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Baxter

(3911, 46 km S, Mornington Peninsula Shire)

Located at a point where the hills south of Frankston meet the flat ground that runs to Westernport Bay, Baxter was originally called Baxter's Flat after its owner, pastoralist Benjamin Baxter. It was at Baxter's Flat that the railway to Mornington and Stony Point, built in the later 1880s, separated at a station originally called Mornington Junction. Baxter's role as a railway junction came to an end with the closure of the Mornington line in the 1980s. In recent decades there has been some subdivision for suburban housing around the Baxter township, but not surprisingly this has been confined mostly to the pleasant hilly country to the north. Today Baxter retains a semi-rural atmosphere. Historic properties in the area include Eurutta (former Sage's Cottage), a primitive homestead constructed in the early 1850s, and Mulberry Hill, a 1920s American-style residence built onto an 1880s weatherboard house and noted as the residence of artist Sir Daryl and author Lady (Joan) Lindsay.

Lionel Frost