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Home of J K McDougall. Interesting history there, local farmer, politician and he was a poet too.
Cache is a screw topped 500 ml round plastic container with log, pencil and a few swaps.
On the night of September 21st 1836 Mitchell’s party camped near Tatyoon and wrote in his journal (of the land between Willaura and Tatyoon) that, “a land more favourable for colonisation could not be found. Flocks might be turned out upon its hills, or the plough at once set to work in the plains. No primeval forests required to be first rooted out, although there was enough wood for all purposes of utility”. Mitchell named the Hopkins River. Two days later Mitchell was surprised to see fresh tracks of several bullocks so he was not the first white man to the area. They saw two aboriginal women and their children digging for roots in a swampy meadow.
In 1839 Joseph Hawdon and Lieutenant Mundy drove a gig with two horses tandem and four others running loose in charge of a servant, from Melbourne to Adelaide. On July 19th they traveled thirty-three miles (53 km) across the plains and camped by the Hopkins River by a large sheet of water. Hawdon described the country as the most beautiful he had yet seen in Australia, adding, “Major Mitchell might well call such a country Australia Felix”.
Matthew Gibson settled in the Maroona area from 1837-38 and grazed his stock on the Hopkins River plains until the aborigines drove him out. This was understandable as they had made friendly overtures to Mitchell and his men only a few years before and been rewarded by threats.
In 1839 Scottish settlers opened up country near Mount Cole and until 1843 stockmen drove sheep and cattle into what is now part of the Rural City of Ararat.
In 1840 the first squatters arrived and selected their ‘runs’ (3 miles from the furthest outstation of the last run was the accepted rule). Tenancy was limited to 20 square miles at £10 per year for a squatting licence and a halfpenny per sheep.
In 1841 William Kirk squatted on the Hopkins River. He had 11,000 acres, which he called ‘Burrumbeep’. He had 30,000 sheep and 500 cattle (with one sheep to 3 acres). ‘Burrumbeep’ sheep were originally of Camden Park blood bred by Captain John Macarthur’s wife from silky-fleeced Saxony sheep.
2 male and 1 female aborigine were killed on ‘Burrumbeep’ land in July or August of 1841.
In the winter of that year A. G. Robinson (Chief Protector of Aborigines) counted about 1000 aborigines left in the area (he passed the spot where the Whyte brothers had killed 17) and watched Chief Timber-roon stamping on Burrumbeep Hill shouting “This country belonga me. My country!” The aborigines used the hill as a base for sending smoke messages out to the tribes to attend meetings. Robinson received a lot of useful information from Timber-roon who later helped the settlers and was used to carry rations to the out-stations. 25 years later only 40 of the aborigines were left. Some had been poisoned and others died of disease, because of starvation they had no resistance. The kangaroos and emus they had hunted had long gone, the sheep and cattle had eaten the native fruit trees and vegetables. The last of the Mount Moornambool tribe were seen in September of 1868. There was only 1 old man and his wife, 2 young girls and 2 young men described as ‘looking starved’. They weren’t seen again.
In 1843 H. Lingham drew a map on stone. It showed only the names of the properties. Chirnside was east of Mount William, south of there was Parker (Yarram Yarram), east of Parker on the Hopkins River was Ross (Gledfield). Closer to Ararat on the east side of the river was McGill; southeast on Fiery Creek was Thompson and Stevens (Yalla-Y-Poora). In 1843 Thomas Elder Boyd, James Hunter Ross and William McGill owned ‘Burrumbeep’. Commissioner Foster Fyans wrote scathingly of the squalor of the homestead huts in the early 1840’s. “No gardens, no vegetables, but bones and rotting sheep skins around the door…not so much as a drop of milk; for breakfast by custom, mutton chops swimming in fat and damper; damper and mutton chops for dinner”.
