Frederick Thiele and his family.
Frederick THIELE was born at Doncaster in 1855, the sixth child of Gottlieb and Phillipine Thiele who were pioneer settlers of the district. He attended the school conducted in the Lutheran Church at Waldau where Max Schramm was the teacher. The transfer of the school from Waldau to Main Road in 1864 was effected during the time of his attendance. After leaving school, Fred worked on the family orchard at Friedensruh, and grew up to become one of the district’s most successful orchardists.
Early in his life he was sent by his father for professional training in horticulture at the nurseries of J.C. and T.C. Cole in Hawthorn where he learnt various methods of plant propagation. Fred was an innovator and introduced better methods of management to make the orchard more profitable. He was also a mentor to his brothers Edmund and Alfred, who in later years with Fred, worked the family orchard in partnership. At one time Fred realigned a section of Ruffey Creek below the homestead, digging this out by pick and shovel. Evidence of this can still be clearly seen in the creek today.
In 1889, Fred married Ada Yewers at St. Judes Church of England in Carlton. He would most likely have met his wife during the time she was assistant teacher to his brother Oswald Thiele, who at the time was Head Teacher of School 197 Doncaster.
Fred and Ada made their home in Church Road (north of Doncaster Road) on a property of 36 acres which the family partnership had purchased from John Beanland in 1885. Stone from a small quarry on the site had been used to build Holy Trinity Church of England in 1869.
Little is known about the original home, but it was always said by members of the family, that the oldest section had been a harbour masters cottage at Port Melbourne, and carted by dray to Doncaster.
Fred and Ada had a family of four - Everard, Laura, Genevieve (Viva) and Adrienne and a larger house was soon required. Fred extended his home by removing a small gabled section at the front and adding loungeroom and dining room of gracious proportions together with four bedrooms and wide verandahs on the north and south sides. This was built in Federation style with a slate roof and tall chimneys. The reception rooms were elegantly furnished. In its heyday, there were also extensive orchard outbuildings at the rear of the house. These were removed in later years when when the orchard was subdivided.
Fred had built a large stone cellar under his barn where soft fruit could be kept cool in hot weather to prevent overripening. To keep the temperature constant, cool air was drawn through underground pipes, from the the surface of a nearby dam, into the cellar. Tall flue pipes kept the air in the cellar fresh.
The orchard was enlarged in later years with the purchase of adjoining land from the Aumann family, and in time it became one of the best managed and most productive orchards in the district. Pears, peaches, lemons, and apples were the principal crops. On one occasion Fred Thiele won the Leader Cup, an award given by The Leader Newspaper for the best orchard in the metropolitan area.
In the early 1890s, Fred developed a variety of peach from a chance seedling which he named Thiele’s Cling. It became one of the most popular and widely grown canning peaches, and is still grown commercially today. He also brought the first Packham Triumph pear to Doncaster from New South Wales, and this tree was used extensively for propagation purposes. Many of the Packham pears grown in Doncaster originated from this tree.
Fred also introduced the Trifoliata stock for lemon trees. He grew this stock from a seed brought by him from Queensland in the 1890s. This stock, he always maintained, produced more reliable crops with heavier yields and longer living trees.
Fred was a manv of vision and foresight and during his life contributed much to the advancement of the fruit growing industry generally. He carried out many experiments on his property over the years, a number of these on behalf of the State Government.
One of his most significant and far reaching innovations was the development of irrigation. In order to overcome the ravages of drought he constructed dams on his orchard. Water was pumped by means of steam power from a large gully dam to various hillside dams around the orchard. From these smaller dams water could be reticulated by gravity through underground pipes to irrigate all sections of the orchard when required.
On one occasion when drought threatened frail crops elsewhere in Victoria, Doncaster’s thriving orchards attracted Government interest "See Fred Thiele’s orchard.”, Fred Petty advised the Premier. "Its like an Eden. Hell tell you why." Fred explained the local system and made a map of all the dams and depressions in the locality for the government.
Fred Thiele was a highly respected authority on fruit culture, and his advise was frequently sought by fellow orchardists. After a long day’s work in the orchard he would often spend his evenings answering correspondence from orchardists in other parts of Victoria and beyond.
He served as president of the Doncaster Fruitgrowers Association where he was always an active member and also as President of the Central Fruitgrowers Association for twenty eight consecutive years. He was a noted judge at fruit exhibitions throughout Victoria and on many occasions represented the Doncaster district as delegate at local and interstate fruit growers conferences.
In his retirement, he devoted much of his time to the large flower garden surrounding his home, leaving the management of the orchard to his son Everard.
Fred retained all his faculties throughout his long life and was well informed on current topics as well as those associated with fruit growing. He never drove a motor car, preferring to use the horse and wagon. On one occasion while driving his brother Oswald to Box Hill, the waggon tipped over when the horse bolted down the steep incline in Elgar Road near Koonung Creek. It's passengers were thrown out and Fred sustained minor injuries. He always walked with a limp after this mishap.
