Ebden was the first white man to take up land on the Murray River with his men and animals arriving in 1835. He took up Mungabareena, a site that quickly grew into the city of Albury and Bonegilla station on the opposite side of the River. Ebden relinquished Mungabareena in 1837 to the Micthell family and moved south to form Carlshrue station on the Campaspe River. (1) In May 1837 he was seen wearing a fur skin jacket and cap and a long beard while droving stock to Carlshrue. (2) He was an eccentric dancer who ‘cannoned around the dancer floor’, (3) an excessive dandy, (4) a founding member of the Melbourne Club and was heard to bemoan, ‘I fear I am becoming disgustingly rich.’ (5)
It is likely Ebden took Merriman’s elder brother or countryman Jag.ger.ogg.rer, known as Harlequin with him on his journey to set up a station at ‘Carlshrue’ on the Campaspe River. Alexander Fullerton Mollison wrote in his journal that he called into Ebden’s newly formed Carlshrue station in November 1837 seeking information about where he might find suitable land for a farming venture. To this end, Ebden loaned him a black lad named Harlequin and they set out on horseback with pack horses carrying supplies. (6)
It was not unusual for Aboriginal people to agree to accompany overlanders on their journey to take up land. Mollison wrote in his diary of Jimmy/Jemmy who joined him at the Murray River and showed him Bontherambo plains saying this was a good place to camp. (6) Thomas Walker, the author of ‘A Month in the Australian Bush,’ wrote that Ebden travelled to Carlshrue with two Hume or Murray River Blacks. (2)
Charles Hotson Ebden (1811-1867), was born at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa and was educated in England and Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1832 he settled in Sydney as a merchant and by early 1835 had joined the pastoral movement to southern New South Wales having stock on the limits of settlement at Tarcutta Creek. (5) In the spring of 1835, Ebden’s stockman, William Wyse, formed two runs on the Murray: Mungabareena on the site of Albury and Bonegilla on the Port Phillip side of the river. (1)
William Wyse saw to the building of a set of cattle yards at Mungabreena said to be the strongest south of the Murrumbidgee. (1) Wyse remained in charge of Bonegilla for some time and was present when escaped murderers Dignum and Comerford called in during November 1837. (7)
Mungabareena was also the site of large gatherings of Indigenous people who met each spring for trade, competitions of skill, the organising of marriages and settling of disputes. It is worthy to note that this trade gathering continued for some years after the arrival of the first white people. This suggests Aboriginal people were not prevented from gathering at Mungabareena after Thomas Mitchell arrived in 1837. JFH Mitchell (Thomas Mitchell’s younger brother) wrote he witnessed over one thousand Indigenous people attend the Mungabareena gathering. (1) JFH Mitchell born 1831 would have been 11 in 1842 when his mother, Mrs Elizabeth Mitchell is said to have taken up residence at Mungabareena. (8)
Ebden moved sheep from the Murray in March 1837 seeking land closer to Port Phillip and on 22nd May he was observed near the Goulburn River ‘in a most strange costume, with a fur skin jacket and cap, his beard long … very different from the Mr E. in his tandem in George-street, Sydney … We find him in the midst of one of his grand movements; he is leaving the station he took up on a creek, falling into the Omio (later named Goulburn River) about twenty miles south from this, though only four miles from another part of the river, and is going to the westward of Mount Macedon, about sixty miles from Port Philip. He says he does not find his late run extensive enough, and that he wishes, too, to be nearer a shipping port; he is therefore moving his whole establishment. He has at present on the road about nine thousand sheep, thirty horses, and nine drays . We are to – night encamped along with them, and it appears as if it were a little army encamped. There are watch – fires, with flocks of sheep, & c . all around. He will accompany us with one or two of his teams until we get to the new station he intends to occupy, the exact position of which he has not yet determined on . (2)
Interestingly Ebden’s reason for leaving is that the run was not extensive enough.
