- Aboriginal Views
- Early White Views
- Straight Lines
- The Gippsland Railway
- Civic Pride in Oakleigh
- Land Use and Industry
- Endnotes
To the Kulin, the ships were full of food. To the English and Scots who sailed over from Van Dieman's Land, the ships were full of capital. The owners of that capital had sailed half way round the world to land grants, which were very soon too small for their multiplying sheep and multiplying ambitions. Four or five hundred at a time, they packed the sheep onto ships and sailed after Henty and Fawkner. They were heading for more spacious sheep walks.
From the hinterland of Sydney, men of capital rode south with their sheep and shepherds in search of the same thing. When they found what they were after, they squatted on the land, which the governments in Sydney and Hobart and London believed belonged to the Crown. [6] In terms of wealth and influence, these were not the kind of squatters who could be summarily evicted, but the governments were keen to impose order on this frontier. A series of regulations saw the squatters paying token amounts for the right to graze their sheep and cattle. They were given leases and licences, but not ownership.
In March 1847, the land within 25 miles of Melbourne was proclaimed a Settled District. Pastoral leases were restricted to one square mile for one year at a time. No pastoral empires like those of the Western District were to be built in the Parish of Mulgrave, County of Bourke. There were four licenced squatting runs in the parish, but they were mainly taken up by families that could be described as small farmers. rather than people with capital. The McMillan family, for instance, arrived from Scotland in 1839 as government sponsored immigrants. Three of the seven children went to work as farmhands while father John and brother Archibald stand up the Scotchman's Creek run. [7]
In a directory of 1847, John senior and John junior both described themselves as farmers, while Alexander and Archibald McMillan described themselves as agriculturalists. They shared an address on Scotchman's Creek with other Scots, including James Campbell, farmer and Thomas MCA, agriculturalist. Further east towards the Dandenong Creek, sawyers and woodcutters outnumbered the squatters and farmers. [8]
The Scotchman's Creek Run was taken up in 1840 and when formalised consisted of 5 square miles of rolling lightly timbered country on which they ran cattle. John McMillan only briefly officially appeared as lease holder. Other names on the official documents were William Smith, William McPherson, James Reardon, Archibald McMillan and Peter O'Flaherty. [9]
Bushy Park, on the west bank of the Dandenong Creek was first licenced in October 1839 to Thomas Napier. In 1840 Alexander Scott took over, but died and was succeeded as lease holder by his wife Madeline from 1840-52. Families came and went in rapid succession during the 1840s. The Drew brothers were associated with this run, as were Reid, George Abbott and James Delaney. From 1847 Joseph Jell had the central portion of the run, 6 square miles on the west bank of the Dandenong Creek. Joseph Jell is remembered in Jell's Park and Jell's Road. By 1850, Charles Wheeler had the portion to the south of him and Drummie and Brennan the portion to the north. Wheeler gave his name to Wheeler's Hill. [10] Water was the focus of all these runs.
No grand buildings went up in the Parish of Mulgrave, visual expression of this brief pastoral era. Mulgrave's squatters lived in bush huts. But as individuals they have left a disproportionate legacy of names in the area.
Scotchman's Creek is named for the Scots who lived near it, including John McMillan. However, until after 1853 it was sometimes called the South Yarra Creek, possibly because it was the site not only for McMillan's hut but also for the South Yarra (stock) Pound and the associated South Yarra Inn. From July 1842, the South Yarra Pound was run by William Atkinson. He and his wife, Christina, collected straying cows and sheep and horses on behalf of the government and attempted to reunite them with their owners. From 1844 they also ran the South Yarra Inn. William died in 1852, but Christina continued the business. [11]
The governments in Sydney and London saw the future of this 'Settled District' around Melbourne as small farms and planned to sell the Crown Land accordingly. However, these plans were delayed until there was a reasonable prospect of sufficient people with money to buy the land and work the farms.
In July 1851 gold was discovered in the newly independent colony of Victoria. The floods of people from Melbourne and the surrounding colonies and then from Europe briefly saw Victoria as a place to get rich quickly, even if they had no capital. Most failed, but they upset the aristocratic balance of what had been the Port Phillip District. The colony of Victoria was baptised in gold as a far more democratic and egalitarian place. The symbolism of the Eureka Stockade aside, Victoria was filling up with independent minded migrants of some education and very little capital.