By Parker McKenzie
With Pickett’s Cottage recently sold for $675,000, it is a great time to look back at the history of one of Knox’s oldest remaining homes.
Knox Historical Society’s Ray Peace said the property was believed to be built around 1868 by George Wilkes, who purchased the land from the Parish of Scoresby.
“The 249-acre allotment included the entire area between Dorset and Burke Roads, bounded by Blind Creek to the north and Burwood Highway to the south,” he said.
“The cottage was home to George Pickett and his family from 1868 on.”
Mr Pickett was born in London in 1821 and lived on the property with his wife Eliza and their nine children.
The house, located at 56 Edina Road Ferntree Gully, was originally built on a 248-acre dairy farm owned by the Pickett family. In 1955 the farm was sold and the land subdivided. Today, the cottage sits upon a 465 square metre parcel of land.
Mr Peace said George Pickett was a brickmaker by trade who chose the cottage because it was so close to the clay he needed for making bricks.
“Many brick buildings in Ferntree Gully from the 1880s, including State School no. 1307, and the Royal and Club Hotels, were built of George Pickett’s handmade bricks,” Mr Peace said.
“George Pickett senior died in 1892, but his business was maintained and expanded by his son, Alfred Pickett.”
The Pickett family was well-known in the local area with two other relatives being members of Ferntree Gully Shire Council.
Mr Pickett was a founding member of the local cricket club and in 1950 seven acres were set aside for sporting purposes on the corner of Burwood Highway and Commercial Road and named Picketts Reserve after the family.
The cottage was sold on 18 May 2022 for $675,000 by Coronis Boronia.
