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Fremantle Stuff > Early Days: Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society

The Tuckeys of Mandurah

J.H.M. Honniball

Honniball, J.H.M. 1961, 'The Tuckeys of Mandurah', Early Days, vol. 5 part 8: 7-50.

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My own memories of Mandurah go back less than twenty years, but the quiet town left even a small boy on annual holidays with distinct impressions. Swimming and fishing were attractions for every visitor. But other remarkable features of the place were the slowly clanking windmills, spreading tuart trees, old stone houses with grape vines and fig and mulberry trees in their gardens, the absence of trains and railway, and the white stone church with its graveyard. Grandparents and other relatives often talked of the early days and laughed about Mandurah's characters. The furnishings of the large living room of Melton House, my grandparents' guest house, was one of several influences inspiring awe for things aged and curiosity about the past. A visit to the church cemetery to see the graves of great grandfather Charles and great great grandfather James provided visible evidence of the Tuckeys' long association with Mandurah. James' headstone records that he came out to Western Australia in 1830. He and his sister had come with their father, John, on the Rockingham, under Thomas Peel's scheme of colonisation.

Taking the story back to England, a few facts emerge about the Tuckey family’s background before 1830. Charles wrote in 1898 concerning his grandfather, John:

“He was the eldest of seven brothers, and the family owned a place called Hollywater Farm in Sussex or Kent (my father was born in the latter county but brought up in the former) and as far as I can remember of what I heard him say there was some dispute in the family about an inheritance, and my grandfather never wrote to his relatives after arriving here. (1)

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Thus there appears to have been some movement of the family between the two counties in the 1820s. Perhaps the unsettled postwar conditions had something to do with it. At all events, when on December 31. 1829, John Tuckey entered into agreement with Peel, to come out to Swan River, he described himself as “of Cocking in the county of Sussex”. (2) Cocking is an ancient village, with a population now of about 400, in the South Downs of Western Sussex.

Further genealogical research may be possible in England In the future. It is noteworthy, however, that the name Tuckey probably has pre-Conquest origins. It may have come to England with the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian invasions. For etymologists have traced the name Tuckey or Tookey to Tochi, Toke, Toche, Toea, Tuka, and linked them with Toki in Old Norse, Toke and Tuke in Old Swedish, and Toki and Tuki in Old Danish. (3) A connection with the Old English verb "tucian” meaning "to adorn” is suggested. (4)

The name Tochi appears in the survey of the county of Sussex in the Domesday Book of 1086, in Pevensel (Pevensey) Hundred. The Book states that "Ansfrid holds of the count (the Count of Mortain) at Chenolle 2 hides. There is land for 2 ploughs. Tochi held this as an alod. On the demesne is half a plough, and there is one villein with half a plough, and 5 acres of meadow. In the time of King Edward this was worth 40/-; now 15/-.” (5)

Thus Tochi held this alod or estate. It might be inferred that he held it in the time of Edward the Confessor, but was displaced when the Conqueror and his supporters divided up the land. Pevensey is the place where William the Conquerer had landed twenty years before, and the Battle of Hastings was fought a few miles to the east. The border with Kent is about eighteen miles away.

Many surnames originated only four or five hundred years ago, especially those taken from place of residence, from nickname or from occupation. They were often very fluid, and changed after a few generations. So it is possible, but by no means probable, that Tuckeys have been in the Sussex-Kent area all down the centuries.

Tuckeys are now to be found in most English-speaking countries, but infrequently enough to merit attention. They include, or have done, C. R. D. Tuckey, English Davis Cup player of 1936; the Reverend H. E. Tuckey who arrived in New Zealand in 1859 and was headmaster of two high schools; two Tuckeys were engineers in China in the 1890s; there was a 17th century clockmaker; a Christmas carol written by Esther L. Tuckey in 1939 appears in the Australian supplement of The Book of Common Praise; William Tuckey, organist of Trinity Episcopal Church, New York, was possibly the first to play "God Save the King" on an American concert programme (1769); several Tuckeys migrated to South

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Australia, one with Colonel Light in 1836, one on the same boat as the writer’s great-grandfather Joseph Honniball (the Charlotte Gladstone, 1866). On the Eyre Peninsula in that State there is a small township named Tuckey. At least five Tuckeys have been the authors of books, the best known being the explorer Captain James Hingston Tuckey for his Account of a Voyage to Establish a Colony at Port Philip in Bass’s Strait, on the South Coast of New South Wales, in His Majesty’s Ship Calcutta, in the Years 1802-3-4 and his Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, Usually Called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816. J. H. Tuckey was a member of a well documented family who went from Worcester to County Cork under the Protestant Settlement of Ireland in the 17th century. This family had a high proportion of naval and military men and clergymen. (6)

However no known connection has been revealed with our John Tuckey, who was born in 1788 in Kent. He moved to Sussex, was at Cocking in 1829, and evidently fell out with his family. The only other fact known of his life at this time was that he fought in the Napoleonic wars as a private soldier. The phase of the wars concerned was the Peninsula campaign, one of the most famous and glorious in the annals of the British army. John Tuckey's Military General Service Medal tells some of the story. (7) It was not issued until 1848. Before that time, except in the case of the Battle of Waterloo (1815), medals were issued only to senior officers. But now, thirty-four years after the last battle the medal commemorates, the General Service Medal was awarded to junior officers and men who still survived. John Tuckey's medal has attached to its crimson and dark blue bordered ribbon, five bars—those for Vittoria, the Pyrenees, the Nivelle, the Nive and Toulouse. The first of these battles was fought in June 1813, and the last in April 1814, just before the news of Napoleon’s abdication reached Toulouse. It is possible that John Tuckey enlisted some time before the advance on the Pyrenees and the drive through the south of France, for his regiment, the 43rd Foot, was in the Peninsula as far back as 1808, and had led the attack at Salamanca. The regiment, under the command of Sir William Napier, acquitted itself well, especially in the protracted campaign through the mountains. The 43rd was also present when Napoleon made his unsuccessful comeback at Waterloo and so possibly John Tuckey was at the famous battle. If so, he would have received the Waterloo medal, but it could have gone astray before he left England. The regiment was later part of the army of occupation, quartered in Paris.

Fifteen years later John Tuckey was in Western Australia.

The story of Thomas Peel’s grandiose scheme of settlement at Swan River has been told by other writers in detail, and requires only a summary here. After protracted negotiations with the

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British government, Peel accepted the conditions offered: if he were to land 400 settlers in the colony before November 1, 1829, he would be given 250.000 acres along the Swan River in preference over all other settlers. He intended to sponsor 10,000 migrants in four years, and would be given one million acres all told. Equipment, stock and seeds were to be sent out, and each male migrant was to be allotted land and encouraged to bring it under production.

However, Peel and the first party of settlers aboard the Gilmore did not arrive until December 1829, and his concession was cancelled. He found himself in the position of an ordinary migrant, and was granted forty acres of land for each £3 invested by him and his followers. Instead of the land on the south bank of the Swan that he had picked out, he had to accept an unpromising tract extending from Cockburn Sound to the Murray River. He took possession, and laid down the township of Clarence, but did little else.

The third ship chartered by Peel, the Rockingham, set sail from London in January 1830, with 175 passengers. The voyage began badly; outside the mouth of the Thames, the ship lost her anchor, and drifted on to the dreaded Goodwin Sands. Then after being carried off by the high tide, the 423 ton vessel ran into a fierce gale in the Channel, which tore away all her canvas. She rode out the gale safely, and limped into Falmouth Harbour, where she remained a fortnight for refitting, before proceeding. Her voyage then appears to have been uneventful.

The Rockingham dropped anchor off Garden Island on May 14, 1830, and a naval officer from Fremantle boarded her and piloted her in towards Clarence. At this point a violent storm arose, but Peel nevertheless gave orders for the disembarkation of passengers and property. All the single men were placed in four of the ship’s boats, and sent off for Garden Island. However the gale blew them back to the mainland, where most of them were tumbled into the surf. The ship was meanwhile cast broadside on to the beach. The married men and their families were put aboard the quarter boat, but as they approached the shore, the boat capsized and cast them into the breakers. The single men on shore rushed to their assistance, and fortunately no lives were lost. No doubt it was an anxious time for John Tuckey looking after his young son and daughter. Among those who were introduced in this dramatic way to their new homeland were names which were to become well known in the colony within a few years: Adams, Edwards, Glyde, Leeder, Mews, Read and Pollard.

The pioneers had to find themselves shelter; many of their belongings were lost or ruined. Livestock, which had been swum ashore, made off into the bush. For a long time Peel seemed unable to organise anything. Before long many of the migrants severed themselves from him, and made their way to Perth. (8)

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A few, and these included John Tuckey, decided to make an earnest attempt at farming. He selected fifty acres and by the end of the first summer, had cleared and sown his first quarter acre. This was a mile or two north of the mouth of the Murray, and close to Peel’s house. The threat of the Murray natives led to the stationing of a lieutenant and six soldiers at the settlement in October 1831, and a skirmish eventually took place, known as the Battle of Pinjarra, in October 1834.

Lieutenant Bunbury, in his tour of the colony in 1837, describes Peel’s low thatched cottage of wattle and daub, white washed and kept scrupulously clean.

“There he resides with his wife, two young daughters and young son Tommy, who, with his wife’s mother form the establishment. He generally has one or two natives as servants, young men who wash the dishes, look after the horses ... He has failed completely . . . Since 1830, many (of the men he brought out) have done extremely well, and have turned out the best and most industrious emigrants in the colony, doing credit to their selection in England, whoever made it, and proving that Peel’s failure was his own fault and not that of his people as he wishes to make one believe.

“The detachment at Mandurup consists now of but four men, and the only other inhabitants are an old soldier of the 43rd named Tuckie with his family, and another man who works sometimes for him and now and then for Peel.” (9)

With his son and daughter to help him, John Tuckey wrested a living from the stubborn soil. A small crop of wheat was probably harvested each year. A bullock pulled his plough, and the wheat was evidently ground in a hand-mill. Joseph Cooper began building his flour mill at the mouth of the Murray in 1843, but still five years later, John Sutton recorded that his son ground some wheat in Tuckey’s mill while waiting for a boat expected from Fremantle. (10) John Tuckey and his children cultivated vegetables and vines in the home garden, raised poultry and pigs, and a plentiful supply of fish and game was always at hand. Very likely young James would have learned all he could from the military guard and the natives with whom he had contact. He would have come to know the soil, the vegetation, the sea and the estuary, the rainfall and the seasons. Perhaps many a time he realised that he was an explorer, treading land and probing thickets never before seen by a white man. Shells of varied colours and fantastic shapes were discovered on the shores, admired, and taken home to survive for many years. Such a life would have taught the boy to be self-reliant and resourceful. Nor was the Mandurah community as isolated as those at Augusta, the Vasse and elsewhere. There were many travellers journeying along the Old Coast Road, who had to cross the estuary at this point. Often they stayed overnight at the home of John Sutton, who besides running his farm, operated the ferry in the 1840s. They were able

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to give the people of Mandurah first hand news and accounts of conditions elsewhere in the colony. Very likely John Molloy and Elijah Dawson, travelling between the Vasse and Perth from time to time, would have met John Tuckey at Mandurah, and fought the Peninsula campaign again over an ale or two (11). Two clergymen, who were stationed at Picton and Fremantle after 1841, came and held services occasionally, either in a hut provided by Peel or at Thomas Watson’s home. The Perth newspapers came with the mail or with visitors, and told of events of four months ago in England and Europe. The 1840s were a period of economic depression in England, Ireland and the Continent, and the settlers in the Antipodes knew that they were not alone in their trials.

At this time James Tuckey was making frequent trips in his boat to Fremantle. He transported wheat for several local farmers; for John Sutton he took to the merchants of Fremantle butter (which fetched 1/6 per lb.), eggs (1/- a dozen) and onions, and there were sometimes one or two passengers. Provisions taken on the homeward run often included liquor for Sutton’s inn. (12)

It was at Fremantle that James found a bride, his marriage to 19 years old Mary Anne Esther Foster being celebrated at the Crown and Thistle Inn on December 7, 1841. Four children were born to them at Mandurah between 1842 and 1849. Charlotte, James’ sister, became the second wife of the widower Thomas Eacott, of Mandurah.

The Murray district was a reliable supplier of agricultural produce in these years, but as a whole the colony was stagnating, owing to the small size of the population and to the distance of markets for its produce. The introduction of convicts in 1850 gave the colony a fresh impetus, but shortly afterwards a number of the old settlers made for the Eastern colonies, attracted by the spectacular gold discoveries in Victoria. Among several from the Murray district were the Tuckeys. Before their departure in 1852, twenty acres of land that John had acquired from Peel in 1842 were sold for £50. (13) The two eldest children of James and Mary Anne married while in Victoria, John taking as his bride Eliza Hawley and Matilda becoming the wife of John Wearne. No great fortune came their way on the goldfields, and in 1862 the family (apart from John and Matilda Wearne who stayed until the mid-1870s) returned to Mandurah.

