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| JW Berghofer (SHS 185) |
During the 19th Century
German-Australians constituted the largest non-British immigrant group in the colonies:
over 4% in 1861. By comparison the Chinese, as the second-largest, came to
3.28%; the Italians as the third-largest made up only 0.21%, and the total
migrant population of 48 other ethnic communities amounted to only 3.25%.
Organised large-scale immigration started with the
arrival in 1838 of groups of Lutheran farming communities from the eastern
provinces of Prussia. Many were experienced vineyard workers and were welcomed
in South Australia where they established communities in the Adelaide Hills and
the Barossa Valley, a small number even went into the desert to
spread the Faith among the Indigenous people.
A smaller wave in the
wake of the failed German revolution of 1848 brought a different group of
immigrants, including outspoken democrats and liberals dissatisfied with the
lack of political reform in Germany who chose a country promising
constitutional democracy and progress towards their ideal of a unified nation
state. A third wave of German immigrants was part of the huge number of
fortune-hunters who arrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s. When the
goldfields were exhausted, many of the diggers and tradesmen of German origin
took up farming in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales.
Johannes Wilhelm Berghöfer was born in the village of Münchhausen in the
province of Kurhessen, Germany in 1840. In 1855 he accompanied his mother Anna,
née Althaus, and four siblings, as steerage passengers to New South Wales,
there to join his father Wilhelm Christian Berghöfer (1806-1890). In 1853 Wilhelm had left Germany on board
the ‘Triten’ sailing from Hamburg ahead of his family to prepare the way. They
were seeking a new life and opportunities in Australia where four more children
were born. William soon found work as a farm labourer in the Bankstown area
where his family joined him.
By 1864 William had
saved enough money to buy his own piece of land Road from the merchant,
manufacturer and philanthropist Ebenezer Vickery (1827-1906), on Rocky Point near
the Sydney suburb of Sans Souci, a place name with a German connection. Sans
Souci takes its name from a grand house built on Rocky Point
Road on land bought in 1853, by Thomas Holt (1811–1888), a wool merchant and
politician, for his German wife. It was named after Sanssouci in Potsdam,
Germany, the summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.
In the 1850s English
and Irish migrants had settled along the Rocky Point Road in Sydney’s south where
the suburbs of Kogarah and Sans Souci, where they found fertile land and an
access track to the City markets. German settlers also found land there,
helping to turn the area into a great vegetable supplier for the expanding suburbs. Although coming from a staunch Lutheran background in Germany, the
Berghofers joined the Anglican Church and became active in community affairs,
attending the first Anglican service in the district in 1867.
William Berghofer became
a successful and dedicated market gardener. His holdings occupied over 4 acres,
he grew rhubarb, peas, potatoes and beans and his garden was typical of many
others in the area, some of them worked by his devout and industrious German
countrymen. He was a foundation member of the St Paul's Anglican Church at
Kogarah and chairman of the committee that planned and established the church
building in 1868-69. There were 45 children attending school in the church
building, until the first separate school was established in 1876. He was also
a prominent member of the Rocky Point Road Trust that managed repairs and
construction contracts. William died on 31st May 1890 and was buried at St
Paul's, Kogarah, the church he had helped to establish 21 years earlier.
William’s son Johannes
Wilhelm anglicized his name to John William when he arrived in Australia and
the family adopted the name Berghofer without the accent. The strong sixteen
year old youth initially worked as a farm hand for a local landowner followed
by a position as overseer of roadworks. In 1867 he married Katherine Spring
(1850-1945) a girl from the Rhineland whose family farmed a small holding in nearby
Rockdale. Following his marriage, John purchased
land from his father and began farming on his own account, later acquiring more
land from Ebenezer Vickery.
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| John and Katherine Berghofer 1901 (courtesy Blue Mountains Historical Society) |
By 1874 John, now in his mid-thirties, had a growing family of four boys
and a girl. When one of his brothers contracted a serious illness, he realised
there was no local burial ground, so he campaigned for land to establish Kogarah
Cemetery. In the same year he formed a committee for the establishment of a Public
School.
