The Willows

As promised, in this post I intend to pinpoint as closely as possible the location of the camping spot on the Barwon known as The Willows which was so beloved of Geelong Grammar in the 19th century as well as being popular with both the wider community and Grammar's long-time rival, Geelong College.
Part of the problem with trying to locate the spot was simply the extensive number of willows which were planted along the banks of the river during the 19th and early 20th centuries. And these weren't just incidental plantings by individuals but rather, were introduced as part of civic beautification programs and - ironically - to control bank erosion across an extended time period.


Willow on the river bank below Barwon Grange

By the 1930s however, there were problems in some parts of the river and money was being provided by the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission to clear the willows from the upper reaches of the Barwon where they were clogging the flow. By contrast, downstream at Geelong and beyond, willows were still being planted. On 19th February, 1934 the Geelong Advertiser reported that recent plantings of willow had taken well and were now 6 ft high.  Then again, articles such as The Tragedy of the Barwon which appeared in The Argus of 14th May, 1949 highlighted the problem with willows.
But in the latter half of the 19th century when the boys from Grammar and College were honing their rowing skills on the lower reaches of the Barwon or whiling away their weekends around a campfire under the drooping branches, there was little concept of the problems ahead.
All of this meant that pinning down the precise location of a campsite simply known as The Willows was not exactly an easy process, but here is what I found:
The publication Light Blue Down Under: The History of Geelong Grammar School by Weston Bate made the following statement:

On the river their favourite breakfast place was The Willows, 8 kilometres downstream past the Barwon Breakwater, called simply 'the break'.



Willows and other exotic plantings immediately below the breakwater and the
 remnant chimney belonging to the "Willows" fellmongery of Dan Fowler

The Illustrated Heritage Guide to the Geelong College noted that:

The Willows was the name of a popular picnicking location on the Barwon River six miles downriver from the boat shed.

A little plotting using Google Earth showed me that - assuming the course of the river has not changed significantly in the intervening years - the two distances mentioned are only a few hundred metres apart...in the middle of Reedy Lake. Possible perhaps as there seem to be some areas not completely waterlogged, but unlikely as this was a publicly accessible picnic ground.
By contrast, many of the indirect references I located, pointed to the site being on the north bank of the river near Wilsons or Coppards Road, perhaps on the bend which is located between the two. My reasoning in thinking this was firstly, the place names mentioned in the poem Anabasis of the Alice by James Lister Cuthbertson which I mentioned in a previous post and I quote:

No check, no stay at The Willows

That redden in tender bloom,

But forward - and St Albans

Fades in the river gloom;

The crew in the poem are rowing from Barwon Heads to the school boat shed in town. An earlier part of the poem sees them enter Reedy Lake and then race another crew before rowing past The Willows and then 'St Albans', the stud built in 1873 for James Wilson, the famous racehorse trainer. His poem "Easy All" refers to cows grazing in nearby fields and "A Lament For The Willows" declaims:

No more do the thoroughbreds cluster

And stand in the cool of the shade,

To dream of the Flemington muster...

'St Albans' Homestead from Boundary Road

This surely refers to the bloodstock at St Albans Stud and is consistent with the following passage from the Church of England Grammar School Geelong History and register 1907 which states:

From Goat Island to the Willows the river is at its broadest and best; indeed, half-a-dozen eights could row abreast on the magnificent Long Reach, with its willow bordered shore....But what need of words: the Willows are the Willows, and for ever enshrined in the hearts of all true Grammar School Boys, who, one and all, feel to the successive proprietors of St Albans a deep debt of gratitude for allowing them, in Bean Lean's language "wood and water".

View downriver from the end of Boundary Road

Next, I found a newspaper report from September, 1903 detailing the accidental drowning of an 8 year old boy - incidentally a student at Geelong Grammar - who was on a boating excursion with the school at The Willows. The article refers to the event having occurred near the Geelong Racecourse which at that time as GC Magazine noted and I quoted in my previous post was:

on Barwon River flats off Tannery Road on the opposite banks to the end of Wilsons Road.

