Showing 303 items
matching taylor, george
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Federation University Historical Collection
Book - Ledger, Ballarat School of Mines Assay and Analysis Ledger, 1887-1890
The Ballarat School of Mines had a 'Model Mine' that was used to teach students. Practical work was undertaken for a fee, supervised by laboratory superintendents. Copies of assays undertaken are compiled together in this book. Leatherbound ledger with transfer copies assay reports from the Ballarat School of Mines. Those seeking assaying work from the Ballarat School of Mines are listed in alphabetical order in the front of the ledger. The ledger contains 543 pages. .2) Foolscap assay report on foolscap Ballarat School of Mines letterhead, and signed by Alfred Mica Smith, Superintendent of Laboratories. The report was on eight samples of Quartz submitted by R.C. Morgan, Scotts, Hotel, Melbourne .3) Assay report on Ballarat School of Mines letterhead, dated 14 August 1985, and signed by Andrew Berry, Registrar. The assay was supervised by Professor Alfred Mica Smith, and undertaken for James Burke, Broken Hill, New South Wales. .4) Assay report on Ballarat School of Mines letterhead, dated 18 August 1988, and signed by Alfred Mica Smith, Superintendent of Laboratories. The assay was undertaken on samples of Limonite submitted by James Burke and others, Broken Hill, New South Wales. The report includes information the the Ballarat School of Mines museum and the search for geological specimens from all Australian colonies for the collection. .5) A 'rough' assay report on samples of stone submitted by H. Major Senr, Wilcannia, New South Wales. 5) A 'rough' assay report on sample quartz drillings from quartz reef submitted by H. Morris, Egerton, and an sample of quartz and pyrites for determination by Professor Krause submitted by R.M. Serjeant. ballarat school of mines, a.c. allan, brittania g.m. co., s. body, black horse company, john m. bickett, william bell, james barker, w. bliss, w. bailey, william barrou, w.h. batten, w. bechervaise, band and albion, budd bros, charles barker, i. cahir, a. chamber, w. cahill, james coglan, d. clarke, a.w. dobbie, john dosett, john dunstan, j.a. evans, l. eggleton, charles forbes, d. fitzpatrick, e. ford, michael goold, j. graham, john greenwood, james hayes, ed hardy, arthur harvey, george hodges, john hall, jubilee gold mining company, krause, luplau, lempiere, mt lyell co, john law, ed meadway, john murray, j.h. middleton, c.m. miles, m. muir, e. mcmillan, w. mcdougall, c. napier, w.r. nicholls, napier freehold, w.b, ochiltree, oakleigh gold mining company, dr pinnock, c. quin, james ross, c.b. retallack, e. rowlands, royal standard, linton, frank rabling, william russell, charles soloman, f. selby, w.j. scott, sulieman pasha co, south clunes united, h.w. sinclair, george selby, e.h. schroeder, horsham, e.w. spain, c.h. sheary, sir henry loch gold mining company, a. sutherland, saxon consols, j.b. triggs, h. townsend, harold turnley, c. taylor, melbourne, c. thorpe, a. vandenberg, charles walker, charles wilson, thomas wellington, a. wynne, r. warne, e. wattis, john wood, walter warner, armidale, c. winterbottom, w.l. willliams, j.c. young -
Hume City Civic Collection
Container - Flagon - wine, END OF AN ERA - WORKS DEPOT, pre 1994
The flagon with port was issued to recognise the end of the Shire of Bulla Works Depot. The port was from the Mt Aitken Estates in Gisborne. Public Works previously administered by the Shire of Bulla went out to private tendering.A cream and brown glazed flagon with sloping sides. The lower half of the flagon is cream with brown printing. The upper half and neck is brown. There is a black unbroken seal over the cork and the port is still in the flagon. On the front there is the Shire of Bulla insignia and on the back: the Shire of Bulla logo with the list of all employees of the Works Depot.on front: END OF AN ERA / (Shire of Bulla Insignia) / WORKS DEPOT / REMEMBER / "Safety is no Accident" shire of bulla, works depot, mt aitken vineyards, vineyards, ackland, b, adams, s, aksalih, b, aquilina, r, bartley, p, beavis, a, bell, f, bentley, k, bernard, c, birrell, s, bishop, o, brabander, p, brown, n, clements, p, coundon, j, coundon, k, culhane, n, davis, d, farquahar, s, forster, m, gardner, t, gibbings-johns, r, green, k, hamilton, m, healy, p, houston, k, kostantinidis, m, lumsden, b, mazza, s, mazza, e, moxham, s, higgs, j, laws, g, bailey, n, acton, b, fitzmaurice, n, lee, m, hewson, t, lumsden, d, bryant, p, jankovic, d, riley, p, mott, b, naughton, p, olson, a, peavey, r, pittaway, b, morgan, s, morton, j, markman, o, lagana, f, ivakovic, m, jamieson, d, podolczak, n, prestage, d, pullen, p, pyke, b, richards, k, russell, r, sartore, a, schaffer, s, schembri, l, service, t, smith, b, taylor, n, thom, m, thomas, c, travers, k, travers, p, turner, r, tyquin, e, tyquin, k, tyquin, t, watts, j, wilson, h, whitworth, l, withers, d, george evans collection -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph, Jim Connor, Eltham - Montmorency Uniting Church, 810 Main Rd, Eltham, 10 July 2023
