Germans began immigrating to other countries in large numbers in
1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, escaping war, hunger, crop
failures, religious persecution & political unrest.
When Scottish born William Westgarth, a prominent Melbourne merchant,
financier & politician became impressed with the sobriety, hard
working nature & general good conduct of South Australia’s
Germans, he resolved to open up German migration to Port Phillip.
He visited London, gained the support of Colonial Secretary Lord
Grey and went onto Germany where he met shipping companies, agents
& produced good maps of Australia Felix. By 1849 the Godeffroy
had arrived bringing German immigrants.
NEWSPAPER REPORTS ON GERMAN ARRIVALS
“Measures were to be taken to form a German township in the
vicinity of Melbourne, where a clergyman might reside, with schools,
and other useful institutions established; it was considered probable,
that, for this purpose, land could be purchased direct from the
government, both because this would be more economical to those
emigrants, and because it would be better as a principle until they
were acquainted with our language, and could make their own bargains
with private individuals........”
The Argus newspaper 20th of December 1849
GERMAN LANE
Many Germans settled in Northcote around ‘German Lane’,
close to the present day site of the German Cemetary in Seperation
Street. They established themselves along the Merri & Darebin
creeks, through Preston and further north in Westgarthtown - Thomastown.
Among the arrivals were Kupsch, Kreiger, Yann, Kieser, Fritsche
& Scholz. They were active in community life, building churches,
schools, houses, barns & stables. They ran farms,dairies, tanneries,
brickworks and market gardens. Descendants like Carl Schwaebsch
and Henry Zwar became high profile councillors in Northcote &
Preston.
ADDRESS TO THE RATEPAYERS Mr C. A. A. Swaraebsch addressed the rate payers at the
Town Hall, on Wednesday evening last. Mr W.H.Smith presided. Mr
Schwaebsch said one of his reasons for coming out was to bring about
competition; even if it was not successful it served the good purpose
of keeping the other man up to the standard. The second and principal
reason for standing was that he found himself surrounded in mud.
He was prepared to join in any movement to bring about a better
state of things. At present, there seemed to be no effort being
made to fix the roads up. Some said, “we don’t know
Schwaebsch”. Well that seemed unfortunate, for his father
had been a resident of the town for 60 years, and he was born in
and went to school in the Central Ward. In standing, therefore he
practically stood upon his ‘natural heath’. From being
a mere village, the place had moved ahead when given the proper
means of communication, but nothing was done towards making it possible
for people to get comfortably to and from the trams and the stations.
Buisiness people in High Street had shown enterprise in building
fine shops, and stocking them well , and yet faced with a dirty
street, the sides of which were dangerous.
Northcote Leader Newspaper on August 19th 1911
PRESSURE ON DAREBIN’S GERMANS - WW1.
Carl Adolph August Schaebsch illustrates another of the tensions
of the time. He had been a councillor of the City of Northcote since
winning the central ward in the 1911 election.
His father had lived in Northcote longer than almost anyone else,
running a small piece of land in Seperation Street since at least
1852. Carl Schwaebsch had four brothers and six sisters, all natives
of Northcote like himself. More Australian, then, than many of his
fellow Northcote citizens, he was not opposed when again due for
re-election to the council in August 1914. Yet now he found himself
embarrassed by his origins. Simply defending John Cains right to
an opinion, he discovered his own motives were suspect. He was soon
obliged to protest publicly that
“He happened to bear a German name, but his mother was an
Englishwoman and his father one of the oldest ratepayers in the
town”. From that time on he took a less visible role in council,
and in 1917 he moved with his family to a new job in Geelong, so
retiring from public life.
