Tynong Mechanics' Institute

The earliest public building in Tynong was the Mechanics’ Institute and this post looks at the history of this Hall and the other one (or was it two or even three?) Halls that may have at one time been at Tynong. You can read a general history of Tynong, here. 

In the nineteenth century the term ‘mechanic’ meant artisan or working man. The Mechanics’ Institute movement began in 1800 when Dr George Birkbeck of the Andersonian Institute in Scotland gave a series of lectures to local mechanics. The lectures were free and popular. They led to the formation of the Edinburgh School of Arts (1821) and the London Mechanics’ Institute (1823). The movement spread quickly throughout the British Empire. The first Victorian Mechanics’ Institute was the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institute established in 1839 and renamed The Melbourne Athenaeum in 1873, which continues to operate in its original building on Collins Street. Over a thousand were built in Victoria, and over 550  remain today (1).  The buildings were essentially a public hall with usually a Library. 

The first reference I can find to the Tynong Mechanics’ Institute was in The Argus in February 1886 (2), when the building was used to hold a political meeting, so that would indicate a likely build date of late 1885, early 1886. The first school in Tynong which operated from August 1887 until 1892 was in the Mechanics' Institute (3). 

First reference I can find to the Tynong Mechanics' Institute

The Argus, February 23, 1886 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6085232

In the early days Mechanics' Institutes had to send in a return to the Government and these returns were published in the annual  Statistical Register for the Colony of Victoria compiled from official records in the office of the Government Statist (4).  Tynong appears in the 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891 and 1892 editions of the Statistical Registers. 

The 1887 issue tells us that the building cost £145 to erect of which £21 came from the Government and £29 from other sources, £50 in total, which meant that £95 pounds was still owing. They had a collection of 236 books and they were open every evening. The next year, 1888, the book stock was 200, the opening hours were 1.00pm to 3.00pm and 7.00pm to 9.00pm and they had 550 visits throughout the year and received a Government grant of £20.  1889 - book stock -196; hours 9.00am -11.00am and 6.00pm to 8.00pm, annual visits were 350 and received a Government grant of £6 18 shillings.  1890 - same opening hours as 1889, book stock 207 and annual visits were 600. 1891 - book stock was 300; hours were 7.00pm to 10.00pm Thursday and Saturday and annual visits were 260. 1892 - book stock was 200, opening hours 7.00pm to 10.00pm on Wednesday and visits had declined to 100 (5). 

Fancy dress ball at Tynong

South Bourke and Mornington Journal September 6, 1903 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66140686

The next Tynong school (No. 2854) opened on May 1, 1905 in the Tynong Hall and it was used for this purpose until 1908, when the old Cardinia school was shifted to a newly acquired site on the west side of Tynong Road (where St Thomas Aquinas School is now located) (6). 

In December 1917, the Dandenong Advertiser reported on
The occasion of the opening of the local public hall (the need of which has long been felt), on Friday evening last, was honored by the holding of a concert, a coronation ceremony and a ball......The purpose of the queen carnival was to provide funds, not only to put the building in such a condition, that the requirements of the Board of Public Health would be met, but also that some degree of comfort might be secured, and to this end a large committee room, and a ladies' room were' added to the structure. About £100 were spent on these improvements (7). This was not the current hall which opened in 1927, more of which later.

I feel  these additions of the Ladies' Rooms and the Committee Room were to the original Mechanics' Institute.  However, the book From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen notes that the first public hall was originally the school, put on land bought by the Progress Association in 1913 from Mrs Gault. It was opened in 1917 (8). So, was the 1917 building a new hall and not an extension to the old Mechanics' Institute? 

A report in the Pakenham Gazette of November 10, 1961 says the history of the 

Tynong Hall goes back to 1909, in which year the Progress Association purchased the present site from Mr Gault. A year or so later they purchased from the Education department an old Schoolroom and that served as Tynong’s Hall for many years. (9).

There is yet another account of a Tynong Hall from the Pakenham Gazette of June 15, 1962 which are the reminiscences of an early resident, Mrs Ryan. Mrs Ryan says -
Where Wilson’s home is at present in 1918 a partly built house, three rooms and frame work for more. The Centre rooms were at one time a Tynong Hall. It was in the paddock opposite the lane that runs between Jack Hamill's amd Keith Nilsson's. Mr Jas Smith later sold to Mrs Gault and Miss O'Connor. In the early 1920s Mr Jas Marsden bought it and had a nice 6-roomed home made of it. (Mrs Marsden for years had a catering business.) Mr Cecil Brand bought the property and turned it into a nice home and complete with fowl pens etc. There have been a few more tenants since then, and at present Wilsons occupy it (10).

