On October 31, 1896, The Australasian published an article on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Settlement, written by 'Thistledown.' There was a general account of the settlement, followed by this description of James Pincott's Model Farm. The address of the Pincott farm has been listed variously over the years as Bunyip South or Bunyip Junction or Iona.
A Model Farm
Although there are many very nicely kept farms in the swamp, the block owned by Mr. James Pincott, which is situated on the main channel about three miles from Bunyip, is one of the most interesting and best managed in the settlement. Mr. Pincott carried out some experiments for six months for the Agricultural Department on this plot, when the fertility of the soil was being tested, and the place locally has consequently be come known as the " experimental farm." It is true that Mr. Pincott got a rather more favourable start than some of his neighbours, but no one can deny that, independently of the Government experiments, Mr. Pincott is doing admirable work. His block consists of 10 acres, which has all been cleared and drained. There are a couple of acres or so at the back which has not been cultivated as yet, however, and where good pasture is available for the cows, and also a run for the ducks. It may seem a paradox, but it is true, nevertheless, that in the midst of a swamp a man has to construct a tank for water. Partly natural and partly artificial, this tiny lake on Mr. Pincott's property affords drinking water to the three cows which are maintained, and at the same time a swimming pond for some beautiful ducks of the Aylesbury-Pekin cross, which are splendid layers, and help a long way towards the support of the family or in reducing the account at the store. Three cows and the ducks are all the live stock maintained at present. Poultry, strange to say, are not popular or numerous on the various holdings on the swamp. They scratch up and spoil all the garden produce if allowed to run about, and when fenced in—as is necessary in most cases— they cost a deal to feed, and do not lay nearly so well as those reared in the open. Very little can be made from poultry on a small farm of 10 acres unless they are given the whole block for a run, and a specialty made of the business.
Cropping Experiments
From the very start Mr. Pincott commenced to make experiments with various kinds of products, and he has now arrived at definite conclusions with regard to the utility of a great number of crops. The character of the soil is changing every year, as it is gradually becoming drier, and this renders it necessary to adjust and select the plants accordingly. The principal crop sown this season is onions, which occupy 1¼ acres. Onions do very well here, and if prices are as high next season - good onions are now selling at £12 a ton - with an average yield of six tons per acre, it may be guessed that onions are a highly profitable crop. But, as has often happened before, this industry is likely to be over-done, for every one seems to be trying to grow onions this year. Farmers at Portarlington, near Geelong, who make onion-growing a feature of their practice, will some of these days, however, wake up to the fact that they have strong competitors in this line at Koo-wee-rup. A patch of potato onions is also grown at Mr. Pincott's place, and he considers the Red Lisborne the best variety. It is not a very large onion, but of beautiful shape and flavour. Potatoes grow to perfection in the dry peat-soil of the swamp. Mr. Pincott recommends a new variety named "Duke of Albany," as a prolific grower, and dry and floury when cooked, even when half grown. Another potato he thinks suitable to the ground is called "Windsor Castle."
Cropping Experiments
From the very start Mr. Pincott commenced to make experiments with various kinds of products, and he has now arrived at definite conclusions with regard to the utility of a great number of crops. The character of the soil is changing every year, as it is gradually becoming drier, and this renders it necessary to adjust and select the plants accordingly. The principal crop sown this season is onions, which occupy 1¼ acres. Onions do very well here, and if prices are as high next season - good onions are now selling at £12 a ton - with an average yield of six tons per acre, it may be guessed that onions are a highly profitable crop. But, as has often happened before, this industry is likely to be over-done, for every one seems to be trying to grow onions this year. Farmers at Portarlington, near Geelong, who make onion-growing a feature of their practice, will some of these days, however, wake up to the fact that they have strong competitors in this line at Koo-wee-rup. A patch of potato onions is also grown at Mr. Pincott's place, and he considers the Red Lisborne the best variety. It is not a very large onion, but of beautiful shape and flavour. Potatoes grow to perfection in the dry peat-soil of the swamp. Mr. Pincott recommends a new variety named "Duke of Albany," as a prolific grower, and dry and floury when cooked, even when half grown. Another potato he thinks suitable to the ground is called "Windsor Castle."
