WILLIAM FORD'S COOK ON WANNAEUE STATION NEAR ROSEBUD, VIC., AUST.
itellya
It can take hours to find something on trove that I know perfectly well is there. Rosebud now has a great little community paper called ROSEBUD RIPPLE and I was about to write an article about Thomas Salmon. Despite entering the right key words,I couldn't find the article. This has happened several times before andI decided that the easiest way to find it in future was to make it the subject of a journal.
PASTED FROM THE WILLIAM FORD ENTRY IN MY JOURNAL ABOUT THE SHIRE OF FLINDERS.
At this time (circa 1880) William owned and resided on the Wannaeue Estate between Rosebud and Boneo, consisting of 661 acres 1 rood and 22 perches, being crown allotments 8-11, section A, Wannaeue. As a returning officer for the West Riding he was to be contacted there (advertisements.) The estate was bounded by Eastbourne Rd, Jetty Rd (and 400 metres of Old Cape Schanck Rd), an unmade government road which ran between the south end of the Rosebud Country Club's frontages to Boneo and Old Cape Schanck Rds(jokingly called Hiscock Rd west of Boneo Rd), and Boneo Rd on the west. The 167 acres (nearly) between Eastbourne Rd and Besgrove St was granted to Henry Reynolds and the rest to James Ford. (See Melway map 171.)
While a councillor and living on Wannaeue Station, William Ford had a famous cook! I was reminded of this while watching "High Tide", a history of the British navy.
It is not generally known says the Argus, Melbourne, of the 19th, that one of those who took part in the celebrated naval duel in 1813 between the English frigate Shannon, 36 guns, and the American frigate Chesapeake, 50 guns, is living in the colony in hale and hearty health. His name is Thomas Salmon, and he will be 8O years of age next month. He is employed as cook on the station of Mr. Ford, at Wannaeue, between Rye and Dromana. He appears to be likely to do a good day's work for several years to come, and is only too willing to relate the particulars of the naval confliction in which he was concerned. He narrates with great gusto the fact that it only took them in the Shannon 30 minutes to polish off the Chesapeake ; and speaks with some pride of the circumstance that Captain Broke, of the Shannon, and his first lieutenant, were the first to cut their way through the boarding nettings on to the Chesapeake's deck, when the boatswain piped "boarders away." The old man has a most thorough contempt for the present style of ironclad men-of-war, which he refers to as
"iron pots." The old salt is a "character," and is always ready to spin a yarn relative to his adventures afloat or in the bush. (P.11, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser,24-2-1877.)
by itellya
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Itellya is researching local history on the Mornington Peninsula and is willing to help family historians with information about the area between Somerville and Blairgowrie. He has extensive information about Henry Gomm of Somerville, Joseph Porta (Victoria's first bellows manufacturer) and Captain Adams of Rosebud.
Comments
samrosebud on 2017-05-04 03:47:47Hi, i currently own 126 old cape schanck road in rosebud which comprises 2 acres, i was curios if this block was part of crown allotments 8-11, section A, Wannaeue owned by james ford and where there any buildings on these blocks originally .
sam
itellya on 2017-05-04 05:49:07samrosebud, I presume number 126 would be just south of Drumdrumalloc Creek on the west side of the road and part of the Wedgewood Drive/ Cleek Crescent subdivision. If so, your block would be on c/a 6 section A Wannaeue, granted to James Purves, who was also granted c/a 5 south of it to Little Scotland (c/a 2)and c/a 7 over Boneo Rd from his other two allotments.
The southern boundary of the Wannaeue Estate can be drawn on Melway by joining Hiscock Rd at 170 A7 to the southern boundary of the Old Cape Schanck Bushland Reserve at 170 E7. This reserve was originally part of the road reserve.
Copy and paste the following into your search bar to see the parish map online. The original part of the country Club golf course was on the Wannaeue Estate land but most of the southern section is on c/a 6 with about the southern 100 metres (and the southern 180 metres of Mashie Court) being on c/a 5.
COPY AND PASTE INTO SEARCH BAR.
digital.slv.vic.gov.au/dtl_publish/simpleimages/30/2611207.html
There would have been some buildings on c/a's 5 and 6 (Purves' grants) which Donald McGillvray was occupying in the early 1900's. However there has been no mention of whether the homestead was on Old Cape Schanck or Boneo Rd. The former would have made sense because of ease of access in early days and a stream nearby.
As you might have guessed, your area was subdivided by the country club, cleek and mashie being names of early clubs and I guess a wedgewood was a lofted wood.
samrosebud on 2017-05-07 07:28:43thankyou for your response, it has given me the intitiative to do further digging. i would like to add while cleaning up on the block i found many bricks and pary of a fireplace ... if i wanted to find images of this homestead or a descrition where would i look?
itellya on 2017-05-07 15:16:19I doubt that you'd find any published images or description of the homestead.
In the 1919-20 assessment, the last available on microfiche at the library, John Cain of Rye replaced Thomas Cain (probably his son)as the person to be rated on 326 acres and buildings, part 4,5,6 section A, Wannaeue. This doesn't help much as it is almost certain that John Cain's daughters were occupying "Midway" the heritage-listed limestone house just south of Bunnings on section 4. John Cain had probably bought the Purves grants circa 1880 and built this house. The Purves grants (c/a's 4,5,6) totalled 415 acres 8 perches so somebody else must have been occupying about 93 acres, probably in c/a's 5 or 6. Just as I expected this property was not listed, even as part of a large holding.
My efforts to find an advertisement on trove re the sale of c/a's 5 and 6 Wannaeue (perhaps with a description of the homestead)after 1920 were staggeringly unsuccessful.
The best way to get information about the homestead is from an old member of the country club, or from a member of the PIONEERS OF THE MORNINGTON PENINSULA Facebook group who possibly used to ride/ walk along Old Cape Schanck Rd west of Jetty Rd,in the 1950's-1960's and may have seen the homestead before it was demolished. Old country club members may have seen the homestead from the south east corner of the original course (on c/a 8). People such as Maynard Crichton, Charles Coleman (country club founders)and Ken Spunner and his wife,(farmers on c/a's 5 and 6 if I remember correctly, who lived in "Midway") who might have been able to help you, have unfortunately passed away. If you contact Bettyanne Foster of "Rosebud Ripple" she might be able to put you in touch with Charles Coleman's sons,Ron and Laurie. Private message me if you can't get the Rosebud Ripple email address.