1. business and industrial
2. agriculture and forestry
3. farms and ranches

James Walden
(1831-1934)
A N E A R LY AU S T R A L IA N M E R C HA N T
A N D H I S FA M I LY
by
N I C H AYG A R T H
© Nic Haygarth and Janferie Hirst 2015
!
Contents
!
Introduction
PAG E
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Chapter 1:
James Walden and his journey to Launceston: 1831–c1878 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
To Launceston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Tanner, fellmonger and merchant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Bass Strait trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Chapter 2:
Business success and family tragedy: c1879–1895. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Life at Beauty Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The saga of the Moores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The early death of Emily Walden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The skin trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 3:
The centenarian and sons and daughters: c1896–1934 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The Reeds at Frankford and Latrobe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The ‘black sheep’ of the family: Eustace Walden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Martinet with the looks of a matinee Idol: Fred Walden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
FW Moore, Henry Jones and IXL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The end of the family business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
‘A great Tasmanian’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
A century and more: the final busy years of James Walden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 4:
The Waldens after James: 1935 to present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Growing up in Launceston between the wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The return of Eustace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Waldens through the war years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Struggle in the post-war backblocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The Waldens in post-war England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
From Beauty Park to Treffos to Norwood House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Compiling the Walden family history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Genealogy Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
Index
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146
! PAG E 1 !
!
Introduction
!
T
his is the story of James and Jane Walden and their descendants. James and Jane were 19th-century
British immigrants to Australia, eventually settling in Launceston. Much of this story also concerns
the greater British family—the British Empire—and movements within that family, especially between
Britain and Australia. Just as the Walden family branched out from Britain to the antipodes and back
again, trade developed between the one-time homeland and colony. James Walden, a merchant who dealt
in animal skins and grain, and his son-in-law FW Moore engaged in the import/export business. As they
did so and after their time, some of James and Jane’s descendants divided their days between Australia
and Britain as a counterpoint to these business exchanges. Others lived their whole lives in Britain.
Much of the story is about James Walden himself. We know a little of his character, including his
philosophy. He vowed ‘Omnia vincit’: ’If there is no way I make one’. He owned a mustard spoon made
from silver ‘holey dollars’, believed to have been obtained in payment of a debt. On its handle was the
motto ‘Deus haec otia fecit’ (‘God hath given this tranquillity’). He celebrated his thrift: ‘Thrift,’ he said,
‘should be the watchword, if you want to make a success.’1 People sought the secret of his success, and
as an old man he obliged with a homily:
Yes, I have made a success in the business of life. When I look back to the time when I was penniless in
Victoria, and to my present affluence, I have much to be thankful for. When I got on my feet, I made a
resolve to put away, not all at once but gradually, absolute savings representing £500 per year as from the
year of my birth, and I have done so. But the credit is not alone due to myself, but to the helpful assistance
of my former and my present wife.2
A success in the business of life! This big claim implies more than financial success, but success in
personal relationships and in a code of ethics which would have underwritten his financial affairs. There
are many homilies about how his Launceston contemporaries, the builders John and Thomas Gunn,
set an example for their workforce and how they engendered a fierce loyalty in these employees. For
instance, it was said that in one of his early days Thomas Gunn pushed a cart with tools and materials
about 10 kilometres, built a chimney, and then pushed the cart back to base.3 While it is impossible to
be definite about the loyalty of Gunns’ workers, it is true that their company J&T Gunn had many long
serving employees. Two of them topped 50 years of service. One was French polisher George Cust,
who, after debuting on the Bank of Australasia job in 1884, easily outlasted the company’s founding
brothers.4 Gunns’ poster boy, however, was Albert McCormack, who was reputedly taken on as their
first apprentice in 1876 and retired in 1928 after 51 years continuous work with the company.5
Nothing similar has been passed down about James Walden’s business practices. We know about his
generosity and, perhaps, his eye for justice or sense of irony: he gave a parcel of flounders as an act of
gratitude for a minor favour, but in counterpoint, once gave only a bag of bananas as a farewell gift
to a long-serving employee.6 We do not know what his reputation was in the Launceston business
community or what his employees thought of him.
The reason that we know less about James’ organisational culture than we know about the Gunns’
could simply be a matter of their different lines of work. Gunns’ work remains part of Launceston’s
Victorian skyline. They built edifices that will last for centuries, they changed the streetscape, work that
built immense pride in those who participated in it. Gunns brought together top tradesmen, architects,
1
2
3
4
5
6
‘Nearing his century’, Mercury, 22 May 1930, p.7.
‘Nearing his century’, Mercury, 22 May 1930, p.7.
Alf Milner interview by Dennis Hodgkinson, CH39 12/7 (QVMAG, Launceston).
Cust also polished the figured blackwood which featured in the interior of the Commercial Bank in 1887. See Interview with Vaughan
Ratcliffe by Dennis Hodgkinson 7 February 1976, CH39 12/7, p.182 (QVMAG).
Interview with Tom Stephenson by Dennis Hodgkinson, CH39 12/7, p.133 (QVMAG). A bricklayer named Dickie Lindon also claimed to be
Gunns’ first apprentice (Arthur G Taylor to John Gunn, 17 May 1975, CH39 12/7, p.193, QVMAG).
Whitesides to James Walden 23 June 1930, held by Janferie Hirst; information from John Easton.
! PAG E 2 !
masons and sculptors. James’ furs disappeared into European coat linings. No tangible signs of his
business remain in Launceston, and that city’s fellmongers, storemen and skin buyers have not been
well documented.
We know more about James’ behaviour outside the realm of business. At times he was generous. He
imported a piano for his daughter-in-law Maura Walden and supported four of his six children during
the Great Depression. However, we also know that, like many a proud and anxious father, he interfered
in his daughters’ love lives.7 Family legend has it that he ruined his eldest daughter Amy’s chances
of marriage and thwarted her love of singing.8 Many Victorian patriarchs probably protected their
daughters against poor providers and/or social inferiors—and no doubt regarded this as a moral duty.
We may never know the facts—if there are any—of James’ intervention in Amy’s singing career, but it
may have been a similar case of patriarchal duty.
Inevitably, local legends developed about James Walden. Geoff Widdowson recalled how as a child
he spent Saturday afternoons digging the ground behind the former Walden store in Charles Street,
Launceston for a bag of gold that James ‘Lamby’ (a nickname which presumably reflected his dealings
with wool and sheep skins) Walden was said to have buried there. The search was a failure.9 James was
neither the first nor the last enterprising man to inspire a buried gold story.
