Time Frames
- A. The First Settlement 1870 1 s
- B. At The Turn of the Century
- C. After World War II
- D. Today
Aspects of Orcharding
- 1. Where the Orchards Were/Are Planted·
- 2. Irrigation Practices
- 3. Pruning Tree Training Practices and Yields
- 4. Pest and Disease Control Practice
- 5. Fruit Handling and Cool Store Practice
The First Settlement
A. The First Years
1. Where the Orchards Were Planted
The first settlers in Melbourne planted fruit trees for their own use and in the 1840's a few planted orchards in the land close to the town to supply the Melbourne Market. By 1850, there, was a scattering of orchards in the Eastern suburbs up to Box Hill.
Several settlers in Doncaster, Templestowe, and the Nunawading area, which included the present Box Hill, planted orchards of up-to one or two hundred trees. By 1870 there were a few orchards in Kew, Hawthorn and Camberwell districts and a considerable number in Nunawading and Doncaster Templestowe. East of these fruit trees were later planted in areas that became North Ringwood and North Croydon and at East Burwood.
A. The First Settlements
2. Irrigation Practices
The first settlers built their huts close to rivers and creeks. Those who had no access to water, dug water holes. The government provided water reserves on streams to allow farmers to draw water.
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 claimed to have built the first dam in the district 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. The "low down pumps" as they were called, were installed on creeks and dams, and by laborious hand power forced water to higher ground. On most properties water holes were dug.
The orchardists soon found that drains were necessary. Trenches were dug up to two feet deep and lined with various material such as layers of branches, tea tree, scrub, brick and stone rubble. Later screenings and earthenware pipes were used. Many of these early drains were found to be still working when roads and houses were built on former orchard land.
3. Pruning, Tree Training Practices and Yields
During the first years, methods of cultivation, pruning and tree care 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 the 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.
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 keep branches getting crowded. Main shoots were shortened to make them strong and support the weight of the fruit. Peaches were closely cut back each year. Large branches, too close together, were removed. Young wood was thinned out and shortened to five or six buds. In December fruit on heavily laden trees was thinned out and the ground covered with stable manure.
The orchardists planted many varieties of fruit to see which would grow and give good yields in this soil and climate. They planted seeds and stones in an effort to find new and improved varieties. Experiments with root stocks were continually being tried. Quince stock was found to give a stronger pear or apple tree; it also gave a small tree, making fruit easier to pick. Northern Spy stock was found to be resistant to woolly aphis. W. S. Williams and
Frederick Thiele experimented with bud selection and produced the Doncaster Improved Lisbon Lemon. Methods of pruning were found to increase fertility. Edwin Lawford worked on some large Marie Louise trees which the previous owner had declared were, 11 White as my shirt with blossom every spring but bore no pears 11 By cutting nine tenths of the blossom, Lawford, discovered the trees bore good crops regularly. He followed up this treatment with other varieties of pear and it worked with them too.
4. Pest and Disease Control Practice
The first problems were fungus diseases and woolly aphis. Codlin moth was feared and suspected but not identified till 1885 and ten years later bitter pit appeared.
At first aphis, called American blight, was treated with lime water, either sprayed with a syringe or splashed on the tree. Whale oil soap dissolved in water, or a solution of tobacco made by soaking tobacco in tanks with soft soap, was used.
Tom Petty 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."
In the 1880s, hand operated spray pumps were being advertised. These were mounted on barrels and carried on a sledge or a dray. London Purple, an arsenious salt, and Paris Green, a copper salt, were sprayed for codlin moth. In 1886, Joseph Bosisto recommended the use of Bordeaux mixture for fungus diseases. Bordeaux mixture was given as sulphate of copper 20 parts, Lime 40 parts and water 25 gallons.
To trap the codlin moth larvae, they tied paper, hessian or canvas strips, about five inches wide, around tree trunks. The bands were fastened, tightly at the top and loose at the lower edge, forming a funnel to trap the larvae as it climbed the tree. Once a week the larvae was removed and destroyed.
Aphis on lemon trees were sprayed with an emulsion of kerosene and whale oil soap dissolved in water. In 1898 Sydney Williams invented a hand operated spray pump that gave a fine spray of pure kerosene mixed with water. The water evaporated leaving a fine coating of kerosene on the leaves of the lemon trees.
5. Fruit Handling and Cool Store Practice
Many methods were used to prolong the keeping time of fruit by careful storage. In a cool corner of a barn fruit was carefully laid on straw, caves in hillsides were used with the entrance covered by boards, and cellars were dug under the barn. Fred Thiele kept his cellar cool and well-ventilated with an ingenious system. Large diameter pipes led cool air from the surface 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 the trees and fruit was carried to market during the night.
