First Settlement was of particular Yarra. The Aboriginals were soon to importance to the Aboriginals and lose their camp sites as European The first European settlement of both rivers still bear their Aboriginal settlement expanded and land was commenced in 1835 with names. fenced and cleared. the arrival of John Pascoe Fawkner's One pioneer, Garryowen, wrote: In its earliest days Melbourne ship 'Enterprise' from Van Diemen's 'Studley Park and the Yarra Bend . .. consisted of a haphazard scattering of Land (Tasmania). The site of with two or three nooks in the Merri houses and tents concentrated in the Melbourne had long been the home Creek, were the favourite haunts of area bordering the Yarra near the of Aboriginals who numbered about the Aborigines.' western end of Flinders Street. The eight hundred when the early settlers One of the larger camps, where about population grew steadily as settlers arrived. The general locality at the 90 of the Wurundjerri tribe lived, was arrived from Van Diemen's Land, junction of the Merri Creek and the on Dight's land near the falls on the Sydney and overseas. In February 1838,

5 Pioneers of the 1840s: with barley, which yielded a fair crop Georgiana Mccrae - and in the following year, with oats, which yielded well. One of the early families who chose to The road from Melbourne to live in what was to become the City of 'Mayfield' Georgiana described as 'an Collingwood was that of Andrew and everlasting chain of bog-holes, with Georgiana McCrae. figures of eight and many deviations Georgiana, with her children, arrived on account of fallen trees and other in Melbourne in March 1841 to join obstacles; only the first mile from town her husband, a solicitor, and recorded is in repair'. much of her life in the new colony in her journal. This has been published as Georgiana's journal: Melbourne 1841- JOHN PASCOE FAWKNER 1865. The McCraes built their house in Sydney, a Government land sale was 'Mayfield' on the river-fronted site held for town, suburban and country they were purchasing in Abbotsford. lots in distant Melbourne. The suburbs Georgiana described the area: now known as Fitzroy and The 'Mayfield' site, 'Carran­ Collingwood, but then as a parish of Carranulk', so called by the natives the Jika Jika or Newtown, were divided after the Carran, or prickly myrtle, into 25 acre lots and sold for an consists of nine and a half acres of average of £7 per acre. These lots were land badly encumbered with in turn subdivided by their owners and boulders, requiring much labour to re-sold. raise them out of the soil. The Settlement increased in the region allotment is bounded on the north by which is the present suburb of Fitzroy, the Y arra, on the west by Nicholson's and in 1842 was officially named Paddock, on the east by a fence 'Collingwood' after a British Admiral. enclosing the space reserved for a As settlement expanded further the road to a future bridge across the area east of Smith Street became river, and on the south by a track known as East Collingwood. leading to the bend of the stream, Until 1851 East Collingwood remained eastwards ... Of February 1843 she wrote: almost rural with only a handful cf In the 'reserve' the boys kept a At this time, our contract with cottages and inns, a factory or two, and kitchen-garden where they grew Mortimer, the butcher, for beef and a few homes of pastoral pioneers along quantities of pumpkins, etc. Here, mutton was at the rate of three the Yarra. It was not until 1873 that the too, the women servants carried on ha'pence the pound; veal, pork etc. at 'East' was dropped from the name, their laundry arrangements ... fourpence. The cart used to bring us a long after the western area had been From the dormer-windows of side of mutton twice a week with a re-named Fitzroy. 'Mayfield', looking south, nothing shin of beef for soup. The driver was to be seen but the tops of invariably added a sheep's head and gum-trees all the way to Richmond pluck for the dogs, but Ellen prepared Hill ... these Scots fashion for the master In 1842, about seven acres were sown and allowed the dogs the leavings. The mutton was so fat, Ellen used to make candles for her own use and for the nursery of it. On Friday afternoons, troops of blackfellows and their gins used to assemble at the slaughter-houses to collect sheep's heads and plucks which they roasted at their fires by the Merri Creek. Georgiana's journal mentions the road-making project of their neighbour Mr James Simpson and she describes the path beside it: There was also a raised footpath, about four feet wide, with sloping sides and a ditch to carry off rainwater. The sides of this path in springtime, were gay with orchids and other strange flowers, while in

KIDNEY BROTHERS OUTFITTERS AND BOOT AND SHOE SHOP, SMITH STREET, 1860s the ditch next to the roadway, slender 6 frogs disported themselves, silent by is called 'St Helier's'. Then there The Orr residence' Abbotsford' gave day, but at sunset deafening us with were the Orrs at 'Abbotsford' and the its name to the locality and John their vespers. Hodgsons at 'Studley'. Hodgson's 'Studley' gave its to Studley (Simpson's Road was in time re-named Park. Street.) Edward Curr was one of the leading The McCraes left 'Mayfield' because of Our opposite neighbours, though on men of the day and became known as financial difficulties and moved to the the same side of the Y arra, were the the Father of Separation, the area near Rosebud now known as Edward Curr' s, from Circular Head, separation in 1851 of the Colony of McCrae. 'Mayfield' was demolished in Van Diemen's Land. Their property Victoria from that of New South Wales. 1962.

