Indexes Includes Names from the 1856 Petition Bendigo and District Hotels Final Marunari List Terry Davidson 1871 - 2018 Index to RHSV Bendigo Branch Newsletters Nov. 1971 - July 2002 Helen Mainka 1954 Bendigo Business District Directory McConnell’s Street and general Directory Date unknown Victorian Directory 1904 Bendigo and District Directory 1904 – 1905 Bendigo district general Directory 1859 City of Bendigo Historical Information Bendigo Hotels compiled by Len Bennetts Hotels of Bendigo and District Compiled by Len Bennetts Sandhurst Land Sales 1854 – 1856 Ralph Birrell Chronicles of Bendigo from the Bendigo Advertiser Christmas Supplement December 22 1904 Some Photographers 1850 – 1900. Including some Bendigo Photographers 1854 – 1958 St. Patrick’s Annual Sports advertisers. Date Unknown Fatalities listed in bendigo Advertiser 1888-1935. Two copies One by year. One alphabetical. District statistics - Mayors and Shire Presidents, Bendigo Football League Premiers 1880- 1987, Sportstar of the year 1965-1987 Plans of townships and Parishes held at Ducley House. From the Bendigo Lands Office 1976.

Booklet - 38 pages, printed on off white page, centre stapled, titled "Directory and Tramway Guide issued by the Hawthorn Tramways Trust", specifically advertising Wattle Park and showing Princes Bridge and the Yarra on the front cover and a photo of Hawthorn depot on the rear cover. Gives details of Wattle Park, its opening, many photos, members of the Trust, Engineer and Manager and Acting Secretary, Stopping points for the round and fares to Wattle Park, section fares, maps of the tram routes and connections with other tramways and railway stations. Has timetables for Burnley and other major points, special and emergency services, the coloured lights used on the trams, and a map for land sales at Riversdale Heights estate. Advertisements for Mutual stores, Melbourne Electric Supply Co., Moule, Hamilton and Kindle for the sale of land at Riversdale Heights and a map showing the estate location. Both copies have alterations or corrections to the route signage letters - marked in red - from the Minutes of the HTT Board meetings, the Trust were not happy with the finished product and was reluctant to pay for them - see Minutes of Meeting No. 99 of 5-7-1918. Two copies held - one with red marks on the front cover.trams, tramways, htt, wattle park, princes bridge, hawthorn depot, timetables, mesco, real estate

Although Heidelberg was one of the first parts of the Port Phillip District to be settled, and became important and prestigious in the early years of the colony, its history has been largely neglected. The beauty and fertility of the land and its proximity to Melbourne quickly resulted in the establishment in the 1830s and 40s of large estates by wealthy gentlemen. A romantic spot, Heidelberg became popular with picnickers and later attracted an artists' colony. The character of the area then gradually changed as a distinct village community emerged, and market gardens began to flourish. Unlike some of the suburbs closer to Melbourne, Heidelberg eventually wilted under economic pressures from which it did not fully recover until the turn of the century. This book allows us within the larger contect of the colony's fortunes and misfortunes, the struggle of Heidelberg the suburb to be born " - flyleaf. Contents: First land sales and subdivisions, gentlemen of Heidelberg and their estates and activities, infant rural community. golden fifties, decline and backwater, railway and land boom, a maturing community , the depression of the nineties. This book was the first to focus on the area of Heidelberg and its context within the Port Phillip District and remains significant as a key secondary source for describing the history of the area. It is relevant to the contextual history of its neighbour the former Shire of Eltham and Shire of Nillumbik.Hardback. Includes illustrations and index, 219 p.ISBN 0522840191port phillip district, ivanhoe, heidelberg, charles wingrove

Weston Bate, 'A history of Brighton' 1962 informs us that in 1840 Henry Dendy, who was a farmer in Sussex England, paid 5,120 pounds sterling @ 1pound per acre for a 'Special Survey of Land in Port Phillip , Australia. Henry arrived in Australia in 1841 on the frigate 'York' with his wife, son, and three servants. He also took advantage of the Government Assistance of Free Immigrants for Survey Purchasers, to help on his estate and persuaded some Sussex men with their families to follow him. However when Dendy arrived in Port Phillip he found that LaTrobe and Gipps were trying to raise the price of land close to Town to 15pounds per acre. Dendy asked merchant J.B.Were to manage his affairs and they went ahead with plans to subdivide the surveyed land called 'The Brighton Estate' This area of land extended easterly from the Port Phillip Bay to East Boundary Road and from North Road to South Road in the Parish of Bourke Victoria. The Privy Council, England , decide that Henry Dendy could purchase the land at 1pound per acre. Land Sales proceeded from 1844 as more immigrants established market gardens, farms and varied businesses in 'Moorabbin'This is a photocopy of a Map of the Moorabbin , County of Bourke c1850 showing the 'Henry Dendy Special Survey 1841'A photocopy of a Map of the Moorabbin , County of Bourke c1850. A3 size laminatedLeft corner : MOORABBIN / COUNTY OF / BOURKEdendy henry, dendy special survey 1841, brighton, moorabbin, ormond, bentleigh, market gardeners, pioneers early settlers, box william, box elizabeth

Written in 2017, this article reports on the history of the Futuro House, now in South Morang, but previously used in Greensborough as a temporary booth for sales of land at a new housing estate called Apollo Parkways.Digital copy of newspaper clipping, black text and colour image.futuro house, apollo parkways

Photocopy mock up of original booklet of The Bendigo Historical Society Inc. 'City of Bendigo Historical Walk' containing photographs of historic buildings to be seen on the walk. Front cover Queen Victorian Gardens, Town hall, Mechanics Institute/School Of Mines and Industry, H. M. Prison Bendigo, Camp Hill Police Barracks, Sandhurst Corporate High School, Central State School No. 1976, The Cascades, District Lands Office (Dudley House), Masonic Temple and Hall, Sandhurst Volunteer Rifle Brigade Orderly Room, Bank of Victoria, Henry Jackson's Store View Point,Alexandra Fountain, Beehive Store/Mining Exchange, Colonial Bank. Hustlers Royal Reserve NO. 2/R.S.L. Memorial Hall, Post Office 3rd 4th and final, Bendigo Law Courts, Shamrock Hotel 2nd and another view. Important Bendigo Dates; 1851, April gold discovered at Golden Square by Margaret Kennedy,1851 Approx. 200,000Troy oz. of gold found in Bendigo, 1852 475,857 Troy oz. Gold for the year, 1853 November 31st Bendigo Hospital admits first patient,1853 December 9th Bendigo Advertiser first issue printed, 1854 First Land Sales and streets are surveyed and named for the first time, 1854 Census of Bendigo showed 15,480 residents plus 4,000 Chinese, 1855 Sandhurst Municipal District formed, 1861 Sandhurst Proclaimed a Town. 1862 Railway to Melbourne opened, 1867 Visit by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, 1871 July 21st Sandhurst proclaimed a City, 1881 Population of Sandhurst 14,577 residents, 1882 First telephone communications introduced, 1890 Electric trams (battery) commenced running, 1891 May 18th City of Sandhurst changes its name to City of Bendigo.book, bendigo, buildings, historic

