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Sparrovale

26/10/2016

Map dated 1910 showing Geelong Showgrounds Station on the Queenscliff line

Map dated 1920 showing Geelong Racecourse Station on the Warrnambool line

Sparrovale was named after Edward Rogers "Ned" Sparrow, a former secretary of the Geelong Racing Club. He was born in 5 July 1847 to Edward Rogers and Jane (née Bruce) Sparrow. He was reputed to have been the first student to enrol at Geelong College. In 1882 he married Anna Maria Wilson and lived at 35 Villamanta Street, Geelong West, a large "B" listed heritage property. He died on 1 October 1918 at East Melbourne.

On 1 August 1864 250 acres in Marshall was leased to the trustees of the Geelong Racecourse. This area was extended on 1 April 1870 by 202 acres. With a further allotment added the total area of the reserve was 630 acres. A rail line which diverged from the main line a short distance south of Marshall then ran straight for slightly over one mile, crossed the Mount Colite Road (now Barwon Heads Road) and curved to the north into the racecourse grounds. The siding, which could accommodate twelve carriages and an engine, was situated behind the grandstand. A platform, 340 feet in length and 25 feet wide was completed. The first race meeting to utilise the railway facilities was held on Friday 1 February and Saturday 2 February 1878. On both days a special train left Melbourne at 10:15 am stopping where required on both the down and up journeys. Trains also ran to Geelong from Ballarat and Colac. On the first day about 1000 people travelled on local trains from Geelong to the racecourse platform. One train with thirteen carriages got stuck in the tunnel and needed another locomotive to help it along its way. The Geelong Racing Club held races at Marshall until 1908 when it moved to its present site at Breakwater.

Sparrovale was set up as a model farm using best farming methods. The land was drained and irrigated and a levee bank installed.

The Geelong Harbor Trust took over the farm of 1077 acres in 1908. The trust's operation of the farm was always subject to criticism, and when the trust was reconstituted in October, 1933 the new commissioners decided to relinquish control of this land. The farm, being a Crown grant, reverted to the Lands Department and was disposed of at a Government land sale. The trust was credited with the amount of the sale, at the upset price of £10,500. On 9 December 1936 this land was sold to WH Bailey of Woodside Buangor. The improvements included a substantial residence.

A clearing sale of bloodstock was held on 1 March 1944 under instructions of WH Bailey and also the trustees of the estate of his father Stephen Bailey, who had died on 18 October 1943 at Suma Park, Queenscliff. Top price paid was for "Much to Say", a brown mare, bought by Mr McMeekin of Geelong for 205 guineas. "Patricia Lorraine", a brown mare, went to Mr PM Darcy of Birregurra for 67 guineas.

In 1955 the property was sold to CO Lorimer for £70,000. In 1964 it was again sold to the Perkins family partnership, Sparrovale Pastoral Company.

Part of the Geelong Racecource line looking east down the line from Drews Road

1077 acres sold to WH Bailey on 9 December 1936

from "The Railway Construction Act 1877"

The railway line to the old Geelong Racecourse left the Colac line just south of Marshall Station.

An enlargement of the section marked in blue in the map above showing a proposed extention to Barwon Heads is dated 18 April 1906. It was proposed in the 1890s that a line could run to Barwon Heads and then pass through Torquay, Anglesea, Aireys Inlet and then on to Lorne.

It was planned that an area of 3.7 hectares would be acquired for a 22 metre wide drainage channel and a weir with removable drop boards to temporarily drain water from the Armstrong Creek East Precinct until it can be replaced by future wetlands.

It is now thought that a large wetland system to protect against flooding in Armstrong Creek will be needed. This will abut the Ramsar listed wetlands. More than 500 hectares will be required to create the wetland before housing can begin in the "Horshoe Bend" precinct. These wetlands are to be known as Sparrovale.

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Cobbin Farm, Grovedale

19/10/2016

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Cobbin farm is a group of buildings in Grovedale owned by Geelong council. The house, originally named Pine Grove, was built in 1847 by Alexander Pennell, who purchased 508 acres of Crown land. This land stretched from Waurn Ponds Creek to Boundary Road. It was later purchased by August Hartwich in the 1880s. It is now used as a community house. The chapel was originally St Cuthbert's Church of England and was shifted from its site at Marshall. It often used for weddings.

