Sunday 31 July 2016

Mobile Library at Cockatoo by Marcia Holdsworth

A few years ago, Marcia wrote down her memories of  Library Services at Cockatoo, and so they don't get lost from our history I thought we would share them in this blog.

Before 1983, the Dandenong Valley Regional Library Service (DVRLS) Mobile library, a Bedford Bus, used to visit Cockatoo once a fortnight for a few hours. It parked in the car park at the top of McBride Street, above the shops.  The staff used a Telxon device to record loans and the data was then downloaded via the telephone back at the Pakenham library.



The Bedford Bus Mobile Library

After the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983 DVRLS set up a joint-use Community Library in an area of the Cockatoo Primary School library. It opened around May of that year and Marcia Holdsworth was appointed Officer in Charge in the October. The Library initially opened to the general public Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning. The cost effectiveness of the Community Library was re-assessed in 1992 and after negotiations with the School it was decided to phase out the service and re-introduce a Mobile Library Service.

Thus in January 1993 the Mobile timetable was expanded to include a stop at Cockatoo. The mobile had been recently upgraded to a brand new semi-trailer mobile provided by the then Pakenham Shire. It now parked at the Cockatoo Kindergarten/Bowling green car park in McBride Street. The new vehicle visited every Thursday afternoon until 7.30pm and with the extended hours the circulation increased. The Mobile Library still visits Cockatoo every Thursday from 2.15pm to 6.00pm.


The Cockatoo Library


The only other photo we have of the Cockatoo Library,  sadly, it's fairly ordinary. It was taken by the Shire of Pakenham in the 1980s.

Thursday 21 July 2016

The local Catholic Community from the pages of The Advocate

The Advocate is available on Trove from 1868 until 1954. The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne website provides this great summary of this paper Melbourne’s Advocate was one of Australia’s great Catholic newspapers. It was first published on 1 February 1868 by Samuel Vincent Winter and his brother Joseph to report on events in Australia and overseas from the viewpoint of the Catholic paradigm. Its goal was to “fairly and intelligently represent the Catholic and Irish section of the community, and, while defending their legitimate interests, would aim at promoting the prosperity of the colony, and cultivating a friendly feeling among all classes of the community”. In 1902, The Advocate imported a font of Irish type and became the first newspaper in Australia to be able to print the Gaelic language. In 1919, The Advocate was bought by the Archdiocese of Melbourne and became its official newspaper. The Advocate remained a weekly newspaper up until it ceased publication in 1990. 

 In this post we will take a look at the sorts of local historical information we can find in The Advocate, concentrating on reports of the opening of Catholic Churches in the Casey Cardinia region, but before we do here is a short overview of the Parish structure in the area. As early as the 1840s Priests from Melbourne used to visit the area - Pakenham, Nar Nar Goon and the Western Port region. In 1853  the Brighton Misson was established, a very large area that covered the south east part of Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Bass Coast and West Gippsland. In April 1883 the Dandenong Parish or Mission  was established which covered nearly all of the Casey Cardinia region, plus Dandenong, Phillip Island, down to Wonthaggi and the Mornington Peninsula. This Parish was eventually split up with the Iona Parish being created in 1905, Koo-Wee-Rup in 1946, St Mary's North Tynong (or Maryknoll) in 1950 (combined with Iona in 1968), Pakenham in 1954, Berwick (including Cranbourne) in 1956, Doveton in 1962, Cranbourne in 1973, Endeavour Hills in 1980 and Narre Warren in 1982. This information and some of the information in the rest of this post comes from A Parish carved from the bush: the centenary history of the Dandenong Parish, 1883-1983.

Back to The Advocate -  the first Catholic Church in the area was St Agatha's at Cranbourne which was opened on February 6, 1861, so a bit too early to be reported in The Advocate. However, the  second St Agatha's which was opened on January 20, 1929 had a full page report, which you can read here. This church was opened by Archbishop Mannix and the total cost including fit-out was just over 3,100 pounds. The current St Agatha's was built in 1981. This Church was partially funded by a generous bequeath of $492,000 from Mr Eddie Donnelly who passed away in 1979. You can read more of the history on their website   http://www.stagathas.org.au/



The opening of St Agatha's Church at Cranbourne in 1929 with the original weatherboard Church next to it.

The next church to open was St Patrick's in Pakenham which opened in 1871. The existing Church was built in 1976. The original Church is still standing and is now part of the St Patrick's School.


A report on the building of St Patricks in The Advocate July 29, 1871.



An early photo of St Patricks at Pakenham.
Source: North of the Line:  a pictorial record published by the Berwick Pakenham Historical society

The first Berwick Catholic Church was officially opened by Archbishop Goold on March 31, 1878. It was originally known as St Joseph's, but later changed to  St Michael's. The Advocate described the Church as a handsome and commodius edifice. You can read the full report here. The second Church at Berwick was opened on January 24 1937 by Archbishop Mannix.  The Advocate had  full report, including photographs, which you can read here.  The old wooden church was removed having been sold to Dan Cunningham of Nar Nar Goon, but burnt down before he could use it. The current St Michael's Church was opened in 1984.

