Early Belfast Adventures |
Belfast / Port Fairy during its early period (1830 – 1850) The settlement was originally known as Fairy, named after the cutter that Captain Henry Wishart [1] had hauled across the river’s protective sand bar in April 1810 to escape a wild storm. He had been in search of convict absconders, who had stolen one of Portland Bay’s valuable sealing craft. However, it was another 20 years before whalers John and Charles Mills, along with seamen John Griffiths and Captain Alexander Campbell [2] built some simple huts on the sandy island protecting the river mouth and used it as their sealing and whaling station. A small fishing community flourished in the area up until the early 1840’s before a Sydney solicitor, Irishman James Atkinson, purchased (sight unseen from a Crown Land Survey) 5120 acres [3] of cheap marshy land. He promptly drained the mainland swamps and proceeded to lay out a town. Within a year, the speculator started building [4] the harbour and was dividing and selling or leasing waterfront plots. The settlement was named Belfast after Atkinson’s birthplace, but notably, the harbour kept the port name Fairy. |
 |
In his book Port Fairy – the First Fifty Years 1837 – 1887; a Social History, J.W. Powling writes:– “In 1848, the population of Portland was 1000, Port Fairy 900 and Warrnambool, which had been gazetted as ‘a place where spirits might be sold’, had 350 inhabitants. Settlements (to the north) such as Hamilton and (to the east) such as Colac were still just little farming centres.” |
The recently established Melbourne newspaper, The Argus, published unofficial electoral roll figures [5] which were far more indicative of the situation. Given that only land owners were eligible to vote at the time, Belfast and Port Fairy’s immediate surrounds had 31, whilst Warrnambool had 9. |
Rutledge Town William Rutledge, a 34-year-old merchant banker originally from Ireland, had risen to the position of director at the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney before driving sheep overland to Port Phillip in 1838. Following a number of prosperous land deals in Port Phillip and Kilmore, Rutledge married and, together with his wife Eliza, traveled to Belfast in 1843. Like James Atkinson he also purchased 5120 acres of grazing land from the Crown Land Survey and named the property Farnham (an area which today spans from the township of Koroit to the village of Woodford). Rutledge, unwilling to remain just a grazier, acted quickly and within weeks of his arrival purchased a mercantile business previously established by John Cox. Later, together with Harold Flower and Francis Forster, he established the company William Rutledge & Co. By 1848, the company owned all the property along the Port Fairy riverfront [6], and similarly to how the Henty family dominated trade in the Portland Bay area, Rutledge emerged as the leading figure in Belfast. By the beginning of the 1850's the settlement was loosely referred to as “Rutledge Town.” |
James Chard's assimilation into the Belfast community At the time of its development, Belfast is best seen through the eyes of Samuel Thomas Gill, Australia's renowned colonial artist. |
 |
| The port of Fairy and township of Belfast (“Rutledge Town”). Sketch by S. T. Gill dated 15th March 1856, courtesy of the Mitchell Library of Sydney. |
In the sketch shown above illustrating the surroundings of Belfast, Gill's central focus is the four-room wooden house (with a fence) built by ship builder Jonathan Griffiths (1801-1881), father of Captain Griffiths in 1837. Perfectly situated on the banks of the Moyne River and with an unimpeded view, it was the settlement's first significant timber home. Three other landmarks are conspicuous on the horizon: Struth's timber ‘post’ windmill (1) built in Sydney around 1843 and erected at Port Fairy in 1847 [7] ; the second, the residence (2) built in 1852, of the settlement's first doctor Andrew Wilson Hume [8] which today is known as Douglas House; and the third, St John’s Church of England (3) built in 1850 [9] . |
Of these significant buildings depicted by Gill, Alexander Struth’s mill was the only one in existence when James Chard, together with the flock of Captain Alexander Campbell's Tasmanian sheep he had tended during the Bass Strait crossing, set foot on mainland Australia for the first time. |
