Introduction and Background:
Shortly before he died in 1997, Irvine Green began a project to write a book of historical stories about the Yarra River. It was to include many historical photographs, especially of bridges along the river.
Irvine’s research notes for the project were lost after he died, but what remains is a collection of material that could benefit anyone undertaking research on the Yarra River.
The collection includes:
- A rough first draft of his proposed text (~42,000 words) covering the period from the river's discovery by Europeans until ‘present day’ (ie 1997). The text is arranged in chapters that each cover a different time period. The writing comprises:
- Summaries of historical records
- Personal accounts taken from interviews
- Irvine’s own recollections of events
- Electronic copies of 44 images (jpeg format). They comprise:
- Original photos taken by Irvine (and some by his father Heber Green).
- Copies of historical photos
- Copies of historical drawings and illustrations
- Hard copies of a further 25 photos, comprising the same mixture of sources as above. Most have details written on the reverse, and these are used as names for the electronic copies of the photos. The provenance of most images and photos is marked on them, but we assume that Irvine had copyright for all of them. All of the ‘recent’ photos were his, taken either as part of the project, or during the course of his career as a professional photographer. The date and location of some images was not given, however, I have managed to deduce the details in most cases.
The text especially should be regarded as ‘copyleft’; that is, it can be freely used and copied with due
acknowledgement to the original author Irvine Green.
I am submitting all these materials to the Historical Society in the hope that they will prove useful for historical research and education.
David Geoffrey Green
November 2024.
Draft of original unfinished manuscript.
“It is perhaps the finest river I have seen in N.S.W.” Wrote Governor Bourke when he visited Port Phillip in 1837. Bourke inspected the settlement and walked around the country to the north and east he then named the town `Melbourne’, in honour of the British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne.
Chapter Period Title
1 1800-1834 Discovery
2 1835-1851 Settlement
3 1851-1865 Gold and Growth along the River
4 1865-1892 To the Boom then Depression
5 1892-1914 Recreation on the River
6 1919-1939 Between the Wars
7 1940-1970 The River in Depression
8 1970-2000 Life Returns to the River
9 2001-Today TBA
2 1835-1851 Settlement
3 1851-1865 Gold and Growth along the River
4 1865-1892 To the Boom then Depression
5 1892-1914 Recreation on the River
6 1919-1939 Between the Wars
7 1940-1970 The River in Depression
8 1970-2000 Life Returns to the River
9 2001-Today TBA
~80 historical photographs and drawing
Tales of the Yarra - Digital images
They were excited, for previously they had met only small creeks; anxious to see more of this river they walked along its bank for a short distance. A river was important, for it could be the site for a town, but was the ground suitable? The authorities would want to know that, so Flemming took out his notebook to record details. He carefully noted that the land was swampy on one side but higher on the other; also he saw many swans, pelicans and ducks. By this time the men were tired, they had been walking all day having started at the beach, (now called Carrum), in the morning so they went only about a mile, then returned to the bay and the welcome sight of their ship. The captain had followed them and had anchored the ship close to the shore, but the long day ended with the party having to wade up to their waists to get aboard.
Next day, Thursday 3rd. February 1803, anxious to explore this “great river”, Grimes, Captain Robbins, Flemming and five seamen set out at six O’clock on a drizzling wet morning, this time in a small boat. It was an historic moment. They were the first Europeans to enter the River Yarra.
Two miles upstream, they came to a fork in the river and landed on the bank. Flemming took a spade to test the soil and found it was 10 to 15 inches deep and reddish brown. Grimes had to decide which way to go? After climbing a hill to view the area he thought the left branch looked like the main river and off they went - but he had chosen the smaller river (the Maribyrnong), the right branch was the main river (the Yarra). They camped on the bank overnight and on the second day came to a barrier of rock with shallow water flowing over it, so they returned to the fork and rowed up the Yarra a few miles. Here at a low waterfall they found fresh water suitable for drinking so the men called this the Freshwater River and the other, the Saltwater River. At high tide salt water flowed up both the rivers but when the tide receded the greater flow of water in the Yarra flushed out most of the salt water leaving the Yarra fresher.
The party landed near these falls and walked up a hill, (later known as Batman’s Hill), to view the land. They were unaware of the significance of the area spread out before them, for this was to be the site of Melbourne. Two miles farther upstream, Flemming went ashore at a place where they saw two native huts and a canoe. (Possibly the site of the Botanical Gardens.) Flemming found the soil 15 inches deep and the timber larger than downstream. By that time, it was late so the men, wet and tired, returned to the comfort of their ship.
On Monday7th, Grimes led another expedition to explore the Freshwater River. Again, the men climbed the same hill, (at the site of Melbourne), and stopped for breakfast. Possibly salt pork and hard tack biscuits (Source: Roger Morris, Pacific Sail; page 103). Then rowed on several miles to a creek (later known as Gardiners Creek), where they had lunch. From marks on the trees, Flemming observed that the water had, at times of flood, risen six to ten feet higher, but most of the land here was above this flood level. At sunset they had reached some high land (now Studley Park), where they camped in an empty native hut. Now they would have had time to light a fire to make a warm meal of broth from dried beef and broken biscuits or lima beans with ale or refreshing hot tea.
The next morning the boat was stopped by a small waterfall (Dights Falls) where Flemming landed and walked up a hill to view the country. He could see from ten to fifteen miles looking across unexplored, unknown, bush land to the bay. He felt a glow of warmth to see, in the distance, the friendly sight of his ship riding at anchor on the water.
When Charles Grimes had completed his survey, he returned to Sydney and gave a discouraging report about Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra. Flemming gave a different report. He was enthusiastic:
“The most eligible place for settlement is on the Freshwater River. In several places there are small tracts of good land. In most places, there is fine clay for bricks, and abundance of stone. I saw what is called Ash on the banks of the Freshwater River, and the hills appear to be clothed with wood.”
During the next thirty-two years, two attempts were made to form a settlement at Port Phillip but neither of these were on the Yarra. The first at Sorrento in 1803 and later in 1826 at Corinella in Westernport. The Yarra was not explored again until 1835 when John Batman came to Port Phillip with plans to purchase a large area of land from the natives for the Port Phillip Association. They intended to form a pastoral empire on the land north of the Yarra. Batman sailed his ship ‘Rebecca’ into Port Phillip Bay and camped at Indented Head. On the second of June, he sailed to the mouth of the river but could not enter as the water was only one fathom deep and the day too wet and foggy to look for a channel. On the shore, the crew saw great numbers of pelicans, swans, ducks and teal. The next morning Batman left his ship the ‘Rebecca’ at the mouth of the river to explore the land on foot (Source: G.M.H.Clark A history of Australia part lll). Batman made the same mistake as Grimes (Source: J Bonwick (Port Phillip Settlement, John Batmans Journal), for he led his group up the west bank of the Saltwater River visiting the country to the north for several days. On the return, they came down the east of the river passing through thick ti-tree scrub. Batman wrote: “We expected, on getting through this, to make the vessel in an hour or two, but to our great surprise, when we got through the scrub we found ourselves on a much larger river than the one we went up and had just come down.” He had found the Yarra.
Batman would have returned to the camp at Indented Head that day, but unfavorable winds prevented the ship sailing, instead, not wanting to waste the time, he sent the whale boat to explore the Freshwater River. In his report he wrote: “glad to state, about six miles up found the river all good water, and very deep. This will be the place for a village.”
If Batman had been able to return to his camp that day he would not have surveyed the Yarra and would not have written the famous words, “this will be the place for a Village.”
At the beginning of August, John Wedge, a surveyor from Van Diemens Land, came to Port Phillip to make a plan of the Port Phillip Association’s land. He was an enthusiastic man excited to see the country. At the site of the future town Wedge stood on the bank of the river with two natives. They “pointed to the river at the falls and called out ‘Yarra Yarra’.” Wedge believed that was the name of the river but later he found out they were talking about the falls. Wedge spelt the name, ‘Yarrow Yarrow’. Later it was spelt ‘Yarra Yarra’. The words Yarrow Yarrow meant ‘flowing’. In the Woewurung language, the Yarra was called Birrarrung (Source: R.D.Boys, First Years at Port Phillip, page 45).
Almost three months later, John Fawkner’s schooner ‘Enterprise’ entered Port Phillip Bay but Fawkner was not on board, he had stayed in Launceston to complete some financial business. After hearing news of Batmans plans for a settlement at Port Phillip, Fawkner also decided to lead a settlement to this land. In his absence, Fawkner left Captain Lancey in charge of the expedition. His instructions from Fawkner were, to select a site for their settlement at Westernport. Lancey found Westernport unsuitable, there was no river to provide fresh water, so moved to Port Phillip Bay to settle on the river discovered by Grimes. Fawkner had not realised that a river to provide fresh water is essential for a town.
At the entrance to the river he spent several days of careful exploration then decided to enter the Freshwater River (Source: Fawkner). The Yarra was shallow in places, narrow in others, also the channel was not straight and was blocked by branches growing out from trees on the banks. Both Grimes and Batman rowed up the river in small boats, but Fawkner’s ‘Enterprise’ was a 55 ton schooner. With these problems Lancey knew that sailing up the river would be difficult, so he spent several days with Hunter, the skipper of the ship, sounding the river and the sand banks at the entrance, driving in stakes to mark the channel through the sand banks at the entrance Then they warped the ‘Enterprise’ up the Yarra, often having to stop, while the crew chopped branches from overhanging trees (Source: Garryowan, Selections by Margaret Weidenhofer, Page 3,4).
At the site of the present Queens Bridge they came to the low water fall; here the river had formed a basin wide enough to swing a ship, with water deep enough to come alongside the bank. They cleared away branches and tied up the ‘Enterprise’ to gum trees on the bank where later Queens Wharf was built.
Lancey prepared to build a settlement. He first built a hut to store the goods and supplies that Fawkner had sent Batman’s party still at Indented Head, heard that a group had landed on the Yarra, the site John Batman had previously selected for his village. Henry Batman, who had been left in charge of the party sailed the ‘Rebecca’ up the river to protect their claim, Lancey’s party ignored their claim so Batman’s group build huts for their village.
The ships, `Endeavour’ and `Rebecca’ returned to Van Diemans Land with tales of the new village on the banks of the Yarra. Soon both vessels returned bringing prospective land owners, they found that the village they had come to was merely a collection of tents surrounded by a large group of curious natives (Source: Batman).
The arrivals looked around their new home. In the centre they saw a valley (later to become Elizabeth Street} with a creek winding its way through matted growth as it flowed to the Yarra. A gum and wattle forest covered the hill to the east, to the west a thick she-oak forest grew and to the north tall grass covered a wide plain (Source: Garryowen page 37).
The stream that their vessel had negotiated was described by Garryowen, the pioneer Irish journalist in his book ‘The Chronicles Of Early Melbourne’.
“...The Yarra Yarra flowed through low, marshy flats, densely garbed with tea-tree, sedge, and scrub. Large trees, like lines of foliaged sentinels, guarded both sides, and their branches protruded so far river wise as to more than half shadow the stream. The waters were bright and sparkling; and wooded by the fragrant acacias shaking their blossom-curls ...”
The ground was covered with rich green grass, emus ran among the trees, and bell birds, parrots and magpies flew overhead. On the south bank kangaroos searching for pastures found lush grass in the swamps among scattered bushes. Opposite the end of Queens Street, the river ran over a rocky ledge that they called ‘The Falls’. It had a clear space in the centre where a small boat could pass up stream where the river flowed through dense bushland with graceful gums on the banks (Source: Garryowen page 38).
‘The Falls’ were most important to the future Melbourne as they held back salt water that came in with the tide. Because of the abundance of fresh drinking water above the falls both Batman and Fawkner’s party selected this place as the site for the Village. This was not the first time the site had been chosen for occupation; for centuries, aborigines, attracted by the fresh water, used the site for camps and corroborees (Source: Garry Presland, “Land of the Kulin” page 32).
By the end of the year, the infant town consisted of two weatherboard houses with brick chimneys and about a dozen turf or wattle and daub huts occupied by about fifty people. Six acres had been planted with wheat and there were 100 head of cattle, 1,400 sheep, six horses, some poultry and dogs, a few rabbits and one cat.
The village was now firmly established and not only had the first ships entered the Yarra but the river had been marked for navigation. The Yarra at Melbourne had become a port!
then the Yarra become the port for the town.
Water is vital for life so for many years the river attracted aborigines then provided the wild life and food for their existence. The Wurundjeri tribe claimed the valley of the Yarra and its tributaries as their territory (Source: Garry Presland, Land of the Kulin page 32). Below the rocky ledge of the falls, at the future site of Melbourne, tides brought salt water up the river but above the falls the water remained fresh and fit to drink. The rocky ledge of the falls also made a handy platform for collecting water or spearing fish. Along the length of the river, there were places in the water or on the banks that made the stream more accessible. One of these was at the area they named Bolin, later to become Bulleen. Here the Yarra ran through river flats covered with lagoons and billabongs. In the summer, aborigines came to these peaceful sheltered river flats to relax with plenty of food on the cool shady banks of the river. They built simple huts with sheets of bark leaning against a low branch or sapling. During the day, the men fished for eels, feeling in the water with their feet until they found an eel, which they then speared. The women dug for roots along the riverbanks, and cooked food on small sheets of bark over their campfire.
Bolin was an important place in the lives of the aborigines for, not only was it a summer river resort, but they used it as a meeting place where associated tribes met for games and corroborees. The river at Bolin and its lagoons provided ample supplies of food for large gatherings and meetings of visiting tribes (Source: William Thomas Protector of Aborigines).
Living in the Yarra valley, the Aborigines often needed to cross the river but it was deep and could only be crossed in a few places, such as the Falls at Melbourne, Dights Falls and a ford at Heidelberg. So they constructed a canoe. They selected a large tree close to the bank of the river, one that had thick bark and a trunk slightly bent to give the final canoe a curve that would lift the bow out of the water. They marked out the shape of the canoe with an axe, and then cut the edges through, beginning at the bottom. As the men cut higher, they also cut toeholds and climbed the tree hanging onto the trunk with one hand while cutting with the other. The strip of bark was hammered with a blunt axe to loosen it from the tree; then they prised the bark free with a long pole and gently lowered it to the ground (Source: E. M. Currr Recollections of Squatting in Victoria page 50).
The aborigines laid the strip of bark upside down and lit a fire underneath it to dry and harden the wood. As the wood dried, it tended to curl into the right shape. When it was ready they turned it right side up and placed sticks across to hold the sides in place, then the bow was packed with clay to make it waterproof. After leaving a few days to dry the canoe was ready for use.
Aborigines also used bark, from river red gums, for many other purposes; curved pieces of bark made a cooking vessel, or a baby's cradle. Many trees that are scarred where bark had been removed many years ago, remain on the banks of the Yarra indicating to us that aborigines had lived and travelled here.
CHAPTER 1. Discovery. 1800-1834
White men first saw the Yarra in 1803. That year Charles Grimes had been sent to Port Phillip to survey the harbour with instruction, “to walk around Port Phillip Bay.” Grimes surveyed the coastline and James Flemming recorded the nature of the country, herbage and soil, as they moved around the bay. The exploration party had walked along the beach (now known as Port Melbourne), when they were stopped by a river quietly flowing into the Bay (Source: James Fleming Diary).They were excited, for previously they had met only small creeks; anxious to see more of this river they walked along its bank for a short distance. A river was important, for it could be the site for a town, but was the ground suitable? The authorities would want to know that, so Flemming took out his notebook to record details. He carefully noted that the land was swampy on one side but higher on the other; also he saw many swans, pelicans and ducks. By this time the men were tired, they had been walking all day having started at the beach, (now called Carrum), in the morning so they went only about a mile, then returned to the bay and the welcome sight of their ship. The captain had followed them and had anchored the ship close to the shore, but the long day ended with the party having to wade up to their waists to get aboard.
Next day, Thursday 3rd. February 1803, anxious to explore this “great river”, Grimes, Captain Robbins, Flemming and five seamen set out at six O’clock on a drizzling wet morning, this time in a small boat. It was an historic moment. They were the first Europeans to enter the River Yarra.
Two miles upstream, they came to a fork in the river and landed on the bank. Flemming took a spade to test the soil and found it was 10 to 15 inches deep and reddish brown. Grimes had to decide which way to go? After climbing a hill to view the area he thought the left branch looked like the main river and off they went - but he had chosen the smaller river (the Maribyrnong), the right branch was the main river (the Yarra). They camped on the bank overnight and on the second day came to a barrier of rock with shallow water flowing over it, so they returned to the fork and rowed up the Yarra a few miles. Here at a low waterfall they found fresh water suitable for drinking so the men called this the Freshwater River and the other, the Saltwater River. At high tide salt water flowed up both the rivers but when the tide receded the greater flow of water in the Yarra flushed out most of the salt water leaving the Yarra fresher.
The party landed near these falls and walked up a hill, (later known as Batman’s Hill), to view the land. They were unaware of the significance of the area spread out before them, for this was to be the site of Melbourne. Two miles farther upstream, Flemming went ashore at a place where they saw two native huts and a canoe. (Possibly the site of the Botanical Gardens.) Flemming found the soil 15 inches deep and the timber larger than downstream. By that time, it was late so the men, wet and tired, returned to the comfort of their ship.
On Monday7th, Grimes led another expedition to explore the Freshwater River. Again, the men climbed the same hill, (at the site of Melbourne), and stopped for breakfast. Possibly salt pork and hard tack biscuits (Source: Roger Morris, Pacific Sail; page 103). Then rowed on several miles to a creek (later known as Gardiners Creek), where they had lunch. From marks on the trees, Flemming observed that the water had, at times of flood, risen six to ten feet higher, but most of the land here was above this flood level. At sunset they had reached some high land (now Studley Park), where they camped in an empty native hut. Now they would have had time to light a fire to make a warm meal of broth from dried beef and broken biscuits or lima beans with ale or refreshing hot tea.
The next morning the boat was stopped by a small waterfall (Dights Falls) where Flemming landed and walked up a hill to view the country. He could see from ten to fifteen miles looking across unexplored, unknown, bush land to the bay. He felt a glow of warmth to see, in the distance, the friendly sight of his ship riding at anchor on the water.
When Charles Grimes had completed his survey, he returned to Sydney and gave a discouraging report about Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra. Flemming gave a different report. He was enthusiastic:
“The most eligible place for settlement is on the Freshwater River. In several places there are small tracts of good land. In most places, there is fine clay for bricks, and abundance of stone. I saw what is called Ash on the banks of the Freshwater River, and the hills appear to be clothed with wood.”
During the next thirty-two years, two attempts were made to form a settlement at Port Phillip but neither of these were on the Yarra. The first at Sorrento in 1803 and later in 1826 at Corinella in Westernport. The Yarra was not explored again until 1835 when John Batman came to Port Phillip with plans to purchase a large area of land from the natives for the Port Phillip Association. They intended to form a pastoral empire on the land north of the Yarra. Batman sailed his ship ‘Rebecca’ into Port Phillip Bay and camped at Indented Head. On the second of June, he sailed to the mouth of the river but could not enter as the water was only one fathom deep and the day too wet and foggy to look for a channel. On the shore, the crew saw great numbers of pelicans, swans, ducks and teal. The next morning Batman left his ship the ‘Rebecca’ at the mouth of the river to explore the land on foot (Source: G.M.H.Clark A history of Australia part lll). Batman made the same mistake as Grimes (Source: J Bonwick (Port Phillip Settlement, John Batmans Journal), for he led his group up the west bank of the Saltwater River visiting the country to the north for several days. On the return, they came down the east of the river passing through thick ti-tree scrub. Batman wrote: “We expected, on getting through this, to make the vessel in an hour or two, but to our great surprise, when we got through the scrub we found ourselves on a much larger river than the one we went up and had just come down.” He had found the Yarra.
Batman would have returned to the camp at Indented Head that day, but unfavorable winds prevented the ship sailing, instead, not wanting to waste the time, he sent the whale boat to explore the Freshwater River. In his report he wrote: “glad to state, about six miles up found the river all good water, and very deep. This will be the place for a village.”
If Batman had been able to return to his camp that day he would not have surveyed the Yarra and would not have written the famous words, “this will be the place for a Village.”
At the beginning of August, John Wedge, a surveyor from Van Diemens Land, came to Port Phillip to make a plan of the Port Phillip Association’s land. He was an enthusiastic man excited to see the country. At the site of the future town Wedge stood on the bank of the river with two natives. They “pointed to the river at the falls and called out ‘Yarra Yarra’.” Wedge believed that was the name of the river but later he found out they were talking about the falls. Wedge spelt the name, ‘Yarrow Yarrow’. Later it was spelt ‘Yarra Yarra’. The words Yarrow Yarrow meant ‘flowing’. In the Woewurung language, the Yarra was called Birrarrung (Source: R.D.Boys, First Years at Port Phillip, page 45).
Almost three months later, John Fawkner’s schooner ‘Enterprise’ entered Port Phillip Bay but Fawkner was not on board, he had stayed in Launceston to complete some financial business. After hearing news of Batmans plans for a settlement at Port Phillip, Fawkner also decided to lead a settlement to this land. In his absence, Fawkner left Captain Lancey in charge of the expedition. His instructions from Fawkner were, to select a site for their settlement at Westernport. Lancey found Westernport unsuitable, there was no river to provide fresh water, so moved to Port Phillip Bay to settle on the river discovered by Grimes. Fawkner had not realised that a river to provide fresh water is essential for a town.
At the entrance to the river he spent several days of careful exploration then decided to enter the Freshwater River (Source: Fawkner). The Yarra was shallow in places, narrow in others, also the channel was not straight and was blocked by branches growing out from trees on the banks. Both Grimes and Batman rowed up the river in small boats, but Fawkner’s ‘Enterprise’ was a 55 ton schooner. With these problems Lancey knew that sailing up the river would be difficult, so he spent several days with Hunter, the skipper of the ship, sounding the river and the sand banks at the entrance, driving in stakes to mark the channel through the sand banks at the entrance Then they warped the ‘Enterprise’ up the Yarra, often having to stop, while the crew chopped branches from overhanging trees (Source: Garryowan, Selections by Margaret Weidenhofer, Page 3,4).
At the site of the present Queens Bridge they came to the low water fall; here the river had formed a basin wide enough to swing a ship, with water deep enough to come alongside the bank. They cleared away branches and tied up the ‘Enterprise’ to gum trees on the bank where later Queens Wharf was built.
Lancey prepared to build a settlement. He first built a hut to store the goods and supplies that Fawkner had sent Batman’s party still at Indented Head, heard that a group had landed on the Yarra, the site John Batman had previously selected for his village. Henry Batman, who had been left in charge of the party sailed the ‘Rebecca’ up the river to protect their claim, Lancey’s party ignored their claim so Batman’s group build huts for their village.
The ships, `Endeavour’ and `Rebecca’ returned to Van Diemans Land with tales of the new village on the banks of the Yarra. Soon both vessels returned bringing prospective land owners, they found that the village they had come to was merely a collection of tents surrounded by a large group of curious natives (Source: Batman).
The arrivals looked around their new home. In the centre they saw a valley (later to become Elizabeth Street} with a creek winding its way through matted growth as it flowed to the Yarra. A gum and wattle forest covered the hill to the east, to the west a thick she-oak forest grew and to the north tall grass covered a wide plain (Source: Garryowen page 37).
The stream that their vessel had negotiated was described by Garryowen, the pioneer Irish journalist in his book ‘The Chronicles Of Early Melbourne’.
“...The Yarra Yarra flowed through low, marshy flats, densely garbed with tea-tree, sedge, and scrub. Large trees, like lines of foliaged sentinels, guarded both sides, and their branches protruded so far river wise as to more than half shadow the stream. The waters were bright and sparkling; and wooded by the fragrant acacias shaking their blossom-curls ...”
The ground was covered with rich green grass, emus ran among the trees, and bell birds, parrots and magpies flew overhead. On the south bank kangaroos searching for pastures found lush grass in the swamps among scattered bushes. Opposite the end of Queens Street, the river ran over a rocky ledge that they called ‘The Falls’. It had a clear space in the centre where a small boat could pass up stream where the river flowed through dense bushland with graceful gums on the banks (Source: Garryowen page 38).
‘The Falls’ were most important to the future Melbourne as they held back salt water that came in with the tide. Because of the abundance of fresh drinking water above the falls both Batman and Fawkner’s party selected this place as the site for the Village. This was not the first time the site had been chosen for occupation; for centuries, aborigines, attracted by the fresh water, used the site for camps and corroborees (Source: Garry Presland, “Land of the Kulin” page 32).
By the end of the year, the infant town consisted of two weatherboard houses with brick chimneys and about a dozen turf or wattle and daub huts occupied by about fifty people. Six acres had been planted with wheat and there were 100 head of cattle, 1,400 sheep, six horses, some poultry and dogs, a few rabbits and one cat.
The village was now firmly established and not only had the first ships entered the Yarra but the river had been marked for navigation. The Yarra at Melbourne had become a port!
CHAPTER 2 Settlement 1835 to 1851
The Yarra, with its fresh water, was selected as the site for the town,then the Yarra become the port for the town.
Water is vital for life so for many years the river attracted aborigines then provided the wild life and food for their existence. The Wurundjeri tribe claimed the valley of the Yarra and its tributaries as their territory (Source: Garry Presland, Land of the Kulin page 32). Below the rocky ledge of the falls, at the future site of Melbourne, tides brought salt water up the river but above the falls the water remained fresh and fit to drink. The rocky ledge of the falls also made a handy platform for collecting water or spearing fish. Along the length of the river, there were places in the water or on the banks that made the stream more accessible. One of these was at the area they named Bolin, later to become Bulleen. Here the Yarra ran through river flats covered with lagoons and billabongs. In the summer, aborigines came to these peaceful sheltered river flats to relax with plenty of food on the cool shady banks of the river. They built simple huts with sheets of bark leaning against a low branch or sapling. During the day, the men fished for eels, feeling in the water with their feet until they found an eel, which they then speared. The women dug for roots along the riverbanks, and cooked food on small sheets of bark over their campfire.
Bolin was an important place in the lives of the aborigines for, not only was it a summer river resort, but they used it as a meeting place where associated tribes met for games and corroborees. The river at Bolin and its lagoons provided ample supplies of food for large gatherings and meetings of visiting tribes (Source: William Thomas Protector of Aborigines).
Living in the Yarra valley, the Aborigines often needed to cross the river but it was deep and could only be crossed in a few places, such as the Falls at Melbourne, Dights Falls and a ford at Heidelberg. So they constructed a canoe. They selected a large tree close to the bank of the river, one that had thick bark and a trunk slightly bent to give the final canoe a curve that would lift the bow out of the water. They marked out the shape of the canoe with an axe, and then cut the edges through, beginning at the bottom. As the men cut higher, they also cut toeholds and climbed the tree hanging onto the trunk with one hand while cutting with the other. The strip of bark was hammered with a blunt axe to loosen it from the tree; then they prised the bark free with a long pole and gently lowered it to the ground (Source: E. M. Currr Recollections of Squatting in Victoria page 50).
The aborigines laid the strip of bark upside down and lit a fire underneath it to dry and harden the wood. As the wood dried, it tended to curl into the right shape. When it was ready they turned it right side up and placed sticks across to hold the sides in place, then the bow was packed with clay to make it waterproof. After leaving a few days to dry the canoe was ready for use.
Aborigines also used bark, from river red gums, for many other purposes; curved pieces of bark made a cooking vessel, or a baby's cradle. Many trees that are scarred where bark had been removed many years ago, remain on the banks of the Yarra indicating to us that aborigines had lived and travelled here.
In 1836 when Governor Bourke came to Port Phillip to inspect the settlement and named the town “Melbourne”, (after Lord Melbourne). Up till then settlers had been calling the village names such as “Bearbrass” or “Batmanville”. After viewing Melbourne, Bourke inspected the land to the north and east, then returned along the north bank of the Yarra and wrote a description of the country and the river (Source: Governor Bourke’s journal of his visit to Port Phillip 1-29 March 1837 Historic records of Victoria Volume 1).
“Proceeded early on a ride up the Yarra. Kept to the north bank. The land for the first five miles from Melbourne is not of the best quality. Very scrubby but better suited for cattle than sheep. Crossed a creek about two and a half miles from Melbourne and a second creek five miles from thence, the land improves in appearance and quality being thinly wooded with no scrub with occasional fine flats near the river bank for about eight miles, farther when having passed Mollisons and Woods Stations you reach Plenty Creek, a rivulet of fine water. From here in a N.E. direction the country becomes more broken with deep ravines and more thickly wooded but the Yarra continues a fine full stream of clear water in places, bubbling over ledges of rock, at others forming deep reaches.”
“Having proceeded about 16 miles from the settlement we returned. The river appeared to come through the opening of a range about 15 miles distant in the direction of N.E. ..... The Yarra abounds in fine fish and the water is of very good quality. ....”
Governor Bourke travelled in style, when the party camped overnight, Bourke dined, at a table in his tent, covered with a white cloth and lit by candles with white shades.
Robert Russell, who had come to Melbourne the previous year, saw the infant town with its unplanned collection of houses cluttering the area. He realised the need for a town plan. The river seemed an obvious place to start so he laid out a scheme based on the river frontage. Russell’s plan was unofficial, but when Hoddle, the senior surveyor from Sydney, arrived with Governor Bourke (Source: Governor Bourke’s Journal). He used Russell’s plan as the basis for the official layout of Melbourne. - - The Yarra had determined Melbourne’s future.
In the 1830’s some of the leaders in Australia expressed great concern for the welfare of the natives; as a result a government mission was planned for Port Phillip. George Langhorn, who had been teaching native prisoners at Sydney, was asked to open a mission at Melbourne. William Lonsdale selected an 895 acre site for the mission on the Yarra River just over a mile from the town, (later to become the Botanical Gardens), overlooking a swamp lush with bird and animal life. Early in 1837 Langhorne and his wife Mary, with another couple, Thomas Watson and his wife as overseers, moved onto the land (Source: Historic records of Victoria Vol2 A Page 156 - 173).
Langhorne considered that they should concentrate on the black children who would be more likely to learn than adults, for it would seem an impossibility to induce adults into habits of regular industry. They offered the aborigines food and clothing in return for work on the mission. There was no restraint on them staying, but food and clothing would be stopped if they left the mission and the children were refused one meal if they left without permission.
They issued the men duck frocks, trousers and worsted or woollen caps and in the winter, sailors worsted shirts; the women, coarse linen frocks, with sleeves to the elbow and in winter flannel dresses. The children wore stout onsaburgh dresses with a band to fasten around the waist. The boys had full sleeves, the girls had sleeves to reach the elbows.
The government provided tools to clear the land, cut timber, plough gardens and grow vegetables. By the end of the year they had planted an acre with vegetables and half an acre with potatoes. In 1837 Langhorne reported that there were twenty children and at times sixty to eighty adults. Among the children there were few girls as the men found it objectionable to have boys and girls together. The next year there were less children and the men often left the mission. In 1839 the Aboriginal Mission closed down, all the children had left and the men scorned the idea of being paid with only coarse flour. The aborigines had come to like white man’s food, they wanted money to buy bread.
Away from Melbourne between Kew and Templestowe, the Yarra meandered through a flood plain covered by grassy river flats dotted with spreading red gums. Along the river graceful river gums, their trunks leaning out from the river banks, threw patterned shadows on the water. Richard Howitt in his book “Impressions of Australia Felix” described the river as it flowed through Heidelberg and Bulleen (Source: Richard Howitt “Impressions of Australia Felix” Page 136)
“Having proceeded about 16 miles from the settlement we returned. The river appeared to come through the opening of a range about 15 miles distant in the direction of N.E. ..... The Yarra abounds in fine fish and the water is of very good quality. ....”
Governor Bourke travelled in style, when the party camped overnight, Bourke dined, at a table in his tent, covered with a white cloth and lit by candles with white shades.
Robert Russell, who had come to Melbourne the previous year, saw the infant town with its unplanned collection of houses cluttering the area. He realised the need for a town plan. The river seemed an obvious place to start so he laid out a scheme based on the river frontage. Russell’s plan was unofficial, but when Hoddle, the senior surveyor from Sydney, arrived with Governor Bourke (Source: Governor Bourke’s Journal). He used Russell’s plan as the basis for the official layout of Melbourne. - - The Yarra had determined Melbourne’s future.
In the 1830’s some of the leaders in Australia expressed great concern for the welfare of the natives; as a result a government mission was planned for Port Phillip. George Langhorn, who had been teaching native prisoners at Sydney, was asked to open a mission at Melbourne. William Lonsdale selected an 895 acre site for the mission on the Yarra River just over a mile from the town, (later to become the Botanical Gardens), overlooking a swamp lush with bird and animal life. Early in 1837 Langhorne and his wife Mary, with another couple, Thomas Watson and his wife as overseers, moved onto the land (Source: Historic records of Victoria Vol2 A Page 156 - 173).
Langhorne considered that they should concentrate on the black children who would be more likely to learn than adults, for it would seem an impossibility to induce adults into habits of regular industry. They offered the aborigines food and clothing in return for work on the mission. There was no restraint on them staying, but food and clothing would be stopped if they left the mission and the children were refused one meal if they left without permission.
They issued the men duck frocks, trousers and worsted or woollen caps and in the winter, sailors worsted shirts; the women, coarse linen frocks, with sleeves to the elbow and in winter flannel dresses. The children wore stout onsaburgh dresses with a band to fasten around the waist. The boys had full sleeves, the girls had sleeves to reach the elbows.
The government provided tools to clear the land, cut timber, plough gardens and grow vegetables. By the end of the year they had planted an acre with vegetables and half an acre with potatoes. In 1837 Langhorne reported that there were twenty children and at times sixty to eighty adults. Among the children there were few girls as the men found it objectionable to have boys and girls together. The next year there were less children and the men often left the mission. In 1839 the Aboriginal Mission closed down, all the children had left and the men scorned the idea of being paid with only coarse flour. The aborigines had come to like white man’s food, they wanted money to buy bread.
Away from Melbourne between Kew and Templestowe, the Yarra meandered through a flood plain covered by grassy river flats dotted with spreading red gums. Along the river graceful river gums, their trunks leaning out from the river banks, threw patterned shadows on the water. Richard Howitt in his book “Impressions of Australia Felix” described the river as it flowed through Heidelberg and Bulleen (Source: Richard Howitt “Impressions of Australia Felix” Page 136)
“The situation is delicious, the slope of the land most graceful. The windings of the Yarra in full prospect, both near and far off are beautiful. Some bell birds are ringing a merry peal, while white cockatoos are sitting on the old gum stumps and parrots are flittering about gorgeously numerous.”
In 1837, John Wood and David Mollison commenced grazing sheep on the north of the Yarra near the Plenty River (Source: Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter Dec. 1984 Page 4). On these flat plains, silt from the river floods had enriched the soil, growing lush grass that fattened their flocks of sheep.
These pioneer men lived in simple huts. There was no comfort for cold wind blew through cracks in the walls and the roofs leaked. When Richard Bourke visited the Port Phillip District in 1836 he visited Mollison and wrote a description of his hut that gives an insight into the life these early squatters lived.
“There was a bench, a stool, a cracked cup or two, tin pannikins, a couple of knives and forks and a plate or two. All to eat is Irish salted pork, damper, tea and sugar. Light is produced by burning rags in pieces of fat pork.” (Source: Richard Bourke Journal of a Visit to Port Phillip)
The next year Mollison left the district but John Wood remained on the river flats. He moved across the river to Bulleen and two years later sold his run to Robert Laidlaw. (Source: Port Phillip Pioneers)
Up through the timbered hills of Warrandyte to the grass lands of Yarra Glen and Warburton the Yarra wound its way through lonely isolated country. Intrepid graziers overlanded cattle and sheep from New South Wales to the Yarra flats looking for the good pasture land they had heard about. Men such as Gardener, Anderson, Duncan and Ryrie. Anderson who had come from Van Diemens Land and Dawson a sturdy Scotsman both ran cattle stations in the Warrandyte Hills. Gardener settled on the Yarra at Hawthorn then leased a large run extending past the hills near Warrandyte. The Ryrie brothers took out a run past Lilydale (Source: Marion Averling “Lillydale” Page 14) where the Yarra lazily flowed through a grass covered plain, its curving course flanked by large gums and wattles.
The river flowed from thickly timbered mountainous country with high bluffs, unknown except to a few surveyors and adventurous men. In 1845 Robert Hoddle, Surveyor General, supported by a party of assistant chain men, with horses and bullocks, surveyed the length of the Yarra and explored its head-waters. Hoddle met great difficulties; he was often wet through after violent thunderstorms, several horses died, at one place the whole party was washed out of their tent, many nights were too hot to sleep and he had difficulties getting food for his bullocks. Leeches, mosquitoes and sand-flies attacked them all day and night.(Source: H. S. McComb “Surveying the Yarra Yarra River” The Australian Surveyor 1 Dec. 1938 Page 241) The steep grades and dense scrub in the thickly timbered foothills of Mount Baw Baw made exploration difficult. the party some times took a day to travel half a mile and spent two weeks exploring the last six miles to the source of the Yarra He found the ultimate source in the area where the river rises in “shallow water and springs.” surrounded by dense bush. (Source: Footnote Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society archives. Box 4-2)
The river flowed from thickly timbered mountainous country with high bluffs, unknown except to a few surveyors and adventurous men. In 1845 Robert Hoddle, Surveyor General, supported by a party of assistant chain men, with horses and bullocks, surveyed the length of the Yarra and explored its head-waters. Hoddle met great difficulties; he was often wet through after violent thunderstorms, several horses died, at one place the whole party was washed out of their tent, many nights were too hot to sleep and he had difficulties getting food for his bullocks. Leeches, mosquitoes and sand-flies attacked them all day and night.(Source: H. S. McComb “Surveying the Yarra Yarra River” The Australian Surveyor 1 Dec. 1938 Page 241) The steep grades and dense scrub in the thickly timbered foothills of Mount Baw Baw made exploration difficult. the party some times took a day to travel half a mile and spent two weeks exploring the last six miles to the source of the Yarra He found the ultimate source in the area where the river rises in “shallow water and springs.” surrounded by dense bush. (Source: Footnote Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society archives. Box 4-2)
XXXXX
The Yarra was the reason for Melbourne but it also formed a barrier for the water was wide and deep. The only place to cross was at the falls, and then only at low tide. In the first year, settlers used a cumbersome method of crossing with goods and stock. They removed the wheels from a dray, stretched a canvas or tarpaulin underneath and hauled this improvised punt across the river with a rope. (Source: Edmund Finn “The Chronicles of Early Melbourne by Garryowen” Page 499)
Ocean going ships coming to Port Phillip could not negotiate the narrow and often shallow channel of the river, so they tied up at Port Melbourne. New arrivals walked along a well-beaten track from Port Melbourne to the Yarra at the Falls. Fording the river was difficult and inconvenient, a rocky ledge crossed part of the river but at low tide there was a gap of 106 feet with about three feet of water running over it. (Source: Footnote William Lonsdale to Col. Sec. 30 May 1938 PRO) At high tide the river rose another two and a half feet and salt water mixed with the fresh above the falls then making the town’s water supply unsuitable for drinking.