Another legend is harder to fathom. Dennis Hodgkinson quoted ‘Old Kirk’ historian Veda Edwards’
description of James Walden, who ‘wore a top hat over grey curls, a long coat and many diamond
rings’. Hodgkinson also wrote: ‘He is remembered as a striking figure who rode a tricycle with very
large wheels through the centre of Launceston.’10 Ina Walden, James’ granddaughter, dispelled some
mythology:
He wore one ring on his left little finger—he despised bicycles or tricycles preferring to walk or use a
horse drawn carriage. Later a motor car. I have heard him called ‘Lamby’ twice in my life and both times
by disgruntled persons of no consequence.11
With his great longevity and wealth, which was dispersed among his family, James Walden dominates
the story of those descended from him. Even when his Launceston house Beauty Park was sold in
1960, some of his descendants continued to enjoy the benefits of his estate. It was inevitable that other
members of James’ family would be overshadowed by him in the written record from which histories
like this one are mostly derived.
However, there are fascinating stories about those who followed James, including FW Moore’s success
selling Tasmanian fruit and jam in Britain; the work of James’ granddaughter Mona Potterton as a
governess for novelist Ian Fleming; and, above all, the half-revealed life or lives of the furtive Eustace
Walden, James’ eighth child.
Large gaps in the records must acknowledged. In particular, the lives of the Walden women are poorly
documented. For instance, we know very little about Amy Walden, who never married and lived in
domesticity, and little about her sister Emily other than her controversial early demise. We can only
speculate about how they lived and only guess at their characters. There are also large gaps in the
collected knowledge of the Reed family descended from Emily Walden and her husband Arthur Crookes
Reed. The account given here of the Reed descendants is superficial at best. Hopefully, it will prompt
further research, leading to a complete account in the future. The emphasis in the present volume is on
the other branches of James and Jane Walden’s family, and the knowledge we do have is documented
here in an effort to capture the richness of their lineage and heritage.
The author acknowledges the work of Janferie Hirst, John Easton, Pat Woolley, Anne Radband, Prue
Gore, Patricia Tippett, Carol Kennedy, the Simmiss family and Simone Murphy in bringing this project
to fruition. A full list of contributors is contained in the final section of the book, ‘Compiling the Walden
family history’.
7
8
9
10
11
Notes written by Mary Hanwell.
Notes written by Mary Hanwell.
Dennis Hodgkinson, ‘New role for Old Kirk’, Northern Scene, 17 December 1980, pp.8 and 14.
Dennis Hodgkinson, ‘New role for Old Kirk’, Northern Scene, 17 December 1980, pp.8 and 14.
Ina Walden to Dennis Hodgkinson 8 May 1982, letter held by Janferie Hirst.
! PAG E 3 !
Chapter 1
!
James Walden and his journey to Launceston: 1831–c1878
T
he known facts of James Walden’s life begin with his birth in London to Joseph and Amey Walden.
His father Joseph Walden was born in 1787. By 1826 Joseph had married a second time, to Amey
Robertson, who had previously married William Holburn in 1811.12 According to his marriage record,
in 1826 Joseph Walden was a revenue officer, but 1829 and 1843 records describe him as a customs
officer at St Katherines Dock, London.13
James Walden’s brother William and sister Sophia.
COURTESY OF JOHN EASTON.
James Walden was born on 23 June 1831 at Bread Street, not far from St Paul’s Cathedral in London.14
A sister, Jane Walden, born to Joseph and Amey Walden, was christened in 1836, but lived only three
years.15 He also had a sister, Sophia Walden, plus brothers George Robertson Walden, William Walden
and John Hansell Walden, plus a possible brother called Thomas.16 When asked late in life for his earliest
memory, James responded that it was a prophecy that ‘London Bridge would be a river of blood from a
revolution’, one which did not come to pass.17 He also recalled attending a Wesleyan Sunday school in
London. This instilled in him a reverence for God. He was told, ‘My boy, God loves you’.18
At 14 James was articled to leather manufacturers and exporters Learmonth and Roberts, setting him
on his career path. In 1846 the company was located at 24 Bride Lane, Fleet Street, and Pages Walk,
Bermondsey.19 After completing his indentures, Walden carried on business in London, but on finding
12 Marriage record for William Holburn and Amy Roberts. In 1826 An Amey W[a]lden witnessed the baptism of Eleanor Snellgrove, born at
40 Flint Street, Newington.
13 Email from Anne Radband 13 October 2013.
14 ‘Obituary: Mr James Walden’, Mercury, 14 November 1934, p.5.
15 Research by Anne Radband.
16 Research by Anne Radband.
17 'In 104th year’, Examiner, 14 November 1934, p.6.
18 ‘Church opened’, Examiner, 21 March 1932, p.5.
19 Notes by Janferie Hirst.
! PAG E 4 !
that he lacked the funds to establish a suitable manufacturing plant he decided, like countless thousands
before him, to try his fortune in the gold rush colonies of Australia.20 As a 22-year-old, he sailed from
Liverpool on the Neleus on 5 October 1853, passengers paying £7 15s for the voyage. At midnight on the
23 December 1853 the Neleus approached Port Phillip Heads in the gold rush colony of Victoria. Here
the ship nearly came to grief:
through keeping too long on her course and getting amongst the breakers. The vessel was saved, when
apparently doomed, by a land breeze springing up in the nick of time, and in the morning the good
ship entered the Heads, passing the remains of several grim-looking wrecks—a forcible reminder of the
danger they had passed.21
The Neleus docked without further drama. A year earlier, Hobsons Bay had resembled a ‘forest of dry
standing trees with innumerable masts of ships, stripped of their canvas, most of them deserted by their
crews …’ 22 Gold fever had then reigned supreme, but now things were changing.
James earned his first shilling by helping a ship chandler to tow a mast to a vessel.23 He soon found
that the colony of Victoria was already overstocked with the manufactured leathers he had intended to
produce.24 With fellow English immigrant friends living at Geelong, he decided instead to try his hand
on the goldfields by walking to Ballarat.25
By this time the great alluvial deposits that had sparked the Victorian gold rushes were beginning to
be worked out. Economic depression was sweeping the colony. An influx of Chinese diggers deepened
the discontent already fomenting in the gold-bearing gullies. There were plenty of other cultures and
accents to dazzle a young Englishman: Germans, Americans as well as the more familiar Irish and
Cornish. Less welcome were the ex-convicts and ticket-of-leave absconders from Van Diemen’s Land.
At Ballarat there were three distinct ‘Vandiemonian’ fraternities, camped well away from the police,
and who preyed upon lone diggers at night, threatening lives as well as livelihoods as they looted their
tents.26
James later recalled Pinchgut Gully, Starvation Point and Mount Misery, names which were probably
emblematic of his experience as a digger at Ballarat. For many, gold fever was distilled into a daily
routine of sweat, mutton and mud, guarding his claim, and scraping together enough specks in a bag
to cover the digger’s bugbear, the gold licence fee, that is, if he had a licence. Many people resented
travelling across the world to see the results of their industry dissipated by an oppressive tax which
brought none of the commensurate facilities such as roads, post offices and an efficient police force.27
According to Geoffrey Serle, the licence question, the conduct of police and the growing poverty of the
diggers were the major grievances which came to a head at the Eureka Stockade in 1854, with exclusion
from land ownership and absence of political rights being lesser issues.28 Walden was in Ballarat at the
time of this pitched battle:
Although actually taking no part in the disturbance that was going on, perhaps owing to not striking
anything to arouse enthusiasm, we were admirers of the stand taken by Peter Lalor and his compatriots.
