Although the year of 1862 is taken as the foundation year of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church Clunes there were services held in Clunes earlier.
An effort was made in 1859 but owing to a gold rush to Back Creek (now Talbot) the proposal was temporarily abandoned. Efforts in the following year were more successful and a group was formed.
A newspaper of January 1861 indicates that during that month a Rev. John Strongman (DV) took services in the Clunes Council Chambers and the schoolroom at Mount Beckworth followed on the next Sunday by Reverend Downes, then of Learmonth and later first Minister of the Clunes Charge. It was April 1862 before the church was built in Service Street.
Reverend John Downes
Services in connection with the opening of Saint Andrew’s Church were held on Sunday the 13th of April 1862 and the Reverend John Downes of Lake Learmonth preached morning and evening. A social gathering to further mark the opening was held on 14th of April.
John Downes was soon called to the Clunes charge and on Friday, 11th May 1862 was inducted. He was the first permanent Presbyterian minister.
The Downes family lived at a temporary manse until 1864 when a permanent manse was built on the church land. The site was chosen in January 1864 and work began soon after.
John Downes continued as minister until his death at the manse on 29th of May 1866, aged 63 years and 10 months. He had been a minister for nearly 44 years.
Upon hearing of John Downes death, his friend John Geillie in Hobart wrote:
“He was ever solicitous about the welfare of the young, establishing a weekly Bible class at Saint Andrew’s. With him the Sabbath School was an especial one holding weekly meetings with the teachers for mutual culture, and seldom omitting to address the scholars on a Sunday afternoon.
“Some ministers endear themselves to young folk very quickly. Mr Downes did so. His memory will ever be cherished by this writer and others…”
John Downes was a very active minister and was very sympathetic towards the townspeople’s problems.
He and the congregation were ready to oppose transportation to Western Australia: “If necessary we will join in a voice of Thunder against the fearful perpetration of wrong”.
His son-in-law, Charles T Sutherland was First Mayor of the Borough of Clunes.
In 1877 the Reverend Dr Elder Gray BA DD became Minister and remained until his death in 1905. About this time alterations were made to the manse by the building of a large kitchen and other conveniences.
Reverend Dr Gray
The Reverend Dr Gray was succeeded by the Reverend R M Legate who remained only 10 months before transferring to Suva, Fiji.
In 1907 the Reverend J Legge became minister and remained until 1916. During his ministry extensive additions and alterations were made to the church property.
In 1907 a large vestry was erected at the rear of the church. The Ladies Guild in 1908 provided a new carpet and pulpit carpet in the church and in 1912 completely refurnished the church
During this period the verandah was erected around the manse.
In 1907 the Reverend J Legge became minister and remained until 1916. During his ministry extensive additions and alterations were made to the Church property.
In 1909 efforts were made to build a Sunday school but for various reasons the work had to be postponed until 1912 when a large hall was erected at a cost of £400 and dedicated at the Jubilee celebrations that year. In 1913 the piano was purchased and in 1914 the Kindergarten Room was erected. This building was erected by voluntary labour.
Working Bee 1916Sunday School attendees
In 1916 the Reverend R A Green became minister and during his ministry Coghills Creek was included in the Clunes charge, services being held there every Sunday afternoon. It is likely the church was rendered between 1922 and 1925.
The Church was painted both inside and out between 1953 and 1957 with new toilets constructed.
The first meeting of the session of the enlarged charge with Clunes, Talbot, Evansford and Coghills Creek was held in November 1965.
A meeting of the Presbyterian and Methodist congregations was held in June 1970 to consider combining the two congregations. Agreement being reached in the affirmative.
In March 1971 the secretary gave a report on the month about services with a combined congregations which was to continue during 1971 and was later reported that the union with the Presbyterian and Methodist congregations would officially commence on the January 1st, 1972.
A congregational meeting was held in Clunes on July 25th, 1974, to discuss the proposal to amalgamate the Clunes and Learmonth Charges. The current Charge of Clunes, Coghills Creek, Talbot and Evansford proving unviable.
A new Charge of Clunes, Coghills Creek, Waubra, Learmonth and Evansford was constituted in November 1974.
The Board of Management was informed in January 1998 of the proposal by the Wesley College to establish a campus in Clunes on Uniting Church Property and neighbouring land.
The new kitchen and toilets were completed in 1999 with financial input from the Uniting Church and Wesley College.
The foundation stone of the Wesley campus was laid on November 6th, 1999, with the official opening of the campus held on April 16th 2000.
The Reverend G Wells was inducted into the new Parish of Creswick, Scrub Hill, Miners Rest, Clunes and Coghills Creek on March 3rd 1999.
Following Rev Wells turn of Ministry, Pastor Joy Robinson was appointed to the parish in February 2006 and retired on April 29th 2012.
The Church was painted before being stripped back to brick, as it is today
Jubilee celebration gatheringView of St Andrew’s c1900
The hero of this story is Richard Ford, arguably one of the town’s most well known and revered artists. He was born in 1875 the second son of a Cornish miner and a miner’s daughter, one might say he had mining dust in his veins.
Over the course of a long life he was a council foreman, horticulturalist and park curator. In addition to these many talents he was a prolific painter. Where Ford received his artistic training is unknown but his skills were considerable.
Richard brought his young family to Clunes from Dunach near Talbot in about 1910.
In Clunes, he established himself as a talented artist, producing several townscapes. He executed works of Clunes and its surroundings very much in the tradition of English landscape painting, casting the town in a soft bucolic light. (4) An interpretation which was in great contrast to the many photographs of the period featuring rickety shacks, industrial-scale mining operations and denuded hills.
He also painted still lifes and, in later life, created smoke-etched plates of scenes including the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings and Captain Cook’s Cottage. We recently received a number of these items from Richard’s grand-niece. Many of his artworks are in private collections in Clunes and elsewhere.
However, this particular story begins in about 1916, when he worked as Foreman for the Clunes Borough Council. In this capacity he was tasked with re-arranging the stage and décor of the Clunes Town Hall.
The Town Hall is itself a work of some significance, originally built in 1873, was designed by Percy Oakden, and features a decorative ceiling and lunette windows. Anecdotally, it is modeled on the Great Hall of the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings.
A century ago, town halls were one of the main spaces for regional dwellers. There, people would gather to dance, listen to music and watch plays. And the proscenium framing the stage was as essential as chairs and lights. Generally, stage decor featured a painted backdrop, movable wings and a physical proscenium arch.
Unfortunately, no images of the stage before Richard’s work have been retained.
With his artistic talent, Richard was ideally placed to carry out the work, and in collaboration with the Borough Engineer, he set about this task with a will, submitting an estimate of £14.16s.9d together with sketch plans to the Council, which approved the expenditure on 7th June 1916.
Work was carried out over several weeks, resulting in what we see today, (some 109 years later) a grand panoramic back wall, depicting a paved patio bracketed by neo-classical balustrades looking out over a sumptuous lake and dramatic mountains, side wings and a front oleo cloth. The duck cloth for the oleo drop alone was purchased for the then princely sum of £2.10s.
It was also around this time that the stage was widened and deepened, with the addition of a pressed tin proscenium arch, plus infrastructure to support the wings and arch. The new stage fittings were opened by the Mayor, Cr Rowe, in November 1916.
Needless to say the council and town loved the final result and many spoke in “..most eulogistic terms of the fine painting executed by Mr Ford,” as reported by the Clunes Guardian and Gazette. In response: “Ford said he could hardly express his feelings. He had done the work to the best of his ability and he was pleased to know that his efforts had been appreciated.”