James Chard's first significant colonial connection |
Captain Alexander Campbell (1805 – 1890) Frequently referred to as his “Kismet moment,” meeting Captain Campbell was a crucial and fateful event in James Chard's life. Campbell, a Scotsman from Mull, Argyleshire, started his colonial life in Van Diemen's Land at the age of twenty. Unlike James Chard, he was a free settler who joined his brothers Colin and Neil, who had emigrated three years before him. The brothers, together with their cousin Donald, managed to cultivate wheat and potatoes on a Tamar Valley estate near Launceston until 1831, when Captain Campbell abandoned the farm and relocated to Sydney. Here he heard a great deal about the money that was to be made from sperm whaling and a year later he was asked by Captain John Griffiths to take charge of the whaling station set up at Portland Bay on the mainland. After several successful years harvesting in the southern ocean, Campbell entered into a business partnership with Griffiths and Michael Connolly, founding a modest settlement at Port Fairy in 1837. Ten years on, when Captain Campbell docked The Clarence, he was returning home after one of his many Tasman crossings whilst James Chard – his shepherd passenger – was himself being shepherded into a close-nit community of whalers, merchants, chandlers and farmers. At Campbell's Cox Street properties, there was plenty of work for a willing young man, and James Chard quickly became acquainted with Belfast's prominent merchants and settlers, such as William Rutledge (merchant, storekeeper, banker, magistrate), his partner Harold Flower (merchant), Captain John Mills (harbour master), Thomas Hamilton (T.H.) Osborne (newspaper editor and printer), Dr Alexander Russell (doctor and accoucheur), Peter Nicholson (collector of customs), and Michael Connolly (whaler and pastoralist). Campbell also influenced the next phase of James' life when he joined his family in moving to Melbourne, where the now 46-year-old sea captain accepted the role as the first harbourmaster of the port of Melbourne. Footnote: In 1843, while navigating through a violent storm in Bass Strait, Captain Campbell took shelter in a bay on Victoria's rugged southern coastline — an inlet that was identified as Port Campbell on a sketch map drawn by Port Phillip’s Superintendent Charles La Trobe in 1846. |
The Lure of GOLD James Chard had just arrived in Melbourne with the Campbell family when in August 1851 two prospectors, James Reagan and John Dunlop, found what would become the richest goldfield the world has ever seen. Before this discovery, the Port Phillip colony had difficulty attracting immigrant workers, but once news of the find reached London and other European cities, Melbourne quickly became the most popular destination worldwide. Those who had been hesitant to farm the land soon turned into eager “diggers” of a different kind. Men without any mining experience gathered a few belongings and, with barely enough money for their supplies, set off for Ballarat. James Chard was among these men. Contrary to the idealised portrayals in the newspapers of that era, the mine outputs were usually modest, and James Chard soon realised that prospecting was not suited to him [10]. Consequently, with the modest earnings he gained, he purchased a watch, a wagon, and a team, then headed southwards back to Belfast. |
Although James Chard was reluctant to return to the goldfields, he was in need of employment. Luckily, Alexander Campbell’s close relationship with William Rutledge gave James the opportunity to obtain a cartage contract with Rutledge & Co to deliver supplies, particularly butter, cheese, and eggs, to the Ballarat miners, as well as goods [11] to merchants in more remote settlements such as Warrnambool. At that time, cheese and butter cost 2/6 per pound, with eggs and other items priced even higher. Money was not a concern in those days. Rutledge & Co held such strong control over the region that it issued its own notes and tokens for trading and offered credit services instead of a traditional bank. |
During an interview with a Terang Express reporter, James Chard reminisced about his early experiences recalling that: – |
 |
Of one meeting with bushrangers James retold of how: – |
 |
 |
