Early days of Garfield and Cannibal Creek

The earliest recorded European settlers in the Garfield region were the lessees of the two Connabul Creek Runs, both leased in 1845. Connabul Creek 1,of 8,960 acres, was leased by Michael Ready (or Reedy) and James Hook and Connabul Creek 2 was leased by Terence O’Connor and a Mr Hayes. Essentially, these Runs were located between the Ararat Creek and the Bunyip River, north of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp. Another source tells us that a Mr Thompson had the Cannibal Creek cattle run from 1845.

The term Cannibal Creek is believed to have come about because early Surveyors in the area had left their fox terrier in their camp and when they returned they found the dog had been killed and eaten by Dingoes and thus they named the creek Cannibal Creek. Another version of the name is that the word Coonabul comes from a corruption of the Aboriginal word couna meaning “forehead” and bal meaning “he” or “she”. This possibly referred to the shape of Mount Cannibal, which was thought to resemble a head.

The Garfield area opened up after a road was surveyed from Dandenong to Gippsland in 1847 along the edge of the ranges and when this proved to be impassable in places, a new road, which became the coach route, was surveyed between 1857 and 1859. This went through Cannibal Creek, via the old township of Buneep and onto Crossover. The Melbourne to Sale telegraph line followed this route in 1865, which eventually gave the road the name of Old Telegraph Road (see map).  Where this road crossed the Cannibal Creek, a small settlement was surveyed in 1860 and the township of Cannibal Creek was born. In 1866 Jabez Janes established a beer house on the south side of Cannibal Creek.  

According to a public notice in The Argus of December 21,1866 Jabez applied for a Beer Licence in my house of five rooms finished and others partly built. He was granted the licence, however a year later he was declared insolvent due to the falling off of business in consequence of the Government changing the line of road between Cannibal and Shady Creeks. He had debts of £192 pounds. Three years later Jabez, who was described as a beer-seller at Cannibal’s Creek was back in the Courts again, when he was charged with deserting his de facto, Mary Ann Goldsmith, with whom he had five children, and leaving her and the children without support  He was ordered to pay support and put up a surety of £20. The Argus goes on to report that as the man had neither money nor friends to assist him he was sent to gaol.  I have written more about Jabez Janes and Mary Ann (also called Maria) Goldsmith, here.

The next licensee of hotel then called the Pig & Whistle was Mrs Kathleen Leeson. Mrs Leeson died in 1910, aged 100 years old. Kathleen and her husband Robert had selected land at Cannibal Creek in the early 1860s.

Competition for the Pig & Whistle came with the establishment in 1867 of David Connor’s New Bunyip Inn. This was built on the Bunyip River on the Gippsland Road, as the Princes Highway was then called. The coach route then changed direction at Cannibal Creek and turned south east to this Inn, and became known as Old Sale Road (see map). A small settlement developed around the Inn, including the establishment of a bakery by William Snell. However, Garfield really took off with the establishment of the Railway, which we will look at in the next post.

Garfield - after the coming of the Railway

In another post I looked at the history of Garfield up until the coming of the Railway, which is really the seminal event in the history of Garfield. The Gippsland line to Sale was opened in stages - Sale to Morwell in June 1877, Oakleigh to Bunyip on  October 8 1877, Moe to Morwell December 1877, Moe to Bunyip March 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh in 1879. Originally, the only Stations between Dandenong and Bunyip were Berwick and Pakenham. The timber industry boomed after the railway and a series of sidings developed along the line to despatch timber such as Officers Wood Siding in 1881, where the Officer family sent firewood to Melbourne.  This is now the Officer Station. Around the same time, Fraser’s Siding was established to accommodate Donald Fraser’s Saw Mill and this later became Longwarry. In the Garfield area the Railway lead to the establishment of two early industries, Jefferson’s Saw Mill and brick works and the Cannibal Creek Saw Mill Company.