The Hall after the wind storm of Wednesday, August 5, 1959.

Pakenham Gazette August 14, 1959, p. 1

The current Hall was officially opened on January 14, 1927 by Councillor J. Dowd, the Shire President. The Hall cost £900.00 (11). Disaster befell this Hall thirty years later as the Pakenham Gazette of November 10, 1961 reported -
August 5, 1959 , was a black day in the history of Tynong. On it a gale, sweeping through a narrow belt of country, blew over their Public Hall. So great was the damage that opinion was almost equally divided as to whether the building could or could not be restored to its original condition. If August '59 was a black day, November 6th, '61, was a 'red letter night', for it marked the re-opening of a much better Hall than Tynong ever possessed before, with the addition of a new supper room and other rooms. Needless to say, the building was packed to the doors for the happy occasion. About 250 attended. The supper room had a well-equipped kitchen and there was also a Ladies' room. (12).

The Tynong Hall at its re-opening in November 1961.

Pakenham Gazette November 10, 1961, p. 1

Tynong Hall

Image: Heather Arnold, 2023

Tynong Hall also has a Projection Room, clearly seen in the picture, above, which is currently inaccessible. I have no confirmed information about this Projection Room. Was it built in 1927 when the Hall was built – the 1920s was time when many Picture Theatres were being erected, so that would be logical.  However These Walls Speak Volumes: a history of Mechanics' Institutes in Victoria notes that in the 1950’s the Hall Committee purchased a film projector and used the Hall as a Picture Theatre and that there is a memorial tablet in the bio-box (13). But then I found this advertisement from April 1952  about the Tynong Theatre plant being sold as a going concern. Were they selling recently acquired equipment? If the Theatre wasn't in the Hall, where was it? I have no answers.

Picture Theatre Tynong Plant sale.

The Argus, April 12, 1952 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23173771

The Mural of the Tynong Quarry, which supplied the granite for the Shrine of Remembrance. 

The Artist was Andrew Rowe and the mural was unveiled in 2004.

Image: Heather Arnold, 2023

The current hall was built in front of the Mechanics' Institute Hall, and in the 1950s and early 1960s original hall was being used as Infant Welfare Centre and a Supper room (14). I presume that the article, below, is referring to the 1885 building, however it really only adds to the confusion as to whether there was actually a hall built in 1917.  My local sources tell me that the building was sold and moved to the Bayliss farm on the Highway (15). From there it was  relocated to Old Gippstown at Moe in 1973 (or 1978), where it remains today; and Old Gippstown claim it to be the original Mechanics' Institute (16).

Move to sell Tynong's first public hall (or was it?)

Pakenham Gazette, February 9, 1962, p. 10

So, were there in fact three or even four Tynong Halls? The 1885 Mechanics’ Institute, the 1927 current Hall and a Hall that was opened in c. 1910 or 1917 or was there yet another Hall that became part of Mr Wilson’s house? Tynong is said to be Aboriginal for ‘plenty of fish’ but I believe it must really mean ‘plenty of halls’. 

Trove list - I have created a short list of articles about the halls at Tynong, access it here. 

Footnotes

(1) http://www.mivic.org.au/history-of-mechanics-institutes.html
(2) The Argus, February 23, 1886, see here. 
(3) Vision and Realisation: a centenary history of State Education in Victoria, edited by L.J. Blake. (Education Department of Victoria, 1973)
(4) Statistical Register for the Colony of Victoria, access them here.
(5) Ibid

(6) Vision and Realisation, op. cit.

(7) The Dandenong Advertiser, December 20, 1917, see here.

(8) From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen: a brief history of the Shire of Berwick (Historical Society of Berwick Shire, 1962), p. 44.

(9) Pakenham Gazette, November 10, 1961, p. 1.

(10) Pakenham Gazette, June 15, 1962. p. 5.

(11) The Argus, January 17, 1927, see here. 

(12) Pakenham Gazette, November 10, 1961, p. 1.

(13) Baragwanath, Pam and James, Ken These Walls Speak Volumes: a history of Mechanics' Institutes in Victoria (published by the authors in 2015), p. 584.

(14) Pakenham Gazette, February 9, 1962, p. 10; Information supplied by Mrs Gladys Quigley and Mrs Bev Henwood February 28, 2023.

(15)  Information supplied by Mrs Gladys Quigley and Mrs Bev Henwood February 28, 2023.

(16) Baragwanath and James (see above) note it was removed in 1973 and the Old Gippstown website (see here)  says 1978.

A version of this post, which I wrote and researched,  has appeared on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to Our Past, as well as the Garfield Spectator. This is an updated and expanded version.