Category Archives: Victoria

X is for Xiàmén

28 Thursday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Avoca, China, Plowright

≈ 14 Comments

In 1881 my husband Greg’s great great grandparents John Plowright (1831 – 1910) and Margaret Plowright née Smyth (1834 – 1897) adopted a boy—their grandson—named Frederick Harold Plowright. The child’s father was James Henry Plowright; his mother was Elizabeth Ann Cooke, née Onthong.

Elizabeth Ann Onthong was born in 1862 in Avoca, Victoria, to Thomas Onthong and Bridget Onthong née Fogarty. The Onthong family later used the surname Cook (or Cooke). Elizabeth was the fourth of six children; she had four brothers and one sister, Mary Ann.

Elizabeth’s parents Bridget Fogarty and John Tong were married on 17 October 1855 in the Church of England vicarage at Carisbrook.

Marriage certificate (Victoria Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages) for FOGARTY, Bridget and TONG, John; Year: 1855, Reg. number: 2887/1855

The marriage certificate has them both living in Avoca. Neither could sign their name.

John Tong, son of William Tong storekeeper, was born in Amoy, China. His occupation was cook, and he was 26 years old. The certificate notes that he “could not tell his mother’s name (Chinese)”. This presumably meant that he was unable to transcribe the sounds of her name into English letters. He was probably also illiterate in Chinese.

Bridget Fogarty was born at Burr (Birr), King’s County (now County Offaly), Ireland. She was a servant, she stated her age was 21, and her parents were Michael Fogarty, farmer, and Ann Whitfield.

John Tong’s birthplace Xiamen 廈門 (pinyin: Xiàmén) is a city on the Fujian coast of China. For many years, the name, pronounced ‘Emoui’ in the Fujian dialect, was rendered ‘Amoy’ in Post Office romanization.

Amoy’s harbor, China. Painting in the collection of Sjöhistoriska Museet; image retrieved through picryl.com.
Xiàmén is 7,300 km north of Avoca, Victoria. Map generated using Google maps.

At the end of 1854 it was estimated that more than 10,000 Chinese lived and worked on the Victorian goldfields. In 1855 alone more than eleven thousand Chinese arrived in Melbourne, many of them indentured labourers from the province of Fujian via the port of Amoy.

John Tong arrived before the Victorian parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act 1855, legislation meant to restrict Chinese immigration by imposing a poll tax of ten pounds upon every Chinese arriving in the Colony and limiting the number of Chinese on board each vessel to one person for every 10 tonnes of goods. (£10 was worth about $9,000 today in comparing average wages then and now [from MeasuringWorth.com])

Though at the time of his marriage John Tong’s occupation was cook, he later worked as a miner at Deep Lead near Avoca. Three of his sons were also Avoca miners.

John Tong was also known as Thomas or Tommy Cook. Tommy Cook was mentioned several times in the newspapers. In 1866 he was noted as having “attained considerable proficiency in the English language.” In 1871 his son William gave evidence in a court case and he, William, was the son of “Thomas Cook, a miner, residing at the Deep Lead, Avoca.” In 1875 Bridget bought a charge of assault against her husband, Ah Tong, alias Tommy Cook. He was described as “a tall, powerful, and rather wild-looking Chinaman”. Bridget said he “was very lazy, and when he got any money would go and gamble it away.”

In October 1890 Tommy Cook and his son George Cook gave evidence in the inquest of the death of George Gouge. From the report in the Avoca Mail:

Tommy Cook deposed – I am residing at Deep Lead, near Avoca. I am father of George Cook. Knew deceased. I found the body lying about six o’clock on Friday morning about 200 yards from the hotel …

MURDER AT AVOCA. Avoca Mail 7 October 1890

I do not know when and where John (Tommy Cook) died nor where he was buried. Bridget died in the Amherst hospital in 1898 but her death certificate had no details of her marriage or children.

In 1935 the “Weekly Times” had a picture of an old hut on the Avoca gold-diggings.

READERS’ CAMERA STUDIES (1935, February 23). Weekly Times (Melbourne,
Vic. : 1869 – 1954), p. 38 (FIRST EDITION). Retrieved
from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223890597

A newspaper clipping published in the 1930s claims that this was the hut of Henry, George, and Frank, three of the sons of John and Bridget. The hut was said to have been known as “Cook’s Hut”.

Related Posts

Wikitree:

T is for Tattaila

23 Saturday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Homebush, New South Wales, teacher, Wilkins

≈ 15 Comments

My husband Greg’s great-great-great grandfather was a gold-rush digger named George Young. He and his wife Caroline had thirteen children, including twins, Charlotte and Harriet, who were born on 13 July 1861 in Lamplough, a mining settlement about four miles south of Avoca, Victoria.

On 2 October 1882 Charlotte married George Edward Wilkins at the Avoca Anglican church, St John’s. Charlotte was 21, employed as a domestic servant. George was 25, a miner from Percydale, five miles west.

