5. Life in Clarence 1860-1914

In 1866 Charles Chipman, a young Clarence farmer, kept a diary, and continued to write it on

and off until his marriage four years later. It gives a vivid picture of rural life at the time. Born in

1841, Charles was the grandson of Joseph and Catherine Chipman, a convict couple who had arrived

from Norfolk Island in 1808. The Chipmans became some of the most successful farmers in

Clarence, and after his education at McArdell’s school at Rokeby, Charles was farming at Clarence

House. This was owned by his father, who lived at Clarendon Vale.

Young though he was, Charles could turn his hand to many farming activities, and worked

hard. Much of his time was spent growing crops, and he ploughed and harrowed, planted and hoed,

reaped and carted, and thrashed and screened wheat, oats, potatoes and hay. He pruned fruit trees and

picked, sorted and packed fruit crops. He doctored animals, setting a cow’s broken leg and taking

out a bone stuck in a heifer’s mouth; he crutched sheep, found sheep which had strayed, drove

bullocks and made sheepwash. He sold loads of wheat, hay, potatoes, gooseberries, wool, meat and

bark. He carted wood and stones, killed pigs and sheep for the house and salted the pigs, plaited a

bullock whip, put down poison for crows, frightened parrots off his oats, cut down thistles and made

bluestone water in which to steep wheat, and as well planting and tending a flower garden. He could

turn his hand to mechanical activity, repairing a cart and fences, mending ploughshares, hooping a

cartwheel, and making an onion drill and a duck yard. By this date some machinery was available,

and Charles mentions using a threshing machine, onion drill, clod crusher, winnowing machine and

weighing machine. Since these machines were rare, people lent them to each other, and there are

many other examples of neighbours helping each other. Charles employed men, one or two full time

on the property, and others for specific jobs such as fencing, reaping or shearing. His sisters helped

him, sewing up bags of oats, obtaining seed, milking and sometimes helping with crops, planting red

currants and sowing barley.

There were some problems. Charles sometimes found sheepskins in the bush, which meant

that someone had stolen and slaughtered sheep. His employees tended to come and go, sometimes

voluntarily due to low wages, sometimes involuntarily due to getting drunk. Sometimes Charles

could not sell his crops for a good enough price. But on the whole he was a hard-working and

successful farmer.

Not all Charles’ life was taken up with work. A churchwarden, he attended church meetings

and went to church at St Matthew’s, though not every Sunday. His main entertainment was visiting

or being visited by friends and family, and he cared devotedly for his mother when she became ill

and died. He attended parties and occasionally a ball, and quite often went to Hobart for business,

shopping or pleasure. He did not play in the local cricket team though he watched several matches;

he himself went shooting kangaroo, possums or wattle birds, enjoyed fishing, and once attended the

local hunt. He was interested in politics; he went to Hobart to hear the declaration of the polls after

an election, voted in council elections, attended meetings about the local road, and eventually cleared

it for Council for £3. He also went to a ‘very noisy’ meeting about the Cambridge Ploughing Match.

The only reading he mentioned was the Farmer’s Magazine.

By this time Charles was feeling like settling down, and his interest in ‘girls’ is clear. He

mentioned seeing girls in Hobart and at church, but gradually his thoughts tended towards Corbetta

Lord. Corbetta came from a wealthy Richmond family, higher up the social scale than the Chipmans,

though she too had a convict ancestor. In April 1866 Charles wrote that he went to Richmond to see

‘–’, for he did not write her name even in his private diary. He tried to organise meetings with her

but failed, and it was not until that December that he was seeing Corbetta regularly. They seem to

have quarrelled, for he commented that on Boxing Day they had a thorough investigation of their

differences. The next night Charles enjoyed himself ‘very much indeed’ at a party with Corbetta.

On 12 January Corbetta’s father told him that he would allow his daughters to choose

husbands for themselves, and the next day Charles and ‘Corrie’ became engaged, or, as Charles

wrote, he arrived home ‘not a free man’. A fortnight later he told his father that he ‘had chosen a

partner for life he said he was glad to hear it’. Corrie’s father was not told for another two weeks.

Now Charles often visited Corrie, and made arrangements for their married life. His father agreed

that he could rent the farm, and he renovated the house with plaster, paint, wallpaper, boards in the

kitchen for hooks, and new linen and furniture. He invited Corrie’s father to the wedding, which was

at Clarence Plains, so Corrie was not married from her father’s house. On 13 June Charles’ diary

entry reads simply, ‘got spliced’.

There were no diary entries for the next month, but they resumed on much the same note as

before, with surprisingly few mentions of Corrie. Charles continued his farm work, though at the

weekend he and Corrie often stayed late in bed, and Corrie accompanied him on various outings,

such as taking ploughs to his father at Clarendon Vale, going to see how the land ploughed, visiting

relations or attending lectures at the Bellerive Institute. At the end of the year, ‘Corrie came to the

Point with the cart to meet me which was all the go as I was very tired’ after selling sheep all day.

Charles’ life was obviously busier, and the dairy stopped early in 1870. Charles and Corrie went on

to have a long life together, bringing up their family of nine children.1

Charles Chipman’s diaries show a different Clarence from the earlier settlement of small ex-

convict farmers who were so often engaged in drinking, sheep-stealing and other nefarious activities.

By the 1860s life had settled down. The convict system ceased in 1854, and by the 1870s, ex-

convicts had either turned respectable and were indistinguishable from the general population, or left

for the gold rush or other opportunities on the mainland, or were becoming elderly and gradually

dying off. As in the rest of Tasmania, there was no longer a large unruly convict element in the

population, inclined to drink and petty theft. Meanwhile more free settlers had arrived and children

had grown up, so there were equal numbers of women and men, which meant that women’s

celebrated and sometimes real ‘civilising influence’ was coming into play. By this time, as in all

areas ruled by the British, Victorian values were gaining in strength, and it was no longer acceptable

for people to come out on the wrong side of the law, be drunk in public, or commit other

misdemeanours – now there was even a fuss when men swore in the blacksmith’s, which no one

would have bothered complaining about thirty years earlier. People wanted to appear respectable, at

least partly to dissociate themselves from any convict taint. Like other areas of Tasmania, Clarence

was becoming respectable.

This is shown in the great reduction in crime. In the convict period petty crime had been

common in Clarence, and there was even some more serious, such as murder, but now crime became

rarer. A series of minor matters engaged the police court. A woman charged another with tearing the

hair from her head and threatening to beat her brains out; a man was found not guilty of stealing

eleven sheep; Thomas O’May tried to recover a smallish debt; people argued over how wood should

be weighed; someone was charged with using abusive language; two men were charged with stealing

267 lemonade bottles from the Horseshoe Hotel at Cambridge.2 The only crime in the month of

March 1890 was that some clothes were stolen from a house in South Arm. The next year a man was

charged with appearing in a garden drunk and stealing onion roots, but the plaintiff said he did not

1 Diaries of Charles Chipman, 1866, 1867, 1870 passim 2 Mercury 4.2.61, 5.12.62, 2.3.68, 31.5.69, 28.2.70, 29.1.86, 27.11.91

want to prosecute.3 One man was charged with neglecting his apprentice, feeding him dry bread,

cabbage, sour cream and hardly any meat, and ignoring his washing so that his shirt was full of

vermin. A workmate had sent a message to the boy’s parents telling them to send for the boy or send

a coffin for him; the bench told the parties to compromise. Serious crime was uncommon, and in

1895 a rare example occurred when a man committed a criminal assault on a young girl at Bellerive.

He was soon captured by the local constable.4

A measure of how times had changed was a headline in the Mercury of 1879 about ‘The

Bellerive Housebreaking Case’. Two boys had stolen food and a hat, cup, spoon and knife from a

house in Clarence Plains.5 Forty years earlier this would hardly have warranted a mention.

A major area of ‘crime’ which took up much of the time of the Council and police was

straying animals, which caused damage to property and sometimes people, and brought endless

complaints. In 1878 a shocking case occurred. According to a newspaper, Mrs Maum had a narrow

escape from death. Over eighty years old, she was standing near her house in Clarence Plains when a

cow knocked her over and horned and butted her about the body and face, so that she became

unconscious. One horn gored her cheek. The cow left and Mrs Maum, recovering consciousness,

managed to get inside her house, where she was found in a weak state by a granddaughter. She

gradually recovered from her injuries. At the next Clarence Council meeting it was decided to take

stringent measures to check the ‘growing evil’ of straying stock. The cow which gored Mrs Maum

belonged to Ben Joseph; soon afterwards his house was broken into, and one can imagine the

neighbours’ comments. But most cases concerning straying stock were minor, such as when James

Free was fined three shillings in 1892 for allowing three cows to stray.6

Allied to the decrease in crime and part of the growth of respectability was a reduction in the

number of hotels, almost directly in proportion to the fall in the number of convicts. Before 1860

there were up to ten hotels in Clarence at any one time. In the late 1850s two closed in Bellerive, the

Devonshire and the Watermen’s Arms. In the 1860s more went: the Golden Fleece at Bellerive, the

Three Trunks at Cambridge, the Bay View at Rokeby and the Risdon Ferry inn, probably reflecting

less use of the Grass Tree Hill road. There were usually only four hotels in Clarence for the rest of

the century: the Horsehoe at Cambridge, the Horse and Jockey at Rokeby, and two hotels in

3 Mercury 26.3.90, 27.11.91; see also TM 24.6.99 4 Mercury 28.1.67; BTB 21.5.95 5 Mercury 4.10.79 6 Mercury 8.5.78, 8.6.78, 4.10.79, 3.3.93

Bellerive. Here the Plough closed soon after 1870, and the two enduring hotels were new, the

Bellerive, reputedly built in 1861 by Richard Morgan junior, and the Clarence, built in 1872.

The first licensee of the Clarence, William Martin, is a good example of the change from the

‘old days’, how a convict could become a respected member of society. Described as ‘bad’, he had

been transported to Tasmania for theft. He was assigned to Dr Desailly’s farm at Clarence Plains,

where he worked for fourteen years before gaining a pardon in 1841, aged 35. He then settled down:

he took up his original trade of shoemaker, married, and with his wife Hannah had two sons. In 1850

they took over the Horse and Jockey inn in Rokeby, where they did well enough to be able to visit

England, but there they put their money in a bank which failed, so they returned to Tasmania and in

1860 were running the Plough at Bellerive. That year Hannah died, and a year later William, now 55,

married seventeen-year-old Sarah Leake. They had four children, and remained at the Plough until

1870. This closed, and William became the licensee of the new, ‘first-class’ Clarence Hotel on the

waterfront at Bellerive. The large sandstone hotel included stables and a skittle alley, and the

Martins flourished there, respected members of the community. William was also interested in

racing, owning racehorses with the amazing names of Zada, Dido-Gaby and Sukie Frizzle, who wore

tartan colours. In 1878 he was talking to friends at the hotel when he collapsed and died, aged 72,

and his obituary praised him highly for his perseverance and industry. ‘His word was as good as his

bond. He believed everyone honest and so he acted.’ He left Sarah and the children comfortably

provided for, and Sarah ran the hotel by herself for several years, but died in 1880, aged 37.7

All hotels were not as modern at the Clarence. In 1858 the Horse and Jockey at Rokeby was

described as an excellent inn, but three years later William Archer, a keen entomologist, went there

for luncheon after spending the morning collecting beetles on the beaches of Bellerive and Rokeby.

