The suburb of Doveton, just east of Dandenong, was established in the mid 1950s by the Housing Commission to provide housing for the employees of the 'Big Three' Industrial companies, International Harvester Company (established 1952), H.J Heinz (1955) and General Motors Holden (1956) (1).
The area was originally known as Dandenong or Eumemmerring or Grassmere and it was once part of the Eumemmerring Run. This run was 10, 560 acres (2) and was taken up by Dr Farquhar McCrae (1807-1850) in 1839. It was described as 'good sheep country'. Dr McCrae was the brother-in-law of Georgiana McCrae (1804-1890) who was married to his brother Andrew. Georgiana kept a journal, later published as Georgiana's Journal (3). Later the same year it was taken over by Leslie Foster (1818-1900) or to give him his full name - John Vesey Fitzgerald Leslie Foster, apparently known as 'alphabetical Foster’ due to his abundance of names (4). Foster was, amongst other things, a cousin of Sir William Foster Stawell (1815-1889) who was appointed Victorian Attorney General in 1851 and became Chief Justice of Victoria in 1857. Stawell Street in Cranbourne was named after him, as well as the town of Stawell (5). Foster also, in 1843, challenged Dr McCrae to a pistol duel over a land sale, when McCrae refused Foster whipped him and his horse with a horse whip. He was later fined £10 and had to pay £250 in damages (6). Foster was a member of the Victorian Parliament, firstly in the Legislative Council, then the Assembly went on to help draft Victoria’s constitution, and acted as the administrator of the Colony between the departure of Governor La Trobe and the arrival of Governor Hotham (7).
Foster held the run until 1842 (8) when it was taken up by Edward Wilson (9) and James Stewart Johnson (10). Edward Wilson (1813-1878) was the owner of The Argus newspaper. James Stewart Johnson (1811-1896), was amongst other things, a member of the Legislative Council. In 1846 when Thomas Herbert Power (1801-1873) took over the property, which Power called Grassmere, it went from around the Dandenong Creek all the way to Berwick (11). Power was a business man and a member of the Legislative Council from 1856 until 1864 and had land in other areas including Hawthorn, where he lived. He is is the source of the name Power Road in Doveton. When he died in 1873 the value of his Estate was over £40,000. He still owned, according to his Probate papers 1,848 acres (747 hectares) in the Parish of Eumemmerring when he died (12).
On October 30, 1888 Munro & Baillieu Estate Agents offered for sale the Grassmere property of 3,000 acres (1214 hectares) subdivided into lots of between 1 acre and 20 acres (up to 8 hectares) (13). I realise that Power's Grassmere property was only 1848 acres when he died in 1873 and in 1880 when it was sub-divided it was described as 3,000 acres, I can only assume his family had purchased other adjacent land at some time. It was described in the newspaper advertisements as being on the crest of a delightful slope and only a few minutes walk from this happily situated and pretty township, so fast becoming a favourite residential estate. The pretty township was Dandenong (14).
From around 1951 the farms at Grassmere were purchased by International Harvester, H.J. Heinz and General Motors Holden to construct their manufacturing plants (15). From the start there was some discussion as to what the area should be called. An article in the Dandenong Journal of October 24, 1951 (see below) talks about General Motors Holden feeling that Eumemmerring as an address is 'unwieldly', although apparently International Harvester thought it was a 'thundering nice name'. The Journal asked if anyone knew the origin of the name and a further article (also below) in the Journal said the name was Irish, which is unlikely. Jean Uhl, in her book Call back yesterday: Eumemmerring Parish writes that Ummemmering, later spelt Eumemmerring, was the native name to that part of the district over the Dandenong Creek, outside the township of Dandenong.....and in means 'we are pleased to agree with you' (16).
According to an article in paper, below, the name of Doveton was agreed to by the Shire of Berwick in April 1953 after a request from the Hallam Progress Association (17). This decision preceded the establishment of the Housing Commission project east of Dandenong, between the Dandenong and Eumemmerring Creeks.
The Dandenong Housing Commission Estate was announced in September 1954. Two thousand homes were to be built, with preference for the housing given to employees of International Harvester, H.J. Heinz and General Motors (18). It is interesting that the area is still called Dandenong, in the article, below, even though the Shire of Berwick had approved the use of the name Doveton for the area over a year before.
Although the Berwick Shire had agreed to adopting the name of Doveton over Grassmere in April 1953, the formal adoption of the name Doveton for the area and the Housing Commission Estate was in October 1954, according to the report in the Dandenong Journal -
New Housing Commission Estate now Doveton - Following the decision of Berwick Shire Council at their last meeting to name the area between Kay’s Av. and the western boundary of the Shire “Doveton,” advice has been received from the Housing Commission that it has decided to adopt this name for its estate, formerly known as the East Dandenong Estate...The Department of Crown
Lands and Survey has also advised Berwick Shire Council that it has no objection to the area referred to being named “Doveton." (19).
It does appear that the year 1954 was the year the name Grassmere was finally abandoned for the area east of Dandenong. It is hard to know if it was still used informally by any old-timers who remained in the area. The Dandenong Journal on Trove only goes to 1954 and as there is also a town called Grassmere near Warnambool, later mentions could refer to that town. As a matter of interest, the modern day suburb of Eumemmering was gazetted on May 20, 1981 (20).
Footnotes(1) Harding, Maria Doveton: a brief history (Friends of Doveton Library, 1993)
(2) Uhl, Jean Call back yesterday: Eumemmering Parish (Lowden Publishing, 1972), p. 8.
(3) Uhl., op.cit., p. 6.
(4) Leslie Foster, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(5) William Stawell, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(6) Uhl., op.cit., p. 7.
(7) Leslie Foster, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(9) Edward Wilson, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(10) James Stewart Johnson, read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(11) Uhl., op.cit., p. 10.
(12) Uhl, op. cit., passim; https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/people-in-parliament/re-member/details/24/782 His will is at the Public Records Office of Victoria.
(13) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, October 24, 1888, see here.
(14) Ibid.
(15) Dandenong Journal, August 29, 1951, see here.
(16) Uhl, op. cit., p. 6-7.
(17) Dandenong Journal April 29, 1953, see here.
(18) The Age September 27, 1954, see here.
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