James’ two sons apparently considered moving to Augusta, for in 1866 J. and C. Tuckey wrote to the Surveyor-General, enquiring about lots which were for sale there, and asking for “a tracing of Augusta and the country around.” (14) They invested in land there, but it is not known whether they ever inspected it. Instead they were both soon to seek a living from the wealth of the seas. In 1869 their father took over the duty of keeping the ferry boat which crossed the river when required at a point close to his house, just upstream from the present bridge.

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The central position of the house also led to its becoming the village post office. Thomas Watson and Resident Magistrate Murray had handled the mails between 1846 and 1858, but after a bridge was built across the Murray at Pinjarra, the southern mails were diverted through that town instead of using the Old Coast Road, and the Mandurah office was replaced by one at Serpentine. When Mandurah post office was reopened in 1865, Mary Anne was given charge with a salary of £6 a year; increasing volume of business caused the remuneration to rise to £10 after 1870. (15)

In 1869 and 1870 three infants were baptised in James Tuckey’s house, for it was the scene of the community's religious observances after the destruction of the little church built by Peel in 1842. The church magazine chronicles a visit by Bishop Hale in 1869 and plans for a new church:

"On Saturday, June 12th, as the Bishop of Perth was expected to visit Mandurah, a number of settlers assembled to ride out to meet his lordship. This, however, was found impracticable, as the Bishop had arrived some time before. A meeting . . . was then held in the police barrack. It was composed of nearly all the heads of families residing in the Mandurah district . . . Mr. H. H. Hall, Chairman of the Church Building Committee, took the chair. It was resolved unanimously that, seeing that upwards of £105 was already subscribed, every effort should be made to have the Church built as speedily as possible. In furtherance of this object, a piece of ground was fixed upon for the site . . . The Bishop, with his accustomed liberality, guaranteed a subscription of £10 as soon as the foundation should be laid; Mr. James Tuckey also forwarded £5. His Lordship is loved and respected at Mandurah, as he is in every other part of the colony; and acts of considerate and generous liberality like this serve to bind him still closer in affection to the hearts of the people. Next day (Sunday) the Bishop read morning and evening service, and preached twice in Mr. Jas. Tuckey’s house, where Divine service has been celebrated since the destruction of the old church by fire. Large and attentive congregations were present on both occasions.” (16)

The foundation stone of a new building was laid in April 1870; building proceeded and the first service was held in Christ Church on February 26, 1871. To provide for furnishings which were required before its consecration, Henry Sutton and James Tuckey each gave a second donation, while Henry Hall gave his third. Bishop Hale performed the consecration on Wednesday, October 25, 1871, in the presence of a congregation of seventy. (17) On May 4, 1872, John Tuckey died at Mandurah, having spent exactly half of his eighty-four years in Australia. He was one of the last veterans of the Peninsula War who had settled in W.A. to survive. G. W. Leake fifteen years later compiled a list of colonists who were known to have fought in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. Numbering eight, they were: John Molloy, Richard Meares, Frederick Irwin (officers), and William Edwards, John Tuckey, John Adams, Elijah Dawson and John Farquhar.

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“The children and grandchildren of all except Molloy and Irwin are yet among us. These old soldiers were true ornaments of the colony in their lifetime, their fellow colonists honoured and revered them, and the memory of them should not pass with them to their graves. Their lives had an influence of the most beneficial nature on Western Australia in its early years.” (18)

Throughout the 1870s James Tuckey developed pastoral and tillage leases which he had acquired in the district, and was associated with his sons’ commercial interests in the north. Father and sons continued to ply by boat between the Murray and Fremantle periodically. The colony had enjoyed more prosperous times in recent years. Pastoralists and pearlers were now exploiting the North West. Eighteen years of transportation had increased the colony’s population and provided more money and markets; the convicts were building better roads and bridges; and ticket of leave men were employed by the settlers.

For Mandurah, one of the most dramatic, though tragic, events of this period was the wreck of the barque James Service. The vessel struck the Murray Reef in a storm on the night of July 20, 1878, and all aboard were lost. When news of the disaster reached the town, Charles Tuckey assisted Police Constable Holmes in the unrewarding search for survivors. Personal effects and cargo drifted ashore, and James Tuckey, being the nearest settler, was appointed receiver by the Collector of Customs. (19) Various items were returned to the agent for the vessel. One relic that stayed, a bowler hat, was still donned occasionally by a Mandurah indentity up to fifty years later and its appearances served as a continuing reminder of the tragedy. A lifeboat from the James Service was acquired by the Tuckey family, and, renamed the Ellen, was employed by them until it too ended its career tragically eleven years later.

James Tuckey retired to his farm at Marrinup, nine miles east of Pinjarra, in his old age, and he died there in 1895 at the age of 79, his wife surviving him by only a few months. (20) Before they died James and Mary Anne could look back on the colony’s history from its infancy to its coming of age. They were old enough when they arrived as children to appreciate the wilderness of the country and the crudity of its civilisation, in contrast with the orderliness of old England. They had witnessed the first twenty lean years, and the convict era (although for the greater part of this episode they had been in the midst of the excitement of the Victorian gold rush). They saw the slow but steady progress of the 1870s and 1880s. The telegraph gave them the overseas news which had once taken four months to arrive. Steam power had largely displaced the sailing ship. Railways were reaching out over the settled districts, and the line to Pinjarra was opened on May 2, 1893. In 1890 James and Mary Anne saw Western Australia achieve self-government, as

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they had Victoria in 1855. The colony was a proud member of the still expanding British Empire, and the adored Queen Victoria, now in her 70s, was approaching her diamond jubilee. Just at the time James and Mary Anne were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, the colony made a powerful leap forward. Western Australia’s gold rush was on, and Sir John Forrest was guiding a rich and optimistic community.

James Tuckey's elder son brought his Victorian wife (she was born in the Channel Islands, but had come to Victoria as an infant) to Mandurah to live in a little stone cottage next door to that of his parents. Part of it still stands beside the Brighton Hotel. A daughter, Mrs. Bertha Thompson, recalls the family's home and the activities of her mother Eliza. At first, though this was years before she was born, the home was plain and furnished barely, furniture being difficult to obtain. Eliza, however, capable with her hands, spared no pains in decking the place out with colourful materials. She came to win a reputation as the safeguarder of Mandurah’s health, being equipped with a cupboard full of chemicals. Yet hot water and mustard wrappings were standard equipment. People would say “Send for Mrs. John’’ if an arm were broken or if the birth of a baby were imminent. When the doctor from Pinjarra paid his periodical calls, he would first enquire from Dr. Tuckey, as he called her, where his help was required. For a few years, commencing in October 1869, Mrs. John was also an unofficial schoolteacher; she gave instruction to her own and to several other children in her home, and for this she received an allowance of £25 a year. When her son Stephen was born, she was permitted a fortnight’s break from her duties, and when class resumed, she kept the baby in a basket beside her table. The first official school opened in 1876, under the charge of Mr. R. Mewburn. Mrs. Thompson can still recite a lengthy poem which Mr. Mewburn taught her nearly seventy years ago. (21) Eliza also found time to teach Sunday School and to play the harmonium for church services.

John Tuckey devoted himself to farming for a few years, and then turned his attention to the sea. During the 1870s the booming pearling industry drew many young Western Australians to the North West, and John and Charles were among those who sought a fortune from the tropical waters. Working in partnership, they were equipped with two boats, the Florence and the Jessie. (22) They employed natives as divers, as was customary. Having good powers of endurance and keen eyesight, natives frequently proved themselves first-rate divers. The white men shared hard work and dangerous conditions. During summer hurricanes could cause sudden disasters, and at any time the sea could be rough. The white pearler’s task was to scull the boat or dinghy against the

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wind all day, so that the divers would surface near to the boat, and often he was exposed to a burning sun and wet with salt water and occasional rain. After diving was over for the day, the shells had to be cleaned and opened, and kept guarded.

After four or five seasons the brothers invested their profits in new enterprises. C. Tuckey & Co.’s Peel Inlet Preserving Works was established at Mandurah, and the first tins of fish were turned out in September 1880. While Charles managed this concern, John entered into partnership with the Fremantle merchants Owston and Pearse. His next command was a far cry from his little schooner which he had sold in May 1880. On behalf of the partnership he purchased the Ribston, a three masted barque of 397 tons, as a wreck in the Java Sea, and when she had been reconditioned, took her on a trading run between the Straits and Japan. Then, after taking a charter cargo of sugar from Sourabaya to Melbourne, John brought the Ribston into Fremantle on December 3, 1880, where she was registered in the name of J. Tuckey and partners. (23) Under John’s command, the Ribston departed for Hong Kong on January 25, 1881. Two years later he relinquished his captaincy, and when the vessel sailed for Adelaide with a cargo of jarrah in March 1883, her master was James Craig. Mrs. Craig, who accompanied her husband on his voyages, was the daughter of John’s sister Matilda. Since the Ribston appears in the register under the name of William Owston and partners after May 1883, it is evident that the partnership was reconstituted or that John had withdrawn from it. In the following summer he was again on the pearling grounds, as master of the schooner Argo (33 tons), working from Derby. His crew comprised 37 Kimberley natives, 36 of them divers, and the other the cook. In 1884 he took charge of the Comet, a schooner of 29 tons, built for J. and C. Tuckey at Fremantle by T. W. Mews. (24) After spending a few years at home once more, and plying between Mandurah and Fremantle in the Comet with Tuckey and Co.’s produce, he returned to the tropics again.

During the 1890s Captain Tuckey became a well known figure in the Singapore shipping community. For several years he was in command of ships belonging to Aug Lim Thay, a Chinese merchant. One of his voyages took him to England and Scotland, making him, more than sixty years after his grandfather had left it, the first member of the family to see the Old Country again. He had been instructed to watch out for a good sailing vessel, which his employer might buy, but, nothing being found suitable, Aug Lim Thay had a steamship built in Singapore in 1897. John became part-owner of the vessel, the Sarie Borneo, and for three years he guided her along the historic trade routes of the Malay Archipelago. The ship sailed under the Dutch flag, being registered at Banjermasin in Borneo. (25) Her normal course was a three week

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round trip through the shallow Java Sea and across the deep Strait of Macassar. From Singapore the steamer proceeded through the Karimata Strait to Banjermasin on the south coast of Borneo, the first port of call, and thence, keeping between the low swampy coast of Borneo and the island Pulo Laut, to Coti Brocuw, where coal was taken aboard. Her itinerary then took her across to Dongala on the west coast of the Celebes, back to Coti Broeuw and to small villages upriver on Borneo’s east coast; thence, back to Singapore. Captain Tuckey navigated his craft through dangerous estuaries and mud flats, and up treacherous winding rivers between banks clad with dense, dark mangrove and palm forests, where only monkeys and birds broke the silence. Sometimes the vessel would be driven close enough to shore to be scraped by branches or to disturb the crocodiles, sometimes in the lower reaches it would be out in the middle of a wide sheet of brown water. Such was the awe with which the Malayan crew regarded their captain's navigation in the tortuous rivers that they gave him the name Captain Hantu (Devil). The upstream ports usually contained a row of houses and shops made of bamboo and palm leaves, perched on stilts and facing the water. The rickety landing stage was the focal point of the settlements. On these voyages the captain regularly met a procession of colourful characters—Europeans, half castes, Malays and Arabs—and traded with them for their rubber, cane, rice, pepper, coconuts, gutta-percha and resin. He had to contend with superstition and cunning, and he heard tales of the petty warfare and headhunting that still prevailed in the interior of Borneo, but the journeys themselves were on the whole placid. The Sarie Borneo carried Europeans as first and second mates and engineers, together with a small crew of Malays, and, since it was difficult to obtain sufficient experienced labour in the ports, a host of Chinese lumpers. Reputable wandering traders were often aboard as passengers.

