After looking at Lower Paradise last month, let’s continue to identify the early settlers of Upper Paradise.
274 Morse Rd, Hilltop: Arn Morse built close to the sites of William & Pamela Whiley’s Hilltop house, the first settlers in Paradise, and George & Amelia Morse’s first house, Norwood. After George died, sons Arn and Cyril share farmed the old Morse family property. Arn had previously lost his first wife and his only daughter. After Heather MacRae from Victoria turned up as the new Paradise school teacher in Jan 1938, Arn married her in Nov 1939 and they had four children. Heather taught school at Sheffield for many years. Arn died at home in Sept 1974. In 1987 Michael & Margaret Duff purchased the farm, and Steve & Rehan Jones bought the house.
277 Paradise Rd: Pink Cottage was the name given to the quaint little house placed opposite the entrance to Morse Rd, which was originally the Ladies Rest Room in High St, Sheffield. Bert Hampton moved it to Paradise, where disabled pensioner Dudley Kelly lived for 15 years. In 1989 Bernard (60) & Eileen Ridgley came from Melbourne after Bernard’s doctor advised changing his lifestyle. His daily routine had been a gruelling 80-minute drive from his Dandenong home through 138 sets of traffic lights to the Melbourne CBD.
300 Paradise Rd, Cloverlea & Glenview: After Charles & Amelia Frankcombe married at Beulah in 1904, they purchased the property Glenview. Charles had previously lost his first wife and was left with four children. In 1906 Charles got the contract for a bi-weekly mail run to Sheffield. Tragically, Amelia died on Christmas Day 1910, aged 29. Charles’s third marriage, to Margaret Carey in 1912, produced sons Maurice and Ross. Les & Win Dyer bought the property in 1927 and had Jock McCoy build a new house, Cloverlea, in front of the original house, which they rented to Laurie Mace in 1936. The farm was purchased by Fred & Chloris Murfet in 1948, Bert & Betty Hampton in 1967 and Michael & Margaret Duff in 1979.
303 Paradise Rd: After Roy Austin married Dorothy Sharman in 1935, they built this house and added a special room for the PO. Dorothy took over as postmistress from her sister Linda (1924–1928) and relinquished it in Nov 1953 when Roy & Dorothy moved to Sheffield. Cliff & Vena Treloar operated the PO until July 1959, followed by Peggy Munting till July 1961 when an automatic telephone exchange at Sheffield took over.
309 Paradise Rd: Roy Austin built this house on a 1-acre block for Laurie & Evelyn Mace. They lived there 1940–1946, then sold to Walter & Elvie Wilson. Ted & Laurice Sharman were the next owners. Married in 1923, they never owned a motor car and rarely left Paradise. Ted was a trapper, bullocky, bush worker and seasonal worker on harvesting machines. They loved country dances, where Ted played his harmonica. Ted & Laurice celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary in 1992, with Ted becoming the oldest man in Paradise. Clarrie & Faye Milne spent time here before moving to Sheffield.
321 Paradise Rd, Fern Tree Grove: Herbert (Bert) Sharman married Alice Milne in 1901 and raised a big family of 13 in Paradise. Their first house, built over the back of this property, was destroyed in the 1913 bushfires. Their second house was built closer to the road. In 1935 Herbert moved to Kindred, and son Ray (Pat) & Mary Sharman took over the property.
368 Paradise Rd, Ben-Cruachan: Kentish boy Arthur Murfet went to WW1 and came home with a Scottish war bride. In 1921 he obtained this 59-acre farm at Paradise and later another 98 acres along Harland Rise Rd., Arthur & Margaret had three children: Kath (Mrs Ray Duff), Peggy (Mrs Trevor Munting), who took over her father’s farm, and Fred Murfet, who purchased the adjoining farm.
402 Paradise Rd, Woodside: Robert & Sarah Manning bought this 100-acre block in 1881, four years after Robert’s older brother James Manning had settled further up Paradise Rd. They had 10 children. Robert (64) died in 1907. Milne Bros sold the property to Abel & Mary (Manning) Austin in 1920 where they raised their four boys, Vic, Cyril, Roy & Lionel (Jack). About 1948 Vinco Bossiner and his parents came from Yugoslavia where they had a trucking business but lost everything in WW2. After borrowing money to buy the farm, they worked hard to paid back every penny. Vinco never married. Later, Peter & Terrilea Gale had the farm.
