itellya on Family Tree Circles

As I glanced through my KILTS AND COW DUNG FLATS regarding my STRATHMORE AND PASCOE VALE journal,I couldn't help thinking that it would never have been written without the enthusiasm of Jenny Shugg. Then my mind drifted back a further two years, and I realised that I probably would not have started researching and writing local history at all without the enthusiasm of Rosemary Davison. Not much later, the enthusiasm of Bev Brocchi gave me another boost.

The Mornington Peninsula librarians inspired me to start my journals on family tree circles by not showing enthusiasm. Amazed to find that few of the parish maps for the area were available,I obtained the Kangerong and Wannaeue maps,painstakingly fitted the parts together and presented them to the library. Over two years later, they are still not in the map drawer. What a contrast! I decided that it would be a waste of time and energy producing any history for that library. It would probably be hidden in the jail (local history room)rather than being made available for borrowing anyway. How could I make my history available to the public free? I found a way,thanks to Scott. I hope his family tree family is truly appreciative of the service he provides to the world.

Rosemary Davison started the ball rolling. In about August 1988, I discovered, while seeking information about my great uncle, Alf Cock, that the history of Tullamarine consisted of one and a half foolscap pages and decided to improve the situation as a bicentennial project. Gordon Henwood put me onto John Fenton,who had Alf's farm, and John gave me about a dozen names of old Tullamarine residents. Within two weeks, I was turning up daily with a new treasure for Rosemary, provided by these pioneer families. She didn't say, "I'm not sure what we can do with these." Instead, the photocopier ensured that Bev Brocchi at the Niddrie Library and Jenny Shugg at the Gladstone Park High School Library had copies as well. I'd rarely return to Rosemary empty-handed from the other two libraries.

Rosemary put on a display of these treasures and one visitor, Anthony Rohead, a Department of Civil Aviation inspector, was so enthused that he launched a scheme to rename the roadways in Tullamarine Airport after aborigines, early settlers and aviation pioneers. After Anthony had spent countless hours working on information provided by Wurundjeri historian, Ian Hunter, aviation historians and me, and had everything finalised, the project was abandoned, possibly because of privatisation plans.

Not long after Rosemary's display, the treasures were on display again, at the 1989 Back to Tullamarine, organised with great assistance from Winnie Lewis (nee Parr.) Over the years WHERE BIG BIRDS SOAR, A TRICKLE OR A TORRENT, KILTS AND COW DUNG FLATS and volumes of DICTIONARY HISTORY OF TULLAMARINE AND MILES AROUND were added to the collections at the three libraries and the Sam Merrifield Library at Moonee Ponds where Jan Miller was the enthusiastic local history librarian.

I can't remember how long Rosemary was at Tullamarine, but I will always be grateful for the supreme enthusiasm that certainly rubbed off onto me. Due to Jenny Shugg's enthusiasm(which got the High School's history teachers fired up)a V.C.E. student told me about Jim and Peggy McKenzie, leading to the writing of KILTS AND COW DUNG FLATS.

Tullamarine library was threatened with closure twice over the years and having been part of the City of Keilor and then the Moonee valley Regional Library, it is now part of the Hume Library System with Rosemary's treasures, and material I donated when I moved to Rosebud,housed at the Global Learning Centre. I just hope it's all being cared for by somebody like Rosemary,Jenny,Bev or Jan.

Refer to my earlier QUINLAN journal and the ones about AIRPORT WEST and ABERFELDIE.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14
At Quarter past Two O Clock. At SCOTTS HOTEL MELBOURNE.
GREAT REALISING SALE of VALUABLE LANDHOLDINGS

In the Estate of the Late Mr Maurice Quinlan
Under Instructions from the NATIONAL TRUSTEES, EXECUTORS and AGENCY COY of AUSTRALASIA LTD
A E GIBSON and Co will submit "WARLABY", "'ST JOHNS HILL", " AIREY'S", "WILDWOOD", DONNYBROOK ", "NORTH
ESSENDON" and "ABERFELDIE ".

"WARLABY" is a noble property, consisting of about 648 ACRES having an elegant W B villa, containing 8 lofty rooms thereon with beautiful return verandah surrounded by handsome jarrah picket fence, has also extensive bluestone cattle sheds, stabling, loose boxes, milking sheds, men's quarters, and piggeries.It is situated at Oaklands Junction, in the centre of a flourishing farming district, and renowned for hunting and sport. The country is of volcanic nature, sweet and sound for stock of all descriptions, and is about 7 miles west of Craigieburn railway station and 10 from Essendon by fine metalled road right to the gate.

ST JOHN' S HILL adjoining Warlaby" and Mr Dennis Brannigan's estate, contains about 235 ACRES mostly volcanic land having extensive frontage to the Deep Creek with rich flats and banks thereon admirably adapted for dairying and mixed farming. There is a W.B. house and extensive outbuildings on the property, but in a state of disrepair.

AIREY'S BLOCK, adjacent to the above, is situated on the Wildwood road, about 5 miles from Sunbury, and contains about 18O ACRES of sound grazing and cultivation land having extensive frontage to Deep Creek, with rich irrigable flat thereon, equal to anything in the county of Bourke. This property is fenced and subdivided. Subject to lease expiring 31st March, 1921.

DONNYBROOK. contains 780? ACRES of sound volcanic country, situated on the main Sydney road, about l8 miles from Melbourne, and within 1 mile of the Donnybrook railway station. It is well fenced and permanently watered by the Merri Creek, which forms its eastern boundary. It adjoins the famous Hayesmount Estate of Mr W.Hayes. There is a small W.B. cottage and very fine stockyards erected on the property.

NORTH ESSENDON comprises about 26 ACRES, situated on the main Bulla road, about 1 1/4 miles from the Keilor road electric tram terminus. This property is beautifully fenced, and bordered with live hedges and groups of flourishing handsome gums. Also, about 160 acres separated by a road. It is proposed to subdivide and submit this latter block into 10 allotments, in areas of from about 9 acres to 28 acres each, thus affording persons in quest of farmlets or accommodation paddocks near the city the opportunity of participatlng in the distribution.

"ABERFELDIE", Essendon, the residence of the late Mr Quinlan consisting of handsome bluestone dwelling, containing 9 rooms, bathroom, pantry,scullery, and large vestibule, bluestone stable (5 stalls, loose box, feed room, harness room), man's quarters, and sheds. Land 300ft frontage west side Aberfeldie street situated within ten minutes' walk of Essendon railway station, off Buckley street, and commanding a position that is entitled to be designated as superb.

It is almost superfluous to make further comment on this fine group of freeholds. The brief description given will suggest the importance and value of each property to be submitted. They represent the effort and judgment of one whose knowledge of lands in the county of Bourke was universally recognised.etc.
(P.3,Argus, 26-4-1919.)

The un-named road separating the 160 acres from the 26 acre triangle described as North Essendon was Treadwell Rd. Both of these properties were described in detail in my earlier QUINLAN journal.

"Donnybrook" probably included Donovans Rd north of which the Merri Creek is further from Sydney Rd and a 780 or 730 acre property could fit between the road and creek.

OAKLANDS RD FARMS.
I owe my knowledge of these farms to the late Bob Blackwell who drove me all around the district telling me about its history. If you google FANNING FAMILY HISTORY, click on MORE BULLA PARISH MAPS on the right hand side and go to the second map,you can join me on my tour of the area. Right click on VIEW to enlarge the map.
Section 1 was alienated in these small blocks,probably having been the town common or perhaps a timber reserve originally.Section 2 was William Pomeroy Greene's "Woodlands" on which his pre-fabricated house still proudly stands as the focus of Woodlands Historic Park (the Dundonald homestead on Gellibrand Hill and the Cumberland homestead not making the cut!) The east end of Somerton Rd linking with Bulla Rd was named after the family but somehow was rendered as Green, and is now just called Somerton Rd.Rawdon St in Bulla is named after his son.Greene St led to Hunter's "Lockton"(5A), north of which was Captain Airey's grant (5B). If my memory is correct David Patullo of "Craigbank" (across Emu Creek) owned Airey's for quite some time.

Section 4, east of Lochton and Airey's was granted to Ann Greene, W.P.Greene's widow. I think Walter Clark of Glenara bought it as part of the Clark Estate and I am unaware if it ever had a name. Across Oaklands Rd is section 3, granted to Bulla's pioneer, Tulip Wright.This was subdivided quite early with the Daniel (of "Narbonne") and Carroll families being early settlers. James Musgrove, a famed implements maker, settled in its south west corner.

Section 8 and 7B were granted to Peter Young who is mentioned quite extensively in one of my journals,and called his property "Nairn". Section 9 was called "Dunalister" by Walter Clark when he purchased it. The name was possibly associated with Walter's son,Alister,breeder of the black rose and Chairman of the Moonee Valley Racing Club until his death. Bob Blackwell later managed the property until it was sold and when the new owner decided to call it Balbethan, Bob used the name for his farm at Elmore.

Cameron's section 11 became Robert McDougall's "Warlaby" from which the Oaklands Hunt Club's first event (a paper trail laid out by Farquhar McRae) commenced in 1888. Section 10 was "Oaklands" which gave the road its name. I.W.Symonds' "Bulla Bulla" states that the Brannigans owned St John's Hill(17A) and they certainly did as Maurice Crotty (later of Broomfield on the HONDA corner of Sharps Rd and (now) Keilor Park Drive) worked for the horse-mad Brannigans before moving to the "Springs" at Tullamarine. St John Rd(off Wildwood Rd) was a short cut to the property. The Brannigans had obviously moved to 17B by the time of the above sale.

Section 18 was Harpsdale, Dyson Holland's closer settlement farm (18A)being called "Dunoon" if I remember correctly what Jack Simmie told me over 20 years ago. Jack showed me the Brodie crest set into the floor tiles near the entry of the Harpdale homestead.

I found this advertisement while researching 22E Doutta Galla re Airport West.

Aberfeldie was originally called "Spring Hill" by James Robertson Snr of "Upper Keilor". When he died, "Mar Lodge" passed to his son, Francis, a bachelor who became a politician,and "Spring Hill" to another son,James. The latter stayed at Upper Keilor to care for his mother but after her death,he built a mansion on Spring Hill and called it Aberfeldie.

TO Let by Tender, on Lease for Seven Years or more, one of the most desirable Farms in the colony of Victoria, and only five miles distant from the city, known as Springhill,
The property of James Robertson, Esq., of Keilor, situate in the parish of Doutta Galla, and consisting of 180 acres of rich agricultural land, entirely fenced in, and at present in cultivation.
A dwelling-house is already erected, and the proprietor of the property is disposed to treat liberally with a tenant who may desire to make improvements.
Entry will be given on the first of March next.
Further information may be obtained on application to G. MILLAR, Estate Factor, 32 Queen-street, Melbourne.
(P.3, Argus,21-11-1855.)

Spring Hill was the most southerly of many properties whose names referred to springs. William Foster called his grants (3 Tullamarine and 21 Doutta Galla) "Springs",probably due to a never-failing spring at Melway 5K12 in what became Edmund Dunn's "Viewpoint",feeding a creek that crossed Broadmeadows Road (now Mickleham Rd) and Macedon Road (now Melrose Drive ) and, following the east boundary of today's Leo Dineen Reserve, passed through the present right of way to meet the western branch of Spring Creeknear the end of Clyne Court. Spring Creek then joined Steeles Creek (which flows through Spring Gully)just south of the boundary between "Springs" and "Springfield" at Melway 15 F7, that point being a water reserve.Another tributary of Steeles Creek starts in Airport West and flows through "Spring Park" to join up just south of the A.J.Davis Reserve.
Wilson and James Anderson's farm on Main's Estate, west of Hoffman's Rd was called Springbank. Dugald McPhail bucked the trend and called his farm (between Rosehill rd and Buckley St)"Rose Hill".

MAURICE QUINLAN AND ABERFELDIE.
Bookmaker Maurie died in 1918 and his residence, the Aberfeldie mansion, was advertised for sale along with part of Airport West and many farms near Bulla.


"ABERFELDIE", Essendon, the residence of the late Mr Quinlan consisting of handsome bluestone dwelling, containing 9 rooms, bathroom, pantry,scullery, and large vestibule, bluestone stable (5 stalls, loose box, feed room, harness room), man's quarters, and sheds. Land 300ft frontage west side Aberfeldie street situated within ten minutes' walk of Essendon railway station, off Buckley street, and commanding a position that is entitled to be designated as superb.
(P.3,Argus, 26-4-1919.)

Anyone wishing to know more about the mansion or the development of Aberfeldie should visit the Essendon Historical Society's Courthouse Museum at Moonee Ponds.

I just received another query. I might as well share the information. Unfortunately, I must write this journal off the top of my head, with a little help from trove, as I no longer have all the sources that I would have been quoting a decade ago, such as rates transcriptions, the Doutta Galla parish map, Keilor Souvenirs (1950, 1961 and 1963) etc.

Hi xxxxx,

Hope you are well. Just wondering if you know when Matthews Avenue and its associated suburb was built.

The Matthews Avenue referred to is the eastern boundary of Airport West. The western boundary of this suburb is the Albion-Jacana railway line,built in 1928,which separates Airport West from Keilor Park. The suburb was the birthplace of a company called Associated Radio. On a block fronting both Victory and Marshall Streets, the company had a big transmission tower. The company was later bought out by the Australian Broadcasting Commission which called its station 3AR; I trust you've worked out where the two letters in the station's name came from. The transmission tower was eventually replaced by one at St Albans.(Much detail in one of the three Keilor Souvenirs mentioned.)

A BROADCASTING ACTION.
WRIT FOR DAMAGES ISSUED Melbourne, September 11.
Acting on behalf of Alfred Louis Brown, of Rundle-street, Adelaide, Messrs. Madden, Butler, Elder. and Graham, to-day issued a Supreme Court writ, directed against the Associated Radio Company of Australia, of Elizabeth-street; Walter Conder, of Exhibition-street: the Victorian Broadcasting Company, of Queen-street; and J. C. Williamson, Limited, of Exhibition-street. From the Associated Radio Company, the plaintiff claims damages for a breach of several agreements, under which the plaintiff alleges that he was to have the option of purchasing the broadcasting undertakings of the defendant, including an A class broadcasting station license, and all land and buildings and appliances situated and installed on the Victory Estate at Essendon; also all other appliances used for broadcasting, for ?10,000. etc. (P.19,The Advertiser, Adelaide, 12-9-1928.)

(The A.B.C. seems to have acquired 3LO from the Australian Broadcasting Co. shortly after June 1932 and 3AR from Associated Radio during 1933.Associated Radio was being sued by creditors in 1935.

ANSWER TO THE QUESTION.
The Morgan family of Niddrie - National Library of Australia
catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1751713
Available in the National Library of Australia collection. Author: Morgan, Richard, 1917-; Format: Book; 157 p. : geneal. tables, maps, ports. ; 21 cm.

This book should be available from the Brimbank or Moonee Valley library system and contains a subdivision plan of the property. Matthews Ave was one of the streets shown but was only a short street, not a through street from Keilor Rd to the northern boundary. Treadwell Rd (part of which in the aerodrome is called Nomad Rd) extended to Bulla Rd creating the Triangular estate of small farms*, Mrs Ford's lolly shop etc. This probably accounts for the bottleneck described in the following article. In about 1943, the Tullamarine Progress Association discovered that Bulla Rd was to be closed because of Airport expansion. Matthews Ave might have been extended because of the closure of Treadwell Rd at this time as well.
(*The late Jim Hume, long-time President of the Broadmeadows Historical Society, lived on one of these farms.)

Tramway Extension.
Reference to a proposed extension of the Essendon tramway service to the aerodrome led to the shire engineer (Mr. Pullar) remarking that no official announcement had been made. He understood the extension might be along either Bulla road, Treadwell road or Matthews avenue, but that he had no definite information. Cr. Parsons considered Treadwell road to be better than Bulla road. Wherever trams went, the district extended and developed. The council should fight for Treadwell road. As long as the aerodrome was served the military did not care which route was followed. The Bulla road extension was not warranted. If Bulla road were adopted, the line should not go past the aerodrome for reasons of safety. With the existing parking trouble it would only create a death trap. The line might go up through the centre of the plantations, but not through the bottle-neck past the aerodrome. The council should use its influence to prevent that. There were enough bottle-necks in the metropolitan area already. Cr. Davis said he understood the trouble was caused by inability to get sufficient buses. Cr. Parsons: I was told the tram would be running up Bulla Road in five weeks. It was decided to write to Cr. W. Parks .(Essendon Council), local representative on the Tramways Board, asking, him to take action to prevent a line being put through the Bulla road bottle neck at the aerodrome. ((P.3,Sunshine Advocate, 7-8-1942, KEILOR COUNCIL.)

Re the following article-
If I remember correctly, Martin St was on "Niddrie", as most of the "valuable building blocks" would have been. One of the houses that would have to be removed would have been the homestead built by Sam Mansfield on his grants on section 16 Doutta Galla (near the present south-west corner of Essendon Airport (Melway 16 C9 roughly.)

KEILOR SHIRE COUNCIL. A deputation of Parliamentary and Municipal representatives of Keilor and Broadmeadows shires waited upon the Minister for Air and Civil Aviation (Hon. A: S. Drakeford), last Friday. Dec. 4. They presented a petition from 330 people directly concerned, and the plea of the ratepayers generally of the two shires, that the proposed expansion of the Essendon Aerodrome and its activities, which would be a disturbing element, be not proceeded with. The Keilor Shire contends that the proposition will be very detrimental to the shire, as many good building blocks will be used and a number of the ratepayers' houses will have to be removed. (P.4, Sunshine Advocate, 11-12-1942.)

It can safely be assumed that Matthews Ave had been made to a reasonable standard to the northern boundary of "Niddrie" by the time the tramway opened.

SOLDIERS IN NORTH WANT ACTION
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Friday 14 May 1943 p 12 Article
... Essendon station and the aerodrome. The first tram on week days will leave Eliza- beth st at 6.13am and ... Chinese Legation in Australia. ESSENDON DROME TRAM BEGINS SUNDAY The tramway extension to Essendon aerodrome will operate from Sunday, Mr H.-JI. Bell, chairman Tramways Board, said yesterday. Trams will ... 313 words

The reason for the name of Airport West was the proliferation of industry associated with the aerodrome such as N.I.C. (National Instrument Company) which fronted Matthews Ave.




It might surprise many people that Airport West had its own hotel in the 19th Century. It was called the Travellers' Rest Hotel and sat on a nine acre block (today bounded by Matthews Ave, Dromana Ave, Louis St and a line just south of Rood St) owned by J.B.Howse. (Titles Office Volume 29 folio 783.)The Oaklands Hunt often assembled at the Travellers' Rest, four times in 1899.

The hotel was described as being in Tullamarine (as were James Sharp's "Hillside" and Maurice Crotty's "Broomfield" on the south side of Sharps Rd) because the land between the aforementioned farms and Niddrie, Spring Park and Springfield (fronting Keilor Rd and extending to the line of Spence-Fraser St) had no locality name. The Thomas family took over Hillside in about 1943 and renamed it Carinya Park,the property becoming the home of the Tullamarine Pony Club. Joe Thomas's wife, Edie, was living at 160 Matthews Ave, East Keilor in 1954, probably while Joe was extending the old Hillside homestead. I haven't time to check now but the condolences she had received were probably related to the death of their young son Barrie, after whom Barrie Rd on part of Carinya Park was named.

THOMAS - Mrs E THOMAS and Family 160 Matthews avenue Keilor East and Relatives wish to THANK friends for beautiful floral tributes letters telegrams cards and personal expressions of sympathy in their recent sad be- reavement. (P.19, Argus, 4-9-1954.)



FIRE AT TULLAMARINE.
AN HOTEL DESTROYED
A fire broke out at 23 minutes past 3 a.m. on Sunday at the Travellers' Rest Hotel Bulla road, Tullamarine of which Mr E.J. Wilson is the licensee, The building was a wood and iron structure, one- storey, and contained nine rooms. A firm hold was established by the flames, and the efforts of four hose carts and 14 men with hand pumps failed to save it from total destruction. There was no insurance on the building, which was the property of Mr J Howse. The contents, destroyed were insured for ?100.(P.6, Argus, 4-12-1899.)



Somewhere I have written details of Airport West being officially so-named decades after the name came into common useage. Hopefully I'll find these details. One of the aforementioned souvenirs had a big article about Airport West.You could access these souvenirs through the Keilor Historical Society.

Luckily I had quoted part of the Airport West article in my other QUINLAN journal and I have pasted it below.

So it can be seen that this quote from the article AIRPORT WEST WAS OAT FARMS in PROCLAMATION OF THE CITY OF KEILOR 29-4-1961 was based on fact:
The 260 acre farm of Dr. Morgan?s father (i.e. NIDDRIE) and the farm of a neighbour, Maurice Quinlan, occupied much of what is today Airport West and the airport. (Niddrie was actually 249 acres but that?s another matter.)

The part of Airport West south of Fraser St houses was originally three crown grants; heading west from Treadwell Rd, they were Niddrie, Spring Park and Springfield.

NIDDRIE.
Niddrie was crown allotment 17B of the parish of Doutta Galla, consisting of 249 acres, situated entirely on the northside of Keilor Rd between Treadwell Rd and the midline of Grange Rd and Bowes Avenue. Although this name, bestowed by Harry Stevenson, crept south to describe the present "locality" of Niddrie (Nicholson and J.P.Main's grants), both Niddrie primary and high schools used the name. My 1999 Melway shrewdly described the location of Elstone Ave as being in both Airport West and Niddrie but Cameron St as being in Airport West only.

Between 1843 and 1851, the Scottish settler, Thomas Napier (1802?1881) purchased the Keilor Road land covering Niddrie and Airport West. In 1869, Napier sold this 249-acre (1.01 km2) land to Henry Stevenson (1810?1893). By 1871, Stevenson had built a house he named Niddrie, after his birthplace of Niddrie, a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland. After his death in 1893 the property was transferred to his wife Elizabeth who sold it to Patrick Morgan eight years later.

A Keilor East Post Office opened on 1 July 1947 and was renamed Niddrie around 1956. The Niddrie North office opened in 1960, though it was known as Airport West from 1974 until 1982.[4] (Niddrie wikipedia.)

Who ever wrote this entry in wikipedia can be excused for thinking that Thomas Napier's grant straddled Keilor Rd and included the area now known as Niddrie.

SPRING PARK.
Spring Park was crown allotment 17A of the parish of Doutta Galla,consisting of 193 and 3/4 acres, adjoining the western boundary of Niddrie and extending west to the line of Olive Grove, Hansen Reserve being in its north west corner.It was granted to spirit merchants, Owen Connor and Patrick Phelan but they became insolvent. Angela Evans and colleagues told (in KEILOR PIONEERS: DEAD MEN DO TELL TALES) how Phelan's daughter had married Connor's son and Springfield (see below)evaded the creditors' clutches. Owen Connor had returned to Ireland but sent a letter written with an Irish accent! William and Sarah Connor shared with James Harrick the farming of the Keilor Park area for many decades.

CONNOR. ?On the 27th August, at her residence,5 Williams-road, Moonee Ponds, Sarah, relict of the late William Connor, of Keilor, aged 58 years. (P.1, Argus, 28-8-1903.)

DILLON?CONNOR.?On the 24th April, at St. Monica's R.C. Church, Essendon, by the Rev. Father Nolan, James, only son of James Dillon, 84 Napier-street, Essendon, to Ellen (Nelly), eldest daughter of Sarah and the late William Connor, "The Franklyn," Keilor.
So that's where William and Sarah Connor lived! The Franlyn was actually the Sir John Franklin Hotel, built by Henry Eldridge on the east corner of Keilor Rd and Collinson St, Keilor Park.

Family Notices
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Monday 14 December 1857 p 8 Family Notices
... The Funeral to move from his residence, Sir John Franklin Hotel, Keilor-road, this day, Monday, at twelve o'clock noon. JOHN DALEY, Undertaker, corner La Trobe and Spring Streets, Melbourne. ... Funeral Notices. --- THE Friends of Mr. HENRY ELDRIDGE are re- spectfully invited to follow ... 62 words



The last to farm Spring Park as an entire farm was William Johnson. The Johnson family also owned Glendewar and leased Cumberland before moving back to Glendewar(probably when Alexander McCracken's beautiful Cumberland homestead was burnt down;its ruins can be seen at Melway 178 C12.)

JOHNSON. ?On the 28th September 1913 at "Glendewar," Tullamarine,James Alexander,the dearly loved third son of Mrs. W. and the late William Johnson,late of "Spring Park," Essendon aged 39 years.(P.1, Argus,30-9-1913.)

The McNamara brothers had farmed Spring Farm and other parts of Airport West for many years so it is fitting that Spring Park is bisected by McNamara Ave.
Family Notices
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Thursday 23 July 1903 p 1 Family Notices
... farmer, who died at Spring-park, Essendon, 23rd July, 1901. "May her soul rest in peace." -(Inserted ... Mary E. McNamara, who died at Sping-park, Essendon, on July 23. R.I.P. (In- serted by her ... B. Ballantine, F. M. Robertson and G. B. Cabena.) McNAMARA.--In ... 636 words

Family Notices
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Thursday 29 October 1903 p 1 Family Notices
... missed (Inserted by her lov- ing husband, John T. Lee.) McNAMARA.--In sad and loving remembrance of our affectionate father, Patrick McNamara, who died at "Spring-Park," Kesendon, October 29, 1896.

