Mill Park Estate
In Commemoration of the 103rd anniversary of the Redleap's death, a famous jumps horse that trained in Mill Park, the City of Whittlesea will be exhibiting a small display of his remains from Museum Victoria's collection at the Council Offices in September 2011. This will be an opportunity for the community to learn about the equine history that contributed to the development of the municipality.
The name Mill Park dates back as far as 1841 when George Coulstock named his farm Mill Park after a water-driven mill he had begun to build on the Plenty River. Coulstock died in 1842, however, leaving the mill unfinished. It was 1848 before the Janefield Mill finally opened for business, operated by Peter Hurlstone.
Janefield was the village where Mill Park and various other farms were located. During the early 1850s, Janefield consisted of the Plough Inn, a post office, blacksmith’s shop, church, school and the mill. The mill had closed by the late 1850s but a fine bluestone Presbyterian Church was built in 1861. The Morang Roads Board had also installed a tollgate near the Plough Inn to raise funds from travellers using the Upper Plenty Road, as it was then known. Today it is named Plenty Road.
[edit] Henry Miller
Henry Miller had quickly acquired a 640 acre section of Coulstock’s Mill Park farm west of Plenty Road. He also bought land nearby at South Morang and Epping. Initially, Miller let his land to tenant farmers, but later developed Mill Park into a country estate. Miller was a prominent Melbourne businessman, banker and politician who had moved to Victoria from Tasmania in 1839. By 1850 he was a man of means, having already pioneered insurance companies and building societies. His land investments were to bring him great wealth in the early fifties. He remained the chairman of directors of the Bank of Victoria from its foundation in 1852 until his death in 1888 when he owned some thirty pastoral and other properties.
Henry Miller was a member of the Legislative Council from 1851-66, during which time he served briefly as Minister for Trade and Customs. He became so rich he was given the nickname ‘Money’ Miller. A contemporary politician summed him up by saying ‘His counting house is his Church, his ledger is his Bible, and his money is his God.’
By the late 1870s, Miller’s Mill Park Estate had grown to over 3,000 acres. In 1888, the year of Henry Miller’s death, aged 78, Mill Park was managed by George Gordon and described as:
a fine specimen of a well-conducted first-class Australian homestead, comprising within itself every branch of agricultural and pastoral operations, cultivation – dairy farming, grazing, beef and wool growing, and horse breeding – everything, in short, from feeding poultry to classing wool. Steam power is employed where available, and the latest appliances to facilitate all kinds of work are amply provided. The buildings consist of the main residence, dairy, cow houses, stables, shearing sheds (in which as many as sixty-five men are employed in the season), blacksmith’s, carpenter’s, and butcher shops, kitchens, tanks, etc.
Henry Miller’s personal wealth was valued for probate at £1,276,766, an immense sum then. His land at Mill Park and South Morang passed to his sons. Albert Miller soon set about turning the land he inherited into an elaborate racing stables and training complex. Along with his brother Septimus, also a horse racing enthusiast, Albert erected the Redleap Stables, named after their champion jumper who won four Grand Nationals. Albert also had a two-storey mansion built for use when he visited Mill Park.
[edit] Farming Pursuits
As well as training racehorses, the Miller family continued farming pursuits at Mill Park. In 1899, they let the mansion, farm buildings and 1,300 acres to Stephen Prowse, who had previously farmed at Bundoora Park. Prowse carried on dairying at Mill Park with his sons until 1904 when his lease expired. The Prowse’s milked 170 cows there in a large milking shed with 40 bails and sold their milk to dairies in Northcote and the city.
The Miller family continued training racehorses at Mill Park until the 1920s and farmed there until they sold the property in 1939 to Senator A. J. McLaughlin, who demolished the old mansion and built a new house. On his death, Mill Park passed to his nephews, who sold it to the T & G Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd in 1972, for subdivision into the modern Melbourne suburb it has become today.
By Robert Wuchatsch (Local Historian)
