Broadening Horizons
Four months prior to James Chard’s arrival in Belfast, the Portland Gazette published [1] the following; “a plan for the settlement of the new harbour 15 miles east of Belfast has been registered with the post master.” |
| THE LADY BAY OUTPOST
The new harbour making headlines both locally and in Melbourne was called Lady Bay. Generally known by the local indigenous community (the Kuurn Kopan Noot aboriginals) as Wornabull - a word which roughly translated [2] means ‘water between two rivers’, ‘two swamps’ or ‘ample water’. By 1848 the anglicised “Warrnambool” was in common use. |
| The Richard Osborne Dispatches
Before he became the proprietor of the settlement’s first newspaper - The Warrnambool Examiner - in 1851, Richard Osborne was the Warrnambool correspondent for the Melbourne Argus from the first days of settlement in 1848. One of his first articles (below) provides a valuable insight into the prevailing conditions of the area and, in particular, the number of people and their occupations.
Two years later, in March 1850, he revealed to the Argus readers that he had sighted [3] an unofficial census showing that “there were 232 persons in the community, living in very trying conditions. and “by December of that same year the number had increased by a mere ninety seven.” It is indeed interesting to see that this census lists “5 fishermen at the hummocks (the sand hills protecting the Hopkins river mouth)” and “4 men at the jetty”. Although this figure didn't include the surrounding squatters and their labourers, this comparison would suggest that Governor La Trobe’s grand plan [4] for Lady Bay to become a thriving deep water trading port was fanciful. |
| Barely a fortnight before his death in 1924 James Chard spent some time with a journalist from Terang's Express newspaper. Excerpts from that conversation were published [5] after his death in an article titled Reminiscences of the Early Days. Of the Warrnambool district in 1848, James recalls when; ‘wheat, oats and potatoes had to be carted to Warrnambool over roads that were a bog hole. Four and six horse teams were employed and it was an everyday occurrence to see people getting bogged five and six times a day.’ Regarding the weather conditions that Osborne described in his newspaper correspondence (above) James recalls that; ‘in the year of the great flood, 1848, (it) was particularly bad. Time out of number I had to swim the Hopkins and the Merri rivers on my horse Brunswick, kneeling on the saddle and giving the horse his head.’ |
| As a carter and constant wayfarer James' frustrations reflected the appalling conditions faced by all the colonials. The principal reason for the Lady Bay settlement’s slow progress was the lack of government funding for a road between Belfast and Warrnambool. Angered by Governor La Trobe's apparent inaction, an article penned by Belfast's resident newspaper correspondent was published in the Melbourne Argus newspaper [6] stating that; “roads – if you could call them roads – had become wretchedly bad. Essentially they were merely rough tracks which in winter could only be traversed by bullock-dray.” The initial land passage cut out by bullock drays between Belfast and the Lady Bay settlement traversed the low lying coastal sand hills (known locally as the hummocks). It was a most circuitous route through William Rutledge grazing land and it came to an abrupt halt upon reaching the Merri River at Dennington.  Travelling conditions improved somewhat for James Chard and his fellow wayfarers when, by the end of 1848, a punt became operational [1] at the Dennington bottleneck. The Belfast Gazette newspaper advertised the fact that; “an inn, The Queen’s Ferry, had been established for the convenience of travellers awaiting passage.” Known in the district as Lindsay’s place, the service – or lack of it – and the high charges levied eventually made the Melbourne Argus newspaper [8] on the 8th May, 1849 (right). The was an alternative passage which most of the couriers preferred. Once again traversing Rutledge land, this route was longer and over more elevated ground through Tower Hill (Koroit), but it had its advantages especially during the wet winter months. Like the coastal track this also halted at the Merri River at Woodford. However the river crossing here was far easier as the river, being significantly further inland, was narrower. For James and all his fellow carters of goods between Belfast and Warrnambool, Woodford was a key location, and William Rutledge knew it. His Farnham, estate officially bordered the Merri River to the west but he “unofficially” laid claim to significant tracts of territory on the east bank as well – much to the chagrin of Governor La Trobe. |
