People: James Charles White - Architect

James Charles White was born on 28 October 1809, at Jaffnapatans Ceylon.

His father was Abraham White, a surgeon in His Majesty's 44th regiment. His mother Elizabeth was the daughter of Barron Von Dryberg, a Captain in the Ceylon Rifles, a Dutch regiment that was disbanded when the British drove out the Dutch, the previous colonial power in Ceylon.

James and his older brother William were sent to England for schooling. James was to have had a commission in the army, but owing to a delay, he passed the age for entry, so returned to Ceylon to the coffee plantations of his guardian Judge Charles Layard.

At the age of 21, James set sail for Australia, arriving in Sydney on 15 August 1830. There he was fortunate to obtain a job with the Australian Agricultural Company, which was being set up at that time at Tahlee near Port Stephens.

He began work as a clerk in the Accountants office on Carrington on 1 November 1830.

In 1832, his employers sent James north, to look for new grazing land on the Darling Downs. Accompanied by an Aborigine boy, he followed the explorer Cunningham's route until he came to the river that Cunningham had named the Dumaresq.

After they forded the river, they entered heavily timbered country in contrast to the open plains on the southern side of the river. There they encountered numbers of Aborigines, who appeared unfriendly and of a threatening nature. With their lives in danger and supplies running low, they returned post haste to Port Stephens. In June 1833, he was appointed Company storekeeper and Superintendent of works at Carrington.

In December of 1835, James left his employment with the Australian Agricultural Company and went to Tamworth where he set up a store of his own.

On a trip to Sydney in 1836 to obtain supplies for his store, he met Sarah Elizabeth Hoddle, the girl that was to become his wife, she was the only daughter of Robert Hoddle the Surveyor General for the Colony of New South Wales -- it was he who laid out the city of Melbourne.

James sold his Tamworth store in April 1837 and reapplied for a job with the Australian Agricultural Company. In March 1837, he was appointed as Superintendent of agriculture and stud cattle at the Company's Stroud operation.

On 13 May 1837, James married Sarah Hoddle and they moved into Stroud House. James and Sarah had three children. Sarah died on the 3 October 1841, shortly after the birth of their third child.

James' cousin Anne Macansh came to keep house and look after the children for James. In November 1841, he left Stroud to go and manage Glenmine station near Bathurst, taking the family with him. James married Anne Macansh in 1848 Anne was the daughter of James Macansh, a Scottish doctor who came to Sydney from Stirling Scotland in 1840. James and Anne had four children.

In January 1849, James began work at the Colonial Architect's office in Sydney, an experience that was to stand him in good stead in later years.

In June 18 53, James took on the management of TS Mort's business during Mort's absence overseas. By April 1854, finding his confinement to a desk detrimental to his health, he again applied for a position with the Australian Agricultural company.

He was employed as Superintendent of stock at 300 pounds per annum and 1 per cent of the net profits of the Company, which would have been a big income for those times and an indication of the high regard in which he was held by the company.

On 30 October 1856, soon after the appointment of Arthur Hodgson as General Superintendent, James offered his resignation.

On 1 December 1856, James Charles White took on the management of Jondaryan station for the Tooth brothers, who had just purchased the station from Coutts and Gray. In February 1858, the Tooths leased Jondaryan to the Kent and Wienholt partnership, JC White remained as their manager on the station.

Soon after taking over the management of Jondaryan, JC White saw a need for a focal point to draw the people of the station together.

He decided that the best thing to provide that focal point would be a church -- it would be non-denominational and would be for the use of all the people.

Thus the concept of St. Anne's was born.

The church of St Anne's is now on Evanslea Road close to the township of Jondaryan. No longer non-denominational, it is Anglican church. Look for it on your way to the Woolshed.

Early in 1857, JC White drew up the plans of what he would like constructed and sent them off to his father-in-law Robert Hoddle, who gave them to a Melbourne architect to draw up plans for its construction.

Timber workers and carpenters were engaged and the church was built in 1858. It was dedicated at the beginning of 1859 and was named St Ann's Church, after James Charles White's, second wife, Ann.

When the Kent and Wienholt partnership took over Jondaryan in 1858, the existing woolshed on the station was small, quite primitive and not adequate for the rapidly expanding sheep numbers being put through it.

The shed was situated on the other side of Oakey Creek, not far from the station village complex, in an area that was subject to flooding.

With advice from JC White, William Kent decided that a new woolshed should be constructed on high land on the other side of the creek. William Kent asked JC White to draw up plans for a shearing shed that would cater for future expansion of sheep numbers on the station.

Using the skills he had attained, while working in the Colonial Architect's office in Sydney, along with the knowledge and experience he had gained of woolsheds in New South Wales, JC White drew up plans for the woolshed that still stands at Jondaryan today.

His plans were grandiose, but very practical and appealed to both William Kent and Edward Wienholt, who gave the go-ahead for the woolshed's construction. Although the partnership only held a lease on Jondaryan, they had an option to purchase, which they fully intended to take up.

During his time as manager on Jondaryan, JC White was responsible for the design and construction of a number of other buildings in the station village complex, the butcher's shop, the station store and a number of cottages for the station's working families.

He also added a wooden floor and a veranda to the homestead and redesigned its interior. A new kitchen wing and a bathhouse were constructed and to complete the homestead complex, he designed and had built the unique dairy house, which proved so successful in its operation.

In 1859, JC White stood for the electorate of Drayton and was elected to a seat in the first Queensland Parliament.

He helped to form the first horseracing club in Queensland at Toowoomba in 1860 and was the first to suggest that a show society be formed on the Darling Downs in the same year. This was the first agricultural society formed in Queensland.

At the end of 1861, JC White finished up as manager on Jondaryan. He was appointed as Police Magistrate at Warwick, a task he took very seriously and performed too well for the likes of many landholders, as he was too even-handed and didn't always take their side in his judgements.

He was considered by the powers-that-be to be too stern, imperious and unyielding for them, but was held in high regard by his colleagues. It was said of him that he was "as able and just a magistrate as ever sat on the bench."

His independence was to bring him undone; he was caught up in political infighting and made powerful enemies because of his refusal to be manipulated. For his contravention of loyalty to his peers, he was removed from the bench at Warwick.

In 1862, JC White took on the management of Widgee station in the South Burnett for WB Tooth, a cousin of the Tooths of Jondaryan.

In October 1863, he left Widgee and purchased Yengarie, a small run in the Maryborough district, where he set up a boiling-down works, to render tallow from culled sheep and cattle, to supply a growing world market for tallow. At its peak, the plant processed 80 head of cattle and 1400 head of sheep a day.

In December 1866, JC White put Yengarie and its boiling-down works on the market and Robert Tooth and Robert Cran purchased it.

James White moved to Victoria with his family, where he purchased Anakies, a grazing property near Geelong. Anne died at Anakies on 24 June 1884.

In October 1894, James set sail for New Zealand to visit members of his family living there. James Charles White died a hero's death at the age of 84, when he was drowned in the wreck of the SS Wairarappa.

The ship founded on rocks off Great Barrier Island off the north-west coast of New Zealand, while en route to Auckland from Sydney, going down at midnight on 28 October 1894.

James refused to take to the boats while there were younger people to be saved and went down with the ship.