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~ 0 Cl 0 I 7 Collingwood in the 1850s and the 'forties'. women folk as well as by men in the 60s: The Gold Rushes brought thousands of winter months. A lantern on dark immigrants to Victoria and many nights was a most desirable Edward Petherick eventually settled in Collingwood: companion. Edward A. Petherick recalled When the land was cut up into Being outside the City of Melbourne Collingwood of the 1850s and 1860s in allotments to suit immigrants, the the area had no local government and a paper he read to the Victorian owners or auctioneers, laid out the general lack of facilities made life Historical Society in 1909. narrow streets, certainly at right far from enjoyable. A local committee Edward A. Petherick assisted his father, angles, north and south, east and was formed to secure proper roads, Peter John Petherick, in the office of west, but not on any comprehensive pure water, sewerage and lighting and the rate collector of East Collingwood or relative plan. Some of these streets petitioned Governor La Trobe that an from 1856to1860. He was employed as remained unformed for years ... The independent local government be a clerk working with the Town Clerk tenements, mostly of shingle or instituted. In April 1855 the and Surveyor from 1860to1862. weatherboard, generally of two Municipality of East Collingwood was Much of Collingwood was a swampy rooms, were quickly run up, being proclaimed and became the first plain known as the Collingwood Flat. built on piles or stumps rising from suburban municipality. The blocks of land east of Smith one to three feet, to escape the flood The Municipality included Street which had been sold in those waters. Collingwood and Abbotsford; Clifton first government land sales of 1838 The flat ground of Collingwood was Hill was annexed by East Collingwood were mostly held by the original notorious for its flooding: in September 1855, but a petition for owners till 1849 and 1850; those on the Within an hour, I have seen the the inclusion of Studley Park was not 'Flat', sparsely timbered, were, results of a thunderstorm covering granted. however, early 'cleared' of fallen two square miles of the Flat. Some In those days - the late fifties and timber, and trees were felled for have suggested mermaids swimming early sixties - Collingwood had a firewood and posts and rails - the about. I never saw one. They would very considerable political reputation axe rang early, all around have floundered around in the mud. and a large number of platform Melbourne. Three blocks were fenced Slippery, miry, and puddle all the politicians ... Municipal elections, .in and preserved for another forty winter, and caked with rough clay in 'East Collingwood Races', were years - Dight's Paddock, the the summer, the difficulties of important enough and exciting Victoria Park site of today, remained peregrination around Melbourne locally. Women had no votes but they covered with gumtrees and sheoaks after the influx of population in the handled the money for the rates and until a comparatively recent period. early fifties were at their worst on insisted on their husbands voting for The open spaces and that 'park' were Collingwood Flat ... Half· the men who would make their paths frequented by the aborigines late in Wellington boots were much worn by and streets passable.