St John’s Church, Avoca

Charlotte and George had three children: Ethel born in 1883 in Avoca, and George and Eva, born in 1884 and 1886 at Tattaila (sometimes spelt Tataila or Tattalia), near a large grazing run of that name at Moama in New South Wales, across the Murray river from Echuca.

Satellite view of Tattaila and countryside from Google maps
Google street view of Tataila Road

They had moved to Tattaila because, no longer a gold miner, George Wilkins had become a teacher, appointed in October 1884 to the school there, with his position formally recorded as Classification 3B on the New South Wales Civil Service list in 1885.

Sadly, George and Charlotte’s daughter Eva, born on 21 January 1886, died three days later, according to her death certificate from premature birth and inanation (exhaustion caused by lack of nourishment). She was buried on 25 January in the grounds of the Tattaila Public School.

Why in the school-grounds? Sadly, there seems to have been nowhere else, no suitable burial place within range. Perhaps this arrangement provided some consolation for the parents.

In July 1887, a year and a half later, with George Wilkins still the Tattaila schoolteacher, Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales, passed through on a tour of inspection. The Sydney “Australian Town and Country Journal” wrote:

'EDUCATIONAL.-Not long ago I was in the Moama State School, listening to the children practising " God Save the Queen" for the Governor's visit. On that occasion the children of Latalia [sic], under the charge of their teacher, Mr. Wilkins, amalgamated with those of the Moama School under the charge of Mr. Bruce, and the practising was done under Mr. Wilkin's tuition. The children acquitted themselves admirably, subsequently earning praise from Lord Carrington, and, what was, perhaps, much dearer to the infantile heart, a whole holiday. I was considerably impressed with the progress evidently being made by the children, and not a little astonished at the advanced curriculum of the State schools in this colony. Children in New South Wales are being educated in many things of a practical as well as a scientific nature which are neglected across the border. The inference is obvious.'

The local “Riverine Herald“, published in Echuca, had predicted on 16 July that:

'Mr Wilkins has taken a good deal of pains to coach the scholars up, and their singing yesterday showed that they had profited by his teaching. The children kept time very well and sang the Anthem with considerable expression, so that they should acquit themselves very favourably on Tuesday next.'
His Excellency Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales, photographed about 1887. Retrieved from the National Library of Australia.

In 1889 George E Wilkins of Tattaila was promoted by examination to Classification 3A.

At the end of that year, he transferred to the Victorian education system, appointed in December 1889 as head teacher at School 1798, Major’s Line, near Heathcote. (‘Major’s Line’ refers to wheel tracks left by the NSW Surveyor-General Major Mitchell in his 1836 journey of exploration.)

On 1 January 1891 George was ‘certificated’—approved to teach, and appointed as a teacher—by the Victorian Department of Education. In October 1891 he transferred to School 1567 in Richmond and appointed junior assistant on probation. It was noted on his file that George gambled, but otherwise the probation inspection was satisfactory.

In 1892 George Wilkin’s appointment was confirmed, and he was also qualified to teach military drill. In 1893 he was transferred to School 2849, Rathscar North. His annual reports were positive. In 1899 he was
transferred to School 1109, Mount Lonarch. In 1901 he transferred to School 3022, Warrenmang. In 1902 he was at School 2811, Glenlogie. Later that year he returned to Warrenmang. In 1907 he was transferred to Homebush School, 2258. All these schools were in in the Central Highlands administrative region. He remained at Homebush until December 1921, when ill-health forced his resignation.

George Wilkins with his pupils in about 1896 at Rathscar North. From the 1988 book by Neville Taylor (1922 – 1992): Via the 19th Hole : Story of Convicts, Battlers and High Society. Neville was the son of Eva Taylor nee Squires.
George Wilkins, his children Ethel (1883 – 1955) and George (1884 – 1909), and wife Charlotte. Photograph about 1898.

Though not formally employed by the Education Department Charlotte Wilkins helped her husband with his teaching duties, brought up their children, and raised two of her nephews after their mother, her sister-in-law, died in childbirth. Charlotte was also busy in her local community. I have found no mention of Charlotte in Tattaila district newspapers, but in later years the Avoca newspapers give some better account of her activities there. for example as a hostess for various functions associated with the Homebush Soldiers Comforts Fund during World War I.

Lower Homebush School photographed some time between 1910 and 1920. In the back row are Laura Squires, Charlotte and George Wilkins. Laura Squires was sewing mistress from 1910 to 1920. She married George Wilkins after Charlotte’s death in 1925.

On 2 April 1925, following three years of paralysis, Charlotte died in Lower Homebush at the age of 63 and was buried in Avoca Cemetery.