An advertisement of the subdivision of the Spring Park Estate into 44 small farms appeared on page 1s of the Independent (Footscray) on 20-3-1915. The so-called plan shows Spring Park enormously out of scale, with Morgan's "Niddrie" seeming to have a twentieth of the road frontage shown for the Spring Park Estate. Edwin Roberts was the developer; hence Roberts Rd.

The sale of the Spring Park Estate caused problems for Patrick Morgan of Niddrie, who wanted to continue farming.
Mr. P. Morgan, who owns 250 acres adjoining the property recently cut up and sold by Mr. Roberts, was also in attendance to object to the assessment of his land. The land was valued by the State at ?19 per acre, and he contended that the assessment was unfair and should not have been accepted as a basis for making the shire valuation. Cr. Delahey: In order to exist as a shire we were compelled to increase valuation. Mr. Morgan said the increase in his case was from ?240 to ?380, and the valuation was prospective. He bought the land at ?14 per acre, and that was as much as it was worth to-day. The land did not return more now than when it was bought. It was simply valuing a farm as if it were cut up in building allotments. , Cr. Parr: The land adjoining has been submitted to auction and brought high prices. The question arises whether Mr. Morgan is using the land to the best advantage. Mr. Morgan contended that he was using the land to the best advantage. Cr. McFarlane: It has been publicly stated that you have refused ?40 per acre for the land. Mr. Morgan: I have never received such an offer. I bought it 15 years ago at ?14 per acre. It is simply farming and grazing land. Cr. Parr: The same might be said of land in Buckley Park. If Essendon annexed this territory, I wonder what the valuation would be. Mr. Morgan said that probably many of those who bought the land adjoining his property would never go through with their payments. The auctioneers told them to buy by the acre and sell by the foot. The Land was boomed, and values were inflated by its proximity to the Essendon boundary. Cr. White: And Essendon claims that our values are too low. Mr. Morgan: I do not think I could get ?25 an acre cash for my land. In my opinion even the old valuation was too high. The matter was referred to committee...etc.
(P.1, Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla, and Broadmeadows Reporter, 18-1-1917.)

SPRINGFIELD.
Springfield was crown allotment 18b of the parish of Doutta Galla,consisting of 151 acres and adjoining Spring Park on the west, extending west to the corner of Keilor Rd and Roberts Rd. Thus it was part of Edwin Robert's Spring Park Estate.

NORTH OF FRASER ST.
EXTRACT FROM MY "EARLY LANDOWNERS:PARISH OF DOUTTA GALLA" (NOT A JOURNAL.)
SECTION 22.

The boundaries of section 22 are indicated by: Thomas St/Barrie Rd, Sharps Rd, Nomad Rd. and the Fraser/ King St. midline. Information regarding its occupants comes mainly from Keilor Shire?s rate records except for lots B and D, which were in Broadmeadows Shire.

ALLOTMENT F of 147 acres between Fraser St. And Parer Rd., was granted to early squatters, A.Wright and J.& T.Crighton in 1848 and in 1868 it was being farmed by John Commons. Its eastern boundary was the same as for allotment E.

ALLOTMENT E consisted of 128 acres and extended north to Moore Rd. In 1868 it is likely that Sam.Mansfield had lot E as well as his 56 acres in section 16 and 87 acres in 22c as another property of 130 acres is listed. At the turn of the century, Robert G.Stevenson was leasing lot F, part of St Johns between Bulla Rd and Treadwell Rd (Wirraway and Nomad Rds.), lot E (which was mistakenly called lot G) and a few small blocks between Bulla Rd. And a now-closed road*. This gave him a total of 329 acres.

(* This road left Bulla Rd. at Webb St. to run to the corner of English St. and Nomad Rd., the n.w. Corner of section 16. The 1860 survey map shows this road finishing at the north boundary of 17B. It may have been the original road to the Springs or the old Macedon Rd,which title deeds show to have cut, respectively, though section 15 and section 21.)

Rupert Percy Steele was leasing Niddrie and a memo reveals that Steele had taken over lot F and Maurice Quinlan lot E plus the s.w. Corner of St. Johns.

ALLOTMENT C, between Moore St. And Dromana Ave., granted to J.P.Fawkner, was occupied in 1868 by: Sam. Mansfield 87 acres, J.B.Howse 17 acres and Catherine Howse 9 acres and licenced house. This was the Travellers' Rest (whose location is already described in this journal.) The occupancy of 22C, which contains much of Westfield Shoppingtown, had not changed much in 1900. Sam Mansfield still had 68 acres, J.B.Howse, who now owned John Hall's "South Wait" across Bulla Rd, had 40 acres and Edmund Tucker had the 9 acres on which the Travellers' Rest had stood.

Crown allotment 22A, between Sharps Rd (now Caterpillar Drive) and Dromana Ave,mostly across the railway line from Airport West, was mainly farmed as part of Hillside/ Carinya Park. Joe Thomas sold the majority of the 87 acre block to Caterpillar prior to 1956. The Tullamarine Progress Association was concerned that the Caterpillar factory would mess up the area but Percy Hurren of Dalkeith reassured his fellow members, and he was right.

Extract from my journal MAURICE QUINLAN AND OAKLANDS RD, BULLA.
NORTH ESSENDON comprises about 26 ACRES, situated on the main Bulla road, about 1 1/4 miles from the Keilor road electric tram terminus. This property is beautifully fenced, and bordered with live hedges and groups of flourishing handsome gums. Also, about 160 acres separated by a road. It is proposed to subdivide and submit this latter block into 10 allotments, in areas of from about 9 acres to 28 acres each, thus affording persons in quest of farmlets or accommodation paddocks near the city the opportunity of participating in the distribution.
(P.3,Argus, 26-4-1919.)- RE SALE OF QUINLAN'S FREEHOLDS.

STOCK GRAZED IN RESIDENTIAL AREA At the meeting of the Keilor shire council last Saturday a letter was re- ceived from a number of ratepayers owning land in the Victory Estate, North Essendon, complaining of sheep being grazed continually in portions of the Victory Estate and stating that the practice was unhealthy and offensive. The council decided to ask for the names of the offenders with a view to taking legal action.
(P.6, Sunshine Advocate, 9-10-1936.)

SHEEP AND CATTLE. Sheep grazing on vacant land at North Essendon was referred to in a communication received from F. B. Roberts, who said 1000 acres were concerned, carrying some thousands of sheep. Differences arose between drovers, some of whom left dead sheep lying about. Drovers could not carry on with out supervision. He had bought a property to handle sheep between his place at Mickleham and the Melbourne market, and had tried to keep things shipshape in the district, to avert a crisis.(P.3, Sunshine Advocate, 12-6-1942.)
As this concerned Keilor Council, North Essendon meant on the west side of Bulla Rd, north of the Essendon boundary(which was north of Keilor Rd), so the land being grazed was probably the part of Essendon Aerodrome south west of Bulla Rd (part of which is now Wirraway Rd), and Airport West.

The un-named road separating the 160 acres from the 26 acre triangle described as North Essendon was Treadwell Rd. Both of these properties were described in detail in my earlier QUINLAN journal.

North Essendon land ?220 acre
A block of 74 acres of vacant land at North Essen- don, west of the aerodrome, and about half a mile west of the tramline, was sold at auction yesterday for ?220 an acre, or ? 10,280.(P.7,Argus, 20-11-1954.)

Much information about Pascoe Vale, Oak Park, the naming of roads (Bell St after Bell Manor, O'Hea's Rd after Father O'Hea) and locations (Westbreen school after West and Breen etc) can be found in Richard Broome's BETWEEN TWO CREEKS, the history of the City of Coburg. BROADMEADOWS: A FORGOTTEN HISTORY has quite a lot about Pascoeville,the Young Queen,Belle Vue and John Kernan/Merai.

Bruce Barber's website on the history of Strathmore supplies information from rate books and other sources about Strathmore.To locate Bruce's website, google HISTORY OF STRATHMORE, RAY or you'll have to wade through countless pages about Strathmore in Canada.

From Harry Heaps at Tullamarine to Ron Doig at Tootgarook, everyone seems to have have told me about a plane crash in the early days of aviation. Here's one about a crash at Pacca.

PLANE FORCED DOWN IN PADDOCK
Forced down by engine trouble, a light plane, piloted by Mr Howard Morris of North Essendon made an emergency landing yesterday afternoon in a paddock near Cumberland road, Pascoe Vale. Neither Mr Morris nor Mr McFarlane of Coburg, a passenger, was injured. The plane was only slightly damaged. After the wings were removed the ma- chine was towed back to the Essendon aerodrome.(P.2, Argus, 16-12-1937.)

THE BOARD TRACK AT NORTH ESSENDON.
This article is about Jack Campbell, the man who owned the board track. Only part of the article appears here.

He moved back to his old hunting ground (the Motordrome)in 1934 with an agreement he thought was "water tight." However, there was a loop- hole, and after two years he was forced to look for a new venue for his races. He bought a block of land at North Essendon, and within a month shifted the whole track there and had racing in full swing. That was 12 years ago, and the Campbell era of cycling now is drawing to a close.
(P.10, Argus, 1-5-1951.)

BOARD TRACK CHANGE
Site at Essendon
The Broadmeadows Council yesterday approved a proposal for the transfer of board track cycle racing from the Exhibition to a site near the Napier Park coursing ground. The work of re-erecting the track would cost about ?4 000.
Councillor Mutton said that it was merely a proposal to transfer the Exhibition track to North Essendon. He thought the track would be a great acquisition to the district.
An amendment to defer consideration for a fortnight to enable the people of North Essendon to express their views was defeated.
After the council had granted the application Mr J Campbell said that he was the promoter of the proposal. An area of about seven acres of land had been obtained about 100 yards from the North Essendon railway station Legal action had forced him and his partner to leave the Exhibition.
If a track were not obtained for the coming season professional and amateur cycling would decline and Olympic Games aspirants would not be afforded facilities to prepare themselves for Finland. Racing would be held on Wednesday and Saturday nights. (P.15, Argus, 1-9-1939.)
The Station is now called Strathmore. It would be clearer to say that the Napier Park greyhound track and the board track were on opposite sides of the railway line, not of the station.

The site is on the opposite side of the station to the coursing ground. Work on the new track will begin on Monday, and the first races will be held on the first

Saturday in November.

ROSEBANK.
Rosebank, one of Strathmore's historic houses, was built by Barber, who was part of one of Melbourne's early law firms before moving to Warrnambool. He was buried at Warrnambool.
DEATH. BARBER.-On the 21st March, at his residence, "Rosebank," Wood land-street, North Essendon, George Page Barber; also of Staywood Park, Warrnambool, in his 76th year. (P.2, Warrnambool Standard, 24-3-1914.)

The shire of Broadmeadows was huge in 1944, stretching as far north as Wallan. Most of the councillors were farmers and although money had been set aside for facilities at Strathmore,the Pascoe Vale residents (west of Northumberland Rd)were far from happy.This area was later transferred to the Coburg municipality.

At the Council Table Notes From Broadmeadows. THE JUNE MEETING OF THE BROADMEADOWS SHIRE COUNCIL WAS HELD AT NIGHT ON THE 29th-AND AT THE NIGHT GATHERINGS THERE IS ALWAYS A "GALLERY" OF INTERESTED RATE PAYERS. ON THIS OCCASION A DEPUTATION WAS IN ATTENDANCE, AND COUNCIL HEARD SOME UNDISGUISED CRITICISM OF ITS POLICY REGARDING STREETS AT PASCOE VALE. NOT MANY MATTERS RELATED TO THE "NORTH" WERE ON THE AGENDA.
(P.6, Kilmore Free Press, 13-7-1944.)




MERAI FARM.
There is some information from BROADMEADOWS:A FORGOTTEN HISTORY and BETWEEN TWO CREEKS in regard to this Pascoe Vale farm. John Pascoe Fawkner purchased section 151 of the parish of Jika Jika, consisting of 780 acres, on 1-8-1839.This land was bounded by the Moonee Ponds Ck, Victoria St-Rhodes Pde, Northumberland Rd and Gaffney St.

Fawkner was affected by the depression but was saved from bankruptcy by putting his property,Belle Vue or Grand View, in his wife's name. In 1842, the 218 acre part of the property east of Sydney Road (Pascoe Vale Rd)was sold to H.G.Ashurst (after whom a section of Pascoe Vale Rd within the Township of Essendon was named)and was known from that time as Merai Farm. It was leased by Ashurst to various tenants, Joseph Burns being the first. John Kernan commenced leasing Merai Farm in 1856.

In 1871,John Kernan, by that stage owning or leasing about 500 acres in that area appeared before the Royal Commission on Noxious Trades and said that he'd improved the yield on his farms fifteen-fold on the poorer soil by using animal matter from the Maribyrnong meat Preserving Company as fertiliser. He had to confess that the smell was pretty strong.(P.63-4, B.A.F.H.; not in index.)

John Kernan died in 1879 and Merai Farm was carried on by his widow, Mary, and his son, John. The Kernans had not bought Merai Farm and in 1885, a group of Melbourne businessmen from Melbourne were parleying with the Ashurst family to buy the land.

John Kernan was a great friend of Michael Loeman of Glenloeman at Bulla according to Harry Peck of Hiawatha in Strathmore. John Kernan was supposed to have subdivided land in Strathmore and given Loeman's Rd (Strathmore) its name.

KERNAN,MERAI FARM ON TROVE.
John Kernan Jnr was still on Merai Farm in 1898.

FIELD TRIAL OF IMPLEMENTS.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Friday 11 March 1898 p 3 Article
... FIELD TRIAL OF IMPLEMENTS. A field trial of agricultural implements took place yesterday at the farm of Mr. Jolm Kernan, Merai, Moonee Ponds. The trial, which was under the auspices biih w is undei tin nuspius of the l?ouil Agutullut li ??o? ntl, nts luteiulid lo bung out competition bctwien miihi ... 588 words

THE GRAND NATIONAL EXHIBITION AT GEELONG.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Friday 12 October 1866 Supplement: Supplement to The Argus p 1 Article
... in foal-Board's prize, ?10, J. F. Donaldson ; board's second prize, ?10, John Kernan, Merai ; third ... farm purposes, also property of exhibitors-Board's prize, ?6, Alfred Douglas, Geelong. Three Colts and ... 2256 words


BACCHUS MARSH AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL SOCIETY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6.
The Bacchus Marsh Express (Vic. : 1866 - 1918) Saturday 8 October 1887 p 2 Detailed lists, results, guides
... Vale; second, ?2; third, ?1. 1st, John Kernan, Merai, Moonee Ponds, Switzerland; 2nd Hon H. Miller, ... Melbourne. Farm and Garden Produce-Mr. E. Richardson, Nagambie; Mr. D. S. Hughes, Lonsdale street, ... and G. Burnip. Farm and Garden Produce-Messrs. G. Dickie and H. Vallence. Implements and ... 7129 words

KERNAN, PASCOE VALE ON TROVE.
ROLL OF HONOUR
The Essendon Gazette and Keilor, Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter (Moonee Ponds, Vic. : 1914 - 1918) Thursday 11 October 1917 Edition: Morning p 3 Article
... ROLL OF HONOUR -4-- Lieut. E. J: Kernan, of "Merai." Pascoe Vale, youngest son of Mr. John Kernan, died of wounds in France on September 22. He was employed at electric supply branch; Town Hall, ... Ascot Vale, has been wound ed for the third time. and.. now an in-. mate of a hospital at Bouen, where ... 336 words

ROLL OF HONOUR
Flemington Spectator (Vic. : 1914 - 1918) Thursday 11 October 1917 p 3 Article
... ROLL OF HONOUR -----+---- Lieut. E. J. Kernan. of '*Merai." Pascoe Vale, youngest son of Mr. John Kernan, died of wounds in France on September 22. He was employed at electric supply branch, Town

Obituary.
Kilmore Free Press (Kilmore, Vic. : 1870 - 1954) Thursday 6 February 1930 Edition: MORNING p 2 Article
... 'Obituary., An old and highly esteemed resident of Pascoe Vale. passed away to eternal reward when -Mr John Kernan departed; this life on 28th ultimo. The deceased,, who:had.been in rather delicate health1 for some. time,.was 7.4 years ofage, spent, most. of his .long life in-.the district; .

KERNAN, JIKA JIKA ON TROVE.
Advertising
North Melbourne Advertiser (Vic. : 1873 - 1894) Friday 22 January 1886 p 3 Advertising
... the Pascoo Railway Station, and the well-known residence of Messrs. J. M. Peak, Kernan, Anderson ... of December, 1885
(This article seems to indicate that John Kernan Jnr was living in present-day Strathmore.)

TUESDAY JULY 14
CLEARING SALE Of DAIRY CATTLE &C.,At MERAI, PASCOEVALE
WM ADAMSON and Co have received instructions from Mr John Kernan Merai Pascoevale to SELL,as above through their auctioneer James McPhail.
The whole of his choice herd of dairy cattle,
horses and dairy utensils as under -
123 HEAD of CATTLE,
Comprising 80 cows in full milk 23 springers,20 heifers 12 to 20 months old the progeny of the above cows.
HORSES 5 saddle and harness horses
DAIRY UTENSILS. 2 refrigerators
15 milk cans and numerous other articles used in connection with a dairy.
Everything offered will be sold as Mr Kernan s instructions to us are to sell without the slightest reserve. We would draw attention to the fact that there are no store cows or strippers amongst the Milkers they being all cows in full milk, and cows that we can highly recommend to those in want of first class milkers.
The sale of cattle will start at one o clock sharp. Luncheon provided.

Trains leave Spencer street Station for Pascoevale at 8.37 a m and 12 noon.
Wm. Adamson and Co 408 Bourke street.(P.2,Argus, 13-7-1891.)


Advertising
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Monday 1 March 1886 p 2 Advertising
... luitrueted by John Kernan, Esq., to SELL by AI'011 ON' at Mcrai, .Moonee Ponds, Pmscoevale-road, on .

John Kernan had probably been concentrating on hay production, draught horses and elevators being among the items on sale. Ashurst must have sold Merai but the subdivision possibly stalled. Therefore another 5 year lease seems to have been negotiated with John turning to dairying; hence the clearing sale of 1891.

Advertising
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Saturday 3 April 1886 p 2 Advertising
... that valuablo freehold property, being part of Crown Allotments 150 and 151, parish Jika Jika, countv ... Is at present In the occupation of Mr. J. Kernan, and It is splendid FARM LAND. The crops obtained ...

The description of Merai containing land in crown allotment 150 puzzled me but I figured it must have been a small parcel between Pascoe Vale Rd and the railway line and sure enough,there was the tiny Kernan Ave at Melway 16 K10.

The Kernans were pioneers of Somerton as well.
Coburg Police Court. Tuesday, May 12th. SUNDAY TRADING CASE.
The Coburg Leader (Vic. : 1890 - 1913) Saturday 23 May 1908 p 4 Article
... Coburg Police Court. rt. Tuesday, May 12th. SUNDAY TRADING CASE. John Francis Kernan, licensee of the 'Somerton, Hotel, pleaded guilty that being the licensee of licensed premises known as the Somerton Hotel in the Broadmeadows licensing district, a sale of liquor took place on such

John Kernan seems to have been the first licensee of the Lincolnshire Arms Hotel, built by Bulla pioneer,Tulip Wright. The following Gazette notice describes the hotel as being on the corner of Macedon and Keilor Roads. Over the years Bulla Rd was called Macedon Rd, Deep Creek Road, the Great Road to the Diggings (until Brees' bridge was built at Keilor in 1854),Bulla Rd,Lancefield Rd, and now (north of Keilor Rd), it is called Bulla Rd, Wirraway Rd and Melrose Drive.
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Tuesday 1 April 1851 p 2 Article
...esterson, Richmond ; John Kernan, junction of the Mount Macedon and Kielor roads C ... ; George Vutgo, Somerton ; Sarah Wulle, Pentridge.

EARLY ROADS.
Macedon Road was mentioned re the location of the hotel for which John Kernan wanted his licence.I found this when I entered "Sydney Road, Pascoeville.

Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, 13th April, 1848.
ROADS.
HIS Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, having deemed it expedient to open and make certain Parish Roads, in the District of Port Phillip, viz. ;
1. New line of road from North Melbourne to the Village of Bulla, known as the Mount Macedon Road.
2. Proposed Keila, or Portland Road, from the Mount Macedon Road, to Keila Bridge.
3. Occupation Road, leading from the Mount Macedon Road to Taylor and Green's purchases in Bulla Bulla
Parish.
4. The old Sydney or Pascoeville Road,leading from the Mount Macedon Road to the New Sydney Road.
((P.4, The Melbourne Argus, 5-5-1848.

The first became Bulla Rd, the second Keilor Rd, the third Oaklands Rd and the fourth Pascoe Vale Rd.

JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER.
FOR SALE, at Pascoeville, orders for which will be received at the Patriot office, Melbourne, a small quan tity of Lucerne, and of twelve varieties of English Grasses, either for lawns or meadows. A few English Trees which have been nearly two years acclimatised, consisting of Oak, Ash, Sycamore, Maple, Acacia, Walnut, Chesnut, Filbert, and Spanish Chesnut. These persons who really delight in ornamenting their country residences Will be blind to their own interests if they neglect the present opportunity. JOHN P. FAWKNER.
(P.1, Geelong Advertiser,16-5-1842.)

No doubt Fawkner planted some of each type of tree on Belle Vue Park. Only one of the trees he planted remains; it is an oak. After Fawkner's widow, Eliza, died, John? English bought the property and built the double storey brick building which remains today. A later owner, Hutchinson, a Glenroy flour miller, renamed the property Oak Park because of all the oak trees Fawkner had plantedor so it had been written!

OAK PARK.
TODAY IS A POPULAR CHOICE FOR BRIDES
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Saturday 26 April 1952 p 6 Article
... TODAY IS A POPULAR CHOICE FOR BRIDES Today will see a rush of weddings. It will be the most popular Saturday for marriage since the new year. One of today's biggest weddings. will be that of Patricia Catherine, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R, J. Hutchinson, Oak Park, Glenroy, to James Francis ... 238 words

Hutchinson was on Belle Vue by 1949 when Patricia's engagement was announced to another bloke.

He was there by 1945.
APPEAL ALLOWED
Mr Justice O'Bryan, in the Practice Court, upheld an appeal on behalf of Hutchinson's Finley Flour Milling and Agency Co Pty Ltd, of Hartington st, Glenroy, against a conviction and fine of ?50 by Mr Nicholas, PM, at the City Court for an offence under the Prices Regulations. His Honour made the order nisi to review the decision absolute, with costs, and set aside the fine.


The appellant company had been fined on a charge of having overcharged for bran and pollard.

At the City Court there had been 10 charges of a similar nature against the company, and 10 against Robert Graham Hutchinson, of Oak Park, Glenroy, a director of the company.etc. (P.10, Argus, 2-3-1945.)

The farm had been called Oak Park much earlier than this.
ALCORN - In loving memory of George James eldest son of James and Annie Alcorn, and loving brother of Wallace and Jack accidentally killed at Pascoevale, November 1 1924. (Sadly missed by his loved ones at Oak Park Glenroy). (P>1, Argus, 1-11-1926.)

Subdivision of "Oak Park" began in 1946 and an aerial photo of the area in 1954 (on page 173 of BROADMEADOWS: A FORGOTTEN HISTORY) shows the homestead and the beautiful garden surrounding it in the centre with quite a few houses, especially near Pascoe Vale Rd.

Joseph English bought Belle Vue when Fawkner's widow, Eliza (nee Cobb) died in 1879. It is probable that he named the property Oak Park at about that time.Hutchinson did not bestow the suburb's name!
ENGLISH. ?On the 24th March, at "Oak Park," Glenroy, the wife of J. M. English ?a daughter.
(P.13, Argus, 14-4-1917.)

English St in Essendon Aerodrome was most likely named after Joseph or John English. Joseph let part of Belle Vue to either the Knights or Fred Morgan (can't remember which but the two families were related by marriage and one family was related to English)and their property was called The Pines. (Fred's place. See Victoria and Its Metropolis and BETWEEN TWO CREEKS.) Other tenants known to be on Belle Vue were Rob. Bryant,dairyman and Frank Goyder, a thoroughbred enthusiast mentioned in detail by Harry Peck in MEMOIRS OF A STOCKMAN. Another occupant is mentioned in this report.

HUNTING Oaklands Club By Blue Top.
Meeting at Sherwood, Oaklands Junction on Saturday the Oaklands Hunt Club had a drag run to Glenroy. The throw-off was in the Sanatorium property through J.Attwood's Dundonald Estate to the Mickleham road which was crossed taking the field into K Campbell's Springbank, thence through Willowbank to J Walsh's, Andersons and Underwoods where hounds were checked near the bridge in Broadmeadows road. Taking up the line again in Pahoff's the pack raced down the valley into McLeans and then crossed the railway bridge Into Gibson's and on through Proudfoot's, Parker's and Morgan's to W.Burke's Oak Park where hounds threw up their heads near the dam after an excellent run of seven or eight miles.etc. (P.11, Argus, 28-6-1937.)

Follow the hunt on Melway.----------------------------------------------


FAWKNER'S MOTHER.
I think that Hannah Pascoe was really Australia's first saint. She performed a miracle! Hannah, from a well-to -do family married a silversmith who earned a free trip to Australia- as a convict. Did Hannah go back to her parents with her young son,where they would both prosper? No. Hannah chose to accompany her husband, John, halfway around the world to establish Victoria's first settlement at Sullivan Bay, near Sorrento, in 1803. She obviously worried about her son, John Fawkner being contaminated by the dregs of English society (as most of the convicts were), but she wanted to keep the family together.

