
The picture above shows the land titles circa 1890's. The present day Gairloch garden is shown by the red line. Owen Street did not exist then but a track ran north more or less aligned with what is now Rivington Avenue and Wembley Avenue west of Beagley's Bridge
Kallista village is located in a saddle at the intersection of the Belgrave - Monbulk route (south north) and the Sherbrooke - Emerald route (west east). The community was originally known as South Sassafras but after a local competition, changed name to Kallista on 1st April 1925, being derived from the Greek word Kallistos meaning beautiful place.
The first selector to settle in the Kallista area was George Gilmour in 1893. A careful overlay of the 1890's Land Titles map illustrated on page 7 of the Kallista RFB / CFA book shows "Gairloch" is located on the northern parcel owned by Mr Gilmour on which he had owned an orchard business. An access track starting near the present Kallista roundabout traversed across the Gilmore property towards what is now Rivington Avenue.
Early photographs show the Kallista saddle as cleared land with large tree stumps but with few visible houses in 1907 (Reid et al 1993, page 27) in 1913 (Coulson, 1959, facing page 112) and 1915 (Coulson 1959, facing page 337 see below).


Photographs P1222 and P437 from the Rose Collection show the a similar view east across the developing Kallista village. Numerous trees in the paddocks are some 10-15 metres high and more than 15 houses are present in the east side of the Monbulk Road. In the foreground at left is a large house roof with one chimney. A small shed is present at the south side. A garden gate entrance is located on an upper road along which are planted 6 'conical' fir trees and a lower fence suggests a driveway leading down to the house. This house is Gairloch on Owen Street and the photo montage suggests the date could be around 1920-1930 ( ie allowing 5-15 years for the trees to grow since the 1915 photograph. The Japanese Cedar are now huge and wondrously twisted).
Based on the photograph and the Land Title it is estimated that Gairloch was built around 1929.

Gairloch and Loch Gairloch are located in NorthWest Scotland ( north of the Isle of Skye) perhaps reflecting the ancestory of Miss Campbells family. (In the Dandenongs there is another house named Gairloch on the Monbulk-Olinda Road)
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Gairloch with a red roof from a 1960 Picture Postcard strip |
View of Gairloch from Monbulk Road Kallista, The Dandenongs in colour 1973, by Ronald Ryan page 5
Gairloch from Monbulk Road, extract from Cottage gardens in Australia book, 1983
Gairloch pen ink sketch by Leo Buckley, 1987
Gairloch (Autumn 2012) |
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