John and Elizabeth
Blunden
John and Elizabeth Blunden were married in England in 1844
and sailed to Adelaide from Portsmouth, England, later that year, in the little brig
"William Wise", 300 tons, which took six months to come out and, as
can be imagined, was scarcely comfortable.
Elizabeth Blunden brought out with her, a harp, a
lute, a spinet and some very lovely dresses and quaint little bonnets, of silks
and brocades and fine lace, and her grandchildren can just remember gazing at these beautiful
old garments in awe and delight.
It took six months for John Blunden and his wife, Elizabeth,
to make the long journey to Victoria in a
bullock wagon over a rough track. On the way Elizabeth’s harp was jolted out,
and
a wheel passed over it so it was completely broken which was a great grief to
this young girl in a strange land, among unknown people and completely unused to
the primitive conditions after the comfort and luxury of her English home.
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Concongella
They prospered, and met with many trials and tribulations,
but they had much happiness sharing an adventurous life together. They took up
land in the WIMMERA district and called their station (of approx 57,500 acres
sheep and cattle) "Concongella" where the doctor also practised his
profession and their six children were born – Ada, Ralph, Reginald, Godfrey,
Blanche and Florence. The last two girls were twins, but a young nurse playing
with Blanche one day, tossing her up and catching her, the baby somehow broke
her neck. This is the story handed down, and of course Blanche was the
strong one and Florence, very delicate. Elizabeth was forced to raise her
children under primitive conditions, and to have them educated by tutors.
Their first home would probably have been a wattle and bark
hut, or a slab hut, with a bark roof. Later they built a solid bluestone home
with verandas on two side and in a superb position on a high rise of the Barwon
river surrounded by magnificent trees. The homestead was 100 years old when it
was sold in good condition in 1974, and the creek below the homestead is still
called "Doctors Creek" after Dr John Blunden, who was the district
coroner, a doctor, and also a run holder. There was always a store on the
property, supplying bushman remedies, blue bottles of castor oil, and brown
bottles of pain killer! He ran about 12 000 sheep, and shepherds worked from
dawn to dusk, with their rough haired Scottish collies trotting beside them. The
first gold was found on the property in 1853.
John took on a freehold property in 1854 -
"Ellendale", near Geelong, and in 1858 "Concongella" was sub divided from its
original 90 square miles.
Family prayers were part of station life, as they lived in a
state of perpetual anxiety. There were marauding blacks, deadly snakes,
sickness, drought, floods(1851) and bush fires, and labour shortages to contend
with. They had their own cemetery on the station. They made
champagne on the property - the "Great Western" that is still drunk
today, and the Great Western Vineyards are still producing.
Elizabeth had some scary experiences
in those early days. They had Aboriginal workers. One day after she had just
arrived from England a naked Aboriginal man ran into the kitchen. Elizabeth got
such a fright she hit him on the bottom with a frying pan (she had forgotten she
was a lady!). Another time one came in and said he was sick. "Didn’t you
take the pills that Dr John gave you? She asked. "No missy, too much shit
shit".
Years later when the family had to be educated, they moved to
Geelong where Dr Blunden bought a practice at Highton and the three boys went to
the Geelong Grammar School, and the girls had a governess and tutors. Dr John
was also the local coroner and Doctor, as well as run holder.
Later they moved to Colac where John practised medicine in
partnership with Dr Rae living at "Merinen" by the lake. In 1875 John
was recorded as "Surgeon and J.P. in Colac, and Magistrate of
Midlands".
Going back some years to 1853, a
few months or even weeks before the twins were born, Elizabeth's father, Andrew
Nance,
died in England leaving a substantial estate to be divided between his children
and a legacy to each of his grandchildren who was alive at the time of his
death, to receive as they became twenty-one years old.
As Florence was not as yet born, she got nothing,
but the money was not a fortunate inheritance for her sister and two of her
brothers. Ada married an English schoolmaster with an Oxford degree,
William Field Barnard, M.A. He was a fortune hunter and it was a sad marriage.
He soon spent her money and broke her heart and eventually died, leaving her
with six children in poor circumstances. Ralph and Godfrey were both big handsome
men, very musical and always popular, being very entertaining and
much entertained. They invested in land and other schemes, but they did not
become rich and were unfortunately killed in train accidents.
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Reginald Blunden
 John
and Elizabeth's son, Reginald, went to New Zealand and
bought an excellent sheep property near Christchurch, where he married a
well-to-do widow, Alice Moore, who had five daughters.
Reginald and Alice then had five sons and a daughter, all of
whom grew up and prospered. He too was killed in a motor accident years later.
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Borongarook
After living some years in Geelong, Dr John Blunden and his family
moved to Colac, where he practised in partnership with Dr Rae. They lived on the
bank of the lake in a house called "Nerinen".
