If you happen to find an early photo of post office, Rosebud, it will probably show the Roberts/Brady/McConchie post office at front left (near the present Peebles store site) with the Rudduck store, then a general store about 75 yards away (according to Peter Wilson.) This photo would have been taken before 1920 when William C. Twyford transferred the post office to the Rudduck store. In 1923 the new post office was burnt down and rebuilt with a longer frontage,which was purchased in the same year by Edwin James Wheeler, the new postmaster. Wheeler conducted the post office in number 1045, selling the other shops, numbers 1039-1043 to Stephens in 1929 and in 1937 transferred the post office to a new building at 1047, now the Ninth Avenue Cafe.

While the Roberts and Rudduck stores were very early stores, they were far from the first.

A CHRONOLOGY.
The "Rosebud" was beached in May 1855 according to a report of the Purves v Smyth insurance case in 1855 and the wreck may have been driven farther to the location of the cairn by June 2, the date on the cairn. The first land offered for subdivisional blocks, on crown allotment 20 Wannaeue between Adams Creek (The Avenue) and the line of Parkmore Rd was described as being at Rosebud.
VILLAGE LOTS.
County of Mornington, parish of Wannaeue, at Rosebud, adjoining Burrell's pre emptive section, on Port Phillip Bay. Upset price. £8 per acre. Allotments 1 to 23. 2 roods to la. Sr. 30p. (P.3, Argus, 14-4-1870.)

The land didn't sell well and was described as being in the Village of Wannaeue later in the 1870's. Locals didn't call the area Rosebud, but "The Rosebud" and continued doing so until about 1920 according to the late Ray Cairns who as a boy looked forward to the excursions to Martin's Corner and the beach near "The Rosebud" (despite all visible signs of the wreck having been removed by the locals in the 1890's according to an account in an article in Mick Dark's collection if I remember correctly.)

The majority of Rosebud residents were fishermen and paid no rates to the Kangerong Road Board. In 1873-4 they did so for the first time. Those who previously held a crown lease on their blocks under the terms of their fisherman's licences seem to have been given the opportunity to buy these blocks in the Rosebud Fishing Village in August 1872 without competition (like a pre-emptive right.) But before then a poundkeeper near Cliffords Rd at Somerton had bought crown allotment 18 Wannaeue,152 acres between Adams Avenue and Jetty Rd and tried to sell it in lots of about 2 acres. He only sold lot 86, 2 acres on the FJ's corner, in 1871 (1), to Jack Jones one of the fishermen on the foreshore.
(1) Lake v Jones; sketch of title on memorial in Harvey Marshall's scrapbook documenting a loan of 128 pounds given to William Edwards by Captain Henry Everest Adams in 1878 showing that lot 86 was on the east corner of Jetty and Pt Nepean Rds extending south to about Morgan St.

Jack Jones bought c/a 6 of the fishing village (now 854 and 856 Pt Nepean Rd)on 11-8-1872 and Daniel Coyle bought c/a 10 (immediately west of the Banksia Point complex now being built) on 16-8-1872, most other fisherman buying their blocks at about that time.

THE FIRST STOREKEEPER.
Daniel Coyle has never been mentioned in Rosebud histories except for the above details in ON THE ROAD TO ROSEBUD with a quote from Isabel Moresby's ROSEBUD FLOWER OF THE PENINSULA about Granny Coyle of saintly character running a lolly shop. Jack Jones is said to have run a store in an upturned boat on c/a 6 and Ethel Fountain's memoirs and her sister's EARLY ROSEBUD map both mention his store on c/a 6 being burnt down. You'd put your money on Jack being the first storekeeper wouldn't you? I did!

Rate records were pathetic in regard to their legibility on the microfiche, the lack of detail about occupiers, owners and description of properties and even the year of assessment and names of ridings. I learnt to identify the ridings by the names of ratepayers and their number of acres! However, year by year research on certain ratepayers, on top of transcriptions of all Kangerong and Wannaeue assessments in 1864, 1879, 1900, 1910 and 1919 has allowed me to answer many questions. The jigsaw pieces fit very neatly together!

In 1873-4, DANIEL COYLE was assessed on 1 allotment and 3 roomed house, Rosebud, N.A.V. 6 pounds, as he was in 1874-5. In 1875-6he was assessed on the same property but he was described as a storekeeper and the net annual value increased to 7 pounds. The same details continued until 1882-3 when his name was recorded but the rates were paid in December 1882 by ? White who turned out later to be Thomas White, cutler. Daniel and Granny Coyle had moved to Mordialloc where they seem to have lived out their days. Was it at that time that Jack Jones decided to commence a store in an upturned boat?

From 14-9-1877 to 30-7-1881, Jack Jones, fisherman was assessed on one allotment, Rosebud, N.A.V. 5 pounds. By 29-7-1882, Jack was described as a storekeeperand was assessed on TWO allotments and buildings, N.A.V.8 pounds. Have you realised something? The judge in Lake v Jones (or the reporter) got it wrong or the rate collector took a decade to wake up that Jack Jones had bought lot 86 crown allotment 18 Wannaeue in 1871. The block had definitely been sold by Charles Blakley before 1878 as shown by the aforementioned loan memorial.

In view of the fact that a rate collector took a decade to realise that Cr James Little Brown was not "John Brown", and the lack of thoroughness mentioned above (which caused Cr Terry's resignation as detailed in my Shire of Flinders journal), my money is on the rate collector being a decade behind reality. Besides, if Jack had bought lot 86 in 1881, he would have bought it from Blooming Bob White, completely at odds with the report of the trial. Read the court report re Jack buying his 2 acres on c/a 18 Wannaeue and building his new store in 1883-4, at which time the store (no longer an upturned boat)on c/a 6 must have been a pile of ashes.

" During the negotiations for purchase of land, Mr Jones who by this time was old and trembling, told my father that his original store was built on "The Pines" site, but was burnt down and he transferred his business to Jetty Rd corner, as he considered it more central opposite the jetty." Ethel Fountain.

LAW REPORT. SUPREME COURT. EQUITY COURT. FRIDAY, SEPT. 13. (Before His Honour Mr. Justice A'Beckett.) LAKE V. JONES.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Wednesday 18 September 1889 p 11 Article

So far we have (1)Daniel Coyle 1875-1882. (2) Jack Jones 1882-1910+ but there was another storekeeper before 1900 whom the rate collector called Loui.

Louis Anderson was Rosebud's post master 1890-1897 during which time he was assessed on 1 lot and buildings, Wannaeue. In 1897-8 his name was crossed out and replaced by that of John Roberts, occupant of lots 41 and 42 crown allotment 17 Wannaeue, owned now by Mrs Roberts of Napier St, Ballarat, who was probably still packing belongings and farewelling friends. C/a 17 was between Jetty Rd and Norm Clark Walk/Ninth Avenue house blocks south to Eastbourne Rd. Lots 41-2 and the Roberts/Brady/ McConchie post office have been established as being near the present Peeble store, thus indicating the rough location of Louis Anderson's store. Hence we are back to the start of the journal. Louis Anderson did the first recorded fish run to the Mornington railhead, obviously before Jimmy the Squid Williams of Eastbourne.