NOTE: Unless stated, all photographs are supplied by Arthur Coopes.
Arthur George Shelley (1841-1925)
and Mary Clarissa Shelley (nee Walker) (1849-1912)
Mary Clarissa and Arthur George, ca 1905
This is the story of the Shelley family, from their time in Kerang, Victoria, through their move to Western Australia during the 1890s t0 the WA Goldfields and the earlier times of their lives in WA. Arthur Henry Coopes, great-grandson of Arthur George and Mary Clarissa Shelley, kindly shared his family story with us back in 2005. This is an excerpt of the family story which he wrote to supplement the book, “The Shelley Family”, compiled by Jean Stewart of “Kenmore Park”, Kenmore, Queensland.
Background: For those not familiar with the story of the Shelleys in Australia, I shall briefly outline their early history. It may help set the scene for the story that follows.
The Reverend William Shelley left England in 1798 to work for the London Missionary Society as an artisan missionary in the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. After many adventures, he moved to the colony of New South Wales, married Elizabeth Bean and the couple settled in Parramatta around 1806. They had seven children of whom six lived to mature years. Three sons, William, George and Rowland, were involved in exploration and land settlement in south-eastern NSW and north-eastern Victoria, in particular in the Tumut area and along the upper Murray River. The three daughters, Lucy, Elizabeth and Mary, married into well-known and influential families of the early NSW colony, and the stories of those families form a large part of the history of the larger Shelley family too. Jean Stewart’s book covers all of the above stories thoroughly.
The “Western Australia” Shelley family line descends from Rowland Shelly and his first wife, Maria Brillia Louisa PETERS who had eleven children, Emmeline, John Darlford, Arthur George (the “western” forbear), Alice Elizabeth Mary, Jane Draper, Kathleen, Susannah Maria, Elizabeth (died as an infant), Benjamin, Lucy and Robert (also died as an infant). Rowland spent much of his life on properties along the central/upper Murray River in NSW and Victoria. After Maria died in 1877, Rowland married the much younger Julia TALL. They lived in Sydney, where Rowland died in 1888, and had three more children. During the latter years of his life, he appears to have corresponded frequently with his son Arthur George, who was to be the executor of his will.
The ages of the fourteen children fathered by Rowland spanned 48 years!
The “Western” Shelleys – Origins
We have little “hard” information about Arthur George Shelley before he came to Kerang, Victoria, around 1870. It is possible that he had some association with the Patchell family, who settled in Kerang in 1857 and went on to become very influential citizens of the district for many decades to come. They would have come to Kerang around the same time that Rowland Shelley and his family were living relatively nearby in northern-central Victoria. A son of that family, Woodford John Williams PATCHELL was subsequently to become Arthur George’s brother-in-law, by marriage.
A better starting point is Parker Newton WALKER, about whose origins we have far more information. Parker Newton Walker was a wool merchant who emigrated from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, to Victoria on the ship “Serampore” in July 1852. He was accompanied by his second wife, Clarissa (nee Baggaly), their four children (Herbert Osborne, Bernard Oswald, Mary Clarissa and Hilda Maria Harding Walker), and the two children of his first wife, Mary Ann (nee Robinson), Percy Nicholson and Theresa Stuart Walker. Parker Newton Walker kept a detailed diary of his family’s journey from England to Melbourne, which is now in the care of Geoff Griffiths, grandson of Arthur George’s daughter, Maude.
Clarissa Walker (nee Baggaly), ca 1880
Parker Newton Walker, ca 1858
Shortly after he arrived in Melbourne in October 1852 and after finding living conditions there at the time to be very poor, Parker Newton Walker and his family moved on to Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), in November 1852. He went into a business partnership that was formally terminated in July 1853, after which he returned to Melbourne. His registered occupation in 1856 to 1862 was as a woolbroker in Melbourne, and he appears to have lived in its inner suburbs until his death in April 1864. Parker’s second daughter, Mary Clarissa, married Arthur George Shelley on 3 December 1872.
