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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Bush Nursing Hospitals

The Bush Nursing Hospital Movement began in 1910 with the establishment of the Victorian Bush Nursing Association. At the time, the current medical system consisted of big hospitals such as the Royal Melbourne and St Vincents, which were run along charitable lines and whose role was to treat poor people, who could not afford to pay a Doctors fee.  There were also private hospitals which only the wealthy could afford. To help offset medical costs Friendly Societies or Lodges were established which people could join for a yearly fee. This gave them access to the Friendly Society doctor and access to medicine dispensed from the Friendly Society Dispensary. The problem arose when members of Friendly societies needed to be treated in Hospitals and thus most ended up in public hospitals, which were overcrowded, as most people could not afford private hospitals. There was also a growing move to nurse people in their own homes through what is now the Royal District Nursing Service.  People in the city and the suburbs could have a nurse visit them to help recover from confinements and general illness. This type of service took pressure off the public Hospitals. Lady Dudley, the wife of the Governor General, was aware of these visiting nurses and had also seen first hand the need for skilled nurses in the bush, so from these experiences came the idea of Bush Nursing Hospitals.

Lady Dudley spoke publicly of the need for nurses in the bush and a concert, with Dame Nellie Melba as the guest star, was organised to raise initial funds for the Bush Nursing Hospital Movement. This concert was held in November 1909 and Lady Casey’s mother, Mrs Charles Ryan (nee Alice Sumner), was one of the organisers.  An inaugural meeting was held in the December and the Draft Constitution for the Australian Order for District Nursing was drawn up. In the end, a nationwide system did not eventuate; however local areas took the idea on and began raising funds for their own Bush Nurse. The local community had to raise the money to fund the cost of the nurse’s salary, board, uniform and a ‘means of locomotion’. The salary was set by the Bush Nursing Association at the rate of around £80.00 per annum, the rate of pay for a hospital nurse with five or six years experience.

The first Victorian nurse was appointed to Beech Forest in March 1911 and other early appointments were Gunbower, Buchan and Panmure. Eventually some towns provided cottages for the nurses to provide accommodation for both the nurse and the patient. Koo-Wee-Rup was an early example of this where the original nurse, Nurse Homewood, started work in the bush nursing centre in July 1918; this was later replaced by a Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital.

Koo-Wee-Rup Hospital, 1923

Photograph: Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society

Both Pakenham and Berwick had Bush Nursing Hospitals which are still remembered by many locals. Pakenham was established in 1926 in a house in Rogers Street with Sister Kerville in charge.  In the first year the hospital treated 110 medical and surgical cases and 45 midwifery cases.  In 1928, a new hospital was built on the Princes Highway and in 1929 a nurse’s quarters was opened.  The Hospital was funded by the Community, by subscriptions and patient fees. There were with 190 subscribers in the first year. The Pakenham Race Club was a large supporter of the Hospital holding annual Charity Days to support both the Pakenham and Koo-Wee-Rup Hospitals. The Hospital provided medical services to Pakenham and the surrounding areas until the early 1990s.

The official opening of the Pakenham and District Bush Nursing Hospital on Saturday, February 11, 1928. The Hospital was opened by the State Governor, Lord Somers. The local scouts formed a guard of honour. 

Photograph: North of the Line: a pictorial record compiled by the Berwick-Pakenham Historical Society.

The Berwick Bush Nursing Hospital was opened on March 9, 1940 in a building on the corner of Gloucester Avenue and Gibbs Street. This building had been used as a private hospital for the previous thirty years and, for the twenty years before that, as a Private School. Membership fees were set at £1.10 per annum for a married man, his wife and any children under 18; membership for a single person was 15 shillings and this allowed the subscriber to hospital admittance for half the regular fee. A new building was opened in 1953 and called the Dr Percy Langmore Block in honour of the Berwick Doctor who provided medical services to generations of Berwick folk from 1907 until he retired after World War Two. The Berwick Hospital was taken over by the St John of God Health Care group in 2003.

Berwick Bush Nursing Hospital.

