The Western Port Road

The Western Port Road started at Dandenong and traversed the old Shire of Cranbourne from Cranbourne to Tooradin to Tobin Yallock (the original Lang Lang township). This section is now known as the South Gippsland Highway. The road later continued onto Corinella and Bass and this section eventually became known as the Bass Highway.  The section of road from Dandenong to Tooradin had obviously been passable to some extent as early as 1839 because we know that Samuel Rawson and Robert Jamieson overlanded their cattle to Tooradin in the December of that year and then continued on by boat to their Yallock Station on the Yallock Creek (1).

Niel Gunson in his book The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (2) says it was fairly clearly defined by the 1850s, however it wasn’t until 1859 that a permanent roadway was surveyed which allowed access by wheeled traffic and livestock (3). In spite of this, Dr Gunson writes that transporting stock from the Yallock Creek Station to Melbourne still took four days in the 1850s and 1860s (4). Even though the road was formed it wasn’t until 1868 that the section from Dandenong to Cranbourne was metalled (5).

The main problems with the road was the need to cross the inlets (such as Lyall’s and Moody’s Inlets) before bridges were constructed.  In 1845, Edward Cockayne was given the right to operate a ferry service but he was a bit eccentric and unreliable and sometimes ignored the signals of the travellers (such as a lit fire or the firing of a pistol) so they were forced to spend a night marooned on the side of the inlet. His licence was finally cancelled in 1853 (6). Cockayne occupied a hut where Harewood is now located and it is believed that the stables on the property date back to the time of Cockayne’s occupancy (7). Cockayne Inlet in Western Port Bay is named after Edward.

In 1864, a John Carson offered to conduct a ferry service, but this was declined by the Cranbourne Road Board. In 1865 James Smethurst erected two bridges  over the Inlets, according to Dr Gunson, I am not sure which Inlets he is referring to but the same year the mail contractor, John Murphy, complained about the state of the Yallock and Tobin Yallock bridges (8). The bridge at Tooradin was built in 1873 (9).

However, people were resourceful in those days and traversing creeks and inlets didn’t stop commerce and the trappings of civilisation as on November 13, 1860 a weekly mail service was introduced to Corinella via Yallock and by 1865 there was a two day a week coach service from Cranbourne to the Bass River also via Corinella (10).

The southern end of the Western Port Road was constructed in the 1860s. Joseph White, author of the book One hundred years of history: Shire of Phillip Island and Woolamai 1875-1928, Shire of Bass 1928-1975 (11) said the road was originally surveyed in 1862 and the first route from the settled areas near Tobin Yallock in the Shire of Cranbourne was by a cattle track that kept to the tops of the range as the coastal route was swampy and needed many creek crossings. The opening of the road led to settlement being opened up and as we said before the establishment of a Cobb & Co. coach service. Very little work was done on this section of the road until the Shire was formed in 1875 and it received another boost in 1913 when the Country Roads Board was established and took over responsibility for the road (12).

There was a report on the state of the Western Port Road in the Leader newspaper of September 19, 1874. The newspaper correspondent was talking about the development of the Grantville area and had this to say about the journey to the settlement.

 A coach (Cobb's) leaves the Star Hotel from Dandenong every morning in week days. There is a very good metalled road from thence to the flourishing post town of Cranbourne - 9 miles - but the remainder of the road from the latter place here is simply execrable. Some portions of it are even worse than execrable, for they are, in this season of the year, and the three months just passed, absolutely dangerous, and do anything but credit to the road surveyor's department. After leaving Cranbourne, there is a couple or three miles of fairly metalled road, but after that (and this passage I pen for the especial benefit of the above department) come the counterparts of the Great Dismal Swamp, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. One spot in particular, called Frenchman's Hole, or Flat-bottomed Creek, is highly dangerous to a stranger. The mails are carried over this beautiful spot twice a week, on horseback, and no doubt the man who carries them could give a much more graphic account of this picturesque route than myself. Be that as it may, the traffic on it is much on the increase, and I consider it shameful neglect on the part of the post-office authorities not to organise a better system of mail delivery for this district; and the sooner they let us have three deliveries a week instead of two the better for our convenience and their reputation (13).

