Original Scan Images DN2023-05-28B-02
090 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Home deliveries
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
June 8th 1982
(For the anecdotes in this article I am indebted to Mrs Hazel Poulter of Templestowe). DURING the 1920s all goods were delivered to the home.
Foy and Gibson, a large retail store in Smith St., Collingwood, delivered once a week to Templestowe. People chose the items they wanted from a catalogue which was posted to their customers twice a year. The order would be sent by letter and the following week a large Foy and Gibson Albion chain-driven motor van delivered the goods. Practically all Christmas presents were bought in this manner. One year Father Christmas did not bring my brother a wheelbarrow for which he had asked but left a note to say he would "Send it by Foy and Gibsons next week." Mrs Hazel Poulter of Templestowe recalls.
An old man called Billy Barry walked the district for many years at regular times selling small items such as pins, needles, tape measures, lace buttons, combs, hairpins, hatpins, buttonhooks, threads and cotton. All his goods he carried in a dress basket strapped on his back. Earlier still, Billy Barry used a donkey and cart to travel around the district. As he grew older however, he lessened his range of goods and found it easier to hawk on foot. A Mr Robin travelled around in a single seater car with a dickey seat, selling materials and taking orders for suits. The baker called three times a week. The baker's shop was where the newsagent at Templestowe in now. At one period the baker's name was Mr Baker.
A tinker, named Mr Jones, called about four times a year selling pots and pans, crockery, kitchen utensils and buckets. All the tinware made a noise as he jogged along in his wagon. At night he camped beside the road under Mangan's pine trees at the bend of the road where Warrandyte Rd. starts in Templestowe. On Tuesdays and Fridays the butcher called. Joe Bourke who worked for Mr George Smith for many years, would open the butcher's cart and chop and saw the meat, while mothers waited with meat dishes in their hands. If children were around he would give them a raw sausage to eat. Mr Smith, the butcher, bought pigs, bulls, cows and calves from local people for use in the shop.
Grocery orders were taken by the general store. On Tuesdays the man called for the orders on horse back and the goods would be delivered the next day by cart. Delivered with the groceries would be such things as chaff, wheat, pollard, bran and kerosene. Sugar and flour would be bought by the bag. Treacle and golden syrup came in 7-lb. tins. There was always a "poke" of boiled Jollies with each order — free. Tobacco came with the groceries. The general store was where the Caltex service station is now. At the store 3d. worth of broken biscuits could be bought. "We would get a bag full enough to divide between four children," said Mrs Poulter.
Continued next week.
091 ByWays DoncasterMirror
(2)
Home Deliveries
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
June 15, 1982
THE Doctor called from Heidelberg and charged one pound ten shillings extra for travelling. If a patient needed hospital care the family doctor would often take the patient to the hospital in his own car.
Today, many parents are expected to spend their free time helping their children with school work, driving to clubs, sports and activities. In the early days the obligation was the other way round. In their spare time children were expected to help the parents and help run the home.
As the children grew older 'they took on extra jobs and small children graduated from small jobs to larger ones. Work done depended on the age of the child. Small children gathered kindling wood which lay on the ground.
Mrs. Poulter, of Temple-stowe, remembers her mother complaining when the children came in with a small armful of wood; "I don't want a sparrow's nest, go and get a crow's nest."
Older boys milked the cow took it to the dam for a drink. They fed and watered the horse and cut oats with a sickle for the animals. They cleaned out the stable, chopped wood and dug the strips in the orchard. There were chooks to feed and water, eggs to gather and wash. This work was usually done by one of the girls.
Mrs. Poulter’s Saturday morning job from about the age of eight was to sit at the kitchen table and cut squares of newspaper for lavatory paper. "The paper was threaded onto a string with a packing needle, then hung on a nail in the toilet,” recalls Mrs. Poulter. “When my youngest sister was old enough to do that job I graduated to cleaning the knives and forks and spoons."
Mother would scrape the dishes after the night's meal then leave the washing, drying and putting away to the eldest children. This work was done on the kitchen table using a wash up dish and tray During arguments between children over whose turn it was to wash, dry or put away water would often be flicked around at each other. If the water happened to hit the lamp glass this would crack and the children would all be in trouble.
Wash up water-was thrown on the flower garden to conserve tank water. Many hands make light work but sometimes too many cooks (child cooks) can spoil the broth. Cooking was done in black iron saucepans. If food caught on the bottom of a saucepan wash up water would be poured into it and the saucepan put to the back of the wood stove to soak. One of these times when the saucepan was soaking there was also a saucepan of soup stock on the stove. Mrs. Poulter's mother, Mrs Morrison, was going out and left instructions for Hazel's sister Isabel to chop up the vegetables and add to the soup stock for lunch. When the soup was dished up the children started complaining about the "aw-ful" soup.
Mr. Morrison, who didn't eat soup, made them eat it. When Mrs. Morrison came home and was told about the awful soup she soon found that the vegetables had been put into the wrong saucepan, with the old wash up water.
Other chores for children were helping on v wash days. When tank water was low in summer, mother would take the washing to the river by horse and sled. Children gathered wood while she boiled the clothes in a kerosene tin on the bank of the river. The clothes were hung to dry on a rope tied between two trees or spread over tea-tree bushes.
At fruit tree pruning time it was the children's job to gather up the cuttings. They were put into a great stack ready for a bonfire on Guy Fawke's night. Once, the "child labour" made the fruit crop tome a cropper. When fruit trees had heavy crop of fruit they were thinned out to get a better quality fruit.
Once when this job was in progress the Morrisons were called out unexpectedly and left instructions with a couple of their children to thin out and leave about four peaches to a lateral. When the parents arrived home they found the ground strewn with green peaches. The children had left four peaches to a limb. Their mistake was in thinking a lateral was a limb.
Children also helped with picking strawberries, peas and turnips. Pea picking was back breaking work. One child had a successful ruse to get out of picking strawberries.
He was always in trouble for picking green strawberries. When he continued with the habit his father decided he must be colour blind and put him off the job. It was later found out he had put on this act.
The Pied Piper of Hamlyn wasn't the only one who used children to end a rat plague. When there was a rat plague at Templestowe all the family were mobilised in an effort to get rid of the rats. Hot water was carried from the copper and poured down the rat holes and around the sheds. As the scalded rats emerged the children finished them off with sticks.
(Acknowledgements to Mrs Hazel Poulter).