Joseph Jefferson established a saw mill in 1877 on the site of what was to become his clay pit, off Railway Avenue. He sent this timber out via Bunyip Station until a local siding, the Cannibal Creek Siding, was built in 1885 to accommodate the timber tramline which was constructed by William Brisbane, a contractor on behalf of Francis Stewart.  This tramline run for about 8 kilometres, to the Two Mile Creek,  the Garfield North road basically follows this tramway.  In the same year, Cannibal Creek Saw Mill Company Limited was registered in October by the Stewart family, with William Brisbane being a minority shareholder. Stewart had already obtained the saw milling rights to 2,000 acres of forest in 1883. Both Stewart and Brisbane had been involved separately and jointly in other mills and tramlines at Berwick, Beaconsfield and Nar Nar Goon.  The Cannibal Creek Saw Mill Company sounds like a very grand enterprise but apparently the Company was in trouble by December 1885, the tramline was disbanded in 1887 and the Company was placed in liquidation in 1888, however it deserves it’s place in Garfield’s history as the Cannibal Creek Siding, became the Garfield Railway Station.

 Getting back to Joseph Jefferson, his was a very successful business, as well as producing timber products such as fence posts and rails and firewood, he also mined the sand on his property to be used in the building industry in Melbourne and when he discovered clay on his property he began making clay bricks. The 1880s was a boom time for Victoria and Jefferson could produce over 50,000 bricks per week and fire 75,000 at a time in his kiln. The Depression of the 1890s saw a decline in the building industry which flowed onto his business and the brickworks eventually shut down in 1929.

Jefferson's Clay pit. The man on the right is believed to be Joseph Jefferson. 

Image: Settlers and Sawmillers : a history of the West Gippsland Tramways by Mike McCarthy 

(Light Railway Research Society of Australia, 1999)

In the next post I will look at the growth of the township which grew around the Cannibal Creek Siding.

If you are interested in the Timber Industry, then a good book is Settlers and Sawmillers : a history of the West Gippsland Tramways by Mike McCarthy. It is published by the Light Railway Research Society of Australia in 1999.

Cannibal Creek becomes Garfield

In the previous post we saw how a township developed around the Cannibal Creek Siding and this township became Garfield. One of the first public buildings was the Cannibal Creek State School which opened in 1886. The School was located on the Princes Highway, west of North Garfield Road. In 1899 the School building was re-located to Garfield Road at the top of the hill, half way between the Princes Highway and the Railway Station. In 1910 the Garfield School No. 2724 moved to a new building on its present site near the Railway Station. The old building was removed in 1914 to North Garfield where it became State School No.3489.

1886 and 1887 was a time of the consolidation for Garfield - in May 1886 the Cannibal Creek Post Office was established at the Railway Station. In the same year there was community agitation to have the name of the settlement changed.  On December 11 a petition was presented to the Berwick Shire from the ‘residents of Cannibal Creek’ objecting to the name of Swamp Vale for the name of the Railway siding and Post Office and suggesting that the place be named Hopetoun. The Council resolved to ask the Railway Commissioners to alter the name to Hopetoun.  In the end Hopetoun was rejected on the grounds that there was another Hopetoun in Victoria and Garfield was chosen. The Post Office became known as the Garfield Railway Post Office on May 16, 1887 and around the same time the School also changed its name from Cannibal Creek. Township blocks were sold in Garfield and the township of Garfield was officially gazetted on November 21, 1887. For the next few years the town developed, still relying on the timber and the brick works as a major source of employment, however Garfield also had a blacksmith, a builder and a beekeeper and some carriers. By 1888 Garfield also had a football team.

If you are interested in names then Hopetoun, the proposed named for Garfield came from Lord Hopetoun, was the seventh Earl of Hopetoun and the first Marquess of Linlithgow. He was Governor of Victoria from 1889 to 1895, and in 1901 the first Governor General of Australia. The name Garfield came from the assassinated American President, James Garfield, who was shot July 2, 1881 and died September 19, 1881. Swamp Vale naturally comes from the fact that Garfield was on the edge of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp. The Swamp was drained by cutting a canal from Bunyip to Western Port Bay, the Main Drain. The major drainage works took place from 1889 to 1893 when the Swamp was then considered ready for settlement and Garfield became a service centre for the Swamp residents. New businesses were established such as a baker, carpenter, saddler and even a Sweet shop run by a Mrs Williamson.

