This week, by proclamation, the new City of Doncaster and Templestowe was born. The "family" embraced little Warrandyte, strengthened the union by widening its municipal vision and strode forth bravely as a young and growing metropolis.
THIS week, by proclamation, the new City of Doncaster and Templestowe was born. The "family" embraced little Warrandyte, strengthened the union by widening its municipal, vision and strode forth bravely as. a young and growing metropolis.
We are a City! The Governor, Sir Rohan Delacombe, has declared us so, the Minister in charge of Local Government, Mr. Hamer, has added his blessing, and Our Mayor, Cr. S. K. Shepherd, is officially robed and chained.
We have a Mayoress, too: n. longer the "President and his Good Lady,"
The-occasion is an historic one he" beginning of a new era and a time for celebration. It means progress with prestige, for we, with our 38,000 residents, may speak and be received as equals with our illustrious city neighbours—as another Camberwell; another Box Hill, another Heidelberg.
A city just in time, it is said. In seven years the population will double. We grow quicker than any other municipality; we produce the most babies. There is progress ahead.
The city fathers have proclaimed this a time to celebrate — first, appropriately, with a naturalisation ceremony to receive new citizens, then with a combined church thanksgiving service. City Princess contest and Arts Festival will follow.
A City, indeed, as history will record, after 130 years but, in fact, in two frighteningly short decades. It was only in the postwar years -that Doncaster Bulleen and Templestowe forsook their rural affiliations and with the continuing boom for housing subdivisions assumed a city mantle.
Stories, beginning with the arrival of the first settlers on the river flats at Bulleen, the discovery of Victoria's first gold at Warrandyte, the pioneer families and their orchard empire in Doncaster are 'interwoven in this supplement to present a vivid picture of the spectacular growth that bed to the proclamation of the City.
The Doncaster-East Yarra News joins with the greater metropolis in welcoming the new City of. Doncaster and Templestowe.
Old Shire Hall in Council St, Doncaster
New Municipal Offices, Doncaster
Home Sweet Home … in the Municipal Style
Even today, Warrandyte is still mainly filled with rurals and murals, and prefers it that way. Meanwhile, Templestowe bustles and Doncaster booms.
Don't move, improve! says the house renovator's slogan. When a family becomes too large the problem is whether to build a new house, renovate and re-arrange or have some of the occupants move out.
This problem, in 1965, faced the municipal home known as the Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe the homestead with apple blossom round its doors and a view from every window. The house then consisted of three rooms, or ridings — Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte.
An influx of urban-minded lodgers which began in the 1950's had made the first two rooms rather uncomfortably crowded for the facilities the house provided.
To move or improve, to re-subdivide or sever?
In 1960, town planners estimated that by 1990 the 35-square mile Shire "family" would increase from 16,500 to 80,000.
Within four years it was almost halfway to that 30-year target.
By October, 1965, a survey conducted by the Shire Secretary on instructions from the Council found 37,790 people accommodated in the Shire's three apartments, Warrandyte (about the size of the City of Camberwell) held only 4,141. Templestowe (slightly bigger than the City of Box Hill) had 13,588. Doncaster (between the two in size) , housed more "tenants" than the other two ridings. It held 18,293, More than half the houses, shops and industries in the Shire were in the Doncaster riding — 5,274 out of 11,171 houses; 146 of the 288 shops, 49 out of the 95 industries. Doncaster claimed she contributed most revenue to the. Shire's housekeeping, but was allotted only the same number of representatives (three) on the committee of management. Furthermore, her ambitions were always outvoted six to three. How to give better Council representation to the more thickly populated sections created widespread controversy in ratepayer organizations in 1964-65. Some wanted Doncaster to sever and leave home, to set up an entirely separate new unit — the "Shire Of Doncaster" Others wanted resubdivision and subletting of more apartments, with Council representatives elected from each. "Don't move, improve!" was their cry. "We have communal facilities in this lop-sided old house. lit an own-your-own we'll have to start from scratch." Twice in 12 months the inhabitants went to the polls to decide once and for all the issue on severance. The first result was slightly for severance, the second overwhelmingly so. Following the first vote, municipal "architect" Mr. Hamer, Minister of Local Government, advised Council to look into the possibilities of resubdivision as reasons both for and against a complete break were inconclusive: Haggling over plans and specifications of the proposed renovations took on a distinctly Gilbertian flavour of: "What, sever? No, never! Not sever? Well, hardly In May last year Mr. Hamer decided to a ree with the renovators and working drawings w re pro- duced. The municipal home would "improve." He ruled that one of its apartments, the Doncaster riding, would be partitioned down the, middle to create two new units (East Doncaster and West Doncaster), each with three representatives in the Shire Council. Leaving home and re-uniting, partitioning and opening up within the Shire home seems to have eyer been a familial trend. Local Government of the area began in December, 1856, when -the Templestowe District Roads Board was constituted. The first meeting developed into an argument over whether to spend the Board's meagre funds on improving the road to the front door (or back door, depending where you lived), — the Templestowe Road or the path round the back (or front), which was Doncaster's Main Road. This liaison lasted until 1875. From then until 1926 the area was a remodeller's dream. Last year's big decision was the fourth since 1875 when the area was declared the Shire of Bulleen and was divided into two "share-mod. cons" apartments. Templestowe lived in one, Doncaster in the other.
The Fledgling Flies
Fifteen years later, in 1890, the fledgling Don- easter took wing with Ministerial blessing and was granted independence. The remaining portion was called the Shire of Templestowe. Each of these 19th century home units was al- lowed six representatives in Council, each serving about 200 families. Last year's 37 1/2 thousand suburbanites had only nine Councillors between them. Well, this original Shire of Doncaster did what many other youthful breakaways do in their maturer-wisdom or lack of funds. She returned to the fold, perhaps for sociological, perhaps purely economic reasons. This was in 1915. It would be sentimental to imagine the war had something to do with the reunion — a heightening of family feeling? The fact of it is, Doncaster was ordered home by that municipal family guidance clinic, the Local Government Department. Doncaster and Templestowe were united once again under the same roof. The whole household took the name of The Shire of Doncaster and magnanimously shared Six councillors.
