By NOEL MURPHY
DARRYN Lyons is stunned to find he’s not Geelong’s first mohawk mayor.
That honour apparently goes to Geelong’s second mayor, James Austin, whose vertical coiffure preceded Cr Lyons’ hairdo over 160 years ago.
Mr Austin’s indisputably upright hair-lick is recorded photographically for posterity on a City Hall honour board dated 1851-1852.
Like the present-day encumbent, Mr Austin oversaw a city in transition as Geelong’s agrarian-based enterprises of the era found themselves facing the upheaval of the Gold Rush.
“It’s funny isn’t it? It’s a great story,” Cr Lyons said as he gazed at his predecessor.
“The Austins are a legendary Geelong family with Cotton On and their wines are among the fastest-growing businesses in Australia, not just Geelong.
“James Austin was the second mayor and I’m the 95th and they say the third generation loses the family fortune, so they’ve had a few good offspring but (Cotton On chief) Nigel Austin can’t compete with my hair!”
James Austin, who with brother Richard settled Winchelsea’s Barwon Park, site of the first rabbits introduced to Australia, owned the 23,000-acre Avalon estate north of Geelong and was voted onto the city’s first council in 1850.
A highly successful businessman, he returned to England in 1853 to serve as mayor of Glastonbury four times.
Mr Austin sent Geelong a graft of the celebrated Glastonbury thorn, which, according to legend, grew from the cross of Jesus Christ. A descendant of the thorn still thrives at Geelong Botanic Gardens.