Around 1870 John Berghofer decided to try his luck on the ‘diggings’ and
travelled on foot with three companions to the Hill End and Gulgong goldfields.
By then the easily accessible alluvial gold had be largely worked out and mining
companies were formed to get at the deeper deposits. The group had little
success and Berghofer found work as a carpenter and engineer while teaching
Sunday school to the miners’ children. Returning after a few months, he resumed
farming on the cabbage patch at Kogarah, but it was through this adventure that
he first travelled over the Blue Mountains.
In 1876 while the Kogarah School was still being built, John Berghofer took
up a position of considerable responsibility in the Kanimbla Valley, managing ‘Kanimbla’
station for his old benefactor Ebenezer Vickery. Vickery gave Berghofer full
authority to deal with all matters at Kanimbla, which was a massive landholding
by today’s standards, encompassing nearly the whole of the parish of Kanimbla
including about 10,000 acres of freehold land and more under lease-hold.
Berghofer set to work with a will, first building his own homestead to
accommodate his growing family, he then built a brick residence for Vickery as
a summer resort. In 1878 he became a naturalized Australian citizen. Two
daughters were born during this period which may have encouraged him to build a
new schoolhouse for his own children and the dozen families of the Kanimbla
Valley. Originally a half time school when founded in 1869, by 1882 Kanimbla
School had reached the required minimum
of 25 pupils to move from a half-time to a full-time public school later known
as Duddawarra School.
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| Mount Victoria Inn 1887, named Rosenthal by Berghofer (PF 996) |
The diligent and hardworking Berghofer prospered and in 1892 purchased a
property in Little Hartley at the foot of Victoria pass, known as ‘The Foot of
the Hill’. On the land stood an old semi-derelict coaching inn, the ‘Mount
Victoria Inn’, built in 1839 by convict labour, for William Cummings of
Bathurst and first licensed as the Crown and Horses Inn. This he renovated and renamed 'Rosenthal' (Valley of the Roses) in memory of the old Berghofer homestead in
Hessia, making it his family home. Around 1890 he purchased land in Montgomery
Street, Mount Victoria and financed constructed of two semi-detached cottages for lease. The
cottages, known as Larsen’s Cottages, were built by Neils (Peter) Larsen,
father of poet Henry Lawson and ex-husband of feminist Louisa Lawson. It is
said that the young Henry assisted his father with the house painting and may
have briefly attended a local private school run by another German immigrant,
Henry Rienits.
By this time
Berghofer had become a familiar figure in the settlement of Mount Victoria, where
a small German expatriate community developed. Always well-dressed in a dark
suit, bow tie and Homburg hat, he wore a top hat for special occasions and to
church on Sundays. The Montgomery Street venture proved successful and he
followed it with a general store with living
accommodation on the corner of Selsdon Street, which was leased to store-keepers
from 1912 to 1923. The accompanying residence known as Berghofer’s House was
leased to tenants for much of the sixty years that Berghofer and later his
widow owned it.
Berghofer’s primary
residence after 1892 was 'Rosenthal', except for the period
1898 to 1903 when he returned to Kanimbla homestead as Vickery’s manager, by
which time his family had grown to five sons and six daughters. He and
his compatriots were also active in the affairs of the town: Charles Prott was the
Mount Victoria postmaster and a crack rifle shot, winning the Queen’s Cup, his
nickname was ‘Bismarck’, and Albert Kunz opened ‘The Ladies College’ in 1891. Henry
Guenther Rienits was headmaster
and founder of ‘The School’ a private boarding school for young gentlemen of
good family, which opened in 1885. All were active members of the Mount
Victoria Progress Association, Mount York Reserve Trust, Rifle Club, Town Band
and Masonic Lodge.
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| The Macquarie Obelisk 1980s (PF 182-1) |
In 1900 Berghofer campaigned for the building of the Macquarie Obelisk
at Mount York and developed a strong interest in Australian history. Later he
accompanied his friend Frank Walker, president of the Royal Australian
Historical Society, to the summit of Mount Blaxland, to confirm the track of
the explorers who had opened the way for European expansion over the Blue Mountains
in 1813.
