Hutchins Family

Fishermen hauling nets

Thomas Hutchins was born in Mornington in 1872, to George and Harriet (Coxon) Hutchins.

Tom married Amy Kent in 1901, and they had a family of 10 children.
Tom, a fisherman, was a member of the Mornington Football Club, and also officiated as an umpire.

He played competition Billiards, and this, with only one arm.
His father, George Hutchins, was born in Devon, England, and arrived in Melbourne in 1852.
He first bought Crown land at Osborne, in 1856. He later settled there and raised a large family.

George was a fisherman, a market gardener, and had property at the mouth of Balcombe Creek, where he hauled fishing nets.

He also had a market garden, and peach trees, on the other side of the creek.

Fish shop on Fishies Beach, Mornington

It was in 1870, together with Robert Olley, that he made application for a school to be established at Osborne.

George Hutchins died in 1878 as a result of falling from his fishing cart on his way back from the Melbourne markets - he was a prolific land owner in the area.
There were seven surviving sons of George and Harriet Hutchins, all of whom became fishermen in Port Phillip.

A grandson of George Tom William Hutchins built a boatshed out of driftwood.
A building, run by the fifth generation Hutchins brothers, still exists in the same spot today, and many family members still live in the district.