The grain shed at Pine Grove built by Julius Kosseck

Alexander Pennell bought 508 acres of crown land which stretched from Boundary Road in the south to Waurn Ponds Creek in the north. The eastern boundary of the land is where Burdoo Drive is today. Later a railway line was constructed through the property.

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Layard

12/10/2016

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Looking south from Taylors Road — The remains of the rail line to Wensleydale where it crosses the creek. Two posts are all that is left of the bridge.

As you travel along Cape Otway Road towards Winchelsea you might notice three roads not far from each other on the left side — Raglan, Lyons and Cambridge Streets. Panmure and Russell Streets run parallel to Cape Otway Road. Mary Synot and brother Simon ran a store. Permanent fresh water was available from the swamp however this swamp dried up in 1902 and eighteen residents partitioned the Winchelsea Shire council to further excavate it.

The township of Layard, as it was then known, was planned by the government and sold in the 1860s mainly to speculative buyers. It was near the southern boundary of the Parish of Modewarre, close to the neighbouring Parish of Gherang Gherang.

In 1891 a railway station was opened on a short branch line eleven miles long diverging from the Colac line about half a mile from Moriac station and running in a south-westerly directiontowards Wensleydale. It passed through the properties of Henry Larcombe, William Crutch and George McConachy, then after the township of Layard through two miles of John Rout Hopkins' land (Wormbete) and after that through the properties of Thomas Hunter, Mrs Mary Field and the Wormbete Wattle Company's selection, finally stopping in about the centre of this company's property. It was uncultivated land, and was only used for sheep grazing and for most of the way it was uncleared, the surface being partly hidden by a mass of fallen timber. There are sixteen bridges in the short line, the largest of which is 83 feet in length, situated about half a mile from the junction with the main line. This line provided plenty of jobs with about 220 men working on the line while about 150 men were employed in the forest in cutting and carting timber for the work. This line, known as the Saddle Line, attracted much criticism as the stations were not in the centres of populated areas but it was in the centre of a forest and trucks full of wood kept the Geelong industries supplied. There was also gravel at Gherang to move. The end of the line was within a few miles of Aireys Inlet and it was envisaged that during summer coaches would connect with

The bridge may have once looked like this

from Geelong Advertiser 19 May 1894

Wensleydale. As a passenger service it was sadly not up to scratch. The Age reported that passengers could travel in the guards van, but not in comfort: "It is no exaggeration to say that a journey to Wensleydale by train would kill a delicate woman". Coal was first discovered in the area in 1856 by Wesley Anderson. It was loaded onto the rail trucks at Wensleydale. When the line closed coal was transported to Geelong in trucks, mainly to the power station in North Geelong and also loaded at Winchelsea station to go to Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo and Western District centres. When the mine closed in 1957 and the mine was flooded to create a lake and is used for water skiing.

About a quarter of a mile from Layard station on the Moriac side were railway gates. John O'Donnell was the gatekeeper. Close to the gates was a house which was left open for the accommodation of rail travellers. This line was hoped would be the beginning of a line to Lorne. The line had very few passengers and closed about 1948 after train frequency was down to one per fortnight.

Russell Street, looking south west from Raglan Street. The road reserve is not cleared from Lyons Street to Cambridge Street

The old bluestone school at Modewarre is just up the Cape Otway Road near the corner of Considines Road. On the opposite corner of Considines and Batsons Roads Henry Lawrence operated a store and post office from 1861 which he upgraded in bluestone in 1864. The store was replaced by Lawrence's son, George, in about 1900, after the earlier building had been destroyed by fire in 1899. This building survives at Modewarre today.

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What does the name Duneed mean?

