George Hyde, pastoralist, insolvent, man of colour, who died at the Keilor Inn, 1844

         Keilor Inn, by George Alexander Gilbert, 1845.

    Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection. 

Even in death, George Hyde, pastoralist, found himself embroiled in controversy.  He was one of the Port Phillip Pioneers who was dis-interred from his grave at the Old Melbourne Cemetery and re-interred at the Fawkner Pioneer Cemetery, to make way for the Queen Victoria Market in 1922.  It was another indignity for a man who had suffered many indignities in life owing the circumstances of his birth.

George Hyde was born in British Honduras, the illegitimate son of a Scottish timber merchant and the daughter of a West African Mandigo slave women.  Educated in Britain, and like his father one of the largest slave owners in Honduras, the colour of his skin precluded him from many of the civil rights and privileges afforded his father.  In 1827 George Hyde petitioned the British Parliament for the extension of civil rights to the free coloured population, as were enjoyed by their counterparts in the West Indian colonies.

Hyde returned to Scotland in 1836 where he married Margaret Collier, and together with their only son, George Robert Hyde,  born in 1840, boarded the Ariadne for Port Phillip.

Christine Laskowski has taken a detailed look at the fortunes and misfortunes of the Hyde family, outlining their life in British Honduras, the pioneering colony of Port Phillip, and his unfortunate demise in the Keilor Inn while travelling from his holding at Green Hills (now Toolern Vale) and Melbourne.   For the full story, see her excellent article on the Time Travellers website. 

Texas Star Memorial, Essendon Airport

Memorial tree and garden bed at DFO, 2018. Photo:  ABC News  

A few weeks ago I watched a report from Channel 7 on the small aircraft crash at Essendon Airport in 2017 which killed five people, including four passengers from Texas.  They'd taken the flight to play golf.   I later did an internet search on the crash, and found an article written on the anniversary of the crash which showed a memorial planted at DFO near the site of the crash.  They planted a Japanese Maple in a garden bed shaped like the Star of Texas, as in the photo above. 

Last week I was at DFO and decided to have a hunt for the memorial.  It had been a few weeks since I had looked at the photo, and didn't remember the details clearly, so I inspected the trees planted along the side of Spotlight, where the plane had fallen to earth, but couldn't see anything that looked like a star-shaped garden bed.  I trekked all over the place before I thought I should probably find the photo again on my phone. Needless to say it was in a spot I hadn't looked at, opposite Spotlight, near the roundabout.  It was made somewhat harder by virtue of the fact that the tree had disappeared. 

Photo:  Lenore Frost, 2023.

The tree appears to have been broken off at the bottom some time ago, but the star-shaped box hedge has been well maintained and looks terrific.   It would be nice to see the tree replaced, and as the garden bed is otherwise unmarked, a small explanatory plaque might be good as well.

Sources

Code 1:Minute by Minute.,  Essendon Plane Crash. Screened on Channel 7 on 1 March 2023, 8.30 pm on Channel 7.   (Available at 7+ On Demand.)

Essendon DFO Plane Crash Anniversary. 

Flemington House, Travancore

 

Essendon Historical Society's new publication,  Flemington House, Travancore is to be released in May.

When completed in 1856, this mansion and gardens equalled, if not surpassed, any similar private residence at the time in Victoria. The book’s author, Alex Bragiola, explores the mansion and lives of the Glass and Madden families and has included many photographs never before published.

The book can be ordered for mid-May delivery on the EHS Website Online Shop or by emailing EHS@esshissoc.org.au. Initial price is $35 with free delivery for Moonee Valley and Kensington.

More titles for the Bibliography of Local History

Image courtesy of The City Journal.

Essendon Squash Centre published a history celebrating its 50th Anniversary.  Called "Cede Nullis: 50 Golden Years of Essendon Squash Club".  Allan Murphy, OAM, Sue Rainey, Maxine Kosnar and Amanda Powell (editor) worked together on this book which was published in 2020.  Essendon Squash is one of the few remaining squash courts in Melbourne.   A blog post by Otto McKinnon in March 2020 spells out the problems facing the Essendon club:   https://thecityjournal.net/sport/squash-the-decline-of-a-well-loved-sport/

Thus far Essendon sticks to it's motto Cede Nullis: Yield to None.

