Bunyip Hotels

In 1847 a  road was surveyed from Dandenong to Gippsland  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 in 1859 by A. Campbell.  This went through Cannibal Creek (around where Bassed road is in North Garfield) and through 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 and where it crossed the Bunyip River was where the aforementioned town of Buneep was established (where modern day Ellis Road would cross the Bunyip River). This town was surveyed in the 1850s - it had a High Street and a Barkly Street (you can see the Survey Plan, below)  In 1857 David Connor selected  a site for an Inn and it was built in the early 1860s, this was called the Buneep Inn (later the Old Bunyeep Inn).  In 1869 John Rhoden became the proprietor, I believe he was a son-in-law of  David O'Connor.

This is the township of Buneep, surveyed in the 1850s.. Click on the picture for an enlargement

The Argus October 23, 1865

This advertisement from The Argus, October 1865 advises that you could catch a mail coach at 5.00pm  Monday to Saturday and have a 36 hour trip all the way to Sale, stopping at Bunyip or the old township of Bunyeep. That would have been a fairly rugged 36 hours!

Bunnyip Hotel, North Gippsland, c. 1880-1885 [David Connor's New Bunyip Inn]

Photographer: Fred Kruger. State Library of Victoria Image H41138/11

Around 1867  David Connor’s New Bunyip Inn, was established. It is pictured above. This was built on the Bunyip River on the Gippsland Road, as the Princes Highway was then called. It was on the south side of the Highway,  just east of A'Beckett Road and the west side of the Bunyip River.  The coach route then changed direction at Cannibal Creek and turned south east to this Inn, and became known as Old Sale Road. A small settlement developed around the Inn, including the establishment of a bakery by William Snell in 1878 and a dance hall erected by Mr Hyne, opposite the Inn. At some time another son-in-law of David Connor, took over this Hotel, David Devanny or Devenay  or Deveney depending on sources. He was still there in 1897, but the hotel was closed by the Licensing Reduction Board in 1917.

The red circle,  shows the location of the New Bunyip Inn and the small settlement that surrounded it. 

Dandenong Advertiser, June 14 1917

The closure of the New Bunyip Hotel was announced in June 1917.

Bunyip Hotel, c. 1890 - but is this actually in Bunyip?

Museum Victoria  http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/768080

This photograph is the Bunyip Hotel, George Stevens, Licensed Victualler. It's location is labelled as Bunyip, but I am not sure if that is the case. It's obviously not the New Bunyip Inn, as the building in the top photo has a sign which says, New Bunyip Hotel, and this is clearly a different building. It is not a forerunner of the Railway Hotel and Gippsland Hotel in the township of Bunyip, as the landscape is wrong and I feel it is unlikely to be the original Bunyip Inn as, I can't see that there would have been enough traffic to sustain such a large building. I believe that this building is not in Bunyip and I am suggesting that it could be the Bunyip Hotel in Cavendish - it's been around since at least the 1860s and modern day photos, show that the 1930s existing building is on a corner like this on  flat ground. More than happy to be proved wrong.

The township of Bunyip moved again after the establishment of the Gippsland Railway Line. The line was completed from Oakleigh to Bunyip in October 1877. This saw the establishment of two other Bunyip Hotels  as firstly the line from Morwell to Bunyip wasn't completed until March 1878, so travellers had to stop over at Bunyip and continue by coach, secondly the hotels serviced the locals and the workers on the railway line. The Hotels were the Butcher's Arms and the Bunyip Hotel, according to Call of the Bunyip.  John O'Brien had the licence for the Bunyip Hotel and in January 1877 he took up the licence for the Railway Family Hotel, once again, according to Call of the Bunyip.

The Argus  May 17, 1881.

John O'Brien's tenure at the Family Hotel didn't last very long as it was sold up by the Sherrifs Office in May 1881, as the advertisement in The Argus, above, attests. I am a bit hazy on the early details of these hotels -  by 1884 there are various advertisements for Lawrence Finch's Gippsland Hotel at Bunyip - this Hotel is still in existence (it's known as the Top Pub); in 1897 Lawrence's daughter, Sarah Alice Finch was listed as the licensee. Sarah married William Kraft, who took over as the licensee and it was known as Kraft's Gippsland Hotel. The original building was burnt down and the new building (the existing one) opened in 1927.

Gippsland Hotel and Main Street, Bunyip, 1908
Photograph from The Call of the Bunyip by Denise Nest

The other hotel in  Bunyip today is the Railway Hotel - Thomas Stacey is listed as a publican in the Shire of Berwick Rate books in 1890 and he had it for many years, but I am unsure of the connection, if any, between the Railway Hotel and early hotels - was John O'Brien's Railway Family Hotel the same hotel as the Railway Hotel or was it the Butcher's Arms? The original building is pictured below. It was destroyed by fire in 1924 and the new building, which is the existing building, opened in October of the same year.

Stacey's Railway Hotel on Main Street Bunyip, c.1915

 http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/795792 

Stacey's Railway Hotel, Bunyip c. 1925 

http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/795149 

This photograph was taken a year after this building was opened in October 1924, replacing the original building which was destroyed by fire.

