Victorian Railways and Marion Steam Shovels

The Victorian Railways possessed a Marion Steam Shovel which they were using in 1909 on such projects as the regrading of the railway line at the Armadale Station, the purpose of which was to allow the Malvern-Prahran tram line an uninterrupted crossing above the railway at High-street. (1).  The machine was manufactured by the Marion Steam Shovel Company of Ohio, U.S.A., (2) and imported in 1907, and assembled at the Newport Railway Workshops (3). 

Caption: Regrading the Gippsland line at Toorak, Armadale and Malvern: the Marion Steam Shovel at work.

The Australasian, August 7, 1909 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/139684685

The Australasian newspaper in August 1909 had the following report, describing how the Steam Shovel worked, as well as the photograph above -

The Marion steam-shovel has recently been put to work on the regrading of the line at the Armadale station. It is the only one of the kind in Victoria, and the railway authorities state that it is giving perfect satisfaction. Excavating is effected by means of a bucket or scoop attached to a swinging arm. The bucket, after being lowered, is raided by powerful gearing, and at each lift a cubic yard of material is scraped off the face of the cutting. It is then swung round, so as to empty its load into the ballast waggons. When everything within reach has been cut away, a short length of portable track is laid in front of the shovel, along which it moves by its own mechanism, until it is in a position to make another start. Fifty waggons, holding six tons apiece, are being filled daily. The total weight would equal that of two average goods trains, but, working in a less restricted space, the machine could considerably increase this output. Providing it is not solid rock, the kind of material to be excavated does not seem to make any difference. Whether loam, gravel, hard clay, or schist, the four great steel teeth of the bucket bite this off in mouthfuls of nearly a ton, and with no more apparent effort than if it were so much butter. Money and time are both saved by the shovel, as compared with the old slow method of ploughing and scraping, for the consumption of fuel is small, and the only other expenses are the wages of the two attendants. Some heavy excavating still remains to be done, but the work ought to be sufficiently advanced two months hence to enable the down trains to be run in the cutting. The girders for the High street bridge are ready for placing in position, and this roadway, which will also carry the Malvern tramway over the railway, should be ready for traffic in November. An island platform is being built at the new station. and passengers will have access to this by subways (4). 

Marion Steam Shovel. Victorian Railways photographer.

State Library of Victoria Image H1076/224C http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4192279

By 1911, Melbourne's rail network was in need of expansion, as The Herald in July 1913 reported - 

Standing on Prince's Bridge, and looking eastwards, on a moonlit night one may see one of the most fascinating sights in the city, the railway grid-iron over which the inward and outward bound suburban and country trains travel towards or away from each other under the signal bridges. Two pairs of lines connect the city with suburban stations on either side of Caulfield and around, and run on to the Gippsland line and branches to Wonthaggi, and also connect with the line that skirts the Bay and finds its terminal point at Mornington. In short, these two roads represent two of the important arteries of the railway system. Both goods and passenger traffic has increased rapidly of late, and it became necessary to devise means of relieving the congestion. So the duplication of the Caulfleld line was decided upon, and the actual work was put in hand in December, 1911 (5). 

The cost of the project was estimated to be £300,000 and the work was expected to have been completed at the end of 1914 (6). It was actually finished in December 1915, apart from a the new station building at South Yarra and the island platform at Caulfield. It also ran £100,000 over budget (7).  One of the end results of the work was  all the level crossings between South Yarra and Caulfield stations, were abolished (8). 

The Herald report continued with this description of the  project - 

The scheme was and is the duplication of the line from South Yarra to Caulfield by providing

up and down "fast" roads and up and down "slow" roads. The "fast" roads for country, goods, quick suburban, and race traffic, the "slow" roads for trains, with suburban passengers, stopping at

all stations. 

An important part of the scheme has been the reduction of the existing steep grades - the steepest being from 1 in 44 to 1 in 63. It was necessary to drop the lines from South Yarra to Malvern, thus doing away with level crossings, and to provide overhead bridges at some crossings. At Hawthorn the line has been, or will be dropped 12ft, at Toorak 13ft. 6in., and at Malvern 9ft. The greatest depth will be 18ft. below present level. On the other hand, the dip between Malvern and Caulfield is to be dealt with by the construction of an embankment, over which the trains will pass. Many bridges are in course of erection, and before the duplication could be entered upon land had to be purchased and expensive villas removed (9). 