By 1850 ‘Burrumbeep’ stretched from Langi Ghiran to the Grampians. By then Commissioner Fyans would have had no cause to complain about the living conditions of the squatters. They had overseers, boundary riders, coachman, groom, gardener and milkman, cook, maids and a boy.
Squatters and speculators secured the major portion of a large area with the Shire boundaries under the Duffy Act of 1862. The newspaper claimed that one squatter waited with 17 employees for the land offices to open. Each of these frugal servants was armed with £320 prepared to take up double the number of acres on behalf of the squatter. Not one selection in fifty stayed in the hands of the original certificate holders and huge estates grew up again within a few years. Ararat was one of the chief bones of contention in the Gavan Duffy Land Act; the abuses were the most flagrant and the most open.
After the Second World War the land was opened up to Soldier Settlers. Some of their descendants are still here today although on much larger properties as the allotted farms were too small and many people again left the area.
On 11/2/1870 a deputation from Ararat, Hamilton, Stawell and the Wimmera pressed for railway connections. John Little, President of the Shire, stated that 11 passenger coaches were going in and out of Ararat daily and 3400 tons of goods, excluding timber and wool, passed over the shire roads each month. Four railway routes to Hamilton were proposed – the ‘pink’ line through Ballarat, Beaufort, Ararat and Maroona was chosen.
Five people died during construction, 1 at Ballarat, 1 at Glenthompson, 1 at Dunkeld and 2 at the Maroona derailment. On 6/4/1875 the first train arrived in Ararat from Ballarat at 2pm after smashing through the gates at Buangor, the gatekeeper either asleep or absent.
The harvest of 1870 reached a peak on the plains south of Ararat. Some selectors used bonedust but the majority grew crop after crop without replenishing or resting the soil and as yield declined they sold out to the nearest squatter cum farmer.
The autumn of 1874 saw many small landholders pass through Ararat with wagons laden with household goods, farm implements and bags of seed, many going to the Wimmera.
The Ararat to Hamilton Railway was opened in October 1877. Seven people died in four accidents during its construction. On 4/12/1877 a party of linesmen returning to Ararat were riding in front of the engine in trucks which struck a horse near Jackson’s Creek crossing. The trucks were shattered; the engine overturned and men scattered. Four men died and seven others injured. 1000 people waited at Dunkeld for the first train to arrive and an enterprising aborigine wearing a guard’s cap and badge, collected sixpences from the travelers, thereby creating a diversion.
The train fare to Melbourne was 25/6 first class, 17/- second class and postage (carried by the trains) rates were 2 pence per half ounce for letters, parcels 1 penny per 2 ounces and a halfpenny for newspapers.
The original Maroona Railway Station was large and well equipped and the train engines could use the turntable to change direction. The brick building was removed brick by brick and reassembled as a suburban station in Melbourne. The Station Master's House is still nearby but the old station is empty and forlorn. If coming in from Ararat you would have passed the remains of the original Burrumbeep Homestead and the flour mill, the bridge and dam made from what was left of the bluestone Sandy Creek Hotel. The site is marked by a yew tree just south of Burrumbeep Road on the western side of the road. The bluestone Crown Hotel on the subdivision of the original town on the western side close to the road. is now a private residence. The Maroona Racecourse was behind it and part of an original corrugated iron building is still standing, but won't be for long. The bluestone was carried down from the Grampians. Many Melbourne buildings are made from Grampians bluestone too.
The town moved down to the station area after the railways came through. The other buildings of the second town in the station area have all gone too except for one house hand built in the late 1940's from the remains of the others.
The first Maroona School opened in 1877 due to the petitions of the people, but that's another story.
The footy oval / cricket ground only has the odd sheep grazing on it now. The Maroona General Store closed in 2000 and only the current pub and school remain. The surrounding district is still used for fine sheep wool, crops, beef and lamb production.
There are photos of the original railway buildings displayed in the Maroona Hotel.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Zvqqyr bs ynetr cvar gerr