With the death of Peter MacFie, it has been decided to provide pdf documents of the completed works that Peter had not got around to publishing. He approved this project and has left a list of particular studies he wanted put online (and provided with an index if not yet included).
The first of these dates from 2004 and is available today. Those interested are welcome to download it though do note that it is 61 pages. There is an index that is included in the main document or separately on the webpage. The intention is to try to add one every few weeks.
MacFie, Peter H., 2004, 2022: Military Pensioners of Richmond, https://petermacfiehistorian.net.au/publications/military-pensioners/
Abstract
Originally presented as ’Mill Cottage to Peppercorn Gallery: A History of the Military Settlers of Richmond’ and other variations including ‘Colonial Soldiers’ or ‘Pensioner Soldiers’.
Right from the early days of British soldiers being sent to Van Diemen’s Land to guard the convicts, some of the military personnel sought permission to retire and take up land in the colony when their service ended. Some settled in the Coal River valley on the road to Port Arthur and became the core of today’s Richmond. By 1850 the British Government formalized the practice, and offered retired soldiers the chance to earn their fare (and those of their families) back to Van Diemen’s Land by working as ‘Convict Guards’, with the promise of small land grants and the chance to join the police. This is the story of those who settled at Richmond or nearby. Men of limited means who were in a class of their own. Not convicts or emancipists, and not wealthy or members of the ruling classes, but often skilled tradesmen who became a strength of the community.
Details
A 61 page A4 size pdf document. Permission is granted to print for your own use but not for sale.
To Purchase
This document is not available for purchase due to the death of the author. His heirs have arranged for all of his smaller completed works to be made available on this website as a service to Tasmanian history.
Until the 1930s, Richmond had a variety of traditional crafts and trades, ranging from coach building wheelwrighting, blacksmithing, shoemaking, saddle and harness making. The inns which once brewed their own beers employed coopers and related trades. Skill and crafts associated with women in the 19th century include dressmaking and embroidery. A short-lived ginger beer making operation was started by a female Richmond resident.
Many of these trades were recalled in 1977 by the late Alf King, (1894-1908), a local identity with a marvellous and reliable memory, who remembered the Richmond of his childhood pre-World War I. Using the names of residents listed in the 1902 Post Office Directory, Alf described to Peter MacFie who lived where in the various houses, shops and pubs of the Richmond of his boyhood.
He recalled that Mill Cottage – the Peppercorn Gallery at 58 Bridge Street – was at that time the home of James ‘Jimmy’ Anderson, village wheelwright and master builder. Subsequent research years later has revealed that Jimmy Anderson was probably related to the original owner. The cottage stayed in the Moran/Anderson families until 1953.
The land on which the cottage stands was first allocated c 1830 to J.K. Buscombe, the early Richmond entrepreneur, publican, developer and miller who lived in the home he built for his family, Prospect House.
Maps of the period show a small building on this site. However, information taken from the 1842 census indicates the cottage was probably erected in 1841-2. Edward Moran later called the house Mill Cottage, to distinguish it from the nearby Millers Cottage (1837) located at the end of Mill Lane and which gave access to the now vanished Tower Windmill. Mill Cottage was probably expanded around 1854, when two dressmaking sisters, Catherine and Bridget Moran, opened a shop there.
Alf King also recalled the bootmakers, undertakers, blacksmiths and other tradesman who lived and worked in Richmond. Most of these were based in Bridge Streets, Richmond’s main thoroughfare.
