Eltham Local History Centre (Photo: J. Connor 2021)
All of us in the EDHS Office and Collections teams are taking a well earned break over Christmas and New Year from Thursday, December 23, 2021 to Sunday January 23, 2022 inclusive.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy and healthy New Year.
We appreciate your ongoing comments and messages and will reply after our return.
From all of us at Eltham District Historical Society
2018 Community Group of the Year – Nillumbik Shire Council
Frederick Edward Falkiner was born 1820 at Mount Prospect, Tipperary, Ireland, the son of John Daniel Falkiner and Mary Cuddy (Marina Loftus).
At some stage in 1834 there was an emigration of several Falkiner family siblings to Tasmania; Frederick, his brother Daniel Richard and three sisters though not necessarily all at the same time.
In March 1835 Frederick E. Falkiner was appointed Postmaster at St Paul’s Plains following the resignation of J.K. Gray and shortly afterwards a Special Constable of Police in October 1835 where he was the Poundkeeper in Campbell Town.
Frederick departed Launceston for Port Phillip in October 1836 however newspaper advertisements suggest he returned to Tasmania at some stage and was running a general store with liquor license at New Ross in 1838 then Lincoln in 1839, his brother Daniel also operating a store with a liquor license in 1839 at Campbell Town.
By 1841 Frederick was in Melbourne and operating as a horse dealer and keeper of the livery stables on the Eastern Hill. It was around July 1841 he married Fanny Gaile, second daughter of Dr. Gaile, of Gaile’s Hill, County Carlow, Ireland; cousin to Judge H. V. Giblin; also, cousin to Sir Rigs Falkiner, Bartoose, Mount Prospect Estate, County Tipperary, Ireland.
With the resignation of William Wright in May 1841 as Chief Constable of Police for Melbourne and Port Phillip, Frederick Falkiner was appointed, effective June 1, to fill the vacancy with a salary of £100 sterling. It was observed in the Port Phillip Gazette (26 May 1841) that Falkiner’s appointment was very judicious given the steadiness and circumspection of his character afforded by his several years’ experience in Tasmania. His tenure was short though, only seven months, with William Wright being re-appointed Chief Constable in January 1842 following Falkiner’s resignation, or dismissal, at which point he returned to his profession as a horse dealer in Collins Lane, Melbourne at least until 1847.
On 28 September 1846, the former Chief Constable of Melbourne was apprehended on a charge of violently assaulting a jockey named John Watts, in the stables at the rear of the Royal Hotel. The assault, it appears, was in retaliation for a blow received at the racecourse at an earlier hour of the day, which had produced a black eye. Watts’ head had been laid open to some extent and he was in a precarious state. Falkiner was indicted 17 October for assaulting John Watts with a whip handle and striking him on the head with intent to maim, at Melbourne, on the 28th of September. A second count was with intent to disfigure, the third with intent to disable, and the fourth with intent to do grievous bodily harm. The jury returned Falkiner guilty of a common assault, and his honor having ordered him from the dock to the floor of the Court, sentenced him to pay a fine of one pound and to be discharged.
Sometime after 1847 Falkiner settled on land he had taken up at the junction of the Diamond Creek and Yarra River in the Parish of Nillumbik where he proceeded to plant an orchard. He also grazed cattle on his property. This leasehold included land which was reserved for a village and part of which later became the Eltham Lower Park.
There were several complaints against Frederick E. Falkiner in those early years. One memorable complaint was from seven men on the Nillumbik country on account of Falkiner’s practice of impounding other men’s cattle which strayed in the vicinity of the Falkiner occupation. Thomas Sweeney was the chief complainant. Falkiner was reported to Superintendent La Trobe, in a letter of 11 May 1849 from Thomas Sweeney, that he was “very much annoyed by a neighbour who has located himself, without permission and on a Village Reserve, who is continually impounding my cattle off the section claiming an entire right to it.”
Around the same time of Sweeney’s letter of complaint, Frederick E. Falkiner applied for three 640-acre leases (Lots 1-3) in the Parish of Nillumbik. It was in August of that year that John Semar, who held a license to depasture stock on the run known as ‘Semars’ or ‘Arthur’ on the Diamond Creek, requested that the license be transferred to Alex Falconer of Melbourne because he had sold his stock to that gentleman. It is a reasonable assumption that he was referring to F.E. Falkiner.
In the early 1850s the land on the east of the original half acre ‘Town Allotments’ (Sections 1 to 5) in the Eltham Village reserve was subdivided into 22 lots, allotments varying in extent from approximately 2 to 6 ½ acres. It was anticipated that the subdivided land would be used primarily for cultivation purposes. With one exception, the allotments were offered for sale at public auction in 1852, as were a number of larger country lots beyond the village reserve boundaries.
The allotment excluded from the auction sale was Allotment 17, on the south of Ely Street and containing nearly 2 ½ acres. On it were some improvements regarded as being the property of Frederick Edward Falkiner. The improvements were described in a report of Surveyor Hurst, whose father was the Superintendent of C.S Haley’s Diamond Creek run (or station). According to Hurst the improvements on Allotment 17 consisted of “1 ¼ acres of cultivations, a very dilapidated five-roomed hut of sawn slabs, also a rough hut used as a dairy, total value £30.” When a subdivision survey was effected, F.E. Falkiner applied for exclusive right of purchase of all the land on which he had made some improvement, viz the cultivation, etc on Allotment 17 and fencing and a stockyard on Allotment 18. He was allowed to purchase Allotment 17 without having to compete at a public auction and was directed to vacate Allotment 18.
