THE RESIDENTS OF MAYFIELD WEST

By the time John Platt's attempt at growing wheat on the banks of the Hunter River failed, his house on Iron Bark Hill had been destroyed by fire.  Adding to his woes of the day, his eldest and  youngest sons were burnt to death in a bush fire on the property near the original homestead.

Platt built a new homestead on the road to Maitland.  The area is know as Sandgate today.  With his wife ill, he continued to sell off "The Folly". By 1836 both John and his wife had died.  Seven of his children were adopted by Mr E.C.Close a good friend of the Platts and they were taken to Morpeth to live.  Only the eldest living son, Frederick  W. Platt remained on the property until the land was sold to the Australian Agricultural Company in 1839. The area immediately around where the second homestead had been built was called Plattsburg in honour of Frederick Platt.
The next resident to arrive in the district was Peter Crebert. who was a Wine Dresser from Germany. Crebert arrived in Newcastle under contract to Dr James Mitchell of offer his services to the occupiers of the lands around the area, to teach them how to grow and cultivate grapes for making wine also to teach them the proper way of storing it.  Crebert purchased 5 acreas of land on "The Folly" from Charles Bolton.  Two years later he bought a further 5 acreas.  Crebert set about planting both an orchard and a vineyard on his landand produced the very first wine in the Newcastle district.  Crebert referred to his piece of land as "Crebert's Folly".  Crebert opened up his property to the public every Sunday and people would come from all over the district, including Newcastle to walk through the orchard and vineyard and the well landscaped garden that he had single handedly laid out.  While there  they bought his fruit and wine.  Later his landscaped gardens and lawns would be known as Crebert's flower Gardens.  The site is below where Mayfield East School now sits.

Most of the land in this portion of "Folly" was used for orchards, vineyards and dairy farms.
Other occupiers in the area at the time were: Bull, Williams, Gray, Russell and Robertson. Three of these occupants of the "Folly" later lent their names to some of the streets around the Mayfield area. Initially it was Crebert, Bull and Williams then later Scholey and Tourle that lent their names to what are now recognised street names in the Mayfield area.