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| Berghofer in cart pointing to Mount Blaxland, 1913 (SHS 185) |
In 1907 when the Shire of Blaxland was proclaimed, encompassing the area
from Hartley to Lithgow, Berghofer was elected its first President and
continued as an active member of the Shire council until 1916. The poor German
peasant boy who had arrived in Sydney nearly 50 years before had come a long
way.
Following a meeting in the Sydney Town Hall in October 1912 the State
Governor, Lord Chelmsford, moved the first motion, “That arrangements be made
to celebrate the centenary of the gallant efforts of Blaxland, Wentworth, and
Lawson in crossing the then impenetrable and unassailable Blue Mountains in
May, 1813, and thus assisting to develop the present magnificent pastoral and
farming lands.” Mr. J. W. Berghofer seconded the motion, which was carried.
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| Crossing Centenary celebrations at Mount York 1913 (LS images) |
The Blue Mountains Centenary Committee organising committee was established with Mr. Frank Walker, president of the
Royal Australian Historical Society as presidential chair and Berghofer among
the vice presidents, with Henry Rienits as organising secretary. The Celebrations
focused on Mount York and began with a vice-regal banquet in Mount Victoria on 28 May 1913, at which Berghofer
was hailed as ‘the father of the celebration movement’ and recognised as the force behind the memorial pavilion at Mount York, unveiled later that
day. Such was the crowning day in John William Berghofer’s public career, he
was now 73 years old and it had been a full and eventful life with a
distinguished career in community service. Nobody could have doubted his
patriotic spirit, although at times he may have been seen as somewhat
hardheaded and persistent. But clouds were gathering on the horizon.
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| Mount York Monument (PF 193-1) |
By 1914 over 100,000
Germans were living in Australia,
comprising around 2% of the population of five million. They were a
well-established and generally well-liked community. However with the rising
tension between the British and German Empires this began to change and German-Australian
communities throughout the country found themselves the subject of suspicion
and animosity. When war broke out in August 1914 that changed to outright
hostility. Australia was rife with war fever and ordinary citizens were keen
for ways to get involved, to ‘do their bit’. The sinking of the
German light Cruiser SMS Emden by the Australian light
cruiser HMAS Sydney in the Cocos Islands was one of
Australia’s first actions of the war and excited the nation. The event created
hysteria about possible German naval attack, immediately establishing cultural
and national divisions within the community.
Within a week of the declaration
of war, German and Austro-Hungarian residents of Australia were forced to
register with the police. A fear of possible German-Australian 'conflicted
loyalties' led to several regulations under the War Precautions Act
1914, such as forbidding German-Australians to leave Australia or send
money overseas. These immigrants, naturalised subjects and Australian-born
people rapidly moved in the Australian consciousness from 'our Germans' to
'enemy aliens'.
As the war progressed
and propaganda about the 'Hun' German continued, the pressures on
German-Australians increased. Many lost their jobs or found their communities
no longer safe. Internment without charge or trial was implemented around
Australia. By 1918 nearly 7 000 men, women and children were interned by the
Australian Government. Some were interned voluntarily after they were no longer
able to support their families; others were German settlers deported from
former German colonies in the Pacific; others still were working class men who
had been born in Australia to a German father or grandfather. The aim of
internment was to protect Australians and the Australian war effort from
'disaffected and disloyal' 'enemy aliens'.
In NSW the principal
place of internment was Holsworthy Military Camp where between 5000 and 6000
men were detained. Women and children of German and Austrian descent, detained
by the British in Asia, were interned at Bourke and later Molonglo near
Canberra. Former gaols were also used. Men were interned at Berrima Gaol
(constructed in the 1840s) and Trial
Bay Gaol (constructed 1886). Others were
carefully watched by the police and neighbours. Germans lost their jobs or had
their business destroyed. Some voluntarily went into camps so their wives and
children could survive on a government allowance. At the end of the War, 6150 internees from
NSW were deported back to Germany on
various ships, in a Government-backed form of ethnic cleansing.