Arthur George and Mary Clarissa Shelley in Kerang, Victoria
Arthur George Shelley, ca 1880
Mary Clarissa Shelley, ca 1880
Shortly after their marriage, Arthur George and Mary Clarissa undertook the first of two significant instances of caring for the orphaned children of other family members. They undertook the care of Ann Patchell, the 2-year-old daughter of James Maillard Patchell, a brother of Mary’s brother-in-law, Woodford Patchell, after James’ wife, Ellen, had died during the birth of her next child, Ellen Theresa (Nellie). Arthur and Mary’s first daughter, Hilda, was born a few months later. Ann was three years older, almost to the day, than Hilda and became, therefore, virtually a ‘big sister’ to Hilda and subsequently to the other Shelley children.
Arthur George and Mary Clarissa first lived in Kerang near the Patchell home. Their own permanent home, “Riverside”, on the banks of the Loddon River that flows through Kerang, was built by them in about 1885. Today, it is now Kerang’s Historical Museum.
Riverside, with children and horse, ca 1893
Mary Clarissa’s (half) sister, Theresa, died quite young (in 1879), and Mary Clarissa and Arthur George, in the second instance of caring, subsequently accepted a lot of the responsibility for the family of the widowed father. I understand that the eight Patchell and five Shelley children grew up virtually as brothers and sisters at “Riverside”.
Roland – c 1893
Maude, Lucy, Hilda & Jessie – c 1888
Little more than the above is known about the Arthur George & Mary Clarissa Shelley’s family’s life in Kerang. Arthur George was a lieutenant in the Victorian Mounted Rifles. Mary Clarissa taught music and was the organist for the Roman Catholic Church for a time.
Victorian Mounted Rifles Easter Camp 1880 – Arthur George Shelley front far right.
The Family’s move to the Western Australian Goldfields
Arthur George moved to WA around 1894 – 1895 with a Mr Robert Crawford, a baker from Victoria. He left Mary Clarissa and the children behind in Kerang. At Fremantle, they bought a dray and two draught horses and travelled to Coolgardie. From there, they proceeded north from Coolgardie. Mr Crawford had a strike about 50 miles away that was to become the (very rich) Carbine Mine.
Jim Crawford in a group outside the Carbine Hotel c 1900.
The Carbine Mine c 1900
Arthur George settled at “the 25-mile camp”, so called because it was 25 miles from Coolgardie. It was also known to him and his family as Speakman’s Find, and he remained there and operated a store/post office, apparently for several years.
Arthur George Shelley in his camp, Speakman’s Find, c 1895
Speakman’s Find had been named for the prospector James Speakman, who with two mates found gold there in December 1892. The claim became the subject of a notable “claim jumping” dispute, brought before the local Mining Warden, who ruled against Speakman. Subsequently, the claim was developed into the large Premier Gold Mine, which proved to be very rich, employing 400 men in 1898 and producing 34,000 ounces of gold by 1900, at the rate of up to 25 ounces of gold to the ton! The photo below was of the mine in its relatively early days.
Premier Gold Mine, Kunanalling – late 1890s
Despite its high yields, the Premier Mine’s profitability gradually declined. Its production costs rose because of two factors common to the Eastern Goldfields at those early times, lack of good and reliable water and the progressing scarcity of wood for firing water condensers, steam engines and general mining construction work. The Premier Mine’s operations were closed down in 1903, and though smaller mines operated until the 1930s, Kunanalling declined steadily until its last resident left in 1942. Today, only the rubble of the town’s Premier Hotel, some brick chimneys and a tourist plaque mark its location.
Although Arthur George was not directly involved in mining, it can be concluded that, as a postmaster and storekeeper in such a place, he may well have prospered and gained the means for his subsequent property purchases in metropolitan Perth. He remained in contact with Mr. Crawford. I have a letter sent to Arthur George by Mr. Crawford from the Carbine mine and dated 8 July 1913, in which Mr. Crawford acknowledges the repayment of a loan of 150 pounds, made around 1900 to assist with the purchase of property in Perth. He describes the mine as going well after a lean spell, writes about his children’s progress, “…the young ones … being home for their winter holidays…” and undertakes to visit Arthur George when next “gets down” to Perth. The warm tone of the letter suggests a long and close friendship.
