Charles Pickering
The Pickering family came to Doncaster from England in 1849. Among their children was two years old Kate, who grew up to marry Max Schramm, and Charles, an eight year old boy. Charles and his family lived in Blackburn Road when he met Sarah Rose Knee from Deep Creek. At the age of twenty, Charles married Sarah and built a slab hut near the corner of Blackburn and Doncaster Roads. The hut stood on a site opposite the present Safeways. That is, it stood when Charles first built it. Then the walls were straight and trim with a neat bark roof but, later when Robinson lived in it, the slab walls tilted and the roof sagged. Robinson cut strong props from gum trees to hold up the walls, and, as the hut continued to droop, he cut more branches, often with leaves still on them, to support the walls and roof giving the building the appearance at a tree house.
Later, Charles and Sarah moved to Kew where he ran refreshment rooms on the south side of Doncaster Road between Charles Street and Highbury Road. Settlers from Doncaster regularly called at Charles' restaurant as they carted firewood to Melbourne.
During the first years, when land had to be cleared so that farms and orchards could be planted, firewood saved the settlers, for sales of wood provided their only income. In the early years, wood carting became a general industry with as many as eighty loads of firewood leaving the district each day. Some of it was sold privately at Kew or Melbourne, but most went to the Fitzroy wood market. Prices varied from four pence to one shilling per hundredweight.
They would set off from Doncaster in the morning for the long trip. After climbing two steep hills they reached Kew, the horses ready for a rest, the men ready for refreshment at Pickerings restaurant. It was evening by the time the men returned. The drivers grouped the carts together for company passing the time by singing such songs as "Annie Laurie", "Kathleen Mavourneen", "Little Brown Jug" and "Bonnie Noon". Among the noted singers were Edwin Nilson, Henry Crouch, Frank Smedley and George Holden.
In the 1880's, Edwin Wilson's sister Robina came to help Charles Pickering. Robina and her sister, Mary Anne, had arrived in Melbourne in 1858 in the sailing ship "Salem". The two sisters opened a school in a log cabin in the bush behind Wilsons Road on the site of Log School Road. Robina left Doncaster in the 1860s to go to Tarradale as a governess. In 1872, Robina married a Doncaster man, William Morrison, at Tarradale. During her married life, Robina had ten children, but only four survived. William died in 1887 so Robina returned to Doncaster and went to help Charles Pickering at his refreshment rooms.
The firewood industry declined by the end of the century for the land had all been cleared and Charles Pickering had given up his refreshment rooms, he then opened a fancy goods shop.
1988 09 DTHS Newsletter
Charles Pickering's cafe circa 1890: Edwin Wilson and his brother having refreshments at Charles W. Pickering's Refreshment Rooms, High Street East Kew, . They were carting firewood cut from their property at Doncaster. Charles Pickering was a son of Joseph Pickering, a pioneer settler of Doncaster. DP0070
Charles Pickering's hut, Doncaster | Painting of Charles Pickering's hut at the corner of Doncaster and Blackburn Roads, then in a dilapidated state. DP0194
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