Dandenong Market - a very short history

The Dandenong Market was originally located on the corner of Lonsdale and McCrae Streets, and its first trading day was likely to have been October 10, 1866. This site eventually proved to be too small and it was sold in June 1924 and a new location was selected in Clow Street, where it still operates. The first livestock sales at Clow Street took place in June 1926 and the produce market moved there by October 1927. In 1958 the Stockyards moved to Cheltenham Road. (1)  The Dandenong Stock Market was the last municipal owned and operated facility in Victoria, and closed on December 22, 1998. (2). The stock market site is now Metro Village 3175, a housing estate.

Market Day, Dandenong August 26, 1913.

Township of Dandenong - market day - Princes Highway East, 1913.

Photographer: Country Roads Board VPRS 17684 Image 13_00158

Dandenong in 1973. The Produce Market is on the corner of Clow and Cleeland Streets, next to the Sports Ground; the Stock Market is on the left on Cheltenham Road. 

Image:  Melway Street  Directory of Greater Melbourne, edition 6, 1973 (Melway Publishing Co)

Farmers from the surrounding area  took their produce to the Dandenong market. Elizabeth Andrews (1849-1934) had a farm at Hallam, originally owned by her parents John and Bridget Andrews, on the Princes Highway, opposite what is today the Spring Square Shopping Centre.  Her niece Marie Carson remembers that the butter was made into round half pound pats with Aunt Lizzie's scallop shell brand embossed on them. There they'd be like little golden suns waiting to be wrapped in muslin and taken along with the brown eggs and white, to Dandenong market on Tuesdays. She drove into Dandenong on her spring cart, pulled by old Tim, her pony. (3)

The Dandenong Market, next to the sports ground. 

Market Day, Dandenong, c. 1930s. Photographer: Charles Daniel Pratt - Airspy P/L

State Library of Victoria https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/20207

My grandparents, Joe and Eva Rouse, had a dairy farm on Murray Road at Cora Lynn. The family milked cows and separated the cream which they sold to the Drouin factory to make butter; the rest was fed to the pigs, which when they were fat enough were sold at the Dandenong Market. When my father, Frank Rouse, was fifteen, in 1948, his family purchased a Austin A40 ute from Brenchley's Garage at Garfield. Dad taught himself to drive and although he was underage, he used to drive his parents from Cora Lynn to the Dandenong Market where they sold their eggs, chickens and calves (all carried on the back of the ute). Apparently not having a license was no obstacle to driving in those days.

Aerial view of Dandenong Stock Market, 1959

Aerial view of the stock yards at Dandneong, December 8, 1959. Photographer: Airspy P/L

State Library of Victoria https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4325236

The Dandenong Market was traditionally (and still is) a major shopping destination for people from the surrounding area for clothing, footwear, general goods and fruit and vegetables. My father's cousin, Betty, came in from Cora Lynn once a week to do all her shopping at the Market and visit her parents who had retired from the farm and moved  into Dandenong. Buses were put in to service on a Tuesday, which was Market Day, just for the Market, as these two articles below attest. [Market Bus for Narre Warren -Dandenong Journal, August 11,1944  from Newspapers.com; U.S. Motors Dandenong Market Bus Mountain Free Press, October 11, 1951 from Newspapers.com.]

In 1970s, when I was at Koo Wee Rup High School, a trip to the Dandenong Market to buy clothes and other goods was a ritual for many. We never shopped there, but we did shop in Dandenong.  Dandenong also had a Lindsay's store (which became Target) near Vanity Court Arcade. I remember both my sisters had a skirt from Lindsays - one had a bias cut, checked 'maxi' skirt and the other a short, checked, almost sun-ray pleated skirt. We were a family of home dress makers so it was quite unusual to buy clothes. Also, in the 1970s, at the back of Vanity Court, my uncle Ian Stagg had a pharmacy and my aunty Marion had a gift shop, so we would call in there. 

This postcard, from the 1970s, shows the Sale Yards top left and Dandenong Market in Clow Street, bottom left. The other photographs are Lonsdale Street and the Dandenong Town Hall.

Photographer: L. Hort. Publisher: Biscay Greetings

This postcard is from the 1980s. Images 1 and 3 are Lonsdale Street; image 2 is Langhorne Street and image 4 is the Rotary Fountain in Dandenong Park. Vanity Court, which I mentioned, above, is in the top left photo;  it is to the left of Coles with the red awning on the first storey.

