ByWays of Local History - Doncaster Mirror - 037-049
037 1981-02-04 Back to Beginnings ByWays DoncasterMirror
037 1981-02-04 Back to Beginnings ByWays DoncasterMirror
Byways of Local History
By Joan Seppings Webster
Feb 4, 1981
THIS week the MIRROR presents the first in a series on the history of Doncaster – Templestowe by Joan Seppings Webster.
The series will concentrate on cameo pictures of the early days which so influence the present. Joan, who has been interested in local history for many years, instigated the historical society on the committee for many years. She has also written extensively on local history.
Back to the beginnings
THE Street where you live may have been named merely to satisfy a subdivider’s whim, or it may be a signpost pointing back to the beginnings of the com-munity.
Many of Doncaster’s streets and landmarks bear the name of pioneering families.
The 1880 voters roll for the Shire of Bulleen (it embraced Doncaster then) contained 100 names.
To that “old 100” the following streets bear witness: Andreson’s Creek Rd, Aumann Court, just cover the Box Hill border, Clancy’s lane, Bullen St., D’Arcy St., Denhert St., Firth St., Franklin Rd., Fromhold Drive, Ireland Av., Knees Rd., Lawford St., Lyon Rd., Mays Rd., Petty’s Lane, Reynolds Rd., Serpells Rd., Thiele St., Whittens Lane, Williamsons Rd., Wilson St., and Zander Av., up near Nunawading.
Log School Rd. was probably named for the small log cabin school conducted in 1860 by the Misses Ann and Robins Wilson, daughters of the first licensee of the Don-caster inn. Robert Wilson, who lived in Wilson’s Rd.
I will write more about these pioneering families after whom streets are named, in later articles.
Schramm’s and Zerbe’s Reserves are land owned by these early settlers.
Westfield Corner, atop Doncaster hill had many names. It was first Pully’s Corner after Thomas Pully, whose land was adjacent, then Lauer’s Corner when Mr A. Lauer built his bakery on the north-west corner and kept the toll gate on the south-west corner.
Richard Serpell in 1890 built the two-storey brick atop which stood there before Westfield Shopping Centre, and for 40 years it was Serpell’s Corner.
This ambitious venture was intended to capitalize custom brought by the Doncaster- Box Hill tram opened the previous year. A Mr White bought the shop in 1930, giving it the name of White’s Corner, un-til recently familiar. It has no connection with the early pioneer Henry White, of East Doncaster and Deep Creek fame, whose homestead has recently stirred up a historical conservation controversy.
Some street names have been changed over the years, losing their old associations. In 1916, all German-sounding names were altered, following a petition to council led by Mr F. Zerbe, a Lutheran pioneer, who wanted to prove his allegiance to the British Crown. Bismark St. became Vic-toria St., Wilhelm St. became King St., and Waldau Lane was renamed Geroge St.
The big hill leading from the Koonung Creek up Don-caster Rd. was Smedley’s Hill – sometimes called Clay Hill or Long Hill. Some say the name Clay Hill came from the pioneer Clay family and others because of the sticky clay in which drays often became bogged. Smedley, Doncaster’s first blacksmith, had his forge at the foot of the long hill by the Koonung Creek – Doncaster Rd. bridge opposite of what is now the junction of High St. and Doncaster Rd.
Bismark St., Doncaster (now Victoria St.), as it was in 1907, looking south towards the Lutheran Church from near where Schramm’s Cottage and historical museum now is.
‘The winds of heaven’
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPING WEBSTER
DONCASTER’s once famous tower is featured in the Australasian Sketcher of 1880, titled the Beaconsfield Tower, Doncaster Hill.
Tower St., Doncaster, one street east along Doncaster Rd, from Shoppingtown Corner, is named after this lookout.
Beside the tower in the picture, separated from it by a fence is what appears to be a small wooden cottage. As there is a large keg lying beside one of the stumps of this cottage, it probably had a connection with the Tower Hotel, which was built on the other side of the tower.
Both tower and hotel were built by Alfred Hummel, a local entrepreneur.
According to the official history of Doncaster and Templestowe, by Colonel E.G. Keogh, the tower was 285 ft. high. But this con-temporary report claims only 200ft.
Even so, this would make it twice the height of Doncaster Shoppingtown’s 10 storey tower!
By the fence dividing the tower from the hotel is an entrance with a lean-to which was probably where visitors to the lower tower entered and paid their fee to see the view.
Tiny figures can be seen on what appears to be a landing stage at the top of the first section of the tower. This is how The Australasian Sketcher describes the Beaconsfield Tower, Don-caster Hill.
“This tower is an immense wooden structure 200 feet high and was erected by its proprietor Mr Hummel for the sole purpose of obtaining the extensive and magnificent view which it commands.
“Situated on the top of Doncaster Hill, from its up-per gallery, the visitor obtains a grand panoramic view of the Dandenongs, the Plenty Ranges, Kew, Melbourne, Mt Macedon, Port Phillip Bay, and, on a clear day, Port Phillip Heads.
“From the ground floor to the first gallery (height 100 feet) the steps of the tower are enclosed, and one has the feeling of starting up a shaft instead of down one; from the first to the second gallery the height is 60 feet, and for this distance, as well as for the remaining 40 feet, the tower is open to all the winds of heaven.
“The ascent so far is achieved by means of a strong, wooden, winding staircase, but after the second gallery is reached, the enterprising excursionist must trust the safety of his neck to a near perpendicular ladder.
