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.
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
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).
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
