IT ALL started with a wheelbarrow.
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Now a blossoming family, the Coxalls gathered at the Buninyong Botanic Gardens on Saturday to commemorate their pioneering ancestors.
Samuel and Ann Coxall came to Australia in 1854, landed in Portland, bought a wheelbarrow and pushed it to Melbourne.
They settled in Buninyong in 1855, had three sons and two daughters, and became market gardeners.
The family has installed a chair with a plaque and will bury a time capsule of family memorabilia and a family tree, to be opened in 100 years.
Neville Coxall, Samuel and Ann's great-grandchild, beamed with pride as he delivered the family history.
"We felt inclined to honour them because they did a lot for the region," he said.
Ballarat Botanical Gardens co-ordinator Peter Marquand joined the family and said its Buninyong connections formed generations ago still ran strong in the community.
"The Buninyong community still has that continuity of family," he said.
"Although Buninyong has changed, it still has that strong pioneering spirit."
Lawrence Coxall, the self proclaimed "oldest Coxall still in captivity" said he was proud of his family and the group that organised the commemoration.