ohn Atkins was a man of his times ~ a man with ambition, a man with goals and a man with the means of achieving  them. He saw opportunity in the location of the Fyans ford - at the very gateway  to Geelong, to Ballarat and to the western district. It was the nexus between a quickly developing hub and a bountiful country filled with untapped potential. He had an eye for the future, for his future and for Fyansford's.

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Only six years earlier captain Foster Fyans had recognised the importance of this bottleneck at a ford that just had to be crossed on route to or from Geelong; either that or the traveller had to detour further north, i.e. until a bridge could be built across the Barwon river to the south.

As a businessman Atkins saw only advantage in building an inn beside the Fyans ford. Thus, he contracted a Mr. Marr to built that inn, later referred to as the Swan Hotel. It opened with Atkins as licensee in 1842. 

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Jo Mitchell in her blog "Four bridges and a ford: the ford" observed, “… In 1842 when Atkins and Clarke selected the site for their inn, they chose a prime position on the track to the ford. The flats nearby were used to hold some of the region's earliest horse races as well as other sporting matches. After only a handful of years, however, the original owners, were forced to sell up having overstretched themselves financially...."

Unfortunately, the vagaries of life often interfere with the best-laid business plans. When a bridge over the Moorabool was built in 1854 at a location a few hundred metres down from the ford, the Swan inn now found itself somewhat 'off-the-beaten-track' so to speak and with new more accessible establishments, the Balmoral and Fyans' Ford hotels being built directly by the roadside in 1854/55, its future was less opportune.  

Nonetheless,  John Atkins played his crucial part in the establishment of Fyansford as an important stopping-off point for individual travelers, coaches and commercial bullock teams. The import of this foundation member of the community was recognised by the naming of one of its streets. 

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