George Coulstock
Port Phillip, later to become Melbourne was first permanently settled by the white man in 1835. Very shortly after, in 1837, the first crop of wheat was raised. It was ground into flour by hand-cranked mills, the only option until the first powered mills were built in the 1840’s.
In 1833 a George Coulstock was newly arrived in Launceston from Swan River, Western Australia, where he had arrived from England.
When Melbourne was first settled, it quickly gained a reputation in Van Diemen’s Land as the place to go for plentiful pasture and cheap land. Many farmers and speculators took passages in a kind of “land rush,” often accompanied by a workforce, livestock and equipment. It seems that George was caught up in this mood and resolved to resettle. By 1840 he had bought 670 acres of the Parish of Morang in two lots, which lie in the modern suburbs of University Hill and Mill Park. By this time George was accompanied by his brother James and was married to Frances with a young son George and a daughter Mary to be born in Melbourne in June 1839.
Farm
George set industriously to work on his newly-acquired lands which he called Mill Park in anticipation of building a mill there. He built a station house which he named Springfield. In the same year, George’s parents arrived with his brother Alfred and George transferred some neighbouring land to them. In 1842 it is reported that George has “125 acres of wheat ready for the sickle on his property”.
Mill
Coulstock’s Mill was one of the first in Victoria and it seems to have suffered for being so, for it has been described as “poorly designed.” It was under construction as early as December 1841. It had a water wheel 16 feet in diameter. Apart from the mill building, the construction would have entailed cutting the mill race, and digging out and damming up a mill pond in the Plenty River upstream.
As for the internal machinery, it is possible that George acquired it prefabricated, or second-hand from a mill demolished in another colony (most likely Van Diemen’s Land), or that it was locally-crafted. Powered by water, the mill processed the wheat from the Coulstock farm and other farms around.
Tragedy
1842 saw Melbourne go through a depression. Suddenly, George died aged 32 years with his estate eventually going to insolvency. Frances was pregnant at the time of George’s death. The family moved to another property and James stepped up to support his brother’s family. But in 1845, James was charged with manslaughter. He shot at a neighbour who burst into his house. Although James was sentenced to 6 months gaol, this was overturned on a technicality and he received no punishment.
There was further tragedy when a horse accident took the life of a young man William Owens while in the company of James Coulstock . His father had been a millwright who had worked with George at the mill.
In February 1846 there were extensive bushfires in the area. Frances Coulstock died the following year aged only 28 years old leaving three young children. This may have been the stimulus for the wider family to re-group and take the decision to re-located to Warrnambool.
New Owners
The Mill Park farm was absorbed by local landowners at the time Henry Miller and John Brodie Brock. The mill, together with 20 acres of land was let to Peter Hurlstone & Sons in 1848. Hurlstone was an engineer and Oxford graduate and had known George Coulstock. Peter’s son Alfred was placed in charge. He refitted the mill and advertised its availability in one of the earliest references to the location of Janefield. By 1850, despite being subject to flooding it is reported that the mill was doing very well. On the 6th of February 1851 the Plenty region was reportedly the site of origin for the Black Thursday bushfire which burned 50,000 square kilometres and led to the death of a million sheep. Later that year, gold was discovered. In the long run it was bad news for the Plenty Mill. The growing demand for water with Melbourne’s increased population led to the creation of the Yan Yean Reservoir filling it with water diverted from the Plenty River. The Hurlstones quit and that was the final demise of the mill.
Thank you to Andrew Parkin for his research and contribution. Want more? read Andrews full Coulstock’s Mill Research Report
Image: Coulstock’s Mill, Janefield, 1855 by J.B. Henderson from National Library of Australia
