Where they settled-long term

Mountain Hut, via Amphitheatre, via Avoca, Central Victoria, Australia

On 8 February 1859, The Maryborough & Dunolly Advertiser  reported that a rush had commenced to Mountain Hut, a narrow valley high on the south side of the Pyrenees Range.

Strangman reports that large numbers of people from Mountain Hut were part of the 3,000 rushing to Lamplough in 1859. It is not known whether the McVicar family were in Mountain Hut before they were at Lamplough, but it is very likely that, while they were running the Glasgow Store in Lamplough, they met many people with experience of the Mountain Hut diggings.  

In May 1862, the  fifth McVicar child, Evelyn Clara, was registered at Amphitheatre, not far from Mountain Hut. The records for Church of England baptisms for the area show that she was the first of eight McVicar babies to be baptised in the area.  The first had been baptised in Sydney, but whether three of the next four, Carolyn, James, and Florence were baptised, is unknown.  The last baby, Neil, lived only one day, so may not have been baptised. 

The child following Evelyn was Archibald Henry, born in December 1863.  He was registered at Mountain Hut itself, possibly because the locality was now large enough to warrant its own Registrar.  This was to be the McVicars' long term place of residence. It is not known why James and Janet, half a world away from Glasgow and London, and far from the sea and the world of books, eventually chose Mountain Hut to settle. There are many possible reasons and combinations of them!

 James’ work 

James Flett, in his The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria, p.447, stated, "...In 1864 McVicar applied for a reward for the discovery of the Glasgow Lead (in 1858), but was unsuccessful" (on the grounds that the Lead was only an extension of the previously discovered Malakoff Lead further up the valley - leading to what is now Landsborough. At the time, the news of the find included references to McVicar's party having previous experience at the Malakoff Diggings.)  

On 17 June 1865, the following schedule was filed in the Insolvency Court. “James McVicar, storekeeper, of Mountain Hut, Glenlogie. Causes of Insolvency: Falling off of business as storekeeper, bad debts, and pressure of creditors. Liabilities, ₤84/9/-, assets ₤60/8/1, deficiency ₤24/0/11." The Mountain Hut goldfield was no longer so attractive, and the population was moving on, some without paying their bills.

Early Schools at Mountain Hut

The official history of the Victorian Education Department, Vision and Realisation, now known to be still informative, but somewhat unreliable for some locations, has two references to Mountain Hut schools. Volume 2, p. 613, records, for Amphitheatre, "The earliest known school in the district was conducted at Mountain Hut, some five miles from the Amphitheatre goldfield. This closed in 1861".  Page 686 records, for Mountain Hut, "In 1858, a school was erected which functioned for two years. This building was claimed and removed in 1860 by the Wesleyans”. Given that the rush to Mountain Hut didn’t commence until 1859, the presence of a school there before that time is highly unlikely and I believe these two schools are really one.

 The Mountain Hut entry continues “Jane Piper opened a (replacement) school in April 1863”.  She was not certified, but formerly a teacher under the Denominational Board. “The slab building, with a bark roof and compacted clay floor, was built on (unsurveyed forest) Crown Land. The local contribution was 10 pounds. The average attendance was 40”, presumably including two McVicar children, Caroline 8 & James 6, and perhaps (Adelaide) Mary 5, and even Florence, 3. “The fees were 6 pence per week, and the warden made a grant.  Aid was applied for, but the Board reported on 27 August 1863 no funds available”.  Five McVicar children were listed as living 200 yards from the school, Caroline, 8, James, 6, (Adelaide) Mary, 5, Florence, 3, and Evelyn, 2. Another application for government aid dated 30/11/1863, was signed by, among other committee members, James McVicar, storekeeper. “It was a desperately poor community”.  In the roll dated 26 November 1864 for Common School No.134, Mountain Hut, (head teacher James Grant), the five eldest McVicar children, including 3-year-old Evelyn, are shown as very regular attenders. 

A better school for Mountain Hut

In 1867, a petition to have a funded school provided at Mountain Hut listed Caroline, James, Mary, Florence, Evelyn, (where was Archibald?) Eliza and George McVicar as children needing to attend such a school.  However, no building was available until 1868, when State School 780 officially opened on 25/2/1868 in a large building, formerly a store. Perhaps this was James McVicar's Store, now closed due to his  1865 bankruptcy. However, we can’t be sure because Margaret Oulton, in A History of the Shire of Lexton p.225, states that at some stage there were multiple stores in Mountain Hut, those of F. Clegg and S. Hughes, a butcher, James Edmonds, and perhaps more. Daily attendance at the new school averaged 46.  A site for a new school building was gazetted on 31 December 1868 and a “well built, painted and nicely furnished building” erected. How pleased the “desperately poor” Mountain Hut community must have been!

