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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Victoria Government Gazette

For those of us interested in local and family history there is a fantastic new on-line resource available. The Victoria Government Gazette and its predecessors have been digitised for the years 1836 to 1997. The Gazette covers all official notifications of Government and Legal activities and was the main way that the Government communicated with the Public.

Family Historians will immediately go to an index or type in a family name in any database, so I naturally typed in one of my family names Weatherhead. I came up with a patent application by my great grandfather Horatio William Weatherhead, a saw miller, for an improved mechanism for operating the throttle or cut off valves of engines from their governors. The notice goes on to say that the Commissioner of Patents, Thomas Prout Webb, accepted the ‘complete specification’ of the patent application, on the 13th day of August, 1890. We knew that Horatio was quite inventive and that this trait has been passed down to his descendents, but I was surprised to discover that he had been granted a patent.

Victorian Government Gazette August 15th, 1890 issue 66, page 3253.

Horatio Weatherhead (1853-1925). Horatio and his six sons arrived in North Tynong in 1909, having previously operated saw mills in Lyonville. He was living in Lyonville when he applied for his patent.

Image: Rouse family collection.

Your ancestor may not have applied for a patent, but there could be a record of their appointment or dismissal from a Government position, they may have been granted a miners right, become insolvent, been granted land, applied to register a trade mark, became a Cemetery Trustee or many other activities.

For local historians you can find out information about your area. I found seven references to Cora Lynn and discovered the town was officially proclaimed on May 31st 1910. I also found a set of rules and regulations governing the use of the Recreation Reserve at Cora Lynn.

Victoria Government Gazette, February 8th 1933, issue 22, p. 632.

Aerial of the Cora Lynn Recreation Reserve, taken August 1960. The football was on and you will see lots of water lying in the surrounding paddocks. The Main Drain is at the front of the picture.

For larger towns, such as Cranbourne, there are over 1500 references in total referring to both the township and the Shire. Much information can be gained from the Gazette concerning the day to day working of a Shire, including land use, staff appointments, by-laws and loan applications.

Victoria Government Gazette, January 3rd 1890, issue 1, p.54.

The Cranbourne Market operated from the 1870s to the 1930s, it was covered by the by-laws published in the Victoria Government Gazette.



The Shire of Cranbourne was formed in 1868 and the Municipal Buildings at Cranbourne were built in 1875. The building housed a Post Office, Court House and Shire Offices.

The Victoria Government Gazette can be found at http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/ You can download or save each Gazette as a PDF and print off relevant pages.

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Ancestry database and Electoral rolls.

Casey Cardinia Library Corporation subscribes to Ancestry database. Ancestry database is free to use at any of our Libraries. Follow this link to our website http://www.cclc.vic.gov.au/
Ancestry database now has the Australian Electoral rolls from 1901-1936. The rolls are indexed and you can also view the original document. The rolls for Victoria cover the years 1903 to 1954. These rolls are a great resource for both the Family Historian and the Local Historian.
Family Historians can use the rolls to track the movements of their ancestors. As an example, George Stephenson Weatherhead (1888-1944), who is my grandmother's brother, was listed on the Tynong roll in 1914. In 1919 George, and his wife Annie, are listed at Carstairs, south of Townsville in Queensland. From these entries, we can see that he has married and moved interstate.
The Electoral rolls are also a valuable resource for Local Historians. In the 1903 roll, most of what is now Casey and Cardinia was in the Flinders District. Emerald, Cockatoo and Gembrook were in the Mernda District. If you search the sub-district of, for instance, Yannathan you will get a "snapshot" of the 244 people on the roll, their names, addresses and their occupation. This can help you build up a picture of the area at that time. This image shows the first page of the Yannathan roll. Click on the image to enlarge it.

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Australian Army War Diaries

The Australian War Memorial (www.awm.gov.au) has digitised war diaries from the First and Second World War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. They are the diaries of the Unit's administration, operations and activities and rarely contain information about individuals. However, they can give you a real feel for what was happening on a day-to-day basis and will be of immense interest if you had relatives serving in a particular unit. The soldier is my great uncle Alf Weatherhead , who was in the 23rd Battalion. The map (click on image to enlarge it) is from the diary of the 23rd Battalion and it formed part of Battle Order 20 from July 20 1916. The diaries are on the Australian War Memorial web site - follow this link. http://www.awm.gov.au/diaries/index.asp. These are an amazing resource and well worth exploring.

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