Eleven Mile Bridge, Cora Lynn

There was a report in the Dandenong Journal of April 26, 1944 from the Shire of Berwick Engineer, Mr H.L. Keys, on the Eleven Mile bridge at Cora Lynn. He said This is a  three span timber bridge over the Main Drain on the 11 mile road. The central span is 40 feet with two approach spans of 30 feet each. Forty feet span in a timber bridge of this class is altogether too large and it is remarkable that it has stood up to heavy traffic for so long. The whole bridge is  now in an advanced state of decay and it is difficult to see how any repairs of a permanent nature can be effected. However, as it may be some time before the construction of  a new bridge can be considered I would suggest that about 40 pounds be spent in renewing some of the decking and running deck and that notices restricting the carrying capacity of the bridge to 2 tons be posted'

Dandenong Journal April 26, 1944

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214165386

Mr Keys was correct in saying that it may be some time before a new bridge could be built as it wasn't until the War was over that money and man power could be found for a new bridge. The Dandenong Journal reported on July 23, 1947 that a tender for just over £1,055 was accepted by the Shire of Berwick to build a replacement bridge over the Main Drain at the Eleven Mile Road. The tender was from the Sippo Brothers.

The Sippo Brothers were recognized bridge builders and had been used and would be used by the Shire on many previous and future occasions.   For instance, in March 1942, they were working on the bridge at Cora Lynn which was completed by July 1943; they then moved onto the construction of a timber culvert on the corner of the Nine Mile and the Eleven Mile Roads at Tynong; also in 1943 they constructed culverts and approaches on the Nar Nar Goon-Longwarry Road. In December 1947 they won a tender to recondition three bridges in the Shire of Berwick on Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road, Leckie Road and Foy’s Road.  

However, back to the Eleven Mile Bridge.   In August 1947 the Country Roads Board (the CRB) approved the tender for the construction of the bridge which was to be a three span timber and rolled steel joist (RSJ) bridge. The CRB would reimburse the Council 5/6^th of the cost. By December 1947, the Dandenong Journal reported that the piles had been driven and the concrete sheeting cast. RSJs will be delivered as soon as available. It is suggested that the filling of the approaches be carried out by direct labour. [It was] anticipated that the new front end loader would be available for this work early in the New Year.

My father, Frank Rouse, remembers the way the piles were driven in - the wooden pile had a steel frame next to it which was stabilised by cables attached to the drain banks. The top of the steel frame, which was higher than the piles, had a pulley through which a cable with a one ton weight attached was positioned over the top of the pile. The cable was attached to the back of a Dodge truck - the truck would move forward to raise the weight, then the cable was released and the weight would drop onto the top of the pile which forced it in and then the process was repeated and then the steel frame was moved to the location of the next pile.

Later in December 1947 it was reported that the crossheads have been fixed and the contract is now held up pending receipt of rolled steel joints.  In the New Year they were waiting for the delivery of decking and essential iron work.   

By the end of April 1948, the bridge was nearly finished, but they needed to acquire land on the south side of the bridge for a road deviation.   The land was being acquired from McMillans. It appears that the agreement to transfer the land happened in June 1948 and the compensation required (apart for the land payment presumably) was new fencing and an iron grate. In the August of that year the Dandenong Journal reported that the approaches to bridge over 11-mile will be commenced at an early date, weather permitting,  which perhaps indicates the work was nearing the end.

Who were the Sippo Brothers?  According to the book ‘Call of the Bunyip’ by Denise Nest, Simon Sippo, who was born in Finland, and his wife Ollie (nee Warren) arrived on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp in September 1893, the first three of their children were born in Footscray and the remaining six in Bunyip South.  Simon was a bridge builder and in 1911 was building a bridge at Yallock and won contracts to build bridges in Heatherton Road and Corrigan Road for the Shire of Dandenong.

His sons obviously continued in the same occupation and it was William Leslie Sippo and, I believe, Alfred Liddle Sippo who were the ‘Sippo Bros’. There is a report in the Dandenong Journal of June 24, 1942 saying that Alfred Sippo would be released from military duties to enable him to complete the Cora Lynn bridge.

Eleven Mile Bridge August 27 1962

State Rivers and Water Supply Commission photo

State Library of Victoria Image RWP/C7638

You can see by the photo above that the drain has suffered from erosion over the years as it quite shallow compared to the 2015 photo, below. The Eleven Mile bridge had been repaired over the years with strengthening and a new deck or two but was demolished in November 2015 and the new bridge completed the next month. The cost of the new bridge was $700,000, half funded by the Council and half by the Federal Department of Infrastructure and Development. I have some photos of the construction of the bridge, here.

