D is for drama in Dunolly

Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy (1816-1880), a surveyor who came to Australia in 1839, was my great great great grandfather. He lived for fourteen years in South Australia and Western Australia before coming to Victoria in 1853.

Chauncy kept diaries and in 1873, based on these, he published the Memoirs of Mrs Chauncy, a brief life of his second wife, Susan Augusta née Mitchell (1828-1867). Chauncy’s account of his time in Dunolly (below) is taken from his Memoirs.

In 1853 Chauncy was appointed as Surveyor-in-Chief for the McIvor district. He and his family moved to Heathcote. While there he surveyed the town of Heathcote and selected and surveyed Echuca.

In 1860 he was put in charge of the Dunolly Survey District and moved to Dunolly.In 1861 Chauncy

… bought a substantial stone house, unfinished, which had been built for an inn, and was in a municipal street. [Chauncy’s emphasis]

My dear Susie, with her characteristic energy, began at once, without waiting for it to be finished, to remove into it; but while we were getting in the furniture it was “jumped” by a pettyfogging lawyer, who sent up a well-known character, known as “Fighting Jack,” to take possession of it.

On the gold-fields, where the population is wandering, houses used often to be erected on Crown lands without sufficient authority, and in such cases the person actually in possession could not well be ejected, especially if he held a miner’s right to legalise his tenure.

This limb of the law, being a daring and unscrupulous man, made it part of his business to take possession of every place to which he thought no one could show a better title than himself. The fact of my having purchased the house gave me no title to the ground on which it stood, and I would not resort to the subterfuge of taking out a miner’s right or a business license, not being a miner or a store-keeper, and it was quite possible that “Fighting Jack” held a miner’s right, and so had a better title to the ground than I had.

However, I sent for two constables, and gave the man in charge. Next morning he was brought before the Police Court, when I adduced proofs that I had bought and paid for the house, but it being a question of title, the court was not competent to deal with the case, and dismissed it ; which was in fact all that I required, for I remained in undisturbed possession until I so narrowed the street as to exclude the house, and then purchased the land on which it stood from the Crown.

The position is beautiful and commanding. I subsequently erected four more rooms of brick and stone, stable, outhouses, brick tank, &c., and made an ornamental garden and vinery. The recollection of the happy time we spent in this place moves me as I write. It used to be her delight to stroll through the garden and admire the flowers and other plants ; and then, how cleverly and wisely she managed the house, and for the welfare of the children. In the evening, when they were in bed, it used to be her delight to sit and converse with me at the fireside. The six years at Dunolly were among the happiest of my life.

There is no account of this legal dispute in the digitised newspapers available through Trove.

Chauncy was an amateur photographer and took a photograph of his cottage in 1865. Members of his family can be seen on the verandah.

The Chauncy cottage in Dunolly photographed by Philip Chauncy in 1865. Image from http://members.westnet.com.au/likelyprospects/dunolly_buildings.htm . The original image is said to be held by the Dunolly Museum of the Goldfields Historical & Arts Society Inc.

I have visited Dunolly and the cottage several times. The cottage is located at 8 Havelock Street. Below are some photographs I have taken of it.

The Chauncy cottage in 2007

the view from the Chauncy cottage in 2007

When I visited in 2012 the cottage was unoccupied and for sale. I had a look around the back.

On the ground and from a map showing Havelock Street  it is not easy to see how Chauncy narrowed the road to exclude the cottage.

Further reading

• Chauncy, Philip Lamothe Snell Memoirs of Mrs Poole and Mrs Chauncy. Lowden, Kilmore, Vic, 1976. pages 50-51. 
• Entry for Philip Chauncy in Design & Art Australia online database https://www.daao.org.au/bio/philip-lamothe-snell-chauncy/biography/

Concerning the Chauncy house at Heathcote

• “Heritage Listing Bestowed.” Bendigo Advertiser.13 July 2010. <http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/709709/heritage-listing-bestowed/>. 
• Victorian Heritage Database Report on the former survey office at Heathcote

George Young’s land at Lamplough

In 1859 or 1860  my husband’s great great grandfather, George Young, who had followed earlier Victorian gold rushes, moved to the new diggings at Lamplough, near Avoca. The Lamplough rush was one Victoria’s last great scrambles for gold. It was the very last for George, who settled on a block of land, became a small farmer, and died there thirty years later.