Sadly, there must have been in this marriage a continual bickering over who owned the mortgage, for in 1926, the title was amended to: "The Shire of Doncaster AND Templestowe" - its name until this year.
In that same year of 1926, the happy couple were blessed with a new riding — little Warrandyte who was given her own nursery with gumtree and ceramic motif, the river, Yarra flowing through the middle of her room.
By way of celebration, the number of councillors was increased to nine. It was not altered again until last year's re-subdivision. The whole atmosphere around the municipal heart was still cosily rustic — orchards in Don- caster, cattle grazing in Templestowe, worked-out goldmines and working-in artists in Warrandyte's sanctum. The 1966 "improvements" included not only in- ternal rearrangements, but external renovation plans. Landscaping was not overlooked. A Town Planning Scheme Ordinance was drawn up to be a blue- print for future development. It will control all growth, from petrol stations to hoardings, tree preservation, to rural, low and medium density housing. One councillor has said: "When this becomes. effective, we consider we will have the best municipality in the State, with complete tranquility in the centre."
Status Symbol "City"
Of course, many "lodgers" objected, depending on their view from their windows. (Some look through rose colored glass, some green.). In keeping with the "new look" establishment, all conceded the homely legend "Shire" should Soon be taken from the lintel and replaced with the status symbol "City". But while preparing to polish up the old brass name-plate, "Doncaster and Templestowe", some- one suggested a "new look" name was needed, too. A unanimous decision would have been unnatural. Time available for choosing a suitable name wasn't quite as long as parents have before christening the new baby, but the vacillations were similar. Doncaster wanted "The City of Doncaster" (by your fruits shall ye be known) ; Templestowe would have preferred "The City of Templestowe" (after the ancestral Roads Board) ; Warrandyte hadn't the temerity to ask it be named for her. Bulleen (the first Shire name) was suggested, but somehow the feeling was that the home had outgrown Bulleen's ancestry• Then came inspiration — "Koonarra". The brain- Child of compromise. After an, the Koonung Creek flowed by the back door (oi front, depending on where you lived) and the Yarra river by the front (or back). Who could knock this back? Nearly everyone, it seemed. Will the family live happily ever after in its shiny new home? Maybe. But there's a rumor that the restless- young Doncaster Still harbors dreams of her brass plate on her own "emohruo."
"Thank You"
Many Of: historic pictures re produced in these pages were made avail- able by members of the City's pioneer families. We refer especially to Messrs. Clem Thiele and I. F. (Dick) Morrison, members of the Doncaster Camera Club, whose co-operation and goodwill this newspaper is pleased to acknowledge. Further thanks are offered to Col. E. G. Keogh, Controller of Civil Defense and Official Historian for the City; Mr. Ken Clark, of J. B. Thomson and Co., Bulleen, and Mr. John Wallace, Valuer and Real Estate Agent, of Donvale, whose articles have contributed to the success o! this supplement.
VICTA Sale & Service
Mr. Norm Cronin, proprietor of Doncaster Motor Mower Services Pty. Ltd., works, eats and sleeps motor mower service. Back in his kindergarten days his favorite toy was a motor mower — he was brought up in the midst Of mowers. His father, Mr. Alan Cronin has conducted a mower business in Croydon for many years. He took Norm into his workshop straight from school. After gaining experience, Norm decided to go into business on his own at 657 Doncaster Rd., Doncaster and Doncaster Mower Services was born. Norm says he chose Doncaster. because a survey of the district showed there were no other well-equipped mower service depots for the residents. Three months after he opened the business on May 27. 1963, he had to take on staff to cope with the service Work. The business expanded in leaps and bounds, but Norm was not happy with the service he was giving. He had pledged himself to give good Quick service, but he had so much work that he had to turn people away. In an effort to keep faith with his customers he moved the business to new pre- mises at 837 Doncaster Road in August last year. His new showroom and workshop were four times the size of the old premises. He had plenty of space for" a short time. Now he is building again to double their size, When Norm moved to the new building, Mr. T. G. Mitchell, well-known Doncaster footballer and golfer, joined him as sales manager. The business name was Changed to Don- caster Mower Services Pty. Ltd. Mr. n Mitchell, who lives in Templestowe, was a technical sales representative with Turner Industries, well known mower manufacturers. Norm has . designed the new premises to give his customers the best service available. When the additions have been completed customers requiring service will be able to drive right up to the workshop door to un- load their mowers. A waiting room will be provided for those waiting to pick up mowers. He hopes that with the enlarged work- shop and additional service staff to give the best service Obtainable in mower repairs and He su lied the mowers for the new La Trobe University. Norm would like to thank the people ot Doncaster-Templestowe and surrounding areas, the local council and Turner Industries, for their help and encouragement over the past four years with special thanks to two local people who were prepared to back him in his business venture. — (Advert.)
