Visited 31 December, 2011
I had read it years ago, in a book about Jonathan Binns Were, but I needed to verify. Were was the founder of J.B. Were & Son, for many years Melbourne’s (and, most would concede, Australia’s) leading stockbroking firm. In 1954 the Weres firm self-published The House of Were 1839-1954, a full-scale history of the broking house to date, including the biography of the founder. But my attempt to verify was thwarted, because the book was missing from my shelves. I recall that the book had been secured by my sister, Margaret, who worked for a time at Weres; and while that memory is clear, what is not so clear is whether Margaret gave the book to me, or whether it was simply borrowed. If the latter, I am now in trouble – a confession I needn’t have made; a book that’s not mine and should be returned; a book that’s missing and cannot be returned.
I had read it years ago, in a book about Jonathan Binns Were, but I needed to verify. Were was the founder of J.B. Were & Son, for many years Melbourne’s (and, most would concede, Australia’s) leading stockbroking firm. In 1954 the Weres firm self-published The House of Were 1839-1954, a full-scale history of the broking house to date, including the biography of the founder. But my attempt to verify was thwarted, because the book was missing from my shelves. I recall that the book had been secured by my sister, Margaret, who worked for a time at Weres; and while that memory is clear, what is not so clear is whether Margaret gave the book to me, or whether it was simply borrowed. If the latter, I am now in trouble – a confession I needn’t have made; a book that’s not mine and should be returned; a book that’s missing and cannot be returned.
And what is it that I needed to verify? Were arrived in Melbourne in 1839, a mere three years after the initial white settlement, and not only did he bring with him his family and a pre-fabricated house, but he brought about 1500 pounds (value) of merchandise for sale. From day one he was a significant merchant in the colony, trading in diverse products - including gold after 1851, and stocks and shares after 1853. The elusive bit of information, triggered as we drove along North Road and crossed East Boundary Road, is that Mr. J.B. Were, late of Wellington, Somerset, England at one time owned all the land bounded from top to bottom by North Road and South Road, and from side to side by East Boundary Road, and the sea!
Whether you know the precise location or not, this is an arresting proposition. The area includes some of today’s most desirable real estate, but that hardly matters – it comprises eight square miles, 2072 hectares. Were had nine surviving children, and there are presumably descendants today, descendants who do not own all of Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, McKinnon, Brighton East and Brighton. The family motto is surely: “If only……”
Now we pause for a small correction. My researches have established that the original 1840 land grant was not to Were but to one Henry Dendy. However in 1841 Were became Dendy’s agent, and although both Dendy and Were were later bankrupted by an economic collapse (and Dendy eventually died a pauper) “the Were family acquired the land for highly profitable resale after the depression”. This quotation is from the “Brighton” entry on the www.onlymelbourne.com.au website; but Michael Cannon, in his The Land Boomers, tells a more modest story. He says that Were acquired (only) “nearly one half” of the Dendy land – however, most of this was not by way of purchase, but by way of foreclosure against mortgagors. Through the depression of the 1840s Were the financier became Were the land-owner. Cannon also notes the incongruity of Were, the first president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, being the first importer of whisky into Victoria. Still, Were was a moral man, and maintained a lifelong campaign against brokers speculating for personal profit. Brokers are merely agents for investors, Were insisted, and their advice would never be trusted fully unless it was known to be impartial.
Francis Ormond was another remarkable figure. Not self-made like Were, but with the acumen to turn his father’s heritage from good to better. The senior Ormond was a sea-captain who in the early 1840s bought a ship and migrated with his family to Melbourne. He established a substantial inn, the first such on the road between Geelong and Hamilton. Within a few years he had a 30000 acre (12148 hectare) sheep property near Skipton. The younger Ormond managed the property and other properties that he and his father later acquired. Francis Ormond’s biographers describe him as grazier and philanthropist. He was co-founder and elder of the Toorak Presbyterian Church, he funded a major part of the construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral, he largely paid for Ormond College at The University of Melbourne (to the tune of 112000 pounds), and he founded the Ormond chair of music at the same institution. His lifelong crusade to educate the poor led to the founding of the Working Men’s College in Melbourne (now R.M.I.T.) – Ormond put up 5000 pounds on condition that the public raised a similar sum, and the College opened in June 1887, Ormond’s contribution having grown to more than 200000 pounds. Ormond was also a co-sponsor of the Gordon Institute of Technology in Geelong. Numerous organizations were beneficiaries under Ormond’s will when he died in 1889……………despite Ormond’s years of extraordinary philanthropy, the estate was still valued at nearly 2 million pounds ($4 million).
