Trove Tuesday – Peter Telford shifts to Apollo Bay

Peter Telford arrived in Australia in 1852 on board the Emmigrant.  He was a gold miner in the Ballarat area until 1877.  He then worked part time in the Apollo Bay area until he shifted his family down in 1885.  There was a huge demand for timber for the mining, railway and wharf building businesses.  The Otways were a great source of timber so that is where the timber cutters and sawmillers headed.  This report is from the Colac Herald of 1884, the year before he shifted his family down.

Six years earlier in 1878 this map shows the Telford land just to the south west of the township of Krambruk, as Apollo Bay was then known.

Source – unknown But a more detailed 1881 map can be seen at the State Library of Victoria at http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/104356

The following is an extract from “A Trip to Apollo Bay” c1885.  The trip was taken by Mr Duncan, Crown Lands Bailiff, Mr. Jas. Chapman of the Colonial Bank. Mr Fotheringhame, a seafaring man, and ??

“Mr Telford, who also hails from Ballarat, is making good progress with the erection of his mill, which will be driven by a 20 hp engine and capable of cutting 5000 ft per day.  He, too, is laying a short tramway which will be about 1¼ miles in length, with a gentle decline to the jetty .  Near the site of his mill he has a large quantity of valuable blackwood timber which is now being extensively used in the construction of railway carriages, furniture, etc.  Already Mr Telford has many large orders for timber on hand for Ballarat houses, but the bulk of his timber will be shipped to Melbourne and intercolonial ports.”

An example of a tramway used for shifting the cut logs through the forest. From the State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/49272

 

Trove Tuesday — From Telford to Forsyth to Greig

It’s long been known the brothers Peter and George Telford came to Victoria from Roxburghshre. Peter married and had many descendants, includding myself,  unlke George who remained single.

What little was seen of George was always in the vicinity of Peter and he died  in Apollo Bay where Peter lived.

But then I came across this small newspaper article in the Melbourne Leader in 1891

He had so little in the way of assets but his relatives were scrabbling to get their hands on it .  And so a Trove search on George and his executor led me on to a different search. and another branch of the family.

The first surprise came in George’s will where his main beneficiary was his sister Janet Forsyth of  Bankhead, Hamilton.  I knew he had an older  sister Janet who I thought was safely tucked up in Scotland.  I had never found any evidence to show she came out to Australia.

The second surprise came when I found that the executor, William Steedman Greig, was  Janet’s son-in-law, married to her daughter Jane.  William was formerly of Bank Head but by then a storekeeper at  Macarthur.

I’m thinking that Bankhead was the name of a farm, particularly as that was the name of a farm  in Linton near Kelso in Roxburghshire, an area with which  both Janet and John had connecions.

Janet’s husband John Forsyth had died in 1875 and left her with a comfortable sum .  Janet was the executor of his will and her brother George made a statement to the effect that he was not a beneficiary of the will but having lived in the Western District for many years he could testify to the value of the property.

All of this seems to suggest that George was well known to Janet and her family and had not been his brother Peter’s shadow for all his life in Australia..  It suggests that George was familiar with Hamilton and I wonder if he lived there for some of the time, rather than just visiting.

Thanks to Trove leading me to one small newspaper article I was able to expand the picture of our C19th immigrant Telford family from Scotland.

The Bridges to Paradise

This week Sepia Saturday suggested bridges as our theme and my header above shows the bridge over the Barham River just as it flows into the ocean on the outskirts of the township of Apollo Bay in south-western Victoria.   The Barham River rises in the Otway Ranges 16 km , i.e. less than 10 miles away from Apollo Bay.  After coming down through narrow valleys it  begins to widen as it passes through farmland then  meanders through a flood plain before flowing into the sea.

But this final crossing of the river is not one that we would normally use, instead we would head west from the town along the Barham River Road, skirt the flood plain and follow the road between farms. A short distance out of town you come to the first river crossing.

This picture was  taken at one of the Barham River bridges  about 1936.  On the right is my father’s youngest sister Norma Fricke.  Born in 1926 she died earlier this year

The road continues between farming land until it passes between what used to be the Fricke and Garrett farms and comes to a second bridge.