Major Step in Status
WHEN his excellency the Governor, Sir Rohan Delacombe, declared our Shire . city on February 28, it was a major step in the status and development Of our fast- growing municipality. It is estimated that by 1975 We will have to cater for an additional 60,000 - 70,000 residents. This makes forward planning a mammoth task. Plans for the immediate future include an Olympic size swimming pool with diving and children's pools and a new de- pot with up-to-date amenities for our work force. Our gardens project in 'the Ruffey's Creek area has received nationwide acclaim; this will have lakes, Walks and playing areas which will benefit us all. My council and I will continue to work for the benefit of the city, as I am confident will the councillors of the future, making our new city a place in which we can all be proud to live. Cr. S. K. Shepherd, Mayor
The Doncaster Story
Typical Orchard in the Doncaster Fruit Growing Area
From the beginning, Doncaster owed its existence to the. man who cleared the land, carted firewood — and grew fruit. But there was a difference: if other centres can claim to have done likewise, the early families, born with the intrepid spirit of the pioneer, learned to work and mingle in harmony, married within the "circle" and multiplied. And so today, the spirit of the pioneer lives on in his age- ing sons and daughters, their children and grandchildren. They were. and still are. the backbone of Doncaster. Since the last World War there have come to live around this nucleus -in their thousands a young and virile people, the newly- marrieds intent on building homes — fine homes — and having families. The newcomers have brought with them a land boom era, sounding regrettably the death-knell of the orchard industry, but bringing, nevertheless, new life and prosperity — and development unexcelled else- where. It is unfortunate that so few of the early pioneers failed to realise the importance of the heritage they were to bestow upon the district, for apart from the late Mr. John Tully. senior (who wrote a far too brief, but lucid account of Doncaster's history out of sheer enthusiasm for the area more than 30 years ago) and the more recent writings of historian Mr. Louis Cranfield, the years have largely obscured the details of the past. From these beginnings, it is emphasised, Doncaster became Victoria's first, most vital and largest fruit- growing district. Its apples won world renown, its cherries were sent to Sydney, Brisbane and New Zealand and in the 1870's small consignments were exhibited in Florence and Vienna, thus proving the feasibility of ex- porting fruit from the mainland. In the 1840's (before the beginning) it is Said with some lack of authenticity, the unsettled bush was a hiding place for stolen stock, placed there by cattle duffers. The district was named Vermont, but in 1852, we are told, William/ B. Burnley, who had come to settle near Melbourne, suggested the name "Doncaster" after Doncaster, England, where his family had lived. Burnley selected in 1853 5,200 acres south of Main (now Doncaster) Rd. and extending east to Deep Creek. About that time the Serpells purchased 20 acres of what is now the corner of King St. and Tuckers Rd. and Gottleib Thiele set- tied in Victoria St. and Church Rd, The Pickerings had also come to the district, having first occupied land over the boundary in East Doncaster. By 1860 a German community had settled around Church and Blackburn Rds. and George and King Sts. The area quickly assumed the name of Waldau, or German Town The fruit-growing era had not yet arrived. When the original settlers came to Doncaster their first thought was to build a home. This meant carving a space in the natural bush- land where good timber abounded. So wood-carting became the first general industry and as many as 80 loads a day left the district, much of it being taken to the Fitzroy Wood market. After a few years as the land was cleared, the wood carters moved farther out and the settlers cultivated first peas, beans, turnips, etc., then such berry fruits as raspberries„ straw- berries and the like. Gotleig Thiele is - generally believed to have been the first settler in Doncaster to start an orchard, followed closely by the Serpell, Pickering, Petty, Lawford Finger, Clay, Knee Aumann and Ireland families. Thiele planted about three acres near Church St. in 1853. He concentrated on peaches and pears, but it was not until the early 70's that these fruits and plums appeared in marketable quantities. From then on, the fruit-growing industry prospered, despite the relatively poor nature of the land and a lack of water which became acute In the drier seasons, so acute, that Bishop Moorhouse during a visit to Doncaster was urged to pray for rain. "Dam the water!" he exclaimed. He could have Implied just that, or it could have been an impatient utterance. Whatever it was, the chance historic remark "got through" to the settlers and in the years ahead Doncaster became known for the number and extent of its dams, or in some cases miniature lakes. Most of the residents by this time were planting fruit trees and in the next decade, or so, fresh-grown fruit was in plentiful supply. Almost every grower had a patch of gooseberries, large quantities of plums were despatched to jam factories, cherries were being sent interstate and peaches, pears, apricots, apples and lemons were finding a popular market. "I do not know of any area where so many fruit trees have been planted," the late John fully says in Doncaster's History. John Tully paid this final tribute to the early pioneer families: "When we remember Doncaster in the early 50's without a road, a fence or a house, just a dense forest, beautifully undulating, but with no running streams and rather poor soil, and compare it now with its comfortable, well-kept homes, fine orchards flower gardens, etc., we feel we must admire and -always honor the men and women who by their energy, industry and thrift, made the district such a striking example of independent effort."
Page 4 Golden Days at Warrandyte
"Gold found here, 1851, by Louis Michel and Party. Rewarded by the Government as discoverer of the first goldfield in Victoria."History acknowledges in these words the discovery of gold near Warrandyte. They are inscribed on a commemorative cairn in the town.
It was gold, the lure of gold, that brought the first rush of life to Warrandyte - a few specks panned in a dish near the crossing of the main road over Anderson's Creek.
Louis Michel, the discoverer of that gold on June 30, 1851, was later to receive rewards totalling £1200 from the Victoria Government.
Of French descent, Michel became the father of Warrandyte. His discovery led to the development of the State's first goldfield, named Victorias after the new colony, in the area between Jumping Creek and Harris Gully. The Caledonian Mine operated near the site for many years afterwards.
There are still many who prospect for gold in and around the creeks and pock-marked countryside week-enders who do for fun and the hope of some small gain, but the chances of a worthwhile "strike" today are more remote even than those offered on a city race- course.
Warrandyte was not destined to become a Bendigo or a Ballarat. It appears the main gold-bearing lode was lost, probably for all time.
The main search for gold petered out after the turn of the century.
But for many years there was gold in workable and profitable quantity. In three hours' digging a party, who returned to the area after Michel's first find, collected 40 nuggets, some, it is said, as large as peas.
The boom that followed led to the granting of the first Miners' Rights, organised mining, the driving of tunnels into hill-sides, quartz crushing plants aid, in October, 1856, the first coach service to Warrandyte which by then had mushroomed into a canvas township of some 800 people.
This, apart from gold was the largest single factor contributing to the growth of the district.
Miners' Rights were introduced to give each prospector a fair share of a creek bed, for all could not dig or pan in the one place. Ten yards was apportioned to each man and there was some grumbling at first as each was asked to pay 30s.
As the years passed the miners turned to quartz. One miner is said to have taken 12 oz. of gold from a single bucket, another to have earned £400 a week by breaking quartz with a sledge hammer. The best quartz yielded up to 100 oz. a ton. First attempt at organised mining begun in June, 1859, when an Irishman, Patrick Geraghty drove a tunnel into Fourth Hill.