The wooden Eleven Mile bridge, taken October 24, 2015.

Fatal Shooting at Weatherhead's saw mill near Glenlyon

When Alf Weatherhead was eleven years old, he was involved in a fatal shooting on Easter Saturday, April 6, 1907 at his father's saw mill near Glenlyon. I had only vaguely heard about this when I was growing up, however I had a phone call out of the blue, from a nephew (or grand nephew) of the little boy who was shot and I felt really guilty about the whole thing, even though none of it is my fault. I sort of got the impression that the family of the boy thought that it was less of an accident and more a deliberate act. I was told that at 2.30 in the afternoon Alf was playing with Stanley and Gordon Barber. Gordon and Alf walked towards the hut; Alf must have picked up the gun and said 'I can shoot you' and Gordon said 'No, you can't' and Alf shot him.  The gun was supposed to be unloaded. 

The two newspaper reports have the name of the family incorrectly listed as Barbour, nor Barber. Gordon was the son of George and Francis (nee Chandler) Barber. His death certificate says he was   6 years, ten months old and there was an enquiry into his death held by William King, J.P on April 8 which determined that he died from a  'haemorrhage as a result of  a gunshot wound in the neck.' 

I can see that would be an unsatisfactory determination if I was the parents of little Gordon.

The Age April 9 1907

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196152641

FATAL SHOOTING ACCIDENT. DAYLESFORD. Monday.

A fatal shooting accident occurred at Weatherhead's saw mill, near Glenlyon, on Saturday. Mr. Barbour, of Korweinguboora, who carts timber from the mill to Daylesford, took his two boys with him to the mill during the Easter  holidays, where they played with the proprietor's son, aged about eleven years. While Mr. Barbour was away with a load on Saturday a gun that young Weatherhead had been using accidentally exploded, and the charge struck young Barbour, aged seven years, full in the face and chest, killing him almost instantly.

A similar report appeared in The Leader of April 13, 1907

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196647843

Alf was the youngest son of Horatio Weatherhead (18/5/1853 to 24/10/1925) and Eleanor Hunt (17/2/1856 to 15/5/1927). They had nine children Fred (1881 - 1955, married Ethel Ellen Wesley in 1910), Ada (1883 - 1966, married Edward Shelden in 1903), Charles (1884 - 1957, married Emily Hunt in 1908),  Arthur (1886 - 1945, married Inez Coombs in 1912),  George (1888 - 1944, married Annie Ainger in 1916), John (1890  1892), Frank (1893 - 1970, married Alice Burleigh in 1923), Alf (1895 - 1976) and Eva (my grandma, 1901 - 1982, married Joe Rouse in 1922)

Iona Hotel at Garfield

This post looks at the history of the original Iona Hotel at Garfield, which opened in 1904 and burnt down in 1914.

In June 1903 it was reported that a petition for a local option poll for a Hotel in Garfield had obtained 200 signatures from voters in the recently created Iona Riding of the Shire of Berwick; more signatures were also gathered from the Pakenham Riding (1).  This petition led to a local option poll taking place on  August 27, 1903 in the Pakenham Licensing District, as a result of an application by George Ellis for a hotel licence at Garfield (2). It was reported that the statutory number of hotels to which the district is entitled is eight and the existing number is seven (3). The vote was restricted to the Iona and Pakenham Ridings and it was in favour of the Hotel at Garfield. Subsequently, in December 1903, the licensing bench which sat at Berwick on the 12th inst. granted a licence to Mr G. W. Ellis for an hotel at Garfield, subject to the building being completed in accordance with the plans and specifications, by June 1. It is expected that the premises will be ready for opening by March 1 (4). 

I presume that the fact that the Hotel was located in the Iona Riding, which was formed May 31, 1901 (5) and the ratepayers of this riding had supported the establishment  of the Hotel through a petition and voting in the local option poll, that it led to the Hotel being called the Iona Hotel.

