N.B. Sydney Jim is a real mystery. The name indicates that he was from Sydney but the lack of a surname indicates that he may have been aboriginal. Angela Evans said that he was a half caste but no proof has been found. If Angela was correct, how would a half caste who obviously came from Sydney have ended up in Victoria? My theory is that his father was one of John Batman's dusky friends that he took to Van Dieman's Land and later to the Port Phillip District to help in negotiating his well-meaning treaty.

I had earlier assumed that Sydney Jim was a mounted trooper but Bezza's suspicion that mounted constable 245 was George Couser proved to be correct.

State of Victoria Early Postal Cancels (and History) Illustrated
home.comcast.net/.../Victoria_EarlyPostalCancelsIllustrated_SectionV_1...

BROADMEADOWS

Post Office opened in June 1855.

When the village of Broadmeadows, on the banks of the Moonee Ponds Creek, was proclaimed in February 1850, the naming may have had a lot to do with the Scotsmen in the region - there is a Broadmeadows near Selkirk - and a large number of the original purchasers of land in the April and August sales were also Scots including J.H.Ardlie*, and one John Bryan who tried unsuccessfully for the next three years to get his pub licensed.
(*John Martin Ardlie)

Churches had more luck; by the time there was a licensed hotel in town there were three places of worship
- Anglican from 1850 (although attendances were generally poor), Catholic from 1851 (they did a bit better), and Free Presbyterian also in 1851 (which did a roaring trade).

"The settlers....complain much of the want of a bridge across the Moonee Ponds....At present no direct
communication can be effected....and much inconvenience is the consequence. There is a Flour Mill at Campbellfield, and there is an abundance of wheat at Broadmeadows, but the wheat can no more get to the
Mill than the Mill to the wheat, which entails on the former the cost of further cartage, and on the Mill-owner
the loss of custom." In 1852 a subscription was raised to build a bridge, and soon Messrs Barber & Low's Flour
Mill was getting plenty of custom.

The village picked up quite an amount of passing trade from travellers heading north in their quest for gold, and from at least the middle of 1854 there was a loose-bag mail service to the Broadmeadows Hotel from the
contractor who delivered to Bulla and beyond. As was shown with the Bulla Post Office, deliveries ceased
when the Mail Contractor was killed toward the end of 1854, and it took six months before the department
could find someone else to fill the position, when Thomas Chadwick, mine host of the Broadmeadows Hotel, and John Bethell, Esq., got their pockets together and employed a bloke on the twice-weekly run from the
beginning of June 1855.

The local surgeon, George Smith Harris, got the nod as Broadmeadow's first official postmaster a couple of
weeks later. He continued as both postmaster and Deputy Registrar until his finances went belly-up toward
the end of 1857, and he resigned both positions. Sarah Cullen took over the postal duties for 12 months before
John Bethell became Postmaster. Our Mr. Bethell was a busy lad; he was heavily involved in local politics and
took an active interest in the formation of the Broadmeadows Road District which was proclaimed at the end of November 1857.

John Bethell was Postmaster for only 12 months, and then it appears the post office wandered around the town, generally finding a home with whoever happened to be the Deputy Registrar at the time, until it landed at
George and Mary Couser's store in 1873. George had first turned up in Broadmeadows as a Mounted Constable about 1860, liking the area enough to raise a family there and become interested in the local politics of
the place.

The Post Office remained with the Couser family into the 20th century; not an exceptionally arduous job because
the Broadmeadows Shire was mostly small farm holdings until the 1950s. (etc)

BEZZA.
Hi XXX, it has been said that there is an aboriginal buried in the (WILL WILL ROOK) cemetery, the nearest I have come to possibly being one is a Sydney Jim d 1864 Bulla b NSW informant is George Couser then it looks like underneath his name, "M.Cons 245 Broadmeadows" the death was registered in Bulla & Tullamarine by Samuel Lazarus, parents unknown consumption a few hours not certified or a medical attendant... Did you ever find that George was also a policeman??