George’s wife Caroline née Clarke and their two young children, John, born in August 1856 at Dunolly, and Alice, born in January 1859 at White Hills near Maryborough, moved with him to Lamplough. (A third child, George, had been born at Beechworth in 1854 but died there while still an infant.)

In July 1861 Caroline gave birth to twin girls, Charlotte and Harriet. Although the rush was petering out and miners were leaving, George and Caroline, burdened with four young children, stayed on. George took up ten acres of land, began farming, and continued to dig for gold.

Caroline died in December 1879 at the age of forty-three, leaving eight children, the youngest two just three years and one year old. Altogether she and George had thirteen children.

On 6 September 1873, George bought ten acres at Lamplough.

Land Title from Crown Allotment 2 Section 1A Parish of Glenmona VOLUME 00687 FOLIO 357 retrieved from http://www.landata.vic.gov.au 5 December 2012

Extract showing George Young’s two allotments from Parish Plan for Genmona County of Gladstone. Plan dated May 28 1929 and digitised by the Public Records of Victoria.

The Victorian 1869 Land Act, passed on 29 December 1869, was

designed to expand land ownership in Victoria. People could peg out a parcel of unsurveyed land and apply for a survey to be done. If the application was successful, the land could be held by licence for three years. At the end of this period, if conditions regarding improvement to the land had been met, the land could be purchased. As an alternative to immediate purchase, the balance of the cost of the land could be paid over a seven-year lease. (“Lucy: Glossary.” Online Exhibitions: Lucy’s Story: Lucy Bell. Public Records Office of Victoria, 26 Apr. 2006. Web. 12 Jan. 2014. <http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/online-exhibitions/lucy/glossary.htm>)

George Young had taken advantage of this legislation. He bought his block shortly only three years and nine months since the legislation had been passed.

On this plan, prepared when George Young was acquiring his second block of ten acres, it can be seen that the first block was acquired under section 42 of the 1865 Land Act.

PROV, VA 538 Department of Crown Lands and Survey, VPRS 439/P0 Land Selection Files, by Land District, Section 49 Land Act 1869, Unit 203, 49/991 Glenmona

George first leased the block, then, in 1884, he made an application to purchase it.

On 7 August 1877 George Young wrote to the Lands Office about his lease payments.

PROV, VA 538 Department of Crown Lands and Survey, VPRS 439/P0 Land Selection Files, by Land District, Section 49 Land Act 1869, Unit 203, 49/991 Glenmona: letter concerning licence fee.

The error was made by the Lands Office. George’s payment had not been posted correctly.
His application to purchase the block in 1884  included the following statement:

PROV, VA 538 Department of Crown Lands and Survey, VPRS 439/P0 Land Selection Files, by Land District, Section 49 Land Act 1869, Unit 203, 49/991 Glenmona: application to purchase 18.8.84.

I have been unable to find the file associated with the purchase of the first block of land. It is a pity as I learned much more about George and his life from the land files, building on the family history that I learned from the birth and death certificates of his children.

George Young died on 31 August 1890. Seven weeks before his death George transferred the land to his daughter Maria. She sold it a year later. There is no probate file for George Young. He had probably arranged his affairs before his death and didn’t need to make a will.

Land Title from Crown Allotment 2 Section 1A Parish of Glenmona VOLUME 00687 FOLIO 357 retrieved from http://www.landata.vic.gov.au 5 December 2012  Denis Strangman, a descendant of one of the Lamplough miners who settled there near George Young, has written a history of the rush. (Strangman, Denis. “The Gold Rush to Lamplough, near Avoca in Victoria, Australia, during 1859-1860.” Familia (Ulster Historical Foundation) 2.3 (1987): 3-21. Avoca and District Historical Society, 10 Jan. 2000. Web. 10 Nov 2018. <http://home.vicnet.net.au/~adhs/article-the-gold-rush-to-lamplough-1859-1860/>.)