Needs Work (all 13 parts)
- proof reading for errors in OCR process
- additional spaces in the middle of words
- numeric 5 inserted instead of quote character '
- Copy full reference to replace "Source" description in quotes and pictures
- replace images provided by DTHS with better quality versions and add accession DP numbers
Cover photo: The stunning colours of the Noonan freestone white-flesh peach, a Doncaster variety named in 1910. It is still grown by a small number of commercial orchards. (Photo: Peter Adams)
Copyright resides with Manningham Council.
Manningham Council granted permission to reproduce the book contents in full on this website in May2023. The book is no longer available for sale, but hard copies of the original are available for viewing at DTHS Museum as well as Manningham library and many other libraries.
National Library Record: https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1552022/
Author: Barbara Pertzel
Description Melbourne : Arcadia, 2001
xii, 242 p. ill., maps, ports. ; 22 x 27 cm.
ISBN 1875606998 - 1875606998
Invalid ISBN 1740970004
Incorrect ISBN appears on dust jacket.
Bibliography: p. 215-217.
Subjects Manningham (Vic.) -- History.
Other authors/contributors Walters, Fiona
Trove Record: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34281323
Pertzel, Barbara
Manningham (Vic.) - History.; Doncaster and Templestowe (Vic.); Doncaster
Stories of the residents of Manningham were recorded to produce a history of the area. Topics include settlement, gold, orchards, art. environment and community.
ISBN: 1-74097-000-4
250 pages. Available from The City of Manningham.
‘Pertzel’s & Walters’ way of writing history encapsulates local memories in telling phrases which seem to distil the ways Manningham people see the places they value. I’ve never previously found a local history which does quite this, and so effectively. I feel Manningham people will see themselves anew.’ Richard Peterson – Heritage Update
DTHS Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society
MCC Manningham City Council
RHSV Royal Historical Society of Victoria
WHS Warrandyte Historical Society
12 inches = 1 foot = 0.35 metres
3 feet = 1 yard = 0.91 metres
1,760 yards = 1 mile = 1.609 kilometres
4840 square yards = 1 acre = 0.4 hectares
640 acres = 1 square mile = 259 hectares
Manningham From Country to City, recounts many stories of places and people who call this municipality home. There could be no more appropriate time to prepare this publication, than the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold at Anderson’s Creek and the centenary of Federation. The aim of this project was to reveal the history of Manningham through the eyes of its residents - a journey of discovery drawn from stories and themes gathered from the community but relevant to a much wider readership. Those who have settled here recently will find much to interest them and those who have been associated with the area for many years (or even generations) will find pleasure in revisiting memories of eras long past. There are shared histories in the City of Manningham, dating back thousands of years to the Wurundjeri-willam - the first people to live in this area - as well as post-contact stories of gold seekers, orchardists, artists and the more recent settlers of the suburbs. The stages of immigration, the role of the community, the arts and the environment have all been vital in the development of our multicultural City.
Without the generous participation and assistance of a great number of people this history would not have been possible. To the members of the Manningham History Committee - Eric Collyer, Murray Houghton, Farley Kelly, Judith Leaney, Joanne Nelson, Richard Peterson, Sonia Rappell, and Cr Pat Young - who lent great support and encouragement throughout this project, the authors extend sincere appreciation. Our thanks also go to Sarah Finlay, Melissa King, Daniela Galatoulas, Heather McRae, George Nantes, Pam Papigiotis and Kay Toussaint at the Manningham Municipal Offices for the help they kindly provided throughout this project. Peter Adams, Illona Caldow, Les Cameron, Jean Chapman, Don and Nell Charlwood, Eric Collyer, Olive Crouch-Napier, Rae Danks, Cecily Falkingham, Sarah Finlay, Eva Gaitatzis, Cliff Green, Peter Hanson, Meg Henderson, Murray Houghton, Darren Kelly, Grahame and Inge King, Celia Clifford-Kirby, Jan and John Laing, Jo Laurence, Faye and Jeff Lee, Janice McBride, Colin McKinnon, Ian Morrison, Vicki Nicholson, Jim Poulter, Ken Sharp, Lois Smith and Don Tinkler spared the time to talk to us at length and permitted us to mine their memories of Manningham. Sonja Michelini and Jeannine Nolan worked hard, long and fast to provide us with transcripts of the oral history interviews. We also wish to acknowledge the contribution of the many questionnaire respondents, whose names are listed in the appendices. We are also indebted to Lesley Alves and the Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation for allowing us access to the transcripts of interviews conducted as part of the Suburban Voices oral history project.
