John McLEAN

John McLean was born on September 17th 1855 in the Shoalhaven District which makes up the modern day towns of Nowra, Ulladulla and the surrounding area. His parents are Alexander McLean and Christina Lamond from Scotland. His birth is controversial, it is not registered anywhere as he was an 'illegitimate' child. This is a term which refers to a child born to unmarried parents, frowned upon at the time.

John's mother, Christina was a servant on a Doctor Aldcorn's farm in Mayfield, Shoalhaven in 1854 when Alexander M'Lean came and stayed as he was injured. They slept together and they were seeing each other for around 1-2 months. John was born in September 1855 and Alexander McLean denied that the child was his (for full story please see Christina Lamond's Profile).

In August 1856, John's mother, Christina Lamond, married an Alexander McDonald in Dry Run, Shoalhaven and John McLean would have grown up with this family. He lived in the Shoalhaven with the McDonalds until he was about 10 years old⁴ (Records show it was between 1866-1868*) at which time they all moved to the Richmond River. They lived in Woodburn (formerly known as 'Rockymouth')** and presumably worked on Alexander McDonald's farm as there were no schools in the area at the time. John would have lived in the Richmond River somewhat of an outcast. It is not known if he used the McLean name as a child (did he know who his father was?) but if so, then he would be the one McLean among 11 McDonalds; his mother Christina, his stepfather Alex McDonald, and his 9 stepsiblings, William, Flora, Elisabeth, Hector, Alexander, Donald, John, Sarah and Archibald. Note that there would have been another "John" in the household in 1868 when John McDonald was born. Leads to further questions about whether John McLean was named a McLean or not?

When he was 18, John began to row in small competitions on the Clarence and Richmond Rivers. His sculling career is mentioned in detail in another page. He later worked in Lismore with Mr Pat Farrelly when he built Tattersall's Hotel.

On June 30th 1886 he married Henrietta Victoria Tyler who was working in a hotel her father ran in Woodburn, Richmond River. They lived together in the Richmond River region for a number of years.

In 1887, John and Henrietta had their first child, Charles Frederick McLean.

In 1888 John's sculling career was gaining momentum and he went to Sydney to speak with ex World Champion, a Canadian, Edward 'Ned' Hanlan. Hanlan had lost 6 races out of his 300 career sculling races and held the World Championship title from 1880-1884 and was thusly considered legendary. John went straight up to Hanlan and asked him if he could train him and in return he would remember him if he ever won a big race. Hanlan agreed and within 18 months John was at world championship level and began to secure some heavy races.

In 1889, they had their second child, Frank Loring McLean.

John had a busy few years after he worked with Hanlan and throughout 1889 and 1890 competed in a number of high stakes, very popular professional sculling matches. He eventually won the title of the World Championship in Dec 1890 and in April 1891 after defending it only once, he lost it to fellow Shoalhaven Rower, Jim Stanbury. This signalled the end of his professional sculling career. He dabbled in training and his children are later mentioned as coming out into professional sculling, but his time (along with the peak public interest in sculling) had passed. He was mentioned though in an article written by Banjo Patterson recalling his childhood days admiring the professional scullers.

During the time of him holding the Title, in January of 1891, John and Henrietta had their 3rd child and named it thusly. Spencer John Champion McLean.

The following picture was taken somewhere between 1893 and 1898 and is very strongly believed to be (L to R) Frank McLean, Charles McLean and Spencer McLean. (Joseph Check was a photographer between 1890 and 1910. On the back of this photo it is written "S.J.C. McLean")

John developed an affinity to Hotel keeping, perhaps he gained it from his wife, Henrietta's ties to the Hotel Business.

