The Minister of Lands visits the Koo Wee Rup Swamp January 19, 1894.

On Friday, January 19, 1894 the Minister of Lands, Mr M'Intyre, the Chief Surveyor, Mr Callinan and the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, Carlo Catani, visited the Koo Wee Rup Swamp. It was reported in The Age of January 22, 1894. It is transcribed below and you can see the original on Trove, here. It is a good description of life on the Swamp.

THE KOOWEERUP SWAMP.  

VISIT BY THE MINISTER OF LANDS.

BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER

Mr. M'Intyre, Minister of Lands, accompanied by Mr. Callinan, chief surveyor of his department, and Mr. C. Catani, engineer in charge of roads, bridges and reclamation works, made a visit of inspection on Friday to the Kooweerup Swamp. In 1890 this particular area was 52,900 acres of water 2 to 3 feet deep, shaded by scrub.In 1892 a drain had been constructed to 4 miles from Western Port. Bloomfield Brothers then contracted to carry the drain 2 miles further inland, and subsequently (when the unemployed difficulty had to be faced by the late Ministry) that contract was extended indeinitely on condition that no fewer than 400 men were employed on the work. In March, 1893, the arrangement was terminated and the 400 men were thrown out of employment.Next month the new and present Minister of Lands appeared on the scene, and he found the men clamoring for work. "Look here," he said, "if I give you a block of land each and employment at the drainage every alternate week, you to work every other week on your own land, will that suit ? " The answer came immediately in loud cries of "Yes!" Mr. M'Intyre had no legal power to do this, but he believed it to be a right thing, and took the chance of Parliament ratifying his action. The land along the main drain was duly plotted out in 20 acre lots, and the men returned to work under the new system.

 It is no exaggeration to describe what has followed as a wonderful transformation scene. The water has been gathered into channels, and the main channel forms a rapid little river, whose velocity has to be checked by means of artificial "drop downs " or falls every mile or so. The reclaimed land is of very extraordinary richness, having some 6 to 9 feet of vegetable mould on a bed of clay. The mould is no longer actually boggy, but it is nearly as pervious as a snow drift. You can easily push a walking stick into it to the handle, and it is quite elastic or springy under the feet. It Is evident that this is soil which is not only in want of the sweetening influence of the sun, but that it is very much in need of compression. It is also evident, however, that it is not necessary to wait for the sweetening and the compression before putting this land to a good use.

All down the line of the main drain are settlers' houses of canvas, felt, or weatherboard, and around them are vegetable gardens of luxuriant growth. Nearly every settler is already practically independent of the rest of the world in the matter of food. They would certainly be entirely so if vegetarians. They have potatoes in abundance and of most excellent quality, cabbages weighing from 10 to 15 lb. apiece, turnips of prodigious size, and a multitude of other garden products of really superior quality, and when you taste them you have to confess that the sour land yields very palatable food.

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp - a settler's home.

A vegetable garden of luxuriant growth as described in the article.

Image: The Illustrated Australian news, February 1, 1894.

State Library of Victoria Image IAN01/02/94/4c

The settlers' houses are well scattered, but those of them on the main channel standing in line seem to form at one place a street three to four miles in length. Then comes a break in the settlement due to the reservation of land for sale by auction, and nearing the Great Southern railway primitive houses again come into evidence scattered broadeast over the reclaimed swamp. To Mr. M'Intyre it was truly a very gratifying sight.

At the Bunyip railway station Mr. M'Intyre was interviewed by Mr. Charles Wilson on behalf of himself and 11 other men who desire to form what they would call the Blue Gum Valley Land Settlement Association It was stated that the men were all hard workers and residents about Longwarry and Drouin, and they coveted 2000 acres on the highest part of the swamp to the south of Longwarry. Mr. M'Intyre asked that the names should be forwarded to him, and promised to give the matter consideration. He however pointed out that Parliament had determined that in future swamp land should be sold. Mr. M'Intyre and party next embarked on a very primitive but serviceable tram car which was drawn by a reinless horse over a tram line built by the settlers, with timber provided by the Government at the small cost of about £50 per mile. The car was loaded with bags of flour, boxes of provisions and eight passengers ; and although the progress made was slow, it was safe and sure. At the end of a mile and a half we came to a locality known as the Bunyip Junction, where there is a general store and an experimental garden - the latter being a departmental affair.

Behind the store half a dozen men were working one of Davies and Company's Bennett American stump pullers. This seemed rather slow work, but the settlers said it was very effective and satisfactory. The machine is provided by the department, and the settlers are charged about 1s a day for the privilege of using it. The experimental garden is a plot of 2 acres, and it is a complete success. It was only started in August last, but it is already covered with all kinds of vegetables, fruit trees and grasses. Apricots and cherries are doing remarkably well, cabbages are as big as cheddars and as hard as boulders ; there are heavy crops of very toothsome peas and beans ; also splendid samples of sugar beet, lint, maize, buckwheat, clover, &c.

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp - Settlements on the bank of the Main Drain.

This is the serviceable tram car which was drawn by a reinless horse over a tram line built by the settlers, described in the article. 

Image: The Illustrated Australian News, February 1, 1894.

State Library of Victoria Image IAN01/02/94/4a

At the Minister's request some potatoes wore dug up; and there was a pot full at every root; although they were only planted four months ago. A medium sized cabbage weighed 10 lb.This garden has  served its purpose. It has demonstrated what the soil of the Kooweerup swamp is capable of in the immediate present, and it will now be disposed of by the department, probably to the gardener, a Mr. Pincott, who is one of the settlers.

Two houses, alleged to be sly grog shanties, were called at, and the occupants received what should prove vary salutary warnings from the Minister. A settler named West, who has 20 acres allotted to him in one part of the Swamp and who has cleared several acres there, expressed a desire to change his 20 acres for 5 acres nearer Bunyip. There are about 30 others anxious to make a similar exchange. The complaint is that the land they hold is not yet sufficiently dry for cultivation. The land they now desire is part of an area on a slightly higher level reserved for sale ; but no sooner did Mr. M'Intyre see the land objected to than he jumped at the proposal made. "Five acres elsewhere for 20 acres here? Yes," he said, " It's a bargain." There could be no doubt that the despised country was of immense value, which was indicated by luxuriant crops of thistles wherever clearings had been made, and that the bargain, although it may suit the present settlers now, will be to the ultimate advantage of the State.

Farther on we arrived at a store run by the department in the interests of the settlers. As is known the settlers are allowed to earn certain amounts per month, according to the numbers of their families. The amounts are small and have to be made the most of. It was found that local price for necessaries were beyond their slender means, so this store was opened under the management of the department to supply groceries, clothing, &c., at the lowest possible prices. It is State Socialism without disguise. The goods are retailed at a profit only sufficient to meet the expenses. The consequence is an all round reduction in prices by about 33 per cent. Boots for which 16s. had to be paid elsewhere are here obtainable at 9s. 6d. ; mole trousers are sold at 5s. instead of 6s. 6d., ling at 5d. instead of 1s. per lb., soap at 4½d. instead of 6d., tea at 10d. instead of 1s. 6d., sugar at 2d. instead of 3d., and so on. The amount of business done by the store is about £30 a week, and it has been in successful operation since November last.