It seemed such an injustice to hound down the diggers in the way the authorities were doing, for their
licences … A familiar cry on the approach of the police was ‘Joe’, and the diggers would disappear, at the
call, into their holes like rabbits.29
James Walden entry, Cyclopedia of Tasmania, Maitland & Krone, Hobart, 1900, vol.2, p.329.
James Walden entry, Cyclopedia of Tasmania, vol.2, p.329.
James Fenton, Bush Life in Tasmania Fifty Years Ago, Regal Press, Launceston, undated (originally published 1891), p.158.
‘Passed the century’, Mercury, 23 June 1931, p.5.
James Walden entry, Cyclopedia of Tasmania, vol.2, p.329.
‘Passed the century’, Mercury, 23 June 1931, p.5.
James ‘Philosopher’ Smith, notes on the Victorian goldfields, NS234/14/7 (Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office).
Bruce Kent, ‘Agitators on the Victorian gold fields, 1851–4: an interpretation’, Historical Studies Australia and New Zealand, vol.6, no.23,
November 1956, pp.270–71.
28 Geoffrey Serle, ‘The causes of Eureka’, Historical Studies Australia and New Zealand, vol.6, no.23, November 1956, p.20.
29 ‘Nearing his century’, Mercury, 22 May 1930, p.7.
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
! PAG E 5 !
Like many attracted to the goldfields, James found that digging was not his forté, and tried his hand at
the support industries. Homilies of graft and enterprise abound in accounts of James’ long life, and this
was one of his favourites. Departing from Ballarat with the penniless diggers, he secured a job at Stoney
Rises near Meredith, working as a cook for a road-building gang:
Cooking damper came somewhat easy, as I had had already some experience, but when I was told to
kill and dress a sheep, as meat in the camp was running out, I had some qualms. But I got through it.
Subsequently my job was raised to that of storeman, and when the contract finished I had saved £100.30
James returned to Melbourne with this nest egg and, of course, ‘never looked back’. He worked as a
commercial traveller, ‘the privilege being extended to buying and selling on my own account’. Thus he
was able to set up his own business while working for another.
In 1858 he secured a mate for the term of her natural life. Nineteen-year-old Jane McIlroy had arrived
in Melbourne almost three months before James, on 3 October 1853 on the vessel Charles, also from
Liverpool. The child of clerk John McIlroy and Rachel Watt, she was born in County Armagh, Ireland.31
As an assisted immigrant she went to work for a Mrs James of St Kilda, for 1 month on £25 per annum.32
How she became acquainted with James Walden is unknown, but five years later the 24-year-old
Presbyterian married the 26-year-old Anglican at the manse of Chalmers Church, Melbourne. James
designated himself a leather manufacturer, so perhaps he had now reverted to his original business
plan.33 Shortly after their marriage, perhaps as a honeymoon, the couple took a holiday in Tasmania:
We ‘did’ Mount Wellington, and stayed at what I believe [in 1930] is still known as the ‘hut’. But, at all
events, in wandering around we got bushed [lost]. Fortunately, it was at the height of summer: but still,
spending many hours endeavouring to make our way back, was not at all pleasant. Our lengthy absence
caused some alarm, and searchers set out. But in the meantime we managed to find our way back. 34
He and Jane had four children in Fitzroy, Victoria in the years 1860 to 1865, Amy Rachael (1860), Emily
Holbourne (1861), Janet Handsel (1864) and Frederick James Walden (1865).35 The first-born girl Amy
Rachael appears to have shared her two grandmothers’ names. Emily’s second name Holbourne probably
also recalled grandmother Amey Holburn or grandfather William Holburn, while Janet’s second name
Handsel recalled her uncle John Hansell Walden or an earlier descendant named Handsel or Hansell.36
James later claimed to have started a successful financial, produce and commission agency on his return
to Melbourne after his honeymoon. He also recalled an escape from financial disaster in Victoria ‘when
a bank … put up its shutters, and I found out in time to get my money out. A little cherub aloft must have
been watching over me’.37 This may refer to James’ time as a dairyman, which is the father’s occupation
stipulated on Frederick James Walden’s 1865 birth record.38 In 1858 George Stacey, of Ivanhoe and
Richmond Dairies, placed a newspaper advertisement warning that James Walden was no longer in his
service and never had any connection as a partner in that business.39 In 1868 James Walden was still
involved in the milk trade in Victoria.40
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
‘Nearing his century’, Mercury, 22 May 1930, p.7.
Research by Patricia Tippett.
Research by Patricia Tippett.
Victorian marriage register no.888/1859.
‘Nearing his century’, Mercury, 22 May 1930, p.7.
Amy Rachael Walden birth registration 1121/1860; Emily Holbourne Walden birth registration 11769/1861; Jeanette [Janet] Hansell Walden
birth registration 4542/1864; Frederick James Walden birth registration 7892/1865.
According to Anne Radband, Sophie Neale (née Walden), James Walden’s sister, also named one of her children Hansell.
‘Mr James Walden’, Examiner, 23 June 1931, p.3.
Email from Pat Woolley 14 November 2013.
Advert, Argus, 25 October 1858, p.7.
See, for example, ‘Meeting of the milk trade’, Argus, 22 May 1868, p.5.
! PAG E 6 !
TO L AU N C E STON
Yet, clearly, in 1869 the Walden family was in the process of relocating in Launceston. Newspaper
records suggest that James and Jane Walden were living in Brisbane Street, Launceston, by March 1869,
when an advertisement requested ‘a useful girl’, that is, a housemaid.41 On 19 June 1869 the Launceston
Examiner announced that the wife of James Walden had given birth to a son, ‘both doing well (late
of Melbourne)’.42 This was their fifth child, the ill-fated Walwin Walden, who would live only eight
months. Other newspaper advertisements of the time make it clear that it was not simply a case of Jane
seeking confinement in a kinder climate, that is, that the family had decided to relocate permanently in
Launceston. On 30 March 1869 James Walden of Brisbane Street, Launceston, advertised himself as a
buyer of wheat, oats and other produce.43
In October 1869 he began to advertise as a money lender, and in November he placed himself in local
politics by joining a petition for the renomination of Launceston Municipal Alderman William Hart.44
Why move to Launceston in 1869? From a social and economic viewpoint, it made no sense. The stigma
of convictism remained strong in Van Diemen’s Land after transportation of convicts from Britain
ceased in 1853.45 Van Diemen’s Land became known as Tasmania in 1855. Although Tasmania achieved
self-government in the following year, the oppressive Master and Servant Act (1856) seemed like an
attempt to continue the oppression of the convicts and ex-convicts by free settlers. The legislation
favoured employers like James Walden who could threaten employees with a week in gaol virtually
on a whim. Unauthorised absences, leaving a position without an employers’ permission, insolence,
avoiding work and disobedience were all punishable.