~~10~ :..~..Jiiliii;::ll,.; .:O.. _fl~- - dozen wooden Churches and Chapels. 1851 The beginning of the rush to Victoria's goldflelds. A Free Public Library was Collingwood boomed in both population and buildings as the gold established in 1859, the Council immigrants who had flooded into the colony started to return to allowing the use of three rooms in Melbourne from the diggings. their Chambers for books and 1854 Census showed population in the area as 8,738 readers, in the evenings. The library 1855 East Collingwood proclaimed a municipality. started with 500 volumes, including 1863 The Borough of East Collingwood had a population of approximately long sets of the Gentleman's 19,000 crowding into its increasingly subdivided land. Magazine and Edinburgh Review 1873 Proclaimed the Town of Collingwood. presented by Mr Fawkner, and gifts 1875 Population of 21,000. from other donors. 1876 Renamed the City of Collingwood. Mr Petherick concluded his paper by The population increased rapidly through the Boom years of the 1880s to listing some of the major 'Events' of the reach 35,000in1891. time including:- the opening From the 1850s to the 1870s Collingwood's population was the largest of ceremonies of the Johnston St and the Melbourne's suburban municipalities. Studley Park bridges in 1856 and 1857 This increasing population provided a vast source of cheap labour for the (the Studley Park Bridge crossed the development of local industries which included brewing, tanning, boot and Yarra at Church St. Before the bridges textile manufacturing. were built, one crossed the Yarra to Kew by John Hodgson's punt at Clarke Mr Petherick presented the statistics Collingwood according to their St. The Victoria St Bridge was not built he had collected showing that in 1860 construction material: of wood 2,560, until 1882). the Municipality contained: of brick 686, of stone 310 and of iron He also mentioned the celebrations of Court House and Municipal Offices, 54, total 3,610. the marriage of Prince Albert Edward 3,142 dwellings, I ~ He spoke of leisure activities: and Princess Alexandra (1863); the 33 hotels, ! : We had our local entertainments - laying of the foundation stone of the 362 shops, ; ; ,':· ~ concerts, readings, lectures, strolling Municipal Abattoirs in 1861 (beside the 30 shanties, ; ' '· players. We were near enough to Merri Creek in Ramsden St, Clifton 9 foundries and Ii Melbourne to take advantage of the Hill); and the laying of the foundation one flour-mill (Dight's). Theatres, while on Sundays there stone of the Royal Albert Mechanics He also listed the buildings of were large attendances in half a Institute and Free Public Library by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1867. Another event of the time mentioned by Mr Petherick was Collingwood's own gold mine. The Collingwood Gold Mining Company was formed in the 1860s and 'a shaft sunk through bluestone to a depth of more than 100 feet, at the south east corner of Gipps Street and Hoddle Street, opposite the 'Royal George', not far from the present Town Hall, which is on a basaltic bed.' The Argus of August 13, 1865 described the scene when a pennyweight of gold was gleaned from the first half bucket of wash dirt brought through the shaft: Directly gold was found the workmen knocked off and no slight amount of dissipation followed. Crowds collected and the street was during the afternoon crowded with buggies full of anxious visitors eager to gather hints for a little speculation. It is worth telling that while the secretary of the company was exhibiting the gold to the Honourable Colonial Secretary the precious morsels got spilt on the carpet and were not recovered. The company did not prosper and finally lapsed. COLLINGWOOD TO WN HALL IN THE 1880s 9 Convent then consisted of a large was cut a way too as the curve on the A Young Gentlewoman in the villa with wide verandahs and rooms road was considered dangerous for 1860s-70s: entering from the verandah. The traffic. Mildred Snowden chapel was in one of the rooms of the (The old bridge was the one Mr convent, and we were often taken to Petherick remembered being opened The municipality of Collingwood was see it, and nuns explained how one of in the 1850s. The new bridge was socially diverse and the lives of the them was up all night to ring the bell opened in 1876 and was replaced by well-to-do families who lived along the and other duties. In those early days the current bridge in 1956.) Yarra in Abbotsford were very the convent villa was enclosed with Another interesting memory was to different from the lives of the families an iron fence in Clarke St and a see the old lamp lighter run up twice living in the tenements of the paling fence in St Heliers St, and in a day with a ladder on his bent back, Collingwood Flat. the grounds where fine gum-trees in the mornings to trim the four Mildred Demaine (nee Snowden) in grew and cattle gra7.ed, there was a lamps on the old white wooden bridge later life recorded memories of her railed-in pathway from the house to a over the Yarra at Abbotsford, and in girlhood in Abbotsford. Her father was comparatively small brick building the evenings to light the lamps ... Sir Arthur Snowden, a Solicitor who where the penitents started the Lamps and lamp trimming were very became an MLA and Mayor of laundry ... There was no garden in important work in the