THE PARERS OF CATALONIA AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
This is a republishing of Ann Wright’s Graduate Diploma paper for Multicultural Education from Mercy Teachers’ College, The Parers of Catalonia. An Australian Pioneer Family. Originally published in 1983, various spiral bound photocopies and photocopies of photocopies have been bandied around by interested family members. The use-by date of these copies is fast approaching. It is an incredibly useful document for gaining an understanding of the early Parer family and many of the facts and documents providing evidence and insight. Edited by Ben Parer the paper has been updated for the digital age with newer technology, better quality photography coupled with revamped layout and design.
THE PARERS OF CATALONIA AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
JUNE 1983
BY ANN WRIGHT
THE PARERS OF CATALONIA AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
JUNE 1983
BY ANN WRIGHT
THE PARERS OF CATALONIA AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY JUNE 1983
BY ANN WRIGHT
ALELLA BOOKS The Parers of Catalonia : An Australian Pioneer Family Published by Alella Books 115 Rickards Drive, Churchill VIC 3842 First published June 1983 Second Edition July 2016
The Parers of Catalonia The Parer family originated in the region of France now known as Eastern Pyrenees. It is the former French province of Roussillon. The area has been French since 1659 when a treaty between Phillip of Spain and Louis XIV of France gave the province to France as part of the dowry of the Infanta of Spain, Marie Theresa. The area had been under the domination of the Spanish since 1492. Situated as it is on the present day border between Spain and France, and at the Northern entrance to the Iberian Peninsula. It has been visited by waves of migrating people throughout its history. It has seen peoples from many lands pass through and leave their mark, including Iberians, Celts, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Visigoths and Arabs. The region from Perpignan in France to Barcelona in Spain, however, forms Catalonia which has a common culture and language. The Parers then, are neither Spanish nor French, strictly speaking, but Catalonian in origin. They originated in the small coastal town of Banyuls-sur-Mer, a few kilometres north of the FrenchSpanish border. The family home is Mas Parer (Mas meaning farm or domain in Catalonian) which still stands 4 kilometres out of Banyuls in the hills, near the border. One branch of the family still owns the house and land and holidays there every summer from Madrid. Records of the Parer family in the church at Banyuls go back to the 12th century. One account says that the people of Banyuls gave great trouble to the Governors of Roussillon because they smuggled goods back and forward across the Spanish border. (Note 1) A story often told in Australia by Rosa and Marietta, daughters of Antonio Parer, tells of an ancestor who was a General in the French army and was taken hostage by the Spanish when they invaded Roussillon at the time of the French Revolution. He is said to have been released In Spain and to have married a Spanish girl and settled down there. This may account for the fact that Anton Parer was a flour miller at Santa Perpetua de Moguda, near Barcelona at the end of the 18th century. It may have been, however, that a younger son of the family moved south because of the tradition then of passing on land to the eldest son. He may have moved to seek his fortune further south in a region which was geographically and culturally similar to his own and where they spoke the same language. It was the grandchildren of Anton Parer (1756-1822) who migrated to Australia first in the 1850s. (Note 2) Anton’s son, Pablo (Pau) Parer (1796-1854) kept a flour mill at Alella, also in the region of Barcelona, and it is this village that the Australian Parer’s regard as their homeland as the original 2 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Mas Parer
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Parer immigrants were almost all born there. On his grandson, Michael’s, birth certificate Pablo Parer is noted as a native of Moguda, but all of his children were born at Alella. He married Eulalia Bosch in 1822 and her family seem to have been natives of Alella too as the name appears on headstones in the graveyard. She had five children and died in childbirth in 1834, giving birth to her fifth child who Eulalia who also seems to have died as nothing more is ever heard of her. Pau Parer remarried in 1834. His second wife was Ignasia Xicoia of the nearby village of Ball Romanas. Together they had nine children. Of these children, one from his first marriage, Josefa, died in 1849 aged 23, and another from his second marriage died in childhood in 1851. Of the eleven who survived, nine came to Australia and the children of his two daughters Teresa and Rosa, in Spain, also came to Australia. (Note 3) The first Parer to leave his homeland to seek his fortune elsewhere was Pau Parer’s second son, Josef. He left Spain at the age of 22, in 1851, and went to South America. He is believed to have gone first to Montevideo and then across the Rio Del Plata to Buenas Aires. His half brother, Francisco, then only 17 joined him in 1852. However, although they were reputed to have done quite well in South America, news of gold discoveries in Australia brought first Josef in 1855 and then Francis, in December 1856, to Australia. (Note 4)
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THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN PARERS When Josef and his brother arrived in Australia they called themselves Architect and Gardener, but their first venture was in poultry breeding, at Petersham, near Sydney. However, their poultry are said to have been wiped out by disease and so they moved south to Melbourne and then to Sandhurst (Bendigo) to look for gold. Apparently, they met other Spaniards on the goldfields and an attractive legend says that one of them found a large nugget there. When asked by a police officer what name they had given it, Josef said ‘Ben Diego’ which means’ St Jame’s blessing on you’ (St James the patron saint of Catalonia.) From this it was said the name Bendigo was derived. (Note 5) Nevertheless, Josef and Francisco seem to have decided that they could do better in Melbourne for, by 1857 they are said to have been living in a tin hut in Swanston Street, near the site of St Paul’s Cathedral. From this site another Parer legend was born, It is said that a Frenchman who was a cook came looking for shelter. They became friends and the three set up business together. The Frenchman cooked and the Parer brothers went out selling the produce including the first Australian meat pies to the people of Melbourne,
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MELBOURNE IN THE 1850s That Josef and Francisco were living in a tin hut in 1857 is easy to believe given the overcrowded state of the city at this time. A canvas town stretched along the route of the new St Kilda Road South of the new Princes Bridge (built in 1851). Occupants ) paid 5/- a head to pitch a tent there. (Hale p.29.) Melbourne city limits stretched to Park Street in Brunswick and to the shores of Hobson’s (Port Philip) Bay in the East and West. Settlements had sprung up at Sandridge (Port Melbourne) before 1850, to cater for passengers who disembarked there from the many ships which brought immigrants to Port Philip. St Kilda was already becoming a summer resort in the 1850s and there were settlements at Richmond, Flemington and Fitzroy. In all of these regions Crown Lands were sold and then subdivided and sold again for profit. As early as 1847, Melbourne had a Building Society which financed on small dwellings on small allotments at the Eastern end of Lonsdale Street. Hotham (North Melbourne), Carlton and Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) were among the early settlements around Melbourne and by 1853, Essendon, Hawthorn, Northcote and Oakleigh had been officially declared villages. By 1856, municipal councils had been established at Richmond, East St Kilda, South Melbourne, Prahran, Williamstown and East Collingwood and land had been sold at Windsor, Elsternwick
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Left: Bourke Street, 1853 right: Spring Street, 1853 Photos: Walter Woodbury
Left: Corner Spring and Bourke Streets, 1858.
Left: Canvas town, 1853 by Finkel 10 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
and Elwood. St Kilda Road was pushed out to the south in 1854 and a tollgate established at the city end to pay for it. A loan was floated to improve the city streets and to pave the footpaths. Melbourne was booming but still very raw. At the end of the 1840s stumps were still being pulled out of the main city streets and a creek ran down Elizabeth Street into the Yarra, crossed by wooden pedestrian bridges. A visitor to Melbourne around this time remarked on: “the wilderness of wooden huts… lacking the trace even of the idea of a garden” in Collingwood and Richmond. Houses were built of “weatherboards, canvas and corrugated iron”. (Anderson p89) However, Melbourne was the capital of the colony of Victoria, proclaimed in 1851, and was to grow from 23,000 people to 140,000 within a decade. Melbourne was booming with new buildings and the wealth from gold and from the number of people coming into the new colony to seek their fortune. This was the Melbourne that Josef and Francisco Parer found and they made the most of their opportunities. Not all the wealth of the colony was to come from gold, but also from supplying the people who came for gold and stayed to swell the population of the city. It was in the field of food and accommodation, both badly needed then, that the Parers were to excel in the succeeding decades as Melbourne prospered.
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Men of Property Josef and Francisco worked hard and banked the money they made at the Colonial Bank, Melbourne’s second bank which opened for business in 1856. William Greenlaw, who later became manager of the bank in 1871, was a clerk there but must have had considerable influence. He came to admire the initiative and hard work of the Parer brothers and they were able to borrow enough to buy a small shop which is said to have been near the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Streets. They later moved from there to a larger shop in Little Collins Street. This property later returned to the family In the 1880s. It had become the John Bull Hotelin the 1860s. It was finally closed 1920 and McEwan’s store now stands on the site. (Note 6) In 1858, they were able once more to borrow from the Colonial Bank to buy a new property in Bourke St. They were advised by Greenlaw to apply for a hotel licence and the new property was named The Duke de la Victoria, in honour of their new home. It was situated at 95 Bourke Street East and appears in the Sands and McDougall Melbourne Directories for first time in 1860 in the name of Frank Parer. (Note 7) By this time, the Parer brothers had received the sad news that their parents, Pablo and Ignasia had both died in 1854. This left nine children at home in Alella. Antonio, the eldest was now 26 and took over the flour mill. Teresa was 17, Estevan was 13, Jaume 12, Juan 10, Eulalia 7, Josefa 3 and Juana 2. Their cousin Josefa Arenas, whose mother was Perpetua Xicola, Ignasia's sister went to Alella to look after the younger children. In 1856, she and Antonio married. Her brother, Martin, arrived in Melbourne in 1858 to join his brother-in-law Josef and his cousin Francis. (Note 8) . With him came Estevan Parer, the 20 year old brother of Josef and Francisco. Family history records that they both worked at the ‘DUKE’, and that they often gave up their beds to paying customers and slept on the tables and after the hotel had closed for the night. (Note 9). It is also recorded that : “the Parers were obviously foreigners but gained public esteem for their good manners, tolerance and the service they gave ". In 1861, two more brothers, Felipe aged 20 and Juan aged 17, arrived in Melbourne and also worked at the 'Duke'. The hotel was often open till 2am and open again at opened at 5am. It was said to be the only place In Melbourne where a traveller wishing to make an early departure 12 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
could get a meal. One story tells how Francis had his office just inside the door where he also kept his mattress. He would take it out and put it on a table after the last customer had gone and snatch a few hours sleep. It was said that he did not 'out on a hat or coat for the first five years that the 'Duke' was open. The 'Duke' is described (Cole’s Mss. p.13) as 3 storey, Italian style – 46ft frontage, 45 bedrooms, dining hall, private dining room for ladies, sitting rooms and bar parlours. As a result of their hard work at the ‘Duke' Estevan and Martin Arenas were able to open a restaurant at 40 Bourke St East. It was known as the Spanish Restaurant and remained in the family until 1883 when it became Cole's Book Arcade. Josef Parer seems to have left Victoria around this time, though he may well have retained a financial interest in the 'Duke'. It is believed that he went to New Zealand about 1860 and married a friend of a Mrs McNaughton who had befriended him when the ship he was travelling on stopped for a time in Wellington. He appears only once in the Melbourne Directories in the 1860s, at a private address in Highett St. Richmond. He was there in 1867 and not again until 1876, by which time he had 5 children. The last of his children was born in 1870 and since he married a second time it seems likely that he did so in the early seventies. His second wife was said to have been a sister of Mrs McNaughton and she may well have been the Mary Ferguson whose name is known in the family and who appears to have survived him when he died in 1910. At any rate it seems that Josef took little active part in the family business from the time they bought the 'Duke', in which Bernard Parer says Josef had a share, until the late 1870s. Bernard also believed that Josef's first wife was not Catholic and that the children were not brought up Catholic.(Note 10) By 1867, Estevan had the Victoria Baths at 40 Bourke St. East, next door to the Spanish Restaurant. Around this time Martin Arenas moved to a house in Palmel Street, Carlton and Estevan to Dudley Street, West Melbourne. By 1868, the Spanish Restaurant was in Martin Arenas’ name alone and Estevan had the baths next door. Martin was to keep the restaurant until 1874 and Estevan the baths until 1875, the year that they extended the ‘Duke’. After that the baths were in the hands of Rosa Parer's son, Augustus Barbeta and a partner, John Griful, until they sold the restaurant in 1882. Augustus was the first of the sons of Rosa Parer and her husband Michael Barbeta to come to Australia. Like many others he was absorbed into the family business. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Events in 1870 indicate the extent of family cooperation which made each member a success in Australia. Apparently in that year Francisco bought 40 acres of land at Box Hill for £15 an acre on which he planned to grow vegetables for the ‘Duke’ and to supply other hotels. Estevan is said to have had a produce store in Little Collins Street (though I have found no official record of it). (Note 11) Francis is believed to have had £100,000 at this time but to have later spent half of that bringing relatives from Spain to Australia. At the time, Juan asked if he could run the farm at Box Hill but, since Joseph wanted to return to New Zealand and Francis preferred to move to Box Hill, they gave the ‘Duke’ to the boys, Juan (Johnny) and Felipe (Philip), in whose name it appeared in the Melbourne directory (in conjunction with other members of the family at different times, until 1890). Francis never married but remained at Box Hill until he died in 1915. He eventually gave two acres of his land to the church and the Church of St Francis still stands on that land in Whitehorse Road. (Note 12) Left: Founders of the Parer family in Australia, about 1890, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Back row: Philip Parer, Estevan Parer, Joseph Parer, Francis Parer, Front row Jonny Parer, Pepeta Parer cabus, Eulalia Parer Clota, Juana Parer Triado
