Cora Lynn Telephone Exchange

From the Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of June 16, 1954 comes this report about the extended opening hours of the Cora Lynn telephone exchange. No doubt some young people would be surprised to know that you can exist without 24 hours access to phones.

A festival in Koo-Wee Rup 1950s

These are photographs from the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society and show a festival, sometime in the 1950s I presume.

This is the intersection of Station Street and Rossiter Road. The Railway Station is on the left, you can see the elevated water tanks.

Looking west down Station Street, from its intersection with Rossiter Road.  The two storey building at the end of the street is the 1915 Royal Hotel.

Rossiter Road - Phil Colvin is on the penny farthing bicycle. This must be taken from the Wattle Theatre.

Garfield Picture Theatre

The Garfield Picture Theatre was one of the many cinemas constructed during the Australia wide boom in cinema building in the 1920s. It was opened with a Grand Ball on Monday, December 22 1924. An advertisement in the Pakenham Gazette advertised the ball (see left), which was free to all and also advertised Pictures every Saturday night and dancing every Friday night. One of the first films shown was Where the North Begins, a Rin Tin Tin movie.

The theatre was built by Martin O’Donohue. It had a power house at the rear and a 230 volt generator and was thus the first source of electricity in Garfield. This was an interesting situation and in January 1925 the Shire of Berwick received a letter from Martin O’Donohue asking for particulars of size of poles required for street lighting. O’Donohue supplied Garfield with power until SEC power arrived in conjunction with the power supplied to the Tynong Quarry. This was possibly in August 1929. . According to the Shire of Berwick Rate Books in 1924/25, Martin O’Donohue, whose occupation was listed as Hotel keeper, jointly paid the rates on the Garfield Hotel with Margaret and Daniel O’Donohue. Thomas O’Donohue was listed as owning the Hotel. Martin also owned sale yards and the Picture Theatre. He and Margaret also owned two other Garfield lots. Eileen O’Donohue paid rates on a Garage, owned by Thomas. Thomas owned a saddlers shop, a confectionary shop and 155 acres. I am unsure how all these O’Donohues are related and a later source connects Martin O’Donohue to the Club Hotel at Warragul, so by all accounts they were an entrepreneurial family.

Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical society photograph

The theatre was said to seat 800 people and J.Taylor initially leased the theatre from Martin O’Donohue. The Shire of Berwick Rate Books indicate that in 1931 it was sold to Walter Anderson Lawson and Roy Everard Ross of Warragul. They sold it to James Murphy in 1953. Murphy owned the theatre until it closed in the early 1960s.

An article by Gerry Kennedy in Cinema Record, Volume 1, January 1994 (the newsletter of CATHS, the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society www.caths.org .au) has some technical details about the theatre - the bio box was built above the entrance vestibule. To the left of the bio box was the rectifier room and, to the right, the winding room, both with ports to the auditorium. Apparently when the theatre was constructed there was no ceiling which interfered with sound quality and caneite panels were fitted to the walls in 1950s to improve the sound. A 30 foot wide cinemascope screen was installed and the theatre was equipped with R.C.A Star Projectors. Kennedy also writes that the Garfield Theatre re-opened at weekends from 1970 to 1971 and was operated by Dennis Grigg.

Two other Picture Theatres were also built in the 1920s in the area. The Wattle Theatre at Koo-Wee-Rup opened with a grand ball in July 1927 and King’s Picture Theatre at Pakenham opened on September 7, 1927. However even earlier, local residents had been able to view movies at the Pakenham Mechanics’ Institute. Harrington’s Electra Pictures had been shown at the Garfield Hall and Colvin’s Pictures began weekly screenings in September 1922 at the Memorial Hall in Koo-Wee-Rup. Of the three purpose built theatres the Garfield Theatre was by far the most substantial building being constructed of brick. Koo-Wee-Rup has external walls of corrugated iron and Pakenham (which was located roughly opposite the Uniting Church in Main Street and demolished in the 1990s) was made of asbestos cement sheet. Apart from these venues, films were shown at Tynong - there is still a bio box or projection room, which is currently inaccessible, at the Hall. They were also shown at the Bunyip Hall and when the original 1906 Hall was burnt down in March 1940, a ‘picture plant’ was also destroyed.