Located on the corner of Main Road and John Street, the church first served the community as the Eltham Wesleyan Church since 1881. It became the Eltham Methodist Church in 1902, the year it united with the Primitive Methodists. Eltham Wesleyans first worshipped together in the home of William and Mary Crozier, on 24 acres bounded by Mount Pleasant Road and Pitt Street. From there they moved to a slab and bark hut in 1855 (this later served as the first school run by David Clark prior to the building of a new school in Dalton Street) and the members then built a chapel in 1858 on Lot 20, Henry Street (later to become the Rechabite Hall and Eltham Public Hall). The present church on John Street was designed by architects Crouch and Wilson in the Early English Gothic style with biochrome brick window frames, buttress heads and pinnacle. Church member George Stebbing built the church, the foundations were constructed with stone from the walls of the first Eltham State Primary School (No. 209) building which collapsed in 1874 and were purchased by Robert David Taylor. Stebbing was also responsible for building St Margaret’s Church and Shillinglaw Cottage. The Roll of Honour, which presently hangs in the church hall (which also doubles as the Opportunity Shop) lists 27 members of the congregation who served in the First World War, 11 of whom never returned. The red-brick Church Hall was opened in 1931 and in 1971 further additions linked the hall and church, including a foyer, vestry, meeting room and toilets reflecting the Eltham style of that time with its simplicity, extensive clear glass, reused baked clay-bricks from the 1881 church, heavy ceiling beams and compressed straw ceiling. On June 26, 1977, the church became part of the new Uniting Church in Australia consisting of the former Methodist and Congregational and most of the Presbyterian Churches. Following of declining numbers of worshippers, the church merged with the Montmorency Uniting Church on June 23, 1996. In 2023 the Uniting church approved a plan to renovate the church. It is understood that the historic church and the hall will be retained, and the building added in 1971 is to be demolished, to make way for a new purpose-built Opportunity shop. The proposed areas to be demolished include the current foyer, toilets, crèche, etc, including the area between the hall and the former RSL. Works are expected to commence mid to late July 2023. The Society was invited by a church member to take photographs of these areas to document them prior to demolition works commencing. Ref: “Nillumbik Now and Then” by Marguerite Marshall (2008)jim connor collection, 2023-07-10, eltham-montmorency uniting church, john street, methodist church, opportunity shop, uniting church, uniting church hall -
Port Melbourne Historical & Preservation Society
Book, Terry Keenan, "In Safe hands: Presidents of the Port Melbourne Football Club", 2011
"In Safe hands: Presidents of the Port Melbourne Football Club", by Terry KEENAN. describes the 29 presidents of the Port Melbourne Football Clubcyril letts, richard taylor, william swallow, peter saultry, albert victor renowden, sport - australian rules football, thomas swallow, carl frederick julius seismann, john finlay malcolmson, frederick thomas derham, george sangster, arthur tate, arthur hester, franz opitz, george alexander rogers, james peter crichton, william harper, arthur hardingham, hugh stranaghan, henry lang, walter 'watty' power, thomas griffin, joseph earle, albert garbutt, henry perazzo, james mutch, norm goss snr, henry harrison, john bradley, port melbourne football club, pmfc, alexander arthur james -
Warrnambool and District Historical Society Inc.
Document - Edward Jones Probate 1895, 1895 with additional material added in 1899 by the lawyer Ernest Chambers
Tait collection: item 40 of 62 This document gives the details of the Will and Probate of Edward Jones, an engine driver who died in Warrnambool in January 1895 at the age of 69. He had previously been a resident of Port Fairy. He left real estate to the value of £640 and personal estate to the value of £187. The beneficiaries of the will were his daughters, Margaret and Mary Jones. The lawyers connected with this document were Ernest Chambers and the legal firm of Fletcher and Mackay. Ernest Chambers had legal offices in Port Fairy, Koroit and Warrnambool at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and the signatures of two of his law clerks, Thomas Goodall and John White are included in this document. James Fletcher had a legal office in Port Fairy and in Warrnambool in the 1870s and in Warrnambool in the 1880s (Koroit Street). In the late 1890s he commenced a partnership with George Mackay who had previously had his own practice in Warrnambool. In the 1920s the firm became known as Mackay and Taylor and later Mackay Taylor (Kepler Street). This document was in the possession of Ernest Chambers and was passed down to successive lawyers occupying the Kepler Street premises. It was located in 2014 with other documents in these premises last occupied by the firm of Mackay Taylor. This document is of some interest as it gives details of the Will and Probate of Edward Jones who had been a resident of Warrnambool in the late 19th century. It will be useful for researchers. This is a cream-coloured piece of parchment paper folded in two and containing handwritten material on three sides of the paper. It gives details of the Will and Probate of Edward Jones of Warrnambool who died in 1895. The pages have printed red lines on the edges of three pages. The written material is clean and readable.In the Supreme Court of the Colony of Victoria In its Probate Jurisdiction in the Will of Edward Jones late of Warrnambool and formerly of Belfast in the County of Villiers in the Colony of Victoria Engine driver deceasedfletcher and mackay, lawyers,, warrnambool, ernest chambers,, edward jones, tait collection -
Warrnambool and District Historical Society Inc.
