Buninyong 1850, ‘Ye Ancient Village’ is surveyed.
Much has been written about the Learmonth’s arrival in what is now Buninyong and their setting up of the ‘run’. But can you imagine what Buninyong looked like in early 1850 when James Malcolm arrived to carry out a survey? Malcolm would have arrived from Geelong before the devastation caused by the great bush fire of ‘Black Thursday’ - Thursday the 6th February, 1851. This fire blackened the bush all around, and the Mount would have been left stark against the skyline with all of the bush between the Geelong track leading into Buninyong, and what we now call the Union Jack, destroyed. What Malcolm saw was the lush plains and the thick timber that encouraged the Learmonth's, the Scott’s and other early settlers to stay.
Malcolm was an assistant government surveyor under the direction of Robert Hoddle. the Government Town Planner. The plans, letters and detail he submitted to the Colonial Secretary on the 27th June, 1850 gives us a clear indication of what the area looked like. Hoddle signed the plan and sent it to the Colonial Secretary, who, on the 2nd September 1850 caused the plans for the grid pattern streets of Buninyong to be ratified.
Prior to June 1850 in the northern part of Buninyong Township there was a hut in the middle of what is now Barkly Street - between Warrenheip and Winter Streets, outside number 406. This would have possibly been an out station of the Learmonth property, for the plan clearly shows the hut and a holding yard behind it along the creek.
Entering Buninyong in the east from Geelong, Malcolm would have come over the last rise with the panorama of the village and the sweeping plains beyond open to his view. On his left was the Chapel and School of the Presbyterian Church. This was situated on the corner of Learmonth (Midlands Highway) and Lal Lal Streets. The Chapel and School were very close to the corner, and the Reverend Hastie’s house is clearly shown on Malcolm’s survey to be approximately where Mrs Vi McDonald now lives. The Presbyterians held more than one hundred acres, with the fencing around the house, excluding the school, taking up just slightly more than eight acres. The lay-out of the hundred or more acres did not follow the present alignment of Lal Lal Street. Instead it veered S.S.E., in a line that would pass midway in Hastie Street, between Lal Lal Street and Innes Lane. The northern boundary angled away from the south-east corner of Learmonth and Lal Lal Streets crossing Learmonth Street near where ‘Ballantrae’ (‘La Maisonette’) now stands, continuing on slightly to the E.N.E.
What a magnificent view the Reverend Hastie would have had from the hill behind his house which is now called Mt Innes. One can understand why the Presbyterian promoters chose the spot. First for its natural beauty and second, it was well away from the sins of the village, stores and hotel!
Standing at the school and looking towards the west, Surveyor Malcolm would have seen a fork in the trail splitting into two tracks. The first track runs in a haphazard fashion down Learmonth Street, and we are to pick that trail up later. The other track veers slightly south, winding to pick up a rough alignment of what is now Scott Street. When one stands at this position, we can understand why the Catholic Church and the sandstone buildings in Cornish Street which were built as the first Police Camp and Court, were so situated. They are almost aligned to this fork of the track from Geelong.
Moving down the left fork in Scott Street the track comes to the corner of Cornish Street where there is an ‘Eating House’ on the surveyors right. The same track continues to the west and passes in front of the present Police residence where there was situated a store, placed right in the middle of what is now Scott Street, near the corner of Warrenheip Street. This may have been Thomas Hiscock’s store and blacksmith shop. From the store, the track then made a line towards the north west towards the present Post Office, to join the other original fork coming down from the Presbyterian school. Between the store in Scott Street and where the Post Office stands today Malcolm would have passed a building on his left which was probably a residence; it was a building set back in the rear of what is now the Masonic Hall.
After passing the store and residence Malcolm would come to a larger store where Dr. Longden’s house was to be later built. This building protrudes a little on to what is now the footpath. The size would suggest that this was the Campbell and Woolley’s store. Just a few steps further on there is an out-building which may have originally been used by John Veitch as a store and Post Office, or it could be stables for the hotel. In the centre of what is now Learmonth Street West, is the ‘Inn’. In 1850 this hotel would have been owned by the Jamieson’s. Popular opinion has the Inn placed in the centre of the road at the intersection of Warrenheip and Learmonth Streets, but the survey plan is specific. It shows the structure mid-way between Warrenheip and Winter Streets.
Behind the hotel nearer to the corner of Learmonth and Winter Streets, again there is another large building again situated in the middle of what is now the road,. On the plan it is shown slightly larger than the hotel but it has no written caption.
Standing at the Inn, Malcolm would see the track pass toward the west leading to the Pyrenees and Portland Bay. Over in the south west, in what is now Winter Street, between Learmonth and Yuille Streets, is another hut. Along what is now Learmonth Street on the north side, Malcolm has marked an area with the word ‘graves’. This ‘Old Burial Ground’ is now well fenced and marked, however, when one looks at the survey carefully, and visits the site, the plan would suggest that the graves were originally nearer the fence than has been supposed - perhaps even under the fence and partly on the service road, rather than being on the slope towards the creek.
Back at where the Post Office now stands, Malcolm would have seen a track leading to the south and eventually the Learmonth property. Along this track on the corner of what is now Somerville and Winter Streets was Dr. Power’s residence, complete with two holding yards - one of about one acre and the other, about three acres. In an 1856 survey Dr. Power’s widow, Mary, is shown living on the corner of Somerville and Warrenheip Streets. Dr. Power died in 1852.
This was Buninyong in 1850, why not walk around the town using this description as a guide and note how the natural lay of the land influenced the tracks and the erection of buildings prior to 1850. Whilst James Malcolm laid out the plan for Buninyong, the shifting of buildings erected in the middle of proposed streets did not occur until some time later. The subsequent purchase of allotments makes for another story.