The advertisement  for the Iona Hotel which run in the 

South Bourke & Mornington Journal from April 1904

The Iona Hotel at Garfield was opened in mid-March 1904 (6).  A comprehensive report on the new Hotel was published in the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of April 13, 1904 - 

Garfield certainly ranks amongst the towns on the Gippsland line of railway which have innovations of improvement during the past two or three years, the most recent step in this direction being the building of a house of accommodation, via, the Iona hotel. Residents in the vicinity have agitated in this respect for some time past and success has attended their efforts, for they have now an hotel which is a credit to the place, and those who have occasion to visit Garfield will find the enterprising proprietor, Mr Geo.

W. Ellis, all that is to be desired as regards a landlord. 

There is no reason now why the place should not become a favorite resort for both holiday seekers and sportsmen, as within a short distance from the town are to be found innumerable fern gullies and caves of marvellous beauty, and, for those who are in quest of game, the surrounding country will be found all that a sportsman wishes, a whether it be with the gun or fishing-rod.

The hotel stands on a prominent site only a few yards from the railway station, and is of very pretty design indeed, presenting a thoroughly up-to-date appearance the hotel and outbuildings, &c. occupy about an acre of ground. The structure comprises twenty-nine rooms, including a spacious bar room, parlors, commercial room, dining room, drawing room, sixteen bed rooms, billiard room (with full sized Alcock's table and fixtures), kitchen &c. The building, which is of weather board, is lathed and plastered throughout, and the front portion outside (six feet from the ground) is of jarrah-wood, oiled and polished, which has a pleasing effect. 

The appointments are of modern style, and in each of the principal rooms electric bells are provided. Add to this the fact that the place has a gas manufacturing plant and a sewerage system, then it will be realised that the hotel is thoroughly complete in every detail. The acetyline gas is laid on right through the building, and is a beautiful illuminant. The septic sewerage system is reed, and an excellent one it is. From the whole of the building the refuse is carried by an underground pipe to the filter beds (which are in the yard) and there treated effectively. This system has been approved of by the Board of Health. The stabling accommodation is also of a substantial nature. Judging by the provision made by the huge underground tank there should never be a water famine here; from this source water is supplied and pumped into iron tanks placed in position for use in bath rooms, lavatory, &c. 

The architects (Messrs. H. W. and F. B. Tompkins), and the contractors (Messrs. Atkinson & Gordon) have every reason to feel proud of their work. The furnishing of the place, which although not yet quite completed, is a matter which clearly shews the heavy expense the proprietor has been under, but good taste is displayed in this direction also. To sum up briefly, Garfield has an hotel sufficient for its requirements for years to come, and it is to be hoped Mr. Ellis' venture meets with the reward it deserves (7).

In 1907, George Ellis sold the Hotel to Thomas O’Donohue who was connected to Martin O’Donohue who built the Garfield Picture Theatre in 1924 (8). In the four years that Ellis owned the Hotel the Net Annual Value of the site had risen from £75 to £125 (9) which is an indication of the growth of the town. Ellis and his family were farewelled from the town at a function at the Hotel in September 1907. Mr Hattersley, who chaired the function said There were few men who had done more for a township and neighbourhood, than their guest, and whatever was for the advancement of the district Mr. Ellis was always in front to do his part. He presented Mr Ellis with a set of pipes which he trusted the pipes would bestow great comfort during hours of worry, and whenever he took and filled it that it would remind him of the friends left behind in Garfield (10).

Sadly, the hotel was destroyed by fire on April 23, 1914. The Bunyip Free Press had this report - 

A fire broke out between 8 and 4 o'clock on Thursday morning, April 23rd, at Garfield, at the Iona Hotel and Mr. E. A. Gabbett's general store. How or where the outbreak first took place appears to be a mystery, but it spread with such rapidity that both buildings and their contents were completely destroyed.

There were 26 persons sleeping in the hotel and Mr. Cryan had difficulty in waking and getting them clear of the burning building. Mrs. Ockenden, the cook at the hotel, states that the fire did not start in the hotel building, and is inclined to the belief that it started at the back of the store. A niece of Mr. Cryan's lost L14/10 in notes and gold in the flames.

The hotel was a fine, up-to-date wooden building, and was owned by Mr. T. O'Donohue, who had it partly covered by insurance, but his loss will be a heavy one, as the companies will not accept more than half the value of wooden buildings used as hotels. Mr. T. J. Cryan, the licensee, had a valuation of L600 on his stock, and he estimates his loss at double that amount, so that he too has suffered through the outbreak. We were unable to ascertain the insurances on Mr. Gabbett's stock or the building.

Only about a dozen chimneys now standing occupy the two blocks and the main street looks very bare (11).

