Charles Little Hastie (1834-1916)
Charles Little was born on 27 February 1834 in Scotland (reference). He was born to Helen Balfour and George Little, who was married to another woman at the time (reference). His mother, Helen, married Robert Hastie when Charles was a young child (reference).
He grew up in a farming town in Scotland until he got on the wrong side of the law, being convicted of arson and sent to Australia as a convict. Charles arrived in the Swan River Colony on 20th November 1858 on the Edwin Fox (reference). Charles was later granted a ticket of leave.
After completing his sentence, Charles moved to Bunbury, where he became known as Charles Little Hastie.
On 2 November 1860, Charles married Mary Ann Connor at the Church of England and Ireland in Bunbury (reference). Their first child, Thomas Little Hastie, was born in 1861. Between 1864 and 1871, the couple had five more children, John, Robert, William, Walter and James (reference).
Over the years, Charles completed odd jobs in and around Bunbury, even removing manure from the Bunbury Police Stables. On 6 April 1883, Charles was contracted to help build the Roman Catholic Chapel. On 10 January 1894 Charles received the job for constructing the Brunswick River Bridge. He also had a Timber Yard and worked with Jarrah timber, which he exported worldwide.
Despite having been a convict and sent halfway around the world, Charles did not appear to have learnt his lesson. Charles had multiple run-ins with the law in Bunbury. In 1885 Charles's name was used to fraud bank cheques (reference). This case continued for six months until the truth emerged from one of his friends who worked with him, who forged cheques to pay for things. Charles was unaware of this. From 1886 to 1888, Charles was in and out of court for small, petty things, like not getting paid for a job he would do and not keeping up maintenance on his residential house he rented out.
In 1888 Charles left the courts behind and won the Bunbury council election. On 29 January 1889, Charles was advertising his businesses Building and Construction. Charles was a contractor on Vasse Road (reference), and advertising his Blacksmith business. In February, he went and worked on the railway line from Bunbury to Boyanup (reference). Charles had a Timber Yard in Bunbury on his Land adjacent to the railway and the Municipal Boundary, where he always had a full supply of Jarrah Timber of all sizes from his Donnybrook Mill (reference).
Charles invested in land in Bunbury, owning the land from Stirling Street to Cornwall Street at one stage in his life (reference). He also had a workshop and forge at what became known as Hastie’s Corner (reference).
Charles saw the development of the colonial South-West from its infancy and interacted with many old families in the district. He was engaged in the timber trade for a larger number of years, being one of the first to engage in this industry (reference). He exported thousands of loads of jarrah to all parts of the globe. Later he was one of the chief inspectors of timber for the Forestry Department, and it was only on account of advancing years that he had to relinquish the position some five years before his death. Mr Hastie had many interesting reminiscences of events (reference) that occurred in the South-West.
Charles’ wife Mary, died in 1904 and was buried in the Bunbury Catholic Cemetery (reference, reference). On 7 March 1909 he married Mrs Magdalene Mills (nee Morgan), a widow, who predeceased him in 1913 (reference, reference).
Charles died on 23 July 1916 in Bunbury and it was noted in his obituary that he and Mary had 17 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren (reference, reference)
"Death of Mr C. Hastie which occurred at his residence on Sunday afternoon, Bunbury has lost one of its oldest and best known inhabitants. Charles had been in failing health for some months and it was his strong constitution which kept him alive, about two weeks ago he was seized with a paralytic stroke and gradually sank until he expired quietly on Sunday. The deceased was one of the best known men in the South-West, in fact he was well-known all over the state amongst the older generation of Western Australia. He came to the state in 1858, and has lived in Bunbury and district ever since." (reference)
“The death of Mr. C. L. Hastie removes from Bunbury life the most central figure of the city. He was known in every active service of commerce and trade, as was clearly shown by the number of people who attended his funeral.” (reference)
Researched by Bernadette Pedersen, whose children are descendants of Charles Little Hastie, for the Streets of Bunbury Project.
Contributions also gratefully received from Charles’ great, great-grandchildren.
Acknowledgement to Jeff Peirce and his research at https://convictssouthwestwa.com.au/