Written in 1995 by the late Rita Dorling.
Around 1998-999 I phoned to speak to Rita but was informed by Graeme that she had passed away a few months earlier. Rita had produced a booklet on the Browne families and my parents had given me a copy a few years prior. I had set up my Muston.com website and was trying to research the history of John and Jane Muston (Browne). Luckily Graeme offered to mail to me a few items that Rita had left of her research, and in the envelope was just one 1.44 Mb floppy disc which contained not only the text you will read below, but the entire spreadsheet she had prepared on this family. This information is shared here on this website on behalf of Rita, I am sure she would approve. Thank you Rita Dorling.
Please look at the contacts page if you wish to know more about this family, or contribute.
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WILLIAM BROWNE and ELIZA TALBOT were married at St. Paul's Church of England in Sale in 1864. While little is known of their early lives, we do know that after their marriage they lived at Blackhall Creek, in the Munro area of Gippsland, out from Stratford. In 1885 they moved to Briagolong, where they remained for the rest of their lives. They cleared the land and built a home there, and while the home is certainly no longer in liveable condition, it still remains, and in the district still are over 20 of their descendants, covering four generations, so most of the information in this booklet is what has evolved since the BROWNEs became a part of Briagolong.
WILLIAM THOMAS BROWN was born in Sydney N.S.W. in 1848, 60 years after the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. WILLIAM's parents were SARAH ROACH and SAMUEL BROWN; the latter was recorded as being a "sawyer at Balambi N.S.W. in 1848", and subsequently as a "carpenter of Strathfieldsaye in 1864" when WILLIAM and ELIZA were married in 1864.
There is a discrepancy between his ages according to the Birth, Baptism and Marriage Certificates, although the same parents' names are recorded. A great grand-daughter, Ruby Short, of Briagolong, has copies of these certificates. According to the Marriage Certificate, WILLIAM was 22 and ELIZA 21 at the time of their wedding in 1864. It could be that the age was quoted differently at the time of his wedding .
According to the age on his Birth Certificate, WiILLIAM was some years younger than ELIZA, and a minor as well. Thus were provided two common reasons for a different age to be given at the time of marriage:- A. So that he would appear to be a bit older, rather than younger than his wife; and B. To appear to be of "adult age" so that permission would not have to be given for him to be married. We must remember that WILLIAM would have been working (at hard physical work) since just a boy, and would have developed the strength of an adult, also by mixing with adults he would have acquired adult ways and thinking. We do not know who knew whose correct age, and even the Death Certificates information doesn’t quite tally - obviously age was not an important factor in their lives.
But what does preciseness matter - they were our ancestors who led good lives and of whom we can be proud, so let's leave it at that! At the time of production of this booklet (1995), there are (were) still four surviving grandchildren ; ELLEN WALKER, BILL LOTTON, ROSE GREY, and MYRA BROWN who remember them both from their childhood, so we are very lucky to thus have a direct personal connection with these forebears of ours.
ELIZA TALBOT was born in County Kerry, Ireland between 1839 and 1843 , possibly 1842.She was the daughter of MARY CONNOR and HENRY TALBOT, who was recorded as being a farmer at Strathfieldsaye in 1864, at the time of their daughter ELIZA's marriage to WILLIAM BROWN on 20th October 1864. [That also was the year that the noted Australian poet A.B.(Banjo) Patterson was born.]
ELIZA had come to Australia with her cousin Mary Talbot, who later married Mr. John Lee of "Leebrooke" (in the Munro district). It is highly likely that they arrived in Melbourne on the ship "Blue Jacket" in December 1860, but this is unconfirmed. That ship's passenger records include "ELIZA TALBOT 18 years, Mary Talbot 20 years, and John Talbot 18 years" . It could be that John was Mary's brother, but then again, with the number of passengers on board he could have been of the same surname, but unrelated.
For over 20 years WILLIAM and ELIZA farmed at Blackhall Creek, and it was while they lived here that nine of their ten children (four daughters and six sons) - JANE(1865), SARAH (1867), WILLIAM HENRY(1868), CATHERINE (KATE)(1869), MARION (1871), EDWARD (1874), SAM(1876), WILLIAM WALTER (1878), and THOMAS (1880), were born, HERBERT(b.1888)being their only "Briagolong" child. In 1885 they moved to a property about two miles south of Briagolong, on the corner of Stratford Rd. and Freeman's Rd. They named it "Varroville" and progressively they built their home and the necessary sheds, stables etc. (The property, still known as "BROWNE"'s, is now managed by a great-grandson, STAN FREEMAN, who lives opposite in Freeman's Rd. at "The Fringe" - if any descendants ever wish to visit "Varroville", please contact STAN first as a courtesy, and also please shut any gates which you open.)
Such was their loyalty to friends and neighbours, that when the family's move from Blackhall was made, it lowered the attendance at the local school sufficiently to put the education of the children of the remaining families there in jeopardy by that school having to be closed because of low numbers. So rather than risk that by having the young Browne children attend Briagolong school which was a mile(1.6 kms.) closer, the younger school-going Brownes continued to attend the Blackhall school and walked the four miles(6.4 kms.) there and back again each day (often seeing koalas galore as they went - none there now), thus causing no interruption to their former neighbours' children's education. This long, and longer than necessary, walk would have been made without query; it was not considered extra-ordinary. Later, the two youngest childern attended the Briagolong school.
Their home, "Varroville", also typified the era. Their family of ten children was not unusual then, and there was a large room away from the house called "the boys' room", and thus (as in so many families) all were accommodated. The main house was built low to the ground, having a verandah across the front(east) and along the south side to an extension of the kitchen which was at the rear of the house with its own verandah behind. In typical style, there was a passage from the front door with a bedroom on either side, a sitting/dining room with another bedroom off it also opening onto side verandah, the common exterior bathroom was enclosed at the north end of the front verandah, and at the rear was the "hub" of the house - the big kitchen with its wide fireplace and later a wood stove. Quite close to the back verandah on which were benches with the galvanised wash tubs for use with the wood copper, is a waterhole, which must have been of concern if it was there when the children were small. Initially it was dug to be a well for underground water, but this never eventuated.
In the kitchen's wide fireplace originally there was included a brick oven for bread etc. but this was removed many years and "mountains"of meals later, and then the large wood stove provided all the family's subsequent cooking needs. Across the wide kitchen's upper walls was a metal bar as a part of constructional support, but it had another use, for swinging from it, by a number of grandchildren and great grandchildren when visiting over the years. It seemed so exciting and adventurous, and we all loved that "pre-monkey bars" experience, which is still remembered by the generations and makes the old home a "real place" in so many minds.
On the north side of the house the front passage led out onto another small verandah with an enclosed storage room with shelving for pumpkins and other home-grown produce etc. This led around to another exterior door (from the wide kitchen) and a genuine "cottage" garden which included a beautiful golden rose well remembered by grandchildren who visited in the earlier decades of this century. An orchard planted by WILLIAM provided fruit for many, many years, and a vegetable garden by the creek kept the family well-sustained.
The main entrance to the property was from the Stratford Rd. north of the Freemans Rd. corner. As time progressed they made this entrance quite impressive, putting in a wide cast iron gate with the name "Varroville" in the centre, the gate being hung from large red gum posts with round "ball" trims on top, picket fencing splayed back at the sides, and from there the tree-lined track led straight down past the rear of the big three-storeyed barn to the harness sheds, stables etc. The entrance, disused for many years, is still there, with the track less clearly defined, and the "ball" trims missing from the original gateposts (purloined and never found) but the original gate remains; one story about it is included in the "SAM BROWNE" section of this booklet.
The six sons all grew to be quite tall, lean men with dark hair and auburn tinged moustaches, and most were very mechanically minded - this interest developing from working on push-bikes in their room in the evenings when they were younger (as recalled many years later by their sister MIN), through to building and/or using many types of machinery later on. Their big traction engine, "Sarah", was very well-known in the district, having had a part in the provision of timber for many district buildings and fences, as well as for many farming purposes such as ploughing, chaff-cutting, removal of buildings to new locations etc.(Some examples are in the photos section of this booklet). TOM, the second youngest, was especially well known to all the district for so much work done with "Sarah"; and later TOM's nephew HARRY Walker worked initially with TOM and "Sarah" too, then took over from TOM.