Close to Kooweerup railway station a stump extractor was examined with much interest. It is a heavy triangular structure with two steel edged beams, and is pulled by a team of oxen. It tears up every root. The department have provided this implement; and let it out at a price equivalent to 8s. an acre. Some of the local settlers asked for the construction of a bridge over the main drain on the ground that they had been debarred from using the railway bridge. Mr. M'Intyre seemed rather indignant at the action of the Railway department in this matter, and he promised to provide the material for a small bridge if the settlers would erect it themselves. This was eagerly agreed to. On the whole of the swamp there are now 368 settlers, representing about 2000 souls, and it was estimated by a local official, who has full knowledge of them, that at least 70 per cent, are permanently fixed on the soil. As to what might happen to the reclaimed swamp in case of a phenomenal flood, time only can reveal. It was pointed out to the visitors that whereas the water in the main channel is only from 6 to 18 inches in depth it ran a banker in the flood of last year, but that it only overflowed and caused damages at certain points, where flood gates to keep the water back have now been constructed. Mr. M'Intyre and his party returned to town on Friday night by the Great Southern line.

Across the Koo Wee Rup Swamp in 1910 by bicycle

This article was published in The Australasian on April 30, 1910. The author took a trip, by bicycle, across the Koo Wee Rup Swamp - 90 miles of cycling in all. Read the original, here.

The Australasian on April 30, 1910

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142925112

WHEEL NOTES

By FORTIS

ACROSS THE KOO-WEE-RUP

The cyclist may propose; but if he is wise, he will allow the wind to dispose; and that is what I did one day last week. I wished to take a run from the ranges to the north and N.E of the metropolis but found on waking that a fierce north wind would dispute progress in that direction; but I changed my objective. Adopting the Dandenong road, I passed through that town in a cloud of dust so dense that I had to slow down to walking pace, as nothing could be seen beyond a few yards. At the Berwick and Cranbourne junction, a mile beyond, a halt was made to determine which highway should be taken, and the road to Berwick was chosen, as indications of change of wind was apparent in the clouds.
The direction now was almost due east, hence the wind was less a helping factor than before. However, some fast coasts were obtained over the hilly section to Berwick, and another long one after climbing the steep hill in the town. Beaconsfield and Officer were then passed through; and at Pakenham, the lower road - that south of the railway - was taken to Nar Nar Goon and Tynong to Garfield, 48 miles from Melbourne, which was reached shortly after 1 p.m.

ALONG THE MAIN DRAIN
The term "Swamp" usually suggests an uninteresting area, and. 1 thought, in crossing the reclaimed Koo-wee-rup Swamp, that there would be little to interest. I knew there was roadway along the main drain, and on leaving Garfield a winding track, was followed in a S.E. direction, when the "drain" - it is more like a canal - was crossed at the rising village of lona, a distance of three miles. Crossing on a substantial bridge, and veering S.W, I followed the drain in a perfectly straight line, and over a fair to good surface for 4½ miles, where I passed through another village in the making, known as Cora
Lynn. Keeping straight on - the road and drain could be seen straight ahead as far as the eye could reach. I traversed another 4½ miles without a turn, making a continuous run of nine miles in a bee-line to the south-west. At the end of this stage was another small collection of houses, but I could not ascertain what the name was - if it had one.

Here the road and drain made an easy turn, more to the south, and in two and a half miles there is a divergence to the left, to Koo-wee-rup, the Township being about three-quarters of a mile distant. Not wishing to go further east I kept on for another mile, until the Great Southern line was met with, as well as a cross-road, where a turn to the right was made. But this track curved away to the north eventually, and I recognised that it was the wrong course. In a mile, however, a road running westward was adopted, which I thought would bring me out into the main Tooradin road, and after traversing it for five miles, over a fair, loamy surface, a cross-road was met with. To go northwards was useless, so turning lo the left and crossing the line in half a mile, a turn was made (in a similar distance) into a lane running to the west, and which, in two and a quarter miles, led me out on to the main road, about six miles from Cranbourne and 35 from Melbourne.

NATURE OF THE SWAMP LAND.
In the run from Garfield to Koo-wee-rup a distance of about 16 miles, there is anything but  monotony. In addition to the small villages, there are numerous homesteads between, while the plain is not devoid of vegetation or of trees. The high scrub growth by the roadside shielded me in a great measure when the wind changed to the west, though when it shifted further, and blew stiffly from the south-west, I had a rough time for a mile or so, what it made a further change and came up from the south. Still, it was not all easy going; but the roadway on the whole was fair - good, and like a racing-track in places - but repairs are now being commenced, and it will prove sandy until rain falls. Heavy rain, however, will play havoc with the tracks; in some places the black swamp land is bare, and when wet it sticks closer than a brother.

Although the season is, and has been very dry, there was plenty of water in the main drain; clear and running, though not very deep. It seems to me to be the course of a river, cut through the swamp, forming a natural drain, where previously the river (the Bunyip, I think), used to empty itself on the land, transforming it into a swamp. The only thing requisite for making the best use of this canal is more water, So that it could be used for carrying purpose. After passing Koo-wee-rup the land was less attractive, but there are plenty of cross-roads and tracks; some rough and others sandy. On reaching the main road I ran through Cranbourne and into Dandenong, where, after 90 miles cycling, I joined the train for Melbourne.

Lubecker Steam Dredge on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp

The Lubecker Steam Dredge was the first machine used on the long running project to drain the Koo Wee Rup Swamp, which had started with small scale works in 1857. The main drainage work to create the Main Drain, following the plans drawn up by William Thwaites, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department,  took place from 1889 to 1893. In 1893, the Public Works Department took back the drainage works from contractors and their engineer, Carlo Catani (1852-1918) was appointed to oversee future drainage works. (1)

  

Carlo was keen to introduce dredges; however this was not approved because it would reduce the work available for unskilled labour, however after the 1911 flood, the  Public Works Department devised a scheme to prevent a reoccurrence of the damage. As Carlo wrote in his presentation, Earth excavators and their use in Victoria  to the Victorian Institute of Engineers in August 1916 - A scheme was prepared, and it was estimated that by ordinary means the outlay would be £50,500, but I added that by the employment of up-to-date machinery this sum could be reduced by one half

On the occasion of my visit to Europe in 1912 I was commissioned by the Hon. the Minister of Public Works, Mr. Edgar, to look for the best machinery for these works, and with this in view I visited Lincoln, Manchester, Frodigam, and Glasgow, not only for the purpose of obtaining information, but also with a view to inducing English firms to tender in response to an advertisement in London "Engineer," and "Engineering," whereby tenders for the supply of a dry earth excavator had been invited by the Agent-General at my suggestion. 