The new décor featured an ‘oleo drop’ – an Oleo being ‘a vaudeville number, a short dance or song, or a set of same, performed as a filler, solo item, or encore after a performance’. By extension an oleo is any flown painted drop. In our case, the front, or oleo drop, is stored on a roller above the proscenium arch, and would have been regularly used as a roll backdrop for a solo performer – ventriloquist, magician, singer, etc, while the main stage was reset for the next act. The term is often applied to a decorative front curtain used in vaudeville. Without the luxury of a fly tower, the cloth is rolled up and brought in by pulley.
Popular during the heyday of Vaudeville from the 1880s to the 1930s, oleos were typically canvas curtains that were attached at the top to a tube formed from timber battens and at the bottom to a tail batten. An oleo drop – also called an oleo curtain, roll drop or simply an oleo – is designed with colourful murals or paintings. Oleos became a popular stage element in vaudeville acts and variety entertainment shows because of their simplicity and ease of use.
Ours is a particularly fine example, as Richard managed to squeeze in many landscape elements with his design, featuring a sweeping panorama of a presumably fictional landscape, with castles, a fishing village, tropical forest, white cliffs and a very tranquil seashore. The panel was made up of several pieces joined vertically.
Over the years, this cloth has been damaged through regular use and was taken away and conserved in 2010. It is now stored permanently above the pros arch and only very rarely rolled down as it is, understandably, quite fragile.
The side wings, or legs, are set on swivels, so that one may view either a continuation of the countryside panorama featuring sturdy oak trees thick with foliage or smaller vignettes of subjects such as native flowers and swaggies by water holes, complete with deer and snowy mountains. With the flick of a latch, the stage could go from a European theme to Australian theme in moments.
Several years later, on the side wall of the Town Hall, Richard also painted a magnificent Rising Sun emblem, commemorating the “…Glorious Part Played by Clunes and District Boys”, with no mention of the girls who also did their bit.
Clunes Museum recently engaged Neil Newitt Photographer to document these various decorations, so that we may have a permanent record.
In his retirement, Richard taught woodwork (called ‘Sloyd’) at the Clunes Higher Elementary School.
Throughout his life, Richard was a keen gardener and is seen in his beloved garden in Smith Street, Clunes where he died peacefully in 1961.
Until 1851, Clunes enjoyed peaceful aboriginal and pastoral occupation. A Scot, Donald Cameron, had his homestead in the Clunes valley and the existence of gold was soon suspected. On 7 July 1851 James Esmond announced payable gold at Clunes, the earliest such announcement in Victoria. A small rush ensued but little or no permanent development occurred until 1856 when the London based Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company negotiated an agreement to mine on the privately owned Clunes pre-emptive right (part of Cameron’s original pastoral run). The gold was primarily found in quartz reefs, requiring considerable capital and many miners working co-operatively. The Port Phillip Company erected a large stamping battery and pioneered many innovations in company mining. Relatively few companies worked the reefs although small parties continued to operate, especially under the Cornish ‘tribute’ system, where miners were paid an agreed percentage on the gold won.
Commercial development commenced in ‘Lower’ Fraser Street although by the late 1860’s, when mining prosperity peaked, business houses in the central section of Fraser Street were rebuilt and development consolidated. Residential development stayed close to the mines initially (especially on Camp Hill and at North Clunes) but soon spread to South Clunes. Like business premises, residences were often enlarged and Clunes retains some examples of tiny cottages which have been enveloped by later extensions.
Impressive institutional buildings began to be erected in the 1860s and 70s, culminating in the grandiose Town Hall (1872-1873) and urbane Post and Telegraph Office (1878-1879). Of the churches, the Wesleyans had the largest congregation (boosted by the many Cornish miners in Clunes)) and this is clearly demonstrated by their church in Service Street. By contrast, churches of other denominations were either closed and reused or their toothed stonework left incomplete.
The landscape character of Clunes changed radically in the period 1880-1930.The bare hills of the 1860s and 70s gave rise to an impressive tree planting programme – both public and private – especially in Queens Park and along Creswicks Creek. Within a generation, the ravages of mining gave way to the treed character we observe today. Mining ceased in the mid 1890s and miners drifted to other goldfields, such as Kalgoorlie.
Several secondary industries were established at Clunes during the twentieth century following collapse of the gold mining industry locally. Knitting factories reused earlier buildings and several factories were erected along the creek. Walking paths now lead along the bank of Creswicks Creek and a fine view of the town can be obtained from ‘the Rocks’ on the Scenic Road.
Lothair and South Clunes Mines
South Clunes Mine commenced operation as a quartz mine in 1859. The Lothair Mine commenced operation in 1864 and developed into a quartz mine by 1871.
The 1870’s saw little new development on the Clunes field, in fact, the field gradually slipped into depression. None of the companies formed during the late 1860’s boom had been successful, and the older established mines were beginning to struggle.
At this time the South Clunes mine was getting gold from working the alluvial section of their claim. The Lothair Company had also commenced deep lead mining. The Lothair mines directors were continually being questioned by their shareholders because of the lack of dividends. The mine was poorly ventilated, having only one shaft. Accidents were common and deaths occurred frequently.
The South Clunes group of mines ended up being the field’s most successful deep lead mining venture. ‘Capitalistic greed’ regarding working hours and pay was what sparked the strike. The Lothair gold mine, of which the Eureka hero Peter Lalor was a director, decided to cancel all contracts with the miners and pay 7s a shift for a 6-shift week. They were told this by the mine manager once they had started their shift on Monday morning and were down the mine ready to start work. The miners were already being paid 7s 6d. per shift and wanted Saturday afternoon off. After the miners had been on strike for some weeks, the company was resolved to break a miner’s strike by recruiting Chinese miners. This led to what became known as the ‘Clunes Riot’ (originally referred to as ‘the Chinese Riot’).
The 1880’s commenced with several mines still working, but with no outstanding prospects. Despite the flurry of deep lead mining at the end of the decade – by the South Clunes Extended – the eighties closed with the Clunes field in a very poor state of health.
Mining in Clunes ceased during the 1890’s.
Story of the Riot
In 1873 events were occurring in Clunes which culminated in a serious riot.
In September 1873, Directors of the Lothair Mine, near where the railway station now stands, decided to change the method of payment to the miners from contract rates to seven shillings per shift and requested the men to work extra shifts on Saturday afternoon, 3pm to 11pm, and Sunday night from 11pm to 7am on Monday morning.
This meant that the miners would have to work two extra shifts per fortnight for the same money. Additionally, the miners were unwilling to work on the Sunday, as many in the region were angered that the sanctity of the Sabbath was to be broken.
The dispute seems to have been compounded by work conditions in the Lothair Mine that was poorly ventilated. Some miners wanted it fixed. An Old Miner wrote that he had ‘through foul air’ in the Clunes mines, been laid aside, and many are in their graves. The Lothair Mine, he wrote,
“…has only one shaft, no means of insulation, and in case of water breaking in, they have no means of escape. Allow me to urge my brother miners not to allow anything to induce them to resume work till some means are set on foot for the preservation of their lives.”
Negotiations proving useless and the miners, backed by the newly formed Clunes Miner’s Association, went on strike.
By the end of November, the Lothair directors had accepted that the Sunday night shift would not be worked, but refused to give ground on the Saturday afternoon shift.
