COVER - Picking Fruit at Wonga Park
Early Cover
The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe - 9 The End Of An Era
During the 1939-45 War, food rationing and manpower changed the life of the district. The Apple and Pear Marketing Board took over control of cool stores and the sale of all apples and pears. Young men joined up and women who could be spared became nurses or worked in essential jobs. Labour for work on the land was scarce. Many women such as Kathleen Petty and Peg Chivers did all the work on the family orchards. University students, teacher trainees, and land army girls picked fruit. Fruitgrowers welcomed the end of the Apple and Pear Board. The low prices paid by the board gave little profit. A grower would receive only a small percentage of the market price, perhaps four shillings for a case that sold for twelve shillings at the market.
In 1947 the Eastern Metropolitan Fruit Growers Association was formed. There had been many associations of fruit growers since the Doncaster Fruit Growers Association was formed fifty years previously. Growers had been split by a breakaway political group, but the new association brought the growers together again.
Orchardists were accustomed to disaster. Pests, drought, and hail were constant threats, but in 1937, they were not prepared when fire destroyed the east building and refrigeration plant at the Orchardists Cool Store in East Doncaster.
The pear-picking season was at its peak; 50,000 cases, mostly uninsured, were destroyed and the western building was packed to capacity, with no cooling facility in operation. Technicians from Werners and Michell & Co. worked continuously for 36 hours to install a temporary operating plant. Eleven years later another fire damaged the building. When the store was re-built in 1948, its capacity was increased to 140,000 cases.
Gradually tractors had taken the place of horses on the orchards and blacksmiths closed down. Blacksmiths shops were called the ‘service stations’ of the past, for they provided an equivalent service for horse- drawn vehicles as petrol stations did for cars. In some instances, a service station was later established on the site of a blacksmith’s shop. At Templestowe, there was a service station on Calder’s site at the corner of Foote Street and Thompsons Road and another opposite Mullens corner. Along Doncaster Road, at the corner of High Street, a service station occupied part of Smedley’s land, another on Hillmans site at Wetherby Road and on Kent’s corner at Blackburn Road.
The disappearance of horses brought about another problem. There was no longer a ready supply of stable manure for the orchards. The fertility and tilth of the soil tended to decline with continuous cultivation. Previously, large quantities of horse manure ploughed into the ground had made Doncaster and Templestowe the leading fruit growing district in the State. Improved artificial manures, which became available after the war, increased yields, especially when humus material, such as wool waste was added to the soil, but these organic materials took time to collect. Labour costs were high, so many growers relied on processed fertilisers, which exhausted the soil of organic material.
Irrigation improved during the 1950’s. Easy coupling aluminium pipes were lighter to move around the orchard and by using sprinklers on pears and apples, the additional water enhanced the size of the fruit.
After Jack Russell produced his ‘Bave-U’ motorised spray pump, many other makes were also used on orchards, such as Merriman, Tom Thumb, Fuller and Johnson and Ronaldson Tippet. These units were first drawn by horses. When orchardists started using tractors, more powerful spray machines were developed. These machines travelled slowly down the orchard rows sending out a penetrating blast of spray, which enveloped the trees saturating them in a mist of spray. Trees were then planted closer together so that spray would not be wasted on the empty spaces between trees.
A new generation of insecticides and fungicides assisted orchardists in the years after World War II. D.D.T. came first and killed codlin moth on apples and Rutherglen bug on peaches. Mercuriated lead replaced D.D.T., but had a tendency to burn the fruit. Organic sprays such as Gusathion and Dithane gave excellent results but care had to be taken when using these chemicals owing to their toxicity.
Fruit agents now ordered directly from the orchard. The grower filled orders and knew that his load of fruit was sold before he left home. This method opened up a new line of business for some local fruit growers when their orchards ceased operation. They built cool stores in Doncaster and went into the business of buying, packing, and selling fruit. For longer storage life, they installed controlled atmospheric equipment by which the oxygen level in chambers was reduced. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere delayed the natural deterioration of the fruit.
In the 1960’s cool stores closed down. The old buildings, with their wooden floors were designed for hand trolleys and fruit cases. Modern methods of industrial handling with forklift trucks and bulk containers required a different approach. Orchardists now built their own cool stores with concrete floors and facilities, for bulk handling. In past years, every case of fruit was handled many times. In the orchard, a fruit picker lifted full cases from alongside the trees and stacked them in the shade of pine trees. Later, he lifted them onto a jingle and in the shed, they were unloaded onto a cool store trolley then lifted up onto a stack in the cold chamber. This was labour intensive and hard work. With bulk handling, large bins were never touched by hand; forklifts did all the work.
Many of the orchards had already gone when these modern methods came into practice. A few orchardists tried sod cultivation, but in the shallow soil of Doncaster, they found this only worked with plenty of water. By the time drip irrigation came into use, only a few orchards were left in the east of the district.
In the years after World War II, the population of Melbourne increased rapidly. Doncaster and Templestowe became a desirable area in the rush for more housing land. From 1950 to 1960, the population increased threefold from 5000 to 15,000. The value of land rose accordingly and, as services had to be provided for the new suburban population, rates also increased. Orchardists sold their land to developers and either retired from fruit growing or moved to other areas further out such as the Mornington Peninsula, the closer areas of Gippsland, or the Goulburn Valley.
Orchards to the west went first. Bulldozers pushed over trees, houses, and sheds were demolished, and dams filled in. During the 1950’s, Doncaster changed from an orchard district to a new suburb and sub divisions rapidly continued to the east. Doncaster and Templestowe became the fastest urban growing area in the 1960’s. From 1960 to 1970, the population grew from 15,000 to 64,000 and orchards were reduced to 2,000 acres (810 hectares).
Only street names remained as a reminder of the resourceful men who planted fruit trees in Doncaster and Templestowe and laid the foundations of an orchard empire. Doncaster and Templestowe and the fruit industry owes a great debt to those dedicated men.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
In 1947 the Eastern Metropolitan Fruit Growers Association was formed. There had been many associations of fruit growers since the Doncaster Fruit Growers Association was formed fifty years previously. Growers had been split by a breakaway political group, but the new association brought the growers together again.
Orchardists were accustomed to disaster. Pests, drought, and hail were constant threats, but in 1937, they were not prepared when fire destroyed the east building and refrigeration plant at the Orchardists Cool Store in East Doncaster.
The pear-picking season was at its peak; 50,000 cases, mostly uninsured, were destroyed and the western building was packed to capacity, with no cooling facility in operation. Technicians from Werners and Michell & Co. worked continuously for 36 hours to install a temporary operating plant. Eleven years later another fire damaged the building. When the store was re-built in 1948, its capacity was increased to 140,000 cases.
Gradually tractors had taken the place of horses on the orchards and blacksmiths closed down. Blacksmiths shops were called the ‘service stations’ of the past, for they provided an equivalent service for horse- drawn vehicles as petrol stations did for cars. In some instances, a service station was later established on the site of a blacksmith’s shop. At Templestowe, there was a service station on Calder’s site at the corner of Foote Street and Thompsons Road and another opposite Mullens corner. Along Doncaster Road, at the corner of High Street, a service station occupied part of Smedley’s land, another on Hillmans site at Wetherby Road and on Kent’s corner at Blackburn Road.
The disappearance of horses brought about another problem. There was no longer a ready supply of stable manure for the orchards. The fertility and tilth of the soil tended to decline with continuous cultivation. Previously, large quantities of horse manure ploughed into the ground had made Doncaster and Templestowe the leading fruit growing district in the State. Improved artificial manures, which became available after the war, increased yields, especially when humus material, such as wool waste was added to the soil, but these organic materials took time to collect. Labour costs were high, so many growers relied on processed fertilisers, which exhausted the soil of organic material.
Irrigation improved during the 1950’s. Easy coupling aluminium pipes were lighter to move around the orchard and by using sprinklers on pears and apples, the additional water enhanced the size of the fruit.
DP0837 Orchards at Donvale |1950s Aerial photograph of part of Donvale during the 1950s.
When pruning trees, workers used stepladders to reach high branches but rear supporting legs were obstructed by branches. An improvement was a ladder with only one rear prop enabling pruners to get closer into the centre of the tree. In the years after the war the same concept, made of steel had the front legs wider to provide more stability. Some men found the steps on a steel ladder harder to stand on for a full day’s work and many continued to use the old wooden ladders. Labour costs became a serious problem, so to reduce the time-consuming job of pruning, growers cut less from the trees and in some years left apples unpruned. Branches grew higher and hung down, making picking easier. Thinning sprays on young fruit avoided the need for hand thinning and the same chemical used before harvest acted as a cling spray, holding ripe fruit on the tree until picked. New equipment saved labour. The Ferguson tractor, with its hydraulically operated draw bar, did the work of previous equipment faster, and only required one operator.
DP0486 Picking fruit at Wonga Park A boy picking fruit at Wonga Park, using a step ladder. Fruit growing was the main industry on the small holdings in the "Village Settlement" of Wonga Park.
A new generation of insecticides and fungicides assisted orchardists in the years after World War II. D.D.T. came first and killed codlin moth on apples and Rutherglen bug on peaches. Mercuriated lead replaced D.D.T., but had a tendency to burn the fruit. Organic sprays such as Gusathion and Dithane gave excellent results but care had to be taken when using these chemicals owing to their toxicity.
Fruit agents now ordered directly from the orchard. The grower filled orders and knew that his load of fruit was sold before he left home. This method opened up a new line of business for some local fruit growers when their orchards ceased operation. They built cool stores in Doncaster and went into the business of buying, packing, and selling fruit. For longer storage life, they installed controlled atmospheric equipment by which the oxygen level in chambers was reduced. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere delayed the natural deterioration of the fruit.
In the 1960’s cool stores closed down. The old buildings, with their wooden floors were designed for hand trolleys and fruit cases. Modern methods of industrial handling with forklift trucks and bulk containers required a different approach. Orchardists now built their own cool stores with concrete floors and facilities, for bulk handling. In past years, every case of fruit was handled many times. In the orchard, a fruit picker lifted full cases from alongside the trees and stacked them in the shade of pine trees. Later, he lifted them onto a jingle and in the shed, they were unloaded onto a cool store trolley then lifted up onto a stack in the cold chamber. This was labour intensive and hard work. With bulk handling, large bins were never touched by hand; forklifts did all the work.
Many of the orchards had already gone when these modern methods came into practice. A few orchardists tried sod cultivation, but in the shallow soil of Doncaster, they found this only worked with plenty of water. By the time drip irrigation came into use, only a few orchards were left in the east of the district.
In the years after World War II, the population of Melbourne increased rapidly. Doncaster and Templestowe became a desirable area in the rush for more housing land. From 1950 to 1960, the population increased threefold from 5000 to 15,000. The value of land rose accordingly and, as services had to be provided for the new suburban population, rates also increased. Orchardists sold their land to developers and either retired from fruit growing or moved to other areas further out such as the Mornington Peninsula, the closer areas of Gippsland, or the Goulburn Valley.
Orchards to the west went first. Bulldozers pushed over trees, houses, and sheds were demolished, and dams filled in. During the 1950’s, Doncaster changed from an orchard district to a new suburb and sub divisions rapidly continued to the east. Doncaster and Templestowe became the fastest urban growing area in the 1960’s. From 1960 to 1970, the population grew from 15,000 to 64,000 and orchards were reduced to 2,000 acres (810 hectares).
Only street names remained as a reminder of the resourceful men who planted fruit trees in Doncaster and Templestowe and laid the foundations of an orchard empire. Doncaster and Templestowe and the fruit industry owes a great debt to those dedicated men.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe - 8 The Peak Years
In the decade to 1910, orchards grew in size from an area of 3,800 acres (1500 hectares) to 6,500 acres (2600 hectares). Across Doncaster and Templestowe, rows of trees in geometrical blocks covered the land. The land along Doncaster Road and from Manningham Road beyond Blackburn Road to Deep Creek was almost one continuous orchard. Pome fruit, apples, pears and some quinces made up 60% of plantings, stone fruit, peaches, cherries, plums and apricots comprised the remainder.
Peaches were becoming a more favoured crop as Doncaster and Templestowe growers produced improved varieties that made the peach a more popular fruit for both eating and preserving. The first varieties to be grown were yellow-fleshed but were unreliable bearers. In 1896, August Zerbe produced the Zerbe peach. It was highly coloured with white flesh, and the next year Frederick Thiele’s Cling appeared. That was also highly coloured but had yellow flesh. The late Palmerston came from a sport on a tree in Whitten’s orchard. John Petty and Edwin Wilson both took cuttings from it and propagated an improved variety that had the advantage of ripening late and extending the harvest season.
Growers were always looking for new sports on trees or seedlings that gave promise of being an improved variety. Gill Smith found a peach that had come up on the island in the Yarra, which was part of his land in Templestowe. The tree bore a crop of fine, white fleshed peaches. Gill Smith was a dairy farmer, but members of the Smith family who grew fruit, propagated Smiths Peach, which became one of the most widely grown dessert peaches in the district.
