Needs transcription from Original Scan Images DN2023-05-28B-02
110 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Noo-30, 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS-WEBSTER
When police wore spurs
DONCASTER had a mounted policeman from 1882 until the early 1940s. In the 1930s mounted constable Mer-ry Doherty and his horse Jill became well known figures in the area.
The first police station in the area, now the City of Doncaster and Templestowe, was at Warrandyte in 1856. It was necessary because of the gold rush but eight years later, when mining in the area had slackened off, it was closed.
A rush of outsiders into a district often seemed to bring trouble. In Warrandyte it was the rush of gold miners, in Doncaster in the 1880s it was the rush of tourists.
The peacable citizens of Doncaster petitioned their Council in 1882 through Pastor Max Von Schram for police protection. The Don-caster Tower had recently opened and such trespass and wrecking of fruit trees was done by the influx of tourists that the orchardists and their families felt threatened. Fruit was stolen and orchard trees
damaged.
Another aspect which residents felt needed policing was the dumping of night soil in the district which brought, or was believed to have brought, epidemics such as diptheria and typhoid.
So in 1882 on May a police station was opened headed by mounted constable M. Gleeson. It was simply a hut and wooden lock up, beneath pine trees near the corner of
Frederick St. and Doncaster Rd.
During the First World War the police moved from this primitive arrangement to a brick house which they rented from Mrs Julia Stutt, owner of the Doncaster Hotel
and resident of Tullamore later Golf Club House.
The lockup for this police station was a room at the back of the house.
The police station moved again in about 1927, this time back almost to its original site, and in a house on the corner of Station Street. Again it was a rented house which the Police Department bought in 1945.
(I would be interested to learn any anecdotes regarding Doncaster's mounted police). I would also like to be told of anecdotes of flood and fire in the district, pre - 1960, either dramatic or humorous. All help will be acknowledged in the publication.)
111 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Dec 7, 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS- WEBSTER
Streets named for sisters
AMELIA and Myrtle Courts and Maude Avenue, East Doncaster were named after sisters of Mr A. E. Ireland whose family had owned an orchard there since the early 1850s.
Amelia was the second name of Mr Ireland's elder sister Florence Amelia. The street could not be called Florence, as there was already a Florence Avenue in Donvale.
Blanche Court was named for Mrs Mabel (known as Merle) Ireland, wife of A. E. Ireland. Blanche was her second name, too.
Montgomery and Churchill Streets, East Don-caster were named by the Irelands after General Montgomery and Winston Churchill. That land was subdivided just after the end of the War.
At the time the two Ireland holdings were the only two subdivisions in the area. All the rest of the land was still being worked as orchards.
Portion of the Beverley St. property was subdivided in 1966 and the balance of it in 1968. Fruit was still being grown on it until 1964.
Mr Ireland built a private cool store in Beverley St. but now the land has two houses on it.
Although the whole of this area has become known as Beverley Hills the origin of the name Beverley St. is not known by Mr Ireland. The original old Ireland home was burnt down in 1908 while the family were away at a Methodist Sunday school
picnic. All records were lost.
The Ireland land on the south east corner of Beverley St. and Blackburn Rd. was 30 acres.
In the 1950s, Mr Ireland was offered the 40 acres of land opposite - that is land bounded by Doncaster Rd., Blackburn Rd., Beverley St. and Tunstall Rd. but he knocked it back, not knowing what a wonderful proposition it would be. The price was only 5000 pounds.
The parcel of land to be subdivided next after the Ireland lots was that on the south west corner of Beverley St. and Blackburn
Rd. which was owned by Emma Thiele.
In the early 1850s John Ireland and his wife, the grandparents of Arthur E. (always affectionately spoken of as simply A.E.) arrived in Australia from Huntingdon, a small county in England, and took up residence in Doncaster.
They brought with them their three children and settled in Beverley St., East Doncaster. Their first home was wattle and daub with a bark roof. The three English children were John Junior, Elijah (A.E's father) and Eliza. Three more children were born in Doncaster; Jonah, Ruth and Susan.
In later years John, Elijah and Jonah married and settled in Doncaster and took up fruit growing. Elijah married Keziah Bowers. They spent all their lives on the property, part of which is still owned by A.E.
who lives there with his wife Merle at the south east corner of Beverley St. and Blackburn Rd.
A.E's Aunt Eliza married George Bulleen junior, whose parents had come to Australia on the same ship as John Ireland and his wife. Arthur E. Ireland was elected to Doncaster Coun-cil in
1922. He took the place of John Tulley who had served as a councillor from 1890. In 1923, 1935 and 1944 A. E. Ireland was Shire President. From 1950 to 1955 he was a State MLA as member for Mernda,
At that time Doncaster, electorally, was in an area bounded by Mt Macedon, Romsey and Lancefield and known as Mernda.
In 1955 the areas were reshuffled, the Evelyn electorate altered and the Doncaster area then went to Box Hill. It became its own area of Doncaster in 1972.
112 ByWays DoncasterMirror
December 14 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS-WEBSTER
When Doncaster was a sea of flowers
DONCASTER-Templestowe was once a sea of colorful orchard blossoms.
But before the orchards there were wild flowers. Among the wild flowers which grew in Doncaster
were green elephant, spider orchid, blue jack in the pulpit, harbinger of spring, maiden hair fern, hawthorne hedges.
In Templestowe, Mrs. Hazel Poulter remembers, "There are memories of beautiful spring days when fruit trees bloomed and the ground under the fruit trees was covered with yellow cape weed flowers. Girls sat amongst the cape weed making daisy chains and occasionally
holding a flower under a chin to see if you liked butter.
"Spring was the time to pick wild flowers. We knew the spots where the spider, donkey and granny bonnet orchids grew. Flannel flower, chocolate flower, bacon and egg, sarsparilla century and early Nancies were found on the hills of paddocks that had not been
ploughed.
"An abundance of white dog-wood, wattle, and tea tree grew along the creek and river. "Wild clematis twined up the trees along the creek.
