Harkaway - Michael Drew photograph collection

Historian, Mr Max Thomson, has donated his collection of historic photographs to the State Library of Victoria. Amongst the photographs are these ones of the Harkaway Hall -  taken by Michael Drew (1873-1943). They were all on glass negatives. Mr Thomson is the author of Little Hills, a history of Narre Warren North, published in 1977 to celebrate the centenary of the Narre Warren North State School, No.1901. You can read about Michael Drew, here.

Harkaway Hall
Photographer: Michael Drew
State Library of Victoria Image H2012.171/462

The Hall looks finished on the outside, so perhaps these workmen were finishing off the interior. 

Harkaway Hall

Photographer: Michael Drew

State Library of Victoria  Image H2012.171/464

The Hall, completed and sign written, above.  The Hall was officially opened on June 9, 1909 by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Thomas Gibson Carmichael.  There is an account of the opening of the hall in the book Early Days of Berwick.   Mr James Curran, who wrote the chapter on Harkaway, reported that the Governor was escorted by a squadron of Australian Light Horse, the Narre Warren Troop, under the command of the late Lieutenant Alan Henry. The Troop also served as a Guard of Honour. 

An account of the opening of the Harkaway Hall by the Governor of Victoria, 

Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, on June 9, 1909

Punch June 18, 1909

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article176025767

The Governor, being escorted by the Narre Warren Light Horse Regiment, to the Harkway Hall opening.
Photographer: Michael Drew
State Library of Victoria Image H2012.171/457

Opening of the Harkaway Hall, June 9, 1909.

Photographer: Michael Drew

State Library of Victoria Image H2012.171/460

The photograph, above, was taken at the opening of the hall on June 9, 1909. Mr Curran also wrote that the people associated with the establishment of the Hall were Mr G.O.Lyon, Mr W. Warby, Mr Drew, Cr W. G. A'Beckett, Cr Kerr, Cr Barr and Mesdames R. Kelly, W.H. Jarrett, E. Wanke, Miss Mackie and Miss Troupe. Perhaps some of these people are in this photograph.

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Pakenham - the early days

The Pakenham area originally formed part of the I.Y.U Estate, first taken up by Dr W.K Jamieson in 1839. The original town of Pakenham was on the Highway, near Toomuc Creek and grew up around the Latrobe Inn, established around 1850 by Michael and Kitty Bourke. Michael Bourke also acted as Post Master for nearly 30 years. Kitty Bourke kept the Hotel and Post Office from the time of her husband’s death in 1877 until 1910. The Latrobe Inn was a Cobb & Co. coach stop and for obvious reasons was later known as Bourke’s Hotel. The town, which developed around the Railway Station, was officially known as Pakenham East until the 1960s. Pakenham grew as the service centre for the surrounding farms, especially the orchards at Pakenham Upper and Toomuc Valley, but it also had a number of other sources of employment, such as Nestles who established their plant in 1960 and sold out to Simplot in 2009.

This is a picture of the Auction Mart, which was near the Railway Station, in fact you can see a train in the back ground on the right. The  Pakenham Gazette of October 7, 1917 told us that William Close opened his auction mart on October 11, 1917 and sold  a whole range of goods from live stock to farm machinery to 'useful sundries'.

Pakenham Gazette, October 7 1917.

Report of the opening of William Close's Auction Mart from the Pakenham Gazette of October 12, 1917. If you click on the image, you will get a clearer copy.

In 1901, the Shire of Berwick moved its headquarters from Berwick to Pakenham. The first meetings at Pakenham were held in the Mechanics’ Institute until the new Shire Offices were built in 1912.  This building was  on the corner of Main Street and John Street and remained virtually intact in spite of the modernisation of 1962. The building was moved its current location in 2004 and is the home of the Berwick Pakenham Historical Society.

The Shire of Berwick Offices, after their 1962 modernisation - it's the building on the corner with the brick parapet. The small building behind it is the original office of the Pakenham Gazette and beyond that is the (now demolished) bell tower of the Presbyterian/Uniting Church. This photo was taken in the late 1970s/early 1980s during a Yakkerboo Festival.