Cora Lynn - the early years

Cora Lynn is nine miles from the start of the Main Drain at Western Port Bay. Some of the towns along the drain were settled as part of the Public Works Department Village Settlement scheme. The 1890s was a time of economic depression in Australia and various Government Schemes were implemented to provide employment and to stop the drift of the unemployed to the city. One of these schemes was the Village Settlement Scheme. The aim was for the settlers to find employment outside the city and to boost their income from the sale of produce from their farms. It was in this context that the Village Settlement Scheme was implemented on the Swamp. 

 Under this Scheme, all workers had to be married, accept a block of land up to 20 acres, and spend a fortnight working on the drains for wages and a fortnight improving their block and maintaining adjoining drains. The villages were Koo Wee Rup, Five Mile (Koo Wee Rup North) Vervale, Iona and Yallock (1). Cora Lynn was not, however, part of this Village Settlement Scheme - the original block sizes along the drain near Cora Lynn were not twenty acres but, according to the Parish Plans, sixty acres to the west of Cora Lynn and from 40 acres to 80 acres to the east. They were taken up from around the mid 1890s. In the township of Cora Lynn, the first blocks were purchased in 1904. Other land sales took place in 1909 (2). 

The Cora Lynn State School opened in January 1907 and was originally called Koo Wee Rup Central (3). The Cora Lynn store was opened by George Petrie Murdoch in 1907 (4) and a post office opened on July 1,1907 and this prompted the Cora Lynn Progress Association to request a name change for the area, and thus Cora Lynn was adopted, after the Cora Lynn gorge on the North Esk River near Launceston (5). The opening of the Post Office also meant there was a daily mail service, as the South Bourke & Mornington Journal of July 17, 1907 reported - the Cora-Lynn folks are quite jubilant at having a daily mail running from Garfield. The time, I think, is not far distant when there will be a quite a little township at that place (6). 

This began a period of growth for the town. The community soon held social activities, such as dances, in the shelter shed at the school. This was obviously inadequate and in April 1910 a meeting was held for the purpose of establishing a Mechanics’ Institute and Library at Cora Lynn. At the same time euchre parties and dances were held to raise money to clear the recreation reserve - in July 1910 over 100 people attended such a function (7). In November 1911, the Cora Lynn Cheese factory opened. A branch of the London Bank (later taken over by the E.S & A bank) opened in a small building next to the General Store around January 1911. (8)

Cora Lynn - possibly the 1911 flood.

The Cora Lynn store is the centre building and the building on the right is the Bank.

However, all this progress had a downside as the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of August 24, 1910, reported – the Cora Lynn Progress Association has complained of the excessive speed at which motor cars and bicycles are being driven through the shire on the narrow roads and several persons had experienced very narrow escapes from accidents (9). 

By 1910, the School numbers had increased so much that students had to be taught in the shelter shed. Cora Lynn led the way in February 1911 when the parents of the school had the distinction of appointing the first School Committee in the State. This was reported on in The Argus of February 10, 1911 - The parents of children at the Cora Lynn State School, in Gippsland, have secured the distinction of appointing the first school committee in Victoria under the new Education Act passed last year which provides for the constitution of such committees in place of the old boards of advice. The Minister for Education (Mr A. A. Billson) says that, though the regulations governing the selection of committees have not yet been gazetted, he appreciates the enterprise of these parents in seeking to avoid delay. In announcing its appointment the committee has forwarded to the department a report on the school containing information which the Minister says will be of great value to the officials. Mr Billson considers this report to be much superior to the general run of communications regarding State Schools previously submitted by boards of advice, and he says that if other committees formed subsequently come up to the standard set by Cora Lynn the change from the old boards to the new parent's committees will prove a wise and beneficial policy (10).