It was not only
people who suffered. Dachshunds were routinely
kicked or stoned to death in the streets of England and similarly treated in
Australia. Owners of Dachshunds that dared venture out into public risked being
assaulted and labeled as German sympathizers, or having their pet ripped from
their arms to be kicked and stomped to death in front of them. Under such duress, the Dachshund population of the Allied world crashed
during the Great War. In Chicago a frightened breeder; after being harassed and
tormented by overzealous patriots and self-proclaimed spy catchers, is said to
have gone home and shot every Dachshund in his kennel rather than face further
reprisal. In 1913, 217 Dachshunds were registered in Britain; in 1919, none. In
the United States the poor Dachshund went from one of the ten most popular
breeds in 1913 to being represented by 12 survivors in 1919.
The Great War had provided
a welcome opportunity to realise one of Prime Minister Billy Hughes’ long-held aims, namely “the
eradication of German influences from the trade of all parts of the Empire”.
This was to be achieved by diverting “trade from enemy to Empire”, as Hughes
put it.
In 1916 the NSW Labor Government enacted the Naturalized Subjects
Franchise Act which stipulated that ‘any naturalized British subject of enemy origin
shall be incapable of sitting or voting in the Legislative Assembly, the
Municipality of Sydney and any Council or Shire’. The act also deprived such
naturalized subjects of the right to vote, to officiate as a JP and from
holding a publican’s licence. It directly targeted two men, one was John Berghofer.
In the NSW parliament it was opposed by Hon. JP Fitzgerald MLA who described it
as ‘an act of cruelty directed at Councilor Berghofer, a faithful and loyal
citizen’, and that ‘a considerable amount of cruelty would here be perpetuated
in the case of Councillor Berghofer’, ‘I refuse to be a party to persecute a
few helpless old men’.
The other helpless old man also caught up in the anti-German hysteria
was Charles Lindeman, originally ‘Lindermann’, (1859-1931) who was removed from
his position on Katoomba Council by the same Act. He was forced to sell his
guesthouse and dairy in Leura and spent the last fifteen years of his life in
obscurity. Thanks to local historian Jim Smith, Lindeman's name has been
rescued by the rediscovery and restoration of the historic walking track that
he surveyed and built: Lindeman Pass at Wentworth Falls. But that is another
story.
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Blue Mountains Identities 1890 (PF 147).
Charles Prott is back row end left, Henry Rienits is back row end right. |
Henry Rienits closed his boys’ school which never reopened, it was
offered to the government as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers in 1915
and in 1920 it was being used for meetings of the Mount Victoria Progress
Association. But not wishing to be outdone, he also had a pass named after him,
probably before the War. Rienits Pass appears in a 1919 tourist map of Mount
Victoria and connects Pulpit rock at the southern end of Kanimbla Valley Road
with Ross Cave via the top of the Mount Victoria escarpment. Rienits and his
wife Kate lived at ‘The Lindens’ in Montgomery Street, the linden tree being of great significance in Germanic mythology, and was a keen
amateur geologist. He donated minerals, rocks and fossils to the NSW Dept. of Mines and taught
geology to his pupils at The School. In 1903 he prospected for coal in Victoria
Creek, driving a tunnel into the hillside which was later exploited by his son
Oswald.
While Charles William Prott had been naturalised in Sydney on 18 August
1903, making him a British subject, it would appear that he never lost his
German accent. To save himself some trouble, Prott told anyone who asked that
he was from Belgium. Rather than evoking the usual anti-German sentiment, he
was seen as some sort of hero. Things began to unravel when the Belgian Consul
in Sydney heard of these claims through people wanting to ascertain their accuracy.
The Department of External Affairs was contacted in February 1916 seeking
clarification of his status. The truth came out although it is not clear as to
the actual impact on Prott’s life. There is no
indication that the Belgian Consul actually pursued the subject any further.
Twenty two ratepayers
petitioned Cr. Berghofer to resign his seat in the Blaxland Shire Council but
he resisted. In reply he stated that he
was naturalized in 1878, and his home and family were here. He held a number of
public positions and defied any man to say he had spoken or acted disloyally.
