Rumbelow Settlers' Cottage

Posted by the Rex Tilbrook Legacy Facebook page, 1 November 2024

The Crystal Palace (Rumbelow family residence in Franklin Parade, Yilki) was dismantled by the late Rex Tilbrook during the early 1960s and then rebuilt next to the original Whaler's Inn at the Bluff Victor Harbor. It was originally set up there as a Whaling Museum, but later reverted to holiday accommodation since vanishing to development. One of the oldest settlement homes in South Australia, the Crystal Palace / Whalers Cottage was a very popular Encounter Bay tourist attraction but sadly its fate today is unknown.

The Crystal Palace was offered to the Victor National Trust but they were not able to undertake moving the building from the Bluff and finding a new location for it. 

Pioneer Cottage Rebuilt

• Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986) 

•  Fri 21 Dec 1962 

On a property formerly owned by Governor John Hindmarsh at Encounter Bay, a pioneer's cottage has been re-erected more than 100 years after it was originally built less than a mile from its present site, in the heart of Yilki. The cottage was first built what is known as Franklin Parade. In the early days the house was called 'Crystal Palace'. 

In 1855 Malin Rumbelow senior  arrived from England in the Pestonjee Bomanjee with his wife and nine children, including Malin, junior. When young Malin married the cottage was built for his bride.

Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Tilbrook, of Dunstan Avenue, Kensington Park, who are keenly interested in preserving the history of the early days of the South Coast, have rebuilt the cottage above Rosetta Bay, near the saddle of the Bluff. The cottage, complete with shingle roof, still retains a considerable portion of the original material used.

Whaling operations at Encounter Bay began in 1837, when a party from Sydney in the 'Hind' (Captain Blenkinsop) and a double party of six boats from the South Australian Company were seperately established. The latter company took 160 tons of oil, yielding about £40 a ton, thus establishing the first industry in S.A.

The eventual site of the whaling station used by the S.A. Company was purchased at Rosetta Bay, the property first belonging to Governor Hindmarsh, with a clear title some distance out to sea for wharf construction.

The settler's cottage, complete with whaling relics, will be open for daily public inspection on December 27.

Mr. Tilbrook said this week the cottage stands as a monument to the memory of the settlers whose courage and fortitude founded our colony.

Whaling Weapons on Display

• Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986) 

•  Wed 11 Apr 1979 

A room featuring harpoons and instruments used by Victor Harbor's whaling ancestors has just been added to the Whaler's Haven museum. The new room is the first of many changes being planned for the colony museum on the slopes of The Bluff at Victor Harbor.

The people planning the changes are the owners Mrs. Dorothy and Mr. Rex Tilbrook. 

By Christmas they hope to have working exhibits ordinary activities of the colonial days such as blacksmithing, processing dairy produce and leather working.  Mr. Tilbrook is presently digging an underground dairy as well as building rock re-inforcement walls for a road winding around the haven's garden.

The changes sound exciting, however the museum is already' attracting a regular supply of school tours and visitors to its exhibits.

Surrounded by the everyday items of colonial days, the visitor can easily imagine how life must have been for our fore-fathers. The museum encompasses a settler's cottage, saddlers, blacksmith and cooper's shops and a livery stable.

The key attraction is the settler's cottage which the Tilbrooks painstakingly removed from its original site on Franklin Parade and reconstructed at its present position.

The five-room cottage was originally built by one of the colony's early settlers, Malen Rumbelow, jun., who arrived from England in 1855 with his father, Malen his mother and eight brothers and sisters.

It was built for Malen junior's bride as was affectionately called 'the Crystal Palace.'

In 1959 the cottage was offered to the Tilbrooks who dismantled it, lettering and numbering each board. Rebuilding was completed in 1962. More than 70% of the external weatherboard and 98% of the of the tongue and grooved timber were retained. 

The inside of the cottage is packed with the every day belongings and furnishings of early settlers with kitchen drawers containing cooking utensils, night clothes laid out on the bed and button-up boots waiting to be worn again.

'We are trying to bring into line all the things that would have been used by people when they came here last century,' Mrs. Tilbrook said. To do this she and her husband have drawn on the belongings of their early settler forebears as well as many since discovered old-time possessions. One piece which is particularly unusual is a small cup and saucer made from cloves.

Mrs. Tilbrook said she was given this when the Whaler's Haven first started about 20 years ago by a 90-year-old woman who had been given the set when she was a child.

'I couldn't even guess how old this is likely to be,' she said. People used to make these as gilts to put with the linen to keep it smelling fresh.'

In a small cabinet near by sits a collection of Scrimshaw work or whale bone engraving which was a hobby of some of the early whalers. Next to these are carved whalebones which have been made into back scratchers, fans, ink stands, pen knives, snuff boxes' and walking sticks.

