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Foreword [
HIS BOOKLET, describing the growth and development of the T country districts of Victoria, laimamiamiait » « t t i M t i purpose. > » * has . • • • a double It is •4 * * m B* V * •«•liMWM ‘ designed to tell the story— of necessity briefly—of one of the eight great districts into which Vic¬ toria is divided. It is also designed to remind a new generation of the great and dominant part played in this story by UThe Age” throughout the 75 years of its far-sighted influence on public life. The pressure of to-day sometimes causes us to forget the debt due to yesterday. We i reap the benefits of the successful striv¬ ing and initiative of a great organ of public opinion, but forget the principles of policy upon which that striving and initiative are grounded.
The supreme service rendered by “The Age” is comprehended in the twin policies of “Unlocking the Lands for the People and “Protection.” Each arose out of the
1 historic necessities of the State after the Gold Rush had ended. But each was based upon a reasoned conception of State¬ craft which aimed at a State consisting of hundreds of thousands of families working on farms and in factories, masters of their i own home market, owning on easy terms their own freeholds, protected by a tariff from the unfair competition of oversea competitors, and possessing such a wide franchise, and so many representative in¬ stitutions, as to be really a Free Democ¬ racy within the British Empire.
The fight for these policies of “The Age” was long and sometimes bitter, but in the result splendidly successful. From 1856, when “The Age” raised the cry. aUnlock the Lands,” to the great Land Act of 1898, it was a stern struggle by this great paper to open up the country for the common people, to free it from the grip of squattocracy and to make land acquisition possible to people of small means. From 1860, when “The Age” first raised the flag of Protection, down to the Lyne Tariff of 1908, for the entire Com¬ monwealth, the stern, unwavering battle for Protection for farmer and industrialist alike Avas waged. To-day Protection, which means millions yearly to the Vic¬ torian producer, is the policy of the nation; that which began in “The Age99 office nearly 70 years ago, is the economic basis of Australia. Without it the Aus¬ i tralian farmer would have, at best, had a local market of 2,000.000 people, as against over 6,000,000 people under Protection.
\ Behind the two great policies thus briefly described, “The Age >9 in 1929 stands as it did in the early days. Advances in science and invention, methods of finance, cultivation, selling and marketing, are wel- coined, so that the fruit of the policies may reach the humblest settler or artisan. As these pages show, “The Age” has been, and continues to be, the best fmend the Australian farmer has possessed in this community.
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* L o« > Nucleus of a Vigorous Development
T is a far cry from the year 1824, when Hume and Hovell crossed the Ovens River on their first expedition from New South Wales to Port Phillip. Almost as far re¬ moved from the early squatting period, which began in 1835, to flourish in lusty pioneering vigor, is moreover, the nucleus of that rural self-development which spells progress in North-Eastern Victoria to-dav. For that mountainous land of promise, bounded, roughly, by Yarra- wonga, Euroa, Mansfield, Bright, and Corryong, below the Murray, and known rather prosaically as “the North-East, dawned for democracy with the opening up of the Ovens goldfield in 1853. Few of us sigh for a recurrence of those rest¬ less days of the gold rushes. They stripped life bare in their feverish bustle and reckless cosmopolitanism. But they did something more, unconsciously per¬ haps; they sowed the seeds of a common prosperity. When 14,000 diggers as¬ sembled at Moonlight Creek, Forest Creek, and Woolshed to demonstrate their resentment of the vicious adminis- tration of an unjust licensing system which preceded adoption of the miner’s 4 right, they were making Australia safe for democracy. Their protest may have been direct and violent, but the means j 4 justified the end brought about by the tragic Eureka Stockade incident of 1854. It was during this vital stage of Aus¬ tralia’s political history that “The Age,V the journal which best expressed the virile Liberal reaction against an effete Con¬
4 servatism which threatened like a blight to settle on this fair land, was founded. From the year of its foundation, 1854, kC The Age” never ceased to uphold the rights of people in their developmnt of t » Australia Felix.” Its unwavering policy of fostering secondary industry, to func¬ tion hand in hand with primary industry, was pursued even while jeopardising its own pecuniary stability. But the wisdom of that policy has become apparent in every sphere of production. For a long time Wangaratta, the oldest town in the North-East, was the centre of early com¬ munity life. The “father” of the town¬ ship, William Henry Clarke, grew 5 or G acres of wheat there in 1846, and grist¬ ing was done by hand mills until the erection of the first steam flour mill in 1856. In 1849 the first brick building was erected in Wangaratta, and to-day brick kilns are conspicuous in many of the North-Eastern towns. Quite early in the history of the settlement a foundry was established there. In Benalla to-day there are not only foundries operating, but the hum of saw mills is heard in Euroa and Violet Town, there are woollen mills at Wangaratta, and weaving mills nlso at Euroa, while Beechworth is the home of a large tannery. Cordial fac¬ tories are general in the larger towns,
5 Leading Towns : Benalla, Rutherglen, Wodonga, Omeo, Euroa, Mansfield. DIVISIONAL STATISTICS ~ i f. < 1928. 1908. 1928. 1908. Area Cultivated. Cultivated Acres. i Production. Production. Acres. Acres. Total Area 150,085 Total Area . 147,500 Wheat 44,372 Wheat 34,300 906,428 bushels 591,000 bushels t Oats 8,287 Oats 24,900 238,138 f f 821,000 5 J Hay 44,000 Hay 54,000 65,000 tons 81,000 tons Maize 2,399 Maize 1,493 86,695 bushels 46,000 bushels Vines 5,400 Vines 9,302 Grapes Grapes 125,786 cwt. 151,000 cwt. Wine Wine 809,689 gals 880,000"gals.
