What happened in Garfield in 1912

This is a look at what happened in Garfield  one hundred years ago in 1912. These references are taken from various papers on-line at  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

The headline for an article in The Argus on February 19 was Boisterous potato diggers.  The article says that there are many potato diggers in the area at present and that two of them had been drinking  during the day and had created a disturbance in the Main street.  Blows were exchanged between themselves and a manager of a store and a  stone was hurled through a shop window. Constables Anstey and Ryan made several arrests.

In May, Jefferson Siding was closed. The Siding was between Garfield and Bunyip and used mainly for bricks and firewood. (The Argus May 9, 1912)

In July, three cases of Diphtheria were reported in Garfield. Dr Oliver visited from Pakenham and decided that Mr Rileys home was the centre of the outbreak. He also ordered that the School be closed for one week for fumigation and cleaning.  Diphtheria could be fatal and in 1912 257 Victorians died of the disease. (South Bourke & Mornington Journal August 1, 1918)

On July 13, The Argus reported that Lennon Brothers Circus performed in Garfield and a windstorm arose and wrecked the tent. The audience which was not very large was uninjured and showed not the least sign of panic or confusion beyond the wailing of a few young children at being plunged from a glaring light to absolute darkness.

In December, the license for the Iona Hotel was renewed at a sitting of the Dandenong Licensing Court. The licensee, F.A Carrroll had to pay the assessed fee of £75.00. As a comparison the fees for the Gippsland Hotel (Top pub) and Stacey’s Railway Hotel at Bunyip were both £55 as was the fee for the Nar Nar Goon Hotel. The Pakenham Hotel (near the Railway Station) was  £100 but Bourke’s Hotel at Pakenham (on the Highway next to Toomuc Creek) was £45. (South Bourke and Mornington Journal, December 19 1912)

However, the most unusual thing that happened in Garfield in 1912 was in the October when a Beer Strike took place  The story goes that the hotel keeper decided to increase the price of pints of beer from four pence to six pence.  A meeting of beer drinkers was held to protest against the increase and it was unanimously agreed  to abstain from beer  until the price returned to four pence. Anyone  found paying six pence would be fined £1.00.  This was reported in papers as far away as the Cairns Post, The Adelaide Advertiser, The Worker (which was a Brisbane paper) and the Broken Hill Barrier Miner. I am not sure how true the story is or  how this issue resolved itself.

Barrier Miner, October 19 1912

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45223730

This article is from the October 19 edition of The Barrier Miner, which had an interesting headline, as you might expect from a newspaper from a strong union town.

What happened in Garfield in 1911

The article I wrote for the first edition of The Spectator looked at what happened in Garfield in 1910, (read it here) and this is the article I wrote for the February 2011 edition of  The Spectator - a look back at Garfield, 100 years ago, in 1911. These references are taken from The Argus, on-line at  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper. There are plenty of reports about the Garfield Races, of which Mr W.Reidy was the Honorary Secretary, so The Argus is a good source of information if you are a race fan.  

There is a report of April 13 in which a bookmaker, Walter Turnbull, was charged with uttering counterfeit sovereigns, at these races on March 31.The case was heard by the Police Court Bench at Bunyip under Police Magistrate Harris and J.P’s Pearson and A’Beckett. The conclusion reached by Magistrate Harris was that there was a grave doubt of feloniously uttering and the accused was discharged. Uttering means putting into circulation counterfeit coins or notes.

The Argus August 2, 1911

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11604720

 Amongst the farming reports in The Argus is a report of June 16 said the Barker Brothers of Garfield sent a consignment of Jonathan apples to Hamburg in Germany and realized an average price of 18 shillings and six pence per case.  On August 2, a report said that in the past six months nearly 6,000 tons of farm produce had been trucked away from the Bunyip, Garfield, Tynong and Nar Nar Goon Railway stations, representing a sum of over £4,000 in freight. Garfield despatched 3,287 tons.  This indicates the significance of rail as a form of transport and the amount of produce grown in the area, which also would have included the Swamp.  

The agricultural wealth of this eastern end of the Shire of Berwick, may have been a factor in the decision, made in 1911, to re-locate the Shire Offices from Berwick to the more central town of Pakenham. The original Shire Offices had been built in 1865 for the Berwick Road Board, on top of the hill at Berwick.  The new Building opened in 1912 and  has since been relocated to the corner of Main Street and the Princes Highway in Pakenham, and is now the home of the Berwick  Pakenham Historical Society.