One of these expensive villas was the home of Carlo Catani, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department. His house was at 4 Elm Grove, Armadale. I have written about this here.

In July 1912, it was reported that the Railway Commissioners had 

purchased a second "Marion" steam shovel for use on the Caulfield line duplication and regrading works, and at other large excavation undertakings, and it is anticipated that the saving, which will be effected will be sufficient to cover the cost of the machine. The new machine arrived from New York in the steamer Star of Australia on Monday last, and the work of assembling the parts will be taken in hand at Newport workshops in the course of a few days (10).  The cost of the  Steam Shovel was  £3200 (11). 

At the end of October 1912,  The Argus reported on the working of the Steam Shovel -

The new Marion steam shovel purchased by the Railways department, is at present working at the Toorak station. This is the model (No. 50) that the department put into commission several years ago, but in detail it has been improved upon. The Marion is of the same type as the Bucyrus shovels, that have done such good work at Panama. The new machine has a bucket capacity of two cubic yards. In a shift of eight hours 1,000 tons can be loaded on a ballast train, but in a speed trial 180 tons have been excavated in an hour. This pace, however, cannot be kept up, for it makes no allowance for shifting the shovel. The motive power consists of a hoisting engine, and of an auxiliary engine, for pushing the spoon and bucket into the material to be excavated. As the Marion can excavate at a height of 23ft., and at a depth of 3ft. below the rails, in both cases with a working radius of 22ft., it will be seen that it has great flexibility. When it has scooped up everything within range an 11ft. length of rail is laid. The shovel propels itself along this, and is then ready to remove another semi-circular section of material, measuring 23ft. across, and, if necessary, 26ft. in thickness. (12). 

I actually own a postcard of this steam shovel, shown below, pictured at the Newport Railway Workshops.

Marion Steam Shovel at the Newport Workshop  

Back of the postcard 

Dear Katie, I trust you'll accept this as an answer to your nice letter rec'd this week. No news to make a lengthy one so sending this. Its a product of Charlie's shop - both card and engine. Was glad to get Mary's today. We'll be glad to see Dada if he comes to town. Monday is a holiday. I'm thinking of going to Brighton Sun (?)  and coming home Monday. It will be a nice spell. We hope anniversary + picnic pass off OK + that good weather prevails. With love ?

It appears the postcard was sent to Katie by her brother. The card was said to be a product of Charlie's shop, along with the engine. I am unsure what this means, but maybe Charlie worked at the Newport Workshops; or did he take the photograph and produced the postcard?  I cannot tell you. 

What was the fate of the Marion Steam Shovel? Again, I cannot tell you. There is a short article about it on Peter Vincent's website, which focusses on Victorian Railway rolling stock,   http://www.pjv101.net/cd/pages/c215m.htm

Another Marion Steam Shovel was imported in 1913 by the Commonwealth Railways  to work on the Trans-Australian Railway at Port Augusta, read about it here https://www.comrails.com/cr_locos/r_marion.html

The Marion Steam Shovel. Victorian Railways photographer. 

It appears the machine is no longer in use. It may possibly have been put aside  during the First World War and manpower and resources directed elsewhere. 

State Library of Victoria Image H1076/38E http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4192399

Acknowledgment

My research colleague, Isaac Hermann, actually found the postcard for me. Thank you!

Trove - I have created a short list of articles on the Marion Steam Shovel, access it here.

Footnotes

(1) The Argus, August 18, 1909, see here. 

(2) More on the Company here https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Marion_Steam_Shovel_Company

(3) Peter Vincent's website  http://www.pjv101.net/  Steam Shovel article here   http://www.pjv101.net/cd/pages/c215m.htm  Also Victorian Railways to '62 by Leo J.  Harrigan (Victorian Railways, 1962)  confirms that the Victorian Railways purchased two Marion Steam Shovels between 1907 and 1914. 