Paradise School: The first school began in Wm Treloar’s house on the Minnow River side of Paradise. In 1895 the government selected a more central site on Paradise Rd just below the junction of Harland Rise Rd. The Paradise PO commenced at this school on 1 Oct 1898, when schoolteacher Mildred Marshall agreed to distribute the local mail. This continued until 19 May 1913 when a ferocious bushfire swept Paradise, destroying the school/PO. A new school was built by Sheffield builder Arthur Bayley. Popular teacher Eva Wyatt taught at Paradise between 1910-1925. Twice each day she rode her bicycle or horse up and down the steep hills of Old Paradise Rd between Sheffield and Paradise. Eva became engaged to young Paradise man Cliff Bramich, but when he was killed in France in Oct 1917, it broke her heart, and she never married. The school closed in 1942 and the children were transported by bus to Sheffield Area School. In 1967 the old Paradise school was sold for $70 to the Sheffield Bowls Club to become their new club rooms.
Harland Rise Road (formerly Bramich & Overtons Rd)
Harland Rise Rd originally followed the boundary line of what was Foster Estate around its SE corner and today leads into the massive forestry plantations on Lizard Hill. Surveyor Dooley marked this road out in the late 1870s when he discovered several saleable blocks of land adjacent to Foster Estate. These were quickly purchased by Joseph Crack, Ephriam Doe and James Manning, who were the first settlers in Upper Paradise.
Joseph Crack bought the first property along the southside of Harland Rise Rd, where later, James Coope lived in retirement on ‘Coope’s Corner’. Coope’s remarkable life story was told in the Oct 2019 edition of Kentish Voice. Later owners were Ed Smith, Reg Mace, Winston Pilgrim and Greg Henry. In April 2000, the Bingham family sold the property to the Forestry for plantation purposes. Ephraim Jr & Caroline Doe purchased the next property about 1878, where they raised a large family. Ephraim’s ex-convict father lived in a small hut on their property. Later the family moved to Roland, where Ephraim became a trustee of the Kentishbury Gospel Hall. Caroline (44) died having her 13th child. Further up Harland Rise Rd George & Alice Overton bought 48 acres in 1895. A nephew to original pioneer Henry Overton, George came out from England independently some 30 years after the original Overtons, whom he had never met. George married Alice Billing, with their most famous descendant being world-famous axeman David Foster. Clive & Nina (Overton) Febey took over the Overton farm.
Chas & Eliza Bramich purchased a block from Foster Estate in 1913, naming it Harland Rise. One of their 10 children, Clifton Bramich, was killed in WWI. Another son, Reuben Bramich, married Annie Kirkcaldy and took over his father’s property in 1935. Reuben & Annie had two children, Doris & Rex, who both died tragically. During Rex’s time in the Kentish council, the names of many country roads were formalised and, instead of Bramichs Rd, Rex suggested Harland Rise Rd. In 1972, Rex was killed in a bulldozer accident the day after his 49th birthday. The next owners of the Harland Rise property were Rodney & Dot Gleeson.
The original Baptist Church was built by Henry Morris of Sheffield in 1905 on land provided by James Manning on top of his hill. Twenty-three years later, a vicious windstorm picked up the church and hurled it 50 metres down the hill. Reg Mace donated a corner of his land on Harland Rise Rd for a replacement site. Built in the Depression, it opened in April 1931 with seats, an organ and a pulpit from the old Beulah Baptist church. Charles Bramich’s wife, Elsie, was the first SS superintendent, followed by Arthur Murfet. As families moved away, services were reduced to once a month. Sheffield pastor Bruce French finally closed the church in 1992 when Mrs Stella Sharman became the only local left.
Dawson Rd (originally Hoare’s and Treloar’s Rd)
This road followed around the NW sides of Robert Manning’s 100-acre property, past the prominent sugar-loaf hill into the foothills of Mt Roland. From earliest times, there was a good walking track between Hoare’s Rd at Paradise across the foothills of Mt Roland to join Walkers Rd at Claude Rd. It was an important link between these two communities, who regularly interacted for social, church and sporting events. Most likely this track followed the original aboriginal path coming from the west that passed up through Paradise to the Mt Gog ochre mines.
