Book Reviews

Alfred William Howitt - A Prominent Gippslander

Following on from the successful exhibition marking 150 years since Alfred Howitt's arrival in Gippsland, the East Gippsland Historical Society has published a book detailing his remarkable life.

Alfred Howitt was a son of the famous literary couple, Mary and William Howitt.  He came to Australia with his father and brother in 1852 to visit relatives and spend two years on the goldfields. He became an experienced and capable bushman, leading expeditions to explore North Gippsland in 1860 where his work opened tip the Crooked River goldfields, and to Cooper’s Creek in Central Australia. There he rescued King, sole survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition, returning there a second time to recover the bodies of Burke and Wills.

 For these services he was appointed Police magistrate and Goldfields Warden at Omeo in 1863. He married Liney Boothby in 1864, and they lived at Omeo until 1866 when they commenced farming at Lucknow where Alfred was amongst the first to grow hops on the Mitchell Flats. Howitt pioneered microscopic techniques in Australian geology and made important observations concerning the geology of Gippsland.

He is regarded as one of those who laid the foundations of Australian anthropology in his studies of the Gippsland Aborigines.

He received many honours in his lifetime — Honorary Doctorates of Science at Cambridge and Melbourne Universities; C.M.G.; the Clarke Medal; the Mueller Medal as well as holding important offices yet his achievements have been largely forgotten.

The Proposed Township of Paynesville, A Sketch August 1879

The discovery of sketch entitled the Proposed Township of Paynesville, drawn in August 1879 by Land Officer W.H. Gregson was the inspiration for this book.

Gregson set his proposal for a township on a narrow ribbon of Crown reserve located between selector Thomas Tucker’s boundary fence and the edge of the high steep bank that overlooked the shore of Newlands Backwater. 

His design included thirty-six fishermen’s residential sites with a wharf below. On the highest point of the embankment he marked the future location of quarters for the Sub-Inspectors of Fisheries from where they could look down and monitor the activity on the wharf below and the fishing grounds beyond.

Gregson marked the locations of ten temporary fishermen’s huts as well as the regular pathway that the fishermen followed on their journeys in and out of their camp.