Much of the Briagolong area was originally red gum forest, and prior to our WILLIAM and ELIZA BROWNE 's taking up the property in 1885, the well known large timber mill of William Forbes was sited there near the "Middle Creek" north of Freeman's Rd. Numerous "spot mills" were in the district's extensive red gum forests, but the Forbes steam mill was one of the largest red gum mills, at one stage being surrounded by eleven small homes for its workers. It had an eight feet deep saw-pit, and a tramway for moving the timber, and in the 1870's was producing pre-cut timber homes - only two rooms, but functional, and some still stand (with additions) around the Briagolong area today. (Incidentally, William Forbes also originally took up land on the road bend just north of Briagolong township; the same property later became the family home and farm of a BROWNE great grandchild, GWEN Johnson and her late husband, Roy; their son PETER now runs that property but GWEN is still there - so there is another family link with the very early white settlement days of the area.)
The Forbes mill has been well gone from "Varroville" for so very long, and the mill site has subsequently been a part of the BROWNE's property for so long, yet its former use is still remembered by that paddock to this day being referred to as "the Mill paddock", even though that mill which was so important to the district existed so long ago.
As the BROWNE's own land was cleared for farming and grazing, the fallen timber was used for all the buildings, sheds, three-storey barn etc. and for slab fences, portions of which remain today, though now not in usable condition. The house itself also remains but has deteriorated over the years, too. The three-storey barn is still standing and remains in use for storage of hay etc., although little is left now of the two upstairs sections of the north wall - the covering at that end of the building had been of wide thick sheets of bark - 100 or so years later one couldn't expect much of that type of wall to remain after all that exposure to the elements! The barn was the venue for a number of dances (but not in the last half century )- dancing on the first floor and supper on the upper floor was the procedure. People came from near and far to these nights. It is also remembered by great grandchildren as a great "playroom " when visiting Harold and ROSE Freeman at "The Fringe" opposite during school holidays in the 1940's and 1950's; Harold also hung tobacco there for drying after growing it as an extra crop during World War 2.
The entire barn has recently been re-stumped by Gordon Grey, husband of a BROWNE grand-daughter, ROSE Grey (nee Lotton, Freeman). This was a mammoth undertaking, and the well-used original cow shed area with bails, dairy "room" etc. had to be removed (after many years of disuse) from their position underneath the barn for the re-stumping task. During the removal of them, Gordon was able to see just what quality workmanship had been used in their construction over 100 years ago, with morticed joints, few nails, etc. What a credit to our ancestor and his sons! The barn is well visible when driving along both Stratford and Freeman's Roads.
WILLIAM and ELIZA were well involved in the establishment and building of All Saints' Church of England in Briagolong, and that church (now known as Anglican) retains to this day a marble plaque on the wall in their memory. "Varroville 's " mill was the venue on a series of occasions of well-attended local working bees when the timber for the "All Saints" vestry was sawn, and the building constructed, then it was transported on rollers by a bullock team to its site immediately at the rear of the church where it remains in use today. A quite historic photograph taken on one of those days included many well known locals who were the workers, and a team of ladies who supplied eats to keep them going.
WILLIAM was a respected community member who was on the local Mechanics Institute Committee(back as far as 1890 is on record) - this tradition has been continued by other generations of the family through to grandson BILL Lotton for over 25 years and a great grandson STAN Freeman who was a committee member for very many years, too.
WILLIAM must have been a very kind husband, because quite late in ELIZA's life when she was making a pot of tea for visitors she unthinkingly put her good silver teapot on the wood stove and the bottom burnt out of the teapot. The next time WILLIAM went to SALE her bought her a new silver teapot to replace it, and ELIZA was very grateful. That "new" teapot is now in the possession of a grand-daughter ROSE GREY, whose mother MARION(MIN) told her about the incident, and it explains why a teapot belonging to a couple who were married in 1864 should be of approx. 1912 vintage. The surviving 4 grandchildren remember "Grandfather BROWNE" as an elderly, but quietly gentle gentleman.
It will have been noticed that while these writings are titled as being about the lives, families, and descendants of "WILLIAM and ELIZA BROWNE", yet the initial sentence in this booklet gives information about the date and place of birth of "WILLIAM BROWN", with no "E". It was not uncommon in early days for the spelling of people's names to have varied at times. However, in this case it could have been for a good reason, according to one explanation about this which came down the generations via one of their grandsons, ALLAN. "At one stage, ‘our’ WILLIAM BROWN received an account for a then quite large sum from the well-known ‘Leslie's’ shop in Maffra. It was not his bill, but the name was quite common, and he was unable to prove that it was not his. So ‘to clear his own good name’ finally he paid it, but also henceforth made sure his surname had the "e" on the end to prevent further errors, and thus it became BROWNE - the spelling which we descendants have thus inherited".
As was the custom (really quite usual until about the 1950's), ladies wore hats whenever they went out, and the late Alec Bennett of Briagolong commented not so many years ago that he still well remembered "Mrs. BROWNE" in the jinker or buggy wearing her small dark hat with its ribbons tied under the chin.(One of her such "bonnet-type" of hats, with the back shaped up to fit around her "bun" of hair at the nape of the neck, survives today in the careful and proud possession of the author of this booklet).
There was a large family gathering at "Varroville" in October 1914 for the Golden Wedding of WILLIAM and ELIZA (patriotism and allegiance to England and the Empire were well to the fore at that time, and the family photographs taken that day show Union Jacks and other bunting draped among the trees in the background). Their third son, SAM, had died in his thirties in 1909, but all the other children were present, as well as grandchildren etc., and the photographic records of the day include one of the parents with their nine surviving children. Another interesting photograph which survives from that day was of four generations - ELIZA, her second eldest daughter SARAH Walker, SARAH's eldest son WILL, and WILL's eldest son CHARLIE as a baby seated on his great-grandmother's knee.
Following their deaths in 1916 and 1919 respectively, WILLIAM and ELIZA were buried at the Briagolong Cemetery in the family plot which still today contains a fenced tall obelisk, and within that area also are the graves of their sons SAM (1909), THOMAS (1945) and his wife Amelia (1961), EDWARD (1926) his wife Jane (1946) and their young son EDDIE (1915).
THE TEN BROWNE CHILDREN:-
1. JANE MUSTON (NEE BROWNE), ELDEST CHILD OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
JANE, who was born in 1865, married John Muston, who was born in England, migrated here as a "ship's cook" and worked in this capacity for some time after his arrival in Australia. Later he was a railwayman, and his work took the family to several parts of Victoria. The places of birth of their seven children gives an indication of some of their moves - Shepparton (JESSIE), Tallarook (WALTER), Devenish (ELLEN MARY [NELLIE] and TOM), Benalla (GEORGE), Shepparton again (ALF), and Heyfield (ESTHER), where they lived out the remainder of their lives. The house where they lived for over 40 years was still there in Heyfield early in1991 but is gone now, replaced on the same site by a new home. However, the name and signpost "MUSTON'S LANE" remains, as do the tall trees on the roadside; some of their younger nephews and nieces can remember them as thin saplings(even to having climbed them and swayed in the breeze!, which caused some concern to their older aunt). Their house was not far in on the right when entering Muston's Lane from the Glenmaggie Road - many of the grandchildren remember their childhood holidays there in the little town of Heyfield . Distance by horse transport was quite slow, but there was good contact with the Briagolong relations, and Melbourne ones came by train too for visits.
John Muston's birth certificate from Pailton, England (1.1.1849) gives his father, also John, as a labourer, and the signature of his mother Mary (nee Stanton) is done with a cross and the words added "the mark of Mary Muston, mother, Pailton". (This information is not included in any derogatory manner, but to indicate that education was not freely available to all, yet many of the uneducated would have been very intelligent people.)
For many years JANE stoically suffered from a painful "weeping" leg ulcer, and after more than two decades of coping with it mainly on her own, a doctor suggested a newer medication and it cleared up with no further problems - what a relief that must have been! JANE was a dedicated churchgoer, and attended St. James' Church of England in Heyfield for many, many years, and presumedly also worshipped equally devotedly, at other places where they'd lived. Current older residents of Heyfield remember her driving to church in the horse and jinker ready for services, whether rain, hail or shine. She was a great one also for participation in general community activites, and with her friend Mrs. Pearson regularly heated kerosene tins of milk over the fire to keep the coffee needs of social functions of Heyfield covered on innumerable occasions over many years.