Yet, while it might have been burdened by the stigma of convictism, Launceston had been central
to the fight to banish the transportation of convicts to the colony. Launceston’s independent spirit
was characterised by its ‘dissenting’ Protestant leaders who had led the Anti-Transportation League.
The Dissenters’ charter of personal accountability, individual usefulness and initiative helped make
Launceston not only Tasmania’s commercial hub, but, according to Patricia Ratcliff, the ‘cradle of
Australian nationalism’.46
James Walden attended various Protestant churches during his life. Like John and Thomas Gunn of the
Launceston building firm J&T Gunn, he may have ended up a Presbyterian, sharing his wife’s faith. He
was not a Dissenter, but he seems to have shared their independent spirit. Having visited the colony of
Tasmania, James and Jane Walden must have had an idea of its climate. Indeed, James cited Tasmania’s
healthier climate as the reason for the move, since his wife was suffering poor health in Melbourne.47
Was this a conceit designed to hide a less palatable reason like a family scandal or a financial setback,
which demanded a fresh start somewhere else? After all, we know he had a scrape with disaster in
Victoria.48 Such an occurrence might account for what otherwise seems like economic folly, especially
for an astute businessman like James Walden. Tasmania was in the economic doldrums in the period
1858–72.49 While it is possible that he saw a big future in the Bass Strait skin and guano trade, and
considered Launceston closer to the action, as a Melbourne businessman he would have been well
aware that Victorian tariffs were helping to cripple Tasmanian exports.
41 See advertisements in the Launceston Examiner, 2 March 1869, p.3 and 6 April, p.3.
42 ‘Births’, Launceston Examiner, 19 June 1869, p.1.
43 ‘Produce &c’, Launceston Examiner, 30 March 1869, p.1. 44 ‘Money to lend’, Launceston Examiner, 7 October 1869, p.1; ‘William Hart, Esq’,
Launceston Examiner, 30 November 1869, p.4.
45 Henry Reynolds, “’That hated stain”: the aftermath of transportation in Tasmania’, Historical Studies Australia and New Zealand, vol.14, no.53,
October 1969, pp.19-31.
46 See Patricia Fitzgerald Ratcliff, The Usefulness of John West: Dissent and Difference in the Australian Colonies, Albernian Press, Launceston,
2003, pp.409+.
47 ‘Passed the century’, Mercury, 23 June 1931, p.5.
48 ‘Mr James Walden’, Examiner, 23 June 1931, p.3.
49 WA Townsley, ‘Tasmania and the great economic depression, 1858–1872’, Papers and Proceedings of the Tasmanian Historical Research
Association, vol.4, no.2, July 1955, pp.35–46.
! PAG E 7 !
The story of Jane’s poor health may well be true. It has been passed down through the family that Jane
suffered a mental illness that kept her confined to her room for many years in Launceston. It would not
have helped her psychological state that her first child born in Launceston, Walwin, died in February
1870.50 That wasn’t the only drama with children. In about 1869 or 1870 Janet appears to have been
saved from drowning at a picnic by F Hunter of Campbell Town.51 The Waldens probably completed
their resettlement in Launceston in April 1870, when James auctioned their remaining possessions in
Melbourne, while announcing that he was ‘leaving for Tasmania’.52 The family is said to have brought
some signs of affluence with them to Launceston, including a carriage and a piano.
Not many Tasmanians had such possessions. In 1870 the colony’s exports were valued at barely one-third
of their 1853 figure. The timber industry had collapsed. Blight, rust, mainland tariffs, competition and
overcropping had depleted the agricultural sector, and gold and coal mining were at an ebb.53 Some
believed that Tasmania’s only chance of survival was annexation by the larger colony of Victoria, across
Bass Strait. From 1871 to 1875 Tasmania’s population declined.54
These conditions had not stifled technological change. The colony now had its first iron bridge (across
the South Esk River at Cataract Gorge), manufactured not locally but in Manchester, England and
shipped to Tasmania in pieces.55 In 1869 a new Bass Strait cable replaced the unsuccessful 1859 one,
improving telegraphic communication with the mainland Australian colonies.56 In 1872 Tasmania was
connected by wire to Europe, and the inaugural Weekly Examiner newspaper appeared. Later known as
The Tasmanian, this would be Tasmania’s first newspaper illustrated by photo-zincography.57
The railway era also dawned in 1871.58 Railways facilitated the movement of goods and people and thus
enabled business expansion. Construction of the Launceston and Western Railway also employed large
numbers of men, but it came at considerable cost, with a regional dispute with the colonial government
over its funding.59
TA N N E R , F E L L M ONG E R A N D M E RC HA N T
We have seen that James Walden started a produce exporting business in Launceston, to which he
added a finance—that is, pawn-broking—business. By June 1870, when he advertised himself in
both capacities, offering to lend money against ‘any tangible security’, as well as requesting hides and
sheepskins, the Walden family was living on Elphin Road near the Lyttleton Street corner.60
James probably had trade connections in Launceston before he arrived there. Hardware merchant
William Hart, whom he had championed as an alderman, may have been one of them. Hart soon repaid
the favour James had done him by signing the petition. James had already been granted a tanning licence
to operate in Launceston, but he had no premises.61 Discovering that an old brickworks in a paddock at
the end of Erina Lane was available, he reached an agreement with the land owner, Arthur Horne, and
told Hart that he (James) was in a quandary, having received a large quantity of wet hides that were in
danger of spoiling unless they were processed immediately. Hart took James’ application for temporary
50 Walwin Walden born 17 June 1869, birth registration 33/2324; ‘Births’, Launceston Examiner, 19 June 1869, p.2. He died (as Walurie Walden)
27 February 1870, death registration 35/1147; ‘Deaths’, Launceston Examiner, 1 March 1870, p.2.
51 ‘Providential escape from drowning’, Launceston Examiner, 24 January 1874, p.5.
52 See advertisement Argus, 18 and 19 April 1870, p.3.
53 For the agricultural situation, see HJW Stokes, North-West Tasmania 1858–1910: the Establishment of an Agricultural Community, PhD thesis,
Australian National University, Canberra, 1969, pp.68–70.
54 Statistics of Tasmania for relevant years.
55 Henry Button, Flotsam and Jetsam: Floating Fragments of Life in England and Tasmania, AW Birchall & Sons, Launceston, 1909, p.253.
56 Henry Button, Flotsam and Jetsam, pp.290–91.
57 Henry Button, Flotsam and Jetsam, pp.292 and 316.
58 Cyclopedia of Tasmania, vol.2, p.20.
59 LL Robson and Michael Roe, A Short History of Tasmania, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1997, p.37; Cyclopedia of Tasmania,
vol.2, pp.18–19.
60 ‘Money to lend’, Cornwall Chronicle, 1 June 1870, p.1.
