by Peter Butters

The first significant chronicling of Ballarat's history was the publication of William Bramwell Withers 'History of Ballarat' in 1870.

Fortunately we are given an insight into the life of Withers courtesy of the entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. He was born on the 27th July 1823 at Whitchurch, Hampshire, England, the youngest son of a tenant farmer and Methodist lay preacher, Jason Withers and second wife Elizabeth, nee Hendy.

He was educated at a grammar school until the age of thirteen when he was apprenticed to an uncle, who was a general storekeeper at Winchester. His penchant for writing showed early and in 1846 he wrote articles for temperance and vegetarian journals. He migrated to Natal, South Africa in 1849 after purchasing three hundred acres with a legacy, but the solitude was not to his liking and he began writing for newspapers.

The Australian goldfields attracted Withers and he reached Melbourne in the 'Hannah' in November 1852. Like so many prospectors he walked to Ballarat but failed in his attempt to strike it rich and returned to Melbourne, working in a variety of jobs. In 1854 he joined the 'Argus' as a reader and then a reporter, but soon joined the 'Herald'. He had returned to Ballarat by mid 1855 and worked as a reporter and part time compositor on the 'Times' and joined the newly founded 'Star' on the 22nd September of that year.

He was described as a 'fluent and scholarly journalist' who often spiced his reporting with appealing humour and as a mining correspondent he documented business and investment in the booming township for both the 'Star' and 'Miner and Weekly Star'. He was elected to the first committee of the Mechanic's Institute in 1859. Domestically he shared a comfortable home with Mrs Mary Ann Dusatory in Lyons Street.

Withers decided to write a history of Ballarat and corresponded with early pioneers of the goldfields and participants and witnesses of the Eureka stockade as well as surviving early squatters.

He became a part owner of the 'Star' and after its sale wrote articles for the opposing 'Courier'. He also wrote two novels. Withers left his beloved Ballarat in 1901 and removed to Sydney where he was living with Mrs Dusatoy and her son William Leslie Withers Dusatoy, but continued to write for the 'Courier'. In 1903 he departed for a trip to England and a return visit to Winchester which was chronicled in the 'Star'.

He died of a cerebral haemorrhage at Dulwich Hill, Sydney on the 14th July 1913 and was buried in the Anglican Section of Rookwood cemetery.

His research for his 'History of Ballarat' was very thorough and he corresponded for five years with our early pioneers of all descriptions. The history was published by the 'Star' in twelve weekly parts beginning on the 11th June 1870 and bound volumes were sold from the 9th August. The 'Star' of Wednesday October 26th, 1870 included a large advertisement for the book and extracts of reviews. The ad read, 'The History of Ballarat' Just Published Copyright Registered under Act No. CCCL. of the Victorian Parliament. The History of Ballarat by W.B. Withers with several illustrations. Price 7s 6d, bound in cloth. 100 Copies only of a SPECIAL EDITION, extra bound have been prepared, printed on a fine toned paper, and containing, besides the illustrations of the ordinary edition, the following : Nine portraits of the early pastoral settlers of the district, Governor La Trobe, Governor Sir Chas. Hotham, Mr Peter Lalor. Price of this Special Edition will be 10s 6d per copy.

The advertisement then went on to list the contents of the book. Chapter 1. Ballarat before the discovery of gold, Chapter 2. The Gold Discovery, Chapter 3. From the Gold Discovery to the Year of the Eureka Stockade, Chapter 4. Digger Hunting, Chapter 5. The Eureka Stockade, Chapter 6. Political Development, Chapter 7. Development of Mining, and Chapter 8. The town of Ballarat, and finally the Appendix with the annotation that it included 'Notes illustrative of some parts of the text - Original letters &c. List of Members of Parliament for Ballarat, West and East - giving the votes recorded at each election.'

The illustrations then contained in the first edition were listed. The Panorama, looking east from Lyons Street, The Government Camp, Ballarat 1854, showing the military arriving from Melbourne, (sketched at the time by Mr. S.D.S. Huyghue), which is the illustration familiar to historically orientated locals, The Gravel Pits in 1854, once again sketched by Huyghue, A Plan of Ballarat 1870 showing the leads and mining claims by F.W. Niven, Plan of Attack on the Eureka Stockade, 3rd December 1854. Lithographed in colour, The Site of the Stockade in 1870, which does not throw any light on that still debated subject, Quartz Mining, Alluvial Mining, The Government Proclamations and A View of Ballarat from a Lithograph issued in 1858.

The book was well reviewed by the press at the time. The Ballarat Star on the 13th August stated, 'We have a complete picture in little of the rise and progress of Ballarat, and the names of those who have taken part in that wonderful progress. A very interesting and graphic account is given of the early pastoral settlement, followed by an account of the discovery of gold and the progress of Ballarat as a gold-field. As far as we are able to judge, Mr Withers is absolutely accurate in his facts, and he must have spent much time and labour in order to get them together. His account of the Eureka Stockade is complete, and full of facts and details...... He has not only supplied a want long felt, but he has recorded facts, figures, and even feelings which were fast being forgotten, and recorded them, too, in a manner worthy of the difficult subject with which he had to deal'. As he was employed by the 'Star' one could be forgiven for believing that there may be a bias, but the other reviews were also positive.

