Ghost suburb from dead Digger

By LACHLAN MOORHEAD

PART of Clyde North could soon be named after a World War I Digger with no clear ties to the region.
The Metropolitan Planning Authority (MPA) is one step closer to re-naming part of Clyde North to ‘McPherson’, in what it says is a tribute to a WWI soldier who lived in the area.
But a casey historian keeps hitting dead ends as she looks to track down the history of the man.
During Thursday’s council meeting the City of Casey outlined its plans to meet with the MPA to discuss the renaming.
It’s understood the MPA has written to the council nominating ‘McPherson’ as the new name for the northern part of Clyde North, in tribute to an enlisted WWI soldier whose family lived in the Clyde region.
But Jane Rivett-Carnac, from the Narre Warren and District Family History Group, can find no definitive links to confirm a man named McPherson, or his family, lived in the Clyde area during that time period.
She said without his first name, the search was proving to be an almost impossible task.
“Mr McPherson is proving to be most elusive, without an initial or first name I cannot confirm the man or a family in the Clyde area for the correct time frame,” she told Star News.
“If someone has only checked the WWI record search at the National Archives they could easily be confused by four men out of 360-plus with the surname McPherson enlisted showing their place of birth as Clyde.
“However if you then read the relevant digital records for these four men you find they are born at Clydesdale in central Victoria (Herbert James, John, James and Charles Allen).”
Ms Rivett-Carnac said there were several clues that had piqued her interest but at this stage, she was at odds to track down the “elusive” McPherson.
And whether he lived in Clyde.
“There is a McPherson family in Dandenong at the right timeframe and one of them may own property at Clyde but without more detail on the name it’s hard to connect and prove back to WWI enlistments,” she said.
“There are a couple of McPherson men in the 1950s at Rythdale and Harkaway and Dandenong – again not Clyde.
“The Clyde school honour roll hasn’t got the name McPherson on it.”