Related posts

Wikitree:

O is for ‘Ottawa’ Gladstone Parade Elsternwick

18 Monday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Brighton, CdeC Australia

≈ 5 Comments

My great great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny (1850-1927) worked for the Bank of Victoria. His obituary in the Argus (Melbourne), on 12 March 1927, outlines his career:

[Crespigny] joined the service of the Bank of Victoria in June, 1866, as a junior clerk. After spending a few years in country districts in service of the bank he was promoted to the position of manager at Epsom, and he filled a similar position at other country towns. Subsequently he was placed in charge of the South Melbourne branch of the bank. At the end of 1892 he was appointed assistant inspector, and he continued to act in that capacity until 1908, when he took the office of chief inspector. In 1916 he became general manager of the bank in succession to Mr George Stewart.

As a branch manager Philip was entitled to accommodation provided by the bank. In 1887 he moved from the Elmore to the South Melbourne Branch. In 1888 he was appointed Assistant Inspector of the Bank of Victoria. This position no longer came with a house.

The 1889 rate books for the City of Brighton record Philip C Crespigny, Banker, renting a 9-room brick house on the Esplanade.

The household comprised Philip, who had been widowed since 1883, his two sons Philip and Constantine Trent (known as Con when young) who were aged aged 10 and 7 in 1889. Philip’s mother Charlotte had been widowed in September 1889. She probably spent time helping Philip raise the two boys but at some stage seems to have moved to live with her married daughter Rose at Eurambeen near Beaufort. Viola, one of her two unmarried daughters, was also living there. Charlotte’s second unmarried daughter, Ada, probably lived with her brother Philip.

After only a year or two Philip was renting “Wyndcote”, a 7-room weatherboard house on Tennyson Street in Brighton.

In June 1891 Ada lost a bracelet and advertised for its return in The Age:

LOST, lady's Bracelet, Brighton, between St. Andrew's Church and Tennison sts., Sunday. Reward. Miss De Crespigny, Tennison st, Brighton.

Philip married for a second time on 2 November 1891 to Sophia Beggs .

CRESPIGNY—BEGGS.—On the 2nd inst., at Holy Trinity Church, Balaclava, by the Rev. Dr. Torrance, Philip, only surviving son of the late Philip Robert Champion Crespigny, police magistrate, to Sophia Gratton Montgomery Beggs, fourth daughter of the late Hugh Lyons Montgomery Beggs, of Bushy Creek Station, Glenthompson.

Philip and Sophia’s son Frank was born in September 1892. From The Argus 27 September 1892:

CRESPIGNY. —At Wyndcote, Tennyson-street, Brighton, the wife of Philip Champion Crespigny—a son.

In July 1892 Mrs Crespigny advertised in The Age newspaper for a general servant:

SERVANT, general, wanted, must be good cook. Mrs Crespigny, Wyncote, Tennyson-st. Brighton Beach.

In January 1893 the Crespigny family sought a nursegirl in The Age and placed a similar advertisement in The Argus:

NURSEGIRL, young, wanted. Mrs. Crespigny, Wyncote, Tennyson-st., Brighton Beach.

Less than a year later, in June 1893, Mrs Crespigny advertised again in The Age newspaper for a general servant:

SERVANT, general, must be good cook. With references, Mrs. Crespigny, Wyndcote, Tennyson-st., Brighton Beach.
Philip Crespigny at “Wyndcote”, Tennyson Street in Brighton with members of his family in 1894: Constantine Trent, Sophia Montgomery Grattan nee Beggs, and Francis George Travers

The boys, Philip and Con, attended Brighton Grammar School. The family were parishioners of St Andrews Brighton.

In 1894 Philip and his family moved to ‘Ottawa’, a 10-room brick house at 16 – 18 Gladstone Parade, Elsternwick, leased from Alfred Felton, a wealthy businessman, remembered for his philanthropy. The villa was built between 1890 – 3; Philip Crespigny was the first recorded occupant.

A photograph of Ottawa, then named Kambroona, when it was being sold in 1933.

In September 1894 Sophia Crespigny was again advertising in The Age and in The Argus for a nursemaid, from the new address:

NURSEGIRL wanted. With references, Mrs. Crespigny, Ottawa. Gladstone-par., Elsternwick.

The Crespigny family seems to have been a little careless about its portable property, scarcely able to venture abroad without losing something. In 1896 there was a reward offered in The Age for a lost brooch:

LOST, between Elsternwick station and Gladstone-par., gold Brooch. Return to Ottawa, Gladstone-par. Reward.

In 1897 Con lost a bicycle cape:

LOST, on Saturday, Boy's Bicycle CAPE, on Mornington-rd. Apply C. Crespigney, Gladstone-parade, Elsternwick

In 1901 a puppy went missing:

LOST, Sunday, between Regent-st., Elsternwick, and Balaclava, Black Cocker Spaniel Puppy. Reward. Ottawa, Gladstone-par., Elsternwick.