However, it is the personal stories in The Argus, which I find most interesting.  On October 11, there was a report of a Breach of Promise of Marriage case. Mrs Charlotte Ewen, formerly of Garfield, a widow with a two year old child, was claiming damages of £1,000 against Mr William Park Temby, farmer, of Bunyip for damages of breach of promise. A subsequent report on November 21 said that as part of Mrs Ewen’s damages she was claiming £40 for the cost of her trousseau. Mr Temby, 33, who had a farm of sixty acres, claimed that Mrs Ewen had broken off the engagement because she wanted more than I could give her, the furniture, and a  longer honeymoon than I was prepared to spend.  His financial position had changed due to considerable losses through potatoes with the Irish blight. A witness, Elizabeth Flett of Bunyip, said that that Mrs Ewan had told her she had broken off the engagement as Mr Temby deceived her about his property and that most of it belonged to his mother, she also did not think she would get along Mr Temby’s mother. The jury of six took 45 minutes to make a decision and awarded Mrs Ewen £50 in damages. To put that in perspective, a female factory worker, at the time, had an average annual wage of £70. Was she just a gold digger or was he a heartless cad? Who knows, but as you can no longer sue for breach of promise when an engagement breaks up then these sort of press reports are, unfortunately, a thing of the past.

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.

Road between Bayles and Cora Lynn

I came across this article, in a report from a Shire of Berwick meeting,  about the 'new' road between Bayles and Cora Lynn in the Dandenong Journal of May 5, 1954. I had no idea that this road was constructed so recently - I assumed it would have been there since the Swamp was settled. What is called the No.4 Yallcok Drain Road in the article, also called the No. 4 Drain Road was changed to Dineen Road in 2018 (or maybe late 2017). At the same time the  No. 7 Drain Road south was changed to Mynard Road and No. 7 Drain Road north to Jeffers Road. Personally, I think it's a shame to lose those historic names.

The Bayles-Cora Lynn Road is pretty ordinary and is still  not up to standard, 65 years after it was constructed. It is especially bad from Bayles to Roper Lane - which is the old Shire of Cranbourne section. From Roper Lane to Cora Lynn is much better in comparison; this section is in the old Shire of Berwick.

Dandenong Journal May 5, 1954

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article218509021

New Road between Bayles, Cora Lynn
Having constructed a road which will replace the adjacent shire road along the west side of the No. 4 Yallock Drain between Bayles and Cora Lynn, the State Rivers suggested that council now take it over. The State Rivers indicated if council was prepared to do this, it was willing to pay it a lump sum to bring it up to the required standard. A similar proposal has been put up to Cranbourne Shire regarding the section in their area.—Referred to the engineer and Riding councillors for recommendation.

Ball held to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Keast Hall, Cora Lynn

The Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of August 9, 1961 had a report on a ball to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Keast Hall at Cora Lynn. 

I have transcribed the article which includes a list of some of the people who attended and even more interesting, to me, a description of some of the dresses the women wore.

50^th Anniversary of Keast Hall

Large Crowd at Cora Lynn Ball

A chance look into the old records of the Keast Hall at Cora Lynn revealed that August 4th, the date chosen for the 40 and Over Ball, was also the 50th anniversary of the opening of the hall.

Such a momentous occasion could not go un-noticed and last minute arrangements were made to invite a number of old settlers, as well as many former residents. The ball and subsequent reunion turned out to be one of the biggest social occasions in the history of Cora Lynn.

Special guests at the ball were two of the original committeemen, Mr. T.Walsh who resides in Warragul, and Mr. W. Porter, of Bentleigh. Well known Cardinia personality, Mr."Bumpa" Gee was also a guest of honour, as he played the piano for the first dance ever held at the hall. Another surviving committeeman, Mr. Murdoch of Koo Wee Pup, was unable to attend and sent his apologies.

Conducted for the third year, the 40 and over ball is increasing is popularity each year and, as well as catering almost exclusively for this age group, seems to be somewhat of a Cora Lynn re-union as well.

Dineen's orchestra played for the dances which were sprinkled with a liberal dose of old-time numbers. Mr. Jim McDonald, secretary of the Cora Lynn Football Club, was MC for the evening. Mr. Matt Garbellini got a loud round of applause for his harmonica numbers as did Mr "Bumpa" Gee when he was pianist for a couple of the dances.

During the evening a circular waltz competition, judged by Mr. Roy O'Shaughnessy of Bunyip,was won by Mr. and Mrs.Wally Cowell of Nar Nar Goon, from a number of other contestants.

Important interlude in the evening's proceedings came when a lovely golden jubilee cake decorated with 50 candles, was brought into the hall. Mr. Dan Kinsella, Mr. and Mrs. W.Porter, Mr. "Bumpa" Gee and Mr. T. Walsh all gathered round the cake for the cutting ceremony.