Document - David Williams Probate 1889, 1889
Tait collection: item 36 of 62 This document contains the details of the Will and Probate of David Williams of ‘Morgrugyn’ farm near Woodford. He was born in 1804 and died in 1889. He was a pioneer settler in the Woodford area, arriving, according to the Pioneer Honour Board, in 1842. His son, Ivor, was Secretary of the Grasmere Cheese and Butter Factory for some time and Secretary of the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory in 1888. David Williams left real estate to the value of £1540 and personal estate to the value of £1075. The chief beneficiary was his eldest son, David but other sons and grandsons also benefited. His wife, Mary, was left £300, a house to live in rent free during her lifetime, two cows and the right to graze them on the farm, six silver spoons, her bed and bedding, washstand and ware, a dressing table, a table in the dairy and ‘all the crockery and cooking utensils she may require’. The lawyer drawing up this document was James Fletcher who had an office in Port Fairy in the 1870s and an office in Koroit Street, Warrnambool, in the 1880s. In the 1890s and early 1900s he was in partnership with George Mackay. This document was in the possession of the lawyer Ernest Chambers who had drawn up the Williams will. It was then passed down to successive lawyers occupying legal premises in Kepler Street until it was located in 2014 in the Kepler Street building last used as legal premises by the firm of Mackay Taylor. This document is of considerable interest as it contains the will and probate details of a prominent 19th century farmer in the Woodford district. It will be useful for researchers.This is a white piece of parchment paper folded in two with typed material on two pages and handwritten material on one page. The pages are ruled with red ink. The pages include the Will and Probate details of David Williams of ‘Morgrugyn’ farm near Woodford. He died in 1889.In the Supreme Court in the Colony of Victoria in the Probate Jurisdiction In the Will of David Williams Morgrugyn farm near Woodford in the Colony of Victoria Farmer deceasedjames fletcher, david williams, ernest chambers, warrnambool, woodford, morgrugyn farm -
Warrnambool and District Historical Society Inc.
Document - Helen Robertson Letters of Administration 1881, 1889
Tait collection: item 34 of 62 This is a document giving the details of the Letters of Administration following the death of Helen Robertson, a spinster from St. Kilda, Melbourne. She died intestate in November 1881 and left property to the value of £363. This property reverted to her sister Agnes Thomson in 1889. No other details have been found on Helen Robertson. The lawyer in the case was George Skinner of Melbourne but the document was one of several stored in legal premises in Kepler Street, Warrnambool and passed on to successive lawyers occupying these premises. It was located in the same building, the former premises of the legal firm, Mackay Taylor, in 2014 and handed over to the Warrnambool and District Historical Society.This document is of minor interest as one located in former legal premises in Warrnambool but no other connection has been found between Warrnambool and the person whose details are in the document, Helen RobertsonThis is a cream-coloured piece of parchment paper folded at the bottom edge and containing hand written material on both sides of the paper. The contents give details of the Letters of Administration following the death of Helen Robertson in 1881. A seal of the Supreme Court of Victoria is attached with green ribbon. The document is somewhat stained.In the Supreme Court of the colony of Victoria in its Probate Jurisdiction in the Estate of Helen Robertson late of Acland Street Saint Kilda near Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria Spinster deceased intestate Letters of Administrationhelen robertson, george skinner -
Surrey Hills Historical Society Collection
Booklet - Book, Our Liverpool Boys, 2015
Sent to the collection as part of the Centenary of the ANZAC Gallipoli landing, 2015. This publication reveals the stories of everyday civilians-turned-soldiers who served in the trenches and on the front lines, highlighting their vast contribution to the war effort, including those who made the ultimate sacrifice.This publication reveals the stories of everyday civilians-turned-soldiers who served in the trenches and on the front lines, highlighting their vast contribution to the war effort, including those who made the ultimate sacrifice.Verso of cover: "Surrey Hills Historical Soc."world war, 1914-1918, miltary history, (mr) cecil alfred ashcroft, (mr) arthur percival attwood, (mr) thomas walter barker, (mr) george francis bell, (mr) lawrence robert hanna, (mr) charles elvin hyland, (mr) john frederick kammel, (mr) joseph harold kemp, (mr) harry boyland, (mr) james ashcroft braithwaite, (mr) walter henry brewster, (mr) william brown, (mr) charles alfred bull, (mr) william francis cloke, (mr) eric gladstone deadman, (mr) george leslie fullagar, (mr) joseph gomes, (mr) eric sydney walpole sealy-vidal, (mr) samuel kirkpatrick, (mr) nathan douglas lackie, (mr) joseph henry leach, (mr) harry learoyd, (mr) charles m mcfarline, (mr) joseph campbell mcmiles, (mr) robert mcmiles, (mr) james unison morn, (mr) edward hugh oprey, (mr) arthur salis, (mr) (henry) studley sealy-vidal, (mr) walter samuel shaw, (mr) walter samuels, (mr) samuel john southwell, (mr) geoffrey gordon steenson, (mr) eric andrew taylor, (mr) alfred charles thorn, (mr) andrew charles thorne, (mr) campbell throsby, (mr) william george waters, (mr) albert ernest wearne, (mr) thomas william garnet whitney, liverpool training camp, holsworthy internment camp -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Document - Certificate of Title, Landata, Vol. 4930 Fol. 985900, Crown Portion 15 Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik, County of Evelyn, 1925
