Cora Lynn township plan and early land sales

This is the Cora Lynn township plan. This shows the original township allotments and the first owner of the allotments after the Government land sales. 

Township of Cora Lynn plan - the town is split between the Parish of Koo Wee Rup and that of

 Koo Wee Rup East.

Click on image to enlarge.

See the entire plan on the State Library of Victoria here 

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/93024

In Section T some of the sales must have taken place in 1904 as Allotments 14a to 14c have a purchase date of  June 28, 1904. Land sales were generally advertised in the newspapers and I have found this report in The Argus of October 5, 1909 with Allotments 10b, 10d and 10f of Section T for sale - each about half an acre. According to the Plan, above, George Petrie Murdoch Senior (1851-1934) and George Petrie Murdoch Junior (1872-1972) purchased this land and the other adjoining allotments. George Junior also operated the Cora Lynn store, which opened in 1907 on what I believe are Allotments 14b & 14c, Section F; J.L. Stein being listed as the land owner on this plan. More information on the  Cora Lynn store, see here.

Crown land sales, including blocks at Cora Lynn

The Argus, October 5 1909 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10738242/357108

Cora Lynn Cheese Factory

The Cheese Factory at Cora Lynn is  a prominent landmark, and as you can see by the date on the factory, it was established in 1910. This photograph was taken in 1998 and it has since been refurbished. I have tried to find out the exact date of the opening, but can only conclude from the following newspaper reports that it was either December 1910 or January 1911. The factory was extended in the 1930s and in 1932 had around 500 regular suppliers, however it was closed in the late 1940s. 

 

The Argus Wednesday, August 3 1910 page 6

From Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper 

Tenders were accepted in October 1910 to build the factory.

 

 

The Argus Saturday, October 15 1910 page 20

From Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

  

The Factory was under construction in December 1910.

Berwick Shire News   Wednesday, December 7, 1910.

The factory had just been completed in January 1911.

The Argus, Tuesday January 31, 1911 page 6.

From Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

Swamp wedding

 It is 90 years since my grandparents, Eva Eleanor Weatherhead and Joseph Albert Rouse married at the Methodist Church in Garfield on November 2, 1922. Joe was the eldest son of James and Annie (nee Glover) Rouse. You can read more about his arrival on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp in my first blog post. Eva was the youngest and and ninth child of Horatio and Eleanor (nee Hunt) Weatherhead of North Tynong. Horatio and his sons came  to North Tynong, from Lyonville, in 1909 where they set up a timber mill. Eva and her mother stayed behind in Lyonville so Eva could finish school and they then moved to Tynong. Eva was Post Mistress at Tynong from late 1919 until she was married three years later.

Joe and Eva lived on the 56 acre farm at Cora Lynn selected in 1903 by James Rouse which they ran as a dairy farm. They had seven children - Nancy, Florence, Dorothy, James, Frank, Daphne and Marion - with six surviving to adulthood. Grandma's passion was her garden, and you can see in the photographs of Evesham, as they called their house, below.

Evesham, soon after it was built, after their marriage, and below, around the mid 1930s.

Life on the farm, Eva and Nancy, taken about 1929. 

Joe with Jim and Frank, taken about 1937.

Joe was born November 9, 1892 at Clydebank (near Sale) and after he died on on September 3,  1954, Grandma run the farm with her children. She was born on August 30, 1901 and she died on February 8, 1982.