Frank's Stone

Since my last post about Frankston I have been trying to remember who told me a story about how Frankston got its name, but it still escapes me.

I think it was a local person, whose great/great grandfather was a carpenter (or a ship's captain with a team of carpenters). He had the contract to build the original pier at Frankston, this before there was anything much there at all, and before it was named Frankston. He had a number of blokes working for him and an aboriginal youth named Frank. At the end of each day's work Frank took a walk on the hill above the pier and sat on a large stone on the hill and watched the sunset. The stone became known as Frank's stone, as did the locality as time went by, and over time it was shortened to Frankston.

I'm sure that whoever it was that told me this story was not pulling my leg, and they firmly believed it to be true. For the life of me I can't remember who it was, but as I have been writing this it came over me that I was told it in the corner store/supermarket in Emerald on the Monbulk Rd corner. It has also just come over me that the person telling me shared my surname, Williams, but I still can't put a face or identity to the person.

The mind can play tricks and start you believing things that are not accurate when you try hard to remember things, so I may be barking up the wrong tree away from the scent, but I'm sure the story is what I was told, not something I dreamed. I think it was an old bloke I got chatting to in the supermarket perhaps.

I always liked the story.