A great find, but what now?
The hunt started with a picture. Ian got excited. It ended when he found where the cottage had once stood. That was a long way from where it was supposed to be. Ian moved on to the next search. But there were way too many loose ends for me.
We knew almost nothing about the picture or the cottage. Simple things like whose cottage was it really? What was its story? And who took the photo and when? It was time for me to make one of those deep dives into history that drives everyone else to despair. Hold on for the ride!
1891 – Thomas Martin claims the site
Thank goodness Ian had found the location. That allowed the story to spill out from that one fact. It all started in the middle of 1888.
The mines and township of Zeehan had started to take off because there was finally a good road to link Zeehan with a port and the outside world. It wasn’t much of a port but Trial Harbour (also known as Remine) was good enough.
In the middle of 1891, Thomas Martin found some promising ground on the western edge of the Zeehan mineral field. He was working for the La Tosca Prospecting Association (La Tosca PA). He claimed some mineral leases that included the ground where the cottage would stand one day.1 He lived on the leases.2
At about the same time, the La Tosca PA grabbed the newly arrived Kenneth McIvor to help to turn Martin’s discovery into an operating mine.3 But within a month a worldwide financial depression had hit and La Tosca joined many other failed prospects.4
1892 – Kenneth McIvor steps up
The La Tosca PA left a debt to McIvor that was never paid. It was fitting that he took over a part of their abandoned mineral leases. He used the simple device of a Miners’ Right.5 It entitled him to build on the land if he was actively working it. So, he scratched a few shallow holes to pretend that he was and built a home.6 The location suited him because it was roughly halfway between the civilisation of Zeehan and his lease of an old mine on Mount Agnew.7
For someone with few resources, Mount Agnew and the Heemskirk tin field made practical sense. A single person could survive by the sweat of their brow mining tin. All they needed was pick and shovel or a strong flow of water. On the other hand, Zeehan and its deep veins of silver/lead required a lot of capital and machinery.
The Heemskirk tin field also had an aura about it. McIvor was one of many who believed that a great tin field would emerge despite its history of past failures.8
As well as a hut, or maybe two, McIvor cleared forest, levelled out a small gully, fenced it, dug a well and planted a garden.9 He fed himself with a ‘fine crop of potatoes and other garden produce’.10
In 1895, McIvor struck a lode of silver ore, what was said to be the richest discovered on the West Coast. For a while it looked like it would improve his life and diet.11 Investors toasted ‘old Kenneth’ and each other. McIvor’s newly married son James joined him to help manage the mine.12 By 1897, the mine had failed and a feud had started between its Melbourne backers.13
About Kenneth McIvor
Kenneth McIvor was born in Scotland and lived in New Zealand and Victoria.14 In Invercargill, New Zealand, he was a farmer, land developer, mayor and councillor.15 He was infamous for disrupting the opening of a railway with a ‘6 inch plank and a six chambered revolver’.16
McIvor’s mining experience probably came from the gold fields of Central Otago north of Invercargill. His son James claimed experience in dredging which was widely practiced there.17
1897 – McIvor’s huts destroyed by fire
1897 ended at Zeehan with scorching temperatures and wild bushfires.18 More than 20 houses were destroyed.19 McIvor lost everything; his huts, fences and crops.
The fires ‘came down in a great body’ over McIvor’s land. He and a friend ran from a hut through the burning scrub towards Comstock, their nearest safe spot. But not fast enough. McIvor’s clothing caught fire. He tore them off and sheltered from the flames in a ditch beside the Trial Harbour Road and then crawled to safety.20 A newspaper reported that ‘Beyond a slight scorching he is none the worse, bodily, for his adventure’. 21
1898 – 1900 – McIvor’s new cottage
Despite his ‘adventure’, in July 1898, McIvor decided to finally claim his land legally by applying for a crown grant. The reason? possibly that he had built a new hut. However, age wasn’t on his side and he hardly used it because he spent much of the next year going in hospital.22
He didn’t complete the crown grant process and his chance of ownership lapsed. In February 1900, someone pounced on the unowned land. In September, McIvor went back to hospital for the last time. He died there two months later.23
1900 – 1911 – Ellen and William Baker splash the cash
It was Ellen Baker who had snatched McIvor’s land, hut and gardens. She used her partner’s money and his last name.24 William ‘Bill’ Baker had just sold a mining property and the money would fuel the pair’s extravaganzas for years.25 McIvor’s property was their first big purchase. In July 1901, they bought into the Comstock Hotel when ‘Maynes tin show at Heemskirk was causing a flutter’.26 In August 1902, Bill received the licence for the Railway Hotel in Zeehan.27 None of their hotel ventures lasted.
