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Military Pensioners of Richmond

Citation

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.

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Download Military Pensioners of Richmond (5MB PDF)

Contents

Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

  1. Mill Cottage – A Creative History……………………………………………………….. 7
  2. An Irish Redcoat & a Dressmaker………………………………………………………. 8
  3. The Morans Settle in Richmond’s “Irish Town”………………………………..14
  4. Mill Cottage – The Dress-Makers Shop c 1854………………………………. 23
  5. Morans on the Move………………………………………………………………………….. 28
  6. Private Edwin Anderson, Cooper, Royal Engineers……………………….. 30
  7. Richmond’s Crafty Anderson Brothers…………………………………………….. 36
  8. Other Military Pensioners and their Cottages………………………………… 42
  9. Peppercorn Gallery – A New Life for Mill Cottage………………………….. 55

Index…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 56

Excerpt

1. Mill Cottage – A Creative 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

Anderson, MaryAnn, 31

Anderson’s Cottage, 30, 40

Anderson’s Cottage #1, 30, 32, 54

Anstey, Thomas, 52

Arthur, Lt. Gov. George, 9, 10, 11, 12, 20

Ashmore, William, 52

Bailey, Robert, 46

Bailey, Sam, 54

Barrow, ? (Mrs William Warre), 14

Barrow, Lt William Warre, 10, 11, 14

Black Line, 9, 10, 14

Black Wars, 10

Blackburn, Mark, 54

Blowfield, James, 44

Blowfield, Sarah (Mrs James). See Mason, Sarah

Bothwell, 11

Bradshaw, Henry, 21

Brown Mountain, 10, 11, 14, 15, 29

Brown’s River. See Kingston

Brushy Plains. See Buckland

Buckland, 25, 27

Buckley, James, 51

Burn, George, 15, 22

Burns, Herbert, 38

Burrell, Walter, 38

Burridge, John, 47

Buscombe, J. K., 7, 10, 11, 23

bushrangers, 16, 46

Byron, Jane (Mrs ?), 26

Cain, ? (Mrs ?), 18

Campania, 14, 50

Campania Estate, 51

Cane, ? (Mrs ?), 17

Carey, Bridget (Mrs William), 47

Carey, William, 47, 51, 52, 54

Carey’s Cottage, 47, 54

Cassidy family, 18

Cassidy, Bridget (Mrs John). See Moran, Bridget

Cassidy, Hugh, 51

Cassidy, John, 15, 16, 17, 27

Catholics, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25, 26, 29, 33, 36, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53

Chessington Boarding House, 27

Clifford, James, 44

Congregationalists, 52

Connell, Margaret. See Moran, Margaret (Mrs Charles)

Connolly’s Marsh, 13

Conroy allotment, 54

Conroy, Bridget (Mrs John), 45

Conroy, Bridget jnr, 53

Conroy, John, 45, 52, 53

Conroy, Mary, 53

Conroy, Patrick, 45

Conroy’s Cottage, 45, 53

constables, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51

convict guards, 8, 43, 46

Cooley, Brassy. See Cooley, Charles

Cooley, Charles, 36, 46

Cornish children, 45

Cornish grant, 54

Cornish, Hannah (Mrs William), 44, 45, 46

Cornish, Mary, 45

Cornish, William, 43, 44, 45, 52, 53

Cornish’s Cottage, 53

Cotham, Father James, 17

Cotham, Lawrence, 52

Cousins, Phil, 37

cricket, 20, 21, 26

Cullen, William, 18

Cunningham, Margaret, 17

Cunningham, Michael, 18

Dale the water carrier, 26

Daniell, Captain ?, 30

Denton, James, 52, See Dunton, James

Devitt, Alf, 39

Devitt, Amelia. See Anderson, Amelia (Mrs Martin)

