Farm Hedges

Hedges have traditionally been used in the country to delineate property boundaries and as wind breaks. In this region, Cypress trees have been planted for this purpose and it is quite usual to see rows of old cypress trees along the road sides. However 100 years or so after the cypress trees were first planted they begin to look very straggly, have a tendency to blow over on high wind days and in recent times they have also suffered from Cypress canker and row after row of the trees have died. On the Koo Wee Rup Swamp it was thought that this canker took hold after the February 2011 floods. So due to these circumstances many old cypress trees have been removed.

This is my grandmother's farm on Murray Road at Cora Lynn, c. 1957. 

A good illustration of cypress trees used as wind breaks.

Image: Jim Rouse

This is an aerial of Brentwood farm at Berwick, taken sometime before 1988. Another illustration of the use of cypress hedges as wind breaks. Brentwood was on Berwick Clyde Road, located near what is now the southern part of Bemersyde Drive. You can still see some of the Brentwood cypress trees in the Brentwood Park housing estate, especially lining Chirnside Walk.

Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries

These are other cypress trees on Murray Road, in the process of being removed - they are at the ugly, straggly stage. Photo was taken June 2013.

Image: Heather Arnold

Another type of hedge that was planted in the area was English Hawthorn or Whitethorn (C. monogyna). You can still see some of these remnant hedges at Caldermeade,  along Ballarto Road near Cardinia and near the Catani township amongst other places.

The Cardinia Shire Heritage Study (1) has this to say about the hedges -  In Cardinia Shire, hedges were used extensively from the late nineteenth century onward as an efficient form of fencing, particularly on the large pastoral estates in the southern parts of the Shire around Koo Wee Rup. Windrows of trees were also planted, chiefly Monterey Cypresses or Pines to protect stock and crops. These trees and hedges also had an aesthetic value that added a picturesque quality to the landscape and consequently 'bear witness to the immigrants' desire to have familiar surroundings in this strange new land'  

Usually planted in straight lines along the edges of paddocks and along boundaries, they closely followed the north-south and east-west lines marked out by the allotment surveyors and hence emphasised the grid layout imposed by the Government survey upon the landscape. 

The most common hedging plant used in Cardinia Shire was English Hawthorn or Whitethorn (C. monogyna), one of a number of different plant varieties used throughout Victoria in the nineteenth century. One of the earliest hawthorn hedges in the former Cranbourne Shire was established in 1882 at Caldermeade near Lang Lang (Gunson, 1968) (2).

This last reference is to Niel Gunson, The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (3). The hedge referred to was planted by Alexander McMillan (1825 - 1897). Alexander was the fifth son of Archibald McMillan (1789-1863). Alexander purchased the Caldermeade property in May 1881, when the property was put up for sale after the death of Archibald's widow, Katherine. At the time the property consisted of over 3,000 acres.  Alexander kept the property in excellent condition and planted the hawthorn hedgerows around 1882. There are still some of these hedges along parts of Caldermeade Road and the South Gippsland Highway.

The Cardinia hedges along Ballarto Road are likely to be associated with the ownership of land by the Patterson family in the nineteenth century according to the Heritage Study (4).  You can see these hedges from the Cardinia township to Pound Road. Alexander Patterson (1813 - 1896)  had acquired the St Germains run of nine square miles (5, 760 acres) in 1848. Some of the St Germains property, facing Ballarto Road was sold off after 1906 (5). You can read Mr Patterson's obituary in the South Bourke & Mornington Journal of December 30, 1896, here.

We will now look at the Catani hedges. The Heritage Study (6) has this to say about these hedges - This series of Hawthorn Hedges surround almost the whole boundary of the property that is bounded by Caldermeade, Heads, Taplins and  Walshes roads immediately to the south of Catani township.

The exact date of the Hawthorn hedges at Catani is not known, however, it appears that they may have been associated with the farm established by James Smethurst, a farmer of Yannathan, in the late 1880s. Smethurst obtained the Crown Grant for Crown Allotment 21D, Parish of Yallock in July 1888. CA 21D is the land now bordered by Caldermeade, Heads, Walshes and Taplins roads. 