In July 1906 another brooch was lost and a reward offered in The Age:

LOST, in St. Mary's Church, Caulfield, or between it and Gladstone-par., Elsternwick. Gold Brooch, with diamond in centre. Finder rewarded on returning to Mrs. de Crespigny, Ottawa, Gladstone-par., Elsternwick.

The same month there was an advertisement for lost eyeglasses:

LOST, Eyeglasses, Elsternwick, between Gladstone-par. and station. Return Ottawa, Gladstone-par

I wonder if any of the advertisements produced results and the items were returned?

In 1907 more staff were sought through The Age:

SERVANT, general; also Nursery House Maid. Crespigny, Ottawa, Gladstone-par., Elsternwick.

Philip and Sophia had two more sons in Elsternwick: Hugh Vivian on 8 April 1897 and Royalieu Dana on 11 November 1905. On 15 March 1908 their youngest son, Claude Montgomery, was born in “Vierville”, 20 Black Street.

Philip had been promoted to Chief Inspector at the Bank of Victoria in 1908, and perhaps on the strength of this, he purchased a house in Black Street, which remembering the family origins in France, he named “Vierville”. Philip lived in the house until his death in 1927.

“Vierville” in Black Street, Brighton, photographed in 2019
20 Black Street, Brighton [now renumbered as 18 Black Street]
Philip and his wife Sophia lived here from 1908 until his death in 1927

“Ottawa” is still standing. It was sold in 2014; the real estate advertisement described it as:

'Ottawa' Circa 1885 - A Grand Victorian Mansion Home Unlike Any Other
The unique romance and whimsical character of this 14-room home will appeal to families requiring versatile accommodation in a prize position.
Set amongst quality homes within easy walking distance of the best schools, Glenhuntly Road, Martin Street, parkland and bayside.
The property is sited on 915m2 with a broad frontage of 24.4m, charming gardens and views of the bay.

The house was converted into flats and altered in the 1930s, given what the Heritage report describes as ‘an eclectic make-over’.

Google Street view of Ottawa in 2010. The tower-like bay at the front is a 1930s addition.
Maps showing Philip Crespigny’s addresses in Melbourne. The headquarters of the Bank of Victoria where he worked was in the city.

Related posts

Wikitree:

H is for Heathcote – renovated

09 Saturday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Chauncy, Heathcote

≈ 9 Comments

One of my third great grandfathers, Philip Chauncy (1816 – 1880), was educated as a surveyor.

In 1839 he emigrated from England to South Australia. Two years later he married Charlotte Kemmis, a fellow emigrant, and moved to Western Australia to take up a government appointment as assistant surveyor. Charlotte died in 1847.

In 1848 Chauncy remarried, to Susan Mitchell, second daughter of the Reverend William Mitchell, a chaplain of the Colonial Church Society in Western Australia.

Philip Chauncy 1878
Susan Chauncy nee Mitchell

In June 1853 the family, which then included three young children, left Western Australia for Victoria. On their arrival in Melbourne the Chauncys stayed with Philip’s brother William in Sandridge, now known as Port Melbourne. Within a month Philip bought a small cottage and allotment in the suburb of Prahran “at a very high price”, took an office in the city, engaged a clerk, and went into business as a land surveyor and commission agent. This venture was unsuccessful, however, and he “soon discovered the only thing I could do well was spend money”.

Rescue came soon in the form of an offer of appointment as Surveyor-in-Charge of the McIvor district, present-day Heathcote. This he accepted in August 1853. His yearly salary was was £400, the equivalent of several hundred thousand Australian dollars today, with an additional £200 annually for travelling expenses and equipment, rations for himself and five men, forage for one horse, and firewood.

In “Memoirs of Mrs Chauncy”, a biography of his wife Susan which Chauncy wrote in his retirement, he describes their 72 mile journey from Melbourne to Heathcote. It took ten days, nine of them rainy. The axle of their wagon broke, they became bogged, they were robbed, and their servant abandoned them.

At that time the McIvor diggings had about three thousand diggers and storekeepers. The Commissioner’s camp housed some 150 Government employees, all living under canvas. Philip, fortunately, had brought four tents of his own.

Philip laid out the town of Heathcote, and conducted other surveys in the district, notably a survey of the Murray River settlement which became the town at Echuca. His office was also responsible for land sales in the district. Chauncy’s staff included four assistant surveyors and their subordinates.

Living and working under canvas was uncomfortable and Philip wrote often to the Government authorities in Melbourne asking to be provided with better accommodation. He recorded in his diary that on Christmas Day 1854 the temperature in his tent was 114 degrees Fahrenheit (45°C).

The Government provided £1546 (roughly $AUS 1.5 million today) towards the construction of a stone building on the main street in the centre of Heathcote. This was to serve as the Survey Office, with living quarters for Chauncy and his family. The Chauncys lived in the Government camp for over a year; their new house was completed in February 1855. It was the Chauncey’s home for five and a half years. Philip made a garden with vines and fruit trees. This was extended into an adjoining block he purchased in 1854 (now occupied by a house at 49 Wright Street).