Devitt, John, 40

Devitt, Julia (Mrs John), 40

Dickson, Bassett, 51

Dickson, Henry, 37

Dodge, Ralph, 43

Dodge’s Ferry, 43

Douglas, Major ?, 11

Dumas, Captain ?, 14

Dunton, Florence, 25

Dunton, James, 25, 26, 27

Dunton, James Alfred, 25

Dunton, Mary Ann (Mrs James), 25, 26, 27

Eaglehawk Neck, 9

East Bay Neck, 11, 13

Eumarrah, 10

Eureka Rebellion, 46

Evans, Samuel, 47

Fagan children, 51

Fagan, ? (Mrs Michael), 51

Fagan, Michael, 31, 51

Fergusson, Peter, 10

Fielding, Anne (Mrs Robert), 55

Fielding, Robert, 55

Findlay, John, 11, 12

Fitzsimmons, Eliza (Mrs Richard), 53

Fitzsimmons, Richard, 53

foot-racing, 22

Gaby, Thomas, 52

Gard, Walter, 39

Gavin, Roger, 15

George Anderson’s Cottage. See Laurel Cottage

Geraldine Cottage, 48, 54

ginger beer, 7

Glen Ayr, 22, 51

Glover, Thomas, 44

Godfrey, Margaret (Mrs Peter), 55

Godfrey, Peter, 55

Goldie children, 27

Goldie, Francis, 27

Goldie, Mary Ann (Mrs Francis), 27

Gordon, James, 11, 12

Gracey, ?, 15

Grass Tree Hill Road Gang, 20

Green Ponds. See Kempton

Green, Bill, 36, 37, 38, 39

Gregory, Alice (Mrs John snr). See Wroe, Alice

Gregory, John snr, 50

Gregson, Thomas, 51, 52

Griffiths, Henry, 13

Guy, Benjamin, 14

Half Way Hill, 20

Hamilton, 26, 27

Hanna, Eliza, 22

Hannan, Miss ?, 17

Harris, Martin, 55

Hatfield, James, 22

hawkers, 38

Hawkes, Earnest, 40

Hayes, Catherine. See Moran, Catherine (Mrs Edward)

Herbert, Thomas, 52

Horsham, Mary, 13

Horsham, Private ?, 13

Horsham, Robert, 13

Hussey, ? (Mrs William), 51

Hussey, William, 51

inns

Bridge Inn, 11, 16, 33, 40

Commercial Hotel, 38

Glen Derwent, 24

Jolly Farmer, 16, 32

Prince of Wales, 16, 53

Richmond Inn, 52

Union Hotel, 16, 30, 32, 51, 52, 53

Inverquarity, 51

Irish people, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 24, 32, 46, 51, 53