(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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Feb. 1956
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Apr. 1972
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Jan. 1962
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Apr, 1963
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Oct. 1968
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Apr. 1978
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Jan. 1951
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Dec. 1945
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Nov. 1931
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Mar. 1987
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Feb. 1979
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Jan. 1984
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Nov. 1975
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Oct. 1970
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Sep. 1991
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 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Aerial Photograph, Landata, Eltham; Crown Allotment 15, Section 5, Parish of Nillumbik (Stokes Orchard Estate), Mar. 1975
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 -
Glen Eira Historical Society
Ephemera - St. Mary’s Church, Caulfield
Two copies from St. Mary’s Anglican Church Caulfield, orders of service to celebrate Victoria’s 150th anniversary April 28, 1985. Four copies of pamphlet from St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Caulfield for The Joys of Living in Victoria, a festival of flowers and music dated April 25-28 1985. Included is a brief history from the 1850’s to 1985 of the church. Official opening leaflet with details of events and sponsors. The Joys of Living in Victoria, a festival of flowers and music order of service. Roneoed copy dated 25/04/1985.st. mary’s anglican church, caulfield, brooks r.c. rev., glasson william, organists, glen eira road, allen s. m. and sons, furniture stores, kennington laundry and drycleaners, drycleaners, glen huntly road, elsternwick, nepean highway, gardenvale, caulfield south, t. bathursts and co., funeral directors, ricks camera shop, elsternwick furnishing co., rothels pty. ltd., the sausage factory, four corners picture framing co., taylors the discount store, eight st. georges road, reception rooms, mane event hairdressing, fiskens pharmacy, boyd w. fox chemist, elsternwick travel world, mahony denis, hairline 309, hairdressers, madge tulloch florist, florist shops, michelson and associates, estate agents, port phillips press pty. ltd., printing industry, sommers jill, caulfield city choir, choirs, the tait-smith chamber group, tudor choristers, cathedral brass ensemble, trumble joan, brookes raymond rev., porter miss, park street, stephen george sir, hood crescent, bluestone, reid mr., architects, macartney mrs., st. mary’s church, st. stephen’s, gardenvale, st. clement, elsternwick, st. agnes, glenhuntly, glen huntly, st. catherine, caulfield, langley canon, shelford, green bishop, schools, helenslea, caulfield grammar school, davis j.h. rev., house names -
Glen Eira Historical Society
Letter - St Pauls Anglican Church, 530 Dandenong Road, Caulfield North
Ring out Wild Bells!', an all-encompassing history of St Pauls Anglican Church from 1904 – 2004 by Southern cross ministries.com.au. The book takes in all aspects of the church’s ministry, from acquiring the first building, church festivals, Dramatic Club, Social dances, Annual fetes, tennis club, St Pauls Preparatory School; Darish Heros, the 16 memorial stained glass windows, St Pauls dance group, Home group, the healing team, St Pauls Juvenile Orchestra and womens guilds. Correspondence to Claire Barton, dated 29/04/2010 from Cynthia Nyholm, with enclosed book – Ring out Wild Bells the centenary book for St Pauls Anglican Church; Caulfield North 2004.st paul’s anglican church, lynch frank rev., nyholm cynthia, falkingham john canon, north caulfield, ivens george walter dr., kircher godfre rev., saunders harriet eleanor (nelly), wilson albert rev., thewlis brian rev., saunder elizabeth (topsy), meredith charles rev., rutherford. graeme rev., arnold leonard rev, drought john rev., hannaford. john rev., rich roger rev., grully/moore alison, charles oliver, bell towers, clarke henry lowther, roberts frank, ngaruk william, boon wurrung, aboriginal peoples, the black chapel, hawthorn road, balaclava road, glen eira road, taylor rev., seddon rev., edith street, park street, st. mary's parish, shelley edgar, ellerslie, roe thomas, salisbury street, st. elmo's community, mccartney hugh, herring nigel, robinson john, mollinson a.j., derby parade, vance george, statham rev., priest rev., cox rev., queen's hall caulfield, jolly edith, evans jan, societal event and activities, clubs and associations, sporting clubs, cohen leslie, cohen doris, 'anselm', manses, wilson albert mrs, wainwright emily, ivens eleanor, roberts frank, falkenstein lynaire, dove bill, lawn david, edwards peter, jenkins barry, backhouse gerald, triller henrietta, monahan marjorie, wainright bill, 'yanga', alma road, dandenong road, fitzwater mr, lovell house girls school, st paul's preparatory school, independent schools, kindergartens, hoggart mrs, jackson miss, davidson bob, hutchens bernard, meredith benjamin, mannett david, hutchins harry, vicars, foote sheila, scholes lillian, mee elroy, driver marjorie, manton betty, bottomley hilda, west joan, finn grace, dell hazel, guild of the holy spirit, carrigan john