Stonleigh is one of Wodonga’s earliest buildings and stands on land granted to Daniel Rhodes in 1854, in one of the first land sales conducted in Wodonga. The building commenced soon after with the stone walls being 18 inches (46cm) thick. It was a four-room granite rubble stone building with central door and a window on either side, with a separate kitchen, as was typical of the worker's cottage of the day. The original roof would have been shingles but it was replaced with corrugated iron. It passed through several owners including Paul Huon in 1858. Peter Tenner, a farmer and vigneron took over in 1866 when it was described as “built of stone and having a cellar and a detached kitchen plus outside toilet, and a shed or two.” In the late 1880’s it was owned by William Smith who had come to Wodonga as a missionary for the Presbyterian Church and who, together with John Whan, storekeeper, was instrumental in building the Presbyterian Church nearby. Between 1890 and 1910 further buildings were added, consisting of double brick walls, two bedrooms, kitchen, laundry with brick and copper, bathroom and side verandah. William Smith established Wodonga Cordage Works in the Stonleigh buildings. The front room of the house was the display room for the business which manufactured and sold fishing lines, various types of cordage and water bags, the latter being of hand-sewn canvas. After 1954 Stonleigh became a bottle depot and bottle museum under ownership of Ramon Porta. At one stage he had over 50,000 bottles on display. In 1991 it was purchased by Mark Fraser, a cabinet maker, who made extensive renovations at the rear of the premises and internally, but left the façade untouched. Over recent times, Stonleigh was the home of several business including a florist, a patchwork maker and a café. Stonleigh was sold in 2021 and is now a private residence.These images capture one of Wodonga's oldest buildings.A series of photos, both colour and black and white, showing the building "Stonleigh' at different periodsstonleigh wodonga, old buildings wodonga, wodonga businesses, wodonga pioneers

This photograph shows a small timber house in Wooragee. In 1855, the Ovens district made a shift towards farming development that included the sales of land in the Wooragee Valley. This shift came because of miner's demands and concern about stabilising the area around the goldfield. Continual migration needed to be supported, unlucky diggers needed alternative employment, and there was a lack of affordable fresh produce available on the goldfields. Initially, the cost of land in areas like Wooragee was prohibitive, and miners chose to squat rather than overpay for poor land. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, land reform was a key topic for miners and politicians, as they attempted to improve land access and protect financial interests. This photograph is an example of rural development in the Wooragee area, showing the cottage, tents, and garden beds. While the date is unknown, the image nevertheless links us to the 1850s-1860s story of rural development in Indigo Shire. Black and white rectangular photo, copy of original, printed on paper. wooragee, timber, timber cottage, corrugated iron, cottage, housing, tents, gardening, farming, farming and agriculture, construction, garden bed, flowers, verandah, squatting, tent, field

The woollen mill was a vital part of Warrnambool for all but 22 years of the town’s history since it's the establishment in 1847 when the first land sales were held and white settlement began. In 1869 the Warrnambool Meat Preserving Company began operations on the mill site, in 1875, shareholders of the then defunct Warrnambool Meat Preserving Company happily sold the land and buildings on the Merri river to Warrnambool Woollen Mill Company Ltd for £5,000. The site was sold again in 1876 to grazer Robert Hood of Sherwood, who was chairman of directors of the failed company, which couldn’t raise sufficient capital to keep the works operating. The entrepreneurial Hood then used the existing plant to turn his own wool into tweed cloth. But just as the mill was starting to show a profit, a fire destroyed the building and plant on the night of 25 March 1882. So again, the mill was operational for six short years. Insurers only paid a fraction over 10% of the damage, Hood couldn't raise sufficient capital to rebuild on his own, and so the site lay unused until 1910. In 1908 Marcus Saltau and Peter John McGennan convinced the Warrnambool Chamber of Commerce to invest in a secondary industry with local capital. A public meeting in September 1908 agreed to raise £40,000, electing Saltau chairman of directors, a post he held for 34 years. A year later, using mostly local money, the Warrnambool Woollen Mill Company dispatched its first manager, John E. Bennett, to buy a plant and recruit 20 experienced staff from the Yorkshire woollen industry in December 1909. Another year more, the new mill was officially opened on 14 November 1910 by Marcus Saltau as company chairman and town mayor. Eighteen months on, in May 1912, the mill paid its first half-yearly dividend of 2 ½%. It was now working two shifts, with a year's orders to fill. In 1914 the mill ordered its own generator, providing the town with electricity and effectively doubling its plant size by October 1915, six months after Gallipoli. Thereafter, government orders for cloth and military supplies assured the mill’s success right through the First World War and on until 1923. A plant upgrade in 1922 for machinery to make worsted fabric drained profits, which, with a fall in demand, led to a loss in 1925. Profits were restored by the 1930s, despite the Depression, mostly due to tight management and robust marketing. Production boomed again during the Second World War, but soon foreign competition bit into profits, forcing the company to consolidate operations. The ‘50s and ‘60s were golden years for the mill. Security and growth gave the company confidence to trial Australia’s first electric blanket in 1958 and to install Swiss Sulzer looms in 1965. Over time, the building facades took on the modern look that the mill presented until it closed. The Dunlop company bought the mill in 1968, fending off a challenge from Onkaparinga in South Australia, and continued to expand by adding Wendouree Woollen Mill in the same year and Dream-spun Textiles a decade later, in 1979. Soon after that purchase, however, the mill began its slippery slide into decline. Dunlop sold to its former rival bidder Onkaparinga Woollen Co. Ltd in 1982, which in turn was taken over by Macquarie Worsted's only a year later, in 1983. Operations remained stable for a decade until 1994 when the Macquarie Group signaled that its newly rationalised