Bunches of white hawthorne were picked from the hedgerow that had been planted by the early settlers at Pontville. In this property grew a large old mulberry tree. It was so large children
could walk along the branches.
"When we came across cranberry plants, which grew low on the ground, the runners would be turned back to see if the fruit was ripe, if so the little dark berries would be eaten. A wild cherry tree from which I ate fruit as a child is still
growing by the gully in Newmans Road.
"Kangaroo apples with their large orange berries looked tasty but were avoided as
they were supposed to be poisonous. "On sunny days after rain in autumn there would be plenty of mushrooms in the paddocks. They were picked by children and sold in at the market for extra
money. "Often a fairy ring of mushrooms was found. "We danced around them holding hands but never picked them, as we believed
they would come again next season in the same place." Wild flowers had side effects if grazing cows ate them. Capeweed could be tasted in the milk.
Once, Mrs Poulter's grandmother complained that the milk tasted of capeweed but what had really happened was not that the cow was allowed to graze in the wrong place, but while coming home with a billy
full of milk, the children had been swinging it around and some had spilt. The missing milk was made up to size in the billy with dam water!
113 ByWays DoncasterMirror
FEATURES
Dec 21. 1982
Easter Standard
This article was cut.
Pagan origins of Christmas
by JOAN SEPPINGS-WEBSTER
CHRISTMAS. The time of peace and good swill. Why the contradictions?
Almost every aspect of our Xmas present day celebrations can be found in ancient worldwide custom.
This Christmas day, ap-propriately a Saturday, commemorates Saturn's Day. (The Christian weekly holy day, Sunday, commemorates Mithras Day, Sun Day.)
Pioneers and present day worshippers and revellers think of this time as wholly Christian, about the birth of Jesus.
But from nativity scenes to midnight songs, you will find through the millenia a clinging to the same customs.
The week December 17-24 was the Roman Saturnalia, the feast of Saturn.
In its Roman garb of Saturna a gifts were exchanged and schools and courts closed amidst wild merrymaking and domestic celebration.
Christmas was not celebrated in western Europe until the 5th cen- tury. The first masses for Christ were said in the sixth century, and Christmas was not popular until the Middle Ages.
Christmas was forbidden by British Parliament in 1644 Puritans and Nonconfor-mists abhorred the festival but restored by the Res-toration of the Stuart kings.
The eastern church celebrated January 6, Epiphany, or the twelth day of Christmas.
But this did not celebrate the birth of Jesus. It celebrated a trinity of happenings: Jesus's bap-tism this acceptance as the son of God); the visit of the wise men to Bethlehem (acceptance of Jesus as King of the Gentiles, the world);
and the miracle of turning water into wine at the marriage feast at Cana (proof of divine power to perform miracles).
Celebration of Christmas as the birth day of the Divine Child came much later than celebration of the Epiphany (or Miracles) and grew out of the church's need to supersede ancient Divine
Child festivities and rites, and cloak them in its own guise.
The Roman Christmas of the fourth century, from which our modern rites and revellings have directly grown, regrew itself from joint aspects of ancient cultures which had by then both been blended into the Roman mid-winter festivals of Saturn and Mithras.
Saturn's Day. Su's Day. Merriment and Morality. Saturnalia and Mithraism.
And when Roman Christianity spread northwards it encountered winter solstice celebrations such as the great Yule Log feast of the Norseman, mistletoe veneration of the British Druids and fir tree and fire cults of the Ger- manic tribespeople.
The Christmas tree came to England from Germany, brought through the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert of Saxe - Coburg Gotha.
The first Christmas tree in England was set up by Princess Lieven in 1839 at Panshanger, but did not become custom until 1841 when Albert put up one for a child's Xmas party at Wind-sor.
The German ritual goes back to fir tree worship. (Tree worship of one kind or another was universal). The fir tree did not shed its leaves in winter. It was not overcome by winter.
Worshipping in mid- night/mid winter darkness in the depths of pine forests, it was natural to light pro- ceedings, by placing tallow candles in the branches. The use of trees, fires, and burning of trees was banned by the church for centuries, until it thought
if you can't beat them, join them in the middle ages. But the Christmas tree was not common even in Germany until 18th century.
Credit (or discredit) for the first Xmas card is disputed between W.C.T. Dobson, 1844, and J. C. Horsley at the
suggestion of Sir Henry Cole, 1846.
A kiss under the mistletoe and a girl will find a husband within a year. This was a New Year (winter
solstice) game in ancient Greece. The mistletoe was a plant of Wendy, originally a godess of gardens.
The British Druids believed in the cureall abilities of the mistletoe and to them it was sacred when found growing on an oak.
When Druids occasionally needed to sacrifice, they gathered mistletoe from a sacred oak on the sixth day of the moon.
Two white bulls were tied by the horns. The priests cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle dipped it in water and the blood, and dispensed twigs as a charm.
So at our summer solstice, how can we rationalise the festivities? Great sun worshippers, the summer solstice of the
Australians marks for them the coming of even hotter days before the autumn will drive them again from their beaches and barbecues.
Merry Saturnalis, and may the peace of Mithras be always with you.
Venus
114 ByWays DoncasterMirror
February 1 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Kerosene cost too much for the council
THE expense of $1.60 a year to burn kerosene on moonless nights for street lighting, was too much for Doncaster Council in 1911.
Even the proposed poles would cost $13 each. (By comparison, in 1959, the cost per pole was $40 for newcomers building in Don-caster and wanting the electric supply extended to their blocks).
The district would have to stay dark. It had no street lighting of any sort.
Don-caster Progress Association had asked Council (Don-caster was a separate municipality at this time) to provide a few street lights to Doncaster Road.
A brilliant idea then lit the debate. The PMG was asked if lamps could be hung from telegraph poles. The bright suggestion that
shopkeepers be asked to light and put out the kerosene lamps followed.
Meanwhile, a body called the Gloria Light Company tried to convince council to use its equipment.
After two years of groping in the dark, council bought three kerosene and three carbide lamps.
With a shock, it realised six months later that the shopkeepers who had been asked to light them had not been doing so.
