The Making of the Eastern 20 Metres of Clifford Road Somerton Vic Aust IN Melway 180 D6

BROADMEADOWS ROAD DISTRICT.-Notice is hereby given, that it is deemed expedient by the Broadmeadows Road Board to MAKE a NEW ROAD through part of Section 6, parish of WOLLERT, being the continuation of a one chain road from the Old Sydney-road through to tho New Sydney-road.
A plan showing the site and extent of the land required is deposited for inspection at tho offices of the Board, Victoria hotel*, Broadmeadows.
All persons affected are hereby called upon, within 10 days from the date of this notice to set forth in
writing all objections they may have to the proposed work.
By order.
HOLLAND LOXTON, Clerk to the Board.
Broadmeadows, May 25,1864. (P.3, Argus, 27-5-1864.)

*There are many historical plaques in Westmeadows. One on the Broadmeadows Tavern discusses the Victoria Hotel.

Google YUROKE, COUNTY OF BOURKE and WOLLERT, COUNTY OF BOURKE to access the parish maps.

I have read that parishes were to consist of about 25 square miles with boundaries being streams or existing roads when the land north of Melbourne was surveyed. Jika Jika, Doutta Galla and Maribyrnong/Cut Cut Paw were divided by streams (the Moonee Ponds separating the first two and the Saltwater River the latter two.)

If the south east part of the parish of Yuroke (sections 5 and 6), had gone east to the Merri Creek, the above notice would have been unnecessary. The Yuroke parish map shows the new Sydney road TOUCHING the north east corner of section 6 Yuroke as does the Wollert parish map (which shows the end of the unlabelled Cliffords Rd MEETING THE NEW SYDNEY ROAD WITHIN SECTION 6 YUROKE. However at some early stage the new Sydney Road was much nearer to Merri Creek than as shown on both parish maps. Nobody was quite sure where the Yuroke/ Wollert boundary actually was! If you look at Melway 180 D6, you will see that the last dot of the dotted Cliffords Rd is on the same alignment as O'Herns Rd on the other side of the Hume Highway. The NEW SYDNEY ROAD may well have been at the bend in O'Herns Rd at the middle top of 180 E6.

CLIFFORD RD, the "one chain road from the Old Sydney-road through to tho New Sydney-road" was named after Samuel Clifford, grantee of crown allotments 12 and 13, section 6 Yuroke. The ORIGINAL Sydney road was past the Young Queen Hotel (on the left,just north of the Pascoe Vale bridge)to Melway 6 G9, with a descent into Broadmeadows Township (Westmeadows south of Kenny St) and a long climb up the Ardlie St hill past the Broadmeadows Hotel, a store/p.o. later run by George Couser for many decades and the VICTORIA HOTEL (WHERE THE ROAD BOARD HAD ITS OFFICE)which was burnt down in about 1871. At the top of the hill, Ardlie St joined Mickleham Rd, which today north of Donnybrook Rd and the "Marnong" gates is still called OLD SYDNEY ROAD.

When the timber bridge linking the two parts of Ardlie St in Broadmeadows Township was built in 1854, travellers could access the Ardlie St hill via Tullamarine. The direct route to Sydney past the settlement and stockade that gave Coburg its original name of Pentridge was boggy near the Campbellfield/Somerton area and there was even a third route along today's Plenty Valley Highway, all three routes joining near Wallan.

Carters with heavy loads would have found the climb either way through Broadmeadows Township difficult, a drag being employed for descents, which didn't do much for the road surface, so once the new Sydney road was planned, the southern part of the original road (Pascoe Vale Rd) was extended to the south west corner of section 6 Yuroke where it connected directly with Cliffords Rd on the north west side of Samuel Clifford's grants. In about 1872 the defunct private Essendon railway was extended as the North Eastern Railway (to Sydney)and the south west end of Cliffords Rd was closed (now being roughly David Munroe Drive in Roxburgh Park.) The new connection to Somerton Rd is on c/a 13.

Cliffords Rd could well have been called Blakey Rd or Kernan Rd. Charles Blakey, grantee of much of section 6 Yuroke, a pound keeper at Somerton was involved absently at Rosebud, selling a block on section 18 Wannaeue to Jack Jones. LAKE V JONES 1889

Yvonne Kernan, a stalwart of the Craigieburn Historical Interest Group, who grew up at Somerton,is a descendant of Joseph Kernan, another grantee on section 6 Yuroke.