'Poor Man ROBERTSON'

 

    "The story has it, that in attempting to gain the lease on further land, the Robertsons found themselves opposed to the well-established Hentys. Little warning was given of the hearing of their case before the Lands Commissioner at Portland and John is reported to have left his work in the paddock to ride to Portland, arriving just as his wealthy competitor drove up in his carriage to the hearing. Their submissions made, the judge decided in favor of Robertson, saying, by way of a moral, that he felt it right to 'help the poor man'. The joke was repeated far and wide, and John Robertson became 'Poor Man Robertson'. Considering the extent of his properties at the time of his death, one feels that this to be a poverty many would gladly experience. This story is confidently attributed to John Robertson of Struan by his descendants. However, it is also attributed to John G Robertson, the original owner of Wando Vale, by other historians. A check of the dates of the Henty dispute may settle this, but it should be treated with caution. However, it is undoubtedly a good story, whichever of these wealthy young men it referred to!"

[Judith Murdoch and Helen Parker, 1974 (1963), A History of Naracoorte, p 49)


The Commissioner

The principal character in this anecdote is "the judge". Captain Foster Fyans had history with the Hentys. In October 1939, as Geelong District Police Magistrate, he made "the first overland journey to Portland" from Port Phillip.

    "After spending three days [in Portland], and finally settling the affairs of state, I found that I had to visit the Merino Downs in Australia Felix, where Mr Henty had formed a large sheep station. The only Europeans in the country, Mr Henty and Mr Winter; these gentlemen had had a difference regarding boundary lines, though not a living soul was to oppose their voracious wishes in taking whatever they wished. Disagreement existed, when millions of acres of the finest pasture in New South Wales lay round in waste and idleness. Spending two days on this part of our mission, we left our friends, wishing them prosperity."

[PL Brown ed., Memoirs recorded at Geelong, Victoria, Australia, by Captain Foster Fyans (1790-1870), p 223]


In 1840, Fyans was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Portland Bay District. It was a massive job. "The Portland Bay District in measurement was as large as England. For one individual to carry out the duty was not possible. To hear the complaints and to settle disputed boundaries would occupy a dozen lawyers daily." (p.243) 

    "I was in a measure forced to accept the appointment of Commissioner of Crown Lands...I kicked hard against it, but...The bush was my lot...The appointment of Commissioner...in so extensive a district would be more fitted to a younger man...I was now entering on a distinct duty to any of my former appointments, with little or nothing to guide me...There was no map of the district, which was filling rapidly with settlers and stock." (p 237)

Captain Foster Fyans has been described as "a tall, bluff ex-soldier" and contemporaries noted that he was physically tough -- "Forty-seven when he began his duties in Port Phillip...the Captain proved a man 'upon whose iron frame years for a long time seemed to make no change'." Throughout his 'reign' as Commissioner, "an appointment which gave him almost unfettered authority between the Werribee River and South Australia", he spent months at a time in the bush, riding hundreds of miles to visit each station. (pp x, 241-2)

His military service included 67th Regiment in the Peninsular Wars (1810-) and India (1817-), 20th Regiment in India (1826-), and 4th Regiment in New South Wales (1832-). In Australia he was an officer of the guard on Norfolk Island and commandant at Moreton Bay, both penal settlements, before Governor Bourke appointed him Geelong District police magistrate in 1837 and Governor Gipps made him Portland District lands commissioner in 1840.

Fyans was consequently a decisive and authoritative man, easily irritated and impatient with clerical detail. And, where the Hentys were involved, quite likely to impose his own rough rule of arbitrary justice against them, in favor 'the poor man'. He was, by the end of his career, deeply disillusioned by the free-for-all that had developed in the colonies in pursuit of cheap grazing land.

     "Many a dreary ride I have had over this magnificent, splendid country, lying waste and idle, with an odd flock of sheep here and there and fine, fat bullocks with hundreds of square miles to roam over. This land, for agricultural purposes, none can surpass, and it would maintain thousands and thousands of people by common industry, with a yearly surplus of grain, enough to feed the population of Victoria to this 17th day of August 1853. It lies, as formerly for years, in the hands of a few squatters at the nominal yearly rental of a squatting license, which is nothing like the value of the ground."

[TF Bride and CE Sayers eds., 1983 (1898), Letters from Victorian Pioneers, pp 184-5]


The 'Pioneers'

If there is one single, undeniable 'fact' about European settlement in the Wannon-Glenelg region of Western Victoria, it is that the Hentys were there first. (Note that this was a European claim, not an Aboriginal one). 

The Henty brothers, Edward, Francis, John and Stephen, were the first European settlers in Victoria. The family made landfall at Portland on 19 October 1834. After the unexpected visit of overland explorer Major Mitchell in 1836, they headed north to find the open pasture lands he talked of on the Glenelg River.

The Hentys occupied Muntham (Portland Bay License No. 132, 1836), Merino Downs (PB No. 130, 1837) and Connells Run (PB No. 131). These adjoining areas of land totalled 98,300 acres and had an estimated carrying capacity of 3,950 cattle and 42,000 sheep. 