Zerbe’s ‘Anzac’ produced in 1915, was better than the ‘Wiggins’ which was a good consistent bearer, but lacked the colour to be popular with the buyers. The Anzac had the advantage of ripening at Christmas when other fruit was scarce. August Zerbe had the original tree alongside his house in George Street. An unscrupulous grower crept up to Zerbe’s house one night to steal cuttings from the Anzac tree. He carefully tended his new trees raised from the cuttings for several years until they finally bore fruit - only to find he had taken cuttings from the wrong tree! Over twenty successful varieties were propagated in the district during this time. Those, known as the ‘Doncaster Varieties’, have since been grown on orchards throughout Australia.
The Main Peach Varieties Introduced By Doncaster And Templestowe Growers
Doncaster’s most active and progressive fruitgrower, Tom Petty, retired in 1913. He had bought and developed orchards on nineteen different properties in Doncaster and Templestowe. The most ambitious of his projects, Park Orchards, contained eighty different orchard blocks with ten dams on five hundred and fifty nine acres.
In 1914, the Victorian Fruit Growers Association sent their secretary, John Tully, to England to investigate the methods of handling and selling fruit at English ports and markets. His detailed report helped growers who worried about their lack of control and knowledge of what happened to their fruit after it left Melbourne.
H.G. Reynolds, Alfred Thiele and his brother Frederick, Richard Clay, Fred Zerbe and William Webb met in East Doncaster to establish another co-operative store. They appointed W. A. Webb with his background in accountancy and knowledge of business procedures, as secretary and purchased land, at the corner of Doncaster Road and Devon Drive, from Mary Anne Clay. The store, known as the Orchardist’s Coolstore was built in two stages. The east building was completed in 1914 and had 12 chambers with a combined storage capacity of 57,600 cases. R.H. Werner and Co. supplied the refrigeration plant and a Ruston-Hornsby suction gas engine drove the compressor. Gas was produced from charcoal and at the height of the harvest season, four stokers worked two shifts of twelve hours to keep the plant operating. Timber slides in each chamber regulated the flow of cold air.
In 1920, a second section known as the west building was added. It had 16 chambers with a storage capacity of 70,400 cases. An additional engine was installed to operate this section.
With the total capacity of 128,000 cases, this was the largest coolstore in Australia. Visitors from interstate and overseas came out to inspect the building.
War broke out in 1914, and many local young men joined up and went to the Middle East. One of these, Richard Clay, wrote from Egypt. He told about Herman Zerbe taking a photograph of twelve Doncaster boys at Tel-el Kebir, and in another letter talked about the shortage of cool store space and of receiving a “bonza” tin of fruit from Serpells Cannery. Melbourne canneries had not been able to take all the fruit offered to them and suggestions were made that canneries should be set up on orchards. Richard Serpell took up the idea, using a shed on his property. Preserving companies and jam factories had always been important markets.
The Cool Stores Act of 1915 made provision for special Government loans to help co-operatives establish cool stores and in 1918 the Orchardists and Fruit Cool Stores Association was formed. J.H. Land and John Tully were early presidents.
At Templestowe, a co-operative organised by A.T. Petty, R. Read and R. Chivers established a cool store with thirty shareholders. It opened at the beginning of the 1919 season and held 12,000 cases of fruit. William Webb was appointed secretary. Two years later, Jack Noonan, with the help of Arthur Ireland, Jack Robinson and George Knee, formed another co-operative to build the Donvale Cool Store. Both of these ventures were financed with loans provided by the Cool Stores Association Act of 1915 and became members of the Fruit Cool Stores Association.
The peak of fruit growing came in the 1920’s. The area of orchards in the district increased to more than 7000 acres in 1925, but the sales of apples fell. Doncaster and Templestowe growers sent fruit to all states of Australia, a large percentage going to New South Wales, where growers in the 1920’s planted extensive areas of apples and pears. Here, peaches replaced some of the apples. Good natural drainage on the hillsides of Doncaster suited peaches, for their shallow root system was affected by excessive moisture. Apples grew better in the district further east where good quality clay held moisture in the soil during summer, but Doncaster and Templestowe became firmly established as a peach growing district. Some of the most luscious and colourful peaches to be seen anywhere in the world came from this district in the 1920 s-30 s.
The depression of 1929-30 brought an end to the prosperous years of the 20 s. Most orchardists depended on bank overdrafts and a few who could not meet their payments lost their properties. Prices for fruit were low; often a grower would receive only 9d a case and sometimes had the disappointment of returning with his load unsold, but on the other hand, living could be economical for an orchardist’s family. During the marketing season, which now lasted most of the year, there were opportunities to buy meat at low market prices. There was always plenty of reject fruit to eat and no self-respecting orchard housewife used marketable fruit.
The women made jam and bottled fruit in preserving jars. Syrup left over from preserving was also bottled and made a good hot weather drink when added to lemon juice. There was often a cow for milk and butter was made in a butter churn. Household scraps helped feed the fowls to provide eggs.
During the 1920’s and 30 s changes took place in the industry. Motor trucks reduced travelling time and tractors saved both time and labour on the orchard. The introduction of the disc plough provided the opportunity to construct improved implements. Both Hillman and Harvey built disc ploughs in their blacksmith shops. In 1932, Herb and Frank Petty invented a plough that could move under the branches to cultivate right up to the trunks of the trees. Fred Tolly made the first Petty Plough, using the chassis of an old T model Ford, with front and back wheels being steered independently. Harvey improved and manufactured the implement under the name The Harvey Petty Plough’. Hillman produced a similar plough.
Gordon White purchased a Chevrolet truck in 1921. It had a one-seat cabin and instead of tubes, there were solid rubber balls in the tyres. Other trucks used in the 20 s were the International, with solid rubber tyres, the Albion and the Bean. The model A Ford truck and the Chevrolet made in 1928, became favourites with fruitgrowers.
The district relied on a large export trade, but there were difficulties. Exports were in the hands of agents, so that growers had no say in the selection of ships to transport their fruit, or of fruit sales in England. Not every ship was careful enough with temperature control in their cool rooms, and this resulted in some fruit arriving in poor condition. In 1932, Doncaster growers formed the Southern Victorian Pear Packing Pty. Ltd., to organise and standardise the export of pears and apples to the United Kingdom and Europe. The first directors were A. E. Ireland, T.H. Petty, J.J. Tully, E. Lawford and F. Moore. Later A.J. Noonan, D. Whitten and R.J. Tully joined the board, Representatives in London controlled sales in England and Europe. The name was later changed to Blue Moon Fruit Co-operative Limited. The co-operative operated from a building in Blackburn with facilities for storage, fruit packing, manufacture of cases, and the sale of spray materials and other orchard supplies.
Work practices on orchards were changing. In autumn, orchardists followed a practice of ploughing on whereby soil was ploughed towards the trees leaving a sallow trench in the centre of each row. In this way any excess winter rainfall would drain away to prevent waterlogging the roots of trees. In spring, the process was reversed when soil was ploughed away from trees again to level the ground. This process was called ploughing off’ and helped retain much needed moisture from any spring and summer rainfall.
Silt was still being collected from valleys to be dumped on higher ground because summer rains washed away loose top soil. In July, spraying began with peaches, to prevent leaf curl. In earlier years nicotine killed aphis on peaches. This was made by soaking tobacco in a tank and then mixing the solution with soft soap. Cover sprays were used in October - lime sulphur for black spot, arsenate of lead for codlin moth, and these sprays were applied every three weeks. Gravenstein apples and William pears tended to drop, so cling sprays were used and peaches needed microtomic sulphur to prevent brown rot.
With the coming of spring, the heaps of silt that had been airing during the winter had to be spread out for the orchard to be ploughed off. The ground was then ready to absorb summer rainfall. Cherries ripened in November and attracted birds. One of the most effective methods of deterring birds was the carbide scare gun. These guns gave a loud blast like a shotgun and during the cherry season, the irregular firing of these guns could be heard throughout the district.
Pre-Christmas picking commenced with cherries and early peaches from November. From January to March, peaches continued to ripen. Late in January Gravenstein apples were ready and in February Williams pears. Other varieties followed including Howell, Packham and Beurre Bose pears until the end of March. Apples followed then pears from mid to late autumn. All this time the cool stores were busy as loads of fruit arrived and were stacked in cool chambers. All day, carts and trucks were backed up to the loading platform with drivers lifting cases, pushing trolleys and exchanging the latest news.
From December to May, the whole family would be out in the orchard picking, sorting and carting cases of fruit. They filled three gallon galvanised buckets or old kerosene tins cut in half sideways with a handle made from wire. Kerosene and petrol came in four-gallon tins, two to a case. Empty kerosene tins were popular and handy containers for many purposes around the farm and home, and the wooden kerosene boxes made ideal fruit cases for use in the orchard. Carts collected the filled cases and brought them to the packing shed for sorting. Peaches were usually packed into cases for market as soon as they were picked to avoid bruising. Picking bags introduced in 1940 left the orchardist with both hands free to pick, but many growers found that they damaged the fruit.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
Peaches were becoming a more favoured crop as Doncaster and Templestowe growers produced improved varieties that made the peach a more popular fruit for both eating and preserving. The first varieties to be grown were yellow-fleshed but were unreliable bearers. In 1896, August Zerbe produced the Zerbe peach. It was highly coloured with white flesh, and the next year Frederick Thiele’s Cling appeared. That was also highly coloured but had yellow flesh. The late Palmerston came from a sport on a tree in Whitten’s orchard. John Petty and Edwin Wilson both took cuttings from it and propagated an improved variety that had the advantage of ripening late and extending the harvest season.
Growers were always looking for new sports on trees or seedlings that gave promise of being an improved variety. Gill Smith found a peach that had come up on the island in the Yarra, which was part of his land in Templestowe. The tree bore a crop of fine, white fleshed peaches. Gill Smith was a dairy farmer, but members of the Smith family who grew fruit, propagated Smiths Peach, which became one of the most widely grown dessert peaches in the district.
Zerbe’s ‘Anzac’ produced in 1915, was better than the ‘Wiggins’ which was a good consistent bearer, but lacked the colour to be popular with the buyers. The Anzac had the advantage of ripening at Christmas when other fruit was scarce. August Zerbe had the original tree alongside his house in George Street. An unscrupulous grower crept up to Zerbe’s house one night to steal cuttings from the Anzac tree. He carefully tended his new trees raised from the cuttings for several years until they finally bore fruit - only to find he had taken cuttings from the wrong tree! Over twenty successful varieties were propagated in the district during this time. Those, known as the ‘Doncaster Varieties’, have since been grown on orchards throughout Australia.
The Main Peach Varieties Introduced By Doncaster And Templestowe Growers
- Zerbe:- 1896, Produced By August Zerbe. Mid-season, highly coloured, white flesh.
- Thiele’s Cling:- 1897, A.F. Thiele. Highly Coloured, Late Clingstone, Yellow Fleshed.
- Catherine Anne:- 1900, J. Hudson. Mid-Season, White Fleshed.
- Smith’s:- 1900, T. Smith. Mid-Season, White Fleshed.
- Whitten’s Palmerston:- 1900, J. Whitten. Late, Yellow Fleshed.
- Bon Jon:- 1901, John Smith. Late, White Fleshed.
- Pumps:- 1902, August Pump. Mid-Season, Well Coloured And White Fleshed.
- Doncaster Crawford:- 1906, John Petty, Edwin Lawford. Two Varieties, Pink Flower, And Red Flower, Late Yellow Fleshed.
- Lorimer:- 1906, J.E. Lorimer. Very Late, Pale In Colour, White Fleshed.
- Millicent:- 1906, F. Morrison. Late, White Fleshed.
- Chapman:-1910, P. Aumann. Mid-Season, White Fleshed.
- Noonan:-1910, D. Noonan. Mid-Season, White Fleshed
- Pickering:-1910, Arthur Pickering. Early, White Fleshed.
- Webb:-1910, W. Webb. Two Varieties, One Mid-Season The Other Late.
- Wiggins:- 1910, J. Hudson. Consistent Bearer, Mid-Season, White Fleshed.
- Hooker:-1912, E. Aumann. Mid-Season, White Fleshed.
- Beale:- 1913, L. Beale. High Quality, Early, White Fleshed.
- Irelands:-1914, A.E. Ireland. Mid-Season, White Fleshed.
- Sweet Seventeen:-1914, August Zerbe. Early, White Fleshed.
- Anzac:-1915, August Zerbe. A heavy, consistent bearer, early, white fleshed.
Doncaster’s most active and progressive fruitgrower, Tom Petty, retired in 1913. He had bought and developed orchards on nineteen different properties in Doncaster and Templestowe. The most ambitious of his projects, Park Orchards, contained eighty different orchard blocks with ten dams on five hundred and fifty nine acres.
