Tynong is a town on the edge of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp in West Gippsland. The area was opened up in the 1870s for farming and timber, which was used for sleepers for the construction of the Gippsland Railway line. The line, from Melbourne to Sale, was opened in stages - Morwell to Sale - June 1, 1877; Oakleigh to Bunyip - October 8, 1877; Moe to Morwell - December 1, 1877; Bunyip to Moe - March 1, 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh on April 2, 1879 (1). In this area the original railway stations were Dandenong, Berwick, Pakenham and Bunyip.
The first reference I can find in the newspapers to Tynong was a May 1876 marriage notice between John M'Keone, of Tynong and Ellen Bourke of Pakenham. Michael and Kitty Bourke, the parents of Ellen, had taken up Minton's Run, a property of 12, 800 acres on the Toomuc Creek in Pakenham in 1843. Around 1850, they established the La Trobe Inn, more commonly known as Bourke's Hotel, on the Gippsland Road (now called the Princes Highway) and Toomuc Creek.
Marriage notice - the first reference I can find to Tynong in the newspapers
The Argus, May 28, 1876 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7440234
The M'Keone farm for sale at Tynong
The Argus, October 26, 1876 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5907125
M'Keone's farm was re-advertised in December 1876.
The Age, December 11, 1876 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article200238552
As we can see by the advertisement above the farm was near the main Gippsland Road and adjoining the Koo Wee Rup Swamp - it was one of the nicest little farms within many miles around and and was located south-east of Tynong and south-west of Garfield. The farm was purchased by Melbourne engraver and artist, Cyrus Mason (1829 - 1925). I have written about Cyrus here.
The early residents in the area were actually mainly at North Tynong and the 1962 publication From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen (3), lists these settlers as Rogerson, Brew, Jolly, Pharoah, Lamb, Ingwerson, Middleditch, Robertson, Kerr, Lungrum, Mazenti, Mentiplay, Davis, Parkes, Ewart, Doomsday, Highton, Rutledge, Kersey, Cunningham, Rowlerson, Orack, Linborg, Noble, Brockway, Burke, Weatherhead. The book notes that Sleeper cutting, eucalyptus distillery, milling and grazing were the main activities.There was agitation from the settlers for a railway station at Tynong after the line opened up. It was reported that in August 1880-
On Wednesday last, a deputation introduced by Mr Mason, M.L.A., and Mr. Buchanan, M.L.C., waited upon the Commissioner of Railways, and asking that a siding should be constructed at the intersection of Kelly-road with the Gippsland line, near Tynong. It was represented that the convenience of the settlers who lived in the direction of the neighbouring mountains would be greatly served by the stoppage of the trains at that point, and it was stated also that the traffic on the line would be much increased if accommodation such as that requested was provided. Mr Patterson replied that he would issue instructions that the siding should be made (4). I do not know where Kelly Road was.
Mr Patterson, the Railways Commissioner was a man of his word and a stop was opened at some time in early 1881 (5).
After the station opened tramways were constructed from the mills. Mike McCarthy, in his book Settlers and Sawmillers: a history of West Gippsland Tramways and the Industries they served (6), lists the early mills and their establishment - Maffey and Sons, c. 1882; William Fraser, 1884, who sold to David Smythe in 1886. And as noted by McCarthy - From 1895 the firewood industry at Tynong declined rapidly. It wasn't until Horatio Weatherhead and his sons arrived from Lyonville (near Daylesford) late in 1908 that timber again became an important commodity in the economy on this part of Gippsland (7).
Horatio Weatherhead's Mill in North Tynong in 1910.
Horatio Weatherhead (my great-grandfather) was granted a license by the State Forests and Nursery Branch of the Department of Lands and Survey, to mill 2,000 acres of forest in North Tynong. He shifted his operations from Lyonville and his first mill commenced around December 1909 at Wild Dog Creek. From that date, Horatio and his sons Fred, Arthur, George, Frank and Alf all operated various mills in North Tynong, either together or separately. From 1947 Arthur's sons Roy, Max and Cyril had a mill on Cannibal Creek until it finally closed in 1979 (8).
Original sub-division of the town of Tynong, 1883, as you can see the original allotments were south of the railway line.
Village lots at the Tynong railway station, Parish of Bunyip, County of Mornington / surveyed by J. Lardner, Assistant Surveyor, 11.6.83 ; lithographed at the Department of Lands and Survey, Melbourne by F. Kelly, 12.9.83.
