1839 - the first Casey Cardinia Christmas

1839 is the earliest account I can find of Christmas being celebrated by settlers with a connection to this area. The account comes from Niel Gunson's book The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (1). Robert Jamieson and Samuel Rawson had taken up land on the Yallock Creek and began to move cattle to the Station from November 13, 1839. A second trip was made in December and the pair then returned to Edward William Hobson’s Kangerong run at Arthurs Seat. On their journey on the December 23 their evening camp was caught in a sudden downpour. 

 

Rawson reported that even though they were under the dray, in about five minutes they were all soaked thro, it was so hot we could not bear any clothes on, the thermometer being about 95 degrees … everytime I fell asleep I was awoke by Jamieson who was thrashing away with the branch of a tree to keep the mosquitoes off, at that hour the weather changed and it became deadly cold and the rain changed into a mixture of hail, rain and snow…our horses were so cold they could hardly stand, our saddles were like sponges & in this condition we had to ride 30 miles, the rain still descending in torrents (2).

They travelled the 30 miles and arrived at Hobsons, where on Christmas Eve they were wassailed or toasted with a bowl of hot toddy (a drink made from spirits, usually whiskey, hot water, sugar and lemon juice). Christmas was celebrated in Old English style with champagne and Rawson wrote we were a merry party that evening sitting in a hut, which a beggar in England would hardly live in, the walls full of holes, the roof covered with bark through the crevices of which a person might have crept with the greatest ease, the floor the natural earth and situated in the middle of the eternal forest whence 18 months before a white man had never trod (3). 

Samuel Rawson

Image - The Good Country: Cranboure Shire by Niel Gunson.

Samuel Rawson was appointed an Ensign in the 28th Regiment in October 1838. This Regiment had arrived in Sydney in 1835 and embarked for India in 1842. Rawson went with his Regiment and left Jamieson to manage the Station with Rawson's brother Will. The Station was sold to Henry Moor and Septimus Martin in 1845.

Footnotes

(1) Gunson, Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (F. W. Cheshire, 1968). Dr Gunson has taken the accounts from Samuel Rawson’s Journals, held by the National Library of Australia. 

(2) Gunson, op. cit., p. 21.

(3) Gunson, op. cit., p. 21.

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Ball of the Century

Some of the entrants for the Belle of Berwick Shire, Centenary Ball, September 14th 1962.
Click on photograph to enlarge it.

On Friday, September 14th 1962 the Ball of the Centenary was held at the Pakenham Public Hall to celebrate the 100th anniversary of local government in the Shire of Berwick. This was the anniversary of the creation  of the Berwick Road Board on September 29, 1862, the fore-runner of the Shire of Berwick. The Pakenham Gazette reported that more than 700 people crowded into the Hall, the frocking was magnificent and youth and age gaily came together to celebrate the achievement of the Municipality's first century and to give Century Two a joyful start on its way.

The Guest of Honours included the Shire President, Cr Dan Cunningham and Mrs Cunningham ; the Shire Secretary, Miss Beatrice Thomas; Mr A. Buchanan, M.H.R and Mrs Buchanan and Cr L.J Cochrane, M.L.A and Mrs Cochrane. The highlight of the night was the selection of the Belle of Berwick Shire. The judge for this honour was Miss Dot Jones of the Sun News Pictorial newspaper. There were 22 girls who had entered this competition each representing a town in the Shire.
I will list them here and if by chance any of the girls are reading this blog, then I would love for you to leave a comment about the occasion. Margaret Bishop, representing Dewhurst, Maree McMillan - Tynong, Bronwen Taylor - Pakenham Upper, Carol Gilbert - Officer, Diane Robert - Pakenham, Carol Entwistle - Nar Nar Goon North, Lorraine Brown - Cora Lynn, Sonja Little - Doveton, Jeanette Barnes - Beaconsfield, Maureen Fitzsimons - Beaconsfield Upper, Geraldine Dyer - Gembrook, Kath Cotter - Narre Warren, Kerry Fox - Narre Warren North, Patsy Cunningham - Nar Nar Goon, Beverley Price - Bunyip, Susanne Bassed - Garfield, Jan Lia - Maryknoll, Marlene Thorne - Iona , Marla Kennedy - Modella, Audrey Haysom - Five Mile, Annette Dean - Berwick and Coral Stone - Cockatoo.