A ‘strong woman and rough-looking man’ provided him with a scrappy piece of bread and some

cheese which was as hard as a geological specimen, and when he asked for ginger-beer, the woman

told him that ‘they kept no teetotaller’s stuff’. Archer had been thinking of bringing his family there

for a few weeks’ holiday, but changed his mind.8

Ostensibly all hotels were law-abiding, their owners occasionally sitting on Clarence Council,

but there were hints of underhand activity. In 1890 a letter in the Mercury accused two hotels on the

eastern shore of the Derwent of illegal Sunday trading. Clarence Council leaped to the hotels’

7 Robertson, ‘Clarence Hotel’ pp 15-16; Mercury 1.8.78 8 Mercury 11.9.58; Diary of William Archer, 24.12.61

defence: councillors had not seen any such thing, and there were always bona fide travellers (who

were allowed to buy alcohol) going in and out of hotels on Sundays. The police stated that as a rule

the place was very orderly on Sundays, and the matter dropped.9

Instead of drinking and sheepstealing as in the bad old days, the favourite recreational activity

for young men in Clarence was sport. In previous years people had enjoyed various sports, such as

racing, hunting and cricket, but from the late 1850s these tended to become more organised, as

sporting groups were formed. The first was cricket. People played cricket in Clarence in the 1830s,

but it only became organised in 1858, when a ‘very excellent’ cricket club was formed at Rokeby. It

is now possibly the oldest continually operating community cricket club in Australia (there are

challenges from Sandford, Richmond and Melbourne). Rokeby had an admirable ground, though that

year a reporter did think it needed levelling and rolling. Rokeby had recently lost to the Hobart club

of Derwent, he wrote; Morrisby and Chipman batted well and Weare bowled well, but Derwent were

more practised. In 1859 John Chipman, the nineteen-year-old secretary, issued the club rules. They

were strict. If members missed practice for four consecutive Saturdays, they were fined, and they

were also fined if they indulged in ‘smoking or anything inconsistent with the game of Cricket’.10

In 1868 the Wellington team came from Hobart to play Rokeby. ‘The town men’ caught the

ferry and had a delightful drive through the most romantic scenery, receiving a hearty welcome when

they arrived at the ground at 10 am. ‘The ground is decidedly the best of any of the country districts

with a noble view of Ralphs Bay and Drouthy Point [sic, the old spelling], and picturesque scenery

contiguous’, ran the press report. Rokeby scored 72 runs, Wellington 107, and lunch was deferred

until the game was over. At 2.30 pm Rokeby went back in and scored 71, then Wellington batted,

and won with eight wickets to spare. Rokeby had some good batters and fielders, explained the press

report, but some of their best players were absent, and they did not practise as regularly as town

players (so those fines must have been building up). Finally, at 5 pm, the players sat down to a

‘liberal and tasteful’ lunch at the Bay View hotel. Top scorers for Rokeby were T. Hogg (30 and 8)

and E. Pedder (1 and 23), and John Chipman took five wickets.11

As the years passed, more cricket clubs were formed, in Sandford and Bellerive for example,

and by the 1880s most districts had their cricket team. Clarence teams could not water their grounds,

however, so they never had good enough fields to attract first class cricketers. A keen cricketer like

9 Mercury 30.4.90 10 Chipman ‘The Chipman Story’; Walch 1864-8; Mercury 11.9.58

William Martin, licensee of the Plough in Bellerive, played with a Hobart team. There was also a

good deal of informal cricket, though it is difficult to find many details. The Richardson, Calvert and

Morrisby families were known for their skill, and could field teams just from family members;

several played for Tasmania. Les and Ab Richardson made the Bible of cricket, Wisden, for scoring

525 in an opening partnership against New South Wales in 1906/7.12

Several sports arose from men’s usual activities, such as ploughing. In the middle of the

nineteenth century many areas had ploughing matches – one was held at Bellerive in 1870 – but the

best-known was at Cambridge. In 1860 it was held on McKay’s estate, on strict temperance

principles. Only total abstainers who had signed the pledge could enter. This rule must have been

restricting, and was dropped; three years later the match was held at Neill’s farm and temperance was

not mentioned. There were prizes for ploughing, and for locally made ploughs and harrows; an

excellent lunch with toasts; and a band. Ten years later extra police had to be brought in for the

match (probably due to the change in rules), but no violence was ever reported.13

By 1905 the Cambridge Ploughing Match had become a real occasion, the blue ribbon of

Tasmanian ploughing events, with entrants coming from all over the state to demonstrate ‘the fine art

of ploughing’. There was keen rivalry, and many ploughmen brought special match ploughs,

different from ordinary ploughs. Albert Ward, the Bellerive blacksmith, made his own, and had won

the championship the year before. The match was held at a different farm each year, the host

considering it an honour. In 1905 it was at James Hanslow’s Greenfields, a picturesque setting

bordered by river, hills and trees. The ploughing was exceptionally good, ran the report, with the

straight clean-cut furrows a pleasure to see, and the horses taking as great an interest as the men.

Although most ploughing was now done by the double-furrow plough, the real test was in single

furrow. The champion, Arthur Hibberd, was head ploughman to James Murdoch and had come

second for the last three years, and the runner-up was Hanslow’s ploughman. In the one-horse

ploughing event, William Richardson, a Sandford farmer, used one of Ward’s ploughs, and his

furrow attracted attention for its excellence and straightness. The Governor arrived and showed great

interest, and all enjoyed afternoon tea.

11 Mercury 2.1.68; also TM 10.10.91 12 Mercury 24.8.68, 1.8.78, 13.1.94; Walch 1890-1914; Suburban Junior Cricket Association of Southern Tasmania fixtures list 1913-4; Page p 11; BTB 4.9.93; CC 1.11.06; information from Snowy Calvert and Brian Richardson 13 Mercury 22.11.63 and 22.11.62; CC 30.11.72; HTA 20.10.60; Mercury 28.12.70

Then there was a demonstration of a new tree and stump puller, which pulled a large gum tree

from the ground by its roots in five minutes, with an arrangement of levers, ropes and ‘a machine’. It

was invented by a Richmond man, who had only finished making it that morning, and intended

taking out a patent. Other entertainments were chopping matches and a trial of hunters with

jumping.14

There was an even more entertaining demonstration the following year, when a man

demonstrated a new petrol-driven shearing machine, by shearing not only some sheep but a Sorell

identity. This created ‘uproarious fun’ among the crowd. As well as the ploughing, there were fruit

stalls, a refreshment booth, roundabout, a fortune-teller, chopping matches and jumping trials – a

wonderful day’s entertainment.15

Ploughing was taken seriously, and James Murdoch would not let beginners plough beside

the road at Craigow. Only experienced men like Arthur Hibberd were allowed this privilege.

Hibberd was a champion. Inter Colonial Ploughing matches were held occasionally, at Cambridge in

1872, 1893 – when one contestant came from England, and others from New Zealand, the mainland

and all around Tasmania – and 1906. Arthur Hibberd won this against all comers. He taught his son

Max to plough, ‘straight and neat, with the roll of the furrow just right. It was really serious. It

wasn’t about speed, time didn’t come into it, it was being straight and neat and getting the furrow

right.’16

Another sport which arose from men’s daily activities was rifle shooting, with the Clarence

Rifle Club established in 1865, though it later faded. In 1898 the Clarence Rifle Company was

formed, part of the Tasmanian Auxiliary Force.17 One of its was Andrew Holden, the local doctor’s

son. He recalled that the Volunteers, as they were called, had weekly drills in the Bellerive Institute,

which were poorly attended, and occasional battalion parades at Hobart, but what members liked best

was rifle shooting on Saturday afternoons. At first they used Martini Henry rifles, which ‘kicked

one’s shoulder black and blue’, but then they were issued with modern Lee Enfields, which were

much more comfortable. There was an iron target, and a butt where a red flag hung when shooting

was in progress. Ranges were up to 500 yards.

14 Mercury 28.9.05 15 TM 19.11.06, quoted in MacFie, ‘Oral History...’ p 98 16 MacFie ‘Oral History...’ p 103; Mercury 1, 12, 15, 17, 18-21 October 1872; TM 3.6.93, 8.7.93, 7.10.93; information from Max Hibberd

When the Duke and Duchess of York visited Tasmania in 1901 there was a parade at the

Domain in Hobart for the Volunteers, at which they were to fire a feu de joie, which the locals

pronounced ‘few de joy’, wrote Andrew. They were to do this in two ranks, facing each other. All

was ready, the Duke and Duchess arrived, and the men were about to shoot when someone

remembered that they had not been issued with blank cartridges. These were hurriedly fetched, and

when eventually the feu de joie was fired, it was a very ragged performance. ‘The Duke and Duchess

must have seen some very queer things on their tour’, wrote Andrew – the Mayor and Mayoress of

Hobart did not realise that they should greet Royalty at the door of the Town Hall, but waited for

them in an upstairs room! English people like the Holdens were shocked.18

Meanwhile, another old sport had died out in Clarence – racing. In 1863 the Clarence races

were held under the patronage of the governor, probably at the fine Waterloo course on Ralphs Bay.

They were well organised. Colours had to be worn, and jockeys had to wear ‘strict jockey dress’ of

white neckerchief, clean breeches, clean boots and tops. On the first day the weather was poor and

there were few spectators, but the second day was ‘all that could be desired’ with a bright sun and a

cool breeze. There were more spectators and generally more activity, though betting was languid as

the fields were small and unevenly matched. Some races had only two horses, though the event of the

day, the Shorts, had five starters, and the Clarence Plains St Leger was an ‘amicable little race’.

There appeared to be no local horses.19

After the moderate success of this meet, racing was in the doldrums for some years, but in

1890 the Bellerive Racing Club was formed, and organised races on a picturesque course near Rosny.