operations left no room for the Warrnambool investment. The final operator of the mill was The Smith Family charity group, which ran the site by agreement with the Warrnambool City Council and a state government grant in that same year, 1994. The mill became more of a fabric recycler than a manufacturer. The site was sold to private operators in February 2003 and rezoned four months later to allow for the mixed housing development. The embossing press is significant for its association with the Warrnambool Woollen Mills 1910-1968, a major employer in the Warrnambool district. The press is also significant as an example of commercial office equipment used in the 19th and 20th century.Press, metal, for Company seal of Warrnambool Woollen Mill, stamping their brand as Western District Worsted Mills Pty Ltd. Metal is black with red and gold floral markings. Inscription of stamp reads "WESTERN DISTRICT WORSTED MILLS PROPRIETRY LIMITED" flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, warrnambool woollen mills, western district worsted mills proprietry limited, worsted fabric, printing press, logo printing press, stamp printing press, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village

Various family scenes taken from outside the family home on the southeast corner of the intersection of Nyora Road and Pitt Street with Eucalyptus Road. Also, scenes of the Stokes Orchard and equipment used, construction of water reservoir at the end of Nyora Road near Reynolds Road and Diosma Road as well as early stages of the Stokes Orchard housing development. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to go back to the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia in 1926 both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- Taylor Estate- £900, part of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. He applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn had to get permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation banning land sales except for immediate production. He obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 over 5 years. The title to the property was issued May 15, 1946. He was helped and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. Early 1943 he took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut for shelter and to lock up tools. He was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres and with a horse and single furrowed plow, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive job. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime. Often working by moonlight. It was extremely difficult to get wire and wire netting because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 he applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. Constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which was hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Frank finished work at Kennons October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the Mitcham house for £1230 plus £170 for furniture. The family of five then moved into a very unfinished at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut sweet bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a 1/2 case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 - 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard up into numerous rate-able parcel lots, which became unaffordable for Frank. Consequently, Stokes Orchard was turned into a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate in two stages; Stage 1 encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads c.1976 and Stage 2 encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads c.1979. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned due to the lack of the sewer along Diosma Road and so many of the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road many years later, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided many times.Representative of the orchard growing areas of ElthamMP4 00:24:39; 426MB Digital file only - Digitised by EDHS from a DVD copy on loan from Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes), daughter of Frank Stokes. 24 min duration compilation of home movie Super 8mm film shot by Frank Stokes brother-in-law.beryl bradbury (nee stokes) collection, frank stokes, nyora road, stokes orchard, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, video recording

The c1860 St Andrews Hotel, with the c1930 additions, and the Canary Island Palm, and the surrounding site to the title boundaries are historically, socially and aesthetically significant to the Shire of Nillumbik. The St Andrews Hotel is historically significant because it may have given its name 'St Andrews' to the town (another suggestion is that the name came from St Andrews church) and for its connection to Ewen Hugh Cameron (1831-1915) the prosperous local farmer, member of the Eltham Roads Board/Shire Council and local MP. It is also significant as the oldest hotel building in the former Shire of Eltham, as one of the few surviving buildings connected with the Caledonian goldfields era and as one of a handful of early structures to have survived the 1960s bushfires; the additions and alterations to the hotel reflect its long life. The hotel is socially significant because it has served as an important meeting place for more than 160 years. The Canary Island Palm is historically significant as a rare example of exotic tree planting in this rural area. The tree is aesthetically and historically significant as a local landmark and for its contribution to the streetscape and landscape value. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p71 Built around 1860, St Andrews Hotel has changed little since it first welcomed thirsty gold diggers from the Caledonia Goldfields. The timber building, with gabled roof, beamed ceilings and a massive fireplace, is Nillumbik Shire’s oldest hotel and has always been an important community centre, particularly in its early days. Fortunately, the hotel and the near-by Canary Island Palm Tree, which is quite rare in this area, survived the 1960s bushfires, along with a few other early buildings. St Andrews (formerly Queenstown) was founded on gold, as were Panton Hill (formerly Kingstown), Research and Diamond Creek, from the mid-1850s to the 1860s. But by the early 20th century common use changed the name Queenstown to St Andrews, possibly after this hotel or after the church or the mining district.1 The Caledonia Diggings were probably named by Scottish settlers after the Roman name for Scotland, despite this land bearing little similarity to their homeland.2 Queenstown, which was proclaimed as a township in 1861, was the gold-mining centre on the Upper Diamond and in the 1850s had up to 600 European inhabitants and a small camp of Chinese on the flats along the creek. Queenstown was the administrative centre of the Upper Diamond with three hotels, a brewery and a slaughterhouse.3 It is unclear which hotel was the district’s first, as distinct from the earliest unlicensed grog shops, some of which operated in tents. John Corke Knell was one of eight unlicensed storekeepers