A Pie At The Footy
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A Pie At The Footy |
On November 12, 1850, "The Melbourne Morning Herald" proudly broke the news that Victoria had been declared an independent colony, free at last from the shackles of government from New South Wales.
In today's age of internet, e-mail and high-speed communications, we should perhaps reflect for a moment that the declaration of separation was actually passed by the House of Commons in London on August 1. It wasn't until November 11 that the 476 ton brig Lysander (;ater to add another piece of football history to its log) reached Melbourne, carrying as well as a load of iron piping, the newspapers from the home country up to August 4.
The Lysander under the command of Captain C. Lulham had picked up the newspapers from the English ship "Delta" in Adelaide a week before. Many captains of sailing ships at the time were on retainer and launched longboats at Queenscliff for local couriers to rush the newspapers to Geelong where critical news could be telegraphed to Melbourne.
In the small hours of November 12, an astute sub-editor at The Morning Herald, Edmund Finn, reviewed the newly arrived newspapers and noticed a paragraph on page five of the The Times of Friday, August 2 announcing the passage of the "Australian Colonies Bill" in the House of Lords.
The bill still required Royal Assent, but Finn took it upon himself to order a special edition of The Herald with a huge headline "Victoria is Free" and in so doing pulled off one of the greatest scoops in Australian journalistic history. He later recorded his memories of the first six decades of Melbourne's life in a huge publication, "The Chronicles of Early Melbourne" under the non-de-plume, "Garryowen", the publication today being much quoted by historians and researchers.
If the news was slow in coming, the celebrations certainly weren't! Melbourne had waited anxiously for the the news for most of the year, and two days later The Herald printed a full page of advertisements for Separation celebrations - fireworks, balls, fetes, dinners, and an Sports and Games carnival including, of course, a football match for a prize of fifteen guineas to be held on the Melbourne Cricket Ground of the time, then on the south side of the Yarra where the Crown Casino hotel now stands.
A "General Rejoicing Fund" had been established for a couple of years to provide money for special occasions, but such was the rush of applications for Separation celebrations, the Fund would not approve £100 to fund the games, describing them as 'only being of interest to the lower classes'. Undeterred, the organisers, led by Dalmahoy Campbell, one of Melbourne's leading stock and real estate agents as well as a prominent sportsman, took it upon themselves to provide the incentives, trusting in the support of the public to defray their expenses.
As part of the Separation Celebration Procession, the incumbent Lord Mayor, Dr. Augustus Greeves, promised "a pie eight feet in diameter, seven inches deep, and filled with a slaughtered ox, to be shared by all and sundry". The pie was to be loaded onto a cart at the head of the procession and drawn by ten of the unfortunate pie-filling's brethren.
Given there was only three days to come up with the culinary masterpiece, a few problems occurred and the pie and Victoria's first political promise proved as equally empty! On the eve of the procession, The Herald noted
"The bullock pie has vanished from the list of our Separation offerings, there being no time to make the dish, to contain the ox, to build the oven, to bake the pie that the Mayor was to have given; but his worship has kindly promised to hand over the extreme value of a 'fat ox' to the General Rejoicing Fund".
So the tradition of a pie at the footy came into being, except for the pastry, the filling, the cooking, and the oven!
The Gymnasts - Campbell and Stephen