February 2014 4.7Mb

Free Copy In This Edition: Page Page Smugglers at Torquay 2 Stroke—Stalking its Victim 22 Water for Geelong 3 Scrabble 23 Thomas Hiscock 6 Incitec Pivot 24 Frank Gardiner 8 Robin Williams 26 The Giraffe 10 Recipe—Lemon Cheesecake 28 Galileo 12 Word Search— Fish 29 The Tasmanian Confrontation 14 Banknotes: Joseph Banks 30 Corio—The Early Days Part 2 16 150 Years Ago 31 Christmas Island 18 Then… & Now 32 Crips and Bloods 20 Smugglers at Torquay On Thursday, May 7, 1891, the Joseph H. Scammell was on the 114th day of its voyage from New York to Melbourne, and had set a course for Port Phillip Heads when bad weather and rough seas dragged the ship towards shore. It ran aground on a reef at Point Danger near Torquay. There were 22 people on-board the Scammell, including the wife and daughter of Captain J. A. Chapman. The ship's dangerous position was first noticed by local fishermen at approximately 11am, and one of the local fishermen, Felix Rosser, attempted to row out to the ship to provide assistance, but was forced back to shore by strong seas. The following day after the seas had settled, and with a crowd of onlookers watching from the shore, the crew of the ship were able to lower a boat and evacuate all on board. The stormy weather which had caused the accident did not abate for some time, and the ship began to break up, littering the beach with wreckage and the £60,000 cargo. By the following Sunday crowds of looters were flocking to the area. Under cover of darkness many loads of beached cargo, including clothing, tobacco, kerosene, timber, leather, axe handles, etc., were taken from under the noses of the watchmen and despatched to Geelong. In addition, the adjoining sand hills were used as hiding places until removal could be effected without detection. For example, 29 boxes of tobacco were found buried in a galvanised iron-lined trench on a property that had been over-sown with barley. Due to the incident, Captain J A Chapman had his master’s certificate suspended for 12 months for careless navigation and negligence. The Joseph H. Scammell wedged tightly onto rocks at Torquay in May 1891. 2 In 1840 Geelong’s first police magistrate, Foster Fyans, oversaw the completion of the breakwater* on the Barwon River at Geelong, ensuring that the fledgling town had an ample supply of fresh water, Jewell's water pump on the banks of the Barwon just east untainted by tidal seawater of the Barwon Bridge (where Landy Field is today). A coming up from Lake horse-drawn water cart is taking on water at the tank. Connewarre. For the next few years citizens in Geelong rejoiced, while those up at Williamstown and Melbourne continued to lament the poor quality of their water. However, in Geelong there was still a major inconvenience. The larger section of the Geelong township had been laid out near the harbour, to take advantage of shipping arrivals, coming in from all over the world. And yet, the river was 2.5km to the south. Thus, residents living near the centre of town had to walk or ride over the hill (at McKillop Street) and down to the river to fetch water. Once water was scooped from the river, the heavy load had to be carried all the way home. Out of frustration many new arrivals to the town preferred to settle in what became called Geelong South, on the river side of the hill. With hundreds of locals scooping water up from the river, mud was stirred up, fouling the water. But this was not as bad as the run-off from the various industries being set up beside the river to the west. As a result, many locals preferred to travel upstream as far as Buckley’s Falls to fill their water buckets. Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and this proved true with Geelong’s water supply. Within 12 months of the breakwater’s completion, Mr. Jewell had installed a small volume water pump, run by steam engine, to help fill up horse-drawn water carts. The 130 gallon (590 litre) loads were then transported over the hill to homes and businesses in North Geelong^. This service was hard work for the horses, especially climbing the hill during winter- time when Moorabool Street was churned into a heavy, thick mud. While this service made it more convenient for Geelong’s residents to obtain *See the January 2011 issue of the Jillong Pocket for the story of the Breakwater. ^For a time, the town centre became known to locals as North Geelong. An example of this was when the first edition of the Geelong Advertiser was published on November 21, 1840. The Geelong Advertiser Office address was given as a four-bedroom house on the north side of Malop St, between Yarra and Bellerine Streets in “North Geelong.” 