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One of Australia’s most famous citizens, the soldier-engineer General Sir John Monash was born in Dudley Street, West Melbourne, Victoria, June 1865, the son of Louis Monash and his wife Bertha, née Manasse. He was born to Jewish parents, both from Krotoschin, in the Posen province, Kingdom of Prussia (now Krotoszyn in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland); the family name was originally spelt Monasch (pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable).(1) Louis and Bertha’s home was in one of a terrace of four, two story houses named Rich Hill Terrace, at number 58 to 64 Dudley Street originally built by John Harbinson, a Melbourne City Councillor and MLA, on 26th March 1862,(3) overlooking the Flagstaff Hill, so named because one of the earliest Government Houses stood on the hill and on its flagstaff a flag was flown whenever the English mail arrived in port by ship.   Source. (1) Wikipedia, Sir John Monash. (2) National Library of Australia. Early photograph of Monash. (3) PROV. VPRS 9288, unit 8, year 1862.

Bourke, an Irish-born British Army officer served as the 8th Governor of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837. As a lifelong Whig (Liberal), he encouraged the emancipation of convicts and helped bring forward the ending of penal transportation to Australia. In this, he faced strong opposition from the military/conservative establishment and its press. He approved a new settlement on the Yarra River, and named it Melbourne, in honour of the incumbent British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne.(1) Bourke learnt in 1835 that squatters were crossing from Van Diemen’s Land to Port Phillip and claimed to have a treaty with the Aboriginals, he pressed for the establishment of areas of permanent settlement there, arguing that much evil might be averted by the early introduction of official control. Meanwhile, to protect crown rights, he issued a proclamation declaring that the agreement with the Aboriginals was void, and the squatters were intruders. The Colonial Office acceded to Bourke’s request and gave him wide discretion in the form of government to be established. Bourke acted at once. In September 1836 he sent Captain William Lonsdale to Port Phillip to act as police magistrate, military commander, head of the civil administration, and protector of Aborigines. …

Born in Sumerset England in 1816, daughter of George Pyke Dowling, rector of Puckington, Somerset, and his wife Anne, née Biggs, of an old and wealthy Bristol family. She had married Denis Maloney in Sydney in 1847 and they later joined the Californian gold rush. Jane’s sister was Elizabeth Clarke née Dowling (1801-1878) wife of William Clarke. Jane left California and returned to Australia and lived in the first recorded house built at number 57 Roden Street West Melbourne on the 21st of February 1854.(1) The house was constructed of wood and it is believed where her son Dr. William Robert Maloney was born in 1854. Denis Maloney was entered into the baptismal register as William’s father, but he and Jane had already parted. Life as a deserted wife at that time in the Victorian era was vert tough, thankfully Jane was supported by her brother-in-law William J. T. ‘Big’ Clarke. Many people came to assume that William Clarke was the biological father to Jane’s children as he provided for them in his will.(3) Lot 11 on section 53, the corner of Roden & King streets in West Melbourne (house numbers 43 to 57 Roden Street) was one of a large …

William John Turner Clarke (1805-1874), pastoralist and landowner, was born on 20 April 1805 in Somerset, England, the second son of William Clarke of St Botolf, Aldgate, London, and his wife Sarah, née Turner, of Weston Zoyland, near Wells, Somerset. His yeoman father died in 1819 and William was placed under the guardianship of his uncle Joseph. He began to work for a drover taking cattle from Somerset to Smithfield and became a shrewd judge of livestock. At 21 the meat firm he was working with failed and he pledged himself to independence by making money, cautiously investing his savings in cattle and avoiding debt. In May 1829 he married Elizabeth (1801-1878), daughter of George Pyke Dowling, rector of Puckington, Somerset, and his wife Anne, née Biggs, of an old and wealthy Bristol family. A weak chest and a congenitally malformed hip as well as the prospect of new opportunities induced him to emigrate, and he arrived at Hobart Town with his wife in the Deveron on 23 December 1829. In 1837 Clarke shipped 1612 ewes across Bass Strait, and took them first to Station Peak in the You Yangs between Melbourne and Geelong, and then to Dowling Forest near …