This history contains a rich variety of images thanks to the cooperation of many people. Illustrations have been provided by the Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society, Warrandyte Historical Society, Manningham City Council, National Gallery of Victoria, Public Record Office, State Library of Victoria, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, State Library of New South Wales, The Age, Wonga Park Primary School, the late Irvine Green, Peter Adams, Keith Anderson, Michael Bellemo, Zeilah Bullock, Eric Collyer, Peter Hanson, Meg Henderson, Pauline Heslop, Murray Houghton, Farley Kelly, Garth Kendall, Inge and Grahame King, Kay Mack, Helen Penrose, Shirley and Ted Rotherham, Ken Smith and Julie White. We would also like to thank those who gave additional assistance either with research or with reading drafts of the manuscripts - Neil and Margaret Abbott, Peter Adams, Lionel Allemand, Hamish Allen, Flora Anderson, Pat Anderson, Lyn Bannister, Alex Baxter, Andy and Gina Bevan-Jones, Elaine Craig, Rosalie Dance, Rae Danks, Joanne Driver, Isabel Ellender, Fay Erwin, Patrick Fricker, Margaret Gardiner, Cliff Green, Bill Larkin, Ubaldo Mantelli, Carole McWilliam, Peter Navaretti, Bill Nicholson, Vicki Nicholson, Joan Norbury, Bruce Pertzel, Jim Poulter, Marian Sinclair, Len Tregonning, Jill Walters, James Wandin, Margaret Waterhouse, Shannon Wilson, Annette Xiberras, Doncaster Gardens Primary School, Warrandyte Primary School and the Councillors and Officers of the City of Manningham. To our publisher, Nick Walker, editor, Diane Carlye and designer, Lynda Patullo, we extend our sincere thanks for their skill and efficiency throughout the publication process. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to our HistorySmiths colleagues, Helen Penrose and Catherine Waterhouse. Helen undertook all the picture research and writing of captions with an expertise and enthusiasm that shines through the striking images she chose for the book. Catherine s gentle professionalism in those interviews which she conducted imbued her oral history participants with a confidence that is reflected in their candid and generous contributions. Catherine also researched and wrote material for the indigenous theme in this book, and lent her expertise to editing the final manuscript. We thank you both, most sincerely. This book has truly been a team effort.
Manningham - rolling and rising from the flood plains of the Yarra within a greater expanse of land traditionally owned by the Wurundjeri - is a place much older than anything defined by people. Where do we find its history? Two features of the current city’s physical environment - one natural, one built - present themselves as metaphors for that challenge. It is like searching in the Yarra River, a natural artery of energy flowing inexorably one way, in whose silt history resides. It is like searching on the Eastern Freeway, an imposed, unfinished and unnatural artery with many outlets in many directions, each a limiting point of access to the landscape where history also resides. Where should we search? What should we look for? How much will we be able to see?
Todays City of Manningham begins at the confluence of the Yarra River and the Koonung Creek, opening out cornucopia-like along the natural courses of these waterways to embrace the hills eastwards to Brushy Creek and beyond. Within its boundaries are ten suburbs: Bulleen, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Donvale, Park Orchards, Templestowe, Lower Templestowe, Warrandyte, Warrandyte South and Wonga Park (A part of Ringwood North and approximately six streets in Nunawading are also within the boundaries of Manningham. The municipality used to include a part of Mitcham but this section has recently been renamed Donvale). The greater proportion of Manningham’s population resides in Doncaster and Doncaster East. Travelling from Melbourne, these are Manningham's gateway suburbs sitting on the city’s southern boundary. These two Doncasters are a cluster of suburban housing and public parks crowned by Shoppingtown, a landmark development perched high on a hill. From this vantage point the surprising vista back to Melbourne is a counterpane of tree tops billowing in waves of green down to the valley of the Yarra River. Tiled roofs hide cosily beneath.