He had lived in Australia for practically a lifetime and reared a large family,
many of whom were married to Australians. He had worked hard, cleared the bush,
and used his strength and ability for the good of the country. Until the
Government said he was not fit to hold the position, he would remain in it.
But it was not to be, the Naturalized Subjects Franchise Act finally forced
John Berghofer's resignation from the Blaxland Shire
Council, and public pressure even made him anglicize the name of his home to ‘Rosedale’. Ironically Berghofer's youngest
son Lewis George Berghofer, was fighting with the AIF in France at the same time - although under the assumed name of George Bridge. Two
nephews who also bore the Berghofer name had enlisted under assumed names. In
fact some
18,000 German-Australian soldiers fought with the Australian
Imperial Force against their ancestral homeland. Local sentiment however was not entirely against Berghofer as the Daily
Telegraph reported:
DISFRANCHISEMENT. .
CASE OF CR. BERGHOFER. LITHGOW, Wednesday. — As the result of the passing of
the Aliens Disfranchisement Bill, Mr. J. W. Berghofer, Little Hartley, and
representative of C Riding in the Blaxland Shire, has been disfranchised. Mr.
Berghofer, who has had a long and honorable career as a Councillor, has been
notified to this effect by the shire clerk. At Friday's meeting, the Council
will be asked to fix the date for the election of a successor. Mr. Berghofer
would have attended the meeting, but he has fractured his ankle as the result
of which he will be confined to his house for some time. Sympathy will he
extended to the veteran colonist, who has been in Australia for 60 years. He
has proved himself a capable citizen— one who has done more towards the
development of the country than most men.
Daily
Telegraph (Sydney, NSW: 1883 - 1930), Thursday 4 May 1916, page 4
In the years following the Great War, John Berghofer withdrew from
public life, living quietly at his home in Little Hartley which he again referred
to as ‘Rosenthal’. Until, on a cool, blustery day in April 1927 in the drizzling rain, the Duke and
Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen
Mother, visited the memorial compound at Mount York on their return from a trip
to Jenolan Caves. Both John Berghofer and Henry Reinits were presented to the royal
visitors. The occasion was organised by Henry’s daughter Annie, referred to as
Miss Rienits in a contemporary account. Of his three
daughters she was the only one unmarried in 1927 and in fact never married.
As Berghofer shook
hands with British royalty, did the old man appreciate the deep irony of this brief
meeting with the Duke of York? It was well known that the future king had
descended from German nobility: he was the great-grandson of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha, and his great-grandmother was Queen Victoria, daughter of the Princess
Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
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| The Duke and Duchess of York at Mount York 1927 (PF 2074-1) |
The Duchess of York’s
words were recorded in a contemporary newspaper with a variation of
his name which provides a clue that Berghofer retained the original German pronunciation
and an extra year was added to his age at the time:
‘A Wonderful Road’
When John William
Berghoefer, 88 year old pioneer and ‘Father of Mount Victoria,’ was introduced
to the Duchess of York, the octogenarian had a heart storm. Her words as he
took her hand were, ‘Oh Mr. Berghofer, what a wonderful road you have made over
these rugged mountains!’
Was the royal
recognition enough to wash away the years of persecution? Did he think back on
his long life of service to his adopted country and, looking down at his
calloused hands, whisper to himself “Ich
habe sehr gearbeitet schwer” (I have worked so hard) and feel some final
vindication?
John Berghofer died some two months
later, aged 87 and was buried in the family plot in Mount Victoria cemetery. His
wife Katherine survived him by 18 years, dying in 1945 at the age of 95 and is
buried next to her husband. Today, his legacy is visible
in the explorers’ obelisk and centenary monument at Mount York, his home ‘Rosedale’, the store in Selsdon Street and the
rental cottages that he built. Let us now turn to the other monument that bears
his name.
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| Berghofer Pass from the walking tack (photo: John Merriman) |
Berghofer Pass
In the early years
the 20th Century motor cars were having a tough time climbing the
steep Victoria Pass, in some cases requiring horses to assist them. Hotels and
guest houses east of Mount Victoria, in Blackheath, Katoomba and Leura, as well
as the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath, however, saw the opportunity
afforded by the new faster and more comfortable means of transport and began
offering one day motor coach tours to Jenolan Caves.
