GUEST POST: Down Beside the Sea with Deb and Ron Kandelaars
Victor Harbor: Down beside the sea is the fascinating story of how Victor Harbor came to be, told by the people who live and work in this breathtakingly beautiful coastal locale.
Compiled by Deb and Ron Kandelaars, Victor Harbor represents years of research, memories and experiences from the people and places that make Victor Harbor what it is today.
Earlier in the year, Deb and Ron delivered a wonderful talk to a captive audience, explaining the provenance of the book, as well as sharing some of their favourite stories from within its pages. They've been kind enough to share their words with us on the blog – read on to find out more.
Deb Kandelaars
The opportunity to write this book first came about in 2016, when the Victor Harbor Library approached Wakefield Press. Publisher Michael Bollen, having worked with us over decades, asked if we’d be interested in co-writing a book about Victor Harbor.
It was an easy decision to make. We’d both been visiting Victor for as long as we could remember, and each of us had myriad memories of this legendary South Australian town.
We also had a personal connection. For many years, we’d holidayed on the South Coast. This led to us building a house at Middleton and living there for four years. Victor Harbor became the ‘big smoke’ where we shopped, did the banking, went to the movies, grabbed a meal and where I worked at Investigator College. In our first year there, our daughter, Grace, sat proudly in the Port Elliot Surf Life Saving Club boat as it made its way through the main street of Victor as part of the Christmas pageant, and we watched on with delight. Although we eventually moved back to Adelaide for work, our happy time spent on the South Coast is firmly ingrained in our family’s collective memory.
Fast forward to January 2017, and a Wakefield Press book fair is planned at the Victor Library. An article in the Times advertised the fair along with the opportunity for Victor locals to bring us their stories for the upcoming book. Only problem was, unbeknown to us, we’d picked the day the Tour Down Under was in town and the route went straight past the library! Bikes and more bikes – the library was virtually blockaded. We give credit to the intrepid few who managed to make their way past the lycra, barricades, bunting and bollards to bring their Victor stories and photos to us.
Some of the locals who turned up on that day became the subjects of our first interviews with their stories eventually making it into the book: Rod Lovell told of his beloved ‘Abbott’s semi-trailer bus’; Rosemary Builder shared the story of husband Tom’s tourism trailblazing in Victor Harbor; and Margot Ogilvie talked about the Toop family automotive business and their long-term connection with Victor Harbor. That fateful day in the library, chatting to a few keen locals, marked the beginning of many more talks around town.
Since that day, we’ve visited Victor on many occasions, interviewing locals, community
groups and businesses, poring over books, websites and photographic collections and talking to historians, the National Trust, and the good citizens of Victor Harbor. This included students of all ages from Victor Harbor schools, who created beautiful artwork and wrote about their home. The most challenging part of the process was working out which stories to include as we discovered there are so many Victor Harbor stories.
Many people have helped us along the way, particularly those who took the time to sit with us and be interviewed. These personal tales helped to make the stories in this book not simply about dates and events in history, but more importantly about the people who have helped to shape Victor Harbor today.
THE RAMINDJERI PEOPLE OF ENCOUNTER BAY
I think it’s fair to say I spent a great deal of time working on the first chapter of the book, the Ramindjeri People of Encounter Bay. The Ramindjeri lived, hunted, and gathered in the Victor region for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. They are coastal people with a strong connection to the land and sea. Their Dreaming story, Kondoli the Whale, set around Hindmarsh Valley and Victor, explains how fire was first obtained. Ngurunderi Dreaming is a creation story that starts at the River Murray and ends on KI. It emphasises the important of Ngurunderi as lawgiver and shaper of the coastal landscape including The Bluff and the Pages Islands.
From 1802, the Ramindjeri were the first South Australian Aboriginal people to come in regular contact with Europeans when KI sealers kidnapped Ramindjeri women and took them to KI as slaves. In the 1830s Ramindjeri men worked as lookouts and labourers at the whaling station, stirring blubber, crewing boats, transporting whale fat to the pots. By the turn of the century, only a dozen or so Ramindjeri were living in the district. Some had left the region, others died from introduced diseases. Of the few that remained, the Tripp family made its mark on Victor Harbor. Private Hubert Tripp was a sportsman and serviceman who fought in Gallipoli and received a welcome home parade in Victor Harbor. Auntie Marj Tripp was the first Aboriginal woman to join the navy, receiving an Order of Australia in 2014 for her wealth of community service roles.
In the 1840s, Pastor Eduard Meyer and his wife Friederike began working with the Ramindjeri people recording their language and culture. Eduard published a book of Ramindjeri language in 1843 with the very long title: Vocabulary of the language spoken by the Aborigines of the southern and eastern portions of the settled districts of South Australia, viz., by the tribes in the vicinity of Encounter Bay, and (with slight variations) by those extending along the coast to the eastward around Lake Alexandrina and for some distance up the River Murray – preceded by a Grammar showing the construction of the language as far as at present known.
I’m not kidding.
Three years later (he’d obviously learned to be a little more succinct by this stage) he published a book called Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the Encounter Bay Tribe: South Australia.
