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Newspaper-Articles

• 30 Mar 1905: Westralian squatter, S P. Mackay, who purchased Melville Park Estate, near Berwick, last week for £20,000, is a racehorse owner on a fair-sized scale in the West. He will probably turn his attention to the Victorian Turf in the near future. The best of Mr. Mackay's horses just now are Fifeness, one of the speediest nags in the West, and the crack two-year-old filly, Betsy Burke, by Le Var— Laura. Betsy Burke won the All-Aged Stakes run at Perth in December, beating all the horses with w.f.a. pretensions then in the West, and she will likely make her appearance in Victoria in time for the Spring racing.¹⁴
• 9 Aug 1910: WOMEN'S FRAILTIES. HUSBANDS SEEK DIVORCE. Mr. Justice A'Beckett, in the Divorce Court yesterday, heard, in a long list, two rather remarkable cases in which women, by their frailty, ruined happy homes. WIFE AND CHAUFFEUR.
  In the first case Samuel Peter Mackay, aged 45, of Melville-park, Berwick, grazier, sought a dissolution of his marriage with Florence Gertrude Mackay, aged 43, on the ground of infidelity. Donald Stewart Bain, of Berwick, estate agent, and Harry Mulvey, a chauffeur, who was served at Neutral Bay, Sydney, were joined as co-respondents.
  Mrs. Mackay entered an appearance, but did not defend. Bain entered an appearance, and filed an answer denying the charges, but did not appear to defend. Mulvey did not enter an appearance. Mr. Duffy, K C. and Mr Woolf, instructed by Messrs. Blake and Riggall, appeared for the petitioning husband.
  Samuel Peter Mackay said -I am a grazier living at Melville-park, Berwick. I have property in Western Australia, and last year I had to go to that State. Up to this time I and my wife had lived happily, except that she occasionally gave way to intemperance. When I returned from Western Australia I found that my wife was not at home. A bundle of letters was handed to me, including one addressed to my wife. I opened it, and found that it was from Mulvey who had been my chaffeur. It showed that they had been guilty of improprieties. I learned that my wife was at a home in Murrumbeena, and I went to see her. She was propped up on pillows, and was apparently just recovering from a severe attack of alcoholism. I looked at her, and she said, "What are you looking at so hard?" I said, 'What can you expect? You have broken up our home. I told you what these drinking bouts would lead to." She said, I went to St Kilda with Mulvey, and we stayed the night". I said, "Where did you leave the car?" and she replied "I don't know." I said, "He would not have gone with you if you had not been fooling with him before." She denied it and I then said I have a letter here that gives the whole thing away." Then she told me that he had come into the room on one occasion to see her about the rubber rings of a cream separator and had "taken advantage of her." I asked her, on account of what I had heard, about Bain, and she said that he also had taken advantage of her. I have a daughter of 17 at school in Switzerland. A boy is at school in Melbourne.
  Other evidence was given to show the character of the house in St Kilda to which Mrs Mackay and Mulvey went.
  A decree nisi, with costs against both co-respondents, was granted. Donald Stuart Bain¹⁵
• 4 Mar 1914: Messrs Arthur Tuckett and Son will hold an important sale in Berwick on Friday next, on account of Mr S. P. Mackay, when they will offer the property known as 'Burnbank,' which Mr Mackay afterwards named "Melville Stud Farm." This property, which is about a mile from the Berwick township, adjoins the holdings of Messrs Beaumont and Ogilvy. A cottage next to the Roman Catholic church will also be offered at this sale. Full particulars will be found in our advertising columns.¹⁶
• 4 Mar 1914: Special Notices. FRIDAY, MARCH 6. On the Property. At Two o'clock. On the arrival of the 11.20 train from Melbourne. Auction Sale under instructions from S. P. MACKAY, ESQ. The Compact Stud Farm, known as "BURNBANK," With 166 acres 0 roods 18 perches, AT BERWICK. ARTHUR TUCKETT & SON HAVE received instructions to sell as above, at the property, All those pieces of land containing 75 acres 1 rood and 6 perches, beinig lots 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, 10A, 10B, 11A, 11B, 12A, 12B, 13B, on plan of subdivision 3056, being part of Crown section 7 and 16, and other part of Crown section 16, parish of Berwick ; also 44 acres 1 rood 9 perches, being lots 13A, 14A, 14B, 15A, 15B, 15C and 23 on plan of subdivision No. 3056, being part of Crown section 7, parish of Berwick, county of Mornington. The above two blocks are adjoining and locally known as Ryan's and Ogilvy's re spectively.
