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Alf Taylor can trace his heritage back through three generations in Rowville and thus he is one of the most knowledgeable people with regard to the district’s history.
Alf Taylor can trace his family connections with Rowville back almost 130 years to his great-grandfather, Michael Sutton, who arrived here from Lincolnshire, England in the early 1860s with his wife Martha and two year old daughter Sarah. Many years later Sarah was to become Alf’s grandmother.
In 1863 Michael Sutton took up 44 acres at the south-east corner of Stud and Kelletts Roads – the site of the present Lakes Estate – and gained the reputation of being a very good farmer. From time to time he also worked at Stamford Park for the Row family after whom Rowville is named. Michael is recorded as having the task of going into Melbourne to collect consignments of sparrows and hares imported from England by Frederick Row for release at Stamford Park.
During the spring racing season and at Christmas, Frederick Row entertained lavishly with up to 20 guests staying at Stamford House. On these occasions Martha Sutton was employed to assist with the cooking.
Sarah becomes Mrs Taylor
When Sarah grew up she married John Taylor, a young man who had come from England to work at Stamford Park, the Taylor and Row families having been friends in the old country. John and Sarah made their home on a 40 acre farm immediately north of what is now the Twin Views Estate. The track that ran past their farm was named Taylors Lane in their honour.
One of Alf’s most vivid recollections of his grandparents was the contrast in their heights: John was a very tall man while Sarah was tiny. Although small, Sarah could speak her mind and Alf remembered her “with her hands on her hips going mad at us” when one day as a small boy he and a mate played “tin hares”with her cat, that is, they took Granny’s pet down to the paddock then set the dogs to chase it. However, his strongest memories were of her great kindness to him and they had a very close relationship. She used to tell him stories including one about an old retired policeman who had lived near them in Taylors Lane. One night he went out to investigate noises in his yard and found a strange white horse there so he put it out on the road. Next day he found that his black horse was missing and eventually discovered that the horse he’d put out was his own. Some of the local lads had white-washed it.
Granny was a very hard working woman and there was nothing she couldn’t turn her hand to. She and John mainly raised calves and pigs and Granny could slaughter the animals and prepare them for sale. She would then take the carcasses by horse and cart to butchers in Windsor and Elsternwick, leaving home at 2.30am.
Alf well remembers washing days at Granny’s farm. She would make a stand of bricks, set a fire between them, put kerosene tins of water on iron bars placed across the bricks, then in would go the washing.
The old house is now completely gone but the oak and pine trees that once surrounded it can still be seen at numbers 30, 32 and 34 Taylors Lane.
John and Sarah had three daughters and an only son who became Alf’s father.
Granny Taylor was a much loved figure in Rowville and when she died in 1954 at the age of 93 she was honoured with a very large attendance at her funeral.
Alfred Taylor Senior
Alf’s father, also Alfred Taylor, married a Tasmanian girl, Elizabeth Smith. They took up market gardening on two blocks of land: forty acres on the south side of Wellington Road opposite Le John Street (their home was on this block) and twenty acres on the north side, immediately to the west of the present site of the Stamford Hotel. Don McIntyre had a market garden where the hotel’s buildings and car parks now are.
There was no dam on either farm and Alf’s father had to cart water from Corhanwarrabul Creek at the north end of Taylors Lane when the weather turned dry.
Sadly, Alf had little memory of his father as he died in 1923, five days before Alf’s fifth birthday. His mother decided to move to Dandenong where she gained employment as a tailoress with Mr Pockney in Lonsdale Street. She rented the farm.
Alf started school at Dandenong State School but soon afterwards moved to the newly opened Dandenong West State School. School was pretty hard in those days but Alf did quite well and passed his Merit Certificate at the age of 13. He was also the school’s outstanding athlete and in 1930 won the Dandenong and district under 13 sprint at the annual Axeman’s Carnival held at the old Dandenong Showgrounds which is now the site of the present market and Municipal Offices in Clow Street.
Back to the Farm at Rowville
Alf would have liked to have gone on to Dandenong High School but the Great Depression was at its peak and times were very hard. Alf’s mother had remarried and her new husband, William Dawson, lost his job so they decided to go back to the farm and take up dairying. As an only son, Alf’s labour would be needed, so he had no option. Thus throughout his teenage years he was required to help with the hand-milking of 25 cows, twice a day, seven days a week. He enjoyed bike riding but the demands of the milking routine meant he was never permitted to join a club to take up the sport competitively.
