A Fateful Road Trip
In June 1999, my husband John and I were on a road trip to visit friends in Rutherglen, Victoria, because of a malicious attack on one of their beloved racehorses, and we had to make a pitstop at a Petrol Station in Seymour where John bought a copy of The Weekly Times. Always interested in keeping abreast of the rural property market, I ran my eyes over the property section and stumbled across a life changing advertisement –
Historic Auction.
Sunday 6th June – 12 noon – on site. Ercildoune Road, “Ercildoune Homestead”. Burrumbeet via Ballarat. 180 acres – 73 ha – 1½ hours Melbourne – 30km west of Ballarat. An original landmark of Victoria – A significant two storey (c. 1838) Scottish Baronial homestead (approx. 100 squ) amidst old worlde setting. 19th century trees, lakes, and many notable buildings – (Mortgagee in Possession).’
Agents PRH Pat Rice & Hawkins.
After reading the advertisement out loud to John he of course said, “we should go and have a look at it” to which I probably rolled my eyes and replied “what would be the point”, but said husband John rather promptly arranged for an inspection anyway, and it was quite exciting to think that we were now going to inspect a property that was considered to be one of Victoria’s landmark properties, and with one of the oldest gardens in the State.
I was secretly thinking that we wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever owning such a property, for a myriad of reasons, apart from the logistics of living so far away from John’s office in Melbourne along with our family and friends, but we had a history of not staying put in one place for very long, and had consequently moved quite a few times and had been temporary citizens of Port Fairy, Euroa, Panton Hill, Mount Buller, Main Ridge and Paynesville, with horses being the main catalyst for our more rural purchases.
In the end, it became quite hard dealing with all the various injuries and accidents that the horses suffered, and I will probably never get horses completely out of my system, and the world should revere these intelligent and hardworking animals, that will always try and reward their compassionate and caring owners in the long run, but just like humans, their behavior is rather unpredictable at times.
First Sight of the Homestead
I knew that we’d been immediately hooked by the advertisement for Ercildoune though, as not many historical properties like this ever come on to the market here in Australia, especially ones with design features that would look more at home in countries where it is not uncommon to see medieval castles. I had only just started to show an interest in gardening and gardens and had just completed an Advanced Certificate of Horticulture at Burnley College, whose own gardens date back to 1863.
We had rarely even ventured over the Westgate Bridge, except for the time I visited Australia’s only medieval theme park Kryal Castle as a teenager, where I will never forget the somewhat disturbing visual called ‘The Whipping of the Wench’ that in this day of political correctness, is not performed there anymore. My husband and I had also taken our two boys to see the ‘open-air museum in Golden Point’ called Sovereign Hill, that is so interesting in that it depicts Ballarat’s first ten years after the discovery of gold there in 1851, and the 25-hectare site comprises over 60 historically recreated buildings, with costumed staff and volunteers. The second-largest gold nugget in the world weighing 69kg or 2,200 ounces, was discovered by Cornishmen in the Red Hill Mine which is also recreated at Sovereign Hill.
Apart from those little adventures, we hadn’t heard much else about Ballarat, except that the climate was famous for being a tad chilly at times and that it occasionally snowed there, whereby these meteorological events became newsworthy in Melbourne. Of course, inspecting a property with 16 fireplaces also gave us a bit of a clue about the necessity to keep warm there during the frosty Ballarat Winters. The date of our one and only inspection soon arrived, so we hit the Western Freeway and finally arrived at the town of Burrumbeet, where we turned off the freeway at Ercildoune Road and drove past the Burrumbeet Railway Station that had operated between 1874 and 1972.
It had once had a short branch railway line to the Burrumbeet Racecourse where a special platform had also been erected and we were even lucky enough to have a home-bred racehorse come equal first there, but that was sadly her only win.
Ercildoune was now a landlocked 180 acres, so we had to reach the Homestead via a shared gravel road that was adjacent to the original carriageway that was now on the neighbour’s land. This must have looked magnificent in its day, and it would have been a real treat to arrive by horse and carriage and negotiate the 1½ mile driveway right up to the Homestead through the towering Monterey pines and Himalayan cedars, that were now well over one hundred years old with many suffering senescence. It is not uncommon to see great rows of these half-dead pines around country Victoria and it is such a difficult and rather expensive task for farmers to remove them and then replant as we were to find out.
The official boundary of Ercildoune started near the dilapidated old Shearing Shed, and the formal entrance to the property gave us a hint of what was to come as the rather ornate wrought iron gates were attached to quite unusual circular castellated gateposts. We drove through a leafy canopy that hugged the driveway that was flanked by a myriad of suckering elms, willows and poplars, then on to a lawned area full of ornamental trees, including two towering ancient bunya bunya trees. On we drove through another set of smaller wrought iron gates, and suddenly the newspaper photo metamorphasized before our eyes, and believe me, it was a surreal moment, and I was certainly held just a little spellbound.
