The October 1839 arrival of the David Clark brought the first British assisted immigrants direct to the Port Phillip District. Speaking at a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the arrival, a descendant described the ship as “Victoria’s Mayflower.” At that time, the descendants of the 229 passengers were estimated at 3,000, “and its passengers and their descendants have been a powerful influence in the progress of Australia.”[i] The passengers were all Scots, and almost all without much in the way of resources other than their trades and hard work. However, most did achieve some success in life and, in some cases, great wealth.
I have no personal connection to any passenger: my interest started from volunteering at Gulf Station, the historic farm at Yarra Glen, held from the 1850s by William Bell, who was a David Clark passenger with his parents and siblings. I have limited my research to the passengers, although sometimes I have come across information about their descendants. Here I’ve itemised some influences on Victoria including on the geography of Victoria, where streets and other features have been named for them (passenger names in bold).
Close to Eltham, there’s Bell Corner at Research, after William Bell senior who settled at Kangaroo Ground. In Yarra Glen, there’s Bell Street named for William Bell junior, and Armstrong Grove, for Simon Armstrong who settled there. In Ballarat, Armstrong Street remembers Simon’s brother, David, who was Gold Commissioner for Ballarat.
The families of the two McMillan brothers are remembered in several ways. For John McMillan there was McMillan Street (now part of Warrigal Road) and possibly Scotchman’s Creek (there were other Scots that settled in the area). For Archibald McMillan, Clonaig Street in Brighton is named for the house he built (it’s still there) and McMillan Road in Sheep Hills, the township itself named after the family sheep run. Campbell Street in Sheep Hills is named for John’s son-in-law, James Campbell and wife Isabella McMillan. Archibald McMillan is perhaps the best example of what these immigrants could achieve: he arrived with only a few shillings in his pocket (earned from doing odd jobs during the voyage) but, with purse strings held by wife Catherine (Kate), the family amassed a huge fortune.
Farming families around Melbourne gave their names or those of their farms to streets and areas. Notable are McNabs Road in Keilor (after Angus McNab and family), Oaklands Road and Oakland Junction near Tullamarine (Oakland was the first McNab family farm), and Green Gully Road, Keilor, after another McNab family farm. McNae Street, Moonee Ponds, is name for James McNay. Gowrie Park Drive through Melbourne airport remembers the farm of William Thomson and David Duncan. Greenvale is named for the farm of Catherine McNab’s husband, John McKercher. Brunswick farmer John Beith is remembered in Beith Street (incongruously, in 2013, the site of a Beyonce video clip).
Some farmers moved away from Melbourne. Hawkins Creek runs through the property of Samuel Proudfoot Hawkins (he became the grandfather of Vida Goldstein, who had an incalculable effect on achieving the vote for women and also on workers’ rights, and was the first woman to stand for parliament anywhere in the British Empire). Mathiesons Road, Nirranda, is named for brothers John Conly Mathieson and Archibald Mathieson. Pastoria Road in Piper’s Creek was named after the farm of Susanna McKindlay and her husband Thomas Brown.
The passengers included men with building trades and others who took to building. John Conly Mathieson had a mid-life career as a builder; works still standing include the historic Police Building at Beechworth, and the lovely Commissioner’s Bridge, Yackandandah. Some men were employed immediately on arrival by Peter Bodecin (who had a building contract for the original St Francis Church on Lonsdale Street) and Alexander Sim (who had a contract for St James Cathedral on its original site and another for St Francis Church): these passengers were David Aitkin and Alexander Robertson (for Bodecin) and James Lawrie and Archibald McMillan (for Sim).
Some passengers moved into hotel-keeping. In Melbourne, McLean Place, Fitzroy, is named for John McLean, publican of what is now the Terminus Hotel in Queens Parade (a plaque to him is still on the wall). In Dunkeld, Templeton Street remembers Andrew and Jacobina Templeton, publicans of the Woolpack Inn (sketched by La Trobe when he visited it in 1850). Middlemiss was the original name of the Winding Creek settlement (later re-named Longwood) after Hugh and Jane Middlemiss.
David Clark passengers influenced horticulture in the new colony in various ways. John McEwin brought seeds and plants including, apparently, the first willow trees. In Heidelberg’s Botanic Gardens, the two “wishbone” grated elms were planted by Peter, one of John and Hester McEwin’s sons. Another son, Andrew, later moved to New Zealand and published The Best Method of Saving Seeds and a section in The hand-book to the Farm and Garden arranged for the Seasons and Climate of New Zealand (1865). Son Robert became the grandfather of Sir Alexander Lyell McEwin, for 40 years a member of the South Australian parliament. Son George (not a David Clark passenger) emigrated to Adelaide in 1839 and published Catalogue of plants introduced into South Australia by George Stevenson Esq (1840), The South Australian vigneron and gardeners’ manual (1843), and A description of the Adelaide Botanic Garden (1875) and established the Glen Ewin company. Through George, John and Hester McEwin were great-great-great-grandparents of Douglas Mawson’s grandchildren. By 1932 a grandson and a great grandson of John McEwin were on the staff of Burnley Horticultural College.
Another bringer of seeds and plants was John Arthur. In Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens, on a rock-face inscribed with the names of all the directors, John Arthur’s name appears at the top as the first superintendent. He is also remembered by Arthur’s Elms, the oldest planted trees in the Gardens; unfortunately John died a few years after establishing the Gardens.
Mary McMaster married David Dunlop and they became bakers. They settled eventually in Beechworth and had a bakery “in Camp Street opposite the Post Office” which is how one would now describe the location of the famous Beechworth Bakery (I am still to confirm that the buildings are the same).
A sad claim for Archibald and Elizabeth McIntyre is that a granddaughter was the last person to be buried in the Old Melbourne Cemetery; she shared the grave of grandmother Elizabeth and one of Elizabeth’s daughters, Ann. The bodies and stone were later transferred to Fawkner Cemetery.
Martha Ronald became the aunt of George Reid, Australia’s fourth Prime Minister; he had earlier sat in a colonial parliament (New South Wales) and later in the British House of Commons, a unique achievement.
Only one David Clark passenger appears in the Australian Dictionary of Biography: Christina Stewart (nee Menzies), a widow who re-married in Melbourne. As Christina Smith, she took an interest in Aboriginal affairs and published The Booandik Tribe of South Australian Aborigines: a sketch of their Habits, Customs, Legends (1880). Christina is also featured in a display in the Lady Nelson Discovery Centre, Mount Gambier. Her son, Duncan Stewart, later published a vocabulary for the tribe.
Does all this equate to “Victoria’s Mayflower”? The passengers certainly had an impact on Victoria, most especially in Kangaroo Ground where so many of them settled and intermarried: William and Agnes Bell and 5 children, Thomas and Mary Armstrong and 8 children, Thomas Armstrong (not related), siblings Francis and Janet Rogerson, John and Janet Barr, and Elizabeth Arthur (John’s widow) and 2 children. My research is ongoing!
By Irene Kearsey
Contact Irene by email via irene dot kearsey at bigpond dot com
Image: Landing Passengers in Quarantine, State Library Victoria
First published Eltham District Historical Society newsletter no 240 June 2018
[i] The Age, 15 November 1939, p.10.
I am a direct descendant of Thomas McMaster, a passenger on the David Clarke. His son, Peter Paterson McMaster, was born in a house in Collins St. Melbourne. Peter later farmed at Merrijig, near Mansfield.