SIGISMUND (ZSIGMOND) WEKEY (VÉKEY)

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Sigismund Wekey was born in the north-east county of Zemplén, Hungary. His father’s family were wine-growing landed lower nobility in the famous Tokaj winery estates area. He was admitted to the Bar in 1847 and, as a solicitor in Eperjes, was a fiery speaker at political rallies at the dawn of the Hungarian War of Independence-Revolution of 1848-49 against the Austrian Empire. At the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution in 1848 he joined the national revolutionary army as a first lieutenant. Promoted to captain, he later became ADC to Lajos Kossuth the Governor-President of Hungary, national leader & hero. Wekey’s professional career also took in writing, mining management & some minor public service in Australia. The multi-talented man was also a respectable orator, philosopher & inventor of mining machinery in the Victorian goldfields.

Following the collapse of the Revolution against the Austrian Empire, Vékey escaped to arrive in London in 1851 to became the secretary of the Hungarian Emigré Committee, securing passage for forlorn compatriots to the New World (USA, Canada & Australia). In London, he introduced the Hungarian grammar & poetry in two compiled books; ‘A Grammar of the Hungarian Language’ & ‘ Specimens of Hungarian Poetry’ both published in 1852 under his modified name Sigismund Wekey.

Attracted by the news of the Victorian goldfields, hopeful Wekey sailed aboard the ‘Midas’ to arrive in Melbourne early in 1854. He went to the diggings alone trying physical hard work and his luck, but soon returned to Melbourne, dispirited. Capitalising on his serious knowledge of traditional estate viticulture, he wrote a series of articles on grape growing in the Melbourne Argus titled ‘The Land, Importance of its Culture to the General Prosperity of Victoria’. Wekey later formed the Victoria Vineyard and Fruit Growing Co. However, financial support proved insufficient and the company was wound up on 29 January 1856, before it could become profitable. Parallel to that commercial pursuit, Wekey’s interest at heart was philosophy. In 1854 at the second meeting of the Philosophical Society in Melbourne, he was appointed its honorary secretary. When it amalgamated with the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science to become the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, Wekey became secretary of the new body and colourfully contributed to Melbourne’s intellectual life. He held that honorary post until June 1956. Wekey later lived at Sandhurst (Bendigo) where he married in 1961 the 16-year-old Agnes Florence Warden, 20 years his junior.

The couple soon visited New Zealand where he joined the Otago Times as columnist & correspondent. He wrote ‘Otago; Its Goldfields & Resources’, published in Melbourne upon their return in 1862. The well detailed and map illustrated book enticed Australian prospectors of gold to fossick in the Otago Ranges. This manual became an indispensable guide for the hopefuls, selling 2 editions.

Returning to Victoria in 1863 he lived in 1866 at Lauraville the mining town, Gaffney’s Creek, in the Mansfield district, where he was deputy-registrar of the Mansfield electoral division & of births and deaths for Gaffney’s Creek, as well as postmaster. In 1859, 1864 and 1869 he obtained patents for his own mining machinery. He became manager & a director of the Aladdin & Try-Again United Gold Mining Co. but by 1870 financial disputes and criminal proceedings against Wekey & two of his co-directors were laid on a charge of conspiracy. With one of his partners he was convicted and sentenced to a year’s gaol. Irregularities in the prosecution prompted Wekey to protest & launch a futile attack against colonial justice system in an article titled ‘ The Institutions Of The Land We Live In’ (1870). After serving his sentence Wekey left Australia with his wife, daughter and four sons, visiting America before finally settling in Hungary in 1876.

In Budapest Wekey lectured on his voyages and in 1885 published a book titled ‘ My Travels Around The World’ in which he praised the Australian people, colonial administrators & the rapid development in Victoria. He also lauded the charitable institutions of the Australian colonies. A gifted and active intellectual, Wekey was essentially a convincing propagator of ideas, well versed in two cultures. Although destiny made him an remarkable opportunist he nevertheless contributed in his own unique way to Australia as a migrant. Wekey, the patriot and a bonded friend to Australia died in Budapest on 23 March 1889, a citizen of the dual monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Research & submission by Attila Ürményházi,

Hobart, Tasmania, 13 January 2010.

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