Slower to develop its subdivisions, the northern gateway to Manningham, through Bulleen and Lower Templestowe to Templestowe, is more like a suburban work in progress. Glimpses of the former rural character of the neighbourhood are still visible but have largely given way to housing that often radically expresses the ethos of individuality. Here the green valley of the Yarra, Manningham's northern boundary, slips like a scarf from its hilly shoulders - a reminder of what could be lost without due care. Across the Mullum Mullum Creek, Manningham opens out to Warrandyte, Park Orchards and Wonga Park. In these suburbs we can see in microcosm Manningham past and future. Bushland, farmland and urban development still jostle for space and their competing claims challenge the notion that a balance can be sustained. Park Orchards, a conscious marriage of urban design and bush parkland, counterpoints the serendipity of Warrandyte’s settlements and greater bushland reserves. Wonga Park sits like a breathing space at the top of it all. From its vantage point, Wonga Park can look back towards Melbourne and see what is coming. Donvale, straddling the Mullum Mullum Creek, is aptly named. West of the creek, it has already surrendered half of itself to the creeping suburbia of Doncaster East. But amongst its vales and hills on the eastern side of Mullum Mullum, open space is preserved. Donvale seems to exaggerate the competing pressures of preservation and progress that characterise the City of Manningham.
Manningham was the name selected for the former City of Doncaster and Templestowe when its boundaries were re-drawn in 1994 to include Wonga Park. Excised at the same time was an area of the former city located in North Ringwood. At this time, wards within the municipality were given new names. Heide (Ward 1, western sector) was named after the Reeds' home. It honours the presence of an active artistic community in Manningham. Koonung (Ward 2, southern sector) is from the Wurundjeri phrase koonung koonung, meaning muddy water. Most of what remains of the Koonung Creek that once flowed through the southern ward is now the Eastern Freeway, but the creek still forms the southern boundary of the municipality. Ruffey (Ward 3, northern sector) was named after Ruffey Creek, which flows from the Yarra near Odyssey House in Lower Templestowe to Rieschiecks Reserve in Doncaster. It honours early settlement of the district, though misspells the name of the settlers concerned. The Ruffy brothers established a cattle run along the Yarra in Bulleen around 1837. Mullum Mullum (Ward 4, eastern sector) is a Wurundjeri name meaning 'large bird'. The Mullum Mullum Creek flows through the entire municipality, into the Yarra in Templestowe, forming the suburban border with Warrandyte. All of these names carry significant resonance from the community’s history. But why name the new city Manningham? Was it chosen because Manningham Road separates Doncaster from Lower Templestowe - a recognisable middle ground in the hybrid name of the former city?
In its Corporate Plan 2000-2003, Council identified the preparation of a history as a key goal for 2001. Manningham From Country to City is the result. The scope of the story, as requested by the municipality, stretches from the pre-European-contact era to the present day; but the single year allowed by the City of Manningham for researching and writing this history dictated from the outset what could and could not be achieved. We have endeavoured, therefore, to distil representative parts of Manningham's story with the hope of capturing a sense of the whole. What we have missed in words we have tried to capture to some extent in pictures. The key themes in this history - the areas first people, immigration, settlement, the discovery of gold, orcharding, the arts, the environment and the community - aim to acknowledge achievement and loss and to articulate aspects of the past from different perspectives in the present. Sometimes conventional research methodologies informed the writing, but this is a community history so people from Manningham's community were also invited to contribute. The balance of what has been represented in this history was affected to some degree by the response, from members of the community, to our various advertisements and questionnaires. Too often histories amplify the distant, Euro-centred and masculine past - seen in brittle and browning maps, in sepia-toned photographs and copperplate handwriting, in condescending attitudes and comfortable assumptions. Dusty minute books evoke for some a stronger sense of the historical than does a spoken memory, a tradition of storytelling or an awareness of silences - but history resides in many places.
In pursuit of history we have travelled upstream in directions opposite to the flow of history’s traffic. We now ask you to follow - to read, to look, to listen - back past the advent of suburbs to a time when fruit-tree blossoms perfumed the air, when wind whispered through protective pine trees. Even further back we invite you to hear, in some parts of the district, the thump of a crusher pounding rock in the hope of releasing gold as it temporarily silences birdsong. Further back still, when the only voices heard in this place were those of Wurundjeri ancestors, you are invited to listen. In this place, the history of this city begins.