The Cora Lynn hall, called Keast Hall, was named after William Keast (1866-1927). Keast was the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the area from 1900 to 1917. This hall was to have been opened on June 13, 1911, but the official opening was delayed due to the fact that three feet of water was running through the hall, one of the many floods to hit Cora Lynn (11).  The Hall was opened in early August 1911 - there was a short report in The Argus of August 9 - There was a large attendance at a concert on the occasion of the opening of Keast-hall, Cora Lynn. Councillor W. Carney presided, and Mr. W. S. Keast, M.L.A., and Mrs. Keast were present. Mr. Keast give £10 to the building fund. (12). 

The original building must have been fairly basic as a concert organised by Mrs Keast was held in June 1917 to raise money to line the walls of the hall.  The community had held various functions over the years for the hall including a roller skating night in July 1914 (13). 

Other town activities included sports gatherings held on the newly cleared recreation reserve and in January 1915 a Cora Lynn branch of the Victorian Potato Growers Association was formed (14).  On April 15, 1916 the first Cora Lynn Horticultural show was held. It was opened by Mr Keast, who was introduced by the Show President, Mr W. J Johnston, and the event was held in his ‘own’ hall. Mr Keast said the show was a natural display of the fertility of the district and the industry of the tillers of the soil. The report in the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of April 27, 1916 said the display of goods was highly creditable..... the ladies, without whom a exhibition would be a failure, pleased the eye by their gorgeous display of fancy work and literally caused the mouth to water by the appearance of preserves, confectionary and the many tempting objects they alone know how to produce (15).

Note: This post was originally written in 2013, it was updated in August 2021

Footnotes

(1) I have written more on the drainage of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp here  http://carlocatani.blogspot.com/2018/10/koo-wee-rup-swamp.html

(2)  https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2013/01/cora-lynn-township-plan-and-early-land.html

(3) Vision and Realisation: a centenary history of State Education in Victoria, edited by L.J. Blake. (Education Department of Victoria, 1973)

(4) Letter to the Advocate from Eileen Fitzpatrick, October 5, 1907, see here;  Letter to the Weekly Times from Arthur Murdoch, November 16, 1907, see here. See also here  https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2013/01/cora-lynn-store.html

(5) From information provided by Des Dineen, held by Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical

Society. 

(6) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, July 17, 1907, see here.

(7) The Argus, April 25, 1910, see here - see under Bunyip; The Argus, July 2, 1910, see here - see under Bunyip.

(8) https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2013/01/cora-lynn-cheese-factory.html; The E.S. & A. Bank, The Argus, January 31, 1911, see here. 

(9) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, August 24, 1910, see here.

(10) The Argus, February 10, 1911, see here.

(11) The Argus, June 14, 1911, see here.

(12) Hall opening - The Argus, August 9, 1911, see here.

(13) Concert report: Dandenong Advertiser, July 26, 1917. see here. Skating: Bunyip Free Press, July 23, 1914, see here.

(14) Dandenong Advertiser, January 14, 1915, see here.

(15) Dandenong Advertiser, April 27, 1916, see here.

The Nar Nar Goon to Mirboo railway line

The Argus, October 17, 1911.

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

I came across this the other day. I can tell you that the Railway line never eventuated, but it would have been interesting if it had. Cora Lynn never got  a railway station - the closest stations were Tynong and Garfield on the Gippsland line and the Bayles and Catani Railway Stations on the Koo-Wee-Rup to Strezelecki line. This line opened on June 29, 1922 and closed in stages with the Catani station closing in April 1950 and Bayles in February 1959.

Here's what it says:

Railways Standing Committee

Nar Nar Goon to Mirboo

Cora Lynn, Monday – the Railways Standing Committee visited Cora Lynn today, and took evidence in the public hall in regard to the proposed railway route from Nar Nar Goon to Mirboo, via Cora Lynn and Modella. Over 100 persons were present.

Mr Melville, M.L.C., presided, and Messrs Billson and Warde were also present.

