College history

Pre –1830

The Aboriginals that inhabited the area of western and northern Melbourne before European settlement were originally various clans of the Wurungeri tribe and they used the river valleys to access needed resources. The lifestyle that was enjoyed by the Wurundjeri, in the Maribyrnong Valley area, and the City of Whittlesea area gave them a varied and healthy diet; animals skins for their winter cloaks; bark for canoes, containers and shields; and stone for tools. They lived on the offshoots of the Yarra River - along the Merri, Edgars and Darebin Creeks - the Plenty River and the Maribyrnong River.

White settlement and following

As far as European history is concerned the area surrounding Gilson College has progressed through five stages:

• Exploration - 1800s - 1830
• Agricultural expansion -1835 - 1850,
• Gold Rush Period - 1850s,
• Market Garden Developments - 1860s - 1950s and then
• Suburbanisation from the 1950s onwards.

Exploration

Early explorers in the western region of Melbourne included Charles Grimes (1803) who was the Surveyor-General of New South Wales, conducted land surveys. Later Hume and Hovell whose feats are recognised by a number of cairns* travelled through the grass plains of the district. They camped somewhere near the Taylors Road and Sydenham Road intersection. * Corner of Taylors Road and East Esplanade, and corner of Station Road and Western (Ballarat) Highway.

In the northern region of Melbourne, Hume and Hovell documented the Whittlesea area in December 1824. One of the first settlers in this area was the squatter George Sherwin (1837) and a year or two later surveyor Mason set out the lines for three north-south transport routes: Plenty Road, Epping Road and Sydney Road.

Agriculture

A number of families moved into the western region establishing agriculture as the main activity in the area, including the Taylors and Yuilles The main agricultural activities involved wheat and sheep farming. This activity was still taking place in the late 1990s and early students of Gilson College – Taylors Hill will have fond memories of feeding both sheep and cattle while at school.

The northern district quickly became a vital part of Melbourne’s life, supplying food from its farms and water from Melbourne’s first large water storage, Yan Yean Reservoir.

Gold Rush

The area around Gilson College – Taylors Hill in addition to its agricultural activity was a gateway through to the gold fields of Bendigo and Ballarat. In 1850 nearby Keilor was the first transition point for the famous Cobb and Co coaches and many diggers camped in the area on the way to make their fortune.

Market Gardens and Farms

Even today there is located on the banks of the Maribyrnong River significant areas of land devoted to market gardening.

The land surrounding Gilson College – Mernda was in the early 1900s the location of many dairy farms that supplied milk to Melbourne. The area once had crops of oats: a Chinese market garden: sheep, beef and poultry farms, together with vineyards and orchards. Some of these have now been replaced with alpacas and emus.

Suburbanisation

Although the suburb of St Albans was architecturally designed and first laid out during Melbourne's 1880s land boom with the intention of encouraging professional people to settle in the area, and despite the healthy climate and easy access to the city by train, this was unsuccessful. The economic crash of the 1890s caused development to grind to a halt. Finally, the post-world war residential development saw the arrival of many migrants establishing themselves in ‘the Lucky Country.’ Today the major cultural groups are Vietnamese, Maltese, Italian, Croatian, Macedonian, Filipino, Greek and Polish.

Purchase of the Taylors Hill property by the Adventist Church with a view to establish an educational institution providing quality Christian education to western Melbourne took place in 1987. Classes began on the Taylors Hill site in 1988.

The township of Mernda in the early 1900s consisted of a school, a Methodist church, a bakery/store, a railway station, a mechanics institute as well as the Bridge Inn Hotel. Since World War II, the Whittlesea area has enjoyed steady growth, adding new suburbs throughout the latter part of the 20^th century. In the 21^st century, Mernda has now been acknowledged as one of the fastest-growing areas in Victoria.

Purchase of the Mernda property by Adventist Schools Victoria took place in 2012 and classes began seven weeks later in 2013.

(Acknowledgement: Information regarding the history of the regions has been sourced from the Cities of Brimbank, Melton and Whittlesea websites.)