Many of my Tassie readers will have visited the Salmon Ponds in Plenty. Few, though, will know that the first attempt to introduce trout and salmon to Tasmania, as well as the rejuvenation of the native oyster industry, involved a suspect in a notorious child murder of 1860 that created the form of the classic murder mystery.On the night of 28 June 1860, three-year-old Saville Keen had his throat slashed almost through his vertebrae and his body dumped in the family's long-drop privy. Two police investigations followed with the second charging Saville's 16 year-old half-sister of the murder although the detective in charge suspected his 14 year-old half-brother was also involved. Constance, the sister, was found not guilty but voluntarily confessed five years later and served 21 years imprisonment. William, the brother, studied biology under Thomas Huxley - 'Darwin's bulldog' - eventually specialising in corals.
William adopted his middle name, also Saville, as part of his surname and, in 1884, William Saville-Kent took up an appointment as 'Superintendent and Inspector of Fisheries' in Tasmania. Constance, calling herself Emilie Ka followed William to Hobart in 1886. William was to revive the over-exploited native oyster fishery and introduce salmon to Tasmanian waters but was more interested in his own experiments and his contract was terminated in 1887. William, his wife and Constance moved to Brisbane, living in the same house, where William became a famous authority on the Great Barrier Reef. He later worked in Western Australia then Thursday Island and developed the techniques of opening pearl oysters without killing them and of artificial pearl cultivation.
Constance moved to Melbourne in 1890 and trained as a nurse. She later lived and worked in Perth, Sydney and Maitland before retiring to a series of Sydney rest homes. She died two months after her 100th birthday in 1944.
Kate Summerscale's 2008 book 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' parses the investigations of Detective Whicher into little Saville Ward's murder and the machinations within the Kent family home in fascinating detail. Discovering the connection with Tasmanian and Australian aquaculture was an extra thrill, especially as 2009 is the year of Darwin.
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