Transported to Another Time
It felt like that we had instantly been transported back to another time and place that was such a unique mixture of Scottish and Australian.
“With its thick walls and massive tower, its high pitched roofs, tall chimneys and battlemented parapets, it is reminiscent of Scotland’s feudal days; but the granite is from the nearby hills, the bricks and tiles are of Australian clay, and the water flows from the creek which is fed so freely from the hills beyond”.
The Australian Home Beautiful 1 February 1929.
Ercildoune was originally spelt without the ‘e’ and it was the second owner who added on the ‘e’ all because he wanted an even number of letters on the gates. It is such a melodic sounding name though, and was derived from the Gaelic Arciol Dun, meaning ‘the lookout hill’ and so named in order to perpetuate their family’s connection to an ancient keep or fortified tower that was situated on the Scottish Border.
The hills they did settle near was called Mount Ercildoune (also called The Rhymer on an old map dated 1859) and its granite outcrops being situated not far from the rear of the Homestead, one of three exemplary volcanic landscape features in this area along with Mount Beckworth and Mount Bolton. According to Wikipedia, the Western Victorian Volcanic Plains is the third largest volcanic plain in the world covering an area of 2.3 million hectares and that is more than 10% of the State. It is believed that these basalt plains were formed by volcanoes over the last 6 million years with the most recent eruption being at Mount Napier 7,200 years ago.
More than 90% of these plains have been cleared for farming and more than 400 volcano sites have been found here, with the sites near Ballarat being quite close together. It is not known why the volcanos stopped and some scientists believe that they are dormant volcanoes with the average depth of the lava being around 60 metres.
Stepping Inside History
The year 1838 was chiselled on the large granite keystone above the black and white marbled portico area, the actual date that the pioneering Learmonth brothers, Thomas and Somerville, and later on Andrew, first took up the Ercildoun (without an ‘e’) Run. The name Learmonth is the name of a noble Scottish family that can be traced back nearly 1000 years to the year 1057. The front door had been left open for us, as we were one of several groups, and the inside hallway area now had many autumn leaves swirling in windswept circles around the lovely oak parquetry floor that had sadly been water damaged in places. Having been left mainly uninhabited for many years, it didn’t take long to find out that the inside of the Homestead certainly needed a mountain of work done to it to bring it back from its ruinous state.
I could see that John was already thinking deeply about the logistics of the renovation works needed, as he is inclined to do about most things, and it was hard just to walk away and not do something about it. We had been told that a crowd of 5,000 people visited during an open day back in the 1950s, and there was a sea of people trying to squeeze past each other on the stairs, in order to view the interiors of what had once been, “one of the stateliest places in the country”. It was reported that some of ‘the visitors’ sadly vandalized the garden and its statuary and at some stage many windows were broken.
The garden statues certainly didn’t fair too well either, with a Dutch looking man having his legs broken off, whilst the maiden suffered the indignity of having both her legs and head removed, and these parts were sadly never found, but we were to find out that the headstones in the cemetery had mysteriously disappeared too. The Homestead had certainly developed a bewitching mixture of rot, mould, burnt wood and ‘eau-de-possum’, the result of many of them having taken up residence in the roof cavities as some opportune gaps appeared over time, and the upstairs bathroom was certainly a testament to that with possum urine having permanently stained the wooden ceiling.
The tower was also a concoction of off smells, that included the small microbats that called it home. The worst thing for these old properties, is being left empty for any period of time, and many do as they are fairly expensive to maintain, especially with such huge expanses of garden.
As it was a renowned sheep property there were some interesting history boards left behind and one had been signed by Major Currie and stated –
The Camden Flock of which this exhibit is representative was formed in 1797 from stock imported by Capt. Waterhouse to Australia from the Cape of Good Hope, selected from Merino sheep which were a present from the King of Spain to the Dutch Government. Of these, 5 rams and 3 ewes became the property of Captain John McArthur of Camden Park, New South Wales. In 1804 Captain McArthur visited England and purchased several ewes and rams at the Annual Sale of King George III’s merino stud at Hampton Court; pure Spanish Merino sheep of the same strain as those originally imported. Portion of the Foundation Flock so formed was brought to Victoria in 1846.
After several changes of ownership it was acquired by Mr Thomas Shaw of Wooriwyrite in 1900, and after his death, by the present owner of Ercildoune. As many Australian Merino Studs trace their origin to this flock, it may be of interest to sheepowners to know that the Camden merino flock of which this exhibit is trpical has been inbred within itself for 144 years, without the infusion of any foreign blood, since the year in which the first merino sheep came to Australia.