 William Robert Maloney (1854-1940), humanitarian and politician, was born on 12 April 1854 at 57 Roden Street West Melbourne, son of Jane Maloney, née Dowling, then and later being supported by her brother-in-law W. J. T. ‘Big’ Clarke. Jane had married Denis Maloney in Sydney in 1847 and they later joined the Californian gold rush. Maloney was entered in the baptismal register as William’s father, but he and Jane had parted. Many people came to assume that Clarke was the father and he provided for the boy in his will. William attended a primary school in West Melbourne and the Errol Street National School. After a year in New Zealand he joined the Colonial Bank of Australia, left to spend a year or more at Scotch College, then rejoined the bank. At the Turn Verein he became an accomplished gymnast and was introduced to socialist ideas by German migrants. About 1874 he and his mother took up a selection at Longwarry, Gippsland, and over several years cleared 100 acres (40 ha). Returning to Melbourne, Maloney attended night-school, matriculated, and in 1880 began a medical course at St Mary’s Hospital, London (L.S.A., M.R.C.S., 1885). He became resident obstetric physician at St …

Born 9th February 1823 at Breage, Cornwall, England, son of James Richard Eade, farmer and miner, and his wife Elizabeth, née Dunnald. At 14 Joel left school and began work on a farm. In 1840-44 as an apprentice carpenter and joiner he attended classes at the local Mechanics’ Institute, ‘acquiring a knowledge of drawing and design that lifted him out of the rank of journeymen’. From 1845 he practised his trade in London, taking charge of a workshop where his employer discovered his drawing skill. In 1851 he went to California and gained a similar position. In 1857 Eade arrived at Melbourne in the What Cheer. After four unsuccessful months on the Ovens goldfields he worked on the Beechworth court-house at £6 a week and was in charge at its completion. In 1859 he sought further contracts in Melbourne and then Daylesford where he had more success and bought land. He returned to Melbourne in 1861 and soon set up as an architect and builder at Collingwood. He was assessor to the borough in 1867-69, a member of the Municipal Council in 1869-75 and mayor in 1870-71. As honorary surveyor he planned new public buildings, including public baths, reformed the …

Born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1825),. Jeffcott was called to the Irish Bar in 1828, practicing as a barrister in Dublin for many years before he came to Australia. Upon his arrival in Sydney in 1843, he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court at Port Phillip at a salary of £1500. Jeffcott succeeded John Willis, who was removed from office by the then Governor of Victoria, Sir George Gipps. As a judge Jeffcott proved successful and popular, and was described as bland in his manners, good-tempered, firm, impartial and methodical. ‘He was a vast improvement upon the gentleman he succeeded, and the Court business was no longer a series of gratuitous farces for public amusement. From a bear-garden, it became a decent, well-behaved place’. Willis having appealed to the Privy Council against his removal from office, in December 1844 Jeffcott insisted upon resigning because of conscientious scruples, not shared by anyone else, that his appointment as judge might turn out to have been invalid if Willis’s appeal should be upheld. William Jeffcott left Melbourne in February 1845 and returned to Ireland, where he resumed practice as a barrister at Dublin.(1) Jeffcott Street West Melbourne …

Arrived in Melbourne, January 1838. A fortnight later launched the weekly “Port Phillip Gazette”, the first legalised journal in Port Phillip. January 1839, published, and probably wrote, the first original poem on Melbourne to be printed there. May 1839, produced Victoria’s first pamphlet (subject—a Benefit Society). September 1840 appeared his “Australia Felix”, the first book published in Melbourne.The first year of the “Gazette’ demonstrated Arden’s ability, energy and public spirit. Some of his leaders would have done credit to any publication. He was master of a fluent though florid and inflated style. By frequent lectures he fostered a national taste for literature. The rise of the “Port Phillip Patriot” (1939) and the “Port Phillip Herald” (1840) brought competition. The three papers gave themselves up to “splenetive vilification of each other.” Arden’s excesses gradually undermined his character and career. George went bankrupt in 1842. Attempted a recovery, and failed, by farming around Queenscliff. Tried his luck in 1852 on the gold diggings. In May 1854 he was found dead on Bakery Hill, Ballarat; “dismissed by his peers as a man of talent and power cut down by his own Intemperance.”(1) Arden Street North Melbourne was named in his honor. Source. (1) …