Woolshed Valley, the Benalla letters, and the Kelly Gang

Dry Diggings, Woolshed Creek, 1857, engraved by Frederick Grosse.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria.

I have known for some time that the Woolshed Valley had been a haunt of the Kelly Gang in the 1870s.  The Griffiths had departed for Melbourne by then, but I like to think they may have rubbed shoulders there with some of the characters who had a role to play in the great saga of the Kelly 'outbreak.'  Constable Fitzpatrick, for instance, may have been the man who ran foul of Kelly in later years.

As time goes on, more flourishes are added to the Kelly story. A few years ago a "fossicker" found another set of Kelly armour in an old abandoned forge in the Woolshed Valley.  Recently my friend Jenny Coates verified a couple of letters written by a Benalla bank teller, one of which refers to Ned Kelly's horse being seen at the local races.    Jenny's Blog Conversations with Grandma explains her part in the story, and she links to a more detailed news story based on her research, where the reference to the Woolshed Valley forge will also be found.  [This article was withdrawn due to nonsensical harrassment by individuals who considered themselves more expert, and more entitled to the letters than Jenny, so we have them to thank for her research no longer being available.]

Ball at the Hibernia Hotel, 1857 UPDATED

Sketches of Australian life and scenery, by S T Gill.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection. H15524.

WOOLSHED.
(From a Correspondent.)

THE opening ball of the Hibernia Hotel came off last evening (Monday) in regular Hibernian style. At an early hour the friends of the worthy host gathered from the surrounding neighbourhood to the scene of action, where a very select number of the fair sex were in waiting  illuminate the pleasures of the ball. The orchestral arrangements  were conducted by Mr. Griffith, cornet by Mr. Barlow, and the harp  by Mr Lyons. Never did the fantastic toe so lightly fly through the  graceful motions of the dance-nor ever was more justice done to the true character of " granuale." From 9 to 5 o'clock in the morning the sport continued in the midst of tranquility and union. The arrangements of the supper table were certainly second to none ever made in the district. The appearance of the diggers seemed entirely enthusiastic, but whether it arose from the merits of the free supper, or the recollections of times past, present, or a future hope remains a mystery to be solved.

About twenty minutes to one o'clock on Tuesday morning an alarm of fire at the Britannia Hotel was given throughout the street, when a number of diggers left the ball to render assistance in saving the property of Mr De Berg, the proprietor. To the police authorities, the conduct of constables Delany and Fitzpatrick is recommended which renders them worthy of promotion for the courageous manner in which they acted in stopping the progress of the fire. It appears that one  of the servants left a candle in a careless manner in her bed room, and the inner lining having ignited in her absence, caused the adjoining  apartments to blaze considerably for about five minutes. The night being wet saved the roof from adding to the fire.

WOOLSHED. (1857, October 21). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1857 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved October 9, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113017405 

• "Mr Barlow" is identified in Austral Harmony as John Barlow, a musician active in Melbourne in 1855 and Beechworth in 1857.
• "Mr Lyons" is identified in Austral Harmony as John Christian Lyons, harp player, chemist and journalist, active in Beechworth in 1857
• Jacb V de Burg was a tentmaker at Woolshed in the Ovens Directory 1857

A "granule" is an Irish barn dance, and presumably a regular offering at the Hiberian (Irish) Hotel.

UPDATE Richard Patterson in Nobblers and Lushingtons (p 306) places the hotel at Woolshed Creek at Sebastopol Flat, and that it was largely destroyed by fire in 1861.  The licensee in 1857 was John Brock, replaced by Henry Johnston in 1858.

Miner's Right, Woolshed, 1856

From the collection of the Gold Museum, Ballarat.

The question as to whether George was a gold-digger, or merely attracted by the festival-like atmosphere of the diggings, is something I often wondered about.  I thought it was resolved when I discovered that his qualification for being included on the 1856/57 Electoral Roll for the Legislative Assembly in the Reid's Creek and Woolshed Division, Ovens District was a Miner's Right.   His occupation on that document was given as 'miner'.  I further discovered that when the new constitution took effect in November 1856 that a miner's right made provision for the holder to occupy crown land and reside.  So a miner's right made it possible for people, such as George and Susan Griffith, to have a secure place to live. Even if George did not spend a lot of time digging for gold, it would seem likely that he must have spent some time engaged in it.

Woolshed Diggings,1857

This image of the Woolshed Creek Diggings, Ovens, was taken by Walter Woodbury.  The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum, in whose collection this image resides,  dates the image to 1855, but I am inclined to think that this and other photos taken around the Ovens district were taken in 1857 when Woodbury had a studio in Beechworth.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria has a panorama of Melbourne in its collection, taken by Woodbury in 1855 from the top of West Melbourne Gas Works.  See the Victorian Historical Journal, Volume 81 No 2 (Nov 2010) for an article examining the provenance of that panorama.

Both Woodbury and Griffith were listed in the 1857 Ovens Directory, Griffith being described as a "Professor of Music, Woolshed", and Woodberry as "Daguerrean Artists Ford St, Beechworth".

Woodbury's Portrait Rooms in Beechworth, 1857, from the Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum

The Woolshed Creek diggings were located to the north west of Beechworth, accessed by a single narrow road.  The creek itself eventually joins up with the Ovens River.

