Balwyn Historical
Society Newsletter
June 2015
Meetings
Thursday 11 June 2015 – 8pm
Speaker: Janis Sheldrick
Topic: George Goyder of the Goyder Line
Janis Sheldrick, author of Nature’s Line, will speak about George Goyder Surveyor-General
of South Australia (1861-1894). Goyder was a major figure in the shaping of South Australia
and founder of Darwin.
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Thursday 9 July 2015 – 8pm
Speaker: Associate Professor Don Garden
Topic: Water, Rolling Countryside & Fresh Air
Assoc. Professor Don Garden, President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, will speak
about how the environment shaped Boroondara and Balwyn
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Thursday 13 August 2015 – 8pm
Speaker and Topic
To be announced
All meetings are held at the Balwyn Evergreen Centre,
45 Talbot Avenue, Balwyn
Email: [email protected]
website: www.vicnet.net.au/~balwynhs
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Recent Speaker – Dolores San Miguel
Dolores San Miguel began her engaging talk
by telling us how she came upon a large
cache of correspondence between her mother
and father spanning many decades. It was
these letters which spurred her on to research
her family history.
Her paternal grandfather, Antonio, originally
settled in Sydney on his arrival from Spain.
Once there he was involved in a number of
business ventures including importing wine
from his family’s Spanish vineyards. On
moving his family to Melbourne he set up a
business importing Spanish cork from which
he made the family’s fortune.
Dolores’ uncle, Lionel San Miguel, was a
renowned architect who designed many well
known buildings in and around Melbourne.
These included the beautiful art-deco building
at 112-125 A’Beckett Street, the Sacred Heart
Hospital in Moreland, Our Lady of Good
Counsel Church in Deepdene, his own home
at 7 Bowley Street Balwyn and a house for
his mother, Montelegro, on the south-west
corner of the Balwyn and Mont Albert roads
intersection.
Because of her family’s disapproval of the
relationship between her mother and father
Dolores grew up not knowing her father’s
family. It was only after her parents’ death
and her research that she was able to piece
together her family story and establish
connections with relatives still living in her
grandfather’s village in Spain and others in
Australia.
BHS Membership 2015-2016
Membership fees are due on July 1. The fee will remain the same for the 2015-2016 financial year.
$25 - single membership
$35 - joint membership i.e. 2 adults at the same address.
A renewal form accompanies this newsletter.
You may renew your membership at the next meeting. Payment may be made by cash or cheque
(payable to Balwyn Historical Society). It would be helpful if you could place your payment in an
envelope marked with your name(s). Otherwise please send the completed renewal form together
with a cheque to The BHS Treasurer, Balwyn Evergreen Centre, 45 Talbot Ave, Balwyn 3103.
For membership enquires contact Barbara Russell – 9857-6416
Balwyn Historical Society - Contact details
Balwyn Historical Society is a program of the Balwyn Evergreen Centre.
President
Secretary
Treasurer/
Membership
Speakers/
Publicity
Archivist
Newsletter
Bill Pritchard
9857 8001
Pat O’Dwyer
9836-3652
Barbara Russell
Judith Cleary
Robin Kelly
9836 6589
Phone – 9836 9681
Webmaster
Neil Swansson
Non-Committee Assistants
Newsletter mailout Lynette Woolley, DeidreWoolley
Resources
Heather Alford
Pam Herrington
Pat O’Dwyer
9836-3652
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The Kaleno Estate – Part 1.
In 1896 Isaac Clement Foden an accountant
is recorded as owning a 30 acre block of
land on the southwest corner of Balwyn and
Belmore roads. By 1897 a grand house
named Gawsworth had been built high on
the hill with magnificent views in all
directions. There Isaac, his wife Elizabeth
and daughter Florence Maria, lived for a
number of years. Their son Percy, his wife
and young children, also resided there for a
short time. Tragically Percy (aged 35) died
in 1903 and his wife Grace died just months
later in 1904.
Isaac and Elizabeth Foden were to remain in
their home for only a few years more.
Misfortune struck the family again when
Isaac died at Gawsworth in August 1910,
only to be followed by Elizabeth’s death one
month later. Florence inherited the Foden
estate and may have stayed on in the house
for a while.
However, by 1914 the house and land had
passed to George Robert Rand and his
family and was renamed Kaleno.
In
December 1914 Mrs. Emma Rand
advertised in Table Talk that she and her
daughters would be “at home” to theirs
friends between 11.00 and 12.00 on Friday
and Saturday in their new house. Notices of
“at home” occasions continued to appear at
regular intervals with friends informed that
the Canterbury Station was the most
convenient. No doubt a carriage would then
convey them along Balwyn Road to Kaleno.
Kaleno in 1922
In 1922 much of the land surrounding
George Rand’s house was subdivided and
put up for auction as the Kaleno Estate.
Three of the streets in the new subdivision
were named after George and Emma’s
daughters – Hilda Street after Flora Hilda
Rand, Ruby Street after Doris Ruby Rand
and Evelyn Road after Irene Edith Evelyn
Rand (later renamed Stroud Street with the
east end becoming Highland Ave). The
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Rands’ fourth daughter Ethel Victoria May
missed out on having a street named after
her. George Street later became Dee Street.
There seems to have been little interest in
the land probably because it was so far from
transport.
In March 1941, 18 lots bounded by Balwyn
and Highland Ave were again put up for sale
this time as the Balwyn Heights Estate. All
sold quite rapidly. However, the rest of the
estate remained largely paddocks, rented out
to various tenants for agricultural pursuits
such as a poultry farm. George Rand died in
October of the same year.
(To be continued)
The Kaleno Estate, Balwyn
GREAT SUBDIVISIONAL AUCTION SALE
SATURDAY, 18 NOVEMBER, 1922
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