Having raised her own family of seven, JANE then helped with the Lay family, friends of youngest daughter ESTHER; Mrs. Lay died in about 1918. The eldest child Myrtle (now Mrs. Ainge of Heyfield) , then 14, left school to look after the family, but JANE was of such an influence and assistance to them, and to Myrtle in particular, because after doing her own housework JANE would go and assist Myrtle with what was required in that household too, so that the Lay "children" all these years later still speak of her fondly as "Mum Muston" - a tribute indeed to her contribution to that family's growing up. By then John Muston would have been getting on in years, and the Lay "children" remember him as more a home-loving person, but JANE was still much more out-going, with the faithful horse and jinker giving long and reliable service for her outings. (The above-mentioned Mrs. Myrtle Ainge was bridesmaid at ESTHER's wedding, and although now in poorer health, still treasures early photos of herself with ESTHER Muston after so many years not just of the wedding, but others too such as, when still dressed up in their Sunday morning church finery, in the afternoon they would go for a walk around the town, feeling quite elegant, and chatting to whoever they met - simple pleasures indeed!) Most of the family moved away to work elsewhere after leaving school, as was the case in so many families.
JANE had cared for her mother in the final stage of ELIZA's life when she came to the MUSTON home at Heyfield, and other family members drove there( mainly horse or train transport) to visit their then ailing mother. Her eldest brother, HENRY, also lived the final part of his life with JANE in Heyfield.
The Muston household was well accustomed to visitors, be it family from Briagolong or further afield, or after JANE's and John's own children had married, when they also returned for visits. A grand-daughter, Phyllis Dickson, has commented on their many childhood Christmases there at the Muston home, and even in JANE's latter years relations would call in if passing through Heyfield.
JESSIE, the eldest child of JANE and John, married Syd Chalmers and they lived in Melbourne where they had two sons and a daughter - JAMES (JIM), GEORGE and HAZEL. Syd had a transport business. JIM had three children GRAEME, LENICE and MERILYN; GEORGE had no family. Only HAZEL survives of JESSIE'S and Sid's children. She has three sons, MICHAEL, JOHN and SCOTT, the latter with his wife Susan having one son JAKE.
WALTER, JANE's second child, married Ada Marshall from Glenmaggie, and they had 3 sons and one daughter - CHARLES, FRANCES MARY (MAYME), ALF (who was named for his uncle who had died at the 1st World War a few years prior to his birth), and ARTHUR. Early in the 20th century, when he was 14 years old, WALTER had left Victoria and gone to Queensland where he worked for quite some time at the Mount Morgan gold mine. Later he returned to Gippsland, and when he and Ada married they farmed for a time, then had the cordial factory in Traralgon, during which time their four children were born. Ten years after marriage they moved to Melbourne where at different times WALTER had a woodyard, ran a cornstore, and worked for the State Electricity Commision. He also for a time drove a char-a-banc for his brother- in-law Syd Chalmers.
Of WALTER's family, CHARLES who was with the R.A.A.F. in World War 2, served in Singapore and then they were sent to the Malayan border just before the Japanese came into the war. He survived their attack there, but later was taken as a Prisoner of War . He died in 1943 working on the Burma Railway , though the family didn't know of his fate until after the war ended in 1945. Later his mother had a plaque placed in his memory at Holy Trinity Anglican church at Hampton. It is in the Vicarage garden on the floodlight which illuminates the church tower.
MAYME married Jack Martin and they were very involved with business, sport, community and Municipal affairs in the Sandringham area. They had a daughter KAREN, who with her husband James Beatty,had three daughters, DANIELLE, CLAIRE and KATHERINE; KAREN is now married to David Berry. MAYME and Jack also had a son GARY, who is a keen yachtsman in his spare time. He and his wife Judith have two children JEREMY and CALLIE. Since Jack's death MAYME has lived in the Patterson Lakes area, in a lovely Retirement Village part of which is on the site of where she went on Girl Guide camps in her youth - how wheels do turn!
ALF, a carpenter, enlisted in World War 2 also, and for part of the time he served in Toowoomba which is when he met a local lass Edie Orford, whom he married after the war, and they have remained Queenslanders ever since, apart from some interesting adventures as itinerant workers in various parts of our country after ALF had officially retired. This friendly couple have two sons, ROBERT and JOHN, and a daughter GAYLE. ROBERTand his wife Linda have three children JODIE, TANYA and ADAM (the third A.E.MUSTON). GAYLE's children are DEAN, JACQUELYN and THOMAS, and JOHN's step-children are Brian, Errol, and Heide. So ALF and Edie have nine grandchildren, and of all these they are even more fond than of the lovely Toowoomba where they live (and that's saying something!)
ARTHUR, who married Ellen Thompson has, like MAYME, remained in Melbourne. They have a son RAYMOND and a daughter MARILYN. RAYMOND and his wife Kerry have three children KIM, CHRISTOPHER and SALLY while MARILYN and her husband Ian have two daughters, LORI and PETA.
NELLIE, the third in JANE's family, did domestic work in Melbourne where she married Angus Lotton, and they had one son, BERNARD. Angus was a travelling shearer who spent much time away, and died in the Mallee at a relatively young age. The marriage had broken down due to his extended absences, and she had subsequently married Harry Kent who farmed at Moyston, where they had a family of three sons and two daughters - EDNA, RONALD, MAXWELL, NORMAN and ROMA, eighteen grand-children and now there are thirty-one great grand-children. NELLIE lived the latter years of her life in Ararat, and died in 1971 at 80 years of age. BERNARD, the son of NELLIE's first marriage, and his wife Cavell had one son MAX, who with his wife Enid, and after their many years of diplomatic and the Public Service, including a stint in England with their then young sons, have retired and now live in Canberra. Their two sons are ANDREW and BRUCE.
JANE's second son TOM married but had no family.
GEORGE, the third son, also lived in Melbourne and married an English lass, Nellie Smith. (Incidentally, Nellie's father had migrated from Britain to New Zealand to teach the "hatting" trade there). GEORGE and Nellie had two sons and two daughters - JOHN(JACK), PHYLLIS, DULCIE and KENNETH.
JACK and his wife Rose, who have now long been Shepparton area dwellers, had four sons. KENNETH and Dawn have two daughters, JODIE and LISA; ROBERT and Susan have three boys, TIMOTHY, CHRISTOPHER and SCOTT; LINDSAY's and Susan's family are BENJAMIN, BREE, and BEAU; while ALAN, and his wife Rosalie had three children, SARA, MELANIE, and JOEL the youngest, who was born a few months after his father's sad death in 1980. JACK and Rose in retirement are keen gem-stone fossickers; and their extensive Campervan travels which include the digging tools, usually result in some interesting finds.
PHYLLIS married Charles Dickson, and they now live at Tura Beach, N.S.W. They had five daughters and a son - MARGARET, SUSAN, JULIE, JENNIFER, MICHELLE and PAUL. MARGARET and Gregory have three children, SACHA, CHRISTOPHER and ANDREW; JENNIFER' and Craig have TOMAS,BENJAMIN and MIA; MICHELLE and William have MARTIN; while PAUL amd Jane have a son JAMES.
DULCIE married Fred Bennett(now deceased) and lives in Melbourne. They had two children, DIANNE, and GARY who has died. DIANNE and Wayne have two children SHANE and KYLIE.
GEORGE's youngest son, KENNETH died aged seven years.
The youngest son of the Heyfield MUSTON family, ALF, enlisted and died at World War 1.
ESTHER, the youngest of JANE's family, worked as a telephonist at the Heyfield Post Office until her marriage at Heyfield to Ernest Noble "Bob" Draper, a railwayman. ESTHER's good friend Myrtle Lay (to whom JANE Muston had been so helpful when Myrtle's mother had died and Myrtle had the responsibility of the household work) was bridesmaid, and ESTHER's brother WALTER was best man. For a time they lived in Horsham, which is where DOROTHY was born; after that they lived in Melbourne. For a long time "Bob" worked in the Parcels Office at Spencer St. Station, and the Briagolong folk, especially BILL Lotton, if in Melbourne, would sometimes call there to see him and pass on greetings to cousin ESTHER. Incidentally, when ESTHER gave up her work at the Heyfield telephone exchange to be married, she suggested to BILL Lotton that he apply for the job. However BILL felt that his heart wanted him to be a farmer - which he has been all along, and now at the age of 86 and in not very good health he still has a couple of sheep - he must have made the right decision!