After the strike had dragged on for nearly fourteen weeks, the directors of the Lothair mine – who included James Francis, the Premier of Victoria, and the wealthy businessman Peter Lalor, previously a Eureka rebel, met and agreed to hire blacklegs if needed, finally deciding to work the mine with Chinese labour and engaged a large number of Chinese miners from Ballarat and Creswick. Word reached Clunes on the afternoon of 8th of December 1873 that coaches were waiting in Creswick to transport a party of Chinese to Clunes and word went around the town to rally the miners.
“The feeling on the part of the miners against the employment of Chinese labour is perfectly intelligible to every European, and no one can be surprised that men seeing an effort made to deprive them and their families of their means of subsistence by bringing a host of Tartars into the field against them should be highly exasperated.” – Bendigo Advertiser.
William Blanchard, as town mayor and Miners’ Association president, sent Jimmy Hewitt, bellman, around the streets to summon every soul to a public meeting in the 5000-strong town, and all other activity – industrial, commercial, agricultural, domestic – ceased in Clunes for the day. Then, in the afternoon, a group of many hundreds of people marched behind the Clunes Brass Band along Service Street, Bailey Street, Talbot Road, Fraser Street and several other streets, stopping before the town hall, where speeches were delivered by civic and religious leaders stating that those who dared labour on the Sabbath would not enter Clunes.
The townspeople made preparations as night fell. A group of miners went up Service Street to the Lothair mine and made sure it could not be worked should the strike-breakers get through: cages were lowered to the bottom level, the lift engine disabled, planks bolted across the shafts, ladders removed from the site, gates padlocked, and a picket line established. A shed that had been erected to house the blacklegs was pulled down.
After an all-night vigil during which the miners in practically all the other mines stopped work, word was received early on the 9th of December that the coaches, had left the Chinese encampment at Creswick at 5am. They were met part of the way along the road by four mounted troopers from the district, who warned that the tollway was blocked. With Sergeant Larner sitting beside him in the box, McPhee turned the lead coach into the Tourello road and took the party over to the Ballarat road, from where they could drive straight into Clunes without obstruction.
News came through at dawn that the coaches and a mounted escort had been sighted and would soon be along the Ballarat Road.
An estimated 1000 people – men, women and children – rushed en masse up the hill then out along the Ballarat road, stopping at the intersection with Coghill’s Creek Road, near the edge of town. Farmers nearby called on the leaders to take their drays, ploughs, harrows, assorted agricultural equipment and some loose lumber to build a barricade, which they hastily did.
“When women are led to take up arms, we may be sure the cause is one in which it would be utter folly for the adverse party to persist” – Bendigo Advertiser.
They were still piling on rocks when, at around 7am, the Cobb coaches and police escort drew into sight. McPhee, driving the first – an immense, handsome vehicle with a splendid team and evidently bent desperately on driving over any mortal opposition, cracked his whip and bore down upon the miners.
“…the great and real barricade was the living acting mass before them. There was a little parley, but it was to no avail. An attempt was made by the police to break through, but the attempt was easily frustrated…” – Creswick Advertiser
Coach windows were shattered by stones thrown by the crowd, and the occupants huddles behind their belongings as more missiles were flung their way.
Then came the police effort. This consisted of Sergeant Larner climbing down from the coachman’s box – slipping as he did so and falling to the ground, badly gashing his temple – and assisted by Constable Durack, who dismounted his horse, clambering onto the barricade. One brandishing a carbine, the other a pistol, they ordered the townspeople to stop throwing stones at them and the coaches. Their bold gesture was undermined by an unidentified trooper at the rear, who shouted to the miners, “Don’t be frightened, boys” calling out that none of the squad bore loaded weapons.
The volley eventually halted, and pious speeches – mingled with robust interjections – started up in which it seems the police, the coachmen, the mine manager, the company directors present, and the Chinese were regaled for threatening the livelihoods of decent family men. In the meantime, the crowd swelled by hundreds as more residents and their families flocked to the barricade.
“Crowds rushed over the barricades and surrounded the coaches. They struck them with sticks and threw stones at the Chinese, and drove them away. The police fought well, and did all in their power to beat the men off and to save the wretched Chinese, but it is feared that these got severely punished, although they hid as much as possible under the seats and behind the luggage. There was much praiseworthy forbearance from unnecessary force and stoning, as soon as the police gave in. Senior Constable Carden came forward and gave his word that no further attempt would be made to intrude the Chinese, and his announcement brought three loud cheers. The whole barricade was removed and the material placed where it had been taken from.” – Ballarat Courier
Less than an hour after it began – around forty minutes – the confrontation was over.
By 8.30am the barricade had been dismantled and components returned to the owners, glass shards from the smashed windows of the coaches swept off the dusty road, and, led by the Clunes Brass Band, the demonstrators were parading back to the Town Hotel.
The miners, “…accompanied by troops of women and children, proceeded to the residences of several miners who had rendered themselves obnoxious by continuing work…warnings were given those offending men to leave the town…”
An outdoor meeting was held in the evening. There were more speeches, starting with William Blanchard, who declared that justice had been served. Then a resolution to be sent to the government – which affirmed the town’s opposition to the introduction of Chinese labour and criticised the police for their role – was drafted by Rolfe, a community leader, and endorsed by the meeting. There followed an address by Philipps, the local Member of the Legislative Assembly, who congratulated the miners for driving off the strike-breakers, praised the townspeople for their restraint, thanked other mines for supporting the action (at this the crowd gave three cheers), and criticised the authorities for intervening in a labour dispute. And a most contrite Bryant, the manager of the Lothair mine, declared that he was never in favour of the company’s changes, and offered to donate £50 to the Clunes hospital. The day ended with the 800 members of the new Miners’ Association marching five abreast through the town behind the brass band, and triumphantly singing “God Save the Queen”.
Of course, it was not the end of the affair. In early evening a squad of fifteen armed constables arrived from Ballarat, setting up a guard-post at the mine, and assertively re-establishing peace in the town. Five of the more rowdy barricaders – Thomas Nelson, William Pearce, Bernard Began, Joseph Tonkin and Martin Grady – were soon charged with obstructing police, and each fined £5 by the district magistrate later in the month.
Some sources say that the mines department thereafter included a clause in every mining lease issued preventing Chinese labour to be used in mines.
There is little direct evidence in newspaper reports immediately after the disturbance at Clunes that the protesters attacked the Chinese labour on racial grounds. Indeed, The Age in January 1874 argued that “…the miners were keen to prevent any body of men be they moon faced opium-eating celestials or sturdy British diggers working the strike bound mine.”
Of more immediate importance was the impact that the successful employment of Chinese labour could have had on the living standards of miners. However, it was a short step from seeing Chinese Labour as an attempt to dilute the position of European workers to a discourse in which the language of racism played a central role. What was significant about the ‘incident’ of Clunes was not the incident itself, but the ways in which Australia as a whole ‘experienced’ the event through the press. After the event, a struggle between employer and employees was then reported and became part of an anti-Chinese crusade.
Original summary by F. Conrad Weickhardt, additional content reprinted from ‘Clunes 1873 – The Uprising That Wasn’t’ by Dr Christopher Heathcote published in the Quadrant Magazine, 19 February 2009, used with permission.; plus content from ‘Clunes 1873: Constructing a new narrative’ blogby Richard Brown. Other attributions as noted in the text.
The Police
The Clunes riot was not the work of a lawless, aimless mob. There was obviously a high level of organisation with mounted scouts on the roads and meetings to decide the course of action. More particularly, there was a high level of civic organisation, for example the use of the town fire bell to sound the alarm, respect for property, consideration of Bryant’s family. The singing of “God Save the Queen” marked the event as a patriotic gathering of Britons doing no more than upholding their constitutional rights.