All kinds of roots grow well here. Turnips and mangels grow to enormous size. Among other products Mr. Pincott finds that peas, beans, and garlic can be grown to perfection, and was surprised to see a patch of strawberries ready for picking. There are no strawberries in the Melbourne market, as a rule, till Cup week, but the hint may be given that a very fair supply can be obtained, if needed, a month earlier from Koo-wee-rup. As regards fruit trees Mr. Pincott has tried a few of nearly every kind, and although he is not sure about some, owing to the short experience, he is confident already that apples and peaches will both do well. Raspberries and filberts are no good. Rhubarb and gooseberries do splendidly, and I was surprised to learn that while borage - a plant which bees are fond of - was specially grown, that bees did not do well. Perhaps Mr. Pincott does not know how to manage them. Asparagus and celery can be raised to wonderful perfection in this deep virgin soil with very little trouble. Rye-grass and white clover are favourite pasture plants with those who keep a cow. Mr. Pincott has tried lucerne, but it did not succeed. He finds that the Bokhara or Cabul clover, a plant similar to lucerne, grows most vigorously. To raise the variety of crops here enumerated will fully occupy any settler's time, and there is no doubt they can all be grown to perfection. But the great question, after all, is, will it pay? Time alone can furnish the answer. (1)
This is what the Koo Wee Rup Swamp would have looked like,
when the Pincott family first arrived.
Settlements on the bank 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
Who was the model farmer Mr James Pincott? James Pincott was born in Berkshire in England in 1848 to Luke Pincott and his wife Hester (sometimes called Esther) Selby. He had an older brother William (1846-1857), a younger brother Mark (born 1851) and a younger sister, Ellen, born in 1858. The family arrived in Melbourne on the Telegraph in July 1859. Sadly little Ellen died soon after their arrival aged 8 months old. This was followed by the death the next year, 1860, of Hester, who was only 38 years old, which left Luke a widower with the two boys, James and Mark. (2)
It wasn't an easy life for the boys as their father was an alcoholic, and he disappeared on May 30, 1869 from his house in Mary Street, Richmond. His body was found in a water hole at the Richmond Quarry on June 14. This is the report of his Inquest from The Argus -
An inquest was held at Richmond on Wednesday, by the district coroner, on the body of a man named Luke Pincott, aged forty-eight years, who was found dead in a water-hole, and was last seen alive on the night of the 30th May. The deceased on the afternoon of that day received half a sovereign from his son to purchase vegetables for tea. He went to the Swan Hotel, and after staying there some time, went to the house of a man for whom he had promised to do some work the next day. At that time he was under the influence of liquor. He started to go home, and was never seen alive again. The son of the deceased stated that his father was given to drinking to excess whenever he had an opportunity. The jury returned a verdict to the following effect.-"That the deceased was found drowned on the 14th inst., in a quarry hole known as the Corporation Quarry-hole, Richmond. The jury were of opinion that the said quarry is in a very dangerous and unprotected state, and that it should be fenced." (3)
Father of Heroic Soldier Dies on Christmas Eve.- Mr. Mark Pincott. Was Pioneer of Burnley. With the passing of the old year there crossed to the Better Land one of Burnley's first and most prominent citizens. Mr. Mark Pincott, for more than 30 years a resident of Madden Grove, died on December 24. He was buried at Springvale on Boxing Day. The Rev. Ashby Swan officiating. Mr. Pincott had been in failing health for some time, and the end was not unexpected. With his father he landed in Australia from the sailing vessel Telegraph In July, 1859. From the beginning the Pincotts took up residence in Richmond. On his marriage to the daughter of a Richmond resident in 1872
he removed to Burnley The east end at that time was mostly open park lands. There were only two homes between Burnley-street (which was yet unmade) and the end of the present Richmond Park. Mr. and Mrs Pincott were among those who signed the petition for a railway station at Burnley.