The characters and scenes that John Tuckey knew have been vividly described by Joseph Conrad in his novels Almayer’s Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, Lord Jim and The Rescue. Conrad gathered a wealth of material in his mind and in note form as a result of a four month engagement as first mate aboard the Vidar, a steamer which plied the same route as the Sarie Borneo for many years under the command of James Craig. Conrad was at the time (1887-8) aged 30 and had not yet thought of becoming an author, so he claimed. He describes the Vidar in the novel The Shadow Line. Craig has been identified with Captain Kent in this, and with Captain Ford in Almayer’s Folly. The captain was a big, broad chested man, with thick, iron-grey hair and moustache. Conrad had a warm regard for him and considered him a shrewd psychologist, learning from him much about people’s characters, interests, morals and intrigues. (26)

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In July 1900 while taking the Sarie Borneo on its homeward run from Dongala, with his wife and daughters aboard, John Tuckey died of a paralytic stroke at Pulo Laut. Captain Craig took command of the steamer and conveyed his uncle's body to the British Oil Settlement at Balikpapan for burial. (27)

To John and Eliza Tuckey eight children were born between 1865 and 1888. The eldest, Evangeline (Van), followed in her mother’s footsteps in respect of being Sunday School teacher and organist at Mandurah, and in her grandmother’s in being postmistress. After learning the morse code at Pinjarra, Evangeline was appointed Mandurah’s first postmistress-telegraphist in December 1886. (28) She held the position for eight years and trained her cousin Clarence Cooper to be her successor. Her younger brother William was messenger boy in his sister’s office at the time of his death. Mrs. Wager (as Evangeline had become) lived to see in place of her one room establishment at Ivy Cottage, a new brick post office, built at a cost of £8,888 a few doors away. As an honoured guest at its opening in May 1951, at the age of 86, she tapped out the first telegraph message. (29)

John and Eliza were stricken by tragedy in 1890 when their sons Stephen and William, aged 17 and 13, were drowned near Rockingham, together with Evangeline’s intended husband, who had been visiting Mandurah. The West Australian describes the incident:

"We have gained the following particulars of this very regrettable and painful occurrence. . . . Messrs. Tuckey were accompanied by Mr. Evans who is associated in business with Mr. A. G. Rosser of Fremantle. Mr. Evans having expressed a desire to return to Fremantle earlier than was at first contemplated, the brothers Tuckey, yielded to his desire, and the party left the River Murray in the cutter Ellen at about 1 p.m. on Friday last for Fremantle. As far as is known, all went well until the boat arrived in the South Passage sometime yesterday evening, where it capsized. As soon as a rumour of the accident reached Fremantle, Mr. A. G. Rosser left the port in a sailing boat, in order, if possible, to ascertain if there was any foundation for the report. After cruising about for some time, Mr. Rosser found the dead body of William Tuckey, which was floating on the surface of the water, being supported by the mast of the Ellen, which had become separated from the hull, and was floating about; the clothing of the deceased having become entangled in the rigging. Having got the body on board the Maud, and finding no trace of the others, Mr. Rosser returned to Mandurah . . (30)

A search party sent out on the following day found no trace of the others, but saw the Ellen lying in about ten feet of water, with ballast heaped in her bow. They conjectured that in attempting to jibe the boat had capsized.

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The sister of the unfortunate boys maintains that the accepted story has been that the Ellen's broken mast was found projecting a foot or so above the water; an oar or the broken top of the mast had been tied to it, and William's arm fastened around it. Stephen and Evans had presumably left William so, and then tried to swim to shore for help. Stephen was a strong swimmer and should easily have been able to make the shore; he may have exhausted himself in attending to his brother, and perhaps also in helping Evans. It was believed that William could not have been long dead when Mr. Rosser found his body. The ballast, which may have shifted and caused the accident consisted of a heavy chain, strewn zig-zag along the floor of the boat.

The tragedy inspired a contemporary poem:

LOSS OF THE TUCKEY BROS. AND MR. EVANS

Land of the Swan, weep, weep again,
For the youthful and the brave,
Who sleep beneath the rolling main
Rocked in an ocean grave.

Weep, weep with those who hail with joy,
Christmas with goodly cheer,
And artless mirth, without alloy,
The glad, the bright, New Year.

But ere the sun had warmed the earth,
Three times in the bright New Year,
Laughter was struck from the lips of mirth,
And brave hearts were filled with tear.

The young, the bright, the beautiful,
Stood face to face with death;
And they wept, for those sons were dutiful,
For loved ones, with quivering breath.

They thought of their parents’ sorrow,
When they looked for them in vain,
For, for them, comes no bright tomorrow,
Each day will be fraught with pain.

’Twas but a few short hours
Since they sped on their homeward way
Bringing wishes as bright as the flowers,
From the friends of their holiday.

Their voices ring with laughter
As they stand on the shining sand
They think not of an hereafter,
Nor dream of a better land.

They bid good-bye, to their dear friends.
With joy and goodly cheer.
And so their glad New Year ends,
With never a thought of tear.

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The boat is dancing lightly
Athwart the crested wave,
Their eyes and cheeks glow brightly,
The young, the loved, the brave.

But what is this that pales the cheek
And makes the stout heart quail?
Ask of the winds that howl and shriek
’Tis they can tell the tale.

They found one lashed to a broken mast,
His brother and comrades fled,
And the boy, the pride of a mother’s heart,
Lay on the ocean dead.

Weep, ah weep, in sympathy
For the youthful and the brave,
Their requiem the moan of the rolling sea.
Rocked in an ocean grave. (31)

Charles, the elder brother of Stephen and William, had himself come close to death in the same vicinity eighteen months before. Like his father, uncle and grandfather before him, he regularly sailed from Mandurah with produce for Fremantle, where he would stock up with provisions for the settlement. A few weeks after his twenty-first birthday, on such a trip, his boat capsized in a squall off Woodman’s Point. Charles clung to the upturned boat overnight, knowing that the steamer appropriately named the Rescue would leave Fremantle for Rockingham next morning. He managed to attract its attention by waving his coat, and was rescued at 7 a.m. And this was in mid-winter. “Fancy the suspense, cold and discomfort, uncertainty being ever uppermost!”, comments the newspaper, which continues in its intimate and complimentary style:

“The poor young fellow, though exposed to very rough weather in a most precarious position for seventeen hours, preferred it to trying to swim ashore at the risk, as he sensibly puts it, of being attacked by sharks. The Tuckeys, father and sons, are known for their great patience and fortitude . . . This incident affords another instance of their acknowledged powers of endurance under exceptionally trying circumstances.” (32)

But Charles was to be spared only a few years more. In 1890 he married Sarah Jane Green, and a daughter and a son were born to them in the next three years. Shortly after the son’s birth, Charles’ father called him up to Singapore, for the purpose of introducing him to a career in maritime commerce there. But on only his second voyage out from Singapore with his father in December 1893, he suffered sunstroke and died.

Having lost three of her sons and a daughter in infancy in 1887, Eliza decided to leave Mandurah, and with her younger

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daughters went to join her husband in Singapore in 1895. Evangeline had preceded her the year before, and was shortly to be married there to William Wager, a printer who had been sent out from England for the Methodist Mission Press.

Five years later, as chronicled above, John Tuckey too was dead. Once again, grief-stricken, Eliza returned to Western Australia, and with her daughters Bertha and Ida took up residence in Peppermint Grove, where she remained until her death in 1907. Like the soldier's mother in Bingen, she still had one son to comfort her old age. Edward (Ned), who was one of the infants baptised in his grandfather’s house in 1870, in his boyhood clambered over the remains of the wreck of the Rockingham, he recalled long afterwards. He spent his youth on the pearling grounds and stations of the North West, and for a short time worked at Mandurah at pit-sawing and splitting shingles from she-oak. The timber was loaded on to drays and carted to the government jetty to be loaded on to the schooners which were then able to navigate the river mouth. Wages were 4/6 a day or £1 a week and keep for heavy work from daylight till dark. (33) Following his marriage, Ned settled on the land at East Coolup, and after fifty years as farmer and orchardist, he retired to Mandurah, where he lived to the age of eighty-eight.

Charles Tuckey, like his brother John, was well acquainted with the sea, and was also for a time styled Captain Tuckey. Born in 1846, he was sixteen when he came home from the Victorian goldfields, and for a few years he devoted his energies to farming. In 1875 he made his first voyage north in the quest for pearls. Like most seafarers of those days he had many interesting adventures to recount and tales to tell. One of them appeared in the press in January 1876:

"An account of a shipwreck has reached us which, if followed up, would probably prove beyond any further doubt the fate of the schooner Emma, which left Port Walcott for Fremantle, with a large number of passengers on board, ten years ago, and has not since been heard of. The narrative is told by an intelligent native whose tribe inhabits the country in the neighbourhood of the alleged disaster. Coming from such a source there may be some hesitation in giving the story credence, but it is accompanied by such detail and circumstance that some truth at least appears to attach to it. On a voyage from Port Walcott to Fremantle recently the native referred to related the following circumstance to the master (Mr. C. Tuckey):— A long time ago (about ten years he described) a ship was wrecked near North West Cape; the passengers landed, at night, in the boats, and as they had no means of defending themselves the natives had no difficulty in making them prisoners. There was a large number of persons, and amongst them were some females. The natives were not 'sulky' with them, but nevertheless they killed and ate all of them, the

22

narrator partaking of some of the flesh. Two other vessels were also stated by the native to have been lost about the same spot—a large vessel and a smaller one, and he was able to point out where the wrecks lay. The crew of the larger vessel took to their boats and proceeded southward, and were probably the ship’s company of a whaler who were rescued at Shark's Bay by the schooner Favourite about the year 1857. The smaller vessel was probably the Brothers, which was lost about the same time as the Emma, but no account is given of the fate of her crew. To ascertain if possible whether the wrecks really existed Mr. Tuckey took his vessel inshore as far as he considered prudent after rounding the Cape, and by the aid of a telescope made out distinctly the ribs of a vessel lying on the beach. The place is situated about 100 miles to the south of the Cape, between Point Cloates and Cape Cuvier, where a reef of fifteen to twenty miles in length, and generally undefined on the charts, runs out seaward. Upon this treacherous rock, it is reasonable to suppose, these vessels have been wrecked, while. standing in shore at night. There is little doubt but that wrecks have occurred on this part of our coast; and the many survivors of those who have for so long given up their friends on board the Emma as lost, may very reasonably solicit the Government, when a suitable vessel is available, to institute a search and endeavour to clear up the mystery. Almost every mail that reaches us from the neighbouring colonies brings tidings of the rescue of Europeans after years of bondage on islands in the South Seas, inhabited by the most ferocious cannibals. And who shall say that there may not be one or more survivors of the many shipwrecks on our coast similarly situated in the hands of the savages in the neighbourhood of North West Cape?” (34)

It was all too true that there were survivors of a shipwreck in the hands of the North West natives at this time. The fate of the Emma was never solved, and it is not known what wreck Charles Tuckey saw with his telescope. But in the same vicinity the Austro-Hungarian barque Stefano had foundered three months before, and he was to pick up its survivors three months later. A remarkable incident in colonial history unfolds.

When the pearling season for the summer of 1876 had finished, Charles Tuckey headed for Fremantle aboard the Jessie. Having rounded the North West Cape, the little craft struck fierce gales and was driven back on its tracks. Charles decided to anchor in the lee of the Cape, and as he moved inshore, natives on the beach hailed him. Investigating further, he was presented with two emaciated white youths. In broken English one of them told their story—that they were the sole survivors of a shipwreck, and that they had fallen into the hands of natives, who though evidently unfriendly at first, finally took care of them and brought them to the North West Cape, apparently with the idea of handing them over to a passing ship. Charles took them aboard, and while nursing them back to health, learnt the full story from the younger of the two, 16 year old Michele Baccich. His companion was Giovanni Gunnich or Jurich.

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Early in 1875 the Stefano, of about 800 tons burthen, and flying the flag of the Dual Monarchy, left Cardiff with 1,100 tons of coal for Hong Kong. The master, the oldest man aboard, was only 25, and the crew comprised fifteen subjects of the Hapsburgs, and an English lad named Harry Grose. From his friendship with Grose, Baccich, whose aunt was owner of the vessel, had acquired a knowledge of English. Apparently to correct longitude, they sighted the Australian coast at Cape Cuvier, about 80 miles north of Carnarvon, and then shaped a course for Sunda Straits. But about two o’clock on the following morning, October 17, 1875, the ship struck a rock about two miles South West of Point Cloates, near the North West Cape, and the barque broke up in about one hour. The captain, boy and seven men were drowned, the remaining eight succeeding in reaching shore. They had a directory on board, which stated that the natives on the North West Cape were cannibals. The charter case, which showed settlement at Geraldton, and one cask of biscuits drifted ashore. The biscuits were eaten in little more than a day. On the day after the wreck, natives who had been diving for Charles Tuckey and other pearlers, came to them, made them a fire, and left. The stranded men carelessly let the fire go out, and for a month they lived on raw shellfish and water. The natives returned and made them a fire again. They then decided to walk south towards settlement. After walking about 75 miles, and having been for some time without water, they started to walk back towards the wreck. When the natives came across them again, some were lying on the beach exhausted. They could not walk to water, so the natives carried the precious fluid to them. Two died that day, and three in the next three days, just before Christmas, 1875. On Christmas night they were about 40 miles south of the end of the North West Cape, when the sixth man died, leaving only two.

The two lads stumbled north, searching for water. Again the natives found them, but meanwhile the friendly blacks had been joined by others who wanted to kill the boys. A lengthy argument ensued among the natives, and although the youths could not understand a word, the signs and gesticulations were clear enough. Finally the friendly natives prevailed, and began to restore the lads’ health with food and water. The gins carried them for the first few days, but later they were able to help in the hunt for food. The natives became quite attached to them, and tried to cheer them up, sometimes by patting them, and at times by saying “White feller, Charlie Tuckey, come now and take you Tien Sin.” Baccich said later that at the time he could not make out what was meant by the words Charlie Tuckey. Tien Sin was another name for Cossack or Port Walcott.

