Letter to the Leader Editor discussing the age and origin of the Batman Apple Tree1 page photocopybatman apple tree, isaac batey

"James Pinkerton, described by fellow settler Isaac Batey as ‘a fine old Scotish [sic] gentleman’, and his wife Margaret established ‘Chamois Ponds’ on Kororoit Creek in the Keilor district in 1840.44 After a fire in 1848, the Pinkerton family moved further west to a holding called Yaloke, on the Werribee River in the Melton district.45 Today, the Surbiton Park water treatment plant operates on part of the Yaloke run. The Pinkerton family is remembered in Melton in part due to the historic graves of the original settler, Margaret Pinkerton, and four of her grandchildren, which were marked by a memorial cairn in 1931. Changes to sewage flood zoning in the area in the 1990s necessitated that these burials be relocated. Members of the Melton & District Historical Society oversaw a project to relocate the Pinkerton graves and cairn 200 metres from their original site to their current resting place at Mount Cottrell. This relocation ceremony took place on 8 November 1992, with the participation of local school students and with Pinkerton descendants playing a central role. This occasion also marked the opening of the Pinkerton Forest Project, which saw 50 hectares of degraded woodland in Surbiton Park protected for regeneration".Photograph of Jame Pinkerton featured in the the Telegraphlocal identities, pioneer families