Smethurst did not own the property for long. A small portion of land at the corner of Caldermeade and Heads roads was sold to William Scott in 1889, while the balance was sold in 1891 to James Greaves, a butcher from Dandenong . James sold to William Henry Greaves, a farmer, in 1899. He owned the property until 1933. In 1932, the north-east corner was sold to the Presbyterian Church of Victoria as the site of the Catani Presbyterian Church.

The Hawthorn Hedges as they exist today therefore appear to correspond with the boundaries of the land as selected by Smethurst in 1888 so may have been planted by him as a condition of the Grant. Alternatively they could have been planted by Greaves after 1891 (7).

James Smethurst who owned the land may have been James Smethurst Snr or James Smethurst Jnr - hard to tell from the Cranbourne Shire Rate Books as they  both own lots of land and it does not seem to specifically mention CA 21D, however he is listed on the Yallock Parish, as owning that allotment.

Yallock Parish Plan showing J. Smethurt's properties inculding CA 21D.

James Smethurst (1822-1905) and his wife Sarah (nee Hulton 1846 - 1907) arrived in area at Cranbourne in the late 1850s and had land at Yannathan and Cranbourne. James Smethurst Jnr (1846 - 1909) and his wife Eliza (nee Stanlake 1856-1909) also had  land at Yannathan as did  his brother John Henry Smethurst (1849 - 1898). John and his wife Annie (nee Redfern 1853 - 1925) had the property Glen Avis at Yannathan and was also a Cranbourne Shire Councillor (8). 

The Hawthorn hedges in Catani that are of heritage significance.  The township of Catani is at the top left, the road on the left is Walshe's Road, at the bottom is Head's Road, on the right is Caldermeade and at the top is Taplins Road.  The little square at the top of the marked roads is the Catani Presbyterian Church (now a  Community Church) as referred to in the Heritage Study description. This photo is from the Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review  Volume 2: Key Findings & Recommendations  Revised Report  May 2011 undertaken by Context Heritage Consultants.

This is the hawthorn hedge in Taplin's Road at Catani. The old cypress trees are part of the Catani Recreation Reserve. (April 2018)

Image: Heather Arnold

Walshes Road hawthorn hedge, looking back towards Head's Road. The pile of trees on the right are felled cypress trees. (April 2018)

Image: Heather Arnold

Red hawthorn berries - Catani (April 2018)

Image: Heather Arnold

Caldermeade Road hedges at Catani (April 2018)

Image: Heather Arnold

The Heritage Study (9) also lists a hawthorn hedge on Linehams Road at Catani and, when I first wrote this in 2018, there was a hawthorn hedge at Clyde, from around Patterson Road, down to the old railway line. This has now gone, due to development. 

The Heritage Study (10) quotes this passage from Early Days of Berwick (10) Mr Walton, father of Mrs G.W Robinson, introduced the hawthorn hedge one of the charms of North Narre Warren into the district. He taught the art of thorn setting or layering, as practiced in England which by the interlacing of the upper and lower branches hedges were rendered cattle and sheep proof.  Mr Walton was Thomas Walton, who wife his wife Eliza,  arrived in the Narre Warren area in 1852 and built Holly Green (located where Fountain Gate Shopping Centre is today). The Waltons left the area in 1877 and  Sidney Webb purchased Holly Green in 1880. It was their daughter, Eliza Mary Walton, who married George Washington Robinson in 1867. Robinson was the Shire of Berwick Engineer from 1876 to 1890.

This is the Holly Green property in 1900 - the property has a post and rail fence facing what is now the Princes Highway, but the other boundary fences could still be Mr Walton's hedges.