092 ByWays DoncasterMirror
June 19, 1982
Gold and antimony mining
Byways of local history
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
FEATHERTOP Av, Templestowe, was the site of a gold and antimony mine in 1856, near the corner of Thompsons Rd. A gold reef was discovered there but soon petered out. After a few years of gold production it was abandoned. No records seem to exist on how much gold was produced there. But about 1880 a further mine was opened there and sunk to a depth of 400 feet. It was tunnelled out in all directions with the main metal mined being an-timony. The quartz mined there was washed at Ruffey's Creek, and in the municipal gardens, the stone retaining wall of this plant can still be seen. Antimony is a dull silver coloured metal used in the making of lead alloy for such objects as jewel cases. It has been used since ancient times as a cosmetic. It is also used in the manufacture of medicine particularly cough medicine. Chief use is in hardening metals, alloyed with lead and tin.
A form of antimony sulphide which is red, finds its use in the manufacture of rubber and a black form is used in making matches. Antimony was used, too, by notorious poisoners. Combined with cream of tartar, it produces a violent emetic, known as tartar emetic. Yet this same compound is used for treating dysentery and worms. At one time the Templestowe antimony mine had 30 men on the pay roll. Disaster struck in August 1892. The manager was away. Water from an old shaft suddenly rushed into the mine killing two men. Others were rescued with great difficulty.
By about 1910 the value of antimony was not sufficient to work the mine profitably so it was closed down with a loss of work for many local men. This disaster had a strange twist. A young man called Grant, son of a resident of Warrandyte, was employed at the gold and antimony mine. Before he descended on the fatal day, Grant said to his mates: "Goodbye, boys. You won't see me again, I'm going to get married." The words were truer than the speaker thought. He was never seen alive again. An underground stream flooded the lower levels of the mine and Grant and a companion were drowned. Many gold seekers on their way to the main diggings at Warrandyte passed through Templestowe. It has been said that some of the many sailors who jumped ship at the time of the gold rush eventually settled in the quiet Templestowe township where they were unlikely to be found.
(Acknowledgement to Mrs Hazel Poulter of Templestowe).
093 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Warrandyte Post Office
July 11 1982
Byways of local history
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
THE old Warrandyte Post Office, gutted by fire early this month, was not the first post office in Warrandyte. Nor was the building itself always a post office. The first pastmaster for the first post office building in Warrandyte, was Ewan Cameron, who represented Warrandyte in parliament from 1874 until 1914.
The first post office building was Cameron's store, built near the corner of Webb St., in 1857.
In 1857, the mail was delivered three times a week, coming from Kew by horseback.
The next postmaster was an hotelier, Alexander McDonald, who owned the Union Hotel, and was an active community worker.
He was followed as letter despatcher by a different stamp of man, a butcher, James Holloway and his wife Sarah. This was in the 1870s, and the post office was run from their combined butcher's shop-home between Anderson's and Forbes Sts.
A draper, Henry Squires, then collected the mail among his materials, from 1893 until 1900. The post office, as it has been known as an historic building, then came into being. It had been built in 1873 as a home and general store, by Mrs Alexander Speers.
In 1900, Speer's store became the post office, with Miss Ethel Speers as post-mistress. The Speers family were early Warrandyte settlers. Their shop-home was built in two wings, the left wing for the store and the right wing for living. The attractive verandah was a later addition, and at one time this was enclosed. Speer's post office boasted a switchboard. The reason for the innovation was the bush fire risk of the area.
The hotel across the road — then the Anderson's Creek Hotel, now the Grand — had the honor of the first local telephone line, its telephone number being 2. This was in 1912.
For 40 years the post office was managed by women. After Miss Speers (later Mrs Belza), Miss A. Moore was postmistress, from 1917-1940.
After the second World War, up until the new era of modern settlement in the 1960s, Warrandyte mail was delivered by horseback by Bill McCulloch, through 22 miles of bush tracks and roads. Warrandyte was the last area in Victoria to use a mounted postie. In 1883 there was a post office listed as Warrandyte Railway. In 1884 this name was changed to Croydon.
(Croydon Railway station used to be called Warrandyte).
094 ByWays DoncasterMirror
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
July 13th 1982
FIRE!
QUEEN'S Birthday was not celebrated in 1923. It was Empire Day, May 24. Empire Day, 1923, was a cold day but it turned into the heat of an inferno for the Morrison family of Templestowe.
Mrs Morrison's father was pioneer Tom Chivers. The story is told by her daughter Mrs. Hazel Poulter of Templestowe. "Our house was cosy and warm, with a fire burning in the kitchen and dining room.
"From the kitchen a crash was heard coming from the dining room. Mother said: 'the enlargement has fallen down'. She meant an enlarged photograph of my father in his Druids regalia which hung over the mantlepiece.
Mother entered the room and sang out that the house was on fire. When my brother and I ran to the door we saw the fire above the mantlepiece. A spark must have ignited the hessian and wall paper lining the room.
Mrs. Poulter was eight years old at the time and the which many things happened that day are still clear in her memory.
"My eldest brother filled the baby bath with water and this my mother tried to throw on the fire which raced across the ceiling to the bedroom. My mothers' first thoughts were for the baby asleep in the bedroom.
"Mother yelled to me to run around the house to the window where she dropped the baby into my arms and told me to take her to the ploughed land. Mother then ran through the fire to the back bedroom in which two young children were at the time. Mother rescued the children but was injured when the burning window frame crashed onto her head. "
From a safe distance Hazel placed the baby on the ground and gathered the small children together. Frightened and crying they watched the fire burning their home.
Down on the river flat the Petty family, working their orchard, saw the fire.
They raced up the steep hill to help, but it was a hopeless task without water. The
weatherboard house was a smouldering heap within twenty minutes. The only thing standing were the two chimneys.
Burnt and shockingly exhausted from her experiences in the fire, Mrs. Morrison was laid in a horsedrawn wagon and a taken to her brother’s (Alf Chivers) house. The six children were placed amongst relatives. An empty house owned by an uncle in Chivers Rd. was temporarily made habitable. People of the district rallied around and supplied the Morrison family with beds, blankets, clothing, cooking utensils etc. The £250 insurance money was only enough for the cost of materials for a new house, A local builder, Mr. Ted Sheahan, helped by some local tradesmen built a new home for the insurance money only in four months. The family made do with secondhand furniture. To hold clothes in the boys' room, father, Mr. Harold Morrison, nailed three kerosene cases together. A cretonne curtain was drawn across the front. Rubble had been moved down the hall and the children raked through the debris to find remains of once precious items. The children stayed with relatives until an uncle's empty house was made habitable.
While her mother was ill in bed recovering from her burns Hazel fed the children with bread end jam. While pouring hot water from the kettle over milk arrowroot biscuits to feed her baby sister she scalded her foot. Mrs. Morrison was later taken to hospital with the complication of meningitis and the children were once again placed with relations. Says Hazel Poulter: "A real community spirit prevailed. Templestowe people were concerned with each other. A helping hand was always freely given in time of need.”
