Early Landownership - Section 15

By Ray Gibb.

SECTION 15.

This Section is bounded by Lincoln Rd (Carnarvon Rd), Woodland St and the Moonee Ponds Creek and ran north to the southern tip of the current sporting ground, Lebanon Park. This Section was first purchased by E.J. Brewster and co-grantee Philip Holland in partnership. They soon subdivided and sold the land , however a substantial proportion (236 acres) was transfered to the sole ownersip of Philip Holland.

The southern 100 acres of the Section was bought in 1845 by Thomas Napier, who called it Rose Mount, renaming it Rosebank later. Napier had been a pioneer of Mulgrave in 1839 as a squatter(1) and in 1851 received the grant for "Niddrie". After he died, his son in law, G.P.Barber, built the Rosebank house near the original dwelling; it stands behind St. Vincent's school. The 1900 ratebook of Broadmeadows Shire called the remaining 22 acre property "Rose Hill". When his son, Theodore was old enough, Thomas gave him 20 acres and Magdala was built near Lincoln Rd. Just before his death, Theodore donated Napier Park to Essendon Council; strangely the park was in the Shire of Broadmeadows! Magdala was destroyed by fire in 1927.

Brewster subdivided the remainder of his post-partition land into four blocks, each having a western boundary of 1041 ¼ links. Lot 1 was sold to Callaghan and lot 2 was sold to Dunn. However lot 3 was sold in two parts (McCord and Jackson).

Lot 4 was also sold in two parts to William Smith and Sir John Franklin. Franklin and Smith's blocks had a combined western boundary of only 1004 ¼ links. William Smith ran the Young Queen Inn across the bridge on old Sydney Road (Pascoe Vale Road) to the north of Moonee Ponds Creek. Sir John Franklin, a former Governor of Tasmania, also purchased section 23.

Others involved in the history of section 15 were:

• John Murray Peck, the co-founder and action man of Cobb and Co., who was probably the first American to hold an official position in Aussie Rules (Vice President of Essendon Football Club), built Lebanon in 1882 and the Italianate mansion still stands in Wendora St. Lebanon was his native town near the Mascoma River in New Hampshire, U.S.A. About a decade later, his son, Harry, built "Hiawatha", where he wrote most of his "Memoirs of a Stockman"; this house still stands at the top of Kilburn St.;
• William Jones;
• John Kernan;
• the Kilburns;
• Samuel Jackson; and
• William Salmon who had a farm of about 140 acres on the north side of Rosebank and Magdala.

Read about other Sections:

SECTION 16

SECTION 23

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