Irish Town, 16, 31, 32, 39, 51, 52

Jacobs, Philip, 21, 22

Jameieson’s Cottage. See Geraldine Cottage

Jamieson, James, 48, 52, 54

Jamieson’s Cottage, 48, 53

Jerusalem, 11, 23, 29, 53

Jones, Jeffrey, 55

Joseph, George, 38, 39

Kate, 6

Keady, Patrick, 45, 53

Kearney, William, 14, 43

Kelly, Mary (Mrs Robert), 52, See Cornish, Mary

Kelly, Reg, 54

Kelly, Robert, 45, 52

Kelly’s Farm, 46

Kempton, 26, 27

killings, 10, 11

King, Alf, 7, 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43

King, George, 38

Kingston, 20, 47

Knight, Edward, 33

Larnder, William, 43

Lauderdale, 47

Laurel Cottage, 39, 54

Leils, Thomas, 47

Lester, Bill, 38

Lisson, Adam, 32, 46, 47, 51, 52

Lisson, Elizabeth (Mrs Adam), 32, 46

Little Jack. See Netherwood, John

Lloyd, G.T., 11

Malcolm’s Huts Road Station, 20

Marchant, ?, 22

Marengo Estate, 37

Margate, 47

Maria Island, 24

Mason children, 43

Mason grant, 54

Mason, Charlotte, 43, 44, 50

Mason, Eliza (Mrs Samuel), 43, 44

Mason, Ellen, 43, 44

Mason, John Walter, 43, 44

Mason, Samuel, 43, 44, 51, 53

Mason, Sarah, 43, 44

Mason’s Cottage, 53

McCullagh, Mary (Mrs Simon), 32

McCullagh, Simon, 32

McCulloch, Anne (Mrs Simon), 16

McCulloch, Mary Ann, 17

McCulloch, Simon, 16, 52, 53

McCullugh, Simon. See McCulloch, Simon

McDougall, Lindsay, 55

McDougall, Sue (Mrs Lindsay), 55

McGowan, Anastasia (Mrs James), 32

McGowan, Honora, 17

McGowan, James, 16, 18, 32, 53

McGowan, Mary, 17

McLoughlin, Thomas, 13

Medlar, William, 46

military

01st Madras Regiment, 45

09th Regiment, 31, 51

11th Regiment, 47

21st Regiment, 16, 21

22nd Regiment, 46

36rd Regiment, 8

46th Regiment, 45

63rd Regiment, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

68th Regiment, 46

73rd regiment, 16

97th Regiment, 43

99th Regiment, 43, 48

Auckland Militia, 14

Royal Artillery, 49

Royal Marine, 51

Sappers and Miners Regiment, 30, 34

military pensioners, 16, 31, 32, 40, 43, 45, 46, 48, 51, 52, 53

Mill Cottage, 6, 7, 8, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 40, 41, 55

Millers Cottage, 7, 28

Montrose Cottage, 54

Moran children, 18

Moran, Annie Ada, 28

Moran, Arthur Ernest, 28

Moran, Bridget, 7, 15, 19, 23, 26, 27, 29, 48

Moran, Bridget (Mrs Thomas), 28

Moran, Catherine, 48

Moran, Catherine (Mrs Edward), 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 28, 31

Moran, Catherine (Mrs William), 28

Moran, Catherine 3, 22

Moran, Catherine jr, 15

Moran, Charles, 8, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 28, 29, 52, 53

Moran, Charles Connell jnr, 28

Moran, Edward, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 39, 45, 52, 53, 54

Moran, Edward 2, 22

Moran, Eleanor, 15, 19

Moran, Florence Lillian, 28

Moran, Isabella Margaret, 28

Moran, Kate, 7, 17, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, See Moran, Catherine jr

Moran, Margaret (Mrs Charles), 28, 29

Moran, Maria. See Moran, Mary Ann

Moran, Mary Ann, 6, 15, 17, 31, See Dunton, Mary Ann (Mrs James)

Moran, Mary Ann 2, 22

Moran, Richard Thomas, 28

Moran, Rose Helena, 28

Moran, Thomas, 12, 28, 29

Moran, Thomas 2, 15, 17, 19

Moran, William, 8, 9, 15, 17, 19, 27, 28, 30

Moran, William 3, 22

Moran’s Cottage, 19, 45

Moran’s Cottage. See Montrose Cottage

Moren, Edward. See Moran, Edward

Morin, Edward. See Moran, Edward

Mounted Police, 10, 11, 15

Mt Rumney, 20

Murphy, Daniel, 16, 33

Murphy, Patrick, 11

Muster Ground, 10

Native Corners, 46, 50, 51, 53

Netherwood, John, 19, 20

New Town Farm, 48

Nicholls, J. H., 52

Nichols, ? (Magistrate), 21

Nickols, Elizabeth, 23

Noonan, Bridget. See Moran, Bridget (Mrs Thomas)

Norfolk Island, 30, 49

Nugent Farm, 25

O’Keefe, David, 18

O’Keefe, Michael, 18

Oatlands, 11, 44, 52

Ogilvy, David, 51

Parramore, Owen, 54

Penrice, 43

pensioner guards, 30

Peppercorn Gallery, 6, 7, 55

petitions, 17, 24, 25, 52

Polding, Bishop John Bede, 16

Poole, Ann (Mrs Joseph), 20

Poole, Anne. See Shelverton, Anne (Mrs George)

Poole, Joseph, 20

Port Arthur, 9, 20, 24

Price, John, 49

Prospect House, 7

Protestants, 24, 26, 27, 29, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53