Three tenders were received on August 8th, 1912. One, that ultimately accepted, was from the Lubeck Dredge Company; two were from English firms.  

In consequence of these enquiries I recommended the purchase of the land dredger now at work at Lang Lang. It arrived in the Autumn of 1913, but the winter floods and the fact that the type of machine was new to this country, delayed its reconstruction here, and it was not ready for trial till the summer of 1914. (2)

Lewis Ronald East (3), engineer and later a Commissioner and then the Chairman of the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission, described the dredge, which had a crew of nine, as of the articulated ladder type.  It weighed 80 tons and had a maximum capacity of  80 cubic yards per hour, or approximately 200,000 cubic yards per annum when working one shift. The purchase price was £2,300, on which £632 duty was paid. The actual cost landed and erected on the swamp, with rails, cranes and other equipment came to £4,716. In its first test, the machine excavated 50,000 cubic yards at a cost of 4d. per cubic yard. This was in 1914 when the basic wage was approximately 9s. per day. (4) At the time a good labourer could dig around 11 cubic yards per day, (5) so you can see why there was concern that  people would lose their jobs.

The dredge in operation on May 21, 1914, the day it was officially started

There are other photographs taken on the day, here. 

State Rivers & Water Supply Commission photographer, State Library of Victoria Image rwg/u873

The local community had heard the dredge had been purchased in October 1912, as the Lang Lang Guardian reported - 
Return of Mr Catani. Dredging machine secured.
Residents of this district will be pleased to hear that Mr Catani, the Chief Engineer, has returned from his trip to the old country, and that he is full of enthusiasm for carrying out of the Kooweerup drainage works. The other day a resident of Yannathan met Mr Catani in Melbourne, and that gentleman informed him that he had purchased a machine which he estimated would shift earth at the cost of a penny a yard. The machine would be effective for both removing silt from the canal and shifting solid earth in the drains. As the ordinary cost of excavation is from 10d to 1s per yard, it is obvious, that if this machine can do anything like what is claimed for it, an enormous saving in cost will be effected. (6)

The dredge arrived at Lang Lang in late May 1913 and its first job was on the Tobin Yallock Swamp, working on the lower reaches of the Lang Lang River, and if the work proved successful it would be later purchased by the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC) for use on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp. The SRWSC had been established in 1905 and took over responsibility for the Koo Wee Rup Swamp drainage from the Public Works Department in 1912. (7)

The Lang Lang Guardian in June 1913, reported on the arrival of the dredge - 

Dredging Lang Lang River. Machinery Arrives .

Commencement is to be made at once with the work of dredging the Lang Lang River, in order to provide sufficient waterway to carry away all flood waters. The work is to be carried out by the Public Works Department, and Mr Catani, the chief engineer, paid a visit to the locality  last week, to make arrangements for commencing operations. The machinery weighing about 60 tons, is now at the Lang Lang station, and arrangements  have been made with Mr W. Glover to cart the machinery to the ground. The dredge is a German importation and is said to be the finest in the world.  It will be worked from the bank of the river, and it is estimated  it will shift earth at the cost of about a penny a yard. The work will be commenced a few chains from the mouth of the river at the bay, and it is said the river is to be dredged to a width of 40 feet and a depth of 10 feet. (8)

A few weeks later, the Lang Lang Guardian in July 1913 had  a follow up report - 

sleepers and rails are being placed on a cleared track, across patches of dense t-tree and open country avoiding the  low lying portion of the swamp so that operations are not likely to be interrupted by floods. The machinery, weighing over 100 tons, with a powerful engine is scattered over the ground, and it is an insoluble puzzle to visitors who attempt to construct in their mind as mechanical theory as to how this vast and complicated will be put together and how it will work. Mr Catani, the chief engineer, visited Lang Lang last week in connection with the operations. (9)

As you can see, there are some variations in the published accounts of the weight of the dredge -  Ron East said the dredge weighed  80 tons and the two Lang Lang Guardian reports had it weighing 60 tons and then 100 tons, however Carlo noted  in his presentation that it weighed 48 tons. 

A regular columnist in the Lang Lang Guardian, Bill Nye wrote this about the dredge - 

This dredge and its operation will reveal to us the genius of three great nations – namely, the genius of the Italians, as represented by Mr Catani, who made a special trip to Europe to purchase the machine; the genius of the Germans, who invented and constructed it, and the genius of the Australians, who will work it, if some genius is discovered who will put it together and give the diabolical looking thing a start. (10)

They did find a genius to assemble the dredge, engineer F. C. Osborne, who was possibly Frederick Charles Osborne listed in the Electoral Rolls as an engineer, living at Brunswick at this time, with his wife Sarah. The Lang Lang Guardian reported in July 1913 that Mr F.C. Osborne, who has had long experience in the work of erecting dredges in Victoria, has in hand the work of transporting and erecting the machinery (11).  In November 1913, they reported that -

Mr Osborne, has employed a small Tangye engine and secured it to a truck for the hauling of the machinery and goods, having also fitted it with reversing gear to make the return journey.  The little locomotive drags  heavy loads at a good speed, and all who have witnessed this ingenious adaption are strongly impressed by the ability of the Engineers in charge to overcome difficulties. (12)

This is the Tangye engine referred to, above, used to haul machinery, goods and in this case important visitors taken on May 21, 1914, the day the Dredge was officially started.

State Rivers & Water Supply Commission photographer, State Library of Victoria Image rwg/u877

The dredge was finally officially started on May 21, 1914. The Lang Lang Guardian reported on the event, and it is a long report but as it is the only account I can find of the event, worth publishing in full -   

Lang Lang Dredge. Official Starting. An Interesting Ceremony

On Thursday morning last the dredge on the Lang Lang River was started in the presence of a representative official party, including Mr Hagelthorn (Minister of Public Works), Messrs Cattanach and Dethridge (members of the Water Supply Commission), with Mr Catani (Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department), Mr Kenyon (Chief Engineer of the Water Commission), Mr Drake (secretary Public Works Department), Mr Kermode (engineer Ports and Harbors), and Mr Grenlees (naval architect). There was also a representative attendance of landowners of the surrounding district and others interested in the starting of this machine, and the weather being pleasantly fine and sunny, those who attended had an enjoyable outing, as well as being greatly interested witnesses of the working of a machine which is the first of its kind to be put into operation in Australia. 

Early in June of last year the machinery of the dredge arrived at the local station and the intervening time was taken up in transporting  the plant to the end of Stanlake’s lane, in constructing a line of rails across the ti-tree swamp to the river bank, a distance of 60 chains, in adapting a Tangye engine to act as a locomotive hauler, and in erecting the machinery – a work which was rendered very difficult on account of the machinery leaving Germany never having, in mechanical terms, been “assembled.” The work of erection, therefore, was one of considerable engineering difficulty. However, on April 15th a trial run of the machinery was given in the presence of Mr Catani, and the excavator worked so well that orders were at once given for a supply of timber and rails to lay a section of the line towards the outlet at the bay in order to commence work, the point at which the dredge was constructed being 23 chains from the bay, and the distance it is proposed to excavate from the bay to the road bridge is 2 miles and 60 chains. 