Then after their six months' ordeal, Baccich and Gunnich boarded the Jessie. Gunnich was taken into the care of a Fremantle

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family, and Baccich went to Mandurah to live with the Tuckeys. A few months later the two youths were given clothes and money and sent back to Hungary. (35)

Early the following year the press records:

"It is very gratifying to learn that Mr. Charles Tuckey, the second son of our esteemed fellow colonist, Mr. James Tuckey, has been presented by the Hungarian Governor with a gold watch, and the thanks of the Austrian Government, for the distinguished services rendered by him in saving the lives of two of the shipwrecked sailors of the barque Stefano, on the North West coast of this colony." (36)

The watch, with the inscription in Hungarian "The Royal Hungarian Sailors thank Captain Charles Tuckey, 1876” was presented to the Historical Society in 1951.

There is a pleasing sequel to the story. Early in 1894 Charles Tuckey was delighted to receive a letter from Baccich, the letterhead revealing that he was established in New Orleans, as a "commission merchant and dealer in imported and domestic groceries and liquors." The letter runs:

“Dear Captain,

This letter is written with the hopes of it reaching you, although my venture is wrapt with great uncertainty.

I desire to remind you that I am one of the two whom you rescued from the natives on the northern coast of Australia in 1876, on April 18th, when you were owner and captain of the cutter Jessie. I have always remembered you as a saviour, and I justly consider that it is owing to you that I am still in the land of the living. I consider you as a second father, very dear to me, and if this letter shall fortunately reach you, I desire you to communicate immediately with me, and give any and all news concerning your welfare, or position in life, and any such details as you might see fit to give. Your picture is always with me, and is kept in a prominent place in my family. I hope I will receive good news from you. I will write again if God be willing that this letter reaches you,

Your sincere and grateful friend,

M. A. BACCICH.” (37)

Charles replied, but his letter crossed with a second one from Baccich, and Charles wrote again on 25th June, 1894:

"I have just received your second letter dated 14 April, and we were very pleased receiving it, with your picture enclosed, which is very good. I have one which you gave me 18 years ago, and there is decidedly a great change.

I can assure you that I have often thought of you and spoken of the way our little cutter was driven back to the Nor West Cape by the strong winds to your rescue.

When here you spoke of getting a pamphlet printed of your adventures on the Nor West Cape, and through not receiving a copy of that, it was with great surprise and pleasure that I received your letters.

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I cannot express my thankfulness for your gratitude and kindness, and you may rest assured you will never be forgotten by me. When I receive an answer to my letter registered to you last March I will send you my photo; also one of my father and mother taken at their golden wedding which was kept up on the 7th December, 1891. They are still living and well at the age of 78 and 72 years respectively.

There are no photographers in Mandurah. Those in Fremantle are the nearest we have (40 miles distant).

Let me know how your family are. 1 shall always be glad to hear from you, and when I find you receive my letters safely I will let you know my circumstances. Are there any machine manufactories in your town? If so will you kindly endeavour to get particulars and cost of a machine for fastening the ends on round tins without solder. I have heard of the machines and seen the tins. If I can get one of these machines I believe it will answer for 1lb. fish tins and be a great saving.

With best wishes from your sincere friend,

C. TUCKEY." (38)

Several subsequent letters came from Baccich and one from his wife, and then there was silence. Charles tried to locate Baccich and his family, but without success. He came to the conclusion that tragedy had overtaken them. (39)

A stretch of water off the North West Coast where the wrecks had occurred came to be known popularly as Tuckey’s Passage (40), but the designation is not now officially recorded by the nomenclature authorities.

The wealth of the sea and rivers near Mandurah were also being exploited in the 1870s. The waters abounded in mullet, pilchard, herring, whiting, bream, schnapper and tailer, and not many years earlier James Tuckey had frequently seen as many as three whaling ships at a time anchored in Safety Bay and operating in the vicinity. Charles recalled having caught 300 schnapper in four hours in Safety Bay on one occasion, the catch being afterwards salted for the Indian market. (41) Singapore was also a good market, and was supplied through Batemans of Fremantle with kingfish and mullet caught and cured at Mandurah. The potential sale for tinned fish was soon appreciated. The Brothers Francisco had begun preserving fish at Fremantle in 1868, and in 1878 Charles Broadhurst set up a cannery at Mandurah. The Tuckeys followed in 1880 with the Peel Inlet Preserving Works, the site of the factory being on the water's edge opposite the Brighton Hotel of later years.

The fish canned at first was the sea mullet, which was caught by sieve nets in large quantities between September and March in the estuary and along the coast; it kept the factory well supplied. The size of fish caught long ago is apt to be magnified in retrospect, but Charles and his son Hobart, giving evidence before

26s

Parliamentary Commissions in 1906 and 1922 respectively, declared how much larger fish were generally in the early days.

“We used to get tons of black bream weighing about five pounds each (in the Murray) . . . One man brought in 300 sea mullet which packed nine hundred lib. tins. Today it takes four mullet to a tin . . . Formerly you could fill a sugar bag with whiting in a couple of hours summer or winter . . . We used to get kingfish weighing seventy pounds, and a thirty pound kingfish was quite common.” (42)

Charles used to go from Rockingham up the Serpentine River to Hudson’s Falls, where mullet, often three pounds in weight, were to be caught in a large pool all the year round. Fishermen were at first paid 7/- or 8/- for each 100 fish delivered to the factory. Later, when the fish became smaller, the payment was 12/- per 100 tins of fish. Early in the season fish were also obtained from the native weir or mungah at Barragup, before it was destroyed in 1897. When more fishermen established themselves at Mandurah in the early 1890s the supply of fish was often more than could be treated. (43) Complimentary remarks as to the quality of the tinned product were voiced by the press:

“In delicacy of flavour the Western Australian mullet far surpasses either the imported salmon or herring, and the only wonder is that Mr. Tuckey’s goods do not effectively drive the tinned American salmon and English herring quite out of the local market.” (44)

C. Tuckey & Co. were further honoured and rewarded in receiving a government gratuity of £200 for the first forty tons of fruit preserved in the colony. Peaches, pears, plums, apples, apricots, grapes and figs were bought locally for canning, and Charles became well known for urging the settlers of the district to plant fruit trees. "For desserts and light repasts they are universally esteemed,” so the wares were advertised; “Their delicacy of flavour renders them grateful to the impaired appetite of the invalid.” Careful and prompt despatch, to any part of the colony or abroad was promised on receipt of orders. (45) Kippered herrings and pilchard were also turned out, but were not so popular, and Perth herring were tinned for the first time in 1906. The products of the Peel Inlet Works received silver and gold medals at several exhibitions, viz. the Perth International (1881), the Indian and Colonial (1886), the Melbourne Centennial (1888) and the Franco-British (1908). (46)

But the local market was too small and too competitive. Thirty-five men were employed by both Mandurah factories when in full work in 1882. The Tuckeys employed up to twenty hands at times, including four tinsmiths, during the eight months canning season. However activity slackened, and both factories had to reduce operations. John Tuckey withdrew from the partnership when he settled in Singapore He felt that too much of the income they

27

had won on the pearling grounds had been sunk in a rather unprofitable venture. On the death of their parents in 1895, the brothers sold the old house opposite the ferry, and twenty-five town lots. (47)

Messrs. J. & W. Bateman, through whom much of the firm's marketing was done, and others later became partners in C. Tuckey & Co. The fortunes of the firm improved considerably in the mid-1890s, as people flocked to the goldfields, and set up their camps, for there was a great demand for tinned foods of all kinds.

In the best year for the cannery the output was 137,000 lib. tins of fish, and 23,000 21b. tins of fruit—over twelve tons in all. (48)

However Charles was not having an easy time in 1897, as is revealed in a letter he wrote to the Under-Secretary for Lands, in the hope of obtaining land on the seafront, outside the bar, for the purpose of removing his cannery:

"In support of my claims for some consideration at the hands of the government I would emphasize the fact that in the face of almost overwhelming difficulties I have followed the vicissitudes of the fish preserving industry in which I am at present engaged almost from the inception to the present time, and in developing it have spent time, money, and all my energies, which, had they been employed in some other direction would have yielded a far more satisfactory result. In November, 1891, I wrote fully to the Hon. the Premier, pointing out the great difficulties which my firm, as Fruit and Fish Preservers, laboured under in prosecuting the industry with a highly unfavourable tariff which neutralised our efforts to compete with the cheap imported foods with which the market was constantly inundated. I directed attention to the fact that whilst in three of the other Colonies the duty on preserved fish was 2/- per dozen, and 1/- per dozen in the other two, here it was equivalent to only 5id. per dozen so that while being driven out of our own market, the others were virtually closed to us, owing to their high protective duties. Previous to that time my establishment had been paying out wages to the extent of £40 per week, but had to curtail operations, and discharge hands, to allow of the heavy accumulated stocks being reduced. The demand from the goldfields subsequently assisted us in some measure, but all throughout our resources and energies have been strained to the utmost tension to keep the industry alive. I have also repeatedly pointed out to the government how we have been handicapped through the impossible state of the bar, which not only causes vexatious delays but also largely increases the cost of transit, a disability from which we are still seeking relief. I have sunk a considerable amount of money in the business which came to me from other sources, and which might have been more profitably employed, but with perhaps less benefit to the district in which I live, and I think 1 might say without egotism, that had I abandoned the fish preserving industry years ago it would practically have ceased to exist at any rate for a considerable part of the time that has elapsed since it was first started.” (49)

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Nevertheless Charles was not granted the land he wanted, and instead he transferred the preserving works to Carrabungup, at the head of the estuary soon after the turn of the century.

A visit by Governor Sir Gerard Smith and his party on October 15, 1897, was a great day for Mandurah. After a cruise down the Murray from Pinjarra to Mill Island on the paddle steamer Coolingup, the vice-regal party drove to the town and received an address of welcome read by Mr. H. Sutton on behalf of the inhabitants. This was considered to be "the most voluminous expression of loyalty that has been evoked so far in any part of Western Australian territory that His Excellency has yet visited."

"The canning factory, which was started by Mr. Charles Tuckey and was afterwards floated into a company, was inspected. Recently some improved appliances have been added to the plant, with a view to the saving of labour. His Excellency suggested others that are in vogue in America, where fish canning is done on a very large scale. A catch of mullet had just been brought in, and, fresh from the net, they shone like molten silver. After the mullet season the herring shoals keep the factory going. One of the troubles of the manager is that the sandbar at the mouth of the estuary makes the consignments very uncertain, the ketch Amy being half the time unable to get enough water for even her light draught.

. . . Give Mandurah seaway communication with Fremantle and the residents think Bunbury will have to look to its laurels as a favourite holiday place, because a yachting trip to the Brighton Hotel would be a great attraction. To show the excellent accommodation that is provided for visitors, His Excellency and Lady Smith were invited to inspect the Brighton Hotel, which has recently been enlarged, and which was in holiday dress, and they were pleased with what they saw." (50)

Lindsay Thompson, in his Report on the Marine Fisheries in 1898 noted that at Mandurah there were “two excellent canneries at which the best work is turned out”, and gave credit to Robert Smart’s and Charles Tuckey’s enterprise. He felt that there was room for the expansion of the industry into "enormously large proportions.” But the volume of imported fish was well ahead of that of the local product, and fresh fish was now quickly and regul-larly supplying the markets of Perth and Fremantle. Fishermen were getting good prices for their catches there. (51) Furthermore, better communications and cool storage facilities caused a decline in the demand for tinned foods on the goldfields.

Twenty-five boats, employing forty men, were operating at Mandurah in 1898. Very quickly the depletion of the colony’s fisheries gave cause for grave concern, and protective measures were enacted, which extended the work of an Act of 1889. The size of the mesh used in fishing nets was restricted, and fishermen and their boats were required to have licences. More inspectors were appointed to patrol waters that had been closed, a second inspector being appointed for Mandurah in 1909.

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But while the Peel Inlet Preserving Works maintained a fluctuating but gradually declining output until the First World War, Charles Tuckey and his family were turning their attention to two new developments of the 1890s—land transport and the tourist-holiday trade.

Charles had long been anxious about the bar’s obstruction of the estuary. Not only was it often impossible to get his produce out to sea, but inconvenience was also caused to the steamers which brought holidaymakers; passengers had to disembark into small boats. Several vessels went aground. The Perth-Bunbury railway was opened as far as Pinjarra on May 2, 1893, and Charles hoped that Mandurah might also be served by a railway. Following up a conversation he had held with Mr. E. Solomon, M.L.A., of Fremantle, about Mandurah’s potentialities, he wrote:

“The South Fremantle Railway should be surveyed past Robb’s Jetty and the racecourse, over to Coogee at the back of Brown’s Mount, through Rockingham on the west side of White Lake and Stake Hill (where there is a great deal of agricultural land fit for summer gardens and other products) to Mandurah, thence to Pinjarra. The first two sections should be built from Fremantle to Coogee and Pinjarra to Mandurah."

