UMA Bulletin - University of Melbourne Archives

Bulletin of The University of Melbourne Archives
UMA
No. 15, JULY 2004
Victorian Gold Escort Company
S
ince 1977 the University of
tional. There was certainly some cause
Melbourne Archives has held a
for alarm as many in Melbourne mistook
partial copy of several docuthe blue uniformed escort for police.
ments relating to the Victoria Gold Escort
That the business was successful is
Company. Consequently, we were
shown by a prospectus for a public float
pleased when the opportunity arose earliin the following September. The prospecer in the year to acquire the original doctus stated that through the numerous
uments. These comprise the Deed of
applications for shares, the public benefit
Settlement (10 folio pages) dated 18
was likely to accrue, through access to
October 1852 with the signatures of the
greater capital.
subscribers to the company and the numThe joint-stock company was formed
ber of shares allocated, and a Deed of
to carry gold under escort from the goldRelease and Indemnity with attached
fields (Forest Creek and Bendigo) to
instructions for the payment of diviMelbourne and ‘money and small
dends, and receipts for monies paid.
parcels’ from Melbourne back to the
The first escort, Dight’s Light
goldfields. Its nominal capital was 500
Cavalry, as it was called, left Melbourne
shares of £25 each with no person peron 14 June 1852 for Forest Creek (now
mitted to hold more than eight shares.
Chewton) with a superintendent, assisThe Argus reported that ‘the proprietary
tant superintendent and ten guards. ‘Of
was never intended to be a very numerthe escort of twelve’, said The Argus,
ous one, it being of more importance that
‘eight of the guards are gentlemen by
it should be composed of active, stirring,
birth and education’, one of whom was 1853 Gold Escort Company adverand respectable men, who could pull well
said to be Richard Hengist Horne. The tisement in P.W. Pierce, Melbourne
together …’. One hundred and two subForest Creek run left Melbourne each Commercial Directory, James
scribers signed the Deed of Settlement and
Monday, arriving on Wednesday, leaving Shanley Bookseller, Melbourne.
included James Henty, Frederick Sargood
Thursday and getting to Melbourne on the
and Hugh Glass.
Saturday. The fee was sixpence an ounce while the government
C.H. Dight MLC was foundation chairman but was replaced
escort charged one shilling.
by John Orr. Only recently arrived in Melbourne from Scotland,
In fact the idea of Dight’s Light Cavalry had sent a tremor
Orr was soon off to the Ovens, then Chiltern and Rutherglen
through the Government and the Legislative Council spent most
before coming back to Melbourne as an MLA. He continued his
of one afternoon debating and finally voting down a motion that
association with northern Victoria as a commission agent for the
armed and disciplined men in private service were unconstituOvens and Murray Forwarding Company
continued page 2
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from page 1
and the Upper Murray Steam Navigation
Company, and died in Hawthorn in 1880. William LeSouef was
managing director. The Deed of Settlement demanded that each
director have a minimum of four shares to hold office and that
minutes and accounts be kept: these other records have not survived.
So successful was the business that on 23 June 1853 the
shareholders gave a dinner at Noble’s Circus in honour of the
directors and offered a gratuity of £500, ‘which, with their characteristic generosity they declined’. In returning thanks, chairman Orr pointed out ‘that the object of the company was not to
make money, but to promote the public welfare’, a statement
received with cheers from the shareholders. Much health was
drunk on the night – to Her Majesty, Prince Albert and the all the
royal family, Colonel Valiant of the 40th Regiment, the press, the
gold diggers, the officers of the company and its chairman and
vice-chairman. But, had they heard the speeches properly? Orr
had stated that they had carried 1,182,405 ounces of gold for an
income return of £50,000 on capital of £5,000. Although the current manager Mr Birnie was credited with efficient services (and
had been presented in May 1852 with a silver plate as reward for
his services) yet, ‘Had it not been for the expenses they were at,
instead of a returned capital of £5,000, and surplus of £3,000,
they might have had, with good management, £20,000’.
That the company could be successful is ironic as the
Melbourne and Mount Alexander Escort Company, founded at
the same time, quietly faded away when it heard from Lieutenant
Governor La Trobe that the government would soon reduce fees
on the government escort. However, by 1853, it was decided to
wind up the company and meetings were held on 9 March and 9
April to move the appropriate resolution. A number of dividends
were paid during the liquidation but it was not until 1860 that the
assets had been fully realised and liabilities settled, and the final
disbursement of monies made to the shareholders.