Footnotes
(1) Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review 2008 - Volume 5: Stage B Individual places, Draft June 2008, Context P/L., p. 57 of 304.
(2) Ibid
(3) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire, 1968), p. 128.
(4) Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review 2008, op. cit., p. 16 of 304.
(5) Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review 2008, op. cit., p. 15 of 304.
(6) Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review Volume 3: Heritage Place & Precinct Citations Revised Report May 2011, Context P/L., p. 226.
(7) Ibid
(8) Early Settlers of the Casey Cardinia Region (Narre Warren & District Family History Group, 2010) 
(9) Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review 2008, op. cit., p. 41 of 304.
(10) Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review 2008, op. cit., p. 16 of 304.
(11) Early days of Berwick and its surrounding districts of Beaconsfield, Upper Beaconsfield, Harkaway, Narre Warren and Narre Warren North. 3rd edition, 1979, p. 98.


A version of this post, which I wrote and researched, has appeared on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to Our Past and the Koo Wee Rup Blackfish newsletter.

Robert Preston and Lyall & Son Produce Merchants

 I recently acquired this postcard which I was interested in because it was addressed to Mr R. Preston, Koo Wee Rup from Lyall and Sons Produce Merchants, Victoria Market. It is dated June 10, 1909. I love the fact that they sent a postcard to tell Mr Preston that his order had been dispatched, these days we would get an email or text, so that's the 'olden days' version of tracking, which Australia Post offers. The delivery would have been sent to the Koo Wee Rup Railway Station.  

The postcard reads - June 10 '09 -Sent your order today - 7 oats - seed - 

can't read the rest, is it 2 bags - 1 flour?

The Prestons had arrived in Koo Wee Rup in 1905 and had a farm on the South Gippsland Highway, in the vicinity of Preston Road which is named for the family.  The family consisted of Robert and Martha (nee Dick) and their children - Jim, Jack, Henry, Jessie, Maggie and Bob. Robert died December 19, 1930, aged 81 and  Martha died August 31, 1937 at the age of 88 (1).  They are buried at the Pakenham Cemetery.

The Koo Wee Rup Sun, December 24, 1930 published this obituary of Robert Preston -
It is with deep regret that we announce the death of Mr Robert Preston, which took place on Friday last at his residence at Kooweerup. The deceased, who was 81 years of age, was very highly esteemed, being the possessor of a fine character and a disposition which made friends of all with whom he associated. Almost two months ago the deceased was driving home in a jinker, and when he arrived at the gate entrance to his property the animal plunged and he was thrown to the ground and sustained a broken leg. He was taken to the local Memorial Hospital, but his advanced age, coupled with the fact that he had not enjoyed the best of health for some time were factors which operated against his recovery. He expressed a desire to be taken home, and on Friday last his request was acceded to, but several hours later he passed "beyond these voices to where there is peace." The deceased was born in Scotland, and as a young man with a wife and family of four children he came out to Australia and took up work on the sugar plantations in Queensland. Later he came to Victoria and took up farming pursuits on land on which the township of Carrum is built. About 22 years ago he came to Kooweerup and bought land on the Main Coast Road. Deceased leaves a widow and six children - James, John, Harry, Robert, Mrs C. Child and Mrs F. Mummery - to whom general sympathy is extended in their irreparable loss. The remains were interred in the Pakenham Cemetery on Saturday afternoon, and there was a large attendance at the graveside to pay their last sad respect.

The Koo Wee Rup Sun also published an obituary for Mrs Preston on September 2, 1937

Martha Preston's obituary

Koo Wee Rup Sun September 2, 1937

This is the front of the postcard with a colourised photograph of Lyall & Son Produce Store.

Robert Lyall was listed as a Produce Merchant at 308 Sydney Road, Brunswick in the 1900 Sands & McDougall Directory and by 1905 the business had become  Lyall & Son, Produce Merchants and was located at the Victoria Market (2).   Robert Lyall died at the age of 80 on July 12, 1943. His short obituary in The Argus said that he was associated with the grain trade in Melbourne for the past half century. He had also been Secretary of the Church of Christ, Swanston Street for fifty years. In Mr Lyall's death notice his wife was listed as Lillias, he was the father of three daughters Eadie, Elsie and Winifred and one son Harry, the '& Son' of Lyall & Son (3). Harry was elected to the Melbourne City Council in November 1937 and was still on the Council in 1955 (4). 

