"George Chaundy and William Moore were two early bullock drivers known to have been in the district, some 150 years ago. In 1850 George Chaundy came to Fern Tree Gully to assist in the removal of masts for Captain Freyer's barque and slept beneath his bullock wagon at whatever place he found himself at nightfall.
Towards the close of the pastoral era the colony of Melbourne turned timber-hungary eyes to the Dandenongs, and in the early 1850s timber splitters first invaded the forest, felling giant gums used in railways, piers and bridges being constructed at that period.
Reports of the fine timber growing on the summit of the range, carried back to Melbourne by pastoralists and botanists, were evidently heard by Captain John Freyer, master of the disabled barque Admiral, who sought timber to replace the masts of his vessel, broken by a storm on the journey out from Glasgow. Freyer entered Hobson's Bay in October 1850 and immediately set out for the hills in an endeavour to try and find suitable spars with which to replace the masts. He was disappointed to find only stringybark and messmate growing at the edge of the forest but on penetrating the area known as Upwey was delighted to find a "forest of ships' masts" growing beside the Mast Gully Creek.
Two spars, each 100 feet long and 26 inches in diameter were cut from "Mast Gully" and four bullock teams were engaged in removing them, George Chaundy and William Moore of Fern Tree Gully were two of the bullockies employed and so rough was the country and so heavy the load, that 26 bullocks were required to pull each mast, the first of which reached the Admiral just six weeks after the ship had anchored in the bay.
Both masts were removed from the forest at the same period, the second mast being left on the roadside at Fern Tree Gully to await the return of the party carrying the first mast to the disabled vessel. Alas, when the bullockies returned they found that the second mast had been sawn in two by someone with a taste for practical jokes. Another month elapsed while the splitters again entered the forest and cut a third mast.
Trees that covered the hills at this period yielded first quality timber and it is difficult for us today to visualise the magnificent tree ferns and undergrowth then growing in the gullies. Surveyors working in the district recorded the size of the trees they found in the ranges and one of these, A.R. Selwyn reported in 1856 that near the highest point of the Dandenongs he had measured a fallen tree that was 216 feet from the root to the first branch and 18 yards in circumference at a point three or four yards from the ground.
News of the tall white gums that grew in Mast Gully led to the establishment of a timber camp there about 1852, and the names Sandell and Fountain, timber splitters, are associated with this period, while Chaundy and Moore were among bullock drivers employed in bringing out the timber.
In 1860 Chaundy built his paling shack besides the banks of the Ferny Creek (south of Glenfern Road). In 1873 the pioneer moved across the main road to a 'forest selection' of 40 acres, and four years later bought a block south of the junction of Glenfern and Fern Tree Gully Roads, on which he built the brick house, that was occupied more recently by his grand-children, Frank and William Chaundy and Mrs E. Gazzola.
In 1865 Fern Tree Gully was the centre of district life and residents of the day included the Bambury, Chaundy, Dobson, Lum, Moore and Westley families (pioneers of the timber era), and the Selman family on Dawson's Glenfern. By that time Albert Selman had begun to develop his property Willow Vale and his neighbours in the Glenfern Road area were Patrick Callanan, Patrick Ryan and Jas. Smith. Thomas Gander was established at Blackwood Park and Henry Smith at Fulham Grange, while William Hughes had settled in Fern Tree Gully Road and Jas. McMahon in Burwood Road. George Dicksen was then mine host at a paling shack dignified by the title "Fern Tree Gully Hotel" close to the site of the hostelry still known by that name, and William Carter and John Ashley operated the sawmill established by Beilby near the existing site of Brenock Park. W. K. Ross, who a few years later built the Hunting Tower Hotel near the existing Club Hotel, settled in the district about this period and the above families, together with J. W. Beilby, were the real pioneers of Fern Tree Gully."
Passages taken from 'Story of the Dandenongs' By Helen Coulson
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