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Box Hill When Francis Parer moved to Box Hill in 1870 the area was about to become the new Shire of Nunawading. Box Hill had been named 10 years before but the area had been slow to become a shire. The land was not particularly fertile. The early settlers had cleared their blocks and sold the wood to the inhabitants of Melbourne. Most of the earliest settlers were Wesleyan Methodists, but there were also Irish Catholics. Many of the larger allotments were subdivided in the 1840s and 1850s and advertised as ‘villages’ but they were not great success. Many of the settlers who came to the area in the 1860s settled there under Section 42 of the Grant Act, which provided for leases of small allotments of 20 acres within 10 miles of any gold digging. The idea was to settle ex-miners and to encourage them to improve their block. They could then be given permission to buy it under a government scheme of gradual purchase. Most of the small farmers who settled in the area were experienced and they established mixed farms with poultry, pigs, fruit and vegetables. They were remarkably successful considering the quality of the land. The other major industry was potteries and brick making to supply rapidly expanding Melbourne. The Parer block seems to have been subdivided from a larger block owned in 1864 by A. Murphy. Box Hill had grown up along one of the stock routes out of Melbourne. At first called Three Chain Road and later White Horse Road after the first hotel established in the area. With the gold rushes it became the road to Lilydale and a Cobb and Co coach ran along the road from 1853. The single fare to Box Hill then was 2/6d. By 1882, when the railway finally reached Box Hill the train fare was 6d and 9d. The price of land rose slowly, from 3/4d an acre in 1843 to £4 an acre in 1855, (Brennan, p.28) to £15 an acre in 1870 when Francis Parer bought his land, to £250 for an allotment barely big enough for a small house and garden in 1888 after the railway made the area more accessible from Melbourne. After the railway came Box Hill prospered. New schools, banks and churches were built. The council borrowed money to provide electric light, gas, mail deliveries, night soil collection and a new Shire Hall. By the collapse of the boom at the end of the 1880s they were in debt to the bank for £24,000. In the 1880s a group of artists set up a camp at Box Hill. They included Roberts, McCubbin, Stratton, Condor and Abrahms. Lionel Lindsay, in his book Comedy of Life recalls visiting the Parer farm at Box Hill. At the time he was learning Spanish before he went to Spain. He wrote: THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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“Unfortunately all the Spaniards in Melbourne were from Catalonia and spoke their particular dialect… I got my first taste of Spain when I visited Señor Parer’s farm with his nephew, my friend Tony Clota…” Michael Parer (M. Parer, 2 p.47) from interviews with family members notes that Francis Parer grew tomatoes at Box Hill which were new in Australia. Apparently he was visited there by John Paul Carolin, later mayor of Bendigo, who was interested to see tomatoes growing. Francis is said to have given his tomato sauce recipe to Leggo in Bendigo and to Hadley, a jam maker. (Two of John Paul Carolin’s daughters later married two of Antonio Parer’s sons.) Perhaps the Parers gave Australia both pies and tomato sauce. (Note 17)
Left: Surrey Hills district map, 1885
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FRANCIS PARER Mr Parer was horn in Spain in October, 1836, and arrived in Victoria in 1856. Entering into partnership he commenced business in Little Bourke Street a general produce dealers. In 18 months Mr Parer retired from the business, in consequence of ill-health, entering on another partnership with the owner of the Spanish Restaurant, Elizabeth Street. This business was carried on for about two years and was succeeded by the opening of the Victoria Restaurant, Bourke Street, which, jointly with his brothers they have carried on ever since. In 1870, Mr Parer purchased 40 acres of land at Box Hill, at £15 an acre. The property has since been transformed into a very valuable market garden, including orchards, etc. Since the purchase of the property Mr Parer has resided upon it. –Jubilee History of Victoria. Part v Vol. 11 Page 55 Ed. T.W.H. Leavitt. Wells and Leavitt, Publishers, Melbourne. 1868.
Above: From the Jubilee History of Victoria and Melbourne. Right: Francis working in his garden with his tomatoes in Box Hill. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Francis Parer 18 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Top Right: Francis Parer, cash register patent, USA. Top Left: Francis Parer’s 63rd birthday— Melbourne Punch, Thursday 17 November 1898, Page 20, Weddings. 2nd Top Left: Francis Parer’s patent— Australian Town and Country Journal, Saturday 28 May 1898. 3rd Top Left: Plaza Hotel Licence Sydney— Tuesday 6 April 1943, The Sydney Morning Herald. Bottom left: Francis Parer and Martin Arenas— The Age-Tuesday 24 October 1871Page 3, Accidents and Offences. Bottom Right: Francis Parer’s party for Mr and Mrs San Miguel— Melbourne Punch, Thursday, 18 May 1899, Page 16, Social.
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Phillip Parer Argus September 8th 1920 One who was for many years a leading member of the Spanish colony in Melbourne, died yesterday, in the person of Mr Phillip Parer, who had been a resident of the city for 59 years, having arrived in January 1861, in the sailing ship, Anglesea. He was one of the three brothers, Stephen, Phillip and John who founded the business of Parer Brothers and carried on a well known restaurant business in Bourke Street for many years. Mr Phillip Parer had reached the age of 79 years and since his retirement had lived in Mont Albert Road, Surrey Hills. He was a grand-uncle of the youthful aviator, Lieutenant Parer.
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Stephen Parer
Argus, February 10th 1908 Mr Estevan Parer, of the Crystal Café, Bourke Street arrived in Melbourne from Spain 50 years ago yesterday and a numbers gathering of the Spanish residents of the city assembled in the afternoon, in order to congratulate him on attaining his jubilee anniversary as a Victorian colonist. Mr Parer, who is one of the family of brothers well known in the business circles in the city, has always been regarded as the pioneer of the Spanish colony, who have looked to him as “guide, philosopher and friend”. A framed, illuminated address was presented to him, expressive of the esteem of his fellow countrymen who desired to do him honour as “one of Spain’s best sons and Melbourne’s best citizens”. Mr Parer, who was much affected in acknowledging the various complimentary speeches made, referred to his early struggles in the strange land, handicapped by the slenderest of purses and a complete ignorance of the English tongue. He mentioned also that, areas 50 years ago he and his brother Francis were the sole representatives of the family in Melbourne, it now numbered 200 in all so that they might claim to be good colonists. The Mayor of Bendigo (Councillor Carolin) was chairman and the address was presented by Mr Antonio Clota.
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Right: Map of Box Hill.
Good watering places where over-landers head for Melbourne and Gippsland diverged. Three stock routes to Melbourne:- White Horse Road, Canterbury Road and Toorak Road In the 1870s a number of the Parer brothers’ nephews arrived in Melbourne. By 1880, three of Rosa Parer’s sons, Augustus, Francis and Peter Barbeta were here. (Note 14) Two of Antonio Parer’s sons, Michael and Francis also arrived, in 1875 and 1879. (Note 15) Estevan’s wife, Jane, died in 1874 at the age of 34, leaving him with one son, Frank. He sold the Victorian Baths in 1875 to his nephew Augustus Barbeta and his partner who had already taken over the Spanish Restaurant next door from Martin Arenas. In 1876, Estevan became an active partner once more in the ‘Duke’ and the three brothers, Estevan, Felipe and Juan bought the Temple of Pomona next door and extended their hotel. In 1878, the name Parer Brothers appears in large type for the first time in the Melbourne Directory. Meanwhile, Josef had returned to Victoria by 1876 and was living in Highett Street Richmond, presumably with his second wife and the five children from his first marriage. Felipe had a house in Carlton though he did not marry until 1886 or 1887 when he married his half brother Antonio’s daughter, Rosa. 22 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Right: Map of the purchased and measured lands, counties, parishes, etc. of the Melbourne and Geelong districts, 1849 by Thomas Ham
In the 1880s the family in Melbourne brought out another of Antonio’s sons, John, who arrived in 1883 at the age of 15 with his two sisters, Marietta aged 21 and Angeletta aged 17. Marietta later married her cousin, Salvador Barbeta, and Angeletta never married, but kept house for other members of her family. She is reputed to have been of below average intelligence and also very religious. Her naturalisation papers in 1930 state that she arrived in December 1895 so it seems likely that she returned to Spain for some time. Her elder sister Rosa was also here by 1886 and their youngest brother, Estevan, arrived on the French ship Polynesian in 1888 at the age of 17. In 1882, Josef Parer designed and built himself a house at Frankston on 100 acres of land; He called it Barcelona Park (Sands and McDougall 1890) but it is popularly known as the Tower House because of the tower which forms the centre of the house. Bernard Parer recalls that he was told that it blew down while being built and Josef had to start again. Bernard also remembers visiting there as a child in 1912 and that it was the only house on that side of the railway line. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Stella Maris Convent The original home, now largely built around and the tower were built in the late nineteenth century by the Parer family, one of whom designed them. Known as Tower House, it was sold together with 200 acres in about 1919 to Mr W. A Towler, a dealer in real estate, who for a time let the building as a schoolhouse. It was again used as a schoolhouse nearly fifty years later. The tower is typical of those seen on many pretentious houses of the high Victorian period but is constructed of timber with ‘mock stone’ effects. Interested in increasing his land value, and since it was good golfing country, Towler conceived the idea of creating a golf course on the property. A native of St Andrews in Scotland, Gordon Oliver, was commissioned to lay out the initial eighteen-hole course for which Towler acquired a further 600 acres. Most of this large course was purchased by the Peninsula Country Golf Club in 1922. The original home was added to extensively and progressively until it provided facilities and accommodation for members from Melbourne and their friends. A bedroom once occupied by Sir Donald Bradman is still known by his name. In 1965 the Faithful Companions of Jesus, a French Order, purchased the house and the adjacent grounds and turned them into the Stella Maris Ladies College. The clubs bars became classrooms, the dining room, a chapel and the board room, the school dining room. A modern school has been built on the property. The house still stands in McMahon’s Road, Frankston. It later became a golf club and was extended so that the original house is now partly hidden. The tower can still be seen quite clearly from the Melbourne by-pass on the city side of Frankston. It is now the convent of Stella Maris and was a Catholic Girl’s school until 1982 when the new co-educational regional college in the same grounds absorbed the school. It was sold to Josef ’s brother Juan who lived there with his children from his second marriage until the twins were school age, about 1912. (Note 16) Juan is said to have sold the house and land for £3000.
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By the 1880s Juan, Salvador, and Estevan were all living in Fitzroy in the area where St Vincent’s Hospital now stands. In fact the house in Regent St and Madrid Villas in Princes Street where Salvador lived, have been demolished and built on by the hospital. Barcelona Terrace where Juan lived, and which the Parers owned for many years and probably built as Juan was the first to live there, at number 1 in 1881, still stands in Gertrude Street near Nicholson Street. Joseph also had a house in Rathdown Street, Carlton in the 1880s near Grattan Street. By 1884, The Duke was in the names of Estevan, Juan, Felipe, Josef and Salvador Parer. The Barbeta Brothers, Augustus, Peter and Salvador (the latter just 21) had Hosie’s Turkish Barthing Palace at 24 Bourke Street East and the Bath’s Hotel at 26 Bourke Street East. They took over these businesses in 1881 and 1833. They were situated between the Royal Arcade and Swanston Street – present 321-5 Bourke Street. The Bath’s Hotel had accommodation for 30 persons. Cole’s manuscript in the Latrobe Library describes it as follows: 30 ft frontage, 200 ft deep, accommodates 300 to meals, 14 rooms, bar, lounge, dining hall, one especially for ladies on the 1st floor, open daily 7am–8pm until midnight on Saturday. They sold the Bath’s Hotel in 1888, but kept the Baths until 1896. In 1895 the entry in the Melbourne Directory read: Barbeta’s Original Turkish Baths Hot and cold baths always ready – 1s. Augustus Barbeta also had a restaurant with his cousin James Rubira for two years at 36 Bourke Street East in the 1880s. In 1888, at the height of the land boom in Melbourne, Augustus Barbeta borrowed money from the Colonial Bank using his cousin Michael Parer’s name as guarantor. He bought Hosie’s Hotel, on the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Streets for £85,000. When the boom burst in 1893 sending the bank and William Greenlaw (the manager who had handled the Parer’s banking for almost 40 years) bankrupt, Michael Parer lost £72,000. The hotel was sold in 1898 when the bank called on Michael for the money he owed. William Greenlaw, who had built himself a house overlooking the Yarra at Kew and also speculated in land, was bankrupt for £115,000. He made a private contract with his creditors, as did many other prominent men at the time and 26 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
so avoided the stigma of official and public bankruptcy. He paid only 6d in the £1. (Cannon, p88-90) In 1886, Estevan, Felipe and Juan made an extended trip back to Spain and when they returned several more relatives came to Australia. This is when their eldest brother, Antonio, probably came with his wife Josefa. A photograph taken at Francis’ house at Box Hill on the occasion of his 50th Birthday in October 1886, includes the following family members: •
Josef Parer, his second wife Mary, his sons Frederick and James and daughter Minnie.
