Peter Degraves; Tasmanian entrepreneur; founder of the Cascades Brewery Empire and a serious enigma.
Before you start reading the history of Peter Degraves which is written below please take the time to study this photograph of Peter Degraves and have a long hard think about that face. What kind of man was he? Look at the eyes, the turn of his mouth: just what kind of man was Peter Degraves?
Obituary Hobart Courier
Monday 3rd January 1853 page three
THE LATE MR. P. DEGRAVES.-Our obituary of this
day contains the announcement of the decease of the
late Peter Degraves, Esq. Mr. Degraves arrived
about 28 years ago in a vessel called the Hope, the
joint property of himself and Major Mackintosh. His
family were in a highly respectable position, of French
extraction, Mr. Degraves being the son of an eminent
medical practitioner for very many years resident in
Dover, and brother of Colonel Degraves, lately
deceased at Madras. Mr. Degraves was during a
portion of his early life with the celebrated engineer
Rennie. The deceased was well known as the pro-
prietor of the extensive brewery and steam sawmills
very successful: he was highly and deservedly es-
teemed, and leaves a large family resident in the
colony.
.
The conventional history of Peter Degraves states that he was born in 1778, probably in England, and was the son of a 'highly respected' doctor of French extraction who lived
at Dover, England. It claims that after studying civil engineering he decided in 1821 to
emigrate to Van Diemen's Land. In partnership with Major Hugh McIntosh, he
secured the Hope and after many delays and vicissitudes, including arrest for
overcrowding his ship and imprisonment for debt, Degraves arrived in Hobart Town
with his wife and eight children in 1824. In fact that is totally untrue. Degraves was a merchant of fabric in Manchester in England who went bankrupt in 1807 and in 1810 was convicted of theft of a huge amount of goods, worth a small fortune, and as a result spent one full year in jail.
He dissappeared from 1811 to 1820 and then covertly purchased the Hope through his brother in law Hugh Macintosh who was a disgraced East India Company Major in order to shoot through to Tasmania in the hope of escaping his debts
Below is what the conventional history says of Degraves as written by Myrtle L. Reid-McIlreavy a Tasamanian historian. This is also telling only half the story.
He was granted 500 acres (202 ha) of land for himself and McIntosh at the
Cascades in 1824, and next year another 2000 acres (809 ha) on the face of Mount
Wellington as far as the Organ Pipes. Between Thomas Lowes's distillery and the
mount he soon had a sawmill in operation with an overseer and twenty millers and
timber getters. He also diverted the waters of Guy Fawkes Rivulet into the town
rivulet, and from a dam below the sawmill he proposed to pipe a pure water
supply to Hobart if the government would give him a prescriptive charter.
Unfortunately he had not satisfied his creditors before leaving England; through
Francis Court, licensee of the Help-Me-Through-the-World inn in Collins Street,
they renewed their charges against Degraves in 1826 and he was taken into
custody for debt. During his detention he submitted to Lieutenant-Governor (Sir)
George Arthur a plan for improving the gaol, but although large scale
alterations were made his plan does not appear to have been used. In 1826 a bill
of sale was placed on his house, sawmill, machinery and timber; by order of the
Supreme Court the partners and their solicitors met their creditors in December
for an examination. Under a new Insolvency Act from England, the partners were
thought to have fulfilled the whole 'ordeal of the Act', but Chief Justice (Sir)
John Pedder ruled otherwise; the partners became insolvent, Court took over the
sawmill and Degraves returned to custody until in 1831 Arthur had him released.
By the will of Major McIntosh, who died about 1835, he became owner of 3200
acres (1295 ha) on Mount Wellington.
In 1832 Degraves laid down a brewery on his property. It soon flourished, and
when a second sawmill, flour-mill, and bakehouses were added he employed more
than fifty hands. On the mainland his beer brewed from cool mountain water was
considered superior to other beers and sold well; with his sawn timber, flour,
bread and biscuits, he was said to earn nearly £100,000 a year. However, he had
much trouble over the water which passed through the brewery into his reservoir
and thence to the town rivulet. Soon after 1833 its flow decreased in volume and
citizens complained that he was exceeding his water concessions. The government
retaliated by building a dam above his reservoir, but this gave only temporary
improvement, and the town water supply remained a contentious subject. In 1840
Degraves proposed a scheme and the Hobart Town Courier supported it but nothing
more was done until 1844, when his offer of a town supply with the necessary
piping and a filtering reservoir at the 'edge of the city', for £4000, was
accepted by the government. In April 1845 Degraves temporarily cut off the water
and caused a public outcry. In 1846 when his contract was under revision,
consumers complained that his supply was tainted; an earlier scheme promulgated
by Sir John Franklin's government for diverting the water from the springs on
Mount Wellington was popularly believed the only way to get pure water.
Degraves's contract was broken and the town supply was handed over to Major
(Sir) Sydney Cotton, who had been employed on irrigation work in India. Next
year Degraves's claim against the Public Works Department was countered by a
public petition. Feeling ran high and H. Moore, editor of the Hobart Town
Guardian, held him up to ridicule and, when threatened with assault, prosecuted
him. Degraves was imprisoned in 1848 but quickly released on bail. Although his
two sons later pleaded for restoration of their riparian rights the
solicitor-general gave his opinion that their father's rights were so
detrimental to the rights of the citizens that it was they who should be
recouped rather than the Degraves family.
In 1834 Degraves was prominent in designing the Theatre Royal which is still
considered one of the best theatres in Australia for acoustics. His syndicate
opened it in 1837, but he fell out with other members and by 1840 was
practically sole proprietor.
As early as 1836 Degraves had thought of building ships. Next year he applied
for an allotment on the Old Wharf for a patent slip. When this was refused he
later tried to secure a frontage near Mulgrave Battery on the foreshore of the
Derwent, but was again unsuccessful. In 1841 he established a shipyard between
Perry's Point and the end of Castray's Esplanade. His first foreman is said to
have been John Watson, formerly builder at the government's yard at Port Arthur.
Among the ships turned out by Degraves were the barque Lady Emma (203 tons), and
the schooners Miranda (127 tons), Fair Tasmanian (145 tons) and Jenny Lind (136
tons). In 1847 he built the barque Tasman (563 tons), said to be the largest
ship built in Van Diemen's Land. The schooner Circassian (105 tons), the brig
Yarra (139 tons) and the barque Melbourne (150 tons) were built in 1851.
Degraves closed his shipyard after the gold rush began in Victoria, and loaded
his ships with timber for the growing town of Melbourne. He died at Hobart on 31
December 1852, predeceased on 30 May 1842 by his wife Sophia, née McIntosh, at
the age of 50.
Degraves was typical of those practical men who were essential for the building
of new colonial economies. In spite of obstacles, checks and frustrations which
daunt men of lesser purpose, he pursued his self-ordained tasks with that energy
which flows from dedication and ambition. In Tasmania he discovered an
environment in which his versatility and ability as a pioneer industrialist
could flourish. At least two industries, shipbuilding and brewing, which he
established have continued to the present day. The Theatre Royal at Hobart still
stands, with little alteration, and remains an important institution.
Select Bibliography
correspondence file under Degraves (Archives Office of Tasmania).
Author: Myrtle L. Reid-McIlreavy
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