61 ‘Official notices’, Launceston Examiner, 17 February 1870, p.1.
! PAG E 8 !
permission to operate a fellmongery (a fellmonger is someone who reduces animal carcasses for the
production of tallow, glue, tanned hides or for other purposes) to the next council meeting in July 1870.
‘The memorialist’, Hart told his fellow councillors, ‘purposes carrying on the fellmongery business,
instead of, as heretofore, sending the said staple commodity [the hides] to be worked by Victorian labor
[sic] …’62 The patriotic appeal to Tasmanian enterprise worked, and James took up business.
By October 1871 James Walden was buying produce on liberal terms at 10 Elizabeth Street.
FROM THE LAUNCESTON EXAMINER, 10 OCTOBER 1871, P.1.
However, Erina Lane was only a staging post. In December 1870 James was still not permanently
established, as he was buying skins at the store of William Dean in Patterson Street.63 In August 1871 the
reality of how James’ lending scheme worked was apparent when he auctioned the mortgaged Cleveland
property of Frederic Wallen which had been used as security on his loan.64 In June of that year James
and family left what may have been a rented house in Elphin Road, perhaps moving to his new business
premises at 10 Elizabeth Street.65 He was based at Elizabeth Street, where he presumably operated both
a shopfront/office and a fellmongery, until at least March 1874.66
Sawmills, fellmongeries and other factories were coming under increased environmental scrutiny.
Stefan Petrow has described how outbreaks of disease prompted the introduction of laws to improve
public health in Victorian-era Tasmania.67 While sanitation was the main concern, sawmills, tanneries
and factories also poisoned air and water. Section 184 of the Police Act (1865) gave municipal councils
control of ‘all things necessary for effectuating [sic] the health and improvement of Towns’ [sic]. The Act
specified nuisances such as hogsties, slaughter-houses, blood and bone-boilers and melters of tallow or
fat. Section 4 of the Launceston Offensive or Noxious Trade or Business Act (1874) added fellmongers,
tanners, parchment-makers, soap and tripe-boilers ‘and any other like business offensive or noxious’,
which it simply required to locate more than 40 feet (about 12 metres) from any public way and more
than 50 feet (about 15 metres) from residences. The discharges of tanneries and fellmongeries were
often blamed for outbreaks of disease.
62
63
64
65
66
67
‘Municipal council’, Cornwall Chronicle, 16 July 1870, p.3.
Advert, Launceston Examiner, 27 December 1870, p.1.
Advert, Launceston Examiner, 12 August 1871, p.7.
Advert, Launceston Examiner, 1 June 1871, p.4.
Advert, Launceston Examiner, 10 February 1872, p.1.
Stefan Petrow, Sanatorium of the South?: Public Health and Politics in Hobart and Launceston 1875–1914, Tasmanian Historical Research
Association, Hobart, 1995.
! PAG E 9 !
Miranda Morris-Nunn and CB Tassell’s description of William Turner’s Launceston tannery contains
the fundamentals of the business as it would have been operated by James Walden:
On arrival at the tannery, pelts and sheepskins were soaked in barrels containing lime and water which
rendered the skin pliant and allowed for the easy removal of the wool. The skin was then stretched on a
‘beam’ and the wool shaved off in an outward and downward motion with a scraper. The wool was washed
and placed in a hydro extractor, a huge iron cauldron revolving around a smaller one, and then packed
into bales for export. Hides were steeped in larger, cemented pits of lime before being scraped and the
hair from these with other waste was later converted into manure. The hairless hides were turned over
and the fat and meat removed with a double handed knife.
Tannic acid for tanning was extracted from wattle bark. The monotonous, back-breaking work of wattle
bark stripping was conducted during the spring and summer for both the local and the export (English)
market, with long black wattle being regarded as the best producer of tannin. Teams of strippers armed
with tomahawks climbed wattle trees, cutting and tearing the bark from the trunk and branches, and
tying the bark into bundles on the ground.68 Specialist bark mills existed, but James may also have
bought bundled wattle bark from strippers or from intermediaries, such as storekeepers, milling the
bark themselves. The bark was cut, then chopped and ground by horse-driven machinery, to which
workers were dangerously exposed just as they were in sawmilling and mineral crushing plants of the day.
The hairless animal hides would have been:
hung from iron bars in the cemented pits containing tannin … They gradually moved from pit to pit
in ever stronger solutions over a period of four to five months. The thicker leather, to be used for soles,
was then hung in a drying loft before being squeezed through massive brass rollers, and sent to market.
Thinner leather, to be prepared as ‘kips’, were steeped in a ‘bate’, a pit containing fowl manure and water,
before being rolled like the sole leather. In the curriers’ workshop this leather was further oiled and rolled
until the desirable degree of pliability, fineness and water resistance was obtained.69
By 1873, when James and other burgesses petitioned the Launceston Council to borrow money to repair
the streets and drains, he appears to have been well entrenched in the Launceston business community.70
Shipping reports from 1870 to 1873 show James receiving wool, potatoes, grain, hides, sheep skins and
kangaroo skins from north-western ports such as Port Sorell and Wynyard. Table 1, covering the same
period, shows that at first James confined himself to exporting to Victoria, where he would have had
business contacts. Wool, sheep skins, green hides and other livestock products were the basis of his
inter-colonial trade, yet he also experimented with honey and seal skins. In 1871 James exported wheat,
bran, oats and other cereal products, but Tasmanian grain exports to Victoria then stalled because of
poor harvests, ruinous prices, mainland competition and the latter colony’s import tariffs.71
Launceston merchants had another problem to deal with in the mid 1870s. The Launceston and Western
Railway had been partly financed by northern businessmen and partly by government debentures
which had to be repaid out of profits. When the line failed to turn a profit, the government passed the
Launceston and Western Railway Act (1873) in order to reclaim £15,000 per year from northern property
owners and property occupiers.72 Defaulters had their possessions and produce seized by bailiffs and
auctioned in Launceston. Contemporary news that the government would fund the Main Line Railway
between Hobart and Launceston out of taxes invoked a deep sense of regional injustice. In Launceston,
politicians’ effigies were burnt, buildings were attacked, a coffin was paraded through the streets and
mobs fought police in February 1874.73
68 See, for example, ‘Phases of life and labour in Tasmania: no.4: in a bark stripper’s camp’, Launceston Examiner, 5 April 1890, supplement p.1.
69 Miranda Morris-Nunn and CB Tassell, Launceston’s Industrial Heritage: a Survey, Australian Heritage Commission and the Queen Victoria
Museum, Launceston, 1982, p.157.
70 ‘Proposed loan for mutual improvements‘, Launceston Examiner, 18 September 1873, p.2.
71 HJW Stokes, North-West Tasmania 1858–1910, p. 68.
72 The first moiety (one shilling in the pound) was levied on property owners. The second moiety (one shilling and fourpence in the pound) was
levied on both property owners and occupiers.
73 See, for example, ‘Railway rate disturbances’, Launceston Examiner, 7 February 1874, p.2.
! PAG E 1 0 !