About 1885 Wm & Bessie Luttrell took up two blocks along the mountain side of Dawson Rd. His sister Jane Luttrell became the first teacher at Paradise from 1892–94. In 1901 Luttrell moved to West Kentish Rd, served on the Road Trust and later served as treasurer of the new Kentish Council. Later, the Treloars had this property, which Jack & Joyce (Manning) Dawson purchased in 1951 (hence Dawsons Rd). Raised at Gowrie Park, Jack Dawson (22) found himself fighting up the Kokoda Track in WW2 but fortunately survived. Very musical, Jack played numerous instruments in Claude Road dance bands. Brought up in the Dawson home, Shirl Brown has made a name for herself as a well-known Australian country & western singer and recording artist. Arthur Ford bought out Jack & Joyce Dawson when they moved to Devonport.
Wm & Jane Milne moved from Parkham with their large adult family to farm Luttrell’s property. It wasn’t long before their six daughters married local farmers: Bruce Morris, John Manning, Herb Sharman, Ernie Nunn, Norm Hope and Ernie Treloar. Walter became an elder at the West Kentish Presbyterian Church when it opened and held fortnightly services in his home. William died in 1912. Son Walter Milne married Carol Treloar, who died in childbirth in 1933 when Clarrie Milne was born.
James & Elizabeth Hoare bought 102 acres on the highest plateau in Paradise. Born in Ireland in 1839, young James Hoare went to the USA and fought in the Red Indian wars prior to joining his family who had immigrated to Tasmania. He married Elizabeth Cubit about 1866 and had five sons & five daughters. His three eldest sons met tragic deaths long before he died, aged 100. James Jr drowned, Jack was murdered at Wilmot and Michael burnt to death in a bushfire. Sam Hoare married Beatrice Treloar in 1917 and took over the Hoare family farm, while another son, William Hoare, sold off his 65 acres to Norman & Elsie Treloar, later owned by Kevin & Jean Treloar.
Henry Bishop b1865 came to Paradise in the late 1880s. He married Annie Smith in 1897, had three children, then took up sawmilling at Spreyton. His mother, who had children from each of her three marriages, lived with her younger son Andrew Smith at the end of Dawsons Rd. The Smiths were the first to get burnt out in the devastating bushfires of 1898.
Over the Top – the Minnow River side of Paradise
494 Paradise Rd: Amongst the first settlers, James & Alice Manning purchased their land about 1877. They had five sons & four daughters. As mentioned, Baptist services commenced in their home, and the Paradise Cricket Club formed there in Sept 1900. Sons Harry & Robert helped their father on the farm where James died in 1912, the last of the Paradise pioneers. The farm was purchased by Reg & Lorna Mace. George & Martha Eagling had bought a 70-acre bush block on the mountain side of James Manning. After five years, George returned to boot-making in Sheffield, and his son Ted, with Alice Eagling (6 chn), took over the farm. The remarkable escape of Alice with her six small children from the devastating bushfires of 1898 is told in the Jan 2023 issue of Kentish Voice.
Robert & Ellen Anderson were the first to farm the steep hill descending from Paradise to the Minnow Flats. In 1893 Lewis & Florence Newman took it over with their seven children. Florence became the gifted organist of the Baptist church. Oldest son, Lewis Newman, farmed after his father but left in 1925. Harry Newman moved to Sheffield in 1927. The farm was sold to Ernest Billing and, later, the Bingham family. William & Grace Treloar with family purchased a property near the Minnow River in 1888. A stonemason, Wm Treloar built many chimneys throughout Kentish. He and Grace opened their home for the first school classes and Anglican church gatherings. When Canon Icely began visiting the Minnow River in 1891, he baptised over a dozen children, including the three youngest Treloar children. The following year, English widow Maria Chalmers – who lived next door to Treloars – gifted an acre to the Church of England to erect a church, but because families began moving away, nothing eventuated. Maria herself became the third wife of widower Reuben W. Austin of Paradise. William & Ruth (Treloar) Kenzie eventually took over the Treloars’ farm. Today, nearly all Upper Paradise and the Minnow River farms are covered with plantation timber.