Essay Plan v.16 With Pics
Essay Plan v.16 With Pics
Essay Plan v.16 With Pics
significance of a Homestead.
Sarah Crooke.
Hopes were high among those few families who clung to the ideals of a
refined society. [Miles Franklin]. 1
Womens voices can tell us so much more about a house and its occupants than the bare facts
provided by historic registers. So often they are overlooked. Such is the case with Gundowring
Homestead built by Charles Barbour in the Kiewa Valley, Northeast Victoria. Questioning why
the house was built instead of when, listening to the contemporary voices of women through
journals and literature, looking at newspapers, photos, family papers and listening to the house
itself, can challenge the academic wisdom.
1
A Significant Wedding.
The laden bullock wagon from Beechworth crossed the Kiewa River, reduced to a trickle in the
early February heat of 1867. It followed the track through the open red gum woodlands of the
Barbours Gundowring run towards the homestead.2 The name, Gundowring, means a deep
lagoon in the language of the local indigenous people;3 but they had disappeared in the 30 years
since the Barbours arrived in 1838. 4
The homestead was a hive of activity in preparation for Flora Barbours wedding on 19th
February5. As the wagon pulled up to the back door, the family and servants all came out to
help unload the supplies. Sacks of flour, rice and sugar were stored safely in bins in the store
room along with boxes of tea, dried fruit and spices; all required for the mammoth catering task
ahead.6
2
Weddings were important social occasions. While the men took on the heroic role of taming
the land as successful pastoralists,7 the women were responsible for their social standing in the
emerging Victorian society.8 The house was the social hub,9 a wedding was a chance for the
mother of the bride to demonstrate her skills and taste through hospitality for family and
friends.
Life was not easy in those early days. Like a lot of young men at
the time, Charles started out at Gundowring living in a bark hut
on the bank of the creek13 until he became sufficiently set-up to
build a family home.14 By all accounts Charles did very well,
becoming a successful pastoralist, community stalwart and local
philanthropist.15
After his marriage, Charles built the first brick building in the
valley, a two-story house.
3
Fig. 6, Gundowring Homestead.
The date this house was built is unclear. Prevailing wisdom suggests it would not have been
built until after tenure was secured by the 1862 Duffy Act. Historic registers suggest the house
was built in the early 1860s19. Are they right, did Mary and her children live for some years in
the bark hut?
Historic registers are not the only authentic sources. Non-historians maybe less authoritative
but provide valuable evidence. Womens voices can be found in journals such as those of the
daughter of Charles and Mary, Fanny Barbour20, and the writer, Ada Cambridge,21 who visited
Gundowring. Furthermore, authors wrote of the social norms of the time and locale, like Ada
Cambridge, Miles Franklin and Henry Handle Richardson.22 Their writings portrayed the life
of the Barbours social milieu. Fanny Barbour painted a watercolour miniature of the house
(fig.1) as visual record of her home, 23 not uncommon for such women of the time.24
Photographs began to take over from painted scenes of houses in the 1850s,25 and early
photographs of the Homestead are illuminating. Contemporary press cuttings detail everyday
occurrences. Importantly there is a collection of Hume family papers describing the family at
Gundowring which adds fascinating insights to the archival framework.26 And there is the house
itself. This other evidence suggests a more revealing question about the purpose of the house.
This was a time of change. The State of Victoria was proclaimed in 1851; the pastoral industry
was expanding on the eve of the gold rush. Creating stable families in rural areas, rather than
peripatetic single men, was important for the development of a civilised community in the post
convict era. 27 In this context Gundowring Homestead was not only a home for Charles and
Marys growing family but a statement about their social standing,28as described by a guest.
4
Charles was Australian born, as was also his wife. They were the oldest of families,
their history interwoven with the very foundation of the state. [AdaCambridge].29
The Hume and Barbour families undoubtedly set high expectations for Charles and Mary to
uphold. The accepted lifestyle would include generous hospitality supported by servants.30
Contemporary literature describes hospitality as a critical element of social life.
