City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 22.3 Promoting settlementCrown land sales 1838-40As noted above, Batman’s ‘purchase’ of land from the Kulin was ruled illegal, and the colonialgovernment in Sydney took control of the Port Phillip District and the village that was tobecome Melbourne. The first sales of Melbourne’s township blocks took place in 1837. Salesof the country lands to Melbourne’s north commenced in 1838, with one of the first being thelarge allotments of around 800 to 1000 acres in the Parish of Keelbundora. On 12 Septemberthe six large allotments - 10 to 15 Parish of Keelbundora - which comprise the northern end ofthe study area, were auctioned. The remainder of the study area is in the Parish of Jika Jika,where land sales took place in 1839 and 1840. The Jika Jika allotments ranged in size fromaround 1000 acres at the northern end of the parish (today’s Northernhay Road) down to 92acres in the south east (today’s Alphington and Fairfield). By June 1840, all of the land in thestudy area had been sold (McIlroy, 1937 & 1939).Figure 7Preston land sales allotment map,1838-39[Forster, 1968:10]Speculators and land boomersFew of the first land buyers settled on their blocks, most were speculators looking for a quickprofit by subdividing and selling their allotments. The purchasers included William Lonsdalethe Police Magistrate sent to administer the Port Phillip District. Within a few monthsLonsdale resold his allotment 138 Parish of Jika Jika for around five times his original outlay(Forster, 1968:9). Other purchasers, particularly in the northern reaches of the area, were notable to make a quick profit and held onto their land, leasing it out to farmers for many years.Major Alexander Davidson, who bought allotment 13 Keelbundora, tried to subdivide and sellhis land, but it remained virtually intact and farmed by tenants into the twentieth century.Some purchasers, such as Abel Gower, a London investor who probably never saw his land,and George Urquhart are remembered by street names in Preston and Northcote respectively.By 1843, Melbourne’s first land boom had ended and many speculators were left with landthey could not sell. As noted earlier in this chapter Rucker, who had bought more landadjoining his first two blocks, was unable to trade his way out of his financial difficulties whenthe market collapsed.Michael Pender was one of the few original grantees who remained to farm his allotment 137Jika Jika, just south of Dundas Street. He built a homestead on the Darebin Creek in the early1840s, and called his property Pender’s Grove. However much of the land, especially thelarger blocks in the north were used for grazing or occupied by tenant farmers leaving thelandscape sparsely settled for decades.26