Lyndhurst, part of the old Shire of Cranbourne, was a small township centred mainly on the Dandenong-Hastings Road, between Cranbourne and Dandenong. The town was proclaimed on February 18, 1861 and was named after Lord Lyndhurst (1772-1863), Lord Chancellor of England. There was for a time a Lyndhurst South, as Skye was known by that name from 1894 until 1964. A murder in the area in 1894 had brought unwelcome attention to Skye and local residents had the name changed. The suburb of Lynbrook, registered as a place name in January 2001, was developed on land which was originally part of Lyndhurst. (1).
Some of the first Europeans in the Lyndhurst area were the Wedge Brothers, Charles, Henry and John. They had arrived in Tasmania with their parents, Edward Davey and Lucy (nee King) Wedge. The family moved to Victoria in the 1830s and took up land at Werribee. Sadly, in May 1852 Edward, aged 76, Lucy, 64 and their daughter, Lucy, aged 45 were drowned when the Werribee River flooded. Another son, Richard, survived the flood. Edward was the brother of John Helder Wedge, a surveyor. (2)
Charles, Henry and John leased Banyan Waterholes or Ballymarang and also called Bangam (hence the name Bangholme) from around 1839. The run covered the area from around Dandenong to Frankston and was 42 square miles or 10,000 hectares. The held the land until 1852, when it was subdivided - Charles took the Banyan section and John and Henry the Ballymarang section. (3)
Charles married Fannie Bethia Wright on July 21, 1852 and died in Malvern on November 25, 1895 aged 86 (4). John married Mary Wedge Darke on May 29, 1867. Mary was the daughter of William Darke, the Government Surveyer of New South Wales. John died in Queensland on April 29, 1883, aged 74. They had a property called Johnswood at Lyndhurst and he was an original member of the Cranbourne Road Board, which was established in 1860 and an original Committee member of the Mornington Farmers' Society (5). Henry Wedge married Mercy Rossiter in 1852. You can read about the Rossiter family, here. Henry died on December 29, 1866 at the age of 47, at Ballymarang, the cause of death was 'measles and inflammation of the lungs' according to the death notice in the The Argus. (6). Richard had died in Sale on March 16, 1870, aged 56. (7).
This map shows Banyan Waterholes/Ballymarang and the the other squatting runs
around Western Port. Click on image to enlarge.
This map is taken from The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson,
published by the Shire of Cranbourne in 1968.
Other early squatters in the area were the Ruffy Brothers. The Ruffy Brothers squatted on the Tomaque run, after having arrived from Tasmania in 1836 (though some sources say they left Tasmania in March 1837). Tomaque was situated between Dandenong and Cranbourne. The brothers had Tomaque until 1850, however in the 1840s they also took up the Mayune Run of 32,000 acres. Mayune was situated around what is now the town of Cranbourne. I have written about the Ruffy Brothers, here.
Niel Gunson, in his book The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire notes that from the 1850s other settlers arrived in Lyndhurst. They included Alexander Norquay, Alexander Dunlop, George Bird, George and Frederick Hall (Hall Road was named after Frederick) , John Close, Donald and Alexander McClelland, George Howard, James Sime, John Donnelly, Richard Gray and Frederick Sparks. (8). Community facilities developed - the post office opened in January 1867 and closed in 1976. (9). In December 1854 an Anglican School opened at Lyndhurst, with 22 pupils on the roll. By 1861, the school population had increased to 86. A Catholic School, opened in 1856 in a fairly basic building, as the floor was made of sand, this school became the Lyndhurst Common School in 1865 and the Lyndhurst State School, No. 163, in 1873. It closed in March 1888. Another school at Lyndhurst operated from 1863 to 1869, closed for three years and then re-opened in 1873 as Lyndhurst No. 732. This school was known for a time as Bald Hill State School and closed on February 26, 1980. The school building is still there but is now residential. (10)
A report of the Lyndhurst School closure - from the Koo Wee Rup Sun, April 1, 1980, p. 8.
Casey Cardinia Libraries collection.
Use of the name Bald Hill School for Lyndhurst school.
