When I was about 11 my grandfather took me to Kangaroo Flat. He did not explain why nor tell me that it was where he was born and I remember feeling disappointed that there were no kangaroos jumping around! Yet he was born here in Jan 1859 and his family at that time were living in a tent.
There were two families closely connected, two daughters of Margaret MacPherson, Fanny who had married George Teasdake and Catherine, who had married John Templeton. It appears that the two husbands worked together searching for gold in Kangaroo Gulley. Later Margaret MacPherson joined her daughters at Kangaroo Flat with her youngest son, Alexander William who was still a child. At first Christina had been left behind working as a domestic in Melbourne but she later came to the Flat and married in Bendigo. John MacPherson also came to join his family in the Bendigo area. So all of the MacPhersons who immigrated on the Priscilla from Liverpool in 1852, arriving in Melbourne in February 1853 were now living in Kangaroo Flat. The father,
Donald MacPherson, seemingly died in Portree in 1849 and never came to Australia! Margaret was listed as a widow on the shipping list.