supplying drink to miners at Caledonia in 1857, named by Sgt. McNamara of the Caledonia Police Station.4 In February 1859, Knell apparently bought most of the present hotel’s site at the first township land sales. As he was a local storekeeper, he might have first established a store there.5 Knell and his wife Eliza were early licensees of the St Andrews Hotel. The hotel had eight bedrooms – including three for public use – and the dining-room seated 30 people. It is thought they named the hotel St Andrews after Eliza’s hometown of St Andrews in Scotland. St Andrews Hotel was an important local centre in several ways. In the same building the Knells also operated a post office and general store. In 1867 Mrs Knell was appointed Deputy Registrar of Births and Deaths for Queenstown. The hotel was also used to hold inquests into people’s deaths when the police residence became too small.6 The hotel also became a fashionable destination at Christmas for parties from Melbourne. In 1868, possibly following her husband’s death, Mrs Knell applied for a temporary licence, which was then transferred to Robert Smith after their marriage in 1869. But then, possibly after Robert’s death, Mrs Smith operated the hotel until 1892. This contradicts a report in The Evelyn Observer 1882 that JC Knells of the St Andrews Hotel was granted a publican’s licence in the Queenstown Police Court. At that time he was supposed to have been dead for around 14 years! Although Mrs Smith was a respected citizen, known for her geniality and as an ideal hostess, she had a minor brush with the law when she was fined ten shillings for not lighting a lamp outside her licensed premises.7 From 1892 several publicans owned the hotel including W Atkins, from 1895. In 1909 the licensee was apparently Mrs Smith’s son, Walter Knell, who held the licence until at least the 1920s. Not surprisingly, this old hotel has attracted romantic stories. Mrs Smith is said to be seen roaming the pub in her nightdress – even though she was buried in the Queenstown Cemetery in 1911.8 A musical The Hero of Queenstown, set in the hotel, was written and produced by local actor Reg Evans in the 1970s.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, st andrews hotel

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :5 Project : MELBOURNE AND METROPOLITAN AREA PROJECT Run : 36 Frame : 60546 Date : 12/1945 Film Type : B/W Camera : EAG4 Flying Height : 10200 Scale : 6000 Film Number : 195 GDA2020 : 37°42'47"S, 145°09'56"E MGA2020 : 338306, 5824438 (55) Melways : 22 C4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred over present day Reynolds Road and Mount Pleasant Road, Eltham (including Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd) Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1931 Project : MALDON PRISON Run : 21 Frame : 3160 Date : 11/1931 Film Type : B/W Camera : F8 Flying Height : 11000 Scale : 18860 Film Number : 60 GDA2020 : 37°43'31"S, 145°10'20"E MGA2020 : 338912, 5823086 (55) Melways : 22 E8 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :65 Project : MELBOURNE AND METROPOLITAN PROJECT NO. 2 Run : 8 Frame : 71 Date : 01/1951 Film Type : B/W Camera : EAG9 Flying Height : 12200 Scale : 12000 Film Number : 1419 GDA2020 : 37°43'14"S, 145°09'46"E MGA2020 : 338081, 5823608 (55) Melways : 22 C6 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :250 Project : MELBOURNE OUTER SUBURBS PROJECT Run : 18 Frame : 94 Date : 02/1956 Film Type : B/W Camera : EAG9 Flying Height : 10000 Scale : 12000 Film Number : 1176 GDA2020 : 37°42'30"S, 145°09'44"E MGA2020 : 338008, 5824963 (55) Melways : 22 C3 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :539 Project : MELBOURNE-GEELONG PROJECT Run : 5 Frame : 14 Date : 01/1962 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC5 Flying Height : 6000 Scale : 15840 Film Number : 1524 GDA2020 : 37°42'42"S, 145°09'51"E MGA2020 : 338177, 5824603 (55) Melways : 22 C4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :486 Project : MELBOURNE (1963) PROJECT Run : 6 Frame : 122 Date : 04/1963 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 5100 Scale : 9600 Film Number : 1805 GDA2020 : 37°43'12"S, 145°09'32"E MGA2020 : 337723, 5823642 (55) Melways : 22 B6 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :656 Project : MELBOURNE 1968 PROJECT Run : 13A Frame : 64 Date : 10/1968 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 5100 Scale : 9600 Film Number : 2172 GDA2020 : 37°42'46"S, 145°10'01"E MGA2020 : 338430, 5824467 (55) Melways : 22 D4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1148 Project : MELBOURNE 1970 PROJECT Run : 27 Frame : 192 Date : 10/1970 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 5100 Scale : 9600 Film Number : 2366 GDA2020 : 37°42'45"S, 145°10'05"E MGA2020 : 338533, 5824496 (55) Melways : 22 D4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :985 Project : MELBOURNE 1972 Run : 27 Frame : 45 Date : 04/1972 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC10 Flying Height : 5700 Scale : 9600 Film Number : 2636 GDA2020 : 37°42'53"S, 145°10'19"E MGA2020 : 338884, 5824261 (55) Melways : 22 E5 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1148 Project : MELBOURNE 1974 Run : 27 Frame : 152 Date : 03/1975 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 5200 Scale : 10000 Film Number : 2935 GDA2020 : 37°42'52"S, 145°10'06"E MGA2020 : 338553, 5824293 (55) Melways : 22 D5 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1243 Project : (ALSO A.P. 1227) Run : 23 Frame : 86 Date : 11/1975 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 5000 Scale : 10000 Film Number : 3058 GDA2020 : 37°42'46"S, 145°10'06"E MGA2020 : 338546, 5824486 (55) Melways : 22 D4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1368 Project : DIAMOND CREEK Run : 5 Frame : 71 Date : 03/1975 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 2200 Scale : 4000 Film Number : 3279 GDA2020 : 37°42'50"S, 145°09'36"E MGA2020 : 337821, 5824325 (55) Melways : 22 B5 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1716 Project : WESTERN PORT FORESHORES Run : 15 Frame : 91 Date : 02/1979 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 5500 Scale : 10000 Film Number : 3286 GDA2020 : 37°42'47"S, 145°09'57"E MGA2020 : 338339, 5824447 (55) Melways : 22 C4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1716 Project : WESTERN PORT FORESHORES Run : 15 Frame : 70 Date : 01/1984 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC8 Flying Height : 5300 Scale : 10000 Film Number : 3833 GDA2020 : 37°42'38"S, 145°10'09"E MGA2020 : 338612, 5824719 (55) Melways : 22 D4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :1716 Project : WESTERN PORT FORESHORES Run : 15 Frame : 108 Date : 03/1987 Film Type : B/W Camera : RC10 Flying Height : 5600 Scale : 10000 Film Number : 4102 GDA2020 : 37°43'00"S, 145°10'13"E MGA2020 : 338725, 5824036 (55) Melways : 22 D5 (ed. 42)719 (55) Melways : 22 D4 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

