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.

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

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.

Apple root borers

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.

 

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.

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.