I thought that Lyall & Son may have been connected to William Lyall of Harewood, at Koo Wee Rup and who was part of the influential partnership of early land owners, Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall, but although they may have been related, he was not a direct descendant. Robert's death notice lists his parents as Henry and Eleanor Lyall. 

How would Robert Preston of Koo Wee Rup have heard of Robert Lyall & Son, Produce Merchant of the Victoria Market? It was more than likely through an advertisement in the Lang Lang Guardian, perhaps even this very advertisement reproduced below, which came from the June 2, 1909 edition. The business advertised in the Lang Lang Guardian and its successor the Koo Wee Rup Sun up to 1924.

Is this the advertisement that prompted Mr Robert Preston to patronise the business Lyall & Son?

Lang Lang Guardian, June 2, 1909.

Footnotes:
(1) Death notices for Robert and Martha Preston were in The Argus December 20, 1930 and The Age September 1, 1937. Both notices list their six children.
(2) Sands & McDougall Directories have been digitised by the State Library of Victoria, access them here https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover/popular-digitised-collections
(3) Robert Lyall's death notices were published in The Argus July 13, 1943. His obituary was in The Argus on the same day, see here.
(4) The Herald November 9 1937 and The Argus, August 26, 1955.

Nancie and Kathleen Kinsella - extraordinary nurses

This post is a tribute to the extraordinary Nursing careers of Nancie and Kathleen Kinsella, who grew at Cora Lynn.

On February 14, 1942 the steam ship Vyner Brooke was bombed by the Japanese and sank in the Banka Strait.  On the boat, were sixty five Australian nurses and over 100 civilians who had been evacuated from Singapore three days before the fall of Malaya. Twelve nurses drowned, thirty one nurses survived the sinking and became prisoners of war, with eight dying in captivity. Another twenty-two survived and were washed ashore on Radji Beach on Banka Island where they joined a number of civilians and service men from other sunken vessels. Japanese troops bayoneted the men to death and marched the women into the water where they were machine gunned to death. The only survivors at Radji Beach were Sister Vivian Bullwinkel and a British soldier. Sister Bullwinkel was later taken prisoner, and joined the other nurses in captivity. Only 24 nurses survived the War, including Vivian Bullwinkel and Betty Jeffrey, the author of the book, White Coolies. Another survivor was Sister Wilma Oram, who married Alan Young in 1947. The Youngs lived on a dairy farm at Cardinia (1).

One of the nurses who did not survive the sinking of the Vyner Brooke was Sister Kathleen Kinsella. Sister Kinsella was the daughter of Michael James Kinsella (1858-1919) and Susan (nee Lockens 1857-1930) of Cora Lynn. Michael Kinsella had selected 60 acres of land on the north side of the Main Drain at Cora Lynn in 1900 and the family moved there in 1905. Kathleen was born on March 18, 1904 at South Yarra and she started school at Koo Wee Rup North (or Five Mile). In 1912 Kathleen, along with brother Norman and sister Nancie, switched to Cora Lynn State School, where she stayed until 1918 (2).

Sister Kathleen Kinsella's enlistment photograph.

Australian War Memorial collection P02783.024

After leaving school, Kathleen trained as a nurse and was working at the Heidelberg Military Hospital when she joined the Army on August 4 in 1941. She was assigned to the 2/13th Australian General Hospital, the 2/4th Casualty Clearing Station unit. The 13th Australian General Hospital left Melbourne on September 2, 1941 and arrived in Singapore on September 15. In November it relocated to Malaya. As the fighting in the area increased, the casualties grew and by December the hospital had 945 beds in operation and was acting as a Casualty Clearing Station. It was the most forward surgical unit in the army’s medical organisation. As the Japanese advanced the Hospital had to withdraw to Singapore where by the end of January 1942 it had established a 700 bed hospital. The medical staff had to cope with bombings and blackouts but eventually it was too dangerous to operate and the nurses were evacuated on three ships, the last to leave being the Vyner Brooke on February 12 (3).  

