6. Land Use and Industry
- Aboriginal Views
- Early White Views
- Straight Lines
- The Gippsland Railway
- Civic Pride in Oakleigh
- Land Use and Industry
- Endnotes
The Gippsland railway was a major factor in the development of industry in Oakleigh. The rail yards themselves were extensive and there were important workshops at Oakleigh. The function of the town as a break point on the journey from Melbourne to Gippsland was also significant.
The railway opened up Gippsland to settlement, but in most of West Gippsland, no farming was possible until a start had been made on clearing the dense forest. Much of the timber was burnt but a great deal was sold. Sawmills were set up as near as possible to where the trees were felled to minimise the distance they had to be hauled by bullock teams. Tramlines were then built to carry the milled timber to the nearest railway station. Warragul in particular was a busy centre for the timber industry in the 1880s. Railway sleepers, barrel staves and paving blocks for the streets of Melbourne all came out of Gippsland by rail through Oakleigh.
Building timber also came out of Gippsland, but it had to be seasoned properly or it warped and shrank as it dried. Before the development of kiln drying and steam seasoning in the early twentieth century, the timber industry had to rely on natural seasoning on racks for two or three years - or take advantage of the ignorance of the customer. This problem explains why pine floorboards, window frames and wall panelling were all imported during the 1880s. There were timber merchants in Oakleigh in the 1880s, but the local timber industry grew most rapidly after World War 1, when the worst problems of seasoning the Gippsland product had been overcome. [35]
Oakleigh's brickworks had no such teething problems and the process of extracting the clay, especially south of Scotchman' Creek and east of Atkinson Street, went on for many years. In 1889, for instance, both the Oakleigh Brickworks and the Eureka Brickworks were active in this area. The result was a series of large holes, later filled by tipping, not just of Oakleigh's rubbish but of that from a number of surrounding municipalities. There were brickworks at Notting Hill, too, sold to the Oakleigh Brick, Tile and Pipe Company in 1884. The essence of Oakleigh's brick industry was migratory, holes dug and filled with rubbish while the brick and tile works moved on. Little survives to mark what was a major local industry until well after World War 2.
In Clayton, probably the earliest industry was Zorn's tomato sauce factory. The sauce was not just for local consumption. Mr Zorn won overseas prizes for his wares from as early as 1862. [36] The sauce factory is an indication of the main way of making a living in the area in this era: growing food.
Market gardens were particularly important around Clayton, growing everything from cut flowers to caulifowers. A notable wholesale nursery business also began in this area. North from Clayton the market gardeners were joined by dairy farmers. In the 1890s in particular, developments in refrigeration technology made it possible to ship butter to Europe and some of Mulgrave's farmers went into the business. From an early date, Mulgrave's farmers did not just look to Melbourne as a market for their produce. Priestley has described how the orchardists organised themselves to sell on national and international markets from as early as the 1890s. [37]
Not everyone, however, had to make a living from the land. Mulgrave also had a fair number of what today might be called hobby farmers. Sir Redmond Barry is probably the most famous with his two farms on High Street Road. St John's Wood was the home of his mistress and family with a substantial house and outbuildings, while there was just a cottage on the farm he called Syndal after his home in Ireland. Barry did not live on either farm, but visited frequently from his Melboume residence and sent his son detailed notes on planting and farm management. [38]
Amstel House was another property with greater social pretensions than market gardening. Van Amstel bought what had been O'Flaherty's blocks in about 1876. Priestley documents a number of Melboume business and professional people who bought land in the area, especially during the 1880s. However, the dominant character of the area remained unpretentious' small farms, small houses, small schools.
There were at least eight schools in Oakleighshire at various times, before compulsory education and the building of state schools from 1875. Oakleigh, for instance, had a national school between 1857 and 1862 and there was a Wesleyan school house on the north side of Broadwood from 1855 and a Catholic School a little further east from 1859. The Church of England School on Wellington Road opened in 1860 and there was a school on the southeast corner of Dandenong and Clayton Roads from 1865.
Mulgrave also had schools from an early date. One in High Street Road closed in 1868, the same year the school in the Wesleyan Chapel at Black Flat opened, and there was a school in the St Stephens Church of England, Waverley, from 1871 to 1874.
Oakleigh State School (SS 1601) opened in 1875 on me comer of Warrigal Road and Logie Street. Mulgrave (SS 2172) opened in 1879, three miles east of the old school on Wellington Road, and Springvale North (SS 1658) opened in 1875. Together they replaced the old school. Black Flat (SS 2219) opened in 1880. The name was changed to Glen Waverley in 1921. There were no new schools in the 1890s, the depression affecting both building and population growth. [39]
According to the Victorian Municipal Directory of 1899, Black Flat had a store and post office, a butcher, baker and Wesleyan Chapel as well as the school. With a population of 300 it was the main 'township' in the Shire of Mulgrave. (The name was changed from Oakleighshire to the Shire of Mulgrave on 11 February 1897.)
Clayton had a railway station, where Bridget Lawler combined her duties with that of postmistress. Notting Hill and Wheelers Hill also had post offices and hotels. Notting Hill could also boast a butcher, forge and bakery besides the brick works. [40] The total population of the Shire was 1,617.
Oakleigh, with a population of 1,310, was still a very small town, but in 1899 it did have, besides the gasworks, three hotels, a court house, four churches, a bank and the state school. There were a number of small businesses along Broadwood and Atherton Road, including timber yards, farriers and blacksmiths, butchers, a chemist, and a hairdresser. There was also a racecourse on the block that Henry de Carte and James Watson had so optimistically put up for subdivision in 1853. [41]