A house partycould not be a dull affair in the days when social contact
meant the apex of human enjoyment. [Miles Franklin].31
Travel was an integral part of life. Men travelled on business. Women travelled to combat
isolation by visiting family and friends. House parties were organised around occasions like
weddings and race meetings. Distances and the rough terrain required anyone visiting, like
travelling clergy, to stay one night at least. Ada Cambridge describes the Barbours generous
hospitality in their beautifully appointed home32.
With a double girdle of wide verandahs, and any amount of solid British
furniture within an imposing mansion for the times. [AdaCambridge].33
Fanny, in her journal, describes visiting family and friends regularly, often for at least a week.34A
house needed to be able to provide hospitality. Since the Barbours required a suitable house in
which to live and entertain commensurate with their social standing, it seems improbable that
Charles would install them in the original bark hut, and there is no evidence of an interim
house. There is evidence Mary and Charles lived at the Barbour family home, Glenrock in
NSW for the first years of their marriage35. Did Charles wait until after the 1862 Duffy Act to
build the house as historians suggest?
Buildings provide evidence about the lives and social assumptions of their residents.36A photo
taken in 1865 (fig 7) is enlightening.
5
The house greeting guests to Floras wedding was typical of the Georgian
style of Australian Colonial architecture that continued after the death of
George IV in 1830 until around 1850.37 It is restrained, resembling a
number of houses built in NSW in the first half of the nineteenth century;
without the flamboyant detailing of the gold rush boom period.38
Gundowring, while on a smaller scale, was modelled on Charles family
home, Glenrock,39with verandah tablature and classic Doric columns (fig.8),
reputedly made from spars of Charles grandfathers ship.40
The windows either side of the front door were built to open into the wall
cavities above, providing access to the front rooms from the wide front
verandah. These are original, as can be seen from the structure of the
house and in the photo from 1865 (fig.7), contrary to some historians
assertions that they replaced French doors.41 Once inside, like Glenrock,
bi-fold doors downstairs open two rooms up to provide a larger
entertaining space. Fig. 8, Doric columns at
Gundowring.
This was a house built to be run with staff, and the back of the house was their
domain. The verandah posts of long verandah connecting the servants wing to
the main house were simple chamfered timber rather than the elegant columns
at the front. The servants bells (fig.10) connected to all the rooms in the main
house hung outside the back door.
Fig. 10, Gundowring
Servants' Bell.
6
Fig.11, Gundowring from the North, servants wing to right.
The service wing (fig.10) was originally separate from the main house to keep the kitchen heat
out of the house, guard against fire and maintain a separation between servants and the family.44
It included store rooms, a sewing room, large kitchen, two bedrooms, a cellar, laundry and
meat room. There was also a small workmans cottage. In preparation for the wedding these
would have been a hive of activity.45Fanny describes how the Barbour women enjoined baking
and making jellies and preserves. There is no doubt the cellar would have been full of the fruits
of their labour for this occasion.
As a young girl, up in the orchard picking plums- we were always cooking, making cakes.
[Fanny Barbour ].46
Gundowring is interesting for its lack of early formal flower gardens so often seen in houses of
the period.49Rather than shutting themselves in from a hostile landscape as was common at the
time, the Barbours appear to have embraced the natural landscape.
The river flats with the sound of the river rushing in the distance
coming up in the still evening with the scent of the reeds and
the high blue mountains with deep shadows resting on then. [FannyBarbour].50
7
They used elms and poplars to frame the views across the river flats to the distant mountains,
perhaps showing how secure the Barbours felt in their domain.
Journals, maps and newspapers add to the story told by the building itself and the early photo,
illustrating the Barbours permanent residence before 1862.51 Contemporary newspapers
describe Charles standing as a breeder of fine cattle and horses, and his philanthropy, and
events like Floras wedding, race meetings, and the birth of children.52
The Hume family papers, while not scholarly, provide a family discourse with fascinating
memories about the Barbours life, adding detail to the framework available from the official
archives. Marys widowed mother, Elisabeth, took up the Yarrawonga run in 1842, building
Burramine Homestead in the early 1850s.57 George, older brother of Charles, took up the
Barnawartha run in 1839 which he later sold to brother-in-law David Reid. Reid built The
Hermitage in 1859.58 Clearly the rest of the family were building houses before the Duffy Act.
