CITY OF BOROONDARA THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY prepared for CITY OF BOROONDARA FINAL : MAY 2012 P O B o x 8 0 1 9 C r o y d o n 3 1 3 6 w w w . b u i l t h e r i t a g e . c o m . a u p h o n e 9 0 1 8 9 3 1 1 Schedule of Changes Issued Draft for Public Consultation July 2011 Final, incorporating changes adopted by Council on 12 December 2011 March 2012 Updated, incorporating minor corrections May 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS A Executive Summary 5 B Project Background, Brief and Methodology 7 C Historical Overview 13 D Statement of Significance 17 E Thematic Environmental History 19 1.0 SHAPING VICTORIA'S ENVIRONMENT 21 1.1 Tracing climate and topographical change 21 1.2 Tracing the emergence of Victoria's plants and animals 21 1.3 Understanding scientifically diverse environments 22 1.4 Creation stories and defining country 22 1.5 Living with natural processes 22 1.6 Appreciating and protecting Victoria's natural wonders 25 2.0 PEOPLING VICTORIA'S PLACES AND LANDSCAPES 31 2.1 Living as Victoria's original inhabitants 31 2.2 Exploring, surveying and mapping 31 2.3 Adapting to diverse environments 34 2.4 Arriving in a new land 34 2.5 Migrating and making a home 35 2.6 Maintaining distinctive cultures 41 2.7 Promoting settlement 42 2.8 Fighting for identity 54 3.0 CONNECTING VICTORIANS BY TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS 55 3.1 Establishing pathways 55 3.2 Travelling by water 59 3.3 Linking Victorians by rail 59 3.4 Linking Victorians by road in the twentieth century 64 3.5 Travelling by tram 69 3.6 Linking Victorians by air 71 3.7 Establishing and maintaining communications 72 4.0 TRANFORMING AND MANAGING LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES 77 4.1 Living off the land 77 4.2 Living from the sea 77 4.3 Grazing and raising livestock 77 4.4 Farming (Horticulture) 78 4.5 Gold mining 84 4.6 Exploiting other mineral, forest and water resources 85 4.7 Transforming the land and waterways 89 C I T Y O F B O R O O N D A R A T H E M A T I C E N V I R O N M E N T A L H I S T O R Y : M A Y 2 0 1 2 3 5.0 BUILDING VICTORIA'S INDUSTRIES AND WORKFORCE 91 5.1 Processing raw materials 91 5.2 Developing a manufacturing capacity 92 5.3 Marketing and retailing 97 5.4 Exhibiting Victoria's innovation and products 103 5.5 Banking and finance 103 5.6 Entertaining and socialising 105 5.7 Catering for tourists 114 5.8 Working 118 6.0 BUILDING TOWNS, CITIES AND THE GARDEN STATE 121 6.1 Establishing Melbourne Town, Port Phillip District 121 6.2 Creating Melbourne 121 6.3 Shaping the suburbs 121 6.4 Making regional centres 137 6.5 Living in country towns 138 6.6 Marking significant phases in development of Victoria's settlements towns and cities 138 6.7 Making homes for Victorians 138 6.8 Living on the fringes 150 7.0 GOVERNING VICTORIANS 151 7.1 Developing institutions for self-government and democracy 151 7.2 Struggling for political rights 156 7.3 Maintaining law and order 157 7.4 Defending Victoria and Australia 159 7.5 Protecting Victoria's heritage 163 8.0 BUILDING COMMUNITY LIFE 165 8.1 Maintaining spiritual life 165 8.2 Educating people 175 8.3 Providing health and welfare services 192 8.4 Forming community organisations 199 8.5 Preserving traditions and commemorating 203 8.6 Marking the phases of life 207 9.0 SHAPING CULTURAL AND CREATIVE LIFE 213 9.1 Participating in sport and recreation 213 9.2 Nurturing a vibrant arts scene 224 9.3 Achieving distinction in the arts 225 9.4 Creating popular culture 234 9.5 Advancing knowledge 237 F Recommendations for Future Work 239 G Select Bibliography 241 4 C I T Y O F B O R O O N D A R A T H E M A T I C E N V I R O N M E N T A L H I S T O R Y : M A Y 2 0 1 2 A: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A.1 Thematic Environmental History The City of Boroondara Thematic Environmental History (hereafter referred to as TEH) has been prepared to document and illustrate how various themes (and the many aspects of human intervention associated with them) have manifest themselves in the City of Boroondara since the first post-contact European settlement, and, consequently, how these themes have shaped the environment and culture of the municipality as it is today. In this way, the TEH provides a context for heritage places and areas that have been identified (and will continue to be identified) across the entire City of Boroondara. By its very nature, a TEH is arranged thematically, and not chronologically. It is not intended as an exhaustive history of the entire municipality, and thus will not include reference to every individual, group or organisation that has played some part in the development of the area. Rather, it concentrates on identifying broader