This whaling theme is obvious throughout the cottage and has been highlighted by the new whaling display added to the homestead. The whaling room features early harpoons collected from SA and whaling areas in Tasmania.

Among these are arrow and toggle type harpoons, killing lances, blubber spade, knife, ladle and forks as well as a boarding or flensing knife used for boarding whales and cutting the strips radially around the body so that rope tackles could pull the strips of blubber from the carcass.

One weathered harpoon handle was picked up off the beach by the Tilbrooks about 20 years ago after a sever storm along with a couple of half-buried whale bones.

The Tilbrooks believe it is important to show the whaling history of our forbears and to show what a cruel and dangerous

industry it was. The brutality of the whaling equipment is plain to see but this is balanced by the more homely, day to day surroundings of the people from our colonial days.

It is a trip into our past which is absorbing as well as educational.

Tilbrooks farewell historic Whalers bin

• Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986) 

•  Wed 3 Dec 1986 

Dorothy and Rex Tilbrook say they have striven towards fulfilling one vision in the time they've been running the Whaler's Inn Restaurant - a place where people could find the peace and tranquility of a place by the sea to 'get away from it all'.

Judging by the numbers and celebrity status of people who have frequented the Inn, they seemed to have achieved this goal. 

Out of the 21 years they have owned Whalers Inn, it has only been closed for one meal — how many other restaurants could boast the same?  Only last week Elton John sampled the peace and quiet of the place and according to Rex 'almost every ambassador from every country in the world has stayed here'. 

The story of the restaurant began 30 years ago when Rex and Dorothy first bought the land where the museum and Inn now stand. Dorothy said they both knew the area was of historic significance because it was the site of the South Australian Whaling Station and they snapped up the opportunity to buy it . 'When we came there was nothing — post nor tree, it was completely bare,' Dorothy recalled. 

'We bought a cottage from around near the Yilki store, had it pulled down and then re-erected it,' 'We wanted to do something to commemorate the early pioneers of the area so we set about acquiring historical items to turn the cottage into a museum. In the three years it took to move the building, the Tilbrooks had gathered together enough items to start the museum and a kiosk. They decided it would be better if people could eat out of the wind and cold and in the next two years the restaurant was established. 

Since then they have worked at building a quality restaurant where 'nice people can dine in peace and get away from the rat race'. Mrs Tilbrook said the restaurant has become a place where celebrities can go to get away from the masses. 

'We've had T.V. personalities, high commissioners, politicians and we have conducted special functions such as book launches for authors Ainsley Roberts and Charles Mansford,' She said on those occasions guests were given a 'dinner Australiana'. 

Rex said on one occasion they had eight star force police at the restaurant for security for one of their diners. On December 10 the Tilbrooks reign of Whaler's Inn will end when they hold the last official function — a Christmas morning tea for Mrs Joy Beer. They both look back over the years without a tinge of regret but according to Rex it is time to move on. 'We are both getting older and it's very tiring working seven days a week, 14 or 15 hours a day,' 

However, they will still be involved in the museum with the new owners of the property, Mr and Mrs Roger Thompson. 'It has been a wonderful experience though — we will miss the association we have had with so many different people . 'Some of the customers have become life-long friends.' Dorothy said one Austrian lady has been coming to the Inn for the past six years because of her love for the place and Australia. 

The food of the restaurant must be of an extremely high standard as apprentice cooks from the restuamt have won a number of state championships — two of which have been the Tilbrooks daughters. 

Along with the fact that Elton John wrote in the visitors book the prawns were the best he had ever tasted — not a bad recommendation. Dorothy has a few of her own meals which have also become quite famous. 

The new managers of the restaurant, Sergio and Pat Coronica will keep the international style menu the same aong with a few added Italian dishes. The Tilbrooks said they were very pleased to be handing the restaurant over to the new managers because they would be introducing Italian cusine to the South Coast. The future does not look as though it will be any less busy for either Dorothy or Rex Tibrook. 

Dorothy will continue her work as a councellor in the Victor Harbor District Council as well as her series of radio broadcasts on cooking. She also has been asked to write a book on the history of the museum and the restaurant. 

Rex, who is a qualified experimental Engineer has made a series of motorcycles and sidecars among other inventions, with the help of Dorothy will be also be busy preparing a book for Canberra on his various inventions. He said it was ironic he was returning his attention back to motor bikes after it had been his first love many years ago. 'I originally thought I would work with motorbikes but I ended up in the restau rant,' 'Now it has turned full circle and I'm back with them again.'

Rex and Dorothy Tilbrook beside on of the Whalers Haven Museum pieces, an anchor from the wreck Soloway.