Fred Thiele died in 1949 at the age of ninety three years. After his death, the property passed to his son Everard. It was later purchased by Wal and Rosa Wilhelm who lived there until recently. Sadly the house is now to leave the district to be relocated at Mount Macedon, but happily it will survive to enter a new phase of its history.
Early in his life he was sent by his father for professional training in horticulture at the nurseries of J.C. and T.C. Cole in Hawthorn where he learnt various methods of plant propagation. Fred was an innovator and introduced better methods of management to make the orchard more profitable. He was also a mentor to his brothers Edmund and Alfred, who in later years with Fred, worked the family orchard in partnership. At one time Fred realigned a section of Ruffey Creek below the homestead, digging this out by pick and shovel. Evidence of this can still be clearly seen in the creek today.
In 1889, Fred married Ada Yewers at St. Judes Church of England in Carlton. He would most likely have met his wife during the time she was assistant teacher to his brother Oswald Thiele, who at the time was Head Teacher of School 197 Doncaster.
Fred and Ada made their home in Church Road (north of Doncaster Road) on a property of 36 acres which the family partnership had purchased from John Beanland in 1885. Stone from a small quarry on the site had been used to build Holy Trinity Church of England in 1869.
Little is known about the original home, but it was always said by members of the family, that the oldest section had been a harbour masters cottage at Port Melbourne, and carted by dray to Doncaster.
Fred and Ada had a family of four - Everard, Laura, Genevieve (Viva) and Adrienne and a larger house was soon required. Fred extended his home by removing a small gabled section at the front and adding loungeroom and dining room of gracious proportions together with four bedrooms and wide verandahs on the north and south sides. This was built in Federation style with a slate roof and tall chimneys. The reception rooms were elegantly furnished. In its heyday, there were also extensive orchard outbuildings at the rear of the house. These were removed in later years when when the orchard was subdivided.
Fred had built a large stone cellar under his barn where soft fruit could be kept cool in hot weather to prevent overripening. To keep the temperature constant, cool air was drawn through underground pipes, from the the surface of a nearby dam, into the cellar. Tall flue pipes kept the air in the cellar fresh.
The orchard was enlarged in later years with the purchase of adjoining land from the Aumann family, and in time it became one of the best managed and most productive orchards in the district. Pears, peaches, lemons, and apples were the principal crops. On one occasion Fred Thiele won the Leader Cup, an award given by The Leader Newspaper for the best orchard in the metropolitan area.
In the early 1890s, Fred developed a variety of peach from a chance seedling which he named Thiele’s Cling. It became one of the most popular and widely grown canning peaches, and is still grown commercially today. He also brought the first Packham Triumph pear to Doncaster from New South Wales, and this tree was used extensively for propagation purposes. Many of the Packham pears grown in Doncaster originated from this tree.
Fred also introduced the Trifoliata stock for lemon trees. He grew this stock from a seed brought by him from Queensland in the 1890s. This stock, he always maintained, produced more reliable crops with heavier yields and longer living trees.
Fred was a manv of vision and foresight and during his life contributed much to the advancement of the fruit growing industry generally. He carried out many experiments on his property over the years, a number of these on behalf of the State Government.
One of his most significant and far reaching innovations was the development of irrigation. In order to overcome the ravages of drought he constructed dams on his orchard. Water was pumped by means of steam power from a large gully dam to various hillside dams around the orchard. From these smaller dams water could be reticulated by gravity through underground pipes to irrigate all sections of the orchard when required.
On one occasion when drought threatened frail crops elsewhere in Victoria, Doncaster’s thriving orchards attracted Government interest "See Fred Thiele’s orchard.”, Fred Petty advised the Premier. "Its like an Eden. Hell tell you why." Fred explained the local system and made a map of all the dams and depressions in the locality for the government.
Fred Thiele was a highly respected authority on fruit culture, and his advise was frequently sought by fellow orchardists. After a long day’s work in the orchard he would often spend his evenings answering correspondence from orchardists in other parts of Victoria and beyond.
He served as president of the Doncaster Fruitgrowers Association where he was always an active member and also as President of the Central Fruitgrowers Association for twenty eight consecutive years. He was a noted judge at fruit exhibitions throughout Victoria and on many occasions represented the Doncaster district as delegate at local and interstate fruit growers conferences.
In his retirement, he devoted much of his time to the large flower garden surrounding his home, leaving the management of the orchard to his son Everard.
Fred retained all his faculties throughout his long life and was well informed on current topics as well as those associated with fruit growing. He never drove a motor car, preferring to use the horse and wagon. On one occasion while driving his brother Oswald to Box Hill, the waggon tipped over when the horse bolted down the steep incline in Elgar Road near Koonung Creek. It's passengers were thrown out and Fred sustained minor injuries. He always walked with a limp after this mishap.
Fred Thiele died in 1949 at the age of ninety three years. After his death, the property passed to his son Everard. It was later purchased by Wal and Rosa Wilhelm who lived there until recently. Sadly the house is now to leave the district to be relocated at Mount Macedon, but happily it will survive to enter a new phase of its history.