(52)

But the railway was not to be, and the family which for fifty years had provided sea communication for Mandurah, now established a road link. Passengers, mail and produce were carried first by horse and buggy and afterwards by char-a-banc to Pinjarra to meet the trains, the few passengers compensating for the low rate of the mail contract. (53) All of Charles’ sons other than Melville were involved in the transport business at different stages; Roy and Clarence later inaugurated a bus service to Fremantle. The service was acquired by L. and N. Scott in 1935.

Holidaymakers flocked to Mandurah in the 1890s. Perth people could conveniently make their way by train and buggy. Goldfields people sought relief at the seaside from the inland summer heat. The State’s population increased fourfold during the decade. Seeing the opportunity for providing accommodation, Charles converted the two storey house he had recently built in Mandurah Terrace into a hotel—the Brighton. A second hotel was established in 1903 on the “peninsula”, to which access was made easier by the construction of a footbridge across the water. The Peninsula Hotel was formerly the holiday residence of Mr. W. S. Brookman, a leading businessman of Perth and Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Both hotels came into the possession of Hobart Tuckey in after years.

An English tourist wrote enthusiastically of her holiday at Mandurah at the beginning of the new century:

(From Pinjarra) “I took a drive of 14 miles through rich fruit-growing country to the charming seaside town of Mandurah. Pears, peaches and nectarines loaded the trees, and

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there is a fine fruit-preserving factory, as well as several factories for preserving fish. The Brighton Hotel is very comfortable, and you can get a vast amount of pleasure at this charming resort. Boating, fishing and shooting can be indulged in to your heart’s content. I had a right merry time; several people I knew were staying there, and I became quite an expert at fishing. Across the ferry from the hotel is the Murray estuary, which is really teeming with fish. The goldfields people patronise Mandurah largely, and many huge catches of fish have been chronicled by them on their return to the fields from their holiday. Very large king-fish are frequently caught with hand-lines. Almost any kind of line will do; it is amusing to see the greedy things snapping at anything you put on the hook. I saw one caught that measured five feet in length and weighed 381b. Black Bream weighing 41b. are a common catch. Hosts of crabs are about, making the fishing more exciting than ever. At one time I thought fishing the slowest amusement in the world, but after this experience at Mandurah I am convinced that there is some fascination in it after all. In two days a visitor caught 17 dozen whiting, bream and mullet. The mullet is a delicious fish, more like salmon than anything. Some English people staying at the hotel said it was quite equal to the English salmon. As you may imagine, plenty of well-cooked fish is always supplied at table and anyone requiring a quiet and enjoyable rest from city troubles cannot do beter than visit Mandurah, where, in addition to the splendid fishing, other sports can be indulged in, since plenty of good duck, teal and snipe shooting is to be got at the lakes 5 miles out." (54)

Charles Tuckey also devoted himself in his later years to his farming interests and served on the Mandurah Agricultural and Progress Committee and the Murray Road Board. In June 1897 a deputation pointed out to the Commissioner of Crown Lands that closer settlement would be possible and small farms established if the large estates around Mandurah, particularly the Hall Estate, could be broken up (55), and in August Charles strongly urged the government to purchase part of the Barragup Estate for an agricultural college. The Serpentine river ran through the property, and there was every description of soil. (56) Charles showed great faith in his district and was a real optimist. Few shared his optimism, and he was really ahead of the times. He died in 1912, while on a visit to his nephew’s farm at Coolup (57); his wife, who before marriage was Emma Bell of Rockingham, survived him for twenty-six years. There were six sons and two daughters to the marriage.

Melville Tuckey, while continuing to operate the preserving works together with his brother Hobart during the early 1900s, turned his attention to the holiday trade in summer. Helped by his energetic wife, Emily, he extended his large stone house, and converted It into a guest house. A genial host, Melville was well known for his sense of humour and his literary knowledge.

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Together with his cousins Charles and Theo Wearne, he had attended Major Humble’s Fremantle Boys’ School, and had gone on to Sir Henry Briggs’ Fremantle Grammar School for secondary education. His artistry at the piano put him in great demand for playing at the little town's social functions and gatherings, and for twenty-five years he was organist at Christ Church. (58) His children recall being out fishing on the estuary with their father on Sundays; he would keep his eye on the time (always accurately reckoned by the sun), and without fail pack up in good time to be home for evensong. His increasing deafness occasionally provided anxious and amusing moments in the tiny church.

Emily’s brother-in-law, the Reverend John Beukers, chose Mandurah as a camp for his scouting troop for a number of years while he was stationed at Armadale. Their encampment was in the bush at the northern end of the town, behind Lady Hackett’s summer residence. He has recorded the scene in January 1917 in his parish magazine:

"Mandurah consists of blue water and black sand, with a white metalled road between the two. The sand is covered with tuart forest, and the water branches into ponds, rivers and estuaries. Some jetties and a bridge span the water; old stone houses and newer ones built of wood cluster about the roads, but the combination of forest and stream, of bridge and river, sandbank and lagoon, and clustering houses, covered with a cloud-flecked sky and tinted with the golden sunlight, is so charming that the eye never wearies of looking at the scene, while the genial atmosphere and the gentle sea-breeze provokes laziness and quietude.

"The people of Mandurah do not hurry. There are a number of oldest inhabitants, some of their descendants, a few newcomers, and a host of visitors. All of them fish. Those that don’t catch are supplied by those that do, and when fish is scarce meals are restricted. Yachting, boating and swimming— particularly if the weather is warm—are serious occupations. The scouts had bathing parade twice a day, none being exempt.

“We gave some concerts. The first was held at the camps in the moonlight, and the whole of Mandurah turned out. The boys from the Pinjarra farm—about 30 of them—came along and contributed an item or two, fraternised with our lads, and both camps divided the collection . . . Mr. Fairbridge, who was in charge of the Pinjarra boys, told some very interesting stories from his experiences.

"We had church parade on the Sunday, and all the Protestant scouts attended the service at the Anglican Church. It was on Intercession Day, and the close of the service was very solemn." (59)

Lady Hackett’s house, "The Pines”, was a few years later acquired by Clarence Tuckey, and opened as a guest-house during the season. It is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. Crogan, son-in-law and daughter of Mr. William Tuckey of Carnarvon.

Social activity in the early years of the century was very lively, and all members of the community entered into local func-

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lions zestfully. Sports were often held to celebrate national occasions like Australia Day and the 1911 Coronation. They sometimes took the form of an aquatic carnival at Ravenswood; another was a programme of children’s events and log-chops on the town sports-field, which was then situated on the south side of the road to the “peninsula.” Cricket was popular in Mandurah and Pinjarra, both towns having a team; a parliamentary team came down from Perth for some years, and one from the High School (Hale School) paid an occasional visit. The Patersons and McLartys sometimes fielded a team consisting entirely of members of the two families. Of the Tuckeys, Hobart, Cecil and their cousin Ned were keen players, Cecil’s ability being such that he was frequently referred to among the family simply as ‘‘the Cricketer".

Among the most colourful episodes of the period shortly before the First World War were the meetings of the Mandurah Hunt Club. In their light and dark blue colours, members would assemble at the Causeway or Ravenswood on the Pinjarra Road, for a run in the direction of the Serpentine and the lakes, or towards the estuary. Swamps and thickets enabled the brush to lead hounds and huntsmen a difficult chase, and an hour or two's run was quite exhausting. For the opening meet of 1911 the club assembled at the Ravenswood Hotel for afternoon tea at the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Thomas.

‘‘Over one hundred persons put in an appearance, and the sight was indeed a pretty one. The meet was one of the largest yet seen south of Perth, and speaks well for such a small place as Mandurah." (60)

Donald Paterson of Creaton was fieldmaster and Hobart Tuckey master of the hounds, while among the huntswomen were the Misses Rona, Edith and Verna Tuckey.

Fortunately the Hunt Club Ball was held in August that year, for a shortage of gentlemen was compensated for by the presence of a dozen or so boys from the High School, who were camped at Mandurah for their vacation. ‘‘They were a great acquisition, making up in enthusiasm what they lacked in knowledge of the art of Terpsichore." (61)

The 1920s saw numbers of adventurous motorists negotiating the roads to Mandurah; young men in white flannels called to take the town’s eligible girls out for a game of tennis; jazz and the Charleston made their appearance at the local dances; and the silent movies flickered in the Agricultural Hall, Melville Tuckey and his daughters Edna and Myrla providing the piano accompaniment.

The fancy dress ball was a popular form of entertainment. That to wind up the 1921-2 cricket season was considered “quite the most brilliant social function witnessed at Mandurah for many years." The prize-winning costume worn by Hobart Tuckey as

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King Charles I "was easily the best in the room, and one would go a long way to find the costume so well worn and the portrayal so well carried out as it was by Mr. Tuckey.” His niece Myrla, masquerading as Bluebeard’s seventh wife, "looked quite fascinating in her beautiful character costume of ‘Fatima’ with long flowing red cloak.” (62)

In the summer of 1930 a new form of transport and communication made its appearance at Mandurah, but it was an occasion for entertainment rather than the start of a new era for the town. On February 23 the first sea plane touched down.

"It settled just like a bird south of the bridge and in a very short time a crowd of people had gathered—so large in fact that Canon Burns was heard to remark: He didn’t think so many people lived in Mandurah.” (63)

The aviators later spent a busy and profitable time taking passengers on short flights. One of their twenty-eight customers. Miss Dolly Cooper, perhaps eager to share the perils of Pauline, begged the pilot to loop the loop.

The provision of entertainment for holidaymakers and for the townsfolk is an activity with which the Tuckey family has long been associated. From the time that holidaymakers first appeared, Mandurah’s permanent inhabitants made their boats available for hire to visitors. Charles Tuckey in the 1890s established a roller skating rink in a storage room above his preserving works. A generation later Hobart acquired the Hotham Valley Theatre, which had been erected in 1928, and it has served as a cinema each winter since. In summer time, picture programmes were first introduced on a block between the Brighton Hotel and Mandurah House, and shortly before the war the screenings were transferred to the new Ambassadors Gardens. The picture business, operated in its early years by Hobart's nephew Kelvin is now conducted by the former’s son Owen, who also has an interest in the Mandurah Drive-In, which was opened in 1960. As in Perth, television’s effect on the picture industry has lately been felt in Mandurah.

The San Toy Ballroom in Mandurah Terrace, owned by Roy Tuckey is another new venue of entertainment. It was named after one of the family’s boats which once plied between Mandurah and Fremantle.

The career of the Honourable Hobart Tuckey, third son of Charles, shows a continuation of his father’s faith in and devotion towards the district’s progress. He assisted in the canning enterprise for five years, and then his father selected the civil service to be Hobart’s career. Appointed to W.A’s. Posts and Telegraphs department, he served first as telegraphist at the old Fremantle Post Office, and later as Acting Postmaster at Narrogin and

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Wagin. But the attraction of a more independent life proved too strong, and after six years’ service he resigned. Returning to Mandurah. he transferred his energies to landed property and to the running of a store which he established in conjunction with his brother Cecil. The brothers also took over the operation of the passenger and mail coach service, and in 1910 they bought a 14,000 acre property on the Upper Blackwood at Kulikup. Cecil settled on the property, grazing cattle and sheep, and after his war service in France, he bought out Hobart’s share.

Hobart then bought the Peninsula Hotel and conducted the business personally during the 1920s. Among his other interests was a farm he maintained near Pinjarra. A field day held there in 1928 was a great success, the Director of Agriculture remarking that the clover demonstration was the best he had seen anywhere. Hobart also found time to participate in various sports and to give considerable honorary service.

His public service and his work for the community’s progress was already evident at the age of twenty two, as shown in letters he wrote as secretary of the Mandurah Progress Committee in the years 1906-8. Writing to government departments in Perth and to the local Road Board, his association pressed for such things as the resumption and improvement of the river fore-shore, the construction of swimming baths, for better roads and a more frequent mail service, for lectures by visiting Agriculture Department officers. For instance, to the Road Board, in December 1906, he wrote:

"I have been directed to advise you of the bad state which the gates are in along the main road between Mandurah and Bunbury and to ask you to kindly endeavour to have same attended to. According to complaints recently received some of these gates or gateways are merely blocked up with logs and bushes to make them sheep-proof. Some of the logs are said to be too heavy for women to handle and that they cause considerable inconvenience to the travelling public.” (64)

Hobart was first elected as representative of the Mandurah ward of the Murray Road Board in 1914. He held this position for the next 35 years, and was for 25 years Chairman. In a wider sphere he was a member of the executive and later President of the Road Boards’ Association, and a member of the Council of the Justices’ Association, being its president in 1929 and in 1948. Besides being a local JP.f he was also honoured when in the late '20s the South Australian government created him a J.P. for the whole of that State. It is noteworthy that three brothers and their sister have all been or are J.Ps. — Cecil, Hobart, Roy and Rona (Mrs Dempster).