State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/107835
During this time the town of Tynong, based around the railway station, was growing. In November 1882, a Post Office was opened at the Railway Station (9). A school opened part-time with Garfield, in the Mechanics' Institute in August 1887, but closed in 1892. The Mechanics' Institute opened in 1885 and I have written about this and the other Tynong Hall (or was it Halls?) here.
The next school (No. 2854) opened on May 1, 1905 in the Tynong Hall and in 1908, the Cardinia school was shifted to a newly acquired site on the west side of the road that went from the railway line to the Highway (where St Thomas Aquinas School is now located). This building soon proved to be too small and new school was built, opening in April 1915. The Tynong School closed in April 1951 and the school population moved to Pakenham Consolidated School. A school at Tynong North (No. 4464) operated from June 1930 until December 1951, when both the building and the students were transferred to Pakenham Consolidated (10).
Tynong, possibly 1920s
Image: North of the Line: a pictorial record (Berwick Pakenham Historical Society, 1996)
In July 1917, a Memorial Grove, to honour the local men who had served in the War was planted at the Tynong State School, you can read about this here.
Aerial of Tynong, 1985 - the treed site is the old school site.
Shire of Pakenham photographer
In July 1903, it was reported that -
the land for the first shop opened in Tynong was surveyed on Friday last, so we shall have a store at last. I am in formed that it is for Mr. Harcourt of Bunyip and Garfield (11). This was Edwin Harcourt. Other Tynong shopkeepers include Alfred Watson from around 1906/1907 until 1917/1918; he then entered a partnership with Henry Coombs to become a Land and Estate Agent. Harriet Snell, in the 1920s and from 1927 until 1931 she leased the store to Francis Ryan (more of whom below). Harriet died in March 1932, aged only 47 and Ernest Oram then took over the Store (12) Ernest Oram was also a foundation member of the Tynong Plumpton Club also called the Tynong and District Coursing Club, formed in 1941. I have written about this here.
Around 1908 John Mappin had a blacksmith and coach-building operation on the corner of North Tynong Road and the Highway and George Rowlerson also had a blacksmith business at Tynong. In 1920, George Cousins opened a butchers shop, on the south side of the railway line in 1920. The old Feed Store was built in the 1940s (13). The town really didn't get much bigger than this.
Sadly, Tynong never rose to become the Queen City of the East
Bunyip Free Press, July 15, 1915 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/129630666
Tynong also supplied the granite for the Shrine of Remembrance which was built between June 1928 and November 1934 to honour the soldiers who served in the First World War. There was a competition to design this memorial to the soldiers of the Great war and it was won by Philip B. Hudson and James H. Wardrop. It was built by the Company, Vaughan and Lodge and was officially opened by the Duke of Gloucester on November 11, 1934 (14).
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Granite for an everlasting Shrine
The Argus, November 14, 1928 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3968930
This is a not very clear photograph (above) of the Tynong Quarry - transcription follows -
Granite for an everlasting Shrine -
Certain that the people of the State will approve fully, the National War Memorial Committee has now decided that the Shrine of Remembrance shall be built, not of freestone, which is subject to weathering, but of granite, the most lasting of structural materials. Beautiful silver-grey granite of an eminently suitable kind is available at Tynong, in Gippsland, and workmen are shown in the photograph hewing the blocks of granite from the hillside. Inset:-A fine heap of granite blocks ready for dressing. They measure from six cubic foot upwards.
Tynong Granite Quarry, 1929
Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/768350
The Quarry ended up supplying 100,000 cubic feet of granite for the Shrine of Remembrance, which was valued at from £50,000 to £60,000 (15). Not only was this important to the economy of the town, but it had the added benefit of bringing electric light to both Tynong and Garfield towards the end of 1929. (16) On September 6, 1929, The Age reported that power had been supplied to the Quarry -
Messrs. Vaughan and Lodge's granite quarry, which has been opened to supply stone for the Shrine of Remembrance, has commenced operations under power supplied by the Yallourn Electricity Commission. The whole of the machinery is driven by electricity, and when the undertaking is fully developed 32,000 volts will be used. The firm has installed a large steel saw 12 ft. in diameter, which cuts the stone into blocks from four to ten Ions in weight. It is said to be the only implement of its kind in Australia, and works with eight "teeth" on chilled steel revolving shot, cutting through a block of stone six feet by three feet deep in thirty minutes. Six compressed air drills, technically known as "hammer jacks," capable of drilling holes twenty feet deep, are used in the breaking-down process, and three electrically-driven cranes are employed in carrying the blocks to the saw benches. Up to the present blocks of flawless granite containing up to 40,000 square feet have been unearthed. The stone is said to be equal for building and monumental purposes to anything of its kind in the world. This discovery was made some years ago, when the stone was in demand for additions to the Melbourne Town Hall. The quarry is expected to keep eighty men permanently employed (17).