A more positive approach was then made, to find out whether the local cool stores, then ten years in operation, could run an
electric light from their own plants to the outside.
So the light of a new era dawned in 1913 when one cool store, the West Don-caster Co-operative, agreed and the first electric street witched on.
This sparked off the desire in the Progress Association for electric light power to households throughout the district.
A Doncaster Power House scheme vied with one to buy current from the Melbourne Electricity Supply.
But most Doncaster residents only dimly appreciated the benefits of electricity to their homes.
The pressure group found that people did not want to change from their cosy and familiar lamps and candles. The required 150 electricity users for instigation of the scheme could not be found.
Finally, in the glare of fierce controversy, seven guaran-tors agreed to indemnify council against loss for five years.
By this time, the first world war had started, and plans were doused for another year or two.
The great day came for switching on the first reticulated electric supply on February 8, 1916. (According to an early historian, Mr John Tully, the date was March 15, 1915).
But the ceremony fizzed and flickered when the Melbourne Electricity Supply could not provide the current until the next day.
A celebratory supper was enjoyed under the bright new globes in the Athenaeum Hall.
It was 1920 before East Doncaster had electricity, 1922 for Templestowe, and 1935 for Warrandyte. Con-sider that Box Hill had electricity in the 1880s, and
the Box Hill-Doncaster electric tram ran from 1889 to 1892.
For one third of a century, one man kept the innovation in control of Doncaster-Templestowe Council (the districts became
joint municipality in 1926) and guided it to the great business undertaking it is today.
Mr Ray Elliot began work with the infant Electric Sup-ply Department in 1929, when his father, Archibald, was electrical
engineer. Ten years later, Ray Elliot took over the work on his own, giving round-the-clock service every day of the year.
Often he was called out after hours to attend an electrical problem at some orchardist's cool store.
Ray Elliot died in 1963, aged 46, from overwork many said.
"The electric supply was his life, and he gave his life for it and this city, his widow, Mrs Nell Elliot recalled during a re-enactment of a Roads Board Meeting for the centenary celebrations on
July 1, 1975, when the soft kerosene lights symbolically gave way to the turning up of the electric light.
Mrs Elliot is a grand-daughter of Roads Board member Richard Clay.
115 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Feb 8 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
The long wait for light and power Reggings
IT TOOK a long time for push-button housework to come to this municipality. Electricity was reticulated to Don-caster in 1916, East Don-caster and Donvale in 1920, Templestowe in 1922 and Warrandyte in 1935.
But although electricity came to the main roads at the time of the official switching on ceremonies, it was often not extended to householders for some time.
Newman's and Monkton Rds., Templestowe, did not have electricity until after the 1939-45 war.
Mrs Hazel Poulter, of Templestowe, recalls what it was like to do housework before electricity did away with flat irons, kerosene lights and ice chests or coolgardie safes.
Life for the wife and daughters of a household called for weekly cleaning, daily chores and seasonal housework. Weekly cleaning
included Monday washing day, Tuesday ironing day, Friday cleaning and Satur-day baking. Daily work covered sewing, gardening, making home-made cordials and cooking, including making bread.
Seasonal housework meant spring cleaning and making jam.
Mrs Poulter tells the story: In our house Monday was wash day. Fallen dry wood which broke easily and burnt quickly was gathered by
the children on a weekend for wash day. This wood was called copper wood. The copper fire would be set ready to put a match to early on wash morning. With a large family there would be several copper loads of washing.
"Soap parings and washing soda was used in the copper water.
"The first soap powder I remember was Kitchen's Extract. "At home fat was saved in kerosene tins to be used in home-made soap.
Ash from the copper fire and fine river ingredients used in making sand were two of the sand soap. A couple of children would be sent to the river to bring home a bucket of sand when sand soap was going to be made.
"Clothes were boiled in the copper and lifted from the boiling water to the trough with a wooden copper stick, then rinsed in water in one trough, next put through a wringer into water to which blue had been added,
then back through the wringer, squeezed as dry as possible."When hand washing a wooden or glass scrubbing board was used.
"After the big wash, hot, soapy suds water was used to scrub chamber pots and the outdoor closet (toilet). "Clothes were hung to dry on a long clothes line using a wooden prop to keep the clothes clear of the ground.
A sapling tree with a fork in it was used to make the prop.
"Tuesday afternoon was ironing time. A blanket and sheet were spread on the kitchen table on which to iron. Red hot coals were lifted
with tongs from the stove fire to fill box irons. Flat irons were heated on the wood stove. To test the
heat of the iron it was held near the face or spat upon."
This is the first of three articles on housework before electricity.
116 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Feb. 16.1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
When wax was used keep the iron cool
Joan Seppings Web-ster continues her series on housework before the advent of electricity.
"TO keep the iron smooth so it would not stick to the clothes, bees wax, wrapped in a cloth, was
rubbed over the bot-tom of the iron. An iron stand made of iron was on the table upon which to rest the iron.
It was hot work ironing damp, starched clothes with a fire going in summer.
"Friday was house cleaning day. Mats and door mats were taken outside and shaken. Bed sheets were changed, then each room was swept, polished and dusted.
"Saturday afternoon was spent baking cakes, tarts etc. for the weekend. Two oven trays of scones would be made on a Sunday.
"Spring cleaning was ritual in those days. Each room was turned out in turn. Flock mattresses were aired in the sun. Wire mattress bases were cleaned of fluff with a stiff brush.
Blankets, quilts and curtains were washed, drawers and wardrobes sorted and fresh brown paper put in the bot-tom of drawers.
"There were everyday jobs. Our kitchen was scrubbed and polished each morning while bedrooms were mopped with an O-Cedar mop.
The stove and iron kettle were cleaned with blacklead then polished using two different brushes. Every so often the bricks around the stove were painted with red ochre and the sitting room fireplace whitewashed.
"Each morning milk was scalded in a large dish on the stove then placed in the dairy to set. The cream was skimmed off the milk to make butter in a churn.
