100 years ago this week - Koo-Wee-Rup rains and a Health report

From the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of November 14, 1912. 

Available on Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

This is interesting for a number of reasons - firstly we have had too much rain in the area over the past eighteen months or so and potato farmers especially have suffered. Secondly,I don't believe peas are grown around here any more. Thirdly. the second paragraph is a reminder to us how devastating diseases such as measles and influenza could be before immunisation and antibiotics. For instance, in 1912, the Infant Death rate in Victoria was 74; that is for every 1,000 babies born, 74 would die before they turned one. This was down from 108 in 1902. The rate is now a bit less than five. 

100 years ago this week - Place names and railways

What was happening in the area 100 years ago this week? These are  two railway related articles and are from the South Bourke & Mornington Journal of November 7, 1912. Available on Trove  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

 South Bourke & Mornington Journal of November 7, 1912, page 2

Pakenham is a northern neighbour to the the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp, however as this article is about both railways and place names - two of my favourite historical subjects - then I had to include it. The Gippsland line to Sale was opened in stages - Sale to Morwell June 1877, Oakleigh to Bunyip October 1877, Moe to Morwell December 1877, Moe to Bunyip March 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh in 1879. Originally the only Station open between Dandenong and Pakenham was at Berwick.

South Bourke & Mornington Journal of November 7, 1912, page 2

The article, above,  lists all the revenue taken at the stations between Oakleigh and Bunyip, including the now defunct stop at the spur line that went to the Necropolis at Springvale and Jefferson's siding - a siding established for the Jefferson timber mill and later brick works at Garfield. It closed in May 1912.  The Necropolis (or Springvale Botanical Cemetery as it is now blandly known as) opened for burials in March 1902 and the railway line from the Springvale Station opened in 1904 - February  for visitors and March for mortuary trains. The Mortuary trains ceased in 1943 and the last visitor train was December 1950.