In 1914, the Victorian Fruit Growers Association sent their secretary, John Tully, to England to investigate the methods of handling and selling fruit at English ports and markets. His detailed report helped growers who worried about their lack of control and knowledge of what happened to their fruit after it left Melbourne.
H.G. Reynolds, Alfred Thiele and his brother Frederick, Richard Clay, Fred Zerbe and William Webb met in East Doncaster to establish another co-operative store. They appointed W. A. Webb with his background in accountancy and knowledge of business procedures, as secretary and purchased land, at the corner of Doncaster Road and Devon Drive, from Mary Anne Clay. The store, known as the Orchardist’s Coolstore was built in two stages. The east building was completed in 1914 and had 12 chambers with a combined storage capacity of 57,600 cases. R.H. Werner and Co. supplied the refrigeration plant and a Ruston-Hornsby suction gas engine drove the compressor. Gas was produced from charcoal and at the height of the harvest season, four stokers worked two shifts of twelve hours to keep the plant operating. Timber slides in each chamber regulated the flow of cold air.
In 1920, a second section known as the west building was added. It had 16 chambers with a storage capacity of 70,400 cases. An additional engine was installed to operate this section.
With the total capacity of 128,000 cases, this was the largest coolstore in Australia. Visitors from interstate and overseas came out to inspect the building.
 |
Meanwhile, the Government coolstore had been enlarged to hold 40,000 cases, but growers were still dissatisfied with its operation. Eventually in 1915, fruitgrowers using the store formed a co-operative to purchase it from the Government and the name was changed to Central Coolstore.
War broke out in 1914, and many local young men joined up and went to the Middle East. One of these, Richard Clay, wrote from Egypt. He told about Herman Zerbe taking a photograph of twelve Doncaster boys at Tel-el Kebir, and in another letter talked about the shortage of cool store space and of receiving a “bonza” tin of fruit from Serpells Cannery. Melbourne canneries had not been able to take all the fruit offered to them and suggestions were made that canneries should be set up on orchards. Richard Serpell took up the idea, using a shed on his property. Preserving companies and jam factories had always been important markets.
The Cool Stores Act of 1915 made provision for special Government loans to help co-operatives establish cool stores and in 1918 the Orchardists and Fruit Cool Stores Association was formed. J.H. Land and John Tully were early presidents.
At Templestowe, a co-operative organised by A.T. Petty, R. Read and R. Chivers established a cool store with thirty shareholders. It opened at the beginning of the 1919 season and held 12,000 cases of fruit. William Webb was appointed secretary. Two years later, Jack Noonan, with the help of Arthur Ireland, Jack Robinson and George Knee, formed another co-operative to build the Donvale Cool Store. Both of these ventures were financed with loans provided by the Cool Stores Association Act of 1915 and became members of the Fruit Cool Stores Association.
The peak of fruit growing came in the 1920’s. The area of orchards in the district increased to more than 7000 acres in 1925, but the sales of apples fell. Doncaster and Templestowe growers sent fruit to all states of Australia, a large percentage going to New South Wales, where growers in the 1920’s planted extensive areas of apples and pears. Here, peaches replaced some of the apples. Good natural drainage on the hillsides of Doncaster suited peaches, for their shallow root system was affected by excessive moisture. Apples grew better in the district further east where good quality clay held moisture in the soil during summer, but Doncaster and Templestowe became firmly established as a peach growing district. Some of the most luscious and colourful peaches to be seen anywhere in the world came from this district in the 1920 s-30 s.
The depression of 1929-30 brought an end to the prosperous years of the 20 s. Most orchardists depended on bank overdrafts and a few who could not meet their payments lost their properties. Prices for fruit were low; often a grower would receive only 9d a case and sometimes had the disappointment of returning with his load unsold, but on the other hand, living could be economical for an orchardist’s family. During the marketing season, which now lasted most of the year, there were opportunities to buy meat at low market prices. There was always plenty of reject fruit to eat and no self-respecting orchard housewife used marketable fruit.
The women made jam and bottled fruit in preserving jars. Syrup left over from preserving was also bottled and made a good hot weather drink when added to lemon juice. There was often a cow for milk and butter was made in a butter churn. Household scraps helped feed the fowls to provide eggs.
During the 1920’s and 30 s changes took place in the industry. Motor trucks reduced travelling time and tractors saved both time and labour on the orchard. The introduction of the disc plough provided the opportunity to construct improved implements. Both Hillman and Harvey built disc ploughs in their blacksmith shops. In 1932, Herb and Frank Petty invented a plough that could move under the branches to cultivate right up to the trunks of the trees. Fred Tolly made the first Petty Plough, using the chassis of an old T model Ford, with front and back wheels being steered independently. Harvey improved and manufactured the implement under the name The Harvey Petty Plough’. Hillman produced a similar plough.
Gordon White purchased a Chevrolet truck in 1921. It had a one-seat cabin and instead of tubes, there were solid rubber balls in the tyres. Other trucks used in the 20 s were the International, with solid rubber tyres, the Albion and the Bean. The model A Ford truck and the Chevrolet made in 1928, became favourites with fruitgrowers.
The district relied on a large export trade, but there were difficulties. Exports were in the hands of agents, so that growers had no say in the selection of ships to transport their fruit, or of fruit sales in England. Not every ship was careful enough with temperature control in their cool rooms, and this resulted in some fruit arriving in poor condition. In 1932, Doncaster growers formed the Southern Victorian Pear Packing Pty. Ltd., to organise and standardise the export of pears and apples to the United Kingdom and Europe. The first directors were A. E. Ireland, T.H. Petty, J.J. Tully, E. Lawford and F. Moore. Later A.J. Noonan, D. Whitten and R.J. Tully joined the board, Representatives in London controlled sales in England and Europe. The name was later changed to Blue Moon Fruit Co-operative Limited. The co-operative operated from a building in Blackburn with facilities for storage, fruit packing, manufacture of cases, and the sale of spray materials and other orchard supplies.
Work practices on orchards were changing. In autumn, orchardists followed a practice of ploughing on whereby soil was ploughed towards the trees leaving a sallow trench in the centre of each row. In this way any excess winter rainfall would drain away to prevent waterlogging the roots of trees. In spring, the process was reversed when soil was ploughed away from trees again to level the ground. This process was called ploughing off’ and helped retain much needed moisture from any spring and summer rainfall.
Silt was still being collected from valleys to be dumped on higher ground because summer rains washed away loose top soil. In July, spraying began with peaches, to prevent leaf curl. In earlier years nicotine killed aphis on peaches. This was made by soaking tobacco in a tank and then mixing the solution with soft soap. Cover sprays were used in October - lime sulphur for black spot, arsenate of lead for codlin moth, and these sprays were applied every three weeks. Gravenstein apples and William pears tended to drop, so cling sprays were used and peaches needed microtomic sulphur to prevent brown rot.
With the coming of spring, the heaps of silt that had been airing during the winter had to be spread out for the orchard to be ploughed off. The ground was then ready to absorb summer rainfall. Cherries ripened in November and attracted birds. One of the most effective methods of deterring birds was the carbide scare gun. These guns gave a loud blast like a shotgun and during the cherry season, the irregular firing of these guns could be heard throughout the district.
Pre-Christmas picking commenced with cherries and early peaches from November. From January to March, peaches continued to ripen. Late in January Gravenstein apples were ready and in February Williams pears. Other varieties followed including Howell, Packham and Beurre Bose pears until the end of March. Apples followed then pears from mid to late autumn. All this time the cool stores were busy as loads of fruit arrived and were stacked in cool chambers. All day, carts and trucks were backed up to the loading platform with drivers lifting cases, pushing trolleys and exchanging the latest news.
From December to May, the whole family would be out in the orchard picking, sorting and carting cases of fruit. They filled three gallon galvanised buckets or old kerosene tins cut in half sideways with a handle made from wire. Kerosene and petrol came in four-gallon tins, two to a case. Empty kerosene tins were popular and handy containers for many purposes around the farm and home, and the wooden kerosene boxes made ideal fruit cases for use in the orchard. Carts collected the filled cases and brought them to the packing shed for sorting. Peaches were usually packed into cases for market as soon as they were picked to avoid bruising. Picking bags introduced in 1940 left the orchardist with both hands free to pick, but many growers found that they damaged the fruit.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe - 6 To Market
During the night, carts trundled along the road to Melbourne, through Kew and Richmond and on to the market. The horses walked steadily and the driver slept during the long slow drive to reach market early in the morning. The nightlong trips started as soon as fruit ripened and continued even after picking finished, with fruit from the cool stores. Producing a crop was not the end of a growers work, for payment only came when the fruit was sold.
The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe - 5 Into A New Century
Straight rows of pine trees, along roadsides or silhouetted against the sky became a part of the Doncaster landscape during the last years of the century. The box and stringybark gums of the native bush protected the land until they were felled to extend the cultivated areas. Baron von Mueller, who was well known to the German community, advocated the use of Pinus Insignus as a windbreak, to give protection to the open areas.
In 1890, John Finger collected seed while on a visit to Germany. Many of the pines planted from these seeds still stand around Rieschiecks Reserve. Older trees became a problem for their roots encroached onto the orchard land taking nourishment and reducing production of nearby trees. The problem was often solved by cutting out the larger pines and the timber was used for making fruit cases. Young seedlings soon filled the gaps in the row.
It was a matter of pride to have a neatly laid out orchard. The rows were carefully measured and headlands were left with space to turn a horse when ploughing. Richard Clay allowed extra space for ornamental trees alongside fences and along the drive to his house, with the result that his property became a showpiece. Unfortunately, when the property was later sold, the trees were removed to make room for extra fruit trees. Ferdinand Finger used every inch of land for productive trees so much so, that when ploughing, the horses had to turn on the veranda of his house.
There was a series of dry years at the end of the century and water became the most talked about subject with fruit growers. It was at this time that every orchardist constructed dams. The first settlers built their homes near streams and water holes, for water was life. Land with water frontage was sought after, but people on higher ground had to rely on wells and hand dug water holes. Water reserves were set aside on creeks and rivers for horses and stock being driven through the district.
The first growers were faced with the continuous task of carrying buckets of water to their young trees during the hot days of summer. Fred Thiele is said to have built Doncaster’s first dam on his property in Church Road, to water his gooseberries. In the beginning, he used buckets to carry the water but this was too slow so he bought a hand operated pump. These “low down pumps” as they were called, were installed on creeks and dams, and by laborious hand power, forced water to higher ground. On many early properties, water holes, dug with pick and shovel, collected rainwater for household needs, animals, horses and cows. In the summer water holes dried up. To make a larger water storage that would retain water throughout summer, was a natural progression and the hilly nature of the country and the clay soil, reinforced with rocks, made Doncaster an ideal place for the construction of dams.
During the 1880’s and 90’s James Read dug a new dam every year for seven years. Tom Petty told fruitgrowers who complained about the drought to go and see Fred Thiele’s orchard, “It is a veritable garden of paradise’. With his scientific approach, Thiele had constructed a full irrigation system. In 1903, the Department of Agriculture wrote a report on Doncaster’s dams and published details of Thiele’s system for Victorian farmers.
A large dam was constructed in a gully on his property and a second dam alongside caught the overflow from this, increasing the storage capacity. At first a steam pump and later a Lister oil engine, pumped water along a 3-inch pipe to a hilltop dam on the far side of the orchard. A non-return valve allowed this pipe to form part of the reticulation system. Outlets on the dam fed water along 2-inch pipes, through the orchard. One and a half inch pipes branched off every fifth row with a tap at every fifth tree. At first, hoses fed water to the trees where a horseshoe shaped hole was dug on the higher side of the tree. Later, galvanised down pipes were found to be an improvement. A series of six-foot pipes were joined together and small holes were cut in the pipe, which could be twisted to control the supply of water to individual trees. One man would work with twelve lines of pipes, digging holes at the trees and moving pipes every three or four hours. Agricultural drains took excess water back to the dam.
The system was economical and made the most use of the limited water available. In summer, the equivalent of two inches of rain would be fed to the orchard. There were only a few valley dams with steam pumps, for most orchards used a series of hillside dams. Land holdings were comparatively small and often the road alongside the orchard was the only catchment available to supply water.
The construction of a dam was generally a community affair. Neighbours would help, bringing their own horses and scoops. As earth was tipped on the dam wall, the horses’ hooves pounded the clay, binding layers together to compact and make it watertight. The largest dam in the district was built by Sydney Williams in the valley between Leeds Street and Wetherby Road, It was called a lake and was over two acres in area and being twenty-two feet deep, held twenty-two million gallons of water. Williams used a steam pump to fill a hillside dam near Wetherby Road. From there water flowed through pipes, down the hill, across the valley and up the other side. People marvelled that he could make water run up hill. With this irrigation system, Williams produced 800 cases of lemons per acre. By 1903, a whole series of dams were spread across Doncaster. There were windmills and steam pumps, with dams in valleys on hillsides and on the top of hills.
