Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Photograph - Vessel - steam launch, Mrs. A. Dawson, Lady Loch, February 1907 - June 1910
The steam launch “Lady Loch” is towing five rowing boats on the Hopkins River at Warrnambool. All of the boats have many passengers on board. At the time of the photograph, Lady Loch was travelling from the riverbank near Jubilee Park downriver towards Warrnambool and the river mouth. Boating and rowing on the Hopkins River was a very popular activity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. People would travel a long way to enjoy their leisure time in the Warrnambool district and hiring a boat with a group of friends was a very popular pastime.
The Warrnambool Standard promoted an evening excursion in 1909 to aid in a fund-raising event for the Warrnambool Hospital. The excursion was a trip on the steamer Lady Loch, which would also tow boats from the Flett & Sons' boating establishment. Lady Loch was to leave Flett & Son's boatshed on the Hopkins River at 7:30 pm, upstream travelling towards Jubilee Park.
The photograph was taken between February 1907 and June 1910 by Mrs A. G. Dawson from the Hopkins River Bank at “Allandale”, which she was leasing. Mrs Dawson took another picture at that time and it was published in the Warrnambool Standard on 24th March 1973.
The launch's owner, James Flett & Son, had a boatshed on the bend of the Hopkins River. The Lady Loch was described as “a fine little steamer with a capacity for about 70 passengers.” She was a screw-driven steamboat so hardly disturbed the waters of the Hopkins River, dismissing the fears of local mullet fishermen, as there was almost no wash from the steamer. She measured 52 feet in length, had a beam of 9 feet and weighed about 7 tons.
HISTORY OF “LADY LOCH”
The Lady Loch was originally bought by Mark Hooper as a pleasure boat and named “Lady of the Lake”, adding to his boating business in Colac. The boat was most likely built by one of the boatbuilders at Lake Wendouree. The little launch arrived at Lake Colac by road from Ballarat on 21st November 1887; her boiler and engine had been transported by rail the day before.
Fanny Nelson purchased the launch in June 1888 for her business “Nelson’s Boating Establishment” on the Hopkins River, Warrnambool, and renamed it “Lady Loch”. Some people suggested that the boat was renamed in honour of the wife of the then-current Governor of Victoria, Sir Henry Loch, Governor from 1884 to 1889. The local paper stated that Lady Loch flew the Governor’s colours of yellow, black and blue on her first trip under Nelson’s ownership, Sunday 12th August 1888.
HISTORY ASSOCIATED WITH FANNY NELSON’S BOATING ESTABLISHMENT
Frances (Fanny) Maria Mann was born in 1828, in Gloucestershire, England. She married Andrew Abernethy II Nelson of County Downs, Ireland (born 1831) in July 1848. The eldest of their six children was born there in 1854. They emigrated to Australia in May 1855. The second child was born in 1856, and the following children in 1859 and 1862 (both in Wangoom) 1866 and 1870 (both in Warrnambool).
Andrew and Fanny lived near the mouth of the Hopkins River from the late 1850s. Andrew was a keen and successful fisherman who also operated a boat hire business on the lower Hopkins River. Fanny was well known for the ‘hearty meals’ she served
There was another boatshed and boat hire business on the Hopkins River, on the corner of Simpson and Bostock Sts. It was owned by Joseph Aberline in 1871 but by August 1872 the boat business had been taken over by Charles Everett. His Colonial Wine Licence of October 1872 was for "a house situated at the Hopkins". In 1873 he sold the land and boating business to Mr Peter McGennan, who built a large boatshed where the Warrnambool Rowing Club stored its boats. In October 1876 the main boatshed and a workshop nearby burnt down but the house, later known as Hopkins Hotel, was saved. Mr McGennan rebuilt the boatshed and continued with his businesses.
Andrew Nelson passed away from a heart problem on June 21st 1875 aged 44. Fanny took over the McGennan business to support herself and her 6 children. It was now “Mrs Nelson’s Boating and Fishing Establishment”. In 1877 the Hopkins Colonial Wine Licence was transferred to Fanny M. Nelson and the following year she advertised that the renovated establishment now had boats, fishing gear and accommodation available at moderate prices. She renewed the Colonial Wine Licence for the Hopkins Hotel in December 1883. In 1884 she purchased four new clinker-built rowing boats, two of which were outriggers with sliding seats, to join her sculling boat. Her premises also included the local Post Office.
In August 1885 Fanny Nelson called for tenders for a new boathouse to be built on the Hopkins River closer to the river bank and near the Nelson house. It would be “specially built for housing of eight-oared boats, with dressing room and bath for the rowers. There will be a platform on one side and two jetties into the river.” It became known locally as Nelson’s Boathouse.
