Andy Allen - 1900 premiership captain

Reminiscences of Preston and Northcote

A collection of unedited articles written by some of the earliest settlers and administrators of the Preston and Northcote districts and published over the years by the Leader ...


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The "Mernda" Collection (1918-35)

The Leader through the early months of 1918 carried a remarkable series of articles written under the non-de-plume of "Mernda". His identity was not revealed at the time, but it was obvious that he was a prominent citizen of that district and suspicions were that he was probably a member of the Thomas family that gave Thomastown its name.  

An obituary in the Leader following the passing of Cr. Walter Thomas, of "The Poplars", Mernda, aged 88 years on September 25, 1932 revealed that he had written several articles for the Leader under the non de plume "Mernda".   Along with the various positions mentioned in his articles, he also gave a 55 years service to Whittlesea Shire Council, wa co-founder of the Whittlesea Show Society and a long-serving member of the Board of Advice and later School Commmittee of Mernda State School.  Walter arrived in Australia in 1851 with his father Moses, settling in the Mernda district.

He also contributed a number of articles on the contemporary political climate in the 1920s and 30s.

January 26, 1918

How to grow wool on a horse and other shenanigans at Ye Old Peacock Inn (not to the standard of others) ...     Top

February 2, 1918

On Northcote councillors, the outer circle railway and the resignation of George Higinbotham, M.L.A.  ...    Top

February 9, 1918

On Tommy Bent (later premier of Victoria), abolition of the road tolls and a bastard child ...      Top

March 2, 1918

On Edward Poole and the Junction Hotel, the Morang Roads Board and furious driving along the Plenty-road ...     Top

March 16, 1918

On runaway coaches in Brunswick-street and outside the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock, imported shorthorn cattle a little further down Plenty Road at Bundoora Park and Victoria's antiquated quarantine laws on stock diseases ...     Top

April 20, 1918

On bullock drays and their drivers in Northcote and Preston.  Was there any advantage to the "bullockies" swearing at their team?  An ill-fated clergyman from the Whittlesea district tried to solve the ethical dilemma, but found the going a little harder than he imagined  ...      Top

June 1, 1918

On the piggery trade that brought the first industry to Preston, of Watson and Paterson, the Scottish partners that established the business, and in particular Cr. William Paterson, one of the founders of the Preston Shire ...    Top

August 8, 1918

"The Only Englishman That Could Live In Irishtown"   On the the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock's landlord, James Smith and other fun and games at the hotel ...   Top

Other Reminiscences from "Mernda"

August 22, 1918

The article was headed "Old Residents of Preston and Northcote" (perhaps suggesting a series), but was a one-off and appears to have been written following the passing of the lady mentioned in the article ...    Top

January 28, 1929

Another of "Mernda's" biographical sketches, this of Dr. William Ronald, one of the earliest pioneers of the Mernda and Whittlesea and provider of medical and judicial services to the local community ...    Top
"Shadows On The Screen"

October 30, 1920

This article appeared in the Leader ostensibly as part of the 50th anniversary of the Presbyterian Sunday School.  Written by William McIntosh, it reveals details of Northcote's early sporting life and that the cricket ground of the 1870's was at the top of Rucker's Hill and not in Plant's Paddock as previously believed ...    Top
"An Old Coach Driver Passes"

February 10, 1933

The passing at his home in Preston of Robert Hunter Grover, "one of the oldest residents of Victoria", was accompanied by an article by Mr. Frank Smiley, a committeeman of the Cobb and Co.'s Driver's Association. The article revealed some of Grover's experiences as a coach driver dating back the 1860's ...    Top

"A Seasonal Game"

December 12, 1930

Nearly eighty years ago and in the depths of the Great Depression, there where certainly no iPods, mobile phones or electronic games, but the schoolboys of Preston then (as in many eras since) had no problems making up their lunchtime entertainment ...      Top

"A Link With Early Preston Severed"

August 29, 1934

On the passing of Mrs. Ann Kupsch in 1934.  Mrs. Kupsch, as the article confirms, is believed to be the first white child to have been born in Preston and according to the correspondent, remained in Preston for all of her 79 years with the exception of a two-week holiday to Avenel ...      Top

Local Government in Preston (G. A. Hamilton)

A series of articles written in 1921 by G. A. Hamilton, a former Clerk to the Shire of Jika Jika.  Under construction

Early Days at Preston (1934)

This series appeared in 1934. Three articles have been sighted.  The author was listed simply as "Mr. Moylan", in fact James Moylan who appears to have been brought up in the area in the 1860s (he is shown as marrying in Northcote in 1881), the family in later years running a butcher's shop in Plenty Road, Preston ...     Top

September 7, 1934

On carting wood, a trip to the Friendly Societies Garden to see the Duke of Edinburgh (and a few fights), the first football match ever played in Preston and early days at school ...    Top

October 19, 1934
 
On boys being boys, and of course a nuisance (thing haven't changed in the last 140 years), boxing lessons in Spring Street, and a remarkable Miss Ward, a Sunday School teacher who put the local larrikins on the way to a respectable future, and the foundation of St. Marys Church  ...    Top

May 17, 1934

On a trip from Murray-road to the King Parrot Creek at Flowerdale, some fishing yarns, a remarkable haul of fish and how sweet they tasted.  "My word, that J. Moylan is a great boy", the lads declared (before the lads discovered he hadn't cleaned the fish) ...    Top

"The Rouseabout"

October 26, 1934

On the movements of the Preston Council, their meeting places and the Shire Offices behind the Junction Hotel, the fitting out of the Town Hall, and the grand plan for draining the Preston area ...    Top
The Medhurst Series

A correspondent simply named "D. Medhurst" contributed several articles in the early 1930s, especially for the Northcote Golden Jubilee in 1934.  Medhurst appears to have grown up in the Northcote area but Sands and MacDougall Directories do no show a family of that name.

November, 1932

On early days in Pender's Grove and aremarkable claim that the criminal career of the notorious bushranger Dan Morgan was launched as a sheep duffer in the Grove (most historians suggest it came with the ransacking of a station on which he worked in the Victorian Mallee) ...    Top

"Pioneering Families of Whittlesea Shire"

By an unknown correspondent,  This first article indicated that it was to be part of a series but nothing further has been sighted up to the end of 1934.
 
May 23, 1934

Although it has never been part of the Jika or Darebin municipalities, the early Preston and Northcote were both closely linked to the farming districts in the rich alluvial plains of Whittlesea and Plenty, area that were included within The Leader's coverage ...    Top

"Pioneer Days"

This excerpt is from as address given by former Northcote Town Clerk Mr. W. G. Swift to a gathering celebrating an anniversary of the Helen Street State School just a few weeks before his "A History of Northcote was published.  The extract suggests that Swift would expand on his talk, but nothing further was sighted in the Leader
 
November 23, 1925

Although Swift does not mention it in his book, there is a reason given for High Street just north of Separation Street deviating from Robert Hoddle's original plans for a straight road from the bay to an undefined Northcote.  He also casts some doubts on whether the Pilgrim Inn, (later Red House) and Croxton Park Hotel were actually one and the same ...    Top


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