Werribee Park
Homestead

When most people think of Werribee Park, they think of Werribee park Mansion – a grand Renaissance revival-style property with 60 rooms across several wings. While the designing architect is still a mystery, construction of the large basalt and sandstone mansion was completed in 1877 as an opulent home for the Chirnside family – a family of Scottish pastoralists who made their fortune from wool across the western district of Victoria.

But before the Chirnsides made their massive fortune and had the means to build such a grand home, around 1857 they constructed a relatively modest compound of bluestone buildings including a homestead, stables, blacksmith and carriage house, close to the existing mansion site. This area is known as Werribee Park Homestead and became the working heart of the Werribee estate – but it was also the site of the many early trials and tragedies of the Chirnside family.

The Chirnside family was headed up by two brothers – Thomas (b.1815 – d.1887) and Andrew (b.1818 – d.1890), with Thomas migrating to Australia in 1839 and Andrew following in 1841.
They were seasoned businessmen and came with wealth unlike anyone in the region had seen before; it was rumoured that Thomas came loaded with a few hundred pounds (and a Bible) given to him by his father, which at the time, was equivalent to more than a few years’ pay for a skilled worker.
After a few failed ventures with cattles and merino sheep around South Australia and New South Wales, Thomas teamed up with his newly arrived brother Andrew and as they grew their flock, began to purchase runs throughout Port Phillip. Around 1850, the brothers bought the Werribee property, and continued to buy up close to 80,000 acres freehold in Wyndham.
Astute businessmen, the brothers may have prayed on the misfortunes of others in the region during this time, notably buying up the property of Edward Wedge after his death in the Werribee flood of 1852. They also built a homestead at Point Cook where at times, Thomas resided and by around 1880, they owned around 93,000 acres in the district.

Despite their wealth and status, tragedy – spawned by some very strange decisions – would follow the Chirnside family.  

Thomas went back to Scotland around 1845 and fell in love with his first cousin, Mary. He was so smitten with her that he almost immediately asked for her hand in marriage, but her parents refused. Desperate to be with her, the story goes that when Andrew returned to Scotland for a visit, Thomas begged him to bring Mary back to Australia any way he could.

Now, most loving brothers would plead Thomas’ case with Mary’s parents and try their damndest to convince them that his brother was the right choice for her. But no, in 1852 Andrew married her and brought her back to Werribee. Awks. Thomas and Andrew then went ahead and built the mansion for Mary and she and Andrew’s children. Thomas then also moved from Point Cook Homestead to live with them. Despite their enormous wealth, times grew tougher and the financial burden of such a massive estate and their business ventures took a toll on Thomas, and his health began to suffer.

Suffering from severe depression, Thomas had lunch with the family, grabbed a shotgun, then walked to the laundry of the Werribee Mansion and committed suicide. What caused Thomas to take his own life? Was it business pressure, mental health issues, or because he couldn’t bear the heartache of living with Andrew and Mary any longer? We’ll never know. 

Andrew then fully inherited the property, but died three years later from heart disease, leaving the property to his sons George and John Percy on the condition that Mary could live out her days at the mansion. She lived there for another 12 years, and died in Colac on March 4, 1908 from burns after her hair caught fire by a candle. However, the Bacchus Marsh Express reported on 14 March 1908 that Mary’s cause of death was blood poisoning from a knee injury. Either way, it would have been a painful demise for poor Mary.

The paper reported that after she passed, Mary was placed in a lead-lined polished oak coffin with a silver plate on the top which said “At Rest” and another at the foot stating “Hope” with a silver anchor, and was transported from Colac by a special train, with hearse, to Werribee Park.

Her coffin was placed in the vestibule of the mansion at the foot of the stairs, surrounded by floral tributes and messages of condolence. After the funeral, Mary was taken to the Eastern Cemetery in Geelong where she was laid to rest in the family vault, beside her husband Andrew. 

There’s also stories of farmhands drowning in mysterious circumstances in the adjoining Werribee River, illicit affairs and infanticide which all add to the tragic history surrounding one of the region’s pioneering families.