Shipping History
In 1842, a new packet service between Sydney and Melbourne was contracted to Benjamin Boyd, to carry mail, aparently worth £200 for every trip. His vessel was called the Sea Horse and had originally come out to Hobart from London in April 1841. It did not succeed due to lack of patronage, but his contract began in 1842 and lasted only 10 months when the Sea Horse suffered damage after running aground near George Town in Tasmania. She made the run to Sydney in 73 hours after being refloated, but the damage to her hull and engines was severe. She ended up being sold as a “shark hulk” in 1849 and Benjamin Boyd shot through after all his other ventures aparently failed too.
The Second Owner, Sir Samuel Wilson.
The second owner, Sir Samuel Wilson, was also a highly successful and motivated person too, and at the height of his residency at Ercildoune, he employed an amazing 125 staff and 13 gardeners. His life had sometimes become intertwined with the Learmonth’s, through their mutual desire to succeed in a foreign country, seemingly at everything that they put their hand to, in their quest to keep improving the quality of our sheep and wool here in Australia. This was no mean feat in itself, because there was the tyranny of distance for a start, around 10,000 miles of it, but they succeeded on a grand scale, due to their raw determination as well as an innate knowledge of the market place and animal husbandry….
Thomas Shaw’s Advice
Thomas Shaw, Senior, Yorkshire born, and later on his son, advised the brothers on how to improve their breeding program. Thomas Shaw Senior started work as a wool sorter in boyhood, and later became a wool buyer and preparer of wools for various manufacturers. His attention was drawn early to wools from Australia, and he noticed ‘inexplicable’ changes and deterioration in their quality. His employers in London responded to a request from Robert Campbell & Co., Sydney for ‘a competent person as buyer and sorter and instructor of sorters’, he travelled to Australia observing climatic, soil and working conditions, noting the casual and unselective methods of sheep-breeding that were being used on many properties. Helped by Gideon Scott Lang he published a pamphlet, The Australian Merino, that urged Australian growers to consider precisely what English buyers wanted, to breed sheep fit for the purpose, and to prepare their wool better, particularly by washing it more carefully before shearing. He was described as a tough, aggressive little man, but was engaged by the Curries and Learmonth’s who ended up breeding high quality prize-winning merino sheep, as well as fine Hereford cattle (see newspaper article in The Australasian dated April 12, 1941) and superior draught horses. They even bred pigs at their Buninyong establishment, and also had an interest in assisting the Acclimatization Society of Ballarat, setting up fish breeding ponds and hatcheries at Ercildoune, in order to breed and distribute trout amongst the local waterways, and these were expanded upon by Sir Samuel Wilson who also bred and supplied salmon to many of our waterways. They imported various birds, including white swans, larks and thrushes, and attempted to purchase 12 Angora goats from the Ballarat Agricultural & Pastoral Society too.
As everything was done with horsepower back then, even installing the larger lintels used in the Homestead must have been quite a feat.
Some Irish Catholics were transpored to Australia merely for looking suspicious (page 35)
Notes and Sheep Facts
It appears that they made the decision to leave their Buninyong property sometime after the discovery of gold there in 1851. The population had increased to 1,600 people during the goldrush years, and it became an important stopover with people travelling up from Geelong to the Ballarat gold diggings. Thomas Hiscock, the local blacksmith, had aparently found traces of gold in a gully whilst searching for a stray cow.
More Interesting Sheep Facts –
At the turn of the last century, Melbourne was the riches city in the world due to wool and gold.
Australia produced world that was double the average weight of the world – Goldsborough 3/3/1934.
The Learmonth brothers were the centre of the pastoral industry for 50 years. Their world renown merino wool could spin longer than any other wool in the world.
The ancient Scottish Clans fought for reputation, wealth, territory and survival and the Clan offered kinship, identity, food and livelihood.
The unicorn was first used on the Scottish royal coat of arms by William I in the 12th century but it was chained because a free unicorn was considered to be a very dangerous beast by the Scots. The thistle has been a royal symbol since James III and was featured on silver coins in 1470. The Most Noble Order of the Thistle is awarded for chilvary by The Queen.
Ercildoune has also been described in newspapers as ‘having a haunting grip on the past’
“an historic home fit for a Lord” (Herald-Sun 9/5/1998).
“simultaneously solid and eerily spectral.”
“one of the finest bits of birdland in the State” (3/1/1919) Apparently Victoria provides a wider variety of natural habitats than any area of similar size in Australia and has over half (516) of the total species of Australia (959).
Excerpt from The Age dated 31 May 1950
Woman Historian Writes of Old Homesteads.
Excerpt – Border Castle.
“A particularly fascinating example of homestead architecture Miss Kiddle has found in her Western District visits is “Ercildoune,” originally begun by the Livingstone Learmonths in 1838 and finished about 20 years later. Probably built with memories of their homeland uppermost, it is “like something from a Scottish fairy tale – a border castle,” Miss Kiddle reports. The Livingstone Learmonths sold “Ercildoune” in the seventies and left Australia, so none of their old diaries or letters have been preserved at the homestead. But “Murndal,” the Winter-Cooke’s property at Hamilton, where the same family has lived since 1838, has a priceless historic collection of old records. Station diaries and letter books, letters to and from England, Ireland and Australia, have all been preserved.”
The last paragraph stated that she hoped that records should be preserved for future generations and spoke with enthusiasm of the projected La Trobe library which is to be a storehouse of early Victorian history at the public library. In future, pioneer families who move to new homes where space for old papers is limited will, she hoped, would send them to the library, in order to prevent such losses as occurred to one family she knows of, who had preserved their records only to lose them in the fires of 1944.
Warrock Homestead – 33 buildings = time capsule, home of Kelpie
Special mention to Warwick Pitcher, Elaine Excavations, Flood repair works to future proof the property.