Index
alcohol, 14, 20, 39
Alexander, L, 21
Allcock, Martha, 26
Anderson children, 18
Anderson family, 53
Anderson, Amelia (Mrs Martin), 40, 41, 47
Anderson, Edward, 52, See Anderson, Edwin
Anderson, Edwin, 18, 30, 31, 33, 34, 43, 46
Anderson, George, 31, 32, 39, 40, 54
Anderson, James. See Anderson, Jimmy
Anderson, Jimmy, 6, 7, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 52, See Anderson, James
Anderson, John, 31, 32, 40
Anderson, Martin, 30, 31, 32, 39, 40, 41
Anderson, Mary (Mrs Edwin), 18, 30, 31, 33, 34, 46, See Moran, Mary Ann
MacFie, Peter, 2022, See No Evil, https://petermacfiehistorian.net.au/publications/see-no-evil/
Abstract
Peter MacFie was born in Launceston in 1943 and lived there with his mother and grandmother until his father returned from fighting World War II in New Guinea. His father, Henry Hector MacFie, went to work with the Hydro-Electricity Commission and studied Engineering at UTAS. Peter’s mother kept house on the edge of The Glebe overlooking The Domain and increased the family. This is Peter’s view of his world as he ran free and gained an education from the children he played with while his father worked himself into the ground to try to cope with his nightmares of war, and his mother was dreadfully lonely and unhappy far away from her own close-knit family. Despite this, Peter recounts his childhood adventures with a golden glow.
Details
133 A5 pages, 123 images including 4 historic maps of inner Hobart, plus a detailed index.
Purchasing the book
This book is now available direct from Lulu.com through ‘Print on Demand’ from anywhere in the world.
A small boy in a red brick house on the hilly Glebe, perched on top of a hill overlooking Hobart.
A neat brick cottage in a row of larger weatherboard houses, some of two storeys with high gables, front steps and verandas facing ‘The Domain’.
Wild grass and native orchids, gum trees and open space, divided by a road, lined with ordered pine trees, all heading to the TCA – Tasmanian Cricket Association Ground.
From the back sunroom windows of the house perched on The Glebe he looked towards The Mountain.
In between was the Valley of Houses, smoky in winter, church bells ringing across the valley on Sundays from Trinity Hill in North Hobart and, nearer the harbour, the full chimes from St David’s Cathedral. Sometimes they rang out on evening practice nights, loud as if they were next door.
Houses clustered over the hills under the bushy silhouettes of Mount Wellington and Mount Nelson.
Down Aberdeen Street to the south was the Regatta Ground and then The River, where the town met the water. Wharfs and docks with big ships and fishing boats in small docks, factories around them.
It’s summer. The red brick cottage is hot. A hazy, clear day and the roar of some single-propeller aeroplanes coming down the valley, sounding low and echoing louder and louder. He rushes out onto the back steps over-looking the valley of houses:
‘The War is over – isn’t it?’
Hands across his eyes – he can’t see for the sun.
Hands across his ears – because the noise is so loud.
Hands across his mouth with …
The propellers on the fighters spin, matching the ‘bulls-eyes’ on their sides.
But it’s not war, not anymore.
There’s a victory celebration in Hobart, and it’s Regatta Day on the River Derwent across the other side of The Domain. The Navy is in, there’s an aircraft carrier at the big wharf, smaller warships in the river and – best of all – the circus is in The Hollow.
Contents
Table of Contents
Table of Photographs
Cover Images
References
Robbitee Bobbitee
Introduction
1 – Our Glebe Home
2 – Family and Home
3 – The Hydro