•
Juan Parer, three of his children, Paul, John and Isidore. Perhaps before he married for the second time.
•
Francisco Parer.
•
Estevan, his second wife, Josefa Clota, his son Frank from his first marriage and three children from the second, Phillip, Joseph and Teresa.
•
Felipe Parer and his wife Rosa (who was also the daughter of Antonio Parer.)
•
Antonio Parer (but not his wife Josefa), his sons, Michael, Francis and John, his daughter Marietta and her son by her husband Salvador Barbeta, (the latter is not included in the photograph) and Michael Parer’s wife Maria Carolin.
•
Juana Triado nee Parer and her husband James Triado and four children Jack, Tony, Teresa and Rosie.
•
James and Frank Rubira – The sons of Teresa Parer and her husband Francisco Rubira (who never came to Australia).
•
Antonio, Augustus, Peter and Francis Barbeta – The sons of Rosa Parer and Michael Barbeta (who did not come to Australia). Also Augustus’ wife Lydia and four of their children, Gus, Rosie, Marie and Stephen, and Peter’s wife Dolores.
•
Salvador and Mary Parer whom I assume to be the Salvador who arrived in 1881, already in his 40’s and who is said to have married a Mary Calling in 1884. (Note 18)
•
There are also three children, Alfred and Charles Parer, in their teens and a baby, Susie whom I cannot place, though Alfred may be one of Josef ’s sons who died when quite young and the baby may be Salvador’s first child.
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Some notable figures missing from the photograph are the remaining two Parer sisters, Josefa and Eulalia and their husbands James Cabus and Marcus Clota. This may mean they arrived after 1886 and that they were already married in Spain as they were aged 35 and 39 in 1886. Members of the extended Parer family in Australia gathered at the home of Francis Parer in Box Hill to celebrate his 50th birthday in 1886.
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Frances Parer 50th Birthday, Box Hill Back row: Tony Barbeta, Gus Barbeta, Peter Barbeta, Salvador Parer, James Parer y (nee) Ferguson, Francis Parer y Ramon, Joseph Parer y Bosch, Juan Parer y Ramon, Estevan Parer y Ramon, Felipe Parer y Ramon, Antonio Parer y Bosch, Michael Parer y Arenas, James Triado, James Rubira Jnr. Second row: Francis Barbeta, Lydia Barbeta nee Attenborough, Dolores Barbeta, Mary Parer, Layette Clota, Minnie Parer, Mary Parer (Joseph’s second wife) with Susie on knee, Teresa Parer, Josepha Parer nee Clota (Estevan’s second wife), Rosetta Parer (the wife of Filipe Parer), Marietta Barbeta nee Parer, Maria Parer nee Carolin, Juana Triado nee Parer, Frank Rubira. Third row: Gus Barbeta, Rosie Barbeta, Marie Barbeta, Frederick Parer, Alfred Parer (died at 15), Charles Parer, Paul Parer, Frank Parer (son of Estevan’s first wife Jane Carrol), Francis Parer y Arenas, John Arthur Parer y Arenas, Jack Triado, Dr Tony Triado. Fourth row: Stephen Barbeta, Dr Jack Parer, Dr Isadore Parer, Dr Phil Parer y Clota, Joseph Parer y Clota, Michael Barbeta y Parer, Teresa Triado, Rosie Triado.
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As new members of the family arrived in Australia their interests in the hotel business grew. It is not clear from the official records how much they paid for each hotel or the extent to which established members of the family helped new members to get started buy they were known to have been very good to each other. Antonio, for example, never worked in Australia, but was supported by his brothers until he died in 1897. Antonio’s son, John A Parer, who was only 18 in 1885, put his age up to 21 and obtained the licence for the restaurant at the Exhibition Buildings which had been completed for the Great Exhibition in 1881. He was in partnership with William Higgins who had worked at the Duke after his ship sank and who got on very well with the Parers. He married one of the Carolin sisters of Bendigo, as did John and his brother Michael. He later became a Director of Carlton Breweries and profited by the many takeovers of small breweries in Melbourne that finally gave Carlton its monopoly. With profits from the restaurant the two men bought the Exchange Hotel, on the corner of Little Collins and Swanston Streets and the London Hotel, on the corner of Market (later William) Street and Little Flinders Street (Flinders Lane). They sold the London Hotel a year Later, in 1888, and bought the Exchange, which they kept till 1902 when they sold it. They bought the Gippsland Hotel, 13 Swanston Street in 1895. William Higgins did not sell it until 1918 and it was closed in 1920. (Note 19) James Rubira had the John Bull Tavern in Little Collins, on the site of the Parer business of the 1850s. He bought it in 1885 and in 1891 it was in the name of his brother Francis, who sold it to Martin Arenas in 1895. Martin ran the hotel till 1902 and is said to have had a sentimental attachment to the business because he had been involved in its operations since he first arrived to join the Parer brothers in Melbourne. In 1895 he had just returned from several years in Sydney (Cole’s Mss, p.251). Michael Parer had the Yarra Family Hotel at 71 Flinders Street West (later 430 Flinders Street) for a year and sold it in 1887 to a Clota, who may have been Marcus Clota, his Aunt Eulalia’s husband. (There were other Clota’s in Melbourne, however by this time and Estevan’s second wife was a Clota. They came from Alella too.) James Triado, the husband of Juana Parer, had the Royal Arcade Hotel, in Little Collins Street from 1888 until it was sold in 1896. His partner was also a Clota.
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Bourke Street, Parer’s Crystal Café
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The Crystal Café In 1886, the Parer brothers, Juan Felipe and Estevan also brought back from their trip to Spain tapestries and other fittings for the new café which they had bought in 1885. In partnership with Joseph who designed the new café, they transformed Nissen’s Café at 103 Bourke Street East into Parer’s Crystal Café. By all accounts it was magnificent. A short distance away on Bourke Street was the Theatre Royal (Bourke Street was renumbered in 1888 with the Theatre Royal becoming 230 Bourke Street and Parer’s Crystal Café 200 Bourke Street) and the Waxworks were next door. The Melbourne Coffee Palace, a temperance hotel, was nearby at 216 Bourke Street and the Eastern Market was further up on the other side of Bourke Street where the Souther Cross Hotel now stands. In all Bourke Street had 22 hotels between Spring and Elizabeth Streets. Her Majesty’s Opera House was further Bourke Street beside the Barbeta’s Bath’s Hotel and near Cole’s famous book Arcade. Bourke Street had entertainment for everyone. The Crystal Café is described by TWH Levitt in his Jubilee History of Victoria and Melbourne published in 1888: This stately structure, which is built on land with a frontage of 33 ft and depth of 313 ft, cost £60,000 and is a marvel of last and design. It comprises saloon, café, club rooms, billiard rooms etc and its costly fittings dazzle the beholder and make him wonder whether he has not entered fairyland. Its wealth of mirrors so fantastically arranged, its tessellated floor, glittering tables, refreshing fountains and artistic draperies remind one of the magnificent structures of a similar kind which grace the capitals of Europe and America; none of which, however can surpass this latest addition to the Café Palaces of the world. The entire building is supplied with alarm bells and all the latest conveniences and appliances, including a fireproof staircase. An idea may be formed of the immense accommodation at their disposal, when it is stated that they have ample room for 685 persons and possess staff of 77 servants and the magnitude of their business may be gleaned from the fact that two tons of meat, 700 loaves of bread and 350 lbs of butter are consumed daily, the total provisions required averaging about 18 tons weekly. The magnificence of the Café and the attention and forethought manifested in every detail, have made the name of Messrs Parer Brothers a by-word throughout Australia and visitors are ever loud in their praises of them. Situated in the heart of the city, the Café supplies the wants of all classes, from the haughty resident of Toorak to the bushman from the ‘back blocks’; it is indispensable to the traveller and the businessman and from every point of view justly deserves the title it has received as the leading Café of the Southern 32 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Right: Parer’s Crystal Cafe Bourke Street, Melbourne
Right: 1887, Parer’s Crystal Cafe by Schwarze, W
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Left: The chaperon Illustrated advertisements throughout programme c1915 Top Right: VPRS 3181 City of Melbourne Town Clerk’s Files Series 1, 1842 - 1910 Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre Bottom Left: Bourke Street, Melbourne Bottom Right: 29 April 1929 Letter to My dear Vin on Parer’s Crystal Palace Hotel Letterhead
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Hemisphere. Recently Messrs. Parer Brothers have added a magnificent banqueting hall to the café, capable of seating 150 persons and this, with the excellent private dining rooms at their disposal, make the place the most perfect of its kind in Australia. The charges all thought are exceedingly moderate, their famous French dinners being procurable at prices ranging from 3s upwards, whilst bedroom accommodation may be obtained from 2s6d upwards and the choicest of wines at the lowest possible prices. To still further increase the comfort of visitors, piano recitals are supplied daily by an accomplished expert and are greatly appreciated. Messrs. Parer Brothers deserve well of the people
Left: 1887- Parer’s Crystal Cafe by Schwarze W. Above Right: Entrance to Parers Crystal Café-Notes on verso describing the colours of the tiles ivory, blue, burnt umber, green, Indian red also leaves and flowers-c1965 Bottom: Parer’s Crystal Cafe - 2 Shilling token. 36 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Parer Brothers From: Jubilee history of Victoria and Melbourne. Edited by TWH Levitt and WD Lilbum (Melbourne, Wells & Levitt, 1888) A book showing the progress of “Marvellous Melbourne” would be obviously incomplete without reference to Messrs. Parer Brothers, proprietors of the well-known café and restaurant in Bourke Street and the brief account of their career, which is appended, affords another striking proof of the fact that indomitable will and untiring energy are bound to command success. The Parer family, of whom there are six brothers and three sisters living, hail from Alella, in Spain, a beautiful suburb of the famed Barcelona. The first to leave his native land in search of fortune was Joseph, who, in 1852, emigrated to Monte Video, in South America. In the following year he was joined by his bother Francis. They met with fair success there; but the wondrous gold discoveries in Australia, which at the time are attracting persons from all parts of the globe, prompted them to leave Mexico and join the ranks of the gold-seekers. Landing in Sydney in 1855, they found great difficulty in making much headway on account of their inability to speak the English language, but a little persistency made their paths easier in this respect and with a foresight which characterised the wiser portion of the perilous life of goldseeking. Their first venture – a poultry farm at Petersham – was unsuccessful, a disease carrying off the whole of their stock. But the Parer Brothers, belonging to that stamp of men with whom failure means greater efforts at success, purchased another stock and opened a business in Melbourne which Francis took charge of and carried to a highly successful issue. In 1858, the year of the Port Curtis “rush” another brother, Stephen, who has contributed greatly to the splendid position attained by the family since, arrived from Spain and in conjunction with his brothers purchased the Duke de la Victoria Restaurant, situated a few doors from the present premises. The “Duke” having become deservedly popular, Stephen, in 1860, entered into partnership with Martin Arenas and opened the Spanish Restaurant in Bourke Street, well known for many years as one of the best conducted in Melbourne, but its day has gone and where once the inner man was comfortably provided for, mental pabulum is now supplied by Cole’s Book Arcade. Another successful step taken by Stephen was the starting of baths carried out in conjunction with the Spanish Restaurant. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
37
38 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
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Two more bothers, John and Phillip, arriving in 1861, were admitted into the business and the first step taken after the extended partnership began was the purchase of a large fruit garden at Box Hill, which still belongs to the family. Their business steadily increased until in 1975 they were in a position to purchase the “Temple of Pomona” contiguous to the “Duke” and thus became the possessors of Nos. 91, 93 and 95 Bourke Street. But “nothing success like success,” and shortly after this purchase, the family became owners of several city, suburban and country properties. Fortune favoured them during the next ten years and the demands made on the accommodation became so great that it was found necessary to build a large store and add fortysix additional bedrooms to the “Duke”. In 1886 they purchased the freehold and business of Nissen’s Café, 108 Bourke Street East and replaced the former building with the magnificent café, which has made their name famous throughout Australia as that of Spiers and Pond in England.