He equipped Ine tunnel with a tramway and penetrated to a distance of 400 ft. in an attempt to discover the main bearing lode. The frustrations were enormous - and costly. Early, it seems, incessant rain and swollen--creeks dampened the enthusiasm of the prospectors and many left the district. Then, as plant arrived in the subsequent years, much of it was inefficient; in some instances, exorbitant prices as much as £5 a ton were charged for crushing quartz, drainage was poor and, of course, there was that expensive "island".
Employing 56 men, the island project was a cutting at Thompson's Bend to uncover one-quarter mile of the main river bed where, it was thought, the lode would be found. The experiment was doomed to failure and, instead, £7,000 went "down the river".
Yet 50 yards upstream the Yarra Tunnel Tribute Co., working a claim under the river, was highly successful for a time.
About that time the Old Pigtail Co., named after the many Chinese in the area, produced 1,500 oz. of gold.
Poor drainage caused the collapse of the Yarra Yarra Steam Puddling Co. which planned to treat gold-bearing soil in Whipstick Gully with pumps capable or 'handling 7,700 gallons of river water an hour.
A crusher, opened at Sloan's Hill to treat quartz for £1 a ton, proved inefficient and wasteful, and an- other project broke down. Mechanical quartz-crushing met with little success until Grant's Battery operated by water power, was constructed in 1868. Two years later 153 oz. of gold are said to have been taken from a crushing of 38 tons of quartz.
Unique tunnel
The tunnel at Pound Bend is unique in the history of gold mining in Victoria. David Mitchell, father of Dame Nellie Melba, was the man behind the enterprise. He formed the Evelyn Tunnel Gold Mining Co. to construct a dam across the bed Of the Yarra by diverting its main flow through a tunnel. The river was diverted in July, 1890, and it was hoped to puddle, or wash out, the original bed for a distance of three miles. Cost of the work was estimated at £10,000, completion time 12 months. Instead, the work was carried out in three-and-a-half months at a cost of £2,100. The tunnel proved quite a success for £8,000 worth of gold was recovered in 12 months. It was 634 ft. long, 18 ft. wide and 14 ft. deep.
Stories of "vexatious" tolls
New Year's Day, 1866, marked the beginning of a new and somewhat tentative era in Doncaster's history, for on that day a toll gate Was opened on Mr. Thomas Tully's property on the south-west side of what is now known as White's corner.
The Templestowe District Roads Board, it appears, was in a financial rut and persuaded the Boroondara Roads Board (which included Camberwell) to transfer the intended site from Kennedy's (now Koonung) Creek crossing in Doncaster Rd. in the hope of acquiring much-needed revenue.
But there were troubles. A popular new sport came into vogue - evasion of the toll. The players in three or four horse-drawn carts would rush the gates at the one time and the keeper was lucky to catch one. Prizes extracted from travellers were: sheep, pigs, lambs and goats - eight a ld (pound); ox or head of beef cattle - 1/2 d (penny); horse, mare, ass or mule - 1 1/2 d; gig, chaise, coach or chariot, or other carriage constructed on springs if drawn by one horse or other animal - 3d.; two horses 6d. and 3d. each additional horse or animal; cart, dray or wagon 6d. and 3d. for each additional horse, with tyres not exceeding six inches.
Those in government service, ministers of religion or residents going to church were exempt from payment. It was costly to take peaches to suck during a dull sermon. The toll keeper declared them marketable goods and demanded a toll for the vehicle.
Evasion
Templestowe graziers evaded the toll by driving their herds of cattle across unfenced land in the Carlton Estate (also known as Unwin's Special Survey.
A move by the Templestowe the Roads Board to have a toll at the corner of Thompsons and Templestowe Rds. was defeated by the petitions of residents, who pleaded hardship.
To the almost bankrupt board, who only wanted to keep the residents communicable with the outside world, this plea seemed ironic. When the Commissioner of Roads and Bridges requested a report on the amount of road construction, it had to reply that it did not have enough funds to pay for a survey. The Commissioner countered that neither did his department.
Wealth from river flats
While Doncaster found glamor in fruit, Bulleen and Templestowe from their birth produced great wealth from the lush grazing grasses and waters along the Yarra flats.
And as the settlers probed farther inland, they found gold, antimony, and some like their Doncaster neighbours, turned go fruit. But Templestowe was, and still is largely a rural area, its pockets of urban development matching in character the wide, open spaces from which they have sprung.
At the urban end Bulleen has mushroomed through subdivision. It is the populous middle-class district linking a new city more closely with the greater metropolis.
Templestowe is said to be unique, for it is believed to be the only town in the world bearing that name. The name first appeared in Sir Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe." Physical contact with the area now occupied by the new City appears to have been made first in 1838-39 when Bulleen appeared as a Parish on Robert Hoddle's survey map following an exploratory tour of the Upper Yarra. There are records also of cattle grazing in 1838 near the mouth of Koonung Creek. It was called Wood's Creek then after J. and W. Wood, who purchased land in the neighbourhood, and for the next 50 years Kennedy's Creek, after James Kennedy, who arrived the following year.
As the pattern of settlement unfolded, Robert Laidlaw, in partnership with a Hugh Kerr, purchased land from the Woods for £16. Kerr, in turn, established himself on a property at the corner of Bulleen and Doncaster Rds. But Laidlaw is generally acknowledged as being the first permanent settler.
Within a few years all the river flats as far as the present township of Templestowe were under cultivation with wheat, barley and potatoes.
First wheat exports
It is interesting to record at this stage that the first wheat and barley exported to England in 1847 was grown along the river flats. The barley especially attracted favorable comment, but the settlers' hopes of developing this type of agriculture were dashed by the frequent flooding of the river. One of the first settlers to penetrate into the heavily-wooded hills beyond the river flats was Major Charles Newman who, after his retirement from army service in India took up, under licence, a large tract of land at Templestowe, including one square mile along the road that later was to be named in his honor.
He moved from Dandenong to Templestowe in 1840 and erected there the locally famous homesteads of "Pontville" and "Monkton" with 14in. walls for protection against aborigines and bushrangers.
