Ballarat Old Cemetery

Murder at Cherry Tree Flat

In October 1865, Elijah Dixon alias Charles Alfred Dives took an axe and murdered his wife, Elizabeth and their two small daughters, Julia aged 3 and Elizabeth aged 1.  This all took place in the small bedroom of their hut at Cherry Tree Flat near Sebastopol, just outside Ballarat. The couple’s two sons, James and…

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Murder at Cherry Tree Flat

In October 1863, Elijah Dixon alias Charles Alfred Dives took an axe and murdered his wife and two small daughters just outside Ballarat. The couple’s two sons were left alive. What made a husband and father take this course of action – what is jealousy over his belief his wife was being intimate with other…

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