Born around 1841 in the Swiss village of Lavertezzo, near the Italian border, Matthew Barlow travelled far from his homeland to build a life in colonial Victoria. Arriving in Australia about 1865, he eventually settled at Irrewillipe where he worked as a labourer and small settler.
In 1874 Matthew married Rachael Bennett and together they established their home on the district’s rough farming land. The following year he appeared before the Colac Court of Petty Sessions with several other local settlers charged with illegally occupying Crown land — a reminder of the uncertain and often difficult conditions faced by many pioneering families trying to secure land and livelihoods in the developing district.
Their only child, Catherine Amelia, was born at Colac in 1883. By 1888 Matthew was listed in the Australian City Directory as a settler at Irrewillipe, evidence that he had established a modest holding of his own.
Matthew died at his Irrewillipe home in April 1896 after suffering syncope for twelve months. He left very little behind. Probate records revealed that after expenses of more than £21 there were no remaining assets beyond the small property and four-roomed house in which the family lived. Even in these straitened circumstances, Matthew’s thoughts turned to those he had left behind in Switzerland. In his will he directed that, should the property be sold, £26 be sent to his relatives there.
A year after his death, Rachael and young Catherine placed a heartfelt memorial notice in the Colac Herald, a quiet tribute to a husband and father whose ties to both family and homeland endured to the end.
Research by Merrill O’Donnell
Story by Lynette Genua

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