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Bearbrass: Imagining Early Melbourne
“Just a little way down Collins Street, beside Henry Buck's, is a perpetually dark but sheltered laneway called Equitable Place. Here you'll find a number of places to eat and drink. Settle yourself in the window of one, shut your eyes, and picture this scene of yore ...”
In this much-loved book, Robyn Annear resurrects the village that was early Melbourne – from the arrival of white settlers in 1835 until the first gold rushes shook the town – and brings it to life in vivid colour.
Bearbrass was one of the local names by which Melbourne was known and Annear provides a fascinating living portrait of the streetlife of this town. In a lively and engaging style, she overlays her reinvention of Bearbrass with her own impressions and experiences of the modern city, enabling Melburnians and visitors to imagine the early township and remind themselves of the rich history that lies beneath today's modern metropolis.
The original Bearbrass won the A.A. Phillips Award for Australian Studies in the 1995 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.
In this much-loved book, Robyn Annear resurrects the village that was early Melbourne – from the arrival of white settlers in 1835 until the first gold rushes shook the town – and brings it to life in vivid colour.
Bearbrass was one of the local names by which Melbourne was known and Annear provides a fascinating living portrait of the streetlife of this town. In a lively and engaging style, she overlays her reinvention of Bearbrass with her own impressions and experiences of the modern city, enabling Melburnians and visitors to imagine the early township and remind themselves of the rich history that lies beneath today's modern metropolis.
The original Bearbrass won the A.A. Phillips Award for Australian Studies in the 1995 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
June 5, 2020
I used to work as an archivist at the City of Melbourne – that was a life time ago, but still in my life time. Council had a monthly staff newsletter and for about 8 years I used to write a quirky article for it called ‘From the Archives’. In fact, I did this for longer than I worked in the archives. I meant to read this book at the time, but never quite got around to it. This book is well worth the read, but the author gives a couple of provisos along the way. The first is that they aren’t a trained historian – that doesn’t bother me so much, but it is worth noting. I’m not a trained historian either and ended up working in the archives and very nearly became a history teacher, in a couple of my seemingly random turns along my career path. Actually, I have taken to telling people I've had more of a careen path, than a career path, but be that as it may. The other thing she makes clear is that bits of this are made up, and that’s obviously a bit more of a problem. I think in the main the bits that are made up in this are pretty obvious. They are the bits were someone is telling you about their life. I didn’t mind this so much, but I can see some people might find it a little odd.
When I went to high school and did history – particularly Australian history – it was close to the most boring subject imaginable. This is a real pity, because Australians know next to nothing about their history. And, again, that is a pity because Australia actually has a fascinating history. Mark Twain said our history sounded like a series of beautiful lies. When we were taught it in school it was made to seem like just ‘one damn thing after another’. Australians have always been curiously more interested in ‘facts’ than in ‘stories’ – which is a pity because Australian history is a series of improbable stories that run together into a narrative that shines a light on what it is to be Australian.
This book is about Melbourne, but it is not called Melbourne. It is named after one of the early ‘possible’ names. Bearbrass was, you would have to say, a pretty terrible attempt to render the Aboriginal name for the place – Birrarung. Melbourne also sits on the Yarra River, and it got its name because two Aboriginal boys pointed to the falls that had once been on the river and shouted out Yarra Yarra. So the river became the Yarra Yarra. But apparently, it meant in the local language that the river was flowing. You know, just because someone points at something and says a word, doesn't necessarily mean the word they are saying is its name.
One of the early settlers – one of the two contenders for ‘founder’ of Melbourne, John Batman, basically wanted to name everything after himself. So, his own proposal for the name of the town was Batmania – I know, an opportunity missed, indeed. The author of this sticks with Bearbrass because she is really only writing about the town up until the time of separation from New South Wales – ironically enough, which also happened just before gold was discovered in Victoria. It is hard to exaggerate what the discovery of gold meant to Melbourne. Melbourne went from being a shitty little town in the extreme arse end of the world, to being a shitty big city in the extreme arse end of the world.