(4) The Australasian, August 7, 1909, see here.  

(5) The Herald, July 15, 1913, see here.

(6) The Herald, July 15, 1913, see here. 

(7) The Argus, January 12, 1916, see here; The Argus, October 17, 1914, see here. 

(8) The Argus, April 14, 1915, see here. 

(9) The Herald, July 15, 1913, see here.

(10) The Age, July 25, 1912, see here. 

(11) The Age, December 13, 1912, see here. 

(12) The Age, October 31, 1912, see here. 

The property known as Mayune, then Mayfield, Cranbourne and the Ruffy Brothers

This post is the history of the squatting run, Mayune, at Cranbourne starting with the arrival of the Ruffy Brothers in the 1830s. This is a companion piece to a post on another Cranbourne property, Ravenhurst, part of the Garem Gam run, which you can read here.

The Ruffy Brothers were some of the earliest European settlers in the Cranbourne area. They squatted on the Tomaque run, raising sheep, after having arrived from Tasmania in 1836 (1). Tomaque was situated between Dandenong and Cranbourne. The brothers held Tomaque until 1850.  In 1840 they also took up the Mayune Run of 32,000 acres.  Mayune was situated around what is now the town of Cranbourne. The Brothers held Mayune collectively, until Frederick took over the lease from 1845 to 1850; it was then taken over by John Crewe, more of whom later (2).  The Ruffy brothers also owned the Cranbourne Inn, which some suggest was the original source of the name of the town of Cranbourne (3). Cranbourne is a town in Berkshire, England.

Squatting Runs, Western Port District.

Click on image to enlarge.

Image: The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson 

Who were the Ruffy brothers? They were the sons of William Joseph Ruffy and Louisa Ann Kingham who had married at St Martin in the Fields in Westminster in London on May 15 1799 (4). William died on November 30, 1836 (incorrectly noted as the 27th, below) and his obituary tells us more about the family -
William Joseph Ruffy, who died on the 27th ult. in his 61st year, at his son's farm on the Tamar, shall not descend into the grave, without something beyond a naked record of that event. Many of us remember his extensive and eminent press, in Budge row, London, whence issued standard and periodical works of chaste execution and proverbial correctness. In the beginning of the present century, he originated the well known Farmer's Journal; and which, often alone and unsupported, he continued to edit and manage, for nearly 30 years, with a devoted and successful ambition of extending the science of agriculture, with due advocacy of the claims and interests of British farmers, and with a degree of general ability, never distracted from his singleness of purpose by party, that gained to him their universal esteem, and to his journal great circulation. Having disposed of the copyright of it, and of his press; and preceded a few months by the greater part of his family, he bade adieu forever to Britain, to spend here with them, the remainder of a life always dedicated to the strictest performance of every social, moral and religious duty. And, as he was well read - had mixed much with good society - had an ample fund of anecdote and observation, it need scarcely be added that, with a flow of language, at once copious and polished, he was a delightful companion; while his friendship was endeared to those who enjoyed the happiness of it, by his great and modest worth. He has left a widow with nine sons 

and daughters (5). 

There were nine children living in 1836, when William died, however there were actually twelve children, but three had died as infants. There is more about the family in footnote 6.  We are concentrating on the five sons who lived at Western Port - Thomas (1800 - 1882), William James (1802 - 1884), Frederick (1804 - 1872), Henry (1808 - 1847), and Arthur Wiggett (1817 - 1893). Of the five sons who came to Cranbourne - Henry died while the brothers where at Tomaque.

Death notice of Henry Ruffy

Port Philip Gazette, January 30, 1847, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223151763

Thomas had married Elizabeth Lowe in January 1832 in Mountnessing, Essex in England and they had a daughter, Elizabeth Louisa, who was baptised in January 1834, also in Mountnessing. Elizabeth and her daughter don't appear to have come to Australia and in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 English Census they were living with her brother, William Lowe, who was a surgeon. (7). 

