Thomas Holt, Rabbits, Oysters, and the Warren View Hotel

 

    With his German-born wife, Sophie, Thomas Holt arrived in Sydney on the Helvellyn in 1842 after being inspired by reading a German translation of Dunmore Lang’s writings on the new colony. He was the son of a wool merchant and he hit the ground running, soon becoming a wool-buyer, magistrate,

financier and board member of companies from Railways to gold mining. 

     By the time he was 44 he’d made a big enough pile to retire from business with land interests which peaked at over 12 thousand square kms – just a bit bigger than the entire county of Yorkshire where he was born. 

     But retired indolence wasn’t his gig so in 1856 he successfully stood for election to the first Legislative Assembly and became colonial treasurer. In 1865 he was accused by a political rival of, er, of the expediency of voting early and voting often. The charges didn’t stick, Holt sued his accuser for malicious prosecution and also the arresting officer, won the verdict but refused the damages awarded. He was that sort of guy,

      He had energy, an appetite for land, and some decent – and some no-so – ideas for using it. By 1857 one of his holdings was around 140 acres at the south end of Marrickville and he had George Mansfield – the Alex Tzannes of this time – design him a Gothic mansion. It had what the Illustrated Sydney News described as ‘of noble proportions … a picture gallery nearly 120 feet long containing a choice selection of bronzes, statues, bas-reliefs (and) a large … collection of French engravings, and of paintings in oil and watercolor.. (and with) magnificent views … of the ocean, Botany Bay (and) the Blue Mountains.’ 

     In 1865 the Illustrated Sydney News ran a feature on T. Holt Esq, (‘one of the greatest philanthropists in the colony’) noting that his estate at that time ran to 12,000 acres with 100 miles of water frontage including to Botany Bay, Woronoro (sic) River, Port Hacking and Cook’s River and including Cook’s landing place at Kurnell. It included what today is Carr’s Park, Tom Ugly’s, most of Sylvania and Oyster Bay. 

     Holt was a foundation member of the NSW Acclimatisation Society – a mob of aristocrats, farmers, lawyers, eccentrics and wannabe scientific folk – which was founded in 1861, a few months after its Victorian equivalent and just two years after Darwin published his groundbreaking rebuttal of the biblical myth of creationism, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection…..”. 

     These societies invariably had vice-regal patronage and were based around the beliefs that the environment could bring about evolutionary change in species. They believed that animals and plants would gradually adapt to climatic and environmental conditions different from those of their original habitats. 

     Edward Wilson, editor of the Melbourne Argus was the driving force behind the Victorian Acclimatisation Society and his brilliant insights included importing monkeys and letting them loose in the bush ‘for the amusement of the wayfarer.’ The Governor turned down the idea for some reason. Meanwhile sparrows, that scourge of wheat farmers and still with a bounty on their heads in WA, passed muster and were soon brought in. 

     The Queensland branch had greater success bringing in sugar cane, apples, pineapples, mangoes, macadamias, banana and olives but, ah, blackberries, alas have proven to be more long-lasting than the semi-smart phones of the same name. In fairness, the Acclimatisation societies weren’t the cause of all our imported maladies, camels, foxes and rabbits had been brought in well before their advent. 

     But they were nuts! 

    They believed everything could be farmed, cultivated, husbanded and eaten. The menu for the Annual Dinner of the Victorian Society in 1864 featured, amongst other things, Vol au vent of frogs, Charteuse

bronze-winged pigeon, Fricandeau of wombat and spinach, curried bandicoot, wild Goulburn pig, teal, wattle bird, tartare eel and turtle soup. 

     Twenty years after this repast, they began one of their more ‘successful’ introductions - brown trout - which, after a few false starts were introduced into the Cotter, Naas, Molonglo and Queanbeyan rivers in 1888. Rainbow trout - native to North America - were introduced into NSW rivers in 1894 and then descendants from this initial batch were introduced to Victorian and Tasmanian waterways. 

     Rainbow and brown trout all taste great but, ah, they destroy native frog populations by gorging on their tadpoles and are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in the top 100 of the world’s worst invasive species. 

     Meanwhile back at South Marrickville Holt had a two metre high stone fence erected on three sides of his mansion - the other side was bounded by the Cook’s River. This was a man who enjoyed his ‘sport’ and he imported a few score rabbits from England and let them loose in his garden just so he and his guests could while away sultry Sydney afternoons shooting them. 

     And he took his rabbits seriously, did Thomas. In 1862 he inserted a notice in the Sydney Morning Herald offering £5 reward for the apprehension of the individuals who ‘on moonlight nights and early mornings … have been seen in a boat on Cook’s River – with guns and trained dogs – and who should know better’ than to destroy his rabbits which, ‘have been imported and taken great care of at great cost (with the aim) of in a few years (providing) a source of great amusement to many.” Yep, what could go wrong with that plan? 

     He stocked the yard up also with alpacas (which weren’t to be shot) and kangaroos (which were). The six foot perimeter fence proved a flop as far as the roos were concerned and the ones that weren’t shot just Fosbury’d over the wall. 

     But amongst all this madness, indulgence and philanthropy, Thomas Holt had a couple of great agricultural ideas but one truly stands out. 

     For thousands of pre-colonial years, indigenous Australians had eaten shellfish, especially oysters. On the mainland shore opposite K’gari (Fraser Island) there’s a mound containing just under 6 million emptied oyster shells and on St Helena Island there’s another that’s estimated to contain around 50,000.000 shells. 

     The Cooks River and Port Hacking in Sydney had plentiful oysters beds, used sustainably for millennia by First Nations people for food, but their shells were valued by the colonists for crushing and use in cement production so the beds were soon dredged, scraped and destroyed. 

     Thomas Holt was smart enough to see the food potential and in 1866 he converted Weeney Bay into an oyster breeding ground by placing timber there to attract oyster spawn. He travelled to Europe and visited oyster culture industries in France, Italy, and England. When he got back he found "the timber was covered with oysterlings as white as snow". He had miles of channels dug in Gwawley Bay, and had the bay's mouth enclosed with a bridge in which were flood gates to control the water flow. This was the first oyster farm in Australia. This French-style claires system of still water didn’t suit Sydney Rock oysters (Saccostrea glomerata) and so they were soon exposed to natural tides. 

     It was through Holt’s constant urging that in 1876 the government appointed a Royal Commission “to inquire into the best mode of cultivating the oyster, of utilising, improving, and maintaining the natural oyster beds of the colony, and also as to the legislation necessary to carry out these objects.”

    Following publication of the Commission’s report, on Feb 1st 1868 the Government passed “An Act to regulate Oyster Fisheries and to encourage the formation of Oyster-beds”. 

Back in 1864 the first item on the menu for the Acclimatisation Society Dinner I mentioned above was ‘Oysters’ and now, overwhelmingly due to the persistent efforts of Thomas Holt, the future of this delicacy was assured. 

Now I don't know but it’d be a fair bet that Thomas Holt returned to his residence south of Marrickville to celebrate the passing of ‘his’ bill and to toast the success with some imported champagne and some local bivalves. 

 Holt’s mansion was named, “The Warren” in recognition of his imported rabbits and it’s this building, the home of the father of the commercial Sydney Rock Oyster industry that’s referred to in the name of the Warren View Hotel which was first built just 9 years after Holt’s magnificent and sadly destroyed landmark. 

     Forget curried bandicoot and wombat with spinach, because what I do know is that if Thomas Holt’s story and legacy don’t deserve a unique tribute dish – of rabbit and oyster - at the pub that took its name from his home, then I’m a poor judge. 

 Cheers.