As before stated, the machinery worked smoothly, and Mr Catani informed our representative that should the operation be a success, it is proposed to construct similar machines in the State.  The dredge was made in Lubeck, Germany and has been used in England, and is employed extensively in India. The cost of the machine was £2000, or, with duty added, £3000, the idea of constructing such machines in the State is on account of the saving in duty. 

At the trial run on the morning in question, 105 cubic yards was excavated in 40 minutes the cost being estimated  at 5d per yard. It was evident to the spectators that the machinery was working in very stiff, gluey soil, but the powerful engine used seemed to have no difficulty in doing its work in the section taken out, which was dredged to a depth of about 4 feet. The width of the proposed channel will be 40 feet at the top, 25 feet at the bottom, and 8 feet, with a batter or sloping bank of about 15 feet. The scoops, or delvers, which work horizontally and upon the principle on which a Californian pump lifts war, can be lowered or raised according to the necessities of working , and the earth removed is carried to a high elevated platform, and there tipped into a chute, from whence the conveyors carry it away. The earth is then deposited in a high, solid bank, which is considered to be on e of the principal features of the scheme. The conveyors can also be raised or lowered to the height required in building the bank. It is estimated that the machine will scoop a length of 50 feet per day, at which rate the plant in about twelve months should complete the work to the bridge. 

The defective feature in the work from the viewpoint of local opinion is the cutting of a parallel drain instead of widening the river. However, it is explained the reason of this is that to work into the river would necessitate great expense in the leveling of the bank for the rails to run on, whereas by working  some 15 feet from the present waterway this bank can be avoided. It is not intended, as originally proposed, to join the two streams by crosscuts. One of the principal drawbacks in working is the necessity of carting fresh water about two miles, as the salt water in the river would be very destructive to the boiler. This official starting was satisfactorily carried out by Mr R. Carr, the engineer in charge, who was ably assisted by his staff. (13)

From a report in The Argus on October 13, 1915 there are other details of how the Dredge operated - 

The dredge is an impressive looking machine weighing about 40 tons or more. It excavates or means of an endless chain arrangement, wherein each link of the chain consists of a heavy steel shovel head. These shovel heads first scrape away the "spoil," then they deliver it on to a mechanical conveyer on the far side of the machine. The conveyer in its turn, dumps the earth on to a regular embankment or if necessary, into waggons that cart it away. (14)

Lubecker Dredge taken on May 21, 1914, the day it was officially started. 

Carlo Catani is on the ladder, see here for another photo of Carlo on the day. 

State Rivers & Water Supply Commission photographer, State Library of Victoria Image rwg/u855

The work at Lang Lang was practically completed in December 1916 and in April 1917 the Lang Lang Guardian could report the the SRWSC had taken over the Dredge. Also in April Carlo Catani visited Lang Lang to explain to  Mr G. Kermode, Engineer for Ports and Harbours, who will probably be his successor, details of the work being done by the land dredger. (15) 

Draining Swamp Land at Lang Lang - left caption: Land Dredging excavating 80 yards an hour; right caption: View showing excavated channel with railway for dredger

The Weekly Times October 30, 1915 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/132708829

A year later, in March 1918 it was reported that the dredge was working on the Yallock  Creek, this is the earliest report I can find of it on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp, however it had obviously arrived much earlier as the next month it was noted that the work there was finished and it was being moved to the Main Drain -

The outlet which is to be substituted for the Yallock Creek has been cut by the dredge, and the machine is being transferred to the main drain, where excavating is to be commenced at once. Owing to the great weight of the dredge it has been found necessary to construct a special bridge to enable the dredge to be taken over the main drain (16) 

In December 1918, the Koo Wee Rup Sun could report on more progress of the dredge on the Main Drain  - 

The land dredge previously worked at Lang Lang by the Public Works department was kept working steadily throughout the year with good results. After enlarging the existing Yallock cut to the Melbourne road [South Gippsland Highway] and connecting it at this point to the Upper Yallock Creek proper, the dredge was transferred to the north western side of the main drain, near the sea end. It is now cutting new outlets for the new main western drain and the main northern catch drain. The results obtained by the operation of this dredge have been so satisfactory that the Commission is now arranging for a similar machine to be built in this State. (17)

It was later put to work on the Cardinia Creek in the 1920s. It would actually be interesting to know if it worked at other locations in Victoria, I have no information about that, and it is hard to pick up references in the newspapers, as after the War they didn't seem to mention the fact that it was a German dredge. 

This photograph of the dredge on the Cardinia Creek was taken by Albert Arnell, sometime between 1922 and 1929 during his travels around Victoria. 

State Library of Victoria image H2013.48/77

In March 1935, Ron East,  presented a paper Swamp Reclamation in Victoria to the Institute of Engineers Australia. He noted that by June 1934 total excavation by the Dredge was 1,332,231 cubic yards; it never worked at more than at 60 percent of its capacity.  The average cost of excavation was 7.9 pence per cubic yard, but with interest and depreciation the total cost was 9.15 pence per cubic yard, well over the Lang Lang Guardian’s original estimate of one penny per yard.  East also reported that the dredge has now practically completed its useful life. (18)

Lubecker Dredge,  May 21, 1914, the day it was officially started.

State Rivers & Water Supply Commission photographer, State Library of Victoria Image rwg/u871

  

Other machines, as noted by Ron East, owned by the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission, and not necessarily working on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp,  included a steam powered Stiff Leg Dragline, weighing 25 tons, purchased in 1925 for the cost of £2,200.  This had a five man crew and was rail based and a working cost per cubic yard of 7 pence.  In 1929 a 45 ton steam powered Full Swing Dragline was purchased for £3,100. This had a three man crew and a caterpillar undercarriage and a per cubic yard cost of 4.4 pence.  In 1929 the first non-steam powered machine, another Full Swing Dragline was purchased for £3,700. This weighed 26 tons, had a two man crew a caterpillar undercarriage and had a working cost per cubic yard of 2.4 pence.  East said that the economy of caterpillar traction and of crude oil power are obvious. (19)

Finally, what happened to the Lubecker Dredge? We don’t know but presumably it was cut up for scrap, perhaps around World War Two,  as all that remains are a set of wheels on display at the Swamp Look-out tower on the South Gippsland Highway.

The Lubecker Dredge wheels at the Swamp look-out tower.

Image: Heather Arnold

Trove list - I have created a list of articles on Trove, connected to the Dredge; access it here. 

