What’s In a Name
What’s In a Name delves into the fascinating stories and personalities behind some of the city’s best-known street names. This week the Journal looks at central Dandenong’s Langhorne Street, named for Alfred Langhorne.
BORN into a London family of merchants and stockbrokers, Alfred Langhorne longed to join his three older brothers in the new colony.
He arrived at Port Jackson in 1835 at the age of 17.
He joined his brother Charles working on a rural New South Wales property, learning the skills of stockmen.
When the property was sold a year after his arrival, Alfred and Charles embarked on a career of overlanding cattle and sheep from NSW to both Melbourne and Adelaide.
Langhorne Street in Dandenong and Langhorne Creek in South Australia are named to acknowledge the direct connections to the Langhorne brothers.
Alfred was the first person Joseph Hawdon – the first white man to settle in Dandenong – saw when he arrived in Dandenong in 1839.
Alfred was at the time overseer of ‘Bigning’, the first run in the area, owned by his uncle Captain Lonsdale.
While in Adelaide on one of the drives, Alfred met the young and beautiful Sarah August and they married in 1841.
Mr and Mrs Alfred Langhorne were entertained for dinner by their neighbour Dr Farquhar McCrae in April 1842, indicating that Alfred stayed around the district for some time.
In 1845, Alfred and Sarah moved into their homestead at Laverton and made it their principle place of residence.
By this time Alfred opened an office in Bourke Street, Melbourne, and became a flour merchant.
Alfred continued to overland cattle and export sheep to Launceston, and owned various properties around Melbourne as well as property and wool stores in Williamstown.
In 1854, Alfred and Sarah decided to liquidate much of their assets and return to London to educate their two children, Robert and Alice.
Alfred returned to Laverton Homestead in 1867 after Alice died from diphtheria at age 13.
Sarah returned the following year, bringing Alice with her.
It was not unusual in those times to include deceased loved ones when moving vast distances.
Robert stayed in England to complete his schooling.
Sarah passed away from Parkinson’s disease in 1871 and Alfred died three years later while a resident of a private hotel in St Kilda.
Robert was on a ship to Australia when his father died. With no close family or property in Australia he soon returned to England, never to see Australia again.
His descendants eventually migrated to Canada where they still live today.
Sarah and Alice are buried in the Williamstown Cemetery. Alfred is in the pioneers section at Fawkner Cemetery.
– Compiled with assistance from Dandenong and District Historical Society
Want to know the history behind a street name in Greater Dandenong? Let us know and we’ll find out! Email journal@starnewsgroup.com.au.