The first Packham Pear, from which all others were derived, was propagated on this spot *.
1 - Mathew Adams
2 - George McGahy
3 - Edwin Bullock
4 - James Hodson
5 - Thomas Petty
6 - John Tully
7 - Edwin Wilson
8 - David Corbett
9 - Edwin Lowford
10 - Thomas Beavis
11 - William Hanke
12 - John Clay
13 - Tom Petty
14 - Henry Crouch;
15 - Edward Grossman
16 - John Whitten
17 - Andrew Zander
18 - CarlAumann
19 - Heinrich Fromhold
20 - Gottlieb Thiele
21 - Gottfried Uebergang
22 - James Read
23 - Thomas Chivers
24 - William Williams
25 - George Hislop
26 - Reinhold Denhert
27 - August Aumann
28 - Henry Finger
29 - August Zerbe
30 - August Furhmann
31 - Richard Clay
32 - Henry Serpell
33 - Richard Serpell
34 - John Ireland
35 - Frank Smedley
36 - William Kent
37 - William Knee
38 - Thomas Buck
39 - Henry White
40 - Gottlieb Leber
41 - John Ireland
42 - George Hislop
43 - Alexander Speers
44 - George Tortice
Methods of retaining moisture in the soil were being practiced. In late April and early May, after land had lain fallow during summer, it became hard and compacted. The ground was opened up with the plough to allow free access of air and moisture. All weeds and green manure crops were ploughed in before the dry weather set in and the ground was pulverised or reduced to a depth of four to six inches. This acted as a mulch to prevent the evaporation of moisture received during the winter. When heavy rain fell in spring or summer the soil was cultivated to create a loose pulverised surface essential for retaining moisture in this hot climate.
Years of rain on the ploughed ground had washed away the top soil, so during slack times in the year, silt and soil, washed into the valleys and creeks, was collected in drays and tipped in heaps among the fruit trees. The heaps were left to sweeten before being spread out to be ploughed in later in the year.
Trees were kept small and heavily pruned, for small trees needed less water and the fruit was easier to pick. Henry Clay said in 1905 that fruit buds should be thinned because if the tree carried a large crop of fruit buds the fruit would be small. One-year-old wood on pears was pruned out and if main limbs were too close together some were removed. At this time pruning was considered a year round program. The main work was carried out during the winter months. Excess buds and shoots were removed in spring; unwanted shoots and fruit spurs were cut in summer and in autumn, late summer growth was removed.
Many growers had not realised the importance of bees for fertilizing fruit; in fact, some complained that bees damaged fruit and should be destroyed by spraying. Experts frequently explained that bees never damage clean fruit and that beehives should be kept in the orchard to make sure that blossom was fully fertilized. The practice of hiring hives from beekeepers during the blossom season soon developed.
The fight against the many pests and diseases that invaded the fruitgrowers domain began as the fruit season opened. New diseases appeared nearly every year. Growers had a tendency to attribute incorrect causes to many of these new problems such as leaf curl, shot hole and scab. Mr. McAlpine and Mr. French, from the Agricultural Department rendered valuable help in discovering and showing growers the best cures and treatments.
The most pernicious enemy was the codlin moth. Other insect pests that awaken from their winter sleep were peach aphis, woolly aphis, pear and cherry slug, and red spider, phytopia, root borer, and a number belonging to the Cuculio family. The most common fungus pests, which appeared in spring were curly leaf of peach, shot hole of apricot, black spot of apple and pear and various forms of mildew. A new disease that baffled the experts was bitter pit.
The Apple Root Borer (Leptopi Hopei), a weevil, appeared in large numbers around the turn of the century. The weevil, one of many varieties, was indigenous to Australia, living on native plants. It became one of the most destructive and serious insect pests, on one property destroying thirteen acres of apples in full bearing. Zinc traps placed around the trunks of trees caught the borers as they climbed up to lay their eggs in the bark crevices. Children were paid 3d per hundred to collect borers so they could be destroyed.
This was a popular way for boys and girls to earn pocket money, although some learnt that more borers could be found by going through the fence into other orchards that were not as well cared for.
In 1900, regulations aimed to eradicate phylloxera were relaxed and American vines resistant to the disease were permitted in Victoria. The French Government, afraid of losing its wine industry, sent experts to America to experiment on resistant vine stock. They found that grape varieties with hardy roots, protected with stout covering, were resistant to the insects. Moreover, those root coverings were shed every year. A few vineyards in Doncaster and Templestowe were replanted with the imported stock, but the grapes produced in this area were very inferior to those from the warmer irrigation districts in the north of Victoria. One grower, who took a full load of grapes to market without selling even one bunch, was so disgusted that on returning home, he leapt off his cart, grabbed an axe, and chopped out every vine on his property.
Cleanliness in the orchard and continual spraying were the main defences against pests. Sticks and limbs left after pruning were collected and burnt, loose bark was scraped off tree trunks and holes in old trees filled with putty to reduce hiding places for grubs. The journal of the Department of Agricultural stated, “Bordeaux mixture is undoubtedly the best fungicide we have, and when skilfully applied is one of the orchardists best friends.” In 1907 a new weapon to fight the universal and most persistent enemy of the fruit-grower, arrived in Victoria. Arsenic sprays killed codlin moth, but when the mixture was made strong enough to be effective, it damaged the tree. A new compound, Lead Arsenate, arrived from America. This was an insoluble salt and because it did not dissolve in water, the foliage did not absorb it.
In 1908, Tom Petty gave a lecture to the Fruit Growers Association. He said, “My first experience was with a syringe on some peach trees. I found it so troublesome, however, that I suggested to my wife that she should do it, while I cut the wood; but the aphis was killed, and the fruit brought a good price. The next experience was rather an improvement. A Mr. Knowles introduced a pump on a 5-gallon drum, and we pulled it up and down, and thought it was wonderful, and no doubt, it did the work. But as we gained experience, we always were thinking of bigger pumps, with greater power and more leverage.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
It was a matter of pride to have a neatly laid out orchard. The rows were carefully measured and headlands were left with space to turn a horse when ploughing. Richard Clay allowed extra space for ornamental trees alongside fences and along the drive to his house, with the result that his property became a showpiece. Unfortunately, when the property was later sold, the trees were removed to make room for extra fruit trees. Ferdinand Finger used every inch of land for productive trees so much so, that when ploughing, the horses had to turn on the veranda of his house.
There was a series of dry years at the end of the century and water became the most talked about subject with fruit growers. It was at this time that every orchardist constructed dams. The first settlers built their homes near streams and water holes, for water was life. Land with water frontage was sought after, but people on higher ground had to rely on wells and hand dug water holes. Water reserves were set aside on creeks and rivers for horses and stock being driven through the district.
Alfred Thiele's Orchard dam in Church Road, Doncaster. A windmill pumped water to dams at Friedensruh near Victoria Street. DP0423
The first growers were faced with the continuous task of carrying buckets of water to their young trees during the hot days of summer. Fred Thiele is said to have built Doncaster’s first dam on his property in Church Road, to water his gooseberries. In the beginning, he used buckets to carry the water but this was too slow so he bought a hand operated pump. These “low down pumps” as they were called, were installed on creeks and dams, and by laborious hand power, forced water to higher ground. On many early properties, water holes, dug with pick and shovel, collected rainwater for household needs, animals, horses and cows. In the summer water holes dried up. To make a larger water storage that would retain water throughout summer, was a natural progression and the hilly nature of the country and the clay soil, reinforced with rocks, made Doncaster an ideal place for the construction of dams.
During the 1880’s and 90’s James Read dug a new dam every year for seven years. Tom Petty told fruitgrowers who complained about the drought to go and see Fred Thiele’s orchard, “It is a veritable garden of paradise’. With his scientific approach, Thiele had constructed a full irrigation system. In 1903, the Department of Agriculture wrote a report on Doncaster’s dams and published details of Thiele’s system for Victorian farmers.
A large dam was constructed in a gully on his property and a second dam alongside caught the overflow from this, increasing the storage capacity. At first a steam pump and later a Lister oil engine, pumped water along a 3-inch pipe to a hilltop dam on the far side of the orchard. A non-return valve allowed this pipe to form part of the reticulation system. Outlets on the dam fed water along 2-inch pipes, through the orchard. One and a half inch pipes branched off every fifth row with a tap at every fifth tree. At first, hoses fed water to the trees where a horseshoe shaped hole was dug on the higher side of the tree. Later, galvanised down pipes were found to be an improvement. A series of six-foot pipes were joined together and small holes were cut in the pipe, which could be twisted to control the supply of water to individual trees. One man would work with twelve lines of pipes, digging holes at the trees and moving pipes every three or four hours. Agricultural drains took excess water back to the dam.
DP0423 | Orchard dam | Thiele dam in Church Road, Doncaster. A windmill pumped water to dams at Friedensruh near Victoria Street. (Photograph mounted with caption) | An enlargement 39 x 51 cm also held. | Doncaster Dams|Windmills|Thiele, Mr|Scanned images | Thiele, Alfred |
The system was economical and made the most use of the limited water available. In summer, the equivalent of two inches of rain would be fed to the orchard. There were only a few valley dams with steam pumps, for most orchards used a series of hillside dams. Land holdings were comparatively small and often the road alongside the orchard was the only catchment available to supply water.
The construction of a dam was generally a community affair. Neighbours would help, bringing their own horses and scoops. As earth was tipped on the dam wall, the horses’ hooves pounded the clay, binding layers together to compact and make it watertight. The largest dam in the district was built by Sydney Williams in the valley between Leeds Street and Wetherby Road, It was called a lake and was over two acres in area and being twenty-two feet deep, held twenty-two million gallons of water. Williams used a steam pump to fill a hillside dam near Wetherby Road. From there water flowed through pipes, down the hill, across the valley and up the other side. People marvelled that he could make water run up hill. With this irrigation system, Williams produced 800 cases of lemons per acre. By 1903, a whole series of dams were spread across Doncaster. There were windmills and steam pumps, with dams in valleys on hillsides and on the top of hills.
Frederick Thiele’s Orchard
The dams were supplied by water that drained from Doncaster Road and came from as far as the Old Post Office.
The first Packham Pear, from which all others were derived, was propagated on this spot *.
The First Fruit Growers in the 1870’s
2 - George McGahy
3 - Edwin Bullock
4 - James Hodson
5 - Thomas Petty
6 - John Tully
7 - Edwin Wilson
8 - David Corbett
9 - Edwin Lowford
10 - Thomas Beavis
11 - William Hanke
12 - John Clay
13 - Tom Petty
14 - Henry Crouch;
15 - Edward Grossman
16 - John Whitten
17 - Andrew Zander
18 - CarlAumann
19 - Heinrich Fromhold
20 - Gottlieb Thiele
21 - Gottfried Uebergang
22 - James Read
23 - Thomas Chivers
24 - William Williams
25 - George Hislop
26 - Reinhold Denhert
27 - August Aumann
28 - Henry Finger
29 - August Zerbe
30 - August Furhmann
31 - Richard Clay
32 - Henry Serpell
33 - Richard Serpell
34 - John Ireland
35 - Frank Smedley
36 - William Kent
37 - William Knee
38 - Thomas Buck
39 - Henry White
40 - Gottlieb Leber
41 - John Ireland
42 - George Hislop
43 - Alexander Speers
44 - George Tortice
Methods of retaining moisture in the soil were being practiced. In late April and early May, after land had lain fallow during summer, it became hard and compacted. The ground was opened up with the plough to allow free access of air and moisture. All weeds and green manure crops were ploughed in before the dry weather set in and the ground was pulverised or reduced to a depth of four to six inches. This acted as a mulch to prevent the evaporation of moisture received during the winter. When heavy rain fell in spring or summer the soil was cultivated to create a loose pulverised surface essential for retaining moisture in this hot climate.
Years of rain on the ploughed ground had washed away the top soil, so during slack times in the year, silt and soil, washed into the valleys and creeks, was collected in drays and tipped in heaps among the fruit trees. The heaps were left to sweeten before being spread out to be ploughed in later in the year.
Trees were kept small and heavily pruned, for small trees needed less water and the fruit was easier to pick. Henry Clay said in 1905 that fruit buds should be thinned because if the tree carried a large crop of fruit buds the fruit would be small. One-year-old wood on pears was pruned out and if main limbs were too close together some were removed. At this time pruning was considered a year round program. The main work was carried out during the winter months. Excess buds and shoots were removed in spring; unwanted shoots and fruit spurs were cut in summer and in autumn, late summer growth was removed.
Many growers had not realised the importance of bees for fertilizing fruit; in fact, some complained that bees damaged fruit and should be destroyed by spraying. Experts frequently explained that bees never damage clean fruit and that beehives should be kept in the orchard to make sure that blossom was fully fertilized. The practice of hiring hives from beekeepers during the blossom season soon developed.
