ALL THAT GLISTERS IS NOT GOLD

The years 1890 to 1893 had been a period  of  world-wide, economic depression. In Australia the situation reached  crisis point when  the Commercial Bank of Australia suspended trading  in April 1893.  A dozen other banks failed soon afterwards.  Amid this widespread  ruin the thriving gold mining  town of  Parkes,  in the central west of New South Wales, offered  a rare opportunity  for brave souls  with  a little capital.

Thanks to the success of his colleges, George Ratten was just  such a person.

In 1873 Parkes  (formerly known as  Currajong) had been renamed in honour of  the  Premier of NSW,  Sir Henry Parkes. Initially founded due its abundance of kurrajong trees, the town had grown considerably  during the  gold rush of the 1870s.  In December 1893  the railway line from Sydney was extended from Molong to  Parkes and neighbouring  Forbes.  This opened the region up, with  farmers enjoying  far  better access to markets.  George Ratten would also have been attracted by reports that  the  new  Bushman’s Hill mine was producing astonishing quantities of gold.  Prosperity was virtually guaranteed.

Parkes presented an intoxicating environment for the adolescent Victor Ratten. He understood that to succeed in life it was sometimes  necessary to take risks. Shares in a mine that stuck gold could suddenly  make a poor man rich

Gold  was also  part of  Ratten  family mythology.  In 1842, at the age of eight, George’s father Richard had emigrated from Kent with several older siblings.  When the Victorian  gold rush  began in 1851, Richard  was  among those to  strike  it rich.  A year later he  purchased 750 acres of land in  Cotham Road, Kew, where he married and raised a family. Many years later his son Frederick (Victor’s uncle)  would serve as Mayor of Kew,  by then one of  Melbourne’s most exclusive suburbs.

After arriving in Parkes, George Ratten made a substantial investment, an indication that he intended the move to be permanent.  He purchased land from storekeeper Robert Thomas, a longtime resident who had been instrumental in persuading the government to bring the rail line to Parkes. On this block  George built a residence for his family, and beside it a  private school known variously   as College House or Parkes College. It was a large, single storey brick building, with a  deep verandah running  along the front. The college  was located  near the showgrounds in Mitchell Street, then on the outskirts of  town.

George Ratten’s  plan was to educate the offspring  of wealthy  graziers, and  local businessmen, preparing them for university or careers in commerce.  He must have been delighted with his decision to move to Parkes  when, on October 1 1894,  the  Western Champion newspaper reported on the  Bushman’s Mine’s latest ‘crushing.  From 441 tons of quartz, enough  gold was extracted to make a ‘cake’ weighing 1,349 oz and valued at 4,800 pounds. It was lodged  at the local Bank of Australasia, where the public flocked to see it.

That extraordinary yield of gold  coincided with a second visit to the town by  Sir Henry  Parkes in October 1894. The elderly statesman was accompanied by Lady Parkes and their young son Cobden.  George Ratten was always ready to seize an opportunity, and somehow he managed to arrange for  Sir Henry to  officially open the college on Monday, October 8.   A photograph taken of the occasion shows Victor’s proud father standing  in cap and gown beside Sir Henry. Lady Parkes is pictured with Mrs Ratten. They are surrounded by some  twenty five students. Presumably  Victor and his siblings were among, them, although they are not identified.  It was   an auspicious beginning for George’s new venture.

The auspicious opening of the college by Sir Henry Parkes.

The old  Parkes College is now a private residence.

The Bushman’s Hill gold cake was duly viewed by the Parkes family and named ‘The Lady Parkes.’  Sir Henry  also gave several lectures during his visit, the most significant being titled; Australian Union as the Crowning of Australian Freedom.  When the Australian States  finally did unite in 1901, Sir Henry  became known as the Father of Federation.

Sir Henry and Lady Parkes and their son Cobram inspecting the Bushman’s Mine gold cake, surrounded by local dignitaries.

As Christmas and the end of the school year approached, George Ratten organized the college’s first speech night .It was quite a production, held in the town’s Royal Hall on December 20. An impressive programme  was printed and circulated;  all good publicity. And who topped the bill? Young Victor of course. He took the leading role of  King Formosus in the play, Magic Glass. He and his brothers  Frederick and Aubrey appeared in various  other sketches on the bill. Their little sisters and other  junior pupils took part in charades.