ITELLYA.
No. George was the storekeeper/postmaster in Broady Township for yonks and was an electoral/ births and deaths registrar for Broadmeadows and Bulla for much of that time,but not in 1864 when the electoral registrars were William Bethell (Bulla), John Bethell (Broadmeadows) and James Hendry (Tullamarine.) John Bethell returned to England, possibly in 1864 and was obviously replaced by George Couser.

I Hereby notify that GENERAL LISTS for the Broadmeadows Division of East Bourke District and South Province are PRINTED, and ready for INSPECTION at my office up to the 18th October, 1865. George Couser, Electoral registrar, Broadmeadows. (P. 2s, Argus, 4-10-1865.)

Samuel Lazarus, who registered the death was the second teacher, after John Cassidy, at the Seafield National School in Tullamarine,according to the Historic site assessment below,which quoted my journals extensively (although itellya did not exist until 2011) and has so many mistakes that I'll have to write a journal to correct them. The school was at Melway 4 about halfway down the boundary between J6 and K6. Lazarus was at the Seafield school by 1859 until 1866 (at least) as shown by birth and death notices (below.) He resigned as registrar and was replaced in May 1868.

Samuel must have been teaching at Bulla in 1855 when he was appointed as a registrar because the Seafield and Tullamarine Island schools did not open until 1859.(P.10 Tullamarine Before The Jetport.)

APPOINTED AS DEPUTY REGISTRARS OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
Wm.Hastings, for the district of Bulla, vice (in the place of) S.Lazarus, resigned;
(P. 7, Argus, 9-5-1868.)

DEPUTY REGISTRAR OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS
-The Governor has appointed the undermentioned gentlemen to be deputy-registrars ,of births and deaths:-Dr. Andrew Plummer, for the district of Emerald Hill and Sandridge ; Mr. W. Latham, district of Yan Yean ; Mr. Samuel Lazaras, district of Bulla, vice Mr. Latham, resigned. (P.7, Argus, 24-10-1855.)


It is possible that Fanny,whom Lazarus had married, was John Cassidy's sister. (see marriage notice below.) If I remember correctly, a Bulla Shire Secretary ran off with Cassidy's wife (and a heap of money!) See the CASSIDY entry in my BULLA DICTIONARY HISTORY journal.

MARRIAGES.
On the 25th ult., at the house of Mr Boreham,Campbellfield, by the Rev. P. Gunn, Samuel Lazarus,Esq., Master of the Deep Creek Schools, Bulla, son of J. G. Lazarus, Esq., of Liverpool, to Fanny, youngest daughter of the late Captain F. Cassidy, of H. M. 60th Regiment. Liverpool and Derby papers, please copy.
( The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Wednesday 5 January 1859 p 4 Family Notices)

On the 10th inst., at Seafield National School, Tullamarine, the wife of Mr. S. Lazarus, of a daughter. (P.5 Argus, 14-11-1859.)

LAZARUS. -On the 6th inst., at Seafield, Tullamarine,the wife of Mr. S. Lazarus of a daughter.
(P. 4, Argus, 11-6-1866.)

ADDEY-WILSON--LAZARUS. -On the 13th ult., at All Saints Church of England, Northcote, by the Rev. C. P. Thomas, George, second son of G. Addey-Wilson, Esq. of Gippsland, late of Moonee Ponds, to Elizabeth Henrietta, younger daughter of Samuel Lazarus, Esq., of Hatherlie, Clifton Hill, and granddaughter of the late Captain Frank Duff Cassidy, of H. M. 60th Rifles, formerly private secretary, Castlereagh Ministry. (P.1 Argus,3-2-1891.)

Historic Sites Assessment - Department of the Environment
www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=show...
May 2, 2014 - The Tullamarine area was settled early in Melbourne's history with ...... The first teacher was J. Cassidy followed by Samuel and Fanny Lazarus ...