Albert
This is an essay by Don Hein which appeared in one of his Chronicles on Albert, youngest child of JAL Hein.
![[Albert]](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/W7U5nzzlM7aTGYLS0_L4yYAa4V_vW6kJWMSOwNrvWrTJ1cvxiWz6VH1XgidbvAyT_vkHSSFnE3mV9Pni95cbSxrZqSIaZTQW5vvIDCvb4is8hamt=w1280)
ALBERT RUDOLPH HEIN
Born 26 December 1874 in Hamburg, Germany – died 9 August 1960 (age 86) at Donovans near Mount Gambier.
Of the Emigrant Family, i.e. the parents Julius and Ida, and children August, Julius (known as ‘Lou’ to avoid confusion with his father and hereafter referred to as Lou), Ida, Martha, Albert, and Marie Meier, it is Albert who seemed most mundane. He was the youngest, just a little over 2 yrs. when he landed at Port Adelaide in 1877, never married, led a solitary existence later in life to the point of being hermitlike, and about whom little was known. He now rests in an unmarked grave in Mount Gambier cemetery (perhaps a condition we should do something about).
As our search for family information continues some surprising information on Albert has emerged. When he died most of his worldly chattels passed to Andrew (son of August who took over his property at Donovans on the Glenelg River near Nelson, close to the SA/Vic border). Among Andrew’s possessions was a number of studio photographs taken in Hamburg apparently of family members and relatives but only one, of Lou when he was about 7 or 8 (not long before the trip to Australia), is named. These are now in the care of Andrew’s nephew Kevin G. Hein and they will be discussed in a future Chronicle.
Recently, Barbara Duckworth (grand daughter of Martha Adele Hein) directed me to the National Archives (Canberra) on line where a treasure trove of information on Albert is to be found. There are about 45 photo images of correspondence mainly concerned with Albert’s struggle in 1939-41 to obtain citizenship as an Australian (what authorities of the day called ‘naturalization’). Years earlier, in 1889 August and Lou applied for and were granted citizenship, and ten years later in 1899 the parents August and Julius were granted Australian citizenship (they died in 1938 and 1925 respectively). However, no record has yet been found relating to the application or granting of Australian citizenship to either of the female children. More on that issue later.
At 65 years of age and in poor health Albert began to apply for the old age pension and after a couple of attempts his application of December 1939 was accepted for consideration. Soon after the Invalid and Old Age Pensions Office in Adelaide advised Albert that he was not eligible because at the time of the nationalization of his parents on 4 October 1899 he was 24. If he had been a minor when his parents became Australian he would automatically have become Australian as well. At the time of his application Albert knew he was the son of naturalized Australian parents (therefore British Subjects) so it is no wonder that it is recorded he was ‘surprised’ at learning his legal status as an ‘alien’. However, he set about applying for citizenship by (hand) writing to the Ministry of Interior, Canberra, advising them of his intention and asking for the application forms.
![[Alien]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/R-GCtOOLDqyMsh26UiOWY3lOSmuauY4utIrogLcwSCLHCvaZsQS8bOiVsb5xXnYqTBksMMwqko9QKYz_EBK4qxNnhyYeOnm70Cq98yE4neAwwIVv=w1280)
Albert obviously got help to complete the forms as they are typed and supporting letters were also sent. A Statutory Declaration was needed and notices stating the intention to apply had to be put in the local papers. Those appeared in The Border Watch on 12 March 1940 and the Naracoorte (sic) Herald on the 22nd. All applications for naturalization had to be vetted by the Department of Defense and their Military Intelligence Section (remember, war had just broken out; not a good time for Germans to be asking for citizenship). Some months later Albert was notified that naturalization would not be granted and (because of the war he was officially now an ‘enemy alien’. The issue was complicated by the fact that Albert had recently been fined for an offence under the Firearms Act (apparently an unregistered rifle he used to get rabbits). Albert’s five pounds application fee was returned!
That began a long exchange of correspondence. Further applications, letters of support, statements of character, endorsement by politicians, etc, followed. Mr. Pascoe then a councilor at Port MacDonnell continued his help and Ernest Allan Milstead, District Clerk , Thomas William Haig, shopkeeper, and Arthur John West, the local police officer all wrote one or more letters of support. In various ways they all described Albert as a true and loyal subject, and a land owner (he owned 40 acres at Cape Douglas where he lived).