The Mechanics’ Institute Public Hall was opened by Mr James Gibb, M.L.A on August 8 1884. A report in the South Bourke & Mornington Journal of August 13 tells us that the Hall cost 200 pounds to build, plus fit-out costs and was built by McCartney and Delaney. It was 65 feet in length (about 19 metres) and 25 feet wide (about 7.5 metres). There was stage and dressing rooms. There were 250 at the opening and they were entertained by a concert and  a Ball.  The building was used as a Hall, a Library and a Court House, however its role as a Public Hall declined when the ‘new’ Hall was built in 1959 (which was demolished in 2010) and it was put up for auction by the Council in December 1960. It didn’t sell and was thus able to be used again in 1962 for Council Meetings when the Shire Offices were being modernised. It was finally sold by the Shire of Berwick in December 1962.

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Narre Warren Mechanics' Institute

The first township of Narre Warren was surveyed in 1860, and is now known as Narre Warren North and the township which developed around the Railway Station, which opened in 1882, became Narre Warren Railway Station and later just Narre Warren.

The man responsible for the growth of this town was Sidney Webb. Webb agitated for a Railway Station at Narre Warren and he collected money to purchase land for a road to connect the town to the Station. He built the early shops in the township which further consolidated when Sidney Webb donated land for the School which opened in 1889 and Mechanics' Institute which opened in November 9, 1891 (or the birthday of the Prince of Wales as the invitation, reproduced below, says)


The building was used for lectures, concerts, Balls, billiards, and meetings. It also housed a subscription lending library which initially was open 3.00pm to 4.00pm on Saturdays and 4.00pm to 5.00pm on Tuesdays. In 1898 there were 990 books in the Library and this had grown to over 2,000 in 1905. The Library ceased operation in 1941, when the books and the shelving were sold. Library services at Narre Warren later operated from a building in Malcolm Court.

The Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria have an ongoing scanning project to scan the existing records of all Victoria's Mechanics' Institutes. Over 1,000 Mechanics Institutes were built and 562 remain, including the Narre Warren one.


The records of the Narre Warren Mechanics' Institute have been scanned. The first Minutes we have are from the meeting of March 14, 1892, they are shown above. Given the role that Sidney Webb played in the development of the Narre Warren township it is not surprising to find that he chaired the meeting. The meeting appointed 'Messrs S.Webb and McDonnell as ' joint Librarians honorary.' S.Webb was Sidney Webb's son, also called Sidney. However, we have earlier Ledger records that date from August 1890, which list donations made for the establishment of the building and, later on, subscriptions. These scanned records provide us not only with a full picture of the workings and activities of the Mechanics' Institute but also a snapshot of who lived in the township at the time. They are an amazing resource.

Subscriptions collected in 1895, click on the image to enlarge it.

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Tynong

When the Railway line was opened from Oakleigh to Bunyip in October 1877 is also opened up the timber industry. Sidings were established to dispatch timber to Melbourne and townships, such as Tynong, developed around these Sidings. Timber mills connected to the rail line by tramways. A number of Mills were established in the 1880s but the area had a resurgence when Horatio Weatherhead and his sons moved there from Lyonville in late 1908.

Horatio Weatherhead's Mill in North Tynong in 1910.

Image: Rouse family collection.

Horatio had a license to mill 2,000 acres of forest and he and his sons operated various Mills from 1909 onwards.

A trestle bridge in North Tynong, 1912. Eva Weatherhead, is standing on the bridge. Eva and her mother Eleanor, arrived from Lyonville to join the rest of the family, after Eva finished Grade 8 around the end of 1913.

Image: Rouse family collection.

One of the earliest public buildings in Tynong was the Mechanics’ Institute. According to The Argus, it was used as a Polling Place in February 1886 and I believe it was built in the previous year. The current Hall was officially opened on January 14, 1927. In The Argus report of the opening, it says that the Hall was new and recently erected at the cost of £900.00. It was wrecked by a gale in August 1959, then renovated and re-opened with a new supper room, kitchen and a ‘ladies ‘room in November 1961. The original Mechanics’ Institute building has been at Old Gippstown since 1974, when it was rescued from an orchard.