“We need not remark the majority of visitors having achieved the upper gallery, content themselves with the view it offers and take the rest for granted.
“This is the third tower erected on this spot by Mr Hummel, the two others having been blown down. The present structure cost 1,000 pounds.
“It is a place of resort on high days and holidays, the public being privileged to toil up its innumerable stairs at the rate of a shilling a head.
“There is a temperance hotel attached to the tower and there are some pleasant-ly wooded paddocks about for the use of picnic parties.
“Cabs run from Kew to Doncaster two or three times a day in the season, but good pedestrians will find the distance (five or six miles) a pleasant and exhilarating walk through the grassy, undulating country about.”
Illustration by Katherine E. Seppings 21-year old daughter of Joan Seppings Webster, author of the series.
Beaconsfield Tower, Doncaster Hill and temperance hotel.
039 1981-02-18 Pound Bend ByWays DoncasterMirror. Needs Proof Reading
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by Joan Seppings Webster
Feb 18, 1981
POUND BEND, Warrandyte, favourite picnic spot of families from all over Melbourne, is part of the heritage of Austrralia.
The name Pound Bend came from an animal pound in the area. Gold was first discovered in Warrandyte in June, 1851, by Louis Michel. The Pound Bend Tunnel is believed to be unique in the history of gold mining in Victoria.
Perhaps there is some parallel to be found in the ingenuity of the man behind Pound Bend Tunnel, David Mitchell, and his unique daughter who became the prima singer, Nellie Melba.
But Pound Bend, The Yarra River goes back on itself on a horse shoe arch, and Mitchell conceived the idea of diverting the water through a tunnel in the neck of the arch, damming the river and so exposing about five miles of river bed for divulging for gold.
Now at this well-known beauty spot the river ripples pleasantly over pebbles, trail their branches in water and swallows swoop through the echoing tunnel, resounding the ambitions of yesteryear.
Mitchell formed the Evelyn Tunnel Gold Mining Company and on June 3, 1870 blasted what was then known as the Evelyn Tun-nel. Three months and 2100 pounds later, the 634 feet tunnel was completed.
It was 18 feet wide and 14 feet high.
About 8,000 pounds worth of gold was taken from this part of the bed in 12 months’ operations but gradually dredging costs overtook the returns and the company was liquidated.
The tunnel carried 1500 gallons of water a second and 1100 sand bags were used, supported by piles, to dam the river.
The bushland around Pound Bend is probably one of the few aboriginal tribal lands near a metropolis which is still in a bush state.
When Warrandyte was surveyed in 1841, 1103 acres, including Pound Bend, were set aside for an aboriginal reserve. It was part of the land of the Yarra tribe.
Warrandyte comes from the word “Warran”, to throw and “Dyte”, the object thrown at. A further unusual link of Pound Bend with the past is that from the aboriginals living there, the native police were recruited in 1843.
They wore a uniform of green jackets and possum skin facings, black trousers with red stripes and green caps with red bands.
Warrandyte has a number of “gold medals” for firsts in history. Warrandyte, when called Andersons Creek was the first officially declared gold field, the first area to have a Gold Commissioner and the first issue of a gold licence was made there.
In the nearby timber mining reserve can still be seen the remains of many mining tunnels.
The swirling waters of the neck of the bend in the Yarra River, Warrandyte at Pound Bend. The opening to the tunnel is just past the left of the sketch.
040 1987-02-25 Cat Jump to the Orchards ByWays DoncasterMirror
25·2·87
Cat Jump to the Orchards
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
THE tale of Cat Jump Road which links Old Warrandyte and Springvale Roads, Don-caster reads like a shaggy dog story. The naming of what may be the shortest road on record- is only 623 ft. 9 inches long – is something of a tall story. In 1886 some local residents applied for a road to cut west of the Springvale- Warrandyte Roads’ intersection and avoid a hazardous half mile which included a steep hill.
Discussing the chances of having the proposal adopted, a man is reported to have said: “It all depends on which way the cat jumps.”
The phrase stuck and became the name of the new road. Some councillors considered the name undiginifed and prepared to ojbject when the proclamation came before council. However the shire secretary put the item last on the agenda so the question was never dealt with and the name remained.
Park Orchards
WHEN Park Orchards was subdivided in 1926 the land speculators hoped an exclusive club would be developed.
The experiment in “planned exclusiveness” of the club provided the members of the club would be granted freehold on condition that the gates were erected across the entrance of each street to keep out the general public.
A subdivision on an oval pattern was designed by architect Walter Burley Griffin after whom Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra is named. His Park Orchards design included a cricket pitch, bowling green, tennis courts and a golf club for member residents. Only three blocks were sold in 10 months.
The proprietors are then said to have asked the council to take over certain streets in the estate and the project was deemed a failure two years after its inception.
The original Park Orchards land consisted of 300 acres of virgin bush bought in 1900 for 50 shillings an acre by the late Mr Tom Petty. He was a son of Don-caster’s first English pioneer. He became known as the father of the Don-caster fruit industry, was a member of the Templestowe and District Roads Board for 12 years, and later Don-caster Riding in the Shire of Bulleen, and its president in 1887.
He served as a councillor in the Shire of Doncaster for 25 years.
He was an innovator and invented many helpful devices for the fruit grower. Tom Pretty gradually cleared his Park Orchards land and established a fine orchard. In those days to do this the wood was carted to Melbourne via Kew and sold for from 4 pence to one shilling, one pence per hundred weight.