The average weight of the ewe’s fleece – 4.7lbs – would not compare with that of merino flocks of today, but in spite of inbreeding for 144 years the flock today is hardy, immune from disease, and thrives on a minimum amount of pasture. The quality of the wool, the soft silky faces and uniformity are typical characteristics of the parent stock — the pure Spanish Merino. H. Alan Currie. 233/6/41
Exploring the Property
After what seemed like ages exploring all of the rooms, we decided to head outdoors and follow the path to the Walled Garden. It was the ultimate garden room, and the three metre granite walls gave it such a unique feel. The second owner and his sons are credited with building it, and like the Homestead, the granite blocks, described as being warm grey and having a silver tone, must have been sourced from an area abutting Mount Ercildoune. Old photographs by Russell Grimwade, showed that the area had once been subdivided into three garden rooms by two towering cypress hedges with archways cut into them.
It is said to be the only Walled Garden of this scale in Victoria, over an acre in size, but whoever measured it out managed to get the measurements slightly out of kilter though, so it is strangely not a perfect rectangle. A mature date palm and a large Golden Elm were the remnants of what must have been a magnificent garden space to wander around in and some ancient Wisterias were growing rampantly in several places, including over the wrought iron gate.
We than went and inspected all of the outbuildings all in different stages of decline, and it was becoming increasingly challenging to get our heads around what once was a small village, but we still drove back to Melbourne rather in awe of what we had just witnessed. I was not at all convinced that we should even attend the Auction, but it seemed like we had met our fate in a weird way, and my mind would not release the many images of Ercildoune way back then and as I can’t even now.
Auction Day
Even after a good night’s sleep, and with the hope that some sort of common sense would prevail, we decided to attend the Auction just to see what transpired but we thought it would be nice to have a weekend away in Ballarat too. We decided to book a room at the historic Craig’s Hotel where so many distinguished visitors had stayed over the years. It was an enjoyable stay in this grand Hotel, surrounded by some very nice period furniture, so we ate a hearty breakfast and wandered up Sturt Street that has many outstanding buildings that are testament to its golden heritage, including the Town Hall, Mechanics Institute, Railway Station, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Mining Exchange, just to name a few.
It is quite amazing to think that beneath these historic buildings at the heart of Ballarat, there is an underground mine that is virtually still untouched, and mine shafts apparently still run everywhere beneath the foundations of the city and its surrounds. We left mid-morning to attend the Auction and I reminded said husband that he should not put in a bid at all as it would be complete madness to take on such a huge project. We parked the car and headed towards the large crowd that had gathered in front of the Homestead in readiness for the Auction.
I reminded John again that it would be wise not to make any bids, but he now also appeared to be under the spell of Ercildoune, otherwise he would have listened to said wife.
The bidding then started, so I decided to walk to the Walled Garden, as I was not able to withstand the pressure of the unthinkable happening and a random lady came over to us and said that we should buy it as we were still young(ish). When I returned to the crowd, the property was just about to be knocked down to us, but just when we thought Ercildoune was ours, someone complained that they’d stuck up their hand and been missed, so the bidding re-started and the price kept going up again. I said to John, that re-starting the bidding was definitely an omen, so please let these other people have Ercildoune, but it was then knocked down to us again and we were destined to become the 7th owners.
It was all very exciting and worrying at the same time, so we arrived back at our residence that night with many mixed feelings that included “what the hell have we just done,” and John actually admitted to being a little bit daunted for once, but I knew that if anyone could, then John was capable of coping with this huge project. We then steeled ourselves for the long and challenging road ahead and it was extremely satisfying to think that Ercildoune was going to become lovingly cared for once again.
I didn’t realise back then how much this property would become firmly entrenched in my psyche, and how often Ercildoune would appear in my dreams. I thought I could shut that front door in 2014, and leave the roller coaster ride of mixed emotions behind me.
Heritage Recognition
The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) has classified Ercildoune “as being of national significance, and one of the most historic and architecturally important Homesteads in Victoria. Architecturally the Homestead is of considerable importance for the first Homestead, which is one of the earliest surviving buildings in Victoria, the gardens and the main house and its interiors.” The Statement of Cultural Heritage Significance describes Ercildoune as “an extraordinary example of a mid-19th century pastoral property, comprising a range of buildings and elements dating from at least the mid-19th century, through to the early 20th century.
It has the appearance of a small rural settlement, comprising an array of buildings and elements including the caretaker’s residence, manager’s residence, gatehouse, garden plantings and structures, cemetery, waterways and hydro-electric scheme, wind-breaks, and a series of farm buildings such as the barn and shearing shed.”
Heritage Victoria had previously provided a grant of $12,750 for a very detailed Conservation Plan that was undertaken by Falkinger, Andronas Pty. Ltd., Architects and Heritage Consultants, dated April 1997, for the Riddoch family who had carried out some work to increase the electricity from 1 to 3 phase, cleaned up general rubbish and junk around the property, blocked access points to stop possum invaders, and had the road to Bishop’s Dam built. The Conservation Plan stated that “though the structure of the estate remains substantially intact, there is much to be done to conserve and stabilize the buildings and garden and return it to its former grandeur.”