An overview of the three Bunyip townships, they moved south each time. Click on image to enlarge.

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Mobile Library towns - back in time

Casey Cardinia Library Corporation (CCLC)  has a Mobile Library which services various towns throughout the Cardinia Shire.   If you aren't  a regular Mobile Library user but happen to be meandering around the country side then you should pop in and take a look if you see it stopped and open for business. The Mobile has a good collection of  items - books, DVDs, CDs, magazines etc - you just use your regular CCLC membership card.  Click here to access the timetable. If you want to read about the history of Mobile Library services in the region, click here.

I thought it would be interesting to take a look back in time, at the towns where the Mobile Library stops.

On Monday, it stops at Bunyip, Garfield and Tynong.

Bunyip - Main Street,  1908.

Photograph: Call of the Bunyip by Denise Nest.

Garfield - Looking down Main Street, 1910.

Photograph: North of the line: a pictorial record

Tynong - Looking west

Photograph: North of the line: a pictorial record

On Tuesday, it stops at Beaconsfield Upper and Gembrook.

Beaconsfield Upper - Wilson's store

Photograph: Upper Beaconsfield: an early history by Charles Wilson

Gembrook - Walker's Store

Photograph: North of the line:  a pictorial record

On Wednesday,  it stops at Beaconsfield.

Beaconsfield - Woods Street

Photograph: Beaconsfield History Group

On Thursday, it stops at Maryknoll and Cockatoo.

Maryknoll - Post Office and General Store, 1969.

Photograph: Maryknoll: history of a Catholic Rural Settlement by Gael White (2002)

Cockatoo - Fairbridge's store

Photograph: North of the line:  a pictorial record

On Friday, it stops at Lang Lang and Koo-Wee-Rup. 

Lang Lang - Main Street

Photograph: Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society collection

Koo-Wee-Rup - Rossiter Road, 1923

Photograph: Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society collection.

On Saturday, it's back to Bunyip.

Bunyip - Pearson and Company store, c. 1905.

Photograph: Call of the Bunyip by Denise Nest

If this has inspired you to visit the Mobile Library then click here for the link to the time table. 

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Bunyip

The Bunyip Historical Society has republished Call of the Bunyip: History of Bunyip, Iona and Tonimbuk 1847-1990, written by the late Denise Nest. This is a comprehensive look at the social history of the area and covers the Churches, Schools, the Hospital, Sport and Community Groups such as the Red Cross, Country Women's Association and Masonic Lodge. There is also a section on the War Memorial and the Returned Services League. Lastly, there is a section on local families. The present town of Bunyip owes its existence to the Railway line. The Gippsland line to Sale opened in stages - Sale to Morwell in June 1877; Oakleigh to Bunyip on October 8 1877; Moe to Morwell in December 1877; Moe to Bunyip in March 1878 and the last stretch from South Yarra to Oakleigh in 1879.

A reporter from The Argus did the trip to Bunyip, a few days before the official opening, and presents a fairly bleak picture of the township, as we can see from the article reproduced below.  Bunyip did overcome this bleak start and soon community institutions developed - the Bunyip State School opened in January 1880; the Anglican Church began services in 1879 in a hall and the picturesque St Thomas Church opened in December 1902. The Methodist Church opened in October 1899. A Mechanics' Institute opened in 1906. The Post Office had opened with the Railway Station and moved into town in 1906. A Police Station was erected in 1903.

 The Argus, October 4, 1877

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

Both Bunyip and Garfield benefited by the drainage of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp which opened up thousands of hectares to farmland to the south, after settlement started from 1893.

Before the railways there were two other townships called Bunyip. In 1847  a road was surveyed from Dandenong to Gippsland 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 in 1859.  Where this road crossed the Cannibal Creek, a small settlement was surveyed in 1860 and the township of Cannibal Creek was born and the Pig and Whistle Inn was established.  The road continued basically along the modern day road of Ellis Road to the old township of Buneep on the Bunyip River. The Melbourne to Sale telegraph line followed this route in 1865, which eventually gave the road the name of Old Telegraph Road (see mud map*). 

In 1867,  David Connor’s New Bunyip Inn 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 mud  map). A small settlement developed around the Inn, including the establishment of a bakery by William Snell.  However, with the arrival of the railways, the new settlement at Bunyip eclipsed the Old Sale Road settlement.

I have done some research into the men from Bunyip who served in the First World War and are on the Bunyip War Memorial and the Bunyip Methodist Church Honour Roll. 

You can buy a copy of the book from the Newsagency in Bunyip or you can email the Bunyip Historical Society on bhs@dcsi.net.au

* I made up the map and have no cartographic training whatsoever, so it is more a representation than a map. Heather

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Bunyip aerial photographs 1985

Last week I posted some aerial photographs of Garfield, taken by the Shire of Pakenham in November 1985. Click here to see these photographs. This week we will look at aerial photographs of Bunyip, taken at the same time also by the Shire of Pakenham.