Pt Puer, 21

Quin, Mrs Jean, 54

Redding, Ellen (Mrs William). See Mason, Ellen

Redding, Richard, 43, 44

Redding, William, 44

Reid, Thomas, 39

Reynolds, ? (Mrs Roderick), 47

Reynolds, Roderick, 47, 52

Richmond Bridge, 11, 14, 43

Richmond Gaol, 10, 14, 44

Richmond Races, 22

Riley, Thomas, 45

Robertson, Gilbert, 10, 15, 43

Rose, John, 23

Roslyn, 15, 22

Ross, Simon, 52

Rows, Thomas snr. See Wroe, Thomas snr

Sampson, ? (Mrs ?), 54

Schaw, Charles, 21, 51

schools

Campania, 55

Catholic, 18, 40

Dame, 53

private girls, 23

public, 47

Searle daughters, 23

Searle, ? (Mrs ?), 23

Shaw children, 47

Shaw, Arthur, 47, 54

Shaw, Bessie (Mrs Arthur), 47, 54

sheep, 11, 12

Shelverton, Annie May, 26

Shelverton, George, 26

Shelverton, Georgina Lester, 23

Shelverton, Kate (Mrs William), 26, 29, See Moran, Kate

Shelverton, William, 26, 29

ships

Alice, 9

Blenheim, 43, 46

Coringa Packet, 46

Eliza 4, 30, 31, 43, 45, 47, 49

Lady Leigh, 49

Lord Goderich, 21

Maria Soames, 43, 48

Medway 2, 19, 20

Minerva, 15, 16, 17, 18, 32

Wave, 8

Simpson, Mary Ann. See Goldie, Marie Ann (Mrs Francis)

Smith O’Brien, William, 24, 53

Smith, Thomas, 50

soldiers, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 30

Sorell, 11, 12, 20, 26

Sparkes, William, 27

St John’s Cemetery, 12, 15, 34, 48

St John’s Church, 12, 15, 16, 17, 26, 40

St Luke’s Cemetery, 12, 13, 34, 44, 51

St Luke’s Church, 26, 45, 50

steam flour mill, 26

Stoney Creek tribe, 10

Styne family, 18

Tasmanian Aborigines, 10, 11

The Carlton, 13

The Old Place, 54, See Carey’s Cottage

trades

blacksmiths, 7, 36, 37, 38

bootmakers, 7, 9, 19, 20, 28, 29, 30, 32, 40

brewers, 33

bricklayers, 51

builders, 7, 37, 52

butchers, 47

carpenters, 6, 20, 37

charcoal burners, 38

coach-builders, 6, 37

coach-painters, 38

coopers, 7, 30, 33, 34, 36

dressmakers, 6, 7, 9, 23, 26

embroiderers, 7, 23

iron-founders, 46

javelin men, 44

laundresses, 49

millers, 7, 23, 26

millwrights, 10

ostlers, 33

plasterers, 51

shoemakers, 27, 39

stonemasons, 52

tailors, 46, 48

undertakers, 7

wheelwrights, 6, 7, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

Travers, Catherine. See Moran, Catherine (Mrs William)

Ulmer, Kurt, 6, 55

Ulmer, Shirley (Mrs Kurt), 6, 55

Villeneuve Smith, William, 51

Vine Cottage, 44

voting, 51

Wallace, Laurence, 18

Wharton, Pymbar, 27

Whelan, Frances (Mrs John). See Wroe, Frances Eliza

Whelan, John, 50

White Kangaroo Rivulet, 10, 15, 29

White, ?, 15

Wiggins, Arthur, 54

Williams, W, 21

Willson, Bishop Robert William, 17, 18

Wilson, William, 21

windmill, 7, 10, 23, 28

Woodburn, 15, 16, 51

Woolford, Billy, 54

Woolford, Louise, 54

Woolford, Mercy, 54

Wright, Cyril, 54

Wright, Walter, 39

Wroe grant, 54

Wroe, Alice, 50

Wroe, Charlotte (Mrs Thomas jnr), 50, See Mason, Charlotte

Wroe, Eva, 50

Wroe, Frances (Mrs Thomas snr), 49, 51

Wroe, Frances Eliza, 50

Wroe, Samuel, 49, 51

Wroe, Thomas jnr, 44, 49, 50

Wroe, Thomas snr, 44, 49, 51, 53

Wroe’s Cottage, 53

Young, Randel, 26

 

 

Life of Angus Downie

The Life of Angus Downie

by Angus Downie

Edited by Rob MacFie for publication

Angus (Gus) Downie was born in 1946.

For much of his life Gus and and his wife Irina lived at Riverton, a 35-square home near Huonville Tasmania and had one son, Andrew. Throughout his adult life Gus, in the main, held two separate career lines. The first was professional and the second, working for the community on a voluntary basis.

Educated at the old, academic, Hobart High School between 1956 and 1960, Gus accepted a position as Junior Parliamentary Officer with the Tasmanian Legislative Council. He had planned to study at the University of Tasmania on a part-time basis from 1962 while combining it with Legislative Council work. If that had emanated, Gus would have risen to the senior post of Parliamentary Clerk either in Tasmania or with the National or an Interstate Parliament.