In 1930 Hobart made his first bid for Parliament, when he contested the Murray-Wellington seat in the Legislative Assembly

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elections. Mr. D. R. (later Sir Ross) McLarty was also a candidate for this seat for the first time, and was the winner. Sir Ross has inow held the seat for 30 years. Both men, and a third, Mr. C. Eppingstone, stood in the Nationalist interest, while Mr. F. J. Becher of Harvey and Mr. J. T. Tonkin, schoolteacher, stood for the Country Party and Labour respectively. Tonkin polled 1039, McLarty 929 and Tuckey 599. Distribution of preferences gave McLarty a majority of 803 over Tonkin. Mandurah voters gave Hobart overwhelming support, and he also led the poll at Waroona.

But perhaps it was as well that Hobart did not enter the Assembly. The Nationalist government of Sir James Mitchell ruled for the next three years, but was powerless to solve the problems of the world wide depression. W.A. electors threw the Nationalists out in 1933, as readily as Australian electors generally threw out the Labour government in Canberra the same year.

The retirement of the Hon. Edwin Rose from his seat for the South West Province in the Legislative Council, opened to Hobart a better opportunity for parliamentary service, and in the 1934 Council elections, he successfully contested the seat. Though he was a good Libera], and could be relied on to support the Party’s major principles, he did not care for the rough and tumble of party politics, but preferred to judge legislation on what he considered to be its merits. In his pre-election policy speeches even for the Assembly elections in 1930, he declared that he believed there was too much of the party principle in Australian politics, and that there should be more co-operation between capital and labour.

Hobart’s opponents for the 1934 election were Mr. A. E. Clifton of Brunswick, who was also a Nationalist, and Mr. R. J. C. Butler, secretary of the W.A. Douglas-Social Credit Group, an independent. Butler led the poll decisively in Collie and in the Warren district, and narrowly in Bunbury. Hobart won good majorities everywhere else, and secured an absolute majority of 261, while Clifton lost his deposit.

It is pleasing to read in an account of a reception tendered to Hobart by the people of Mandurah after the election, that “among those present occupying a seat of honour was his mother, Mrs Tuckey, who with all her 84 years, looked hale and hearty, taking great interest in the proceedings.” (65)

The South West Province, though largely a primary-producing area, had a diversity of interests and industries: dairying, fat lambs, timber, fruit, tobacco, coal, condensed milk, and tourism. Hobart gave his encouragement to all of these. The ’30s were hard years for the South West. Dairy farmers suffered from the fall in the price of butter fat, and the competition of margarine, although butter production picked up again in 1938. The farmers were among the strongest supporters of the Secession movement of 1933-35.

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claiming that Canberra's protective tariff policy made them pay dearly for their machinery. In his 1934 election speeches, Hobart announced himself an ardent Secessionist, and was pleased to hear that the government was to send a delegation to London and present the case for Secession from the Federal yoke. However, in retrospect, the movement was rather farcical, and agitation for it declined as prosperity returned.

Hobart always advocated closer settlement of the South West, though he wanted to see development of the unoccupied land along the railways and closer to the markets, rather than the continuation of the unsound practices of the Group Settlement scheme. He voiced his wish to see that Bun bury and Busselton harbours should handle the natural trade of their hinterland. Irrigation schemes received his support when first mooted, and he continued to urge their extension. Strong backing was given by Hobart to the South West Light and Power scheme, and to the development of Collie. After the war he opposed the ultimate expenditure of £2% million on the power scheme at South Fremantle, contending that a project of the kind should be established closer to the coalfields.

Hobart had a firm hold on his South West seat, and of course the South West has always been the stronghold of the Liberals. However in both the 1940 and 1948 elections he had Liberal (or Nationalist, as they were earlier called) opponents: Mr. Lock, unendorsed, of Manjimup, in 1940, and Mr. D. D. Johnstone in 1948.

But in both elections, as in 1934, Hobart received an absolute majority on the first count—always receiving strong support from the Murray and Sussex districts, parts of Wellington, and at Bridgetown and Donnybrook.

However, party strengths never altered very much in the Council, and there were no spectacular or acrimonious issues. Hobart’s views on land development, local government, native welfare, town planning, water conservation and fisheries were those which commanded the respect of his fellow members and his party leader. In his day he had little opportunity for ministerial office, though he would have been glad to take on such responsibilities. It was only during the last four years of his life that a Liberal-Country Party government came to power, under Sir Ross McLarty. There were then a number of members with previous ministerial experience, and longer service in the Council, and in any case, only two portfolios were customarily allotted to the Council. (66)

After some months of ill-health, Hobart died in March, 1951, at the age of sixty seven. (67) Throughout his public life he was ably assisted by his wife Edith, and upon her there also devolved much of the work of attending to business interests at Mandurah. Their only son, Owen, has followed and extended his father’s commercial and farming pursuits, and has played a prominent role in

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the last few years in the town’s committees and organisations, particularly the young Chamber of Commerce, of which he is vice-president.

Roy Tuckey, youngest son of Charles, is another who has seen Mandurah evolve from a quiet fishing hamlet to a prosperous township. His house in Mandurah Terrace, together with those of Charles and Theo Wearne in Leslie Street, were the first brick residences in Mandurah to take their place beside the stone buildings of earlier days. Built during the late 1920’s, Roy’s home stands on the waterfront, just south of the site of the canning works. His contribution to the orderly development of the town has been considerable. He has served on numerous public bodies, culminating in his chairmanship of the Mandurah Road Board at its inception in 1951. The largest landowner in the Road Board district, he has many business interests, chief among them being farming and his store. He was people’s warden and treasurer of the parish church and diocesan synodsman for fifteen years, and was responsible for the erection of a stained glass window in Christ Church in memory of his parents. A new sanctuary to the church, incorporating the window, was consecrated by the Bishop of Bunbury in July 1958. The altar is in memory of his aunt, Matilda Wearne, and was given by her sons.

Finally amongst the older generation, Rona Tuckey, now Mrs. George Dempster, has earned a prominent place in local history. Since their marriage in 1915 Mr and Mrs Dempster have lived of) their farm at Benger. The farm, ’’Sheron”, was named after the guest house in Singapore owned by Mrs. Dempster’s cousin, Mrs. Ben McCall (nee Ellen Wearne), at which the newlyweds stayed in 1915. In addition to fulfilling the claims of her family and the farm, Mrs. Dempster has for many years given her attention to wider interests. Joining the Country Women’s Association in 1931, she was in turn elected branch president, district vice-president, divisional president, council member, and in 1947, State president, the first West Australian-born. For the year 1948-9 she held the highest office of all in Australia, that of national president of the Association. Initially as a C.W.A. delegate, Mrs. Dempster has since extended her interests to include the Pan Pacific and South East Asia Women's Association, the Save the Children Fund, the Good Neighbour Movement and the Tree Society. These associations and bodies have appealed to her for their non-sectarian and non-political basis, and for their meetings and conferences she has frequently travelled to the farthest parts of the State and to the east. At home she has also given keen support to the Harvey District Hospital and the parish of Brunswick.

Christian names given to the seven generations of Tuckey children make an interesting study. In the first three generations there

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appear the names John, James, Charlotte, Charles, a second John, Helen and Matilda—all of them very English, except that James might be considered primarily Scottish. At the time Charlotte Tuckey was born, hers was a popular name, being that of George Ill's queen and of the Prince Regent’s daughter; Princess Charlotte would have been queen in place of Queen Victoria had she lived.

In later years several Scottish names have been given—Roy, Neil, Ross, Stuart, Kenneth and Colin— and Welsh ones—Owen and Lloyd. Some of these are connected with the origins of their maternal forebears, and naturally, as time goes on, more and more Australians will have a mixture of English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and European blood. Christian names will often reveal racial origin, even if in the maternal and not the paternal line. Ethel Tuckey’s son Murray Jardine has a name which not only is in accord with his father's Scottish origin, but also happily commemorates the district which is home for his mother’s family. The Murray district was named in honour of Sir George Murray, Secretary of State for the Colonies.

The last decade or so has seen the adoption of the currently popular names David, Philip and Wayne; the influence of royalty again and of Hollywood are perhaps ultimately discemable here. Daughters of the family have been assigned even more striking and original names in recent years, again after the fashion of the times.

Charles and Emma Tuckey eighty years ago chose some interesting names for their sons. The eldest was Melville, and his name is transmitted to his second son and to his eldest grandson, the present chronicler. Melville perhaps suggested itself, being brought to attention locally through Melville Water and Mount Melville at Albany; now there is a suburb of the name. Governor Stirling introduced the designation to Western Australia, in honour of a friend of his, Viscount Melville, sometime first Lord of the Admiralty. Charles and Emma’s fourth son was Clarence. This name was that of the projected township for Peel’s settlers, and Albany also has a Mount Clarence. These were named after the Duke of Clarence, who in 1830 became King William IV. Albert, the fifth son, has a name which became very popular last century through its possession by the Prince Consort. Every one of the sons and grandsons of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert received the name. Charles and Emma Tuckey apparently simply took a fancy to the name Hobart in giving it to their third son; it is the most original in the nineteenth century.

Melville and Emily Tuckey also produced some thoughtful Christian names fifty years ago. The Vasse, the district from which Emily came, is commemorated in the second Christian name of one of her daughters—Clarice Vasilla. Looking back, the Vasse district was named after the French sailor La Vasse, who was lost there in

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1803 and gave rise to legend. Stirling, second son of Melville and Emily, can trace his name to Governor Stirling through the Stirling Estate, which the governor assigned himself in the Vasse district. The farm of Emily’s parents, Stratham, was on the Stirling Estate.

Surnames have frequently been preserved as second Christian names. These include Foster, Anstey, Green, Roberts, Hurst, Bell, Howell and Eaton. They forcefully demonstrate the wide ramifications that an old family can have through marriages. The careers and family backgrounds of the men and women who have married members of the family provide colourful and valued links with many aspects of the history of the State and with more distant places.

The 1841 marriage between James Tuckey and Mary Anne Foster has resulted in eight descendants bearing the name Foster, two of them born in 1960.

The name Anstey is believed to be derived -from Elizabeth Anstey, but it is not known whether the lady was the mother of James Tuckey or of Mrs. James Tuckey. Two grandchildren of James and Mary Anne Tuckey received the name—Albert Anstey Tuckey, and the short-lived Hamlet Anstey Cooper.

The brothers Ned and Charles John Tuckey each took as a bride a Miss Green, but the ladies were not previously related. Ned Tuckey’s bride in 1889, Lucy Sarah Green, was a daughter of Levi Green, farmer of Brookdale, Pinjarra, who had arrived in the Shepherd in 1840, and her mother, nee Lucy Finyard, had come to the colony in 1848 on the Mary. Levi and Lucy lived for years near the estuary, and in the 1870s moved to Brookdale. It is related that Mrs. Levi Green lost her wedding ring while crossing a creek shortly after her marriage. A thorough search failed to recover it at the time; but twenty five years later, Levi’s best man, while crossing the creek and reminiscing that he was at the place where the ring had been lost, poked about with a stick, and to his amazement brought it to light. When Levi and Lucy celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in November 1911, their descendants numbered ninety six; all their twelve children were living, and their grandchildren and great grandchildren numbered respectively sixty-seven and seventeen. (68) Mrs. Ned Tuckey’s eldest brother Levi (1856-1945) succeeded to his father’s farming property, and a great granddaughter of his, Norma Green, was a partner in another marriage alliance between the two families in 1952. Norma and her husband Bryne Tuckey now live on their farm, Kookabrook, five miles from Pinjarra.

William George Green Tuckey (1893- ) now of Carnarvon, owes his third name to his mother Sarah Jane Green (1868-1942), who married Charles John Tuckey in 1890. Her parents were John Edward Green and Mary Crowdy, and her uncle was yet another

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Levi Green, the well-known coachbuilder and hardware merchant of Perth. John and Levi were two of the eleven children of George Green and Jane Beacham, whose marriage took place in 1836. George came to the colony in February 1830 aboard the Tranby, the ship which brought from Hull the Hardeys, Clarksons, Inkpens and other pioneer Methodist families; he was a cousin to Mrs. Joseph Hardey. The Beacham family, stemming from William and Mary who arrived on the Lotus in October 1829, have been established at Jimjamup on the Murray since the mid-1830s. In 1951 Ronald Beacham married Shirley Tuckey, granddaughter of Ned and Lucy Tuckey.

Lancel Roberts Tuckey derives his second name from his mother’s family, who were of Cornish origin. Catherine Emily Roberts, daughter of Charles Fox Roberts of Stratham and his wife who was Hannah Hurst, married Melville Tuckey in 1899. Her grandfather William Jenkin Roberts arrived with his family in the colony on the Diadem in 1842, under the second major scheme for colonial settlement. The ambitious Australind scheme was however just as unsuccessful as Peel’s settlement at Clarence eleven years earlier. Myrla Hurst Tuckey, second daughter of Melville and Emily, is named after her maternal grandmother.