 Publisher: Biscay Greetings

There are photographs of the Dandenong Stock Market and surrounds from 1992, here. 

Footnotes

(1) Ferguson, Jenny A Concise History of the Dandenong Markets (Dandenong & District Historical Society, 1998)

(2) Flanagan, Martin An urban stockyard passes into memory (The Age, December 23, 1998, p. 4)

(3) Stephan, Deborah A small farm at Hallam: The Andrews 1854-1934 (City of Casey Historical pamphlet 1, August 1992). Based on information provided by Mrs Marie Carson. 

Flanagan, Martin An urban stockyard passes into memory (The Age, December 23, 1998, p. 4) from Newspapers.com

This is an expanded version of a post, which I wrote and researched, which appears on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. It was also published in the Dandenong Star Journal on August 4, 2020, page 13. https://issuu.com/starnewsgroup/docs/2020-08-04_djs_657 I was very excited to have my own by-line!

You can see the images in the article, here. 

Dandenong Stock Market - photographs from 1992

These photographs are of the Dandenong Stock Market and surrounding streets, at its Cheltenham Road location, and were taken by the City of Berwick on October 27, 1992. They are labelled as 'University site suggested by Dandenong', so I assume it was once considered a possible site for the Monash University campus that was built in Berwick. They were part of the Casey Cardinia Libraries collection.

The Stock Market was in Charman Road.

Image:  Melway Street  Directory of Greater Melbourne, edition 6, 1973 (Melway Publishing Co)

The Dandenong Market was originally located on the corner of Lonsdale and McCrae Streets, and its first trading day was likely to have been October 10, 1866. This site eventually proved to be too small and it was sold in June 1924 and a new location was selected in Clow Street, where it still operates. The first livestock sales at Clow Street took place in June 1926 and the produce market moved there by October 1927. In 1958 the Stockyards moved to Cheltenham Road.  The Dandenong Stock Market was the last municipal owned and operated facility in Victoria, and closed on December 22, 1998. I have written more about the market, here.

Stock Pens at the Market

Blue Circle Cement works is in the background.

 With stock markets, come stock crates.

Victorian Producers Co-Op and Stevens, Egan & Johnston & Co. Offices

          

Wash down bay for trucks.

Poultry Sheds

City of Dandenong Depot, which adjoined the Market

I presume this is Greaves Street (above and below)

Cheltenham Road. 

For more information on the Market and other photographs, click here. 

Some of these photograph were posted on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. They were part of the Casey Cardinia Libraries collection.

Reverend Alexander Duff (1824-1890)

The Reverend Alexander Duff (1824-1890) played a large role in the early development of the Cranbourne area and this is a short biography

Reverend Alexander Duff

Image: The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson  (Cheshire, 1968)

Sources - The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson  (Cheshire, 1968) and Early Settlers of the Casey Cardinia District researched and published by the Narre Warren & District Family History Group in 2009.

The Reverend Alexander Duff was born in Coagh in Northern Ireland in 1824 and obtained a Master of Arts from the University of Glasgow. He married Annie Tucker in Belfast when he was 29, around 1853, and they came to Australia soon after. Their eight children were all born in Victoria.

The Reverend Alexander Duff was appointed by the Presbyterian Church to Dandenong on June 26, 1855 and on September 20 he was ordained. The Duffs initially lived with Alexander Cameron, of Mayfield, Cranbourne and conducted services in his house until Scots Presbyterian Church was opened on May 27 1860. A manse was also built at the same time. Reverend Duff also preached at Berwick in the early days and as far south as the Bass River area. He visited parishioners on his horse, Dobbin.

Cranbourne Presbyterian Church, opened 1860.

A Presbyterian School opened in Cranbourne on June 1, 1856. This school was located on the site where the Presbyterian Church stands,  the first teacher being James Henry, the next teacher was Archibald Thomson. In 1862, the Commons School Act was passed and the School became Cranbourne Common School, No. 144. The School was closed in 1878 and the students moved to a new School on the South Gippsland Highway (where the Elderly Citizens are now located). In 1969, the Cranbourne State School, No. 2068, moved to Russell Street location.

On October 31,  1855 Alexander was appointed the Registrar of Births and Deaths for Cranbourne and Dandenong. 

