How the hard-working Scotts of Poowong made their name

FOR published local history author and former South Gippsland Shire Council Mayor, Bob Newton, researching the history of stock and station agents, Alex Scott and Staff, ahead of their 140th birthday celebrations this year has been a labour of love.

Not only because his father Thornton Newton signed on as a client of Alex Scott’s back in 1946 and he continued the tradition himself when he took over the farm at Korumburra South in 1975, or because his son, Andrew, manages the firm’s office in Leongatha.

But it’s also because Alex Scott and Staff, now an iconic name in Gippsland business, was born within the communities of Poowong and Korumburra, and is steeped not only in the history of the district but also his own family’s farming history in the area as well.

“James Thompson Scott, one of Alex Scott’s six brothers, originally selected our farm at Korumburra South and DM Scott Road, off Scott and Faheys Road just near us, was named after another brother David Morrison Scott,” said Bob Newton this week.

“There’s also a street in Dandenong named after the Scott family."

“It’s quite amazing to think that James Scott Senior held the lease for the Westerway Run, stretching from Tooradin through to Tarwin Lower, and was the first settler in Poowong in 1872. They got the title to the land at Poowong they called ‘The Priory’ on McDonalds Track in 1874.

“In fact, there’s an old photo of the original Poowong Hotel, part of which they shifted out from The Priory in Scotland, with a set of saleyards beside it.”

Languishing at home after almost breaking his leg when he stepped down an obscured hole on his farm recently, the history research work has kept Bob busy while he’s off the golf course, but finding out more about the Alex Scott history has been no chore.

“There’s a lot of interesting stuff.

“James Scott Senior and his wife Elizabeth came out from The Priory in Scotland in 1850 and originally established themselves in the Talbot area,” said Bob.

It’s a town in central Victoria, between Clunes and Maryborough where gold was officially discovered in 1852 but known to exist in the area before then.

“But I don’t think they were prospectors themselves, they set up a store there.”

It was an interest in commerce that was to follow them to Poowong, where the Scotts set up a store for other settlers on their farm, with the brothers, including Richard Scott, David Morrison Scott and Robert Scott, later branching out into the butchering trade or businesses of their own at Poowong and, when the railway came through in 1890, at Korumburra, buying up some prime commercial real estate along the way.

James and Elizabeth had a family of nine children, although one of them is believed to have died young, and there’s a photo in Bob’s collection of the whole family, taken circa 1896, at James Scott Senior’s funeral including sons James, John, Alex, Robert, David and Richard, and daughters Jessie and Jane around the matriarch Elizabeth.

Alex Scott’s mother, Elizabeth, was a full participant in the family business, according to Bob, one of her roles being to make the cheese from the family’s dairy herd at Poowong and transport the produce to Drouin where railway had opened in 1877.

“It’s a tremendously interesting story, so much a part of the development of this area and for a family business to be going for 140 years is quite a feat,” he said.

There’ll be all that and more in Bob Newton’s book of 50 or so pages being drafted especially for the 140-year celebrations set to take place on Sunday, March 22 at the Dalyston Recreation Reserve.

Bob Newton has already published five books, one of them for a history of the Korumburra district, following two golf club history books and another about the Roads, Street Names and Places in the Shire of Mirboo. There are several more in the pipeline including one on the Blacksmiths and Coach Builders of Victoria, one on Victoria’s cattle stations and another about the street names of Leongatha.

“I’m getting a bit smarter as I get older. I’ve now got someone who does a terrific job on the genealogy for me, Meryl Pyle, which makes it a lot easier.”