095 ByWays DoncasterMirror
July 20, 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
THREE look-out towers were associated with the early history of Doncaster. Having as it did and still does, the most imposing views in the outer suburbs, Doncaster used the towers to good effect to attract weekenders and others to the heart-filling panorama of a rich, rolling countryside.
Over the years thousands came in horse drawn drag from the city of Melbourne and many more by electric tram from Box Hill, to stroll from the terminus of what was then Whites Corner and is now Westfield Shoppingtown corner, to en-joy a few beers and stay overnight at the nearby Tower Hotel. This stood adjacent to the present Tower St. and Doncaster Rd.
The people would return home next day on the Sun-day.
On one Easter Monday no fewer than 1500 sightseers are reported to have visited the tower and hotel which was at its base. As no incidents were reported it is assumed the visitors drank only after surveying the surrounding countryside. To the great majority it was a most satisfying weekend jaunt.
The first tower was erected by Mr. Alfred Hum-mell in 1865. History records that it was of wooden construction. 100 ft high, somewhat tentative and succumbed to the wind after a few months, when it blew down.
Mr. Hummell tried again with a large tower which also failed to reach the test of endurance. So, in 1878, constructed a third tower of steel and an hotel with 39 rooms and stable accommodation for 20 horses a few hundred yards east of the big corner. This was opposite the old Shire Offices mwhich are in Council St.
The 285-ft structure stood for almost 30 years as an imposing landmark and observation point. It is still remembered by many older Doncaster residents.
Declared unsafe in 1913, the tower was dismantled in 1914. Some residents claimed that examination then proved it to be perfect-ly safe. Portion of the Tower Hotel still stood in 1967 at the corner of Doncaster Rd and Tower St. It was occupied for a time buy a motor mower sales and service shop which subse-quently moved to East Don-caster.
According to the Post Office historian, Mr. Eric N. Baker, the Victorian Gazeteer of 1879 stated that: "Doncaster itself is the most elevated position within ten miles of Melbourne. From the situation of the post office a splendid view is obtained not only of the surrounding country, which in itself is really grand, but a grand view of the Bay is also obtained, and steamers can be seen passing."
Even though Shoppingtown tower and also the municipal offices of-fer the opportunity of the best view in Melbourne on a clear day you can see to the Bay and the oppor-tunity for revenue producing tourist attraction, since that time the magnificent view has never again been made available for the people.
096 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Aug. 3.1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
GOLF CLUB HOUSE
THE imposing white mansion which has become the clubhouse of the Eastern Golf Club, in Doncaster Rd., was built in 1887 as the country house of Melbourne's leading surgeon, Sir Thomas Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a colorful character and at times the ringleader of controversy.
His property "Tullamore", is also linked with Dame Nellie Melba, whose father, David Mitchell, bought 30 acres from the same parcel of land, the Carlton Estate, when it was subdivided into farmland. The owner of Tullamore after Sir Thomas Fitzgerald's death in 1909 was member of parliament, William Stutt, whose son Billie Stutt was famous in his day as an airman and who died while flying across Bass Strait. Sir Thomas Fitzgerald named his Doncaster country seat after his birthplace in Ireland.
The red brick, twelve room mansion is richly decorated, with beautiful stained glass windows in the stair well and gothic win-dows.
The brick stables of the estate are of even more architectural note than the house, interesting aspects including arched brick fireplaces in staff quarters and clerestory ventilators.
Each of these aspects of the past life of Tullamore, the Golf Club estate, provides fascinating stories, which will be told in a series of articles to follow this.
Sir Thomas Fitzgerald was probably the most prosperous surgeon in the colony. He once told a friend, that he had earned one million pounds in professional fees.
He owned another mansion, Rostella, in Lonsdale St., (now demolished), which later became the Common-wealth Arbitration Court; he raced horses, and owned the famous nude portrait of Chloe. (He said he liked Chloe because she was anatomically correct.) Fitzgeral was the only senior surgeon of the Melbourne Hospital who visited wards regularly for students. No colleague or the benefit of medical student who watched him at work ever forgot the beauty and brilliance of his performance. He was the only man who could perform successful operations for club foot and cleft palate.
He worked with great speed through a tiny incision, and back in Ireland, before Lister, devised surgical methods which lessened the chance of infection. Yet even after 1890 he never adopted con-ventional aseptic methods.
He washed his hands before an operation, but was known to stop during the surgery and pull handkerchief from his pocket and blow his nose.
Many of his cases became infected ... But in 1886 there was a severe wave of blood poisoning at the hospital. Dr Fitzgerald noticed that his private patients survived twice as well as his hospital patients, and refused to operate there.
The jury of the coroner, Dr Youll, were calling for the hospital to be pulled down, and at the same time, Fitzgerald told his patients to get out of it as quickly as they could, and advised the committee of management to have it burned down.
(Acknowledgement Brian Inglis "Hospital and Com-munity").
(Continued next week)
097 ByWays DoncasterMirror
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
AUGUST 24th 1982
Melba, the tomboy
By JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
THE land which is now the Eastern Golf Links was originally about 90 acres of the Carlton Estate. In about 1858 it was subdivided into three. One of these thirty acre lots was bought by David Mitchell, father of Nellie Mitchell, later Madam Melba.
A Bunya Bunya pine tree near the stables of the Golf Clubhouse (Dr Fitzgerald's stables), marks the spot where Melba's father built his farm cottage, about 100 yds east of the club house.
As a young girl, Nellie would climb this tree. Known as a tomboy, she loved to run down the big hill after the horses and carts or hitch a ride on them, and people living nearby or passing heard her singing happily, and marvelled, even then, at what they called "the voice of an agel".
Nellie was also a very accomplished child pianist. The Mitchell's Doncaster house had an organ, on which hymns were played each Sunday for a Presbyterian church service. One Sunday after service, Nellie's mother asked her to play for the congregation.
She burst into a lively polka instead of the expected religious tune, whereon her father picked her up bodily and deposited her outside.
Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, whose country home (now the Golf Club House) was written of at the time as "Dr Fitzgerald's magnificent residence", was a surgeon who firmly believed in the healing powers of alcohol taken internally.
It was common practice last century for hospitals to dispense alcohol, as rum, stout or porter, almost as readi-ly as did hotels.
General medical opinion was stated in 1867: "If there is one point upon which the profession has established uniformity of opinion, it is that alcohol is food."
Alcohol seemed to doctors to be a good stimulant. Mild electrical currents were becoming popular also as a stimulant, but alcohol was favorite. When "depres-sants" were advised, opium was used, or the patient bled.
Continuing a series on the imposing white mansion which has become the clubhouse of the Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster Rd.