Ferries made special trips, the O’Mays erected a landing stage, and about 450 people attended. The

Bellerive police occasionally had to settle disputes between the ‘talent’ and Club organisers, but

otherwise the day was orderly, and the event of the day was the Bellerive Plate.20 The next year the

Clarence Racing Club held a similar meet, and in 1892 the Bellerive Races were held on the

Wentworth course, described as ‘somewhat rough’ – two jockeys were unseated, but continued after

a rest. More than half the entrants were scratched, and some races were amusing, with the winner the

only horse to finish in the pony hurdles, all others running off the course. The crowd was entertained

17 CC 25.11.64, 24.11.66; Weekly Advertiser 6.5.65; Mercury 2.4.66, 18.3.01, 4.9.05; BTB 28.8.05; TM 24.6.99. The Company established a new rifle range in 1905. 18 Holden pp 10-11, 23 19 Mercury 21.11.62, 28.11.62, 13.2.63, 14.2.63; NS 544/2, article dated 29.8.13 20 Mercury 19.3.90, 11.4.90, 14.4.90

by a Sioux Indian, Eagle Elk, who gave an exhibition of contortion, and lassoed a local butcher.

There was much amusement, reported the press, at the Indian worsting ‘the knight of the cleaver’

with a clothesline. Again no local horses were mentioned, and after this day, racing seemed to ebb.

As standards rose, proper grounds were necessary, and activity moved to developed racecourses in

Glenorchy. Roy and Hedley Calvert did own racehorses in the early 1900s, but apparently raced them

outside Clarence.21

By now a new sport was popular, Australian Rules football. This began in Melbourne in the

1850s, and clubs appeared in Tasmania in the 1870s. In 1883 the Mercury wrote of ‘the now popular

game of football’, so it was not surprising that the Bellerive Football Club was formed the next year.

It played other local teams like Forcett, Carlton, and Cambridge, or Hobart teams like Battery Point.

At home it played on Foster’s land near Bellerive beach, which had a definite slope, so teams were

playing uphill or downhill. There was also a junior team. Similar teams were formed in most

centres, such as Cambridge and Sandford, and William Murdoch of Cambridge was a mainstay of the

Richmond team and played for Southern Tasmania.22

Around the turn of the century local football associations were formed, with rosters and

ladders. In 1903 Bellerive were premiers of the Bellerive Football Association, and celebrated by

having its picture taken. The group included players, president, secretary, umpire and trainer (Robert

O’May), but no coach, as the captain did any coaching required, which was not much. Three

members belonged to the best-known football family in Bellerive, the Burtons – Harry (captain),

John, and thirteen-year-old Fred, ‘Brummy’. One young Bellerive player, Gary Luttrell, remembered

Brummy later showing him a few tricks of the trade, like how to ensure that someone running beside

you fell over, without your intervention being seen. The Bellerive Football Association was

shortlived, and Bellerive went on to play in various second-rank urban associations, winning a grand

final in 1907. Bellerive and other country teams suffered because big Hobart teams were always on

the lookout for talent, and took several promising players, like the Burtons.23

With so much of Clarence surrounded by water, it was natural that aquatic sports should be

popular. From early days Bellerive had a regatta, held off and on depending on people’s enthusiasm.

In 1870 it was postponed three times, due to drenching rain, calm, then a boat being swamped, and it

was finally held in May. The big event was a sailing race with seven boats, won by W. Hales’

21 Mercury 24.11.91; Tasmanian News 12.5.92; Mercury 20.3.05 22 TM 22.6.16

Garibaldi – showing that Bellerive people kept up with world news, since the great Italian patriot

was at the height of his career.24 The site was ideal, and a grandstand was built on the esplanade for

good viewing.

Enthusiasm grew with the formation of the Bellerive Rowing Club in 1882, with colours of

blue and white. Under the leadership of Bellerive notables, including Thomas Westbrook, Charles

Featherstone, Henry Lamb and William Benson, the Club built a boatshed on Kangaroo Bay.

Enthusiasm came and went, however, and in November 1896 the Derwent Sailing Club and the

Hobart Rowing Club, helped by many Bellerive people, tried to established a ‘new order of things’,

by resuscitating the Bellerive Regatta. There was excellent competition, with sailing and ‘pulling’

(rowing) races; the O’Mays’ boats, gaily bedecked with bunting, brought over twenty loads of

visitors from Hobart; the Kangaroo brought more; the weather was beautiful; and the boats,

roundabouts, and crowds of people picnicking on the green sward of the esplanade gave a joyous

appearance, reported the Mercury. This time enthusiasm was retained, helped by the formation of the

Bellerive Sailing Club in 1897, and the Bellerive Dinghy Club in 1905; both clubs faded, though in

1907 the Bellerive Times reported that interest in sailing races was very keen, with ‘handsome

trophies lying about for all sorts of races’. An attempt was being made to organise a rowing crew at

Bellerive for the many prizes offered by regattas; the sheltered bays of Bellerive and Lindisfarne

were excellent for rowing.25

As Lindisfarne grew, ‘aquatic carnivals’ and regattas were also held there, and in 1905 the

Lindisfarne Rowing Club was formed. At its second annual regatta, in 1907, there were rowing and

sailing races, swimming races (for boys only), afternoon tea, stalls, a brass band, a duck hunt, and a

greasy pole competition, and special ferry services brought hundreds of visitors to the ‘very pretty

bay’. In 1913 Lindisfarne Regatta included a ladies’ fours rowing event, in which a Lindisfarne crew

came second.26

From earliest times Clarence people had enjoyed a day at the beach, and children went

paddling, but whether they swam was rarely mentioned. In 1869 Signor Vertelli competed in a

swimming match in Kangaroo Bay, with Ambrose Harrington of Kangaroo Point. They swam from

23 Alexander You’re In Roo Country! pp 2-6 24 Mercury 2.5.70 25 Walch 1882-1901; Bellerive Times 1.2, 14.12.1907; Dakin pp 48-9; TM 29.6.11; H O’May p 30; Mercury 18.4.90, 27.2.94, 5.3.94, 2.11.96, 10.11.96 26 Mercury 2.12.05, 25.2.07; TM 2.9.05; CC 12.2.13

the wharf, around a boat in the bay and back. Harrington swam ‘in the ordinary style, face and chest

foremost’, but Vertelli ‘adopted the professional mode...with one arm and side in front’. He steered

wildly so had to swim an extra few yards, and he lost ground because he had to turn his head to see

where he was going; Harrington won.27

By 1887 swimming was popular, and Thomas Dawson mentioned at a meeting that bathing

accommodation was necessary in Bellerive – a man had to get up early in the morning if he wanted

to bathe, and sometimes ladies got up for the same purpose at an early hour. (Swimming costumes

did not exist.) In the 1890s Dr Holden and his son Andrew used to go for an early morning swim,

apparently instead of a bath. They knew a secluded place where they could dive from the rocks,

where no one could see them. By this time some daring people were suggesting that bathing

costumes be introduced so that everyone could take to the water, as happened in France.28

Bathing accommodation meant baths, which enclosed a piece of sea or river and provided

dressing sheds and privacy. There were suggestions that baths be built at Bellerive, but nothing

happened. The Board did not have enough money, and there were disagreements about a site – the

beach or Kangaroo Bay, and which part of either? A few bathing sheds, where people could gain

some privacy, were built.29

By now bathing suits were becoming common, but this created problems. Should mixed

bathing be allowed, men and women bathing together? Some people considered bathing suits

indecent, and so great was the discussion that the Bellerive Board threatened to prosecute any

swimmers, whatever they were wearing. Bathers complained, and Bellerive resident AJ Nettlefold

called a public meeting, raised money and set up a committee to build baths. They were finished in

March 1905, and were built on the northern side of the railway jetty, with a spring-board for diving, a

pole for teaching children to swim – by having them put an arm over it and ‘striking out’ – and

changing rooms for thirty bathers. Although it was a cold, cheerless day, there was a great crowd at

the opening, with a band playing, and 29 diving, rowing and swimming events. But little more was

heard of the baths; perhaps, with bathing suits becoming common and beaches open to mixed

bathing, these were preferred.30

27 Mercury 10.4.69 28 Holden chapter 4; TM 2.7.87, 10.10.91, 16.1.92; Mercury 18.10.70 29 BTB 4.11.95, 16.12.95, 30.12.95, 24.2.96, 9.3.96, 23.3.96, 16.11.96, 12.4.97, 3.9.00, 19.8.01 30 Winter ‘The Bellerive Baths’ pp 17-20; H O’May p 112; Mercury 9.3.05, 13.3.05

At Bellerive, bathing shelters were built, with a tank for water for picnickers. A springboard

was built in a nook in the second bluff, though rough weather later carried it away.31 Complaints

about bathers being insufficiently clad surfaced again in 1913. After cases were reported of indecent

behaviour from persons coming to Lindisfarne to bathe, Councillor Allwright moved a motion that

neck-to-knee bathing costumes should be worn, and after leaving the water people should not loiter

about the beach in bathing costumes. The police should force those not decently dressed or using bad

language to dress at once. They must stop bathing being interfered with by ‘immodest or reckless

people’. If it were not checked, Bellerive and Lindisfarne would get a bad name. ‘There’s no harm

after a swim in lying round in the sun for a while’, objected Councillor Mathers. ‘The Victorians call

that smoodging’, answered Councillor Hume. The motion was passed, and notices warning bathers

to wear neck-to-knee costumes were erected, but the law must have been difficult for the solitary

policeman to enforce. There were more complaints, and Council set aside parts of the beach for sun

bathing, for men and women respectively. Letters and an article in the press ridiculed this.

