The Yarra provided fresh water for Melbourne but the town polluted the water.
In 1851, two events changed the future of Melbourne, and changed the future of life on the Yarra. One; Victoria separated from New South Wales allowing the new colony to control its own affairs, the other, the gold discovery at Warrandyte. The rush to find gold brought an influx of people to Melbourne. Visitors arrived at Sandridge, where their ships docked then boats brought them up the river to the town.
During 1851, Melbourne grew from a primitive settlement to a bustling metropolis. A growth that brought greater need for the river’s facility to transport goods and people to the town. The tranquil scene of small boats gliding along a stream surrounded by bushland where only a few vessels lazily floated tied up to the river bank, changed dramatically. News of the gold discoveries attracted men hoping to make a fortune from the magic of gold, but also more goods needed to be imported. To cater for the enlarged population. By the end of the year, ships arrived every day loaded with men eager to set out for the gold fields, their families carrying household goods and furniture. Within twelve months Hobsons Bay, where dozens of vessels had anchored, looked like a forest with all the ship's masts and all day long boats and small steamers conveyed new arrivals along the Yarra.
A visitor from England described the scene: “As each boat arrived, passengers landed into a scene of confusion on the wharf as they dumped their luggage on the muddy ground. They stood, surrounded by piles of baggage, packages and household goods, in the midst of hundreds of fellow travellers The men left their women and families seated on piled up luggage while they went off to look for lodgings ..... so often there was a scene of depression as the men return unsuccessful. On the wharves a type of market developed with impromptu sales taking place, as disillusioned arrivals from England, sold their household goods when they discovered there was nowhere to store them. There were others who were selling goods they had brought out as a speculation.” (Source: Dickens - Household Words - 1852 - p703)
Many new arrivals walked from Sandridge to Melbourne. (At that time Port Melbourne was called Sandridge) They could pay to travel up the Yarra by boat, but when they walked the short distance overland they found the track swampy and still had to cross the Yarra at the falls. There was an obvious need for better transport so in 1853 the authorities built Australia’s first railway line from Sandridge to Flinders Street. The rail tracks crossed the Yarra on a new bridge, a simple timber trestle structure, set on an angle to the river. A few years later, the Hobsons Bay Railway Company built a new line to St. Kilda, then company had to rebuild the bridge to take two rail tracks. (Source: National Trust of Australia - Research into the Sandridge Rail Bridge- p6)
Melbourne was growing and flourishing in these gold rush years. A second road bridge was soon needed not only for people coming by road from Sandridge but also to give access to the factories and engineering works on the south bank of the Yarra. David Lennox started construction of a timber bridge across the falls. On the banks opposite Queens Street Lennox constructed bluestone abutments. He ordered timber from Tasmania, but when the timber arrived, it was taken for other bridges that were considered more important. (Source: PRO October 1852) It was not until June 1830 that a simple timber trestle structure, the predecessor of present Queens Bridge, was finally opened.. Robert Hutchison and Co. of Victoria Parade East, built the bridge at a cost of 3518 pounds five shillings. They called it, “Falls Bridge”.
Cole’s Wharf was still the centre of activity at the Port of Melbournes. George Cole, now a successful man, married Anne McCrea. The daughter on one of the Melbourne’s social leaders, William Gordon McCrea, and sister of Geogianna McCrea. Cole was a wealthy man and the couple took an active part in the social life of the town giving lavish fishing parties and picnics for friends, including celebrities such as Superintendent LaTrobe. They often held picnics at St. Kilda and were so delighted with the place that Cole purchased twenty four acres of sea front there and built a large house that he called St. Ninians. It soon became the centre of fashionable life in Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol.. 7 p587)
Captain Cole spent over sixty thousand pounds on the facilities at the Yarra but just when the hundreds of immigrants, attracted by the gold rushes, would have made a fortune for him, the government took over both Cole’s and Dobson’s Wharves without paying any compensation. Cole protested then stood for parliament in the hope of being able to obtain redress, but it was another twenty years before the government eventually awarded him compensation and then only nineteen thousand pounds.
James Blackburn a skilled engineer came to Melbourne in In 1849. Blackburn had been transported to Tasmania, charged with forging a cheque. Despite this, after hearing commendatory testimonials of his diligence and skilful work in Tasmania, the council appointed him to the responsible position of City Surveyor.
Walking along the Yarra bank Blackburn saw 13 pumps between Russel Street and Queen Street, selling polluted water at a high price. With four partners he formed the Melbourne Water Company. The company layed pipes from the river above the falls to the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Street. Here the company filtered and pumped the water into a large square tank on a metal stand. The company sold water to the public for one penny a load. (Source: R. C. Seeger - The History of Melbourne’s Water Supply- Vic. Historical Magazine Vol 19 June 1942 p142)
Blackburn achieved lasting fame when he planned a water supply for Melbourne. (Source: Dictionary of Biography) Several streams along the Yarra Valley flowed into the river on its way to Melbourne. One of the main tributaries was the Plenty River. Blackburn planned a reservoir on the Plenty River at Yan Yean to store water, with a pipeline and aqueducts to bring an adequate supply of clean water to the town. The Yan Yean scheme was completed in In 1857. It was a great occasion when the valves were turned on. The people stood and watched a spectacular display as a fountain of water gushed up into the air. Now the people of Melbourne could turn on a tap and run clean fresh water in their own homes. Unfortunately Blackburn did not live to see the result of his plans, for soon after designing the scheme he fell from his horse and died from his injuries.
“Next to Godliness is Cleanliness.” So the proprietors promoted the Victoria Baths in 1849. A company had constructed baths in a workshop downstream from Raleigh’s wharf then towed them up the river to a site above the docks. Eight rooms provided bathing for men, also rooms for women were being constructed. Tickets were fifteen shillings and 140 people, including the Mayor had become subscribers before the baths had opened. (Source: Argus 13 Nov1849)
The City Council had imposed strict regulation for bathing in the Yarra. When the Falls Bridge was built, the baths were moved up the river to a site opposite the Botanical Gardens. this place became known as “Baths Corner.” Earlier, Dr. Palmer opened swimming bathes on the south of the river opposite Queen Street. The baths were sixty feet long, divided in two sections one end for gentlemen at sixpence the other for the “lower classes” at threepence. (Source: Footnote Edmund Finn - The Chronicals of Early Melbourne p961)
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During 1851, Melbourne grew from a primitive settlement to a bustling metropolis. A growth that brought greater need for the river’s facility to transport goods and people to the town. The tranquil scene of small boats gliding along a stream surrounded by bushland where only a few vessels lazily floated tied up to the river bank, changed dramatically. News of the gold discoveries attracted men hoping to make a fortune from the magic of gold, but also more goods needed to be imported. To cater for the enlarged population. By the end of the year, ships arrived every day loaded with men eager to set out for the gold fields, their families carrying household goods and furniture. Within twelve months Hobsons Bay, where dozens of vessels had anchored, looked like a forest with all the ship's masts and all day long boats and small steamers conveyed new arrivals along the Yarra.
A visitor from England described the scene: “As each boat arrived, passengers landed into a scene of confusion on the wharf as they dumped their luggage on the muddy ground. They stood, surrounded by piles of baggage, packages and household goods, in the midst of hundreds of fellow travellers The men left their women and families seated on piled up luggage while they went off to look for lodgings ..... so often there was a scene of depression as the men return unsuccessful. On the wharves a type of market developed with impromptu sales taking place, as disillusioned arrivals from England, sold their household goods when they discovered there was nowhere to store them. There were others who were selling goods they had brought out as a speculation.” (Source: Dickens - Household Words - 1852 - p703)
Many new arrivals walked from Sandridge to Melbourne. (At that time Port Melbourne was called Sandridge) They could pay to travel up the Yarra by boat, but when they walked the short distance overland they found the track swampy and still had to cross the Yarra at the falls. There was an obvious need for better transport so in 1853 the authorities built Australia’s first railway line from Sandridge to Flinders Street. The rail tracks crossed the Yarra on a new bridge, a simple timber trestle structure, set on an angle to the river. A few years later, the Hobsons Bay Railway Company built a new line to St. Kilda, then company had to rebuild the bridge to take two rail tracks. (Source: National Trust of Australia - Research into the Sandridge Rail Bridge- p6)
Melbourne was growing and flourishing in these gold rush years. A second road bridge was soon needed not only for people coming by road from Sandridge but also to give access to the factories and engineering works on the south bank of the Yarra. David Lennox started construction of a timber bridge across the falls. On the banks opposite Queens Street Lennox constructed bluestone abutments. He ordered timber from Tasmania, but when the timber arrived, it was taken for other bridges that were considered more important. (Source: PRO October 1852) It was not until June 1830 that a simple timber trestle structure, the predecessor of present Queens Bridge, was finally opened.. Robert Hutchison and Co. of Victoria Parade East, built the bridge at a cost of 3518 pounds five shillings. They called it, “Falls Bridge”.
Cole’s Wharf was still the centre of activity at the Port of Melbournes. George Cole, now a successful man, married Anne McCrea. The daughter on one of the Melbourne’s social leaders, William Gordon McCrea, and sister of Geogianna McCrea. Cole was a wealthy man and the couple took an active part in the social life of the town giving lavish fishing parties and picnics for friends, including celebrities such as Superintendent LaTrobe. They often held picnics at St. Kilda and were so delighted with the place that Cole purchased twenty four acres of sea front there and built a large house that he called St. Ninians. It soon became the centre of fashionable life in Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol.. 7 p587)
Captain Cole spent over sixty thousand pounds on the facilities at the Yarra but just when the hundreds of immigrants, attracted by the gold rushes, would have made a fortune for him, the government took over both Cole’s and Dobson’s Wharves without paying any compensation. Cole protested then stood for parliament in the hope of being able to obtain redress, but it was another twenty years before the government eventually awarded him compensation and then only nineteen thousand pounds.
James Blackburn a skilled engineer came to Melbourne in In 1849. Blackburn had been transported to Tasmania, charged with forging a cheque. Despite this, after hearing commendatory testimonials of his diligence and skilful work in Tasmania, the council appointed him to the responsible position of City Surveyor.