Exploring history
THE Mirror is helping students at Doncaster Park Primary School to explore the history of their area. Mrs M. Purchase, a teacher at the school, noticed Joan Seppings Webster’s “By-ways of Local History” articles in The Mirror. She realized the value the articles would make to the study of Social Studies.
She sent a newsletter home to the presents asking their children to bring copies of the articles to school. Mrs Purchase said the series of articles was “so timely” and that excursions to various places of interest in the area might be arranged for the children.
Doncaster Mirror
THE Mirror circulates throughout the City of Doncaster- Templestowe with 25,000 free home delivery to Templestowe, Lower Templestowe, Warrandyte, Bulleen, Doncaster West, Greythorn, North Balwyn, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Donvale and Park Orchards.
Head office: 3rd floor, Doncaster Shoppingtown, P.O. Box 14, Doncaster, 3108, Phone 848 2898 or 848 1214; for editorial, phone 848 6615.
Advertising: Area sales manager, Ted Williams; sales representatives, Keith Linden and Harold Pope.
Editorial: John Gavegan, Merryne McKelvey.
Office: Trudy Johanson (manager), Dorothy McMmurdie, Angie Poon.
041 1981-04-29 Prevalent Myths ByWays DoncasterMirror
PARK ORCHARDS
PARK ORCHARDS
Saxial Tuxuen designed the plan, copying the style of Walter Burley Griffin, according to Mrs Moulden ph 876 1720, who had it from ex-councillor Daryl Marsh. Mrs Moulden had sighted Tuxon’s original plan, owned by Daryl Marsh. She had also spoken to Tuxen’s son, also a surveyor.
Mrs Moulden says that Mrs Beavis of Park Orchards, a descendant of Tom Petty, had known the design was Tuxen’s.
It appears that after Tuxon and Miller subdivided the property, Gibb, Sell and Bright (Misses Gibb and Bright and Mr Sell] had sales placed in their hands. The late Colonel E. Graeme Keogh [official Doncaster Templestowe historian and author of the History of Doncaster and Templestowe [published 1975], when he was alive told me that had the advertisement of land for sale, naming Gibb, Sell and Bright as agents.
29 April 81
Prevalent Myths
SIR- Contrary to popular belief, and to the article on Page 2 of The Mirror (25/2), Walter Burley Griffin took no part in the subdivision of plan of Park Orchards.
The firm which undertook the subdivision was Tuxen and Miller, which had earlier co-operated with Burley Griffin in the Ranelagh Country Club Estate at Frankston. I believe also that the statement, “In the early 1930’s Park Rd. was put through to Warrandyte and Ringwood,” is incorrect, as the Army, after requisitioning the chalet for use as a signals base in the Second World War improved Park Rd. from there to Berringa Rd. only.
Park Rd. connects to Ber-ringa Rd. and from Berringa Rd., Milne Rd. connects to the Warrandyte – Ringwood Rd. I shall be pleased to supp-ly your writer with a well-researched local history completed in 1977 by a local resident which could be a basis for further enquiry and perhaps the eradication of some prevalent myths. - Charlie Sharpe, Post Office, Park Orchards.
The writer of the article, Joan Seppings Webster, replies: Regarding Park Rd., Mr Sharpe and I are talking of different times Mr Julius Grant did, in fact, as I stated in the article, write to the shire council and agitate for Park Rd. improvement over a period of 10 years. I have sighted letters.
My article stated: “In the early 1930s Park Rd was put through…” “Formed” may have been a better word. (The addition, in that sentence, of “to Warrandyte and Ringwood” was an er-ror.)
The time period Mr Sharpe speaks of had to the late 1930s and after. The Army was not at the chalet until the war, which did not start until 1939. The Army improved on what was there, from the Ringwood side to its chalet base, as an access road.
The Walter Burnley Griffin design detail appeared confirmed from an “Age” newspaper reference of February 11, 1967 added to acceptance of this aspect of the story of Titles Office official.
Walter Burley Griffin un-doubtedly was the source of inspiration for Park Orchards’ circular design and its clublike environment. But it seems he was not responsible directly for the Park Orchards plan. Responsibility for this must go to Mr Saxil Tuxen, surveyor. His name is given for subdivisional design on a plan sighted by reader Mrs Moulden, of Park Orchards.
Walter Burley Griffin could, however, well have been a consultant. If he was not, then his style was imitated. He did design Eaglemont Hill, Melbourne, and Castle Crag, Sydney, along the same lines, and, of course, Canberra.
The official Doncaster- Templestowe history by Col. E.G. Keogh states that Pet-ty sold his land to Gibb, Sell Bright & CO. In 1926. Col. Keogh has an original advertisement for the subdivision naming this company.
The Petty land was divided and sold in a number of parcles by a number of agents and to a number of parties over the years, including the unusual Park Orchards private club subdivision.
042 1981-03-04 Petticoat Lane Templestowe ByWays DoncasterMirror
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
Petticoat Lane in Templstowe
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
IN the early days of Templestowe, women worked hard on farms and orchards in their bare feet. They hitched up long dresses into the belts around their waists and earned the name of Petticoat Lane for the street in Templstowe now known as Anderson St., where the Memorial Hall is.
On Sundays the men, women and children went in their drays to the river which they crossed by punt to attend church on Heidelberg. They put in their treasured shoes before arriving and carefully removed them before returning home. This was related in 1959 by Mrs J. Hodgson, a member of the pioneer Chivers family of Temple-stowe.
