Much of the fires at St Andrews were to the north of the town. The town itself is intact. Gaye Ponting, Secretary of the St Andrews Queenstown Historical Society has been in contact. She says that “our Society has been fortunate with the fires in St Andrews as the fire did not come into town – it came within 2kms. However, the district has lost some of the last homesteads that our pioneers built 120 years ago. These 4 homesteads were the last remnants linking these pioneer families with their battles and the hardships of this land. It is well documented in local papers at the time, in 1896, 1926, [http://www.abc.net.au/blackfriday/home/default.htm 1939] and1962 of how the community fought in these bushfires to save each others homes but no-one could stop Black Saturday, 2009.
The homesteads that were destroyed were ‘Flowerdell’ and ‘Pinegrove’ owned by the Muller Family. This family first came to St Andrews in 1860, they mined for gold and then established many orchards. There were remnants of these orchards on some properties..it will be interesting to see if they have survived this fire. St Andrews Historical Society has a hand drawn map by a member of this family of an orchard and where they dug for gold, near these trees.
Another Pioneer family – the Ninks, who also came to Queenstown (now St Andrews) early 1860’s were also orchardists and they were known as the
‘Peach Kings’ by other fruit sellers in Queen Victoria Market circa 1915. They named their home ‘Peach Grove’.
In 1926 devastating bushfires caused much damage in the Kinglake area and came as far south as Peach Grove in St Andrews. Using a windmill, family members managed to pump enough water from the creek to douse flames burning the home’s window frames and other out buildings. However on February 7 2009, no amount of water could save this homestead.
Another homestead known as ‘Moonlight hill’ circa 1880, owned by the Whelpton Family was also destroyed. St Andrews Historical Society knows of five buildings left standing, that are over 100 years old. They are a reminder of our early pioneer European heritage in the District.
St Andrews Hotel, St Andrews Church, St Andrews Hall,St Andrews Community Centre (old school) and Clifden Farm.
20 people died from St Andrews.
Reg Evans, a familiar face to many, did not survive the fires. He loved the district and understood its history. The well known actor recently wrote a play about some characters of the town. The performance was postponed.
Source
Partly sourced from Newsletter of the Association of Eastern Historical Societies Inc February 2009
Reprinted in History News (Royal Historical Society of Victoria) April-May 2009