4 – The Domain
5 – Two Nannas
6 – Holidays
7 – School
8 – The City
9 – Moving House
Afterwards
Postscript
Addendum – How to spell MacFie
Father’s Family
Mother’s Family
Index
Index
accidents
ammonia, 48
barbed-wire, 21
rabbit trap, 65
alcohol, 34, 36, 59, 109
Anzac Day, 31, 96
Archer, Edward, 118
Archer, Frank, 119
Archer, Gerald, 63, 120, 123
Archer, Heather (Mrs Rob), 63
Archer, Hedley, 63, 120, 124
Archer, Lilian Elsie, 113, 122, See MacFie, Lilian Elsie (Mrs Henry 2)
Archer, Lillian (Mrs Hedley), 18, 28, 120, 121
Archer, Margery (Mrs Frank), 119
Archer, Martha (Mrs William), 117
Archer, Mary Margery. See Archer, Meg
Archer, Meg. See Robertson, Meg (Mrs Ron)
Archer, Rob, 123
Archer, Susannah (Mrs Edward), 118
Archer, William, 117
Armstrong (Thomas), 121
Armstrong, Agnes (Mrs Alexander), 121
Armstrong, Alexander, 121
Armstrong, Diane, 70
Armstrong, Dulcie (Mrs Stan), 69
Armstrong, Effie (Uncle Stan), 122
Armstrong, Ethel Lillian May). See Archer, Lillian (Mrs Hedley)
Armstrong, Lillian. See Archer, Lillian (Mrs Hedley)
Armstrong, Mary, 122
Armstrong, May (Mrs Thomas), 113, 121
Armstrong, Norman Stanley. See Armstrong, Stan (Great Uncle Stan)
Armstrong, Ross, 70
Armstrong, Stan (Great Uncle Stan), 69, 70
Armstrong, Thomas, 113
Auntie Aida, 67, 69, See French, Aida (Mrs Chris)
Auntie Dulcie. See Armstrong, Dulcie (Mrs Stan)
Auntie Heather. See Archer, Heather (Mrs Rob)
Auntie Jean, 57, 60, See McFie, Jean (Auntie Jean)
Auntie Jessie, 41, 69, See Shegog, Jessie (Mrs Sam)
Auntie Meg (Uncle Ron), 35, 38, 41, 42, 62, 63, 64, 70, 71, 72, 77, 81, 83, See Robertson, Meg (Uncle Ron)
Auntie Nancy, 97, 98, See Wilson, Nancy (Uncle David), See McFie, Nancy (Uncle David)
bikes, 54, 74, 76
billycarts, 22, 23
Boat Harbour, 81
books, 28, 50, 60, 68, 85, 96, 97
Botanic Gardens, 44, 46, 49
Brickendon, 66, 118
Bricknell, Mr Harry, 19, 20
Burnie, 35, 62, 71
Burnie Park, 74, 85
Cam River, 80
Cameron, Joyce (Mrs Neil), 41, 72
Cameron, Neil, 41
Campbell Town, 71
cars, 34, 61, 99, 102
Cattle Jetty, 46, 55
Cenotaph, 46, 96
Chapman, Captain William, 111
Chapman, Hannah Elizabeth, 111, See McFie, Hannah (Mrs Henry 1)
Chapman, Martha (Mrs William), 111
chooks, 35
Christmas, 40
circus, 15, 38, 39, 96
Coles Bay, 62
Collins, Dickie, 89
Connor, Bridget. See McFie, Bridget (Mrs Hector 1.1)
Cooee, 74, 75, 76, 81
Cooee Sale Day, 74
Cordner, Miss, 91
Cornelian Bay, 46
Coronea, Hadspen, 121
Coronea, Invermay, 121
Corraville, 66, 67, 68, 69
Cracker Morris. See Morris, Mr Eric K. (Cracker)
cricket, 16, 46, 47, 48, 53, 70, 81, 89
Crisp, Selena Susan Ida. See McFie, Susan (Mrs Teddy 1.1)
Crooke, Richard, 43
Dad, 99, See MacFie, Henry 2
bad memories, 18, 32, 34, 47
good memories, 22, 38, 39, 47, 51, 52, 62
war damage, 18
Dawson, Smoky, 76
Deacon, Ann. See Spurr, Ann (Mrs James)
Denovan, Christina. See Johnson, Christina (Mrs Alexander)
Henry H. MacFie was the father of Peter MacFie. After serving during WW2 in New Guinea, he trained as an engineer and spent his working life with the Hydro-Electric Commission. He was particularly interested in historical engineering. This page links to his published works, but before he was an engineer, Lt. Henry MacFie was a soldier during World War II in New Guinea where he was awarded the Military Cross. Peter tells the story in his biography See No Evil.
Henry married Lilian Archer and their first son, Peter, was born in 1943. They met briefly when Peter was 3 weeks old, and then not again till Peter was 9 months old, in 1944.
In Memory of Henry Hector MacFie
Compiled by his second son, Robert H. MacFie
All Works by Henry H. McFie
* indicates link page complete ** indicates index online