3 water, it came at a high cost. And so, Geelong residents appealed to the Town Council and Colonial Government for a cheaper alternative. Within a few years water from the Barwon River was also being used to power steam-driven mills established along the riverbank—milling flour, various types of cloth, and carpets. In 1849, owner of one of the flour mills, William Gray, proposed a solution to the problem of supplying water to Geelong which was gleefully accepted by the Town Council. During the day, his large steam-powered water pump fed water into the boilers inside his mill. However, during the night, it lay idle. Gray re-plumbed his pump so that it could send water through iron pipes to three water tanks established on top of the hill near McKillop Street during the night, which then fed a water fountain at Market Square (built on the corner where Banjo’s Bakery is situated today). One night’s pumping supplied enough water to the tanks to satisfy the whole town’s needs for a week at a time. In addition, pipes were laid underground from the tanks to the harbour, providing fresh water to all shipping at highly reduced rates. Fire-fighting within the town also benefitted somewhat from the more plentiful source of water. Gray established the system without any cost to the Town Council or Colonial Government, on the condition he could recoup his expenses and make a profit over time from charging water rates. By April 1850 the system was in place to the delight of the whole town! But not all ran to plan. To start with, the fountain proved impractical, and was soon scrapped. A water tank was constructed in its place, supported by stone pillars, and designed to fill eight water carts every two minutes. Then disaster struck! The first pump used to supply the tank was washed away in the flood of 1852. And so, the town supply was forced to go back to the horse and cart service for a while. Eventually a new pump was installed and consumers paid their 1s. (10c) weekly water fee to an attendant located in a little booth beside the tank before filling their buckets. Alternatively, for two shillings (20c) a cartload, or 10 shillings ($1) per week, the carrier would deliver a load of water direct- ly to a house or business address, or even the local jail. (See box on next page.) But not all were happy. The Town Council and Mr. Gray continued to argue over rent rates for the tank site. The Council also By 1857 the water tank, built on the corner of claimed that the continuous stream Moorabool Street and Little Malop Street was of carts filling up at the tank churned a major town landmark. 4 up the roads leading to Market Square. Others complained that the water charges were exorbitant. To avoid the fees many citizens constructed underground brick tanks (cisterns) to store water collected from the roofs of their homes. But for the majority, Gray’s crude system, which continually broke down, was Geelong's only water supply for many years. Continuous complaints to the Victorian Parliament about the inadequacy of the supply finally led to Parliament allocating £200,000 in 1856 to supply the town with piped water. But in 1858, Geelong was outraged to discover that the money had been spent on Melbourne's Yan Yean Reservoir instead! The hostility raged on until Sunday, March 9, 1862, when an horrific fire on Singapore Terrace at Eastern Beach destroyed an entire row of houses, leaving 70 people homeless. Seventy-six cart-loads of water brought over from Gray’s tank at Market Square had proved inadequate to quench the flames. The devastation was enormous. Even Melbourne-biased politicians saw the need to rectify the problem quickly. Thus, in May 1866 work began building a dam across Stony Creek in the Brisbane Ranges, some 40km to the north of Geelong. After an initial construction failure, which required the top half of the dam to be pull down and rebuilt, the project was completed in 1873. Finally, in April that year the first tap was turned on at the Geelong hospital. As a result, Gray’s water tank in Market Square became obsolete and was dismantled. However, a legacy of the water tank has lasted until our day. In next month’s Jillong Pocket we will reveal what it is. The Stony Creek Dam Constructed between 1866-73. An open brick-lined aqueduct channelled the water 10km to Anakie, before being fed through a pipe to the service basins at Lovely Banks.

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