patterns that explain how the local environment has been shaped over the past 160 years. This TEH represents a consolidation of three historical overviews that were prepared for the former Cities of Hawthorn, Kew and Camberwell as a key component of their respective heritage studies. Information contained in these historical overviews has been supplemented by additional research to document any themes that were under-represented, or even entirely unrepresented in them. The themes themselves are derived from Victoria's Framework of Historic Themes, a numerical list of themes that has recently been adopted by Heritage Victoria as the industry standard. C I T Y O F B O R O O N D A R A T H E M A T I C E N V I R O N M E N T A L H I S T O R Y : M A Y 2 0 1 2 5 6 C I T Y O F B O R O O N D A R A T H E M A T I C E N V I R O N M E N T A L H I S T O R Y : M A Y 2 0 1 2 B: PROJECT BACKGROUND, BRIEF AND METHODOLOGY B.1 Background The three heritage studies undertaken by the former Cities of Kew, Camberwell, Hawthorn (in 1988, 1991 and 1993 respectively) each contain a section that gives a broad historical overview of the development of that municipality, providing a context for the identification of heritage places and precincts therein. In the earliest of the three cases, this historical overview is presented in a straightforward chronological format, as was the standard at the time. By the early 1990s, however, it was considered more appropriate for a heritage study's historical overview (by then referred to as an “Environmental History”) to be presented in a thematic framework, and the industry standard shifted towards the use of a numbered framework of themes that was developed by the Australian Heritage Commission. This framework remained in use during the 1990s and well into the 2000s. Following local council amalgamations in Victorian in the mid-1990s, municipalities began to review their existing heritage studies, which invariably included the consolidation of earlier Environmental Histories into a single reference document that would then be applicable across the entire amalgamated municipality. In late 2010, the City of Boroondara sought tenders for the completion of a Thematic Environmental History (TEH) that, amongst other things, consolidated the histories produced by the former cities of Kew, Camberwell and Hawthorn. B.2 Brief As stated in the original project brief, the purpose the consolidated TEH is to: • Ensure that the City of Boroondara's statutory heritage controls represent the historical development of the municipality; • Provide a context for undertaking comparative assessments of heritage places • Identify additional heritage places and themes for further investigation The key objectives of the project were further identified as follows: • Set out the key themes that have influenced the historical development of the municipality following first contact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people • Identify how these themes manifest through the municipality's historic buildings and places • Produce a Statement of Significance for the municipality • Make recommendations for future thematic or area-based heritage studies in order of priority based on the findings of the TEH The brief required that the TEH be a post-contact study (that is, not taking into account pre-contact Aboriginal activity, which has been covered in an earlier thematic study), and be laid out in accordance with the Victorian Framework of Historical Themes that has recently been adopted by Heritage Victoria. B.3 Study Team The study was undertaken by Simon Reeves, director and principal of Built Heritage Pty Ltd. C I T Y O F B O R O O N D A R A T H E M A T I C E N V I R O N M E N T A L H I S T O R Y : M A Y 2 0 1 2 7 B.4 Acknowledgements The consultants would like to thank the representatives of local historical societies and other groups that attended the consultation meeting on 9 March 2011: • Balwyn Historical Society (represented by Mr Bill Pritchard and Associate Professor Marilyn Poole) • Camberwell Historical Society (represented by Mr George Fernando and Mr Trevor Hart) • Canterbury History Group (represented by Ms Frances Barrett and Associate Professor Don Gibb) • Hawthorn Historical Society (represented by Ms Shirley Ramsay) • Kew Historical Society (represented by Ms Dorothy Benyei and Associate Professor Don Garden) • Surrey Hills Historical Society (represented by Mr Euan Walmsley, Mr Greg Buchanan and others) • Maling Precinct Protection Group (represented by Ms Lorri Buttner and others) • Studley Park Modern (represented by Ms Kerry Fairbank and Ms Michelle Scollo) Thanks also to Graeme Butler, heritage advisor to the City of Boroondara, for also attending the meeting.