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Lavinia and Henry

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Compiled by David Morgan Higgon, Midland Western Australia 2006

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Busselton Family History Society

Mary Jane and Martha Selina Higgens in the birth index

David Henry Higgins designed the Capel War Memorial, an 11ft solid granite obelisk, opened Anzac Day 1920. In 1926 he is the member for Beelup Ward on the Wellington District Board.  The Board often felt overworked and under appreciated;  maybe the stress told on Dave, he died in 1926 and his place was taken by Charlie House.

Henry bought land in 1851 in Perth (where Coles was on Hay Street-Murray Street) and sold it in 1868.
Henry and fellow angry residents around the Capel river wrote and signed a memorial in 1845 when Rev George Wollaston (he built the Picton Church) was transferred to Albany pleading with Gov Hutt that Wollaston be allowed to stay saying "he was universally loved and respected by the population of the district". He was also involved in another petition requesting some form of weekly post be organized between Wellington and Perth.
Once the convict ships had been unloaded, they were free to pick up a cargo for the return journey. Henry of 'Paradise' and later 'Springfield', plus 3 others, exported re-mount horses bred for the Indian Army. The horses arrived in Calcutta and were considered superior to any yet received from the Australian colonies and sold for 50-100 pounds each.

The settlers disrupted the Nyungar's seasonal hunting patterns. Burning the bush to flush out kangaroos was now forbidden and much of their summer diet of fish and whales was depleted by the whalers (American and Australian). With the shortage of their traditional supplies they turned to European food such as flour and potatoes. As this diet was inadequate they used their spears sometimes on stock roaming on unfenced lands. With the belief that since the settlers killed their food e.g. Kangaroo, it was all right for them to kill the white-man's food. This incensed the farmers and there were complaints, occasional shootings and frequent arrests. One of the plaintiffs in 1851 was Henry, lessee of the property 'Paradise' on Paradise Creek. Henry and his brothers were well-known throughout the Wellington district as fine horse and cattle breeders. On one occasion, he and brother Charles chased an Aboriginal herdsman called Dorgan who they claimed was making off with 7 bullocks. Dorgan stated that he was walking peacefully along when the bullocks chased him, the more he ran away, the more they ran after him. Nobody seems to have believed the poor man and he was sentenced to 6 months in gaol.

Henry and Lavinia made 'Springfield', Minninup the best farm in the district. Undeniably the land was boggy, but Henry bought drier runs inland where he could depasture cattle, and employed convict labour to clear, drain and prepare 'Springfields' virgin acres for crops. The property became well-known for its quality wheat, oats and barley, also for its harvest of 12 tons of onions and potatoes per acre. Horses and dairy cattle also flourished, though Lavinia complained of cream disappearing from her dairy. She bolted the door but still the cream vanished. Eventually Henry discovered a group of Aborigines poking grass straws through the dairy's slatted walls and sucking up the cream from the pans.
With the convicts being hired out privately, the public facilities were neglected. Bunbury Harbour did not have an all-weather jetty and with increased harbour dues, Henry and other farmers along the Geographe Bay found it less expensive (if not exactly legal) to avoid the Port and trade from the beach. A schooner would anchor in the bay while they swam horses and floated timber and fresh produce on rafts to the ship. They then brought back tobacco, whisky, bright silks from India, shoes, books, and sometimes whole herds of cattle. This practice ceased in mid 1855 after special licenses to trade direct with farmers was introduced and settlers or seamen faced prosecution if they were caught.

Henry begrudged the lost pastures as the Capel River floodwaters built up and flowed out over the rich flat land towards the Wonnerup Estuary each winter, eventually topping the sand bar and spilling into the Indian Ocean. The people around the Bay called this section 'The Lakes' and everyone learned to row a boat. In 1864 he cut a channel through the sand hills to the sea. The cut was only partly successful because sometimes the sea swept back through the channel and spread salt water over the land. Henry's neighbour, James McCourt, was incensed about the cut. Apart from salt contamination, the channel ran right across the road to some of his southern properties and meant he had a long journey round to reach them. He complained loudly to the RM (Resident Magistrate) who informed Henry he was not allowed to obstruct a public right of way. Reluctantly Henry leveled the banks of the cut at one spot to allow passage, however McCourt and other travellers still had to splash their way across a fairly makeshift ford. Shortly afterwards an anonymous letter pointed out to the RM that McCourt had fenced across the line of road - severely inconveniencing his neighbours - and perhaps something should be done about that.

Henry's 4 oldest sons never married, after his death they formed themselves into a company called the ‘Higgins Brothers’ and ran all their properties and enterprises as one.

In the winter of 1891 Lavinia's sons William, Reuben, Henry, David and Alfred 12 years (who shared a room with his grandmother) were still at home. On a cold night at the beginning of June, Lavinia took a book to bed and never woke up.  ref: Sheryl Knight

Henry Higgins is claimed to have employed ticket of leave men to clear, drain and prepare Springfield for crops, but the earliest record of ticket of leavemen employed by any of the Higgins brothers is 1863. It is more likely that Henry and his brothers did most of the work themselves to establish Springfield, which became well known for its impressive harvests of onions and potatoes, and for its horses and dairy cattle. Henry's brothers Edward and Frederick, later established a property in the district called Rose Hill and Charles, who married Lavinia Higgins' sister, Mary Gardiner, in 1863,established Moulden Farm. In 1862, Western Australia experienced widespread heavy rainfall and flooding, and it was probably this event that finally prompted Henry Higgins to try and drain the part of his farmland that was inundated each year. He set about cutting a channel from his land through the sand dunes to the sea. He would have been assisted in the work by his brothers and also by ticket of leave man Thomas Williams, who was employed as a labourer at Springfield for four years, from June 1863 to June 1867. Thomas Williams (convict no.5839) had been sentenced in 1859 to ten years for horse stealing. He had arrived on the Palmerston in February 1861, and was given his ticket of leave two years later. He was awarded a conditional pardon in October 1867.

At Springfield, Henry and Lavinia Higgins had thirteen children, the last, Alfred, was born in 1879, shortly before Henry died at the age of fifty-six.The older Higgins boys, William, Reuben Gardiner, David Henry and Henry Charles, formed the Higgins Brothers, and continued to live at Springfield and work their properties together. None of the boys married, and their mother and sister Madeline kept house for them. In 1891, Lavinia died and the four older brothers acquired title to the properties which comprised  Wellington Locations 63, 85, 206 and 213, with a total area of 424 acres (171 ha). In 1894, William was living at Yule Station, and Reuben, David and Henry Charles bought out his quarter share of the family properties for £150.21 They, and younger brother Alfred, continued to live at Springfield with their sister Madeline.

For more read the Book "Just a horse ride away" a history of Capel and its people. Available from the Shire of Capel

Henry and Lavinia buried at St Marks Picton Church, Bunbury

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