Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2009 | Page 56

life

FEATURE

A PIECE OF ISLAND
LIFE DOWN UNDER
By June Elford

Photo - Phillip Island - Cowes Jetty

Australia is the largest island on earth and 32 times larger than Britain.
It sits on the other side of the world but there are some surprising links
between Oz and the Isle of Wight.
The temperature gauge on the car registers
34°C as I drive into Brisbane. It’s December
and summer in Queensland with the
poinciana trees in the city’s suburbs ablaze
with scarlet-red blossom. So why start
with the city of Brisbane, state capital of
Queensland and named after Sir Thomas
Brisbane, Governor General of New South
Wales from 1821 – 1825? The clue lies on
Ventnor Esplanade.
Sir Thomas served with Sir Willoughby
Gordon under the Duke of Wellington
during the War of the Spanish Peninsular
and the two men became close friends
with Sir Thomas often visiting the Island
and staying at Sir Willoughby’s home, ‘The
Orchard’, at Nito n Undercliff.
Sir Thomas was an amateur astronomer
and the Duke of Wellington is reputed
to have remarked “He (Sir Thomas) kept
the Time of the Army” - the General was
later appointed President of the Edinburgh
Astronomical Institution. During one of his
visits to the Island he gave a gnomon, or
sundial, to Ventnor and today it stands on
the Esplanade, an 8 ft. (2.4 m.) high cast
iron spike topped with a gold-painted ball.

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When the sundial was set up in 1851 the
pole cast a long shadow at noon across the
road to a circular plaque on the opposite
wall recording Sir Thomas Brisbane’s gift
to the town and Ventnor’s latitude and
longitude.
The shadow cast by the sun at twelve
o’clock was so accurate that the people of
Ventnor could set their clocks and watches
by it until ‘The Gaiety’ (formerly known
as ‘The Pavilion’ and later an amusement
arcade) was built and the wall opposite the
sundial was demolished. The stone was
moved further down the road but during
repair the figures showing the Ventnor’s
geographical position were altered. Finally,
the stone was rescued by Ventnor Heritage
Centre where it’s housed today.
Look for the gnomon on the Esplanade
and next to the spike you’ll see stones
set in the pavement showing the correct
representation of where the meridian line
falls at noon (GMT) and to the left of the
gnomon a square replica tablet with the
inscription: Presented by Sir Thomas Brisbane
Latitude 50° 35.8 N, Longitude 1° 12.6W
In later life Sir Thomas retired to his estates

in Scotland until his death in 1860. Sadly,
all his children predeceased him including a
daughter, Eleanor Australia, who had died
aged 29 years at Ventnor.
Leaving Brisbane, I follow the trail to New
South Wales and Ryde on the Parramatta
River, the third oldest settlement in
Australia. In 1839 when George Edward
Reever Turner and his wife Margaret
arrived from the Isle of Wight to take up
his appointment as minister to the church,
the settlement was called ‘Kissing Point’
because heavily laden boats passing up the
river bumped or ‘kissed’ the rocky outcrop
at Kissing Point. Margaret Turner so disliked
the name “she spat the dummy”, as the
Australians say, and changed the name to
Ryde because it reminded her of home. The
new name was officially adopted in 1840.
Other settlers arrived including the Popes
from Newport, Isle of Wight. G.M. Pope
was the settlement’s first postmaster and
he also opened the ‘Ryde Store’ while a
younger son built the first courthouse. The
original Popes are buried in the graveyard at
St. Anne’s church and their descendants still
live in the town where you can find streets

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