The earliest public building in Tynong was the Mechanics’ Institute and this post looks at the history of this Hall and the other one (or was it two or even three?) Halls that may have at one time been at Tynong. You can read a general history of Tynong, here.
In the nineteenth century the term ‘mechanic’ meant artisan or working man. The Mechanics’ Institute movement began in 1800 when Dr George Birkbeck of the Andersonian Institute in Scotland gave a series of lectures to local mechanics. The lectures were free and popular. They led to the formation of the Edinburgh School of Arts (1821) and the London Mechanics’ Institute (1823). The movement spread quickly throughout the British Empire. The first Victorian Mechanics’ Institute was the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institute established in 1839 and renamed The Melbourne Athenaeum in 1873, which continues to operate in its original building on Collins Street. Over a thousand were built in Victoria, and over 550 remain today (1). The buildings were essentially a public hall with usually a Library.
The first reference I can find to the Tynong Mechanics’ Institute was in The Argus in February 1886 (2), when the building was used to hold a political meeting, so that would indicate a likely build date of late 1885, early 1886. The first school in Tynong which operated from August 1887 until 1892 was in the Mechanics' Institute (3).
In the early days Mechanics' Institutes had to send in a return to the Government and these returns were published in the annual Statistical Register for the Colony of Victoria compiled from official records in the office of the Government Statist (4). Tynong appears in the 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891 and 1892 editions of the Statistical Registers.
The 1887 issue tells us that the building cost £145 to erect of which £21 came from the Government and £29 from other sources, £50 in total, which meant that £95 pounds was still owing. They had a collection of 236 books and they were open every evening. The next year, 1888, the book stock was 200, the opening hours were 1.00pm to 3.00pm and 7.00pm to 9.00pm and they had 550 visits throughout the year and received a Government grant of £20. 1889 - book stock -196; hours 9.00am -11.00am and 6.00pm to 8.00pm, annual visits were 350 and received a Government grant of £6 18 shillings. 1890 - same opening hours as 1889, book stock 207 and annual visits were 600. 1891 - book stock was 300; hours were 7.00pm to 10.00pm Thursday and Saturday and annual visits were 260. 1892 - book stock was 200, opening hours 7.00pm to 10.00pm on Wednesday and visits had declined to 100 (5).
The occasion of the opening of the local public hall (the need of which has long been felt), on Friday evening last, was honored by the holding of a concert, a coronation ceremony and a ball......The purpose of the queen carnival was to provide funds, not only to put the building in such a condition, that the requirements of the Board of Public Health would be met, but also that some degree of comfort might be secured, and to this end a large committee room, and a ladies' room were' added to the structure. About £100 were spent on these improvements (7). This was not the current hall which opened in 1927, more of which later.
I feel these additions of the Ladies' Rooms and the Committee Room were to the original Mechanics' Institute. However, the book From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen notes that the first public hall was originally the school, put on land bought by the Progress Association in 1913 from Mrs Gault. It was opened in 1917 (8). So, was the 1917 building a new hall and not an extension to the old Mechanics' Institute?
There is yet another account of a Tynong Hall from the Pakenham Gazette of June 15, 1962 which are the reminiscences of an early resident, Mrs Ryan. Mrs Ryan says -
Where Wilson’s home is at present in 1918 a partly built house, three rooms and frame work for more. The Centre rooms were at one time a Tynong Hall. It was in the paddock opposite the lane that runs between Jack Hamill's amd Keith Nilsson's. Mr Jas Smith later sold to Mrs Gault and Miss O'Connor. In the early 1920s Mr Jas Marsden bought it and had a nice 6-roomed home made of it. (Mrs Marsden for years had a catering business.) Mr Cecil Brand bought the property and turned it into a nice home and complete with fowl pens etc. There have been a few more tenants since then, and at present Wilsons occupy it (10).
August 5, 1959 , was a black day in the history of Tynong. On it a gale, sweeping through a narrow belt of country, blew over their Public Hall. So great was the damage that opinion was almost equally divided as to whether the building could or could not be restored to its original condition. If August '59 was a black day, November 6th, '61, was a 'red letter night', for it marked the re-opening of a much better Hall than Tynong ever possessed before, with the addition of a new supper room and other rooms. Needless to say, the building was packed to the doors for the happy occasion. About 250 attended. The supper room had a well-equipped kitchen and there was also a Ladies' room. (12).
So, were there in fact three or even four Tynong Halls? The 1885 Mechanics’ Institute, the 1927 current Hall and a Hall that was opened in c. 1910 or 1917 or was there yet another Hall that became part of Mr Wilson’s house? Tynong is said to be Aboriginal for ‘plenty of fish’ but I believe it must really mean ‘plenty of halls’.
Footnotes
(2) The Argus, February 23, 1886, see here.
(3) Vision and Realisation: a centenary history of State Education in Victoria, edited by L.J. Blake. (Education Department of Victoria, 1973)
(4) Statistical Register for the Colony of Victoria, access them here.
(5) Ibid