ESTHER and Bob had a family of three sons and five daughters - DOROTHY, MARIE, PETER, MARJORIE ANN, DIANA, ROBERT, ERNEST, and GLORIA, who died shortly before her father's death in 1971, leaving three young children.
DOROTHY, who has one son MICHAEL and two grandchildren MARYBETH and NEIL, became a Hospital Matron at Heywood and later at Sandringham; MARIE and her late husband Roy, had two children CHRISTOPHER and ANNE; PETER, who lives in Sydney, has two sons KEITH and ALAN; ANN, who lives in Queensland, has two children KATHERINE and ANTHONY; the children of DIANA and her husband David are JOHN and WENDY; ROBERT and his wife Pam had four children, ANGELA (who saw my request for MUSTON information in a magazine, and to whom I am very grateful for her interest in responding. R.D.), JILL, RUSSELL, and HELEN; ERNEST and his wife Julie have two sons DEAN and GLENN ; and GLORIA and her husband Jim had three children PETER(whose wife is Frances), MARK (killed in an accident in1982) and JODIE who were all still quite young at the time of her sad death in 1971.
JANE Muston died in Heyfield in 1949 when she was 84 years old, her husband John having pre-deceased her in 1936 at the age of 87. Both were buried in the Heyfield Cemetery.
2. SARAH ANN WALKER (NEE BROWNE), SECOND DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE
SARAH, who was born in 1867, married George Walker in 1887 and they lived on the Walker property (which had been taken up by his father Henry in 1873) across the Freestone Creek from Briagolong, not far from the Delta Bridge on the Briagolong-Valencia Creek back road. SARAH and GEORGE had 5 sons, WILLIAM, GEORGE, EDWARD(NED), HENRY(HARRY), and JAMES, then 2 daughters, AGNES and ELLEN.
Their home was always open to the extended family and to visitors, and as the girls grew up they spent (and seemed to thrive on doing so) much time on Saturday baking cakes etc. for the large numbers of relatives and friends who regularly visited on Sunday afternoons. The property, which is on a rise overlooking the rich flats of the Freestone Creek and the town, is quite a long way from there by road, but when the creek permitted, they could go across the flats and creek to school, church, dances etc.
WILLIAM, SARAH's eldest son, married Agnes Foster from Tasmania and they lived in the Briagolong township. They had 3 sons then 2 daughters. CHARLES and HAROLD both married and lived and worked in the Yallourn/Moe area.
The youngest son, LLOYD, was killed in W.W. 2. He had been the first person from Briagolong to enlist, and after serving in Greece and escaping to Crete, then was rescued from there to North Africa. They came back to Australia when Japan entered the war, and after two weeks Leave to see the family at Briagolong, he then was sent up north and later was killed in action in New Guinea. He is buried in the War Cemetery at Lae, P.N.G. When the Second World War part of Briagolong's War Memorial was completed, his mother, Agnes, was invitied to do the official unveiling at that ceremony. A photograph of this event still hangs in the Supper room of the Briagolong Mechanics Institute.
JESSIE married Henry Johnson and lived at Irymple, as she has continued to do since his death and her subsequent marriage to Ralph Gaulki. The youngest child, Agnes Mary, died at five weeks old, in 1924, close to the time when her father's brother James died at the age of 25.
CHARLES and his wife Miriam had two children. BEVERLEYdied shortly before her first birthday. KENNETH and his wife Sandra also have two children - KYLY and SIMON.
HAROLD and his first wife Isabella had one son LLOYD, named for his late uncle. LLOYD has two daughters: MICHELLE and Trevor who have a son CHRISTOPHER; and STEPHANIE. Isabella had died when LLOYD was just 2 years old, and then HAROLD married his second wife Marjorie, and they had six children GRAEME,STUART, ROGER, ANGUS, AILSA and JENNIFER. GRAEME and Karen have one son DAVIDwhose wife is Kelly . STUART, who has been very helpful in providing the information of their branch of the Walker family , and his wife Catherine have a daughter ELIZABETH, and three sons TIMOTHY, DANIEL and CHRISTOPHER. ROGER and Kathleen, who live in Queensland, have two sons, GLENN and SCOTT. ANGUS and his wife Sharon have had two daughters, KELLY and SHENAY. The children of JENNIFER and Royce are LUKE and SARAH. As a matter of interest how parts of the family circle can connect with other branches, AILSA is married to Peter Rickards, the current Rector of Bunyip Anglican Church - the same church where her great-uncle WILLIAM/WALTER had worshipped during his many years in the area. Ailsa's eldest brother GRAEME was recently ordained, also into the Anglican Church. HAROLD died in 1974.
Of JESSIE's family at Irymple ELAINE, who is the eldest,had married Keith Driscoll, then there is BERYL, next is TREVOR who with his wife Kathleen has three sons, SHANE, DEAN and CLINTON, while MURRAY is the youngest of JESSIE's family.
WILLIAM died in 1949 when he was 60; his wife Agnes died in 1964 aged 81 .
GEORGE, SARAH's second son was a farmer. He married Amy Blundy from another Briagolong "pioneer" family, and they had just 1 daughter, GWENDOLYN. GWEN, as she is known, married Roy Johnson and they farmed at Briagolong. Since his death in 1970, Gwen has remained on their property. (This same properrty is mentioned in the early pages of this booklet as having originally been taken up in1872 by Mr. W.G. Forbes, who very early on had established a busy saw-mill on another property south of the town adjacent to what in 1885 became "Varroville", the home of GWEN's great grandfather WILLIAM BROWNE, he with his wife ELIZA being the ancestors of the over 400 descendants currently listed in this booklet . WILLIAM BROWNE bought the sawmill property as well later on, and it is still farmed in with the original BROWNE holding). Of GWEN's and Roy's family of four sons and a daughter, PETER runs the family farm, DENNIS is a Forestry worker, TREVOR a Farmer, RODNEY a Labourer, and LYNETTE has married Stephen Saunders, also a Farmer. PETER and Barbara had three children: the eldest is MALCOLM (he and Rebecca have a daughter CASSIE - another generation), then BRETT and TAMMY; DENNIS has a son CARL; TREVOR and Dawn have three children MANDY(who tragically drowned as a toddler), ANDREW and AMY; while LYNETTE and Stephen have four children, DIANE, JOHN, DANIEL and LUKE. (LYNETTE named her daughter, DIANE, after her deceased friend DIANE nee Freeman, also a descendant of WILLIAM and ELIZA BROWNE.) GWEN's children have given her a surprise multiple photo for her birthday , beginning with a wedding photo of GWEN and Roy, one of little MANDY, and then all GWEN's respective children and their families. It holds pride of place above her fireplace. GWEN has cared for SARAH’s youngest child, ELLEN, following recent hospitalization.
GWEN's father, GEORGE, died in 1961 at 80, but her mother, Amy, had died in 1941 at 57.
EDWARD, SARAH's third son, who was known as NED, did not marry. He, too, was a farmer. He lived on the family property all his life until his sudden death in 1954 when he was 61.
SARAH's fourth son HENRY (HARRY), after leaving school, worked for his mother's brother TOM BROWNE who had the well-known traction engine "Sarah", on the chaffcutter, and in the sawmill etc. After TOM's death in 1945 HARRY purchased the plant and continued the business himself, enlarging it to ploughing, discing, drilling, mower reaper and binder work. As farmers began obtaining their own tractors he began to work for local identity T.X. Feeley, still doing contract jobs in between. At the age of 60 he obtained a position with a tractor pulling a multi-wheel roller for the Avon Shire, where he continued until his retirement at 65. HARRY had married Bessie Johnston, who had been a tailoress, and was able to make much of the family's clothes. They had one son ROBERT, who lives still in Briagolong and has worked for the Avon Shire for 38 years. ROBERT and his wife Jessie have one son DARYL(he and Cindy, who were married in England, have two children ELANA and JOSHUA) and two daughters ANNE and JAN-MAREE who are married to Stephen O'Brien and Peter Rooke respectively. HARRY and BESSIE were buried at Briagolong Cemetery, but a slight error of date was made on the tombstone during construction - dates as supplied for this booklet are correct.
