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 the one we need to look at.

He was a Barrister and M.L.C. and later a King’s Counsel, Minister of Education and Minister for Water Supply. He married Ethel Mary KEON in 1901 and at least four of their five children received “Keon” as their third Christian name. In fact, as they became old enough, the children adopted the surname of “Keon-Cohen”.
A newspaper article of 1923 stated that the name was derived from the son of one of the members of the syndicate.

When the new Railway Station was being built adjacent to the Keon Park Estate, WILLMORE and RANDALL, who by then were the selling agents for the Estate, submitted the name “Keon Park” to the Railways Commissioners and it was adopted in 1929.