By CASEY NEILL
DANDENONG North’s Ferring homestead will be “sadly missed” following a deliberately-lit fire.
Councillor John Kelly at the 24 August Greater Dandenong Council meeting fondly recalled walking past the Carlton Road property during his childhood.
“It’s a bit of history gone there,” he said.
A 31-year-old Dandenong North man will answer arson charges over the blaze, which started just after 7pm on 20 August and experts deemed deliberately lit.
A council heritage report said the Ferring complex was significant to Dandenong “for its symbolism of the development of the area, with early expansion by wealthy farmers gradually taken over by suburban growth” and its close association with prominent local people.
A Smart was the site’s original owner. In 1919, farmer Frank Shobbrock owned 20 acres at the address and the following year built a house with out-buildings.
The buildings were timber-clad and typical of the Edwardian period, with high-pitched gable end roofs.
L.L. Smith took over the farm in 1925, Jason Jenkins became the new owner in 1932, Robert J. Scanlon bought Ferring in 1935 and R.E. McDonald became the owner in 1939, also purchasing another 49 acres on Carlton Road.
He sold Ferring to farmer James Semple in 1942, and Lady Doris Mary Luxton bought it in 1945 for 1000 pounds more than the property’s rated value.
She also owned 99 acres on Stud Road and 20 acres on nearby McFees Road.
In 1947, Lady Luxton and William Harold Luxton divided the property into two parcels, and William took over the allotment with the homestead.
He was Mayor of the City of Melbourne during the 1930s and a prominent local identity, and lived at Carlton Road between 1949 and 1952.
