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Winner Macedon Ranges Business Excellence Awards 2007 for Accommodation
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Tilwinda History
Tilwinda (6 acres) is on part of an original (38 acres) Crown allotment (Portion 124, Parish of Lauriston)). At the first government land sale in Kyneton the property was purchased by local farmers John and Hugh Gillies farmers, for two hundred and nine pounds, the Grant was signed by Charles Joseph LaTrobe Esquire, Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Victoria in 1852. John Thomson, a farmer
from Tylden bought the 38 acre allotment from Hugh Gillies in 1867 for four
hundred and thirty-seven pounds. Initially the property was leased, (in 1871 the
rate book shows William Murray as the occupier of the farm). It is thought that
John built the house and named the property Rosebank and that his wife Sarah Ann
moved to Rosebank (from their property Lillydale in Tylden) after John’s sudden
death in January 1874. They had five sons and five daughters. John Thomson came to Sydney Australia as a boy with his family in August 1838 on the “William Rogers” from Lanarkshire in Scotland .He was the eldest son of John senior and Gizelle (there were 5 sons: John, William, Lewis, James and Andrew and two daughters). Plague broke out on the ship and his mother and a sister died at sea on the way out. In all 60 people died on the journey or in quarantine on arrival. The family sailed to Port Phillip in 1839 and John senior found work as an overseer for Alexander Mollison at Pemberton, Malmsbury. There was no sign of habitation in the Kyneton area. In 1844 John senior and four of his sons went to a property in Warrandyte. John junior remained behind and worked for Mollison at Malmsbury. Then in the early1850’s when Kyneton farming land was first sold by the government, John senior and his sons returned to the area and took up a large section of fertile country in the southern portion of the Parish of Lauriston and the Parish of Tylden (5 farms) Prospect was the first property purchased. The Thomson brothers had a Produce Store selling chaff, hay and corn in High St Kyneton. The brothers combined shopkeeping with farming until 1858 when they sold the store. John senior tragically died in the mid 1850s’whilst crossing a flooded Campaspe River on his horse. After the death of their father the brothers divided the 5 farms by drawing lots. Lillydale in Tylden went to John. Prospect went to William. Tylden Park went to Lewis. At Prospect (just down from Tilwinda on the corner of Summerhill Rd), William grew potatoes in freshly broken ground followed by wheat and oats. The nearby property Rosehill (Harper’s Lane) was also owned by family members. John junior was a member of the troop of the Prince of Wales Light Horse which was formed in Kyneton in1862. For many years he was a leading member of the Agricultural Association. His pleasant genial manner endeared him to all with whom he was brought in contact. The Kyneton Guardian of 30 January 1874 noted that his funeral was “the largest ever seen in Kyneton”. At the head of a long procession marched the Volunteer Band, and then came a company of the Kyneton Troop of Light Horse under the command of Major Windridge with arms reversed. John and Sarah Ann’s daughter Sarah married Hedley Harper at Rosebank (Tilwinda) on 14th September 1881. Examples of Hedley’s fine furniture crafting can be seen at the Kyneton Museum. Hedley became a community leader serving as Shire President and Captain of the Fire Brigade. Another daughter Agnes (Aggie) married Robert Gillespie and lived at Rosebank from the 1890’s until the mid 1950’s, they had four children. The current dining room was originally a bedroom. Agnes’ brother Lewis lived with them and he ran the farm. They also owned ‘the paddock’ across the road where they had haystacks and a shed. There was an extensive vegetable garden at the side down from the front gate. At the front of the house there was a cottage garden with a path down the middle to a gate in the centre of the cypress hedge. Dances were held in the barn. Formerly a sheep and cattle farm and in more recent times a horse stud; the old milking shed, shearing shed, bluestone barn and yards remain. A previous owner painted a prize horse on the door of the shed that once housed a milk separator. In the house marvellous original oil lamps now converted to electricity hang in the guest sitting room, the dining room and the ‘Rosebank Suite’, original brickwork can be seen in the kitchen, several of the original mantelpieces survive, most of the wood ceilings remain (minus paint), as do the beautiful Baltic pine floors. An original St Kilda Rd street light stands sentinel to the house at the side of the front lawn.
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