The Landowners of Rowville

Alf Taylor was born in 1918 and spent most of his life on the family farm on the south side of Wellington Road opposite the present site of the Baptist Church. Alf's family can be traced back for 130 years in Rowville to when his great-grandfather, Michael Sutton, arrived from Lincolnshire, England with his wife Martha and two year old daughter Sarah in the mid 1860s.

When Sarah grew up she married another Lincolnshire migrant, John Taylor, and they farmed 40 acres on the east side of Bluchers Road, the name of which was later changed to Taylors Lane in their honour. Their son Alfred Taylor became Alf's father. With that background, therefore, it is not surprising that Alf had such a good knowledge of Rowville.

In my interview with Alf we referred to the maps published with this article. The numbers correspond to the land holdings as Alf recalled them from his boyhood days in the 1920s and up to the time of residential sub-divisions in the 1960s.

West of Stud Road

1. Tom Greatorex lived here in the white weatherboard house that was recently (mid 1995) demolished due to the widening of Wellington Road.

2. Chris Meurs leased 44 acres here from the Country Roads Board.

3. Harold Gibb bought this 100 acre farm in the mid 1930s. He came from Narrandera in NSW. Later he sold it to the Dandenong butchers, the Castricum brothers. Now it is part of the Kingston Industrial Estate and Golf Links.

4. This 50 acre block was bought and equally divided between Harold Gibb and Bill Bickerton to add to their farms. They put a fence down the middle of it.

5. Bill Bickerton bought this 40 acre farm in 1936, but because of ill health he sold it to Bill Robinson who established the Hill and Dale Hereford Stud on the property.

6. Alf Taylor owned this 20 acre block which extended to what is now the back fences of the houses in Avalon Road.

7. The rest of the land along the west side of Stud Road from the Wellington Road intersection to Corhanwarrabul Creek was Stamford Park, owned by an old white-bearded man named Murray who ran sheep on the property. In 1932, a dairyman from Malvern, Aloysius (Wish) Drummond, bought Stamford Park and converted it to a dairy farm.

7a. This part of Stamford Park was leased to Don McIntyre who grew vegetables on it. In 1959 'Wish' Drummond built the Stamford Hotel on it.

8. All of the land along the west side of Stud Road between Wellington and Police Roads belonged to a wealthy family named McFarlane. They did not live in Rowville.

The Seebeck Estate and later the Tirhatuan and Timbertop Estates were created on part of this land holding. During WW2, a large part was taken over by the Army and the 3rd Motor Brigade trained there in 1942. Later it became a base for American troops and later again a P.O.W. camp for Italian prisoners. After the war it was redesignated as a hostel until the Italian government was able to repatriate these men. The Rowville Library has a 1954 aerial photograph where, if you look closely, you can see the roads, parade ground and the concrete bases of the many buildings that were there until 1946. Also in the photograph can be seen the first of the SEC buildings established on the route of the power lines in the early 1950s.

9. The area between Police Road and Dandenong Creek was leased to Charles Dobson who, with his sons, ran a dairy herd and market garden there.

10. Harold Gibb bought this 100 acre property in the late 1940s. He built a home on it and lived there until his retirement in 1967.

11. The McMillan family ran a large metal fabrication plant here from the 1950s until the early 1990s, at one time employing over 200 people. Competition from cheap imports put their business into serious decline. In 1994 their factory was demolished and replaced by the Myer Direct warehouse.

12. Norm Fear, an uncle of Alf's wife Elva, market gardened this property for some years. Later it was occupied by Meg Bruce who ran a horse riding school there until her death. Now the school continues under the direction of Meg's grand-daughter.

13. Chris Meurs leased this 80 acre property for many years from the Country Roads Board. In 1995 he and his wife Anna were still living on the property.

East of Stud Road

1. Albert Tampe owned here. He had a peach orchard and also raised pigs. His wife Lois was a daughter of Matthew Bergin and a sister of Nicky and Lil Bergin. Tampe Road is now located on the land that once was the Tampe farm.

2. Ike Hill owned the land north of Kelletts Road along Stud Road to Tampe's farm. Ike had a butchering business.

3. Alf's great-grandfather Michael Sutton took up 44 acres between Stud Road and Taylors Lane in 1863. Later the property was owned by Fred Hill.

4. Ehrenfried Exner developed Rowville's first market gardens on this farm which also extended through to Taylors Lane. Exner was a very public spirited man involved in all local activities. His barn was used for dances in Rowville and Ehrenfried supplied the music on his accordion.