BENALLA (SHIRE) : 1928. 1908. OMEO (SHIRE) : Population . 9,160 Population . 9,000 1928. — 1908. Dwellings . 2,308 Dwellings . 1,900 Population . 2,369 Population . 5,000 Valuation £177,503 Valuation £89,000 Dwellings . 675 Dwellings . 1,200 Agricultural district ; with brickworks, Valuation £48,900 Valuation £45,000 Hour mills, etc., in township. Agriculture, mining, dairying. Railways outwTard traffic revenue, Benalla. 1927-8, £21,468. EUROA (SHIRE) 1928. 1908. RUTHERGLEN (SHIRE) : Population . 5,000 Population . 5,590 1928. 1908. Dwellings . 915 Dwellings . 1,188 Population . 3,854 Population . 5,854 Valuation £72,058 Valuation £66,516 Dwellings . 879 Dwellings . 1,063 Valuation £57,950 Valuation £30,000 Agricultural and pastoral activities, with weaving mills, butter factories, and ice Agriculture and viticulture. works in township. Railways outward traffic revenue, Ruther¬ Railways outward traffic revenue, 1927-8, glen, 1927-8, £8,765. £11.175. WODONGA (SHIRE) : MANSFIELD (SHIRE) : 1928. 1908. 1928. 1908. Population . 2,820 Population . 1,822 I Population . 4,000 Population . 3,780 Dwellings . 536 Dwellings . 360 Dwellings . 990 Dwellings . 794 Valuation £49,313 Valuation £20,128 Valuation £85,683 Valuation £48,822 Agriculture, pastoral, and a little mining ; Farming and grazing pursuits. wool scouring. Railways outward traffic revenue. Mans¬ Railways outward traffic revenue, field, 1927-8, £10,194. Wodonga, 1927-8, £83,849. Note. In each instance population figures, etc., are those of the municipality.
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and breweries have been established for ? years t/ at Wangaratta and Beechworth. o ( Of paramount importance, however, the r butter, cheese, and bacon-curing factories represent now the most prosperous branch * of secondary industry. The scientific and expeditious handling of the dairy far¬ mer’s product is a sound factor in the trend towards decentralisation. These factories at Wangaratta, Euroa, Benalla, Iviewa, Yarrawonga, Springhurst, Violet Town, Strathbogie, Cudgewa, Moyhu, Myrtleford, Milawa, Tallangatta, Ta- wanga, Noorongong, Eskdale, Benambra, Swan Pool, Walwa, and other towns and villages, are the very life blood of the districts’ general welfare. Benalla’s ob¬ vious prosperity is inescapable; Beech- worth takes pride in its four parks and shady streets; Wodonga has long been known as the largest depot for the sale of store cattle in Victoria; and Ruther- glen’s viticulture has brought that dis¬ trict fame. While these aspects of
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RUTHERGLEN PARK
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i * 8 individual civic achievement are recog¬ nised, while Yarrawonga remains con¬ scious of growing in its neighbourhood some of the best wheat in Australia, the butter factory obtrudes itself as the \ most hopeful sign of the future. The output of Victoria’s butter, cheese, and bacon-curing factories amounts annually to £10,000,000! When the railway crept up from Essen- don to Schoolhouse Lane (south of the Goulburn River) in April, 1872, and was extended during the following year to Wodonga, the first locomotives manufac¬ tured for the Government by the Phoenix Foundry at Ballarat (ten of them) were used on that line. Pioneering ‘tracks had become highways and byways, and the chief of these, the old Sydney Road, deserves still to be famous for its unique bridges and culverts of Glenrowan granite. Those same roads to-day have been constructed by modern processes for the ubiquitous motor vehicle. Lateral roads have also been opened up by the Country t Roads Board,7 whose work since 1013, however, lias consisted for the most part in building the valley roads already surveyed r/ and laid out for traffic of a dis- appearing past. The backbone of the roads system in the North-East is formed by the ITume Highway (main Sydney road) and the Omeo Highway. This latter sur¬ face runs from Wodonga through Tallan-
in«atta, along the valley of the Mitta Mitta to Omeo, and thence down to the Prince’s Highway, in Gippsland. The next road