Walking along the Yarra bank Blackburn saw 13 pumps between Russel Street and Queen Street, selling polluted water at a high price. With four partners he formed the Melbourne Water Company. The company layed pipes from the river above the falls to the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Street. Here the company filtered and pumped the water into a large square tank on a metal stand. The company sold water to the public for one penny a load. (Source: R. C. Seeger - The History of Melbourne’s Water Supply- Vic. Historical Magazine Vol 19 June 1942 p142)
Blackburn achieved lasting fame when he planned a water supply for Melbourne. (Source: Dictionary of Biography) Several streams along the Yarra Valley flowed into the river on its way to Melbourne. One of the main tributaries was the Plenty River. Blackburn planned a reservoir on the Plenty River at Yan Yean to store water, with a pipeline and aqueducts to bring an adequate supply of clean water to the town. The Yan Yean scheme was completed in In 1857. It was a great occasion when the valves were turned on. The people stood and watched a spectacular display as a fountain of water gushed up into the air. Now the people of Melbourne could turn on a tap and run clean fresh water in their own homes. Unfortunately Blackburn did not live to see the result of his plans, for soon after designing the scheme he fell from his horse and died from his injuries.
“Next to Godliness is Cleanliness.” So the proprietors promoted the Victoria Baths in 1849. A company had constructed baths in a workshop downstream from Raleigh’s wharf then towed them up the river to a site above the docks. Eight rooms provided bathing for men, also rooms for women were being constructed. Tickets were fifteen shillings and 140 people, including the Mayor had become subscribers before the baths had opened. (Source: Argus 13 Nov1849)
The City Council had imposed strict regulation for bathing in the Yarra. When the Falls Bridge was built, the baths were moved up the river to a site opposite the Botanical Gardens. this place became known as “Baths Corner.” Earlier, Dr. Palmer opened swimming bathes on the south of the river opposite Queen Street. The baths were sixty feet long, divided in two sections one end for gentlemen at sixpence the other for the “lower classes” at threepence. (Source: Footnote Edmund Finn - The Chronicals of Early Melbourne p961)
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At Warrandyte, twenty-five kilometres from Melbourne, these decades were a time of great historical development. There was the Yarra with its early grazing leases, the first gold field in Victoria and the site of an Aboriginal reserve.
From Warrandyte to beyond Warburton the gold discoveries in the decades of the 1850s and 60s had a great effect on the history of the Yarra. The first gold discovery was made in a tributary of the Yarra, “Andersons Creek”. Although only a small gold field, in constrast to Ballarat and Bendigo, the Andersons Creek gold field established the principle that gold licenses were needed to remove gold from the earth. The alluvial gold in the creek soon ran out then quartz mining started in the hills above the Yarra, also miners found gold dust in the river bed. Enterprising men blocked off sections of the river with a coffer dam, bailing out the water then scooping up the gold laden silt from between the rocks. (Source: W. Westgarth - Victorian and Australian Goldfields in 1857)
As the river approaches Warandyte it used to swing round in a sharp bend. In 1860 a mining company dug a canal to alter the course of the Yarra. Thirty men worked on this ambitious project, the canal was fifty feet wide and twelve feet deep straightening the river and making an island at the bend. A coffer dam at each end of the old course allowed alluvium sediment to be dug from the old river bed. The silt yielded one pound of gold each day. (Source: Warrandyte Historical Society Newsletter Feb 1991)
Past the town at Warrandyte the Yarra meets a barrier of rock forcing it to swing round in almost a complete circle with only a narrow strip of land separating the two arms of the river. Close to here the government established a pound and appointed John Hutchinson, an early settler, as 8ound keeper. The bend of river then became known as “Pound Bend”.
At Pound Bend David Mitchell, the contractor, well known as the father of Nellie Melba, formed the Evelyn Gold Mining Company. They planned to divert the river, through a tunnel, exposing three miles of river bed for dredging. An American contractor drove the tunnel through solid rock using the newly invented dynamite, to blast the stone. They made a tunnel 634 feet long, 18 feet wide and 14 feet deep costing 2.400 pounds. Mitchell constructed a dam just beyond the entrance to divert the river through the tunnel. He used over one thousand sand bags on timber piles firmly fixed into the bed of the river. In 1870 a large crowd lined the cliff top to see the river being diverted through the tunnel. Workmen piled up the sand bags onto the dam till the river was forced through the tunnel. A cheer went up when water flowed into the opening in the hill but the cheers changed to dismay as the dam gave way. Sand bags and timber were thrown into the river and water cascaded over the dam.
Repairs were made and at last the Yarra raced though the Pound Bend Tunnel and gushed out the other end. For two years the company dredged the river mud but the results were not as good as expected. The silt of the river bed was deeper than estimated and beyond the ability of the machinery. One night during a storm John Hutchinson, the Pound Keeper, who lived above the tunnel, heard a great roar of water and hurried to the edge of the cliff above the tunnel entrance. He was just in time to see the whole thing collapse. The escaping river flung logs and sandbags through the water to go swirling down stream, by morning nothing was left of the dam.
Warrandyte had been a favourite place of the aborigines and at the request of William Thomas the guardian of Aborigines, in the 1850s, the Government set aside land at Pound Bend on both sides of the Yarra, as a reserve for Aborigines. The last aboriginal corroboree in the Melbourne took place on this reserve. William Thomas wrote a report to Governor La Trobe describing the events that took place.
“In February 1852 some Western Port blacks returned from Gippsland bringing about ten Warrigul blacks with them. I tried to remove them. They promised day by day to leave. While engaged with them near Unwins Survey, south of the Yarra. Some messengers were dispatched, and Melbourne had in a few days three encampments within ten miles of it. They begged very hard to remain and said they would leave in three weeks and not come near the town. They had not met for years, and wanted to have once more some corroboree together. I got the three encampmets to one spot in a government reserve on a bend of the Yarra about twelve or thirteen miles from Melbourne and addressed His Excellency upon it. The indulgence which was granted. Night after night for fourteen days did they enjoy themselves.”
The corroboree was a success but unscrupulous people supplied the aborigines with alcoholic drinks. Aborigines lacked tolerance to alcohol and often when drunk lay down in the wet catching chest colds. They had no resistance to chest infections and would soon die. Thomas described the problems of the next months with the drunkenness and fights. Ending with;
“While I was loading one party off, two were murdered and three were subsequently found dead. After by the aid of police I got the Goulburn, Barrabool, Booning and Gippsland blacks off, assuring them that never more should there be an assemblage. Buy the end of June, the Yarra were settled at the ranges and the Western Port near the coast.” (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
In 1856 the first river crossing at Warrandyte, (or Andersons Creek as it was then called,) was a punt connecting the road to the gold fields at Queenstown (St. Andrews) and Yarra Glen. Four years later the government built a bridge to cater for this traffic It had a short life for the flood of 1863 carried away the centre part of the bridge. The approaches on both sides remained leading to open space over the water, for the centre of the bridge was dumped in a mass of twisted timber into a coffer dam down stream; For the next fifteen years the river at Warrandyte was without any means of crossing. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
The Yarra cut off Hubert de Castella’s Station, “Dalray”, from the Melbourne Road. So de Castella built a bridge over the river, wide and solid enough for heavy waggons and bullock teams to cross. His men built the bridge for some of them had been sailors and ship’s carpenters who had left their ships to go to the gold mines and being disappointed looked for work on farms. They felled trees and cut three huge beams to support the bridge then dragged the timber into place with bullock teams. The air rang with the shouts of the drivers and the sailor's sea shanties as they beat a rhythm while hauling the ropes. When the colonial engineer for Victoria visited the station he was amazed that they were able to construct such a large structure with just a few pulleys and jacks but life in the bush can be full of disappointments, ten years later a bushfire burnt de Castella’s bridge. (Source: Hubert de Castella - Australian Squatters - Translated by C. B. Thornton Smith p113)
The land along the Yarra upstream from Lilydale in the Warburton area was a lonely and almost deserted place till the decade of the 50s, then prospectors discovered gold near Warburton and opened up the Britannia and Warburton gold fields. Soon 200 diggers were working around Britannia Creek. Prospectors found many of the creeks flowing into the Yarra to have deposits of alluvial gold. By 1860 500 men were working in the Upper Yarra area. (Source: James Flett - The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria)
Two Canadians, James McAvoy and his brother John, were among the first prospectors in the Warburton area. (Source: Yarra Conference Tour notes) Jim had been to the Californian goldrush, so the men called him Yankee Jim. He gained a repution but not wealth from his successful gold discoveries but was never well off and died in poor circumstances. A creek was named after him and also the settlement but this was renamed Warburton after the Gold Warden Charles Warburton Carr. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p50) In 1862 when attempts were made to find a road via the Upper Yarra Track gold was found in the land north of the Yarra
During this period there was not a house or sign of people for many miles along the river and carts or wagons could only go as far as Launching Place. Packhorses carried stores and provisions to the miners scattered in the hills of the Yarra Valley. Goods needed farther up the river were carted to Launching Place then loaded onto flat bottomed boats, that were built on the spot from pit sawn timber. These were launched into the river opposite the “Old Home Hotel” giving the town its name. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p23)
The fertile river flats of the Yarra provided ideal land for crops. At Bulleen in the 1840s farmers had grown crops of wheat and barley. Acres of verdant grain covered the river banks with a sea of green growth. In Autumn, wheat and barley turned to golden brown, and as the wind blew, ripples of gold flowed across the river flats. At harvest time rows of men moved across the land swinging scythes while behind them, women gathered the sheathes and stacked them in neat rows.
During the gold rushes the demand for food increased. Small farmers seeing the opportunity of selling their wares at high prices on the goldfields leased farming blocks on both the Heidelberg and Bulleen sides of the Yarra. These farms, with their ideal conditions flourished, for the Yarra had deposited rich mud on the river flats during its many floods and the river provided the water necessary for growing vegetables. Two men, Sidney Ricardo and Robert Laidlaw, became successful farmers on the Yarra flats at Bulleen. Laidlaw an upright industrious Scotsman, came to Bulleen in 1839. Thirty years later he built a two story mansion `Springbank’ (now called `Clarendon Ayre’) overlooking the river in Bulleen Road. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter - Feb 1982) His neighbour, Ricardo, a small energetic Englishman purchased land north of the present Bridge Road where he grew vegetables with water pumped from the river. Ricardo had been a business man in England but dapted his knowledge and skills to farming. Without preconceived ideas he learnt, by trial and error, farming methods that suited local conditions and became the most uccessful farmer on the river. In 1857 the community elected him to the Legislative Assembly. He was an outspoken radical and with his understanding of their problems supported small farmers. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, Feb 1976)
Settlers took up their land with great hopes for the future but they found it a struggle to make a living while establishing a farm. As they cleared their land they sold firewood. to make a living. Both farmers and timber men were stripping the land of trees. Sawyers felled the spreading red gums that dotted the banks of the Yarra and and cut the logs in saw-pits. These disapeared in the the 1850s when steam sawmills were operating at Melbourne then timber fellers harnessed bullock teams to haul the logs to the mills. Before coke was available from gas works, there was a demand by blacksmiths for charcoal to burn in their forge therefore charcoal burning became another industry in the forests.
