Ecklin is situated about eleven miles south of Terang in the middle of very rich dairying countryside.  It is also very close to the coastal town of Port Campbell.  According to Robert George (Bob) Lilley, who was told by his father George John Lilley, the pioneering Lilleys cleared a site for a house at South Ecklin by hiring a team of bullocks.  It cost Twenty Pounds which must have been an enormous amount of money in those days.  The site was just down the road from Bob’s present farm. 

Samuel Lilley and Elizabeth moved to Ecklin and so did the boys including William who was a bigger man than his brothers (he used to play cricket & football).  It is not sure if all the girls came though.  In any case there wasn’t much work around for all of the boys so some of them went back to Geelong or Ballarat. 

George John and his brother, young Samuel, stayed on at Ecklin, worked for a station owner and in about 1905 bought their own farm which today is Bob Lilley’s farm.  It is the same farm on which Samuel lost an eye whilst doing some fencing and the same farm which was burnt out in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983. 

Sam and George Lilley were prominent members of the Ecklin community.  They were voluntary helpers in the construction of the Ecklin Mission Hall in 1894.  The Hall was erected by the combined efforts of the Wesleyan and Presbyterian congregations and their friends.  Although it was stated that the Hall was to be perfectly undenominational, the charges laid down for its hire may have suggested otherwise.  The charge for the use of the Hall by Wesleyans and Presbyterians was not to exceed threepence for each meeting; but, for the other faiths, not less than threepence. 

Years later George’s son, Jack Lilley followed in the same community minded footsteps.  Jack held the position of Secretary/Treasurer of the Ecklin Cricket Club for 17 years.  Life Membership of the Ecklin Football Club was also conferred on him in 1974. 
 

It is known that William Lilley played for the Geelong Football Club, in their very first team in the VFL in 1896.  Although he only joined the team towards the end of that season he received several write-ups for good play.  Records tell us that that his first senior game was on Saturday 8 August 1896 following which he retained his position in the side for the rest of the season.  Unfortunately Geelong finished well out of the Final Four that year.  William was recruited from a team called Geelong Artillery which competed in the local competition against teams like Geelong West.  It was referred to as the junior competition. 

Unlike today, football in those days only received about a quarter of a single column on Fridays and Mondays in the broad sheet Geelong Advertiser and of course there were no photographs either.  A photograph of that first team of 1896 which included William Lilley was however published in the Geelong Advertiser 50 years later in 1946. 

William Lilley met his death at the very early age of 39.  He had been a Wharf Labourer and it is felt that an accident which occurred at work may have contributed to his death.  Under suspicious circumstances some object, thought to have been a bale of wool, “fell” on him from overhead causing him some injury.  Although he lived for some time after it, he never recovered from this injury.  By the time of his death William had fathered four children, the youngest being William George Lilley, who was only 10 months old when William senior died. 

To carry on the Lilley name, the first boy born amongst the youngest generation of William Lilley’s descendants was Aaron Peter Lilley, born to Wayne & Jodie (nee Mullaney) Lilley on 17 June 1998. 
 

William George Lilley was enticed to leave his job at Balfour’s Motors in Geelong by a Mr. Fred Earl.  In about 1948 Fred bought a garage in Timor St, Warrnambool and wanted William George to run the Service Department.  I am not sure whether it was similar to a present day franchise or not but they sold and serviced Austin Vehicles.  William George's eldest son Maxwell Francis Lilley also worked in the garage and this is where he got his grounding in spare parts management.   The family of William George and Winifred Agnes were housed in a small but comfortable house which was attached to and situated behind the garage.  At least they didn't have far to go to work. 

In a little over two years in 1951 Fred Earl decided to move his business to Canberra following an accident near Warrnambool in which his eldest son was drowned.  This time he purchased a much larger business which was known as Capital Motors and was situated just near Manuka Oval.  Hence the Lilley family’s move to Queanbeyan just outside of Canberra. 

Years later at the age of 55, William George opened his own garage in Watson, ACT.  It was known as the Watson Service Centre.  This time his youngest son William George Lilley, joined him to work in the business.  When William George senior retired about five years later, William George Jnr took over the business at Watson.  He ran that for a number of years and then moved firstly to a site at Civic and later to Queanbeyan.
 

On 15 August 1870, John William Askew aged 34 accompanied by his wife Sarah (nee Hetherington) aged 29 years, together with their two children, Michael aged 5 years and William aged 3 years, left England bound for Australia.  They boarded the ship Somerset Shire in Plymouth, England and arrived in Melbourne on 7 October 1870.  John and his family were fare paying passengers. 

Eighteen years after arriving in Australia Michael Askew married  Caroline Lilley in 1888.  Caroline was the daughter of Samuel Lilley and Elizabeth Chandler.  Caroline and Michael had eight children, Caroline died in 1952. 
 

The Bolitho, Kirby, Newman and Rodgers families were all first generation descendant families of Samuel and Elizabeth Lilley.  It could be said they are the missing links because as yet I have not been able to connect any present day people to them.  The same could also be said of Samuel and Elizabeth’s youngest son Robert Lilley and his family.  At this stage I haven’t been able to get any further than the available Birth, Death and Marriage Records in relation to these families.  The operative words are however “at this stage” because I am still endeavoring to find these links.