There was another report of the fire, which differed slightly in detail, published in the Bunyip and Garfield Express of April 28, 1914 - 

A disastrous fire occurred on Thursday morning between three and four o'clock at Garfield, which resulted in the total destruction of the Iona hotel and Mr E. Gabbett's grocery store. Between the hours mentioned some employes at Bird's bakery, which is further along the street, observed a fire in the direction of the hotel, Investigation satisfied them that the building was burning and the alarm was raised.

There were between 20 and 30 inmates of the hotel at the time amongst whom were a number of ladies, but fortunately all escaped from the burning building. The fire appeared to some observers to start outside the eastern wall of the building while others declare it came from the kitchen. However, it had a good hold when first noticed and no time was lost by the lodgers and the family and friends of Mr Cryan, licensee, in leaving the doomed structure.

The fire spread with great rapidity, and was favored by a north westerly breeze. A salvage party however, made good use of the little time at their disposal and succeeded in saving a piano and a few other articles of furniture, but there was no time to rescue the heavy furnishings from the building and over £500 worth was destroyed. Miss Cryan, daughter of the licensee lost £14 in gold and notes which she left in the building. 

From the hotel the flames spread to Mr Gabbett's store, which adjoins it and soon the two structures were a seething mass of flame. The grocery stock was completely destroyed and the dwelling portion of the building, which is at the rear of the shop. The household furniture was destroyed. The insurances on the Iona hotel are as follows :-Mr T. Donohue, owner, £1500 on the building, furniture £500, Mr C.J. Cryan licensee, £600 on the stock. The amount of Mr Gabbett's insurance is not available, but it is understood that his stock was only lightly insured. All concerned are heavy losers. The business of the hotel is being carried on in a building next to the old premises, whilst Mr Gabbett has opened his store in Mr Bird's premises, pending building operations (12).

The Iona Hotel, completed.

Dandenong Advertiser, January 14, 1915 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88659792

The new Hotel, which is the existing Hotel, was completed by January 1915, according to the report in the Dandenong Advertiser, above. I presume it officially opened soon after that, but once again, I can't find a specific opening date. Mr  Cryan continued to advertise his Hotel in the Bunyip and Garfield Express all though 1914 and 1915, presumably because he was operating in the building next door, so that doesn't give any clues.  There is a report, in the South Bourke and Mornington Journal  from May 27, 1915 saying that the Shire of Berwick Health Inspector, Dr H. White, had inspected the Iona Hotel and he was pleased with the appointments and sanitation of the place and that no expense had been spared by the proprietors to make it all respects one of the best equipped hotels in the colony (13), but whether the Hotel could operate before the official inspection, I cannot say.

 The 'new' Iona Hotel, taken most likely after it opened in 1915.

Image: Berwick Pakenham Historical Society

Trove list  - I have created a short list of articles connected to this post, access it here.

Footnotes

(1) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, June 3 1903, see here.

(2) The Age, August 28, 1903, see here.

(3) Ibid

(4) The Argus, December 15 1903, see here.

(5) From Bullock tracks to bitumen: a brief history of the Shire of Berwick (Historical Society of Berwick Shire, 1962). p. 10.

(6) I can't find a  specific opening date - The Argus of March 15, 1904, see here, reported that the building is now completed, and will be opened for business in a day or two.

(7) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, April 13, 1904, see here.

(8) Licence transfer - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, September 18, 1907, see here. Garfield Picture Theatre

 https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2014/03/garfield-picture-theatre.html

(9) Shire of Berwick Rate Books

(10) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, September 11, 1907, see here.

(11) Bunyip Free Press, April 23, 1914, see here.

(12) Bunyip and Garfield Express, April 28, 1914. This report was also republished in the Gippsland Independent, May 1, 1914, see here.

(13) South Bourke and Mornington Journal,  May 27, 1915 see here.  

A trip from Dandenong to Koo-Wee-Rup and Lang Lang by road

I wrote this article for the Koo-Wee-Rup newsletter, The Blackfish.  It is a companion piece to the one I wrote for the Garfield Spectator 'A trip from Dandenong to Garfield' which you can read here. They both start off the same at Dandenong.