| FORDING THE MURAI Prior to 1845, all local traffic desirous of crossing the Murai (or Merri as it is now known) river congregated at the “Wood Ford” on the far eastern boundary of William Rutledge's Farhnam run. It was a spot in the river that was shallow enough and whose banks were least precipitous. As such, it became a popular stopping off point for traffic travelling from Belfast north to Mortlake and Ballarat or south to Warrnambool. Quickly the area developed into the settlement named Woodford. Over a decade later when the forty year old English born teacher / historian James Bonwick passed through Woodford [15] in 1857, he recorded in his diary that; “there were 230 people living in the twin towns of Woodford (i.e. the settlements on either bank of the Merri River), and the population supported two schools – the National and a Roman Catholic”. Clearly much development had taken place prior to Bonwick's visit. Whilst an inn and store were the first structures on the river's west bank, the United Presbyterian Church was the first house of worship erected in 1846, closely followed by the Church of England and the Roman Catholic by the end of the decade. Clergy from Belfast (Port Fairy) ministered on a somewhat irregular basis; indeed many marriages and baptisms were performed ad hoc by the ordained in private residences (as indeed was the case for James Chard and Ellen Dowie). Rutledge's Bridge
No quarrel was greater than when, in January 1849 at a self-proclaimed public meeting [10] in Belfast, he single-handedly lambasted Governor La Trobe for his preference of Warrnambool over Belfast as a mercantile port and for (in his opinion) the lack of government interest and financial support to build bridges over the Moyne (at Belfast) and Merri Rivers (at Dennington and Woodford). Although he made mention of the Dennington crossing in his diatribe, the truth was he had no interest in this project whatsoever, for he owned no personal real estate at the fording site. He did however own warehouses on both banks of the Moyne River and had expended significant time, money and energy arranging for a bridge (of sorts) to be erected there the previous year. As far as Woodford was concerned, well, that was Farnham land at least to the west bank of the river. The authorities in Melbourne disputed his claim to the river bank, but he solved [11] that little problem by building a nice solid inn on the west bank next to the only decent fording place, and leased it to James Brock (one of his mates). Forthwith he garnered local public subscriptions to fund the building of a bridge right at the door of the Woodford Inn and then proceeded to levy all persons and property desirous of making a crossing. The Woodford bridge's east bank shoring created an initial problem for the artful raconteur. Fellow squatters Thomas Manifold and the Bostock brothers (James and Augustus), who had similar sized runs to Rutledge's, claimed exclusive water rights for their livestock, a position supported by the colonial authorities. Despite numerous protestations to the Government - all of which fell upon deaf ears, Rutledge encouraged (and abetted) one of his original Farnham tenants, John McCarthy, to build a small inn on the east bank of the river which became known as Traveller’s Rest. With both river banks secured and a toll in place “Terrible Billy” Rutledge was in complete control of both the road into the hinterland and more importantly, at this point in time, access to the port of Warrnambool. This monopoly lasted only a short time however as flooding rains during the devastating winter of 1848 saw Rutledge's bridge at Woodford washed away before his eyes. An article written by Richard Osborne and published in the Warrnambool Examiner at the time reported that; “the attempt of Mr Rutledge to levy a toll, so disgusted the parties really interested in the re-construction of the bridge, that notwithstanding his utmost exertion he could not procure a single subscription for the purpose.” He also beseeched the Government for the bridge's immediate restitution claiming that he (or more specifically his employees) had been severely inconvenienced in his role as the district's mail delivery contractor. All his protestations fell on deaf ears. The Government eventually built a new bridge over the Merri at Woodford in 1851, but that may have come about more from the pressure of increased traffic to and from the goldfields rather than anything William Rutledge might have said. With Governor La Trobe and the Melbourne authorities “Terrible Billy” had truly “burnt all his bridges.”
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