James Arndell Youl

The introduction of trout to Australia was not achieved easily. It was a drawn-out endeavour because of the difficulty of keeping ova (fertilised eggs) alive during the long sea voyage from England to Australia. Over a period of 20 years from 1841, several attempts were made.

Instrumental to the final success was James Arndell Youl, born in New South Wales in 1811. Like many young men of his social standing he was educated in England and returned to Tasmania to manage the family property Symmons Plains. He remained there until 1854 when he and his family moved to London.

In London, Youl experimented with an idea suggested to him in Paris—using moss and ice to preserve the ova whilst in transit to Australia. After much perseverance and some criticism, Youl’s syndicate was rewarded with the delivery of live trout and salmon ova from England to the hatchery on the Plenty River in southern Tasmania in 1864.

On 4 May 1864 the first trout emerged. They were followed the next day by salmon, the fish that the colonists were the most keen to introduce. However, unlike the trout, these failed to later establish in the wild. Ironically, Youl had not wanted to include trout in the shipment. At the last minute, he was persuaded by the heroic efforts of British naturalists and angling authors Frank Buckland and Francis Francis to obtain wild trout ova during freezing conditions. In 1864 he wrote to the British sporting magazine ‘The Field’:

If ever the disciples of Izaak Walton should have the pleasure of catching a trout in Tasmania they will be entirely indebted to these two gentlemen, as I had made up my mind not to send trout ova with the salmon because I believed that as the trout grow faster they would gobble up all my little salmon before they got to salt water. When the trout eggs came to me at the dock, after all the pains these gentlemen had been put to by the severe frost, I put them on board.

Youl maintained close links with Tasmania but remained in England until his death in 1904. In 1891 he was knighted in recognition of his services to fish acclimatisation in Australia.

Extract from the Friends of the West Norwood Cemetery Newsletter No. 63 September 2008.
By Bob Flanagan

James Arndell Youl, my great great grandfather, was an important figure in the development of Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania. His father the Reverend John Youl was a missionary with the London Missionary Society, serving in Tahiti 1800-7. Returning to Sydney he became the minister and schoolmaster at Ebenezer Church, Portland Head, near Windsor. After being ordained as an Anglican priest in England in 1815, he was appointed to the Chaplaincy at Port Dalrymple, Tasmania, taking up this appointment in 1819. He was largely responsible for the building of St John’s Church, Launceston, which he opened for worship in 1825.

James was born at Caddai, near Windsor, New South Wales (NSW) on 28 December 1810. He was called ‘Arndell’ after Thomas Arndell, Assistant Surgeon to the new settlement in Australia, who sailed with the First Convict Fleet in 1787. He was at school in England when news reached him of his father’s death in 1827. He promptly assumed the position of head of the family at the property in Van Diemen’s Land that had been acquired from 1819. James was awarded 500 acres of land at Symmons Plains in 1827. His male siblings also received similar land grants from the Crown. By 1828 James had purchased several other grants from the families of Bostock, Lucas, McNab, and Smith.

James was appointed JP (1837) and a magistrate, and was keenly interested in public affairs. He married Eliza Cox on 9 July 1839 at Clarendon, Evandale, Tasmania. Eliza was born 25 August 1817 at Richmond, NSW, the second daughter of Lieutenant William Cox (1789-1850) and Elizabeth Piper (1792-1872) of Hobartville, Richmond, NSW. William Cox Jnr, eldest son of William Cox snr, is now best remembered for building the first road over the Blue Mountains. James and Eliza had five boys and eight girls.

In 1833 James developed his grazing interests and carried a stud of Camden Merinos with the nucleus obtained from James Cox family at Clarendon until 1854 when he sold them to William Gibson of Scone. The stud became one of the most famous in Australia. James was also a shareholder in the English, Scottish and Australian Bank Ltd, and a director of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney.

Originally the Youl family homestead at Symmons Plains consisted of three small locations that had been purchased by John Youl before August 1826. In 1839 James built the 16-room two-storeyed house as it stands today, using convict labour and bricks made on the property. James managed Symmons Plains for many years.

Symmons Plains has remained continuously in the Youl family. Today it comprises 8,000 acres and carries approximately 20,000 sheep and 600 Hereford cattle. Some 1,000 head of cattle are bred on Clark Island of the Furneaux Group and are brought back to the homestead property for fattening prior to market. Situated on the South Esk River, the homestead is surrounded by magnificant 100-year-old oaks in a spacious lawn and well-kept gardens sloping down to the river. In 1854 James, Eliza and possibly the first eight children left to live in England at Clapham Park, where their children could be educated. Symmons Plains was leased to small farmers until 1875. Eliza died 4 January 1881 at Waratah House, Clapham Park and was placed in Catacomb N46 at Norwood on 10 January. James then married Charlotte Robertson, youngest daughter of Richard Williams of Philipville, British Legation, Brussels, and the widow of William Robertson of Caldecott House, Clapham Park, on 30 September 1882 at the house of Her Britannic Majesty’s Legation at

Brussels. There was no issue from the marriage of James and Charlotte. James died from bronchitis on 5 June 1904 and was buried at Norwood (grave 31,004, square 104) on 12 October 1904. His monument still survives, albeit having lost the cross that presumably surmounted the plinth. His estate was valued at £159,853. Harry and Eliza Youl also now lie in the grave.