The fight against the many pests and diseases that invaded the fruitgrowers domain began as the fruit season opened. New diseases appeared nearly every year. Growers had a tendency to attribute incorrect causes to many of these new problems such as leaf curl, shot hole and scab. Mr. McAlpine and Mr. French, from the Agricultural Department rendered valuable help in discovering and showing growers the best cures and treatments.
The most pernicious enemy was the codlin moth. Other insect pests that awaken from their winter sleep were peach aphis, woolly aphis, pear and cherry slug, and red spider, phytopia, root borer, and a number belonging to the Cuculio family. The most common fungus pests, which appeared in spring were curly leaf of peach, shot hole of apricot, black spot of apple and pear and various forms of mildew. A new disease that baffled the experts was bitter pit.
The Apple Root Borer (Leptopi Hopei), a weevil, appeared in large numbers around the turn of the century. The weevil, one of many varieties, was indigenous to Australia, living on native plants. It became one of the most destructive and serious insect pests, on one property destroying thirteen acres of apples in full bearing. Zinc traps placed around the trunks of trees caught the borers as they climbed up to lay their eggs in the bark crevices. Children were paid 3d per hundred to collect borers so they could be destroyed.
Apple root borers
In 1900, regulations aimed to eradicate phylloxera were relaxed and American vines resistant to the disease were permitted in Victoria. The French Government, afraid of losing its wine industry, sent experts to America to experiment on resistant vine stock. They found that grape varieties with hardy roots, protected with stout covering, were resistant to the insects. Moreover, those root coverings were shed every year. A few vineyards in Doncaster and Templestowe were replanted with the imported stock, but the grapes produced in this area were very inferior to those from the warmer irrigation districts in the north of Victoria. One grower, who took a full load of grapes to market without selling even one bunch, was so disgusted that on returning home, he leapt off his cart, grabbed an axe, and chopped out every vine on his property.
DP1053 Orchards|Spray pumps|Scanned images,Photograph of spraying outfit in operation, showing two men with hoses and another man working the pump. The man in the front is wearing heavy protective clothing to keep the spray off his body. Even the horse has a protective covering over its back. The fruit trees appear to be not yet pruned, so the time of year may have been winter, and that the men are applying lime sulphur.
Cleanliness in the orchard and continual spraying were the main defences against pests. Sticks and limbs left after pruning were collected and burnt, loose bark was scraped off tree trunks and holes in old trees filled with putty to reduce hiding places for grubs. The journal of the Department of Agricultural stated, “Bordeaux mixture is undoubtedly the best fungicide we have, and when skilfully applied is one of the orchardists best friends.” In 1907 a new weapon to fight the universal and most persistent enemy of the fruit-grower, arrived in Victoria. Arsenic sprays killed codlin moth, but when the mixture was made strong enough to be effective, it damaged the tree. A new compound, Lead Arsenate, arrived from America. This was an insoluble salt and because it did not dissolve in water, the foliage did not absorb it.
In 1908, Tom Petty gave a lecture to the Fruit Growers Association. He said, “My first experience was with a syringe on some peach trees. I found it so troublesome, however, that I suggested to my wife that she should do it, while I cut the wood; but the aphis was killed, and the fruit brought a good price. The next experience was rather an improvement. A Mr. Knowles introduced a pump on a 5-gallon drum, and we pulled it up and down, and thought it was wonderful, and no doubt, it did the work. But as we gained experience, we always were thinking of bigger pumps, with greater power and more leverage.
We put the Knowles pump on a barrel, and that made it much easier, but it was not strong enough. Then we got a special pump. It cost £16 and we thought it was perfection for a short time, until we found all the power gone. The grit had worn the valves down. Then we got a pump from Mr. Merriman, and we talked spraying all the winter, and thought of oil pumps that were easier to work. Even the best of them on a warm day tends to make a man tired. The man holding the rod keeps looking up saying, “A little more spray! A little more spray!” And the man at the pump, though his muscles are aching, has to keep the handle going up and down, up and down, until the blessed night comes. “What we want is something that, when you touch the button, will set the whole spraying apparatus in motion. You all saw the motor pump at work today, but when I suggested it to some of my friends, they gave me little encouragement. However, I had seen by reports in the “Fruit World” (in which our friend, Mr. H. Davey, collects and publishes all kinds of information valuable to fruitgrowers) that in America they had power pumps that gave every satisfaction. So, I spoke to an engineer, told him what was wanted, and he said he could make it. You saw the pump working today, and I think you will agree that it is very satisfactory.”
Mr. John Russell built this machine. It was the first power sprayer in Australia. He called it the “Bave U” after the name of Tom Petty’s House in Doncaster “Bay View” and for the next forty years fruitgrowers throughout the country used Russell spray pumps.
Mr. John Russell built this machine. It was the first power sprayer in Australia. He called it the “Bave U” after the name of Tom Petty’s House in Doncaster “Bay View” and for the next forty years fruitgrowers throughout the country used Russell spray pumps.
DP0424 Bave-U spray pump outside John Russell's Spray Machinery Works at Box Hill, together with members of Russell's staff.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe - 4 The End Of The Century
The depression that followed the land boom in 1892, came as a shock to the district. Banks failed and family savings were lost; sons left home to look for work in other states and families who had lost their homes, moved in with relatives. Tom Petty’s hair turned grey overnight. He said that the country would never recover.
Men who worked long hours in the open air had good appetites. The main meal of the day was dinner at midday. Morning and afternoon tea was also provided, when teacake, scones and perhaps even an apple pie, were brought into the orchard. The bell of the Lutheran church would be rung at noon to give the time, but for those further away the housewife would ring a dinner bell or cowbell. Each bell had a different sound. Even a plough-horse would distinguish the call from his own homestead and would neigh with pleasure at the thought of a rest and a feedbag of chaff around his neck.
As the years passed, methods of working changed. Growers learnt by trial and error. Trees took nourishment from the soil, but this was replenished with manure and there was a plentiful supply as all of Melbourne’s transport was run by horsepower. Visits to stables to collect loads of manure was a regular part of orchard life.
The value of green manure to break up the soil and supply nitrogen to break down the organic manure was well appreciated. Field peas, tick beans, lupins with oats and barley were sown between the rows in autumn and ploughed in during spring. The green crop was levelled with a heavy wooden roller, and ploughed into the soil.
Branches were a problem while ploughing. The horse could not walk close to the tree and all ground not turned over by plough had to be turned over by hand. A plough was designed with the handles and hitch bar offset to allow it to run to one side. The horse walked clear of the tree and the plough, guided by the strong arms of the ploughman, passed under the tree.
The Horticultural Society and nurserymen experimented with new varieties of fruit but it was the orchardists themselves who relied on the success of the tree. Any sort of stone or seed was planted in the hope of finding a new, improved strain. Experiments with rootstocks were continually being tried. Quince stock was found to produce a stronger pear or apple tree; also, the tree was small and the fruit easier to pick. Northern Spy stock was found to be resistant to woolly aphis. W.S. Williams had introduced citrus fruit to the district. He and several other growers experimented with careful bud selection and produced the Doncaster Improved Lisbon Lemon. Methods of pruning were found to increase fertility. Edwin Lawford studied the pear from stock to fruit. He worked on some large Marie Louise trees, which the previous owner had declared, “white as my shirt with blossom every spring but bore no pears. ” By removing much of the blossom, Lawford discovered the tree bore good crops regularly. He followed up this treatment with other varieties of pear and it worked successfully with them also.
Primary production was important to Victoria but Government Departments were given little encouragement. All too often one government made plans and appointed officers to aid horticulture, but with a change of government, plans were shelved. In 1856, an experimental garden was to be opened at Richmond Park, but it did not eventuate and in 1861, the Horticultural Society of Victoria was allocated land to start their Burnley Experimental Garden. The Board of Agricultural formed in 1859 was so short staffed, that its whole time was taken up administering grants to other bodies. The Department of Agriculture was formed in 1872, but was made a branch of the Lands Department without resources to carry out its program until 1890 when it became a department in its own right.
Horticulture was considered the least important of the various branches of agriculture, and that caused problems when space was being sought in cool stores or when exporting fruit. However, a Royal Commission on vegetable products was set up in 1885, as a result of general concern about diseases and pests. As a result, Mr. C. Lrench was appointed as government entomologist and Mr. D. McApline as vegetable pathologist. Both these men contributed greatly to the treatment of pests and diseases. It was Mr. Lrench who introduced a parasite to control woolly aphis and both men carried out experiments with the help of Doncaster growers.
The Department of Agriculture encouraged and supported competition to improve the standard of the industry. In 1885, a competition was organised for the best fruit garden in the Melbourne district. The Horticultural Society supplied judges and the 'Leader' a weekly news magazine, awarded a cup. The first grower to win the “Leader” Cup was W.S. Williams. John Petty, Richard Clay, Tom Petty, and Frederick Thiele were also competition winners.
A community spirit had always existed in the district. James Read was always ready to share his farming knowledge and many newcomers to Templestowe were thankful for his help and advice.
In 1892 fruit gardeners met at the Athenaeum Hall in Doncaster to form an association, The Doncaster Fruit Growers Association was established with Frederick Thiele as the first president.
The association aimed to improve the industry with lectures and demonstrations on tree culture, fruit packing, orchard management, and methods for the control of pests. This was the first of many such organizations that brought together fruitgrowers in Victoria and other parts of Australia. In 1897 an interstate conference on fruitgrowing was held; as a result, a uniform size for fruit cases was agreed upon - 20 inches by 15 inches by 10 inches and uniform pest regulations were also introduced.
By the end of the century, orchards were spread across the hills and valleys — 73% of orchards in Doncaster and 23% in Templestowe. The bush land had almost all gone and rows of pine trees were growing up along the edges of the orchards. Baron von Mueller had encouraged farmers to plant windbreaks of Pinus Insignus to protect fruit trees from the cold strong winter winds and hot north winds of summer. Dams had appeared on the landscape, excavated during the dry seasons of the 1890’s. Post and rail fences lined the dirt roads and separated properties. Farmhouses were surrounded with a cluster of buildings — stables, out buildings, packing sheds, machinery sheds, fowl houses and piles of firewood next to a lonely wooden lavatory.
A pattern had developed that would last for the next fifty years.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
People on the land were able to weather the depression better than those in towns and cities. They could live off the land and there was always a demand for the food they grew. The Victorian Government encouraged employment by offering a bonus of £3 for every acre of new orchard planted. In ten years, 1500 acres of orchards increased to 4000 acres. Wages were cheap, so a man who employed labour had a financial advantage. On larger holdings, men lived in huts and ate in the kitchen or lunchroom at the rear of the homestead. John Finger once said that he could hear his workmen talking and laughing in the lunchroom and wished he could be with them, but with the strict German tradition of the time he had to eat with his family in the dining room. There was a social distinction between owners of an orchard and their employees. Even when they sat at the same table, the family were often served better food than the workers.
Men who worked long hours in the open air had good appetites. The main meal of the day was dinner at midday. Morning and afternoon tea was also provided, when teacake, scones and perhaps even an apple pie, were brought into the orchard. The bell of the Lutheran church would be rung at noon to give the time, but for those further away the housewife would ring a dinner bell or cowbell. Each bell had a different sound. Even a plough-horse would distinguish the call from his own homestead and would neigh with pleasure at the thought of a rest and a feedbag of chaff around his neck.
As the years passed, methods of working changed. Growers learnt by trial and error. Trees took nourishment from the soil, but this was replenished with manure and there was a plentiful supply as all of Melbourne’s transport was run by horsepower. Visits to stables to collect loads of manure was a regular part of orchard life.
The value of green manure to break up the soil and supply nitrogen to break down the organic manure was well appreciated. Field peas, tick beans, lupins with oats and barley were sown between the rows in autumn and ploughed in during spring. The green crop was levelled with a heavy wooden roller, and ploughed into the soil.
Branches were a problem while ploughing. The horse could not walk close to the tree and all ground not turned over by plough had to be turned over by hand. A plough was designed with the handles and hitch bar offset to allow it to run to one side. The horse walked clear of the tree and the plough, guided by the strong arms of the ploughman, passed under the tree.
The Horticultural Society and nurserymen experimented with new varieties of fruit but it was the orchardists themselves who relied on the success of the tree. Any sort of stone or seed was planted in the hope of finding a new, improved strain. Experiments with rootstocks were continually being tried. Quince stock was found to produce a stronger pear or apple tree; also, the tree was small and the fruit easier to pick. Northern Spy stock was found to be resistant to woolly aphis. W.S. Williams had introduced citrus fruit to the district. He and several other growers experimented with careful bud selection and produced the Doncaster Improved Lisbon Lemon. Methods of pruning were found to increase fertility. Edwin Lawford studied the pear from stock to fruit. He worked on some large Marie Louise trees, which the previous owner had declared, “white as my shirt with blossom every spring but bore no pears. ” By removing much of the blossom, Lawford discovered the tree bore good crops regularly. He followed up this treatment with other varieties of pear and it worked successfully with them also.
