HISTORY OF MACKEY'S PEAK

Behind the Halls Gap caravan park and just beside a track leading to places with whimsical names such as Venus Baths and Wonderland Range, lies a stark reminder of  pioneering days in the little town.  Halls Gap has few visible reminders of its pioneering past, but  the lonely grave of baby Agnes Folkes, has seen most of the town’s history pass before it.

John and Phoebe Foulkes (later Folkes), originally from Worcestershire, arrived in Victoria aboard the Northumbria in 1853.  John worked as the ship’s carpenter and upon arrival, obtainined work making architraves and balustrades for the new Victorian Parliament House.  They had moved to the Grampians area by the end of the 1850s with son George born in 1858 at Moyston.

By 1870, John Folkes was operating a sawmill in Halls Gap.  The family home, made of logs, was close to the banks of the Stoney Creek. By this time there were seven children with Phoebe giving birth to Agnes in April of that year at nearby Pleasant Creek.

After a dry autumn, the winter of 1870 saw the weather break. Heavy rain fell across Victoria, flooding lakes, roads and rivers.  At times of heavy rain in the Grampians, water collects in the mountains, working down the many gullies and into small creeks which quickly become rivers. One of those is the Stoney Creek.  With the winter rains of 1870, the creek had risen and was impassable as were others which had to be crossed to leave the town.

Agnes fell ill with diphtheria that winter, but Phoebe and John could not get through to Stawell and the nearest  doctor. Sadly, on July 30, 1870, Agnes passed away. She was buried  close to the family home in a tiny wooden coffin made by her father. A headstone was added and later was replaced with something more substantial.

After Agnes’ death, locals began to refer to the mountain peak behind her grave as “Cherubs Peak”, however it was later gazetted as “Mackeys Peak”, after a Government minister.

One heartwarming aspect of the story is that not only have the children of  Halls Gap Primary School tended Agnes’ grave for almost one hundred years, they more recently lobbied the Victorian Government for the name to be changed back to “Cherub Peak”.  The name has now been gazetted as a historical name and a new sign  erected to explain the history of the grave.

Despite her short life, her grave and its reminder to visitors of the town’s pioneering times, has seen baby Agnes make her mark on the history of Halls Gap.