Reverend Duff's appointment

Victorian Government Gazette, No 110, 2 November 1855, page 2806

The Reverend Duff also held evening classes for young men and women on 'arithmetic, physics, mathematics, English, Latin, Greek, French and German. He was obviously interested in intellectual pursuits but he also valued physical activity - Dr Gunson wrote that he tried his hand at black smith work and that he experimented with ways to improve cheese making. He ploughed his own paddocks and, in 1858, the Mornington Farmers Society held their ploughing competitions on his farm.

Reverend Duff retired to his farm at Cardinia in 1888 and he died on December 22, 1890 aged 65.  He left his entire estate to 'my dear wife, Annie Duff'. He was buried at the Cranbourne Cemetery. The value of his Estate was personal property of £1312 and real estate valued at £1574. (1)

Short obituary of the Reverend Duff 

South Bourke & Mornington Journal, December 24, 1890.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70398485

As we mentioned before, Alexander married Annie Tucker in Belfast around 1853. He was the son of Thomas Duff and Ann McMorran. They had eight children - 

Walter (1855 - 1925, married Eva Sharp)

Annie Elizabeth (1857 - 1934, married John Gason)

William Tucker (1859 - 1935, married Alice Hobart)

Dora Robina (1861 - 1939, married Robert Gibb)

Maggie (1864 - 1938, married James Lecky)

Mary Clarissa (known as Minnie, 1865 - 1924, married Ingebert Gunnelson)

Alexander (1869 - 1941, married Mary Irwin) 

Edward John Tucker, born and died 1877. 

Annie died November 24, 1905 aged 74. The three surviving sons farmed in the Cardinia area. Walter Duff, James Lecky and Robert Gibb were all Cranbourne Shire Councillors. 

Five of the Reverend Duff's grandsons were killed in the First World War - Charles Alexander Duff, the son of William and Alice Duff;  James Alexander Lecky and William Mervyn Lecky, the sons of Maggie and James Lecky and Ingebert and Perch Gunnelson, the sons of Mary and Ingebert Gunnelson who lived in Garfield. (2)

Alexander's brother, Robert (1827 - 1861) was also in Australia. He and his wife Margaret (c.1832 - 1902) established the Cranbourne Hotel, around 1860. It was in High Street, where Greg Clydesdale Square is now and was demolished around the 1970s. Margaret was also a Duff, perhaps a cousin, and her father operated an Inn in Coagh, County Tyrone, the birthplace of Alexander and Robert. After Robert died, Margaret married Edward Tucker (c. 1836 - 1872), who was born in America and operated a store in Cranbourne. Edward's brother William (born in Belfast) was also in the area. What connection were they to Annie Tucker, the wife of the Reverend Duff? Some sources say that she was the sister of Edward and William Tucker, however in the Early Settlers of the Casey Cardinia District their parents are listed as Edward Tucker and Elizabeth Moore and Annie's death certificate has her mother's maiden name as Phillips, so I am not sure.

The Cranbourne Hotel, established by Robert and Margaret Duff

Image: The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson  (Cheshire, 1968)

Footnotes

(1) Read his will at the Public Records Office of Victoria, here.

(2) Charles Alexander Duff - is listed on the Cardinia Honour Board and had a Memorial tree planted at the Cardinia School; he also listed on the Tooradin State School Honour Board. 

The Lecky brothers are on the Cranbourne Presbyterian Honour Board and the Cardinia Honour Board and had a Memorial tree planted at the Cardinia School. 

Cardinia Memorial Grove, see here https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2021/12/cardinia-tree-plantation-in-honor-of.html

Cardinia Honour Board, see here https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2022/01/unveiling-of-cardinia-state-school.html

Tooradin School Honour Board, see here  https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2022/02/tooradin-state-school-honour-roll.html

Cranbourne Presbyterian Church Honour Board see here,  https://victoriaspast.blogspot.com/2022/02/cranbourne-presbyterian-church-honour.html

The Gunnelson brothers are on the Garfield Honour Board - see here https://kooweerupswamphistory.blogspot.com/2021/12/world-war-one-soldiers-with-connection.html

Motor Club Hotel Cranbourne - a short history

Kelly's Motor Club Hotel is a landmark in Cranbourne, but it wasn't the first hotel on that site. The original Hotel, called the Mornington Hotel, was opened sometime in the 1850s by Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch (1)  The historian, Niel Gunson, writes that -
Gooch, who held a master's certificate, had signed on the Sacramento (2) as mate in order to reach Australia. Elizabeth Minister whom he married at St Peter's Eastern Hill in 1854 had also been on the Sacramento and both lost all their possessions when it was wrecked near the Heads. Both Gooch and his wife took an active part in the life of the Church of England, Mrs Gooch having been one of Bishop Perry's school teachers in England. (3) 