Although the Maryborough and Dunnolly Advertiser did not carry a report on the trouble at nearby Clunes, it ran a Bible-thumping editorial on the immorality of policemen the following Friday.
A fortnight later, the Clunes Guardian reported that an official investigation by the Governor of Victoria had failed to determine who authorised the escort of armed police, though many in the district suspected James Francis, the Premier, of protecting his business interests.
However, consensus is now that the decision to deploy police in breaking a strike was made by Police Chief Commissioner Standish personally after consultation with the mine directors. He later described Francis as a ‘cowardly low-bred cur’. Standish was not a newcomer to industrial disputes over wages and conditions, as his own men had first organised and taken their grievances into the public arena in 1860. But the Lothair mine case posed special problems for him and he was bound to consider the rights of the mine, directors and Chinese, as well as the strikers. It was generally agreed that had the police not supported the employers, there would have been no attempt to break the strike by using Chinese labour. Police involvement in the dispute contributed to the overnight transformation of a 14-week passive protest into a riot. Standish’s decision was not so much indefensible as imprudent and he defended his actions on the grounds that his object ‘was not to support one sector of the community against other, but simply to preserve the peace’. His remonstrations had a hollow ring when it was disclosed that the police originally intended to smuggle the strike-breakers into Clunes at 3am, under cover of darkness. That after the initial confrontation, Standish wanted to disarm members of the volunteer military force in Clunes and move 100 police into the town. Amid shades of Eureka, the Chief Secretary urged conciliation and the dispute ended without further serious violence. The police had by then been exposed as willing to intervene in an industrial dispute and the Age reminded the public that Standish’s men were not just police but also the colony’s standing army.
Victorian Chief Police Commissioner , Captain Frederick Charles Standish
“…The Clunes outbreak contains one feature that will be regretted by all classes of colonists. This feature is a defeat of the police. It comes with a shock that there should be an organised and armed opposition to the police in any part of Victoria. But that the police should be driven off the scene and mob law prevail will be admitted by men of all shades of opinions to be distinctly demoralising in its effects…”
“…That which concerns us is the outrageous breach of the public peace, which was committed by the rioters assemblage that threw up a barricade and forcibly compelled the Chinese miners and their escort to return to Ballarat. If the police had resisted there would have been bloodshed; and in the inflamed condition of the popular mind, there is no telling where the criminal action of the turbulent crowd would have stopped.”
“…The worst portion of this unfortunate affair is the contempt into which the law has been brought. It is not that an assault has taken place, but that the government which undertook to do a certain thing – to convey in safety the Chinese miners to Clunes – has signally failed in doing so…”
“…this community would suffer severely were the mining leases to be worked by an inferior and barely tolerated race…If it be not advisable as a matter of public policy for the capitalist to have resort to a semi barbarous race when unable to bend his fellow countrymen to his will, then the police were wrongfully employed in furnishing aid to the one set of disputants against the other”
There Are Two Sides to Every Story
THE MINE OWNERS
The Age, Melbourne 9 January 1874
THE CLUNES DISPUTE
At the last half-yearly meeting, your directors had the pleasure of congratulating you on the greatly improved Prospects of your mine, and confidently anticipated, not only a speedy liquidation of all liabilities, but further, the payment of a dividend before the expiration of the last half-year. With extreme regret they have now to inform you that, as far from their anticipations being realized, their liabilities have been largely increase, notwithstanding that a large field of payable washdirt has been laid open before them, which they have been prevented from working by circumstances which they have now to explain to you. The puddling machines and sluices, which it had been resolved to erect for the purpose of washing the alluvial, were completed in August, and, on trial, worked most satisfactorily. Unfortunately the mine was then inundated by a sudden influx of water, which stopped all operations for some time. When the water was overcome, sluicing operations were recommenced, and continued for a few days, the results being very satisfactory. On or about 27 September the men left the mine without any notice, and refused to return to their work unless paid for twelve, while only working eleven, shifts per fortnight. Upon this your directors met the directors of the South Clunes in conference, when it was resolved that those terms could not be acceded to, and should therefore be declined. To this resolution the directors have rigidly adhered. The president and vice-president of the Clunes Miners Association waited on the local board of directors at Clunes, and proposed terms of arrangement. A conference was then held in Ballarat on 20 November 1873, between your directors and three delegates of the association. The delegates stated they could concede nothing, having no authority to do so. Your directors, finding that nothing could be done with the association, called a meeting of shareholders, which was fairly represented from Clunes, Ballarat and Melbourne, when the following resolution was passed:- ‘That this meeting instruct the directors to employ Chinese Labour at once, in consequence of the refusal of the European miners to work the mine.’ In upholding your interests, when they found all other sources of labor cut off from them, they had recourse to the only one left – the Chinese.
THE MINERS
The Age, Melbourne 12 January 1874
THE CLUNES STRIKE
For over four months them men employed by the Lothair Company, Clunes, have been on strike, and during all that time they have never attempted to lay their case properly before the public, while the press of the colony seems to have accepted the reports and statements made by the directors as embracing all that can be said on the subject. Such being the fact, and acting under specific instructions, I, on Saturday last, succeeded in obtaining an interview with the leading members and representatives, not only of the Clunes Miners Association, but of the men on strike. They manifested the utmost willingness to explain their case, and deprecated in strong terms the misrepresentations which they alleged had been published by the Lothair Company’s directors in reference to the facts of the dispute. They stated that for over fifteen years a certain system had prevailed in Clunes in connection with the working of the mines, which differs, in some respects, from the system pursued on other goldfields. There are three modes by which a mine may be worked by a company, namely, by the payment of wages, by tribute, and by tutwork. This latter phrase appears to be of Cornish origin, and means working by contract. In Clunes it has been the rule to work the mines upon this system, one peculiarity of which it that there is no Saturday afternoon’s shift, and eleven-night shifts in the fortnight count and are paid for as twelve day shifts. In Ballarat and other places the rule is different, inasmuch as the men, unless when ‘working tribute’ are paid so much a shift day or night, and every man works six shifts in the week. On Monday, the 27 September, the men employed in the Lothair Company assembled as usual at seven a.m. to go to work. There were at the time about 110 men engaged. They were allowed to descend the shaft, and when about to commence operations they were called together by Mr Bryant, the underground manager, and informed that from that day the ‘tut’ or contract system should cease; that for the future the men would be paid wages at the rate of £2 2s. per week, or 7s. per shift, six shifts to constitute one week’s work. No reason was assigned for the change, and no notice whatever of the intention of the directors had been previously received.
The Coachman
John McPhee, a discouraged digger who left the Ballarat Goldfield just before the Eureka uprising, pioneered coaching in Victoria. He ran the first coach out of Melbourne to Kilmore, a distance of about 40 miles, in 1854.
After a stint driving mail coaches between Tarcutta and Gundagai in NSW, he came back to Ballarat in 1858. McPhee won the contract to carry the mails between Ballarat, Lexton, Glenorchy and Horsham. In those days, his stables were in Lydiard St, next to where the Provincial Hotel now stands. The coaches left Ballarat at 11 o’clock at night, and the horses were changed often. In 1860, he joined Cobb and Co and held important positions in the business in the Ballarat and Geelong divisions. Cobb himself started the company and at one time it comprised five different companies running in conjunction, but each on its own account.
