James William Davoren arrived in Sydney Australia on the Nivenah, after 90 days at sea. I have tried to imagine his emotions having made the decision to leave his homeland and family forever and travel half way across the world to a remote colony of the British Empire. The journey itself would be fraught with danger. But what choice did he have?  To stay in Ireland without land he would be unlikely to marry and the best he could hope for was to gain sustenance from his eldest brother, William.  The threat of starvation was ever present and harassment by the authorities was a constant affair.  Perhaps Australia promised a full and prosperous life, so he grabbed the opportunity at the tender age of 21. I have no record of his journey on the Nivenah to Sydney but I do have a copy of the diary of my great grandfather Moffat’s journey to Australia some years before. This link to an extract is typical of the daily entries.  The journey would be, for the most part, very boring, broken only by moments of absolute terror.  But death on board was commonplace and seemingly, an acceptable risk to take.

None of my family knew why he chose to come to the Kilmore/Yea area or indeed Australia for that matter. While gold was the attraction in the 1850's, gold was not the attraction at the time my grandfather departed Ireland. 

Patrick O’Farrell, “The Irish in Australia” states:

Very few famine refugees came to Australia. Its mass Irish population came from the 1850s to the 1880s in search of land, fortune and adventure. They were a much more accomplished, venturesome and happy lot than those the Famine had dumped on America.  

Australia's Irish population was mainly post-famine.  Those whose families had come through that period were educated, (by 1901 Ireland literacy rate was 80% higher than both the USA and Britain) and less traumatised. The emigration figures tell the story. In the famine decade of 1841 to 1850 under 2 percent of those who left Ireland came to Australia (23 000). In the 1851 to 1860 decade, Australia got almost five times that number 101540 or 8.3 percent of the total; in 1861 to 1870, it was 82900 or 10 percent.  Of the total that left Ireland; the seventies received, 61946 (11.4 percent); the eighties, 55476 (7. 55 percent), thereafter declining rapidly. The Irish emigrant totals for 1851 to 1921 make the United States/Australia contrast overwhelmingly evident for the post-famine period. Four million went to North America, just over one third of a million (342 842) went to Australia and New Zealand. Many of these, as in later periods, were assisted, but many were not. Of the 6200 who came in 1854, 1200 to Victoria were unassisted, the lure of gold was attraction enough.

  But analysis of such figures spells out two salient features of emigration to Australia: that it was marked both by elements prompted by a sense of adventure, and by those moved by enterprise and calculation. Patently it was the gold, which established Irish Australia, 101000 Irish immigrants in the 1851 to 1860 decade.

Why did my Grandfather come to this particular part of the world. Was it enterprise, adventure, or calculation? I was determined to discover why he chose to settle where he did.

After arriving in Sydney my Grandfather and his cousin Dennis Farrell who he met up with, headed for the Yea/Kilmore area in Victoria where members of his family, Quinlans and Davorens  had settled.  They were the reason for his decision to travel half way around the world to a remote Australian town in Victoria. Grandfather James's cousin Dennis Farrell, apparently remained in Yea. 

Yea 1890

(It is probably time to explain again the alternative use of the name “Davoren” and “Davern”. As stated in Part 2, James was baptised Davoren which is an Anglicisation of the Irish name.  Explained in Part 1.  My father’s explanation of the name change to “Davern” is that it occurred at the registration of the birth of John, his first born, when a neighbour travelled to Loch to register the birth and spelt the name incorrectly. To avoid trouble, my grandfather registered all his children with that spelling.  All that is except my father, who was not registered at all.  He chose to retain the original spelling.  This doesn’t explain why the name “Davern” appears on James’ wedding certificate though but then if you could lie about your age, why not your name? His relatives in Victoria adopted "Davern" as the spelling, so this may have also influenced him. My uncle William spelt his name as "Davoren" on his wedding certificate but I am unsure under what name his children were registered.)  

Further research has determined that while he was a "Jordan" his father was not. My great great grandfather was Cornelius William Jordan the second son of James Jordan Jones and Margaret Sullivan married in Launceston in 1843. James was convict 777 who obtained free passage on the "James Barry" with 128 others of his ilk, arriving in Van Diemans Land on 4 April 1834 at the tender age of 19 years. No doubt the name change to that of an established family which had gained considerable prestige in the area was good for his tailoring business. Living in Adelaide Street Westbury known as "Hells Kitchen" was not an advantage.

