November 1858. The Austro-Hungarian Imperial Navy frigate SMS Novara visits Sydney as part of a two-year, round-the-world scientific expedition intended to advance science while promoting Austro-Hungarian prestige.
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On board was the Austrian economist and ethnologist Karl Scherzer. During the ship’s brief stay, Scherzer made the acquaintance of Wilhelm Kirchner, being entertained at the Kirchner home at Darling Point.
Sherzer was impressed. He found Francis Kirchner a gracious hostess and very attractive women. “You would never think by looking at her”, he later wrote, “that she has seven children”.
Sherzer was impressed too with Kirchner’s wealth, his home, the company office, the Grafton factories and farms.
The numbers quoted by Sherzer for Kirchner seem exaggerated, but there is no doubt that the Kirchners lived in considerable style. However, appearances could be deceiving.
The assisted German immigration trade that had played such a key part in the business had ended. The NSW Government was no longer prepared to subsidise migration, given the very large number of settlers drawn to the colony by the gold rushes.
The ambitious Grafton candle and soap factory was experiencing construction delays, technical problems and cost overruns. In 1860, the small schooner that was transporting the Kirchner family’s furniture and other valuables to their new home at Grafton was wrecked at the mouth of the Clarence.
In 1861, Kirchner, Sharpe & Co was declared insolvent. However, that was not quite the end of the story of Wilhelm Kirchner and German emigration to Australia.
In 1863, Wilhelm was appointed as Commissioner of Stamp Duty in Brisbane and then, in 1867, he returned to Germany, replacing Johan Christian Heussler as Queensland Immigration Agent. In 1869 he was appointed Commissioner for Queensland in Germany and then in 1871 Commissioner for Queensland in London.
Kirchner’s Queensland contracts ended in 1874 and in 1879 the couple retired to Wiesbaden. Frances died in 1884, leaving Wilhelm heartbroken. It had been a long and happy marriage.
Wilhelm himself died on 25 April 1893, bringing to an end a sprawling life that had made a significant contribution to the history of Northern NSW and Australia more generally.
Jim Belshaw’s email is ndarala@optusnet.com.au. He blogs at http://newenglandaustralia.blogspot.com.au/ (New England life) and http://newenglandhistory.blogspot.com.au/ (New England history)