Bill was an old school prospector, physically tough (he had once fought a circus bear), generous and helpful. He had had some success in the Ring River Gold rush of 1892 and was famous as the “great New Zealand hydraulicer’.28 He was known as the ‘life of the camp’. He and Ellen often socialised late into the night.29
Bill and Ellen’s money ran out around 1905.31 Bill returned to scrounging for tin ore around the Heemskirk field. His dreams of finding ‘what was missed by the early prospectors’ were never realised.32
Ellen was as firm as Bill was kind-hearted. She ended up in court for her uncompromising attitude.33 At the old McIvor property, she cultivated the land and raising stock including; pigs, fowls, and goats.
1907 – 1909 – another landowner? – Thomas Germaine & Paul Odgen
In January 1907, Ellen sold the old McIvor property to Thomas Germaine and Paul Ogden for £25.34 Strangely, the sale wasn’t recorded on the land’s title. Germaine lived there with his wife and they raised their increasing family over the next two years.35 He was said to be well known for his fine singing voice and piano playing.36 He had served in the Boer War in South Africa.
The Germaines left in 1909 probably because the mines and the town were dying. 1909 was the last of the good years for Zeehan.37
Unowned and Unloved
Ellen Baker hadn’t keep up the purchase instalments on the property so it reverted to the Crown. A sale in October 1911 was unsuccessful.38 Bill returned to his original trade, a butcher, in Zeehan.39
The Germaines were probably the last people to live in the cottage. It would have received little interest with half of Zeehan empty and more leaving.
The last mention of the hut in any records was in 1915. Despite five years since McIvor’s death, a government geologist, L Lawry Waterhouse, said that it was “known as McIvor’s”. The long ridge on which the hut stood also took on his name.40
That’s the history, now one last look at the photo
Ian’s forensic eye saw that the cottage was made up of two generations of building. The oldest was the smaller section at the left-hand end with the big old-fashioned chimney. The large room on the right-hand end appeared to have been added later.
Ian also saw that the cottage and land were abandoned. There is no sign of the vegetable garden or livestock. The building isn’t in good repair, particularly the damaged roof on the extension. And the window in that room appears to be boarded up from the inside. A best guess would be that the hut had been uncared for any period between a couple of years to 10 years. Thus the photo probably shows the hut sometime between 1911 and 1919.
WHAT DOES THIS ALL TELL US?
Whose hut? – We can say that the left-hand end was built by Kenneth McIvor, probably early in 1898. References to the cottage as McIvor’s many years after his death, and other owners, reinforces his strong link to the hut and land.
The large room on the right-hand end was made for later owners. Either Ellen and Bill Baker between 1900 and 1905 or the expanding Germanine family between 1907 and 1909.
All the inhabitants of the series of huts on this site would have appreciated the garden set up by McIvor. Despite the soil and climate, miners would plant vegetables such as potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, turnips, cabbage, lettuce, onions, green peas, carrots and artichokes. They also raised livestock for milk, meat and eggs. Supplies from outside of the area were expensive and often not in good condition.
The photo?
It is likely that geologist L Lawry Waterhouse took this photograph between November 1913 and April 1914 when he was studying the South Heemskirk Tin Field.44 He was aware of the hut and he took all the photos in his 1916 report. This may have been one that was not published at the time.
Long Story Short
The photo that gripped Ian and spurred him into his search (read about it here) had an uncertain pedigree. First, he found the real location of the hut and garden. By doing this he reunited the site with photo.
This dive into the written history of the property has brought the people back into its history.
Kenneth McIvor, the wandering Scotsman, was the main person in the story this cottage and land. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a photo of him. Even his grave in the Zeehan cemetery is lost.
The distinctive shape of Mount Agnew has been a key part of this story from the start. Its presence in the photo helped locate the cottage. During his time in Zeehan, Kenneth McIvor spent years prospecting its flanks. His son, John, continued the obsession.
For many years, Kenneth McIvor would have looked out to Mount Agnew from his cottage. It now overlooks his resting place.