Thomas and Elizabeth Gooch

Image: The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson (Cheshire, 1968)

The  actual date of their marriage was  September 19, 1853; Thomas was 31 years old and Elizabeth was 28 years old. Thomas had been born in Long Melford, Suffolk to Edward Woodcock Gooch, a draper, and his wife Fanny Munnings. Elizabeth was born in Cambridge, England to Edward Minister, a carpenter and his wife Elizabeth Amey. (4)  Elizabeth gave birth to nine children between 1855 and 1867; they are listed here with year of birth and place of registration - Thomas (1855, Western Port ), Alfred (1857, Cranbourne), Susan Ellen (1859, Cranbourne),  Arthur (1860, Cranbourne), Charlotte (1861, Cranbourne), Walter Edward (1863, Cranbourne), Harriet Beumont (1864, Cranbourne), Frank Frederick (1865, Cranbourne), Fanny Elizabeth (1867, Berwick).  (5)   Elizabeth died on September 28, 1900 at 1 McPhail Street, Essendon, aged 75 and Thomas died on November 13, 1902 at 407 Canning Street, North Carlton, aged 80. (6)

Gooch's Mornington Hotel

Image: The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson (Cheshire, 1968)

By then of course, the Goochs had long since left the Mornington Hotel. Thomas became insolvent in January 1866 due to depreciation in property and falling off in business. (7)  At some time, the Licence was transferred to James Harris, who in turn transferred the Licence to Isaac Mullin in July 1869. Dr Gunson wrote that Isaac Mullin held the licence until 1872, when he concentrated on store keeping. Harris came back to the Hotel, and after his death in September 1875, his wife Elizabeth, took over the licence. She was still there in 1887. (8) 

In the 1890s licensees included Thomas Pearson and Henry Nurse senior and Henry Nurse junior.(9) William Lang  took over the freehold and the licence in July 1901 from Henry Nurse; and later licensees in the first decade of the 1900s included J. Lane and Letitia Buchanan. (10)

Around 1911, John Taylor took over the licence of the Mornington Hotel and in December 1911  he applied to have the name changed to the Motor Club Hotel and this was approved at a Licensing Court Hearing held December 14, 1911. (11)  This name  may have been related to the birth of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria in Tooradin or may have reflected the fact that Cranbourne was a popular destination for early motor car excursions. (12)  John Taylor purchased the freehold of the hotel in 1912. (13).

The change of name from the Mornington Hotel to the Motor Club Hotel

South Bourke & Mornington Journal December 21, 1911 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66179793

Julia O'Brien took over the licence of the Motor Club Hotel in February 1913 and was there until March 1914. (14) It was then operated by Gertrude and William Kilroy, who I have written about here.  In May 1918, it was reported that William James Taylor had taken over the licence and the lease of the business from Gertrude Kilroy; I presume that William and John Taylor are related. In May 1919, William Taylor applied to transfer the licence to  Mrs Sarah Kelly of 214 Williams Road, Hawksburn,  however John Taylor is listed in the Cranbourne Shire Rate books as owning the Hotel until the  1921/1922 Rate Year. (15) This was a short-lived occupancy by Sarah Kelly as by July 1920 John Blencowe was advertising as the proprietor of the Motor Club Hotel. (16)  In April 1922 the licence was transferred from John Blencowe to Arthur Kelly and the 1922/1923 Rate books lists Arthur Kelly as the owner of the building. Members of the Kelly  family still operate the Hotel. (17)  I have no information as to whether Sarah Kelly was related to Arthur Kelly. 

At the bottom of this list of Hotel Licence transfers is that of John Blencowe to Arthur Kelly,

The Age, April 27 1922 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205044523

Arthur Kelly had previously operated the Cranbourne Hotel, which was situated where Greg Clydesdale Square in High Street is now located and which was demolished around the 1970s. It had been established by Robert and Margaret Duff, around 1860. Robert Duff (1827-1861) was the brother of the Reverend Alexander Duff, the first Presbyterian Minister in the area.  Margaret, whose maiden name was also Duff, married Cranbourne storekeeper, Edward John Tucker in 1866. (18)