Her grandparents came to Australia in 1849. Ther voyage on a sailing ship took seven months. As assisted immirgrants they paid 11 pounds for their fares and helped with the work on the ship, then promised to work on farms for seven years. The family joined a canvas town at Heidelberg. Then they were befriended by Mr Ross, a carpenter. He built home of packing cases and also made coffins.
White coffins with a black cross for children and black coffins with a white cross for adults. Mrs Hodgson’s mother told her of a family of eight children where each of them died from diphtheria – one each week. A man working on a farm was paid 15 shillings and also given rations of flour, sugar, currants, oatmeal and tea.
A punt by which to cross the river to attend church in Heidelberg was kept up un-til the end of the 1850s. In 1856 the foundations for a bridge were laid and it was completed in 1858. Work was scarce as many men had left for the goldfields but local farmers sent their men to work on the bridge. There was a gold and antimonymine in Thompsons Road. Bushrangers attacked and aboriginals held corro-borees.
Homesteader Major Newman was attacked by bushrangers who stole his horse – but that is another story in itself.
Bars can be seen on the windows of some houses in Templstowe and Bulleen today, partly as protection from bushrangers and partly from blacks. But Mrs Hodgson said that the local blacks were known to be harmless and gentle, although often thieves. Children were kept away from them. One time the Plenty tribe came to join the Temple-stowe tribe for a corroborree.
There was much whooping and yelling as they swam in the river and joined the celebration around a cramp fire in a circle swept clean with gum tree branches.
The menu consisted of raost possum. After the feast the women and children who had been sent away, were allowed to pick the bones. The white men were paid to have watched from a “safe” distance and for hours the people from the little settlement of Temple-stowe heard the thuds of hundreds of stamping feet and the cries of the natives, as they tossed spears and boomerangs.
The name Bulleen, a sub-division of Templetsowe, is said to have been a native name for the area.
A RURAL scene in Templestowe in its early days. Women working in the fields hitched up their dresses to work unrestricted, showing their petticoats.
043 1981-03-11 Sanctity of Doncaster Hill ByWays DoncasterMirror
March 11, 1981
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
Sanctity of Doncaster Hill
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Sacred burial ground? WAS Doncaster Hill sacred to Aborigines?
In the 1880s, an aboriginal skeleton wrapped in bark was uncovered when the original cutting was being made for Williamsons Road.
The skeleton was found almost opposite an old home, which still remains near to present-day Shoppingtown.
The story was told to me by the late Miss Selina Serpell.
She was the daughter of the late Mr Richard Serpell (Serpell's Lane, Serpell School), involved in many interesting early Doncaster ventures.
He built the shop which preceded Shoppingtown on Doncaster Hill corner. This shop was leased to a Mr White which gave the hill- top intersection the name of White's Corner for many years.
Miss Serpell said that in those days nobody attached much importance to the finding of the Aboriginal skeleton. A manager of one of her father's shops in Glenferrie, a Mr Morrison, bought the bones and for years kept them in his hardware shop there.
This shop was opposite the Roman Catholic Church in Glenferrie Road.
The hill-top site is the highest land for many miles. Aboriginals are thought to have gathered there for ceremonies.
Doncaster soil is clay. But on this, Doncaster's highest point, is an isolated sandy ridge which runs through the heavy clay.
It is classified "Tertiary Sand of the Mioscene Age" and estimated to be up to 26 million years old. An anthropological expert said that only in sand would such finds as the skeleton of artifacts be found.
Because of its beauty, its height, its easily-dug sandy soil, the now commercial site could well have had a special meaning to the Aboriginals who roamed the Templestowe River flats.
We know the history of the chaff would keep them the European pioneers who built first the orchard and then the business empire of Doncaster, but what of the history of the original inhabitants now bulldozed beneath the bustle of trade?
Who knows what stone artifacts bearing the story of Doncaster's pre-history lie sealed under the airconditioned malls and bitumened parking lots of this unique site?
The grey haze of its primitive past perhaps lies lost for all time beneath its supposed colorful future.
To market and back
To market with the harvest and home with a load of manure.
That's how it went for the early orchardists of Don- caster, at the time when everyone else was going to bed, or already asleep, to market. make the long trip to
Mr Clive Petty, told this anecdote to an early meeting of Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society in a talk entitled "A Trip to Victoria Market while Melbourne sleeps."
Mr Petty was barely 16 when he first started taking fruit to market on his own.
He had to face the long drive through the night in all weathers, to be ready at 4 a.m. to start bargaining with the fruiterers from shops around Melbourne.
During the winter when nights were freezing cold, the drivers would often get down from the wagon and walk up hills to keep warm.
Back on the cart they could always put their feet in the horses' feed bag where the chaff would keep them warm.
The horse knew the way and soon the driver would doze off to sleep.
Mr Petty recalled that one night we woke up to find that he was heading back for home. Some wag had turned the horse around while he was asleep.
The growers rented stalls in the open sheds of the market. Here, their carts were backed in and fruit sel-lers came to buy their cases of fruit.
The orchardists had to have their wits about them. There was always someone ready to take them down with such tricks as counting out a wad of notes with one note folded over to count as two.
The return trip was an op-portunity to bring home a load of manure to nourish the orchard. (It was said that Doncaster "lived on manure)".
On the trip home due the day when the sun was hot, the location of troughs was most important.
