Old Corrugated Iron Shed Calder Highway, South Taradale
Address of Building
Names Associated with Site
Title Details
Calder Highway, Taradale South
McAulay, Jackel, Kestle, Shaw, McCulloch, Maltby
Section 10, Lots 7&8 Parish Title Thwaites, McAulay 1854

Many of you would have driven past this shed when heading south from Taradale towards Malmsbury. Going up the hill leaving Taradale on the right and where the 80 kms speed limit changes to100 kms.
At the moment the shed is stacked with hay and looks a bit worse for wear. Is it architecturally significant? Without knowing it’s age it is hard to say. There were similar style (but more elaborate) sheds built in Victoria as far back as the 1870s.
Is it historically significant in relation to Taradale? Possibly. As can be seen from the photograph below the shed sat alongside an old cottage that occupied the site until the early 1990s.

Description (1992 Heritage Site Study):
Weatherboard, corrugated iron roof, four-roomed cottage, gable and skillion. Very dilapidated, has been used for hay storage. Iron Shed on north side.
The Cottage’s Occupants – their stories
The McAulay Family
George Steel McAulay from Dumbarton, Scotland is the first known occupant of this cottage. He first arrived in Victoria in 1853 where he followed various vocations interspersed with mining. He married Caroline Donohue from Glasgow, Scotland in Melbourne on 26 July 1861 at which time he was a farmer in Malmsbury. He and Caroline settled in Taradale in 1864 where his occupations were variously listed as hay and corn merchant, farmer, local councillor and Mayor of the Taradale Borough Council
He and Caroline had 6 children with the children’s births all being registered in Taradale: George (1) (1861), Agnes (1861), Georgiana
(1862), Caroline (1863), Catherine (1864) and George (2) in (1868). All of the children died in infancy. The 4 girls and George (1) in 1867 and George (2) in 1874. The death of their mother followed in 1883. All are buried in the Taradale Cemetery along with Elizabeth McAulay (nee Smith) the wife of George’s brother Robert who died in 1874.
George Steel McAulay remarried in 1883 less than 3 months after his first wife Caroline’s death. His second wife Bessie Adams had two sons of her own, George William Baynes who was born in 1871 and died in 1887 and Robert Stock Adams who was born in 1874 and who died in 1905. George Steel McAulay died in Bendigo on 3 December 1888. His death certificate listed him as a mining speculator. He must have been reasonably successful. As his obituary indicates he left his wife and two children well provided for as well as providing for a brother and a nephew.

From the Bendigo Advertiser 5 December 1888.
The Kestle Family
John Henry Kestle is listed as owning this property in 1884 and possibly earlier. He married Sarah Elizabeth Penno in 1898, after which they moved
into the cottage. They had four children Ida (1900), Harold (1903), Doris (1907) and Laura (1909).
They had moved to Melbourne by 1904. Sarah Elizabeth Kestle (nee Penno) died in 1946 and John Henry Kestle died in 1962 both are buried in the Box Hill Cemetery.
The Jackel Family
The Jackel family lived in the cottage from about 1905 until the 1920s. James Herman Jackel was an apiarist and farmer. His wife was Louisa Johns and they married in 1890. Their children included George (1891), Ethel (1893), Horace (1895), Aubrey (1898), Baden (1900), Cecil (1902) and Wallace (1904). All were born in Berwick before the family moved to Taradale.
Aubrey died in Horsham from snake bite in 1921. He was bitten while getting chaff for horses from a bag. He is buried in the Taradale Cemetery.
James Herman Jackel died at Dandenong in 1945 aged 81. Louisa Jackel died at Hamilton in 1953 aged 90.

From the Horsham Times 11 January 1921
The Shaw Family
Information extracted from “The Shaw Family” held by the Taradale Historical Group archives and written by a Shaw family descendant.
After the Jackel’s moved away there is no record of other occupants until John Linden Shaw (known as Jack) was born on 23 November 1898 and spent his early years in Monbulk Victoria where his family had a berry farm.
He enlisted in the 1st AIF and served overseas before being discharged on 8 April 1920.
After the war, as Jack wished to pursue a farming career, he went to Dookie Agricultural College where he obtained a Diploma of Agriculture. He then took up land on a soldier settlement farm at Healesville which was directly opposite what is now the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary.
Jack married Olive Frances Stanley of Malvern in 1924, Their first child Ailsa Jennie was born in 1925 and the second child Joy Rosemary in 1926.
While living in Healesville Jack served as a Councillor with the Healesville Shire Council.
In early 1927 Jack took up a position with the then named State Rivers and Water Supply Commission as the Water Bailiff for Taradale, to care for the Water Channel (known as the Race) and the towns water supply.
The Commission had promised to supply Jack and his family with a home and had purchased what had been the Taradale Police Station, which is still standing today, on the hill above the old Court House.
The Shaw family occupied the cottage when they first came to Taradale and waited for the Water Bailiff’s residence to be ready for use.
Jack and Olive had a further six children while living in Taradale, Olive May in 1928, Patricia Ruth in 1929, Stanley John in 1932, Gwenda Elaine in 1933, Heather Lorriane in 1941 and Jennifer Ethel in 1942.
Stanley John was struck down with diphtheria due to an epidemic at the time which was followed by pneumonia. He passed away in 1933 aged 19 months and is buried in the Taradale Cemetery.
Jack and Olive and the family left Taradale in 1947 moving to Melbourne for better employment prospects. The only daughter remaining in Taradale was the oldest Olive who married Frederick David Penno in 1947.
After leaving Taradale the family lived in Moorabbin from where the daughters made careers and married. Olive Shaw died in 1990 aged 87 and Jack Shaw died in 1991aged 92. Both are buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery.
Their eldest daughter Olive Penno (nee Shaw) remained in Taradale her entire life. She died in 2020 aged 92. Olive was a stalwart and passionate member of the Taradale community being involved in numerous local community groups including the Taradale Historical Group.
The McCulloch Family
The McCulloch family lived in the cottage from around 1928 to around 1943. Robert Gavin McCulloch born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1885 was a gardener and farmer. Robert and Maude Mary McCulloch (nee Ahern) born in Benalla Victoria, married in Albury in 1914. They had two daughters, Mary and Ruth, who both went to Taradale Primary School. Robert McCulloch died at Thornbury in 1955 aged 70 and Maude Mary McCulloch died at Thornbury in 1960 aged 71.
The cottage has probably not been lived in since the McCulloch family vacated. The land was used for grazing. Walter Talbot leased the land for a period. It was purchased by Ray Maltby in 1989 and in 1992 it was owned by his sons. It was around this time that the cottage was demolished.