George Durrant Starling and his wife Clementina left Norfolk, England and arrived in Melbourne in 1859 to start a new life, first living at Janefield, now Bundoora, where they ran a farm. They were joined ten years later by their grandsons George Davey Starling jnr. and Adrian Starling.
Alexander Stewart arrive in Melbourne from Edinburgh, Scotland in 1852. He was working on the construction of Yan Yean Reservoir when he met and married Mary Jane Short in 1854. Their first child Margaret was born there in 1855. After work at Yan Yean was completed, the family move to a farm in Mernda. In the mid-1860’s they were living in Janefield later moving to Greensborough. In the 1870’s they bought land at Tanck’s Corner (Yarrambat).
Links between the two families may have begun in Janefield and seem to have been kept up over the years as George Davey Starling jnr. married Margaret Stewart there in 1877. Maud, their first child, was born in Diamond Creek in 1878, followed by nine more children over the next 20 years.
The Starling family properties were centred on an area between Diamond Creek, Plenty, Greensborough and Tanck”s Corner so this gave them a number of options for schooling over the twenty or so years when the children were growing up. Isa, at five, started walking the one and half miles to Diamond Creek, often with her sister Ida giving her a piggy back home. Later when she was older, Isa moved to Greensborough State School, a three mile walk, which she did until she was old enough to ride a horse to school. Walter and Leonora attended school at Tanck’s Corner, while other members of the family went to school at Plenty and Diamond Creek.
An 1888 survey map (below) of the area from Nillumbik (now Diamond Creek) Township west towards Plenty has details of properties owned by George Davey Starling jnr. and George Durrant Starling who had also moved to Diamond Creek in 1870. The vertical road to the right of the centre of the map is now Lambert Street and on the left edge is Yan Yean Road/Heard Avenue.
The family had houses on both properties, with the late and main house on Heard Avenue, initially named ‘The Firs’. In 1917 it became ‘Hazeldene’ after daughter Isa suggested it be renamed for the town on the Flowerdale Road, where there was a favourite picnic spot on the King Parrot Creek, beside the bridge leading to Hazeldene township.
George Davey Starling was an orchardist and a member of the Nillumbik Horticultural Society and more than likely also a member of the Nillumbik Fruitgrowers Association as most orchardists in the local district were.
The family were active in the community attending and supporting St John’s Church of England and later Diamond Creek Methodist Church as well.
Frederick and Walter served during the First World War, both seeing action; Fred came home and married and continued helping with the farm and orchard while living nearby; Walter was severely wounded in France and died in 1918 in a London hospital.
Maud and her husband George Fineran lived near the Plenty School, but George was killed in 1916 during the First World War. Maud’s father helped her start a shop at her home that became the original Plenty store. Later, Maud’s sister Leonora and her husband Frank Winsor took over running the store. They used logs as rollers to move the house down the hill, close to the location of the Plenty Store that has recently been upgraded with the Yan Yean Road widening.
Alexander and Mary-Jane Stewart built their home in Pioneer Road in 1870 using wattle and daub – a frame of wattle saplings packed with mud. The walls were papered inside with old newspapers from the 1860’s; the roof was originally wooden shingles, later covered with galvanised iron from Scotland.
Alexander Stewart died in 1900 and Mary-Jane in 1913, both are buried in Nillumbik Cemetery. The Stewart cottage was then looked after by Robert Stewart and family, and after that by the Hackett family, from about 1948. The old cottage was blown down by a severe storm in the mid-1950’s, having stood for about 80 years. The site is marked by elms and shady pine trees, which include several Scots pines that may have come from trees originally planted by the Stewarts.
My family
Thank you Geoff, great to hear from you. If you would like to know more or if you have information to share, please let us know.
Help please,
Was Alexander and Mary Jane Stewart property named Lothian Hills.
Hello Geof, yes it was – ‘In the early 1870s, the family moved from Sand Hill (Flintoff’s Hill), Greensborough, to Tanck’s Corner (Yarrambat), where they lived in a ‘wattle and daub’ cottage in the middle of their property, on a small hill. The Stewart’s property was called ‘Lothian Hills’, after Alex Stewart’s home country near Edinburgh, Scotland.