Centred on present day Diosma Rd, Stokes Pl, Nyora Rd and Eucalyptus Rd Historic Aerial Imagery Source: Landata.vic.gov.au Aerial Photo Details: Project No :2072 Project : MELBOURNE PROJECT Run : 13 Frame : 119 Date : 09/1991 Film Type : COL Camera : RC10 Flying Height : 8300 Scale : 15000 Film Number : 4419 GDA2020 : 37°43'07"S, 145°09'35"E MGA2020 : 337812, 5823811 (55) Melways : 22 B6 (ed. 42) A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 aerial photo, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, peter & elizabeth pidgeon collection, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes

(Cancelled) Certificate of Title originally issued for Crown Portion 15, Section 5 to Robert David Taylor, of Eltham, County of Evelyn, Farmer, 13 March 1925. It is with this title that the land allotment was subdivided into 48 lots. The title shows the issuance to Robert David Taylor with encumbrance placed upon it by immediate former owner, Hugh Patrick Keogh, a former member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent. Following Taylor's death in 1934 the title passes to his Executors, sons Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Eltham and William McLelland Vance Taylor of Northcote. The property is then sold to Frank Stokes who develops the Stokes Orchard. Compulsory acquisitions by the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works and State Electricity Commission show provisions of easemenst for town water supply and high voltage power transmission lines. Subsequent lots are then sold off with the development of the Stokes Orchard Estate residential development in the mid to late 1970s. A History of the Development of Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik – Stokes Orchard Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) is a square allotment of 158 acres or approximately a quarter of a square mile. It lies just beyond the eastern end of Pitt Street, south of Nyora Road to the northern end of Eucalyptus Road and extends east from Eucalyptus Road to Reynolds Road. The topography of CA15 is generally steep, sloping up to a hill near the centre of the land, the ridgeline passing through the properties along the southern side of Diosma Road. Eucalyptus Road is a straight north-south road with its northern end at the north west corner of CA15. Until the end of the 1970s this road was an un-named Government Road and was largely not open to traffic. With residential development in the 1970s the road was constructed, and the council allocated the name obviously in recognition of the predominant species of the local bushland. CA15 was purchased from the Crown by George D’Arley Boursiquot, a prominent Melbourne printer, on 28th October 1852. On November 23, 1922, former Member for Gippsland and Melbourne Real Estate Agent, Hubert Patrick Keogh purchased the allotment then sold it March 13, 1925, to local farmer, Robert David Taylor, a former Shire of Eltham Councillor (1911-1920) and Shire President (1919). Taylor had extensive land holdings stretching west towards Bible Street and Main Road. The Taylor home was situated at the top of the hill in Bible Street at present day 82 Bible Street. At the time of Taylor’s purchase in 1925, CA15 was subdivided into 48 lots that could be described as small rural properties or large residential lots. A typical lot size was one hectare or 2.5 acres. The subdivision created two roads, Nyora Road, and Diosma Road, each following an irregular alignment between Eucalyptus and Reynolds Roads. However, the lots were not sold off separately nor were the roads constructed. The land effectively remained as one parcel for many further years. Robert David Taylor died November 30, 1934, and probate was granted to his son of the same name, Robert David Taylor of Bible Street, Salesman and William McLelland Vance Taylor of 73 Emmeline Street, Northcote, Clerk, with the transfer of the land into their names on July 8, 1935. Frank Stokes worked as a qualified accountant at Kennons leather factory in Burnley, while living at 1 Thomas Street, Mitcham. He suffered from migraines and wanted to return to working the land (he had previously worked on farms and orchards since coming to Australia from England in 1926, both in WA and Vic.). He first travelled to the district by train in July 1942 to find land with the intention to establish an orchard. By chance he met Arthur Bird of Bird Orchard (bounded by Pitt Street, Eucalyptus Road, and Wattle Grove) and they got talking over their common interest. Arthur put Frank up for the night and pointed out the land, 158 acres- part of the Taylor Estate- £900, Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (CA15) somewhat diagonally opposite Bird Orchard. Stokes applied through the Riverina Agency to purchase the land who in turn applied for permission from Canberra to sell as there was a new government regulation introduced during the Second World War banning land sales except for immediate production. Stokes obtained a loan on his Mitcham house of £600 @ 5% and paid £450 deposit with quarterly payments of £15 spread over 5 years. Stokes was assisted and advised by Arthur Bird who farmed the neighbouring orchard. In early 1943 Stokes took possession and would catch the train out to Eltham on Fridays after work and began building a hut on the corner of Nyora Road and the Government Road (Eucalyptus Road) for shelter and to lock up tools. He established an orchard on the central western part of the land through the centre of which ran a natural waterway (part of the present-day linear park) and was able to pay a neighbour (Hawkins) to help with clearing and fencing 25 acres, and with a horse and single furrowed plough, planted approximately 2,500 fruit trees - cherries, peaches, plums, almonds, pears, apricots and lemons as well as a few apples and oranges; a massive task. Aerial photographs from the 1940s through to the 1990s clearly show the orchard with most of the larger CA15 site remaining as natural bushland. A huge problem was hares and rabbits eating all the new buds off the tiny trees. As well as laying poison he painted the trees with a mixture of cow manure and lime, often working by moonlight. Procurement of wire and wire netting was difficult because of the war but after much effort he obtained a permit from the Agricultural Department for supplies in March 1944. In February 1945 Stokes applied for a permit to build a “packing shed” as no house building was allowed. It was to be 33 feet x 21 feet and cost £312. It was constructed mostly from second-hand materials, which were hard to obtain, especially iron for roofing. Stokes finished work at Kennons on October 31, 1945, and in March 1946 he sold the family home at Mitcham for £1,230 plus £170 for furniture. On May 15, 1946, title to the CA15 property was issued to Frank Howard Alfred Stokes, Orchardist and Gladys Ethel Stokes, Married Woman, both of Pitt Street, Eltham. The family of five then moved into the very unfinished “packing shed” at Eltham, which was a struggle to weatherproof. Eventually rooms were divided off and lined with hessian bags and whitewashed. Their income was firewood (cut and sold), selling rockery stones and cut Sweet Bursaria. (It was discovered during the 1940s that Sweet Bursaria contained the sunscreen compound