Traditionally, hotel keepers in Australia are seen as being of Irish and Catholic background, but in the 1850s and 1860s in this area it was not unusual to have Protestants operating hotels. By the 1880s there was a movement towards abstinence from alcohol or the Temperance movement with the rise of groups such as the Band of  Hope, the Independent Order of Rechabites and the Woman's Christian Temperance. Many Protestant Churches promoted abstinence and as Dr Gunson writes The Gooches, Tuckers and Duffs and Mrs Bowman of the Gippsland Hotel were perhaps the last of their kind to combine Evangelical piety with the publican's profession.  (19) 

Kelly's Motor Club Hotel, c. 1930s

Image: Cranbourne Shire Historical Society

The existing Motor Club Hotel, was built around 1924, by Arthur Kelly. I am basing this date on the valuation in the Cranbourne Shire Rate Books - in 1923/24 and 1924/25 the Net Annual Value was 240 pounds, in 1925/26, it had leapt to 420 pounds and the next two years it was 400 pounds, so I believe the increase in rates was due to the erection of the new building. As the Local Government year used to run from October 1 to September 30 then the new building would have been erected between October 1924 and September 1925 to appear at the higher valuation in the 1925/26 year. (20) The building is listed on the City of Casey Heritage Database, which describes it as of local historic, social and aesthetic significance to the City of Casey. (21)

Footnotes
(1) Gunson,  Niel The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire (Cheshire, 1968), p. 65

(2) The Sacramento - wrecked off Point Lonsdale at 3.00am April 27, 1853; it had left London on December 22, 1852.  This report from the Geelong Advertiser of April 28, 1853 (see here) -

Wreck at the Heads - The Barque Sacramento, Holmes, master, from London, with 250 government immigrants, arrived off the Heads yesterday. At about 3 o'clock a.m. the ship struck upon the Point Lonsdale reef, about one mile from shore and four from the lighthouse. The long-boat, life-boat, and two smaller boats were immediately hoisted out, and the landing of the immigrants commenced. Some were taken to the shore and others landed temporarily on the reef. The news was brought to Geelong yesterday afternoon, by the Rev. Mr. Lord, chaplain to the Sacramento. When he left the pilot station yesterday morning at nine, the boats were busily engaged in landing the immigrants, but as a heavy surf was running the process was necessarily slow, and even if the weather remained favourable, it would occupy the greater portion of yesterday to land them all. The condition of some of the poor creatures; crowding into the boats, many of them in their night dresses only, was truly pitiable. From the ship's position she is not likely to be got off; and in the meantime the immigrants' luggage and cargo is in jeopardy; indeed, as the weather has since been very squally, the vessel has most likely already gone to pieces.

(3) Ibid; Bishop Perry (1807-1891) https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/perry-charles-4391

(4) Marriage certificate; St Peter's Eastern Hill, Victoria, Australia Marriages, 1848-1955 on Ancestry.com

(5) Index to Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages. 

(6) Elizabeth death notice -  The Age, October 1, 1900, see here; Thomas death notice -  The Argus, November 15, 1902, see here.
(7) The Argus, January 10, 1866, see here.
(8) Licence transfer - Harris to Mullin - The Argus, July 10, 1869, see here;  Gunson, op. cit., p. 67; James Harris - application for licence The Argus, June 11, 1872, see here;  James Harris death - The Australasian, September 11, 1875, see here; the first reference I can find to Elizabeth holding the licence was in the South Bourke & Mornington Journal, January 2, 1878, see here; meeting at Mrs Harris' Hotel - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, June 8, 1887, see here. 
(9) Licence transfer - Pearson to Nurse - The Argus, January 23, 1895, see here;  Henry Nurse snr to Henry Nurse jnr South Bourke & Mornington Journal, March 4, 1896, see here

(10) Licence transfer - Nurse to Lang South Bourke & Mornington Journal, July 24, 1901, see here; Licence transfer - J. Lane to Buchanan - The Argus, June 19, 1908, see here. 
(11) Name change - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, December 21, 1911, see here.
(12) Priestley, Susan The Crown of the Road: the story of the RACV (McMillan, 1983).
(13)  Taylor freehold - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, January 18, 1912, see here.
(14) Licence transfer - Taylor to O'Brien - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, February 20, 1913, see here; Licence transfer -  O'Brien to Kilroy - The Age, March 7, 1914, see here. 

(15) The Kilroys - https://victoriaspast.blogspot.com/2022/08/mrs-gertrude-kilroy-of-motor-club-hotel.html Licence transfer - Kilroy to W.J. Taylor -  The Age, May 14, 1918, see here. Licence transfer - W. Taylor to S. Kelly - The Argus, May 3, 1919, see here. Shire of Cranbourne Rate Books. 

