© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY
You are currently viewing Officers of HMAS Renown at Port Stephens, 1920

Officers of HMAS Renown at Port Stephens, 1920

When Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales and (briefly) future King of England visited Australia in 1920, cities and towns across the nation vied fiercely for a piece of the royal action.

The 26-year-old heir to the throne, dubbed “the Digger Prince” by hyper-patriotic Australians keen to see their nation praised for its sacrifice in the recently ended Great War, was not exactly committed to the more demanding aspects of being a British Royal. He’d done a little war service, and his father had sent him on a tour of the dominions as a way of maintaining imperial ties and also training the young man in the duties of royalty.


Sydney’s decorated streets.

The Prince and his entourage arrived in Australia on May 26, 1920, in the HMS Renown, a warship converted for royal use. They’d already been to Canada and New Zealand, and by some accounts the young prince was already starting to tire of the hectic round of inevitably repetitive ceremonial events. If so, Australia didn’t make it any easier for him. Practically every minute of his time was accounted for.



He arrived by train in Newcastle on June 25, was met by a big and enthusiastic crowd, went by boat to Walsh Island Dockyard where he launched the new ship Enoggera, before being hustled off for a tour of the BHP steelworks and then to a function in King Edward Park. As if that wasn’t enough, he then had to go by train to Toronto for more celebrations. He spent the night at the Lakeside resort before heading back to Sydney next morning.

Because the demands from various localities for some princely involvement, a number of officers from HMS Renown stepped up to act as substitutes when the itinerary simply couldn’t accommodate a visit by the prince himself.

Port Stephens, for example, had a visit from some of the men from the Renown, and the visit is described in a scarce publication, With the Renown in Australasia. The publication states that the visit was largely urged by the president of the British Service Association (Australia), Mr Daniel Grove.


The armed sloop Fantome in Newcastle in 1921.

Present in Port Stephens at the time of the visit was the armed sloop, Fantome, and the officers exchanged greetings with the men of that ship.

According to the account in this publication, Lt John de C. Richards and midshipmen C.J. Skrine, J.B. Somerset and W.F. Hollins “left the Central Railway Station, Sydney, at 8 a.m. on June 21, and were joined at Hornsby by their host and hostesses, all arriving at Newcastle at 11.35 am,  just in time to catch the Port Stephens Passenger Agency’s public char-a-banc for Salt Ash, via Stockton”.

The first object of interest that was pointed out to the party was the Chelmsford Seamen’s Institute (the Missions to Seamen), directed by the Rev. W. Forster Haire, RANB, and the Rev. H. K. Vickery, assisted by a   patriotic voluntary committee, to all of whom our best wishes were conveyed by our host. Passing along the road, excellent views were obtained of the Walsh Island Shipbuilding Works and the Broken Hill Company’s Steel Works at Port Waratah, which promise to become of    colossal dimensions in the future.

At 2 p.m. the party boarded the S.S. Reliance,  which passed down Tilligherry Creek into the inner Port Stephens harbour at 3pm and at about 3.30 one of the finest sights in Australia – namely, of Port Stephens inner and outer harbours, from abreast of Middle Island – was unfolded.

There is no town of Port Stephens, but several have been laid out on the shores of this wonderful harbour. Salt Ash, near the head of Tilligherry Creek, is the nearest point to Newcastle, and consists only of an accommodation-house and a few farmers’ dwellings. It is the point of despatch for mails for Nelson’s Bay, Pindimar and Tea Gardens, and is a useful jumping-off point for a description of the place.


The Ocean View boarding house at Nelson Bay, circa 1913

Our party stayed at Mrs Lund’s boarding-house, Ocean View, Nelson’s Bay,  where the accommodation, cooking and attendance are quite equal to that   of many better-known residentials at English and French seaside resorts.

On the following morning the party put off in Asquith’s launch, for Myall Lake, in quest of wild duck and coot. En route we passed Sir Allen Taylor and Company’s sawmill at Windy Whoppa, also Tea Gardens, where freshly-picked oysters were ordered, ”to be called for” on our return from the lake.