As well as the actual milking, Alf had to take the cans of milk by horse and cart to the corner of Stud and Brady Roads in North Dandenong for collection by George Grenda who was a milk carrier in the days before he started the bus service in Dandenong. Apart from these daily chores, Alf helped with all the farm duties and remembered putting in his first crop of oats after ploughing a paddock behind a two horse plough. He was aged 14.
To make some pocket money, he trapped rabbits and sold them for 1/6d (15 cents) a pair. On Sunday afternoons he and his mates from neighbouring farms, Fred and Jack Living and Dan Gibson, would play cricket or go fishing for eels in the dam of another neighbour, Mrs Gill. Apart from these simple pleasures, life was work, work, work.
The Cottman Colt
By the time he was 21, Alf had managed to save enough money to buy a new motor cycle, a Cottman Colt. He had never ridden a motor bike in his life but after it was delivered, he rode it around the paddock for an hour and a half, then went up to Ferntree Gully Police Station the next day and got his licence. Ferntree Gully was a sleepy town in 1939. “Dandenong too was a very quiet place in those days except on a Tuesdays (market days),” said Alf. “You could shoot a gun down the main street and not hit anyone.” It was even quieter in Rowville. Traffic was so infrequent on Wellington Road that “you’d always look out if you heard someone passing”.
One night not long after he got his motor bike, Alf was riding along Stud Road towards Dandenong and crossing the bridge over Dandenong Creek when suddenly in the dark he came upon a herd of cattle being driven towards Rowville. One of the cows put its horn through his headlight but amazingly, he didn’t come off. Alf explained that it was common for stock to be on the roads in those days. He himself moved his cows between his two blocks at Rowville by driving them (that is, walking them) along Wellington Road up until the early 1960s.
War Time in Rowville
Alf was called up when war came but was exempted because he was a farmer. The arrival of the army at the camp on the corner of Wellington and Stud Roads livened things up in Rowville. Alf’s paddock opposite the camp was taken over by the military as a training ground for such activities as trench digging and the building of barbed wire entanglements. Alf could do nothing about this. However, he had the last laugh when one day his mean-tempered Shorthorn bull charged a platoon of marching soldiers and sent them running in all directions. When I asked Alf what the name of the bull was he replied, “it was called lots of names”. The troops would occasionally go through Alf’s home paddocks too on night manoeuvres. One morning following such an operation, Alf found that one of his cows was dry of milk, indicating that the soldiers had helped themselves to a warm drink on a cold night.
During the war Mrs Violet Lambert of Lysterfield who was a Ferntree Gully Shire Councillor, organised a committee to run gymkhanas to raise funds for Red Cross. Alf won a ribbon and thirty shillings ($3.00) when he was successful in the steer riding championship at one of these carnivals. He also tried his luck again with foot running and ran second to Finnegan, a Bendigo Thousand winner, at a sports meeting held in Dandenong.
Alf’s Service to Rowville
Mrs Lambert also gave the lead in the establishment of the Rowville Fire Brigade during the war because of the fear of incendiary bombing attacks. Their first equipment was a water cart with a pump and it was kept on the farm of Alf’s next door neighbour, Ted Gearon. On one occasion when they were mopping up a fire in the hills behind Heany Park, the water ran out so the unit and some of the men went back to Heany Park to refill the tank while Alf and a couple of others worked on with knapsack extinguishers. While the crew were topping up the tank at Heany Park, they were invited to join a party of men there enjoying a niner of beer, so needless to say, by the time they got back to the scene of the fire, Alf and his two mates had put it out. Alf was a member of the Rowville Fire Brigade for 37 years and was made one of its few life members. Over the years he also served on committees for Red Cross, Rowville Football Club, the Progress Association and Gymkhana.
Alf’s Family
Alf met his future wife, Elva Fear, at an old-time dance at the Mulgrave Hall. They were married in 1952 and have three children and six grandchildren. Their elder daughter Margaret was one of the founders of the Rowville Girl Guides’ Company.
Interviewed by Bryan Power
First published in the February 1991 edition of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News.