When Collins relocated to Hobart after a few months because of supposed difficulty in obtaining fresh water, the locale changed but not the corrupting influence that could turn young John to a life of crime,laziness, drunkenness, cursing and so on. When John's father obtained his ticket of leave, he was granted some land but much of the income he earned from it was wasted on drink. Hannah and her son were facing a life of poverty.

Hannah was informed of an inheritance and had to return to England to claim it.Here was her chance to return to the comfortable life she had known before her marriage, and although C.P.Billot does not say in THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER whether she took her son with her,it is hard to imagine her leaving her son in the care of his drunken father. Hannah returned and it is almost certain that the various enterprises started later by John Fawkner in Launceston were made possible by Hannah's inheritance.

John Fawkner developed into a hard-working, community-minded, literate, law-abiding man. Considering the environment in which he grew up,that was Hannah's miracle. There was one slight blip on young John's record regarding the law but it illustrates his caring nature, generosity and championing of the cause of the common man rather than lawless tendencies. When Hannah died on 15-1-1825,the 33 year-old John Fawkner adopted her maiden name as a second given name as a mark of respect for everything that she had done for him.

When R.K.Morgan's old factory site on Gowanbrae was to be developed into a residential area,the Moreland Council asked for suggestions of street names.I was delighted that this wonderful woman was honoured by my suggestion of a street being named after her was adopted.(Hannah Pascoe Drive, Melway 16 C3.)

FAWKNER'S CO-OPERATIVES.
By googling "john pascoe fawkner, land co-operatives",I came up with the following:

Place: Victoria Bank
www.hume.vic.gov.au/files/.../VictoriaBankMelbourneAirport.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
the 1851 John Pascoe Fawkner land co-operative estate on Sections 13A and 13B Parish of. Tullamarine; for its association with the locally prominent Mansfield ...

[PDF]
Heritage story - Organ Pipes N.P. (PDF File 388.6 - Parks Victoria
parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/.../Heritage-story-Organ-Pipes-N.P..pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Batman's old rival, John Pascoe Fawkner. It is believed that Fawkner intended to subdivide the land and sell it to members of his Victoria Co-operative Freehold ...

Port Phillip Apostle No 3: John Pascoe Fawkner | The Resident ...
residentjudge.wordpress.com/.../port-phillip-apostle-no-3-john-pasco...
Nov 20, 2008 ? Now what on earth is John Pascoe Fawkner doing here? .... his plans for a Tradesman's bank and schemes for a co-operative land society.

Oh dear! The report on Victoria Bank contains some excellent research and documentation but unfortunately, the author has confused two different farms. More about that later.

My research in the titles office had given me the impression that little 5 foot 2 tall Johnny had obtained his grants (except for Belle Vue)on behalf of co-operatives consisting of his beloved yoeman farmers (as C.P.Billot put it.)These grants were Box Forest (now Hadfield); Coburg Central (parish of Jika Jika); 22C, Doutta Galla (now the Airport West Shoppingtown site south of Dromana Ave historically occupied mainly by J.B.Howse and Sam Mansfield); Section 7 Tullamarine; section 13 Tullamarine (bisected by Mansfields Rd) and Section 10 Tullamarine on Tullamarine Island (containing Cooper Rd and the part of Organ Pipes National Park east of the river.) I will not go on about the pioneers on these grants as this entry is about a pioneer of Oak Park, not Tullamarine etc.

There were two farms called Victoria Bank in Tullamarine's history and they were both owned by members of the
McNab family,not the Mansfields. The first one consisted of 160 acres of section 8 Tullamarine,with its northern boundary being an eastern extension of Barbiston Rd,the adjoining parts of section 8 being Seafield (John Grant) of 320 acres to the north and Oakbank(McNab) of 160 acres to the south. The MCNab who owned Victoria Bank moved to Lilydale and his son,Angus,returned to Tullamarine* and bought 93 or 95 acres fronting the north side of Barbiston Rd between Barbiston to the south and Aucholzie to the north.
(*Before 1888, exact year probably in the VICTORIA AND ITS METROPOLIS entry for Angus.)

The member of the Mansfield family was talking about "Roseleigh" in Mansfields Rd (which is still standing and on land granted to John Pascoe Fawkner!) The author's confusion was probably caused by the homestead block of the second Victoria Bank (on the north corner of Barbiston and McNabs Rds) being called Rosebank by the Courtney-Shaws, whom I interviewed circa 1989 as well as videotaping the old brick house and beautiful garden. The website shows timber structures and if I remember correctly they fronted Barbiston Rd within the homestead block.


GREEN GABLES.(Melway 16 J9.)
This historic house was across the footbridge from Cook's Cottage (demolished and replaced by Red Rooster.) Green Gables was demolished in about 1989 for the construction of the Ruth Bednell Retirement Village. It was a two-storey weatherboard mansion on two acres. It could have been bought for a thousand pounds during world war 2. The house was used for prisoner rehabilitation after the war. (I believe this information came from Lenore Frost's book about Essendon's historic houses.)

COOK'S COTTAGE.
This cottage was built by John Murray Peck of Lebanon, according to the owner of Lebanon in 1989-90. Sam Merrifield gave its name as Wanganui in his house name index according to Lenore Frost but this was probably a guess at its spelling by a typesetter who had been given the name orally. Many newspaper advertisements for its sale spell the name as Wannaeue, the name of a parish containing McCrae, Rosebud, Tootgarook, the part of Rye east of Government Rd and Boneo north of Limestone Rd.

There is a claim on the Walking Melbourne website that the house was a changing station for Cobb and Co. As Peck moved into Lebanon in 1882 (having previously lived in Mascoma at Ascot Vale,recalled by a street name there), this claim,if true,should not be taken as an indication that the house was built in the 1850's. It was probably built after 1882 and as Cobb and Co was not likely to be providing a service on what had been a sleepy country road for a quarter of a century, the coach service was more likely to be run by a local operator.
(The Walking Melbourne website has some excellent history of the area with photos of the house built by English on the site of Fawkner's Belle Vue homestead, a classified Oak tree nearby- in Oak Park of course! Wentworth House (the La Rose homestead)and so on.
To find these photos and articles, google WALKING MELBOURNE, OLD SYDNEY ROAD.)

I no longer have my Broadmeadows Shire rate transcriptions but I am almost certain that Mrs Alexander McCracken was assessed on the house in 1920.She was John Murray Peck's daughter. Alex died in 1915 and his widow probably leased their country estate, Cumberland, out; the Johnsons of Glendewar moved onto Cumberland shortly afterwards but moved back to Glendewar later,probably because the beautiful homestead (whose cost ruined George Coghill) had burnt down. She may have done the same with the North Park mansion (now the Columban mission on the Essendon side of Woodland St) and moved to the cottage so she could be close to Lebanon and her brother, Harry's "Hiawatha" at the top of Kilburn St.

LA ROSE and MORELAND.(THE DOC,THE BRIDGE, LE CATEAU ST,THE ROBERTSONS, TRINIFOUR)
Dr Farquhar McCrae took the hippocratic oath but more than one person thought he was a hippocratic oaf. One was Alphabetical Foster who horsewhipped him because the doctor had dudded him in relation to the transfer of a squatting licence for a Run near Dandenong. (Streets in Dandenong are named after both of them.)His own brother, Andrew, who held the Arthurs Seat Run near Dromana, was struggling financially but Farquhar, who had borrowed money from him, made repeated excuses instead of repayments.

Farquhar was granted land in the parish of Jika Jika, which probably extended one or two hundred metres north and south of Moreland Rd. (I'd have to check the parish map to be sure which.)He named it "Moreland" after an uncle's plantation in Jamaica. However he bought La Rose, (which if I remember correctly had already passed from the grantee to another owner)and got Bulla pioneer Michael Loeman to manage it; Loeman later leased "Moreland"for 14 years. The first bridge over the Moonee Ponds Creek in Moreland Rd was called the Loeman Bridge.

According to Richard Broome in BETWEEN TWO CREEKS, McCrae built the core of Wentworth House but most of it was built by Coiler Robertson. He probably only spent a few years there before the horse-whipping saw him flee to Sydney.I have a feeling that Coiler Robertson bought the property in about 1845 but he was certainly there by May, 1849, as the electoral list for the County of Bourke (P.4, Argus, 1-5-1849)shows:
Robertson, Coiler,dwelling house,La Rose,Moonee Moonee Ponds.

This is slightly earlier evidence.
Ploughing match.-The farmers on the Moonee Moonee Ponds have formed themselves into a society under the designation of the Moonee Moonee Ponds Farmers' Society, formed on the model of the Farmers' Societies in Scotland, and they have so far matured their arrangements as to have appointed Friday next, the 28th instant, for holding their first ploughing match, which is to come off on Mr Colyer Robertson's farm, La Rose, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. (P.2, The Melbourne Argus,25-7-1848.)

Coiler also bought land in the parish of Doutta Galla on which still stands a house named Trinifour (on the south side of Park St just west of the railway gates). I don't know if that is the house described below; my memory tells me that Coiler's son, James, built Trinafour in the 1880's. James was the brother of Peter McCracken's wife, Grace, and arriving in the colony as a brewer had probably been responsible for the success of the McCracken Brewery.Coiler had over-extended himself.


THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20. Preliminary Notice.
Essendon.
Sale of Freehold Farm, Comprising 107a. 38p.Together with The Dwelling house and Building Erected Thereon,
In tho Insolvent Estate of Coiler Robertson.
By Order of John Goodman, Esq , Official Assignee.
ALFRED BLISS has been favoured with instructions from John Goodman, Esq., Official Assignee, to SELL by PUBLIC AUCTION, on the premises (lately in tho occupation of Coiler Robertson), on Thursday, November 20, at twelve o'clock,
All that piece or parcel of land in tho colony of Victoria, county of Bourke, and parish of Doutta Galla, being part of Allotment B, Section No 6, commencing at the north-west oorner of the said Allotment B, and bounded on tho north by Allotment A, containing 107a and 38p., being a line bearing east 1OO chains 35 links ; on tho east by a road one chain wide, being a line bearing south 36deg. east,11 chains 82 links; on the south by other part of tho said Allotment B, conveyed to Robert M'Cracken and Peter M'Cracken, being a line bearing west 67 chains 17 links ; and on tho west by part of Allotmont No. 4 of Section No. 7, containing 80 acres, being a lino bearlng north 10 chains to the commenclng-polnt ; containing, in fact, 107a. and 38p.
Together with the Dwellinghouse and building thereon.
(P.2, Argus, 17-11-1860.)

NOTES RE THE ADVERTISEMENT.
Robert McCracken was the brother of Peter and father of Alex McCracken, and lived (from the mid 1860's) at Ailsa on the north side of Kent St. This property was the first playing venue for the Essendon Football Club in the 1870's with the McCrackens being heavily involved,the ground probably on the area where streets bear the names of John Filson and his wife. Alex, a 17 year old Scotch College student was its first secretary and was later the foundation President of the V.F.L. from late 1896 to shortly before his death in 1915. Peter farmed on Stewarton (Gladstone Park) 1846-55 and then leased a dairy on Kensington Park (North Melbourne side of Kensington Rd,where William Samuel Cox later ran the Kensington Park Racecourse)until his Ardmillan mansion was built (on the site of 35-39 Ardmillan Rd, I presume, as Nos 35 and 37 do not exist.) Peter,a majority shareholder,with Hugh Glass, of the private Essendon Railway,had to sell Ardmillan shortly before the Government bought the railway and built the North Eastern Railway to Sydney through Strathmore/ Pascoe Vale and Campbellfield in 1872, turning Campbellfield into Broadmeadows and Broadmeadows into Westmeadows. Allotment 4 of section 7 was part of land granted to James Robertson Snr of Upper Keilor. His son,James Robertson Jnr built Aberfeldie on what had formerly been called "Spring Hill" and his daughter, Margaret, married Coiler McCracken who built Earlesbrae Hall (now Lowther Hall.You can see how historians mix up these two James Robertsons, both related to the McCrackens through marriage: James, son of Coiler of La Rose and Trinifour (the brewer),and James Jnr of Upper Keilor and Aberfeldie. Andrew Lemon confused another James Robertson (of Gowrie Park, Campbellfield) with the Upper Keilor family!



THE LA ROSE ESTATE. The increase of population and the extension of the City of Melbourne on all sides has necessitated a development of suburban settlement and a consequent occupation of land, which, a few years ago was hardly ever mentioned except perhaps in cases like La Rose when its aspect elicited an expression of admiration from some passing traveller. The estate above-mentioned has been most asiduously advertised by Messrs Munro and Baillieu, the jubileo auctioneers and if the public, do not know the ins and outs of La Rose, together with the almost ridiculously cheap terms at which it is to pass under the hammer, they must be singularly obtuse. We may, however, remind our readers of the vicinity of this charming spot, but the means of access to it have been rendered so easy that we would advise them to take a run out and see for themselves. The estate is situated on gently undulating ground sloping away in the direction of the Moonee Ponds Creek, and commanding an extensive view of Melbourne and its northern suburbs. The handsome villas and snug cottages of Essendon, are seen in close vicinity, on one hand and on the other the environs of Brunswick meet the eye while far away in the distance is the city with its spires and prominent buildings, the whole presenting a panorama which needs to be seen to be fully aprreciated. We. strongly advise our readers to follow the advice of an advertisement in another column and make themselves thoroughly au fait as regards everything connected with LaRose especially the terms which are within the reach of all. A few years ago Moonee Ponds and Essendon had only hourly trains and a scant and scattered population, and now both are two of the most prosperous suburbs round Melbourne and there is every reason to believe that La Rose will follow in their wake, and even eclipse, by reason of its picturesque situation and hygienic advantages the older suburbs as regards prosperity and popularity.(P.3,North Melbourne Advertiser,2-4-1887.)

This advertisement appeared fairly close to the peak of the land boom which came to a crashing halt because of the depression a handful of years later.The next boom was in the 1920's following W.W.1, but it was not until 2-2-1954 that development justified the opening of Pascoe Vale South State School.

This article about North Melbourne and the General Election seems to be having a dig at the La Rose Estate, so extensively advertised in 1887.

The number of ' roses' about was quite a feature. Indeed one would think that a flower show was 'on,' or that a certain estate at Pascoe Vale, which in the days of the alas now defunct boom was advertised extensively, was again in the market...(P.2,North Melbourne Advertiser, 30-3-1889.)

The first auction sale of a suburban subdivision for some years has been announced for August 16, when H. P. Knight and Co and Mr G, T. Collins, Brunswick, will submit a further complete section of La Rose Estate. West Coburg.(P.19,Argus, 31-7-1947.) The subdivision, which contains 81 allotments, is close to the Bell st bus service and a few minutes from North Essendon station. (P.19,Argus, 31-7-1947.)


Family Notices
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Saturday 10 August 1878 p 1 Family Notices
... the beloved child of Mr. John M'Caffrey, aged 6 months. ROBERTSON.-On the 9th inst., at Trinafour, Essendon, Mrs. Coiler Robertson, in her 90th year.

THE Friends of the late Mrs COILER ROBERTSON are respectfully invited to follow her remains to the Melbourne General Cemetery The funeral will leave the residence of her son, Mr Jas. Robertson, Trinafour, Moonee Ponds, on Monday, the 12th August, at 2 o clock p.m. (P.8,Argus,12-8-1878.) Had she been living on La Rose?

The McCracken letters mention The Coiler Robertsons being in financial difficulty and leasing out their property. William McCulloch who had made his fortune as a Murray River paddle-steamer operator bought Glenroy Farm of 636 acres (stretching north from Rhodes Pde halfway to Camp Rd )in 1874. He seems to have been living at La Rose. Was it the quality of the house or the view that attracted him? Did he own it or was he leasing from the Robertsons?

It is likely that McCulloch had married a sister or daughter of John vans Agnew Bruce, who (with Cornish) had built much of the railway to Castlemaine in 1858, owned the northern 1000 acres of Jamieson's Special Survey between Bruce Rd and the Martha Cove Waterway and was apparently a son in law of Big Clarke.

McCULLOCH.?On the 28th inst., at La Rose, Essendon, Catherine Vans Agnew, youngest daughter of William and Catherine McCulloch, aged 10 months and 11 days. (P.4, Argus,29-4-1873.)

Well,this has me in a real tangle! Do they mean the youngest daughter of the late CoilerRobertson because James was still apparently still alive and living at Trinifour two years later.

LANGTREL?ROBERTSON.?October 28, at the Presbyterian Church, Albert Park, by the Rev. D. S. M'Eachran, assisted by the Rev. M??k, J. S. Langtrel, of Bourke, to Alexandra, youngest daughter of the late James Robertson, of La Rose, Essendon.(N.B. Coiler McCracken had moved to Bourke after losing Earlesbrae Hall. Alexandra mustn't have been very young if her mother was nearly 90!)

The Robertsons were still on La Rose in 1869 when an organisation was formed to stop the Melbourne Hunt Club trampling farmers' crops. Robert McDougall of Aitken's Estate (between today's Aberfeldie and Avondale Heights)took the chair. Reference was made to the case of Dunn v Waldock in which Edmund Dunn of "Viewpoint" in Tullamarine hd unsuccessfully sued Waldock, Master of the Hunt, for damage to his crops and ewes.
(P.5, Argus,15-6-1869.)

As the Robertsons were still on La Rose in 1969,they must have bought it from creditors or leased it from the new owners. Mr. Alfred Bliss reports the sale of La Rose estate, Moonee Ponds, consisting of 276a. 2r. 37p., for the sum of ?6,018 cash ; or at the rate of ?21 15s. per acre.(P.4, Argus, 31-10-1860.)

It is likely that La Rose was still an intact whole in 1933.

Reference to the Cooks being on La Rose in 1933 has been deleted because Mrs Cook (nee Bottoms)appears to have been occupying a HOUSE of that name whose address was 2 Fitzgerald Rd, Essendon.

BOOTH VERSUS BATES.
These were two strains of shorthorn cattle. Robert McDougall of Arundel in Tullamarine and Henry Stevenson of "Niddrie" (see Airport West journal)hardly spoke to each other because Robert was a Booth advocate and Henry was a supporter of the Bates Strain. This made things difficult when they bought farms on St Johns (North Strathmore area), Henry the 300 acres near Bulla Rd and Robert the 200 acres near Pascoe Vale Rd. At least Robert had an ally close at hand, William McCulloch of La Rose and Glenroy Farm.


PASCOEVILLE.

THE YOUNG QUEEN INN.
The preferred route to Sydney was past the Young Queen Inn. (murder, 2nd at Coburg etc.)

THE McKENZIE ORAL HISTORY. (From my KILTS AND COW DUNG FLATS, Dec.,1990-not a journal.)
Jim McKenzie's parents moved into Prospect St,Pascoe Vale in 1937 when Jim was about 13. Peggy McKenzie(nee Holmes) was about 5 in 1935 when her family moved into Gaffney St just uphill from Burgundy St,five years later shifting to Fawkner St a bit further up the hill.

Most of the boys had horses and many of their rides took them through Cow Dung Flats,the name they gave the area between Kent Rd and Camp Rd.

Most boys had a horse by the age of 12 or 13. There were plenty of vacant blocks between the isolated houses to keep them on.Another place the boys rode their horses was Happy Valley,across the creek from Boeing Reserve.

Deliveries of milk were made with horse-drawn carts but road traffic in the 1970's caused a change to motorised transport.

FLEET ELECTRICS, on the corner of Pascoe Vale Rd and Woodland Ave, which manufactured electric ovens there before W.W.2, probably pioneered secondary industry in the area.

After leaving the army in 1947, Jim found it hard to settle back into civilian life and preferred outdoor work. He found a job at the Coburg City quarry in Newlands Rd that later became the Coburg drive-in.

The area started to build up in the 1950's as a result of Arthur Caldwell's boost to immigration.

Jim's father, who had come from the bush, was able to use the wide open spaces of Prospect St to break horses. He would buy them for one pound ten shillings each at South Melbourne market and lead them along Spencer St etc to Flemington Bridge from where he and young Jim could take various routes such as along the creek or Oak St. Once a tram in Melville Rd made their horse bolt,throwing them out of the jinker. After being broken in, the horses were sold for two pounds each and with the brisk demand, this was a good earner.

After the war, Jim and his father leased, trained and drove trotters. They used tracks at Westbreen, Happy Valley and alongside the narrow Hume Highway* to train them and swam them in the Maribyrnong River near the Anglers' Arms Hotel at Maribyrnong. Another training venue was near the dog and cycling tracks.(*Jim would often use slow moving trucks as mobile barriers, following them on the left hand side for some distance before accelerating past them!)

Jim and his mates would often ride through Strathmore in about 1940. Dotted about the area were Mrs Barrett's dairy, Rosebank, and Lebanon, now owned by boxing writer, Jack Oates.Near the eastern end of MascomaSt, Randalls,a real estate firm,was selling house blocks for 10 pounds which rapidly increased in value to 50 pounds.The Mills lived on the south side of the road and Jim Flood,the policeman,and his wife lived near the future site of the Strathmore North Primary School.Another policeman,Mr James,and the Rutherford family lived near Lind St. One house that Jim didn't mention was "Hiawatha" in which Harry Peck was probably hard at work writing MEMOIRS OF A STOCKMAN.

On the east side of Pascoe Vale Rd, Miss Roberts owned all the land from Cook's Cottage* to the garage to the south. Miss Roberts was probably a niece of Louisa Ellen Roberts (B. Bond St, London 6-6-1840, d.at Lebanon 5-7-1928) who married John Murray Peck. (*Albert Cook, Broadmeadows Shire Secretary, moved from the old shire office near the bridge in Westmeadows to this cottage in the late 1920's when the new shire hall was built on the present site on Twomey's "Glen Allan". The cottage was probably J.M.Peck's "Wannaeue". It was bulldozed without a permit and Red Rooster now occupies the site.)

As you've probably realised Jim's history of Pascoe Vale is really a history of Pascoe Vale AND MILES AROUND. The same thing happened to my histories of Tullamarine and Rosebud. Jim and his mates went several times to Sunbury in a covered wagon for a weekend spent rabbiting and fishing for redfin at Rupertswood. Mascoma St was then a track with road metal spread on it occasionally. The Gowanbrae dairy was the most prominent feature at itswestern end in 1940 and still in 1970 when Jim and Peggy moved into Tasman Avenue.

HALF HOUSES were common in the years after the war and like most growing suburbs, Strathmore and Pascoe Vale had their share. Buildersactually needed a permit to obtain materials such as timber. Councils were forced to relax the regulations so that part houses could be started and finished when more materials became available. Concrete roofing was common in this era.

Peachey-Kelly Town was the locals' name for Westbreen despite District Inspector Davies coining the latter name for state school 4158. Some other residents of the area were the Toys, Marshalls, Wilsons, Cockerells, Plunketts, McGowerys and Tomkinsons. Most residents had other jobs such as droving but were free to erect fences on vacant land and run sheep as a sideline. The owners didn't mind as it kept grass down and reduced the fire hazard.

Alma Toy ran dances at the Westbreen hall near which she lived. The Pascoe Vale youth would pay threepence for the bus trip ans a shilling to get into the dance.

COONAN'S HILL. This area near the corner of Woodland Avenue and Reynolds Parade was another venue for training trotters. In this area there were market gardens, many run by Chinese.Reynolds Pde and other nearby streets were made using a horse and scoop.

HAY AND CORN STORES are now rare but, up to 1950, they were very common. Rationing of petrol continued for some time after W.W.2 and many cars had charcoal burners in order to keep them operating. With so many youngsters owning horses they had plenty of customers. Tommy Loft of "Dalkeith" in Tullamarine had a corn store on the site of Tullamarine Primary School (which transferred there in 1960) and there was another one in
Middle St, Ascot Vale, near Mt Alexander Rd that sold shell grit for chook houses as well.

FIRST SELF-SERVICE? Harry Shell's self-service on the corner of Bell St and York St was the first shop of this type that Jim remembers.

LANDLUBBERS! When the Pascoe Vale Swimming Pool in Prospect St opened, Jim and his brothers were regarded almost as superhuman beings. Having come from Port Melbourne, they had developed their swimming skills at the beach and hardly any of the other children could swim.

GOAT FARMS were common and doctors would recommend goat's milk for sick children. One farm was bounded by Essex, Cumberland and Landells Rd and Dawson St.

BEFORE STRATHMORE HIGH. The Napier Park Dog Track was on the High School site and the Board Track was near the overpass. Jim and his mates would ride their horses to the hill west of Pascoe Vale Rd overlooking these venues for some free entertainment.

THE HOUSE ON THE ISLAND. An elderly lady lived in a house on an island in the present High School grounds. My book about the creek could not have had a better title than A TRICKLE OR A TORRENT. While normally a (Moonee Moonee) chain of ponds,levels could rise with alarming speed and the island was flood prone. With the community spirit that existed in any pioneering community, locals were concerned for her safety at such times.

The creek was straightened in the 1960's to allow freeway construction and it is likely that the High School's sinking Library was built on one of the channels that had skirted the island. This extract comes from the Strathmore Secondary College website re architect, Simon Thornton's renovations in the mid 1990's.

There have been major obstacles to Strathmore?s renovations. One significant problem facing any design is the unstable soil found across much of this site. This resulted in part from the re-aligning of the Moonee Ponds Creek which previously meandered across the site and was covered with fill in the 1960s. In order to reinforce buildings, before any construction could begin, large concrete supports had to be driven into the ground. With Simon?s buildings these supports have extended anywhere from half a metre to 12 metres below the surface.