Archbishop Mannix at the opening of St Michael's in Berwick in 1937.
The Advocate January 28, 1937.

St Joseph's at Iona was the next Church to be opened, which took place on December 16, 1900. Iona was  known as Bunyip South until 1905. The current St Joseph's Church was opened on April 14 1940. You can read The Advocate report about this  here.



The opening of St Joseph's Iona in December 1900.
The Advocate December 22, 1900



Iona Church and Presbytery, c. 1909
Photo: 100 years of a faith community: St Joseph’s Iona 1905-2005 by Damian Smith (St Joseph’s Catholic Church, 2005)


The first decade of the twentieth century continued to be  a busy time for the Dandenong Mission with three other Churches  established. Two years after Iona, another Church was opened on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp, this time at Koo-Wee-Rup. St John the Baptist Church  was opened on August 24, 1902. You can read about this here. The current Church, built in Modernist Design, was opened in 1962. The Nar Nar Goon Catholic Church opened on May 29, 1904 on land donated by James Kelly.  There is a short account in The Advocate here. The current St James was opened on March 13, 1971. On September 14, 1908 the Lang Lang Church was opened, it is called St Marys. The Advocate report can be found here



St John the Baptist Church at Koo-Wee-Rup, 1950s.
Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society photograph.


The  Tooradin Catholic Church  opened on December 3, 1922 and, as befits a fishing village, it was named St Peters, after the Patron Saint of Fishermen. The report is here. The Church was closed and the building was moved to St Peter's College in Cranbourne in 2003 where it is used as a Chapel.  A few weeks later, on December 31, 1922 Scared Heart Catholic Church at Gembrook opened. Here is the report. The Church was scheduled to be officially opened in July 1922, but the Archbishop couldn't make it due to the bad state of the roads after a lot of rain,  it was rescheduled for October and had to be postponed again for the same reason. Gembrook was in the Fern Tree Gully Parish. 

On September 3, 1950 St Mary's Rural Settlement was opened by Archbishop Mannix at North Tynong. Now called Maryknoll, you can read about the history of the settlement here.  The Holy Family Church was opened in 1963, so we can't read a report on Trove as The Advocate is only digitised until 1954, about it, but this is the link to the report of the opening of the Community from The Advocate of September 6, 1950.

The Advocate September 6 1950


There are other Catholic Churches in Casey Cardinia which were opened after 1954 - The Holy Family Church at Doveton was opened in 1960. In either late 1961 or early 1962 St Kevin's at Hampton Park was opened - this was in a building that had been transported to the site - the old St Leonard's Church from Glen Waverley. You can see  a photo of it on a blog post I have written on the history of Hampton Park here. They appear to have  a newer building now, but I don't have any details on it. Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church was opened in February 1980 at Narre Warren and the St Paul Apostle Catholic Church at Endeavour Hills was opened on August 14, 1983.

If you come from a Catholic Family there is a whole range of local and family information in The Advocate which may be of interest including  obituaries, school activities, debutante balls, advertisements from Catholic businesses, sports results, charity reports, crime reports.


Wednesday 6 July 2016

Shire of Berwick - Report to Ratepayers - 1968/1969

This is a copy of the 'Report to Ratepayers' produced by the Shire of Berwick for 1968/1969. The Shire had an estimated population of 30,000 and covered the area from Doveton all the way down the Railway line to Bunyip and the towns north of the Highway - Narre Warren North, Harkaway, Beaconsfield Upper, Cockatoo and Gembrook and south of the Highway - Cora Lynn and Iona. There were 14,450 voters on the roll and 15,500 rateable properties. The Shire of Berwick was split onto the City of Berwick and the Shire of Pakenham in October 1973 - you can read about the chronological development of Local Government in our area here.


This shows the old Berwick Post Office in Gloucester Avenue. The Centenary Celebrations would have commemorated 100 years since the proclamation of the Shire of Berwick in 1868. The Shire Office was located in Pakenham on the corner of Main Street and John Street.


List of Councillors.


Shire statistics and a some instructions on payments of Rates. Rates, of course, was considered one of the key tenets or '3 Rs' of Local Government - the other two being Roads and Rubbish. The photo is of Edrington at Berwick - the home of the then Governor General of Australia - Lord Casey.


List of mainly Road works carried out in 1968 - the major works were carried out in the Doveton Ward, this being the most populated and also the Riding or Ward that brought in the most Rates.


On the left is the continuation of the Plans for 1969 and the right page lists some of the services provided by the Council. 2080 tons of rubbish was collected the previous year, which was burnt at Beaconsfield.


List of Rubbish tips - back when they were called 'Rubbish tips' not 'Waste management centres'. On the right page is  a list of all the Infant Welfare Centres in the Shire.


A list of other Council services and the photo is of the new Gembrook Pre-School Centre.


 A few 'Points to Observe' - the photo is of the Doveton Swimming Centre.