1 Like
Panorama of the English style gardens at Lexington Station, Moyston, Victoria, Australia. The red brick homestead of Lexington Station was constructed in 1851 by Horatio Wills with bricks made on the property. Horatio Spencer Howe Wills (1811-1861), son of pardoned convict Edward Spencer Wills and wife Sarah nee Harding, was born in Sydney and became a pastoralist and politician. The pastoral run occupied 120,000 acres in 1840, stretching all the way from what is known today as Moyston to Halls Gap.
Situated on a hill north of Moyston, the homestead offers sweeping views of the nearby Grampians ranges.
Legendary cricketer and footballer Tom Wills spent part of his childhood at Lexington Station. Because of depopulation, labour shortages and depreciation in the gold rush period, H S Wills sold the homestead and run including 29,000 sheep and 3,000 cattle in 1852.
The English style gardens were added by later owners in the 1970s. The homestead is on private land but the current owners occassionally open the gardens to the public.
Victoria is Australia's second smallest State and covers only 3% of Australia's land area but has the second highest population of all States and Territories. Victoria's mainland and islands have a total length of 2,512 kilometres coastline which is about 4.2% of Australia's 59,736 kilometres of coastline. Australia is the driest inhabited continent and Victoria is no exception although the state capital Melbourne has the reputation to have 4 seasons in one day. Victoria is located in the southeast of mainland Australia and includes the most southern point on mainland Australia at Wilsons Promontory National Park.