Archibald Henry McVicar- early adulthood in the Avoca District

Their children were

Archibald Alan 18/7/1891 - 9/4/1967, known as Archie, started school at Avoca in July 1898, when his father was a farmer at Moore's Flat, went to the Great War, and in 1921 married Olive O. 23/4/1900-9/8/1979.

Evelyn Maggie 26/1/1894 - 29/3/1969, started school at Avoca in August 1898, married Harry Mossop, farmed at Underbool, and later at Bullarto, near Daylesford

Annie Isabel 21/4/1896 at Bung Bong -7/3/1987,  started school at Avoca in January 1902, married Bruce Johnstone, later Bill Telford, shop keeper in Ouyen and ?

Florence Margaret 18/10/1901 at Avoca, always known as ‘Bob’, started school at Avoca April, 1907,  married Tom Hastings, farmer, at Underbool. Died in the Maryborough Hospital 23/2/1927 following childbirth at Underbool on 18/1/1927.

John William 20/1/1904 at Avoca - 29/7/1971, started school in April 1910, never married. Farmer at Underbool.

Pearl Millicent Frances 10/1/1908 at Avoca – 10/11/2007, started school April 1913, married Alec M.

Selwyn Martin Hoy 17/4/1912 at Avoca - 25/8/1993, married Alma R. of Underbool. Farmer at Underbool.

Malcolm Lachlan, 21/6/1914 at Avoca - 26/12/1992, went to the Second World War, was captured on Crete by the Germans, married Lorna Mitchell of Clunes.

Archibald is listed as having two titles of land in the Avoca Parish, and his wife had one.

On 21/4/1886, his horse 'Cantab', jockey, Glover, won the Hack Race at Avoca. Glover was possibly Jack Glover, his 18-year-old future brother in law, or Jack’s brother, Sam. who was two years younger.

When Bung Bong School was under threat of closure, the two oldest children, Archibald and Evelyn, were listed as "children who will attend in the future", but the school closed in 1894.

For a time Arch was in partnership with his brother in law Samuel Glover. We know it was Sam from a newspaper report of litigation which involved the partnership in 1896. The photograph below is currently problematic.  It has been labelled in recent times as " Farm, Bung Bong, 1896. Sam & Will Glover, and Duke (the horse)". However, there is belief that the 16 year old Will, who grew to be a very tall man, would have been taller than the chap on the right in the photo.

Many of Arch's business records have survived. For instance, we know that on March 1, 1897, Arch paid J. Henderson for 4 slippers for each of Bose and Tommy, 4 removes and shoes for Judge, and four shoes for each of Tommy and the Black Mare, and another slipper for Tommy.  On 26 April, he paid Henderson for repairs to the Buggy, four shoes for Tommy and four slippers for the Chestnut mare, for a total of 10 pounds 9 shillings.

We also know that on 5/6/1897 Archibald Henry McVicar gained his Certificate of Service as Engine Driver, Second Class, i.e. up to a total cylinder size of twelve inches, which would have authorised him to drive a traction engine.

Arch joined the Avoca MUIOOF in 1896

On 31/3/1897 Arch was owner and jockey of 'Little Tommy', which ran in the Stewards Cup and Selling Race.

In the 1901 Post Office Commercial Directory, Arch is listed as a farmer of Avoca.

On 5/3/1902 he was owner and jockey of ‘Buttercup’ which ran in the Hack Race, and of 'The Loon', which ran in the Half Mile Handicap. In 1903, he was owner and jockey of 'Midnight', which won the Hack Race. 

Arch and Maggie's House. 

We know that the house in the photos below was demolished in 2019, on its site on land previously owned by Arch and Maggie, near the Avoca Amphitheatre Road, right in Avoca.  The then owner, now deceased, said that as a young boy it had been moved from another location further out of town.   The location of this, unfortunately, was not established. His story  may be reduced in credibility by Pearl's story that she and her sister Florrie had walked from the house to their Glover grandmother's house  near the railway line, a relatively short distance.  Perhaps the Rate books may provide more information. 

Arch's niece, Dory McVicar, related that the kitchen at this house had a ledge around it so wide that she was told that Annie as a child  used to get up and walk around it. Annie was also the teamaker of the family and was pressed into service whenever needed.  The tradition has continued into my own family, where at least one child knows what an exclamation of "Annie!" means :)

Growing family, growing needs -what were the options for more land? 

Arch's mother-in-law, Margaret Hoy, Mrs Smyth, later  Glover, then Robarts, had a brother, Thomas Hoy, in Pennsylvania, USA, a childless and financially wealthy man.  It is thought, due to some shipping records, not quite precise enough to confirm,  that he had visited his sister, then Mrs Glover, at The Plough Inn, at Bung Bong, in 1875, for several months when Maggie was only a year old. A major piece of evidence are copies of his photo portrait which were produced in Maryborough, but whether the photos were taken there or only copied from an original sent from the USA is unknown.   

Thomas Hoy died in 1906.  Even after the building of his marble mausoleum, a mock Greek temple with bronze doors and stained glass interiors, in the Mount Moriah Cemetery outside Philadelphia, his estate was considerable. He left a lifetime interest in his estate to his widow, Nancy, with the estate to be eventually distributed to relatives and friends around the world. Significant amounts were to come to his sister Margaret in Avoca and smaller amounts to each of her five children, including Arch's wife. 

Over some time, the numerous beneficiaries struck a deal with Nancy, for more funds to flow immediately, and less overall. His now stripped and vandalised mausoleum can often be seen on Mount Moriah Cemetery sites.  On 1/5/2013, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AperFenOAKE it was possible to see the Mausoleum at points 8.00, 8,21, 11.00 and 14.15 in the video.  it is also frequently seen, looking increasinly less unloved on Monument Hill, on Facebook page "The Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery",

Have money, will look for land!

The railway line from Ballarat, (via Maryborough and St Arnaud) towards the Murray River at Mildura, reached Ouyen in 1903. A branch was planned to extend west to Murrayville, running through not yet close-Euro-settled Mallee scrub land. This was the first time in rural Victoria that a railway was built in order to settle, rather than to later to service established settlements.  From Ouyen, the line reached Underbool in December 1910, for goods trains only, (with passengers in the guard's van).  (It opened for passenger trains in June 1912). 

From 1910, large advertisements appeared in newspapers, inviting people to apply for land along this branch line.  Arch, now in his late forties, travelled to the Underbool district to see this land. How he travelled there is unknown. A second class single rail fare from Avoca was over a pound, but perhaps intended settlers were given discounts.  More research is needed.

 Arch, looking to the future, applied for a block opposite the planned location of a railway siding between Nyang, now Torrita, and Underbool. Unfortunately the siding has never eventuated. Once this first "block" (square mile) had been approved, Arch and his son Archie moved there to begin settlement by clearing the land, building rudimentary facilities, especially for water, and planting a crop.

In November 1911, Arch placed a large advertisement in The Avoca Free Press and Farmers and Miners Journal announcing "To stand this season at the owner's farm, Avoca, and travel the surrounding districts (is) the pure bred Clydesdale stallion, DAN HERO". The horse was descended from some of the most famous Clydesdale stock in the state, if not Australia, which had been brought from Scotland by James Crawford of Malmsbury.  Given that Arch by then was probably at Underbool, it is not known who was to manage this, perhaps one of his Glover brothers-in-law.

On 27/9/1912 Arch's niece, Elsie Brown, wrote the following postcard to her aunt Janet McVicar, who was teaching school at Granite Hill, via Lexton.