In The Herald of February 4, 1928 (1) Mr H. O Allan looked back on his 51 years in the Lands Department in the Victorian Public Service, having started his career at the Lands Office in Sale in 1877. As The Herald described the article - Mr H. O. Allan, who has just retired from the position of Under Secretary of the Lands Department, after half a century of service, has in this special article recalled for readers of The Herald some of the many stories, mostly gay, with which his memory is stored. Yes, it was indeed described thus, and is a perfect example of how our language had changed over the years. However, the important piece of his recollections for us is his tribute to our friend, Carlo Catani.
Mr Allan's praise of Carlo
The Herald February 4, 1928 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/243902653
This is the transcription - I cannot end this short article without paying a tribute to the late Carlo Catani. I took part with him in starting the St Kilda Foreshore Trust. I did the legal, literary and finance part of the job and he, a landscape genius if ever there was one, the engineering work together with the beautification. What a man! His monuments are everywhere - at Buffalo, Alexandra Gardens, St Kilda, Donna Buang. As pace-maker to the municipalities he is responsible for much beautification they subsequently put in hand. His reclamation work at Koo Wee Rup and at Carrum have added wealth to the country. He saw possibilities to which others were blind. It is well that his works are his memorials. No others has been proposed by his fellow citizens, who have honored less worthy men.
Who was Mr Allan? Mr H. O. Allan was Henry Octavius Allan, the son of John McMahon Allan and Caroline O'Farrell, who had married in 1845. In spite of Henry's middle name which suggests he was the eighth child, I can only find six other siblings - Maria Catherine (born in Port Fairy in 1846 and died aged 13 in 1859); Francis Erskine (1849, Port Fairy); Caroline Mary (1855, Warrnambool); John William (1857, Warrambool); unnamed baby girl (Tallangatta, 1859); Agnes Christine (1861,married Heheage Murray Gibbes in 1890 and died 1926, aged 65) and Henry Octavius (1862, Warrnambool). (2)
Henry's father John was one of the first squatters in the Western district of Victoria and when he died on January 22, 1877 at the age of 68, the family were living in Sale. Caroline died on October 30, 1901 at the age of 77. Henry married Amy Mary Mooney, the widow of William Francis Mooney, in 1910 and after he retired in 1928 from the Lands Department, they moved to Kalorama. Henry died in St Kilda on July 10, 1930, aged 68 and Amy died on October 2, 1947, aged 84. There were no children of the marriage, however Amy had six children with her first husband. (3)
Henry's career and community activities are described in his obituaries (4), but this lovely tribute to Henry was published in The Age -
The various reserves of the State and particularly of the metropolis had a zealous guardian in the late Mr. Allan. But for his appreciation of their value to the present generation and what benefit they
must be in years to come, and his determination to protect them in the face of much opposition, large sections of some of the parks might have been lost to the public. His interest was made more real
by his active participation in the control and management of several parks for many years. He was for a long time secretary of the Albert Park management committee, and filled a similar position for
the. St. Kilda foreshore committee, with which he evinced a keen interest up to the time of his death. He played no insignificant part in preventing the alienation of a large section of the foreshore, and, on the other hand, he did much to bring about the present beautification. As chairman of the Mount Dandenong reserve up to the time of his death, his chief object was to preserve its wonderful beauty for the people of the metropolis. He had taken very active and effective steps to prevent the removal of native shrubs. He practically lived on the reserve. (5)
Another obituary noted his sporting prowess - he was a successful athlete during his youth, Mr Allan gained distinction at swimming, tennis, football, and cricket. (6). His brother, Francis Erskine Allan, was also a sportsman and one of the members of the First Australian Eleven, which visited England in 1878. (7)
H.O. Allan contributed greatly to the development of Victoria with his advocacy for parks and open spaces, and nearly 100 years after his death we should be grateful for his work and carry on his legacy of protecting open space and park land from development and commercialization.
Footnotes
(1) The Herald, February 4, 1928, see here.
(2) Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; Agnes' marriage notice - The Leader, June 28, 1890, see here, I can't find her birth listed in the Indexes.
(3) The Australasian, February 17, 1917, see here; father's death notice - The Argus, February 2, 1877, see here; mother's death notice - The Argus, November 2, 1901, see here; Henry's death notice - The Argus, July 11, 1930, see here. Amy's death notice - The Argus, October 4, 1947, see here. Henry's wife Amy (nee Dyer) had married William Francis Mooney in 1882 and they had six children - Clement Morgan (1884), Vincent William (1886), Gwendoline Agatha (1888), Madelaine Coleta (1891), Allan Robert (1891) and William Francis (1897). William died June 7, 1908 (death notice - The Argus, June 9, 1908, see here and obituary - The Advocate, June 13, 1908, see here)
(4) Obituaries - The Age, July 11, 1930, see here; The Argus, July 11, 1930, see here; The Australasian, July 19, 1930, see here;
(5) The Age, July 11, 1930, see here
(6) The Argus, July 11, 1930 see here.
(7) The Australasian, February 17, 1917, see here.
