From B to A: British bourgeoisie to Australian aristocracy To stand on the wide veranda at Woolmers Estate and gaze across the Norfolk Plains is to feel you are in the presence of six generations of Australian faux aristocrats. We are, as a general principle, a very egalitarian society – possibly the most egalitarian society the world has ever seen. A kind of working class paradise where people, through dint of hard work, can rise to a level of affluence and comfort that, in other countries, would mark them out as aristocrats. Where else on the planet can you be an honest, modest tradesman and live in a house by the ocean with million dollar views and a large boat in the driveway? Who cares about class? But this is not true about Tasmania. Of all the states it not only looks like England (green rolling hills and pristine fields) but it nurtured a class system and an aristocracy from earliest times. It really did help to have good contacts and free convict labour. There are numerous stories of convicts who rose to become prominent citizens but what about the already-wealthy who arrived on the island. Consider the case of the Archer family: the Archers were ambitious. They had been successful millers in Hertford. William Archer had five sons and they all sought their fortune overseas. Joseph and Edward went the America; Daniel to India and Thomas to Van Diemen’s Land. Thomas arrived in 1812 with letters of introduction to Governor Lachlan Macquarie and was soon appointed Clerk in Charge of the Commissariat at Port Dalrymple (now known as George Town) on the north coast of Van Diemen’s Land. He resigned in 1821 and was granted 2,000 acres (809 ha) and started a remarkable dynasty of wealth and power. “By March 1825 Archer held 6000 acres (2428 ha) by grant and much other property by purchase. His successes inspired his brother Joseph to emigrate; later they were joined by two other brothers William and Edward and by their father. The Archer brothers were good farmers. They lived on and developed their land ... The homesteads they built—Woolmers, Panshanger, Brickendon, Northbury, Fairfield, Cheshunt, Woodside, Palmerston and Saundridge—many still in the hands of descendants, are among the finest in northern Tasmania and are a memorial to their sagacity and taste.” These were not enterprising convicts dreaming of a better life. They were ambitious middle class entrepreneurs and farmers from the Home Counties. They rose in the ranks to the point where in 1868 the Duke of Edinburgh (not the present one – even though he does look old enough to have been dining back in 1868) lunched at Woolmers. The Archers took their social responsibilities seriously. They wanted to make a contribution – Thomas was a member of the first Tasmanian Legislative Council for nearly 20 years – and, like their British counterparts, they were so solid and secure that they lived in Woolmers for six generations until dear, old and eccentric Thomas William Archer VI (1917-1994) decided not to marry, not to carry on the line, and when he died without an heir he left the estate to the Archer Historical Foundation … the bonus is that we can all go and see what life was like for these colonial gentlemen farmers: the Archers of Woolmer. And to all those English cynics – no! they didn’t end up with a radio program about their life. aussietowns.au/town/longford-tas
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 04:04:58 +0000
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