Vahland centenary draws family to Bendigo

RELATED: Fortuna celebrates Vahland

RELATED: Vahland drinking fountain to be restored

William Charles Vahland made his mark across central Victoria designing more than 200 buildings, many of which are still in use as private residences, businesses and places of worship today.

As an architect his professional legacy in bricks and mortar has remained on public show for more than 100 years. Behind the public facade, historians say Vahland was very much a family man. He and his wife Jane had 10 children, and 100 years after his death some of his descendants continue to share his passion for design and buildings.

Alexandra and Madeleine Griffeth are great, great, great grandchildren of Vahland and Alexandra recently graduated from a Masters of Architecture degree. Their father Michael also trained as an architect. To hear the City of Greater Bendigo was acknowledging their ancestor as a proud founder of Bendigo was a surprise and honour.

“It is amazing to think he has done so much not only for Bendigo but across Victoria,” Alexandra says. “Both my father and I trained as architects, and it’s interesting to think that the predisposition to art and design runs in the family.”

The city is holding a series of events that highlight Vahland’s professional contributions and achievements to the region to mark the 100th anniversary of his death. The Griffeth family live in Melbourne but are keen to visit Bendigo to enjoy some of the events.

Vahland served the city as a councillor, was a member of many committees and community groups and was a leader in encouraging homeownership through loans from the then local bank, Bendigo Mutual Permanent Land and Building Society.

As an architect he was methodical, innovative and open to ideas. He did not discriminate in business or in his personal life, historians say. The German migrant arrived in Bendigo with a desire to find his wealth on the gold fields. While that didn't eventuate his other passion for building was nurtured.

In researching Vahland life, Dr Robyn Ballinger says Carl Wilhelm Vahland arrived in Melbourne in September 1854 on board the ship San Francisco. He was 26. Within a few days, he was on his way to the Bendigo diggings with companions from the ship, among them Jacob Cohn (later founder of Cohn′s Brewery in Bridge Street, Bendigo), who became a lifelong friend

“Vahland found no fortune in seeking gold in Bendigo. Instead he took up work as a carpenter, and opened a carpenter's shop in Bridge Street circa.1855 where he made gold cradles and other diggers′ accessories,” Dr Ballinger says. In October 1856, he opened an office in McCrae Street, opposite the Black Swan Hotel. An advertisement in the Bendigo Advertiser from October 9, 1856 says that about 18 months later he entered into partnership with another German architect, Robert Getzschmann, and moved the practice into offices at 2 Pall Mall. During 1870-80 their firm employed seven.

History says Carl Wilhelm Vahland took out Australian citizenship on 20 July 1857, which may have prompted him to anglicise his name to William Vahland. In the same year Vahland designed and built his own residence at 58 Barkly Terrace, Bendigo.

Vahland and his wife Jane Barrrow married 21 July 1859, at her parents’ property Charter House in Runnymede (now Elmore). He changed his religion from Lutheran to Church of England. They set up home in central Bendigo at Barkly Terrace. He later purchased and ran Charterhouse Estate, establishing a vineyard and exported wines, including to Germany.

In his research on Vahland, historian David Beagley says the architect was a pioneer of the early Australian wine industry. He believed Australian wines should be labelled by their grape type and region, not after European varieties. A practice only accepted here in the last 10 years or so.

With Vahland’s designs sweeping across Victoria and into southern New South Wales he was always ‘on the move’. His choice of transport was the big mover of the day: trains.

“Vahland loved trains,” David wrote in his Vahland biography. “Whenever practicable, he would travel around Victoria by train. He became well known by conductors, who would often reserve a compartment for him, as he disliked travelling in company. One story that was told of him concerned a warm day when he was returning from Melbourne. The train was crowded and he had to share his compartment. Unfortunately for the other travellers,he was taking home a very large and very ripe Limburger cheese. It was a very warm day and, not long out of Spencer Street Station, he found himself quite alone in the compartment.”

Two of Vahland’s longest-serving partnerships were with various Masonic societies and the precursor to the Bendigo Bank, Bendigo Mutual Permanent Land and Building Society, where he served as director from its foundation in 1858 until 1915, as chairman from 1870, and as managing director from 1891 through until his death in 1915.

“He wanted to give people a start in life to own their own home,” says strategy manager for the City of Greater Bendigo Trevor Budge. “In a way he was an early pioneer to encourage home loans and home ownership, which is what a lot of volume builders are doing now.

“The houses that he designed for first-home owners were called Vahland Villas. Some are still in Bendigo today and were a step up from a miner’s cottage,” Trevor says. “He was a humanitarian who wanted people to build on their lives and have good futures in the city.”

Alexandra says her late great uncle David Moorhead researched the Vahland family and they had enjoyed sharing some interesting old photos.

“About 20 years ago we were exploring the contents of an old tin trunk which had sat in the corner of Michael’s parents’ garage for about 30 years, since his Aunt Molly Vahland had died,” adds Jacqueline, Alexandra’s mum. “Inside there were mouldering cushion covers and several photos, including these here. Also Auntie Molly’s silver pocket watch, still working, and her false teeth!

“Our eldest daughter Madeleine, about six at the time, was a great bone collector, and was entranced by the teeth, so I had to soak them in bleach because she insisted on carrying them around with her.

“Michael’s uncle David, who did so much of the family history, was very excited by the photos, especially one which showed the interior of the architect’s house in Barkly Place.” The family, Jacqueline says, still have one of the two chairs that sit either side of the fireplace in the photo. A treasured photo is of a young Alexandra posed in front of the Vahland-designed Alexandra Fountain. “She wasn't named after it but as a little girl she liked to think she had her own fountain in Bendigo.”

David Beagley noted in his research of Vahland that the Bendigonian was a citizen who cared about his community and his family. “William Charles Vahland was a man who served. He served his family by providing a loving, stable and secure home and business; he served his community in many, many roles that helped establish social structures and lasting facilities; he served his lodge with dignity, compassion, enthusiasm and hard work.”

Vahland died at home on July 21, 1915, his 56th wedding anniversary.

For more on City of Greater Bendigo’s Celebrating Vahland activities go to www.celebratevahland.com