William Bailey - Orchardist of Malvern and Narre Warren

In the 1890s William and Frances (Fanny) Bailey settled in Narre Warren North and established the first commercial orchard in the area. William was born in Harrow in England, the son of a farmer (1). William had arrived in Victoria in 1861 for the purpose of learning the nursery and horticultural business from his uncle, who owned the well-known Coles' Nursery at Hawthorn. For ten years Bailey worked for his uncle and then bought what was the first plant nursery in Malvern on land adjoining Elizabeth Street (2). William Bailey's plant nursery was called Malvern Nursery, and it was on the aforementioned Elizabeth Street and Toorak Road. 

Coles' Nursery was operated by his uncle, Mr Thomas Cornelius Cole (1810-1889), the brother of William's mother, Annie Cole. Two of Mr Cole's sons also had nurseries - John Charles Cole (1838-1891) had the Richmond Nursery and Henry Ungerford Cole (1843-1904), a Hawthorn Nursery. Another son, the Reverend Thomas Cornelius Cole (1836-1879) was the vicar at Malvern. The Reverend Cole inherited an interest in horticulture and his rose garden was envy of rosarians. He also planted many choice shrubs in the church grounds. The surroundings of the fine church were beautified by the artistic groupings of the trees. The church garden appeared to harmonise with the church buildings (3).

John Cole's Richmond Nursery catalogue from 1868. 

John Cole was the first cousin of William Bailey.

The State Library of Victoria has the full catalogue digitised, here.

Along with the nursery, William also had a farm in Malvern, which he acquired in 1872. This article from The Leader in December 1875, had this description  of the farm - 

Mr. Bailey's garden is situated about five miles from Melbourne, on the Toorak-road; the property, consisting of 25 acres, occupies the angle formed by the Toorak and Auburn roads: it is a portion of the old Gardiner's station, and the creek that bears his name runs through it. Mr. Bailey resides in the old house, which is one of the oldest in the district. The garden is situated on the west side of the ground, and has a rather steep slope towards the creek, with an eastern aspect; it contains 10 acres, occupied with fruit trees, the other 15 acres, including the creek, being used as a paddock for the horse and cow. A rich alluvial flat which lies between the garden and the creek was formerly under cultivation with vegetables, but in consequence of the frequent floods it has been laid down to grass, with the exception of about half an acre of the best portion, on which the vegetables and young fruit trees grow luxuriantly. The garden is in two portions, old and new; the latter, which adjoins the road, contains about three acres; the trees have been planted five years, they are mainly pears, are in a fine thriving condition, and just about beginning to bear. In the other portion the trees are about 20 years planted, some of them are of large size, we measured an apple tree which was fully nine yards across and of proportionate height (4).

The article lists the huge varieties of plants grown, including this list of apples and pears, none of which appear to be available in supermarkets these days -

Margaret, Quarrenden, Ribston Pippin, King of Pippins, Adams' Pearmain, and Scarlet Nonpareil; Lord Nelson, Allan Bank Seedling, Kentish Fillbasket, and Stone Pippin. Pears: Doyenne d'ete, Citron des Carmes, Jargonelle, Williams's Bon Chretien, Capiaumont, Durondeau, Beurre Bosc, Vicar of Winkfield, Winter Nelis, and Josephine de Malines. (5).

There was another article in The Leader in November 1886, which lists the variety of other plants grown by William Bailey and mentions his faith in the use of night soil as a fertilizer - 