household, Melbourne. the convent and it was my father's also the polishing of the brass candle The house in which Mildred Snowden pleasure to send baskets of flowers sticks ... The Yan Yean (water was born and grew up in was named for their altar. supply) was laid on, but never fit for 'St Heliers' after the street in which it is The old bridge was very shaky and drinking water - a tank of rain situated (the street was named after the we were amused to feel it shake when water was always kept for Currs' house). It is near the Johnston the heavy wood carts went over it and drinking ... Street Bridge and next door to to see the flowing river between the There was no sanitary drainage at 'Abbotsford House' which in 1863 was cracks in the floorings. The new iron that time. Every man had to make his bought by the Sisters of the Convent of bridge was built over the old wooden own drains, very often on to the the Good Shepherd. one at Johnston St. It was a matter of streets where the gutters grew weeds I was born in 1860, at Abbotsford. We great interest to us to see the large and collected rubbish. As our home rarely left the home garden and supporting pillars being filled with was high and sloped to the river the grounds, except for walks to the stones and cement and then the drainage was not difficult. Our Park, or to see the nuns at the rivetting of the ironwork on the top. bathroom was primitive too - a tub Convent of the Good Shepherd. The The embankment on the Eastern side under a shower in a tiled room next to

THE JOHNSTON ST BRIDGE WHICH MILDRED SNOWDEN SAW BEING BUILT IN 1876 10 the kit;chen. beautifully embroidered muslins and music, cooking and singing lessons (This was considerably less primitive linens under sleeves fastened with from Herr Julius Herz. In 1879 her than many homes on the Flat several tiny pearl buttons. father took her for a trip to decades later.) Of course these were worn with and the Continent. On her return to For our early education we had crinolines and very full skirts ... For Melbourne, 'we commenced to have a governesses, as there were no parties and pantomimes we always gay time with parties, garden parties, suitable schools near enough. The wore white book muslin dresses concerts, theatres, etc.' In 1882 she first one, a Miss Watnuff, we adored, tucked by Mother, low necked and married, at St Phillips Church, Hoddle and of course commenced music. We short sleeves, and blue sashes and Street, Mr Robert Alfred Demaine, a had three following governesses and shoulder ties and hair ties, for years young member of her father's law firm, learned to write a ladylike pointed our party dresses were of that and moved to Kew. hand very well, Little Arthur's pattern. history ere., and to play operatic airs As we got older our dresses extended as duets as well as solos. to delaines, dimity prints and The Less Fortunate: Later Mildred and her young sister muslins, and velvet and silk in the The work of Dr Singleton went to Mr and Mrs E. A. Sampson's winter. And for best, bronze shiny kid School for Young Gentlewomen at boots with elastic sides trimmed with Edward A. Petherick described Torrington House, the site of the little pearl buttons. My sister used to Collingwood's state of health in the present St Vincents Hospital, Fitzroy. wear out her toes very quickly and 1850s and 60s: We nearly always walked there and she used to be teased and told she Infant mortality was very great and back from Abbotsford. would have to wear leather boots the Health Officer's reports for years Singing and embroidery were major with copper toes the same as many were of the prevalence of scarlet activities at school: poor children wore - of course she fever, diphtheria, dysentery, and Before machines were general, did not. other zymotic diseases due to bad dressmaking was a busy time. Croquet marehes were very drainage and lack of sewerage - French hems and scallops both much fashionable as we were growing up diseases, however, not then peculiar worn had to be gone over twice. and I was considered quite an expert to Collingwood, or the "Flat". When I was very little I remember for my age. In 1861 ten per cent of all Collingwood the bell sleeves and fringes and the At 17 Mildred left school and took children under 5 died. In the 1880s 11 'the Demon Drink'. In 1868 he decided that I conducted the Dispensary for to combine his interests in the setting the spiritual as well as for the up of a medical mission: temporal welfare of the patients. I resolved t.o commence one in the Out of 168,000 attendants for free poorest and most densely populated medical treatment I prescribed (up to suburb in Melbourne. The April, 1891) for 82,000, or nearly half municipality of Collingwood seemed the entire number, myself. most t.o answer the description. The mortality of the municipality, After much inquiry I found that a considering its crowded and badly great number of the poorer classes, drained condition, was exceptionally artisans with large families, low, owing, as I am persuaded, t.o the labourers, aged people, widows and prompt, conscientious, simple, non­ deserted women, often with many alcoholic treatment adopted in every children to provide for, with others of case . . . I have no hesitation in the same classes had gone to sayingthathundredsoflivesofthe Collingwood, where the rentals were young especially, were thus then very