Mountain Tales: Issue 01

MOUNTAIN TALES 024 Old News from the Dandenong Ranges November 2024 No.1 Welcome to the first issue of Mountain Tales, an occasional collection of stories tall and true from the Dandenong Ranges to the east of Melbourne. The Mount Dandenong & District Historical Society aims to collect, preserve and share the rich history of the district. The society is especially interested in the communities of Mount Dandenong, Kalorama, Olinda, Sassafras, Ferny Creek and Tremont. These are the ridgetop villages on the mountain range clearly visible from metropolitan Melbourne. The society welcomes new members with an interest in local history and meets each month. It maintains a small collection of significant local history material. Longer versions of many of these stories have previously been published on the society’s Facebook page. If you would like to learn more, please contact the society’s Secretary via email at mtddhs@gmail.com The era that would define the future of the Dandenongs began around the time of World War 1, when the hills transitioned from farming to tourism. There was a rush of often speculative subdivision which changed the character of the hills forever. Ferny Creek Ferny Creek, c.1920, looking north-west to Dunns Hill and showing the “new” general store and post office. A Rose postcard held in the State Library of Victortia collection. Mount Ferny? We think not … A name change for the convenience of the postal service rejected The naming of our mountain villages has its own rich history. Next year what was once South Sassafras will celebrate the centenary of its renaming as Kallista. Often such moves were triggered by the simple need to avoid confusion. Ferny Creek is a good example, beginning as it did as `One Tree Hill, Fern Tree Gully’. In 1893 part of it became the Scoresby Village Settlement (or the `Labour Colony’ as it was also known), based on its location within the Parish of Scoresby. This caused much confusion, while other settlers had adopted the name Ferny Creek by the start of the 1900s. This was not to be confused with the creek of the same name, which runs all the way down into the locality of Scoresby. Got it? Anyway, by 1904 James Slater had established a Ferny Creek store and post office on what is now Old Main Road. In 1917, the Box Hill Reporter noted a proposal had been put to the Fern Tree Gully Shire Council by the postal authority “requesting approval of changing name of Ferny Creek post office to `Mount Ferny’.” In its wisdom the council demurred on the motion of Councillor Henry Monk, the immediate past shire president, and the local East Riding councillor Charles Earney, favouring the retention of old name as it was “associated with the early settlement of the place”. (The post office itself closed a century later in 2017.) There were still some hold outs … the local school remained One Tree Hill State School until the name was changed to Ferny Creek in 1937 to avoid confusion with another One Tree Hill elsewhere in the state. The locality name One Tree Hill remains in common local usage to this day. Jack and his sled While snow in the hills has always been an occasional joy, the use of a sled to get around was common in the days gone by when unsealed roads were not all they might be. Sleds, usually drawn by horses overcame the problem of muddy tracks and farm paddocks, being used to cart goods, feed and water. They were especially popular in Gippsland where even major roads were notoriously bad. Things were no better in the hills. This hand-coloured postcard, `Mountain Sledging, Sassafras Gully’, dates from March 1909. The inscription (probably to his cousin in Mirboo North) says: “This is a photo of me driving Tom and the sledge,” adding “I can dress myself now. Love and xxxx for Jessie, Rena and yourself from Jack.” Page 1 MOUNTAIN TALES November 2024 No.1 Wild creatures Tiger, tiger burning bright in Sassafras ! An early big cat story The hills have spawned any number of “big cat” stories over the years, but one of the earliest must be the tale of the Sassafras tiger in 1893. The story appeared in newspapers large and small around the colonies under the headline of “A Tiger at Large”. The details, let alone any facts, were scant: “A large tiger has been seen in Sassafras Gully in the Dandenong Ranges,” reported the Sydney Daily Telegraph. “Its presence is accounted for by the fact that about six years ago a cub escaped from a menagerie.” That was about where the story began and