Two family reunions were recently held at Schramm’s Cottage to celebrate the publication of family histories of the Thiele and Finger families, early pioneers of the Doncaster district.
On Saturday 15th of November 2003, more than 60 descendants of Christian Benjamin and Caroline Fredericke Finger who came to Australia with their family from Germany in 1850, held their first family reunion to honour Glenda Dovile, a family descendant on the publication of her book, “The Fingers of Australia and Silesia 1703-2003.
Christian Benjamin Finger, in 1853, purchased land in Wattle Road Hawthorn and built a home for his family. With the help of his sons, he cleared the land and planted vines. In the early 1860’s Christian and his wife and daughter, Auguste, moved to Mont Albert Road, Deepdene (then known as Survey Road, Boroondara) where he established a market garden. He also owned land at Richmond and Doncaster as well as Hamilton in the Western District of Victoria.
In 1854, Christian Benjamin and his sons Christian Gottlieb, Wilhelm and Henry were among a group of Germans who purchased 784 acres of land at Doncaster and established a German settlement, which they called Breslau (later known as Waldau for many years).
In that year, Henry Finger married Johanne Caroline Aumann and they began their married life on a property that Henry had bought near the corner of Whitehorse and Burke Roads, Deepdene. Here he planted vines and fruit trees and grew vegetables. Later he established a fruit tree nursery there. Their first five children were bom at Deepdene.
In 1870, the family made the move to Doncaster. Henry built what later became a substantial house on the property he had earlier purchased in Waldau Lane (now George St east of Victoria St) Hand made bricks for the house were made from clay quarried on the property. Vines and fruit were planted. Henry died on the property in 1884 at the age of 53 and was buried in the Waldau Cemetery nearby.
Following his death the property was divided between his youngest sons John and Ferdinand. Ferdinand took the eastern section including the family home that his father had built and continued to live there until he later moved to North Balwyn where he established another orchard.
John took the western end of the property which extended as far as Victoria Street and built a home which he called “Heimat”. This still stands today in the centre of Rieschieck’s Reserve.
When Ferdinand moved to North Balwyn in 1914, his nephew, Wiliam Rieschieck, bought his Doncaster property. After John Finger's death in 1912, his orchard was leased for a time by the Thiele family and later divided between his grandson Lindsay Fromhold and Alan Rieschieck.
Other members of the finger family also owned land in Doncaster at one time. Wilhelm Finger purchased 10 acres in 1854 but in 1858 sold about 7 acres of this to Henry Fromhold. The remaining portion was bought by August Lenkersdorf in 1864.
Christian Gottlieb Finger bought 49 acres along Strip Road (Church Road) from Edward Quinn in 1854 and later sold this to John Rosel. His three year old daughter died tragically in 1860 when her clothes caught fire in a tent which the family were living in at the time. She is buried in Waldau Cemetery.
In 1875, Henry’s and Caroline’s youngest child Wilhelm David, died at the age of 14 months from measles and was also buried at Waldau.
Glenda’s book is a well-researched and comprehensive publication of 544 pages and a copy has been added to our library at Schramm’s Cottage.
Source: Eric Colyer writing in 2004-03 DTHS Newsletter
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