An Englishman's Tour in 1868
"John Robertson is remembered as one of the
'cousinhood of Robertsons, all canny Scotchmen, shrewd, illiterate and rich'."
[Peter Rymill, 2010, Notes of a Journey to the South Eastern District January 1863 by William Milne, p 60, ftnt 2]
The author of that witty slur (in italics) was Stanley Leighton (1837-1901), second son of an English baronet, educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford University. He 'toured' the Australian colonies in 1868 and his collection of watercolours, pencil drawings and "copious rough jottings" from that period were subsequently gifted to the National Library of Australia (MS 360).
Despite his inscription that "The writer of these notes was traveling for pleasure", Leighton's Sketches of Australia with Journal Extracts (London, 1868) are "Not just a gentleman's reminiscence". They are "as much the report of a self-appointed inquiry into the progress of the Australian colonies towards a civilised society".
[Marion Amies, 2008, 'Judging Progress Towards a Civilised Society: Stanley Leighton's colonial Australian Tour, 1868, National Library of Ausralian News, June edition, p 3]
Leighton had a 'trickle-down' view of cultural development. He was looking for squatters who were "favourable examples of their class", who displayed "the beginnings of civilisation". These were "able perhaps...to raise the tone of Colonial Society, to refine its roughness and open its resources". He found them where "houses and their surroundings were neat and comparatively comfortable, most of them had gardens...& there were generally pianos, mirrors, carpets, a few books & pictures".
There are a couple of qualifications to Leighton's 'serious intent' of cultural assessment. He himself confesses that "little histories are founded almost as much on the current gossip of the town as upon the correct information". It is also important to realise that Leighton never met John Robertson, or visited Struan homestead, during his tour in 1868.
The Englishman's itinerary in the South East of South Australia was actually set by some random invitations he received at the Penola Races. None of the "cousinhood of Robertsons" seem to have attended the two day meeting, or the 80 strong "bush ball" held afterwards. This is unfortunate, and surprising, considering the Robertson passion for horse racing.
At the Races, Leighton met James 'Jim' Seymour, son of the squatter at Killanoola; Joseph 'Joe' Carter, manager of Magarey's Naracoote station; and Adam Smith, a "rough homely Scotch squatter" of Hynam station. As a result his route left the Penola-Naracoorte road to pass on the western side of Bool Lagoon, effectively skirting around Robertsons Plains.
From Penola to Killanoola homestead it was "22 miles", much of it ridden in the dark, and only one small homestead was passed on the way. Little wonder that Leighton felt the remoteness of Seymour's run -- "and yet how dreary and inexpressibly lonely did existence here seem to be!".
[John Playford ed, 1978, 'A Visit to South Australia, 1868, Stanley Leighton', Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, No 5, p 31]
"The house at Killanoola stood on the slope of a gentle rise in the ground. Close round was a pretty garden of which Mrs Seymour took care of herself. The woolshed was half a mile from the house, better built and larger than the homestead, as is invariably the case in squattages. The aspect of the country round as far as the eye could reach from the little eminence was dull and uninteresting. No blue hill adorned the landscape or broke the monotony of the horizon. There was a dead level of gum trees and sheoaks all round and in winter a large portion of the country was said to be covered with a shallow swamp and the station was with difficulty approached."
Leighton's watercolour of 'Mr Seymour's Killagnoola [sic] nr Penola, South Australia, Sat 24 Apr 1868' is available on this link:
It shows a humble cottage with what seems to be a thatched roof and a separate kitchen building behind. In the distance is the "better built and larger" woolshed.
Magarey's Naracoorte station was "12 miles" further on, a trip accomplished this time in daylight. "We passed on the way an ugly two storied house of stone, standing primly in the plain, looking as though it had been taken bodily from the street of a town and dropped down into the wilderness. It was Moy Hall, built by Mr Mackintosh, a ruined squatter, and now the property of Mr William and Duncan Robertson [William was a cousin of John Robertson of Struan], rich but parsimonious Scotchmen. The house was furnished very smartly for the bush, but only two rooms downstairs were used."
The homestead at Magarey's suffered too from the building aspirations of William Macintosh. Apparently "he began to build here on the same scale as he did [at Moy Hall], but his ruin prevented the completion of his plans...We were lodged here...in a stone building they called the Bachelors' Hall...detached from the house...The dining room here was also a separate hut of wood and very small." However, Mr Carter, manager of the run for its absentee owner, "was a gentleman", his wife "was a ladylike person and there were several children".