To cut a long story short, Albert was eventually granted naturalization (on 29 May 1941) but was required to renounce his German citizenship and take an oath of Allegiance to the Queen (Victoria). Albert began to receive his pension, apparently just in time because he was described by others as being in poor health, living in a hut in isolation at Cape Douglas, and eking out subsistence by fishing and rabbiting. In late 1940 at the time of his application Albert described himself physically as being 66 yrs and 2 months old, 5’ 10’’ tall, with fair hair turning grey, and grey eyes. The rest of his life is better known. He sold his land at Cape Douglas and for some years lived in Port MacDonnel before moving to Donovans where he stayed for the rest of his days. For a while he lived in a boat shed of a friend before acquiring a double block of land where he built a house. Some of us can remember visiting him at each of his coastal and river locations.
The contents of the Canberra documents reveal many interesting facts about Albert’s life. For example, he claimed he could not speak, read or write the German language at the time of making his application. I know that when Julius (Lou) was living with us before his death in 1956 I asked him to teach me some German but he seemed to have little usage. This is an indication of how quickly these migrants committed their lives to their new country (and how quickly links to their homeland were eroded).
Lou and August obtained naturalization in early 1889, their certificates being signed by Tom Playford. Oddly the parents Julius and Ida delayed their application until 1899, ten years later. Nothing was done about Albert, probably in ignorance of the detail of the law, because Albert at 24 was not automatically covered as he would have been if he had been a minor (21). One of the Canberra records enigmatically (and ungrammatically) states ‘The remainder of Hein’s family were naturalized at the time of his parent’s naturalization but apparently Hein was too old at the time to be included’. As the two older sons were already naturalized and the girls were older than Albert the point of the statement is unclear.
RETURN TO GERMANY.
Based on the solid evidence of a travel document (in the possession of Kevin G Hein) that had been issued to August (Albert’s eldest brother) by the British Consul in Hamburg in 1889 (required for further travel in Europe) we knew at least he was in Germany in that year. That fitted a belief that the whole family had gone back to Germany in that year. A search of shipping departure (microfilm) records at the State Library revealed the family had in fact sailed back in two groups. On 27 May 1889 on board the Salier Ida 54, August 24, and Ida 18 left for Bremen (about 75km SW of Hamburg), and a month later on 24 June Julius 51, Marie Meyer (note change of spelling from `Meier') 33, Martha 16 and Albert 14 followed aboard the Hohenzollern. Lou was not with them as, for reasons not known, he had decided to stay home. This is certain because recently Jenny Hein (doing research for a MA thesis on early religious history) found a 14th November 1889 entry in the Sons of Temperance Pledge Book, Mount Gambier Pioneers Division, reading, J. H. G. (Julius Heinrich Gustav) Hein, age 21, resident at Ardno (just over the border in Victoria), labourer, single, born 8 Feb 1868 in Hamburg, Germany.
Two of the Canberra documents contain statements by Albert that refer to him returning to Germany for ‘nine months’ in 1889 ‘to visit his birthplace’ qualified by the statement ‘Visit to Germany was at age of 14 years with parents’. That was the same year the two eldest male children were naturalized in Australia, apparently done before the planned departure to facilitate return to Australia (although Lou did not actually go). Therefore, August travelled to Germany as an Australian (which explains why he needed to get additional British Subject travel documents in Germany). If August obtained citizenship to enable his return to Australia, what of the parents? We know they did not seek to become Australian citizens until 10 years later, so they must have travelled as German nationals. At the time Ida, Martha and Albert were minors so they remained under the German nationality of their parents.
BACK TO AUSTRALIA
At the time of their departure we might assume that August intended return to Australia, but did the parents as otherwise surely they would have obtained naturalization along with their sons? As we know from Albert’s claim they stayed in Germany for about 9 months; quite a long time. Had they intended to give up their Australian aspirations? Whatever the purpose of their return to Germany we know they did return, probably between May and July 1890. However, it appears that they did not return directly to Adelaide as they are unlisted in the Burdett Index of Adelaide arrivals, nor do they appear in the complete (microfilm) passenger lists between June 1889 and 1893. As the family (other than August and Julius) were German, some form of official documentation should exist (I am told everyone arriving in Australia was recorded). Then if not Adelaide, what port did they come back into Australia? Was it possible that they shipped directly to Port MacDonnell? Information obtained so far suggests not, but Joan Barry raises the question of the Customs House operating at that time. I understand the role of the Customs House was to regulate interstate trade (pre-federation trade between states) and not as an immigration port.
