Victoria, Australia

Aireys Inlet Timeline

  • 1803 William Buckley rested here, finding fresh water, shelter and food and met Wathaurong tribe.
  • 1839 Lieutenant John Cole Moore Airey took up a pastoral run between Point Roadknight and the Inlet.
  • 1843 The first survey of the coast made by Stokes, squatting runs Angahook, Aireys Inlet and Loutit Bay.
  • 1846 William Urquart’s land survey of this coastal area 24/2/1846, followed by George Smythe’s plan.
  • 1846 Point Roadknight named after William Roadknight.
  • 1848 John Herd settled area Aireys Inlet to Lorne. T.R. Carter settled the Angahook Run.
  • 1851 Black Thursday fires destroy all improvements made by Carter on Angahook.
  • 1852 Thomas Pearse and Robert McConachy Angahook erect two bark huts.
  • 1859 Thomas Austin brings rabbits to Barwon Park. By 1870 Aireys is swarming with rabbits.
  • 1861 Robert McConachy marries Sarah Pearse, daughter of Thomas & Martha, live in bark hut.
  • 1962 Thomas Pearse dies from Hepatitis. Buried on cliff top. Angahook homestead completed.
  • 1866 Sailing ship Netherby wrecked on King Island. Party rowed across and at Point Roadknight.
  • 1868 J.E. Gilbert completes survey of Parish of Angahook. 21 sales were made 21/4/1868.
  • 1869 The first passenger coach crosses the ranges from Geelong, drivers Pearse brothers
  • 1870 Martha Pearse dies from heart attack aged 52. Executor Robert McConachy, winds up the estate
  • 1870 John Rout Hopkins purchases Angahook (640 acres), and rents homestead to William McMullen.
  • 1872 Benjamin Berthon granted a licence for allotment 15 of 284+ acres at Aireys (Wybellenna).
  • 1879 Jonas Hollingworth selects 82 acres at Spout Creek and names it Eastern View.
  • 1883 Luggs establish themselves at lot 19 134+ acres at Aireys Inlet. Travel via on rough winding tracks.
  • 1883 Samuel Pearce Roberts comes to Aireys with the Luggs, granted 320 acres (lot 23) rental of £16p.a.
  • 1887 John Rout Hopkins commences subdividing the first six sections of the Eaglehawk Estate
  • 1889 The Anderson family move to Aireys Inlet from Bambra
  • 1890 J. R. Hopkins sells Angahook homestead on 8 acres to W & W McMullen & G.C. Noble.
  • 1890 Winchelsea Council approves tender to construct a road between Wensleydale Station and Aireys Inlet.
  • 1890 W. & J. Hasty establish a boarding house, coach service, store and Post Office in Bambra Road.
  • 1891 James Hasty of Aireys Inlet marries Annie Murray of Anglesea
  • 1891 Henry Buckhurst selects Lot 20a of 309 acres between Urquharts Bluff and Sunnymead
  • 1891 Construction of the Split Point Lighthouse commences. Building material comes via Wensleydale rail.
  • 1892 Lighthouse telephone connection with Lorne is reported to be working admirably.
  • 1892 Anglesea River bridge completed. consequently, route to Aireys Inlet is changed via Noble Street.
  • 1893 Aireys Inlet school opens in a detached room at Hasty’s boarding-house in Bambra Road.
  • 1893 Gavan Alston erects a dwelling on the Sunnymead block.
  • 1894 Esther Blake constructs the Grand Hotel in Bambra Road, in anticipation of tourist traffic.
  • 1894 Winchelsea Council clear a route from Mt. Misery to Aireys Inlet via Hutt Gully and Sunnymead Road.
  • 1894 William Loud selects Lot 19b of 28+ acres on the hill between Gilbert St. & Distillery Creek Road.
  • 1900 The Neuk at Moggs Creek built by William Reid. Land previously owned by Samuel Roberts.
  • 1900 Mountain House erected by Jack Anderson.
  • 1909 George and Mary Clarke caretakers at Sunnymead.
  • 1902 William Hasty dies. James & Annie Hasty move to Lalbert. Warner leases property & business.
  • 1904 Albert Anderson moves Battey’s Bambara Rd cottage to hotel site – Colonial Wine Licence.
  • 1905 Carl Carlgren, ‘The Captain,’ first played his accordion at a ball at Aireys.
  • 1905 William Reid sells The Neuk lot 22 of 1280 acres to William Boyd (occupied by John & Kate Sutherland).
  • 1907 William McMullen. Angahook died 1618/1907.
  • 1909 George and Mary Ann Clarke move from Sunnymead to Eastern View farm.
  • 1911 Albert Anderson purchases Hasty’s boarding-house and moves it to present hotel site.
  • 1912 James Hasty’s cottage on lot I section 25 Bambra Road, sold to W. Berthon who named it Lulotte.
  • 1919 Sarah Anderson of Aireys marries Ivan Roadknight.
  • 1920 Camp established at Grassy Creek for Great Ocean Road workers.
  • 1922/4 Charles Lane constructs and opens coastal road via ‘Sunnymead’ with toll gate.
  • 1924 Alfred Farthing comes to Easter View, hotel liquor licence granted in 1927 and surrendered 1957
  • 1930 The Anglican Church at Aireys constructed on lot 2 section 25, on Bambra Road.
  • 1931 Robert Cowan builds Fairhaven.
  • 1932 Bridge over the Aireys River opened in conjunction with the new road from Aireys Inlet to Lorne.
  • 1935 The Light Keepers Cottages together with 13 allotments auctioned and sold.
  • 1936 The Great Ocean Road toll gates removed.
  • 1936 Eastern View Golf links opened. Closed in 1939.
  • 1936 Electricity arrives at Aires Inlet via Anglesea.
  • 1939 The Eastern View Memorial Archway officially opened in November.
  • 1946 C.H.(Bert) Humprheys proprietor Mountain House, Bert dies 1948 aged 36.
  • 1946 Bert Suters builds the Aireys store.
  • 1948 CFA Fire Brigade first registered, Kelso C Knight captain.
  • 1954 Hutt Gully culvert washed away after torrential rain. Aireys Inlet traffic on Great Ocean road cut.
  • 1955 Albert Anderson auctions 62 acres of river flats. Arthur Gladman of Winchelsea purchaser.
  • 1957 Eastern View hotel closes. Fairhaven Surf Life Saving Club formed.
  • 1960 School re-opens in St Aidan’s hall, moved to present site 1965.
  • 1966 Dame Joan Hammond builds Jumbunna.
  • 1966 AIDA commenced, Aires Inlet & District Association
  • 1966 Anderson-Roadknight Memorial Hall officially opened by Hon. Tom Darcy MLA
  • 1979 Waterworks Trust dam completed.
  • 1980 Clarkes sell Eastern View farm after 100 years in the family.
  • 1983 Ash Wednesday fire devastates Aires Inlet.
  • 1986 Historic Bark Hut rebuilt.
  • 1986 St Aidan’s Anglican Church opens on new site.
  • 2006 New primary school building erected.
  • 2006 Water Treatment upgraded