Lightness aside, Pastor Meyer, with the cooperation of Ramindjeri people, recorded Ramindjeri language and culture to English; and later Minister George Taplin at Raukkan used this as the basis for his own list of English to Ngarrindjeri words.
Today these word lists created in the mid to late 1800s are being used to revive Ngarrindjeri language through classes in schools and community groups including a class at Victor Harbor high school that I was fortunate to attend.
KONDOLI: THE WHALE DREAMING STORY
One of the Dreaming stories that Pastor Meyer translated to English was Kondoli the Whale. Here is a pared down version:
The Dreaming ancestors knew Kondoli the Whale man was the only one who had fire. Kuratje (tommy rough man) and Kanmari (mullet man) invited Kondoli to a dancing ceremony near Muthabaringga (Hindmarsh Valley) so they could try and take it from him. People came from all around and danced. When Kondoli the Whale performed, sparks flew from his body and the others wanted the fire for themselves.
Two jealous Bird Ancestors plotted to steal the fire from him. Krilbali the Skylark sank a spear into the whale’s neck. Fire burst out of Kondoli’s neck, and he dived into the sea. The people cheered but they were turned into animals, birds, and fish. Kondoli came out of the sea at Poltong (Victor Harbor) and rested at Latang (Hindmarsh River), spouting water from the hole in his neck. Krilbali the Skylark ran around setting the country alight, which scattered flints all over the ground. It is said the fire went into the grasstree. The fire can be released by making a fire-drill from the flower stem of the tree.
HUBERT TRIPP
I mentioned Hubert Tripp earlier – here is an abridged version of his story. Find the full story in the book.
Hubert Tripp was born in Victor Harbor in 1891 to Ephraim and Mary Ann Tripp, a well-respected Victor Harbor couple. Hubert’s father, Ephraim, was known for his sporting prowess. He played football for Point McLeay and in the Victor Harbor area in the 1890s, before captaining the Harbor Stars in 1911, playing alongside his brother Mansell who later became an umpire in the district.
Hubert Tripp followed in his father’s footsteps. He was a bright student and, like his father, he loved football and cricket. He played both sports for Victor Harbor until his skills were noticed by recruiters for the South Australian Football League who were always on the lookout for country talent. Before long, he was playing for South Adelaide and then West Adelaide.
Hubert enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on December 8, 1914, just before he turned 23, leaving Australia three months later on the Clan MacGillivray to join the 10th Battalion. On 10 April 1915, he joined the group on Lemnos Island, the staging point for the Gallipoli landing. Two weeks later, Hugh was one of the soldiers in the second reinforcement which landed at Gallipoli.
By mid-September, the 10th Battalion had endured 711 casualties and 150 deaths. Hugh had served in the trenches for 68 days, taking part in three charges against the Turkish position, but his injuries had taken a toll and he was sent back to Australia in August 1915.
September 14 – Victor Harbor received its first wounded soldier from Gallipoli today, when Private Hubert Tripp came home by the midday train. The station was crowded to witness the home-coming, the school children being well to the fore with their drum and-fife band. Every child carried a miniature flag. As the train drew into the station the band struck up "The Soldiers of the King," and as the returned hero stepped from the train he was cheered to the echo. Mr. J. Johns, chairman of the Progress Association, assured Private Tripp that the people were pleased to welcome him back. Cheers were given for the soldier, and he was escorted to Mr. A. J. Humberstone's motor car, which was decorated with bunting and waiting to convey him, with his mother to his home. The motor car was escorted by the school children, and with the band playing national airs, and a large banner, upon which was emblazoned "Welcome" being carried in the front of the procession, he was escorted home. [The Advertiser, Wed 15 September 1915]
After his discharge from the army in 1916, Hugh joined the Victor Harbor lifeboat crew, played football and cricket, continued his contribution to the local sporting scene as a player, umpire and clubman, and entertained at community functions with musical items and poems.
After his mother passed away, Hugh moved from Victor Harbor to Goolwa in the mid-1930s, eventually living off the land on the Coorong, fishing for mulloway, rowing his boat down to Goolwa to get supplies and attending the odd football match. He lived a quiet, reclusive life in a makeshift hut in the picturesque Coorong wilderness until he became sick and died in November 1961.
Hugh is buried in the Victor Harbor Cemetery, and his service to Australia is recognised at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander War Memorial at the Torrens Parade Grounds in Adelaide.
Ron Kandelaars
Why write a book about Victor? Well, we knew we were on to a good thing. Everyone has a connection to Victor. I do. I remember a memorable train trip to Victor before the old train service was scrapped. It was stunning and took several hours to wind its way through the hills and down to the coast.
I remember trips to the coast with my mates in an old EH Holden. We’d head to Knights Beach to surf and then head to Victor for fish and chips.
I remember a pre-season footy trip with the mighty Roosters in the late seventies with training runs from a TOC-H camp down to the Causeway and around Granite Island.
And I remember a post-season jaunt with the Seaton Ramblers Footy Club – enough said about that though. So, all of us have connections to the seaside town ... and when talking to other friends from Italian and Greek backgrounds I was fascinated to hear about their family and community trips for special picnics on the lawns under the pine trees near the Soldiers’ Memorial at Victor Harbor.