Both Robert Hoddle and William Lonsdale came up with the idea of building a dam over the Falls. The dam would leave a ford only one foot deep, giving a crossing at the same time as preventing salt water penetrating up stream. (Source: Footnote Governors minute 28 June 1838) The authorities agreed with the scheme but worried that raising the height of the river might cause flooding in the town, so Lonsdale was told to make enquiries and obtain information on the effect of a dam. (Source: Col. Sec to William Lonsdale 29 June 1838 PRO) The result of his enquiries was satisfactory and permission was given to use convict labour for the dam. (Source: Col. Sec. to William Lonsdale 30.March 1839 PRO) Unfortunately the work was nearly completed when an exceptionally high tide washed it away. During the depression of the 1840’s unemployed immigrants built a stronger stone dam that lasted for many years and was later removed when Queens Bridge was built. (Source: Historical Records of Victoria 228)
Across the river valuable land stretched away into the distance, desirable but difficult to reach with a cart or wagon. In March 1838 William Lonsdale wrote a letter to the Colonial Secretary saying: (Source: Historical Records of Victoria)
“I have the honour to enclose a copy of a letter from Mr. Hodgson, merchant of Melbourne, who wishes to know in the absence of an established ferry across the River Yarra, if he may be allowed to place a punt across the river, and receive the emoluments arising from it until other means of crossing are afforded.” Hodgson complained that boats, tied up on the banks of the Yarra, were frequently taken by strangers wanting to cross the river, and the owners had the annoyance of finding their boats on the other side. Hodgson said that his own boat had been taken from its moorings four times in the last week.
Shortly afterwards Lonsdale forwarded a petition from Thomas Watt, carpenter and builder, to Sir George Gipps, governor of N.S.W. signed by sixty residents of Melbourne,
“Your Excellency’s Petitioner came free into the Colony and has a wife and four children.
That from the great loss of time and property arising from the want of a bridge across the Yarra Yarra River, your Petitioner was induced to build a punt for the purposes of crossing horses, cattle, sheep, etc. at his own sole risk and expense.
That Your Excellency’s petitioner humbly trusts that you will be pleased to take his case into consideration and grant such answer as Your Excellency may seem fit?
We, the undersigned householders in Melbourne, Port Phillip, feeling much interested in the object of Thomas Watt’s petition to His Excellency the Governor, hereby beg leave most respectfully to recommend the same to His Excellency’s favourable consideration.”
Lonsdale, Melbourne’s Police Magistrate, now had two applications to run a punt. Watt had his punt already constructed so Londsdale was pleased to pass on permission to Thomas Watt to commence a ferry service across the Yarra. Watt installed it at a spot between the present Swanston and Russell Streets. Watt had built his punt of planks, from a wrecked ship, sealed with tar and large enough to hold a cart or stock. A rope attached to stout trees on both banks was hauled by the puntman and passengers to propel the punt across the river. Watt called his punt ‘The Melbourne’.
John Hodgson later received permission to operate a punt but rivalry soon developed between the two operators. Watt attempted to attract custom by providing free beer for passengers. Unfortunately, the free drinks attracted disorderly characters who caused rowdy scenes on the river bank. Lonsdale cancelled Thomas Watt’s permission to operate the punt replacing it with another applicant, John Welch.
The Colonial Secretary approved Lonsdale’s action and also requested him to establish a ferry boat across the Yarra. Paddy Byrne, whose house was on the south of the river near the falls, became the first ferry-man.. Passengers from the town would shout for Paddy and he would row across the river to collect them. Paddy’s quick wit and Irish brogue soon made him a favourite. However he suffered with asthma, and often his attractive daughter Polly, even more popular with passengers, had to take his place rowing the ferry across the river. (Source: Footnote Edmund Finn “The Chronicals of Early Melbourne” Page 500d)
Farther upstream the Yarra is deep and there were few places where the river could be crossed. At Dights Falls there was a shallow rocky ledge where carts and wagons could ford the river and at Heidelberg farmers used another ford at the end of Banksia Street. (Source: Footnote J.Leaney. Bulleen a Short History)
The Yarra, as it comes from the north, flowed through elevated land on the Kew and Hawthorn side and the low land between Collingwood and Richmond on the other. In the early years of settlement, the high land on the east offered an attractive place to live but as the river flowed south from Studley Park it formed a barrier across all the routes from Melbourne. The settlers needed more crossings but it was not until later that resourceful men provided punts and ferries, and the government built bridges.
The first crossing along the river beyond Melbourne was a punt installed by John Palmer, a doctor who also engaged in business activities, it connected Richmond to Hawthorn just north of the present Hawthorn bridge. Farther upstream on the west of the Yarra near Johnston Street, John Hodgson also installed a punt in 1846.
Around the bend north of Johnston Street the Merri Creek enters the Yarra. At this junction, a flour mill and an aboriginal school were built. Langhorne’s mission, at the Botanic Gardens site, had closed down but in 1846, Governor La Trobe offered a house on the Yarra to the Baptist Church for an aboriginal school. It was near the junction of the Merri Creek with its front on the Yarra and the creek at the rear. The Church ran the school with Mr. Peacock as head teacher. He commenced teaching in 1846 with 30 children, the boys wearing white shirts and the girls dressed in dark print frocks. They were attentive to the teacher, learnt well, and sang hymns in fine style.
The aim of the mission was to teach the children while still young and adaptable so that they would learn the benefits of civilisation but after a few years the parents took their children away. To the aborigines this learning was useless, they should have been having important training in skills such as hunting and gaining knowledge of plants and foods.
John Dight came to Melbourne in 1839, with his wife and three brothers, bringing plans to start a flour mill also bricks and machinery to construct the mill. At the place where 36 years ago a ledge of rocks stopped Grimes from going farther up the river Dight saw an ideal site for his mill. Dight built his flour mill and dammed the Yarra to give a flow of water for his mill wheel. He and his brother Charles constructed a building three stories high to house the flour mill with a water wheel at one end. They produced flour from wheat grown in the farms close to Melbourne. Dight’s Mill was reported to be a success but in the 1850’s, fire destroyed the building. (Source: Paul van der Sluys, “Dights Flour Mills”)
From Merri Creek the Yarra flowed past paddocks where cows grazed and farmers grew potatoes on the rich flood plains. In 1838, the Government Auctioned land in the Parish of Keelbundoora. All the sections with land on the Yarra were sold. During the next ten years many of the owners subdivided their land to wealthy merchants in Melbourne who built large homes. On the river bank, in the area later to become Ivanhoe, George Smythe purchased 531 acres in 1839. A portion of this land, Chelsworth, was bought by Patrick Stevenson who built a homestead, later to become part of the Ivanhoe Golf Links Club House. David Charteris McArthur built ‘Charterisville’, Thomas Walker, built ‘Leighton’ and Joseph Hawdon constructed the historic ‘Banyule’ homestead.
During the 1840s, a settlement formed south of the Yarra at Bulleen. Farmers ran sheep on the rich grass of the Yarra flats, or planted wheat and barley or grazed cattle on the hills. A group of men who came from Scotland on the first immigrant ship from Scotland, the, “Midlothian”, were among the settlers. They were Robert Laidlaw, John Kerr and Alexander Duncan. (Source: Port Phillip Pioneers) Laidlaw had taken over Woods grazing lease on the Yarra and worked in partnership with Kerr, Duncan ran a dairy farm on the river flat near the present Freeway. At Heidelberg the community of wealthy men from Melbourne had chosen the site for the glorious views of the Yarra flats. They aimed to create a life fit for the gentry. Some of these estates included a grazing lease on the land across the river.
In 1842, the community of Scotsmen on both sides of the river held the first church service in the area in Duncans barn. The congregation sat on planks laid across barley sacks and a butter churn became the communion table. (Source: From a Barn in Bulleen to Scots Church)
A young man, Thomas Brown, who became known as the author Rolf Boldrewood, lived with his father at Heidelberg. He used to wade across the river and wander through the Bulleen swamps and lagoons. Brown wrote a description of the Yarra flats at Bulleen in his book “Old Melbourne Memories”.
“We forded the river opposite the old aboriginal stepped-tree and crossed a heavily timbered river flat with deep reed fringed lagoons. Owing to the prevalence and sinuous shape of the lagoons, coupled with the dense nature of the thickets, it was not an easy matter for a stranger to find his way through the maze. The deepest of the lagoons was fringed with a wide border of reeds growing in deep water. It had in the centre a clear lakelet or mere, upon which disported the black duck, the wood duck, the magpie goose, the mountain duck, the greater and lesser diver, while among the reeds waded or flew the heron, the sultana hen-billed variety of the coot, the bittern, the land rail and in season, an occasional snipe.” (Source: Old Melbourne Memories Bolrwood page 162)
On Sylvester Brown’s run a big black bull broke out of the compound. They thought it was lost but the bull was attracted by the cows among the herds grazing in the area and kept returning, but they were never able to catch it.
One day, when Kerr was rounding up his stock, Browns young son John with an old servant carrying a rifle, walked into the round up and told Kerr that he had come to collect their bull. Kerr looked at him and said, “How do you expect to catch it when all our stockmen can’t manage it.” Brown answered that he intended to shoot the bull and take back the meat. Kerr said, “Alright but don’t hit any of our stock.”
Brown walked into the centre of the herd till he was about twenty paces from the big black bull. The bull turned towards him, lowered its head and started to paw the ground. Brown took the rifle, slowly raising it to his shoulder, then made a soft mooing sound. The bull looked up and Brown fired. He felled the bull with one shot. (Source: Boldrwood “Old Melbourne Memories”)
The small community looked to Heidelberg as their township and needed a river crossing. There were places where the Yarra could be forded but only if the river was not running too fast. So it was welcome news in 1842 that Mr. Levien, the owner of a punt on the Maribynong River, was constructing a punt for Heidelberg. (Source: Port Phillip Gazette. 10 December 1842)
Levien hauled his punt all the way up the river from Melbourne, a distance of forty miles. It took him a tedious three weeks; dragging ropes along the river banks to tie on trees then winching the punt up the river till the ropes had to be untied and moved along to another tree. The punt was ready in January the next year, a remarkable asset for Heidelberg, for at this early date, there were still no bridges over the Yarra.
In these first years, farmers grew crops of wheat and barley. Acres of verdant crops covered the river banks of Bulleen with a sea of green growth. In Autumn wheat and barley turned to golden brown, and as the wind blew, ripples of gold flowed across the flats. At harvest time rows of men moved across the land swinging scythes while behind them women gathered the sheaths stacking them in neat rows.
Creeks and small rivers flowed into the Yarra. North of Bulleen there was the Plenty River and beyond Templestowe, Deep Creek. Along here one day in 1839 a rowing boat with a sail attached came up the Yarra sailing past Bulleen and on past Templestowe. Thomas Sweeney an Irishman from Van Diemens Land had improvised this sailing boat to go looking for land, with a river frontage, where he could run a farm. He found land opposite the mouth of Deep Creek and sailed into the history of Eltham. (Source: Alan Marshall “Pioneers and Painters” p12)
Across the river from Eltham another settler, Major Charles Newman, found a site for a homestead, Newman had retired from the Indian Army in the early 1830s and instead of returning to England came to Australia where he settled in Van Diemans Land near a town called Pontville. Newman found that all the good land had been taken up, so in 1837 on hearing glowing tales of the rich pasture land in Port Phillip, he decided to cross Bass Straight. Newman walked along the north bank of the Yarra and found ideal land past Heidelberg, opposite the site where Sweeney was later to settle, he saw rolling grassland on the south bank. During the next two years Newman made several trips across to his new home moving his stock, racehorses and family from van Diemans Land. (Source: Hazel Poulter, from family members, personal communication) On one trip a storm blew the ship on to rocks and was sunk with a prefabricated house and some of Newmans valuable horses.
On the river bank, where Deep Creek enters the Yarra, Newman built a large turf and sod hut. At one end of the hut the Major had built a large bush fireplace that almost filled the end wall and was large enough to have accommodated the whole family. At the other end of the hut stood a four poster bed for the the Major and his wife and two rough beds for the family. Behind here a rough slab hut, where the wind blew through the slabs housed the kitchen and bunks for the men and the staff.
Major Newman was a fine man, bronzed by the tropical sun, aged but still strong with all a soldier's manly bearing; his wife, Catherine was short and dark with the black eyes and tawney appearance of an Indian woman. Catherine took her place on the station, ready and with the strength to tackle any work such as killing and cutting up a sheep for the family meal. (Source: Bolrwood - Glimpses of Life in Victoria. page 38-40)
Charles Newman, a brusque retired army officer, applied for a grant of land but had left it too late after resigning from the army to eligable for a land grant. In 1843 he was allowed to buy three sections on the the river. With a secure title Newman built a homestead in the style of an Indian Bungalow. Wide verandahs surrounded a central core of three rooms, with thick walls three bricks wide, and a high roof covered the whole house. (Source: Conservation Analysis Pontville Homestead. Context Pty Ltd. 1995) Newman called his homestead Pontville after the area where he had lived in Tasmania. Pontville homestead was the first real house to be built on the Yarra beyond Heidelberg. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Records)
Newman dominated the local community helping many settlers struggling to make a living but at the same time quarrelled with his neighbours and often obtained leases by bribing officials. During his years at Pontville he and his wife Catherine experienced an attack by aborigines and were robbed by bushrangers. In both these events Catherine showed herself to be both brave and resourceful. A group of bushrangers who were raiding isolated homesteads east of Melbourne held up Major Newman stealing silver cups he had won with his racehorses. Being a proud army officer Newman felt it beneath his dignity to be held up and threatened to see them hanged. The bushrangers, who had suffered at the hands of Newman in Tasmania while he was in charge of convict labour, decided to kill him but while they were dragging him outside Catherine held on to him saying; “If you shoot him you will have to shoot me first.” faced with her determination they gave up and rode off. The bushrangers were later caught and hung, and Newman had his cups returned.
With white settlers now occupying the area many native animals were driven away depriving aborigines of their source of food. They often worked for settlers being paid with provisions. Major Newman had been accustomed to treat natives harshly while in India so treated aborigines the same way when he employed them, or fired a rifle to send them away. He soon made an enemy of the aborigines. On one occasion they were so incensed that they determined to kill him. Catherine heard what the aborigines intended to do and so when she saw them approaching all daubed with war paint, looked for somewhere to hide her husband. She saw the fireplace with its wide chimney. She hastily gathered green grass and wood to damp down the flames in the fire and pushed the Major up the chimney. The aborigines came in looked around and since Newman wasn’t there, left. Catherine quickly rescued her husband. He was half suffocated and his whiskers were badly singed.
At Warrandyte, where the Yarra tumbles over black rocks throwing white foam in the air, James Anderson built stockyards and huts on the river flat where a creek, named after him, enters the Yarra. Anderson, with aboriginal and “ticket of leave” drovers, had driven a flock of sheep from New South Wales. At first he had a grazing lease of eight square miles for his sheep. When Major Newman took out grazing leases alongside Anderson faced angry complaints from the arrogant Major when his cattle strayed onto land the Major considered to be his. In 1841 the Parish of Warrandyte was surveyed. The town reserve further restricted Anderson’s available land, so James Anderson left for other open land with more grass for his sheep. (Source: Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837 - Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society)
The name Warrandyte came from two Aborigines words, Warran meaning to throw and Dyte the object thrown at. (Source: Text of Footnote same) In the area near Wonga Park games such a boomerang and spear throwing were held.
In 1839 James Dawson and his wife formed Warrandyte Station on a bend of the Yarra, now known as Selby. Two other Scotchmen, Selby and Mitchell who came on the same ship also settled at Warrandyte. (Source: Billis and Kenyon) The Dawsons had enjoyed the comfort of a cabin on the ship while Penelope and George Selby travelled in crowded conditions as steerage passengers. Penelope made friends with the open and generous Mrs Dawson. She was delighted to be able to make a farm on the same land, but not with the Dawsons. Selby ran dairy cattle on a bend beyond Dawson. He used the land enclosed by a sharp bend of the Yarra to make a horse paddock. A short fence across the bend enclosed the paddock.
Life on these stations along the Yarra was hard work with little comfort. In her letters home Penelope Selby described their conditions.
“This is generally called a very fine climate but give me `home’ as yet. You have a great deal of bad weather that we are spared, but it is very hot and changeable, the thermometer at this time is 104 in the shade. As for insects they are more numerous than you can imagine, the flies bite terribly and have feasted on me.
Would you like to know my dress just now, 4 o’clock pm. It consists of shoes, stockings, shift and cotton gown - Mrs. Dawson leaves out the stockings but the flies bite my legs. Three hours from this time I shall be glad to put on all my petticoats and make a good fire. Thanks to Mrs. Dawson I have become a first rate dairy woman and can cure meat, make butter, cheese, fatten calves or pigs equal to Aunt Goddard herself.” (Source: No Place for a Nervous Lady)
Many settlers’ wives shared the settlers life. They lived in primitive conditions and were thankful for neighbouring women even if nine miles away. Penelope helped with the birth of Mrs. Dawson’s first child and other women helped her during childbirth. She had seven babies in Australia. Six were stillborn and the other only lived long enough to be nursed.
When Samuel Furphy came to Port Phillip, he obtained work on James Anderson’s station bringing with him his wife Judith. Judith Furphy became pregnant and when the time for her birthing drew near they went to Melbourne. This cattle run with its rough conditions was not a fit place to bear and raise a baby. After the baby was born Mrs, Dawson obtained a position for Samuel at Ryries Station. The next son Joseph was born. Their children grew up on the banks of the Yarra and later both made names for themselves. Joseph wrote an Australian classic “Such is Life” under the name Tom Collins. The eldest boy John ran an engieering works and built water carts. These with the name Furphy painted on the side in large letters gave a new word to the Australian language during the great war when soldiers met at the water cart to hear the latest rumours. (Source: ? Furphy)
In 1837, the Ryrie Brothers took out a squatter’s license for 16,000 acres from Lilydale almost to Healesville. They had come from Monaro in New South Wales driving a large herd of cattle and found rich grazing land watered by the Yarra. They built their main homestead south of the Yarra at Yering and established outstations Tarrawarra and Dalry north of the river. (Source: ? Sally Healsville )
Two of the brothers, William and James left to buy land in New South Wales but not before William Ryrie quarrelled with the hot-headed Peter Snodgrass during a drinking bout at the Melbourne Club. Ryrie was challenged to a duel but the affair ended with an anti-climax. Snodgrass shot himself in the foot.
Donald Ryrie ran the station on his own looking after 43,000 acres. He planted an acre of vines at the home station with idea of producing wine.
During their first years in Port Phillip, the settlers found it very disconcerting when the Yarra overflowed its banks. Water covered the low land and turned the stockyards to mud. The aborigines would say, “This one piccaninny, (No Place for a nervous Lady) big one coming.” In October 1842 a big one came.
During the ten years from 1839 to 1849, a series of floods on the Yarra devastated Melbourne. Towards the end of the year heavy rains came, adding to the water pouring into the Yarra from snow melting on the mountains. The people of Melbourne were not prepared for the deluge when the peaceful Yarra rose up and spilled over the town in December 1839. From Collingwood through Richmond to the bay the land resembled an immense lake. Water tumbled along Elizabeth Street and at South Melbourne the brickworks were under six feet of water.
In July 1842, the river rose once more. At Footscray a group of men, in a hotel, were cut off when it was surrounded by deep water. They were rescueded by David Cashmore, a Melbourne draper, who rowed across country to the Royal Highland Hotel in Flinders Street. Cashmore tied up the boat at the bar of the hotel.
Each flood started when continuous rain poured down, often all night and all day. In October 1842, a southerly gale and an unusual high tide backed up the flood. The waters, held back by the tide and wind, rose to 50 feet at Heidelberg.
Two years later in October 1844, the flood was higher than Melbourne had known. Heavy rain lasted for three days, ending with a night when the rain fell in torrents. Business almost ceased and in the houses along the river the inhabitants watched in a state of terrible uncertainty as water rose around their homes, some were covered up to the roof. (Source: Edmund Finn “Chronicals of Early Melbourne by Garrowen” p211) At Dights Mill, the Yarra rose 36 feet. In the bush land and farming area alongside the river, flood water swept away branches and whole trees, some houses, built too close to the river, were caught up in the swirling water and washed away and vegetable gardens on the river flats vanished in the deluge. At Melbourne all work stopped as the lower parts of Flinders and William Streets were inundated and Elizabeth Street was under water at the Post Office and the brickmakers on the flats alongside St.Kilda Road lost their equipment. (Source: Port Phillip Herald 5 Oct 1844)
On two more occasions the Yarra rose in flood during the 1840s. Again, these were at the end of the year. In October 1848, after two days of incessant rain, and in November 1849 after a tremendous hurricane smashed trees, blew down chimneys and wrecked houses. Then furious rain poured down till the river rose in flood.
Ocean going ships coming to Port Phillip could not negotiate the narrow and often shallow channel of the river, so they tied up at Port Melbourne. New arrivals walked along a well-beaten track from Port Melbourne to the Yarra at the Falls. Fording the river was difficult and inconvenient, a rocky ledge crossed part of the river but at low tide there was a gap of 106 feet with about three feet of water running over it. (Source: Footnote William Lonsdale to Col. Sec. 30 May 1938 PRO) At high tide the river rose another two and a half feet and salt water mixed with the fresh above the falls then making the town’s water supply unsuitable for drinking.
Both Robert Hoddle and William Lonsdale came up with the idea of building a dam over the Falls. The dam would leave a ford only one foot deep, giving a crossing at the same time as preventing salt water penetrating up stream. (Source: Footnote Governors minute 28 June 1838) The authorities agreed with the scheme but worried that raising the height of the river might cause flooding in the town, so Lonsdale was told to make enquiries and obtain information on the effect of a dam. (Source: Col. Sec to William Lonsdale 29 June 1838 PRO) The result of his enquiries was satisfactory and permission was given to use convict labour for the dam. (Source: Col. Sec. to William Lonsdale 30.March 1839 PRO) Unfortunately the work was nearly completed when an exceptionally high tide washed it away. During the depression of the 1840’s unemployed immigrants built a stronger stone dam that lasted for many years and was later removed when Queens Bridge was built. (Source: Historical Records of Victoria 228)
Across the river valuable land stretched away into the distance, desirable but difficult to reach with a cart or wagon. In March 1838 William Lonsdale wrote a letter to the Colonial Secretary saying: (Source: Historical Records of Victoria)
“I have the honour to enclose a copy of a letter from Mr. Hodgson, merchant of Melbourne, who wishes to know in the absence of an established ferry across the River Yarra, if he may be allowed to place a punt across the river, and receive the emoluments arising from it until other means of crossing are afforded.” Hodgson complained that boats, tied up on the banks of the Yarra, were frequently taken by strangers wanting to cross the river, and the owners had the annoyance of finding their boats on the other side. Hodgson said that his own boat had been taken from its moorings four times in the last week.
Shortly afterwards Lonsdale forwarded a petition from Thomas Watt, carpenter and builder, to Sir George Gipps, governor of N.S.W. signed by sixty residents of Melbourne,
“Your Excellency’s Petitioner came free into the Colony and has a wife and four children.
That from the great loss of time and property arising from the want of a bridge across the Yarra Yarra River, your Petitioner was induced to build a punt for the purposes of crossing horses, cattle, sheep, etc. at his own sole risk and expense.
That Your Excellency’s petitioner humbly trusts that you will be pleased to take his case into consideration and grant such answer as Your Excellency may seem fit?
We, the undersigned householders in Melbourne, Port Phillip, feeling much interested in the object of Thomas Watt’s petition to His Excellency the Governor, hereby beg leave most respectfully to recommend the same to His Excellency’s favourable consideration.”
Lonsdale, Melbourne’s Police Magistrate, now had two applications to run a punt. Watt had his punt already constructed so Londsdale was pleased to pass on permission to Thomas Watt to commence a ferry service across the Yarra. Watt installed it at a spot between the present Swanston and Russell Streets. Watt had built his punt of planks, from a wrecked ship, sealed with tar and large enough to hold a cart or stock. A rope attached to stout trees on both banks was hauled by the puntman and passengers to propel the punt across the river. Watt called his punt ‘The Melbourne’.
John Hodgson later received permission to operate a punt but rivalry soon developed between the two operators. Watt attempted to attract custom by providing free beer for passengers. Unfortunately, the free drinks attracted disorderly characters who caused rowdy scenes on the river bank. Lonsdale cancelled Thomas Watt’s permission to operate the punt replacing it with another applicant, John Welch.
The Colonial Secretary approved Lonsdale’s action and also requested him to establish a ferry boat across the Yarra. Paddy Byrne, whose house was on the south of the river near the falls, became the first ferry-man.. Passengers from the town would shout for Paddy and he would row across the river to collect them. Paddy’s quick wit and Irish brogue soon made him a favourite. However he suffered with asthma, and often his attractive daughter Polly, even more popular with passengers, had to take his place rowing the ferry across the river. (Source: Footnote Edmund Finn “The Chronicals of Early Melbourne” Page 500d)
Farther upstream the Yarra is deep and there were few places where the river could be crossed. At Dights Falls there was a shallow rocky ledge where carts and wagons could ford the river and at Heidelberg farmers used another ford at the end of Banksia Street. (Source: Footnote J.Leaney. Bulleen a Short History)
The Yarra, as it comes from the north, flowed through elevated land on the Kew and Hawthorn side and the low land between Collingwood and Richmond on the other. In the early years of settlement, the high land on the east offered an attractive place to live but as the river flowed south from Studley Park it formed a barrier across all the routes from Melbourne. The settlers needed more crossings but it was not until later that resourceful men provided punts and ferries, and the government built bridges.
The first crossing along the river beyond Melbourne was a punt installed by John Palmer, a doctor who also engaged in business activities, it connected Richmond to Hawthorn just north of the present Hawthorn bridge. Farther upstream on the west of the Yarra near Johnston Street, John Hodgson also installed a punt in 1846.
Around the bend north of Johnston Street the Merri Creek enters the Yarra. At this junction, a flour mill and an aboriginal school were built. Langhorne’s mission, at the Botanic Gardens site, had closed down but in 1846, Governor La Trobe offered a house on the Yarra to the Baptist Church for an aboriginal school. It was near the junction of the Merri Creek with its front on the Yarra and the creek at the rear. The Church ran the school with Mr. Peacock as head teacher. He commenced teaching in 1846 with 30 children, the boys wearing white shirts and the girls dressed in dark print frocks. They were attentive to the teacher, learnt well, and sang hymns in fine style.
The aim of the mission was to teach the children while still young and adaptable so that they would learn the benefits of civilisation but after a few years the parents took their children away. To the aborigines this learning was useless, they should have been having important training in skills such as hunting and gaining knowledge of plants and foods.
John Dight came to Melbourne in 1839, with his wife and three brothers, bringing plans to start a flour mill also bricks and machinery to construct the mill. At the place where 36 years ago a ledge of rocks stopped Grimes from going farther up the river Dight saw an ideal site for his mill. Dight built his flour mill and dammed the Yarra to give a flow of water for his mill wheel. He and his brother Charles constructed a building three stories high to house the flour mill with a water wheel at one end. They produced flour from wheat grown in the farms close to Melbourne. Dight’s Mill was reported to be a success but in the 1850’s, fire destroyed the building. (Source: Paul van der Sluys, “Dights Flour Mills”)
From Merri Creek the Yarra flowed past paddocks where cows grazed and farmers grew potatoes on the rich flood plains. In 1838, the Government Auctioned land in the Parish of Keelbundoora. All the sections with land on the Yarra were sold. During the next ten years many of the owners subdivided their land to wealthy merchants in Melbourne who built large homes. On the river bank, in the area later to become Ivanhoe, George Smythe purchased 531 acres in 1839. A portion of this land, Chelsworth, was bought by Patrick Stevenson who built a homestead, later to become part of the Ivanhoe Golf Links Club House. David Charteris McArthur built ‘Charterisville’, Thomas Walker, built ‘Leighton’ and Joseph Hawdon constructed the historic ‘Banyule’ homestead.
During the 1840s, a settlement formed south of the Yarra at Bulleen. Farmers ran sheep on the rich grass of the Yarra flats, or planted wheat and barley or grazed cattle on the hills. A group of men who came from Scotland on the first immigrant ship from Scotland, the, “Midlothian”, were among the settlers. They were Robert Laidlaw, John Kerr and Alexander Duncan. (Source: Port Phillip Pioneers) Laidlaw had taken over Woods grazing lease on the Yarra and worked in partnership with Kerr, Duncan ran a dairy farm on the river flat near the present Freeway. At Heidelberg the community of wealthy men from Melbourne had chosen the site for the glorious views of the Yarra flats. They aimed to create a life fit for the gentry. Some of these estates included a grazing lease on the land across the river.
In 1842, the community of Scotsmen on both sides of the river held the first church service in the area in Duncans barn. The congregation sat on planks laid across barley sacks and a butter churn became the communion table. (Source: From a Barn in Bulleen to Scots Church)
A young man, Thomas Brown, who became known as the author Rolf Boldrewood, lived with his father at Heidelberg. He used to wade across the river and wander through the Bulleen swamps and lagoons. Brown wrote a description of the Yarra flats at Bulleen in his book “Old Melbourne Memories”.
“We forded the river opposite the old aboriginal stepped-tree and crossed a heavily timbered river flat with deep reed fringed lagoons. Owing to the prevalence and sinuous shape of the lagoons, coupled with the dense nature of the thickets, it was not an easy matter for a stranger to find his way through the maze. The deepest of the lagoons was fringed with a wide border of reeds growing in deep water. It had in the centre a clear lakelet or mere, upon which disported the black duck, the wood duck, the magpie goose, the mountain duck, the greater and lesser diver, while among the reeds waded or flew the heron, the sultana hen-billed variety of the coot, the bittern, the land rail and in season, an occasional snipe.” (Source: Old Melbourne Memories Bolrwood page 162)
On Sylvester Brown’s run a big black bull broke out of the compound. They thought it was lost but the bull was attracted by the cows among the herds grazing in the area and kept returning, but they were never able to catch it.
One day, when Kerr was rounding up his stock, Browns young son John with an old servant carrying a rifle, walked into the round up and told Kerr that he had come to collect their bull. Kerr looked at him and said, “How do you expect to catch it when all our stockmen can’t manage it.” Brown answered that he intended to shoot the bull and take back the meat. Kerr said, “Alright but don’t hit any of our stock.”
Brown walked into the centre of the herd till he was about twenty paces from the big black bull. The bull turned towards him, lowered its head and started to paw the ground. Brown took the rifle, slowly raising it to his shoulder, then made a soft mooing sound. The bull looked up and Brown fired. He felled the bull with one shot. (Source: Boldrwood “Old Melbourne Memories”)
The small community looked to Heidelberg as their township and needed a river crossing. There were places where the Yarra could be forded but only if the river was not running too fast. So it was welcome news in 1842 that Mr. Levien, the owner of a punt on the Maribynong River, was constructing a punt for Heidelberg. (Source: Port Phillip Gazette. 10 December 1842)
Levien hauled his punt all the way up the river from Melbourne, a distance of forty miles. It took him a tedious three weeks; dragging ropes along the river banks to tie on trees then winching the punt up the river till the ropes had to be untied and moved along to another tree. The punt was ready in January the next year, a remarkable asset for Heidelberg, for at this early date, there were still no bridges over the Yarra.
In these first years, farmers grew crops of wheat and barley. Acres of verdant crops covered the river banks of Bulleen with a sea of green growth. In Autumn wheat and barley turned to golden brown, and as the wind blew, ripples of gold flowed across the flats. At harvest time rows of men moved across the land swinging scythes while behind them women gathered the sheaths stacking them in neat rows.
Creeks and small rivers flowed into the Yarra. North of Bulleen there was the Plenty River and beyond Templestowe, Deep Creek. Along here one day in 1839 a rowing boat with a sail attached came up the Yarra sailing past Bulleen and on past Templestowe. Thomas Sweeney an Irishman from Van Diemens Land had improvised this sailing boat to go looking for land, with a river frontage, where he could run a farm. He found land opposite the mouth of Deep Creek and sailed into the history of Eltham. (Source: Alan Marshall “Pioneers and Painters” p12)
Across the river from Eltham another settler, Major Charles Newman, found a site for a homestead, Newman had retired from the Indian Army in the early 1830s and instead of returning to England came to Australia where he settled in Van Diemans Land near a town called Pontville. Newman found that all the good land had been taken up, so in 1837 on hearing glowing tales of the rich pasture land in Port Phillip, he decided to cross Bass Straight. Newman walked along the north bank of the Yarra and found ideal land past Heidelberg, opposite the site where Sweeney was later to settle, he saw rolling grassland on the south bank. During the next two years Newman made several trips across to his new home moving his stock, racehorses and family from van Diemans Land. (Source: Hazel Poulter, from family members, personal communication) On one trip a storm blew the ship on to rocks and was sunk with a prefabricated house and some of Newmans valuable horses.
On the river bank, where Deep Creek enters the Yarra, Newman built a large turf and sod hut. At one end of the hut the Major had built a large bush fireplace that almost filled the end wall and was large enough to have accommodated the whole family. At the other end of the hut stood a four poster bed for the the Major and his wife and two rough beds for the family. Behind here a rough slab hut, where the wind blew through the slabs housed the kitchen and bunks for the men and the staff.
Major Newman was a fine man, bronzed by the tropical sun, aged but still strong with all a soldier's manly bearing; his wife, Catherine was short and dark with the black eyes and tawney appearance of an Indian woman. Catherine took her place on the station, ready and with the strength to tackle any work such as killing and cutting up a sheep for the family meal. (Source: Bolrwood - Glimpses of Life in Victoria. page 38-40)
Charles Newman, a brusque retired army officer, applied for a grant of land but had left it too late after resigning from the army to eligable for a land grant. In 1843 he was allowed to buy three sections on the the river. With a secure title Newman built a homestead in the style of an Indian Bungalow. Wide verandahs surrounded a central core of three rooms, with thick walls three bricks wide, and a high roof covered the whole house. (Source: Conservation Analysis Pontville Homestead. Context Pty Ltd. 1995) Newman called his homestead Pontville after the area where he had lived in Tasmania. Pontville homestead was the first real house to be built on the Yarra beyond Heidelberg. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Records)
Newman dominated the local community helping many settlers struggling to make a living but at the same time quarrelled with his neighbours and often obtained leases by bribing officials. During his years at Pontville he and his wife Catherine experienced an attack by aborigines and were robbed by bushrangers. In both these events Catherine showed herself to be both brave and resourceful. A group of bushrangers who were raiding isolated homesteads east of Melbourne held up Major Newman stealing silver cups he had won with his racehorses. Being a proud army officer Newman felt it beneath his dignity to be held up and threatened to see them hanged. The bushrangers, who had suffered at the hands of Newman in Tasmania while he was in charge of convict labour, decided to kill him but while they were dragging him outside Catherine held on to him saying; “If you shoot him you will have to shoot me first.” faced with her determination they gave up and rode off. The bushrangers were later caught and hung, and Newman had his cups returned.
With white settlers now occupying the area many native animals were driven away depriving aborigines of their source of food. They often worked for settlers being paid with provisions. Major Newman had been accustomed to treat natives harshly while in India so treated aborigines the same way when he employed them, or fired a rifle to send them away. He soon made an enemy of the aborigines. On one occasion they were so incensed that they determined to kill him. Catherine heard what the aborigines intended to do and so when she saw them approaching all daubed with war paint, looked for somewhere to hide her husband. She saw the fireplace with its wide chimney. She hastily gathered green grass and wood to damp down the flames in the fire and pushed the Major up the chimney. The aborigines came in looked around and since Newman wasn’t there, left. Catherine quickly rescued her husband. He was half suffocated and his whiskers were badly singed.
At Warrandyte, where the Yarra tumbles over black rocks throwing white foam in the air, James Anderson built stockyards and huts on the river flat where a creek, named after him, enters the Yarra. Anderson, with aboriginal and “ticket of leave” drovers, had driven a flock of sheep from New South Wales. At first he had a grazing lease of eight square miles for his sheep. When Major Newman took out grazing leases alongside Anderson faced angry complaints from the arrogant Major when his cattle strayed onto land the Major considered to be his. In 1841 the Parish of Warrandyte was surveyed. The town reserve further restricted Anderson’s available land, so James Anderson left for other open land with more grass for his sheep. (Source: Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837 - Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society)
The name Warrandyte came from two Aborigines words, Warran meaning to throw and Dyte the object thrown at. (Source: Text of Footnote same) In the area near Wonga Park games such a boomerang and spear throwing were held.
In 1839 James Dawson and his wife formed Warrandyte Station on a bend of the Yarra, now known as Selby. Two other Scotchmen, Selby and Mitchell who came on the same ship also settled at Warrandyte. (Source: Billis and Kenyon) The Dawsons had enjoyed the comfort of a cabin on the ship while Penelope and George Selby travelled in crowded conditions as steerage passengers. Penelope made friends with the open and generous Mrs Dawson. She was delighted to be able to make a farm on the same land, but not with the Dawsons. Selby ran dairy cattle on a bend beyond Dawson. He used the land enclosed by a sharp bend of the Yarra to make a horse paddock. A short fence across the bend enclosed the paddock.