rev., allen douglas, thompson norman, hardy don, moroney john, scott-simmons harry, morphet george, houghton robert, drought tom, stringer alf, miller eddie, michie bill, roberts david, hardy bill, cohen vernon, cohen leon, thewlis jeremy, tanner simon, lambert luke, wainwright bill, wilson albert, meredith charles, williams louis r., architects, dawson and smith, builders, monuments and memorials, st. paul apostle and martyr, red hill, ackland a.l., drought peter, kircher virginia, martinu ignaz, metal working, crafts and craft equipment, mathieson w., stained glass, morgan kerr w., cohen ursula, french anne maree, stephens evelyn, roberts janet, tanner john, oliphant alison, oliphant david, drought alison, widdowson charles rev., rich regina, fettel rex, amson evan, amson angela, stonehouse elwyn, thewlis elsbeth, cranswick jim, byrne meredith, jackson jill, jackson family, fitzgerald anne, molineux john, pilkington merridee, wood noel, major paula, major tracy, kaines fiona, west ed, nelson jenny, booth anne, pental road, carnarvon road, daynes alysa, tanner john, tanner winkie, jackson les, thornton graham, thornton gwyn, drought gladys, mcgillivery joan, glennen jim canon, wood maureen, wood david boyle, wood felicity, corrie ian, corrie lesley, sharrock heidi, sharrock lynette, sharrock david, rutherford david, samuel anto (hilda), hannaford john, palliar bob, golden hope healing sanctuary, hostels, moore alison, johnson wendy, stringer barbara, carson penny, edwards joan, glen eira intercessary group, smith beverly, daynes aylsa, lyon tryphena, fitzgerald anne, de bibra (peggy) margaret, de bibra florence, singleton george, darke guy, thompson norman, hutchinson jay, lawry margaret, woddy julie, mcgrath lesley, amson angela, prashanthi samuel, mclean rob, st. elmo's fire alpha in victoria, kainey john, kainey dick rev., amson evan, hannaford janine, hannaford john rev., playgrounds, shinkfield thelma, west joan, staham clive, batey mandy, walker david rev., stokes tom rev., batey david, freeman lesley, social services, pittaway geoff, jones greg, turf club hotel, the angel, conway carolyn, razmaran (raz) rameen, moore peter, thewlis sharon, walker stephen, turuwhenva jo maka maka, redman dylan, jolly david, toombs nicole, hannaford/akins christy, akins ben, edwards rozanne, masson andrew, batey kyle, batey ailsa, kovars aranka, graffiti, mcallister alison, buchanen noel, cocks damien, holland m.w., artists, akins robert, barberis irene, reynolds chris, wolstencroft ivor, gully/moore alison, moore peter, engineers, kovacs joseph, architects, vicars-foote bequest dorothy, hallock shanta, newman philip, molineux john, stained glass, molineux kim, moorhouse philip, o'farrell gavan, smith beverley rev., peppercorn miss, corrigan mrs, choirs, thomas ronald, geo fincham and sons, wicks mr, mcgillivery alf, organs, mcgillivery ian, touzeau mme, triller lily, lawrence jean, falkingham john, bonsal/boone peter, tweeddale alistair, worsnop paul, stonehouse pam, rutherford graeme, rutherford caroline, braun doug, naughton celia, correll madge, edwards joan, paranavitana darshini, gebert barb, wood felicity, cowell alison, mannaford lawson, ellankoon robby, knight sheila, thornton graeme, kyle estelle, davies john, roberts frank, welch ian, de saint-ferjeux, francis peggy, gill heather, lambert dale, newing joyce, young rosemary, mcallister (pownell/washington), roeland linda, mcdonald brendan, lewis irene, lewis graham, fitzgerald anne, hoffman tim, kaines fiona, marriott dianne, stryk angela, leaf narelle, choo lucy, fitzgerald narelle, nunis mark, waterman roma, beggs joshua, cramer deb, beggs camilla, gebert kelvin, oakes joanne, sargeant john, schulz wendy, smith lerisse, austin adrian, mitchell stephanie, oakes jessica, cropley stan, banks caroline, banks peter, chen caroline, west rob, chen family, mcgough virginia (now mcdonald_, fin tania, stonehouse elwyn, ryan luisa, knight sheila, savage ian rev., kircher jillian, kircher pamela, kircher margaret, bernaldo darryl, rich cassandra, rich leighton, james scott, correll madge (nee gamble), correll tony, o'brien maureen, rodwell kevin, de vries isabella, de vries andre, de vries darren, cummins mr, roberts mr, de vries ngaio (nee morre), wainright emily, wainright william, massauelli lionel, roberts frank, foster muriel, thomas janet, laycock gordon, shiel john, langmuir keith, langford alan, burns jack, manson ian, manton john, mclean robert, lund milton, carr sylvia, ross margie, naughton michael, edwards joan, chappele ethel, chappele marion, pollard mrs, moorhouse michelle, shipp joyce, hayman jean, bright-parker kath, stringer thelma, armstrong wendy, martin neil, stonehouse janet, eddy elsie, gras elsie, macartney kitty, ormond special school (katandra), herring nigel, roe sisters, watson w.g., nicholls w., beith harley, cullen phyllis, burns leline, hayman eric, boyd-jones ennys, roberts frank, ellankoon chrissie, blommestein michael, ahn sil -
Glen Eira Historical Society
Book - Carnegie Primary School No. 2897