Some of these water troughs still remain around the outer suburbs Melbourne and until recent years one was atop Doncaster Hill.
AN artist's impression of Aboriginals preparing for a burial onwhat is now Doncaster Hill. The dead were buried with their spears and personal artifacts.
Trees in the background of the clearing were stringybark, peppermint, messmate and wattle.
044 1981-03-18 Toll Gates ByWays DoncasterMirror Uploaded
March 18, 1981
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
THE oasis of green atop Doncaster Hill diagonally opposite Shoppingtown and known as the J. Thomson Reserve was once a scene of wild altercations.
This is now the apex of the three-part intersection of Doncaster, Elgar and Tram Rds., but at the time Tram Rd., did not exist. And Doncaster Rd., ran east only as far as Church Rd.
In all. the district had only six miles of formed roads: three miles 21 chains in Templestowe Rd., two miles 21 ch., in Doncaster Rd., and 35 ch. in Thompsons Rd.
New Year's Day 1866, marked the beginning of a new and controversial era on what is now a
conservationist spot. For on that day in Doncaster's history a toll gate was opened on what was then Mr Thomas Tully's property.
A full-time (24 hrs a day) 1-keeper lived on the spot until the Doncaster toll gate and residence was sold in 1877 for 24 pounds.
The Templestowe District Roads Board, (forerunner of the municipal council), was in a financial rut, it appears, and persuaded the Boroon-dara Roads Board (which included Camberwell) to put the toll site here, not at the Kennedys (now Koonung) Creek crossing in Doncaster Road in the hope of acquiring much needed revenue.
Revenue was needed not only to get the board out of a financial rut but to help its operations. The carts, horses and buggies were getting in literal ruts on the dreadful boggy, soggy roads.
When the toll gate was opened there were more troubles. A popular new sport came into vogue: Evasion of the toll.
The players, in three or four-horse drawn carts, would rush the gates of the toll together and the toll- keeper was lucky to catch one of them.
Prices extracted by the toll-keeper from travellers were: sheep, pigs, lambs and goats eight a penny; ox or head of beef cattle half penny; horse, mare, ass or mule - 1 1⁄2d; gig, chaise, coach or chariot or other carriage constructed on springs, if drawn by one horse or other animal - 3d; two horses - 6d, and 3d each additional horse of animal; cart, dray or wagon - 6d; and 3d for each additional horse, with tyres not exceeding six inches.
Those in government service, ministers of religion or residents going to church, were exempt from paying. It was costly to take peaches to suck during a dull sermon.
The toll-keeper declared them marketable goods and demanded the toll for the vehicle, even though it was going to church.
Templestowe graziers evaded the toll by driving their herds of cattle across unfenced land on what was then known as the Carlton Estate and also known as Unwins Special Survey.
A move by the Templestowe District Roads Board to have a toll at the corner of Thompsons and Templestowe Roads was defeated by the petition of residents who pleaded hardship.
To the almost bankrupt board, which only wanted to keep the residents in communication with the outside world, this plea seemed unwarranted.
When a Commissioner of Roads and Bridges requested a report on the amount of road construction carried out by the Templestowe District Roads Board it had to reply that it did not have any funds
"A GIG, chaise, coach or chariot or other carriage constructed on springs drawn by one horse or other animal "... the vehicle drawn fits this description. It stands across the part of Doncaster Rd., where a toll-gate would have stopped it for 3 pence in 1866.
April 1, 1981
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Queen Mollie- by default
THE East Doncaster Hall at the corner of Andersons reek Road and Blackburn load was once famed as the best hop for 50 miles."
Many well-established Doncaster marriages had heir beginnings in romances nurtured at the all's Saturday dance. 'Those were the days of Australian Teas, Queen Carnivals, Popular Girl Contests and "The Georgette Set" (an old news clipping used 14 of its total inches to detail what 96 women wore- 36 wore georgette, with a smattering satin, moires, tafettas and epe de chines.)
Carnival Queen on opening night in 1932, Mollie Fitzgerald, later the kitchen whose job it was came the mother of Footscray footballer Ernie Quinlan.
But there is a skeleton in this simple folk history cupboard. The carnival was to raise funds for the cost of the hall. A few girls entered, few pulled out and it finished up with only one entering for queen - Mollie Fitzgerald. She used 46 pounds. It was a mommentous occasion.
The 11-year-old flower to the Carnival Queen came Mrs Alf Beavis of Nunawading. Some years on she recalled to me: "I was at Fitzgeralds all passed up from 8 o'clock till half past nine when we made a grand entry," she said.
Two older girls in blue georgette, flower girls in pink crepe de chine with silver baskets of blue cor-nflowers and carnations and Mollie with a crown hired from J. C. Williamsons. (J. C. Williamsons were the theatrical entrepreneurs).
"Grandfather Zerbe drove the entourage to the hall." Grandfather Zerbe Mr August Zerbe -was the first chairman of the hall committee. He donated the land for the hall. (The reserve opposite near Saxonwood Drive for many many years was called Zerbes Reserve).
At the first ball, there was an old lady on duty outside the kitchen whhose job it was to keep a copper boiling to supply the water for tea and coffee for supper. Out in the open was a large pile of wood with which to stoke the cop-per all night. Dancers were lucky there was no rain.
During the war, dances were held there for the Comforts Fund. For 10 years or more East Doncaster Young People's Club ran fortnightly dances and one way or another there was a dance every Saturday night.
