Pics from the Past | Shepparton’s street name, Fryers or Fyers?

In 1855, Mr J.G.W. Wilmot conducted the first survey of Shepparton, with a lithographic map issued from Melbourne’s Surveyor General’s office in January 1856.

The map, titled “Allotments in the Township of Shepparton, at McGuire’ s Punt, Goulburn River, on the road from Sandhurst to Benalla,” showcased Shepparton’s original street names: Wellsford, Windham, Fyers, and Vaughan (pictured).

These streets were named after notable soldiers from the Crimean War, who played key roles in the assault on the Great Redan: Captain William Augustus Fyers, Major Charles Ash Windham, Major Augustus Frederick Wellsford and Captain Herbert Millingdamp Vaughan.

This naming practice was common across Victoria and NSW during the mid-19th century, with towns and streets often named after Crimean War battles and figures, such as Alma, Inkerman, Balaklava, and Sebastopol.

The influence of the Crimean War on place names was widespread, reflecting the impact of the war and the subsequent migration of British veterans to Australia.

It is likely Wilmot followed this trend, possibly under a directive from State Surveyor-General Andrew Clarke, who named Yea after Colonel Lacy Walter Giles Yea.

This 1856 excerpt from the Perth Gazette on the Storming of Sebastopol - Details of the English Attack: features a snippet about William Fyers:

“Captain Fyers kept up a vigorous and deadly fire on the embrasures: but the thick-matted mantles with which those were curtained in a great measure counteracted this, and the grape continued to fly thick and fast over the death-space to be crossed.”

However, for some unknown reason, the spelling on subsequent maps was changed to Fryers (also Wyndham and Welsford).

According to Elsie Brady (local writer and historian), from her 1996 book They Left Their Footprints, Shepparton Street Names, Fryers St was named after the local township, Fryerstown.

It took its name from Peter Fryers, an early squatter whose home station occupied the site of that township. Wilmot, an officer of the Lands Department, had just come from checking surveys in the mining area of Fryerstown and Vaughan on Fryers Creek in the Parish of Wellsford.

As miners travelling between there and the new finds in the Ovens Valley crossed the Goulburn River at McGuire's Punt/Shepparton, he apparently thought it appropriate to give these names to some of the streets in the new survey.

So, perhaps J.G.W. Wilmot changed his mind or someone above him in the surveyor’s department had the final say.

It is a fascinating mystery, and I wonder if we will ever uncover the facts of the story.

Geoff Allemand is an amateur photographer and Lost Shepparton Facebook page admin. Please share your Pics from the Past at pastpics@mmg.com.au