John Bear with his wife Ann (nee Hutchins), sons John Pinney and Thomas Hutchins and daughter Ellen Ann arrived at Williamstown in the 550-ton ship “Brothers”, ‘with their good friend’ Captain Dunsford of Tiverton, Devon, on 20 October 1841. Soon after his arrival John Bear purchased from the Crown for one pound per acre, the freehold of Section 20, Parish of Yan Yean, comprising 935 acres to the east of the Plenty River.
In Melbourne John Bear ran the firm of ‘Bear and Son’, stock and station agents, with his eldest son John Pinney Bear. Garryowen, in ‘The Chronicles of Early Melbourne’, describes him as ‘the brusque, active, wide awake, widely liked individual known as Mr. John Bear Senior’. At week-ends, ‘Old Bear’ rode to his New Leicester Farm at Yan Yean. His second son Thomas Hutchins Bear was in charge of the farm during his absence. At Yan Yean, the Bears planted fruit trees and one of the first vineyards in Victoria, on what in later years became known as the ‘Castle Hill’ farm and vineyard.
