Tyrone

The Mornington Standard

Saturday 5 October 1889

‘Dromana v Tyrone at Dromana

This being the final match and these two clubs for the season, and these clubs having met twice previously, and each side scoring a win, the greatest interest is being taken in the concluding event of to-day.The following will be amongst the players – Dromana:- Gileson Gibson, (2), Dyson, Bidgood, Griffeths. Clydesdale, Townsend, Singleton, Sheehan (2), and others.’

Mornington Standard

Saturday 12 October 1889

‘Dromana

(From our own Correspondent)

The third football match between the Dromana and the Tyrone clubs was played here on Saturday last. As each of the clubs had won one of the previous matches a good deal of interest was manifested as to the result of their third one. It terminated in that most unsatisfactory manner viz., a draw, in favour of Dromana: the result being, Dromana, 2 goals 4 behinds; Tyrone, 2 goals 2 behinds’.

The above Newspaper article is the only reference to the Tyrone football team.

There does not appear to be any earlier newspapers available to report on the previous two matches played between Dromana & Tyrone or if Tyrone actually played any other matches.

It is believed that the Tyrone team was made up of members of the Cain family, friends of the Cain family and workers from the Cain’s Lime Kilns.

Extract from the book:- Lime Land Leisure Peninsula History in the Shire of Flinders.

THE CAIN FAMILY

Owen Cain was born in 1798 in County Tyrone, Ireland and migrated to Australia with his wife Sarah in the early 1840’s arriving on the Peninsula about 1842 and settled on a property which, after selection in 1860, was bounded by Canterbury Jetty Road, Melbourne Road and a line approximating to the present location of Whitecliffs Road. His homestead, named “Tyrone” after his home county in Ireland, was a solid limestone building, still occupied and in good repair, and which is on the corner of Flinders Street and Locke Street, Rye. “Tyrone” must have been quite an establishment in the early days. The property was grazed and cultivated and at one stage there were no less than sixteen horses. Owen Cain also had his own lime kiln, this being worked by local lime burners on a sub-contract basis. Payment was in cash or stores on basis of lime burnt. Lime and firewood were carted to the beach in drays and out into the shallow water at high tide for loading into small vessels either directly or via flat bottom barges.

At one stage all of Owen Cain’s sons worked on or around “Tyrone”, and, when the land became available for selection in the 1860’s both John and James Cain secured Crown Allotments, in addition to what was held by their father. In total, the Cain family owned most of the land from St. Johns Wood Road to Whitecliffs Road.
Owen Cain died in 1896 at the age of 98 years and both he and his wife Sarah (died 1895 aged 96 years) are buried in the Rye Cemetery.
Owen Cain’s homestead is at the corner of Flinders & Locke Streets, Rye.