Photograph: Bush Nursing in Berwick: the first fifty years by Eileen Williams (see below)

Sources and more information:

• Bush Nursing in Berwick: the first fifty years by Eileen Williams (published by the Berwick Hospital, c.1989)
• Somebody’s Baby: History of the Pakenham and District Hospital 1926-1992 by Heather Shallard. (Published by the Pakenham & District Hospital, 1992)
• Bush Nursing in Victoria: 1910-1985 the first 75 years by Susan Priestley. (Published by Victorian Bush Nursing Association, 1986)

This article was first published in Pages from the past : snapshot histories of people, places and public life in Casey and Cardinia.

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Motor Garages or Service Stations

Here are a few photographs of service stations in the region. Service Stations or motor garages were established in most areas after the First World War and into the 1920s. 

This is the garage opened by Lawson Poole in December  1919 on the corner of High Street and Sladen Streets in Cranboure - right opposite the Shire Offices. I believe that the garage was built by Lawson's father, William Burdett Poole for his only son. You can read more about Lawson Poole and his wife Laura, and their contribution to the Cranbourne community here.

South Bourke and Mornington Journal 18 December 18,  1919

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66197240

 Lawson's 21st birthday party was also held in the newly opened garage as this report on the South Bourke and Mornington Journal of December 19, 1919 attests.

Lawson Poole's garage 

Cranbourne Shire Historical Society photograph

Another view of Poole's garage, above, looking west down Sladen Street - the house next to the garage belonged to the Pooles.

Dusting's garage, Koo-Wee-Rup circa 1926

 Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society photograph

The building on the right, above, is Dusting's garage in Koo-Wee-Rup It was built around 1926 by Ernie Mills and taken over by Robert Dusting around 1930. As you can see by the picture below at sometime fashionable Spanish Mission style architectural details were added to the building - the bricks were rendered and the terracotta tiles were added to the parapet. The building is still standing in Rossiter Road and is now a vet's surgery.

  Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society photograph

The upgrading of Dusting's Garage may have coincided with Mr Dusting securing a Ford dealership - this advertisement was in the Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of September 8, 1932.

 Mills and Davey garage, Koo-Wee-Rup

Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society photograph.

The photograph, above, shows Mills and Davey's garage in Station Street in Koo-Wee-Rup It was built about 1923. They were agents for Dodge motor cars. The building is still standing in Station Street in Koo-Wee-Rup.

This is an advertisement from the Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of January 1924 - for Mills and Davey's 'up to date motor garage' with a 'first-class mechanic, late of Dodge Bros, America'

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Prisoner of War Camp at Koo-Wee-Rup

The Koo-Wee-Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society has copies of Commonwealth Government documents relating to the World War Two Italian Prisoner of War Camp at Koo-Wee-Rup or Bayles - the documents use both names to describe the location of the Camp. The Society has had a few enquiries about this Camp, mostly relating to the names of prisoners, however no names are included in the documents and as you might expect from a War bureaucracy much of the material relates to administration and officialdom. The Society does not have any photographs of the Camp, though would be keen to see some.

The Prisoner of War Camp was located on 7¼ acres on part of Lots 6 & 7, Section S Parish of Koo-Wee-Rup, which is the south side of the Main Drain Road, between Backhouses Road and Ballarto Road. There is a small sketch map with the documents, which is reproduced below on a copy of a Koo-Wee-Rup Parish Plan. The Commonwealth took possession of the land on August 7, 1944. The entire block of land (consisting of Parts, 6, 7 & 8) was just over 58 acres and was owned by the Estate of Ardolph Edward Mosig and Frederick Leonard Smith who were leasing it to Leslie Einsiedel. The land was being used for grazing and was described as “Flat Swamp land All cleared” There were no buildings on the block but there was a dam, which would be used by the Camp and so a trough was provided for Mr Einsiedel’s cattle. Mr Einsiedel was to get just over £10 per annum for the land.