(16) Licence Transfer - S. Kelly to Blencowe - The Argus, May 15, 1920, see here; Blencowe - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, July 8, 1920, see here.
(17) Licence transfer - Blencowe to A. Kelly - The Age, April 27, 1922, see here. Shire of Cranbourne Rate Books. 

(18) Gunson, op. cit., p. 67. I have written about the Reverend Alexander Duff  here  https://victoriaspast.blogspot.com/2026/01/reverend-alexander-duff-1824-1890.html
(19) Gunson, op. cit, . p.185
(20) Shire of Cranbourne Rate Books. 
(21) Casey Heritage Study 2004: Volume 2 - Key Heritage Place and Precincts Citations (Readopted by Council in 2006 with minor corrections), prepared by Context P/L (City of Casey, 2006), access it here https://www.casey.vic.gov.au/heritage-at-casey

This is an expanded version of a post, which I wrote and researched, which appears on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. 

Frank Green, 13 years old, a victim of the Brighton Cyclone

On Saturday afternoon, February 2, 1918 Brighton suffered a severe storm which left a wave of destruction and two people dead, one of whom was Frank Green, who had turned 13 years old only ten days before. The Argus, had a very comprehensive report of the storm, the first few paragraphs are transcribed here.

Ferocious Storm Devastation at Brighton. 

Houses Demolished by Blast. 

Trees torn up by roots. 

Two Deaths: Many Injured. 

Wind 200 Miles an Hour. 

The most furious windstorm experienced in Australia since meteorological records have been taken occurred at Brighton and Brighton Beach at about a quarter to 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The area affected was fortunately limited to a fairly narrow strip; but within that strip the passage of the wind was marked by a trail of collapsed or damaged houses, uprooted trees and levelled fences. It was a scene of extraordinary devastation. So far as has yet been reported only two deaths occurred as the result of the storm, but many people were injured, more or less seriously.

The casualties known are as follow:—
Killed.
Frank Green, 14 [sic], Chetwynd street, North Melbourne, almost decapitated. [more about Frank later]
G. McLeod,  of Sydney, drowned at St. Kilda.
Injured
Winnie Kendall,  aged 6 years, Wellington street, Brighton, broken leg.
F.J. Prescott,  Moffat street, Brighton, broken arm.
Thomas W. Stillman, New street, Brighton, bone of right arm splintered.
D.P Nicholson,  Toorak road, Kooyong, exhaustion, bruises, and shock from immersion.
W. Menardi, Albert Park, exhaustion, bruises and shock from immersion.
- McCarroll,  caretaker, Bentleigh, facial cuts and other injuries.

Fearful Four Minutes.
The meteorological conditions which accompanied the storm were such as had never been experienced in Australia before. Fairly early on Saturday afternoon the whole sky became overcast and the sultry heat of the morning gave place to a strong squall from the north or north west, accompanied by driving sheets of rain, which caused the abandonment of many outdoor sports. The wind was strong enough to break large branches off trees, and to uproot a few of the more exposed, but it did no more damage than many previous storms.

At about half past 4, however, residents of Brighton noticed the heavy blue-black cloud gathering in the south west and growing more and more menacing. A quarter of an hour later, with scarcely a warning sound, a gale of unprecedented violence struck the foreshore, demolished half the bunks in the baths, stripped the roof off a large portion of the main building, lifted up a small refreshment store bodily, hurling it 40 yards across the road, and passed on to wreak havoc among the buildings for more than two miles inland. The moment it struck the mainland the air became thick with flying tiles, sheets of galvanised iron, branches of trees, and pieces of wood. The wonder of it is that more people were not injured. Sheets of iron were flying through the air like birds, and there are authenticated cases of heavy beams being carried more than 100 yards before they fell to earth. Sheds were moved bodily. Chimneys fell through the roofs of houses and in many cases the houses themselves proved unable to stand against the terrific pressure of the wind and collapsed. Women became hysterical, and many, although not physically injured, are still suffering from shock to the nerves. Windows crashed in under the weight of the wind or were broken by flying missiles, and through every gap in the roof or window that the storm made the rain poured in in torrents. Every house that was unroofed was also flooded, causing serious damage to carpets, pictures and furniture. The three or four minutes for which the storm lasted was a period of terror. Then it passed as suddenly as it had come, in its wake many stricken homes and a desolate landscape, with scarcely a whole tree left standing.