Trevor Hart
Rio Tinto Business Archivist
Preserving Legal History:
University of Melbourne
Law Archives
Caitlin Stone
Special Projects Officer,
Legal Resource Centre
A
joint presentation by the UMA and the Legal
Resource Centre recently saw the University
Archivist, Michael Piggott, address an audience of
100 legal practitioners (including judges of the Supreme and
High Courts), archivists, librarians and University staff and students.
The event was part of a larger project to promote and
encourage further use of law-related materials held by the
UMA. The aim of the evening was to ‘celebrate important additions to the collections, reintroduce existing collections and
announce new projects to develop access and preservation’.
Among the recent additions to the UMA announced on the
evening is a collection of documents relating to the life and
work of William Foster Stawell, who became Victoria’s second
Chief Justice following the resignation of William a’Beckett in
1857. These items were donated by the Stawell family.
Other records in the UMA’s existing legal collections relate
to the law as it was practised in Victoria. A number of law firms
— including Blake and Riggall (now Blake Dawson Waldron),
Corr and Corr (now Corrs Chambers Westgarth) and Slater and
Gordon are well represented, with the earliest records dating
from the 1830s. These consist mainly of client files and were
collected as examples of businesses but, as Michael Piggott
pointed out, they also have a more general historical significance and are a potential treasure trove for researchers.
UMA Bulletin
Editor: Jason Benjamin
Layout: Susan Reidy
Produced by: Communications and Publications Section, Information Division, University of Melbourne
ISSN 1320 5838
The University of Melbourne Archives
University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
Opening Hours: Mon, Tue, Thu, 9.30 am–5.30 pm; Wed 9.30 am–7.30 pm
Phone: (03) 8344 6848
Fax: (03) 9347 8627
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/archgen.html
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Other records relate to the early history of legal education in
Victoria. The beginnings of teaching law at the University of
Melbourne can be traced through the University Calendar
(which includes the ‘Regulations for Law Students’ as devised
by Sir Redmond Barry) and Law Faculty minute books. There is
also correspondence relating to the appointment of the first law
lecturers, including William Edward Hearn who in 1873 became
the University’s first Dean of Law. Other records, including student record cards and student publications such as the Summons
and Res Judicatate, provide insights into student life.
Michael Piggott concluded by remarking that despite its
potential value to researchers, the collection of law-related
materials is not as well known or used as it could be. A new project, which aims to develop an online ‘gateway’ to legal history
resoures, should help to improve access to both the UMA’s legal
collections and related items in the Legal Resource Centre’s
Rare Book Collection. Michael asked the audience to consider
the law collections for writing and research, noting that,
‘libraries and archives are the laboratories of the humanities and
social sciences’.
For information on the Legal Resource Centre’s Rare Book
Collection, go to the website:
<http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/lrc/rarebooks/>.
Law Archives Online
Caitlin Stone
Special Projects Officer,
Legal Resource Centre
L
aw Archives Online is a new project, funded by a grant
from the Victoria Law Foundation, aimed at improving
access to legal history resources. To be undertaken
jointly by the UMA and the University Of Melbourne’s Legal
Resource Centre (LRC), the project aims to produce an online
gateway to law-related materials in the UMA and the LRC, and
to point to the correspondences between these important collections. The UMA’s holdings of items relating to the history of the
Law School; to a number of Melbourne and regional Victorian
law firms and to professional organisations such as the Law
Institute of Victoria are well complemented by items in the
LRC’s Rare Book Collection, Finemore Collection (papers relating to the Australian Constitutional Conventions of 1973 to
1985) and George Paton Collection. Law Archives Online will
be the first step in bringing together these disparate but related
collections.
For further information, contact Caitlin Stone, ph. (03) 8344
8500, email [email protected].
Left: University Archivist Michael Piggott and Legal Resource Centre Head Nicki McLaurin Smith at the recent joint presentation on preserving legal history. Photograph by Robyn Campbell. Right: Early Melbourne lawyer Henry Moor’s
1842-1843 letter book will be one of the UMA’s law-related treasures made more accessible by the Law Archives
Online project. (Law Institute of Victoria Collection, Acc. No. 60/8);
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Melbourne University Sports Union Archives
by Sarah Brown
Archivist, Trade Unions and Special Projects
T
he UMA received its first transfer of archives from
the Melbourne University Sports Union in 1979. The
collection grew with further transfers over the following years, and in December 2003 the UMA received the
Sports Union’s archives used by Dr June Senyard in the
research and writing of her recently published history, The Ties
That Bind: a history of sport at the University of Melbourne.