McPhee drove the leading coach in the caravan hired to take Chinese Breakers from Creswick to Clunes on December 9th, 1873. As the caravan neared the township, it was stopped by a barricade, behind which was several hundred Clunes men and women. They let fly with such a volley of missiles the caravan and police had to retreat to Ascot.
A typical coach of the time.
Only about 18 months earlier, on March 9, 1872, McPhee had visited Clunes on a much happier occasion – the opening of the Clunes Waterworks. Then he earned great praise for his organisation which allowed a large number of guests from Ballarat to be taken there and back in the same day. At one stage McPhee, in partnership with a man named Vines, had up to 900 horses supporting his operations. He later began to acquire land and bought “Woodstock” near Avoca. McPhee had five sons and a daughter. The arrival of the daughter was of great moment, and McPhee drove through the street of Moonambel, shouting “It’s a girl, it’s a girl”, and throwing gold pieces to his drivers gathered there.
Presented herewith is a brief summary of the early history of the town; the events leading to Clunes being declared a Municipality, and some of the major events, and crises encountered by the Borough Council in the 105 years of its existence.
Donald Cameron, a Scot of 21 years, established his home on the bend of the creek, nearly ½ mile downstream from the ford, at the foot of Camp Hill. He named the place Clunes, after his home in Scotland. Following the discovery of gold by William Campbell in 1850, and James Esmond’s report of obtaining gold in the district in 1851, there was a rush of gold-seekers to Clunes.
At this time, Clunes came under the jurisdiction of the Creswick Road Board which had a large district to administer and consequently Clunes did not receive the attention it required. In July 1859, a petition was sent to the Government, requesting separation from Creswick Road Board, and for the formation of a Road Board for Clunes. In October 1859 a club to look after the interests of Clunes was formed. It was named the ‘Clunes Commercial Club’, and many of the prominent men of the town were members. The Club took a great deal of interest in the affairs of the town, and among many items discussed was the formation of a ‘Hook-and-Ladder Brigade’ to fight fires. (The Clunes Volunteer Fire Brigade was not formed until 1862). The Club took steps to have Clunes proclaimed a Municipality and thereby independent of Creswick Road Board. A petition was submitted to the Government in August 1860.
On 26 October 1860, Creswick Advertiser proclaimed: ‘Clunes is now a Municipal district’. A list of prospective candidates for the Council was drawn up and a meeting of land-holders was called for Tuesday, 13th November 1860.
At this meeting the list of proposed candidates was decided upon, and the election was held next day. The number of councillors was to be seven, and the Councillors should receive no remuneration. The following were elected:
Thomas Symons
Samuel Connell
Pattison Mark (Chairman)
William Rose
Robert Morrison
Alexander Nicholls
Wiliam Gubbins
Mr. J Hoare-Smith was appointed Town Clerk, and Surveyor for twelve months, at a salary of £210 per annum. Rates were assessed at 1/6 in the £1.
By-laws to assist in running the town were drawn up and submitted for approval. A grant was applied for to build a bridge over Creswick Creek, near the corner of Fraser and Bailey Streets. Application was made for a grant of land for Municipal purposes, and the land on which the Town Hall and courthouse, and the Police Station now stand was granted.
A seal was ordered with the Royal Arms within a shield, supported by a Kangaroo and Emu. It also shows a plough and battery stamps, with mottoes, ‘Speed the Plough’ and ‘Success’, surrounded by a band having the inscription: ‘Municipality of Clunes, Incorporated 1860’.
The majority of councillors carried out their work very well, but a few individuals appear to have had a good deal to say, and some upset proceedings a great deal. A study of the Minute Books of the Borough Council reveals a good deal of the town’s history, but many items appear to which there is no sequel leaving so much unanswered. By-laws to assist in running the town were drawn up, and submitted for approval.
As early as 1861, goats were apparently becoming a nuisance, for, in October, a By-law covering the ‘Nuisance of Goats and Pigs being allowed to go at large’ was made. In March 1869 the Pound-keeper reported that 392 goats had been impounded:10 had been released, 2 escaped and 380 had been destroyed.
There was also a report about ‘wandering geese’. Later, ‘wandering cows’ were a nuisance. Complaints about thistles appear very early in the minute books.
Trouble caused by insufficient closets and cess-pits being close to wells used for water supplies, was frequently mentioned, but it was not until1899 that a properly controlled sanitary system was established.
There were a number of epidemics with Typhoid, Diptheria and Scarlet Fever reported. In May 1876, the Health officer reported that there had been 150 cases of Scarlet Fever in the Borough, 12 of them fatal. In July 1883, it was reported that there had been 299 cases of Typhoid fever, with 3 deaths. By August 1883, the water supply was considered to be the culprit. By this time there had been 315 cases with 14 deaths.
July 1844 77 cases of Typhoid Fever with 3 deaths
October 1870 56 cases of Diptheria with 12 deaths
February 1893 150 cases of Measles in 1892
1897 85 cases of Scarlet Fever and 21 cases of Diptheria
1898 13 Typhoid, 1 Scarlet Fever
1899 57 cases of Typhoid, none fatal, and 8 cases of Scarlet Fever.
1900 3 cases of Typhoid
1901 No infectious cases in the Borough
1908 10 cases Diptheria, 2 cases Typhoid fever.
1909 11 cases Diptheria, 2 cases Typhoid fever.
1910 12 cases Diptheria and 5 of Scarlet Fever.
1912 There were several cases of Diptheria.
In later years very few cases of contagious diseases were reported.
In 1868, a Water Committee was formed with representatives from the Council and the various Mining Companies, with the purpose of obtaining a water supply for the town. After Several months all the Mining Companies, with the exception of the New North Clunes Gold Mining Company, withdrew from the scheme. The Clunes Water Commission was formed, and the New North Clunes Company guaranteed the sum of £40,000. Mr Peter Lalor, M.P., was appointed chairman and the Council and the Mining Companies were represented.
A reservoir was built on Birch’s Creek at Newlyn, and a catchment weir on Birch’s Creek at Lawrence. The water was then taken by a water-race to the settling basin and the pipe-head, about one mile from the reservoir. This work was done with the money subscribed by the Government, and the New North Clunes Company. The Council was approached on several occasions to purchase the scheme, but it was not until February 1874 that the Council purchased the water works scheme for £60,000. The scheme was administered by the Clunes Water Supply Commission, formed from the whole council and the mayor of each year was to be Chairman.
In August 1864, the Council was enlarged to nine members, and the position of Chairman was changed to that of Mayor. Cr C T Sutherland, who had been Chairman for 1862 and 1863 was elected to be the first Mayor.
Up to this time, the Council elections were held in November, but from 1864 on, Councillors were elected in August, and took their seats in September. However the Mayor was still elected in November, until 1875, when the Mayor was elected at the September meeting after the elections.
The Council was conscious from the early days of the need to plant trees to beautify and improve the town. Photographs taken in 1859, 1862 and 1866, show the town with no trees at all. The line of trees above the creek was planted in 1880. The trees on the hillside in Victoria Park (The Rocks) were first planted in 1906. It is owing to the efforts of the Council and Clunes Citizens that Clunes has many mature trees still in these locations.
During 1869, the disastrous floods devastated the town, Fraser St was flooded. There was between 3 and 4 feet of water at the Templeton Street intersection, and 7 to 8 feet at Camp Hill corner. This was followed by a similar flood in 1870.