It was in the first burst of the storm that the two fatalities occurred. Fortunately then were no other deaths directly attributable to the wind, but it would be impossible to catalogue all the wonderful escapes that occurred during the short time that the storm lasted. Nor is it possible to form a correct estimate of the damage done to property; but £100,000 may be regarded as well within the total, that will be required to repair the havoc that was wrought.

How the Storm Arose.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the storm was the lack of uniformity with which houses suffered. The "blow" seemed to split up into tongues, which followed fairly well defined courses. Along those courses was devastation. Between them the houses, and even the trees, seemed to have escaped almost unscathed. At Brighton Beach almost every house within a fairly narrow radius suffered severely but between the Royal Terminus Hotel and Wellington street, a distance of about a mile, hardly a house along the foreshore showed any effects of the storm. Even in Wellington street, where some of the worst damage was done, the houses on the south side, with two exceptions, escaped with no more than the loss of a few tiles. And between Wellington street and Chatsworth road there is another long stretch showing scarcely any damage. It would seem that the drowning incident at St. Kilda was caused by still another tongue of the same squall. The theory most favoured, as explaining the peculiar distribution of the "blow" is that the wind from the north-west collided with the wind from the south-west somewhere in the bay, increasing in its violence, and giving it an irregular front, which explains the seemingly distinct squalls that struck the mainland. Apparently one tongue struck at the Brighton Beach Baths another drove up Wellington street, and converged with the first in Halifax street, a third struck in the vicinity of Chatsworth road, and a fourth struck St. Kilda. (1)

The arrows show the direction taken by the two tongues of wind. The starting points are given as Brighton Beach and Wellington street, joining at Halifax street, then swinging away to the north-east, so that Landcox and Ormond, to the north, and Jasper road, to the east, are shown.

The Argus, February 4, 1918 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1637265

The aftermath of the Cyclone. 

The State Library of Victoria has this image labelled as Presbyterian Church, Brighton  - struck by a  cyclone and wrecked. However, The Argus, has an almost identical photo labelled as Methodist Church, Mills Street, North Brighton. 

Image: State Library of Victoria  H19996. 

See The Argus photograph here http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1637265

Frank Green - a victim of the storm

The Argus wrote this about young Frank - 

Boy's Shocking Death. After he had attended a missionary lecture on Brighton Beach in the afternoon, Frank Green, aged 14, [sic] of Chetwynd street, North Melbourne, left the C.M.A. Sowers' Band picnic with a son of the Rev J.H. Frewin to have a swim at the baths. They had only reached the refreshment kiosk known as "The Ozone," a wooden structure 12ft square, when the storm broke, and they stood in the lee of the kiosk. At the climax of the south-westerly blast the frail building was smashed in, and falling on Green severed his skull completely in a line from the forehead back to the ears. The wreckage was carried on across the road, leaving the boy dead where he had been struck. 

His companion, Frewin, aged 10, was blown some distance along the Esplanade, and was rescued by two Japanese sailors. He was dazed and bruised, and his benefactors placed him in the train for

Melbourne. Some persons in the train noticing his weak state took him out of the train at Balaclava, and at the suggestion of the stationmaster the police took care of him. His father, responding to a telephone message, came to Balaclava, and going through to Brighton Beach, gave the Rev. A. R. Ebbs, who was in charge of the picnic, the first intimation that it was Frank Green who had been killed. There were 500 children attending the picnic, and the organisers delayed departure till half-past 9, so that all could be gathered in. Many had taken refuge in shops near the gardens, and no others were seriously injured. The body of Frank Green was taken to the Morgue by Constable Kearsley, of Brighton. (2)

The C.M.A. was the Church of England Missionary Association and the Reverend Arthur Rowley Ebbs was the Honorary Secretary of the Association.  The Sower's Band raised funds for the C.M.A. Young Frewin, mentioned in the article was the son of the Reverend John Henry Frewin, who in 1917 was the Vicar at St Mary's Church of England in North Melbourne. (3)

Frank's funeral notice said that he was the adopted son of Mrs Zurich of 5 Chetwynd Street, North Melbourne. He was buried at the Coburg Cemetery. (4)

Frank's funeral notice

The Argus, February 4, 1918 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1637226

In Frank's Inquest he is named as Frank Ladd, known as Frank Green. Frank Edwin Donald Ladd was born on January 22, 1905 to unmarried seventeen year old Nellie Isabella Ladd at the Women's Hospital in Carlton. (5) Nellie had been born in Sydney in 1887 to Thomas and Jane (nee Shaw); Jane applied for a divorce from Thomas in 1893 in New South Wales, on the grounds of cruelty and desertion (6).  I don't know whether Nellie was living in Melbourne normally, or whether she sent down to Melbourne to give birth and save the family embarrassment. 