5. Jim Hill, grandson of Ike Hill, had a few acres here.

6. Bob Manley's property also went to Taylors Lane. Exner later bought it from him. The western end of this land is now the site of the Stud Park Shopping Centre.

7. This corner property was originally bought in the 1860s by Matthew Bergin and passed on to his son, also Matthew Bergin, whose daughter Kath inherited it. Kath married Jim Manley, the brother of Bob. Rowville Primary School and Rowville Secondary College are situated on the northern part of this land. The Rowville Wishing Well is constructed of bricks from the well beside the old farm house on this block.

8. Nick Bergin, the brother of the second Matthew Bergin mentioned above, had his blacksmith's forge on a one acre site here. In 1903 he established Rowville's first Post Office in his house beside the forge.

9. Edward Bergin, son of the second Matthew, owned 59 acres which extended along Bergins Road.

10. This large farm of about 150 acres was taken up by George Gill back in the 1850s. He named it "Somerset" after the county of his birth in England. On his death the farm went to his son Tom and after Tom died, his wife Sophie bought the shares of Tom's sisters to retain the farm in the Gill name. It remained so until sold to developers in the 1970s.

11. Alf Taylor ran a dairy farm on this 45 acre property which he had inherited from his parents.

12. The Gearon family owned the rest of the valley between Wellington and Bergins Roads. For a time they moved to Dandenong and leased their blocks on Wellington Road to Fred Living and later to brothers Don and Norm McIntyre. The Gearon family sub-divided the following blocks numbers 13 - 16.

13. Bought by Jack Finn and passed on to his son Stuart. When Stuart was the captain of the Rowville Cricket Club in the 1950s, home games were played on this property.

14. Bought by Fred Fordham in 1920 and then passed on to his son Frank.

15. Robert Finn owned about 20 acres here.

16. Albert Golding market gardened this land on Heany Park Road.

17. This large property stretching back to the quarries in the Lysterfield Hills was owned by William Angliss, the wealthy meat exporter. Part of it was leased for many years by Denis Doolan who ran a dairy farm on it.

18. Bill Jinky owned this area. He sold to Jack Finn who later developed part of it as the site of the Rowville Drive-In-Theatre. Jack's son Frank still has (in 1995) the Caravan Park at the southern end of this block.

19. Bill Golding, Albert's brother, market gardened here. It is now the northern end of the Waverley Golf Club.

20. Alf wasn't sure about this area but thought that it belonged to Mrs McFarlane before it was bought by the Golf Club.

21. Charles Dobson owned 30 acres here. It passed to his son Gordon.

22. The Dobson family also leased this large area of the Dandenong Creek 'flats', part of which is now the site of the Rowville Recreation Reserve.

23. This property was owned by a man named Webb, then by Jimmy Nicholls, followed by Cam Herbert before Bernie and Aimee Seebeck acquired it in the late 1930s.

24. Nicky Bergin (nephew of Nick Bergin the blacksmith) owned 30 acres on this corner. It included the present sites of St Simon's and the Baptist Church.

25. This property was owned by a man named Barnett, then by Joseph Parsons and later by Bill Crawford. Harry Raymond bought it in the early 1940s and sub-divided the land into the Twin Views Estate about 1960.

26. Alf's grandparents, John and Sarah Taylor, owned this 30 acre farm. Taylors Lane, previously known as Bluchers Road, was named after them.

27. Fred Madigan owned this 100 acre property and sold it to Ehrenfried Exner who put Leo and Violet Gill on it as share farmers. Later it was sold to Don Collins.

28. This very large property which extended to Kelletts Road was originally known as Hynam Park but its name was changed to Pine Hill when bought by Keith Hicks from a man named Masterton. Keith ran Hereford cattle on the property.

29. Mrs Margaret "Maggie" McIntyre inherited this 160 acre property from her father Bob Martin.

30. The property north of Kelletts Road was known as "Fulham Grange". The Alberni family ran cattle on it. Their home was on the western corner of Kelletts Road and Napoleon Road.

31. This 10 acre farm was owned by the Kellett family after whom the road was named. Alf remembered the daughter, Marg Kellett, bringing eggs to his grandmother for her to sell when she took her produce to butchers in Windsor.

32. Edward Warriner, the Head Teacher of Scoresby Primary School, owned land in this area.

33. Nicky Bergin (the owner of property number 24) also owned several acres on this corner. He sold the blocks to Bernie Seebeck.

Interviewed by Bryan Power

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