Dhurringile Mansion - the Blitz Boys (UK orphans)
(Picturesque Victoria, by Vagabond - Goulburn Valley III - The Argus, Melbourne 1884)
The homestead is a magnificent mansion, built on a slight eminence near the road. Dhurringile is a native name, meaning "emu's back," so called from its shape and the fact that emus, as well as wild turkeys, congregate there. Desolate are the halls of Dhurringile now, for the owner is in Europe, but the manager shows us every hospitality, and seduces me to mount the tower to see the view. The ranges afar off, the long tract of level country, park-like where it has been cleared, but dismal to the eye where there is naught but mile after mile of dead gum, the woolshed close at hand where fleeces are transmuted into gold — all this must be a pleasing sight to the owner of these broad acres, and with a bottle of choice Falerian and a two-dollar cigar, I think I could even find life endurable under such circumstances. Who would have thought that I should meet an old South Sea beachcomber here? We exchange reminiscences of Tanna and Yasur. Talking with Mr. Minter, the station manager, as to the capabilities of the land, he tells me that, although last year there were 800 acres ploughed at Dhurringile, this year he has only 200. The ground, after a crop of wheat has been taken off, is sown with lucerne, which is permanent feed. Owing to the difficulty in obtaining labour at the proper season it does not pay to grow wheat; besides there is the question of rain. At the shearing time, which is close at hand, the small selectors can earn money working in the woolsheds, but at the season of harvest every agricultural labourer is working on the smaller holdings. With a better supply of labour, a better price for wheat, and an assured rainfall, wheat-growing on a large scale, I am told, might be made profitable. As regards the rainfall in this district, it certainlv is very erratic.... |
James Winter (1834-1885)
James Winter was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1834 and came out to Victoria with his parents John and Janet and his siblings in 1841. In 1857, in partnership with his father and brothers they brought the Colbinabbin station and others in the Rodney district of Victoria at a cost of around £200,000.
On the dissolution of the family partnership in 1868 James retained the Toolamba estate and architects Lloyd Tayler and Frederick Wyatt designed his 68 room mansion “Dhurringile-house” which was built in 1877 for a reported £30,000.
“…In 1870 he was elected president of the shire council of Waranga, of which he had been a member from 1864, and he was made a territorial magistrate by the Kerferd Government…”
On the 27th April 1871, aged 36, he married Caroline Pettett, a daughter of former Hawthorn Mayor, William Henry Pettett, who, coincidentally has a stained glass window erected to his memory in Holy Trinity Church at Stawell which depicts St Peter & St Paul and it too was made by Ferguson & Urie circa 1871.
“…At the latter end of 1873 a railway league was formed – of which he was elected president, to bring a railway down the valley of the Goulburn…”
In 1883 he travelled to England via the USA where he selected twenty seven ewes and twenty three American Merino sheep for breeding on his property in Victoria. Shortly before his intended return to Australia in late January 1885 he fell ill died of inflammation of the lungs at Carlisle House, Central Hill, Norwood on the 3rd February 1885.
Dhurringile:
Dhurringile remained within ownership of the family for many years. In 1890 Mr. M. Minter was the manager of the Dhurringile estate. His two sons drowned on the property in 1895. The property was eventually sold at auction in March 1902 to J. J. Falconer of the Australian Mortgage, Land, and Finance Company Ltd for £173,527.
In 1910 Thomas Hastie was the manager of Dhurringile station and was appointed a member of the Closer Settlement Board. Two years later in 1912 it was owned or managed by Everard Browne
The property remained vacant for a number of years and was eventually sold to Vincent Hart in 1925, but it still remained unoccupied during his ownership. In 1939 Hart rented the property to the Government for use as an internment camp for German and Italian alien civilians and by 1941 it was being used by the army as a prisoner of war camp for Germans.
