Discussions on the history and historiography of Australia's New England

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

History revisited – remnants of a past era

Just outside one of the doors leading into Booloominbah from the courtyard is a very strange piece of brickwork. Built in an L shape, it has no discernible purpose.

When brother David and I were very young, Dad’s office was in Booloominbah just down the corridor and up the stairs from that doorway. We often played there, standing on and jumping off the raised L. However, we had no idea what it was for. It was just odd.

I finally found out what it’s purpose last year,. I had come up to Armidale for the gala seqesquicentenary production of Armidale – Our Town. A friend came with me, and on the Saturday morning we decided to do the Heritage tour. Our guide was Werner Schwarz.

At Booloominbah, Werner explained that the brickwork in question was a sidesaddle dismounting point for the ladies of the house and their female friends. They could slide of the horse in a modest fashion, then step down to ground level.

While there are depictions and descriptions of women riding aside on Greek vases and sculptures and in some of the Celtic stories, by the Medieval period in Europe all women rode aside. This was partly the nature of women’s clothing with its many skirts, more a matter of modesty.

This modesty was deeply ingrained. In the middle of the 19th century on the Macleay, Ellen Kemp and her sister were skilled bush riders, but it was always sidesaddle. “Not astride! No – we would not even let the gum trees see us in that position.”

The first sidesaddles did not allow women to control their horses, requiring them511px-STACE-Esther_M to be led. This was impractical. Women did ride and needed to control their own animals. However, progress was slow. According to Wikipedia, the first reasonably practical sidesaddle was not developed until the sixteenth century.

The modern sidesaddle was invented in the 1830s by Jules Pellier. This was revolutionary, for it allowed  women to ride at a gallop and to take part in equestrian events. At Sydney’s Royal Easter Show in 1915, Yarrowitch woman Mrs Esther Stace set a world record for a sidesaddle jump of 6’ 6” (1.98m).

Mrs Stace’s jump marked a high point in more ways than one.

As early as 1909, the Mullumbimby Show permitted women to ride astride for First Class events. Now in the turmoil of war and the social changes that marked the first decades of the twentieth century, astride riding swept the sidesaddle aside. With it went memory of the ladies’ dismount point at Booloominbah.

Today, sidesaddle riding has enjoyed a modest revival, keeping alive that feature of women’s life over so many centuries. We can still see for ourselves, to visualise what this part of life must have been like.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 21 May 2014. 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, here for 2014.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

History revisited – college a capital idea

Most Armidale people would know, I think, that the city was the site of the first tertiary institution in Australia founded outside a capital city. However, I suspect that few would know that it was neither the Armidale Teacher’s College nor the New England University College. It was, in fact, St John’s College.

English born, Arthur Vincent Green was elected bishop of Grafton and Armidale in 1894. During his seven-year episcopate he doubled the staff of the clergy, dedicated over eighty new churches and built a registry office and bishop's house at Armidale.

In 1898 he established a theological college, St John’s, to train future Anglican clergy. The College began with just four students in a single cottage. However, architect Horbury Hunt in what would be his last Armidale commission was asked to draw up plans for a permanent building. On 8 June 1898, the foundation stone was laid with the inscription “To the Glory of God.”

At this point I do not know who the first Warden of the College was. The first Warden I have found reference to is Arthur Henry Garnsey. Born in 1872, Arthur was educated at Sydney Grammar School and Sydney University. There he graduated with first class honours in Greek, captained the university cricket team and also won a 'blue' for tennis. Garnsey’s sporting interests probably had an impact on the College, for among the few photos I have found of St John’s Armidale are shots of the College’s tennis and rugby teams!St John's College Armidale 1920s

Garnsey was appointed Warden of the College in 1906. In 1914 he was made canon of St Peter's Cathedral; he was also examining chaplain to the bishops of Armidale from 1916 to 29.

The College’s original aim was to become the training centre for all Anglican clergy in NSW and Queensland. This was not done, but Garnsey continued the College’s development, before leaving in June 1916 to become Warden of St John’s at the University of Sydney.

There is then another gap in my records. However, in 1918 the Reverend E H Burgman was appointed as Rector. The following year, A P Elkin was appointed as a full time teacher and Deputy Warden. Now we have two people in Armidale that would become major figures in the history of Australian thought.

Under Burgman’s leadership, the College expanded its influence. Then came events that I don’t properly understand. Perhaps Armidale was just too far away. Perhaps, as has happened so often, there was a loss of local vision. Whatever, the Bishop of Newcastle offered the College a new site and greater support. In May 1926, the College relocated from Armidale to Morpeth in the Hunter Valley.

