Monday 12th November 2009
BRING WATER, BRING WINE
AND THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM
©Malcolm Sealy 2007BRING WATER, BRING WINE
AND THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM
The lives of Father and son - John Busby and James Busby - and their descendants
Introduction
Descendants of these two 19th century pioneers abound in Australia. Apart from articles about these originals scattered hither and thither in Dictionaries of National Biography, they tend to refer to 'Busby's Bore' still under the streets of Sydney when talking of John Busby, and to the Prophet of Australian wine when talking of James Busby.
Both of them had serious arguments with the authorities during their lifetimes and it may be that because of their fractiousness and being ahead of their times, they have been lost in the sea of historical consciousness.
Chapter 1
In 1995, The Busby Bore meant nothing to me and I knew little about James Busby’s attitude to wine and his contribution to the Australian Wine industry as it is today. James’ father John born on March 24th 1765 at Alnwick in Northumberland trained as a coalmining manager. He became skilled at locating coal deposits through his civil engineering surveying background. He settled in Scotland and surveyed many of the counties for minerals and water and his most notable contribution was the water supply at Fort Leith.
On the recommendation of John Bigge he was appointed in 1823, when 58, to supervise coalmining at Newcastle in New South Wales and, later, to provide for a fresh water supply for Sydney Town.This latter task was not a simple one but by 1837 his tunnel to bring water from Hyde Park was completed after 13 years – its flow was increased by pumping and served Sydney well until 1858. It was a laborious task for convict labour and gained the name of “Busby’s Bore”. John Busby was assisted in the work by his youngest son William.
James Busby, John’s second son was born in Scotland on 7th February 1801 and arrived in New South Wales with his father in 1824. Within a year he had put together a “Treatise on the Culture of the Vine” which was published by the Government Printer in 1825. This was dedicated to Governor Brisbane and led to his appointment as Manager of the estate which supported the Boys’ Orphan school at Liverpool. Busby agreed to teach viniculture to the inmates in return for one-third of the farm produce.Unfortunately for Busby, the new trustees of the Clergy and School Lands Corporation, dismissed him and closed the farm. After this upset and a long drawn out claim for compensation, he was appointed by Governor Darling to the post of Collector of Internal Revenue. He was superseded in this by a nominee from England.
In 1830 he published his second book on vine-culture called “A Manual of Plain Directions for Planting and Cultivating Vineyards”. Subsequently he diligently collected vine stock from Spain and France which he presented to the Sydney Botanic Gardens through the Colonial Office where, by 1833, 362 varieties were in full growth.
Lord Goderich – Colonial Secretary – appointed him First Resident in New Zealand. In May 1833 he reached the Bay of Islands by warship and inaugurated an administration. His efforts in New Zealand soon became interrupted as the New South Wales authorities urged the Colonial Office to cancel Busby’s salary on the grounds that it derived little advantage from his work in New Zealand.To make matters worse, a decision had already been reached in London to abolish his position as Resident and on 29th January 1840 William Hobson arrived in New Zealand with a commission appointing him Lieutenant- Governor of New Zealand. Despite giving Hobson loyal unremitting support and revising the draft Treaty of Waitangi and then deciding to settle on land in New Zealand, things went from bad to worse for Busby.
He bought 40000 acres of grazing land plus 100 acres of forest near Auckland in a quite legitimate fashion. But when he went to Sydney to buy cattle he was amazed to find that Governor Gipps was promoting a Bill through the Legislative Council to cancel all existing titles to New Zealand land.
He died an embittered man in 1871 on a visit to England to undergo cataract operations.
Both the talented father and talented son seem either to have had bad luck with their administrators or were perhaps somewhat intellectually arrogant in a new Continent where survival and aggression were more the order of the day.
Chapter 1
The selection of settlement sites by Europeans after arriving in Australia were often based on the perception of adequate supplies of fresh water – and the quality of water was recognised early as is shown by a General Order issued in 1802 to the inhabitants of Sydney but 14 years after the arrival of the First Fleet –If any person whatever is detected in throeing any filth into the stream of fresh water, cleaning fish, washing, erecting pig-sties near it, or taking water but at the tanks, on conviction before a Magistrate, their houses will be taken down and forfeit £ 5.00 for each offence to the Orphan Fund
JAMES BUSBY's first publication was in 1825 but his two later books were more significant. The 1830 publication with the lengthy title of “A Manual of Plain directions for planting and cultivating Vineyards, and for making wine, in New South Wales” is dedicated to the Governor in Chief Lieut-General Ralph Darling and opens with a mixture of morality and philosophy. His object is to “increase the comforts and promote the morality of the lower classes of the Colony; and more especially of the native-born youth.”He compares the temperance and contentment of the lowest classes of the people in the Southern countries of Europe where wine is the common drink of the inhabitants with the unhappy effects produced by the consumption of spirits, or malt liquors. He goes on to suggest that it would add to the happiness of the Colonists of New South Wales if wine were introduced and the other beverages reduced.The effect of the Rum Corps and the debilitating results had not been lost on James Busby. But, he also had been very observant of the generally inferior geological condition of the Australian land mass which is still a problem at the present time.In referring to his 1825 treatise he says “ I endeavoured to shew that the cultivation of the vine would yield to the Colony a new and valuable export, and give a high value to many of its soils, which, without it, would in all probability remain for ever useless”.