Butter pats were used to shape the butter into about one pound lots. Butter balls were made for Sunday night's tea.
Skim milk and butter milk were fed to the pigs and calves.
"Babies' napkins were boiled on the stove by putting them in a kerosene tin which had been cut lengthwise with a wire handle inserted.
Lamps had to be filled with kerosene by a hand pump. Lamp wicks were trimmed to throw an even light.
Lamp glasses had the smoke removed with newspapers, then washed and dried. "Hurricane lamps were carried when going to the toilet or sheds at night."
(To be continued next week)
117 ByWays DoncasterMirror
March 1 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
They baked 14 loaves a week in 1929
CONTINUING the story, as told by Mrs Hazel Poulter, of Templestowe, of the work of home manager and mother before electricity:
BESIDES every-day work, there was sewing, gardening and children to attend to.
The baby was bathed each morning in a washstand basin on the kitchen table. While mum was busy, a tod-dler played outside in a tea chest, which took the place of a play-pen.
Mother cut the children's hair using scissors and comb amid complaints of: You are hurting me, or mum growling: Keep still or I'll cut your ear off.
Boys hair style was short back and sides. We called it the basin cut.
Dad repaired our boots and shoes. New soles and heels were cut from a large sheet of leather after being soaked in water to make it pliable before tacking on.
Mum often put protectors (new moon shaped metal plates) on our footwear.
The job was made easier when stick on rubber soles came into use. A boot last was an indispensible tool in a country house when I was a child.
With a large and growing family there was a lot of filling food to cook.
Large saucepans of pea, lentil, brosemeal and vegetable soups were made in cold weather. In winter we ate a lot of casseroles, roasts and stews with dumplings and pastry.
Different varieties of suet pudding boiled in a cloth were made: Jam roll, apple duff with golden syrup. Spotted dog was a suet pudding with currants added.
Puddings cooked in the oven varied from jam tarts, apple pie, baked apples, fruit sponge to baked custard with either rice, sago, tapioca or bread and butter added.
Pumped leg of mutton, corned beef, pressed tongue and potted meat were fre-quently eaten in hot
weather. In summer, sweets changed to stewed fruit, boiled custard, junket and jelly, trifle, blancmange and strawberries. Liberal amounts of potted cream were used on sweets.
Ginger beer, hop beer and raspberry cordial were made for drinks in summer. When a demijohn of hop beer blew its top and ran over,
I was one of the children on hands and knees lapping it up off the linoleum covered floor.
For some years we made bread three times a week. Bread rolls made in round tobacco tins were eaten when the children came home from school.
In 1929, when The Depression started, I was helping my mother make 14 large loaves of bread each week to cater for our large family.
Large amounts of jam, sauces and pickles were made in summer.
When melon jam was made, children sat around the kitchen table in the evening removing the seeds while mother put the
slices through a mincer. Plenty of seeds ended up on the floor as we stealthily shot seeds at each other.
Jam was stored in gallon demijohns and glass bottles. Different types of bottles were used. If the bottle had a narrow neck like a beer bottle,
the neck was removed with a bottle iron.
This was a piece of iron made at the blacksmith's with a different sized ring at each end. The iron was heated in the fire
then placed over the bottle neck for a few seconds. The bottle neck was then plunged into cold water, causing the neck to snap off.
The sharp edge was then smoothed with a file.
All the jam was sealed with a circle of pasted brown paper. Bottled fruit was sterilised on a wooden plat-form in
the copper.
Before refrigerators were used domestically, keeping eggs was a big problem. Mrs Poulter remembers a com-mercial
preparation called "Ovo" and later Keepeg used for egg preservation.
Ovo was used to make a liquid in which to preserve eggs. A couple of kero tins of preserved eggs were kept in the pantry to be used when eggs were in short supply.
If a cracked egg was preserved, it would eventually float to the top and smell like a rotten egg.
In the 1930s Keepeg, which was like vaseline, was used to smear over the eggs to preserve them in a dry form.
The only help my mother had before I left school was for a few weeks before and after a baby was born. Either a local woman was engaged to do the
washing or a local young woman was employed to live in for a few weeks.
The midwife usually came a week before the baby was due and stayed two weeks after the baby was born. The midwife did the cooking, attended to
the toddlers and kept the older children in line.
118 ByWays DoncasterMirror
How do You Like it Mate ?
119 ByWays DoncasterMirror
March 8 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Fire drill kids saved farm
JANUARY 6, 1969 another Ash Wednes-day; 10 houses destroyed in Warrandyte in bushfires after power lines clashing in
wild winds showered sparks.
Fire stretched from just north of the municipal depot, at the corner of Blackburn and Warrandyte Roads, to east of Kangaroo Ground Rd.
It threatened holiday makers in the Crystal Brook caravan park.
Losses included three kilometres of fencing, 54 sheds, three play houses, two carports, four cars, two tractors
and hundreds of haystacks.
But there were some amazing saves, too, such as Pygmalion Farm. Fire burnt completely around the farm, the home of the Rush
fami-nly, in Warrandyte. It burnt to within two feet of the walls of the house on the north side.
The heat was so fierce that metal solder on rivets in two aboveground water tanks melted and all the water drained away.
It was no miracle that the house did not burn. It was good planning and precautions.
The family had been taught bushfire drill; each member of the family knew what to do and did it.
This was the drill that the children Paul, David, John and Mary-Anne, had learnt by heart:
"First, pick up any papers or oily rags outside and put them in a box inside.
"Make sure the knap-sacks are full and in the carport. "Drive the tractors onto the concrete, or near the house.
"Close all the doors and windows, put bags in the old bath outside near the laundry and fill it with water.
"Bring the horse to the door post and tie him there. Turn on the hose and water the front (north) of the house.
"If any outhouse has long grass around it, mow this quickly and rake it. "Do not wear any nylons.
Put on woollen clothes and heavy boots and cover our heads so no hair shows. "If any of the family is away from home and hears of a fire,
go to a friend's place and stay there until mum or dad telephone."
When smoke was seen half a mile from Pygmalion Farm, the children played their part by the house while Mr Viv Rush guided the fire unit through the property to the fire.