098 ByWays DoncasterMirror
AUGAST 31st 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
Germ theory missed out
Continuing a series on the imposing white mansion which has become the clubhouse of the Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster Rd.
DR THOMAS Fitzgerald, whose country home Tullamore is now the Eastern Golf Club house in Doncaster Road, was the first Victorian practitioner to be knighted for his work. He noticed a high rate of accident casualities in Melbourne.
“In a newly settled colony like Victoria with a constant influx of an active and busy population, often engaged in occupations to which they have never before been accustomed such as mining, dray and stock driving, building and other dangerous pursuits in which accidents are necessarily of such daily occurrence, it is no wonder that the aid of a surgeon is in constant requisition to meet and remedy casualities to which so many of the community are constantly liable," he commented.
He had many cases of sep-tic infection. He did not believe in the "germ theory" of Lister, and spoke of the theories of ventilation and cleanliness as propounded by Sir James Simpson in 1869 (after the theories of Florence Nightingale 1859) as a "furore in the medical world".
But his dexterous surgical methods of using a tiny incision and working with great speed lessened the chances of infection. At the same time, he was more dependent than a Listerian surgeon, on the general sanitary state of his hospital's wards.
In ordinary conditions, his patients at the Melbourne Hospital, where he was leading surgeon, fared as well as those in private practice who were nursed at home. When the rate of recovery differed at a time when there was a severe wave of blood poisioning at the hospital, he blamed conditions at the hospital.
He noticed that his private patients were surviving twice as well as his hospital patients, and when three of his hospital patients became infected in the same week after operations, he told the medical superintendent he had had enough, and told the management to burn the hospital to the ground.
A Royal Commission found that the hospital's main buildings, erected in 1846 were "obsolete and unsuited to the require-ments of modern medical and surgical treatment." They recommended that the old site be abandoned and a new Melbourne Hospital built at Parkville just north of the city on a site known as the Pig Market. (The site opposite the now Royal Melbourne Hospital, on which the Den-tal Hospital is built, was the Hay and Corn market. The old Melbourne Hospital became the Queen Victoria Hospital.)
In 1884, Fitzgerald was the first honorary medical officer to be appointed by the Melbourne University Council as its lecturer in clinical surgery. His annual salary was 250 pounds.
Sir George Syme, who studied under him in 1880, wrote "Mr Fitzgerald was the one surgeon for whom everyone wished to dress (i.e. "dress" treat with remedies) and whose visits all attended. His great per-sonality, his keenness of observation and his enthusiasm, not less than his brilliance as a diagnostician and operator, made his a most stimulating influence." Students are said to have learned more from watching him than listening to him. "His oral instruction was informative. His practice, inspiring."
DR FITZGERALD is third from the left, standing in front of the operating table. A colleague (left) administers the anaesthetic, while others look on. No gloves, masks or gowns are worn.
099 ByWays DoncasterMirror
SEPTEMBER 7th 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
A tipple for your tummy?
By JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Continuing a series on A MORNING AT THE HOSPITAL the imposing white mansion which has become the clubhouse of the Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster Rd.
DONCASTER people enjoyed watching their distinguished resident Dr Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, depart for the Melbourne Hospital of a morning.
The big, dignified man sat in the front seat of his phaeton and drove his four matched bays himself, often with his wife and daughters seated behind him.
Doctors were keen to be appointed honoraries at a teaching hospital not always because of charity to the sick poor, but because the reputation helped build their private practices. Public subscribers to the hospital elected the honoraries, and doctors solicited votes in the press. Newspapers freely discussed the merits of candidates. The Melbourne Herald of 1891 published a "Guide to Form" in the election of honoraries that year and wrote of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald in terms of his interest in horses and racing.
"The Eminent by Prosperity out of Lancet. Aged! Twelve stone ten. Is fancy for the Kill-More Stakes. He is a low set cobby-built brown showing plenty of quality with a slashing action." Rum things happened in hospitals in Fitzgerald's day.
The Melbourne Hospital, where Dr Fitzgerald was senior surgeon, followed the fashion of dispensing alcohol as medicine as fervently as all others. Brandy, wines, port and stout were prescribed for fevers, pneumonia, septic diseases and following major operations. By 1870, Victorian wines had won the approval of doctors in Melbourne for their purity and low price and much of this wine would have been made from Don- caster grapes. Many poor people looked on outpatients' departments as free grog shops and stories were told of sober and immoderate patients being admitted to hospital who, after a long course of treatment, were discharged as alcoholics, or "regular bibbers" as they were called.
One girl suffering from tuberculosis at the Melbourne Hospital drank seven bottles of rum and 12 bottles of brandy in 28 days. Another patient was thought for years to have been paralysed - but when the supply of alcohol was cut for economy, miraculously got up and walked out. Dr T. N. Fitzgerald did not approve of hospital economy by cutting down on grog.
In the late 1860s, the committee of management of the Melbourne Hospital began to question the liberal prescription of alcohol. In 1868, Dr Fitzgerald was asked to order less port for his patients. He refused. "I will not economise at the risk of sacrificing patients' lives,' he said. The committee dropped the matter for 10 years.
Next week: A description of one of the first sterile sur-gical operations, a theory with which Dr Fitzgerald did not entirely agree.
WOULD any reader with knowledge of Billie Stutt, son of the next owner of Tullamore (the Golf Club House), who was reputed to be a pioneer airman, please contact The Mirror. Acknowledgements will be made in any article published.
The Melbourne Hospital again
MAN (with the hook)-Matter? Matter enough, I should think, to go into this 'ere 'ospital with only a mosquito bite, and be turned out in this style! NEW RESIDENT SURGEON (with instrument case)-Ah! How thankful you ought to be to this noble institution for such a complete cure; you can hardly be sufficiently grateful, my friend!
100 ByWays DoncasterMirror
SEPTEMBER 15th 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
When germs didn't exist
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Continuing a series on the imposing white mansion which has become the clubhouse of the Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster Rd....
A LAND sale handbill of 1888, which advertised a new subdivision west and north of the Doncaster-Williamsons Rd. inter-section, around Beacons-field St., referred to adjoining property which is now the Eastern Golf links: "This valuable property is situated right in the centre of Doncaster township and on the main Doncaster Road between the tower and Dr Fitzgerald's magnificent residence."
Dr Fitzgerald's "magnifi-cent residence," just erected one year at that time, is now the golf club house about which I have written anecdotes in the last three issues.
A brilliant and outspoken leader in his field of surgery Dr Fitzgerald practised and taught at the Melbourne Hospital from 1860.
He was disturbed by post-operative infections, and had more insight into this problem than many of his colleagues, who dismissed a certain amount of infection as "laudable pus." Yet he did not go so far as to adopt wholeheartedly the antiseptic methods of his contemporary, Joseph Lister, who introduced car-bolic into surgery.