The local Ballarat 'Evening Post' of the same date recorded 'This is a highly interesting and instructive volume on a most interesting subject. The lively and graphic descriptions which the book presents of scenery, character, and incidents, give a special charm to the work, for Mr. withers always shows that shrewd good sense which notes just the most salient features that we want to be made acquainted with. As a gift book we think that this 'History of Ballarat' should be much sought after, for not only has the book been very nicely put from the printer's and binder's hands, but it also contains numerous engravings of the town, past and present.'

The other glowing reports are too long to detail but the Ballarat 'Evening Mail' of the 9th August included '...Of his style, ... Concise, clear and accurate in the detail of facts, consistent and logical in inference, charming, almost to the verge of originality, in narrative, and humourous....' and it concluded, '...let us add of the 'History of Ballarat' as a whole, that no citizen of Ballarat should be without this proud chronicle of the rise of the city.' The Melbourne Argus included in its review '.... Mr Withers is to be congratulated upon the manner in which he has fulfilled the task he has undertaken, and especially for having collected and preserved oral communications and documents upon the history of Ballarat, which might otherwise have perished.' And the 'Argus' made perhaps the most telling statement, 'Mr. Withers has produced a work of which the utility will be more apparent half a century or a century hence than it is at present....'

Then, like now, it was fashionable to highlight the use of modern technology, it was noted that the facsimiles of the documents were produced by the 'photo-litographic process', we can excuse the spelling error.

In the Preface to the book Withers notes, ' .... The compiler has seen the growth of the town from a mere collection of canvas tents among the trees and on the grassy slopes and flats of the wild bush to its present condition. Less than twenty years ago there was not a house where now stands this wealthy mine and farm-girdles city, whose population is nearly equal to the united populations of Oxford and Cambridge ..'

He later comments, 'In less than two decades we have created a large city, built up great fortunes, laid the foundations of many commercial successes, and sewn the seeds of many yet undeveloped industries; and those who have seen so much should not readily think that we are near the exhaustion of our resources, either in the precious minerals, or the still more precious spirit of enterprise and industry necessary for the development of the wealth of nature around us. For the good done, and for the doers of the good, we may all be thankful, if not proud; and, in proportion as we are thus moved, we may look with confident hope towards the future, whose uncertain years are lit up with the radiance of the past, and shaped to our vision by the promise of the present.'

Withers introduced himself to the readers as 'William Bramwell Withers, sometime of the Natal 'Standard', the Melbourne 'Argus' and 'Herald', 'Ballarat Times', and now of the 'Ballarat Star'.

Can you picture our origins, '.... settlers often hunted kangaroo where Main, Bridge, and other streets are now. The emu, the wombat, the dingo were also plentiful. The edge of the eastern escarpment of the plateau where Ballarat West now is, was then green and golden in spring time with the indigenous grass and trees. Where Sturt Street descends to the flat was a little gully, and its upper edges, where are now the London Chartered Bank (Commonwealth), the Post Office, and generally the eastern side of Lydiard Street, from Sturt Street to the gaol, were prettily ornamented with wattles. The ground now occupied by Craig's hotel on one side of the gully that ran down by the 'Corner', and by the Camp buildings on the other side, were favourite camping places in the pastoral days. Safe from floods, and near to water and grass, the spot invited herdsman and shepherd, bullock driver and traveller, to halt and repose.'

We are informed in Chapter 3, '.....stores, like dwellings, were rude, and often the storekeeper, like the digger, was surly. From his tent of calico or canvas, with its furniture of blankets, frying pan, cradle, puddling-tub, pick and shovel, the digger went to the store where mutton, flour, boots, serge-shirts, moleskin trousers, tobacco, sardines, sugar, picks, shovels, billies, and other things were all found in one grand miscellany. Coin was rare and the digger usually bartered his gold dust for goods. There were no hospitals or asylums in that early day, and a woman was an absolute phenomenon, so the sick man often died with nothing civilised about him but the awkward, if gentle tending of his digging partners in the gold hunting wilderness. And some fell in utter loneliness, their bones when found being buried beneath some drooping spray of peppermint about the slopes or gullies of the gold field.

In those first days of digging-life, when womanless crowds wrestled with the earth and the forest amid much weariness and solitude of heart, the arrival of a woman was the signal for a cry and a gathering. The shout, 'There's a woman' emptied many a tent of besoiled and hardy diggers, for the strange sight evoked instant memories of far away homes, of mothers, wives and sweethearts, and all the sweet affections and courtesies they represented...'

It much be remembered that this was Withers First Edition, of 1870.

The version with which most people are familiar is the enlarged and updated volume of 1887 which in recent years has been reproduced in facsimile.