003 – Home Message (right) – Whittlesea Historical Society

Yan Yean Reservoir

The Yan Yean Reservoir is the oldest water supply for the city of Melbourne. Work began in 1853 at the height of the gold rush, and it took four years to construct at a cost of £750,000.

At the time of its completion in 1857 it was the largest artificial reservoir in the world.

Places of Historical interest/Street Names

Family Surname Briefs A – D

James ANDREW James was born in 1827 in Devonshire. He married a Mary Heal in 1850. They sailed for Melbourne on the “Lady McNaughton” but Mary died on the voyage. He married an Anna Maria Webb at St Peter’s Church Melbourne in 1852. They lived at his Darebin Creek property and later purchased farms in Whittlesea, one being named “Woolsery”.

Family Surname Briefs

Mason’s Road – Mernda

History has it that in 1853 the families of Samuel JEFFREY and John MASON bought their properties along what was originally a track between Mernda and Wollert.

Street Names

Westgarthtown – Thomastown

Westgarthtown was established in March 1850 and is named after WILLIAM WESTGARTH (1815 -1889). This was Victoria’s first German settlement and had a number of names during the 1850’s: Keelbundora, the German colony, Dry Creek, Neu Mecklenburg and Germantown. The German and Wendish settlers finally renamed it Westgarthtown in recognition of Westgarth’s assistance both prior and after their arrival into...

Places of Historical interest

Hawkstowe Park

(Melways Map 183 H8)Entry is gained from Gordon’s Road. Hawkstowe Park is managed by Parks Victoria and is open all year round from 8.00am to 5.00pm except during daylight saving time when the gates are open until 8.00pm. Hawkstowe Park was once the home of the Le Page family. It was built in the 1850’s and consisted of the homestead,...

Places of Historical interest

Drystone Walls

Historically the area around Whittlesea was blessed or should I say cursed, whichever way you look at it, with having an abundance of stone in the landscape. The Germans when they first arrived in Thomastown quickly mastered the rocky terrain, utilising the stone for buildings and fences. The English, Scottish and Irish immigrants who settled nearby at Epping, Wollert, Woodstock...

Places of Historical interest

Castle Hill Farm and Vineyard

The Castle Hill farm was originally owned by John Bear who had bought the land on the 24th November 1842, under a “Deed of Grant Purchase”. Section 20, Parish of Yan Yean, County of Bourke, lot 52 consisted of approximately 932 acres. John Bear died in 1851 and in 1855 John’s son, Thomas Hutchings Bear entered an indenture under which...

Places of Historical interest

Keon Park

The Suburb, and more particularly the Railway Station of Keon Park which is in the City of Whittlesea, was named after Keon Park Pty Ltd., a land development Company formed in 1924. The Directors were Joseph CHALEYER, Henry Isaac COHEN, John James LISTON, John Wesley McCOMAS and John Edmond TAYLOR. A very interesting bunch of people, but Mr COHEN is...

Places of Historical interest

Caretaker’s House at Yan Yean Reservoir

This article intends using existing documentation to discover when the brick section of the Caretaker’s House at Yan Yean Reservoir was built and occupied. Meredith Gould in her 1991 Whittlesea Heritage Study, speculated that the oldest or masonry section of the building known as the Caretaker’s Cottage, may have been designed by James Blackburn. This is entirely possible as existing documentation...

Buildings

Carome Homestead

In 1840, Arthur Sergeantson purchased Section 19, Parish of Morang, a total of 842 acres. He named the property Sergeantson Hall but the portion between the Plenty River and Plenty Road soon became known as Carome the name of the flour mill he established in 1841. The Homestead itself was built in 1861 from local bluestone and is a large...

Buildings

Bundoora Homestead

In 1899 John Matthew Vincent Smith ( 1857-1923), a prominent identity in the horse breeding and racing industry, acquired the property known as “Bundoora Park” consisting of some 606 acres. The homestead was the result of a design competition. The owner John Matthew Vincent Smith advertised in the Argus and attracted 16 designs. The first prize of 50 Pounds was...

Buildings