Frenchman’s Hole was near Lang Lang and according to Niel Gunson, a Frenchman had tried to cross the two miles of the flat land but he disappeared down a hole, covered with water and only his hat was ever discovered or so the legend goes (14). 

Footnotes

(1) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire 1968), p. 21

(2) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire 1968), 

(3) Gunson, op. cit., p. 54 and p. 49

(4) Gunson, op. cit., 78.

(5) Gunson, op. cit., p. 89

(6) Gunson, op. cit., p. 48

(7) https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/30287

(8) Gunson, op. cit. p. 90

(9) Ibid.

(10) Gunson, op. ci., p. 62.

(11) White, Joseph One hundred years of history: Shire of Phillip Island and Woolamai 1875-1928, Shire of Bass 1928-1975 (Shire of bass and Phillip Island, 1974)

(12) Information in this paragraph from - White, op. cit., pp 13-14.

(13) The Leader, September 19, 1874, see here.

(14) Gunson, op. cit. p. 162.

An Acrostic History of Koo-Wee-Rup

This is an eclectic look at some themes from Koo Wee Rup's  history and the first letter of each theme spells a seasonal greeting!  I did this one for the Koo Wee Rup township newsletter, The Blackfish, in December 2016. I did a similar one for the Garfield township newsletter, The Spectator, in December 2017.  You can read the Garfield one, here.

M is for Mickle.  A well known, early family in the area. John Mickle (1814-1885) owned land from the 1850s, with his business partners William Lyall (who built Harewood) and John Bakewell.  John’s brother, Alexander Mickle, managed his property at Yallock. Alexander’s son, John, sub-divided John Street, Mickle Street and Alexander Avenue (now incorrectly called Alexandra) in Koo Wee Rup in 1926. David Mickle, the author of local history books Mickle Memories of Koo Wee Rup and More Mickle Memories of Koo Wee Rup, is the grandson of Alexander. 

E is for Education.  The first School was established in 1884 between Koo Wee Rup and Bayles (at Bethunes Road). It was known as the Yallock School until 1903 when the name was changed to Koo Wee Rup. In 1910, the school moved to Rossiter Road (to the Secondary College location) and a new building was built in 1915. In 1953, the Higher Elementary School was completed. This School included both primary and secondary classes (Forms 1 to 3 or Years 7 to 9). The School became a High School in 1957 and shared the building with the primary school students until November 1960 when the Primary School opened in Moody Street.  St John the Baptist Catholic School opened in 1936.

R is for roads, rates and rubbish - the historical purpose of local councils. Koo Wee Rup was part of the Cranbourne Road Board district when it was established on June 19, 1860. Then it became part of the Cranbourne Shire when it started on February 24, 1868. It was then part of the short lived City of Cranbourne which lasted from April 22, 1994 until December 15, 1994, when the City of Cranbourne and was broken up and Koo Wee Rup became part of the newly created Cardinia Shire.

R is for Recreation and other Community activities. A Cricket Club started in 1893, the Recreation Reserve opened in 1906, and a football team had started by 1907. The Royal Hotel was erected in 1915. The Masonic Lodge commenced in 1923. The Wattle Picture Theatre was opened in 1927, the same year the Koo Wee Rup Electric Light and Power Company supplied electricity to the town. In 1929, the first Koo Wee Rup Scout Troop was formed. To add further to the amenity of the town in 1930 the water tower and the water supply system opened and in 1943 the Fire Brigade was formed.

Masonic Lodge at Koo Wee Rup. The Lodge was built in 1923 and has since 

been extended and new facade fitted. 

Photo courtesy of  Graham Elso.

Y is for Yallock.  The first European settlement in the area was established by Samuel Rawson and Robert Jamieson on the Yallock Creek Cattle run in 1839. The Yallock Village Settlement, established in the 1890s, was based around Fincks, School, Hall and O'Briens Roads, off Koo Wee Rup Longwarry Road. The Bayles Railway Station, which opened in 1922, was the station closest to Yallock and the township which grew around the railway station soon overshadowed the original Yallock settlement.