Evidence was given by Messrs Kinsella, Porter, Murdock and Dyer in favour of the proposed line, and all favoured it going through Cora Lynn, in order to tap land to the south of that township. Messrs Chambers and Schmutter (Modella League) favoured the same route, provided the line was carried through Modella.

 The Committee also took evidence at Nar Nar Goon and Messrs Reid and Latta were examined in regard to the proposed route. The latter gentleman said that he had been 29 (?) years on 700 acres of land and after that time his land was only now in a fit state to produce crops which would be valuable to him.

Tynong & District Coursing Club

A meeting was held in late August 1941 to form the Tynong & District Coursing Club. The President was Peter Gleeson and the Secretary was Ernest Oram. Peter Gleeson was a farmer at Tynong and Ernest Oram was the storekeeper at Tynong   I am unfamiliar with grey hound racing,   but apparently a Coursing Club conducts plumpton meetings where two greyhounds compete on a straight track and are released from a set of slips instead of a starting box.

The Argus September 1 1941, page 3

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

In the March of 1942 the newly formed club was allocated the rights to conduct the classic coursing events – the Derby and the Oaks. The report in The Argus, said that the Tynong Club has practically completed the building of a magnificent enclosure on a site distant a mile from the town.  The course was on the Gleeson property on the Eleven Mile Road, near the corner of the Nine Mile Road (the Tynong-Cora Lynn Road) near where Gleeson Road adjoins the Eleven Mile Road, today. The opening meeting was held on May 16, 1942. The events included an All aged stakes, two Bitch Puppy stakes, two Dog Puppy stakes and a Maiden stake.  The All Aged stake was won by Palm Grove, owned by Rupert Colliver, a neighbour of the Gleesons.

Various other meetings were held in 1942, including the Derby in July and the President’s Cup meeting in August. The prize for this event was a Cup plus £25, a fairly substantial prize, the equivalent of about one month’s wages. The Club also raised money for the Red Cross and by October 1942 had raised £200.

In 1943, the Tynong Club won the right to host the Waterloo Cup. The first Waterloo Cup was conducted in 1873 and the event is still being held, in fact the 2011 and 2012 Waterloo Cups were conducted at the Lang Lang Coursing track. The 1943 event took place over two Saturdays on July 31 and August 7.  It was won by Keep Elert, defeating Air Flash, and the prize was £250 pounds, plus a Cup. 

There are reports about races throughout the 1940s and the Tynong Club appears to have grown in status fairly quickly, in fact it was reported in the Gippsland Times of September 19, 1946 that the Sale Club aims to take some Tynong glory and get a classic such as the St Ledger, Oaks, Derby or the blue ribbon event of plumpton coursing, the Waterloo Cup. It failed to get the Waterloo Cup as Tynong hosted it again in 1947 and also in 1954. The 1954, the Cup was won by Byamee, who is in the Greyhound Hall of Fame for winning the event from 1953 to 1955.

An article in The Argus of February 17, 1954 talked about grey hound racing in general and the fact the Victorian Government was legislating to bring in ‘tin hare racing’.  I presume that previous to this, live hares were used as the lure. There had been reports in various papers on Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper about community groups conducting ‘hare drives’ and bagging hares to be sent to the Tynong Coursing Club. The article also said that grey hound racing was at the cross roads and in the doldrums and that it had been unwise to change the venue of classics, such as the Waterloo Cup, and hold it in places that had  insufficient accommodation ...or accommodation unfit to house a greyhound, let alone humans.  I don’t know if that referred to Tynong, but it was a fairly isolated course, with the nearest accommodation being the Garfield, Nar Nar Goon or Pakenham Hotels.

In June 1955, Mr M. A. Cunningham, the treasurer of the Club, collected the major prize money for his four entries at the Tynong Club meeting.  In fact, one of his dogs, Belabek, left the crowd flabbergasted, when it won by 12 lengths.  The last line in the article was Fielders [bookmakers] said it was one of the worst days they had seen this season. The Tynong Coursing Club was still going in May 1956, but Dad thinks it didn’t go on for much longer after that.

