By J.F (Jack) Sewell, Local Historian

When Major Mitchell led his expedition from Sydney to the coast at Portland in 1836 he climbed a mount near Talbot which he named Mt.Greenock. From this point he looked South and East to the area we now know as Smeaton, Kingston and Newlyn districts. He described in his diary a scene of Mammoloid hills of pristine beauty, bathed in the shining verdure and hues of Spring.

Captain Hepburn also saw this remarkable scene when he, together with Gardner and Hawden, drove cattle from Sydney to Batman's Village (Melbourne). Hepburn later returned with his family and flocks to take up much of that land in 1838. At Smeaton he later built a Georgian style home; close by is the Hepburn family cemetery.

With ample areas of productive land Smeaton developed to a centre of agriculture. In 1864 the Anderson Brothers built their flour and oatmeal mill. The later 1800's brought the deep lead mining boom, the building of the superb stone arch bridge at Smeaton and the Monash-designed Wheeler's Bridge.

Kingston, with even better land, became the administrative centre of the Creswick Shire. Here was established a very large coach and vehicle building manufacturer, Barker Brothers, chaff mills, flour mill and a rail station on the then very busy Creswick-Daylesford line. Kingston now retains the old Shire Office building and the former Church of England, both privately owned, and a glorious Avenue of Honour of Elm trees dedicated to those of the former Creswick Shire who served in the 1914-18 world war.

The once huge forests of the Newlyn district have given way to a highly productive agricultural area focussed on potatoes and animal fattening. These enterprises are dependent on irrigation water from the Newlyn Reservoir, Anderson's Lagoon, supplemented by groundwater and the picturesque Birch's Creek.

Other Information

Andersons Mill

Avenue of Honour, Kingston