Notable People of Collingwood

Collingwood Notables Database

James Page

1825-1910

Plumber and gasfitter, councillor, honorary magistrate, publican

Personal Photo 1

James Page was a Scottish immigrant who spent most of his adult life in Collingwood and was an active member of local society as a plumber, hotelkeeper, lodge member, councillor, and Justice of the Peace. He acquired a number of properties in Johnston Street and surrounds, and raised a large family. Page Street in Clifton Hill was named in his honour.

Edinburgh-born Page was apprenticed at the age of 12 and completed his apprenticeship at the age of 19. He travelled in England, expanding his journeyman experience before settling in London, where he started a family with Sarah Drinkwater, whom he married when the second child was on her way. Sarah is believed to have died early in 1854.  In September of that year, described as a 26-year-old bachelor, the plumber boarded the Parisianand set sail from Leith for a new life in Australia with a boatload of Scottish immigrants, mostly tradesmen. Like many 1850s arrivals he first tried his hand on the goldfields, where he reportedly did quite well, especially at Clunes.

He then returned to his trade. Melbourne in the 1850s was in the process of creating the Yan Yean reservoir and associated reticulated water supply system, so experienced plumbers were much in demand. The water supply was turned on by the Governor Sir Henry Barkly on 31 December 1857, preceded by a grand celebratory procession including members of the Society of Plumbers marching ‘two and two’.

While Page all his life gave his occupation as plumber, he also spent much of his time hotelkeeping. By 1860 he was the owner and licensee of the Galloway Arms Hotel in Johnston Street Collingwood, and remained licensee until around 1881. In 1863 he was first elected to Collingwood Council. He resigned in 1867 but returned in 1870 and remained on council until 1873. He stood once more in 1879 but was soundly defeated by William Guard Feild.

The Galloway Arms, at the time of Page’s purchase, was a wooden hotel, depicted picturesquely in a well-known 1856 watercolour by Henry Gritten (see link below). By 1864 he also owned six neighbouring wooden houses as well as a wooden house and plumber’s shop on the opposite side of Johnston Street.  Within a few years the six timber houses had been replaced with five brick houses.

In 1857 Page had fathered a son with widowed fellow Scot Jane McDuff, and in 1860 they married. The three young children of his first marriage, who had presumably been left with relatives, eventually came to Melbourne, although not together. James junior arrived in 1864, married in 1868, and moved into one of his father's houses, immediately next to the Galloway Arms. He was also a plumber. Catherine arrived in October 1865 and went to live with her father, marrying in 1868. John William, referred to as William or Bill, arrived with his paternal grandmother in February 1867. Jane died of consumption (tuberculosis) in 1871 at the age of 63, and in 1873 Page re-married, to the much younger Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he produced a large third family.

Nineteenth century Collingwood society was very much focused on membership of influential groups such as Friendly Societies and Lodges such as Freemasons. Page was a member of the Collingwood Lodge No. 727, and along with co-members Charles Bayley and Henry Tolhurst, founded in July 1884 a new Masonic Lodge, named in honour of the Earl of Carnarvon. Tolhurst was city surveyor and engineer at the City of Collingwood, while Bayley was a prominent Mason, and churchwarden at St Philip’s Church in Abbotsford. Among other Collingwood notables who later joined this Lodge were G D Langridge, William Pitt, John Gahan, J P Dyason, Charles Baker, H E Petherickand William Beazley.

The Earl of Carnarvon was the Pro. Grand Master of the Supreme Grand Lodge in England. In 1887, at the time of a visit to Australia of the Earl himself, Page was the Worshipful Master. The Earl was domiciled at Government House, and Page made a personal representation, requesting a visit. According to the Lodge history, this Lodge was the only Australian one visited by the Earl. At the Lodge meeting the Earl was presented with an album of photographic views of Collingwood, then all adjourned to the Collingwood Town Hall, where a ‘sumptuous banquet’ was served to about 250 people. Mayor Henry Walker and other councillors were among the guests, and Walker defrayed the costs of the reception, making the town hall available free of charge and allocating his private chamber as a retiring room for the use of the distinguished guests. 

This was not Page’s first brush with eminence. While living in London, according to his reminiscences, he carried out plumbing services at the residence of Louis Bonaparte, then living in exile in London, describing him as ‘an affable chap’.

