The Poet of the Pivot

Towards the end of 2012 I posted about James Lister Cuthbertson, school master at Geelong Grammar, rowing coach and poet whose passion for the Barwon was often reflected in his verses. However, before the arrival of "Cuthy" in 1875, there was another poet who occasionally cast an eye towards the Barwon.
The gentleman in question was William Stitt Jenkins; a temperance advocate, staunch royalist and frequent contributor to the columns of the Geelong Advertiser, The Age, The Argus and The Ballarat Star. William - or W. Stitt Jenkins as he styled himself when writing to the Advertiser - was an English migrant, born at Whitehaven on 30th June, 1812, who had arrived in the country in or around 1853. Before his ship had even reached port, he had already put pen to paper, crafting a ditty titled "Penned off Cape Otway" which was published in the Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer, 22nd March, 1854.

William Stitt Jenkins. Image from the National Trust

Whilst I cannot find his name on the usual shipping records, I can deduce that his wife (Elizabeth neé Goforth) and at least three daughters - Evangeline, Victoria and Isabella - as well as a son Llewellyn must also have come to Australia. Sadly, their 15 year old daughter Evangeline died two days after Christmas in 1853 and was the first of a number of burials in what became the family plot at the Eastern Cemetery. A fourth daughter - Mary Jane - was born to the couple in 1854, however her death was also registered the following year.
Jenkins worked as a storeman  at Dalgety's in Geelong following his arrival and was quick to become involved in the public affairs of his adopted town. It was he who it is claimed first referred to Geelong as a "commercial pivot" (Geelong Advertiser, 23rd May, 1922) and thus was born the 'Pivotonians' moniker which has stuck to the present day. The name I now suspect, came from a store which Jenkins owned for a brief time in 1854 soon after his arrival in Australia and possibly between stints at Dalgety's (Geelong Advertiser, 4th December, 1854). The store was called The Commercial Pivot Hay and Corn Store and was located on Keera St near the Crown Hotel in Ashby (Geelong Advertiser, 3rd October, 1845). The Crown was situated on the corner of Keera St and La Trobe Tce (now The Esplanade) on what is today the Hertz car rental site. Predictably, Jenkins advertised his wares in verse. The venture was short-lived however and by December 1854 the business had closed.
As a devout Christian and strong advocate for the Temperance Movement (he went so far as to write to Queen Victoria, asking her to take the temperance pledge!), Jenkins' efforts were central to the acquisition of land for the Temperance Hall, built in 1858-9 on the corner of Little Malop St and Aitchison Place, the site now occupied by the Geelong Performing Arts Centre.

Portion of a 1927 photograph by Charles Daniel Pratt showing the old
Temperance Hall in the centre. Image held by the State Library of Victoria

Of particular interest to Jenkins were the youth of Geelong and in predictably vociferous fashion, he was instrumental in obtaining the use of a meeting hall and establishing a local branch of the Band of Hope - a Christian charity group first established in the United Kingdom which was devoted to educating children and young people about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
In the name of public entertainment and the betterment of the working classes, Jenkins also advocated for the establishment of a local version of the Penny Reading Movement which staged readings and performances at the indicated cost. In addition, he established the Recreative Society with the aim of providing evening concerts for the entertainment of the public (Geelong Advertiser, 16th June, 1859), no doubt with a view to turning their attention from the lure of Geelong's many public houses, however as with many of Jenkins' ventures the Society appears to have struggled for patronage.
By 1858, his credentials as - if not a poet, then at least a writer of verse - were well established, as was his propensity for commenting in the media on issues of local importance. On the 16th December, 1858 The Age referred condescendingly to "no less important a personage than the "celebrated" Geelong rhymer W. Stitt Jenkins", going on to describe his "admirable" - but in their opinion, no doubt misplaced - "zeal". In fact this seems to have been the attitude of many in the public arena - especially newspaper editors - towards Jenkins' frequent literary crusades which often attracted some rather strident criticism. On the 17th December, 1859, Jenkins was moved to write to the editor of the Geelong Advertiser, that "I shall not any more, Mr Editor, trouble myself to notice any further abuse with which I may be favored..."
Of particular interest to Jenkins - and indeed most of Geelong - as the 1850's drew to a close, was the issue of water. For years Geelong had struggled to secure a clean, reliable water supply in the face of a disinterested and obstructionist Melbourne government (for further details see this post).
Presumably wanting to bring attention to the issue, Jenkins wrote a poem which was published in the Geelong Advertiser of 4th April, 1859, bewailing the townspeople's plight and using such phrases as:

We oft used to visit your capital plan

Of mixing us water and mud in the dam.