Garfield Picture Theatre was a great source of entertainment for not only Garfield locals but those further afield. According to Dave Mickle in his book More Mickle Memories of Koo-Wee-Rup the Garfield, Pakenham and Koo-Wee-Rup theatres were in keen competition to provide Saturday night entertainment and an edition of the Koo-Wee-Rup Sun from January 1939 has an advertisement for the three theatres. Mickle also wrote that the ‘talkies’ had arrived at the Garfield Picture Theatre by May 1931, a few months earlier than Koo-Wee-Rup.

My father, Frank Rouse, remembers that at its peak, the Garfield Picture Theatre had shows on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturday nights. Simcock’s Bedford bus used to travel out to Murray Road, Cora Lynn and surrounding areas on a Saturday night and pick up theatre goers and return them after the show. There was always a rush to get served at Simcock’s milk bar during the intermission.

100 years ago this week - Gay life at Garfield

 100 years ago this week - from the Bunyip Free Press of February 14 2014 , under the headline Gay Life at Garfield there is a report of two men and a woman who were behaving in a disgraceful manner in the Garfield township. The Bunyip Police travelled to Garfield and found that the reports were true, so they arrested John and Elizabeth Fitzgerald and a Mr Moss. The police chartered two vehicles and transported the unsavoury cargo to the Bunyip lock-up.

At a subsequent court appearance, both men were fined £5 or ones month’s imprisonment and the ‘wife’ was fined £2 or a fortnight’s imprisonment.  As the trio were all of the nomad travelling class they couldn’t afford the fine so they were sent to His Majesty’s hominy factory in Melbourne.

 I had never come across the term hominy factory before; it means prison as apparently hominy is a slang word for prison food; hominy being a thin gruel or porridge made from cornmeal.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

100 years ago this week - British Association Football

100 years ago this week - on February 4 1914, the Lang Lang Guardian published this article about forming a league for British Association Football or 'soccer'.  Mr Frank Garwood of Modella wanted to start the League which would cover the area between the two Railway lines - Koo-Wee-Rup to Lang Lang and Garfield to Longwarry.  There was already at least one team practically formed at Modella. Mr Garwood urged anyone interested in playing the English soccer game (NOT rugby) to contact him. 

I have no idea how it went, but I suspect that it was not successful.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

In February 1914 Frank Garwood was appointed the Secretary of the Modella Cricket Club and at the Presentation night on April 15, 1914 he came second in the batting averages. I don't know anything else about him.

100 years ago this week - Yallock Methodist Sunday School Picnic

100 years ago this week, on January 23 1914 the Yallock Methodist Sunday School held their picnic on the Yallock Creek. Mr Reiter provided music from his dulciphone - which I believe is a sort of gramophone and there was a freezer containing ice cream - no doubt appreciated as the heat was rather severe. 

Lang Lang Guardian January 28, 1914, page 3.

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

Yallock Methodist Church being moved to Koo-Wee-Rup, 1932

Image: Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society

The Methodist Home Mission Station was opened in Yallock in 1907, with the hall being used for services. The Yallock Methodist Church was opened in 1909, built by Thomas Pretty. In August 1932, it was moved from Yallock to Rossiter Road, Koo-Wee-Rup and used by the Methodists and later the Uniting Church. 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.

A tramway through the Swamp June 1893

An early account of life on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp from  page three of the Warragul Guardian and Buln Buln and Narracan Shire Advocate from  June 23, 1893, see here. I have transcribed the article.

Those of the unemployed who were sent to work at Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp by the Public Works department some time ago, and who have since obtained 20-acre blocks fronting the Main Drain from the  Lands Department, with the view of cultivating  them and making homes for themselves and their families there, are showing a praiseworthy desire to assist themselves. Each alternate week they devote towards clearing the ti-tree off their blocks, and now they have entered into an arrangement with the Public Works department to construct a tram way from Koo-Wee-Rup Station, on the Great Southern Railway, along the Main Drain to Bunyip Station, on the Gippsland line, a distance of 15 miles. They have formed themselves into a co-operative company, and each man on the settlement is to give one day's work free towards constructing the tramway.

They have also agreed to give a shilling a month for six months towards the purchase of the rails, which are to be supplied by the Government, and each man undertakes to go into the bush and cut 50 sleepers without making any charge. The gauge of the tramway will be 2ft. 8in., and it will be worked by horses. The spongy nature of the country precludes the formation of good roads, and hence the necessity for the tramway. As soon as it is finished they will work it and charge freights according to distance. The Government intend giving the men every encouragement, and an expert in horticulture from the Agricultural Department will shortly visit the settlement and give the men instructions how to plant fruit trees, &c., on their holdings.