The Pakenham Gazette reported that the girls had to dance the Pride of Erin and two Fox Trots and in addition to her pleasant manner the successful girl got good marks for grooming. The winner was Miss Diane Robert, who was representing Pakenham. The judge, Miss Dot Jones, said that choosing the Belle of Berwick Shire was a difficult decision and that Diane managed to look happy all the time, whereas some of the other girls looked as if the boys were treading on their toes. Diane wore a frock of watermelon pink cotton shantung with a chantilly lace bodice. She had a french roll hair-do and wore pearl ear rings.

Unfortunately the only photograph we have of the Centenary Ball (top) doesn't include the Winner, however it does picture eleven of the other belles.

As an aside, Dot Jones, as well as being the Belle of the Centenary Ball judge is more importantly one of the people responsible for the Moomba Festival. Dot and Tom McCaw of the Melbourne City Council discussed the idea for a festival over lunch. They then presented the idea to Councillor Maurice Nathan who promoted the idea of an open-air Festival. The first Moomba was held in 1955.

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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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Pakenham South : a short history

Pakenham South Public Hall, formerly the State School.

Image: Heather Arnold

The area south of Pakenham wasn't closely settled until around 1900 when the drainage of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp was well underway. Pakenham South originally covered the area we now know as Cardinia but the locality is now centred around Hall Road and Ellett Road and McDonalds Drain Road. This fluidity of place names is reflected in the names of the State Schools. The first school called Pakenham South opened in April 1874, working, at times, part-time with Toomuc Creek then Officer. In 1881 the school changed its name to Cardinia Creek and closed in May 1906.The next school to be called Pakenham South opened officially on January 1st 1913. The School was built on land purchased from H.Sawyer and Eva Bird was the first Head Teacher. It closed in 1951 when the pupils transferred to Pakenham Consolidated School.

 

Pakenham South State School, 1927.

Image: Look to the Rising sun : Back to Cardinia 1984 - a history of Cardinia and District, including Rythdale and Pakenham South. By Eileen Williams and Jewell Beard. (Published by the Back to Cardinia Committee, 1984)

The School and Fogarty’s store were located in Hall Road (formerly called Fogarty’s lane). Post Office facilities were available in the area from around 1913 when Miss Bird, the School teacher, was Post Mistress. The O'Brien family took over the Post Office in the 1920s. From 1932 until 1968 the Post Office was located in Ellett Road in the residence of John Ellett. Mr Ellett was Post Master until 1946 when he sold it to Jack Knight , who sold it a year later to Wally Francombe. Mr Francombe was Post Master until the closure of the Post Office in 1968. The Post Office took over the service provided by the Rythdale Post Office when it closed down in the 1940s.

 

Pakenham South Post Office, taken the year it closed, 1968. 

Image is from the National Archives of Australia Post Office Collection, Series  B5919,

Some of the early families in Pakenham South include : Michael and Sarah Shelton, on Ballarto Road, who arrived in 1898 ; John and Jane Ellett, on McDonalds Drain Road, who arrived in 1901 ; Thomas and Eliza Jeremiah on Koo-Wee-Rup - Pakenham Road, south of Hall Road, who arrived in 1902 ; James Arbuthnott, also on the Koo-Wee-Rup - Pakenham Road, who arrived in 1902. The farm continued on in the name of his daughter and son-in-law Dove and Will Rogers ; Samuel and Mary Stephenson, on Ballarto Road. They arrived in 1907 and in 1925 purchased “Rosebank” near McDonalds Drain Road ; William Wadsley and his brother John. They had land on the corner of Hall Road and Five Mile Road ; Peter Milroy arrived in 1908 and his farm was carried on by his daughter and son-in-law, Betty and Jack Sewell ; John and Mary Ann Blackwood, and their 10 children, came to Pakenham South in 1911 ; Richard and Elizabeth O’Hehir (nee Killeen) moved to the Koo-Wee-Rup – Pakenham Road in 1914 and George and Mary Atkins came to McDonalds Drain Road in 1920.