The mud still remains, we are sorry to say,

But the water, your honors, has all gone away,

The dam in question was of course (Governor) La Trobe's Dam, now Johnstone Park. Mention was also made in the poem of Mr Gray whose water tank stood in the Market Square and was at the time, the main commercial water source for the town, pumped from a polluted Barwon River. In order to ameliorate the situation Jenkins began agitating for the installation of public drinking fountains for both man and beast, however his endeavours were met with the usual lukewarm response.

Johnstone Park, 1930. Site of the former La Trobe Dam, looking north east
across what is now Johnstone Park. Image by Charles Daniel Pratt 1930-
1940. Image held by the State Library of Victoria

On the 9th December, 1859 he wrote to The Age berating his fellow citizens for their failure to support a fundraiser he had organised in an attempt to raise money for the installation of the suggested fountains. In all, Jenkins claimed to have spent around £12 in staging the event which only raised around £6, leaving him to contemplate how to cover the rest of his costs and no closer to realising his ambition of providing water to the good citizens of Geelong.
By 1860 Jenkins had raised enough money to erect a number of fountains in central parts of Geelong. A drinking fountain/trough suitable for both man and beast was erected "on the south side of the railway bridge in Mercer-street" (Geelong Advertiser, 12th February, 1861) or in today's terms, somewhere near the corner of Mercer St and Railway Terrace, adjacent to Johnstone Park. The fountain contained a memorial to Captain Cook on one side and a poem and advertisement for the Geelong Total Abstinence Society on the other. It's life at that location however, was short-lived. Much to the disgust of Jenkins, it was torn down and unceremoniously dumped in the nearby railway reserve in 1867 by what he referred to as a "semi-military horde" (Geelong Advertiser, 18th October, 1867). The horde in question was probably the local division of the Victorian Volunteer Rifle Corps, although why they would have had cause to dismantle the fountain is unclear.
According to the Victorian Heritage Database the above fountain (which it claims was for animals only) was re-erected at the Market Square in 1879, however various contemporary articles from the Geelong Advertiser show that more than one fountain was erected by Jenkins. The Argus (27th March, 1860) noted that "One or two small fountains for persons to drink at have latterly been erected in different parts of the town, and there is a rather superior one of Barrabool stone, just about being finished in the Market Square."

An 1890s photo showing the fountain situated at the roadside on Moorabool St
with the gardens and the Exhibition Building occupying the Market Square
 site behind. Image taken from a brochure titled "Do You Remember?"
published by Solomons Pty. Ltd. in 1944, held at the State Library of Victoria

The same day, the Geelong Advertiser noted the fountain in the Market Square had been officially turned on the previous day and on 28th March it provided the following physical description:

It is built of Barrabool stone, in pretty large blocks, and consists of one basin, and two small ones for cattle and other animals which basins are supplied through a lion’s mouth, while for those who experience human thirst there is a bubbling fountain running over an artificial rock. At present in the absence of drinking cups, the water which is tolerably clear, is either imbibed as it wells up, or is diverted into the eye of the passer by, by small boys who have evidently practised that kind of sport at the pump spout.”

In typical fashion however, the fountain was controversial from day one. Inscribed on the back by a person unknown to either newspaper was the inscription "whosoever drinketh of the water which I give unto you shall never thirst." The Argus was keen to point out that "the Barwon water is not by any means proverbial for promoting longevity, nor for quenching thirst, and a much less impious invitation would have suited the purpose better" whilst the Advertiser felt that "from the motto to the inevitable literal application is just the one step from the sublime to the ridiculous".