Mary was from Strath Creek, some 27 kms from Yea and about the same distance from Glenburnie.  How long James knew her prior to them moving to Gippsland, I don’t know.  However it was a successful union that produced seven children.  She was described as “tall slim and smart, wore her hair in a bun and was fun to be with”. She once ran the Coffee Palace at Jeetho, whilst bringing into the world seven children.  Six survived, a daughter, Louisa, died at 11 weeks of age through whooping cough.

James was 40 years of age when he married in St Francis Church in Melbourne and Mary was 25.  His marriage certificate has his age as 35 years, a lie that was no doubt necessary to help him woo his young bride.  But age cannot be denied and James’ remaining working life in the industry he chose, was limited.

James Davoren

Mary Jordan

By then he had established himself as a road building contactor and the South Gippsland area was being developed for farming. Roads were being built and land was readily available, albeit most of it heavily forested.  James was responsible for much of the construction of the Grand Ridge road that was to link these settlements. This road runs along the top of the Strzelecki Ranges, a southerly outcrop of Australia's Great Dividing Range.  The Polish-born adventurer of the same name first explored this area in 1840, but it was not settled until 30 years later, about the time James Davoren arrived in Australia.

In 1901, James Davern purchased a store from Australian Star Bowkett Building Society.  It had been erected on allotment 150 in Church Street, belonging to George Arthur in 1892.  The Daverns owned the property until 1917 when it was sold to Elizabeth Whiteman.  I have yet to learn the nature of the business that was carried out from the premises. The photo below is of one of the stores in the Main Street (Station Street). The other is a general view of the town. Compare it with the 2006 Photograph. Then in 1906, James Davern bought allotments 62, 63 and 66 (Carlyle Street) from Frederick Buckland and erected a house on Nos. 62 and 63. He disposed of the house and land in 1920 to Elizabeth Whiteman.  The house on this allotment was eventually moved to a Mr. Tree's property at Jeetho.  I was unable to locate the house, however.

Much of the work undertaken by James was as a contractor to the Council. These notes reflect some of the work undertaken.

"Jeetho Riding, [Coverdale/ Loh] J Davern was appointed at 7/- per day; -- 10/- per day for man, horse, dray etc. Davern was a frequent contractor. [November 1902]

A Deputation [Cr. Loh] of Messrs. Tomasetti/ Morrison/ Davern/ Billing/ E Greening/ E J Wilson asked the Council to let the residents of Jeetho have the use of the Shire Hall at a nominal rental after the business of Council was removed to Korumburra. Promising that if it were put in repair and painted and painted, they would look after and maintain it. 'Council were sympathetic.' Later the Secretary was instructed to write to them to make the offer in writing. Subsequently in November,[Coverdale/ Loh] a lease was accepted.[October 1907]

May 1908; the Government Labourer Bureau asked if there were openings for men in the district; and the letter was just 'received.' The growing use of day labour and employees, however brought new responsibilities; and in response to a letter from Col McInce and Co about insuring Council employees, the Secretary was to report. In July 1908, J Davern asked for an increased allowance for horse hire from 3/- per day to 5/-, which was allowed. "

As is the case, large families attract people to them in high proportions and the Davoren household was always full. A family, the Kennedys who I believe had connections back to Ogonolloe, had a son, Cyril. Cyril became a de facto son of James and a firm friend of my father Fenton Patrick (Pat). Cyril remained a family friend well after the death of my father.  One of his claims to fame was that in 1934, he and his wife Mary became the parents of Graham Kennedy, a famous talk show host and comedian on Australian television. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Kennedy. They divorced in the 1940’s and Graham lived with his mother in the USA for some time before returning to Australia.  Another claim to fame was Cyril liked fast cars and I had a ride in his brand new XK120 Jaguar.

After the turn of the century Jeetho declined rapidly.  Causal factors included the opening of the Wonthaggi/Nyora railway and the transfer of the shire offices to Korumburra.  By 1917 all the businesses had closed and most of the houses and business premises had either been removed to other nearby towns, or had been destroyed by fire.  Despite efforts by some business people, the town never recovered and all that remains today (2006) is the hall, which the Victorian State Government is restoring as a heritage building.

Sadly for James, by 1914 it was becoming routine for municipalities to consider reinforced concrete when building bridges, encouraged by the newly established Country Roads Board, which had a strong preference for permanent materials.  When the old timber bridge in the dairying district of Kardella needed replacing, the Engineer for the Shire of Poowong and Jeetho built a reinforced concrete bridge that would require no further attention, for the price of a timber bridge that would have to be renewed in twenty years. These changes would have impacted negatively on James’ business activities.

