Ernest Howard Bertram Boreham was born in Colac in 1897, the second child of Henry and Florence Boreham. Although his life lasted less than a year, he was part of a well-known pioneering family whose story stretched from the gold rush era to the growing township of Colac.
Ernest’s grandparents, John and Elizabeth Boreham, arrived in Australia in 1854 during the height of the gold rush. His father Henry, a bootmaker who had grown up in Colac, married Florence in Dubbo, New South Wales before returning to Victoria where their young family settled in Dennis Street, Colac.
In 1896, while Florence was expecting Ernest, Henry briefly found himself in trouble with the law alongside a teenage companion later believed to be the explorer Lasseter. The following year the family’s attention was centred on their infant son.
Tragically, only weeks before his first birthday, Ernest contracted severe gastroenteritis. Despite every care, he died at home from exhaustion in January, 1898. Ernest’s younger brother Albert was born just six months later.
Henry continued working as a bootmaker and later moved his family through several western Victorian towns. Although little Ernest’s life was brief, he remained long in the hearts of those who loved him.
His small grave in an unknown location in the cemetery remained one of the Boreham family’s lasting connections to Colac.
Research by Jill Judd
Story by Lynne Johnston

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