Life on these stations along the Yarra was hard work with little comfort. In her letters home Penelope Selby described their conditions.
“This is generally called a very fine climate but give me `home’ as yet. You have a great deal of bad weather that we are spared, but it is very hot and changeable, the thermometer at this time is 104 in the shade. As for insects they are more numerous than you can imagine, the flies bite terribly and have feasted on me.
Would you like to know my dress just now, 4 o’clock pm. It consists of shoes, stockings, shift and cotton gown - Mrs. Dawson leaves out the stockings but the flies bite my legs. Three hours from this time I shall be glad to put on all my petticoats and make a good fire. Thanks to Mrs. Dawson I have become a first rate dairy woman and can cure meat, make butter, cheese, fatten calves or pigs equal to Aunt Goddard herself.” (Source: No Place for a Nervous Lady)
Many settlers’ wives shared the settlers life. They lived in primitive conditions and were thankful for neighbouring women even if nine miles away. Penelope helped with the birth of Mrs. Dawson’s first child and other women helped her during childbirth. She had seven babies in Australia. Six were stillborn and the other only lived long enough to be nursed.
When Samuel Furphy came to Port Phillip, he obtained work on James Anderson’s station bringing with him his wife Judith. Judith Furphy became pregnant and when the time for her birthing drew near they went to Melbourne. This cattle run with its rough conditions was not a fit place to bear and raise a baby. After the baby was born Mrs, Dawson obtained a position for Samuel at Ryries Station. The next son Joseph was born. Their children grew up on the banks of the Yarra and later both made names for themselves. Joseph wrote an Australian classic “Such is Life” under the name Tom Collins. The eldest boy John ran an engieering works and built water carts. These with the name Furphy painted on the side in large letters gave a new word to the Australian language during the great war when soldiers met at the water cart to hear the latest rumours. (Source: ? Furphy)
In 1837, the Ryrie Brothers took out a squatter’s license for 16,000 acres from Lilydale almost to Healesville. They had come from Monaro in New South Wales driving a large herd of cattle and found rich grazing land watered by the Yarra. They built their main homestead south of the Yarra at Yering and established outstations Tarrawarra and Dalry north of the river. (Source: ? Sally Healsville )
Two of the brothers, William and James left to buy land in New South Wales but not before William Ryrie quarrelled with the hot-headed Peter Snodgrass during a drinking bout at the Melbourne Club. Ryrie was challenged to a duel but the affair ended with an anti-climax. Snodgrass shot himself in the foot.
Donald Ryrie ran the station on his own looking after 43,000 acres. He planted an acre of vines at the home station with idea of producing wine.
During their first years in Port Phillip, the settlers found it very disconcerting when the Yarra overflowed its banks. Water covered the low land and turned the stockyards to mud. The aborigines would say, “This one piccaninny, (No Place for a nervous Lady) big one coming.” In October 1842 a big one came.
During the ten years from 1839 to 1849, a series of floods on the Yarra devastated Melbourne. Towards the end of the year heavy rains came, adding to the water pouring into the Yarra from snow melting on the mountains. The people of Melbourne were not prepared for the deluge when the peaceful Yarra rose up and spilled over the town in December 1839. From Collingwood through Richmond to the bay the land resembled an immense lake. Water tumbled along Elizabeth Street and at South Melbourne the brickworks were under six feet of water.
In July 1842, the river rose once more. At Footscray a group of men, in a hotel, were cut off when it was surrounded by deep water. They were rescueded by David Cashmore, a Melbourne draper, who rowed across country to the Royal Highland Hotel in Flinders Street. Cashmore tied up the boat at the bar of the hotel.
Each flood started when continuous rain poured down, often all night and all day. In October 1842, a southerly gale and an unusual high tide backed up the flood. The waters, held back by the tide and wind, rose to 50 feet at Heidelberg.
Two years later in October 1844, the flood was higher than Melbourne had known. Heavy rain lasted for three days, ending with a night when the rain fell in torrents. Business almost ceased and in the houses along the river the inhabitants watched in a state of terrible uncertainty as water rose around their homes, some were covered up to the roof. (Source: Edmund Finn “Chronicals of Early Melbourne by Garrowen” p211) At Dights Mill, the Yarra rose 36 feet. In the bush land and farming area alongside the river, flood water swept away branches and whole trees, some houses, built too close to the river, were caught up in the swirling water and washed away and vegetable gardens on the river flats vanished in the deluge. At Melbourne all work stopped as the lower parts of Flinders and William Streets were inundated and Elizabeth Street was under water at the Post Office and the brickmakers on the flats alongside St.Kilda Road lost their equipment. (Source: Port Phillip Herald 5 Oct 1844)
On two more occasions the Yarra rose in flood during the 1840s. Again, these were at the end of the year. In October 1848, after two days of incessant rain, and in November 1849 after a tremendous hurricane smashed trees, blew down chimneys and wrecked houses. Then furious rain poured down till the river rose in flood.
XXXXX
The Yarra brought ships right up to the town, but only small vessels were able to navigate the river. A bar of mud extended across the channel with about seven feet of water. (Source: Robert Murray - A Summer At Port Phillip p8) Along the river there were four fathoms right across the river allowing safe passage for small boats to pass each other. When the ships reached the town, the basin below the falls was deep right up to the bank. (Source: R. D. Murray - A Summer At Port Phillip p7) Here was an ideal place for a port, for a ship could be moored to the bank and unload its goods straight onto the land. In the early forties there was always a line of vessels along the bank their masts and yards interlocked with tree branches. Lighters and coastal vessels were arriving or leaving on every tide. (Source: R. D. Murray - A Summer At Port Phillip p8) At first ships were tied up to trees but within a few years all the trees were cut down either for building, firewood or because they were merely in the way, in their place the harbour officials sunk hawser posts on the bank of the river at the site of the future Queen’s Wharf. Behind the river bank there was not a vestige of made road, only mud.
In October 1839, a small rude wharf of piles and slabs was constructed opposite the Customs House but the river bank remained bare earth trodden hard, dusty in the summer and a quagmire in wet weather. (Source: A Summer at Port Phillip p9) It was the only official contribution to the port till Wharfage dues were collected but the revenue only went to New South Wales. In 1841, three allotments, on the river frontage, were auctioned. Two of these were purchased to build wharves, one went to Captain George Ward Cole, the other to Dobson. Cole was allowed to build a bond store as Melbourne had been declared a Free Port and a Free Warehousing Port the previous year.
Captain Cole, a naval officer and an enterprising man, was the first person to see the possibilities of providing a dock with store houses. He was born at Lumley Castle England and joined the navy as a midshipman. He was 49 when he arrived in Melbourne and set up as a merchant. Two years later, he bought this land and built Coles Wharf, 120 feet along the river by 42 feet deep. This was Melbourne’s first real dock. He added to the area a collection of harbour facilities, a gate at the east from Flinders Street led into a group of buildings, a bond store, offices for his managers and a building for the custom officials. Coles Wharf soon became a busy place, in fact the commercial centre of Melbourne.
George Cole married Anne the daughter on one of the Melbourne’s social leaders, William Gordon McCrea, and sister of Geogianna McCrea. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography ?)
In March 1841 Georgiana McCrea arrived in Melbourne. In her diary, she wrote a description of her trip up the Yarra to the township.
“March 1st. About 2pm, we anchored in Hobsons Bay off Williamstown. We lay alongside the `Eagle’, and the `York’; with seven other ships in the bay. Captain Gatenby gave us desert and champagne to celebrate our arrival in Australa, with appropriate toasts.”
March 2nd All kinds of people came on board.
“March 4th. Jane Shanks (the maid), the boys, and I went aboard the Governor Arthur, a scrubbishy grinding little steamer without any cabin. Half-way up the river the rain began to fall, whereupon I extended the folds of my plaid so as to take in the children and keep them out of the wet. The boat landed us opposite the Yarra Hotel, Flinders Street and we had to wade through mud and clay, up the hill to Dr. McCrae’s in Great Bourke Street West. My good London boots, abimes!
March 5th. I went off in a boat from near Cole’s Wharf to the ship to pack up the remainder of our cabin gear, and stayed on board to wait for the morning steamer.
March 6th. Went with our heavy luggage by the lighter, then returned to Melbourne in the “Governor Arthur” with Jenny.”
In the early 1840s, activity on the Yarra increased. A small paddle steamer “Firefly”, traded along the Yarra in 1841. The same year Manto Brothers engineers, near Queens Wharf assembled an iron vessel, “Vester”, that had been built in England and sent out in sections. Painted blue with a figurehead of burnt gold she was a maid of all work on the Yarra. The “Vester” towed sailing ships up the Yarra to unload at Melbourne and the Aphrasia ran a regular service from the wharf opposite Queens Street to Geelong. George Cole built a timber steam ship “City of Melbourne” for river trade. It was the first screw steamship south of the equator. (Source: Georgina’s Journal - Edited by Hugh McCrea)
A pleasant way to travel to the horse races at Flemington was on the river by steam boats such as “Vester” and “Aphrasia”. On one of the early race days the “Aphrasia”, that normaly traded to Geelong, steamed down the Yarra in a festive mood, decorated with bunting, crowded with racegoers, while the town band played on the deck. At Flemington the steamer tied up on the south bank of the river. There was very little betting at that time although there was plenty of drinking. At the end of the races the visitors returned to the steamer, happy and contented with the day's pleasure. During the return trip the band played and the passengers sang popular songs of the time. “The Lass of Richmond Hill”, “Rory O’More” and “The Light of other Days is Faded”. The festive mood ended abruptly when a fight broke out among some of the drunken passengers and a man was killed. (Source: Edmund Finn - The Chronicles of Early Melbourne by Garryowen” p981)
Above the “Falls” the settlers collected fresh drinking water. As the village grew water carriers installed pumps along the river bank, they filled casks that were mounted on carts and sold water to the townspeople although it was described as a “bitter draught to imbibe”. (Source: A Summer at Port Phillip) Soon the line of pumps on the river bank made a continuous racket as they busily pumped water all day, supplying the people of Melbourne with water. Householders bought their domestic water from vendors who carted the water in tanks on carts. Each house had a receiving barrel at the front fence that the watermen used to fill by pumping water through a hole cut in the fence. The cost varied from two shillings to ten shillings a load. The fresh water of the Yarra was the main reasons the site was selected for the village but unfortunately by the 1850’s the Yarra had become badly polluted because many people used the river as a convenient drain and waste disposal system while fellmongers tipped their waste into the river. During hot weather people said that Yarra water tasted like Glauber’s salts and some said they improved the taste with a dash of rum or brandy. (Source: Edmund Finn - The Chronicals of Early Melbourne by Garryowen p559)
In 1840, the two punts were busy carrying carts and stock to the other side of the Yarra but the ambitious business men of the town wanted better communication with the land so close to the town on the far bank. In April that year Donald Gordon Macarthur called his business friends to a meeting and formed the “Melbourne Bridge Company”. They issued 500 shares of ten pounds each. Their first action was to purchase the two punts and as these were returning a steady profit only one pound of the shares needed to be paid up. (Source: R. D. Boys First Years at Port Phillip p108)
The directors of the bridge company decided to build an iron suspension bridge over the river at Elizabeth Street. The cost was estimated at 4,000 pounds. They applied for permission to construct the bridge and requested a twentyone year monopoly of bridges over the Yarra. Sir George Gipps refused the monopoly intimating that the government proposed to build a bridge. The company were obtaining profits from the punts and then with the serious financial depression of the following year they gave up the idea of a bridge. In 1845 Alexander Sutherland constructed a simple timber trestle bridge across the river close to the present Princes Bridge. The company leased the bridge to Robert Balbirne. (Source: R. D. Boys - First Years at Port Phillip p109)
Later the same year David Lennox, the new superintendent of bridges for Port Phillip, stood on the bank of the Yarra. He looked around and saw a growing city divided by a river crossed only by a temporary wooden toll bridge. He looked at the flowing water, estimated the width, and looked at the height of the banks. Plans began to form in his mind. Others had drawn plans for the government bridge but he dismissed these as unsuitable. Melbourne needed a large solid bridge to cater for a growing community giving it access to the desirable land south of the Yarra and Governor Gipps had already said that it must be a stone bridge. On 17 November 1845 Governor Gipps Wrote to Superintendent La Trobe giving him permission to build the bridge over the Yarra.
Lennox had earned a reputation as a bridge builder in New South Wales. Two of his bridges had been named after him but he had been poorly paid. Even though Lennox was a skilled engineer, having been in charge of important construction projects in England, Governor Bourke had only offered him two hundred pounds a year with the promise of an increase when he had proved himself. A promise that Bourke forgot and which Lennox, being a quiet retiring man, did not remind him. (Source: Australian Encyclopaedia Vol 2 Page 112)
David Lennox had left England ten years earlier, after a happy life of growing success. Starting as a stone mason his increasing skill and ability enabled him to become a foreman in charge of large stone constructions. His wife died in 1828 and a few years later Lennox left his two young girls in the care of his sister and sailed for Australia. (Source: Australian Encyclopaedia Vol 5 Page 288)
In 1846, Superintendent La Trobe laid the foundation stone of Melbourne’s new bridge. (Source: Port Phillip Patriot - 20 Mar 1846) It was to be a double occasion for afterwards he was to lay the foundation stone for the Melbourne Hospital. It turned into the biggest celebration that the people of Melbourne had experienced up to then. On March 20th it seemed that all Melbourne turned out full of enthusiasm and excitement. In the morning a procession began to line up in Collins Street. At eleven o’clock Latrobe arrived dressed in his bright uniform and the colourful procession moved off led by the stirring music of the town band. School children marched six abreast followed by every organisation and national group in the infant town with their elaborate banners and costumes. There were the emerald banners of Ireland, the splendid costumes of the Oddfellows and Freemasons and the gorgeous paraphernalia and verdant decorations of the St. Patricks Society. Then came carriages, carts, men on horseback and the town‘s people walking. A remarkable display for a small town with only a scattering of houses and sheep grazing on the long grass in the main streets.
There were speeches and prayers, then La Trobe laid some mortar with a silver trowel, a bottle containing gold sovereigns was placed in a cavity and the stone laid in place. While psalms were sung, corn was scattered over the stone and oil and wine poured onto it. They named the bridge “Prince’s Bridge” after the four year old Prince of Wales. The ceremony over, the procession moved off to open the new Melbourne Hospital. After the crowd had left masons lifted the stone and the bottle with its gold coins was moved to a safe place till the next morning when it was replaced and the stone securely fixed in position.
Lennox planned a stone structure with large bluestone blocks, some weighing over one and a half tons. The span was only two feet shorter than London Bridge, which was then the largest stone span in the world. Lennox lived in a hut at the end of the bridge and became a familiar figure as he walked around, supervising the work in a grey top hat.
The town council planned to open Princes Bridge on Friday November 20th 1850. Then news arrived that Port Phillip was at last to be given separation from New South Wales and become a colony of its own. In all the excitement the opening took second place. Again the proud young town took delight in the opportunity for a ceremony. Melbourne’s organisations came out with their colourful costumes and elaborate banners. Nearly every shop was closed, the weather was perfect.
The procession gathered at Flagstaff Hill. The flagstaff was decked with bunting and at twelve o’clock a flag signalled the ships in the bay to fire a salute. The procession was more spectacular than at the opening and the speeches just as enthusiastic. (Source: Port Philip Patriot - 21 Nov 1850) In contrast La Trobe was brief and to the point. He stood up in his carriage in the centre of the bridge and said, ”I declare this bridge open.”
The crowds watching the opening saw La Trobe in his carriage with Madame La Trobe sitting alongside him. But they were wrong, it was not Madame LaTrobe for that morning she had a migraine headache and Georgiana McCrea took her place wearing Madam’s cloak and a veil covering her face. (Source: Footnote - Georgiana Journal - 22 Nov 1850. Edited by Hugh McCrea )
Princes Bridge was the climax of David Lennox’s life. Following the opening his salary was at last raised and on his retirement, two years later, he was adequately compensated with a payment of three thousand pounds. Lennox returned to Sydney where he built his last work. A stone house for himself and his family, for after a separation of ten years, his two girls and his sister finally came to live with him. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Now that Princes Bridge was opened, areas south of the river, that had been mainly cattle runs, became easily accessible. From then on the gentlemen of Melbourne found the most desirable places to live lay south of the river. These included areas that later became the fashionable suburbs of South Yarra and Toorak and the bayside suburbs of St.Kilda and Brighton.
In October 1839, a small rude wharf of piles and slabs was constructed opposite the Customs House but the river bank remained bare earth trodden hard, dusty in the summer and a quagmire in wet weather. (Source: A Summer at Port Phillip p9) It was the only official contribution to the port till Wharfage dues were collected but the revenue only went to New South Wales. In 1841, three allotments, on the river frontage, were auctioned. Two of these were purchased to build wharves, one went to Captain George Ward Cole, the other to Dobson. Cole was allowed to build a bond store as Melbourne had been declared a Free Port and a Free Warehousing Port the previous year.
Captain Cole, a naval officer and an enterprising man, was the first person to see the possibilities of providing a dock with store houses. He was born at Lumley Castle England and joined the navy as a midshipman. He was 49 when he arrived in Melbourne and set up as a merchant. Two years later, he bought this land and built Coles Wharf, 120 feet along the river by 42 feet deep. This was Melbourne’s first real dock. He added to the area a collection of harbour facilities, a gate at the east from Flinders Street led into a group of buildings, a bond store, offices for his managers and a building for the custom officials. Coles Wharf soon became a busy place, in fact the commercial centre of Melbourne.
George Cole married Anne the daughter on one of the Melbourne’s social leaders, William Gordon McCrea, and sister of Geogianna McCrea. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography ?)
In March 1841 Georgiana McCrea arrived in Melbourne. In her diary, she wrote a description of her trip up the Yarra to the township.
“March 1st. About 2pm, we anchored in Hobsons Bay off Williamstown. We lay alongside the `Eagle’, and the `York’; with seven other ships in the bay. Captain Gatenby gave us desert and champagne to celebrate our arrival in Australa, with appropriate toasts.”
March 2nd All kinds of people came on board.
“March 4th. Jane Shanks (the maid), the boys, and I went aboard the Governor Arthur, a scrubbishy grinding little steamer without any cabin. Half-way up the river the rain began to fall, whereupon I extended the folds of my plaid so as to take in the children and keep them out of the wet. The boat landed us opposite the Yarra Hotel, Flinders Street and we had to wade through mud and clay, up the hill to Dr. McCrae’s in Great Bourke Street West. My good London boots, abimes!
March 5th. I went off in a boat from near Cole’s Wharf to the ship to pack up the remainder of our cabin gear, and stayed on board to wait for the morning steamer.
March 6th. Went with our heavy luggage by the lighter, then returned to Melbourne in the “Governor Arthur” with Jenny.”
In the early 1840s, activity on the Yarra increased. A small paddle steamer “Firefly”, traded along the Yarra in 1841. The same year Manto Brothers engineers, near Queens Wharf assembled an iron vessel, “Vester”, that had been built in England and sent out in sections. Painted blue with a figurehead of burnt gold she was a maid of all work on the Yarra. The “Vester” towed sailing ships up the Yarra to unload at Melbourne and the Aphrasia ran a regular service from the wharf opposite Queens Street to Geelong. George Cole built a timber steam ship “City of Melbourne” for river trade. It was the first screw steamship south of the equator. (Source: Georgina’s Journal - Edited by Hugh McCrea)
A pleasant way to travel to the horse races at Flemington was on the river by steam boats such as “Vester” and “Aphrasia”. On one of the early race days the “Aphrasia”, that normaly traded to Geelong, steamed down the Yarra in a festive mood, decorated with bunting, crowded with racegoers, while the town band played on the deck. At Flemington the steamer tied up on the south bank of the river. There was very little betting at that time although there was plenty of drinking. At the end of the races the visitors returned to the steamer, happy and contented with the day's pleasure. During the return trip the band played and the passengers sang popular songs of the time. “The Lass of Richmond Hill”, “Rory O’More” and “The Light of other Days is Faded”. The festive mood ended abruptly when a fight broke out among some of the drunken passengers and a man was killed. (Source: Edmund Finn - The Chronicles of Early Melbourne by Garryowen” p981)
Above the “Falls” the settlers collected fresh drinking water. As the village grew water carriers installed pumps along the river bank, they filled casks that were mounted on carts and sold water to the townspeople although it was described as a “bitter draught to imbibe”. (Source: A Summer at Port Phillip) Soon the line of pumps on the river bank made a continuous racket as they busily pumped water all day, supplying the people of Melbourne with water. Householders bought their domestic water from vendors who carted the water in tanks on carts. Each house had a receiving barrel at the front fence that the watermen used to fill by pumping water through a hole cut in the fence. The cost varied from two shillings to ten shillings a load. The fresh water of the Yarra was the main reasons the site was selected for the village but unfortunately by the 1850’s the Yarra had become badly polluted because many people used the river as a convenient drain and waste disposal system while fellmongers tipped their waste into the river. During hot weather people said that Yarra water tasted like Glauber’s salts and some said they improved the taste with a dash of rum or brandy. (Source: Edmund Finn - The Chronicals of Early Melbourne by Garryowen p559)
In 1840, the two punts were busy carrying carts and stock to the other side of the Yarra but the ambitious business men of the town wanted better communication with the land so close to the town on the far bank. In April that year Donald Gordon Macarthur called his business friends to a meeting and formed the “Melbourne Bridge Company”. They issued 500 shares of ten pounds each. Their first action was to purchase the two punts and as these were returning a steady profit only one pound of the shares needed to be paid up. (Source: R. D. Boys First Years at Port Phillip p108)
The directors of the bridge company decided to build an iron suspension bridge over the river at Elizabeth Street. The cost was estimated at 4,000 pounds. They applied for permission to construct the bridge and requested a twentyone year monopoly of bridges over the Yarra. Sir George Gipps refused the monopoly intimating that the government proposed to build a bridge. The company were obtaining profits from the punts and then with the serious financial depression of the following year they gave up the idea of a bridge. In 1845 Alexander Sutherland constructed a simple timber trestle bridge across the river close to the present Princes Bridge. The company leased the bridge to Robert Balbirne. (Source: R. D. Boys - First Years at Port Phillip p109)
Later the same year David Lennox, the new superintendent of bridges for Port Phillip, stood on the bank of the Yarra. He looked around and saw a growing city divided by a river crossed only by a temporary wooden toll bridge. He looked at the flowing water, estimated the width, and looked at the height of the banks. Plans began to form in his mind. Others had drawn plans for the government bridge but he dismissed these as unsuitable. Melbourne needed a large solid bridge to cater for a growing community giving it access to the desirable land south of the Yarra and Governor Gipps had already said that it must be a stone bridge. On 17 November 1845 Governor Gipps Wrote to Superintendent La Trobe giving him permission to build the bridge over the Yarra.
Lennox had earned a reputation as a bridge builder in New South Wales. Two of his bridges had been named after him but he had been poorly paid. Even though Lennox was a skilled engineer, having been in charge of important construction projects in England, Governor Bourke had only offered him two hundred pounds a year with the promise of an increase when he had proved himself. A promise that Bourke forgot and which Lennox, being a quiet retiring man, did not remind him. (Source: Australian Encyclopaedia Vol 2 Page 112)
David Lennox had left England ten years earlier, after a happy life of growing success. Starting as a stone mason his increasing skill and ability enabled him to become a foreman in charge of large stone constructions. His wife died in 1828 and a few years later Lennox left his two young girls in the care of his sister and sailed for Australia. (Source: Australian Encyclopaedia Vol 5 Page 288)
In 1846, Superintendent La Trobe laid the foundation stone of Melbourne’s new bridge. (Source: Port Phillip Patriot - 20 Mar 1846) It was to be a double occasion for afterwards he was to lay the foundation stone for the Melbourne Hospital. It turned into the biggest celebration that the people of Melbourne had experienced up to then. On March 20th it seemed that all Melbourne turned out full of enthusiasm and excitement. In the morning a procession began to line up in Collins Street. At eleven o’clock Latrobe arrived dressed in his bright uniform and the colourful procession moved off led by the stirring music of the town band. School children marched six abreast followed by every organisation and national group in the infant town with their elaborate banners and costumes. There were the emerald banners of Ireland, the splendid costumes of the Oddfellows and Freemasons and the gorgeous paraphernalia and verdant decorations of the St. Patricks Society. Then came carriages, carts, men on horseback and the town‘s people walking. A remarkable display for a small town with only a scattering of houses and sheep grazing on the long grass in the main streets.
There were speeches and prayers, then La Trobe laid some mortar with a silver trowel, a bottle containing gold sovereigns was placed in a cavity and the stone laid in place. While psalms were sung, corn was scattered over the stone and oil and wine poured onto it. They named the bridge “Prince’s Bridge” after the four year old Prince of Wales. The ceremony over, the procession moved off to open the new Melbourne Hospital. After the crowd had left masons lifted the stone and the bottle with its gold coins was moved to a safe place till the next morning when it was replaced and the stone securely fixed in position.
Lennox planned a stone structure with large bluestone blocks, some weighing over one and a half tons. The span was only two feet shorter than London Bridge, which was then the largest stone span in the world. Lennox lived in a hut at the end of the bridge and became a familiar figure as he walked around, supervising the work in a grey top hat.
The town council planned to open Princes Bridge on Friday November 20th 1850. Then news arrived that Port Phillip was at last to be given separation from New South Wales and become a colony of its own. In all the excitement the opening took second place. Again the proud young town took delight in the opportunity for a ceremony. Melbourne’s organisations came out with their colourful costumes and elaborate banners. Nearly every shop was closed, the weather was perfect.
The procession gathered at Flagstaff Hill. The flagstaff was decked with bunting and at twelve o’clock a flag signalled the ships in the bay to fire a salute. The procession was more spectacular than at the opening and the speeches just as enthusiastic. (Source: Port Philip Patriot - 21 Nov 1850) In contrast La Trobe was brief and to the point. He stood up in his carriage in the centre of the bridge and said, ”I declare this bridge open.”
The crowds watching the opening saw La Trobe in his carriage with Madame La Trobe sitting alongside him. But they were wrong, it was not Madame LaTrobe for that morning she had a migraine headache and Georgiana McCrea took her place wearing Madam’s cloak and a veil covering her face. (Source: Footnote - Georgiana Journal - 22 Nov 1850. Edited by Hugh McCrea )
Princes Bridge was the climax of David Lennox’s life. Following the opening his salary was at last raised and on his retirement, two years later, he was adequately compensated with a payment of three thousand pounds. Lennox returned to Sydney where he built his last work. A stone house for himself and his family, for after a separation of ten years, his two girls and his sister finally came to live with him. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography)
Now that Princes Bridge was opened, areas south of the river, that had been mainly cattle runs, became easily accessible. From then on the gentlemen of Melbourne found the most desirable places to live lay south of the river. These included areas that later became the fashionable suburbs of South Yarra and Toorak and the bayside suburbs of St.Kilda and Brighton.
CHAPTER 3 Gold and Growth along the River 1851 - 1865
The Yarra provided fresh water for Melbourne but the town polluted the water.
In 1851, two events changed the future of Melbourne, and changed the future of life on the Yarra. One; Victoria separated from New South Wales allowing the new colony to control its own affairs, the other, the gold discovery at Warrandyte. The rush to find gold brought an influx of people to Melbourne. Visitors arrived at Sandridge, where their ships docked then boats brought them up the river to the town.
During 1851, Melbourne grew from a primitive settlement to a bustling metropolis. A growth that brought greater need for the river’s facility to transport goods and people to the town. The tranquil scene of small boats gliding along a stream surrounded by bushland where only a few vessels lazily floated tied up to the river bank, changed dramatically. News of the gold discoveries attracted men hoping to make a fortune from the magic of gold, but also more goods needed to be imported. To cater for the enlarged population. By the end of the year, ships arrived every day loaded with men eager to set out for the gold fields, their families carrying household goods and furniture. Within twelve months Hobsons Bay, where dozens of vessels had anchored, looked like a forest with all the ship's masts and all day long boats and small steamers conveyed new arrivals along the Yarra.
A visitor from England described the scene: “As each boat arrived, passengers landed into a scene of confusion on the wharf as they dumped their luggage on the muddy ground. They stood, surrounded by piles of baggage, packages and household goods, in the midst of hundreds of fellow travellers The men left their women and families seated on piled up luggage while they went off to look for lodgings ..... so often there was a scene of depression as the men return unsuccessful. On the wharves a type of market developed with impromptu sales taking place, as disillusioned arrivals from England, sold their household goods when they discovered there was nowhere to store them. There were others who were selling goods they had brought out as a speculation.” (Source: Dickens - Household Words - 1852 - p703)
Many new arrivals walked from Sandridge to Melbourne. (At that time Port Melbourne was called Sandridge) They could pay to travel up the Yarra by boat, but when they walked the short distance overland they found the track swampy and still had to cross the Yarra at the falls. There was an obvious need for better transport so in 1853 the authorities built Australia’s first railway line from Sandridge to Flinders Street. The rail tracks crossed the Yarra on a new bridge, a simple timber trestle structure, set on an angle to the river. A few years later, the Hobsons Bay Railway Company built a new line to St. Kilda, then company had to rebuild the bridge to take two rail tracks. (Source: National Trust of Australia - Research into the Sandridge Rail Bridge- p6)
Melbourne was growing and flourishing in these gold rush years. A second road bridge was soon needed not only for people coming by road from Sandridge but also to give access to the factories and engineering works on the south bank of the Yarra. David Lennox started construction of a timber bridge across the falls. On the banks opposite Queens Street Lennox constructed bluestone abutments. He ordered timber from Tasmania, but when the timber arrived, it was taken for other bridges that were considered more important. (Source: PRO October 1852) It was not until June 1830 that a simple timber trestle structure, the predecessor of present Queens Bridge, was finally opened.. Robert Hutchison and Co. of Victoria Parade East, built the bridge at a cost of 3518 pounds five shillings. They called it, “Falls Bridge”.
Cole’s Wharf was still the centre of activity at the Port of Melbournes. George Cole, now a successful man, married Anne McCrea. The daughter on one of the Melbourne’s social leaders, William Gordon McCrea, and sister of Geogianna McCrea. Cole was a wealthy man and the couple took an active part in the social life of the town giving lavish fishing parties and picnics for friends, including celebrities such as Superintendent LaTrobe. They often held picnics at St. Kilda and were so delighted with the place that Cole purchased twenty four acres of sea front there and built a large house that he called St. Ninians. It soon became the centre of fashionable life in Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol.. 7 p587)
Captain Cole spent over sixty thousand pounds on the facilities at the Yarra but just when the hundreds of immigrants, attracted by the gold rushes, would have made a fortune for him, the government took over both Cole’s and Dobson’s Wharves without paying any compensation. Cole protested then stood for parliament in the hope of being able to obtain redress, but it was another twenty years before the government eventually awarded him compensation and then only nineteen thousand pounds.
James Blackburn a skilled engineer came to Melbourne in In 1849. Blackburn had been transported to Tasmania, charged with forging a cheque. Despite this, after hearing commendatory testimonials of his diligence and skilful work in Tasmania, the council appointed him to the responsible position of City Surveyor.
Walking along the Yarra bank Blackburn saw 13 pumps between Russel Street and Queen Street, selling polluted water at a high price. With four partners he formed the Melbourne Water Company. The company layed pipes from the river above the falls to the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Street. Here the company filtered and pumped the water into a large square tank on a metal stand. The company sold water to the public for one penny a load. (Source: R. C. Seeger - The History of Melbourne’s Water Supply- Vic. Historical Magazine Vol 19 June 1942 p142)
Blackburn achieved lasting fame when he planned a water supply for Melbourne. (Source: Dictionary of Biography) Several streams along the Yarra Valley flowed into the river on its way to Melbourne. One of the main tributaries was the Plenty River. Blackburn planned a reservoir on the Plenty River at Yan Yean to store water, with a pipeline and aqueducts to bring an adequate supply of clean water to the town. The Yan Yean scheme was completed in In 1857. It was a great occasion when the valves were turned on. The people stood and watched a spectacular display as a fountain of water gushed up into the air. Now the people of Melbourne could turn on a tap and run clean fresh water in their own homes. Unfortunately Blackburn did not live to see the result of his plans, for soon after designing the scheme he fell from his horse and died from his injuries.
“Next to Godliness is Cleanliness.” So the proprietors promoted the Victoria Baths in 1849. A company had constructed baths in a workshop downstream from Raleigh’s wharf then towed them up the river to a site above the docks. Eight rooms provided bathing for men, also rooms for women were being constructed. Tickets were fifteen shillings and 140 people, including the Mayor had become subscribers before the baths had opened. (Source: Argus 13 Nov1849)
The City Council had imposed strict regulation for bathing in the Yarra. When the Falls Bridge was built, the baths were moved up the river to a site opposite the Botanical Gardens. this place became known as “Baths Corner.” Earlier, Dr. Palmer opened swimming bathes on the south of the river opposite Queen Street. The baths were sixty feet long, divided in two sections one end for gentlemen at sixpence the other for the “lower classes” at threepence. (Source: Footnote Edmund Finn - The Chronicals of Early Melbourne p961)
XXXXX
In 1851, two events changed the future of Melbourne, and changed the future of life on the Yarra. One; Victoria separated from New South Wales allowing the new colony to control its own affairs, the other, the gold discovery at Warrandyte. The rush to find gold brought an influx of people to Melbourne. Visitors arrived at Sandridge, where their ships docked then boats brought them up the river to the town.
During 1851, Melbourne grew from a primitive settlement to a bustling metropolis. A growth that brought greater need for the river’s facility to transport goods and people to the town. The tranquil scene of small boats gliding along a stream surrounded by bushland where only a few vessels lazily floated tied up to the river bank, changed dramatically. News of the gold discoveries attracted men hoping to make a fortune from the magic of gold, but also more goods needed to be imported. To cater for the enlarged population. By the end of the year, ships arrived every day loaded with men eager to set out for the gold fields, their families carrying household goods and furniture. Within twelve months Hobsons Bay, where dozens of vessels had anchored, looked like a forest with all the ship's masts and all day long boats and small steamers conveyed new arrivals along the Yarra.
A visitor from England described the scene: “As each boat arrived, passengers landed into a scene of confusion on the wharf as they dumped their luggage on the muddy ground. They stood, surrounded by piles of baggage, packages and household goods, in the midst of hundreds of fellow travellers The men left their women and families seated on piled up luggage while they went off to look for lodgings ..... so often there was a scene of depression as the men return unsuccessful. On the wharves a type of market developed with impromptu sales taking place, as disillusioned arrivals from England, sold their household goods when they discovered there was nowhere to store them. There were others who were selling goods they had brought out as a speculation.” (Source: Dickens - Household Words - 1852 - p703)
Many new arrivals walked from Sandridge to Melbourne. (At that time Port Melbourne was called Sandridge) They could pay to travel up the Yarra by boat, but when they walked the short distance overland they found the track swampy and still had to cross the Yarra at the falls. There was an obvious need for better transport so in 1853 the authorities built Australia’s first railway line from Sandridge to Flinders Street. The rail tracks crossed the Yarra on a new bridge, a simple timber trestle structure, set on an angle to the river. A few years later, the Hobsons Bay Railway Company built a new line to St. Kilda, then company had to rebuild the bridge to take two rail tracks. (Source: National Trust of Australia - Research into the Sandridge Rail Bridge- p6)
Melbourne was growing and flourishing in these gold rush years. A second road bridge was soon needed not only for people coming by road from Sandridge but also to give access to the factories and engineering works on the south bank of the Yarra. David Lennox started construction of a timber bridge across the falls. On the banks opposite Queens Street Lennox constructed bluestone abutments. He ordered timber from Tasmania, but when the timber arrived, it was taken for other bridges that were considered more important. (Source: PRO October 1852) It was not until June 1830 that a simple timber trestle structure, the predecessor of present Queens Bridge, was finally opened.. Robert Hutchison and Co. of Victoria Parade East, built the bridge at a cost of 3518 pounds five shillings. They called it, “Falls Bridge”.
Cole’s Wharf was still the centre of activity at the Port of Melbournes. George Cole, now a successful man, married Anne McCrea. The daughter on one of the Melbourne’s social leaders, William Gordon McCrea, and sister of Geogianna McCrea. Cole was a wealthy man and the couple took an active part in the social life of the town giving lavish fishing parties and picnics for friends, including celebrities such as Superintendent LaTrobe. They often held picnics at St. Kilda and were so delighted with the place that Cole purchased twenty four acres of sea front there and built a large house that he called St. Ninians. It soon became the centre of fashionable life in Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol.. 7 p587)
Captain Cole spent over sixty thousand pounds on the facilities at the Yarra but just when the hundreds of immigrants, attracted by the gold rushes, would have made a fortune for him, the government took over both Cole’s and Dobson’s Wharves without paying any compensation. Cole protested then stood for parliament in the hope of being able to obtain redress, but it was another twenty years before the government eventually awarded him compensation and then only nineteen thousand pounds.
James Blackburn a skilled engineer came to Melbourne in In 1849. Blackburn had been transported to Tasmania, charged with forging a cheque. Despite this, after hearing commendatory testimonials of his diligence and skilful work in Tasmania, the council appointed him to the responsible position of City Surveyor.
Walking along the Yarra bank Blackburn saw 13 pumps between Russel Street and Queen Street, selling polluted water at a high price. With four partners he formed the Melbourne Water Company. The company layed pipes from the river above the falls to the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Street. Here the company filtered and pumped the water into a large square tank on a metal stand. The company sold water to the public for one penny a load. (Source: R. C. Seeger - The History of Melbourne’s Water Supply- Vic. Historical Magazine Vol 19 June 1942 p142)
Blackburn achieved lasting fame when he planned a water supply for Melbourne. (Source: Dictionary of Biography) Several streams along the Yarra Valley flowed into the river on its way to Melbourne. One of the main tributaries was the Plenty River. Blackburn planned a reservoir on the Plenty River at Yan Yean to store water, with a pipeline and aqueducts to bring an adequate supply of clean water to the town. The Yan Yean scheme was completed in In 1857. It was a great occasion when the valves were turned on. The people stood and watched a spectacular display as a fountain of water gushed up into the air. Now the people of Melbourne could turn on a tap and run clean fresh water in their own homes. Unfortunately Blackburn did not live to see the result of his plans, for soon after designing the scheme he fell from his horse and died from his injuries.