Travelling with Ebden was Carles Bonney who was employed to help manage his interests. Bonney set up a sheep station at Kilmore while Ebden continued westward to the Campaspe River. (9)
During the journey, some of Ebden and Bonney’s men absconded and joined up with some of George Hamilton’s men who were had also run away. These men lived rough for some weeks surviving by raiding stations and stealing rations. The ringleaders of these escaped men were Dignum and Comerford. (7)
By August 1837 Ebden had settled on the Campaspe River, west of Mount Macedon in an area he named Carlsruhe after his school in Germany. (5)
Not long after this Ebden heard that two men matching Dignum and Comerford’s appearance were at Mr John Aitken’s station near Mount Aitken. Ebden and George Hamilton of Gisborne (Hamilton had travelled behind Ebden and Bonney on their southward journey) captured and handcuffed Dignum and Comerford at Mr Aitken’s and locked them in a hut. However, Dignum and Comerford escaped when a key was left within their reach. (7) The escapees stole Ebden’s horse and went north to Kilmore and robbed Charles Bonney. (9)
Ebden was required to attend the trial of Dignum to testify to the theft of his horse. This was the only crime the court managed to bring against Dignum even though he played a part in the murder of at least six of the men he had absconded with. (7)
In November 1837, Alexander Fullerton Mollison was still searching for suitable land to take up as a station in the Macedon area. Ebden loaned Mollison a Black youth known as Harlequin. (6)
Merriman’s elder brother or countryman, Jag.ger.ogg.rer, was known as Harlequin. Merriman’s brother was one year older, making Jag.ger.ogg.rer alias Harlequin 16 in 1837. (10) (11)
On 1 June 1837 Ebden attended the first Melbourne land sale and bought three half-acre (0.2 ha) lots on the north side of Collins Street, between Queen and William Streets, for £136. Two years later he sold them for more than £10,000. (5)
In 1838 CH Ebden wrote letters to newspapers complaining of attacks by Blacks upon white settlers. His pen name was ‘A Matter of Fact Bushman’ and his letters attempted to sway public opinion away from any sympathy towards Indigenous people who fought back against the taking of their land or atrocities to their people. (12)
His letter dated 2nd February 1839 was fueled by the attack upon John Conway Bourke, who was the mailman between Melbourne and the Murray River during the previous year. Bourke himself gives more detail in his letters (13) According to Bourke he arrived at Cumberoona station in early February to find the owners, Charles and Henry Flower at home with a guest, CH Ebden. Bourke then recounted to them the story of him being attacked by Blacks north of present-day Albury.
It must be remembered that Bourke wrote in his letters that ‘his name was a terror to the blacks’ and he alluded to killing more than one saying, ‘only Mr Hawdon knows the true number.’ (13) So it must be considered that the attack upon Bourke was a reprisal for numerous crimes against Aboriginal people.
Bourke also wrote that during the visit to Cumberoona he learned the neighbour across the river at Talgarno (John Jobbins) had a servant attacked by Blacks (12) & (13)
It must be pointed out that John Jobbins was a notorious killer of Aboriginal people and while he was in charge of Cumberoona station, he led an attack known as the Dora Dora massacre where at least 12 Aboriginal men, women and children were murdered (14) Jobbins was also known to have killed an Aboriginal man for drinking milk from his house cow (1) Aboriginal people made a song about how much they hated John Jobbins (15) Ebden and the other men would have known all this, so it would have come as no surprise to see Aboriginal people attacking Jobbins’s man.
Even so, Ebden wrote a letter to the editor complaining of, “outrages committed by the Blacks,” He mentioned the incident at Talgarno writing, “I saw the man of Mr. Jobbins nearly frightened out of his existence running away from the Blacks.” (12)
Ebden’s letter incited sympathy for the poor squatter saying, “the dreadful depredations, now daily committed upon our cattle by hordes of these ruffians, now swarming in this neighbourhood to the amount of some three or four hundred, render our existence in the bush disheartening and alarming.”
He complained about the police having, “instructions are against the use of their weapons upon these savages.” and that, “His Excellency the Governor proclaimed, when in a conversation with a gentleman, he so blandly said, “If you shoot the Blacks I will hang you.” (12)
Eden mentions nothing of his neighbour, William Bowman of Sutton Grange, Mount Alexander, who Assistant Aboriginal Protector ES Parker reported, dated 20 June 1839, that Bowman was in the habit of shooting every black man, woman or child whom he met on his run. (16)
Nor did Edben mention the slaughter of Aboriginal people on his neighbour, Yaldwin’s, Barfold station. Here, the shepherds shot Aboriginal people, men women and children on sight. (17)
Ebden finished his letter with a call to arms saying, “though our men may be deterred from firing on these savages in defence of our properties, still we, collectively as a body, will, in defence of our lives and properties, resort to extreme means…I am only echoing the sentiments of all the Settlers by whom I am surrounded.” (12)
Ebden sold Carlsruhe in 1840 and lived in Melbourne, eventually, in a mansion, he built at the eastern end of Collins Street; he also built Black Rock House on Port Phillip Bay beyond Brighton. (5)
It would seem CH Ebden was in a relationship with Tamar Harding, born 1823, her father Robert Harding was the rector of the City of Cork.
Ebden and Tamar had a birth notice in ‘The Melbourne Weekly Courier 20 January 1844; “BIRTH EXTRAORDINARY – On Thursday, the 11th instant at the residence of Charles Hotson Ebden, Esq., Member of the Legislative Council for the District of Port Phillip, Mrs. Harding, Spinster, of a daughter. (The little stranger we are told, is disgustingly like its papa. – Ed.)”
