Robert Tyson

Robert George McClelland Tyson

Block 5A Lanyon District


Robert George McClelland Tyson was born in Ararat, Victoria in 1891. He was working as an overseer on a sheep station when he enlisted on the 18th January 1916 in Liverpool, Sydney. He served with the 1st Light Horse Brigade Machine Gun Squadron in Egypt, the Sinai and Palestine from August 1916 until he returned to Australia in May 1919.

Tyson acquired the Soldier Settlement Lanyon Block 5A in April 1920 and was granted a five year lease at an annual rental of £216/6/9. The 641 acre (259 hectare) block was known as the Bullock Paddock when it was part of the Tuggeranong estate and approximately covered the area south of Clive Steele Avenue in Monash to Ellerston Avenue in Isabella Plains.


Plan of Lanyon Block 5A in 1920

Plan of Lanyon Block 5A in 1920

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Tyson did not live on his block or even in the district. Lands Inspector, James Brackenreg, reported later that Cunningham and Edlington from Tuggeranong occupied the block. Apparently in 1922, Tyson sold "grass rights" for the block to the Swan brothers from Queanbeyan and Harry Oldfield from the neighbouring Athllon property without gaining permission from the Government. As a result, the Commonwealth cancelled the lease. The block was later absorbed into Oldfield's Lanyon Block 3.


Google Maps image of area c2013 with Lanyon Block 5A boundary in red

Google Maps image of area c2013 with Lanyon Block 5A boundary in red.

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In 1924, Tyson married Vera Caroline Playford of Canterbury, NSW. However, the marriage was not a happy one with Vera being granted a decree nisi on their marriage in 1936. Tyson had deserted his family in 1930 forcing Vera to seek employment as "a music teacher and elocutionist." Robert Tyson was living at Wyfold, Bong Bong Hill, Moss Vale in NSW when he died in 1977.


Sources

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