Fox Terriers have been in my family from the early days in Victoria. On my mother’s side the Molesworth’s had an estate called Ballark which was near Morrison’s between Ballan and Geelong, Victoria.

 

In 1838 John Wallace took up the original licence for Ballark which was gazetted at 17,000 acres however in 1853 the land was divided up into two smaller properties. John Wallace kept one of the properties called Ballark no. 1.  John Wallace was originally from Nairn in Scotland then travelled over to Van Diemen’s land in the 1820’s, then crossed over the Bass strait bringing livestock in the 1830’s and finally settled On the East bank of Moorabool River.

 

In 1883 the sale of the purchase of Ballark was announced in the Ballarat Star which by this time was listed as consisting of 7743 acres. It was presumed that Donald Smith Wallace was the purchaser as he had pre-emptive rights to the property on the death of his father.

A cattle grazier and racehorse breeder, Donald’s most successful horse was ‘Carbine’ who was originally bred in New Zealand and won the Melbourne Cup in 1890. Out of 43 races, Carbine won 33 of them and sired many successful heirs some of the most famous which can be traced back to him are Pharlap and Makybe Diva.

Ballark was where Carbine was first retired and put out to stud in 1891 and in 1895 was sent to England. His stable at Ballark still bears his name above the doorway.

After Wallace’s death, the now 2250-acre property in 1915 was purchased by Mr John Matheson Molesworth and has been in the family ever since.

Originally from Dublin in Ireland, John’s grandfather, The Judge Sir Robert Molesworth, and his family, were the first of the Molesworths to settle in Adelaide, Australia in 1852, then a year later moved to Melbourne in 1853.       

There was a menagerie of animals at Ballark as most working farms, who had various purposes such as cattle, sheep, horses, poultry, cats, great grandfather’s pet cockatoo ‘Cocky’, ferrets used for hunting rabbits and of course dogs.

John Molesworth had purebred pointer gundogs. These were often named after politicians, one of which was called Jack Lang after the labour politician.  The hunting dogs were used to chase vermin such as rabbits and foxes.

Fox Terriers featured in many of the family photos including ‘Spot’ who was often by my great aunt’s side growing up.