↓ SECTION 04 —THE MAIL ROOM
WESTERN DISTRICT DREAMING Richard Allen (P’80) knew that he would come across a lot of Old Geelong Grammarians when writing his most recent book, Great Properties of Country Victoria: The Western District’s Golden Age (Melbourne University Publishing, 2015), which features twenty of the Western District’s most notable properties. “If you dig deep enough you’ll find a connection with almost every property,” Richard said. Featuring an introduction by historian Geoffrey Blainey and photography by Kimbal Baker, the book explores the Western District’s journey from a wild frontier to a source of enormous wealth, which enabled the building of elaborate mansions and grand gardens. In his history of Geelong Grammar School, Light Blue Down Under, Weston Bate suggested that the School’s foundation in Geelong in 1855 was determined to a large degree by the growing wealth of the Western District. “It was planned, like an English grammar school, to provide an academic education for local boys, but at the same time offer boarding accommodation for the sons of pioneer pastoralists, who hoped for status similar to that conferred by foundations like Winchester and Eton.” By 1880, the wool boom had created a Western District aristocracy and 90 of the School’s 132 pupils were boarders. “What mere numbers do not reveal is the roll-call of scions of the Western District – the Mackinnons, Fairbairns, Armytages, Manifolds, Chirnsides, Austins, etc. – who brought wealth and social privilege to GGS and received what was not available elsewhere, an aura of gentility,” Bate explained. Similarly, Great Properties of Country Victoria is something of a roll-call of well-known GGS names – the Armytages, Baillieus, Chirnsides, Fairbairns, Manns, Youngmans, etc. Richard Allen had no connection to the Western District beyond the country boys and girls he knew from school, but the names were familiar.
“Undoubtedly there is a lot of romance attached to the Western District but it was bloody hard work for those guys, and they were predominantly men, who settled there in the 1830s and 1840s,” he explained. “There was fire, there was drought, and many, many years of hardship before they were able to make the extraordinary amounts of money which enabled them to build these beautiful houses. These are classic Australian stories, where you could go from rags to riches if you worked hard and you were smart.” One of the great strengths of the book is that it blends the rich history of each property with contemporary accounts of life on the land, from Harry Youngman (Cu’84)’s scientific approach to compost to Tim (Cu’86) and Jenny Clarke (Ryan, Je’82)’s ventures in China. “We wanted to tell the stories of the properties but we also wanted to make sure that people didn’t think that they are museums, because they’re not. They’re living, breathing, working properties that are run by people who are passionate about the land and they need to make a profit to be viable. Things have changed. The wool industry is not what it was 40 years ago and it’s interesting to look at how the families that own these properties have adapted. This is the brave new world of agriculture.” Great Properties of Country Victoria is Richard’s sixth book, following on from the success of Shimmering Spokes: One Australian’s 16,000 Kilometre Odyssey (New Holland Books, 1999), The Spirit of Golf and How It Applies to Life (Melbourne University Publishing, 2011) and Australia’s Remarkable Trees (Melbourne University Publishing, 2014). A former journalist who began his career at Business Review Weekly (BRW) magazine, he has written for the Australian Financial Review, The Age and Sunday Telegraph (UK). “I’ve got a PR/communications business, which I’ve been doing for 15 years,” he said. “The writing I do for fun. It’s thrilling to hold a book in your hands that you’ve written.” His current writing project is the fourth volume of the history of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, which is scheduled for publication in 2016 to mark its 125th anniversary (previous volumes have been published in 1941, 1976 and 1991).
Richard Allen and Kimbal Baker
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LIGHT BLUE - GEELONG GRAMMAR SCHOOL