In December 1885 Fanny Nelson was granted a Hotel Licence for Hopkins Hotel; this was her home but it also had six rooms that were separate from the Nelson family’s rooms. She was now proprietress of both the Hopkins Hotel and the Nelson’s Boating Establishment. Fanny Nelson was favourably mentioned as the proprietress of the Hopkins Hotel in the esteemed book “Victoria and its Metropolis” in 1888, one of the very few women mentioned.
Andrew Nelson, the third son of Fanny and Andrew Nelson, was a baker and confectioner by trade, and a keen member of the Warrnambool Rowing Club in the team that won the Colac Regatta in 1887. He occasionally helped his mother and brother with the boats and later with the small steamer.
Fanny Nelson was looking for a suitable steam launch to run on the Hopkins River in conjunction with her “Nelson’s Boating Establishment” business. Mark Hooper’s steamboat Lady of the Lake was then bought by Fanny through Messers St. Quintin and M. McDonald of Warrnambool. It was transported overland from Colac to Warrnambool by Messrs. Stansmore Bro and the next day, Sunday 5th August 1888, a large crowd of people were on the Hopkins River to have a look at the steamer, which was still to have her boiler and other fittings installed by Mr Hooper. The Lady Loch had a trial run on Saturday 11th August 1888, and the next day the boat took a trip to Jubilee Park and the ‘islands’ at Allansford. Mr Hooper was on board, along with John Steel, her future engineer. T.H. Osborne was at the wheel and there were over 70 passengers. She made the trip back to Nelson’s boatshed at an “easy steam of six miles an hour. The whole trip took one and three-quarters of an hour”.
Fanny Nelson sold her complete business “Hopkins Hotel and Boat Establishment” in 1890 to E.S.V. (Edward Samuel Vincent) Chapman. She moved to Melbourne; her address in 1896 was South Melbourne, then later Albert Park. On 26th May 1900, she died from a burns accident and was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.
Chapman advertised Sunday afternoon Excursions on the Hopkins River in the Colac Herald, with the trip going from his boatsheds to Jubilee Park. Participants disembarked on the landing to enjoy a picnic before returning to Chapman’s boatsheds.
In February 1892 the Hotel was transferred to Mrs Chapman, Edward’s wife. The hotel changed hands several times, and changed its name to Hopkins House, then closed its doors in June 1911 after a fire. The building was re-erected but never again became a hotel. it was purchased by the Warrnambool City Council and demolished in 1974 and became part of the Hopkins River Recreation Reserve now King Park. The boatsheds were unharmed by the fire.
James Flett & Sons purchased the boating business from Chapman in January 1897. James Flett had already been involved in boating. In 1875 he built a large blackwood lighter on Jetty Flat for Spencer Smith & Co. Some years previously, James Flett had built all of the lighters that were owned by John Young at the jetty.
A tragedy occurred on Jan 7th 1899 when William Grayson drowned after he had been boating on Hopkins River with a companion, a jockey named Style. William had fallen into the river and his companion was unable to save him. The boat had been hired from Flett’s shed.
Sunday 12th November 1911 it was reported as ‘one of the busiest days of the season’ in Warrnambool. A special train, for the ‘Camperdown Church of England Sunday School’, was run from Camperdown to Warrnambool and Port Fairy, returning in the evening. It was ‘largely availed by all denominations, and the general public from Camperdown district, fully 600 adults and children and about half that number spent the day in Warrnambool. A large number of boats were on the river and the Lady Loch was well patronised.
Flett’s boating business was still in operation until Flett advertised everything for sale in January 1916, including the boatshed and the steam launch of Lady Loch. Until that time, both the Flett’s boatsheds and Proudfoot’s boathouse operated boat hire businesses alongside each other. The boatsheds erected by Fanny Nelson became the headquarters for the Warrnambool Ski Club but were demolished in 2004 when a new club building was erected nearby. The photograph of the Lady Loch pleasure steamer represents the social and recreational activities of late 19th-century people from Warrnambool and the local district. It shows an example of the pleasure craft of that era. The history of the Lady Loch includes the history of fishing and boat hire businesses of that period.
The photograph is also connected with an early Warrnambool buat builder James Flett & Sons. representing the maritime history of the town.Photograph, black and white, of the steam launch “Lady Loch” towing five rowing boats downstream on the Hopkins River from Jubilee Park towards the river mouth. There are many figures on the boats.
The photograph was taken from a property called “Allandale” on the south river bank between February 1907 and June 1910. The photographer was Mrs A. G. Dawson. The “Lady Loch” was owned by Mr James Flett & Sons at that time. Her previous owner was Mrs Fanny Nelson. The photograph is mounted on card.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, lady of the lake, lady of the lake steamer, lady loch steamer, lake colac steamer, hopkins river warrnambool, jubilee park warrnambool, proudfood's boat house, francis maria mann, andrew abernathy nelson iiird, hopkins hotel, nelson's boathouse, chapman's boathouse, flett's boathouse, proudfoot's boathouse, fanny (francis) nelson, james flett & sons