Let’s imagine we are travelling by horse and coach down the South Gippsland Highway (also known as the Western Port Road, the Bass Road or the Grantville Road) from Dandenong to Lang Lang in the 1800s - what hotels would we encounter on the way? We would have the need to call in to some of these hotels to get something to eat and drink for both ourselves and the horses. The journey is about 50km or 30 miles so even going by Cobb & Co coach which was a ‘fast’ and relatively comfortable service with modern coaches which had a suspension system made of leather straps,  it was still a four hour  journey as the coaches travelled at about six to eight miles per hour. The horses were swapped every ten to thirty miles.  So we’ll start  our journey at Dandenong which had a large range of hotels -  Dunn’s Hotel and Dunbar’s Dandenong Hotel were both built in the 1840s, the Bridge Hotel and the Royal Hotel in the 1850s to name  a few.

An advertisement from the South Bourke & Mornington Journal from February 14, 1877.

The next hotel I could find was run by Mrs Fagan on Lyndhurst Hill, where the ABC Radio station was later built (the triangle of road formed by the intersection of the Highway and Hallam Road). Mrs Fagan, who arrived in Victoria in 1853, was a survivor of a shipwreck. The ship she was a passenger on, Earl of Charlemont, went down off Point Henry near Geelong in June 1853. All the passengers were rescued but they lost all their possessions.  Mrs Fagan started the hotel in 1857 after her husband, Alexander, died at the age of 65. Her establishment was said to have dispensed the ‘water of life’ to coach drivers and she and her daughters were said to have a reputation for generosity and kindness. Who was Mrs Fagan? She was born Sarah Jones in Northern Ireland and married to Alexander Fagan. The two daughters referred to were Sarah, who married George Hall in 1855 and Agnes who married Mr Nelson - that’s all I know about him. Apparently, Sarah Hall used to walk from Narre Warren to Dandenong, even when she was 80, so she was an energetic woman. I don’t know when the Hotel ceased trading, nor can I find out when Mrs Fagan died.

After leaving Lyndhurst we travel to Cranbourne where there were two hotels. The Mornington Hotel (on the same site as Kelly’s Hotel) was started around 1860 by Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch, who like Mrs Fagan, were also survivors of a ship wreck. Thomas had been sailor and was on the Sacramento, which was wrecked off the Port Phillip Heads. He had met Elizabeth who was a passenger on the Sacramento - they both lost everything in the ship wreck, but found true love, as they married in 1854 and had eight children between 1855 and 1867. By 1912, the Hotel was known as the Motor Club Hotel and in 1919 it was taken over by the Kelly family. The existing Kelly’s hotel was built around 1926.  

The Mornington Hotel at Cranbourne 

(Photo from The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson)

 The other hotel in Cranbourne, called the Cranbourne Hotel, was established in the early 1860s by Robert and Margaret Duff. It was located next to Clydesdale Square, where the Cranbourne Park Shopping Centre is. Robert Duff died at the age of 34 in August 1861 ‘from being driven violently against a tree by his horse’ as his death notice in the paper said. He was the brother of the Reverend Alexander Duff, the first Presbyterian Minister in the area. Margaret’s maiden name was also Duff, so I presume she married a cousin, not unusual in those times.  Margaret continued to run the Hotel after her husband’s death and in 1866 married Edward Tucker, who owned a store in Cranbourne. The Cranbourne Hotel was demolished in the 1970s. Duff and Tucker Streets in Cranbourne are named after these people.

The Grantville coach at the Cranbourne Hotel at Cranbourne 

(Photo from The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson)

  

Continuing down the Highway, we would have come to the Sherwood Hotel, in Tooradin, which was near the corner of the South Gippsland Highway and Tooradin Tyabb Road. It was built around 1870 on land owned by Matthew Stevens. The Sherwood Hotel and 258 acres were put up for a mortgagee auction on March 14, 1878 and it is thought that the Poole family purchased the hotel at this time. The Poole brothers, Frederic (1826-1894), George (1827-1909), and Thomas (1837-1906) were early settlers in the Cranbourne area. Frederick was elected to the Cranbourne Road District Board and later the Cranbourne Shire, he lived at Lyndhurst. Thomas lived at Lang Lang and it was George Poole who became publican at the Sherwood Hotel. The ground of the Sherwood Hotel had a large stable, a diary and milking shed and the Pooles milked forty cows. George also constructed a racecourse and bred horses. When the Melbourne Coach refused to stop at his hotel, he built himself a Coach, which met the Cranbourne train and travelled on to Grantville.  George Poole had left the Hotel sometime before 1906 and after that there were a series of Licensees. The Sherwood Hotel was deprived of its licence on December 31 1917, after a ‘Deprivation Sitting of the Licenses Reduction Board’ hearing.