The Camp was scheduled to open October 21, 1944. There would be one officer and ten ‘other ranks’ and 88 POWs, including one who was a medical orderly. The camp would consist of ‘P’ type huts from the Rowville Camp, and there was a one ton van and two 30cwt trucks to transport prisoners to and from work. The Prisoners were employed by the Department of Commerce and Agriculture and they were paid 1/3d per day, plus they were provided with all equipment, blankets, clothing, food etc. The prisoners came from the Murchison Camp and had a medical and dental before they were ‘allotted’ to local farmers to provide labour. Local contractors would provide perishable foodstuffs and appropriate arrangements were made with the local church authorities for the spiritual welfare of prisoners. Most other arrangements e.g. financial appear to have been carried out at Murchison.

The next lot of material we have comes from February 1946 when the camp was being dismantled; the hire of land was terminated on February 22, 1946. There is a list of buildings that were sold which gives us some idea as to what the Camp would have looked like. All buildings were made of CGI, which I assume is corrugated galvanised iron, though some were made from, at the time, the popular asbestos cement.
Buildings No.1, No. 2, and No. 3 all described as Sleeping Huts and all were 60 feet 8 inches by 18 feet 8 inches in size. They were sold to Melbourne University for £370.00.
Building No.4 - Kitchen and Mess 93 ft 4 inches by 18 feet 8 inches – sold to Toora R.S.L for £250.00.
Building No.5 - Kitchen, Mess, Recreation and Sleeping – 78 feet 8 inches by 18 feet 8 inches – sold to the Athlone Presbyterian Church for £210.00.
Buildings 8 & 9 - Latrines, each 12 feet by 12 feet. Sold to Frankston Fire Brigade for £51.00.
Building No.12 - Kitchen Store ,60 feet 8 inches by 18 feet 8 inches, and the Drying Room, 23 feet 4 inches by 18 feet. Sold to Loreto Convent, Toorak for £175.00
Mess and a Provision Hut - 57 feet by 18 feet, sold for £144.00 through Melgaard & Co.

It appears that all buildings were removed by April 1947 and the army then paid the owners just over £53.00 for damage, removal of concrete foundations etc.

So that’s what we know from the official documents. I asked my father, Frank Rouse, a few years ago if he knew anything about the Camp (he would have been eleven at the time) and he also spoke to two other local identities, Bill Giles and Ian Clark. Bill and Ian agree there was no strong security at the Camp and there was no security at weekends, but the prisoners had to wear orange overalls. Bill remembers seeing prisoners walking along the road at night when he was riding his bike home, and they could walk along the drain bank into Koo-Wee-Rup and to the Bay.

The POWs worked at selected farms including the AJC Asparagus farm (also known as Roxburghs) at Vervale. This was on the south side of Fallon Road, from Dessent Road, through to Simpson Road. Dad remembers truckloads of the prisoners driving down Dessent Road to the AJC farm in the morning, one guard on each truck. At lunch time a food van with a portable cooker would go the farm to feed them. Another truck load of prisoners would go to Dalmore.

Bill said they also worked on the Kinsella Brothers farm (Dan, Norman and Arthur) that grew a lot of potatoes and asparagus during the War. The Kinsellas were on the north side of the Main Drain, around Eight Mile Road. Dad said his brother Jim (who would have been thirteen at the time) remembers three Italian POWs digging potatoes with forks on the Rouse farm (Joe & Eva Rouse). Jim also remembered, as did Bill and Ian, that the prisoners had their own especially printed money and coins, but we are unsure how this was used.

So, that’s all the information we have, if you know anything else, then I would love to hear from you.

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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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The 1934 Flood

It is 75 years since the worst flood on record hit the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp on December 1, 1934. The original Drainage works on the Swamp were completed in 1897 but later floods in 1901, 1911, 1923 and 1924 saw extra drainage work undertaken including the widening of the Main Drain and additional side drains. None of these works protected the Swamp against the big flood of 1934. 

Cora Lynn in an early flood, perhaps in the 1910s. The building on the right is the E.S.& A bank and the building in the middle is Murdoch's General Store.