Mr. Pincott was born in Berkshire (Eng) in 1851 and would have celebrated his his 68th birthday on the tenth of this month. For over 23 years he was an employee of the Victorian Railways, retiring some eight years ago. He leaves a widow and four sons and four daughters, one of whom is in America. One son, Petty Officer Jack Pincott, is one of the real heroes of the war. "Guardian" readers will remember that he was the subject for a notable full-page story on his return last year. Petty Officer Pincott served with the British Armored Train in Russia, Armenia, Roumania and Galicia, and was mentioned several times in dispatches, awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, and is the only Australian to gain the Russian Order of St George, with which he was decorated by the late Grand Duke Michael. He was recalled for further service some months ago. (4)
Back to James, the model farmer. James married Amelia Frances Flett on September 18, 1888 at her parents house in Scott Street, South St Kilda (now called Elwood). (5)
Marriage notice of James Pincott
The Age, September 29, 1888 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196000838
Amelia was the daughter of Charles Clouston Flett and his wife Amelia Jones. Charles and Amelia Flett and their four daughters had arrived in Melbourne on the Green Jacket on March 26, 1861. (6) James, as we can see by the marriage notice was a builder at the time. James and Amelia had five children -
Frank Selby, born in Richmond in 1889 and died in Nowra, NSW in 1968.
Alice Louise, born in Richmond in 1892, married Albert Masters in 1913 and died in Richmond in 1944.
Amelia, birth registered in Longwarry in 1894. Married William Overend Fordyce in 1924 and died in Melbourne in 1934.
Esther Selby, birth registered in Bunyip in 1896 and died in Bunyip in 1915.
Mark Pearse, birth registered in Bunyip in 1898 and I can't find his death date. (7)
The places of birth of the children tells us that the family moved to the Koo Wee Rup Swamp around 1894. By 1901, James Pincott had acquired four parcels of land - the model farm of ten acres on the Main Drain, two five acres blocks off Evans Road and a nineteen acre block of Murray Road (8)
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Land owned by James Pincott. Section 7a of 10 acres on the Main Drain, at the intersection of Bunyip-Modella Road - this was the Model farm. Also 2 lots of 5 acres off Evans Road - Lots 76 & 84 and 19 acres on Murray Road, Lot 23.
Click here for an enlargement - http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/104853
Part of Koo-Wee-Rup, County of Mornington, photo-lithographed at the Department of Lands and Survey,
Melbourne, by T. F. McGauran, 1907. State Library of Victoria
Both James and Amelia were appointed to official positions. On November 2, 1894 James was appointed the Deputy Electoral Registrar for the Pakenham Division of the Mornington Electoral Division. (9)
James appointed Deputy Electoral Registrar
Victoria Government Gazette, November 2 1894, p. 4113. https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1894/V/general/138.pdf
In January 1897 Amelia took over this role from James and she was also appointed as the Registrar of Births and Deaths for Bunyip South in his place. (10)
Amelia's appointments
Victoria Government Gazette, January 8, 1897, p. 1
Amelia - Deputy Electoral Registrar
South Bourke & Mornington Journal, January 17, 1906 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66144219
In September 1899 James was appointed as a Trustee of the Bunyip Cemetery. (11) I have written about the Bunyip Cemetery, here.
James appointed Trustee of the Bunyip Cemetery
Victoria Government Gazette September 22 1899, p.3628
Whilst the Pincotts were at Bunyip the deaths of three family members occurred. On February 16, 1899, Amelia's father Charles Flett died. (12)
Death of Charles Flett
The Age, March 25, 1899 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189689150
On February 9, 1915 Amelia Pincott's 95-year old mother Amelia Flett died. The Bunyip and Garfield Express reported that -
Mrs Flett, mother of Mrs James Pincott, had the misfortune to fall and break her leg at the thigh. It appears that Mrs Flett, who is residing with her daughter, slipped on the doorstep, when returning to the house on Wednesday last with the result as stated. The victim is 95 years of age, but nevertheless bears her injury with cheerfulness and fortitude. (13) The next week, the newspaper would report on her passing. She was buried with her husband at Bunyip Cemetery (14)
Only ten days later, on February 19, their daughter Esther died and this obituary was in the Bunyip and Garfield Express -
One of the saddest happenings in this district for some time past was the unexpected death of Miss Essie Pincott at Dr Withington's private hospital on Friday morning after coming through two severe internal operations. Miss Pincott was only 19 years of age, and was one of the most popular young ladies in this district. Figuring as she did in most of the young peoples organizations she was known to young and old as a bright, intelligent young girl, to whom the residents became attached and it is no exaggeration to say that a pall was thrown over the town when the news of her death became generally known on Friday.