Pears in full blossom in Victoria St
Primary production was important to Victoria but Government Departments were given little encouragement. All too often one government made plans and appointed officers to aid horticulture, but with a change of government, plans were shelved. In 1856, an experimental garden was to be opened at Richmond Park, but it did not eventuate and in 1861, the Horticultural Society of Victoria was allocated land to start their Burnley Experimental Garden. The Board of Agricultural formed in 1859 was so short staffed, that its whole time was taken up administering grants to other bodies. The Department of Agriculture was formed in 1872, but was made a branch of the Lands Department without resources to carry out its program until 1890 when it became a department in its own right.
Horticulture was considered the least important of the various branches of agriculture, and that caused problems when space was being sought in cool stores or when exporting fruit. However, a Royal Commission on vegetable products was set up in 1885, as a result of general concern about diseases and pests. As a result, Mr. C. Lrench was appointed as government entomologist and Mr. D. McApline as vegetable pathologist. Both these men contributed greatly to the treatment of pests and diseases. It was Mr. Lrench who introduced a parasite to control woolly aphis and both men carried out experiments with the help of Doncaster growers.
The Department of Agriculture encouraged and supported competition to improve the standard of the industry. In 1885, a competition was organised for the best fruit garden in the Melbourne district. The Horticultural Society supplied judges and the 'Leader' a weekly news magazine, awarded a cup. The first grower to win the “Leader” Cup was W.S. Williams. John Petty, Richard Clay, Tom Petty, and Frederick Thiele were also competition winners.
Inscription: "The Leader Cup. Awarded to W.S. Williams Doncaster for the best fruit garden in the Melbourne District. March 26, 1885". This photo by Audrey Killey was used as an illustration in the revised edition of the publication The Orchards of Doncaster and Templestowe by Irvine Green 1985 revised by Eric Collyer 2016. 64p. (Copies from Schramm's Cottage for $10).
A community spirit had always existed in the district. James Read was always ready to share his farming knowledge and many newcomers to Templestowe were thankful for his help and advice.
In 1892 fruit gardeners met at the Athenaeum Hall in Doncaster to form an association, The Doncaster Fruit Growers Association was established with Frederick Thiele as the first president.
The association aimed to improve the industry with lectures and demonstrations on tree culture, fruit packing, orchard management, and methods for the control of pests. This was the first of many such organizations that brought together fruitgrowers in Victoria and other parts of Australia. In 1897 an interstate conference on fruitgrowing was held; as a result, a uniform size for fruit cases was agreed upon - 20 inches by 15 inches by 10 inches and uniform pest regulations were also introduced.
By the end of the century, orchards were spread across the hills and valleys — 73% of orchards in Doncaster and 23% in Templestowe. The bush land had almost all gone and rows of pine trees were growing up along the edges of the orchards. Baron von Mueller had encouraged farmers to plant windbreaks of Pinus Insignus to protect fruit trees from the cold strong winter winds and hot north winds of summer. Dams had appeared on the landscape, excavated during the dry seasons of the 1890’s. Post and rail fences lined the dirt roads and separated properties. Farmhouses were surrounded with a cluster of buildings — stables, out buildings, packing sheds, machinery sheds, fowl houses and piles of firewood next to a lonely wooden lavatory.
A pattern had developed that would last for the next fifty years.
| Finger homestead, on the north side of George St. The house was originally built by Henry Finger about 1870, later altered, and at time of this photograph, was owned by the Rieschieck family. 1970 Irvine Green dp0208 |
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe - 3 The Orchard Years Begin
Doncaster and Templestowe had become an established orchard district by the 1880’s. Growers had found the soil ideal for growing fruit, and fruit growing had proved to be profitable. Other crops were discarded and the land planted with apple, pear and peach trees. In that decade, 274 acres of market gardens were reduced to 100 acres and 300 acres of orchard increased to 1500 acres.
In the first years, every farm had a few fruit trees close to the house for domestic use, just as there would be a cow for milk, fowls for eggs, one or two pigs with a smokehouse to cure bacon and a bake oven for making bread. A few grew wheat and produced their own flour. German settlers planted grapes to make their own wine. Max Schramm cultivated two acres of vines alongside his schoolhouse in Doncaster Road and the slopes behind Finger’s homestead in German Lane (now George Street) were covered with vines.
All types of crops and methods of farming were tried. Gradually, fruit, berries, grapes and dairying became the principal farming activities. As more land was cleared, berry crops that had sheltered in clearings in the bush became exposed to hot searing winds in summer. They were ploughed in and the land used for fruit trees. When phylloxera devastated the vines, they were burnt and replaced with fruit trees.
Alongside the river flats, Mrs. Duncan and the Smith brothers continued to graze their cows, but on the higher land, fruit growing was more profitable.
New arrivals no longer experimented with crops; they planted fruit. In a good season, the harvest could yield a large profit, but working on the land was always a hazard. Nineteen-year-old John Tully borrowed money from Henry Crouch to buy a 20 acre orchard. In the first season, he sold £120 worth of fruit but the next year a bush fire destroyed his entire crop. As well as new arrivals, the next generation was growing up, with fresh ideas and the ambition to clear more land to extend orchards.
The settlers grew vegetables and berries in gardens so they were called gardeners. The name remained; orchards were called gardens and orchardists gardeners.
As the box and stringybark trees were felled, sales of firewood continued to provide a living. It was carted to Kew, Melbourne and the firewood market at Fitzroy. Prices ranged from 4d to 1/- a hundred weight. Cutting and carting wood to market was hard work, but besides the hard labour involved in felling trees, the men faced other difficulties. George Tortice approached a step hill after leaving his land in South Warrandyte. His horse could only pull half a dray load up the hill, so half the load had to be removed at the bottom of the hill and after the dray was unloaded at the top, he went back for the rest of his load.
Only those who were not afraid of hard work came to this district, for establishing a new farm was strenuous. This resulted in the land being populated with industrious workers who made Doncaster and Templestowe the successful fruit-growing district it became.
One such person was August Zerbe, a big strong man who tackled the business of establishing himself on the land so successfully, that after a few years his family owned large areas of East Doncaster.
Mrs Jane Serpell also walked from Glenferrie to East Doncaster carrying materials for the family farm. After a day’s work, she would walk back to Glenferrie. One of the busiest and most successful of the first gardeners, Henry Crouch, had to build his house at night, as he couldn’t afford the time during the day. His son, Henry, held a lamp for him to work by. Needless to say, the boy kept going to sleep and had to be woken to do his job.
As gardens increased in size and fruit growing became a recognized industry, there was a corresponding awakening on the part of an orchardist to the many pests with which he had to contend. A farmer with a few trees could afford losses caused by pests, but a commercial orchard losing a high percentage of fruit suffered a financial loss. The increased number of orchards in close proximity became a rich breeding ground for harmful insects and diseases. Some of those, such as Armillaria mellea, came from the native bush, others were introduced with vegetation imported from overseas,
The first problems were fungal diseases and woolly aphis. Codlin moth was feared and suspected, but not identified until 1885 and ten years later Bitter Pit appeared. Aphis was treated with limewater, either sprayed with a syringe or splashed on the tree. In the 1880’s hand-operated spray pumps were being advertised. With the power of these pumps, an emulsion of kerosene and whole oil soap dissolved in water, could be sprayed for aphis. In 1898, Sydney Williams, concerned about his lemon trees, invented a high-pressure hand pump that gave a fine spray of pure kerosene mixed with water. The water evaporated leaving a fine coating of kerosene on the leaves.
The dreaded disease, Phylloxera vestatrix, that ravished vineyards in France and Portugal was found on grape vines at Geelong in 1877 and during the next decade devastated vines in Doncaster. Controlling the disease became the major work of the Agriculture Department. Inspectors condemned affected vines and ordered them to be burnt. Vineyards could not be replanted until the land was declared free of the problem.
In the Bordeaux district of France, vines close to the road were often coated with a mixture of copper sulphate and lime to discourage grapes being stolen. It was discovered that the vines so treated were less affected by fungal disease than the others. Joseph Bosisto, the parliamentarian and research chemist who discovered the medical value of eucalyptus oil, reported that mildew was being successfully treated with this mixture. Bordeaux Mixture became the worldwide treatment for fungal diseases. Copper Sulphate (blue stone) was dissolved in one vat and lime in another. When the two solutions were mixed, a precipitate was formed. If sprayed while fresh it stuck to the foliage. The precipitate being insoluble in water was not absorbed by the tree, but still destroyed black spot spores.
Codlin moth (carpocapsa pomonella) rapidly became a major problem. Two substances, London Purple an arsenate compound, and Paris Green a copper compound were used to control codlin moth. Both, being soluble solutions, were absorbed by the tree, so only weak solutions could be sprayed to avoid killing the foliage. From America came the practice of tying bands around the tree trunks. Paper, hessian, or canvas strips about five inches wide were fastened tightly at the top and loosely on the lower edge. This acted as a funnel to trap the codlin moth larvae as it climbed the tree. Once a week the larvae was removed and destroyed. Knowledge and identification of orchard pests was confused and primitive and every grower had his own method of combating pests. However, they all knew that only clean fruit would sell at market.
As the fruit gardens grew and expanded there were fears of overproduction. The idea of using overseas markets was being considered. In 1873, the Victorian Horticultural Society sent a sample of fruit to the Vienna Exhibition. Freshly picked apples were individually wrapped in clean tissue paper and placed between dry cotton wool. The cases were placed in the ice room of the steamship. At Vienna the jury was quite struck with the apples, pronouncing them magnificent’ and said there was nothing to come up to them in the exhibition.
In 1881, trial shipments were sent to London, India and Ceylon. After the success of these trials, the society said, “There is no doubt that fruit can be sent from one side of the world to the other if care is taken in its transit”. The following year, Thomas Petty, Richard Serpell and Frederick Thiele exported pears to England and Carl Hanke received a medal and diploma for pears exported to London in 1886. From then on fruit merchants sent regular consignments of apples and pears overseas and a regular trade of cherries to New Zealand commenced. Thomas Petty experimented in the 1890’s with cherries in a cool store at Northcote and found that they would keep long enough to be shipped to England.
Fruit was selling well during the 1880’s and the land boom that was gripping Melbourne in a spending spree, brought money into the district. As orchards close to Melbourne were cleared for subdivision, more fruit was planted at Doncaster and Templestowe.
In the decade to 1890, 300 acres of orchard increased to 1500 acres. The district was enjoying prosperity. Rate revenue rose from £14,170 to £44,000 in the four years to 1890. Fine brick buildings and houses were built, and on Doncaster Hill, Hummel’s Tower, symbolising the spirit of the times, rose 285 feet in the air; a tram track laid straight through orchards and paddocks, carried Australia’s first electric tram from Box Hill to Doncaster.
The orchard years had begun — these were exciting times and people thought the boom would last forever!
In the first years, every farm had a few fruit trees close to the house for domestic use, just as there would be a cow for milk, fowls for eggs, one or two pigs with a smokehouse to cure bacon and a bake oven for making bread. A few grew wheat and produced their own flour. German settlers planted grapes to make their own wine. Max Schramm cultivated two acres of vines alongside his schoolhouse in Doncaster Road and the slopes behind Finger’s homestead in German Lane (now George Street) were covered with vines.
All types of crops and methods of farming were tried. Gradually, fruit, berries, grapes and dairying became the principal farming activities. As more land was cleared, berry crops that had sheltered in clearings in the bush became exposed to hot searing winds in summer. They were ploughed in and the land used for fruit trees. When phylloxera devastated the vines, they were burnt and replaced with fruit trees.
Alongside the river flats, Mrs. Duncan and the Smith brothers continued to graze their cows, but on the higher land, fruit growing was more profitable.
New arrivals no longer experimented with crops; they planted fruit. In a good season, the harvest could yield a large profit, but working on the land was always a hazard. Nineteen-year-old John Tully borrowed money from Henry Crouch to buy a 20 acre orchard. In the first season, he sold £120 worth of fruit but the next year a bush fire destroyed his entire crop. As well as new arrivals, the next generation was growing up, with fresh ideas and the ambition to clear more land to extend orchards.
The settlers grew vegetables and berries in gardens so they were called gardeners. The name remained; orchards were called gardens and orchardists gardeners.
As the box and stringybark trees were felled, sales of firewood continued to provide a living. It was carted to Kew, Melbourne and the firewood market at Fitzroy. Prices ranged from 4d to 1/- a hundred weight. Cutting and carting wood to market was hard work, but besides the hard labour involved in felling trees, the men faced other difficulties. George Tortice approached a step hill after leaving his land in South Warrandyte. His horse could only pull half a dray load up the hill, so half the load had to be removed at the bottom of the hill and after the dray was unloaded at the top, he went back for the rest of his load.