The lower part of the ground, however, a flat bordering the creek, and used as a tree nursery is alluvial, easy to work, and producing capital young stuff. On this ground is an acre or so of lucerne which is worthy of notice, as there are different opinions current as to the proper time of sowing, some considering autumn the best season while others prefer the spring;  this crop was sown in the early part of May, and although the frost has been unusually severe, especially in river valleys, the lucerne has not been injured in the slightest and some of it is now 15 inches tall. A crop of oats alongside is also in excellent condition. A striking instance of the value of night soil as a manure is afforded by these crops, it having been applied to a portion only of the ground, and on the manured part the oats are stronger, several inches taller and of a far deeper hue of green. Asparagus also does well on that part of the ground. Mr. Bailey has a high opinion of the value of night soil and uses it also for his fruit trees, dressing them with it every third year. Strawberries and vegetables of various kinds are grown on vacant spaces for which the stable manure is used. About a quarter of an acre of rhubarb has already brought £11 this season. Near to this is a little over a quarter of an acre of Yorkshire Hero peas, as fine a crop as can be seen, being estimated to produce a ton weight of green peas, valued at the rate of £40 per acre. Other vacant slips are cropped with tomatoes, capsicums, maize and melons, but the latter have to be resown, the seedlings having gone off through the cold. Strawberries, as in nearly all other gardens, have all but gone off, so that the crop is certain to be light this year. (6).

The last paragraph of 1886 Leader article is very interesting -

Mr Bailey and his fruit have obtained such a good reputation that he has no occasion to stand the market with it, fruiterers and others being willing and anxious to take more than he can supply, knowing that his fruit is always of good quality, and his cases honestly filled. But owing to the inexorable demands of an increasing population be is about to be deprived of a large portion of his orchard which is destined to be cut in twain by the Glen Iris railway, which is to run diagonally across it, a chain and a half in width. This will not only divide the land, but on account of the slope of ground the cutting on one side will be so deep that crossing it will be impracticable (7).

The building of the railway though his property is no doubt the reason that in 1891 William Bailey purchased 50 acres at Narre Warren, and began planting out his orchard, although it appears that the family did not move there until after the birth of the last child, Ivy in 1893. The Narre Warren property was called Bona Vista, in Bailey Road (8).

William's family was a large one.  In 1872, William had married Frances (Fanny) Godwin and they had ten children, all born in Malvern - Annie Frances (1873-1944,  married Charles Brown in 1896); George Robert (1875-1960, married Florence Emma Toe in 1901); James William (1877-1962, married Lucy Agnes Webb in 1903); William Henry (1879-1942, married Christina Cameron in 1905); Rose Emmeline 'Minnie' (1881-1891);  Alfred Percy (1883-1966, married Margaret Josephine Coxon in 1910); Charles Cornelius (1885-1965, married Lilian Mary Mickle in 1911); Charlotte Myrtle (1891-1979, married Edward Percival Krummeck in 1932); Violet Emma (1891-1952, married Edward George Hill in 1915) and Ivy Edith May (1893-1941, did not marry) (9).

Some of William and Fannie's children remained in the Narre Warren area after they reached adulthood - their eldest son, George (1875-1960), was an orchardist and also had a General store in Narre Warren, operated by family members until the 1970s. George and his wife Florence built Brentwood (later called Clarinda Park) in 1904. In 1993, the address was 271-299 Narre Warren North Road, I don't think it still exists.  Another son James married, as we said,  Lucy Agnes Webb, the daughter of Anne and Sidney Webb. He was also a fruit grower and involved in many industry bodies such as the Victorian Fruitgrowers' Central Association, James was also a driving force in establishing the Narre Warren Cool Store, which you can read about here. James and Lucy built Araluen in 1903 and their daughter, Lucy,  lived there until she died  in April 1997 and the land was sub-divided. Araluen, at 301-331 Narre Warren North Road, burnt down in mysterious circumstances some years ago. (10)

William died December 29, 1922 aged 81 and Frances died May 28, 1929, aged 78. They are buried at the Boroondara Cemetery along with their daughters Minnie and Ivy.

I don't have a photograph of William Bailey, 

but this is his son, James Bailey with his son, Sidney James Bailey, taken c. 1918,

 in their Narre Warren North orchard.

Casey Cardinia Libraries collection

William Bailey's horticulture enterprise at Narre Warren was also the subject of reports in the newspapers. This one is from the Weekly Times of April 15, 1899 (see here)   Once again, it mentions a huge variety of fruits which are no longer grown commercially.