TA B L E 1
James Walden’s export trade (to Melbourne) 1870–73
Product
1870
1871
1872
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Hides
x
x
Leather
x
Wheat
x
x
Oats
x
x
x
Peas
x
Flour
x
Bran
x
Barley
x
Green hides
x
x
x
Skins
Wool
x
Honey
x
Sheep skins
x
Raw hides
x
Bones
x
Hair
x
Shanks
x
Salted skins
x
Seal skins
1873
x
x
x
Like many northerners, James refused to pay the moiety. In February 1874 he was ordered to pay £1 15
shillings (including costs).74 That a few days later he was deprived of four bags of flour valued at £5 4
shillings confirms that he refused.75
James would have needed all his money and business nous to cater for his growing brood. The Waldens
continued to have mixed fortunes with their children, with sixth child Lily (born 1871) growing up
normally but next child Eustace Llewellyn Walden (born 1873) again surviving only about eight
months.76 The eighth child, again called Eustace (this time with the middle name Vivian) and born
only six months after his predecessor’s death in 1874, continued the pattern by living a long life.77 James
relocated to the Sydney Place Wharf by 1875, giving him better access to the shipping services which
were vital to an exporter. In 1876 his and Jane’s ninth and final child, Ernest Herbert Walden, was born
at this address, in a street later absorbed by the Boags Brewery.78 Jane was then about 42 years old. Only
six of the nine Walden children would survive their parents.
74 ‘Railway rate information’, Launceston Examiner, 19 February 1874, p.3.
75 ‘Railway rate agitation’, Launceston Examiner, 24 February 1874, p.3.
76 Lily was born in 31 October 1871 (birth registration 686/1871). Eustace Llewellyn was born 25 May 1873 (birth registration 33/1339) and died
18 January 1874 (death registration 35/2271).
77 Eustace Vivian Walden was born 23 July 1874 (birth registration 33/1770); ‘Births’, Cornwall Chronicle, 24 July 1874, p.2.
78 Information from John Easton. Ernest Herbert Walden was born 28 June 1876 (birth registration 33/2519), Tasmanian Pioneers Index.
! PAG E 1 1 !
Sydney Place (centre, on the North Esk River), the scene of James Walden’s office from 1875 to 1893,
was later consumed by Boags’ buildings between the Esplanade and William Street. Originally it extended
straight onto the wharf. Walden appears to have occupied property owned by Charlotte Weedon and
Charles Hardwick on the western side of Sydney Place opposite the brewery.
CITY OF LAUNCESTON MAP COURTESY OF LINC TASMANIA, LAUNCESTON.
James Walden advertises his general merchant trade.
LAUNCESTON EXAMINER, 31 MARCH 1874, P.1.
! PAG E 1 2 !
TA B L E 2
James Walden’s exports to Melbourne (M), Sydney (S) and London (L) 1874–88
Product
74
75
76
77
Oats
M
M
S
M
Grass seed
M
M
M
Bark
M,L
M S,M,L
Wool
M,L M,L M,L
Muttonbird fat
M
Flour
M
Old metal
M
Hides
M
Horns
L
M
Seal skins
L
L
Beeswax
L
Sheep skins
L
78
79
80
81
82
83
M
M,S
S
S
S
M
M
M
L
86
87
M,L
M
M
M
M
M
M M,S,L M,L M,L
M
M,L M,S
L
M
L
M,L M,L S,M,L
L
L
L
L
S,L
M
M
S
L
L
M
S
Potatoes
S
Peas
S
Beans
S
Tallow
M
M
M
S,M
S
M
S
M,S
S
S
S,L
S
M
S
S,M
M
M
M,L
M
Skins
M
M
Butter
S
S
Shells
S
L
Jam
S
Paper
M
S
M,L
S
M
S
M,L
M,L M,L
M
M
L
S
L
L
L
M,L
Bones
L
Hair
L
Hops
M
M
L
M
M,S
M
Muttonbirds
M
Plums
S
Salted hides
S
L
Tares
M
M
S
S
M
M,L
M,L
Leather
S
M
Fruit
S
S
Barley
S
S
L
M
S
M
Cheese
S
Tanks
M
Gum
M,S
S
L
Trees
S
Turnips
S
Willows
M
Shanks
88
S
L
Fat
Muttonbird oil
85
M
M
M
84
L
L
L
S,L
Bullock hides
S
Coal
M
! PAG E 1 3 !
T H E BAS S ST R A I T T R A DE
As shown in Table 2, from 1874 James diversified both in products and in their markets, thereby
alleviating the mainland tariff problem. New products included muttonbirds (short tailed shearwaters,
Puffinus tenuirostris) and muttonbird products, native animal skins and timber. Every year barques
such as the Grasmere, Araunah, Skimmer of the Waves, Corinth, Berean and Lanoma delivered British
goods to Launceston, back-loading with Tasmanian produce for London.
By the late 1870s the economic situation was improving. Crop prices began to rise.79 Launceston was
the financial and logistical centre of a gathering mining boom. Foundries and engineering companies
benefited from the mining trade, as George Renison Bell found payable tin in the north-east and the
Mount Bischoff Company fired the first successful Tasmanian smelter. Although the West Tamar iron
mines failed, in 1877 the Dally brothers unearthed Tasmania’s richest gold reef in the same district,
thereby establishing the Beaconsfield gold mine. In 1878 the Mount Bischoff tin mine began to pay
monotonously regular dividends.80 Tasmania entered a 15-year period of ‘positive’ migration, that is,
with more people arriving than leaving.81 Launceston also developed as Tasmania’s railway hub, the
opening of the Main Line to Hobart in 1876 providing a spine for the connection of branch lines. As
Table 2 shows, James Walden dealt with a huge range of products.
Reflecting on his long life, James recalled that the Launceston business community was very conservative
when he joined it. He appears to have taken credit for opening up new export markets, thereby increasing
the prices and demand for Tasmanian products. He recalled on one occasion bringing £500 worth of
gold across the strait from Victoria in a belt around his waist in order to save on the exchange rate. ‘I
had a lot of fun out of business in those days’, he quipped, remarking on his slim chances of survival
carrying that weight in the event of a shipwreck.82
James Walden’s medal from the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880.
COURTESY OF JOHN EASTON.
79 HJW Stokes, North-West Tasmania 1858–1910, pp.65, 68 and 79.
80 Nic Haygarth, ‘Mining comes to town: the Mount Bischoff Tin Mining Company and the tin trade’, Proceedings of Symposium ‘It’s a Busy Place:
Launceston from Settlement to City’, Launceston Historical Society, 2006, pp.49–61; Nic Haygarth, Baron Bischoff: Philosopher Smith and the
Birth of Tasmanian Mining, the author, Perth, 2004, pp.111–12.
81 See Statistics of Tasmania for the period 1876–90.
82 ‘Born in 1831’, Examiner, 23 June 1933, p.8.