Harry Youl was born 4 March 1841 at Symmons Plains, Tasmania. Educated at Sandhurst, he was gazetted 1 July 1859 as Cornet in the 4th Light Dragoons, afterwards the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars. He purchased his release 1 February 1864, and sailed from Plymouth for Melbourne in the Monarch in May 1864. He went to Burrawong, NSW, 40 miles from Forbes, as manager of a station which had been changed from cattle to sheep. On 9 February 1867 at St John’s Church, Heidelberg, Victoria he married Emma Mary Gear Martin (born 6 July 1844 at Heidelberg, Victoria, died Cheltenham, England 24 June 1916). He returned to Melbourne for a time, then in 1870 moved to England with wife and child to Waratah House, Clapham Park. He eventually took a house in Upper Tulse Hill, but died 5 March 1876 at Brentford or Chiswick, aged 35. He too was interred in Catacomb N46 (10 March 1876).

Agent General in London

James Youl had visited Tasmania in 1860 and next year the government appointed him their honorary accredited agent in London. He left Melbourne for London on the Behar in January 1861. A commissioner for the 1862 London International Exhibition, he reported on the display of Tasmanian timber overseas and on remedial measures to overcome prejudice against their use, especially in ship-building. For seven years he was honorary secretary and treasurer of the Australian Association, which persuaded the British government to improve mail services to Australia and to accept Australian sovereigns as legal tender in Britain. In 1868 he was a founder and vice-president of the Colonial Society (Royal Colonial Institute), London, and from February-October 1888 acted as Agent General for Tasmania.

In England, Youl undertook many services for the colony over some 50 years. From his experience in Tasmania, he was well acquainted with its political, social, and commercial conditions and requirements. He was thus able to impart information to British statesmen that was useful to them and to the colony especially in the early days of Parliamentary government.

The Introduction of Salmon and Trout

James Youl achieved lasting fame by introducing trout and salmon to Australia and New Zealand. Attempts in 1841 and 1852 had failed because of the difficulty of keeping eggs alive en route to Tasmania. His shipments of ova on the Curling in 1860 and Beautiful Star in 1862 also failed. The length of the voyage, rough weather, and the heat of the tropics, combined to make what appeared to be insurmountable obstacles in the days before refrigeration.

Dr Matthias Gaunt of Launceston had suggested early in 1860 that perhaps the ova could be frozen in England and hurried out in a fast ship. But when Professor TH Huxley was asked about the idea, he told William Archer of the Cheshnut, at Deloraine, who had been in touch with him on the matter, that freezing would undoubtedly kill them; and several trials proved that he was right.

At this stage, James Youl started experimenting. He placed salmon ova in the underground vaults of the Wenham Lake Ice Company, where tons of ice-blocks for summer use were cut and stored each winter. But he did not put them in direct contact with the ice itself. There he left them for the length of time a boat might be expected to take to reach Tasmania – 120 days – and watched them hatch, which was normal enough, but much slower that it otherwise would have been.

James Youl wrote to his friends in Tasmania telling them of the success of his experiment, saying that he was very hopeful now of transporting the ova safely round the world by packing them in ice. Governor Gore Brown at Hobart heard the news with delight, and, after discussing the matter fully with both Houses of Parliament, appointed Commissioners to find a place to put the ova, if they should happen to survive the long journey, and make all the other necessary arrangements for their reception.

Mr G F Read of Redlands at New Norfolk gave three acres of land a mile from his homestead to create salmon and trout ponds on the River Plenty, a site that had been chosen by the Commission as being ideal. Here there was an abundance of cool, fresh, running water; the bed of the river suitably gravelly, and the depth of the Derwent, where the Plenty joined it, was exactly right for the salmon, which of course must have access to the ocean to gain their full development. Another strong point was that the ship bringing the eggs would be able to come within easy distance of the hatching ponds.

Tremendous interest in the scheme was now shown all over the country, both here and on the mainland. The Tasmanian Government made money available to help with the expenses, and New Zealand contributed £200. Finally, the first consignment of ova left England in 1862, under the care of Mr William Ramsbottom, who, with his father, had had long experience in dealing with salmon and their ova.

But the Beautiful Star on which they were coming was delayed by engine trouble and the need for repairs took longer than expected. After a passage of over five months, in spite of the careful treatment they had received, all the ova were dead. Rust from the iron tanks of the water supply had covered and killed some of them, and the gravel the eggs were resting on in the glass troughs had shifted with the pitching of the vessel and killed the remainder. One trough packed by James Youl with the ova resting on moss had survived longer than the others.

It was a bitter disappointment for everyone concerned, but James Youl was not easily beaten. Writing to his friend in Tasmania he said ‘I have noticed while in Paris that both the salmon and trout ova are being constantly sent considerable distances packed in wet moss. But I was informed that they would not live many days in it, and even then, their eyes must be developed before they could be safely moved’.

