Community
Opposite: Pupils, parents and staff outside Wonga Park Primary School in Dudley Road, which opened as Warrandyte East Primary School in 1895 before changing its name in 1898. (Photo: Wonga Park Primary School)
Community and diversity almost seem to be contradictory terms, but the City of Manningham proudly celebrates its diversity as a community. Manningham is a municipality of around 112,000 individuals representing more than a dozen different cultures and language groups from around the world. The city occupies an area of 113 square kilometres and its citizens live in settings ranging from urban to suburban to rural. (1 Julie Eisenbise, ‘Welcome to Manningham City Council’, Manningham City Council website, 17 July 2001; Australian Bureau of Statistics Census, 1996). The development and maintenance of such a diverse community requires the involvement of organisations both great and small. This chapter charts the histories of a representative sample; in the process it celebrates the elements that make a community and gives a voice to the people at its heart.
Council
Council The first locally representative, governing bodies in the Colony of Victoria were the District Road Boards. These boards were instituted as a result of the Colonial Governments 1853 Act for Making and Improving Roads in the Colony of Victoria. Settlements in outlying districts like Manningham were generally linked to each other, and to Melbourne, by rough bush tracks - dusty and rut-riddled in summer, impassable quagmires in winter. The 1853 Act provided for the annual election of members of a District Road Board and empowered communities to have local representatives on their local board. This was an era when neither indigenous men nor any women had voting rights, so the interests represented by the District Road Boards were those of land-owning European men. These men were, of course, the ratepayers, and it was their money that went towards making the roads; we should not lose sight of the fact that very specific interests were being served by the Road Boards.
The forerunner of a local governing body for Manningham, which was then described as a 'Roads District', was the Templestowe Road Board. It was formally proclaimed on 19 September 1856, with local identity Sidney Ricardo as chairman. The Road District covered the present-day suburbs of Templestowe and Doncaster. Then, on 1 June 1873, the Warrandyte Ward transferred from the Upper Yarra District and was incorporated into the Templestowe District.
Demographic snapshot 1996
Population 103,759
Males 50,997
Females 52,762
Australian born 67,536
Italian born 4,569
UK/ Irish born 4,279
Greek born 3,612
Hong Kong born 2,871
Malaysian born 2,087
Chinese born 2,050
Vietnamese born 589
Indian born 581Catholics 30,873
Anglican 14,121
Orthodox 10,853
Non-Christian 5,759
Baptist 2,448
In the early 1870s the conversion of the Road Board districts into municipalities began; on 3 May 1875 the Templestowe Road Board was supplanted by the Bulleen Shire Council. The first entry in the Minute Book for the Shire of Bulleen is dated 'Thursday 1st July 1875' and reads: 'The Election of Six Councillors for the newly constituted Shire of Bulleen took place on the above date at the shire office Templestowe, the Doncaster Hotel Doncaster and at the Court House Anderson's Creek'. (3 Council Minute Book, Shire of Bulleen 1875, p. 2). Councillor Edward Tatham was elected the first shire president. The estimated European population of the shire around this time was 1,600 persons. (4 Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 28). Prevailing attitudes amongst Europeans meant that the Wurundjeri people were not counted as part of the population - they were a people rendered invisible in statistics and silent in politics.
A shire divided
The fledgling council no doubt began with great hopes but harmonious relations did not last. Changes in population numbers and distribution created an imbalance that caused dissention in the shire council. Until around 1860 the majority of newcomers to the Shire of Bulleen had settled in the districts of Warrandyte and Templestowe, but thereafter, with the growth of orcharding in Doncaster, increasing numbers moved into that area. In 1875 the ratepayers of Bulleen and Warrandyte sent a petition to the Roads and Bridges Department. The petition claimed that, as the councillors were mostly from Doncaster and Templestowe, those two dis tricts received preferential treatment. Although the council repudiated this suggestion, the Bulleen and Warrandyte residents did win the increased representation they sought. Prior to elections held in August 1876, the shire was divided into the ridings of Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte. (5 Council M inute Book, Shire of Bulleen 1875, p. 42; 1876, p. 89)
By 1890 the larger population of the Doncaster Riding meant that it was contributing more to the revenue of the shire than the ridings of Templestowe and Warrandyte combined. In addition, Doncaster found it had ever less in common with Templestowe and Warrandyte and consequent council deadlocks finally resulted in Doncaster seceding to form its own shire, with inaugural elections held in August 1890. (6 Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 41; Council M inute Book, Shire of Doncaster 1876, p. 1)
Wednesday 21st July 1875 - This being the day appointed for holding the first Meeting o f the new council in accordance with the 147th Section of the Local Government Act 1874, since its Election on the first day of July 1875. All of the Newly Elected Members were present viz Councillor Tatham, Delany, Hoare, Kent, Laidlaw and Smedley. Source: Council Minute Book, Shire of Bulleen 1875, p. 3.
Divided we fall
The young Shire of Doncaster struggled because of falling produce prices in 1893 after the collapse of the land boom, but most residents were at least able to survive. In 1894, after a three-month dispute over the secretary’s fitness for his position, the council was once again able to function when the said secretary resigned. Meanwhile, the Shire of Bulleen retained its name only until 1892, after which it became known as the Shire of Templestowe. The for tunes of this shire, with its small revenue, were somewhat straitened from the start. The situ ation turned really grim in 1906, when the council secretary was found to have embezzled the greater part of a years revenue’. Despite their best efforts throughout the next nine years, the near-insolvent council was eventually reunited with Doncaster by order of the Minister for Public Works in 1915. (7 Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), pp. 42-4, List of Councillors)
The shire was renamed the Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe in 1926. (8 Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 44). That same year is also notable for the election of the first woman councillor, Angela Booth, who represented the newly made Warrandyte Riding. The shire continued with three ridings: Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte. As in the previous century, population growth in Doncaster was far larger than in the other two ridings. According to a shire survey in 1965, Doncaster had a population of 18,293, which constituted more than Templestowe (13,588) and Warrandyte (4,141) together. Again Doncaster Riding, with its three councillors, keenly felt the unfairness of contributing more revenue to the shire but being unable to carry the vote against Warrandyte and Templestowe combined, with a total of six councillors, when disputes arose in council. It was suggested in 1964-65 that Doncaster should once again secede, an idea supported by the ratepayers in two polls. This view was not supported by the Minister for Local Government, Rupert Hamer. He ruled instead, in May 1966, that Doncaster Riding would be split in two, East and West, each with three councillors. With an increase in population and rate revenue, the Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe successfully petitioned to become a city, which was proclaimed on 28 February 1967. (9 Joan Seppings, ‘Home Sweet Home - Municipal Style’, The Australian M unicipal Journal, Vol. 46, No. 783, May 1967, pp. 447-449)
Members of the public at the opening of the new Shire Hall in 1957. (Photo: DTHS)
New boundaries
In 1980 a major redefinition of boundaries required a complete spill of council and elections of three councillors in each of the four new wards. This was in order to comply with legislation which stipulated that the voting populations of wards should be within 10 per cent of one another. (10 Bill Larkin, personal communication, 12 August 2001). The next major council reorganisation occurred with the creation of the City of Manningham. Local government amalgamations were imposed by the Victorian Government in 1994. The Mayor at the time, Lionel Allemand, recalls the amalgamation process as being fraught with: 'frustration and anxiety, which was also felt by our then neighbouring councils, namely Eltham, Heidelberg, Box Hill and Croydon. Numerous hours of Councillors' and Officers' time wasted. Commissioners were appointed. No more elected representatives - and at a time when our Council was recognised as the third-best performing in Victoria. It was a bitter pill to swallow.' (11 Lionel Allemand, personal communication, 15 August 2001)
Proclamation of the City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1967. (Photo: Irvine Green; Doncaster/Templestowe Album, MCC)
Already a large municipality, Doncaster-Templestowe was extended to include Wonga Park, which had orchards, hills and open space that all seemed to match the image that the new City of Manningham projected. (12 City of Doncaster and Templestowe, ‘Amalgamations’, Staff Newsletter, August 1994; The Age, Melbourne, 29 July 1994). In March 1997 elected representatives were returned to the Manningham City Council. Lionel Allemand remembers a massive increase in area and a reduction of councillors from twelve to eight did not seem logical to me. The new councillors have performed very well indeed; they were all returned at the year 2000 elections.' (13 Lionel Allemand, personal communication, 15 August 2001)
The Mayoress’s reception held on 24 February 1971 at the Park Orchards Chalet. (Photo: Irvine Green; Doncaster/Templestowe Album, MCC)
With the changes wrought by the State Government’s 1994 reorganisation of local government, the spending of ratepayers' funds has been scrutinised and councils made more mindful of their accountability - although ratepayers have always been able to hold councillors accountable at 'the next' election. Accordingly, Manningham City Council has responded to changing community expectations of its role. This has meant increased community consultation and participation in determining which kinds of services are to be given priority - support for Manningham’s ageing population is just one example of ongoing change in the community. Other priorities such as maintenance of infrastructure and environmental management have been undertaken for the benefit of all sections of the community and look to the future - the Council’s goals for quality of life in the city try to retain the attributes of Manningham’s more rural past. (14 Corporate Plan 2000-2003, Manningham City Council, 2000, p. 8)
Local community members enjoy the Mayor’s Family Day, 26 March 1979. (Photo: Irvine Green; Doncaster/Templestowe Album, MCC)
Places of Worship
In the early days of local government, as we have seen, the overwhelming need of ratepayers was clear: roads. As families grew, the community’s needs increased: health care and sports clubs to cater for physical well-being, education to help exercise the mind, and social and religious centres for the spirit. Community for the earliest European immigrants - those who came to the region in the first half of the nineteenth century - was most often centred on the buildings in which they gathered to celebrate their faith, predominantly Christianity.
A cheese churn for an altar
Robert Laidlaw, one of the earliest immigrants to come into the area directly from Britain, was Scottish by birth. Around 1842-43 he went into partnership with fellow Scot Alexander Duncan who had been running a dairy farm on Gardiners Creek in Hawthorn. Duncan established a cheese factory in Thompsons Road, which is now the site of the Bulleen shops. Local lore has it that the very first church service in the district was conducted in Alexander Duncan’s barn, where the faithful sat on planks arranged on barley sacks, while a cheese churn was adapted to form the altar. From 1845, local Presbyterians were served by a small church across the river in Heidelberg until 1895 when their own church was built in Templestowe. (15 Leaney, Judith. Bulleen: a short history. Donvale, Victoria: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society, p. 8; Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 44)
St Johns interior in Springvale Road, Donvale, built in 1907. The congregation moved to St David's, Doncaster East, in the 1970s and the church building reverted to general community use. (Photo: DTHS)
For Anglicans and Lutherans in Doncaster, private homes provided the earliest venues for communal gatherings of worship. The Anglicans seem to have held their first service in 1856 in the home of Joseph Pickering, who had arrived in the colony from England in 1850 and who was to play a prominent role in the building of Holy Trinity Church of England in 1868. (16 Collyer, Doncaster: a short history, (1981; rev. edn Donvale, Victoria: Doncaster- Templestowe Historical Society, c. 1994), p. 9). The stone church still stands on the corner of Church and Doncaster roads.
Lutheran Church, Waldau, drawn by Eugene von Guerard in 1859. (Reproduced with the permission of the Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales; and DTHS)
Soon after Lutheran immigrants arrived in Melbourne in 1849, services were held in Richmond and in the Collins Street Congregational Church building. The journey to Melbourne from Doncaster, however, was time consuming and often physically arduous for the newly arrived German settlers. In April 1858 the congregation met to discuss the build- ing of their own church. Gottlieb Thiele, very active in establishing and promoting the devel- opment of the community at Waldau, was elected chairman of the building committee. The original church - the first to be built in Doncaster - was a wooden structure. In time it need- ed so much maintenance that a new Lutheran church was built on a site in Victoria Street fur- ther to the south; it was dedicated in 1892 with Max von Schramm as its first resident pastor. The site of the original church in Victoria Street is today occupied by Schramm's Cottage, which was moved there from Doncaster Road and re-erected between 1972 and 1976. The small burial ground laid out around the first Lutheran church at Waldau was closed in 1888 but is preserved as part of the Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society’s site. (17 Collyer and Thiele, pp. 25, 31; Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 44)
Background Photo: The entrance at Lower Templestowe to the Seminary of Christ the King (now Odyssey House) and the Chapel o f the Perpetual Exposition, photographed in the early 1960s by Roy Leibig. (Photo: Pouline Heslop) Left top to bottom: St Clement’s Roman Catholic Church, Bulleen, 2001. (Photo: Helen Penrose) Congregation outside Christ Church, Templestowe, after the thanksgiving service on Palm Sunday, 23 March 1973, to commemorate the years in the church. The final service was held on Good Friday. (Photo: Keith Anderson) The Islamic Centre on the corner of Dawes Road and George Street, Doncaster, 2001. (Photo: Helen Penrose) Right top to bottom: Moving St Kevin’s Church from Templestowe to Park Orchards in 1968, where it became St Anne’s. (Photo: Garth Kendall) St Haralambos Greek Orthodox Church, Porter Street, Templestowe, 2001. (Photo: Helen Penrose) Yeshurun Synagogue, High Street, Doncaster, 2001. (Photo: Helen Penrose)
Church of Christ, Doncaster. The original timber building (1863) is at the rear. The brick church at the front was built in 1889. (Photo: DTHS)
Fruit of the harvest
My great-grandfather, Henry William Crouch, came to Doncaster in 1863. He was one of the main people who started the Church of Christ in Doncaster. For years there was this old photo of him with a big bushy beard in the old church hall, which was the original church building, and if anybody new came to Sunday School or church Fd say, 'That’s my great- grandfather'. I was always proud of this man with his big bushy beard'. Henry Crouch was also the patriarch of one of Doncaster’s pioneer orcharding families who continued to work as orchardists in the district through several generations, and the Church of Christ remained a focus of family and community alike: 'We had Harvest Thanksgiving at the church and the orchardists would give boxes of beautiful fruit to be displayed. There was a prayer of thanks- giving for the fruit harvest and on the way home we'd hear Mum and Dad talking about the various fruits on display. Of course we always thought Dads fruit was the best fruit there, because they always gave their best fruit. It was a bit of a sacrifice for the orchardists because they didn't have a lot of money, but the fruit used to be donated to very poor families in Melbourne'. (18 Olive Crouch-Napier, interview, 5 June 2001). Ian Morrison, who grew up in Doncaster in the 1920s, recalls attending events at the Church of Christ: up on the top of the hill - I still go there. I can remember, once a year, when it was the anniversary of the church or something, they'd have a big tea meeting. And all the ladies would bake cakes and cream puffs and sandwiches and everything else, and we'd have a great feed as kids.' (19 Ian Morrison, interview, 31 May 2001). In 1957 the final service in the old Church of Christ build- ing was held, and the new building was officially opened. (20 Collyer, Doncaster: a short history, (1981; rev. edn Donvale, Victoria: Doncaster- Templestowe Historical Society, c. 1994), p. 28). In 1963, Lois and Don Smith moved their family to Doncaster and became part of the Church of Christ community: 'The church was a cohesive group for us to belong to. The children found friends in the boys' clubs that they belonged to and, later, after Katherine was born, a girls' club.' Lois recalls that the protestant Christian denominations worked together closely: 'We had inter-Church-type arrangements where we would have gone to women’s groups that were operating: Uniting Church, Anglican, Baptist, Salvation Army, all quite active in the community. There’s a much more open involvement with the Catholic Church now than ever there was right back in the early days but things have changed there quite a bit, too.' (21 Lois Smith, interview, 8 June 2001). There are now around twenty types of religious centre in the municipality; while these are predominantly Christian church- es, this number also includes the Islamic Centre in George Street, Doncaster East, and the Yeshurun Synagogue. (22 Melway Greater Melbourne Street Directory, Edition 27, 2000, Melway Publishing, Glen Iris, Victoria, 1999, pp. 740-8; Religious organisations listing, Manningham City Council website, 17 July 2001). Were there space enough here to detail the histories of all the places of worship in Manningham, they would reveal both diversity and unity - distinct communities celebrating in different ways their unifying faith.
Ticket to the opening of the new Church of England at Templestowe in 1900. (Illustration: Keith Anderson)
An open-air Easter Sunday service in 1973, held on the future site of Schramm’s Cottage. (Photo: DTHS)
Seats of learning
The community activity centred on schools invariably draws people together in pursuit of common goals - raising local funds to get a school built in the first place, providing improved educational facilities and equipment for their children, running extra-curricular programs, and a multitude of other needs.
The earliest schools in Manningham were affiliated with churches and established by the efforts of parents seeking an education for their children. In 1847 Robert Laidlaw gave part of his land near the Banksia Street Bridge in Bulleen for a school to be run by the Church of England. Was this the first school in Manningham? In 1850 a private Wesleyan school opened near the corner of Williamsons Road and Rasmussen Drive. The first school in Warrandyte was opened in 1856. In 1860 Max von Schramm came to Doncaster to teach at a school he opened at Waldau in the Lutheran church. In 1863 Schramm's school at Waldau became a Common School responsible to the Board of Education. In 1866 the Misses Faulkiner established a school in the Methodist church in Doncaster East. Then, in 1874, state schools started to appear, ensuring a secular education for the children of the area. (23 Judith Leaney, Bulleen: a short history (Donvale, Victoria: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society, c. 1991), p. 8; Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 96; Around 1856 Mr J. G. Walther established a school in his home for the children of the German community at Waldau; Collyer, Doncaster: a short history, pp. 29, 31)
School openings and closings tend to mirror changes in population. From the 1950s onwards, as orchards disappeared and houses proliferated, the areas burgeoning population created an unprecedented demand for more educational facilities. In the Templestowe area in the 1950s, the local community got together to run a kindergarten. Ann Turner and Meg Henderson both had investigated the State Government requirements for running a kindergarten: cWe decided we'd get a few more people together and we did manage to get a kindergarten going which was run in the old Memorial Hall in Templestowe. One of the mothers actually had primary school qualifications and she ran it/ The kindergarten was a focus for community co-operation: cWe had to raise money, and we'd had to scrub the floors, you know, to get it all organised. There was a small store which was a focus in Lower Templestowe, so we had cake stalls there to raise money for the kindergarten equipment. Our activities were community based or home based. They were 'doing' activities rather than secondary involvements. (24 Meg Henderson, interview, 27 March 2001)
Major population growth in the 1960s and 1970s saw the establishment of many kindergarten facilities, and afterwards primary schools. Since the 1980s, along with an increase in two-income families in the community, the need for creches has arisen. The four Council creches - Occasional Care, Deep Creek, Bulleen and Warrandyte - have been very popular. Serpell Primary School was set up by a special Act of Parliament that provided for an innovative, joint Catholic-council primary school development on common land. It has grown to be a very prominent school in the area with enrolments over 800.
Doncaster State School. The picture was taken in the 1880s when Oswald Thiele was head teacher. He stands in the back row to the right. (Photo: DTHS)
Doncaster East had a heritage building that was dismantled after the school closed. The building was eventually relocated to Laburnum Primary.
In recent times parents have had to adopt the practices of more than a hundred years ago in order to provide for their children specialist education not available in the state system. Extra Saturday schooling has developed in order to help retain and learn more about cultures and to study languages other than English. The year 2001 sees the twentieth year of the Iranian Cultural School, presently run by Moshen Afkari. He became involved as a volunteer when he moved his family to Doncaster in 1989 and took his children to the school: 'I didn't want them to lose the language or forget about it'. He is now the school’s principal and his current profession as a full-time teacher qualifies him to run Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) classes in Persian language (Farsi). He points out that culture - encom- passing history, geography and tradition - is integral to the study of language: 'When we teach them, we don't only teach them how to speak or how to listen and understand, we also teach them the cultural part'. (27 Moshen Afkari, Suburban Voices oral history project, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation, interviewer Lesley Alves, 5 December 2000). The Iranian school fosters in students a strong sense of their ethnic culture - be it Iranian, Afghani or from anywhere else that Farsi is spoken - and all its teachers give of their time voluntarily to provide their children with this opportunity. Tula and Con Karanikolopoulos started the first Greek school in Doncaster in February 1975, with forty pupils. They note that while young children may find it hard to see past the extra work and the reduced time to play, by the time they reach Year 9 they begin to appreciate the importance of learning Greek language and culture in order to keep their tradition. A further benefit is in better understanding the English language: 'A lot of words - they estimate about 25 per cent of the English words - come from the Greek language'. (28 Con and Toula Karanikolopoulos, Suburban Voices oral history project, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation, interviewer Lesley Alves, 21 September 2000)
Further education
There exists in Manningham an array of facilities that provide opportunities for education outside the school system. It is true that there are no tertiary institutions based within the municipal boundaries, but many residents of Manningham are involved in lifelong education through the U3A (University of the Third Age), the Manningham Arts Centre, community houses, Council services, service clubs and many special interest or hobby groups too numer- ous to mention.
Manningham has six centres providing community-based learning: Bulleen and Templestowe Community House, Donvale Living and Learning Centre, Park Orchards Community House, TRY Activities Centre, Warrandyte Neighbourhood House and Wonga Park Community Cottage. (29 ‘Neighbourhood Houses’, Manningham City Council web site, 25 July 2001; Lesley Taylor, personal communication, 25 July 2001). The story of organising a facility to meet the learning needs and interests of locals is common to all; here follow aspects of just two.
The Donvale Living and Learning Centre was established in 1977 to promote human growth and development, and education as a life-long process. Until late 1979, classes were held in private homes and at Zerbes and Rieschiecks reserves because, although the council had agreed to allow the Centre to use the former St Johns Church house, residents objected to the planning permit. As well as classes in Higher School Certificate (HSC) English and other subjects, child-minding was provided. From its three classes per week in 1979, the Donvale Living and Learning Centre ran up to seventy in 2001, attended by a total of over 600 students. Overcrowding resulting from this growth has prompted an undertaking from the council to relocate the Centre within the coming few years. What will then become of the site, including the church hall used until the late 1980s as the Doncaster Arts Centre and which now hosts Melbourne Gospel Fellowship services on Sundays, is unknown. Brenda Humphreys describes the atmosphere of the Donvale Living and Learning Centre in the cur- rent climate: 'The Centre is now virtually a small business, but maintains its not-for-profit status and community centre 'feel', combining friendliness and informality with the provision of excellence in adult education. (30 Brenda Humphreys, questionnaire, 20 July 2001)
Templestowe School, built in 1874, in Andersons Street. (Photo: DTHS)
Doncaster East School, built on the corner of Andersons Creek and Reynolds roads in 1878 and shown here in 1887, when the post office opened. The school moved to Blackburn Road in 1887. (Photo: DTHS)
The first assembly held at Templestowe Park Primary School in March 1977, the year it opened. (Photo: Kay Mack)
These pupils from the South Warrandyte School attended classes in a tent after their school was destroyed by the bushfires in January 1939. More than a thousand houses, millions of hectares of forest and seventy-one lives were lost in Victoria. (Photo: DTHS)
Lesley Taylor, recently retired from the committee of the Bulleen and Templestowe Community House (BaTCH), has remarked on the changes wrought by the requirements of funding bodies. Community House committees of volunteers must comply with standards of budgeting, reporting and evaluation: 'Nowadays you need more business knowledge to serve on the committee, its a lot of responsibility, a lot of hard work, with the accountability requirements'. (31 Lesley Taylor, personal communication, 9 January 2001). Taylor describes the Bulleen and Templestowe Community House as quite multi-cultural', dating back to its establishment in the early 1970s to help provide support for Bulleen immigrants, particularly women. BaTCH runs English as a Second Language certificate courses as well as health and fitness, art and craft, parents' and children’s activities. The differences between the programs offered by the five neighbourhood houses reflect the characteristics and needs of each one’s immediate surroundings. At the same time, they all share the aim of enriching the lives of participants through ongoing learning in the community.
The Mia Mia Gallery is one example of a venue that offers education to the community while being immersed in the commercial world. As Colin McKinnon recalls: 'I knew that in the early days of operation, being government-funded, I'd need to put together as many income strands as possible. So I put together sixteen, knowing that I wouldn't use them all at once, but this industry is very seasonal, so I had to come up with income streams that I could pull the plug on at any given time when they got too expensive and have an alternative to ride with.' Income streams actually support the educational and social aims of the Mia Mia Gallery - education provided by the gallery offers a practical means of under- standing aspects of Australia’s rich cultural heritage. Education does not stop with visitors to the gallery; employment opportunities are created in performance and hospitality at the Aboriginal Cafe and in the gallery: 'Where a young child, an Aboriginal child, wouldn't get a job because he’s not educated in mainstream, I'll employ him because he can play a dijeridu. I'll teach him mainstream skills while he’s here. And that’s how it works. It’s community nur- turing and growing.' (32 Colin McKinnon, interview, 14 March 2001). Nurturing the artists, performers and employees leads to benefits that flow on to the wider community.
Community care
Doncare
In the 1960s the influx of young families living on land only recently turned from orchards to estates put pressure on existing infrastructure. Those struggling to repay mortgages faced the additional hurdles of unmade roads and footpaths, inadequate drainage and water supplies, and deficiencies in street lighting and transport services. Many had moved away from their own families to purchase these new homes. In Doncaster and Templestowe, ecumenical study groups set about finding solutions for the problems of isolation which ensued: 'What was happening in this developing area could be related to a far wider trend discovered by other study groups, in which the alienation and insulation of families in grow- ing suburban areas was diminishing the older concepts of community help, self-help and shared responsibilities.' The churches decided to consult the wider community; two meetings for that purpose were held on 19 and 20 May 1967 and attended by representatives from the City Council, Doncaster Elderly Citizens, Guides, Scouts, Junior Chamber of Commerce, Lions and Apex clubs, Police, Red Cross, school committees and the Victorian Council of Social Services, as well as interested individuals such as the local publican. This community consultation identified as most urgent the need for some kind of counselling service'. It would be a place where people could go to sort out personal difficulties, relationships and emotions or to just talk about how they were feeling about life'. Five ministers - the Reverends Bruce Bateman, Tom Keyte, Alan Collins, Joe Shaw and John Howard - were delegated to form a steering committee to establish a counselling and referral service led by a trained social worker. (33 Cheryl Crockett, A History of Doncare: the first twenty years 1969-1989, Doncaster, Victoria: Doncaster Community Care and Counselling Centre, [1989], pp. 2-4; throughout Australia in 1966 the Australian Council of Churches started the Church and Life Movement, which set up study groups). The service was to be situated in a central location, preferably near professional offices at a shopping centre, which would provide some client anonymity and be acceptable to church-goer, agnostic and atheist alike: fit was felt that there was a certain reticence in the community about going to a Church for help - which would have been forthcoming if they asked - but because they were not in the habit of going to a Church, they felt a bit strange about saying, 'I need help. What can you do for me?'' (34 Lois Smith, interview, 8 June 2001)With the support of many sponsors, including the Westfield Development Corporation which provided rent-free premises at Doncaster Shoppingtown, the new Doncaster Community Care & Counselling Centre opened with twenty-two staff on 17 November 1969, only weeks after the opening of the shopping centre itself. In 1971 a shortened version of the name - Doncare - was adopted for common use.
While professional staff such as Ann Fulcher, appointed as the Centres first director in February 1970, have been essential to its operations, Doncare has always relied on many hundreds of volunteer staff and supporters. Lois Smith was one of the initial volunteers: 'Each of the churches put the situation to their congregations, asked for volunteers and each one produced, I suppose, half-a-dozen people, men and women. I thought that it was something that I could do for other people in the community. My Christian faith probably was the motivating force as well, since it was through the Church that I became involved. And at that stage my children would all have been at school, so I needed some other thing to focus my attention on. It was useful for me and for the community.5 Finding sufficient numbers of volunteers - and dollars - for Doncare remains a constant challenge. In June 2001 Doncare put a notice in the local paper calling for people to serve on the Board of Management: 'So they're still looking for people to volunteer and usually that’s the way with community affairs. I think the State Government have pulled back quite a lot in their funding of these things and it’s largely community donations and local Councils that keep it going.' (35 Lois Smith, interview, 8 June 2001)
Throughout its history Doncare has provided direct assistance through emotional as well as material support: 'We had client families that came to us for more than just a welfare problem like running out of money and needing food and bills paid, but people that came to us with genuine family dysfunctions and needing some guidance about how they were to go forward.' (36 Lois Smith, interview, 8 June 2001). The Education Committee aimed to 'facilitate communication and interaction in the community' through activities such as seminars, lectures, and films. (37 Cheryl Crockett, A History of Doncare: the first twenty years 1969-1989, Doncaster, Victoria: Doncaster Community Care and Counselling Centre, [1989], p. 25). Doncare also 'provided some community ongoing class work: how to parent children effectively, and some marriage enrichment work and divorce recovery-type workshops and those sorts of things'. (38 Lois Smith, interview, 8 June 2001). The Doncare Auxiliary was formed to raise funds for Doncare and on 4 September 1972, Doncare’s first Opportunity Shop opened. From drop-in centre programs for the young to support for the elderly, Doncare has endeavoured to respond to the community’s needs as they arise: 'The Doncaster and Templestowe Youth Centre, now Manningham Youth and Family Services, was initiated by Doncare'. (39 Jan Loughman, Social and Community Services Unit, Manningham City Council, 15 August 2001; the Manningham City Council funds ‘Manningham Face to Face’ under the auspices of Doncare as a volunteer coordination project)
From its inception Doncare had been intended to address wider social issues - it was hoped that providing community education and activities, for example, would build community structures and help people before they needed counselling or welfare. One innovative project was Walk in My Shoes for the International Year of Older Persons in 1999. Twenty-five separate organisations including Doncare, the Warrandyte Theatre Company the Aged and Disability Services and Cultural and Leisure Services Units, and the Gallery at Manningham Council, worked in partnership with about 125 individuals from respite care and nursing homes: 'The project itself, over three-and-a-half weeks, attracted roughly 1,200 visitors. When we did Walk in My Shoes we actually had two performances. The Warrandyte Theatre Company turned some of the material produced by older people - because the exhi- bition was purely about, by and for older people - into a performance. The material came out of the womens writing group, which came out of Doncare, and now they've developed the Men’s Shed, which is a men’s group. We also had about forty primary school children, I think they were 8-year-olds, performing traditional songs with an older person, and we had a beau- tiful concert here as part of Walk in My Shoes. The Gallery was full of people.' As Gallery Director Eva Gaitatzis points out: 'Walk in My Shoes was able to link the idea of health, cul- ture and art and valuing people at any time of life and actually give them a voice'. (40 Eva Gaitatzis, interview, 29 March 2001). Relationships forged through projects such as this have strengthened community ties.
Palliative care
When her husband was dying of cancer, Judy Conway realised Doncaster needed palliative care services. A hospice awareness seminar was called by Sheila Denford, the Lady Mayoress, on 15 November 1986: 'I attended this seminar and it resulted in the setting-up of the Doncaster Palliative Care Steering Committee, which I joined. The then Mayor Vernon Denford was the Public Officer of this committee. When the Doncaster Palliative Care Service was set up in the late 1980s, Bernard Worsam from the Peter James Geriatric Assessment Facility in Burwood was the first President.' (41 Judy Conway, personal communication, 19 January 2001). Her experiences also led her to help set up a daytime Doncaster group of the Solace Association in 1989, to help people cope with bereavement. It met weekly at the Doncaster Palliative Care House situated in the Municipal Gardens (now Ruffey Lake Park). Involved in many other organisations, Judy Conway won the Doncaster-Templestowe Citizen of the Year Award in 1990 for voluntary services, the city formally recognising how the initiative and hard work of individuals enriches a community.
Open-air cure
While there are no public hospitals in Manningham, a range of health services contribute to the high standards of health the populace enjoys. The open space, parks and trees on which the area prides itself add to the impression of a healthful place to live. Joan Norbury, a resident of Donvale, has researched a little-known chapter of Manningham’s healthcare history. In 1910 rural Donvale had the qualities of fresh air, elevated position and dry soil in abundance, which attracted Dr Francis John Drake to set up a privately run Tuberculosis Sanatorium there. The open-air cure he advocated also encompassed good food and gradual strengthening of the body through regular exercise and rest, and, if appropriate, medication such as tuberculin. It is not known precisely when the sanatorium ceased operating but the Carmelite Order purchased the property in 1936 to build a monastery. Although Whitefriars College, the school built on the property and opened in 1961, still functions, the monastery, which has recently operated as a convention centre, is to be sold. What changes will this bring to the area? Norbury states that residents are alarmed by a proposed re-development of the site as a retirement village. She is concerned that cit will place the habitat of native species in jeopardy and fears the doss of ambience and a degradation of qualities that attracted residents to Donvale in the first instance'. (42 Joan Norbury, ‘Tuberculosis Sanatorium’, 13 July 2001). It is a familiar tension in Donvale today - and a battle that has been playing out in Manningham for the past fifty years between the sometimes conflict- ing desires and needs of those who already live, and those who wish to live, in this place.
Bushfires
Few things galvanise neighbours to a common purpose as potently as times of adversity. On Friday 13 January 1939 - 'Black Friday5 in Victoria - when bushfires raged through the district, the community was tested. At Warrandyte, a volunteer fire brigade had been formally established in 1938 but it could do little in the face of such fury. (43 Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 62; today in Warrandyte, few buildings survive from before 1939; see also Bruce Bence, Fire: the story of a community s fight against fire, [Warrandyte, Victoria]: published by the author, 1989; W. S. Noble, Ordeal By Fire: the week a state burned up, Melbourne: published by the author, 1977). 'We lost our house as did hundreds of others. My brother spent the time of the fire with one of my aunts in the Warrandyte Hotel where a lot of people had gathered. I don't know whether the drinkers had rushed there to save it from being burnt but they were there anyway so they were safe. I'd been taken with the Houghtons to the river and I can still see to this day the flames jumping over trees above me as I stood on the riverbank. The Houghtons, my grandparents, had a cave and they put a lot of their precious things down in it when the fire was coming, and that was an advantage, but we lost everything - precious photographs, mementos! The community was wonderful after the bushfires. Donations came from all over the state and in the hall they set up a sort of reception area where people who were disadvantaged by the fire came and were given clothing and supplies and so on. I was only 9 years old. I was absolutely devastated by the fact that our house had burnt down. Our cockatoo was burnt. Our dog was burnt - my parents absolutely loved that dog. Everyone was devastated.' (44 Murray Houghton, interview, 9 May 2001). Dulcie Crouch also vividly remembers the events of Black Friday: 'When the 1939 bush fire went through Warrandyte our fruit was ruined, the house was alight three times. The phone lines were down but J.J. Tully and his nephew Bunty arrived at 3 a.m., the earliest they could get through, as J.J. was concerned about us and wanted to make sure we were all right.' (45 Dulcie Crouch (nee Adams), questionnaire, 7 June 2001)
The newly migrated Stringer family from England on their land leased in Stinton Road, Warrandyte, in April 1913, soon after a bushfire had ravaged the area. From left: Olive Stringer, Annie Coles nee Stringer, Maude Coles, Fred Coles, Emily Stringer, William Stringer with baby Zeilah and three of the other four children, Will, George and Madge. William Stringer was a builder and also grew strawberries and asparagus on this land. In 1924 he purchased land in Donvale and built a new family home. Stringer Rise in Donvale was named after him. (Photo: Zeilah Bullock nee Stringer)
When the 1962 bushfires burned through much of Warrandyte, the fires seemed like cred liquid' pouring over the hill. (46 Jo Laurence, interview, 2 February 2001). These bushfires lit up the Dandenongs when spot fires destroyed homes in outer Melbourne suburbs; when Doncaster and Nunawading felt like Pompeii as ash rained down on them and blackened gum leaves blew over Box Hill'. (47 Joan Seppings, ‘Eight councils get together for do-it-yourself civil defence’, The Australian Municipal Journal, March 1968, p. 297). Darren Kelly remembers the fire which also much affected Wonga Park roaring over the hill from Yarra Brae towards his home. The fire burnt out the hawthorn hedge, cowshed and part of the great oak tree on the property. Nine relatively inexperienced fire-fighters were attempting to douse the blaze with knapsack sprays. When they gave the signal to abandon the property, the 19-year-old Kelly, who was providing transport for the fire-fighters in his old ute, drove off - but they had left one of the fire-fighters behind. By sheer luck the fire turned just in time and the fire-fighter escaped harm. (48 Farley Kelly, personal communication, May 2001)
The chaos' of fearful residents trying to evacuate Warrandyte and Wonga Park along the Warrandyte-Ringwood Road in cars crammed with possessions highlighted the need to instigate orderly procedures. A public meeting held in Doncaster’s Athenaeum Hall in April 1963 produced a Doncaster and Templestowe Civil Defence body. Shire President Russell Hardidge suggested in November 1964 that neighbouring municipalities combine their efforts as the Yarra Valley Regional Civil Defence Organisation. The Organisation would facil- itate liaison between eight local councils - Croydon, Doncaster and Templestowe, Eltham, Healesville, Knox, Lilydale, Sherbrooke and Upper Yarra - and the Country Fire Authority (CFA). The municipalities would give each other auxiliary support such as the provision of additional water tankers to replenish fire-fighting units, organisation of Traffic Check Points to direct and control operational traffic, additional fire-fighters, supplementary radio communications, medical and refreshment services'. (49 Joan Seppings, ‘Eight councils get together for do-it-yourself civil defence’, The Australian Municipal Journal, March 1968, p. 297). In March 1965 another major bushfire threatened the community from Research to Warrandyte but only two houses were lost.
Infant welfare sisters also joined in the battle. In 1969 they were on Tire duty' at the Warrandyte Mechanics' Institute Hall, used as a medical aid unit where Red Cross members and Rover Scouts helped the trained team provide refreshments for the fire-fighters at the front, and care for evacuated school children'. (50 Joan Seppings, ‘From infant welfare to bushfire relief duty’, The Herald, 9 January 1969, p. 18). Against the threat of bushfire, individuals and organisations have combined forces for the defence of their community; no matter how vigi- lant people are in their preparations, homes remain at risk - and the hope of saving those homes remains a potent motive for members of the community to work together.
A precious commodity
Like so many community services, the provision of piped water to houses typically follows the concentration of population in a given area. Reticulated water came to the town of Doncaster for its domestic water needs in 1896 when a 2-inch main was laid from the Surrey Hills reservoir. It was not until 1922 that the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works connected houses in Doncaster to its supply. With a smaller population and being more rural in character, the town of Warrandyte had to wait until 1959, when the Warrandyte Water Works Trust was constituted to provide a reticulated supply, drawn from the river, to the town. (51 Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), pp. 42, 58-9)
The stories of how Manningham’s townships came to be connected to mains supply share similarities. When water came to Wonga Park, for example, it was a result of commu- nity lobbying. Around 1965, the Wonga Park District Residents' Association (WPDRA) made moves to get water laid on, a goal that was not actually achieved until 1968: 'Up until the mains water came through, we had tanks and we were always running out of water in the summer time. So we had to rely upon people who had trucks with tanks on board, usually the CFA people, who would then deliver you a tank of water and set up the little pump and pump it into your tank and you'd be right for another fortnight or so unless the rain fell.' In the mid- 1960s the MMBW doubted that they had the capacity to supply Wonga Park with water: 'We had water up to Beagley’s store but no further'. An MMBW engineer happened to mention to the WPDRA president, Don Tinkler, that a reduction valve would take water from a 68- inch main from Silvan Reservoir to a 6-inch sub-main; this would make it physically possible to supply Wonga Park. Then a financial difficulty had to be solved. The annual income from the property ratings had to be sufficient to warrant the cost of laying the pipes - the MMBW required 8 per cent of the total expenditure. 'So we were looking at $75,000 - that was a pret- ty big sum in 1965. There was no way we were going to get the 8 per cent, but I discovered that the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission was putting in what they called ‘small town water supplies' and they had done it for one of the 'hills' areas and I persuaded them that they should accept Wonga Park as a small town water supply. So the water came to Wonga Park as a joint enterprise between the Lillydale Shire Council, the Board of Works and the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission - and the WPDRA.' (52 Don Tinkler, interview, 6 April 2001)
The story of Manningham’s electricity supply also displays the spirit and willingness of citi- zens to exert themselves to secure benefits for the whole community. In his brief history of the Electricity Department of the City of Doncaster and Templestowe, John White tells the story of the advent of electric power in the district:
Valentine Crowley rose nervously to present his plan to the Council. Despite the sound- ness of his scheme, and his special qualifications, he knew he faced strong opposition.
'Gentlemen, he began, the capital cost of an Electric Lighting Scheme is 1,845 pounds. This includes high voltage supply from Koonung Koonung Creek to the corner of Doncaster and Blackburn Roads. Money for the first years wages and incidentals is 255 pounds, making the total to be borrowed 2,100 pounds/
Jack Speers at Bonnie View in about 1920, looking towards the power lines put through the cutting. Jack was the youngest brother of George and Marjie Speers, who did not get electricity connected until the 1970s. (Photo: Julie White)
Crowley was an experienced consulting electrical engineer, speaking at a Shire Council meeting on 24 August 1914. He heard objections emanating from two of the six councillors and thought at least one other demurred; he played his trump card:
I am pleased to be able to inform you that some members of the Progress Association have been so public spirited as to guarantee the Council against all loss in the business.' He paused for effect, then continued. 'I would mention that this is the finest thing that I have encountered in this State, and I think the District is to be congratulated on having such Citizens.'
Tenders were called for the installation of the system; the completion of the scheme was delayed because materials became difficult to obtain, due to the Great War. On 9 February 1916, however, the first electricity supply to Doncaster was switched on by Mrs Zerbe, wife of the shire president. The Templestowe district followed in 1922. To supply Warrandyte with electricity proved so costly that the Council asked the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) to take on the task. Warrandyte residents had to wait until December 1935 to be connected. (53 John White, Power in the East: a short history of the Electricity Department of the City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1986; See also Graham Keogh, The History of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1975), p. 58)
Bill and Helen Larkin remember life before electricity in their first hom e in Doncaster East: 'Below our hom e fac ing D evon Drive, an English couple in their early 40s had built a brick veneer home. Before we had electrical supply, Helen went to 'Mick’ (nicknamed because o f her love of Mickey Mouse) and Harry Stafford’s hom e weekly to do our laundry and ironing. H elen also prepared a simple baby trousseau using M ick’s electric sewing machine. Electricity could only be connected if we lodged a loan to fund the actual poles and w ork required. At som ething like £ 200 per pole, it was well beyond our resources, as we needed three poles. T he owners o f the next-door block (Mai and Lavinia Cowley) decided to build and through them other landowners lodged their share o f the costs and electricity was switched on in I960.’ Source: Helen and Bill Larkin, questionnaire, 19 March 2001.
By the 1960s the population growth in Doncaster and Templestowe necessitated a rebuilding of the system to cope with demand. Don and Nell Charlwood, who moved into Templestowe in 1953, recall the way power would simply drain away in the early days: 'The electricity was very poor when we first went in. As soon as everyone started turning things on, it would die right down. It was sometimes even hard to boil a kettle.' (54 Nell Charlwood, interview, 14 June 2001)
In 1964 the SECV made a takeover bid for the Doncaster-Templestowe supply company. John White points out that proceeds from the sale could have financed projects such as much-needed road works and capital works; in addition he cites arranging loan funds for electricity works' as a recurrent financial burden of which the council would be relieved. These inducements seemed tempting but the purchase price and terms of payment that the SECV offered were unacceptable. 'Even those councillors most anxious to dispose of the undertaking were not prepared to give it away.' (55 John White, Power in the East: a short history of the Electricity Department of the City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1986). Having a council-operated Electricity Department ensured that any profits made from the area’s huge domestic consumption remained in the community. Les Cameron, long-serving councillor and shire president in 1961-62, recalls that in 1971, during his term as Mayor, the City’s first underground electricity supply was installed: ‘Underground supply meant no posts along the road’. (56 Les Cameron, interview, 13 February 2001). Cameron remembers that the decision was based on aesthetics — it was more pleasing to the eye to keep powerlines out of sight so the community could still enjoy the area’s famed views. Commenting on the future ‘corporatisation’ of the SECV in 1992, Graeme Andersen — who had retired as City Electrical Engineer in 1987 - wrote: ‘The restructure o f the Electricity Supply Industry will, in some way, influence the manner in which Local Government partic ipates in electricity distribution. Whatever takes place, the Electricity Services Group of the City of Doncaster and Templestowe is well equipped to adjust to any changes that may occur.’ (57 Graeme Andersen, Electricity Supply in Doncaster and Templestowe: a history of the Electricity Department of the City of Doncaster and Templestowe (Doncaster, Victoria: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, 1992), p. 46). Despite providing a ‘very efficient, effective and viable service’, however, the Doncaster and Templestowe Electricity Department was one of the eleven council electricity suppliers that were forced to sell by the State Government. (58 Bill Larkin, personal communication, 19 June 2001). Amalgamation with the three State Electricity Commission-controlled companies was effected in 1994. (59 Helen Penrose, Bright Sparks: the Brunswick Electricity Supply Department 1912-1994 (Brunswick Electricity Supply Department, 1994), pp. 1, 39)
Any volunteers ?
As Councillor Julie Eisenbise, Mayor of Manningham in 2001, has stated: ‘The dedicated army of 20,000 volunteers across the City are the backbone of our community and deserve our thanks and praise’. (60 Eisenbise, ‘Welcome to Manningham City Council’). The ways in which volunteers have enriched the community are end less: from Neighbourhood Watch to aged care to youth services, and many individuals work for more than one cause. Twenty years ago Helen Larkin became involved in the Kevin Heinze Garden Centre for the disabled, where she recruited and organised volunteers to get the program underway: ‘The Kiwanis Club had undertaken fund-raising and donated much labour to constructing the building’. It continues to operate with a strong volunteer base. Since the 1980s, Bill and Helen Larkin have participated in various services for older people, in particular the Manningham Centre: ‘The Centre comprises a 60-bed nursing home, a 51- bed hostel, a day therapy centre, a home maintenance centre and activity support services for frail older people and their carers.’ The U3A, which has been operating in Manningham for ten years, relies entirely on volunteers; U3A tutors are drawn from its 700 members. (61 Helen and Bill Larkin, questionnaire, 19 March 2001; Bill Larkin, personal communication, 12 August 2001). Many of Manningham’s volunteers are affiliated with formal organisations. Service clubs such as Apex, Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary raise funds to provide facilities that can be shared, and assistance to individuals. Other special interest groups, such as conservation societies, also become involved in fundraising and volunteer service.
Wood-chopping contest held during the Oddfellows Picnic, Easter Monday about 1900, at Doncaster Recreation Ground, on the corner of Doncaster Road and Leeds Street. Bicycle races were also held that day. (Photo: DTHS)
Through country women, by country women
The Country Womens Association of Victoria now has two branches in the City of Manningham. The Templestowe branch is in the CWA Diamond Valley group and was estab- lished in 1946. One of its founding members, Rita Morrison, is still involved in 2001. The other branch is Donvale. Member Hazel Holly recounts the story of Donvale CWA:
During the years of the Second World War (1939-45) the ladies of Donvale and Doncaster East formed a branch of the Comforts Fund, meeting at St Johns Church of England (now the Donvale Living and Learning Centre). The members knitted socks and balaclavas for the soldiers, made camouflage netting, and food parcels were packed. The Comforts Fund raised money by running Popular Girl competitions (like a Miss Victoria on a local scale); it also ran dances at the East Doncaster Hall. When the war ended the ladies were loath to disband and asked permission to start a CWA branch. In earlier days it was considered that Donvale was too close to the city to have a CWA branch but in 1945 the rules had been changed.
Many people see the CWA as the tea and scones' ladies, however, the activities are many and varied. All Victorian branches work each year for the Thanksgiving Fund, this is usually some area of Medical Research, Donvale raising money by holding fashion parades, morning teas, Dutch auctions et cetera. Monies received from Manningham Council for their efforts in catering for the naturalization ceremonies enable the CWA to support organizations and charities both locally and further a-field. ... While the traditional crafts of crochet and knitting provide knee rugs for the elderly, jumpers for chil- dren in need and clothing for premature babies, some members specialize in tatting, quilling, quilting and patchwork, but on craft mornings held monthly many simple beautiful gifts are made, also teddy bears and 'trauma dolls for children in hospital. Donvale CWA has now been in existence for fifty-six years, for over twenty years they have had a sister branch, Wycheproof, with whom ideas and news are exchanged. Donvale is proud to have two foundation members still attending meetings; they are Joyce Fahey and Nell Noonan. (62 A Warrandyte branch of the CWA began in 1947 and ran for about ten years. Hazel Holly, personal communication, 17 July 2001).
Clubs
Good sport
The achievements of former Olympic athletes were highlighted at the official reopening of the newly restored Templestowe Memorial Hall in May 2000. Present were Manningham Olympians from the 1956 Games: Wendy Grant (Nicols), Gymnastics; Adele Johnson (Price), Diving; Ted Smith, Soccer; Ray Weinberg, Athletics
Warrandyte Cricket Club, 1911, with their captain, John Till, Mining Manager of the Caledonia Mines No Liability Company. (Photo: WHS)
Templestowe Tennis Pavilion and players, about 1920. A bowling green now occupies this site. (Photo: DTHS)
Templestowe swimming team, 1920s. School swimming races were held in Zerbe’s large dam in George Street until Doncaster East School built a swimming pool in 1927. Later a pool was built at Doncaster School. Ruffey Creek was dammed as a swimming hole for Templestowe School pupils. (Photo: DTHS)
A family affair
Jean Chapman remembers being involved with the Warrandyte Cricket Club since about 1946: cWe lived in Pigeon Back Lane, half-way between Kangaroo Ground and Warrandyte, so instead of being left all alone on Saturdays - I didn't drive - I thought: 'If you can't beat them, join them'. Since then I've been tea lady, secretary, publicity officer, and I've scored matches all over. Last year in November the Club chose its top team over the past fifty years; my son, John, was in it and my husband, Allan, was picked as the captain.' In 1972 Chapman had young sons eager to play, so she instigated an Under-12 team in Warrandyte: 'I was the manager and they called me 'Mrs Chappie'. A year after the boys left the Under-12s, they asked me to come back, so I ended up managing the Under-14 and Under-16 teams.' In 1975 Suzanne and Jenny Chapman established a Warrandyte Cricket Club women’s team: cMy two girls played - they started with Mitcham, but transferred when Warrandyte started a women’s team. During her career, Suzanne played twice for Victoria, and once for Australia (in India), and Jenny played three times for Victoria.' (65 Jean Chapman, personal communication, 6 July 2001; Louis Cranfield, ‘Cricket by the Riverside’, Warrandyte Cricket Club, 1980, p. 26). The participation and dedication of successive generations of families - of which the Chapmans are merely one example - have sustained the Warrandyte Cricket Club for 146 years. There are sure to be similar families in every one of Manningham’s sporting clubs.
Robert Jorgensen {centre) enjoys summer at the Doncaster Pool, 1970. (Photo: Lynda Jorgensen)
Opening of the Doncaster-Templestowe Swimming Centre, October 1970. (Photo: Irvine Green; Doncaster/Templestowe Album, MCC)
This rifle range was at the end of McGowans Road, Donvale. Rifle shooting was a popular pastime in the early 1900s. (Photo: DTHS)
Facilities
Manningham today boasts sporting facilities including an Olympic-standard, wet-surface regional hockey centre, a regional-standard athletics facility at Rieschiecks Reserve, a newly developed netball centre, and one of the best aquatic centres in Melbourne' - the Aquarena swimming and fitness complex, managed by the YMCA. (66 Eisenbise, ‘Welcome to Manningham City Council’; ‘Aquarena, Manningham website, 29 July 2001). Such enviable facilities have not always been available. In 1977 many amateur sporting clubs in the City of Doncaster and Templestowe reported having difficulty financing their activities and a Donvale sports centre project was outlined to the Council; the project, on a site in Mitcham Road, was expected to cost about $2 million and replaced an earlier, smaller project which was 'found to be imprac- ticable'. (67 Doncaster and Eastern Suburbs Mirror, 29 June 1977, p. 1). The timing of this project reflected the area’s expanding population.
Templestowe Football Team, 1936. Standing: Clive Hodgson, Ned Finn, ? Mick Hughes, Percy Olivers, ? Harry Steve, Bobby Williamson; Sitting: Phil Hughes, Mickey Plunkett, Wattie Houson, Ernie O’Keefe, Jim Hodgson, Jim Finn, Danny O ’Keefe, Alex Gilanders, Frank Enright, Aan Clare (trainer); Front: Lev Finn, ? Jimmy Heffernan. (Photo: Keith Anderson)
Golf courses have been popular in Manningham, which prides itself on its open spaces. In 1924 the Box Hill Golf Club leased Tullamore in order to lay out an eighteen-hole golf course on the property which opened as the Eastern Golf Club. A nine-hole golf course was laid out in 1931 on the Park Orchards Country Club Estate. David Barro’s father lived and worked there for many years before his family migrated from Italy in 1936: 'One third must have been orchards, and the rest was golf-links. They put in golf-links - nine holes - and Dad became a green keeper for these and shaped them all up. He'd been doing it for a long time before we came.' (68 David Barro, ‘The Italian-Australians have done very w ell’, Suburban Voices oral history project, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation, interviewer Lesley Alves, 2001; Collyer, Doncaster: a short history, p. 47; Irvine Green and Beatty Beavis, Park Orchards: a short history (Donvale, Victoria: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society, 1983), p. 13). A golf course opened in Alexander Road (originally Spears Lane), Warrandyte, in 1971. Proprietor Neil Abbott remembers it was very successful, with 2,000 patrons a week. Due to the cost of land tax, however, it closed down around 1983.
Golfers at the Park Orchards Country Club, 1930s. (Photo: DTHS)
Social life
A second home
One of the areas best known social clubs was founded in 1967 in Bulleen. Situated on 16 acres beside the Yarra, the Veneto Social Club has offered a variety of facilities for leisure activities since the building was officially opened in 1973. David Barro, now chairman of the Barro Group of companies, was well known in the Italian-Australian community. After World War II he and his father had guaranteed work in their businesses to numerous immigrants from Italy and the families socialised together and became close: That’s why later on they talked about the Veneto Club. They came up to me and said, 'You've been here for a long time, can you do something for us?'' Those newly arrived in Australia were enthusiastic about the Veneto Club because it allowed them to meet others from the Veneto region very quick- ly: 'We got up to four or five hundred people very quickly, to be members of the Veneto Club. ... I'd been president for eight years, but it took me nearly five years to get the Club going, to get the land and building at Bulleen. I said, 'I want a site east of the Yarra, not north of the Yarra' because I lived this side. I said, 'I want acres' ... I looked long, long range - at that stage there were not many Italians in Doncaster or Bulleen. They came after the Club, a lot of them. Because they reckon it was a second home for them.' (69 David Barro, ‘The Italian-Australians have done very w ell’, Suburban Voices oral history project, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation, interviewer Lesley Alves, 2001; Leaney, p. 30)
The Veneto Club Bocce Courts in Bulleen, 1976. The Club was built in 1973. (Photo: DTHS)
Senior society
Senior citizens groups in Manningham include the Australian Coptic Senior Citizens Club of Manningham, Bulleen and Templestowe Senior Citizens Club, Chinese Senior Citizens Club of Manningham, Doncaster Senior Citizens Centre, Greek Elderly Citizens Club, Iranian Senior Citizens Community, Italian Senior Citizens Club, Macedonian Senior Citizens Group of Manningham, Polish Senior Citizens Club of Doncaster and Templestowe, and the Warrandyte Senior Citizens Club. Manningham also has Ladies, Mens and Combined Probus clubs. The Chinese Senior Citizens Club of Manningham was established in 1987, and since that time, the original membership of about fifty has expanded tenfold, which has allowed the club to expand the scope of its activities; it has upgraded its English classes and increased entertainment. cNow we get, I think, it s at least twenty-five students each English class. They feel very keen on studying English.' They also celebrate Chinese festivals, the major one being the Chinese Lunar New Year, with a 'lion dance to open up and followed by routine formal- ities. After a big luncheon, a two-hour Chinese and Cantonese opera is performed. The public is also invited to share the festive spirit with us.' (70 Sam Chen, Suburban Voices oral history project, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation, interviewer Lesley Alves, 12 September 2000)Scouting parties
Leisure-time activity that gives the opportunity for the development of important skills for young people throughout the municipality has been provided by Scouts and Guides. These bodies also encourage adults to become involved as leaders and organisers. Moshen Afkari took his son to join the Scouts in the early 1990s and eventually became a Cub Leader, serving in that role for seven years. He identifies this as one of the ways he got to know his neighbours: CA lot of people in the Scout movement and also the parents. We managed to become friendly through the work.' (71 Moshen Afkari, Suburban Voices oral history project, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation, interviewer Lesley Alves, 5 December 2000)
‘Tu-whit, Tu-whit, Too-whoo’ was the call of many a Brownie. The weekly gathering of Brownies at Doncaster, 1966. (Photo: Lynda Jorgensen)
Wonga Park has a particularly strong association with the activities of the scouting movement. Scout Jamborees in 1948-49 and 1955-56, and the Seventh World Rover Moot in 1961-62 were held on that part of the Yarra Brae Estate now called Clifford Park. Darren Kelly recalls that the first Jamboree at the Clifford property was: cgreat for scouting because you could go hunting, building cubby houses and all that sort of stuff, getting lost and falling in the river. I remember I was 7. Dad was helping with some of the clearing to form parade grounds for the scouts. I remember being on the tractor at the tender age of 7, ploughing up the parade ground on an old Fordson.' Of significant benefit to Wonga Parks twenty-or-so inhabitants in 1948 was that the Jamboree occasioned the sealing of the gravel road from Croydon: cIt was formed and made up at great expense into a tarmac road, which was quite extraordinary at the time, and it was the only made-up road from here to Whitehorse Road. Lord Rowallan, who was the World Chief Scout, was out here so there was a lot of pressure. They had a lot of dignitaries. You cant have these guys going along a dirt road for 5 miles!' (72 Darren Kelly, interview, 20 January 2001)
Yarra Brae homestead in Wonga Park, 1850, on the 1000-acre estate purchased by Lewis (later Lord) Clifford in 1941. Part of the estate now forms Clifford Park. (Photo: DTHS)
Former resident and Scout Master of Wonga Park, Don Tinkler, points out that Clifford Park’s use as a site for two Jamborees makes it significant in scouting history: 'Lord Clifford, as he became, allowed the Scouts to have their Jamboree there in 1948-49 where there were some 12,000 scouts and leaders attending. In 1956 a Pan-Pacific Jamboree was held at Yarra Brae. Now, they don't allow Jamborees to be held on anything but green field sites so that you can't have the same area used for two different Jamborees. But in this case, the area from the central part of what we now call Clifford Park extending downstream was the site for one, and the other was from the central area heading upstream, or up the hill. So in '56 it was the up-hill location and 16,000 scouts and leaders attended.' After Lord Clifford’s death, the property was bought by English investors: cThe key person to that group was Harry Bissett Johnson, a very active person within the Wonga Park community. Harry permitted the Scouts to continue to use that limited area near the river where Lord Clifford had provided the very large hall, which was called Rowallan Hall.' (73 Don Tinkler, interview, 6 April 2001)
In 1984 the Scout Association purchased the 19.4-hectare site, surrounded by the Warrandyte State Park. In the mid-1990s the Friends of Clifford Park emerged: 'I saw Clive Keeble, who was such an important part of Scouting - and his first job as a Scout Master was at Wonga Park - in the street and he said, 'Oh! I've got a great idea. We'll set up some sort of a group and we'll call it Triends of Clifford Park''. And I said, 'Oh yes, and what are the Friends of Clifford Park going to do?' I thought he wanted the Friends of Clifford Park to develop Clifford Park for Scout use only. As we talked, he said it could be used by the com- munity, so I gave my full support.' The Friends have helped turn the site, which was over- grown and neglected in the 1980s, to a rapidly developing community recreation centre. Facilities include seminar buildings, a fully equipped commercial kitchen, patrol camp sites, accommodation huts built by students of Box Hill TAFE, a memorial chapel, mountain bike track, billy cart track, abseiling tower and 'Federation Challenge' ropes course. Probus and Lions clubs, football clubs and private groups have used the Park.
The main purpose of the Clifford Park Activity Centre (CPAC) is to serve and help unite the community: cThe three aspects that underpin our work out there are environmental sensitivity the heritage significance of the area, and, of course, the facilities we are producing for the benefit of the young people in our community.5 The Friends have carried out extensive revegetation as a project supported by the Federal Government Work-for-the-Dole Initiative, and the Victorian Department of Correctional Services5. Tinkler, who is Community Liaison Officer of the Friends, stresses that the opportunities for active and passive recreation afforded by Clifford Park should be enjoyed by all members of the community alike: 'My belief is that the Scouting organisation should allow its properties and its facilities to be used not only for scouting but for the whole community. And that’s the thrust within the Friends of Clifford Park. We have to become community oriented. (74 Don Tinkler, interview, 12 April 2001)
Ceremony to open the new Avenue of Honour, 20 April 1975. This new plantation replaced the original one made on Blackburn Road in 1920 by Doncaster East State School pupils. (Photo: Irvine Green; Doncaster/ Templestowe Album, MCC)
Festivals
Festivals in Manningham offer people the chance to celebrate diversity of culture, environment, heritage, interests, skills and talents in a forum that unites the community. A range of festivals have been held over the years, including the Mullum Mullum, Templestowe, Warrandyte, Woodwork and Wurundjeri. The oldest of these, the Warrandyte Festival, which began in 1977, spans one weekend during which the community’s characteristic features are concentrated into three days. The festival reveals a depth of community participation, with so many of Warrandyte’s people practising crafts and arts of all media. In addition to community organisations, schools are involved, often through the development of floats and costumes for the parade and performances on stage. The Warrandyte Festival draws around twenty thousand attendees: 'But what I think is really valuable to this community is the actual number of people and groups who are involved - hundreds of people. There’s a Festival Committee whose core swells to perhaps fifty people at Festival time. It is a Festival that very much reflects the community - it’s very community, non-commercial driven.' (75 Sarah Finlay, interview, 9 April 2001)
The Wurundjeri Festival ran for ten years from 1978. It was a council-sponsored program of events, including a plethora of performances and activities as well as a festival parade. The festival aimed to involve all manner of community groups, schools and individuals in the City of Doncaster and Templestowe by celebrating life in the municipality.
Jim Poulter remembers that the Doncaster and Templestowe Council set up a committee of citizens to organise the festival. Poulter recalls suggesting the name Wurundjeri (from which sprang cJeri' the witchety grub festival mascot) because he wanted to recognise the Aboriginal heritage in the area but in retrospect he feels it may have been misguided to do so - he found it difficult to include a meaningful Aboriginal component in every festival, so the name was not entirely relevant. In some years, however, the festival did include successful educational initiatives such as cultural programs with Aboriginal elders in schools and a school tour of the Latji-Latji dance troupe from Robinvale. (76 Jim Poulter, interview, 22 June 2001)
Greek dancers perform at the first Wurundjeri Festival in 1978. (Photo: Kay Mack)
The Woodwork Festival run by the Victorian Woodworkers moved to Manningham from the Meatmarket Craft Centre and is distinctive because aspects of it are akin to trade fairs: 'Its a very, very different type of festival'. Many woodwork groups from all over Victoria take part in the festival, which features demonstrations and workshops: And there’s lots of trading that goes on about hand tools and timber, through to the latest technology, chain-saw carving and all that sort of thing'. (77 Sarah Finlay, interview, 9 April 2001). Until the late 1990s the festival was held in the grounds of the Council offices and included an exhibition of work in the Manningham Gallery, but with the development of the Manningham Templestowe Leisure Centre, it has re-located to the Woodwork Studio there.
The Mullum Mullum Festival runs over a ten-day period and celebrates the natural surroundings of the Mullum Mullum Creek catchment, which spans the municipalities of Maroondah and Whitehorse as well as Manningham. Formerly an annual event, the Mullum Mullum Festival is now held every second year. It was instigated by people united in the desire to preserve the Mullum Mullum Valley environment from being destroyed by the extension of the Eastern Freeway. The festival was conceived as a means of raising the profile of the bushland in the 21-kilometre valley: cThe Mullum Mullum Valley is not accessed from major highways but from two little tiny suburban streets. Unless you went down there you wouldn't even see it. So only the local people knew it existed. So what do you do about a beautiful area that nobody knows exists? Hold a festival!' As well as individuals, the Hillcrest Association, Friends of the Mullum Mullum and other groups became involved under the umbrella of the Festival Committee. 'We have walks and talks given by famous scientists, naturalists, ecologists, botanists, people who study mammals - people give their time freely not accepting any fee and talk and give nature walks through the valley.' (78 Cecily Falkingham, interview, 31 January 2001)
Street parade at Templestowe, held for the centenary of the municipality in 1975. (Photo: DTHS)
The Raft Race, held on the Yarra at Templestowe, began in the mid-1970s and was held annually for around twenty years. Organised by local residents, it was a popular community event. Another was the Gymkhana, run by the Boy Scouts, Kindergarten and Pony Club. It was held on Cup Day at the local sportsground in Templestowe until the Pony Club moved to their own facilities in Reynolds Road. (Photo: Garth Kendall)
A sense of community
Celebrating community
Every year families of the Iranian community in Manningham engage in Persian New Year celebrations for three weeks. Moshen Afkari outlines some of the attendant traditions: 'The few major ones that we do, on the last Tuesday of the year, when it is a sunset and it gets a bit dark - we gather some fires - small fires for the children. They can jump over the fires and they sing some songs. And the meaning of that song is that, 'fire, you're pure and healthy - I give you my sickness and you give me your health'.' The first order of business of the New Year is to go to the eldest family member and offer congratulations. The New Year celebra- tions go on for thirteen days, during which green plants are grown from wheat or other types of seeds. On the thirteenth day - 'number thirteen is not a good number' - the green things are taken into the countryside and thrown away: ‘so all the bad things belonging to the previous year won't come back to the house'. (82 Moshen Afkari, Suburban Voices oral history project, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation, interviewer Lesley Alves, 5 December 2000)
Voices of the community
'Community' means different things to different people, and specific areas of Manningham also engender different experiences. Councillor John Bruce, for example, marvels at the distinctive qualities of Park Orchards and Wonga Park: 'One thing that always amazes me is how the developments at Park Orchards and Wonga Park managed to leap frog the then exist- ing urban areas and develop the way they have. They do not have the usual type of urban infrastructure associated with intensive subdivision - sewerage, regular bus services, etc. - and yet they have survived and prospered as places where people aspire to live.' (83 John Bruce, questionnaire, 25 June 2001). The following images of community are slices from the perspective of a few representative residents of Manningham.
Children show Mayor Bill Larkin their World Record Trail of Coins, 29 June 1984. (Photo: Irvine Green; Doncaster/Templestowe Album, MCC)
Wonga Park
Since the late 1950s Wonga Park has seen many changes: 'Where there is now a shopping centre in Wonga Park, there was an orchard, and before that, it had been a canning factory, I believe. So Wonga Park has changed from being a rural, farming, orcharding community to suburban living. Our end of Wonga Park is 10-acre minimum subdivision, so its still very scenic, but you cant actually do much on a 10-acre block. People move here for different reasons now.' (84 Darren Kelly, interview, 20 January 2001). Diane Reynolds moved to Wonga Park in 1969: cIt has been my home for half my lifetime and it still has somewhat of a village atmosphere. However, Brysons Road has been sealed and gets a lot of through traffic and a lot of land has been built on - it has become a rather yuppie area in some ways.' (85 Diane Reynolds, questionnaire, 10 January 2001)Park Orchards
In 1961 Giuseppe Morano found Manningham 'very beautiful with all the trees and the hills7. Despite the changes to roads and subdivision of some land, he feels that Park Orchards is still like the country: 'We all have big blocks of land'. (86 Giuseppe Morano, questionnaire, 28 November 2000). Park Orchards resident Don Tinkler has commented recently on the diminishing village-style atmosphere of the general area: 'There would be numbers of residents who treat Park Orchards as a dormitory area and they may not patronise the shopping centre - although I think you'd be surprised at the number who do patronise it; but whether that’s because they have a feeling of community or whether that is convenience, I'm not too sure. As the place has expanded, it’s lost a lot of that very close community feeling but there is that village atmosphere in Park Orchards itself, the Park Orchards centre.' (87 Don Tinkler, interview, 12 April 2001)Bulleen
The affordability of housing in Bulleen in 1970 prompted Peter Ruddock to move there: 'Houses were a lot cheaper in Bulleen. I taught at Doncaster Primary School from I960 to 1964 and then taught in North Balwyn.' (88 Peter Ruddock, questionnaire, 8 December 2000). John Bruce has lived in Bulleen since 1973: cMy wife Patricia and I love where we live: the natural environment, undulating geography and open space. From the point of view of community, I'd say I've grown to appreciate a racially diverse community.' (89 John Bruce, questionnaire, 25 June 2001). Tammy Iliou moved with her family to live in Bulleen in 1987: 'My parents decided we should move to Bulleen after living on a busy road in Northcote for a number of years. I remember being so happy, because finally I would be able to have a bike! I remember seeing a whole bunch of kids with bikes and go-carts on the street, playing, when we had gone to inspect our Bulleen house. Within a couple of weeks of moving into our new place, both my brother and I had developed friendships with the kids. In fact, my parents had trouble getting us to come inside for tea. Soon after, we used to invite all the kids in for tea - but our neighbours would do the exact same. It was the perfect environment - we used to say our street was heaps better than Ramsay Street.' (90 Tammy Iliou, questionnaire, 18 June 2001; ‘Ramsay Street’, of course, is a reference to the long-running television series, Neighbours)
Doncaster
Opening of the reconstructed Schramms Cottage in Victoria Street, 14 February 1976 . (Photo: Irvine Green; Doncaster/Templestowe Album, MCC)
Doncaster East
In 1959 Helen and Bill Larkin purchased a quarter-acre block for £950 in Doncaster East: cThe Doncaster East area bounded by Doncaster Road, Blackburn Road, Koonung Creek and Leeds Street is our local area. We have been part of building it into the well-serviced, green suburb it is today, and enjoy sharing times with many neighbours and friends. Working together with neighbours and friends helped us to recognise what giant steps can be made in achieving goals by people communicating and working together. These achievements helped us to become involved and be more outgoing participants in the life of our beautiful city. (95 Helen and Bill Farkin, questionnaire, 19 March 2001). Denis and Eunice de Lacy moved to Doncaster East in 1962 'because it seemed an attractive and healthy place to raise a family. As a family we were involved in many organisations: crick- et, hockey, football clubs; Cubs, Scouts, Brownies, Guides; Church activities/ They have seen the development of many more kindergartens, schools, recreation facilities and the road sys- tem: 'The Eastern Freeway revolutionised travel to the city and back. As our family and work circumstances gradually changed, we became involved in new interest groups within Manningham and have made many valued friendships. We now enjoy belonging to a local Probus Club and take part in most of its activities. (96 Denis and Eunice de Facy, questionnaire, 9 July 2001)Donvale
Ian Adderly moved to Donvale in 1960, when: 'most subdivisions had unmade potholed streets and no drainage or sewerage. We moved into the first subdivision with made roads. At the time it was expected that unmade roads would remain that way for many years. Being a new area, a great deal of work had to be done to establish schools, kindergartens, youth clubs, scout groups, churches and sporting clubs. (97 Ian Adderly, questionnaire, 28 June 2001). In the 1960s, Erich von Moller-Harteneck was attracted to land in Craig Road, Donvale, by 'the green wedge zoning of the area. The gener- ous block size, being over an acre - which incidentally they still are today - had made my dreams come true. Larger allotments as well as larger orchards and farms abounded around me. Before the saturation with people of the surrounding streets, neighbours used to know and respect one another. If out in the garden, or sharing some concern, or having a party, we all mixed then. This is one of the nicer memories, as we were a closer community then. Today we really only know the immediate neighbours but rarely actually see them. I guess it has something to do with the size of the land - we can all disappear into our little world of perceived self-sufficiency. Perhaps I am wrong, maybe we are all too worn out or stressed out to care?' (98 Erich von Moller-Harteneck, questionnaire, February 2001)
War Memorial on the corner of Anderson and James streets, Templestowe, 1972. (Photo: Garth Kendall)
Templestowe
Function at the Templestowe Mechanics’ Institute, built 1883. Mechanics’ Institutes, an important focal point of community activity, were usually built soon after creation of a town infrastructure. This timber hall became the kitchen at the rear of the new Memorial Hall built in 1922. (Photo: DTHS)
Lower Templestowe
Around the end of the 1950s Lower Templestowe was populated by young families. Meg Henderson remembers a very friendly community whose neighbours helped each other: 'The children would all come home from the state school together - this little group of kids who would come down the hill and call in to my house, at least, and possibly to some others, and show me their paintings and what they had done. I used to love that and I think the kids probably appreciated the fact that I did that.' She remembers that at the corner of Foote, Union and Parker streets, on the acute corner where there is now a garage, was Mrs Mac’s lolly shop: 'That was a great attraction to the kids around the area and she was very sweet to all the children. Most of the people in my immediate area - which was the Foote Street, Parker Street and Thompsons Road little section - would mind each others kids, do anything to help if any were sick. There was a lot of - not self-help - but community involvement as far as day-to-day things were concerned.' After Henderson had been living in Lower Templestowe for some years, she had a car accident: 'Next door to me was a nurse, and over the road was a doctor, who both happened to be home, and two of my friends each took one of my children and looked after them while I was being attended to for a few days and so forth'. Now living at a different address in Lower Templestowe, Henderson reflects on the changes wrought in her community by the last forty years: 'Courts are usually very friendly but none of us in this court now have children at home, with the exception of one couple. We are mostly single women - either separated, widowed, divorced, whatever - and we all commute in cars. We don't have very much to do with each other, not that we couldn't be friendly, it’s just that we're all working, we've all got quite defined interests and it’s just completely different. I commu- nicate well - but not all that often - with my immediate neighbour. If there is something going on like wanting trees planted or wanting some kind of road maintenance, then we'll all talk together and co-operate but that only happens occasionally. It’s a very interesting contrast, isn't it?' (103 Meg Henderson, interview, 27 March 2001)
Warrandyte
Jo Laurence remembers moving to Warrandyte in 1947 and playing with the other children, whose parents were artists: 'That was my first real exposure, I think, to the arty world. It just happened gradually over the years with the other people that we met because there were a lot of artists living round.' She recalls that the social centre for Warrandyte in those days was the Warrandyte Hotel: 'It was a nice family hotel and everybody used to gravitate there. It was the days of 6 o'clock closing, and I know Mum befriended Harry and Marie Hudson, who were painters. They lived near the bridge on this side of the river. There were lots of others that used to socialise at the pub and then they'd gravitate back to someone’s place for get- togethers.' (104 Jo Faurence, interview, 2 February 2001). Residents for around twenty-five years, Jan and John Laing identify two of Warrandyte’s greatest attractions: 'the bush and the community spirit'. A local restaurant, Pasta Mania, is seen as a community meeting place: 'Those shops went up in '88; Mustafa rented three of them, and knocked the walls out of two of them for a restaurant. He’s fitted in tremendously with the community and he employs all local kids and he looks after them. We'll know twenty other people that are there on a Friday night, and it’s a meeting place. He’s developed something that is pretty unique, I believe. The town does a lot of things for you. I don't know how to explain it. I mean, Friday night, I can't wait to get home to go down to Pasta Mania because I know who’s going to be there. The community’s going to be there. It’s the identification.' Being recognised by everyone else in the town is important to maintain- ing a sense of community: 'Carrying the Olympic Torch was great because in Warrandyte, you get it written up in the Diary. (105 John Faing, interview, 6 April 2001)
Dear Diary
After living in Warrandyte for about eighteen months, Cliff Green felt the need to take part in some community activity and so became involved in a local youth club: £We couldn't get newspaper publicity for our youth club - Ringwood and Doncaster papers weren't interested in Warrandyte, so we started our own'. The first issue of the Warrandyte Diary came out in December 1970. Over the years, local professional journalists like Peter Lovett, Lee Tindale, Bob Millington and Mark Davis have given of their time and talents freely to produce the monthly newspaper: fit’s owned and managed as a non-profit making trust. All are volunteers, except our advertising manager - that’s not a fun, hobby job!' In 1991 the Diary moved into the Community Centre. Many people from around Warrandyte contribute regularly, includ- ing the Diary s long-serving columnists, and there has always been an unofficial cadet program for promising young writers to gain experience in journalism. Defining influences on the Diary have been Lee Tindale’s wicked sense of humour, Jock Macneish’s clever cartoon style and Green, himself, now co-editor with Tindale.
The Diarys commitment to the Warrandyte community is evident in every issue: £We have a statement on page two that says, 'The Diary carries a strong editorial bias towards the people, environment and character of the place it serves.' We have two abiding principles: one, the material must have a local connection - so, for example, the letters we print must be about local issues or people; and two, we tell our contributors, 'Remember, you're writing about your neighbours'.' These rules ensure that the paper is replete with interest for locals without descending into gossip that might divide a community: £The paper absorbed a local flavour very early on. It’s now very much a Catch-22 - we wonder whether the Diary is like it is because of Warrandyte, or Warrandyte like it is because of the Diary. We think of it as a closed circle, one feeds the other constantly.' (106 Cliff Green, personal communication, 11 July 2001)
When people associated with a given place begin to interact with one another, a community emerges. The distinctive qualities of individuals who have come to live in Manningham have made its many communities increasingly diverse over time. In this chapter many voices have spoken; the last word we give to Jim Merakovsky, who has lived in Manningham for twenty-five years: £The arrival of new immigrants who made Manningham their home created a multicultural city. I feel its settlers are well behaved and respectful of others and it is a good place to raise a family. It makes me happy of its name.' (107 Jim Merakovsky, questionnaire, 26 June 2001)
Epilogue
Manningham's history is as liquid as the Yarra River, as constructed as the Eastern Freeway, as diverse as the city’s populace. Writing it down has inscribed boundaries around it that are only temporary, for time and memory always break through them. Reading this history will already have added new layers to the old stories. We may notice, however, that one constant has emerged from all the themes explored in this book - and that is: change. Where once only Wurundjeri ancestors walked, now descendants of ancestors from many nations live. Brick and bitumen replaced blossom in some places, in others the banished bush was brought back. Gold is still found in those hills, rarely metallic, often sunlight, and sometimes inspiration and peace. Where livestock and crops once were nurtured, now community spirit thrives.So what is Manningham's history? It is the voice of the people who lived it, whether they speak to us through documents, pictures or words. We conclude this book with a young voice from Manningham. As you listen, you will hear a familiar history, spoken anew:
As a very little girl, it was always my ambition to wake early enough to see the draught horses and the milkman who delivered full-cream milk in glass bottles each morning at dawn. I was never fast enough though. From my snug position in my parents' bed I would hear the clip-clop of the horses' hooves quite clearly, but by the time I scrambled to their window, which looked onto the street, the horses were always gone. I remember that the horses lived in a paddock of the dairy on a corner opposite Doncaster Shoppingtown, and it was exciting to pass by and see them there - they were so big. There were lots of ways of getting the necessities into the household that have since passed away. My older brothers collected newspapers, which they sold to the butcher who came to the back door to make a meat delivery. Sometimes we would make a trip to the coolstore across Dunoon Street in Doncaster, to buy apples. The atmos- phere inside was so fresh and pungent, and the wooden boxes stacked with apples so rustic and appealing. We would buy a whole box. My brother Keith used to eat the pips and the core as well - holding up only the stalk at the end with satisfaction. Bread was delivered to the meter box. Hard garbage collections were another source of fun in the neighbourhood. Posses of kids would spend weekends cruising the local streets, poring through other peoples junk to find their treasure. Old toys, wonky umbrellas, bits of washing machines, tired lamps, saucepans and broken TVs were there to be had. An old pram was the best find - fun to muck around with for a while, then used for billy-cart parts. We careered around the hills of the neighbourhood with complete freedom. I don't think our parents thought for a second that it might not be safe. We played down on Koonung Creek, and went for meanders through the orchards and pine stands. That’s all freeway now. We have photos of Dad with my brothers as little boys, and you can see the blossom trees over our back fence. That had started to go by the time I came along and I remember playing in the building site that became home to the family next door. One time, our eldest brother, Andrew, packed up four sustaining sugar cubes and some water and maybe some apples (I only really remember the sugar!) and the four of us went for a 'hike' along the creek through the orchards. One Christmas my brother and I blacked out the neighbourhood when we cut a branch from the pine stands along the creek for our Christmas tree. It fell along powerlines and made a terrific noise in the substation. We scarpered pretty quickly, but came back later to claim our slightly singed tree. It makes me sound old to reflect on these things, but I'm only 35! While I was at primary school every- thing changed. Doncaster was modernised, and got busy. Now there are supermarkets and everyone has two cars. I guess it’s more convenient, but it’s not as romantic as the childhood I remember.' (1 Katherine Smith, questionnaire, 14 August 2001)
In the future other voices will add to the history of Manningham. From those who have spoken here, and for those who have listened, this book has drawn one version.
Source: Barbara Pertzel & Fiona Walters, Manningham: from country to city, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2001. Manningham Council granted permission to reproduce the book contents in full on this website in May2023. The book is no longer available for sale, but hard copies of the original are available for viewing at DTHS Museum as well as Manningham library and many other libraries.
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