The new theories of ventilation and cleanliness Dr Fitzgerald described as creating a "furore in the medical world."
The germ theory was not entirely accepted by him. It may surprise readers to learn that another hospital contemporary of Fitz-gerald, Miss Florence Nightingale, also did not believe in germs. Fitzgerald did wash his hands before operating, but would blow his nose during surgery.
The following is an extract from a letter written to Florence Nightingale in 1885 describing one of the earliest surgical operations performed with the "an-tiseptic treatment.”
It was written from Berlin, just a year before Dr Fitzgerald demanded that the Melbourne Hospital be burnt to the ground because of post-operative blood poisoning in endemic proportions. (The letter writer was Lucy Osburn, sent to Australia in 1868 by Miss Nightingale to start her system of nursing here).
It reads: "On entering the operating room, the doctor and all his assistants take off their coats and have tied round them garments of white mackintosh which cover them from the chin to the toes.
"Over this is slipt (sic) a kind of white cotton surplice with loose sleeves coming only to the elbows - this latter is changed after each case is operated on.
"(When I first saw some eight or ten stalwart Germans thus arrayed in white, I marvelled! Was it an Orient Hareem or a weird representation of the Resurrection? I looked at the beards and decided on the latter.)
"All then soak their hands in sublimate and commence their duties with them wringing wet. No towels are used at operations for any purpose whatever. "On each side of the room on glass shelves eight or ten feet from the floor are large white delf (sic) jars filled with sublimate or carbolic. From these, small elastic gutta-percha pipes proceed ending in a nozzle and tap so enabling the fluid to be used in the middle of the room."
101 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Sept 21 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
By JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Continuing a series on the imposing white mansion which has become the clubhouse of the Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster Rd….
The Saturator turns it on
THIS week we continue down a byway of the history of the local Eastern Golf House, built as the country residence of the leading surgeon of Melbourne Hospital, Dr Thomas Fitzgerald. The first half of a letter describing one of the earliest aseptic surgical operations, in 1885, in Berlin, appeared last week.
Dr Fitzgerald was not a convert to this new method of using carbolic. Carbolic was carried across the operating room from jars to the operating table by pipes.
"Across the room, six feet from the floor, is stretched a thick wire with meat hooks, on which the pipes are hung or wound round the wire when not in use. “The doctor then orders the solution he wishes to use to be turned on and during the whole operation the wound is kept saturated very easily and thoroughly without the Saturator being in the least in the way of the Operator.
"Before commencing, as soon as the patient is insensible, the wound and a wide margin round it is well washed with a great deal of soap and water and well scrubbed with a flat scrubbing brush. "Wounds are filled with gauze, dressings saturated with iodoform and when stitched up, not with isolated stitches, but with what dressmakers would call 'top sewing'. Which seems to be much more satisfactory than the old way.”
When Dr Fitzgerald operated, up to a hundred students watched him, seated on raised tiers inside the operating room. A crowd of doctors and others interested stood around the operating bench, wearing street suits and no masks, gowns or gloves.
Wardsmen, in shirtsleeves and vest, handed up the instruments. They did wear an apron from the waist. One nurse, in ward uniform, was on hand to sponge the wound when requested. This was in 1891.
The letter describing the details of Lister's little-understood aseptic methods continues to discuss the sur-gical ward: "In the middle of the sur-gical ward is a table with mattress and macintosh and screens all round on to which all cases are brought that require any dressings, not the smallest is opened on the bed and this I think excellent.
"The same process of keeping a wound while open saturated with aublimate is used as at the operation, but no spray.
"That is used only in the operating room for an hour before operation, Professor Hahn arguing that to turn it on to a wound has a bad effect driving as it does bacteria before it right into the wound. "For severe wounds the permanent bath is used which I had not seen before, he patient is laid on macintosh into a bath of certain temperature and kept till sometimes for weeks together, the bath barely changed, or rather have the patient lifted into another bath when necessary.
"I must say they look queer, but say they feel comfortable and the severe wounds are eased at once. Dr Thomas Fitzgerald knighted in 1897. He died in1909 and his "magnificent residence", Tullamore, was sold to another distinguished local man William Stutt, who became a member of parliament.
More next week.
102 ByWays DoncasterMirror
SEPTEMBER 28TH 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
'Votes for women? A monstrous idea!'
Continuing a series on the imposing white mansion which has become the clubhouse of the Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster Rd…
SIR Thomas Fitzgerald, the eminent Melbourne surgeon and builder of Trullamore (Golf Club House), Doncaster, died in 1909, aged 71. The beautiful home and vast grounds had been bought many years before by William Stutt, whose family was destined to create more by-ways of local history.
William was one of four brothers born in Eniskillon, Ireland. With his brother John, William migrated to Canada in the 1850s, but in 1853, when Australian gold fever was rising, and Wil-liam's young bride Mary Anne had died, they set sail to make their fortunes from the spin-offs of gold. More than one fortune was made and lost by Wil-liam Stutt. He made it in trade, lost in speculative gold ventures, and remade it in hotels.
His first store was at Ballarat, a grain store. His second in Geelong, where in 1867 he became a member of parliament. From Geelong, William brought hotels, one of which was the Bull and Mouth, in Bourke St., Melbourne, opposite the site of Myer. Another was the Doncaster Hotel, then called the Racecourse Hotel.
At the back of the Bull and Mouth, Stutt kept a zoo of caged lions. In 1896, William Stutt became a Doncaster coun-cillor. By this time he had married again a young woman named Julia. Wil-liam was in his sixties. Horse races were held in the 40-acre paddock at the back of Stutt's Doncaster Hotel (now the car park). Stutt was well liked and respected. But today, he would have been called a male chauvinist.
Doncaster council had been asked by Echuca coun-cil to send a delegate to a conference to discuss proposed amendments to the Constitution Act, in par-ticular the aspect of women's suffrage and the "one man/one vote" proposal.
Councillor Stutt protested his liberal principles. He went on to declare to his Doncaster colleagues that the "one man/one vote" proposal was a monstrous shame, and that the only women who wanted votes were a few fanatics and humbugs who wished to gad about and neglect their homes. Stutt was appointed to attend the Echuca conference, but the outcome is not recorded.
William Stutt died in 1912, but Tullamore remained in the Stutt fami-ly a further 40 years, although from 1924 it was leased by Julia to the Box Hill Golf Club. Their son William (known as Will, Willie and Billie) was a pioneer airman. As early as 1911 he had learned to fly: His English licence to fly was number 742, obtained in 1914.
