Blackburn orchard owned by former VFL player Bert Cock seeks $4 million from developers
Expressions of interest close today for a development site in the East Melbourne suburb of Blackburn that was once a fruit orchard and forms part of the estate of the late Alan Herbert ‘Bert’ Cock, who played VFL in the early 1900s.
He died in April last year.
Cock played just two games for Collingwood in 1909 scoring one goal.
His brother, Eric was a more successful VFL player and a member of the Collingwood team which contested the 1922 VFL Grand Final playing 36 games and scoring 40 goals.
Another brother, Arthur, played two games for St Kilda in 1924.
The 10,360 square metre property stands at 59-67 Surrey Road, Blackburn North with three street frontages, 12 title allotments and is a 20-minute drive to the Melbourne CBD.
The portion up for sale is the remnant of the original 8.9 hectare estate, which was originally a large orchard operated by Bob Slater through the first half of the 1900s, and which is now the children’s playground known as Slater Reserve.
Since 1919 it has been owned by Herbert and Eva Cock or their immediate descendants.
The property harks back to the days when Blackburn was a country suburb, with the investment report noting that “all five family members loved the property and spent much of their lives on it watching its evolution from quiet countryside to busy suburbia”.
Eva Phillips, one of 14 siblings in a large orcharding family in Tunstall (now Nunawading) married Bert, a VFL footballer from Clifton Hill in 1914.
When they purchased the land in 1919, Bert and Eva, built a two room cottage close to Koonung Creek (now lot 11 Kent Close) and some 20 acres of orchard was painstakingly established.
Produce was initially taken by horse and wagon to Victoria Market however, with the development of reliable trucks and refrigerated transport, produce was trucked to the Blue Moon Co-operative (rail siding to the east of Blackburn Station) then shipped from Station Pier to Europe.
By the mid-1950s and to support their retirement, around 7.7 hectares of the property was sub-divided for urban housing. All five family members loved the property and spent much of their lives on it watching its evolution from quiet countryside to busy suburbia.
“We are expecting interest from a number of investment bodies. Aged care services, property developers interested in land subdivision for the creation of small house blocks as well as medium and high density units, townhouses and apartments are all showing interest,” Badenach tells Property Observer.
The land is zoned Residential 1 Zone and is close to Westfield Doncaster, Centro Box Hill and Blackburn North Village retail strip.