Source: Eric Collyer writing in 1996 12 DTHS Newsletter
Need images:
- View of Frederick Thiele's first home from east side of Church Road. In the distance is Schramms Cottage.
- The Ambrose Street side, the new section with its verandahs and gables.
- The rear of Frederick Thiele's House showing the original section.
Alfred Thiele's family in their Fabrique Nationale motor car at a picnic at Pound Bend, Warrandyte. Photo undated. Mrs & Mrs Alfred Thiele celebrated their Diamond (60th) Wedding anniversary in April 1958. DP0268
Thiele Family of Doncaster
Descendants of the Thiele family held a family reunion at Schramm’s Cottage in November of last year to commemorate 150 years of family settlement at Doncaster in 1853.
Brothers Johann Gottlieb Thiele and Johann Gottfried Thiele arrived in Melbourne from Germany on the sailing ship G.H. Wappaus in March 1849. His wife Phillipine and the first two of their eleven children accompanied Gottlieb. Their names were Oswald and Adelheide.
Shortly after their arrival, Gottlieb, a tailor by trade, established himself in business at 42 Bourke Street West in Melbourne and was appointed military tailor to the Lieutenant Governor, Charles Joseph La Trobe.
When gold was discovered at Ballarat and Bendigo and surrounding areas in the early 1850’s, there was a mass exodus of people from Melbourne and along with many others, Gottlieb closed his shop and headed for the goldfields. After returning to Melbourne in 1853, he sold property that he had previously acquired in Richmond and Collingwood, and along with other fellow Germans in Melbourne, purchased land at Doncaster.
The following report appeared in an early Melbourne Lutheran Church paper dated 30 September 1853:
Several German families recently purchased 750 acres of land in the vicinity of Templestowe on the Yarra about 10 miles from Melbourne. There they intend to establish a German village to be called Breslau. Some weeks ago, a meeting was held at that very place and it was decided to make the following announcement:We, the undersigned landowners in the colony of Victoria, have decided that Section 9 a, b and Section 10, situated near Templestowe in the County of Bulleen, should be known hence forth as Breslau.Straube, Helbig, Walther, Reinity, Grinert, Kaiser, Simon, Schultz, Gottlieb Thiele, Gottfried Thiele, Christian Finger senior, Christian Finger junior, Wilhelm Finger, Heinrich Finger and Peter Goethe.
(The amount of land purchased was actually 784 acres. The County of Bulleen should correctly read - The County of Burke, Parish of Bulleen.)
Gottlieb, in two transactions purchased 20 acres of land on either side of Ruffey Creek. This land now forms part of Ruffey Lake Park, opposite Schramm’s Cottage. His brother Gottfried bought land at the corner of King and Victoria Streets.
In 1856, Gottfried married Maria Anna Goethe at Trinity Lutheran Church, Eastern Hill Melbourne. Pastor Matthias Goethe, brother of the bride, conducted the marriage. Sometime after their marriage, Gottfried sold his property to the Groux family and purchased land on the Main Road, Doncaster where he built a home and established a general store (possibly the first shop in the area).
Eight children were born to Gottfried and Anna, but only one - Henry lived to reach adulthood.
In later years, he carried on the business established by his father. Thiele’s General Store enjoyed the patronage of many residents of the nearby German community at Waldau, and was a well-known landmark in the district for many years.
Subsequent generations of both Thiele families became prominent orchardists in the Doncaster and Donvale districts and made notable contribution to the development of the fruit growing industry in that area.
Gottlieb’s sons, Edmund, Frederick and Alfred worked their father’s property in partnership until Me time of his death in 1893. After his marriage in 1889, Frederick established an orchard in Church Road, while his younger brother Alfred purchased the old home property from his father’s estate.
Frederick Thiele was a highly respected authority on fruit growing and his advice was widely sought by fellow orchardists. He was President of the Central Fruitgrowers’ Association for 28 years and was also a noted judge of fruit exhibitions in Victoria. On many occasions, he represented the Doncaster district as a delegate at local and interstate fruitgrowers’ conferences.
Alfred Thiele was also a successful orchardist and was a member of the Doncaster Fruitgrowers’ Association for many years. He also served on the executive committee of the Victorian Central Fruitgrowers’ Association for a number of years and was President for two years.
Henry Thiele’s sons, August, Ernest, Ferdinand and Eric established orchards at Mitcham and Donvale. August was a founding director of the Orchardists’ Cool Store established at East Doncaster in 1914 and built a cool store on his own property in 1938. The Department of Agriculture often held field days on his Tunstall Road orchard.
When regulations were drafted in the 1930’s to govern the fruit export trade; several members of the Thiele family formed a partnership and traded under the registered name ‘Thiele’s Fireside Fruits’. In the years that followed, large quantities of apples and pears were exported to London and the other European ports under that name.
FRIEDENSRUH Photograph taken by Albert Thiele about 1910. The gable section was built of wattle and daub in 1853.
Friedensruh c1910 homestead, off Victoria street, Doncaster, the home of the Thiele family since 1853, The gable section on the left was built by Gottlieb Thiele in 1853. Pictured is the east side of the house. DP0344
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