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.
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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.
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