The collection now comprises approximately 19 linear metres
of records, and encompasses a range of formats, including a
large collection of photographs and some artefacts.
Thanks to funding support from the Sports Union, a project
to re-box and list its collection has been substantially completed. In the next stage of the project we plan to digitise selected
photographs for preservation and publishing on the UMA’s
online image catalogue, UMAIC (University of Melbourne
Archives Image Catalogue).
Key series in the Sports Union’s collection include minutes
of the Sports Union Council from its establishment in 1904,
A selection of newly transferred Sports Union photographs: Above: Melbourne University Women’s Hockey
Team Champions, 1921; Below left: Charles Henry,
Curator of Grounds, 1913; Far right: Melbourne University
Lacrosse Team, c1904.
membership registers from the early 20th century and annual
reports and yearbooks from 1905. The yearbooks are a detailed
source of the activities of the Union and its affiliated clubs,
including records of ‘Blues’ awarded. The collection also
includes early minutes from the Advisory Board for the Award of
Blues and Half Blues, and Blues nomination forms.
Records documenting various University sporting clubs can
be found throughout the collection, especially within record
series created during the 27 year period that W.K. (Bill) Tickner
was Honorary Secretary. Bill Tickner created files recording the
Sports Union’s dealings with each club and required clubs to
report annually to the Sports Union. Earlier records of some
sporting clubs can also be found in separate collections at the
UMA, to which the Sports Union collection list refers.
Tickner’s files from the 1950s and 1960s also record details
of the efforts involved to ensure expansion of the University
sporting facilities, culminating in the building of the Beaurepaire
Centre, initiatives such as the Franz Stampfl coaching clinics,
and the Sports Union’s relationship with other university sporting organisations such as the Australian Universities’ Sports
Association.
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In addition to organisational records dating from its
establishment in 1904, the collection includes photographs
and items of ephemera donated by members over many
years, some reaching back into
the 19th century. For example,
the collection includes scrolls
recording the names of ‘Inter
University Eight Oared Boat
Race Crews from 1888-1914’
and copies of The Victorian
Oarsman and Rowing Register
from 1857, donated in 1918 by
John Lang, a distinguished ex-student.
(As well as his interest in rowing, Lang
also became Chairman of the Victorian
Amateur Athletics Association). Alf
Lazer, a Captain of the Melbourne
University Athletic Club, donated many
photographs from the 1940s and 1950s
and an Athletic Club scrapbook contains
clippings about Club members from the 1920s to
1930s. Cloth pennants and
silver cups record the successes of University teams
and individuals. An oilcloth
records ‘The University of
Melbourne
Recreation
Reserve Rules November
1940’ – ‘gambling not
allowed’.
The
Melbourne
University Sports Union collection offers access to the
history of a University
organisation, and is also a source through
which to investigate sport in society and
the passion sportspeople hold for their
particular sporting pursuits.
The Ties That Bind
a History of Sport at the University of Melbourne
Jason Benjamin
Coordinator, General Reference and Outreach
A
gathering at the University
of Melbourne recently witnessed the launch of Dr
June Senyard’s new book, The Ties That
Bind: a history of sport at the University
of Melbourne. Spanning almost 150
years, this history is the first book to
trace and document organised sport at an
Australian university.
The Ties That Bind is a colourful and
thoroughly researched history that details
the role sport has played in shaping life
on campus and the role the University
has played in the development of organised sport in the wider community since
the 1850s. From the early days of
Australian Rules football and rowing on
the Yarra to the Sydney Olympic Games
and beyond, students and staff from the
University of Melbourne have played
an active role in Australia’s sporting
scene, all of which June brings to life
brilliantly in this work.
Although a history of sport at the
University of Melbourne, this work can
also be read as a general history of
sport, through June’s exploration of the
many social trends and world events
which have shaped the development of
sport in Australia. The ideals of empire,
the impact of war, post-war social
changes and the development of professional sport are a few of the themes that
are encompassed within these pages.
A lecturer in Australian history at the
University’s Department of History, June
has spent a number of years thoroughly
researching the book and has been seen
often in the UMA’s reading room. UMA
collections used by June have included
the Sports Union archives, John Grice
diaries, W.K. Tickner papers and official
University records. The Ties That Bind is
also richly illustrated with 200 images
sourced from a variety of locations,
including the collections of the UMA.
The Ties That Bind is available from
the Sports Union and the Melbourne
University Bookshop.