The tragic suddenness of demise was all the more acute since deceased appeared amongst her chums and schoolfellows, apparently in the best of health, strength and spirits only a week or two previous to the crisis, and it would be difficult to express the sorrow with which the news was received. Deceased was the youngest daughter of Mr and Mrs James Pincott, who are very old and highly respected residents of Iona, and are perhaps the best known couple in the district, having resided on their present farm since the inception of settlement and it goes without saying that the deepest sympathy is extended to them by all classes and creeds in their hour of great grief. We wish to express our feelings in common with those of our readers for the distress this kindly couple and their family to whom time alone can bring relief.
The funeral took place on Sunday afternoon when a cortege half a mile long followed the coffin to the grave side. The internment was made in the Bunyip cemetery and an impressive burial service was read by Reverend A. banks, of St Thomas' Church of England, Bunyip. Mr W.W. Browne had charge of the mortuary arrangements. (15)
The Age reported in February 1913 that James Pincott had sold his farm (16), so it was either a delayed settlement or the sale fell through as they were still at the farm in 1915. The Shire of Berwick Rate books lists a sale of the property having taken in 1915/1916.
In 1921 the Electoral Rolls have the couple in 26 Railway Place, Kensington and Amelia is listed as a shopkeeper, and James had no occupation. In 1928 they were at 110 Edwards Street, Preston, once again she was a shop keeper. In 1932 their address was 260 Johnston Street, Fitzroy and in 1937 they were at 62 Station Street, Fairfield, which is where they was living when James died on August 25, 1943, aged 94. James is buried at the Booroondara Cemetery at Kew. (17)
James Pincott's death notice
The Age August 23 1943 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206363446
Amelia Pincott's death notice
Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 1944 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17918438
James and Amelia were some of the early pioneers of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp, one of the richest agricultural regions in Australia and his work at his Model Farm would have inspired other settlers to experiment with a variety of crops.
Footnotes
(1) The Australasian, October 31, 1896, see here.
(2) From Ancestry.com - 1851 English Census, England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915; England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915; Shipping Records at the Public Records Office of Victoria; Indexes to the Victorian Births Deaths and Marriages.
(3) Report of disappearance - The Herald, June 5, 1869, see here; Luke Pincott's body found - The Herald, June 15, 1869, see here; Inquest report - The Argus, June 17, 1869, see here.
(4) Richmond Guardian, January 4, 1919, see here; the report of Jack Pincott's heroic war service - Richmond Guardian, November 19, 1917, see here. Short obituary of Mary Pincott - Richmond Guardian, July 9, 1927, see here.
(5) The Age, September 29, 1888, see here.
(6) Shipping Records at the Public Records Office of Victoria
(7) Indexes to the Victorian and New South Wales Births Deaths and Marriages. Amelia Fordyce death notice - The Age, April 19, 1934, see here.
(8) Shire of Berwick Rate Books
(9) Victoria Government Gazette, November 2 1894, p. 4113 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1894/V/general/138.pdf
(10) Victoria Government Gazette, January 8, 1897, p. 1 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1897/V/general/1.pdf
(11) Victoria Government Gazette September 22 1899, p.3628 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1899/V/general/78.pdf
(12) The Age, March 25, 1899, see here
(13) Bunyip and Garfield Express, February 2, 1914, p. 2. Death notice - The Argus, February 10, 1915, see here.
(14) Australia Cemetery Index, 1808-2007, on Ancestry.com
(15) Bunyip and Garfield Express, February 23, 1915, p.2. Death notice - The Age, February 22, 1915, see here; Also a short obituary in the Bunyip Free Press, February 18, 1915, see here.
(16) The Age, February 21, 1913, see here.
(17) Electoral Roll on Ancestry.com; Death notice - The Age, August 26, 1943, see here; Funeral notice The Age, August 26, 1943, see here.
(18) Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 1944, see here.