So, The Willows was on St Albans land near the Geelong Racecourse and I figured that "the magnificent Long Reach" between Goat Island (the small island over which the aqueduct passes) and The Willows was the broad, straight stretch of the river extending from somewhere downstream of Boundary Road to a bend about halfway between Wilsons and Coppards Road.

Looking up the "Long Reach" from Wilsons Road

Then, finally,  on the History of Australian Rowing website, I stumbled across an online version of Karen Threlfall's Fair Play and Hard Rowing: A History of The Barwon Rowing Club 1870-1990. On pages 3 and 4 of Chapter 4 is an extended description of a rowing excursion to Barwon Heads written (of course) by Cuthbertson. In it, is the following passage:

...and soon running beyond Goat Island and the bend, which leads to the Long Reach. At this point the river is wide enough to row six eights abreast and for a mile and a quarter runs quite straight. The view from off the Australian tannery is very fine, right ahead lies the long stretch of bright blue water, terminating in picturesque clumps of withered yellow reeds, crowned with the pale green lines of the willows, which are now in the glory of their spring foliage. Coming down to the end of the reach, the boat travels opposite the side of Mr Crozier's splendidly grassed paddocks, which are here bordered for half a mile by willows. We run our boat up the cutting, at the end of the paddock, and get out for breakfast at the spot which is so well known and liked by Grammar School boys. We collect large bundles of dried lignum branches, boil our billy, cook our chops, and make coffee of a most satisfactory description. Could anyone wish for a better camp?

Now, it didn't take long to ascertain that "Mr Crozier" was John Crozier, owner of 'St Albans' subsequent to James Wilson. Well that fitted.  A few more quick measurements on Google Earth and I came up with a location which was at the bottom of Coppards Road almost exactly where I guessed from Cuthy's poems and some of the other sources.

Probable location of The Willows. Click to enlarge

Well, that solved that problem. I still have no explanation for the two sources suggesting that the site was some 2 to 3km further downstream in Reedy Lake, but am reasonably confident that I now have the right spot. The next problem however, is taking some photos. I know that Coppards Road runs into the lake, about 1km short of the river channel. I don't currently have a kayak, so an on river approach isn't appealing, which leaves a stroll of just over 1.5km across private land...
I'll keep you posted...

And they're off and racing!

In attempting to chase down the popular 19th century camping spot along the Barwon known as "The Willows" which will be the topic of my next post, I came across  some other places and dates which relate to the land along the river and its historical uses. The first of these was the Geelong Racecourse which today is in Breakwater a short distance from the north bank of the river, however this has only been the case since 1909. Prior to its moving to the present site, the track was located on the opposite side of the Barwon at Marshalltown (now the suburb of Marshall). According to GCMagazine the Geelong Racing Club was established in 1865 and was located "on Barwon River flats off Tannery Road on the opposite banks to the end of Wilsons Road".
A map of the town and district of Geelong dated 1848 (held by the State Library of Victoria) shows the racecourse as having its northern boundary level with today's Reserve Road, its southern boundary a little north of Boundary Road and extending from the river on the east to a point a few hundred metres short of the Barwon Heads Road on the west.
On 4th March, 1869, an invitation was issued by the club to Prince Alfred the Duke of Edinburgh to attend a race meet at the course. The Duke who was no stranger to the region having visited the Austin's property 'Barwon Park' and opened the bridge across the Barwon at Winchelsea the year before, accepted the invitation.
By the time of the Duke's visit, which occasioned a public holiday and a huge crowd, one grandstand was in place and another temporary structure was erected for the event. The Duke and his party arrived in Geelong by train and were then whisked to the racecourse by carriage.
In 1872, the first Geelong Cup was run at the track. The horse which won that inaugural race was The Flying Scud which as it happens was trained by one James Wilson - owner of the famous St Albans Stud, located on the opposite bank of the river.