“Next to Godliness is Cleanliness.” So the proprietors promoted the Victoria Baths in 1849. A company had constructed baths in a workshop downstream from Raleigh’s wharf then towed them up the river to a site above the docks. Eight rooms provided bathing for men, also rooms for women were being constructed. Tickets were fifteen shillings and 140 people, including the Mayor had become subscribers before the baths had opened. (Source: Argus 13 Nov1849)
The City Council had imposed strict regulation for bathing in the Yarra. When the Falls Bridge was built, the baths were moved up the river to a site opposite the Botanical Gardens. this place became known as “Baths Corner.” Earlier, Dr. Palmer opened swimming bathes on the south of the river opposite Queen Street. The baths were sixty feet long, divided in two sections one end for gentlemen at sixpence the other for the “lower classes” at threepence. (Source: Footnote Edmund Finn - The Chronicals of Early Melbourne p961)
XXXXX
At Warrandyte, twenty-five kilometres from Melbourne, these decades were a time of great historical development. There was the Yarra with its early grazing leases, the first gold field in Victoria and the site of an Aboriginal reserve.
From Warrandyte to beyond Warburton the gold discoveries in the decades of the 1850s and 60s had a great effect on the history of the Yarra. The first gold discovery was made in a tributary of the Yarra, “Andersons Creek”. Although only a small gold field, in constrast to Ballarat and Bendigo, the Andersons Creek gold field established the principle that gold licenses were needed to remove gold from the earth. The alluvial gold in the creek soon ran out then quartz mining started in the hills above the Yarra, also miners found gold dust in the river bed. Enterprising men blocked off sections of the river with a coffer dam, bailing out the water then scooping up the gold laden silt from between the rocks. (Source: W. Westgarth - Victorian and Australian Goldfields in 1857)
As the river approaches Warandyte it used to swing round in a sharp bend. In 1860 a mining company dug a canal to alter the course of the Yarra. Thirty men worked on this ambitious project, the canal was fifty feet wide and twelve feet deep straightening the river and making an island at the bend. A coffer dam at each end of the old course allowed alluvium sediment to be dug from the old river bed. The silt yielded one pound of gold each day. (Source: Warrandyte Historical Society Newsletter Feb 1991)
Past the town at Warrandyte the Yarra meets a barrier of rock forcing it to swing round in almost a complete circle with only a narrow strip of land separating the two arms of the river. Close to here the government established a pound and appointed John Hutchinson, an early settler, as 8ound keeper. The bend of river then became known as “Pound Bend”.
At Pound Bend David Mitchell, the contractor, well known as the father of Nellie Melba, formed the Evelyn Gold Mining Company. They planned to divert the river, through a tunnel, exposing three miles of river bed for dredging. An American contractor drove the tunnel through solid rock using the newly invented dynamite, to blast the stone. They made a tunnel 634 feet long, 18 feet wide and 14 feet deep costing 2.400 pounds. Mitchell constructed a dam just beyond the entrance to divert the river through the tunnel. He used over one thousand sand bags on timber piles firmly fixed into the bed of the river. In 1870 a large crowd lined the cliff top to see the river being diverted through the tunnel. Workmen piled up the sand bags onto the dam till the river was forced through the tunnel. A cheer went up when water flowed into the opening in the hill but the cheers changed to dismay as the dam gave way. Sand bags and timber were thrown into the river and water cascaded over the dam.
Repairs were made and at last the Yarra raced though the Pound Bend Tunnel and gushed out the other end. For two years the company dredged the river mud but the results were not as good as expected. The silt of the river bed was deeper than estimated and beyond the ability of the machinery. One night during a storm John Hutchinson, the Pound Keeper, who lived above the tunnel, heard a great roar of water and hurried to the edge of the cliff above the tunnel entrance. He was just in time to see the whole thing collapse. The escaping river flung logs and sandbags through the water to go swirling down stream, by morning nothing was left of the dam.
Warrandyte had been a favourite place of the aborigines and at the request of William Thomas the guardian of Aborigines, in the 1850s, the Government set aside land at Pound Bend on both sides of the Yarra, as a reserve for Aborigines. The last aboriginal corroboree in the Melbourne took place on this reserve. William Thomas wrote a report to Governor La Trobe describing the events that took place.
“In February 1852 some Western Port blacks returned from Gippsland bringing about ten Warrigul blacks with them. I tried to remove them. They promised day by day to leave. While engaged with them near Unwins Survey, south of the Yarra. Some messengers were dispatched, and Melbourne had in a few days three encampments within ten miles of it. They begged very hard to remain and said they would leave in three weeks and not come near the town. They had not met for years, and wanted to have once more some corroboree together. I got the three encampmets to one spot in a government reserve on a bend of the Yarra about twelve or thirteen miles from Melbourne and addressed His Excellency upon it. The indulgence which was granted. Night after night for fourteen days did they enjoy themselves.”
The corroboree was a success but unscrupulous people supplied the aborigines with alcoholic drinks. Aborigines lacked tolerance to alcohol and often when drunk lay down in the wet catching chest colds. They had no resistance to chest infections and would soon die. Thomas described the problems of the next months with the drunkenness and fights. Ending with;
“While I was loading one party off, two were murdered and three were subsequently found dead. After by the aid of police I got the Goulburn, Barrabool, Booning and Gippsland blacks off, assuring them that never more should there be an assemblage. Buy the end of June, the Yarra were settled at the ranges and the Western Port near the coast.” (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
In 1856 the first river crossing at Warrandyte, (or Andersons Creek as it was then called,) was a punt connecting the road to the gold fields at Queenstown (St. Andrews) and Yarra Glen. Four years later the government built a bridge to cater for this traffic It had a short life for the flood of 1863 carried away the centre part of the bridge. The approaches on both sides remained leading to open space over the water, for the centre of the bridge was dumped in a mass of twisted timber into a coffer dam down stream; For the next fifteen years the river at Warrandyte was without any means of crossing. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
The Yarra cut off Hubert de Castella’s Station, “Dalray”, from the Melbourne Road. So de Castella built a bridge over the river, wide and solid enough for heavy waggons and bullock teams to cross. His men built the bridge for some of them had been sailors and ship’s carpenters who had left their ships to go to the gold mines and being disappointed looked for work on farms. They felled trees and cut three huge beams to support the bridge then dragged the timber into place with bullock teams. The air rang with the shouts of the drivers and the sailor's sea shanties as they beat a rhythm while hauling the ropes. When the colonial engineer for Victoria visited the station he was amazed that they were able to construct such a large structure with just a few pulleys and jacks but life in the bush can be full of disappointments, ten years later a bushfire burnt de Castella’s bridge. (Source: Hubert de Castella - Australian Squatters - Translated by C. B. Thornton Smith p113)
The land along the Yarra upstream from Lilydale in the Warburton area was a lonely and almost deserted place till the decade of the 50s, then prospectors discovered gold near Warburton and opened up the Britannia and Warburton gold fields. Soon 200 diggers were working around Britannia Creek. Prospectors found many of the creeks flowing into the Yarra to have deposits of alluvial gold. By 1860 500 men were working in the Upper Yarra area. (Source: James Flett - The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria)
Two Canadians, James McAvoy and his brother John, were among the first prospectors in the Warburton area. (Source: Yarra Conference Tour notes) Jim had been to the Californian goldrush, so the men called him Yankee Jim. He gained a repution but not wealth from his successful gold discoveries but was never well off and died in poor circumstances. A creek was named after him and also the settlement but this was renamed Warburton after the Gold Warden Charles Warburton Carr. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p50) In 1862 when attempts were made to find a road via the Upper Yarra Track gold was found in the land north of the Yarra
During this period there was not a house or sign of people for many miles along the river and carts or wagons could only go as far as Launching Place. Packhorses carried stores and provisions to the miners scattered in the hills of the Yarra Valley. Goods needed farther up the river were carted to Launching Place then loaded onto flat bottomed boats, that were built on the spot from pit sawn timber. These were launched into the river opposite the “Old Home Hotel” giving the town its name. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p23)
The fertile river flats of the Yarra provided ideal land for crops. At Bulleen in the 1840s farmers had grown crops of wheat and barley. Acres of verdant grain covered the river banks with a sea of green growth. In Autumn, wheat and barley turned to golden brown, and as the wind blew, ripples of gold flowed across the river flats. At harvest time rows of men moved across the land swinging scythes while behind them, women gathered the sheathes and stacked them in neat rows.
During the gold rushes the demand for food increased. Small farmers seeing the opportunity of selling their wares at high prices on the goldfields leased farming blocks on both the Heidelberg and Bulleen sides of the Yarra. These farms, with their ideal conditions flourished, for the Yarra had deposited rich mud on the river flats during its many floods and the river provided the water necessary for growing vegetables. Two men, Sidney Ricardo and Robert Laidlaw, became successful farmers on the Yarra flats at Bulleen. Laidlaw an upright industrious Scotsman, came to Bulleen in 1839. Thirty years later he built a two story mansion `Springbank’ (now called `Clarendon Ayre’) overlooking the river in Bulleen Road. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter - Feb 1982) His neighbour, Ricardo, a small energetic Englishman purchased land north of the present Bridge Road where he grew vegetables with water pumped from the river. Ricardo had been a business man in England but dapted his knowledge and skills to farming. Without preconceived ideas he learnt, by trial and error, farming methods that suited local conditions and became the most uccessful farmer on the river. In 1857 the community elected him to the Legislative Assembly. He was an outspoken radical and with his understanding of their problems supported small farmers. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, Feb 1976)
Settlers took up their land with great hopes for the future but they found it a struggle to make a living while establishing a farm. As they cleared their land they sold firewood. to make a living. Both farmers and timber men were stripping the land of trees. Sawyers felled the spreading red gums that dotted the banks of the Yarra and and cut the logs in saw-pits. These disapeared in the the 1850s when steam sawmills were operating at Melbourne then timber fellers harnessed bullock teams to haul the logs to the mills. Before coke was available from gas works, there was a demand by blacksmiths for charcoal to burn in their forge therefore charcoal burning became another industry in the forests.
North of Templestowe township the Yarra swings north in a wide curve that encloses two sides of a 255 acre block of rich grassland. An investor, J. S. Brodie purchased this site in 1846 and leased blocks to timber cutters and small farmers. In the flush years after the gold rushes a wealthy Melbourne hotel owner, Weddle bought the land. He built a fine brick home on the river with a brick lodge at the entrance making it his country estate. After five years Weddle sold out to David Smith a member of a local family of dairy farmers and orchardists. David Smith and his sons ran a dairy farm and planted an orchard. The farm had the advantage of water from the Yarra for his fruit and cattle. At first the land included two islands in the river but a flood washed one away. Smith called the estate Holyrood Park, later to be renamed Westerfolds park. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Newsletter - Mar 1884)
From Templestowe up stream to Warrandyte the character of the river valley changes dramatically, the valley slopes more and the bushland areas are denser as yellow box replaces the red gums. Rocks and rapids break up the smooth flowing stretches of the stream. In the 1850s the banks were often higher and at places alongside the river spreading red gums dotted the rolling grassland.
Thomas Sweeney, the man who had sailed up the Yarra in 1837 was an adventurous Irishman who prospered with his successful wheat crops and became one of the leaders of the new township of Eltham. Sweeney had been a convict in Van Diemens Land and after being pardoned came to Port Phillip looking for land. For three years he squatted on the river closer to Melbourne then applied to purchase a 110 acre portion of the land on the banks of the Yarra opposite the entrance of Mullum Creek. Sweeney was born in 1802, the son of an Irish farmer in Tipperary. During the 1830s his wife drowned leaving Thomas with a young daughter. He remarried another Irish girl, Margaret Meehan. He and Margaret built a slab hut at Eltham and later a fine brick house they called Culla Hill, named after the farm where he had lived in Ireland.
During the twenty years Thomas lived on the Yarra he was a leader in local affairs. The Catholic Church held services in his home and he hosted social events at Culla Hill. Sweeney’s farm prospered. He grew wheat, and when a flour mill was built at Eltham, Sweeney supplied grain. During the gold rushes he took advantage of the high prices being paid for food and was able to purchase a further 300 acre property. In 1867 Thomas Sweeney died but his name lived on in the district for Sweeneys Lane was to run through his land and the National Trust classified Culla Hill but with the name “Sweeneys”. (Source: Alan Marshall - Pioneers and Painters p12)
Across the river Charles Newman leased additional grazing land for his sheep cattle and race horses. At one time his land stretched along the river from Templestowe to Warrandyte, a total of eight square miles. Newman lived the life of a country gentleman inviting notables from Melbourne and squatters from around Victoria, to match their horses at races on his land. He cleared an area alongside the river for a racecourse, (this was on part of the land that is now Pettys orchard) and to entertain guests overnight, he built another house, “Monkton”, on an adjoining hill across Deep Creek.
Newmans eyesight was failing and in the middle fifties he built another house at Hawthorne for his wife and himself. Although Major Newman no longer lived at Pontville he still kept control and still managed to have arguements with his neighbours. In Newmans will he left Pontville to his son Charles and Monkton, the large house on the adjoining hill, to his other son Thomas but later added a coddicle to his will preventing Thomas from inheriting Monkton if he married Victoria Webb, the daughter of his enemy. Twenty-three year old Thomas defied his father and married Victoria, the couple going to live in Webb’s house. Six years later when Thomas died, Mary Anne Newman, who had inherited Monkton in stead of Thomas, alowed Victoria and her baby to live in the home. (Source: Melbourne Parks and Waterways - Pontville Cultural Significance and Conservation Policy - June 1995)
Major Newman died in 1866. His son Charles inherited Pontville running the his farm on the large estate on the river. Pontville was to remain in the family till 1950 and remain the oldest building in the east of Victoria, surviving after most other buildings of its age disappeared. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society archives)
At Ryries Station “Yering”, a Swiss wine maker, James Dardel was producing wine bottled under the name “Chateau Yering”. Paul de Castella purchased Yering in 1850 and was so successful with the wine that seven years later he extended his vinyard to 100 acres. During the next twenty years the large Yering squatting run was subdivided and sold to settlers who ran cattle or planted vineyards. There were men like Hubert de Castella, who had said about the grapes grown in the area that; “Left to itself the liquid turned into perfect wine,” and Samuel de Pury, who also made a name with his wine. Here on the east banks of the Yarra a vineyard area developed. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p16 )
As well as vineyards the area supported dairy herds. On the rich pasture land beyond Lilydale an Irishman John Kerr bought 1,500 acres of swampy land on the Yarra flats. Whenever the river rose in wet weather most of the ground was inundated by flood water. Kerr dug a system of drains to allow the water to run off in the summer leaving rich pasture land for his 500 dairy cattle. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p90) Beyond Warburton, the Yarra flowed through unexplored mountainous country rising from heavily timbered slopes in the steep foothills of Mount Baw Baw
From Warrandyte to beyond Warburton the gold discoveries in the decades of the 1850s and 60s had a great effect on the history of the Yarra. The first gold discovery was made in a tributary of the Yarra, “Andersons Creek”. Although only a small gold field, in constrast to Ballarat and Bendigo, the Andersons Creek gold field established the principle that gold licenses were needed to remove gold from the earth. The alluvial gold in the creek soon ran out then quartz mining started in the hills above the Yarra, also miners found gold dust in the river bed. Enterprising men blocked off sections of the river with a coffer dam, bailing out the water then scooping up the gold laden silt from between the rocks. (Source: W. Westgarth - Victorian and Australian Goldfields in 1857)
As the river approaches Warandyte it used to swing round in a sharp bend. In 1860 a mining company dug a canal to alter the course of the Yarra. Thirty men worked on this ambitious project, the canal was fifty feet wide and twelve feet deep straightening the river and making an island at the bend. A coffer dam at each end of the old course allowed alluvium sediment to be dug from the old river bed. The silt yielded one pound of gold each day. (Source: Warrandyte Historical Society Newsletter Feb 1991)
Past the town at Warrandyte the Yarra meets a barrier of rock forcing it to swing round in almost a complete circle with only a narrow strip of land separating the two arms of the river. Close to here the government established a pound and appointed John Hutchinson, an early settler, as 8ound keeper. The bend of river then became known as “Pound Bend”.
At Pound Bend David Mitchell, the contractor, well known as the father of Nellie Melba, formed the Evelyn Gold Mining Company. They planned to divert the river, through a tunnel, exposing three miles of river bed for dredging. An American contractor drove the tunnel through solid rock using the newly invented dynamite, to blast the stone. They made a tunnel 634 feet long, 18 feet wide and 14 feet deep costing 2.400 pounds. Mitchell constructed a dam just beyond the entrance to divert the river through the tunnel. He used over one thousand sand bags on timber piles firmly fixed into the bed of the river. In 1870 a large crowd lined the cliff top to see the river being diverted through the tunnel. Workmen piled up the sand bags onto the dam till the river was forced through the tunnel. A cheer went up when water flowed into the opening in the hill but the cheers changed to dismay as the dam gave way. Sand bags and timber were thrown into the river and water cascaded over the dam.
Repairs were made and at last the Yarra raced though the Pound Bend Tunnel and gushed out the other end. For two years the company dredged the river mud but the results were not as good as expected. The silt of the river bed was deeper than estimated and beyond the ability of the machinery. One night during a storm John Hutchinson, the Pound Keeper, who lived above the tunnel, heard a great roar of water and hurried to the edge of the cliff above the tunnel entrance. He was just in time to see the whole thing collapse. The escaping river flung logs and sandbags through the water to go swirling down stream, by morning nothing was left of the dam.
Warrandyte had been a favourite place of the aborigines and at the request of William Thomas the guardian of Aborigines, in the 1850s, the Government set aside land at Pound Bend on both sides of the Yarra, as a reserve for Aborigines. The last aboriginal corroboree in the Melbourne took place on this reserve. William Thomas wrote a report to Governor La Trobe describing the events that took place.
“In February 1852 some Western Port blacks returned from Gippsland bringing about ten Warrigul blacks with them. I tried to remove them. They promised day by day to leave. While engaged with them near Unwins Survey, south of the Yarra. Some messengers were dispatched, and Melbourne had in a few days three encampments within ten miles of it. They begged very hard to remain and said they would leave in three weeks and not come near the town. They had not met for years, and wanted to have once more some corroboree together. I got the three encampmets to one spot in a government reserve on a bend of the Yarra about twelve or thirteen miles from Melbourne and addressed His Excellency upon it. The indulgence which was granted. Night after night for fourteen days did they enjoy themselves.”
The corroboree was a success but unscrupulous people supplied the aborigines with alcoholic drinks. Aborigines lacked tolerance to alcohol and often when drunk lay down in the wet catching chest colds. They had no resistance to chest infections and would soon die. Thomas described the problems of the next months with the drunkenness and fights. Ending with;
“While I was loading one party off, two were murdered and three were subsequently found dead. After by the aid of police I got the Goulburn, Barrabool, Booning and Gippsland blacks off, assuring them that never more should there be an assemblage. Buy the end of June, the Yarra were settled at the ranges and the Western Port near the coast.” (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
In 1856 the first river crossing at Warrandyte, (or Andersons Creek as it was then called,) was a punt connecting the road to the gold fields at Queenstown (St. Andrews) and Yarra Glen. Four years later the government built a bridge to cater for this traffic It had a short life for the flood of 1863 carried away the centre part of the bridge. The approaches on both sides remained leading to open space over the water, for the centre of the bridge was dumped in a mass of twisted timber into a coffer dam down stream; For the next fifteen years the river at Warrandyte was without any means of crossing. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
The Yarra cut off Hubert de Castella’s Station, “Dalray”, from the Melbourne Road. So de Castella built a bridge over the river, wide and solid enough for heavy waggons and bullock teams to cross. His men built the bridge for some of them had been sailors and ship’s carpenters who had left their ships to go to the gold mines and being disappointed looked for work on farms. They felled trees and cut three huge beams to support the bridge then dragged the timber into place with bullock teams. The air rang with the shouts of the drivers and the sailor's sea shanties as they beat a rhythm while hauling the ropes. When the colonial engineer for Victoria visited the station he was amazed that they were able to construct such a large structure with just a few pulleys and jacks but life in the bush can be full of disappointments, ten years later a bushfire burnt de Castella’s bridge. (Source: Hubert de Castella - Australian Squatters - Translated by C. B. Thornton Smith p113)
The land along the Yarra upstream from Lilydale in the Warburton area was a lonely and almost deserted place till the decade of the 50s, then prospectors discovered gold near Warburton and opened up the Britannia and Warburton gold fields. Soon 200 diggers were working around Britannia Creek. Prospectors found many of the creeks flowing into the Yarra to have deposits of alluvial gold. By 1860 500 men were working in the Upper Yarra area. (Source: James Flett - The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria)
Two Canadians, James McAvoy and his brother John, were among the first prospectors in the Warburton area. (Source: Yarra Conference Tour notes) Jim had been to the Californian goldrush, so the men called him Yankee Jim. He gained a repution but not wealth from his successful gold discoveries but was never well off and died in poor circumstances. A creek was named after him and also the settlement but this was renamed Warburton after the Gold Warden Charles Warburton Carr. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p50) In 1862 when attempts were made to find a road via the Upper Yarra Track gold was found in the land north of the Yarra
During this period there was not a house or sign of people for many miles along the river and carts or wagons could only go as far as Launching Place. Packhorses carried stores and provisions to the miners scattered in the hills of the Yarra Valley. Goods needed farther up the river were carted to Launching Place then loaded onto flat bottomed boats, that were built on the spot from pit sawn timber. These were launched into the river opposite the “Old Home Hotel” giving the town its name. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p23)
The fertile river flats of the Yarra provided ideal land for crops. At Bulleen in the 1840s farmers had grown crops of wheat and barley. Acres of verdant grain covered the river banks with a sea of green growth. In Autumn, wheat and barley turned to golden brown, and as the wind blew, ripples of gold flowed across the river flats. At harvest time rows of men moved across the land swinging scythes while behind them, women gathered the sheathes and stacked them in neat rows.
During the gold rushes the demand for food increased. Small farmers seeing the opportunity of selling their wares at high prices on the goldfields leased farming blocks on both the Heidelberg and Bulleen sides of the Yarra. These farms, with their ideal conditions flourished, for the Yarra had deposited rich mud on the river flats during its many floods and the river provided the water necessary for growing vegetables. Two men, Sidney Ricardo and Robert Laidlaw, became successful farmers on the Yarra flats at Bulleen. Laidlaw an upright industrious Scotsman, came to Bulleen in 1839. Thirty years later he built a two story mansion `Springbank’ (now called `Clarendon Ayre’) overlooking the river in Bulleen Road. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter - Feb 1982) His neighbour, Ricardo, a small energetic Englishman purchased land north of the present Bridge Road where he grew vegetables with water pumped from the river. Ricardo had been a business man in England but dapted his knowledge and skills to farming. Without preconceived ideas he learnt, by trial and error, farming methods that suited local conditions and became the most uccessful farmer on the river. In 1857 the community elected him to the Legislative Assembly. He was an outspoken radical and with his understanding of their problems supported small farmers. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, Feb 1976)
Settlers took up their land with great hopes for the future but they found it a struggle to make a living while establishing a farm. As they cleared their land they sold firewood. to make a living. Both farmers and timber men were stripping the land of trees. Sawyers felled the spreading red gums that dotted the banks of the Yarra and and cut the logs in saw-pits. These disapeared in the the 1850s when steam sawmills were operating at Melbourne then timber fellers harnessed bullock teams to haul the logs to the mills. Before coke was available from gas works, there was a demand by blacksmiths for charcoal to burn in their forge therefore charcoal burning became another industry in the forests.
North of Templestowe township the Yarra swings north in a wide curve that encloses two sides of a 255 acre block of rich grassland. An investor, J. S. Brodie purchased this site in 1846 and leased blocks to timber cutters and small farmers. In the flush years after the gold rushes a wealthy Melbourne hotel owner, Weddle bought the land. He built a fine brick home on the river with a brick lodge at the entrance making it his country estate. After five years Weddle sold out to David Smith a member of a local family of dairy farmers and orchardists. David Smith and his sons ran a dairy farm and planted an orchard. The farm had the advantage of water from the Yarra for his fruit and cattle. At first the land included two islands in the river but a flood washed one away. Smith called the estate Holyrood Park, later to be renamed Westerfolds park. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Newsletter - Mar 1884)
From Templestowe up stream to Warrandyte the character of the river valley changes dramatically, the valley slopes more and the bushland areas are denser as yellow box replaces the red gums. Rocks and rapids break up the smooth flowing stretches of the stream. In the 1850s the banks were often higher and at places alongside the river spreading red gums dotted the rolling grassland.
Thomas Sweeney, the man who had sailed up the Yarra in 1837 was an adventurous Irishman who prospered with his successful wheat crops and became one of the leaders of the new township of Eltham. Sweeney had been a convict in Van Diemens Land and after being pardoned came to Port Phillip looking for land. For three years he squatted on the river closer to Melbourne then applied to purchase a 110 acre portion of the land on the banks of the Yarra opposite the entrance of Mullum Creek. Sweeney was born in 1802, the son of an Irish farmer in Tipperary. During the 1830s his wife drowned leaving Thomas with a young daughter. He remarried another Irish girl, Margaret Meehan. He and Margaret built a slab hut at Eltham and later a fine brick house they called Culla Hill, named after the farm where he had lived in Ireland.
During the twenty years Thomas lived on the Yarra he was a leader in local affairs. The Catholic Church held services in his home and he hosted social events at Culla Hill. Sweeney’s farm prospered. He grew wheat, and when a flour mill was built at Eltham, Sweeney supplied grain. During the gold rushes he took advantage of the high prices being paid for food and was able to purchase a further 300 acre property. In 1867 Thomas Sweeney died but his name lived on in the district for Sweeneys Lane was to run through his land and the National Trust classified Culla Hill but with the name “Sweeneys”. (Source: Alan Marshall - Pioneers and Painters p12)
Across the river Charles Newman leased additional grazing land for his sheep cattle and race horses. At one time his land stretched along the river from Templestowe to Warrandyte, a total of eight square miles. Newman lived the life of a country gentleman inviting notables from Melbourne and squatters from around Victoria, to match their horses at races on his land. He cleared an area alongside the river for a racecourse, (this was on part of the land that is now Pettys orchard) and to entertain guests overnight, he built another house, “Monkton”, on an adjoining hill across Deep Creek.
Newmans eyesight was failing and in the middle fifties he built another house at Hawthorne for his wife and himself. Although Major Newman no longer lived at Pontville he still kept control and still managed to have arguements with his neighbours. In Newmans will he left Pontville to his son Charles and Monkton, the large house on the adjoining hill, to his other son Thomas but later added a coddicle to his will preventing Thomas from inheriting Monkton if he married Victoria Webb, the daughter of his enemy. Twenty-three year old Thomas defied his father and married Victoria, the couple going to live in Webb’s house. Six years later when Thomas died, Mary Anne Newman, who had inherited Monkton in stead of Thomas, alowed Victoria and her baby to live in the home. (Source: Melbourne Parks and Waterways - Pontville Cultural Significance and Conservation Policy - June 1995)
Major Newman died in 1866. His son Charles inherited Pontville running the his farm on the large estate on the river. Pontville was to remain in the family till 1950 and remain the oldest building in the east of Victoria, surviving after most other buildings of its age disappeared. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society archives)
At Ryries Station “Yering”, a Swiss wine maker, James Dardel was producing wine bottled under the name “Chateau Yering”. Paul de Castella purchased Yering in 1850 and was so successful with the wine that seven years later he extended his vinyard to 100 acres. During the next twenty years the large Yering squatting run was subdivided and sold to settlers who ran cattle or planted vineyards. There were men like Hubert de Castella, who had said about the grapes grown in the area that; “Left to itself the liquid turned into perfect wine,” and Samuel de Pury, who also made a name with his wine. Here on the east banks of the Yarra a vineyard area developed. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p16 )
As well as vineyards the area supported dairy herds. On the rich pasture land beyond Lilydale an Irishman John Kerr bought 1,500 acres of swampy land on the Yarra flats. Whenever the river rose in wet weather most of the ground was inundated by flood water. Kerr dug a system of drains to allow the water to run off in the summer leaving rich pasture land for his 500 dairy cattle. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p90) Beyond Warburton, the Yarra flowed through unexplored mountainous country rising from heavily timbered slopes in the steep foothills of Mount Baw Baw
XXXXXX
In the two decades after 1851 many new bridges spanned the Yarra. The first upstream from the town was the Botanical Bridge. When Superintendent LaTrobe set aside the site for the gardens he also proposed that land between the Yarra and Flinders Street be a park. He suggested that a road follow the river to connect with a footbridge at Anderson Street to give the people of Melbourne access to the Botanical Gardens. (Source: R. H. S.V. Journal Dec 1932. r. W. A. Sanderson) In the 1850s an iron footbridge was built but the road was not made instead another road led from Wellington Parade over the railway line to the footbridge. Baron Von Mueler found the footbridge useful for he had been given temporary administration of Acclimatisation Society Gardens across the river. . In 1857 the Society occupied a reserve north of the Yarra where they set up a zoological gardens to care for and preserve animals from the northern hemisphere. The Zoo was formed with aim to, “Bring the sweet sounds and sights of England to the silence of this barren land. (Source: Prescott - The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne p43) Later the Society considered the site too cold and swampy. The Society had now become a Zoological Society. Five years later the Zoo was moved to Royal Park The site was then given to the Friendly Societies. for a picnic ground.
Cremorne Gardens but when he sold it in 1863 he only received 4.500 pounds.
The Upper Yarra Steamboat Gondola Company built the “Gondola” in 1854. It was sixty feet long with a beam of twelve feet and carried two hundred passengers. They could sit forward, in an open well protected with an awning or enjoy The people of Melbourne enjoying a new prosperity after the gold discoveries looked for entertainment, within easy reach of the town. They had the Botanical gardens only a short boat trip up the Yarra and also the Zoo. and another attraction lay on the left bank of the Yarra alongside the site of the future railway bridge at Richmond, here James Ellis established an extravagant pleasure garden. He based the venture on the Cremorne Gardens in London, where he had worked, and used the same name “The Cremorne Gardens” The project was too ambitious for his capital and Ellis soon became bankrupt. In 1856 he sold the Gardens to George Coppin the great theatrical entrepreneur. (Source: Alec Boys - Coppin the Great)
“Cremorne Gardens” was a great success in that it was well patronised, however Coppin found the area a bottomless pit for his fortunes. The gardens contained a lavish collections of entertainments. There was the Pantheon theatre, a zoo with lions monkeys and camels, a maze, tropical gardens, a lake, a hotel and restaurants. Coppin held sumptuous feasts, champagne parties and extravagant shows such as the re-enactment of the Battle of Sebastapol. Crowds flocked to Cremorne Gardens. They came on the river where a steamboat the “Gondola” ran a service from Princes Bridge to the Cremorne landing or by train,.The railways company extended the railway line from Richmond and built a station for Cremorne. Over five thousand visitors came on New Years day and Coppin took 524 pounds, but the costs were too high. Coppin had paid 41,500 pounds for the shelter of a closed cabin at the stern. A crew of five ran the boat with its two engines that developed fourteen horsepower, driving the eight foot paddle wheels. (Source: Victorian Historical Journal Vol. 51)
The Melbourne and Suburban Company extended the railway, that ended at Cremorne station, across the river to connect with the railway from St.Kilda to Brighton. John Bourne built a railway bridge for the line using iron from England. He used one large arch to span the centre of the river. The bridge was tested with a train load of 112 tons. (Source: Leo J. Harrigan - Victorian Railways to 62) A short distance upstream from the rail line in 1858 a road bridge connected Church and Chapel Streets. The government had obtained a prefabricated bridge from the Imperial Army intended for the Crimean War, but the war ended before it was delivered. Half of the bridge was placed across the Yarra and the other section over the Barwon River at Geelong.
In Melbourne interest in horticulture was increasing. In 1863 the Victorian Horticultural Society opened an experimental garden on the banks of the Yarra at Richmond. The Society helped the propagation of many new varieties of plants and trees. Growers sent new varieties to Burnley where the Society grew them and if successful, registered the variety and its name. They also tested imported plants to determine their suitability for Australian conditions. (Source: John Patrick - Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria)
The Yarra impeded access to the farming community in the Kew and Hawthorn areas, for the river, after flowing in a westerly direction as far as Dights Falls, swung south and went in a series of wild loops down between Abottsford and Kew, then between Hawthorn and Richmond as far as Burnley. Along the way the river cut across the lines of communication between Melbourne and the desirable high fertile country to the east. To overcome this barrier enterprising men installed ferries and punts and during the 1850’s and 60’s the government arranged the construction of the first bridges in this section of the river.
Dr. James Palmer, medical practitioner and politician, came to Melbourne in 1842. Palmer was an Englishman born in 1803 in the town of Great Torrington in Devon. He studied medicine and became a house surgeon at St. Georges Hospital. Although Palmer had practiced in London and was elected a fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society he was unable to obtain a surgical appointment so in 1840 he and his wife Isabella migrated to Sydney. Two years later they came to Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 5 p392)
The Palmers built a home at Richmond alongside the Yarra at Bridge Road. James started business as a cordial manufacturer and wine merchant, he also invested in land at Kew. At that time speculators were offering land to settlers on the high land across the river. Palmer saw that with the future settlers and the many wood carters moving east of the river a crossing looked like a good business proposition particularly with the high fare of fourshillings and sixpence. He installed a punt connecting Richmond to Hawthorn and built a hut for the tollkeeper. He placed his punt just north of the present Hawthorn bridge and engaged Patrick Trainor, the man who later opened the White Horse Hotel at Box Hill, to run the punt. Soon many people where travelling over the river and the call, Punt Ahoy! often echoed across the water. (Source: Gwen McWilliam - Hawthorne Peppercorns)
Palmer had a distinguished career in Melbourne; Mayor of the city in 1845, elected to represent Port Phillip District in Legislative Council of NSW, first Speaker of the old Legislative Council, President of new Legislative Council and knighted in 1857. In local affairs Palmer took an active part in forming the Public Library, the Melbourne Hospital, the University and took an interest in education. Palmer purchased land from the river to Power Street in the 1840’s and during the prosperous years after the gold rushes built a large bluestone house called “Burwood Hill”. Palmer died in 1871 and his land was subdivided, his home, now in Coppin Grove is called Invergowrie and Palmer’s wife is remembered by Isabella Street.
Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds. A wise move as it was not long before Palmer’s punt was replaced by the first Hawthorn Bridge built in 1854. Built of timber it was adequate when the river ran quietly but the first flood weakened the bridge. Bonwick wrote that it “had to be tied, repaired and secured.” The bridge was tied to trees with chains to prevent it from being washed away. During the ten years till it was replaced, a toll gate on the bridge collected thirty two thousand pounds. The toll was not charged to clergymen, politicians, soldiers and policemen in uniform, churchgoers, people attending funerals and men carting manure. A rather strange assortment of people.
Work started on the foundations for a new Hawthorn bridge. It stood on thick blue stone piers with a span of 110 feet over the river and was a desk type lattice truss iron bridge. It was opened in 1861 at a cost of 37.000 pounds. The next year gas lights were installed on the bridge, but to save money they were not lit on moonlight nights, actually the moonlight would have been brighter than the gas lamps. The builders did their job well for it was to remain on its solid foundations, although widened at times, and become todays oldest bridge on the Yarra and also one of the oldest metal truss bridges in Australia.
In the late 1850’s investors were forming railway companies. The Melbourne and suburban Railway company planned a line to Brighton with a branch from Richmond to Hawthorn. In 1858 the Governor performed the ceremony of turning the first turf for the Hawthorn line, to be followed by a banquet. A disgraceful event then took place. As soon as the Governor and official guests left, the crowd of onlookers mobbed the banquet eating drinking and smashing everything.” (Source: Hawthorn Historical Society - Steam into Hawthorn; Edmund Finn - The Chronicles of Early Melbourne p38)
In 1859 engineers started work on the Hawthorn railway bridge, designed to carry a single track across the Yarra,. Bluestone abutments were built and iron was ordered from overseas but the ship carrying the materials sank. The rail line was laid up to the river bank waiting for the bridge and a temporarily timber platform built. They called the station “Pic-Nic”. Passengers travelling to Hawthorn could walk across the road bridge. Soon sightseers came on the train for an outing and stayed for a picnic in the attractive bush surroundings. First the builders constructed a timber framework to hold the steel latticework while they rivetted it together. In 1861 steam trains rolled over the bridge.
On the west of the Yarra near Johnston Street John Hodgson installed a punt in 1846. Hodgson, a Yorkshireman, arrived in Melbourne in 1837 full of enthusiasm to start a new life as a merchant in this new country. John with his wife Annie and family lived in Flinders Street where they built a three story house. In those early years the building was looked on as a giant and people called it “Hodgson’s Folly”.
His first public venture in 1839 was the punt on the river near Swanston Street. Soon he saw an opportunity in the expanding settlement of investing in land. At Collingwood Hodgson bought land for a farm and in 1842 built a house, “St Heliers”. Across the river he saw attractive high land and purchased a block of 150 acres there to add to his farm. The land is now Studley Park.
Hodgson had two farms divided by the Yarra. He could cross by boat or ride around to the ford at Dights Falls so in 1846 he installed a punt south of Johnston Street where the river banks were lower. The punt cut off six miles from the route between Melbourne and Kew.
In 1852 the government purchased Hodgson’s land east of the river together with a house for 2500 pounds. They intended to use the site for police barracks but Governor La Trobe was so taken with the area that he decided it would be an ideal site for Government House and started laying out a garden. Later the Government reserved the land for a park.
John Hodgson purchased a block east of Studley Park for a home. His first wife had died and in January 1859 John, now Sir John, married Isabella Clipperton. The couple planned a new house, naming it “Studley House, but Sir John did not have long to enjoy living there for he died in August 1860. Studley House was later enlarged by John Wren and is now part of Xavier Preparatory School. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p85)
Sir John Hodgson had a distinguished career during the short time he lived in Melbourne. He was a successful merchant, Mayor of Melbourne in 1853-4, major in the Melbourne Voluntary Rifle Corp, foundation member of the Victorian Society of Arts and member of the Legislative Council. He received the honour of being the first peer to be appointed in Melbourne.
