A series of historic papers - including 1874 correspondences between the then Carlton Honorary Secretary Tom Power and Victorian Government botanist Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller - are amongst a collection of rarities recently submitted to the football club’s archive.
 
The letters, together with an original edition of Colin Martyn’s 1933 souvenir record of Carlton’s history, and drafts of the Hugh Buggy-Harry Bell tome The Carlton Story of the late 1950s, are included in the artifacts for years stored in an old suitcase at a house in South Morang.
 
The suitcase was recently handed in by lifelong Carlton supporter, 43 year-old Glen Gentz, whose distant relative Bryant Toll operated a recycling and rubbish removal business out of South Morang.
 
“One day Bryant went out to clean someone’s house and found this case. The person told him he could have it and it sat in the bottom of the cleaner’s wardrobe for 15 years,” Gentz said.
 
“Bryant was about to throw the case out a few months ago, but remembered I was a Carlton man so he gave it to me. My Mum and Dad then mentioned the case and its contents over a game of bowls with Ken Hopper, the former Carlton player, who then put me in contact with the club.
 
“The people at Carlton see the material as invaluable to their history and I thought ‘Fair enough - it’s a good place for it to go and terrific for the club to access it’.”
 
Power’s letter, dated June 22, 1874, came after the Crown grant of the previous year specified that the Royal Park area was to be used “for the recreation and amusement of our subjects and people”.
 
The letter was forwarded to Baron von Mueller less than 12 months after the German-born physician and geographer resigned as director of Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens.
 
But the Baron remained the government’s botanist and presumably still carried a bit of clout.
 
Power’s request to Baron von Mueller was simple enough;
 
Dear Sir,
I am instructed to ask if you will kindly inform us about what date the Trustees of the Royal Park Reserve are likely to meet, and at the same time if you will kindly interest yourself on our behalf? The object we desire is not in any way to exclusively fence in the ground required, but simply to erect a barrier for the convenience of the players and the enjoyment of the public.
By kindly using your influence you will confer a great boon on our club.
Thos. P Power                           
Hon Sec
 
Power’s lobbying clearly had the desired effect, as von Mueller’s return letter attests.
 
Sir,
The chairman of the trustees of the Royal Park expresses a desire, that with a view of enabling him and his colleagues to consider the application of the Carlton Football Club for permission to fence off some ground within the park for its games, it would be best for you to propose a plan accompanied by a full written statement of your requirements for submission to the trustees. If you will be good to do this, I shall not fail to bring the wishes of the Club before my colleagues at their next meeting.
I have the honour to be obediently your Ferd. von  Mueller.

Whether the fence was actually built at the Royal Park reserve remains a mystery. What we do know is that in 1875, the year after Power’s letter, authority was issued for roadways to skirt the park’s perimeter.
 
Three years later, a petition carrying the signatures of 5650 residents requesting the establishment of a football oval was submitted. The petition read as follows;
 
“We the undersigned rate payers and other residents of the various wards and suburbs of the
City of Melbourne, being admirers of the popular and manly sport of football and concurring in the action of the Carlton Football club in applying for the Southern portion of Princes Park as a playground, desire respectfully to give such application our healthiest support  . . . We unhesitatingly affirm that at no time of the years our Saturday half-holiday more keenly enjoyed than when that recreation is being pursued”.
 
This was a period of unprecedented success for the Carlton team, whose members - amongst them Billy Lacey, “the finest centre player the colony has seen”” and Billy Dedman, the “goal sneak par excellence”- secured the triple crown of Caledonian Challenge Cup premierships for the period 1873, ’4 and ’5.