Will Stutt was truly one of "those magnificent men in their flying machines." The Bristol Flying School, Brooklands, England, was given added fame by the film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" which starred Robert Redford, and it was to this flying school that Doncaster's Will Stutt of Tullamore was appointed chief instructor, in 1914. As a young boy, Will Stutt rode his pony from Tullamore to school, at Xavier in Kew, which he attended from 1900-1906, but his parents thought the ride too far, so lodged him as a boarder. His obituary in the Xaverian describes him as "a phlegmatic boy." But in the book "Early Birds", by Horrie Miller, he is described, in true "Magnificent Men" fashion as: "a ring-leader of the wildest pranks".
His flying career, foreshortened by a mystery disappearance and death, was marked by a spirit of adventure and the will to serve.
Continued next week. Acknowledgements to Mr John Stutt of Kew and Mr J. Fullarton, of Templestowe.
Sketch: KATHERINE SEPPINGS
WILL STUTT, of Tullamore, Doncaster, with his plane.
103 ByWays DoncasterMirror
OCTOBER 1962
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
Captain Will, knight of the airways
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
"MISS Strickland's face was wreathed in smiles as she took her seat in the machine, and Mr Stutt, realising his passenger was devoid of fear, indulged in various evolutions, some of which appeared very much like looping the loop."
Messenger for the King, being sent across the English Channel. The War Office gave him special leave to go night flying, chasing Zeppelins. When the Australian Flying School was formed in Clarendon, Richmond, NSW, the British War Office loaned Will Stutt to open it, as its commander, in 1916. “A thrill ran through the crowd of spectators at Clarendon for the opening of the State Government's aviation school in 1916 as the chief instructor, Mr W. J. Stutt, nose-dived through the air with Miss Strickland, the Governor's daughter, in the passenger seat,reported the Windsor and Richmond Gazette. It was customary at the time for pilots to take visiting VIPS for joy flights. Pictures show Will Stutt's "sensational vertical dives and turns" and others of his plane skimming four metres above the heads of the crowd. "Press photographers ducked and made for cover when chief instructor at Clarendon's aviation school, Mr W. Stutt, suddenly dived and headed for them on a return joy flight at the opening of the school… (cut).
…skimmed just over a passing railway engine before sweeping upwards again,” said the caption. Will Stutt was asked to come to Melbourne to command the Aeroplane Repair Section at the Central Flying School at Point Cook. There had been many crashes from Point Cook. Being in a windswept situation, Will's mother Julia felt it was vulnerable, and did not want him to come. Will was keen on the sea and loved sailing. He became friends with local fishermen. So, when the schooner Amelia Jane became missing and was believed to be drifting in Bass Strait, Will Stutt flew to look for her. He was never seen again. That was 1920.
His search partner Major Anderson, in another plane, flew away from Will to inspect driftwood near Barren Island, and Will and his plane disappeared into mystery. He was aged 31 and had been married to Stella Reddan for only four years. Their son John, named for the brother of William Stutt Snr. who came with him to (cut).
THE flying exploits of Captain Will Stutt, who spent his boyhood in Tullamore (the Golf clubouse) Doncaster, would have rivalled those of Stuart Whitman and his magnificent mates in their flying machines. Will himself was chief flying instructor at the very flying school featured in the film "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" - the Bristol Flying School at Brooklands, England.
Later, press cuttings of the opening of Richmond Aviation School, NSW, show he was still a daredevil in the air. One of his magnificent mates was Kingsford Smith. Yet, his old school, Xavier, where he went from 1900-1906, saw different sides of his character:
"Will Stutt came to the school as quite a little fel-low in 1900, and those who knew him then will recall the serious looking old - fashioned face, the large grave the imperturbable calm of Dux of First Class. Right through his schooldays he remained the same well- loved phlegmatic boy. Learning came easy to him and his name appears at the head of his class and in almost every subject.”
So wrote his old school magazine in his obituary. “Athletics made small appeal to him. He preferred roaming the grounds and kite making…” Will Stutt became an engineer. By 1911 he could fly an aeroplane. By 1913 he was convinced of a great future for the aeroplane, and went to America and England to study aviation engineering. (The Wright Brothers first moments in the air with their flying machine were in 1903, and the first European flight of two hours in Le Mans, France, by the Wrights, in 1908).
Will’s Licence to Fly is No. 742, granted by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale of the British Empire, in 1914. At that time, flying an aeroplane was regarded as a sport. The Federation Aeronautique was a sporting authority.
It certified that "William John Stutt, born in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia on December 11, 1889, having fulfilled all the conditions specified by the FAI, has been granted an Royal Aero Clubs of the Aviator's Certificate for the United Kingdom."
When war broke out in 1914, Will Stutt joined the Royal Flying Corps and became chief tester. The. War Office appointed him an inspector at Brooklands and later, a trainer of military pilots. He became chief pilot for the Royal Aircraft factory at Farn-borough, testing experimen-tal aircraft.
No parachutes
According to Horrie Mil-ler in his book "Early Birds," no parachutes were then worn. Testing all aircraft before they were sent on active service was perilous for the pilot.
Will often acted as mes- (cut).
104 ByWays DoncasterMirror
October 12th, 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
The case of the disappearing streets
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Two streets were planned to run west through the Clay sub-division and through their
neighbor William Behren's land to Elgar Rd. (Tram Rd. did not then exist). These two east-west streets were Clay St. and Arthur St. Clay St. was jinxed. The western branch of the Clay subdivision was cancelled the day before it was declared in 1890 which left a shortened Clay St. just one block in length. One person who could not have foreseen the disappearing of Clay St. was Edward Gallus who owned the land now occupied by Andersons Furniture Store, formerly Metropolitan Dairies (the horses' paddock) formerly Kew Dairy, formerly Gallus' Dairy. In 1888 Edward Gal-lus built a fine new house with cast iron lace on its veranda to face Clay St. but, when the street disappeared after having never been made or used the Gallus home faced a street which was not there.
In the 1960s Clay St. was officially closed. Alice St. was also slowly amputated. By 1913 all that was left was a short length of street on the west side of Tram Rd. - but a street on paper only. In 1962 Alice St. also disappeared off the map. Station St. was originally a small side street which gave access to Richard Clay's land at the back. It was intended to join up with Station St., Box Hill. These were the years of extensions of railway lines and the building of the Doncaster/ Box Hill tram line. The tram line was first laid along Frederick St. to cross Arthur St. and then run north to the corner of Doncaster and Williamsons Rd. But the gradient of Frederick St. proved too steep for the tram's motor so the tram track was relaid in a straight line which cut across the estate. This re-route of the tram line is the present route of Tram Rd.
Station St., far from growing to carry on to Box Hill, also became amputated, and lost half its length. In 1913 it was reduced laterally to half its original width. This was when Tom Petty bought part of the street to add to his land.