Geelong Racecourse, Marshalltown, c1900. Image held by the Victorian
State Library

The race meetings at Marshalltown drew patrons from as far afield as Melbourne, Ballarat, the Bellarine Peninsula and Colac, all keen to enjoy a day at the races. To accommodate this interest, a branch line from the railway line to Colac was built to the racecourse, running special services only on race days. It branched off from the main line somewhere near today's Marshall Station, crossed Barwon Heads Road and curved around to terminate inside the racecourse grounds. More detail can be found on this page of the Rail Geelong website.
The race track at Marshalltown however, was not without its problems. Situated on low-lying land beside the river, it was of course prone to flooding and by 1905 it was deemed to be too far from the centre of Geelong and a decision was taken to move to a new location at Breakwater. The last race meeting was held on 13th January the following year.
A little later in the year on 1st July, the land on which the former racecourse stood was handed over by the government to the Geelong Harbor Trust - a newly formed body who decided to develop the land as an experiment in agriculture: Sparrovale Irrigation Farm. A quick Google search will generate quite a bit of information about the farm over the years so I won't repeat it in detail, but will settle for a brief outline.

The entrance to Sparrovale Farm, Marshall

Sparrovale Farm (yes, this is now the accepted spelling and I note that the road signs have been adjusted to match in recent times) was named after Edward Rogers "Ned" Sparrow, secretary of the Geelong Racing Club and was set up as a model farm to prove that using the best farming practises of the day, what was otherwise viewed as waste land could be turned into a profitable farming venture. To do this, the land - about 1077 acres which included the former racecourse and surrounds - was drained and an irrigation system installed. A manager's house was erected near Sparrowvale Road and additional land allocated for employees' cottages. A nursery was established along with a poultry run, calf sheds, milking sheds, cattle pens and other dairying facilities. Horses and pigs were also bred whilst some of the land was given over to cultivating crops.
Things however, did not always go according to plan and after the property was flooded in 1909 and again in 1911. As a result, a levee bank was built to protect the reclaimed land from the inevitable flooding. This can clearly be seen from above to the present day. To aid construction, a tramway which also served to transport goods within the farm was extended along the line of the old railway branch to the banks of the river before, travelling some distance downstream. Construction of the levee began in January, 1912 and continued until funds dried up in September, 1915.
In 1916 however, the media of the day reported damage to the levee banks during another flood event. A further setback occurred in 1915 when a significant amount of cash was stolen during a robbery on the property.
Ultimately, the venture was not as successful as the Harbor Trust had hoped. The Trust itself struck difficulties and in 1933 new commissioners were installed. The property was maintained for a further three years until 1936 when it was decided to sell. The new owner of Sparrovale Farm was Mr W H Bailey, the son of Stephen E Bailey of Suma Park, Queenscliff. Stephen was educated at Geelong Grammar and in fact would have been at the school in the era dealt with in my previous three posts. He would surely have known where The Willows was!

The back of Sparrovale Farm from across the river at Wilsons Road

His son meanwhile, seems to have made a going concern of Sparrovale Farm for almost twenty years before selling up in 1955 to Mr C O Lorimer of Remirol Park, Ocean Grove for the sum of  £70,000. By this stage the property extended to some 1,400 acres and it was remarked at the time that Mr Lorimer was intending to establish a dairy herd on the land.
By 1964, the property had changed hands once again and at this time was established as an incorporated company under the name of KM Briscoe & PR Briscoe & GB Perkins & HG Perkins, also known as the Sparrovale Pastoral Co. In 2000, the farm was winning awards for their sheep and then in 2005 for their cattle. I believe Sparrovale is still a privately owned property.
Anyone wanting more historical detail the Sparrovale Farm page of the Geelong and District History Site is a good place to start.

Horses for courses

On a recent search to uncover one of those pesky little geocaches (located as it happened somewhere in the vicinity of a horse trough), it occurred to me that since Europeans arrived, the Barwon River has had a continuous association with horses.

