This is a short history of Tooradin and the Sherwood Hotel, which was located near the corner of the South Gippsland Highway and Tooradin Tyabb Road.
Some of the earliest Europeans who passed through Tooradin were Samuel Rawson and Robert Jamieson. They took up the Yallock Run, at the northern end of Western Port, in November 1839. They over-landed their cattle and goods to Tooradin from Melbourne and were then blocked by the undrained Koo Wee Rup Swamp, so used Sawtell’s Inlet at Tooradin as their port and continued on by boat (1). For the same reason, other land owners from further around Western Port Bay at Red Bluff, Grantville, Queensferry and Corinella also used Tooradin until the Western Port Road (South Gippsland Highway) was built around 1860 (2).
The Tooradin area was part of the Toorodan Run of 16,000 acres (6,475 hectares) taken up by Frederick and Charles Manton in 1840. Edwin Sawtell, a Melbourne merchant, had an interest in this run, before the Manton Brothers took it over (3). He is the source of the name of Sawtell’s Inlet. Sawtell died at the age of 95 in 1892 (4). The town took its name from Manton’s Toorodan run and is an Aboriginal word for “swamp monster” or “bunyip”
1851 saw the arrival of Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall in the area. John Mickle (1814-1885) and John Bakewell (1807-1888) were business partners in Melbourne from 1847 and they were soon joined by William Lyall (1821-1888) whose sister Margaret was married to John Mickle. They had numerous runs in the Western district and in 1851, they acquired the leases of the Yallock and Tobin Yallock and Red Bluff Stations; in 1852 Manton’s Toorodan run and in 1854 they acquired the Great Swamp run, all in all about 27,000 acres, which they collectively called their Western Port runs (5). I have written about Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall, here.
After the partnership split, the land was divided between the three partners with Lyall receiving part of Yallock Station. Lyall and his wife, Annabella, built Harewood house, just out of Tooradin, on this property. The construction of Harewood started around 1857 and the property remained in the Lyall family until the 1960s. Harewood is of State significance and is on the Victorian Heritage Database (6). Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall and their descendants are remembered in Tooradin, Cranbourne and Koo Wee Rup where streets are named in their honour.
Early land sales in the township of Tooradin took place in 1869, but it wasn’t until the 1870s that the township took off. In January 1870, John Steer applied for a Beer Licence for his Bridge Inn. John Steer died in May 1876 and the Hotel was taken over by Matthew Evans in 1877. Later publicans included Larry Basan who took over the licence in 1888 and rebuilt the hotel in 1895 (7). The hotel was demolished in 2016. The other Tooradin Hotel, the Sherwood Hotel, which was closer towards Cranbourne, had opened in 1869 - more on the Sherwood later. Most of the Tooradin township lots were sold in the 1880s.
A tender to construct the Tooradin State School was accepted in October 1874 and the School officially opened on April 12, 1875 with Mrs Adelaide Dredge as the teacher. John Woodfield Thrupp opened a store around 1875. The Post Office and a store operated by Mr F.M Woolley opened in August 1877. He only lasted a year and the Store was taken over by Mr G. Walker, and in 1898 by Frederick Atyeo. Two years later, his son George, took over and added a coffee palace. To meet the spiritual needs of the residents, Anglican Church services were held from 1875, most likely in the School, and from 1883 in the Hall until the Christ Church was built in 1900. The Catholic Church, St Peters, was built in 1922, services also having been previously held in the Mechanics’ Institute (8). The Church is now part of St Peters College at Cranbourne.
The Tooradin Mechanics’ Institute (pictured above) had officially opened on Boxing Day, 1882. The current Hall was built in 1938, having replaced the original hall, which burnt down the previous year (9). Another boost to Tooradin was the construction of the Great Southern Railway, which reached Tooradin in October 1888. It was extended from Tooradin to Loch in November 1890. The Station was a few kilometres north of the town and the source of the road name Tooradin Station Road (10).
As the town developed community groups were established – in the 1920s a Country Women's Association; the Fire Brigade started in 1945; the Infant Welfare Centre opened in 1949 and ten years later the Kindergarten; the Scout Group was established in 1964. The Tooradin Dalmore Football Club started in in 1919 and the Netball Club in 1954. The Avenue of Honour to commemorate the World War One soldiers was planted in 1922, unusually it consists of flowering gums (11).