Seated on bridge rail – Alan Fricke, Tom Hodgins (son in law), The father Charles Fricke Snr. Standing – Charles Fricke Jr, A friend, Hazel Fricke, the mother Julia Fricke And at the front, the youngest in the family, Norma Fricke

This photo on one of the local bridges was taken in the early 1930s.  Counting the photographer, who was possibly Tom’s wife Enid,  there are nine people so they wouldn’t have all fitted in the family car, an Essex of about the 1930 vintage.

Entertainment was strictly of the home-made kind and a daytime walk was sometimes taken across this second Barham River bridge, following the road further upstream into the valley.  In this Google Earth photo you can see the right hand road following the stream.  Though the hills are cleared  a narrow strip  of bush remains along the river bank.

 

After crossing this second bridge a little further up the  road is an area along the river called Paradise, and  on a hot day in summer this gully really is Paradise  – a cool  paradise of lush tree ferns and other local trees and plants , lichens and mosses, and home to a variety of birds.  It is a magical place.  With its special aroma and the music of the water over the pebbles every leaf has the potential to have a fairy peeping out from underneath.

When you leave the road and walk along the river you can cross over on fallen trees or on stepping stones in shallow parts of the narrow river. . The bottom  is  pebbled and the water is fresh and clear.

Paradise from http://www.greatoceanroad.info

www.http://greatoceanroad.com

More bridges from around the world can be found through

this week’s Sepia Saturday contributions.

One two three, One two three

The image for Sepia Saturday this week  with its long dresses could be interpreted as dance time, dance time when dancing was dancing and not jiggity jig, hoppity hop.

And so learning to dance properly was de rigueur.   Circa 1960 at Sunshine High School in the Melbourne suburbs students devoted one period a week  to a club of their choice.  These photos are from the Dancing Club.  Ballroom dancing, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a girl eventually got her first long dance dress, this time Christmas holidays at Apollo Bay in 1946/7 –  layers of blue and pink tulle with a corsage on the shoulder of blue and pink plastic flowers.

 

 

 

 

And more interpretations of Sepia Saturday’s image can be found listed on Sepia Saturday.

Cricket down The Bay

It is interesting how various kinds of Sports Clubs were formed in the small country towns around Australia.  Apollo Bay on the south west coast of Victoria  was no exception and the men of the Telford family were participants, both on and off the field.

The newspaper at the larger regional town of Colac reported news from all the surrounding small towns and so we know that at various times the Telford brothers George  , Robert , William,  Norman and either Abner Albert  or Arthur Alfred  all appeared as members  of the Apollo Bay cricket team before the First World War.  Only  initials, not Christian names,  were used in the reporting, hence the confusion with the “A”.

I think this  photo of the Apollo Bay cricket team could have been taken between 1900 and 1910.   Which of the Telford brothers were playing that day ?

Abner Albert Telford 1876

William Wallace Telford 1879

Arthur Alfred Telford 1883

Norman Noble Telford 1886

Here are four of the Telford men.  Time to play pin the tail on the donkey or match the faces. I come up with a different solution every time I look at it but there are definitely some Telford faces in the cricket team. I wish you luck.  Missing are photos of the two oldest, George b1869 and Robert b 1872. It’s interesting to see how the men tended to wear their hats pushed back on their heads.  And some of them playing cricket in a collar and tie.

S.S. Dorset

Matches were played against other communities.  Some of these were inland but contests with Lorne involved a boat trip around the coast.  Often the Rifle Club had a contest on the same day.  The Albert Park cricket team came down from Melbourne for a match on Christmas Day 1901.  Away from home on Christmas Day ?  That sounds a bit strange.  They came down on the SS Dorset, which involves a trip down Port Philip Bay then through the Heads and out into the open ocean.

And then there was the local  Athletics Club.  In the 1908 AA Telford  (which AA? – Abner at 34 or Arthur at 25)  travelled to Stawell to compete in a larger annual Athletics Championships – who doesn’t know the Stawell Gift – and was placed 2nd in one of the heats of the 130 yd Hurdle Race.

