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.