TOMMY LOFT'S SALE OF "DALKEITH", TULLAMARINE.
Dalkeith fronted Broadmeadows and Sharps Rds including Fisher Grove house blocks and extending north as far as the Janus St/Catherine Avenue midline but with a strange dogleg in the northern boundary near Cherie St which had been the site of the Tullamarine Wesleyan School, donated by J.F.L.Foster in 1855.
The first mention of Tommy Loft on Dalkeith was in 1924, the year he convened the meeting to establish the Tullamarine Progress Association, as stated in Sam Merrifield's Annals of Essendon. For decades I have had a plan of Loft's Subdivision, which may have been given to me by Tommy's daughter in law, Maggie nee Millar at the Back To Tullamarine in 1989. She married Tommy's son, Ray. The plan shows the Dalkeith homestead (on the north corner of Dalkeith Avenue), and Eumarella St.

A photo taken from the top of the drive-in screen and supplied by Ruth Kelly's son shows that the street labelled Dalkeith Avenue was most likely today's Dawson St, named after Leslie King Dawson, who owned Dalkeith (now 160 acres) by 1943 according to Shire of Keilor rate records. Eumarella St should really be Eumeralla St, having been named, according to Maggie Loft, after a place where Tommy Loft grew up. (Tom was born at Macarthur NEAR THE EUMERALLA RIVER!)

Gordon St, named after Ray and Maggie's son, born in 1929, is not shown on the plan. Unfortunately, no date is shown.

The advertisement of Tommy's sale of Dalkeith in 1941 states that Dalkeith was 200 acres but 10 one acre blocks on the (Broadmeadows Rd.) frontage would be offered first, then the farm of about 180 acres, which sounds like poor arithmetic but some of the other frontage blocks had become the extensive saleyards etc. on the future school site, and were not counted as part of the farm.

Sid Lloyd told me that the weighbridge from Dalkeith was later for many years at the roundabout in Mt Alexander Rd near Essendon Station.

SALE OF TULLAMARINE FREEHOLD.
200 ACRES OF CHOICE LAND. ONLY 9 MILES FROM THE G..P O.
AT SCOTT'S HOTEL. MELBOURNE.MONDAY. 27th OCTOBER, at 3 p.m.
Under Instructions from Mr. T. B. Loft,William Macleod & co. will offer for sale by auction his splendid property, known as
Dalkeith. The frontage, comprising 10 lots,will first be offered In lots of 1 acre, and thereafter the farm, of approximately 180 acres. The Improvements consist of a 7 roomed dwelling, stables, barn, cowshed, and extensive sheep and cattle yards. Should lot 1 not bo sold at the auction, the iron shed
and weighbridge will be put up for sale for removal.
This Is a unique chance of obtaining lots which must rapldly Improve In value, and the farm Itself Is admirably suited for either grazing or agriculture, being situated so close
to the markets. The land. too, is well adapted for factory sites, being within a mile of a proposed station on the loop line from Glenroy to Williamstown*. Mr. T.B. Loft lives on the property and will be pleased to show prospective buyers over it.
Further particulars and orders may be had from the agents. WILLIAM MACLEOD & Co., auctioneer and land salesman, 515 Collins street, Melbourne.(P.7, Argus, 22-10-1941.)

* The Albion-Jacana line built in 1928. The proposed station could not have been the one that gave the Quinn MILLEARA STATION ESTATE** its name, as this was two or more miles from Dalkeith but might have been a siding in today's Gowanbrae near Malvern Avenue which Bruce Small requested (unsuccessfully) to allow full scale expansion of a factory producing his Malvern Star bicycles.

** The plan of this estate, rescued by Peter Warren of Express Bin Hire at Rosebud and presented to Bob Chalmers of the Essendon Historical Society shows that this proposed station was near Webber Parade.
Lee claimed £40 for each of 10 blocks in the Milleara Railway Station Estate,fronting Keilor rd., on the Calder Highway, which have been compulsorily acquired by the board for widening the main road. (P.12, Argus, 7-9-1940.)