Henry Facey Hurst took over the management of the Allwood Station at Upper Diamond Creek (now Hurstbridge) for first settler Cornelius Haley in 1855. In 1856 he was joined there by his parents Frances and Robert Hurst and several of his siblings. Around 1858 Henry erected a substantial log bridge across the Diamond Creek upstream from the present Monash bridge and the area was soon known locally as ‘Hurst’s Bridge’.
On the morning of October 4th 1866 Henry Hurst and, self proclaimed bushranger Robert Clusky (alias Bourke) were to meet with disasterous results for both for during a heated verbal altercation and struggle Henry was fatally wounded when Cluskys pistol discharged. Henry suffered a massive blood loss and died that evening. Clusky was apprehended taken to Melbourne. He was tried for murder, found guilty and hung on the 29th of November 1866.
Henry was buried at Allwood, the first in what was to become the Hurst Family Cemetery. The last burial was that of Fred Hurst. Henry’s younger brother, in 1924.
In the early 1970’s the then Eltham Shire purchased the Cemetery and surrounding land from Mrs Ferguson, grand niece of the ill fated Henry, for the construction of a much needed kindergarten. A part of the Hurst Family Cemetery was included in the Kinder grounds on Graysharps Road. The Cemetery is an important local historical site and of much interest to both local residents and visitors alike. The Hurstbridge History Group and descendents of Hurst/Gray families have, with the support of the folk at the Hursthridge Kindergarten, been working with Nillumbik Council to preserve and restore this important little Cemetery as a proper and fitting memorial to our early settlers. Work on the refencing to separate the Cemetery from the Kinder and appropiate weeding and other maintenance of the Cemetery site commenced in early 2009. The weeds have been cleared from the site and the Cemetery is now separted from the Kindergarten. Further ground works and then the fencing, simple posts with chain, are next on the agenda.
This article reproduced here with permission was first published in [The New Local]: news and views from Hurstbridge, Nutfield, Strathewen, Arthurs Creek, Panton Hill, Wattle Glen, St Andrews, Smiths Gully, Kangaroo Ground, Cottles Bridge, Doreen and Watsons Creek Issue 1 November/December 2008 page 16.
I am pleased to see something of my family on your site, even if the graveyard has been rather neglected at times.
I have found very little of Hurstbridge and W. G. Gray who resided at Allwood and was my grandfather, his wife, my grandmother was a Hurst. He was an orchardist and nurseryman in Hurstbridge and Cottles Bridge, and Kinglake, and much involved in the community before the depression and the second World War, which changed so much. For some reason he has not featured much in documented history. There are many descendants of the family who are interested in our history, and are willing to contribute. Graysharps road of course is the road between the Gray and the Sharp homes.
Many of our family photos are about, and are sometimes featured in stories and often mistakingly labelled, which is unfortunate.