Image: Rouse Family collection

There had been above average rainfall in the October and November and more heavy rain fell across the State on December 1. This rainfall caused a flood of over 100,000 megalitres or 40,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) across the Swamp and this was only an estimate because all the gauges were washed away. The entire Swamp was inundated; water was over six feet deep (1.8metres) in parts of the Koo-Wee-Rup township. At Cora Lynn, three feet of water (about a metre) went through my grandparent’s house in Murray Road. The family, including the four children aged 11, 5, 3 and nearly 1, had to retreat to the roof. This flood also affected other parts of the State, for instance, it was reported in The Argus that there was four feet (120 cm) of water over parts of the Princes Highway between Dandenong and Berwick. Over a thousand people were left homeless as a result. The Koo-Wee-Rup locals were just recovering from this flood when another flood of about 24 000 cusecs hit in April 1935.

Rossiter Road in Koo-Wee-Rup in the 1934 flood. The photograph was taken just near the Railway line, the building on the right is St George's Anglican Church.

Image: Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society

As a result of the 1934 flood, the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC) worked on new drainage plans for the Swamp and these plans became known as the Lupson Report after the complier, E.J Lupson, an Engineer. A Royal Commission was also established in 1936. Its role was to investigate the operation of the SRWSC. The Royal Commission report was critical of the SRWSC’s operation in the Koo-Wee-Rup Flood Protection District in a number of areas. It ordered that new plans for drainage improvements needed to be established and presented to an independent authority. Mr E. G Richie was appointed as the independent authority. The Richie Report essentially considered that the Lupson Report was “sound and well considered” and should be implemented. Work had just begun on these recommendations when the 1937 flood hit the area. The 1937 flood hit Koo-Wee-Rup on October 18^th and water was 60cm (2ft) deep in Rossiter Road and Station Street. The flood peaked at 20,000 cusecs (50,000 megalitres) about half the 1934 flood volume.

Station Street, Koo-Wee-Rup, during the 1934 flood.

Image: Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society

The main recommendation of the Lupson / Ritchie report was the construction of the Yallock outfall drain from Cora Lynn, cutting across to Bayles and then essentially following the line of the existing Yallock Creek to Western Port Bay. The aim was to take any flood water directly to the sea so the Main Drain could cope with the remaining water. The Yallock outfall drain was started in 1939 but the works were put on hold during the Second World War and not completed until 1956-57. The Yallock outfall drain had been originally designed using the existing farm land as a spillway i.e the Main Drain would overflow onto existing farmland and then find its own way to the Yallock outfall drain. Local farmers were unhappy at this, as the total designated spillway area was 275 acres (110 hectares). They suggested a spillway or ford be constructed at Cora Lynn so the flood water would divert to the outfall drain over the spillway. The spillway was finally constructed in 1962, though ironically its opening was delayed by yet another flood, as we can see in the photograph below.

This photograph was taken by my Uncle, Jim Rouse, in October 1962, before the official opening of the Cora Lynn spillway. The building, with the brown coloured roof, is the Cora Lynn Hall. The other buildings you can see in the background are the same as the ones on the other Cora Lynn photograph at the top of this post - the E.S.& A Bank and the general store, then Dillon's store. The road at the top left is the newly constructed spillway and you can see where flood waters have broken through the Main Drain bank and are spilling across it.

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Wireless Experimentation Station at Koo Wee Rup.

A very poor quality photograph of one of the buildings at the

Koo-Wee-Rup Wireless Experimentation Station.

Photo is taken from the Koo Wee Rup Sun of November 6, 1974.

Koo Wee Rup was once at the centre of International Wireless communications. In 1921, Amalgamated Wireless (Australia) Ltd. (A.W.A), selected Koo Wee Rup as a site for a Wireless Experimentation Station. The site of the Station was in Rossiter Road, near the intersection of Sims Lane, on land owned by John Mickle and it operated from June 1921 to 1922. It was at this Station that it was confirmed that direct and efficient communication between Great Britain and Australia was feasible when the very first direct press message was sent from the United Kingdom to Australia. It was received at 5.00 am on December 5, 1921 at Koo Wee Rup by Bill Bearup. Radio communications, at this time, were sent and received by a series of relays.

Wireless signals sent from Britain had already been received directly in Australia as early as 1918, as European Stations could be heard at certain times in Australia. These transmissions are effected by weather and especially sun activity (as anyone with a modern day HF radio would know).