Aesculin. The RAAF utilised this compound from Sweet Bursaria during WW2 for pilots and gunners.) The orchard’s first fruit sale was a half-case of Le Vanq peaches in December 1947 for the price of 8 shillings. In 1956 plans for house were drawn and Glen Iris bricks purchased (1956 Olympic Rings variant). The building of the house commenced in 1957 - 12 feet of original packing shed was removed – and was completed in 1959. Water was connected from newly built pressure storage on the property at the end of 1959 and the electricity connection for the first time at 3pm on April 29, 1960. The house remains to present day (somewhat modified) at 1 Nyora Road, home to Nyora Studio Gallery. On occasions, spare remnants of the 1956 bricks have been known to be unearthed in gardens on the estate as they were utilised by Frank Stokes to fill in rabbit holes. On May 26, 1950, a parcel of land was compulsorily acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works on the hilltop to establish an easement for a high-level service reservoir to augment Eltham’s water supply. The project also included pipe tracks for the necessary water mains. The reservoir has now been superseded by higher level water tanks east of Reynolds Road and its former site is now a public reserve. On November 27, 1964, the State Electricity Commission served notice to compulsorily acquire a further parcel through the eastern part of the land for a major electricity transmission line that augmented supply from the La Trobe Valley to Melbourne. The easement was registered February 11, 1966. The easement was widened July 18, 1969 for a second transmission line to be constructed. In 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme amendments adopted Nyora Road as the boundary between a residential zone to the north and a rural zone to the south. This determined the future development of the land. In the mid-1970s the Shire of Eltham divided the orchard into numerous rate-able parcel lots, the 48 lots having been established in 1925 and the subsequent rates assessment proved unsustainable for Stokes. He commenced selling lots outside the boundary of the orchard, north of Diosma and South of Nyora. However shortly later the land between Nyora and Diosma Roads and west of the electricity easement was sold and subdivided into residential lots, a housing development by Macquarie Builders and marketed as the Stokes Orchard Estate. New streets were created, and most were named after trees, although one, Stokes Place, commemorates the former owners. The development was undertaken in two stages; Stage 1 (1975) encompassing Scarlet Ash Court, Ironbark Close and Peppermint Grove bounded by Nyora and Eucalyptus roads and Stage 2 (1978) encompassing Stokes Place, Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout bound by Nyora and Diosma roads. The developer, Macquarie Builders went bankrupt shortly after the release of Stage 2 leaving many purchasers to fend for themselves and arrange for their own independent builders. There were also difficulties with sewerage for the land immediately south of Diosma Road and so the conventional residential lots were abandoned in favour of larger lots. The development of Orchard Way, The Crest and The Lookout did not proceed as planned and the proposed lots were incorporated into five-acre parcels instead. These included a low-density group housing development by the Graves family and the award winning Choong House (1983) with Gordon Ford developed garden immediately next door situated on the ridge of the hill nestled amongst the original bush, Eucalypt trees and Sweet Bursaria. In 1994, Nillumbik Shire Council applied Significant Environment and Significant Landscape overlays upon the properties on the south side of Diosma Road to ensure protection of this natural bush garden environment. With the arrival of the sewer along Diosma Road in the 1990s, most of these five-acre parcels have since been subdivided multiple times. The Choong house presently sits on a 2.7-acre property, which in 2022 Nillumbik Council nominated for Cultural Significance Heritage protection and is considered potentially significant at State level. The Stokes family were also associated with the Eltham Christian Church. In the 1970s this church had met in temporary premises in Eltham. Lots of the original 1925 subdivision remained south of Nyora Road and a number of these lots were utilized for the Eltham Christian School, which was established by the Eltham Christian Church in 1981. The school operated on this site until 2000. The premises are now used by The Vine Baptist Church. By the mid-1980s the whole of CA15 had been developed for residential and school purposes, except for the sections north of Diosma Road and between the transmission lines and Reynolds Road. Sewerage issues had been resolved for the section north of Diosma Road and in 1987 it was in the process of being subdivided into residential lots. The development coincided with the discovery of colonies of the rare and endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly on the site. This resulted in a community and political campaign to save the butterfly habitat. With the co-operation of the land developer the subdivision was altered to create two bushland reserves in the critical butterfly habitat areas. In the late 1980s the State Government was investigating options for establishing a metropolitan ring road link between Diamond Creek and Ringwood. The chosen route was adjacent to Reynolds Road and so this created a freeze on development of CA15 between Reynolds Road and the electricity easement. The ring road proposal was eventually abandoned, and this part of the land was subdivided into low density residential lots. Diosma Road has been discontinued at the electricity easement and the eastern part incorporated into View Mount Court with access from Reynolds Road. The whole of CA15 has now been developed for residential or associated purposes, ranging from conventional density to quite low density south of Nyora Road. Some remnants of the orchard remain, a few cherry trees on the Graves property and a lone apple tree in Stokes Place. The butterfly reserves comprise significant areas of remnant bushland. Linear reserves through the estate link with central Eltham via the Woodridge linear reserve and with Research along the electricity easement. CA15 as it exists today has a complicated history of rural use, Government acquisition, urban development, and community action. References: • “Stokes Orchard, an incomplete history”; Russell Yeoman with Doug Orford • Correspondence, Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes) • Aerial Photographs, 1931-1991, Landata (landata.vic.gov.au) • Certificate of Title, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900 • Plan Number LP 10859 neil webster collection, diosma road, eltham copper butterfly, eucalyptus road, ironbark close, nyora road, peppermint grove, power transmission lines, reynolds road, scarlet ash court, stokes orchard estate, stokes place, woodridge estate, frank stokes, certificate of title