JAMES, SARAH's youngest son,who had not married, died in 1924 at the age of 25.
AGNES was SARAH's first daughter. She lived at home on the farm until her marriage to George Goldsmith in 1955, and after that in the township of Briagolong. George died just five years after their marriage. AGNES was very involved in local community organizations, and particularly the Red Cross. For many, many years she devoted considerable time to conducting the Junior Red Cross at the Briagolong State School. AGNES died in 1979 aged 75.
ELLEN, the youngest of SARAH's seven children, was, like her sister AGNES, always well known in the district as a great cook, and also worked with local organizations. Relations well remember when the family were all at home how those two spent all Saturday baking for the many visitors who came on a Sunday - theirs was a popular gathering place for fun and friendship as well as food. ELLEN's home base is still the WALKER family home on their property at Briagolong, though she came to stay with her niece GWEN for a time following recent hospitalization. Despite walking problems and a fractured hip some years back, ELLEN remains cheery and uncomplaining. Her nephew ROBERT and his wife Jessie, have been a great backstop to her, as has been her niece GWEN; also supportive was her very kind neighbour the late Peg Lee as long as Peg's health permitted.
SARAH (d.1928 aged 61) and GEORGE (d.1938 aged 71) were both buried at Briagolong Cemetery, as also were many of the other members of their family.
3. WILLIAM HENRY BROWNE, FIRST SON OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
HENRY, as he was known, was born in 1867. He worked on Feeley's farm at Briagolong and did not marry. He was an out-going type of person who told many funny jokes and was a great story-teller. It is understood that he was well known at the Briagolong Hotel, where the Commercial Travellers of the day liked to come to hear his new jokes so they could tell them on their rounds. Prior to his death in 1947 at the age of 80, he was cared for at Heyfield by his elder sister JANE (Mrs. Muston).
4. CATHERINE LOUISA (KATE) CAMERON (NEE BROWNE), THIRD DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
CATHERINE, known as KATE, was born in 1869, and in her younger days was a very competent and keen horsewoman, revelling in participating in stockwork, mustering etc. She married Donald Hodge Cameron at Valencia Creek in 1891. They had one son and three daughters, THOMAS, EVA, MARY and ANNABEL(who preferred to be called ILA).They farmed at Glencoe, Longford south of Sale. Donald died in 1903 when their youngest child was just 2 years of age. Later KATE moved into Sale and gave her house there the name "Glencoe". In all her years there, plenty of contact was maintained with the extended family, and the Briagolong relations often visited overnight on the occasions when they came with horse and jinker to Sale for shopping, likewise the CAMERON children enjoyed visiting their grandparents and the other family members at Briagolong. After widowhood, quite often KATE went to stay with her daughter EVA and family at Valencia Creek, and the Briagolong family often visited their aunt and cousins there also.
THOMAS, KATE's only son, died in 1916 at the age of 23 in the Sale Hospital following a tragic swimming accident at Briagolong when cooling off after a hard day in the heat on the chaff-cutter.
EVA married Harry Falk and they lived at Valencia Creek. They had one unmarried son DONALD, who died when he was 31, and a daughter MAY who with her first husband Roy had four sons. MAY is a very community - minded lady, having been made Citizen Of The Year in Altona in 1990 for her charity work, especially for the Altona Hospital. She is on the Board of the Hospital, is President of the fund-raising Committee, and after working for so many years to provide facilities there via catering and running "Pokies" trips, Bingo nights etc. to boost finances, she has more recently also been involved in the struggle to save it from Government-forced closure. Of MAY's four sons are JOHN lived just one day; ROBERT and his wife Kaye have two daughters, JAHANNA and REBEKAH; GRAHAM's and Glenys' children are SCOTT and SARAH; while GARRY 's and Julianne 's family are VICTORIA and RORY. MAY is currently caring for her second husband Dave in severe illness. EVA died in 1973 aged 78.
MARY, KATE's middle daughter, also died in Sale Hospital, in 1907 when she was just 11 years of age. The CAMERON grandchildren were told in later years that her illness was caused by lead poisoning, from chewing pencils.
ANNABEL(ILA ) was the youngest of KATE's children .She married Ronald Stanley Templeton and they lived on a farm at Myrtlebank before moving to Kilmany, where they farmed for many years. Her mother, CATHERINE(KATE ) lived in Elgin St.Sale, and later ANNABELL(ILA)L and her husband moved in with her. ANNABELL nursed KATE for 9 months before her death in 1941. ANNABELL(ILA) and Ronald Stanley had two sons - JAMES RONALD and THOMAS JOHN.
JAMES(JIM) joined the 2nd A.I.F. and was with the 13th Light Horse Regt. before transferring to the 13th Aust. Armd. Regt. and served overseas. He married Joan Cranmer from Maffra in 1948 and they have two daughters, JANICE ELLEN and PAMELA JOAN. JANICE married David STOTHERS and they have two children - MARC DAVID and CARLY JANELLE. MARC is on the farm (Avon Park, Stratford) with his father and CARLY is at R.M.I.T. JANICE and David divorced in 1987. David has since remarried and has a young daughter Candice and son Joshua , half sister and brother to MARC and CARLY. PAMELA married Ian Ross and they have three daughters : MELISSA LOUISE , JAMIE LEANNE and EMMA-LEE PAMELA . JIM and Joan live in Sale.
THOMAS JOHN (known as JACK), ANNABELL's second son, worked at W. D. Leslie Pty. Ltd. in Sale (as did JIM). He then had his own Singer Sewing Machine business before farming at Seaspray. He married Diane Smith from Yallourn and now lives in retirement in Caloundra, Queensland. They had no children.
ANNABELL(ILA) died in 1958, aged 56.
KATE is remembered by her grand-daughter MAY as a great one for crocheting - doyleys, handkerchief edges, tablecloths, sauce bottle covers, milk jug covers, etc. In her latter years in Sale she still enjoyed walking to visit her friends in Sale but rarely did so without taking her crocheting with her to do as they chatted.
When KATE died at home in Sale in 1941 at the age of 72, she had been widowed for 38 years following Donald's death in 1903.
5. MARION ROSE LOTTON (NEE BROWNE), THIRD DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
MIN, as MARION ROSE was known, was born in 1871. After leaving school she helped her mother at home, cooking for the menfolk of the family, sewing, washing, etc. She was a great sewer and made the wedding dresses for two of her older sisters - SARAH and KATE, as well as her own later on, and then sewed so much for her own family. Later in her single days she went to Melbourne and worked as a lady's maid in some gracious homes in Melbourne. These were the days when the "society" ladies had days "at home", when equally stately ladies visited for a relatively short time, then on departure left on a tray on the hall table their own cards indicating on which day they would be having their own "at home". At one time she went by ship to Perth with the Anketell family who went there for Mr. Anketell to assist with the development of the Western Australian railways. MIN helped look after the Anketell children there. She spoke later of trips by rail in spring for people to see wildflowers, and how often the whole train would be scented on the return journey to Perth by the boronia which had been picked. Later she returned to Briagolong where she lived henceforth. She married Henry(Harry) Lotton at All Saint's Church of England, Briagolong in 1906. She was capable, quietly intelligent, gentle and hard-working, with much sewing, butter-making, cooking, gardening, harnessing of horse and jinker or buggy to go shopping or visiting her mother,etc. MIN's son-in-law Jack always said that while she was kept very busy inside or outside at "Rosaville", she was always a "lady" in the true sense of the word. She was a great worker for the Briagolong All Saint's Church of England, in the establishment of which her parents had been well involved. MIN's family attended all the then Church of England (now Anglican) services as well as the alternating Methodist and Presbyterian ones, plus the children walked back the three miles(4.8 kms) to the town in the afternoon to Sunday School. Within the community she also belonged to the Red Cross, assisted at many functions, and each year always made a large wreath for placing at the local memorial on Anzac Day.