Other experiments had proved that the ova could live without light or air, and that not even a continuous supply of fresh water was necessary. By 1864, James Youl was ready to try again. He had little trouble in persuading the owners of the ship Norfolk to let him have fifty tons of valuable space for this exciting second attempt, and generously the owners of the ship, Money Wigram and sons, refused payment of a hundred guineas that Youl offered them out of his own pocket.

The ship’s ice-house was very carefully fitted out – the best ships of that period had ice-houses, even the Beautiful Star had had one – for preserving fruit, milk and vegetables as long as possible during lengthy voyages.

One hundred and eighty-one pine boxes were prepared. They measured 12 x 8 x inches, and they were perforated at the top, bottom, and sides. Small lumps of charcoal covered the bottom of each box, to keep the water clean, and on top of the charcoal was a layer of broken ice, and, most important of all, fresh, carefully washed, living moss was then added, with the roots attached, to form a nest for the ova, and, it was hoped, supply a certain amount of oxygen. Another layer of moss covered the eggs, then more crushed ice. When the contents of the boxes had been saturated with ice water, the lids were screwed down tightly. Altogether there were 100,000 salmon and 3,000 trout ova in this shipment. The boxes were packed closely on the floor of the ice-house, with 25 tons of ice in square blocks piled nine feet high on top of them.

Of course, nothing could be done to prevent the ice from melting slowly during the voyage, but the ice-house was insulated as well as possible, and the ova were expected to benefit as long as the ice lasted. The door was then locked and sealed, for no other water than that from the melting ice was to be introduced, although careful provision for drainage was installed.

The Norfolk left England on 21 January 1864. After a hurried, but uneventful voyage, she reached Melbourne on 15 April. There the ice-house was unlocked, while everyone held their breath, and to the intense satisfaction of the little crowd, it was learned that more than half the ice had not melted. And when a few boxes were inspected, the ova seemed in good condition.

The precious boxes were immediately transferred to a Government steamer, which had been secured for the purpose by Edward Wilson, President of the Acclimatization Society of Victoria. The little ship steamed at full speed across Bass Strait, with smoke belching from her funnel, down the east coast of Tasmania and up the Derwent to New Norfolk. There boxes were wrapped in blankets with some of the remaining ice and carried, slung on bamboo poles, by forty bearers, over four miles of rough bush track to the salmon ponds.

Wooden troughs, with gravel covering the bottom, were ready waiting, and water from the Plenty was flowing gently through them. Carefully the layers of moss, with the ova resting on them, were laid in the troughs, and the water gradually carried them on to the gravel.

Mr Morton Allport, chief of the Hobart committee, and Mr Ramsbottom, who had come from England with them, then announced, that as far as they could see, 15,000 of the salmon ova and 300 trout ova were still living. It was discovered that in all the boxes where the moss was still fresh and green after the 91 day voyage, the ova were still living, but where the moss had died the ova had generally died with it. The whole cost of the scheme had been £700.

On 4 May, the first trout emerged, and on the following day the first salmon ever to swim in the Southern Hemisphere were hatched; two hundred healthy young trout and several thousand salmon all told. Twice a day they were fed on boiled liver and constant guard was kept over them. But most of the trout escaped into the Derwent, where one was taken four years later that weighed 9¼ lb. In 1865 2,000 splendid young salmon were released to make the perilous, but necessary journey to the sea, but none of them ever returned.

James Youl, Sir Robert Officer and Sir James Agnew, with Mr Morton Allport, were all closely connected with the coming of salmon, salmon trout and brown trout to Tasmania, and from here they were finally shipped to the rivers of Australia and New Zealand. It had been one of the most successful and exciting experiments in the whole history of acclimatisation. Youl was created CMG in 1874 and KCMG in 1891 for the part he had played in bringing about the transportation of the salmon and trout ova.

The Tasmanian commissioners investigating the achievement reported in 1864 that: ‘The untiring zeal and indefatigable exertions of Mr. Youl stand forth conspicuous, and have been mainly instrumental in bringing the present experiment to a successful issue.’ They described the results of experiments that he had directed in 1863 as ‘one of the most valuable discoveries ever yet made in the art of pisciculture’.

PS Seager (Concise History of the Acclimatisation of the Salmonidae in Tasmania, 1888), attributes to him ‘the first practical attempt to test what had previously been many times suggested’:

“Youl wrote later that, when he had first begun to study the problem of transportation of ova he knew as much about the subject ‘as a waggon horse’, yet he succeeded by rejecting accepted ideas and employing a systematic and scientific approach. When success ultimately came he claimed no credit for the idea which, he said, had first been suggested to him in Paris. As well as a determination to succeed, Youl possessed wit, tact and great personal charm.”

New Zealand presented a silver cup to him – the cup is still in the possession of the Youl Family – and in 1866 he received the gold medal of La Société d’Acclimatisation. Not only has fly-fishing now become a major tourist attraction in Tasmania, but more than 13,000 tons of salmon and trout are farmed for the dinner plates of Australia.