The book, From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen, referred to previously, says Mrs Mary Ryan, who lived at Black Rock, first noticed the granite stone when a war memorial was being discussed, and through her it came to the notice of those responsible for the memorial (18). A plaque that was unveiled at the Tynong State School on Remembrance Day in 1934 to commemorate the contribution of the Tynong Granite to the building of the Shrine. It was removed in 2005 to Railway Avenue, near the War Memorial, and re-dedicated (19).
The plaque commemorating Mrs Ryan's role in the use of Tynong Granite for the Shrine of Remembrance.
Image: Heather Arnold, 2023
The plaque describes Mrs Ryan as a local amateur geologist. It is possible Mrs Ryan was living at Black Rock in 1962 when the book was published, but between 1927 and c. 1931 Mary Ann Ryan and Francis Michael Ryan were listed at Main Street, Tynong, his occupation being storekeeper (20). In fact, in December 1930, Mary Ryan applied for a Victualler's Licence for premises at Tynong. If successful she was going to build a brick hotel with ten bedrooms for the use of the public, three bathrooms, diningroom, &., at a cost of £4000. The application was refused on the grounds that there were only 200 people in the locality and other hotels near by (21).
In 1931, The Age had a short report on fossils found at Tynong by Mrs Ryan -
Tynong.....has of recent years come into prominence as n place where vast supplies of flawless granite have been found..... It is, of course, nothing more than a slender coincidence that another kind of stone has been found there which may prove to have considerable scientific interest, namely, a number of fossils, including the skull of a native bear, and various bones, the property of Mrs. M Ryan. If, as is thought, one of the stones is fossilised whale bone, the fact should be of exceptional interest to geologists. The fossils have not yet been subjected to the discerning scrutiny of the scientific eye, fortified with a microscope, but a photograph has been sent to the Australian Institute of Anatomy at Canberra, the director of which (Sir. Colin Mackenzie) has expressed his interest in them. (22). I wonder of it was actually a fossilised whale bone?
The 1940s in Tynong saw the Fire Brigade established in 1942 and the Infant Welfare Centre opened in the Hall, in September 1943, with Mrs Ritchies as President and Mrs D. Jolly as Honorary Secretary. (23).
The opening of the Tynong Infant Welfare Centre.
You can read about Dr Vera Scantlebury Brown, Director of Infant Welfare, here.
Dandenong Journal, September 22, 1943 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214309754
Tynong Office bearers of the Infant Welfare Centre from the 1943-1944 Annual Report
of the Victorian Baby Health Centres Association, see here.
Another interesting fact about the area is that in March 1949, 540 acres of land in North Tynong off Snell Road, was sold by Reg Sykes to Father Wilfred Pooley, to establish a 'City of God' in the bush. This was part of a broader movement in the Catholic community, encouraged by the Melbourne Archbishop, Dr Daniel Mannix, for Catholics to move away from the distractions of the city to a rural environment and become closer to God. The North Tynong rural settlement, St Mary's, was based on the principals of faith, family life and co-operative enterprise. To that end, Catholic families would move to the community, own a few acres of land to build a house and work in the co-operative industries which were established including a housing co-operative, a joinery, hardware store and an aerated water factory. The cornerstones of community life, the Holy Family Church and the Holy Family School, were both opened by Archbishop Mannix on September 3, 1950 attended by more than 3000 people. With the arrival of a Post Office in 1955 the name of the settlement changed from St Mary's to Maryknoll, to avoid confusion with other towns named St Mary's (24).
A trestle bridge in North Tynong, 1912, Eva Weatherhead is standing on the bridge.