Rider beside the Barwon in Newtown

Today, horse-riding along or over the Barwon is generally a leisure activity, whether riding along the banks or going for a beach-front ride at the river mouth in Barwon Heads.
In the early days of settlement however, when horses were the only real mode of transport, and bridges were scarce, crossing the river could be a difficult and expensive process. Private individuals operated punts which crossed the river at a number of points, charging a shilling for a man and horse to cross whilst for a horse and dray or cart, the charge was as much as 1 shilling and sixpence. A horse and pair cost an extra shilling.
Central to entertainment in any 19th century Australian town was horse racing and of course, Geelong was no exception. In the earliest days, race meetings were held at various places. The first was at Corio and another very early meet in 1843 was held at the Fyansford Inn (aka The Swan Inn) on the high ground above Fyansford, overlooking the Moorabool and Barwon Rivers.
From this time on, races were held in a variety of places right across the region including a 727 acre site on the Barwon at Marshall Town. Not surprisingly however, this course was subject to flooding and as a result winter events were regularly cancelled. In 1907, the current course in Breakwater became the permanent home for the Geelong Racing Club.
In addition to the race course, there have been and are currently a number of horse studs and training facilities located along the banks of the river. One such is Rosemont Stud at Ceres outside Geelong. Currently owned by media identity Anthony Mithen, Rosemont extends for 2.5km along the banks of the Barwon and runs back up into the Barrabool Hills behind, providing excellent facilities for breeding and training thoroughbreds.
Over the years, Rosemont was also home to the Barwon Valley Pony Club whose tenancy lasted from the early 1960s until 1989 when they moved to Moriac. Throughout this period, the pony club also had associations with another historic property located on the banks of the Barwon - Frogmore at Fyansford.
More renowned for its famous 19th century nursery than its equestrian connections, Frogmore has in recent years, been host not only to pony club competitions but also to polo contests which continue to the present day.
Of course, another renowned stud located on the banks of the Barwon was St. Albans. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it was located in the Geelong suburb which now bears its name and in its day played host to many Melbourne Cup runners including briefly, the legendary PharLap.
St Albans homestead was built in 1873 for the trainer and breeder James Wilson whose horses also had success in the VRC Oaks and Victoria Derby. The area whilst now a suburban development, traces of the stud still remain, including the homestead itself and traces of the race track and trees which were grown as a wind break on the property.

Water trough donated by Annis and George Bills

Naturally, with so many horses, it was necessary to keep them watered and fed. One couple who were particularly concerned for the well being of horses and other animals, were George and Annis Bills who were responsible for many bequests and philanthropic acts during the course of their lives which benefited both man and beast. Both born in England, they met and married in Brisbane in the 1880s then spent time in Echuca and Sydney before retiring to Hawthorn in Melbourne. Annis died in 1910 whilst on a trip to England and then upon the death of George in 1927 a trust fund was set up whose purpose was to:
"..construct and erect and pay for horse troughs wherever they may be of the opinion that such horse troughs are desirable for the relief of horses and other dumb animals either in Australasia, in the British Islands or in any other part of the world subject to the consent of the proper authorities being obtained."
Under this scheme, some 700 odd troughs were installed around the country during the 1930s and up to 50 in other countries. Amazingly enough, quite a number of these lovely old troughs have survived and are still in their original locations. The trough I was hunting today, sits on Fitzroy Street, Geelong in the short section between Sydney Parade and Ryrie Street. It is one of two in Geelong, the other being located at the Geelong Showground in Breakwater.
Each trough was supplied with a backing plate which carried the inscription "Donated by Annis and George Bills Australia". Unfortunately the trough in Fitzroy Street is currently missing its backing plate and does not appear to be in great condition as the concrete is beginning to show signs of erosion.
To continue the connection between horses, the Bills and the Barwon, two other towns located on the river are fortunate enough to have Bills Troughs. One is at Birregurra, in Beal Street. The other is in Winchelsea, located - appropriately enough - outside the Barwon Hotel. With any luck I will remember to snap a photo or two next time I'm passing through.

