Tuerong, Victoria

Tuerong is a rural locality of the Mornington Peninsula, lying inland between the coastal suburbs of Mount Martha, Hastings and Moorooduc. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula.GeographyThe predominant physical feature of the locality is the Devilbend Reservoir with a capacity of 14600ML, though no longer in use for water supply purposes.HistoryTuerong was the name of a squatting run of an estimated 12000 acres that lay between Yuille's to the north, Balcombe's, Jamieson's and McCrae's to the west, Coolart to the east and Tuck's to the south. William Dawson was an early squatter and was followed briefly by Hall and McKenzie and then John Miller in 1850 before Ralph Ruddell obtained the lease in about 1856. He fattened cattle on the lush pastures and had no trouble with water supply because of the network of "never-failing creeks and springs" but became insolvent by early 1861.The Butler and Brooke directory shows that Vaughan and Wild were on Tuerong in 1866-7. The 640 acre pre-emptive right, reduced to 600 acres because of land required for Government roads,became known as Tuerong Park.It is known that J.B.Wilson was on Tuerong Park by 1874 when John and his wife, Agnes, James Firth and John McCusker were all witnesses in the case of the Schnapper Point Murder John died and his widow Agnes died on 27 January 1894 at Tanti Rd Mornington. Later owners of Tuerong Park were: Crook, Pitt, Matthew, Andrews, Dobie, Clark, Moore, Nutchey, Paton, and Edgar .