North of Templestowe township the Yarra swings north in a wide curve that encloses two sides of a 255 acre block of rich grassland. An investor, J. S. Brodie purchased this site in 1846 and leased blocks to timber cutters and small farmers. In the flush years after the gold rushes a wealthy Melbourne hotel owner, Weddle bought the land. He built a fine brick home on the river with a brick lodge at the entrance making it his country estate. After five years Weddle sold out to David Smith a member of a local family of dairy farmers and orchardists. David Smith and his sons ran a dairy farm and planted an orchard. The farm had the advantage of water from the Yarra for his fruit and cattle. At first the land included two islands in the river but a flood washed one away. Smith called the estate Holyrood Park, later to be renamed Westerfolds park. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Newsletter - Mar 1884)
From Templestowe up stream to Warrandyte the character of the river valley changes dramatically, the valley slopes more and the bushland areas are denser as yellow box replaces the red gums. Rocks and rapids break up the smooth flowing stretches of the stream. In the 1850s the banks were often higher and at places alongside the river spreading red gums dotted the rolling grassland.
Thomas Sweeney, the man who had sailed up the Yarra in 1837 was an adventurous Irishman who prospered with his successful wheat crops and became one of the leaders of the new township of Eltham. Sweeney had been a convict in Van Diemens Land and after being pardoned came to Port Phillip looking for land. For three years he squatted on the river closer to Melbourne then applied to purchase a 110 acre portion of the land on the banks of the Yarra opposite the entrance of Mullum Creek. Sweeney was born in 1802, the son of an Irish farmer in Tipperary. During the 1830s his wife drowned leaving Thomas with a young daughter. He remarried another Irish girl, Margaret Meehan. He and Margaret built a slab hut at Eltham and later a fine brick house they called Culla Hill, named after the farm where he had lived in Ireland.
During the twenty years Thomas lived on the Yarra he was a leader in local affairs. The Catholic Church held services in his home and he hosted social events at Culla Hill. Sweeney’s farm prospered. He grew wheat, and when a flour mill was built at Eltham, Sweeney supplied grain. During the gold rushes he took advantage of the high prices being paid for food and was able to purchase a further 300 acre property. In 1867 Thomas Sweeney died but his name lived on in the district for Sweeneys Lane was to run through his land and the National Trust classified Culla Hill but with the name “Sweeneys”. (Source: Alan Marshall - Pioneers and Painters p12)
Across the river Charles Newman leased additional grazing land for his sheep cattle and race horses. At one time his land stretched along the river from Templestowe to Warrandyte, a total of eight square miles. Newman lived the life of a country gentleman inviting notables from Melbourne and squatters from around Victoria, to match their horses at races on his land. He cleared an area alongside the river for a racecourse, (this was on part of the land that is now Pettys orchard) and to entertain guests overnight, he built another house, “Monkton”, on an adjoining hill across Deep Creek.
Newmans eyesight was failing and in the middle fifties he built another house at Hawthorne for his wife and himself. Although Major Newman no longer lived at Pontville he still kept control and still managed to have arguements with his neighbours. In Newmans will he left Pontville to his son Charles and Monkton, the large house on the adjoining hill, to his other son Thomas but later added a coddicle to his will preventing Thomas from inheriting Monkton if he married Victoria Webb, the daughter of his enemy. Twenty-three year old Thomas defied his father and married Victoria, the couple going to live in Webb’s house. Six years later when Thomas died, Mary Anne Newman, who had inherited Monkton in stead of Thomas, alowed Victoria and her baby to live in the home. (Source: Melbourne Parks and Waterways - Pontville Cultural Significance and Conservation Policy - June 1995)
Major Newman died in 1866. His son Charles inherited Pontville running the his farm on the large estate on the river. Pontville was to remain in the family till 1950 and remain the oldest building in the east of Victoria, surviving after most other buildings of its age disappeared. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society archives)
At Ryries Station “Yering”, a Swiss wine maker, James Dardel was producing wine bottled under the name “Chateau Yering”. Paul de Castella purchased Yering in 1850 and was so successful with the wine that seven years later he extended his vinyard to 100 acres. During the next twenty years the large Yering squatting run was subdivided and sold to settlers who ran cattle or planted vineyards. There were men like Hubert de Castella, who had said about the grapes grown in the area that; “Left to itself the liquid turned into perfect wine,” and Samuel de Pury, who also made a name with his wine. Here on the east banks of the Yarra a vineyard area developed. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p16 )
As well as vineyards the area supported dairy herds. On the rich pasture land beyond Lilydale an Irishman John Kerr bought 1,500 acres of swampy land on the Yarra flats. Whenever the river rose in wet weather most of the ground was inundated by flood water. Kerr dug a system of drains to allow the water to run off in the summer leaving rich pasture land for his 500 dairy cattle. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p90) Beyond Warburton, the Yarra flowed through unexplored mountainous country rising from heavily timbered slopes in the steep foothills of Mount Baw Baw
From Warrandyte to beyond Warburton the gold discoveries in the decades of the 1850s and 60s had a great effect on the history of the Yarra. The first gold discovery was made in a tributary of the Yarra, “Andersons Creek”. Although only a small gold field, in constrast to Ballarat and Bendigo, the Andersons Creek gold field established the principle that gold licenses were needed to remove gold from the earth. The alluvial gold in the creek soon ran out then quartz mining started in the hills above the Yarra, also miners found gold dust in the river bed. Enterprising men blocked off sections of the river with a coffer dam, bailing out the water then scooping up the gold laden silt from between the rocks. (Source: W. Westgarth - Victorian and Australian Goldfields in 1857)
As the river approaches Warandyte it used to swing round in a sharp bend. In 1860 a mining company dug a canal to alter the course of the Yarra. Thirty men worked on this ambitious project, the canal was fifty feet wide and twelve feet deep straightening the river and making an island at the bend. A coffer dam at each end of the old course allowed alluvium sediment to be dug from the old river bed. The silt yielded one pound of gold each day. (Source: Warrandyte Historical Society Newsletter Feb 1991)
Past the town at Warrandyte the Yarra meets a barrier of rock forcing it to swing round in almost a complete circle with only a narrow strip of land separating the two arms of the river. Close to here the government established a pound and appointed John Hutchinson, an early settler, as 8ound keeper. The bend of river then became known as “Pound Bend”.
At Pound Bend David Mitchell, the contractor, well known as the father of Nellie Melba, formed the Evelyn Gold Mining Company. They planned to divert the river, through a tunnel, exposing three miles of river bed for dredging. An American contractor drove the tunnel through solid rock using the newly invented dynamite, to blast the stone. They made a tunnel 634 feet long, 18 feet wide and 14 feet deep costing 2.400 pounds. Mitchell constructed a dam just beyond the entrance to divert the river through the tunnel. He used over one thousand sand bags on timber piles firmly fixed into the bed of the river. In 1870 a large crowd lined the cliff top to see the river being diverted through the tunnel. Workmen piled up the sand bags onto the dam till the river was forced through the tunnel. A cheer went up when water flowed into the opening in the hill but the cheers changed to dismay as the dam gave way. Sand bags and timber were thrown into the river and water cascaded over the dam.
Repairs were made and at last the Yarra raced though the Pound Bend Tunnel and gushed out the other end. For two years the company dredged the river mud but the results were not as good as expected. The silt of the river bed was deeper than estimated and beyond the ability of the machinery. One night during a storm John Hutchinson, the Pound Keeper, who lived above the tunnel, heard a great roar of water and hurried to the edge of the cliff above the tunnel entrance. He was just in time to see the whole thing collapse. The escaping river flung logs and sandbags through the water to go swirling down stream, by morning nothing was left of the dam.
Warrandyte had been a favourite place of the aborigines and at the request of William Thomas the guardian of Aborigines, in the 1850s, the Government set aside land at Pound Bend on both sides of the Yarra, as a reserve for Aborigines. The last aboriginal corroboree in the Melbourne took place on this reserve. William Thomas wrote a report to Governor La Trobe describing the events that took place.
“In February 1852 some Western Port blacks returned from Gippsland bringing about ten Warrigul blacks with them. I tried to remove them. They promised day by day to leave. While engaged with them near Unwins Survey, south of the Yarra. Some messengers were dispatched, and Melbourne had in a few days three encampments within ten miles of it. They begged very hard to remain and said they would leave in three weeks and not come near the town. They had not met for years, and wanted to have once more some corroboree together. I got the three encampmets to one spot in a government reserve on a bend of the Yarra about twelve or thirteen miles from Melbourne and addressed His Excellency upon it. The indulgence which was granted. Night after night for fourteen days did they enjoy themselves.”
