History
Five Talented Sisters By Ilma Hackett - Balnarring & District Historical Society
A
ll five of Mary Huntley’s daughters grew to be accomplished young women.
Mary came to live in the Red Hill-North Merricks area after the death of her husband, John Huntley, in 1887. She brought her family to ‘Hillside’, an orchard that her husband had inherited from his father just three years before his own death from cancer.
The Background Story Her husband’s father, John Huntley Sr. had migrated to the colony of N.S.W. from Kent in the U.K. with his brother in 1835. He then came to the Port Phillip District where he bought land at Brighton and established a farm. His market garden, ‘Kentish Gardens’, at Brighton, where he grew fruit trees, became something of a show piece and he narrowly missed being awarded the Silver Cup at the Brighton Horticulturalist Society show in 1875. By then his 10-acre orchard lot had been established for thirty years and he was growing a variety of Pippin apples as well as apricots, plums and pears. John Sr. was also a member of the Brighton Council and one of his daughters, Elizabeth, married Thomas Bent, a fellow councillor. When land sales opened up the Mornington Peninsula, John Sr. selected two lots, totaling just over 200 acres, in the Red Hill– Merricks North area, prime orchard country, where he established an orchard. He died in 1884 a few months after he was hit by a train at a railway crossing in Brighton. His eldest son inherited the peninsula property. John Huntley Jr. was not a man of the land like his father but a boot-maker by trade and the orchard on the Peninsula was leased. Then, just three years later, he too, died. A New Start John Huntley’s widow then came to live at ‘Hillside’, bringing her children with her. There were seven Huntley children in all: five daughters and two sons. They were Annie, Mabel, Louise, Laura, Jack and Perce, and youngest daughter Evelyn, better known as Lin. The thirteen-acre orchard that had been established at ‘Hillside’ did well. Cherries and plums were the main fruits grown but apples, strawberries and raspberries were also grown. In July, 1900 Mary remarried when she and Jack Shand wed. Jack (who was sometimes called Peter) was one of the Shand family who owned the sawmills at Red Hill. He was a big man, known for his incredible strength and his natural genius with mechanical and mathematical things. He was a practical problem solver. With his brother Alex, Jack did contract work around the district. The year following his wedding he bought ‘Kent Orchard’. After a fire destroyed ‘Hillside’, the combined family moved into the house at ‘Kent Orchard’ to live. Later Jack established ‘Kentucky’, another orchard in Merricks North. Mary’s sons grew up to become
Left: Mary Huntley
E ssence
70 | PENINSULA
May 2021