Traces of Past Grandeur
Some examples of this past grandeur included ornate cornices and ceiling roses, Victorian stepped skirting boards, a staircase “associated with Georgian houses,” and the large skylight above the circular void surrounded by wrought iron balustrading. We’d heard from some locals that there had once been an impressive chandelier hanging in the hallway, but The Australian Home Beautiful article (1929) shows that there was once a large bronze Chinese lantern hanging there and the Curries did seem to buy quite a few oriental pieces during their travels. Ercildoune had been described as a storehouse of historic treasures of the old days. Two hundred items were bequeathed by Lady Muriel Currie to the Ballarat Art Gallery in memory of her husband Major Alan Currie and a publication named ‘The Currie Collection – 18th century and 19th century fine art objects and furniture.’
It states that “The collection reflects the tastes and experiences of an era now largely in the past. The fine English furniture, the sets of prints by William Hogarth, the von Guerard paintings from Sir Alan’s father’s property and the oriental items carefully chosen, one guesses, from a ‘grand tour’ to the Orient, popular around the turn of the century.” The last two sales of Ercildoune had been on a ‘walk-in, walk-out’ basis, so some of the Learmonth furniture was left behind, but it is not clear which pieces were theirs. Lady Currie bequeathed some of the most valuable pieces to the Ballarat Art Gallery in 1948, in memory of her husband Sir Alan Currie. Some of the oldest pieces are a Bureau Cabinet c1710, a Corner Cupboard c1795, a mahogany case Grandfather Clock c1809 and a Sideboard c1815.
One of the best objects were a pair of rare and valuable bevelled carved wood gilt Wall Mirrors c.1760 that had Phoenix birds either side of the C scroll ornament on the top. I never knew that Phoenix birds are mentioned in Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology and according to ancient writers, lived for 500 years, then died and is cyclically born again after arising from the ashes of its predecessor (Encyclopedia.com and Wikipedia). Some say that after Lady Currie’s death, Erclildoune fell into decline.
An Auction was held in 1963 on behalf of her Estate, stating that many items dated back to the original owners, and there were 413 objects offered, including furniture, kitchenalia including glasses, goblets, vases, sweet dishes, candlesticks and suffers, cruets, wine coasters… The more unusual items were Items No. 348, Mounted Rhinoceros’s head, No. 349 a Mounted Stag’s Head, No. 351 a Rhinoceros Hide Screen, and Item No. 360 was a Bear Skin Rug. We also heard from a local antique dealer that a pair of Ming Vases had allegedly been sold separately for $84,000.
I suppose we will never really know exactly what furniture the Learmonth’s brought out from Scotland. There were two white marble Adam fireplaces in need of repair, one in the drawing room and the other in the adjoining ‘smoking room’, as well as quite a few original wooden curtain rods and long brass rods used for hanging pictures from. A door led off the main hallway to the myriad of rooms that had been known as the ‘servants wing’ that included a dining room for their staff. Four other rooms were dedicated to cooking and food preparation and the ancient and commodious cast iron range cooker took pride of place in the kitchen that had a strapped fibrous plaster ceiling with a small scotia cornice.
The Butler’s Pantry and Bakery
This room was in between a larger room and hallway known as the butler’s pantry that had once contained inbuilt cedar cupboards, but it had a lovely, but slightly damaged ornate griddled plaster ceiling that was flooded from the bathroom above due to a plumbing error. This led to a flower room and storage area. The bakery at the rear of these rooms had an extremely worn wooden step that signified the amount of foot traffic over the years, and this area also had another copper-based sink and a long bread oven. The floor in the bakery had concrete screed over a brick floor, but it had to be replaced with wooden floorboards after the floods.
One of the first cookbooks was The English and Australian Cookery Book written by a local landowner and published in 1864 and is described as being one of the earliest examples of how the British settlers adapted their cooking to the local ingredients. Kangaroo brains, roast wombat or emu – these are some of the dishes to be found in the first cookbook from Australia that includes native ingredients. The 1831 journal of Tasmanian Mary Allport uses a recipe for suckling pig in order to make a meal out of an echidna, and she also used stuffed wallabies as a substitute for Scottish hares.
Owners and Parliamentarians
The first three owners all became Members of Parliament, sitting in the Upper House. They consequently entertained many distinguished visitors to Victoria included on their itinerary a visit to Ercildoune, so many magnificent feasts would have been prepared in this network of rooms and Ercildoune has been described as one of Victoria’s best-known centres of country social life. Many distinguished visitors were entertained here including Vice-regal parties, who came to Ercildoune for a deer shoot and Lady Hopetoun, who later became the Marchioness of Linlithgow, a keen angler, accomplished horse rider and hunter, shot the last deer at Ercildoune, but they thankfully only shot the stags – Tom Fisher’s comments in The Australasian 12 July 1930.