The corroboree was a success but unscrupulous people supplied the aborigines with alcoholic drinks. Aborigines lacked tolerance to alcohol and often when drunk lay down in the wet catching chest colds. They had no resistance to chest infections and would soon die. Thomas described the problems of the next months with the drunkenness and fights. Ending with;
“While I was loading one party off, two were murdered and three were subsequently found dead. After by the aid of police I got the Goulburn, Barrabool, Booning and Gippsland blacks off, assuring them that never more should there be an assemblage. Buy the end of June, the Yarra were settled at the ranges and the Western Port near the coast.” (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
In 1856 the first river crossing at Warrandyte, (or Andersons Creek as it was then called,) was a punt connecting the road to the gold fields at Queenstown (St. Andrews) and Yarra Glen. Four years later the government built a bridge to cater for this traffic It had a short life for the flood of 1863 carried away the centre part of the bridge. The approaches on both sides remained leading to open space over the water, for the centre of the bridge was dumped in a mass of twisted timber into a coffer dam down stream; For the next fifteen years the river at Warrandyte was without any means of crossing. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society - Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte since 1837)
The Yarra cut off Hubert de Castella’s Station, “Dalray”, from the Melbourne Road. So de Castella built a bridge over the river, wide and solid enough for heavy waggons and bullock teams to cross. His men built the bridge for some of them had been sailors and ship’s carpenters who had left their ships to go to the gold mines and being disappointed looked for work on farms. They felled trees and cut three huge beams to support the bridge then dragged the timber into place with bullock teams. The air rang with the shouts of the drivers and the sailor's sea shanties as they beat a rhythm while hauling the ropes. When the colonial engineer for Victoria visited the station he was amazed that they were able to construct such a large structure with just a few pulleys and jacks but life in the bush can be full of disappointments, ten years later a bushfire burnt de Castella’s bridge. (Source: Hubert de Castella - Australian Squatters - Translated by C. B. Thornton Smith p113)
The land along the Yarra upstream from Lilydale in the Warburton area was a lonely and almost deserted place till the decade of the 50s, then prospectors discovered gold near Warburton and opened up the Britannia and Warburton gold fields. Soon 200 diggers were working around Britannia Creek. Prospectors found many of the creeks flowing into the Yarra to have deposits of alluvial gold. By 1860 500 men were working in the Upper Yarra area. (Source: James Flett - The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria)
Two Canadians, James McAvoy and his brother John, were among the first prospectors in the Warburton area. (Source: Yarra Conference Tour notes) Jim had been to the Californian goldrush, so the men called him Yankee Jim. He gained a repution but not wealth from his successful gold discoveries but was never well off and died in poor circumstances. A creek was named after him and also the settlement but this was renamed Warburton after the Gold Warden Charles Warburton Carr. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p50) In 1862 when attempts were made to find a road via the Upper Yarra Track gold was found in the land north of the Yarra
During this period there was not a house or sign of people for many miles along the river and carts or wagons could only go as far as Launching Place. Packhorses carried stores and provisions to the miners scattered in the hills of the Yarra Valley. Goods needed farther up the river were carted to Launching Place then loaded onto flat bottomed boats, that were built on the spot from pit sawn timber. These were launched into the river opposite the “Old Home Hotel” giving the town its name. (Source: Earle Parkinson - Warburton Ways p23)
The fertile river flats of the Yarra provided ideal land for crops. At Bulleen in the 1840s farmers had grown crops of wheat and barley. Acres of verdant grain covered the river banks with a sea of green growth. In Autumn, wheat and barley turned to golden brown, and as the wind blew, ripples of gold flowed across the river flats. At harvest time rows of men moved across the land swinging scythes while behind them, women gathered the sheathes and stacked them in neat rows.
During the gold rushes the demand for food increased. Small farmers seeing the opportunity of selling their wares at high prices on the goldfields leased farming blocks on both the Heidelberg and Bulleen sides of the Yarra. These farms, with their ideal conditions flourished, for the Yarra had deposited rich mud on the river flats during its many floods and the river provided the water necessary for growing vegetables. Two men, Sidney Ricardo and Robert Laidlaw, became successful farmers on the Yarra flats at Bulleen. Laidlaw an upright industrious Scotsman, came to Bulleen in 1839. Thirty years later he built a two story mansion `Springbank’ (now called `Clarendon Ayre’) overlooking the river in Bulleen Road. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter - Feb 1982) His neighbour, Ricardo, a small energetic Englishman purchased land north of the present Bridge Road where he grew vegetables with water pumped from the river. Ricardo had been a business man in England but dapted his knowledge and skills to farming. Without preconceived ideas he learnt, by trial and error, farming methods that suited local conditions and became the most uccessful farmer on the river. In 1857 the community elected him to the Legislative Assembly. He was an outspoken radical and with his understanding of their problems supported small farmers. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, Feb 1976)
Settlers took up their land with great hopes for the future but they found it a struggle to make a living while establishing a farm. As they cleared their land they sold firewood. to make a living. Both farmers and timber men were stripping the land of trees. Sawyers felled the spreading red gums that dotted the banks of the Yarra and and cut the logs in saw-pits. These disapeared in the the 1850s when steam sawmills were operating at Melbourne then timber fellers harnessed bullock teams to haul the logs to the mills. Before coke was available from gas works, there was a demand by blacksmiths for charcoal to burn in their forge therefore charcoal burning became another industry in the forests.
North of Templestowe township the Yarra swings north in a wide curve that encloses two sides of a 255 acre block of rich grassland. An investor, J. S. Brodie purchased this site in 1846 and leased blocks to timber cutters and small farmers. In the flush years after the gold rushes a wealthy Melbourne hotel owner, Weddle bought the land. He built a fine brick home on the river with a brick lodge at the entrance making it his country estate. After five years Weddle sold out to David Smith a member of a local family of dairy farmers and orchardists. David Smith and his sons ran a dairy farm and planted an orchard. The farm had the advantage of water from the Yarra for his fruit and cattle. At first the land included two islands in the river but a flood washed one away. Smith called the estate Holyrood Park, later to be renamed Westerfolds park. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Newsletter - Mar 1884)
From Templestowe up stream to Warrandyte the character of the river valley changes dramatically, the valley slopes more and the bushland areas are denser as yellow box replaces the red gums. Rocks and rapids break up the smooth flowing stretches of the stream. In the 1850s the banks were often higher and at places alongside the river spreading red gums dotted the rolling grassland.
Thomas Sweeney, the man who had sailed up the Yarra in 1837 was an adventurous Irishman who prospered with his successful wheat crops and became one of the leaders of the new township of Eltham. Sweeney had been a convict in Van Diemens Land and after being pardoned came to Port Phillip looking for land. For three years he squatted on the river closer to Melbourne then applied to purchase a 110 acre portion of the land on the banks of the Yarra opposite the entrance of Mullum Creek. Sweeney was born in 1802, the son of an Irish farmer in Tipperary. During the 1830s his wife drowned leaving Thomas with a young daughter. He remarried another Irish girl, Margaret Meehan. He and Margaret built a slab hut at Eltham and later a fine brick house they called Culla Hill, named after the farm where he had lived in Ireland.
During the twenty years Thomas lived on the Yarra he was a leader in local affairs. The Catholic Church held services in his home and he hosted social events at Culla Hill. Sweeney’s farm prospered. He grew wheat, and when a flour mill was built at Eltham, Sweeney supplied grain. During the gold rushes he took advantage of the high prices being paid for food and was able to purchase a further 300 acre property. In 1867 Thomas Sweeney died but his name lived on in the district for Sweeneys Lane was to run through his land and the National Trust classified Culla Hill but with the name “Sweeneys”. (Source: Alan Marshall - Pioneers and Painters p12)
Across the river Charles Newman leased additional grazing land for his sheep cattle and race horses. At one time his land stretched along the river from Templestowe to Warrandyte, a total of eight square miles. Newman lived the life of a country gentleman inviting notables from Melbourne and squatters from around Victoria, to match their horses at races on his land. He cleared an area alongside the river for a racecourse, (this was on part of the land that is now Pettys orchard) and to entertain guests overnight, he built another house, “Monkton”, on an adjoining hill across Deep Creek.
Newmans eyesight was failing and in the middle fifties he built another house at Hawthorne for his wife and himself. Although Major Newman no longer lived at Pontville he still kept control and still managed to have arguements with his neighbours. In Newmans will he left Pontville to his son Charles and Monkton, the large house on the adjoining hill, to his other son Thomas but later added a coddicle to his will preventing Thomas from inheriting Monkton if he married Victoria Webb, the daughter of his enemy. Twenty-three year old Thomas defied his father and married Victoria, the couple going to live in Webb’s house. Six years later when Thomas died, Mary Anne Newman, who had inherited Monkton in stead of Thomas, alowed Victoria and her baby to live in the home. (Source: Melbourne Parks and Waterways - Pontville Cultural Significance and Conservation Policy - June 1995)
Major Newman died in 1866. His son Charles inherited Pontville running the his farm on the large estate on the river. Pontville was to remain in the family till 1950 and remain the oldest building in the east of Victoria, surviving after most other buildings of its age disappeared. (Source: Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society archives)
At Ryries Station “Yering”, a Swiss wine maker, James Dardel was producing wine bottled under the name “Chateau Yering”. Paul de Castella purchased Yering in 1850 and was so successful with the wine that seven years later he extended his vinyard to 100 acres. During the next twenty years the large Yering squatting run was subdivided and sold to settlers who ran cattle or planted vineyards. There were men like Hubert de Castella, who had said about the grapes grown in the area that; “Left to itself the liquid turned into perfect wine,” and Samuel de Pury, who also made a name with his wine. Here on the east banks of the Yarra a vineyard area developed. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p16 )
As well as vineyards the area supported dairy herds. On the rich pasture land beyond Lilydale an Irishman John Kerr bought 1,500 acres of swampy land on the Yarra flats. Whenever the river rose in wet weather most of the ground was inundated by flood water. Kerr dug a system of drains to allow the water to run off in the summer leaving rich pasture land for his 500 dairy cattle. (Source: Marian Aveling - Lilydale p90) Beyond Warburton, the Yarra flowed through unexplored mountainous country rising from heavily timbered slopes in the steep foothills of Mount Baw Baw
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In the two decades after 1851 many new bridges spanned the Yarra. The first upstream from the town was the Botanical Bridge. When Superintendent LaTrobe set aside the site for the gardens he also proposed that land between the Yarra and Flinders Street be a park. He suggested that a road follow the river to connect with a footbridge at Anderson Street to give the people of Melbourne access to the Botanical Gardens. (Source: R. H. S.V. Journal Dec 1932. r. W. A. Sanderson) In the 1850s an iron footbridge was built but the road was not made instead another road led from Wellington Parade over the railway line to the footbridge. Baron Von Mueler found the footbridge useful for he had been given temporary administration of Acclimatisation Society Gardens across the river. . In 1857 the Society occupied a reserve north of the Yarra where they set up a zoological gardens to care for and preserve animals from the northern hemisphere. The Zoo was formed with aim to, “Bring the sweet sounds and sights of England to the silence of this barren land. (Source: Prescott - The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne p43) Later the Society considered the site too cold and swampy. The Society had now become a Zoological Society. Five years later the Zoo was moved to Royal Park The site was then given to the Friendly Societies. for a picnic ground.
Cremorne Gardens but when he sold it in 1863 he only received 4.500 pounds.