Left: Citizens’ Arch to mark Federation, Melbourne, 1901. 40 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
This stately structure which is built on land with a frontage of 33ft, and depth of 313ft, cost £60,000, and is a marvel of taste and design. It comprises saloon, café, club-rooms, billiardrooms, etc., and its costly fittings dazzle the beholder and make him wonder whether he has not entered fairyland. Its wealth of mirror so fantastically arranged, its tessellated floor, glittering tables, refreshing fountains, and artistic draperies, remind one of the magnificent structures of a similar kind which grace the capitals of Europe and America ; none of which, however, can surpass this latest addition to the Cafe Palaces of the World. The entire building is supplied with alarm bells and all the latest conveniences and appliances, including a fire-proof staircase. An idea may be formed of the immense accommodation at their disposal, when it is stated that they have ample room for G85 persons, and possess a staff of 77 servants; and the magnitude of their business may be gleaned from the fact that two tons of meat, 700 loaves of bread, and 3501bs. of butter are consumed daily, the total provisions required averaging 18 tons per week. The magnificence of this Cafe, and the attention and forethought manifested in every detail, have made the names of Messrs. Parer Brothers a by-word throughout Australia, and visitors are ever loud in their praises of them. Situated in the heart of the city, the Cafe supplies the wants of all classes, from the haughty resident of Toorak to the bushman from the “ back blocks is indispensable to the traveller and the business man, and from every point of view justly deserves the title it has received as the leading Cafe in the Southern Hemisphere. Recently, Messrs. Parer Brothers have added a magnificent banqueting hall to the Cafe, capable of seating 150 persons; and this, with the excellent private dining-rooms at their disposal, make the place the most perfect of its kind in Australia. The charges all through are exceedingly moderate, their famous French dinners being procurable at prices ranging from 3s. upwards, whilst bedroom accommodation may be obtained from 2s. 6d. upwards, and the choicest wines at the lowest possible prices. To still further increase the comfort of visitors, piano recitals are supplied daily by an accomplished expert, and are greatly appreciated. Messrs. Parer Brothers deserve well of the people of Melbourne for their plucky enterprise, and their efforts will, no doubt, be amply rewarded. A recent exhibition at the new Performing Arts Museum in Melbourne also included a portrait of Lola Montez which is said to have hung in the Crystal Cafe for years. The Parer Bothers kept the Crystal Cafe until 1914 when they sold it to a company. Most of the shares were owned by THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
41
Illustration from Part V vol II page xxiv of biographical sketches in the Jubilee history of Victoria and Melbourne, edited by TWH Levitt and WD Lilbum (Melbourne, Wells & Levitt, 1888). 42 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
In the year 1901 Australia was given Federation which occasion a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. Melbourne was gaily bedecked to welcome them. Parer brother’s Restaurant, Café and Hotel was later called Parer’s Crystal Café or just “Parer’s” but mostly “The Crystal” after the Crystal Café. (These words were handwritten on the bottom of the above postcard which shows Parer’s through the arch erected to welcome the Duke and Duchess.)
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William Higgins and William Angliss, the butcher, who had supplied the Parer hotels for years. Bernard Parer mentions that the Parers had previously dealt with T. K. Bennett who sold them meat at 1 ½ a lb and gave the heads, kidneys and fries free. He raised the rice to 2 ½ d a lb and was undercut at 2d a lb by William Angliss and this gave him a good start in the business. Family members also retained shares in the Crystal. 1914 was the year that 6 o’clock closing began in Melbourne and Bernard says that the Crystal did not do very well, never paying more than 5% dividend to the company members. It had caused friction in the family earlier when the price of meals had been reduced to compete with the 1s dinners at the Duke, a few doors away. Bernard said it was too far in advance of its time. It was finally sold in 1950 to Sharpes who already leased the shop on the ground floor of the building. They bought it for £110,000 and sold it for double that amount the following year. In the 1890’s Joseph Parer had the ‘Alsion Hotel’, near ‘Buckley and Nunn’ in Bourke Street. He kept the hotel for two years and then had a macaroni factory in Bouverie Street, Carlton for two years until 1895. Meanwhile , the Duke was now in the hands of a company consisting chiefly of Salvador Parer, John Griful (who had been Augustus Barbeta’s partner in the Spanish Restaurant 10 years earlier)
44 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
and presumably other members of the family also retained shares. Marietta Barbeta (Antonio’s daughter) later sold shares and bought a hotel in Albury for her son Michael Barbeta and his wife. In 1892, Marcus Clota’s name also appears as a major shareholder. He appears to have operated the hotel until it was sold in 1914. The Rubira family held the licence for the ‘Bull and Mouth Hotel’, in Bourke Street which later was the site of Cole’s Stores. They did not buy the hotel until 1917 and later leased it to Cole’s for their first store. After 30 years the property was finally sold to Cole’s for a large sum. James Rubira also had ‘Hosie’s Hotel and Cafe’ nearby at 307 Bourke Street for many years. In 1902 the entry in the Melbourne Directories read: James Rubira Restaurant and Confectioner Hosie’s Pie Shop 305-307 (Late 36) Bourke Street By 1903 it had become: James Rubira. Prop. Rubira’s Cafe 305-7 Bourke Street (Late Hosie’s) New hall for smoke nights and banquets. Frances Parer, Antonio’s son, had the ‘London Tavern’ at 99 Elizabeth Street from 1891-2.
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THE FAMILY OF JOSEPH PARER PARER In 1903 and 1904, Maggie Parer, the wife of Joseph’s son James, was the nominee for the ‘Imperial Hotel’ at the top of Bourke Street and James’ brother Frederick had the ‘Temple Court Hotel’ in Queen Street. These two brothers seem to have gone to Western Australia shortly after this. Their sister Marie (Minnie) married and went to live there. Her descendants are there still. Joseph wrote a letter in 1908 to his grand-daughter, Muriel, who was 18 at the time and seemed to be living in Meekatharra with her parents and her brother and two sisters for Joseph sent them all his regards. He also complained that Minnie never wrote to him. Frederick was the publican of the Calcutta Hotel at Wanner when he died there in 1906. Some say of a broken heart after the death in childbirth earlier that year of his wife, Evelyn. Little more is know of Frederick, who was only 38 when he died, but a newspaper cutting reporting a family celebration in 1898 mentions that Frederick entertained them with accounts of his exploits as a war correspondent. I assume that he must have gone to the Boer War, but cannot confirm this. After the death of their parents, Frederick’s new born son, Melvyn, was brought up by his uncle James and his daughter, Phyllis by relatives of her mother who were related to the Langley family of whom one was Anglican Bishop of Melbourne and so she was brought up in the Church of England. She did not see her brother again until she was in her teens and went to live with her uncle James and his family who were then in Darwin. Until then he had not known that he had a sister. Joseph died in 1910. Bernard Parer (unpublished mss.) recalls hearing he was run over by a cab. I can find no record of an inquest or of a will and so he remains something of an enigma to the end. To add to the mystery that was Joseph Parer, in 1901, he submitted to the new Federal Government, plans for a federal capital. The submission seems to have been completely uninvited and would have been forgotten by later generations, but that the correspondence remains in the archives in Canberra. (See appendix 2.) For some reason he wished his submission to remain anonymous and signed himself Federalist No. 1. The Parer’s, despite their language difficulties and their Spanish customs, had no doubts that they were loyal colonists and citizens. Most of the brothers took out Australian citizenship, some
46 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Right: Letter written by Joseph Parer to his grand daughter Muriel who was in Western Australia with her parents and their other three children. Muriel was 18.
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Letter written by Josef Parer (Joseph) to his grand-daughter Muriel Muriel was in Western Australia with her parents and their other three children. Muriel was 18. To Miss Muriel Parer, From your affectionate grandfather. 22 Bridgeport St, Albert Park August 8 1908 To Miss Muriel Parer My dear grand baby, I hope this will be a pastime. I am
Your uncle Charlie (Charles William Parer) was down
addressing these few lines to you, hoping that you XXX
for a couple of days. We have had a very severe winter
with gry married with the anticipation to be a great
this year. It has been the worst in over that grandma has
grand papa.
been very unwell. She has had a congested throat that
I hope by this time you have proceeded of your severe illness and have recovered completely. I hope you will take care of your self at any time. I see by your portrait you look charming. I hope you get a good match. Be
is getting on this oaths XXXX a little better. She has been attending in and out door patient any the Vincent hospital for some time has XXXX she was doing in t to the and out door department at the Melbourne Hospital
careful you don’t make a mistake. Look at the man
and she is improving. I hope she will continue as she
before in all is capabilities and good and bad habits; cool
has been very kind to me at all times. I presume you are
and calm before you. You are not a baby now.
keeping company to your father and you send a nice letter for me your XXX XXXX and XXX XXX you XXX
You are under a great temptation on this world. I hope you are kind and think kindly to your Pa and Mother, your bother and sister. I hope you be able and make out my bad spelling as you. I am not so young and steady hands my hand trembles constantly as I am near 79 years of age. We have had a great deal (of) festivities in Melbourne. I hope you (are) informed by the papers the American Port Melbourne for Albany you must have a chance to see first if it was to come over land to XXXXX you will be able (to) see by the illustrations as I am going send by post to you. 48 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
XXXX XXXX X XX X X X XX be good to them and be kind to your pa and mother. I’ll just conclude with kind wishes from all and for all. Aunty Minnie has forgotten me altogether and it is very hurtful for me to keep corresponding. Love tall from affectionate grandpa Joseph Parer *His daughter Marie, also in WA.
Left: Joseph’s family tree
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Joseph Parer’s family tree Presented with best wishes from Joseph Parer 19 Richardson Street, Albert Park, Victoria July 17, 1902 I hope the present and coming generation will enter their families names in rotation from father to son. For Eulalia Parer de Clota and family. Origination of Parer family at present in Australia, compiled form my father’s book and information received from him prior to his death. Prepared by Joseph Parer, Architect, Melbourne, May, 1902 at 72 years of age. From some time in 1700s up to (the current) date, embracing three centuries as per dates found on our grandfather Anton Parer who kept the flour mills at Santa Perpetua de Mogoda and married our grandmother, who’s family name of Ranom. The death of our grandfather Anton Parer at Santa Perpetua de Mogoda on the 17 of March 1822 in Spain. They had the following children:
1.
Josep Parer y Renom
2.
Francisco Parer y Renom
3.
Pau Parer y Renom
4.
Antonia Parer y Renom
Our father: Pau Parer y Ranom, who keep the four mills of Casa Sors in Alella and joined the estate of matrimony on the 4th of March 1822 with Eulalia Bosch y Millet a native of Masnou the next town.
50 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Left: Frederick Augustus Parer.
Top Right: Caroline ‘Minnie’ Ferguson. Bottom Right: Frederick Parer’s death notice, Sunday Times, 27 January 1907, Page 1,Family Notices.
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The Club and Terminus Hotels – Darwin Mr J. J. Parer was granted the lease for a period of 10 years for The Club and Terminus Hotels at Darwin from 1st October, 1921 to 31st, October 1931. His obligations in respect of the lease were: Club
Terminus
Total
£2,500
£3,500
£6,000
Purchase of furniture
£506
£456
£962
Rental Insurance of hotel buildings
£8pw
£10pw
£18pw
Purchase price of leases
By the terms of the lease agreements, Mr Parer should have completed the payment of purchase money by October 1923. In consideration of the depressed condition of affairs which have prevailed since Mr Parer’s lease commenced, certain concessions have been made to Mr Parer. These concessions have taken the form of an extension of time for the payment of purchase money and a release from the insurance obligation from 6 March 1927. Variations of the original agreements were executed on 8 April 1927. At that date he had paid, in addition to rentals, £3,476.3.7 on the hotels and still owed £5,180.5.7. The varied agreements provided for the debt of £5,180.5.7 to be liquidated by quarterly payments of £250, which would extinguish the debt on 1st October 1931.
Dear Major, Received the Cabinets ultimatum. I can only say it has cut me up very much after all I have paid the Government. I am sure you’ve done your best for me, but there is someone at the bottom of this as I contend after when Tenders were called was a far better fee than Miss Gordon is giving for the Victoria than you compare the Buildings; Consequently my offer should have been accepted and some consideration of my paying over 14,000 to Government as against above or less by Miss Gordon during a period of 5 years in. Given that carry on during time Government were giving out rations. Can I get insurance cut our of my libel. 52 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
The position at 31 December 1927 was as under :-
Purchase of leases Insurance Rental Insurance of hotel buildings
Club
Terminus
Total
£1,777.16.4
£2,402.9.3
£4,180.5.7
£279.7.3
£196.16.4
£476.3.7
£2,057.3.7
£2,599.5.7
£4,656.9.2
Club
Terminus
Total
£722.3.8
£1,097.10.9
£1,819.14.5
£771.16.4
£446.9.3
£1,218.5.7
£506.0.0
£456.0.0
£962.0.0
Amount still owing
Purchase of leases Insurance arrears paid by government on his behalf Furniture
Department of the Interior, central administration. Correspondence files, Annual Single Number Series “J. J. Parer Lease. NT Hotels.”