FLOOD AT THE SWING BRIDGE. The footbridge near Cook's Cottage was originally a swing bridge. Now as any parent or teacher will tell you little girls like to change their environment by making it prettier but little boys' attempts to mould the environment are more likely to resemble an episode of the mythbusters. A swing bridge can be made to swing like a pendulum or bounce like a trampoline, neither of which are guaranteed to do the bridge much good. The only torrent in this case came from local policeman,Jim Flood, who,as you know, lived not far away in Mascoma St. Riding a bike across the bridge was also a no no, as was riding bikes at night without lights.

TASMA THEATRE. This theatre, in Bell St between York St and Cumberland Rd, was popular with the Pacca youth. Because of its construction materials,it was a real fire trap, especially as smoking was allowed and the brats of those days delighted in rolling firecrackers under the seats of elderly female patrons.

KIRK'S BAZAAR. Located between the old Essendon Hotel (De Marco's,the Grand etc)and Woodlands Park over Bulla Rd from the Keilor Rd junction, Kirk's Bazaar had alare building at the front where second-hand goods of every description were sold and behind this were machinery and animals.Kirks relocated to the north side of Keilor Rd, past Matthews Ave in about 1975. The Kirks had traded in horses from Melbourne's early days.

DOD LANE. In MICKLEHAM ROAD 1920-1952, George Lloyd wrote, in reference to Bulla Rd in Essendon:
A very old identity in those days was Dodd Lane who traded in horses and anything connected with the horse industry.

Jim McKenzie recalls Dod being a real character and the youth from far and wide rode over Strathmore's open, grassy hillscape with their destination being Dod's place in Dublin Ave.

My search for mentions of Dodd Lane on trove was fruitless. I had a theory that he might be a member of the family of James Lane of "Gowrie Park" in Tullamarine. Therefore, I gave up looking for Dodd Lane, (Essendon, North Essendon, Dublin St etc) and entered Lane,Gowrie Park. I struck gold!

LANE.-Died of wounds on 24th Septem-ber, somewhere in France. Corporal Arthur Ernest. the dearly loved second youngest son of James and Mary Lane. "Gowrie Park." Tullamarine, and much loved brother of Henry (on active service, Jack, Dod, Albert (on active service), Annie and Cora. (After two years' active service abroad.) He gave his life for King and country. One of Australia's best.
(P.2, Essendon Gazette and Keilor,Bulla and Broadmeadows Reporter,1-11-1917.)

If I remember correctly, three sons of James and Mary Lane are recorded on Tullamarine's war memorial (moved from the Conders Lane corner,site of Tullamarine S.S.2613, to the Dalkeith Ave corner by W.V.(Major) Murphy.)

Grants Lane which left Bulla Rd in Melway 5D6 ran west to McNabs Rd. Part of the road from Ellis's Corner has been renamed Melrose Drive. Grants Rd was the boundary between the shires of Keilor, and (to the north) Bulla. Unfortunately the most recent Bulla rate book I was able to transcribe was 1914-15. It is known that James Lane still owned Gowrie Park in 1920. "The Essendon Gazette of 2 January 1920 reported that 'Mr James Lane's well-known farm at Tullamarine has been taken over for the purpose of an aerodrome and will suit splendidly for the purpose.'"(P.153, BROADMEADOWS: A FORGOTTEN HISTORY.)

Gowrie Park was section 14 of the parish of Tullamarine, bounded on the south by Grants Rd from Melway 5 B6 to 4 G5 (McNabs Rd),its north corner at the corner of Perimeter and South Glide Rds and the east end of the east-west runway just inside its north east corner. If you look west or north at the airport from the terminal building, you are looking at Gladstone Park, which was owned by the Donovans by W.W.2, when planes were parked there at night in case there was a night raid on Essendon Aerodrome. Bill Ellis bought "Ecclesfield" (at the south corner of Grants and Bulla Rds) in 1943 ,if I remember correctly,and later bought the southern, major, part of James Lane's old farm(also known as Gowrie Park) while the Donovan's retained the northern part, historically known as "Gowrie Side".

Between the south east part of Gowrie Park and Bulla Rd was a triangular 80 acre farm that was called Scone (pronounced with a long o) by pig farmer, Allan Payne. This is now occupied by the airport terminal building and Depot Rd etc.

PUBLIC NOTICES HEALTH ACT 1938.-Application for a Noxious Trade Licence.-I hereby give notice that it is my intention to APPLY to the Bulla Shire Council at its next meeting, to be held on Tuesday. 8th February. 1949, for permission to ESTABLISH a NOXIOUS TRADE, viz., piggery, on premises known as Payne's, corner Bulla road and Grants lane Tullamarine. Dated 6/1/49. (Signed) ALLAN PAYNE.(P.9, Argus,10-1-1949.)


STRATHMORE SUBURBAN PIONEERS.
Wilma Hood settled at the corner of Peck Ave and Melissa St in 1958. Beth Tempany had lived on the opposite corner since 1952. Wilma told me of a Dutchman who had built a half house just down Peck Ave. Beth (in 1990) was involved in Scouting and told me the sad tale of how "Lebanon" had been dropped from the local pack's name during the conflict in the country with the same name and, to make matters worse, the Cobb and Co. coach was dropped from the badge.(Lebanon was the name of the town on the Mascoma River in New Hampshire, U.S.A., from which John Murray Peck came to establish Cobb and Co. with Freeman Cobb and two other young Yankees.)






Extract from my EARLY LANDOWNERS:PARISH OF DOUTTA GALLA(not a journal.)
STRATHMORE (SECTIONS 15, 16, 23.)

This map shows subdivision of 15 by the grantees, crown allotments on 16 and two divisions of section 23 into farms (A.414 ac + Dunns Farm. B. Stevenson?s + McDougall?s).
Anyone wanting these maps etc that can't be pasted here could send me a private message with their email address and I could attach the appropriate pages to an email.
COPYRIGHT MELWAY PUBLISHING PTY LTD. REPRODUCED FROM MELWAY STREET DIRECTORY EDITION 27 WITH PERMISSION.


SECTION 15.
See Bruce Barbour?s Strathmore web site at www.vicnet.net.au/~strthmre/

This was bounded by Lincoln Rd (Carnarvon Rd), Woodland St and the Moonee Ponds Creek and ran north to the southern tip of Strathmore?s home ground, Lebanon Park. Granted to E.J.Brewster, it was soon subdivided and sold. The southern 100 acres was bought in 1845 by Thomas Napier, who called it Rose Mount, renaming it Rosebank later. Napier had been a pioneer of Mulgrave in 1839 as a squatter* and in 1851 received the grant for ?Niddrie? (17B). After he died, his son in law, G.P.Barber, built the Rosebank house near the original dwelling; it stands behind St. Vincent?s school. The 1900 ratebook of Broadmeadows Shire called the remaining 22 acre property ?Rose Hill?. When his son, Theodore was old enough, Thomas gave him 20 acres and Magdala was built near Lincoln Rd. Just before his death, Theodore donated Napier Park to Essendon Council; strangely the park was in the Shire of Broadmeadows! Magdala was destroyed by fire in 1927.
(* The Melbourne Story P.220.)

While reading Wilbur Smith?s ?Cry Wolf?, I came across the probable origin of the name of Theodore Napier?s property. Nearly 70 years before 1935, ?the British general Napier had marched on MAGDALA with less than fifty thousand men, meeting and defeating the entire Ethiopian army on the way, storming the mountain fortress and releasing the British prisoners held there?? Webster?s New International Dictionary gives the following details for the entry NAPIER OF MAGDALA: Robert Cornelis Napier, first baron, British general, 1810-1890. Magdala, south west of Lake Tana, is situated at roughly 39 degrees west and 11 degrees north.

John Murray Peck, the co-founder and action man of Cobb and Co., who was probably the first Yank to hold an official position in Aussie Rules (V.P.of Ess. F.C.), built Lebanon in 1882 and the Italianate mansion still stands in Wendora St. Lebanon was his native town near the Mascoma River in New Hampshire, U.S.A. About a decade later, his son, Harry, built ?Hiawatha?, where he wrote most of his ?Memoirs of a Stockman?; this house still stands at the top of Kilburn St. Others involved in the history of section 15 were William Smith, who ran the Young Queen Inn across the bridge, William Jones, John Kernan, the Kilburns, Samuel Jackson, and William Salmon who had a farm of about 140 acres on the north side of Rosebank and Magdala. A Grammar School planned to move to section 15 in the 1920?s; this explains many of the street names such as Head St.


SECTION 15 TITLE INFORMATION.

The map on P.21 of ?Broadmeadows: A Forgotten History? shows the subdivision of section 15 reasonably well, but Andrew Lemon has made several mistakes, one of which is referring to Brewster?s grant as being section 5.

His research did not reveal that Brewster bought section 15 in partnership with Philip Holland. Lemon shows a huge area between the land labelled Napier and Holland. This was part of the land conveyed to Holland when they partitioned the unsold portion of the grant. Lemon failed to show Sir John Franklin?s purchase of the northernmost 12 acres (adjoining section 23, which Franklin also owned).

NAPIER.(MAP.)
*This envisaged government road was probably Pascoe Vale Rd, which was a track through paddocks to Sydney at that time; travellers made a beeline to the Young Queen Inn just north of the creek (near Bass St) and then passed through Broadmeadows Township (now Westmeadows.) This map calls Pascoe Vale Rd ?Road to the Young Queen Pascoevale?.

Thomas Napier was first to buy land from Brewster, paying 320 pounds for his 100 acres on 30-12-1845. It had a frontage of 105 chains to the future Woodland St and 10 chains to the future Carnarvon Rd. Its northern boundary, running east to the Moonee Moonee Ponds, is precisely indicated by Glenbervie and Upland Rds. Two roads were reserved out of this land, with Brewster and his successors given right of passage over them. I thought the first, running north from a point 35 chains east of the s/w corner of section 15 would be Napier St, but this street is actually 42 ? chains east, so the road would have run through Napier Park. The second was to run along the north boundary of Napier?s purchase from the first road to the creek with Brewster?s right of passage to be terminated if a government road* was opened along the western extremity of the second road within 6 or 8 chains (C 933).

HOLLAND.
On 19-2-1846, Brewster conveyed 236 acres 8 perches to his co- grantee, Philip Holland, who had received half of the proceeds from land previously sold as well as this land, conveyed for 10/-, as an act of Partition. With a western boundary of 2835 links, Holland?s land adjoined Napier?s and went north to the York/Lloyd St midline (D 20).

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
On 15-2- 1847, Sir John Franklin bought the northern 12 acres of section 15. From Brewster memorials it has been established that the northern boundary of section 15 is indicated by the intersection of Esmale, Lebanon and Amar Sts. From this line, Franklin?s land went 295 links south to the e-w section of Lebanon St (D 847).

WILLIAM SMITH.
The E.J.Brewster 1st and 2nd series do not refer to a memorial concerning the land extending the next 8 chains (roughly) south to Peck Ave. If Andrew Lemon was right, it was purchased by William Smith.

(Luckily Doutta Galla microfiche 85 gave the title application number 13 676. The Sketch of Title under this number contained the following information. The block?s western boundary started 295 links south from the north west corner of section 15 (see frontage of Sir John Franklin?s purchase) and went another 709 1/4 links further south. Its northern and southern boundaries went east 41 chains and 5425 links respectively to the Moonee Moonee Ponds. On 4-2-1848, the same day that McCord, Jackson, Dunn and Callaghan bought their blocks to the south, Brewster sold this block to William Smith, a farmer of Glenroy.

The memorial recording this conveyance (G 460) was not listed in the Brewer index so luckily it appeared in this document. It revealed that William Smith paid L114/0/6. William Smith finally sold it to William Henry Fletcher, yoeman of Yan Yean, on 1-2-1872. The memorial listed for this conveyance (217 310) was consulted. The description of the land was perfectly copied from G 460, which failed to specify the block?s area. Fletcher paid 940 pounds, 8.25 times the price Smith had paid 24 years earlier.)


McCORD, JACKSON, DUNN, CALLAGHAN.
These men bought the land between William Smith?s purchase and the area partitioned to Philip Holland.
They bought their land on the same day as Smith (4-2-1848) and luckily, their purchases were recorded in the E.J.Brewster index.

James McCord?s 35 acres went 658 links south to a line indicated by the end of Roslyn St and cost him L110/5/- (F 81).

Samuel Jackson?s 22 acres 3 roods 9 ? perches went south from there 383 ? links to the e-w part of Loch Cres.and cost L71/15/- (F 80).

Thomas Dunn?s 62 acres and ? perch (2.5 m x 2.5 m) went south 1041 ? links to the northern boundary of Johnston Reserve and cost him L195/6/- (F 242).

Henry Callaghan bought 67 acres 2 roods and 37 ? perches extending south to the York/Lloyd St midline, where it adjoined the land partitioned to Holland, for L237/1/- (F 167).


Further information about the ownership of these blocks and some of the pioneers. Sketch of title 16466 reveals that Brewster subdivided his post-partition land into four blocks, each having a western boundary of 1041 ? links. However lot 4 was sold in two parts (Franklin and Smith) as was lot 3 (McCord and Jackson.) Franklin and Smith?s blocks had a combined western boundary of only 1004 ? links, which necessitated a special survey in sketch of title 16466.


FRANKLIN?S 12 ACRES. This obviously became, with William Smith?s purchase, part of John Murray Peck?s ?Lebanon?. The total of the two, which comprised lot 4 of Brewster?s post-partition subdivision, was about the 34 acres that Lebanon?s owners were assessed on over the years. Neither the 1st nor 2nd series index for Sir John Franklin mentions any sale of his 12 acres. I checked the index for Archibald McLachlan and Frederick Armand Powlett, who acted as his agents at various times. I checked the index for Dame Jane Franklin. There was no mention of this part of section 15, Doutta Galla! In desperation, I returned to the ground floor and consulted Doutta Galla microfiche 85 again.

There I saw 46645s and was partly rewarded when I raced up to the 6th floor to try application 46645. The search certificate referred to Sir John?s purchase of the northern 295 links of section 15 but there was no sketch of title. The search certificate referred to the land being fenced in 1882. This was probably done by John Murray Peck, who had bought William Smith?s original purchase and established ?Lebanon?. I think Peck noticed that nobody used the land between his 22? acres and section 23, so he just started using it as if he owned it. Broadmeadows Shire was receiving rates on his whole 34 acres so there would have been no question of his right to use Franklin?s land. Indeed, in 1879-80, Hugh Peck may have been occupying Franklin and Smith?s purchases when he was assessed on 34 acres; names were listed alphabetically and Peck?s name appears where the name of W.H.Fletcher would be expected to be. J.M. Peck died on 19-11-1903 and he does not seem to have been listed in Broadmeadows? 1899-1900 rate book. It was probably at this time that the Pecks realised that their lack of title to the 12 acre block would be discovered. Did they just abandon it?

In 1879, John Morgan English, had bought Belle Vue ( renamed Oak Park and separated from Franklin?s land only by the creek and Lebanon Reserve) after the death of Fawkner?s widow, Eliza, and converted Fawkner?s single storey weatherboard house into the double storey mansion still standing at the top of Oak Park Court. He leased out the farm to his relatives, the Morgans and Mrs Morgan?s mother, Mary Knight but was still involved in the area, purchasing the 200 acre eastern part of section 23, which adjoined Franklin?s 12 acres. He seems to have done the same as I suspect Peck did earlier and, in 1902, just squatted on the land and paid the rates. In 1926, J.M.English applied for the title to Franklin?s land.. (Application 46645, Broadmeadows Rates.)

In 1920-1, Louisa Ellen, the widow of J.M.Peck had 38 acres, which probably consisted of lot 4 (Franklin and Smith?s purchases from Brewster) plus about 4 acres of subdivision lots in the Byron Vale Estate or another estate nearby.

Why didn?t Franklin sell the 12 acres when the section 23 land was sold? My guess is that he and his heirs (and the titles office) forgot that this land was on a separate title to the St Johns Estate. If he?d left his land to his wife, Dame Jane Franklin, she might have been aware that the 12 acres existed. However he seems to have punished Jane for not bearing him a son. He left her only her clothes and gave the rest of his estate to a daughter from a previous marriage. This daughter had probably never been to Australia.

The confusion seems to have set in when a man named Dunn leased a 123 acre farm from Sir John. He was followed by Elizabeth Guest prior to 1862 but the 123 acre farm was still called ?Dunn?s Farm?. As explained in bold type under section 23, Dunn?s Farm must have included the 12 acres (adjoining section 23) at the northern end of section 15. This lessee could have been Thomas Dunn of section 15 or Edmund Dunn of Viewpoint in Tullamarine.

When the 123 acre Dunn?s Farm was leased to Henry Mawbey for 5 years on 17-2-1862, it was wrongly described as being entirely in section 23. Significantly no boundaries of the farm were described in the memorial! (121 455).

I had intended to include a copy of Sketch of Title 46645 but the clerk?s scribble is so illegible that readers would not be able to make head or tail of it. Here?s what it says.

46645. John M.English.

Part allotment 15 Doutta Galla.

1080 pounds.

Claim by possession.

L.R.O. Sir John Franklin

(see D 847* set out on ??) also see 11578 from which it appears that his widow Jane Franklin is interested.

John Morgan English, the registered proprietor of abutting land in 9 T? Vol. 2209 Fol 441708 (records available only go to volume 999) from which the land applied for was with other land excised **thus necessitating this present application

(* D 847 records the sale of the 12 acres to Franklin by Brewster.)

(** Broadmeadows Rate books show that in 1900 Alex Robertson had just replaced dairyman, Robert G.Bryant as lessee of ?200 acres Doutta Galla? owned by the Hodgson executors. It is known that this was Thomas Kelly?s former eastern portion of section 23, which was roughly between the Strathaird/Menarra St corner and Lebanon Reserve.

His application states (inter alia)

That Crown Grantee was Edward Jones Brewster- But he conveyed

That he has never acknowledged ownership or been called on to do so and no rent or payment has been made by or claimed from him except rent under lease from Land Investment Coy to whom he has sold under contract of sale dated 4 Dec 1923

He occupies under Co lease-

That from 1902 or sometime prior unto: up to 26 June 1918 land was occupied by himself and his brother (probably Joseph English) for grazing purposes and since that date by himself as owner? or lessee as ###? for same purposes:

All rates paid by him or his brother till 1918 and from 1918 to 1923 by him since then by Co. ?? Coy.

Since 1902 a fence has always stood on south boundary of land on south of land applied for- red on survey plan (survey plan not enclosed) and was erected on line upon which an old fence had stood for at least 15 years prior to 1902.

19 Dec 1925 Staty Decl of Harry Huntington Peck

456830 He well knows land in survey plan ???A

(Of course the future author of ?Memoirs of a Stockman? should have known the land; his father had squatted on it for about 20 years.)

He is joint owner of land abutting (on portion of south side ) of red and blue and first became acquainted with (said?) land in 1882 when such land was enclosed by fences on south, west and north west sides shown on plan and land has been enclosed by fences from 1882 (to date?) except that about 1902 a new fence was erected on south on line on which original fence stood since 1882.


WILLIAM SMITH?S PURCHASE. (Lebanon).
Andrew Lemon states that, in 1874, William Jones bought William Smith?s properties, about 21 acres on the north of the creek and a similar area on the south. (P.75.) The 1879-80 Broadmeadows rate book lists William Jones as the owner and occupier of 20 acres at Pascoe Vale, but as this was in the Campbellfield riding it would have been north of the bridge. This was probably the land he bought from Mr Heron in about 1865, and on which he was harvesting 2 tons of hay per acre in 1888 (Victoria & Its Metropolis P.704). The rate collector made no mention of Jones having about 20 acres south of the creek, unless my transcription was faulty.

The owners of Smith?s purchase.
William Smith (not the man associated with Flemington and Moonee Ponds, P.697 Vic. & Its Metrop.) bought the Young Queen Inn from John Watson in December 1842. The inn, being on the most popular of the three routes to Sydney until the Broadmeadows Township bridge was built in 1854(Lemon P.17.) This was on lot 3 of Pascoeville, consisting of 1 acre 2 roods and 5 perches, on the s/w side of the government (Pascoe Vale) road. Lot 4 was s/e of it, probably fronting the creek and lot 2 was n/w of it. The south west boundary was a lane leading from Sparke St to the Moonee Moonee Ponds (Sydney 1523). This memorial, detailing the sale of lot 3 by the hotel?s builder, Edward Butler, to Watson on 29 and 31 May 1841, unfortunately gives no measurements but I think Sparke St would have been near Marks St if all blocks were about 1 ? acres. Fate might have decreed that Smith would never purchase his block from Brewster in 1848. He was charged with the manslaughter of his servant, Joseph Plant, in 1847 but he was acquitted. (?Between Two Creeks? Richard Broome.)

William Henry Fletcher.
It is unknown whether this was the same man after whom Fletcher St in Essendon was named. The latter was granted land including the Target store at Highpoint (Maribyrnong: Action in Tranquility), 260 acres between Maribyrnong-Ormond Rd and a line indicated by Gladstone St- stretching from Scotia St to the Moonee Ponds Creek, and south of this the 320 acre triangle bounded by Epsom and Ascot Vale Rds. Surely he would describe himself as a gentleman rather than a yoeman.

John Murray Peck.
Arriving in 1854, at the age of 21, with three other young Yanks (Freeman Cobb etc.), Peck was the ?action man? who could drive huge teams of horses on the Cobb & Co line that soon opened to Castlemaine. His powerful voice and commanding presence later established him as Australia?s foremost auctioneer of fat cattle. Before moving to section 15, Peck lived at ?Mascoma? in Ascot Vale. (See volume 2.) His family pioneered the area in New Hampshire, U.S.A. near the Mascoma River where the town of Lebanon sprang up. Peck, his London-born wife and their son, Harry Huntinton Peck were buried at the Will Will Rook cemetery.

In the Essendon Conservation Study (Call No. 720.288099 BUT), Graeme Butler confirms some of the title information I have supplied, apart from calling William Smith ?John?. In his entry for ?Lebanon?, Butler states that Smith lost the property surrounding the house to William Fletcher via a series of mortgages in 1872. Fletcher converted the title to Torrens in 1881 and J,M.Peck bought 40 acres soon afterwards*.

John Murray Peck built Lebanon (still standing in Wendora St ) in about 1882.

*As Lebanon consisted of 34 acres, it must have included Sir John Franklin?s 12 acres between Smith?s land and section 23. The Broadmeadows rate book did not state that Peck was leasing the 12 acres so I can only assume that the co-founder of Cobb and Co had just squatted on it and paid the rates, as J.M.English did from 1902. (See details under ?Franklin?s 12 Acres?.)


This land includes the Red Rooster site, where stood the illegally demolished ?Cook?s Homestead?. This name was bestowed on the house by Pascoe Vale kids of the 1930?s, such as the late Jim McKenzie and his future wife Peggy, because it was owned by Broadmeadows Shire Secretary Albert Cook. (See Kilts and Cow Dung Flats.) Its name was actually Wanganui, and it was said to have been built by J.M.Peck of Lebanon. (Sam Merrifield?s House Names Index P.37.) Peggy McKenzie told me that a Miss Roberts owned the Wanganui land (south to the garage site); she was probably related to J.M.Peck, whose wife, born in Bond St, London on 6-6-1840, was Louisa Ellen Roberts. (Gravestone, Will Will Rook cemetery.)

McCORD?S 35 ACRES.
McCord mortgaged this to Thomas Clark for 70 pounds on 1-5-1849 (G 437), and to Charles Payne for 100 pounds on 28-6-1850 (1 997). On 20-4-1853, a memorial entitled ?releases to uses? recorded that Thomas Dunn paid McCord L5450 (X 221). This obviously gave ownership to Dunn, who mortgaged the 35 acres to McCord for 2000 pounds on 17-4-1853, three days before the releases to uses was memorialised (Y922).

On 15-5-1854, the 2000 pounds having been repaid, the 35 acre lot was reconveyed to Thomas Dunn

(12 17). Dunn now owned his original purchase of 62 1/640 acres plus McCord?s 35 acres and five days later, on 20-5 1854, he mortgaged both to Thomas Clark for 2200 pounds (12 20).

Dunn lost both properties to Clark, who sold the part of McCord?s portion of lot 3 west of Pascoe Vale Rd to Samuel Jackson on 18-3-1857. A quarter of a century later, on 8-9-1882. William Lynch signed a contract with Jackson?s agent to buy 51 acres 2 roods and 15 perches for 1500 pounds. As McCord and Jackson?s original purchases total 57 acres 3 roods and 9 1/4 perches, Lynch probably bought only the part of lot 3 west of Pascoe Vale Rd. (Sketch of title 16466).

On 4-6-1856, Thomas Clark conveyed that part of McCord?s original purchase east of Pascoe Vale Rd to Samuel Jackson. John Kernan, who started leasing Merai Farm (between Gaffney St and Devon Rd) from H.G.Ashurst during that year, had obviously contracted earlier to buy from Clark. Kernan directed, as an intermediate buyer, that the land be conveyed to Jackson. This land had a frontage of 625 links to the private road* and the average of the north and south boundaries was 550 links. This equates to 3.4 acres so it is probably the 3 acres 1 rood and 5 perches that Samuel Jackson?s agent contracted to sell to Elizabeth Cochran (sic) for 600 pounds. This agreement was dated 23-5-1882. The land is recorded only as being in Doutta Galla and the unfortunate clerk compiling the sketch of title wrote, ?Where is this??