Barbour narratives suggest Gundowring Homestead was built around 1853, with the family in
permanent residence from that time, rather than post 1862 as the historic registers suggest.
The photo from 1865 with its shingles and canvas roofed upper verandah in addition to
its mature grapevine.
The house, exhibiting elements that fit with an earlier build
The map following the 1847 orders-in-council marking the pre-emptive right.
The birth notice from 1861.
Such evidence supports the womens voices. Gundowring was built for the women of the family
as a home and social statement. It seems improbable the Barbours waited until after the 1862
Duffy Act to build their homestead. Taking into consideration all the evidence that goes against
the grain of official history, Charles and Mary built Gundowring Homestead around 1853, ten
years earlier than historians suggest.
9
Bibliography.
Primary Sources.
Argus, Births, 9 Oct. 1861,p.4, in Trove [online database], accessed 27 Aug 2017.
Barbour Family Papers, complied by Stuart Hume, (n.d.), unpublished, in the possession of
the author.
Barbour, Fanny, Jottings, State Library of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection (MS 11302) (1887).
Cambridge, Ada, The Murray Journey in Thirty Years in Australia (London: Methuen & Co.,
1903), pp.93-110.
Goulburn Herald and Chronical, Married, 2 March 1867, p.4, in Trove [online database]
accessed 27 Aug 2017.
Port Phillip Government Gazette, Argus, Claims to Leases of crown Land beyond the Settled
Districts, 25 July 1848, pp.1-4, in trove [online database], accessed 27 Aug. 2017.
Squatting Runs of the Murray district 1848 [image], (23 Jul 2017)
<https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/588f133cd0ce1f2e389d3022>, accessed 12 Oct 2017.
Ephemera.
Figures.
Figure 3: Goulburn Herald and Chronical, Married, 2 March 1867, p.4, in Trove [online
database] accessed 27 Aug 2017.
10
Figure 9: Crooke S, Timber verandah detail at Gundowring, 2017, [photograph], in possession
of the author.
Figure 10: Crooke S, Gundowring servants bell, 2017, [photograph], in possession of the
author.
Figure 11: Crooke S, Gundowring from the North, 2015, [photograph], in possession of the
author.
Figure 12: Barbour, Fanny, Jottings, State Library of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection (MS
11302) (1887).
Figure 13: Argus, Births, 9 Oct. 1861,p.4, in Trove [online database], accessed 27 Aug 2017.
Figure 14: Squatting Runs of the Murray district 1848 [image], (23 Jul 2017)
<https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/588f133cd0ce1f2e389d3022>, accessed 12 Oct 2017.
Figure 15: Port Phillip Government Gazette, Argus, Claims to Leases of crown Land beyond
the Settled Districts, 25 July 1848, pp.1-4, in trove [online database], accessed 27 Aug. 2017.
Secondary Sources.
Andrews, Arthur, The First Settlement of the Upper Murray 1835 to 1845: A short Account of
over Two Hundred Runs 1835 to 1880 (Marrickville: Southwood Press, 1920).
Bradstock, M., From mode to genre: Australian colonial women's romance, Southerly, 52/4
(1992), 54-67.
11
Burramine Homestead, Victorian Heritage Register [web site], (14 June 2005)
<http//:vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1258>, accessed 16 Aug. 2017
Cannon, Michael, The Long Hot Summer: Australias Upper Class Before the Great War
(Melbourne: Nelson, 1985).
Cox, Philip, and Lucas, Clive, Australian Colonial Architecture (East Melbourne: Lansdowne,
1978).
Davison, Graeme & McConville, Chris (eds.), A Heritage Handbook (St Leonards, NSW:
Allen & Unwin 1991).
Day, David, Claiming a Continent: A New History of Australia (4th edn., Sydney: Harper
Collins, 2005).
Franklin, Miles, Up The Country, A Saga of Pioneering Days (3rd edn., North Ryde: Angus &
Robertson, 1984).
Lynch, T., Nothing but land: Womens Narratives, Gardens, and the Settler-Colonial
Imaginary in the US West and Australian, Western American Literature, 48/4 (2014), 374-
399.
Macintyre, Stuart, A Concise history of Australia (3rd edn., Port Melbourne: Cambridge
University Press, 2012).