Carnegie Primary School centenary book (96 pages x 2 copies) ‘The First Hundred Years NO2897. Carnegie Primary School 1888-1988’ compiled and edited by Isabel Couper and Deidre Lynch. A detailed history of the school’s beginnings. Many informative memories and recollections from school’s first students and teachers; includes social history of area and people, football teams, debutante sets and school. Also a reprinted newspaper article from school’s Golden Anniversary and photo of school band; and a couple of social history photographs.anderson james, murrumbeena, glen huntly railway station, carnegie state school, wesleyan hall, neerim road, railway stations, carnegie primary school, rosstown, toolambool road, lynch deidre, mcvey claire, ross william murray, findlay francis, couper isabel, brown wesley, rosstown state school, brisbane w, carnegie uniting church, liddelow m.h., evans thomas, selboskar phyl, centenaries, margaret street, caulfield, brewster mr., taylor mr., draper mrs., mcfarlane mr., rule thomas, teachers, campbell ada, ‘ava’, campbell aubrey, campbell vera, matthews ben, hewitts road, matthews funeral service, funeral parlours, leo amy, leo alfie, rudge family, rudge mr., transport, phillips store, general store, phillips corner, emily street, hamlya family, pitt family, sheppard family, pemberton mr., pemberton mrs., dunlop misses, preschools, whitlam family, whitlam gordon, woods family, woods lorna, swaggie, swagman, liddelow amy, anderson mr., anderson archie, dunlop bill, phillips linda, hansen alice, lodge laura, fox arthur , hamlyn eric, hansen dagmar, cooper lina , woods lorna, waite family, cove family, johansen family, koornang road, market gardens, sheppard ernie, wood a.m., ‘nisava’, wood family, wood bill, evans rachel, evans thomas, wood millicent, whitfield mr., griffiths mr., wood malcolm, wood forest, wood joe, roxburgh miss, grange road, clifton street, lord street, wood frederick geo, egan miss dressmakers, whitlam fred, whitlam christine, whitlam george, whitlam gough, whitlam freda, whitfield mr., patterson road, graceburn avenue, griffiths r.h., koornang road, scales mr., reid athol, lording dr., mernda ave, farmstead, lord reserve, leman’s swamp, koornang park, cobby harry, larkin aircraft company, dawson howard, rosedale avenue, spencer reg, turner ruth, turner jack, turner noreen, turner marie, morton alan, morton barney, gardiner martin, frogmore estate, oakleigh road, frogmore road, koornang park, hunt club kennels, raeke miss, morgan miss, pitt winnie, jiggins mr., smith mr., blundy violet, ryall ray, mimosa road, wolseley mr., wolseley family, wolseley ted, brunstein madge, murrumbeena cricket club, sinclair alan, sincliar tinny, thomas ted, walker alec, bone bob, footballers, middleton colin, farquahson mrs., eddy family, eddy rose, wolseley jack, buswell stan, buswell doug, buswell. stan jnr., irving nell, brims ethel, bailey bruce, eason sisters, hands hilda, windlow isabel, madden road, glenhuntly road, griffiths rita, jackson jean, scott mr., ward ‘cap’, caulfield grammar school, kokaribb road, carnegie traders, cricket teams, carnegie south, ward marjory, ryan mr., phillips tony, phillips bessie, buckley street, phillips harriet, phillips marion, phillips ernest, phillips hilda, phillips david, phillips florence, phillips linda, lihou miss, jersey parade, meake family, skewe family, mansfield family, fraser jean, collister alma, sturges millie, retallick girls, lillywhite family, mason nellie, johns nancy, bowsfield family, jenner family, chisholm emma, chisholm doris, chisholm ivy, chisholm netta, chisholm beryl, chisholm eileen, wadsworth ethel, luke mr., plummer t.w., raecke miss, sargent ron, sarkie family, reid family, meake violet, collett reg, mcneil miss, scales mr., carmody thomas william, steele miss, young mac, young margaret, cooper cyril, cooper bill, whiteside d., broadbent neil, broadbent mr., carnegie theatre, theatres, morton family, clarke family, quickand neals grocery store, grocers, billy guyatt’s, shops, spencer the removalist, removalists, collister harold, collister bill, caulfield band, bands, carthews the drapers, drapers, mccarrons alec blacksmiths, skewes keith, oliver frank, pitt ‘squeaker’, knevitt ‘skeeter’ harry, jockeys, britter jack, stanistreet family, gear rita, culleen billy, tailors, sherwoods butchers, butchers, jersey parade, riley didlo, verne harry, cooper horace, cooper linda, cooper martin, cooper claude, cooper reginald, cooper stanley, cooper gladys, cooper muriel, cooper percival, cooper cyril, beaumont w.a., whittfield joe, beaumont eileen, major mary anne sister, major myrtle, major bessie, major alma, stagholl walter, stagholl margaret, stagholl eric, robertson bessie, robertson fred, robertson norman, robertson donald, robertson alma, robertson alan, baird neil, baird john, baird rosemary, dunn helen, baird ian, baird heather, baird dianne, petrie stuart, petrie richard, bailey ron, gaunt mabel, reading harold, reading marge, irwin joyce, dickson margaret, dickson jennifer, dickson peter, wood malcolm, wood millicent, wood forest, wood joe, sinclair ‘trinny’, roberts ‘fly’, footballers, malcolm mr., henderson reg, henderson alice, brew l., rule mr., philbrick mr., wood mr., trembath mr., keogh mr., plummer tom, lane a., fox ernest, souters, market gardeners, fox belle, fox bella, fox vern, couper margaret, couper sandra, couper peter, couper narelle, couper clare, couper jarrod, scott mr., doughty will, doughty tom, lloyd miss, islingworth master, adams joyce, hogan mr., markus jean, cosgrove joan, cosgrove mrs., cosgrove mr., marshall jim, kellow fred, fretwell elizabeth, fretwell betty, shepparson ave, singers, edmonson miss, butters shirley, harwood vera, bracher lloyd, dewhurst irene, dewhurst jack, boyle mr., gow jack, welch len, stanistreet harry, stanistreet jack, stanistreet kathleen, stanistreet frank, stanistreet kingsley, ‘ray sullivan’s harmony boys’, carnegie memorial hall, st. anthony’s hall, welch len, gibbons norm, ashley sylvia, crosswell edna, marks peggy, worth phyllis, cleal jean, tabner edith, jenkins elva, mcintosh gladys, worth reg, waters cyril, downard rex, wild mavis, wild darby, hill roland, eason jean, tyers noel, tyers clive, witten hope, strickland doris, chisholm beryl, harwood family, battershill sid, battershill walter, dixon mavis, boyle mr., ford hilda, forsythe miss, edmonsen miss, ryan mr., grimsley mr., allaway mrs., grant mrs., bone bob, bone bruce, w. bone & son nursery men, bone