The young lady in the photograph is Sophia Alice Victoria Benzley who was born on 16th December 1974 at The Gap and died in Carlton 0n 12 December 1956 at Sandringham. At the age of twenty five she married Norman Henry Hallo in 1897 at Carlton. The couple had eight children. They were Hilda b. 1899, Norman 1901 - 1979, Olive 1903 - 1958, Howard b.1905, Thelma b. 1907, Leonard b. 1911, Beryl b. 1913 and Constance b. 1916. The Benzley family acquired land and settled in Sunbury in the mid 1800s. Later generations of the family lived at 7 Barkly Street opposite the former Sunbury State School and had a little shop. The Benzley family were farmers and business people who settled in Sunbury from the 1850s onwards.A sepia studio photograph with a cream border of a young lady taken in the late years of the 19th century.benzley family, sophia alice victoria benzley

The lady in the photograph is Ethel Pringle, who was the youngest daughter of Jacob and Amelia Benzley. The Benzley family were early vingerons and business people in Sunbury. A copy of a black and white studio photograph of a fashionably dressed lady seated on a bench and holding a folded umbrella. A hand written message is in the bottom RH corner of the photograph. MUCH LOVE/ ETHELethel pringle

William Alfred Benzley and his wife Mary are the couple in the photograph. William Alfred was the son of Jacob and Amelia Benzley who were early business people and vignerons in Sunbury. William was the son of Albrecht Rudolph Alfred Bonzil, who had arrived in Australia from Switzerland. Some time after arriving in Australia he must have Anglicised the family name to Benzley.The Benzley family were one of many families who helped to establish the Wine Industry in Sunbury during the nineteenth century. Some of those families were from the Germanic provinces in Europe.A copy of a sepia studio photograph with a light blue border, is of a well-dressed couple. The man dressed in a tailored suit is seated and the lady is dressed in clothes fashionable in the first decade of the twentieth century is standing next to the man.william alfred benzley, amelia benzley, vineyards, sunbury