(Ms) Berres Hoddle Colville is a local Surrey Hills resident and is a descendant of Robert Hoddle. Robert Hoddle was the first Surveyor General of Victoria. He arrived in Australia in 1823 and was one of the very earliest surveyors to explore, measure and map large areas of this vast, varied and difficult countryside, in a burgeoning era of pastoral settlement. 1837 saw him appointed Surveyor in Charge of the Port Phillip District. This book is based firmly on substantial extracts from Hoddle's own diary and other writings. Includes black and white sketches, maps and colour pages.Robert Hoddle was the first Surveyor General of Victoria. He arrived in Australia in 1823 and was one of the very earliest surveyors to explore, measure and map large areas of this vast, varied and difficult countryside, in a burgeoning era of pastoral settlement. 1837 saw him appointed Surveyor in Charge of the Port Phillip District. This book is based firmly on substantial extracts from Hoddle's own diary and other writings. Includes black and white sketches, maps and colour pages.Front endpaper: SURREY HILLS HISTORICAL / SOCIETY / PURCHASED FROM / THE AUTHOR ON THE OCCASION / OF HER TALK ON ROBERT HODDLE / TO THIS SOCIETY ON 17-10-[20]05 Title page: signed by the author: Berres Hoddle Colville / 17 October 2005 /(mr) robert hoddle, surveyors, (ms) berres hoddle colville

This is an original Victorian Government document containing the printed version of 37 reports and letters regarding the building of the first Allansford bridge completed early in 1852. The correspondence dates from October 1850 to February 1852 and includes letters and reports from Melbourne Government employees such as Robert Hoddle, Chief Surveyor, David Lennox, Superintendent of Bridges and Lieutenant – Governor Charles La Trobe. The correspondence from local settlers included the names of William and John Allan, John Davidson and James Coulstock. The correspondence shows that some settlers in the Warrnambool/Port Fairy district wanted a portion of the Government allocated funds spent on the local roads and bridges in other locations. The 1852 Allansford bridge cost £480 and was replaced in 1870. This document has strong historical significance as it relates to one of the earliest State government works in the district and records the public imput into the decision.. It contains opinions and correspondence between a number of early settlers in the district at the time.Grey/blue paper document with black text. 21 pages plus 4 page index at back.allan's ford 1852, allansford bridge, allansford, history of allansford, warrnambool

Article about Robert Hoddle, his work as a surveyor in early Melbourne and the use of the 'chain' to measure distance.14 page article text and illus.melbourne history, robert hoddle

Reproductions of various transactions and reports dealing with the surveying history of Port Phillip, including letters, maps, illustrations, tables, and a detailed history of the surveying of Victoria.maps, b&w illustrations, b&w photographs, tablesvictorian history, port phillip, robert hoddle, monee monee creek, geelong, barwon river, werribee river

P/B., 144p., Ills., Map. Signed by JM Scurfield on frontispiece.robert hoddle

Hawthorn hedges are important reminders of Kangaroo Ground's Scottish heritage. They are Registered on the Victorian Heritage Register. They are "historically significant because the planting of hawthorn hedges reflects the adoption of Eurorpean farming techniques by the Kangaroo Ground population in the period following settlement and because the grid pattern of paddocks that the Hawthorn hedges define is very different to today's farm landscapes." Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p21 Hawthorn hedges bordering Kangaroo Ground’s gently rolling farmlands are important reminders of its Scottish heritage and are rare so close to Melbourne.1 As early as the 1840s newly arrived farmers from Scotland planted hawthorn hedges around their properties, to protect crops from the numerous kangaroos and wallabies. Many of these hedges survive today. These farmers had the good fortune to settle some of the most fertile land available for cropping in the Colony of Victoria. At that time the black volcanic soil could sustain an amazing two crops a year. By the mid 1850s, 500 acres (202ha) of wheat were growing in Kangaroo Ground. But the crops were threatened by kangaroos, which were so plentiful, that Surveyor-General, Robert Hoddle, named the district Kangaroo Ground in 1838. As post-and-rail fences proved inadequate barriers for the bounding kangaroos, the Scots planted hawthorn hedgerows as they had done in Scotland. Some also used the hedges to net birds, presumably for the table. Interestingly the farmers in the bordering townships of Panton Hill and Christmas Hills, did not plant hawthorn hedges around their properties. Perhaps it was because by the time they settled in the 1860s and 1870s most of the wildlife had been gunned down by residents.2 The canny Scots planted the hedges on public land outside their own farms, as the hedgerows could spread to about five yards (five m) in width. With this impenetrable barrier Kangaroo Ground’s industrious farmers flourished to gain the economic power that saw the Shire of Eltham governed from Kangaroo Ground for 79 years (1858-1937). The Scots jealously guarded their land, so hard to get in Scotland. That is why they refused to release any of it ‘for local roads to follow easier grades as was the case in surrounding districts where roads generally followed ridgelines or streams’.3 Instead the roads were built in accordance with the magnetic bearings of their first survey in 1847 whether that suited the steep topography or not. This could force traffic to diverge when wet through Greensborough and Diamond Creek. Until 1921, the Eltham-Yarra Glen Road beside Wellers Restaurant, ‘dipped down into the upper reaches of Stony Creek’.4 Later some corners were compulsorily cut for the increasing motor traffic. As late as the 1960s, corners were cut to form sweeping curves above and alongside the Kangaroo Ground Cemetery and opposite the Emergency Operations Centre. In the latter case, the farmers – understanding their hedgerows as important heritage – insisted upon their reinstatement to conform to the altered road alignment. Kangaroo Ground’s ancient manna gums also point to the district’s history and to that of the hedgerows. The Aboriginal people had transformed the original forests into grasslands with the fires they lit to attract kangaroos, (which the Scots were to exclude by planting hedgerows). But the Wurundjeri hunters left the gums (Eucalyptus vimminalis cygnetensis), on the grasslands as ‘stalking trees’ to hunt kangaroos. The hawthorn hedges in Kangaroo Ground were neglected for around 60 years from about the middle of the 20th century. Bushfires had created gaps and the hedgerows were not trimmed. Then in late 2005, local historian Mick Woiwod, formed a group to lobby the Nillumbik Shire to restore the hedges, which could last for many centuries. Some hedges in parts of Britain date back to AD 800.5 Although the original Scottish farmers have gone, the hedges are a reminder of when they flourished in the district, which has changed little in 150 years.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, eltham-yarra glen road, hawthorn hedgerow, kangaroo ground