Footnotes

(1) Read an overview of the history of the drainage of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp here - https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-short-overview-of-drainage-of-koo-wee.html  I also write about Carlo Catani here https://carlocatani.blogspot.com/

(2) Catani, Carlo Earth excavators and their use in Victoria, published in Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Engineers vol. XVI 1916 (14), see here.   Link to the entire 1916 volume  http://hdl.handle.net/11343/120

(3) Lewis Ronald East (1899-1994) Australian Dictionary of Biography entry   https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/east-sir-lewis-ronald-ron-29428

(4) East, Lewis Ronald Swamp Reclamation in Victoria published in the Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Australia, March 1935, pp. 85-86

(5) Roberts, David From Swampland to Farmland: a history of the Koo Wee Rup Flood Protection District  (Rural Water Commission, 1985), p. 25

(6) Lang Lang Guardian, October 30, 1912, p. 3

(7) Lang Lang Guardian, June 11, 1913, p. 2; Roberts, op. cit., p.24.

(8) Lang Lang Guardian, June 4, 1913, p. 3.

(9) Lang Lang Guardian, July 16, 1913, p. 2.

(10) Lang Lang Guardian, July 16, 1913, p. 2.

(11) Lang Lang Guardian, July 23, 1913, p. 2.

(12) Lang Lang Guardian, November 12, 1913, p. 2.

(13) Lang Lang Guardian, May 27, 1914, p. 2, see here.

(14) The Argus, October 13, 1915 see here. 

(15) The Age, December 30, 1916, see here; Lang Lang Guardian  April 18, 1917, see here; The Herald, April 30, 1917, see here.

(16) The Age, April 2, 1918, see here.

(17) Koo Wee Rup Sun, December 18, 1918, see here.

(18) East, Lewis Ronald Swamp Reclamation in Victoria published in the Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Australia, March 1935, pp. 85-86

(19) Ibid.

Bunyip and the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp 1887

This account of the township of Bunyip and the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp comes from the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of August 3, 1887.  Click here to access this article on Trove

From an occasional Correspondent.

"Vare iz de downsheep" The interrogator was a foreigner, and the person questioned was, Mr. Barrow, the local storekeeper of the "rising" township of  Bunyip. For Bunyip, by the way, is at present only a small hamlet; in fact it is able to do very little more than 'claim to have, a ''local habitation" as well as a name. Nevertheless it has two hotels, well conducted by Messrs. Hanson and Finch. These two hostelries, with Mr. Barrow's general store, amicably uniting themselves pretty well form the township. There are also one or two unpretentious dwelling houses about, and a State School, of which Mrs. Skinner is the tutelary genius, lies back a little out of sight. 

But still Bunyip may be designated as a rising township, for it stands prominently upon a steep "rise" overlooking the great Koo-wee-rup Swamp. To the foreigner's enquiry, "vare iz do downsheep," the interrogated resident replied with a majestic and comprehensive sweep of the hand, which took in the whole of the vast municipal settlement, "it is here." The foreigner looked puzzled and gazed earnestly round the whole sweep of the horizon, and then a bright idea penetrated his befogged intellect. "Oh! over de hill" he said, and was about to rush on thitherward to seek the goal of which he was in quest; but he was intercepted in his intention by the resident, who rejoined-"No; here. This is the township. Circumspice!"  It was calculated to wound the civic patriotism to have thus with minute emphasis pointed out the locality in which one lives, but there is nothing for it but to remit it to the category of "another injustice to poor old Ireland," and Bunyip must bear its trials with what heroic fortitude it can. 

I don't have any photos of Bunyip from 1887, but this is the Gippsland Hotel (Top Pub) and Main Street in 1908.

Photograph from The Call of the Bunyip by Denise Nest. 

It was only the other day that a young lady in a passing train, looking out over the dreary stretch of Koo-wee-rup Swamp with its forest of dead timber, expressed somewhat emphatically, if not euphoniously, the opinion that this was the last place the Creator made, and was left unfinished by Him. But then the day was a gloomy one, and the prospect from the train was not enlivening. Had the critic been able instead to have stood on the summit of the hill on which the township stands, on a bright day and have seen the magnificent view of the Cannibal ranges, and a sweep of mountain scenery right away to the snow-covered Baw Baw; and again, out over the Koo-wee-rup Swamp, the hills and the sea (ships being sometimes even discernable to the naked eye) had this opportunity been afforded to the fair critic, she would doubtless have been less severe in her comments. More than this, had she been gifted with prophetic, not to say poetic, vision she would have had presented to her mind's eye a still more attractive picture, when the now dismal-looking Koo-wee-rup Swamp shall be moved by the industry of the husbandman, and picturesque homestead with beautifully verdant fields shall gladden the eye and heighten the beauty of the even now splendid panorama. 

And this enhancement of the beauties of the locality should not be hidden in the very far distant future, and that some are far-seeing enough to perceive that this is evident from the fact that at a recent sale of Bunyip land lots at the outside boundary of the suburban area realised as much as £6 per acre. During his election tour Dr. L. L. Smith pledged himself to get the reclamation of the Koo-wee-rup Swamp entered upon as one of his first Parliamentary works, but the hon. gentleman substituted a trip to England, and since his return has forgotten to redeem his promise. But the work is one which must inevitably be undertaken before very long, for such a splendid tract of richly fertile country cannot long be allowed to lie waste within so short a distance of the metropolis. Here is a direction, Mr.Editor, in which your pen, so long wielded in advocacy of the interests of this district, might usefully be exercised. Meanwhile Bunyip is dependent for its existence upon the firewood trade. In a small place like this little can be expected in the way of social news. The arrival and departure of mails and trains constitute the excitements of the place.

An overview of the drainage of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp

This is an overview of the history of the drainage of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp. I must acknowledge  From Swampland to Farmland: a history of the Koo Wee Rup Flood Protection District by David Roberts (Rural Water Commission, 1985);  the chapter Draining the Swamp in The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson (F.W. Cheshire, 1968); and Swamp Reclamation in Victoria by Lewis Ronald East, published in the Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Australia, March 1935, in the preparation of this history.  

The Koo Wee Rup Swamp originally covered about 96, 000 acres (40,000 hectares) is part of the Western Port sunkland. Very non-scientifically, the land sunk thousands of years ago between the Heath Hill fault and the Tyabb fault, and the streams that originally drained straight to the sea, such as the Cardinia, Toomuc, Deep Creek, Ararat, Bunyip and Lang Lang then descended onto the flat sections of the sunkland, flowed out over the land and created the swamp conditions.

Small scale drainage projects on the Swamp began as early as 1857 when William Lyall (1821 - 1888) began draining parts of the Yallock Station to remove the excess water from the Yallock Creek. In 1867, Lyall and Archibald McMillan, owner of Caldermeade, funded a drain through the Tobin Yallock Swamp and created a drain to give the Lang Lang River a direct outlet to the sea. Lyall also created drainage around Harewood house (on the South Gippsland Highway Koo Wee Rup and Tooradin).