Before we leave Tynong - When Horatio and his sons left Lyonville in 1908 for North Tynong, his wife Eleanor (nee Hunt) and their youngest child, Eva, remained in Lyonville until she finished Grade 8 at the end of 1913. When she was 16, Eva travelled by train to Melbourne to attend Stott's Business College and then worked in town, boarding in South Melbourne. Eva returned home in early 1919, to look after her elderly mother and became the Post Mistress in Tynong, renting her office from Mrs Julia Hollingsworth, who operated a coffee palace for 17/6 per month. At the time the Post Office was on the south side of the railway. Eva held this position until she married Joe Rouse, a farmer from Cora Lynn, in November 1922. They had seven children, including my Dad. Grandma was always very proud of the fact that the Shrine was made of Tynong Granite and used to tell us about this when we were young.
Trove list - I have created a list of articles on Tynong, which I have used for the research for this post. access it here.
Footnotes
(1) These dates are from Victorian Railways to '62 by Leo J. Harrigan (Victorian Railways, 1962)
(2) McKeone family information from the Victorian and New South Wales Indexes to Births, Deaths and Marriages; Family trees on Ancestry.com
Death notice of William McKeone, late of Western Port, a term used at the tome to describe much of West Gippsland, including Tynong.
The Argus, October 13, 1877 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5940970
(3) From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen: a brief history of the Shire of Berwick (Historical Society of Berwick Shire, 1962).
(4) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, August 18, 1880, see here.
(5) It was there in April 1881 - The Argus, April 13, 1881, see here.
(6) McCarthy, Mike Settler and Sawmillers: a history of West Gippsland Tramways and the Industries they served (Light Railway Research Society of Australia, 1993)
(7) McCarthy, Mike, op. cit, p. 18
(8) McCarthy, Mike, op. cit, pp. 18-22
(9) Victoria Government Gazette, November 17, 1882, p. 2705 https://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1882/V/general/122.pdf
Opening of the Tynong Post Office
(10) Vision and Realisation: a centenary history of State Education in Victoria, edited by L.J. Blake. (Education Department of Victoria, 1973)
(11) South Bourke and Mornington Journal, July 22, 1903, see here.
(12) Shire of Berwick Rate Books, Electoral Rolls, newspaper articles and advertisements. Francis Ryan is not listed in the Shire of Berwick Rate books as owning the store, Harriet Snell is listed as the owner in the years the Ryans were in Tynong.
(13) The 1908 Electoral Rolls list John James Mappin, Coachbuilder at Tynong and George Walter Rowlerson, Blacksmith at Tynong; neither are listed in the 1906 Rolls. Mappin's address - corner of North Tynong Road and the Highway - comes from From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen, see footnote 2. The butchershop information is from Cardinia Shire Heritage Study, volume 3: Heritage Places by Graeme Butler & Associates (Cardinia Shire, 1996). The Feed Store information is from Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review 2008 - Volume 5: Stage B Individual places, Draft June 2008, Context P/L.
(14) History of the Shrine of Remembrance https://www.shrine.org.au/history-shrine-remembrance
(15) The Herald, January 25, 1932, see here.
(16) The Argus, October 19, 1928, see here - The State Government Commission has decided to extend the transmission lines in the Gippsland district to supply energy to Garfield and Tynong. At Garfield a local undertaking will be superseded, and at Tynong, which has no electric supply the granite quarries will be the largest consumers.
The Argus, August 30, 1929, see here - The Electricity Commission has installed electric light, in Tynong town.
Dandenong Journal, November 21, 1929, see here - From State Electricity Commission, [to the Berwick Shire] forwarding agreements for Tynong and Garfield lighting.—To be attended to.
(17) The Age, September 6, 1929, see here.
(18) From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen, op. cit. p.44.
(20) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry - the Ryan's weren't in the 1926 Rolls at Tynong, but they were listed there from 1927 to 1931 and not listed at Tynong in the 1934 Rolls. They are not listed in the Shire of Berwick Rate Books as owning the shop.
(21) The Age, December 23, 1930, see here.
(22) The Age, August 19, 1931, see here.
(23) Dandenong Journal, December 23, 1942, see here; https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2022/10/baby-health-care-centres.html
(24) White, Gael Maryknoll: history of a Catholic Rural Settlement (The Author, 1982, republished in an updated and expanded version by Artistic Wombat in 2002). I have written about Maryknoll, here, https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2023/04/maryknoll-early-history-and-buildings.html
