Koo Wee Rup Village Settlement

The Illustrated Australian News of November 8, 1894 published these photos of the Koo Wee Rup Village Settlement. The Village settlement was on the newly drained Koo Wee Rup Swamp, read about this here.

Koo Wee Rup Village Settlement

Illustrated Australian News of November 8, 1894 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/255107

Settler's House

Illustrated Australian News of November 8, 1894 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/255107

Scrub cutting

Illustrated Australian News of November 8, 1894 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/255107

Settler's Homestead

Illustrated Australian News of November 8, 1894 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/255107

View of Main Drain

Illustrated Australian News of November 8, 1894 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/255107

Livingstone's Survey Camp

Illustrated Australian News of November 8, 1894 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/255107

The last photo is of Livingstone's Survey Camp. I believe this is William Livingstone. Livingstone, from Warragul, was a surveyor. He was also at one time a Warragul Shire Councillor and the Shire Valuator (1).  In 1893, the Warragul Guardian reported that Messrs. Boyd and Livingston Surveyers, Warragul, have just received instructions from the Lands Department, to survey the Timber Reserve adjoining Neerim North, into blocks ranging from 20 to 80 acres (2).  I assume that he was surveying on the Swamp for the same purpose, even though the Swamp blocks were generally of 20 acres or less. 

The life of a surveyor was an interesting one. This was reported in the Warragul Guardian in February 1894 - Mr. Livingstone, surveyor, had the good fortune to kill no less than 30 snakes by a single stroke the other day. A miner in the vicinity of the Rokeby Village Settlement was just about to drop into his shaft, when, to his horror, he detected a big tiger snake disporting itself in the bottom of the hole. With blanched face he acquainted several men near of the fact, and Mr. Livingstone, getting a 20 feet pole, managed to kill the vicious reptile, which, on being opened, was found to contain no less than 30 young ones. The specimen was so well developed that it was subsequently skinned (3).  Naturally, we do not condone the killing of snakes, they are a protected species.

William Livingston married Ellen Ireland in 1885. She was the daughter of Robert Ireland, a Jindavick pioneer (4).  William died in 1928 at the age of 68, whilst he was giving evidence in a court case. Read about this in The Age, here (5).

Footnotes

(1) Copeland, Hugh The Path of Progress: from forests of yesterday to homes of today (Shire of Warragul, 1934) p. 328.

(2) Warragul Guardian, April 18, 1893, see here.

(3) Warragul Guardian, February 20, 1894, see here.

(4) The date of the marriage comes from the Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages. The information about Ellen comes from Copeland pp. 45, 46 and 328.

(5) The Age, March 29, 1928, see here.

Life in a Village Settlement on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp

This account of life on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp appeared in the Mudgee Guardian of January 31, 1907. I believe it is somewhat exaggerated, however life certainly was hard for those early settlers. The story took place 'some time ago' - the opportunity for 'half-time employment on the Government drain' mentioned in the article finished in November 1897, so, if true, the story took place before then. The bit about the kangaroo dog stealing the baby and carrying it away for two miles is interesting, given what happened to Lindy and Michael Chamberlain's baby, Azaria, in 1980. You can read my history of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp, here, and other accounts of Village Settlement life, here.

This is the article from the Mudgee Guardian of January 31, 1907, transcribed from Trove, here. According to recent Victorian news the village settlement of Koo-wee-rup in that State contains more concentrated essence of hopelessness than any other alleged village settlement in Australia - not even excluding the experiment in misery at Southport, Tasmania*. Some time ago it seems a man tried to settle at Koo-wee-rup and kept on endeavouring for three months. During that period all his clothes and most of his skin were distributed impartially on the jagged points of the all-pervading ti-tree stumps; his horse, weakened by excessive chewing of ti-tree bark, got into a crab-hole and wouldn't Koo-wee-rup any more; his wife fell into a ' big drain ' twice while trying to go catch eels; his children were chased by black snakes and got lost and sun-struck on their way to the half-time school, four miles up the swamp; goats or some other wild animals from the surrounding forest came in the early morning and demolished the few decrepid cabbages and frost-bitten potatoes in the garden; the native cats killed the fowls; a neighbor, or a neighbor's pig, came in the night and stole his flour and half a sack of onions; and a vagrant kangaroo dog stole the baby out of the gin case cradle, and only dropped it after a two mile chase through the ti-tree. 