Self guided heritage tour information produced by the Shire of Eltham Historical Society for 1978 Eltham Community Festival of 36 locations each numbered on accompanying map. Locations and detail provided current to 1978: 1. ELTHAM SHOPPING CENTRE Whilst very little remains in the centre of historical importance, this area has interest as the "village" which developed over many years following the opening of the railway from Melbourne in 1902. Previously the shopping centre had been spread out over a long length of Main Road to the south. Shops have been continuously demolished or remodelled and the majority of buildings date from the 1950's or later. The recently erected Post Office replaced the "old" Post Office opened on the same site only in 1958. 2. WOOLWORTHS ELTHAM VILLAGE Part of the site of this modern shopping development was occupied by the former Eltham Shire Offices and Hall. The hall was paid for by public subscription whilst the Council raised a loan for the offices. The combined building was opened in 1941. It served as office and Council meeting place until 1965 and as the hall until its demolition in 1970. 3. ELTHAM WAR MEMORIAL The complex of buildings adjoining the present Shire Offices were financed by public subscription as a Memorial following World War II. Their construction and for many years their operation was organised by the now disbanded Eltham War Memorial Committee. The original buildings were the; Infant Welfare Centre, Children’s Library (now War Memorial Hall and Dental Clinic) and Kindergarten. In later years the Elderly Citizens Club was built at the rear. 4. ELTHAM SHIRE OFFICES These offices were opened in 1965 and extended in 1971 to provide additional office accommodation and the Eltham Library. They represent the last of a long line of offices and meeting places of the Eltham Shire Council and its predecessor the Eltham District Road Board. The building occupies the former site of Shillinglaw Cottage. The three tall cypress trees which stood in front of the Cottage have been retained as a feature of the office surrounds. 5. OUR LADY'S CHURCH AND SCHOOL The Catholic Church and School complex opposite the Shires Offices shows a number of stages in the development of Eltham township. The recently constructed church adjoins its predecessor (now the parish centre). Many years ago the Catholic Church was located opposite Wingrove Park and the present central site follows the northerly drift of the township. 6. SHILLINGLAW COTTAGE The Cottage was built in 1859 by George Stebbing, a local builder who was responsible for a number of other prominent buildings in the area. Its removal from the site of the Shire Offices and re-erection on the present site was financed by public subscription. It is built of handmade bricks laid in Flemish Bond with an unusual design featuring burnt "leader" bricks over the whole facade. The Cottage is occupied by Eltham Fleececrafts and will be open during the Festival and at other times during weekends. It is classified by the National Trust. 7. RAILWAY BRIDGE The timber trestle bridge over the Diamond Creek was built in 1901. Whilst all of its timbers have been replaced at various times over the years the only change to its character has been the addition of pylons and wiring for electric trains in 1923. It is one of very few similar bridges remaining in the metropolitan area. In 1976 a proposal to replace the bridge with an earth embankment and large culvert pipes was abandoned following community protests. The bridge, however, remains under threat because of the necessity for future deuplication of the railway line. 8. ELTHAM CENTPAL PARK The area between the railway and the creek has for many years been used as a park which included Eltham' s main football oval. The access road, Panther Place is named after Eltham's team playing in the Diamond Valley League. In recent years a large area extending to Bridge Street and locally known as the Town Park has been landscaped and added to the area. The excellent blending of the park with the natural landscape of the creek valley has earned a National Trust Landscape Classification. 9. OLD BAKERY On the southern corner of York Street and Main Road is an old house with a shop front which was for many years the local baker's shop. The brick bakery at the rear is of somewhat later vintage than the house. 10. BRIDGE STREET CUTTING Before reconstruction of Main Road this intersection had deep cutting embankments on all four corners, forming a distinctive feature of the entrance to Eltham. Roadworks and private development have levelled the land on the low side of the road. A memorial to the Eltham soldiers of World War I which was located at the north-western corner is now situated at the Eltham R.S.L.   11. HILLTOP MILK BAR For many years this was the site of the Eltham Post Office under the control of the Hunniford family and later their descendants the Burgoynes. It was transferred to this site in 1855, although at that time the building apparently fronted Bridge Str e et. The site contained Eltham's first telephone exchange. The post office was relocated in 1954 but the shop was operated until recently by the Burgoyne family who still own the surrounding land. 12. UNITING CHURCH and former C.B.A. BANK The former Methodist Church was built in 1880 by George Stebbing. The Sunday School extension was built in 1929 and there have been more recent extensions. The adjoining opportunity shop was built as a bank in 1874 and purchased by the Methodist Church in 1954. 13. R.S.L. HALL, TELEPHONE EXCHANGE These relatively recent buildings occupy the site of a row of shops forming part of the early ribbon of business development along Main Road. In front of the R.S.L. building is the World War I Memorial relocated from the corner of Bridge Street and Main Road. 14. ELTHAM COMMUNITY CENTRE Australia's first mudbrick "community building" was opened in April this year. Part of the site of the building was purchased in 1856 by Henry Dendy (of Brighton fame). At the rear of the land near the creek was a steam flour mill whilst Dendy's house was at the Main Road frontage of the land. His purchase totalled about 2 Ha (5 acres) and included land on the opposite side of Maria Street (Main Road). Dendy became a prominent member of the Eltham community and served one term as President of the Eltham District Road Board. In 1867 Dendy sold his land and business to William Ford of Malmsbury and shifted to Walhalla. The avenue of trees leading past the Community Centre to the creek may well have bordered the track to the mill. 15. ELTHAM HOTEL The original part of this hotel was built in 1927 following the burning of the former Watson's Eltham Hotel on the same site. The car park on the opposite side of Main Road was also the site of a hotel variously known over the years as; the Fountain of Friendship, the Fountain and the Evelyn Arms. As the Fountain of Friendship it was the first meeting place of the Eltham District Road Board in 1856. 16. ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH, PITT STREET In 1860 Henry Dendy was appointed Chairman of a committee to establish a church of England in Eltham. He donated part of his land in Pitt Street and in 1861 the church was opened. It was built by George Stebbing and remains in a well preserved state today. Th adjoining old vicarage is now named Dendy Hou se. A new mudbrick church hall is under construction on the site. The church and Dendy House are now listed on the Register of Historic Buildings. 17. NO. 86 PITT STREET Cottage built by George Stebbing and believed to be his home for some years in the 1850s. 18. LIVING AND LEARNING CENTRE The house was built in the 1850s with the kitchen at the front being added about 40 years later. By the creek below the house a number of early Eltham industries were located. These included a tannery and a brewery. 19. ELTHAM COURT HOUSE A Court of Petty Sessions was established in Eltham in 1858 and the present building dates from 1860. It is the oldest public building remaining in Eltham. In its early days the building was used as the meeting place and office of the Eltham District Road Board and as an overflow classroom for the local school. The Court House has been classified by the National Trust. The citation states that it is an example of the simple form of early brick Court House with gabled roof and porch. 20. LANDS DEPARTMENT OFFICE This building is the former police station and is probably of about the same age as the Court House. The lockup at the rear has been demolished but the old stables remain as garages. A licence was first granted for a police station at Eltham in 1856. 21. JARROLD COTTAGE The old Cottage opposite Dalton Street was formerly owned by the Jarrold family. Early records indicate that this was the building leased from the Jarrolds as a temporary police station prior to construction of the building on the corner of Brougham Street. The small building on the corner of the property was used as a boot repairer's shop. The elevated studio at the rear is a more recent construction by the present owners. 22. STATE SCHOOL RESIDENCE Erected in 1891 23. WINGROVE COTTAGE This building fills an important place in the history of Eltham and is now used as a medical clinic. It was built in 1858 for Charles S. Wingrove who was Secretary to the Eltham District Road Board and Shire Council from 1858 to 1904. During part of this period he was also Shire Engineer and was Secretary to the Heidelberg Road Board. The house was used as the office of the Board and Council for many years. Wingrove is buried in the cemetery at St. Helena.   24. WINGROVE PARK The parkland opposite Wingrove Cottage has been named after Charles Wingrove. The old Manna Gums are an outstanding feature of the park. 25. ELTHAM FRI.MARY SCHOOL NO. 209 The school first opened in the slab building in 1855 and operated from the present site since 1857. The oldest part of the present school is the stone building erected in 1876. The first school teacher, David Clark remained at the school until 1888. This school is the government township and has always been known as the Eltham School. An earlier school (no.371) known as Little Eltham School operated in Swan Street from 1853 to 1872. 26. "SHOESTRING" This house was built for school teacher David Clark. It has been extensively extended in recent years but the extensions do not detract from the character of the older part of the building. 27. ELTHAM CEMETERY The cemetery contains the graves of many of the district's pioneers . 28. MONTSALVAT This unique complex of buildings was commenced in 1935 by the late Justus Jorgensen and its development has extended over many years. Montsalvat has exerted a significant impact on Eltham The earth and stone construction of many of the buildings has influenced local architecture to a great extent and it has served as a "nerve centre" of the local artistic community. Montsalvat is open to the public for a small charge. 29. MAIN ROAD BRIDGE This location has been the main crossing of Diamond Creek since the earliest days of settlement. The present concrete bridge was erected in 1925 .and was preceded by a number of timber bridges. 30. ELTHAM LOWER PARK This park, being an unusually large flat area for Eltham, was originally the local racecourse. Horse races were held here from 1855 and the area was gazetted as a reserve for a racecourse and recreation reserve in 1857. The park is well known as a venue for school "bird days" and more recently as the site of the Diamond Valley Railway. This miniature railway features scale models of modern and old locomotives and rolling stock and has operated on this site since 1961 . Before that the railway operated at Chelsworth Park, Ivanhoe.   31. FALKINER HOUSE Frederick Falkiner was one of the earliest settlers in the Eltham township area and occupied a substantial leasehold prior to the first land sales. Early records show that Falkiner was the subject of a number of complaints from his neighbours but he has nevertheless been considered a prominent enough citizen to have a street named for him. This house was the home of Evelyn (Ely) Falkiner a member of Frederick's family. 32. WEST HOUSE Behind the large house on the hill is an early house built by the West family. This was relocated from a site near the front of the land by the present owner Mr. Fabbro. 33. FALKINER HOUSE This very old house is believed to have been the home of Frederick and may have been Eltham's first post office. Falkiner was the first post master for a short period. in 1854/55. 34. WITHERS HOUSE This house was the home of famous artist Walter Withers who shifted here from Heidelberg in 1903. 35. ELTHAM HIGH SCHOOL This school celebrated its jubilee this year, having commenced as the Eltham Higher Elementary School 50 years ago. 36. DIAMOND CREEK FOOTWAY If returning from the High School to the town centre the footpath by the bank of the Diamond Creek provides a pleasant route to finish your walk. The creek is a major tributary of the Yarra River. Together with its own major tributaries Arthurs Creek and Running Creek it commences on the southern slopes of the Dividing Range at Kinglake. It gives the name Diamond Valley to an area extending well beyond its actual drainage catchment.Recognition of the significance of various landmarks to the history of the Eltham community as of 1978‘shoestring’, 1978, bridge street cutting, burgoyne store, c.b.a. bank, diamond creek trail, eltham cemetery, eltham central park, eltham community centre, eltham community festival, eltham court house, eltham festival, eltham high school, eltham hotel, eltham lower park, eltham primary school, eltham railway trestle bridge, eltham shire offices, eltham shopping centre, eltham state school no. 209, eltham village, eltham war memorial, falkiner house, heritage trail, hilltop milk bar, jarrold cottage, lands department office, living, living and learning centre, main road bridge, montsalvat, old bakery, our eltham artistic recollections, our lady help of christian’s church, our lady help of christian’s primary school, pitt street, post office, r.s.l. hall, shillinglaw cottage, st margaret’s church, state school residence, stebbing cottage, telephone exchange, uniting church, west house, wingrove cottage, wingrove park, withers house, woolworths