The next hotel was the Bridge Hotel at Tooradin. In January 1870, John Steer applied for a Beer Licence for his Bridge Inn and when he died in May 1876 the Hotel was taken over by Matthew Evans. Later publicans included Larry Basan who took over the licence in 1888 and rebuilt the hotel in 1895 and sold it around 1900. The hotel was demolished in 2016.

The Tooradin Hotel, 1970s. 

Photographer:  John T. Collins 

State Library of Victoria Image H98.251/1951

We have to detour off the Highway for the next Hotel which is the Royal Hotel in Koo-Wee-Rup built in 1915 for Denis McNamara. It was officially opened on Thursday, September 9, 1915.  A report in the Lang Lang Guardian at the time described it as a ‘fine commodious building of nearly 30 rooms’ and ‘one of the finest edifices of the kind in Gippsland’. 

Back out to the Highway and continuing down to Lang Lang was the town of Tobin Yallock on the corner of the Highway and McDonalds Track. The town started in the mid 1870s with a Church, a general store and Post Office and eventually had a drapery, bootmaker, bakers and Mechanics Institute Hall.  In 1877, the Flintoff family built the Tobin Yallock Hotel. The Tobin Yallock township declined when the Great Southern Railway was constructed and the Lang Lang Station opened in February 1890. By 1894 most of the businesses and public buildings had transferred to the new settlement near the Lang Lang Railway Station. In 1893 the Flintoff family built the Lang Lang Coffee Palace near the station.   The building later acquired a liquor licence and was renamed the Palace Hotel. The original building burnt down in May 1933 and the new Palace Hotel was built on another site (where it is now) and opened in June 1934.

How do you spell Koo-Wee-Rup?

What's the correct way to spell Koo-Wee-Rup?  Any way you want apparently. The article below, a letter to the editor of the Kooweerup Sun written by Mr C. Einsedel, suggests that Koo-wee-rup or Koo Wee Rup are the most acceptable. The way I usually spell it, Koo-Wee-Rup, is 'an absurdity' according to Dr Niel Gunson, historian and author of  'The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire' a history of the Cranbourne Shire,  published in 1968. It is a book that I admire and use frequently.  

Kooweerup Sun (that's how they spell it) March 21, 1973.

I was interviewed in the Pakenham Gazette about this very issue - here is the article from April 3, 2013. What I said was that my Birth Certificate has the town spelt as Koo-Wee-Rup and Kooweerup and that various documents from my time at the High School in the 1970s has the name spelt as Koo-wee-rup, Kooweerup and KooWeeRup, so  even Government organizations were having a bet both ways.

VicNames - the Register of Geographic Names lists it as Koo Wee Rup. You can access their website here https://maps.land.vic.gov.au/lassi/VicnamesUI.jsp

Whatever it is,  I believe that it should be three words. I agree with Dr Gunson as quoted in Mr Einsedel's letter that running the word together is a 'mark of laziness'.

Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall

Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall were business partners and were prominent land owners in this area  from the 1850s. They controlled over 20,000 acres (about 8,000 hectares) which they called their Western Port Runs and the properties covered the area from around Clyde to Lang Lang.

The information in this post comes from The Good Country: Crambourne Shire by Niel Gunson (Cheshire, 1968); Many a Mickle by Alan D. Mickle (Cheshire, 1953) and the Yallambie blog by Ian McLachlan https://yallambie.wordpress.com/

John Mickle (1814-1885) arrived in Melbourne in 1838. He came from Berwickshire in Scotland, where his family were farmers, and not especially wealthy, but John was ambitious and an astute businessman. He set up as a Stock and Station agent and was later joined by John Bakewell (1807-1888).  Bakewell, from Nottingham in England, had arrived in Victoria in 1840, along with his brother Robert, his sister Phoebe and her husband, Dr Godfrey Howitt, who was a botanist and entomologist.  In 1848, Mickle and Bakewell sold out to Richard Goldsborough who later established the Goldsborough Mort Company which merged with Elders Smith in 1962.