MIN and Harry had 4 children - EFFIE, WILLIAM (WILL or BILL), MARION ROSE and MYRA. Their home always had a welcome for visitors, where relations came to stay for holidays and other relations and friends visited, with many happy evenings having been spent in the big dining room with cards or at the piano. At one time Harry's nephew Angus from Korumburra came there to live. Also at another stage MIN's nephew JIM Chalmers, from Hampton, lived with them for two years and went to school at Briagolong in the hope that a change of climate would assist his asthma.
After completing her schooling at Briagolong EFFIE, MIN's eldest child, went to Melbourne where she was trained in ladies' tailoring, then did millinery, and later came back to Gippsland to do three years training as a nurse at the Base Hospital in Sale, then in 1936 married Claude Moon at All Saints' Church of England, Briagolong. The reception, as was the custom of the day, was at the home of the bride's parents i.e."Rosaville". Claude and EFFIE bought the property "Koraleigh" at Nicholson and built their house there; it is well remembered still for the magnificent kitchen window view of the river and the lakes, especially at sunset - tourists now would be enthralled by it! Their hospitality was well known (It was the only house I knew with several mattresses on the beds ready for easy removal of any required ones for placing on the floor for extra people. On one occasion I know 27 people slept at their house ,and the lounge room had mattresses side by side like in a dormitory for us as children - very exciting!R.D.) They had 3 children - CORAL, IAN and GRAEME. EFFIE and Claude worked hard to pay off the farm and add to it - she even raised lovely fat Christmas turkeys, and pigs, took the then small children in prams to the cow shed night and morning for milking, then separated and sold the cream. After Claude's death from cancer in 1951 at 49 years of age, EFFIE, who had always been a very hard-working lady on the farm and in the kitchen, looked after their young children and kept that farm with its cattle and sheep, dairying, going for quite some years. Later she married Reube McFarlane, who owned "Bonnie Doon", the grazing property(since sub-divided) overlooking the Nicholson River and diagonally opposite the hotel (and with another magnificent river and lakes sunset view from the kitchen window there, too!). Prior to Reube's death in 1960, they moved into Bairnsdale, and later EFFIE spent some years in more northern states before returning to Bairnsdale as she becme older. EFFIE, until quite late in life and unable to continue, was a great one for letter-writing and keeping in touch with distant friends and relatives.
EFFIE's eldest child CORAL, married to Colin Foster, has three daughters and one son - LISA, LEONIE, DEAN and KYLIE. LISA and husband Greg have a daughter, BETHANY. LEONIE's husband Chris, in the Police Force like herself plus LISA's and KYLIE's husbands, was killed in a work accident less than two years after their marriage. KYLIE and husband Jonathon, were married so recently that theirs is the final statistical entry in this booklet. CORAL and Colin, after many moves with his work in the Police Force (which is the occupation of many of their family and spouses - Colin, however, declares it's not a been pre-requisite for his daughters' marriages!) now live in happy retirement in Bairnsdale.
EFFIE's elder son, IAN, and his wife Judy, after farming in various parts of Gippsland, combined with Oil Rig work, have in recent years established the very comfortable Holiday Log Cabins (well worth a visit as a base to see that interesting area) near the noted Limestone Caves at Buchan . (Incidentally, these are the same caves which were discovered by Frank Moon, a relative of IAN's late father, Claude). IAN's and Judy's children are GLENN, GREG, and PAMELA. All have rural interests, PAMELA having been a member of the Light Horse Regiment prior to her moving to Queensland two or three years ago where she and husband MALCOM live.
EFFIE's younger son GRAEME and his wife Lee, who live in Bairnsdale, have three children, KATE, MARNIE, and ROBERT. KATE and husband Ian live in Sydney; MARNIE and Russell were married earlier this year. ROBERT and the other grandsons acted as coffin-bearers at EFFIE's recent funeral. EFFIE's grandchildren are well spread afield, but the closeness evident that day was a reminder of the closeness of many of the cousins of previous generations of the family.
EFFIE had been very active through until her final few years, and had always enjoyed "going places" and "doing" or "seeing" things. She died at Bairnsdale shortly before this booklet was produced, in 1995 at the age of 87.
BILL, MIN's second child and only son, was always interested in farming and horses, and for some years he worked near home on the original Lotton property for his uncle, Thomas Lotton, while he liked to keep a racehorse back at home as a hobby. BILL and his wife Jean (nee Jones) were married at St. Paul's Cathedral in Sale in 1945, and since then have lived in the house he had built in Briagolong, and combined sheep farming with their hobby of breeding and training race horses. Their horses produced many successes, and they were well known in Gippsland racing circles, but their greatest fame was combined with their greatest disappointment, when Precious Robe (one of their line of "Robe" horses) who was a real favourite for the Melbourne Cup of 1971 was injured in a race by another horse just a week before the big race, resulting in extensive surgery and it being unwise for him to compete further at the age he was when he attained full recovery. Precious Robe lived in well-cared-for retirement with them for over 20 years after that - a tribute to their care and affection. BILL, who had been well known for his lovely large vegetable garden until ill-health in more recent years restricted his activities, was involved in many community interests, including having been Treasurer of the Briagolong All Saints' Anglican Church for 35 years. Also, as a long-standing Treasurer and member of the Briagolong Mechanics Institute Committee he always maintained an extensive supply of good firewood for the Supper room and the other three fireplaces there, as well as for the wood stoves, too, when they were in use - a special minute in that Committee's books in 1983, when he indicated his inability to continue to supply the wood, records acknowledgement of thanks to him for over 25 years of wood supply - no mean task, and he always liked to see a "real" fire burning for decent warmth there, too, complaining if people weren't stoking the fire sufficiently!.
ROSE, MIN's third child, married Harold Freeman and they bought the former Forbes farm south of the town, just across the road from the original farm of her grandparents WILLIAM and ELIZA BROWNE. There they worked together and developed it into a highly successful grazing and later also stud sheep property,"The Fringe". They both were always involved in the local All Saints' Anglican church (where they were married) and so many community affairs, including ROSE having been the Convenor and a Foundation Member of Briagolong C.W.A. (for which she received her 40 year Badge in1990), and Harold's service to the district as a member of Maffra Shire Council for 20 years until his death in 1971. They supported one another's interests, and ROSE cared for him during his steadily debilitating Rheumatoid Arthritis for over 25 years. This illness did not mar the warmth of their home nor their interest in family and community - so many relations and friends can well remember innumerable happy occasions, visits and holidays with this friendly, welcoming couple at "The Fringe".
Their son STAN has continued the development of their fine Merino wool Stud (his father gave him his first stud ram when he was 15) and is highly regarded within Australia and New Zealand in this field and as a judge at Sheep Shows, Victorian and interstate. STAN and his wife Dawn Graham had three children; JENNIFER, DIANE, and JOHN who works on the property with his father. JOHN and Marguerite have three children MATTHEW, CHRISTOPHER and LAURA. STAN's elder daughter JENNY and her husband Malcolm Mc Innes farm at Valencia Creek, and have two sons JOHN and MARC, while the younger daughter DIANE (Mrs. Terry Clapham), who lived in Briagolong, sadly died very suddenly in 1985.
ROSE and Harold also had 2 married daughters, JOY and LYNETTE, who both died at quite early ages in the 1980's, an immense loss to their mother and families. After her marriage to Brian Bock, JOY had mainly lived in Melbourne. She was a highly competent book-keeper whose daughter ELIZABETH is following and extending that career into Accountancy, while her son ANDREW is a journalist and competent photographer too. ELIZABETH and her husband Darren Ryding have a young son, BENJAMIN.
LYNETTE had married a local, Jim(Sam)Pleydell Jnr., and their daughter VANESSA(now Mrs. Darren Randle) was, in 1991, the very worthy representative for Briagolong in the Maffra Mardi Gras competition, working with her committee and the support of townsfolk to raise a large amount of funds for the local Recreation reserve and Hall (onto the Committee of the latter VANESSA's great, great grandfather WILLIAM had been elected 101 years previously in1890!). VANESSA and Darren now have a daughter APRELLE, born shortly before publication of this booklet. LYNETTE's two sons CHRIS and JAMES both work within the area and are involved in local Sporting teams.