Dancers like Mr Ray Sell helped to build the hall. Mr Sell "put his brick up there" at the age of 12. Dancers came from as far as Healesville and Yarra Glen.
They would pool resources for transport. If somebody had a car there would be a real crowd on not ones or twos to, a car like today, pointed out Mr Sell..
Gate crashers at balls were not the scourge of the Charmaine and Two Step as they are of the rock flock today! Everybody respected other people's property.
Outside was a marquee for the women to use as a dressing room and to add a bit of rouge or powder and lipstick before supper.
One of the best remembered nights was a Barn Dance. The Friday night before, the young people went up and polished the floor and greased it with wax. They put up a post-
and-rail fence inside the hall and hung a bit of harness around it and hurricane lamps and let word get around.
That Saturday night they opened the doors to one of the birgest crowds they ever had inside that hall. They topped the opening night. A crowd of 500 came from far and near.
ENTRANTS in the Queen Carnival, held at the East Doncaster Hall, 1932.
046 1981-04-08 The Girl Burke Left ByWays DoncasterMirror
April 8, 1981
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPING WEBSTER
The girl Burke left
DAME Nellie Melba stole rides on the woodcarts rumbling out from Don- caster in the 1860s. The set- tlers, clearing their blocks and ploughing the land, would marvel at the "Angel's voice", that floated over their fruit gardens.
Melba's father, David Mitchell, arrived in Don- caster in 1858 and lived for some years on land now occupied by the Eastern Golf Links. He was an un- successful candidate for the Templestowe Roads Board in 1862.
When the family moved later to Lilydale, Nellie kept her links with her Doncaster friends, and as a schoolgirl on holidays from the Presbyterian Ladies' College, spent frequent holi- days with the family of Robert Williamson (after
whom Williamsons Road parents exploited Julia's takes its name).
Her father, a builder, became a gold mining entrepeneur noted for the blasting of the tunnel in the Yarra River at Pound Bend, Warrandyte, but that is another story on gold.
DONCASTER has a link with explorer Robert O'Hara Burke, of Burke and Wills fame.
A beautiful actress, Julia Mathews, was a singer and a star of the Princess Theatre. Her brother Will came to live in Doncaster and settled Street Recreation Reserve, on what is now the Leeds East Doncaster.
Will is said to have left home and come to Don-caster because of the way his talent for their own monetary gain.
Will Mathews' son, Mr Jim Mathews, spoke to me about the explorer Burke in 1968. Mr Mathews then lived in Mitcham Road.
A report in "The Age" on her death in 1876 says Miss Mathews' parents were: "Perfectly alive to the treasure they had got in their daughter and they watched that treasure with the utmost care while they were laying up a handsome provision for their old age from the fruits of her talents."
Gossips said that while Julia Mathews'father drew her salary of 30 pounds a week, he allowed her 1/6 d. as pocket money.
"The very critics who loved her and who exhausted all their most enthusiastic efforts in describing her and her acting, cried out over the shabbiness of her dress" the old article said.
So, her brother Will left home in protest and came to Doncaster.
The explorer Burke first saw Julia when he was a police inspector at Beechworth, where she appeared in a travelling show.
He followed her from town to town, imploring her to marry him. Burke applied for leadership of the expedition being formed to cross Australia only after she had refused him.
He even rode back for one last try for her hand as the expedition paused and camped at Essendon.
Burke died of starvation and thirst at Coopers Creek in 1861.
In 1864 Julia Mathews eluded her watchful mother, who accompanied her on tour and sat knitting in the wings during performance, and ran away to marry a Mr Mumford in New Zealand. She died 12 years later aged 34.
Pine trees on that East Doncaster Reserve were planted there by Julia Mathews' run away, sad brother Will.
ACTRESS Julia Mathews, loved by explorer Robert O'Hara Burke, whose brother Will lived at East Doncaster where the Leeds St. Reserve now is.
047 1981-04-15 Babies by Bicycle ByWays DoncasterMirror
April 15, 1981
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
BABIES BY BICYCLE
WARRANDYTE'S first infant welfare sister cycled by bicycle up and down rough bush tracks to get to mothers and babies. For a long time Warrandyte had no doctor.
Sister Olive Houghton was 60 years when she began infant welfare training. Sister Houghton was never known to refuse an ap-peal for help, whatever hour day or night, and she did this until she was 70.
Warrandyte boasts the council's (then shire's) first infant welfare service. (The service did not open un-til 1952, with Sister Jean in East Doncaster.) The Centre in Yarra St., Warrandyte, from which Sister Houghton rode her errands, was demolished in the late 1960s.
Olive Houghton was a former English nurse, who married and lived in Warrandyte. She won the esteem and affection of Warrandyte people for the voluntary service she gave to the community for many years, before she established the Infant Welfare Service.
In the early pioneering days of Warrandyte, Don- caster and Templestowe there were no doctors or midwives. The nearest doc-tor to Doncaster was in Kew.
People helped each other through their health crisis. Each had a small herb garden and ground their home medications with pestle and mortar. With no contraceptives, and no public transport, and private transport only by jolting horse-drawn vehicle, many pregnant women, who neverthless still had to get to market to sell their produce, thought it safer to their condition to walk to market
to Kew or Collingwood. Reports have been made of infants born on the way. One is said to have been born at the corner which is now a tram depot, at the Barkers Rd. High St. intersection, Kew.
The unexpected bundle was carried home to add to the tiny Doncaster population a bonus "profit" for that market day.