John, then 14, drove the tractors to the concrete driveway then, with stones flying so fast it was thought he'd break all the windows, he motor-mowed a wide
strip round the hayshed. The others raked the shaven ground. The hay shed did not burn.
Mary-Anne, 12, cleared the area around the house and put the horse in the laundry.
David, 15, filled knap-sacks and put them in the carport.
120 ByWays DoncasterMirror
March 15 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Out of fire chaos came our Civil Defence
CARS streamed along the smoke-filled road old bombs and Bentleys and
all piled high with possessions; each one with at least six dogs in it so many people you wouldn't know where they'd come from.
Their only thought was to get away from the fire, but it needed only one car to stall and the lot would have been stuck.
And to cap it all, above the honking and yelling and crying kids was this parrot strapped in his cage on top of a car screeching: "How do you like it now? How do you like that? How do you like it now, mate? How do you like it now?"
This was the exodus south from Warrandyte and Wonga Park along the Warrandyte-Ringwood road during the 1962 bushfires which lit the Dandenongs like a beacon from one February Sunday until rain fell at 1 a.m. the following Wednesday;
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.
Out of the ashes of the 132 homes destroyed in Warrandyte and Wonga Park in 1962 rose the Yarra Valley Regional Defence organisation,
a do it yourself, tight-knit council Country Fire Authority liaison throughout seven shires and one city Croydon, Doncaster-Templestowe, Eltham, Healesville, Knox, Lilydale, Sherbrooke and Upper Yar-ra.
Doncaster -Templestowe Civil Defence was the embryo of the regional body, which was the first
in Vic-toria and became a model for other Victorian fire-prone districts and other states.
In November, 1964, Cr Russell Hardidge, who was a radio enthusiast, suggested
that the eight neighboring municipalities get together to develop methods to help each
other in major fires. They had no guidance from state authorities.
Doncaster-Templestowe Council vigorously supported Cr Hardidge's idea. It
realised he was "on to something."
The skilled advice of Don-caster -Templestowe's first Civil Defence Controller, Colonel E. G. Keogh, who
died last year, was a key fac-tor in the formation and spread of civil defence for bushfires.
CFA men are called to fight the fires; Civil Defence was formed to support the brigades. Whatever support the CFA officer wanted, the municipal CDO arranged and supplied it.
The city engineer alloted duties to council outdoor staff, managed their operations and gave information to the Civil Defence Controller.
During the 1965 fires, 100,000 gallons of water were delivered to fighting units by the city's water carts and concrete mixers. On call from the Yarra Val-ley Controller, 7000
gallons were sent to Sassafras. Municipal and other vehicles were used to transport properly equipped and organised extra volunteers to fire areas.
The town clerk organised welfare, medical and evacuation, utilising Red Cross, the city's infant welfare sisters and city health officer.
In one bad fire, he used his powers to ask Myer to send its entire stock of knap-sacks. The store's delivery van then stayed to help with transport.
In 1968. each municipality in the Yarra Valley Civil Defence Organisation became linked by direct landline to the Regional Controller at Croydon,
who in turn was linked to CFA head-quarters at Lilydale. The city offices became linked to the headquarters operations room of the Warrandyte CFA which was opened also in 1968.
121 ByWays DoncasterMirror
March 22 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Six men against a wall of flame
LOCAL fire fighters had six knapsacks between them when the
bushfire swept into Warrandyte on Black Friday, 1939.
... six knapsacks and the ute they borrowed from the butcher to go up
the hill to meet the fire.
They saved the Mahoney home on the main road by making a stand there, but their efforts had little effect on the main fire, which swept on into the township.
The aftermath saw some major changes in the fledgling fire service and the state-wide organisation.
The Warrandyte Rural Fire Brigade began in September 1937 as a volunteer fire brigade attached to the Bush Fire Brigades Association.
It was usual to have a police officer as brigade captain, but the 1939 fires showed it was too much to
expect one man to carry out the duties of both policeman and fireman during a major fire.
When the 1939 fires swept into Warrandyte driven by a scorching westerly on Fri-day, 13, Black Friday, the brigade owned only six knapsacks.
Six men - the captain, Constable Birthesal, B. Stoneham, J. Cahill, A. Fry, K. Dinkley and J. Walsh borrowed a utility truck
from the local butcher and went up Melbourne Hill to meet the fire.
After the fires, the brigade raised funds to buy a Fargo truck as a fire fighting unit, which was bought in 1943,
and handed over to the Country Fire Authority, which was formed in 1944.
A South Warrandyte Brigade was formed in 1950 and North Warrandyte Brigade in 1958, from sub-units of the original brigade.
In 1942 the fire station was built by the late Mr. George Stringer, helped by brigade members, on land leased from the Mechanics Institute.
The stone was from Victoria Gully, donated by the municipal council.
The original lookout tower was built from a windmill stand donated by a Mr Laver.
This was replaced by a 14 metre tower after the original one was damaged during construction of the Water Trust Reservoir.
In building this, an eight metre tower was first donated by Mr and Mrs Senior of Research Road. The lookout cabin was
prefabricated and assembled after the tower was upright. Most of the work was done by Messrs A. Smith, M. Bennett, T. Pike and W. Hussey.
The tower is owned by the brigade, but manned by Forrestry Commission employees.
The Warrandyte Rural Fire Brigade became one of the first in Region 13 (Eltham to Knox and Croydon) to provide radio control.
A group operations room and radio room were added to the fire station in 1966, largely due to the efforts of B. Bence, E. Saligari, J. Cahill, J. Hockings and P. Horne.
It was financed by joint efforts of all the Warrandyte Brigades and their wives and friends.
At its 30th birthday celebrations, the Warrandyte brigade boasted that although Warrandyte had suffered from fires
which were out of control when they reached it, no fire starting in its area had ever got out of control.
122 ByWays DoncasterMirror
March 29th 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Smithy's choice still lingers
BELOW the spread of petrol lessees, a village smithy stands. The coincidence of the sites of petrol service stations with those of former blacksmiths is not
just a coincidence.