National Library Record: https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1552022/
Author: Barbara Pertzel
Description Melbourne : Arcadia, 2001
xii, 242 p. ill., maps, ports. ; 22 x 27 cm.
ISBN 1875606998 - 1875606998
Invalid ISBN 1740970004
Incorrect ISBN appears on dust jacket.
Bibliography: p. 215-217.
Subjects Manningham (Vic.) -- History.
Other authors/contributors Walters, Fiona
Trove Record: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34281323
Pertzel, Barbara
Manningham (Vic.) - History.; Doncaster and Templestowe (Vic.); Doncaster
Stories of the residents of Manningham were recorded to produce a history of the area. Topics include settlement, gold, orchards, art. environment and community.
Barbara Pertzel & Fiona Walters, Manningham: from country to city, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2001
Manningham today is a community of over 110,000 people in ten districts, a city of infinite variety, rich in natural beauty and native flora and fauna. For countless millennia the Yarra River gouged its way through the hills to emerge from the Warrandyte Gorge onto the wide alluvial flats of a broad valley in the land of the Wurundjeri. In 1836 the first Europeans settled in the area. Many more followed, attracted by the valley’s fertile soils and, in the 1850s, Victoria’s first official goldfield. The Wurundjeri gave way to colonists; and a wilderness to stock runs, ploughed fields, fruit growing, villages and now leafy suburban subdivisions and parkland. Barbara Pertzel and Fiona Walters weave the voices of the community into their story, giving this book a freshness of approach and a narrative that make for true reading pleasure.ISBN: 1-74097-000-4
250 pages. Available from The City of Manningham.
‘Pertzel’s & Walters’ way of writing history encapsulates local memories in telling phrases which seem to distil the ways Manningham people see the places they value. I’ve never previously found a local history which does quite this, and so effectively. I feel Manningham people will see themselves anew.’ Richard Peterson – Heritage Update
Manningham From Country To City
Barbara Pertzel & Fiona WaltersBarbara Pertzel is the author of two biographies and a number of educational works for children. For her PhD from the University of Melbourne she investigated the history of editing medieval English texts.
Fiona Walters is a Melbourne writer whose work in commissioned history includes A Better; Gentler School: music at Xavier College (Eldon Hogan Trust, 1999).
Historysmiths Pty Ltd is a Melbourne-based business that specialises in producing commissioned histories and biographies and in providing writing and editing services.
Barbara Pertzel and Fiona Walters, 2001 First published in 2001 by Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd PO Box 299, Kew, Victoria 3101 102/282 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000 Tel: (03) 9817 3208 Fax: (03) 9817 6431
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Pertzel, Barbara. Manningham from country to city Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 1 873606 99 8. . Manningham (Vic.) - History. I. Walters, Fiona. II. Title. 994.51 Designed and typeset by Green Poles Design Graphic Reproduction by Pre Press Global Printed by the Australian Book Connection
Cover photo: The stunning colours of the Noonan freestone white-flesh peach, a Doncaster variety named in 1910. It is still grown by a small number of commercial orchards. (Photo: Peter Adams)
Back cover photo: Doncaster Hill, painted by Louis White in 2000. (Reproduced with permission of the artist)
Manningham today is a community of over 110,000 people in ten districts, a city ol infinite variety, rich in natural beauty and native flora and fauna. For countless millennia the Yarra river gouged its way through hills to emerge from the Warrandyte Gorge onto the wide alluvial flats of a broad valley in the land of the Wurundjeri. In 1836 the first Europeans settled in the area. Many more followed, attracted by the valley’s fertile soils and, in the 1850s, Victoria's first official goldfield. The Wurundjeri gave way to colonists; and a wilderness to stock runs, ploughed fields, fruit-growing, villages and now leafy suburban subdivisions and parkland.
Barbara Pertzel and Fiona Walters weave the voices of the community into their story, giving this book a freshness of approach and a narrative that make for true reading pleasure.
Fiona Walters is a Melbourne writer whose work in commissioned history includes A Better; Gentler School: music at Xavier College (Eldon Hogan Trust, 1999).
Historysmiths Pty Ltd is a Melbourne-based business that specialises in producing commissioned histories and biographies and in providing writing and editing services.