1934 photo of the fountain erected by William Stitt Jenkins on Moorabool St
near the Market Square. Image held by the State Library of Victoria

Nor was this the only problem. Within two months of its opening, the Market Square fountain had been vandalised and days later, "Mr Jenkins's dog-troughs" were "completely destroyed" (Geelong Advertiser, 1st June, 1860). I can't help but suspect the vandalism was at least in part, the response of some in the community unhappy with Jenkins' particular form of zealotry, none-the-less, the fountain at the Market-square survived, unlike its counterpart in Mercer St.
By 1875 the fountain was dry and in need of repair and in 1878 a petition before the Geelong Town Council asked that "the fountain in Moorabool-street be repaired, and that the name of the late Mr W. Stitt Jenkins who had died a month earlier, be inscribed on the base of the fountain as a mark of their respect (Geelong Advertiser 1st October, 1878).
By 1910 moves were afoot to change the Market Square frontage on Moorabool Street after a deal was done between the Geelong City Council and Mr Julius Solomon who built new premises for his Solomons Department Store which opened on the site in 1913. At the time, there was concern that the Stitt Jenkins fountain should be "redressed and moved to a conspicuous location" (Geelong Advertiser, 5th October, 1910). Two years later on the centenary of Jenkins' birth his son-in-law Rudolph Johan Frederick Steel, wrote to the Geelong Advertiser reminding the community of the contributions Jenkins had made to the town including the implementation of a Saturday half-holiday, the establishment of Queen's Park as a public reserve, the building of the Queen's and Prince Albert Bridges (today's Queen's Park and Prince's Bridges respectively), the purchase of land for the Temperance Hall and the establishment of the Free Library in what was originally the Geelong Chamber of Commerce building on Moorabool St (Geelong Advertiser, 4th July, 1912). Like others, Steel was concerned that some would see the fountain scrapped and instead felt it should be "renovated a little and placed in one of our parks in a prominent position..."
On 28th July, 1912 the fountain was dismantled and put into storage at the City Hall depot (Geelong Advertiser, 28th December, 1912), its fate presumably still uncertain. By December, 1914 however, it had found a new home in Johnstone Park, about 100m from the fountain erected on Mercer St.

More recent photograph of the Stitt Jenkins fountain, in Johnstone Park.
Today, the  sandstone has deteriorated even further. Image taken from the
Victorian Heritage Database

And this is where the sadly deteriorated remains of the fountain can still be found today. At the current time however, the site is inaccessible due to works being undertaken to upgrade the park.
Also high on Jenkins' list of priorities was the establishment of the Geelong Free Library and to this end, he was instrumental in securing a site from which it could operate. First however, the usual public debate ensued as to the the location, the type of building (pre-existing or purpose-built), the cost, the type of library most suited, indeed, the need for a library at all. One punter even suggested a competition, with the winning design to be approved by a committee. The matter was finally settled in 1875 when the purchase of the former Chamber of Commerce building on the east side of Moorabool St was eventually negotiated.

The Geelong Free Library after 1875. Photograph by John Henry Harvey.
Image held by the State Library of Victoria

By 1876 however, only a few short years after Geelong was eventually connected to a reliable water supply, Jenkins had had enough. In poor health and disheartened at the lack of support for his many causes, Jenkins and his wife left Geelong for Melbourne. In his own words, he left Geelong "quietly, sadly, and alone, heart-broken at the miserable apathy of most of its inhabitants", however he was not entirely bereft of sympathy and support as a bank draft to the value of £50 was forwarded to him by the mayor; a token of esteem from a number of his remaining supporters in the town (Geelong Advertiser, 17th June, 1876).
As he attempted to establish a new life in Melbourne, he took a position as a clerk in the Lands Department, however his health does not appear to have improved and on 1st August, 1878 William died. He was buried two days later in the family plot at the Eastern Cemetery in Geelong. Later that year, the Lands Department granted a gratuity of £12 - equivalent to one month's salary - to his widow Elizabeth (Votes & Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, 1878).

The Stitt Jenkins' family grave at the Eastern Cemetery, Old
Church of England Section, Grave 536, October, 2017

A marble plaque placed on the headstone at the time of William's death reads:

"Let him alone, let no man move his bones"

A REQUEST

When I am gone. When I am gone,

Then bear me to the lonely spot

Where birds with lullaby of Song

Shall warble fond Forget me not.

When I am gone. When I am gone,

Let no vain sculptures mock the dead;

But one umbrageous tree arise

To wave its branches o'er my head

When I am gone. When I am gone,

Let none approach in garb of woe, 

Who cared not for the living man;

What care they for the dead below.

When I am gone. When I am gone, 

Too late will tears bedew the sod;

Give me to earth and go your way,

And leave me to myself and God.