In 1869, the Council applied to the Government for a grant to be spent in widening and deepening the creek. Up to that time, the creek flowed through a narrow meandering channel, and, as the sand from the mine batteries was passed into the creek, it was subject to overflow it banks with any floods. In 1872, money was made available and contracts were let to enlarge the Creek channel. The excavations were completed by the end of 1873 and the subsequent work was to consolidate the walls and lining with stone where necessary. The channel was widened to 56 feet and the depth was to 12 feet stretching from above the Government bridge to below the Camp Hill Ford.
Plans for a Town Hall and a Court House had been sent to the Government as early as 1870, and in December 1871 approval was received for the Council to go ahead with building the Hall. At a special meeting on December 6th, the Town Clerk was instructed to write to Mr Percy Oakden, Architect of Ballarat Town Hall, asking him to submit plans for the Town Hall and Court House, including fittings at a cost not exceeding £3,000. The Foundation Stone was laid on 4th April 1872 and the Town Hall was opened by the Governor of Victoria, Sir George F Bowen, on 30th May 1873. The Clock was installed in July 1873.
During 1872, the Council had been negotiating with the Railway Department regarding the site for a Railway Station. Among many propositions, a site in Alliance Street, near Templeton Street, was favoured. Mr Higginbotham, Engineer in Chief, stated that he could not recommend the Alliance Street site. He recommended a site on Ballarat Road, as being more accessible. This site is where the Railway Station now stands. The first train for Clunes from Ballarat ran in November 1874.
In May 1874, the Council requested the Postal Department to erect a proper and commodeus brick building in place of the existing Post Office, which was in a bad state of repair, and very dilapidated. The Post Office was erected in 1879 – 80 and still stands on the corner of Bailey and Service Streets. It was stated that the excavation for the foundations reached a depth of 18 feet.
Through the years, many requests were made to the Council to provide Public Swimming Baths. Many suggestions were made and investigated, but nothing was done. The first Swimming Baths were established at the water reservoir of the South Clunes Mine in 1906. The walls of the pool were elevated above the surrounding land and consequently it needed little alteration. The pool was 66 ft by 66ft, and ranged from 2 ½ ft to 7 ft in depth. Outlet pipes were fitted and water was supplied from the town supply. The area was fenced and a dressing shed was provided. These baths were very popular with young men and boys of the town and many were taught to swim there. These baths were not suitable for mixed bathing, and in 1920 and 1921, a ‘Bath’s Committee’ converted an old water reservoir into proper swimming baths. These were situated on the hillside behind the Free Library. The pool was triangular and lined with concrete. Dressing sheds and a toddler’s pool was provided. After the 1939 – 45 War, it was decided to establish a Olympic type pool as a War Memorial. This was established in Victoria Park at the site of the current pool.
The peak of prosperity was reached in 1873, when the population of the Borough was 6,203, and the valuation of the rateable property was £170,936, and the estimated annual value was £21,367. The town had grown continuously since its formation but the main business section was situated in Lower Fraser Street between Templeton Street and Camp Hill. The Ratepayers Roll for 1870 showed that in Lower Fraser Street between Templeton Street and Camp Hill, there were 63 businesses, including 10 hotels, and a further 2 hotels on the other side of Camp Hill.
From 1880 onward, the yield of gold from the mines began to decline, until finally the larger quartz mines closed down in 1894 and 1895 and any gold mining done was on a very small scale. The era of gold-mining in Western Australia, which commenced about this time, attracted many of the male population away from Clunes, and other towns in Victoria. Some returned but many sent for their families to come to Western Australia. The result was that many towns simply faded out, as they solely depended on goldmining, and, in many cases, left no trace of what were once prosperous towns.
Clunes, which had good agricultural districts, managed to carry on, and with the development of local industries, managed to reach quite a degree of prosperity.
The Council minute books show that there were many periods of low finance, especially during the Depression of the 1890’s, the early 1900’s and the 1929-35 Depression. These must have been very difficult periods for the Borough Council, yet the town survived and prospered.
Clunes contributed its share in manpower, money, and patriotic effort during three Wars; the Boer War in South Africa, 1899 to 1902; WW1 1914-1818 War; WW11 1939-45.
The fire of 8th January 1944, which destroyed Clunes District Hospital, and 15 homes in the town at north Clunes and the eastern part of the town was a great blow, but it was not long before new homes were provided for those who’d lost their homes and a new Hospital was built and equipped.
Through many trials and tribulations Clunes Borough Council and Clunes citizens have succeeded in carrying on, and it is considered that it was due to their efforts that Clunes was handed over to the new Council – The Talbot and Clunes Shire Council – as a financially stable and valuable asset.
Images: A selection of the Mayors of Clunes Borough between 1860 and 1965. The original images are held by the Clunes Museum.
Words by Anthony Sawrey, reprinted from The Local, April 11, 2022.
Research assisted by Allison Thorpe, Clunes Museum.
On the river flats along the Creswick Creek in the area known today as the township of Clunes, European settlement emerged to take advantage of the land for the growing of livestock.
And before the 1850’s life was, for the handful of pastoralists scattered across the area, a relatively peaceful one dictated only by the weather and the shift of seasons. The discovery of gold in 1851 changed all that forever.
As historian Robert Hughes succinctly put it in his 1987 book The Fatal Shore: “Gold disturbed the order of Anglo-Australian society…from pastoral “aristocrat” down to convict…with shudders of democracy”.
With gold came a fresh influx of people from across the seas, not just those compelled to be here as punishment. While many came to feverishly pursue a metal described by the London Times in 1852 as the “yellow stuff”, others carved out prosperous careers servicing the needs of the exploding mining economy and development it facilitated.
“Gold wealth was not democratic,” Hughes writes, “but it did expand the existing oligarchy….. and help create the Australian bourgeoisie.”
One of these people was Henry (Harry) Robins. He was born in 1827 growing up in Northamptonshire. At 17 years of age he was convicted of ‘Robbery with Violence’ and transported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) for 15 years.
Harry Robbins with his bullock team
However, Robbins must have demonstrated some potential for reform as he was granted a conditional pardon and ticket of leave after just two years. By the end of the 1840s he had added an extra ‘b’ to his surname and set out for the colony of Port Phillip.
The tiny colony on the southern coast of the Australian mainland was still a part of New South Wales. However, its small angle population, hobbled by the impracticalities of administration by far-off Sydney would soon form the new state of Victoria with Melbourne as its capital. Robbins soon found employment as an agricultural labourer in and around the district of Clunes station, a 32,000 acre (13,000 hectares) property held by Scottish businessman Donald Cameron.
At the same time the state of Victoria was formed, the discovery of payable gold was announced, despite the best efforts of pastoralists to keep the news out of the papers.
By 1851 thousands of people were pouring into central Victoria and for men like Harry Robbins the booming mining economy was a chance to make something of themselves. His own road to prosperity came not by swinging a pick but establishing himself as a bullock driver and he is believed to have transported the first shipment of gold quartz from Clunes to Ballarat.
Some may say it was akin to leaving a fox in change of the chook shed for an ex-convict to be tasked with moving a shipment of gold but it appears that Robbins may have successfully obscured his convict past.
According to one recent community contribution on the Australian Convicts Records website: “It was firmly believed by his descendants that he ran away from home, jumped on a ship to Van Diemen’s Land, deserted it while it docked in Melbourne and joined the gold rush.”
By 1853 he had married one Elizabeth Macintosh at the Clunes station homestead and they went on to have 10 children with several descendants remaining in the Clunes district to this day. By the 1860s Robbins had bought land at Glendaruel and Tourello before finally moving to a farm at St Arnaud where he died in 1899.