Julia Telford Aged 17

But the ladies are not completely forgotten and their clothes  are always of interest.   At the Ball which followed the Annual Sports Day at Apollo Bay in 1898 it was reported that my 11 year grandmother Julia, niece of all these Telford sportsmen,  wore fawn, with trimmings while her slightly older sister wore shot lustre and her mother  black with jet trimmings.   I’m sure there must have been a pecking order in that newspaper list of guests at the Ball. They definitely weren’t in alphabetical order and the list, as always, was supplied by a local correspondent.

 More sporting memories are to be found in

this week’s Sepia Saturday

People sometimes comment that I seem to have a large collection of old family photos.  I should point out that I don’t own the original of all of them.  But I have collected copies of photos from family members for a long while.  At first someone photographed them for me, then the scanners came along.  My first scanner was a small hand held roller which you had to roll steadily over a snapshot.  Then came the better quality scanners.  Many of the owners of the photos didn’t want it known who had these family treasures.  I am very grateful to those people who let me copy their photos and in some cases actually gave me the original as at the time it was of an unknown person.  So what you see are  my family scans of which I own  quite a few of the originals but not all. Some of the original group photos  have already been donated to the State Library to make sure they will always be shared.b  They are online for all to see.

 

 

Apollo Bay Fishing Company

When I saw the theme photo for this week’s Sepia Saturday, the first thing I noticed were the converging lines .  So though the theme photo is one of linesmen working on a power supply I want to show you a boat by the pier at Apollo Bay on the south west coast of Victoria in 1908 with similar converging  lines.

 

The Centurion at the Apollo Bay Jetty, 1908

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Centurion was owned by the Apollo Bay Fishing Company and my grandmother’s uncle, Peter Telford Jr (1867-1953), was one of the Directors.  I can’t tell you which of my relations let me scan this photo but the details on my computer show that I added the image in 1998 but it’s only now that I realize its significance to the family story.

Apart from a road/track  which connected Apollo Bay to the railway line at Forrest, the sea was the the other method of transport until the Great Ocean Road was built.  Logging, fishing and  dairy farms flourished and  onions and potatoes grew well in the area.

Apollo Bay Butter Factory

A butter factory had been built  in 1904  and there was a weekly boat carrying cargo to Melbourne.   The refrigeration at the butter factory was by Humble & Sons of Geelong.   This interests me as the world’s first practical refrigerator was made here in Geelong  in 1856 by James Harrison.

 

When the locals became dissatisfied with the shipping service they were receiving in 1908 they decided to set up a Co-operative known as the Apollo Bay Shipping Company and buy a boat of their own.The company was limited to 2000 shares, 2/6 (two shillings and six pence) payable on application, 2/6 on allotment, and 2/6 monthly calls.,   Peter Telford was one of the seven Directors.

On August 10th, 1908, The Colac Herald reported that the Company’s boat, the Centurion,  buillt in Sydney, had just made it’s first run to Apollo Bay.

The new boat of the Apollo Bay Shipping Company Limited made its first trip to Apollo Bay this week under adverse weather conditions. Strong easterly weather has been prevailing for a week, and as no wind turns Apollo Bay into such raging, wild, angry sea as the east, the sea for days has been very rough. The Centurion left Melbourne on Tuesday night, and travelled to the Heads with her engines in 4 1/2 hours, arriving in the Bay on Wednesday morning. She took several circles around the Bay doubtful of the wisdom of mooring at the jetty with such a heavy sea. Every man, woman and child at liberty in Apollo Bay assembled on the jetty as she came alongside, discharged part of her cargo, and took in a few onions. As the sea was rising, and threatening worse to follow, Captain Jeffery cast off, and went round Cape Otway for shelter. The Centurion is a new boat, a year old. She is exceptionally well built, and is claimed by experts to be the best built boat of her class in Victorian waters. Her speed under auxiliary power only is 7 to 8 knots, while with a favorable wind under sail that speed would be greatly increased. The Centurion is built for strength, speed and safety, having an exceptional beam of 20 feet, with length of 80 feet………..

In November the regular weekly service  was doing well in what was usually a slack time of the year.  At the same time the small community, though the activities of The Apollo Bay Medical Club, acquired the services of  a lady doctor, Dr Maud Campbell.  She stayed until 1912 when she tootled off to Toorak (in Melbourne) to become Mrs John E. Ashley, then live in Ballarat.