Unpaid Wages, March 1857 UPDATED

Robert O'Hara Burke, circa 1860.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection

 POLICE COURT.
Friday, March 27, 1857
(Before R. O'H. Bourke, Esq., J.P. and J, S. Morphy, Esq., J.P.)

WAGES
George Zeplin v John Johnson.
A claim for £5 6s 8d, balance of wages, for playing a harp at defendant's house for two weeks and two days at £5 per week. Plaintiff had received £5, and now sued for the balance.

Mrs Griffith was sworn, and stated that she was present when Zeplin agreed with Johnson to play for him at £5 per week each. Would swear positively that the word "each" was mentioned.

Mr Johnson, having been sworn, stated that he engaged the plaintiff and his mate for £5 per week, and board, but never dreamt of paying them that amount each.

The magistrates said they had no...........the amount claimed.  

[There appears  to be a fold in the newspaper in the above sentence, and it is not clear just what the magistrates thought.] 

 WAGES.

George Griffith v John Johnson. A claim for £5 6s 8d.
This case was exactly similar to the last, and judgment for the amount was taken by consent.

POLICE COURT. (1857, March 28). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1857 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved October 8, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113014651

George Zeplin was a fruiterer and greengrocer (and evidently a harpist) at Woolshed, per Ovens directory 1857.  John Johnson was a publican at One Mile (about one mile south of the centre of Beechworth).    Henry Johnson was listed in the Ovens Directory as a publican at Woolshed.  According to Nobblers and Lushingtons: a history of the hotels of Beechworth and the Ovens District, by Richard Patterson, Johnston's Hotel was located at Upper Woolshed, where it had been from 1856. In September 1858 the hotel was described as 'the best finished house on the Woolshed'. (Patterson, p 302.)


The most interesting aspect of this post, to me, was George and Susan's brush with fame - the case was heard before Police Magistrate Robert O'Hara Burke, who would later go on to lead the ill-fated Victorian Exploring Expedition in 1860.

In the nineteenth century citizens were probably more familiar with the inside of a Magistrates' Court, which they used to chase wages owed, payments for goods, unpaid rent or board, and so on.

We learn from this that George was employed at £5 a week in a hotel to play what one imagines woud have been popular music.   We don't know what sort of week that entailed - all day for six days, or every evening for six days, five days?  The wage for a carpenter was £1-10-0 per day, a bricklayer could earn £1-5-0 per day, and a labourer between 15 shillings and £1 a day.  So these musicians (had they been paid) would have been earning less than a labourer - or the day was not a full working day.  It is hard to know unless we can shed some more light on it.

At the Ovens goldfields, 1850s.

This photograph by Walter Woodbury, said to have been taken circa 1855, shows the mining settlement at Woolshed Creek, a village of canvas and shingles.  Woodbury set up a studio in Beechworth in 1857, so it is possible that the image dates to this later period.  Source:  The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the National Media Museum. Inventory no: 2003-5001/2/23789

I am now going to wind back the dial on the time machine to 1855 when we will find George and Susan Griffith on the Ovens goldfields of northern Victoria.  I have already mentioned the children born and baptised in Fitzroy between 1865 and 1876, but there was an older group of children born among the tents, bark huts and gold workings in the Ovens Valley.  These were:

Edward George,  born 14 Apr 1855 at Wangaratta  (died 24 Feb 1856 Wangaratta)
Mary Jane           born 10 Aug 1857 at Silver Creek
George                born circa 1859 Indigo                     (died 1859 Indigo)
Ann Catherine    born circa 1861 in NSW      (turned out to be Chiltern, Victoria)
Louisa                 born 2 Jun 1863 at Beechworth

George was listed in the 1857 Ovens Directory as a Professor of Music, Woolshed.  Woolshed Creek was north west of Beechworth.  It had long been a matter of puzzlement to me as to whether George used his musician's hands to dig for gold, and I spent a bit of time researching this in the dark ages of research prior to the widespread use of the WWW.   I was able to find some traces of him, which didn't really resolve the question.   He invariably gave his occupation as 'musician', but it turned out that he did have a Miner's Right.  This information came from the card files of Fay Johnson, who had recorded that in the 1856/57 Electoral Roll - Legislative Assembly - Reid's Creek and Woolshed Division (Ovens District) on page 31, George GRIFFITHS of Woolshed, miner, was included on the roll by virtue of a Miner's Right.

Ros Shennan, another researcher of the Ovens history had recorded an advertisement which was included in a publication called History of the Parish of Beechworth about the Catholic Parish of Beechworth, by Father Leo Lane.  In this ad for St Patrick's Day at St Joseph's Church, Beechworth to be held on 17 March 1858, a Grand High Mass was to be held with orchestral accompaniments provided by Mr G Griffiths, first violin; Mr Welchman, second violin; Mr P Hurley, flute; Mr W Radford, viola; Mr Barlow, cornet; Mr Jenkins, sax tuba, Mr Wright violincello and Herr Esther double bass.

I found this interesting because it placed George's musical skills at the top end of the scale of fiddlers, with the capacity to play complex liturgical pieces, and also as the first violinist - the orchestra leader.

That was about the extent of my findings until last year when I decided to give the Ovens and Murray Advertiser (1855-1866), based in Beechworth  a thorough going over to see what else I could find about the activities of the Griffiths family, and shed more light on what type of music George was performing, and was he combining that with mining.

The next few posts will have a look at those findings.