NameJohnston (John)DescriptionJohn Johnston was born in 1841 County Fermanagh, to Christopher and Angelina Johnston (nee Love). He arrived in Australia in 1865, and eight years later married Sarah Jane Johnston at Kiama.
Sarah Jane was the daughter of Charles Johnston and Mary Ann Moffitt, also from County Fermanagh.
John and Sarah Jane had six children;
Christopher b.1874 (married Mary Thomas)
Charles Vicar b.1876
John Alfred b.1882 (married Jemima ‘Mimie’ East)
Sarah Jane “Jane’ b.1885 (married Norman Dawes)
Mary Ann Lillian ‘Lillian’ b.1887 (married David Preston Knight)
Edith Margaret b.1891 (married Charles Vivian Ziems)
John Johnston Snr. purchased 90 acres, including the farmhouse Mark’s Villa, from John Russell in 1916.
Part of the Johnston property was resumed in 1942, when the Department of Defence laid out the Albion Park airstrip to train pilots in defence of the nation. Marks Villa homestead was relocated to a site two kilometres to the south, behind Ravensthorpe, where it remains today.
The Johnston’s suffered a great loss of dairy acreage and the family almost went bankrupt.
An old silo and Moreton Bay fig trees mark the site of the original farm near the Shellharbour Airport.
The Johnston family are synonymous with dairying in the Illawarra and contributed greatly to the industry.