Jeetho never reached its promised development.  The highest number of houses and buildings in Jeetho township by 1901, was 24.  This information was disclosed when Mary Davern applied for a victualler's licence for 'The Coffee Palace' in 1901.  The population then was 50 males and 43 females.

The last mention of the coffee palace is recorded in the Loch, Poowong and Bass Valley Express issue of 25th November, 1917, which reported the destruction by fire of the post office, coffee palace, and store all in one building. Nothing was saved except the post office documents.  The post office was then established in the railway station where the stationmaster acted as postmaster.  There were no other stores in Jeetho at that time.

The school was finally closed and is now in the Coal Creek Historical Park in Korumburra. (The original school, pictured, was destroyed by fire). and Jeetho's one church was sold and carted away.  Today, the only original building left standing is the old shire hall, built in 1892.

Jeetho Hall 2006	First Jeetho School

The Jeetho Hall started life as the civic centre of the “Shire of Poowong and Jeetho” and this situation remained for some 17 years from 1892 until the move of council affairs to Korumburra.  The hall contained a large room that the council allowed to be used 'by the public for all manner of entertainments and function'.  Members of the local Catholic community regularly used it for church services.  Following vacation by the shire and a short period of local leasing, Council decided to sell the building to the community, in whose ownership the building has since remained. James Davern is recorded as one of the community representatives at the time. The hall is currently undergoing restoration by the State Government and will be reopened by December 2006. Jeetho Hall Inc has received $40,500 to refurbish and restore the Jeetho Hall and complete works to facilitate various building and occupancy standards.

Much of the information concerning the town of Jeetho was sourced from : "The History of Korumburra", by Joseph White and available through the Korumburra Historical Society.

James was a was a road building contactor and the development of the area provided him with adequate compensation to maintain his growing family.  His prowess as a property investor apparently did not match his contracting skills and he was to leave the area with little in the way of assets. The railway had brought prosperity to Jeetho, but it was short lived. Many railways built during the late 1880s had dubious financial prospects, and little social utility.  The economic crash of 1890 brought an abrupt end to spending on railways, and everything else in Victoria in general.

Construction Grand Ridge Road 1910

The 1880s boom in Victoria was far bigger than the boom in other colonies, and the subsequent depression, far deeper. Melbourne's urban property values declined by 60 percent in four years and the city even lost population in the 1890s and surrendered its status as Australia's largest city to Sydney, New South Wales.  Jeetho’s property values declined to almost zero as the town land reverted back to farmland.

Grandfather James was one of the casualties of the economic crash.

When looking at the photographs of the era it seemed that the family lived well, dressed well and were probably deemed “well off”.  There were serious underlying problems that stemmed from their environment that would impact badly on their future lives.  James had married at 40 so that when he reached retirement age none of his children had reached a level of maturity that could continue to support the family.  The level of education open to them at Jeetho was limited to primary school.  Only the eldest four , John, Edmund, James and Bridget were able to go beyond Primary School. The two younger children were still in Primary School when James’ retired.  Also the children were never required to undertake hard work because James, the father, was earning good money and the older children were not under serious pressure to assert themselves and help provide for the family.  Employment was limited in Jeetho, an area that was in economic decline.

The family moved to the Melbourne suburbs in about 1918 and took up residence in Wattletree Road Malvern.  They were fundamentally rural people and they would have had to make dramatic adjustments to their lifestyle.  By then my Grandfather was 65 years of age and retired.  My father was only nine years of age and continued school at Lloyd Street, East Malvern.  The family never lost their love of the bush. How they coped with their separation from their bush environment, I will explain later. The Wattletree Road Malvern location was central to where the sons and daughter of James established themselves and where I grew up.  None of us lived more than 5 kms from the original family home.  One of the attractions was the adjacent Gardners Creek that ran through East Malvern and provided a small rural environment in a growing Metropolis.

Melbourne in the 1920’s was a large city with a population in excess of 1,000,000. It was an exciting city particularly for the young family.  Female emancipation had followed the Great War and women were not prepared to revert to their pre war stereotypes. It was the era of the “Flapper”.  According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapper the term flapper in the 1920s referred to a "new breed" of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered "decent" behaviour. The flappers were seen as brash in their time for wearing makeup, drinking hard liquor and smoking tobacco. 