In 1850 Tamar Harding married Charles Ebden.
It was Tamar who named Black Rock House in honour of the small town of Black Rock just outside of Cork. Their children were educated in London and for some years lived there with their mother whilst Charles lived in Melbourne. From 1861 to 1866 he lived in London but his health deteriorated and he returned to Melbourne where he seemed to improve. Unfortunately in October 1867 he became unwell and died at the Melbourne Club of peritonitis. He was 57. His estate left to his family was worth £100,000.
Tamar and the children remained living in London. In what was called the ‘incident’ Tamar was attracted to Ebden’s former business partner Theophilus Joseph Keene but her daughter asked her not to marry him until she had turned 21. On turning 21 a couple of years later, Antoinette herself married Keene, who was 35 years her senior. Tamar passed away at the age of 75 in 1899 in London. (5.1)
In the early 1850s Ebden was active in buying and selling pastoral runs, and between 1854 and 1861 controlled nearly 500,000 acres (202,345 ha) in the Kerang region. However, he was associated with several commercial failures: he had been a promoter of the Port Phillip Bank, in 1853 was the first chairman of directors of the ambitious Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Co., and was later chairman of directors of the St Kilda and Brighton Railway Co. He was also a promoter of the Victorian Fire and Marine Insurance Co., and a local director of the Bank of New South Wales. (5)
In May 1861 Ebden returned to London where for several years he was a semi-invalid with asthma. When he returned to Victoria in 1866 his health improved, but he died at the Melbourne Club on 28 October 1867. (5)
Ebden was something of a dandy who fancied himself as a Beau Brummell. He delighted in his reputation for oddity and cultivated his moderate talent for epigrams and badinage. His remark that he feared he was becoming ‘disgustingly rich’ became famous. To a new chum who asked whether he was related to ‘the great Mr Ebden’, he replied: ‘I am myself, sir, that happy individual’. The Argus described him as an ’empty and affected coxcomb’. But he was widely popular, and many regarded him as the very model of a gentleman. Behind the flippant manner was a serious-minded and conscientious man of affairs. He lacked sufficient eloquence and quickness of thought to be an outstanding parliamentarian but was a clear and logical speaker who deserved his reputation as a sound financier. He was a leading member of the conservative, pre-gold, Anglican ruling class and the ablest political representative of the squatters of his time. (5)
Cavan Caves near. Yass, have a feature called by the white visitors, Ebden’s alter. This feature is described in William Thomas’ book, A Month In The Bush, Jan 1837. here he wrote, The most beautiful specimen… is called Ebden’s altar , and is really very pretty. A mass of crystalized, though opaque, stalactites, in colour and appearance somewhat resembling alabaster, hangs over a mound of the same material, and all together a picturesque object.’
A newspaper printed in November 1836 writes of the beauty of the caves, The greatest attraction of the place are the caves, to one of which, the cave of Talungung, we went. The rock through which the cave is formed is black marble. The water which makes its way through the sides is strongly charged with some solution of lime, which forms the stalactites, the chief wonder of these regions. ” Ebden’s Altar” is the most remarkable thing in this cave…The whole of it has the appearance of alabaster. The altar is circular, and flat at the top, and about two feet in height; above it is what may be called the drapery, which has the appearance of aloe leaves hanging down within a few inches of the altar. (18)
THE REFERENCES;
(1) AA Andrews, First Settlement of the Upper Murray
(2) Thomas Walker, A Month in the Bush of Australia
(3) Georgiana’s Journal, Melbourne 1841 – 1865 Edited by Hugh McCrae
(4) Paul de Serville, Port Phillip Gentlemen pg 46
(5) Australian Dictionary of Biography, Charles Hotson Ebden
(5.1) Black Rock House Tea Room Blog
(6) Alexander Fullerton Mollison, An Overland Diary, pg 63
(7) See Dignum and Comerford profile on this site
(8) See Mrs Elizabeth Mitchell profile on this site
(9) See Charles Bonney profile on this site
(10) See Merriman profile on this site
(11) GA Robinson, journal 1839-52
(12) Ebden’s letter ‘Further Black Atrocities’ Published on Friday 22nd February 1839 in the Sydney Herald
(13) See John Conway Bourke profile on this site
(14) Colonial Frontier Massacres Dora Dora
(15) See John Jobbins profile on this site
(16) See William Bowman profile on this site
(17) John Coppock, “Old Time Memories: Trials and Experiences of a Pioneer,” “The Australasian,” 31 October 1885, courtesy of the National Library of Australia, Trove. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/11302442#
