Tales from Fifteen Years
The Lure of Gold
The discovery of gold helped the Learmonth’s bank balance as they were now providing meat to the goldfields and they went on to invest in several gold mines. It was also a double-edged coin, and probably the main reason for them eventually moving from Buninyong to Ercildoune in order to get away from the hundreds of people, some exhibiting less than desirable behaviour, that had made their way to Buninyong in order to seek their fortune. They decided to sell the Egerton Gold Mine due to low yields, and they consequently suffered the disappointment of having to endure one of the most notable Mining Cases in Australia’s history in order to reverse what they thought was an injustice done to them, as large quantities of gold were discovered after the ink had barely dried on the sold agreement.
This mine was sold to Martin Loughlin and it went on to extract another £2 million worth of gold according to T.F. Bride in 1910, so no wonder they felt swindled. I’m not sure why the Learmonth’s didn’t retain a share at least, so maybe it was because they’d already decided to leave the area and concentrate on their property called Groongal in New South Wales. The shrewd purchasers included William Bailey, who had been the Manager of the mine and who had been acting as the Learmonth’s agent in order to find a purchaser, and unbeknownst to them, he had also bought into the mine for £1,000. Bailey ultimately died a very rich man and built the mansion that is now part of the Ballarat hospital, and Martin Loughlin ended up being listed at number 25 in The All-time Australian 200 Richlist.
So even though there could have been a gigantic pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for the Learmonth’s, I think that it was the fact that they felt that they’d been treated unfairly by somone they’d trusted, and being very religious men, they would most likely have been more concerned about the honesty issues. Peter Gardner has written an interesting article on the case where he says that the Learmonth’s loss was possibly more of a political decision due to the low popularity of the squattocracy. Somerville had stayed on to fight this case and became quite ill in the ensuing years as he’d also had to get Ercildoune ready for settlement.
Thomas had retired to the ancestral property Park Hall in 1868, and being such a prominent and active citizen, he was probably lucky to have left Ercildoune and all its challenges far behind him, and hopefully he spent his latter years with his family in peaceful retirement, and he did end up outliving his brothers by quite a number of years.
The most challenging times
The latest drought Australia has suffered has been called the ‘millenium drought’ and it lasted nearly a decade and made life extremely difficult for everyone on the land, with many farmers being tragically unable to go on as banks foreclosed on their properties. Many of them had to shoot their starving stock and were left feeling totally helpless and suicides amongst farmers are tragically double that of the general population. Many businesses in the area were also struggling and feed for our horses, sheep, and small herd of cattle became increasingly difficult to obtain. Australia’s climate has to be one of the most challenging in the world, and our farmers have to ride a horrible roller coaster of debt and despair, when watching all of their hard work count for nothing when the rains don’t arrive.
We donated the profits from one of our Open Garden Days to Farmers in Drought, when over two thousand people attended, and the Ballarat and District Division of General Practice organized an event called Diamonds in the Dust, that was held in a marquee in the grounds of Ercildoune for a number of years, with helpful advice and medical checkups available for the women affected by drought too, and one year 2013 Australian of the Year, Ita Buttrose was the guest speaker and even drove herself. Her fee is now $11,556 (allegedly) if anyone is interested in having her do a talk. We also donated $2,000 from a November Open Garden Weekend, that sadly ended up less than ideal weatherwise, to the University of Ballarat Pipe Band.
The musically gifted Bradley Saul still managed to do some piping for the five hundred visitors whilst dodging the rain, and $500 was also raised by the hard-working locals from providing light refreshments in the Shearing Shed, for the Learmonth Junior Footy and Netball Clubs. And apart from the droughts, floods, the windfarm and insect plagues, we had the threat of a bushfire a bit too close to comfort too, when Mount Misery caught fire after a lightning strike that was thankfully quickly and safely contained by the local fire brigade.
Australia has just gone through the worst bushfire season of all time and my heart goes out to everyone personally affected by them, as they destroyed over 46 million acres in New South Wales and Victoria alone, and it is reported that the fires tragically killed around one billion animals overall, and in the worst possible way as many of Australia’s wonderful native animals, like our precious koalas, are too slow to escape any sort of fire, and some species will be most likely on the brink of total extinction.
Now, in 2020, we have to deal with the deadly Covid19 pandemic, that is creating even more untold sadness and stress for everyone as it spreads its deadly tentacles around the whole world.
Our Menagerie and Other Assorted Visitors
We eventually settled on raising Dorper sheep, as they didn’t need shearing, that we had found to be quite expensive, as Dorpers just drop their wool around the paddocks. We bought six alpacas to help protect the lambs from any marauding foxes. Paddocks were re-fenced for the safety of our horses, but they will inevitably find a way to injure themselves no matter how safe you think you’ve made the fencing. We sent two mares in foal off to the local stud to foal down and there was a bad storm that caused one mare to fatally skewer herself on a fence post killing both herself and her foal in the process, and the other mare gave birth to a healthy filly that was kicked by another mare and sustained injuries that also meant she had to be put down. I have so many stories about horse accidents, but I think I’ll stop there.
