The Creswick Era

When we look at the life history of Richard and Catherine and the family (a page in history with a time span of ninety years), we find that the Creswick era was spent mainly around the Cattle Station Hill area, and at Poowong it was "Woodland Park", Allotment 4 Parish of Poowong.

Their marriage certificate shows the place of marriage as "at Spring Hill" with the words "in the", as printed on the form, crossed out The most logical place would be at the home of the bride's parent although 1 have no documented evidence to say that this was the case.

In an area in the Parish of Spring Hill and approximately three mile North-East of Creswick is the hill "Spring Hill" and close by is stream named Spring Gully. A Spring Hill School, Number 573, was established on 1st. December, 1857 and closed on 14th. May, 1881.  This school had an alternative name of Kingston, so I take it that the name belonged to a district and was somewhere between the Kin Kingston of today and the Spring Hill itself.

On the several occasions when Richard had been the informant at the registration of his children, he had given, as his place of marriage Glendonald (4 times), Cattle Station Hill, Creswick and Spring Hi on the first two occasions.

I have found on other occasions that place names appear to have been loosely used and in particular on the birth certificate Euphemia, with the birthplace shown as Tourello, Creswick Shire. The only name of Tourello in Creswick Shire is part of the Parish Tourello; the Tourello railway station ground is in the Parish Tourello, but in the Shire of Ballarat. The Tourello School is in the Parish of Glendaruel and Shire of Ballarat.

Femmie herself always believed that her birthplace was Maryfield and as Mrs. Nicholson, a neighbor and first cousin to the mother was in attendance at the birth, I would feel on fairly safe ground to suggest that Femmie and all her sisters and brothers, were born home.

To try and reconstruct the movements of our grandparents is very difficult due to the lack of any diaries or the like. Forty years ago the grandchildren could have asked their parents and recorded the events, particularly of the Creswick era, but in those days, family history did not have the same interest as it does today.

Assuming that all the children of Richard and Catherine were born at home, birth certificates show that they did not move far away from Glendonald.

Also living in the area were Catherine's parents and at least some of their family. In 1865, Donald McKay, single, whom 1 take to be Catherine's youngest brother, bought a house for £25 from John Nicholson on Allotment 6D, Section 7, Parish of Tourello (4 1/2 acres), lived in it for the next two years and obtained the Title in 1875.

On the adjoining Allotment 6B (5 acres), was Catherine's eldest sister, Flora Murchison. The application for licence to occupy was made in November, 1866 and the Title was issued in 1871.

These Allotments are one mile South-West of Glendonald, at the rail crossing on the Miner's Rest Road and today are as one, bounded on the East and South by a road, on the West by Reedy Creek and on the North by the railway. The old site of Murchison's house is now marked only by half-a-dozen fruit trees. The Murchison family were the gate keepers for a time.

Around the 1870's the township of Glendonald would have been one of importance. It was situated mid-way between Creswick and Clunes, where the Miner's Rest-Castlemaine roads cross and two minor roads branch from the intersection.

The Miner's Rest-Castlemaine Road is a three-chain road and local knowledge is that it was a major stock route, but today the Castlemaine section and the due-North minor road are unused. The boundary between the Parishes of Tourello and Spring Hill runs North and South through this intersection.

There were at least two (and reputedly five) hotels; Pearcy's Hotel and Goad's ("The Hit or Miss Hotel"), Robert Temple the Blacksmith and William B. Langdon the Storekeeper (one mile from the school). On the 23rd. May, 1861, Murdoch and Margaret McKenzie (nee McKenzie) were married at the Glendonald Hotel (owner not known).

There was no Glendonald School by name, it being called Cattle Station Hill School, Number 884.

I found the files pertaining to the school of great interest, as it was here that the Gregg children would have attended and the school teacher from October, 1872 until 26th. June, 1885, was Mr. Alex Gillan, whom I well remember in the latter years of his life at Poowong.

