What happened in Garfield in 1910

I wrote this in 2010 for the Garfield Spectator, I have done one for every year and they are still an interesting snap shot of the town, 100 years on.

One of my favourite sources of historical information is The Argus newspaper. You can search The Argus and many other Australian newspapers on the Trove website. An absolute wealth of information can be found on this website and even though The Argus was a Melbourne newspaper, it had a lot of country coverage.

Here are some of the events which happened in Garfield, one hundred years ago, in 1910, as reported in The Argus.

On March 26, there was a report of a fire in a stack of wheaten hay belonging to Mr J.J. O’Leary. The fire was started by his son who was playing at burning off. The stack contained 50 to 60 tons of hay and was totally destroyed and uninsured.

In April 4, there was an account of an outbreak of typhoid fever amongst the men employed on the railway line. The Shire of Berwick Health Officer, Dr Keogh, said that due to the fact that these men had no sanitary conveniences, the only wonder was that there was not a much greater outbreak of fever.

The Argus March 1, 2010

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10838362

If you are a racing fan there are lots of accounts of the Garfield Horse races, both advertising the races and the race results, such as the one above.

The Argus also had many stories about local residents, so if you have an interest in family history then you may find information about your own ancestors.  For instance, on May 24, there was a report headed Broken leg at 80 and it went on to tell us that Mrs McNab, who was visiting her son, was retiring for the night, when she fell and broke her leg in two places, the sufferer was attended by Dr Withington, who ordered her removal to Melbourne.

An article in September 5 reported on the funeral of Mrs R. Leeson, who for many years conducted the old Pig & Whistle Inn at Cannibal Creek, near Garfield. The deceased who had resided in the same house for over 50 years, was 100 years old.

The Argus November 29, 1910

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10480848

Finally my favourite report for 1910 is this one from November 29. Obviously no-one worried about privacy issues in 1910! If you have an interest in local history or family history, then The Argus is well worth a look.

Road names at Cora Lynn, Vervale, Iona and catani

The Pakenham Gazette of December 21, 1976 had this article about road names - the issue is that roads had a change of name when they crossed from the Shire of Berwick/Shire of Pakenham* to the Shire of Cranbourne - the Shire boundary was the No. 7 Drain Road, now itself renamed to Mynard Road. So in the end the only change that I can see is that Sinclair Road in the Shire of Berwick was renamed Bennett Road in line with the Shire of Cranbourne name. Dessent Road still becomes Taplins Road; Simpson Road still becomes McDonalds Road; Pitt Road still becomes Humphries Road and Little Road still becomes Carses Road. The article says that finality has now been reached in regard to three of these roads. Well clearly not - I presume that the Councils threw it into the 'too hard' basket - in which case - why can't we get Sinclair Road back? The original family property, 56 acres (Lot 25, Section N) taken up by my great grandfather, James Rouse, in 1903, has two road frontages - Murray Road and Sinclair Road, so we know Sinclair Road well. W Sinclair is on the Koo Wee Rup East Parish Plan (in Sinclair Road) owning 120 acres, Allotments 28 & 29, Section N - I think he deserves his road back!

Standard names for three roads
Some time ago Pakenham Shire Council initiated  a move to standardise , if possible, the names of the roads passing from this to the neighbouring Shire of Cranbourne. Finality has now been reached in regard to three of these roads. 

Pakenham Council passed the matter over to the Berwick-Pakenham Historical Society which came up with the various recommendations based mainly on the names of the original or early settlers on the roads concerned. These recommendations were then passed onto the Shire of Cranbourne.

That municipality passed back its comments to last week's meeting of the Pakenham Council. They considered that the following standard names should be used Bennetts, Taplins, McDonalds, Pitt and Little.

(The Historical Society had recommended Bennetts, Dessent, Simpson, Pitt and Little and council sought further information about the recommendations for Simpson Road)

In a brief  discussion Cr Moore pointed out that there was agreement in regard to the names of three of roads - Bennetts, Pitt and Little. Why not adopt those and leave the others open for later discussion? he asked.

Council agreed with this view and carried a motion in line with it.

*Shire of Berwick was established May 5, 1868. It split in 1973 and the City of Berwick and the Shire of Pakenham were formed on October 1 in that year. The Shire of Cranbourne was established February 2, 1868.