HOW DID MONASTERY FARM AT SOMERTON, NEAR BROADMEADOWS VICTORIA, GET ITS NAME? :: FamilyTreeCircles.com Genealogy
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HOW DID MONASTERY FARM AT SOMERTON, NEAR BROADMEADOWS VICTORIA, GET ITS NAME?

Journal by itellya

ST. AUGUSTINE'S KEILOR, CENTENARY

EXTRACT.
"Prior to the formation of the parish, the district was served from St. Augustine's monastery
out Somerton way, then under the supervision of Fr. Peter Powell."

ABOUT FATHER POWELL

WANTED Graziers on the Monastery Accommodation Paddock, old Sydney Road, ten miles from Melbourne. Bullocks 5s. per week, Horses 7s. Apply to James Kennedy, on the Lands. A quantity of dead timber for Sale. 64 Feb 21 alt
(P.1, Argus, 16-2-1855.)

WANTED Horses to grass, at Eight Shillings per Week. James Kennedy, Monastery Paddock, Old Sydney-road._216,jly 4
WANTED Bullooks to Grass, at Five Shillings per Week. James Kennedy, Monastery Paddock, Old Sydney-road._217 jly 4 (P.8, Argus, 3-7-1855.)

THE Friends of PHILLIP KEENAN, of Monastery Farm, Campbellfield, are requested to attend the funeral of his late son Charles Thomas Keenan, which will leave his parents' residence on Wednesday, the 23rd, at 2 o'clock.
(P.8, Argus, 22-2-1881.)

Phillip Keenan was leaving the district.
BROADMEADOWS.— Monastery Farm (Keenan's), about 200 acres, cottage, storehouse, dairy. Proposals to rent from year to year will be received up to 1st March.(P.3, The Age, 4-2-1889.)

Adamson, Strettle, and Co. held a very successful clearing sale for Ryan and Burgess*, the Monastery Farm, Somerton, on Tuesday, 17th inst., when they made an entire clearance of the hay, cattle, horses,farm implements, dairy requisites, &c.etc. (P.39, The Australasian, 21-12-1895.)
*The partnership had been dissolved.

WATER AT 90 FEET NEAR SOMERTON.
Messrs. Forbes and Son report having succeeded in obtaining a splendid supply of water for farm purposes at Mr.
Ryan's Monastery Farm, close to the Somerton railway station.etc.(P.14, The Age, 20-6-1908.)

NOTICE is hereby given, that after the expiration of fourteen days from the publication hereof application will be made to the Supreme Court of Victoria, in its Probate jurisdiction, that PROBATE of the WILL, dated 25th July, 1925, of DENIS JOSEPH CAHILL (otherwise Denis Cahill),late of Monastery Farm, Somerton, in Victoria,
labourer, deceased, may be granted to Ellen Ryan, of the same address, married woman, being the executrix appointed by the said will. Dated this 18th day of May, 1926.(P.19, Argus, 24-5-1926.)

JOHN RYAN'S CLEARING SALE.
The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) Saturday 7 March 1936 p 4 Advertising.

THE Monastery Farm, Somerton, was passed in at auction in Melbourne at £11 an acre. The reserve was £13 an acre. The property comprises more than 212* acres of grazing land, about 1 1/2 miles* from Broadmeadows Station.
(P.23, Weekly Times, 28-3-1936.)

*LOCATION OF MONASTERY FARM.
Stated elsewhere as 2 miles, but neither should be accepted as gospel, so the exact area given in the advertisement (212 Acres 2 Roods 35 Perches) might help to determine the exact location of the farm. UNFORTUNATELY IT DIDN'T BECAUSE THE 212 ACRES RESULTED FROM THE SUBDIVISION OF A CROWN ALLOTMENT, POSSIBLY EAST OF THE RAILWAY CROSSING IN THE PARISH OF WOLLERT. HOWEVER THIS LAND COULD NOT BE DESCRIBED AS BEING ON PASCOE VALE ROAD, TWO MILES FROM THE BROADMEADOWS STATION.

Monastery Farm could not have been James Hearn's Thorngrove of 338 acres, (Meadow Heights north of the medical clinic in 179 G10),sold to Thomas Wallbridge in 1905 and retained by his family until 1936.Other land in Meadow Heights was probably occupied by farms known as Rocklaw, Prospect Farm, and Valleyfield (heading towards Broadmeadows.)

John Watt's "Oakfield" on the east corner of Pascoe Vale and Somerton Rds would not have been the site of the monastery in the early 1850's and being a stalwart of the historic Scots Church at Campbellfield, John would not have sold part of the farm to Papists. However John Daly's grant immediately south of Oakfield, crown allotment 2 of section 5 at the south east corner of the parish of Yuroke,could offer a possible site. A John Daley purchased land near the site of the Sunbury Pops Festival and having a son-in-law named O'Brien* was possibly an Irish Catholic. His Yuroke grant is indicated by Yaralla Court at the north west corner and Norval Crescent at its south west corner, precisely 2 miles north of Camp Rd.
* Place: Glencoe Homestead
www.hume.vic.gov.au/files/c97c10b8-b4d8.../Glencoe_Homestead_Diggers_Rest.pdf
The former Glencoe homestead, possibly erected in the late 1850s or 1860s, is of ... At the same time a John Daley bought the adjacent 147 acres of allotment B for some ... Michael O'Brien was Daley's son-in-law, having married the youngest ...