Elizabeth Cochrane (the spelling used on the search certificate) had become the wife of Edward Egbert Welby by the time she applied for the title, which was issued on 2-5-1884. (Application 16359.) She was probably the widow of John Cochrane, who had leased Glenroy Farm (between Rhodes Pde and Hilton St) from the Kennedys from 1853 until 1874, when it was sold to William McCulloch.
(?The Stopover That Stayed? G.Aldous, ?Broadmeadows: A Forgotten History? A.Lemon.)


In the Essendon Conservation Study, Graeme Butler states that this land was subdivided as the Byron Vale Estate, declared by A.W.Craven in 1886. Because of the 1890?s depression, this subdivision fizzled, like so many others.

In 1920-1, Harry Peck of Hiawatha (top of Kilburn St) owned 5 acres on which his house stood (probably the whole south side of Kilburn St), 20 acres adjoining Lebanon (Jackson?s purchase from Brewer?) and, with his brother Richard, 18 acres at the Carnarvon Rd end of this estate. As George Gibson had 5 acres and Ralph Lind a house and land (possibly 5 or 7 acres), the 20 acres had to be Jackson?s purchase.
(* The private road was Pascoe Vale Rd, which despite being the main route to Sydney in early days and retaining the name of Old Sydney Rd for many decades, had never been declared a government road. It looks as if Brewster?s expectations of 1845 were never realised. See Napier?s purchase details.)


JACKSON?S 22 13/16 ACRES.
In ?Broadmeadows: A Forgotten History?, Andrew Lemon states that William Lynch paid Samuel Jackson L1500 for 51 acres close to Pascoe Vale station on the Strathmore side, in 1882. Broadmeadows? rate book of 1879-80 shows that Joseph Nixon had just replaced Samuel Jackson as the occupant of 40 acres in Doutta Galla and Jackson himself was assessed on houses and 15 acres in Doutta Galla.

The entry for Mrs Ellen Jackson on P.704 of Victoria and Its Metropolis shows that in 1888 Sam?s widow was living on 18 ? acres at Essendon. A gardener, Sam followed this trade for a while after his arrival before taking to farming on 52 acres of purchased land. The 52 acres (actually 51 acres 2 roods and 15 perches) seems to have been that part of McCord and Jackson?s original purchases west of Pascoe Vale Rd. The details of Samuel Jackson?s acquisition of the northern 658 links of lot 3 and his conveyances to Lynch and Mrs Cochrane in 1882 are given under the previous heading.


DUNN?S 62 ACRES AND ? PERCH (2 ? M X 2 ? M).
Apparently from 20-4-1853, Dunn also owned McCord?s 35 acres and the last mention in the 1st series index was of Dunn mortgaging both to Thomas Clark as mentioned above. This land was lot 2 of Brewster?s post ?partition subdivision and was to pass into the hands of Clark, Michael Brown (11-3-1856) and John Kent Pow (22-7- 1863). Pow mortgaged it to his northern neighbour, Samuel Jackson on 22-2-1865 and it was reconveyed to him on 24-7-1868. On 8-10-1870, Pow sold it to Douglas Thomas Kilburn of Essendon for 1200 pounds. Kilburn, the grantee of much of Hugh Glass?s Flemington Estate and the 163 ? acres across Keilor Rd from Springfield had recently bought 400 acres of section 3 Tullamarine and named it Fairfield. D.T.Kilburn died on 10-3-1871. His will of 19-11-1870 appointed his wife, Anna Maria, and Edmund Augustus Cartwright as executors. The title was issued to Anna Maria Kilburn on 4-4-1887. (Application 21915.) Andrew Lemon gives the impression (P.77) that Buzzards sold lot 2 in 1886, but surely the title would have to be issued first! Despite this discrepancy, Lemon gives a good description of the property, which consisted of 56 acres west of Pascoe Vale Rd and 6 acres on the creek side of the road. The sand was probably being extracted from the creek by Michael Fox, who continued to do so for many decades (as described in George Lloyd?s ?Mickleham Rd: 1920-52?), despite his acquisition of 18 C and D, Doutta Galla and ?Barbiston? at Tullamarine.

Like Byron Vale, this subdivision fizzled. In 1920-1, subdivision was being tried again, obviously by Mrs Emily Lind and Ralph Lind. The Pascoe Vale Estate had frontages to Lind St, Vernon St, Hood St (demolished for the freeway C 1967) and Lincoln St (Carnarvon Rd).

CALLAGHAN?S 67 ? (ALMOST) ACRES.
Callaghan?s land was lot 1 of Brewster?s post-partition subdivision. All four lots had 1041 ? link western boundaries, the difference in their areas being caused by the course of the Moonee Ponds.

The 1st series index for Callaghan mentions two memorials which I presume are mortgages.

4 388. Thomas Napier paid 1000 pounds to Callaghan on 28-11-1853.

69 901. Mary McLachlin paid 700 pounds to Callaghan on 9-10-1858.

Broadmeadows? ratebook of 1863 shows that Patrick Callaghan was owner and occupier of a house and land (nett annual value L22) and was leasing a basic house to Bridget Murphy. Lawrence McLachlan (Mary?s son?) was leasing a farm (N.A.V. L46) from John Kernan.

The 1920-1 ratebook reveals that the Callaghan family was still involved in the area. Mrs M and Frank Callaghan were named in connection with the Sunrise Estate (between the Essendon Hill and Terminus estates).

Sketch of Title 370 reveals that the property was also mortgaged to Thomas Napier (4 388, reconveyed 50 845). The mortgage to Mary McLachlan was transferred to John Badcock and John Guthrie (111 275), with the property then being reconveyed to Patrick Callaghan on 11-7-1863 (137 387). Three days later Patrick Callaghan conveyed the land to John Kernan (130 388)*. Broadmeadows? rate book of 1879-80 shows that James G.Brisbane was leasing 320 acres in Doutta Galla from John Kernan. Andrew Lemon?s map shows that Callaghan and Holland?s purchases were later owned by John Kernan; their total area is 303 ? acres so only 16 acres of this leased land need to be accounted for.

(* On 9-4-1864 John Kernan bought 6 acres 3 roods 3 perches in Doutta Galla and part of section 142 Jika Jika from the Callaghans (138 94). Patrick Callaghan was Henry?s son and heir. The Jika Jika land was part of the Bolingbroke Estate across the creek from the Callaghan/ Holland purchases. This explains why Kernan St and Kernan Ave are only 840 metres from each other.)

PHILLIP HOLLAND?S 236.05 ACRES.
On 11-8-1846, Holland leased this land to R.MacNamara and Duncan Cameron for 100 pounds paid before sealing and a rent of 70 pounds p.a. (D 376).

On 5-4-1852 Holland sold the land to James William Dunbar for 608 pounds. As Mary MacNamara and Duncan Cameron were named as the parties of the second part, I presume they were still leasing the land(P 635).

The MacNamara name was associated with the area for a long time and a street name in Airport West recalls this. The Camerons were early lessees on ?Glenroy? (sections 6 and 1 Will Will Rook, 2313 acres), which they were said to have named. The Dunbar name was associated with the Moonee Ponds (Dean?s) and Flemington Hotels.

Edward James Kernan?s application for title (21650) indicates that I may have misread Dunbar?s purchase. The lease of 11-8-1846 had included the option for Robert McNamara and Duncan Cameron to purchase the 236 and a bit acres. On 11-12-1852, this option was exercised despite Robert McNamara having died. The land was partitioned with the McNamaras taking the northern 1285 links and the Camerons the southern 1550 links. The boundary between the two is the Kernan St/ Henshall Rd midline and explains the bends in Bournian and Collegian Avenues. The McNamara land was conveyed by Robert McNamara?s widow, Mary, to her sons Matthew and Joseph on 27-4-1853. Mary McNamara was about to marry John Kernan. The McNamara land , north to the York/ Lloyd St midline (which explains the other bends in those two streets) was lost to the Bank of New South Wales, which sold it to John Kernan on 3-9-1875.

The Cameron land, south to Glenbervie/Upland Rd, passed into the hands of Thomas Knight Bennett, who sold it to John Kernan on 20-9-1873 for 2634 pounds. Kernan mortgaged it to Josh Henry Kay who died. John Kernan also died, on 6-1-1877. He left no will but on 29-3-1877, probate was granted to his widow Mary and John Kernan (junior). On 22-6-1877, Kay?s executors reconveyed the land to John Kernan?s executors. The land was mortgaged to John Kernan?s great mate, Michael Loeman of Bulla, on 17-2-1880 and despite the mortgage apparently not being paid off, Loeman agreed to Edward James Kernan?s application to apply the certificate (of title) to himself.

Three interesting details found in sketch of title 21650 are:

(a)Edward James, Mary Jane, Mary and John Jun. were the only Next of Kin of John Kernan.

(b)Pascoe Vale Rd was called ?Road to the Young Queen, Pascoevale.?

(c)This could be a mistake but Bulla Rd might have originally branched off Napier St and is shown meeting the future Mawbey Rd / Lincoln St/ Carnarvon Rd near Alf Pearce Park. It was called ?Road from the Springs to Melbourne?. This could be correct as even in Tullamarine the ?Old Mt Macedon Rd? did not follow the present course of Melrose Drive; in 1844 it was west of Barrie Rd on section 21, Doutta Galla, where William and John Foster established ?The Springs?.

This is the map shown on sketch of title 21650.

NAPIER?S 100 ACRES. (Without repeating too much of information already on Bruce?s web site.)
Thomas Napier called his farm Rose Mount in 1847 but the mount or Napier?s perception of its height shrank so that the name was adapted to Rosebank. Thomas gave the western end of the farm to his son, Theodore, who named this portion Magdala. At the time of Thomas?s death in 1881, Magdala consisted of 20 acres (east only to a point opposite Salmon Ave) and did not include Napier Park, which he donated on 20-8-1920. In 1900, Magdala was still only 20 acres and was being leased by John Scott. In 1920-1, obviously after the donation had been deducted, Magdala consisted of 33 acres extending east to Noble Ave, and was occupied by Theodore. Before the donation, Magdala would have comprised 43 acres.

Thomas Napier?s widow remained in the stone and brick house (apparently just west of the later mansion) on 23 acres until the property passed to her daughter Eleanor in about 1891. During the next two years Eleanore?s husband, George Page Barber, built the house at the n/w corner of St Vincents. The 1899-1900 rate book of Broadmeadows Shire assessed the nett annual value of the house at 200 pounds, ten or 20 times as much as most houses. Eleanore Barber?s ?Rosehill?, 22 acres surrounding the house, had a N.A.V. of only 50 pounds; it would be far more valuable than the well-kept mansion today.

Barber died on 26-3-1914 and Eleanore two days later. Their son, Dr Norman Charles Barber subdivided the property as the Rosebank estate.
(Essendon Conservation Study, 1847 directory, rates, ?Annals of Essendon? R.W.Chalmers.)

In 1879-80, Thomas Napier was listed as the occupier of 80 acres. Ten acres of this, immediately across the Moonee Ponds Creek from La Rose, seems to have been traditionally leased by the occupants of that 270 acre farm. On 13-10-1873, Thomas Napier agreed to lease this land to William McCulloch from 1-8-1873 for three years at a rent of 10 pounds p.a. The land had been previously occupied by James Robertson, owner of La Rose, who had leased his farm to McCulloch. It is unlikely that McCulloch of riverboat fame saw out the lease as he bought Glenroy Farm from Donald Kennedy?s widow in the next year or so.(Search 8066E, McCracken letters). Because the part of Rosebank between the railway and creek is split among four Melway maps it is difficult to calculate its area. However, using the south and north boundaries of 10 and 29 chains (obtained by deduction from dimensions in memorials), I have reckoned it as 4.5 + 10 + 4.5 acres.

In 1920-1, Mrs A.Walker was leasing 20 acres, on the creek and on the north side of Woodlands St, from Willy, close enough to my calculated 19 acres. Apart from the Rosebank estate, also listed in Woodland St were: Harry Hudson, house and land and Michael J.White 22 acres* and a house and 15/2? acres. Magdala was 33 acres, the park 10 acres, Mrs Walker had 20 acres, White had 22 acres and the last confused entry should be 15 acres; these add up exactly to the 100 acres purchased from Brewer 75 years earlier.
(* The same land Eleanore Barber had in 1900.White was either leasing the land or an agent for Barber.)

SECTION 16.
The first map, part of the 1860 Geological Survey, shows different allotment boundaries to those existing when section 16 was alienated in 1862 (n/e of Bulla Rd)and 1865.

This was the old Town Common. It was surrounded by Treadwell Rd, the latitude of English St (Mawbey?s Lane), Mawbey Rd ( later called Lincoln Rd or St, now Carnarvon Rd) and Keilor Rd. Mawbey Rd, shown on the eastern boundary of section 15 in sketch of title 16466 of about 1882 and still known by that name in 1942 according to Harry Peck, ran along the eastern boundary to St Johns where John Mawby was leasing land from Lady Franklin in 1863. Search Certificate 11578 of 1890 shows that Mawbey?s Lane ran between section 16 and section 23 to the north. (See section 23.)

These maps, from the sources specified above, show Mawbey?s Rd and Mawbey?s Lane.

The portion of section 16 east of Bulla Rd., in the Broadmeadows Road District, was sold in 1862 with W.Williams buying 8 of the 13 blocks of roughly 20 acres. His land occupied most of the area (between the N-S runway and Carnarvon-Arvon Rds) north of the freeway and south of the latitude of English St, which is the northern boundary of section 16.

SUMMERHILL.
Lot 13 (of 14 ? acres) bounded by Bulla Rd., Woodland St. and the eastern section boundary, Lincoln Rd. (Carnarvon Rd.), went north far enough to include the Cranwell Ave. houseblocks. In 1863, Townsend Somerville, was leasing it from the grantee, R.Chance, and in 1879-80, Sommerville was rated on land with the same value as Theodore Napier?s nearby 20 acre Magdala. ?House Names of Essendon? calls Berrena, the ?home? in 1882 of Essendon?s Clerk of Courts and Electoral Registrar but this might have been the name of a building in which his office was located. Commenting on Somerville?s death, the Essendon Gazette of 10-9-1891 stated that he?d lived on his Essendon property ?Summerhill? for 40 years. Why was his name so seldom listed in directories for Essendon and never for Moonee Ponds (except as follows) and Ascot Vale? It is known that he spent the last two years of his life at present No. 26 Ardmillan Rd., Moonee Ponds, probably to be near a doctor. The 1888 directory for Essendon has him listed under Deep Creek Road as follows:

Mt.Alexander Rd. John Bruce (west side), Keating brick yard, Lincoln Rd., W.T.Kendall vet. Surgeon, Robert Spivey, Townsend Somerville.

There is fair evidence that lot 13 was ?Summerhill?. It is likely that, in 1920-1, the house and 14 acre property was owned by Edward Wood. He was possibly a son of Mary Wood who had owned the nearby Essendon Hotel* for over half a century when she died on 26-4-1906. (* the Grand presently, formerly De Marco?s.) For Somerville to have lived on lot 13 since 1851, he would have had to have leased the land from a squatter such as John Foster before the town common was declared and then been allowed to continue his occupancy by Chance from 22-7-1862. Certainly this location was handy to Keilor where he, as Clerk, and Charles Shuter, as Police Magistrate, conducted the Court of Petty Sessions every Tuesday in 1868. The courthouse later became the Shire Hall.


Incidentally the bends in the streets either side of Bulla Rd. (at Kerferd St. to the west and in the middle of Dublin Ave. etc.) were caused by a diamond shape in the subdivision plan, the northern half of it covered now by the airport.


Broadmeadows Road Board/Shire extended south to Woodland St on the eastern side of Bulla Rd (until 1979). By 1863, it seems that the Franklins had bought land in section 16. As Young and Morby (sic) were wholly occupying section 23, the farm (N.A.V. 90 pounds) that James Smith was leasing from Lady Franklin had to be in section 16. Williams still had land (N.A.V. 72 pounds and leased to Alex. Kearney), J.T.Smith had the 19 ? acres between the walking track and Carnarvon Rd, and Sommerville was leasing quite some house (N.A.V. 27 pounds) on the 14 ? acres (now bisected by Wood St) owned by R.Chance.

In 1880, Thomas Kelly had land (N.A.V. 134 pounds) in the ?Essendon Division?. This was not the eastern part of section 23 because Robert McDougall was occupying that 200 acres (which Kelly had leased from 1871 and bought in 1875) so it had to be on section 16. Sommerville had bought Chance?s grant, which now had a N.A.V. of 50 pounds.

By 1900, Henry Carr had bought 44 acres on Deep Creek (Bulla) Rd. Michael Fox, a contractor of Keilor, had a small block on Essendon Hill, where he probably kept the horses and drays used to carry the sand he obtained from the Moonee Ponds Creek. Martin Delaney, also a contractor, was leasing 20 acres (lot 10, i.e.Alf Pearce Park) from J.Lyons. Jane Anderson and dairyman, Alfred Smith, also had small blocks. The rate collector only seems to account for about 70 of the 230 or so acres in the Broadmeadows portion of section 16.

The 1920 rates show that John S.Kelly (of Blair & Sons, Melb.) had 199 acres, Edward Wood the 14 acres bisected by Wood St and Thomas Lyons the 20 acres including A.Pearce Park. This rate collector, with the aid of geographical instead of alphabetical listings, was able to account for all of section 16 within the shire.

The confusion in 1900 might have been caused by subdivision. First Avenue, on lots 10 and 9 (both granted to Williams), was declared a Public Highway on 27-5-1887. Second Ave, obliterated by the freeway, was obviously part of the same subdivision. Due to the 1890?s depression, the subdivision probably failed and much of the land would have been vacant.

The western part of section 16, under Keilor road board/ shire from 1863, seems to have been subdivided twice. The 1860 survey map (see start of section 16) shows it divided into lots 1-9 and 20 south of a road leaving Bulla Rd opposite Woodland St and running (parallel to Keilor Rd) almost to Treadwell Rd. It met another road running from the Keilor/ Treadwell Rd corner to the corner of English and Bulla (Wirraway) Rds, which separated lot 23 (adjoining 17B or ?Niddrie?) and lot 22 which contained road metal quarries. Lot 25 takes in the area of Royal Ave and lot 24 the Orange Grove area. I presume lots 10-19 etc were to be on the east (Broad-meadows Shire) side of Bulla Rd. The Keilor Shire part of section 16 may have been sold three years later than the eastern half because the quarries on lot 22 were still required. (Perhaps until the quarry on William Dewar?s Glendewar at Tullamarine could supply enough ?Dewar?s metal? to use on Bulla Rd. as the Keilor Roads Board had requested on 24-8-1867.)

Again in blocks of about 20 acres, continuing the ?diamond inside a quadrilateral? pattern, and with Treadwell (Nomad) Rd. as its western boundary, the Keilor portion was sold to five men in 1865*. South of the freeway course, fiery and recently deposed Essendon councillor, B.J.Cooke bought the blocks fronting Keilor Rd. to about Birdwood Ave. and Dr. J.Harbinson, from Northern Ireland bought all the blocks on the northern side of Kerferd St and fronting Bulla Rd. Much of Cooke?s land became the Devonshire estate where streets were named after Premiers. The next few streets west were probably named just after the Prince of Wales? visit in 1920. Officers of his ship, the Renown, planted pine trees along the river near Aberfeldie Park. Field Marshall Birdwood commanded Australian troops early in W.W.1. The land between Bulla Rd and Kerferd Rd was sold as the Royal Gardens Estate.

The land north of the freeway was bought by D.Mairs (see journals re Blackwood and Bittern) , T.G.Anderson, and Samuel Mansfield from Tullamarine. Mansfield farmed there for many decades. Sam had blocks between Birdwood Ave. and Treadwell Rd. as well, with the farmhouse near the s.w. corner of the airport. Mairs received the grants for about 73 acres between the intersection of the two runways and (almost) Vaughan St. By 1900, Walter Aitken was leasing (possibly from John English) a total of 113 acres. This land consisted of lots 29 and 32 (north of where eastbound Calder Freeway traffic tries to merge, granted to Anderson) and 31, 33-36 (Mairs? grant). C.Aitken had been farming the same 113 acres in 1893.

The western 17 chains or 340 metres of the airport are part of ?Niddrie?. (See 17B.)

SECTION 23.
This was granted to corrupt magistrate and Crown Lands Commissioner, Major G.F.B.St.John in 1843. J.P.Fawkner exposed his bribe-taking and he fled home embarrassed in 1848. Lady Franklin bought the 516 acres and in 1863 leased three farms to men such as John Morby*. Later Henry Stevenson of ?Niddrie? bought 300 acres called St. Johns and Robert McDougall of Arundel had 200 acres to the east. John Hall was supposed to have owned part of section 23 north of an easterly extension of Moore St as part of South Wait according to a parish map but this could not be possible. Early this century, when Gordon Connor was being taken from Moonee Ponds to his Grandma Nash?s Tullamarine farm every Christmas, Cam Taylor?s St. Johns was always green in summer because of Essendon?s nightsoil being dumped there. Jack Howse had South Wait, between Bulla Rd and the n/w part of section 23, on which he had a slaughteryard. On 3-8-1921, John George Taylor, probably Cam?s father, sold 91 acres of St. John?s to the Commonwealth Government. A 15 acre lot on section 16 was also purchased to enable sufficient length for the runway and eight days later St. John?s Field opened. On 7-8-1923, it was given the official title of Essendon Aerodrome. Cameron and J.G.Taylor might have been related to G.W.Taylor, who bought many properties in the late 1880?s north of section 23, in the hope that a railway to Bulla would follow Bulla Rd; in case it hugged the west bank of the Saltwater River, he also bought section 18 land.

(* This spelling was used in Broadmeadows? 1863 ratebook. Harry Peck spells it Mawby. The 1866 and 1871 Kensington directories, and title documents, spell the name Mawbey. Mawbey or Mawbey?s Rd was an early name for Carnarvon Rd and was still being used in 1940 according to Harry Peck. Mawbey?s Rd is shown on sketch of title 16466 of about 1882.) Mawbey?s Lane separated sections 16 and 23.

TITLE INFORMATION.
Section 23 is east of Vickers Ave and north of English St with its s/e corner indicated by Lebanon Reserve. It was granted to Major George Frederick Berkley St John on 22-2-1843 and the part east of Bulla Rd consisted of 525 acres. St John?s corruption, as a police Magistrate and Crown Lands Commissioner, was exposed by John Pascoe Fawkner, his neighbour north east of the creek. According to C.P.Billot in ?The Life and Times of John Pascoe Fawkner?, St John sued Fawkner for libel in 1848 and won the case. However the costs awarded against Fawkner amounted to peanuts and embarrassment caused St John to resign his position.

Incidentally Billot manages to spell Berkeley a bit better than the titles office clerk responsible for search certificate 11578.

Sketch of Title 11578 seems to indicate that St John made Charles Hotson Ebden a dower trustee on 25-2-1843 (B 304). On 17-12-1844, section 23 was conveyed to Sir John Franklin by Ebden, Frederick Armand Powlett (who was probably also a trustee) and St John (c 341).

On 31-3-1852, Sir John and Dame Jane leased 414 acres of section 23 to Thomas Lawson for 10 years at a rent of 100 pounds p.a. This land went east to ?Nursery Corner?. On 17-3-1862, Henry Mawbey (mentioned by Harry Peck) started a 5 year lease of 123 acres commonly known as Dunn?s Farm and recently occupied by Eliza Guest. As mentioned before, section 23 only consisted of 525 acres, and these two farms had a total area of 537 acres. Dunn?s farm actually comprised 111 acres of section 23 plus the northernmost 12 acres of section 15.

Running from the present Arvon Rd to the Moonee Ponds Creek, this section 15 land ran 295 links south from the Lebanon/Amar St corner to the Lebanon/ Melissa St corner. Franklin bought it from E.J.Brewster on 15-2-1847 for 48 pounds. Because the block was always referred to as part of section 23, there is no sketch of title in J.M.English?s application for title No.46645. When Franklin died he gave Dame Jane, who had borne him no children, only her clothes and left his estate to a daughter from a previous marriage. This 12 acre block was fenced in 1882, possibly by John Murray Peck, but was never sold by Franklin. English claimed title through long occupation.

On 16-2-1863, Thomas Henry Lawson Young agreed to lease 419 ? acres at 294 ? pounds p.a. Young obviously did not see out the lease as on 1-6-1871 Henry Mawby bought 525 acres from Dame Jane Franklin. Earlier on 28-2-1871, Mawbey had memorialised a lease in duplicate in which Thomas Kelly agreed to pay him 200 pounds p.a. for 5 years for 200 acres (poorly described but probably the land later occupied by Robert McDougall.)


On 28-6-1871, Mawbey mortgaged section 23 to Bishop Charles Perry for 2500 pounds. By 9-10-1873, Mawbey was forced to mortgage it (now 521 acres) to Tondeur and Lempriere. He was now a meat preserver at Warrnambool and Mawbey, Collins & Co. owed money to the Melbourne merchants. Mawbey conveyed the 525 acres to Lempriere for 5645 pounds on 23-7-1874 and on 23-1-1875 his mortgage was cleared. On 23-2-1875, William George Lempriere leased 310 acres 23 perches (St Johns Farm) to Thomas Kelly and mortgaged this farm and the triangular 26 acre 1 rood 20 perches (the s/w corner of section 23 on the other side of Bulla Rd) to Joseph Henry Kay for 4000 pounds. On the same day, Thomas Kelly surrendered the lease on 200 acres (from Henry Mawby) that was memorialised on 21-2-1871. The lease had been intended to run for another year. Vol. 246 folio 901 memorialises a conveyance in fee of the next day in which Thomas Kelly paid Lempriere 5162 pounds for the eastern 206 ? acres of section 23. On the next day (25th), Kelly mortgaged this 206 ? acre twice to Lempriere and his partner, Andrew Murray of Wool Wool (near Larpent) for 3500 pounds (V.246 f.902) and 1074 pounds 18 shillings (V.246 f.903).