A blacksmith and farrier was just as necessary for the horse and/or carriage as petrol and servicing to the horseless carriage.
Some blacksmiths had coach building businesses as well. Foreseeing the demise of the trade, they graduated to building truck bodies.
One such was Jack Mullens, who in 1920 built his first truck body for the family T model Ford.
Jack was the eldest son of Sylvester Mullens of Templestowe and learnt his trade at his father's forge when he started work there in 1909.
Mullen's Smithy, which before this had been William Hunters from 1878, on the corner of Anderson and James Sts.,
Templestowe, looked after horses from that site for almost 100 years.
That same site is now a service station for cars, the James Auto Port. Smithies of necessity looked for similar situations as do service stations when selecting a spot for business.
Catching the passing traffic was the name of the game like it is now.
Other sites of former smithies which are now service stations are: Ampol, 2 Union St. (the corner of Foote, Union Sts and Templestowe-Thompsons
-Rds), which was a blacksmith's built by a man named Calder and let to Dan Hardy and later the smithy Crampton.
In Doncaster, all main intersections in Doncaster Rd. had a smithy. Older people now remember how as children they warmed their hands at these smithy's fires on their way to school.
Travelling east along Don-caster Rd. from Williamson's Rd. corner: The Chequered Flag Motors Hillman and David Laurie. was the forge of Charles
This forge was moved slight-ly, west of Beaconsfield St, where there is now the Bob actly service stations, but Jane car sales yard.
Not ex-the transport connection remains.
On the south east corner of Wetherby and Doncaster Rds., opposite the Doncaster Hotel, is the Caltex Service Station.
This was the blacksmith's shop of Hislop. Several other blacksmith rented this shop afte Hislop, and their names were Waters, Love, Curt Hillman and his widow and Sleeth.
On the south west corner of Doncaster and Blackburn Rds. the Total Service Station was the blacksmith's forge of Sell.
Just as barbers were the forerunners of surgeons, so blacksmiths were the forerunners of chiropractors and acted as bonesetters.
Many were also the forerun-ners of veterinary surgeons. William Hunter, who founded in 1878, what became Mullen's forge, is credited with being a veterinary surgeon.
Veterinary no doubt he was. But surgery at that time, even for people, was very limited.
Some people considered a blacksmith capable of any job at all.
Having a variety of tongs, they also at times doubled as dentists and pulled teeth.
The man who shoed horses was a specialist. He was titled farrier.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK
123 ByWays DoncasterMirror
April 5th 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Jack of all trades
JOAN Seppings Webster continues her story of the local smithys of old.
A local blacksmith was versatile.
The smith shoed horses, mended equipment, sharpened picks and tools, sharpened and repaired wagon wheels.
With his iron muscles the village smithy made and mended anything made of iron.
Nails were made by cutting a measured length of square rod which was hammered into shape in a jig.
Spare parts for ploughs, cultivators and vehicles were kept in the forge just as the service station now keeps spare parts for cars.
Wheel alignments were done by the blacksmith. If a wagon wheel broke, its iron rim became misaligned. The blacksmith
-wheelright had to get this back into shape.
Staff at the smithy included "strikers." They handed the iron which was held in position by the blacksmith.
There were coach and body builders and painters and signwriters to paint the coaches and add distinctive signs to business and industrial coaches.
Mullens' Smithy had a coach building business and anyone in the district could tell a Mullens coach body by its distinctive style of decorative scroll and signwriting.
Some blacksmiths such as Mullens serviced first cars of the area while they still serviced horses.
Petrol was at first bought in four gallon tins from the grocer. But gradually petrol pumps went up. Around 1927 Jack Mullens installed the first petrol pump in the district.
(Acknowledgements for sections of this research to Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society and to Brian Inglis "A History of Medicineo")
124 ByWays DoncasterMirror
April 18 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by Joan Seppings Webster
First woman in council
THE first Doncaster-Templestowe councillor who was a woman was Mrs
Angela Booth.
She was elected in 1926 when the municipality was renamed with the merging of the Shires of Doncaster and Templestowe.
Mrs Booth was not new to public life and work. She had studied sociology at Melbourne University and given lectures on social
problems both in Sydney and Melbourne.
A brochure written by her The Payment of Womens Work, had been published. She was the first President of the Womens Citizen Movement and an executive council of the National Council of Women.
Her election policy was for curbed footpaths and chan-nels in Warrandyte and promised to claim grants to build electrically lighted tennis courts.eu
Her speech showed she had a clear knowledge and grasp of the financial road problem of and construction installation of electricity.
She believed strongly that councillors should confer with ratepayers and she also wanted a league of young people.
At the first meeting after her election, Cr Booth congratulated the new shire president, Cr. J. H. Smith,
and then told him that the success of a president was shown by his ability to get through the business of the evening with a minimum of unnecessary delay so that they could all go home early.
Within days Cr Booth had taken the town planning committee to Warrandtye to meet the progress association and inspect the township.
The idea of a woman on the council caused quite a sensation in the district and there was some apprehension among other councillors.
But Angela Booth said: "If the London County Council can have three women members, then sure-ly there could be no objection to a woman on our council."
Angela Booth served two terms as a councillor until 1933. Doncaster Templestowe Council did not have another female councillor until 1973, when councillors Faith Fitzgerald and Muriel Green were elected.
(ACKNOWLEDGEMENT to the late Mrs Muriel Green).
125 ByWays DoncasterMirror
26 APRIL 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by Joan Seppings Webster
Templestowe in early days
TEMPLESTOWE dif-fers from Doncaster in that it was laid out and proclaimed a village, while Doncaster never was.
Templestowe was proclaimed a village on September 23, 1852 and in March, 1853, the first town allotments were sold by public auction.
But Templestowe had been surveyed much earlier.
In 1839 T. R. Nutt surveyed the whole area which is now occupied by the City of Doncaster and Templestowe making rough sketches of the country and notes such as "grassy hills thickly timbered," "stringy bark
forest, and fine grassy flats along the river."