[ From Lindsay Braden’s ‘Early Aireys Inlet’ published by Anglesea & District Historical Society Inc.]

The first reported European in the area was convict William Buckley, having escaped from the Sorrento prison settlement in 1803.

The name “Aireys Inlet” is believed to have come from either John Moore Airey who was granted a pastoral lease in the area in 1842 or from George, his brother, who was a Crown Lands Commissioner in the district of Geelong.

Aireys Inlet is thought to have received its name from John Aire, who took up pastoral runs to the east of the inlet near Point Roadknight in 1839. His run expanded to the Aires Inlet area around 1842. 1890 saw the construction of a lighthouse on the high cliffs which was built on the site known as Eagle’s Nest Point and renamed Split Point in 1913. With timber milling as the major source industry in the area, families moved in and a school was opened in 1893 and it continued until local timber declined after the First World War.

‘The Grand’ Hotel opened in 1894 and by 1938 an Anglican Church was built. After the First World War the Great Ocean Road was formed and built by ex-servicemen as a memorial to those who served in the Armed Forces. It is believed this is the world’s largest War Memorial (covering 243 kilometres). The road between Lorne and Anglesea was opened in 1922, putting Aireys Inlet on the coastal drive.

One of the earliest settlers was Thomas Butson Pearce, who with his wife Martha Sperring came to Australia in 1841. He was a butcher in Geelong before purchasing Anahook (now Aires Inlet) Station in partnership with Robert McConachy. He grazed cattle for butchering and died of hepatitis during the winter when the creek was in flood. His body could not be taken to a cemetery so he was buried on the cliff top. The family lived in the Bark Hut, which still stands today even though it was rebuilt after the Ash Wednesday fires destroyed it. It is a memorial to the family, who lived in that Hut with their 8 children. Their children were George, Sarah, Elizabeth, Thomas, Henry, Emma, Eliza and Charles. Sarah married Robert McConachy, and they all lived at Angahook for ten years until Martha died, and she was also buried on the cliff top with her husband.

Bark Hut

The Bark Hut is open to the public and has a large amount of information presented around the inside walls on laminated pages, including early indigenous history and European settlement.

(LHS photo 0032)

A few kilometres west of Aireys Inlet is Fairhaven Beach, which is renowned for its surf, and Eastern View which is the site of the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, commemorating the construction of the road as a memorial to those that lost their lives during World War One.

c1930s, Aireys Inlet, Selby guesthouse & cafe. (Rose Series postcard, part of the SLV’s Collection.)

Like many coastal communities, Aires Inlet and Fairhaven have had regular bushfires and were devastated in the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983.

Nature Walk

History of the Painkalac Landscape

Sources

  • “A History of the Surf Coast Anglican Churches”by Norma Morrison