However, a road accident in March of that year resulted in Gus breaking his spine and being confined to a wheelchair for life. As that ended his planned career and university study due to the lack of wheelchair access, Angus took a junior position, in 1963, with the former Public Works Department (PWD) where he remained until 1973.

There was no MAIB (Motor Accident Insurance) or other financial assistance in the mid-1960s when Gus’ medical costs were horrendous. Instead, after the accident he rejected the pressing advice to accept a life pension and vowed to find work (within the PWD) and pay his own way while contributing to society by paying taxes. To assist with the lack of mobility Gus saved and bought his first – modified – new car. This proved to be a saviour.

To offset the lack of job satisfaction with the PWD, Gus threw himself into various community activities “out of work hours“. These began with sporting administration via the Buckingham Rowing Club during its peak period of rowing domination (and with whom he had previously rowed), and subsequently various positions at a State rowing level. Angus also became a radio announcer for rowing regattas in various parts of Tasmania.

From 1963 he also threw himself into voluntary work for the Tasmanian Paraplegic Association (founding secretary) and as a member of the Australian Paraplegic Council. Despite early setbacks, the Tasmanian Association by 2002 evolved to become the million-dollar business and activist body known as ParaQuad Tasmania.

In 1968, and while still with the PWD, Gus joined the Australian Journalists’ Association and, again on a casual basis, began night work as a Freelance Journalist for The Mercury, The Australian, National Review and The National Times.

At the same time Gus continued with the disability movement, becoming the first President of the Tasmanian Association of Disabled People, and represented the Tasmanian Government at an international disability conference in Hong Kong. This was followed by a month’s study tour of disability-related facilities and government meetings in other South-East Asian countries.

Thus began a lifetime learning curve about issues affecting disabled people and provided the platform upon which Gus made many national and international contributions. For example, Angus’ work in the PWD with architects and contact with Standards Australia initially lead to the first Australian Buildings Standard applying to public building access for disabled people (AS 1428). This was written and trialed in Tasmania.

(Much later Gus involved himself further by ensuring total access – at the design stage – of the new National Parliament, and also convinced Canberra to modify all Embassies and High Commission buildings.)

Late that year (1968), Gus was surprised to learn that he was to become the first Young Australian of the Year in 1969. This was initiated by Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper, The Australian, and QANTAS, and in turn, this again lead to more travelling and disability-related studies and conferences in India, Germany, the U.K., Ireland and the United States.

Whilst in New York in 1969 Gus was offered a key position with a United Nations N.G.O. (then the International Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled). This would have involved moving to New York with extensive travelling backwards and forwards to South America and South-East Asian countries. Gus turned down this offer for personal reasons and that, at the age of only 26, he felt he was too inexperienced.

Back in Tasmania, Gus continued with the P.W.D., was seconded by the Health Minister, the late Merv. Everett, as his part-time disability adviser, and maintained these due roles with Everett’s successor, the late Dr. Alan Foster. Dr Foster urged Angus to “spread his wings” by using his knowledge further afield. Eventually, in late 1973, Gus decided to leave the PWD – in spite of warnings that he would lose job security – was married – and launched out as a full-time journalist.

That decision resulted in his departure from all rowing attachments and much of the work  under-taken in the disability area.

However, the next three years saw Angus joining a small partnership and the launch of “Weekly Review,” a small “insider” newsletter about Tasmanian politics, industrial relations and the business and commercial sectors. It was the first of its type in the state, lasted for three years, and broke a number of “big” stories.

This period saw Angus’ continuance with the newspapers mentioned above, plus London’s Daily Telegraph, on-air radio work for the Macquarie Broadcasting Service via 7HO and the research, writing and publication (on contract) of two historical booklets. Late 1975 also saw the joint purchase with Gus’ late wife, Irena, of their home referred to above.

In 1976, Gus was asked to join The Examiner Newspaper as a senior political, industrial and investigative journalist, and where he ‘broke’ the majority of the major stories over the next period of his busy life. These included all the big cabinet, political, public service, trade union, forestry and environmental issues plus the emergence of the “Green” movement.

After only 18 months, Angus was quickly rising through the ranks and in 1977 won the inaugural and prestigious “Keith Welsh Award” for Tasmania’s “most out-standing Journalist of the Year.”