Three grandchildren of Mrs. Charles Tuckey (nee Emma Bell) are Stanley Bell Tuckey, Audrey Bell Dempster (Mrs. Francis Culliver) and Barbara Bell Tuckey (Mrs. Hugh McLarty). Emma's father farmed a property at East Rockingham; the low stone homestead still stands close to the Fremantle-Mandurah road. A sister married the proprietor of the old Chesterfield Inn, and a brother was an eye-witness of the dramatic escape to sea of the Fenian prisoners in 1876. (69) An employee of the Bells and friend of the family, Thomas Howell, has his name preserved in that of Emma Bell’s grandson Kelvin Charles Howell Tuckey. (70)

Lloyd Eaton Tuckey and his nephew Vance Eaton Tuckey record in their names that of a family friend Foster Eaton, sometime Inspector of Fisheries at Mandurah. Foster Eaton was later Inspector at Bunbury, and the Eaton estate on the Collie River, now a suburb of Bunbury, was named in his honour in 1951.

Bertha Turkey’s husband, Henry Sherman Thompson, was the son of an American engineer who had migrated to Victoria and later settled in Perth, and a relative of W. T. Sherman, Union general in the American Civil War. A graduate of the University of W.A., Harry Thompson was for five years classics master at Guildford Grammar School, and for one year headmaster of Christ Church School. Having proceeded to the degree of Master of Arts he was appointed lecturer in the university’s English department in 1922. The twenty six years he was a member of its staff were an era of exciting development for the young institution of learning.

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Within a small community, strong personalities collaborated and clashed with one another; the campus moved from cramped Irwin Street to spacious Crawley. From 1937 until his death in 1948, Mr Thompson was designated Associate-Professor of Old English. Twice he acted as head of the department, during Professor Murdoch's absences abroad. He was the first local graduate to be elected to the university senate, and for five years was warden of convocation. His interests were wide, and he was keenly sought after in many circles as a speaker. (71)

Both the son and daughter of Bertha and Harry Thompson now carry on the name Sherman. Ronald, a graduate in engineering in 1942, today has charge of the Small Arms Factory, Lithgow, N.S.W. Jean, who was dux, champion athlete and captain of her school, continued her triumphs at the university (Bachelor of Arts, 1940, recipient of a blue for life-saving and of the Amy Jane Best prize for English literature). After a short time as first officer of the National Fitness Council in Canberra in 1941, she became an officer in the W.R.A.N.S. In Brisbane she married Lieutenant-Commander Lloyd Mostrom, and thence went to America as a war bride. The newlyweds first settled after the war at Charleston. This southern city was the centre of America’s ancestor worshipping community, but it was imprudent at times to reveal the name Sherman.

Bertha Thompson’s nephew, Victor Wager, also has a link with the university’s foundation at Crawley, as the sculptor of Socrates and Diotima, whose figures flank the entrance to the undercroft. He was also responsible for the execution of the plaques on Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, and has written a text book on plaster casting. (72) Victor is the son of the late Evangeline Tuckey (1865-1953) and William Wager. His sister Ellen (Mrs. John Chappell) is an accomplished painter of still life and landscape, and has exhibited her work annually as a member of the Perth Society of Artists. John Chappell, who was bom in Johannesburg and came to Perth from Scotland in 1912, was for many years secretary of the Master Printers’ Association. Having served in both World Wars (discharged as Lieutenant-Colonel), he held office as State secretary of the R.S.L. from 1947 to 1956.(73) While in the 16th Battalion during the Second World War, Colonel Chappell found that one of his Company Sergeant-Majors was his wife’s cousin, Stirling Tuckey. Stirling was later commissioned and transferred to the 8th Battalion; a newspaper article records his experiences during the last phase of the war.(74) Now a city businessman, Stirling is the family’s most ardent devotee of recreational fishing.

One of a team of three Movietone cameramen responsible for filming the latter stages of the South East Asia campaign was Ray Phoenix, whose wife Beryl is the daughter of Ethel Tuckey (1880- ) and the late Duncan Jardine. Beryl also came through

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with the troops from Burma to the recapture of Singapore, engaged as script-writer for her husband's films.

Myrla Tuckey's late husband, Frank Cotton, a mining engineer in Malaya before the Second World War, was seconded to the Royal Navy early in 1942, given the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, and instructed to lead a demolition squad, which destroyed Singapore’s immense underground oil reserves before the Japanese advance. Devotion to duty cost him three and a half years as a prisoner ot war, and consequent poor health led to his untimely death in 1960.(75) Meral, daughter of Myrla and Frank, renewed the family’s connection with the Post Office in 1958, when she married Mandurah’s present postmaster, Stanley Barry.

Edna Tuckey's husband, James Jefferis Heath, co-owner of the Barton Mine at Nullagine, derives his forenames from his grandfather, the Reverend Dr. James Jefferis, distinguished Congregational minister of Adelaide and Sydney. To Dr. Jefferis’ influence has been attributed the early foundation of the University of Adelaide. (76) Alfred Heath, father of James Heath, came of another old Adelaide family. While training as a surveyor in the west of South Australia in 1894, an offer was made him by Sultan Faiz Mohamed to take charge of the first caravan of camels for the new Coolgardie goldfields. Although only 20 years of age, he accepted the offer, and led the team of fifty-eight camels, without loss, overland from Hergott Springs to Coolgardie. His diary recording the trek via Eucla and Esperance makes interesting reading.(77) Edna Tuckey’s daughter by her earlier marriage to the late Henry Meyers, Fay Beresford Meyers, derives her second Christian name from a connection through her father’s family with Admiral Lord Charles (later Baron) Beresford, son of the fourth Marquess of Waterford. (78)

The gold rush also brought to W.A. the family of Lorna Tuckey’s husband, John Joseph Honniball. Herbert Honniball, aged eighteen, set out from Adelaide by ship in 1896, and following the customary course, disembarked at Albany, then the colony’s chief port, and made his way by train to the bustling gold fields. At Menzies he married Mary Collier, who had come to the. fields from Warragul, Victoria, with her brothers. Marie Collier, now a leading soprano at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is a niece of Mrs. Honniball. John, son of Mary and Herbert Honniball married Lorna, fourth daughter of Melville and Emily Tuckey in 1932; he is now superintendent of the State Building Supplies’ timber mills.

Matilda Tuckey (1844-1924) met her husband John Wearne, a mining engineer, while her family were in Victoria. Their sons Charles (bom at Castlemaine, 1873) and Theodore (born at Mandurah, 1878) served marine engineering aprenticeships with a Singapore firm in the 1890s. In 1905 they established their own business, C. F. F. Wearne and Co., and secured the agency for Ford and Morris

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cars. Their motor firm, which became known as Wearne Bros. Ltd., prospered rapidly over the years. The company also pioneered air transport in Malaya and Singapore, and now has twenty branches in the two countries. The brothers built substantial homes at Mandurah in the 1920s, to which they periodically returned, and it was at Mandurah that Charles spent his last years before his death in 1944. Several others among the ten children of Matilda and John Wearne were connected with Singapore’s commercial and shipping community, and in recent years some of their descendants have returned to settle in Western Australia. Matilda, second daughter of Matilda and John, married J. A. Hicks in 1884, proprietor of the "White House” chain of drapery stores in Fremantle, Northam, York and Kalgoorlie; he and his family eventually concentrated their attention on the Kalgoorlie business.(79) James Hicks was the grandson of another Rockingham immigrant, William Leeder, and he was a relative of Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the prominent English statesman. The names Leeder and Beach, as well as Foster, are preserved as secondary Christian names for several of the descendants of Matilda and James Hicks.

Helen Tuckey (1847-1929), known as Ellen, became the wife of James Cooper, son of Joseph Cooper, who built the mill at the mouth of the Murray, and of Elizabeth Wright. The Cooper family arrived by the Warrior in March 1830. Two of Helen’s daughters married sons of Walter Easton, who had come to Fremantle as a teacher in 1858 and was later an orchardist and vigneron at Plympton, East Fremantle; and their sister-in-law, Selina Susannah Easton was Mrs. Charles Wearne. Frederick, second son of Helen and James Cooper, married Mandurah’s schoolmistress, Minnie Molloy, daughter of T. G. A. Molloy, mayor of Perth. Frederick’s youngest sister, Violet, married into another of Mandurah’s earliest families, when she became the wife of George Sutton. Mavis Wright Cooper, granddaughter of Helen, is Mrs. Roy Tuckey.

In 1953 Barbara Bell Tuckey, daughter of Roy and Mavis, married Hugh, son of Donald McLarty and his wife, Gladys Chidlow Paterson. The McLarty family has played a pre-eminent part in the history of Pinjarra and of the State since the arrival of John McLarty in 1839. The pioneer from Campbelltown in Scotland established the pastoral property of Blythewood near Pinjarra, and in the 1880s his son Edward was one of the first promoters of the industry in the Kimberleys. Edward was the father of Donald and of Ross, and represented the Murray district in State parliament, as his youngest son was to do. (80)

The marriage of Rona Tuckey to George Marsden Dempster provides a connection with another Scottish pioneering family. When the Stuarts were reigning in Scotland, the Dempsters were lairds of Muresk, Auchterless and Killesmont and viceroys of Banff and

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Buchan. James McLean Dempster (1810-90) settled in Western Australia in the mid 1830s, following several visits as mate and captain of tlie schooner Eagle. After a few years as superintendent of the native penal establishment at Rottnest, he took up the property Bucklands near Northam. His four sons in 1864 established a large pastoral property at Esperance. Andrew, the third son, returned to the Avon Valey in 1888 and built the homestead Muresk. George, fourth son of Andrew’s marriage to Mary Ellen Marsden, managed Muresk for a few years and from 1908 to 1913, in partnership with his brother Reginald, turned to wheat farming at Nambling near Dowerin. In 1913 the brothers acquired an 1800 acre property at Benger, partly for the purpose of providing alternative pastures for the sheep from their drought-prone Murchison properties. George brought his bride from Mandurah to live at Benger in 1915. The name Marsden is perpetuated as the second name of George and Rona’s second daughter, Beryl (Mrs. Archer Eckersley). (81)

French ancestry is revealed in the name of Cecil Tuckey’s wife, who was Dorothy Malraison. Her forebears left Alsace-Lorraine to seek refuge in England from the French Revolution.

The late Clarence Tuckey (1886-1942) married Eva Gallop, a granddaughter of Richard Gallop, who arrived in the colony at the age of twenty, aboard the Lotus in 1829, together with his brothers James and Edward. While James and his son developed a mixed farm, orchard and vineyard at Dalkeith from 1847 onwards, Richard cultivated the fine orchard Orange Grove in Brisbane Street. Part of the land on which Perth railway station stands was once his. Living in North Perth for sixty years before he died in his eighty-ninth year (1898), he saw the suburbs of Perth expand to meet his property. (82)

For one hundred and thirty years members of the Tuckey family, engaged in a wide variety of occupations and professions, have contributed to the general progress of the community to which they belong. As pioneers and citizens they have performed in and witnessed the pageant of colonial and State history. The Australind scheme, the gold rush, the second world war, the post-war immigration programme—in fact nearly all aspects and episodes in Western Australian history have directly or indirectly provided partners in marriage and given the family closer identification with the life of the whole community in successive generations. But although they are scattered throughout the State and some have gone abroad, all the Tuckeys continue to look upon Mandurah as home It is no longer the remote tranquil village. While inland towns of fifty and sixty miles from Perth have grown slowly in the post-war era because of their very proximity, the once tiny hamlet has been transformed into a progressive town and a thriving seaside resort. The newspaper is delivered in the morning, house numbers assist

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the postman and television antennae poke skyward. A good road puts Mandurah only an hour away from the metropolis, and leads past a great oil refinery—a landmark which never guided James Tuckey at sea.

POSTSCRIPT

Fifty members of the Tuckey family were guests of the W.A. Historical Society at the reading of the above paper in May 1960, the month which marked the 130th anniversary of the arrival of their ancestor John Tuckey. The idea was conceived at the time to hold during the course of the year a family reunion dinner and church service at Mandurah. These functions duly took place on the first weekend in November. Ninety people sat down to dinner in Mr. Roy Tuckey’s San Toy Ballroom on the evening of November 5. Some had come from as far afield as Carnarvon, Meekathara and Manjimup, and Mrs. Bertha Thompson, last surviving child of the late John and Eliza Tuckey, arrived home after a year's absence in America the day before, which was her seventy-seventh birthday. Mr. Jack Crogan, husband of Jill Tuckey, was chairman; Mr. Roy Tuckey gave an address of welcome to all present; and Mr. John Chappell, following an interesting discourse, proposed a toast to the memory of “John Tuckey and our pioneer forebears". Dancing, interspersed with musical items given by members of the family, followed. At this very happy gathering, the oldest present were Mr. Cecil Tuckey (78), his brother-in-law Mr. George Dempster (84), and his cousin Mrs. Minnie Easton. (83)

The following morning at 11.30, a hundred people, representing four generations, crowded into Christ Church for the service of Matins. The rector, the Reverend Canon E. H. Burbidge, conducted the service, and the author of the above paper gave an address concerning the family’s association with the church. The two lessons were read by Mr. Ross Chappell and Mr. Owen Tuckey. Two young cousins, Kenneth Tuckey and John Menzies, took up the collection, and Mr. Roy Tuckey and Mr. Gerald Honniball acted as ushers. The highlight of the service was the baptism of four infant boys. They were Michael Wilson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Tuckey of Carnarvon; Philip Stanley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Barry of Mandurah; David Foster, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bryne Tuckey of Pinjarra; and Phillip Wayne Foster, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Tuckey of Mandurah. For reasons of space, the rector was obliged to use a small portable font, placed at the sanctuary steps. The mothers, with their sons, stood in a semi-circle around the rector, facing the congregation, and the godparents responded from their places in the pews.