It’s not surprising that so many of us have this close connection – given that this was the place to escape Adelaide’s summer heat. The cooling zephyrs of the South Coast provided relief for many who’d baked through a long summer on the Adelaide Plains. After all, state governors and many of Adelaide’s elite would come here for a summer break.
Imagine just how beautiful this must have been to the Ramindjeri people as they wandered up and down this majestic coastline in search of food and shelter. You can see how the Ngurunderi Dreaming story and the Kondoli Dreaming story came about in a bid to explain the many striking features of the Victor coastline.
And what about Baudin and Flinders? Surely they would have been impressed by the sweep of islands, the Bluff… the Waitpinga Cliffs. However, they both missed the River Murray.
It’s always been a spectacular holiday destination, and I hope Deb and I have captured
that appeal in the book. But I want to talk about some of the less obvious stories that came to light. I was going to say that we discovered them, but truth be known, they’ve always been there. They’ve just been waiting to be put in print.
Deb and I knew instinctively that there was a market for a book about Victor. Everyone’s been here on holidays … or perhaps a romantic weekend. Everyone’s stayed at their own shack or the shack of a friend. Everyone has had a nanna or favourite auntie who lived at Victor.
We knew there was a widespread and strong connection to this beautiful seaside town, but in some respects, familiarity has bred a certain complacency about this town. As we delved more and more into the story of Victor, we saw it as our challenge to make many South Australians see it through new eyes.
In fact, during the writing and researching phase, Deb and I and our daughter, Grace, spent a week at Victor – wandering the streets, popping into museums, and interviewing the locals.
We parcelled up the jobs. On that score, I got the best deal. Deb has certainly done most of the work for this book. But I took it upon myself to tease out particular stories that I had a particular interest in…which brings me to pubs, of which there are plenty in Victor, and guesthouses.
I was captivated by the boom time that really changed Victor and put a stamp on the town that’s still there today. By the 1880s, many people were coming to this place by train. It was a leisurely six-hour trip to one of the many guesthouses that sprang up over town. In chapter 4 “Pubs and Guesthouses” there’s a quote from a newspaper that I would like to read:
It might have stepped out of a story book or a love lyric, this south-coast haven, where a bloke frequently meets his wife… girls in search of a husband cannot do better than try victor harbor when the season is in full swing. it is a love town.
[The Register, 18 January 1910]
One of the popular guesthouses was a two-storey boarding house called Summerlea. In the Great Depression it was owned by a woman named Ruby Stock who lowered room rates to attract business. During World War II, she raised a thousand pounds for war charities with the aid of her little dog Kitchie. A story in The Advertiser on May 9 1941 tells the story of Mrs Stock and Kitchie.
With a small Union Jack on his back and a flat tin hanging on each side this little mite did a marvellous job to handle all those copper coins. Kitchie, when out on his collecting rounds would see people on their lawns, pull Mrs Stock across to them, sidle up to them and then look to see what they were putting in the tin. twice, starting with a halfpenny in each tin, he went out on his own and returned to Summerlea with seven shilling and twopence and nine shillings respectively. Mr’s Stock has refused several lucrative offers from people to purchase Kitchie but she says money would not buy him.
These are the stories that capture a sense of place and time. and who doesn’t love a dog story?
We all have connections to and recollections of Victor. It’s place that is so very dear to so many South Australians. Look through the book and you’ll see these beautiful picture postcards … sometimes with quaint little slugs like ‘The plaice to be’ (plaice being a fish – one I’ve never caught, and I bet many of you haven’t either. I may have caught a flounder but never a plaice) but for many, Victor has been and still is the place to be.
THANKS
We thank all those who have researched and written about Victor Harbor before us, particularly Anthony Laube, Victor Harbor historian extraordinaire, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of his beloved hometown, along with his willingness to assist us at every turn, was very much appreciated. Anthony spent many hours reading the manuscript and providing constructive feedback and we are forever grateful for his help. Also, the Victor Harbor library who got the ball rolling, June Taylor who provided us with endless ideas, photos and who gave her time to read the manuscript; Neville & Peter from Victor Harbor National Trust spent hours – days even – sourcing & scanning photographs; Michael Simmons from the Times; Brian Simpson author of Encounter Coast Adventures; Nathan Kropinyeri, who gave his time; shared his family stories and generously gave us permission to use photographs and information regarding Ramindjeri/Ngarrindjeri people.
Finally, big thanks to the team at Wakefield Press. In these days of shrinking publishing opportunities, we consider ourselves very lucky to have an excellent, accessible publisher in our state that publishes South Australian stories. Thanks to publisher and friend, Michael Bollen; editor, Julia Beaven; typesetter, Clinton Ellicott; publicist, Jo Case; Maddy and the wonderful support staff; and designer, Liz Nicholson, who waved her magic wand on our pile of text and photographs and turned it into a thing of beauty. Wakefield Press has been making beautiful books for over 30 years. May their light continue to shine for years to come.