The following account of the history of Yallock was written by
Henry John Boxshall (1880 - 1968) a pioneer Yallock resident. The history was written in March 1957 for the pupils at the Yallock School and was published in the
Koo Wee Rup Sun of June 26 1968. This is part 2 and you can read part 1
here and part 3
here.
The history of Yallock - Part 2 by H.J. Boxshall
Mr H.J. Boxshall continues his article of the early history of the Yallock area. He mentions some of the landowners and some of the troubles they encountered. At the end of the article last week, Mr. Boxshall was talking about some of the churches in early history.
A short while after the building of St. Saviour's church at Yallock, a Methodist church was erected on Mr. Bateson's property, and this was done by voluntary labour. Mr. T. Pretty did almost all the work on both churches, refusing, any payment for his labour.
METHODIST CHURCH BUILT AT YALLOCK
The Methodist church was well attended in the years prior to the outbreak of World War One. After the war many of the supporters of the church left the district and the church was later moved into Kooweerup.
Methodists to preach at Yallock were Mr. Upton, Mr. Sherlock, Mr. G. Shinkfield, Mr. Val Trigg and Mr. C. C. McPhee, the latter was a very popular minister and was a prominent member of both the cricket and football teams. He enlisted in the war and on his return had to resign from the Ministry due to some throat affliction. There were others who preached there whose names I cannot recall.
The first Church of England organist was Miss Alice Cox who later married Mr. Fred Simmel. Mrs. Simmel was present at the service held at St. Saviour's in November 1955 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the church. She died the following year in her 82nd year.
EARLY SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS
Early Sunday school teachers whose names I recall were Mrs. J. Jones, Miss Ridgway and Miss Collyer. Miss E. Games was superintendent of St Saviour’s Sunday School for many years, assisted by Miss B. Boxshall who succeeded Miss Games when she left the district to live in Melbourne. Miss Games was also the organist at the church for many years, one of my sons Mr. O. Boxshall now holds the position.
I would like to pay a tribute to the memory of Mrs. Jones, whose name is mentioned above. Mrs. Jones was the wife of one of our earliest arrivals at Yallock. She was a qualified midwife and was always ready and willing to go to the help of anyone who was ill or in trouble, any hour of the night, wet or fine - she was truly a Christian woman. After leaving Yallock, she conducted a private hospital at Wonthaggi, where she passed away, when well over 80 years of age.
GATES BLOCKED THE ROADS
When the early settlers arrived here they found all roads leading to this area blocked by gates.To get on to the Monomeith Road, three gates had to be opened. There was a gate near the No. 5 drain bank leading into "Quamby" Andrew Lyall's property; another into Monomeith Park and then another had to be opened to get on to the road at Bourke's stockyards. A gate across the No. 5 bank or Creamery Road, as it is sometimes called, blocked the road to Kooweerup and the way out to Yannathan was also blocked.
It was sometime before the landowners responsible, fenced their land to give the settlers free access to their blocks.
There was no bridge over the Yallock Creek, where the present one is located and the settlers filled the creek bed with ti-tree so as to make a ford to enable them to get across to Kooweerup.The river could only be crossed when the Creek was low and when the river rose too high, Kooweerup could only be reached via Monomeith and the highway.
An old creek bed in "Quamby" had to have about five chains of corduroy laid to enable traffic to get to the Monomeith Road. The work was done by the settlers, who organised working bees. Works of this sort had to be done by the settlers themselves as it was useless to ask for assistance from the Government and this area was called "No man's land" as far as adjoining Shires were concerned.It was some time in the late nineties that the Cranbourne Shire took over and valued the area. Mr. A. Facey, the Shire Engineer was the valuator.
THEY LOST A DAY'S PAY TO GET THEIR WAGES
I would like to record here another inconvenience men on the drain work had to contend with. No matter where they were working they had to travel to Kooweerup to pick up their fortnightly pay.The pay office was at W. Stuart's store, situated by the canal bridges. (The house still stands there and must be one of the oldest, if not the oldest building in Kooweerup township).
The Paymaster was Mr. Clowser, assisted by Mr. J. O'Brien, (one of the overseers of the drain work and who at one time became one of the largest land owners at Yallock). Picking up your pay nearly always meant losing a day's pay, because as the work advanced it took the men further away from Kooweerup, where the drain work was started. Long tramps over very rough tracks, that a horse could not travel had to be undertaken.
On entering the office to receive your pay you would find alongside the Paymaster the local butcher, baker, storekeeper etc. with their fortnightly accounts and after these accounts were settled the wage-earner had what was left, which was at times very little.
The story is told of one hardy old pioneer who was walking slowly away over the canal bridge and was hailed by one of his work-mates. "What is the matter Tom? You don't look too happy this morning". "Happy", said Tom, "and what do I have to be happy about? I just picked up my pay and look what I have left". He disclosed a few coppers in the palm of his hand and with that, tossed them into the waters of the canal and dejectedly walked on.