Chooks were also procured for the once pheasant and partridge filled aviary, and we raised some chickens after we were given a rooster, and it was really nice to have free-range eggs on the menu. Luckily none were taken by foxes as had been the case with our property down on the Mornington Peninsula where my favourite chook was taken when sunbaking on the backdoor mat. We also found the old plans that Major Currie had drawn up for the elaborate poultry shed that was sadly no longer in existence. We thought we’d try keeping two ferrets as pets and ended up with just one rather cheeky one that we called Fred, and he got on really well with a rescued stray cat that we named Eva. Fred lived for a few months with an adventure loving anonymous orange ferret that came inside through the doggie door totally unannounced one day.
I thought I was having a hallucination when I first saw him, but he must have escaped from his handler whilst hunting for rabbits up in the hills. I have a great picture of him hanging off the top rack of the dishwasher whilst on another exploratory mission, but he only stayed for a short while with us obviously having other fish to fry and he disappeared again one day just as mysteriously as he had appeared. Everyone in Australia would have many stories about our wildlife that sadly has a knack of decimating gardens, especially new plants or new growth, as well as hares that have the added ability of ringbarking trees.
A whole horde of potentially destructive critters called Ercildoune home, and there was no short supply of hares, rabbits, stem munching rosellas and cockatoos, possums, rats, house invading mice, wallabies and kangaroos. Then there are the winged variety that come in hordes, like the wingless hoppers and marauding cockshafer beetle. We were lucky that the locust plague didn’t eventuate in 2010 and there were reports of swarms of up to twenty-five kilometres, but sadly many other farmers had their pasture and crops decimated by them, but we did end up with a caterpillar plague in 2009.
One of the most unusal fungal growths I’ve ever seen in my life called ‘Devil’s fingers’ also appeared in the paddock and they are one of the creepiest looking things I’ve ever seen. Then in 2007 giant spiderwebs were floating thickly in the air and on the ground in the Burrumbeet area, and they’re supposedly from baby orb spiders, so I’d hate to think how many there are breeding around the place if they can produce so many webs.
Quite a few less destructive species insisted entering the Homestead via unusual means, and a white Goshawk even managed to smash through a kitchen window, but it was shooed out again unscathed. Numerous frogs seemed intent on coming inside too, and every year the little bats would breed in the chimneys and attach themselves onto the back of the curtains, but some would sadly perish upside down in vases, or anything with a hollow spot for them to nest in. One of my funniest memories is when a friend and I were watching television with our riding helmets on and waving tennis racquets at the lightning fast bats who were just missing us, and they could not be encouraged to leave through the open window.
Of course, as soon as husband John arrived home, he managed to coax them out of the window in no time. They are useful in that they can eat five hundred mosquitoes an hour at least. We were also awoken some nights, by our dog frantically barking downstairs at a possum with its baby clinging onto it so it started climbing up the curtains when we tried to entice it out through the open door. Sadly, there were quite a number of feral cats in the area too, and one very mangy looking one also entered the house, but we ended up adopting two others as pets.
And apart from the cats, bats and rats and creepy crawlies that included one of my least favourites, the Australian huntsman spider, we also found a blue tongue lizard in the dining room, and on another occasion, had swarms of bees making hives in several chimneys and it was yet another surprise to arrive and see a large swarm of them milling around the bedroom window.
Then the Wind Farm Appeared
“One wind turbine takes 900 tons of steel, 2500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of plastic.”
We couldn’t believe our ears when we first heard about the Waubra Windfarm installation. Apart from the fact that they don’t add up in any way as a viable proposition, they really spoiled the unique beauty of this area. After we sent the windfarm company a letter of complaint, they agreed to move 3 of the towers that were going to be built on Mount Misery a few metres further back to lessen their dreadful impact on our rural views. John had asked for some tree lines to be planted in order to help soften the look but didn’t receive any response. They are just an ugly blight on the countryside affecting not only the health of many people in the community, but they are a killer of the local birdlife too as their blades can sweep a vertical space of around an acre. It is totally unfair that people having them thrust down their throats, do not getting compensated in any way at all, whilst neighbours are prepared to put them up on their own farming land and rake in the cash. We had one of our neighbour’s actually knock them back, even though he could have also made a bundle. The theories behind them do not add up and they are just a bandaid measure and a total waste of money and part of the reason why we sold up, as the people in the community who are against them, have no say in their installation. Talk about adding insult to injury, especially after we’d been through the Millennium Drought, and then some of the worst floods on record, and had worked tirelessly to open up the garden to interested people, even though it cost us a fortune to do so.