In his application (1940) Albert stated that he had lived in Queensland. In fact, he said he had spent 20 years in South Australia, six in Western Australia and some unspecified time in Victoria and Queensland. As he had been in Australia for over 60 years he must have been in Queensland and Victoria for most of that time. We have yet to learn where and doing what but it is probable that he was with August and Lou in Queensland. In fact there is an intriguing family story of the whole family going to Queensland by dray and horses. We know that the three brothers went to Queensland and that August met and married Anne Graf (6 Oct 1894) near Roma, that Lou signed the marriage certificate as a witness, and Albert was probably there at the same time too, perhaps with the rest of the family.
So did the Hein family return from Germany to Queensland? That would explain why they do not appear on South Australian shipping records. But if so, why Queensland? That State did have a generous land settlement, and perhaps before they left Australia or while they were in Germany they were encouraged to seek their fortune there, perhaps to join relatives or friends. Whatever the reason we must presume the Queensland venture was not casual.
The Herschel made only one sailing from Hamburg to Adelaide (1876-77) but had made an earlier one Hamburg to Brisbane arriving 16 July 1874. It is possible that either the Heins already knew friends or relatives who had made the journey to Queensland before their own emigration, or that they learnt of such people being in Queensland when they were in Germany in 1889. If so, their trip (by whatever means) to Queensland a few years later (by whatever means) might be explained. Now the story becomes more mysterious.
In Brisbane, Les Hillberg (a friend of the Graf family and interested in the history of August Hein and his wife Annie Graf) searched shipping records to see if the Heins came to Queensland around 1889/1900. The only record he found was for an August Hein age 23 arriving on the Jumna at Rockhampton on 22 July 1889. Was this our August or was there another August Hein of the same age (actually a one year difference between the Salier and Jumna shipping lists) who went to Queensland. We know our August at some time before 1894 did go to Queensland because he married Suzannah ‘Annie’ Graf there in that year (with brother Lou as a certificate witness and possibly Albert was there too), but we do not yet know when and how?
August left Adelaide for Bremen, Germany, on 27 May 1889 aboard the Salier via Colombo (Ceylon), Genoa (via the Suez Canal), Southampton, and Antwerp, a journey of about two months. For him to arrive in Rockhampton on 22 July 1889, that is 2 months 5 days after his departure from Port Adelaide, he would have had to get off the Salier in Colombo and immediately board the Jumna sailing for Australia! We do not yet know whether the Jumna called into Colombo. If he jumped from the Salier to the Jumna what drove him? Had he already had contact with someone in Queensland?
But there is one very big problem with the rather romantic notion that August may have interrupted his trip to Germany to head for Queensland. On the 29 day of July 1889 (that is, 7 days after supposedly arriving in Queensland) August in Hamburg personally signed for a formal British Consulate document (equivalent to today's passport) to allow travel on the Continent! Either the Jumna arrival or the Consulate document signing event must be incorrect in some way. Whatever the fact, there is a fascinating story to be discovered! Les continues to look into the matter.
OVERLAND
The family story of the emigrant Heins going from Mount Gambier to Queensland overland is quite strong and details were passed down to children and grandchildren. It is said they travelled by wagon and horses and may have had some cattle and perhaps a milking cow or two, taking 13 months to complete the journey. It seems they took up land (160 acres?) at Sleepy Creek near Roma. In fact, it may have been the availability of free or cheap government land that decided the move to the area. A dirt floor cabin of logs was built and finished on the outside with netting plastered with clay. The area was remote and aborigines lived nearby. Livelihood included cutting railway sleepers, shooting koala bear for their skins, and farming. It is not yet known how long the family stayed in Queensland. Certainly August and Annie did as the first two (Gertrude Ruby and Ida May) of their seven children were born there.
Either together or in stages, they eventually returned to OB Flat, and for a while Mount Gambier was again home to our forebears. That was to change in the new century, particularly during the Great Depression which saw something of a Diaspora to Waikerie, Portland and Adelaide (more of that in future Chronicles).
To return to Albert; he stated in his application Albert spent six years in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, possibly on the gold fields. While in WA during the time of the WWI, Albert served (part time?) in the Australian Light Horse. The same records show that Albert also served in the Light Horse in South Australia, but despite vigorous search no additional information has yet been found.