 On 31 July 1869, the "Avoca Mail" on page 2, reported. 

"The entertainment given in the new School-house at Mountain Hut, on the 22nd instant, was a very decided success in every way. The preparations made by the school committee master, mistress, and the residents of the picturesque valley were creditable in the extreme, and every comfort was ensured to visitors from a distance, of whom there mustered a large number, especially from the Amphitheatre. Over 200 tickets had been sold. The special feature offered for the evening was the delivery, by Mr John Cooke, of Avoca, of his lecture on " Superstitions," which commenced the proceedings —after an address at some length by Mr Robert Walker, of the Amphitheatre school, who was unanimously voted to the chair.

<snip>  The details of the lecture are available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article252153554 

The vocal part followed, each one essaying to do his best at the call of the chairman. This part of the programme consisted of a song by Mr Webber, "Brandy and Salt; Mr W. Jones, "My darling ould Schtick,"encored ; Mrs Lewis, " Kathleen Mavourneen" ; Mr Ferrers, "Music by the Moonlit Sea;" Mr Tindall, reading " Daniel versus Dishclout" ; Miss Neil,  "The Crystal Spring" Mr J. C. Smith, "The Lady and Bullock Driver" Mrs McVicar, "The Sad Sea Waves "; Mr Webber, "Dickey Dutton " ;Miss Hammond" The Sailor's Farewell to his Mother", Mr Smith " The Five Points of Love"; Song, Mr T. Baines" Molly Biwn"; old ditty by Mr Cooke " Why are you wandering here, I pray"; 

The usual votes of thanks were passed and acknowledged, and a large party of both sexes, after the room had been cleared of seats, &c,, commenced dancing to some good violin music. The characteristic music of the bagpipes was heard during the evening, and excited mingled and pleasing sensations. It is satisfactory to know that sufficient money was realized to complete the furnishing, fittings, &c. of the school-house."

A paid job and some of Janet's endurances

Average daily attendance at the school rose to 52.  On 23/8/1869 Janet was appointed Work Mistress, in charge of teaching sewing to all girls, and "other subjects to the juniors". By this time, Janet had had her father die after jumping from Waterloo Bridge London when she was a child, her brother George drown near that bridge after a boating collision, her first child born and die in Sydney in 1854, not long after arrival in Australia, her fourth child, Adelaide Mary, born 1858, showing increasingly severe intellectual disability, William, her older half-brother, who had been transported for 10 years for housebreaking & larceny,  die in a mining accident in 1861, and her husband declared bankrupt in 1865, (both of these in Mountain Hut).  Their eight other living children were Caroline (14), James (12), Florence (10), Evelyn (7), Archibald (5), Eliza  (3), George (2) and Alexander (6 weeks). One wonders at the strength of character of Janet, and the great deal of assistance which fell to 14 year old Caroline and ten year old Evelyn.

Fire destroys the new Mountain Hut School and its contents. 

Unfortunately, on 7/6/1870, only eighteen months after the school site had been gazetted, the school building and its contents were totally destroyed by fire. 

What a blow to the community! At a benefit the next month to raise funds to replace the destroyed school, The Avoca Mail reported that Mrs McVicar sang a duet, "I dreamed I dwelt in marble halls" with Mr. Von Oye, and a solo, "By the Sad Sea Waves"  The report continued, "Dancing was kept up until the grey dawn of morning began to appear", which, given that it was the middle of winter, meant it was quite a night. A new school was completed in 1871, a hardwood building 30ft x 18ft with a shingle roof, completed for 20% less cost than the previous building. Perhaps the authorities could see a decline in the population of Mountain Hut.

On 10/3/1871, School Inspector A. Hale Budd completed his report on the school's operation back as far as an application for aid, in December 1864. It is not happy reading, describing reports of mishandling of materials purchased for the first school building, and infighting amongst the local committee members, including the charge by the correspondent (to the Board of Education) that his fellow committee members were all too involved in alcohol. James McVicar, amongst others, was reported for "occasional inebriation" . An investigation by the inspector could find "nothing against McVicar" but he added "Like all men of their class, I doubt not that they drink occasionally" and went on to report "I would advise the Board not to interfere with these men..... unless (a new appointment) disturbs the balance of the denominations".  There was certainly infighting in this community. 

