National Wool Museum
Textile - Waistcoat, R. Collins Hocking, c.1910
... ...Mt Duneed...Wilfred’s Church of England, Mt Duneed
•Director of Dennys Lascelles, 1932-1946
•Mt Duneed Cemetery Trustee, 1900
•Honorary member of the Mt Duneed Rifle Club, 1900
•Mt Duneed Mutual Improvement Association
•Mt Duneed Recreation Reserve Trustee
•Torquay Improvement Association Trustee
•Barwon Returning Officer
Douglas Alfred White, 1900 Stretton Park, Connewarre-1976, Geelong.
...Wilfred’s Church of England, Mt Duneed
•Director of Dennys Lascelles, 1932-1946
•Mt Duneed Cemetery Trustee, 1900
•Honorary member of the Mt Duneed Rifle Club, 1900
•Mt Duneed Mutual Improvement Association
•Mt Duneed Recreation Reserve Trustee
•Torquay Improvement Association Trustee
•Barwon Returning Officer
Douglas Alfred White, 1900 Stretton Park, Connewarre-1976, Geelong.
...
The Waistcoat’s Owners
The first owner of the waistcoat was Alfred (Alf) Gilbert White, 1868 Stretton Park, Connewarre – 1946, Mt Duneed. He was the fourth child of Andrew White, 1828-1900, and Jane Roberts, 1827-1871. His father Andrew White was born at Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, England, the sixth child of William White and Sarah Elkington. Andrew had come to Victoria on the James L. Bogart in 1852 with his first wife, Emily Walker. From 1854, records show he was the owner of livery stables in central Geelong before he moved into land ownership. In 1862, Andrew became a landowner with 1,400 acres in Connewarre, the Salt Water Run, then re-named Stretton Park by Andrew.
Thereafter he is usually noted as a Farmer or Sheep Farmer. Emily died in 1861 and Andrew remarried Jane Roberts in 1863. Jane was the daughter of Jane (Jenefer) Pearce and William Roberts in Crowan, Cornwell, England and it is thought arrived in Victoria on the British Trident in 1855.
In 1878 Andrew moved to the newly purchased “Hillside” at Mt Duneed with his family including Alfred. By 1880 Andrew held 11,095 acres in South Barwon and Barrabool. As well as being a landowner, he had other business interests including Auctioneers, Stock and Station Agents Learmonth White from 1886. However farming at Hillside, particularly wool production, was an important part of his life.
For example, in 1893 10,350 sheep were shorn although the highest number of bales of wool produced was in 1892 with 174 bales under AW’s wool mark and 8 under that of Stretton Park. This was the result of shearing 9,234 sheep. There were usually six or seven shearers, shearing over a two to three week period, beginning in early or mid October. Some of the shearers bore names familiar in the district such as Gogoll, Duffield, and Baensch.
Andrew White held a number of local positions including:
•1863-1874 Connewarre Road Board, Chairman 1871-73
•1875-1900 South Barwon Shire Council. When the Board amalgamated with South Barwon to form the Shire of South Barwon, he was an inaugural representative of Connewarre. He was a council member for 44 years and president for the following terms: 1878-1879; 1885-1887; 1889; 1894; 1895-1896; and 1898-1899.
•1878-1886, Barrabool Shire Council, President 1882
•In 1885 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace in the Southern Bailiwick
•Committee member of the Geelong Racing Club, 1890-96
•In 1892 he was appointed returning officer for the South-Western Province and the electoral district of Barwon
•Foundation President of Torquay Racing Club, 1893
•Mount Duneed Cemetery Trustee, 1893
Alfred Gilbert White went to Connewarre School and then to Mt Duneed School after the family moved to Mt Duneed. He then went to Geelong Grammar School as a boarder from 31 July 1883. After leaving school, in 1886, he worked as a bookkeeper for the family business Learmonth-White stock and station agents and lived at home at Hillside.