So what went wrong ?  Why was it necessary to find a buyer of the Centurion ?  In August 1912  the ketch Centurion became the property of the Apollo Bay and Port Campbell Shipping Company, Then a few months later it was sold once again.

Finally the Centurion caught fire off Phillip Island while returning to Melbourne with a cargo of lime and was beached and  wrecked in July 1913.

I’m sure that couldn’t be a front loading washing machine stored on deck, but it is an intriguing shape.

More diverging lines, power lines and lots of goodies to be seen through the links on this week’s Sepia Saturdays’ page.

A Cuppa on the Great Ocean Road

Food, food, always glorious food, whether it be standing up at a buffet as in this week’s Sepia Saturday theme image or sitting at a rough-hewn  table to have a cuppa and a sandwich.

The occasion was a visit by the Fricke family and a couple of others from Apollo Bay to see how the building of the Great Ocean Road was progressing and the time was about 1928.  As  yet I am not sure of the location.

So, the home grown milk  was brought in a bottle – I wouldn’t have liked the task of getting the milk into that narrow opening.  I wonder if she used a funnel.   I think it was sandwiches they were eating made from home made bread and home made butter and an unknown filling.  It could be jam. And they were wrapped in a napkin, not paper.  At first I wasn’t sure what the gentleman standing was doing but now I see he is adding sugar to his tea.  I wonder what the original purpose was of the sugar tin.

 

They met a couple of the camp cooks and saw the tents where the workmen lived.

The Great Ocean Road project was started after World War 1 to provide work for some of the returning servicemen, a road from Barwon Heads to Warrnambool,  mostly  winding around the south west coast of Victoria. They had to carve it out  out of rock as it went around the cliffs and build bridges over the mouths of creeks and rivers.

It started with a group in Geelong who began lobbying the Government.  I found a list showing that Charles Fricke donated £20 to the Trust so by rights of inheritance you could possibly say that I own a few pebbles in that road.

The men worked with picks, shovels and crowbars to make a “road for motorists”.  Getting to Lorne was the first step and it was opened in 1922 with a party of 60 cars.  They left Geelong at 9 a.m. and arrived at 5.30 p.m, a distance of 40 miles and it is well reported in the newspapers. “It may be stated here that the only persons who arrived at Lorne with clean faces and clothes were the members of the vice-regal party.  That was only because they headed the line.”

The Trust then built the section from Lorne to Cape Patton while the Country Roads Board built the section from Apollo Bay to Cape Patton so my images from c1928 would be somewhere in that area. The opening of these sections was celebrated in 1932.  Remember it was really just a dirt track, not the beautiful road that it is today.  Ten years later I can remember when travelling by bus to Apollo Bay and at Mt Defiance, one of the high points of the road with rocks and sea directly below, the bus always had to do a three point turn to get around the corner on that narrow road.  I was always bus sick on that trip.

The following video gives an excellent account, once you get past the tributes.

For more examples of things connected with wining and dining, cookpots and nametags, events and non-events, go to this week’s Sepia Saturday.

Horses and Wagons

Sepia Saturday this week includes the word TRANSPORT  for which  The Oxford Dictionary says

Take or carry (people or goods) from one place to another by means of a vehicle, aircraft, or ship:

That’s interesting.   Does that mean if you were to deliver a parcel by horseback you are not transporting that parcel.  It needs to be delivered in conjunction with a vehicle, aircraft or ship.

So I  have looked at how my family have used horses for transport with the help of a WAGON.

The first photo is of my grandmother’s uncle, Bullocky Bob, ie Robert Telford  (1871-1940) and his bullock wagon.  He only had one eye as the result of an accident.  You’ll notice his dog trotting along at the back of the wagon.  There is no train line to Apollo Bay so everything came in by boat or bullock wagon.

It’s a very large wagon and we can’t see what he is carting as it has a cover over it.  He lived at Apollo Bay and until 1930 the Electoral Rolls described him as a grazier.  After that he and his wife were storekeepers at Duverney.

The next photo is probably early to mid 1920s on the Fricke dairy farm, Glen Avon, at Apollo Bay in south-western Victoria.  The wagon is being used for a family outing, perhaps they are heading into town on market day.

