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Page 18 - The Local Paper - Wednesday, May 25, 2016
The Yea Story: Part 15
Early families and personalities From The Story of Yea by Harvey Blanks ■ The second hald of the 19th century saw the arrival in the Shire of many of the families whose descendants still live and work in the district. It also saw the growth of the township itself, and the establishment of the first families to concentrate on commerce and service industries, although some also had rural interests in nearby areas. Some of these families, although they played important roles in the Shire’s earlier days of development, no longer have no direct ties with Yea; the original members have died out and their children have married and raised their own children elsewhere. Nevertheless, it is fitting that they should be included in this chapter, as they had much to contribute to the Shire’s beginnings, and their names are often commemorated in local geographical and topograpjical features. Not all the details in this chapter will be of general interest to everyone, especially those who do not live within the Shire and perhaps, have little direct knowledge of it. But many names will be found here which will occur time and again in the chapters which follow, and this section can thereford be used as a useful reference in interpreting, some of the events described in later pages. The same applies, also, to material in the succeeding chapter, which deals separately with the settlement of the Highlands area to the north of the Shire, geographically separate from the remainder, and here opportunity has been taken to describe not only the families which make up the Highlands community, but also this fascinating area generally and some of its legends. For ease of reference, and for no other reason - for the Shire is a single entity - this present chapter has been divided into sub-sections along approximate geographical lines: Yea township and the surrounding areas (a very broad and comprehensive classification), Molesworth, Homewdood, King Parrot Creek, the Flowerdale and Glenburn areas and Kinglake. Families in the Murrindindi area have been included either in the Yea or Glenburn sections. Because the first section, dealing with Yea and district, is by far the largest, the families listed in it, have been arranged in alphabetical order to make for ease of reference. In the other sections, a looser order has been followed in something approaching chronological listing. In spite of the title of this chapter, not all the names listed are ‘earlt’ in the historical sense. For some of the greatest contributions in the Shire have been made by men who arrived here only in the 20th Century, but who played roles of such importance that this history would be incomplete without mention of them. And sometimes it has proved impossible to round off description of a family’s contributions to civic achivement without reference to some people still living and working within the community.
● An advertisement from the front-page of The Age from Wednesday, November 30, 1864 bers of the family arrived in Melbourne from Scotland. John and William Drysdale are believed to have been the first to ar■ John Wishart Cairns was born rive, later being joined by others. The Drysdale brothers soon took at Fife in Scotland, and migrated to up contract work in bridge and road Melbourne at the age of 18. Almost immediately he joined an construction, and helped lay some uncle who owned a store at Whittle- of the earliest railway lines in the sea, but in 1860 he launched into Colony. They opened up the first quarries storekeeping on his own account, with shops at Whittlesea, Alexandra in Brunswick, and cut and carted and Yea (where his manager-partner stone for the Royal Mint and Melbourne’s first synagogue. was E.S. Purcell). As a contractor, James supplied He was postmaster at Whittlesea for eight years and lived in the Shire much of the stone used in the conof Yea for about 25 years, seving as struction of the Yan Yean reservoir, a councillor and filling a term as and is reputed to have been one of the two men who turned on the waPresident. As well as owning about 50 acres ter from the head of thed King Parat Whittlesea, he bought land in Yea rot Creek to fill the reservoir which township, including the so-called now feeds the city of Melbourne. Shortly after the first Land Act Marshmallow Paddock which gave him some valuable street frontage. was introduced, John and one of his On his land he built the store al- brothers trekked over the mountains ready mentioned, and the from Plenty, where the family was living, to investigate the opportuniCaledonian Hotel. He was a director of the Higgin- ties for taking up a selection along botham Prospecting and Gold Min- the Goulburn. As they were on foot, and there ing Comoany. He married a Miss Knight from were no clearly-defined tracks to Dundee, in 1866, and there was one follow, it took several days to find daughter of the marriage who inher- their way through the thick bush over the range. ited the property. At one stage, they became lost and ran out of food, but then emerged on what appeared to be part of a very large sheep run on which a few head were grazing. The brothers shot one of the ■ The Drysdale Family history is so complex, with ties through mar- sheep with a muzzle-loading pistol, riage with many other well-known and existed on the mutton until they families in Yea, that it is best treated reached the settlement of Yea. The area still consisted of only a all together. The family tree is extremely an- few very extensive runs, such as and Killingworth, but cient, with roots in the 16th Century, Doogallook they learned that land was to but for the purposes of this history it whenb made available for selection the is not necessary to go back beyond be brothers decided they liked what the early 1850s, when varous mem- they had seen and returned to Plenty to collect the remainder of the family. James had become married in 1857 to Marjorie McGillivray, daughter of John and Sarah McGillivray of Yan Yean District. The property he selected, and which he registerede in his name at Seymour, he called Musgrove. The party that set out from Yan Yean was a large one, including James and his wife, who rode a horse with a baby on her knee, John, William and Jane (who was married to Thomas William-son) and Isabella, accompanied by their mother. All their possessions were piled in bullock wagons and drays, and the party was also accompanied by John McGillivray and his wife. The route they followed was through thick brush, and the trip over Whittlesea Mountain took a fortnight, with frequent pauses to cut a path for the drays and livestock through the scrub and trees.