One last poem; a parting shot at his detractors from the Poet of the Pivot.
Yet even in death, Jenkins managed to cause a stir in the media. The content of his will was widely circulated in newspapers across the country when it emerged that it had - of course - been written in verse. And then, in a final twist - through no fault of his own - Jenkins' character was once again called into question in 1912 when media comment on plans to move his fountain from the Market Square went awry after a supporter, quoting the verse on Jenkins' grave inadvertently substituted the word "scriptures" for "sculptures". A local reader styling himself "Churchman" was quick to inform the Geelong Advertiser (29th June, 1912) that he felt the phrase "vain scriptures" was an insult to the good Christians of Geelong. This in turn led to a hue and cry from Jenkins' supporters, explaining the mis-transcription, at which point "Churchman" quickly withdrew his assertion that the best place for the fountain was on the scrap heap!
Elizabeth survived her husband by a further 15 years. She died in Melbourne in 1893 and was buried with William and many of their descendants in the family plot.
I will look a little more at Jenkins' poetry in my next post but will finish this one with an assessment of Jenkins published in the Geelong Advertiser on 10th May, 1920, almost 42 years after his death:

He composed a few really good poems, but he made the mistake of writing too much on trivial themes, and thus exposed himself to jibes of Melbourne jokers about "Sleepy Hollow" and its poet laureate. As to the suggestion that his poems should now be collected into a volume, I am afraid it comes too late, for a new generation of Geelongites has arisen that knows nothing about him, and is not interested in his work or personality. But although perhaps of not much value in the main as poetry, such a book would be of some historical interest, as Jenkins commemorated in verse almost every outstanding event in the annals of Geelong.

'Lawrence Park'

The Learmonth family of squatting fame first arrived in Australia in the 1830s when Thomas Learmonth Senior established himself as a merchant in Hobart Town. In April, 1837 his sons Thomas and Somerville were amongst the first squatters to take up land in the newly-established Port Phillip District of New South Wales. As members of the Port Phillip Association (later the Derwent Company), they occupied land along the Barwon River up to its confluence with the Leigh River, beating out their competition in the form of the Clyde Company under the management of George Russell.
With their preferred land on the Barwon unavailable, the Clyde Company instead set up operations along the Moorabool River, north from Fyansford and west across to the Leigh River at Shelford. However, the Port Phillip Association once again got the jump on the Clyde Company when the first land sales were held for the parish of Gherineghap in February, 1839.
The Association disregarded the gentleman's agreement which prevented squatters from purchasing the land on which other land holders were squatting. Outbidding their rivals at the Sydney auction, they snapped up much of the land from Fyansford to the future site of Gheringhap along the Moorabool where George Russell was squatting and along the Barwon as far as Bruce's Creek.  Their success however, came at a cost. Philip Russell (half brother of George and shareholder in the Clyde Company) was able to force the sale price up to 28 shillings per acre. The Russells meanwhile, quickly stripped the land of the improvements they had made - huts, stockyards, tents, even a wool shed - and retreated to what had until then been their outpost on the Leigh River.

Google Earth map showing the boundaries of the 1839 land purchases of the
Port Phillip Association and the Learmonths as shown on the Gherineghap
Parish Survey Maps

Amongst the members of the Port Phillip Association was Thomas Learmonth Sr who is widely reported to have taken up the land after purchase before passing it to his youngest son Dr John Learmonth. In addition, the parish survey map shows that 611 acres west of Batesford was also purchased in John's own name. Meanwhile, his brothers Thomas and Somerville had headed north early in 1838, establishing first the Boninyong Estate, then the property known as Ercildoune.
In 1845 John began building a homestead on the property to replace an earlier building which according to the book The Stepping Stone: A History of the Shire of Bannockburn, Derek Beaurepaire (1995) had accidentally burnt down during an attempt to smoke out a swarm of bees.
By 1846 along with his wife - Alicia Macwhirter - John was living at the property which he called 'Laurence Park' (later 'Lawrence Park') after his father Thomas Learmonth's estate at Falkirk, Scotland. It was here that three of their ten children were born. In January that year, Alicia gave birth to a daughter who died two days later (Geelong Advertiser & Squatters' Advocate, 10th January, 1846). A second daughter followed in 1849 and a son in 1852.
In January 1854 however, John, his wife and their children (eight at that time) boarded the ship Kangaroo and headed back to Britain. 'Lawrence Park' was advertised to let as house and garden (Geelong Advertiser & Intelligencer, 7th March, 1854). It would seem perhaps that the lease was not taken up as the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for the Learmonths indicates that after John's departure, his brother Andrew managed the property on his behalf from 1854-1855. By 1856 the property was once again up for lease, this time advertised "to be let for five years, with possession on the 1st April, the House, Garden, and Vineyard at Lawrence Park, Bates Ford, the property of Dr. Learmonth, together with about 200 Acres of fenced land" (The Argus, 30th January, 1856). John Learmonth and his family did not return.

