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. _______________________________________________________________________ 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 ____________________________________________________________ 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 1 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 2 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 3 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 4
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