William married Janet Stewart in 1867, they did not have children. Arthur married Caroline Sawtell in 1852. She was the daughter of Edwin Sawtell. I presume that this is the same Edwin Sawtell, after whom Sawtell's Inlet or Creek in Tooradin is named. Sawtell was a storekeeper who arrived in Melbourne in 1838. Dr Niel Gunson noted in his book, The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire says that it was likely that Sawtell had land in the area and that Thomas Rutherford, after whom Rutherford Inlet is named, managed his run. Sawtell died in 1892 at the age of 94. Arthur and Caroline, had two children -  the eldest Frederick lived only 15 months (December 1852 - 1854). Their other son, Arthur Edwin Sawtell Ruffy, was born in 1861, and Caroline sadly died giving birth to him (8).  I cannot find any record that the two other Ruffy brothers married, nor can I find any information as to what happened to little Arthur Edwin Sawtell Ruffy. 

George Henry Haydon's sketch of a squatter's hut, c.1846. 

The man on the right resembles Frederick Ruffy.

Image - Scenes in the Bush, reproduced in The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire

By the 1850s the Ruffy Brothers had moved on and had taken up leases on various runs around Seymour, Avenel, Longwood and Molesworth, and since the township of Ruffy is in the centre of these runs then presumably it is named after them (9).  Frederick Ruffy was at one time (from 1860-62) the licensee of the Royal Mail Hotel in Avenel (10).  There are accounts of the Ruffy Brothers and other early squatters in the novel The Australian Emigrant : a rambling story containing as much fact as fiction by George Henry Haydon. Dr Gunson noted that Haydon spent New Years Day in 1845 with the Ruffy Brothers at Mayune, and sketched them and their hut (11).  Haydon himself was an adventurer, who arrived in Melbourne in 1840 and returned to England in 1845. During this time he spent six months on French Island chopping mangroves and reducing them to ash for use in salt making, he also sold illustrations to the news papers (12). 

Frederick Ruffy, c. 1846, by George Henry Haydon. 

Image - Scenes in the Bush, reproduced in The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire

Back to Mayune, which was next to the Garem Gam run; a property of 3,200 acres (1, 300 hectares) taken up by James Bathe and T.J Perry in 1840. Dr Niel Gunson explains the further development of these properties - 

The realignments of Mayune and Garem Gam were also complicated. Dr Bathe's Garem Gam appears to have been subdivided in 1845 and the eastern station was known as Ravenhurst. In the same year, the lease for the reduced Mayune was transferred to Fred Ruffy.  Ravenhurst was held by John Crewe until his death in 1850 shortly after acquiring the Ruffy station. From 1849, Crewe had also leased  the original Garem Gam run, in conjunction with Sarah O'Shea and a non-resident partner named Brown.  In October 1850, Ravenhurst was transferred to Benjamin Rossiter and Maurice Feehan who leased the whole of Garem Gam with Mrs O'Shea from 1851, thus restoring the original pattern. The lease for Mayune was transferred to Alexander Cameron in March 1851 by John Crewe's widow, Eliza (13). 

I have written about the Ravenhurst property, here and about the Rossiter family, here. 

 As Dr Gunson noted, John Crewe acquired Mayune run from Frederick Ruffy in 1850 just before he (Crewe) died in 1850 at the age of 31 and that Crewe’s widow, Eliza, then took over the lease of the property which was then acquired by Alexander Cameron in 1851. Who were the Crewes?  We can get an idea of the social status of the family by John and Eliza's marriage notice and Eliza's death notice (see below). According to these notices John was the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Crewe of Madras and also the nephew of Lord Crewe of Crewe Hall, Cheshire. 

The marriage notice of John Crewe and Eliza Baynton 

Port Phillip Patriot March 30 1847 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226516513

Eliza Crewe's death notice, 1868. 

The Australasian, March 21, 1868. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/137571245

Crewe Hall (pictured below)  is a Grade 1 listed mansion built in the first half of the 1600s for Sir Randolph Crewe. The location has been the seat of the Crewe family since the 12th or 13th century. It is now a hotel. Clearly,  John Crewe came from illustrious forebears (14).

Crewe Hall in 1710, the family seat of John Crewe. The Crewe's house on the Mayune property would have none of the comfort or glamour of this building.