Then the inspector decided that insufficient work had been done on the holding to entitle the settler to half-time employment on the Government drain. More ti-tree stumps should be grubbed, he said. The poor devil of a villager had built fences with ti-tree stumps, walled and floored his dwelling with ti-tree stumps, poured them down crab holes in tons, had grubbed them out and piled them up in huge bonfires that scorched his hair and whiskers, and burnt down his fowlhouse; heaps of ashes 6ft deep surrounded the premises, and lay like sand dunes up against the impenetrable wall of standing ti-tree at the back; and all the time the house and garden kept sinking slowly down until they got below the level of the canal, and the water soaked through the floor and put the fire out. 

Yet, despite all this, the inspector wasn't satisfied, for the ti tree stumps increased and multiplied. At every fresh subsidence of the homestead they sprang up like mushrooms. It was no use, so the settler shook the mud from his bare feet and gave the ti-tree stumps best.

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp - Settlements on the bank of the Main Drain.

The 'big drain' which the wife of the settler fell into while trying to catch eels.

Image: The Illustrated Australian News, February 1, 1894.

State Library of Victoria Image IAN01/02/94/4a

* Southport Tasmania Village Settlement - Ladies Relief Committee Village Settlement Scheme, establised in 1894 at Southport, Tasmania. 'The settlement was formed in 1894 to reduce the number of the unemployed in Hobart, and to induce these people to settle upon, and eventually buy some of the waste lands of the colony' Hobart Mercury November 7, 1896). Familes were given land and initially rations and were to become self-sufficient on small farms, up to 25 acres, which they would eventually pay off and own. It was not a success and handed back to the control of the Government in 1898. I have created a short list of articles on Trove on the Soithport Village Settlement, access it here.

Life on the Swamp in the early days - from newspaper reports

In 1893, the Koo Wee Rup Swamp was opened for settlement and this created some interest in the newspapers. In fact, a report in the Warragul Guardian of February 6, 1894 commences with So much has been said and written about Koo-wee-rup Swamp, its reclamation works and its people, that it would almost appear that the subject was worn threadbare. (1)

The Unreclaimed Swamp

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp from The Illustrated Australian News February 1, 1894.

State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/46198

The settlers were under the Village Settlement Scheme - a scheme where unemployed men from the cities were given a land allocation (usually 20 acres) on the Swamp and they then spent two weeks clearing drains for wages paid by the Public Works Department and two weeks working on their block with the hope of becoming self-sufficient. They also had to erect a dwelling on their block. The first 103 blocks under this scheme were allocated in April 1893.  This didn’t always work as one of the correspondents pointed out that The men are mostly raw to cultures of any kind, and inexperienced in the matter of cutting drains, at which they are to be found employment every alternate week, in order to obtain the wherewithal to procure the necessaries of life. (2) 

Cutting down small scrub - the life of a Swamp settler

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp from The Illustrated Australian News February 1, 1894.

State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/46198

The fact that the settlers had some assured wages was a clearly a benefit to the settlers, many of whom had been unemployed. A reporter from The Argus July 11, 1893 interviewed a woman and she had this to say about her new life -
On one of the side drains I met a decent old dame who was busily engaged in stacking driftwood alongside her tent. She explained she was laying in a stock of firewood from what had been brought down by the flood. "Yes," she said, "it's a damp place and a dismal; but what are you to do? My husband is a plumber, and you could count the number of days he was working at his trade last year on one hand. We've been here nine months, and although it's rough enough, we're not going to leave it, especially now when we are getting the chance of a bit of land. There's my daughter, too, and her husband, who is a house-painter. They are living up at the top end (near Bunyip), and their children that were always sickly in Melbourne are fine and healthy. I didn't like the life, and I don't like it now; but where the fun comes in is on Monday morning, when there's no landlord. (3)

One issue the settlers had to face was the lack of schooling. The Warragul Guardian reported on February 6, 1894 - As yet the Government have not seen fit to provide schools for the children, who are running about in scores, and it is estimated that there are 150 children of school ago at the Bunyip end. The neglect to provide school accommodation is a serious reflection on the Education department. (4) The Iona State School and the Koo Wee Rup North State School were both opened in July 1894. Read about them, here.