The Upper Yarra Steamboat Gondola Company built the “Gondola” in 1854. It was sixty feet long with a beam of twelve feet and carried two hundred passengers. They could sit forward, in an open well protected with an awning or enjoy The people of Melbourne enjoying a new prosperity after the gold discoveries looked for entertainment, within easy reach of the town. They had the Botanical gardens only a short boat trip up the Yarra and also the Zoo. and another attraction lay on the left bank of the Yarra alongside the site of the future railway bridge at Richmond, here James Ellis established an extravagant pleasure garden. He based the venture on the Cremorne Gardens in London, where he had worked, and used the same name “The Cremorne Gardens” The project was too ambitious for his capital and Ellis soon became bankrupt. In 1856 he sold the Gardens to George Coppin the great theatrical entrepreneur. (Source: Alec Boys - Coppin the Great)
“Cremorne Gardens” was a great success in that it was well patronised, however Coppin found the area a bottomless pit for his fortunes. The gardens contained a lavish collections of entertainments. There was the Pantheon theatre, a zoo with lions monkeys and camels, a maze, tropical gardens, a lake, a hotel and restaurants. Coppin held sumptuous feasts, champagne parties and extravagant shows such as the re-enactment of the Battle of Sebastapol. Crowds flocked to Cremorne Gardens. They came on the river where a steamboat the “Gondola” ran a service from Princes Bridge to the Cremorne landing or by train,.The railways company extended the railway line from Richmond and built a station for Cremorne. Over five thousand visitors came on New Years day and Coppin took 524 pounds, but the costs were too high. Coppin had paid 41,500 pounds for the shelter of a closed cabin at the stern. A crew of five ran the boat with its two engines that developed fourteen horsepower, driving the eight foot paddle wheels. (Source: Victorian Historical Journal Vol. 51)
The Melbourne and Suburban Company extended the railway, that ended at Cremorne station, across the river to connect with the railway from St.Kilda to Brighton. John Bourne built a railway bridge for the line using iron from England. He used one large arch to span the centre of the river. The bridge was tested with a train load of 112 tons. (Source: Leo J. Harrigan - Victorian Railways to 62) A short distance upstream from the rail line in 1858 a road bridge connected Church and Chapel Streets. The government had obtained a prefabricated bridge from the Imperial Army intended for the Crimean War, but the war ended before it was delivered. Half of the bridge was placed across the Yarra and the other section over the Barwon River at Geelong.
In Melbourne interest in horticulture was increasing. In 1863 the Victorian Horticultural Society opened an experimental garden on the banks of the Yarra at Richmond. The Society helped the propagation of many new varieties of plants and trees. Growers sent new varieties to Burnley where the Society grew them and if successful, registered the variety and its name. They also tested imported plants to determine their suitability for Australian conditions. (Source: John Patrick - Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria)
The Yarra impeded access to the farming community in the Kew and Hawthorn areas, for the river, after flowing in a westerly direction as far as Dights Falls, swung south and went in a series of wild loops down between Abottsford and Kew, then between Hawthorn and Richmond as far as Burnley. Along the way the river cut across the lines of communication between Melbourne and the desirable high fertile country to the east. To overcome this barrier enterprising men installed ferries and punts and during the 1850’s and 60’s the government arranged the construction of the first bridges in this section of the river.
Dr. James Palmer, medical practitioner and politician, came to Melbourne in 1842. Palmer was an Englishman born in 1803 in the town of Great Torrington in Devon. He studied medicine and became a house surgeon at St. Georges Hospital. Although Palmer had practiced in London and was elected a fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society he was unable to obtain a surgical appointment so in 1840 he and his wife Isabella migrated to Sydney. Two years later they came to Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 5 p392)
The Palmers built a home at Richmond alongside the Yarra at Bridge Road. James started business as a cordial manufacturer and wine merchant, he also invested in land at Kew. At that time speculators were offering land to settlers on the high land across the river. Palmer saw that with the future settlers and the many wood carters moving east of the river a crossing looked like a good business proposition particularly with the high fare of fourshillings and sixpence. He installed a punt connecting Richmond to Hawthorn and built a hut for the tollkeeper. He placed his punt just north of the present Hawthorn bridge and engaged Patrick Trainor, the man who later opened the White Horse Hotel at Box Hill, to run the punt. Soon many people where travelling over the river and the call, Punt Ahoy! often echoed across the water. (Source: Gwen McWilliam - Hawthorne Peppercorns)
Palmer had a distinguished career in Melbourne; Mayor of the city in 1845, elected to represent Port Phillip District in Legislative Council of NSW, first Speaker of the old Legislative Council, President of new Legislative Council and knighted in 1857. In local affairs Palmer took an active part in forming the Public Library, the Melbourne Hospital, the University and took an interest in education. Palmer purchased land from the river to Power Street in the 1840’s and during the prosperous years after the gold rushes built a large bluestone house called “Burwood Hill”. Palmer died in 1871 and his land was subdivided, his home, now in Coppin Grove is called Invergowrie and Palmer’s wife is remembered by Isabella Street.
Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds. A wise move as it was not long before Palmer’s punt was replaced by the first Hawthorn Bridge built in 1854. Built of timber it was adequate when the river ran quietly but the first flood weakened the bridge. Bonwick wrote that it “had to be tied, repaired and secured.” The bridge was tied to trees with chains to prevent it from being washed away. During the ten years till it was replaced, a toll gate on the bridge collected thirty two thousand pounds. The toll was not charged to clergymen, politicians, soldiers and policemen in uniform, churchgoers, people attending funerals and men carting manure. A rather strange assortment of people.
Work started on the foundations for a new Hawthorn bridge. It stood on thick blue stone piers with a span of 110 feet over the river and was a desk type lattice truss iron bridge. It was opened in 1861 at a cost of 37.000 pounds. The next year gas lights were installed on the bridge, but to save money they were not lit on moonlight nights, actually the moonlight would have been brighter than the gas lamps. The builders did their job well for it was to remain on its solid foundations, although widened at times, and become todays oldest bridge on the Yarra and also one of the oldest metal truss bridges in Australia.
In the late 1850’s investors were forming railway companies. The Melbourne and suburban Railway company planned a line to Brighton with a branch from Richmond to Hawthorn. In 1858 the Governor performed the ceremony of turning the first turf for the Hawthorn line, to be followed by a banquet. A disgraceful event then took place. As soon as the Governor and official guests left, the crowd of onlookers mobbed the banquet eating drinking and smashing everything.” (Source: Hawthorn Historical Society - Steam into Hawthorn; Edmund Finn - The Chronicles of Early Melbourne p38)
In 1859 engineers started work on the Hawthorn railway bridge, designed to carry a single track across the Yarra,. Bluestone abutments were built and iron was ordered from overseas but the ship carrying the materials sank. The rail line was laid up to the river bank waiting for the bridge and a temporarily timber platform built. They called the station “Pic-Nic”. Passengers travelling to Hawthorn could walk across the road bridge. Soon sightseers came on the train for an outing and stayed for a picnic in the attractive bush surroundings. First the builders constructed a timber framework to hold the steel latticework while they rivetted it together. In 1861 steam trains rolled over the bridge.
On the west of the Yarra near Johnston Street John Hodgson installed a punt in 1846. Hodgson, a Yorkshireman, arrived in Melbourne in 1837 full of enthusiasm to start a new life as a merchant in this new country. John with his wife Annie and family lived in Flinders Street where they built a three story house. In those early years the building was looked on as a giant and people called it “Hodgson’s Folly”.
His first public venture in 1839 was the punt on the river near Swanston Street. Soon he saw an opportunity in the expanding settlement of investing in land. At Collingwood Hodgson bought land for a farm and in 1842 built a house, “St Heliers”. Across the river he saw attractive high land and purchased a block of 150 acres there to add to his farm. The land is now Studley Park.
Hodgson had two farms divided by the Yarra. He could cross by boat or ride around to the ford at Dights Falls so in 1846 he installed a punt south of Johnston Street where the river banks were lower. The punt cut off six miles from the route between Melbourne and Kew.
In 1852 the government purchased Hodgson’s land east of the river together with a house for 2500 pounds. They intended to use the site for police barracks but Governor La Trobe was so taken with the area that he decided it would be an ideal site for Government House and started laying out a garden. Later the Government reserved the land for a park.
John Hodgson purchased a block east of Studley Park for a home. His first wife had died and in January 1859 John, now Sir John, married Isabella Clipperton. The couple planned a new house, naming it “Studley House, but Sir John did not have long to enjoy living there for he died in August 1860. Studley House was later enlarged by John Wren and is now part of Xavier Preparatory School. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p85)
Sir John Hodgson had a distinguished career during the short time he lived in Melbourne. He was a successful merchant, Mayor of Melbourne in 1853-4, major in the Melbourne Voluntary Rifle Corp, foundation member of the Victorian Society of Arts and member of the Legislative Council. He received the honour of being the first peer to be appointed in Melbourne.
John Hodgson suggested the bridge be constructed to replace his punt that crossed the river. In 1857 a private company erected a foot bridge close to the site of the punt, it connected Victoria Street at Church Street with a track to Kew, saving a mile for the people of Boroondara when walking to Melbourne. The bridge cost the company nine thousand pounds. It was a long bridge, built of timber, 485 feet from the high bank on the north to the low land on the south and 125 feet over the river. Three arches over the river sat on timber piles. Although named the Studley Park Bridge, the locals, because of the toll, referred to it as the Penny Bridge. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
The same year the government constructed the first Johnston Street Bridge at a cost of 30,000 pounds. The Age newspaper described it as, “A neat commodious structure.” A graceful arched timber span supported the road deck 180 foot in length and constructed of laminated timber. Sixteen planks were bolted together and joined with white lead and sand. (Source: James Bonwick - A Sketch of Boroondara) On the east, a cutting had to be made on the approach as the land rose in a steep hill. At the side the river had cut a deep channel so high bluestone abutments were laid to support the span. (These can still be seen on the north bank.) During the flood of 1863 the arch moved leaving the bridge unsafe. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
Around the bend from Johnston Street, Dight’s mill had been providing a market for the wheat grown on local farms, it’s large mill stone produced flour from their corn. In the 1850’s, fire destroyed the building. F. M. White, who had experience with mill design, reconstructed Dight’s mill and enlarged the building. Unfortunately the water flow was often insufficient so machinery for steam operation was ordered from England. This was lost at sea. In the 1870’s Dights Mill closed down and was abandoned. (Source: Paul van der Sluys - Dights Flour Mills)
From Fairfield in the north to below Studley Park the Yarra turns from flowing west to follow a southerly course in a convoluted series of close bends. As the river changes direction it encloses an area that is now called “Yarra Bend”. In the 1850’s while the land surrounding the river near Melbourne was becoming more populated, Yarra Bend was still unoccupied bushland except for a corner near Fairfield. Here a thick wall with a deep ditch surrounded the Metropolitan Lunatic Asylum.