After three hours’ journey up the Myall River we entered the lake, which was literally alive with wild duck and coot. The birds kept just beyond the range of our 12-hores until we reached the mouth of Dirty Creek, where   Skrine and Hollins took the port and Richards and Somerset the starboard ranges, and in a few minutes shot 10 brace of coot. We then put ashore for lunch, all hands gathering the wood to make a bush fire, on which the billy was boiled and tea made. Nothing could have been more acceptable than the billy tea, the edibles provided by Mrs Lund, and the shelter of a giant ti-tree from the pouring rain.

After lunch several wild swan and duck were seen; but in the absence of a dinghy it was not possible to get near enough to shoot either variety, so the launch was headed for Port Stephens, through flocks of coot and wild duck.  Midway between the lake and Tea Gardens a flight of flying-foxes passed   over the launch, and four were brought down. The number of cormorants   and pelicans seen added to the astonishment of all present, who were sorry when darkness followed a most interesting day’s sport.



On June 24, the Officers of HMS Renown, accompanied by Mr and Mrs D Grove and the Misses Grove, visited the Karuah Aborigines’ School. On   arrival a warm reception was accorded them by Mrs Longworth, Miss H. Ferguson (teacher in charge), Miss New, and the aborigines and missionaries. The national anthem was sung by the children, and The Allies’ Flag, Rule, Britannia, and For They Are Jolly Good Fellows, followed by hearty cheers for His Majesty King George, the Prince of Wales, and visitors. Souvenirs were then presented to the Officers by the native children, which included basket work and models, which they make at school. The Officers then expressed their appreciation of the loyal welcome they had received, and said the fact would be mentioned to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales when they joined the Renown.

Mrs Longworth thanked the Officers and Mr and Mrs and the Misses Grove for accepting the invitation of Miss H. Ferguson and visiting the aborigines, and also, in a few well-chosen words, assured the visitors of the loyalty of Queen Charlotte and her respective descendants, who reside on the Aborigines’ Reserve at Karuah, to the British Throne. After which refreshments were served in the native church, which was kindly lent by the missionaries, and tastily decorated, under the direction of Miss Ferguson, by the aborigines, for the occasion. After this ceremony the Officers proceeded in Mr. Longworth’s launch on a shooting expedition, returning to Karuah at 6 P.m.  They were entertained at tea by Mrs Longworth, and left by car for Newcastle, en route to Sydney, to join the Renown. – The Raymond Terrace Examiner, July 9, 1920.

The shooting trip yielded eight brace of black swan, every one present bagging his quota.

More about Daniel Grove

The same publication also includes some information about Daniel Grove, who is said to have helped arrange the visit of the officers to Port Stephens.

Mr Grove has been a pioneer of Empire in many parts of the world, but notably in the Malay States, where he traced and mapped the River Kerling to its source, and later in South and East Africa, where he was a contemporary and confidant of the late Cecil Rhodes and the late General Louis Botha. He took two expeditions into the Angosche District of the Province of Mozambique in 1895 and 1902, and successfully induced the Makua native chiefs and headmen to give their written adhesion to the terms of the Anglo-Portuguese Convention of July, 1891, in so far as native rights were affected, thus accomplishing that which was regarded as an impossible task without losing a single life or having to fire a shot. In 1897 he personally represented to Lord Salisbury the need for extending to all British subjects, resident in foreign countries, an equality of consular status, through which representations the man from Montreal, Melbourne, or Capetown, sojourning in Lisbon, or Paris, is now enabled to obtain consular assistance and passports by simply being identified and recommended by his High Commissioner or Agent-General in London to the Imperial Foreign Office. He was elected a Fellow of the Geographical Society, Lisbon, and is a Life Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute. He has done much good work since in a constant endeavour to keep the Empire and all it means in the public eye. Mr Grove was born in New Zealand in 1868, his father having been a member of the Provincial Council of that Dominion, and his wife a descendant of an old Huguenot family. Their only son was in the Australian Forces during the war, and was killed in action. Mr. Grove’s present work with the British Service Association is a fitting monument to his son’s memory, and cannot fail to be of benefit to the Empire and to Australia.
Mr Grove is also a champion of the Australian aborigines, and I can personally testify to the affection which those whom I have myself met feel
for him. He was instrumental in arranging the introduction of Queen Charlotte of the Karuah (Port Stephens) aborigines to the Prince of Wales.