Matthew Evans (1836-1909) was an early resident of Tooradin. He had purchased land in 1869 and built Bay View house in the early 1870s. He also purchased other blocks in Tooradin, some of which he sub-divided and sold around 1887 or 1888, see map above. Evans, as we saw before, was the owner of the Bridge Inn for a time and was a Cranbourne Shire Councillor from 1879 to 1881, a trustee of the Mechanics' Institute and donated the land for the Anglican Church. Evans built Isles View, c. 1898 and it is thought that Bay View house was shifted to form part of this new house. The Isle to which the name refers to is French Island (12).
Mr Evans is the source of the name of Evans Road. Matthew married Harriet Swalling in 1860 and she sadly died at the age of 21 in 1862. He then married Fanny Sweetnam in 1865 and they had ten children - Arthur Ernest (b. 1865), Herbert Hill (1868), Lance Hill (1870), Frank Austin (1871), Walter Matthew (1875), Florence Fanny (1877), Nellie Banks (1879), Lena Bessie (1880), Rose Alice (1884) Leslie Rubin (1887). Fanny died in 1931, aged 87 (13).
A fleet of fishing boats were also based at the Tooradin and some of the earliest settlers were fishermen. David Mickle writes that George Casey was the first fisherman and settler, followed by Jimmy Miles and then in 1876 Henry Forman Kernot and his wife, Elizabeth (nee McNaughton) came over from Hastings (14). Henry and Elizabeth had married in 1861 and their children were Charles Edward (b. 1861, married Annie Collins), Henry William (1863, married Sarah Winchester), Clara Johanna (1865, married Gilbert Kerr), Amelia Eliza (1867, married Henry Alexander Mundy), Caroline Jessie (1869, married Peter Peterson), Charlotte (1871, married William Mentiplay), Georgina Alice (1873, married Alexander Greive), Isabella Lucretia (1874, married Frederick George Seymour Poole), Thomas James (1876, married Elsie May Lee), Maria Martha (1877, married Frederick Rawlings), Mary Adeline (1880, married Thomas Henderson) and George Robert (1881, married Mabel Robertson) (15). Amelia and Henry Mundy's son served in World War One and he is listed on the Tooradin State Honour Board, see here.
Isabella Kernot Poole owned the Fishermans Cottage, on the Foreshore, from 1910 to 1949. It is now the home of the Cranbourne Shire Historical Society. The Cottage is one of the few remaining examples of the fishermen’s houses that originally dotted both sides of Sawtell’s Inlet in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. This house is thought to have been built by Matthews Evans and some sources date it's construction to c. 1873 even though the land was part of the 1887 subdivision (16).
The last of the professional fishermen, Henry Kernot and Arthur Johnstone (son of Ted Johnstone and Hilda Kernot (the daughter of Henry and Sarah (nee Winchester) Kernot listed above), surrendered their licence in 1999 (17).
Tooradin attracted not only the professional fisherman but the sports fisherman as well. The fishing, plus quail shooting on Quail Island, deer shooting, cycling club and other typical pursuits of the time gave Tooradin a reputation as a 'Sportsman’s Paradise'. This reputation was fostered by the publication of the booklet Around Tooradin : the Sportsman's Paradise by Hawkeye. It was published, in serial form, in late 1888 and early 1889 to promote the sale of land in the area (18). Today Tooradin is still a haven for recreational fishing, is the service centre for the coastal towns of Cannons Creek, Warneet and Blind Bight. It’s natural landscape of tidal flats and mangroves are a haven for bird and marine life. When I was growing up at Cora Lynn (in the 1960s and 70s) we always went to Tooradin to the beach - my parents used to water ski and we’ll have a swim or just go over and get fish and chips and eat them on the beach. In fact, Tooradin fish and chips seem to be fondly remembered by many people.