The Pakenham South area has always had a strong sense of community - Church services and Sunday School were held in the School building, a tennis club and cricket club was formed in the 1930s as was a Calf-Club, a sort of Young Farmer's Club. A Red Cross branch was established in 1939 to raise money for Comfort Funds, and the Progress Association was established in July 1946. The Hall Committee was established in 1952 to raise funds to purchase and renovate the disused School building from the Education Department, for use as the public hall.

The Pakenham South War Memorial, on the corner of Hall Road and McDonalds Drain Road.

Image: Heather Arnold

Much of the information for this post  was taken from Look to the Rising sun : Back to Cardinia 1984 - a history of Cardinia and District, including Rythdale and Pakenham South. By Eileen Williams and Jewell Beard. (Published by the Back to Cardinia Committee, 1984)

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Australian Dictionary of Biography

The Hon. James Buchanan. M.L.C., and his wife Anne (nee Wilson) with their daughter Annie, and her two children Nancy and Effie Wilson. Annie had married her first cousin, William Wilson. Taken about 1900.
Photo from: Berwick Nostalgia published by the Berwick Pakenham Historical Society. 

One of my favourite resources is the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB). The ADB - which has an 18 volume  print version and an online version and covers people who died before 1990.   The ADB can be accessed online: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/adbonline.htm

It's not just people who were famous on a National level who are in this Dictionary, there are many people with a local connection and I am listing just a few here. W.A.C A'Beckett of The Grange, Harkaway; James Buchanan, an early Berwick resident (pictured above); Lord Casey, after whom the City of Casey was named; Carlo Catani, the engineer who worked on the drainage of the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp; Edwin Greaves of The Springs, Berwick; Joseph Hawdon, a Eumemmerring squatter; William Hill, founding President of the Victorian Farmers Union, and Parliamentarian who died at Nar Nar Goon; William Lyall of Harewood, Tooradin; Duncan MacGregor, early land owner at Dalmore; Carl Nobelius of the Gembrook Nursery at Emerald; Nettie Palmer, the writer, of Emerald and Jessie Traill, the artist, who lived at Harkaway.

The database allows you to search by name, occupation, religion, nationality and any key word. It a great resource for local and social historians.

Jessie Traill, c. 1920, proofing an etching by subdued light. 

State Library of Victoria Image H2000.63/6

The artist, Jessie Traill. Jessie was a woman of independent means who studied under Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery School, she nursed in hospitals in France during the First World War and built a studio at Harkaway in 1924 where she worked and lived until she died in 1967. You can read more about Jessie Traill here.

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Hallam - Part 3 - Hallam School, No.244

Aerial shot of Hallam, December 1963. The first stages of suburbanisation had commenced with the establishment of Princess Domain Drive, Windsor Street and Edinborough Street, ending in Regal Avenue. You can also see Spring Square and seven houses in Alexander Street. the new Primary School is surrounded by trees in Harmers Road (on the left of the picture). Click on image to enlarge it.

In our last two blog posts we have looked at the early landowners and settlers of Hallam. (Click here and here to read the previous two posts) In this post we present a short history of Hallam School, No.244. This School was established in 1858 and was known as the Eumemmerring Denominational School, it then became a State School, changed its name to Hallam’s Road in 1906 and to Hallam in 1923. In 1894 the School became an adjunct to the Dandenong State School. It wasn't until 1902 that the Education Department recommended that the School be separated from Dandenong. A new school building was erected and opened in November 1904. The original school was located next to the Hallam Hotel, on Andrew's family land.

Hallam School, No. 244 taken in 1924. Photograph from the collection of Jim Alexander, a copy of which has been donated to our Archive.

