Medowra Ave is named after the home of David Langlands and his wife Alice Maud (nee Goodwin). Situated on a 10 acre block with a frontage to Swan St, the house was originally named ‘Weirside’ by George Phillipson who died there in 1913. David Langlands was resident at his Medowra Station near Glenmaggie when in 1914 he bought into the partnership of Wangaratta auctioneers Evans & Maconochie, thereby changing the business name to Evans & Langlands, and necessitating his move from Medowra Station to Wangaratta. George Phillipson’s daughter Grace sold ‘Weirside’ to Langlands in November 1916. It is around this time that the property name changed from ‘Weirside’ to ‘Medowra’. However, when Langlands sold off five acres in 1922, that portion was known by the name ‘Weirside’. The name Medowra likely didn’t have any significance to the Langlands family, apart from the name of their station, as it was already named Medowra Station when Langlands purchased it from Thomas Rigall in 1911.
When he decided to return to Medowra Station in 1922, then run by his son, David Langlands was a member of the Wangaratta Borough Council, President of the Chamber of Commerce, President of the Soldiers’ Father’s Association, a Director of the Wangaratta Woollen Mill Co., and Vice-President of the Agricultural Society. It wasn’t long before Langlands retired back to Wangaratta in 1927, returning to his home ‘Medowra’. He died at the house in October 1948 at the age of 85. Langland’s wife Alice lived until 1959 when she died in Hawthorn at the age of 94 years. Both David and Alice are buried in the Wangaratta Cemetery.