When Sister Houghton began her trained service to mothers and babies in Warrandyte in 1938, she would have had to counteract generations of old wives' tales.
Here is one such, from a book of advice to mothers, written last century: "The (baby's) bedroom should be kept rather dark, particular- ly for the first week or 10 days. The infant during the (first) month must not be exposed to strong light or much air; and in carrying it about the passages, stairs, etc, the nurse should always have it head-flannel on, to protect the eyes and ears from the currents of air."
Mothers, and mother- substitutes known as wet- nurses, were advised for breast-feeding to drink two pints of stout and porter a day.
Babies were frequently given sleeping draughts, concocted often at home, but readily available at the nearest dispensary. Mrs Beeton's Book of Household
Management asserts that "scores of nurses keep secret bottles of these deadly syrups for the purpose of stilling their charges."
There was Godfrey's cor-dial, syrup of poppies and other narcotic potions.
Before the coming of trained infant welfare sisters, babies often died from the mother's ignorance and mismanagement. This was not particularly the mother's fault, but the lack of society's general awareness of the activity of germs.
Baby's nursing bottles often had long, difficult-to- clean teats, in which germs thrived. Some bottles had teats of India-rubber, some gutta-percha, caoutchouc ( a black, artificial substance), or of calf's teat. The latter was preferred by advisers.
As some teats were kept in spirits before sale to the public, the mother had to soak them in warm water before use. They were then "tied securely by means of a fine twine, round the neck of the bottle."
Once on the bottle, the teat was never removed except to replace it with a new one. This was generally about a fortnight later.
Each day, the baby's bottle was supposed to be "thoroughly washed and cleaned, and always rinsed out before and after using it, the warm water being squeezed through the nipple to wash out sour food."
One can imagine how the germs accumulated and throve around the nipple hole, especially with no boiling. And understand the high infant mortality before the trained Infant Welfare Service, exemplified by Sister Houghton.
SOME fruit names that have become household words originated in Don-caster. The Packham pear is one and the Cling Peach is another. Many varieties of peaches originated in West Doncaster.
Thiele's Cling Peach eveloped by Alfred (A.F.) Thiele of Church Road, Doncaster in 1897. Unlike other Doncaster peaches, his is highly colored and a te picking. Thiele also developed the Packham Pear.
Some of the more important varieties of peaches developed in Don-aster were:
Anzac- August Zerbe of Blackburn Road, East Don-caster, developed this about 915. It was a consistent bearer of white fleshed fruit and bore early.
Beale- developed by Mr L. Beale of Serpell's Road, Templestowe in 1913.
Wiggins- developed by J. Hudson of High Street, West Doncaster in 1910. A consistent bearer of fruit in mid-season.
Hooker- developed by E. Aumann, of George Street in 1912. It was named after an Elizabeth Street fruiterer. It bore mid-season.
ORCHARD TO HOME DONCASTER CROWN - THIELES FIRESIDE FRUITS - ONE BUSHEL
FANCY PRECOOLED PEARS
A LABEL for Thiele's Fireside Fruits, used in the 1930s. On top is written "Orchard to Home Doncaster Grown.".
In the circle, a girl shows a basket of fruit to her father, who is seated by a fireside, and says: "They are quality, Dad." (Original label supplied by Mr P. W. Thiele.
Noonan- developed by D. Noonan of Doncaster in 1910. A mid-season bearer.
Catherine Anne- developed by J. Hudson of West Doncaster in 1900.
Whitten's Palmerston- developed by J. Whitten of Whitten's Lane in 1900. A vellow fruit and late bearer.
Doncaster- Crawford there were twostrains of this variety. J. Petty and E. Wilson produced seedlings from an original Late Crawford. Superior in size and cropping habit, one season has pink and the other almost a red flower, both are equally good fruit. Developed in 1906 and bears later.
Millicent- called after Mrs Don Petty, whose name was Millicent. Developed by F. Morrison of Williamsons Road in 1906. A late bearer.
Lorimer- developed by J. E. Lorimer of Hurstbridge in 1906 but featured by Don- caster growers.
Sweet Seventeen developed by August Zerbe in 1914.
Zerbe developed by August Zerbe in 1896. Zerbe had a number of similar but slightly inferior seedlings from which buds were also taken, therefore there was more than one strain of this peach. It had a high color and a white flower.
Pickering A. Pickering of Warrandyte Road, Templestowe developed this in 1910.
Chapman- this was discovered in a garden at Brighton by P. Aumann of Park Road, Mitcham and named after the owner of the property on which he found it.
Smiths chance seedling - this originated on an island in the Yarra River, Templestowe in 1900. It was noticed first by Mr G. Smith of Templestowe. It was then propagated by another member of the family, T. Smith, of Serpells Road. It was made popular by R. Smith of Tindells Road, Warrandyte. It became the most widely planted dessert peach.
Webbs- developed by W. A. Webb of Main Road, Doncaster in 1910, A mid- season peach widely grown in the 1960s. There was also a late variety, not so well known.
Ireland- developed by A. E. Ireland of Banyule Street, East Doncaster in 1914, a popular mid-season peach.
Pumps- developed by August Pump of Man-ningham Road, Doncaster in 1902.
Bob John- developed by John Smith of Man-nigham Road, Templestowe in 1901.