9 which should be declared a State high¬ way is the Murray Valley Road, from Wodonga to the furthest settlement above Bringenbrong, opening up great stock fattening country. This road extends westerly to the South Australian border,y and links up the terminus of every rail¬ way line running north to the Murray. Construction of the Hume Reservoir has stressed the significance of roads in this fertile portion of the State. Any expenditure on roads which will lead to the development of closer settlement in the smiling Murray Valley demands urgent consideration. Merely a hint of the possibilities of development in the Upper Murray region is given in the o* recent progress made in dairy farminto along the Kiewa Valley. Corryong, eleven miles from the railhead at Cudgewa, is becoming the thriving centre of an area which Mr. Elwood Mead regarded as ideal country, with its wonderful climate, for selection. Just as “The Age“ policy of the pro¬ gressive establishment of home enterprise and markets has materially assisted in the development of this beautiful country¬ side, so its influence is pledged to the further development of that greater North-East which is looming pleasantly on the horizon. Areas devoted to dairy¬ ing, tobacco, maize, broom millet; the hop toardens and orchards growing passion fruit and citrus, and the numerous groves of walnuts each and all proclaim the richness of— soil and salubrity and diversity of climate in the valleys of the
10 Ovens, King, Kiewa, and Mitta Mitta, and tributaries of the Upper Murray, » which will grow most things for our uni¬ versal storehouse. Hay crops predomi¬ nate in the North-East, and on the pas¬ tures, which cover an area of 3.422,582 acres, there were 1,144,239 sheep and 213,152 cattle grazing, according to a recent record. But agriculture is in its infancy. Tobacco has not been fully tried out, the soils of Edi having dis¬ or closed by analysis percentages equallinto IT those of Kentucky, and easily surpassinto those of North Carolina. In forestry, the plantation by the Forests Commission of thousands of acres of pine in the dredged river valley of the Ovens is a phase of sound development which must be ex¬ tended scientifically. BeechwortlTs earnest hopes to establish forests of conifers in abandoned mining areas, and the formation of extensive softwoods forests from Beechworth to the slopes of Feathertop and St. Bernard, are worthy «/ of realisation. Meanwhile, the towns of the North-East are undergoing a process of civic stimu- ation which indicates potential rural progress. The electricity transmission line from Sugarloaf through to Albury and Corowa is a recent boon. State schools in most towns, and High schools in Wangaratta and Benalla, are, too, expressive of the educational outlook, and a phase of social progress in Victoria which “The Age” has never failed to advance. There was a time when the number of banks in a town was regarded
f-K—_-»xnr- ; 11 as the barometer of progress until the expression 4 b over-banked,’’ applied to ultra-conservative communities, came into use. More than ever to-day, country people are realising that the school, the cinema, the amusement hall, and the srarageto and service station register more accurately the degree of a district’s vital prosperity. They have become conscious of the value of money which circulates, of the adoption of the best modern equip¬ ment available to primary and secondary production, and that decentralisation is assured by the provision of a high stan¬ dard of education and entertainment in town and village. a The Age *9 Per Qr. One copy delivered to Agent Daily 9/9 One copy posted daily to any address in the Commonwealth . . . . 12/ One copy daily if posted on alternate days 11/ Two or more copies posted daily under one cover to one address (all to expire on same date) . 11/ Per Copy. Single copies posted odd days . . 2d. U The Leader >5 Posted to any address in the Com¬ monwealth or delivered by agent.. 12/ year 3/3 qr. Posted to any address in the United Kingdom ...... 4/10ÿ2 qr. Posted to any British possession and United States of America . . 6/6 qr. Posted to Foreign Countries . . S/8 q r. All subscriptions are payable in advance to David Syme and Co., 233 Coll ins-street, Mel¬ bourne.
Published by DAVID SYME & CO., 233 Collins St., Melbourne