Frederick Martin Straw (1857 - 1938)

Fred Straw was born in Brunswick during the Gold Rush in 1857. He enjoyed his drawing lessons at school by well-known artist of the day Mr Thomas Wright, inspiring him to become an excellent artist. He studied at the Art Studio in Russell Street, Melbourne as a pupil of John Shearer Bowman, exhibiting paintings in 1875 Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition and the 1877 Victorian Academy of Arts Exhibition.

F.M. Straw

As a young man he travelled to Lorne, staying with the Mountjoy family. Fred explored the coastline and pristine forest earning some money sending ink washes to “The Argus”, then Melbourne’s leading newspaper.

In the 1870’s little was known of the deep gullies through which the mountain streams flowed, except a report by some timber workers called the splitters. They claimed to have found a waterfall, later named as Splitters’ Falls, while lost in the forest, by which means they eventually found their way to the sea and the Mountjoy’s hospitable home.

After this incident, Fred Straw, Will Mountjoy and his brother decided to explore the Erskine Valley. This was wild country with thick vegetation extending to the banks of the river, which was often in flood. But these lads were well-prepared, and after a long and difficult experience, they eventually came upon another waterfall from a tributary entering on the east side. The party decided to name this fall the “Straw Falls”.

A little further on, Fred was surprised to see, through the top of the trees, a cascade of water, which appeared to be a fall on the main stream. He excitedly called the others. There they beheld a scene of entrancing beauty, which was appropriately christened the “Erskine Falls”.

In July 1879, Will Mountjoy from Lorne, Harry Jebb from Creswick and Fred Straw from Brunswick, set out to see if there were any waterfalls on the Cumberland River. They followed the ridge on the right hand side looking upstream and, after some time, went down to the water. However, they had gone down into Garvey’s creek, a tributary of the Cumberland. This they followed to its source but found no waterfalls worthy of the name. When they got on the main ridge, the backbone of the ranges, a thick fog came up and they got bushed, going southerly, towards Mount Sabine, instead of northerly. When the sun came out next morning they found out their mistake. They went down into a gully and followed the stream towards the sea for the best part of a day. It gradually grew larger as they went on, and they passed three large waterfalls and four smaller ones. Of the three large falls, they named the top one the Mountjoy, and the second the Creswick and the third the Brunswick. Some distance below the Brunswick Falls, they climbed onto the ridge, and then saw that they had been following the Cumberland River.

Sources:

  • The paintings of F.M.Straw compiled by Paula Judson, ISBN: 978-0-646-71460-9
  • Lorne Historical Society Collections