In 1875, landowners including Duncan MacGregor (1835 - 1916), who owned Dalmore, a property of over 3,800 acres (1,500 hectares) formed the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Drainage Committee. From 1876 this Committee employed over 100 men and created drains that would carry the water from the Cardinia and Toomuc Creeks to Western Port Bay at Moody’s Inlet. The Cardinia Creek outlet was eight metres at the surface, six metres at the base and 1.2 metres deep, so no mean feat as it was all done manually. You can still see these drains when you travel on Manks Road, between Lea Road and Rices Road - the five bridges you cross span the Cardinia and Toomuc Creek canals (plus a few catch drains)

It soon became apparent that drainage works needed to be carried out on a large scale if the Swamp was to be drained and landowners protected from floods. The construction of the Railways also provided a push to drain the Swamp. The Gippsland railway line, which straddled the northern part of the Swamp, was completed from Melbourne to Sale in 1879. The construction of the Great Southern Railway line through the Swamp and South Gippsland, to Port Albert, began in 1887. These lines, plus a general demand for farm land bought the Government into the picture.

The Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, William Thwaites (1853 - 1907) is almost forgotten in Swamp history, and should get more credit than he does. Thwaites surveyed the Swamp in 1887 and his report recommended the construction of the Bunyip Main Drain from where it entered the Swamp, in the north, to Western Port Bay and a number of smaller side drains.

Plan showing flood protection and drainage works for Cardinia and Kooweerup Swamp lands: also watershed areas affecting same. State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, c. 1920s. 

State Library of Victoria  http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/115251

There was a scientific background to this scheme - Lewis Ronald East, engineer with and later Commissioner and then Chairman of  the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC), in his 1935 paper Swamp Reclamation in Victoria in 1935 writes that the drainage plan was based on the formula Q=CM3/4 - where Q was the discharge in cusecs, C a coefficient and M the area of the area of the catchment in square miles. 50 was adopted as the value of C for ordinary floods and 100 for extraordinary floods. The Scheme was worked out in detail to deal with ordinary floods, but for some unaccountable reason - possibly shortage of funds - it was recommended that the drains be constructed in the first instance to only 1/3 of the designed dimensions, but the reserves were to be of sufficient width to allow future enlargement. East says that the intention of the “Swamp Board” was to merely facilitate the removal flood waters and thus permit the use of land between floods.

A tender for works was advertised in 1889. In spite of strikes, floods and bad weather by March, 1893, the private contractors had constructed the 16 miles of the drain from the Bay to the south of Bunyip and the Public Works Department considered the Swamp was now dry enough for settlement. At one time over 500 men were employed and all the work was done by hand, using axes, shovels, mattocks and wheel barrows. 

In spite of what seemed to be good progress - the Public Works Department had been unhappy with the rate of progress and took over its completion in 1893 and appointed, their engineer Carlo Catani (1852-1918) to oversee future works. I write about Carlo Catani, here.

The 1890s was a time of economic depression in Australia and various Government Schemes were implemented to provide employment and to stop the drift of the unemployed to the city. One of these schemes was the Village Settlement Scheme. The aim was for the settlers to find employment outside the city and to boost their income from the sale of produce from their farms. It was in this context that Catani implemented the Village Settlement Scheme on the swamp. Under this Scheme, all workers had to be married, accept up to a 20 acre (8 hectares) block and spend a fortnight working on the drains for wages and a fortnight improving their block and maintaining adjoining drains. The villages were Koo Wee Rup, Five Mile, Vervale, Iona and Yallock.  The first 103 blocks under this scheme were allocated in April 1893.

Many of the settlers were unused to farming and hard physical labour, others were deterred by floods and ironically a drought that caused a bushfire. Many also relied on the wages they received for working on the drains, however this work finished in November 1897, so unless they could find other employment, or their farm was enormously successful they chose (or were forced by circumstance) to leave the Swamp.  The Village Settlement Scheme on the Swamp was abandoned in 1899 and the land was opened for selection in the regular way.

My great grandfather, James Rouse, a widower, arrived on the Swamp with his nine year old son Joe, in 1903. James, who had been a market gardener in England, was part of a second wave of settlers who were granted land as they had previous farming experience.  By 1904, over 2,000 people including 1,400 children lived on the Swamp. By the 1920s, the area was producing one quarter of Victorian potatoes and was also a major producer of dairy products. In fact, as we know, Koo Wee Rup remains an important potato growing area and the importance of the potato was celebrated by the Annual Potato Festival during the 1970s and 1980s. Today, 93% of all Australian asparagus is produced on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp.

The existing drainage works that we see on the Swamp today are really the result of a reaction to various floods. As East wrote in 1935 it was soon evident that the drainage provision made was quite inadequate.  There was a flood in 1893 and according to East the drains were enlarged by at least 50% in 1895 and then enlarged again in 1902, the catalyst being the 1901 flood.  The 1902 work had the objective to remove all floodwaters from a maximum flood within three days

There were some additional drains created in 1911 and by 1912 East says that the drainage scheme had cost £234,000 and the Government had recouped only £188,000. There were arguments over who should fund the scheme - many land owners were opposed to being charged for any work and it was not until after more floods in 1916 and 1917 they agreed in principle to an annual flood protection charge and the ‘Lower Koo Wee Rup flood protection district’ came into being. 

The State Rivers scheme provided for substantial remodelling and enlargement of existing drains, new channels and additional drains next to the Main Drain to take the water from the converging side drains. Other work carried out at this time included giving the Lang Lang River a straight channel to the bay and at the western end of Swamp tapping the Deep Creek into the Toomuc Drain created in 1876. 

Before I go on to the devastating 1934 flood I am going to tell you briefly about the Lubecker Steam Dredge, which I have written about in more detail, here. Apparently Catani was interested in using machines on the Swamp in the 1890s, but as this was a time of depression the Public Works Department felt that this would take away jobs so it wasn’t until 1912 that Catani could import his first dredge. It was the Lubecker Bucket Dredge, costing £4,716 which arrived in May 1913 and started work on the Lang Lang River. When it finished there in 1917 it started on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp on the Yallock Creek and other drains.

Looking down Rossiter Road, in the 1934 flood.

Image: Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society

None of the existing works could prepare the swamp for the 1934 flood. In October of that year, Koo Wee Rup received over twice its average rain fall. November also had well above average rainfall and heavy rain fell on December 1 across the State. This rainfall caused a flood of over 100,000 megalitres or 40,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) per day. This was only an estimate because all the gauges were washed away. The entire Swamp was inundated; water was over 6 feet (2 metres) deep in the town of Koo Wee Rup, exacerbated by the fact that the railway embankment held the water in the town; my grandparents house at Cora Lynn had 3½ feet of water through it and according to family legend they spent three days in the roof with a nine, five, three year old and my father who was one at the time. Over a thousand people were left homeless. This flood also affected other parts of the State, including Melbourne.

There was outrage after the 1934 flood, directed at the SRWSC and it was even worse when another flood, of about 25,000 megalitres (10,000 cusecs) hit in April, 1935. After this flood, 100 men were employed to enlarge the drains.