A REVERSAL OF FORTUNE

Gold fever leads to fevers of a different nature, especially as unsanitary  shanty towns  tend to spring up around mining sites. In Parkes there was also concern due to Chinese market gardeners establishing  a settlement on the area around the  town’s water supply.  In February 1895, after failing to comply with an eviction order, the Chinese were  ejected by  police constables and the bailiff.  There was no compensation and one old man was so distraught that he tried to strangle himself with a rope. When he was forcibly prevented from doing so the poor fellow began smashing  his skull on a log.

If  town councilors thought the threat of disease had been removed along with the hapless  Chinese they were wrong. The summer of 1895/6 was intensely hot and dry in the Parkes area. In mid January there were five heat-related deaths in a single day. Animals were dying and there were complaints that the carcasses  were being left to rot in the streets.  A report from the town published  in the National Advocate read; ‘The outlook for farmers and graziers is desperate. Stock is perishing everywhere.’ At nearby Forbes there were several cases of typhoid,  and the fear was that it would spread to Parkes.  George Ratten must have reflected on the fresh sea breezes of Port Fairy and questioned his decision to move his family.

Sure enough, by the autumn of 1896 there was a typhoid epidemic in the town. There were serious implications for George Ratten’s college, particularly as  most of the sufferers were under the age of twenty   By April there were 100 cases and the local hospital was completely overwhelmed. Funds ran out and a subscription had to be taken up to allow the institution  to continue treating patients. Several people were dying from the disease every day.  The cause was said to be unsanitary cesspits,  and the fact that people were burying the excreta of  fever patients in their backyards. Contamination  occurred when bacteria infected dust accumulated on roofs  then found  its way  into  domestic  water tanks during  rare periods of rain.

At the very peak of the epidemic, on April 27, old Henry Parkes died of heart failure  in Sydney, aged 81. If George  Ratten perceived this death as  an unpleasant omen, he was  right.

Meanwhile, Victor was immersed in the final year of his studies. In such a small college he had the benefit of almost one-to-one tuition. He was an engaged student, particularly when  an astute  maths master tied a  problem to the game of cricket, one of Victor’s  passions.

AN INTERESTING PROBLEM

 V.R. Ratten writes to us from Parkes College, Parkes, as follows: ‘One of our masters has given us an algebraical question, the answer to which may be both interesting and astonishing to many of your readers, The question is as follows; Out of the fourteen cricketers that went home to England lately, in how many ways can an eleven be chosen? The answer is 364. I append the full workings below, which can be verified on reference to Hall and Knight’s ‘Higher Algebra’, page 119 (Permutations and combinations.)

Unfortunately it seems that the wrong eleven was selected. England, captained by the formidable W.C. Grace, won the series 2-1.

In May 1896 Victor  and his younger brother  travelled to Forbes, to sit  important, public examinations. They were held at the town hall, supervised by a committee of local worthies.   For Victor, hoping to go on to university, it was the Junior Public Examination. Fred was destined for the  Civil Service.

By now there had been  a severe  reversal of fortune for the Bushman’s Mine at Parkes.. It was not lack of gold that created the problem, but the eternal  problem of drought. Without water, crushing of the gold bearing stone could not continue.    Shareholders  had scoffed at offers of 60,000 pounds for the business in 1895, but  the highest bid offered at public auction in 1898 was a paltry 1,625. One pundit commented that  the auction  result  signaled, ‘… the downfall of the New Bushman’s Mine, Parkes,  and with it the shattering of hopes that once ran high.’  The viability of College House, was  so badly affected that  it closed its doors  even  before the end of the school year, in September 1897

Whether Victor did well in his public examination is unknown, but irrelevant. There was simply no money to send him to university. Nevertheless, his parents had provided him with a good  education  and  all the social accomplishments befitting a young gentleman. He  had an enquiring mind and a  fierce determination to succeed. Nevertheless, his options were limited. He moved  twenty miles south to Forbes, another old  gold town, and took a job with  the Union Bank.  His brother Frederick was employed in the same bank at Parkes.

After its heady gold mining era in the 1860s Forbes had become  a quiet country town, but  old-timers  still spoke about its connection with  bushranger Ben Hall. He was  shot dead by troopers at nearby Billabong Creek in 1865. and buried in Forbes cemetery. Strangely enough, Ned Kelly’s  sister Kate lived in the town  during Victor’s time, and worked as a domestic at the Albion Hotel before marrying a respectable local blacksmith . Like Ben Hall,  Kate Foster (nee Kelly) was buried in the town’s cemetery. Old-timers suggested she drowned in  Forbes Lake  in 1898, while trying to save the life of an Aboriginal child during a flood, but the accepted story is that she took her own life.