John Hodgson suggested the bridge be constructed to replace his punt that crossed the river. In 1857 a private company erected a foot bridge close to the site of the punt, it connected Victoria Street at Church Street with a track to Kew, saving a mile for the people of Boroondara when walking to Melbourne. The bridge cost the company nine thousand pounds. It was a long bridge, built of timber, 485 feet from the high bank on the north to the low land on the south and 125 feet over the river. Three arches over the river sat on timber piles. Although named the Studley Park Bridge, the locals, because of the toll, referred to it as the Penny Bridge. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
The same year the government constructed the first Johnston Street Bridge at a cost of 30,000 pounds. The Age newspaper described it as, “A neat commodious structure.” A graceful arched timber span supported the road deck 180 foot in length and constructed of laminated timber. Sixteen planks were bolted together and joined with white lead and sand. (Source: James Bonwick - A Sketch of Boroondara) On the east, a cutting had to be made on the approach as the land rose in a steep hill. At the side the river had cut a deep channel so high bluestone abutments were laid to support the span. (These can still be seen on the north bank.) During the flood of 1863 the arch moved leaving the bridge unsafe. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
Around the bend from Johnston Street, Dight’s mill had been providing a market for the wheat grown on local farms, it’s large mill stone produced flour from their corn. In the 1850’s, fire destroyed the building. F. M. White, who had experience with mill design, reconstructed Dight’s mill and enlarged the building. Unfortunately the water flow was often insufficient so machinery for steam operation was ordered from England. This was lost at sea. In the 1870’s Dights Mill closed down and was abandoned. (Source: Paul van der Sluys - Dights Flour Mills)
From Fairfield in the north to below Studley Park the Yarra turns from flowing west to follow a southerly course in a convoluted series of close bends. As the river changes direction it encloses an area that is now called “Yarra Bend”. In the 1850’s while the land surrounding the river near Melbourne was becoming more populated, Yarra Bend was still unoccupied bushland except for a corner near Fairfield. Here a thick wall with a deep ditch surrounded the Metropolitan Lunatic Asylum.
The Illustrated Australian News described the asylum after it was opened in 1848; “The prospect from the south bank (Studley Park) is perhaps the most attractive to be found in Melbourne. Seen in the distance the Asylum below, with its picturesque buildings, present the appearance of a village seen in early morning before the `little’ life has begun to show itself.”
Annie Baxter wrote in her diary a description of a visit to the Insane Asylum in 1855. “Mr. Vernon and I walked to Yarra Bend asylum.--- On reaching the river I coo-eed to a man I saw going up the bank, and he brought the punt across for us: of course I thought he was a lunatic, he was not, and was, like ourselves, a stranger to the place. --- We soon found Dr. Allan, and he then came with us, we saw the hospital this time. The patients were on water beds, which were novelties to me. One poor fellow had four years in beds, and yet when the doctor moved him about on the bed, and told him he would pinch his toe, he positivley got up a laugh! Is this not a lesson to me with my peevish temper.--- When we got to the female quarters there was a woman who took a great fancy to Mr. Vernon, and said `I say, if you go in there, all the women will have you’. A pleasing reflextion for a young man of sound principles? We put ourselves across the punt, and the river looked so beautifully calm.” (Source: A Face in the Glass - Lucy Frost p274)
✸✸✸✸✸
On Saturday 10th March 1855 a group of farmers met at the Upper Yarra Hotel at Templestowe. They had come to hear Mr. Wakey tell them about his scheme to build a bridge over the Yarra. The idea of a bridge at Templestowe was exciting, then there were only two bridges over the length of the river, the nearest at Hawthorn. Mr. Wakey eloquently outlined the project comparing the financial success of the punt at Heidelberg with the profits to be gained by investing in a toll bridge. He concluded by emphasizing the benefits to the surrounding districts and prophesied that the shares would double in three months. When the meeting ended the farmers rushed to purchase shares. Further meetings took place at the Old England Hotel in Heidelberg and the Fountain of Friendship at Eltham (Source: The Argus - 16 Mar1855) provided enough finance to commence building.
In August Mr. Wakey stood on the river bank, behind the Upper Yarra Hotel, and called on Mr. John Hodgson M.L.C. to lay the foundation stone of the new bridge. Before the ceremony Wekey had made a long speech praising the virtue of what he called “The Principle of Association and Co-operation” and said that it would be called “The Peoples Bridge”. After the ceremony the invited guests retired to Mr. Bells Upper Yarra Hotel for a sumptuous repast. Here they dined and enthusiastically drank a toast to their bridge, little knowing that eight years later a flood would wash it away.
Late in 1858 work started on a bridge farther down stream at Banksia Street where the punt operated. Solid bluestone piers grew up on either bank; then the was a shortage of money and work stopped. The government placed a temporary footbridge, wide enough to ride a horse across, on the foundations. Two years later they completed the bridge.
At the approach to the river a narrow curving road crossed flat swampy land. Earth taken from a cutting in Lower Heidelberg Road was dumped on the new road to make a dry causeway leading to the bridge. Teams of men swinging picks and shovels cut away a hill on Heidelberg Road, while a continuous line of drays carried earth to the causeway. There, as they tipped the loads the horses hooves trampled the clay, packing it firm, making a solid roadway.
The people of Bulleen were proud of their new bridge but twelve years later serious problems had developed. (Source: PRO) After being battered by floods, that often engulfed it, the roadway of the bridge had sunk and become dangerous. The whole span had to be dismantled and a new deck constructed. This meant that there was no other crossing between Johnston Street and Healesville so a temporary low level bridge was built till Banksia street Bridge was finished. At last the people had a bridge that would serve them for the next ninety years
In the two decades after 1851 many new bridges spanned the Yarra. The first upstream from the town was the Botanical Bridge. When Superintendent LaTrobe set aside the site for the gardens he also proposed that land between the Yarra and Flinders Street be a park. He suggested that a road follow the river to connect with a footbridge at Anderson Street to give the people of Melbourne access to the Botanical Gardens. (Source: R. H. S.V. Journal Dec 1932. r. W. A. Sanderson) In the 1850s an iron footbridge was built but the road was not made instead another road led from Wellington Parade over the railway line to the footbridge. Baron Von Mueler found the footbridge useful for he had been given temporary administration of Acclimatisation Society Gardens across the river. . In 1857 the Society occupied a reserve north of the Yarra where they set up a zoological gardens to care for and preserve animals from the northern hemisphere. The Zoo was formed with aim to, “Bring the sweet sounds and sights of England to the silence of this barren land. (Source: Prescott - The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne p43) Later the Society considered the site too cold and swampy. The Society had now become a Zoological Society. Five years later the Zoo was moved to Royal Park The site was then given to the Friendly Societies. for a picnic ground.
Cremorne Gardens but when he sold it in 1863 he only received 4.500 pounds.
The Upper Yarra Steamboat Gondola Company built the “Gondola” in 1854. It was sixty feet long with a beam of twelve feet and carried two hundred passengers. They could sit forward, in an open well protected with an awning or enjoy The people of Melbourne enjoying a new prosperity after the gold discoveries looked for entertainment, within easy reach of the town. They had the Botanical gardens only a short boat trip up the Yarra and also the Zoo. and another attraction lay on the left bank of the Yarra alongside the site of the future railway bridge at Richmond, here James Ellis established an extravagant pleasure garden. He based the venture on the Cremorne Gardens in London, where he had worked, and used the same name “The Cremorne Gardens” The project was too ambitious for his capital and Ellis soon became bankrupt. In 1856 he sold the Gardens to George Coppin the great theatrical entrepreneur. (Source: Alec Boys - Coppin the Great)
“Cremorne Gardens” was a great success in that it was well patronised, however Coppin found the area a bottomless pit for his fortunes. The gardens contained a lavish collections of entertainments. There was the Pantheon theatre, a zoo with lions monkeys and camels, a maze, tropical gardens, a lake, a hotel and restaurants. Coppin held sumptuous feasts, champagne parties and extravagant shows such as the re-enactment of the Battle of Sebastapol. Crowds flocked to Cremorne Gardens. They came on the river where a steamboat the “Gondola” ran a service from Princes Bridge to the Cremorne landing or by train,.The railways company extended the railway line from Richmond and built a station for Cremorne. Over five thousand visitors came on New Years day and Coppin took 524 pounds, but the costs were too high. Coppin had paid 41,500 pounds for the shelter of a closed cabin at the stern. A crew of five ran the boat with its two engines that developed fourteen horsepower, driving the eight foot paddle wheels. (Source: Victorian Historical Journal Vol. 51)
The Melbourne and Suburban Company extended the railway, that ended at Cremorne station, across the river to connect with the railway from St.Kilda to Brighton. John Bourne built a railway bridge for the line using iron from England. He used one large arch to span the centre of the river. The bridge was tested with a train load of 112 tons. (Source: Leo J. Harrigan - Victorian Railways to 62) A short distance upstream from the rail line in 1858 a road bridge connected Church and Chapel Streets. The government had obtained a prefabricated bridge from the Imperial Army intended for the Crimean War, but the war ended before it was delivered. Half of the bridge was placed across the Yarra and the other section over the Barwon River at Geelong.
In Melbourne interest in horticulture was increasing. In 1863 the Victorian Horticultural Society opened an experimental garden on the banks of the Yarra at Richmond. The Society helped the propagation of many new varieties of plants and trees. Growers sent new varieties to Burnley where the Society grew them and if successful, registered the variety and its name. They also tested imported plants to determine their suitability for Australian conditions. (Source: John Patrick - Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria)
The Yarra impeded access to the farming community in the Kew and Hawthorn areas, for the river, after flowing in a westerly direction as far as Dights Falls, swung south and went in a series of wild loops down between Abottsford and Kew, then between Hawthorn and Richmond as far as Burnley. Along the way the river cut across the lines of communication between Melbourne and the desirable high fertile country to the east. To overcome this barrier enterprising men installed ferries and punts and during the 1850’s and 60’s the government arranged the construction of the first bridges in this section of the river.
Dr. James Palmer, medical practitioner and politician, came to Melbourne in 1842. Palmer was an Englishman born in 1803 in the town of Great Torrington in Devon. He studied medicine and became a house surgeon at St. Georges Hospital. Although Palmer had practiced in London and was elected a fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society he was unable to obtain a surgical appointment so in 1840 he and his wife Isabella migrated to Sydney. Two years later they came to Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 5 p392)
The Palmers built a home at Richmond alongside the Yarra at Bridge Road. James started business as a cordial manufacturer and wine merchant, he also invested in land at Kew. At that time speculators were offering land to settlers on the high land across the river. Palmer saw that with the future settlers and the many wood carters moving east of the river a crossing looked like a good business proposition particularly with the high fare of fourshillings and sixpence. He installed a punt connecting Richmond to Hawthorn and built a hut for the tollkeeper. He placed his punt just north of the present Hawthorn bridge and engaged Patrick Trainor, the man who later opened the White Horse Hotel at Box Hill, to run the punt. Soon many people where travelling over the river and the call, Punt Ahoy! often echoed across the water. (Source: Gwen McWilliam - Hawthorne Peppercorns)
Palmer had a distinguished career in Melbourne; Mayor of the city in 1845, elected to represent Port Phillip District in Legislative Council of NSW, first Speaker of the old Legislative Council, President of new Legislative Council and knighted in 1857. In local affairs Palmer took an active part in forming the Public Library, the Melbourne Hospital, the University and took an interest in education. Palmer purchased land from the river to Power Street in the 1840’s and during the prosperous years after the gold rushes built a large bluestone house called “Burwood Hill”. Palmer died in 1871 and his land was subdivided, his home, now in Coppin Grove is called Invergowrie and Palmer’s wife is remembered by Isabella Street.
Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds. A wise move as it was not long before Palmer’s punt was replaced by the first Hawthorn Bridge built in 1854. Built of timber it was adequate when the river ran quietly but the first flood weakened the bridge. Bonwick wrote that it “had to be tied, repaired and secured.” The bridge was tied to trees with chains to prevent it from being washed away. During the ten years till it was replaced, a toll gate on the bridge collected thirty two thousand pounds. The toll was not charged to clergymen, politicians, soldiers and policemen in uniform, churchgoers, people attending funerals and men carting manure. A rather strange assortment of people.
Work started on the foundations for a new Hawthorn bridge. It stood on thick blue stone piers with a span of 110 feet over the river and was a desk type lattice truss iron bridge. It was opened in 1861 at a cost of 37.000 pounds. The next year gas lights were installed on the bridge, but to save money they were not lit on moonlight nights, actually the moonlight would have been brighter than the gas lamps. The builders did their job well for it was to remain on its solid foundations, although widened at times, and become todays oldest bridge on the Yarra and also one of the oldest metal truss bridges in Australia.
In the late 1850’s investors were forming railway companies. The Melbourne and suburban Railway company planned a line to Brighton with a branch from Richmond to Hawthorn. In 1858 the Governor performed the ceremony of turning the first turf for the Hawthorn line, to be followed by a banquet. A disgraceful event then took place. As soon as the Governor and official guests left, the crowd of onlookers mobbed the banquet eating drinking and smashing everything.” (Source: Hawthorn Historical Society - Steam into Hawthorn; Edmund Finn - The Chronicles of Early Melbourne p38)
In 1859 engineers started work on the Hawthorn railway bridge, designed to carry a single track across the Yarra,. Bluestone abutments were built and iron was ordered from overseas but the ship carrying the materials sank. The rail line was laid up to the river bank waiting for the bridge and a temporarily timber platform built. They called the station “Pic-Nic”. Passengers travelling to Hawthorn could walk across the road bridge. Soon sightseers came on the train for an outing and stayed for a picnic in the attractive bush surroundings. First the builders constructed a timber framework to hold the steel latticework while they rivetted it together. In 1861 steam trains rolled over the bridge.
On the west of the Yarra near Johnston Street John Hodgson installed a punt in 1846. Hodgson, a Yorkshireman, arrived in Melbourne in 1837 full of enthusiasm to start a new life as a merchant in this new country. John with his wife Annie and family lived in Flinders Street where they built a three story house. In those early years the building was looked on as a giant and people called it “Hodgson’s Folly”.
His first public venture in 1839 was the punt on the river near Swanston Street. Soon he saw an opportunity in the expanding settlement of investing in land. At Collingwood Hodgson bought land for a farm and in 1842 built a house, “St Heliers”. Across the river he saw attractive high land and purchased a block of 150 acres there to add to his farm. The land is now Studley Park.
Hodgson had two farms divided by the Yarra. He could cross by boat or ride around to the ford at Dights Falls so in 1846 he installed a punt south of Johnston Street where the river banks were lower. The punt cut off six miles from the route between Melbourne and Kew.
In 1852 the government purchased Hodgson’s land east of the river together with a house for 2500 pounds. They intended to use the site for police barracks but Governor La Trobe was so taken with the area that he decided it would be an ideal site for Government House and started laying out a garden. Later the Government reserved the land for a park.
John Hodgson purchased a block east of Studley Park for a home. His first wife had died and in January 1859 John, now Sir John, married Isabella Clipperton. The couple planned a new house, naming it “Studley House, but Sir John did not have long to enjoy living there for he died in August 1860. Studley House was later enlarged by John Wren and is now part of Xavier Preparatory School. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p85)
Sir John Hodgson had a distinguished career during the short time he lived in Melbourne. He was a successful merchant, Mayor of Melbourne in 1853-4, major in the Melbourne Voluntary Rifle Corp, foundation member of the Victorian Society of Arts and member of the Legislative Council. He received the honour of being the first peer to be appointed in Melbourne.
John Hodgson suggested the bridge be constructed to replace his punt that crossed the river. In 1857 a private company erected a foot bridge close to the site of the punt, it connected Victoria Street at Church Street with a track to Kew, saving a mile for the people of Boroondara when walking to Melbourne. The bridge cost the company nine thousand pounds. It was a long bridge, built of timber, 485 feet from the high bank on the north to the low land on the south and 125 feet over the river. Three arches over the river sat on timber piles. Although named the Studley Park Bridge, the locals, because of the toll, referred to it as the Penny Bridge. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
The same year the government constructed the first Johnston Street Bridge at a cost of 30,000 pounds. The Age newspaper described it as, “A neat commodious structure.” A graceful arched timber span supported the road deck 180 foot in length and constructed of laminated timber. Sixteen planks were bolted together and joined with white lead and sand. (Source: James Bonwick - A Sketch of Boroondara) On the east, a cutting had to be made on the approach as the land rose in a steep hill. At the side the river had cut a deep channel so high bluestone abutments were laid to support the span. (These can still be seen on the north bank.) During the flood of 1863 the arch moved leaving the bridge unsafe. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
Around the bend from Johnston Street, Dight’s mill had been providing a market for the wheat grown on local farms, it’s large mill stone produced flour from their corn. In the 1850’s, fire destroyed the building. F. M. White, who had experience with mill design, reconstructed Dight’s mill and enlarged the building. Unfortunately the water flow was often insufficient so machinery for steam operation was ordered from England. This was lost at sea. In the 1870’s Dights Mill closed down and was abandoned. (Source: Paul van der Sluys - Dights Flour Mills)
From Fairfield in the north to below Studley Park the Yarra turns from flowing west to follow a southerly course in a convoluted series of close bends. As the river changes direction it encloses an area that is now called “Yarra Bend”. In the 1850’s while the land surrounding the river near Melbourne was becoming more populated, Yarra Bend was still unoccupied bushland except for a corner near Fairfield. Here a thick wall with a deep ditch surrounded the Metropolitan Lunatic Asylum.
The Illustrated Australian News described the asylum after it was opened in 1848; “The prospect from the south bank (Studley Park) is perhaps the most attractive to be found in Melbourne. Seen in the distance the Asylum below, with its picturesque buildings, present the appearance of a village seen in early morning before the `little’ life has begun to show itself.”
Annie Baxter wrote in her diary a description of a visit to the Insane Asylum in 1855. “Mr. Vernon and I walked to Yarra Bend asylum.--- On reaching the river I coo-eed to a man I saw going up the bank, and he brought the punt across for us: of course I thought he was a lunatic, he was not, and was, like ourselves, a stranger to the place. --- We soon found Dr. Allan, and he then came with us, we saw the hospital this time. The patients were on water beds, which were novelties to me. One poor fellow had four years in beds, and yet when the doctor moved him about on the bed, and told him he would pinch his toe, he positivley got up a laugh! Is this not a lesson to me with my peevish temper.--- When we got to the female quarters there was a woman who took a great fancy to Mr. Vernon, and said `I say, if you go in there, all the women will have you’. A pleasing reflextion for a young man of sound principles? We put ourselves across the punt, and the river looked so beautifully calm.” (Source: A Face in the Glass - Lucy Frost p274)
✸✸✸✸✸
On Saturday 10th March 1855 a group of farmers met at the Upper Yarra Hotel at Templestowe. They had come to hear Mr. Wakey tell them about his scheme to build a bridge over the Yarra. The idea of a bridge at Templestowe was exciting, then there were only two bridges over the length of the river, the nearest at Hawthorn. Mr. Wakey eloquently outlined the project comparing the financial success of the punt at Heidelberg with the profits to be gained by investing in a toll bridge. He concluded by emphasizing the benefits to the surrounding districts and prophesied that the shares would double in three months. When the meeting ended the farmers rushed to purchase shares. Further meetings took place at the Old England Hotel in Heidelberg and the Fountain of Friendship at Eltham (Source: The Argus - 16 Mar1855) provided enough finance to commence building.
In August Mr. Wakey stood on the river bank, behind the Upper Yarra Hotel, and called on Mr. John Hodgson M.L.C. to lay the foundation stone of the new bridge. Before the ceremony Wekey had made a long speech praising the virtue of what he called “The Principle of Association and Co-operation” and said that it would be called “The Peoples Bridge”. After the ceremony the invited guests retired to Mr. Bells Upper Yarra Hotel for a sumptuous repast. Here they dined and enthusiastically drank a toast to their bridge, little knowing that eight years later a flood would wash it away.
Late in 1858 work started on a bridge farther down stream at Banksia Street where the punt operated. Solid bluestone piers grew up on either bank; then the was a shortage of money and work stopped. The government placed a temporary footbridge, wide enough to ride a horse across, on the foundations. Two years later they completed the bridge.
At the approach to the river a narrow curving road crossed flat swampy land. Earth taken from a cutting in Lower Heidelberg Road was dumped on the new road to make a dry causeway leading to the bridge. Teams of men swinging picks and shovels cut away a hill on Heidelberg Road, while a continuous line of drays carried earth to the causeway. There, as they tipped the loads the horses hooves trampled the clay, packing it firm, making a solid roadway.
The people of Bulleen were proud of their new bridge but twelve years later serious problems had developed. (Source: PRO) After being battered by floods, that often engulfed it, the roadway of the bridge had sunk and become dangerous. The whole span had to be dismantled and a new deck constructed. This meant that there was no other crossing between Johnston Street and Healesville so a temporary low level bridge was built till Banksia street Bridge was finished. At last the people had a bridge that would serve them for the next ninety years
XXXXX
The first boats on the Yarra were used to cross the river or for other utilitarian purpose but by the 1850’s people had begun to use the river for recreation. They rowed their own boats or hired dinghy and river boats from boat sheds. There was Fuller who built a boat shed on the north bank in 1853, James Edwards on the south bank where the rowing club boat sheds now stand and Greenlands who opened his boat shed on the south bank below the bridge. Later Edwards moved to the north bank. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing p35)
The watermen who operated the punts and ferries on the Yarra formed a group and organised rowing contests on the river. Soon rowing clubs were formed. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing) Martin Henry Irvine an amateur rowing enthusiast arrived in Melbourne in 1856. He had rowed at Oxford in the Balliol eight and joined the University of Melbourne where he was Professor of Classical and Comparative Philology. Irvine was a large athletic man with a generous expression, his enthusiasm inspired confidence and in 1859 he formed the University Boating Club, the next year he organised the Melbourne Amateur Regatta. Martin Irving was called the father of amateur rowing in Australia. (Australian Dictionary Of Biography Vol. 4 p463)
The first boats on the Yarra were used to cross the river or for other utilitarian purpose but by the 1850’s people had begun to use the river for recreation. They rowed their own boats or hired dinghy and river boats from boat sheds. There was Fuller who built a boat shed on the north bank in 1853, James Edwards on the south bank where the rowing club boat sheds now stand and Greenlands who opened his boat shed on the south bank below the bridge. Later Edwards moved to the north bank. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing p35)
The watermen who operated the punts and ferries on the Yarra formed a group and organised rowing contests on the river. Soon rowing clubs were formed. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing) Martin Henry Irvine an amateur rowing enthusiast arrived in Melbourne in 1856. He had rowed at Oxford in the Balliol eight and joined the University of Melbourne where he was Professor of Classical and Comparative Philology. Irvine was a large athletic man with a generous expression, his enthusiasm inspired confidence and in 1859 he formed the University Boating Club, the next year he organised the Melbourne Amateur Regatta. Martin Irving was called the father of amateur rowing in Australia. (Australian Dictionary Of Biography Vol. 4 p463)
Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College both took up rowing as a school sport. In 1868 Scotch College challenged Melbourne Grammar School to a boat race on the Yarra. It was the first “Head of the River”.The crews rowed in four oar, wide practice boats with fixed seats, the rowlocks being on the sides of the boat. (Source: John Laing - Victorian Oarsmen - 17 Apr 1926)
Members of the government departments combined to opened the Civil Service Rowing Club, then a few years later the club was reorganised as the Melbourne Rowing Club. (Source: The Melbourne Oarsman 1926) Many officers of Melbourne’s banks had taken up rowing as a recreation so in 1866 they formed the Banks Rowing Club. The club arranged with Edwards to use his boat shed at Princes Bridge at first they hired boats and had the use of the shed’s facilities. In April 1867 the Banks Club made their first entry in the Melbourne Regatta on the Lower Yarra. (Source: The Etruscan - Dec. 1970)
The first regatta course was on the Upper Yarra from Princes Bridge to the Botanic Bridge, a distance of one and a quarter miles. Rowers found the course unsatisfactory for the river was only wide enough for two boats alongside each other and bends in the river caused difficulties for the cox. Often boats or oars would hit the banks. Baron Von Mueller had planted indigenous trees and willows on the river banks. That was before the time when rowing attracted spectators. Now these had grown and prevented the public from seeing the races on the river. (Source: The Victorian Rowing Register 1978 M.S. Glynn) Clubs now preferred to hold boat races on the lower Yarra course.
A river through a city is an obvious place for the sport cf rowing. To use the river boats and rowing are needed and people who row like to test their skill. Virgil in his Aenid lauded rowing:
The Waiting crews are crowned with poplar wreath,
Their naked shoulders glistern, moist with oil,
Ranged in a row, their arms stretched to the oars,
All tense the starting signal they await,
Together at the trumpets thrilling blast,
Their bent arms churn the water into foam.
XXXXX
During the 1860s Melbourne had forgotten the excitement of the gold rush years and the City had become a busy prosperous place. Trade increased and increased activity on the Yarra for the river brought trade to the city. The bed of the river had been dredged so that vessels of drawing thirteen feet were able to come up to Cole’s, Raleigh’s, Queens and the Australian wharves. Along the north bank of the river there were cement, lime, timber and coal yards, while on the south bank firms had set up manufacturies, engineering workshops and ship yards. (Source: Footnote Bailliers - The Victorian Gazetteer - 1865 Yarra Yarra)
At Richmond the Yarra flowed between; a growing suburb of small homes that housed the workers and servants, and the large homes on the south of the river. The timbered slopes descending to the Yarra on this side were a natural attraction to sucessful merchants and professional men of Melbourne. Half a mile upstream from the Richmond bridge John Brown, an architect, purchased Como, a block of land, with a small house on it, that stretched from Toorak Road down to the Yarra.
The first owner of the property had named Como because a billabong near the river reminded him of Lake Como in Italy. Brown set about transforming Como into a grand mansion surrounded by fine gardens as a home for extravagant hospitality. He built the main part of the present house and added wrought iron railings and entrance gates with a brick lodge to increase its splendour. In the 1860s Brown suffered serious business losses and was forced to sell the mansion. The Armitage family, with all their wealth, became the new owner in 1864.
XXXXX
After more than a decade without a flood on the Yarra, people had forgotten the risks of being close to the water, also most of the population had come to live here after last floods. To them a flood was unknown. During November 1863 incessant rain fell for several months and December looked as though it would be as cold as an English Christmas. Then on Sunday 16th. December, high winds lashed Melbourne and all night heavy rain poured down. It fell on land that was already saturated, so the water ran down the hills and valleys into streams that fed the Yarra. All Monday the rain continued turning the river into a raging torrent, and brought the worst flood Melbourne has experienced. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863)
Rushing water with floating logs swept away all in its path. The Warrandyte bridge was carried off in a mass of wreckage. Only approaches remained, leading to an empty space. The toll bridge at Templestowe disappeared and with it the hopes of the bridge company. The flood rushed on spreading out across fertile farmland and gouged out newly grown vegetables.
At Heidelberg and Bulleen the water rose to fifty feet.(Source: Westgarth) James Graham looked down from Banyule to an inland sea where once the Yarra gently wound through peaceful river flats. As the river rose, water banked back along the creeks and valleys leading to the Yarra, engulfing more houses forcing more people to abandon their homes. At Koonung Creek water crept up the walls of Mrs. Duncan’s wattle and daub hut, the family grabbed what possessions they could and took refuge with their relations on higher ground.
Others not so fortunate, had no shelter and nowhere to go. They were left in the open with only a few wet belongings. The waters carried on through Kew and spread over the flat country swamping houses up to their roofs, leaving more people homeless. Logs carried by the flood battered the supports of bridges and the moved the new Johnston Street Bridge on its foundations leaving it dangerous.
On Wednesday, news of the thousands of homeless people facing ruin and misery along the Yarra, was reported in Melbourne. Public meetings were held, committees formed, funds raised, and temporary accommodation found for those in need of shelter
As the waters rose in Melbourne an exceptionally high tide, driven by strong south winds, blocked the rushing water. For several days the river continued to rise. By Thursday the low land around Melbourne was under water that rose up around the buildings. Flinders Lane had to be abandoned from Queen Street to Spencer Street. In the City people stood on the dry ground and looked in amazement at South Melbourne where a vast lake spread across to Emerald Hill. The course of the river could only be seen by a stream of rapid water carrying sheep, trees and remains of houses. Hundreds of snakes, coiled around branches, were swept out into the bay. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863) By the weekend the water began to fall leaving a picture of utter desolation and misery all along the course of the river. Farmers moved back to survey the damage and count their remaining livestock. They were depressed by the sight when they entered their homes. Bedding and clothing had vanished, these were the first things to have been washed out the windows; mud and slime coated everything. It was sickening. Farmers were left with no crops and often no cattle and no houses.
After more than a decade without a flood on the Yarra, people had forgotten the risks of being close to the water, also most of the population had come to live here after last floods. To them a flood was unknown. During November 1863 incessant rain fell for several months and December looked as though it would be as cold as an English Christmas. Then on Sunday 16th. December, high winds lashed Melbourne and all night heavy rain poured down. It fell on land that was already saturated, so the water ran down the hills and valleys into streams that fed the Yarra. All Monday the rain continued turning the river into a raging torrent, and brought the worst flood Melbourne has experienced. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863)
Rushing water with floating logs swept away all in its path. The Warrandyte bridge was carried off in a mass of wreckage. Only approaches remained, leading to an empty space. The toll bridge at Templestowe disappeared and with it the hopes of the bridge company. The flood rushed on spreading out across fertile farmland and gouged out newly grown vegetables.
At Heidelberg and Bulleen the water rose to fifty feet.(Source: Westgarth) James Graham looked down from Banyule to an inland sea where once the Yarra gently wound through peaceful river flats. As the river rose, water banked back along the creeks and valleys leading to the Yarra, engulfing more houses forcing more people to abandon their homes. At Koonung Creek water crept up the walls of Mrs. Duncan’s wattle and daub hut, the family grabbed what possessions they could and took refuge with their relations on higher ground.
Others not so fortunate, had no shelter and nowhere to go. They were left in the open with only a few wet belongings. The waters carried on through Kew and spread over the flat country swamping houses up to their roofs, leaving more people homeless. Logs carried by the flood battered the supports of bridges and the moved the new Johnston Street Bridge on its foundations leaving it dangerous.
On Wednesday, news of the thousands of homeless people facing ruin and misery along the Yarra, was reported in Melbourne. Public meetings were held, committees formed, funds raised, and temporary accommodation found for those in need of shelter
As the waters rose in Melbourne an exceptionally high tide, driven by strong south winds, blocked the rushing water. For several days the river continued to rise. By Thursday the low land around Melbourne was under water that rose up around the buildings. Flinders Lane had to be abandoned from Queen Street to Spencer Street. In the City people stood on the dry ground and looked in amazement at South Melbourne where a vast lake spread across to Emerald Hill. The course of the river could only be seen by a stream of rapid water carrying sheep, trees and remains of houses. Hundreds of snakes, coiled around branches, were swept out into the bay. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863) By the weekend the water began to fall leaving a picture of utter desolation and misery all along the course of the river. Farmers moved back to survey the damage and count their remaining livestock. They were depressed by the sight when they entered their homes. Bedding and clothing had vanished, these were the first things to have been washed out the windows; mud and slime coated everything. It was sickening. Farmers were left with no crops and often no cattle and no houses.
James Graham, the business agent and caretaker for Banyule, worried about his tenant farmers. (Source: Isaac Selby - A Memorial History of Melbourne) The high prices they had received at the time of the gold rushes had ended leaving them struggling to pay expenses. The owner, absent in England, and unaware of the situation, still demanded a high rent that they would now be unable to pay.
The cleanup started and the after effects of the flood were discovered. Bedding and clothing had washed out of the houses and the floors and walls were coated with mud but there were some unusual results: at Deep Creek, Jim Knee climbed up a tree to rescue his fowls who had sheltered in the branches, (Source: Footnote Alice Latimer personal communication.) in Koonung Creek James Duncan had to retrieve his mother’s piano, when the flood water had swirled through their small home Mrs. Duncan’s piano had floated out with it and it was now stuck in the creek, as James struggled to free it from the mud he wondered how it would sound, and at Punt Road a householder had to shoot a snake on the roof of his house.
The Yarra, in dry seasons provided water to grow plentiful crops; but at times of flood, ruined these same crops. Often when farmers were enjoying the prospect of a rich harvest, days of heavy rain would fall, then the water rose and spread across the river flats submerging healthy new plants and dashed the prospects of a good harvest. Soon many farmers turned to dairying, running cows to graze on the lush grass along the river flats. Duncan moved his cheese factory to higher land and Laidlaw turned to grazing cattle.
CHAPTER 4 To the Boom then Depression 1865 to 1892
During the 1870’s and 80’s Melbourne became a wealthy growing town. Gold mining was feeding the economy and the economy was producing wealth. This growth brought about changes in the use of the Yarra; increased trade generated the need for better shipping and docking facilities and more wealth gave people the opportunities for more recreation on the Yarra. In the farming lands further up the river fruit growing was taking over the vegetable and berry farms and as land was cleared timber cutters moved to the more remote hills at Warburton.
The Government of Victoria passed two legislative milestones in the life of the Yarra. In 1877, the Melbourne Harbour Trust was formed and in 1881 the frontages along the Yarra and its tributaries were reserved for the crown. (Source: Dr. Colin Leigh, 1991, Yarra River Conference, Board of Workes, Session 3) The reservation on the Yarra was 1.5 chains (30 metres), on its tributaries one chain (20 metres).
In 1860 the Town Clerk, E.G.Fitzgibbon, while speaking to a Royal Commission formed to enquire into shipping accommodation of Hobsons Bay and the Yarra River, suggested that a Trust be formed to control docks and wharfs. The Government only passed the Wharfage Harbour Rate Act. After ten years, figures showed that only half the sum collected had been spent on maintenance and improvements to the wharfs.
The government formed a plan for a Harbour Trust to administer all aspects of shipping; lighthouses, harbours and docks with the responsibility to investigate wrecks, disasters and charges of maritime misconduct. However the ship owners believed that a harbour trust should be separate from marine functions. Then at the end of 1876, Parliament passed the Harbour Trust Bill that became law on 1 February the next year. Fifteen Commissioners were to administer the Trust: shipowners and merchants were to elect three each, the Governor-in-Council three, the City of Melbourne two, Williamstown Emerald Hill, Sandridge and Footscray one each. James Lorimer, the head of a firm of shipping agents, nominated by the Governor, became the first Chairman of the Trust.
The Melbourne Habour Trust was born into the centre of the political argument between Free Traders and protectionists. In the late 1860s the Question of “protection” had became a hot political issue. After the first gold rushes had ended unemployed gold miners returned to the city looking for work. To increase employment, the radical Graham Berry supported by David Syme of the `Age’ Newspaper, had set out his arguments in favour of a high import duty. He said it would provide a legitimate opening for capital, give employment of labour, develop the resources of Victoria and create general contentment consequent on general prosperity. (Source: G.M.H. Clark, Select Documents in Australian History 1851 - 1900, p261-62) Locally manufactured goods were given the protection of a high duty, often 30 or 40 percent. The policy was proved to be successful for in the ten years from 1864 the number of workers in Victorian factories grew from 7000 to 28000. On the other side were the “free traders”; farmers, pastoralists and shipping firms and those who did not have to compete with imported goods. Why should they have to pay higher prices for Australian made goods when they could be imported for less.
The Harbour Trust Commissioners, having the aim to improve shipping, were in the majority “Free traders”. The unfortunate result was that “protectionists” took every opportunity to criticize and attack the Trust.
A letter to the paper in 1880 condemned the Trust as inefficient and wasting public money. This criticism was answered by the achievements of the Trust. The Melbourne Harbour Trust had made more river and port improvements than in the previous ten years and all financed by its own fees and dues without cost to the people. It had built 8,450 feet of wharfage, repaired two miles of roadway, raised 48,000 cubic yards of silt from the river bed, deepened the river by one and a half feet from the bay to the Falls, cleared rocks that had been dangerous to navigation and purchased 80,000 pounds worth of dredging equipment. (Source: Daily Telegraph 1880, 9 January)
In 1877 the Harbour Trust began to widen the Yarra to a width of 300 feet and to construct wharfs and access roads on the south bank. (Source: Arther Woodlea and Bob Botterell, Duke’s and Orr’s Dry Dock, p39) But here a dry dock protruded into the river below Clarendon Street. Captains Sinnott and Hughes had obtained a seven year lease of the land and in 1868 opened the first dry dock on the Yarra. They had dug the dock on a spit of land formed in the 1840s when silt settled against the slipway of a ship building works. They built the dock 250 feet long and 55 feet wide. and could take ships up to 1000 tons. A twenty inch centrifugal pump, built for them by Robinson Brothers, had the ability to empty the dock in two and a half hours.. The steam ship Southern Cross was the first ship to enter the dock. (Source: The Age, 9 Nov 1868)
Four years later when Wright Orr and Co. purchased the dock the Commissioner of Crown Lands promised them a renewal of the lease. This was on land taken over by the Harbour Trust and the lease for the dock had not been renewed, so when the dock owners were asked to move they secured land further back and excavated a new dock away from the area needed for river widening. When this was complete they applied to the Harbour Trust to have the trust’s dredges open the entrance to the new dock. This was approved by the works committee, but Commissioner Reid moved a postponement of the work. It was an unfortunate action as Reid was the owner of a dry dock at Williamstow and Wright, Orr and Company saw it as a competitor using his position to gain an advantage. (Source: Port of Melbourne) The Minister of Land then stepped in and ordered the dredge ‘Alligator`, to clear the opening. The Trust engineers made the mistake of being too hasty in sending workers onto the land to prepare for clearing the site for the old dock was still in use. (Source: Port of Melbourne) The dock owners were upset and their workers forcibly sent the Harbour Trust men off the site.