048 1981-04-22 The Land Bubble EasternStandard
EASTERN STANDARD April 22, 1981
by JOAN SEPPING WEBSTER
The land bubble
AUCTIONEERS spruiked outside giant marquees, ladies with parasoles took afternoon tea and land prices yose in a bubble of champagne: This was Don-caster, 1888.
Land speculators had followed the trail of the mythical Cantebury to Doncaster railway to the: top of Big Hill, there to lure buyers with advertisements of free lunches, champagne, and transport. A cab service met intending purchasers at Box Bill station.
A handbill showing the Heights of Doncaster Estate, the north-west cor-ner of the Doncaster Road - Williamsons Road, intersection, claimed the railway was "likely to run through the land now offered for sale, or terminate thereon."
It had 55 allotments available on five pounds deposit. This land opposite Shoppington sold readily then for 14 to 29 shillings a frontage foot — 101 to 237 pounds a lot.
The 1880s land boom, rumbling where a train might run, turned rich orchard-land to weed covered paddocks, pegged into suburban sized pieces. Some stayed waste for decades when the boom backfired.
Others were subdivided and shown as subdivisions as late as the end of the 1960s and yet continued to be worked as orchards. One of these was an estate off Queens Av., a street off Doncaster Rd. opposite Council St., which has empty blocks still.
One group of local landholders gambled on both sides of the tracks by racing the proposed railway to Doncaster, and bringing to it instead the first electric tramway to the southern hemisphere. Many people blamed the Box Hill and Doncaster Tr4inway, Company for the mysterious dropping of the first Doncaster Railways Bill, and the consequent bursting of the Doncaster land bubble.
Landowners along the tram route had been offered shares in the company in return for access through their properties. Sightseers drank in views atop a 285 ft. observation tower and drank in beer at the Tower Hotel at its base. They enjoyed picnic races along Doncaster Rd. with the thrill of a land speculation.
They tramped through orchards, plucking fruit as freely as the landmongers grabbed ripe profits and fermented resentment among residents not only against the human in-truders, but the “fast and efficient” public transport which brought them. Angry farmers strung fences along thf tracks, tried to tear up the lines and hung an effigy of one of the company directors on the overhead wires at the top of the hill.
The tramway and the "Big Top" atmosphere of the land sales collapsed with the Depression of the 1890s Ever since, jokes about Doncaster's meagre public transport service have fallen as flat as the champagne drinks at the end of its bygone carnival land auctions.
The 1888 handbill advertising the "Heights of Doncaster". The text in the lower right corner describes it as "between the Tower and Dr Fitzgerald's magnificent residence." The fine print at bottom claims, "A railway is to be constructed from Canterbury to Doncaster shortly, and is likely to run through the land now offered for sale, or terminate thereon."
THE Eastern Standard, incorporating the Whitehorse Standard, has free delivery to 49,112 homes. It is distributed in Box Hill North, Kerrimuir, Blackburn North, Mitcham North, Mont Albert, Box Hill, Laburnum, Blackburn, Nunawading, Heatherdale, Surrey Hills, Mitcham, Box Hill South, Rangeview, Vermont, Forest Hill, Blackburn South, Wattle Park, Bennettswood, Burwood, Burwood East and Vermont South.
Advertising: Area sales manager, Ted William; sales representatives Bob Beetensen and Mike Baker.
Editorial: Rosalind Smallwood, Merryne McKelvey.
049 1981-04-29 Wooing 1870s style ByWays DoncasterMirror
April 29, 1981
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
Wooing, 1870s style
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
A “LIKENESS" of a young woman such as Emily, where the head was kept stil by resting on a head brace for a long period.
“MY father has placed your letter to him in my hands and desires me to answer the flattering proposal which it contains." This is how to turn away an unwanted suitor, I870 style. When a suitor said "lets. get hitched", she said "ask my father".
Dad said “put it in writing" and poor swain did. Then dad said "answer and blushing maiden 417ne1 to the "Ladies' Model Letter Writer" – a complete guide to correspondence on all subjects.
A copy of the booklet, published in the 1870s, was discovered among old papers at an ear-ly meeting of the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society. The sample letter “refusal of a proposal", proceeds: "It is with profound regret that I obey him; for I cannot unhappily — respond to the feelings you are good enough to entertain for me.
"As a friend I shall ever like and esteem you, but cannot feel for you the love which alone can make married life happy.
"Allow me, however, to thank you very heartily for the great, compliment that you have paid me, and to entreat your forgiveness if anything in my manner has unconsciously given rise to the hopes I am obliged to disappoint.
"You will doubtless meet some far worthier object by and by on whom to bestow your affections. “Your obliged friend, L.M.”
Sitting for the likeness
PHOTOGRAPH taking was certainly not an instamatic business in those days. Here is an account of what happened when one lady sat for her likeness. "I sat for my likeness to-day. I was required to sit very still, for 11/2 hours, my dear Josephine, with my head resting in a head brace which the photographer had adjusted with screws to suit me.
“After trying, to maintain a properly dignified yet pleasant expression for so long, imagine what happened then! "The gentleman had warned me, of course, to be prepared for a flash as he lit the magnesium flare to provide the right light at the required moment, but I was not, equal to the surprise of the very big flash it procured.
"The likeness it produced had such a startled expression that I am not enclosing it in this letter, but I am now obliged to make a further sitting, Emily.”
Although this was the method used for a proper portrait “on the spot" pictures were taken even in those days. They could be taken in the street and the print was developed by wash it in a puddle or gutter.
No comments:
Post a Comment