The guest list often included important dignitaries from overseas including the Governor of Ceylon in 1877, Governor Generals, State Governors and Royalty, including the visit by Gordon Wilson’s wife, Lady Sarah Wilson (nee Sarah Spencer-Churchill) who was Winston Churchill’s Aunt, (and Ercildoune would have probably seemed like slumming it compared to some of the enormous ancestral properties associated with some of the guests). Sir John Longstaff, a five time winner of the Archibald Prize, and the first Australian artist to be knighted, along with fellow artist Daryl Lindsay, Peter Purves-Smith, The English Cricket Team (1932-33) and the Delegates of the Japanese Goodwill Mission (1938) were also guests.
The first three owners were all involved in politics at some level and entertained many other people involved in that realm including Robert Menzies, twice Prime Minister of Australia (1939-41 and 1949-66) and his wife Pattie who both signed the Ercildoune Visitors’ Book and Sir Alan Currie was elected to the Legislative Council in 1928, succeeding Mr. R. G. Menzies as Honorary Minister in the McPherson Government.
Bells played an important role in communication as there was a large brass bell that was rung 6 days per week at 6.45am in order for the employees to gather around and receive their instructions on what to do for the day. If they were late, then they were docked that day’s pay. Not sure what they would have used as an alarm clock back then, but maybe a rooster would crow when the dawn was breaking. There was also a row of ten brass servants’ bells situated inside a glassed-in porch area just off the kitchen area, but they were no longer connected.
Each bell had a different tone so that the employees could identify the room that they were being summoned from, and once successful, they would have hired quite a few house, parlor and laundry maids, housekeeper/cooks, gardeners, stable hands/grooms, just to name a few. According to Women and Marriage In 19th Century England by Joan Perkin: “Servants had to toil up and down stairs at the call of a bell carrying buckets of coal, cans of water and trays of food”.
Through the Homestead
The long narrow passageway off the kitchen area provided yet another albeit narrow, food preparation area, so that the various cooks could manage their own sections on the big occasions. The first section had a serving bench topped with a thick layer of lead in order to keep the food cool in the warmer months. At the end of this passage was an airy meat room, that was suffering from falling damp, but where the long wooden benches had worn quite thin in places from the constant chopping of knives. In-between these two areas, was an alcove with the pipe that was attached to the ‘slops’ basin upstairs, and maybe that was the first example of internal plumbing, or the next step up from using chamber pots at least.
There was a linen room, with plenty of storage cupboards, that we soon found out wasn’t mouse proof, and adjacent to this room was the commodious wash-house/laundry, which contained the impressive copper under which a fire could be lit in order for the copious amounts of hot water washing to take place. There were signs of borer infestation here too, so the badly affected areas were replaced with new timbers. There were two huon pine troughs, (huon being one of the oldest living plants in the world and a lovely rich golden colour), and some of the brickwork still had blue stains on them from the old-fashioned blue bags that were used to whiten things back in the day.
(“Reckitt’s Crown Blue is the best and safest way to keep white fabrics sparkling, clean white. Crown blue can be used in hot or cold water. It does not contain dye or bleach. Directions: Wrap blue in cloth, cotton or muslin best”).
Upstairs at the front of the Homestead was where the main bedroom suite was located. It consisted of two adjoining bedrooms and a rather underwhelming ensuite. The names Avalon and Astolat had been carved over the doors, and from my research, both names appear to be linked to King Arthur whose legend is strong in the Scottish Border country. He has also been linked to their famous relation, Thomas the Rhymer, who is firmly entrenched in their intriguing family history. According to the information on Eildon Hall provided by Wikipedia, “The caverns of the Eildon hills are said to be represented as Avalon, where King Arthur took possession of the sword Excalibur. It is believed by some that King Arthur was buried in one of these caverns.”
Kelvin arranged for and assisted with the building of the large built-in mahogany wardrobe that we had commissioned for the room called Astolat. Opposite these two rooms, across a very wide landing where the interesting skylighted void can be seen from the ground floor were the two adjoining bedrooms used by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, during his famous visit in 1934, along with the once castellated ensuite bathroom. John always checks everything and found out that this ensuite was being held up by a rotting telegraph pole. The ensuites were said to have been added on for the Duke’s special visit, along with the outside ‘water closet’, that became known as the Duke of Gloucester Loo.
The Duke and Duchess of York were also meant to stay for a weekend during their visit to Victoria in 1927 but cancelled it giving the Curries very short notice and I’m sure that they would have spent weeks getting the property ready for them. Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, KG, KT, KP, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, PC, was the son of King George V and Queen Mary and he was Governor-General of Australia in 1945 for two years.
Sir Samuel Wilson’s Additions
The back area of the Homestead was added on by Sir Samuel Wilson, the extremely wealthy second owner, whose family had nearly a half a century association with the property, and who at one time leased around 2.5 million acres of land and was thought to have been the largest sheep farmer in the world with 600,000 sheep. Imagine counting all of those sheep! He and his brothers shared some commonalities with the Learmonth brothers in that they came over here from Britain, albeit the Learmonth family was from Scotland and the Wilson family from Ireland, and subsequently made large fortunes. Charles Wilson was only 22 years old when he walked from Sydney to Melbourne to work for a squatter and then 12 months later, his brother Alexander and eldest brother John created the firm Wilson Bros.