Janet's work position under pressure

On 7/8/1872, a petition for the "removal of Mrs McVicar as Work Mistress on the grounds of incompleteness and character" arrived at the Education Department Offices. However, on 27/11, the removal was not sanctioned "the District Inspector (Holland) having reported that the charges against her character have not been substantiated and that she is competent to perform the duties".  On 18/12, her eleventh child, Agnes Janet, was born.

Six inspections of her work as Mountain Hut School Work Mistress followed at regular intervals, usually finding that her work was "fair" or "competent", until the end of 1876, when Janet was to be "removed' on 31/12/1876, "owing to "reduction in allocation".  Enrolments had declined considerably, and the authorities gave notice that the school was to be unstaffed. In a petition, Janet stated she had five children attending - presumably Archibald, just turning 13, Eliza (11) George (9) Alexander (7) and Janet (4).  Whatever the reason, the school received a reprieve. On 6/8/1877, Janet was reinstated as Work Mistress, and in the following four years gained annual reports in the "fairly competent" to "satisfactory" range .

 In 1878, Jaimsie, aged 21, had a timber licence for an area in the hills behind Redbank,  He and Archibald (14), were camping there when Arch wrote the letter to his parents which family lore says was delivered over the Pyrenees to Mountain Hut by means of a cylinder or pouch attached to their dog’s collar.   Whether this was a regular means of communication or just a “one off” is unknown. The  story and the letter became part of The Australian newspaper's and Australia Post's contribution to the celebrations of the Centenary of Federation in 2001 and were later published in hard and soft copied editions of "Letters from our Heart" - a "million miles' from the simple, tough, uncertain, and often brief lives of people in the Pyrenees.  

 On on 18/2/1879, the twelfth child, John Angus, was born.  On 1/6, the sixth, Evelyn Clara, aged 17, commenced her first teaching post at nearby Greenhill Creek.  On  22/10,  the fifth, Florence Amy, died of typhoid, aged 19, and was buried in the Amphitheatre-Glenlogie Cemetery. James stated for her death registration that his occupation  was "a miner."

Janet's 13th child, loss of employment, unexpected first grand child, and the reactions. 

On 2/5/1881, the thirteenth child, Neil, was born to Janet, who was only a few weeks off 47 years.   Neil lived only one day and was buried in the Amphitheatre-Glenlogie Cemetery. On 31/5, Janet was again, "removed" as Work Mistress from the school, due to "reduced average attendance". This was to be the end of her employment with the Education Department of Victoria.

At around this time, Janet became aware that (Adelaide) Mary, now 23 and very intellectually disabled, was pregnant by someone unknown. Mary's son was born on 9 September 1881, named Leonard Graham McVicar, father not stated. Usually, in such situations, that space on the form was filled with "father unknown." It is not known whether leaving the space blank had any local significance. When Leonard was baptised, by a Church of England minister,  presumably it was the McVicars who offered the name of a local man as his father.

On 7/11/1881 Janet took that man to the Avoca Police Court for maintenance of Leonard. The case was dismissed on the grounds that Mary did not have the intellectual capacity to swear on the Bible and give reliable evidence. The Magistrate stated it was "one of the saddest cases" he had ever presided over.  Immediately, Janet applied for Leonard to be sent "to an Industrial School." These were increasingly discredited institutions which fortunately were being replaced by Wet Nurses and a system of government funded "Boarding out".  Leonard had 10 months with a good wet nurse in Collingwood, then fostering in Ballarat under the new "boarding out" scheme, with one of the younger generation of Hartnells and his wife., previously mentioned as probably known by the McVicars during their mutual time general storekeeping in Creswick. Locational and temporal evidence strongly suggests this. 

  DNA testing has now proven that the local man taken to court by Janet, or one of his close siblings, was the father of Leonard Graham, who became William Hartnell, and in adulthood William McVicar Hartnell.   