Henry Stevenson paid Lempriere L7066/17/- on 23-3-1877 for St Johns Farm (310 acres) and the 26 and a bit acres at the s/w corner of section 23. By 1920 Cam Taylor was farming St Johns whose grass was green in the driest summer because of Essendon?s nightsoil. J.G.Taylor sold part of the farm to the government for Essendon Aerodrome not long after.

Lempriere?s sale of the eastern 206 ? acres to Kelly seems to have been short-lived as, on 20-8-1880, Lempriere transferred the mortgage on this farm to John Ware from whom he received 3500 pounds.

Although no memorial has been found, Lempriere, or perhaps Kelly, seems to have sold or leased this land shortly afterwards to Robert McDougall who was assessed on ?200 acres, Doutta Galla? in 1879-80.

Broadmeadows? rates of 1899-1900 show that it was owned by the Hodgson executors and had been farmed, along with Oak Park, by Robert Bryant and then Alexander Robertson who had just replaced him. (A parish map of about 1890 shows that Hodgson had 225 acres and Stevenson?s ?St Johns? was now only 300 acres. It wrongly had the north western 1/3 of section 23 labelled John Hall; Stevenson and Hodgson?s land totalled 525 acres, exactly the acreage of the part of section 23 n/e of Bulla Rd, so Hall couldn?t have had any of it. His land consisted only of 22 B and D.)

My parish map shows section 23 as 515 acres 3 roods and 29 perches. The number of acres given seems to have resulted from a draughtsman transposing the tens and units figures. Memorials consistently show that the part of section 23 east of Bulla Rd consisted of 525 acres. When the 26 acre triangle, now bounded by Nomad Rd, Wirraway Rd and the English/ Vaughan St midline, is added, the total area of section 23 is 551 acres.

The 1920-1 ratebook lists John S.Kelly as renting two houses and a total of 199 acres from Blair and Sons. Kelly could have been a descendant of Thomas Kelly who, after leasing and then buying land in section 23, was recorded in 1879-80 as the owner of land in the ?Essendon Division? (i.e. section 16). J.S.Kelly?s land was in the north-east half of section 16.

BLACKWOOD RESERVOIR.
Cr Millyard was handed a letter written by Mr Williams who wished to speak to the council about the Blackwood reservoir.(Note, this has not been corrected on trove.)

Mr. Williams being called upon, said-I am acting for the public of Blackwood in this matter. The Chairman: Do I understand you rightly to say that you represent the public of Blackwood at this Council today ? Mr. Williams: Well, perhaps that is saying too much; but I am here to request, on behalf of the public interest of Blackwood, that this Council will interfere between Messrs. Walker and Armstrong obtaining a lease of the Blackwood Reservoir, or permission to cut a race therefrom. Mr. Walker has applied to the Board of Lands and Works for the lease of the race, and he also states that this Council has no power in the matter; whereas I am informed that the Council holds a lease of the reservoir, which is the exclusive property of this Council, I also wish permission to be allowed to peruse that lease. - Should Messrs. Walker and Armstrong attain their object, it will create a private interest detrimental to the public interest of Blackwood.

Councillor Mairs: It is important that this Council should take some steps in the matter, and it is also important that Messrs. Walker and Co. should not be put in possession of the property which they are now applying for. I will move-"That the Secretary write to the Minister of Mines, in reference to the application of Messrs. Walker and Armstrong, of Blackwood, for the right to cut a race in connection with the Blackwood Reservoir, and request that such right be not granted, as this Council is of opinion that the right to construct watercourses in connection with the above reservoir should be vested in this Council alone. And that, to create private interests in connection therewith, would be highly detrimental to the interests of this Council, and to the interests of the people of Blackwood." Councillor Graham would second the motion,
believing that it would serve the best interest of Blackwood. Carried.
(P.3,Bacchus Marsh Express, 25-5-1867.)

GREENDALE.
A letter from D.Ryan, which discussed Greendale originally being part of the Bacchus Marsh Road District and the possibility of having to join the Bacchus Marsh Shire, gives much detail about the formation of the Ballan Road District Board. Ryan (the letter is signed D.R.)stated in another letter that David Mairs nominated Blackwood's first rep. and as he was unlikely to forget the Mairs name, the typesetter was most likely responsible for Main. Only part of the letter is shown here and the paragraphing is mine.

In 1862 a few men met at Flack's hotel, Ballan, and petitioned to have Ballan constituted a Road District. The boundary towards Blackwood was fixed by the petitioners at the northern boundary of allotments near Long Gully, owned by Mr. Andrew. But when the boundaries were gazetted no one was more surprised than myself to find that the more important part of Blackwood was brought within the Ballan Shire. Mr. Steavenson did this work by a stroke of the pen.

The residents of Blackwood in those days were both numerous and prosperous. They, however, never stirred to come under the Act, and thereby committed a grievous blunder, as they might easily have formed a respectable municipality themselves, being then the most important centre in West Bourke. Instead, however,the inhabitants of the various townships of which Blackwood is composed were very jealous that any particular little township would be better served than the other three. It would be amusing reading to publish the details of the various improvement com mittees formed at Blackwood from time to time.

For a great number of years past- perhaps from the beginning, the inclusion of the agricultural portion with the mining portion as one Riding has been immensely unsatisfactory. Our interests tend Marsh wards. Some years ago, in accordance with the wish of my neighbours, Mr. Standfield and myself drafted a petition, the purport of which was the annexation of our territory to the town where we transact our business, viz., Bacchus Marsh. Before the necessary signatures were .attached some person gave out that "if you join the Marsh you will have to pay the ordinary rate, a water rate for Messrs. Pearce Bros., and another for the Water Trust." This story travelled quickly amongst my neighbours, and they would believe nothing else. Hence, from that day I became very indifferent as to the disposition of the Shire funds. Three years ago another friend drew a like memorial for the same purpose, and surely enough another story upset this proposal.

No one here grudges the Blackwood people to vote en bloc, as they did at the last election, but a good many criticised the act of 16 voters here who always vote against any neighbour; which, if added to - the other 20 ratepayers who refrained from voting gave this side a big pull back. - Mr. Hamilton is a native of this neigh bourhood-a live man, full of zeal and vigor, and a son of one of the very best men who ever resided here; still, the 16 true men of Greendale voted against him.

To show the cruel wrong Blackwood is inflicting on this part of the Riding I have to go back a long, long road to the first election of the Ballan Road Board District. Election day was a big event for Ballan, yet Blackwood showed the utmost indifference. About a dozen Blackwood people came over on a pilgrimage to Ballan. Among those I now remember were George Moore (a talented man, who died in his native city, Bristol); William Vigor (a favourite); and J. B. Garland, " Bozzy." All now with the majority.

I need not say how Blackwood had no show of electing anyone on that day ; yet, through the good offices of Messrs. Mairs, Fox, and others, we supported Moore, and had him elected the first representative for Blackwood; but entered into a solemn compact with Mr. Moore that none of the money raised on the agricultural portion should be expended in the forest till our roads were made in the agricultural portion. This proposition was ratified; and as a matter of positive certainty Mr. Moore obeyed it to the letter. So did Cr. Mill yard, who succeeded him, except if he saw the Council in good humour he'd ask for ?5 or ?10 " to cut a dangerous sideling," &c. He used to superintend the execution of this work himself, and the Council was the gainer, as he always had full value from the best men he employed.

Barry's Reef at this time was growing strong, and not being on the best of terms with the Golden Point people put forward a resident of their own as candidate at a Shire election. The result surprised everyone as the Barry's reef man went within two of being elected. Barry's Reef people were jubilant, as they knew their strength, which kept rapidly increasing till another surprise was sprung upon the ratepayers. This was an additional Riding, necessitating all the members coming out of office. For the new Council Barry's Reef nomi- nated three of its best men, who were easily elected, thereby taking all the representation. And taking our share of the "Municipal fund, or a great portion of it, to make a forest road which we do not require, and our own roads neglected, and disregarding the compact entered into.etc. (P.1, BME, 3-10-1896.)

DAVID MAIRS.
David Mairs seems to have had a soft spot for Blackwood. This might be because at the time of his marriage in 1857 his address was 35 Roslyn Rd, North Blackwood (according to a genealogical website!) I have had no luck finding any mention on trove of Roslyn Road in Blackwood, Greendale or Ballan. However my search turned up this beauty.
EUREKA!
BALLAN. On a recent visit to our much esteemed friend, Mr. Denis Ryan, J.P., I was favored by the brief but interesting intelligence that the East Riding of Ballan Shire in the first Road Board was represented by Messrs. David Mairs, Denis Ryan, and George Moore. (P.3, Bacchus Marsh Express, 10-4-1909.)

DENIS RYAN, HARRY ATHORN AND GEORGE JACKSON.
Ryan's story certainly differs in some respects from that given in ASPECTS OF EARLY BLACKWOOD.Only a part of Ryan's letter is reproduced here.

MOUNT BLACKWOOD. To the Editor. SIR,-George Jackson would, I think make a good living anywhere. I was present at his wedding at Leahy an Egan's, Bacchus Marsh. He, Tom Spice(r?) (Ballan), and Black Charlie, would surprise any mob of wild bullocks in the Pyrete scrub or anywhere else that they were commissioned to muster. Jackson picked up with Harry Athorn, East Ballan hotel, an expert horseman, Bill and Jim Keating (Keating's swamp, Mount Cotterell), Tom Gregory, Disher, and George Whale of Ballan, joined the party, who started in January, '55, on a pilgrimage through the Blackwood ranges, and fixed their tent on the site of Peter Jensen's property, at Golden Point, Blackwood. They worked on with great success, opened up Jackson's gully, and got heaps of gold. Jackson let me know, so one morning early in March John Leahy, John Edols, myself, and Sergeant Roberts, started for Blackwood Towards evening we came to the camp of our acquaintances, and it was a sight to see the immense quantity of gold in pickle bottles (a pickle bottle held about 12 lbs troy). After getting lost a few times we got back next evening late, jaded and careworn. As soon as I could discharge my obligations I made up my mind to try Blackwood.(P.3, Bacchus Marsh Express, 9-7-1898.)

By the way, George Jackson was living in poverty later and Harry Athorn,(in 1854, a publican at East Ballan who also owned two team of bullocks) later became a butcher and was declared insolvent.

AND NOW THE SOURCE USED IN ASPECTS OF EARLY BLACKWOOD.(The part about Blackwood's name is not included.)
James H.Walsh of Ballan was far too kind to G.B. whose "legend" included not one name.
BLACKWOOD DIGGINGS.
To THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS
Sir,- G B' s interesting article on Blackwood on August 20th recalled a version of the first discovery of gold there, given to me by Harry Densley, a resident of the Ballan district from 1853 to his death in 1919. His version does not differ materially from that of GB but it is more circumstantial and it contains intimate details of the occurrence only to be expected from one who played a part in it. Densley was a native of Van Diemen's Land. He arrived in Victoria with his father in December, l851, his father having been attracted by the gold discoveries. His eldest brother Charles had come to Bacchus Marsh with Captain Bacchus in 1838, and another brother Thomas, came later, so after landing Harry and his father made for there on foot. Immediately after their arrival they started with a party for the Forest Creek diggings but having no success there they moved on to Bendigo, and later to Ballarat where Densley senior, died towards the end of 1852. Harry who was then between 14 and 15 years was brought to Bacchus Marsh, and after a time he obtained employment as a bullock driver from one Harry Athorn, a well known identity of that place at that time. In 1853 Athorn came to East Ballan, and built an hotel there, at the top of the hill to the east of the valley which he named the Travellers Rest. Densley and another bullock driver named Crockett came with him. In addition to the hotel business he had two bullock teams carting on the roads. His account of the discovery of gold at Blackwood given by Densley to me is as follows - "Harry Athorn and Harry Hider were the first to discover gold at Blackwood. They made the discovery in the latter part of I854. Six bullocks that had got away from earlier carters were generally known to be in there on the Laradoc (as the Lerderderg was colloquially, and perhaps correctly, styled by the early settlers), and previous attempts to get them had proved unsuccessful. Athorn and Hider went on three different Sundays to seek them and on the last occasion when in the vicinity of where they were supposed to be running they stopped about mid day to have lunch on the bank of the creek where Golden Point now is. The water was clear. While eating their lunch they saw water worn gold at the bottom of the stream. They collected as much of it as was visible. Overjoyed with their discovery they returned with the gold, and with two of the bullocks, blazing a track out to make sure of finding the place again.

As soon as they returned to East Ballan a party was made up to prospect the discovery composed of Athorn, Hider and three others named Jackson, Dungey and Bellinger, the arrangements being that all were to share equally in any gold discovered. Jackson, Dungey and Bellinger were to do the prospecting while Athorn and Hider found them in food and other requisites. The prospectors begun work in Jackson's Gully (named after one of them) and they camped on the far side of the creek about where the Golden Point bridge is. In some of the holes put down good gold was obtained and in others none but on trying along the course of the creek the party found that gold could be got anywhere in it. I took the first lot of provisions out to them on horseback being guided to them by the trees blazed by Athorn and Hider, and afterwards a man named Matt Cook and I took out a larger supply and some mining equipment. Cook having half a ton on a two horse dray and a like weight on a dray drawn by six bullocks. After leaving Athorn's we went down by Pyke's homestead and crossing Doctors Creek below it followed the eastern bank of that stream through what is now Mr Lidgett's paddock until we reached about where the present road is. We then turned in an easterly direction and kept on until we arrived at the site where Greendale now stands, where we camped for the night near where Mr George Henry Roberts's latest store afterwards stood close to a large pool in which a servant woman in the employ of the Dale's had drowned herself a short time previously. In consequence of this tragedy the pool had received the name of the Lady's Waterhole and I did not like camping near it . On mentioning my doubts to Cook he did not seem to be perturbed and remarked philosophically 'She will not hurt you'

The creek was not then washed out as it is now and it could be crossed easily any where. After starting next morning we kept along the left bank of the creek, over the big hill and on until what is now called the Junction was reached where we again camped for the night. Next night we made for where the prospectors were working at what is now called Golden Point above which Jackson and Dungey met us and cut a track for us through the heavy heath and undergrowth which enabled us to reach the tent at the foot of the hill close to the creek. Throughout the journey we followed the trees blazed by Athorn and Hider but as trees had to be cut and fallen timber removed to give the dray passage our progress was necessarily very slow. The news of the party's operations was soon bruited about, and a considerable rush set in in which a good many early Ballannites took part "
Yours &c.,
JAMES H. WALSH. Ballan, Sept. 12. (P.9, Argus,17-9-1927.)

People of Dromana, you have a great museum but now it's only open two Sundays a month. I don't live in Dromana but I love the town because I have made a connection with its proud past. Unfortunately most members of the historical society, many of whom are descendants of pioneers, are getting on and it is becoming harder to fill the roster of volunteers to open the museum on Sundays. Apart from age, another factor affecting the number of volunteers could be that Dromana residents don't seem to care about the area's proud history.

Here I must praise the Dromana Primary School. By doing a project about the Dromana pier, which could soon disappear and not be replaced , the school ensured that my colleague and I had a most enjoyable day last Sunday, helping two children and their parents. I'm sure that my colleague would have been bored out of her brain if they had not turned up. Not I, though. It would give me a chance to explore the treasures in the museum so that when 20 people turn up, I'll be able to refer them to any information they are seeking.

Hopefully, this journal will inspire you to visit the museum. Instead of telling you that we have thousands of photos etc., I will give you some detailed information about some of the items you can see.

The museum is housed in the Old Shire Office on Pt Nepean Rd, in the third block west of McCulloch St (Melway 159 G7.) Dating from the late 1920's,it was designed by Stewart Calder in the Spanish mission style. It was the shire's first real home, with meetings being regularly held at the Dromana Hotel for many years despite efforts by some councillors to give the Scurfield/Arthurs Seat Hotel a turn.

Near the entrance to the museum rooms are marble memorials to Watson Eaton and Archie Shaw.


WATSON EATON. (Also see HISTORICAL NOTES after the information about Archie Shaw.)
Abraham Griffith,an American like Rosebud's Henry Bucher, was the master of a whaler sailing out of Philadelphia and came to Australia in 1854. By 1855 he had settled on the Survey (Melway 160 H4.) Watson and Bernard Eaton are thought to have come out with Abraham and his wife, Rebecca. Both brothers may have farmed with Abraham but Bernard seems to have spent decades on the gold fields, owning a "race" at Creswick at one time, before returning in the late 1880's to mine on the Tubbarubba diggings. Bernard's unmarried daughter Maude lived out her days in Dromana, dying in 1956 aged in her 90's. Benjamin Eaton, who was possibly Bernard's son was appointed librarian at the Dromana Mechanics' Institute.

In another journal, I have details of Abraham's death, and Watson probably looked after Rebecca when she became a widow. Watson later selected 150 acres at the west corner of (the now-closed) Eatons Cutting Rd and Arthurs Seat Rd (Melway 190 F2.)This land was granted to his executrix, Rebecca, following his death.

Colin McLear had vivid memories of the memorial, which attracted his attention during boring sermons at the Dromana Presbyterian Church where it had hung for 80 years since the building had been the Union Church (shared by several denominations.) Colin stated that Watson had done several years of a medical course but that is not true.
(When researching on trove, I often get sidetracked by a neighbouring article that catches my eye. The article about the inquest into the death of a man, in which Watson Eaton testified that he had never received any medical training or attended university, was one such sidetrack. The digitised version of this article must not have Watson's name spelt correctly and combinations of Eaton with Dromana, Kangerong and words that were in the article achieved no result despite hours of searching. I have recorded the newspaper and issue date regarding this article, and others. about Watson Eaton, but I have no idea where; these details were not in my PENINSULA DISTRICT HISTORY and DROMANA,ROSEBUD AND MILES AROUND(not journals)which were the most likely locations. So you'll have to take my word re the article, which will be pasted here when I find it.)

I'm not going to tell you what the memorial says but you can come to the museum and read it! I'm not sure whether Watson was involved in perhaps the most dangerous thing the pioneer women could do, give birth. The Dromana district was lucky to have women such as Susan Peatey on the Survey, who delivered Henry Bucher's daughter, the first white child to be born in Rosebud. What do the papers say about Watson Eaton?

The district coroner held an inquest at Kangerong, on the 24th inst., on the body of a man named Abraham Griffiths, aged 58 years, a farmer residing at Kangerong. The deceased was seen about noon on the 27th February, driving a pair of quiet horses in a four-wheeled vehicle, on the road towards Dromana. About 3 o'clock on the same afternoon he was seen by a man named James Wiseman, standing by the side of a fence below Mount Martha. Tho body of the vehicle was close by, with the front wheels gone. Tho horses were about 50 yards off. Wiseman spoke to deceased, who did not recognise him. Seeing the deceased was hurt, Wiseman took him home. A sapling six inches in diameter had been broken by the vehicle. The vehicle was in good working order.

William Potter, a constable stationed at Dromana, said that the clump of saplings was a most dangerous one. It was situated within the boundary of the Mornington Shire. Watson Eaton, a partner of the deceased, said that the latter was able to go about for a few days after the accident. Deceased explained that the horses ran away with him down the hill, and that he could not keep them off the saplings.(P.6,Argus 27-3-1874.)
ARTICLE INCOMPLETE. I GAVE UP TRYING TO SUBMIT THE REST A SENTENCE AT A TIME. WHAT A WASTE OF TWO HOURS!

As Mr. Eaton of Kangerong was on his way to Flinders to a sick person, the young horse he was riding suddenly commenced bucking, throwing Mr. Eaton, who fell heavily to the ground fracturing his leg near the ankle. He lay helpless for some time, but at last succeeded (by?) cooeying in attracting the attention of a Mr -- ner, who soon got assistance, and conveyed him to his home. Having considerable skill in setting fractured limbs, he directed the operation himself. We hear that he is progressing favorably, but since it was a bad fracture he will probably be laid up for some time, which will be a loss to the district as he is a most useful man in cases of sickness ever ready and willing to go to any part of the district.
(P.2, South Bourke and Mornington Journal, 24-10-1877.)

Watson's conditioned worsened and he was taken to the Alfred Hospital but he died. Frantically the district sought a doctor to replace Watson, never having worried about getting one while he was alive.

ARCHIE SHAW.
Unfortunately the index for A DREAMTIME OF DROMANA needs some modification. This comes from page 88, which is not mentioned in the index in relation to Ben Shaw.

Benjamin Shaw came to the peninsula as a hawker and settled in Dromana where he established the Kangerong guest house (on the site of a caravan park and the Caltex Garage) in the 1880's. His son, Archibald Vine Shaw married Maude McKeown, this connection recently used to name a reserve in the subdivision of a former McKeown orchard. The Shaw-McKeown reserve is mentioned on the website MORNINGTON PENINSULA DAILY by Gemma Wiseman, a descendant of a very early Red Hill pioneer through whose grant the part of White Hill Rd south of the Sheehans Rd corner (Wiseman's Deviation ) runs. Gemma has posted a very clear photo of the history board at the reserve. The history board states that Benjamin and his wife, Elizabeth, arrived in Dromana in 1875.

The following comments about Gemma's post shows that some people do value Dromana's heritage.

VioletSky said...

I wish there were more signs like this that give a good family and historical history of the area.
July 5, 2012 at 7:31 AM
RedPat said...

It's nice to remember them with some green space!
July 5, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Clytie said...

I love seeing signs that bring local heritage to life ... history is so important!
July 5, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Lindy MacDuff said...

As it should be, so history will not be forgotten.
July 5, 2012 at 12:59 PM
NixBlog said...

Good to see the pioneers acknowledged in this way, Gemma.
July 5, 2012 at 5:12 PM
Pat said...

What a nice tribute - not only a sign but also a nice GREEN area!
July 6, 2012 at 12:14 AM
Dianne said...

no matter how small, a reserve and acknowledgement are treasures
July 6, 2012 at 1:06 AM
PerthDailyPhoto said...

It took some time Gemma, but as Pat says, what a lovely way to be remembered!
July 6, 2012 at 2:09 AM
Francisca said...

It seems we need reminders that our communities are not made up of isolated individuals and our present is linked to those in the past. My screen is not large enough to read the sign, but I'm glad it's there.
July 6, 2012 at 4:09 AM
Lesley said...

what a neat sign that explains so much! and it is a bonus that the descendants are still in the area.
July 6, 2012 at 10:47 AM
itellya, Rosebud said...

Well done to Cr Graham Pittock for seeing this request granted. I'd seen the letter in the folder in the museum and wondered if the desired outcome had been achieved. Mrs McKeown was a sister of Hill Hillis, another early pioneer. Unfortunately the sign is wrong in stating that James McKeown moved from Red Hill in 1875; it should be 1885.
Well done to the Rosebud Chamber of Commerce for the statues and the Waiting Tree history board.
February 24, 2013 at 11:32 PM

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM MY JOURNAL ABOUT THE SHIRE OF FLINDERS.
Mr. Archibald Vine Shaw,of Kangerong, Dromana,died on Tuesday,aged 63 years. Mr Shaw was one of the leading citizens of Dromana, and was a councillor of the Shire of Flinders for more than 20 years, during which he was president on two occasions. Mr. Shaw held office in almost every semi-public institution in Dromana for many years, and conducted the guest house Kangerong for nearly 46 years. (P.6, Argus, 27-10-1932.)

Archie's son Maurice, who ran Shaw's Garage for many years, also ran a bus service which was much appreciated by hinterland residents. In another article (about a discussion by council of this service being stopped from connecting with the Portsea service bus at Moats Corner), Maurie's name was given as J.M.Shaw. It is likely that his first given name was James, his maternal grandfather being James McKeown.
REDHILL. (EXTRACT)The usual bus service run by Mr Shaw from Dromana to Red Hill has been discontinued owing to orders from the Transport Board. This bus was a blessing to local residents, as owing to petrol and tyre restrictions, it was almost impossible to get down to Dromana beach. It was also convenient when necessary to get to town unexpectedly, or, if the early train from town was missed. It will be very much missed, and it is hoped that the service will soon be allowed again to fill the needs of local residents.
(P2, Standard, Frankston, 5-4-1945.)


SOME OLD HISTORICAL NOTES FOUND WHEN I GOOGLED WATSON EATON.
The mistake about Watson's medical training appears here too but the page is very interesting.

Historical Notes

Red Hill 2009 Show Display
A display of photographs was prepared by the society for the Red Hill Show held in March 2008. This event celebrated 150 years of shows on the peninsula and 80 years of the Red Hill Show. Another outstanding display was created in 2009 and is on display in the Historical Museum, Old Shire Offices, 359A Point Nepean Road, Dromana.

Book Launch - A Dreamtime of Dromana
On 8 April 2006 the Society launched the book - 'A Dreamtime of Dromana- A history of Dromana through the eyes of a pioneering family.' Written by local historian Colin McLear, the book has 227 pages, over 100 photographs of early Dromana and contains a detailed index.

Howard Ratcliff Lawson: Builder and Entrepreneur
This fascinating display which was set up in the Museum in 2006, marked the 60th Anniversary of Lawson's death at Dromana in 1946. Lawson had the foresight to see the tourist potential in Arthurs Seat and built an extravagant complex of buildings on the summit including swimming pool, ballroom and viewing area with a camera obscura. Nearby he built several houses but his untimely death put an end to the project. Lawson also was a prolific builder of flats in the South Yarra and Dandenong Road areas.
The display is preserved and will be repeated in the future.