The first Melbourne Market was in Elizabeth Street, outside the Post Office. Then on land between Market and William Street in Collins Street. Fruit sales at the Eastern Market began in the 1850's and The Queen Victoria Market opened in 1877.
The Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria sent a sample of fruit to the Vienna Exhibition in 1873. Freshly picked apples were individually wrapped in clean tissue paper and placed beween dry cotton wool. The cases were placed in the ice-rooms of the steamship. The fruit arrived in perfect condition and was acclaimed to be better than any other fruit in the exhibition. The success of the trial eventually led to the fruit export trade and the method of packing demonstrated the success of careful packaging.
During the fruit picking season the whole family worked in the orchard. Children stayed home from school during the day and a few teachers held classes for these children in the evening.
At The Turn Of The Century
B. At the Turn of the Century
1. Where the Orchards Were
During the land boom of the 1880 1 s, orchards disappeared from the Eastern suburbs such as Kew and Hawthorn as the land was subdivided for housing. In the year 1893 the Government encouraged the development by the industry by paying a bonus of 3 pounds for each acre of new orchard planted. The result was a dramatic increase in the area of fruit growing. In Doncaster-Templestowe during ten years at the turn of the century, 1500 acres of orchard increased to 4,000 acres. In the Shire of Nunawading there were l,700 acres of orchard and the Shire of Lilydale, which covered the area from Warrandyte to a new fruit growing area around Wandin, had 3,500 acres.
2. Irrigation Practices
During the 1890s many dams were constructed. Dams were built either on a hillside or in a valley to catch rain water. Other dams were built on a hilltop and were filled with water pumped from a hillside or valley dam. Windmills, steam pumps and later oil engines were used for pumping.
With his scientific approach, Fred Thiele had constructed a full irrigation system. In 1903 the Dept. of Agriculture wrote a report on Doncaster's dams and published details of Thiele's system for Victorian farmers.
A dam was constructed in a valley of Thiele's land; a second 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" pipe to a hilltop dam on the far side of the orchard. A nonreturn valve allowed this pipe to form part of the reticulation system. Outlets on the dam fed water along 211 pipes through the orchard. One and a half inch pipes branched off every five rows and there was a tap at every five trees. 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 holes were cut at the top of 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 tree 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 of the limited water available. In a season, the equivalent of 2 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. Neighbors would help, bringing their own horses and scbop. As earth was tipped on the dam wall, the horses hooves pounded the clay, binding layers together to make it watertight. If a dam leaked the builder could never live it down! 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 covered over two acres 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 Williams produced eight hundred cases of lemons per acre. In 1903 a whole series of dams were spread across Doncaster.
Methods of retaining water 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 and also to turn into it horse manure and weeds. 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.
3. Pruning, Tree Training Practices and Yields
At the turn of the century much thought and experiment had been carried out in the effort to improve yields of fruit trees by methods of pruning and general training and cultivation of trees.
A fruit growing Association was formed. Lectures, demonstrations and pruning competitions with the help of the Department of Agriculture improved Orchardists' knowledge and skills.
Pruning was carried out throughout the year. Generally a tree was pruned hard in winter with thinning in Spring and early Summer. In Winter Orchardists spaced out the most useful wood by removing all crowding and exhausted material, then each limb was gone over to thin its side growth. The extremities of each branch was reduced to a single shoot in order to reduce the drawing power of the topmost wood and the sap kept down in the body of the tree where it makes fruiting wood for future years.
Summer pruning commenced from the time leaves pushed out until they showed signs of maturity in autumn. A strong tree was cut less in Winter and more in Summer. Excess buds and shoots were removed and towards Autumn later Summer growth was cut from trees.
Orchardists planted trees at 20 foot spaces giving 100 trees per acre. Trees were kept small and yielded l½ to 2 cases per tree.
Ploughing commenced in Autumn. They ploughed earth onto the trees leaving a furrough between the rows with higher ground along the rows so that water ran off in the Winter to avoid the trees getting wet feet. Green manure was then planted, peas, tick beans and lupins, fertilized with superphosphate. In the Spring they rolled the crop with heavy rollers to break it down and then ploughed it in. This time the earth was ploughed off and superphosphate 2 cwt. to the acre and muriate of potash 3 cwt. to the acre, was added. Horse manure mulched the land in Spring and Summer. Continuous cultivation removed nutrients from the soil and in this area it had only been fair to poor. It was the continuous applications of manure that kept the orchards going. In this country fruit was grown with horse manure.
Rows of Pinus Insignus planted in the 1890's protected fruit trees from Summers hot north winds and the cold winter gales.
5. Pest and Disease Control Practices
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 Dept. rendered valuable help in discovering and showing growers the best cures and treatments.
The most pernicious enemy was the codlin moth. Other insects pests that awaken from their winter sleep were peach aphis, wooly aphis, pear and cherry slug, scale insects ad infinitum, red spider, phytopus of the pear, root borer, and a number belonging to the Cuculio family. The most common fungus pests which appeared with the 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 11 Apple -root borer11 (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 leaves. Children were paid 3 pence per hundred to collect borers so they could be destroyed.
Cleanliness in the orchard and continual spraying were the main defence 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 the grubs. The journal of the Department of Agriculture stated that -11 Bordeaux mixture is undoubtedly the best fungicide we have, and when skillfully applied, is one of the orchardists best friends 11 -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 it was not absorbed by the foliage.
Hand operated spray units carried on a dray or jingle were used in the orchards until 1908. That year John Russell built the first power sprayer called the Bave U. During the following years other spray units, driven by petrol engines, were produced.
5. Fruit Handling and Cool Store Practice
The increased acreage of orchards at the turn of the century created the need for more labour, particularly at fruit picking time. After the depression of the 1890 1 s wages were low so orchardists who employed labour had a financial advantage. The larger orchards built huts and rooms for men to sleep in and added kitchens at the rear of the homestead.
Fruit was picked in three gallon galvanized buckets and often sorted and packed in the orchard. With peaches this method cut down the number of times the fruit was handled and consequent bruising.
Most orchardists spread the picking season by growing a range of fruit and varieties. Cherries came first in November, bringing in a return of money. Peaches and other fruit followed. With apples there would be early varieties: Pome 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.
Exporters found that they must take care when selecting and packing fruit. Conferences were held to improve the reputation of Victoria 1 s fruit in England and 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 exports were inspected.
Case sizes were standardized. Measurements in inches, internal measurements.
- Double Case 26" long 12" broad, 14 1/4 deep, 2 bushells
- Single Case 26" long 6" broad, 14 1/4 deep, 1 bushell
- or 1811 long 8-7/8 broad, 14" deep, 1/2 bushell
- Half Case 26" long 6" broad, 7-1/8" deep, 1/2 bushell
- or 18" long 7" broad, 8-7/8" deep, 1/2 bushell
Growers sold most of their fruit at market for Canneries and jam factories paid less. The grower would take his own fruit to market using fruit wagons with covered tops carrying up to 84 cases. They would leave the orchard the previous evening from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. depending on their distance from the market and arrive in time for opening at 4 a.m.
The fruit had to be cool when loaded into coolrooms of the ship, so the cases were placed in the government cool store to lower the temperatures. Although refrigeration was used for export, cool storage was not used to lengthen 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 Co. in South Melbourne but cool stores were expensive. The government store charged 2 pence (2 cents) per case for the first week and l½ pence (1 cent) per week afterwards. To keep fruit from March to July would amount to over 2 shillings (20 cents) per case.
In these years there was an oversupply in Melbourne but American pears could be imported into Australia and sell as 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. L. Cameron, Minister of Public Works, opened the Government Cool Stores at Doncaster in March 1905. The timber store had double walls spaced one foot apart and filled with charcoal as insulation.
The refrigerator was a 10 ton Hercules driven by a 21 horse power 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 ($5,000).
In November 1904 Edwin Lawford built a cool store on his land in Williamsons Road. It was a weatherboard building with 9 inch thick walls filled with sawdust. Rudolf ~Jerner 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 bu~ there were problems. With the red tape of government regulations, only cool store staff 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.
In 1911 the West Doncaster Co-operative cool store was built at the corner of Doncaster Road and Beaconsfield Street. The store had a capacity for 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.
During the next ten years more co-operative cool stores were built in Templestowe, East Doncaster, Mitcham, Ringwood, Croydon and Wantirna.
In 1909 Victoria produced l ,241 ,826 bushels of apples and exported 214,902 bushells.
After World War II
C. After World War II
1. Where the Orchards Were
After the Depression of 1930, the fruit growing industry declined but the demand for food during the 1939 War encouraged fruit growing. In the 1920s, much land along the railway line through Box Hill to Ringwood, including many orchards, was subdivided but fruitgrowing continued along Koonung Creek.