Batman doesn’t come out of this book all that well – admittedly, in one of his journals he says he was involved in the slaughter of Tasmanian Aboriginals, and although we’ve had a Prime Minister who preferred not to stress the ‘black arm band’ view of Australian history – with Batman, it really has becoming increasingly difficult to 'just see the good side'. The end of his life can’t have been terribly pleasant, though. He had syphilis, which, he had been treating with mercury (what could possibly go wrong) – and this become nasal syphilis, leaving him with a gaping wound in the middle of his face, but no actual nose. Paintings of him invariable show him with a bandana around his neck – but this is poetic license, he wore it to cover the hole. Most of the things Batman named after himself ended up being destroyed in one way or another. Batman Hill was levelled to become Spencer Street railway station, Batman Swamp, which he hoped would be the botanical gardens, was drained, and even his grave was dug up from the original cemetery and moved to Fawkner cemetery.
John Pascoe Fawkner was the other big name in the stakes to be named the founder of Melbourne. And he has proven better at having his name stick to things named after him through time. In fact, two suburbs have been named in memory of him – Fawkner and Pascoe Vale. John Pascoe Fawkner wrote the first newspaper in Melbourne (I mean, literally hand wrote the first couple of editions) and seems to have been something of a pain in the bum, truth be told.
I really quite enjoyed this book – it is well written and quite fast paced. If you are from Melbourne, you ought to read this, for as she says, it will change the way you look at the city.
When I went to high school and did history – particularly Australian history – it was close to the most boring subject imaginable. This is a real pity, because Australians know next to nothing about their history. And, again, that is a pity because Australia actually has a fascinating history. Mark Twain said our history sounded like a series of beautiful lies. When we were taught it in school it was made to seem like just ‘one damn thing after another’. Australians have always been curiously more interested in ‘facts’ than in ‘stories’ – which is a pity because Australian history is a series of improbable stories that run together into a narrative that shines a light on what it is to be Australian.
This book is about Melbourne, but it is not called Melbourne. It is named after one of the early ‘possible’ names. Bearbrass was, you would have to say, a pretty terrible attempt to render the Aboriginal name for the place – Birrarung. Melbourne also sits on the Yarra River, and it got its name because two Aboriginal boys pointed to the falls that had once been on the river and shouted out Yarra Yarra. So the river became the Yarra Yarra. But apparently, it meant in the local language that the river was flowing. You know, just because someone points at something and says a word, doesn't necessarily mean the word they are saying is its name.
One of the early settlers – one of the two contenders for ‘founder’ of Melbourne, John Batman, basically wanted to name everything after himself. So, his own proposal for the name of the town was Batmania – I know, an opportunity missed, indeed. The author of this sticks with Bearbrass because she is really only writing about the town up until the time of separation from New South Wales – ironically enough, which also happened just before gold was discovered in Victoria. It is hard to exaggerate what the discovery of gold meant to Melbourne. Melbourne went from being a shitty little town in the extreme arse end of the world, to being a shitty big city in the extreme arse end of the world.
Batman doesn’t come out of this book all that well – admittedly, in one of his journals he says he was involved in the slaughter of Tasmanian Aboriginals, and although we’ve had a Prime Minister who preferred not to stress the ‘black arm band’ view of Australian history – with Batman, it really has becoming increasingly difficult to 'just see the good side'. The end of his life can’t have been terribly pleasant, though. He had syphilis, which, he had been treating with mercury (what could possibly go wrong) – and this become nasal syphilis, leaving him with a gaping wound in the middle of his face, but no actual nose. Paintings of him invariable show him with a bandana around his neck – but this is poetic license, he wore it to cover the hole. Most of the things Batman named after himself ended up being destroyed in one way or another. Batman Hill was levelled to become Spencer Street railway station, Batman Swamp, which he hoped would be the botanical gardens, was drained, and even his grave was dug up from the original cemetery and moved to Fawkner cemetery.
John Pascoe Fawkner was the other big name in the stakes to be named the founder of Melbourne. And he has proven better at having his name stick to things named after him through time. In fact, two suburbs have been named in memory of him – Fawkner and Pascoe Vale. John Pascoe Fawkner wrote the first newspaper in Melbourne (I mean, literally hand wrote the first couple of editions) and seems to have been something of a pain in the bum, truth be told.
I really quite enjoyed this book – it is well written and quite fast paced. If you are from Melbourne, you ought to read this, for as she says, it will change the way you look at the city.