FRUIT GROWING AT NARRE WARREN (By Our Agricultural Reporter.)

The Weekly Times of April 15, 1899

The cultivation of fruit has not been extensively carried out in the Narre Warren district, but a splendid object lesson is afforded, as to the possibilities of the district, by Mr W. Bailey's Bona Vista orchard, about 4½ miles from the Narre Warren railway station and 1½ miles from old Narre Warren township

The orchard is pleasantly situated on the side of one of the numerous hills to be found in the district. When Mr Bailey first started the land was heavily timbered and covered with dense scrub. He was laughed at when he stated his intention of planting fruit trees, and was told failure was bound to ensue. Being a practical orchardist, he formed his own opinion about the matter, and from the results there is no doubt as to the soundness of his judgment.

Although the orchard has only been started eight years, the growth made is simply marvellous. Pinus insignis, planted for breakwinds, would, from the growth made, lead one to suppose they had been planted at least twice that period. What strikes one on first entering the orchard is the uniform size of the trees - one tree would serve as a model for the whole of any particular plantation. The soil is of a granite nature, and at the first glance would not impress one as to its fertility.

The orchard has a north and westerly aspect, which seems to suit the trees admirably. Remarking on the size of the trees, Mr Bailey explained that he followed out a system of summer pruning, so often advised in "The Weekly Times", for by this means all the available growth is directed into the proper channel, instead of making rank growth, which has to be cut away in the winter pruning.

The whole of the orchard has been thoroughly drained by means of either tile or charcoal drains, but for efficacy Mr Bailey prefers the former. Although no insect pests have yet made their appearance, spraying is regularly carried out during the winter months as a preventive, Bordeaux being the mixture chiefly favored.

The area devoted to Peaches at the present time is about two acres, and these trees look remarkably well, with the exception of a few worked in the almond stock, and these have proved far from satisfactory, while a few have grown as freely as those worked in the peach stock. The majority are dwarfed and stunted. Why this should be Mr. Bailey is unable to explain, but it should serve as a warning to all intending planters in the district. The crops this season have been very fine, and have given good returns. The varieties most favored are Briggs Red May, Hale's Early, Early Crawford, Fosters Royal George the Comet.  The trees have been planted 15ft x 15ft. apart, and this, Mr Bailey finds, is far too close.

There are twelve acres devoted to the cultivation of apples, and these have also made very free growth. In some instances the outer growths have been brought into a horizontal position, thus causing lateral shoots to grow out, besides utilising the exuberant growth, the size of the trees has been considerably extended. This system has been more particularly observed with trees having a tendency to grow into close pyramid form. 

The following varieties give equally good results: - Rome Beauty, Jonathan, King of Pippins, Reinette du Canada, Summer Scarlet Pearmain, London or Five Crown Pippin, H.U. Cole's Prince of Pippin, and Cole's Rymer. The latter is an enormous cropper; its only fault is that it comes into bearing the same time as Jonathan. The apples are planted 20 x 20 feet apart.

The Rome Beauty apple, one of the varieties grown by William Bailey.

This illustration, dated March 1881 was done by John Charles Cole of the 

Richmond Nursery, the first cousin of William Bailey. 

State Library of Victoria Image H96.160/2075

The three acres of pears show remarkably clean growth, and the fruit is of excellent quality. Williams's Bon Chretien, Souvenir de Congres, Bailey's Bergamot, Keiper's hybrid, Beurre d'Angon, Doyenne du Bossoch and Vicar of Winckfield are the principal sorts grown.

Plums also receive attention, but not to such a large extent as the other fruits, but from the success attained Mr Bailey would feel quite justified in the area devoted to them. Orleans, Washington, Black Orleans, Fellenberg, and Golden Drop have given the best returns. Whilst on the subject of plums we must not forget the Japanese variety, Kelsey. This kind is an enormous bearer, and is especially useful for private use. The blood Japanese Mr Bailey would advise grown as a weeping, ornamental plant, for planting on the lawn or elsewhere.