Great Britain had proposed the establishment of an Imperial Radio Scheme, based on a series of relays, at the Imperial Conference of 1921 (the fore-runner of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting). Australia would have been at a disadvantage under this Scheme as we were at the end of the line and many relays were situated in politically unstable countries. The Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, rejected this Scheme at the Conference.

The Koo Wee Rup Station was staffed by Thomas Bearup, E.A Burbury and E.G Bailey. T. W. Bearup was Thomas William (known as Bill) Bearup (1897-1980). In 1916 he joined the Marine Service of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia). He later worked for the ABC and was Studio Manager for 3LO and had various positions within the ABC until he retired in 1962.

The experiments of Bearup, Burbury and Bailey used a heterodyne type receiver, with six stages of radio frequency amplication and two stages of audio frequency amplication. Their research showed that wireless signals could be received over long periods each day from New York, Rome, England, Paris and Germany and were consistent enough to prove that direct wireless communication was both practical and reliable between Australia and Britain.

A.W.A (who worked in conjunction with the Marconi Company) won the Contract from the Australian Government to construct and maintain Wireless Stations capable of direct commercial services to Britain and Canada.

The Gippsland Gate Radio and Electronics Club Inc (GGREC) re-enacted this feat in 2010  at the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society and one of their members, Steve Harding, had access to Bill Bearup's diary and this is what Bill wrote on June 14, 1910, the day after he arrived at Koo Wee Rup. He was describing the radio station -

It is about a mile from the hotel in the middle of a paddock. The aerial is a 2-wire inverted to 400 feet long & about 60 feet high. The stations buildings comprise two rough, unpainted, wooden “shacks” – one for the instruments & one for the engine & dynamo. The walls inside have been coated with brown paper to keep out the cold. Inside! What an uproar! Wire, cells, valves, instruments, switches & so on just stuck anywhere & everywhere. No effort has been made to make the station permanent – it has been established purely as an experiment. The only set available is a kerosene case! Power is obtained from an A.W.(A).L. 1½ K.W. rotary converter driven as a dynamo by a “Sunshine” two stroke 5 H.P. petrol engine. The receiver is a Marconi type 55D giving adjustments up to 30,000 meters. Radio frequency is amplified six times (V.24 valves) & rectified by a seventh valve (Q). ‘Phones’ Browns low resistance. Kept the noon to 4pm watch & was relieved by Lamb. It appears that this station belongs to the Marconi Coy & not the Amalgamated Wireless, though operated by the latter. The idea is to collect scientific data to show whether direct communication with Europe is practicable. I wonder if we are all fully seized with the importance of our mission?

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The Railways - The Strzelecki Line

The train leaving Yannathan Station, Easter 1940, on the way to Bayles.
From the Bayles Fauna Park Collection.

In this post we will look at another railway line which traversed the Casey Cardinia region -  the railway line which used to run from Koo Wee Rup to Strzelecki. At its opening in June 1922 it was known as the Koo Wee Rup to McDonald’s Track Railway. McDonald’s Track had been surveyed between 1860 and 1862 by George McDonald. It ran between Lang Lang, Poowong, over Mt Worth to Moe with the aim of providing a stock route through to Sale. The Gippsland Railway line through to Sale was completed in 1879 and early McDonald’s Track settlers, especially those around Poowong, soon began to agitate for a railway line to help ease their transport problems through the densely forested, damp hills. The 32 kilometres (20 miles) or so between Poowong and Drouin took over a days travel and all goods and produce were carted on pack horses or drays.

Various routes for a railway line were suggested including one from Drouin to Welshpool via McDonalds Track or Drouin to Poowong via Longwarry. The Great Southern Railway line to Port Albert via Koo Wee Rup, Leongatha and Foster was opened in 1892, by-passing Poowong. The opening of this line coupled with the draining of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp saw fresh demands from the McDonald Track settlers and the Swamp settlers for a new line. The Swamp was a large producer of dairy products and vegetables and there was also a growing sand mining industry. In 1912 a new Railway line was proposed from Koo Wee Rup to McDonalds Track via areas of the newly drained Swamp.

