Stone

During the Society’s discussions with Manningham City Council in planning the new building for our museum complex we put forward the idea of using the stone from the existing toilet facilities as a feature in the new building. It is proposed to use it in the fascia of the ramp leading up to the main entrance. This lead to our referring to an article by Irvine Green in 1979 on the eventual use of stone in buildings in the Doncaster/Templestowe area from 1843 with the construction of “Pontville” the home of Major Newman. Excerpts from Irvine’s article: 

The first homes built in this district were from mate- rials that were readily available. Bark, timber slabs and mud could be used to constrict shelter with the mini- mum of cost and time by settlers faced with the problem of establishing a farm on virgin ground. 

Major Newman lived in a mud house when he arrived at Templestowe, but as soon as he secured title to his land he built a stone house. Pontville was the first permanent house in the district. It was built in 1843. Ten years later he built a second stone house on the other side of Deep Creek called “Monkton”. 

Stone of varying quality is found all over the district and good quality stone has been quarried in several places. 

PORTERS HOUSE.  The stone house C.1860 stood in Whittens Road on the east side near the bend.

When many new expensive buildings were being planned for Melbourne, the Victorian Government offered a prize for a superior building stone. During the 1850’s and 1860’s several homes in our district were built of stone. Gottfried Thiele, the brother of Gottleib Thiele, a stonemason, built a stone section onto “Friedensruh” from their quarry on Ruffey’s Creek. David Corbett built a stone cottage on Doncaster Road opposite the golf links. At Templestowe August Fuhrmann and Henry White’s homes were built from local stone. 

In all these buildings, stone rubble was used in the walls with the corners built of squared stones. When Thomas Porter erected his home in Whittens Lane, the stone was layered in equally spaced courses with stones of equal length. When the house was demolished in the late 1920’s the stone was moved to Holy Trinity Doncaster to rebuild the old wooden chancel. However sandstone often deteriorates when exposed to the weather and only a few pieces were usable and used to build the memorial gates posts. 

Holy Trinity was built in 1868 with stone from Beanlands quarry in Church Road. The chancel used stone from Thiele’s quarry and when extensions were later made the council quarry was used. Schramm’s Cottage was also built from stone from the Beanlands quarry. 

Doncaster/Templestowe was fortunate to have had a rich collection of stone buildings, most of which have been lost to us.”

Source: Irvine Green excerpted in 2022-09 DTHS Newsletter