Barbara Pertzel and Fiona Walters, 2001 First published in 2001 by Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd PO Box 299, Kew, Victoria 3101 102/282 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000 Tel: (03) 9817 3208 Fax: (03) 9817 6431
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Pertzel, Barbara. Manningham from country to city Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 1 873606 99 8. . Manningham (Vic.) - History. I. Walters, Fiona. II. Title. 994.51 Designed and typeset by Green Poles Design Graphic Reproduction by Pre Press Global Printed by the Australian Book Connection
Cover photo: The stunning colours of the Noonan freestone white-flesh peach, a Doncaster variety named in 1910. It is still grown by a small number of commercial orchards. (Photo: Peter Adams)
Back cover photo: Doncaster Hill, painted by Louis White in 2000. (Reproduced with permission of the artist)
Manningham today is a community of over 110,000 people in ten districts, a city ol infinite variety, rich in natural beauty and native flora and fauna. For countless millennia the Yarra river gouged its way through hills to emerge from the Warrandyte Gorge onto the wide alluvial flats of a broad valley in the land of the Wurundjeri. In 1836 the first Europeans settled in the area. Many more followed, attracted by the valley’s fertile soils and, in the 1850s, Victoria's first official goldfield. The Wurundjeri gave way to colonists; and a wilderness to stock runs, ploughed fields, fruit-growing, villages and now leafy suburban subdivisions and parkland.
Barbara Pertzel and Fiona Walters weave the voices of the community into their story, giving this book a freshness of approach and a narrative that make for true reading pleasure.
Wyjak kanee Wurundjeri balluk erdon munyi beek noorrp tang a din mooroop Wyjak ngabedin wandhago kondee erdon tang andoea wurrdhun biik balluk wandeat
We the Wurundjeri people have been caring for this land since the beginning of the dream time. We will continue to have a close relationship for many generations to come.
(Woiwurrung language phrases and translation courtesy of Bill Nicholson, Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Language)
- Guide to abbreviations and measures
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Settlement
- Gold
- Orchards
- Arts
- Environment
- Community
- Epilogue
- Sources
- Appendices 1:
- Timeline
- Oral history participants
- List of councillors
- Endnotes
- Index
Guide to abbreviations and measures
AR Annual ReportDTHS Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society
MCC Manningham City Council
RHSV Royal Historical Society of Victoria
WHS Warrandyte Historical Society
12 inches = 1 foot = 0.35 metres
3 feet = 1 yard = 0.91 metres
1,760 yards = 1 mile = 1.609 kilometres
4840 square yards = 1 acre = 0.4 hectares
640 acres = 1 square mile = 259 hectares
A tapestry created by Manningham Primary School children in 1993. (Photo: MCC)
Introduction
This work has been commissioned by Council to present a formal municipal history within the context of Victorian and Australian history. The team at HistorySmiths Pty Ltd and authors, Barbara Pertzel and Fiona Walters, are to be commended on the evocative style of the text. Lavishly illustrated, it is the first professionally prepared history of the municipality.
Manningham From Country to City HistorySmiths were ably assisted by a Steering Committee including volunteers Judith Leaney and Eric Collyer (Doncaster and Templestowe Historical Society), Murray Houghton (Warrandyte Historical Society) and Dr Farley Kelly (historian), who devoted their time and expertise to the project. Contributions from the community, of photographs, written reminiscences and oral history, paint a vivid picture of past and present Manningham. It is a work of which the community can be proud. Congratulations to all involved.
Cr Julie Eisenbise Mayor
Without the generous participation and assistance of a great number of people this history would not have been possible. To the members of the Manningham History Committee - Eric Collyer, Murray Houghton, Farley Kelly, Judith Leaney, Joanne Nelson, Richard Peterson, Sonia Rappell, and Cr Pat Young - who lent great support and encouragement throughout this project, the authors extend sincere appreciation. Our thanks also go to Sarah Finlay, Melissa King, Daniela Galatoulas, Heather McRae, George Nantes, Pam Papigiotis and Kay Toussaint at the Manningham Municipal Offices for the help they kindly provided throughout this project. Peter Adams, Illona Caldow, Les Cameron, Jean Chapman, Don and Nell Charlwood, Eric Collyer, Olive Crouch-Napier, Rae Danks, Cecily Falkingham, Sarah Finlay, Eva Gaitatzis, Cliff Green, Peter Hanson, Meg Henderson, Murray Houghton, Darren Kelly, Grahame and Inge King, Celia Clifford-Kirby, Jan and John Laing, Jo Laurence, Faye and Jeff Lee, Janice McBride, Colin McKinnon, Ian Morrison, Vicki Nicholson, Jim Poulter, Ken Sharp, Lois Smith and Don Tinkler spared the time to talk to us at length and permitted us to mine their memories of Manningham. Sonja Michelini and Jeannine Nolan worked hard, long and fast to provide us with transcripts of the oral history interviews. We also wish to acknowledge the contribution of the many questionnaire respondents, whose names are listed in the appendices. We are also indebted to Lesley Alves and the Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation for allowing us access to the transcripts of interviews conducted as part of the Suburban Voices oral history project.