Artist Unknown - Hinchliffe E. 'Barthomley: In Letters from a Former Rector to his Eldest Son' (Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans; 1856), facing p. 324. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crewe_Hall_engraving.jpg

Eliza Crewe died in 1868 at the age of 44. She was the daughter of Thomas Baynton and Eliza Arabella Smith. Thomas Baynton was the brother of Zillah Baynton who was married to Benjamin Rossiter, who took over the Ravenhurst property from Crewe after his death. You can read more about the Baynton family in my post on the Rossiters, here.

Alexander Cameron (1814 - 1881) took over the Mayune lease from  Eliza Crewe in 1851 as we said. At later land sales he purchased 592 acres, the Pre-emptive Right, on the corner of what is now Cameron Street and the South Gippsland Highway and renamed renamed the property Mayfield. Dr  Gunson considers that Alexander Cameron was in many ways, the 'father' of modern Cranbourne. Like most Scots settlers he valued the services of an industrious tenantry and gathered a community about him which formed the nucleus of the future town (15).  One of his ‘industrious tenants’ a shepherd named James Mackay is said to be responsible for the name of Clyde.  Dr Gunson says that the watercourse that was the boundary between the Mayune run and the Garem Gam  run was named Clyde creek as MacKay had ‘cut the name on a tree whilst watering sheep’ and the name was used for the creek and then the town (16).

Detail from the Cranbourne Parish Plan, showing some of Alexander Cameron's land and the

Mayfield pre-emptive right of 592 acres. The New Holland Factory and the Cranbourne Library, which we talk about later, was on 114 acres, presumably part of Lots 19, 20  and 21.

Click on image to enlarge.

Cranbourne, County of Mornington. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/91639

Alexander Cameron was a trustee of the Presbyterian Church in Cranbourne which opened in May 1860, he was Cranbourne Cemetery Trustee, a member of the Cranbourne Road Board from 1863 to 1867. Alexander had been one of the original petitioners to have the Road Board established which happened on June 19, 1860.  He married Margaret Donaldson (1822-1895), in 1848 and they had seven children (17). 

Marriage notice of Alexander Cameron and Margaret Donaldson

The Argus, April 7, 1848, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4763735

Cameron was also one of the first people to bring to a wider public the discovery of the Cranbourne meteorites. The first meteorite was discovered by William MacKay, who assumed that it was part of an iron deposit. He had made it into a horse shoe and it was displayed  at the Melbourne Exhibition of 1854.  In 1860 Cameron took the horse shoe to Melbourne to a conference to convince the powers that be that Cranbourne should have  a railway line due to the commercial possibilities of this iron deposit.  At the conference the Town Clerk of Melbourne, E.G Fitzgibbon,  thought that this was not iron but a meteorite and he then presented his findings to the Royal Society and this put the Cranbourne Meteorites on the world stage with interest from the British Museum and the Emperor of Austria!  As a matter of interest, Cranbourne would have to wait until 1888 -  another 28 years for a railway (18). 

After Alexander Cameron (who incidentally gave his name to Cameron Street) the land went to his son Alexander junior (c.1850 - 1920). Alexander was also a Councillor of the Cranbourne Shire from 1881 to 1898 and Shire President 1883-84, 1891, 1892 and 1893. Dr Gunson says that Cameron along with George Poole and Christopher Moody were strong personalities who dominated the Council.  In 1884, it was reported that six out the eight Councillors refused to sit under the Presidence of the present Chairman due to his obstructiveness and prevention of business (19). 

Alexander Cameron, junior, moved to Mayfield in 1883 - he was described as an ‘extraordinary speculator’ and he rented at one time  nearly every rentable property in the Cranbourne, Tooradin and Koo Wee Rup area, all up he had 5,000 acres in 1896 plus land belonging to his brother. On the Mayfield property he had nine studs of horses, cattle and sheep and also grew barley, oats and flax. Not surprisingly Cameron was also instrumental in establishing the Cranbourne Sale Yards – although arguments went on from 1883 to 1889 as to where they should be located - the rear of the Shire Offices was the eventual location and they held their first sale January 1890.  In spite of what seem liked a profitable business, in 1889 Cameron was forced to mortgage the estate and went to the Collie district in WA, where he died in 1920. (20).