In 1841 Robert Hoddle prepared a settled survey of the Yarra Valley marking it into large parcels for purchase.
Mr Robert Wright Unwin, a Sydney solicitor, bought the area bounded by the Yarra River, the Koonung Creek, Foote Street and
Church Road. and called it Unwin's settled survey.
This was March 1841 and for the 5120 acres F. W. Unwin paid $10,240, that is about $2 or one pound an acre.
In 1843 Mr W. Darke re-surveyed the area and noticed the name of a few settlers such as Grover, Anderson, Selby, Ryrie and Gardiner.
Also mentioned was Arundel Wright who was Box Hill's first settler.
Darke marked in a line approaching the surveyed area from the sout-west approximtely near where the junction of Elgar and Doncaster Rds is now: best line of road from Melbourne.
And a track running south-east from the ridgeline which became Doncaster Rd. "track to Dandenong," which would become the Mitcham/Springvale Roads.
Templestowe street names except for two (one of which is a mystery) are named after early settlers or those connected with early settlements.
Anderson St.- James Anderson came to Melbourne from Tasmania in 1838.
He then went to New South Wales and overlanded cattle from north of the Murray to the area now named Warrandyte.
Its first name Andersons Creek. Anderson left the district soon after.
Duncan St. - Alex-ander Duncan came to the Templestowe area in 1843 where he developed a dairy farm on the Bulleen Flats. His wife was the daughter of
a wealthy Scottish lands owner. The first Presbyterian religious service in the area was conducted in their barn.
The congregation sat on cheese vats. Duncan and his later partner Laidlaw won prizes for their cheese.
First wheat and barley to be exported from Vic-toria was Laidlaw and Duncan's which was sent to England to test the reaction of the British market.
Atkinson St. - In 1843 the Unwin special survey was re-surveyed. Mr W. Darke had marked in boundaries during their surveying.
In 1849 James Atkinson leased 4101 acres of the land which was most of the former Unwin estate.
To be continued.
126 ByWays DoncasterMirror
May 24 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by Joan Seppings Webster
Lutherans in a new land
THE first Trinity Lutheran church in Vic-toria St., Doncaster, was built in 1858. But an organised congregation existed from 1856.
Weekly morning and evening services were held at first in a large room in the home of Mr Straube, and later in "Father" Aumann's house.
The Lutherans were most-ly farmers from the district of Goerlitz in Silesia.
They had given up a settled existence there, not with the hope of bettering their positions in a new land, as did many other migrants,
but because of a deep religious conviction which, for conscience sake, would not allow them to accept a State imposed system of worship contrary to their Lutheran tradition.
Something of the hunger for home and the land they had voluntarily relinquished was seen in the name they first chose, in 1853, for their settlement around what is
now Victoria St., Doncaster.
They called it Breslau. By 1856 this had been changed to Waldau, meaning Forrestville. Vic-toria St. was before World War I,
called Bismark St. Waldau was known to the English settlers as German Town.
The first Pastor was Mat-thias Goethe. In 1853 he became the first Lutheran pastor in Melbourne and his parish included Thomastown, Berwick, Harkaway, Bendigo,
Ballarat and Geelong. He also visited the Lutheran settlers in Doncaster and conducted services here from time to time.
The first Doncaster Lutheran church was built high on the hill in Victoria St. on the east side, where Schramm's Cottage now stands.
The cottage was moved there in the early 1970s.
The tiny church was 13 x 6m. and 3m. high, built of wood and plaster with a shingle roof. A burial ground was established, which has
been restored by the Don-Templestowe Historical Society. F. Straube donated one acre of land for the church property.
Building costs were - eight windows seven pounds, two doors, one
pound; 1500 palings, fifteen pounds, 500 ft. of laths four pounds;
3000 shingles, four pounds ten shillings, incidentals, three pounds;
wages, thirteen pounds and total cost forty-eight pounds.
The journeys of Pastor Goethe were a big event. Often he travelled on foot from Harkaway. In summer months he walked to Don-caster from Melbourne, arriving in the afternoon; but in winter, members of the Melbourne congregation would bring him by carriage as far as the metal road went, between places called Penquite and Myrtle Park.
There he would be met by a local member, usually Mr W. Hanke, who brought him the rest of the way.
The roads were so cut up by drays and carts that often his kind-hearted pastor thought it was expecting too much of the horse to pull the dray and the two men, so hey walked, leaving the orse to pull only the cart.
The Lutheran church was the first church in Don-caster. The Lutherans lent their pulpit and pews to their C of E neighbors in Sunday afternoons. They shared their festivals and their Christmas presents.
127 ByWays DoncasterMirror
June 14th 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by Joan Seppings Webster
The railway line which never came
A RAILWAY was proposed, and was in fact almost a reality, when the first electric tramcar in the Southern Hemisphere ran to Doncaster in 1889.
A railway? A tram? You're kidding... it's 1983 and we don't have them yet. The truth is that when the tram plied between Don-caster and Box Hill there had been rumblings of a railway for a year. There are the still only rumblings from authorities. The railway never seems to get on its feet - or its wheels.
In 1888 an extension of the Box Hill railway line was proposed to Doncaster. In 1927, an extension was to run from Kew to Doncaster. There were to be eight stations, which included one at Balwyn Rd., one at Greythorn Rd. and one opposite the golf links.
The terminus was to be opposite the Shire Hall.
A land speculator's hand-bill of 1888 states: A Railway is to be constructed from Canterbury to Don-caster shortly, and is likely to run through the land now offered for sale, or terminate thereon.
A later land speculator’s handbill showed a railway terminating on a site of the present East Doncaster Primary school, at the cor-ner of George St., and Blackburn Rd. It would have been a cramped corner, as the school already stood there.
One plan of the Doncaster Railway Standing Committee showed the line extending to Warrandyte. To help meet estimated early losses of the Doncaster Railway, a Betterment Rate was to be levied on Don-caster’s residents for seven years.
