PETTY, John Hicks (1828-1910)
Born in Lincolnshire, England, John Hicks Petty arrived in Melbourne in October 1852 aboard the Helen. Initially he purchased two lots of land at Eltham from Mr Holloway and found employment as a horse-breaker. He moved to Yarra Flats in 1856 and purchased 37 acres in the Parish of Burgoyne for which he gained the Certificate of Title in June 1888. Petty married Augusta Honorina Fraisse in Eltham on 31 March 1857. Augusta, born in France in 1827, worked as a domestic servant at Yering Station before her marriage. John and Augusta Petty lived on Symons Street near the junction with Irvine Crescent. In January 1861 he was appointed postmaster for the district and provided the service from their home. Augusta died of liver cancer in 1864.
In August 1864 John Petty married Maria Louisa Byrne and they had thirteen children. Maria was born in Ireland and was fourteen when she arrived in Melbourne in 1858 with her parents and siblings.
John Petty also selected another 220 acres on the Christmas Hills Road (now bisected by the aqueduct). The original slab hut which the family lived in during the 1860s was eventually replaced with a more substantial building, to which were added small offices for the postal service and a savings bank in 1893.
Sources: Victoria and its metropolis: past and present, Melbourne, 1888, vol. 2, p. 413;