This history contains a rich variety of images thanks to the cooperation of many people. Illustrations have been provided by the Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society, Warrandyte Historical Society, Manningham City Council, National Gallery of Victoria, Public Record Office, State Library of Victoria, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, State Library of New South Wales, The Age, Wonga Park Primary School, the late Irvine Green, Peter Adams, Keith Anderson, Michael Bellemo, Zeilah Bullock, Eric Collyer, Peter Hanson, Meg Henderson, Pauline Heslop, Murray Houghton, Farley Kelly, Garth Kendall, Inge and Grahame King, Kay Mack, Helen Penrose, Shirley and Ted Rotherham, Ken Smith and Julie White. We would also like to thank those who gave additional assistance either with research or with reading drafts of the manuscripts - Neil and Margaret Abbott, Peter Adams, Lionel Allemand, Hamish Allen, Flora Anderson, Pat Anderson, Lyn Bannister, Alex Baxter, Andy and Gina Bevan-Jones, Elaine Craig, Rosalie Dance, Rae Danks, Joanne Driver, Isabel Ellender, Fay Erwin, Patrick Fricker, Margaret Gardiner, Cliff Green, Bill Larkin, Ubaldo Mantelli, Carole McWilliam, Peter Navaretti, Bill Nicholson, Vicki Nicholson, Joan Norbury, Bruce Pertzel, Jim Poulter, Marian Sinclair, Len Tregonning, Jill Walters, James Wandin, Margaret Waterhouse, Shannon Wilson, Annette Xiberras, Doncaster Gardens Primary School, Warrandyte Primary School and the Councillors and Officers of the City of Manningham. To our publisher, Nick Walker, editor, Diane Carlye and designer, Lynda Patullo, we extend our sincere thanks for their skill and efficiency throughout the publication process. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to our HistorySmiths colleagues, Helen Penrose and Catherine Waterhouse. Helen undertook all the picture research and writing of captions with an expertise and enthusiasm that shines through the striking images she chose for the book. Catherine s gentle professionalism in those interviews which she conducted imbued her oral history participants with a confidence that is reflected in their candid and generous contributions. Catherine also researched and wrote material for the indigenous theme in this book, and lent her expertise to editing the final manuscript. We thank you both, most sincerely. This book has truly been a team effort.
Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits... Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians (1918)
Dick Ovenden’s painting of the corner of Doncaster Road and Station Street in the 1960s. Elgar Road meets Tram Road at the corner, where Serpells store (built 1890, demolished 1969) also stands. (Photo: DTHS)
Manningham - rolling and rising from the flood plains of the Yarra within a greater expanse of land traditionally owned by the Wurundjeri - is a place much older than anything defined by people. Where do we find its history? Two features of the current city’s physical environment - one natural, one built - present themselves as metaphors for that challenge. It is like searching in the Yarra River, a natural artery of energy flowing inexorably one way, in whose silt history resides. It is like searching on the Eastern Freeway, an imposed, unfinished and unnatural artery with many outlets in many directions, each a limiting point of access to the landscape where history also resides. Where should we search? What should we look for? How much will we be able to see?
