I wrote the following as a post on the HISTORY OF DROMANA TO PORTSEA Facebook group page. Send me a F.T.C. private message if you need information referred to as being in other posts.

EARLY ROSEBUD SUBDIVIDERS NEAR JETTY ROAD.
The subdivision bounded by Pt Nepean Rd, Parkmore Rd, South Rd and Adams Ave. has been mentioned before in relation to the Adams family and will not be dealt with here. This post arises from two chance discoveries. The first is testimony given by Mrs De Garis after her husband faked his first suicide and the second is W.F.Vale's sale of the unsold portions of Woolcott's estate, which I have been trying to find for ages.
Charles Blakey had bought crown allotment 18 between the line of Adams Avenue and Jetty Rd prior to 1875 and tried to subdivide the 152 acres but only sold the 2 acre lot 86 on the FJ's corner. Bullocky Bob White knew about this when he bought his 150 acres but the purchase of the corner block was not registered in the titles office. This led to the Lake brothers trying to eject Jack Jones circa 1890, which has been mentioned before. The Bamfords and the Pottons later owned the farm about which Peter Wilson wrote a chapter called Henry Potton's Farm in ON THE ROAD TO ROSEBUD. He included much detail about De Garis but the chance discovery provides information given by his distraught wife (nee Austin) not found in Peter's book or other articles.

SEARCH FOR MR DE GARIS Wile's Statement MEETING OF COMMITTEEMEN MELBOURNE, Jan. 6.
Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1926) Wednesday 7 January 1925 p 5 Article


Woolcott apparently subdivided crown allotment 17, the land between Jetty Rd. and the line of Norm Clark Walk, in about 1877. George and Susan Peatey bought lot 76 of just over 2 acres in 1878 with a loan from Nelson Rudduck and occupied it 10 years later when they paid off the loan.
By 1900 the Commercial Bank had 84 of the 129 acres and in 1910, Henry Bucher 4 lots, Annie Eliza Cairns lots 29-32, Rosebud Ted Cairns lots 49-54 which he'd just sold to Alf Hansen (*sic) and lot 74, Henry George Chapman 2 lots, the Coburns lots 57-60, Alf Hansen (sic) lots 23, 24, 75, 77, 79, John McConchie lots 37-40, Robert Cairns lots 5 and 6, Mrs Susan Peatey lot 76, Mary B.Stone (a.k.a. Polly Vine) lots 25-28 and Vale** 84 acres. John Fallow had lot 80, and Mrs J.Spensley 4 lots.
Advertising
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Saturday 9 January 1909 p 21 Advertising
(*The early Rosebud map notes that Alf Hansen (sic) built the first shop on the Clacton-on-Sea Estate as a land sales office. Alf (1884-1960) was the fifth child of Hans Christian Hanson and Ellen (nee Olson) from Norway who owned "Alpine Chalet" at the north end of Tucks Rd from about 1887. Alf married Frances Ada Elizabeth Purves, a descendant of the real Tootgarook pioneering Purves. MEMORIES OF A LARRIKIN is the biography of his son Hec,, written by Petronella Wilson.)
(**The Vale family had been involved in Peninsula affairs since the 1850's when a letter was written about the splendid opportunities offered in the parish of Moorooduc near Schnapper Point.
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. MT ELIZA AND SNAPPER'S POINT.
P. 7, Argus, 27-12-1855.
Vale bought much land in Mornington, hence Vale St, and later owned Dalkeith near the Mornington turn off. This passed to his daughter Phyllis, Mrs Jackson, who also owned the Boniyong Stud south of the junction of Jetty and Browns Rd, the subject of another post.)