'Lawrence Park' 19th September, 1971. Image from the J.T. Collins
Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria

Like John, all of the Learmonth brothers were essentially speculators who eventually returned to their native Scotland. By 1867, 'Lawrence Park' which had been tenanted for some time was in the hands of neighbouring land owner George Hope of 'Darriwill' who soon on-sold the property to settler George Hill who for a time had been a tenant of the Hope family (The Leader, 23rd February, 1867).
The Hills were Scottish immigrants who had arrived in Australia in April, 1853 as assisted immigrants aboard the ship Confiance. With George on the voyage was his wife Sarah, and their young children James, Philip and George Jr. In the following years to 1870 a further seven children were born to the couple.
At the time of the Hills' arrival, the house was described by the Melbourne Leader on 23rd February, 1867 as:

possess[ing] historical interest, on account of its comparative antiquity; the walls are as massive as those of many a castle; the stone, probably, was found hard to work, but whatever the reason, the building has a rough and rather primitive appearance, although roomy, extensive and lofty.

After purchasing the property however, the Hills undertook extensions, adding a south wing during the 1860s and today, the Victorian Heritage Database gives the following description:

an h-shaped colonial vernacular building with gabled roofs. The earliest part is brick, that is, the north wing and middle section of the H. The south wing constructed in the 1860s is of random rubble. There are verandahs on the north and east sides. The house has been altered over the years and little remains internally of the original features. The only section in original condition is the upper level of the stone wing. A steep, narrow timber stair leads up to it. The overall condition of the building could be described as good, although the soft early bricks are deteriorating at floor level.

George ran the farm until his retirement in 1889 when he held a clearing sale and let the property to tenants (Geelong Advertiser, 4th April, 1889), retaining ownership until his death in 1909 at which time it was purchased at auction by his son Phillip. George and Sarah (died 1901) are buried in the Church of England section of Geelong's Western Cemetery in adjacent plots.

Grave of George and Sarah Hill, Western General Cemetery, Church of England
Section, Row 1, Graves 1249 and 1250

Philip in turn ran the property with his own family before retiring to Geelong in his later years. Philip died in 1931 and was buried next to his wife Mary Jane, not far from his parents. Newspaper notices suggest that his son George continued to,manage the property after his father's death until 1933 when the property was auctioned by the estate trustees (Geelong Advertiser, 14th October, 1933).  In August the following year, a clearing sale was held on the property (The Argus, 11th August, 1834) however presumably a sale was not negotiated as the lease of 'Lawrence Park', Gheringhap was listed in The Age, 18th April, 1934 and by 1940 Garry George Hill, son of Albert Alexander - Philip's younger brother - was running the property. Along with his wife Ella, Garry made a number of appearances in The Weekly Times during the 1940s and 1950s, promoting the benefits of the district and showcasing the prosperity of 'Lawrence Park'.

Photograph of members of the Hill family at the Geelong Sheepdog Trials,
Geelong Advertiser, 31st August, 1949, captioned " Mr. J. Pettitt (right),
Chairman of the Sheep Dog Trials committee, with Mr. and Mrs. G. G.
Hill, Mr. M. Hill and Miss D. Hill from Batesford"

 The couple had four children but it was their younger son Ian James Hill who was noted as still being in residence in 1995 (The Stepping Stone: A History of the Shire of Bannockburn, Derek Beaurepaire (1995). Ian had married Sheila Pilkington in 1953 in Melbourne but I imagine that it was on the property at Batesford that the family made their home.
Today, the property remains in the Hill family, with the current addressee listed as G M Hill and the house built by John Learmonth in 1845, then extended by the Hill family still stands as a reminder of the earliest days of European settlement in the Port Phillip District.