A public meeting was held on 23rd. May, 1866, and it was unanimously resolved that a school be established in connection with the Board of Education. A Committee of nine was appointed, with Rev. J. B. Steel, Creswick, as correspondent. They requested that steps be taken to "erect a proper school".

Mr. Henry Winkles was appointed Teacher and a temporary classroom was obtained. A sub-committee was appointed to "fit it up in something like order".

The Board of Education was requested, by the Committee, to put this school on their list and it was stated that the school had been in operation for some time with an attendance of twenty-nine children. They also acknowledged that a school must be in operation for six months with an average attendance of twenty scholars before it could be recognised. The Committee wished to commence their rolls on 1st. June, 1866.

An inspector's report, dated 27th. August, 1866, in relation to the Committee's application for this school was to the effect that the locality, as regards other. schools, was central, the population were mainly farmers and that the minimum size of the schoolroom should be thirty-five or forty feet by eighteen feet. The inspector was in favour of the application. (A school plan showing 30' x 18' was drawn before the minimum was known.)

On 17th. September, 1866, the Committee made formal application for a mixed Common School in the Parish of Tourello, County of Talbot, to be called the Cattle Station Hill Common School. They also applied for a £100 grant towards the erection costs and notified the Department that Mr. Alex McAndrews, who was now correspondent, had offered a school site of one acre. The building was to be of brick and the local Committee was to raise £ 100.

The proposed annual school fees were - One Child = 1 /-: Two Children = 1 /- per Child; Three Children = 3/4d. and Four Children = 3/-.

On 8th. January, 1867, Mr. G. M. Shomack, head-teacher, inquired if the Board intended to grant him a salary immediately, as the average attendance for the previous six months had been more than twentyfive. He stated that this number would have been in excess of thirtyfive, had it not been for the amount of sickness in the neighborhood. Later, on 28th. May, 1867, Mr. Shomack stated that the attendance had risen to fifty-four children and could have been up to eighty, but for the size of the building. He also mentioned that he had been there for four months and, as yet, had not received any salary from the Department.

Among the pupils attending Cattle Station Hill School, at 30th. March, 1867, were Donald, Annie and Catherine Murchison.

A petition, signed by twenty-two persons on 30th. July, 1867, asked for a temporary salary for Mr. Shomack, until a new school was erected. The salary was granted from 1st. July, 1867 along with £100 for the building of the new school, which was to be met by like sum contributed locally.

Advising the Department, on 9th. May, 1868, the Committee stated that tenders had been advertised for the new school and that tender, for £198, from Mr. Anthony Pasco had been accepted. The building was to be completed by 10th. June, next.

The estimated cost of the addition was £55. £15-15-0 was granted by the Department for the work, with a further £ 15 -15-0, forthcoming in 1870.

Mr. Alex Gillan, the head-teacher, wrote to the Department on 15th. December, 1873, requesting a verandah at the back and front of the residence and also asked for 4V2 chain, on the western side of the school-ground, to be fenced to protect twenty trees from the Department and six dozen from Andersons of Bullarook, which had been planted. He also stated that he had just forwarded an application for the Glendonald Post Office, now vacant in the immediate neighborhood.

Mr. Gillan wrote again on 12th. January, 1874, asking for the erection of the front verandah, at least, as he was about to have the Glen donald Post Office transferred to his charge and proposed to us portion of the front verandah for the office. In another letter to the Department on 24th. October, 1874, the head-teacher stated, that although the buildings were spouted, there were no tanks at the school or residence and he had to draw water quarter of a mile.

On resuming school after Easter, Mr. Gillan wrote on the 6th. April 1875, to the Department saying, "Just fifteen pupils present yesterday day because of measles and sore eyes". He enclosed a list of nineteen families with their fifty children, who usually attended the school. The list showed GREGG with three children.