Mullum Mullum Creek, Donvale, 2001. (Photo: Helen Penrose)
Slower to develop its subdivisions, the northern gateway to Manningham, through Bulleen and Lower Templestowe to Templestowe, is more like a suburban work in progress. Glimpses of the former rural character of the neighbourhood are still visible but have largely given way to housing that often radically expresses the ethos of individuality. Here the green valley of the Yarra, Manningham's northern boundary, slips like a scarf from its hilly shoulders - a reminder of what could be lost without due care. Across the Mullum Mullum Creek, Manningham opens out to Warrandyte, Park Orchards and Wonga Park. In these suburbs we can see in microcosm Manningham past and future. Bushland, farmland and urban development still jostle for space and their competing claims challenge the notion that a balance can be sustained. Park Orchards, a conscious marriage of urban design and bush parkland, counterpoints the serendipity of Warrandyte’s settlements and greater bushland reserves. Wonga Park sits like a breathing space at the top of it all. From its vantage point, Wonga Park can look back towards Melbourne and see what is coming. Donvale, straddling the Mullum Mullum Creek, is aptly named. West of the creek, it has already surrendered half of itself to the creeping suburbia of Doncaster East. But amongst its vales and hills on the eastern side of Mullum Mullum, open space is preserved. Donvale seems to exaggerate the competing pressures of preservation and progress that characterise the City of Manningham.
Manningham was the name selected for the former City of Doncaster and Templestowe when its boundaries were re-drawn in 1994 to include Wonga Park. Excised at the same time was an area of the former city located in North Ringwood. At this time, wards within the municipality were given new names. Heide (Ward 1, western sector) was named after the Reeds' home. It honours the presence of an active artistic community in Manningham. Koonung (Ward 2, southern sector) is from the Wurundjeri phrase koonung koonung, meaning muddy water. Most of what remains of the Koonung Creek that once flowed through the southern ward is now the Eastern Freeway, but the creek still forms the southern boundary of the municipality. Ruffey (Ward 3, northern sector) was named after Ruffey Creek, which flows from the Yarra near Odyssey House in Lower Templestowe to Rieschiecks Reserve in Doncaster. It honours early settlement of the district, though misspells the name of the settlers concerned. The Ruffy brothers established a cattle run along the Yarra in Bulleen around 1837. Mullum Mullum (Ward 4, eastern sector) is a Wurundjeri name meaning 'large bird'. The Mullum Mullum Creek flows through the entire municipality, into the Yarra in Templestowe, forming the suburban border with Warrandyte. All of these names carry significant resonance from the community’s history. But why name the new city Manningham? Was it chosen because Manningham Road separates Doncaster from Lower Templestowe - a recognisable middle ground in the hybrid name of the former city?
In its Corporate Plan 2000-2003, Council identified the preparation of a history as a key goal for 2001. Manningham From Country to City is the result. The scope of the story, as requested by the municipality, stretches from the pre-European-contact era to the present day; but the single year allowed by the City of Manningham for researching and writing this history dictated from the outset what could and could not be achieved. We have endeavoured, therefore, to distil representative parts of Manningham's story with the hope of capturing a sense of the whole. What we have missed in words we have tried to capture to some extent in pictures. The key themes in this history - the areas first people, immigration, settlement, the discovery of gold, orcharding, the arts, the environment and the community - aim to acknowledge achievement and loss and to articulate aspects of the past from different perspectives in the present. Sometimes conventional research methodologies informed the writing, but this is a community history so people from Manningham's community were also invited to contribute. The balance of what has been represented in this history was affected to some degree by the response, from members of the community, to our various advertisements and questionnaires. Too often histories amplify the distant, Euro-centred and masculine past - seen in brittle and browning maps, in sepia-toned photographs and copperplate handwriting, in condescending attitudes and comfortable assumptions. Dusty minute books evoke for some a stronger sense of the historical than does a spoken memory, a tradition of storytelling or an awareness of silences - but history resides in many places.
In pursuit of history we have travelled upstream in directions opposite to the flow of history’s traffic. We now ask you to follow - to read, to look, to listen - back past the advent of suburbs to a time when fruit-tree blossoms perfumed the air, when wind whispered through protective pine trees. Even further back we invite you to hear, in some parts of the district, the thump of a crusher pounding rock in the hope of releasing gold as it temporarily silences birdsong. Further back still, when the only voices heard in this place were those of Wurundjeri ancestors, you are invited to listen. In this place, the history of this city begins.
Source: Barbara Pertzel & Fiona Walters, Manningham: from country to city, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2001. Manningham Council granted permission to reproduce the book contents in full on this website in May2023. The book is no longer available for sale, but hard copies of the original are available for viewing at DTHS Museum as well as Manningham library and many other libraries.
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