 Bunyip, looking south, towards Recreation Reserve. The intersection is of High Street, Princess Street on the right, A'Beckett Street on the left. High Street then continues as Nash Road.

 

Bunyip, looking north. The intersection is of Bunyip-Modella Road with the Nar Nar Goon-Longwarry Road and the railway line. Bunyip-Modella Road becomes Hope Street, north of the railway line. 

Almost the same shot as above - Bunyip, looking north. The intersection is of Bunyip-Modella Road with the Nar Nar Goon-Longwarry Road and the railway line. Bunyip-Modella Road becomes Hope Street, north of the railway line. 

Bunyip, looking east. This is the intersection of Hope Street and Princess Street (running off the left) across to High Street. 

 Bunyip is on the Gippsland Railway line to Sale. The line runs from top to bottom, on the left of the picture (or west to east). Further left is the Nar Nar Goon-Longwarry Road. On the right of the line are the shops, hotels and Public Hall in Main Street. 

Bunyip Recreation Reserve. The road to the west of the Reserve is the Bunyip-Modella Road. You can see the Railway line, running from the top (west) to the right. 

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Bills Troughs in Casey Cardinia

You may have seen some Bills Troughs, on your travels throughout Australia and overseas. They were funded from a bequest from the will of George Bills, who died on December 14, 1927. His will left various bequests to friends and employees but the bulk of his Estate was to be made available by his Executors to Societies for the protection of animals, such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and for the construction of horse troughs for the relief of horses or other ‘dumb animals’. These troughs were to be inscribed with the names of George and his wife Annis.

Who were George and Annis Bills? An article by Tim Gibson, Donated by Annis and George Bills - Australia: their concrete horse trough legacy published in the Gippsland Heritage Journal (see full citation at the bottom of this post) tells us that George was one of fourteen children and was born in Brighton in England on March 11, 1859. The family emigrated to New Zealand in 1869 and moved to Victoria in 1873. In 1880 George, and his brother Henry, commenced a wire working business in Sydney. Other brothers, Richard and Walter, later joined the business. Walter had invented a wire coiler and this led the Company into the manufacture of wire mattresses. The business became known as Bills Brothers. Various of the brothers operated factories in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane at one time. George married Annis Elizabeth Swann (b.1860) on May 18, 1885 at the Brisbane Registry Office. In 1910 the couple went on a trip to England where Annis died. They had no children.

The Bills troughs, for both horses and dogs, in High Street Bunyip. The terracotta roof in the background belongs to the Post Office, which was opened on December 8, 1925

Image: Heather Arnold

George and his brother Henry had been supporters of the Victorian Society for the Protection of Animals as the RSPCA was then called and this devotion to the cause of animal welfare was continued after George’s death, through his Will. His Estate was administered by his sister, Daisy and her husband, William Crook. Tim Gibson, in his article cited above, says that the first troughs were individually designed and constructed, however in the early 1930s Jack Phillips became the contractor and had a standard design of pre-cast concrete, which were manufactured in Auburn Road in Hawthorn. Rocla then took over the manufacture of the troughs around 1937. Also in 1937 the last trough was supplied to a Victorian location and erected in Buckley Street in Essendon. After that, the distribution of the troughs moved to New South Wales and finished at the end of the Second World War. All up, around 700 troughs were donated to towns in Australia, around 400 of those in Victoria and fifty overseas.

Report in The Argus on the last Bills trough erected in Victoria

The Argus November 27, 1937

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11127791

In the Casey Cardinia area the only ones I know of are at Koo-Wee-Rup at the Historical Society in Rossiter Road, and you can see both the horse trough and the dog trough at Tooradin, outside the Fisherman’s Cottage Museum on the Foreshore. The two troughs can also be seen in Bunyip in High Street. There is also one at Akoonah Park in Berwick.

The Koo-Wee-Rup Bills trough at it's relocated position at the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society. In the background is the Lock-up built in the 1920s, which was originally located at the Police Station in Sybella Avenue and moved to the Historical Society in 1993.

Image: Heather Arnold

I came across an article in the Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of February 2, 1933 and it tells us that the trough in Koo-Wee-Rup was originally erected near the Royal Hotel in Station Street. The same article tell us that troughs have also been erected at Narre Warren, Pakenham, Garfield and Bunyip.
 

Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of February 2, 1933

Image: Heather Arnold

So this raises a number of questions – what happened to the Narre Warren and Pakenham troughs? Where were they originally located? I believe the Garfield one was outside the Iona Hotel in Main Street but where has it gone? Where was the Bunyip trough originally located? The Tooradin trough was apparently outside the Store and Post Office along the South Gippsland highway. I’d love to know if you have any answers to these questions. The Bills troughs are a lovely reminder of a by-gone day, when horses ruled the road and also a practical memorial to George & Annis Bills' community spirit and love of animals.

 

The Tooradin trough, located outside the Fishermans Cottage Museum on the Foreshore.

Image: Heather Arnold

The article I referred to from the Gippsland Heritage Journal is Donated by Annis & George Bills - Australia : their concrete horse trough legacy by Tim Gibson. Published in Gippsland Heritage Journal No.20, September 1996.

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