The Inspector's report of 16th. August, 1881, reveals the school a 'Brick building 30' x 18'. 12' from floor to plate, shingle roof, no ceiling. Floor 6" x V T&G. Stands on good bluestone foundation walls are substantial'.

On 23rd. June, 1885, Mr. Gillan wrote to the Department, thanking them for his appointment to the Poowong East State School Number 2251, and intimating that he would be closing the Cattle Station Hill School on Friday, 26th. June.

This ended Mr. Gillan's thirteen-year association with the Glen donald district, during which time he had been Schoolmaster, Post master and Registrar of Births and Deaths. He had registered the births of at least three, and the death of one, of the Gregg children

On 15th. March, 1886, Miss Charlotte E. Vallins, who was then the head-teacher, explained to the Department that she did not occupy the residence. As the Post Office had been functioning in the build ing for a long time, and the residents did not want it closed or removed, she had let it to the person who ran the Post Office.

James Troup, Correspondent of the local School Committee, notified the Department on the 9th. January, 1888, that the Committee was in favour of combining Cattle Station Hill, Number 884, and Glen daruel, Number 281, Schools, on a half-time system. A recommend ation from Ballarat on 26th. April, 1888, was that the School be closed, as only ten children were in attendance.

On the 16th. June, 1888, Miss Vallins informed the Department that she had that day closed the school. A stamp of Registration Branch Education Department bearing the same date was placed on paper showing a list of books, slates, charts, rolls, records, etc., to be forwarded to Hollinwood School, Number 2576. Also, to be left in Cattle Station Hill School, was one table, one set of shelves, ten desks, and three low forms.

The 2nd. June, 1892, is the first evidence that the Glendonald Free Presbyterian Church had held services in the school building. The secretary, Mr. Duncan McRae, of "Ascot, by Creswick" wrote on behalf of the Church, with an offer to buy the whole of the school property with buildings, for the sum of £60, or to rent for ten years at £ 1 per year, and do repairs which on estimate would cost £40. In September, 1892, the Department accepted the leasing offer.

A letter from D. McRae of Ascot, on 28th. July, 1902, to the Secretary of Education, informed him that after three months time, the Church would not require the School building. In the Clunes Art Centre, there is a collection plate, which was donated by Mr. John McKenzie, and which bears the following caption..

"Collection Plate - pre-1884. Used Free Presbyterian Church, Glendonald Church, once on property now known as "Snizort", pulled down about 1925, and Congregation moved to St. David's, Coghill's Creek. "

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Today we have a quiet rural district, with the numerous small blocks and farms incorporated in the larger grazing properties.

There is some evidence of the old school residence foundation. The school ground, which was in the South-East corner of Allotment 2, Section 4, Parish of Tourello (and quarter of a mile North-West of the intersection), has reverted to the parent property.

At the six-road junction, there are a few English trees, as on most country roads. To the east are mullock heaps from the deep leads but certainly nothing to indicate that there was ever a town, much less one as busy as Glendonald.

On his application for selection at Poowong, Richard stated that h had owned one hundred and sixty acres at Lake Buloke, but had sold that land, and that he presently owned one hundred and three acres at Tourello. This land is Allotments 11 and 11 A, Parish of Tourello, County of Talbot at Maryfield.

I have searched the Parish maps relevant to Lake Buloke, but have found no evidence of the whereabouts of this particular one hundred and sixty acres. However, we do know something about the land a Maryfield. This is in the Creswick Shire on the Western boundary fronting the Creswick-Clunes road, on the diagonally opposite corner to where the Maryfield Hotel once stood. They owned this land fro 10th. March, 1877 until 9th. March, 1881, having bought it from and sold it back to Mr. John Farmer of Ballarat.

Allotments 11 and 11 A are red volcanic soil, very gently undulating, with an elevation of twelve-hundred feet, and a twenty-three inch rainfall; practically free of stone, and regarded locally as a very choice piece of land. Today it is part of the eighteen hundred an seventy-five acre "Snizort" property, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Me Kilsby.