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Melbourne Punch 1898 A very pleasant reunion took place at Box Hill, 13th November, when Mr Francis Parer, founder of the well-known firm of Parer Brothers, invited over 100 guests to celebrate his sixty-third birthday. A sumptuous repast was provided and the postprandial congratulatory speech was well delivered by Mr M Fletcher and responded to in feeling terms by Mr Parer. Numerous sports were indulged in on the grounds and a grand concert and dance took place in the newly erected hall. Classic, operatic and comic music was rendered by Madame Rubira, Signor Coy, Mr A Clota, Mr Fletcher, Misses Cabus, Miss Coy, Councillor Rawlings, Mr Charlie Fort, and a violin solo by Mr Coy. Mr Fred Parer related his experiences as a war correspondent and Mr Francis Parer Junior supplied the latest in legerdemain. The Fandango – the Spanish favourite – was danced to the accompaniment of castanets. The party dispersed at a late hour, returning to town in drags.
1902 – THE BEST IN THE WORLD On Thursday night at Parer’s Crystal Cafe, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Parer were welcomed back after a trip to Spain. Mr. Hurst, who proposed the health of the guests, bore testimony to the esteem and respect. Mr. Philip Parer had won from Melbourne residents of all nationalities during his 40 years’ residence. He also referred to the success and good citizenship of the Spanish colony transplanted hero through the endeavours of the Parer brothers, and particularly of Mr. Estevan Parer. The last-named gentleman, who was in the chair in proposing the toast of “King Edward,” which was most heartily drunk, declared his satisfaction in living under the British Constitution, which he had no hesitation in characterising as the best in the world.
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The family of Antonio Parer In 1901, Frances Parer bought the Royal Mail Hotel, on the corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets. His brother, John Arthur, took over the hotel in 1905 and operated it until he went bankrupt in 1911, through speculating in land at Wonthaggi. When coal was discovered there were many people who expected it to develop to rival the Ruhr Valley. While the Parers had the Royal Mail, they operated a free information bureau for the people of Melbourne. Francis, who married in 1898 went on to take over the St Kilda Pier Pavilion which was an important part of the fashionable resort of St Kilda for many years. A brochure called St Kilda by the Sea published by the local council to publicise the attractions of the summer season describes Parer’s Pavilion as the “first continental pier pavilion in Australia”. (See pages 47-48) The same brochure explains that the Ozone excursion steamers called at the pier during the summer season and listed the artists from overseas who were to perform that seasonal the numerous St Kilda theatres. The Esplanade and Pier were crowded with fashionable people on public holidays during the summer months. The publication also notes with disapproval in 1915, that some of the girls altered the high lines of their “neck to knees” as far as possible by tears in the leg seams of their costumes “as if by rough wear suggesting that they had no acquaintance with the needle and thread.”
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Top: Christmas card from Francis Parer and his wife, Mary (Curran) to his brother Michael. Above left: ‘The first Continental Pier Pavilion in Australia’. (St Kilda by the Sea, 1915-16, p.66) Above middle: East elevation St kilda pier. 56 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Above right: At the very heart of St Kilda’s attractions was the pier promenade and pier kiosk (St Kilda by the Sea,1915-16). Flanking the kiosk is the exotic new amusement park (Luna Park) on the one hand, and lawns (Catani Gardens) on the other.
August 20, 1902 Australian Financial Gazette We have received from the manager of Parer’s “Royal Mail” Free Information Bureau, corner of Bourke and Swanston Streets, a copy of a well compiled table of distances between Australasian ports and the approximate time steamers occupy between Melbourne and other ports of the Commonwealth and New Zealand, at an average speed of 10, 12 and 15 miles per hour. At the bureau a mass of valuable information my be obtained free, on application, as regards shipping, mining, postal, sporting and other matters, which should be of much interest, particularly to country visitors to the metropolis.
Melbourne Punch 1902 The proprietors of Parer’s Royal Mail Hotel Free Information Bureau have sent us a copy of their “Information Guide and Table of Distances”. Parer’s Hotel is at the corner of Bourke and Swanston streets, one of the focussing points in Melbourne for all lovers of sport – the latest intelligence being posted outside. Attached to the hotel is a special bureau where information is given gratuitously on a large variety of subjects. No trouble of expense is spared by the proprietors to obtain the latest and best advice in all matters of public interest.
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A ROMANTIC WEDDING. That “truth is stranger than fiction” (observes the “Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser”) was verified in connection with a romantic and pretty wedding which took place at St. Augustine’s Church, Maryborough. The contracting parties were Mr Francis Parer — nephew of the well known Messrs Parer Bros., of the Crystal Palace Café, Bourke street, Melbourne — and Miss Mary Curran, for some time past a resident of Maryborough, a young lady held in the highest esteem by all who have had the privilege of her acquaintance. The circumstances which led up to the engagement and happy marriage of the young couple read more like a chapter, of a pretty novel than like a record of stern fact. Owing to the interest always taken in such a “match” a section of our readers, at least, are already familiar with the story, but for the information of those who may not have heard the interesting narrative, we shall tell it as correctly as we can. One of the if features of last St. Patrick’s Day sports in Maryborough was a raffle for a new buggy. Tickets in parcels of 20 were distributed for sale, and one of these parcels was handed to Miss Mary Curran to dispose of. This parcel, with several others, had not been accounted for on the day of the sports, when the drawing or raffle was to take place. The committee of gentlemen appointed to conduct the raffle decided to treat all the tickets not returned as disposed of, and on the drawing taking place it was found that one of the tickets left with Miss Curran was the winning number. The hon. secretary of the sports, Mr J. N. Cleary, informed the young lady of the fact, and intimated that on her paying for the 20 tickets given to her she could claim and receive the prize. After some consideration Miss Curran declined to take the buggy, intimating as her reason that she had determined to return the tickets (which she had been unable to dispose of ), and she did not under the circumstances feel entitled to the prize. The persuasion of some of her friends failed to shake her purpose, and the buggy was raffled again a short time afterwards. Mr Fred Harling, of the firm of Harling and Son, the builders of the vehicle, was in Melbourne a few weeks after the sports, and while at luncheon at Messrs Parer Brothers Café was relating the story to some friends at the table. A young man, who remained silent during the narrative, was nevertheless an interested listener. After the company had dispersed he asked Mr Harling to repeat the facts to him, and the next day he came to Maryborough to obtain their official confirmation. Having done so, he communicated to a local friend his desire to meet the young lady, and a proposal of marriage was the immediate, and — to Miss Curran — very surprising 58 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
sequence. Mr Parer, the young man referred to, was a stranger both to Miss Curran and her friends, and under the circumstances prudence dictated some enquiry concerning him before his proposal could be considered. This course of action he heartily approved, and facilitated by giving references, lay and cleric, of the highest character. Their replies were unanimously of a highly eulogistic character, as far as Mr Parer was concerned, and an engagement was the result of his next visit to Maryborough. St. Augustine’s Church was prettily decorated by Miss Curran’s friends for the interesting ceremony of Wednesday last, although 9 o’clock — a very early hour — was fixed for the ceremony, the church was filled almost to overflowing. The bridegroom was supported by his brother, Mr James Parer, and the bride was given away by Mr Cleary, Miss Sullivan being her bridesmaid. The guests were Mr and Mrs Parer and Mrs Clota, relatives of the bridegroom, Mr and Mrs Harling, Mrs Cleary, Mr W. J. Millane, and Miss Sullivan. The marriage was performed by the parish priest, Very Rev. Father Mai shall. As the bridal party left the church “The Wedding March” was played by Miss M. Costelio, organist, and a pretty basket of flowers was presented to the bride by Miss Eily Cleary. The happy couple and guests were entertained at a sumptuous wedding breakfast by Father Marshall, after which Mr and Mrs Francis Parer and their friends proceeded by the 11 o’clock train to Melbourne. The bridegroom presented to the brides maid. Miss Sullivan, a handsome gold bracelet, with sapphires and pearls, also an ivory bound prayer book.
Weekly Times, Page 9, Saturday 3 September 1898, A ROMANTIC WEDDING. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Parer’s Pier Pavilion Parer’s Pavilion on the St Kilda pier shares with the other good tea refreshment rooms the Seasiders’ confidence and patronage. The pavilion is opened daily from 10am to 10pm and is famous to visitors to St Kilda as buns were to the young ladies and the elderly bucks of Bath. Those who desire to spend a social afternoon or evening on the pier may arrange, if they like, to have special provisions made for their entertainment in the way of tea parties. The seating facilities are extensive and parties may take their tea on the tables on the ground or pier floor, or they may go aloft to the spacious circular balcony. From this a magnificent view may be obtained round the bay and on a fine day, the headland of Portarlington is visible with the naked eye, though the lengths of vision may be increased by a convenient telescope, kept on this floor. At night, the view shore-wards resembles a fairy scene. The many lights are glowing and they are just far enough away to give a feeling of mystery and enchantment. No visitor to St Kilda should miss the opportunity to view the Esplanade, indeed, the whole shore line, lit up with its thousands of lights and to see the dancing of the reflections in the ever moving waters. The picture formed is truly a notable sight. The pavilion enjoys, under the Commonwealth Meteorological Bureau, a semi-official status. Though, at times, there are plenty of sea breezes there, the pavilion can hardly be called the “Cave of the Winds”. Yet the velocity and power of the winds are registered, and a record is kept of the weather. Mr Parer is an enthusiast in weather lore and almost as great in his way as his wife (who has been in the pavilion for nine years) is in the preparation of seaside dainties, dear to the heart of the visitor. Flags are flown, showing what the weather forecast for the day is, and these flags are hoisted from information received each morning from the office of Mr H A Hunt, the Commonwealth meteorologist. A card issued under the authority of the Minister of State for Home Affairs, explaining the meaning of the flags flown on the staff of Parer’s Pavilion on the pier, may be obtained on application at these excellent tea rooms.
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Michael Parer Bernard Parer recalls that, when his father Michael went bankrupt in 1898 after the Colonial Bank called on him for the money owing on Hosie’s Hotel, he went to Tasmania. His brotherin-law, Thomas Connolly (who had married Agnes Carolin), had a hotel there in Crotty on the West Coast. Michael worked with him for a time and finally bought a block of land there, in Queenstown. The local policeman from whom he had bought the land helped him to obtain a liquor licence for the building he had erected there. He did well there and was able to put up a big new hotel in Queenstown which he named The Empire. Apparently he had the goodwill of a number of businessmen, including Pierce and Cody, Wine and Spirit Merchants of Melbourne. Bernard tells how his father built a cellar under the hotel with walls 18” thick and a blackwood staircase to the second floor. Michael Parer already had five children, all under the age of 7, when they moved to Queenstown. In 1902, Michael sold The Empire and moved to Hobart where he built a hotel with in Elizabeth Street called The Imperial. Another child, Mary, was born there. At this time Michael won £600 in the first Tattersall’s sweep on the Melbourne Cup with tickets bought with “surplus money at the winding up of the Mt Lyell stock exchange of which he was a member”. (Bernard Parer mss.) King Island was being opened up at the time and after a short stay in Melbourne, moved to King Island in 1903. Michael bought a new hotel in Crotty (which had been almost abandoned) in Tasmania and shipped it to Currie, King Island. (Parer’s Hotel on King Island still bears the name although it was bunt down in in 1963 and has been rebuilt in a modern style.) Maria Parer returned to Melbourne for Bernard’s birth in 1905, but their two youngest children, Josephine and Kevin, were born on King Island in 1906 and 1908. The five older boys were sent to Mentone College in Melbourne to board between 1906 and 1908. Opposite Top: Michael Parer and Maria Carolin.. Opposite Left: The Empire Hotel, Queenstown, Tasmania, constructed 1895-1900 by Michael Parer.