King Billy Ridgeway

The following notes, written by Mr Grove, are also included in the publication:

King Billy Ridgeway, aged 52, a religiously disposed native, who, with his wife and children lived decently and respectably at Karuah, Port Stephens, told me that he was a direct descendant of the native King upon whom Sir Edward Parry conferred the brass-plate engraved ”Boatswain, King of South Head, Port Stephens and Nelson’s Bay,” which symbol of authority his widow, Queen Charlotte, holds today.
He spoke reverently of Kulumbra Wakah and of Morei the Holy Ghost; he
deplored the fact that no Australian writer had taken the trouble to trace whence the aborigines came or migrated. He invited me to do so. Let me briefly reproduce King Billy’s own story of the moral laws and customs observed by Ghatang-speaking Australian aboriginals from time immemorial.
”Our mothers,” proceeded King Billy, ”have the moral and spiritual care of the girls. The young boys are allowed to mix with the girls until they reach the age of twelve years, whereupon they are called Warran or probationary celibates, and are placed under the strict control of the male elders until they reach the age of eighteen years.”
The probationers are then invited to a dance, called a coroboree or ringbalin, and if they comport themselves to the satisfaction of the onlooking elders, they are given permission to move freely among the womenfolk and to choose their brides, but if they misbehave towards their partners or others looking on at the dance, they are then reproved by the elders and compelled to wait three years more for the privilege of mixing with the womenfolk and exercising their rights of manhood.
The girls continue to live under parental or the elders’ control until they marry or die. Polygamy is unknown amongst Australian natives, their law being one man, one wife, and tribal community of property, thus providing for children and the aged members of the tribe. Native marriages are regarded as spiritual unions, requiring no legal or formal registration to satisfy native laws, but out of respect to State law, and in conformity
with the requirements of the Aborigines Protection Board, their marriages are now registered, mainly to compel the fathers of children to provide for them. In cases where unmarried girl s enter the services of European employers and are tempted on promises of marriage. and as a result give birth to illegitimate children, both the mothers and children are received with every respect and consideration by the native people, who say that according to the aboriginal belief Kulumbrah Wakah, or God above, alone knows whether or not marriage certificates are passports to His other and happier realms. They add that the State Government’s attitude is identical with the aboriginal native attitude in that it does not discriminate against illegitimate children in want of nourishment, who are primarily in no manner responsible for their existence or dependence.

Then again, the tribal care for illegitimate children is a humane solution of humanity’s greatest social obligation, and admits of no religious or civic objection. I have here specially to thank Mr J. S. Strong, of HM Australian Trade Commissioner’s Office: Mr F. Phillips, of Pindimar; Mr and Mrs F.E. Arnold, of Sydney; and the Rev. Bostock Jones, for their kind presence during my visits, made primarily with the object of ascertaining if the natives had any complaints. There were none.

The Karuah School

I was much impressed when the children, to the accompaniment of music produced by blowing against gum-leaves, sang Advance Australia Fair, The Star Spangled Banner, The Marsellaise, Rule Britannia, The Hundredth Psalm, Home, Sweet Home and our National Anthem. Miss Ferguson, their present teacher, has since taught them to sing God Bless the Prince of Wales, and it is largely due to that lady’s enthusiasm for their welfare, coupled with the interest taken in them by the Aborigines Protection Board, influenced by the generous encouragement of His Excellency Sir Walter E. Davidson, equally with ourselves, that I have resolved to testify thus publicly to their splendid fidelity to the British Throne.
Nor is it right to omit reference to the etymological significance of the Ghatang words coroboree and ringbalin, since in English the word corroborate denotes confirmation by more than one, while our dances, especially certain sets in the Lancers, when all link hands, may easily be imagined as having been evolved from the primitive Ring-Ball.


To read more about Prince Edward’s 1920 visit to Australia, click here.

Leave a Reply

×
×

Cart