Freemasonry In Victoria (Ausfralia).

Freemasonry in Victoria ( Ausfralia ) .

BY R . W . BRO . W . F . LAMOXBY , PAST DEPUTY GRAND MASTER .

THE history of Freemasonry in the State of Victoria dates from the year 18 39 , only four years after John Batman , one of the pioneer colonists , proceeding in a ship ' s boat from Port Philip Bay , up the River Yarra , is credited with sagely observing , as he gazed on the verdant slopes where now stands the great City of Melbourne , " This is the

BRO . A . II . TKMPLI-. MAX , THE PRESENT R . W . DEPUTY GRAN II MASTER . place for a village . " It has frequently and truly been said that one of the very first institutions following the foundation of a British settlement in any part of the world is a Masonic lodge , and so it came to pass in the year just mentioned

when , too , in that part of the immense Continent of Australia , Charles Joseph Latrohe was gazetted Superintendent of Port Philip , subsequently to be known as the Colony , and now the State , of Victoria . The Grand Lodge of England has the honour of planting

Freemasonry in Victoria . From the minute books of the lodge , to be afterwards known as the premier lodge of the Victorian Constitution , I gathered many years ago that a meeting of Freemasons was convened and held in Melbourne on December 23 rd , 18 39 , to consider and decide upon the

formation of a lodge . No fewer than twenty-one brethren attended , a sufficient guarantee , if any were wanting , as to the ultimate success of the movement . It must also be borne

in mind that the surroundings ot the infant settlement , at that very early period of its history , were of the most primitive character . The description of the place , in fact , was picturesquely , yet faithfully , sketched by an old colonial chronicler , at the time of the jubilee of the colony in 1885 , when he

observed" The intelligent foreigner , sauntering down the wellpaved streets of Melbourne , will hardly be able to realise that half a century ago the present fashionable promenade of Collins Street was marked by a line of gum tree stumps , deep ruts , and reservoirs of mud ; that a piece of board ,

nailed to a tree , bore the inscription , Tin ' s is Boitrkc SI reel ; that a waggon and a team of horses were absolutely swallowed up in Elizabeth Street , and that at one time the settlers talked of using stilts ! The site of the present Treasury was then a cabbage garden , and Emerald Hill ( now the City of South Melbourne ) a sheep walk . "

It was not very long after this that the first Masonic lodge sprang into existence . A second preliminary meeting was held , with the result that a petition was signed by twenty-live brethren , and forwarded to R . W . Bro . George Robert Nicholls , Provincial Grand Master of Australasia , in Sydney , praying for the requisite authority to found a lodge .

The three principal officers designated were : —Bros . George Brunswick Smythe , of St . Mary ' s Lodge , Xo . 76 , London ( now No . 6 3 , and meeting at Freemasons' Hall ) , as W . M . ; W . Meek , of Restoration Lodge , No . 128 , Darlington ( now No . in ) , as S . W . ; and Isaac Hinde , Tasmanian Lodge ,

No . 313 , Hobart ( an Irish lodge , I believe ) , as J . W . Next , on the 25 th of March , 18 40 , we lind the Australia Felix Lodge constituted and its first Master installed , as the minutes record , " according to the pristine usages of the Order . " The consecrating officer was Bro . John Stephen ,

P . M . Lodge of Australia , No . 54 8 , Sydney , afterwards No . 390 , and now , as being the oldest lodge in New South Wales ( in point of fact , seeing that it was warranted in 1828 , the mother lodge of Australasia ) , No . 1 under the New South Wales Constitution , the Australia Felix Lodge now being in like manner No . 1 under the Victorian Constitution . At this

first regular meeting of the new lodge eleven candidates were proposed for initiation , and eight brethren as joining members . The Grand Lodge warrant was dated April , 1841 , under the title and order of the Lodge of Australia Felix , No . 6 97 , which in 186 3 was changed to No . 474 . Such in brief was the origin of Freemasonry in Victoria ,

and it goes without saying that the rapid rise of the Colonv was consonant with the progress of the Craft , new lodges being founded in all directions . The Irish and Scottish Constitutions were not behindhand , as in 18 43 , the Earl of Fitzclarence , then Grand Master Mason of Scotland , warranted the Australasian Kilwinning Lodge , No . T , , "/ ( now No . 2 , Victorian Constitution ) , whilst the same year an Irish

Til .. I . ATK lillO . Sill W . . 1 . CT . ARKK , HART ., Till . FIRST M . W . ( iRAXl ) MASTER . lodge was opened under dispensation , entitled the Australia Felix Lodge of Hiram , and was warranted four years later by the Duke of Leinster as No . 349 ( now No . 3 , Victorian Constitution . )