The Mollisons and their Library

Excerpts from an address delivered in the Mollison Library, Trinity College by the Dean of Melbourne BISHOP JAMES GRANT on Saturday, 29 May, 1993 being the CENTENARY OF THE OPENING OF THE LIBRARY by the Bishop of Melbourne the Rt Revd Field Flowers Goe.

In his presidential address to the Church Assembly of 1899 Bishop Goe said,

'I may mention what I am sure the Assembly will be pleased to learn, that the sum of two thousand pounds has been generoulsy given to found a lending Library for the use of the clergy and licensed readers of this diocese, in order that they may have access to good and useful books absolutley without cost to themselves. The Library will be founded in memory of the late Alexander Fullerton Mollison. The income, after defraying the cost of management, the salary of a librarian, etc, is to be appllied to the purchase of books, of which at lease one-third shall be of a non-theological character. There will also be a provision that the Library shall be under the control of the Cathedral Chapter, and that the books may be kept wherever the Chapter shall appoint. Thus we are provided with the nucleus of a Cathedral Library, from which streams of learning shall flow through the length and breadth of the diocese.'The donor was Miss Elizabeth Mollison, a faithful and generous churchwoman of 'Clevedon', Hawthorn and Alexander Fullerton Mollison was her eldest brother. Who were the Mollisons and how did Elizabeth come to choose the endowment of the diocesean library as her brother's memorial? For answer one needs to go back to 1802 when Crawford Mollison, a London merchant, married Elizabeth Fullerton. The couple took up residence at St Johnn's Wood where seven children were born - Alexander Fullerton, Patrick, Jane, James, William Thomas, Crawford and Elizabeth. With the exception of James all the sons were in Australia. Patrick came first and was appointed Physician to the Governer, but died in 1834 at Port Macquarie aged only twenty six years.

Alexander was born on 17 April, 1805 and although no precise details are available, he obviously received a good education. He visited New York an 1825 and was in the United States and Canada in 1830. On October 27, 1833 he sailed from the Isle of Wight aboard the James Harris. The oher passengers included Dr (later Sir) Charles Nicholson and the revd G. K. Rusden and family. The James Harris arrived in Sydney in May, 1834 and soon after Alexander joined Francis Rusden who had been appointed an Assistant Surveyor. Their work was in Bathurst and Lake George districts where experience gained in the survey camps was to prove most valuable.

The eighteen thirties saw an unprecedented expansion of settlement as the pastures of south eastern Australia were explored and occupied by the pastoralists and speculators who 'squatted' beyond the official limits of occupation. The first penetration of what is now Victoria was from Van Dieman's Land by the Hentys and Portland and by Batman and his party at Port Phillip. But is was only a matter of time before stock were overlanded from the settled districts round Goulburn. J O Randell in An Overlanding Diary Melbourne, 1980, relates Mollison's involvement in this movement:

'Early in 1836 a pastoral syndicate, Alexander F. Mollison and Co., was informed in Sydney. The other three members were Severin Kanute Salting, Charles James Garrard and Charles Nicholson. Salting and Garrard were already trading as merchants, under that firm name, and Nicholson was Mollison's former shipmate.'

The partnership brought a run, 'Uriara', in the upper Murrumbidgee district, near Yass. Donald McLean, an overseer, was engaged about March, 1836. The purchase of 'Uriara' served two purposes; it provided an assembly point for men, drays, stock and stores, and also, by virtue of its situation within settled districts, entitled the partnership to apply for assigned convict workmen. Uriara's 23,000 acres were indifferent quality and there was no intention of its being retained.

Alexander Mollison called at the Survy office in Sydney and was allowed to copy Major Mitchell'c Itinerary between the Coliban and Murrumbidgee Rivers, from 4-24 October, 1836. Major Sir Thomas Mitchell's book, Three Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, was first published in London during 1838, with a second revised edition in 1839.

By the end of March, 1837 6,000 sheep, 600 cattle, 20 horses and 20 working bullocks had been purchased. With them were assembled some 30 shepherds, teamsters, labourers and other hands, some free, some ticket-of-leave men, some assigned convicts, together with Mollison, McLean and three native boys. On 11 April the expedition comprising men, animals, four bullock drays and two horse carts headed South. Mollison's Diary chronicles the journey. Progress was slow with many halts and diversions. By November the Campaspe River had been reached and drays were sent to Melbourne to bring up supplies. Then on 6 December the expedition halted near the present township of Malmsbury, midway between Mount Macedon and Mount Alexander. Here Mollison took up a 58,600 acre pastoral lease naming it 'Coliban'.

Next year he was joined by his younger brother, William Thomas and took up another 60,000 acre pastoral leasehold which formed 'Pyalong Station'. On 1 September, 1841 Alexander bought out his partners' interests. This necessitated heavy borrowing, but only in 1848 was 'Coliban' sold and his interests concentrated at 'Pyalong'. Soon after he purchased 'Terrick Terrick Plains Station', a 65,000 lease between Bendigo and the River Murray.

Alexander Mollison never married. He travelled extensively in Britan and Europe with his sisters Jane and Elizabeth. He came to Australia in 1859 to arrange the sale of his remaining interest in Pyalong Station to his brother William, and returned to England in 1860. Accompanied by his surviving sister Elizabeth, Alexander Mollison came back to Melbourne once more in 1873 and went to live at 'Dracombe', Kew. While resident in Port Phillip Mollison was active in public life, concerned to promote the Separation of the District from New South Wales, and an advocate for education and security of tenure for pastoral leaseholders. He was a man of kindly disposition of sound judgement and unquestioned integrity, the friend and confidant of C J La Trobe and of Bishop Charles Perry. He was a generous supporter of his local parish of Holy Trinity, Kew, of Trinity College and of the Bishop of Melbourne's fund. He died on 10 April, 1885, seven days before his eightieth birthday and was generally respected and highly esteemed.

Of his sister, Elizabeth, little is known, but it is likely she shared common values and interests and inherited the bulk of his estate. Henry Henty, Lay Canon and diocesan trustee was the intermediary through whom her gift was made, but whether the notion to endow the diocesan library was her own thought or his we cannot tell. But it was her gift that was to transform the diocesan into the Mollison Library. She died on 16 October, 1893 shortly after the opening of the Library.