ended in several publications and no more was heard of it. The story of the Sassafras tiger was resuscitated in 1896 to the amusement of some newspapermen. The Melbourne Herald reported that a “tiger has been observed in the Dandenong Ranges, at a romantic spot about four miles from the settlement at Fern Tree Gully. `Tigers’ apparently are not unknown in that wild district, for at varying times during the last nine or ten years, there have been thrilling stories told by lonely travellers of the dreadful sights they have seen in their wanderings … Now comes Mr F. W. Gessner, of Wellington road, Spring Vale, to revive the old sensation. Mr Gessner is a well-known and highly respected man, whose business is that of a collector of ferns, etc. … his tale is not of the kind calculated to harrow up the soul and freeze the blood of our readers. He states that on Monday last he was engaged at his occupation in the Ranges, about four miles from the Gully, in the cool of the evening, between five and six o’clock. The spot in which he was working was covered with ferns, bracken and stunted undergrowth. Happening to glance up, he saw passing along the slope about 30 yards away, a most extraordinary body, which, just as he looked, glided over a log and disappeared. Unfortunately for the completeness of this story, and also for the animal itself, Mr Gessner saw neither head nor tail. The surprised ferngatherer says that the portion of the body that he saw, extending from the shoulder to the flanks, was about four feet long, by about two feet in depth, while the tawny-colored skin was plainly and clearly marked by vertical stripes of black.” A group of surveyors working in the locality also saw a large beast but dismissed it as a mastiff. Not the Sassafras tiger but an image from the Iconographica Zoologica Collection at the University of Amsterdam. Towers On the lookout in the hills The One Tree Hill towers A lookout tower graced the summit of One Tree Hill for 80 years providing a vantage point from the southern end of the Dandenongs, as did the Observatory at the northern one. The first such tower was made of wood, while its replacement was of more formidable construction. A detailed history of the One Tree Hill tower can be found in Sandra Bardwell’s Ferntree Gully National Park: A centenary history 1882-1982 (National Parks Service, Victoria 1982). All of the trees, bar one towering mountain ash, had been felled on the summit by 1861. The last tree was felled by persons unknown in 1885. In 1905, the trustees of the park used a government grant to build a wooden sightseeing tower, which was erected by local firm Saville & Co. The wooden tower deteriorated over the years and was replaced by a disused poppet head from the North Blue Consolidated Mining Company near Bendigo. It was brought to Melbourne, probably by rail, then transported by truck to the top of One Tree Hill in 1928. The 33-metre tower was opened with much fanfare by the Governor, Lord Somers, on 16 February 1929. Eventually the surrounding trees grew higher than the tower, which led to some “judicious lopping” to enhance the view. While the purpose of the tower was always to be a scenic outlook (at one time complete with telescope), Bardwell suggests that this was done to improve the view but also “to help in spotting fires in the surrounding bushland”. Find us on Facebook The first tower on One Tree Hill was constructed in 1905 and replaced by disused poppet head from a mine near Bendigo in 1928. That tower was dismantled in the 1980s. Page 2 MOUNTAIN TALES November 2024 No.1 Caroline Isaacson and group of women journalists on the Atherton Tablelands during World War 2. (Australian War Memorial photo) The short-lived Dandenong Ranges News Local newspapers are crucial to any community – and for historians an invaluable source. Unlike today, in the past they captured the minutiae of local goings on, right down to the details of the dresses worn by female attendees at dances and soirees. At the northern end of the hills, some early news was captured by the Lilydale Express, which commenced publication in 1886. The Healesville Guardian (1893) also reported occasional items from the mountains. At the other end of the hills, early news was found in the Dandenong Journal (1865), along with the Dandenong Advertiser (1874) and the Box Hill Reporter (1889) which featured stories from the distant settlements and the Shire of Fern Tree Gully. Other outliers included the Oakleigh and Caulfield Times Mulgrave