After Cameron left, the property was leased to various people  - Charles Cochrane, James Downey, Edward Henty, John Monohan to name a few until  around 1932 when the estate was sold to a Henry Creswick, who I believe was responsible for sub-dividing the land into smaller parcels as by this time it was getting hard to trace the land owners in the Cranbourne Shire Rate Books. There is some connection between the name Creswick and the Melbourne Hunt Club, which was just to the north of the Cranbourne Library site - haven't quite worked this connection out yet - but the Hunt Club moved to Cranbourne in 1929.  Some of the Mayfield property (the Pre-emptive Right section) had already been sold to George Hope, in 1912,  who established his model dairy  having moved from Kooyong Road in Caulfield. You can read about this here.

The Sperry New Holland building at Cranbourne, c. 1992. 

Cameron Street is to the left. You can see the railway line and the spur line to the shed as well. 

Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries

We now have a bit of a gap in ownership of the land, so lets fast forward to 1980 when the Sperry New Holland era started. New Holland had commenced operations in Victoria at Dandenong in 1955. They manufactured agricultural equipment including hay balers and hay bale elevators.  In 1980, they purchased a 114 acre (46 hectare) site - around ten times the size of their Dandenong operations - in Cranbourne-Berwick Road, Cranbourne. The building of 269,000 sq ft facility with rail loading dock, fully computerised systems (including manufacturing) entirely electronic office using the very latest equipment was opened in 1982 (21). Initially there were over 400 people employed  but a recession hit within 18 months and there were redundancies and layoffs. In 1985, Sperry New Holland was taken over by the Ford Motor Company, but continued producing machinery and also made parts for car manufacturers. The information in this paragraph comes from New Holland in Australia 1945 - 1987 written by Ray Smith, who held various roles in the New Holland Company from 1955 until he retired as the Marketing Director in 1991. You can read it here.

These are New Holland harvesters, made in Cranbourne, 

at the Cranbourne Shire 1988 Bi-Centenary parade. 

Photographer unknown.

The factory had its own spur line from the main South Gippsland Railway line. The spur line went into what is now the The Shed, a skate board facility,  so  I presume it was used a for despatch. If you are interested in railway infrastructure then there are some photographs of the old line on the Vicsig.net website, here.

The Ford  New Holland factory closed down around 1992  as  operations were shifted to New South Wales and sadly,  workers were made redundant. The entire site was sold to the Cranbourne Shire for five million dollars. The Casey Cardinia Library Corporation moved into the Administration building in 1996 and the Cranbourne Library (where I used to work) also opened there in 1996. The main factory building is now the Terry Vickerman Indoor Sports Centre.

Terry Vickerman was the Cranbourne Shire Chief Executive for 22 years until he retired in December 1994, after the Council amalgamations. He was responsible for the purchase of the building, which was not without its critics. There was a report in the Cranbourne Sun of March 16, 1992  about the acquisition (see below). The Shire of Cranbourne Ratepayers and Residents Association threatened to stand candidates against the sitting councillors who had voted for the purchase - the gist of the complaints against the purchase were that the Council had not provided enough information on the transaction and that residents outside of the Cranbourne township would have to pay for the site but would obtain no benefit from it.

Cranbourne Sun March 16, 1992. 

It's a scan of a photocopy, so not super clear but if you click on the photo you can enlarge it and read it.

It depended on who you asked if the cost of the site at five million dollars was reasonable or not.  It does appear that many ratepayers were unhappy with not only the initial purchase price but with the money required to convert it to its new purpose - an estimated ten million dollars. However, according to a report in Hansard on May 3, 1994, the local member Gary Rowe (Liberal member for the Legislative Assembly seat of Cranbourne from 1992 to 2002) considered that the five million dollars was a  'bargain basement ' price.

Hansard May 3, 1994. Access Mr Rowe's full speech here.

