A new history exploring the life of one of Ballarat's lesser-known but successful scions tells the story of how an Italian Gully boy rose to be one of the heads of Melbourne's extensive tram network.
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David Griffiths has written The Promise of Gold and its Results, drawing on the life and legacy of John Garibaldi Roberts.
Roberts was born in Italian Gully (near Scarsdale) in 1860. His father was a storekeeper and later a mine manager. From his early childhood he had a love of books and theatre, and was an enthusiastic historian and supporter of local artists and writers in adulthood.
His middle name, drawn from the popular Italian patriot and republican Giuseppe Garibaldi, led him to be called Garry in his youth, and he attended Scarsdale and Cape Clear state schools before his family moved to Ballarat in 1877, as did his younger brother William.
Both became extraordinary men. William Roberts was an early advocate of the need for a single stock exchange in Australia, and averted a potential crash in 1914 at the outset of war when a panic share selling spree began. William Roberts negotiated the (brief) closure of the country's exchanges, and drove the raising of war loans after they reopened.
No less an remarkable person, John Roberts joined the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company (MTOC) in 1885, rising to be its chief accountant. In that year the MTOC moved provided cable tram services to the previously horse-drawn tram- served suburbs of Brunswick, Carlton, Collingwood, Clifton Hill, Fitzroy, North Melbourne, South Melbourne, West Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Prahran, Richmond, St Kilda and Toorak.
After the MTOC was amalgamated into the Melbourne Metropolitan Tramways Board in 1919, Roberts was made manager of the cable system. He retired in 1923.
David Griffiths says J.G. Roberts is a singular example of how those born in the tough environment of the goldfields took betterment upon themselves.
"Roberts is a leading individual in Melbourne, he's a second generation from the goldfields who was at the top of Melbourne society," says Mr Griffiths.
"He was mixing in intellectual and artistic fields, and was strongly interested in Ballarat's heritage. He was still connected with through his father with some of the key figures, like James Oddie, first mayor of Ballarat."
Mr Griffiths says researching a figure like Roberts opens up other paths of interest, so much so that he felt he needed to write The Promise of Gold and its Results and its predecessor, The Spirit of the Goldfields.
"In this case with John Garibaldi Roberts, it was like a goldmine in itself, opening up into more and more information," Mr Griffiths says.
"It gives an insight into the people in the area. Roberts had a very good relationship with the local Aborigines and helped preserve their culture; his family album was donated to the State Library and contained a lot of helpful photos, pictures of mines around Piggoreet, Italian Gully, Smythesdale and Scarsdale."
John Roberts wrote historical articles about his childhood homes for The Courier in the 1930s, and in the early 1900s established the Scarsdale Old Boys' Annual Reunion. He wrote in the chronicles of the Scarsdale 'Old Boys' about travelling to Ballarat in 1905 to show his son the places of his youth. They met among others friends of his father, including Alex McVitty, one of the founders of the Ballarat Star.
Sadly one of J.G Roberts's sons was killed in the First World War, as was one of William Roberts's.
His articles in the Courier were on the history of places around Scarsdale, and have been reproduced as booklets by the Woady Yaloak Historical Society in Smythesdale.
Roberts was a patron of the Arts, and the poet and author C.J. Dennis stayed with him at his retreat Sunnyside, at Kallista in the hills east of Melbourne. Roberts financially supported Dennis while he wrote The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, which became a huge success. Many of Roberts' artistic and literary friends also stayed at Sunnyside.
Among his other guests were the painter Tom Roberts (no relation), novelist Aeneas Gunn, cartoonist David Low and artist and writer Hal Gye. Guests were accommodated in old tramcars and omnibuses which Roberts had collected. He also built up a large library, which is sadly lost to history.
John Garibaldi Roberts died in 1933 in Kew at the age of 72.
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