John Wishart Cairns
● Colin Anderson, one of the family descendants monto from Alexander Hume, and ran it in conjunction with Ghin Gin until his death in 1899. The family holding was enlarged in 1918, when Azwarby was bought from Edward Shields. Eventually, the various properties were divided amongst members of the family, and are still held by William Anderson’s descendants. ■ William Anderson arrived in New One of his four sons, Adam South Wales with his parents in 1850, and shortly afterward the family Beattie Anderson, managed Ghin shifted to the gold diggings on the Ghin for the family after his father’s death, and served on the Shire CounOvens River. From 1851 to 1855 he was en- cil, with terms as President in 1910 gaged in the carrying business be- and from 1938 to 1940. Married to Flora Purvis of Hometween the diggins and Melbourne, wood, Adam Anderson took a great but in 1856 he began farming at Lake interest in sporting events in the Shire, Learmonth and Bullarook. Eleven years later, in 1867, he and was one of the founders and pamoved to Yeaand went looking for a trons of the Highland Pipe Band. Another son, William Anderson, suitable selection on Ghin Ghin Station, then occupied by T.E. Brooke. who married Clementine Drysdaleof Selectors at this time were not Homewood, was the stock expert of very popular with the big squatters the family, and helped his brother as the land they chose inveriably was manage Ghin Ghin. The other two brothers, David wo centred on the best watering sites. married Ellen McKenzie of Yea, and When Anderson arrived at Ghin Ghin he was met by Brooke, who Archibald Thomas who married announced that he was a Justice of Stella Drysdale of Dairy Creek, both the Peace and ordered him off the assisted with the working of the property. run. One of the two daughters, ElizAnderson, who still retained his abeth, married Major Frederick broad Scottish accent, is reported to have replied: “Ah dinna mind what George Purcell, and the other, Annie, ye are, Ah’m goin’ doon to the river”. married the Rev. W. Bett of the Scots And did so, selecting two river- Church, Yea. front blocks; one he put in the name of his wife, who had been a Miss Clyne, from Caithness, Scotland. Over the years, William Anderson continued to select land on Ghin Ghin, and eventually bought the homestead, although other parts of the original run were selected by the Marshalls and others. Some of this land eventually became Larnoo Station; another part was incorporated in Terangaville. Anderson acquired a considerable reputation throughout the State as a breeder of Clydesdale horses, many of which he sold to wheat-farmers down the Goulburn Valley, and his brand ‘A’ was famous all over Victoria. He began in 1876 by taking selected clots and fillies to the annual draught horse sale at Nagambie, being accompanied by Edward Smith, from Yea, as his auctioneer. His annual drafts from Ghin Ghin thereafter became a fanous feature at the Nagambie sales. Later, Anderson acquired Beau● The late Dougal Drysdale, one of the family descendants
Yea Township and District William Anderson
Drysdale Family
● Continued next page in The Local Paper.