Interesting fact - Tooradin was the birthplace of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria in 1903. Susan Priestley, in her book The Crown of the road: the story of the RACV (19), tells us of the formation of the RACV - On a fine weekend late in September 1903, a dozen of Melbourne's more prominent wheelmen, who were also proud owners of the new motorized cycles, took their machines on a very pleasant outing to the flat reaches of Tooradin on Westernport Bay...The outing was reported in the Australian Cyclist... and the next issue of the journal featured a prominent article on the very singular lack of a motor club in Melbourne. The writer of the article was probably Sydney Day described by Mrs Priestley as a printer by trade but a cyclist and cycling writer at heart . Mrs Priestley says that he was one of the three like-minded friends who claimed to have hatched plans for a motoring club while on that trip to Tooradin. The other members of the trio were James Coleman (manager of a Cycle business) and Henry (Harry) Barton James, advertising manager of Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company.
Just north of Tooradin was the Sherwood Hotel, in Tooradin, near the corner of the South Gippsland Highway and Tooradin Tyabb Road. It was also known as the Robin Hood Hotel. It was built around 1869 on land owned by Matthew Stevens, who is listed in the Shire of Cranbourne Ratebooks from 1867. An early publican was John Wilson from 1873-1874 (20). The Sherwood Hotel and 258 acres were put up for a mortgagee auction on March 14, 1878. The advertisement (reproduced below) lists the auction on behalf of the late John Strudwick, and it is thought that the Poole family purchased the hotel at this time. George Poole became publican at the Sherwood in December 1888 (21).
The Poole brothers, Frederick (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, which became the Shire of Cranbourne in 1868, from 1865 to 1872, 1873 to 1874 and 1885 to 1893. He was Shire President in 1887-88. Frederick lived at Triuna, Lyndhurst. Thomas lived at Lang Lang. George Poole was bootmaker in Cranbourne, in the 1860s. He was elected to the Cranbourne Road District Board in 1866, and remained a Councillor until 1893. He was Shire President on three occasions. George Poole was described as one of the most forceful personalities in the district (22).
We have a first hand report of George and the Sherwood Hotel from a booklet we mentioned before Around Tooradin : the Sportsman's Paradise by Hawkeye. Hawkeye described the journey to Tooradin by train, the fishing, local hospitality. He described the Sherwood Hotel as like an old farm house, with a big dash of liberality and kindliness about it. The front portion is brick, and new weatherboard rooms have just been added. It is built just on the crest of a hill, and is in every respect a most comfortable house to stop at. Hawkeye describes George Poole as a fine specimen of a true Saxon. Big of limb, deep of chest, clear eyed, strong and powerful throughout, he reminds you more of the days when there were giants in the land than of a prosperous publican….. In his early days he visited America and became imbued with a touch of American smartness – with a knowledge of how to be cute and make money. On his return to England he was the first to start a real American bar where the thirsty Britain could obtain any drink from a mint julep to a cocktail. George then decided to try his luck in Australia. Hawkeye goes on to say that in Australia George had settled down quietly and his heart appears to be centered in his farming. George does not like the public house life, he hates drinking and talks of going into the coffee line. "Coffee is the thing", he says, "nothing like coffee, I think I’ll build a coffee palace" (23).
The ground of the Sherwood Hotel had a large stable, a diary and milking shed. The Pooles milked forty cows. George also constructed a race course 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 (24).
We do not know much about Mrs Poole, Hawkeye says she is a most obliging and attentive hostess and that she makes beautiful butter. I had assumed that the obliging Mrs Poole was George's wife, Ann (nee Seymour) whom he married in 1864. They had three children Ann, born 1865, who married William Hardy; Maria, born 1867, who married James Facey and Frederick, born 1870 who married Isabella Kernot. Ann died in 1916, aged 85. Ann had previously been married to Magnus Peterson, who had been born in Sweden. There were two children from this marriage Thomas, b. 1854 and Peter, born 1860. Peter was married to Caroline Kernot, Isabella's sister. Magnus died in 1861 (25).