The Illustrated Australian News described the asylum after it was opened in 1848; “The prospect from the south bank (Studley Park) is perhaps the most attractive to be found in Melbourne. Seen in the distance the Asylum below, with its picturesque buildings, present the appearance of a village seen in early morning before the `little’ life has begun to show itself.”
Annie Baxter wrote in her diary a description of a visit to the Insane Asylum in 1855. “Mr. Vernon and I walked to Yarra Bend asylum.--- On reaching the river I coo-eed to a man I saw going up the bank, and he brought the punt across for us: of course I thought he was a lunatic, he was not, and was, like ourselves, a stranger to the place. --- We soon found Dr. Allan, and he then came with us, we saw the hospital this time. The patients were on water beds, which were novelties to me. One poor fellow had four years in beds, and yet when the doctor moved him about on the bed, and told him he would pinch his toe, he positivley got up a laugh! Is this not a lesson to me with my peevish temper.--- When we got to the female quarters there was a woman who took a great fancy to Mr. Vernon, and said `I say, if you go in there, all the women will have you’. A pleasing reflextion for a young man of sound principles? We put ourselves across the punt, and the river looked so beautifully calm.” (Source: A Face in the Glass - Lucy Frost p274)
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On Saturday 10th March 1855 a group of farmers met at the Upper Yarra Hotel at Templestowe. They had come to hear Mr. Wakey tell them about his scheme to build a bridge over the Yarra. The idea of a bridge at Templestowe was exciting, then there were only two bridges over the length of the river, the nearest at Hawthorn. Mr. Wakey eloquently outlined the project comparing the financial success of the punt at Heidelberg with the profits to be gained by investing in a toll bridge. He concluded by emphasizing the benefits to the surrounding districts and prophesied that the shares would double in three months. When the meeting ended the farmers rushed to purchase shares. Further meetings took place at the Old England Hotel in Heidelberg and the Fountain of Friendship at Eltham (Source: The Argus - 16 Mar1855) provided enough finance to commence building.
In August Mr. Wakey stood on the river bank, behind the Upper Yarra Hotel, and called on Mr. John Hodgson M.L.C. to lay the foundation stone of the new bridge. Before the ceremony Wekey had made a long speech praising the virtue of what he called “The Principle of Association and Co-operation” and said that it would be called “The Peoples Bridge”. After the ceremony the invited guests retired to Mr. Bells Upper Yarra Hotel for a sumptuous repast. Here they dined and enthusiastically drank a toast to their bridge, little knowing that eight years later a flood would wash it away.
Late in 1858 work started on a bridge farther down stream at Banksia Street where the punt operated. Solid bluestone piers grew up on either bank; then the was a shortage of money and work stopped. The government placed a temporary footbridge, wide enough to ride a horse across, on the foundations. Two years later they completed the bridge.
At the approach to the river a narrow curving road crossed flat swampy land. Earth taken from a cutting in Lower Heidelberg Road was dumped on the new road to make a dry causeway leading to the bridge. Teams of men swinging picks and shovels cut away a hill on Heidelberg Road, while a continuous line of drays carried earth to the causeway. There, as they tipped the loads the horses hooves trampled the clay, packing it firm, making a solid roadway.
The people of Bulleen were proud of their new bridge but twelve years later serious problems had developed. (Source: PRO) After being battered by floods, that often engulfed it, the roadway of the bridge had sunk and become dangerous. The whole span had to be dismantled and a new deck constructed. This meant that there was no other crossing between Johnston Street and Healesville so a temporary low level bridge was built till Banksia street Bridge was finished. At last the people had a bridge that would serve them for the next ninety years
In the two decades after 1851 many new bridges spanned the Yarra. The first upstream from the town was the Botanical Bridge. When Superintendent LaTrobe set aside the site for the gardens he also proposed that land between the Yarra and Flinders Street be a park. He suggested that a road follow the river to connect with a footbridge at Anderson Street to give the people of Melbourne access to the Botanical Gardens. (Source: R. H. S.V. Journal Dec 1932. r. W. A. Sanderson) In the 1850s an iron footbridge was built but the road was not made instead another road led from Wellington Parade over the railway line to the footbridge. Baron Von Mueler found the footbridge useful for he had been given temporary administration of Acclimatisation Society Gardens across the river. . In 1857 the Society occupied a reserve north of the Yarra where they set up a zoological gardens to care for and preserve animals from the northern hemisphere. The Zoo was formed with aim to, “Bring the sweet sounds and sights of England to the silence of this barren land. (Source: Prescott - The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne p43) Later the Society considered the site too cold and swampy. The Society had now become a Zoological Society. Five years later the Zoo was moved to Royal Park The site was then given to the Friendly Societies. for a picnic ground.
Cremorne Gardens but when he sold it in 1863 he only received 4.500 pounds.
The Upper Yarra Steamboat Gondola Company built the “Gondola” in 1854. It was sixty feet long with a beam of twelve feet and carried two hundred passengers. They could sit forward, in an open well protected with an awning or enjoy The people of Melbourne enjoying a new prosperity after the gold discoveries looked for entertainment, within easy reach of the town. They had the Botanical gardens only a short boat trip up the Yarra and also the Zoo. and another attraction lay on the left bank of the Yarra alongside the site of the future railway bridge at Richmond, here James Ellis established an extravagant pleasure garden. He based the venture on the Cremorne Gardens in London, where he had worked, and used the same name “The Cremorne Gardens” The project was too ambitious for his capital and Ellis soon became bankrupt. In 1856 he sold the Gardens to George Coppin the great theatrical entrepreneur. (Source: Alec Boys - Coppin the Great)
“Cremorne Gardens” was a great success in that it was well patronised, however Coppin found the area a bottomless pit for his fortunes. The gardens contained a lavish collections of entertainments. There was the Pantheon theatre, a zoo with lions monkeys and camels, a maze, tropical gardens, a lake, a hotel and restaurants. Coppin held sumptuous feasts, champagne parties and extravagant shows such as the re-enactment of the Battle of Sebastapol. Crowds flocked to Cremorne Gardens. They came on the river where a steamboat the “Gondola” ran a service from Princes Bridge to the Cremorne landing or by train,.The railways company extended the railway line from Richmond and built a station for Cremorne. Over five thousand visitors came on New Years day and Coppin took 524 pounds, but the costs were too high. Coppin had paid 41,500 pounds for the shelter of a closed cabin at the stern. A crew of five ran the boat with its two engines that developed fourteen horsepower, driving the eight foot paddle wheels. (Source: Victorian Historical Journal Vol. 51)
The Melbourne and Suburban Company extended the railway, that ended at Cremorne station, across the river to connect with the railway from St.Kilda to Brighton. John Bourne built a railway bridge for the line using iron from England. He used one large arch to span the centre of the river. The bridge was tested with a train load of 112 tons. (Source: Leo J. Harrigan - Victorian Railways to 62) A short distance upstream from the rail line in 1858 a road bridge connected Church and Chapel Streets. The government had obtained a prefabricated bridge from the Imperial Army intended for the Crimean War, but the war ended before it was delivered. Half of the bridge was placed across the Yarra and the other section over the Barwon River at Geelong.
In Melbourne interest in horticulture was increasing. In 1863 the Victorian Horticultural Society opened an experimental garden on the banks of the Yarra at Richmond. The Society helped the propagation of many new varieties of plants and trees. Growers sent new varieties to Burnley where the Society grew them and if successful, registered the variety and its name. They also tested imported plants to determine their suitability for Australian conditions. (Source: John Patrick - Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria)
The Yarra impeded access to the farming community in the Kew and Hawthorn areas, for the river, after flowing in a westerly direction as far as Dights Falls, swung south and went in a series of wild loops down between Abottsford and Kew, then between Hawthorn and Richmond as far as Burnley. Along the way the river cut across the lines of communication between Melbourne and the desirable high fertile country to the east. To overcome this barrier enterprising men installed ferries and punts and during the 1850’s and 60’s the government arranged the construction of the first bridges in this section of the river.
Dr. James Palmer, medical practitioner and politician, came to Melbourne in 1842. Palmer was an Englishman born in 1803 in the town of Great Torrington in Devon. He studied medicine and became a house surgeon at St. Georges Hospital. Although Palmer had practiced in London and was elected a fellow of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society he was unable to obtain a surgical appointment so in 1840 he and his wife Isabella migrated to Sydney. Two years later they came to Melbourne. (Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 5 p392)
The Palmers built a home at Richmond alongside the Yarra at Bridge Road. James started business as a cordial manufacturer and wine merchant, he also invested in land at Kew. At that time speculators were offering land to settlers on the high land across the river. Palmer saw that with the future settlers and the many wood carters moving east of the river a crossing looked like a good business proposition particularly with the high fare of fourshillings and sixpence. He installed a punt connecting Richmond to Hawthorn and built a hut for the tollkeeper. He placed his punt just north of the present Hawthorn bridge and engaged Patrick Trainor, the man who later opened the White Horse Hotel at Box Hill, to run the punt. Soon many people where travelling over the river and the call, Punt Ahoy! often echoed across the water. (Source: Gwen McWilliam - Hawthorne Peppercorns)
Palmer had a distinguished career in Melbourne; Mayor of the city in 1845, elected to represent Port Phillip District in Legislative Council of NSW, first Speaker of the old Legislative Council, President of new Legislative Council and knighted in 1857. In local affairs Palmer took an active part in forming the Public Library, the Melbourne Hospital, the University and took an interest in education. Palmer purchased land from the river to Power Street in the 1840’s and during the prosperous years after the gold rushes built a large bluestone house called “Burwood Hill”. Palmer died in 1871 and his land was subdivided, his home, now in Coppin Grove is called Invergowrie and Palmer’s wife is remembered by Isabella Street.
Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds Palmer sold the punt for three hundred pounds. A wise move as it was not long before Palmer’s punt was replaced by the first Hawthorn Bridge built in 1854. Built of timber it was adequate when the river ran quietly but the first flood weakened the bridge. Bonwick wrote that it “had to be tied, repaired and secured.” The bridge was tied to trees with chains to prevent it from being washed away. During the ten years till it was replaced, a toll gate on the bridge collected thirty two thousand pounds. The toll was not charged to clergymen, politicians, soldiers and policemen in uniform, churchgoers, people attending funerals and men carting manure. A rather strange assortment of people.