Richard Clay became a member of the Templestowe District Roads Board. He was an original trustee of the Athenaeum Hall and in 1887 was awarded a silver cup for the best orchard in the Doncaster District.
He made his orchard available to the Department of Agriculture for research purposes in their efforts to combat serious fruit pests. (Acknowledgement to Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society and to Mrs Nell Elliott).
DONCASTER land- marks change with bewildering rapidity but streets do not move so often. However, of four streets made and named to commemorate one of Don- caster's earliest pioneer families, the Clays, two disappeared and one moved. Forming the eastern side of land in Doncaster Rd. taken up by John Clay and his wife Agnes in 1853 is Station St. which was formed in the late 1880s.
Station St. runs south streets from Doncaster Rd. to bend west and join Frederick St. (Melways Map 47 E.1 and E.2). But the short straight east-west section of Station St. is part of what used to be Alice St. Alice St. ran west across what is now Tram Rd. It was then part of orchard land.
Frederick St. runs south from Tram Rd. north to Doncaster Rd., and, one third of the way up, Frederick St. intersects Merlin St. Merlin St. used to be part of Arthur St., but not of the Arthur St. which now runs west-east between Walker St. and Whittens Lane. That Arthur St. did not then exist. Arthur, Frederick and Alice streets were named after members of the Clay family. Between the present Merlin (formerly Arthur) St. and Doncaster Rd. was the family name street Clay St. Between 1890 and the 1960s Clay St. shrank and vanished off the map.
The dominating Don-caster feature, Doncaster Hill, used to be called Clay Hill. The"Argus", February 1861, reported that great bush fires burning on Clay's Hill were clearly visible from as far away as Melbourne. Clay's Hill was at this time the commonly known name for this particular part of the district, which was later renamed Doncaster Yet, even this connection with the Clay family has been mostly forgotten and many people wrongly believe Clay Hill was named so because of the clay soil of the district.
Perhaps as if to underline the error the soil atop "Clay Hill" is sandy soil, the only sandy soil in the district. John and Agnes Clay left Devonshire in 1851 and took up 36 acres in Doncaster in 1853, not long after the first English settlers, the Pettys'.
Their land was where the large Shell service station is now (formerly Camerons Garage site). Doncaster's first police lock up was also on this site. After John Clay and Agnes had died their son Richard owned the land. This was the beginning of the 1880s land boom and Richard arranged to sell the land as a sub-division in 1888.
October 19th 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
Bush tracks give way to roads
that is they had not built a house nor fence and cultivated the land so it was forfeited to
the Crown. Wilson's appeal against this forfeit developed into a big controvery which
reached the Melbourne papers. Wilson's grounds for ap- (cut)
READERS may remember how in the 1950s, when many postware sub-divisions were springing up in this area, roads were not provided. Residents had to reach their new home by driving over what were still paddocks.
A century before, the problems were the same no roads to reach allotted land. Then, one had to battle through bushland and so tracks gradually appeared. In the terms of the early Selection Acts, land was granted so long as the selec-tor built a house (of a sort) and fenced and cultivated the land. As with many schemes this lead to exploitation, rackets, con-troversy and bitterness between those who complied with the letter of the law and those who made the most of their opportunities.
Donvale land, east of Springvale Rd., had been opened up in 1868 under the terms of the Selection Act. There was a bit of a track a so-called access road provided to some of the selected land north of where Garden Rd., Donvale, now runs. But the so-called road was impassable in wet weather.
Some of the selectors of land in this area were John Robert Wilson and his son Bob, and the families of Leber, Schmidt and Herman Herr.
Selection
The land selected by the Wilsons was in the area now at the end of McGowans and Garden Rds. Because of the awful access road the Wilsons applied for a new road. But, by 1872, they had not complied with the (cut)
have access to his land. His Donvale neighbors, who witnessed against the Ap-peal, were led by Leber. had no trouble getting on to They claimed that Wilson his land to cut fire wood and sell it. Wilson lost his ap-peal. Wilson's land went to a Frederick Burkamp who subdivided his 210 acres into 20 acre blocks during the 1880 land boom. For this sub-division he put in garden and flora roads for access. At that time, a wood carter named McGowan lived on the spot which is now Dempster Drive. The access to McGowans cottage was called McGowans Track and was not used by many people except himself.
This track formed the beginnings of what is now McGowans Rd.
Dempster was George Dempster who bought McGowans land around 1905. In between this time and the time of McGowan's wood carter's hut, the area of Dempster Drive had been graced by a large homestead complete with tennis court which had been built during the 1880 land boom by Samuel King.
In 1892 McGowans Rd. proper was surveyed. It followed a growing width of land. It is because of this and because it cut through so many different land holdings that McGowans Rd. had so many bends in it. The new survey of 1892 had McGowans Rd. cut through Leber's land, across the cor-ner of Herman Herr's land and isolated a small part of Smith's land that later became that of Dempster.
The old land-battling (cut)
reconciled, or so it would ap-pear. Wilson's daughter married Leber's son and Wilson lived the end of his life in Leber's home.
(Acknowledgement to the late Muriel Green and the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society).
106 ByWays DoncasterMirror
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
November 2 1982
Doncaster’s streets and their origins
Let's look at Beavis Court
BEAVIS Court, Templestowe, just north of King St. which marks it from East Doncaster, commemorates the Beavis and Furhmann families of orchardists.
The quaint Furhmann- Beavis stone cottage in King St. was unusual. In 1958, when August Furhmann built the cottage, King St. was called Wilhelm St. It was part of German Town, also known as Waldau.
August Furhnann built his home from random stone and rubble from Thiele's quarry. To make the walls, big stones were stacked up with the flat side out and the gaps between these were filled with smaller stones. Door and window lintels were made of long stones. The walls were so neat and square they would have stood without mortar.
But what gave the cottage its unusual appearance was that the front and end of this long narrow building were formed into parapet walls. Two later additions added their own styles, which did not match in size or height, either the first cottage or themselves yet, strangely, the whole blended and fitted into the landscape.
The first addition in 1871, to cater for the Furhmann's five children, was of timber, with a steep pitched roof which enclosed an attic. These two rooms were typical of buildings of the time, which had a gothic influence.
The final addition in mid-1880, by which time there were eight Furhmann children, was added to the front. It also followed the building fashion of the time. It was perfectly proportioned but no account was taken of the rest of the house. This addition was two feet wider than part to which it was joined, and the ceiling height differed.
In 1880 boom-style tradition, cast iron lace and decorative panels filled the space between the eaves bracket on the veranda. Balance was given and sym-metry maintained by having two chimneys, one at each side. August Furhmann arrived in Victoria in 1857 and went to the goldfields. He worked a rich mine at Bendigo and sent for his brother to come out to help him, but sadly his brother died of sunstroke through working in the hot sun without a hat.