Mr. Kinsella said he was just speechless to think that 50 years had past since the opening of the hall. He said he was delighted to be in the company of so many old-timers, former residents and friends, to celebrate a most momentous occasion in the history of Cora Lynn. Mr. Kinsella then read out the apologies from Mr. G. Murdoch of Koo Wee Rup, Cr. Ray Jeffers, Mayor of Dandenong, and Mr. Les Jeffers of Geelong, whose father Mr. A.Jeffers was one of the original committeemen.

Mr. Kinsella said that, although the district had had experienced hard times it had developed into a very fine area, largely due to the confidence of the early selectors, who set to and worked to clear and drain the land. Mr.Kinsella said that Cora Lynn to him was "in the centre of the Garden of Eden."

Mr. Kinsella paid tribute to Mrs. Dillon who had organised the ball for the Cora Lynn Football Club in such an efficient way.

 Mr. Tom Walsh expressed his pleasure at attending such a wonderful function and told several amusing anecdotes of the old days at Cora Lynn. Mr.Porter also said how much he was enjoying the evening amongst his old friends.

Who was there

The Berwick Shire President Cr. Templeton and Mrs. Templeton: Cr. And Mrs. E. Towt; Cr. and Mrs. J. Fallon; Cr. and Mrs. Wakenshaw; Cr. And Mrs. Dan Cunningham; Cr and Mrs. L. J. Cochrane; Cr. and Mrs. P., B. Fechner; Mrs. P. Johnson, Melbourne (cousin of Mrs. F. Egan); Mr. and Mrs. Tom Lawler and daughter Bernadette of Morland (formerly of Koo Wee Rup); Mr.and Mrs. Jack McClure of Werribee (formerly of Koo Wee Rup). Mrs. Lawler and Mrs. McClure are sisters of Mr. Tom Burton of Koo Wee Rup. Miss C. H Egan, Koo Wee Rup; Mrs O'Hehir (snr.) Pakenham Road; Mrs. Whiteside Koo Wee Rup; Mrs. and Mrs. Bill Rodbur of Frankston; Mr. and Mrs. Ted Holley; Mr.and Mrs. Kappler of Melbourne; Mr. Dave Harker of Warragul; Mr. and Mrs.Lindsay Leamon of Drouin (Mrs. Leamon was Phyllis Clark of Monomeith); Mrs Bill Doherty of Pascoe Vale (former Cora Lynn resident); Mr. and Mrs Pringle of Lang Lang (Mrs. Pringle was formerly Elva Watson of Cora jynn). Mr. Steve Watson of Frankston. Mrs. Harvey (formerly Muriel Watson). Mrs. Boyd of Adelaide (formerly Nellie Marshall of Cora Lynn).

Some of the frocks

Mrs. Frank Egan wore a deep blue frock featuring an embroidered bodice; Mrs. D. Kinsella's brocade frock was in green and black tones; Mrs. Wakenshaw wore a pink camellia as a colour note on her black frock and jacket; Mrs. W. Frawley’s frock was in vivid ming blue.

Fur trimmed the collar and cuffs of Mrs. Rodbur's strawberry wool frock; Mrs. Towt wore a grey fur coat with her long pink frock splashed with deeper pink roses; Mrs. Les Egan's short frock was of rose pink lace over satin, over which she wore a fur cape;  Mrs. Ted Holley chose olive green silk faille for her frock; Mrs. Bill Giles (Manks Road) wore a frock of filmy black and white patterned nylon.

Mrs. B. Broadbent's frock was in a pale champagne chiffonelle, and featured a floating scarf caught at the shoulder; Mrs. Jack Sewell's frock featured a shell pink lace bodice allied to a black skirt; Black embroidered nylon fashioned Mrs. J.Huntingford's frock; Mrs Eddie Dillon's ballerina was made from vivid pink satin; Mrs. G. Davis of Pakenham South wore a deep burgandie velvet frock. Mrs. Vin Doherty's sheath frock was in woody tones of brown and green; Coffee lace over satin fashioned Mrs. Sil Finnigan's frock. A black nylon ballerina embossed with sunrays was Mrs. P. Dillon's choice; Mrs. Lawler's frock had a tiered skirt and was made of black lace over royal blue satin; Mrs. Summers wore a necklet of crystal beads with her flame velvet frock;  Mrs. J. Fallon wore a fur stole with her ink blue and lilac brocade gown; Pakenham resident Mrs. Jack Brown wore a fur jacket with her black velvet frock;  Mrs. Matt Garbellini wore a long frock of pastel blue embossed organza; Mrs. Pringle of Lang Lang wore a floral frock in blue, rose pink and green tonings;  Mrs. Duncan of Koo Wee Rup wore pale mauve gloves with her pure silk taffeta ballerina in deeper violet tonings. 