"...landlord to a ghost..."

Ghosts it seems, have a long association with the Barwon and its surrounds. From the very earliest times, the local indigenous Wathaurong tribes believed in ghosts. The Moorabool River which flows into the Barwon at Fyansford is named for the ghosts which the Wathaurong people believed haunted a large billabong which lay on the river. Moora means ghost in the local dialect. Another local legend suggests that the call of the Curlew - probably the Bush Stone-curlew - was thought to be the voices of ghosts in the night. The Bush Stone-curlew is a nocturnal bird, more often heard than seen. Its long, drawn out "eeeeooooooo" call, especially when coming from multiple birds would be quite eerie and not a little dissimilar to the long drawn out wail of the Currawong which the newly arrived white settlers also believed was the call of ghosts.
In fact, one of the Wathaurong's  earliest contacts with a white settler was they believed, a supernatural encounter. As I have previously described, when they stumbled upon the escaped convict William Buckley, they believed him to be the ghost of a legendary warrior known as Murrangurk.


Barwon Grange, Newtown

With the arrival of European settlers in the area, further tales and traditions of ghostly encounters arose. Not surprisingly, where you have old houses, you tend also to have ghost stories and several of the stately homes upon the Barwon lay claim to ghosts.
Oral tradition has it that Barwon Grange has a female ghost who appears in a long gown. I am not sure who this apparition is supposed to be, but the weatherboard house was built in the Gothic villa style of the early Victorian era in 1855 for Johnathan Porter O'Brien - a wealthy, upper middle class banker, merchant and financier who, with his young family lived in the property for only a year before returning to England, selling off all the property's goods and chattels at auction upon their departure. Subsequently, the house underwent a string of changes in ownership including names such as Chadwick, Mercer, Buckland, Giblin, McCormick, Haimes and Elms before, being handed over to the National Trust in 1970 who undertook a restoration of the property to its original, 1855 decor. There do not appear to be any stories of murder or unnatural death associated with the house which might have given rise to the reports of a ghost sighting, so the at this point the identity of the lady in the long gown remains a mystery.
Along this section of the river are a number of historically  significant homes which were built in the 19th century. Not far upstream is Barwon Bank, built in basalt in the Regency style between 1853 and 1856 for local solicitor John Alexander Gregory. It boasted 18 rooms and a large garden and was considered the finest home in Victoria in its day. I have not come across any suggestion at this point that the property might be haunted.

Barwon Bank

Further upriver at the bottom of Pakington Street is Sladen House. It was built between 1849 and 1850 for the solicitor and later Victorian Premier Charles Sladen. Substantial renovations were undertaken in 1863. The style of the house is Victorian Italianate and like Barwon Bank it is built in basalt. Unlike the former two houses, Sladen House was demolished in 1940 for its materials but then rebuilt according to its original detail at a later date. Again, no ghost stories seem to attend the property.


Looking through the gates of Sladen House

The same can not be said however, for The Heights. One of Geelong's best known historic homesteads, the Heights sits on the corner of Aphrasia and Ruthven Streets at the top of "Joey's Hill" in Newtown overlooking the River. Built in 1855, it consists of 14 rooms and is a pre-fabricated timber house of German origin. The original bluestone stables, built soon after the house was erected, can be seen from the road as you rise from the valley. The house was built for Charles and Mary Anne Ibbotson and their family who occupied it for three succesive generations until 1975 when the National Trust took control of the property. It underwent significant modernization in the 1930s. Like many of Geelong's leading figures of that era, Ibbotson was a pastoralist and woolbroker and fulfilled many other public roles.
It is said that in recent years, the housekeeper reported seeing the ghost of a woman and on another occasion, it was said that the piano was heard to be playing of its own accord. Perhaps Mary Anne - who died in 1882 - or one of the younger Ibbotson women continues to walk through the rooms of this grand old home.
Opposite Barwon Grange on the Belmont side of the river, sits Kardinia House. The initial building was erected in a similar era to the other houses mentioned (1850-1855) by one of Geelong's earliest pioneers - Dr. Alexander Thomson. Thomson was medical officer for the Port Phillip Association as well as a leading churchman and politician. Kardinia house underwent extensive renovation over the years, with major additions made prior to 1869 and changes to the verandah in 1889. As it stands today, the exterior reflects further renovations carried out in 1890 by a local businessman H.F. Richardson, rendering the original facade unrecognisable.