Copyright 2024 Peter Brown
1 Mercury, 27 June 1891. 40 acre mineral lease 3271-M contained the area of the cottage. It is shown on the Zeehan Mineral Chart, version 3.
2 Hobart Gazette, Assessment Roll for Macquarie, 24 July 1891.
3 Mercury, 22 July 1891, Mercury, 30 July 1891.
4 TW Twelvetrees, L Keith Ward, The ore bodies of Zeehan field, Geological Survey Bulletin 8, 1910, Mineral Resources Tasmania.
5 A court ruling ordered them to sell their leases to pay McIvor. There were no buyers and the leases lapsed. From 1894 til 1900 McIvor nominated his residence as Comstock, which was the nearest populated area to the site, Wise’s Post Directory, 1894 – 1900; At Mount Agnew, a miner had a similar situation. A hut and garden were protected by a miner’s right, but he was not working the ground but another lease. Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 16 March 1907.
The holder of a miner’s right was entitled to do a number of things on their land including, ‘To take possession of and occupy the surface of any Crown Lands on any Mining Field for the purpose of residence: To put up and to remove any building or other erection’ The Mining Act, 1893.
6 ‘Nearer to Zeehan, and close to the road, Mr McIvor has a tin lode carrying a fair percentage of tin. This claim has been held by hook and by crook for a couple of years without any more work being done on it than could be done comfortably by one man in a week’, Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 10 June 1895. Signs of very limited prospecting were located near the cottage site.
7 Mercury, 19 November 1892.
8 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 1 April 1922.
9 We saw the layout of his farm when we examined the site. One newspaper refers to a ‘compact homestead’ and another to two huts
10 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 4 January 1898. At Agnew, another miner had a fenced garden measuring 10 by 5 metres. He grew potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, turnips, cabbage plants, lettuce, onions, green peas, carrots and artichokes. Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 16 March 1907.
11 Launceston Examiner, 11 June 1895.
12 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 7 September 1896. He had married in Dunedin in 1895.
13 Argus, 31 July 1897.
14 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 12 November 1900. McIvor Creek where the gold was first found in 1852 was named before 1841 after A McIvor, a pit sawyer. Les Blake, Place Names of Victoria, Rigby Ltd, Melbourne, 1977, p 166. His name is not mentioned in relation to the gold rush in newspapers of the day.
15 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 12 November 1900; Southland Times (New Zealand), 3 December 1887; Southland Times, 28 November 1881.
16 Zeehan and Dundas, 22 June 1896.
17 Mercury, 21 June 1899.
18 the normally wet and cold West Coast recorded temperatures of 41C in the shade and 62C in the sun; Mercury, 31 December 1897.
19 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 31 December 1897.
20 Launceston Examiner, 4 January 1898.
21 Launceston Examiner, 4 January 1898.
22 AG341-1-891_MTA5-20_OD Land Survey 866/90M.
23 Mercury, 12 November 1900.
24 They didn’t marry unti 1902; Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 14 July 1902.
25 Government Gazette 1911; Zeehan and Dundas Herald; 6 September 1892 (£500 received from sale of Mt Jukes property); Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 3 April 1922.
26 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 1 April 1922, Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 15 July 1901.
27 Zeehan and Dundas Herald,, 5 August 1902; Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 15 August 1901.
28 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 3 April 1922.
29 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 27 February 1905.
30 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 1 April 1922.
31 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 1 April 1922.
32 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 18 March 1907.
33 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, Saturday 16 March 1907, page 4.
34 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 6 June 1907.
35 Mornington Standard, 18 January 1902; National Archives, B5207, Nominal rolls of Battalions for service in South Africa, page 33; Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 3 May 1906.
36 UR1935_027_29 , 01/03/1935 , Henderson, Q.J. , Notes on Zeehan Mining Field, Mineral Resources Tasmania. https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/Z/Zeehan%20mine.htm; Greg Dickens, 2006, Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, the Companion to Tasmanian History
37 Hobart Gazette, 17 January 1911; Survey Notes block 866 90; Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 16 October 1911.
38 Zeehan and Dundas Herald, 14 May 1910.
39 Geological Survey Bulletin No.21, The South Heemskirk Tin Field, L. Waterhouse, 1916.
40 Mercury, 4 December 1913; Examiner, 4 February 1914; Examiner, 20 March 1914.