The Government of Victoria passed two legislative milestones in the life of the Yarra. In 1877, the Melbourne Harbour Trust was formed and in 1881 the frontages along the Yarra and its tributaries were reserved for the crown. (Source: Dr. Colin Leigh, 1991, Yarra River Conference, Board of Workes, Session 3) The reservation on the Yarra was 1.5 chains (30 metres), on its tributaries one chain (20 metres).
In 1860 the Town Clerk, E.G.Fitzgibbon, while speaking to a Royal Commission formed to enquire into shipping accommodation of Hobsons Bay and the Yarra River, suggested that a Trust be formed to control docks and wharfs. The Government only passed the Wharfage Harbour Rate Act. After ten years, figures showed that only half the sum collected had been spent on maintenance and improvements to the wharfs.
The government formed a plan for a Harbour Trust to administer all aspects of shipping; lighthouses, harbours and docks with the responsibility to investigate wrecks, disasters and charges of maritime misconduct. However the ship owners believed that a harbour trust should be separate from marine functions. Then at the end of 1876, Parliament passed the Harbour Trust Bill that became law on 1 February the next year. Fifteen Commissioners were to administer the Trust: shipowners and merchants were to elect three each, the Governor-in-Council three, the City of Melbourne two, Williamstown Emerald Hill, Sandridge and Footscray one each. James Lorimer, the head of a firm of shipping agents, nominated by the Governor, became the first Chairman of the Trust.
The Melbourne Habour Trust was born into the centre of the political argument between Free Traders and protectionists. In the late 1860s the Question of “protection” had became a hot political issue. After the first gold rushes had ended unemployed gold miners returned to the city looking for work. To increase employment, the radical Graham Berry supported by David Syme of the `Age’ Newspaper, had set out his arguments in favour of a high import duty. He said it would provide a legitimate opening for capital, give employment of labour, develop the resources of Victoria and create general contentment consequent on general prosperity. (Source: G.M.H. Clark, Select Documents in Australian History 1851 - 1900, p261-62) Locally manufactured goods were given the protection of a high duty, often 30 or 40 percent. The policy was proved to be successful for in the ten years from 1864 the number of workers in Victorian factories grew from 7000 to 28000. On the other side were the “free traders”; farmers, pastoralists and shipping firms and those who did not have to compete with imported goods. Why should they have to pay higher prices for Australian made goods when they could be imported for less.
The Harbour Trust Commissioners, having the aim to improve shipping, were in the majority “Free traders”. The unfortunate result was that “protectionists” took every opportunity to criticize and attack the Trust.
A letter to the paper in 1880 condemned the Trust as inefficient and wasting public money. This criticism was answered by the achievements of the Trust. The Melbourne Harbour Trust had made more river and port improvements than in the previous ten years and all financed by its own fees and dues without cost to the people. It had built 8,450 feet of wharfage, repaired two miles of roadway, raised 48,000 cubic yards of silt from the river bed, deepened the river by one and a half feet from the bay to the Falls, cleared rocks that had been dangerous to navigation and purchased 80,000 pounds worth of dredging equipment. (Source: Daily Telegraph 1880, 9 January)
In 1877 the Harbour Trust began to widen the Yarra to a width of 300 feet and to construct wharfs and access roads on the south bank. (Source: Arther Woodlea and Bob Botterell, Duke’s and Orr’s Dry Dock, p39) But here a dry dock protruded into the river below Clarendon Street. Captains Sinnott and Hughes had obtained a seven year lease of the land and in 1868 opened the first dry dock on the Yarra. They had dug the dock on a spit of land formed in the 1840s when silt settled against the slipway of a ship building works. They built the dock 250 feet long and 55 feet wide. and could take ships up to 1000 tons. A twenty inch centrifugal pump, built for them by Robinson Brothers, had the ability to empty the dock in two and a half hours.. The steam ship Southern Cross was the first ship to enter the dock. (Source: The Age, 9 Nov 1868)
Four years later when Wright Orr and Co. purchased the dock the Commissioner of Crown Lands promised them a renewal of the lease. This was on land taken over by the Harbour Trust and the lease for the dock had not been renewed, so when the dock owners were asked to move they secured land further back and excavated a new dock away from the area needed for river widening. When this was complete they applied to the Harbour Trust to have the trust’s dredges open the entrance to the new dock. This was approved by the works committee, but Commissioner Reid moved a postponement of the work. It was an unfortunate action as Reid was the owner of a dry dock at Williamstow and Wright, Orr and Company saw it as a competitor using his position to gain an advantage. (Source: Port of Melbourne) The Minister of Land then stepped in and ordered the dredge ‘Alligator`, to clear the opening. The Trust engineers made the mistake of being too hasty in sending workers onto the land to prepare for clearing the site for the old dock was still in use. (Source: Port of Melbourne) The dock owners were upset and their workers forcibly sent the Harbour Trust men off the site.
The `Age’, a strong advocate of “protection” wrote, “The dispute yesterday culminated in a remarkable and disgraceful scene. It was caused by a determination on the employees of the Harbour Trust to take forcible possession of the dock, whilst employees of Messrs Wright and Orr as strenuously opposed the attacking party.” (Source: The Age, 2 Oct 1879) The dock owners asked for police protection and an inspector, a sergeant and four constables were sent to prevent any physical violence.
The dispute deteriorated when the Trust employed divers to cut away the dock fittings under water. Wright and Orr also brought in divers. The action was farcical for the divers were all friends. As soon as the Trust divers attached a chain to the timber the other divers were permitted to undo it. If a dock diver tightened any piece of work he stood aside to let the other loosen it. (Source: The Argus, 15 Nov 1878)
In November the dock owners attempted to make the Harbour Trust liable for the unfulfilled promise of the Crown Lands Department to renew their lease to the land. A liability which the Commissioners were not prepared to grant. (Source: The Argus, 28 Nov 1878) By the end of November the Harbour Trust men had blocked the dock and all work was stopped. The `Argus’ reported that, “The men belonging to the belligerent parties amused themselves by watching each other all day, while the three policemen, who appear to be permanently stationed on the ground, were hard at work watching both parties.”
During a debate on the dock dispute in the Assembly, Mr Berry intimated that the Government would at once consider whether they would interfere in the matter. The Chief Secretary said that if the Trust could not act in a legal and proper manner it would be the decision of the government to deal with the question of the Trusts existence. (Source: The Argus, 28 Nov 1878) In December the Argus reported that a mutual friend had begun negotiations between both parties. The next year there was a change of government and the affair was settled.
Ships had difficulty navigating the winding river from the Port Phillip Bay to the wharfs at Melbourne. The channel was shallow at places, only admitting ships drawing less than thirteen feet of water. In the 1850s James Blackburn had suggested cutting a canal from the Yarra at the docks to the bay at Sandridge (Port Melbourne) a distance of less than a mile. Then in the 1870s, with the growth of trade and the many vessels visiting Melbourne, ship owners and merchants were becoming concerned with the unsatisfactory harbour situation. Large vessels could not come up the Yarra and those that could, took up to six hours to negotiate the river. The idea of a canal was again being considered. The Harbour Trust decided to invite an engineer experienced in harbour design to come to Melbourne and plan improvements to our docks. They selected Sir John Coode a distinguished harbour engineer to visit Melbourne and report on improvements to the port. (Source: Australian Encyclopaedia)
Sir John studied the area with the help of a team of experts, surveyors, engineers and the use of a boring plant. (Source: Port of Melbourne) In April the following year his report was presented and accepted.(Source: The Age, 25 Apr 1879) He found that with a canal from the wharfs direct to the bay there would be a problem keeping a depth of water for navigation and there would not be a sufficient flow of water to scour the channel at the entrance to the cut also during a flood the speed of the current would cause problems with navigation. He would prefer to improve the present course, reducing it from seven and a quarter to six miles distance.
The report stated: Keep the existing track of the river until arriving at Spottswood Point; after cutting away the salient angle at this place it would continue nearly in the present course then cross the flats on the southern side of Fishermans Bend, again entering the Yarra at about a mile below the gas works; thence up to the Falls, the existing Yarra course would be widened to form regular and uniform curves. The depth of the channel should be not less than twenty feet at low water or twentytwo feet at high water. Could be deepened to 25 to 27 feet and 260 feet wide and upper part 300 feet. For prevention of floods, rocks above Princes Bridge and at the Falls to be removed. West Melbourne Swamp to be used for docks. A railway from docks to Spencer Street Station and a horse tram to Flinders Street. Sir John Coode estimated it would take ten years for the work. (Source:The Age, 25 Apr 1879)
The Harbour Trust was unable to start construction of the canal as the land on Fishermans Bend, needed for the canal, was not ceded to the it and the “protectionist” Berry Government refused to give the commissioners formal occupancy.(Source:Daily Telegraph, 9 Jan 1880) When the Berry government was defeated the “free trade” Service government came into power and vested the area to the trust.
The Hamburg Trust accepted the tender of M. Gardiner and Co, to build the canal at a price of 68,059 pounds. A steam shovel, (called a steam navvy) running on rail tracks, dug out the earth tipping it into rail trucks. The waste was used to build up the banks and fill swamp land on Fishermans Bend. As the ground was lowered the rails were relayed on the lower level. Soon a deep ditch spread in a gentle curve for a mile across the flat land of Fishermans Bend. The cut was 300 feet wide and twentytwo feet deep with sloping sides. On the eleventh of September 1887 the Trust Chairman, Mr. O’Grady helped the governor raise the sluices to let water pour into the large ditch, but it took six days to fill. Then the embankment at each end had to be dug and dredged away. In July 1887 ships were sailing through Coode Canal. (Source: Jubilee History of the Melbourne Harbour Trust p??)
As well as his work on the Yarra, Sir John provided reports and planned works in Portland, Geelong, Queensland and West Australia. (Source: Astralian Dictionary of Biography Vol3 p447) Sir John Coode was considered the most distinguished harbour engineer in the 19th century. He had carried out harbour works in many countries and been a member of the International Commission for the Suez Canal. On returning from Melbourne he was elected President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. During the next years the Melbourne Harbour Trust carried out many of the works on the Yarra that had been recommended by Sir John Coode. dredge vivit
A muddy swamp covered a large area of land at West Melbourne; it was here that Sir John Coode had recommended that a large dock be constructed and in 1883 the Harbour Trust prepared to construct Victoria Dock on the site.
The Trust engineer, John Brady, who was planning the work, advised the Trust that the walls of the dock, would be better built of timber than concrete as Coode had recommended. Concrete would be expensive and difficult to construct. By using timber the Trust could start the work straight away but if concrete were to be used would have to wait for more finance. Coode not being aware of the durability of Australian timber expected that timber walls would only last for twenty years. Australian Timber could be expected to have a life of over fifty years. (Source: Jubilee History of the Melbourne Harbour Trust. p76)
In 1889, the swamp was drained and the contractors started to dig out the dry land. They removed over three million cubic yards of earth and used it to fill low land alongside the dock and part of the old course of the Yarra. Soon they had dug a hole in the ground twenty feet deep covering nearly one hundred acres. The hole was surrounded by timber walls with timber decking and on the south, wharf sheds had been built. (Source: Melbourne Harbour Trust, Plan of River Yarra and Victoria Dock) In March 1992 the Governor, the Earl of Hopetoun, turned on the sluices to fill the dock, because of the large area it also took six days to fill. Completion of Victoria Dock was an achievement for the Harbour Trust. It had cost 672,000 pounds and provided an extra 9,000 feet of wharf space. Mr.B. Hoare, the historian of the Harbour Trust said about Victoria Dock: “There in the centre of what had been an all but impassable swamp, was a noble mass of water, ready for the reception of any species of vessel.”
During the 1850s and 60s the Yarra from Princes Bridge to the Botanic Bridge became an aquatic playground for Melbourne. It was within a short walk from the town where a network of horse buses brought people from the suburbs. They came to the river to enjoy activities such as, boating, rowing, afternoon tea in the tea gardens or just relaxing under the gum trees on the banks of the river.
On Sundays visitors relaxing after their weeks work, walked along the river bank and crowded the miniature zoo alongside the picturesque refreshment rooms at Branders Ferry. Many sat at small tables under the shade of gum trees with a glass of wine or cup of coffee while they watched activities on the river. On a fine sunny day the water flowed under a smooth surface that reflected the trees on the far bank, then as a boat passed the reflections broke up in shattered patterns to settle back again.
At the weekend the Yarra was always active, outrigger racing boats rowed by, their crews swinging in a steady rhythm, or a Thames river boat, the orsman showing his skill, while his lady relaxed against cushions in the stern, holding a parasol to protect her from the sun, or boat loads of happy young people, the men energetically rowing while the ladies in colourful costumes laughed happily as they enjoyed the day. (Source: Australian Sketcher 17 Jan 1883)
The Australian Sktcher in October 1874 the captions for a page of illustrations described sections of the river near Botanic Bridge. It would be difficult to fine a prettier sight than at the Botanic Bridge on regatta day and the remarkable beauty of the spot (Baths Corner0 between the bridges. Here scrowds of runners go swaying and endaevouring to to reach the bridge to see the the winners.
In these decades, with the formation of the Victorian Rowing Association, rowing clubs and boat races were firmly established. The Association drew up a set of regulations and organised a regatta; races were to be for amateurs only, watermen, boat builders and owners of boat sheds were not accepted. Professional watermen ran their own rowing events. Twenty rowing clubs joined the Association. from Melbourne, Albert Park, Geelong, Richmond, Williamstown and Ballarat.
The new organisation decided to hold races on the Lower Yarra. The course was one and a half miles from near the Stoney Creek to a reserve at the sugar works. After the first half mile the course ran along the old course of the Yarra. In later years the Yarra flowed through Coode Canal then this stretch of river became Maribynong River. With eight oar races, the course was two miles, starting further down stream. Club races were also held at Ballarat and Albert Park Lake. (Source: The Victorian Rowing Register 1878. M.S. Glyn) The first Annual Regatta in April 1871 attracted great interest. The Governor. the Mayor and members of Parliament attended, and the regatta became a gala event with thousands of spectators flocking to the Yarra bank. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing”)
Another rowing club was formed the nexr year. A group of business firms in Melbourne: Alston and Brown, Robertson and Moffat, Buckley and Nunn, Mowbray, Rowan and Hicks decided to close business at 2p.m. on Saturday afternoons,. To enjoy their free afternoon, members of these firms formed a rowing Club. They called called it the Early Closing Association Rowing Club, then the next year changed the name to Yarra Yarra Club. At first they used Edwards Boat Shed facilities and boats. (Source: M.S. Glyn - The Victorian Rowing Register 1878)
On Sundays visitors relaxing after their weeks work, walked along the river bank and crowded the miniature zoo alongside the picturesque refreshment rooms at Branders Ferry. Many sat at small tables under the shade of gum trees with a glass of wine or cup of coffee while they watched activities on the river. On a fine sunny day the water flowed under a smooth surface that reflected the trees on the far bank, then as a boat passed the reflections broke up in shattered patterns to settle back again.
At the weekend the Yarra was always active, outrigger racing boats rowed by, their crews swinging in a steady rhythm, or a Thames river boat, the orsman showing his skill, while his lady relaxed against cushions in the stern, holding a parasol to protect her from the sun, or boat loads of happy young people, the men energetically rowing while the ladies in colourful costumes laughed happily as they enjoyed the day. (Source: Australian Sketcher 17 Jan 1883)
The Australian Sktcher in October 1874 the captions for a page of illustrations described sections of the river near Botanic Bridge. It would be difficult to fine a prettier sight than at the Botanic Bridge on regatta day and the remarkable beauty of the spot (Baths Corner0 between the bridges. Here scrowds of runners go swaying and endaevouring to to reach the bridge to see the the winners.
In these decades, with the formation of the Victorian Rowing Association, rowing clubs and boat races were firmly established. The Association drew up a set of regulations and organised a regatta; races were to be for amateurs only, watermen, boat builders and owners of boat sheds were not accepted. Professional watermen ran their own rowing events. Twenty rowing clubs joined the Association. from Melbourne, Albert Park, Geelong, Richmond, Williamstown and Ballarat.
The new organisation decided to hold races on the Lower Yarra. The course was one and a half miles from near the Stoney Creek to a reserve at the sugar works. After the first half mile the course ran along the old course of the Yarra. In later years the Yarra flowed through Coode Canal then this stretch of river became Maribynong River. With eight oar races, the course was two miles, starting further down stream. Club races were also held at Ballarat and Albert Park Lake. (Source: The Victorian Rowing Register 1878. M.S. Glyn) The first Annual Regatta in April 1871 attracted great interest. The Governor. the Mayor and members of Parliament attended, and the regatta became a gala event with thousands of spectators flocking to the Yarra bank. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing”)
Another rowing club was formed the nexr year. A group of business firms in Melbourne: Alston and Brown, Robertson and Moffat, Buckley and Nunn, Mowbray, Rowan and Hicks decided to close business at 2p.m. on Saturday afternoons,. To enjoy their free afternoon, members of these firms formed a rowing Club. They called called it the Early Closing Association Rowing Club, then the next year changed the name to Yarra Yarra Club. At first they used Edwards Boat Shed facilities and boats. (Source: M.S. Glyn - The Victorian Rowing Register 1878)
The Banks Rowing Club had hired boats from Edwards and Greenlands boat sheds that were below Princes Bridge on the south Bank, but found the arrangements were often unsatisfactory, so purchased their own boats and in 1889 built their own shed at a cost of 300 pounds. Mr. Henry Giles Turner was the driving force behind the club for many years, having initiated the club. In 1876 Turner went for a trip to England, it was a business trip but he was more interested in ordering an eight oared boat for the Banks Rowing Club. Turner couldn’t resist visiting the boat builders whenever possible to watch the construction of his boat. It cost seventy four pounds but bringing it to Australia added another twenty eight pounds to the price. Now the club were able to experience the thrill of rowing in an eight oared boat. They could feel the boat lift as the oars caught the water and the swing as the boat surged ahead then the rhythm as it sank back ready to lift again while they sped through the water.
Turner had became President in 1871, a positions he was to hold till his death in 1920. Turner was born in London in 1831 and arrived in Melbourne at the age of 23. He joined the Bank of Australasia where he became Melbourne accountant, later leaving to take up the position as General Manager of the Commercial Bank of Australia. H. G. Turner was elected President of the Victorian Rowing Association, and was distinguished as a banker, historian and litterateur. (Source: Bank of New South Wales magazine)
In 1870 rowing became an interstate affair when Melbourne University raced Sydney University on the Yarra. Melbourne won the race. Three years later crews from Melbourne and Sydney clubs rowed an inter colonial race of four miles on the Lower Yarra. The race started from the junction of Stony Creek and finished opposite the gas works. Men in moored skiffs held the stern of the boats as they waited while the starter prepared the crews. He fired his pistol and the oars swung into the water wrenching the boats foreward. The crews rapidly pulled away leaving the steamers loaded with spectators well behind and soon passed the umpire’s steam boat as it waited on the side of the river. The umpire’s boat pulled out to follow but ran onto a mud bank where it remained firmly stuck and out of sight of the boats for the rest of the race. The crews raced stroke for stroke rowing at 41 strokes to the minute. They raced on, the thump of the oars in the rowlocks and the splash of the blades in the water mixing with the shouts of spectators on the river bank.
The Sydney crew having won the draw chose the south lane giving them the shorter distance as the river curved around fishermans bend. A definite advantage till later in the race the Melbourne boat reached a section of slack water while the Sydney boat still faced the river stream. The crowds on the river banks shouted with excitement as Melbourne pulled up to the Sydney boat then moved ahead keeping they kept the lead rowing with a long steady stroke of 38, then at the winning post, Melbourne crossed the line first, one length ahead of Sydney. (Source: M. S. Glynn, The Victorian Rowing Register, 1878)
After the race a dispute started when the Sydney crew complained that the Melbourne crew were not all amateurs for the crew included manual labourers. This resulted in an argument over amateurism. Some donsidered that only gentlemen could be called amateurs
In the hills where the waters of the Yarra ran over rocks, the stream was clear and fresh but at Melbourne the pollution that had started in the 1840s, when effluent from slaughter houses flowed into the river, continued to grow worse. The Governor sent a minute to the Melbourne City Council drawing attention to the extreme inconvenience experienced at Government House caused by the stench arising from the Yarra. The council who had only jurisdiction within the limits of its own municipality, sent an official reply. Extracts from the letter show the extent of degradation of the Yarra.
“At Dight’s Falls the river may be considered tolerably pure, immediatly below the falls the gross pollution of the stream commences with the infall of the Merri Creek which contains sewerage from the Pentridge Prison as well as the ordinary drainage from the townships of Coburg, and East Brunswick, and the night soil of the City of Collingwood, the Collingwood Abattoir, then the Reilly Street drain, several wool washing establishments, a couple of tanneries, and the drainage from the whole of Collingwood and Fitzroy. From the Merri Creek to Hawthorn Bridge the surface of the river was reported to give off an offensive stench compounded by a special foulness of the putrescent odour of dead dogs held rotting in the branches of willow trees.” (Source: Sir Ninian Stephens, 1991, Yarra River Conference, Keynote Address)
People complained and talked about the evil of fouls smells from the river without result but at last the Minister of Lands was authorised to assume the role of conservator of the Yarra.
At the start of the 1880’s Melbourne had only two road crossings over the Yarra and one rail bridge. The Falls Bridge and Sandridge rail bridge had both become shaky with age In January 1886 work commenced to rebuild the rail bridge and it was completed two years later. The Victorian Railways designed the bridge and their engineer, W. Green, supervised the work that was carried out by the Contractor David Munro and Company. It cost over one 140,000 pounds. Cast-iron cylinders filled with concrete carried four steel plate girders and cross girders. The cylinders were sunk into clay and their stability was tested by loading nearly 300 tons of rails on them. (Source: National Trust Manuscript, Research into Sandridge Railway Bridge)
The solid stone Princes Bridge designed by David Lennox in 1850 would have lasted forever but there were problems. The single arch and shallow depth under the bridge held back water whenever the Yarra was in flood and there were frequent floods. During the later 1870s the city council was talking about ideas to give relief from floods and decided to widen the river, remove the falls opposite Queen Street and rebuild Princes Bridge. (Source: The Argus, 8 Sep 1886)
“At Dight’s Falls the river may be considered tolerably pure, immediatly below the falls the gross pollution of the stream commences with the infall of the Merri Creek which contains sewerage from the Pentridge Prison as well as the ordinary drainage from the townships of Coburg, and East Brunswick, and the night soil of the City of Collingwood, the Collingwood Abattoir, then the Reilly Street drain, several wool washing establishments, a couple of tanneries, and the drainage from the whole of Collingwood and Fitzroy. From the Merri Creek to Hawthorn Bridge the surface of the river was reported to give off an offensive stench compounded by a special foulness of the putrescent odour of dead dogs held rotting in the branches of willow trees.” (Source: Sir Ninian Stephens, 1991, Yarra River Conference, Keynote Address)
People complained and talked about the evil of fouls smells from the river without result but at last the Minister of Lands was authorised to assume the role of conservator of the Yarra.
At the start of the 1880’s Melbourne had only two road crossings over the Yarra and one rail bridge. The Falls Bridge and Sandridge rail bridge had both become shaky with age In January 1886 work commenced to rebuild the rail bridge and it was completed two years later. The Victorian Railways designed the bridge and their engineer, W. Green, supervised the work that was carried out by the Contractor David Munro and Company. It cost over one 140,000 pounds. Cast-iron cylinders filled with concrete carried four steel plate girders and cross girders. The cylinders were sunk into clay and their stability was tested by loading nearly 300 tons of rails on them. (Source: National Trust Manuscript, Research into Sandridge Railway Bridge)
The solid stone Princes Bridge designed by David Lennox in 1850 would have lasted forever but there were problems. The single arch and shallow depth under the bridge held back water whenever the Yarra was in flood and there were frequent floods. During the later 1870s the city council was talking about ideas to give relief from floods and decided to widen the river, remove the falls opposite Queen Street and rebuild Princes Bridge. (Source: The Argus, 8 Sep 1886)
The first question was, who pays for the bridge? The council agreed to be liable to one third of the cost and the government was to contribute one third, the balance was to be come from the municipalities on the south of the river who would benefit from it. They organised a competition for a design for the bridge, the winner to receive 900 pounds. De’Elbro and Granger won the competition and John Granger, who had drawn the plans was commissioned to supervise the construction.
The design was based on Blackfriars Bridge in London. It has a span of 400 feet rising ten feet in the centre with a roadway 63 feet wide. There are three spans each attractively decorated with the coats of arms of the municipalities, who payed for it, between each arch The bridge cost was 137,000 pounds. D.Munro and Co. won the constructed to build the new Princes Bridge. David Muntro employed John Monash (later Sir John Monash) who was later to build Anderson Street Bridge. (Source: Colin O’Connor, 1985, Spanning Two Centuries, University of Queensland Press p114)
On 7 September 1886 the Mayor of Melbourne Mr. J.C.Stewart layed the foundation Stone using a specially made silver trowel. Before construction started modification to the design had to be made. First the height of the roadway was increased to provide room for a cable tunnel, for cable trams needed to cross the bridge, also to give headroom for the railway line at Flinders Street Station.
Workshops, covering seven acres and fitted out with the best equipment available, were built to prepare sections of the bridge. Munro found that granite quarried and polished in Victoria was cheaper than imported stone. On the fourth of October, amidst great celebrations, the Mayoress of Melbourne opened the new Princers Bridge. The bridge cost 137,000 pounds. (Source: Argus, 5 Oct 1888)
The design was based on Blackfriars Bridge in London. It has a span of 400 feet rising ten feet in the centre with a roadway 63 feet wide. There are three spans each attractively decorated with the coats of arms of the municipalities, who payed for it, between each arch The bridge cost was 137,000 pounds. D.Munro and Co. won the constructed to build the new Princes Bridge. David Muntro employed John Monash (later Sir John Monash) who was later to build Anderson Street Bridge. (Source: Colin O’Connor, 1985, Spanning Two Centuries, University of Queensland Press p114)
On 7 September 1886 the Mayor of Melbourne Mr. J.C.Stewart layed the foundation Stone using a specially made silver trowel. Before construction started modification to the design had to be made. First the height of the roadway was increased to provide room for a cable tunnel, for cable trams needed to cross the bridge, also to give headroom for the railway line at Flinders Street Station.
Workshops, covering seven acres and fitted out with the best equipment available, were built to prepare sections of the bridge. Munro found that granite quarried and polished in Victoria was cheaper than imported stone. On the fourth of October, amidst great celebrations, the Mayoress of Melbourne opened the new Princers Bridge. The bridge cost 137,000 pounds. (Source: Argus, 5 Oct 1888)
After twenty five years the Falls bridge had become weak and when, the reef of rocks under it was blasted away to allow a greater flow of water, the structure became unsafe. (Source: The Age) The next year a new bridge was built alongside Queens Wharf. Five years earlier the Emerald Hill Surveyor reported that the Falls Bridge was unsafe and many references were made to its dilapidated appearance The `Age’ reported that the rail bridge was a source of uneasiness to train . travellers. There was a delay as the cost of the new bridge was to be 44,242 pounds. After many talks, the bodies who were responsible for the bridge, came to an agreement to share the cost. The Victorian Government would pay 20,000 pounds, the Harbour Trust 10,000, the Tramways Board, 2,385 and the remaining 11,857 to be shared by Melbourne and South Melbourne Councils and the Port Melbourne Borough Council. (Source: Jubilee History of the Melbourne Harbour Trust page) David Munro once again won the contract for the construction. The Yarra then had three new bridges at the city.
David Munro had built up a successful engineering business and become an important man in Melbourne. His fortunes varied from only owning the three pounds worth of clothes he was wearing to running a successful business with large land holdings and a mansion at Kooyong, then at the end of his life, living almost in penury in a small cottage.
In 1854 as a ten year old boy David Munro, with his family, came to Melbourne from Scotland. As the boys grew old enough they worked in their father’s blacksmith and contracting business. When David was twenty seven and was in partnership with his father, the firm became bankrupt. He was left with only the clothes he was wearing. David soon recovered, for two years later he married Sarah Sydenham and started his own engineering and machinery business, David Munro and Co. This was the time of the great railway expansion. He won and carried out many large railway contracts and soon became one of the largest employers of labour in the colony. Ar well as his engineering projects the firm designed, manufactured, and sold a whole range of equipment for farming, mining and engineering. Munro became a respected man and was elected president of the Chamber of Manufacturers and councillor of the National Agricultural Society.
David Munroe invested in land and built a large mansion at Kooyong but when the land boom crashed in the 90s, he had over spent with large overdrafts. David Munroe lost his company and all his money. He lived, almost a pauper, in a small cottage till his death in 1898. (Source: The Dictionary of Biography, vol. 5 p311) Two important bridges that span the Yarra, Princes and Queens Bridges, remain today as memorials to David Munroe.
Along the river more crossing places were added. At Wallen Road a bridge was built in 1881. Steel tubes sunk into the river bed held the lattice girders holding the roadway and on the side a footway was placed on a lower level.
Further up the river Victoria Street came to a full stop on the banks of the Yarra at the west and Barkers Road ended on the other bank. The residents of the affluent suburbs of Kew and Hawthorn needed a more direct route to the city but when it came to building a bridge there was a problem. Four municipalities met at the bridge; Kew, Hawthorn, Collingwood and Richmond and the four were each responsible for the design and construction of the bridge but the engineers of the four councils could not agree, each wanting their own ideas. In 1880 the councils formed committee that decided to hold a competition for a bridge design. Two University students, Frazer and Chase of the Railway’s construction branch won the competition with a simple lightweight design. It was twenty feet wide with a narrow footpath on one side. 14
The wrangling by the councils continued during its construction and before the bridge was finished two clerk of works had to be dismissed. The simplicity of the design worried the councillors who thought it unsafe but Professor Kernot of the Melbourne University, a noted authority on bridge construction, approved its design, praising its simplicity. In fact for many years the bridge was used as an example for engineering students at the Melbourne University. During the following years the bridge was widened and
Up stream, where the Yarra comes from Fairfield, a large curve in the river surrounds an area known as Yarra Bend. This beautiful expanse of level land has been used for recreation since the early days of Melbourne. People came out in horse drawn drags for picnics and in the 1870’s visiting Englishmen and some of Australia’s great men of cricket such as as Worral, Trumble and W. G. Grace played social games on a pretty cricket ground surrounded by elms and oaks. (Source: Frank Byrning, Argus, 23 Dec 1933)
The Lunatic Asylum, with its brick walls and collection of buildings, took up the ground on the eastern side of Yarra Bend. (Source: The Argus, 2 Aug 1884 There was frequent criticism of the Asylum and demands for its removal to a more suitable site, the area was considered too damp and the buildings unsuitable, but it continued to occupy the area for many years. Across the Yarra the Kew Lunatic Asylum was built in the 1870’s. Although the two institutions were close to each other they were separated by a long trip by road. To help communication between them a footbridge was built over the river. It was called the “Zig Zag Bridge” as steps on the lower Yarra Bend side zig-zaged up to the top. Stone used to build the Kew Asylum came from from a quarry in Northcote, and was taken across the bridge to save the long haul by road. The workmen winched the stone up to the footbridge where it was carried across on a trolley running on rails across the bridge. (Source: Arthur Howard)
In the 1880s John Wallace, a man who liked grandiose schemes, formed a company that planned to use the water of the Yarra to generate electricity for Melbourne. He planned to build a dam at Pound Bend in Warrandyte. The power station was to generate electricity that would be transmitted on power lines alongside the river to Preston; from there power would be distributed in Melbourne. Parliament approved the dam although it would flood the river and part of the vallley at Warrandyte up to the bridge. Work actually started but the scheme lapsed when the financial depression of the 90s ended the enthusiastic days of the land boom. (Source: Victorian Government Gazette, 7 Dec 1888)
Residents at Warrandyte, after ten years without a bridge, held meeting to ask for a new crossing. In 1875 a new timber bridge was built, a strong one this time, it cost 1419 pounds but only had one traffic lane. The bridge was needed for Warrandyte was becoming a busy place There were many mines in the hills of Warrandyte and they all relied on the Yarra for water to crush and wash the ore. In the area up stream from the town, where thirty years before Dawson had built a hut and opened a cattle station, the Yarra tribute Co. dug a tunnel for 50 yards under the river. Near there, at Black Flat, the Elliot freehold company discovered a diorite dyke rich in gold. For six years the dyke produced good returns then the company met financial trouble and the mine closed. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Archive)
Beyond Lilydale Gold mining had opened up the land in the hills. E.J.Buller, who had settled in the area with a hotel and store, purchased the first land at Warburton area, 20 acres, in 1871. Ten years later he rebuilt the fine Warburton Hotel and the general store at West Warburton (now Wesburn). He was a man with a sense for business, who also provided the opportunity for recreation. In the early years miners enjoyed many happy times in the large room attached to his hotel.
In 1887, The Public Works Department built a good road to Warburton but the bridge over the Yarra was not constructed until the end of the decade. Beyond there, packhorses were needed. In 1884 W.C.Kernot led a party through this country to visit the source of the Yarra. With the aid of an experienced local bushman, Mr. Robertson, the party found the place that had been visited by Hoddle thirty years before. It was a spot of rare beauty clothed with beech and fern vegetation a high plateau, from which the river and its principal tributaries descend in splendid waterfalls and rapids. On the steep slope of one peak their packhorse slipped and fell several times. Kernot named the peak “Mount Horsefall”. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Archives)
During the late 1880s interest in Australian patriotism grew and with it a new attitude towards the Australian bush developed. The tall mountain gum trees came to be appreciated, not just for their timber but as beautiful trees. Visitors came to the Yarra valley to see the decorative tree ferns, the waterfalls and the botanically interesting ferns in the undergrowth. (Source: Personal communication - The late Dr. Heber Green)
Falls Creek is one of the most picturesque of the Yarra tributaries. There are six successive falls within a quarter of mile. The drop from the higher to the lower fall is about 700 feet. Beyond that there is a beautiful upland some 3000 feet above sea level heavily timbered with beech (generally known as myrtle), blachbutt and mottled gum, a variety of blue gum. All the creek beds present typical mountain scenery in lovely fern glades and dense growths of sassafras and other shrubs. (Source: The Argus, 14 Aug 1863)
It was the middle Yarra that had attracted artists to the river. In the 1860’s Eugene von Geurard set up his easel and painted “Sunset on the Yarra”, a sweeping landscape of the Yarra flats . A critic described this painting. “There is a picturesque variety of rocky and verdue-clad banks and steep and striking forms with rich colourings of foliage in trees and shrubs with a thousand lake-like bits of water.” Louis Buvelot painted “Summer Evening near Templestowe”, a pastoral scene of the river flats seen from the end of Thompsons Road also “Winter Morning Near Heidelberg”, a similar river scene on the north bank. A group of artists, Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin (who had been taught by Buvelot) with Arthur Streeton Charles Condor and others, after camping at Box Hill came to Heidelberg in 1888. Here they were inspired by the Yarra landscape. It was such painting as Streeton’s “The Purple Noon’s Transparent Light” that established the reputation of Australian impressionism. (Source: Golden Summers)
By the end of the 1880s the Melbourne Harbour Trust had spent more than a quarter of a million pounds to improve the Yarra port facilities. They had widened and deepened the river channel, dug Coode Canal and built many new wharves. Twelve dredges were at work on the river, the “Melbourne” being equal to the largest in the world and nearly two miles of wharves lined both sides of the river.
These were the days of the land boom, a time of excitement and activity in all aspects of trade and business. The Yarra was alive with ships arriving, busy tugs nudging them into their dock while on the water, steam launches carried passengers across the river or towed lighters loaded with the cargos of ships tied up in the bay. . On the wharfs cranes deposited more goods on the already cluttered broad plank road. The Australian Pictorial Atlas described the scene.
“Huge piles of timber are stacked near the end of the embankment A couple of hundred stock cattle are being landed from a Queensland steamer, with much prodding of their broad flanks and great vociferation on the part of the sailors while a dozen stockriders keep watch over them armed with stock whips. On the east, a visitor is reminded of the pine forests of Scandinavia by the resinous odour of the planks that have just been brought up from the holds of a vessel. The wharf for half a mile is covered with iron rails, boiler plates, piles of pig iron, hillocks of slates, barb fencing wire, packages of machinery, slabs of marble, cases of drugs, hogheads of ale and and bales of general merchandise. Then comes a steam collier from Newcastle with a dozen dumpers, almost as black as negroes, handling baskets that have been hauled up from below. Next to it is a steamer unloading oats and potatoes from Tasmania. Cranes and derricks keep up a merry clatter.”
Next to the steam ferry at Spencer Street a small dock, in a basin called “little Dock” held coastal vessels and small intercolonial craft that bring produce from or load supplies for the Western district, Gippsland or Tasmania. At Queens Wharf, closer to the city, steamers load passengers for places such as Geelong, Belfast or Warnambool and bay steamers leave with tourists.
On the south of the river, timber vessels unload their cargos. Several acres behind the wharf the ground is stacked with timber. Many workshops hold coppersmiths, engineers, boilermakers and ship builders. Along here two dry docks open out of South Wharf and steamers for New Zealand and interstate ports take on their passengers. (Source: Australian Pictorial Atlas p62-64) The railways had constructed many new lines in the previous years with an increase of railwy engines. To provide a more efficient supply of coal for the engines the railways constructed a coal canal so that coal barges could bring coal right into the West Melbourne railway yards. (Source: Illustrated Australian News, 1 Apr 1892)
During these decades from the 60s to the 80s the Yarra had changed. No longer was it an unnavigable stream with primitive wharf facilities but a wide river flowing through Coode Canal bringing ships to docklands equal to those of older cities and along its length a series of bridges give access to the towns and farms on either bank of the river. The Yarra had come of age.
These were the days of the land boom, a time of excitement and activity in all aspects of trade and business. The Yarra was alive with ships arriving, busy tugs nudging them into their dock while on the water, steam launches carried passengers across the river or towed lighters loaded with the cargos of ships tied up in the bay. . On the wharfs cranes deposited more goods on the already cluttered broad plank road. The Australian Pictorial Atlas described the scene.
