EMERALD HILL. {From the Melbourne "Telegraph.")

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 225, 23 May 1872, Page 8

EMERALD HILL. {From the Melbourne "Telegraph.")

Midway between Melbourne and the sea lies the knoll now overgrown with houses, and known to us. all as the half sea-suburb of Emerald Hill. It is the first place to catch the visitor's eye as he arrives in Hobson's Bay, and it was nearly the first to attract the attention of the " Father of the City." Here it was that the late Mr. J. P. Fawkner first took up land after coming up the, Yarra, and Emerald Hill may thus be looked upon as the first settled part of Melbourne, unless it be that part of it occupied by Batman, which is, strange to say, still a moot point. The spot where Mr. Fawkner settled was that now lying between Brighton road, Clarendon-street, Sandridge road, and Dorcas-street extension. Some of the plough furrows may still be seen by the curious. When the Port Puillip Agricultural Society's ploughing match was held in the Military Reserve a few years ago, Mr. Fawkner, who was present took great pleasure in pointing out to some of his friends the marks of "the plough he had himself guided thirty-five years before. The site of Emerald Hill was in. subsequent days a mere cattle run for the convenience of Melbourne residents, and it is only lately that the old hut occupied by the cattle-keeper was removedv After it ceased to be a commonage,' a large part of it — where Moray-street north, Clark-street, and other contiguous streets new give safeand commodious access for miles — was used as a brickfield ; and from it was taken the claj to compose the bricks of which streets of Melbourne houses were built. The holes left by the brickmakers' operations have remained a permanent legacy to the Emerald Hill people, by way of burden. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds have been spent in the filling of them up, and there still remain isolated ones. These clay-holes, when the brick-mak-ing had ceased to be- can ied on, and they had become filled with" water, were the scene ' of many a tragedy. Men coming and going to and from the BCill* and to and* from Canvas Town, under the influence of drink (and their names were legion in those days), were apt to wander into them, and meet their death from drowning. An examination of the clay-holes was a common event in the mornings of those days. The gold fever raged strongly then, and Emerald Hill had, of course, its share of a rush. In September, 1853, a rumour got abroad that gold bad been discovered by a man who was digging a well. • A rush was the consequence, and for a few days the place was in turmoil. Governor Latrobe, with Captain Lonsdale and the rest of his suite, rode over to make arrangements for having the field governed. Examination proved^ however, that there was no gold. Afterwards there was a shrewd reason for believing that a man who was in difficulties as to* how he should meet a bill coming due had purchased half an ounce of gold dust, and skilfully scattered it. This is pro- 1 bably the earliest instance of salting upon record in the colony. Instances, also, of successful colonist? hailing from iEmerftld( HiU <maj be cited in

numbers, but one or two instances will j serve to illustrate! In March, 1854, a man arrived at the Hill, driving his wife and children, and' whole worldly possessions in a dray. He was a mason, and through some accident being unable to continue 'working at his trade, took to the hawking of boots. He was subsequently a small contractor, and afterwards contracted for some of the largest works ever done by the Q-overnment of the colony. Another, whose eloquence*at the bar and skill as an expounder of its subtleties and beauties, and whose name is familiar in the mouths of colonists as household words, and whose reputation has extended far beyond the colonies, earned his honest living in those days by selling water round the Hill. from a barrel.

The origin of the name Emerald Hill arose out of the following circumsfance: — At the inauguration of St. Patrick's Society, one of the first friendly societies established in Victoria, in the year 1849 or '50, a picnic was held, and the members assembled on the grassy sward which in those days covered the Hill. .At this picnic Mr. E. Finn, of i he Melbourne " Morning Herald," and now Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, proposed that the place should be called Emerald Hill, in honour of the place where St. Patrick's Society first met, and because the meeting place was covered with a bright green sward.