Names
Australian Placenames of German Background
Rucker's Hill, Victoria
Rucker's Hill is a neighbourhood within the suburb of Northcote, about 5km north-east of the Melbourne CBD.
Wilhelm Friedrich Augustus Rucker (c.1807-82) had established himself as a businessperson in Melbourne long before the emigrant ships Godeffroy, Wappaus and Dockenhuden brought the first groups of German immigrants to Melbourne in the late 1840s. Rucker was from Dresden in Saxony and arrived in Melbourne with his family in August 1837 on the Hetty, after having worked as a wine importer in Hobart. He opened Melbourne’s first bank, an agency for the Derwent Bank of Hobart, and bought land as investments when housing in Melbourne boomed.[1] He also bought land in Northcote in 1840 and in 1841, at the age of 36, he retired and built a large mansion 'The Alpines' (later called 'Sunnyside') on the top of a hill that was to become known as Rucker’s Hill.[2]
Ruckers Hill cafe in 2014, on Rucker's Hill (Northcote, VIC).
When the housing boom ended he went bankrupt in 1843. Later he was able to re-establish himself as a wine and spirit merchant and as a shipping agent. He was a member of the German Immigration Committee in Melbourne and helped some of the German arrivals with finding work and arranging loans and rental accommodation.[3]
Street sign of Rucker Street, on Rucker's Hill (Northcote, VIC).
Rucker's Hill is known as a good spot from which to view the Melbourne city skyline.
Rucker's Hill - the name in music
The cover art of the album Ruckers Hill.
A Melbourne indie/folk band called Husky named their second album, released in 2014, after Rucker's Hill. In the title track, singer Husky Gawenda sings longingly about a girl and about Rucker's Hill, where he used to live. In an interview with the NSW newspaper Maitland Mercury Husky Gawenda explained why he called the song and the album Ruckers Hill:
“I like the sound of the name and I think that’s really important in a name, it has a rugged beauty to it. A lot of the songs and the stories on the album began in Rucker's Hill in the time that I was living there, and so it felt natural to name the album after its birthplace in a way.”[4]
In 2014 the band travelled to the country of Wilhelm Rucker's birth and spent several months living in Berlin to write and rehearse their third album. They wanted to enjoy the creative spirit of the German capital. Husky told the online magazine indieRepublik: "There’s heaps going on in Berlin, you get that sense immediately, you don’t need to be there very long."[5]
♦ Notes:
1. Darragh & Wuchatsch. (1999), p.92
2. Ward, Andrew (2001). Darebin Heritage Review 2000. Burwood (Victoria): City of Darebin. p.67. Accessed online here on 11/07/2023.
3. Darragh & Wuchatsch. (1999), p.95
4. Milligan, Nick. (2014, Oct. 23). Husky release second record Ruckers Hill. The Maitland Mercury. Accessed on 02/11/2014 at <www.maitlandmercury.com.au/story/2645242/huskys-album-inspired-by-melbourne-suburbs/>
5. Maurice, Noel. (2014). Aussie indiefolk band Husky come to Berlin. indieRepublik. Accessed on 10/07/2023 at <https://indierepublik.com/indieberlin/aussie-indiefolk-band-husky-come-to-berlin/>.
♦ References:
Darragh, Thomas & Robert Wuchatsch. (1999). From Hamburg to Hobson's Bay: German emigration to Port Phillip (Australia Felix) 1848-51. Heidelberg (Victoria): Wendish Heritage Society