An unsigned one page history of the McVicar family, probably written by Alexander's daughter Dorothy in the 1980s, states that in 1885, Alexander was working at the DeCameron Station further towards Ararat, and that (at an unspecified period), Caroline Janet was also working there as a cook. It is unknown whether Janet followed Alexander to DeCameron, or vice versa, or they worked there at different periods. However, it is unlikely that Janet worked at DeCameron before or while she was working at the Mountain Hut School, so cooking at DeCameron Station was probably a later venture for her.

By 1883, the Mountain Hut School attendance had dropped to 6, a far cry from the 52 per day who had flocked to the new school only 14 years before. In the same year, the records for Classen's Furniture Store and Undertakers, Avoca show that on 12 December 1883, the McVicars bought a sofa for ₤2/-/-, a round table for ₤1/5/-, a pair of palliasses (straw mattresses) for ₤1/2/6, four chairs for ₤1/15/-, and a "waschstand" (Mr Classen's German spelling) for 18/-, total   ₤7/2/-. They paid off ₤7/-/- in six instalments over the next seven months, when the account seems to have been closed. Had James finally come across a larger amount of gold? Was Evelyn assisting with a contribution from her teacher's wages? Was this the result of Caroline's cooking at DeCameron Station? We’ll never know.

The end of the Mountain Hut School and its building removal. 

The Mountain Hut school closed on 22/6/1885, when Janet was 12 and Angus 6. It’s not known where they continued their education. It’s likely they transferred to Amphitheatre, but we can't be sure because the records for schools such as this which remained open aren't as complete as those for schools such as Mountain Hut, whose files were sent to central archives where they've been safely kept.  The empty school building didn’t remain in Mountain Hut very long. The Education Department history Vision and Realisation reports that it was transported to nearby Glenlogie to house a new school there, that it was soon in a bad state of disrepair, and that after being moved again c.1889 to make way for the railway line connecting Avoca with Ararat, it was sold to a T. McLaughlin in 1891 for 10 pounds.

 Note: A History of the Shire of Lexton (Oulton) records that the first school at Glenlogie, in 1885, was formerly a store used as a school at Mountain Hut. This looks to be the combining of three pieces of information 1) that before the first government school was built at Mountain Hut, the school was held in a hut, formerly a store, 2) when the government school burnt down, a hut, formerly a store - perhaps the same one - was used for a temporary school, 3) that the Glenlogie school building came from Mountain Hut.  However, this latter school building was not a/the hut/temporary school, but the later Mountain Hut school which had closed earlier in 1885 due to meagre enrolments.

 Later years for James and Janet. 

The Amherst Hospital records for 1886 show that on 19 June 1886 Janet McVicar was admitted there, aged 51, and was discharged on 7 July. This age aligns with her London birth record.

According to the map in the Mountain Hut School files, the McVicars lived just above the flat at the top end of the Mountain Hut road, just beyond what is now known as McVicars' Gate. In 2014, the remains consisted of the base of a forge, and further away, two hearths, and further still, a depression lined with quartz chunks, given the lining, a food cool store and not a water tank.  Lil Cullinan, daughter of James' and Janet's son George, wrote "my father took over the old home before I was born". Lil was born in 1897, and her grandfather James had died in 1896. Hence the name "McVicars' Gate" continued in local use.

 James is also listed as having made applications for land. See the entry for his son James Neil McVicar for other possible references.

James McVicar. - one of a curious "pair",  the other having the same body, but the head of a much younger man. 

James died on 27 August 1896 in the Hospital  at Amherst, near Talbot, of a cerebral haemorrhage and exhaustion, having been ill for three weeks.  Dr Fetherstonhaugh recorded on the death certificate that James' usual residence was Amphitheatre, but the undertaker’s certificate, the original of which has survived all these years and is held by the Avoca & District Historical Society, records Mountain Hut, a village which by then had almost disappeared. The certificate states James was the second to be interred in the grave, which is in the Presbyterian section of the Avoca Cemetery, but the exact location is unknown. The grave is also that of his brother-in-law and mining partner, William McNab, who died in 1861, following the mining dray accident at Mountain Hut, and is in Section C, an old part of the Cemetery overgrown for so long until recently,  that a name stone may be hidden in the soil.

On 29 August 1896 The Avoca Free Press and Farmers' and Miners' Journal contained this funeral notice.

 "The friends of the late James Nicholas McVicar are respectfully invited to follow his remains to their last resting place, Avoca Cemetery, the funeral to leave the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Brown, Rutherford St., Avoca on Sunday, August 30th, 1896, at 3pm. - J.H.Nicholls, Undertaker."