Bulleen developed quickly in the 1840's when the first church service (Presbyterian) was held on a settler's farm. A school was established in 1847 and three years later a second school was opened for more than 80 pupils near the intersections of Williamson and Serpells
The discovery of gold at Creek (Warrandyte) in 1851 led to a "fantastic" financial period for who preferred the security of their farms. The shortage of labor had sent prices rocketing and by growing potatoes and other produce, it is said, the farmers made up to £6,000 in one season.
That year the first serious attempt was made to clear the timbered hills. John Chivers, for example, took up 100 acres along Church Rd., and within 12 months all the country as far as Newman's Rd. was being developed.
Templestowe was proclaimed a village in 1852 and two years later when the first public sale of town allotments took place 19 blocks were sold at an average price of £38.
In "Victorian and Australian Goldfields, 1857", William Westgarth described the township as a small village containing an hotel, a blacksmith's shop and a few houses and gardens.
The hotel was the Bulleen Hotel, later the Templestowe Hotel and finally the Upper Yarra Hotel. It was conducted in the 50's by a David Ben, in the 60's by a Robert Mundy, in the 70's and for many years afterwards by James Finn, after whom the delicensed remises are still known. Once the popular meeting place of the woodsplitters, carters ,and miners, the valuable historical. property has been acquired for use as a Council reserve. The nearby Templestowe Hotel is the only remaining public house in the area, although it was one of four within a few hundred yards in the 1850's. It was sold to Patrick Sheehan in 1871 and remained in that family until 1930. The hotel has changed hands several times since.
The Doncaster Hotel - 1853-1967 ... and still growing strong - in fact stronger and better than ever.
The Doncaster Inn Hotel, 855 Doncaster Road, Doncaster 848-1622
The meeting place for friendly people.
The DONCASTER HOTEL bars first swung open well over a century ago . . bringing to our forebears who pioneered DONCASTER and SURROUNDING .DISTRICTS a dash of the good old spirit and the convivial atmosphere that is still enjoyed today ..... setting down .the stalwart traditions for hospitality and service that have .made this historic rendezvous so renowned throughout this PROCLAIMED CITY!
Now one of Melbourne's most up to date hotels can offer you so much more . . . cool comfortable
drinking in our select bars and. modern lounge, plus every modern amenity. And remember you simply drive in and give your order in our Drive-in Bottle Dept. which has room for 2,500 chilled bottles of
beer. It's brought right to you.
By Tram to Doncaster - A railway ? Well, almost
A railway was proposed and was in fact, almost a reality when the first electric tramcar ran to Doncaster. A railway? A tram? You're kidding. It's 1967 and we don't have them yet. The truth is that an all-electric tramcar, the the first in Southern Hemisphere, plied between Box Hill and Doncaster from October, 1889, until the following year when bickerings over rights of carriageway forced it off the road.
There was talk of a railway, too. And there's still talk but the railway never seems to get on its feet, or its wheels, which would seem more appropriate in this instance. It was a jubilant year for Doncaster when the tramcar finally traversed the 2 1/4 miles from the terminus in Box Hill to the destination at White's Corner. A banquet to celebrate the occasion was held at the Tower Hotel and' it seems that almost everybody of importance, except the Premier, turned up.
Maybe a good friend had dropped the Premier a hint in advance, for, in the course of an address the local member, Mr. E. H. Cameron, said it was a good thing the Premier had not attended because he would almost certainly have been asked to explain why the Doncaster Railway Bill had been dropped.
The tramway, it was thought, had given the Government an excuse to postpone the railway.
As a practical - or impractical - public conveyance the tramcar might never have started rolling, but for the enterprise of an eastern suburbs land syndicate which formed the Box Hill Doncaster Electric Tram Company. Richard Serpell, farmer, and William Sell, agent, of Doncaster were among the original shareholders.
The tramcar had been brought to Melbourne for the Centennial International Exhibition in 1888 and for a time ran in the Exhibition Gardens, after which nobody seemed to want it.
To form a permanent way, the company spent £4,600 laying rails on bluegum sleepers let into the surface of the road (which later was to derive its name from the tramway). Other difficulties wen encountered before the formal opening of the service took place.
The "Age" in reporting the formal opening said: "Some heavy cuttings and embankments have been -necessary, but in spite of considerable outlay in this direction, it has been found impossible from the nature of the country to avoid making some very steep inclines. "The grade up the hill into Doncaster is the steepest on the line, the ground rising as much as 1 ft. in 16. "When ready for the brake all was the start was released and the vehicle glided down the track with a smooth. easy motion. Starting down the slope, the pace was allowed to increase after the style of a switchback railway until the car was travelling at the rate of some 12-14 miles an hour. The impetus obtained in this way was used in mounting the opposite slope. "The pace slackened considerably going up the hills and on the steepest grades only five miles an hour was attempted. The whole distance of 2 1/4 miles was covered in 20 minutes. "The car will run regularly from this date and the company proposes to charge 6d. for a single journey."
Things went well for a time and in April, 1890, the company reported that a second glassed-in car with double the power was being acquired. Then a dispute arose over the ownership of land along the permanent way and, in the absence of an agreement, the rails were ripped from the road surface. Feelings evidently ran high for when negotiations failed, posts carrying the overhead wires were chopped down and the debris scattered along the roadway. The final act of disapproval was to suspend an effigy from a crosswire at the Doncaster terminus. It wore a belltopper on which was inscribed
"AE — Sad!". The sad effects of rail lifting. The above will be burned in effigy on Saturday at 8 p.m. All are cordially invited."
Because of the bank crash following the land boom in 1893, a second attempt to operate a tramway in Doncaster seemed doomed to fail. But there were many who had supported the project and in January, 1892, the Doncaster and Box Hill Electric Road Company Ltd. had been registered to operate a service from Box Hill to Koonung Creek, Doncaster Rd. to Williamsons Rd. and then to the junction of Templestowe and Heidelberg Rds. The tram ran for only two years. At the time the orchardists were in financial difficulty and there were days when two and three successive trips were made without a passenger.