The Ratten boys were soon making their mark  as sportsmen. Victor was involved in competitive cycling, tennis and rugby. He played for the Forbes  football  team  when it won the 1897 district premiership.

Forbes Football Premiers. Victor is pictured far right, front row.

In January the following year the rest of the Ratten family also relocated  to Forbes.  George Ratten became principal of the Lachlan College, but it was a stop-gap measure while he underwent  training to enter the church. In September he was ordained by the Bishop of Bathurst at  the city’s  All Saints’ Cathedral. He  was   appointed   curate of the local Anglican church at Forbes a month later. Whether he had a true ‘calling’ would ultimately come into question, but joining the ministry meant security for his family. It also provided  a similar  status in the community  to that he had enjoyed  as head of  a private college,

Victor’s time in the town  was brief. Working  as a bank clerk  was never going to challenge him intellectually or fulfil his aspirations.  On June 10 the Western Champion reported that he had severed his connection with the Union Bank. He received a farewell gift from officials and  their best wishes; not just for the future but  for ‘bon voyage’.

It is surprising that nothing more was said about this  impending journey, especially as Victor’s plan was, well… mind boggling. He and a companion planned to cycle around the world.

The boys could well have been inspired by Victorians George Burston and  Harry Stokes. Several years earlier the pair had completed  a word tour covering  10,000 miles in 14 months on Australian built penny-farthings. There were extensive write-ups of the trip when they returned in  1889. It was just the sort of thing to  appeal to Victor; escape from his humdrum life in  Forbes, adventure and  the prospect of public acclaim.

No fund raising was reported and no mention of the complex logistics involved. His father was uncharacteristically silent, probably  viewing the whole idea as foolish and ill-considered.  There was just one mention of  the ambitious plan in the press;

On June 24 Messrs D. Campbell and V.R. Ratten , two cyclists from Forbes, start from Sydney on a bicycle tour around the world. (The Australasian Saturday 11 June 1898.)

The Campbell mentioned is a bit of a mystery. The most likely candidate is a fellow called  Dal. G. Campbell. He was from Wyalong, south of Forbes , but was a noted cyclist and footballer. He contributed regularly to local newspapers, and a  journalistic talent would have been very handy for publicity. He was around the same age as Victor and later served in the Boer War.

Including sea passages, the boys expected to cover about 34,000 miles, three times that of Burston and Stokes.  At  least bike design had progressed beyond the old ‘high wheelers’.

Unfortunately,  any misgivings the Rev. Ratten may have  had were justified. The  grand tour was aborted before a  single progress report was published.   What happened and how far the pair cycled is a mystery, but Victor was back in Forbes by early July.

Returning home after such a loss of face must  have been unbearable, but  worse was  to come. On July 15 local butcher Richard Crollick parted Victor from his travelling wardrobe of three suits by false pretenses. A warrant was issued for his  arrest, but Crollick had  decamped to Sydney with the goods, valued at ten pounds.(NSW Police Gazette August 1899)

A chastened Victor was soon back in the ‘big smoke’ himself. He looked about for a profession with decent prospects, something suitable for a personable young man with a good education.  He chose to become apprenticed to a dentist. One obstacle was that a premium had to be paid, which could be from 50 to 150 pounds depending on the prestige of the dental practice. Ultimately, instruments. stock and equipment  would also have to  be purchased. Perhaps he used some of his ‘bicycle tour’ stake.’  The normal period served was about three years, but Victor was a young man in a hurry.

For someone without  capital or a university education, dentistry provided  a viable option. At the time,  dentists  were  unregistered in New South Wales.  A degree of expertise was required  to satisfy and retain  patients,  but   no formal qualifications   were necessary.

Victor  would be self employed. It was a path to more wealth and status than toiling as a country  bank clerk could ever provide.

By the time he was ready to set up a practice his parents had moved to another Central Western gold town; Wyalong.  The mine at West Wyalong was the colony’s most productive field, but when George Ratten arrived,  All Saint’s parish  was in a serious state of decline. The  rectory was a mean  building of just three rooms plus a kitchen.  The church  was a draughty wooden  building scarcely  big enough to hold its dwindling congregation   However,  as a former schoolmaster the Rev. Ratten  had a lot offer and it wasn’t long before his energy and enthusiasm began to turn things around.

Due to the failure of Parkes College, George’s  personal circumstances  were so reduced that a subscription  was organized to buy  a sulky, so that  he could visit  parishioners in outlying areas..  There was also a building fund, to improve the rectory  by the addition of a study, dining room and reception room.

As summer approached and residents were planning for Christmas, there was a devastating event that virtually obliterated West Wyalong’s  main street.

