Using information provided by David Mizen as well as Trove and a number of other sources, we have begun to update what we know about those children - and their families and descendants - of Robert and Eliza Osborne nee Hickmott (1848-1912) who left Victoria to live and work in Western Australia. Covered to date are: 1) Alice Mary Osborne (1883-1963) who was twice married, first to John Alexander Barton/Bruce (1865-1908) at Busselton in Western Australia in 1900 and, following John Alexander's death in 1908, to William Thomas (1869-1927) in Perth in 1910. Alice had six children - three with John and three with William; and 2) Rebecca Osborne (1873-1953) who married John Shields (1872-1950) at Daylesford in Victoria in 1899 and then travelled to Kirup south of Perth where Rebecca's sister, Alice Mary, was then living and John worked at the local sawmill. John and Rebecca had two children and one grandchild we know of.

We have also updated what we know about Charles Stanley Osborne (1890-1941), the youngest son of Robert and Eliza Osborne nee Hickmott. Born at Eganstown in Victoria, Charles trained as a primary school teacher and taught at a number of schools in country Victoria until his death in Melbourne on 7 April 1941. He and his wife, Lilias May Arnold (1901-94), who he married at Merbein in Mildura on 16 December 1926, had two children we are aware of.

Following contacts from Kaye Medlyn and Kylie Ryan, we have been updating what we know about the families and descendants of the Shepherd sisters Mary (1834-91) and Ann Maria (1836-1912). Born at Buckfastleigh in Devon in England they and their parents and four younger brothers sailed from Plymouth to Victoria on the STEBONHEATH which docked at Geelong on 18 January 1853. They then travelled by bullock wagon to the Sutherland (later Rich Avon) Station on the Richardson River near Cope Cope in central Victoria where their father, Edward Shepherd, was employed as a shepherd. Both girls were twice married: Mary to a former convict, George Lee (1820-72), at Rich Avon in around 1853 and then to a Scottish-born blacksmith William Fyfe (1839-1931) at St Arnaud in 1875; and Ann Maria to Abraham Joseph Allen (1825-68) at Rich Avon in 1854 and Abraham Jones at St Arnaud in around 1870. Mary had one child, Mary Lee (1854-1910), and six grandchildren. Ann Maria had five children with Joseph Allen and four with Abraham Jones.

Additional photos and information sent to us by Fay and Des Menzel have enabled us to expand on what we know of Rita Shirley O'Neil (1930-2023). A granddaughter of Ernest Oswald Free (1881-1964) and Adeline Ellen Bennett (1887-1961), Rita married Leslie Reginald Greenhill (1922-2008) at St. Margaret's Church of England in Mildura on 16 April 1949. A carpenter and World War 2 veteran, Les was born at nearby Irymple where he and Rita spent all their married lives. They had ten children and, at the time of Les' death on 6 November 2008, 23 grandchildren.

Using information and photographs provided by Kathrynn George, we have added to what we know about Millicent Marie (Milly) Cowcher (1900-82) and her family. A granddaughter of Sarah Ann Emmett nee Wright (1856-1926), Milly was born at Loch in Victoria's Gippsland region and married William John McGregor (1899-1973) in Victoria in 1921. Sometime before 1932, Milley and William and their five children - William Leslie, Gladys Millicent, Betty Lorraine, Patricia Marie and Donald McGregor - moved to Sydney where William died on 22 April 1973 and Milly on 2 April 1982. They had at least five grandchildren we are aware of.

We have recently updated what we know about: 1) Mary Medlyn nee Lee (1854-1910); and 2) William Laurence (1893-1957) and their respective families.

Using information provided by her daughter, Rosalie Dolliver, we have updated what we know of Florence Ella Davenport nee Hickmott, youngest daughter of George Alfred Hickmott (1889-1945) and Mena (Minnie) May Spice (1899-1969) who were married in Perth in 1920 and had four children. Ella married Reg Davenport (1927-2014) at Yealering in Western Australia in 1953. They have five children and 10 grandchildren we know of all of whom live in the West.

We are presently looking at James Hickmott (1809-81, a nephew of our Samuel Hickmott (1799-c1872) who was transported to Tasmania in 1840. James, together with his wife Sarah and their son Thomas sailed from England to NSW on the emigrant ship MAITLAND which set sail from Gravesend on 24 June 1838. After spending time in the Hawkesbury River region of NSW he and Sarah and their then three children moved to Burrendong near Wellington in the Central Western Slopes Region of NSW. James and Sarah both died and are buried at Burrendong, he in 1881 and she five years later. Their three children - Thomas Hickmott (1835-1909), Mary Ann Newton (1846-1901) and James Hickmott jnr (1848-1926) - all lived out their time in NSW and produced a total of 17 grandchildren we know of (many of whom lived and worked in Queensland).