At that time there seemed to be few challenges left and in 1981 Gus took his family on an extended 3-months holiday, driving and exploring Canada, some 26 of the American states and returning after visiting the Greek islands where Irena had relations.

Unfortunately that was when health problems began. On returning to Australia, Angus ended up in a Melbourne hospital for major surgery. Then, after returning to work (November 1981), he realised that the “big Tasmanian issue” of the day, the Franklin River and Dam, had not advanced further since his departure. However, that quickly came to a head on his  discovering a financial error in the State Government’s financial calculations and its “planting” of a misleading story in the public domain, coupled with a deep split on the issue inside the Caucus.

In the period between 1982 and 1989, both Irena – a teacher – and Gus had lengthy periods of illness and on-going surgery that resulted in Angus’ resignation from The Examiner to care for her after she was eventually diagnosed in 1988 with an inoperable brain tumor. She died in November 1989. After this serious turn of events Angus lost any interest in writing which had always been his first love. Gus was at a loss about his future.

However, immediately prior to Irina’s death, the then Federal Government approached him to resume a new advisory role between the Government and the national disability movement that, while it still had divisions, was by then a more mature organisation.

Angus accepted the position on a part-time basis until late 1991, when he was again asked to lead a small team of disabled people to examine and write a report with recommendations about how Australia could ensure that in future, all public transport could be made easily accessible for all people with mobility problems, including those in wheelchairs, and a fast approaching ageing society.

From his previous overseas study trips, Angus was aware that the U.K. and U.S.A. had also been trying to solve the same issue with mixed success. Fortunately, Gus already had some informed ideas based on the previous visit to Europe.

It was just the fresh challenge Angus needed and so he accepted the position.

Then much later, in early 1993, After he was committed, there was a change to a Government that was less enthusiastic about the project. Gus found that the new Government was prepared to offer office space for a national secretariat, some staff assistance, telephone and computer services, and some small expenses but not pay a salary.

By this time an interim report had been submitted while a separate committee auspiced by the Federal Department of Transport (on which Angus was a committee member) had also been established to undermine Angus’ work and eventually fail.

He had been lucky to have strong allies in the Federal Labor minister (Laurie Brereton) and his then Coalition successor (John Sharp), who both agreed with the need to dispense with the “bureaucratic committee” and let his work proceed. However, this was still on an unpaid basis.

Gus continued with these tasks, starting with a massive literature search, national surveys and the conduct of the first of three separate consultation visits to each state and territory. Meetings took place in all capital cities and also in major regional centres. There were also some 15 separate industries conferences and meetings with their officials present, in all states and territories.

The 500-page report was completed single-handedly, and published and launched in September 1994. This was later followed by its adoption and a request by a Perth meeting of the Transport ministers’ Australian Transport Council (ATC) that Angus work with a senior NSW transport bureaucrat and his personal staff to implement the recommendations by writing the National Standards. Again, Angus agreed to the request.

In addition to the National Standards, Gus held many separate one-on-one ministerial meetings, lead two more capital city and regional centre consultative meetings in each state and territory, attended and addressed three international conferences (Florida, Perth and London), conducted an aviation seminar in Canada, and met with Volvo’s senior design engineer who was seconded to head a separate Development Company in Sweden. This latter meeting and vehicle inspections proved most beneficial.

Eventually the Australian Standards were completed and were enshrined in Federal legislation in November 2002, winning world-wide acclaim (notably in the USA and UK) for their simplicity and flexibility.

In 1994 Angus Downie was made an AM (Australia Medal) for his contributions in Journalism, Community Service and notably the blueprint Transport report.

Further, in 2002 Gus received a special “Top Achievers Award” for his work that will ensure that all public transport will become accessible over four, five-year phases, with the completion deadline of 1st January 2023. (Editor’s note 2022: has this been completed or near accomplished?).

By the end of 2002 Angus had returned to research and some writing after a forced period of semi-retirement brought about by exhaustion. During this interim period Gus researched and wrote a detailed synopsis for one historical book while two or three more were planned. This is the point at which Gus’s biography ended

Angus died 30th October 2010. The love of his life, Irena, predeceased him on 29th November 1989.

__________________________________________________________________________

Peter MacFie asked his brother Rob in 2022 to add this summary of Gus Downie’s life to Peter’s website to check how far we have come with disability services and access.

It has been based on Gus’s own unpublished biography, written in 2002 when he was aged 62.