9/10/2016

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The name derives from the Gaelic word for a circular mound.

from Victorian Places
http://www.victorianplaces.com.au/mount-duneed

Mount Direction or Mount Duneed

This article about land sales in the district shows an opinion from a time before Mount Duneed was settled from Geelong Advertiser and Squatters' Advocate — 9 May 1846

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Summer hill, Mount Duneed

6/10/2016

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J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria

Headstone of Joseph and Hannah Williams

The prefabricated iron cottage, shown above, at Summerhill, 155 Mount Duneed Road, Mount Duneed is a rare example of a two room prefabricated iron cottage. It measures 24' x 12' in plan and is 9.5' high to the top of the segmental arched roof. The roof and walls are of 5" corrugated iron, with no supporting frame. The prefabricated iron cottage is of scientific, historic, social and architectural significance to the State of Victoria. It is notable because it demonstrates British technical accomplishment in the history of prefabricated building construction. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register number H1131.

Mr and Mrs Joseph Williams and their two sons George and James with their niece Elizabeth Frear arrived in Melbourne by sailing ship 'Lochiel' in 1853. They erected the cottage in 1854. They lived in the iron cottage with its rounded roof, until a weatherboard house consisting of four rooms was erected in 1860 with further additions in the 1870s. Joseph Williams was a South Barwon Shire councillor from 1860 until 1861. He was looked after at Summer Hill by his son for 21 years prior to his death on 13 Jun 1892. His wife Hannah was the daughter of Captain Joseph Wilson. She died on 19 December 1863. They are both buried in the Methodist section of the Mount Duneed Cemetery.

George Williams was the oldest resident of the district, when he passed away on 4 November 1919 at Summer Hill. Born in Liverpool in 1836 he had resided at Mount Duneed since coming to Australia with the exception of ten years, which were spent in Melbourne working for the Geological Department. For many years he was engineer and secretary for the Shire of Barrabool. He was a Barrabool Shire councillor serving from 1870 until 1872. He was active in church affairs as a trustee, class leader and steward of the Methodist churches of South Melbourne and Mount Duneed. He left a grown-up family of two sons and three daughters. His wife Elizabeth née Frear pre-deceased him by 19 months. They are buried in the Methodist section of the Mount Duneed Cemetery.

The stone shed (in the picture below) and stone wall (surrounding the south side of the house), was also built in the 1860s. Mr GWF McIntyre purchased this property and Mr and Mrs S Seiffert, with their two sons Lindsay and Murray, were the tenants for many years.

J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria

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The House Museum at Deakin University, Waurn ponds

5/10/2016

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The Australian House Museum began in the late 1970s using the vacant land in front of Deakin University at Waurn Ponds. Buildings were arranged in a row in a street named “Common Place”. This project resulted in many buildings being classified and preserved that would have otherwise been demolished. This project ceased as a result of high maintenance of the houses and the need for the land to be used for other purposes. Frank Campbell gathered historic buildings at the campus between 1979 and 1992.

The Freshwater Creek School and residence provided office space and an area for a small artefact museum. These buildings were used by Deakin as a valuable part of Australian Studies. It was planned for other humanities courses and possibly social science ones to use this resource for teaching purposes in the future.

Hawker's cottage

86 Skene Street, Newtown "Hawker's Cottage"
Built in 1854 as a two roomed house, it expanded to three, then four rooms. The detached kitchen was built in 1886. Kitchens began as outdoor fires with rudimentary shelter. They were detached by law for reasons of fire, tradition and hygiene.

Disease was thought to be caused by smells and vapours and drainage usually ended in a cesspit. The kitchen seemed to be designed to create a room for a servant.

After the museum closed this cottage was considered beyond repair and was demolished.

Bromley cottage

26 Lupton Street, Geelong West "Bromley's Cottage"

This tiny house by our standards housed twelve people in the Bromley family who lived there from 1862 to 1862 in a space 18 feet by 18 feet. Edward Thomas Bromley was transported to Port Phillip Colony at the age of 14 in 1847. His wife was the widow of his business partner, John Sherry. Sherry's family probably lived in the cottage too.

The floor in the front two rooms was originally made from packing cases. As was common at the time the internal walls were lined with hessian and covered with wallpaper to keep out the drafts. It had timber shingles under the corrugated iron roof.

It was relocated to Sun Street, Moolap before being included in the museum in 1984. After the museum closed this cottage was considered beyond repair and was demolished.

