Plenty Local Identities

Mrs Beatrice Maud Fineran nee Starling (1876-1949)

Maud Fineran started the first Plenty Store and was instrumental in the establishment of Plenty Primary School.

George Davey Starling (junior), aged 30, married Margaret Stewart, aged 23, in 1877 at Janefield Presbyterian Church in Plenty Rd (now Mill Park) They had the first of their 10 children, Maud (Beatrice Maud), at Diamond Creek (Plenty) in 1878.

The Starling family farm was on Yan Yean Rd, on the eastern side. The Starling family home was called ‘Hazeldene” George was an orchardist and member of the Nillumbik Horticultural Society, and Margaret Starling kept a beautiful garden of flowering plants.

Maud married George Frances Fineran on 28^th December 1903 in Clifton Hill. In Maud’s death notice she is recorded as having two children Coralie and John. A letter by CM Bourne a temporary teacher refers to Mrs Fineran’s adopted daughter.  Maud and George Fineran lived at ‘The Pines’ which was located on the hill to the west of Yan Yean Rd above the site of the present shop. George was killed in 1916 in in the First World War. Maud had to find a way to support herself and her children, so, George Davey Starling (Maud’s brother) helped Maud start up a shop at her home in the music room, which became the original Plenty Store. Later Maud’s sister Nora and her husband Frank Windsor took over running the Plenty Store in 1924 and used logs as rollers to move the house down the hill, close to where the present shop is in Yan Yean Rd.

A family recount records: ‘Living at ‘Hazeldene” in the 1930s in the older house were Maud and Coralie.’

The first public record relating to the opening of a school in Plenty is a Department of Education handwritten note dated 20th September 1921, which records that:

“Mr W H Everard MLA submits application (from Mrs B M Fineran) for establishment of a school at Diamond Creek (Plenty)” \\

Mrs Fineran was committed to establishing a school at Plenty and pursued her desire with tenacity and great determination. She wrote numerous letters to the Education Department and did not hesitate to involve her local member of parliament, W H Everard MLA. Mrs Fineran was a very strong leader of a group of dedicated parents. At the time of the temporary school opening in 1922 Mrs Fineran lent the school some of her own furniture and borrowed other items from friends and neighbours. When Mr Deumer withdrew his property, chosen as the preferred site for a permanent school, from sale Mrs Fineran sold the Education Department some of her own land. Maud served on the school committee for nearly ten years.

After the closure (1993) and demolition of the Plenty Primary School the area was redeveloped for housing featuring Fineran Court in recognition of the significant contribution Maud made to Plenty.