September 2013 – Edition 102

Ray and I had a late start this month because of misplaced files. However, we scrambled to make the monthly deadline.

Our US-based readers might recognize French Island as being similar to the Florida Everglades, except for the cold temperature.

This article is about a great granddaughter of Big Bill, Zilpha Lizzie Small.

Briefly, Big Bill had a daughter Elizabeth who married William Small, and the couple migrated to Australia in 1850 with their three children, including Thomas Stephen Small. In due course Thomas married Zilpha Elizabeth Small (nee Burchett) and they had fifteen children, the tenth being Zilpha.

I have chosen Zilpha because she was the first woman in the Jerrems tree to describe herself as a “grazier”, the Australian equivalent of an American “rancher”. Also, she settled on French Island (pictured below) which would have provided additional challenges.

French Island is a typical island on the south coast of Australia. Far from being an island paradise, as some readers might expect, it is a windswept island with a matching ecology and wild beauty.

The island is the largest coastal island of Victoria, located southeast of Melbourne, Australia. With an area of 111 square kilometres the island is generally flat or mildly undulating with the highest point being Mount Wellington (96m) in the north. There is boat access to the island from Mornington Peninsular to Tankerton on the west side of the Island (see map). Tankerton is also close to Phillip Island to the south (see map), upon which the family farm in San Remo was situated.

Historically the Island had a range of salt and wind resistant native vegetation resulting from the salty winds (very cold in winter) coming off the Southern Ocean. The vegetation ranged from tough coastal grasses to heathland, scrub and trees, plus patches of wetland and several lagoons. In 1997 about 70 per cent of the island was declared the “French Island National Park” French Island National Park.

French Island is still relatively isolated and undeveloped. There are no sewerage or water mains, electricity, or medical services on the island. There is one small general store and post office (opened in 1890) located at Tankerton, where there is a boat jetty.

At the 2011 “Census in Australia” census, French Island had a population of 116. In 2003 ten students were enrolled at the aptly named Perseverance Primary School.

Farming on the island commenced in the 1880s, encouraged by the government’s construction of chicory kilns on the island, accompanied presumably by land clearing (Root Chicory, a native of the Mediterranean, has been cultivated as a coffee substitute or additive, the roots being baked and ground). This was followed in the 1890s when several village settlements were established under Government settlement programs. A primary school was also opened on the island (see later). A jail was opened on the island in 1917. Closed in 1975, one would hope that it was built for imported prisoners rather than wayward local residents!

The 1914 Electoral Roll give an insight into the occupations of the people on the island at the time. There was a boatman, a lady boardinghouse keeper, and a postmistress. A predominance of the men were farmers (14) or labourers. Zilpha was the only person described as a grazier.

Unlike the prairies of the United States, where “the deer and the buffalo roamed” (as the song “Home on the Range” went), prior to settlement the island would not have had any native grasslands which would support stock. Instead, the native vegetation had to be cleared and nutritious grasses planted. In the early days the clearing would have been carried out by hand, with the assistance of any available draught horses and bullocks.

Later, tractors like the one pictured in 1926 (attributed to the Island) would have been used to assist in clearing. Although the machine could be used for towing waggons, the power take off provided by the revolving drum at the feet of the middle workman could be used when the machine was stationary. A belt running off the drum could be used to power a winch to pull out trees and stumps, to pull a ball and chain to flatten scrub, to pull a ripper, to crush stone, or to power a circular saw. Like its predecessor, the steam traction engine, it was a versatile and rugged workhorse.

When Zilpha lived on the island life would have been very basic, taking into account the lack of facilities, the dominant occupation of farming, and the island’s relative isolation. In fact it could have been like living in the early colonial days, where there was an emphasis on people being as self-reliant as possible by growing their own vegetables, milking their own cow, raising poultry etc.

An example of an early method of building construction on the island is provided by the thatched schoolhouse (circa 1880). It was obviously built by the locals, presumably using a method of construction they were using for their own houses. The main attribute of this method is that it is very low cost.

The caption to the photo refers to the building as being wattle and daub.

Typically this is a building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called “wattle” is plastered by hand with a sticky material called “daub” (misspelt in the photo caption as “dab”) usually made of some combination of wet soil, sand, dried animal dung and straw. The school building in fact looks more like the “slab” method shown in my first “Mountain Hut” article.

In Zilpha’s time beginning 30 years later most houses and outbuildings would have been constructed from timber, as the cheapest material available on the island or nearby on the mainland, and the houses would have been basic. However it is also apparent that some houses were of brick construction and would have been very comfortable (see photo of derelict house).

The derelict house in the photo could date back to the time when Zilpha lived on the island. It was a substantial building, with an attic which can be seen through the tree foliage. The openings in the centre were originally windows, with an entrance at the right hand end. At the left hand end the remains of a verandah can be seen, indicating that the photo is of the rear of the house. Farm buildings can be seen in the background when the photo is blown up.

Such a house would have been very comfortable in the cold winters, where the low island would have been open to the cold winter winds coming from the west around to the south.

The beautiful interior photo at the top of the article, taken circa 1900, demonstrates this comfortable style. One could imagine the beautifully dressed ladies to have come from the band of seven Small girls!

Zilpha had family support on the island, her spinster sister Gertrude (1877-1955) being shown as living on the island in the 1909 Electoral Roll and her spinster sister Edith Augusta Eveline Small (1873-1945) is shown as living on the island in the 1919 and 1924 Electoral Rolls. These women would have provided valuable assistance to Zilpha.

In the next article about Zilpha I will tell you more about her life on the island, her marriage to a war veteran and the couple’s later life in Melbourne.

Old Rascal Ray has been pretty quiet lately, but he wishes to make a statement about the 100th edition.

The Jerrems family website is undergoing major changes. Stay tuned.