From an Armidale perspective, the loss was significant, although the College’s presence had helped add to the city’s reputation as an education centre, aiding the foundation of the Teacher’s College in 1928.

From a national perspective, the College in its new location would play a major role in the intellectual debates of the 1920s and 1930s.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 14 May 2014. 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, here for 2014. The photo is a college group shot from the 1920s. 

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

History revisited – Hunter Valley historical tour 2: Dalwood

Continuing the story of my Hunter Valley history tour, Judith Wright’s Generations of Men (1959) chronicles the early story of her family. I wanted to visit some of the places described in the book and especially Dalwood House.

We set out on Easter Monday, detouring first to visit the Hunter Valley Gardens established by Bill and Imelda Roche. I had wanted to visit for a while, but had never found the time.

I enjoyed the gardens, but was struck again by the sheer scale of the tourist development. When I first visited Pokolbin, there were scattered vineyards but not much else. Now, fueled by proximity to Sydney, there are vineyards and resorts everywhere. All this began with George and Margaret Wyndham, Judith Wright’s great great grandfather.

George Wyndham was born at Dinton, Wiltshire in England in 1801. Educated at Harrow and Cambridge, Wyndham met Margaret, his wife to be, in Italy in 1825. They married in Brussels in 1827.

The couple decided to emigrate to NSW, sailing for Sydney on the George Horne in August 1827 along with several servants, cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, hounds, goods and chattels. The couple reached Sydney on Christmas Eve 1827. The following year, they settled near Branxton in the Hunter Valley, naming the property Dalwood after one of the Wyndham family farms at Dinton.

From Dalwood, George’s interests spread to include Collyblu on the Liverpool Plains, Bukkulla and Nullamanna near Inverell and Keelgyrah on the Richmond River, a total of some 200,000 acres or 80,937 hectares.

Importantly from the viewpoint of this story, George was interested in wine making. He quickly established a vineyard and began making wines. Both red and white varieties of grape wereP1010590 grown, principally hermitage, cabernet and shiraz. He also planted grapes on Bukkulla; thus establishing a Tablelands’ wine industry. Both Dalwood and Bukkulla wines won medals at European wine shows. 

Sometime in 1828 or 1829, George began construction of a new house for his family, Dalwood House. It was this house that I wanted to visit, a house brought vividly alive by Judith in her book.

The house was a partial ruin when I last visited it forty years ago. It still is, although restoration efforts have stabilized the main structure. It’s not a grand house by later standards, but with some imagination you can get a feel for the life that surrounded it.

We wandered around in the sun while I took pictures, talking with my companion about its special features. Later over a very nice lunch on the terrace at Wyndham Estate wines, I thought what a wonderful tapestry our history makes.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 7 May 2014. 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, here for2014.

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

History revisited – Easter tour in the Hunter

I spent Easter in the Hunter Valley. Most go for the wine. I like wine too, but in my case it was a history tour. I wanted to walk the ground to help me visualise things past. I don’t know about you, but I find that I can’t understand the history properly if I don’t understand theP1010447 geography.

The tour began on Easter Saturday. We started with a short tour of the Broke Fordwich area. Here my interest was in part the current conflict between mining and wine, between industrialisation and village life.  (Photo Caption: DEBATE: The mining industry is at loggerheads with many in the Hunter)

Mining has a long history in the North, beginning with coal in the Hunter. It is a story of national significance, although elements of that have been lost because of the way we write and research history. In the big picture focus that dominates so much history, the local and regional specifics are submerged. I find that sad, and fight against it as best I can.

A simple example to illustrate. Did you know that key elements of the Australian labor and union movements began in the North? I didn’t until I started researching and writing on Northern history.

From Broke Fordwich we drove to Singleton. Here I wanted to visit the Catholic Church and surrounding buildings. Why? Well, I had read the history of the Church in Singleton and of the Sisters of Mercy. Like the Ursulines in Armidale, they had become part of Northern history. P1010471

The visit did not disappoint. The Church was being prepared for Easter ceremonies, but we were allowed in. I stood there thinking of the past, before wandering around near the convent and school buildings,

From Singleton, the next stop was Morpeth on the Hunter. This was the big port for Northern New South Wales, the second largest port in the colony after Sydney, contending with Grafton for control of the vital Northern trade.

At Morpeth, the drays loaded with New England wool came in. From Morpeth, the drays went north, loaded with farm supplies.

The development of Newcastle as a port, the opening of the Great Northern Railway, would sideline Morpeth. Today it survives as a popular tourist centre, marked by its old buildings and its visitor thronged main street.

I will continue this story in my next column.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 30 April 2014. 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, here for 2014.