In 1934 the committee abandoned its decision to build a railway line to Don-caster. Opposition had come from country areas. One politican said: If people intend to use motor transport they should not expect to build a railway. In 1965, the then Minister for Transport,
Mr Meagher, told me a monorail would run down the centre of the freeway extension which was to be aligned with the Koonung Creek. Silently and efficiently it was to drive all our transport worries away.
In 1965, the Melbourne Metropolitan Transport-ation study began, and was released in 1966. Mr Meagher then said that the final decision regarding a public transport facility to Doncaster would not be reached until the plans of the MT committee had been studied.
This study was to estimate 1985 transportation needs.
In 1969 detailed planning of this rail line began of this rail line began - and went off the rails.
In 1971 the then Minister for Transport, Mr Wilcox, introduced legislation which was hailed as set to start the train whistle blowing.
A Bill authorised construction of the eastern railway, to run along the middle of the (then) proposed Eastern Freeway for more than five miles. That time, the Minister for Lands, Mr Borthwick, introduced legislation to enable acquisition of land for both the freeway and the railway.
This provoked a storm of controversy. Varying routes were proposed for the railway one to
terminate near King St., one along the Koonung Creek to terminate at East Doncaster South, one to have a tunnel through Templestowe land. People did not know what to do about their land.
Property values went up and down, depending on whether a railway was considered an advantage near land, or a disadvantage to tunnel through it.
All this was since rescinded, and the present proposals have been shunted into the long, long trail.
128 ByWays DoncasterMirror
June 21st 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by Joan Seppings Webster
The days of Shank's pony
FOR 60 years, since its beginnings, the only public transport to and from Don-caster Templestowe was the mail coach which came through Kew.
This did not run every day. So "shank's pony" - walking - was the only way of getting to Melbourne, or visiting neighbors if
one did not have private horse transport. By the 1880s, cabs ran every day "in the good season" for city dwellers who wanted to picnic in the "wooded paddocks" of Don-caster.
"But," advised the Australasian Sketcher, good pedestrians will find the distance (five or six miles) a pleasant and exhillarating walk through country about. the grassy,
undulating country about.
The first bus service ran for only two years before the 1914 war stopped it tem-porarily.
It was run by Doncaster Progress Association in conjunction with Mr A. C. Withers.
In the 1920s, competition between bus companies was fierce and the area enjoyed better service, pro rata population, than it has had ever since.
Five different bus operators were on the roads at the one time.
After the 1939-45 war, Mr Withers, who was also a Doncaster councillor, provided the only public transport with his bus service, until 1961, when the Tramways Board took over the routes.
Travellers looked forward to an improvement in the one and two hourly off-peak after thorough service, and to more buses investigation of the opinions evenings and weekends.
Instead, the service deteriorated.
The East Doncaster Progress Association, in 1965, initiated a survey of residents' needs in public transport, which I carried out with the help of my (then) husband.
By door-to-door questioning with a detailed questionnaire on the needs of families without cars, one-car families, students, young workers, business people and women at home, we found facts which conflicted with official attitudes.
The then MLC Mr (later Sir) Raymond Garret told me "there is no use improving the bus service. People want to use cars."
I found that people might have wanted to use one car. They did not want to have to buy two. They could not afford two cars, with high mortgage repayments, street construction
payments and sewerage construction payments looming.
"The lack of useful public transport is forcing young couples to forgo home comforts and necessities in order to buy a car and thus add to the increasing traffic congestion on the roads," I wrote.
My 77 page, 30,000 word report on public transport in Doncaster was compiled after a thorough investigation of the opinions and complaints of more than 300 residents.
More than 200 families filled in questionnaires and 86 people wrote letters, phoned complaints, statements and information.
Buses did not connect with other buses, trains did not keep to timetables and drivers did not know the routes.
129 ByWays DoncasterMirror
June 29 1983
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by Joan Seppings Webster
A little further down the road
CONTINUING the story of he was particularly public transport.
The 30,000 word survey and report on public transport which I carried out in 1965 for the East Don-caster Progress Association attracted wide interest in of-ficial quarters.
Acknowledgements came from the (then) Minister for Transport Mr Meagher co-ordinator of Transport, Mr. A. G. Brown; and from Mr Risson, Chairman of the Tramways Board.
Mr Meagher and Mr Brown said they had studied the report with great interest and would discuss the contents with the MMTB as soon as possible.
The secretary of the Commission of Public Health, Mr A. T. Gardiner, said
the sections dealing with the Health Acts would be referred to the appropriate officers of the Department.
The R.A.C.V. traffic engineer Mr I. F. Russel said he was particularly interested in the section showing growth of private vehicles caused by lack of public transport.
One example of the muddled lack of co-ordination was the doubling up of buses along the one route at the one time, with long waits between buses. This happened about 11 a.m. along
Doncaster Rd.
A bus left from Donvale, and another from Warrandyte, for the city, Blackburn - Doncaster Rds., met at the same time at the junction, and then travelled side by side to Melbourne.
Then there was not another bus for an hour.
I asked could not their starting times be staggered, so that persons wanting to catch a bus in Doncaster Rd. to the city could have a choice of times?
The timetable was changed so that one bus left on the hour and the other on the half hour.
Doncaster -Templestowe was a baby boom area, with then the biggest birthrate in Australia.
Yet mothers were virtual-ly kept in purdah as far as public transport went.
"No prams after 3 o'clock is very inconvenient if travelling far with one or more children," wrote one woman.
She quoted the case of a friend who was pregnant, had a pram and a large parcel and was refused permission to board a bus at 3.15 p.m.
She had to walk from Box: Hill to Elgar Rd. near White's Corner (Shoppingtown corner) and
was in tears by the time she got home.
We asked for express buses to the city from White's Corner in peak time, and express buses to Kew. These were granted.
There was a great improvement to the off peak as well as peak timetable of Doncaster Rd. buses, and an
improvement in peak hour buses along Blackburn Rd. But unfortunately not so in the off peak buses on this route.
One aspect which was canvassed then, and which reaped much scorn and derision, has since been improved that of smoking on buses to the discomfort of other passengers.
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