Knox Council has chosen the name Taylor for the central ward of the three new wards in the Rowville-Lysterfield area. This is a well deserved honour for the members of the Taylor family who over many years have been highly respected in the community. The lady affectionately known as Granny Taylor arrived in the district in the early 1860s. She was then only a two year old child, Sarah Sutton, and had come to Australia from Lincolnshire, England with her parents, Michael and Martha Sutton.
The Sutton Family
In 1863 Michael Sutton took up 44 acres at the south-east corner of what are now known as Stud Road and Kelletts Road – the site of the present Lakes Estate. (The largest of the three lakes created by the developers of the Lakes Estate was named Sutton Lake by Knox Council in September 1991). Michael was a successful farmer and also worked from time to time for the Row family at Stamford Park. Frederick Row had arrived in Australia from Lincolnshire in 1846. He imported consignments of sparrows and hares from England and Michael Sutton drove these reminders of the “Old Country” on a dray from Melbourne to Rowville. Michael’s wife Martha was employed as a cook at Stamford Park when large numbers of guests were present at Christmas and during the spring racing season. Sutton descendants of Michael and Martha were still farming in Mulgrave in the early 1980s.
Granny Taylor
When Martha and Michael’s daughter Sarah grew up, she married John Taylor, another immigrant from Lincolnshire. They made their home on a 40 acre property on a track then known as Bluchers Road but later renamed Taylors Lane. They were a couple of strikingly different stature. John was a very tall man but Sarah was tiny. However, when John became a cripple Sarah took over the running of the farm and there was no job she could not do. For example, she raised calves and pigs, did her own slaughtering and preparation of the carcases for sale. Then she loaded them onto her cart, harnessed the horse to it and set off to deliver to butchers in Windsor, leaving Rowville at half past two in the morning. She was greatly admired for her capacity for hard work and much loved for her kindness to all. A newspaper tribute on the occasion of her 91st birthday said, “She has been a wonderful citizen and pioneer of the district”. On her death in 1954 at the age of 93, practically the whole district was represented at her funeral.
Alf Taylor
Sarah and John’s son Alfred carried on the farming tradition in Rowville but died as a young man. However, his son – also named Alfred -later took over the running of the family farm and continued working it until his retirement in the mid 1980s. Alf Taylor was a wonderful citizen of Rowville. He was a foundation member of the Rowville Fire Brigade and, until recently, was one of only three life members. He served as a brigade member for 37 years.
Over the years he also served on committees for Red Cross, Rowville Football Club, The Progress Association and Gymkhana. Alf died in 1995 but his widow Elva, although living in Dandenong, is still (in 1996) an active member of the Rowville Red Cross.
Continuing a tradition of service to the community into the fifth generation, Alf and Elva’s elder daughter Margaret was one of the founders of the Rowville Guide Company and a dedicated leader for several years.
Bryan Power
First published in the October 1996 edition of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News.
Well-known Rowville identity Alf Taylor passed away at his home in North Dandenong on 27th July 1995 after a long battle with cancer. Alf, who could trace his forebears in Rowville back to the 1860s, was one of the last members of the district’s pioneering families and so his death marks the end of an era in Rowville’s history.
Alf grew up on his parents’ farm south of Wellington Road, opposite Le John Street, and carried on the endless daily round of dairying there when he inherited the property. He was a very active member of the community and served on committees for the Red Cross, Rowville Football Club, the Progress Association and the Gymkhana.. He was a member of the Rowville Fire Brigade for 37 years and one of the Brigade’s few life members. Brigade officers formed a guard of honour at Le Pine’s Chapel.
Alf was a devoted family man, a loyal friend and a good neighbour. Personally I remember with warm affection the hours I spent with him while he told me so much about Rowville’s history. He was always great company even in his last days.
Alf is survived by his wife Elva, children Margaret, Ken and Glenda and seven grandchildren.
Bryan Power
First published in the October 1995 edition of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News.
As recalled by Alf Taylor in an interview with Bryan Power.
Alf Taylor was born in 1918 and spent most of his life on the family farm on the south side of Wellington Road opposite the present site of the Baptist Church. Alf’s family can be traced back for 130 years in Rowville to when his great-grandfather, Michael Sutton, arrived from Lincolnshire, England with his wife Martha and two year old daughter Sarah in the mid 1860s.
