On November 3, 1879 G. W. Robinson, C.E., Surveyor completed this plan of a subdivision of land owned by Charles Souter of the Gipplsland Hotel, for the new township of Beaconsfield.
The sale of the land at what was called East Berwick was scheduled to take place on December 6, 1879. The advertisment for the sale is shown below. It included the Gippsland Hotel and 44 acres, plus 36 allotments of land varying in size from half an acre to 2 acres, near the new railway station; 10 allotments of two to five acres and one block of 35 acres and one of 60 acres. For some reason this sale did not take place and another sale was scheduled for January 10, 1880.
The land was advertised again this time the auction was to be held on January 7, 1880. An almost identical advertisement as the one above, appeared in the papers, including the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of January 7, 1880, which you can see here and in footnote 1.
I am unsure if the January 1880 sale took place and only some blocks were sold, or if the sale did not take place. However, Mr Robinson's subdivision plan did not go to waste and the land was advertised again to be auctioned on May 14, 1881 and as we saw, his 1879 plan was used in the advertising poster.
The May 14, 1881 auction used the original 1879 plan (the plan at the top of this post) which has 38 small blocks facing Woods Street and the Highway and 23 blocks east of what became Railway Avenue. This does not tally with the 1879 advertisement or the 1881 advertisement (below) which advertised the Hotel on 44 acres; 13 allotments of one half to 2 acres and 22 allotments of three to five acres. I feel that we can conclude that some of the block were sold in January 1880 and the May 1881 was held to sell the remaining allotments.
A report of the sale in the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of May 18, 1881, read it here, said that the auction sale by Mr J. B. Patterson at, Beaconsfield on Saturday was fairly successful, and altogether fifteen township lots in Beaconsfield close to the railway station were disposed of at satisfactory prices. The attendance at the sale was good, but was composed chiefly of local people, who did not seem disposed to buy, the purchasers being principally city people. There is little doubt but that, had a special train been chartered from Melbourne, it would have induced a large number of people to visit the locality, and, very likely, to become owners of some of the blocks offered. The lots varied in size from half-an-acre to one acre, and realised from £23 to £50 per block, or about £46 per acre. A genuine offer of £1750 was made for the Gippsland hotel, with paddocks, &c., adjoining, but was not accepted.
Of interest is the fact that sometime between January 1880 and May 1881 the name of the town changed from East Berwick (I have also seen it referred to as Little Berwick and Lower Beaconsfield) and became Beaconsfield, named for Benjamin Disraeli, the Earl of Beaconsfield. Disraeli was the British Prime Minister on two occasions in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880. On the subject of names it is also interesting that Souter Street on the subdivision plan is now called Beaconsfield Avenue. Beaconsfield Avenue was proclaimed on July 30, 1888 (2). The unnamed road next to Woods Street is Railway Avenue. A new Souter Street, which is to the right of Railway Avenue, was created at some later time, I presume in 1921 when the Beaconsfield Station Estate was sold (3).
Charles Souter, who owned the land that became the new township of Beaconsfield took over the Gippsland Hotel from the Bowman family, who had established the Hotel in 1855. The earliest date I can find of his ownership of the Hotel is 1869 (4). After he left the hotel he moved to Frankston. During his time there Charles became involved with the Community - he was elected to the Frankston Council and took an interest in the Mechanics' Institute, the Anglican Church and was also the Worshipful Master at the Frankston Masonic Lodge. The Souters left Frankston in November 1891 and at a farewell function held at the Pier Hotel, he was presented with a handsome illuminated address from the residents (5). Charles returned to the Beaconsfield region and lived at Norwood in Gembrook where he died on July 9, 1895 at only 65 years of age (6). His wife Sophie (nee Newland) died at Berwick on August 15, 1937 at the age of 96 (7).
G. W. Washington, C.E., Surveyor, who drew the plan was George Washington Robinson (1843 - 1928) He came to Narre Warren North in 1856 with his mother, Hannah, who had purchased 107 acres. George later named the property, Hillsley. George was a Civil Engineer and Surveyor and was the Shire Engineer and Secretary at the Shire of Berwick from 1876 to 1890 and then the Shire Engineer from 1894 to 1904 (8). He married Eliza Walton in 1867 and they had six children (9). Eliza's parents, Thomas and Eliza Walton, moved to Narre Warren in 1852 and built Holly Green. This property was sold to Sidney Webb in 1880, it was later renamed Brechin and is now the site of the Fountain Gate Shopping Centre (10).
Footnotes
(1) Sale advertisement for January 7, 1880 from the South Bourke & Mornington Journal
State Government Gazette August 3, 1888 page 2472, see here.
(3) Beaconsfield Station Estate sale was held on Saturday, April 30, 1921. The land had frontages to three main roads - Main Gippsland, Beaconsfield Avenue and Woods Street - all made roads. The other streets were Souter Street, Railway Avenue, Horner Street and Goff Street.
(4) The Hotel at Beaconsfield was called the Gippsland Hotel, established by David and Janet Bowman in 1855 on their Panty Gurn Gurn Run, on the Cardinia Creek, which they had acquired in 1853. David died in 1860 and Janet continued the hotel for some years. In 1861-62, Janet Bowman paid to have a 50 mile track cut from her Hotel to the Hughes Track which went to the Jordan Goldfields (around Wood's Point). The track was said to have cost £1500. Some said that Mrs Bowman cut the track so miners would go past her door however she maintained that she did it because the Government had announced that it would compensate people who provided tracks to the Goldfields. After much fighting, in 1878, the Government awarded her £300 (or £500 depending on sources) as compensation. As she wrote to the editor of The Age of November 26, 1877 (see here) you readily understand the expensive means and firm determination were required to accomplish a work the magnitude of which would have deterred most people from even attempting. The benefits at the time from the track were immense and more recently the advantage to selectors has been appreciated by that energetic body of men. Mrs Bowman, has been described as enterprising, courageous and a devout Presbyterian. Janet Bowman died in 1904, aged 93 having out lived six of her eight children. The Hotel is now called the Central Hotel and the existing building dates from 1928.
(5) The report of Charles Souter's farewell at the Pier Hotel in Frankston in 1891 can be read in the Mornington Standard of November 5, 1891, see here.
(6) Norwood was listed as Gembrook in Charles' death notice. Charles' Will (at the Public Records Office of Victoria) had Norwood at Upper Beaconsfield.
9) The information about G. W. Washington's arrival in the area and his marriage and children comes from Early settlers of the Casey-Cardinia district published by the Narre Warren & District Family History Group in 2010 and Early days of Berwick and its surrounding districts - Beaconsfield, Upper Beaconsfield, Harkaway, Narre Warren and Narre Warren North, complied by Norman Beaumont, James Curran and R.H Hughes (Berwick Pakenham Historical Society).
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