It is not a very clear photo but you can see the back of the house and the pole for holding up the clothes line.  From here the track to the road winds around the back of the house and down the small hill.  This wagon has the front wheels smaller than the back wheels  and I believe this is because the  steering is controlled by the front wheels and these smaller wheels give a smaller turning circle. I think the wagon is being driven by the eldest daughter of the house, my Aunt Enid.

The wagon is also used for bringing in the hay.  Here it is in the paddock at the front of the house and once again you can get a glimpse of  the clothes line with its load of flapping washing.

I think it is my father, Charles Fricke Jr. who is helping with the hay when home for the holidays.  This is possibly mid to late 1920s and the smaller head of the other person sitting on the wagon is possibly his younger brother Alan, born 1920.

Later  there was to be a quite nice garden at the front of the house with bushes sculpted into shapes.

Another photo was taken in the front paddock that day but this time it is facing away from the house and across the valley, with Charles standing up and someone possibly tossing the hay up from the ground.

I have scans of these events thanks  to kind relatives.

Other suggestions from this week’s  Sepia Saturday image  include  coach rides, old transport, roof-racks, luggage, waiting, animated discussion, clowning, and cab drivers, so there will be plenty of variety waiting in the links on —–

 

 

 

Telford Brothers Posing for a Picture

Posing is a great word for the theme for this week’s Sepia Saturday   

Here the art of posing is displayed by three of my grandmother’s uncles, rather superior young men looking down their noses,  Telford brothers from Apollo Bay which in earlier days was known as Krambruk.    They were the youngest boys in a family of thirteen.

They show themselves as young bachelors, very much young men about town, though in a tiny little town like Apollo Bay it wouldn’t have been hard to be young men about town !

From the left is Arthur Alfred Telford  (1883) , Norman Noble Telford  (1886)  and William Wallace Telford  (1879).   Norman was born the same year as his niece,  my grandmother   Their parents were Scottish, from Linton in Roxburghshire and Fauldhouse in Linlithgowshire.

I think this photo could be c1900+.  Here are some other photos of the three of them in the same order.  This second photo of Arthur Alfred appears to have been taken on the same day as the group photo.

Arthur Alfred Telford

Norman Noble Telford

William Wallace Telford

Notice the alliteration in the christian names.  This had only started with the tenth child – Abner Albert.

More posing, lurking and sharing can be found through this week’s Sepia Saturday

Away from the Madding Crowd

Let’s have a look at this week’s suggestions from Sepia Saturday-

Running Away – in a nice sort of way           √ Check

Escaping the Crowd                                        √ Check

Off to the Beach – well, some of the time    √ Check

And to these add

Married for four months

What better reason for saddling up a pack horse, running away, escaping the crowd and heading off into the bush in the Otway Ranges of south west Victoria.

Four months ago they were honeymooning in the snow at Mt Buffalo and now in January 1930 Charles and Vera Fricke are at the Fricke farm on Barham River Road at Apollo Bay ready for a few days bushwalking.

Timber Mill in the Otways, 1930

At one stage on their trip they  passed this timber  mill. Timber had long been a natural resource of the Otways.

In the Otways, 1930

They camped one night near this farmhouse and were able to buy meat and milk there.

We have seen  Charles and Vera before boiling the billy for a cuppa on the beach  during this trip.

The extensive network of sealed roads had still to be developed so much of the trip would had been done on unsealed roads.

Looking down on the Aire River valley

Overlooking the Aire River, and then a bridge over the Aire River. It is just a short river with good river flats for farming.

A bridge over the Aire River

Getting closer to the ocean at Princeton, a small town a little further along the coast from the Aire River.

Princeton 1930

And finally Port Campbell, another tiny coastal town.   The story is that they put the horse in the Police Paddock that night.   Unfortunately the paddock was only fenced on three sides, a swamp forming the fourth side.  The horse managed to make its way through the swamp during the night and disappeared and they had to ring home to Apollo Bay for someone to come and get them.

Port Campbell 1930

Port Campbell 1930

So  ended the bushwalking holiday in the Otway Ranges.  And nine months later ——————

More running away and escaping from crowds

in the links on this weeks Sepia Saturday