This was the final epitaph. It appeared in a local newspaper:
"We cannot refrain from expressing our conviction that this is one of the greatest calamaties which has yet occurred in this district."
The view from the tower
Three lookout towers, it seems, were associated with the early history of Doncaster.
Sharing 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 drags from the city and many more by electric tram from Box Hill, to stroll from the terminus at White's Corner, enjoy a few beers and stay overnight at the Tower Hotel and return on the Sunday.
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 accidents were reported, it is assumed the visitors d???, after surveying the surrounding ...de. To ???? majority, it was a most satisfying jaunt. The ????? er, it appears, was erected by a Mr. Serpell in 1865. History records that it w??? wooden construction, 100 ft. high, som???? etative and succumbed to the wind ???ew months.
The view from the 285-ft. observation tower overlooking Main Rd., Doncaster, the orchard country and mountains beyond. The old Shire Hall is in the foreground and next to it is the original Doncaster State School. The shopping centre, now opposite, was still to-be developed. Mr E. H. Thiele took the picture about1905.
Tower Hotel, popular meeting place for weekenders. From the original painting by Dick Ovenden. Photo by courtesy Mr. J.im Morison.
Mr. Hummel tried again with a larger tower which also failed to meet the test of endurance. So, in 1878, he constructed a third tower of steel and an hotel with 39 rooms and stable accommodation for 20 horses a few hundred yards east of White's Corner and opposite the old Shire Offices.
The 285 ft. structure stood for almost 40 years as an imposing landmark and observation point.
It is still remembered by older Doncaster residents. Portion of the hotel still seen at the corner of Doncaster and Tower St. It was occupied for a time by a motor mower and service shop which subsequently moved to East Doncaster. It was declared unsafe in 1913 but the tower was not dismantled until 1914, some residents claiming that examination then proved it was perfectly safe.
Glories of a hall
In the 1890's, Doncaster's Athenaeum Hall boasted a library of 1100 volumes. It was regarded as one of the finest collections of reference books outside Melbourne. The original Athenaeum Hall was built in 1871 at the suggestion of an evangelical group, the "Band of Hope." This lively organisation planned to reform the hard-living wood splitters and itinerant workers of the district, but felt their usual meeting place, the Methodist Hall, could be thought too "churchy" and would hinder their efforts.
The present site of the Athenaeum, in Main Rd., was chosen in 1870. Mr. A. Hummel (of Doncaster Tower fame), a young' Englishman who had inherited a great deal of money, purchased three acres from the Government and. donated one to the trustees for the hall. He also lent £70 towards the £258 cost of the building.
A Government subsidy of £40 helped to purchase the first 225 books. Care in the selection of reference material was largely exercised by Mr. A. O. Thiele, head teacher of the Doncaster State School at the time, and a member of a pioneering family.
After the First World War, the massive granite pillars at the entrance were added as memorial to those from the district who gave their service and their lives. The pillars contain about 100 names.
The library lapsed into disuse during the Second World War, chiefly, it is said, through disinterest, and also because the books became outdated and were not replaced with more modern literature.
Today the Athenaeum is used mainly for meetings, "injection days," and naturalisation ceremonies. In the middle 1950s, the Shire Council provided a mobile library service as a branch of the Box Hill library.
A new, modern library building, just completed in Montgomery St., East Doncaster, will openin few weeks. The public hall in East Doncaster was built in 1932 on land donated by Mr. A. Zerbe, opposite a reserve in Blackburn, Rd. which bears his name.
Rise & Fall of Orchard Empire (Joan Seppings)
Stand on Doncaster hill today; look north to the mountains and south to the sea .... the red weed of suburbia creeps the slopes over once pink and white with orchard blossoms. The army of bulldozers carving up Victoria's history leaves only bituminous scars, bearing such names as Thiele st., Petty's Lane and Serpell's Rd. as memorials to those who harvested an empire in fruit from an unwilling countryside.
Doncaster, a day's walk from the Melbourne markets, has grown fruit continually since 1853, 30 years before other areas. In 1853, there was no bridge across the Koonung Creek which divided the Parishes of Boroondara and Bulleen.
Gottleib Thiele somehow safely got his bullocks across, with their load of goods, household vegetable and seedlings, his wife, Philippe, and little Oswald and Adelaide. Philippe murmured a prayer of relief that the dray had not slipped on the muddy banks. A cow trudged behind.
They had left civilisation five miles behind at the sprawling market garden village of Kew and stood now on the edge of the vast, rangy forest of the Carlton Estate. Ten acres of it was theirs. Gottleib had paid £100 for it to a Mr. Collins and hoped he had done the right thing.
Gottleib was a military tailor. In Melbourne, he had become established in Bourke St. as a fashionable maker of men's clothing, under the friendly patronage of Governor La Trobe. He had once exchanged scissors and needle for shovel and pick at Bendigo.
His success with gold was as sparse as his knowledge of farming. As Gottleib paused for breath half-way up the steep hill which for three miles still lay between him and his land, he saw Thomas Petty's tent down by the creek. Thomas Petty was more suited to weaving a tent than living in one. A slump in the cotton industry had sent him from his birthplace in Bradford, England. He had been a good weaver and with his son, Henry, had gone once to Germany to teach new methods to her craftsmen.
During the next 100 years, his sons and grandsons would become leaders of a new industry in a new land. For the hard- working Pettys, straight as the stringbarks they camped under, and with the ingenuity of which legend is made, this was inevitable.
Now he and Henry batched in their tent and prepared a livelihood and a home for his wife, Jane, and their five young ones. When these were ready, he would send for them. The map the estate agent had given Gottleib showed various landowners' names, estates and boundaries. It did not show the density of un-axed trees and tangled scrub they had to push through to reach their spot. Oswald, a bright lad, helped his father plot the way. Oswald would one day teach the boy whose name was given to Victoria's second University - Monash - would see his own son (Sir Edmund Thiele) a University professor and knighted. His unborn brothers would be recognised as leading authorities in the fruit world of Australia.
