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 first settlers sold their produce at the Western Market in Collins Street, between Market Street and William Street. During the 1850’s, growers moved from there to a market reserve at the corner of Bourke Street and Stephen Street (now Exhibition Street). In 1859, shelter was provided with 4 arcades, 42 feet wide running from Bourke to Little Collins Streets. Between the sheds, vehicles drove along flagged paths to standing places 7'6" wide along each side. It was here that Gottlieb Thiele’s wife Phillipine took over selling fruit and vegetables from Friedensruh. Returning from market on one occasion, she had to stop at a friend’s shop in Richmond to give birth to her baby Alfred.
For over twenty years, Doncaster growers used the Eastern Market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. As the market became popular, it also became congested. Growers arrived early in the morning, then at 10:00am hay and corn farmers arrived to take the growers stalls, also retailers and general merchants set up for the day. Six hundred and forty carts were counted there on one occasion! Those who couldn’t find stalls backed their carts up to the footpath in Bourke Street. There were three other market reserves in Melbourne but growers wanted to be in the Eastern Market, patronised by the buyers.
The area bounded by Elizabeth, Victoria Queen and Therry Street, was known as the Meat Market Reserve. In 1877 the Government allotted land, intended for a school and drill hall and also part of the Old Melbourne Cemetery, for use as a growers market. Sheds were built and in March, the following year the official opening of Queen Victoria Market took place with a breakfast in the sheds.
Queen Victoria Market Plan
The section west of Queen Street was known as the Upper Market and was used by growers. This included sheds A to E with a brick wall on the south side hiding the cemetery. East of Queens Street sheds G H and I were erected for retail fruit sales.
The new township of Melbourne had established a cemetery at the corner of Queen, Elizabeth, Franklin and Peel Streets in 1837, and it became known as the Old Melbourne Cemetery. During its time, 10,000 burials took place, the last being in 1917 after which the Government agreed to provide that land for an extension to the Victoria Market. Bodies were exhumed and re-interred in several other cemeteries. At Fawkner Cemetery, there is an ‘Old Pioneer’ section with monuments and graves moved from the Old Melbourne site.
Construction of the extension to the market commenced in 1922, with sheds K and L. In 1930, brick lock-up stores on Franklin Street were ready for agents and importers who had been using the large bluestone building at the Western Market. Growers also took their fruit to South Melbourne Market and for a few years sold from carts at the kerbside in Kew. There was a market in Box Hill for a few years in the 1930’s.
Market opened early in the morning so that the shopkeeper, after buying his supplies of fruit and vegetables could get back to his shop early in the day. In the early years before gas or electric lighting were connected, the market opened at dawn. The growers, buyers, and market officials constantly argued about the time of opening and closing. From 1920 to 1940 opening time was at 4.00am and it closed at 1.00pm. Growers arrived earlier to set up and be ready so that meant leaving home the previous night. The carts would be on their way about 10.00 o’clock while others closer to the city left later. Most men would have a short sleep first, but when it came time to get up they would be in a deep sleep. Sometimes their wives would sit up knitting or mending clothes while waiting to wake their husbands. Others would put an alarm clock in a kerosene tin to make sure it was loud enough to wake them.
Women as well as men drove the carts and stood in the market to sell fruit. Sarah Uebergang took the place of her husband when he was needed in the orchard and Mary Hislop ran her orchard, doing all jobs, after her husband, William, died. The need to take ripe fruit to market meant that Mary was forced to leave her two young sons who were dying of diphtheria during an epidemic.
A fruit wagon carrying up to 84 cases was heavy. A horse, when it was still cold at the start of the journey would have trouble pulling its load up a hill. A lead- horse was attached to assist until the first hill was climbed. Many orchardists’ sons learnt to handle horses, bringing back the extra one in the middle of the night.
The long steep hill on Doncaster Road, from Koonung Creek to Balwyn Road, was tiring so the driver would stop to rest his horse, turning the cart side on so that it wouldn’t roll back. Soon he would fall asleep, but the horse knew the way and after resting, plodded on. On arrival at the market, the driver backed his wagon into a stand, if he had one. Growers, who had their own stands, would keep them from year to year. It was the ambition of almost every young grower to be allotted a permanent stand. Horses were once left in the shafts, but the market commissioner of 1917 found this practice unhygienic. “Food and horses should be separated”, he said, so they were then tied up to the cemetery fence or stabled at the Royal Saxon Hotel, on the corner of Elizabeth and Franklin Streets.
Young growers living in the sheltered life of a rural community received a great education meeting and dealing with the cosmopolitan crowds at the Victorian Market. Their outlook broadened and they learnt to appreciate all points of view. Orchardists met market gardeners and men from other districts. There were greengrocers and buyers from hotels and restaurants. Vast quantities of fruit passed through Queen Victoria Market. In the season of 1937 -1938, some 1,442,100 cases of fruit were sold, 401,300 cases of peaches and 258,800 cases of pears.
DP0321 Central Cool Store | Brief Description: The Government Cool Store, Doncaster Road, adjacent to the Doncaster Hotel. Built in 1905, it was not run efficiently and was taken over by a co-operative of Doncaster orchardists.