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People and Projects
Suzanne Fairbanks
Deputy University Archivist
T
he UMA is fortunate to have a
solid core of professional staff
working both behind the scenes
at the Dawson Street repository, and on
reference duty in the Baillieu Library
reading room. Nevertheless we could not
function and achieve as much as we do in
any year without the splendid efforts of
temporary casual staff and project officers, volunteers and professional placement students. This is their story.
In 2002 we lost the services of our
much cherished front-of-house administrator, Liz Agostino, who was seconded to
the Australian Centre. During her secondment year, Jason Benjamin, previously
the Archives Repository Officer, acted in
her position, with Tony Miller joining the
team to act as ARO at Dawson Street.
Since Liz formally resigned her position late in 2003 to join the Australian
Centre permanently we have undertaken
the usual revision of positions, and advertised and interviewed for them. As a
result, we have appointed both Jason and
Tony permanently. To quote Michael
Piggott, University Archivist, ‘There
could not be two positions more critical to
the smooth running of the UMA, and I am
greatly relieved to now have two excellent
people in them.’
Jason, newly titled the Co-ordinator,
General Reference and Outreach, is based
in the Baillieu Library reading room and
has responsibility for administration and
co-ordinating reference systems. He has
developed expertise in our photograph
collections, supervising the digitisation of
images and their placement onto the
UMA’s image catalogue, UMAIC; liaising with the National Library’s
PictureAustralia project; and processing
most of the research requests for photographic reproduction. His other strengths
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One of the Bright Family treasures recently conserved by Louise Wilson
– a plan by William Farquhar, of two pens in the Parish of Saint
Catherine belonging to Henry Bright of Great Britain Esq., 1766.
are in copyright law and exhibitions.
Jason supervises Cathie Dimitrin, our
Administrative Assistant, who is currently working on a project to ensure that
complete sets of archival finding aids are
held in both the reading room and the
repository.
Tony is now similarly styled the Coordinator, Repository and Collection
Systems to recognise that both his and
Jason’s positions are a core pair in the
routine functioning of the UMA. Tony
formerly worked in the ANZ Bank
Archive, and in the time that he has
worked for the UMA his experience has
contributed much to the improvement of
the repository. He is responsible for the
daily retrieval and return of archival
material to the reading room for
researchers, a task in which he supervises two casual assistants, Richard Burt
and Shallini Sundar. His major contribution in the last year has been to monitor a
detailed audit of the whole collection by
senior staff, and to reconstruct the location guide from the results. Tony also
assists our Senior Business Archivist,
Trevor Hart, with our volunteers, Don
Fairweather, John Reynolds, John Dew
and Alan Schurmann who are each working to improve our arrangement or
description of a specific collection.
In recent years we have also been
fortunate to have Sarah Brown working
with us as Labour Archivist. Sarah is the
former Librarian, Records Manager and
Left: UMA’s Casual Assistant, Shallini Sundar; Right: the UMA’s new Co-ordinator, Repository and Collection Systems,
Tony Miller. Photographs by Lindsay Howe.
Archivist at the Victorian Trades Hall Council, and commenced
working with the UMA several years ago on secondment from
the Trades Hall one day per week. When this arrangement was
no longer feasible, she joined us as a project archivist and is currently writing our Trade Union Collection Development policy,
assisting with our audit, and processing collections as funds
become available. So far this year she has completed the
arrangement and description of the Melbourne University Sports
Union records, the Melbourne City Mission records and is about
to commence the Australian Psychological Society records. She
also supervises our volunteers on peace and labour movement
collections, John Ellis and Les Dalton.
Bruce Smith, who has had many roles at the UMA in the past
few years from Project Officer for the creation of the Australian
Trade Union Archives website to Acting Deputy University
Archivist, is still doing project work with us. He is processing
the papers of Lord Clive Latham Baillieu, and modifying the
online exhibition Keys to the Past, established in 2003 as a history of the University in its 150th anniversary year.
Lindsay Howe has been working at the UMA since 2003 on
a project to describe and digitise some of the major photograph
collections. Initially employed to describe 10,000 photographs
which were compiled by the University’s Media and
Publications Services Office, he also digitised 150 images to add
to UMAIC. Lindsay’s employment was extended in late 2003
with the help of a grant from the University’s Miegunyah Fund
Committee. Within this project, Lindsay has digitised a total of
525 images from the archival collection of the benefactors of the
Miegunyah Fund, Sir Russell and Lady Mabel Grimwade. Seven
hundred images of Broken Hill mine works from the Broken Hill
South collection have also been digitised, and the next collections prioritised for digitisation include the Jack Lockyer
O’Brien collection of images of Melbourne architecture and
some from the Armytage Family collection.