Surveyor Thomas
Mitchell had designed and built Victoria Pass in 1842, using convict labour,
for horse, foot and coach traffic. This route replaced several early attempts
to find a descent of the western escarpment from Mount York, including William
Cox’s original 1815 road. Following the arrival of the railway to Mt Victoria
in 1868, the infant Blue Mountains tourism industry in the upper Mountains began
to develop itineraries taking in scenic views, waterfalls, and lookouts. With the
opening of a direct road to Jenolan Caves in 1882, the Mount Victoria hotels had
looked to gain a share of the lucrative tourist market by offering daily coach
trips to the ‘far-famed Fish River caves’ as Jenolan was then known. The coach
trip however, could be eventful as a newspaper remarked.
The Victoria, or Mitchell Pass has a grade
of 1 in 8 and was well known to the old-time travellers, in the days when the
famous coaching firm of Cobb and Co. ruled supreme. The drivers of those
coaches when they came to this hill, then known as 'One Tree Hill' from an
enormous gum tree that graced the pinnacle, used to say, with gentle pleasantry,
"Will the gentlemen passengers please walk up this little pinch?"
Then they drove off at a good pace for a mile and half, allowing the tired
passengers a chance to 'stretch their legs,' as they humorously phrased it,
when in reality it was a long, steep walk, especially on a hot day. Wiping the
large beads of perspiration from their brows with big coloured handkerchiefs,
and wringing them out, the passengers would storm sarcastic blessings on the
driver until they again met the coach. At Perry's Hotel, the present site of
the Mount Victoria Post Office, all would alight, with parched throats, and the
unanimous cry of 'Ave a drink.'
Evening
News, Sydney, Saturday 30 December 1911
So as the horse
gave way to the motor car in the early 20th Century, the steep road
remained just as much a problem for the early vehicles.
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| Tour car departing Mount Victoria for Jenolan Caves 1926 (LS images) |
John Berghofer had
business interests in the town and was not a man to sit idly by when a problem
demanded a solution. He rose to the occasion and in 1906 rediscovered a ground survey
of an alternate route made 20 years earlier. This was an easier grade from skirted
Victoria Pass crossing Mount York road and passing below Mitchell’s famous
stone causeway with its massive convict built abutments, to emerge near the
foot of the descent. His search was recorded in a contemporary account.
Five years ago Mr. Berghofer, a gentleman
of considerable influence in Blue Mountains circles, and then president of the
Blaxland Shire Council, gave the matter his serious attention. Having heard of
the survey made by Mr. Gee, after a very strenuous search, crawling on hands
and knees around the sheer face of the cliff, he at last located the surveyor's
marks and urged upon the Government the great advantage of making the road
along this new path, especially so with the enormous increase of traffic that
was going along the Bathurst Road. He was successful in inducing Mr. Lee, the
then Minister for Works, to favourably consider the matter and it is entirely
due to Mr. Berghofer's pioneering efforts that travellers will have this new
road, deservedly named Berghofer Pass. (ibid.)
 |
| Berghofer Pass under construction (courtesy Blue Mountains Historical Society) |
Construction commenced in 1907 and
continued for five years with several interruptions due to finding constraints.
When the new pass opening in February 1912 it became immediately popular with regular
use by traffic until the early 1920s, when grade improvements to Victoria Pass
and the advent of more powerful motor cars made it redundant. Although of a
gentler grade, it had sharp curves that followed the contours, and the numerous
embankments and culverts required constant maintenance, it was officially closed
to traffic in 1949. Today it is signposted and used as a walking track. The
original road extended much further that the present one and included what is
now known as Berghofer Drive, as well as part of St George Parade and also a
small section of Mount York Road.