In the late 1800’s the fruit season lasted as long as fruit ripened on the trees, but in the first years of the new century cool stores enabled sales of fruit to be spread out. No longer did the grower face the prospect of having to sell all his fruit while the market was glutted and prices were low.
The prudent orchardist extended the season by growing a range of varieties. With apples there would be early varieties: Pomme de Neige and Alfriston, then in January Gravenstein, and in March Jonathon, later Five Crown and Rome Beauty and by the end of April and May, Yates. Many methods were used to prolong the keeping time of fruit by careful storage; a cool corner of a barn, a cave in a hillside, or a cellar under the barn. The Thiele family used cellars. Frederick Thiele kept his cellar cool and well ventilated with cool air from the surface of a dam. Large diameter pipes led from the edge of the dam into the cellar. High flues above the cellar created a draught that caused suction to drag the cool air along the pipes. In many ways, care was taken to protect fruit. During picking, cases were stacked in the shade of pine trees and, of course, they were transported to market during the night.
The origins of cool storage in Australia go back to 1856 when James Harrison invented an ice freezing process. Four years later, he opened an ice factory in Franklin Street. Ships were equipped with machinery to freeze ice in the 1870’s making it possible to export perishable products and in the 1890’s the invention of the cool air process improved the keeping qualities of fruit in ships’ cool rooms. Fruit was exported to London, South Africa, Colombo, Bombay, and the U.S.A. every year. In March 1902, Melbourne sent 25,000 cases of apples to England and 10,378 cases in April. England also purchased pears and grapes, but plums only travelled as far as Colombo. An interstate trade developed for apples and pears, also as early as 1873 cherries were sent to New Zealand. The quality and condition of consignments arriving in England varied, but in 1906, regulations were introduced to control the export of fruit. Only new cases were allowed and the name and address of the grower had to be marked on the outside. It was an offence to offer for sale diseased fruit and all export consignments were inspected.
The fruit had to be cool when loaded into the cool rooms of the ship, so cases were placed in the Government cool store to lower the temperature. Although refrigeration was used for export, cool storage was not as yet used to prolong the life of fruit for local market. Space in the stores was limited and meat and dairy produce had first priority. There were other places such as the Victorian Cold Accumulation Company, in South Melbourne but cool stores were expensive. The Government store charged 2d per case for the first week and 1 1/2d per week afterwards. To keep fruit from March to July would amount to over 2 shillings (20 cents) per case. During these years, there was an oversupply in Melbourne, but American pears could be imported into Australia and sell at a lower price than local pears kept in cool stores.
In 1902, Tom Petty persuaded the Doncaster Fruit Growers Association to petition the Premier, Thomas Bent, to build a cool store in Doncaster. Tom Petty was well aware of the advantage from extending the selling life of his harvest, for he had used the cool stores of Mr. Ridge in Fitzroy and Sennitts in South Melbourne. In 1904, experiments were carried out at the Government Cool Stores in Queens Wharf Road, to find the ideal conditions for storage, the most suitable varieties, and the best time for picking apples and pears. The Hon. F. Cameron, Minister of Public Works, opened the Government Cool Store at Doncaster in March 1905. The timber store had double walls spaced one foot apart and the cavity between was filled with charcoal for insulation.
The refrigerator was a 10-ton Hercules driven by a 21 horsepower Hornsby Oil engine using the pure dry air ammonia system. The two chambers each 40 feet long, accommodated 7,000 cases. The fruit was kept between 34 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit. The building cost £2,500.
In November 1904, Edwin Lawford built a cool store on his orchard in Williamsons Road. It was a weatherboard building with 9-inch thick walls filled with sawdust. Rudolf Werner supplied the machinery and supervised the construction. Werner was an engineer who had come from Germany in 1887. He became interested in refrigeration machinery and started his own business in 1900. He soon earned a reputation for his refrigeration equipment and six years later formed a company, Rudolf Werner and Company Pty. Ltd.
The Government Cool Store provided a viable local store for Doncaster growers, but there were problems. Only cool store employees were allowed to stack cases in the store forcing orchardists, during their busiest time, to wait around for their wagons to be loaded. Tom Petty and Edwin Lawford suggested that growers form a co-operative to build their own cool store.
DP0319 | West Doncaster Cool Store | Photograph of the West Doncaster Cool Stores (built 1913) at the north-east corner of Doncaster Road and Beaconsfield Street, showing the frontage to Beaconsfield Street. The house on the left, the residence of the engineer, was demolished in the mid 1990s. The refrigeration plant is in the centre of the photograph. (Photograph mounted with caption) | Doncaster West Doncaster Cool Storage Company Pty. Ltd.|Beaconsfield Street|Cool stores|Scanned images |
In 1911, the West Doncaster Co-operative Coolstore was built at the corner of Doncaster Road and Beaconsfield Street. The store had a storage capacity of 36,000 cases and 36 growers became members. Edwin Lawford, John Tully, John Petty were elected the first directors. Tom Petty declined to join as he was about to retire from active work.
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
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