Apricots seem as much at home as the other varieties of fruits, but only the following varieties are grown to any extent: - Ouillen's Early, Moorpark, and Campbellfield's Seedling. The strawberry plantations are by no means the least important item at Bona Vista. The returns from this source have been excellent. The plants are placed in double rows, 2½ feet apart, and 15 inches in the rows. This enables the horse hoe to work readily between the rows.

The Jonathan apple, another variety grown by William Bailey.

This is a wax model, made in the Melbourne Museum

by Joy Dickins in 1950.

Image: Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/385107

Mr Bailey remarked that, to grow strawberries successfully, cultivation of the soil must be carried out the whole of the year, and not, as many growers do, leave the plants untouched directly the fruit is gathered until the following spring The manure used for this crop is principally bonedust and stable manure. The following are the varieties grown: - Marguerite, Edith Christy, Trollope's Victoria, and Arthur. The latter does exceedingly well, but, unlike the other varieties named, does not produce a second crop.

Mr Bailey has a clean lot of young fruit trees, suitable for planting this season. The collection comprises all the leading kinds of peaches, apples, pears, plums, strawberries, etc. Besides the orchard, Mr Bailey has about [illegible] acres devoted to the growth of tomatoes, peas, pumpkins, maize, and other crops, suitable for feeding purposes. (Weekly Times of April 15, 1899, see here)

Sadly, the Bailey orchard has also gone and for the same reason as William Bailey's Malvern farm - the inexorable demands of an increasing population. 

Trove list - I have created a list of newspapers articles on the Bailey family, access it here.

Footnotes
(1) William's obituary in The Argus of January 3, 1923, see here, says he was engaged with his father in fruit growing. An article in The Leader of February 23, 1907, see here, says he was the son of a strawberry grower.
(2) Cooper, John Butler The City of Malvern: from its first settlement to a City (Speciality Press, 1935), p. 124.
(3) Quotes about the Rev Cole's garden from John Butler Cooper, p. 122 (see footnote 2). Information also from Thomas Coles' entry, written by Richard Aitken, in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, here and information about the Nurseries in The Australasian, August 19, 1876, here.

(4) The Leader, December 11, 1875, see here.

(5) The Leader, December 11, 1875, see here.

(6) The Leader, November 6, 1886, see here.

(7) The Leader, November 6, 1886, see here.
(8) William Bailey is listed as owning 50 acres from the 1891/1892 Shire of Berwick Rate Books. As all the children were born in Malvern I am assuming they moved after the birth of Ivy in 1893. This is confirmed by the fact that William is listed in the Malvern Rate Books (available on Ancestry.com) in 1893, but not 1894.

(9) Information from the Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages 

(10) Heritage of the City of Berwick: Identifying and caring for important places by Context P/L (City of Berwick, 1993)  

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

Geranium harvesting and 'ten acres of drugs' at Westerfield, Baxter

I actually love geraniums, they are easy to grow, look pretty and come in many colours, so I was interested to come across these photos from 1929 of germanium harvesting at Westerfield, at Baxter. Westerfield was a property owned by Russell Grimwade (1879-1955) (1). He was the son of Frederick Sheppard Grimwade (1840-1910) (2) a founder of  Felton, Grimwade & Co. They were manufacturers of drugs and perfumes and they also established a Chemical Company and the Melbourne Glass Bottle Works. Given that liquids, powders and potions were all packaged in glass bottles and jars at the time, this was logical move.

Felton, Grimwade & Co., Factories - the top images are the Chemical Works and Bi-Sulphide of Carbon works at Sandridge (Port Melbourne); the middle image are the Glass Works in Graham Street, South Melbourne. At the bottom are the Laboratory & Drug Mills, Jeffcott Street, West Melbourne and the Leech Aquarium, part of Drug works.