and Ferntree Gully Guardian (1914) and the Ringwood and Croydon Mail (1922). The Melbourne dailies also reported on events from the district in their “Country News” columns. In 1948 Lynka, claiming an address in Ferny Creek, became editor-publisher of the Dandenong Ranges News. In July that year, The Argus noted that Mrs Isaacson “will take over the Gully Shire News which will in future be known as the Dandenong Ranges News,” adding that she “has had a wealth of experience in journalism and particularly in that pertaining to the country and is well equipped to make a success of her new venture”. The venture in fact proved short-lived (the paper suspended publication in 1949), competing as it did with the arrival of the Free Press, led by the equally formidable journalist John Bennett (1921-69) who along with his wife Nell would edit that paper until the late 1960s. Bennett saw off his competitor 15 months later with a slightly snippy news item reporting: “The Dandenong Ranges News suspended publication last week … At the time of its demise it was being printed at Northcote, Melbourne.” Some local titles, such as The Mountain Tourist (1919), The Mountaineer (1920) and The Pilot (1921), lasted less than a year or two. Others like the Ferntree Gully News (1923) and the Mountain District Free Press (1946), the former being incorporated into the latter, were published over multiple decades. Other short-lived papers after World War 2 included the Boronia Gazette, the Ferntree Gully & District Times and the Dandenong Ranges News. This last-named journal was of particular interest, as its reportereditor- proprietor was the remarkable Caroline Isaacson (1900-62). Lynka, as she was better known, was born Caroline Jacobsen in Vienna and educated in London. A precocious intellect, she enrolled at Kings College to study medicine in 1918. A year later she married an Australian soldier near 20 years her senior, Arnold Isaacson. The couple arrived in Melbourne in 1926. Within two years Lynka was writing – as was the custom for women journalists in those days – social notes for The Age. She went on to edit the women’s pages of associated weekly, The Leader. Then came World War 2, which saw Lynka elevated to the role of foreign editor of The Age. At the same time, she was lobbying for a Jewish homeland in Australia and editing the Australian Jewish Review. In 1942, she resigned to join the Australian Women’s Army Service as a press officer. Later in the war she would work for Vogue and The Argus. It was, however, not the end of Lynka Isaacson. She went on in 1953 to become editorial director of the suburban newspaper chain owned by son Peter Isaacson DFC, AFC, DFM, much decorated WW2 bomber pilot and later publisher of the Sunday Observer. Caroline Isaacson was posthumously inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2013. The State Library of Victoria holds a selection of copies of the Dandenong Ranges News. As for the local papers more broadly, most (including several later arrivals) were eventually swallowed up by larger publishers, such as News Limited and more recently Star News, many closing along the way. The remainder are having to adapt to changing reader priorities and forms of delivery. Perhaps most mourned was the 70-year-old Free Press (or the Free Press Leader, as it became) which could trace a lineage going back 95 years to The Pilot. Its last issue was published on 29 June 2016. : , ` () , , ://..//; ; , ‘ ‘; ‘ ‘; ‘ ‘; , ‘ : 150 ‘, ://.///23. Page 3 MOUNTAIN TALES November 2024 No.1 Religion A little church in in the hills that never was Why was a Catholic church missing from the mount? Less than a year before the pioneer settler Jane Murphy died in May 1938, a paragraph in the Catholic weekly The Advocate noted that Mass would be celebrated at her home Mount Erin at One Tree Hill, Ferny Creek on an upcoming Saturday morning. It added: “A meeting will be held to discuss the erection of a church after Mass”. It fits with a life of agitating for local improvements that Mrs Murphy should be linked to a bid to build a Catholic church on the mountain. While Protestant churches of various denominations sprang up across the ridge area of the hills from the early 1900s, it would be decades before a Roman Catholic church would be built. In no small measure this was because there were relatively few Catholics living in the district before World War 2. In the early days, their pastoral needs were largely met by missionary priests from Brighton. Catholics