Sunbathing was a healthy pastime, sunbathers wore bathing suits as provided for in the Police Act,

and a better class of clean-minded young men could not be found; if Bellerive was to progress, its

residents ‘must not taboo sun baths’. But the enclosures went ahead.32

Other sports were played spasmodically. In the 1860s a prize fight was held at the Rokeby

race course, to avoid the Hobart police. Fights normally last 15 rounds, but this lasted 84 rounds and

took 2 hours and 10 minutes, and at the end both contestants were unrecognisable. The winner was a

local man, ‘Brummy’. Prize fighting died out, not surprisingly.33

Meanwhile, new sports were introduced. In 1898 the Bellerive Bicycle Club was formed,

running its first road race that year. The Lindisfarne Golf Club bought land at Geilston Bay and in

1904 established a nine-hole course with a club house – the first southern golf club to own its own

course. There were tennis clubs and courts at Bellerive and Lindisfarne. In 1903 Bellerive won a

table tennis championship at Beltana, defeating ‘sister suburbs’. In 1905 a Lacrosse Association

used the Lindisfarne Board room – to play lacrosse? People enjoyed ‘rambles’ and picnics in the

bush, and almost everyone who lived at Lindisfarne mentioned the lovely walks round Natone Hill

with its orchids. Most of the traditional sports – racing, cricket, rifle shooting, ploughing – had been

31 NS 544/2/50, article 1912 32 CC 8.1.13, 12.2.13, 13.2.13, 10.3.13, 11.4.14; Mercury 12.2.13, 13.2.13, 13.2.14; Critic 2.1.14; TM 22.2.08 33 NS 544/2, newspaper article dated 29.8.13

played only by men, but by the turn of the century women were taking part in some sports, like

boating, swimming and tennis.34

Organised cultural and social activities were not as prominent as sporting activities, though

there were many informal activities – weddings, christenings, birthdays, public holidays, when

families and friends gathered together. They are hard to document as they often left little record, but

they must have been the major social activity for most Clarence people. In a similar way, there was

much charitable and community work, which went largely unrecorded. Communities worked

together in churches and sporting clubs, in unofficial ways to help those who were ill or suffered

other problems, and generally supported the good of the community. Some examples are known: the

Calverts of South Arm provided the Calverton Hall for community use, and the biography of David

Calvert, born in 1848, states that he ‘was always actively connected with beneficial works’. His son

David took a leading part in building the pubic hall at Rokeby in 1914, serving on the committee who

organised it, helping with fund-raising, supervising the building and choosing the piano.35

There were some organised groups, and the first were friendly societies of different types,

which provided social and insurance benefits for the artisan classes. Established in Hobart in the

1840s, they spread round the island, and in 1873 the Bellerive Lodge of the Oddfellows, Manchester

United, was established. Fred Ward, wheelwright, was secretary from 1893 until after 1914. It was a

stable group, with 17 members in both 1903 and 1914, and a smaller number of registered wives,

who could also receive benefits. The Good Templars, on the other hand, came and went, with no

lodge lasting more than a couple of years. They were a newer group, only established in Hobart in

1873, and they set up a Bellerive Lodge, the ‘Missing Link’, the next year, with ferry owner James

Taylor as secretary. This soon faded, but in 1879 ‘Our Hope’ lodge was established at Clarence

Plains. The ‘Missing Link’ reappeared briefly at Bellerive in the early 1880s, then 1889 saw the

‘Emblem of Peace’ lodge at Bellerive.36

A different sort of society, providing much the same benefits as friendly societies, was the

Australian Natives’ Association, known as the ANA. Its members had to be born in Australia and it

aimed to promote Australia – it called itself a National and Patriotic Society. It attracted young

34 Walch 1904-14; Hudspeth p 12; Mercury 21.3.90, 13.3.05; BT&IA booklet, Hobart 1912, p 18; LTB 2.10.05; TM 18.8.03, 28.5.03, 24.8.98 35Cyclopedia of Tasmania 1931 pp 264, 248 36 Cyclopedia of Tasmania 1931 pp 264, 248; Walch 1873-1914, Friendly Societies sections; Statistics of Tasmania 1903 p 508, 1914-5 p 444

middle-class men, and by 1903 there was a branch in Bellerive. By 1907 it ran the Bellerive ANA

Orchestra and the Bellerive ANA Comedy Company, and published the Bellerive Times. In 1907 the

Comedy Company put on a play, ‘The Three Hats’, which attracted a large audience and was

performed with ‘vim and precision’. Nita Wertheimer, Eileen Allwright, Gilbert Lamb and several

Bensons were the stars, and Ernest O’May was billed to take the role of constable. On the night he

was unable to come, but luckily, when an actor uttered the line, ‘Police!’, to the relief of the

performers and the hilarity of the audience, the local constable stepped smartly into the hall. The

ANA Orchestra provided the music, the scenery was well painted, and altogether the evening was an

‘unprecedented success’, according to the Bellerive Times.

The Times, describing itself as ‘Bellerive’s Newsy Paper’, provided social gossip, garden

notes, jokes, news about progress on the recreation ground, election information, yachting and

rowing news, and urged readers to buy Tasmanian-made goods. It also ran a limerick competition,

and published the winning entry of the most recent competition, a poem about Beltana:

There was a young man of Beltana,

Who once met an old iguana;

When the youth would have fled,

The beast gulped him, and said,

‘He went down like a juicy banana’.

The next issue was to give the result of competition for a limerick about on Lindisfarne, but sadly the

issue is missing – the rhyme would have been challenging. The Times folded but the ANA

continued, and in 1911 had 12 members.37

With the largest population, Bellerive was the cultural centre of Clarence. This was partly

due to the Westbrook and Benson families. Thomas Westbrook had built the Institute, which by

providing a venue gave encouragement to those giving concerts, lectures, magic lantern shows, plays

or any other form of entertainment. Westbrook’s wife Fanny was a talented singer, and their

daughter Lucy, born in 1860, had not only a magnificent voice but wonderful ability as an organiser.

She learnt singing in Hobart, and during her life sang in many concerts, ran a choir, managed,

directed and conducted light operas, and was possibly the first female conductor of opera in

37 Bellerive Times vol 1, no 2; Statistics of Tasmania 1903, 1911

Australia. For half a century there were few musical occasions in Tasmania in which she did not take

part, as manager, conductor, soloist, director, accompanist or costume designer.

Most of Lucy’s activities took place in Hobart or on the mainland – in 1905 her choir won the

championship of the Commonwealth at the famous Ballarat competitions – but she continued to live

in Bellerive, where she had married William Benson in 1881. William, Lucy and/or one or more of

their six children were involved in almost every activity of Bellerive life; for example, in 1897 Lucy

organised a concert at the Institute for the Oddfellows’ Lodge, as usual a crowded and successful

evening of music and singing. She organised many other concerts, and took a leading part in general

life. She ran the Band of Mercy, she called a public meeting about building baths, and she was

involved in almost all public activities in Bellerive open to women – and some, like calling public

meetings, which were unprecedented for them. The family moved to northern Tasmania in 1913, a

loss to Clarence, but later they returned to the south, and Lucy was still playing the organ at St

Mark’s when she was 83, just before her death in 1943.38

Several musical groups were formed. For some years there was agitation for a band, and this

eventuated in 1897 with the Bellerive Brass Military Band, under conductor Signor E. Bajo. He is

not mentioned as a resident of Bellerive, so presumably came from Hobart to conduct. The band was

part of Bellerive life, playing at such community occasions as a concert to raise money for the

Jubilee Clock in 1897, and the inauguration of the new O’May steamer Silver Crown in 1899. In

1902 Fred Easton, a Bellerive resident, was the conductor, but the band faded shortly afterwards.

Later the Bellerive Orchestral Society was formed, and lasted for three years, from 1910 to 1913.39

There was little such activity outside Bellerive, especially before districts had that pre-

requisite, a hall, since other buildings were not usually large enough, or in the case of churches

suitable, for public functions. Some cultural activities did take place; in the 1890s, to raise money

for prizes for schoolchildren, concerts were held at Rokeby, presumably in the school; and in 1897 a

huge crowd filled the Sandford Congregational church to hear a lecturer talking about his travels in

Russia, illustrated with magic lantern slides. There were several groups for children, and the first

official Girl Guide pack in Tasmania was the 1st Lindisfarne, formed in 1912 by Mrs Hume.40

38 ADB 7 pp 272-3; Winter ‘The Bellerive Drinking Fountain’ pp 208-209; TM 16.11.01; Mercury 10.4.97 39 Walch 1898-1904, 1910-1913; Mercury 4.11.89; Post Office Directory 1904, Bellerive; BTB 26.7.97; TM 10.10.91 40 CC 13.12.89, 25.11.90, 28.11.93; Mercury 10.4.97; Robson pp 248-9

In 1866, when the Bellerive Institute was being planned, there was talk about a public lecture

room in Rokeby, but nothing was built until 1905 when J. Green asked Council for a licence for his

assembly room there. This was licensed, but must have been inadequate, for in 1910 the Council

decided to encourage the building of a public hall. A site was chosen, money was raised, and the hall

was opened in 1914. Meanwhile, the Calvert family built the Calverton Hall at South Arm, and this

was used for public functions after it gained a licence in 1893; Matthew Simmons provided a hall in

Lindisfarne at about the same time; in 1911 the Sandford Hall was mentioned; and by this time

Cambridge people were asking for a hall as well.41

A possible use for halls was for political meetings, but interest in politics did not appear

overwhelming in Clarence, though it was the custom for candidates to hold meetings before

elections. There was only one political group in Clarence, the Bellerive branch of the left-wing

Workers’ Political League, led by Fred Ward, a wheelwright, and John Bastick, a tailor. The group

was mentioned in 1912, but its specific activities are unknown. Clarence generally returned

conservative farmers as its parliamentary representatives. In 1916 the Labor premier opened his

election campaign at the Bellerive Institute ‘following the usual custom’ – the reason for this is

unclear as Bellerive was hardly a Labor hotbed.42

Even the Workers’ Political League was not revolutionary, and the patriotism of Clarence

people appeared unquestioned. It was not directed towards the new Australian nation, of which

Clarence became a tiny part in 1901, but the British Empire, still the focus of most people’s

nationalistic feeling. In 1897 Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrated her sixty years on the

throne. Most celebrations took place in Hobart, but Clarence joined other municipalities in a

combined address to the Queen, and along with other areas around Hobart lit bonfires on the night.

Bellerive raised money for a Jubilee Clock on the new post office, and at Lindisfarne sixty elm trees

were planted on the recreation ground.43

Clarence was the scene for some martial activity. Once the batteries on the Derwent provided

protection from invaders who came up the river, the authorities considered how they would deal with

invaders who approached from Frederick Henry Bay. In Easter 1899 a huge encampment of 666

soldiers and reservists from all over Tasmania was held near Bellerive, to assess the best way of

41 CC 24.11.66, 25.7.93, 7.9.05, 6.2.08, 7.12.10, 18.11.10, 4.1.11, 12.4.11, 14.5.13, 10.9.13; LTB 7.8.99; Mercury 28.3.03 42 BT&IA booklet 1912; Daily Post 3.2.16; Robson p 325 43 CC 31.5.97, 22.6.97; BTB 3.5.97, 17.5.97, 15.6.97, 26.7.97; LTB 2.8.97

defending Hobart from such an assault. On Easter Monday the troops fought a mock battle. It was

assumed that the attacking force would reach Rokeby – there was certainly nothing to stop them –

and a sham fight was held there, with the opposing forces 1000 yards (a kilometre) apart, rapid firing,

advances and retreats, and an eventual win by the defenders. There was also a practice using live

shells on Easter Day, with 25 shots fired. It must have been most exciting, and possibly irritating, for

Rokeby and Bellerive people.44

Later that year the Boer War broke out. In the wider British Empire there were some people

who felt it was unjustified, but there was no hint of such feeling in Clarence, where patriotism

prevailed. There were fairs, patriotic concerts and fetes to raise money for various funds, and normal

events could also be suffused with patriotism. For example in 1900 the Congregational church fair in

Bellerive had decorations ‘of a patriotic character’ and Miss Craddock exhibited a figure called ‘Mrs

Kruger’ and did good business, in a way not described. (Kruger was the Boer leader.)45 Union Jack

Societies being formed around Tasmania to support soldiers, and Bellerive had its group, with a

Ladies’ Branch, the first women’s group recorded in Clarence. The Branch sent comforts to the

troops, in 1900 a consignment of 150 lbs (68 kg) of tobacco, 720 tins of jam, 5 cases of tinned milk

and 10 cases of chocolate – an enormous effort. Private Herbert Facy wrote to his mother, a member

of the group: ‘It is kind of the Bellerive ladies to think so kindly of the needs of those who are so far

away’.46

Seventeen men from Clarence were among the 860 who enlisted from Tasmania. They left in

October 1899, saw a good deal of fighting, and arrived back home in December 1900 to a huge

welcome. Among the seventeen soldiers was Frank Morrisby, son of the council clerk. Born in 1874,

he grew up in Bellerive in a close family, and attended John McArdell’s school at Mornington, then

Scotch College in Hobart. He worked as a clerk at the Hobart gaol, and enjoyed playing football.