This much we do know, however a report in the Pakenham Gazette in 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. The book From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen (see citation below) says the first public Hall was originally the School, put on land bought by the Progress Association in 1913 from Mrs Gault and opened in 1917. There is yet another account of a Tynong Hall from the Pakenham Gazette in the 1960s 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 …Mr Jas Smith later sold to Mrs Gault…in the early 1920s Mr Jas Marsden bought it and had a nice 6-roomed home made of it [later] Mr Cecil Brand bought the property and turned it into a nice home and ….at present Wilsons occupy it.

So, were there in fact three 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’.

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 might be logical? However other notes I have say that in the 1950’s the Hall Committee purchased a film projector and used the Hall as a Picture Theatre.

Apart from being a town with many Halls Tynong also had a School which was opened in 1906 and became part of the Pakenham Consolidated School in 1952.

Tynong also supplied the granite for the Shrine of Remembrance which was built between. July 1928 and November 1934 to honour the soldiers who served in the First World War.

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848-1954), Friday 31 August 1928, page 12.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3953615
From the National Library of Australia Newspapers Beta Project

From Bullock Tracks to Bitumen : a brief history of the Shire of Berwick. Published by the Historical Society of Berwick Shire in 1962. This is the earlier version of In the wake of the Pack Tracks.

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Narre Warren Library

Narre Warren Library, at Fountain Gate, under construction, 1992.
Click on the photographs to enlarge them.

If you visit the Narre Warren Library you will know that it has recently been refurbished with new carpet and new paint. The Library was opened on its present site on November 21st 1992, by the Governor of Victoria, Richard McGarvie. When it opened it had a book stock of 30,000 and the same space now houses around 90,000 items. The building was designed by the Architectural firm of Lines Macfarlane and Marshall and was constructed by the company J.P Cordukes Pty Ltd whose tender for the building construction was $1,266,418.00. This Library replaced the previous library in Malcolm Court, which had opened on March 7th, 1978 - see photo below.

Narre Warren Library in Malcolm Court - the Library is on the right and the community centre on the left.

Last day at the Malcolm Court Library in 1992.

 Library services had been provided to the Narre Warren Community before this time by the Narre Warren Railway Station Mechanics' Institute. 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. 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 in Collins Street. Over a thousand were built in Victoria and 562 remain today including the Narre Warren Railway Station Mechanics' Institute, which was opened on November 9 1891, on land  donated by Sidney Webb.
It had Railway Station added to it's name to distinguish it from the Mechanics' Institute at Narre Warren North. The building was used for lectures, concerts, Balls, billiards, and meetings. It also housed a subscription lending library which initailly was open 3.00pm to 4.00pm on Saturdays and 4.00pm to 5.00pm on Tuesdays. In 1898 there were 990 books in the Library and this had grown to over 2,000 in 1905. The Library ceased operation in 1941, when the books and the shelving were sold. The building itself continues to play an important role in the Community life of Narre Warren.

Narre Warren Mechanics' Institute, opened 1891

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Mechanics' Institutes

This is Narre Warren North in 1895. The old store and the Mechanics' Institute is in the background and Raduchel's blacksmith shop on the right (click on photograph to enlarge it).

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 in Collins Street. Over a thousand were built in Victoria and 562 remain today. The Berwick Mechanics' Institute and Free Library is one of only six which still operate as Lending Libraries.The Berwick Mechanics' Institute commenced in 1864. More information can be found on their website at www.berwickmilibrary.org.au  Richard Myers has written a book called Berwick Mechanics' Institute & Free Library.

Towns in Casey Cardinia in which a Mechanics' Institute was established are Bayles, Beaconsfield, Bunyip, Clematis, Clyde, Clyde North, Cockatoo, Cora Lynn, Emerald, Garfield, Lang Lang, Koo-Wee-Rup, Koo-Wee-Rup East, Nar Nar Goon, Nar Nar Goon North, Narre Warren, Narre Warren North, Officer, Pakenham, Pakenham Upper, Tooradin and Tynong.


For more information on Mechanics' Institutes you can borrow If the walls could speak : a social history of the Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria by Pam Baragwanath from the Cranbourne Library, or visit the Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria website at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~mivic/

The photograph above is of the Berwick Mechanics' Institute, taken before the 1982 renovations.These renovations extended the building width ways and also added a mezzanine level. This extension was made possible by a $50,000 donation by Lady Casey and City of Berwick funding.

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