in the hills were later served by the Parish of St Mary’s Dandenong. Even after the first church was built in Ferntree Gully in 1890, it was another 20 years before a resident priest was appointed. The sprawling parish of St John the Baptist, Ferntree Gully was created in 1911, covering not just the foothills but stretching past Emerald to Gembrook and across the ridge to Olinda and Mt Dandenong. One well-remembered parish priest was Father Thomas Little (1888-1969) who ministered to his distant flock on horseback and later motor bike from 1919 until 1926. This energetic priest was behind a serious push to build a church in Ferny Creek, also to serve Sassafras and Olinda. Indeed, a block of land was reportedly donated by the pioneering Laube family, owners of the farm and guest house property Lucerne Park in One Tree Hill Road. It was even decided that the church was to be named for St Francis Xavier. Fr Little embarked upon a feverish fundraising drive in 1923-25, The Advocate reporting a generous donation of £50 from one benefactor, with others chipping in lesser amounts. “A Church for Ferny Creek-Sassafras! To be or not to be? This is the question that the parishioners hope friends and visitors will satisfactorily answer for them before the end of the year. The sum of £300 will be regarded as a satisfactory reply,” the newspaper trumpeted. The prominent Catholic writer Marion Miller Knowles (18651949) weighed in with her support. “The euphonious name of Ferny Creek should go far towards aiding its inhabitants to secure the little church they are so perseveringly trying to secure,” she wrote, adding that “Fr Little, most persevering of mountain-dell parish priests, awaits the spare shillings of Christmas-gift shoppers with hope and confidence”. A welter of fundraising events was held, including a 1924 fete in Sassafras graced by the presence of Archbishop Dr Daniel Mannix. Other fundraisers included bay cruises and musical events. “The erection of a Catholic church in this far-famed panoramic portion of the parish will come not a day too soon,” The Advocate opined in September 1924. Meanwhile, one item noted that “the parishioners are still waiting Micawber-like for `something to turn up’ to assist them in their efforts for the erection of a much-needed church”. Alas, it was not to be, although they were evidently still talking about it at Mrs Murphy’s more than a decade later. Fr Little had more success elsewhere in the parish. The Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Gembrook was opened on 31 December 1922, the occasion delayed firstly by snowfalls and a second time by heavy rain. This pretty little church recently celebrated its centenary. Fr Little was reassigned to the Dandenong parish in 1926, thence to Essendon. He would later become a beloved parish priest at St Brigid’s, Fitzroy North for almost two decades and a local reserve there is named for him. But with his departure from Ferntree Gully, the energy seemed to run out of pursuing a little church for the hills. Meanwhile mass was held in private homes or public halls. From around 1919, the Ferny Creek Mechanics Institute in Old Main Road was a regular venue. The frequency of services seemed more closely linked to the busyness of the tourist holiday season than any local demand. After World War 2, the venue for Sunday Mass on the ridge was the Mechanics Institute in Sassafras for many years. But the local Catholic flock remained small. The separate Belgrave parish of St Thomas More was not created until 1959, although mass had been celebrated in the town for many years, with the Austral Hall built by parishioners in the 1920s and a church dedicated there around 1938. Other parish churches had opened at Monbulk (1906) and Emerald (1919). It was not until the opening of St Clare’s at Mt Dandenong in 1991 that Catholics finally enjoyed a dedicated place of worship on the mountain. After such a long wait it was a relatively short-lived presence. The church closed to regular services in 2013 citing financial difficulties. Off to mass in Sassafras, c.1960 (MDDHS collection). About the MtDDHS Who are we? Our members are people interested in the collection, preservation and sharing of local history. Where are we? We maintain a small office in and meet at Farndon’s Hall, Falls Rd, Kalorama. When do we meet? On the first Saturday of each month from 10am until noon. What does it cost? An annual subscription of $20 is payable. Contact the Secretary: mtddhs@gmail.com Page 4