Descendants re-live enterprising voyage

Descendants re-live enterprising voyage

Last month 45 descendants of William and Louisa Humphries embarked on a historic voyage aboard the replica tall-ship Enterprize in remembrance of their pioneering ancestors. 

The passengers on the October 4 voyage were all descendants of William and Louisa Humphries. William was a neighbour of John Pascoe Fawkner and travelled across Bass Strait on the original Enterprize in July, 1837.

He quickly set about establishing a brick works at Batman’s Swamp near the present Southern Cross Railway Station.

Louisa and their two young daughters Amy and Ann Victoria travelled later and arrived on September 14, 1837. Louisa later recalled that the Enterprize was tied up to a tree on the Yarra River Bank. Her husband William met her and walked her and the girls “through the bush to a wattle and daub hut, which stood in what is now Little Collins St, between Elizabeth and Swanston streets”.

The oldest of the modern-day Enterprize voyagers was Alec McKenzie, 86, a great-great-grandson, and the youngest was 10-year-old Tara Gardner who is a great-great-great-great-granddaughter of William and Louisa.

The voyage set out from Docklands for a four-hours sail on Port Phillip Bay. The day had been organised by Brendon Gardner, a great-great-great grandson, from Queanbeyan NSW, who became interested in family history following the death of his father Geoffrey Gardner in 2007. 

Brendon has grown the family tree to include over 3600 individuals and has organised other family history events in Melbourne and in Greymouth, New Zealand.

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