As a result of the 1934 flood, the SRWC worked on new drainage plans for the Swamp and these plans became known as the Lupson Report after the compiler, E.J Lupson, an Engineer. A Royal Commission was also established in 1936. Its role was to investigate the operation of the SRWSC. The Royal Commission report was critical of the SRWSC’s operation in the Koo Wee Rup Flood Protection District in a number of areas.  It ordered that new plans for drainage improvements needed to be established and presented to an independent authority. Mr E. G Richie was appointed as the independent authority. The Richie Report essentially considered that the Lupson Report was ‘sound and well considered’ and should be implemented. Work had just begun on these recommendations when the 1937 flood hit the area. The 1937 flood hit Koo Wee Rup on October 18  and water was two feet (60cm) deep in Rossiter Road and Station Street. The flood peaked at 20,000 cusecs (50,000 megalitres) about half the 1934 flood volume.

The main recommendation of the Lupson / Ritchie report was the construction of the Yallock outfall drain from Cora Lynn, cutting across to Bayles and then essentially following the line of the existing Yallock Creek to Western Port Bay. The aim was to take any flood water directly to the sea so the Main Drain could cope with the remaining water. The Yallock outfall drain was started in 1939 but the works were put on hold during World War Two and not completed until 1956-57. The Yallock outfall drain had been originally designed using the existing farm land as a spillway ie the Main Drain would overflow onto existing farmland and then find its own way to the Yallock outfall drain. Local farmers were unhappy at this, as the total designated spillway area was 275 acres (110 hectares). They suggested a spillway or ford be constructed at Cora Lynn so the flood water would divert to the outfall drain over the spillway. The spillway was finally constructed in 1962. There is more on the Yallock Outfall drain, here. 

Construction of the Spillway at Cora Lynn, October 1962 - the Main Drain is on the right, 

separated by a soon to be removed levee bank from the spillway which is 

ironically underwater, due to a flood. 

Photo: Rouse family collection

There is on-going work on the Main Drain all the time - recreation of levee banks, removal of vegetation etc but the opening of the spillway was basically the last major engineering works to happen on the Swamp.

Today we look at Swamps as wetlands, worthy of preservation, but we need to look at the drainage of the Swamp in the context of the times. Koo Wee Rup was only one of many swamps drained around this time; others include the Carrum Swamp and the Moe Swamp. To the people at the time the drainage works were an example of Victorian engineering skills and turned what was perceived as useless land into productive land and removed a barrier to the development of other areas in Gippsland.

100 years ago this week - an escaped 'lunatic'

This is an account of the capture of an escaped patient from Mont Park Mental Hospital from the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of April 30, 1914.  The work Lunatic has now gone out of fashion to describe a person who is mentally ill. According to the Oxford Dictionary the word Lunatic comes from the Old French lunatique, from late Latin lunaticus, from Latin luna '‘ moon’ ' (from the belief that changes of the moon caused intermittent insanity).

South Bourke and Mornington Journal of April 30, 1914.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper  http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/66185203

Trooper Maher, is Stephen Maher, listed in the 1914, 1919 and 1924 Electoral Rolls as living at Pakenham. His occupation is listed as Constable. His wife was  Bridget Catherine (nee Ryan).   There is an interesting account, below, of Constable Maher having his horse taken from him, sounds like it was a bureaucratic decision made without any consultation - so no change there in 100 years. 

Dandenong Advertiser of May 7 1914

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper   http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88355315

South Bourke and Mornington Journal of  17 June 17, 1920,

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66198261

Stephen and Catherine had ten children, Rosaline (born 1886), Cathleen (1888), Florence Mary (1890), Olive Veronica (1893), Stephen Raymond (1894), John Thomas (1896), Thomas Francis(1899), Daniel Michael (1901) Leonard Joseph (1903) and Mary Monica (1905). Stephen died in 1931 aged 70 and Bridget died in 1939 aged 77

A tramway through the Swamp June 1893

An early account of life on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp from  page three of the Warragul Guardian and Buln Buln and Narracan Shire Advocate from  June 23, 1893, see here. I have transcribed the article.

Those of the unemployed who were sent to work at Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp by the Public Works department some time ago, and who have since obtained 20-acre blocks fronting the Main Drain from the  Lands Department, with the view of cultivating  them and making homes for themselves and their families there, are showing a praiseworthy desire to assist themselves. Each alternate week they devote towards clearing the ti-tree off their blocks, and now they have entered into an arrangement with the Public Works department to construct a tram way from Koo-Wee-Rup Station, on the Great Southern Railway, along the Main Drain to Bunyip Station, on the Gippsland line, a distance of 15 miles. They have formed themselves into a co-operative company, and each man on the settlement is to give one day's work free towards constructing the tramway.

They have also agreed to give a shilling a month for six months towards the purchase of the rails, which are to be supplied by the Government, and each man undertakes to go into the bush and cut 50 sleepers without making any charge. The gauge of the tramway will be 2ft. 8in., and it will be worked by horses. The spongy nature of the country precludes the formation of good roads, and hence the necessity for the tramway. As soon as it is finished they will work it and charge freights according to distance. The Government intend giving the men every encouragement, and an expert in horticulture from the Agricultural Department will shortly visit the settlement and give the men instructions how to plant fruit trees, &c., on their holdings.

Official visit to Koo-Wee-Rup December 1893

This is an interesting account of the early days of Koo Wee Rup Swamp settlement from page six of  The Argus of December 22, 1893, see here. I have transcribed the article.

The Minister of Public Works, Mr Webb, paid his first official visit yesterday to the drainage works and village settlement in connection with the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp. He was accompanied by Mr Methven and Mr Winter M.L.A’s; Mr Davidson, Inspector General of Public Works and Mr Catani, the engineer in charge of the drainage works. At the Bunyip end of the Main Drain the prospects of the Village Settlers seem very good, the land being exceptionally rich, though heavily timbered. Very good progress has, in some cases, been made with gardens, and the Government experimental plot, though the results are those of  a few months’ work only, forms a very useful object lesson to those not familiar with the cultivation of the soil. All the fodder grasses as well as Lucerne, maize, mangels [a type of beet, related to silverbeet and beetroot], flax, hemp, beet and vegetables of many varieties were growing splendidly, though the land, cropped for the first time has hardly lost its sourness. Early potatoes especially give a splendid crop. 

There can be no doubt as to the value of this Bunyip land eventually, but the clearing is heavy work, and though there is an impression in Parliament at one time that 20 acres was too large a block here, a visit to the spot shows that by the time the land has been brought into proper cultivation the new home will be well earned. A wooden tram has been laid down for the carriage of goods and this worked on co-operative principles, has already paid a dividend. There were a great many children running about idle in the settlement and the school, for which residents are still pressing, is badly needed. 

The principle of a fortnight’s work on the Swamp and a fortnight on their own land works admirably and a vast improvement is manifest since May, when the first settlers were just building their huts and not a tree had been cut. The Department consider that they will be able to provide work on those lines for the next tree years and by that time the settlers at the Bunyip end at any rate will be in a position to get a profit from their blocks.