We have begun looking at the forebears, lives and times and family and descendants of other Hickmotts who came to Australian starting with Charles Hickmott (1813-95). Born at West Farleigh in Kent, Charles married Mary Ann Maynard there in 1835 and had twelve children between then and 1860. Mary Ann died in Kent in 1872. Twelve years later, Charles emigrated to Queensland where he died at Rockhampton on 16 March 1895. He followed two of his sons - James (1843-1905) and William Page Hickmott (1855-1913) - who had travelled to Queensland in 1873. Charles and Mary Ann's youngest daughter, Kate Maynard Brotherwood nee Hickmott (1860-1936) later emigrated to Australia in 1912.

Using information left by some of their children and other sources, I have expanded the account of the life and times of my paternal grandparents, Alice Maud Laurence (1890-1967) and Alfred William (Fred) Cheeseman (1881-1949). Wed at Narrandera in NSW in 1910 they spent all their married lives in country Victoria, initially on Fred's small bushland property near Beaufort then on farms at Skipton and Walpeup. They had seven children: Alice Winifred (Winnie or Win) Stafford (1911-2000), Christina Mary (Teen) Bainbridge (1913-2011), Laurence Alfred (1915-82) - whose lives and times are detailed in Children and descendants Part 1 - and Leslie William (1917-90), Reginald George (1922-99), Lance Edward (1928-99) and Alfred John (Freddie) Cheeseman (described in Children and descendants Part 2), and 18 grandchildren.

Samuel Hickmott was transported with his brother, Thomas, to Van Diemen's Land in 1840. After being granted a certificate of freedom in January 1850, he travelled from Tasmania to South Australia where his son, Henry Hickmott, was then living. In around 1856 Samuel left South Australia for the Victorian goldfields (we think he may have accompanied Henry and some of his colleagues on their overland journey to Bendigo but have no evidence for this). Our last sighting of Samuel was in January 1872 when he was admitted to Victoria's Maryborough and District Hospital (Henry was registered as living at Maryborough late in 1871 prior to taking up land at nearby Charlton). The hospital records don't indicate how long Samuel remained a patient, merely stating that, on discharge, he was 'sent to his friends'. We have not been able to trace Samuel after this or ascertain when and where he died and was buried. It is possible he joined Henry at Charlton, or went to Warrnambool to where his brother Thomas had moved in the 1860s (Thomas died and was buried at Warrnambool in August 1871. Or he may have gone somewhere else entirely. The search continues.

Together with his wife, Jane, and three small children, Benjamin Cheeseman emigrated from England to Australia in 1853. He was contracted to work for a James Egan of the Major's Line station near Heathcote in central Victoria for a period of six months. It seems that after completing their contract with Egan, Benjamin and Jane left Heathcote for the Maryborough and later the Ararat goldfields. Some time between 1854 and 1866, Benjamin died where the versions of what happened to him differ slightly. Some in the family thought he died of thirst on the 'Old Man's Plains' while trying to walk to the Orange goldfields in New South Wales. Others thought he was found wandering in a state of delirium on the 'Emu Plains' and was taken to the Ararat mental asylum where he died soon after admission (this was more likely Jane's second husband, William Henry Robinson). Whatever the truth of the matter, we have found no official record of Benjamin's death or of his burial - his final whereabouts remains a mystery.

One of Benjamin and Jane's grand-daughters, Emily Grace Cheeseman was born near Morchup in central Victoria in 1889 and married Victor James Mills in Melbourne in 1911. They had had two boys by the time Victor enlisted in the First AIF and departed for overseas service in 1916. Emily and her boys lived with her family at Beaufort during the war. On hearing Victor was coming home, Emily took the boys to her mother-in-law's at Ballarat and left them there. According to her niece she feared resuming her life with Victor and saw leaving him as her only way out of 'a bad marriage'. Sadly her decision also led her to be separated from, and ostracised by, members of her own family. 'Aunty Ada was the last of the family to see her, long after we went to the Mallee, Ada just shut the door on her, said she was with an Army officer and was well dressed'. Some in the family believe Emily had a daughter, Shiela Grace Cheeseman, who was born after the war although we have been unable to confirm it.