Supper rounded off a wonderful evening, and included many varieties of hot savouries.

Local Progress Associations as reported in the Dandenong Journal

This post looks at the activities of local Progress Associations mainly through the correspondence they wrote to the local Council - the Dandenong Journal reported on these Council meetings. Many towns had Progress Associations from the late 1920s to the 1950s - Bayles, Koo-Wee-Rup, Dalmore, Lang Lang, Hampton Park, Lyndhurst South, Pakenham South, Warneet and Tooradin to name some. Like many community organisations which rely on volunteers some formed, then were disbanded and then reformed years later. There was naturally less reporting on the Associations during the Second World War – I guess complaints about road conditions and drainage issues seemed trivial at the time, plus the community was involved with supporting the War effort. Sadly for all of us, the issues raised by these groups are not much different from the issues raised by Township Committees 70 or so years later!

Warneet Progress Association formed in December 1945 and one of their  activities in December 1947 was to fill the vacancies on the Warneet Foreshore Committee and to have  a site set aside for  a Public Hall (the hall still hasn’t been built). In 1953 the Progress Association asked for the construction of two ‘public conveniences’ (one at each jetty)  as even though the town had only five permanent resident families there was a big weekend population, with 40 to 50 car loads of visitors. The town had already received a grant of £1280 from the Tourist Resorts Fund but wanted the Council to put in the remaining 25 per cent and to take responsibility for the buildings. The Council was happy to subsidise one building but felt that the Warneet Foreshore Committee should be responsible for the upkeep.

In another coastal town, the Tooradin Progress Association asked for assistance in 1928 to carry out works on the Tooradin picnic grounds but the Cranbourne Shire said no funds were available. In the same year, they complained about the state of the ‘main coast road’ - the South Gippsland Highway and also complained about the action of the Koo Wee Rup Progress Association in diverting traffic from Koo Wee Rup along to Pakenham (so thus avoiding Tooradin). Fast forward 80 or so years later and Koo Wee Rup was doing all they could to get traffic out of the town!

Camping Ground at Tooradin, c. 1940s. Is this the same as the picnic grounds that the Tooradin Progress Association requested funding for in 1928? I'd say so.

Dalmore Progress Association was established before the War and it re-formed in 1953 with 60 members attending the first meeting. Some of their first activities included holding a Ball, entering a float in the Coronation day procession at Koo Wee Rup, forming a badminton Club and notifying Council about the state of local roads and drains. In 1953 the Pakenham South Progress Association complained to the Council about Ballarto Road; they wanted it graded and the drains cleared out.

The Bayles Progress Association in 1928 asked the Council for four lamps that they had promised them for street lighting. The same year they said that ‘approximately 20 services would be required in the sanitary area at Bayles’  -  as this would require the Council  ‘night man’ to empty the toilet pans at these properties, the Council decided that the service would be too costly. A year later they wanted a bridge built to give access to the Recreation Reserve; I am not sure where this Recreation Reserve actually was.  In 1947, they asked the Council to fence off the local bridges to assist farmers and drovers with cattle. They also asked the Council if they could take over some adjoining railway land to extend the park at Bayles, described by one Councillor as ‘a nice little park’ which had been established by the Association.

The Koo Wee Rup Progress Association in 1928 wanted permission from the Council to plant trees in Rossiter Road from Denham’s Road to Henry Street. A year later they were complaining about the state of Moody Street and they also wanted the Council to erect a danger sign at the School - not sure what that was about, presumably the state of the roads and not feral students.

In June 1944, the Association put in ‘numerous requests’ to the Council - the Dandenong Journal uses this head line on more than one occasion.  ‘No less than seven requests’ were before the Council - amongst the requests they wanted a foot bridge over the Station Street drain for use of the flax mill employees; they wanted a section of Sybella Avenue sealed and they wanted Boundary Road put into a ‘serviceable condition’ The next month they put another long list of requests in including some repeat numbers from the last time, because they regarded the replies to the original list as not being satisfactory. In 1947, the Progress Association agitated for the re-location of the Shire Offices from Cranbourne to Koo Wee Rup which was ‘a more central situation’. There was bit of discussion about this issue and a Councillor complained that the Progress Association was always late with their correspondence (thus presumably this could not be read before the meeting) and had to be put into extra correspondence and that the ‘Association was very critical of the Council and what the Council doesn’t do’ and ‘it’s time they woke up to themselves’

Finally, this didn’t come from a Progress Association but from the Country Roads Board in 1939 asking whether the Koo Wee Rup - Pakenham Road ‘is fit to be used as a public highway’ - still a question that people are asking.