norman, bone jack, bone william, railway road, green kevin, paris marjorie, mimosa road, green joan, allaway winnie, elliot miss, mcburney mr., purdy mrs., allaway suzanne, barron shirley, hogan mr., rutherford mrs., curtin mr., mckee’s, stores, whelan’s, coles, koornang road, gardiner marty, grange road dairy, dairies, mcwhinney’s tuck shop, shops, williams dorothy, kennedy irene regina, rigby miss, grimsley steve, grimsley muriel, grimsley jack, grimsley margaret, grimsley aimee, grimsley bill, blinkinsop steve, blinkinsop jeannie, mathers max, howie rex, major mr., flatmans paddock, crossover, reid eric, reid athol, lowe margaret, lowe dorothy, lowe ian, poliomyelitis epidemic diseases, forsythe miss, cuddihy miss, dougall keith, grace miss, hattam’s, stores, driver wally, perry max, perry don, perry jack, meagher j., ‘hostile’, racehorses, edney jack, carthews the drapers, fretwell elizabeth, kellow fred, muddyman bill, graceburn ave, caulfield junior citizens band, bands, luke mr., luke percy, luke maise, luke nessie, luke geoff, luke ross, luke jan, luke lynette, bolton douglas, anderson mrs., mcburney mr., hogan mr., scott mr., tyers s., ross j., ryan j., irvine j., muirhead mrs., muirhead j., mcnab m., buller l., emmanuel p., buller m., paton v., moor j., condron a., bibby d., matthews n., holman l., cotterell m., whelan j., jennion g., walker b., taylor e., green a., turner r., matthews e., smith joan, gardiner marty, dairies, hanson family, cove family, gallop family, barrett family, barrett w.a., bolch family, bolch b., burke w., burke bill, burke s., mobbs h., young g., young c., burke m., ward c., hopwood g., gordon mr., milk bars, cooper cr., phillips t., swindell mr., grogan mr., wadsworth mrs., bourke mrs., lewis mrs., worsley mrs., quickenstead mrs., brown wesley, musicians, purdy h., curtain les, jenner’s dairy, riley’s wood yard, occupations, jenner vic, jenner les, grant noel, parker george, connolly keith, purdy mr., glen huntly picture theatre, picture theatres, irvine jack, law christie, hatter bob, joppick les, driver geoff, curtin mrs., frederick street, ormond, waters ron, carnegie junior citizens band, carnegie salvation army band – bands, whelan evan, irwin ray, balgleish jack, cowen laurie, smyth wally, lambeth margaret, kind lorraine, bondini joy, tredennick miss, linton miss, heath graham, shiell bill, shiell myrtle, archard bess, bull joan, craig ida, collins dorrie, collins doreen, diggans jess, cornthwaite h., cripps e., dougall n., dixon joyce, francis d., evans mrs., glass peg, greene jess, grace merle, hocking freda, jillings mrs., price mrs., day kitty, kerr may, mason marge, kind sylvia, muirhead d, mcconchie netta, needham nancy, nickless w, o’connor linda, pilven mrs., ryall h., strother ivy, singleton mrs., kelly phyl, waters von, usher mrs., trotter maude, watson mrs., williams mabel, withers olive, aarsmann norma, shiell norma, close peter, ‘wild cherry’ cake shop, rudi miss, anderson miss, eddy mr., hunter jean, nelson vera, fisher john, hunter ron, read jean, smith brian, newsreaders, nelson miss, singleton billy, quon miss, mchutchison george, valma smith, millar royal r., donoghue nora, lester mr., roberts tom, andreisen colin, miles alec, hine mr., baker mr., clements george, bracher lloyd, dimick miss, muir judy, dunn margaret, sant richard, myring miss, ryan mr., armstrong margaret, share wally, howie rex, barclay bob, rockman udo, hoult david, eisfelder kevin, jacques mr., smith mr., magee mr., stehle belinda, wallace mr., james mrs., main mr., wood miss, verso mr., mcpherson mrs., felotico miss, stehle john, howards mrs., collard mrs., webster vivian, stehle siggy, webster jennifer, truong le sen, mcpherson barbara, mitchell eva, moutsos mark, chan benjamin, wilson del, jewell christopher, mitchell keith, grant marilyn, caskie alastair, dixon dennis, armstrong john, lucas edward, clark deanne, coutts natalie, flood zivanja, derham peter, momandwall shaper, couper jarrod, heslop joanne, breeze ginaya, caskie fiona, filippone nadya, mcmahon nina, hedges nigel, williams shae, grimm karen, mcgregor clare, vagenes john, gallagher glenn, mcalister rob, varga marilyn, hunter debbie, courtney cathy, booth carol, mcmahon mary, brown danielle, burska maciej, campbell jason, chryssis aris, d’arcy michael, delaney matthew, doukas vivian, dower samantha, fournarakis andrew, genoli amanda, grammatos jimmy, harrington melanie, karamoshos john, karim sadruddin, kennedy russel, lalani zahra, lightfoot kylie, looby mark, louange veronica, park sung mi, perera dennis, pozvek julie, scurry kate, sievers sarah, smith matthew, svarnas dennis, vassiliou denise, wright tracey, zouzounis spirros, adahall jojie, agar jude, anderson lynette, black renae, bobrowski ursula, caskie catherine, devon hayley, diakoumis maria, duljas kristie, evans lindsay, faucett ebony, filippone annette, fournarakis jimmy, francese sean, gibson jay, gordon michelle, guslitser dora, king jane, lianos villi, lorkin christopher, macleod cheryl, maggs amberley, mitchell keith, mucic renae, o’brien jessica, park matthew, pozvek richard, psarras nancy, rhodes suzanne, simons emma, smith christopher, spokes melanie, tia michael, timewell amanda, vavoudis peter, abbott kristi, allender daniel, bobrowski jacob, carey rebecca, carter daimein, catramados john, christou eugenia, couper jarrod, healey michael, kalaitzakis nick, kennedy rebecca, macleod suzanne, mavridis angelo, morosini amanda, mowforth dustin, okolicsanyi george, park sung chul, pemberton michael, reisman elizabeth, richards kylie, savrone leah, tia charlie, tran paul, wiseman derek, wright dean, wyatt marilyn, andre ryan, breeze ginaya, brown james, campbell chad, charles benjamin, devon john, diakmoumis stacey, diamantis