Did Nellie give Frank up for adoption?  He was known as Frank Ladd and she is listed on his death certificate as his mother. I believe that he was adopted informally by a friend or relative of Nellie Ladd, because if he was adopted by a stranger, then they would not have known of  the name of the birth mother for the death certificate.  However, if Mrs Zurich was his adoptive mother,  this did not explain why Frank Ladd became known as Frank Green.  Then in the 1915 Sands and McDougall Directory, I found Henry Green as the occupant of 5 Chetwynd Street.  I then found the following Bereavement notice in The Argus (7) from Mr and Mrs Green thanking friends, the aforementioned Reverend Frewin and Mrs Frewin; the Reverend  Wenzel and the Sunday school teachers and choir at St Mary's in North Melbourne for their sympathy in the loss of their dear son, Frank.

Bereavement notice for Frank

The Argus, March 2 1918 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1643315

The 1917 Electoral Roll (8) lists William Henry Green and Alice Green at 5 Chetwynd Street. I  assume that Mrs Zurich was also Mrs Alice Green and was married (or co-habitating) with Henry Green , and that they had adopted young Frank and he took their surname.  If she isn't the same person, then I have no explanation as to who she is. 

The Green in the 1917 Electoral Roll.

Electoral Roll from Ancesty.com

Frank had an inauspicious start to life, being born to a young single mother and I hope his short life was happy; he was obviously very involved with the Sowers Band and the St Mary's Anglican Church community at North Melbourne and well loved by his adoptive parents. I wonder what contact Nellie had with her son after his birth.

I have no other information about William Henry Green or Alice Green or Mrs Zurich.

Before we leave this post, we will have a look at the life of Frank's birth mother, Nellie Ladd. On December 27, 1911, Nellie Ladd married Gustave Zarth in Sydney. (9)  

Marriage of Nellie Ladd

Daily Telegraph, February 3, 1912 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239055835

Nellie and Gustave lived in Oakleigh and later Armadale in Melbourne, and the Electoral Rolls list Gustave's occupation as a hoist driver.  Gustave enlisted in the First A.I.F in May 1916 at the age of 31. Whilst serving overseas in France he was wounded - gun shot wounds to right shin and right arm and after treatment in England he was Returned to Australia in January 1918. Nellie and Gustave had three children, all born in Oakleigh - Thelma in 1914; Laurence in 1919 and Allan James in  1924. Nellie died at the Alfred Hospital in  Melbourne on January 7, 1949. Gustave died on February 18, 1955, aged 69. They are buried together at the Springvale Cemetery. (10)

Death notice of Nellie

The Age, January 8, 1949 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205355536

One more thing - surnames beginning with the letter Z were relatively rare in Australia when these events written about above took place. So it is interesting that Frank's adoptive mother was Mrs Zurich and his birth mother became Mrs Zarth.

Footnotes

(1) The Argus, February 4, 1918, see here.  There is also a comprehensive report in the Sandringham Southern Cross, of February 9, 1918, see here and continues here. 

(2) The Argus, February 4, 1918, see here

(3) Punch, January 13, 1916, see here;  The Herald, September 29, 1913, see here; Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com

(4) The Argus, February 4, 1918, see here.

(5) Frank Ladd Inquest Deposition file, Public Records Office of Victoria   https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/9D7E08E1-F1C3-11E9-AE98-195931C827B8?image=1; Frank's Birth certificate and Death certificate

(6) New South Wales Indexes to Births, Deaths and Marriages; New South Wales Government Gazette, August 4, 1893, see here.

(7) 1915 Sands and McDougall Directory - on-line at the State Library of Victoria;   The Argus, March 2, 1918, see here.  

(8) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com

(9) Daily Telegraph, February 3, 1912, see here

(10) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com; First A.I.F Personnel Dossiers at the National Archives of Australia https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3457290; Victoria Indexes to Births, Deaths and Marriages;  The Age, January 8, 1949, see here; The Age, February 19, 1955 (see below); SMCT   https://www.smct.org.au/deceased-search

The Age, February 19, 1955, p, 21 from Newspapers.com