The next squatter to arrive was Samuel Pratt Winter. He squatted east of the Hentys  on Murndal-Spring Valley (PB No. 292, 1837) and Tahara-Winninburn (PB No. 287, 1838). Winter's total claim was 48,000 acres with carrying capacity at an estimated 1,100 cattle and 18,000 sheep.

Following these major claims in the late 1830s, a number of other squatters arrived from Van Diemens Land to jostle for position. Arthur Pilleau took Hilgay (PB No. 219, early 1840) and John G Robertson 'negotiated' for Wando Vale (PB No. 239, March 1840). These were smaller runs of 9,650 and 11,338 acres respectively.

[RJ Billis and AS Kenyon, 1932, Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip, 'The Port Phillip Runs', pp 140- ]

Many others came at or about the same time, all placing restraints on further Henty and Winter expansion and, more importantly, sometimes encroaching on the former's boundaries. The Hentys in particular were keen to protect their interests. So began a long log of claims and counterclaims that Captain Fyans was required to arbitrate


The Latecomers

The alternative candidate for the title of Poor Man arrived first, John G Robertson of Wando Vale. He recalls,"I had no difficulty in finding a run, as the Messrs. Henty...pointed out their boundary, and I took the land adjoining...there were but three settlers here before me -- Messrs. Henty, Winter, and Pilleau."

[Bride & Sayers 1983, p 155]

Then came the rush, other aspirants, each with their few sheep, and "by the end of April we were all quarreling about our boundary, and...we all looked forward to the arrival of the Crown Lands Commissioner...Although I had contented myself with about 12,000 acres...by the end of June, when Crown Lands Commissioner Fyans arrived, I was left with less than 2,000 acres." (p 156)

Fyan's initial visit did not go well for John G.  The Hentys took the opportunity to gain some advantage. "Although myself, and my neighbour, Mr Henty, decided on a boundary when he pointed out the land to me, he, Mr H., procured a letter from the C.L.C., for me to remove my home-station, which letter was not presented to me until the Commissioner had left the district." Robertson had an anxious wait "until the return of the Commissioner six months afterward", but "by this second visit I was put in possession of my original boundary." (p 157)

The editors of Letters from Victorian Pioneers has concluded from this that John G of Wando Vale is the Robertson referred to as Poor Man. "In May 1840 the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Foster Fyans, settled a boundary dispute between Robertson and John Henty in Robertson's favor...Fyans is credited with saying 'I did not wish to shift a poor man'...after which Robertson was known as 'poor man Robertson', although he was far from that."(p 154)

Nonetheless, it can be seen from a map of pastoral runs in the area that John Robertson of Struan has an equally plausible case. When the brothers William and John Robertson 'squeezed' in between the Henty and Winter stations in 1841, they were quite possibly as popular as footrot.




The Robertson brothers, John and William, seem to have arrived after the first land rush that occurred north of the Wannon River in 1840. They 'sat down' on Struan in April 1841. Their licence PB No. 240 was for 4,889 acres with a carrying capacity assessed at 650 cattle and 4,000 sheep. It had valuable river frontage and was strategically placed in the midst of two powerful neighbours. 

The brothers' run, their first Struan, was a relatively modest claim for this sought-after area, but more than sufficient to irritate the Hentys. The Robertsons were latecomers, and cheeky. From this, a dispute requiring Commissioner Fyan's attention can easily be imagined. 

Whether this was the particular cause celebre described in the anecdote quoted at the beginning of this post is unclear, however. The Captain was not known for his commitment to accurate record keeping. This problem is similar for both contenders for the title of Poor Man. Fyans makes no such comment on either man in his memoirs or letters.

The joke in each case is the same though. Both John G Robertson of Wando Vale and John Robertson of Struan died wealthy men.

In 1854 John G sold Wando Vale for £16,000. He had married Mary McConochie from nearby Konongwootong station two years before. Together they retired back to Scotland and purchased 'Balronald' near Lanark, where they lived until John G's death in 1863.

In the early 1840s John, and William, moved onto the 'New Country' in the South East of South Australia and took up their second Struan. They retained Struan 1 which was used as a  'starting-off' point for later emigrating members of the Robertson family (Duncan and family in 1844, Angus and family in 1852). John, after 1854 on his own, went on to amass huge acreages, Struan 2, and eventually build his £25,000 Struan House. From the mansion's 60 foot tower he was Laird of all he could survey; his property extending the length of Mosquito Creek, from its outflow into Bool Lagoon back to its source on Elderslie station in Victoria. He died at his grand homestead in 1880, leaving his widow Susan and nine children in plenty.

The year 1854 is key. That was the point when William, having married in 1852, then decided to pursue squatting independently of his original partnership with brother John. In 1854, then, William bought the station Wando Vale from John G Robertson (no relation). This is confusing enough in itself with the same surname, but there was no financial or family tie between them before this date (John G was Lanarkshire born, John and William from Badenoch in the Highlands). 

It is at this stage that the Poor Man story is likely to have 'crossed over' and become two. At the place of merger, where different people with the same name became associated with ownership of one property, the divergence of Poor Man Robertson into a couple of identities began. 



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