August was so upset by the death of his brother he decided to leave the goldfields and come to Waldau where his sister Ernestine was married to Heinrich Fromhold. Fromhold Drive runs off Victoria St., Doncaster. The German name Furhmann means a driver, such as a cabby or a brewery wagon driver.
August Furhmann, a very religious man, arrived in Doncaster just as the German community were making plans to build their Lutheran Church (Victoria St.).
Furhmann made a generous donation to the building fund. He was one of the first to be married in the church. In 1895 Furhmann died and the house went to his son, also August. The house gained its Beavis connection through Anna Furhmann, daughter of August senior, who had married George Beavis. When August Furhmann junior left Doncaster to go to Queensland, George Beavis bought the house.
THE Furhmann cottage. Illustration by Katherine Seppings.
107 ByWays DoncasterMirror
108 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Nov 18 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
Rare pine is a beautiful tree
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
PINE trees are distinctive to Doncas-ter's appearance.
The European pine was planted by early orchardists to protect their growing seedlings once they had cleared the land of native trees.
Many have disappeared with the growth of subdivisions and just as many have self-seeded and sprung up among patches of natural bush along creekways and river sides,
These pines are common. But one rare pine is a most beautiful tree. The Bunya Bunya pine. For two reasons the Bunya Bunya pine is often thought of as introduced exotic. One reason is the association of early German settlers with the common introduced pine. The other reason is the... special association of the Bunya Bunya with Baron Von Mueller, also a German. Baron Von Mueller was the designer of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens and a friend of many of Doncaster's. German families, in par-ticular the Thiele family of Victoria St.
But the Bunya Bunya pine is an indigenous Australian. It abounds in southern Queensland and in the Bunya Mountains of South East Queensland grows to a height of 43m. In 1838. Petri gave samples of the tree to an English naturalist J. S. Bidwill who took them back to England in 1843.
The Bunya Pine of Australia was named in London Araucaria Bidwilli after the naturalist and was shown at London's Kew Gardens, famous for its plants from all over the world, collected by the instigation of Joseph Banks.
Specimens
The most beautiful and prominent local specimen of the Bunya pine once graced the front garden of Doncas-ter's municipal offices. It was cut down when Doncaster Rd. was widened in 1970.
That tree originally was in the garden of Schramm's Cottage, which was original- ly located just to the west of the municipal buildings. A Bunya Bunya pine can still be seen in the grounds of the Eastern Golf Club. It can easily be seen from Don-caster Rd., being quite close to the roadside, east of the club house just about in line with a building which was the original coach house of that estate. The Bunya pine here marks the spot where David Nellie Mitchell, father of Dame Melba, built a cottage in 1860.
Another Bunya pine can also still seen in the gardens, the Vic-toria St. end, down by Ruf-feys Creek. It was planted by John Finget, an early German settler. The Bunya Pine was highly prized by aborigines of Queensland. The seeds of the cone, 1½” long, were sweet when young and, in this state, were eaten raw. Ripened seeds were roasted in ashes or hot coals. Early white Queensland settlers used them to obtain flour for the making of damper.
The Bunya pine has a bumper crop every third year and at these intervals natives would travel long distances to gather for feasts of the seed.
The timber of this tree is said to be suitable for furniture as it can be cut into wide planks. It has been used for joinery, cabinet work, shelving, flooring, lathes, butter boxes, plywoods and veneers. Its timber has a pale color.
The aboriginals called the tree Bon-Yi Bon-Yi. Two English oak trees stand in the Leeds St., East Doncaster reserve, a little to the west of the RSL Hall. A reader has suggested they were planted as a post-war peace commemoration. Am reader with the story behind these trees may contact Th Mirror, and the story will be published and acknowledged.
A BUNYA BUNYA Pine. Illustration by Katherine Seppings.
109 ByWays DoncasterMirror
Nov 23 1982
BYWAYS OF LOCAL HISTORY
by JOAN SEPPINGS WEBSTER
The siege of Serpells Rd.
THE Siege of Serpells Road happened in the. mid 1880s. As with many municipal projects, colorful demonstrations are necessary to get them off the ground. In this case, over. The ground.
Until 1884 the land between Templestowe and East Doncaster had no direct connecting road. Travellers to Heidelberg market from East Don-caster had to go the long Doncaster Hill, by going through Kew.
Blackburn Rd. North ended in farmland around the area of Foote St. Foote St. was marked on an 1863 map as closed. During the 1870s East Doncaster and Templestowe farmers and orchardists had demanded a connecting road from their council. In 1884 the council announced that Serpells Rd. was ready. Serpells. Rd. starts at the intersection of Foote St. and Anderson St., Templestowe. It moves east to join the northern end of Williamson's Rd., continues east where it ends at Tucker St. Tucker St. then moves, south to King St. which moves east to Blackburn Rd.
Serpell was an early East Doncaster orcharding family. Much land for Serpells Rd. was donated by Richard Serpell of Don-caster, Henry Chivers and John Read of Templestowe. Other residents paid money for the road. Richard Serpell owned land in the Tuckers, Reynolds Rd., King Street area, having bought his original 20 acres in 1853. In the 1880s he built his home at the corner of Don-caster and Williamsons roads.
In the years between the donation of land for the proposed road and its ac tual completion the original purpose for its formation seems to have been forgotten by the council and Serpells Rd. had not been developed far enough east to connect with East Doncaster.
John Read had donated land for the road on the very condition that it was to connect with East Don- caster. When a connection did not happen John Read was very angry. He refused to sign the transfer of his land unless the road was put right through but Council refused to do this. So the siege of Serpells Rd. became necessary.
John Read built a fence across the road, at the Templestowe end. People took sides about the blockade. A controversy developed because people could not now use the road at all, with a fence blocking the entrance.
A colorful character at the time was Doncaster's baker Heinrich Lauer. Lauer had trouble delivering his bread with the road block. He announced that next time he came on his bread round he would chop down the fence and go through. A crowd collected around the blockading fence. At 11 o'clock the crowd saw the baker's cart coming up the road, the horse galloping at full speed. The German baker was standing up in the cart waving an axe over his head shouting in a thick German accident "I'll chop it down, I'll chop it down."
At the fence John Read lounged laconically. Up galloped Heinrich Lauer, right to the fence line. Quietly John Read said "Go on, Heinrich, chop it down.”
But Lauer was content to have put on his demonstration. So was John Read. Councillors looked back over the petitions of the years and agreed to build a connecting road to East Doncaster. John Read then signed the transfer and moved his fence. Perhaps the road should have been named Read's Road.
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