“Huge piles of timber are stacked near the end of the embankment A couple of hundred stock cattle are being landed from a Queensland steamer, with much prodding of their broad flanks and great vociferation on the part of the sailors while a dozen stockriders keep watch over them armed with stock whips. On the east, a visitor is reminded of the pine forests of Scandinavia by the resinous odour of the planks that have just been brought up from the holds of a vessel. The wharf for half a mile is covered with iron rails, boiler plates, piles of pig iron, hillocks of slates, barb fencing wire, packages of machinery, slabs of marble, cases of drugs, hogheads of ale and and bales of general merchandise. Then comes a steam collier from Newcastle with a dozen dumpers, almost as black as negroes, handling baskets that have been hauled up from below. Next to it is a steamer unloading oats and potatoes from Tasmania. Cranes and derricks keep up a merry clatter.”
Next to the steam ferry at Spencer Street a small dock, in a basin called “little Dock” held coastal vessels and small intercolonial craft that bring produce from or load supplies for the Western district, Gippsland or Tasmania. At Queens Wharf, closer to the city, steamers load passengers for places such as Geelong, Belfast or Warnambool and bay steamers leave with tourists.
On the south of the river, timber vessels unload their cargos. Several acres behind the wharf the ground is stacked with timber. Many workshops hold coppersmiths, engineers, boilermakers and ship builders. Along here two dry docks open out of South Wharf and steamers for New Zealand and interstate ports take on their passengers. (Source: Australian Pictorial Atlas p62-64) The railways had constructed many new lines in the previous years with an increase of railwy engines. To provide a more efficient supply of coal for the engines the railways constructed a coal canal so that coal barges could bring coal right into the West Melbourne railway yards. (Source: Illustrated Australian News, 1 Apr 1892)
During these decades from the 60s to the 80s the Yarra had changed. No longer was it an unnavigable stream with primitive wharf facilities but a wide river flowing through Coode Canal bringing ships to docklands equal to those of older cities and along its length a series of bridges give access to the towns and farms on either bank of the river. The Yarra had come of age.
CHAPTER 5 Recreation on the River 1892 to 1914
The waters of the Yarra became a diversion from the gloom of the depression.
Charles Smith remembered the depression days at Templestowe. His parents James and Elizabeth Smith ran a dairy farm on the rich river flats but during the depression years they needed to earn an extra income from cutting and selling timber from the large river red gums. James and his eldest son felled the trees cut and split the timber into the eight foot lengths required by coach builders while his wife Elizabeth and the eldest girl milked the cows, separated the milk, and churned the cream to make butter, leaving the other six children in the kitchen to look after and entertain themselves.
James and his son Robert used to leave home early in the morning with a load of timber. In the evening, when it became time for them to return home, Elizabeth and the children listened for their father. On a fine night the crack of the whip could be heard half a mile away. If it was wet she would worry, for the muddy roads were shocking, Eventually she would hear a sound, “What’s that?” she would say. “Yes I think it is Dad’s whip.” Then they would hear the team coming in the gate and driving past the kitchen door. When James came into the kitchen he would stand there asking about the children, on wet days water ran off his raincoat and poured out of his boots onto the floor. (Source: Charles Smith manuscript, Doncaster-Templestowe Historical)
Many men looked for work in gold mining areas such as Warrandyte, for during the depression the government encouraged employment in gold mining. The price of gold was fixed so when other prices dropped gold mining became more profitable. The State built a battery on the Yarra upstream from the bridge at Warrandyte. Here a reef blocked off most of the river leaving a fast channel on the side of the river. This stream turned a large water wheel that drove the battery
The State Crusher gave a boost to mineing at Warrandyte. New mines were opened, several shafts were sunk and a tunnel was dug. The Caledonia mine was the most important for it gave employment for many men till the mine closed in 1907. (Source: Department of Mines Reports 1896 to 1898.)
In the past the pollution and smell from the river had marred enjoyment of water sports, but in 1891, in a legislative highlight on the river, the Board of Works assumed responsibility for sewerage in the Metropolitan area.
Teams of men with picks cut down Batman’s hill while others with chovels filled hoppers on rail lines to remove the earth. Level rail yards and railway lines then took the place. (Source: Illustrated Australian News. April 1892)
DEPRESSION
The boom of the eighties was over. Banks had closed leaving Melbourne in a state of depression. Farmers along the fertile river country could no longer find a ready sale for their produce. They had enjoyed rich crops fed by water from the Yarra but now they had to look for other ways to earn a living. Some stripped bark from black wattles selling it to tanneries while others cut timber from the spreading red gums that grew along the river banks for wheelwrights to make parts for wagon wheels.Charles Smith remembered the depression days at Templestowe. His parents James and Elizabeth Smith ran a dairy farm on the rich river flats but during the depression years they needed to earn an extra income from cutting and selling timber from the large river red gums. James and his eldest son felled the trees cut and split the timber into the eight foot lengths required by coach builders while his wife Elizabeth and the eldest girl milked the cows, separated the milk, and churned the cream to make butter, leaving the other six children in the kitchen to look after and entertain themselves.
James and his son Robert used to leave home early in the morning with a load of timber. In the evening, when it became time for them to return home, Elizabeth and the children listened for their father. On a fine night the crack of the whip could be heard half a mile away. If it was wet she would worry, for the muddy roads were shocking, Eventually she would hear a sound, “What’s that?” she would say. “Yes I think it is Dad’s whip.” Then they would hear the team coming in the gate and driving past the kitchen door. When James came into the kitchen he would stand there asking about the children, on wet days water ran off his raincoat and poured out of his boots onto the floor. (Source: Charles Smith manuscript, Doncaster-Templestowe Historical)
Many men looked for work in gold mining areas such as Warrandyte, for during the depression the government encouraged employment in gold mining. The price of gold was fixed so when other prices dropped gold mining became more profitable. The State built a battery on the Yarra upstream from the bridge at Warrandyte. Here a reef blocked off most of the river leaving a fast channel on the side of the river. This stream turned a large water wheel that drove the battery
The State Crusher gave a boost to mineing at Warrandyte. New mines were opened, several shafts were sunk and a tunnel was dug. The Caledonia mine was the most important for it gave employment for many men till the mine closed in 1907. (Source: Department of Mines Reports 1896 to 1898.)
In the past the pollution and smell from the river had marred enjoyment of water sports, but in 1891, in a legislative highlight on the river, the Board of Works assumed responsibility for sewerage in the Metropolitan area.
Teams of men with picks cut down Batman’s hill while others with chovels filled hoppers on rail lines to remove the earth. Level rail yards and railway lines then took the place. (Source: Illustrated Australian News. April 1892)
Sewage from the south eastern suburbs had to cross the Yarra. The first main went underneath in a tunnel four metres below the river. During construction water from the river broke through and six men were drowned. In 1987 the Richmond main went under the river next to the railway line. This time the builders pumped compressed air into the tunnel to hold back water from seeping in, but in an unforeseen accident five men were gassed. The Board was unwilling to risk another tunnel, so when the Melbourne main was to cross the river near the Spencer Street Ferry, they dug a trench in the bed of the river then lowered a long pipe into the trench. Unfortunately the pipe broke and had to be joined again under the water. At the opening of the main, the official guests travelled down the river in a boat that followed the route of the sewerage as it flowed first to the pumping station at Spotswood and then down to the sewerage farm at Werribee. (Source: Walter Arnold, Retired Manager Spotswood Pumping Station)
During the next ten years, pollution in the river was reduced, paving the way for a renewal of the popularity and enjoyment of water sports and boating on the Yarra. (Source: Dr. Colin Leigh, Yarra Conference 1991) Boats and boating have always been an attraction on the river and an inexpensive river picnic attracted people when money was scarce As early as the 1850’s people went for picnics on the river banks at Hawthorn and Yarra Bend. They would play games on the banks or swim in the water and if a boat was available they rowed on the river. Often householders along the Yarra, with a staging on the river, were asked for hot water to make tea. Some started providing afternoon teas and later established tea gardens. In 1889 Peardon built the well-known Hawthorn Tea Gardens on the site of the present Leonda Restaurant. Along the Yarra at Hawthorn there were as many as five places where holiday makers could call in for tea and refreshments - Hill’s, Pearsons, Robert’s, the Glen, originally Henley, and the Hawthorn Tea Gardens. In the early years of the new century an outing up the river by steam boat or by tram to the Hawthorn and Glen Tea Gardens became popular way to spend a Saturday or Sunday.
Along this stretch of the Yarra many owners of boat sheds also built dinghy and Thames river boats both for sale or hire. As well as Burn’s boat shed, there was McCauley’s at the foot of Molesworth Street and at Fairfield, Willow Dell and Rudder Grange and west of Alphington Street there was Marriott’s and Chipperfield had a two story house on the Yarra at Kilby Road with a boat shed underneath and a floating tea room on river.
Attached to most boat sheds were tea rooms. One of the first in this section of the Yarra was at Rudder Grange. Edmund Cooke, and his wife Ellie came from England in the 1880’s. They found an attractive block of land, to start a flower farm, between the present Alphington and Yarraford Streets with the asset of a frontage on the Yarra to supply water for the plants. Cooke called his land Rudder Grange after his home in England.
Often people rowing along the river stopped at his landing stage and asked for hot water to make tea. This gave Cooke the idea of selling teas and refreshments, so about 1900 he opened a tea garden on the river bank serving Devonshire teas. Rudder Grange soon became well known and two steam launches plied along the river from Studley Park bringing people for picnics, swimming, boating and enjoying afternoon teas.
Edmund Cooke altered Rudder Grange over the years, he kept adding secondhand sections to his house. He built lattice arbours in his garden on the river bank employing up to eight girls to serve in the tea gardens. Rudder Grange became popular, especially for Venetian nights with Gipsy Teas and fireworks on moonlight evenings.
One summer day in 1910, Edmund Cooke was approached by four young actors. They were looking for a cool place to camp on the river during the hot summer days. Cooke offered them a corner of his orchard to pitch a tent under tall gum trees. These adventurous actors were from the Theatre Royal where they were part of the Oscar Ashe - Lily Brayton theatre company. Their landlord, whom they called Captain Cooke, and his wife Ellie gave the group fresh food, encouragement and help with the camp. For two months they lived, slept, swam and cooked meals. They lazed away the days till it was time to go to the theatre. After the show the four men walked to Princes Bridge station where it was only a twenty minute trip by steam train to Fairfield Park Station. Reaching their camp, the four quickly changed out of their hot clothes and with a lot of hilarity dived into the river for a nightly swim across to the other side and back before preparing a warm meal. (Source: Table Talk, 30 June 1910 p14)
In 1908 John St.Clair had seen the growth of interest in the river as a recreation area and constructed a tea rooms and a boat shed at Fairfield. He built good a good quality solid building, the dining rooms had attractive fittings with stained glass windows and wide verandahs overlooking a bend of the Yarra.
Farther up the river the Yarra valley attracted visitors for longer holidays. On the timbered slopes of the hills at Wurburton people stayed at guest houses. From among the tall gum trees the visitors could look down to the valley where the river ran alongside the road. In the morning mist hung in the valley forming a mystic lake and at evening smoke from houses rose up in columns among the trees.
At Warrandyte the Yarra flowed between hills and rippled over rocks. In the autumn mists bathed the river in a sea of soft white and in the spring golden wattle highlighted the the gum trees on the banks of the river. The area was a natural attraction for artists. At the beginning of the century Clara Southern, came to live an the hills above the river, soon she was followed by Joe Sweetman. By 1914 almost a colony of painter and potters were living at Warrandyte. There were, Arthur Merric Boyd, Penleigh Boyd, who built “The Robbins”, Harold Herbert, Louis McCubbin and Frank Crozier.
Martin Boyd wrote that he was visiting the “Latin Quarter of the Bush.”
Water from the Plenty River had been supplying the people of Melbourne. Water flowed through the taps in large quantities for people used water to drink, bathe, to grow plants vegetables and for a multitude of industrial uses. Melbourne people used over forty gallons of water each day and soon there would be a shortage so other tributaries of the Yarra were being dammed to augment the supply. Then 1905 the Water Act vested in the Crown the right to use the flow and to control the water in the Yarra. A pipeline diversion from Coranderrk Creek was added to the Maroondah scheme and in 1910 the Board let out the first contract for a weir on the O’Shannassy River and 79 kilometres of aqueduct. (Source: Jim Viggers, Former manager and Water Supply Headworks and Distribution for Board of Works)
At Dight’s falls the flour mill had gone but the dam remained holding a pool behind it. The Public Works Department in 1890 built a pumping station below the dam, drawing water from this pool, to pipe water for the Botanic Gardens, Albert Park Lake and also for the hydraulic power station at Melbourne. 23 The dam also kept a useful depth of water in the river but in 1949 the rocky dam broke away draining the pool and lowering the level of the river. One man boasted that he had walked along the bed of the river from Chandler Highway to Fairfield. The Australian Paper Mills required a plentiful supply of water to cool its boilers. To give a greater depth at the paper mills, the Board of Works constructed a two foot concrete wall on the same spot. 24
The stretch of river between Dights Falls and Burke Road became a popular place of recreation during the first forty years of this century reaching its peak during the post war years of the 1920’s and 30’s. These were the days of simple pleasures, people swam in swimming holes at sandbanks, picnicked on the river bank, rowed boats, paddled canoes, or just enjoyed Devonshire tea at the boat sheds. They came on foot or by tram, a few came by car, but the real way to enjoy the water was to travel on a steam boat. Harding’s Ferries ran a steam boat service from Princes Bridge to Dights Falls. From here the passengers walked to John Bern’s boat shed where another boat took them to Rudder Grange, the Fairfield tea gardens or the Willow Bank Cafe at Alphington . The boat left Melbourne in the morning at 10 am and returned at 4 pm. (Source: Aurther Howard)
The government planned a railway line (The Outer Circle) with the object of opening up land east of Melbourne and also to allow goods traffic to by-pass the city railyards. The Outercircle track left the Gippsland line at Oakleigh and ran to Fairfield Park station. The northern section of the Outer Circle line crossed the Yarra on an iron bridge at Fairfield. After a few years rail traffic on the north section of the line ceased and the iron bridge remained unused. (Source: L Harrigan - Victorian Railways to 62)
During Easter Manoeuvres in 1910 Army engineers of No 3 Field Company built a bridge as a training exercises. It crossed the Yarra at the Pontville Homestead close to Mullum Creek. The bridge was 200 feet long and only wide enough to take infantry. The army left the bridge there but it was not use and later Sam McAuley, who worked at Pontville chopped down the bridge because he said that rabbits were coming across it from Eltham. (Source: Brien Mullens, Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society)
The floods in the 1880’s decided the Public Works Department to plan flood mitigation measures. Upstream from Princes Bridge the river was narrow in places and at the Botanical Gardens swung in an S-bend. To give a better flow of water the Department instructed their chief engineer, Carlo Catani, to widen the Yarra from Princes Bridge to Cremorne Gardens. Catani, who later achieved a high reputation as an engineer, had come from Florence where he was a civil engineer. He was a man of vision and imagination. When he looked over an area he did not see problems, he saw possibilities. At the Yarra Catani visualised a far greater scheme than merely widening the river, so he came back to his superiors and with his charm and courtesy, persuaded them to enlarge their ideas for the river and the surroundings.
The Yarra at the Botanic Gardens was narrow and flowed in an ‘S` bend. The bend swept down through the north end of the gardens. Now part of the Botanic Gardens Lake is actually the original course of the old river. At Anderson Street the river curved to the north flowing under the old iron Botanic footbridge. When the river was straightened the old bridge would then be sitting on the bank. The Public Works Department planned a new bridge and awarded the contract for its design and construction to the engineering firm of Monash and Anderson.
John Monash became one of Melbourne’s great men as a scholar, engineer and soldier. In 1865 he was born in humble circumstances in a terrace house in Dudley Street West Melbourne. After moving to the country for a few his mother brought him back to Melbourne where he was sent to Scotch College. He became Dux of the School and at the age of sixteen won a scholarship to Melbourne University but lack of money forced him to suspend his civil engineering course to earn a living.
Monash obtained work with David Munro and Co. who employed him on the construction of Princes Bridge where he was given charge of the whole of the bridge earth works. The firm also employed him on other works. The following year at the age of twentytwo he was put in charge of the construction of the Outer Circle Railway and during this time completed his Batchelor of Civil Engineering degree and later went on to receive his Masters Degree. With these qualifications John Monash entered practice as a consulting engineer and formed a partnership with Anderson. (Source: Vernon R. Northwood, S.E.C.Journal, December 1950)
In 1899 work commenced on the straightening of the Yarra Teams of horses with scoops dug out a new course, cutting down into the bed rock. Then the new bridge was built, this time a road bridge. It was constructed across this dry land. John Monash was an advocate for the use of reinforced concrete. The construction of this bridge was new on the Yarra, it was described as a “Monier Arch Bridge”. Monash designed three one hundred foot spans, each span being a hollow reinforced concrete shell filled with earth. An architect, collaborated with the design of Anderson Street Bridge, producing the most beautiful bridge on the Yarra. During Melbourne’s centenary celebrations in 1935 the City Council were to rename it “Morrel Bridge”, after the Lord Mayor of Melbourne. Later the National Trust classified the bridge at Anderson Street.
Catani not only widened and straightened the Yarra but designed Alexandra Avenue and the Alexandra Gardens on the river banks. J.W.Taverner, Commissioner of Public Works, suggested an avenue, along the lines of Rotten Row in London, on the south bank of the river. Catani saw great possibilities and designed a wide boulevard with a tan track for horse riding, and a bicycle and pedestrian path from Anderson Street to St.Kilda Road. The area free of commercial traffic and with lawns planted with elms, oaks and poplars became a delightful area.
Catani continued his work on the river bank. This short bearded man dressed in serge worked enthusiastically bending over his plans, his spectacles teetering on the end of his nose. Near Princes Bridge the south bank was a swamp, a notorious area where brick makers had worked and lived. This close knit brotherhood of brickmakers became social pariahs known for their drinking and unsavoury activities. Catani converted the untidy feculent land to form the Alexandra Gardens with its green lawns, verdant of scrubs and trees. The plans for the river bank removed Branders ferry and its tea rooms. A favourite place for afternoon tea last century. In its place “The Palms”, now called The Dorchester, nestled among the palm trees of the new gardens.
Carlo Catani, an Italian, had sailed for New Zealand in 1976 but not finding work, decided to come to Australia. The council employed him as a draughtsman but soon realisd his ability and gave him the opportunity to plan and carry out his own construction projects. The last work that he undertook was the landscaping of the gardens and esplanade at St. Kilda. Carlo Catani had become a notable Victorian engineer. At St.Kilda Esplanade a bronze bust was erected in an alcove of the Catani MemorialTower.
The bends were gone from the Yarra and along the mile course from above Anderson Street Bridge to the Henley staging,, three boats could now race alongside each other, while spectators could see the races without the obstruction of trees.
On Saturday 21st. March 1904 the first “Henley on the Yarra” took place. The promoters had the dream that at Melbourne, Henley would become as great an event as Henley was on the Thames and saw it as equalling the Melbourne Cup as a Melbourne festival. (Source: The Herald, 21 Mar 1904)
Crowds lined the Parapet on Princes Bridge gazing down on the river where just below the bridge a large space on the bank as a reserve for spectators. In front of there houseboats were moored, gaily decorated structures, copies of the floating summer houses that were a feature of the Thames. One of these was reserved for the Governor-General (Lord Northcote) and his party of Melbourne’s celebrities. The Argus reported that: “Flags were everywhere, seen from below the bridge was black with people; --- crowds seated comfortably on the sloping banks, or perambulating the walks behind, stretched as far as the eye could see. Both as a social function and a regatta the first effort of the committee must be deemed as a success.” (Source: The Argus, 23 Mar 1904)
The second Henley took place in October the same year. This time decorated house boats added to the gaiety of the festival. Five years later decorated rowing boats and (Canada Canoes) took part.
At this time the argument about amateurism, that had continued right through the previous century, was finally settles. Some annomalies had existed; why should a man who worked with his hands be classes as a professional in his sport, some even claimed that members of a crew who merely competed against a professional crew where no longer amateurs but amateurs were able to accept cash prizes.
In 1905 the V.R.A. accepted a definition of amateur:
- Anyone who has not competed in a rowing, or a sculling race, for a stake, or entrance fee.
- Anyone who has not since 31 December 1896 accepted directly or indirectly an award in money, as a competitor in any branch of sport.
- Anybody who has not been employed in or about boats for money or wages.
CHAPTER 6 Between the Wars 1919 - 1939
The Great War was over and the people settled down to a time of prosperity. The population increased mainly from immegrants looking for a new life in Australia. Trade and commerce grew to meet the demands of new people. With more trade so more ships entered the river.In 1920 soldiers returned form the war looked for new interests. The Yarra offered handy opportunity for recreation. From the beginning of the century the stretch of river between Dights Falls and Burke Road had already been a popular place of recreation These were the days of simple pleasures, people swam in swimming holes at sandbanks, picnicked on the river bank, rowed boats, paddled canoes, or just enjoyed Devonshire tea at the boat sheds. They came on foot or by tram, a few came by car, but the real way to enjoy the water was to travel on a steam boat. Hardings ran a steam boat service from Princes Bridge to Dights Falls. From here the passengers walked to John Berns boat shed where another boat took them to Rudder Grange, the Fairfield tea gardens or the willow Bank Cafe at Alphington . The boat left Melbourne at 10 am and returned at 4 pm. In the 1920’s water sport on the Yarra boomed, there were six to seven hundred canoes along this section of the River. The Fairfield boat sheds at Willow Dell and Rudder Grange became well known recreation places. In the late 1930’s Cooke died, Ellie carried on Rudder Grange for a short time but tea rooms were no longer being patronised. She sold to Carl Serak. Carl closed down the tea rooms and concentrated on boat building. Boats always needed repaird he also manufactured canoes with Alfred Howard. These were built by the traditioal method using a timber frame covered with canvas. During the 1950’s factory built fiberglass canoes came on the market. In 1964 Rudder Grange was sold to the boaed of Works, the house house was demolished and the remains of the river landing was eventually washed away. (Source: Aurther Howard, Personal communication)
Shortly upstream from Dights Falls there is a bend in the Yarra where the water was deep with a sandy beach in a clearing among the gum trees. During the summer months locals used to come here to swim. By 1914 this place, known as Deep Rock, had become popular. During the following years a swimming club built a dressing shed and the notorious John Wren who belongd to the club gave concrete for terraces and a safe pool for children and non-swimmers. 26
To raise money during the War, on March 23 1918, the Deep Rock Swimming Club held a fund raising carnival. The main feature of the day was to be a spectacular high dive. The club constructed a tower on the cliff top on the Kew side 100feet above the water. John Wren offered 100 pounds for anyone who would make the dive and it was reported that a noted Hawaiian swimmer would dive from the towe. A crowd of 5000 came to see a local swimmer seeing Alex Wicham dressed up with feathers make the couragous dive. Millars guide proclaimed it as the world’s highest dive. (Source: Footnote, W. J. Cox, Secretary Yarra Bend Trust , Kew Historical Society Newslette,
Sept 1992)
After the 1930’s depression a concrete dressing shed was built as an employment project. By the 1950’s the area had become silted up and pollution from the many new homes along the river made it unsuitable for swimming. The Deep Rock area was changed completely with the construction of the freeway. The concrete terraces and buildings were removed and later the area was planted with trees.
For people living in this area, the river was close, while a visit to a bayside beach, without a car, was a full day’s trip. On summer days the Yarra became alive with swimmers. At bends of the river, where sandbanks had formed, groups of bathers congregated. In the early days of the century clubs formed and over the years several swimming pools were constructed, at Fairfield, Alphington and Ivanhoe and swimming carnivals became popular. 27
The Templestowe School built a dam across Ruffeys Creek close to the Yarra. The scheme was not very successful as most of the time there was not enough water in the creek to fill the pool during hot weather. of course the pool was full during the winnter. Warrandyte had its swimming carnival on New Years Day. They held the carnival on the banks of the Yarra behind the Post Office where a diving board reached out over the stream. As well as diving contests a popular contest was the canoe bouncing race. The contestants stood on the rear of their canoe and propelled them by bouncing along. At times the four schools in the district held their swimming sports in the river here. Further up the river the Warburton people cleared out a pool near the town.
Bathers swam and dived into the river often with no thought for what lay below the dark water. The summer days were often marred by a report of tragedy. A swimmer would dive down into the cool water and become tangled among the branches of a gum tree hidden below the surface. People would read the news, shake their heads and say; “caught in a snag.” In 1924 the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works was given authority to look after the river within a 13 mile radius of Melbourne. That included the course of the Yarra to past Templestowe. In the next six years the Board removed over 24,000 snags from the Yarra.
On the eastern side of Yarra Bend a thick wall with a deep ditch surrounded the Metropolitan Lunatic Asylum, opened in 1848 .28 The asylum was described by the Illustrated Australian News in 1868; “The prospect from the south bank (Studley Park) is perhaps the most attractive to be found in Melbourne. Seen in the distance the Asylum below, with its picturesque buildings, present the appearance of a village seen in early morning before the `little’ life has begun to show itself.”
The old Asylum buildings were cleared away in the 1920’s and the 500 acres of Yarra Bend became parkland. (Source: Frank Bryning, The Argus, 23 Dec 1933) Now football, cricket, hockey and soccer grounds and a golf course have made Yarra Bend an active area of recreation. On the south a suspension bridge, the Kane Bridge connects with Studley Park. Before the Kane Bridge was built rough steps led down to a ferry with a gas lamp at its foot. The ferryman laid a cable across the river tied to gum trees on the banks. He pulled his boat across with the cable. On the south bank is the boat shed built by Burn. Visitors came by Cable Tram along Johnston Street crossed to Studley Park on the Johnston Street Bridge and walked down the hill to the boat sheds. Here they enjoyed family outings, riverside walks with picnics on the river banks, hired a boat to row up the river or travelled by steam launch to Willow Dell and Rudder Grange at Fairfield or the River Bank Cafe at Alphington.
Councilor Kane was responsible for the building of the suspension footbridge in 1929. Five years later the great flood of 34 tore the cables on one side of the bridge. When the flood water subsided Kanes bridge was trailing side on along the river bed. It was rebuilt and again in 1989 required further repairs.
Boat sheds, where boats were built and Thames river boats could be hired
After the Great War service men, returned from the war, formed clubs usuing the appropriate name boomerang. At Rudder Grang a Boomerang Canoe Club formed. Since 1912 many people had been building their own canoes and needed a place on the river to store them. Cooke built a boat house for canoes on the river bank at his landing for canoes. The Boomerang Canoe Club folded after a few years but in 1924 enthusiasts formed the Fairfield canoe club at Willow Dell and purched land on the river, later building their own club rooms. (Source: Arthur Howard. Personal communication) The Melbourne Canoe Club was formed at Willow Dell during the 30’s later after the 39 - 40 war a new group of service men used Rudder Grange boat dhed for their canoes.
Cooke was always consious of the river for although the Yarra flowed peacefully under the dimpled surface like a living breathing creature, frequently the water rose in a wild rushing torrent and Cooke could only watch fearfully while the river climbed up the banks as it inundated his land. Floods were a part of life for the people who lived on the river.
In the 1920’s water sport on the Yarra boomed, there were six to seven hundred canoes along this section of the River. The Fairfield boat sheds at Willow Dell and Rudder Grange became well known recreation places. In the late 1930’s Cooke died, Ellie carried on Rudder Grange for a short time but tea rooms were no longer being patronised. She sold to Carl Serak. Carl closed down the tea rooms and concentrated on boat building. Boats always needed repaird he also manufactured canoes with Alfred Howard. These were built by the traditioal method using a timber frame covered with canvas. During the 1950’s factory built fiberglass canoes came on the market. In 1964 Rudder Grange was sold to the boaed of Works, the house house was demolished and the remains of the river landing was eventually washed away.
One man who remembered the Hawthorn Tea Gardens was Bill Jenkins.10 Fifty years later he told me the story of meeting his wife at a picnic on the Yarra. Bill took a picture from the wall. A photograph in a small frame showing a boy and a girl in the type of clothes worn in the 1920’s, The girl sleeves, in a white dress with flounced sleaves a wide brimmed picture hat, white stockings and black shoes. The boy wearing a striped blazer and straw boater. “That’s where I met my wife, at the Hawthorn Tea Gardens during our annual river picnic. “I saw Betty standing alone, leaning over the railing looking down at the river and asked her to come out on a boat. That’s how we met. I didn’t see her again till the picnic the next year.
My crowd had arrived first and I stood around waiting for the other ferry, anxiously hoping she would be coming. I still remember the sound of the ferry’s whistle echoing across the water as the boat swung around the bend, and then picking out Betty standing at the rail among the others. We stayed together all day. We even went for a swim, I showed off my over-arm, she also swam, doing a gentle breast stroke. We sat together for lunch, afterwards going for a stroll along the river bank. Once, when out of sight, we kissed, modestly leaning forward so our bodies wouldn’t touch. During the afternoon her mother took this picture with her Kodak postcard camera. That was a long time ago, now Betty has been dead for over twenty years.”
Bill had the photograph of their meeting at the Hawthorn Tea Gardens, framed and hung alongside his wedding photograph and other memories of his happy marriage. Bill had never been back to the tea gardens and had never been on the river again. Sometimes when he crossed a bridge over the Yarra and looked down, the sight of the strip of flat water between the banks gave him a pleasant feeling. Once when a friend said something deprecating about the dirty river, he said, “Its not that bad.” To have shown any appreciation of the Yarra would have been naive but when a visitor from Sydney talked about the river flowing upside down, he was annoyed and quickly responded `that Melbourne had improved the river with attractive lawns along the river banks at Alexander Avenue.’
When Betty died Bill Placed the urn with her ashes ona table and made a shrine to he memory. A white lace cloth covered the table and her favorite ornaments and articles were carefully arranged around the urn. on the wall hung pictures of Betty and their life together. Centered among them the photograph of Betty in a white dress with flounced sleaves and a wide brimmed picture hat with white stockings and black shoes. A reminder of the day they met at the Hawthorn Tea Rooms.
On the long stretch of the Yarra from the Johnston Street Bridge at Kew to Banksia Street Bridge at Heidelberg there was no road bridge till 1926 when three municipalities, Kew. Heidelberg and Camberwell, built a bridge at Burke Road. Forty years later the post war growth in those areas had created a great increase in road traffic. Another bridge for north bound traffic was placed alongside and at a higher level. In 1934 the flood covered the Burke road bridge so the new one was placed above the flood level and twelve years later the old bridge was demolished and replaced by a matching structure for south bound traffic.
During the boom years of the 1920s homes up on the hills above the river again became sought after. Houses with a garage for the car on the road and a jetty for the boat on the river were fashionable.
On Studley Park Road Raheen, the mansion built by Edward Latham in 1870 was purchased by the Roman Catholic church for the Catholic Archbishop, Dr. Daniel Mannix. Life at Raheen with its park like gatden that sweept down to the Yarra when it was the home of the eminent barrister Sir Heenry and Lady Wrixton, changed from the days of lavish receptions to an austere religious life. The ballroom once the asene of luxurious balls to a religious library.
Across the river opposite Templestowe, Captain Swanston disliked the long trip over the unmade road to Eltham Township. He found it easier to row across to Templestowe. To make the crossing easier he built a suspension bridge close to the junction of Ruffeys Creek. By the 1920’s Swanstons Bridge, one of the few private Bridges had deteriorated and in the 1934 flood it was washed away. (Source: Brien Mullens, Personal communication)
At Warrandyte the people looked on the bridge tat had been built in 1875 as a centre for the town. From about 1924 the preople celebrated New Years Eve on the bridge. They carried a piano from a nearby home to the bridge and during the evening the party got under way with singing and dancing. At midnight there was a loud explosion as a gold miner set off a stick of gelignite. (Source: Warrandyte Historical Society Newsletter, Apr 1988)
In 1929 Melbourne fell into the dispair of the world wide depression. Some enterprising men who had lost their jobs looked for gold in the old goldmining areas. A Warrandyte man, Tom Logan with his brothers and son, repeated a the method used in the 1860’s, they built a coffer dam in the Yarra and scraped silt from between the rocky crevices in the river bed where grains of gold had collected.
The Yarra flowing through the hills of Warrandyte attracted tourists and holiday makers to the hotels and guest houses in the area. There were two hotels in Yarra Street that overlooked the river, The Grand and the Warrandyte . At he island just passed the town Captain Selby renovateed the old building, that over seventy years before, had been Dawsons Homestead, and added simple huts lined with threeply walls to make a guest house.
On the bank of the Yarra at Warrandyte a scout group set up camp in 1923. They selected a delightful spot under the shade of trees where the boys looked out across the river. Wild water leapt in white spurts over rocks half hidden below the surface but in places the water flowed with an oily smooth surface dark, opaque, giving no indication of its hidden depths.
The scouts had come from their scout hall at Toorak. On Saturday afternoons the boys happily prepared for the great camp, cleaning and greasing the troop hand cart and painting dope on the tents and tent flaps to make them waterproof. They were going to walk all the way from Toorak to Warrandyte carrying the equipment and provisions in the hand cart. The camp was the idea of the Scout Master but he left the preparations to his Assistant Scout Master. Names in the group were informal. The boys called the Scout Master the “Boss” and his assistant, the Chief”, but there was nothing informal about the boss. During meetings he sat in his office only coming out to stand formally at attention to receive the parade, the Chief ran the meetings. When the great day came to leave for camp they lined up in the drive in front of the scout hall. The Boss was at the front ready to lead his boys, behind him came the patrol leaders, then the hand cart with two boys holding the handle at the front of the long shaft, other boys held ropes attached at each side of the cart. The Chief came at the rear to oversee the procession while a young boy, looking very small, walked at his side. At a signal from the Boss the troop moved out the gate on their way to Warrandyte and the Yarra. During the long walk the boys sang with great gusto their favourite songs such as; Poor old Noah had an ark, and covered it over with stringy bark,.
In clear patch under tall gum trees the tents were pitched, the camp fire lit and the boys settled down to the routine of camp life. The next day one boy Joe, caused excitement when he produced a .22 rifle. The boys were torn between the excitement of seeing a gun and doubt about what the Boss will say when he saw it. Joe said it was to shoot a rabbit for tea, but he did not shoot a rabbit. There was consternation and disapproval when Joe shot a platypus. Perhaps shooting a platypus is the Australian equivalent of The Ancient Mariner shooting an Albatross.
The next day when the troop gathered for lunch, Joe was missing. There was a strict rule that when boys left camp they must be in a group of at least three. After questioning by the Chief it came out that there had been an argument and Joe had gone off in the canoe. During the talk the group swung round when a boy shouted, Look! The canoe came floating down the river riding high out of the water and looking very ominous - empty! The troop stood silently as they realised the implication of the empty canoe. Then the Chief took over, organising a rapid search. One of the boys who was a strong swimmer, jumped in and dived to the river bed. He continued to dive in searching the bed of the river and eventually found Joe caught in the branches of a submerged tree.
At the next scout meeting everyone spoke quietly. The Boss looked shattered and went into his office, he did not come out for the parade. The chief assembled the group and spoke about the tragedy. He told them that a river is a place for enjoyment with wonderful opportunities for recreation, swimming, boating and fishing but that a river also has the potential to be dangerous. He told us not to be afraid of a river but to treat it with respect. Be careful, and always follow the simple rules for safety. (Source: Personal experience)
In 1930 the councils of Kew and Heidelberg began to reconstruct the railway line as a road and they repaired the bridge constructing a two lane road across it. The old rail line became the Chandler Highway and the old railway bridge a road bridge. (Source: Lillian Moon, The Australian Municipal Journal 1984)
During the lively days of the 1920s when a post war boom attracted immegrants the population of Melbourne grew. In 1891 when the Board of Works was formed 49000 people had to be supplied with water but in the 20s there were ? . In 1920 the Board started to construct Melburne’s first water supply dam at Maroondah. Water flowed from Maroondah to Melbourne’s taps in 1927. Two years later work commenced to tap the Yarra at a site above the present Upper Yarra Dam with a weir across the river and an aquaduct to the Starvation Creek Basin. From there the water was piped to O’Shannassy aqueduct.
During dry years in the 1920s the Board of Works realised that water was being collected from the Yarra tribrutaries and run through aquducts and pipes to local resevoirs in the suburbs but large storage was needed to balance the dry and wet weather. They constructed the Silvan Reservoir to hold the increased flow that had been brought into the aquducts from the tributares of the Yarra at Upper Yarra and Coranderrk Creek. The Silvan Reservoir was completed in 1932 and was seen as a jewel in the bushland valley of the Dandenongs. (Source: Jim Viggars, Yarra River Conference 1991)
The forests beyond Warrandyte in the upper reaches of the Yarra and the foothills of the Baw Baws were becoming a tourist area for the more active bush walkers and there was a suggestion of marking the tracks with sign posts, but in the late thirties plans were being prepared by the Board of Works to construct the large Upper Yarra Dam. The forests beyond the dam would then become a water catchment area with restricted access.
The Baw Baw track from from McVeighs on the Upper Yarra to Walhalla with its picturesque scenery and challenging track attracted experienced bush walkers and sometimes inexperienced beginners. R.H.Croll walked this track in the 1920s with, other members of The Melbourne Walking Club. Croll described this walk in his book. “The Open Road in Victoria” published in 1928.
“Very few of the of the 50 miles between Walsh’s Creek (McVeigh’s) on the Ipper Yarra and the Railhead at Walhalla - which constitute the “Baw Baw Track” - are easy miles.” They walked along this winding bridle track up the Yarra Valley as it rose above the Yarra. “Higher and higher grow the hills , well clothed , particularly on the right bank, with tall timber and luxuriant shrubs. The slopes above the river look primaeval and untrodden.” The track had been made by miners searching the bush for gold last century. Just before the 15 mile post they found a T blazed on trees giving them a reminder of those days, it indicated the Tanjil.
Along the trail were two iron huts, constructed for walkers where they could spend a night dry and warm in this inhospitable bushland. The huts were well constructed with solid fireplace and concrete floor. A table with a form and boxes to sit on, , facilities for preparing and eating as meal and a broom to clean the hut before leaving. Here Falls Creek joins the Yarra and a mile and half up are six waterfalls.