Herd's house

69 Fyans Street, Chilwell "Herd's House"

This is a lower middle class house built before the 1892 depression. The cast iron lacework is Indian inspired. The Herds were painters, decorators and plumbers.

In 2004 this house was relocated to 122 High Street, Drysdale.

Jacob Werner's cottage

13 McNicol Street, Geelong West "Werner's House"

This building is presumed to have been two separate one roomed miners cottages built about 1855 and relocated from the goldfields. The two dwellings were combined and divided into rooms to form a four roomed house about 1865.

Originally the cottages had no ceilings or walls. These were added by Jacob Werner after he moved in. He was a German musician, who settle in Geelong and became a painter and decorator. Originally the roof was covered in whitewashed timber shingles. This house may have been relocated in central Victoria.

21 Brewongle Ave, Hamlyn Heights

22 Coronation Street, Geelong West "Arthur's house"

This 1854 prefabricated house in Geelong West was recommended by the Geelong West City Council for inclusion in the project at Deakin University to allow the site in Coronation Street to be redeveloped. When the house was at this site the front of the house was on the boundary with the front doorstep on the footpath. The house is considered to be of architectural significance and as such was protected under the Geelong Regional Commission's Interim Development Order. Developers planned to donate the house and contribute $500 towards the cost of its removal.

The house was a rare example of a prefabricated timber house believed to have been built in Singapore in 1853 to help meet a housing demand caused by Victoria's gold rushes. Factories set up by the British in Singapore employed Chinese craftsmen making thousands of houses to meet the demand. Alexander Fyfe who built Hillside in Williams Road, Mount Duneed imported many of these houses.

When the museum was being wound up Arthur's House hit the road again for its new home facing a tree-lined park in 21 Brewongle Avenue, Hamlyn Heights.

The shed at Muckleford

The Winchelsea Goods Shed

The shed which originated at Winchelsea on the Geelong-Warrnambool line is similar to many others. A similar shed was once at Birregurra on the same line. Built in 1876 it came to the museum in 1987 and was used to store recyclable building materials. After the project closed the shed was moved to the Muckleford station on the Victorian Goldfields Railway.
It is available for hire for parties or for corporate events as well as Victorian Goldfields Railway training and general activities.

Police Lock-up, East Street, Inverleigh

This lock-up, which was erected in 1888, is very secure as it has a steel cage concealed under the timber. Almost 200 of these were installed throughout Victoria at small police stations. They were used from the 1870s until the 1960s. They were cold in winter and hot in summer. They were mainly used to hold drunks overnight. The policeman's wife had to supply meals.

When the museum closed it was returned to Lawsons Park, East Cambridge Street, Inverleigh.

The room at Natimuk

Natimuk Open-Air Pavilion School

Natimuk Open Air Pavilion School was constructed by the Public Works Department in 1914 as an open air classrom at the Natimuk State School. It was the only building in the museum not to have originated in the Geelong area and was moved to the museum in 1988. The room held up to 48 children. Three sides had canvas shutters fitted above three feet. Forty four of these classrooms were built between 1911 and 1914 in the hope of creating a healthier environment at a time when Tuberculosis was at plague proportions. These classrooms were unpopular with teachers in the winter.

The room was returned to 28 Noradjuha Road, Natimuk, in the grounds of the Natimuk School in 2002.

The school at Mount Duneed

The Freshwater Creek State School
The local Freshwater Creek community contacted the museum to suggest that their school be moved to the Waurn Ponds site, as they felt it was doomed by eventual road widening. The building comprises a teacher's residence and a schoolroom with a capacity of 60 children.

After demolition of chimneys the bricks were moved to the university. A large front room added in the 1950s was also removed. The roof was cut off as the gothic style school was too high to travel in one piece. It was then moved in two sections. After relocation the building has been fully renovated.

The three two metre finials on the gables had to be remade, a new verandah, new rear porch and balconies and walkways constructed.

Most schools of the 19th century have been well researched and the design of original features could be taken from this knowledge and by research from the people of Freshwater Creek.

This type of school and residence was designed by the government architect, based on traditional designs which evolved slowly in the 19th century. The schools were built in a set of standard sizes. The teacher's residence has two bedrooms, built in an era when five or more children per family was usual. The schoolroom was heated by an open fire.

