A brief history of the Leeor & Serviceton districts.(1846-1910)[Part 1]Click on pictures for much better view and more clarity.(Close the window to return)
The districts which we now call Lillimur, Leeor and Serviceton were part of big sheep runs leased from the Victorian Government.
According to Aboriginal Place Names by Aldo Massola, the name Leeor means ‘the teeth’.
The first was Coniay Run some six miles south of where the ‘township of Serviceton now stands’ - that was in 1846, and it comprised 16,000 acres occupied by Baird and Hodgkinson. In the following year, 1847, Lockhart was leased by Mattlew, Hamilton, Baird and Hodgkinson and comprised some 56,000 acres.
Then Cove Station was leased to Thomas Short and it comprised about 32,000 acres.
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1852
The Deputy Surveyor-General with the South Australian Government, Mr J.W. McLaren, and Inspector Tolmer were commissioned to undertake the hazardous journey across the desert in an endeavour to find a more direct route to the Victorian goldfields. In 1852 McLaren set out, and later the same year Tolmer with a party of six crossed the Murray River at Wellington.
McLaren dug wells and erected sign posts for others to follow, travelling to Bennies Lookout, Mount Monster and Cannawigara Woolshed by the Tatiara Creek, and crossed the border at Lockhart. It was along this route that many of the very early settlers travelled to the Tatiara and Victoria.
In May 1869 the Victorian Government passed an Act to end all Leases; some selectors arrived and pegged out their selections after the passing of the Grants Land Act in 1869. Most selectors arrived in 1878 and onwards.
These early selectors who came before 1878 and pegged out their claims had a lot of trouble with some of the big station owners. When the stations owners found these pegs they would pull them out, and when the early settler got some crops sown the station owner used to make sure his sheep found the crop! They tried to drive the settler off the land.
The settler who came before 1878 had to place a peg standing some three feet out of the ground in each corner of the land that he wanted to select and apply for, with his application tied to it. This operation had to be done by the settler between sunrise and sunset. Mail deliveries to this part of the State commenced in 1866, being ridden from Nhill Station to Lockhart Station.
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The year 1880 saw the beginning of Customs Officers placed on the border between Victoria and South Australian, by Victoria, to collect custom charges on farming implements and other goods entering Victoria. The mail coach from Dimboola to Bordertown began in 1881. One of their changing stables for the coach team was on the south side of the eastern entrance of the cutting in the hill of the Serviceton turn-off; down on the southern edge of the sand dill was a spring where permanent water was always available, which was very important in those days and the reason for the stables being built there.
The year 1881 was one of great interest to the pioneers of the district, as it saw the railway line come to Custon from Naracoorte on September 21, 1881; Custon to Wolseley on May 18, 1883; then the same year on to Bordertown. It was of narrow-gauge construction. Besides this, there was the establishment of the telegraphic communication between Melbourne and Adelaide.
My grandfather, Tom Merrett, told many a story of the 1881 drought. All the water in the dams dried up and the only water to be had was out at Moree – a soak where a well was sunk and boxed out. This had to cater for the district, plus travelling teams of bullocks and horses carting goods over the South Australian border. The old pioneers would say it was nothing to see from 20 to 30 teams travelling from Lillimur to the South Australian border, which was known at that time as the Naracoorte Road. The angle three-chain road from Lillimur (now South Lillimur) meeting the highway some three miles east of the border fence was called the Bordertown Road.
The Commissioner of Victorian Railways made a visit through this area and soon learnt that Victoria was losing wool and wheat to South Australia from beyond Kaniva. This prompted the Victorian Government to build the railway through to the South Australian border, and a survey was made in 1882 to plan a possible course for the line.
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In 1883 Saint Clements Church of England had its first church service. The church was later used as a school, mostly part-time - three days one week and two the next - either with North Leeor or Mitchie schools. It was also known as Leeor East. This year saw the beginning of the Serviceton Gazette, now known as the Kaniva-Lillimur Courier and Serviceton Gazette.
In 1884 C. and E. Miller were successful tenderers for the construction of the railway from Dimboola to Serviceton, a distance of sixty-six and three quarter miles. This same year South Australia constructed the railway to the border, and farmers in the Leeor district carted their grain to the crossing at the border; Grice and Co. were agents.
The Leeor North School was opened on February 22, 1884, and Mr J Braithwaite and his sister were the school teachers, Miss Braithwaite being the assistant teacher.
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Serviceton was begun in 1885, and was named after the former Premier of Victoria, Sir James Service (1880-1883), and established on what is known as the Disputed Territory – a two-mile wide strip of land along the border from the coast to the River Murray and claimed by both Victoria and South Australia.
The year 1886 saw the beginning of construction o f the railway dam, right where the railway met the border fence. It was of some 50,000 cubic yards, and earth from this dam was taken into the Serviceton station-yard to build up the line. The old timers quoted that anything that could carry dirt was used to make this dam – buckets, wheelbarrows, scoops and drays. The line from the border went into where Serviceton now stands and the connection of Serviceton with Adelaide was made on May 1, 1886, with the completion of the Nairne-Bordertown line.
The station is typical of the solid 19th century buildings – of brick construction, and with dungeons below platform level where convicts were housed while being transferred between the two states. The station was built after 1887.
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