Pte James Stewart 1878 K.I.A
Buried Shell Green Cemetery
Gallipoli
Son of James and Maude Stewart
Grandson of Alexander and Mary Jane Stewart
Thank you Geof. You may be interested in the WW1 memorial panels we have installed at Ellis Cottage. There are three panels naming the 153 servicemen from Diamond Creek district. James Stewart is one of them. We also have a comprehensive military history and as well as some family history for James and the other servicemen.
https://placesofpride.awm.gov.au/memorials/241721
Is it possible to get photo of panels.
My son and I are heading to Scotland in June , chasing Ancestors
Hi Geof, yes we can send a good quality image of the panels. If you send an email to elliscottage@gmail.com we can email it to you.
James Stewart had 4 cousins and an uncle that served WW 1, Also 2 nephews served in WWII one was in the R.A.F and one in the R.A.A.F
Hi Geof, the names on our panels for WW1 servicemen (there were no women from Diamond Creek who served or were nurses) are taken from local honour boards and rolls and memorials and have been confirmed to have had a connection to Diamond Creek. We would be interested to know the names of James Stewart’s 4 cousins and his uncle to see any connection to our area when they enlisted. Research for our WW2 servicemen and women is a plan for the future but not sure when we will be starting that but if you could give us his two nephews’ names we can certainly research them too. Thank you.
Have one small problem.
Every thing I have read on Alexander and Mary Jane is that the met on the ship called Charles in1854,
How ever going Thur passager list Mary Jane and her sister Margaret and Brother in law Thomas Sleeth are there, but no Alexander.?????
Thank you
Hi Geof, as you’re travelling next month to search for your ancestors, we have a document written by a descendant of the Stewart and Starling families. It was given to us to share freely so if you email us at elliscottage@gmail.com we can send you a pdf copy of it. To help with your specific query this is a paragraph from that document “Mary-Jane Short was from a farm in Northern Ireland, near Newry, County Armagh. At 20 years of age, she travelled to Melbourne on the ship ‘Charles’, arriving in Oct 1853. According to her granddaughter Isa, Mary-Jane’s younger sister Margaret had run away with the horse groom and then got married (when barely old enough). The parents blamed Mary-Jane, that she knew what was going on and hadn’t told them. So when the sister and her husband (Thomas Sleeth) decided to leave Ireland and come to Australia, Mary-Jane came with them.” Looking forward to hearing from you.
Hi Again,
sorry about sloe reply,
James Stewart cousin’s that serviced WW1
Walter David Starling
Fredrick George Starling
George Francis Fineran
David Iredale {uncle}
Also a cousin from Lillian family tree
Godfrey John Buckland from Syndey Aust .
Laslett/Buckland tree very interesting to me
a Buckland killed Boar War,
Sir Thomas Buckland , Banking ,Mining ,Cattle Stations ,newspapers,etc
Dorothea Mackellar [poet}
Edward Laslett kalgoorlie Goldfields,
Australia is small pond
James’s had 4 sister’s
Annie Veronica [Stewart] Ward
Constance Stewart
Lillian Irene [Stewart] Merchant
Phillis Blanche [Stewart] Adam
Basil john Adam Flight Lieutenant/Pilot K.I.A 1942
Trelss James Stewart Adam K.I.A 1945
I have a Charles Stewart died 1889 in Diamond Creek, brother of Alexander ????
Cheers
Have an awesome day
Geoff
Hi Geof, thank you for so many names and connections, they will be very valuable for us to research further. We are aware of James’ cousin Walter and Fred Starling and George Fineran, but not David Iredale so thank you! Thank you too for the WW2 names. I have just emailed you the document for the Starling and Stewart families as well as the photo of our panels. I also included our March 2021 newsletter that you will find some interesting WW1 Diamond Creek servicemen stories. It may also answer your Charles Stewart question so let me know if it doesn’t. Have a wonderful and fulfilling trip to Scotland. All the best.