The National Trust, National Trust Database - Gundowring Homestead, National Trust
Heritage Register [website], (3 Aug 1998)
<http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/search/nattrust_result_detail/68628>, accessed 29 Sept. 2017.
Nelson, P. & Alves, L., Lands guides: A guide to finding records of Crown land at the Public
records office of Australia, Public Records Office Victoria, (2009)
<https://www.prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/lands-guide>, accessed 22 Sept 2017.
Russell, Penny, The Brash Colonia: Class and Comportment in nineteenth century Australia,
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1 (2002), 431-453.
Standish, Ann, Australia through Womens Eyes (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly
Publishing, 2008).
12
Stone, Derrick I., and Garden, Donald S., Squatters and Settlers (Sydney: Reed, 1978).
Thompson, Eric, Early Colonial Buildings of Australia: A Survey of Styles (Sydney: Clarion
Press, 1971).
Woollacott, Angela, Settler Society in the Australian Colonies : Self-Government and Imperial
Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
1 rd
Miles Franklin, Up The Country, A Saga of Pioneering Days (3 edn., North Ryde: Angus & Robertson,
1984),p.90
2
Ada Cambridge, The Murray Journey in Thirty Years in Australia (London: Methuen & Co., 1903), p.94
3
Hume family papers, unpublished p.56
4
Arthur Andrews, The First Settlement of the Upper Murray 1835 to 1845: A short Account of over Two
Hundred Runs 1835 to 1880 (Marrickville: Southwood Press, 1920), p.35.
5
Goulburn Herald and Chronical, Married, 2 March 1867, p.4, in Trove [online database] accessed 27 Aug
2017.
6
Miles Franklin, Up The Country, A Saga of Pioneering Days, pp.100101.
7 rd
Stuart Macintyre, A Conciew history of Australia (3 edn., Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press,
2012).p.115; Michael Cannon, The Long Hot Summer: Australias Upper Class Before the Great War
(Melbourne: Nelson, 1985), p.1.
8
Penny Russell, The Brash Colonia: Class and Comportment in nineteenth century Australia, Transactions of
the Royal Historical Society, 1, (2002), pp.432-435.
9
Nance Donkin, Always a Lady: Courageous Women of Colonial Australia (Melbourne: Collins Dove,
1990).pp.116-118.
10
Australian Government, Department of Environment and Energy, Australian Heritage database -
Gundowring Homestead, Australian Heritage Places [website],(n.d.) http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-
bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;search=place_name%3Dgundowring%2520homestead%3Bkeyword_P
D%3Don%3Bkeyword_SS%3Don%3Bkeyword_PH%3Don%3Blatitude_1dir%3DS%3Blongitude_1dir%3DE%3Blo
ngitude_2dir%3DE%3Blatitude_2dir%3DS%3Bin_region%3Dpart;place_id=4671, accessed 29 Sept. 2017.;
Heritage Council Victoria, Gundowring Homestead, Victorian Heritage Database [website],(14 June 2005) <
http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/564>, accessed 29 Sept 2017.; The National Trust, National Trust
Database - Gundowring Homestead, National Trust Heritage Register [website], (3 Aug 1998)
http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/search/nattrust_result_detail/68628, accessed 29 Sept. 2017.
11
Arthur Andrews, The First Settlement of the Upper Murray 1835 to 1845, pp.16,60; David Day, Claiming a
th
Continent: A New History of Australia, (4 edn., Sydney: Harper Collins, 2005), p.135.
12
Barbour Family Papers, complied by Stuart Hume, (n.d.), unpublished, in the possession of the author.
13
Derrick Stone and Donald Garden, Squatters and Settlers (Sydney: Reed, 1978).pp.44-46
14
Miles Franklin, Up The Country, A Saga of Pioneering Days,p.18
15
Ada Cambridge, The Murray Journey),p.95.
16
Macintyre, Stuart, A Concise history of Australia, p.115.
17
Derrick Stone and Donald Garden, p.136
18
Barbour Family Papers.
19
Australian Government, Australian Heritage database - Gundowring Homestead.
20
Fanny Barbour, Jottings, State Library of Victoria, Manuscripts Collection (MS 11302) (1887).