Edited by Rob MacFie in discussion with Peter MacFie in January 2022.

Lifelong friends – Peter Brand, Angus (The Dook) Downie and Peter H. MacFie. Photo taken near The Studio at Peter MacFie’s Dulcot cottage. Photograph by Christopher Cowles © 2006. 
ALP Christmas Function 6 December 2003. Gus Downie (The Examiner) with reporter journalist Wayne Crawford (The Mercury)
Gus Downie was Best Man at wedding of Lorraine Burns to Peter MacFie at St Aidans Church, Lindisfarne, on December 1967. From left, Gus, Rob, Peter, Lorraine, Sally Burns and Monica MacFie (née Wastell). The wedding ceremony was conducted by Gus’s father, Canon Downie.
Rowing teams at Hobart High School. Gus Downie front row, right.

Rowing Crews

Back row – G. Taylor, J. Berry, T. Leitch

Fourth row – A. Calvert, D. Collis, A. Oakham, G. Minchin

Third row – P. Stevens, P. Storr, P. Dorney, W. Lowe

Second row – T. Dowe, L. Reid, D. Salter, P. Van Schie, R. Watts, Mr M. Poole

Front row – J. Moore, I. Winter, C. Collis, G. Little, A. Downie

Peter MacFie’s invitation to Gus’s 21st Birthday Party.
Angus Downie at his home, Riverton in Huonville, with his Brother Tim Downie.
Peter MacFie visiting grave of Gus Downie and Irena Downie

In Memory of Angus Downie AM

Advocate for the Rights of the Disabled, political journalist and activist, writer, commentator, supporter of minority groups, adviser to State and Federal Committees and close friend of Peter and Rob MacFie.

Gus Downie ‘breaking’ a news story, outside Peter and Raine MacFie’s house in Park St, New Town, prior to their moving to Dulcot in 1971.

Life of Gus Downie, by Gus

Musings on Gus’s abilities with politicians, by Peter O’Keefe

‘The Newsprint’ – A Social and Forestry History of Maydena

The Newsprint‘ – A Social and Forestry History of Maydena. An Experimental Logging Town in the Tyenna Valley, Tasmania. 1920 – 2020

by Peter H MacFie

Abstract

Australia faced WWII totally dependent on imported paper. This is the tale of Government determination to become self sufficient, using the massive eucalypt forests from the high rainfall areas of southern Tasmania. Australian Newsprint Mills (ANM) developed a mill at Boyer, near New Norfolk on the Derwent River, and built a town at Maydena and an industry to feed the mill from the forests of the Tyenna Valley, the Styx Valley and then the Florentine Valley. Peter MacFie interviewed more than a hundred of the many people who worked or lived at Maydena and surrounding areas to tell the story of ANM and their forest Concession. It began as a dense wilderness that produced urgently needed paper at any cost through World War II and on through many changes until today the mill is fed on carefully maintained rapidly growing plantation timber from those same wet valleys. Three generations of many families worked for ANM, and here they tell their story in their own words.

Details

397 A4 pages, 157 photographs, 9 maps & charts, plus footnotes, bibliography and detailed index.

Front and Back Cover Design for ‘The Newsprint’—A Social and Forest History of Maydena by Christopher Cowles © 2020.

Purchase

This book is now available direct from Lulu.com through ‘Print on Demand’.

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Bookstores carrying this book

Fullers Bookshop

131 Collins St, Hobart Tas 7000, ph 03 6234 3800

Cracked & Spineless

138 Collins St, Shop 9, Imperial Arcade Hobart, TAS 7000, ph 03 6223 1663

The Hobart Book Shop

22 Salamanca Square, Hobart TAS 7000, ph 03 6223 1803

The Book Cellar

132 High St, Campbell Town TAS 7210 ph (03) 6381 1545

New Norfolk Newspower

48 High St, New Norfolk TAS 7140, ph 6261 2720

Petrach’s Bookshop

89 Brisbane St, Launceston TAS 7250, ph (03) 6331 8088

 

Any other retailers who are interested in this book are invited to use the ‘Contact’ point on this website and we will be in touch.

Contents Page

Go to the Contents Page

Index

Go to the Index Page

Sample Chapter: 3 – Top of the Valley

Go to the sample chapter

Libraries Tasmania

Libraries Tasmania Catalogue – ‘The Newsprint’