When Sarah grew up she married another Lincolnshire migrant, John Taylor, and they farmed 40 acres on the east side of Bluchers Road, the name of which was later changed to Taylors Lane in their honour. Their son Alfred Taylor became Alf’s father. With that background, therefore, it is not surprising that Alf had such a good knowledge of Rowville.
In my interview with Alf we referred to the maps published with this article. The numbers correspond to the land holdings as Alf recalled them from his boyhood days in the 1920s and up to the time of residential sub-divisions in the 1960s.
West of Stud Road
1. Tom Greatorex lived here in the white weatherboard house that was recently (mid 1995) demolished due to the widening of Wellington Road.
2. Chris Meurs leased 44 acres here from the Country Roads Board.
3. Harold Gibb bought this 100 acre farm in the mid 1930s. He came from Narrandera in NSW. Later he sold it to the Dandenong butchers, the Castricum brothers. Now it is part of the Kingston Industrial Estate and Golf Links.
4. This 50 acre block was bought and equally divided between Harold Gibb and Bill Bickerton to add to their farms. They put a fence down the middle of it.
5. Bill Bickerton bought this 40 acre farm in 1936, but because of ill health he sold it to Bill Robinson who established the Hill and Dale Hereford Stud on the property.
6. Alf Taylor owned this 20 acre block which extended to what is now the back fences of the houses in Avalon Road.
7. The rest of the land along the west side of Stud Road from the Wellington Road intersection to Corhanwarrabul Creek was Stamford Park, owned by an old white-bearded man named Murray who ran sheep on the property. In 1932, a dairyman from Malvern, Aloysius (Wish) Drummond, bought Stamford Park and converted it to a dairy farm.
7a. This part of Stamford Park was leased to Don McIntyre who grew vegetables on it. In 1959 ‘Wish’ Drummond built the Stamford Hotel on it.
8. All of the land along the west side of Stud Road between Wellington and Police Roads belonged to a wealthy family named McFarlane. They did not live in Rowville.
The Seebeck Estate and later the Tirhatuan and Timbertop Estates were created on part of this land holding. During WW2, a large part was taken over by the Army and the 3rd Motor Brigade trained there in 1942. Later it became a base for American troops and later again a P.O.W. camp for Italian prisoners. After the war it was redesignated as a hostel until the Italian government was able to repatriate these men. The Rowville Library has a 1954 aerial photograph where, if you look closely, you can see the roads, parade ground and the concrete bases of the many buildings that were there until 1946. Also in the photograph can be seen the first of the SEC buildings established on the route of the power lines in the early 1950s.
9. The area between Police Road and Dandenong Creek was leased to Charles Dobson who, with his sons, ran a dairy herd and market garden there.
10. Harold Gibb bought this 100 acre property in the late 1940s. He built a home on it and lived there until his retirement in 1967.
11. The McMillan family ran a large metal fabrication plant here from the 1950s until the early 1990s, at one time employing over 200 people. Competition from cheap imports put their business into serious decline. In 1994 their factory was demolished and replaced by the Myer Direct warehouse.
12. Norm Fear, an uncle of Alf’s wife Elva, market gardened this property for some years. Later it was occupied by Meg Bruce who ran a horse riding school there until her death. Now the school continues under the direction of Meg’s grand-daughter.
13. Chris Meurs leased this 80 acre property for many years from the Country Roads Board. In 1995 he and his wife Anna were still living on the property.
East of Stud Road
1. Albert Tampe owned here. He had a peach orchard and also raised pigs. His wife Lois was a daughter of Matthew Bergin and a sister of Nicky and Lil Bergin. Tampe Road is now located on the land that once was the Tampe farm.
2. Ike Hill owned the land north of Kelletts Road along Stud Road to Tampe’s farm. Ike had a butchering business.
3. Alf’s great-grandfather Michael Sutton took up 44 acres between Stud Road and Taylors Lane in 1863. Later the property was owned by Fred Hill.
4. Ehrenfried Exner developed Rowville’s first market gardens on this farm which also extended through to Taylors Lane. Exner was a very public spirited man involved in all local activities. His barn was used for dances in Rowville and Ehrenfried supplied the music on his accordion.
5. Jim Hill, grandson of Ike Hill, had a few acres here.
6. Bob Manley’s property also went to Taylors Lane. Exner later bought it from him. The western end of this land is now the site of the Stud Park Shopping Centre.