On the night of Wednesday, November 30, fire broke out  in a commercial laundry. There was no water available and the wooden and corregated iron buildings exploded  like fire crackers   By morning, 22 businesses had been either  consumed by  fire or pulled down in an effort by residents  to stop the flames spreading. The list of destroyed buildings included the Gladstone  Hotel, the assay office, the Bank of New South Wales, two refreshments rooms, the jewellers, the stationers, two plumber’s shops,, two saddlers shops. a general store, the boot shop, the bicycle shop and one of the town’s dentists.

Shocked locals surveying the devastation.

It was into this physically and psychologically scarred community that Victor arrived, full of youthful enthusiasm, charm  and ambition

Just before Christmas the local paper  reported that the Reverend  Ratten’s eldest son was about to leave Sydney with the intention of setting up  a dental practice. It had been only sixteen  months since Victor  had left Forbes, but when his first advertisement appeared he announced that he had been the ’associate’ of  a Dr Cohen, giving  the impression that the relationship  had been a  partnership rather than a very brief apprenticeship.  The omission of a first name or initial  may have been deliberate. Did Dr Cohen even exist?  No dentist by that name  appears in Sydney’s Sands Directory for 1900.

A brief,  humorous paragraph  appeared in the Wyalong Star (Friday 5 January 1900)

By an advt. which appears in this paper, I observe we have a ‘resident’ dentist in the field. Sufferers from that agony maker, sleep disturber, and painful companion, Demon Toothache, can now be accommodated at any time and ‘Ave ‘em out’ – that’s about the only cure I know of. As Mr Ratten is the son of a local resident he will doubtless secure a fair share of local patronage. 

Inferring that Victor would be West Wyalong’s first resident dentist  infuriated established practitioner  Dr  E. Caspersonn. The editor hastily tried  to make amends;

I inadvertently did  an injustice in last week’s ‘snapshots’ to a well-known townsman. In stating that we now had a  resident dentist on the field, in my ignorance, I forgot that we have had a ‘resident dentist’ amongst us for years. I refer to Dr. Caspersonn,of Main Street, West Wyalong. Dr Caspersonn also has the latest and most scientific appliances used in dentistry. Having done the injustice, I am glad to have the opportunity of making the amends honourable as fr as it lays in my power.

Caspersonn was soon feeling threatened by the young interloper. His own advertisements  pointedly stated that he was the only dentist in the area who had gone through a proper course of training. He claimed to be a Doctor of Dentistry, having graduated from the  impressive sounding Philadelphia Dental College and Hospital of Dental Surgery.

Victor had two important advantages over his competitor. One was an understanding of human psychology.  His very first advertisement was headed PAINLESS DENTISTY.

The second advantage was his father, who promoted his son  at every opportunity At Wyalong, Victor  would attend patients at the  rectory. At West Wyalong he set up premises in the main street, next door to Reay’s the chemist.

His ambition was evident almost immediately. Within six weeks Victor was advertising for an ‘educated youth’ to learn surgical and  mechanical dentistry. (February 9 The Wyalong Star and Temora Barmedman Advertiser)  Applicants had to be prepared to pay a premium for the dubious privilege of being trained by their  barely proficient employer!

Admittedly, patients at Mr Ratten’s  new dental  practice  had  no  complaints about their treatment.  By the winter of  1900 he had established a good  reputation. No  doubt  his sporting prowess helped, as well as his father’s position as  a  hardworking vicar.

Meanwhile Victor’s  brother Aubrey had left Australia as one of the NSW Citizens’ Bushmen, for service in the South African Boer War. They were an elite group;  physically fit,  accurate shots and  fine riders. George Ratten had reason to be proud of his sons.

By mid 1900, the town was  well on the way being reconstructed after the fires, The first Post Office had been built and an application approved for a telephone exchange.  Best of all, discussions were underway to have the rail line brought  forty miles from Temora.

Although Wyalong was the original, surveyed town, the availability of water at West Wyalong had meant that a tent city grew up around the gold diggings  and miners were reluctant to move the 5km (3 miles).  Permanent dwellings were established and soon West Wyalong  had overtaken the older settlement as  the commercial centre.

There was an amusing  account of the bitter rivalry between the two towns published in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph on August 11. The Minister of Works, Mr O’Sullivan, had just visited, giving his assurance that the first sod would soon be turned on the long anticipated  rail extension. The  contentious issue was, where would the railway station be located?

Meanwhile, the future looked bright for young Victor Ratten.

THE WAR OF THE WYALONGS