Today I am adding 12 titles to the Bibliography of Local and Family History Sources

A is for aunty and z is for zigni : an alphabet book of African stories : sharing a women's lives - a project of Jesuit Social Services.  Richmond, Vic. : Jesuit Social Services, 2010. [Women from Flemington] [SLV]

Cede Nullis : 50 golden years of Essendon Squash Club / Alan Murphy, OAM ; Sue Rainey, Maxine Kosnar ; Amanda Powell (editor).  Moonee Ponds, VIC : Sue Rainey 2020. [SLV]

Flemington ... town in the shadow of a racecourse : self-directed walk. Publisher [Flemington, Vic.] : [Wild West Walks] [1996]. [SLV]

Flemington Racecourse : a memoir, history, autobiography / David Maughan. The author, Queensland : Wombat Press 2021. [SLV]

Mannix Era, The : Melbourne Catholic leadership 1920 -1970. Morgan, Patrick, 1941-, The author: 2018

Materials research laboratory : west of the Yarra up Maribyrnong way. Ascot Vale [Vic.] : Materials Research Laboratory 1991. [SLV]

Now that we are in paradise, everything is missing : a study of the health experiences and needs of older Italo-Australians in Ascot Vale / V. MacKinnon with A. Nelli.  [Melbourne, Vic.] : Department of Nursing, Victoria University, 1996. [SLV]

Mamma's kitchen.   Moonee Valley City Council: Moonee Ponds, 2022. [SLV]

Peppercorn tree / [DVD] [Melbourne, Vic.?] : Barbara Pater, c2008.

Ukraine Downunder / edited by Darka Senko, Tetiana Koldunenko and Marko Pavlyshyn. Essendon, VIC : Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations [2020]. [SLV]

Variety is the spice of life : an account of my life.  Morrison, Stanley Campbell, 1914-2004. edited by  Grant, Dalys, [2004]  [MVLS]

Victoria Derby, The / Marc Fiddian. The Author: Pakenham [Vic], 1991. [SLV]

Additions to the Bibliography of Local and Family History Resources for Essendon, Flemington and Keilor

"Lyndoch", Levien St, Essendon, painted by Karen Price, featured in an Exhibition at the Avondale Heights Library in 2018.   A print edition of the exhibition is held in the Local History Collection of the Sam Merrifield Library.  The exhibition was called Here today, Gone Tomorrow: an exhibition of paintings of houses in Moonee Valley. 

The following publications have also been added to the Local History Collection at the Sam Merrifield Library, and my bibliography of  Local and Family History Resources for Essendon,  Flemington and Keilor

The Art of Lockdown: Australian Ukrainians making art  in 2020.  Graphic Design and Layout by Stephan Moravski. Essendon: 2021.

Stories from the Suburbs. Moonee Valley: an anthology by memoirists,  life writers, poets, and local and family historians of Moonee Valley. Edited by Lyndel Caffrey and Diane Williamson. [Moonee Ponds], Doubleland, 2019.

Young Women on the Ascot Vale Estate: an exploratory study. Essendon CYSS, 1986. 

Park Street Level Crossing

 

Park Street level crossing, Moonee Ponds, 2021.

In this followup article to Gatekeepers at the Park Street Crossing, Marilyn Kenny outlines just how difficult it was to get a staffed level crossing.   Without a railways staff member to open and close the gates, the gates remained closed to vehicular traffic.   

Lobbying from Council went on  for years before the Railways decided to build a Gatekeepers' Cottage at Park St and provide a gatekeeper to open and close the gates, the subject of the previous article.

Not the Explorers' tree

 

Not the Explorers' Tree

ESSENDON is very particular about its ancient history, and at the risk of spreading gloom by the shattering of a tradition the author of the district's chronicles (Mr J. McJunkln) points out that the old red gum on the Mt. Alexander Road does not mark the first camp of the Burke and Wills expedition after it left Royal Park on its ill-fated journey.

 

The explorers camped about a quarter of a mile away, watering their horses and camels at the chain of ponds which has since been transformed into the ornamental lake of Queen's Park.

 

The genuine explorers' tree grew at what is now the intersection of the Strand and Robinson Street. The oldest inhabitants support Mr McJunkin. Cr. E. H. Kinnear, who was born close to the explorers' actual camping place, says that councillors know full well that a false glamor has been woven round the gnarled trunk now covered with ivy and standing in the street plantation. He believes the tradition arose years ago through the statement of a councillor, who wished to preserve the tree from the municipal axe, and with that object invested it with historical significance.

 

In Town and Out (1930, July 10). The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 4.   http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242816383

Councils have indeed been notorious for taking the axe to any well-grown tree, so this story has the ring of plausibility to it.  However, in view of Burke's instructions to blaze a tree along his route, I am somewhat inclined to think he may have blazed the tree in Mt Alexander Rd rather than one off the main track in The Strand, so perhaps both things are true.

For a survey of the known images of the Burke and Wills tree in Mt Alexander Road, see the Time Travellers website.