This was in the Cranbourne Sun of June 14, 1994 - the artist's impression of what would become of the Sperry New Holland site -  Cranbourne City Council's municipal leisure, culture and entertainment complex. The site will spread over  a massive 65 acres. Planned facilities will include a huge indoor sports centre, an entertainment centre, an aquatic centre, a cultural centre incorporating a library as well as parklands and a lake.  It didn't all happen!

Over all - whether the artist's impression did or did not eventuate or  whether the five million dollars purchase price was a waste of tax payers money or a bargain - nearly 30 years on the site and its associated buildings are now a real asset to not only the Cranbourne community but further afield - there is the Cranbourne Library, the incredibly busy Casey Indoor Leisure Complex (Terry Vickerman Centre),  The Shed Skatepark, The Factory Rehearsal Centre for the Arts, the Casey RACE (Casey Recreation and Aquatic Centre) and the  Balla Balla Centre. The Ruffy Brothers and Alexander Cameron would be shaking their heads in amazement if they could come back to today and see how their Mayune and Mayfield properties had changed.

Footnotes

(1) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire  (F.W. Cheshire, 1968), p. 19.

(2) Billis, R.V. & Kenyon, A.S Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip (Stockland Press, 1974); Gunson, op. cit, p. 36; 

(3) Gunson, op. cit, p. 19.

(4) Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 on Ancestry.com. 

(5) Hobart Town Courier, December 16, 1836, see here.

(6) William Joseph Ruffy and Louisa Ann Kingham,  married at St Martin in the Fields in Westminster in London on May 15 1799. William died on November 30, 1836;  Louisa Ruffy died in Campbell Town on February 13, 1859 aged 79. They had the following children, all born in England  - Thomas (1800 - died 1882 at Seymour); William James (1802 - died 1884 at Seymour. Married Janet Stewart in 1867; she died 1899 aged 84);  Frederick (1804 - died 1872 at Avenel); John (1805-?);  Henry (1808 - died 1847 at Cranbourne); Harriett Kingham (1808 - died 1881 at Hampstead, England. Married George Anstey in 1837); Louisa Mary (1811 - died 1880 at Hampstead, England. Married George Scott in 1837); Emily (1813-1815); Arthur Wiggett (1817 - died 1893 at Prahran. Married Caroline Sawtell in 1852); Jane (1819 - died 1894 at Brighton. Married William Hay in 1844); Francisca Dorothea (1824 - died 1910 at South Yarra. Married Edward Atkins in 1867)

(7) Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1937 and Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1921 - Ancestry.com. The English Census is also from Ancestry.com

(8) Gunson, op. cit., p. 37; Billis, R.V. & Kenyon, A.S., op. cit, p. 137; Family notices in the newspapers - see my Trove list, here; Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages. 

(9) Billis, R.V. & Kenyon, A.S., op. cit. 

(10) Royal Mail Hotel, National Trust citation, Victorian Heritage Database http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/search/nattrust_result_detail/69755

(11) Gunson, op. cit., p. 42.

(12) George Henry Haydon (1822-1891) https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/haydon-george-henry-3735

(13) Gunson, op. cit., p. 36.

(14) Crewe Hall https://www.crewehallcheshire.co.uk/about-us/history-of-crewe-hall/ and https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000124?section=official-list-entry

(15) Gunson, op. cit., p. 52.

(16) Gunson, op. cit., p. 58.

(17) Gunson, op. cit., passim. Children of Alexander Cameron and Margaret Donaldson - Alexander (c. 1850); Jessie (c. 1851); James (1854); May Margaret (1856); Mary Anne (1859);  Flora Donaldson (1860); Margaret Anstruther (1864) [Source - Early Settlers of the Casey Cardinia Region. Narre Warren & District Family History Group, 2010]

(18) Gunson, op. cit., p. 63-64.

(19) Gunson, op. cit., p. 93.

(20) Gunson, op. cit., p. 119, 120 and 155.

(21) Smith, Ray New Holland in Australia 1945 - 1987 (Sperry New Holland, 1989), see here. 

Some of the information in this post, which I wrote and researched, has appeared in posts on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past.