February 2, 2012
Shortlisted as one of the Victorian books for the National Year of Reading, the tone of this anecdotal history of early Melbourne is set right at the start when the author is described as "an ex-typist who lives in country Victoria with somebody else's husband." Perhaps not for the history purists, this imaginative meandering through the landscape of Bearbrass, one of the names by which Melbourne was known, draws on historical documents but doesn't hold back on narrative "colouring" to add to our experience of that time. Under her mischievous pen some well-known but mostly little-known characters come to life and we are able, with the add of a number of maps, to literally walk in their shoes.
Worth reading in conjunction with "Radical Melbourne" another shortlisted book.
Worth reading in conjunction with "Radical Melbourne" another shortlisted book.
January 3, 2025
She declares that her own perspective is "Eurocentric and imperialist" in the second chapter, if you hadn't already picked that up from her references to "the local Aborigines" in the first chapter. Author has zero interest or perhaps even respect for anything prior to the colonial settlement of Melbourne so do not pick up this book if you're looking for a well-rounded history. I'd like to think this wouldn't even get picked up for publication today.
July 21, 2019
I loved this book, a great introduction to the history of early Melbourne (or Bearbrass). The little tales at the beginning of each chapter set the scene and the pace of the whole thing is perfect.
Great book to read before jumping off into denser books and researching the history of Melbourne a bit more thoroughly.
Great book to read before jumping off into denser books and researching the history of Melbourne a bit more thoroughly.
March 1, 2016
A pleasant ramble through the streets and characters of early Melbourne. First half drags but there are some cracking stories in the last few chapters.
November 4, 2016
Robyn Annear has used facts to bring history alive, but it is her great imagination that makes this such an entertaining read.
October 2, 2019
It just felt mean I had to stop. Some of it was interesting
Read
June 5, 2020History of Melbourne settlers is actually quite a boring read
November 26, 2020
Entertaining, really interesting depiction of Melbourne as a frontier town
December 23, 2020
nifty idea; semi-fiction based on meticulous research; well-written
July 6, 2020
A very interesting combination of forensic detail and imagination.
December 31, 2016
An easy to read vision of the early days of Melbourne. Consisting of tales in the author's words of the type of things (usually illegal) that happened in the daily lives of Bearbrass pioneers. (Two years later, Melbourne).
There are many historical facts spread through the first half of the book, but the second half is mostly tales you would expect to see in a newspaper of the day, but related in a less formal manner.
While the book is entertaining it is not the type of reading for knowledge prior to sitting for a history exam. The problem is determining fact from fiction.
Generally, the writing is a little too flippant and disrespectful for these days when national and social leaders are speaking of national pride and patriotism.
There are many historical facts spread through the first half of the book, but the second half is mostly tales you would expect to see in a newspaper of the day, but related in a less formal manner.
While the book is entertaining it is not the type of reading for knowledge prior to sitting for a history exam. The problem is determining fact from fiction.
Generally, the writing is a little too flippant and disrespectful for these days when national and social leaders are speaking of national pride and patriotism.
June 28, 2015
An entertaining look at the first years of Melbourne or Bearbrass as one of the names it was known by. Some things don't change, like drunkenness, theft and prostitution. Some things do, like prices for land and the food we now eat, thank heaven. This is a detailed comment on the town and its personalities based on historical records, but also some fun imaginings. Recommended specially for anyone with a historical interest.
December 3, 2011
I enjoyed this no end. Thought it was great. It's not a traditional history in terms of a linear or chronological narrative of dates & places. Annear sits in modern Melbourne and takes us back to the early settlement days of what is now the Melbourne CBD. If you love "Old Melbourne Town", this is a must.
November 1, 2013
Really good. Some interesting little stories and really gets across a sense of being there and in a situation. I think this is one that I will have to buy and keep as there are so many great little stories and I can't remember them all. So many interesting things were going on in Melbourne's early days.
June 19, 2016
I'm enjoying the story of early Melbourne ( between other books) as I need to concentrate on this for maximum enjoyment. At the moment, I'm reading about the formation of early main thoroughfares in Melbourne and how forests of trees had to be removed in what we now know as the CBD.
April 23, 2014
An interesting mix of historical fact and fiction, with the history of Melbourne pre-1850 told in somewhat of a narrative.
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April 1, 2016I actually enjoyed reading this book.
May 30, 2016
A creative mix of fact and story telling that brings early Melbourne's ghosts to life. I'll never quite look at the streets in the same way again.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews