Manningham : from country to city - Pertzel & Walters 2001 (Pt10 Timeline)

Timeline 1830s-1990s

This timeline has been compiled from a variety of sources, including several of the local histories detailed in the list of sources consulted.

• 1830s
• 1835 On lower reaches of the Yarra River, John Batman obtains 100,000 acres around Port Phillip from indigenous land-holders and declares "this will be the place for a village".
• 1836 Because of the number of European settlers already moving into the district, the Governor of the Colony of New South Wales proclaims Port Phillip as a district open to settlement and appoints an administrator.
• 1837 Robert Hoddle surveys to a limited extent eastward the area between the Yarra River and Koonung Creek and names it the Parish of Bulleen.
• 1839 T. H. Nutt undertakes the first survey of the area now occupied by much of the present-day City of Manningham.
• 1840s Settlers begin to establish farms in the Bulleen and Templestowe areas.
• 1840 Imperial Government decrees that any approved person can buy 8 square miles of Crown land, provided the block is at least 5 miles from a surveyed township.
• 1841 Population of Melbourne reaches 11,700.
• 1841 E W. Unwin purchases 5,120 acres between Koonung Creek and Templestowe.
• 1841 Assistant Protector of Aborigines for the eastern Port Phillip area, William Thomas, directed to keep the Wurundjeri people away from their traditional land which has been obtained in the village of Heidelberg by white settlers.
• 1841 T. H. Nutt undertakes a survey of the Parish of Warrandyte.
• 1843 W. Darke undertakes a second survey of the area these days largely occupied by the City of Manningham.
• 1844 Most of Unwins Special Survey sold or leased.
• 1847 First export to England of wheat grown in Templestowe.
• 1847 First school in the Templestowe-Bulleen district established near the Heidelberg Bridge.
• 1850s The first orchards in the Doncaster— Templestowe area are planted. New government-surveyed villages are developed at Templestowe and Warrandyte.
• 1850 Private Wesleyan school opens near/on the corner of Williamson Road and Rasmussen Drive.
• 1851 On 6 February, subsequently called ‘Black Thursday’, a bushfire rages unchecked through Warrandyte, Wonga Park, Doncaster and many other areas.
• 1851 1 July Port Phillip district separated from New South Wales as the Colony of Victoria.
• 1851  Gold found at Anderson’s Creek, Warrandyte, by Louis Michel and William Habberlin.
• 1852 Wurundjeri and other neighbouring clans hold a great corroboree at Pound Bend. 
• 1852 Henry Foote surveys a township and access roads for Templestowe village.
• 1853 Crown land in Doncaster East offered for sale.
• 1853 Government passes ‘An Act for Making and Improving Roads in the Colony of Victoria.
• 1854 David Bell builds the Bulleen or Upper Yarra Hotel on a rise in the river flats opposite the end of Parker Street, Templestowe.
• 1854 Pound Bend, still a portion of the Aboriginal reserve at the isthmus, now used as a cattle pound.
• 1855 Warrandyte Cricket Club formed.
• c. 1856 Much of South Warrandyte subdivided.
• c. 1856 Some alluvial gold workings in Anderson’s Creek Gully, Specimen Gully and Whipstick Gully worked out; others continue to be worked in the area up to 1926.
• 1856 Residents petition the government to form the Templestowe Board.
• 1856 A blacksmith opens up shop in Bulleen, at the corner of Bulleen and Bridge roads.
• 1856 Joseph Pickering, in partnership with Thomas Bayley, opens a general store in Doncaster Road.
• 1856 Township site for Warrandyte surveyed.
• 1856 A large punt across the Yarra River, capable of carrying livestock as well as human passengers, operates at Warrandyte.
• 1856 Inaugural run of Alfred Ford’s coach from Melbourne to Warrandyte gets bogged in Mullum Mullum Creek.
• 1856 First school in Warrandyte opened.
• 1857 A reef of gold discovered in Templestowe, near the junction of Thompsons Road and Feathertop Avenue.
• 1857 First post office in Warrandyte opened. Fleming Flewitt appointed first mail deliverer.
• 1857 Ewan Hugh Cameron appointed Deputy Registrar of Births and Deaths at Anderson’s Creek on 16 December.
• 1858 Mining undertaken in Templestowe in the area north of Feathertop Avenue.
• 1858 First church in Doncaster - Lutheran - built.
• 1858 A cemetery opened at the corner of Foote Street and Church Road. James Read becomes the first trustee.
• 1859 John Smedley builds a blacksmith and wheelwright shop near the corner of Doncaster Road and High Street.
• 1860s During the 1860s, Templestowe has a population of300.
• 1860 Post office opened in Fields Street, near the corner of Parker and Omar streets; Joseph Pickering appointed local postmaster of Doncaster.
• 1860 Banksia Street Bridge opened.
• 1860 Templestowe Post Office opens with J. Field as postmaster.
• 1860 A wooden bridge, the first of two, built across the Yarra at Warrandyte.
• 1863 Max Schramm’s school at Waldau becomes a common school responsible to the Board of Education.
• 1864 Templestowe Cricket Club formed.
• 1864 A small chapel built for the Doncaster Church of Christ.
• 1864 Schramm’s school at Waldau transferred to a new building on Doncaster Road.
• c. 1865 A tollgate begins operating in Doncaster Road at the point where it is now joined by Elgar and Tram roads.
• 1866 Opening service for the new Methodist church, set up at the corner of Doncaster and Blackburn roads.
• 1866 The Misses Faulkiner establish a school in the Methodist church, East Doncaster.
• 1867 First Anglican church in Templestowe built.
• 1867 A water-powered, quartz-crushing battery begins operating by the river in Warrandyte.
• 1868 Templestowe Hotel built.
• 1869 Holy Trinity Church of England in Doncaster opened.
• 1869 Upper Yarra Railway League formed to persuade ‘somebody’ to build a line to Lilydale through Heidelberg and Warrandyte.
• 1870 Tollgate set up on Templestowe Road at Foote Street intersection.
• 1870 First Anglican church in Warrandyte built.
• 1871 Building of the Athenasum Hall in Doncaster Road completed.
• 1873 Victorian Horticultural Society sends a sample of Victorian fruit to the Vienna Exhibition in Austria.
• 1874 The two common schools closed; a brick state school opened in Anderson Street.
• 1874 Doncaster Cricket Club formed.
• 1874 Department of Agriculture formed as a branch of the Lands Department.
• 1875 Shire of Bulleen formed.
• 1875 First elections in the new Shire of Bulleen.
• 1875 Schramm’s Cottage built for Max Schramm on a 20-acre site.
• 1875 A second timber bridge built across the Yarra River at Warrandyte.
• 1877 Government abolishes all tolls. tollgate residences in Doncaster and Templestowe sold off.
• 1878 Alfred Hummell builds a tower (Beaconsfield Tower) on a site between the present-day Tower and Council streets.
• 1878 Deep Creek School (State School No. 2096) opens.
• 1878 William Hunter builds a blacksmith shop at the corner of James and Anderson streets, Templestowe.
• 1878 Victoria Market officially opened.
• 1880s 274 acres of market gardens in Doncaster-Templestowe are reduced to 100 acres, and 300 acres of orchards are increased to 1,500 acres.
• 1881 Alfred Hummell builds the Tower Hotel beside his tower.
• 1881 Trial shipments of fruit sent to London, India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
• 1882 Railway line extended to Box Hill.
• 1882 Thomas Petty, Richard Serpell and Frederick Thiele export pears to England.
• 1882 Mechanics’ Institute erected in Templestowe.
• 1884 New, larger Methodist church completed at the corner of Blackburn and Doncaster roads, East Doncaster.
• 1886 New school building for State School No. 197 completed.
• 1886 The first public transport to Doncaster - a horse cab - runs from the Tower Hotel to Box Hill.
• 1886 Carl Hanke wins a medal and diploma for pears exported to London.
• 1887 Deep Creek School (State School No. 2096, East Doncaster State School) is moved from the south-west corner of Anderson’s Creek and Reynolds roads to a 1-acre block on the corner of German Lane (now George Street) and Blackburn Road. The school building is enlarged and opens in February, ready for the beginning of the school year.
• 1887 A post office opens in the East Doncaster School with the head teacher acting as postmaster.
• 1888 New Wesleyan church built in Anderson Street, Templestowe.
• 1888 Small burial ground around the Lutheran church at Waldau, closed.
• 1888 Work commences on route for the first electric tramway.
• 1889 First electric tramway in the southern hemisphere begins operation, running between Doncaster and Box Hill.
• 1889 New brick building for the Church of Christ, in Doncaster, completed.
• 1889 J. B. Davies, one of Melbourne’s most notorious land boomers, now owns 2,500 acres of land, the whole area today known as Park Orchards.
• 1890s The Shire of Bulleen splits into two - the Shire of Templestowe and the Shire of Doncaster.
• 1890 Historic homestead Ben Nevis built for George Smith.
• 1890 Department of Agriculture becomes a department in its own right.
• 1890 Mechanics’ Institute built at Warrandyte.
• 1891 Shire of Doncaster formed.
• 1892 Fruit growers of the district meet at the Athenaeum Hall and form the Doncaster Fruit Growers Association.
• 1892 On 25 January, Doncaster and Box Hill Electric Road Co. Ltd. takes over tram service.
• 1892 New Lutheran Church dedicated on 21 April, with Max Schramm as first resident pastor.
• 1892 Shire Hall built at the corner of Council Street and Doncaster Road.
• 1893 Victorian Government offers orchardists a bonus of £3 per acre for each new planting.
• 1893 The 640-acre Square Mile - eventually known as the Eight Hours Pioneer Settlement - opened for selection in the area known today as Wonga Park.
• 1895 Tower Hill Hotel burns down.
• 1895 Wonga Park School (then named East Warrandyte School No. 3241) opens.
• 1896 Last trip of the electric tram takes place on 6 January.
• 1896 Wonga Park’s first mail depot established in Homestead Road.
• 1896 A 2-inch main for the domestic water needs of Doncaster laid from Surrey Hills Reservoir.
• 1897 Athenaeum Hall remodelled and enlarged.
• 1897 Fred Thiele produces a late cling-stone peach known as Thiele’s Cling.
• 1898 Warrandyte East School renamed Wonga Park School.
• 1900s In this decade to 1910, orchards in the district grow from 3,800 acres (1,500 hectares) to 6,500 acres (2,600 hectares).
• 1902 Tom Petty purchases 559 acres in the present-day Park Orchards area with a plan to plant fruit trees.
• 1902 Parsons Gully School opens.
• 1903 William Barak (or Barak) dies at Coranderrk.
• 1903 Doncaster Fruit Growers’ Co-operative Company formed for the purpose of aiding the export of their fruit by purchasing refrigeration space on overseas steamers.
• 1904 Edwin Lawford builds the first privately owned cool store on his property in Williamsons Road.
• 1907 South Warrandyte State School building transported from Little Yarra Junction.
• 1907 St Gerard’s Catholic Church built in Warrandyte.
• 1907 Doncaster connected to Melbourne telephone network.
• 1908 Wonga Park Hall and Mechanics’ Institute built in Launders Avenue.
• 1908 Railway Standing Committee investigates proposal to run a line from Victoria Park through North Kew and Bulleen to Warrandyte, but project shelved when shown to be a great financial loss-maker.
• 1911 West Doncaster Cooperative Cool Store built on the corner of Doncaster Road and Beaconsfield Street.
• 1911 Doncaster Progress Association formed.
• 1911 Fire destroys Wonga Park School.
• 1912 Telephone exchange installed at Templestowe Post Office.
• 1912 Re-built Wonga Park School opened.
• 1913 First electric street light, supplied with power from cool store generator, lit in Doncaster Road, just outside West Doncaster Cool Store.
• 1914 With outbreak of the Great War, German-sounding street names changed.
• 1914 Alfred Hummell’s tower demolished for safety reasons.
• 1914 Doncaster’s largest cool store built in Doncaster Road, East Doncaster, where today a Safeway supermarket stands.
• 1915 The Shires of Templestowe and Doncaster reunite.
• 1915 Orchardists using Government Cool Store form co-operative and purchase the facility from government, changing its name to Central Cool Store.
• 1916 On 9 February, first electricity supply to Doncaster switched on.
• c. 1918 David and Thomas Elder establish an orchard in Wonga Park from which Packham’s Triumph pear trees survive in 2001.
• 1918 Orchardists and Fruit C ool Stores Association formed.
• 1919 Templestowe Cool Stores built.
• 1919 Public phone installed at Doncaster Post Office.
• 1920s The production of fruit grown in Doncaster's orchards reaches its peak in the 1920s.
• 1920 Subdivision into 5-, 10- and 20-acre blocks, of the Brushy Park Estate, Wonga Park, is listed at Croydon.
• 1921 Granite pillars added to the front entrance of Athenaeum Hall as a memorial to the fallen in the Great War.
• 1921 Donvale Cool Store built.
• 1922 Electricity comes to Templestowe district.
• 1922 Memorial Hall in Templestowe officially opened by Premier of Victoria.
• 1922 Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works connects houses in Doncaster to reticulated water supply.
• 1923 One-room school started in Oban Road to service Park Orchards area.
• 1923 St Mark’s Anglican Church, Yarra Road, Wonga Park, is dedicated.
• 1923 Miners at the Caledonia Mine working on the tribute obtain last significant gold from this locality.
• 1924 Box Hill Golf Club leases Tullamore and lays out an eighteen-hole golf course on the property, which is opened by Stanley Bruce as the Eastern Golf Club.
• 1925 Reliable bus service between Melbourne and Doncaster, run by A. Withers, begins operation. (Withers and Son’s Warrandyte-Melbourne bus service, owned by Withers on and off for the next eighteen years, becomes Warrandyte Transport Service Pty Ltd in 1943.)
• 1925 Crushing components of Warrandyte’s Government Battery sent to Department of Mines store, where battery is dismantled but the water-wheel operates as tourist attraction for the best part of a decade.
• 1926 Municipality renamed the Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe.
• 1926 Park Orchards Country Club Estate launched by Australis Sharp and John Taylor.
• 1928 Park Orchards Country Club Estate clubhouse completed.
• 1926 Union Christian Church opens in Yarra Road, Wonga Park.
• 1926 Warrandyte Mechanics’ Institute Hall completed.
• 1930s A. E. White rents Serpell's Store on the corner of Doncaster and Williamsons roads. The store becomes known as "Whites Corner Store"
• 1930 John and Sunday Reed buy 11 acres near the Banksia Street Bridge.
• 1932 Holy Trinity Church of England consecrated.
• 1932 Doncaster growers form Southern Victorian Pear Packing Pty Ltd, to organise and standardise the export of pears and apples to the United Kingdom and Europe. Name later changed to Blue Moon Fruit Co-operative Limited.
• 1934 In November, huge rainfall over three days in the Yarra catchment areas causes serious flooding in the district.
• 1935 Electric power comes to Warrandyte.
• * Gold Memorial Cairn, marking site of first payable goldfield, unveiled in Gold Memorial Road, Warrandyte.
• 1937 Doncaster’s largest cool store, the Orchardists’ C ool Store, destroyed by fire.
• * Glen Iris Brick Works built on Templestowe Road.
• * Baby Health Centre established (part-time) in Warrandyte by Dr Wilfred Kent Hughes and Sister Olive Houghton.
• 1937-38 Worrall, a modernist house with flat roof, designed by Percy H. Meldrum, is built at 4 Cat Jump Road, Donvale.
• 1938 Volunteer fire brigade formally established at Warrandyte.
• 1939 On Friday 13 January, ‘Black Friday’, bushfires rage through the Warrandyte district.
• 1939 Spear’s Templestowe Brick Works built on Bulleen Road.
• 1940s By about 1945-1950, it was clear that migration and a rise in the birth rate were lifting the population level at a rate never before experienced in this country.
• 1940 Local Wonga Park men form a bushfire brigade.
• 1943 Warrandyte Transport Service Pty Ltd acquires all bus services in the municipality.
• c. 1944 Pasquale Colella purchases and enlarges former Elder Orchard in Wonga Park.
• 1944 Warrandyte Fire Station built.
• 1946 Infant Welfare Centre built in Yarra Street, Warrandyte.
• 1947 New cricket ground, the Deep Creek Reserve, established near junction of Anderson’s Creek and Warrandyte Road.
• 1947 Warrandyte branch of Country Women’s Association formed.
• 1947 Eastern Metropolitan Fruit Growers Association formed.
• 1948 Orchardists’ C ool Store destroyed by fire again.
• 1948 Glen Iris Brick Company sets up business.
• 1948-49 Clifford Park (part of Yarra Brae property in Wonga Park) becomes site of large Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree.
• 1949 South Warrandyte Fire Brigade registered.
• 1950s The return to prosperity afier World War II brings land speculators to the Doncaster and Templestowe area. Between 1950 and 1960, the population rises from 4,500 to 16,500.
• 1951 Park Orchards Country Club Estate up for sale.
• Templestowe Hillclimb, Blackburn Road, Templestowe, established.
• 1952 Suburb of Bulleen so named.
• * Infant Welfare Centre built in George Street, Doncaster East.
• 1955 Timber bridge, built across the Yarra at Warrandyte in the 1870s, replaced.
• 1955-56 Second Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree held at Clifford Park (part of Yarra Brae property in Wonga Park).
• 1956 New Presbyterian church built in Atkinson Street.
• 1956 New municipal offices for the City of Doncaster and Templestowe ready for occupation. Council moves in from its former offices in the Shire Hall.
• 1957 Final service held in the old Church of Christ building; new building officially opened.
• 1957 Infant Welfare Centre erected in Templestowe.
• 1959 Park Orchards Post Office opened.
• 1959 St Peter’s and St Paul’s Catholic church built in Doncaster East.
• 1959 Warrandyte Water Works Trust constituted to provide to the town a reticulated supply drawn from the river.
• 1960s - From 1960 to 1970, the population of Doncaster - Templestowe grows from 15,000 to 64,000 and the orchards reduce to 2,000 acres (810 hectares).
• 1960s The cool stores close down.
• 1960s Last surviving blacksmith business in Doncaster closes.
• 1960s Older-style cool stores begin closing down.
• 1960s Population growth in Doncaster makes it one of highest domestic consumers of electricity in Victoria.
• 1960s At end of 1960s, Serpell’s Store (White’s Corner Store) sold to Westfield Corporation for the development of what is now Doncaster Shoppingtown.
• 1960s Meg Henderson designs and builds house in Greenslopes Drive, followed by house next door in Fran Court.
• 1961 Larger hall for expanding congregation of Methodist church opens.
• 1961 Primary school opens in Park Orchards.
• 1961 St Clement’s Catholic Church built in Bulleen.
• 1961 Mobile library service begins providing books at many sites around shire.
• 1961-62 Seventh World Rover M oot - first held in southern hemisphere - staged at Clifford Park (part of Yarra Brae property in Wonga Park).
• 1961-62 New bridge opened over the Yarra at Fitzsimons Lane.
• 1961-62 Council Quarry opens.
• 1962 New bridge built over the Yarra at Banksia Street.
• 1962 Major bushfire burns through Warrandyte.
• 1963 Council estimates that approximately 100 miles of private streets require construction and drainage.
• 1963-64 Park Orchards Infant Welfare and Pre-school Centre established.
• 1963-64 Doncaster Elderly Citizens Club formed.
• 1964 City of Doncaster and Templestowe takes over management of Athenaeum Hall.
• 1964 Planning Officer appointed to serve City of Doncaster and Templestowe.
• 1964 Additions made to the City of Doncaster and Templestowe municipal offices.
• 1965-65 Yarra Valley Municipal Emergency Organisation formed toformalise assistance between the area’s municipalities in time of emergency.
• 1965 Templestowe Brickworks closes down.
• 1965 East Doncaster Cricket Club moves to new home at Zerbes Reserve.
• 1965 Park Orchards community purchases Domeneys Reserve.
• 1965 Another major bushfire threatens Warrandyte community but co-operation between CFA units averts great personal and property losses.
• 1965 First district library built at Montgomery Street, Doncaster East.
• 1966 Orchard surrounding Friedensruh purchased by Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe, to become part of eastern section of the Municipal Gardens (now Ruffey Lake Park) from Church Road to Victoria Street.
• 1966 John and Sunday Reed begin building Heide II.
• 1967 Doncaster—Templestowe Historical Society is founded.
• 1967 Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe officially proclaimed City of Doncaster and Templestowe.
• 1967 Veneto Social Club founded in Bulleen.
• 1967 M. J. McKenzie Library opened in Doncaster East.
• Doncaster and Templestowe Council’s planning scheme adopted and Notice of Approval published in Government Gazette, No. 12, on 13 February
• 1968.
• 1968 New building for the Catholic Church’s St Kevins erected in Herlihy’s Road, Templestowe.
• * Doncaster—Templestowe Conservation Society holds first meeting in Warrandyte.
• 1968- 69 Jewish Centre opened.
• 1969 Doncaster Shoppingtown officially opened.
• * Veneto Social Club purchases land on Bulleen river flats.
• * Doncaster-Templestowe Art Group (later Doncaster-Templestowe Artists’ Society) formed.
• 1969- 70 Bulleen Village Shopping Centre opened.
• * Doncaster Swimming Pool opened.
• 1970s
• 1970s Vista Valley Pre-school Centre opens in Bulleen.
• Doncaster-Templestowe Art Group holds first exhibition in Memorial Hall, Templestowe.
• 1971 Re-alignment of Doncaster Road causes removal of Schramm’s Cottage to its present site at Waldau.
• 1971 Extension to Holy Trinity Church of England consecrated by Archbishop Frank Woods.
• 1971 Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) takes over Warrandyte Water Works Trust Pty Ltd.
• 1971-72 metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) build premises in Templestowe, opened 9 December 1971, and acquire area’s first fire truck.
• 1971-72 City now has twenty kindergartens, most combined with Infant Welfare Centres.
• 1971-72 Foundation stone laid at Jewish Synagogue.
• 1971-72 Church of England’s extensions consecrated by Archbishop Knox of St Clement’s Catholic Church at Bulleen. Building seats 750, but an estimated 2,000 attend.
• 1972 Templestowe Bowling Club opens.
• 1972 Opening of multi-purpose pavilion, Rieschiecks Reserve.
• 1973 Veneto Social Club building in Bulleen officially opened.
• 1974 Christ Church building in Foote Street replaced by St Mark’s in Lower Templestowe. Old building sold to City of Doncaster and Templestowe to be used as community arts centre.
• 1974 Bulleen Shopping Centre (later named Bulleen Plaza) built in Manningham Road.
• 1974 Sheahans Road Sport Reserve, in Bulleen, opened.
• 1976 Warrandyte Historical Society formed.
• 1976 The carefully reconstructed Schramm’s Cottage officially opened.
• 1977 Banksia Street Bridge duplicated.
• 1977-78 First Wurundjeri Festival and Parade held.
• 1979-80 Appointment of first Chief Executive Officer.
• 1979-80 Australian Cricket Team visit the city.
• 1980 State Government buys Heide.
• c. 1981 Houses featuring organic expressionism by Gregory Burgess built at 42 & 58 Berrima Road, Donvale.
• 1981 Heide Art Gallery opens to the public.
• 1982 Postmodernist house design by Robinson Chen architects and builders apparent at 37-39 & 41-43 Curry Road, Park Orchards.
• 1982-83 The city is one of the first to adopt a corporate plan looking beyond a fiscal year to include and budget for long-term capital-works programs required by a rapidly growing community.
• 1982-83 Foundation stone laid for Doncaster and Templestowe Nursing Home.
• 1983 Bus service for Park Orchards obtained thanks to efforts of students from Norwood High School assisted by Park Orchards Rate-Payers Association.
• 1984 Highly influential house, needing no mechanical heating or cooling, designed by Alan and Beth Coldicutt and built in Brysons Road, Warranwood.
• 1984-85 First joint Catholic-Protestant school in Victoria, Serpell Primary Charles Borommeo, is opened.
• 1984-85 Park Orchards BMX track opened.
• 1984-85 Bulleen Library Service opens at Bulleen Shopping Centre.
• 1984-85 The city’s coat of arms is presented by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Brian Murray.
• 1985 Nearly 6,000 lots are connected to the underground electric supply system.
• 1985 After partial destruction by fire, sections of historic Warrandyte Post Office rebuilt between 1985 and 1988.
• 1986-87 South Warrandyte Fire Station built by voluntary labour of CFA members.
• 1986-87 The Pines Shopping Centre opens.
• 1986-87 Aged persons accommodation opens in Warrandyte.
• 1986-87 Ted Ajani Reserve so named in honour of former Councillor and Mayor.
• 1986-87 Council makes commitment to support an initiative of Mayoress Sheila Denford, to promote establishment of palliative care service.
• 1987 Official reopening in January (after over three years’ closure) of municipal pool waterslide.
• 1987 Last meeting of Templestowe Hillclimb. Tracks used for Hillclimb to north of the Mullum Mullum Creek still evident today.
• 1987-88 Doncaster Playhouse, in historic Doncaster Primary School building, officially opened.
• 1987-88 Doncaster and Templestowe Artists’ Society premises in old Shire Hall officially opened.
• 1988 Reconstructionist extension by John Wardle added to house at 9 Dundas Court, Doncaster East.
• 1990s School closures, amalgamations and site redevelopments occur.
• 1990 Archaeological survey of City of Doncaster and Templestowe undertaken, with aims of locating, documenting and interpreting Aboriginal sites, assessing their significance, and identifying areas of high archaeological sensitivity, in order toformulate recommendations for their protection and management.
• 1992 Doncaster Shoppingtown extensively remodelled.
• 1994 Amalgamation of Council-operated electricity suppliers with the three SECV-controlled companies.
• 1994 Local government amalgamations.
• 1996 Population of Manningham at 103,759.
• 1997 Third stage of Eastern Freeway to Springvale Road opened.
• 1997 Councillors replace Manningham City Council Commissioners.
• 1997 Expressionist house by Ivan Rijavec built at 9 Glendarragh Road, Templestowe.
• 1998 Major changes to child-care regulation cause BaTCH occasional child-care centre to close.
• 1999 Work on remodelling municipal offices begins.
• 1999 Walk in My Shoes project for the International Year of Older Persons

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.