The Hobson Brothers
Edmund Charles Hobson and Edward William Hobson were born early in the 1800's and brought up with their grandparents in Hobart. Edmund studied natural history and medicine and was one of the founders of the Melbourne hospital whilst Edward became an explorer and grazier, and was one of the first settlers between Melbourne and Sorrento. He was also the owner of the ill-fated vessel Rosebud which was wrecked in Port Phillip Bay.
These were the subject of a recent display.

Watson Eaton - Physician to the Pioneers
In November 2002 a small display was set up in the Museum commemorating the 125th anniversary of the death of Watson Eaton in 1877.

Watson Eaton arrived in Australia on board the barque Nimrod from New York on March 1855. He was reported to have travelled out with Abraham and Rebecca Griffith who also came from Philadelphia. Watson Eaton and the Griffith family were neighbours on Jamieson's Survey and were also in partnership together.

Watson Eaton was a bachelor who had completed several years of medical training but had not qualified. Whilst farming on Jamieson's Survey he put his medical training to good use as the community lacked a doctor. Eaton always kept a horse saddled in his stable ready for an emergency. Whether he rode to Flinders or Dromana he charged a flat rate of one pound per visit.

On 21 October 1877 while on his way to a patient he fell from his horse and sustained a badly broken leg which he attempted to set himself. Unfortunately the leg became infected and this led to his death three weeks later on 14 November 1877.
A road between Red Hill and Dromana is known as Eaton's Cutting.

Jetty Store Plaque
A plaque was unveiled on the wall of the National Bank building in Dromana on Wednesday 24 July 2002. It shows the original 'Jetty Store' built on the site.

Matthew Flinders Bi-Centenary
A museum display '1802 and All That' produced to support the launch of the Valda Cole book The Summer Survey: Log of the Lady Nelson 1801 - 1802 under command of John Murray, can still be viewed in the Museum. All copies of the book held by the Museum have now been sold.
A small booklet commemorating the ascent of Arthurs Seat by Matthew Flinders and others on 27 April 1802 is available to purchase.

In February 2002 a ceremony was conducted to commemorate the entry of the Lady Nelson under the command of Lieut. John Murray into Port Phillip Bay on 14 February 1802. This was the first ship to enter the bay. This entry was accomplished after a launch under command of William Bowen with five men had ventured into the bay on 31 January 1802 to find a suitable access passage. They returned on 4 February 1802 and reported to Murray that a 'good channel' had been found. A plaque was unveiled on the monument next to the museum to commemorate these events.

Murray named Arthurs Seat after a similar hill near his native city Edinburgh.

On 30 March 1802 the G?ographe, under the command of Nicolas Baudin, sailed past from Cape Schanck heading south-west, but missed the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. The next week, French officers and men from the Naturaliste, under command of Hamelin, thoroughly explored the coast from Wilsons Promontory up to and including Western Port Bay.

The historic meeting of Baudin and Flinders took place at Encounter Bay on 8 April 1802.

The Investigator under the command of Captain Matthew Flinders entered Port Phillip Bay on 26 April 1802.

Centenary of Federation
Henry Bournes Higgins who lived at 'Heronswood', Dromana, was one of the founders of the Australian Constitution. He was member for North Melbourne in the first Parliament of the Commonwealth, and Attorney General in the first Labor Ministry formed by John Watson in 1904. He died at Heronswood on 13 January 1929 and is buried in the Dromana Cemetery. As a contribution to the celebration of the Centenary of Federation, the Society prepared a small photographic display on the life and times of Henry Bournes Higgins.

Jamieson's Special Survey
The Jamieson Special Survey of 1841 covered an area of 5120 acres (8 square miles) in the Dromana area and was bounded approximately by Ellerina Road to the North, Point Nepean Road to the South, Safety Beach to the West and a N-S line West of Tubbarubba Road on the eastern boundary.

A display relating to the Jamieson Special Survey of 1841 was presented in the Museum during the period July - December 2000. The display included photographs of some of the early settlers in the survey, and recent photographs taken near the survey boundaries. A copy of the survey map produced at the time was also included.

125 Years of Education
On December 19th, 1950, eight small schools - Red Hill, Red Hill South, Flinders, Shoreham, Main Ridge, Balnarring, Merricks and Merricks North, closed to form Red Hill Consolidated School. An era which commenced in the 1870's ended, and a new era began. The 125 years of education was celebrated at the Consolidated School on 1-2 April, 2000.

AT THE VERY END OF THE JOURNAL, I WILL POST SOME QUESTIONS THAT I WOULD EXPECT STUDENTS TO ANSWER IN THEIR OWN WORDS IN ANY PROJECT ABOUT THE DROMANA PIER. STUDENTS WOULD BE ALLOWED TO COPY AND PASTE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES THAT I HAVE INCLUDED IN THIS JOURNAL BUT THESE SHOULD BE USED TO CONFIRM A POINT THAT THEY HAVE MADE IN THEIR OWN WORDS (NOT MINE.)

DROMANA PIER.
John Aitken carried all his sheep ashore when the Chili ran aground.
Peter Pidota loaded timber at Sheepwash Creek for all the piers around.
George McLear said the pier should be built on the Survey coast
But others preferred the present site the most.

Schnapper Point was getting a pier so, in 1858, Dromana tried a deputation;
Mr Scurfield told of the post office and store, timber and a larger population.(1)
In 1859 another deputation asked for 2000 pounds for the pier's erection
But the request was refused: no municipality, so you could try a collection.(2)

At last a jetty Dromana finally gets;
Two thousand pound on the estimates!(3)
More money in '66 to make the pier complete
For the Reliance and others in the coastal fleet.(4)

The pier became longer and longer
But it didn't help when a gale became stronger.
Peter Pidoto's Ripple finished up on the beach
No matter how far into the bay it did reach.(5)

The traders vied for berths with the steamers quite often
Rob Adams would wait with his drag for Lord Hopetoun(6)
And tourists who for bathing and nature were dying,(7)
While the pier sides were bedecked with fishing nets drying.(8)

Steamer passengers kept many guest houses going
And Adams, Hobley, Cairns, Chapman their drags a-stowing.
Rail ran to Mornington for those with sea-sickness forboding;
Also to pier-end for trading craft loading.

Harry Copp, John McLear, Doan Griffith and Fred Vine(9)
Professionally fished with net or with line
But they aged and their maker did meet;
So too the pier, replaced with concrete.

Now our pier deals with neither steamers nor trade
But our greatest efforts to keep it must be made.
At its end, fishermen still love to dangle a line
And strollers think a promenade is just fine.

Our poor old pier is suffering concrete-cancer.
A single contract "demolish and build" is the answer!

1. P4, Argus, 29-10-1858.
2. P.5, Argus, 7-12-1859.
3. P.3,The Mercury, Hobart, 26-2-1862.
4. Dromana stands upon a long, low, sandy ridge, naked and bleak looking. Our party landed on the unfinished jetty, where it appears a considerable trade in timber is carried on. And we may remark, en passant, that it is a good thing for a district to have a Cabinet Minister to represent it; for we understand that a sum of �900 is put down on this year's estimates to complete the Dromana jetty. (P3, South Bourke Standard, 6-4-1866.)
5. P.2, Mornington Standard, 1-11-1890.
6. Robert Henry Adams' Hopetoun House (on the site of the McCrae Car Wash) was named after Lord Hopetoun, Governor of Victoria, who was a frequent guest. A bit of a land-lubber, he preferred to travel the rest of the way to Fort Franklin on land rather than sail all the way to Sorrento.
7. Numerous articles extol the beauty of the area and the fitness freaks loved to climb Arthurs Seat. Bathing consisted of rolling up the trousers and wading because anyone over the age of 10 faced very strict guidelines about attire (as shown on the historic board near the pier.)
8. A DREAMTIME OF DROMANA.
9. A DREAMTIME OF DROMANA.

The first verse is about the Dromana area before it had a pier. John Aitken was one of the earliest settlers in the Port Phillip District (as Victoria was known). He was the first man to have farm animals in the Dromana area, not by choice. This is from an article about Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) in the Sydney Herald of 21-4-1836.
March 22-Sailed, the brig Chili, Captain Nixon, for Port Phillip. Passengers, Messrs. G. W. Sam, John Aitken, R. M'Leod, T. Harrison, J. Gray,T. Forrester.

The Chili went aground near Dromana. Guess which people helped him to carry the sheep ashore. Did you say Boon-wurrung? His sheep would have been a scared and sorry-looking lot and he probably gave them a long rest before he walked them all the way to a hill west of Sunbury. He was there by the time Governor Bourke came from Sydney to deal with John Batman's land-grab and the Governor stayed with him, naming the hill Mt Aitken.
About five years later, Hugh Jamieson bought Jamieson's Special Survey and the part of it near the coast is now called Safety Beach.

SOME RESEARCH.
1. From Melbourne Brindle's map, find: (a) the name of Jonah Griffith's boat (built near Jetty Rd): (b)which fisherman lived on the foreshore opposite Kangerong Avenue or a bit further east?
2. How does something that makes concrete stronger cause the concrete cancer?
3. How long do you think the pier is? Now measure it with a trundle wheel to check.
4. Why do some piers have old tyres where vessels berth?
5. The reserve near the pier including the playground is named after a policeman at Dromana who won the Police Valour Award and worked very hard for community groups. If you are clever find his name on the plaque (or Melway.) If you are very clever look on trove to find why he and his colleague were honoured for their bravery.

THE TOWNSHIP OF DROMANA AND KANGERONG.
The first white man to buy land near Dromana was Hugh Jamieson who bought Jamieson's Special Survey, which had the same boundaries as Safety Beach but went as far east as Bulldog Creek Road. Land could not be sold until it was surveyed and until that was done, by dividing land into parishes and then crown allotments, it was leased to squatters in huge areas called Runs. The Kangerong run had been leased to Edward Hobson who had then moved to the Tootgarook run and later to Traralgon which he gave the aboriginal name meaning river of little fish.The Arthurs Seat Run was leased by the McCraes from 1843 and the Burrells from 1851.

The Survey was leased to Henry Dunn, after whom Dunns Creek is named, from 1846 to 1851 but then was leased in smaller pieces to many pioneers whose families would be the lifeblood of Dromana right up to today. Colin McLear gave much detail about them in his book. It was another decade before Dromana existed.James Holden and Peter Pidoto were based near the Carrigg St corner. Holden had a store and Pidoto a slab hut to house his workers. Both were near the Survey where most of the population lived. Holden wanted to be near his customers and Pidoto near Sheepwash Creek where he loaded timber, wattle bark (for tanning leather) and so on from Arthurs Seat.

By the mid 1850's the parish of Kangerong had been surveyed and sold to such as William Grace, who was granted "Gracefield" in 1857 and planted orchards and grapevines.Some of the land was bought by people, such as Andrew Russell of Essendon, who did not live on their grants. Walter Gibson and Mary Ann McLear moved across the road from the Survey and established "Glenholm" and "Maryfield". As there was no pier, perishable food could not be sold in Melbourne so most farms were self- sufficient. It was hard for farmers to earn money so much barter wasused such as "if you build my fence your bullocks can graze in my paddock." The Skeltons of Sorrento had their bullocks driven to the distant goldfields, where there was a ready market, so they could earn some cash.

Luckily, a local market for the Kangerong farmers came into being in the late 1850's. It is possible that some sleepers came from Arthurs Seat in 1854 for the Sandridge (Port Melbourne) railway which opened on 4-11-1854 but by 1858 there was huge demand for this timber for railways and jetties.These people had to eat and live somewhere so William Grace could sell his fruit and wine, the McLears (later Henry William Wilson) could slaughter cattle and sheep, wheat was needed for flour and carpenters were in demand.

It was natural that the Dromana Township site would be near the timber-getting area of Arthurs Seat.The area south (uphill)of Boundary Rd had been sold to Grace and Caldwell but west of McCulloch St was still crown land. The Township of Dromana was west of McCulloch St and went right to the top of Arthurs Seat (Pindara Rd.)
Towerhill Rd divided larger suburban blocks some of which became the McKeown orchard where the recently named McKeown-Shaw Reserve is now located.The funniest thing about the township was the western boundary near the beach. It was called Burrell Rd which was supposed to go straight up a cliff and join Latrobe Pde where it turns to the south. Of course this road was never made!

Once a township was declared, it was entitled to a post office and a school. They had to be in the township and the post office was at the corner of Foote St and made of green McCrae granite. The rest of what we today call Dromana was section 1 of the parish of Kangerong!

THE RUDDY PIER STORE.
So here we had public buildings near Carrigg St(to service the Survey) and near Foote St (to service the Township). It's almost certain that one of the chores of the Survey children was to pick up the mail on the way home. It wouldn't be long before a general store was set up nearer the township, but where?

Rudduck and Karadoc are two ways to spell an old word, thought to be Celtic, that means red breast. If someone has a ruddy complexion that means red. People who didn't like swearing would use ruddy instead of bloody (blood being red of course.)Gee,thinking about language is fun. I just realised (from Rudduck) that the duck got its name from its prominent breast! Rud=red and duck=breast!

Samuel Rudduck was an early purchaser in section 1 Kangerong. The 103 acre block (about 400 big house blocks)over the road from Safety Beach became known as Karadoc; this being the name of one of the streets on it. Samuel's son, Nelson, was a carrier to and from Gippsland and met Jane Sophia Chapman at Springvale.They married and moved to Dromana soon after their first child was born in 1871.Nelson set up a makeshift store near the pier and later built the Pier Store on the Dromana Hub corner of Pier St. The choice of the site was really very obvious, wasn't it?

HOW KANGERONG BECAME DROMANA.
The terrific place mats at Ray Stella's Dromana Hotel contain a mistake which is my fault. I took Colin McLear's word that Richard Watkin built the Dromana Hotel in 1857,but I discovered last night while researching the pier that Richard Watkin was running the Scurfield Hotel in the township in 1858.

With the pier becoming the focus of the settlement, it is obvious that some residents, especially those on the Survey would want the post office in a more central location.The Pier Store and H.G.Chapman, the blacksmith, were near the pier and several guest houses catering for the steamer passengers and the Dromana Hotel were to the east of Pier St. In about 1927, the old showgrounds far to the east were sold and the present footy ground bought, the old racetrack behind the Dromana Hotel became the Foreshore Estate, all because of Spencer Jackson,who also sold the Panoramic Estate from which Macedon and the You Yangs could be seen.

The Survey may have had some influence in the centre of Dromana moving away from the township but it is fairly obvious that if the pier had never been built, the shopping centre would not be where it is today. Dromana had its pier before it had a road board,it has had its pier for 150 years and without its pier, Dromana will no longer be Dromana!

Children of Dromana, rise up,rise up, I say;
Dromana must have a pier, forever and a day!

SOME MORE RESEARCH.
Letter to the Editor columns in local papers give people a chance to tell many others what they think. The Mornington Peninsula Leader has such letters under the heading of Conversations.In the 5-3-2013 edition, Barbara, Iva and Robert gave reasons why the Dromana Pier must stay.
1. List all the reasons for retaining the pier given by these three people but do not repeat any.
2. Pretend that you are the Government and you don't want to spend money on the pier. Try to argue against these reasons. For example, you might say that you don't need a pier to promenade (stroll) looking at the sea.Try to argue that all the activities we love on the pier can be done without a pier.
3. Of course you really want the pier, so now you have to argue against what politicians might say so they don't have to rebuild the pier.For example, their argument that you can see the sea from the shore can be countered by Barbara's points about the stingrays and the fish swimming under the pier; you can only see such things from on top of the water.
4. Get into groups and try to think of more reasons to retain the pier. It would be good for one of the group to pretend to be a politician who doesn't want to pay for a new pier and does as you did in 2. You then have to defeat the politician's arguments as you did in 3.

POSTSCRIPT. 28-3-2014.
Beside the approach to the Dromana Pier are the George Bishop Reserve to the west and and Ernest Rudduck Square to the east. Colin McLear mentioned the latter in A DREAMTIME OF DROMANA and it was years before I discovered its location by pure chance. Both men were obviously great community contributors but apparently they were also both Shire of Flinders councillors although the LIME LAND LEISURE index on the internet does not mention this, and the heroic George Bishop was not in the index at all.

Therefore I was surprised to find that Dromana Secondary College exists because of George Bishop's persistence. As one of the aims of my research is to acknowledge our pioneers, I often google one of them just to check that I have succeeded. My internet research is usually done from trove (old newspapers)so I hadn't seen this before.

History and Tradition - Dromana Secondary College
Dromana Technical School 1967-1988
Dromana Secondary College 1988-2007

Dromana Technical School 1967-1988 Dromana Secondary College 1988-2007
Albeit minimal in numbers settlement commenced in the district as early as 1838. It would take until February 1861 before Dromana was proclaimed a township. Only thirteen years later in 1874 primary education began with the establishment of the Dromana State School No 184, but it would take another 93 years before secondary education in Dromana commenced.

Cr George Bishop, a Flinders Shire Councillor and Policeman stationed at Dromana, having failed to get a Technical School in Mornington the year before, called a meeting at the Rosebud Memorial Hall in October 1966 for parents of prospective students. He reported to the large crowd in attendance that his tireless work had paid off and he had won the struggle to obtain a technical school at Dromana.

Cr Bishop believed that the time was right to open a technical school to compliment Rosebud High School, a co-educational secondary school that had commenced operation in 1954, and Red Hill Consolidated School which held classes from Prep to Form 4 (Year 10). Any boy however wanting a trade education had to catch a bus and those who resided on the Westernport side of the peninsula, a train to Frankston Technical School.

It was Cr Bishop?s drive and enthusiasm and his no nonsense approach to the community that ensured the establishment of our school. At the time of the opening of the school (107 years after our town?s humble beginnings) the population on the southern peninsula had reached a level where justification was in order for a permanent technical school for the district south of Frankston taking in the areas covered by the Shire?s of Flinders, Mornington, and Hastings.

POSTSCRIPT 2-11-2014.
Robert Caldwell, a member of parliament and owner of the Dromana Hill Estate and Pharos Vineyard at Dromana, gave a detailed reason in 1861 why a pier was needed at Dromana.
Extract from my ROBERT CALWELL OF DROMANA HILL journal.

There were peculiar advantages in the Dromana district. For instance the Government got all their best timber there for sleepers, piles, and telegraph posts; in fact 26,000 tons of produce were annually shipped from the place. The whole of the traffic was done by men wading up to the neck in water, there being not the least pier accommodation. He should support the motion.(Bottom of Column 4, P.6,Argus, 19-6-1861.)

SOME QUESTIONS THAT STUDENTS NEED TO ANSWER,USING COMMON SENSE, IN PROJECTS ABOUT THE DROMANA PIER.
Many answers can be found in other questions. Answer with a complete sentence for each. For example, in Question 4 you should write:
As well as being needed for cooking and heating buildings,wood from Arthurs Seat was sawn into beams and planks for ------- --------, ------- and --------.

DON'T WRITE YOUR ANSWERS,JUST SAY THEM ALOUD TO YOURSELF.
1. What grows naturally and tall in mountainous areas if there is enough soil above the rock? T-ee-.
2. What is the mountainous area near Dromana called? A---ur- Se---.
3. What fuel did people use to cook and heat their houses in the 1850's: wood,gas or electricity?
4. What else was timber from Arthurs Seat used for? Select three.
(Feeding horses; railway sleepers; jetties; making ice creams; buildings.)
3. Why was Dromana chosen by people supplying timber in the 1850's as a place for their huts? Select three.
(Ships big enough to carry timber could get close to shore; there were ice cream shops; timber only had to be dragged downhill to be loaded onto vessels; because of Arthurs Seat making clouds rise it rained more there and many springs supplied good drinking water;it was on the Nepean Highway.)
4. Being near the coast, which type of food could the settlers get without having to farm? F---.
5. Which person mentioned in verse 1 of the poem at the start of the journal carried timber in his ship to Melbourne and coastal towns where piers were being built?
6. Before the pier was built, where did Peter Pidota load his ship?
7. At which tide do you think the loading would have been done; low or high? Explain why.
8. Have you ever been bowled over by a breaking wave at the beach?
9. Have you ever been dumped off a surf board or inflatable boat by a breaking waves?
10.What would make loading or unloading near the shore dangerous? Start your answer with two consecutive words used in both questions 9 and 10.
11. Why would a long pier extending into deep water make it safer to load and unload ships? Choose three answers.(ships would not get wet; ships would not get stuck on the sea bed at low tide; boats would not violently rise up and down because of breakers; those loading or unloading would not get drenched.)
13. What sort of cargo would ships bring back after taking lime from Rye and timber from Dromana to Melbourne?
Remember that many settlers had vegetable gardens, small orchards, chooks, dairy cows and the sea close by. Select all correct answers. (timber; dress and curtain material and clothes;fruit; milk; cheese; flour; water; furniture; fish.)
14.What are two other benefits provided by the pier for Dromana's early residents? Select two.
(They could do bombs like we do; fishermen could unload their catches more easily and drape their nets over the side rails to dry; big steamers could dock there to load and unload tourists who usually stayed for a long holiday but sometimes crammed a drive to Cape Schanck or Arthurs Seat's summit into a shorter stay.)
15. What was the name for the places where tourists stayed? (motels; pizza shops; guest houses.)
16. What were the names of the three most famous steamers? Look in Melway 169 H5.
17. Why did the bay steamers stop coming? Choose three.
(roads had improved; buslines started carrying tourists in the 1920's; more people owned cars; they were all sunk in x-box games.)

I don't think you'll need them but the answers to these questions are in the 2-11-2014 comment box.

Having mentally answered all those questions you now have understanding. Write a few sentences explaining why the pier was needed, a few details about efforts to get one, different ways in which the pier has helped Dromana and provides enjoyment for today's visitors. Try to draw (or provide)at least 8 pictures with informative captions, such as "Loading Peter Pidota's vessel at Sheepwash Creek" or "Drying the nets".

This journal became necessary because the surnames list for the HISTORY BUFF AND BUSHWALKER'S PARADISE journal had become full and would not accept any more names, Matthews being cut off and some others perhaps having disappeared.

It stands to reason that most of Blackwood's early pioneers did not become longtime residents of the district and their descendants could be completely unaware that Blackwood is associated with their family history. I'm sure that Margot Hitchcock will write about most of the families with a long association in the district so I will concentrate on those pioneers who moved on (apart from some transferred from the original journal to create room in its surname list.)

It was in chasing up information for my rhymes of old times journal that I uncovered a fair deal of information about the owner of the Reef Dispensary at Simmons Reef and, thinking it would be difficult to incorporate it all into a poem,decided to add it to my original journal. But I couldn't include the surname in the list. Unfortunately, nothing additional could be found about store keepers such as Frederick Willett and doctors such as Thomas Jones and Caesar Kisser but they'll get a mention in my poems.

THE PIONEERS.
As Margot has no doubt delved deeply into Blackwood families which had long associations with the area,I will not go into great detail about them. I intend to mention pioneers incidentally in THE ANNALS OF BLACKWOOD and include articles about some pioneers that I happen to stumble across, such as William Smith and Charles Dunn.

Three of the pioneers of the Blackwood area, who stayed there only briefly, were Charles Shuter, Pauline Bon Fond and David Mairs. The first two are discussed in my journal ITELLYA IS A STICKY BEAK from which this extract comes.

I have mentioned the lady surveyor in reference to Bernard Eaton in the RED HILL PIONEER journal. The information on that history board became etched in my memory bank because I knew well the difficulty of just walking in the mountainous terrain near Blackwood. I imagined the difficulty of carrying out a meticulous task like ensuring that levels were spot on so that water would flow for miles, with only gravity to propel it, along races such as the one that the Byers Back Track follows to O'Brien's Crossing. I imagined her tripping over fallen branches and bracken fern, exposed tree roots and protruding reef rock (unseen because of her ankle length dress), which would have been fatal if it happened where the race went around a huge granite boulder about an arm's length from a plunge of a hundred metres into the Lerderderg Gorge. How the author of "Those Courageous Hardy Women" would have loved a story like that to demonstrate how courageous and hardy the female pioneers were near Sorrento.

Pauline Bon Fond who came from France
And worked just like a man;
She dug a famous water race
When Blackwood first began.
Pauline Bon Frond. Born Chart, France,May 1820. Died 16-7-1867 aged 47.
(Verse and details from Grace Rayner's THE BLACKWOOD CEMETERY.)

At Greendale, between the Western Highway and Blackwood, there is a Shuter St. I wonder how many Greendale residents know how the street got its name. What a coincidence that there is a street with the same name just south of Puckle St in Moonee Ponds! "Oh really!" as Sam Newman would say. Read about Charles Shuter in Alexander Sutherland's "Victoria and Its Metropolis: Past and Present" (1888.)

Charles and his clerk of courts, Townshend Somerville, brother of an admiral,covered an incredible area.



DAVID MAIRS.(extracts from my journal DAVID MAIRS OF THE PARISH OF BITTERN.)
By googling David Mairs Bittern, you will find "David MairsP100230169 etc" which gives excellent genealogical detail about his ancestors and his wife's as well as all the children, emigration information and so on.
David Mairs married Sarah Taylor on 10-1-1857 at the age of 35 while farming at North Blackwood. Not far from that location is Ballan where David Taylor Mairs' birth was registered in 1867. While still near Ballan in 1861-2, David had bought a total of 74 acres and 22 perches at Melway 16 C 8-9, being crown allotments 31, 33, 34, 35 and 36 of section 16 in the parish of Doutta Galla.
The children of David Mairs and Sarah (nee Taylor) were:
Thomas b.19-3-1858 Ballan; Sarah Jane b.17-7-1859 Ballan; Mary Ann b. 29-3-1861 Ballan, David b.8-1-1863 and died 14-7--1865 Pentland Hills; David Taylor b.1867 Ballan; John Jervis b.1869 Tyabb; Sarah b.1871 Tyabb; William Alexander b.24-2-1876 Tyabb. (Ballan would have been the place the birth was registered.)