They had most likely also heard from Major Mitchell about where the best land was, although he did seem to see some of the land through rose coloured glasses with it being stated that he romanticized its virtues, especially as the Wimmera had a lot of land having only a limited amount of water. And just like the Learmonth brothers, they also set out with 2000 sheep, and acquired the necessary bullocks to pull their wagons through the somewhat challenging conditions at times, and headed to the Wimmera region to take up their first run at Vectis, with the adjoining 96,000 acre Polkemmet run being taken up in 1842.
Alexander Wilson was also a great horseman and in 1845 rode 280 miles in 3½ days to the Lands Commissioner to take out a licence for another run located 30 miles to the north of these properties that they called Kewell. They too had to boil down sheep when the market collapsed in order to make money from the subsequent tallow and sheep hides. They didn’t end up keeping the leasehold of Vectis but held Kewell and Walmer and Charles ended up tending the flock of 10,000 sheep himself when his shepherds took off for the goldfields.
John returned to Ireland to get married and he returned in 1852 with Samuel Wilson, then aged 20 and then acquired the lease of Longerenong in 1856 and bought into Yanco and ended up owning Toorale and Dunlop on the Darling before the acquisition of Ercildoune. Wilson Bros. bought Woodlands where John settled, and he also acquired Trawalla. Alexander bought the original Vectis holding and lived there. He ended up mentoring his nephew Samuel McCaughey initially as a jackaroo at Kewell before going on to become incredibly successful himself. By 1862, Wilson Bros. holdings comprised of Kewell, Ashens, Avon Plains, Green Hills, St. Helens, Walmer, Kirkwood, Longerenong, Blackheath East, Marma Downs Stations.
In addition, Alexander Wilson held the leases of Vectis, Muckindar, Arapiles, Darragan and Wyn Wyn. Longerenong, like Ercildoune, was a striking residence and had been described as ‘the finest Gothic villa in Western Victoria’, and he had also added on an additional ten rooms for servants’ quarters there too.
This ‘Wilson’ addition was connected to the front part by hallways that lead to six more bedrooms of varying sizes and there is a large tank apparently made of copper in the ceiling above the largest bedroom. There were three bathrooms and four toilets upstairs and we added 2 showers and had the heavy cast iron bath with brass feet re-enamelled. It took 4 strong men to carry the cast iron bath downstairs. It must have been a day for celebration when the basic ‘slops’ basin was replaced by proper plumbing with running water.
Six out of the ten bedrooms upstairs had fireplaces in them, and they must have gone through a lot of wood, so one can only imagine the hustle and bustle required to keep them all burning, plus the copper in the laundry and the large kitchen range and bread ovens. At least a rudimentary outside lifting device on a pulley had been installed at some stage to make life a little easier when hauling up firewood etc.
An Ancient Scottish Line
The brothers came from one of the oldest families in Scotland and their family tree can be traced back 10 generations. The most notable Scottish Clans had their own tartan, family crest and motto, and were often tied geographically to a given area where there was an ancestral castle. Ercildoune may have been built to partly honour their memory and remind them of home, thereby creating an Australian Scottish connection and that included a tower that was attached to the main part of the house by an arm of ornamental stonework. Inside this tower, apart from a constant supply of dead bats, was a large tank that may have also been used to convey water to the bathrooms at some stage.
A scion of the family was the famous explorer Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, and in building his residence Park Hall he stated that the country where he built it was rugged and wild and surrounded by hills and mountains that reminded him of the land in the County of Stirling. He built a home that reminded him of Park Hall because “my early years spent there with Thomas Livingston will always remain in my memory.” Thomas Livingstone Mitchell built one of the finest private residences in the colony of New South Wales at that time that also included a sixty feet tall tower that he adapted for astronomical observation. He placed ‘a parchment’ in a cavity of the foundation stone that read –
“Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Hon. Doctor of Civil Law in the University of Oxford, accompanied by Charles Nicholson, Doctor of Medicine, in the year of grace 1842, and in the reign of Queen Victoria, laid the foundation-stone of this house, in a land now almost divided from the world, but which may one day equal in all the acts of civilization the illustrious regions of his native land.”
Thomas the Rhymer had been described as an intellectual man, a scholar and a respected landowner. His chapbook, of poems and prophecies were kept in almost every farmhouse in Scotland for centuries after his death. Chapbooks are small paper-covered booklets, usually printed on a single sheet or portion of a sheet, folded into books of 8, 12, 16 and 24 pages, often illustrated with crude woodcuts.
They were in circulation from the 17th to the 19th centuries, sold by travelling hawkers, pedlars, street-criers or ‘chapmen’ for a penny or less on the streets and at markets and fairs. His work also inspired many famous authors including Sir Walter Scott, who was born in Edinburgh in 1771 and has been described as the first international literary superstar. He contracted polio as a child and was sent to recuperate with his grandparents in the Scottish Borders for a number of years, where he acquired his broad knowledge of Scottish folklore, ballad and legend. The Rhymer’s name is associated with place names and clubs in the village to this day and the High School and many groups apparently use the tower as part of their logo.