The Koo Wee Rup to McDonalds Track Railway Construction Act was proclaimed on October 12, 1914 and construction began on August 4, 1915. Construction of the line was slowed by the re-allocation of resources during the First World War and didn’t resume with any pace until 1919. Construction was carried out in three stages. The Swamp area from Koo Wee Rup to Heath Hill, the foothills area of Heath Hill to Triholm and the mountain area from Triholm to Strzelecki. 

The line officially opened June 29, 1922 although the Bayles Station commenced limited operation over a year earlier on February 10, 1921 and Catani had opened for limited operations from May 1921*. 

The finished line was 49 kms (30 and a half miles) in length and unfortunately for the people of Poowong they were bypassed once again. The first timetable had three trains per week carrying both passengers and goods but lack of patronage saw the Strzelecki station close in November 1930 and less than 20 years after their opening Triholm, Topiram, Athlone and Heath Hill closed in August 1941. The passenger service also closed in August 1941. Yannathan was now the terminus.

The train at Bayles. 

Image: Bayles Fauna Park Collection.

The farm produce, cattle and milk and the sand mining from the Koo Wee Rup Swamp kept the Catani and Yannathan Stations open until April 1950 and Bayles to February 1959. The site of the Bayles Railway station is now the Fauna Reserve and various remnants of the Railway service can be seen there. There is also a display of historic photographs.

At the peak of the rail traffic in 1926 Koo Wee Rup Station had a staff of eleven and had 48 passenger and mixed trains and 72 goods trains per week.

Sources
This information comes mainly from Steam to Strzelecki : the Koo-Wee-Rup to McDonald’s Track railway by Merilyn Ramsay. Published by the Australian Railway Historical Society in 1991. Unfortunately it is now out of print.

*Date of Bayles Station comes from Mickle Memories of Koo Wee Rup: for young and old, v.1 by Dave Mickle (The Author, 1983) p. 75. He quotes the Koo Wee Rup Sun, but I have checked the originals from February 1921 and can't find a reference. Marilyn Ramsay quotes the same date and her source is the Koo Wee Rup Sun. Marilyn Ramsay also writes (p. 47) that Railways Weekly Notices refer to Bayles and Catani being open during construction on 21 May 1921, and Heathhill and Topriam on 7 March 1922. The Argus of June 23, 1921 reported the fact that Bayles and Catani were open for limited use - see below.

Notification that Bayles and Catani Stations were partially open for business

The Argus June 23, 1921 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1768863

The Argus of March 9, 1922 also reported that three months before the official opening the following stations were open, with some limits. Warneet was the original name for the Topriam Station. 

The Argus March 9, 1922 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4689414

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The Railways - The Great Southern line

Cranbourne Railway Station
Photo source: The Great Southern Railway : the illustrated history of the building of the line in South Gippsland by Keith Macrae Bowden

In the last post we looked at the Gippsland Railway line, this blog will present a history of the Great Southern line to South Gippsland. The completion of the Gippsland line in 1879 encouraged settlement in the area as new settlers used the stations as jumping off points and would walk to new selections in the hills. Railway Leagues were established to push for more lines. The steep hills of South Gippsland and the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp meant overland travel for South Gippsland was difficult. Residents from Foster had to travel to Sale and then by rail. People living around Port Albert travelled and received supplies by sea. The Great Southern line commenced construction in 1887 and was opened to Korumburra on June 2, 1891. It was then completed in two more sections, Korumburra to Toora and Toora to Port Albert.

A trestle bridge over the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp
Photo source: The Great Southern Railway : the illustrated history of the building of the line in South Gippsland by Keith Macrae Bowden

The Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp had proven to be impediment to the construction. The contractor had to construct bridges within the embankments to allow water to escape. Each bridge was over 100 metres long and there were four separate bridges per mile (1.6 km). The bridges had 72 piles which were initially dragged by bullock, until some bullocks sank in the mud. The contractors, Falkingham and Son, then had to carry the piles on a locomotive on the existing track, so no bridge could be built until they came to the site. Some of these early timber bridges can still be seen around Koo-Wee-Rup and are in the Cardinia Shire Heritage Register.In fact even after the Railway opened the Swamp was still not completely drained and a journalist travelling on a train reported that when traversing the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp, it ‘had the appearance of an inland sea, where water lay deep on either hand and spread far over the land’