moderate, and the cost of preserved and prolonged, and much food, vegetables etc., equally so. suffering prevented. And, more Collingwood's death rate was the same I found also that although, as a rule, important still, thousands of men and as for the whole metropolitan area. many of them were unable when ill to women were brought under the However, in those boom years pay for medical attendance, there influence and heard the truths of the Melbourne's death rate from typhoid was yet at the same time no place but gospel story, t.o their present and was in fact worse than London's and the Melbourne Hospital where they their eternal salvation. diphtheria was almost as bad. could get medical relief ... In addition to the Wellington Street Dr John Singleton in his autobiography Accordingly in January 1869, I Dispensary, Dr Singleton established in A Narrative of Incidents in the Eventful opened the Collingwood Free Medical Islington Street, a Temporary Home for Life of a Physician wrote of a different Dispensary in Wellingt.on St, the first Friendless and Fallen Women where side of life in the City of Collingwood institution of the kind attempted in he noted: from that which Mildred Snowden Vict.oria ... Within the first year The training includes cooking, recorded. 3000 patients applied for medical aid. washing, ironing, needlework, Dr Singleton (1808-1891) came from The Collingwood Municipal Council keeping house, tending rooms, Dublin to Victoria in 1851 only a few had agreed to provide the rent - I t.o cleanliness. months before gold was discovered. furnish every other requisite; but He quotes dozens of cases of girls thus He writes of his early years in within a fortnight the council refused 'saved'. Melbourne: t.o pay as agreed, on the ground that I Subsequently, he set up a Night Shelter I had for some time the most distributed tracts t.o the patients, left for Destitute, Homeless Women and extensive practice perhaps in the city, in the waiting room such periodicals Children on adjacent land. In the first as medical men had gone with the as The British Workman, The year, he wrote, 10,000 women and 300 rest t.o the goldfields. Cottager, The Band of Hope Review, children slept and breakfasted there His activities extended well beyond his and others similar, and generally, and some were helped to find medical practice and he was a most employment. Widows Cottages for active evangelist and fighter against Aged Christian Women were later built on the same site. Soon after the night refuge for women was established, he opened one for men, the Blue Bird Shelter, in Berry Street. Dr Singleton was also involved in a wide range of activities outside the immediate Collingwood area, and has been called 'perhaps the greatest single charity worker in Melbourne'. Dr Singleton died in 1891 and his family carried on the work of the Dispensary. In the 1930s it became the responsibility of the Victorian Charities Board who developed its services to include social relief work. In 1977 Singleton's Dispensary was re­ located in Hoddle Street as the Collingwood Community Health Centre. TH E ORIGINAL COLLINGWOOD FREE MEDICAL DISPENSARY, WE LLI NGTON ST 12 The Boom of the 1880s and handsome stores and other and commands an excellent view of buildings, amongst them being the the metropolis. In this suburb are the In 1888 the comprehensive volumes of Royal Albert Institute and Free City of Melbourne bluestone quarries 'Victoria and Its Metropolis Past and Library, of nearly 4000 volumes. and stone-breaking works, in which Present' were published, and There are three reserves in the City, extensive machinery is used. Clifton contained the following descriptions: the Mayor's Park of six, the Hill has one newspaper, the Gazette. COLLINGWOOD (originally Recreation Grounds of seven, and the The Boom of the 1880s collapsed and Newtown), a suburban city lying to Darling Gardens of 16 acres. It has the 1890s brought the devastating the north-east of Melbourne, and on also the largest state school in the Depression to Melbourne. When the Y arra River, to which it has a colony, and three other state schools. suburban growth recommenced, frontage, as the river runs of about The local newspapers are the changes in Collingwood included the five miles, is essentially a Mercury and the Observer. demolition of many of the oldest manufacturing city, and has a large Collingwood is an electoral district, houses to make way for large factories and busy population of 29,000 and returns two members to the such as Foy and Gibsons and Whybrow persons, mostly engaged in various Assembly. Shoes, and in 1901 for the Melbourne­ handcrafts, within an area of 1139 CLIFTON HILL is a residential Collingwood direct railway. acres. It is connected with Melbourne suburb lying within, and forming In the 20th century, Collingwood was by three lines of cable tramways and part of, the city of Collingwood, also affected by events which has the finest and most commodious which has of late years been influenced much of the world, the First Town Hall outside Melbourne. extensively built on with a good class World War (1914-1918), the Depression Smith Street, the principal of houses and numerous handsome of the early 1930s, and the Second thoroughfare, contains many large shops. It has an elevated position, World War (1939-1945).

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