1857 sketch of the Survey Office, Heathcote, by Philip Chauncy. The children playing are Therese born 1849 and William born 1853. Image retrieved from the Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 14517/P0001/25, K493

Philip also bought land in the district, including a farm six miles from Heathcote, which he name Datchet after his birthplace in Buckinghamshire. As well, he built a brick house, ‘Myrtle Cottage’, in Heathcote’s High Street (probably at about 152 High Street, since demolished).

From a map of Heathcote township drawn by Philip Chauncy in 1853 showing the survey office (red *) and blocks of land bought by Philip Chauncy (blue *)
Note the spelling of present-day Chauncey Street is Chauncy Street on this map
Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 8168/P0002, DIST65; HEATHCOTE TOWNSHIP; CHAUNCY P

In 1860 Philip was transferred to the Dunolly Survey District, sixty miles west of Heathcote. He moved there in 1861.

The Survey office and Chauncy residence (where my great great grandmother Annie Frances (1857 – 1883) was born) still stands. When I first saw it on a visit to Heathcote in 2007 it was very run down.

Heathcote Government Surveyor’s Office in 2007 viewed from Chauncey Street
Renovations in progress on the Heathcote Government Surveyor’s Office in March 2020
The restored former Heathcote Government Surveyor’s Office in March 2022

Extensive renovation since then has considerably restored its colonial mid-Victorian character and charm. It now operates as a fine restaurant, named Chauncy.

Related posts

Further reading:

Wikitree: Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy (1816 – 1880)

G is for Glenthompson

08 Friday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, CdeC Australia, Victoria

≈ 5 Comments

My great grandfather Trent de Crespigny (1882 – 1952) was a doctor. He studied Medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduating with first-class honours in 1903. His first position was on the staff of the Melbourne Hospital.

Report of Brighton Grammar School prize distribution
Our Schools (1904, December 17). Brighton Southern Cross (Vic.), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article165442751

Three years later, in 1906, he married Beatrix Hughes, daughter of E. W. Hughes, manager of the Bank of Victoria in Beaufort, about a hundred miles west of Melbourne. By then Trent de Crespigny had gone into private practice in Glenthompson, a small settlement about sixty miles further west, near the southern end of the Grampians.

Approaching Glenthompson from the west on the Glenelg Highway. From Wikimedia Commons, by user Melburnian. CC BY 3.0
1906 wedding of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny to Beatrix Hughes at Beaufort, Victoria.
WEDDINGS. (1906, September 15). The Ballarat Star (Vic.), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article210684752

Trent and Beatrix de Crespigny’s first child, my grandfather Geoff, was born in Glenthompson on 16 June 1907.

Family Notices (1907, June 22). Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic.), p. 12. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221258251
Geoff de Crespigny at St Marnocks near Beaufort in 1908 with his great uncle Frank Beggs.

Towards the end of 1907 Trent de Crespigny sold his Glenthompson practice and moved back to Melbourne, where he established himself in Fitzroy. In addition to this local practice, de Crespigny worked as Health Officer of the Fitzroy Council, and he became an honorary physician at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

In 1909 he moved from Melbourne to Adelaide in South Australia to take up an appointment as Superintendent of Adelaide Hospital.

CONCERNING PEOPLE. (1909, June 18). The Register (Adelaide, SA), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57857621

Related posts:

Entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography

Wikitree:

E is for Evelyn Street Bentleigh

06 Wednesday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Bentleigh, Morley, Sullivan

≈ 15 Comments

In 1853 my husband’s great grandfather John Morley (1823-1888), with his wife Eliza née Sinden (1823-1908) and their two children, Elizabeth aged 3 and William aged 1, emigrated to Australia. They sailed on the ‘Ida‘, arriving in Melbourne on 12 July. John was an agricultural labourer; the family was from Sussex.

They first settled in Collingwood, an inner city suburb, where four more children were born. Three of their six children died there. In 1861, when their daughter Anne was born, the family moved to Brighton. The youngest child, John William George, was born there in 1864.

In 1862 the rate books for the City of Moorabbin show John Morley living in a weatherboard house owned by Edward Carroll on Tuckers Road. The annual value was 8 pounds, significantly lower than neighbouring properties; the rates were 8 shillings. (Using average weekly earnings to measure worth £8 would be the equivalent in 2022 of about $10,000.)

In 1884 John Morley, carpenter, was occupying 1 acre and a 4 room house on Centre Road. It was owned by Cain Thorne. It was valued at £12 10 shillings (about $11,000). Next door Elizabeth Morley, no occupation, was occupying 5 acres on Centre Road valued at £10 and owned by G. P. Burney.