In 1875 John was recorded as "Surgeon and Justice of the
Peace in Colac, and Magistrate of Midlands".
Andrew Strachan Murray was
the third son of Hugh and Elizabeth Murray, pioneers of the district, and the
owners of a sheep station of some 10,000 acres called "Borongarook"
which he, Andrew, was managing for his widowed mother. According to his own
story, riding in Colac one day, he saw and was introduced to John's daughter, pretty Florence
Blunden, and then and there decided to marry her, for he had fallen desperately
in love. He was a good-looking man of twenty-five years, and after two years of
persistent courtship she agreed to his proposal, for she was an attractive
little lass with many suitors and no doubt found it hard to choose.
The wedding duly took place on 4 November 1874, and thus they
became parents, much loved and revered by all their family of five, Ilma,
Mervyn, Vera, Esme and Reginald, who grew up mostly in the old home "Borongarook".
Of their grandfather, Dr John Blunden, the grandchildren did not know a great deal……..he
was always very proud of his lovely thick head of hair, which he declared was
due to the fact of the boys not being allowed to wear hats. He was the big,
bluff, kindly, country doctor, a very popular and delightful Grandfather. The
grand
children all loved him and he often came to stay with them after he retired.
The other son, George, had meanwhile grown up and left for
the northern part of New Zealand, where he married and drifted away from the
family – probably before Florence was born and she never saw him,
though he did write occasionally. (George was born at Catherington. Hants, in
1839 to John Blunden's first wife, Harriet; Florence was born 1853.)
John and Elizabeth were always spoken of with affection and admiration,
and remembered as "fine, Christian people".
Elizabeth was an adored grandmother and her grandchildren often went with their mother to stay
with her in Melbourne.
John
and Elizabeth Blunden
mostly enjoyed good health, and spent their last days in a suite of rooms in
Osborne House, Nicholson Street, an elegant apartment house built
opposite the Exhibition Gardens in Melbourne(still standing in 1980).
Dr Blunden
died in 1893 and Elizabeth in 1895 and were buried in the St Kilda Cemetery.
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The
Blundens in Australia - who are they?
John and Elizabeth Blunden had six children, Ada, Ralph, Reginald, Godfrey,
plus twins Blanche and Florence.
FLORENCE BLUNDEN
was in great demand to sing and play at
concerts as she was a talented musician and had a lovely voice. Her twin,
Blanche, died when she was very young.
GODFREY BLUNDEN (1)
studied medicine but decided to farm
instead and acquired land near Swans Hill. He married Alice McMillan, Head
Teacher of Mologa East State School.
GODFREY BLUNDEN (2)
Born 1905 and at the age of 20 became
Editor of the first "Wireless" magazine in England 1935. In 1941 as a
War Correspondent for "Sydney Daily Telegraph" he covered the
"Battle of Britain". When Germany invaded Russia in 1942 he covered
the Stalingrad and Kharkov forces. In 1943 he was attached to the U S Ninth
Airforce, and later the U S Ninth Army, covering the battles in Holland and
Germany.
After the war he was Associate Editor of U S magazine
"Time".
His first novel: "No more Reality" was published in
England in 1935.
His second novel: "A Room on the Route" depicting
wartime in Russia.
The third novel: "The Time of the Assassins" deals
with the merciless savagery between fascist and communists forces in the
Ukraine.
Fourth novel: 1956 "The Looking Glass Conference" a
comic satire on international diplomacy. Most important novel: "Charco
Harbour" fictional but very realistic account of Captain Cook’s first
voyage to Australia. After the war his wife joined him in Paris. They visited
Ireland to see what remained of their family history, they then divorced and he
married a Polish girl and settled in Paris, then Venice and later in Vence,
France.
Their daughter NOEL is a Doctor of Economics,
Their son Ronald is a
book publisher in France.
BYRON BLUNDEN
Secretary to the leader of the Federal
Country Party (Dr Earl Page) he then transferred to the "New Daily
Telegraph". He had married Jean Aladene Beatson in 1936. Both were
journalists (Jean added German genes to the already potent Blunden brew!).
Their
children: BYRON journalist,
KENNETH artist and teacher, married Julian De Brett,
a teacher:
JANET a nurse married a journalist.
RALPH in 1944 became production
officer for the advertising department of Prestige Ltd. In 1959 after working in
the publications department of the Department of Labour, he established his own
agency Ralph Blunden Pty Ltd. After selling that he worked as creative director
with the advertising agency "Grey International" Sydney.
ELBERT
commercial artist.
PETER Bachelor of Architecture, married Mary Si Leitnowska,
divorced and married Mary de Jesus Escolar de Castille in 1972.
ANDREW civil
engineer.
ADA married Professor Barnarda of Melbourne University, an Oxford MA
and a Master at Melbourne Grammar.
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