His genial nature and quick wit made him a general favourite, and he was nicknamed ‘Sancho’.

Frank found returning to civilian life humdrum, and in 1901 enlisted again. He was made a

quarter-master sergeant, and his battalion arrived in South Africa early in 1902 for the final months

of the war. Frank was in charge of a regimental depot. Peace was declared in May, and there was

much celebration, but at some stage Frank was kicked by a horse and developed an abscess on his

liver, and died. His death was a ‘great surprise and shock’ to everyone at home, and there was great

44 Sargent p 5, quoting Mercury 4.4.99 45 BTB 22.1.00, 5.2.00, 10.12.00; LTB 12.3.00; Mercury 4.10.00

sympathy for his family. A fund was opened, and a memorial was built to him in front of the

Bellerive Post Office. For years family and friends laid wreaths there on the anniversary of his

death.47

Meanwhile, Queen Victoria died in early 1901, and the black-bordered Bellerive Town Board

minutes noted that the death of the late beloved sovereign was a great grief to the whole British

Empire. Sadness vanished later that year when Tasmania had the thrill of a Royal Visit. South Arm,

Rokeby and Bellerive residents were able to watch the Duke and Duchess of York sail up the

Derwent, and that afternoon they paid an unexpected visit to Bellerive. It cannot have been entirely

unexpected, for the Clarence Council and the Bellerive Town Board had enough notice to hurriedly

buy a flagpole and acquire a Union Jack, which was hoisted a mere two hours before royalty arrived;

but it was all a great thrill. The august visitors landed at Bellerive, strolled along the esplanade to the

Bluff Battery, then along the beach and back by the road. As they left, the ferry Victory followed

them ‘at a respectful distance’, full of passengers cheering; in response His Royal Highness took off

his hat and the Duchess bowed.48

By this time loyalty was wearing somewhat thin, or at least funds to support it were; Bellerive

refused to join other municipalities in providing an arch in Hobart along the royal route, and was also

wary of paying for a bonfire to celebrate Edward VII’s coronation. Finally the Board agreed to a

small one, and Lindisfarne lit a bonfire on Natone Hill for the occasion. The next patriotic occasion

did not occur until George V’s coronation in 1911, when again all celebrations took place in Hobart,

but bonfires were lit in the evening in various parts of Clarence.49

Community groups, patriotic activities and other forms of respectability were encouraged by

the development of churches, which was rapid in this period. By 1860 both the Anglicans and the

Congregationalists were established in Clarence. The Anglicans, the largest denomination, ran the

church of St Matthew’s at Rokeby, where the clergyman was based, and the smaller chapel of St

Mark’s at Bellerive. The minister was the Rev. Robert Wilson, who had arrived in 1854. In March

1867 the parish held its second harvest festival. The whole district co-operated with this sort of

function, wrote a journalist, and a good, neighbourly feeling was engendered. Many people came

from Hobart and Bellerive, and it was a day of general cheerfulness and ‘real enjoyment of all

46 TM 28.4.00, 19.5.1900 47 Robertson Not for Self passim; BTB 20.7.03; Sargent passim 48 CC 6.6.01, 11.7.01; BTB 4.2.01, 13.5.01, 27.5.01, 24.6.01, 8.7.01; Mercury 3.7.01 49 BTB 26.5.02, 23.6.02, 4.8.02; LTB 5.6.02; Mercury 23.6.11; CC 14.6.11, 14.5.13, 8.4.13

classes’. St Matthew’s was decorated with wreaths of wheat, ferns and flowers, and its recent

renovations looked excellent – a new shingled roof, an oak-panelled ceiling instead of dilapidated

lath and plaster, and much paint and varnish. After the service, lunch was served in a large tent

which flew the Union Jack, while a string band played, and a gold watch was presented to Miss

Chipman, organist for the past seven years. Sunday school children were entertained with fruit and

cakes, there was a cricket match between Rokeby and Somerset, and in the evening a dance was

held.50

As the years passed Rokeby declined and Bellerive grew, helped by the work of devoted

layman, ‘that well-known friend of childhood’ Thomas Westbrook, who in 1863 started a Sunday

School at St Mark’s. The bishop made him a lay reader, and he took services and did other parish

work in outlying areas of Rokeby and South Arm. Wilson took exception to Westbrook’s activities

and in 1870 denied his right to officiate in the parish. This caused a huge furore, with enthusiastic

public meetings held at South Arm, Rokeby and Bellerive in support of Westbrook, but eventually it

died down. Westbrook, a true Christian, was much praised for never complaining about Wilson’s

treatment. Wilson left in 1881 and there was a succession of short-term ministers until the Rev.

Frederick Sharland, 1898-1914. Westbrook continued to support the church, and ran a branch of the

British and Foreign Bible Society from 1869 until 1910.51

Some ministers lived in Bellerive, but Sharland preferred Rokeby, and St Mark’s Bellerive

was largely run by Judge McIntyre’s family. Sharland only took services once a month, and when he

was not there – which the congregation preferred – McIntyre, a lay reader, took the services. His son

Allan played the organ, and his five children, with Mrs Holden and her son Andrew, formed the

choir. Mrs McIntyre also sat in the choir, not to sing as much as to prevent squabbles among her

children. The old church was by now in disrepair, and after a huge amount of fund-raising over

fourteen years, a new one was built in 1904.52

When a school was built at South Arm in 1856 services were held there, and a burial ground

was established; the first person buried was Joseph Wilmore that year. For four years in the 1860s the

area had its own minister, when the Rev. Tice Gellibrand lived on the family farm and conducted

services. After Wilson stopped Westbrook’s services, David Calvert was lay reader, until he moved

50 Mercury 20.3.67 51 Mercury 20.3.67, 21.2.1870; Arnold passim 52 Holden p 14; Lock pp 53-56; Mercury 6.3.1905

to Sandford in 1883. Sometimes the minister from Bellerive came to take services, though how often

this happened is not known.

Great efforts were made to raise funds for a church. The Calverts were prominent, with

Robert and Henry lending sails from their boats to their sister Hannah for tents for a large fete. An

excellent site was donated on a prominent hill overlooking the Derwent, and the church of St

Barnabas was opened in 1892. By the next year it was free from debt, due to interest-free loans from

William and Robert Calvert, and assistance from Henry Alomes. St Barnabas’ church had fine Huon

pine furnishings, and as time went by was enhanced with beautiful stained glass memorial

windows.53

In the 1890s Lindisfarne started developing, and services were held in the recreation pavilion

from 1895. Again the Westbrooks were supportive, and Thomas’s son Hedley started a Sunday

School three years later. St Aidan’s church hall was dedicated in 1904 and services and the Sunday

School were held there, but no church had been built by 1914.54 By 1914 the Anglicans had three

churches in Clarence and four centres of church activity.

The Congregationalists were also active, particularly in the 1860s when they built three

churches. These were small wooden buildings on land donated by a local benefactor, for the

Congregationalists believed that the presence of a church, however small, was more important than

its appearance. In the 1850s services were held in Bellerive in the state school, the Waterman’s Arms

hotel and the court house, and a church was built in 1860. Joseph Dawson gave the site and money

was raised with the help of wealthy Hobart businessman and devoted Congregationalist Henry

Hopkins, who also helped to build churches at Sandford in 1861 and Rokeby in 1866. The three

churches formed one parish, which sometimes had a resident minister, and at other times relied on

local lay readers taking services. From 1890 there was always a minister who lived at Bellerive.

Perhaps because of this the congregation grew in Bellerive especially, and a new, larger church was

opened in 1910.55

In Lindisfarne the generous Simmons family were Congregationalists, and Matthew Simmons

donated land where a ‘pretty little church’ was opened in 1903. The Congregational church at

Cambridge was part of the parish of Richmond, and under the much-loved Rev. Tinning flourished

so much that a gallery had to built to accommodate the congregation. From about 1890 Cambridge

53 Walch 1863-1914; information from Ted Bezzant; Robb pp 40, 41, 52, 69, 65, 67 54 Arnold p 37; Mercury 3.3.93

was part of the Bellerive parish. Another small church was built at Risdon, but this struggled as

Risdon never became a population centre. The church was used by the Congregationalists then the

Anglicans, then fell into disuse. Congregationalists generally were enthusiastic about holding social

events, and newspapers often contained descriptions of jumble sales, tea meetings, harvest festivals

and the like in Clarence churches. 56

There were no church buildings for the Presbyterians or Catholics in this period, but from the

1860s both held services in the public buildings (Council or police offices) in Rokeby and Bellerive.

For over forty years from 1870 the saintly Irish priest, Father Phillip Hennebry, came from Hobart to

run Catholic services in Clarence.57 Presbyterian services appear to have ceased, and devoted

Presbyterians like James Murdoch went to church in Hobart. Methodists usually went to services in

Hobart as well, though for a period around 1867 there was a Wesleyan chapel at Kangaroo Point

where services were held. There were some members of smaller denominations in Clarence – it was

said that Captain Taylor and his large family were Plymouth Brethren – and even some free-thinkers,

like sub-inspector Murray, but Clarence Council felt that most people found his radical ideas

obnoxious.58

Schools also developed in this period, particularly government schools. Education became

compulsory from 1868, and by 1900 it was free. The government wanted every child to be able to

attend a nearby school, and from the 1880s the number of schools increased enormously. Standards

were rising as teacher training improved and examinations and inspection were introduced.59

These changes meant more and better schools in Clarence. The well-established schools at

Bellerive and Rokeby ran continuously from 1860 to 1914. Teachers came and went, often in rapid

succession, but some stayed for relatively long periods and became well-known inhabitants. In

Bellerive, in 1858 an area in Chapman Street was declared a school reserve, and a building

containing one classroom to hold forty pupils and the headmaster’s house was erected. As the

population grew, a second school building was erected in 1913.60

55 Mercury 10.11.1866; Robertson, ‘A Church for the Community’ pp 28-30 56 Sharples pp 32-3; Walch 1863-1914, Clarence section; undated newspaper clipping among LTB; Weeding p 2; Mercury 4.10.00, 21.3.90, 18.3.90, 4.10.00, 13.3.05 57 Walch 1863-1914; CC 31.3.66, 28.4.66, 26.5.66, 31.7.75; Southerwood pp 97, 116 58 Andel pp 61, 63; see chapter 4 of this book for Murray 59 Sprod p 22; Robson pp 249-253 60 Houghton p 17

The South Arm and Sandford schools, serving smaller population centres, did not run

continuously, but mostly did, sometimes under local teachers like Mrs Morrisby at Sandford and

Miss Musk and Mrs Calvert at South Arm. At other times teachers were sent out by the Education

Department, and boarded with local families. Three new schools started as the population grew.