Over the years ROSE lovingly and caringly nursed a number of relatives at "The Fringe" as their lives quietly slipped away - including her parents, first husband Harold, and some of his family. In 1971 ROSE married Gordon Grey, and they live on the perimeter of Briagolong township, while STAN is now at "The Fringe", where the Merino Stud is still based. ROSE has always been interested in people and the extended family, and so very much of the information for this project is due to her wonderful memory , store of old photos, and very willing reponse to questions, as well as the fact that she has lived in Briagolong all her life, and was able to spend much time talking to and listening to and absorbing the stories of her mother and other family members.
MYRA, the youngest of MIN's four children, after Primary schooling at Briagolong, attended Sale High School, boarding at the Church of England Hostel(which was the forerunner to St. Anne's Girls' Grammar School, which her nieces JOY and CORAL later attended). She was married at St. Paul's Cathedral in Sale in 1935 to W.J.(Jack) Squire, a former Briagolong Head Teacher who had earlier also taught for some years at Valencia Creek, and had worked on committees in both areas. Afterwards he always maintained interest in the progress and people of these districts. His career took them to several towns in different parts of Victoria where they both contributed fully and were well respected in each of these communities. They finally settled in Mornington and he died there some years after retiring from a teaching career of 53 years. MYRA still lives there. She, like ROSE, has inherited their mother's love for the garden, and enjoys sharing and exchanging plants and cuttings with friends and passers-by, growing her vegetables, and providing flowers for the Anglican church, R.S.L. Auxiliary and her other organizations. She and Jack were keen golfers for many years. They had 2 children, RITA and BARRY.
RITA married Graham Dorling and they have been in Warragul (a good "half-way " spot allowing visits to family at Mornington and Briagolong) for over thirty years. After 37 years of teaching, in her retirement she has developed a previous interest into actually compiling histories of her husband's and her own families (hence this project!). RITA has two sons: GLENN is a Computer Network Engineer, and WARREN is a Chef, both based in Melbourne.
BARRY and his wife, Carol, run the flourishing Mentone Travel Agency where his step-daughter NICOLE (Carol's daughter) is a most valued member of the staff there, and Acting Manager during his absence too. NICOLE was recently married to David Grant. BARRY has completed his busy term as Captain of Woodlands Golf Club in Melbourne, where he is a keen player. MYRA's second husband of 10 years, George Brown, died in 1990.
MIN (d. 1943 aged 72), and Harry (d.1945 aged 75) were both buried at Briagolong Cemetery in a grave next to the family plot of her parents and several other BROWNE family members.
6. EDWARD BROWNE, SECOND SON OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
EDWARD, born in 1874, married Jane Boyce. They lived across the Freestone Creek opposite the now well-known "Quarry" picnic area (the house has been gone for a number of decades), and later in the township, in the house later lived in by his nephew WILLIAM Walker and family. They had four sons - ERNEST(ERNIE), WILLIAM, EDWARD(EDDIE), who died as a child, and ALLAN.
ERNIE, the eldest of EDWARD's family married Ellen Lotton and they lived in Briagolong all their lives. ERNIE firstly worked for many years in the district on the farm of Scotts and Grays, and then joined the Forests Commission until his retirement. They had three daughters and one son; RUBY, JOYCE, BETTY, AND NORMAN.
RUBY married local Howard Short and had a son and three daughters. Howard was in the Navy for a time, and then worked in Maffra and Sale districts as an electrician until their retirement to Briagolong a few years back. They had one son RUSSELL, and three daughters, JULIE, CATHERINE and ELIZABETH. RUSSELL and his wife Julie have one son, DENNY; JULIE and John have had three children EVANGELINE (who was stillborn), JAROD and JEMMA; CATHERINE and Don have three children KARLEE, SAM and RIKKI; while ELIZABETH and Anthony have two sons, BROOKLYN and RYAN. RUBY has been interested in family history for some years, has obtained quite a collection of copies of relevant family certificates, and has contributed very helpful information to this project.
JOYCE married Ron Pinch and they remained at Briagolong where they had two daughters and two sons: CAROL, RHONDA, GAREY, and GLENN. CAROL and Trevor have four children MONIKA, ASHLEIGH, LISA and NIGEL; RHONDA 's and Paul's children are JO-ANNE, JEREMY, AND MARCELLE; GAREY died with no children; while GLENN and Wendy have two sons MATTHEW and JUSTIN. JOYCE and Ron both died in the 1980s.
BETTY married Jack Appleton and they farm at Stockdale where they had three children KAREN, GRAEME and SUSAN. KAREN and Kevin had two daughters, RAYLENE and CAROLYN, the latter having been tragically killed in a road accident when innocently and sensibly cycling at13 years of age; GRAEME's and Kim's children are BODIE, TRAVIS, TEGAN and KIRBY; whileSUSAN's and Alan's daughters are SAMANTHA and REBECCA.
NORMAN and his first wife Ruth had a daughter SHARYN and two sons, TREVOR and KENNETH. Norman has lived and worked in the Persian Gulf area for many years - a great contrast from Briagolong's beautiful forested hills, with which he grew up!
ERNIE died in 1976 at the age of 74; ELLEN had died in 1972 aged 66.
WILLIAM, the second of EDWARD's sons, married Enid Blayney; their daughter was stillborn and they had one son BOYCE. He and his wife Margaret(Peggy), had a son CHRISTOPHER and a daughter MARJORIE. WILLIAM and his son BOYCE both died at Blairgowrie in which area they'd been living. WILLIAM died in 1974 just three months before his son BOYCE; they were 74 and 44 years of age respectively.
EDDIE, who was EDWARD's third son, died in 1915 at just eight years of age. He is remembered by cousins as a dear little boy with curly hair.
ALLAN, the youngest of EDWARD's four sons, married Nancy Whitelaw and they adopted twin sons DAVID and DONALD, who proudly bear his surname. DONALD and his wife Helen have two sons DARRYN and SHANE.
ALLAN died in 1991 at the age of 78.
EDWARD died in 1926,aged 52, from T.B. and Jane died 20 years later in 1946, aged 64. They both were buried in the BROWNE family plot at Briagolong Cemetery along with their little son EDDIE, who had died in 1915.
7. SAMUEL BROWNE, THIRD SON OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
SAM who was born in 1876, was a great worker and ran the farm at home. He, like his brothers Henry and Herbert, did not marry.The other sons in the family were all much more mechanically minded than he was - SAM still loved working with horses. He was a very strong but gentle person who never made a fuss of anything, perhaps this is why MIN, who had a similar nature, felt that he was her favourite brother, though she was very fond of the others too. To indicate his quiet patience the following incident is related. On one occasion, the Briagolong cricketers, whilst riding their horses home from a game at Stratford, stopped at the "Varroville" entrance on the Stratford road, and for a joke, between them they shifted the big gate off its hinges and across to the other side of the road. SAM came upon it later and single-handedly managed to return it to its rightful place, but didn't bother to say anything about it to anyone. Some days later, when MIN was in the Briagolong butcher's shop, one of the cricketers, having waited in vain for some reaction or at least comment from someone, asked her about it. She knew nothing but asked at home, and SAM just said quietly that he'd found it and fixed it a few days earlier. As well as farming, SAM also broke in horses. He died in 1909 of a brain tumour following having been kicked in the head by a stallion, and was buried in the family plot at Briagolong Cemetery. He was 35 years of age.
8. WILLIAM WALTER BROWNE, FOURTH SON OF WILLLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
WILLIAM WALTER was known to the family at Briagolong as "WALTER", but he moved to Bunyip in adulthood and was known there as "WILLIAM" or "BILL". (His nieces, ROSE and MYRA, daughters of his sister MIN, still refer to him as "Uncle Walter", yet Bunyip people who knew him still refer to him as "BILL BROWNE").
WILLIAM WALTER BROWNE was born in 1878 at Briagolong and came to Bunyip about 1901, as a blacksmith, coachbuilder and undertaker, at the Junction Bridge, Iona. He married Isabelle Barker, born 1879, whose family came from Scotland. BILL /WALTER and Isabelle (who was known fondly to the Briagolong nieces and nephews as Aunty "Isty") had three daughters - ALICE (PATSY) born 1905; MARION (MINNIE) born 1907, and RUTH born 1909, who all lived well into adulthood, and three other daughters who died either at or soon after birth.