Iona - looking to the south side of the Main Drain.

Berwick Pakenham Historical Society photo

The Age of January 22, 1894 had a glowing report about the fertility of the soil All down the line of the main drain are settlers' houses of canvas, felt, or weatherboard, and around them are vegetable gardens of luxuriant growth. Nearly every settler is already practically independent of the rest of the world in the matter of food. They would certainly be entirely so if vegetarians. They have potatoes in abundance and of most excellent quality, cabbages weighing from 10 to 15 lb. apiece, turnips of prodigious size, and a multitude of other garden products of really superior quality, and when you taste them you have to confess that the sour land yields very palatable food. (5) [Sour land is a term for acidic soils]

Settlements on the banks of the Main Drain

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp from The Illustrated Australian News February 1, 1894.

State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/46198

There were a few shops on the Swamp including a store run by the Government, however for the women used to the range of shops available in the City, they had a very limited choice. Farther on we arrived at a store run by the department in the interests of the settlers. As is known the settlers are allowed to earn certain amounts per month, according to the numbers of their families. The amounts are small and have to be made the most of. It was found that local price for necessaries were beyond their slender means, so this store was opened under the management of the department to supply groceries, clothing, &c., at the lowest possible prices. It is State Socialism without disguise. The goods are retailed at a profit only sufficient to meet the expenses. (6) 

Another report said All the provisions are distributed from the various stores by hand, the storekeepers or their assistants plodding manfully through the heavy mud every afternoon with baskets on their bucks, containing from 90lb, to 100lb. weight of provisions. (7) The same report said that Sly grog-shops and beer shanties are numerous, so the settlers didn’t miss out there.

Public transport was also another benefit of living in the City - however a report in The Australasian of September 29, 1894 seemed to think that the horse tramway was a good alternative to the train and tram network in the City At each end from the railway station along the side of the main channel a horse tramway has been constructed and in this respect few places in the colony, both for railway and postal service, are better served. All these conveniences are appreciated by people who have previously lived in town, and without which some of them would probably not stay at all. (8)

 A settler's home

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp from The Illustrated Australian News February 1, 1894.

State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/46198

So, what was the reality– many of the blocks were too wet to make a good living, some were too small – only five acres and even the 20 acre blocks were not necessarily large enough to make a living. The work was hard The men work up to the knees in slimy mud. The surface roots of ti-tree are very numerous, but a second and far more troublesome layer of roots is met with about three feet down.(9) As well, many of the settlers did not re-locate voluntarily – A large proportion of the colonists are artisans from the cities, and the wife of one of these men expressed to us her disgust of her present surroundings, and preference for her old home in one of the suburbs, and there are, doubtless, many others who find the situation trying. Some few have joined the settlement from choice, seeing in it a means of ultimately rendering themselves practically independent. (10) It would appear that the settler’s willingness to move in the beginning had an influence in the success of the scheme.

Many of the settlers relied on the wages they received for working on the drains, however this work finished in November 1897, so unless they could find other employment, or their farm was enormously successful this would have been another reason to leave. The Village Settlement Scheme on the Swamp was abandoned in 1899 and the land was opened for selection in the regular way.

Acknowledgement - I must acknowledge the book  From Swampland to Farmland: a history of the Koo Wee Rup Flood Protection District by David Roberts. (Published by Rural Water Commission in 1985) in preparation of this blog post.

Trove list - I have created a list of articles, on Trove, from 1893 and 1894 which describe life in the Village Settlements on the newly drained Koo Wee Rup Swamp.  You can access it here. All the articles referenced here are on the list.

Footnotes

(1) Warragul Guardian, February 6, 1894, see here.

(2) Australasian June 3, 1893, see here.

(3) The Argus July 11, 1893, see here.

(4) Warragul Guardian, February 6, 1894, see here.

(5) The Age January 22, 1894, see here.

(6) The Age January 22, 1894, see here.

(7) The Argus, July 11, 1893, see here.

(8) The Australasian, September 29, 1894, see here.

(9) Warragul Guardian February 6, 1894, see here.

(10) Warragul Guardian February 6, 1894, see here.