Ships ahoy

This week I’m going all nautical on you. For the past couple of weeks, in my spare time, I’ve been helping my father on a project of his. It involves part of the shore of Corio Bay. So in the spirit of research and always one for a field trip, we went to a museum.

The museum we visited is the little known Geelong Maritime Museum. It’s in the “Stables” of Osborne House on the banks of Corio Bay in North Geelong. Osborne House itself is a pretty nice home indeed, built in 1858 for local squatter Robert Muirhead who variously held the Tea Tree Creek, Yarram Yarram, and Pollockdale stations between 1848 and 1859. He named the house after the recently built mansion, Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight in England, the palatial family “home” of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The Geelong version, just slightly more modest, was later held by the State Government, then Corio Shire, and finally the City of Greater Geelong. It’s now the home to this museum, the Geelong Vietnam Veterans Military Museum, and a few other community groups.

The museum is packed full of naval things – models, maps, photos, ropes, medals, books - pretty much anything and everything nautical. There are displays on the Cerberus and rooms full of memorabilia including a lot of military material as well as materials in relation to the Geelong Harbour Trust. Of particular interest to me were the old maps of the bay and immediate area as well as the details and information on “cutting the bar” across Geelong Harbour.

Probably not so well known now is the fact that at the time of settlement of Melbourne and Geelong there was a sand bar across the entry to the inner harbor of Geelong. This bar was a major impediment for Geelong, its growth and success. The implication of the bar was that it prevented larger ships from accessing the inner harbour of Geelong and therefore accessing the town directly. The bar had forced the creation of a pier at Point Henry and the loading and unloading of larger vessels there. From here goods needed to be transported overland around the bay to Geelong. The bay, known as a shallow harbour, required what became known as the “mosquito fleet” to transport and travel in and out.

There were a number of efforts from the time of settlement to do something about it but it was not until March 1861 that the bar in the harbour was cut for the first time. This of course was not the end to dredging in the bar for a second channel was cut and was completed in 1893. This channel, the Hopetoun Channel, was named after Lord Hopetoun, the Governor of Victoria at the time, who attended its opening in a rather grand ceremony on 20 December 1893. Today, Geelong has more channels than these and they are much wider and deeper but it was these first efforts and endeavours that opened her port and, therefore, the city of Geelong to the world.

Some of their maps in there were also quite interesting and I’m a sucker for a map these days. There’s been a number of different maps made of the bay and harbour, going as far back Matthew Flinder’s sketch in 1802 and Charles Grimes first real survey in 1803. Then there was of course that first attempt at British settlement at Sullivan’s Cove near Sorrento in 1803 and the exploration work that Tuckey did before they upped stumps and retreated to Van Diemen’s Land.

And some of their old machinery and gadgets were quite fascinating. They had a binnacle lamp from c. 1800, a wind direction and velocity recorder, a sea level recorder still intact with its float and recording drum. The museum also goes into some detail on the “Geelong Bay Trade” explaining how in the 1840’s and 50’s the main method of getting people, cargo and the mail between Melbourne and Geelong was by steamer. Nowadays we head up the Highway in our car or take the train but back then the horse and carriage was slow, unreliable, and at times dangerous as it was robbed quite frequently. No, the best way, for those of means and need was the regular steamers.

The first steamer on the route was one that I am very familiar with. Named the Aphrasia she was in service from as early as 1841. The Aphrasia was named after the wife of the founder of the Port Phillip Steam Navigation Company who was also owner of the Aphrasia. There is a lasting reminder of the steamer in Geelong these days, Aphrasia Street. Originally this street led to Aphrasia Cottage, the home of Henry Lawler, the captain of the Aphrasia.

Following our visit we commented that we were quite amazed with how much they had managed to assemble there and how little publicity it’s received in Geelong. Sure, it’s marked on the Princess Highway but given the bypass these days not everyone see it. Being a “specialized” museum they told me it’s not that well patronized but if you’re into all things nautical, or history, or Geelong it’s really worth a visit.

If you’re interested here’s some details:

Osborne House

http://www.geelongaustralia.com.au/directory/item/1928.aspx

http://www.osbornehousegeelong.org.au

And the one in England:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/osborne

Next time I’ll return to the subject of lost or forgotten trains – part 2 of the series.

Have fun out there.

Chris