The “boys” became great dancers and frequented venues such as the St Kilda Town Hall and particularly the Palais de Dance in St Kilda  (see photo left) searching out and finding “Flappers”. My mother was one of these, although drinking was not one of her weaknesses having been brought up in a Methodist environment. But music and dance certainly were, and as a dressmaker and a milliner with her own business, she could whip up a pretty fair “Flapper” outfit. But it was another decade before she was to meet my father.   My mother was an interesting women.  However it is beyond the scope of this page to delve into the histories of all those wives and children of the Davorens. This link from a CD Rom entitled "Stella's Albums" , a pdf file, will give some insights. "Stella's Albums" is the story of her family based on the contents of her photo albums. If you really want to know more, email me and I will forward a copy.

Soon the fun and games came to a sad end.  The first and most bitter was that Grandfather James died in 1923.  His young family, who had learned to rely on him so much, sadly missed him. My father was only 15 the eldest was 25 and his wife 54 years of age.  James was 69 years of age when he died. 

I never knew what my Grandfather was like.  He died well before I was born and my father did not speak about him very often.  He was 52 when my father was born so I imagine the age difference had an impact on the way they interacted.  What I do know was that he disliked British institutions and was opposed to any war that the British were involved with.  He had claimed that two of his cousins were killed by the “Black and Tans” in the early 1920’s. He lived long enough to see the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922.  He worked hard and was a good provider for his family.  Had he invested his capital in a more viable location or married younger, his fortunes would have been much improved. Of course had this happened I would not be narrating this saga.

The other event that was to impact on their lives at this time was rising unemployment as a result of the “Great Depression.”  Unemployment in Victoria was as follows:

  In 1929, two days after James Scullin was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street stock market collapsed, marking what is now perceived to be the beginning of the Great Depression although unemployment was steadily rising before that.  Throughout Scullin's term, commodity prices continued to fall, unemployment rose, and Australia's big cities were depopulated as thousands of unemployed men took to the countryside in search of menial agricultural work.  My father, Pat and one other brother took this course.  James (Uncle Jim) and John (Uncle Jack) who had “Government Jobs”. Jim with the Victorian Railways and Jack with the Taxation Department were assured of employment, although the wages of Government employees were cut.  Bridget (Aunt Lilian) was supported by her husband, but by 1930 they too moved to the bush to look for work. See Joan’s story of her life during the depression. 

The Depression had a lasting impact on my father; he would never borrow money, not even for a house, because he had witnessed the banks foreclosing on unemployed workers.  He insisted that I should get a job with the Government to avoid the fallout of the next depression.  He would never shop in a number of stores, Moran and Cato was one of these, because of the way they treated workers during the Depression.  Frederick Cato incidentally, built a large mansion in Cato Street East Hawthorn near where the Davoren family lived and I had the pleasure of dismantling the Cato’s exotic security system when the PMG’s Department in the 1950’s, bought the property.

  For more detail see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression_in_Australia

My father learned a trade as a plasterer and specialized in decorative cornices and high quality decoration.  He worked on some of the grand homes of Melbourne but sadly, never owned one of them.  He worked intermittently for a builder, depending on the availability of contracts.  While not working in his trade, he ventured into the bush seeking employment where he could.

My father told many stories of his time roaming the bush in search of work. This was the era of the “swaggie” where itinerant workers carried their belongings on their backs from town to town and place to place.  One of his stories relates to how he and two of his brothers survived the cold and slept in a tent with two blankets. Two would fall asleep under the blankets and the other would sit by the fire.  As soon as one was sound asleep, the one by the fire would take his blanket and curl up to sleep.  After a time the one without the blanket would awaken and remove the blanket from the one still asleep.  This routine would occur all night and thus all would have a good night’s sleep and the fire would be maintained.

Two "stories" relate to the gathering of food in the suburbs.  The family apparently had a dog that was trained to jump up and snatch dried fish and sundry other goodies from shops then run home with the booty, part of which he would receive as a reward.  Another related to floating baited rat traps in the botanical gardens’ lakes to capture ducks that would ultimately find their way into the family stockpot.

Rabbits formed a large part of the diets of Victorians during the depression.  My father ferreted, shot and captured rabbits by the score which also found their way into the stockpot.  One of my elder cousins, Joan, daughter of Bridget (Aunt Lil) wrote of her experiences during the last years of the Depression. Click here to read it.  Her narrative endorses my father’s hunting skills.  He continued to hunt rabbits during my childhood and I would accompany him.  Because we owned poultry, Saturday’s menu was usually roast chicken and Sunday was mostly roast rabbit. 