Work started on the foundations for a new Hawthorn bridge. It stood on thick blue stone piers with a span of 110 feet over the river and was a desk type lattice truss iron bridge. It was opened in 1861 at a cost of 37.000 pounds. The next year gas lights were installed on the bridge, but to save money they were not lit on moonlight nights, actually the moonlight would have been brighter than the gas lamps. The builders did their job well for it was to remain on its solid foundations, although widened at times, and become todays oldest bridge on the Yarra and also one of the oldest metal truss bridges in Australia.
In the late 1850’s investors were forming railway companies. The Melbourne and suburban Railway company planned a line to Brighton with a branch from Richmond to Hawthorn. In 1858 the Governor performed the ceremony of turning the first turf for the Hawthorn line, to be followed by a banquet. A disgraceful event then took place. As soon as the Governor and official guests left, the crowd of onlookers mobbed the banquet eating drinking and smashing everything.” (Source: Hawthorn Historical Society - Steam into Hawthorn; Edmund Finn - The Chronicles of Early Melbourne p38)
In 1859 engineers started work on the Hawthorn railway bridge, designed to carry a single track across the Yarra,. Bluestone abutments were built and iron was ordered from overseas but the ship carrying the materials sank. The rail line was laid up to the river bank waiting for the bridge and a temporarily timber platform built. They called the station “Pic-Nic”. Passengers travelling to Hawthorn could walk across the road bridge. Soon sightseers came on the train for an outing and stayed for a picnic in the attractive bush surroundings. First the builders constructed a timber framework to hold the steel latticework while they rivetted it together. In 1861 steam trains rolled over the bridge.
On the west of the Yarra near Johnston Street John Hodgson installed a punt in 1846. Hodgson, a Yorkshireman, arrived in Melbourne in 1837 full of enthusiasm to start a new life as a merchant in this new country. John with his wife Annie and family lived in Flinders Street where they built a three story house. In those early years the building was looked on as a giant and people called it “Hodgson’s Folly”.
His first public venture in 1839 was the punt on the river near Swanston Street. Soon he saw an opportunity in the expanding settlement of investing in land. At Collingwood Hodgson bought land for a farm and in 1842 built a house, “St Heliers”. Across the river he saw attractive high land and purchased a block of 150 acres there to add to his farm. The land is now Studley Park.
Hodgson had two farms divided by the Yarra. He could cross by boat or ride around to the ford at Dights Falls so in 1846 he installed a punt south of Johnston Street where the river banks were lower. The punt cut off six miles from the route between Melbourne and Kew.
In 1852 the government purchased Hodgson’s land east of the river together with a house for 2500 pounds. They intended to use the site for police barracks but Governor La Trobe was so taken with the area that he decided it would be an ideal site for Government House and started laying out a garden. Later the Government reserved the land for a park.
John Hodgson purchased a block east of Studley Park for a home. His first wife had died and in January 1859 John, now Sir John, married Isabella Clipperton. The couple planned a new house, naming it “Studley House, but Sir John did not have long to enjoy living there for he died in August 1860. Studley House was later enlarged by John Wren and is now part of Xavier Preparatory School. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p85)
Sir John Hodgson had a distinguished career during the short time he lived in Melbourne. He was a successful merchant, Mayor of Melbourne in 1853-4, major in the Melbourne Voluntary Rifle Corp, foundation member of the Victorian Society of Arts and member of the Legislative Council. He received the honour of being the first peer to be appointed in Melbourne.
John Hodgson suggested the bridge be constructed to replace his punt that crossed the river. In 1857 a private company erected a foot bridge close to the site of the punt, it connected Victoria Street at Church Street with a track to Kew, saving a mile for the people of Boroondara when walking to Melbourne. The bridge cost the company nine thousand pounds. It was a long bridge, built of timber, 485 feet from the high bank on the north to the low land on the south and 125 feet over the river. Three arches over the river sat on timber piles. Although named the Studley Park Bridge, the locals, because of the toll, referred to it as the Penny Bridge. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
The same year the government constructed the first Johnston Street Bridge at a cost of 30,000 pounds. The Age newspaper described it as, “A neat commodious structure.” A graceful arched timber span supported the road deck 180 foot in length and constructed of laminated timber. Sixteen planks were bolted together and joined with white lead and sand. (Source: James Bonwick - A Sketch of Boroondara) On the east, a cutting had to be made on the approach as the land rose in a steep hill. At the side the river had cut a deep channel so high bluestone abutments were laid to support the span. (These can still be seen on the north bank.) During the flood of 1863 the arch moved leaving the bridge unsafe. (Source: Dorothy Rodgers - History of Kew p39)
Around the bend from Johnston Street, Dight’s mill had been providing a market for the wheat grown on local farms, it’s large mill stone produced flour from their corn. In the 1850’s, fire destroyed the building. F. M. White, who had experience with mill design, reconstructed Dight’s mill and enlarged the building. Unfortunately the water flow was often insufficient so machinery for steam operation was ordered from England. This was lost at sea. In the 1870’s Dights Mill closed down and was abandoned. (Source: Paul van der Sluys - Dights Flour Mills)
From Fairfield in the north to below Studley Park the Yarra turns from flowing west to follow a southerly course in a convoluted series of close bends. As the river changes direction it encloses an area that is now called “Yarra Bend”. In the 1850’s while the land surrounding the river near Melbourne was becoming more populated, Yarra Bend was still unoccupied bushland except for a corner near Fairfield. Here a thick wall with a deep ditch surrounded the Metropolitan Lunatic Asylum.
The Illustrated Australian News described the asylum after it was opened in 1848; “The prospect from the south bank (Studley Park) is perhaps the most attractive to be found in Melbourne. Seen in the distance the Asylum below, with its picturesque buildings, present the appearance of a village seen in early morning before the `little’ life has begun to show itself.”
Annie Baxter wrote in her diary a description of a visit to the Insane Asylum in 1855. “Mr. Vernon and I walked to Yarra Bend asylum.--- On reaching the river I coo-eed to a man I saw going up the bank, and he brought the punt across for us: of course I thought he was a lunatic, he was not, and was, like ourselves, a stranger to the place. --- We soon found Dr. Allan, and he then came with us, we saw the hospital this time. The patients were on water beds, which were novelties to me. One poor fellow had four years in beds, and yet when the doctor moved him about on the bed, and told him he would pinch his toe, he positivley got up a laugh! Is this not a lesson to me with my peevish temper.--- When we got to the female quarters there was a woman who took a great fancy to Mr. Vernon, and said `I say, if you go in there, all the women will have you’. A pleasing reflextion for a young man of sound principles? We put ourselves across the punt, and the river looked so beautifully calm.” (Source: A Face in the Glass - Lucy Frost p274)
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On Saturday 10th March 1855 a group of farmers met at the Upper Yarra Hotel at Templestowe. They had come to hear Mr. Wakey tell them about his scheme to build a bridge over the Yarra. The idea of a bridge at Templestowe was exciting, then there were only two bridges over the length of the river, the nearest at Hawthorn. Mr. Wakey eloquently outlined the project comparing the financial success of the punt at Heidelberg with the profits to be gained by investing in a toll bridge. He concluded by emphasizing the benefits to the surrounding districts and prophesied that the shares would double in three months. When the meeting ended the farmers rushed to purchase shares. Further meetings took place at the Old England Hotel in Heidelberg and the Fountain of Friendship at Eltham (Source: The Argus - 16 Mar1855) provided enough finance to commence building.
In August Mr. Wakey stood on the river bank, behind the Upper Yarra Hotel, and called on Mr. John Hodgson M.L.C. to lay the foundation stone of the new bridge. Before the ceremony Wekey had made a long speech praising the virtue of what he called “The Principle of Association and Co-operation” and said that it would be called “The Peoples Bridge”. After the ceremony the invited guests retired to Mr. Bells Upper Yarra Hotel for a sumptuous repast. Here they dined and enthusiastically drank a toast to their bridge, little knowing that eight years later a flood would wash it away.
Late in 1858 work started on a bridge farther down stream at Banksia Street where the punt operated. Solid bluestone piers grew up on either bank; then the was a shortage of money and work stopped. The government placed a temporary footbridge, wide enough to ride a horse across, on the foundations. Two years later they completed the bridge.
At the approach to the river a narrow curving road crossed flat swampy land. Earth taken from a cutting in Lower Heidelberg Road was dumped on the new road to make a dry causeway leading to the bridge. Teams of men swinging picks and shovels cut away a hill on Heidelberg Road, while a continuous line of drays carried earth to the causeway. There, as they tipped the loads the horses hooves trampled the clay, packing it firm, making a solid roadway.
The people of Bulleen were proud of their new bridge but twelve years later serious problems had developed. (Source: PRO) After being battered by floods, that often engulfed it, the roadway of the bridge had sunk and become dangerous. The whole span had to be dismantled and a new deck constructed. This meant that there was no other crossing between Johnston Street and Healesville so a temporary low level bridge was built till Banksia street Bridge was finished. At last the people had a bridge that would serve them for the next ninety years
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The first boats on the Yarra were used to cross the river or for other utilitarian purpose but by the 1850’s people had begun to use the river for recreation. They rowed their own boats or hired dinghy and river boats from boat sheds. There was Fuller who built a boat shed on the north bank in 1853, James Edwards on the south bank where the rowing club boat sheds now stand and Greenlands who opened his boat shed on the south bank below the bridge. Later Edwards moved to the north bank. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing p35)
The watermen who operated the punts and ferries on the Yarra formed a group and organised rowing contests on the river. Soon rowing clubs were formed. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing) Martin Henry Irvine an amateur rowing enthusiast arrived in Melbourne in 1856. He had rowed at Oxford in the Balliol eight and joined the University of Melbourne where he was Professor of Classical and Comparative Philology. Irvine was a large athletic man with a generous expression, his enthusiasm inspired confidence and in 1859 he formed the University Boating Club, the next year he organised the Melbourne Amateur Regatta. Martin Irving was called the father of amateur rowing in Australia. (Australian Dictionary Of Biography Vol. 4 p463)
The first boats on the Yarra were used to cross the river or for other utilitarian purpose but by the 1850’s people had begun to use the river for recreation. They rowed their own boats or hired dinghy and river boats from boat sheds. There was Fuller who built a boat shed on the north bank in 1853, James Edwards on the south bank where the rowing club boat sheds now stand and Greenlands who opened his boat shed on the south bank below the bridge. Later Edwards moved to the north bank. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing p35)
The watermen who operated the punts and ferries on the Yarra formed a group and organised rowing contests on the river. Soon rowing clubs were formed. (Source: Alan N. Jacobsen - Australia in World Rowing) Martin Henry Irvine an amateur rowing enthusiast arrived in Melbourne in 1856. He had rowed at Oxford in the Balliol eight and joined the University of Melbourne where he was Professor of Classical and Comparative Philology. Irvine was a large athletic man with a generous expression, his enthusiasm inspired confidence and in 1859 he formed the University Boating Club, the next year he organised the Melbourne Amateur Regatta. Martin Irving was called the father of amateur rowing in Australia. (Australian Dictionary Of Biography Vol. 4 p463)
Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College both took up rowing as a school sport. In 1868 Scotch College challenged Melbourne Grammar School to a boat race on the Yarra. It was the first “Head of the River”.The crews rowed in four oar, wide practice boats with fixed seats, the rowlocks being on the sides of the boat. (Source: John Laing - Victorian Oarsmen - 17 Apr 1926)
Members of the government departments combined to opened the Civil Service Rowing Club, then a few years later the club was reorganised as the Melbourne Rowing Club. (Source: The Melbourne Oarsman 1926) Many officers of Melbourne’s banks had taken up rowing as a recreation so in 1866 they formed the Banks Rowing Club. The club arranged with Edwards to use his boat shed at Princes Bridge at first they hired boats and had the use of the shed’s facilities. In April 1867 the Banks Club made their first entry in the Melbourne Regatta on the Lower Yarra. (Source: The Etruscan - Dec. 1970)
The first regatta course was on the Upper Yarra from Princes Bridge to the Botanic Bridge, a distance of one and a quarter miles. Rowers found the course unsatisfactory for the river was only wide enough for two boats alongside each other and bends in the river caused difficulties for the cox. Often boats or oars would hit the banks. Baron Von Mueller had planted indigenous trees and willows on the river banks. That was before the time when rowing attracted spectators. Now these had grown and prevented the public from seeing the races on the river. (Source: The Victorian Rowing Register 1978 M.S. Glynn) Clubs now preferred to hold boat races on the lower Yarra course.