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| One of the fine stone culverts (photo: John Merriman) |
In addition to the many fine stonework walls and culverts formed during construction of the pass, a water trough for horses and travelling stock was carved into the sandstone near the
halfway mark. The horse trough is supplemented with a small, lower receptacle at
the right height for dogs. Both are filled by natural seepage from the rock and
remain a source of drinking water for native birds, bush animals, and thirsty
walkers.
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The Berghofer inscription showing the deeper lettering
after restoration (photo: John Merriman) |
A direct physical reminder of the opprobrium to which Berghofer was
subjected lies along the bottom section of the old road where an inscription: ‘Berghofer Pass 1909 S.
75 M. B. 49 M’ i.e. Sydney 75 miles, Bathurst 49 miles, is proudly inscribed high
on the rock wall just below the fine stone arched culvert which crosses a small rainforest creek. Keen eyed observers will note that
Berghofer's name appears deeper than the other lettering.
In 1915 when the Coo-ee March from Gilgandra to Sydney was ascending the Pass, some
eager recruits, incensed by the sight of a German name, smashed it from the
cliff face before passing on to Sydney and their uncertain fate in the Hellfire
of the Western Front, many never to return. It is likely that a more systematic removal was carried out at a later date by the Shire Council.
The name Berghofer Pass was also changed
to Victoria Pass by resolution of Blue Mountains Shire Council, with the
present Victoria Pass reverting to its earlier name of Mitchell’s Pass. This
has led to some confusion as Blaxland Shire Council apparently never assented
to any such change.
The 2013 Coo-ee
March re-enactment followed the same route but with less concern for the name
above their heads. The inscription was restored
shortly before Berghofer’s death by Blue Mountains Shire Council, a gesture
which gave him ‘intense satisfaction’. Bergman asserts that it was restored by
his old friend Henry Dalziell in 1954, this may refer to renewal of part or whole
of the inscription. In 1990 a memorial brass plaque
was erected on the Pass by proud John Berghofer descendants, some of whom
travelled from Germany for the occasion.
 |
| The horse trough with smaller dog bowl (photo: John Merriman) |
Berghofer Pass remains an easy, graded walking track open to the public, shady and cool in summer with the tinkle of
dripping water over moss-covered stone and the sounds of echoing birdsong. At
any time of year it has magnificent views over the Hartley Valley, and the
quiet visitor may even hear the faint tramp of boots as the original Coo-ee
recruits march into history, perhaps softly singing ‘Tipperary’. Its usefulness as a road is now long past but it remains a monument
to its builder, a man of singular vision and boundless energy. A man whose
dress and manners marked his as subtly different from those around him, but whose misfortune
was that his native tongue marked him as an enemy, and resulted in shameful
treatment by his adopted land.
References
· Bergman,
George. (1954). John William Berghofer, the life of a Blue Mountains pioneer.
Lithgow & District Historical Society.
· Fox,
Brian. (2006). Blue Mountains Geographical Dictionary. Bathurst, the author.
· Fox, Brian. (2019). Upper Blue Mountains
Bush Walking Club Greater Blue Mountains National Park – Blue Mountains
National Park- Berghofer Pass -Monday 19th August 2019 -Track Notes
·
Innes, Paul. (2005). Johannes (John)
Berghofer and Berghofer’s Pass.
· Jack,
Ian. (2000). Blue Mountains Heritage Inventory.
· Low,
John. (1998). The Mount Victoria Inn and John William Berghofer. Pictorial Memories Blue Mountains. Kingsclear
Press.
· Low,
John. (2019). Travelling to Wonderland: the emergence of coach services to
Jenolan Caves in the pre-motor era. Blue Mountains History Journal, issue 9.
· Morrison,
Don. (1994). Characters of the Post 1813, History of Hartley Valley.
· Rickwood,
Peter C and Joan E Steele. (2019). Henri Rienits, amateur geologist and
principal of The School at Mount Victoria, 2019. Blue Mountains History Journal,
issue 9.
· Smith,
Jim. (1990). The Blue Mountains mystery track: Lindeman Pass. Winmalee, Three
Sisters Productions,
· Smith, Jim.
(1983). Bushwalkabout: One stockman and his dog. Blue Mountains Gazette.
John Merriman
2020.