Only those who were not afraid of hard work came to this district, for establishing a new farm was strenuous. This resulted in the land being populated with industrious workers who made Doncaster and Templestowe the successful fruit-growing district it became.
One such person was August Zerbe, a big strong man who tackled the business of establishing himself on the land so successfully, that after a few years his family owned large areas of East Doncaster.
Mrs Jane Serpell also walked from Glenferrie to East Doncaster carrying materials for the family farm. After a day’s work, she would walk back to Glenferrie. One of the busiest and most successful of the first gardeners, Henry Crouch, had to build his house at night, as he couldn’t afford the time during the day. His son, Henry, held a lamp for him to work by. Needless to say, the boy kept going to sleep and had to be woken to do his job.
As gardens increased in size and fruit growing became a recognized industry, there was a corresponding awakening on the part of an orchardist to the many pests with which he had to contend. A farmer with a few trees could afford losses caused by pests, but a commercial orchard losing a high percentage of fruit suffered a financial loss. The increased number of orchards in close proximity became a rich breeding ground for harmful insects and diseases. Some of those, such as Armillaria mellea, came from the native bush, others were introduced with vegetation imported from overseas,
The first problems were fungal diseases and woolly aphis. Codlin moth was feared and suspected, but not identified until 1885 and ten years later Bitter Pit appeared. Aphis was treated with limewater, either sprayed with a syringe or splashed on the tree. In the 1880’s hand-operated spray pumps were being advertised. With the power of these pumps, an emulsion of kerosene and whole oil soap dissolved in water, could be sprayed for aphis. In 1898, Sydney Williams, concerned about his lemon trees, invented a high-pressure hand pump that gave a fine spray of pure kerosene mixed with water. The water evaporated leaving a fine coating of kerosene on the leaves.
Williams Kerosene and Water Spray Pump
The dreaded disease, Phylloxera vestatrix, that ravished vineyards in France and Portugal was found on grape vines at Geelong in 1877 and during the next decade devastated vines in Doncaster. Controlling the disease became the major work of the Agriculture Department. Inspectors condemned affected vines and ordered them to be burnt. Vineyards could not be replanted until the land was declared free of the problem.
In the Bordeaux district of France, vines close to the road were often coated with a mixture of copper sulphate and lime to discourage grapes being stolen. It was discovered that the vines so treated were less affected by fungal disease than the others. Joseph Bosisto, the parliamentarian and research chemist who discovered the medical value of eucalyptus oil, reported that mildew was being successfully treated with this mixture. Bordeaux Mixture became the worldwide treatment for fungal diseases. Copper Sulphate (blue stone) was dissolved in one vat and lime in another. When the two solutions were mixed, a precipitate was formed. If sprayed while fresh it stuck to the foliage. The precipitate being insoluble in water was not absorbed by the tree, but still destroyed black spot spores.
Mixing Bordeaux spray c1900. Spray mixing stand with barrels of dissolved lime and copper sulphate (bluestone). The two chemicals are mixed to form 'Bordeaux' and then is fed into the spray vat for spraying on fruit trees. The spray pump pictured is hand operated. DP0425
As the fruit gardens grew and expanded there were fears of overproduction. The idea of using overseas markets was being considered. In 1873, the Victorian Horticultural Society sent a sample of fruit to the Vienna Exhibition. Freshly picked apples were individually wrapped in clean tissue paper and placed between dry cotton wool. The cases were placed in the ice room of the steamship. At Vienna the jury was quite struck with the apples, pronouncing them magnificent’ and said there was nothing to come up to them in the exhibition.
In 1881, trial shipments were sent to London, India and Ceylon. After the success of these trials, the society said, “There is no doubt that fruit can be sent from one side of the world to the other if care is taken in its transit”. The following year, Thomas Petty, Richard Serpell and Frederick Thiele exported pears to England and Carl Hanke received a medal and diploma for pears exported to London in 1886. From then on fruit merchants sent regular consignments of apples and pears overseas and a regular trade of cherries to New Zealand commenced. Thomas Petty experimented in the 1890’s with cherries in a cool store at Northcote and found that they would keep long enough to be shipped to England.
Fruit was selling well during the 1880’s and the land boom that was gripping Melbourne in a spending spree, brought money into the district. As orchards close to Melbourne were cleared for subdivision, more fruit was planted at Doncaster and Templestowe.
In the decade to 1890, 300 acres of orchard increased to 1500 acres. The district was enjoying prosperity. Rate revenue rose from £14,170 to £44,000 in the four years to 1890. Fine brick buildings and houses were built, and on Doncaster Hill, Hummel’s Tower, symbolising the spirit of the times, rose 285 feet in the air; a tram track laid straight through orchards and paddocks, carried Australia’s first electric tram from Box Hill to Doncaster.
The orchard years had begun — these were exciting times and people thought the boom would last forever!
| Doncaster township looking east c1900, taken from the Doncaster Tower. Shire Hall, school, ES&A Bank, and houses in the distance. In the grounds of the Shire Hall is a heap of left-over bricks, a privy, water hole, shed, and a picket fence along Council street The large tree in the school ground has been topped DP0005 |
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
The Orchards of Doncaster and Templestowe - 2 The First Years
During the first years, methods of cultivation had to be learnt by trial and error. The English practice of growing fruit trees in pasture was not successful here. In grass, the trees did not receive enough moisture from summer rains. The soil was ploughed between the rows and cultivated by spade and hoe close to the trees. In an orchard, trees were spaced twenty to twenty four feet apart, to allow free circulation of air around them. At planting time, well-rotted rubbish was dug in around the roots, and plants were mulched in summer.
Friedensruh, Victoria Street, Doncaster |c1960s | Photograph of the Thiele family orchard at Doncaster, showing the homestead and out-buildings, orchard, and a large dam in the foreground. DP0185
Young trees were pruned, giving stems one to two feet high. Apple and pears were cut back severely to keep the tree small. Old wood was only cut to prevent branches becoming crowded. Main shoots were shortened to make them strong and support the weight of the fruit. Peaches were closely cut back each year to produce new fruiting laterals. Large branches too close together, were removed. Young wood was shortened to five or six buds. In December, fruit on heavily laden trees was thinned out and the ground around trees covered with stable manure. Limewater was splashed or syringed onto leaves and branches to control aphis or blight. (Blight was a name that covered a range of pests and diseases).
It was soon found that drains were necessary. Trenches were dug and lined with various materials such as layers of branches or tea tree scrub, rubble, screenings or earthenware pipes. Many of these early drains were found to be still working when houses and roads were built on orchard land in later years.
Clearing land was a back-breaking task. Those with money could hire a contractor with a team of oxen for £7.10 a day to help with the clearing. Once the trees were cut and grubbed out, the ground had to be broken up. Special ploughs with longer pointed ploughshares were designed. Cutting through the roots left in the ground, wore out both horses and ploughmen. John Whitten had learnt the way to tackle this problem in his homeland, Ireland. At first, he ploughed a shallow furrow to turn over surface growth and small roots. The ground was left for thicker roots to dry and loosen; then the ground was turned over to the full depth.
Fruit growing can be said to be the oldest industry, as the first man tended an apple in the Garden of Eden. It was probably a crab apple. Cato, in the 3rd Century B.C., identified seven varieties of apple. The oldest known variety is the Apple Api brought to Rome by Apius Claudius. It was a very small dessert apple, well coloured and flavoured. Apple Api was grown in France for three centuries and a specimen grew in the Horticultural Society garden at Burnley until 1915.
Most fruits originated in Asia. Peaches grew wild in China and were grown in Ancient Persia. Pears, plums and cherries were found in Western Asia. They were brought to Rome and then Europe by early conquerors and adventurers.
Emigrants coming to Victoria brought young fruit trees with them but many did not survive the passage through the tropics. When the Victorian Horticultural Society opened the experimental garden at Burnley in 1861, cuttings from England were propagated. In the years to 1870, cuttings of 389 varieties of apple had been grown; of these 160 were found suitable for local conditions. Of 261 pear varieties, 33 proved suitable and from 33 peaches, 18 were a success. Over 12 different types of fruit were tested. Members of the society, which included many nurserymen, were able to take and propagate cuttings from successful trees.
Many varieties of fruit were available from such nurserymen, as Thomas Cole and John Smith for 2s. 6d. As growers became established, they propagated their own plants. Cuttings were grafted or budded onto stock grown from roots, seeds or stones. Fruit from seed alone does not usually come true to type. Fruit picked from an improved, new variety would be sent to the Horticultural Society to be registered.
For a number of years, fruit from the same tree would be sent in to make sure it grew true to type. If successful, the new tree would be named and registered.
A large variety of fruit was grown in the first three decades but as time went by, the list was reduced to those that produced well and were popular varieties.
Varieties grown in Doncaster and Templestowe in the first three decades to 1880
Hoover; Rymer; Irish Peach; Reinette du Canada; Kentish Filbasket; Royal Russett; Lemon Pippin; Red Streak; Morgans Seedling; Stone Pippin; Mincing Crab; Twenty Ounce; Nonsuch Pippin; Willow Twig; Lord Nelson; Winter Pesimain; Kewswick; Nickajack; Northern Spy; Marshalls Red; Melons Seedling; Pomme de Neige; Rome Beauty
PEARS
Beuure de Capiaumont; Forell; Monchallard; Black Achan; Gansells Bergamot; Muscadine; Beurre d Anjou; Glou Morceau; Morceau; Broom Park; Golden Beurre; Napoleon; Beurre Clairgeau; Glout; Swans Orange; Beurre de Beaumont; Howell; Swans Egg; Brown Beurre; Jargonelle; Summer Bergamot; Beurre Diel; Josephine de Malines; Summer St. Germain; Beurre de Arembera; Keiffer; Uvedale St. Germain; Catillac; Louise bonne of Jersey Vicar of Winkfield; Clapps Favourite; Leon la Clara; Winter Nelis; Colmar; Larie Louise; White Doreen; Easter Beurre; Le Comte; Windsor; Flemish Bonch; Lawrence; Washington
PEACHES
There were problems with early varieties of peaches. Young fruit became curled and knotted and they tended to blight very much. Red Slipstone, Royal George, Royal Charlotte, Red Newington and Noblesse were the varieties.
PLUMS
Blue Violet; Green Gage; Orleans; Black Diamond; Goliath; Pond’s Seedling; Blue Belgium; Grand Duke; Prince of Wales; Coe's Golden Drop; Giant Prune; Coe's Late Red; Jefferson Gage; Royal Native; Coles Late Blue Seedling; Monarch; Washington; Early Orlean; Magnum Bonum; Yellow Magnum B; ; Early Prolific; Morocco;
APRICOTS
Blenheim; Early Peach; Early Mansfield; Moorpark; Hemskirke; Oullin’s Early Peach; Peach-Apricot & Orange; Royal; Turkey Red
DAMSONS
Shropshire; King of the Damson Merryweather; Crittendons
CHERRIES
Arch Duke; Early Purple; Guigne; Margaret; Black Heart; Early Lyons; Morelia; Bigarreau; Early Richmond; Napoleon; Bleeding Heart; Early May Duke; Reine Hortense; Black Bigarreau; Florence; Waterloo; Black Eagle; Heart of Midlothian; White Heart; Late Duke
LEMONS
Lisbon; Villa Franca; Messina; ORANGES; Maltese Blood; Parramatta; Queen; St. Michael
VINES
Black Hamburg; Chasselas; Snow’s Black; Black Prince; Dorodilla; Blue Imperial; Flame Toquet
QUINCES
Apple Shaped; Missouri Mammoth; Portugal; Pear Shaped; Roes Mammoth
FIGS
Black Ischia; White Genoa; Brown Turkey
RASPBERRIES
Cuthbert; Fillbasket; Northerland
GOOSEBERRIES
Roaring Lion; White Dutch Ostrich
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
It was soon found that drains were necessary. Trenches were dug and lined with various materials such as layers of branches or tea tree scrub, rubble, screenings or earthenware pipes. Many of these early drains were found to be still working when houses and roads were built on orchard land in later years.
Clearing land was a back-breaking task. Those with money could hire a contractor with a team of oxen for £7.10 a day to help with the clearing. Once the trees were cut and grubbed out, the ground had to be broken up. Special ploughs with longer pointed ploughshares were designed. Cutting through the roots left in the ground, wore out both horses and ploughmen. John Whitten had learnt the way to tackle this problem in his homeland, Ireland. At first, he ploughed a shallow furrow to turn over surface growth and small roots. The ground was left for thicker roots to dry and loosen; then the ground was turned over to the full depth.
Fruit growing can be said to be the oldest industry, as the first man tended an apple in the Garden of Eden. It was probably a crab apple. Cato, in the 3rd Century B.C., identified seven varieties of apple. The oldest known variety is the Apple Api brought to Rome by Apius Claudius. It was a very small dessert apple, well coloured and flavoured. Apple Api was grown in France for three centuries and a specimen grew in the Horticultural Society garden at Burnley until 1915.