In the mid 19th century Earlston was experiencing an industrial boom and numerous new houses were said to be built from stones taken from the ruins of the tower. In 1895 the tower and adjoining land was bought by the Edinburgh Borders Counties Association to safeguard the two walls that are left.
A plaque on one of the two remaining walls of Rhymer’s Tower Earlston bears the words –
“Farewell my Fathers ancient tower! A long farewell” said he;
“The scene of pleasure, pomp or power, thou never more shalt be.”
“Adieu! Adieu!” again he cried, all as he turned him round’
“Farewell to Leaders silver tide! Farewell to Ercildoune”.
Walter Scott.
Somerville Learmonth Junior sent a stone back from their ancestor’s original tower as a special memento for the Curries and they inserted it into the wall outside the hunting room and the small brass tablet above it was inscribed:
“Ercildoun” Arciol-Dun (the lookout hill).
The Stone from Rhymer’s Tower
Stone from Rhymer’s Tower at Earlston, (Ercildoun), Scotland,
Occupied in the 13th Century by Thomas the Rhymer.”
It has been estimated that there was a castle built every 100 square miles in Scotland with around 3,000 being constructed throughout history, and it has been said that many of them impress us because of their gloomy grandeur and violent history, but many are also associated with chivalry and the landed nobility.
Wikipedia states that Scotland is geologically alien to Europe, comprising of the ancient continent of Laurentina which later formed the bulk of North America. Scotland’s bronze age occurred around 2200-800BC and an excavation at Edinburgh Castle found Bronze Age material dating from around 850BC. The closest Scotland was in distance to Australia was back in the days of Gondwanaland, but the oceans formed and the tyranny of distance protected Australia from the long tentacles of the British Empire for a long time. The Scottish have fought many wars with England over the years, nearly as many as the number of English that were beheaded if I’ve counted correctly, and then they fought their own Clan wars where they fought for reputation, wealth, territory and just for survival. They’d often play the bagpipes and the Highland Regiment never went to battle without a piper.
I wonder who the first person was who said I think I’ll fashion this sheepskin into a bag and shove some wooden sticks into it and create a musical instrument. Scottish Laws were more humane in regard to the lesser offences than the English Laws, and they also have 3 possible verdicts in result to the outcome of a case requiring a ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ verdict by adding a third outcome of ‘not proven’ after an acquittal, but with the acknowledgement of continuing doubt about the innocence of the accused.
Settling at Ercildoune
The Learmonth brothers must have been very keen to get on and build something substantial once they knew that there was no risk of them losing the land back to the Government, and it must have been satisfying to be able to build something substantial in granite rather than with bark, or wattle and daub. The Homestead has been described as being built in the Scottish Baronial style, a style that was apparently seen as a great romantic expression of architectural nationalism and tradition. The Ercildoune Homestead started off as a modest single storey dwelling with a verandah and the kitchen and laundry areas were possibly detached in the beginning, but it was probably built with further additions in mind.
Major Alan Currie stated in his notes that the Homestead was commenced in 1840, and that correlates with the Learmonth Diary Burrumbeet, although it becomes confusing at times, as to which place they’re alluding to, so they most likely divided their time between both places depending on the needs of the sheep and the latest project. Thomas was married in 1856 and further additions to the homestead were said to have been completed in the late 1850s. Nearly all members of the Learmonth family ended up having many children although sadly both Thomas and Somerville both had daughters die less than a month old.
The various letters we read indicated that Thomas and Louisa had been quite alarmed at the proposed cost of the additions when given an estimate from an unknown Ballarat architect, and they advertised for tenders to be submitted by builders, but for labour only. In the plans dated April 1859, it showed the current drawing room and ‘smoking room’ divided into a bedroom, office, drawing room, dining room that led to the tiny writing room. The kitchen premises were made up of 6 rooms including the kitchen area with fireplace, lumber room, bakehouse, scullery and 2 bedrooms.
The letters exchanged between Thomas and his brothers, especially with his youngest brother Andrew, talk about their various ideas for the additions, and in the letter dated 8th April 1859, Andrew whilst in London, stated that it would be best to have a door strategically placed “to shut out from the house the effects of the water closet which you will find difficulty in rendering inodorous. If you can do without the closet (toilet) I advise you omitting it.” John Learmonth had put one in at Laurence Park, but it could not be used.
Andrew also had jokingly written that: “B 15 x 13 will make a nursery now that you are paterfamilias, and it should have a well fitted door to deaden the sounds of the birch strokes and concomitant uproar.” Just like the whipping of the wench at Kryal Castle that I witnessed in my youth, any mention of birch strokes and children would be greatly frowned upon in this day and age.
