Notes |
- From the 1841 Census (HO107 Piece 1117/2 Folio 18 Page 30) Edmund, 10, was with his parents Charles, 62, Agricultural Labourer, and Phebe, 55, in Westham, Sussex, England. With him were his siblings Eliza, 12, and Henry, 8. All were reportedly born in the county.
Edmund and Janet Wicks
Janet Russell was born in England. In Melbourne in 1869, at the age of 30, she married 39 year old widower Edmund Wicks, also English-born. They lived in Moonee Ponds; and the births of their children, John Herbert (Jack) in 1870, Janet in 1871, Annie Victoria in 1873 and Emily in 1875, were recorded at Essendon.
On the 1st May 1877 Edmund, described as a ?gardener,? was licensed to occupy a selection of approximately 259 acres in ?North Scoresby.? The licence was unusual in that the area covered was in two separate parcels - about 210 acres in what is now Ferntree Gully, and about 50 acres in present-day The Basin. Edmund had been involved in considerable negotiation with the government department concerned and the departing licensee, who because of his wife?s ill-health was ?obliged to take her to England.? He eventually paid 150 pounds to the former licensee for his ?improvements?, which included a residence. The Wicks family went to live on The Basin land; and the four children were recorded as existing residents in a petition to the ?Minister of Public Instruction? prepared by David Dobson and dated 28th February 1879.
On 29th April 1880 Edmund, in his application for a lease, reported that the value of ?improvements? on the combined acreage then totalled 635 pounds; and consisted of a five-roomed 25 foot square slab and weatherboard home with galvanised iron roof and two brick chimneys, a stable, cowhouse and piggery. He also reported having sunk 2 dams, put 11 acres under cultivation, planted 339 fruit trees, rung 30 acres of timber, cleared a further 20 acres of scrub, and erected many chains of fencing of various kinds.
On 18th May 1880 Edmund was granted a lease to the total acreage; but on 29th November 1880, at the age of 50, he died of a stroke. After Edmund?s death, Janet sought to rationalise the estate by applying to the authorities for permission to sell the leasehold interest and improvements on the Ferntree Gully property, and to allow her to purchase a freehold title to the property at The Basin. The reason she gave on her submission was ?to close the administration in the most advantageous way.? Janet, described as ?administrator? of Edmund?s estate, was granted title to the property at The Basin on 3rd June 1881 at the going rate of one pound per acre. The lease on the Ferntree Gully land was taken over by Ephraim Hansen, who received title to it on 10th March 1887. ?Ambleside Park?, the home of the Knox Historical Society, is situated on a remnant of this land."
Janet Wicks worked the property herself, with the help of her children, by that time aged about 10, 9, 7 and 5 years. The farm, watered by two creeks crossing the property, produced flowers, vegetables, berries and other fruit. Aided by the natural fall of the land, irrigation was possible to the lower sections without pumping or digging dams. The fruit orchard was established on what is now the eastern section of Wicks Reserve; and in later documentation Jack is described as a ?fruit grower.?
When reminiscing during the 1940s, Janet Wicks? eldest daughter Janet Dobson told her grandchildren how from the time she was about ten years old she stayed at home looking after her two little sisters while her mother and brother drove to the market in Melbourne. She prepared their meals, including boiling the big kettle to make oatmeal porridge for breakfast. The girls were not nervous of being alone, except during thunderstorms. On hearing of this, Mrs. Chandler, their neighbour on the opposite hill, would send one of her big boys to stay on market nights if thunderstorms threatened.
Ref: History of The Basin Chapter 1 Foundation Created by Rick Coxhill Last revised July 13, 2001
|