When looking through the files of the Tatura Herald on microfilm many years ago, I found the answer.
It was reported in the Tatura Herald dated July 2, 1886, that a public meeting was held in the dining room of Miss Leader’s Temperance Hotel (now the site of Rodney Chambers) for the purpose of taking preliminary steps towards erecting a public hall and a Mechanics’ Institute in Kyabram.
About 60 people were present and much discussion was held, including the suggestion that suitable names should be decided upon for the streets in Kyabram, with a view of asking the shire council to recommend the government to name them at once.
The final result being that the street running east and west on which most business places were then built, be named Allan St in honour of Andrew Allan JP; in recognition of the various services rendered by him in the town.
Andrew Allan died four years later in1890 as a result of an accident.
He fell from his horse-drawn dray when the wheel hit a stump on the narrow track to his home and is buried in the Tongala cemetery.
“Mr Allan had been directly connected with every movement which affected the welfare of the residents of Kyabram and the advancement of the township; but it was not in any disrespectful or facetious terms that he was termed the “KING OF KYABRAM” but purely through his generosity of nature, and kindness of heart.” Tatura Herald, May 23, 1890.
As a local Justice of the Peace, Mr Allan was ‘just’ without being ‘stern’ to offenders against the law.
He was a commissioner of the Echuca and Waranga Trust, a councillor of the south-eastern riding of the Shire of Echuca and Tatura Agricultural Society president, which meant travelling long distances by horse and dray to attend many meetings.
Mr Allan was an upright, conscientious, and charitably disposed citizen, who never refused to lend a helping hand to his fellow man, and voluntarily gave to the poor and the distressed.
The first street running north and south on the west side of town was named Church St, with the next parallel street to be named Union St, in honour of the Kyabram East Farmers’ Union.
Albion St was named in memory of Mr Growse who built the Albion Hotel and Bradley St was named after Mr J. Bradley.
The early settlers would be highly surprised to see the development of Kyabram today.
Researched and compiled by Eileen Sullivan
Kyabram Historical Society voluntary librarian and secretary
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