1873 and at Polding’s insistence, Roger William Bede Vaughan was appointed coadjutor Archbishop.

An Englishman like Polding, Vaugan’s appointment was supported by Cardinal Manning, the Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury and indeed the British Government itself. However, Vaughan proved to be a somewhat difficult man who soon formed an extremely critical view of Polding’s administration.

O’Mahony, friendly, hospitable and a bright conversationalist, was initially favoured Vauhan. However, not long after Vaughan arrived, O’Mahony involved himself in colonial church politics, signing with his fellow Irish suffragans a post-factum objection to Vaughan as Archbishop.

Rumours began circulating the clergy and laity in the north. O’Mahony’s jovial habits were interpreted as intemperance, while a claim against him by a young woman about the paternity of her child became public knowledge. Later this charge was withdrawn and the author of the blackmail, a priest whom O'Mahony had trusted, was named. However, by then it was too late.

In 1874, Archbishop Vaughan formally referred the rumours and charges against O’Mahony to Rome and was directed to investigate. He was then accused of bias in his selection of witnesses by Bishop James Quinn of Brisbane.

Quinn was concerned for the prestige of the Irish bishops and scented a conspiracy against them. He therefore sent Father George Dillon to Armidale to obtain evidence to clear O'Mahony from the charge of being 'a perpetual drunkard' and mounted a violent counter-attack in Australia and the Irish College.

In 1875, Vaughan reported to Rome that he found the main charge unproven, but recommended that O'Mahony resign and go to Rome. Mahony had little choice but to accept. Vaughan then appointed Torreggiani, an Italian, as O’Mahony’s replacement in part on the grounds that he was neither English nor Irish!

In my next column, I will continue the remarkable story of Elzear Torreggiani and the mark he left upon Armidale.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 9 October 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013.

History revisited - pressed for change

One current exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is called Technologies that Changed Our Minds. The display looks at some of the technologies that fundamentally changed our concept of who we are and our place in the universe.

That’s interesting in itself, but I was interested to discover that one exhibit had a uniquely Armidale connection. This is an Albion cast iron hand printing press manufactured by A Wilson & Sons, London, in 1850.

While heavy, it’s not an especially large piece, with a height of 1.4m, a width of .87 metres and a depth of 1.8m. However, the story of that press is partly the story of Australia itself.

On 26 July 1839, Henry Parkes and his wife arrived in Sydney as assisted immigrants on board the Strathfieldsaye, along with a baby born just two days before. Parkes had limited formal education, but loved writing and began publishing poems and articles. He also developed an interest in politics and was attracted to the radical wing in colonial politics.

In April 1850, he joined with the Reverend John Dunmore Lang and J R Wilshire to establish the Australian League to work for universal suffrage and the transformation of the Australian colonies into a 'Great Federal Republic'.

Lang occupies an important place in New England history, for having campaigned successfully for self-government first for Port Phillip (Victoria) and then Moreton Bay (Queensland), he turned his attention to the achievement of self-government for Northern New South Wales. Here he failed, although the campaign would continue.

In the fluid politics of the time, Parkes began to shift his support to the liberals who, like the radicals, were opposed to the constitutional views of the conservatives led by William Charles Wentworth,

Late in 1850 Parkes found support to set up as editor-proprietor of the Empire, using the Albion printing press The paper began as a weekly, but quickly moved to a daily as it became the chief organ of nineteenth mid-century liberalism

Sadly, Parkes was no business man. Indeed, he spent much of his working life on the edge of bankruptcy to the sometimes distress of his family. By 1856, the Empire was in financial trouble. The Albion press had to be sold.

The purchasers were William Hipgrave and Walter Craigie who loaded their newly acquired printing press onto a bullock dray and set out from Maitland early in 1856 to found the Armidale Express,

The press remained in Armidale until 1929 when it was given to the Technological Museum by Armidale Newspapers Ltd. Now, all these years later, you can see this historic piece of machinery.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 2 October 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013.

History revisited - New England rode high in rodeo past

For Father’s Day, youngest (Clare) gave me Alwyn Torebeek with David Gilchrist, Life in the Saddle: Adventures of the Legendary horseman the Kokotunga Kid, Michael Joseph, Melbourne 2011). My family tease me sometimes because I can always find a New England connection. This case proved to be no different!

Investigating the history of rodeo in Australia, I found that on Thursday 28 March 1946, a group of bushmen had gathered at the Imperial Hotel in Maitland. They had important business to consider, the formation of a new association, the Northern (N.S.W.) Bushmen's Carnival Association.

In 1960, the name was changed to the Australian Bushmen’s Carnival Association and then in 1985 to the Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft & Rodeo Association (ABCRA). Today, the Tamworth based ABCRA along with its rival, the Warwick based Australian Professional Rodeo Association (APRA), are the largest national rodeo bodies.

By that Thursday in 1948, events based on riding or stock activities including roughriding and camp drafting had a long history. During the 1880s, newspapers were recording Victorian roughriding events, included rough riding and bullock-throwing. In 1885, the first formal competition involving the uniquely Australian sport of campdrafting was held at that year’s Tenterfield Show.

The first draft was not held in the ring, but just outside the Tenterfield Showground on a vacant area. One of the competitors, Clarence Smith, a cattleman and horse breeder from Boorook Station, drew up the rules that remain the basis of the sport today.

From the 1890s, there were many Australian and some international Wild West shows travelling the country. Bushmen's Carnivals, the Australian equivalents of American rodeos, originated in Northern New South Wales in the 1920s and were well established by the 1930s. In 1930, Warwick, Queensland added the American-style contests of clowns, ropers and trick riders

The Americanisation of language and later equipment that had begun to take place did not please all. By the mid 1930s Mick Bruxner, the Member for Tenterfield and NSW Country Party Leader and Deputy Premier, was complaining at the way that the popularity of American westerns seemed to be affecting the language surrounding bush events.

Bruxner’s cousin was the noted Australian film maker, Warwick born Charles Chauvel. Annoyed by the dominance of American films and the pernicious effects on the language, Bruxner persuaded the NSW Government to attempt to introduce quotas requiring NSW cinemas to show a certain proportion of Australian films. This first ever Australian content rule seems to have failed, although the specific reasons for that are unclear.

In some ways, the period from the end of the Second World War until the advent of television marked the peak of rodeo and bush carnival activities. These were massively popular events in country Australia. Still, they remain popular with the smell of the dust and the horses, the noise, the sudden sharp excitement.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 25 September 2013. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the columns are not on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013.