Bricks and Mortar

Trying to connect the topic of this post to the Barwon River is drawing a rather long bow, however I though it interesting enough to include anyway. So here goes:
A recent geocache hunt took me to Limeburners' Point where the remains of five lime kilns can still be seen so of course I snapped a few photos and did some research.

Remains of lime burning kiln at Limeburners' Point, East
Geelong

One of the earliest and most important industries to develop in the Geelong region was the production of lime which was in high demand by the building trade where it was used in the production of mortar, cement, plaster and stucco amongst other things. Lime production on the site is believed to date back to 1838 and the earliest days of European settlement in the region when limestone was quarried nearby and burnt in kilns on the western side of the point. Seashells were also collected and used in production. This site was no doubt chosen for the availability of limestone which was found in the cliffs, in the limestone gravel of the beach and in the shells which collected there. 
The limestone in the cliff face which is believed to be between 65 and 3 million years old was covered by a layer of clay, deposited in a later period. Other limestone deposits in the region are believed to have formed around 20 - 35 million years ago during the Oligocene-Miocene periods, when changing sea levels lead deposits of shells to form along shorelines which no longer exist. I wasn't able to discover how the deposit at Limeburners' Point relates geologically to these other deposits at places like Waurn Ponds, Fyansford and Batesford.
During the peak of operations at Limeburners' Point, the kilns operated day and night, burning timber which was hauled in on drays. Alternating layers of timber and limestone were fed into a funnel-like chimney at the top of the kilns which were stone and brick structures built into the cliff face. The contents were burnt, then the lime rendered by this process was collected from the chamber at the bottom of the chimney, bagged and carted away.

Remains of a bluestone quarry on the Barwon River

Initially owned by Messrs Taylor and Bourchier, the kilns were purchased in 1852 by George Cakebread from Caleb Joshua Jenner. Sources appear to differ on when the surviving kilns were built, however it would seem that these kilns date only to the 1860s or 70s. There are also the remains of a powder magazine at the site which dates back to 1854.
So important to the early building industry of the region was Cakebread's lime (the only other source of lime at that time was Point Nepean Peninsula) that it was shipped all over the Western District. I would imagine therefore that many of the significant homesteads of the region were built from rock quarried from basalt deposits along the Barwon and held together with mortar made using lime from the shores of Corio Bay.
One such example is Sladen House, Newtown which was built in 1849 with basalt taken from Melville's Quarry on the river at the bottom end of Noble Street. The first to do so.

Sladen House

Quite a number of quarries operated in this area: on West Fyans Street either side of Shannon Avenue, at Windmill Reserve overlooking Queen's Park and also near the end of Camden Road. All tapped into the deposits of basalt along the Barwon Valley, providing stone for local churches such as the Wesleyan Church in Noble Street, houses and even the Geelong-Queenscliff railway line.
Another example perhaps is the privately owned Barwon Bank in Riversdale Road, Newtown which was constructed between 1853 and 1856 from - I assume local - basalt, trimmed with freestone from the Barrabool Hills. Likewise, Barwon Park Mansion at Winchelsea is also built from basalt.
In addition to these buildings, Barwon Grange, Kardinia House and St. Albans Homestead along the banks of the Barwon are all brick, or stone and brick, structures built between 1850 and 1875 which presumably used Cakebread's lime.
Despite this overwhelming need for lime, pressure from tourist interests at nearby Eastern Beach soon saw the lime burning process forced to move to the eastern side of Limeburners' Point where these remaining kilns are situated. Production was not affected by the move and reached a peak in the 1870s, however nothing lasts forever and by 1875, another lime-burning operation located on the opposite side of Corio Bay at Duckponds (near Lara) was producing a superior quality lime. By the 1880s only one of the kilns at Limeburners' Point remained in operation and profits had dropped ten-fold.

Barwon Bank

The new producers had set up their kilns on the shores of the small lagoon into which Hovell's Creek empties. Somewhat confusingly, this is now known as Limeburners' Bay. At that time however, the entrance to the lagoon was known as  Limeburners' Point, with the site which is known by that name today, instead called Galena Point.
It is also worth mentioning that Duckponds and Limeburner's Point weren't the only source of Limestone in the region. The deposit near Waurn Ponds - an extension of which reaches to the Barwon where it forms the Belmont Escarpment - is still being quarried to make cement by Blue Circle Southern Cement Ltd. The stone is also used for monument-making purposes by various stonemasons in the region.
Historically, it seems that quarrying took place at Waurn Ponds as early as the 1840s, however it was probably only used for building purposes at this time. It was not until the 1880s when production at Limeburner's Point was in decline that kilns were built at Waurn Ponds and lime production began.
A little later, in 1890, the cement works at Fyansford commenced operation. The lime to supply these works was quarried about 5.6km away at Batesford from the Miocene era deposit which was found there in 1888. The rock was crushed on site and then transferred to the works at Fyansford first by a ropeworks and then by rail. With the opening of a new quarry in 1931, stone was loaded straight onto trucks and then taken to the works by rail for crushing. This open cut quarry is still in use today, despite the closure of the cement works.
Further research has just shown me that there was almost a very direct link between lime production in Geelong and the Barwon River. In the early 20th century the Fyansford Cement Works needed to get their product to the rail lines which would take it to Melbourne. Before the route from North Geelong to Herne Hill was eventually chosen, two other options were put forward. One was a railway line running from South Geelong through Newtown and Chilwell and then along what would become Deviation Road, whilst the other involved a siding running from South Geelong Station to the Barwon River and a wharf at Yarra Street. A second wharf upstream at Fyansford would be serviced by an aerial ropeway from the cement works. This plan however was overlooked in favour of the branch line from North Geelong.

"...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...