  Also All that piece of land containing 46 acres 3 roods and 12 perches, being part of Crown section 16, parish of Berwick, bounded on the east by Burnbank road and on the south side by a Government road, known as Draffin's Paddock, making in all 166 acres 0 roods 18 perches, upon which is erected a spacious W.B. VILLA, with verandah front and side, con taining entrance hall, sitting room, dining room, five bedrooms, back vestibule, office, kitchen, cullery, bathroom, and with water laid on throughout the house. The outbuildings are of a most complete character, comprising bull sheds, milching bails, implement shed, stable, hayloft, with loose boxes and stalls, stallion boxes, large chaffhouse, drafting yards, pigsties, fowl houses, etc. man's room. A feature of the property is the great number ol large c. iron tanks, also under ground tank, holding about 20,000 gallons. These tanks are filled by one of Alston's windmills, which pumps the water from a tank situated on the creek. The water is also laid into the various paddocks, which have fixed iron troughs. This magnificent farm is situated about 1¼ miles north of the BERWICK RAILWAY STATION and is surrounded by three main roads, and on the north by a never-failing creek. This fine property comprises some of the richest land in the Berwick district and is subdivided into nine paddocks, all securely fenced. This property would make an ideal Gentleman's Country Residence, as the views to be obtained of the surround ing country are simply magnificent. The telephone is connectoed with the house. N.B.—Immediately after the sale of the property the SURPLUS FURNITURE, FARM IMPLEMENTS, And also a few head of PRIZE AYRSHIRE CATTLE. Comprising milking cows, heifers, yearling bull, etc.
  At halfpast Three. On the Property. Berwick—In the Township. A W.B. COTTAGE containing 5 rooms etc., complete out buildings and a number of tanks; good garden, containing 1 acre 1 rood and 22 perches, being surrounded by four Govern ment roads, High street, Campbell street, Wilson street and Peel street; on the other side of the road is the R.C. Church, and opposite the gates of Melville Park. N.B.-We have been instructed by Mr S. P. Mackay to sell the above properties practically without reserve as he intends to devote the whole of his attention to his Western Australian Pastoral properties. For particulars of titles apply to Messrs Leach and Thomson, solicitors, 410 Bourke street. Further particulars can be obtained from Arthur Tickett and Son. auctioneers and estate agents, 259 Collins street, Melbourne.¹⁶
• 19 Mar 1914: Mr S. P. Mackay submitted his property, known as Burnside, on Friday last. The bidding, £4,500, did ????? was passed in for private sale.¹⁷
• 23 Nov 1916: Mr Selby Paxton, General Manager of the Colonial Bank, who died last Monday, had but recently bought Mr S. P. Mackay's compact little farm, "Burnbank," and had intended to reside there on his retirement from his official position. He spent the previous week end on his property. His end was quite unexpected. Selby Paxton¹⁸
• 20 May 1923: THE LATE S. P. MACKAY. WELL-KNOWN SPORTSMAN
  There died in Melbourne on Friday, Samuel Peter Mackay, pastoralist and racehorse owner. He was born in South Australia about 60 years ago, and after spending his boyhood in Perth, went to the Nor'-West, where he and his brothers Rod and Jack amassed considerable wealth as station owners and cattle breeders. Racing was the family, hobby—Mackay pere had raced horses in the Nor'-West, and a brother (uncle of Sam., Rod and Jack) figured prominent in the metropolitan racing world. The turf, however, had a greater grip of Sam than of the others.
  Though he had raced in the north for some years before, the first recollection of him as an owner on Perth tracks was nearly 25 years ago, when he was represented by a mare of his own breeding named Reproach. Two others be raced at about that time were Gipsy Bill and Gunbearer. The latter originally belonged to Samuel (now Sir Samuel) Hordern, of Sydney. A performance put up by Gunbearer raised the ire of a Sydney racing crowd, and Hordern was so upset that he pulled out of the racing game for some years, and Gunbearer came West. The latter was not much good as a racehorse. Mackay, about 1899, started a stud farm at Brunswick Junction, on the South-Western railway, which he called Melville Park. With the Lochiel horse Le Var he bred some smart horses there all by Le Var—notably Betsy Burke (from Laura), Brunswick (from Reproach) and Loch Shiel (from Nitre). It was when J. Hayward trained Betsy Burke, as a two-year-old, and Fifeness (the crack weight-for-age horse of the period and runner-up in two Perth Cups) that MacKay really became a shining light in the local racing world. He was a member of the committee of the W.A.T.C., of which he was made a life member some years back. Transferring to Victoria, with James Scobie as trainer, Mackay soon became prominent. He was a plucky (and a lucky) buyer, and horses carrying his colors have won most of Australia's big races. Though domiciled in Victoria, he, however, did not dispose of all his interests here. The Nor'-West stations were kept going, and for some years he had a stud farm at Bucklands, near Northam. Occasionally he brought horses from Victoria, for the W.A.T.C. Cup Carnival—Radnor, who won the Derby, and Hathor and Tanda, who both won the Karrakatta Plate. The latter was a race which Mackay was really instrumental in inaugurating; he gave £100 towards the first stake. His liberality towards any idea for the betterment of the breeding of horses was pronounced. Only a few months ago he gave the Northam Club £100 for a race for locally-bred two-year-olds, which, strangely enough, was won by one of his own breeding, in Warree, whom he raced in conjunction with Dr. Ambrose. Over a year ago Mackay had to have a leg amputated, and it was during his illness that he and his surgeon (Dr. Ambrose) formed a racing partnership which proved successful. Killiecrankie, winner pf the last W.A. Derby, was one of the horses the two raced.¹⁹