Due to increasing enrolments in the early 1960s, the Hallam Public Hall was used for classes. Unfortunately this involved children crossing the Princes Highway and a tragic accident resulted in a student losing his life in a car accident in October 1962. Community agitation saw the construction of a new school on its existing site in Harmers Road and this opened in November 1963. The earliest available Pupils registers for the School date from 1905 and early names appearing on the roll include Burton, Kane, Wyman, Battersby, Higgins, Watson, Savage, Johnstone, Hicks, Byron Moncrief, Kirkham, Knights, Kane , Lynn and Graham. All were from farming families except two and their parents worked on the Railways. The railway line from Oakleigh to Bunyip opened October 1877 and the Hallam Railway Station was opened in 1880.

Hallam School, February 1921, on the occasion of the opening of the second room. Photograph from the collection of Jim Alexander, a copy of which has been donated to our Archive.

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Hallam - Part 2 - Community builders

In our second post on Hallam, we will look at some of the earliest settlers in the area who lived and worked in the town and helped build the Hallam community (to read the other two posts, click here and here) These families included the Andrews family, the Hallam family and the Frawley family. John and Bridget Andrews settled on 118 acres (about 48 hectares) of the south side of what is now the Princes Highway, in 1854. John and his brother James had been sentenced to transportation and seven years hard labour for stealing two sacks of wheat, two hives of bees and owning a dog, thought to be used for poaching. They served their time in Tasmania and then arrived in Melbourne, where they had a market garden at Brighton. John married Bridget Tracy in 1841. They had eight children. After John died in 1879 the farm passed to his eldest son Thomas, who sold it to his siblings Elizabeth and Frank. Bridget lived with her daughter Elizabeth until her death in 1890 at 75 years of age. Elizabeth run the farm operating a dairy and sold her butter and eggs at the Dandenong market, which she transported on her cart, pulled by Tim, her black pony (pictured below). She died in 1934, aged 85, ending the eighty year Andrews connection to Hallam. Elizabeth is pictured in 1924, above left, with her great-niece Marie Dempsey. Frank and his wife Margaret also had a house on the farm, which is pictured below. Frank was only 39 when he died in 1893.

Elizabeth Andrew's cart, pulled by Old Tim.

John and Bridget Andrews sold land to the Education Board for School No.244, which began as Eumemmering Denominational School, then became a State School, changed its name to Hallam’s Road in 1906 and to Hallam in 1923.Which brings us to the Hallam family, after whom the suburb was named. William and Mary Hallam purchased the 50 acres (20 hectares) in 1856 between the Andrews farm and Hallam Road.They established a store and a Post Office and eventually operated a 'licensed house' which they sold, with their land to Edmund U'ren, in 1885. Edmund operated the premises as a Hotel until his death in 1892, when his wife Elizabeth took over. This Hotel has also being known as Hallam's Road Hotel, Uren's Hotel, Hallam's Eumemmering Hotel and various other combinations of those names which once again reflects the fluidity of the early place names. You can read about the Hallam Hotel, here.

An early photograph of the Hallam Hotel, taken sometime before 1931 when it was modernised and extended.

Another early family was the Frawley family, remembered in the area by Frawley Road. Mary Frawley acquired 60 acres (about 24 hectares) in 1857 on the north side of the Highway. It then passed to her son James, who died in 1906 aged 76. James was married to Roseanna Cosgrave (though she is sometimes listed as Rose) and they had eleven children. After the death of James, the Shire of Berwick Rate Books list the land as being owned by his widow and their son Jeremiah. Jeremiah farmed with his sister Rose and they both remained unmarried. In 1909 the land is listed as being owned by William (another son) and Jeremiah. Rosanna died in 1914, aged 76. Jeremiah retained his ten acres (4 hectares) until 1934 and William sold his remaining land in 1943, 86 years after the Frawley family first arrived in the area.

The house owned by Frank and Margaret Andrews.

Sources :

A small farm at Hallam : the Andrews 1854-1934, complied by Deborah Stephan, from information written and provided by Marie Carson (nee Dempsey). (City of Casey Historical pamphlet 1) Marie is pictured at top with her great aunt. The photographs are from this booklet.
Hallam 1830-1930  by Deborah Stephan. (City of Casey Historical Pamphlet 2)
Call back yesterday: Eumemmering Parish by Jean Uhl (Lowden Publishing 1972).

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