After the museum closed the school was returned to its original site. In 1994 the school was once again on the move, this time because of the merging of Freshwater Creek, Connewarre and Mount Duneed State Schools. The school is now in the grounds of Mount Duneed Regional Primary School and is used as a classroom.

from The Australian (Sydney) 2 February 1826

If you wish to read more about the houses an excellent book named "Guide to The Australian House Museum" by Frank Campbell has lots of pictures of the houses and the people who lived in them as well as detailed notes on the renovation and history of buildings.

For Campbell, founder and director of the Australian House Museum, the ultimate goal of the project was to aid the understanding of Australian society and culture, using the Geelong region as a case study. He describes relocation of buildings as an old Australian tradition. Some early settlers brought their portable houses with them. Others bought houses after they arrived. Importers cashed in on this demand.

Some buildings that have been shifted:
Waurn Ponds school
Summer Hill
Marshalltown Post Office
St Cuthbert's Church
Freshwater Creek School

At Deakin — JT Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria

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Walter Burville

1/10/2016

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Walter Burville was born in Whites Road in 1871. His parents were John and Mary Ann (née Radford) Burvill. The spelling of the name changed from Burvill to Burville in this generation. He purchased part of Armstrong's station and old homestead and took his bride Sarah née Barlow, to live there. The aboriginals were living near Armstrong's Creek and often called at the homestead for food and tobacco. The old property was bought to become the cemetery and crematorium for the Geelong district. He took an active part in activities of the Grovedale Methodist Church. He was secretary of the Sunday School from July 1892 until 1899 when he became superintendent, a position he held until his death in November 1946, at the age of 75 years. He served for a total of forty seven years. He was a trustee of the church and proposed the following scheme in 1922 to raise £1,000 to go towards the erection of a new and larger church:
"That 20 acres of peas be planted each year for 10 years to yield on average 7 bags per acre. These 140 bags could be sold at 5/- per bushel to yield £105. Threshing and manure costs per annum £20. £85 net return per year with compound interest would in ten years yield £1,000." This money was raised and stayed in the building fund for decades.

His wife Sarah was an organist in the church for over forty years. The Ladies' Guild donated a new pulpit in her memory after her death in July 1952 at the age of 83 years 11 months.

His sister Alice, born 1873, was a Sunday School teacher and treasurer. She married August Hartwich and had two daughters and three sons. She died on 10 September 1958 at the age of 84 years. They are buried at the Geelong Eastern Cemetery. The name Hartwich was changed to Hartwick, probably about the time of WW1.

His son Harry became a Sunday School teacher in December 1929 and took over as superintendent at the end of 1946. He stayed in this position until July 1956 when he went to Bellbrae to help with their Sunday School. He became a trustee at Grovedale Methodist Church on 30 March 1933, serving for many years. He sang in the choir for many years and is remembered for his lovely tenor voice. He died in December 1974 at the age of 66. Harry and his wife Eunice lived on their dairy farm in Burvilles Road. Harry's schooling was in Mount Duneed. In later years they built on the corner of Whites and Torquay Roads. Their four children attended Mount Duneed School. Eunice died on 7 January 2011 at the age of 96 years.

Walter's grandmother had a millinery business in Geelong for many years trading under the name of "Burwell".

John Burvill bought the land on the corner of Torquay Road and Whites Road in 1854. He and his wife had three sons and five daughters. He was a teacher and superintendent of the Grovedale Methodist Sunday School for thirty-six years. Fourteen acres of this land was sold to Robert Broughton in 1876.

Mr L Burville was president of the Grovedale Methodist Cricket Club which was formed in 1933 in the Geelong and District Churches Association. On two occasions it reached the final series.

The Burville family were of French descent. They have been traced back to France to about 1600 when the family name was "de Burville". As Hugenots, they fled to England for religious and political reasons where they settled in Kent. In the 1850s members of the family migrated to Australia. Burvilles Road, Mount Duneed is named after the Burville family who lived along the road, and remained there until relatively recently. The earliest member was probably John Burvill. Later Walter Burville lived there.