Item 1 – The Scott Chest

A wooden sea trunk used by the Scott family on their voyage from Scotland to Australia in 1851-1852.

The Scott Chest (photo by Tom May, 2016)

The Scotts, including Peter, his wife Isabella, and six children, sailed from London, via Plymouth, on 30 December 1851. Their ship, the barque Calphurnia, arrived at Port Phillip in the Australian colony of Victoria on 30 March 1852, after a journey of three months.

Although the UK government paid for the passages of a number of emigrants on Calphurnia, the Scotts are recorded as travelling ‘On own account to Melbourne’.

The family initially settled in the Western District, but when land was opened up for selection in the Wimmera in the 1860s they moved north, taking the Scott chest with them.

It was passed down the generations from Peter and Isabella Scott, to their third child, Henry, in turn to his second child, Alexander David Scott, and to his only child, Alexander (Alex) Anthony Scott.

After Alex died in 1984, his widow, Aubrey gave the chest to Sara Maroske. Aubrey and Alex had no children, and knew Sara was interested in history. She interviewed both Aubrey and Alex for the Bicentennial History Project, which published a new history of Australia in 1988.

Sara did not get to see the chest in its original condition, because her father (Ian Maroske), who was also a historian, looked through it first, and before passing it on painted the exterior green and lined the interior with a self-adhesive plastic paper known as ‘contact’.

Lachlan and Sara removed the contact in 2016, revealing a raw wooden interior, which was probably originally lined with paper or cloth. We do not know if there were any markings on the exterior.

Physical description

A rectangular wooden sea chest with brass hinges, handles, screws and nails. Dimensions: 86cm x 44.5cm x 37 cm. Constructed from a soft wood. Exterior painted dark green, with an unlined interior.

Brass lock (photo by Tom May 2016)

References

Horsham times, 16 December 1913, p. 3 (obituary Henry Scott)

Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839–1871, Public Record Office, Victoria.