! PAG E 1 4 !
James Walden’s second class medal for ‘Yola Bird Oil’ (muttonbird oil)
at the Calcutta International Exhibition of 1883–84.
COURTESY OF JOHN EASTON.
Some of James’ animal product exports resulted from an expansion into Bass Strait from about 1877,
when, along with fellow merchants Robert Gardner and George Baudinet, he leased land on Flinders
Island.83 He traded with the Aboriginals (‘half-castes’) of Bass Strait, paying them in gold for seal skins,
muttonbirds and other products.84 By 1879 James was trading muttonbirds to Melbourne, and in 1880
he tried to drum up more trade by displaying seal skins, seal oil and ‘yola’ (yolla was an Aboriginal word
for the muttonbird) bird oil and collection of marine shells at the Melbourne International Exhibition.85
In 1884 he won a second class certificate for muttonbird oil and tallow at the Calcutta International
Exhibition, and three years later James secured a Government Railways contract to supply 500 gallons
of muttonbird oil for use on the railways.86 His motto ‘Omnia vincit’—’If there is no way I make one’—
was reflected by his entrepreneurship.
Whales, seals and muttonbirds had once been staples of a Bass Strait resource boom. According to
Parry Kostoglou, most of the seals taken in Bass Strait from 1798 until the late 1800s were Australian fur
seals (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus), which still occur in Bass Strait. Males measure up to 2.2 metres
long and may weigh 360 kilograms. New Zealand fur seals (Arctocephalus Forsteri), Australian sea lions
(Neophoca cinerea) and southern elephant seals (Merounga leonine) also once were hunted in Bass Strait
but few or none remained by the time James Walden was engaged in sealing.
Kostoglou argues that by 1835 sealing ‘had ceased to have any economic relevance to the mainland or
Tasmanian economies’, but clearly it had made something of a comeback by the 1870s.87 In 1883 ‘HS’
made a voyage through the Bass Strait islands, much of it on a 20-ton ketch called the Clytie—a vessel
which had been built under the supervision of James Walden. (One of James Walden’s granddaughters
was later christened Clytie Walden.) According to ‘HS’, ‘half-castes’ still sealed on some of the rocky islets
off Clarke and Craggy Islands between Flinders Island and the Kent Group, but there were more seals to
be had at the Hogan Group of islands and at King Island. He described it as ‘very dangerous work’ and
unprofitable. The season commenced at the start of November:
83 ‘Sales of Crown lands’, Mercury, 19 October 1877, p.2.
84 ‘Born in 1831’, Examiner, 23 June 1933, p.8
85 ‘Exports’, Cornwall Chronicle, 4 August 1879, p.2; ‘Tasmania at the Melbourne International Exhibition’, Launceston Examiner, 14 October
1880, p.3.
86 ‘Calcutta Exhibition’, Mercury, 18 April 1884, p.3; ‘Gazette notices’, Launceston Examiner, 23 August 1887, p.2.
87 Parry Kostoglou, Sealing in Tasmania: Historical Research Project, Parks and Wildlife Service, Hobart, 1996, p.19.
! PAG E 1 5 !
The males, called ‘wigs’, are shot for oil. The females, named ‘clapmatches’, are clubbed for the skins. They
fetch 5s[hillings]; formerly 25s was obtained, and as high as 30s. Young seals, called ‘pups’, are killed by
striking them on the head or kicked. Their skins are valued at 1s only. When pups are twelve months old they
are called prime seal, and their skins are more valuable. The black fur skins are the most scarce, and fetch
a higher price than the other kinds. Rival sealers were in the habit of smearing the rocks with coal tar for
the purpose of driving the seals from their breeding ground. They dislike the odour of tar. The clapmatches
come from the water to suckle their young, and will attack a person if molested, using their teeth.88
While whale and seal numbers had been vastly reduced by hunting during the first half of the 19th
century, muttonbirds seem to have fared better. According to Irynej Skira, more than 80% of the world’s
muttonbirds breed in Tasmania, with the largest colonies being on the Bass Strait islands. Walden was
by no means the only trader in this commodity. In March 1907, for example, both Walden and Robert
Gardner advertised that they wanted a boy or boys for ‘mutton birding’.89 CH Smith and Co, which
operated from a still well-known site in lower Charles Street, Launceston, bought salted and smoked
muttonbirds, oil and feathers apparently from the company’s inception in the 1880s, selling the salted
birds in casks which each contained 400 to 500 birds. CH Smith sold about one million muttonbirds
per season during this commodity’s peak period up to the 1930s. In the 1914 season 2,424 casks were
brought into Launceston by regular trading ketches. Smith had about 20% of this trade, leaving plenty
of room in the market for the likes of James Walden.90
Interestingly, whereas James traded with ‘half-castes’, there are few purchases from Aboriginals listed
in the CH Smith and Co account books. The company bought mostly from non-Aboriginals such as
Thomas and Samuel Barrett, Captain Dargaville, R Davey, W Ferguson, A Holt, J Robinson and Alec
Ross.91 Thomas Barrett on Long Island also appears to have acted as a Bass Strait agent for James Walden
for a period of at least 35 years, sending him many muttonbirds, furs, skins, wool, sheep and cattle.92
The account of ‘HS’ suggests that every habitable island was a business centre. In 1883 the old
commandant’s cottage at Wybalenna on Flinders Island was occupied by Allan Smith, lessee Robert
Gardner’s agent who also served as police constable and customs agent. Smith was the son of former
Wybalenna Commandant Malcolm Laing Smith. As well as leasing part of Flinders Island, Gardner
had 700 sheep on nearby Hummock (or Prime Seal) Island. Henry Robinson, youngest son of the
former ‘Conciliator’ of the Aborigines and Wybalenna Commandant, George Augustus Robinson,
leased Isabella, Woody and Tin Kettle Islands, running sheep on them.93 As the owner of the Clytie, he
probably also acted as an agent for James Walden.
The ‘Inner Sister’ of the Kent Group of islands was leased by Charles Green, the ‘Outer’ by Henry
Beeton, while Lawton of George Town occupied Babel Island. At Double Corner on Flinders Island,
Jules Virieux engaged in fishing, kangaroo and wallaby hunting.94
Charles Harley junior ran sheep on Big Chalky Island. Thomas Barrett leased Little Green Island. James
Holt leased and ran sheep on Little Dog Island, which had ‘a good mutton-bird rookery’. Alexander
Rose owned and leased Vansittart (or Gun Carriage) island as a sheep and cattle run. Muttonbirding and
dairying were the major activities on Big Dog Island, leased by Henry Taylor. ‘HS’ described Thomas
Barrett’s sheep and cattle run on Long Island, and Charles Harley’s on Kangaroo Island, where Robert
Gardner had also bought 50 acres. Robinson and Barrett owned 50 acres each of Chapel Island, but the
rest of it had been reserved by the government, according to ‘HS’, for muttonbirding by ‘half-castes’. ‘HS’
described the muttonbird season:
88 ‘HS’, ‘Visit to the islands in Bass Straits, with an account of what I saw and heard there’, Launceston Examiner, 28 May 1883, p.3.