But that would come later.
Before the bush would give them a living it would make them a home. Wattles were felled. The same spades that broke the clay for plaster daub for the first huts, turned the soil for the first plantings. The creeks were life to the early pioneers - the Koonung and Ruffeys in the west, Mullum Mullum and Deep Creek to the east where the Wilsons, Pickerings, Bucks and Beavises had taken up land. In them, the women did the family work and from them carted bucketsful to the struggling rows of potatoes, vegetables, rapes and berries in narrow clearings, until house wells were dug.
Every gallon had to do the work of ten. It was not uncommon for women to carry water over a mile from the creeks to their homes. As the bush was slowly pushed back, the gardeners found they had also pushed back the shelter their plants needed from hot winds. They planted, as windbreaks, the pines which have become an integral part of the Doncaster scenery.
The whole agricultural process was one of trial and error. The soil was found to be too shallow for vegetables. Grapes, raspberries, strawberries and goosberries seemed more favoured. Besides, the quick-bearing soft fruits were "early money".
To make a living while waiting for a harvest, men carted wood from the trees they felled to Melbourne and Kew. Depending on the season, they received 4d to 1/1 a cwt. While their husbands were away on their day-long journey, the women and children chopped the next load.
The creek banks soon gave stone, and the unyielding clay bricks for the first solid houses.
Gottleib's brother, Gottfried, a stone mason, came with the first big wave of neighbours, in 1855 and helped build their homes.
The Finger family, a stone's throw away, built theirs from bricks, hand-made on the property.
Richard Serpell, who had lived with his wife and three children in Glenferrie, bought an American plough for £6, forty acres at £8 an acre from the same Mr. Collins and walked regularly to his block, clearing, cutting and planting. He, too, had tried the diggings and once brought home three ounces of gold from Anderson's Creek. In his diary of June, 1854, he wrote: "visited the highlands today, Mother, Dick and I taking some fruit trees with us" and mentioned a "number of Germans residing to the west of us."
The Germans had been guided to their countryman, Gottleib, by a German immigrant centre in Melbourne. Aumann, Finger, Straube, Fromhold, Tuckerband, Wittig, Hanke, Zander, Lankerstorf, Furmann, Gunther, Meyer, Ubergang, Schuhkraft, Rosel, Pump and Denhert were some.
Young Denhert, at 17, hewed 22 acres of vineyard from virgin forest in what is now George St., became uncrowned "pear King". and lived to over 100 years.
James Read, who had farmed for a while at Gardiner's Creek, carried in his hands precious cuttings of fruit trees from Hawthorn. He planted the first fruit trees in Templestowe, on the edge of the orchard belt, in the eight acres he had purchased from the Chivers family.
W. Sydney Williams who had landed from Pembrokeshire two years before, a 19 years-old lad with high hopes and 4/6 in his pocket, had at last saved enough from his wages to buy his own land in Leeds St.
John Clay, three years out from Devononshire with his wife, Richard, 11, and four years-old Eliza, settled just west of the crest of Doncaster Hill (near where Cameron's Garage now stands). Richard would later help the little community with his work on the Templestowe Roads Board and Eliza would marry Thomas Petty's son,Tom.
John Whitten on the six months' trip from Ireland, had met and fallen in love with Margaret Harvey. When they parted at Geelong Harbor, Margaret took up housework in that township and John went to try his luck on the land at West Doncaster. They agreed to marry in 12 months. Almost to the day, they made their home near the Lane which bears their name.
George Bullen and his wife walked on farther to the east. On his ship had been John Ireland, his wife and three children, John, Eliza and Elijah, who had purchased 30 acres from a man who owned a square mile where Beverley St. is now. Eliza later married George's son, George Jnr. and lived on the site where Woolworth's now stands. Elijah's son Arthur was to be a Doncaster councillor for 37 years and for five years a member of State Parliament. Mays, Hislops, Bullocks and Stintons were in the never- never land farther out.
David Williamson became Crown Bailiff of the Carlton Estate and began to develop some land near the Koonung Creek crossing for himself.
Robert Wilson forsook the land to be- come landlord of the Doncaster Arms Inn. Doncaster, England, was his first home — more famed, town to his mind, for its St. Ledger Handicap than - and its agriculture he intended to encourage picnic races along the Doncaster Rd. He had picked up three small nuggets of gold near the hotel, but was inclined to agree with those who prophesied that more gold would grow above the ground than ever came out of it.
Thomas Petty moved out of his tent left his wattle and daub hut to itself by the creek and built a "two-storied" house on the hill. He had written proudly to Jane to come. The children - George Thomson, Tom, Elizabeth, George Thomas and John - had walked all the way from Sandridge with their mother and were excited at the prospect of seeing their father again after two years. But they ran away in tears from the bearded, sunburnt man who hurried down the hill to greet them. They thought he was a blackfellow! Jane glanced past the little stone cottage with a rope ladder leading to attic and looked for her two-storied house. Not a building in sight like those at home. This was it. Jane cried every night for three weeks - like most of the women at first not for the hardships, but the strangeness, the noises at night of animals in the bush, the imaginings of black people harming their children. But when Thomas was killed 22 years later in an accident, she farmed their 47 acres on her own.
Gottleib's house was sturdy and comfortable, too, with internal doors as well as those onto the verandah. Gottleib's house had added a detached stone kitchen and cellar and their friend from Melbourne, botanist Baron von Meuller, had helped plan a garden. Philippe, meanwhile, had done him the honor of bearing the first white child in the district - a son, Frederick.
The settlers had no time for enterainment, but they made time for church, meeting in each other's homes, occasionally being blessed with a sermon from a footsore visiting minister from Melbourne.
The Lutherans were the first to build a church, in 1858. They built it of wood and shingle and it on top of the Waldau (Forrestville) Hill. Around it they laid out their cemetery and again had botanical advice from Baron Meuller for a garden and his gift of cyprus pines.
