Michael O'Connell, 1859

Last week we spoke about Thomas Ryan, licensee of The Plough Hotel from 1866 until his untimely death 10 years later, aged only 45 years.

His wife, Mary took over the running of The Plough for the next couple of years with the assistance of her beloved brother Michael Meehan until a fatal accident in 1878 killed him, casting a somber atmosphere over the district. While driving his horse and buggy down Blackwood Road, Myrniong on a miserably wet night, his cart overturned, throwing his passenger clear while trapping Michael underneath resulting in a broken neck.

Mary took her brother’s passing hard and within 18 months, her failing health tooks it toll on her, leaving her only son, 7-and-a-half year old Thomas Junior, an orphan. He was taken in by Michael & Ellen O’Connell, who resided in Bacchus Marsh with a large family of their own. Whatever happened to Thomas Junior, I do not know. However Michael O’Connell was a successful and most interesting character.

He arrived in Sydney from Tipperary, Ireland in 1854 and headed towards Bacchus Marsh as a road contractor where he settled by 1859. He married a local lass, Ellen Leahy in the first brick Catholic Church built outside Melbourne, which was built on land donated by her father, John Leahy.

Michael O’Connell offered many contributions to this community, however I will share with you two: not necessarily the most important nor relevant.

1. Michael owned the freestone quarries at Bald Hill that supplied the stone for Victoria’s Parliament House library which was completed in 1861 – the year The Plough Inn was first licenced.

2. Michael installed one of the first gravity-fed irrigation systems in Victoria for his potato crop, using calico hoses to distribute the water brought down from Lerderderg River. His irrigated paddocks would harvest 6-8 tons of potatoes per acre compared to 1 ton of potatoes per unirrigated acre.

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Image Credit: Parliament House in 1867. The bluestone Legislative Council Chamber can be seen, with the taller parliamentary library attached at the rear. Photographer: Charles Nettleton. Source: Courtesy of Parliament of Victoria.

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