Cambridge School began in 1864, and the first headmaster, John Hobden, was a former convict.

Beltana started in 1899, under Miss Okines who remained until 1913. A small school began at

Risdon in 1905, with a new teacher every one or two years. Over two-thirds of Clarence teachers

were female, but by 1914 more were male, as the New Education favoured male teachers, especially

in larger schools like Bellerive.61

From 1893 to 1914 the number of pupils at Clarence schools nearly doubled, increasing from

211 to 404. As in all districts, far fewer children actually attended school than were enrolled. In

1914, the average attendance was only 260, two-thirds of those enrolled, as many children either

played truant or were kept at home to help in the family business, or with the housework or child

care.62 Still, in theory every child received a primary education.

Private schools were greatly affected by these changes. As before they continued to come

and go, though two were longer-lived, John McArdell’s at Mornington, which closed only with his

death in 1886, and Mrs Bignell’s at Bellerive, which ran from 1870 to at least 1886. Mrs Bignell also

ran the post office, and combined her two roles very successfully. Usually there was at least one

small private primary school in Bellerive, and occasionally one elsewhere; in the 1860s Mrs Barber

ran a school in Cambridge, for example.63 Most were small primary schools competing with state

schools, providing about the same level of education and charging about the same fees.

The growth in number and standard of government schools, and the fact that they became

free, meant that many of these schools found it hard to compete – Mrs Barber’s school in Cambridge

closed at the same time that the government school opened. Then in 1906 the government introduced

registration of non-state teachers and schools. Teachers had to have qualifications (minimal) or

previous experience, and what was more difficult, schools had to have adequate access, ventilation,

sanitation and fire precautions. No longer could anyone open a school in his or her home, and soon

there were far fewer private schools, especially small ones. The first registration list, published in

61 Information from Cambridge Primary School; Alexander thesis pp 7-10 62 Statistics of Tasmania, 1893; 1903 p 482; 1914 p 417 63 Holeywell p 7; Walch 1863-1914, Clarence section, though private schools are not listed in every year, notably stopping for some years in 1886

1910, included 196 schools, three in Clarence. Alice Shepherd and Annie Stevens were head

teachers of primary schools in Bellerive. The title was grand, but both schools contained only one

room, with Annie the only teacher and Alice having an assistant. At South Arm, Alice Watson ran a

similar school, herself the only teacher in one room. These schools probably taught only a dozen or

so children.64

By 1914, when the next registration list was published, only 96 schools operated, and the

three in Clarence had all vanished. The one private school there was Esther Elliot’s primary

establishment, held in the Congregational school room in Bellerive, with Esther the only teacher.65

Another educational area was teaching music from home, and there were several music teachers in

Bellerive from the 1890s. A few families had governesses to educate their children at home, like the

Murdochs at Craigow, and in 1912 the Watson family of York Grove, Sandford, had a tall elegant

English lady, Emily Westrope, who left them to marry elderly William Calvert.66 Some Clarence

children, especially those in Bellerive and Lindisfarne with easier access to the city, attended private

schools in Hobart.

Medical attention was limited in this period. From the 1850s it was frequently stated that

Clarence was particularly healthy; for example, in 1866 Bellerive was described as a healthy and

delightful retreat, and a few months’ residence there brought about a ‘cure in individuals whose

complaints baffled the skill of their medical attendants for years’. At the launch of the O’Mays’ new

ferry in 1889, James Murdoch of Craigow said that if people only knew the benefits of the climate of

Clarence, there would be a greater call for steamers.67 Or, as the ‘Poet of the Ferry’, H. Jephson

wrote:

When tired nature seeks relief,

From toil and care, or pain and grief,

What more charming can be found

Than a trip to Kangaroo Point?68

64 Alexander thesis pp 2-26; TGG 12.7.1910, p 735 65 TGG 25.8.14 p 1557. Annie Stevens’ school is not registered in 1914, but she is included in the list of registered teachers, and shown as teaching in a primary school in Bellerive, which could only be her old school which she was actually still running. One entry or the other must have been incorrect. 66 Walch 1896-1914, Clarence section; MacFie ‘Oral History...’ p 96; Robb p 41 67 Walch 1866; Mercury 4.11.89 68 NS 544/2/50, 1912 newspaper article

In 1912 the Bellerive Improvement Association reported that a man had just died at the age of 95,

wonderfully vigorous and active almost up till the last. This was not surprising, it continued, as the

climate of Clarence was appreciably warmer in winter than in Hobart, and the summer heat was

tempered by sea breezes. Sea bathing, plenty of good walks, and an absence of infectious disease

made it an excellent place for ‘anyone in search of health’. Such praise had an effect. The Victoria

Convalescent Home moved to Lindisfarne in 1899, and the Cox family moved from Hobart after Dr

Benjafield advised them that this would be good for their baby’s constitution. She grew up very

healthy.69

There was little infectious disease in Clarence, though there were some cases of diphtheria in

1880 and 1910, and the odd case of scarlatina and ‘fever’. In 1908 Hobart City Council built an

infectious diseases hospital to serve the south, and Clarence patients were nursed there, while for

other illnesses they went to the Hobart General Hospital or a private hospital in Hobart, or were

nursed at home. Accidents were a problem, and when John Rossington of Lindisfarne was severely

injured by a horse falling on him, he had to be taken in a dray to Bellerive then across in the ferry to

hospital in Hobart, an agonising procedure.70 There was generally a doctor in Clarence, first at

Rokeby and then at Bellerive. Babies were often born at home, with the doctor or a local midwife in

attendance; Berenice Morrisby was born at home in Bellerive in about 1914, with Nurse Percy, the

Rokeby midwife, in attendance. Midwives were rarely trained but learned through experience, and

were often local farmers’ wives who would go to help other women in childbirth. Maternity

hospitals existed in Hobart from about 1900, and sometimes women went there for childbirth, or had

a doctor come from Hobart. The O’Mays knew where every doctor lived, and they would go over,

fetch the doctor, and return, for a fee of 20/-, and ‘if the resident was not able to pay, well he was one

of us’. When it was known that a woman was expecting a birth, a boat was always ready with an

extra heavy banked fire at night, until the baby was born. All residents knew at which window to

knock, said Harry, and he would dress and reach the wharf in five minutes.71

The doctor from 1894 to 1907 was Dr Holden. He became a believer in the health benefits

even trips to Bellerive could bring, and when a Hobart friend of his was ill, advised him to go to

Bellerive and back by ferry every morning before work, to catch a breath of sea air. His surgery was

69 BT&IA booklet 1912, Tas Lib NS 1640/63 (thanks to Basil Cox who alerted me to this reference) 70 CC 29.1.80, 9.2.10, 2.3.10, 7.12.10, 8.2.11, 11.3.14, 6.2.08, 18.6.08, 6.10.09, 6.7.10; Murfet p 17

held in his house, and he made up his own medicines. A rather reserved Englishman, Dr Holden was

obviously not a soft touch. When he left Bellerive in 1907, the Bellerive Times wrote that though he

was ‘not a man of the “hail fellow well-met” order, yet his kindness and gentle courtesy, coupled

with his ready sympathy in any case of real trouble, have won for himself many true friends’.72 After

he left there was no doctor for a period, and in 1914 the only doctor in Clarence lived at Lindisfarne,

and practised in Hobart. Most Clarence people had to go to Hobart for medical care – which

encouraged them to try and cope at home unless there was an emergency.73

With less crime, less public drunkenness, more sporting and cultural activities, and the spread

of churches and schools, not to mention the healthy situation, life in Clarence sounds pleasant, if a

little primitive by city standards. Starting in the south, South Arm, which was almost totally free

from frost, had developed into a prime fruit-growing area, with almost all its inhabitants farmers or

fruitgrowers, though two men worked as carpenters, and there were also two men working at the Iron

Pot lighthouse. The small township had a school, an Anglican church served from Bellerive, a post

office and a shop. Members of the Calvert family ran the post office for 52 years, Christopher, Annie

then Hannah, who held the job for 29 years. A minor industry was tourism, as steamers brought

excursionists down from Hobart to enjoy South Arm’s beaches, and they often patronised the shop –

though some farmers found them a nuisance, as they trespassed, left gates open, and pulled more fruit

from trees than they could eat or carry away. Prominent names were Alomes, Calvert, Gellibrand

and Musk, all descended from settlers of the 1850s or earlier, and the 1914 electoral roll shows 43

employed adults living in South Arm, almost all farmers and orchardists (22) or labourers (14). In

1905 a reporter visited the area, ‘perhaps the most interesting peninsula in Tasmania’, where farmers

had turned ‘a wilderness of bush and sand’ into thriving orchards, nice houses, packing sheds and

magnificent plantations.74

Lying off the coast was Betsey Island, which in the 1870s was used by J. Groves to try and

acclimatise European animals like pheasants to Tasmanian conditions. A couple lived on Betsey

Island to look after it for him, and made a living by shooting the silver-grey rabbits which still

overran the island, and selling the skins. By 1914 it belonged to the trustees of the Tasmanian

71 Morrisby et al p 22; H O’May pp 84-5 72 Bellerive Times 14.12.07 73 CC 2.7.08, 7.1.09; Bellerive Times 14.12.07; Clarence Electoral Roll 1914 p 7 74 Clarence Electoral Roll 1914; Post Office Directories 1890, 1894, 1899, 1910; Robb p 65; Walch 1860-1914; Mercury 20.3.05