C is for Carlo Catani. Catani (1852-1918) was a Public Works Department Engineer responsible for the drainage works on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp from 1893. He also established the Village Settlements at Yallock, Five Mile, Cora Lynn, Iona etc. The town of Catani is named after him. His other works in Victoria include the creation of Alexandra Avenue, which runs along the Yarra River, snd the design of the Alexandra Gardens; the reclamation of the St Kilda foreshore and the design of the gardens there, which were named in his honour in 1927; engineering the road to the top of Mount Buffalo and the creation of a recreational lake, Lake Catani; the drainage of the Moe Swamp.

H is for Historical Society. The Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society was established in 1974 and operates a Museum at Mallow, 325 Rossiter Road, Koo Wee Rup. Mallow was built by John Colvin for his daughter, Margaret, who married Les O’Riordan in August 1918. Les was born in  August 1892 to John and Elizabeth (nee O'Callaghan) O'Riordan and is said to have been the first white child born in the Koo Wee Rup Village settlement. Elizabeth had been born in the town of Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, hence the name of the property.

R is for Religion.  In 1896 the Wesleyan Church from Cranbourne was moved to Koo Wee Rup and became the Presbyterian Church. The first Catholic Church was built in 1902 and the current church dates from 1962. The Anglican Church was built in 1917 and closed in 2012 and the congregation moved to the Uniting Church. The Methodist Church (now Uniting) was moved from Yallock to Rossiter Road in 1932. In 1978 this building was moved to a camp in Grantville and a wooden church, the Narre Warren East Uniting Church, was relocated to the site, it was given a brick veneer and a new hall added and opened on February, 3 1980.

St George's Anglican Church, Koo Wee Rup, 1940s. The building opened in 1917.

I is for Inundation. Early pioneers had to cope with numerous inundations or floods- 1901, 1911, 1916, 1923, 1924, 1934, 1935 and 1937 being some of the worst historically. The 1934 flood resulted in the Koo Wee Rup township being under two meters of water in places.

S is for Swamp.  The Koo Wee Rup Swamp originally covered about 40,000 hectares or 96,000 acres and is part of the Western Port sunkland.  The Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, William Thwaites (1853 - 1907) 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. A tender 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. By 1904, over 2,000 people including 1,400 children lived on the Swamp. Many more drains have been added over the years.

T is for Trains. The Koo Wee Rup Railway station was opened on August 18, 1889. The Station was originally called Yallock and was re-named Koo Wee Rup in 1892. In 1922, Koo Wee Rup became a railway junction with the opening of the Strzelecki railway line. This was a boom time for the Station. In 1926 eleven people were employed at the Koo Wee Rup Station and they dispatched 50,000 tons of goods and around 7,000 head of livestock were sent or received there. There were 48 passenger trains and 72 goods trains per week. The Strzelecki line was closed in stages and the last stretch from Bayles to Koo Wee Rup closed in 1959. Passenger services to Koo Wee Rup ceased in June 1981, were reinstated December 1984 and ceased again in July 1993.

M is for Medical Matters.  A Bush Nursing Centre was established in 1918. In 1923 the  Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital opened in Station Street and moved to a new building, the Westernport Memorial Hospital,  in Rossiter Road in 1955. In 1946, the Infant Welfare Centre was opened in a room at the Memorial Hall and in 1953 the Pre-School opened.

The Westernport Memorial Hospital in Koo Wee Rup under construction, photo taken February 5, 1955.

Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society collection

A is for Agriculture. By the 1920s, the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp was producing one quarter of Victorian potatoes and was also a major producer of dairy products. Today, more than 90% of all Australian asparagus is produced on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp and many other food items are grown including broccolini, strawberries, cabbage, leeks, celery and lettuces. If the Government can resist the temptation to rezone all the rich agricultural swamp land to residential then the Swamp should continue to produce food for at least another 120+ years.

S is for Shopping. The first shop was opened by John O’Riordan in 1890 in a tin shed where Light’s Garage is now located. Many of the shops in Rossiter Road were built in the 1920s and 1930s, as was the old Theatre and a few garages. This was a boom time for the town with the Hospital, State Rivers & Water Supply Commission, surrounding farms and the railways all providing a steady source of employment.