As I said, I had initially assumed that George Poole's obliging and attentive hostess was his wife Ann, however, George had an on-going relationship with Mary Catherine (nee George) the widow of John Legge Strudwicke. Mary had married John Legge Strudwicke in 1871 and had two children Albert (b. 1871) and Louisa (b. 1875) and then John died in 1877. John had been the owner of the Sherwood Hotel until his death, when the Poole family took it over. Mary's relationship with George Poole produced four children - Kate Poole Strudwicke (b. c. 1881), Richard Poole (b.c. 1882), George Poole Strudwicke (b. 1887) and Amy Poole Strudwicke (b. 1895) (so George was 54 when the first one was born and 68 when the last one was born). I can't find Kate and Richard's birth registration and George and Amy are registered twice, under both Strudwicke and George, but have no father listed. However, both Kate and Amy have George Poole listed as their father in the Victorian Death Indexes (26). So the most obliging Mrs Poole referred to by Hawkeye is actually Mary, not Ann. I wonder what Ann thought of this - was she humiliated by George living openly with and having a family with another woman or was she glad to be rid of him and happy to live her own life or was it an amicable split that suited both of them? George and Mary's son, young George, served in World War One and is listed on the Tooradin State School Honour Board, see here.
George Poole had left the Hotel around 1906 and there were a series of Licensees from 1906 - John Lambell, Robert Porter, James Donohue, David McDonald, Mary Clapperton, Frank Gibbons, Florence Johnson and finally John Hopkins. The Sherwood Hotel was deprived of its licence on December 31 1917, after a Deprivation Sitting of the Licenses Reduction Board (27). A amendment to the Liquor Licenses Act of 1906 allowed the Board to systematically reduce the number of Victualler's licences in Victoria, taking into account public convenience and number of other Hotels in the area. I do not know when it was demolished.
Footnotes
(2) See my history of the Western Port Road (South Gippsland Highway), here.
(3) Mickle, David (complier) Tooradin: a history of a Sportsman's Paradise, 1875-1975 ( Tooradin 'Back to' Committee, 1975), pp. 9-11.
(4) Edwin Sawtell died April 29, 1892. His death notice in The Argus of May 14, 1892 (see here) said he was a Colonist of 56 years.
(5) Read about Mickle, Bakewell and Lyall in Niel Gunson's book - Chapter V - Victorian Lairds.
(6) Harewood property - https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/1157 and https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/30287
(7) Mickle, op. cit., 11-12; and
Tooradin: 125 years of coastal history - Blind Bight, Cannon's Creek, Sherwood, Tooradin North, Warneet 1875-2000 State school No. 1503 compiled by John Wells and the 'Tooradin Celebrates Together 125 Years of Education Committee' (The Committee, 2001) has a list of publicans of the Bridge Hotel, p. 27.
(8) Tooradin: 125 years of coastal history, op. cit., passim.
(9) https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2023/08/tooradin-mechanics-institute-and-free.html
(10) I have written about the railway line, here.
(11) Tooradin: 125 years of coastal history, op. cit., passim.
(12) Mickle, op. cit., 11-12; Gunson, op. cit., has a list of Cranbourne Shire Councillors to 1968. Information on Bay View and Isles View is from Heritage of the City of Casey: Historic sites in the former Cranbourne Shire by Graeme Butler & Associates (City of Casey, 1996)
(13) Indexes to Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(14) Mickle, op. cit., pp17-18.
(15) Indexes to Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(16) Heritage of the City of Casey: Historic sites in the former Cranbourne Shire, op. cit.
(17) Tooradin: 125 years of coastal history, op. cit., p. 25.
(18) It has been republished in Tooradin: 125 years of coastal history.
(19) Priestley, Susan The Crown of the Road: the story of the RACV (McMillan, 1983).
(20) Mickle, op. cit., p.22. and Cranbourne Shire Rate Books
(21) Information in this paragraph - Mickle, op. cit., p.22
(22) Information in this paragraph - Gunson, op. cit., passim. It was Dr Gunson who described George Poole as one of the most forceful personalities (p. 92).
(23) Tooradin: 125 years of coastal history, op. cit., p. 105
(24) Tooradin: 125 years of coastal history, op. cit., p. 105 and Gunson, op, cit., p. 161.
(25) Indexes to Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(26) Indexes to Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(27) Mickle, op. cit., p.27
Parts of this post, all of which I wrote and researched, originally appeared on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. This is a revised version.
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