Readers will recall our History Files story Daylesford Digger Died Destitute. This is a continuation of the Tom Connell story and introduces some other characters who lived in Connells Gully.
The first is Ted Wardle, water entrepreneur. Ted ran a small store and grog shop in Connells Gully but he had grander plans than being a shopkeeper. He wanted to bring water to Daylesford, not for the common good, but to make money selling it. He planned starting his water race at Wombat Creek, high in the hills south east of the town, and he invited Ambrose Johnson, the town surveyor, to come out and have a look at the starting point and, no doubt, to pick the brains of the Danish surveyor.
Johnson travelled out to have a look and when he did he turned to Wardle and said, “ You’re mad.” Then he turned his horse and rode back to town. Despite Johnson’s dire words, “Mad” Ted Wardle stuck to his plan and with the aid of hired labour, had the race dug and flowing into the town within a year. The race supplied water to the swimming baths which were built on the site of today’s Town Hall and continued north in Bridport street to the Ajax mines on the west edge of town.
“Mad” Ted was also involved in the Coliban Water scheme which involved building the Malmsbury reservoir and the Coliban Chanel to supply water to the goldfields to the north including Glenluce, Fryerstown, Castlemaine. The government opted for the plan of Joseph Brady and even though the Coliban race follows Wardle’s proposed track, he received no recognition for his work.
Another of his schemes was to build a light railway to Eganstown to supply timber to the mines in Daylesford as well as firewood for the town. He estimated then that the town would need 43,000 tons of firewood, 208,000 tons of laths and 79,000 tons of mine props. This would have required an enormous number of trees to be cut down, but the Council rebuffed his idea and it was dropped. In 1893 he produced a booklet which proposed a dam in Doctors Gully for the purpose of producing Hydro electric power for Hepburn and for towns to the north, even as far as Maryborough. This plan also came to nothing but anyone living in Lakeside Drive, Hepburn, can thank Wardle for the name.
Connells Gully was home to many outcasts of society and the police were always active there. At one time they arrested John and Polly Price for stealing blankets from a hotel. John Price was a fiddler who played at the Royal Hotel and Polly also worked at the Royal, selling herself. She was a notorious drunk and was often found asleep on the footpaths after a big night out.
“Mad” Ted and his wife Mary were close neighbours of Tom Connell and had lent the gun to Tom that he used to shoot himself. They were also neighbours to James and Ellen Douglass and were witnesses in the case of Douglass assaulting Connell with an axe. After James Douglass was locked up for his assault on Connell, Ellen Douglass turned to prostitution and consorted with fellow girls on the town: “Mountain Mag” and “Maria the Lady”.
Ted Wardle became enamoured with Ellen and left his wife Mary and their children to live with Ellen with whom he fathered two additional children. Later, although he was directed by the Courts to pay for their upkeep he seldom did so and Ellen had to take him to court frequently.
“Mad” Ted Wardle eventually reunited with his wife Mary and they died within a short time of each other in 1900. They have their resting places in Daylesford cemetery.
From the Daylesford & District Historical Society.
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