Ocean View Hotel (1890-1891, 1898-1904)

Around 1890, he was running the Ocean View Hotel in Alstonville, NSW. It must have been tough to be a World Class Sculler and run a business, and for his wife to be running the business and caring for the 3 children at the time would have been very difficult. They ran the Ocean View Hotel somewhere around 1890 until July 1891 then went to Coraki. In late 1898, they returned to Alstonville and ran the Ocean View Hotel again. They were much loved by the whole community, running stalls at local fairs¹ and hosting important groups when they came to town. Both times when they left¹², the McLeans were given some gifts by the locals. The Ocean View Hotel was struck by a fire¹ in 1905, a year after John sold it. The license was cancelled in 1908 and it was demolished. The following photos were found by Allison Draper and the Alstonville Plateau Historical Society.

Coraki Hotel (1892-1896)

In 1891 there were reports of John and the family moving to Coraki and in September 1892 they held a ball to open the Coraki Hotel. The whole family lived here and during this time, their 4th chlld Petronella May McLean was born in 1894. A number of significant life threatening accidents happened to the McLeans while they lived at the Coraki Hotel. John himself accidentally swallowed Carbonic Acid, mistaking it for water and was luckily treated instantly. In 1894 John was involved in a tomahawk accident where he cut his knee open. Then in 1895, their young daughter Petronella, pulled hot water off the table and it poured all over her causing serious burns to her arms and shoulders. Luckily she was Ok. In 1895, John McLean paid for a convent to be put in at Coraki, it cost him £340 which would have been a significant amount of money.

Halfway House - Coraki (1896-1898)

in February 1896, papers mentioned John had disposed of the Coraki Hotel and intended to become licensee of the Halfway House on Woodburn-Chatsworth Rd. He bought the Hotel, built some additional rooms and turned one of them into a Post Office, a great convenience to the local people celebrated by a Public Banquet/Ball. He also constructed a running track out the front. It was here that John and Henrietta's 5th and last child was born, John Neville McLean in 1898.

Commercial Hotel - Yass, Port Macquarie (1904-1907)

In 1904 a number of newspapers reported John to be moving to Port Macquarie. He took over the Commercial Hotel in Yass, Port Macquarie. In 1906, John refereed the Sculling matches for a big regatta in Port Macquarie and later, competed in a Veteran Sculler's Race against other champion scullers of his heyday. Funnily enough, John McLean sold the Hotel in late 1906 to another man named Jack McLean from Tumut, NSW.

Life After Hotels

In 1907 John was tiring of the Hotel life and bought a selection of land out at Comboyne. The article below mentions that he cut down trees on his acreage and built a house out of the trees. He also saw the need for a church in Comboyne so designed, planned and helped build "Our Lady of Mount Carmel" Church eventually handbuilding and donating a wooden altar which in fact still stands at the church today. During this time it appears that Spencer and Charles got married and moved out while Petronella and Neville remained with the family.

1. From an obituary about John in the Catholic Press 1928. Click photo for full version

2. From an article about Comboyne written in 1926. Click for full version

3. Modern photos of the church and the altar that John built.

4. A picture taken at the opening of the Church in 1919. John would have been 64. It is not known if he is in this picture or not. Obtained from Father Michael Roohan of Laurieton Diocese, NSW.

Sydney

In 1919 it was mentioned in papers that John was selling his Farm in Comboyne and moving to Darlinghurst. He moved to 57 Clifton Rd, Clovelly into a house they named "Bonita" (Spanish for "nice"). Their children Neville and Petronella lived here in this house for as late as 1930 (Neville) and Ella eventually inherited the house from Henrietta in 1942 and lived there with her husband. Keith Francis McLean, son of Neville, remembers visiting the house of "Aunty Ella" when he was much younger.

Final Years

John spent the last few years of his life in their house at Clovelly. He passed away on January 21st 1928 at the age of 73. Many local papers including the Sydney Morning Herald wrote about his career and his life. He is buried in Rookwood Cemetery alongside his wife Henrietta, and his daughter and son in law, Petronella and Frank Stewart.

2. As written on his Death Certificate by his oldest son Charles

3. Parents said to be from Scotland.

4. moved when 10 yrs old to RR.

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