In addition to the university college and the university professorship, Francis Ormond is memorialized in the suburb that bears his name.
North Road, Ormond, specifically the commercial strip on either side of the railway line, is not one of Melbourne’s premier locations; far from it. There is quite an assortment of businesses and shops, but I don’t know whether the locals are happy enough with the range available to them. The reasonably-sized IGA supermarket in the middle of the strip may or may not act as the anchor point for the street.
Breakfast was at Bakery@Copper Café, a specialist bread shop which, under new ownership a fortnight ago, now provides cooked breakfasts. The coffees were good, but the giant-sized cups, with rims about five millimetres thick, were grotesque. The food was pretty tasteless, the chipolatas being so bland that we asked for some sweet chili sauce to give them a kick. The new owner was interested in our observations, including the suggestion that he add to each serve a gratuitous slice of toast with the explanation that it’s a type of loaf stocked in the bakery.
The medical clinic has suffered a recent fire and, although still serving its patients, needs quickly to replace the burnt-out windows, and have the damage repaired. There are a number of other professional suites, including a psychiatrist. Speaking of whom, I got the feeling that the North Road air resonates with the power of healing for body and soul. In addition to the physicians, the psychiatrist and a podiatrist, there’s Sunnybrook Health Store and Healing Centre with its stock of food products variously free from a dozen different allergens, plus “the largest range of gluten free products in Australia”. Sunnybrook stocks over 2000 product lines.
Then there’s Equilibrium, stocking books music and gifts for the mind body and spirit, plus an extended family gathering of Hindu statues in the window. And close by is Fidelity Books & Pieties, proudly serving the Catholic community for over 25 years, and suppliers of the full range of Catholic devotional items – books, CDs, DVDs, statues, rosaries and other pieties. “Our main aim is to foster loyalty to the Magisterium”, the magisterium being the authority to teach religious doctrine.
So, as I say, the air seemed to be alive with competing claims on body and spirit……….and to clinch it all, there was the Melbourne Rosicrucian Centre.
Wikipedia has seven pages on Rosicrucianism. It’s not boring, but it is dense. So, instead, I quote from the much shorter entry in Columbia Encyclopedia: “Rosicrucians are members of an esoteric society, who claim that their order has been in existence since the days of ancient Egypt……….Their secret learning deals with occult symbols – notably the rose and the cross, the swastika and the pyramid – and with mystical writings.” The origins of Rosicrucianism were more likely not in ancient Egypt, however, but in the writings of Johan Valentin Andres (1586-1654) who used the pseudonym Christian Rosenkreuz [rose cross]. At times the movement has been a secret brotherhood of alchemists and sages, at times a society of philosophers astronomers and mathematicians, and at times there has been close contact with Freemasonry (indeed the development of Freemasonry in Scotland was strongly influenced by Rosicrucian ritual). Today the movement takes several forms; and, in the U.S.A., “Christian Rosicrucian” schools “provide esoteric knowledge related to the inner teachings of Christianity” – leading to the “harmonious development of mind and heart in a spirit of unselfish service to mankind and an all-embracing altruism.” Wouldn’t “love thy neighbor” say it just as well?
As to the beliefs and practices of the Rosicrucians who meet at North Road, Ormond: “The Rosicrucian Order is not a religion and does not constitute a socio-political movement. Neither is it a sect.” Its precept: “The greatest tolerance within the strictest independence.” “The Rosicrucian Order is not the only way to enlightenment, but it is quite possibly the surest and most comprehensive way available today.” These three quotes are from the website of the grand Lodge for Australia of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, and if they accurately portray Rosicrucianism then the movement in Australia poses no threat to anything except closed minds. In a sense the Rosicrucians sound like little more than a debating society – but that is an oversimplification. The Manifesto of the Rosicrucians (in Australia at least) is a very comprehensive document, spelling out their considered thoughts on economics, the sphere of politics, science, technology, the great religions, morality, art, people’s relationship with their fellows, humanity’s relationship with nature, and humanity’s relationship with the universe. They certainly cover the waterfront.
I arrived to scoff, and I leave thinking that the Rosicrucians might have quite a bit to offer. But tell me: after all these centuries, how do they recruit young members? Aren’t they doomed to fade away through lack of interest?
Interestingly, the Rosicrucian Centre is the only one of the places I mention in this Piece that is on the south side of North Road, and hence the only one - this is where we came in - sited on the original Henry Dendy land grant. Well, not so interesting really – I simply neglected to mention the specialist musical instrument retailer Brass ‘n Woodwind, also on the south side.
Gary Andrews
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