Garfield and Lyrebirds

Lyrebirds can be found in the Bunyip State but I have found a few historic reports of lyrebirds further south.

In November 1898, lyrebirds could be found at Iona (then called Bunyip South) as this letter from Oswald Hoperman, aged 11 years and 9 months, to Cinderella, the editor of the Children’s pages in The Leader tells us –
1/11/98
Dear Cinderella,
I have seen letters from different parts of the country, but never seen any from our settlements. I thought I would write to you. We have got twenty acres, nearly all under cultivation. The crops are looking well this year, but the late winds has done a deal of damage to the hay crops. Our school has about one hundred and twenty children attending. I got my certificate last examination, but mother said I could not leave school yet. I have two brothers and two sisters. We have a creamery here, also a hall where church service is held once a month. There are Lyre birds here, it is nice to hear them whistling in the morning. I remain your loving friend, Oswald Hoperman. (1)

Letter from Oswald about his life at Bunyip South (Iona)

The Leader, December 24 1898 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197539261

Fifty years after young Oswald wrote about his lyrebirds, on September 10, 1949 both the Sun News-Pictorial and The Age published a story about Garfield and a Lyrebird.

Zoo Now Has Lyre Bird
A Melbourne Zoo has a new hen lyre bird - caught by Mr. Albert Warren, a Garfield dairy farmer. It is the first lyre bird the Zoo has had for some time. Mr. Warren crept up to the bird and grabbed it while it was sitting in the middle of a paddock. It was sent to the Zoo by train in a special box. The Zoo now hopes to get a male lyre bird. (Sun News-Pictorial) (2)

Mr Warren catches a lyrebird

Sun News-Pictorial, September 10, 1949 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/279231876

Zoo's Lyre-bird
The Zoo yesterday welcomed a lyre-bird. It was an unexpected arrival and came in unusual circumstances. The lyre-bird walked into the Garfield Hotel, and, with little difficulty, was captured by the proprietor, Mr. J. H. Jolly. The Zoo authorities said they would be glad to give it a home, and he sent it by rail to Melbourne. When it settles down, it will be placed in the new Australian section, which has been thickly planted with Australian trees over the past three years. (The Age) (3)

Mr Jolly catches a lyrebird.

The Age, September 10, 1949, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/189462150

Are both these stories true? Were there in fact two lyrebirds captured in Garfield and both sent to the Zoo? Mr Albert Warren is listed in the 1949 Electoral Rolls at Tynong, as a dairy farmer, so we know he exists. Mr Jolly may have worked at the Hotel, but he was not the proprietor – the licensee at the time was James Joseph Smith and the owners of the Hotel were Eileen O’Donohue and Teresa O’Sullivan.(4)

Given that Garfield was fairly well established in 1949, I feel that it would be more likely that a lyrebird would be captured on Mr Warren’s farm, which was north of the highway, (5) than that it would have actually walked into the Hotel on Main Street. In which case, how did that story come about? I cannot tell you.

However, there was some criticism of the removal of the lyrebird to the Zoo. Ray Littlejohns, on behalf of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union, wrote this letter to The Age on September 16, 1949 -
A news item in your columns points to a very prevalent and unfortunate tendency of residents or visitors to the country to take all forms of wild life away from their natural surroundings and to consign them to the Zoo. The item referred to a lyre bird which walked into the Garfield Hotel, and was captured and sent to Royal Park. Apart from the general undesirableness of taking any creature from the wild, there are special considerations in the case of the lyre bird, koala and platypus, which are so strictly protected by law that it is a serious offence to interfere with them. The Zoo authorities, in fact, may not lawfully keep a lyre bird unless granted a permit by the Fisheries and Game department. Those who know the habits and characteristics of the species will consider, I feel sure, that there could scarcely be a less suitable home for it than that suggested. (6)

Footnotes

(1) The Leader, December 24, 1898, see here.

(2) The Sun News-Pictorial, September 10, 1949, see here.

(3) The Age, September 10, 1949, see here.

(4) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com; Owners of the Hotel - Shire of Berwick Rate Books.

(5) Shire of Berwick Rate Books

(6) The Age, September 16, 1949, see here.

Lyre birds and Koalas on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp

This interesting article about fauna on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp in 1894 - 1895 - when there were still koalas and lyre birds. It comes from a column in The Argus of September 12, 1934 called Nature Notes and Queries by Alec H. Chisholm. You can see it on Trove, here.

Koalas at Koo-wee-rup
Stating that he has been very interested in the discussion on koalas' food trees, E.A.B. (St. Kilda) recalls that in the years 1894-95 he was camped at the Koo-wee-rup swamp and saw many koalas in swamp gums there. The trees were on a narrow ridge parallel with and about 20 chains east of the main drain, and the ridge was entirely surrounded by real swamp and tea-tree. A young koala taken to camp would climb tea-trees and black-woods, but would not feed there, although he throve on leaves from the swamp gums. That young bear was kept for about three months, and was never seen to drink. The writer wonders, therefore, if the moisture in leaves is sufficient for them.

It is added that the swamp gum ridge was cleared for cultivation and the koalas disappeared. In the clearing of the eastern end of Koo-wee-rup many lyrebirds must have been destroyed.

An illustration of a lyrebird from 1872.

Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier  June 8, 1872. 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63618692

The same column also talks about Lyrebirds on the Moe Swamp in the 1870s.

Lyrebirds Near the Moe Swamp
An interesting bit of history is given by C.P. (Melbourne) in reply to a reader's recent inquiry whether lyrebirds were ever known about the north bank of the Moe swamp. C.P. says that he travelled by the first train that left Prince's Bridge for Gippsland-that was in the 1870's and camped that Easter on the Moe River. It was understood among the settlers then that the "Australian pheasant," as the lyrebird was called, was frequently seen or heard in the vicinity of the swamp.

"People," it is added, "were moving freely about Moe that year as Weinberg, the mailboat carpenter who stole 5,000 sovereigns, was at large somewhere in the district. The police visited our camp at midnight on Good Friday and asked us, should anyone come to us for food, to be sure and let the stationmaster know. At that time there was only one tumble-down building in the Moe of to-day."

Martin Weinberg is alleged to have stolen 5,000 sovereigns in 1877 and was at large - read about him here or here or here.