| (Left) Cartage was done with bullock wagons, on roads that were little more than rutted cart tracks. (Right) James Chard's stolen watch. (Left) Sketched for Illustrated Australian News of 1860. (Right) Ownership of the 1850 Rotherham timepiece passed to his second son, also James Atkins Chard, then upon his death to his only son Fred. Today the watch, which has little but sentimental value, remains the keepsake of James’ proud great grandson. |
Lucky to have escaped with his life and his bag of money, James continued to make subsequent trips without incident or mishap. Footnote: Several months after the robbery, while walking past a pawnbroker’s shop in Ballarat, he spotted his favourite watch, identified by distinctive engravings on its back plate. The watch was promptly recovered and kept by him as a cherished “lucky charm” until his death in 1924. In the 1850s, Rutledge & Co managed the mail distribution from Belfast, and occasionally, James Chard took on the additional duty of delivering mail to some remote inland squatter stations. This role allowed him to meet many of the early pastoralists in the western district. Among those he encountered were Thomas Manifold (Grassmere), John Allan (Allansford), Neil Black (Lake Tarrang / Glenormiston / Timboon), John Thomson (Lake Kielambete), Mark Nicholson (Russell's Creek / Panmure), and Charles Greyland (Yallock). |
James Chard's second significant colonial connection |
Dr Alexander Russell (1816 – 1867) On relinquishing the carting contract with Rutledge & Co, James Chard gained employment with the first chemist in Belfast, Alexander Russell. A Scotsman from Glasgow, Russell was Surgeon Superintendent aboard HMS Trinidad which arrived in Sydney on November 5, 1841 [12]. His arrival in Port Fairy was documented in 1847, when he purchased Lot 12 (now 15-17 Cox Street) and, with the construction skills of Jonathan Griffiths and his neighbour and friend Alexander Campbell, built a modest double-fronted cottage using imported timber, volcanic basalt from nearby lava flows, local limestone, and materials sourced from the whaling industry. Within two years he had begun practicing as a doctor and established the first Apothecary's Hall [13] on the premises. |
 |
| Alexander Russell's residence and Apothecaries Hall in Cox Street Belfast. Picture courtesy of the National Trust. |
 |
| Alexander Russell advertising business in both Warrnambool and Belfast. Melbourne Argus 15 May 1849. |
To the settlers of Belfast and the surrounding community, Alexander Russell was more than the doctor; he was also the district's accoucheur (midwife), veterinary consultant and apothecary dispenser. Having no children [14] of his own, Dr Alexander Russell was perfectly placed to influence and guide his new 23-year-old apprentice. Under Dr Russell’s tutelage, James Chard quickly learnt the value of horses to the squatter and pastoralist, and at the cost of £50-60 a head (approximately half a year's wages for a labourer), the importance of keeping these beasts fit and healthy. During his time with Dr Russell, James observed the launch [3] of the community’s first newspaper – a four-page flyer named the Gazette – edited and printed by Thomas Hamilton (T.H.) Osborne; the completion of the first Roman Catholic Church; the construction of numerous houses and shops; and the establishment of a Savings Bank, a Benevolent Society, and a Cricket Club. |
 |
| The Atkinson street plan for Belfast in the early 1850s. Picture courtesy of the National Trust. |
Footnote: In 1852, when Russell decided to return to Scotland, his property was sold to the crown and converted into the Bank of Victoria. However, Alexander Russell was not finished with Belfast, as he came back to the colony a year later with equipment to fix the deteriorating Moyne Mill. Having stopped practicing medicine, Russell partnered with merchants John Cowtan and John Bland and became involved in community affairs. He was appointed the first Chairman of the local Roads Board and later became Belfast’s first Mayor. In 1859, he was elected to the State parliament representing Villiers and Heytesbury, but he resigned soon after due to ill health. |
James Chard worked with Alexander Russell at the Apothecaries Hall until the doctor left for Scotland in 1852. With Belfast’s surrounding districts now opening up at a rapid rate, James Chard, with a little money in his pocket, set out to make his own mark on the landscape. |
References
|