E. Mervinia Masterman was a busy woman and travelled a lot and this was well-documented.
Edith Mervinia Masterman was born on 24 October 1901 in Dorking, Surrey, England.
Edith Mervinia spent some time in Australia before moving back to England to marry, and then made the move back to Australia to establish their family in Undalya.
On the 2nd January 1925 she travelled from Plymouth, England on the steamship 'Thermisocles' bound for Melbourne.
It was noted that she was a 21 year old 'Governess' to Sir Neville and Lady Smyth's children. Maybe they lived in Victoria at Kongool (see below).
According to the 1927 Electoral Roll, Mervinia was living at Kongool, Balmoral in Wannon, Victoria, possibly working as a Governess.
There are more details about this heritage-listed house here: https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/85
Mervinia must have returned to England, since in 1932 she married John Freville Masterman at Dorking, Surrey, England.
The couple must then have moved to South Australia between 1932 and 1934 as their son, Thornton David was born in Undalya in 1934.
Her husband, Mr. John Masterman, was an inspector of (bee) apiaries to the South Australian Government.
His father Mr. Charles Edward  Masterman, was bom at Wanstead. England, of an old Quaker banking family, and was educated at Charterhouse, where he was a contemporary of Lord Baden-Powell. He became an engineer who worked around the world, settling in Tasmania.
(Back to England again)
In September 1938 the couple and their two young children, Thornton David, and Sonia Ann, travelled from Southhampton, England, to New York, U.S.
Their permanent residence at this time is noted as Undalya, South Australia.
"In 1950 Mervinia Masterman published a short hardcover book on the Flinders Chase Sanctuary for Flora and Fauna.
She had written it after living for several years during the summer months at the sanctuary's Government Apiary, which is under the supervision and care of her husband.
As she says, she found their small caravan an ideal 'hide' for animal watching, because the animals were accustomed to its appearance and also soon became so to their human voices and movement.
Observation through the large windows could be carried on unnoticed. So, in her book, she deals in turn with her own observations of the spiny anteaters, wallabies, koala bears, sooty kangaroos, opossums, goannas, birds, and wild flowers and trees of Flinders Chase, and also takes the reader touring around the sanctuary and along the coast to nearby beauty spots.
"Mrs. Masterman's association with Flinders Chase arose partly out of her own natural interest in all wild bush creatures and plants, but, more immediately out of her active assistance of her husband, an apiarist, who regularly visits the Chase to work with the officially established colonies of pure Ligurian bees there.
THE BEES, though they are distinctive and important inhabitants of the Island, enter only incidentally into this present book, however. They lured the Mastermans to the Chase.
But Mrs. Masterman concentrates upon describing the country, the unspoiled bush of that large reserve of 212 square miles, and its varied population. What in effect we do is to accompany the Mastermans as they rove about the Chase, either with their caravan or afoot, and see with the author's eyes.
Few people are likely to be so well adapted to provide the many introductions to wild creatures — wallabies, kangaroos, spiny anteaters, koalas and possums, not to mention the friendly goannas who haunt the camp — as Mervinia Masterman.
These bush folk know the ways to get on with the animals. And curiously enough they do not find it necessary to lie low and hide behind bushes. Once their confidence is established, the Mastermans find that the creatures are not disturbed by human activities and talking, provided there are no sudden or violent noises or movements.
In a short space, this little book attempts to give a comprehensive general survey of the flora and fauna of the area, and not the least attractive of the contents are the colored illustrations of the flowering plants, including orchids.
These are well done, and indeed it may be said that the book as a whole, with its faintly colored pencil drawings artistically placed on the margins and encroaching across the letter press, is a little triumph of printing and design by the Advertiser Printing Office.
To admit a cavil: Mrs. Masterman writes with personality, and never without good sense, but occasionally as if she were addressing a girls' school."
She makes some of the animals almost human in her stories and, indeed, I can just imagine that to her those which have welcomed her back after a winter's absence are truly numbered among her friends.
She tells, for instance, the story of an old buck koala who was hunting for his wife, trying one tree after another for a few feet of the butt, and deciding against each one. Meanwhile the female bear in the top of a tall manna gum 'was looking down and following his movements, but he did not seem to see her, although he kept gazing upwards.
At last he reached the right tree and, sniffing at the trunk, decided instantly it was the right one, and went up it at a great pace in bounds, the female crying out apprehensively and edging further out to the end of her branch.
When her pursuer also put his weight on it, this thin branch swayed down with its load.
The old koala swung along it at a great rate, hanging under the branch by all four feet, until he reached his protesting wife and grabbed her.
She then overbalanced and they both hung by their arms, kicking and clawing violently at each other on the rocking branch until it seemed as if they both must fall to the ground.