COULD THIS BE MONASTERY FARM ON JOHN DALEY'S GRANT?
TO LET, for a term of years, a desirable FARM situated near Broadmeadows in the parish of Yuroke, about 12 miles from Melbourne, containing about 200 acres nearly all in cultivation, with a good dwellinghouse, barn, and outhouses. They are now occupied by Mr Thomas Vaughan. Applications to be made to Mr John Watt, Oakfield Farm,, Campbellfield, Sydney road.(P.8, Argus, 10-2-1863.)

FARM to LET, near Broadmeadows, 200 acres. Five years from March 1. John Watt, Oakfield. (P.8, Argus, 6-2-1873.)

Another possibility is that part of Donald Cameron's Stoney Fields* was sold to Bishop Goold. The Camerons later renamed the 650 acre section 7 Yuroke as Ruthvensfield and Thomas Brunton later renamed it as Roxburgh Park. The Camerons could have had no greater claim to fame in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia than a relationship to Australia's first saint, Mary McKillop**.
* CLAN CAMERON SOCIETY

"Moved by Mr George Gordon Cameron,Glenroy and seconded by Mr John Cameron,Deep Creek and carried unanimously
That, owing to the great number of persons of the name of Cameron now in this colony it is desirable that they should form themselves into a society to be called 'The Clan Cameron Society '
II. Moved by Mr Donald Cameron Stoney Field, and seconded by Mr Donald Cameron, Fiery Creek That the objects of the Society shall be (etc.)" This is my only proof of the 1863 rate evaluation calling it Stoney Field!

** ALEX. CAMERON BIOGRAPHY


Recent land and property sales amounting to £12 671/17 are reported by Messrs A E Gibson and Co. The sales include Monastery farm at Somerton, near Broadmeadows containing 213 acres, to Mr E.G.M.Gibson.
Also on account of Messrs. Wallbridge and Sons Thorn Grove Estate Somerton containing 343 acres with all improvements.(P.15, Argus, 28-5-1936.)

GIBSON. –On November 11 (suddenly), at his residence, Monastery Farm, Somerton, Ernest George Muller, beloved husband of Emily M. (Millie) Gibson, and loving father of John (R.A.A.F.), and James (deceased),fond brother of Alfred (Kew), James(Stawell), Priscilla (Echuca), and Neil(Perth), late of "The Argus."
(P.2, Argus, 13-11-1944.)

A Mr Rawlings had purchased the farm by 1949 and someone knocked off the sign. Father Powell must have dropped Bread crumbs when he went to Melbourne so he could find his way back to Somerton as his memory of where Hippo was seemed a bit dodgy.
SOUVENIR

EXTRACT.
"But what was the subsequent history of the "Monastery Farm"?
In 1870, Rev. W.M.Finn, brother of Edmund Finn, "Garryowen," referred to it "as a reserve for the establishment of a monastery farm." At the time it was leased by the Church authorities to a Mr. Phillip Keenan.
(A daughter of Mr. Keenan's died recently at the convent at Ballarat, at the age of 83.) Following Mr. Keenan,
who made house additions to the property, came a Mr. J. T. Ryan (still living at Broadmeadows East). He held the land for "45 years and seven months" when,on March 12, 1937 (sic, 1936), owing to ill health, he was compelled to relinquish it.

The property (apparently the Church Authorities considered it was of no use for them ) put it up for auction (with Mr. A. E. Gibson, of Queen street,Melbourne, auctioneers)at Scott's Hotel, in the same year.Apparently no satisfactory bid was made and the property was passed in and sold privately to a Mr. Gibson (no relation to the
auctioneer), then agricultural editor of the Argus. Mr. Gibson erected the notice board which has disappeared, and also erected the present house. The old buildings were, dismantled and sections, it has been said, were
used to construct the present outbuildings on the property. Mr. Gibson died several years ago, and there followed Messrs. O'Sullivan and Wallace as owners. Mr. Rawling bought it from Mr. Wallace."

Surnames: GIBSON KEENAN OSULLIVAN POWELL RAWLINGS RYAN WALLACE
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by itellya Profile | Research | Contact | Subscribe | Block this user
on 2018-05-23 19:30:35

Itellya is researching local history on the Mornington Peninsula and is willing to help family historians with information about the area between Somerville and Blairgowrie. He has extensive information about Henry Gomm of Somerville, Joseph Porta (Victoria's first bellows manufacturer) and Captain Adams of Rosebud.

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