The rate book of 1886 describes John’s property as 1 acre and 2 room weatherboard house and Eliza’s property as 2½ acres. Ownership had not changed. John’s property was valued at £15 and Eliza’s property at £19.

On 9 November 1888, after an illness of 3 months, John Morley died at 7 Evelyn Street East Brighton of malignant disease of the stomach.

Tucker Road, Centre Road, and Evelyn Street are near each other. Perhaps the three addresses refer to the same property.

Satellite view from Google maps showing 7 Evelyn Street Bentleigh , and Centre and Tucker Roads. It is much more densely settled today than when the Morleys and Sullivans lived there.

It seems Eliza kept cows. These sometimes strayed, and in 1890 for this she was fined 7s 6d with 2s 6d costs in the Brighton Police Court.

In 1891 Eliza Morley was the owner and occupier of a house and land at East Brighton. Her address was Village Street, not on current maps. The value of the property was £18.

On 23 April 1908, Eliza, 85, died at 7 Evelyn Street Bentleigh after an illness of ten weeks. Her death was attributed to ‘asthenia’ (generalised weakness, probably the result of a cancer of the pharynx). There are no probate papers.

On 17 February 1887 Henry Sullivan married Anne Morley at the residence of the Reverend Samuel Bracewell, a minister of the Primitive Methodist Church, at Lygon Street, Carlton. At the time, both Henry and Anne were living at East Brighton (later known as Bentleigh). On the marriage certificate Henry gave his profession as gardener and his age as 24 (he was really 23). He did not know who his parents were.

Henry and Anne had five children, all born at 7 Evelyn Street:

  • Mabel 1887-1960
  • Rosina 1889-1969
  • Arthur 1891-1975
  • Henry 1894-1969
  • Francis William 1899-1956

Henry and Anne Sullivan lived at 7 Evelyn Street Bentleigh all their married life. They called their house “Navillus”, “Sullivan” spelled backwards.

Florence Sullivan (nee Hickson), the wife of Frank; Elaine Sullivan, their daughter; Anne Sullivan (nee Morley); and Henry Sullivan. Photograph taken about 1940 at “Navillus”, 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh. Behind Ann and Henry is the house nameplate.  From the collection of a cousin, used with permission.

Henry grew fruit and vegetables for sale at Navillus. He appears to have had an interest in flowers, too, for it is said that he bred a variety of violet naming it Navillus.

From the 1938 catalogue of Law, Somner Pty. Ltd. seed merchants and nurserymen: page 46 – “VIOLETS.—Navillus (New), semi-double, large rosette, sweet scented, long stems, free blooming, 6d. each, 5/- dozen” Retrieved from Deakin University Library repository

Henry died in 1943. When Anne Sullivan died three years later, there was a public sale of some of the household contents.

Advertisement for the sale of household furniture and effects from 7 Evelyn Street, Bentleigh. Included was a Wertheim sewing machine and garden tools.
Advertising (1946, May 25). The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), p. 11. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206103947

The house was sold. In the 1990s it was bulldozed and the site redeveloped.

Related posts

Wikitree:

D is for Drummond Street

05 Tuesday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, Ballarat, Greg Young, Young

≈ 10 Comments

My husband Greg was born in the Ballarat Base Hospital in Drummond Street, one of the main north-south streets in the west part of the city.

The hospital is not far from where we live now in Mair Street; Greg likes to joke that for seventy-one years he’s moved himself an average of only three metres a year from his place of birth.

Ballarat Hospital on the corner of Sturt and Drummond streets

When he was born the Young family lived at 505 Drummond Street, five blocks south of the hospital.

505 Drummond Street in the 1990s
505 Drummond Street in 2017

In those days Ballarat had a network of trams. One ran along Drummond Street. This was very useful to a family without a car. The Ballarat trams were replaced by buses in 1971.

From a map of the Ballarat tramways in the collection of the Ballarat Tramways museum and used with permission. 505 Drummond Street, the hospital (H), and the SEC depot are marked in red.
A tram on Sturt Street Ballarat in 1945. Photograph from the National Archives of Australia, A1200, L2579, id 6816240


After the War, Greg’s father Peter was employed as an S.E.C. (State Electricity Commission) linesman. His gang had its base at an electricity power station, now gone, on the corner of Ripon Street and Wendouree Parade, a block north of where we live.

Peter travelled to work by bicycle. The S.E.C. depot was a mile or so from the Drummond Street house, ten minute’s pedal.

In 1953, when Greg was three, the Young family moved to Shepparton, then, a year later, to Albury, over the border in NSW. Greg has some memories of this move, but almost none of the house in Drummond Street.

