The Bunyip and Garfield Express (BGE) of January 9, 1920 had a complaint about the slowness of the post. The publishers had received complaints about the late delivery of the paper. They wrote that the paper is mostly posted on Thursday, before the mail closes at 6pm, and subscribers should get their papers on Friday, and certainly no later than Saturday. Sometimes they do not receive them until Monday. They leave here on Thursday’s train, but owing to the absurd practice of all letters, papers etc for Garfield, Tynong, Cora Lynn, Vervale and several other places close at hand, having to go to Melbourne first, no doubt that is where the delay occurs. The paper wrote to the Deputy Postmaster-General about the matter and received a response saying that the matter would receive consideration.
Also, in January in the BGE was this – Naturalists and lovers of birds will be interested to learn that a blackbird has made its appearance near the Junction Bridge [south of Bunyip], and has been seen and heard on several occasions by residents in the locality. It is to be hoped that the rare specimen will not be destroyed. (Bunyip and Garfield Express January 30, 1920) Blackbirds were introduced to Victoria in the 1860s by the Acclimatisation Society, they were set free along with other introduced species such as starlings and skylarks in areas such as the Botanic Gardens and Phillip Island. It’s interesting it took around 60 years for the birds to acclimatise enough and make it out to this area.
In the same issue of the BGE was a report of Tobacco growing in Bunyip. It is now illegal to grow tobacco without an excise license and according to the Australian Taxation Office website there have been no licensed tobacco growers in Australia since 2006 (be interesting to know how much ‘illegal’ tobacco is grown, but that’s another story). Anyway, in late 1919 a syndicate began growing tobacco in a plantation on Old Sale Road. The Syndicate’s tobacco expert is quoted as saying in his 30 years’ experience in the trade he has not handled a better tobacco leaf as grown at present in Bunyip. The syndicate were in the process of erecting a curing shed. (Bunyip and Garfield Express January 30, 1920)
Before trucks and decent roads, all produce was despatched by rail and there were regular complaints about the lack of rail trucks and therefore tons of potatoes just sat on the railway station for days awaiting transportation. Dairy farmers were also unhappy with the railways - a letter to The Argus signed by ‘Dairy Woman’ of Tynong said that the milk train left Nar Nar Goon at 9.00pm, but they had just been notified that for the future we would have to have the milk loaded by half-past 5 p.m. We all strongly object to such an alteration. It means beginning to milk at 3 o'clock, which leaves very little time to plough, to put in the feed to produce the milk. (The Argus August 27, 1920)
Complaint about the time of the milk train at Nar Nar Goon.
The Argus August 27, 1920. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4587653
In other railway news the local branch of the Australian Natives Association, a Mutual Society which provided medical, sickness and funeral cover, passed a motion to have the railway line duplicated as far as Warragul. (The Age, February 20, 1920) I believe the last part of this duplication, the line between Bunyip and Longwarry, is being planned at the moment - just a mere 100 years after it was suggested. The other bit of interesting railway news took place in July when 38 empty cattle trucks became separated from the engines because the couplings broke and they travelled nine miles from the Drouin Railway Station until they finally came to a standstill between Garfield and Bunyip. No damage was done.
In August, the Traralgon Record reported on a Court case involving two Garfield North families - fifteen year old Leslie Brew sued E. R. Towt for £99 in damages in the Warragul Court. Apparently, Leslie and Mr Towt’s son were fighting and when young Brew got the best of the struggle, Mr Towt set his dogs on to him and he was bitten on both legs. The Judge awarded Leslie Brew £25 in damages, with costs, and said it was a most cowardly thing to set a dog upon a boy.
As a matter of interest when I was writing this article there was a really heavy hail storm in Melbourne being reported on the television and I came across this in The Argus of July 30, 1920. Horatio Weatherhead of North Tynong wrote into the Nature Notes and Queries column and said in January 1887 there was a hailstorm at Daylesford when jagged lumps of ice nearly a foot long and weighing up to 4lb fell. The damage to windows, roofs and crops was considerable. The remarkable thing is that no one was seriously injured. The hailstorm was referred to at the time as "falling icebergs”.
We will finish this with a report which had the headline A Pugnacious Waiter. Walwin Harold Lucas was charged with assault. This man was employed as a waiter for two days, and in that time he had twelve fights with the customers, in addition to assaulting his employer. (The Herald, April 20, 1920) He was fined 40 shillings on each of the charges or 14 days in gaol. His connection to Garfield is that he had also kept a tobacconist's shop, at Garfield, but on account of his behavior he had been warned by the police to leave. So, clearly customer service was not his strong point and neither was anger management. Plus, I did not know that the Police could ‘run you out of town’, I thought that only happened in the Wild West.
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