By NARELLE COULTER
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 Walker Street, named in honour of early settler Robert Caldicott Walker.
ROBERT Caldicott Walker is a man whose image has been lost over time, but whose contribution to early Dandenong lives on through the busy thoroughfare that bears his name.
No image of Mr Walker exists among the copious photographic archives of the Dandenong and District Historical Society.
However, what is known is that Walker’s original selection covered what is now central Dandenong. When plans were drawn up for a town centre, Walker moved north and held the land west of Dandenong creek.
The first recorded mention of Walker in the history books is on 30 June 1846, when his stock-keeper, Henry McCurry, gives evidence in a boudary dispute.
Two years later in 1848, Walker was involved in a dispute over a hive of bees.
On 25 October 1848 Walker made a sworn statement before H. Pultney Dana, J.P. “at Nerre Nerre Warren” seeking the the arrest of Thomas Foley for “feloniously stealing a hive of bees at the property of the said R.C. Walker.
According to Walker, “the prisoner Morgan took forcibly from my hands a hive of bees knowing the same to be my property with a malicious and felonious intent to deprive me of the said hive of bees and unlawfully to possess himself of the same.
Walker was an influential community figure. He helped establish the Church of England in Dandenong and was one of the first Dandenong Market commissioners.
He was also one of the original benefactors who helped raise funds to establish a Church of England denominational school at Dandenong. He was one of two local identities who gave £20, a large sum in the mid 1800s.
He sat on the school committee writing letters on behalf of the committee, sometimes as the manager and other times as one of the managers.
In 1852, he bought 378 acres of land, which he called The Grange, between what is now Stud Road and the creek.
In 1857, he was appointed a trustee of the Dandenong Cemetery.
A decade later R.C. Walker left the district, selling The Grange to Captain David Ross, but bequething the city he helped develop — not just a street name but a strong civic foundation.
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
