Munduthoo Hardman Earle
Page 190 – The origins of the Munduthoo name.
I have now spoken with Munduthoo ‘Hardman’ Earle’s granddaughter, Rosslyn Dodgson (nee Banister/Earle), who was living on the same property in northern Victoria during World War 2. He was a ‘kindly man’. Hardman himself spoke of a very different rescue story.
His father, William Earle, has presence in the newspapers of the 1890s, prospecting to the NW of South Australia. The family narrative places it in NW WA. However, the WA may have replaced SA over the years. (I have found no newspaper record of William prospecting in WA.) William is credited with finding an “Aladin’s Cave” of gold, though he never disclosed its location. This story later became the famous “Lasseter’s reef”.
According to family tradition passed down by Munduthoo Hardman Earle himself, his father William Earle, a South Australian prospector from the Black Springs/Burra district, later farmer near Ardrossan, travelled into remote Western Australia during the nineteenth century in search of gold. During one expedition in the outback, William reportedly became lost and was close to death before being rescued and cared for by Aboriginal people. The king of that tribe, named Munduthoo. In gratitude, William later gave his son, born in 1879, the unusual name Munduthoo Hardman Earle, and named his Yorke Peninsula farm Munduthoo. The son preferred to go by the name Hardman Earle.
The actual rescue account has not yet been found in contemporary newspapers. Nevertheless, William Earle is documented as a prospector connected with gold discoveries in the remote Tomkinson Ranges region in 1894. A 1903 Adelaide newspaper article referred to “the late Mr. W. Earle” in connection with those discoveries. This establishes that William genuinely had experience prospecting in isolated NW South Australia, where survival often depended on Aboriginal knowledge and assistance.
Many historians believe that Harold Lasseter may have “borrowed” Earle’s original story of finding gold in the Musgrave/Tomkinson region to secure funding for his own 1930 expedition.
William Earle’s Farm (1880s) – In the 1880s, William Earle was an established farmer in the Ardrossan area. His farm, “Munduthoo,” became a local landmark, and the hill on the property eventually took the same name. ‘The National Library of Australia’s Trove archive contains numerous references to Earle’s prospecting claims and his life on the Yorke Peninsula (Safari).’
Safari made the interesting observation that the aboriginal word Munduthoo may not of the local aborigine language, giving some credence to the story. This would explain why “Munduthoo” has proven difficult to translate using Narungga (the local Yorke Peninsula language) dictionaries.
In conclusion, the desert rescue story is probably better attested as true, whereas the house fire story in my book should be dismissed. The truth is far more interesting!
Some Trove newspaper articles may be of interest:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/53650670?searchTerm=earle%20Tomkinson%20ranges
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/77543106?searchTerm=earle%20Tomkinson%20ranges
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/161808755?searchTerm=earle%20discovery
Benjamin Carvosso – Hobart
Teapoy
Page 161– Teapoy story
THE TEAPOY. ‘There are so many stories about this but my cousin Richard, son of Cyril R (Rod) Carvosso and grandson of Percy told me he remembered its being on the verandah of Percy’s house in Brisbane. The Museum (formerly the chapel) of the Church made an appeal for artifacts and Percy sent the Teapoy. I think there was an article in the Courier Mail about it. I did not know what a Teapoy was and as far as i know we did not know it existed. This means it must have gone home with Benjamin and Deborah and come back with Joseph Hobart Carvosso and been in the house at Gladstone when Joseph died and somehow preserved and given to William who gave it to Percy. Emma Fox, Joseph’s widow was about 21 when widowed and the children were all babies, and she went to live with her family and became the Post Mistress at Fernvale, which is now a suburb of Brisbane. No one ever talked about Joseph to us as none of the children remembered him. When Richard Carvosso saw the teapoy in Hobart he was most upset, as I was on a later date, as the beautiful wood sections were splitting and the lead liners of the sections were mostly missing, and he swears it was in good condition when on his grandfather’s verandah. The church had not looked after it.’
‘There is a clock in the Church which Benjamin sent back for the then new church.’
Ref. Elizabeth Carvosso
Revival
Page 161 ‘he ministered to men on death row’ – Further information:
There was a revival in Hobart under Carvosso, a revival which has been called the ‘prison revival’.
It may not have had scores all converted at the same time, but there were some truly amazing conversions among the hardest of sinners. If Elizabeth is right about this, and I dare say she is, the ‘prison revival’ in Hobart before 1830, would make this the earliest known revival on Australian soil….
On the night before they were executed, he would stay with them until late, and return to them early the next morning. His was a punishing schedule. On one occasion he was present at 16 executions over a period of 30 hours. The ‘prison revival’ as Carvosso describes it is reminiscent of Cornish revivals:
“When I stood in the midst of them and beheld some prostrate on the floor, groaning for redemption in the Saviour, others on their knees, lifting up their voices aloud, others, kneeling in secret corners, silently pouring their hearts to God, and others walking about with joy depicted on their countenances, conversing of spiritual things, or helping their fellow sufferers to trust in Him whose blood cleanseth from all sin – I could not help joining with the Rev Mr Bedford in exclaiming “What hath God wrought.” …
One of Carvosso’s converts was an escaped convict from Macquarie Harbour who was convicted not of murder, but also of cannibalism.[1]
[1] Stuart Piggin, Lecture Three: PP Revival is Making the Best of Both Worlds: Tasmanian Revivals, 7 April (year not published).
Errata
Page 8 Figure 4: Samuel Signature should read Samuel’s (page 8)
Page 16 ‘(compare Figures 6, 8)’ should read 5, 7
Page 29 endnote references 55, 56 need only reference 55.
Page 248 delete 56 Jackson
Page 47 ‘facing west 96’ should read ‘facing west96’
Page 92 Table 4 title, second line ‘State Records …’ should all be in italics
Page 130 Rev Benjamin Carvosso family tree the birth date of Emma Fox makes her 16 years old when she married. This has been checked and found correct…
Page 198 Third line ‘Ipswich’ should read ‘Brisbane’.
Page 215 His Honor Sir. Should read His Honor Mr. Trove’s text transcript used Sir when in fact the article used. Mr. Downer was knighted later in London1894.
Page 242 ‘Rischbieth, Bessie…’ under S should be under R.
Page 181 endnote reference 398 may be deleted.
Page 260 endnote ‘398 …’ may be deleted (duplicate of 397)
John A Carvosso – author 