In a way Busby was predicting the problem of salinity which is a worrying feature of land in Australia as the thin crust which is the Australian soil is easily damaged.He makes a very good point about climate and drink and effectively says that Australians should adapt their drinking habits to their new country and not base them on the Mother Country. In the same way that the settlers followed English cuisine so did they assume that spirits and beer were as good in the heat as in the cold wet climes of Northern Europe.He adds that had Australia been colonised by the French we should have seen few corn fields without their neighbouring vineyards and he feels that his first treatise on the vine had given the impression that this was a complicated and abstruse matter.He explains that he was concerned with the production of the best quality wine but having seen the ruinous effect of rum on farmers and labourers alike, he proposes in this book to simplify the subject with “Plain” directions for cultivating the vine so that wine will be within the reach of all in the Colony.Whatever the quality of the wine, it will have the advantage of having been produced from planting to drinking by the individual farmer and his family and employees. This will make the effort all the more worthwhile “they will have planted the vines and pruned them – their children and families will have gathered the grapes and ‘brought home the vintage with shoutings’. They will have pressed the grapes and watched the fermentation of the juice so that the wine will be their very own as it owes its existence entirely to them.Busby dismisses beer as unworthy of serious consideration in a few words – “of the use of beer, I do not think it is necessary to say much. Anyone, I say who would prefer beer to wine would resemble a person who should eat the rind and throw away the fruit”.He then describes the attraction of the economics of growing vines and producing wine. He estimates the cost of preparing the ground for a vineyard of an acre at 16 pounds and the expense of planting and four years cultivation at 8 pounds a year. Capital invested 48 pounds.He calculates 250 gallons of wine per acre which is equivalent to 1200 - 1500 bottles with a cost to the producer of just under 3d. Thus one acre would yield 4 bottles a day during the year.It looks as though little has changed since Busby’s calculations in 1830. 250 gallons would be about the norm and the cost of production within the parameters grossed up from the nineteenth century values and related to the current exchange rate between the AUD and the Pound sterling.
He moves on to soil quality and relates how he had brought a bottle of wine to table from plantings at Cabramatta and was well-judged by the experts gathered there as being comparable to a Burgundy. He says that this wine grew upon a soil naturally inferior to most soil in the Colony for a vineyard. He goes on “when I consider that these samplescame from vineyards which had not been more than five years planted, and that in France they scarcely reckon upon a wine being fit for the market until the vines are six years old and also that the quality of the wine invariably improves with the age of the vines – when I consider this, I can no more doubt that this Colony is capable of producing wine, and good wine too, than I can doubt of its being able to produce wheat and maize.”A vineyard is a very desirable thing . “In the first place, I think everyone will see that by commencing gradually to prepare the ground, he will, at very little cost be able to plant an acre of vines and that this quantity will amply supply his own family and two or three servants throughout the year”.He goes on to say that the wine would have to be very poor indeed if he could not get a sale for any quantity he might choose to grow at a handsome profit. He then develops his vision of the little settler extending himself and seeking acreage which will be positioned and of such quality that really high class wines may be produced. And considering, that he is writing thirty years before the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s his words seem to have a prophetic ring – “supposing a settler should have a few acres of such land upon his farm, why, then it is better than if he had a mine of gold upon it.”He writes of the value of vineyards and their selling prices in France based solely on thequality of wine produced, and goes on to say that the NSW settler will not believe that such European values can be attained in Australia.On Busby’s cost/pricing estimates he says all famers should consider that when the selling price is 20 times the production cost (relating 3d per bottle cost to an average sales price of 5 shillings) it will cosst very little, in proportion to its value, to carry it all over the world. “The settler who succeeds in making a fine wine, has made his fortune; and he who makes the worst, will still find it a very profitable speculation.Then he waxes somewhat lyrical over the pleasure which the care of a vineyard will give to the settler and his family. He talks of the the state of happiness which is promised to the people of Israel, by the prophet, who tells them that “they shall sit, every one under his own vine, and under his own fig-tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid”. Busby is astonished how people neglect the blessings which are within their reach.
1833 JOURNAL OF A TOUR THROUGH SOME OF THE VINEYARDS OF SPAIN AND FRANCE
This relates the tour after he had sailed for London to present his case for compensation to Lord Goderich – he was appointed New Zealand’s First Resident.He decided to visit Spanish and French vineyards to see ‘what peculiarities of climate soil and culture’ influenced the the best European wine producers and to collect varietal specimens.The tour lasted four months between September 1831 and December 1831. His collection at the end comprised 437 cuttings from Montpellier Botanical Gardens and 133 from the Luxembourg Gardens. The varieties included raisins as well as grapes.The entire collection – all at Busby’s expense and initiative – were donated to HM Government. By January 1833 the vines had arrived by convict ship The Camden and during that year when Busby sailed for New Zealand to take up his appointment the vines were reported to be in a healthy and vigorous state in the Sydney Botanic Gardens.Although specimens from the collection reached other parts of NSW, SA and Victoria, after his departure the collection became neglected and was eventually destroyed. When he came back to Sydney in 1840 he could find no trace of it. Duplicates had been planted in Busby’s vineyard at ‘Kirkton’ in the Hunter Valley and was the basis of Chardonnay in Australia.Whilst Macarthur was trumpeting his own claim to be the ‘father of the wine industry’ the true originator was ignored. Alexander Berry did his best to support Busby in the Press.
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