With the church building, the budding community spirit of mutual co-operation had a place to take root. Its bell tolled at dawn, noon and at dusk to tell the time to gardeners and woodcutters of all nationalities. On Sundays, the Lutherans held their services in the mornings and lent the pulpit and pews in the afternoons to their Church of England neighbors. They shared their festivals and their Christmas presents.
From 1856, Victoria strived to provide her own agricultural needs and Doncaster's gardens grew. Richard Serpell noted he had 59 currant and 66 gooseberry bushes. The Government of 1858 was concerned with encouraging production, but was in two minds how to go about it. It considered bringing an English farmer to teach the inexperienced settlers. "No," said Sydney Ricardo. "The land is different, the climate is different, the soil is different, the methods must be different too." Ricardo was one who knew. He had settled in Templestowe and seen his tomato gardens flooded out, He had seen the failures and the triumphs of his neighbors in the hills with their fruit. He had been a member of their Roads Board before being elected to represent them in Parliament.
Ricardo persuaded the Government to assist with the establishment of an experimental farm, to learn how to grow under Australian conditions. One such nursery was to teach Frederick Thiele how to grow fruit profitably, and be the means by which he and his young brother Alfred would become leading Australian authorities on fruit. Thiele's Fireside Fruits and Frederick's own Packam pear would become household words.
The sixties were an important decade. Many of the first settlers' children had intermarried and started their own market gardens, others had come across the newly-built bridge to deepen the ruts in the only road. Newcomer Thomas Tully's son, John, was born and was destined to be a councillor and write the first History of Doncaster. Henry White, George Knee, James Kent in the East, helped start a Methodist Church, but carting an old butcher's shop from the Anderson's Creek Diggings.
Lawfords moved across from Box Hill to join Corbetts, Crouchs, Bogles, Hardidges, Zerbes, Bowers and many more. A Government grant had helped expand the school that Gottleib's friend, Max Schramm, had begun and young Oswald took over from him as Head Teacher.
The men had formed a cricket club, begun moves for a public hall, and Wilson's picnic races were a part of the community life.
Tom Petty, Joseph Pickering \ and other English settlers in the west collected 6d a week , from their neighbors to build their own church from the soft easily split stone from Gottleib Thiele's creek. Peaches and other fruit trees were bearing well. Tom Petty was one who shared Frederick's enthusiasm for fruit trees. When others said there was too much grown - that it could never been sold profitably - he planted more and encouraged sceptics to do likewise. To save the long haul by hand from berry bush to packing shed he invented a sled. People thought him "uppish" when he drove the first spring cart in the district to market, but not until he'd thought of a way to save the back- breaking heave necessary to get the goods up on to it was he satisfied. A lower axle, lower shafts, and Tom set the fashion for Doncaster's marketing with its indiginous, low-slung jingle.
But heavy carting was still done with bullocks. Tom Petty, Alfred Thiele and Richard Serpell, in 1882, became the first Australians to successfully export pears to England. Land prices rose to £56 an acre. But outsiders tramped all over the carefully tended land and helped themselves to fruit. Diseases came too.
In the fruit-growing areas, diptheria became prevalent. Typhoid took many lives, because of the habit of city dwellers dumping their night soil. Diptheria wiped out whole families. Weeping parents would re- turn from burying one loved child to find another dead in her bed.
Water was still a problem, especially for the groves of lemons which were becoming popular. Sometimes, in summer, the creeks dried up. The resourceful men of Doncaster began to edge up every hollow on the hillsides above their crops and gouged out others with horse and scoop. No man had to build his dam alone. John Petty later boasted he helped build every dam in the district. When drought withered the leaves and fruit in northern districts, losing them two years' crops, Doncaster's thriving orchards aroused the curiosity of authorities. "See Fred Thiele's orchard," Tom Petty had told the Premier. "It's like an Eden. He'll tell you why." Frederick explained the system of water conservation as practiced locally, obediently made a map of all dams and depressions in the district for the Government, and paved the way for the adoption of the principle of irrigation officially.
When steam pumps became available it was possible to build dams in hollows. For his 40-acre lemon orchard, Sydney Williams and his bullocks built the biggest dam yet seen, in the dip, of what is now Renshaw St. Every, orchardist in Doncaster helped at some, time during the two years it took to build, Once the wall broke, the welled up creek flooded his land and they had to start again. When completed it was 22 feet deep, two acres in surface and held 22 million gallons of water. This was 1891.
The Pettys were still inventing. Herbert, son of George, made a new type of plough which is still sold today; Lawford patented a one-way disc and August Zerbe, of Blackburn Rd., owned the first single furrow plough with a shifting handle.
The experiment of a few Doncaster orchardists of storing fruit at the Glaciarium ushered in the refrigerated Cool Store era. Petty's, Tullys, Lawfords, Thieles, Serpells, Witchells and Williamsons backed a move to build the first cool Co-operative Store in Australia, which eventually held 36000 cases of their fruit. They were the first to buy refrigerated space in meat ships for their fruit.
The 1930s were the top of the peak for the expanding orchard empire. So enormous an amount of dessert peaches and pears were grown in this decade that in 1931 the Blue Moon Co-operative Trading Company (first called the Southern Victorian Pear Packing Company) was formed to organise and standardise methods of export to the United Kingdom. The old names - Tom Petty, John Tully, E. Lawford and A. E. Ireland were among its first Directors.
But the more the orchards prospered, the closer they moved towards their extinction. The more desirable the district became for others to live in, the less it could remain rural. In the forties and fifties began the trickle of suburban houses that grew to the present flood. New ratings helped in the erosion and decline. Because now they had been classified by the M.M.B.W. as residential land, and valued as such, rates of a typical 36 acre orchard rose from £69 to £609. Land tax rose from nothing to £485 and four years later doubled. Merely to keep the land in the family to run it as an orchard cost many £1,000 a year.
They sold up. They subdivided.
Civil defence in your city - The best of its kind in Victoria
Page 24
Needs: Extraction from PDF; proofreading of OCR; Layout; Find original Images to replace LQ newspaper images.
Source: DD-20251011-01 Doncaster East Yarra News - Lift out Supplement 28/2/1967 Original Scan
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