Lyndhurst Station
Photo source: The Great Southern Railway : the illustrated history of the building of the line in South Gippsland by Keith Macrae Bowden

The original Stations from Dandenong, in the Casey Cardinia region, were Lyndhurst, Cranbourne, Clyde, Tooradin. This section to Tooradin opened October 1, 1888. Dalmore (originally called Peer’s Lane, then Koo-Wee-Rup West) and Koo-Wee-Rup (originally called Yallock), Monomeith (originally called Glassock’s), Caldermeade, and Lang Lang (originally called Carrington) opened November 11, 1890. 

The South Gippsland Railway line now stops at Cranbourne.  Passenger services beyond Dandenong ceased in June 1981 but goods services continued to operate. In 1992, the goods trains ceased and this is when the line beyond Leongatha was taken up. The passenger service was reinstated on December 9 1984 and continued to run until July 24 1993. Trains returned between Dandenong and Cranbourne when the line was electrified in March 1995.  Lyndhurst Station is no more, although it was apparently used until 2009 for cement. However, Merinda Park Station opened in March 1995 in conjunction with the new electrified line and Lynbrook Station opened April 2012.

Lang Lang Railway Station

Photo source: Public Records Office of Victoria VPRS 12800/P1, item H 4285

The photographs and most of the information in this post comes from The Great Southern Railway : the illustrated history of the building of the line in South Gippsland by Keith Macrae Bowden. Published in 1970 by the Australian Railway Historical Association. Unfortunately it is now out of print. Some of the dates of opening comes from Victorian Railways to '62 by Leo J. Harrigan (published by the Victorian Railways, 1962)

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Koo-Wee-Rup

Small scale drainage works on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp had been undertaken by private landowners from as early as 1856 but it wasn't until 1888 that the Government became involved. The Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, William Thwaites, surveyed the Swamp in 1888 and his report recommended the construction of the Bunyip Main Drain from where it entered the Swamp in the north to Western Port Bay and a number of smaller side drains. A tender was advertised in 1889. In spite of strikes, floods and bad weather by March, 1893, the contractors had constructed the 16 miles of the drain from the Bay to the south of Bunyip and the Public Works Department considered the Swamp was now dry enough for settlement. Like many towns, the Railway was the catalyst for growth and development of Koo-Wee-Rup. The Koo-Wee-Rup Railway station was opened in 1890. It was originally called Yallock and was re-named Koo-Wee-Rup in 1892. Koo-Wee-Rup is an Aboriginal word for “blackfish swimming”. Some growth had taken place in the town before 1890, a school was established in 1884 between Koo-Wee-Rup and Bayles with 22 pupils, and the first permanent house, “The Grange” was built in 1888. By 1894, the town consisted of the Railway siding, pay office for the Swamp workers and three shops. This small population however developed a cricket team, a Temperance Society and sporting carnivals. By the beginning of 1900, a Presbyterian Church was established, Catholic and Anglican services were held, the Recreation Reserve was established and a doctor even visited weekly from Cranbourne.

In spite of the occasional flood, the town prospered. The first Catholic Church and a Public Hall were built in 1902, a Bush Nursing hospital was built in 1910 and in the same year the school was moved into the township from Bethune’s Road. In 1915, the Royal Hotel was erected and in 1917, the Anglican Church. (pictured))

The town became a railway junction in 1922 when the line to Strzelecki was opened. This line went through Bayles, Catani, Yannathan and Heathhill then up into the hills to Strzelecki on McDonald's Track. The recreational needs of the locals were met with the construction of the Wattle Picture Theatre in 1927, the same year the Koo-Wee-Rup Electric Light and Power Company supplied electricity to the town.
A little known fact about Koo-Wee-Rup is that in 1921-22, an experimental radio receiving Station was established by Amalgamated Wireless Limited. This Radio Station received transmissions direct from Europe without the need for relay stations. This discovery helped revolutionise international communication.

These photographs are from a series of postcards produced in the 1930s or 1940s to promote Koo-Wee-Rup.

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