Museum and was uninhabited, and three years later a visitor described the island as dreary and

windswept with no shelter.75

The traveller crossed the sandy neck of South Arm, then went along the ‘fairly-well made’

road, over Goat Hill with its wonderful views of Storm Bay, and past the large lagoon, which ‘lies

romantically amid the woodlands’. This was Calvert land, where sheep were raised and fruit and

potatoes grown. Then came Sandford, which stirred the 1905 reporter to great enthusiasm. From the

road he caught glimpses of the Derwent to the west and the sea east and south, but his main

rhapsodies were kept for the bush. ‘There are trees and bush on both sides, music in the woodland

breezes harmonising with the breaking of waves on the sandy shores, and a gorgeous garlandry all

along the roadway, consisting of the ti-tree in full bloom, and more profusely flowered than the

writer has seen it in any other part of Tasmania. In places the wild heaths of pink, white, and yellow

form gorgeous carpets amid numerous other bush flowers. There are here miles of wild, flowery

solitudes, and waters welling away in sunshine and shadow. Many varieties of beautiful butterflies

flit about, and the birds are numerous. Glade after glade and thicket after thicket is passed,

alternating with deep recesses of forest lands, where there are tree growths of every imaginable

form.’76

Sandford too was a centre for fruit-growing, and the small township centre housed a school,

shop, post office and Congregational church. A succession of six Morrisby women worked as

postmistresses, occasionally interrupted by a Richardson, and some were also registrars of births,

deaths and marriages for the Sandford-South Arm district. Sandford had 62 employed adults in 1914,

again almost all farmers and orchardists (42) or labourers (16). Prominent names were Bowden,

Calvert, Lazenby, May, Morrisby, Pearsall, Reardon, Richardson and Watson; some were

descendants of pioneer families, some were more recent arrivals.77

The traveller continued along the road, crossing the causeway Charles Chipman had made

across a lagoon of water, ‘which has proved such a boon to the residents’. There was no township at

Ralphs Bay Neck, though there were plans to build a canal across it to improve transport. The

traveller turned west and continued to Rokeby, which in 1864 had a population of 180. By 1900 it

was described as once a prosperous settlement but now only a village, and twelve years later Rokeby

75 Mercury 20.3.05; Critic 13.1.17; Clarence Electoral Roll 1914 76 TM 19.11.04; Mercury 20.3.05 77 Clarence Electoral Roll 1914; Post Office Directories 1890, 1894, 1899, 1910; Walch 1860-1914; Cyclopedia of Tasmania 1900 p 436

people were probably insulted when a booklet published by the Bellerive Tourist and Improvement

Association described it as a pretty village, ‘a place by the world forgotten’ – there was rivalry

between Rokeby and Bellerive, which Rokeby had lost. More kindly, the traveller complimented

Rokeby on its English character, with farmhouses and cultivated fields on every hand, picturesque

scenery and charming marine views. Rokeby had a school, post office with telephone, blacksmith,

shop, and two churches, Anglican and Congregational, and some fine old stone houses. In 1914 it

had 66 employed adults, almost all farmers (33) and labourers (24). Prominent names were

Chipman, Free, Joseph, Percy, Stanfield and Young.78

A traveller going east from the Neck would pass Single Hill, where farms had been newly

established and a road built in 1911. The next stop was Cambridge. The area was dominated by

farms, with more wheat and sheep and less fruit grown than in the south, so it had more in common

with Richmond to its north than the rest of Clarence. Cambridge was one of the most prosperous

rural districts in the south. Farms were usually large and well-established, some calling themselves

the grander name of ‘station’, and there were more men working as labourers on these farms than on

smaller properties further south. Cambridge’s town centre had never really crystallised into a village,

but by 1914 it had a school, shop, post office with telephone service, Congregational church, the

Horsehoe hotel, railway station and annual ploughing match. Several transport routes ran through

Cambridge – the railway to Sorell, and the main road east to the Sorell causeway and beyond. In

1914 Cambridge had 89 employed adults, almost all farmers or labourers (41 of each). The best-

known family were the Murdochs of Craigow, well-to-do community leaders who sat in parliament

and were often wardens of Clarence. Other prominent names were Hanslow, Johnson, Lewis,

McKay, Salmon and Wright.79

The final, and smallest, farming area of Clarence was Risdon. In convict times the ferry and

rode over Grass Tree Hill had been a major route and there were inns at Risdon, but with the

improvement of the road and ferry via Bellerive the Risdon route was not much used, the hotels

closed and the ferry declined. A few farming families continued to live at Risdon, but it languished

until about 1900, when people started to take up holdings of 30-40 acres along Risdon Creek, though

78 Clarence Electoral Roll 1914; Post Office Directories 1890, 1894, 1899, 1910; Walch 1860-1914; Cyclopedia of Tasmania 1900 p 43; BT&IA booklet; TM 19.11.04; Mercury 20.3.05 79 CC 8.11.11; Clarence Electoral Roll 1914; Post Office Directories 1890, 1894, 1899, 1910; Walch 1860-1914; NS 544/2/50 newspaper article in 1912; Cyclopedia of Tasmania 1900 p 436; TM 9.11.03, 29.9.06, Mercury 28.9.05

water was a problem. At the township on the Derwent there was a school from 1905 and a post office

from 1912. The post office was called ‘Gregson’, but the name never caught on and the authorities

were forced to revert to Risdon. By 1914 there were 20 families there, farmers and orchardists (13),

labourers (6) and a sailor. The main family were the Sargents, with four farms and several hop

grounds on the banks of Risdon Creek.80

Living at Risdon for sixty years were the Cleburnes, wealthy Hobart merchants. By 1900

only the two old Misses Cleburne lived in Cleburne House, with several local girls working as maids.

One recalled that the Misses Cleburne wore white gloves and would brush their fingers along skirting

boards to make sure there was no dust. Excitingly, they employed a Negro servant called

Hansborough, who wore a suit and top hat and white gloves, and rode a bicycle, though then he tied

paper bags around his trousers to stop them getting dirty. The bicycle was ancient, and he could only

stop it by running it into a tree. The Misses Cleburne relied heavily on him, and when they were old

and feeble he slept on the end of their bed. He was an important part of the little Risdon community,

for he recited poetry at dances, and added a touch of rare glamour – his sister was a ‘beauty doctor’

in America. How Hansborough had ended up in Risdon on the other side of the world is a complete

mystery.81

South Arm, Sandford, Rokeby, Cambridge and Risdon, the agricultural, pastoral and

fruitgrowing areas, took up almost all Clarence’s land. In 1860 Clarence had a population of 1552,

of which 250, or 16%, lived in Bellerive, so 84% of the population lived in the country.

At the 1911 census, Clarence had a population of 2482, a rise of 60%. By now, Bellerive

accounted for a third and Lindisfarne for a quarter, and only 40% of the population lived outside

these areas. So their share of the population had fallen from three-quarters to well under half, and

from 1122 to 999. Rokeby had decreased from a township nearly as big as Bellerive, to a backwater.

By now Bellerive and Lindisfarne were described as suburbs of Hobart, since so many people

living there commuted to work there. In 1860 Bellerive had 250 people, and in 1911, it had 872, the

largest town in Clarence. By 1914 it had a school, two churches, a post office with a telephone

exchange, as well as a Savings Bank branch, the Bellerive Institute, the ferry service, two hotels,

80 Mercury 23.7.74; Post Office Directory 1890; Walch 1860-1914; Clarence Electoral Roll 1914; Royal Commission on the Municipal Government of Hobart and suburbs, MCC 16/93, 1901, p 42; information from Max Walker. ‘Risdon’ presents difficulties as the western shore of the Derwent was also called Risdon. 81 Information from Alma Pocock, collected by Jan Clear

shops, businesses, baths, boarding houses, a railway station and tea rooms. It was the centre of

administration and transport for Clarence. Compared with most of Clarence, Bellerive was urban and

progressive. People built fashionable Federation style houses, and called them by fashionable

Aboriginal or even Maori names, such as ‘Kaoota’ (1896) and ‘Kumara’ (1907). In 1897 a visitor

praised Bellerive highly, writing that it had all the advantages of the seaside such as health and

beautiful views, and was a convenient distance from the city; rents, rates and taxes were low; and the

Town Board was making improvements wherever possible, with good streets and footpaths, street

lights and pretty esplanades, and good accommodation for visitors. Even the separation from Hobart

was an advantage, as the morning and evening crossing formed a most invigorating constitutional for

‘the business-worried man’.82

Lindisfarne had even more rapid growth, from a few farmers in 1889 to 611 inhabitants in

1911. With fewer local enterprises it was even more a commuter suburb, and tended to be more

middle-class than Bellerive, with many professional workers and city businessmen. In 1914 it had a

school, two churches, several shops, a few farmers and orchardists, a convalescent home, a golf

course, and, further north, the lime quarries and bone mill.

From 1894 to 1902 Andrew Holden grew up in Bellerive, and in his recollections described

life there as ‘a very happy care-free time’.83 In the family were Dr and Mrs Holden, Andrew, his

younger sister Ursula, and Nurse. The family were well-to-do English gentlefolk; Andrew’s older

brother had been sent to England to school at an early age, and the parents tried to prevent Andrew

and Ursula from growing up as ‘colonials’, by giving them as good an education as possible. Despite

this opinion Andrew had only praise for growing up in Bellerive, and the happy family life he lived

there with his ‘perfect parents’.

The Holdens lived in Wyvenhoe, built in the 1850s, a large stone bungalow with a paddock at

the back for their horses and a number of sheds in the backyard. Lighting was by oil lamps, which if

neglected smoked and filled the room with smuts. There was an outside earth closet. Mrs Holden

did little housework, which was done by Nurse, a German servant employed by the family for years,

and ‘sundry females from the township’, such as Mrs Thompson who came on Mondays to do the

weekly wash, in the boiler in one of the sheds. The boiler was stoked with wood and the water was

charged with soap and soda, recalled Andrew, and when it had cooled the horses loved to drink it.

82 Luckman p 9; Novy p 31; TM 15.5.97 83 Holden passim; see also Robertson ‘Wyvenhoe’ pp 4-8

The clothes dried on a line in the backyard and were ironed in the kitchen, with flat irons heated at

the kitchen fire. Nurse or possibly sometimes Mrs Holden did the cooking: the family’s main meal

was dinner in the middle of the day, for which the children returned home from school in Hobart.

They had porridge for breakfast, afternoon tea at about 4 pm, and a light supper in the evening.

Services to householders were minimal. At first people collected their post at the post office,

but later it was delivered to houses. Small shops sold meat, bread and groceries, but clothes and

ironmongery had to be bought in Hobart. Water drained from the galvanised iron roof into tanks, and

they were careful not to waste it, but they lived near the sea and on most mornings Dr Holden and

Andrew went for an early swim.

Andrew enjoyed many games. He and Ursula taught their ponies to do circus tricks, and

played with bows and arrows until Andrew accidentally shot Ursula. There was a dancing class in

the Bellerive hall, but Andrew did not enjoy this. He liked photography and stamp-collecting, and

when ping-pong was invented the family played on the dining-room table. He does not mention

playing any sports.

Andrew wore sailor suits until he was about thirteen, in 1898, when he was bought his first

proper suit. The family sent a photo to an aunt in England, who replied that men were now wearing

their trouser cuffs turned up – the fashion had not yet arrived in Tasmania. Men wore shirts with stiff

starched fronts and stiff detachable collars. Turn-down collars arrived in about 1902, and much later

soft shirts and collars appeared.

