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

Having included these statements in the report which he sent to the Melbourne
Committee, 1 Burch commented that his interviews with these men “brings the
conviction that these are merely specious excuses, brought forward to cloak their true
motives”. He considered that the real reasons for the resignations were lack of moral
courage and understanding of the principles of the scheme, gullibility on the part of
those who believed the stories circulated by the first men to resign, and the fact that
the men missed their families more than they had expected, yet lacked the effort to
supply the accommodation necessary to bring them there. Although he agreed there
had been a shortage of seed, Burch maintained that this was not a pressing difficulty,
as good itself was plentiful. He also pointed out that Brady had lent the group a large
quantity of equipment – a blacksmith’s shop, separators, incubators, churns, saws and
much machinery and thus there was no real equipment shortage.
In regard to the clash of personalities mentioned as reason for resignation, there is
some ground to suspect that part of this was Burch’s own fault. He had earlier written
to Brady 2 that he suspected a plot to depose him had been hatched during his brief
absence in Melbourne. Illicit “borrowings” from the stores by a couple of men was to
Burch “sabotage” and when Cameron used Brady’s truck without Burch’s permission
the resultant furore caused Cameron to attempt inciting the men to walk out; he was
unable, however, to muster sufficient support and the storm blew over. Furthermore
Burch died not get along well with Brady’s family at Mallacoota House. Mrs.
Luckin’s, Brady’s daughter, sold fruit from the orchard rather than let the farmers of
the co-operative have it, let her cows eat the settlers’ garden, refused to sell them milk
and so on. 3 While Burch was not popular there with the family, the men whom he
regarded as “saboteurs” were well received and he imagined much slander being
spoken behind his back. All-in-all, the personality clashes seemed to cause most
dissatisfaction and the greatest interference with the community’s smooth operation.
By the end of November two more had resigned, further weakening the over-extended
labour resources. These were depleted still more by the fact that some of the
employees of the farm took outside work, such as potato-digging or pea-picking at
three shillings a bag to get extra money; they thought this should be their own while
Burch considered that it should go into common funds
The internal problems of the community continued unabated. The men were not
allowed to buy tobacco on their sustenance tickets from the local store, causing
grumbling and complaint. When a store-keeper did supply this he was black-listed for
three months. The local farmers, who called the settlement “Little Russia”, were
sympathetic towards it, but Mr. And Mrs. Luckins disputed ownership of the produce
from the cleared land which Brady had offered the group as a temporary measure until
the larger areas were cleared and proved productive. This caused constant bickering
and ill-feeling.
The community affairs staggered along in this parlous state until March 1933 when
Burch resigned and the scheme collapsed completely. Burch wrote to Brady, more in
sorrow that defeat:
1 31.10.1932, in Utopias Ltd., Vol 2.
2 Burch to Brady, 29.12.1932
3 Burch to Brady, 29.12.1932, in National Library
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