Kardinia House, Belmont

In more recent times, Kardinia House was used as a children's home by the Salvation Army and is now used by Karingal Disability Services to provide an aged care facility. A local resident who lived in the house as the child of staff members describes waking during the night to see an old woman wrapped in a shawl, knitting at the foot of their bed. As they cowered under the covers, the apparition reached out to touch them and then was gone. The same person recalled that there were a number of occasions on which ghostly apparitions were seen in Kardinia House, appearing to the children who lived there and often not seeming as benign as the knitting lady. On one further occasion, the kitchen cupboards were for some unexplained reason emptied of their contents, tipping them all over the room.
Even further upriver, this time near the township of Winchelsea in August, 2009 there was significant media coverage of what was believed to be a photograph of a ghost taken during an evening ghost tour at Barwon Park. The 42 room, bluestone mansion plus stables was built by Thomas and Elizabeth Austin and completed in 1871, the year of Thomas' death.

Barwon Park

Born in England, he arrived in the Port Phillip District from Tasmania in 1837 with his brother James and took up land at Winchelsea. Thomas is credited with the very dubious honour of introducing rabbits to Australia in 1859, but was also a noted pastoralist and horse breeder. He also claimed to have introduced hares, blackbirds, thrushes and partridges.
By the end of his life, Barwon Park extended to some 29,000 acres and after his death Thomas' wife Elizabeth was credited with many charitable works, including the establishment of the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg and Austin Hall and Terraces, located in Yarra Street, South Geelong, only a few blocks from the river. This latter was erected as a home for "educated women in reduced circumstances" and has changed very little to the present day and maintains it's original function.
Barwon Park also remains much as it was in the Austins' day, but is now owned, like many of the properties mentioned, by the National Trust. As mentioned, in August, 2009 during a "ghost tour" of the stables, a photograph was taken which showed the image of a young woman in what appeared to be a low-cut, period dress - the ghost of Elizabeth Austin?
Well, probably not. Some few days after all the media hype, a young woman came forward claiming to be the face in the photo. This, along with other irregularities in the time stamp of the digital photo seem to have put paid to any ghostly claims, however it has been noted over the years, that a moving light can sometimes be seen coming from the window of the bedroom in which Elizabeth Austin died in 1910.
Finally, if we head back downriver as far as the present day Geelong suburb of St. Albans Park, we find the historic homestead of St. Albans, built in 1873 for renowned racehorse breeder and trainer James Wilson. The brick house consists of 30 rooms and was extended first in 1875 and then again three years later. The names of many famous racehorses were associated with the property during the 19th century and the early parts of the 20th century, including the great Phar Lap who was hidden on the property for three days prior to the 1930 Melbourne Cup after an attempt was made on the horse's life.
The property remains in private hands but has been opened to the public at some points. On one such occasion in 2003, the then owner remarked that whilst he had never seen a ghost in the house, he had noticed a number of unexplained occurrences such as mysteriously opening and closing doors. He also indicated that there were reported to be several ghosts associated with the property including a racehorse owner, a vanishing jockey and a lecherous ladies' man in the guest room. Exactly who these characters might be is not explained.
On balance then, it seems that there are a number of "ghosts" making themselves at home in the remnants of of 19th century architecture along the Barwon, however most are reported to be peacful apparitions and gruesome tales of murder and violent death seem to be largely absent. Perhaps, like many of us, these people from a bygone era so enjoyed their lives on the banks of the river that they are unwilling to leave.
No doubt there are many other ghost stories associated with the Barwon and its surrounds. These are just a few...