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.

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

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!

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.