Two other brothers, John Lewis (1809-1868) and Robert William von Stieglitz (1816-1876), received no land in Van Diemen's Land but were among the first settlers at Port Phillip, where they took up sheep runs first in the Geelong district and later at Ballan on the Werribee. John also held Station Peak for eight years. In 1836 he married Emma (1807-1880), the daughter of George Cowie, bookseller and alderman of London. She was a talented artist, producing landscapes and botanical studies. John sold his 16,000 acres (6475 ha) at Ballan in 1852 and returned to Ireland, where he became a justice of the peace for County Tyrone. He died there on 22 August 1868 without issue. After acquiring 5000 acres (2024 ha) at Ballan and 192,000 acres (77,700 ha) at Lake Hindmarsh in the Wimmera, Robert also sold out and returned to Ireland, where he died on 18 March 1876.
The massive population growth of 1839 to 1841 placed enormous pressure on the capacity of the new colony to adequately supply the needs and wants of the thousands of recently arrived immigrants (Boys 1959, pp.117 & 129). Some, like John von Stieglitz and his wife Emma, were relatively well off and could probably afford to bring significant amounts of portable material culture with them on their voyage to the new land, while others had to select from what was made available to them in the retail establishments of Melbourne. The extent and nature of some of the portable material culture available to a well-off squatter and his wife in the year 1841 can be seen in Emma von Stieglitz’s watercolour painting depicting the interior of their home (Figure 1). The presence of books, artworks and a piano on the right-hand side of the room, for example, are clear demonstrations of their owner’s social status (Lane & Serle 1990, p.64).
Figure 1 Interior of a Squatter’s Hut at Port Phillip (1841) watercolour painting by Emma von Stieglitz (from the collection of Mr. H.O.C. Gilbert; reproduced from Lane & Serle 1990, p.65) |