Most fruits originated in Asia. Peaches grew wild in China and were grown in Ancient Persia. Pears, plums and cherries were found in Western Asia. They were brought to Rome and then Europe by early conquerors and adventurers.
Emigrants coming to Victoria brought young fruit trees with them but many did not survive the passage through the tropics. When the Victorian Horticultural Society opened the experimental garden at Burnley in 1861, cuttings from England were propagated. In the years to 1870, cuttings of 389 varieties of apple had been grown; of these 160 were found suitable for local conditions. Of 261 pear varieties, 33 proved suitable and from 33 peaches, 18 were a success. Over 12 different types of fruit were tested. Members of the society, which included many nurserymen, were able to take and propagate cuttings from successful trees.
Many varieties of fruit were available from such nurserymen, as Thomas Cole and John Smith for 2s. 6d. As growers became established, they propagated their own plants. Cuttings were grafted or budded onto stock grown from roots, seeds or stones. Fruit from seed alone does not usually come true to type. Fruit picked from an improved, new variety would be sent to the Horticultural Society to be registered.
For a number of years, fruit from the same tree would be sent in to make sure it grew true to type. If successful, the new tree would be named and registered.
A large variety of fruit was grown in the first three decades but as time went by, the list was reduced to those that produced well and were popular varieties.
Varieties grown in Doncaster and Templestowe in the first three decades to 1880
Hoover; Rymer; Irish Peach; Reinette du Canada; Kentish Filbasket; Royal Russett; Lemon Pippin; Red Streak; Morgans Seedling; Stone Pippin; Mincing Crab; Twenty Ounce; Nonsuch Pippin; Willow Twig; Lord Nelson; Winter Pesimain; Kewswick; Nickajack; Northern Spy; Marshalls Red; Melons Seedling; Pomme de Neige; Rome Beauty
PEARS
Beuure de Capiaumont; Forell; Monchallard; Black Achan; Gansells Bergamot; Muscadine; Beurre d Anjou; Glou Morceau; Morceau; Broom Park; Golden Beurre; Napoleon; Beurre Clairgeau; Glout; Swans Orange; Beurre de Beaumont; Howell; Swans Egg; Brown Beurre; Jargonelle; Summer Bergamot; Beurre Diel; Josephine de Malines; Summer St. Germain; Beurre de Arembera; Keiffer; Uvedale St. Germain; Catillac; Louise bonne of Jersey Vicar of Winkfield; Clapps Favourite; Leon la Clara; Winter Nelis; Colmar; Larie Louise; White Doreen; Easter Beurre; Le Comte; Windsor; Flemish Bonch; Lawrence; Washington
PEACHES
There were problems with early varieties of peaches. Young fruit became curled and knotted and they tended to blight very much. Red Slipstone, Royal George, Royal Charlotte, Red Newington and Noblesse were the varieties.
PLUMS
Blue Violet; Green Gage; Orleans; Black Diamond; Goliath; Pond’s Seedling; Blue Belgium; Grand Duke; Prince of Wales; Coe's Golden Drop; Giant Prune; Coe's Late Red; Jefferson Gage; Royal Native; Coles Late Blue Seedling; Monarch; Washington; Early Orlean; Magnum Bonum; Yellow Magnum B; ; Early Prolific; Morocco;
APRICOTS
Blenheim; Early Peach; Early Mansfield; Moorpark; Hemskirke; Oullin’s Early Peach; Peach-Apricot & Orange; Royal; Turkey Red
DAMSONS
Shropshire; King of the Damson Merryweather; Crittendons
CHERRIES
Arch Duke; Early Purple; Guigne; Margaret; Black Heart; Early Lyons; Morelia; Bigarreau; Early Richmond; Napoleon; Bleeding Heart; Early May Duke; Reine Hortense; Black Bigarreau; Florence; Waterloo; Black Eagle; Heart of Midlothian; White Heart; Late Duke
LEMONS
Lisbon; Villa Franca; Messina; ORANGES; Maltese Blood; Parramatta; Queen; St. Michael
VINES
Black Hamburg; Chasselas; Snow’s Black; Black Prince; Dorodilla; Blue Imperial; Flame Toquet
QUINCES
Apple Shaped; Missouri Mammoth; Portugal; Pear Shaped; Roes Mammoth
FIGS
Black Ischia; White Genoa; Brown Turkey
RASPBERRIES
Cuthbert; Fillbasket; Northerland
GOOSEBERRIES
Roaring Lion; White Dutch Ostrich
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
The Orchards of Doncaster and Templestowe - 1 The Beginning
Picking apples. 1920s?. Emptying freshly picked apples from buckets into fruit cases. The man in the centre is thought to be Mr Jewell. Others: Rupert Gedye (left, owner of orchard); Alma Jewell, Rae Gedye, Fred Gedye (boy eating apple/peach); Charlie Pope. Herald sun Newspapers. Gedye Family Donation. DP0743
The families who produced fruit from this land, lived on in the district. Sons and grandsons carried on the family tradition. Sometimes five generations worked the same orchard, for life on an orchard had an appeal to the men who spent their days working among the rows of trees. There was a yearly rhythm.
In spring, blossom coated the bare branches, turning the landscape into a mass of colour. As the blossom fell, it was replaced with rich green foliage, and from the blooms, tiny fruit emerged to develop and ripen into luscious fruit. In autumn, the leaves changed to warm colours and slowly fell away, leaving bare limbs once more. As the seasons changed, the men found a satisfying routine of work, spraying, ploughing, picking, packing and pruning.
The first settlers to grow fruit in this district came from a variety of places with varied experience. Some had been farmers in England or Germany, but for others farming was a new venture. Those who had come from farms in their homeland, found they had to face different conditions. The Australian land and its climate differed vastly from the conditions of their homeland.
Until the early seventeenth century, orchards had only existed as adjuncts to monasteries or convents. Then Lord Scudamore introduced commercial orchards at his farms in Herefordshire. Apples were the main fruit, for cider making was an important industry; then came pears, plums for tarts or wine, cherries, filbert, walnut, chestnut and elder.
In England in the nineteenth century, apple trees were grown in pasture with trunks 6 feet high so that cattle could graze under the branches. If the land was ploughed, then 6 feet around trees was left to avoid cuttings roots. The trees were spaced up to 30 feet apart, or if the soil was poor, 40 feet. Pruning was considered essential, but ideas varied. Some cut the points and trimmed the external branches, to render them pervious to light, so that the internal parts of the tree should not be shaded out. The alternate view was to keep the centre of the tree open. Diseases they faced were canker, gum, mildew and blight. Mildew was treated by spreading sulphur over the infected parts. For blight and caterpillar, rotten wood and straw was burnt on the windward side of the tree. Stems and branches of orchard trees were washed with a mixture of fresh cow dung, wine and soapsuds.
Fruit had been grown in Victoria for twenty years before Doncaster and Templestowe orchards were planted. Henty grew fruit soon after his arrival in 1834 and John Batman brought pips and stones from Tasmania to plant in Melbourne. In 1848, Crossman planted an orchard in Box Hill and in 1852, Tom Beavis purchased land, with established fruit trees from Arundel Wright.
The demand for fruit trees was filled by nurserymen who imported stock and propagated seedlings. One of these, James Read, had come from Bedfordshire, where he specialised in growing fruit trees. When Read came to Melbourne, he established a market garden and fruit tree nursery in Collingwood. In 1854, he purchased land in Strip Road (now Church Road) Templestowe which he cleared and planted as the first orchard in the district.
Gottlieb Thiele, a tailor in Bourke Street, was advised by his doctor to live in the open air. Thiele purchased twenty acres on Ruffey Creek in Bismarck Street (now Victoria Street) in 1853. Gottlieb farmed his land and planted fruit trees. Further north the Serpell family bought forty acres. The Serpells came from Cornwall, but the father returned to England where he was killed in an accident. Mrs. Serpell with her four sons and daughter lived in Glenferrie while they cleared the land and built a hut in the Highlands (now the East Doncaster area). In 1858, they planted 118 fruit trees, 112 vines, 59 currants and 66 gooseberries.
Another settler who was new to farming was Thomas Petty. He had been a weaver at Bradford, England. In 1853, Petty settled at Doncaster on the south side of Doncaster Road. He established a farm and planted a few fruit trees.
In spring, blossom coated the bare branches, turning the landscape into a mass of colour. As the blossom fell, it was replaced with rich green foliage, and from the blooms, tiny fruit emerged to develop and ripen into luscious fruit. In autumn, the leaves changed to warm colours and slowly fell away, leaving bare limbs once more. As the seasons changed, the men found a satisfying routine of work, spraying, ploughing, picking, packing and pruning.
The first settlers to grow fruit in this district came from a variety of places with varied experience. Some had been farmers in England or Germany, but for others farming was a new venture. Those who had come from farms in their homeland, found they had to face different conditions. The Australian land and its climate differed vastly from the conditions of their homeland.
Until the early seventeenth century, orchards had only existed as adjuncts to monasteries or convents. Then Lord Scudamore introduced commercial orchards at his farms in Herefordshire. Apples were the main fruit, for cider making was an important industry; then came pears, plums for tarts or wine, cherries, filbert, walnut, chestnut and elder.
In England in the nineteenth century, apple trees were grown in pasture with trunks 6 feet high so that cattle could graze under the branches. If the land was ploughed, then 6 feet around trees was left to avoid cuttings roots. The trees were spaced up to 30 feet apart, or if the soil was poor, 40 feet. Pruning was considered essential, but ideas varied. Some cut the points and trimmed the external branches, to render them pervious to light, so that the internal parts of the tree should not be shaded out. The alternate view was to keep the centre of the tree open. Diseases they faced were canker, gum, mildew and blight. Mildew was treated by spreading sulphur over the infected parts. For blight and caterpillar, rotten wood and straw was burnt on the windward side of the tree. Stems and branches of orchard trees were washed with a mixture of fresh cow dung, wine and soapsuds.
Fruit had been grown in Victoria for twenty years before Doncaster and Templestowe orchards were planted. Henty grew fruit soon after his arrival in 1834 and John Batman brought pips and stones from Tasmania to plant in Melbourne. In 1848, Crossman planted an orchard in Box Hill and in 1852, Tom Beavis purchased land, with established fruit trees from Arundel Wright.
The demand for fruit trees was filled by nurserymen who imported stock and propagated seedlings. One of these, James Read, had come from Bedfordshire, where he specialised in growing fruit trees. When Read came to Melbourne, he established a market garden and fruit tree nursery in Collingwood. In 1854, he purchased land in Strip Road (now Church Road) Templestowe which he cleared and planted as the first orchard in the district.
Gottlieb Thiele, a tailor in Bourke Street, was advised by his doctor to live in the open air. Thiele purchased twenty acres on Ruffey Creek in Bismarck Street (now Victoria Street) in 1853. Gottlieb farmed his land and planted fruit trees. Further north the Serpell family bought forty acres. The Serpells came from Cornwall, but the father returned to England where he was killed in an accident. Mrs. Serpell with her four sons and daughter lived in Glenferrie while they cleared the land and built a hut in the Highlands (now the East Doncaster area). In 1858, they planted 118 fruit trees, 112 vines, 59 currants and 66 gooseberries.
Another settler who was new to farming was Thomas Petty. He had been a weaver at Bradford, England. In 1853, Petty settled at Doncaster on the south side of Doncaster Road. He established a farm and planted a few fruit trees.
George Hislop, an early settler in Port Phillip, was an artisan with ability in many spheres. He had acted as secretary to the Governor in Van Diemans Land and in Doncaster made bricks while waiting for his orchard to come into bearing. Hislop bought land from Burnley at the corner of Wetherby Road.
Among those with experience on the land were John Whitten from Ireland and John Clay who had worked on a farm in Devonshire. August Aumann, Carl Hanke and Gottfried Uebergang came from Germany with Gottlieb Thiele. They helped form a German community called Waldau (which means ‘clearing in the forest’) in the 1850’s. These men had knowledge of farming, for Germany led the world in agricultural research and education at that time.
The pioneers came to a difficult land, heavily timbered and with hard rocky soil. As the land was cleared, the timber, box, messmate, stringybark and white gum, was cut and sold for firewood. Wood carting became an industry that lasted for many years.
Most settlers came to the district to be farmers, but a few came to grow fruit. They recognised the undulating land with its good clay base as land where fruit grew well in England. Fruit trees took several years to bear fruit and until then the farmers had to make a living.
Beans, peas, cabbages, turnips and berries were planted. On some farms, wheat, potatoes and grape vines were tried. The soil was too heavy and shallow for vegetables, but berries and vines were a success. For some years, raspberries, gooseberries and strawberries were a staple crop, but by 1860, fruit trees were being planted in larger numbers and there were some 50 acres of young orchards.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
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