In 1947 Dhurringile was purchased by the Presbyterian Church who refurbished the dilapidated property and after a public appeal in 1949 the church raised £15,000 to assist with the repairs. The property eventually opened in late 1950 as the “Dhurringile Presbyterian Rural Training Farm”, which was intended for accommodating and training immigrant boys from the UK whose fathers had died during the war. The first twenty nine boys from England and Scotland arrived aboard the ‘Cheshire’ in late December 1950.
In 1965 the property was purchased by the Victorian Government for use in the rehabilitation of alcoholic prisoners. The property is still used as a minimum security prison to this day but the mansion itself is only used for administration and as a training centre.
The extant Ferguson & Urie stained glass windows in the mansion, depict the Kangaroo and the Emu, the deities “Flora & Pomona,” a gothic decorated fanlight window and an arched window depicting the seasons which is very similar to the seasons window at Mandeville Hall in Toorak which also has Flora and Pomona windows.
James Winter was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1834 and came out to Victoria with his parents John and Janet and his siblings in 1841. In 1857, in partnership with his father and brothers they brought the Colbinabbin station and others in the Rodney district of Victoria at a cost of around £200,000.
On the dissolution of the family partnership in 1868 James retained the Toolamba estate and architects Lloyd Tayler and Frederick Wyatt designed his 68 room mansion “Dhurringile-house” which was built in 1877 for a reported £30,000.
“…In 1870 he was elected president of the shire council of Waranga, of which he had been a member from 1864, and he was made a territorial magistrate by the Kerferd Government…”
On the 27th April 1871, aged 36, he married Caroline Pettett, a daughter of former Hawthorn Mayor, William Henry Pettett, who, coincidentally has a stained glass window erected to his memory in Holy Trinity Church at Stawell which depicts St Peter & St Paul and it too was made by Ferguson & Urie circa 1871.
“…At the latter end of 1873 a railway league was formed – of which he was elected president, to bring a railway down the valley of the Goulburn…”
In 1883 he travelled to England via the USA where he selected twenty seven ewes and twenty three American Merino sheep for breeding on his property in Victoria. Shortly before his intended return to Australia in late January 1885 he fell ill died of inflammation of the lungs at Carlisle House, Central Hill, Norwood on the 3rd February 1885.
Dhurringile:
Dhurringile remained within ownership of the family for many years. In 1890 Mr. M. Minter was the manager of the Dhurringile estate. His two sons drowned on the property in 1895. The property was eventually sold at auction in March 1902 to J. J. Falconer of the Australian Mortgage, Land, and Finance Company Ltd for £173,527.
In 1910 Thomas Hastie was the manager of Dhurringile station and was appointed a member of the Closer Settlement Board. Two years later in 1912 it was owned or managed by Everard Browne
The property remained vacant for a number of years and was eventually sold to Vincent Hart in 1925, but it still remained unoccupied during his ownership. In 1939 Hart rented the property to the Government for use as an internment camp for German and Italian alien civilians and by 1941 it was being used by the army as a prisoner of war camp for Germans.
In 1947 Dhurringile was purchased by the Presbyterian Church who refurbished the dilapidated property and after a public appeal in 1949 the church raised £15,000 to assist with the repairs. The property eventually opened in late 1950 as the “Dhurringile Presbyterian Rural Training Farm”, which was intended for accommodating and training immigrant boys from the UK whose fathers had died during the war. The first twenty nine boys from England and Scotland arrived aboard the ‘Cheshire’ in late December 1950.
In 1965 the property was purchased by the Victorian Government for use in the rehabilitation of alcoholic prisoners. The property is still used as a minimum security prison to this day but the mansion itself is only used for administration and as a training centre.
The extant Ferguson & Urie stained glass windows in the mansion, depict the Kangaroo and the Emu, the deities “Flora & Pomona,” a gothic decorated fanlight window and an arched window depicting the seasons which is very similar to the seasons window at Mandeville Hall in Toorak which also has Flora and Pomona windows.