Mrs Holden spent much of her time bookbinding in an old coachhouse in the backyard. She

was an excellent bookbinder, but Andrew did not say whether she did this as a hobby or

commercially. When the Duke and Duchess of York visited Tasmania she was asked to bind a

collection of Tasmania views for them, which she did in a leather case ornamented with eucalyptus

leaves and seed pods in gold.

There was not even the suggestion that the Holden children attend the Bellerive school. Until

they were ten Mrs Holden taught them at home, then they attended private schools in Hobart. Ursula

went to a girls’ school where Sarah Bignell, the postmistress’s daughter, was a teacher, and Andrew

went to Hutchins with some other boys from Bellerive, sons of the minister and Judge McIntyre. By

English standards Hutchins was poor, the Holdens thought, but both children did well, and went on to

the University of Tasmania. Their education involved catching the ferry four times a day. The

ferries were very efficient and were kept spotlessly clean, Andrew recalled, and were hosed down

every day. He spent the trips playing knucklebones with other boys on the top deck, and became

expert. Other family members hardly ever went to Hobart. Later the Holdens returned to England

where the parents presumably felt more at home, but Andrew was happy at Bellerive, and there is

little hint in his memoirs of looking down on the locals; instead he saw Bellerive as a wonderful

place for a child to live.

At the other end of the social ladder were small farmers, often descended from convicts, who

lived by subsistence farming on their small properties. Homes were built from local materials – split

slabs, palings, wattle and daub, with thatch or shingle roof and often an earth floor. These farmers

largely worked by hand as they could not afford machines; they would plough with a horse or two,

sow by hand, mow hay with a scythe, reap wheat with reap-hooks, then tie it and stack it. Many such

farmers and their families had to work seven days a week to get ahead. They would have a small

orchard, and take on jobs for larger farmers, like picking fruit. There were still some ex-convicts in

Clarence, and Ted Bezzant’s grandfather said when he was a boy, in the 1880s and 1890s, a number

of ex-convicts lived in huts around South Arm and did seasonal work, like reaping and threshing by

hand.84

There were some people in Clarence who needed poor relief. In 1901 the warden mentioned

Ellen Atkins, a widow with a large family of children, who was receiving the tiny sum of 1/6 a week

in charitable aid. She had recently been ill, and if her neighbours had not helped her, her children

would have starved. The warden intended to apply to the state government for more aid for her, but

even if her aid had been doubled she would still have had a very difficult time.85

There were only a few well-to-do families like the Holdens, and Council several times said

that there were few really poor people in Clarence. Most people lived reasonably comfortably

though not lavishly, and the general atmosphere of Clarence at the time seemed to show a quiet,

contented place, where people worked hard but did have time for relaxation, visiting friends and

relations, or attending some local activity like a cricket match or a dance in the local hall.

Boxed Items

Accidents on land and sea

84 MacFie, ‘Oral History...’ pp 97-98; information from Ted Bezzant 85 CC 3.10.01

Several reports of accidents show some conditions of life in Clarence. In 1878 Frank

Edwards, who had recently bought the fine stone villa of Howrah, was watering his horse in the yard

when a neighbour told him that the house was on fire. Other neighbours tried to help, but there was

no fire-fighting apparatus and no hint of a fire brigade, and the house was destroyed.86

In 1905 and 1906 two drownings in Clarence made headlines. In the first case, seventeen-

year-old Robert Wheeler was carting water from a disused quarry in Bellerive when his horse backed

over a bank into deep water. Robert was on the cart and could not swim; bystanders dragged him

from the water, which was hard since there was no equipment, and by the time they got him to land

he had died. A fence was built to make the quarry safer, and a pole and hook were provided.87

The next year Mr Wilson took a friend and his sixteen-year-old son Alan yachting on a

Saturday. They anchored off Howrah, and the friend and Alan rowed in a punt to set nets. Alan

either slipped or made a misstroke, and the punt capsized. The friend seized Alan, but waves were

breaking over their heads. Alan tried to climb further up the punt but fell in and drowned. His father

was trying to help, but once again there was no suitable apparatus. After this, a life buoy, boat hook

and grappling irons were provided at Bellerive.88 So there was little or no life saving equipment

anywhere, and when accidents did happen the worst could occur.

Jim the Poet

An identity around Bellerive was ‘Jim the Poet’, Jim Carroll, a tall, thin, quiet man who would join

the group of ‘lads’ who met on the footpath outside the Clarence Hotel. Curves on the corner stone

where they ground their pocket knives can still be seen. They would stop talking and listen if ‘old

Jim’ wanted the floor, to quote a few lines of doggerel to suit some local event. For example, when

Charlie Hales married Hannah Purcell in 1886, Jim came out with:

‘The children of Israel cried for bread. God sent them manna.

Charlie Hales wanted a wife, so Jimmy Purcell gave him Hannah.’89

Mabel Hookey, artist and historian

86 Mercury 9.8.78 87 CC 4.12.05; Mercury 2.12.05; 88 BTB 5.6.06, 27.8.06; Mercury 5.6.06 89 H O’May p 114

Mabel Hookey (1871-1953) was the granddaughter of early settlers George and Hannah Stokell of

Rokeby House. She never married and lived at Rokeby House with her sister Dora; they had enough

family money to live comfortably without having to earn. Both were well-known personages around

Rokeby, and like many people in early settlers’ families who lived safely through the dangers of

childhood, both lived to a good old age.

Though Mabel did not study art to any great extent, she was a gifted artist, and her oils and

watercolours, often of Clarence scenes, were frequently exhibited. But art was not her only interest.

She studied woodcarving and enjoyed carving decorative items such as mirror frames and chairs; she

did lacework and leathertooling; she was an enthusiastic photographer; she wrote several books

about early Clarence history, particularly about Robert Knopwood; and she also wrote poetry. A

cultured, outgoing woman, she was a member of the Royal Society and the Art Society. She was

also an enthusiastic traveller, around Tasmania and overseas.

Mabel Hookey was also one of the first women journalists in Tasmania, writing many articles

for local papers. In 1914, for example, she often contributed paragraphs about Rokeby to the Daily

Post, sometimes showing a terse streak. An influential resident was complaining about the roads, but

why had he supported a candidate for Council who did not live in Rokeby? she asked sternly. Locals

should sink ‘petty differences’ and work together for ‘the honour of old Rokeby’.90

Celebrating the First Centenary, 1903

As the centenary of Tasmania’s settlement in 1803 approached, the government decided to build an

obelisk at Risdon to commemorate Bowen’s landing there. The memorial was not unveiled until the

next year due to fear of a smallpox outbreak, but the eventual ceremony on 22 February 1904 was

superb. The Governor, the Premier and many other dignitaries came from Hobart in a fleet of ferries,

yachts, boats and anything else that sailed, with bands playing and refreshments on the way. As they

landed at Risdon there was a salute of guns, and several thousand spectators watched as the obelisk,

of rough-hewn rock, was unveiled with due pomp and several long speeches. Everyone important

was then entertained to afternoon tea at Mount Direction House by its owners, the Misses Cleburne,

and as people returned home there was a ‘regular aquatic carnival’ with so many boats on the river,

the largest number of sailing craft ever seen at one time on the Derwent, according to the Mercury.

90 Collins p 49; Johannes and Backhouse pp 30-31; Daily Post 11.8.14, 19.8.14, 25.8.14, 2.9.14, 8.9.14,

One group missing from this ceremony was anyone from Clarence; the long newspaper report

of the event did not mention the warden, any councillors or anyone else, though there were a few

residents on the large Centenary Celebrations Committee.91

A childhood at Acton

The Rumney family came to the Acton area in the every early days of settlement, and built a

sandstone home in 1828. Mary Rumney married Joseph Salmon from Colebrook, and they brought

up their six children at Acton. In about 1898 a jackeroo, Ulric de Salis, came from Switzerland to

learn farming on the property. He didn’t learn only farming; on a wall near the cellar was written,

‘Vergie Salmon and Mr de Salis locked in the cellar, 1899, for half an hour by Ida Salmon’. Five

years later, Ulric married Ida, and they had two sons, Rudolf and Alric; but Ida died in childbirth, and

Ulric returned to Switzerland.

The two boys were brought up by their loving grandparents and aunts, recalled Rudolf. He

remembered being taken to see Halley’s comet with its long white tail; warships from the English

navy in Frederick Henry Bay for gunnery practice, their searchlights sweeping across the sky;

shearers with their hand blades, the fleeces pressed into bales and transported by bullock teams to the

Cambridge railway station; black wattle bark stripped from trees and taken to Hobart to be used in

tanning hides; Light Horse members training at the rifle range at Acton before the First World War,

and fat sheep being taken along country roads then across on the Risdon ferry to the abattoir at

Derwent Park, a two-day journey from Acton.92

Clarence’s first cremation

When Dr Bill Young arrived in Clarence in 1948 he was told various tales of the past, including this

one of Clarence’s first cremation. It was told by Tas Jordan, who was born in 1886, and said it

happened when he was a small boy. Old Mr Gordon of Gordon’s Hill was a ‘very modern fellow’

who wanted to be cremated, something quite radical at the time. He owned a quarry on the

Lindisfarne side of the hill, and he had an iron coffin built. After his death his sons lit a fire in the

quarry, and in front of a crowd of about two hundred, including two policemen, they put the coffin

91 Mercury 23.2.04 92 Rudolf de Salis memoirs, copy lent by Doug Chipman

with the body inside on the fire. The fire wasn’t hot enough to consume it, so they took it to a boat,

sailed to the Iron Pot and tipped him in the water. Then they vanished to Sydney.93

A holiday at Kangaroo Point

In the summer of 1866/7, public servant Hugh Hull hired a house at ‘the Point’ as he called it, and for

almost a month stayed there with his family – his wife Margaret, their six children, Margaret’s

mother and a servant girl. Hugh’s diary shows that they enjoyed swimming, walking and fishing and

often went for picnics. They also went to church locally, went to see work at the stone quarry, visited

caves, picked cherries, and collected mussels and cooked them over a fire. On New Year’s Eve, the

family walked along the Richmond Road ‘and got some gum and manna’ (from gun trees), caught

sixteen fish and went bathing. After all this, Hugh and Margaret were too tired to stay up and hear

the city bells ring in the New Year.

Water was a problem as it was ‘very scarce on the point, where everyone is dependent on rain

water for their supply’. When it rained, they filled all the buckets and tubs with water. But they

enjoyed their holiday, and it was well situated for Hugh, as if necessary he could easily go row or sail

across to Hobart to his office.94

93 Information from Bill Young; Pioneer Index, birth of Frederick Tasman Jordan 94 Andel pp 60-66