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.