A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

At Mallacoota, on a green knoll set back from the waterfront among the gums and
casuarinas, with extensive views over the most beautiful of inlets and the deep blue
ocean from which Brady’s spirit derived so much solace, in calm and in storm, a
temporary camp was established to house the young family. Some little distance
away a tent was pitched to serve as Brady’s “study” and it was here that his writing
was done, often by the light of a kerosene lamp. After a time, the temporary camp
was replaced by a fibro house, “mainly one room sixty feet by twenty with a wide
verandah”. It was called “Raheen” (“a small hill”) after the original Brady property
on the shores of Loch Dug in County Clare. 1
The grandiose schemes which were ever germinating in Brady’s fertile mind were
constantly coming in for investigation and, where possible, implementation. He was
in touch with the Department of External Affairs in 1913 about the establishment of a
commercial farming venture on the banks of the Adelaide River in the Northern
Territory, seeking the rights of subdivision and a government subsidy, but an official
letter stated this to be impossible under the existing Land Ordinances. 2
Upon this refusal, Brady again sought a more definite statement from the Victorian
Government about his earlier proposal for himself and a group of financial backers to
be given timber concessions around the Mallacoota district and for the construction of
a jetty and other port facilities. In this negotiation Brady had co-operated with Allen
Taylor and Company through the Hon. F. Hagelthorne. Minister of Works in the
Victorian Government and through direct approaches to the Premier, W.A. Watt. 3
This scheme came close enough to fruition for engineers from the Department of
Works to make surveys of the engineering requirements and of the costs, but an
adverse report of the chief engineer damned the enterprise. The Government was
reluctant to spend the necessary money either at Mallacoota or the alternative Gabo,
but agreed to grant a timber concession and to pay half the cost of a wharf at Boat
Harbour, Mallacoota, with local producers having the right to use it for the shipment
of their agricultural products. 4 Neither Brady nor his supporters was willing (or able)
to find such an amount of capital and yet another of his schemes died. At the
invitation of the Secretary, Australasian Institute of Engineers, Brady had added his
report to the official ones to be forwarded to the Prime Minister, an incident which he
recounted to the local newspaper editor with some pride. 5
Brady was also interested in irrigating farm land with the waters of Lake Cargellico,
but receiving little encouragement (this, to him, usually meant a financial subsidy),
his interest in this project soon lapsed.
His work on Australia Unlimited necessitated a fair degree of travelling. He visited
Western Australia and Tasmania to make enquiries from the respective governments,
securing contracts from them for inclusion of their material in the tourist and
agricultural propaganda of this volume. At the time, he was receiving fifty pounds a
month from George Robinson, who was publishing the volume, but as he had to pay
considerable expenses from these earnings, his financial plight was not really relieved.
1 Brady to Muir Holburn, 26.4.1946, in Mitchell Library.
2 Department External Affairs to Brady, 8.3.1913, in National Library.
3 Brady to W.A. Watt, 7.11.1913, in National Library
4 Brady to Allen Taylor and Co., 14.3.1914, in National Library
5 Brady to Editor, Twofold Bay Magnet, 7.11.1916, in National Library
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