Previous to this, Mickle had built a house in Collingwood, and owned seven acres of land adjoining Chapel Street in Prahran, which was valued at £100 per acre. Mickle and John Bakewell then purchased 159 aces in Kew  - the 75 acres facing Studley Park Road cost them £20 per acre and the rest £13 per acre. According to Ian McLachlan's interesting blog Yallambie Bakewell and his brother Robert purchased land in the north of Melbourne in 1842, which they called Yallambie - the area is now partly occupied by the Yallambie Army barracks. Mickle and Bakewell also held various large properties around Victoria such as the Numeralla run on the Snowy River, near Orbost and the Brenanah run near Wedderburn.

In 1851, Mickle and Bakewell joined with William Lyall and formed the partnership of Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall. William Lyall (1821-1888) had arrived in Hobart in 1836 with his mother, Helen, his two sisters and two of his brothers. William’s father, John, was already in Tasmania, having left Scotland in 1833. William was ambitious and realised that to purchase land he needed to amass capital and so began trading sheep and cattle. By the time he was twenty, William was making frequent trips to the markets in Melbourne with cattle. William settled in Melbourne and was later joined by his widowed mother and other family members.

Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall started their partnership by acquiring, in 1851, the Tobin Yallock (also called Yallock or Torbinurruck) run of 1,920 acres - this run was located on the Yallock Creek. In the same year they acquired Red Bluff (south of Lang Lang) and then the Tooradin Run in 1852 and the Great Swamp Run in 1854.

By 1854, the trio were very wealthy. Mickle had married Margaret Lyall (William’s sister) in 1851 and in 1854 they all returned to Great Britain for a holiday - John and Margaret Mickle, her mother and her brother, William Lyall, and his wife Annabelle (nee Brown) and their three children; John Bakewell and his brother also went plus about seven others. The group embarked on February 25, and did not clear the Heads at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay until March 1; they arrived in London on May 22. The party toured London and other parts of England.  John and Margaret Mickle returned to Melbourne in 1857 and had a house at the top end of Collins Street. However in 1861 they left again and sailed to the port of Suez in Egypt and then overlanded to London and then onto Scotland. They purchased a house in Scotland and John died there in 1885 at the age of 71.  Two personal facts about John Mickle - he was  a man who strictly celebrated the Sabbath and he was described as a  ‘huge man’, well over six foot tall, taller than his wife Margaret who at six foot tall was extraordinarily tall for  a woman in those days. They must have been an imposing looking couple.

In December of 1856 the trio divided their jointly owned land. Bakewell’s portion included Tooradin, the Tobin Yallock pre-emptive right (renamed Turkeith), Red Bluff pre-emptive right and Warrook on the Yallock Creek.  Warrook was sold to W.C. Greaves in 1904, who built the existing homestead in 1906. Bakewell, like Mickle, did not actually live on his properties, he divided his land into a number of properties amongst which were Ballarto, Sherwood Forest, Tooradin Swamp and Yallambie - clearly a name that resonated with Bakewell and the source of the name Yallambie Road in Clyde - and they were leased out. Bakewell sold his land gradually in the 1870s and 1880s. These properties provided him with an income to return to England where he lived at Old Hall in Balderton, Nottingham. The 1881 English Census shows that the family had five servants and a teacher living with them, so it was a comfortable lifestyle.  In 1859, John had married Emily Howitt (a niece of his brother in law) and they had four children. He died at Balderton in 1888.

Mickle received the Upper Yallock blocks which he renamed Monomeith. John’s brother Alexander Mickle and his wife Agnes managed the Yallock and Monomeith properties for John Mickle.  Their son David was the grandfather of the local historian, Dave Mickle, who has written various books about the local area.

William Lyall received the Yallock pre-emptive right and it was on this land that William and Annabelle commenced the construction of Harewood house in about 1857.  The Lyall family moved into the completed building in 1868, from Frogmore, their house on 93 acres in Carnegie.   Lyall was an energetic farmer, who had cattle, sheep, grew potatoes, wheat and oats and also tried oyster cultivation. He was a Shire of Cranbourne Councillor, first President of the Mornington Pastoral and Agricultural Society, a founder of the Victorian Agricultural Society, the Zoological Society, the Acclimatisation Society and the Victorian Racing Club. During this time Annabelle ran the household and bore twelve children between December 1849 and April 1869. Three children died before they turned three and one as a teenager. Of the remaining eight, six married with Helen and Florence remaining single. The last Lyall at Harewood was Florence who died in 1951, at home. The property was sold out of the family in 1967.

Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall have streets named after them or family members in Koo Wee Rup, Tooradin and Cranbourne.

William Lyall (on the left) with John Mickle, 1853

Image: Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire, 1968)