When forty-five-year-old Matthew John Cuff died in 1898, it was his outstanding character that people in Colac remembered most. Described as ‘a thoroughly respectable and straightforward young man’, he was well liked throughout the district.
Born in Launceston, Tasmania, Matthew grew up on the family farm beside the Tamar River. His childhood was marked by hardship. His father struggled to make a living from the land and was declared insolvent in 1852. In that same year, Matthew’s eldest sister died after a long illness. Soon afterwards, the family left Tasmania and settled on the Victorian mainland.
Matthew proved to be a capable station manager and agriculturalist, working on several large properties in the Colac district. Though he never married, he built a successful life for himself and, by 1888, proudly owned a grazing property at Pirron Yallock. A decade later he had sold the estate and was living quietly in rented rooms at the Union Club Hotel.
Known as ‘a fine, robust fellow’, Matthew rarely suffered ill health. When breathing difficulties developed, he delayed seeking medical advice until it was too late. Although he was cared for devotedly by Mrs Marks and her family, Dr Wynne’s diagnosis of lung congestion proved fatal. Matthew died the day after the doctor declared the case untreatable. His mother, gravely ill in Abbotsford, died the following day.
As Matthew left no will and owed rent, his household effects were sold to settle the debt. A man known throughout his life for honesty and integrity, Matthew Cuff would surely have approved.

Research by Merrill O’Donnell
Story by Lynne Johnstone

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