In his six years on King Island, Michael Parer achieved a great deal. He persuaded the Government to commence an official survey of the island. The Commercial Bank opened a branch there at his invitation. He was influential in introducing pheasants to King Island and he bought land himself at Grassy and Sea Elephant River. He obtained contracts to supply Victorian Railways with blackwood logs for railway carriages and used bullocks to drag the logs to Grassy for loading onto ships. He found a greenish stone on King Island which he thought might be tin, so he had it assayed by Mines Department in Hobart. It was Tungstate of Calcium (Scheelite) which at the time was used only in Germany for dyeing. When war broke out it was in demand THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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for hardening steel and BHP ‘jumped’ the mine on King Island and operated it thought the First World War. Later, Peko-Wallsend made a lot of money from this mine. Michael was also elected to the Council and took part in improving the roads on King Island and in building the wharf at East Coast and the first wireless station in 1908. In 1911, when his brother, John Arthur, went bankrupt in Victoria, Michael returned to Melbourne and bought a house in the Avenue, Windsor. With his brother-in-law, William Higgins, who had also been his partner in the hotel at Queenstown, he took over the Royal Mail and John Arthur went to King Island to run the hotel there. Michael sold the Royal Mail in 1914 and put some of his money into dinner clubs, The Savoy and Francatelli. These were not a success because of the introduction of six o’clock closing in Victoria early in the war years. He put the remainder of the money from the sale of the Royal Mail into shares in Parer’s Crystal Café and became the licence there. Bernard says that his father also bought country properties to supplement his income. His sons, Kevin and Tony, ran these properties at various times in Balranald, Mt Colite, Barwon Heads and Yarraville, after the war. His other sons, Ray (now famous as an aviator after flying a single engined plane back from Britain at the end of the war), Bob, Kevin and Bernard were in New Guinea in the 1920s. Ray and Kevin ran an airline there and the others went prospecting for gold and were later involved in running plantations. Michael died in Melbourne in 1935. Bernard recalls that his father was always interested in mechanical things and his favourite reading was popular mechanics. He was in England in 1909 to see Louis Bleriot fly across the English Channel.
Far left: King Island Hotel. The forest on King Island near Greasy, the location of the Hotel, with Michael Parer with the shovel standing on log at left. 64 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
From left to right: Boys of Michael Parer Tony, Bob Vincent, Ray, Leo at the Rock Hotel, Hobart, 1901.
From left to right: Michael Parer family Maria, Kevin, Lillian, Bernard, Mary, Tony, Bob, Vincent, Ray, Leo circa 1920. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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John Arthur Parer John Arthur’s grandson, Michael S Parer takes up the story of his grandfather from the time the family moved to King Island in 1911. John Arthur and his wife, Teresa (Carolin) had five children when they went to live on the island. Teresa returned to Melbourne in 1912 for the birth of her youngest child, Damien, who was to become famous as a cameraman, both in film and as a war photographer, before he was killed in New Guinea in 1944. The family lived on King Island until 1918, when John Arthur made the first of the trips to Monte Carlo for which he is remembered in the family. He had become interested in some figures brought back from the casinos by another man. He is said to have worked on these in the cellar to get away from the children and he became convinced that he had a system to beat the tables. With his wife he set out to try his system and returned almost penniless, but still convinced that his system would work if he had enough money to try it out properly. He returned to Monte Carlo at least twice more and on one occasion his son, Stanislaus, had to send him the fare to return home. While he was in Europe in 1918, his tow sons Bernard and Alfonso, who had been left in charge of the hotel in King Island, sold it and although he held out for another £1,000 on his return, the sale went ahead. The family moved to the Riverina and later to Albury where Teresa and her daughter, Doreen, had a café. Michael Barbeta, the son of John Arthur’s sister Marietta, had a hotel in Albury which she bought for him with the money she got for her Crystal Café shares which she sold to William Angliss. In the 1930s John Arthur and Teresa joined other members of the family in New Guinea and he built a hotel at Wau. His brother Adrian was studying to be a priest. John and Teresa left New Guinea in 1941 and other members of the family were evacuated ahead of the Japanese advance. I believe that Michael’s son, Kevin was the first European civilian to be killed by the Japanese in New Guinea, in 1942. I believe that there are still Parers in New Guinea, but most of the family returned to Australia and some settled in Queensland, where Bernard Parer now lives.
Opposite: John Arthur Parer and Teresa Carolin on their wedding day. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Stanislaus Arthur Parer John Arthur’s son Stanislaus, had a company in Melbourne, called Stanford, which pioneered the use of x-ray equipment. At the beginning of World War II he had a contract to develop a new 35mm x-ray machine for the government.
An Australian Company Serving Medical Science & Industry in Australia. Head Office & Factory: 256 Wellington Street, Collingwood, Victoria Branches:—For sales and service in all States — ADELAIDE: 188 North Terrace BRISBANE: “Kelso”, Wickham Terrace HOBART: 94 Liverpool Street MELBOURNE: 71 Collins Street PERTH: 156 Hay Street, Subiaco SYDNEY: 135 Macquarie Street
JA 4177 W 6733 B 4291 B 5805 MF 5538 W 3665 BU 5764
WORLD FAMOUS EQUIPMENT SUPPLIED & SERVICED BY STANFORD IN AUSTRALIA
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Adrian Parer – Father Ferdy John Arthur’s son Adrian became a priest, Father Ferdinand. A newspaper article in 1976, describes him as he was when Roma Catholic chaplain to the Palm Island Aboriginal reserve: A shaggy haired, stooping figure who is in constant pain from a leg injury, Father Ferdy, a Franciscan, is 66 and come to Palm Island because no other priest would take the job. He told me, I’ll die with my thongs on, but I won’t retire. Who wants to vegetate in some old people’s home?” The article also relates that: Father Ferdy’s doctrinal views are unorthodox. He believes in the priesthood of all believers — “the clergy are mere functionaries” – prays daily for the Pope to retire and for the ordination of married men. After working for 21 years as a missionary in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines, he walked out of his New Guinea village post (his flock said he had gone bush) and roamed Europe and the United States seeking out whether God was “really present in the Catholic church”. He now lives in Queensland and still is active as a priest at the age of 73. Father Ferdinand’s nephew, Michael, also became a priest and rose to prominence within the Catholic church in Australia before he left in a storm of publicity in 1971. He is now a lecturer in a tertiary college in Victoria. Before he left the priesthood he was “logical advisor” to the Secretariat for Christian Unity at the Second Vatican Council.
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Ray Parer The Canberra Times in July 1980 noted that: A partly resorted 1918 single engined DH9 fighter-bomber, an important relic of Australia’s aviation history, is on display at the Monaro Hall today to mark the 60th anniversary of its arrival in Darwin from London. Lieutenants Ray Parer and John McIntosh, both of the Australian Flying Corps, set off from London on January 8, 1920 and arrived at Darwin on August 2 – just short of seven months. Ray Parer, who died in Brisbane in 1967, was the son of Michael Parer and grandson of Antonio Parer. Even as a child he showed great interest in aeroplanes, designing models and engines for aircraft. When war broke out in 1914, he was well on the way to designing an ending which “experts who had examined the designs were of the opinion would revolutionise the flying machine, for it would be so much less in bulk, weight and oil consumption, yet would give a greater power.” (Raymond Parer – 1921. p.20). He enlisted at once in the Australian Flying Corps as a mechanic. The Australian authorities decided for the first time to train some of their mechanics as pilots and Ray was one of the first seven chosen. He trained first in Australia and then in England. Unfortunately, a remark about a weak heart on his original medical report stayed with him throughout his career with the Flying Corps and he was never allowed to fly as a fighter pilot over the lines. He had in fact flown above 10,000 feet many times without ill-effect, but he remained a test pilot in England throughout the war. He was considered to be one of the best test pilots they had ever had as he had never crashed any of the new planes he was testing nor had he ever had a serious accident in one. At the end of the war, the Australian Government offered an award of £10,000 for the first successful flight from England to Australia. Ray Parer wrote home saying that he intended to make such a flight, but the prize had been won before he could find himself a machine to make the journey. Apparently, a Scottish distiller gave Parer and McIntosh the money to buy a plane and for their expenses along the way. However, when they set off from England the plane, which had been nicknamed The Flying Wreck, was considered unsafe by the British authorities who forbade them to take off. They left secretly with £45 and their Australian uniforms. In the next 29½ weeks they made 50 landings, including two crash landings. One, in Burma, they narrowly THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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missed a large crowd on the racecourse and smashed the undercarriage, the propeller and the radiator. Six weeks later, they took off again with an oversize radiator and two lorry radiators bolted together. The Canberra Times reports that: The landed in fields, on race courses, golf courses, in the middle of a polo game, on a sandbar in the middle of a river, on the bed of a shallow river, on the beach and by moonlight in the desert, in an area in which they had been told was full of hostile Arabs. On the last leg of the journey, from Timor to Darwin, 800 miles across the sea, they had only enough fuel for 7½ hours. It is reported that after landing at Darwin airport where they were greeted by Billy Hughes, the Prime Minister, Ray turned on the engine to taxi off the runway, but the engine immediately died because they were out of petrol. Later, Ray pioneered aviation in New Guinea where he was the first man to fly over the Owen Stanley Ranges. He also made and lost a lot of money pearling off Thursday Island and exploring for rutile and uranium around the islands.
Ray Parer—First Solo “Graham White Boxkite” at Point Cook, Victoria, Australia, May 1916.
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Above: Ray Parer and JC McIntosh at Flemington Racecourse after they returned to Australia from the Great Air Race (England to Australia) Right: Lieutenants Parer and McIntosh’s arrival in Mascot Aerodrome in their PD, on completing a flight from England, Sydney, 21 August 1920. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Damien Parer Damien was the youngest son of John Arthur Parer and Teresa. As a child at school he had been fascinated with cameras, beginning with a box brownie at the age of 12 and then with a news camera that he bought with money he won in a newspaper photography competition. A while later he saved enough money to buy a second-hand movie camera and his cousin, Ray, gave him an old movie projector. At the age of 17, he persuaded his older brother, Stan, in the absence of his parents in Europe, to let him take up photography as a career. Stan reluctantly agreed and paid the money necessary to have him apprenticed to a portrait photographer in Melbourne. Although his work as a portrait photographer was restrictive, he continued to experiment with movie photography and gathered a large collection of books on the subject which he studied avidly. His chance came in 1933, when his father happened to be travelling on the train from Sydney to Melbourne where he met the Australian film producer, Charles Chauvel. He mentioned that he had a son who was passionately interested in cinematography. So Chauvel invited Damien to come and watch the filming of his current film, Heritage. Damien was so enthusiastic and full of ideas that he became indispensable to the studio and Chauvel offered him a salaried position. The portrait studio released him and he became a professional movie cameraman. When the filming finished he went to Sydney to try to earn a living and spent a very lean time there until Chauvel, who was now planning to make a series of films with the new National Studios at Pagewood in Sydney, persuaded the manager there to employ Damien. Between 1935 and 1936 he was assistant cameraman on a number of films, none of which were particularly memorable. While there he met Ron Maslyn Williams, who shared his beliefs in the future of the cinema and who was to become a close friend and colleague. Shortly afterwards he found himself unemployed for a time. He returned to still photography to support himself, but he and a few others made a series of short films based on the poetry of Lawson and Paterson, titled This Place Australia. It was shown commercially in Sydney, but did not make them much money. The did however demonstrate his increasing expertise. Maslyn Williams was employed in 1939 by the Australian Department of Commerce film unit in Melbourne and when one of the cameramen died suddenly, he was able to persuade them to employ Damien. In fact, when Maplestone, the unit chief, saw some of Damien’s work he refused to believe that an unknown Australian cameraman could have produced such work. He was appointed to the unit which was taken over by the new Department of Information 76 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Opposite: Photo taken and hand coloured by Max Dupain
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and Damien was told to buy himself a uniform and to get ready to go abroad with the first contingent of the AIF. He was chosen because he happened to be available and unencumbered by family responsibilities. Damien served as a war cameraman in the Middle East for two years and then went to the Northern Mountains of Greece. After their evacuation from Greece he accompanied the AIF to Syria. John Hetherington (Hetherington–1960), who worked with Damien in the Middle East, says that Damien: …was working towards his discovery that the only way the camera can express the terror and brutality of war, as seen by the soldier, is by recording the expressions on the faces of the men under fire… and that this inevitably took him into danger. In Syria he developed this theory by going ahead of the troops into battle so that he could film them advancing. Hetherington also wrote of Damien that: It was Parer’s triumph that, without abating his external eccentricities, he yet quickly conquered even the most rigid militarists’ prejudices against him. He was not an eccentric by design, as exhibitionists are; his eccentricities were as natural to him as his prodigious braying laugh and the colour of his eyes. The quality in him that demolished the dictate which his innocent oddities of behaviour excited in some army quarters was his courage. Photos opposite: Top left: Photo from Kokoda Front Line. Bottom left: The last known photo of Damien, pouring Billy team for an American soldier. Bottom Right: Damien and Elizabeth Marie Cotter get married.
