If you put the term 'dissolving bones' into the newspapers on Trove, you get about 1800 results up to the 1920s just for Victoria alone. Not a topic I thought anyone would write about, but apparently people wanted to dissolve bones to re-use them as fertiliser and they wrote to the newspapers asking for 'recipes' or the best method. So I presume these people were all farmers or keen home gardeners and not serial killers.
The Leader of February 8, 1879 published the following request from a person calling themselves, T. Koala of Tobin Yallock.
The Leader, February 8, 1879 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198005144
Sir, Would you kindly inform me the best way to dissolve bones. I have tried sulphuric acid, one part to ten of water. That will not do. Then I tried one to five, but no better. Should the bones be covered with anything? A reply will oblige,
Yours, &c.,
T. KOALA.
Tobin Yallock.
The reply was - 1 ton bones crushed will take half a ton of vitrol [sulphuric acid], consisting of 5 cwt. of acid to 5 of water. Cover with earth.
Yours, &c.,
T. KOALA.
Tobin Yallock.
The reply was - 1 ton bones crushed will take half a ton of vitrol [sulphuric acid], consisting of 5 cwt. of acid to 5 of water. Cover with earth.
Tobin Yallock was the forerunner of the town of Lang Lang, it was based around the intersection of McDonalds Track and the South Gippsland Highway. The first store and hotel were built c.1867 by William Lyall and located on part of the Tobin Yallock (or Torbinurruck) squatting run on the junction of McDonald’s Track and the Grantville Road, as the South Gippsland Highway was then called. This store and hotel became the nucleus of the town of Lang Lang, as it was officially known, though the locals called it Tobin Yallock. Tobin Yallock would eventually have a church, a Post Office, Mechanics’ Institute and other stores. Its decline began with the coming of the South Gippsland railway line when the station was built east of Tobin Yallock in 1890. By about 1894 most of the businesses and public buildings had transferred to the new Lang Lang based around the railway station.
Read more about Lang Lang in Protector’s Plains: history of Lang Lang Primary School No.2899, 1888- 1988 and district by Barbara Coghlan (C.B.C Publishing, 1988)