Wendouree Parade looking at East power station on the corner of Ripon Street in the 1930s or 40s. Image from Rotary Club of Ballarat. A flour mill occupied the site before the Ballarat ‘A’ Power Station was constructed on the site in 1904. Part of the mill was used for the main power station building. The State Electricity Commission of Victoria took over operations of the station in the 1930s from the Electricity Supply Company Ballarat. The station ceased operation in
the 1950s and the site became the Mid Western Electricity Supply Region Office and Depot. In 1983 the major portion of activities conducted on the site were transferred to a new depot
in Norman Street Ballarat and the site completely closed in 1993. It has since been redeveloped for housing. From 1994 Environmental Audit report.

Related posts

Wikitree:

C is for Chewton

04 Monday Apr 2022

Posted by in A to Z 2022, education, Sullivan, Victoria

≈ 12 Comments

My mother-in-law Marjorie (Marjorie Winifred Young neé Sullivan, 1920 – 2007) liked to talk about her childhood, her later life, family stories, and the family tree. I enjoyed her reminiscences, and I took notes for my family history database.

Marjorie in Castlemaine in the 1940s. I do not have any photos of her as a child.

Marjorie’s family often moved when she was a child, for her father was badly affected by what in those days was called ‘shellshock’ from his time as a soldier in the trenches and he found it difficult to stay in the same job.

Marjorie was born in Oakleigh, a suburb of Melbourne, the fourth of six children.

When she was about three the family moved to Tatura, near Shepparton, about 160 km north of Melbourne. Marjorie’s brother Roy was born there in 1926. This was the year Marjorie started school. Her father, she said, would not allow any of his children to start school before they were six nor start work before they were sixteen. Marjorie went to school at Tatura for a short time and could not remember much about it.

Tatura School photographed in 1911. From the collection of the State Library of Victoria Image No: a03584

In 1927, the family moved to Castlemaine. She remembered the Castlemaine school as very large. She wasn’t there for long. After only a year or so in Castlemaine, the family moved again, to Chewton, a small settlement about 5 km away.

North Castlemaine state school about 1925. Photograph from Flickr uploaded by user HistoryInPhotos. There are several schools in Castlemaine and I am not sure which one Marjorie attended.

Marjorie, then eight or nine, went to the Chewton village school. She began in the first grade but was quickly promoted to second grade. A visiting Inspector asked the children how to sound ‘again’. Most said “agane”. Marjorie, however, said “agenn”. This was considered to be the correct pronounciation, and she was allowed to go up to a grade. Although Marjorie’s brother Arthur was a year older, in Chewton she caught up to him at school and afterwards they were always in the same class.

Marjorie was pleased to recall the story of the Inspector’s visit. Her confidence, she said, was greatly boosted by her promotion.

Chewton school from the 1968 centenary booklet, photo used with permission of the Old Castlemaine Schoolboys Association
Chewton State School 1054 established : present building opened 1911. Photograph from VIEWS IN AND AROUND CHEWTON (Vic.). (1921, May 21). The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 – 1946), p. 56. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article140259231

In 1931 the Sullivan family moved to Kyneton, about 40 km south of Castlemaine, where she became a teacher’s assistant in one of the junior classes. Every day she would spend some time in the junior school
helping out.

Kyneton primary school has now been rebuilt on another site and as at March 2022 these buildings are awaiting redevelopment into a community hub. This bluestone section was built in 1855 with 1861 additions.

About 1932 the family moved again, this time to Malmsbury, about 10 km from Kyneton. There, with two other girls, she again became a kindergarten teacher’s assistant. Without being required to sit an examination they were awarded the Merit Certificate and were entitled to leave school at fourteen. Marjorie enjoyed teaching and wanted to be a teacher but the nearest Teachers’ College was too far away to attend and the family was too poor to support her.

Malmsbury Primary School yard and children playing Ring A Rosie about 1930. Photograph in the collection of the Malmsbury Historical Society and used with their permission.

In December 1933 there is a mention of Marjorie Sullivan winning a prize for “Pastel drawing (under 15), scene” in the combined show held by Malmsbury and North Drummond Y.F. clubs. Marjorie was a talented artist. She painted and sketched all her life.

In Malmsbury on 6 January 1933 the Sullivans had their sixth child, Gwendolyn Phyllis, called ‘Gwenny’. When Marjorie left school she helped care for her. In 1935 Gwenny died of meningitis. Marjorie remembers that Gwenny was was sick with stomach cramps on Monday, and died on Wednesday.

The family moved from Malmsbury to Castlemaine about 1937 and Marjorie started work in the woollen mills there as a weaver.

The places the Sullivan family moved to in the 1920s and 30s

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Finding the parents of Frederick Harold Plowright born 1881

22 Tuesday Mar 2022

Posted by in Avoca, DNA, DNA Painter, Plowright

≈ 2 Comments

My husband Greg’s great great grandparents John Plowright (1831 – 1910) and Margaret Plowright nee Smyth (1834 – 1897) were married in 1855. They had six children, the youngest born in 1872. In 1881 they adopted a child named Frederick Harold Plowright. I have not found his birth certificate, and until recently I did not know how he was related to the Plowright family. Until 1929 there was no formal adoption process in Victoria and so there was no directly relevant documentary material from 1881 to establish a relationship.

