Joseph Moody, one of Melbourne's leading freemasons, was the first town clerk of the fledgling East Collingwood Council. He had arrived in Victoria in December 1852 with his wife and four children, having left his home in Cheshire, England. In Melbourne he was soon active in various companies. He was appointed town clerk shortly after Council was established late in 1855, received a salary of £200 per annum and served for five years. 

The Moody family moved from their first home in East Melbourne to a timber house called Studley Villa, in Hoddle Street, Abbotsford, just near Vere Street. The house was large by Collingwood Flat standards, comprising eight rooms plus conveniences, with a return veranda and a large, well-stocked garden. It can be seen on Hodgkinson’s 1858 map of Collingwood and was roughly on the site of the present-day RSL Hall. 

In 1858 Moody was appointed by the Earl of Zetland as the first Master of the newly established Combermere Lodge which met, suitably enough, at the Earl of Zetland Hotel in Stanley Street, Collingwood. 

Moody’s term as town clerk was not without financial problems.  There was a major row about discrepancies in the accounts in late 1859 and his dismissal was urged. However he continued as town clerk until the end of 1860. He was also charged with arrears of rates from 1858 to 1862. These events need to be seen in light of the factions and cliques that beset East Collingwood Council. The faction led by Cr Thomas Greenwood was successful in ousting that led by Cr Samuel Turner, publican of the Earl of Zetland Hotel and supported by Moody. (Those readers wishing to learn more of council factions and the role of Freemasonry in Collingwood are advised to read the books listed below under sources.)

The family continued to live at Studley Villa in Collingwood until 1865, with Moody remaining active in the local community and beyond. For example, he was one of the Honorary Secretaries of the Free Public Library Committee in 1860 and 1861, donating over 100 of his own books, and was a member of the committee of the East Collingwood Rifles Corps of which his two sons were members. He was also involved with the rather optimistic Collingwood Gold Mining Company. Mrs Moody was busy with charitable works as a member of the Sackville St Ragged School committee and the Collingwood Ladies Benevolent Society. She also collected donations for a stained-glass window at the newly built St Philip's Church.

After departing the post of town clerk Moody worked as a patent agent and Parliamentary agent, whose role was presenting private Bills to Parliament. As a Parliamentary agent he represented petitioners opposing the East Collingwood Improvement Bill. He was described by the Bill's presenter Charles Don, MLA for Collingwood, as 'the bustling, fussy, soft-tongued Moody and his big-wigged counsel into whose softer heads he whispered his arguments in opposition.' 

In 1864 there was some talk of Moody standing for Parliament, but this seems to have come to nothing. In the same year he was instrumental in obtaining from the McCulloch government, in which there was a strong Masonic element, a charitable grant of land on which the Freemasons accommodation for the elderly still stands in Punt Road, Melbourne.He was appointed Secretary of the Freemasons’ Building and Investment Society.

Moody’s Hoddle Street house was put up for sale in 1865. The family moved to Carlton, then St Kilda, and finally in 1874 made the move to Albury, where Moody founded another Combermere Lodge. His funeral in Albury in 1881 was attended by a 'vast concourse of people', including Freemasons in full regalia. Mrs Moody moved back to Melbourne and is buried in Boroondara cemetery alongside daughter Kate.

Barrett, The inner suburbs; Barrett, The civic frontier; Shiel, Charles Jardine Don; The Argus, The Age, Trove list, SLV MS13511, Royal Freemasons Homes

CHS 1858 map