Island Road School No. 3952

The Island Road School, formerly Dalmore East, opened June 23, 1919. The people of Dalmore East had been agitating for a school for a few years. In August 1916, Mr W. Giles, the Secretary of the Manks Road and District Farmers Association had written a letter to the Education Department with a list of 36 children who might attend the local school. In October 1916, the Education Department purchased one and a half acres of land from F. Wood for £20.00 per acre. A working bee was held to clear the land as the Education Department had a spare building in Koo-Wee-Rup that they were willing to move to Dalmore.  This building was the original Koo-Wee-Rup State School, No. 2629, building. School No. 2629 had opened on November 1, 1884 on the corner of Bethunes Road and the Koo-Wee-Rup to Bayles Road. It was originally known as Yallock School and changed its name to Koo-Wee-Rup on July 24, 1903. The building was shifted into Rossiter Road (where the Secondary College is) in September 1910. This building became redundant when a new building was opened in February 1915. It was this redundant building that the Education Department wanted to move to Dalmore East.

The School, in 1913, on the Rossiter Road site.

Photograph from the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical society collection.

Perhaps due to the War there were difficulties finding a contractor to re-locate the building and it wasn’t until May/June 1919 that a contractor could be found to move the School.  When it was opened on June 23, 1919 there were eighteen children enrolled –Alice Dixon, Annie Dixon, Ethel Dixon, Elsie Follett ,Vera Follett, Bessie Giles, Pauline Giles, Rosalind Levey, Wilfred Levey, David Mills, Alice Pepper, Gwendelon Pepper, Samuel Pepper, Sarah Pepper, Clara Wood, Clifford Wood, Emily Wood and Frank Wood. Another twelve children enrolled during the year. 

The first teacher was Miss Estella Forbes. Estella Forbes had previously taught at Flemington Primary School and this School had an average attendance of 580 students in 1915, so Island Road would have been a bit of a shock to her. Estella did not stay very long as the first year of operation saw a succession of teachers; after Estella there was Elizabeth Anderson, then Alexander Munro, then Eric Elliott who started in 1920 and left in 1923. This succession of teachers probably reflects the reality of teaching in a one teacher country school - many of these teachers would have been young; there was no school house so they would have had to board locally or else travel in from Koo-Wee-Rup on a horse, or as Eric did a bicycle. As well, resources were poor and the teachers complained about lack of basic resources such as desks and blackboards.  

The School, in 1969, at Island Road.

Photograph from the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society collection.

The School was surrounded by water in the December 1934 flood but it did not enter the actual building, although the shelter shed and outdoor toilets were inundated.  It was due  to the fact the school was an island during the flood that James Marshall, who was the teacher at the school from 1932 until 1936, suggested that the school change its name to Island Road School  and this was adopted in 1935. 

From 1919 until 1945 there had been 15 teachers at the school, and the school was closed for a short time in 1944-45 when no suitable accommodation for a teacher could be provided. This succession of teachers came to an end in 1945 when Allan Humphries was appointed, as he stayed until 1955. During his tenure, electricity was installed in 1953.
A Young Farmers Club was established at the school in 1939 by teacher Walter Koochew and in 1946 Allan Humphries started a Scout Troop, with himself as the Scout Leader.  Mr Humphries also started evening classes to teach English to the newly arrived migrants from Holland, Italy and Greece. After Humphries left in 1955 there was another succession of teachers with none staying more than three years.  At the time of the Island Road School Golden Jubilee celebrations and ‘Back-to’ in 1969, student numbers were down to seventeen. In a documet that we have at the Society, it was reported that in the fifty years the school had educated 344 students. Over 500 people attended the Golden Jubilee celebrations.  Island Road School, No.3952, closed in 1974 when enrolments were down to six. 

In 1984, Koo-Wee-Rup Primary School, No. 2629, celebrated its centenary and fittingly its original building was moved back onto the Koo-Wee-Rup Primary School site from Island Road that year.