Returning to the family story, Arthur George became ill, and Mary Clarissa left the family in Hilda’s charge in Kerang and went to Speakman’s to care for her husband. We understand that Hilda also came to WA and stayed with her parents in the Goldfields, but I can find no record of when or how. Later, under Maude’s care, Lucy, Jessie, and Roland also came to WA by the ship S S Innamincka, arriving at Fremantle on 5 February 1898,
with their money sewn for security into the girls’ petticoats!
They proceeded to Coolgardie and to Speakman’s Find where Lucy, Jessie and Major spent some time with their parents. The following photo of Jessie is from early in their life in Western Australia. That of Roland pictures him at about the same age.
Jessie, c 1900 Roland, c 1912
Maude worked as a telephonist for some time in Coolgardie and later in Perth. Hilda married a Coolgardie man, Louis Brown, in 1899 and continued to live in the Goldfields until 1909.
The following photo, with Maude’s handwriting on the back, is of the site of the Number 2 Pumping Station of the GWSS, immediately before construction would have started in 1899. This photo appears to be unique among the many taken of this site, which is about 2 km north of the Mundaring Weir and about 50 metres east of the Weir Road. It has been reproduced on the “Golden Pipeline” memorial plaque placed at this site by the National Trust of WA. It is possible, therefore, that someone from the family might have had some association with the construction of the GWSS.
Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, Pumping Station No 2 under construction
The Family’s move to Perth and Beenup
Arthur George and Mary Clarissa moved to the metropolitan area, probably around 1899-1900. Arthur George built a house in Francis Street, Subiaco, an inner Perth suburb, for the benefit of the children who were working or continuing their education.
Arthur G Shelley’s timber mill, Beenup, WA, c 1900
They also (probably in 1899) acquired a 658-acre property known as “Cromer” at Beenup, which at the time was a small settlement some 50 km south of Perth. I understand that he cut timber from the land and supplied jarrah for the new Fremantle wharf, which would have been under construction at that time. The 1904 Electoral Roll listed 34 adults living in Beenup at the time, among them “A G Shelley (Grazier)”.The property in fact covered most of the land that now constitutes the urban part of the modern suburb of Byford, on the eastern side of the South-West Highway between Perth and Bunbury.
Arthur & Mary Shelley family, Beenup, WA, c 1900
Arthur George and Mary Clarissa continued to live at Beenup during the 1901-10 decade with some of the children at home for part of that time. Mary Clarissa had had rheumatic fever when young and subsequently suffered heart problems. The following photo indicates that Mary Clarissa did not enjoy good health in her last years. She died on 5 November 1912.
Arthur George and Mary Clarissa, ca 1910
After Mary Clarissa’s death, Arthur George (known as Army to his grandchildren) lived for some time with his daughter, Hilda, at her home in Mills Road, Gosnells. He later came to live with daughter Maude and her husband George Albert Griffiths at their home, Carinya, also in Mills Road, Gosnells, where he died on 22 February 1925. Arthur and Mary are buried together in the Anglican section of the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth, WA.
The Shelley grandchildren c 1920, at Carinya – Rear: Clarice, Mary England; Middle: Roland, Arthur, Margie; Bottom: Mary Baxter, Lucy, Jack.
Hilda Clarissa Maria Shelley was born in Corowa, NSW, on 18 December 1873. She was a trained schoolteacher and became the first teacher at the first permanent school at Beenup. Mr Crawford’s letter to Arthur George Shelley refers to her teaching at Beenup in 1913. She also taught at Gosnells and Coolgardie after her marriage. She was also a music teacher, she herself playing the piano, violin and cello.
Hilda married Louis George Benjamin BROWN in Subiaco on 30 March 1899. Louis was a surveyor, originally from Broome. His business letterhead from Coolgardie describes him as “Auctioneer, Mining and Commission Agent and House and Estate Agent”. He was the Mayor of Coolgardie for some two years around 1900. Shortly after their return to Perth, a dray being drawn by a bolting horse struck Louis while he was riding a bicycle, and he died of the injuries on 3 September 1909. Hilda later married John Stevenson (Jack) Wilkinson on 16 December 1929.
Lucy, Hilda, Maude Shelley c 1898/9
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