The following article is reproduced by permission of Noel Withers and extracted from “Banyule City Council Spring Outdoors Programme 2008: Greensborough & the Plenty River Pioneer Trail with Dennis Ward & Noel Withers. A ramble from the lower part of town and along the river bank learning about historic sites and the pioneering families that settled there from 1840 onward.”
Charles Partington and his wife Ellen (nee Whatmough) arrived in Melbourne from Lancashire in 1857 living initially at Lookout Point on the Plenty River with Ellen’s brother’s family with Charles and his brother in law Robert Whatmough working for the Flintoff brothers.
In the off season Charles maned the toll gate in Grimshaw Street opposite Dunn Street for the Roads Board prior to purchasing Willis Vale.
After losing two children they raised a further 5 boys and two girls on the property which became a Jersey cow stud farm when the fruit market weakened.
The Partington family continued to live at Willis Vale until 1960 when it became subject to vandalism and eventually the ravages of a bush fire.
