100 years ago this week - St Thomas' Horticultural Show

A three day horticultural show was held at St Thomas' Church of England in Bunyip, 100 years ago this week in December 1913. It raised fifty five pounds which went  towards building the Parsonage. The church was opened on December 28, 1902 and the Parsonage opened in June 1915.

The Argus December 22 1913  trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7260099

Mrs Beatrice A'Beckett won eight first prizes, including that for champion carnation, roses and a collection of flowers. Amongst the other prize winners was Horace Nelson, listed in the Electoral Roll as a farmer from Bunyip; the Reverend Kent; William Kraft, who with his wife Sarah, ran the Gippsland Hotel in Bunyip. Their son, William, later became the manager of the Drouin butter factory. Another winner was  Joseph Holgate, store keeper of  Bunyip, who won the champion bloom. A couple of lads, A. Boyle and Cecil Corrigan  also won some prizes.  Miss Allen won a number of prizes for best arranged basket, ladies sprays and gents' button-holes. Miss Allen doesn't have  a first name or initial listed, so I don't know who she was; Miss P. Holland won the prize for wild flowers, but she wasn't in the Electoral Roll in 1914.

In the cookery section, Mr William Walker won the 'best plain cake made by a married man. He is listed in the Electoral Roll as a hairdresser of Bunyip. Captain Arthur A'Beckett, came second in this category - he was the husband of the prize winning Beatrice. Mr A. Boyle won the prize for the batchelor's cake. There is a Frederick and Elizabeth Boyle listed in the Electoral Rolls (Frederick is listed as carpenter) so perhaps they are the parents of Mr A. Boyle and the lad, Master A. Boyle who won prizes. The Reverend Banks won the second prize in the bachelors division. 

Early days of Garfield and Cannibal Creek

The earliest recorded European settlers in the Garfield region were the lessees of the two Connabul Creek Runs, both leased in 1845. Connabul Creek 1,of 8,960 acres, was leased by Michael Ready (or Reedy) and James Hook and Connabul Creek 2 was leased by Terence O’Connor and a Mr Hayes. Essentially, these Runs were located between the Ararat Creek and the Bunyip River, north of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp. Another source tells us that a Mr Thompson had the Cannibal Creek cattle run from 1845.

The term Cannibal Creek is believed to have come about because early Surveyors in the area had left their fox terrier in their camp and when they returned they found the dog had been killed and eaten by Dingoes and thus they named the creek Cannibal Creek. Another version of the name is that the word Coonabul comes from a corruption of the Aboriginal word couna meaning “forehead” and bal meaning “he” or “she”. This possibly referred to the shape of Mount Cannibal, which was thought to resemble a head.

The Garfield area opened up after a road was surveyed from Dandenong to Gippsland in 1847 along the edge of the ranges and when this proved to be impassable in places, a new road, which became the coach route, was surveyed between 1857 and 1859. This went through Cannibal Creek, via the old township of Buneep and onto Crossover. The Melbourne to Sale telegraph line followed this route in 1865, which eventually gave the road the name of Old Telegraph Road (see map).  Where this road crossed the Cannibal Creek, a small settlement was surveyed in 1860 and the township of Cannibal Creek was born. In 1866 Jabez Janes established a beer house on the south side of Cannibal Creek.  

According to a public notice in The Argus of December 21,1866 Jabez applied for a Beer Licence in my house of five rooms finished and others partly built. He was granted the licence, however a year later he was declared insolvent due to the falling off of business in consequence of the Government changing the line of road between Cannibal and Shady Creeks. He had debts of £192 pounds. Three years later Jabez, who was described as a beer-seller at Cannibal’s Creek was back in the Courts again, when he was charged with deserting his de facto, Mary Ann Goldsmith, with whom he had five children, and leaving her and the children without support  He was ordered to pay support and put up a surety of £20. The Argus goes on to report that as the man had neither money nor friends to assist him he was sent to gaol.  I have written more about Jabez Janes and Mary Ann (also called Maria) Goldsmith, here.

The next licensee of hotel then called the Pig & Whistle was Mrs Kathleen Leeson. Mrs Leeson died in 1910, aged 100 years old. Kathleen and her husband Robert had selected land at Cannibal Creek in the early 1860s.

Competition for the Pig & Whistle came with the establishment in 1867 of David Connor’s New Bunyip Inn. This was built on the Bunyip River on the Gippsland Road, as the Princes Highway was then called. The coach route then changed direction at Cannibal Creek and turned south east to this Inn, and became known as Old Sale Road (see map). A small settlement developed around the Inn, including the establishment of a bakery by William Snell. However, Garfield really took off with the establishment of the Railway, which we will look at in the next post.

100 years ago this week - Ice Cream manufacturers

This is from a report, in the South Bourke and |Mornington Journal, 100 years ago this week,  of  the Berwick Shire Council Meeting held on Saturday, January 11 1913 and refers to applications to make Ice Cream at Garfield and Bunyip.

South Bourke and Mornington Journal January 16, 1913 page 5.

From Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

In the 1914  Electoral Roll, Catherine Louch was listed as the Newsagent at Garfield. Margaret Bell of Bunyip is listed as a 'Confectioner'.  Commercial production of ice cream was relatively new in Australia. According to the book Cream of the Country: a history of Victorian dairying by Norman Godbold (Dairy Industry Association of Australia, 1989) ice cream became popular around 1910 and there were many manufacturers. They originally used custard in the ice cream but this was revoluntionised by Fred Peters, an American, who had arrived in Sydney in 1908 with his mother's ice cream recipe which used only pure dairy products. It took Peters four year to accumulate enough money to go into the ice cream business  and when he did in 1912 the demand for his 'American' style ice cream was amazing. Peters Ice Cream is now part of Nestles.

I don't know how successful the new ice cream making ventures of Catherine and Margaret were, however in the 1919 Electoral roll Catherine is still listed as the Newsagent, but in the 1924 Electoral roll there is a Catherine Louch listed in the St Kilda area and her occupation is listed a 'Confectioner', so it seems likely that her career started in Garfield. You can read more about Margaret here.