Kathleen had three brothers, Daniel Lockens (1894-1983), Norman Francis (1895-1959) and Arthur Ernest (1898-1974) and, as we said, one sister, Nancie May (1900-1967). According to Michael Kinsella’s will the three sons inherited farms from their father which they worked together. Dan was also a Councillor for the Shire of Berwick from 1928 to 1954 and Shire President on a number of occasions (4).  Kathleen and her sister Nancie both went into nursing. 

Nancie had left Australia before the War and when the War broke out she enlisted in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. This service was started in 1902 by Queen Alexandra and provided nurses for military hospitals and in 1949 it became a Corps of the British Army and renamed Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (5).

Nancie Kinsella nursed in the Middle East, was in Normandy where she looked after D-Day casualties and also nursed the 1,700 survivors of the Belsen Concentration camp. At Belsen, the nurses had to de-louse and clean the captives and the wards as well as provide treatment for all manner of diseases such as dysentery, tuberculosis, typhoid, typhus, diphtheria, heart and kidney problems as well as starvation (6).  Nancie was awarded a Member of the British Empire Medal (M.B.E) in the Military Division, in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North West Europe. 

Sister Nancie Kinsella's appointment as a Member of the British Empire Medal in the

  London Gazette

Supplement to the London Gazette, March 29, 1945 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37004/supplement/1706/data.pdf

She was also mentioned in Despatches for the same service and was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross medal, which is awarded to nurses for acts of bravery or exceptional devotion to duty. 

Sister Nancie Kinsella's appointment to an Associate of the Royal Red Cross.

Supplement to the London Gazette January 2, 1950  https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38797/supplement/31/data.pdf

 It appears that Nancie remained in the Service and completed her time in the Reserve of Officers in 1955, according to this notification, below, from the London Gazette

Sister Nancie Kinsella joins the Nursing Corps Reserve

Supplement to the London Gazette April 26, 1955 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40460/supplement/2410/data.pdf

The first matron of the Peter McCallum Clinic, Cora McNeill (standing) with  

Nancie Kinsella, the second matron in 1956.

https://www.facebook.com/PeterMacCallumCancerCentre/photos/a.999872470191922/1233209400191560/

Nancie relinquished her Commission in the Royal Army Nursing Corps Reserve on April 20, 1956 (7), but by then she had already returned to Melbourne, where in January 1956, she took up the role of Matron at the  Peter McCallum Clinic in Melbourne (8). She was still in this position in December 1962 (9) and is remembered at the Hospital by the 'Nancie Kinsella Patient Library.’ Nancie died on May 22, 1967 (10). 

Sister  Kinsella's appointment as Matron

The Age, December 23, 1955

Footnotes

(1) The information about the Vyner Brook is from the Australian War Memorial site, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/nurse_survivors

Mrs Young is the subject of  a biography -  A Woman’s War: the exceptional life of Wilma Oram Young, AM by Barbara Angell (New Holland, 2005)
(2) Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; Shire of Berwick Rate Books; Cora Lynn State School rolls.
(3) Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U57200
(4) Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; the will is available on line at the Public Records Office of Victoria.

(5) Information about Nancie's War service comes from various articles - The Age, July 5, 1944, see here; The Dandenong Journal, December 19, 1945, see here;  The Argus, January 29, 1946, see here; The Herald, November 22 1946, see here; Weekly Times, September 10, 1952, see here
(6)  Free Thought, December 2, 1951, see here.

(7) London Gazette April 20, 1956   https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40758/supplement/2322

(8) The Age, December 23, 1955.

(9) The Age, December 1, 1962.

(10) The Age, May 23, 1967

Other versions of this post, which I wrote and researched, appear on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past and have also appeared in the Koo Wee Rup Blackfish and the Garfield Spectator.