GOVERNMENT LAND SALE.Tuesday, 22nd July. 1856. There was a large muster of buyers to-day.
BLACKWOOD,In the parish of Blackwood, surrounding the village of Greendale, on road from Ballan to Blackwood diggings. Upset price, ?1 per acre.
Lot 15. Two hundred and three acres one rood thirty perches, David Mairs (57s. per acre), ?579 1s. 8d. the lot.
Lot 16. Two hundred and forty-six acres three roods eight perches,David Mairs (38s. per acre), ?468 18s. 4d. the lot.
Lot 38. 158.3.1; (48s. per acre); 381 pounds the lot.
Lot 83. Ninety-nine acres one rood, sixteen perches, David Mairs (93s. per acre), ?461 19s. 6d. the lot.
Lot 84. Forty-six acres two roods thirty - seven perches, David Mairs (68s. per acre), ?158 17s. 8d. the lot.
Lot 85. Sixty acres three roods, David Mairs (60s. per acre), ?182 5s. the lot.
Lot 88. One hundred and fifty-eight acres three roods one perch, David Mairs (48s. per acre), ?381 the lot.
Lot 23. Seventy - seven acres thirty-two perches, John Harbison (32s. per acre), ?128
(P.5, Argus, 23-7-1856.)


(It may have been John Harbison who persuaded David Mairs to buy land in section 16, Doutta Galla, whose location is described in my journal about David Mairs. Described in a Keilor historical souvenir (1950, 1961 or 1963;I forget which)as a doctor from Northern Ireland who grew oranges, Harbison's land in section 16 was where Orange Grove (Melway 16 E 12) is now situated.)

Arthur Mairs was a farmer on Pyke's Flat in 1869. (P.3, The Bacchus Marsh Express,5-6-1869.)
MAIRS. ?On the 14th inst., of diphtheria, at Pyke's-flat, Pentland Hills, David Mairs, aged two years and six months; also, on the 17th inst., of the same disease, Sarah Jane Mairs, aged six years, the beloved children of David and Sarah Mairs. (P.4, Argus, 25-7-1865.)

David's involvement in the area did not cease when he moved to Bittern. He was a member of a deputation to the Minister for Railways in 1875 requesting a railway line through the Pentland Hills.
(P.4, The Bacchus Marsh Express, 3-4-1875.) One hell of a trip between farms! The Mairs family still owned land there in 1905.

In another column we give an account of a dinner given to David Mairs, Esq., J.P., on the occasion of his leaving the district, after a residence in it of eleven years. We have commented upon the loss the district has thus sustained, more especially as regards the representation of the East Riding in the Shire Council, and we think that it will be a long time before the Riding obtains an equally able representative. No doubt Councillor Mairs will send in his resignation to the next meeting of the Council, and then we shall be able to announce the names of those willing to occupy the vacancy. (P.2, Bacchus Marsh Express, 23-11-1867.)

Mr. David Mairs, Balnarring, wrote that he was opposed to annexing his properties (Adam Fowler's and W. Thom son's) to Bacchus Marsh Shire.(P.3, Bacchus Marsh Express, 10-4-1897.) Balnarring Rd was the boundary between the parishes of Balnarring (west) and Bittern (east)but much of the latter parish was included in the locality of Balnarring.

WILLIAM SMITH.
Our old identities or Blackwood pioneers are getting to be like Dean Swift's fortune, " smaller by degrees and beautifully less," and William Smith, of the Four Mile Junction, was the last to join the great majority. Mr. Smith I had known on Blackwood for quite 32 years as a miner carpenter, wood splitter, and contractor, and I think he was about the best known man on and around Blackwood in the past 32 years. Shortly after arriving on Blackwood he married, and has reared to man and womanhood six of a family, every one of whom is well and favourably known on Blackwood. William Smith was buried at the Blackwood cemetery on Monday last week, in the Catholic portion of the ground. The burial service was read by Mr. M. Croker. - There was an extremely large attendance of relatives, friends, and the general public at the funeral.(P.3, Bacchus Marsh Express, 22-9-1888.)

THE ALLEN FAMILY.
Joseph Allen and his wife, Elizabeth, were obviously living in Blackwood for some time, definitely by 1885 as shown below. They seem to have had four children: Elizabeth Jane b.1882, Jessie b.1885, Leonard Allen b.1887 at Blackwood and Ina b.1889. Joseph and Elizabeth moved to Yarrawonga with Leonard. (Desperately Seeking, Sunday Herald Sun, 17-2-2013.Elizabeth McInerney, a grand daughter of one of Leonard's sisters,is seeking information about him. I only found the following reference to the family on trove in connection with Blackwood but their name might have been written in other articles as Allan. If you have any information about the family's involvement at Blackwood, please email Elizabeth on .

BALLAN SHIRE COUNCIL. MONDAY, MARCH 9.
The Bacchus Marsh Express (Vic. : 1866 - 1918) Saturday 25 April 1885 p 2 Article
... usual conditions, subject tp approval of Engineer. R. Shillito, offering roller for sale. Mr. Allen, Blackwood, claiming .215 compensation.-The Engineer to inquire and report at next meeting.

I might have not looked carefully enough, but I failed to find a report of the next council meeting. Elizabeth seems to have won a prize at the Ballan Show in 1893.

Mrs. Allan , Black wood, knitting, 2s. 6d.; Miss Dugdale, poonah, 2s. 6d.; do., mantle drape, 2s. 6d.; Mrs. Cron, knitting, 2s. 6d.; Miss A. Williams, Gordon, hand painting, 2s. 6d.; Mrs. James Byrne, Blackwood, wattle blossom tea cosey. 2s. 6d. (P.3, Bacchus Marsh Express, 25-2-1893.)

It was just as well Mrs Byrne won a prize or I would not have found this article because "Black wood" was not recognised as "Blackwood". No matches were found for (allen, black wood) and (allan, black wood) produced only the article about the Ballan Show.

An examination of the 1856 electoral roll shows that there was an Alexander Allan at Golden Point.Could he have been Joseph Allen's father?

Elizabeth McInerney has sent me the following details about the Allen family.

My grandmother,Ina, and her siblings were actually born in East Trentham
which in those early days was actually designated as Blackwood. It was close to
the boundary of Blackwood.
Joseph , the father, actually separated from his wife Elizabeth; taking the eldest
daughter Elizabeth Jane and Leonard to Yarrawonga. My grandmother
never ever knew of them. That left her older sister then, Jessie and
herself.
As far as religion goes- Nan's mum was Presbyterian and her father C.of E.
Nan remained Church of England all her life.
Elizabeth Jane married in Yarrawonga into a large family. According to papers I have seen, they were going to Queensland; Leonard with them I think.

CHARLES JAMES ESDAILE.
Charles James Esdaile was running the Reef Dispensary at Simmons Reef in 1856. (P.6,Argus,22-5-1856.) The son of the Rev. James Esdaile of London, Charles J.B.Esdaile of Brunswick St married Susannah Millin Pocock, only daughter of Mr H.Pocock of Collingwood. (P.7,Argus, 6-9-1855.) It was obviously Charles who attended a big meeting of druggists and was elected to a committee to keep an eye on a Bill whose clauses 15 and 19 required a licence to sell drugs and imposed penalties for operating without one. The druggists were qualified men and were concerned that the people deciding on the licences would not have the expertise to make correct decisions.
(P.6, Argus, 18-2-1855.)

NOTICE is hereby given that the Partnership heretofore existing between us, the undersigned, Henry Robert Austen and Charles James Esdaile, carrying on business in Brunswick-street, Collingwood, as chemists and druggists, under the style and firm of Austin and Esdaile, has this day been dis solved by mutual consent.
All debts will be received and paid by H. R. Austen, who will continue to carry on the business.
Dated this 6th day of September, 1855.
CHARLES JAMES ESDAILE. HENRY B. AUSTEN.(P.7, Argus, 6-9-1855.) It is likely that Charles (and Susannah?) moved to the Blackwood diggings soon afterwards.




THE ANNALS OF BLACKWOOD

1842. Mount Blackwood had been named. This is the earliest reference I have found so far.
PORT PHILLIP EXTRACTS. "PORT PHILLIP VOLUNTEERS." (From the Melbourne Times, June 4.)
The Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842) Tuesday 14 June 1842 p 4 Article
... Phillip District. 6th Division.-The country to the south of Mount Macedon, bounded on the east by the Sydney road ; on the north by the ranges running from Kilmore towards Mount Macedon, the Mount Macedon Range, the Black Forest, and Green Hills to Mount Blackwood; on the west by ..

14-11-1854. Two men (Athorn andHider)looking for teamsters' bullocks which had strayed from Ballarat (teamsters according to the aforementioned plaque)found gold at Jackson's Gully, Golden Point.

January 1855. George Jackson and companions (different from those named in ASPECTS OF EARLY BLACKWOOD and in my poem THE FIRST TWO PARTIES in my RHYMES OF OLD TIMES IN BLACKWOOD journal)go to Athorn and Hider's find at Golden Point. This letter from D.Ryan was primarily concerned that the diggings had stolen the name of the mountain but gives details of Athorn and George Jackson. Only part of the letter ((P.3, Bacchus Marsh Express, 9-7-1898) is included here.

MOUNT BLACKWOOD. To the Editor. SIR,-George Jackson would, I think make a good living anywhere. I was present at his wedding at Leahy and Egan's, Bacchus Marsh. He, Tom Spice(r?) (Ballan), and Black Charlie, would surprise any mob of wild bullocks in the Pyrete scrub or anywhere else that they were commissioned to muster. Jackson picked up with Harry Athorn, East Ballan hotel, an expert horseman, Bill and Jim Keating (Keating's swamp, Mount Cotterell), Tom Gregory, Disher, and George Whale of Ballan, joined the party, who started in January, '55, on a pilgrimage through the Blackwood ranges, and fixed their tent on the site of Peter Jensen's property, at Golden Point, Blackwood. They worked on with great success, opened up Jackson's gully, and got heaps of gold. Jackson let me know, so one morning early in March John Leahy, John Edols, myself, and Sergeant Roberts, started for Blackwood. Towards evening we came to the camp of our acquaintances, and it was a sight to see the immense quantity of gold in pickle bottles (a pickle bottle held about 12 lbs troy).
1856. Not a good start!
MOUNT BLACKWOOD.
Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918) Tuesday 12 February 1856 p 4 Article
... MOUNT BLACKWOOD. A private correspondent, writing from Golden Point on the 4th instant, describes the gold-field to be all but deserted. He says:-"There are merely a handful of people on these diggings, and they would be off if they could raise the cash to carry them away.etc.

MOUNT BLACKWOOD.
The Red Hill, formerly so populous and busy, is deserted ; but the people have left their houses and tents entire ; it would seem that return is contemplated.(P.2, Bendigo Advertiser, 17-4-1856.)At least two correspondents refuted such claims. The Blackwood mining activity did decline when it was too wet (filling the shafts) or too dry (unless a dam had been built.)

(Argus, 22-5-1856.) The electors for the Legislative Assembly in the Mount Blackwood Division of the West Bourke District were listed, with most of them qualifying because of their miner's rights.The names of the hotels at the various diggings were given. (Acre's Reef was near Yankee Rd.)

Among the longtime or already mentioned Blackwoodians noticed were William Vigor (written as Vizor), David and Thomas Harry of Red Hill, John and Henry Hill of Simmon's Reef, Andrew Johnson of Red Hill (who may have been the Mr Johnson mentioned in Grace Rayner's DEAD MAN'S HILL, who arranged for a plaque to be placed on the grave of Isaac Povey), Edward Langhorne (who chaired Phelan's meeting), John Martin of Simmons Reef, (right family?), James Millyard CHECKof Simmons Reef, John McGallivary CHECK of Yankee Creek, William Nolan of Golden Point (after whom Nolan St was probably named),James Simmons (Golden Point, not Simmons Reef), five men named Smith at Simmons Reef, Joseph Thompson of Simmons Reef (right family?), John Wightman of Simmons Reef, and Thomas and John Williams of Simmons Reef (John probably the later resident near Golden Point whose children were claimed by Scarlatina and drowning).

Margot Hitchcock's history of Blackwood is going to be a corker. Even though she has corrected trove digitisation anonymously, it is plain that she has gathered an incredible amount of information.I had intended to add a Blackwood chronology and some information about pioneers to my previous Blackwood journal,but I will put this on hold until Margot's book is published. I will write no background notes for most of the following verses because this information will probably be in Margot's book. If you can't wait until then, search for a combination of key words, including Blackwood, on trove and you will find my sources.

Years ago, I read of a connection with Blackwood of the family of Albert Thurgood, the greatest footballer of his time, and I was reminded of this when exploring the roads (on a google map)that I used to run (never thinking how the Sultan Track got its name). Discovering Thurgood St,I tried unsuccessfully to find a Thurgood/Blackwood connection on trove but discovered the correction of the digitisation mentioned previously,which prompted this journal.

None of the poems will be finished until I am. Look for additions.

THE FIRST TWO PARTIES.(From pages 3-5 of "Aspects of Early Blackwood".)
Edward Hill and Isaac Povey tried a colonial stint
In 1854, and laid bricks for the Sydney mint.
The West Bromwich Wanderers decided to seek
Gold in the vicinity of Wombat Creek.

In October 1854, Edward set off for the Mount Blackwood ranges,
But his mate twice pulled out, too aware of the dangers.

Meanwhile Harry Athorn of East Ballan's "Traveller's Rest"
And neighbour, Harry Hider, decided to test
Reports of bullocks on the Laradoc* astray
And had some luck on their third Sunday.
They counted themselves lucky finding two of the strays
But the next thing they found did truly amaze.

Near Jackson's Gully they stopped for a feed
And filling the billy saw the glint that begets greed
And to East Ballan blazed a track
That Dungey, Bellinger and Jackson followed back.

George Jackson saw gold in the gully that bears his name,
The other two prospectors soon doing the same.
To provide supplies, Athorn and Hider undertook
And they came by Harry Densley, later helped by Matt Cook.

Meanwhile Hill,disappointments did scorn
And found three companions through Harry Athorn.
They too would desert him; he didn't know that,
But he made his big find at Hill's Tent, Ballan Flat.

The Golden Point crew had kept their find hush;
Hill, through the lost Maplestone, started the rush
So Jackson summoned his mate Matthew Sweet
And this made the Golden Point party complete.

Ballan Flat was called Red Hill, the Estaffette's destination,
Frederick Boys' disappearance soon after caused great consternation.
Lerderderg was the new name for the Laradoc
And soon they had to get gold out of the rock.

N.B. It was John Hill who caused the rush, was on the 1856 electoral roll and was buried in the Blackwood cemetery. By 1861, Henry Athorn was a butcher at East Ballan and had become insolvent (P.2, The Star,Ballarat, 14-3-1861.) See the January 1855 entry in the annals at the end of my other Blackwood journal for D.Ryan's recollection of George Jackson's companions.

The information about Jackson's companions in ASPECTS OF EARLY BLACKWOOD come from the recollections of Harry Densley as told in this letter.

BLACKWOOD DIGGINGS.
To THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS
Sir,- G B' s interesting article on Blackwood on August 20th recalled a version of the first discovery of gold there, given to me by Harry Densley, a resident of the Ballan district from 1853 to his death in 1919. His version does not differ materially from that of GB but it is more circumstantial and it contains intimate details of the occurrence only to be expected from one who played a part in it. Densley was a native of Van Diemen's Land. He arrived in Victoria with his father in December, l851, his father having been attracted by the gold discoveries. His eldest brother Charles had come to Baccchus Marsh with Captain Bacchus in 1838, and another brother Thomas, came later, so after landing Harry and his father made for there on foot. Immediately after their arrival they started with a party for the Forest Creek diggings but having no success there they moved on to Bendigo, and later to Ballarat where Densley senior, died towards the end of 1852. Harry who was then between 14 and 15 years was brought to Bacchus Marsh, and after a time he obtained employment as a bullock driver from one Harry Athorn, a well known identity of that place at that time. In 1853 Athorn came to East Ballan, and built an hotel there, at the top of the hill to the east of the valley which he named the Travellers Rest. Densley and another bullock driver named Crockett came with him. In addition to the hotel business he had two bullock teams carting on the roads. His account of the discovery of gold at Blackwood given by Densley to me is as follows - "Harry Athorn and Harry Hider were the first to discover gold at Blackwood. They made the discovery in the latter part of I854. Six bullocks that had got away from earlier carters were generally known to be in there on the Laradoc (as the Lerderderg was colloquially, and perhaps correctly styled by the early settlers), and previous attempts to get them had proved unsuccessful. Athorn and Hider went on three different Sundays to seek them and on the last occasion when in the vicinity of where they were supposed to be running they stopped about mid day to have lunch on the bank of the creek where Golden Point now is. The water was clear. While eating their lunch they saw water worn gold at the bottom of the stream. They collected as much of it as was visible. Overjoyed with their discovery they returned with the gold, and with two of the bullocks, blazing a track out to make sure of finding the place again.

As soon as they returned to East Ballan a party was made up to prospect the discovery composed of Athorn, Hider and three others named Jackson, Dungey and Bellinger, the arrangements being that all were to share equally in any gold discovered. Jackson, Dungey and Bellinger were to do the prospecting while Athorn and Hider found them in food and other requisites. The prospectors begun work in Jackson's Gullv (named after one of them) and they camped on the far side of the creek about where the Golden Point bridge is. In some of the holes put down good gold was obtained and in others none but on trying along the course of the creek the party found that gold could be got anywhere in it. I took the first lot of provisions out to them on horseback being guided to them by the trees blazed by Athom and Hider, and afterwards a man named Matt Cook and I took out a larger supply and some mining equipment. Cook having half a ton on a two horse dray and I a like weight on a dray drawn bv six bullocks. After leaving Athorn's we went down by Pyke's homestead and crossing Doctors Creek below it followed the eastern bank of that stream through what is now Mr Lidgett's paddock until we reached about where the present road is. We then turned in an easterley direction and kept on until we arrived at the site where Greendale now stands, where we camped for the night near where Mr George Henry Roberts's latest store afterwards stood close to a large pool in which a servant woman in the employ of the Dale's had drowned herself a short time previously. In consequence of this tragedy the pool had received the name of the Lady's Waterhole and I did not like camping near it. On mentioning my doubts to Cook he did not seem to be perturbed and remarked philosophically 'She will not hurt you.'

The creek was not then washed out as it is now and it could be crossed easily any where. After starting next morning we kept along the left bank of the creek, over the big hill and on until what is now called the Junction was reached where we again camped for the night. Next night we made for where the prospectors were working at what is now called Golden Point above which Jackson and Dungey met us and cut a track for us through the heavy heath and undergrowth which enabled us to reach the tent at the foot of the hill close to the creek. Throughout the journey we followed the trees blazed by Athorn and Hider but as trees had to be cut and fallen timber removed to give the dray passage our progress was necessarily very slow. The news of the party's operations was soon bruited about, and a considerable rush set in in which a good many early Ballannites took part "

What is the origin of Blackwood's name? J G Saxton says ('Victoria Place Names and Their Origin") -Blackwood - Captain Blackwood of the Fly 1842 to 45.

Whether this refers to the mining settlement I am unable to say. It was undoubtedly called the Mount Blackwood diggings at the outset, being named after the mountain of that name, situated some miles to the south-east of it. The mountain seems to have been or originally named Mount Solomon by John Batman, in 1835. At the time he also named Mounts Cotterell and Connolly near Rockbank. It was subsequently called Clarke's Big Hill after Ken neth Clarke who as representative of the Great Lake Company of Van Diemen's Land came to Bacchus Marsh with sheep in 1836 and subsequently moved up to the Pentland Hills, which he named. Neither of these names held permanently. My opinion is that its present name was given to it after the Captain Blackwood mentioned by Saxton, but when, or in what circumstances, I am unable to say. Perhaps some readers may know. - Yours &c.,
JAMES H. WALSH. Ballan, Sept. 12.


BLACKWOOD IN THE BEGINNING.
Charles Shuter took charge of the funds for the C. of E. church and school
But in the Reid case against Chapman for wages, justly failed to rule.

The miners here at Blackwood displayed great propriety;
The lawless learned to fear the Mutual Protection Society.

Parcels sent daily from Melbourne, miners could expect to get
Thanks to Davies of the Southern Cross, Crossman and the "Estaffette".

GOLD.
Gold not extracted by batteries and amalgamation
Was for the miners a major frustration;
Gold not extracted was the miners' loss
So they were excited by the scheme of Bryce Ross. (P.2, Argus, 15-11-1855.)

THE CHINESE.
Fifty odd Chinese came to Blackwood in late 1855,
Advance guard of many more to arrive. (1)
Another posse came on the fifth of October;
They were busy as bees so they must have stayed sober.(2)

"Look at those Chinese, with cradle and dish
They work the old stuff; find as much as they wish.
An Englishman claims he is equal to half a dozen Chinese;
If he works like them,we'll need no immigration decrees." (3)

By legislation with the effect of a picket:
Ten pounds to get in, a Chinese Protection Ticket.(4)
Some ship masters had another thought,
"Why not dump them at Westernport?"(5)

"Oh,ye oblique-eyed, sober, grinning exiles from the flowery land,
The consternation you cause Teutons, you fail to understand." (6)
The new English Bogy the writer thought dumb;
The Mt Blackwood correspondent just said they had come.

By May '61, 250 Chinese were on the Blackwood alluvial,(7)
But relations were not always convivial;
Ah Slang was charged with stealing copper plates at Simmons Reef.
Found not guilty, he said he knew the thief.(8)

At Kangaroo Flat, the Chinese cut away a dam that Europeans built
In 1857. Did it rob them of water? Did they feel no guilt?
A battle royal ensued; cuts, bruises, a broken hand the worst fate
And the matter would go to the magistrate. (9)

1.P6,Argus,12-12-1855. 2. P.4, Argus, 16-10-1856. 3.P.7,Argus, 23-11-1855. 4.P.5, Argus,9-10-1855.
5. Lime Land Leisure. Finding that it was too far to the diggings,many became the first fishermen at Flinders and burnt lime near Sorrento. The Captain would make 10 pounds per Celestial dumped because the landing fee would have been included in the fare. The Government increased its scrutiny of Westernport to stop this practice. 6. P.5,Argus,5-9-1856. 7. P.6,Argus,7-5-1861. 8. P.6,Argus,18-8-1863.
9. P.5,Argus,13-10-1857.

INSOLVENCY.
William Happer Fleming, a small provision store at Mt Blackwood did hold,
After two or three years searching for gold;
He had a 6 roomed cottage and a half acre of land
But the deeds were now in his creditor's hand.(P.6, Argus, 11-3-1856.)

R.S.Agnew & Co. of Williamstown was financially unsound;
G.F.Agnew and Eades had a branch store at Blackwood and lost over 400 pound. (P.7, Argus, 18-4-1856.)

Charles and Frederick Long, merchants and storekeepers of Blackwood St, Melbourne North,
To try their luck on the Blackwood diggings boldly ventured forth.
But their hopes of a fortune were soon to fade,
Due to losses in mining and depression in trade.(P.5, Argus,8-1-1859.)


JOHN MARTIN
John Martin,confident,athletic and strong,
Despite his mates' advice, saw nothing wrong
With risky stunts being flirty.
He had a wife and child and was aged about 30.

At Ure's 200 foot deep shaft
At Simmon's Reef, he was being daft.
He swung on a rope down ten feet;
Climbed hand over hand his trick to complete.

Then he swung down 50 feet, death to defy,
But suddenly there came a cry.
That was the end of the dare-devil's life;
John made a widow of his wife. (P.4, Argus, 5-4-1860.)

Was he the son of the inventor,
John Stanworth Martin, who was the centre
Of attention at Simmon's Reef when first was seen
"The Nonpareil" his quartz- crushing machine? (P.6, Argus, 14-5-1861.)

Was Christopher Martin related to either John?
Due to Philip Marello his life was gone,
Murdered at Mount Blackwood in 1855;
The villain at Tarrengower or Jim Crow thought to arrive. (P.5, Argus, 14-11-1855.)

(Tarrengower=Maldon, Jim Crow=Franklinford. The dare-devil's family was Irish and another Martin family at Blackwood was from Cornwall.)

STOREKEEPERS TOOK RISKS TOO.
When a correspondent said that Blackwood's population was less
Another would claim it was more.
The first would ask the second to confess
That he was the owner of a store.

If Blackwood was seen to be losing its gloss
Storekeepers faced a gigantic loss.
Buyers for their goods would never be found;
After paying for cartage 2000 pounds.

It was Solomon who'd so spent 2000 quid;
He was slandered by Moss who flipped his lid
When Solomon tried to sell his Blackwood store
To Moss's brother with debts of this amount or more.(P.5, Argus, 25-9-1855.)

(Some other storekeepers will appear in "INSOLVENCY".)

1856.
Fred Willett and Rob Woolland ran stores at Golden Point.
Thomas Jones and Caesar Kaiser healed ills internal or in a joint.
There were five hotels: Scheele's Lergederg, the Great Britain (Holland and Forder),
Gregory's, Edward's Bull and Mouth, and the Golden Point with Levy keeping order.