Another project which has brought new faces to Dawson
Street is the Information Division Collection Conservation
Program. Since 2003, Louise Wilson, conservator from the
University’s Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, has
been available to the UMA and other collections within the
Information Division to conserve materials of high significance.
The UMA nominated the Bright Family papers for treatment as
it is one of our most significant collections for its evidence of
merchant activity and the slave trade out of Bristol and Jamaica
from the 17th century on.
With the assistance of Louise a work program has been put
in place in which she systematically conserves individual fragile
items, and supervises the complete repackaging of the collection
by two conservation technicians, Eve Sainsbury and Charlotte
Smith. Eve and Charlotte are based at Dawson Street three days
per week and are already confidently advancing the repackaging,
much to our relief as we have long felt such a precious collection
needed this attention.
Finally, we are often called upon to provide professional
placements to information management students. In January this
year we supervised Muriel Yeung from Monash University’s
School of Information Management and Systems, who had an
interest in social welfare records. We matched her to the
Australian Association of Social Workers and Hospital Almoners
Association collection which she arranged and described, creating a new finding aid. We are currently supervising Niki
Ebacioni, a librarianship student from RMIT who has an interest
in archives. She also has a degree in music from the University
of Melbourne, making her perfect to process the collection on
Mathew Lennard. Lennard was an amateur musician who travelled overseas to study and work, eventually leaving his papers
to the University and establishing a small scholarship in his
name. His papers have finally found a home at the UMA.
I would like to thank all of these people for making 2004 an
exciting and productive year.
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The Sir Russell Grimwade Photograph Collection
Jason Benjamin
Coordinator, General Reference and Outreach
T
he Sir Russell Grimwade photographic
collection, consisting of 30 albums, 200
prints and a large number of glass and
celluloid negative formats, is a fascinating collection of images that can only be described as being
of national significance. Dating between the mid1890s and the late 1930s this valuable collection
records many important aspects of life in Australia
during this period. The development of the motor
car as a form of transport, the changing landscape
of Melbourne, sport events, scientific expeditions,
the military and the Australian tourist abroad, all
form a part of the rich narrative that these images
tell.
A graduate in science from the University of
Melbourne, Sir Russell led an active life with a
number of diverse interests. As well as being
actively involved in many of his family’s business
concerns, he also conducted important scientific
In 1905 Sir Russell Grimwade, with his companion, G.P. Smith, made
research into the properties and uses of the eucathe first motor car trip between Adelaide and Melbourne. One of the
lyptus species and, as a founding member of the
many treasures in the Grimwade photograph collection is a small
RACV, was a keen motorist who helped pioneer
album that records this trip. The last image shows the mud-spattered
the car in Victoria. Later in life Sir Russell was to
arrival of the duo in Melbourne.
play a prominent role in the affairs of the
Miegunyah Fund for the purpose of further enhancing the
University of Melbourne as Deputy Chancellor, and is best
UMA’s online image catalogue, UMAIC (University of
remembered for his generous bequest to the University in the
Melbourne Archives Image Catalogue). Because of the rich
form of the Miegunyah Fund. These images form a unique
nature of the Grimwade collection and the obvious connection
record of this once prominent Melburnian’s life and interests as
with the Miegunyah Fund, Sir Russell’s images were the first
seen through his own camera lens.
selected to benefit from this grant and be made publicly availAs an amateur photographer who developed a keen interest
able online.
in this medium as a teenager, Sir Russell’s collection of images
Six hundred images from this collection have now been
is also an important historical resource for research into the hisselected and digitised; cataloguing and loading on to UMAIC is
tory of popular photography. Surpassing the average amateur
also progressing with over 500 images now available to the pubphotographer with the level of technical expertise he achieved,
lic. Due to Sir Russell’s methodical identification and dating of
Sir Russell’s experimentation with this medium records the
his images, it has been possible to contextualise many of these
advancement of photography as a technology. Images capturing
images with historical descriptions written from a diverse range
the moment a bottle is shattered by a bullet or of people in midof sources. It is hoped that as further resources become availair as they jump over a park bench attest to the photographer’s
able, the historical descriptions attached to images will be furfascination with the evolving technical capabilities of the camther enhanced.
era. In later years, as Sir Russell matured, his fascination with
the capabilities of the camera was turned more towards the
The Grimwade images can be viewed on UMAIC at
development of the photograph as a work of art.
<http://buffy.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cgi-bin/mua-search>.
In 2003 the UMA received a generous grant from the
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