Travelling down towards Koo-Wee-Rup the land is not nearly so good. The clay is at too great a depth and the surface is soft and peaty, so that now, even in dry weather a horse cannot leave the beaten track or he is at once bogged in the soft soil. The Minister and members saw for the first time a sled for dragging up scrub by the roots at work, but though it has achieved good results on sounder land, the soil was too soft here for a team of 18 bullocks to do much good. It would appear as though the cost of clearing here and getting land ready for grass even has been somewhat under-estimated. The bullocks in this case were, however, new to the work, and much more better results are obtained when they become accustomed to sinking in the treacherous soil. Most of the ti-tree has been burned off, but the thick network of roots and short stumps remain, making it almost impassable. Most of the settlers at the Koo-Wee-Rup end of the drain are making gardens, but the results are not quite so good as at the other end, through the land apparently being more sour. 

The first steps towards building a second school here are being taken. By-and-by a tramway will run the whole length of the Main Drain from Bunyip to Koo-Wee-Rup, but at present there is a gap of several miles in the middle of it. Mr Webb was not at all impressed with this end of the Swamp and to anyone acquainted with the difficulties of clearing scrub lands; it was obvious that with hand labour only it is a slow and toilsome task. The Minister was inclined to think that the same amount of work given to the founding of a home in the northern irrigable lands would give a better result in quicker time. All, or nearly all, the men settled in the Swamp at present are married men with large families, who prior to coming here were barely able to keep body and soul together.

Who was the first white child born on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp?

According to Mickle Memoirs of Koo-Wee-Rup written by Dave Mickle, the first white or European baby born in the town of Koo-Wee-Rup was John Leslie O’Riordan who was born in August 1892. John’s parents, John and Elizabeth, had opened the first store in the town in 1890. I checked the Victorian Births Deaths and Marriages Indexes (BDMs) and they list Horace Napier Mackenzie as being born in Koo-Wee-Rup in 1891, the year before John, so should Horace get the credit for being the first European baby born in Koo-Wee-Rup?  Horace’s parents were George and Grace Mackenzie. Grace was the teacher at the Yallock, later known as Koo-Wee-Rup State School, from 1888 until 1911.  The other baby listed as being born in 1892 was Andrew Clark, the son of John and Barbara Clark. I imagine these births were registered at Cranbourne as they had a Registrar of Births and Deaths, Alexander Duff, who was appointed in 1855. Koo-Wee-Rup’s first Registrar was Alexander Leithhead, who was appointed in June 1894.

Then I wondered if we could determine was the first white baby born on the Swamp, in general, not the town of Koo-Wee-Rup. There were many men working on the creation of the Main Drain between 1889 and 1893, at one time over 500 were employed - many of whom had their families with them and after the adoption of Carlo Catani’s Village settlement scheme more families arrived and lived on their allocated twenty acre block – by September 1894 there was said to be 230 families on the Swamp or 1280 persons.

Once again I checked the BDMs to see what Swamp babies I could find - Yallock, the Village settlement outside of Bayles, had eight babies listed between 1892 and 1895. One of the problems in determining birth places is that it seems that many babies in the BDMs have the place of registration listed as the place of birth. The first Registrar at the eastern end of the Swamp was not appointed until January 1, 1895 when James Pincott was appointed for Bunyip South (as Iona was previously known). In 1894 no babies were listed as being born in Bunyip South but in 1895, 49 were registered, 69 the next year and 49 in 1897. As a comparison, in 1895 only 36 babies were registered at Dandenong so that’s a lot of babies and I suspect that due to travel difficulties many parents had put off registering their children until a Registrar was appointed locally.

Even to get to Nar Nar Goon, which had a Registrar since 1887, would have been a long journey. Nar Nar Goon had 64 babies registered between 1889 to 1895. Garfield did not get a Registrar until September 1899 when John Daly was appointed and eight births were registered in 1900, these are the first births listed at Garfield in the BDMs, though it seems unlikely there had been no births in the town in the previous twenty or so years.  Previous to this it appears that Garfield babies were registered elsewhere – for instance Ingebert and Mary Gunnulson (he was a Garfield builder) registered babies at Nar Nar Goon in 1889,1890, 1892 and 1894, in 1896 at Bunyip South and in 1900 at Garfield.  George and Mary Brownbill registered babies at Bunyip South in 1896 and 1898 and Garfield in 1901.  So this shows the difficulty in determining how many babies were born on the Swamp and who was the first.

Most of these early births would not have had a Doctor present. There was one at Cranbourne, at least from 1866, though a report said that he was a clever man, but one who had the habit that many otherwise good man has fallen victim to. The Minister [Alexander Duff, the Presbyterian Minister] kept his books and instruments and for special cases he sobered up for a couple of days, the hotel being tabooed to him till he had completed the case in hand. It may well have be less risky not to have a doctor attend. A doctor visited Koo-Wee-Rup weekly from Cranbourne from around 1900 and the first resident Doctor in the town came in the 1920s. A Bush Nursing Hospital with a skilled nurse opened in Koo-Wee-Rup in July 1918. Many women, especially in rural areas, would have had a local midwife, usually very experienced but with no formal qualifications attend to her when she gave birth at home. The availability of nurses and doctors would partly account for the improvement in the infant mortality rate. In the 1890s, this rate varied from ten to thirteen percent, that is for every 1,000 babies born, 100 to 130 babies would die under the age of one. In the 1920s this rate had dropped to around six percent.

There was an interesting case reported in The Argus in May 1893 – the headline on the May 8 story was Supposed child murder at Koo-Wee-Rup. The body of baby boy was found buried in a box. The police interviewed Mrs Johnson, an experienced nurse, who had helped deliver the baby of a Mrs Parker on February 4, 1893.When Mrs Johnson had arrived Mrs Parker was lying in a miserable bed with only a piece of blue blanket for covering and alongside the bed was the dead body of a well grown fully developed male child. When Mrs Johnson returned the next day the baby had gone and she was told that the father on the baby, Michael O’Shea, had buried the baby. Subsequently Ellen Parker and Michael O’Shea were charged with causing the death of the child and arrested. You can read the full article on Trove, here.

The account of the inquest, in The Argus of May 17 1893 (reproduced from Trove, left) said that both Ellen and Michael belonged to a rough and very unrefined order of society. The jury decided that there was insufficient evidence to convict the accused and they were found to be not guilty. A very sad state of affairs for all concerned and it especially brings to focus the hard life the early settlers lived on the Swamp, with primitive, wet conditions, no decent housing, no schooling for the children, poor wages and no medical help.

This brings us back to the first question as to who was the first white baby born at Koo-Wee-Rup or on the Swamp.  In the end, it doesn’t really matter. Of more importance is the quality of life and I can report that of the first three babies said to have been born in the town of Koo-Wee-Rup, John O’Riordan, Horace Mackenzie and Andrew Clark all had more fortunate lives than the poor, little baby born to Ellen Parker, as John lived until he was 85, Horace lived until he was 93 and even Andrew Clark (whom I know nothing else about) lived until he was 67.