21
Ada Cambridge, The Murray Journey, pp.93-110.
22
M. Bradstock, From mode to genre: Australian colonial women's romance, Southerly, 52/4 (1992), pp. 54-
67.
23
Fanny Barbour, Gundowring Homestead [painting](before 1885), in the possession of the author.
24
Victoria Hammond, A Century of Australian Women Artists: 1840s 1940s (Melbourne: Deutscher Fine Art
Pty Ltd, 1993)p.6
25
David Day, Claiming a Continent, p.159.
26
Barbour Family Papers.
13
27
Angela Woollacott, Settler Society in the Australian Colonies : Self-Government and Imperial Culture (Oxford:
Oxford University press, 2015), p.2.
28
Ann Standish, Australia through Womens Eyes (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2008)p.46
29
Ada Cambridge,The Murray Journey p.95.
30
Derrick Stone and Donald Garden, Squatters and Settlers, p.136.
31
Miles Franklin, Up The Country, A Saga of Pioneering Days, p.87.
32
Ada Cambridge, The Murray Journey, pp.94-100
33
Ibid,), p.94.
34
Fanny Barbour, Jottings, p.158.
35
Barbour Family Papers.
36
Graeme Davison and Chris McConville (eds.) A Heritage Handbook (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin
1991).p.71
37
Phillip Cox and Clive Lucas, Australian Colonial Architecture (East Melbourne: Lansdowne, 1978), p.2.
38
Eric Thompson, Early Colonial Buildings of Australia: A Survey of Styles (Sydney: Clarion Press, 1971), p.70.
39
Australian Government, Department of Environment and Energy, Australian Heritage database - Glenrock
Homestead, Australian Heritage Places [website], (n.d.) <http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-
bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;search=place_name%3Dglenrock%3Bkeyword_PD%3Don%3Bkeyword
_SS%3Don%3Bkeyword_PH%3Don%3Blatitude_1dir%3DS%3Blongitude_1dir%3DE%3Blongitude_2dir%3DE%3
Blatitude_2dir%3DS%3Bin_region%3Dpart;place_id=1119>, accessed 29 Sept. 2017.
40
Australian Government, Australian Heritage database - Gundowring Homestead.
41
Ibid.
42
Phillip Cox and Clive Lucas, Australian Colonial Architecture, pp.50-53.
43
Ibid, p.86.
44
Ibid, p.2.
45
Miles Franklin,Up The Country, A Saga of Pioneering Days, pp.100-101.
46
Fanny Barbour, Jottings, p.175.
47
Heritage Council Victoria, Gundowring Homestead, Charles planted willow cuttings given to his father by
William Balcombe. Grown from a tree at Napoleons grave on St Helena, these trees can be seen in Fannys
painting.
48
Fanny Barbour, Jottings, pp.177-178
49
T. Lynch, Nothing but land: Womens Narratives, Gardens, and the Settler-Colonial Imaginary in the US
West and Australian, Western American Literature, 48/4 (2014), pp. 377-378.
50
Fanny Barbour, Fanny, Jottings, pp.29-30.
51
Graeme Davison and Chris McConville (eds.) A Heritage Handbook, p.180.
52
Argus, Births, 9 Oct. 1861,p.4, in Trove [online database], accessed 27 Aug 2017.
53
Derrick Stone and Donald Garden, Squatters and Settlers, pp.78-80.
54
Port Phillip Government Gazette, Argus, Claims to Leases of crown Land beyond the Settled Districts, 25
July 1848, pp.1-4, in trove [online database], accessed 27 Aug. 2017.
55
P. Nelson and L. Alves, Lands guides: A guide to finding records of Crown land at the Public records office of
Australia, Public Records Office Victoria(2009) < https://www.prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/lands-guide>.
pp.29-30, accessed 22 Sept 2017.
56
Squatting Runs of the Murray district 1848 [image], (23 Jul 2017)
<https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/588f133cd0ce1f2e389d3022>, accessed 12 Oct 2017.
57
Burramine Homestead, Victorian Heritage Register, [web site], (14 June 2005), accessed 16 August 2017
<http//:vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1258>.
58
Arthur Andrews, The First Settlement of the Upper Murray 1835 to 1845, pp.106-107.
14