He and Bessie Orchard Mathews were married in 1894. Bessie was born in Geelong in 1869, the sixth child of William Matthews and Amelia Orchard. Her family lived at “Turley,” Malop Street, Geelong, named after the hamlet of Turleigh in West Wiltshire, England. Bessie’s father, William Mathews, a butcher from Winsley, Wiltshire, arrived on the Queen of the East in Sydney in 1854 and established a successful butcher’s business with his brother James in Geelong. Her mother, Amelia Orchard, also from Winsley, arrived on the Thames in Melbourne in 1857.
Alfred, Bessie and their family lived at Stretton Park, Connewarre, leasing it from Andrew. They had six children including their fourth child Douglas Alfred White, the second owner of the waistcoat. His father Andrew supported Alfred’s sheep farming at Stretton Park. In 1896 “.... eight splendid 2-tooth Lincoln rams in the wool were purchased by Mr Andrew White for his son, Mr Alfred G. White….intended for Mr White’s sheep run at Connewarre.“
Alfred White bought ‘Hillside’, 640 acres, after his father’s death and moved there with his family from Stretton Park in Connewarre. (Stretton Park was bought by his half sister Emily and her family and renamed “Morangarell”.) A family partnership was formed to run the wider station. It was then Alfred who managed the new partnership, called Stretton Park.
Alfred meticulously kept the financial records of the station, as might be expected from a former bookkeeper. The detail kept is exemplified in the annual shearing records, including the names of the paddocks, the number of lambs and ewes and the shearers’ tallies. In the spring of 1900, after Andrew White had died, shearing began on 7 October and was finished on 6 November. On some days well over 500 sheep were shorn. The highest tally was 616 on 11 October. That year the overall total of sheep shorn was 9,101.
Alfred was an active community member including:
•South Barwon Council member (46 years), president: 1903-04; 1906-07; 1921-22; and 1931-33
•Geelong Grammar School Council member, 1908-1946 (over 37 years)
•Active member of St. Wilfred’s Church of England, Mt Duneed
•Director of Dennys Lascelles, 1932-1946
•Mt Duneed Cemetery Trustee, 1900
•Honorary member of the Mt Duneed Rifle Club, 1900
•Mt Duneed Mutual Improvement Association
•Mt Duneed Recreation Reserve Trustee
•Torquay Improvement Association Trustee
•Barwon Returning Officer
Douglas Alfred White, 1900 Stretton Park, Connewarre-1976, Geelong.
Initially Douglas and his sisters were taught at home by a governess. Then, like his father, Douglas attended Geelong Grammar. After finishing school, he studied Engineering at Melbourne University where he met Violet Fullerton, 1900-1992, who was studying Medicine. They married in 1926 and had two children including Douglas Robert Stretton (DRS) White Melbourne, 1928–Geelong, 1989, the final owner of the waistcoat.
After a successful career as an engineer with the Department of Main Roads, NSW, and serving as a Major in the Royal Australian Engineers in NT, New Guinea and Borneo during the Second World War, Douglas purchased part of Stretton Park when it was sold in 1952. He farmed “South Beach Farm” until his death in 1975. (This area now includes The Sands and Stretton Estate subdivisions.)
His son DRS White also attended Geelong Grammar before studying at Dookie Agricultural College. In 1955 DRS purchased land from Peter Fisher, John Fisher and Frank Walter, naming the property “Lambidgee”. (This was part of the land that had originally belonged to Andrew White that had been sold previously.) He farmed this land for the rest of his life, continuing the family tradition. After his father’s death in 1975, the waistcoat became his and so passed to a third generation of the family.Chartreuse green and red waistcoat featuring woven wool front with six buttons, silk back with metal clasp, and red lining. The buttons feature small green beads in the centre.Label [printed]: R. Collins Hocking / GEELONG
Label [handwritten]: A. G. White Esqwaistcoat, vest, design, textiles, fashion, alfred white, sheep farming, mt duneed, rural life
National Wool Museum
Torquay and District Historical Society
Glenelg Shire Council Cultural Collection
Orbost & District Historical Society
Lakes Entrance Historical Society
Lakes Entrance Historical Society