The Masonic Library,
Archive and Museum in Melbourne together are full of historical gold. Finding
the means to preserve and admire these treasures will benefit both the Craft
and the public.
1854
Amid the excitement
and disorder of the Victorian gold rush, Melbourne's elite created ‘the
University.’
The foundation stone
was laid on Monday 3 July 1854 by the recently arrived Lieutenant-Governor
Charles Hotham with Justice Redmond Barry, resplendent in his immaculate chancellerian
robes – and silk stockings, as master of ceremonies.
Professor Richard
Selleck in his book The Shop, says the ceremony began with a
procession from the city to the muddy paddock where the University was to be
built. It was intended, he imagined, to follow a familiar pattern with a prominent role for Freemasons.
Selleck’s assumption
about the Freemasons was reasonable, but was it correct?
Soon after the ceremony, a Freemason calling himself ‘Hiram’ wrote to the Argus, the
most read paper in the city, complaining that the Freemasons had in effect been
uninvited. He asserted that this would not have happened if La Trobe had been
Lieutenant-Governor and he wanted an explanation.
I came across this
controversy in preparing a review of Professor John Barnes’ 2017 book, La
Trobe: traveller, writer, governor. I don’t think anyone noticed
it before. So, was Selleck correct or Hiram? The answer turns to be neither,
but the event did signal some kind of change. The story suggests that the Masonic presence in Melbourne’s early history has been somewhat
neglected and that further research, building on Peter Thornton’s comprehensive
work (A Century of Union: The United Grand Lodge of Victoria and The
History of Freemasonry in Victoria) can yield a better understanding of
both Melbourne and Freemasonry in that period.
 |
| Redmond Barry as Chancellor, 1878. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria. |
Redmond Barry
Redmond Barry is
famous for sentencing Ned to the gallows, but Ned hadn’t been born in July
1854. He was an Irish aristocrat whose ancestors became Protestants in the time
of Cromwell. Their English allegiance was central to their identity but they
were Irish nonetheless. They were Conservative and ‘high Tory’ in their
politics and ‘wedded to the property interests of the landed gentry.’ The
Barrys played a leading role in local Freemasonry.
In contrast with the
present, Freemasonry in this period should not be regarded only as being a prominent
fraternal organisation. In the words of R A Berman in The Architects of
Eighteenth-Century English Freemasonry, 1720 – 1740, ‘It should also be considered as a force that
helped to shape the structure and development of the social, economic and
political evolution that was then in progress.’
Barry was born in 1813
in County Cork, graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1837 and was admitted
to the Irish Bar. He emigrated to Australia, landing in Sydney, then settling
in Melbourne in 1839, establishing a practice in the minor courts. He became
the Standing Council for Aborigines in 1841 advocating that they be tried
before a jury which included Aboriginal people; an approach consistent with the
values of 18th Century Freemasons. He was Melbourne’s first
solicitor-general in 1851 then elevated to the Supreme Court of Victoria in
1852. He was involved in almost every social, cultural and philanthropic
activity in Victoria at the time of his death in 1880.
Barry was a prime
founder of the University and Public Library placing his personal stamp on
both. There would be no contemporary fiction in the Library but working men
could come and freely learn and there would be no religious test at the
University for the all-male students.
Professors could not
be in holy orders nor could they lecture on religious topics - anywhere. La
Trobe supported the institution and provided funding for it, wishing to avoid
the interdenominational rivalry which plagued the University of Sydney.
Barry became a Freemason in Dublin.
In Melbourne, he affiliated with Australia Felix Lodge of Hiram No 349 in the
Irish Constitution (later No 4 in the Victorian Constitution) on 30 April 1847
(8 years after his arrival) remaining a quiet member.
Barry’s reputation has
undergone a revision, highlighted by the current University of Melbourne Chancellor, Allan Myers AC QC
who presented the 2016 Redmond Barry Lecture. To quote Myers, ‘I have called Barry cruel, pessimistic, fearful, hypocritical, vain and
impetuous. Barry’s social views and political philosophies have little, if any,
importance for Australian society in 2016. But an energetic devotion to the
advancement of institutions which promote education, scientific knowledge and
access to the arts is as important today as it was 150 years ago.’
We can both acknowledge
his weaknesses and celebrate his achievements.
 |
| Melbourne in about 1854 via Wikimedia. |
Part 2 will describe something
of the role of Freemasonry in early Melbourne and the changing plans for the University’s
foundation stone laying ceremony.