Doncaster-Templestowe reached its peak in 1925 with over 7,000 acres of orchards. In the early 1950s as subdivision commenced the acreage dropped to 6,000. In the large hilly area north of Ringwood and Croydon and in East Burwood and Vermont many orchards remained. Types of fruit varied in different areas. The hills and shallow soil around Doncaster suited peaches which are shallow rooted and like good drainage. In this area the growers concentrated on peaches and pears. Further east the better quality clay held moisture in the soil providing better conditions for apples.
2. Irrigation Practices
After World War II, water mains freed growers from dependence on dams and gave the necessary pressure to run sprinklers. The old system of moving rows of down pipes and digging ho1es at each tree required a considerable amount of labour. With the high wage rises of the 1950 1s it became uneconomic. Easy coupling aluminium pipes were lighter to drag around the orchard and when sprinklers were used on pears the extra water increased the size of the fruit. Pears that averaged a size of 2-3/8 11 diameter increased to 2-5/8 diameter.
3. Pruning, Tree Training Practices & Yields
Growers now tended to grow larger trees. They no longer pruned back so hard and with pears let branches grow longer. Pruning is a time consuming job and orchardists faced with high labour costs cut down on work. Wages were rising out of proportion to the price received for fruit. The new steel 3 legged picking ladders made the work of reaching fruit on large trees much quicker and tall branches tended to bend down within reach. Some years trees were left unpruned.
Thinning sprays on new fruit saved the labour of hard thinning and the same chemical used before harvest acted as a cling spray, holding, ripe fruit on the tree until picked. New equipment also saved labour. The Ferguson tractor, with a hydraulically controlled tool bar, did the work of previous equipment faster, and only used one operator.
The lack of horses in the 1940s and 50's brought a problem, there was no longer horse manure for the orchards. The fertility and tilth of the soil always declined under continuous cropping, but in the past large quantities of horse manure ploughed into the ground had produced rich fruit. Now the soil began to deteriorate. Improved artificial manures, that became available after the war, increased yields, especially when humus such as wool waste, was added to the soil, but these organic materials took time and money to collect. Many growers only used fertilizers and these exhausted the soil.
4. Pests and Disease Control Practice
A new generation of insecticides and fungicides came to help the orchardists. D.D.T. came first after the war, it killed codlin moth on apples and Rutherglen bug on peaches. Tractors gave the opportunity for more powerful air blast spray units, such as those made by Cyril Bloom in King Street, Doncaster. This machine moved down the rows sending out a continuous blast that saturated the trees with a spray of mist. The moth became immune to 0.0.T. so it was replaced with mercuriated lead which had a bad habit of burning the fruit. The organic sprays such as gusathion and Dithane gave excellent results but they were dangerous to use. In the 1950's Thiatose, Thiram and Captan were used as fungacides and Carboryl for codlin moth.
5. Fruit Handling and Cool Store Practices
During the 1939 war the Apple and Pear Marketing Board took over the cool stores and sales of all apples and pears. Growers were sure of a sale for their fruit but prices were low. After the war some fruit growers who had carried out sales for the Apple and Pear Board continued to buy from growers and market fruit. In the l960's cool stores closed down as the orchards around them were subdivided for housing. The old buildings) with wooden floors were designed for hand trolleys and fruit cases. New methods of industrial handling with forklift trucks and bulk containers required a different type of building. The remaining orchards built their own cool stores with concrete floors and facilities to accommodate bulk handling.
Today
D. Today
2. Irrigation Practices
Trickle irrigation with a controlled flow of water is used to give each tree the minimum of water.
5. Fruit Handling and Cool Store Practice
Fruit sales are now handled by fruit agents. The grower fills orders from the agents knowing that his load of fruit is sold before it leaves the orchard. This method opened up a:new line of business for some local fruit growers when their orchards closed down. They built their own cool stores and went into the business of buying, packing and selling fruit. For longer storage they installed controlled atmosphere chambers, in which the oxygen level was reduced and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere delayed the natural deterioration of the fruit.
Modern methods and machinery have made a great difference to fruit handling. In the past every case of fruit was handled many times. In the orchard the picker lifted the full case from alongside the tree and stacked it in the shade of pine trees. Later he lifted it onto a cart, in the sheds it had to be unloaded onto a cool store trolley then lifted up onto a stack in the store. The handling continued with sorting and carting until finally sold. Each case would be lifted up and moved over twenty times -a considerable amount of hard work. With bulk handling the cases are never touched by hand, machinery does all the work.
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