7. This corner property was originally bought in the 1860s by Matthew Bergin and passed on to his son, also Matthew Bergin, whose daughter Kath inherited it. Kath married Jim Manley, the brother of Bob. Rowville Primary School and Rowville Secondary College are situated on the northern part of this land. The Rowville Wishing Well is constructed of bricks from the well beside the old farm house on this block.
8. Nick Bergin, the brother of the second Matthew Bergin mentioned above, had his blacksmith’s forge on a one acre site here. In 1903 he established Rowville’s first Post Office in his house beside the forge.
9. Edward Bergin, son of the second Matthew, owned 59 acres which extended along Bergins Road.
10. This large farm of about 150 acres was taken up by George Gill back in the 1850s. He named it “Somerset” after the county of his birth in England. On his death the farm went to his son Tom and after Tom died, his wife Sophie bought the shares of Tom’s sisters to retain the farm in the Gill name. It remained so until sold to developers in the 1970s.
11. Alf Taylor ran a dairy farm on this 45 acre property which he had inherited from his parents.
12. The Gearon family owned the rest of the valley between Wellington and Bergins Roads. For a time they moved to Dandenong and leased their blocks on Wellington Road to Fred Living and later to brothers Don and Norm McIntyre. The Gearon family sub-divided the following blocks numbers 13 – 16.
13. Bought by Jack Finn and passed on to his son Stuart. When Stuart was the captain of the Rowville Cricket Club in the 1950s, home games were played on this property.
14. Bought by Fred Fordham in 1920 and then passed on to his son Frank.
15. Robert Finn owned about 20 acres here.
16. Albert Golding market gardened this land on Heany Park Road.
17. This large property stretching back to the quarries in the Lysterfield Hills was owned by William Angliss, the wealthy meat exporter. Part of it was leased for many years by Denis Doolan who ran a dairy farm on it.
18. Bill Jinky owned this area. He sold to Jack Finn who later developed part of it as the site of the Rowville Drive-In-Theatre. Jack’s son Frank still has (in 1995) the Caravan Park at the southern end of this block.
19. Bill Golding, Albert’s brother, market gardened here. It is now the northern end of the Waverley Golf Club.
20. Alf wasn’t sure about this area but thought that it belonged to Mrs McFarlane before it was bought by the Golf Club.
21. Charles Dobson owned 30 acres here. It passed to his son Gordon.
22. The Dobson family also leased this large area of the Dandenong Creek ‘flats’, part of which is now the site of the Rowville Recreation Reserve.
23. This property was owned by a man named Webb, then by Jimmy Nicholls, followed by Cam Herbert before Bernie and Aimee Seebeck acquired it in the late 1930s.
24. Nicky Bergin (nephew of Nick Bergin the blacksmith) owned 30 acres on this corner. It included the present sites of St Simon’s and the Baptist Church.
25. This property was owned by a man named Barnett, then by Joseph Parsons and later by Bill Crawford. Harry Raymond bought it in the early 1940s and sub-divided the land into the Twin Views Estate about 1960.
26. Alf’s grandparents, John and Sarah Taylor, owned this 30 acre farm. Taylors Lane, previously known as Bluchers Road, was named after them.
27. Fred Madigan owned this 100 acre property and sold it to Ehrenfried Exner who put Leo and Violet Gill on it as share farmers. Later it was sold to Don Collins.
28. This very large property which extended to Kelletts Road was originally known as Hynam Park but its name was changed to Pine Hill when bought by Keith Hicks from a man named Masterton. Keith ran Hereford cattle on the property.
29. Mrs Margaret “Maggie” McIntyre inherited this 160 acre property from her father Bob Martin.
30. The property north of Kelletts Road was known as “Fulham Grange”. The Alberni family ran cattle on it. Their home was on the western corner of Kelletts Road and Napoleon Road.
31. This 10 acre farm was owned by the Kellett family after whom the road was named. Alf remembered the daughter, Marg Kellett, bringing eggs to his grandmother for her to sell when she took her produce to butchers in Windsor.
32. Edward Warriner, the Head Teacher of Scoresby Primary School, owned land in this area.
33. Nicky Bergin (the owner of property number 24) also owned several acres on this corner. He sold the blocks to Bernie Seebeck.
Interviewed by Bryan Power
First published in the August and September 1995 editions of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News.