Desperately the female bear escaped from the struggle and set off down the tree backwards as fast as she could scramble, squealing, with her husband in hot pursuit, swearing at the top of his raucous voice.
Both bears disappeared into the bracken, but the female was soon up another tree where she went to sleep, while the male could be heard for some time moving about among the undergrowth, evidently too tired to continue the exhausting chase further.'
It appears the Masterman family took a trip back to England in 1956: according to the Outward Passenger list from London to Fremantle,
Edith Mervinia Masterman from Spinneys, Marlow, travelled from London to Fremantle with husband John Freville Masterman and children, Thornton David, and Sonia Ann Masterman.
The ship, 'Strathnaver', departed on the 18th of September 1956.
Those Italian Bees
Those of us who had read Mervinia Masterman's recent book, 'Flinders Chase,' written and illustrated with feminine charm, had some insight into what to expect on Kangaroo Island.
It should become an Education Department textbook.
We met her husband, the Government Apiarist, and he took us along to see the docile Ligurian bees in their hives.
He was amused at the trustful way we peered into the inner workings, especially when a young bride said, 'I would like to stroke one,' and her hubby quickly retorted, 'Don't you be a bee fool!'
Mrs. Masterman reveals in her book that this strain of Ligurian bees was introduced to Kangaroo Island by the Chamber of -Commerce in 1884, there being no honey bees on the island before that. They multiplied exceedingly, and in 1885, the island was declared a sanctuary for Italian bees.
In 1939, two Government apiarists visited the island and were so impressed with the purity and gentleness of these bees and the fact that they had retained their Ligurian characteristics that eventually the Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Blesing) decided that the Government should establish queen-breeding apiaries at Flinders Chase.
In 1972 Mervinia published her second book, Flinders Chase Revisited, Kangaroo Island South Australia.
In 1939, Ligurian bees, still of the pure strain, were found living wild on the island.
In 1950, this discovery led the Department of Agriculture to establish an apiary there for the propagation and distribution of pure Ligurian queens to apiarists on the mainland for improvement of their colonies.
The apiary was established in the 212 square mile Flinders Chase sanctuary at the west end of the island.
When the idea of using part of the island as a sanctuary for Ligurian bees was first mooted nearly 70 years ago, the beekeeping world of that time was greatly interested.
Although the apiary in Flinders Chase has been established only a few years, sales of Ligurian queens outside the State have totalled 607 to 185 different purchasers, including several overseas.
It is expected that some queens will be sent to England this year.
Surprisingly, only 262 queens have been sold to 77 South Australian apiarists, for whose benefit mainly the apiary was established.
Kangaroo Island Ligurian beekeepers struggling to produce honey three years on from bushfires
Fri 6 Jan 2023
Kangaroo Island is home to the world's purest strain of Ligurian honey bees, which were imported from Italy.
It was declared a sanctuary in 1884 and strict penalties remained for anybody who risked contaminating the species with disease.
The KI bushfires that sparked at the end of 2019 burnt through about 500 of the Davis family's hives.Â
He said this season had been the worst for honey production in the business'Â history, with virtually no honey collected six months in.Â
But KI beekeepers said a combination of variables had made for the worst years of honey collection on record, including unusually cold temperatures in summer and a lack of vegetation after fires.
Mr Davis said the vegetation loss in the Black Summer bushfires was equally as damaging for honey production as hive loss.
"Half of the island was burnt, but it was the half with most of the vegetation," he said
"And it's also the high rainfall area as well, which is more productive normally."
Part of the island also remains in drought, with a lack of groundwater meaning there is no nectar in the trees for the bees to feed on.
Parndana's Stephen Heatley is beekeeper at KI Ligurian Queen Bees and said the fires were a second loss for his business after a pollen drought during 2015 wiped out half his stock of 425 bee boxes.
'The Wakefield, Its Water and Its Wealth'
Published by Jean V. Moyle, 1975, paperback 192 pages
with sketches by Mrs. Mervinia MastermanÂ
"26 Oct. 1975: Auburn - It was standing room only at the Institute Hall last Sunday afternoon, when the historical book "The Wakefield -- Its Water and Its Wealth" was launched by Mrs. Clayton Dunn of Tarlee.
Written by Mrs. Jean V. Moyle of Riverton (formerly of Watervale) with sketches by Mrs. Mervinia Masterman of Undalya and archivist research work by Miss May Meller of Auburn, Mrs. Dunn commended this book as well chosen, based as it was on the waters of the Wakefield.
Mr. Arthur Kench, Vice-President of the Gilbert Senior Citizens Homes Committee congratulated the ladies on the publishing of the book. He announced that any profits made from the sale of the book would be donated to the homes; this was greeted with loud applause."
Mervinia died on the 17th March 1998 and is buried at the Undalya St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery.
Read more:
Comments