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The Invisible Samaritan - Helen M Schutt article by
Helen Schutt would probably be delighted to know that the money she left in 1951 has now reached the dazzling sum of about $30 million - and that in her name, between $2million and 3million is given away to Victorian charities and public institutions each year. Her trust has given money to help establish, to name a few, the Butterfly House at the Melbourne Zoo; a perpetual scholarship for women graduates at Melbourne University; and was the main sponser for the Museum of Victoria's Greatest Family Album. |
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An only child (of Mr and Mrs Robert Smith), Mrs Schutt lived with her family , at Egoleen, on the corner of Clendon and Orrong roads, Toorak. What Mrs Schutt did with her life from her birth in 1874 to her marriage in 1901 remains a mystery. There are no records of her as a pupil of any of the well-known private girls schools and her name is not on Victoria's matriculation records, nor did she belong to any women's clubs.
Her marriage to barrister. William Schutt, in December 1901, was a sumptuous affair. She was 27, her husband 33, and the wedding took place at St John's Presbyterian Church, Toorak. Mrs Schutt had married a man with.a high public profile; a footballer, barrister (later Judge of Victoria's Supreme Court); member of the Council at the University of Melbourne, president of the (then) somewhat Bohemian Savage Club and a most genial man who according to all accounts, was loved and admired.
Little is known of their time together except that there is the faintest suggestion of unhappiness in the marriage. Some years later, Mrs Schutt travelled overseas and never returned to Australia. The reason given to members of the family was that she detested travelling long distances and vowed never to do it again. She lived in Europe, apparently based in Montreux, Switzerland, with occasional sorties to the south of France. She had a maid and chauffeur and the understanding of the family was that she saw her husband every six months or so when he travelled to Europe.
In November 1933, on board the Cathay while returning to Australia from one of these trips, he fell heavily down a companionway and died. He was buried in the Red Sea. The couple had no children; and Mr Schutt left most of his modest estate (about $22,000) to his wife. The one sustained thread throughout Mrs Schutt's llfe was that of being part of a family whose wealth was acquired through the ownership of property. A grandchild of Scottish farmer John Macpherson who brought his family from Skye in 1825 and grew rich when pioneering pastoralists had unlimited opportunity. Schutt inherited not only wealth but a family history of importance to Australia .
Three of her uncles and aunts were the first white children living in what is now Canberra,: and the land owned there by the Macpherson family included the present site of Yarralumla and the Botanic Gardens. Another uncle became (briefly) Premier of Victoria.
None of this brings Mrs Schutt much closer, despite numerous clues. Apparently no photographs remain of the wonderful wedding, nor of the Blue Mountains honeymoon. I despaired of ever finding a picture of Mrs Schutt until recently - through a web of investigation from Melbourne to Pambula, then Sbepparton and Tocumwal - I found an oil painting of her that had been in the Macpherson.family.
In a small farmhouse on the edge of the Murray, I saw the portrait that sums up my search for Helen Schutt. It shows a fair-haired woman, with a rounded cheek, softly twisted hair and a smooth white neck. The face, alas, is turned away.