He would have been amused, rather than embarrassed, if anyone had told him he was physically brave, but his bravery belonged to the highest order of courage. Although Parer was too imaginative and too perceptive to be fearless, he persistently risked death – and in the end, found death – because he could not do the task he had set himself without continually imperilling his life. (Hetherington, 1960. p. 165) In 1942, he returned to Australia with two of the three Australian divisions in the Middle East at the beginning of the war in the Pacific. In the war zones he had earned the respect of the soldiers he had filmed because of his bravery and his willingness to share the conditions they experienced. In Australia his name was now well known because of his films of the men in front line battles. The Japanese were advancing in New Guinea where Damien’s parents, his brother and a married THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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sister were living, as were three of his cousins. One of them, Kevin, was killed at Salamaua airfield while ferrying women and children from inland areas to Salamaua. The noise of his plane engine drowned out the sound of approaching Japanese planes and he was shot as he climbed into the cockpit. Damien went to New Guinea and spent the next two years filming the war there from the front lines. The Cinesound version of his film Kokoda Front Line won the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award in 1943 for the best documentary film of the year. In 1943, Damien resigned from the Department of Information after a lot of tension with the back-room boys over his films. He went to work for American Paramount’s team of Pacific war cameramen, on condition that he would be sent to cover Australian soldiers whenever possible. He landed with the first American assault on Guam and gained a reputation with Paramount as an exceptional cameraman, but he was never happy about not being with the Australian soldiers. He went on leave to Sydney in March 1944 and married Elizabeth Cotter whom he had known for many years. His next assignment was the landing of US Marines on the island of Peleliu. He had already decided to leave the American organisation to return to the Australian Department of Information, when he was killed on 17th September 1944 while walking alongside the first tank as they advanced across a swampy isthmus after landing on Peleliu. They were ambushed and Damien died instantly. He was 32. His wife gave birth to a son five months later.
Photos opposite: Top left and Bottom Right: Photo from Kokoda Front Line. Left: Damien off to War. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Other notable Parers The history of the rest of the family remains to be discovered. A glance at the family tree will give some idea of the extent of the family today. The following few notes help to fill in some of the details of contemporary Parers.
Thomas Parer Thomas Parer, otherwise known as Parer the Magician, is the son of Antonio’s youngest son, Estevan. An article in the Herald (Melbourne, 5 March 1979) remembers this popular performer of early television days in Melbourne: “SIM SALLA BIM!” Remember yelling out the magic spell to help Parer the magician with his tricks? He was the first person to perform on Victorian television, presenting his act only four minutes after the official opening. And what an act! Black cape with satin lining swirling, Parer transformed walking canes into scarves, produced doves from nowhere, blew smoke and sparked and pulled Frosty the rabbit out of that proverbial top hat. Frosty was the little creature with the black patch around his eye and the ‘magic breath’. He must be getting on now, but he still lives with Parer in his Gardiner home and is still part of the act.
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Melbourne based Tommy Parer, aka 'Parer the Magician' (photo: bottom right) was billed as 'The Ace of Deceivers' and worked primarily in card tricks and manipulation. Tommy Parer's long career as a magician commenced on 5Â October 1940 when he appeared at his first professional engagement - a party for children. Up until his death in 1985 Parer continued to entertain generations of children
and adults with his sleight-of-hand magic. It is for his work on television that Parer is most well known. On 4 November 1956 he appeared on the opening night of television. Parer presented his act on The Judy Jack Show only four minutes into the opening television transmission. Parer continued performing on television up until 1966. He and his magic rabbit Frosty delighted children for many years on The Happy Show and The Tarax Show. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
83
David Parer David Parer, a great grandson of Antonio Parer and brother of Michael S Parer is David Parer, a film-maker with the ABC and won an award this year (1983) at the Melbourne Film Festival for his film on Douglas Mawson.
Rodney Johnson Rodney Johnson, whose mother was Phyllis Parer, grand daughter of Joseph Parer, is assistant secretary of the Victorian Racing Club, a position which he has held since about 1976. He began work there when he was only fourteen as an office boy and worked his way up to this important administrative position in the Melbourne racing world.
Elaine Jones Elaine Jones, also a daughter of Phyllis Parer, was one of the pioneer members of the Migrant Education Branch of the Victorian Education Department when it was set up in 1969. She transferred there from Princes Hill High School in 1974 and was largely responsible for the setting up of the first Commonwealth Government language centre in Victoria to teach English to migrant children of school age.
Charles Johnson Their father, Charles Johnson, Phyllis Parer’s husband and also a nephew of James Parer’s wife Maggie, managed the Terminus Hotel for his uncle in the 1920s. He later came to Melbourne and married Phyllis. He worked for the Richmond Brewery and was manager and secretary there in the 1930s.
Photo opposite: David Parer with his Logie Award for Best Single Television Documentary/ TV WEEK, 1981 for “Bird of the Thunderwoman” produced in 1979. 84 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
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Notes
1.
This information comes from a letter written by Jose Parer, of the Spanish/French branch of the family, in reply to inquiries made by Andree Parer, great grandson of Antonio Parer about the family’s history while on a visit to Europe.
2.
A number of early arrivals in Australia have not yet been placed on the family tree. One, Salvador Parer, who arrived in 1867 has only recently been identified as a son of Joseph Parer, Pablo Parer’s brother. Francis Parer who came with him may have been his brother or his cousin, the son of yet another brother, Francisco, who is mentioned in a document prepared by Pablo’s son, Joseph, in a document he prepared years later for his daughter Eulalia concerning her ancestors.
3.
It seems unlikely that Teresa Parer (Rubira) or her sister Rosa (Barbeta) ever came to Australia as they married in Spain and died in 1879 and 1880. Their children all came to Australia.
4.
The dates of arrival in Australia of Josef and Francisco Parer are confusing. They are said to have arrived first in New South Wales and to have travelled together to Victoria. However, Joseph’s naturalisation papers say that he arrived in Victoria in May 1855 on the ship Telemarcho. No such ship is recoded as having arrived in a Victorian port on that date. Perhaps the shipping records in Sydney hold the answer.
5.
Other legends about the naming of Bendigo say that is was named for a well-known boxer of the time, Ben Diego or Ben Digio. Another story says that there was a shepherd in the area whose nickname came from that of the boxer and that his employer referred to the area in which he worked as BenDiego’s or Ben Digio’s and the name stuck when the city grew there.
6.
The information about properties owned by the Parers prior to 1860 comes from unpublished manuscripts written by family members from oral family history. The Sand’s and McDougall Melbourne Directories first listing is in 1860 – Frank Parer – 95 Bourke St, East
7.
Bourke Street was numbered East and west from Swanston Street until 1888. Then the Duke Hotel became 212 Bourke Street instead of 95 Bourke Street East and the Crystal Café became 200 Bourke Street.
86 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Notes
8.
He is known as Martin Arenas in the family and appears so in the Melbourne Directories of 1868. In 1860, Estevan’s partner in the Spanish Restaurant is Ysidro Arenas and that is the name that appears in the shipping list for the ship Norfolk on which he is said to have arrived in 1858. The birth certificate of Michael Parer, whose mother was Martin’s sister, Josefa, lists her father as Isidro Arenas. It seems likely that he changed his name to Martin after his arrival in Australia.
9.
The material which is referred to as “family history”, unless otherwise noted, comes from unpublished manuscripts written for written for members of the family by: (I)
Bernard Parer, grandson of Antonio and brother of Ray Parer who became famous as the Australian aviator. It is dated 1972.
(II) Michael Parer, great grandson of Antonio Parer and nephew of Damien Parer, the well known cameraman who won an academy award and for his film on Australian soldiers of the Kokoda Trail. 10. In 1908, Estevan is quoted as saying that he and his brother Francis were the only members of the family in Australia 50 years before. Even if he was not speaking entirely accurately, it does lend strength to the idea that Joseph left Australia again about 1860 and did not return to live here for a number of years. 11. In his Jubilee History of Victoria and Melbourne published in 1888, Levitt mentions that the Parers had a business in Little Bourke Street before they bought the Duke Hotel. (See page 15). 12. Teresa, grand daughter of Juan Parer by his first marriage, recalls hearing it said that Francis also paid the electricity bills for St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne for a number of years. She also has heard that he gave each of his brothers £10,000 as a Christmas present one year. 13. Joseph had a house at Goldspink Terrace in Rathdown Street, Carlton throughout the 1880s except for 1883-4. His brother Juan does not seem to have bought the house until his twin girls were born in 1906, so I am not certain how many years Joseph lived in the Tower House or who else did live there. 14. Tome Rubira and Louis Clota also arrived with Francis Barbeta in 1976. The Clota, Parer sisters and the families all came from Alella. Other members of these two families also THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
87
Notes
came to Australia and Estevan’s second wife was a Clota. The Parers were, deliberately or inadvertently responsible for the chain migration of more than their own immediate family to Australia. 15. Pedro Parer and Salvador Parer also arrived on the ship with Michael Parer but have not yet been identified on the family tree. 16. Juan Parer’s youngest children were twins, Patricia and Carmen. Pat remembers being told that the family moved to the Tower House when she and her sister were babies. She remembers almost nothing of her Uncle Joseph who died when she was only 4. Nevertheless he does not seem to have been much talked about among her side of the family. 17. Patricia Parer also remembers that her father used to make tomato sauce for the Crystal Café and that the Parers had to persuade people to try this strange new fruit in Australia. She also recalls that tomatoes brought over from South Australia were they ripened earlier, cost 16/- a pound. 18. The Salvador Parer who married Mary Callinan in 1884 and whose first child was called Susan was in fact the one who arrived in Melbourne in 1867. He was a cousin of the Parer brothers and for many years took a prominent part in running the Duke Hotel. When he died, his cousin Eulalia’s husband, Marcus Clota who was also his partner in the Duke, signed the death certificate. 19. The Exchange Hotel was sold in 1902 to Stephen Parer who was probably John’s brother Estevan. 20. Angela (Angeletta) Parer’s naturalisation papers in 1930 give as her reason for not becoming an Australian citizen earlier that it had never seemed necessary as she had always been able to vote.
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Appendix 1
The following information has been extracted from two main sources:
1.
Naturalisation certificates.
2.
Shipping Lists available in the Public Records Office, Melbourne.
Sometimes the two sources contradict each other as regards age, date or arrival, ports of embarkation and disembarkation and in one case even on the name of ship on which the immigrant arrived. This has to be attributed to the frailties of the human memory, especially as the people concerned age. The shipping lists have not yet been thoroughly searched. Unfortunately, the remaining records are on microfilm and listed according to the names of the ships rather than by family name of date of arrival.
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Appendix 1
The First Australian Parers Name
Lifespan
Ship
Departed
Josef Francisco Andreu Parer y Bosch (Joseph) – Son of Pablo
1829-1910
Telemacho
Francisco Joseph Anton Parer y Xicola (Francis) – Son of Pablo
1835-1915
Estevan Juan Josef Parer y Xicola(Stephen) – Son of Pablo
1838-1911
Norfolk
London
Ysidro Francisco Manuel (Martin) Arenas (Martin) – Brother-in-law
1832-1908
Norfolk
London
Felipe Jose Javier Parer y Xicola (Phillip) – Son of Pablo
1840-1920
Anglesea
Juan Miguel Jose Parer y Xicola (Johnny) – Son of Pablo
1845-1926
Salvador Parer y Renom – Son of Pablo Parer’s brother Josef
Date of Arrival
Arrived
Montevideo
29 May 1855
Sydney
London
1 December 1856
Sydney
28 November 1857
9 February 1857
Melbourne
28 November 1857
9 February 1857
Melbourne
London
12 January 1861
Melbourne
Anglesea
London
12 January 1861
Melbourne
1844-1904
True Britton
Plymouth
21 December 1867
Melbourne
Francisco Joseph Anton Parer y Xicola (Francis)
1835-1915
True Britton
Plymouth
21 December 1867
Melbourne
Augustine Barbeta y Parer (Gus)
1851-1937
True Britton
Plymouth
21 December 1867
Melbourne
Miguel Joaquin Ramon Parer y Arenas (Michael)
1859-1935
Somersetshire
Gravesend
20 November 1874
22 January 1875
Melbourne
Pedro Barbeta y Parer (Peter)
1855-1933
Somersetshire
Gravesend
20 November 1874
22 January 1875
Melbourne
Salvador Barbeta y Parer
1844-1904
Somersetshire
Gravesend
20 November 1874
22 January 1875
Melbourne
Juan Arturo Luis Gonzaga Parer y Arenas (John Arthur)
1867-1953
Ballarat
London or Brindisi
30 November 1883
Melbourne
Marietta Parer y Arenas
1862-1950
Ballarat
London or Brindisi
30 November 1883
Melbourne
Francisco Parer y Arenas (Francis)
1861-1935
Siam
Ceylon
1 November 1879
Melbourne
Northumberland
England Barcelona
17 January 1881 or 1884
Melbourne
Salvador Parer
Date of Departure
Francisco Barbeta y Parer
1860-1925
Atlanta
London
29 December 1879
Melbourne
Estevan Parer y Arenas (Stephen)
1871-1954
Polynesian
Marseille
20 October 1887
Melbourne
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Appendix 1
Age
Occupation
Naturalisation
Source
26
Architect
16 February 1858
Naturalisation Papers NSW granted 1858, Victoria granted 1888
21
Gardner
13 February 1895
Naturalisation Papers. Jubilee History of Victoria & Melbourne.