Frederick Harold Plowright 1881 – 1929, photograph in the collection of his grandson J P

In 2018 J P, grandson of Frederick Plowright, took a DNA test. This showed that he was related to the descendants of John and Margaret Plowright but that his grandfather was not the son of John and Margaret.

I used a DNA Painter analysis tool called ‘What are the Odds?’ to estimate where J P stood in the family tree and so how Frederick Harold might be related. The tool calculates where somebody probably fits in the family tree based on the amount of DNA they share with people about whose position in the tree you have complete confidence. The tool predicted that the best hypothesis is that J P was the great grandchild of James Henry Plowright, one of the sons of John and Margaret Plowright, and that his grandfather Frederick was a half-sibling to the other children of James Henry.

In short, it appears very likely that Frederick was adopted by his paternal grandparents.

Using the What are the odds (WATO) tool from DNA Painter to calculate how J P might be related to his Plowright cousins. Hypothesis 5 is the most likely and is indicated with a red *. J P’s grandfather’s most probable position in the family tree is indicated with a green *.

The Avoca Mail reported on 28 June 1881 that Elizabeth Ann Cooke brought an affiliation case against James Henry Plowright. This is a legal proceeding, usually initiated by an unwed mother, claiming legal recognition that a particular man is the father of her child. It was often associated with a claim for financial support.

AVOCA POLICE COURT. Monday, June 28th, 1881. (Before C. W. Carr, Esq., P.M.)

Elizabeth Ann Cooke v. James Henry Plowright. — This was an affiliation case, and Mr Matthews, who appeared for the plaintiff, asked that it might be postponed to allow it to be arranged out of court. The case was accordingly postponed by mutual consent for one week.

Avoca Mail 28 June 1881

A week later the case had been settled, presumably by the parents of James Henry Plowright agreeing to adopt the child:

AVOCA POLICE COURT. Monday, July 4th, 1881. Before W. Goodshaw, Esq., J.P.

E. A. Cooke v. J. H. Plowright. — Mr Matthews, for the plaintiff, stated that the case (adjourned from last court) had been settled

Avoca Mail 5 July 1881

Elizabeth Ann Onthong was born in 1862 in Avoca, Victoria, to Thomas Onthong and Bridget Onthong nee Fogarty. The family later used the surname Cook or Cooke. Elizabeth was the fourth of six children; she had four brothers, none of whom apparently married or had children, and one sister, Mary Ann, who married and had children.

J P shares DNA with descendants of Mary Ann

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Remembering Helena Gill drowned 10 July 1932

09 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by in Apollo Bay, Hughes, shipwreck

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Eighty-nine years ago Helena Lucy Gill née Hughes, my second-great-grand-aunt, drowned when the SS Casino sank in Apollo Bay, Victoria. She was 65 years old.

Helena was the second youngest of eight children of my third great grandparents Samuel Hughes (1827-1896) and Sally Hughes née Plaisted (1826-1900); she was the younger sister, by twelve years, of my great-great-grandfather Edward Walter Hughes (1854-1922).

Drowned Stewardess (1932, July 11). The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 – 1954), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242973343

In April this year Greg and I went for a drive along the Great Ocean Road. We visited Apollo Bay and had lunch at the Apollo Bay Hotel. The hotel has a memorial to the Casino, which includes the ship’s wheel.

sign remembering the SS Casino in Apollo Bay opposite the Apollo Bay Hotel
  • Apollo Bay Hotel April 2021
Apollo Bay Hotel and its SS Casino Room display
extract from newspaper clipping on display at the Apollo Bay Hotel
The anchor from the Casino
Green, A. C. (c. 1900). Casino. Retrieved from the State Library of Victoria image H91.325/1112.
The “Casino” at Apollo Bay. (c 1920). Rose Stereograph Co. Retrieved from the State Library of Victoria Bib ID 1731943.
The Casino at Port Fairy retrieved from the Facebook page of the Port Fairy and Region Visitor Information Centre.

The Casino carried cargo and up to 25 passengers between Melbourne and Portland, stopping at Apollo Bay, Warrnambool and Port Fairy, for almost 50 years, from July 1882 to July 1932. She made more than two thousand of these coastal passages.

From about 1914 Helena Gill worked on the Casino as a stewardess. Her bravery in the shipwreck is recalled in a newspaper clipping, part of the display at the Apollo Bay Hotel.

Tomorrow there will be a small ceremony to mark the anniversary of the sinking. A service will be held at the Casino memorial in Gipps Street at 10 a.m. on Saturday 10 July.

S.S. Casino memorial, Port Fairy. (no date). Image from State Library of Victoria Image No: a07643.

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