Around 1882 Page gave up his publican’s licence although he still owned the Galloway Arms.  By 1886 the Pages had moved to South Terrace Clifton Hill, where they rented a house, then called Lilyford, from Midgley Hall, who lived in the matching house next door. Here two more sons were born, the first named after Midgley, indicating that fellow-Mason Hall was more friend than landlord. The move can presumably be explained by the impending demolition of the old timber pub and its replacing with a new one in brick, under the impetus of the Licenses Board which was working on ensuring that Melbourne’s many pubs were raised to a better standard. The new building still stands today, presenting as two shops with accommodation above. The name and date can be seen on the pediment. While the hotel name is centred on the pediment, the structure in fact consisted of two properties, a hotel on the west side (now number 117) and an eight-roomed house on the east side (now number 115), which became the new home of the Pages from around 1891. 

As well as James’s many activities in Collingwood, in the late 1870s he also acquired about 323 acres at Kangaroo Ground (in the picturesque area now known as Bend of Islands), an area familiar to him from his goldmining days. Here he farmed, and carried out charcoal burning, overnighting in a shack on the land but always remaining a Collingwood resident.

By the time of his death in 1910, Page owned a large number of properties in Johnston Street between Wellington Street and Dight Street, most of which remain today. As well as his residence and the hotel, and the plumbing workshop, vacant land, and four bluestone cottages neighbouring Gold Street on the north side of Johnston Street, and a few properties in neighbouring streets, his property included a group of four two-storey brick shops and dwellings at numbers 85-91, another group of four at numbers 97-103, two wooden shops at numbers 93 and 95, and Galloway Cottages, five older single-storey brick cottages at numbers 105-113. The two wooden shops were replaced after his death with two shops matching numbers 97-103 in style, and Galloway Cottages have since been demolished.  But Page was not the original owner of these ten properties. A contractor called Richard Cooke who died in 1895 owned numbers 71A to 89 Johnston Street (now numbers 85 to 103) at the time of his death as well as, amazingly for this urban area, an orchard behind the buildings. Page was appointed co-executor with Cooke’s daughter. The will was unusually worded, giving the two executors power to dispose of the property as they saw fit, ‘according to my instructions privately given to James Page’. Whatever the instructions were, Page was described as the trustee of Cooke’s Johnston Street properties for a number of years, but eventually became the owner of all 10 properties.

Page was appointed a Justice of the Peace and continued to sit on the Collingwood magistrate’s bench until almost the end of his life. Several of his sons followed him into the plumbing trade. The workshop on the northwest corner of Gold and Johnston Street continued as plumbing premises after Page’s death. His wife and several children remained at 115 Johnston Street for some years; his unmarried daughter was employed to collect the rents from the many properties. The hotel name was changed to the Criterion in 1912, but in 1914 it was de-licensed.

Work Photo 1

85-103 Johnston Street

House Photo 1

Galloway Arms and Page house

House Photo 2

Galloway Arms pediment

Life Summary

Birth Date Birth Place
1825 Edinburgh, Scotland
Spouse Name Date of Marriage Children
Sarah Drinkwater, 1826-1854 27 October 1850 James Laurie 26 August 1848-1905, Catherine c. 1850 - 1932, John William 1852 - 1911
Jane McDuff nee Snodgrass 1808-1871 1860 Alfred 1857
Elizabeth Taylor, 1848-1924 1873 Bonnor Laurie 1873-74, Edith 1874-78, Ernest Bonnor 1877-1909, Geddes 1881-81, Albert Towart 1882-1918, Ethel May Laurie 1884-1964, Midgley Arthur 1886-1965, Eric Leslie 11 July 1887-1971
Home Addresses
Home Street Home City Status of Building
115 Johnston Street Collingwood Extant
10 South Terrace Clifton Hill Demolished
Work Addresses
Work Street Work City Status of Building
122 Johnston Street Collingwood Demolished
115-117 Johnston Street Collingwood Demolished
Church Lodge
Presbyterian Collingwood Lodge No. 727
Ancient Order of Foresters, Court Industry, No 3006
Earl of Carnarvon Lodge
Death Date Death Place Cemetery
22 March 1910 Collingwood MGC
Sources

The Age; The ArgusFitzroy City Press;AustralasianMercury and Weekly CourierA souvenir of the silver anniversary of Earl of Carnarvon Lodge No. 102, V.C., 1884-1909: an historical sketch; Woiwod, Once around the Sugarloaf: the transformation of a Victorian landscape and the story of its people; ‘Men of the Times, James Page J.P.’, Collingwood Observer 17 June 1909.

Online Image links

Galloway Arms painting 1856

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