The story of Harry Robbins is a modest one but familiar to anyone who has delved into the social history of European Australia and the development of the 19th century Victoria. In England, Robbins would have had little chance for advancement. But transportation along with the economic opportunities brought about by the Victorian gold rush allowed him to turn his life around from that of a convicted robber to a prosperous farmer. He succeeded in living a life far beyond the station that would have been allocated him back in the old country.
Words by Anthony Sawrey, with permission of The Local Research by Clunes Museum
On November 27, 2021 a plaque was unveiled at Collins Place, Clunes, honouring the memory of Francis Joseph Collins, Shire Councillor, inaugural Clunes Tourist Development Association president and prominent local businessman in the decades after WW11.
One of four children, he was born at Ballarat in 1913 and grew up a big man with a shock of red hair, nicknamed Meggsie after the Ginger Meggs comic. A keen sportsman, Frank, as he was known, played in the Ballarat Football League for Golden Point Football Club (also known as the Rice Eaters) and by 1939 was the club president.
Clunes native and well known Geelong Cats player Bob Davis mentions him in Woofa, the book on his playing career: “One of the most influential ‘Rice Eaters’ was Frank ‘Meggsie’ Collins, a local footballer who taught all the kids special football and training skills. And when I was coach of Geelong, I adopted many of his techniques.”
At the end of the 1930’s Frank decided to move to Sydney. Unable to take part in military service due to poor eyesight, he qualified as a chemical engineer and remained in NSW until 1949 when he returned to Victoria to take over running the National Hotel in Clunes. “I came here and thought I would stay a few years, that was in 1949,” he said in an interview in 1986.
Clunes freezing works in the early 70s
In the same year he purchased the Swan Freezing Company which sat on the site known today as Collins Place. Formerly serving as a Salvation Army hall, knitting mill and Clunes Auction Market, the large weatherboard shed was converted a freezing works and commenced operations in 1948, purchasing rabbits from local trappers as well as supplying ice to businesses and homes.
Today most people tend to think of ‘rabbiting’ as something the rural poor did as a desperate measure to keep food on the table during hard times. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality was Australians were estimated to have consumed 27 million rabbits a year during the 1940s alone. Around places like Clunes where the creatures were in plague proportions, trappers could earn over 20 pounds a week when the average wage in 1950 was six pounds per week. Frank continued in the rabbit buying and ice making business until the 1960s, but as chicken gradually replaces rabbit on household tables, he decided to close the factory in 1969.
But the rabbit freezing business was only a small aspect of this man’s contribution to the local community. He was involved in the setting up of the Clunes Swimming Pool, and was a member of both the cricket club and the Clues Magpies Football Club. He coached there from 1949 to 50 and was also President twice in 58-61 and 66-69, a period when the team was very strong, making the Clunes Football League grand final 13 times for five premierships.
Frank at 26, centre 2nd row in suit with the 1939 Golden Point football team (image courtesy of the Collins family)
His daughter Cathryn, one of five children, also recalls that Frank was known as Father O’Collins for the popular barrel he used to run on Sunday mornings to raise money for the Clunes footy and cricket clubs.
The 1960 Cluns Magpies premiership team with President Frank Collins centre, middle row.
In 1967 he joined the newly formed Shire Council of Talbot and Clunes, serving until 1985. A tireless advocate for the advancement of Clunes, he was also instrumental in forming the Clunes Tourist Development Association and was its first President.
But Collins Place, with its rose garden and lawns, is arguably Frank’s most significant contribution to the fabric of his beloved Clunes. The old freezing works were demolished in the 1970s with the site being given over to hockey and basketball for many years. But upon Frank’s retirement in 1985 he donated the land for the creation of today’s park which was completed in time to commemorate the Australian bi-centennial in 1988.
Hepburn Shire Councillor Tessa Halliday and Clunes Museum Vice President James Curzon Siggers at the plaque unveiling.
Frank’s daughter Marie speaking at the plaque unveiling in Collins Place.
Frank’s grandson Royce speaking at the plaque unveiling
Plaque being unveiled by Frank’s great grandchildrenThe plaque can be seen at the entrance to Collins Place
Three generations of descendants of Frank Collins at the unveiling.
Words by Tony Sawrey, with permission of The Local
The shop at 49 Fraser Street, Clunes has been in existence since the 1870s. Its first tenant was John Lemmon, a saddler and today of course it now holds the newsagency owned by Craig Drewer. But its life as a barber shop and billiards hall for over 40 years and the larger than life character of “Flash Les’ Davis is where our story will focus.
Les Davis was born in 1903 and grew up in Ballarat where he had a barber shop on Sturt Street. He married Ethel Jones in 1927 and they had a son Robert in 1928 – later to become famous as AFL footballer Bob “Woofa” Davis.
Les Davis and Ethel Jones on their wedding day in 1927
In the 1930s the family moved to Clunes where he took over a small space and continued his trade. But Les’s business portfolio was a little more diverse than just shaving hair and trimming moustaches. His early days in Ballarat were taken up with refining the art of playing billiards and running an SP bookmaking operation out the side of his barbershop. Illegal starting price bookmaking emerged around Australia in the 1930s when the advent of phone and radio allowed for the results of a horse race to be immediately known. SP Bookies would take bets fixed to the starting odds or price of a runner which finalised just before the barriers opened. While the bookie and gamblers could get an idea of how the odds were moving in the hours before the actual race, the official starting price could only be known afterwards and thus determining the final payouts. It seems like a complicated way to make a living but before the rise of regulated and taxed off-course betting shops such as the Totalisator Agency Board, or TAB, SP bookies were everywhere and hugely popular with generations of punters. It was natural enough for Les to continue his bookie operations when he opened his barber shop. And it was rumoured that the ladies who worked at the old manual telephone exchange in the old post office tipped him off whenever the Vice Squad were planning a surprise visit. Over the years the place developed into quite a hangout for people in town. And not just for his barbering skills or bookie activity but due to the billiards saloon he had out the back with tables salvaged from the nearby Club and National hotels. He also had a lending library installed mostly with western and cowboy novels. Ethel had died in 1948 in Queensland which tends to suggest that she and Les had parted company by that time. Son Robert was carving out quite a career as a professional Aussie Rules football player and was playing for Geelong Football Club. By 1955 Les had remarried to Elsie Filby who remained with him until his death in 1983 at 80 years of age.
Les Davis, avuncular master of ceremonies, reclining, centre, front row.
By all accounts he was a “colourful character” with all the dubious connotations that come with the term. Known as Flash Les he liked to flash a fat roll of notes and was an old fashioned ladies man who could sing onstage and was always chosen to MC concerts and socials. That’s him pictured above, reclining front and centre, at a town social in 1938. In Just a Boy from the Bush Lloyd Jones describes him as “Bookmaker and barber, polished and witty, as gentleman of those callings usually are”. Maureen French, writing about her experiences of Clunes in the early 70s recalls being serenaded by Les from his shop as she did her shopping. And Christine Rowe, whose father was friends with Les, remembers as a kid the barber shop being a man’s place that you were not allowed to go into.
Above right, the former barber shop and in 2019 as the current Newsagency. (The A.Greenhalgh signage, former tenant, was done for the 2003 Ned Kelly film.)
The Clunes Town Hall and Courthouse is a striking municipal building designed by Percy Oakden. Built in 1872, the distinctive building reflected the prosperity of a gold mining town in its heyday. But this is not a story about the Clunes Town Hall as such, though it is worth mentioning that the grand building has recently had a substantial makeover, returning to its original glory.