chris, duljas michael, grammatos harry, hill bradd, karim salim, lindsay amanda, lynch jennifer, marrello sol, momandwall shaker, moutsos ireni, oram scott, o’sughrue kristy, panevin david, park catherine, pozvek louise, stratton alisa, timewell rebecca, tsigos stam, yeow sook ling, anderson peter, batson tracey, black craig, brain jason, breeze benjamin, brown kylie, carrington harata, caskie fiona, catramados hercule, chan daphne, christou chris, clarke simone, diamantis anthony, faucett sara, flood natalia, holmes gavin, kotrotsos tony, kuk robin, mitchell david, okolicsanyi steve, pemberton samuel, soos melinda, stephenson gabrielle, tran pauline, vassiliou evan, agar natalia, bennett tracey, buhmann wayne, couper clare, faucett sean, filippone nadya, filippone marie, gallagher glenn, gelman roman, grant shawn, hill tania, jewel chris, kaliappa danny, kiss robert, liacopoulos aris, louey david, macleod mike, malamas voula, oram michelle, scurry ivan, wardley amanda, zouzounis sam, anderson robert, antoniou nick, carey tamara, derham peter, diep dianne, filippone danielle, flood zivanja, frangos katina, handley scott, harrison robin, heath cheryl, hedges megan, hedges nigel, hudson raelene, jacovou daniel, katrotsos george, kuk maggie, leung tracy, lightfoot wendy, mcmahon nina, taylor stephen, vassiliou litsa, liddelow e., anderson james h., boardman thomas h., rule thomas, whitfield j.p., griffiths r.h., scales e., boyle j.b., ryan owen w., eddy h.m., millar royal r., lester russel a., donoghue r., bracher a. lloyd (acting principle), o’brien john d., moller henry r., monahan t.v., barclay robert l., somerville albert v., magee frank c. (acting principle), wallis keith, laing allan i., verso ron (acting principle), wood moira (acting principle), tonkin ernest, share wallace (acting principle), howie rex, harding malcolm (acting principle), crowe brian, schmidt david (acting principle), lynch deidre (acting principle), o’keeffe leo, brierley bob, brierley marjorie, couper isabel, couper peter, lindsay janine, lynch deidre, selboskar phyl, stehle siggy, webster jennifer -
Glen Eira Historical Society
Plan - Caulfield State School No. 773
... George Johnston and Frank Dalby Davidson. Caulfield Primary ...Three documents about this school covering: A 20 page booklet, (2 copies) of historical notes on Caulfield Primary School, dated November, 1977 compiled by A. H. Long to commemorate 100 years of the school at the Glen Huntly Road. Site. Contains brief history from 1859 to 1977, and copies of related. Correspondence, plans, photos and documents. A4 page pamphlet(3 copies) for the 1988 past pupils reunion at Caulfield. Primary School. Contains the program of events and a list of school principals. Unattributed hand written note, dated 27/03/1988. Mentioning former pupils, now authors George Johnston and Frank Dalby Davidson.caulfield primary school, burke cecilia., watts thos, bayston henry, webb frederick g. h. lampriere william. pennington harold. long a h., barry thomas m., striely e m., chambers john, stephen john wilber force, harriman b.c., white john e, francis richard, wood robert, lampe herman e. j f, webb james w., barry thomas m, bayston henry, vre james a, smith thomas, lampe hermann e. j. f., clarkson george, white john e, taylor ralph h.w, williamson edward. f, barclay samuel, almond william t., lennie andrew p.s., kirmsse carl e., elliott eddy, rogers arthur d, shaw edgar f, liston william p, haley alfred i, kelly michael j, potter arthur h., miller robert, james fred., mcfadyen j, moran t., bridges r.g., mcgowan j. i, painter h., beatty i, barnes c, riach j, gilbert j, brown j, wilson kenneth, ritchie elma, willetts gertie, young bess, cedar street, poplar street, glen huntly road., olive street, caulfield., caulfield common school, williamson charles, moran t., mcgowan j. i., campbell jack (mayor), macphee ian (mp), tanner ted (mla), urguart karen, forryan julie, watts kristie, t.satsakis ritsa, soos gj., schools, primary schools, teachers, independent schools, victorian style, gables, plans, landscape planning, financial documents, sewerage and sanitation, correspondence, special certificate for regular attendance, james fred, johnstone george, davidson dalby -
Glen Eira Historical Society
Document - Reeves, Walter
2 items, which may be related, about old Elsternwick: 1/A roneod copy of Recollections of Walter Reeves: gives notes on local identities, their business’, Caulfield State School, places of interest and events that took place in the area; undated and apparently summarised by an un-named other person from Mr Reeves' recollections. 2/A hand written list taken from Rate Books 1864 of areas in dispute, including nine names of residents, between Caulfield and St Kilda, date and author unknown. No direct connection to Walter Reeves apparent but they are taped together.automobile, hebenstreit mr, shoobra road, butcher, glenhuntly road, henderson h mr, davis charles, hardware store, beddoe frank, horne street, shops, renown theatre, phoebe theatre, theatres, lepage phoebe, lepage jack, taylor ‘squizzie’, echuca terrace, edward street, hawthorn road, revees walter, dunn bros, cycle shop, cox bros, supermarkets, apps (undertakers), elsternwick men’s club, elsternwick trades club, johnston t., hayter george (painter and decorator), sargood frederick, cabmen, cabs, ‘ripponlea’, wilson dick, blacksmiths, orrong road, moran and cato, repco, downshire road, bullock (grocer), grocers, taylor’s liquor and wine saloon, bottleshops, biddle misses, schools, bliss mr, station master, elsternwick, bensonino mr, newsagents, caulfield, gas supply, point nepean road, rowney dick, trams, riddell’s paddock, football golf links, riddell john carre, rowan road, sports grounds, melville’s supermarket