The Argus July 26, 1866 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5768890
As is usual in most towns a hotel is established early on and around 1871 Richard Taylor (1825 - 1912) opened his hotel, Taylor’s Half Way House. Richard was born in England and after arriving in Victoria, he spent time on the golf fields and then working in Melbourne, after which -
he took up the land at Lyndhurst, comprising 156 acres, upon which he has since resided, and on which stands the familiar house of call. Mr Taylor found good brick clay on his property, and by his own energy he excavated a clay hole, and after getting some little assistance in moulding bricks, he built with his own hands the Half-way House, and built it well and faithfully too, the work taking him two years. This was in the early seventies, and Mr Taylor obtained a publican's licence which he retained until the time of his death. (11). The Hotel was demolished in the 1960s (12)
Taylor's Half-Way House Hotel
Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries
Richard had arrived in Victoria in 1854 and his wife wife Sidonia (c.1824-1865) and children Elizabeth (c.1852-1941, married Alexander Cairns in 1887) and Charles (c.1853-1857) arrived in 1857. Another three children were born in Victoria, Richard Charles (1858-1861), George Henry (1862-1907) and Walter (1865-1866). (13) The family, sadly is a typical example of the high infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate of the Victorian era - with little Charles dying the year he arrived in Victoria, little Richard dying at about 3 years old, little Walter dying at about one year old and their mother, Sidonia, dying the same year she gave birth to Walter.
An advertisement for the Half-Way House, 1877.
South Bourke and Mornington Journal September 12, 1877, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70010277
The Half-Way Hotel, taken in the early 1960s, when it was being used as a house.
Image: National Trust citation - https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/113052
Lyndhurst once had a Memorial Hall, built in 1921 and destroyed by fire on January 25, 1944. I have written about the Lyndhurst Memorial Hall, here. I have also researched all the Great War soldiers from Lyndhurst, you can read here. There is also a Presbyterian Church in Lyndhurst. The first mention I can find of it is 1886. I cannot find any reference to when it was officially opened or when the existing church was erected. I have created a list of articles on the Church on Trove; you can access it here.
For some people, the name Lyndhurst is synonymous with the ABC shortwave radio station. This was established in 1928 on the hill on the triangle of land formed by the intersection of the South Gippsland Highway and Hallam Road. As the Radio Heritage website notes -
This experimental transmitter was constructed by Post Office engineers and it emitted just 600 watts, usually on the 31 metre band frequency 9580 kHz. The broadcast callsign was VK3LR though when the transmitter was on the air with experimental transmissions, the callsign was VK3X.
The post continues - In 1934, a new and substantial building was erected on the same property at Lyndhurst to house the shortwave transmitter which was rebuilt for the occasion. On March 12, transmitter VLR was re-activated with a regular relay for outback areas using a composite program format from 3LO & 3AR.
It was in December 1936 that a regular bulletin of news in the French language was introduced for listeners in the French islands in the Pacific, and in December 1937, the experimental callsign, VK3LR was regularized to VLR.
Right at the end of the year 1939, shortwave VLR was taken into the inaugural service of “Australia Calling” and it continued in use with a relay of the programming of Radio Australia until the 10 kW VLG was inaugurated on June 21 1941. From this time onwards, VLR was in use only for the ABC National Service with programming for the benefit of isolated listeners in the outback areas of Australia...........the ABC shortwave service from VLR was declared redundant and it was closed at 1402 UTC on Friday June 12 1987, at the end of nearly 60 years of international on-air radio coverage. (14)
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Lyndhurst Station
Image: The Great Southern Railway: the illustrated history of the building of the line in South Gippsland by Keith Macrae Bowden (Australian Railway Historical Association, 1970).
Lyndhurst also had a Railway Station on the west side of Lyndhurst Road (also called Dandenong Hastings Road and Western Port Highway), near Bayliss Road, which opened October 1, 1888. It was on the Great Southern line that went all the way to Port Albert. The South Gippsland Railway line now stops at Cranbourne. I have written about this line, here. Passenger services beyond Dandenong ceased in June 1981 but goods services continued to operate. In 1992, the goods trains ceased and this is when the line beyond Leongatha was taken up. The passenger service was reinstated on December 9, 1984 and continued to run until July 23, 1993. Trains returned between Dandenong and Cranbourne when the line was electrified in March 1995. Lyndhurst Station is no more, although it was used from 1979 until 2009 for cement; two large silos had been erected there in 1979. Lynbrook Station opened April 22, 2012, it is 500 metres south of the original Lyndhurst Station. (15).
This classic photo of Lyndhurst shows the Lyndhurst store in the background.
It was taken by Peter Enlund on October 23, 1977.
Source: Victorian Railways Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/383290015105229/
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This photo - I was told by a long-term Cranbourne resident the late Mrs Val Bourke - is of Lyndhurst taken in 1960s - with the general store on the right.
Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries
One of the early European settlers in the area as we said before were Alexander Norquay (1813-1890) and his wife Barbara (nee Cromarty c.1815-1891) who migrated in 1852 from the Orkney Islands in Scotland. They came out with three children - William (born c.1836), Mary (c.1842) and John (c.1848) and had two more children in Victoria, James (1856) and Anna Bella (1857). William, was a member of the Cranbourne Road Board from 1863 to 1864 and 1866 to 1868. William and his wife, Susanna Vessey (they married in 1865) farmed at Lang Lang and Koo Wee Rup after leaving Lyndhurst. Mary married Anthony Northey Facey in 1866; he was the Cranbourne Shire Secretary from 1884 to 1909 and Shire Engineer from 1909 to 1912. John married Lydia Carter in 1878. James married Margaret Elizabeth MacPherson in 1881 - their son Walter James was Killed in Action in Belgium on October 13, 1917. Anna Bella married William James Brown in 1884 (16).
The Norquay family have left behind a wonderful reminder of their presence in the form of the Morteon Bay fig tree which is located in Figtree Walk at Lyndhurst. This tree was thought to have been planted by John Norquay, in the 1880s or 1890s.
Moreton Bay fig planted by the Norquay family and a later farm house which was demolished in 2003. Photograph taken in 1966.
Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries
Norquay family house taken in 1966, demolished in 2003.
Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries
The original Norquay house - the photo was taken in 1966.
Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries
Exterior shot of the original Norquay house, taken in 1966. What a classic photo!
Image: Casey Cardinia Libraries
Footnotes
(1) Gazetted - Victorian Government Gazette, February 25, 1861 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1861/V/general/29-a.pdf ; Lord Lyndhurst - Blake, Les Place Names of Victoria (Rigby, 1977); The murder case was presumably the case involving the Chrozier (also called Chrosier) family - Janet and her three daughters - Jane, Janet and Margaret, charged with the murder of Margaret's illegitimate daughter on November 7, 1894. They were all acquitted - see report in The Argus of December 21, 1894, here. The changed name from Lyndhurst South to Skye -
Lyndhurst South officially becomes Skye on July 28, 1964.
Victoria Government Gazette August 5, 1964.
Victoria Government Gazette August 5, 1964.
Lynbrook - registered as a name - Victorian Government Gazette, January 11, 2001 https://www.gazette.vic.gov.au/gazette/Gazettes2001/GG2001G002.pdf
Victorian Government Gazette, January 11, 2001
(2) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Shire of Cranbourne, 1968), p. 34; Flood report - The Geelong Advertiser, May 25, 1852, see here; John Helder Wedge https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wedge-john-helder-2778
(3) Gunson, op. cit, pp 34 and 52.
(4) Charles Wedge - Marriage notice, The Argus, July 24, 1854, see here; Death notice, Prahran Telegraph, December 7, 1895, see here.
(5) John Wedge - Marriage notice, The Argus, June 4, 1867, see here; Death notice - Maryborough Chronicle, May 1, 1883, see here; Gunson, op. cit. passim.
(6) Henry Wedge - Death notice The Argus, December 31, 1866, see here.
(7) Richard Wedge - Death notice - The Argus, April 2, 1870, see here.
(8) Gunson, op. cit., p. 59.
(9) Post Office - The Argus, December 21, 1866, see here; closure - https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/lyndhurst
(10) Gunson, op. cit., pp. 61-62; Vision and Realisation : a centenary history of State Education in Victoria, edited by L.J. Blake. (Education Department of Victoria, 1973)
(11) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, September 12, 1912, see here.
(12) Demolition of Hotel - I wrote this story originally in 2008, I had the date as 1966, but I no longer know where that date came from. The National Trust lists the demolition date as after 1963 - https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/113052
(13) Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; Early Settlers of the Casey Cardinia District researched and published by the Narre Warren & District Family History Group in 2010
(14) Radio Heritage website - https://www.radioheritage.com/vlr-lyndhurst-anniversary/
(15) https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-south-gippsland-railway-line.html and VicSig website https://vicsig.net/infrastructure/location/Lynbrook Lyndhurst Cement silos - erected 1979 - Koo Wee Rup Sun, June 26, 1979, p. 9.
(16) Early Settlers of the Casey Cardinia District, op. cit., Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; Family notices in the newspapers.
A version of this post, which I wrote and researched in 2008, appeared on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to Our Past.
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