Instead the subject here is Richard Ford, arguably one of the town’s most well known and revered artists. He was born in 1875 and died in 1961 and over the course of a long life he was a council foreman, horticulturalist and park curator and later taught woodwork at the Clunes Higher Elementary School. In addition to these many talents he was a prolific painter. Where Ford received his artistic training is unknown but his skills were considerable. He executed numerous works of Clunes and its surroundings very much in the tradition of English landscape painting, casting the town in a soft bucolic light. An interpretation in great contrast to the many photographs of the period featuring rickety shacks, industrial-scale mining operations and denuded hills. Nonetheless, over the many years many people wound up owning a Richard Ford work and there was even one found at the Senior Citizens Centre during its recent revamp and which has been donated to the Clunes Museum.
Corner of Fraser and Templeton Streets, circa 1920 by Richard Ford
However, it is the aforementioned Clunes Town Hall which was the recipient of some of the most substantial creations. They came about in the form of a detailed stage proscenium and a war memorial painting, both of which can still be viewed today in the large public meeting room. A century ago town halls were one of the main spaces for regional dwellers. There people would gather to dance, listen to music and watch plays. And the proscenium backing the stage was as essential as chairs and lights. Generally they featured a painted backdrop, movable wings and a physical proscenium arch. The entire installation then served as the frame into which the audience observed a theatrical performance. By 1916 the time had come to replace the old proscenium and as a council foreman , Ford was uniquely placed to offer his skills in the creation of a new one. The result was spectacular. The backdrop depicted a paved patio bracketed by neo-classical balustrades looking out over a sumptuous lake and dramatic mountains. Four rectangular wings around three metres high featured sturdy oak trees thick with foliage. On their reverse side were framed vignettes of subjects such as native flowers and swaggies by water holes. With the flick of a latch, the stage could go from a European theme to Australian theme in moments.
The proscenium in the main meeting room of the Clunes Town Hall and Courthouse.
Needless to say the council and town loved the final result and many spoke in “most eulogistic terms of the fine painting executed by Mr Ford,” as reported by the Clunes Guardian and Gazette. In response: “Ford said he could hardly express his feelings. He had done the work to the best of his ability and he was pleased to know that his efforts had been appreciated.”
Six years later a memorial was created in the same space featuring photos of soldiers and nurses who served in the Great War and Ford was able to contribute once again. “In the centre is the representation of a rising sun,” reports the Clunes Guardian and Gazette, “brilliantly and artistically painted by Mr Ford to whom much praise is due for the skill and care has has bestowed upon the whole work”.
The rising sun war memorial designed by Richard Ford. Image Tony Sawrey.
A century later his works remain in good condition. And with the Town Hall refurbishment and restoration works now complete, a new generation of Clunes residents and visitors will have the chance to experience them again in their glory.
While not many people would realise it today, most towns in this region, indeed across Victoria, had areas set aside known as Town Commons.
Words by Anthony Sawrey, with permission of The Local
Research by James Curzon-Siggers
It was just one instance of the widespread colonial practice in the 19th century of reserving specific pieces of land for a variety of public uses.
By 1890 more than 6,000 square kilometres existed as officially designated common land. Unfortunately much of this land has been divided up, built upon and sold off over the years and there are very few intact examples to be found anywhere in the state. However Clunes is one of those rare exceptions.
If you want to go and see it, the Clunes Town Common lies north of the present township, straddling Glengower Road. Bracketed by Birch Creek to the east and Creswick Creek to the west it covers about 216 hectares. Its boundaries remain as they were set when first proclaimed by the Victorian Parliament in 1861.
In those times, well before the advent of modern social welfare support, town commons were an essential part of the fabric of the surrounding community; as pointed out by researcher Ben Maddison in A Kind of Joy-Bell: Common Land, Wage Work and the Eight Hours Movement In Nineteenth Century NSW. “In 19th century New South Wales (and Victoria) the commons – denominated as either Temporary or Permanent…were set aside for travelling stock, pasturage, timber, water, indigenous communities, camping, recreation, ‘public purposes’ (schools, churches, cemeteries) and village, town and suburban expansion.”
In local terms this meant that “every inhabitant within the Municipal District of Clunes be entitled to departure six head of cattle or horses on the common”, and that a herdsman receiving a wage of 50 pounds per annum would be appointed to manage stock placed there. Later both Chinese and European residents could pay five shillings for a garden licence issued by the Department of Land and Survey (today’s DELWP) to “enter upon Crown Land not exceeding in area one acre for the purposes of garden and residence”.
However, unlike in the English tradition of productive common lands which had always been an insurance against hard times, common lands in the colonies were often little more than a resource to be exploited. The often became a locus of competition or conflicts over stocking rates and boundary maintenance and were frequently neglected with weeds, rabbits and mining activity contributing to their eventual decline.
The Clunes Common suffered from these issues and by 1918 the Ballarat Courier had a small news item titled: Clunes Common Recommended for Subdivision. But while the other town commons were carved up the Clunes Common remained largely intact and in regular use right up to 1960s. One of those people who remembers it well is John Overberg who settled in Clunes with his parents and five siblings from Holland in 1955.
“We had a house cow, as many people used to in those times, for milk and to make our own butter, cream and cottage cheese. The cow would stay at the house overnight but after milking in the morning you would just let it loose on the common and after school you would collect it and milk again. Sometimes you had to walk a couple of miles to find her. We also had about 16 goats there. The common was certainly an important asset to people like us to help make ends meet. It was also a great playground as we grew up.”
But by the turn of the 1970s the Clunes Common was little more than unused public land and was leased to a local farmer. It is now fully fenced and off-limits to the public. But few tears were shed at the time because society had moved on.
The old dependence on laborious activities such as maintaining a milking cow was hardly necessary when supermarkets could provide such produce cheaply and reliably. What’s more, with the emergence of the sort of social security net taken for granted today families no longer have to grow their own food or collect their own milk to survive, they can do it for fun.
There is also the fact regional councils no longer allow dairy cows to wander on the outskirts of towns nor permit mobs of goats to amble down suburban streets looking for blackberries to eat. The past is certainly another country.
Heading up Angus Street towards the Common, 1900-1905
The Clunes Museum and Ballarat’s Federation University are collaborating on a a major exhibition which will focus on that signature event in the history of our town – the industrial action and strike of late 1873 at the Lothair mine which culminated in the events of December 9, 1873, often categorized as an anti-Chinese race riot by many historians writing generalist histories. In-depth research reveals a different and more complex story. This was a major event in the history of the goldfields, in the development of Australian trade unionism and, according to some, the making of the White Australia policy. The exhibition will be held next year to coincide with the International Booktown Festival in May and runs from mid-April to the end of May. Professor Keir Reeves and the team at Federation University’s Australian History Dept. will guest curate the exhibition. Can you help? We will look at this iconic Clunes event and its myths from a range of perspectives and there will be a focus on the individuals involved such as Peter Lalor, a Lothair mine director; Robert Bryant, the mine manager; William Blanchard, 1st President of the Clunes Miners’ Association and Mayor as well as wives and women, the strikebreakers, the miners, the Clunes Marching Band, the police and Chinese living in Clunes, Creswick and Ballarat.
If you think you have any old photos or documents or mine plans or maps or letters or lithographs or information about individuals that may be relevant, we’d like to hear from you. Contact me on 0412853410 or through the Museum.