Another compensation was finding Archdeacon Twopenny "in the little township of Narracoorte [sic]". He "was a fine example of a clergyman in Australia...a most pleasing companion, a good talker...and a capital rider. Under his guidance we went to the caves at Narracoorte." Leighton's impression of "these famous limestone caverns", 'Caves of Narracoorte, South Australia, 1868', can be accessed on this link:
A visit to Henry Jones' Binnum-Binnum run followed. "We passed on the way a new house of Mr Adam Smith's ['Hynam'], still in the building, and we saw in the distance Mr Afflick's substantial station ['Kybybolite']." On arrival at Binnum, Leighton discovered some 50 guests who had gathered for Mrs Jones' "bush ball" that night and a "Kangaroo hunt" the next day.
"Mr Jones had not been a saving man", Leighton notes. There was "a fine new woolshed", a "peculiar contrivance for washing the sheep" that incorporated "a huge bath of hot soap and water" and "a little wagon fitted on rails", and the men's huts ("or cottages as Mrs Jones liked to call them") which were "surrounded with little gardens and covered with creepers". A line drawing of some of the "unusual improvements about his station" can be see on this link:
"The house as usual was made up of a number of different buildings beginning with the original rough hut, made of roughly hewn planks, now used as a sort of lounging room and decorated with guns, pistols, whips, spurs, and a few books, and ending with a gabled building of some architectural pretension only just finished. In front of the house was a pretty garden with some English trees, the poplar and the lime, some Indian trees, among them two fine India rubber trees, and a japonese [sic] shrub". Leighton's watercolour of 'Binnum Binnum, Mr H Jones's, Tattiara country, South Australia, Sunday 3rd May 1868' can be viewed on this link:
130,000 acres and 30 to 40 thousand sheep, or that Henry's brothers "Heighway and Derwas Jones of Pontsford are often out with the Shropshire hounds", did not dull Leighton's eyes to the likely outcome on Binnum. He was a reasonably astute, if opinionated, reviewer of colonial character. Nonetheless, he was inclined to repeat hearsay if he did not have the opportunity for personal introduction and direct observation.. For example,
'the cousinhood of Robertsons, all canny Scotchmen, shrewd, illiterate and rich'
'William and Duncan Robertson, rich but parsimonious Scotchmen' .
The accident of acquaintance determined Leighton's experience of the mid-South East, but this does not mean we are left without any idea of what he might have encountered on a visit to Robertson's Struan. A surveyor's plan for the previous year records some details of the home sections of the station.
A common lobbying point for squatters under the licence and lease systems was to get a measure of security of tenure over their homestead blocks (called Pre-emptive Rights in the Colony of Victoria). The pastoralists wanted assurance that the money they spent on necessary improvements -- house, woolshed, stables, stockyards, men's quarters -- would not simply revert back to the government if their land usage agreements lapsed.
In 1848-49, under Occupation Licence No 64 for 60 square miles, the Robertson brothers asked to have the area around their head station surveyed. This was completed by surveyor E Bellairs in October 1849. Two adjoining 80 acre blocks were plotted, sections 9 and 10. There are no buildings indicated on this drawing. William and John Robertson purchased section 9 on 16 March 1850 for £72 and section 10 on 2 April 1851 for £80, averaging a little under £1 per acre.
['Struan House and Property -- L4 Doc 6 Struan Historic Plan', p 2, <pir.sa.gov.au/aghistory/department-of- agriculture-as-an-organisation/locations/struan>]
In 1851 the brothers obtained Pastoral Lease No 69 for 140 square miles, with a term of 14 years and an annual rental of 15 shillings per square mile (the rate for B class land). There appears to have been a house situated near the "Musqitoe Creek", in the pass through the main range. This was probably the first 'homestead' (replacing an original slab hut), a small cottage built of sawn timber with a shingled roof -- two windows on either side of a front door and a solid chimney. It was a simple little house, later used as a wash house before being pulled down in the 1870s.
In 1864 William Robertson died at his Wando Vale station and the property was surveyed again by a Mr Cooper. This plan indicated that section 10 was used only as a cultivated paddock but that there were significant structures on section 9. These include a house surrounded by a large garden, an L-shaped woolshed, and an extensive stables complex.
Outside of the 'imaginary' lines of section 9, the wooden cottage and its separate kitchen hut survives (house 1), and there are large stockyards near the main road. Within the title, Homestead 2 is made of stone. It faces toward the creek with two wings leading back, probably separate cooking and dining facilities and additional accommodation for the growing Robertson family (John and Susan had 9 children born between 1855 and 1870).
The creek-facing core of the second house was preserved when John built his mansion 'Struan House' in 1875. It is a graceful colonial style residence, with a surrounding raised verandah under a subtly pitched roof. The front door has an arched fanlight window above and multi-pane double hung slash windows either side of it. The basement rooms have an external entry. A central hallway separates 4 main rooms and each is heated by back to back fireplaces. It beams good taste and sensible family home.
In summary, if Stanley Leighton had visited John and Susan Robertson at their Struan head station in 1868, he might have bee pleasantly surprised.
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