If pressed, I might turn cannibal, but I will never eat chicken or rabbit.

After the depression eased, life improved for the family and the bachelors of the family began to marry and establish families of their own.

Life had barely settled and war was declared in 1939.  Being of Irish descent, the family had no enthusiasm to help fight a British war, but that attitude changed once Australia was threatened in 1941.   

At the outbreak of the Second World War a new volunteer army was raised and sent for service overseas, while members of the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) remained in Australia to ensure home defence. At that time the defence of Australia included the defence of Australian territories in Papua and New Guinea, and when the Japanese entered the war, members of the CMF fought together with the AIF in New Guinea. The Labor Party was again in power, and in November 1942 Prime Minister John Curtin argued that it was necessary for the war effort to extend government powers to compel service in the South-West Pacific Area, which comprised Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines and The Netherlands East Indies.  A bill was passed on 19 February 1943 that obliged soldiers in the CMF to serve in Australia, all of the island of New Guinea and the adjacent islands. This was the so called the South-West Pacific Zone.

My cousin Maurice and Uncle Ned (Edmond) served in the South-West Pacific Zone.  Maurice was captured by the Japanese and executed in Indonesia and Uncle Ned suffered severe deprivation as a result of his experience in New Guinea.  I never learned of Maurice’s fate until very recently.  I always believed that Maurice, an airman, went missing in action and I would read any report of findings of DC3’s hoping that Maurice’s body would be found at last.  My Aunt Lil believed this also, because no one thought that she should be told the terrible truth that her eldest child had been captured and beheaded by the Japanese.  My uncle carried this dreadful secret from her to his grave.

  My father and my uncle William were deemed unfit and were required to work in an essential industry during the war period.  My father drew the long straw and worked in the ice works and cold stores in Oakleigh, my uncle at the munitions factory in Holmesglen.  (Now a TAFE College and once a factory producing prefabricated concrete houses.) The others as Government employees remained where they were employed before the war.

The family never lost touch with Jeetho and the bush.  My father loved animals and when most people would own a dog or a cat, my father owned a menagerie in suburban Murrumbeena.  We lived opposite a large park that was a superb training ground for his greyhounds.  He always had a house cow, which he tethered on vacant blocks near our home.  He also had fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, ferrets, guinea pigs, cage birds and pet rabbits.  He also owned a goat at one time and we had a fishpond.  I always had a pet dog and a cat.  We would go on regular forays into the bush rabbiting and regularly fish in the Oakleigh Lake for redfin and carp.  I always wanted an elephant but he never knew where to buy one.

My Uncle Jim, (James) was an excellent artist, mostly painting in watercolours.  His way of combating suburbia was to paint murals depicting the rolling hills of Jeetho, on his garage walls.  My Uncle Bill, (William) moved to several acres on Waverley Road.  The property had a large dam that was stocked with carp and yabbies, which we cousins hunted whenever we had the chance.  Uncle Ned (Edmund) would always tell stories of the bush.  I believe several of his stories were the foundation of his son, James Davern’s stories that emerged in some of his many TV productions with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 

Uncle Laurie, Aunt Lil’s (Bridget) better half established a market garden in his huge back yard in Murrumbeena.  His major crop during the war was tobacco, which he dried and cured.  Free home grown tobacco was definitely a health hazard and he did not help his relatives reach ripe old ages.

The next generation:

•  The eldest John Davern had three children, John, William and Peter.
•  Bridget Trimnell (Lil) had four children Maurice, Joan, Elizabeth (Betty) , and Marie.
•  Edmond (Ned) had four children, James, Edmond (Eddie), Dianne and Jennifer.
•  James (Jim) had two daughters, Patricia and Lynette.
•  William (Bill) had three children, Lillian,  William and Lorraine.
• My father Fenton (Pat) had three, Richard (myself) Darryl and Pauline.

How many Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren of James and Mary were created? Who knows? I have done my part with my five children and eleven Grandchildren, and still counting. 

We all thank James and Mary for that deed that was done on that dark night in May 1896 somewhere in Yea or thereabouts.

Click here  to visit the Photo Album and here for the family tree. 

Click here for those I have acknowledged for their assistance.  Also view www.irishtas.org.au another of my web sites that has some interesting Irish links on it. Richard Davoren, Oct 2006.