It would be interesting to access the 13 birth certificates and relevant death certificates of James’ and Janet’s children to see what, for each,  James' occupation was listed as. We know of at least some of his prospecting, mining and storekeeping activities, and one wonders whether there were others, and whether the certificates list occupations for Janet.

When James' and Janet's fourth daughter, Florence, died in 1879, James stated for her death registration that he was a "miner".

When James' and Janet's second son, Archibald Henry, married Margaret Jane Glover in Maryborough on 14th March 1891, Archibald stated his father was a "bookbinder". Was Archibald referring back to James' original work in that trade, or was he referring to some bookbinding that James was currently doing?

When their fourth son, George William, married Sarah Elizabeth DeSerre in Geelong on 12th January 1892, George stated his father was a "miner", suggesting that at least during George's life to that time, that's what he'd mainly been.  His  British bookbinding and Australian storekeeping activities, as important as they were at the time, were not acknowledged, which raises the question as to why, on his death certificate in 1896, he was listed as a bookbinder. Did someone take his marriage certificate, which lists him as such, to the registrar to copy the details?  It suggests so, but it doesn't explain where his middle name of "Nicolas", which is not on his marriage certificate, came from. Was there some bizarre mix up with the Nicholls, the undertaker's surname?  It seems impossible but with, on my family death certificates, names like Ernest becoming Everest,  and Harriet Wright becoming "Christian name unknown Herriot" (So her name was Herriot? Yes, right.), anything is possible.

Janet's separate life

 In 1895 Janet, having separated from James, who stayed at Mountain Hut, was living with her daughter Eliza (Lil) in the fancy goods shop in High St., Avoca when the shop burnt down.  Janet is quoted in the report in The Avoca Mail & Pyrenees District Advertiser of December 3, 1895. “Mrs McVicar affirmed that the fire commenced in the roof’.

 In 1901, Janet, aged 65, applied for one of the new Government pensions, and gave her address as Amphitheatre.  Perhaps this was the nearest Post Office, indicating she may have been back living in the original residence at Mountain Hut with her son George and his family? Her grand-daughter Lil Cullinan’s reminiscences state that she remembered Janet living with her daughter, Caroline, Mrs. Mungo Brown, at No.1 Creek. We know that in 1896 the Browns were living in Rutherford Street, Avoca, but by the time Mungo died in December 1901, they had been living at No. 1 Creek for ‘quite some time.’ Maxine Mossop, widow of Geoff Mossop, said that her mother-in-law, Caroline Janet Brown, Mrs Mossop of Underbool, "told me that her grandmother had moved in with them when her father Mungo Brown died.   She, CJB, was only 2 at that time and as her Mother had to work, the grandmother was at the house to help".  Janet’s granddaughter, Pearl M., born 1908, remembered visiting her in a buggy around 1913, “a tiny old lady in black” “way out the back” of Avoca.

Maxine continued, "After her Mother (Caroline Brown) died when she, CJB, was aged 11, in 1912, her grandmother (Janet) who by then was 78 and in failing health, went to live with an aunt whom I believe lived quite close by. Jim, Jack, Elsie, Agnes and Caroline all stayed at the family home for some time" - perhaps until Jack, then Jim went off to war, never to return. The aunt whom Janet went to stay with was her daughter Agnes Janet, school teacher, who moved from Granite Hills to Natte Yallock School on 31 March 1913.

 Note: The Crown Lands map shows that, very near to the junction of Sugarloaf  and No.1 Creeks, various members of the McVicar descendants purchased land, including C.A Brown, E.A.Brown, G.W.McVicar, E.S.McVicar, and a little further away, A.J.McVicar.  A.W.Gollop, administrator for the estate of C.A.Brown finalised the purchase of the local former school site on 3/9/20.

 There is a belief in the family that Janet was living with her daughter (Agnes) Janet in 1908 after Clara, the wife of her son Alexander died.  However, this idea is likely to refer to the short period in 1909 when Janet was teaching at Avoca, after her position at Neilborough East, where she ceased on 3/4/1909, and before her appointment to Boyeo on 1/9/1909.

 Caroline Janet died on 16 July 1916, aged almost 82 years, at the Muckleford School building.  This was both the workplace and residence of her daughter Agnes Janet, still standing in Schoolhouse Road, Muckleford, in now Mount Alexander Shire.