A couple of years ago I came across a Gentleman who used to live in Geelong in the 1840’s and 50’s. His name was William Drummond Mercer (W.D.) So now, the best part of two years later I have finished writing his biography, and any day now it will go to the printer. I thought I’d share a little of why I chose to write about W.D. and his family.

History is a bit of a funny thing really. When you are young and at school it’s a bore and gets in the way of sport, girls, or just having some fun. But it’s probably then when we’re at school or in those early educative years that we’re best prepared to learn and comprehend it. Nevertheless not all of us do. And yes, I was one of those.

I can recall going to the State Library of Victoria (SLV) and Museum in Melbourne when I was in primary school on a day trip from Geelong and nicking out the La Trobe Street exit, near where the Mr Tulk cafe is now, with my best friend and a couple of others. At the time, the SLV shared its current location with the Museum of Victoria as I quite clearly remember seeing Phar Lap there. Instead of looking and learning, we were off exploring the big city and playing as you do. I recall the mad scramble to get back to the Library and Museum with sufficient time to answer enough questions on the sheet of paper we were all given to try and make sure we stayed there!

I also vividly recall all of those long (and at that time, boring) car trips across Victoria with my parents and siblings, which inevitably involved something to do with a National Trust property, a gold mine, or a historic building or place somewhere.

So, wind the clock forward about 30 years and I now understand and appreciate what I was being shown and introduced to. Some might say that I was a slow learner; however, I like to think that history is a bit like fine wine - an acquired taste.

In early 2015, I stumbled across a little known story of the exploration for gold on a hill in what is now suburban Newtown in Geelong. That hill was named for the first owner of the lands there, Major William Drummond Mercer (W.D.), and I wrote about the hill and the search for gold in my book “Gold on Mercer’s Hill.”

In the course of researching that book I came to know a little about Major Mercer even while I was finishing off that first book, I was hooked and I decided that I wanted to know some more about him and his family. What I came to discover was that W.D. and his family were no run of the mill men and women.

I consider that I was fortunate to be born and raised in Geelong where I went to school. Following school, I went to university in Melbourne. At no time in my education (or that I can recall, and, as we saw earlier, that could well be my own fault…) were any of the Mercers ever mentioned. In fact, when I look at my own or my father’s now extensive libraries of local history books, I find very little about the family at all.

What I know now is that the Mercers who “visited” Australia all played pivotal roles in the establishment of the State of Victoria and of the City of Geelong and the surrounding areas. Furthermore, their direct actions and initiatives, and those of W.D. in particular, led to a number of key events in the history of Australia. These include: the petitioning for and subsequent separation of Port Phillip from New South Wales to form Victoria; the end of transportation of convicts from Britain; and the cutting of the sand bar across Corio Bay thereby opening Geelong up to commerce and growth.

It appears to me that, to date, a lot of the history of Victoria has focused largely on a number other key participants – primarily John Batman, Foster Fyans, Charles LaTrobe, and John Pascoe Fawkner – but that the Mercers were equally as important in the settlement of Port Phillip and the establishment of Victoria.

In mid-2015, I set about the journey of finding out as much about W.D. as I could. What I was to come to understand was that this was no ordinary Scot from no ordinary family who led no ordinary life.

The course of my research would involve delving into records and/or visiting most of the following:

• India - where W.D. was born and lived until five years old and then where returned to again with the British Army (16th Lancers) prior to his retirement. I would also come to discover that a fair proportion of his immediate and extended Mercer family were tied to India in some was as well as his mother’s family, the Forbes.

• Canada - where he first served in the British Army under the command of his brother-in-law Charles McGrigor.

• Great Britain - including England, Ireland, and, of course, Scotland.

• Australia - in particular Geelong, the Western Districts of Victoria, Melbourne, and Sydney.

• Latin America - Peru, Panama, Mexico, and Cuba.

• The United States of America - from New Orleans to New York and probably beyond.

Major Mercer

William Drummond Mercer (W.D.) was born at Benares, India in 1796 to a captain in the East India Company (EIC) but subsequently grew up in Scotland following the untimely death of his father in a duel. He was raised and educated in Scotland by his mother, who passed away when he was 15. Then at the age of 16, in 1813, he joined the British Army where he promptly went to Canada.

By the time he was 30 he was a major in the British Army and by age 40 he was again back in India where he sold out his commission and, together with his cousin George Duncan Mercer, boarded a ship for Van Diemen’s Land on his way to Port Phillip and New South Wales.

In early 1838, he was in Geelong with his cousin where, under the guidance of his uncle George Dempster Mercer, he began his stint as a landowner, squatter, pastoralist, Member of Parliament, and influential settler. In 1851, having achieved what he set out to in Australia, he headed off on a voyage of discovery taking the “long way home” with some squatter colleagues. This saw him, amongst other things, cross Panama many years before there was a canal and make his way across the U.S.A. before returning home to Scotland.

Once home he married his cousin, George Dempster’s daughter, Anne and together they had two children and set about creating a greater legacy in Scotland. It is no ordinary or simple story and one that is important not only for the people of Geelong, Victoria, and Australia but also for Perth and Scotland.

Possibly what is so interesting and fascinating about W.D.’s story is how and why he came to be in Australia and what he achieved while he was here. He not only agitated for but actively petitioned for the separation of Victoria (or Australia Felix as it was then known) from New South Wales. In 1851, as a member for Port Phillip, he was a member of the last Legislative Council in Sydney that put an end to convict transportation to Australia and that ultimately approved separation. W.D. also played a key role in the cutting of a channel through the bar that had cut Corio Bay off from larger ships thereby opening up Geelong to greater shipping access and he assisted in the establishing of a breakwater near Geelong that secured freshwater for the newly established town.

W.D. was no ordinary Scot and he had no ordinary life.

I’ll have it out in bookstores in Geelong (hopefully Melbourne), on Amazon and ebay soon.

Have fun out there.

Chris