Before the close of 1960 many members of the family again assembled for two happy functions in Perth—a dinner party to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Theo

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Wearne, and u dance to celebrate the 21st birthday of Miss Helen George, whose mother was Patricia Tuckey. From South Africa came the news that Mr. Ray Phoenix had received an award from the Encyclopaedia Britannica as photographer of the year for his coverage of the attempted assassination of the South African Prime Minister. A few days before Christmas Mr. Ross Chappell and Mr. Gerald Honniball were admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. A month later the family again gathered at Mandurah on a hot day under a sky overcast with smoke from a fire which had razed a town twenty miles away, for the funeral of Mr. Cecil Tuckey.

REFERENCES

1. C. Tuckey, Letterbook, 16 March 1898, f. 379.

2. Articles of Agreement . . . between Thomas Peel of St. James’s Square, Middlesex, and John Tuckey of Cocking, Sussex, 31 December 1829 (Battye Library, 711A).

3. P. H. Reaney, Dictionary of British Surnames (1958), p. 324.

4. H. Harrison, Surnames of the United Kingdom (1918), p. 239.

5. Victoria History of the County of Sussex, p. 480.

6. The pedigree of this family is in the possession of Mrs. M. E. Tuckey of Five Dock, N.S.W.

7. The medal is in the possession of Mrs. M. E. Tuckey of Mandurah. On one side of the medal is the diademed head of Queen Victoria, and the legend Victoria Regina 1848. On the reverse is the queen standing on a dais about to place a laurel wreath on the head of the kneeling Duke of Wellington; it is inscribed: “To the British Army, 1793-1814." Twenty-nine bars for campaigns or engagements were issued with it.

8. C. Bryan ("Cygnet”) Story of the Rockingham (Swan River Booklet No. 9).

9. W. H. Bunbury, Early Days in Western Australia, (1930), p. 175.

10. John Sutton, Daybook, 1847-57, 14 February 1848. (In the possession of Mrs. V. I. Sutton of Mandurah.)

11. Elijah Dawson solemnly observed Waterloo Day each year, with his family gathered around him for the commemoration.

12. John Sutton, op. cit., passim.

13. "Indenture made the twenty-third day of August in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two between John Tuckey of Mandurah in the colony of Western Australia yeoman of the one part and Christopher Armstrong of the same place yeoman of the other part”, (microfilm, Battye Library, 474A).

14 S.D.U.R./T2/223 (Battye Library).

15. G. E. Owen, The Post, Telegraph and Telephone Offices of Western Australia: An Alphabetical List, (Typescript, 1958), (Battye Library PR 2151).

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16. Western Australian Church of England Magazine, August 1869.

17. Ibid, December 1871.

18. West Australian, 21 November, 1887.

19. Inquirer, 7 August 1878.

20. Bouthern Times, 9 February 1895.

21. “Bingen on the Rhine”, by Caroline Norton.

22. R. Parsons, Ships Registered in the Port of Fremantle Prior to 1900 (Typescript, 1960) (Battye Library, PR2684): Florence, registered 1876, J. Tuckey; 24.16 tons; 48.7 x 14.7 x 5.12; built in Perth, 1876; 1 deck, 2 masts, fore and aft rigged schooner oval stern; sold in May 1880 to J. Stewart; lost in cyclone, North West coast, 23 April 1887.
Jessie, registered 1875, C. Tuckey; 22.7 tons; 47.1 x 14.1 x 5.58; built in Fremantle, 1875; 1 deck, cutter, oval stern; altered to fore and aft rigged schooner, 29 August 1879; sold, no trace for long time, register closed 1908.

23. Herald, 4 December 1880; and other current newspapers. R. Parsons, op. cit.: Ribston, registered 1881, J. Tuckey and partners; 396.88 tons; 127.6 x 28.1 x 17.2; 1 deck, 3 masted barque, eliptic stern; built by John Robinson, Sunderland, England, 1867; formerly registered at Hong Kong; registered in name of W. Owston Snr. and partners, May 1883; sold at Amoy to Mr. Hemphel, a German, 22 November 1888.

24. Ibid: Comet, registered 1884, J. and C. Tuckey; 28.77 tons; 63.8 x 13.5 x 4.5; 1 deck, 2 masts, schooner, counter stem; built in Fremantle, 1884; wrecked in storm, 13 September 1893, passage Bunbury-Fremantle.

25. Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping, 1899-1900: Sarie Borneo, registered at Banjermasin; Dutch flag; J. Tuckey, master; 741 tons (585 under deck, 356 net); 195 x 29 x 13.7; steel sc. sr., 1 deck (teak) and shade deck (teak) and hold beams forward; built by Riley, Hargreaves and Co., Singapore, 1897; owner: Aug Lim Thay; master in 1902-3: Koch.

26. G. Jean-Aubry, The Sea Dreamer: A Definitive Biography of Joseph Conrad (1957), pp. 119-130, 239, 255.
E. H. Visiak, The Mirror of Conrad, (1955), pp. 174-185.
J. Baines, Conrad: A Critical Biography, (1959), p. 90.
J. Conrad, A Personal Record, (1912), pp. 162-190.
Lloyds Register . . ., 1895-6: Vidar, registered at Banjermasin; Dutch flag; J. Craig, master and owner; 315 tons (301 under deck, 174 net); 132.5 x 20.3 x 15.8; iron sc. sr., 2 decks; built by Wigham, Richardson and Co., Newcastle, England, 1871.
Lloyds Register . . ., 1899-1900: Vidar, registered at Penang; British flag; J. Lingard, master; owner: Chua Yu Kay.

27. Singapore Free Press, 9 July 1900.

28. G. E. Owen, op. cit.

29. South Western Advertiser, 17 May 1951.

30. West Australian, 6 January 1890.

31. Margaretta Doré, Political Reminiscences of Western Australia (1897), pp. 54-6.

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32. Inquirer, 11 July 1888.

33. Interview with Mr. E. J. F. Tuckey by officials of the W.A. Historical Society at Mandurah, 30 October 1954 (W.A.H.S. file 812).

34. Inquirer, 19 January 1876. The Emma, owned by Mr. Walter Padbury, was lost in 1867, with forty-two people, mostly young Colonials, aboard.

35. West Australian, 29 August 1908; and newspapers in 1876.
Charles Tuckey recounted these events in a letter to the editor of the West Australian, in which he gave his opinion as to how the search for the Waratah, missing in the southern Indian Ocean in 1908, should be conducted.

36. Inquirer, 14 February 1877.

37. Letter from Baccich to C. Tuckey, 9 January 1894. (Battye Library, 554A, microfilm copy).

38. C. Tuckey, Letterbook, ff. 32-33.

39. There are several entries for the name Baccich in the New Orleans Telephone Directory. Enquiries as to any possible connection with M. A. Baccich will be made.

40. F. W. Gunning, Lure of the North (1952), p. 108.

41. Parliament of Western Australia, Minutes, Votes and Proceedings and Paper Presented, Second Session, Sixth Parliament, 1906, vol. 2, Paper A8, “Report of the Joint Select Committee appointed to inquire into the Fishing Industry”, pp. 95-8.

42. Ibid, Second Session, Eleventh Parliament, 1922-3, vol. 2, Paper A7, "Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council appointed to inquire into the Fishing Industry and the operations of the Fremantle Fish Markets,” pp. 38-40.

43. Southern Times, 14 October 1893: Two boats had recently come to the factory with 1500 fish each, which had to be thrown away.

44. Inquirer, 7 March 1888.

45. Ibid, 16 September 1885, (Advt.). Labels for the tins are in the possession of members of the Tuckey family.

46. The medals are in the possession of Mr O. H. Tuckey of Mandurah. A Medal of Merit from the 1881 Exhibition was lost by Charles Tuckey while riding between Mandurah and Guildford that year. It was recovered in the bush at Brentwood seventy-six years later, when building operations were commencing, and was returned by the finder to Mr. R. L. Tuckey of Mandurah (South Western Advertiser, 6 February 1958).

47. C. Tuckey to Mrs. John Tuckey, 28 November 1898, Letterbook, f. 63.

48. C. Tuckey to Messrs. Gilbertson and Co., Swansea, Wales, 3 July 1894, Letterbook, f. 34.

49. Ibid, 2 November 1897, ff. 100-3.

50. Western Mail, 22 October 1897, p. 13. The address of welcome to the Governor appears in C. Tuckey's Letterbook, f. 8.

51. Parliament of Western Australia, op. cit., Third Session, Third Parliament, 1898, vol. 1, Paper 5, “Report on the Marine Fisheries on the south and south west coasts of the Colony

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of Western Australia”. Mr. Smart had taken over the management of Mr. Broadhurst’s factory in 1892.

52. Letterbook, 27 May 1896, ff. 57-8. In his advocacy of a railway, Charles had something in common with his niece’s husband, Mr. J. A. Hicks. As chairman of the Jandakot Board, Hicks urged the claims of Jandakot for a railway ling with Armadale with such persistence that he was often known as Jandakot-Armadale Hicks. —Pink Penny, 24 July 1909.

53. South Western Advertiser, 17 May 1951.

54. May Vivienne, Travels in Western Australia, (1902), pp. 101-2.

55. West Australian, 10 June 1897.

56, C. Tuckey to Under-Secretary for Education, 5 August 1897; Lands and Surveys Dept. File 7069/97.

57. South Western Advertiser, 14 June 1912.

58. Ibid, 15 December 1949. Melville Tuckey’s daughters are also accomplished pianists; the second, Myrla, followed her father as organist at Christ Church.

59. Drill of the Foothills, No. 11, February-March 1917, pp. 28-30.

60. South Western Advertiser, 22 July 1911.

61. Ibid, 2 September 1911.

62. Ibid, 26 May 1922.

63.Ibid, 7 March 1930.

64. Mandurah Progress Association, Letterbook, 1906-8, 8 December 1906, f. 6.

65. South Western Advertiser, 8 June 1934.

66. Interview with Sir Ross McLarty by author at Pinjarra, 22 May 1960.

67. Obituary, South Western Advertiser, 10 March 1951. Earlier biographical details. Ibid, 11 May 1934.

68. Ibid, 25 November 1911.

69. Z. W. Pease, The Catalpa Expedition, (1897), gives a complete description of the episode.

70. The prayer book inscribed with dates of birth, marriage and death of members of the now extinct Howell family is in the possession of Mrs. M. Cotton of Mandurah.

71. Obituary, West Australian, 7 February 1948; Pelican, 25 Feb-uary 1948.

72. Victor H. Wager, Plaster Casting for the Student Sculptor, (Tiranti, London, 1938).

73. Biography, Western Mail, 26 June 1941, p. 7; Leading Personalities of Western Australia, (1950), p. 228.

74. West Australian, 24 November 1945.

75. Weekend Mail, 25 January 1958.

76. A. A. Landor, The Medical School of South Australia, 1885-1985 (typescript, held in the South Australian Archives); Australian Encyclopaedia (1958), vol. 5, p. 124; F. Johns, An Australian Biographical Dictionary (1934), p. 183.

77. Countryman, 18 June 1959, p. 25; Walkabout, July 1958, pp. 32-5. A microfilm copy of Alfred Heath’s diary is in the Battye Library.

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78. Biography of Miss Meyers, Countryman, 5 May 1955.

79. Biography of J. A. Hicks: J. G. Wilson (ed.), Western Australia’s Centenary, (1929), p. 327a. Biographies of his sons Harry and Percy: Leading Personalities, pp. 81 and 94. The business records of the firm J. A. Hicks and Co. Pty. Ltd. have been deposited in the Battye Library (MN14).

80. Biography of Edward McLarty: J. S. Battye, Cyclopedia of Western Australia, (1912), vol. 1„ p. 330.

81. Biography of George Dempster: Ibid, vol 2., p. 585. The Dempster family history is recorded in Muresk College Magazine, September 1928, pp. 6-13.

82. Obituary, Richard Gallop, West Australian, 23 June 1898. A full description of James Gallop’s garden at Dalkeith appears Ibid, 12 February 1886.

The author is indebted to the Librarian of the J. S. Battye Library of West Australian History (Miss Mollie Lukis), who first encouraged this project, and to members and friends of the family for their personal assistance, and also to Mr. W. C. Smart for his Mandurah and Pinjarrah: History of Thomas Peel and the Peel Estate, 1829-1865, (1956).

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 28 February, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/earlydays/5/honniball.html (it was last updated on 1 March, 2022). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.