Love of the Soil
John Stewart’s Herbarium from Broughton Creek
In 1886, John Stewart of the farm Mananga, Broughton Creek, acquired two Herbariums. These two bound books contained pressed leaves, flowers and ferns of the Berry District, artistically arranged on each page with botanical names written below. He then dipped his pen in an inkwell and inscribed his name inside the front covers, together with the date ‘26th August 1886.’
Herbaria albums had long been popular for scientific study. This Herbarium is believed to have been compiled by Wilhelm Bauerlen (1840-1917), a German-born scientist who lived in the Shoalhaven during the 1880s. He was a botanical collector for Baron Ferdinand von Mueller (the Government Botanist for Victoria), Joseph Maiden (Curator of the Technological Museum, Sydney, now known as the Powerhouse Museum), and the Geographical Society of Australasia’s 1885 expedition to Papua New Guinea.
John Stewart (1845-1932) had arrived at Broughton Creek (later renamed Berry) in 1864, having made the sea journey from Scotland on board the Hornet. He had reached the age of 19 and was following his father, William Stewart (1800-1887), an unmarried former farmer of Middlebridge, near Blair Atholl. John had been raised independently by his mother Ann Campbell (born 1816), at Blarfetty, Blair Atholl, and when John left in 1864, he probably farewelled her for the last time.
At his father’s leasehold farm, Mananga, on the Coolangatta Estate (established 1822), John gained experience in farming and dairying while developing a broad interest in local agriculture and community affairs. He became a founding member of the Nowra Agricultural Society, Berry Masonic Lodge and the first Berry Dairy Company, served as local mayor and alderman, and became the first registered auctioneer in NSW. After the death of landlord David Berry in 1889, John purchased the Mananga property, and built a new homestead there in 1894, also called Mananga, with views across the farms and hills of the South Coast.
John’s family were long associated with the land and, as the author of John’s obituary wrote, ‘his love of the soil was an innate thing.’ Indeed, these beautiful albums suggest a close attachment to the local flora. The year he acquired them, John became the father of his sixth child and they have been carefully kept and handed down through the family.