Falkiner Cottage, in May 1979, which was situated at present day 19 Ely St., Eltham. The original 1851 hut was located closer to Falkiner Street. Falkiner was the original owner and the cottage cottage remained in the Falkiner family after his death until the 1920s when it was purchased by a Mr. Maynard. (Photo: Alan Baker 1979, EDHS Collection)
Location of Falkiner Cottage as seen in this 1946 aerial photograph
On February 1st, 1854, the first Post Office in Eltham was opened, and the first postmaster was Frederick E. Falkiner, who presumably operated the service from his home. In today’s mapping this was in Falkiner Street which runs between Main Road and Ely Street, Eltham. Sketch lines of land maps of the time place the house at the northern end.
In that same year it is also recorded that F.E. Falkiner complained about the Building Committee at the Little Eltham school, a complaint deemed “frivolous and vexatious” by Mr Goodman of Heidelberg.
On May 1, 1855, Falkiner was succeeded as Postmaster by Thomas Hunniford, a merchant of Little Eltham; the name of the post office remaining unchanged though it was listed in official returns by the name of the new location, the site of present day 820 Main Road.
In 1858 Falkiner was fined £5 and costs for carelessly setting fire to his stubble yet in the same year he was an auditor for the accounts of the Eltham District Road Board, and the street adjacent to his crown grant was named after him.
On July 1, 1881, Frederick E. Falkiner, one of the oldest inhabitants of the community, was found dead in his bed early in the morning. When he had retired to rest a few hours earlier he was, apparently, in perfect health, and had been working the same day as usual on his farm. His death was attributed to heart disease.
Frederick’s wife Fanny died seven years later, September 12, 1888, at Eltham and is buried at Eltham Cemetery though her grave site is not actually known. It is presumed to be located in the Old Methodist section adjacent or nearby to other Falkiner family members.
Frederick is also buried at Eltham Cemetery but the location of his grave is also unknown, presumably beside or with Fanny. His death certificate reads as a little Who’s Who of Little Eltham at the time. His death was registered by David George Clark, who was also the Head Teacher at the Eltham State School No. 209 in Dalton Street. He was buried July 3 by undertaker, William Bravery Andrew who also owned and ran the General Store at the corner of Maria Street and and Franklin Street (present day site of Cafe Zen Den). The minister who conducted the burial service was William Crozier, an early pioneer settler of Little Eltham and it was witnessed by George Knapman, the blacksmith who ran the shoeing forge adjacent to the Eltham Court House. All of whom are now resident in Eltham Cemetery.
Falkiner family graves, Old Methodist Section, Eltham Cemetery. It is suspected that Frederick and Fanny Falkiner are buried close by in unmarked graves. (Photo: P. Pidgeon 2021, EDHS Collection)
#ThrowbackThursday – Brougham Street was created in Josiah Holloway’s 1851 subdivision of Little Eltham. It was one of several east-west streets shown on the subdivision plan as crossing the Diamond Creek. The western part was originally named Wellington Street.
It is not known when the first bridge was constructed in Brougham Street however it was certainly mentioned at Council’s meeting of 2 June 1884 as being in a dangerous state of repair. This photo (c.1895) of an old bridge shows a very low-level simple log girder bridge crossing the creek at a right angle. This bridge was generally known as Kaylocks Bridge or Kaylock’s Crossing after the owner of the adjoining land. It was most likely built from around the mid-1850s, or a crossing of some fashion was established, by Richard George Kaylock, butcher of Little Eltham, who with his wife Emily Ann settled there in 1854. His property was in Wellington Street (now Brougham Street) and apparently extended across the Diamond Creek. The land on the western side was farmed, the house being on the eastern side.
Kaylock’s Bridge formed part of the original coach road to Eltham and in 1922 was described as an “old rustic bridge”. Its low level and insubstantial construction made it susceptible to flood damage, necessitating frequent closures until repairs could be carried out.
In September 1922, Council called for tenders for a new timber bridge to be constructed at Kaylock’s Crossing. An engineering assessment carried out for the Council by Macleod Consulting, at the time of the replacement, based on construction details suggested it was built in the 1900s, however this dating could possibly have been the result of numerous repairs undertaken over the years to repair flood damage.
The tender was awarded to Mr Weller of Kangaroo Ground who commenced work in February 1923 on a higher-level timber trestle bridge. Work was slowed due to illness of the contractor and the accidental death of a man in March 1923, following the collapse of the bank after he had jumped into a hole that had just been blasted. The bridge was completed around July 1923 at which point the old structure was pulled up, marking what was described in the Advertiser newspaper as the passing of an old and well-loved landmark in the district.
In late March 1924 the approach to Kaylocks Bridge was washed away during the heavy flooding that also saw the temporary bridge in place for the destroyed the Main Road bridge deep under water. The western side was repaired, and an extra span added to the eastern side using timber from the destroyed Main Road bridge. Repairs to the bridge were completed and it was re-opened to traffic in early August, was again severely damaged, later in August 1924.
When a lack of finances delayed repairs to the Bridge Street bridge in 1931 (also known at the time as Obelisk Bridge), traffic had to detour via Brougham Street for some time. Local residents feared the Bridge Street bridge might never reopen.
Brougham Street Bridge, 1989. View looking east showing the extra span added in 1924. (Photo: R. Yeoman 1989, EDHS Collection)
Kaylocks Bridge was constantly subject to damage by floods. In the record setting 1934 flood it was submerged by two feet of water. In more recent times the bridge was again severely damaged by flooding and repairs made. A new bridge and adjoining footbridge were constructed in 2009.
Brougham Street Bridge late 1970s, view looking south. (Photo: Eltham Shire Council, EDHS collection)
Brougham Street Bridge late 1970s, view looking west. (Photo: Eltham Shire Council, EDHS collection)
Research and text: P. Pidgeon, December 2021
Our Society encourages interest in and the sharing of stories about the local history of the Eltham district in Victoria, Australia
Eltham District Historical Society Inc. 