Captain John Eddington, together with his wife Ann Elizabeth and two sons and one daughter sailed from Greenock, Scotland, as assisted immigrants, on the Ariadne on 6 Apr 1839 arriving in Victoria (then part of the Colony of New South Wales) on 20 September 1839.
By 1872 he had acquired freehold to several allotments totalling over 2,000 acres and the north-west corner of Ballangeich following the 1869 Selection Act.
[5] A large gum tree which stands on the banks of the Hopkins River was originally used by the women folk as a wash-house, stones being placed down to the water’s edge for their convenience in performing their domestic duties.
On hearing of this Captain Eddington started off on horseback – at night – to lodge a petition that it be declared a cemetery.
[6] In earlier times the aborigines were very numerous in the neighbourhood, but there was seldom any trouble with them except for the occasional killing of cattle for food.