89 Adverts, Examiner, 18 March 1907, p.1.
90 Irynej Skira, ‘CH Smith and Co, of Launceston, a muttonbird buyer’, Papers and Proceedings of the Tasmanian Historical Research Association,
vol.41, no.3, September 1994, pp.163–64.
91 Irynej Skira, ‘CH Smith and Co, of Launceston, a muttonbird buyer’, pp.163–64.
92 ‘Obituary: Mr TW Barrett’, Examiner, 25 July 1928, p.6.
93 ‘HS’, ‘Visit to the islands in Bass Straits, with an account of what I saw and heard there’, Launceston Examiner, 23 May 1883, p.3.
94 ‘HS’, ‘Visit to the islands in Bass Straits, with an account of what I saw and heard there’, Launceston Examiner, 4 June 1883, p.3.
! PAG E 1 6 !
On the 15th day of September in each year, either before the dawn or before the setting of that day’s
sun, the birds arrive on their islands in millions … They come to clean out their nests, which are holes
scratched in the ground about two or three foot long similar to a rabbit burrow. Then about the latter end
of November they deposit one egg. The male and female bird take turns about to sit until it is hatched,
say six weeks: only one egg is laid in the year. These nests are so close to each other, and sometimes with
so thin a covering of dirt over them, that they often serve as snares or pitfalls for the unwary traveller.
Although comparatively a small bird, their egg is fully the size of that of the goose. When disturbed,
during incubation in its hole in the sand, instead of exhibiting alarm, it frequently fights with the intruder,
who sometimes does not come off scatheless. When the young bird is six weeks old, and thickly covered
with down but no feathers, ‘oiling’ commences. This operation is performed by a person inserting his arm
into the nest and adroitly pulling out the young bird by the head, and then by a sudden jerk dislocates
the neck. Each bird is spitted on a stick three feet long, care being taken to keep the head erect for fear
of spilling the oil. From 100 to 200 can be carried on each stick. The birds are then squeezed separately
and the oil strained through a gunny bag into a vessel, and finally casked up and sent to market for 3s
[shillings] a gallon … The next process is to take off the skin and fat and ‘try’ it out in an iron pot to
extract more oil or fat. A good skinner will take off about a thousand pelts in one day. This employment
usually last six weeks, and in the end each party has operated on thirty to forty thousand birds … A good
season’s oiling is said to be about 3000 gal [gallons], or the production of 300,000 young birds. A third
stage is that of salting the birds in barrels with very strong brine; or they can be smoked after dry salting.
The feathers used to be sold, but owing to their powerful odour, they are of no commercial value.95
Even so, James claimed to have found a market for muttonbird feathers in Europe.96
95 ‘HS’, ‘Visit to the islands in Bass Straits, with an account of what I saw and heard there’, Launceston Examiner, 28 May 1883, p.3.
96 ‘Born in 1831’, Examiner, 23 June 1933, p.8.
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Chapter 2
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Business success and family tragedy: c1879–95
D
uring the 1880s conditions for farmers improved markedly because of the growth of Australian
urban and industrial food markets, with a trade in potatoes being conducted with Sydney and to a
lesser extent Melbourne.97 The timber industry had been important in the colony since earliest times. It
was now becoming more regulated, with a conservator of forests being appointed under the State Forests
Act (1885).98 The protectionist policies of the mainland colonies had depressed the industry, and the
export of inferior product had given Tasmanian timber a bad reputation.99 Still, Tasmania’s successful
export of minerals to Europe generated confidence in imperial trade. International exhibitions and
the appointment of a Tasmanian agent general in London enabled other export lines to be explored.
Launceston timber merchants and builders J&T Gunn expanded onto King Island in partnership with
Francis H Stephenson in 1887, exploiting its timber and pastures. Just as Gunns and Stephenson built
the Yambacoona to ship their produce back to Launceston, in 1883 James, builder of the Clytie, was said
to have ‘large business connections’ with Bass Strait.100
James Walden also invested in north-eastern Tasmania, buying mining shares and property. He held
shares in the Grand Flaneur mining claim at Mussel Roe and was a promoter of the Ben Lomond Tin
Mining Company.101 The latter showed his feisty character in business dealings, with court proceedings
instigated and a stoush taking place with the mining manager.102 Equally feisty was the 47-year-old’s
midnight dash from his Sydney Place abode to apprehend a man who had thrown a rock through
his bedroom window, narrowly missing a small child in a cot.103 The child was probably Ernest, his
youngest, then about two years old. Both the attack and the cramped conditions seem to vindicate the
Waldens’ move to the open spaces of Penquite a few years later.
The 1880s were the best economic times the Waldens had experienced in Tasmania. They were now
well off. According to John Marlowe, the wealthy, Puritanical middle class ‘set the tone’ of English life
during the Victorian era, the social basis of which included religious fundamentalism, free trade and
social austerity. Victorian Puritans typically believed that material prosperity was evidence of God’s
approval, and that ‘Satan finds mischief for idle hands’, which effectively blamed the poor for their
condition.104 They believed strongly in the financial security gained from investment in property: the
Walden family acquired a good deal of real estate, including land in Invermay and in Charles Street,
where James intended to build 24 shops designed by H Evans.105 Some of this real estate would have
been rental properties. The most notable development, however, was creating the Walden family home,
Beauty Park, at Penquite.
L I F E AT B E AU T Y PA R K
The merchant William Effingham (WE) Lawrence arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1823. He applied for
properties in or near Launceston, as well as 13,000 acres (he called the property Formosa) at the Lake
River which were obtained in the name of his eldest son Robert. The Launceston estates were 310 acres
which he called Vermont, 164 acres at Lawrence’s Paddock (Lawrence Vale), 924 acres at the Punchbowl
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
HJW Stokes, North-West Tasmania 1858–1910, pp.65, 68 and 79.
Robson and Roe, A Short History, pp.30–31.
Acting Conservator of Forests, Forestry Handbook, Hobart, 1928, p.13.
‘HS’, ‘Visit to the islands in Bass Straits’, Launceston Examiner, 26 May 1883, p.3.
‘From the Examiner’, Mercury, 25 February 1881, p.3; ‘Court of Requests’, Launceston Examiner, 8 March 1882, p.3.
‘Launceston Police Court’, Launceston Examiner, 31 March 1882, p.3; ‘Mining meetings’, Launceston Examiner, 5 July 1882, p.3.
‘Breaking windows’, Cornwall Chronicle, 14 November 1878, p.2.
John Marlowe, Puritan Tradition in English Life, Cressnet Press, London, 1956, pp.73, 74, 78 and 118.
Invermay: ‘Commercial’, Launceston Examiner, 5 March 1881, p.2. Charles Street: ‘Town improvements’, Launceston Examiner, 16 September
1882, p.3.
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