A river through a city is an obvious place for the sport cf rowing. To use the river boats and rowing are needed and people who row like to test their skill. Virgil in his Aenid lauded rowing:
The Waiting crews are crowned with poplar wreath,
Their naked shoulders glistern, moist with oil,
Ranged in a row, their arms stretched to the oars,
All tense the starting signal they await,
Together at the trumpets thrilling blast,
Their bent arms churn the water into foam.
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During the 1860s Melbourne had forgotten the excitement of the gold rush years and the City had become a busy prosperous place. Trade increased and increased activity on the Yarra for the river brought trade to the city. The bed of the river had been dredged so that vessels of drawing thirteen feet were able to come up to Cole’s, Raleigh’s, Queens and the Australian wharves. Along the north bank of the river there were cement, lime, timber and coal yards, while on the south bank firms had set up manufacturies, engineering workshops and ship yards. (Source: Footnote Bailliers - The Victorian Gazetteer - 1865 Yarra Yarra)
At Richmond the Yarra flowed between; a growing suburb of small homes that housed the workers and servants, and the large homes on the south of the river. The timbered slopes descending to the Yarra on this side were a natural attraction to sucessful merchants and professional men of Melbourne. Half a mile upstream from the Richmond bridge John Brown, an architect, purchased Como, a block of land, with a small house on it, that stretched from Toorak Road down to the Yarra.
The first owner of the property had named Como because a billabong near the river reminded him of Lake Como in Italy. Brown set about transforming Como into a grand mansion surrounded by fine gardens as a home for extravagant hospitality. He built the main part of the present house and added wrought iron railings and entrance gates with a brick lodge to increase its splendour. In the 1860s Brown suffered serious business losses and was forced to sell the mansion. The Armitage family, with all their wealth, became the new owner in 1864.
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After more than a decade without a flood on the Yarra, people had forgotten the risks of being close to the water, also most of the population had come to live here after last floods. To them a flood was unknown. During November 1863 incessant rain fell for several months and December looked as though it would be as cold as an English Christmas. Then on Sunday 16th. December, high winds lashed Melbourne and all night heavy rain poured down. It fell on land that was already saturated, so the water ran down the hills and valleys into streams that fed the Yarra. All Monday the rain continued turning the river into a raging torrent, and brought the worst flood Melbourne has experienced. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863)
Rushing water with floating logs swept away all in its path. The Warrandyte bridge was carried off in a mass of wreckage. Only approaches remained, leading to an empty space. The toll bridge at Templestowe disappeared and with it the hopes of the bridge company. The flood rushed on spreading out across fertile farmland and gouged out newly grown vegetables.
At Heidelberg and Bulleen the water rose to fifty feet.(Source: Westgarth) James Graham looked down from Banyule to an inland sea where once the Yarra gently wound through peaceful river flats. As the river rose, water banked back along the creeks and valleys leading to the Yarra, engulfing more houses forcing more people to abandon their homes. At Koonung Creek water crept up the walls of Mrs. Duncan’s wattle and daub hut, the family grabbed what possessions they could and took refuge with their relations on higher ground.
Others not so fortunate, had no shelter and nowhere to go. They were left in the open with only a few wet belongings. The waters carried on through Kew and spread over the flat country swamping houses up to their roofs, leaving more people homeless. Logs carried by the flood battered the supports of bridges and the moved the new Johnston Street Bridge on its foundations leaving it dangerous.
On Wednesday, news of the thousands of homeless people facing ruin and misery along the Yarra, was reported in Melbourne. Public meetings were held, committees formed, funds raised, and temporary accommodation found for those in need of shelter
As the waters rose in Melbourne an exceptionally high tide, driven by strong south winds, blocked the rushing water. For several days the river continued to rise. By Thursday the low land around Melbourne was under water that rose up around the buildings. Flinders Lane had to be abandoned from Queen Street to Spencer Street. In the City people stood on the dry ground and looked in amazement at South Melbourne where a vast lake spread across to Emerald Hill. The course of the river could only be seen by a stream of rapid water carrying sheep, trees and remains of houses. Hundreds of snakes, coiled around branches, were swept out into the bay. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863) By the weekend the water began to fall leaving a picture of utter desolation and misery all along the course of the river. Farmers moved back to survey the damage and count their remaining livestock. They were depressed by the sight when they entered their homes. Bedding and clothing had vanished, these were the first things to have been washed out the windows; mud and slime coated everything. It was sickening. Farmers were left with no crops and often no cattle and no houses.
After more than a decade without a flood on the Yarra, people had forgotten the risks of being close to the water, also most of the population had come to live here after last floods. To them a flood was unknown. During November 1863 incessant rain fell for several months and December looked as though it would be as cold as an English Christmas. Then on Sunday 16th. December, high winds lashed Melbourne and all night heavy rain poured down. It fell on land that was already saturated, so the water ran down the hills and valleys into streams that fed the Yarra. All Monday the rain continued turning the river into a raging torrent, and brought the worst flood Melbourne has experienced. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863)
Rushing water with floating logs swept away all in its path. The Warrandyte bridge was carried off in a mass of wreckage. Only approaches remained, leading to an empty space. The toll bridge at Templestowe disappeared and with it the hopes of the bridge company. The flood rushed on spreading out across fertile farmland and gouged out newly grown vegetables.
At Heidelberg and Bulleen the water rose to fifty feet.(Source: Westgarth) James Graham looked down from Banyule to an inland sea where once the Yarra gently wound through peaceful river flats. As the river rose, water banked back along the creeks and valleys leading to the Yarra, engulfing more houses forcing more people to abandon their homes. At Koonung Creek water crept up the walls of Mrs. Duncan’s wattle and daub hut, the family grabbed what possessions they could and took refuge with their relations on higher ground.
Others not so fortunate, had no shelter and nowhere to go. They were left in the open with only a few wet belongings. The waters carried on through Kew and spread over the flat country swamping houses up to their roofs, leaving more people homeless. Logs carried by the flood battered the supports of bridges and the moved the new Johnston Street Bridge on its foundations leaving it dangerous.
On Wednesday, news of the thousands of homeless people facing ruin and misery along the Yarra, was reported in Melbourne. Public meetings were held, committees formed, funds raised, and temporary accommodation found for those in need of shelter
As the waters rose in Melbourne an exceptionally high tide, driven by strong south winds, blocked the rushing water. For several days the river continued to rise. By Thursday the low land around Melbourne was under water that rose up around the buildings. Flinders Lane had to be abandoned from Queen Street to Spencer Street. In the City people stood on the dry ground and looked in amazement at South Melbourne where a vast lake spread across to Emerald Hill. The course of the river could only be seen by a stream of rapid water carrying sheep, trees and remains of houses. Hundreds of snakes, coiled around branches, were swept out into the bay. (Source: The Age 20 Dec 1863) By the weekend the water began to fall leaving a picture of utter desolation and misery all along the course of the river. Farmers moved back to survey the damage and count their remaining livestock. They were depressed by the sight when they entered their homes. Bedding and clothing had vanished, these were the first things to have been washed out the windows; mud and slime coated everything. It was sickening. Farmers were left with no crops and often no cattle and no houses.
James Graham, the business agent and caretaker for Banyule, worried about his tenant farmers. (Source: Isaac Selby - A Memorial History of Melbourne) The high prices they had received at the time of the gold rushes had ended leaving them struggling to pay expenses. The owner, absent in England, and unaware of the situation, still demanded a high rent that they would now be unable to pay.
The cleanup started and the after effects of the flood were discovered. Bedding and clothing had washed out of the houses and the floors and walls were coated with mud but there were some unusual results: at Deep Creek, Jim Knee climbed up a tree to rescue his fowls who had sheltered in the branches, (Source: Footnote Alice Latimer personal communication.) in Koonung Creek James Duncan had to retrieve his mother’s piano, when the flood water had swirled through their small home Mrs. Duncan’s piano had floated out with it and it was now stuck in the creek, as James struggled to free it from the mud he wondered how it would sound, and at Punt Road a householder had to shoot a snake on the roof of his house.
The Yarra, in dry seasons provided water to grow plentiful crops; but at times of flood, ruined these same crops. Often when farmers were enjoying the prospect of a rich harvest, days of heavy rain would fall, then the water rose and spread across the river flats submerging healthy new plants and dashed the prospects of a good harvest. Soon many farmers turned to dairying, running cows to graze on the lush grass along the river flats. Duncan moved his cheese factory to higher land and Laidlaw turned to grazing cattle.
Source: Tales of the Yarra River - Irvine Heber Green. Unpublished Manuscript.
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