Croll said that,
“The second stage of the journey opens badly with a determined zig-zag, - As you climb, the Yarra Valley recedes on your left flank; below on the right are glimpses of the Falls Creek. The timber is large, mountain ash in the main, mingled with fine samples of silvertop, and later woollybut. In the season long lashes of christmasn bush are flowering here. Some groves of beech through which the track winds, suggest a stage setting of Fairyland in their still beauty. The variety is endless, now a group of giant gums, now beech or wattle groves, now a young forest, here a marshy spot, there a sparkling stream with its snds aglitter with ‘new chum gold’, always and ever something to attract and hold the attention.“ The party walked on to Walhalla across the irregular but relativly level going of the uplands with its breathtaking views, then the descent into Walhalla. (Source: R. H. Croll - The Open Road in Victoria 1928; Dr. W.H. Green, personal communication.)
Up stream from the Banksia Street Bridge, cows grazed on the land that had been Ricardo’s farm. In 1930 it was a dairy farm, its pasture sloping gently down to the river. John and Sunday Reed purchased the land and restored the old farmhouse calling it “Heidi”. (Source:199 D.T. H.S. Newsletter, Nov 1979 p1)
John and his wife were keenly interested in the arts and they encouraged young contemporary artists. The Reeds had the means to do this in a practical way as John was a practising solicitor and, his wife Sunday, a member of a wealthy family. At Heidi they supported struggling artists, running a small dairy farm as a commune and provided them with canvases and paints. The Reeds introduced artists to galleries helping to exhibit the work of contemporary artists such as Sydney Nolan and Joy Hester. In this house looking down on the Yarra such paintings as The Kelly series and “The Bathers” were painted.
On the hills along the river at Templestowe orchardists took advantage the ready supply of river water for their fruit trees during the dry days of summer. In these years the largest orchard lay on the river llats ay Templestowe. Pettys Orchard lies in a beautiful area with apple trees sweeping over the hills in the magnificent scenic backdrop of the Yarra Valley.
Henry Petty planted this orchard in 1910. The Petty family was the largest fruit growing family in the Doncaster Templestowe district. During the depressed years of the early 1850’s Thomas Petty came to Doncaster from the industrial town of Bradford. His sons became leaders of fruit growing in Doncaster. One boy Tom became an extremely active and industrious man with an imaginative mind that could see possibilities. During his life he purchased many blocks of land where he developed a total of 39 different orchards. While working with fruit trees Tom and his brothers saw the possibilities of making improvement to methods of orcharding such as saving the labourious work of hand spraying with motor operated sprays and solving the problem of ploughing under the branches of fruit trees by the ingeneous “Petty Plough”.
Tom set up his sons on his orchards. One of the sons, Henry had his orchards close to the river and in 1911 he purchased the site of the present Pettys Orchard. Over the years Henry and his son Roy added more land to the property making over sixty hectares. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Records)
After the land boom days of the 1880s followed by the depression of the 1890s bridge building virtualy came to an end. After thr Great War, and the renewed activity during the boom of the 1920s the increased use of motor cars and the growth of outer suburbs, the need for bridges to over come the barrier of the Yarra was again being felt. During the 1920s and 30s twenty new bridges were built.
The Yarra Boulevard
Every new bridge came after a long and heated arguement.. Should local councils pay for it, they representing tthe people who would benifit from a bridge, but local councils did not have the funds for such a major expense. If the Board of Works were to increase its responsibility to include bridge building then the Board would have to increase rates. The Department of Public Works or the Railways Department could be given the responsibility, the work being funded by the State Government. When it came to making the decision , who will build both the Spencer Street Bridge and the damaged Hawthorn Bridge the government procrastinated for several years. The National Party objected to state funds going to metropolitan works and the Labour Party considered that the M.M.B.W. was undemocratic. (Source: Caroline Rasmussen, A Tale of Two Bridges, Victorian Historical Journal, June
1992 p33)
In 1927 the Labour Party came to power and passed legislation to have the Spencer Street Bridge built by the Railways Department
A steam ferry carried vechicals between the city at Spencer Street and Clarendon Street South Melbourne. The ferry was the first crossing place on the Yarra from the wharves at South Melbourne right through the docks and factories on the south and Williamstown and Footscray on the north.
Floods in the 1920s damaged the Hawthorn Bridge. Richmond and Hawthorn Councils carried out minor repairs and traffic was allowed to cross at reduced speed. Trams were not allowed across the bridge. Hawthorn Bridge was a major crossing place, linking Bridge Road Richmond with Burwood Road and Church Road Hawthorn. The bridge has replace a timber structure in 1861 and in 1890 had been widened and strenthend to take the horse trams that linked with the cable route along Bridge Road. When the local councils refused to carry out major reconstruction the government closed the bridge in 1925. Three days later the government was forced to open it again.
Five years of public discussion and heated arguement and took place. Should the old bridge be rebuilt, or a new bridge realigned with Bridge Road and who was to build the bridge. Plans were proposed to make a major artery through Richmond, across a wider bridge to Hawthorn, carrying traffic to the eastern suburbs. Eventually in 1930, despite disappointment form those who wanted the new large bridge and official objections, the Board of Works when t ahead strenghtening the old bridge. (Source: (Source: Caroline Rasmussen, A Tale of Two Bridges, Victorian Historical Journal, Jun 1992 p42) The renovated Hawthorn bridge continues to carry traffic on a major route from the city to the eastern suburbs. It is the oldest bridge on the Yarra.
During the years between the wars new as well as at Spencer Street and Hawthorn bridges were built along the full lenght of the Yarra. At South Yarra the old foot bridge connecting Punt Road with Hoddle street was replaced with the concrete Hoddle Bridge in 1938. Past the Cremorne Railway Brige another concrete bridge connected the two Streets both with ecclesiastic names, Church Street and Chapel Street in 1923. It took the plsce of the 68 year old iron prefabicated structure. The architects Desbrowe-Annear and T.R.Ashworth with engineer John Albert Laing were the designers and Sir John Monash with Reinforced Concrete and Monier Pipe Construction Company carried out the construction. (Source: Dacre Smythe, The Bridges of the Yarra, 1979)
During the depression of 1930 the government planned the Yarra Boulevard as scheme to give employement to the many unemployed in Melbourne. The Boulevard ran along the right bank of the river to Grange Road and then along the left bank. The chocholate manufacturer Sir MacPherson MacRobertson donated a bridge to connect the two ends of the Boulevard at Grange Road.
From Johnson Street, Kew to Banksia Street, Heidelberg there was no crosssing place on the Yarra until in 1926 the Burke Road Bridge was opened. A footbridge, Kanes Brdge connected Studley Park with arra Bend Park in 1929. Named after a Councillor it was a suspension bridge. At Templestowe close to the location of the toll bridge of the 1850s Captain Swanston constructed another suspension bridge in the early 1920s. It gave access from his farm in Greensborough to the township of Templestowe across the river. The floods in the 1920s damaged it and the 1934 flood washed it away. (Source: Brien Mullens, Private communication) At Warrandyte Pearson on whose farm was on the Eltham side of the river built another private suspension bridge across the river to Pound Bend. At each flood it was damaged and rebuilt. The last time he made a wider platform for the raod and could drive his T model Ford across his bridge. This was also washed away in the 1934 flood. (Source: The Late Bruce Bence, Warrandyte Historical Society) At the end of Henley Road a private bridge, built by David Mitchell, connects to Olivers farm. It was badly damaged in the 1934 flood and rebuilt. (Source: Lilydale Historical Society)
From Healesville to Warburton, more than ten bridges were built during these years.
Early one misty autumn morning during the depression years, a fisherman staying at Warrandyte waded out into the Yarra above the township. His business in Melbourne was in serious financial trouble and had decided to have a break while deciding whether to give up and lose everything or try to fight a seemingly losing struggle.
As he stood in the river he felt isolated from the world, for the mist rose up from the water masking out the world, he was alone in the peace and silence of morning. Gradually he felt the presence of someone looking at him. He looked round at the riverbank and through the mist saw a boy sitting on a log. The boy seemed unreal; he was thin, his sad eyes appearing too large for his gaunt features. He called out a greeting to the boy who immediately ran off between the trees but then looked back from behind the trunk of a gum tree.
Later he waded back to the bank and sat on a log to eat the sandwiches the guest house had given him for breakfast. The boy looked from behind the tree again his eyes gazing at the sandwiches. He offered the boy a sandwich but quickly the head vanished, so he laid a sandwich on the log, later he saw it had gone.
Every morning he came to the river to fish and the boy watched and soon he came and sat on the log and hungrily ate a sandwich. They sat in companionable silence. The man asked in the township about the boy and was told that a family lived in an old house in the bush near there. The father occasionally found an odd job but no one ever met the family. If anyone called at the house they ran off into the bush and none of them came near the township. He returned from his break refreshed and with the understanding that others were far worse off than himself. Now he was ready to continue the fight to save his business. (Source: Personal communication)
The Victoria Street bridge was strengthened to carry electric trams, then in 1934, fifty years after it was opened Victoria Bridge was rebuilt. The early bridge builders planned them straight across the river to give the shortest span. That often gave a bend at each approach to the bridge. That was the case at Victoria Street. The new bridge was built in line with the road eliminating the sharp bends on the Richmond side. On the east a high hill had to be excavated for the approach, the earth taken from there was carted to to the west where it formed an approach viaduct. (Source: Lilian Moon, The Australian Municipal Journal, Aug 1984 p53)
On the hill on the north east side is Rockingham, once the home of John Herbert Syme, who was manager of The Age Newspaper, from 1900 till his death in 1939.16 The Red Cross Society purchased his house and land at the beginning of world2 war two and used the main area of the land as a rehabilitation centre for wounded soldiers. (Source: Personal communication, the Late Monica Sterk)
Larkin Aircraft Company Coode Island
Sport that had been held in abeyance during the war revived but soon rowing and regattas were revived. The Head of the River, rowed over a one mile course, between the six Public Schools grew into one of Melbourne’s major events. Each year heats selected the crews for the final race on the Saturday. On the day the people of Melbourne crowded the river bank cheering and shouting the name of the school they were supporting, while excited boys from the schools linked arms and, with great gusto, sung their school rowing song. The race started between Andersons Street Bridge and the foot bridge at Punt Road. Crowds lined the parapet of the bridge to watch the start then as the boats passed under the bridge they rushed across the raadway to the the opposite parapet. Some followed the race in cars along Batman Avenue but during the twenties the road became crowded and dangerous so Batman Avenue was closed for the afternoon.
The “Boat Race” became a main sporting event in Melbourne . People of all types and interests wore the coloured ribbons of their favourite crews and on the day of the race coloured streamers waved from cars, red and gold for Scotch, dark blue for Melbourne Grammer, purple for Wesley and light blue for the two Gelong schools. As the race finished colours of the winning crew were hauled to the top of the flag pole above the judges box then from the roof of the Herald building in Flinders Street an observer watched for the flag and hurried down to the editorial office where the front page of that night’s paper was quickly made up to tell Melbourne the winner of the “Head Of The River”.
At the first race in 1878, the crews rowed in gigs with fixed seats ten years later they used outrigger fours with sliding seats then in 1901 the schools rowed in racing eights. Xavier joined the competition in 1906 and two years later Geelong. (Source: The Victorian Oarsman’s Grammar Newsletter. Mar 1995; Apr 1926) With four schools at Melbourne and two at Geelong the race was held on the Barwon River at Geelong every four years. Scotch College and Xavoir had their own boat shed on the Yarra at Hawthorn and Kew while Wesley College boat shed was at Albert Park Lake. The week of the race these schools moved thier boats to sheds at Princes bridge. Melbourne Grammer built a boat shed on Albert Park Lake in the 1880s but rented space in Banks rowing Club for their eight oar boats. In 1920 a site on the Yarra alongside the other sheds at Princes Bridge became available. The school built a large boat shed with a tower on the side and a balcony on the front. < >
After the boat race the crew would come out on the balcony to receive the cheers of the school boys shouting and singing the school boating song below. It was remenicent of the Royal Family making a Royal appearence on the balcony of Buckingham terrace.
In the early 1930s Dr. Darling arrived to become Head Master of Geelong Grammer. He saw all the excitement and the public hype. Dr. Darling was horified at the disruption to the school work and the effect to the boys in crews who were being treated as heroes. After dicussions with the other Head Master changes were made. The Head of the River race was held on Fridays to cut down on public interest. A suggestion was made that every year the race be held on the Barwon River at Geelong, but this was not to happen till the 1950s when the Yarra was partly blocked during the building of the Swan Street Bridge.
The style of rowing went through a change during the 1930s. Rowing in racing gigs had developed when the seats were fixed. In the 1890s Steve Fairbairn, the expert on rowing, advocated the use of sliding seats. (Source: Australia in World Rowing, Steve Fairbairn p20) A style had developed during the years when fixed seats were being used and most clubs continued with the same style. To obtain a long stroke the body leant foreward at the start of the stroke and leant back at the end. Both when leaning foreward or back the body is weak. The sliding seat gave a longer stroke and Fairbairn urged a different style keeping the body more upright and use the full power of the legs.
Members of the Melbourne Grammer School crews went to complete their course at Cambridge University. They returned to Melbourne at the end of the twenties bringing with them the Fairbairn style. The coach of Melbourne was then Walter Ricketts, he adopted this style and also built up a winning attitude with slogans on the walls of their dressing room.” When you are tired and feel you can’ row any harder, remember the other crew feel just the same.” (Source: personal recollections) His crew won the head of the river for four years running.
By 1934 Melbourne was recovering from the great depression then, with the excitement of preparing for the Centenary Celebrations of Victoria, the depression was forgotten. Many sporting events were planned but the event that attracted most people was Henley on The Yarra. A large enthusiastic crowd flocked to the banks of the Yarra and poured into the special enclosures.
Prince Henry, the duke of Glouster came to Melbourne as part of the Centenary Celebrations. At Henley, escorted by Sir George Fairbairn he boarded a motor launch at the steps of Princes Bridge and was taken on an inspection tour of the decorated house-boats moored along the river banks and during the during the race for the grand Challenge Cup followed the race.
The Scottish Pipe Band helped keep the the gala atmosphere of the day alive with their stirring tunes and a series of attractive entertainments took place between the races. There was a parade of Mounted Police the then the line of decorated canoes in which parasole sporting canoe girls wearing wide straw hats reclined among masses of billowing satin their escorts paddling past the judges. After this the judges selected the Miss Henley Girl contest then the presentations and speeches by the City Fathers. (Source: Australia in World Rowing, Alan N. Jacobsen, p31)
During the rowing events a crew from Port Melbourne beat Williamstown in a race for Naval Cutters and in the main event of the day, the Senior Eights Race for the Grand Challenge Cup, both a crew from London and another from New Zealand took part. The London crew won by four lengths. The rowing sports writer of the Sun said they had won in a time that was thought to be impossible and this proved the value of the Fauirbairn style. (Source: The Sun, Nov 10)
At the beginning of December 1934, the worst storm in living history battered Victoria. From Thursday morning until Friday night incessant rain fell with violent gales of sixty-three miles an hour flattened farms, stripped orchards, swamped pastures and shattered buildings. The Yarra rose in the worst flood sine 1863 as its tributaries poured water into the already flooded river. Southerly winds pushed water up the bay and into the Yarra preventing the escape of the flood waters. By Sunday a huge inland sea covered areas of Kew, Ivanhoe, Heidelberg, Eltham, Bulleen and Balwyn.
Warrandyte was cut off as water cover bridges. At Bulleen four market gardeners climbed onto the roof of their house to escape the flood and when the water rose higher neighbours rescued two of the men with a boat but the other two were washed away. Chipperfield, who lived in a boat shed on the bank of the Yarra at North Balwyn, was thankful for hving taken the precaution of tying a ladder to the upper window of his house ready to escape in a boat.
At Kanes Bridge the water tore away the supports on one end of the bridge and it swung round to stay along side the south bank. Then a large house floating down the river jammed against the battered bridge. Workmen opened up a hole in the roof then with ropes hauled out furniture from the house. A man driving along a road next to Diamond creek became trapped by the flood. He tied his car to a telegraph pole, and refused to leave the car. When the car was swept away, he tried to reach dry land by climbing along the telegraph wires. Onlookers joined hands and tried to reach him but he too was swallowed by the flood.
On Saturday night, a man returning from Melbourne tried to drive across Bourke Road bridge although it was under water. As the river rose, he climbed onto the roof where he had to stay all night, soaking wet in the cold wind. In the morning, a man rode out on a horse and tied a rope to the car then towed the car to dry land with the man still on the roof. Mr. Jones, Minister for Public Works stated that, “It was a foolhardy thing to do for there were many warning signs. The only good to come out of this is now we know that the bridge is still there.”
At Richmond the electric cable under the river was broken cutting off power to Suburbs on the south.. A line fired over the river by rocket was used to drag a new cable overhead to connect to the southern suburbs again.
The storm caused widespread damage to almost the whole of Victoria. Just when the centenary celebrations of Victoria had revived the country after the depression the storm had brought misery to so many whose farms and crops were destroyed, and their houses flooded. (Source: The Argus and Sun News Pictorial, Dec 2-5, 1934; personal experience.)
CHAPTER 7 The River in Depression 1940 - 1970
Upstream from the Banksia Street Bridge, cows grazed on the land that had been Ricardo’s farm. In 1930 it was a dairy farm, its pasture sloping gently down to the river. John and Sunday Reed purchased had the land and restored the old farmhouse calling it “HEIDI”. (Source: D.T. H.S. Newsletter, Nov 1979 p1)John and his wife were keenly interested in the arts and they encouraged young contemporary artists. The Reeds had the means to do this in a practical way as John was a practising solicitor and Sunday a member of a wealthy family. At Heidi they supported struggling artists, running a small dairy farm as a commune and provided them with canvases and paints. The Reeds introduced artists to galleries helping to exhibit the work of contemporary artists such as Sydney Nolan and Joy Hester. In this house looking down on the Yarra such paintings as The Kelly series and “The Bathers” were painted.
In 1964 the Reeds commissioned architect David McGlasham to design a new home “Heidi II”, constructed of Mt. Gambier stone timber and glass. The Royal Victorian Institute of Architects awarded the house, “The Outstanding Building of 1968.” After the death of the Reids, Heide II became an art gallery and the land with its English Kitchen Garden and contemporary statues by Australian sculptors, a public park.
Artists have been attracted to the Yarra for many years. In the 1860’s Eugene von Geurard set up his easel and painted a sweeping landscape of the Yarra flats, “Sunset on the Yarra”. A critic described this painting. “There is a picturesque variety of rocky and verdue-clad banks and steep and striking forms with rich colourings of foliage in trees and shrubs with a thousand lake-like bits of water.”
Louis Buvelot painted “Summer Evening near Templestowe”, a pastoral scene of the river flats at the end of Thompsons Road also “Winter Morning Near Heidelberg”, a similar river scene on the north bank. A group of artists, Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin (who had been taught by Buvelot) with Aurthur Streeton Charles Condor and others, after camping at Box Hill came to Heidelberg in 1888. Here they painted many views of the Yarra landscape. It was such painting as Streeton’s “The Purple Noon’s Transparent Light” that established Australian impressionism.<$FText of Footnote Golden Summers>
Across the river opposite Templestowe, Captain Swanston disliked the long trip over the unmade road to Eltham Township. He found it easier to row across to Templestowe. To make the crossing easier he built a suspension bridge close to the junction of Ruffeys Creek. By the 1920’s Swanstons Bridge, one of the few private Bridges had deteriorated and in the 1934 flood it was washed away. (Source: Brien Mullens, personal communication)
Across the river opposite Templestowe, Captain Swanston disliked the long trip over the unmade road to Eltham Township. He found it easier to row across to Templestowe. To make the crossing easier he built a suspension bridge close to the junction of Ruffeys Creek. By the 1920’s Swanstons Bridge, one of the few private Bridges had deteriorated and in the 1934 flood it was washed away. (Source: Brien Mullens, personal communication)
From Banksia Street to Warrandyte is a long stretch without a river crossing. The shires each side of the river selected a site for a bridge at Fitzsimons Lane, but it was ten years of argument and persuasion before work began. The Board of Works, who were to do the construction, wanted to build a one lane bridge. Fortunately the councils insisted on two lanes.<$FText of Footnote City of Doncaster and Templestowe Engineer personal communication> On 13th October 1961 the Fitzsimons bridge was built but during the 1960’s
The Catholic church purchased Swanston’s land to build The Blessed Father,s Monastery. On the day the monastery was opened, because of the remote site, the church built a temporary bridge of steel scaffolding. Afterwards, the scaffolding was removed leaving the Fathers the need row across the river to reach the the road to Melbourne and St. Patrick’s Catheral. Soon they erected a suspension footbridge across the river. Now this serves Odyssey House.
From Heidelberg to Warrandyte is a long stretch without a river crossing. The shires each side of the river selected a site for a bridge at Fitzsimons Lane, but it was ten years of argument and persuasion before work began. The Board of Works, who were to do the construction, wanted to build a one-lane bridge. Fortunately, the councils insisted on two lanes. (Source: City of Doncaster and Templestowe, Engineer communication)
On 13th October 1961 the Fitzsimons bridge was completed. The Board of Works engineer, Paddy O’Donnell, had doubts about its value. The land north of the river was occupied by farms, south of the river seemed a deserted area and the prospect of traffic here seemed unlikely. At the opening of the bridge he said, “This bridge is a mismatch. It is the biggest mistake we have ever made, it will never be used.” (Source: City enginner, City of Doncaster and Templestowe) The bridge had three lanes, two for traffic and one lane for pedestrians and if it is needed the pedestrian lane can be converted for traffic. People did use this new crossing. it gave access from areas north of Eltham to suburbs south of the river. When the Eastern Freeway was opened ending at Bulleen the bridge became became another access route to the freeway and twenty years later the bridge could not cope with amount of traffic crossing during peak hours.
In the first decades after the 39-45 war few people thought of the Yarra as a place of recreation or used its bushland banks to walk and enjoy nature. They were busy rebuilding family life, houses and schools. The Bulleen river flats had been looked on as a place for the local rubbish tip. Many councillors of the time thought that any land that was not used for a practical purpose such as housing, farming or for sports, was waste land. By 1960 the gullies along the river on Bulleen road were being filled in with rubbish, later to become football and cricket grounds.31 During the 1970’s and 80’s public attitudes changed on many subjects such as conservation and life styles. Then the gullys were cleans out and the ground raised and levelled for a sports area. By that time attitudes to sports had also changed. Bulleen Park, set in a curve of the Yarra held,as well as football grounds, space for archery, model aeroplane flying, and hockey.
The river flats have been changed. Golf courses, the park grounds of Carey Baptist School and Bulleen Park have been made places for active sport. Melbourne Water have made river paths and set aside areas for passive recreation on the natural bushland around the billabong and now fishermen relax in its peaceful setting where once aborigines speared fish, also a series of Metropolitan Parks provide picnic places in delightful riverland areas
From Yarra Glen, the river runs through a flood plain then swings round in a series of wide curves with sandy beaches in the corners. After running below the high slopes of Mount Lofty, another curve encloses Yarra Brae. It was here at the end of 1948 that 10.000 scouts camped.
Melbourne was selected to run the Pan Pacific Scout Jamboree in 1948. The Jamboree Council faced the problem of finding a site where temporary services of water supply, electricity, sanitation, roads, telephone, and other communication could be provided. Lord Clifford, who lived on the banks of the Yarra at Wonga Park, offered his estate “Yarra Brae” as the site for the Jamboree.
The Victorian branch of the Scouts Association began the task of preparing the land for a major camp area to cater for the large number scouts coming from all around the world. The Country Roads Board helped to clear the camp site and build roads. A water supply, pumped from the river, was laid down, telephone lines erected, shops, banks and the Jamboree headquarters built. The Scouts lived in tents that they erected when on arrival.
The area was perfect for such an occasion. The campground stood on a hill in a curve of the river surrounded by gum trees and spectacular hilly bushland. The Jamboree became a colourful spectacle, with camp sites decorated, often with designs from their countries, and carved bush timber signs at the entrance to sites. Flags hung from flagpoles some as high as sixty feet. Visitors from other countries brought the symbols of their own ethnic cultures. The New Zealanders performed a Haka during assemblies and the Lithuanian boys made an unusual dining table where they sat around a circular trench with the ground in the centre decorated with leaves and pine cones. All over the area, boys in their full uniform marched and ran over the land happily calling out, yelling and singing.
Lord Rowallan, the Chief Scout of the British Empire, and Governor General Mr. McKell, the Chief Scout of Australia opened the Jamboree. Lord Rowallan said that Wonga Park alongside the Yarra was the finest Scout Camp in the world. Then every day an interesting program kept the boys occupied, but possibly the most important aspect for the scouts was meeting boys from other countries. They experienced the spirit of being a Scout, whatever their race or country and the ten days of the Jamboree broadened their minds. When they left, they were no longer the same boys.
In 1955, again scouts from twenty nations came to Wonga Park for another Pan Pacific Jamboree. Again Lord Clifford provided his land Yarra Brae, now called Clifford Park, for the Jamboree. It was larger, this time 15,000 scouts poured onto the site and 10,000 visitors came to see the boys. The planning, organisation and catering was on a massive scale. Nearly one hundred miles of wire was used in the camp’s telephone system. Up stream on the Yarra, two pumps, one 150 horsepower and a smaller for back up, pumped water to a tank on the top of the hill for the camp’s supply and the tank took six hours to fill. There were scouts everywhere. On the roads, there were always groups going somewhere and when the scouts assembled to welcome Lord Rowallan, the mass of boys stretched away into the distance.
Heavy rain during the days before the Jamboree had soaked the ground and soon the boys' boots churned the earth into mud, unfortunately rain continued. The river was running fast and was dangerous, so the leaders strictly controlled swimming to one place where there were always life guards on duty and they arranged a roster of times for each group to swim. (Source: Official Scout Newspaper for the 1948-9 and 1955-6 Jamborees)
The Jamboree ended on 7th January 1956. The boys left but for the next month the work of cleaning up the ground continued. The general rubble had to be removed and the temporary buildings and fittings dismantled. Clifford Park remaind as a Scout Camp area and volunteers built Rowallan Hall as a centre for camps. Scout groups came to camp throughout the year but at Easter and after Christmas large meetings were held. Then in 1961 Rover Scouts came to this park on the Yarra for the 7th World Rover Moot.
In 1962 Lewis Clifford succeeded his brother and became Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. He left the next year to live on one of his estates in Spain and died in 1984. Scouting had been one of his great interests and as he lived on this land on the banks of the Yarra, Lord Clifford had the opportunity to express his love of scouting in a practical way.. He followed the preparations for the Jamboree not only helping but providing thousands of dollars for the project and later formed his own Scout Troop at Wonga Park.
Clifford Park is now a permanent Scout Camp and a fitting memorial to the man who did so much for scouting in those years.
Beyond Warburton
The Board of Works planned its most ambitious scheme, the Upper Yarra Dam, at the end of the 1930s and had the site selected and ready to build the Upper Yarra dam but then World War 2 commenced. After the delay during the war years work went ahead and was completed in 1957. It was the largest single storage in the Melbourne’s water supply system holding 300,000 mega litres with 75, 000 hectares of catchments. (Source: Jim Viggers, River Yarra Conference 1991)With the completion of the dam, the Yarra came racing down the mountain slopes to flow smoothly into the dam. From the outflow it poured into a modest river course bur as the river went tributaries added to its volume and an ample stream wound through the river flats at Yarra Glen. Through Warrandyte the Yarra tumbled over rocks and hurried along the gorge at Kew. Finally the river that had provided the site fro Melbourne proudly flowed through the city to lesuirely flow out into Port Phillip Bay.
During the 1950s work started on a new bridge at Kings Street. The Utah Corporation constructed not just a single bridge but three spans carrying sweeping roadways that came from under an overpass in Flinders Street, and swung round the the right and left down into Yarra Bank Road, with a central road that sweeped up over the river then up to the tops of buildings where it fed traffic on an expressway to right across and over City Road then down into Kingsway.
The bridge was proudly opened on 12 April 1961. A giant crane boom spread right across the bridge approach blocked traffic. Henry Bolte, then Premier pressed a button that blew a siren and the crane driver raised the boom allowing traffic to swarm across the bridge. “Kings Bridge” not Kings Street Bridge, that cost 4,100,000 pounds was a great success for it brought Western end of the city within a few minutes of South Melbourne. (Source: The Age, 13 April 1961) The triumph of the bridge did not last long. Soon after it was opened a loaded semitrailer coming from South Melbourne decided to try the new bridge, as the truck drove up the approach ramp the driver felt the back drop. He quickly changed down to a lower gear to get out of what felt like a hole. A section of the the bridge overpass had broken. At first, the truck driver was blamed for breaking the bridge but when it was found that the bridge had cracks along its length, people realised that the truck driver, by finding that the bridge was faulty, may have avoided a serious accident. The bridge could have broken over the river with fatal consequences...
Experts found that the problem was the result of, the type of steel used combined with the design and the incorrect welding techniques used. The bridge was repaired and strengthened. Engineers attached steel cables to the girders. These were stretched, compressing the steel beams preventing the numerous cracks from spreading. The restored Kings Bridge was reopened two years later. (Source: Graham Haarck, Civil Engineer personal communication.)
Near the mouth of the Yarra, every day, long lines of traffic, on both sides of the river, waited for the Williamstown Ferry. There were frequent demands for a bridge to replace the ferry. This would not only connect the wharves at Williamstown and the factories on the west with South Melbourne and the southern suburbs but would also give a faster route to Geelong. As a result, the West Gate Bridge was planned, with a freeway approach from Geelong Road on the north, to a freeway through South Melbourne. In the late 1960s, work started on the bridge, it rose up fifty-four metres over the Yarra to be above the masts of ships sailing up the river. As work started tall slender columns rose up into the air and from the sides the deck of the bridge grew out to reach the columns. From the ground, the men working up in the air looked like ants.
In previous years, bridge builders built platforms over the water to support the deck of bridges during construction, but here the decks of the roadway were being held by cables. During October 1970 one section of road deck was twisted in this insecure situation and could not be correctly joined to the next. Weights were placed on one side while cables pulled up the other to straighten the section. When the section would not bend bolts were removed. Without the security of the bolts the joint was weekend. The workmen struggling to straighten the section had the horror of hearing the the section break away. In one horrible instant, the steel decking with all its workmen fell to the ground. Thirty five men were killed. After a long inquiry the bridge was redesigned and new contractors, John Holland and Dorman Long, this time using different construction methods, completed the bridge in 1978.
The opening of the Westgate Bridge was the first great celebration of a bridge since the opening of Princes Bridge eighty years before. For more than two years, people had been watching the giant spans take their place till there was no longer any gap. All night people had sat in their cars to be among the first to cross the great structure. West Gate was ushered in with great pizzaz , a brass band played Star Wars, a squadron of Macche Jets flew over, a cavalcade of vintage cars followed by four grim looking army personell carriers led the way across the bridge followed by a swarm of pedestrians. At four o’clock the Police Inspector gave the order to open the barriers and the first of 20,000 cars drove over the bridge during the first six hours.
Behind all the excitement hung the memory of the thirtyfive men who died during the construction. Relations and friends of the men laid wreaths on the memorial at the base of the columns where the men’s names were inscribed. One eleven year old girl laid a wreath to the father who had died when she was only two years old and Bob Setha, a rigger who was working on the span when it fell recalled how he rode it down into the Yarra. He remembered his two mates who were working with him and had died.<$FText of Footnote The Herald Sun 16 November 1978>
People marvelled at the magesty of the structure with the thin ribbon of roadway rising up into the air to cross the water so far below. As they drove over the bridge there was a feeling of apprenshion, knowing that it had once collapsed killing so many but the view of the hills in the distance and the City of Melbourne laid out before them their apprehension turned to admiration for the grandure of this engineering feat.
The simple pleasures to be found on the river were forgotten in the 30s when people had cars to take them to farther places. Possibly it started during the 1930s depression but, among people in the inner suburbs there had been a lack of interest in the Yarra in the past. To many the Yarra became merely a river, that had to be crossed on a bridge, and seen from a car was just a stream of dirty water. The Yarra had often behaved badly, particularly during the 1934 flood. The river seemed to be more of a problem than an asset after all it was a diry brown colour. Melbourne suffered from the inferiority complex that nothing we had was really good.
The river that runs upside down became a popular saying. As the Yarra flows through its 240 kilomstres being fed by tributaries it collects a high sediment from the soil giving the water a dirty brown colour. . Actually it could be said to run upside down.. At high tide salt water flows into the river. The salt water runs under the fresh water and the salt precipitats the sediment leaving clear water underneath. Where the Yarra flows through the City, the water at the top may be muddy but about a metre underneath there is clear clean water. (Source: Dr. Brian Finlayson, Yarra River Conference 1991)
CHAPTER 8 Life Returns to the River. 1970 - Give the Yarra a go.
In February 1980 The Age newspaper launched a major campaign, Give the Yarra A Go. An Englishman, Michael Davies came to Melbourne, as editor of the Age, in the 1970s. Davie not only saw the Yarra but admired and was impressed by it. He was also shocked by the attitude of the Melbourne people who did not appreciate the river but also seemed to dislike it.Davie planned a campaign, ”Give The Yarra A Go”. He selected a team, executives, reporters and photographers, then gave tem two months to study the river, its history and environment.
The timing was right for such a campaign. During the 1970s, there were many interested in the Yarra. Painters still used the river as a subject and Neil Douglas held an exhibition of his Yarra Oaintings. One group had asked photographers to contribute to and exhibition of the Yarra. Most of those who centribute concentrated on the polution in and arround the river. One photographer was excited because as she walked along the river looking forshots a truck gave her a splendid shot as it tipped a load of rubbish right in front of her. At Bulleen a school class went on an excursion to see how much rubbish and polution they could find along the river. They were most dissapointed when they were bot able to find any.
The Give the Yarrra A Go campain commenced on Saturday 23 February 1980. A hard hitting article with a striking half page photograph by Bruce Postle of Dight’s Falls on the front page. The writer said:
“A vast lethargy has somehow come between the people of Melbourne and its greatest, indeed its only natural asset.
“It is an extraordinary fact , that whereas anyone who goes up the river in a boat can at once see that the river could become as important to the life of Melbourne as the Seine is to Paris, the great majority of Melbourne people regard the river almost as something to be ashamed of.” There were more articles through the paper and the campaign continued each day that week.
The Age laid down six aims:
1. Turn Batman car park into a proper park.
2. Push a bicycle and walking track through to Dight’s Falls.
3. Bring back boats to the river.
4. Clean up the river.
5. Turn the river and its banks into a river park under a single authority. (Source: The Age, 23 Feb 1880)
Davie said that the seeds of the campaign were sown in his mind when the car park was pointed out to him. To him, the irony that the name of Melbourne’s founder was attached to a bleak riverside car park was “Symbolic of the way the Melbourne had let slip its opportunities”. (Source: Mr.Peter Cole Adams, Yarra River Conference, 1991)
Reaction to the campaign was fast to come about. The next week the Lord Mayor that the City needed State funding to transform Batman’s Park into a landscaped garden. Ever since the 60s there had been requests for this but councillors had always insisted that it be a car park. In further issues of the paper, the car lobby still insisted.
Since the first people settled on the banks of the Yarra, boats have constantly plyed along the river. But in the 60s and 70s, except for racing skiffs, any type of small boat has not been seen. This has been partly due to the low level of the Queen’s and Kings bridges where there is often less than a metre at high tide. Also the Board of works discouraged small boats. There were no launching ramps or moorings available.
The National Trust moored Polly Woodside in the old Dry dock with tourist attractions. On either side were neglected old wharves. Here was an obvious place for improvement.
The Board of works had been improving the quality of the river water. Installation of sewage along the river and its tributaries had made a large difference but the creeks and drains constantly carried rubbish, from the streets in the eastern suburbs, into the river.
The only path to run alongside the river ran from Princes Bridge to Grange Road. This was mainly for the use of rowing coaches to follow their crews on bicycles.
During the following years, these objectives were being carried out. The Age campaign was not directly responsible for all that was done. What the campaign did was to change the attitude of the majority of Melbourne people.
On other rivers in other places, the boat tied up to the jetty led to the rest of the World, but on the Yarra where a house had access to the river the car in the driver led through the front gate to the World. The boat in the boat shed led to recreation and relaxation on the river
Chelsworth Park is now part of Wilson reserve. Here in 1908, when boy scouts were new in Melbourne, the 1st. Ivanhoe Sea Scout troop was formed at a sharp bend of the Yarra and the troop built a scout hall. Two years later the first training camp for Scout Leaders was held on the site. On summer weekends, the river bank came alive with boys swimming and paddling canoes in the river and boys in scout uniform running about on the river banks busy with activities and exercises. The founder of the group, Skipper Wilson remained as Scoutmaster until his death forty years later. Wilson Reserve was named after him. Swimming is not allowed now for there are fast currents around the bend and the riverbanks are slippery. (Source: Australia in World Rowing, Alan N.Jacobsen, p95)
Between Heidelberg and Kew, the Yarra ran between reserves and parks. Open land that can be enjoyed by the people of Melbourne. From Kew to Burnley as well as parks many private home have a river frontage. The front of these houses have their entrance from a street with a drive and garage for their car. On the river, most have a small jetty and boat shed for their boat. In the 1930s, a boulevard was built giving the wonderful opportunity of being able to drive through a delightful river valley. Now Melbourne Water have laid down a walking and bicycle track providing greater access to the Yarra
In 1985, Paul van der Sluys restored the buildings as the Fairfield Park Boat House and Tea Garden.
The Upper Yarra River Course in Melbourne is better than the wind-plagued Albert Park Lake, but the same elements of chance are there, plus other hazards of tides , floods, and S bends. The Yarra River, love it or leave it, is truly Melbourne - historic, picturesque, nostalgic, convenient and excellent in every way for rowing training. But it is not suitable for boat racing. The Yarra courses are not up to modern standards. A new course has now been made for Water Sports at Carrum.
No comments:
Post a Comment