The letter from Thomas dated 11th June 1859 to Andrew states that the kitchen should be built immediately opposite the back door, as much labour is saved to the servants, and that the whole of the addition and the kitchen be built in brick, except for the front which for appearance sake ought to leave out quoins and cut facing. He also stated that another room could be required as a lumber room until either of their offspring require a school room and that he wanted to start the renovation in early Summer.
Children of Ercildoune
Thomas, Somerville and Andrew ended up having children born at Ercildoune, with the birth of the first daughter Louisa being recorded in March 1858. Youngest brother Andrew’s son Noel recorded as having been born there in 1871, not long before it was put on the market and Somerville’s son Lestock was probably the last child born there in 1872. At one time there could have been twelve children living with around a thirteen-year age gap from the youngest to the oldest, so the Homestead would have been extended in such a way in the late 1850s in order to try and accommodate all of them. It is interesting to note that Andrew Learmonth is credited by Tom Fisher in improving the garden at some stage prior to Sir Samuel Wilson turning it into the showplace it became, but with the help of at least seven gardeners.
It was probably an understatement that Sir Samuel ‘enhanced Ercildoune’s magnificent English garden’ as he added the Walled Garden, a huge keel shaped conservatory that housed begonias, gloxinia palms, hoya, rock orchids, cactus, and a planting of Asparagus torgatum formed four arches. There had also been a trellis conservatory that housed nine varieties of Japanese dwarf trees used as table decorations, along with variegated hydrangeas.
The map of the Parish of Ercildoun dated 1856 names the hill directly North of the Homestead Peak of Almond with the larger range to the North West of that being called Peak of Ercildoune. Another map dated 1857 names the two granite mountains in the area Mount Ercildoun (614m above sea level) and Mount Misery and shows the range of other crests nearby extending into a semi-circle and forming an amphitheatre of considerable extent. The Learmonths did ask Governor Latrobe for Mount Misery to be re-named but that request went unheeded.
There are also some smallish caves on Mount Ercildoun which Gowrie the bushranger was said to have fortified to try and avoid capture, while he planned his further exploits, but he was eventually found and shot dead, and his skull was kept in the Homestead. Bushranging had been rife in Tasmania and New South Wales in the thirties and forties and spread to Victoria during the ‘golden fifties’, as any number of free men were determined to make an easy living in the lawless years which followed the gold discoveries of 1851. Mount Misery has the quarry area that apparently was known as the Ercildoun Mine, (652 metres above sea level), and it is one of the highest mines in Victoria according to Bonzle.
It is a stone deposit and provided the granite for the bulk of the Homestead and other outbuildings and the Ercildoune Sand Quarry still operates today. I was told that there was a place called Monkey Gully near here, so named because some of the early settlers called the koalas monkeys.
Sir Samuel Wilson donated £30,000 for the stunning Gothic styled Wilson Hall to be built at Melbourne University, and had also built Longerenong Homestead, and an imposing city house that he called Oakleigh Hall, located in East St. Kilda. This property was later bought by Andrew Fisher, one of Australia’s three time serving Labour Prime Minister’s who was another Scottish born success story. Sir Samuel Wilson owned at least sixteen rural properties according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography although he did subdivide Longerenong into five properties, not bad for a man who arrived here to join his brothers with only £250 in his pocket.
It has also been stated that he saw Ercildoune as an important acquisition that would improve his social standing and his generous donation to Melbourne University for the construction of Wilson Hall also cemented his position in the upper echelon of society. He didn’t do anything by halves though and held the infamous and most hospitable annual sheep and ram sales at Ercildoune between the years 1877-1884. Potential buyers were handed red calf-skin catalogues complete with gold lettering on the front with the inside pages outlining the history and progeny of the Ercildoune sheep and rams. He was knighted in 1875 and his last visit to Ercildoune appears to have been in 1893 when he stayed for twelve months, but he died not long after returning to Hughenden Manor in 1895 at only 63 years of age.
The Wilson Sons
Two of his sons lived at Ercildoune during his absence and had some success with their racehorses, as did the third owner Sir Alan Currie with both of them having horses coming second in the Melbourne Cup. Wilfred and Clarence Wilson’s horse Wait-a-Bit lost by only half a neck in the 1898 Melbourne Cup and he had been bred at Ercildoune. He had suffered interference in the straight and a protest was lodged by the jockey that he lost, so it was noted that the horse had suffered some “tantalising ill luck” to lose. It was reported that Sir Samuel Wilson “was going to return to this colony and make it his permanent home” but that was not to be. (The Argus – Melbourne – 13th June 1895).
Sadly two of his nine children died in infancy, and three out of four sons died fighting for their country, even though they could have lived a life of comfort, with reports of Herbert Wilson, then aged 36, living with a butler named Charles Taylor and eleven servants at an impressive sounding place called The Manor, Ashby Folville, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England. His trustees sold all of his assets in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland for the tidy sum of £2,000,000.