BILL /WALTER became a hire car driver, and used to drive, and sometimes row when the water was up, the Catholic Priest to church, so he attended their services at Iona, although he was at the same time, a Vestryman at St. Thomas' in Bunyip and attended services there. On Sunday afternoons he took his wife to the afternoon services at the Bunyip Methodist Church! This "ecumenicalness" was also a part of the life of his sister MIN and her family in Briagolong.
He built a Duchess Cart for his wife and daughters to drive around in, also a boat, which was used for duck shooting and rescue work during floods. The boat was stored in the rafters of the blacksmith's shop with the coffins. He also made the little leather boots which his daughters wore, so he was a very capable man. He also made a jinker for his sister MIN at Briagolong - the special requirement was that it be wide enough for her four children to fit comfortably in it for when they drove it to school. MIN's daughter MYRA, remembers the beautiful decorative gold scroll-type work on it, and his grand-daughter MARIE recalls that some very old sheets of gold leaf were found much later among the tools etc. left after his death.
The local children living on the Iona Road were pleased when there was an afternoon funeral, as they were sure of a ride home in the hearse. One local character, Scotty Bennett, desirous of a ride, found the front seat of the hearse occupied, so BILL/WALTER suggested he ride in the back. Scotty complained of the rough ride, to which BILL replied that no one had ever complained before!
During the girls' childhood BILL/WALTER sold his business, and the family moved to Melbourne for some time - later they returned to Bunyip where he purchased his old business back, and resumed in the area as before.
BILL/WALTER and his wife Isabelle are well remembered with much fondness by Joyce Legge, whose parents were neighbours at "the Swamp". Her mother was desperately ill, and when BILL/WALTER called to see how things were, her father asked him to take 18 months old Joyce home and look after her. Her young mother died that night. She lived with the BROWNE family as a "little sister" until she was 10 years old. Later she moved to Melbourne and lived with RUTH until her marriage to Jack Windbanks - a happy union which produced 4 children. Those days with the BROWNEs were very happy, secure times for Joyce, and indicate the kindness of all the family.
Isabelle BROWNE ran "The Little Library" at their home, where local ladies exchanged books once a week, and had afternoon tea together. It is believed to have been the first library on "the Swamp". Isabelle loved reading to young people and was also a talented seamstress, making beautiful clothes for her daughters. This gift has been inherited by her grand-daughters, SHIRLEY, FAYE and MARIE, and great grand-daughter, JACKIE. Isabelle BROWNE died in 1947.
Despite the distance from the BROWNE family home at Briagolong, contact between the various family members was maintained, especially when the girls were growing up. There is one photo which indicates this - it is of the three Bunyip BROWNE girls, PATSY, MINNIE and RUTH, with their cousins ESTHER MUSTON(Heyfield) and ILA CAMERON(Valencia Creek) - this was taken at the creek running through the property of their grandparents at "Varroville", Briagolong. There is a postcard which he sent to the family at Briagolong during World War 1 showing a travelling display which came to Bunyip as part of a drive for War Funds.
BILL/WALTER was involved with the Iona Brass Band, Agricultural Society, Cemetery Trust(of which he was Secretary for some years), Iona Pioneers' Association, and the Bunyip Church of England. He died in 1941, aged 63 years.
Only three of the children survived from birth - ALICE(PATSY) married Reg Mc Gee, and continued to live in the district until her death from bowel cancer in 1962. MARION (MINNIE) , who remained for much of her life in Bunyip then Melbourne until her death in 1971, did not marry; RUTH married Richard Bailey; they lived at Caulfield and Murrumbeena but had no family. She died after a stroke in 1970.
ALICE(PATSY) and Reg had four daughters - SHIRLEY, FAYE, KERRY, and MARIE, and a son REG.
SHIRLEY married Patrick Farrell and lived at Cranbourne - they had a family of 12: 7 boys and 5 girls - PETER, COLLEEN, PATRICK, TREVOR(who was killed in a road accident in 1979), MAREE, TERESE, KATRINA, DAMIEN, DANIEL, CHRISTOPHER, ELIZABETH, AND MATTHEW (killed in a train accident, in 1975). MAREE has two daughters SARAH and CLAIRE, TERESE has two children JUSTIN and RENEE, KATRINA and husband Christopher LEE have a family of three - TIMOTHY, CHRISTOPHER and KATHRYN, and DANIEL's family are JAMIE, JESSICA and SAMANTHA. SHIRLEY died at the beginning of 1991, after a stroke.
FAYE, who married Alan Masters, lived at Bunyip and Warragul but is now at Newborough. Their only child JAQUILINE(JACKIE), is married to Russell WARNER, and they have a daughter,VANESSA.
KERRY married Norman Wilson, and they have mainly lived at Albury, and after a time at Mordialloc, are back again in Albury. Their 3 children are DEBORAH who married Anthony Bye(they have 3 children ANDREW, EMILY and new baby MADELEINE); CHRISTINE who married Damien Gasperov (their children are LIAM, MICHAEL, and SAMANTHA); and ROSS, whose wife is Merrin.
MARIE and her husband (another William [Bill]Brown) live in Nar Nar Goon. Their family of 5 are JAMIE, PAUL, CATHRYN (who later changed her birth name to JORDAN CATHRYN ELIZA BROWNE is married to Peter Grant), VERONICA and NATHAN. PAUL and his wife Bernadette have two children, KARINA and CHERISE. MARIE has a definite sense of family history, and has been of great assistance with the Bunyip family's section of this project. She has on her wall a treasured framed photo enlargement of BILL/WALTER's three little girls - her own mother PATSY, with MINNIE and RUTH - all are wearing lovely frocks made by their mother Isabelle, and neat little leather boots made by their father.
PATSY's only son, REG, who is a transport driver, has not married, but still lives in Bunyip, where he is well involved in the community 's activities and enjoys his sporting interests..
The graves of WILLIAM WALTER(died 1941 aged 63), and Isabelle BROWNE(died 1947 aged 68) are at Bunyip Cemetery.
9. THOMAS(TOM) BROWNE, FIFTH SON OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE
THOMAS (TOM) BROWNE was born in 1880 and lived in the family home "Varroville" until his death. He was always interested in machinery, and his traction engine,"Sarah", was well known in the district at the saw-mill on the property where cleared timber was cut for local housing and fences. It also was very well used in the district for ploughing and for a chaff cutter . (Later his nephew HARRY Walker worked with him, then subsequently, as TOM's age began to tell, HARRY took over with "Sarah").
For some years , as a young man, TOM had worked in the rugged North West timber areas of Tasmania, logging in the Mt. Bischoff and other areas, spending time at Waratah and later at Strahan. Whilst there he wrote many interesting letters and postcards to the family in Briagolong and also to cousins and friends telling about life there, and also always asking about the welfare of the various family members and friends back home.
Later, in 1919, he married Amelia (Milly) Blundy from Briagolong. They had no family, but their big kitchen in the old family home was still familiar to visiting young and older relatives. With a waterhole close to the back door, snakes were not uncommon, but apparently Milly could not bring herself to actually attempt to kill a snake, though certainly did not want to risk them remaining around after she had seen any. So TOM made some spiked rods which stood at the back verandah for her to use if any snake appeared. She then could pin the snake to the ground with a rod until TOM arrived home later to dispose of it for her.
TOM and Millie were regular Church of England worshippers and workers for "All Saints", the church which his parents had helped establish, and they featured in the photograph (mentioned in the early pages of this booklet) taken at one of the working bees for the construction and transport of the Vestry for the church. Millie had been a dedicated Sunday School teacher there in her younger days, and for many, many years was the church organist. Near the north front corner of the grounds of All Saints' church in Briagolong is a beautiful orange flowering gum planted by TOM well over half a century ago.
TOM died in 1945 aged 65, then Millie moved into the Briagolong township until her death in 1961 at 79. They were both buried in the BROWNE family plot at Briagolong Cemetery.
10. HERBERT BOYLE BROWNE, SIXTH SON OF WILLIAM AND ELIZA BROWNE.
HERBERT, known as BERT , was born in 1888, the youngest child and also the third batchelor in the family. He served overseas in World War 1, and didn't ever have very good health afterwards. He moved to Wagga after the War for a time where he worked when he could, but there were periods of illness and sometimes hospitalisation. On one occasion he sent back to the family a postcard picture of Wagga Hospital, with an "X" marking his room there. BERT died in 1924 at Fitzroy South when he was 36 years of age.
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