THE EARLY SETTLERS
The following are the names of the first commers to Yallock—
Starting at the corner of Finck's Road - the No. 5 Road, corner block was occupied by W. Donaldson, bricklayer then A. Renfrew, furniture salesman; H. Treeby, labourer; then my father T. Boxshall, landscape gardener. Mr. Boxshall was for a period of 14 years foreman of the Exhibition Gardens, Carlton and had laid out a large area of those particular gardens.
An elder brother of mine, A. Boxshall, engine driver, Victorian Railways was next. Then followed H. Scharf, carpenter. He had left Germany to escape militarism. His two sons later enlisted in World War 1 and were both killed in France. W. Chance was next followed by O. W. Reitchel, bricklayer and on the corner block at the hall road was M. O. Donald, mail contractor and stud master. The last four allotments mentioned are now occupied by Mr. George Peck.
The block now owned by Mr. Deppeler was occupied by E. Rossiter; the 60 acres now owned by Mr. Still belongs to the Lyall family; on the corner block, now F. Stephens, was Mr. Simmil, blacksmith; Mr J. Jones was first on the block now owned by Mr F. Ashby. Then followed Mr Arthur Orford, labourer, and his house was burnt down during the 1898 bushfires. The owner left the district shortly after.
The first on the block opposite the hall and now belonging to the Bailey family were Mr. Kroschell, Mr. Glowasky, whose son was later a very well known member of the Victorian Police Force. Mr. Chas Woodman owned these allotments for some years.
One of the earliest settlers was Mr. F. P. Stephens, farmer, who donated the land for the Church of England. His son now resides on the property and next to him, Mr. Priestly snr. Mr. E. Batson followed him and lived on the property some years. Mr. Batson was a member of the first School Committee, he donated the land for Methodist Church. The Ashby family now own the farm. Mr. Geo. Wright, builder lived on the corner block, later owned by Mr. C. Brazil.
Names I recall further east and on McKay's Road are G. Richardson, Geo. Casey, J. McKay, J. Orchard, B. Lineham, W Cadee, L. Coates, J. Ieckleson, T. O'Shea and W. Cameron. The land for the hall was given by Mr. Fred Simmill.
Next on O'Briens Road was T. Harker, now owned by Stephens and Thompson; Mr J. McGee was next and this property is now occupied by Mr. F. Lineham. Mr. W. Harker owned the block at the corner of O'Briens Road and No. 6 Road. Also on the same road lived Mr. J. T. O'Brien, a local Cranbourne Shire Councillor for many years. He was a former overseer on the drain works. Mr. James Stevens, a sailor, was next. This farm was later owned by Mr. A. Dalyrimple, a member of the school committee for a number of years. After his departure it was taken over by Mr. Horace Barr (A.I.F.). Mr. W. Fechner now owns it.
The first to live on the block now owned by Mr. W.Thomas was Mr. A. T. (Dick) Priestley, son of Mr. Priestly mentioned previously in this article. Mr. Priestly later had a store in Lang Lang and a farm at Yannathan. Next to Priestly's was Mr. E. Powis who kept a boarding house at Dandenong. His son H. Powis lived on the block. He was a well known footballer with Dandenong and had previously played with Essendon in the League. He was also a member of the local football and cricket clubs.
Early commers who did not stay long were Chas.Williams and a man named Rogers. The latter was the first on to the block lived on by the Gudgin family for years. Mr. Gudgin senior was followed by his son William and then his grandson Harold. The property is now owned by Mr. Geo. Light. On the school road and close to the school was Mr. C. J. Izzard, saddler, who donated the ground to the school. Mr. Izzard was the first Yallock Progress Association secretary.
Robert Fountain was the original settler on the block now owned by Mr. Light, next was Mr. D. Ware, Mr. E. Collyer, one of the school's earliest committeemen.
Others associated with this road were W. Hatty, Senior; Mr. Savage, D.Cahill and S. Flewin, Mr. W. Hatty Junior, Mrs. W. Brown. Mr. D. Abel now owns a number of these blocks. Mr. W. A. Cox lived for a while on one of the blocks now owned by Mr. A. M. Bethune.
The first to live on the block now occupied by Mr. T. Light was Charles Ware, a former road contractor. On the next block was Thomas Kirwin, farm labourer and next Mr. A. J. Cox, bootmaker, Mr. J. C. Hatty was first on the block now occupied by Mrs. Humphrey. Mr. Wise (late A.I.F.) also lived there for some years.
Early settlers on the No. 6 or Catani Road were Mr. F. O'Neill, E. Giggins, W. R. Donaldson, V. Blythe. The latter was an ex-serviceman and was for some years president of the local branch of the V.D.A.
On Finck's Road adjoining Donaldson's were J. Yeaman, engine driver; next B. J. Cox, father of George who now lives there. H. Reid was next, and he left his house when it was destroyed by fire. On the Finck's Road and No. 6 Road where Mr Kane lives was W. Nichol and later Chas. Woodman. The block over the road was first owned by W. Scanlon. Mr. L. W. Finck senior was next. He was secretary of school committee for any many years and also secretary of the hall committee.
This is part 2 of Henry Boxshall's history of Yallock. You can read part 1
here and part 3
here.
