BENEY John Prior
John Beney was born in Hampshire in 1864. He and his wife Angelina arrived in Melbourne around 1884. He opened a hardware shop on Plenty Road in Whittlesea and his family lived there till he died in 1939.
BEBB Stephen
Stephen Bebb and his wife Elizabeth both were born in Montgomeryshire, Wales. They were married in St James Church Melbourne in August 1856. They from Kyneton to Whittlesea in the 1870’s where they became shopkeepers.
BATTEN Richard
Richard Batten was born in 1828 in Devon. He married Mary Jane Hazard in November 1855 in St John’s Church, Heidelberg. They took up a tenancy farm in Whittlesea from 1855 and called it “Fairview” and raised 9 children.
BARKER Thomas
Thomas Barker arrived in Australia from England in 1858. He was later Head master of the Whittlesea State School from 1880 till 1899.
BAIRD Charles Edward
Charles Baird was born in Tallangatta in 1898. He married Donella Meredith in 1922. His occupation was that of a butcher and he ran Whittlesea Butchery.
ARMSTRONG Robert
Robert Armstrong married his wife Mary Ann Robinson in July 1853 in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. They sailed to Melbourne from Liverpool on board the “Electra”, arriving in 1856. They settled in Whittlesea and raised their family. He died in 1863.
ANDREW James
James Andrew 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”.
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.
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...
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...