18
Miner
26 September 1866
Naturalisation Papers, 1866. Shipping Lists.
24
Miner
20
Shipping Lists.
13 February 1895
Naturalisation Papers, 1895. Obituary – Argus 1920
16 23 or 25
Artist
Naturalisation Papers. Shipping list.
30
Artist
Naturalisation Papers. Shipping list.
30
Artist
Naturalisation Papers. Shipping list.
15
Miner
Shipping list. Note shipping list shows age at 25. Naturalisation papers.
20
Miner
Naturalisation Papers. Shipping list.
30
Miner
Shipping list.
16
21
17
13 April 1891
Naturalisation Papers.
17
16
1 November 1897
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Appendix 1
The First Australian Parers Name
Lifespan
Eulalia Rosa Casmira Parer y Xicola Daughter of Pablo (married Marcos Clota)
1847-1916
Josefa Antonia Lorenza Parer y Xicola Daughter of Pablo (married Juan Cabus)
1851-1928
before 1914
Juana Maria Josepha Parer y Xicola Daughter of Pablo (married James Triado)
1852-1922
before 1886
Antonio Parer y Bosch (Abi) Son of Pablo (married to Josepha Arenas y Xicola)
1828-1897
before 1886
Josepha Arenas y Xicola Married Antonio Parer
1831-1913
before 1886
Luis Clota y Colomer Brother of Josefa Clota (married Estevan Parer)
1864-1928
Antonio Barbeta y Parer Rosa Parer’s son
?
Rosa Parer y Arenas Antonio’s daughter
1857-1938
James Rubira y Parer Teresa Parer’s son
1863-1935
Francis (Frank) Rubira y Parer Teresa Parer’s son
1868-1955
Juan (John) Cabus Husband of Josefa Parer y Xicola
1843-1919
Iago (James) Triado Husband of Juana Parer y Arenas
1863-1935
Marcus Clota Husband of Eulalia Parer y Arenas
1844-81
92 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Ship
Departed
Date of Departure
Atalanta
Date of Arrival
29 December 1879
Arrived
Melbourne
before 1886
Atalanta
London
Sydney
1879
29 December 1879
Melbourne
Marseille
6 September 1888
Melbourne
Plymouth
before 1886
Appendix 1
Age
Occupation
Naturalisation
Source
IN Photograph taken at Box Hill in 1886
15
IN Photograph taken at Box Hill in 1886
16
Farmer
17 March 1891
Had license at Bull & Mouth Hotel in Bourke St in the 1890s. Naturalisation Victoria 17 March 1891.
17 March 1891
48
16
Caterer
13 May 1890
IN Photograph taken at Box Hill in 1886
THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
93
Appendix 1
Ships
Francisco Joseph Anton (Francis) Parer and Salvador Michael Parer and Augustine (Gus) Barbeta sailed on the True Briton ship from London to Melbourne by way of Plymouth and the Cape of Good Hope in 1867 arriving in Melbourne at Hobson’s Bay on the 18th December 1967.
True Briton Sailing log 21st September 1867
– Sailed from London, Captain George H. Bawn, for Melbourne.
23rd September 1867
– Sailed from Gravesend for Melbourne.
24th September 1867
– Passed Deal for Melbourne.
26th September 1867
– Called into Plymouth to embark passengers for Melbourne.
29th September 1867
– Sailed from Plymouth for Melbourne.
27th October 1867
– Crossed the Equator.
17th November 1867
– Crossed the meridian of Cape of Good Hope.
18th December 1867
– Anchored in the Hobson’s Bay.
22nd December 1867
– Berthed alongside the pier at Melbourne.
94 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
Specifications Built by: Launched: Tonnage: Length: Breadth: Depth: Machinery: Decks: Built of: Type: Registered: Off Number: Built for: Other info:
Money Wigram & Son's, at Blackwall. July 1861 1,04642/94 198 feet 32 .4 feet 20.8 feet Sail Wood Barque 21311 Money Wigram & Son's Crew 60
Length of the Three Masts, from the Deck to the Royalmast heads:Mainmast: 152 feet, 6 ins.; Foremast: 147 feet, 6 ins.; Mizenmast: 125 feet;
From the Argus, Thursday 19 December 1967 True Briton (Messrs. Money Wigrwam and Sons’ line), 1,000 tons. Geo. H. Bown, commander, Plymouth 29th September. Passengerscabin : Mr. H. Andorson, Misses Twedall (2), Messrs. U. Alexandor, T. Horsnall, G. Lucas, A Woodall, S. Wolkor, Frank Edwards, D. Hammond, P. Hammond, Misses Fanny and Lucy Goodall ; and 79 in the second and third cabins. W. P. White
Appendix 1
Left: The Norfolk which transported Estevan Juan Josef Parer y Xicola(Stephen) and Ysidro Francisco Manuel (Martin) Arenas (Martin) left London on 28 November 1857 arriving in Melbourne on 9 February 1857. THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
95
Appendix 2
The following material is from the brochure for the Bourke Street on Saturday Night exhibition held in the new Performing Arts Museum at the Melbourne Concert Hall. The material gives interesting information on the attractions of Bourke Street around the turn of the century and earlier when the Parer family were very much a part of Bourke Street. The map included, clearly shows the family’s participation in the social life of the city of Melbourne. LATROBE STREET
LITTLE LONSDALE STREET
LONSDALE STREET
LITTLE BOURKE STREET L1817 6
G 10 F 9E 8
27 13
A B C D E F G
Palace Theatre Eastern Market he Haunted Swing Waxworks Theatre Royal St Georges Hall Orient Hotel
H I J K L M N
Cyclorama Gait and Bijou Theatres Victoria Club Opera House Cobb & Co Office Colosseum Britannia Theatre
96 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
SWANSTON STREET
T QUEE
NS BR I
DGE S TREE
CLARENDON STREET
Landmarks
3 B
12 26
FLINDERS STREET
YARRA RIVER
11
SPRING STREET
28 14
2 A
EXHIBITION STREET
30 16
4 C
15 414J13 I12H 11 516 K
SWANSTON STREET
33 19
18 32
31 17
ELIZABETH STREET
FLINDERS LANE
KING STREET
SPENCER STREET
COLLINS STREET
34 20
QUEEN STREET
LITTLE COLLINS STREET
WILLIAMS STREET (MARKET SREET)
25 24 923 822 721 N 20 M 19 11 10
37 D 6 25
RUSSEL STREET
PO
29 15
BOURKE STREET
Appendix 2 Parer Hotels and Restaurants in Central Melbourne Hotel or Restaurant Name
Address
Ownership
Years
1
The Imperial Hotel
4 Bourke Street
John Arthur Parer Maggie Parer
18831903 1903-1904
2
Parer’s Crystal Palace Café
200 Bourke Street
Parer Brothers
1885-1950
3
The Duke de la Victoria
Bourke Street
Parer Brothers Salvador Parer & Marcus CLota
1861 1891-1914
4
Prince of Wales Hotel
Bourke Street
Eusebio Clota
1901-1903
5
Royal Mail Hotel
263 Swanston Street
Francis Parer John Arthur Parer Michael Parer
1901-1905 1905-1911 1911-14
6
Albion Hotel
292 Bourke Street
Joseph Parer
1891-1892
7
Bull and Mouth Hotel
293 Bourke Street
Rubira Family
1886-post WWI
8
Spanish Restaurant & Victoria Baths (later became Cole’s Book Arcade)
Bourke Street
Estevan Parer & Martin Arenas Augustus Barbeta
1862-1874 1875-1883
9
Rubira’s Café and Pie Shop
305-307 Bourke Street
James Rubira
1891-?
10
Bath’s Hotel & Hosie’s Turkish Bathing Palace (Renamed Barbeta’s Turkish Baths)
Bourke Street
Barbeta Brothers
1884-1886
11
Royal Arcade
Bourke Street
12
Exchange Hotel
255 Little Collins Street
John A Parer & William Higgins
1890-1902
13
Gippsland Hotel
Swanston Street
John A Parer & William Higgins
1891-1911
14
Hosie’s Hotel
1-4 Elizabeth Street
Augustus Barbeta & Michael Parer
1888-1898
15
John Bull Hotel
365 Little Collins Street
James Rubira Francis Rubira Martin Arenas
1885-1891 1891-1895 1895-1902
16
London Hotel
15 Market Street (William Street)
John A Parer & William Higgins
1887-1888
17
Old London Tavern
99 Elizabeth Street
Francis Parer
1887-1888
18
Royal Arcade Hotel
303 Little Collins Street
James Triado
1888-1892
19
Yarra Family Hotel
430 Flinders Street
Michael Parer Clota & Rahola
18886-1887 1887-1888
20
Temple Court Hotel
105 Queens Street
Frederick Parer
1903
1883-1896
THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
97
Bibliography
Primary sources Bourke Street on Saturday Night. “The Memories of Charlie Fredrickson the man outside Hoyts.” Exhibition at the Performing Arts Museum, Melbourne Concert Hall. 1983. Family Bible of the Clota Family – given to Eulalia Clota by her brother, Joseph in 1902. Jubilee History of Melbourne and Victoria. TWH Levitt, Wells and Levitt, Melbourne, 1888. (I have included this as a primary source because I consider it to be a historical document in its own right.) Naturalisation Papers – Australian Archives, Canberra. Estevan Parer
September 1866
John Parer
December 1888
Joseph Parer
December 1888
Michael Parer
March 1881
Salvador Parer
September 1889
Felipe Parer
February 1895
Francis Parer
March 1891
Giuseppe Parer
February 1894
Juan Parer
February 1895
Angela Parer
1930
Newspapers Argus
10-02-1908
p.7 Estevan’s 50th anniversary
Argus
08-08-1920
p.8 Felipe’s obituary
Argus
13-11-1915
Francis’ obituary
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Acknowledgements
Elaine Jones Who first interested me in her family and has made the contacts within the family for me and given me many of her resources.
Michael S Parer For access to his unpublished manuscript and to photographs and cuttings on the family.
Teresa Ingerwersen Who has put together the family tree and is still working on it.
THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY |
99
Editors note
First off a warm thanks to Ann Wright for her research and incredible efforts with her original publication. It has stood the test of time. This is a republishing of Ann Wright’s Graduate Diploma paper for Multicultural Education from Mercy Teachers’ College, The Parers of Catalonia. An Australian Pioneer Family. Originally published in 1983, various spiral-bound photocopies and photocopies of photocopies have been bandied around by many interested family members. The use-by date of these copies is fast approaching. It is an incredibly useful document for gaining an understanding of the early Parer family and many of the facts and documents providing evidence and insight. A man of the digital age, I found it frustrating that I could neither search or easily reference good quality aspects of this document for my own use. Emailing or viewing scans of photocopies felt like using a fax machine and required hefty file-sizes. I had begun gradually transcribing elements of the paper and eventually concluded that with high resolution photos and typeset text a digital copy would be warrented and could be circulated to interested persons. I have remained true to the original text except for typesetting and design. I have edited slightly and reorganised aspects throughout the paper where I thought it aided flow. Extra photography has been added where available and appropriate. Only one photo was left out from Ann’s original version, that of Phyllis Parer on her wedding day in the 1920s, because the original was not attainable at this time. With the immigration tables and hotel map, I have slightly re-imagined and added to them with newly researched information uncovered. If there was doubt, it was left as Ann had them originally. I’m sure there will be developments here going forward with more research currently in the wings. I have attempted contacting her to request acquiescence for re-publishing her work, without luck. I trust she treats it in a worthy light; that it is though a need to modernise her current work and make it more easily available.
Ben Parer
100 | THE PARER’S OF CATALONIA: AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
THE PARERS OF CATALONIA AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
JUNE 1983
BY ANN WRIGHT
THE PARERS OF CATALONIA AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
This is a republishing of Ann Wright’s Graduate Diploma paper for Multicultural Education from Mercy Teachers’ College, The Parers of Catalonia. An Australian Pioneer Family. Originally published in 1983, various spiral bound photocopies and photocopies of photocopies have been bandied around by interested family members. The use-by date of these copies is fast approaching. It is an incredibly useful document for gaining an understanding of the early Parer family and many of the facts and documents providing evidence and insight. Edited by Ben Parer the paper has been updated for the digital age with newer technology, better quality photography coupled with revamped layout and design.
THE PARERS OF CATALONIA AN AUSTRALIAN PIONEER FAMILY
JUNE 1983
BY ANN WRIGHT