Image: State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/257357 Image originally published in the Australasian Sketcher of March 12, 1884, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246609555

The Felton of Felton, Grimwade & Co., was Alfred Felton  (1831-1904), whose estate provided the funds for the Felton Bequest which purchased works of art for the National Gallery in Melbourne and supported charities (3).  I have written about more about Felton, Grimwade & Co., especially their connection to the leech trade, here. 

As a matter of interest, in 1917, Russell and his brothers, Norton, Harold and Sheppard, donated the family home, Harleston in Caulfield to Melbourne Grammar as a memorial to their parents, Frederick and Jessie,  and it was renamed Grimwade House (4).  

Geranium harvesting at Westerfield, Baxter, December 1929. Photographer: Russell Grimwade.

University of Melbourne Archives http://hdl.handle.net/11343/77615

Westerfield was in Robinsons Road in Baxter (5). The property also grew drugs for the pharmaceutical industry during World War Two, you can read about that below.

Geranium oil was used in the manufacture of perfume. Russell Grimwade gave an address on essential oils in 1924. It was reported on in The Age -
The art of the perfumer, Mr. Grimwade said, was to gather from all possible sources the essential oils, and blend them in the proportions that gave the most beautiful perfumes. The oils generally known as essential oils were not really what they were called, because they were not pure oils, though they contained pure oils in various proportions. They were really volatile, or ethereal, oils, and were obtained in all forms of growing plants (6).

Geranium harvesting at Westerfield, Baxter, December 1929. Photographer: Russell Grimwade.

University of Melbourne Archives http://hdl.handle.net/11343/77617

It makes the process sound easy, however a large quantity of plants were required to produce the oil. An 1886 report in the Weekly Times on the Manufacture of Perfumery noted that half an acre will sustain 800 geranium plants, giving 2,250lb. of geranium leaves. That's 1020kg of leaves. As a comparison jasmine requires about a third of an acre to produce, during the entire season, 30,000 plants, which will furnish 2,2501b. of flowers...the orange tree at ten years of age will require an acre to grow 100 trees, producing 2,2501b. of flowers (7).

Geranium harvesting at Westerfield, Baxter, December 1929. Photographer: Russell Grimwade.

University of Melbourne Archives http://hdl.handle.net/11343/77616

Geraniums were not the only plants grown at the Grimwade farm. I found this very interesting article about ten acres of drugs being grown there during the Second World War for the pharmaceutical industry. It is from The Herald, August 24, 1946 (8) and reproduced here in full.

Ten acres of drugs by Angas Brammall

On a secluded pine-sheltered hillside three miles from bustling Frankston are 10 privet-hedged acres of herb garden which through the war provided all Australia with drugs formerly coming from abroad. This garden even provided the drug used in the AlF's invasion anti-sea-sickness pills. The rows of purple, red and white blooms are the result of the enterprise and foresight of Mr Russell Grimwade.

Thousands of pounds worth of digitalis, heroin, hyoscine, opium, and other deadly, but life-saving drugs were produced during the war from the 10 acres, which are part of Mr Grimwade's beautiful estate. More than 20 years ago Mr Grimwade made a hobby of cultivating small patches of herbs and drug-yielding plants. When the Second World War started he foresaw a shortage of certain essential drugs. Immediately the war started he cabled an English firm for a pound each of five drug seed varieties. Within a few months rows of plants were showing their heads above the fertile, sandy loam.

The deadly leaf harvest was gathered and sufficient seed extracted to make a hundred-fold crop the following, season. Meanwhile, engineers, architects and industrial chemists had been busy. Drying rooms, were built which; could handle 700 pounds of leaves in a single day. Choppers and desiccators were designed, and the whole vast resources of the drug industry co-opted.

The next crop was bumper. Mr Grimwade's Welsh farm manager (Mr W. Griffiths) watched with pride the steady growth of the "deadly nightshade," or Atropa belladonna, from which atropine is extracted. He saw the dark-leaved foxglove, or digitalis, flourish in the summer sunshine. He beheld the tossing red or white heads of the popples from which came opium and morphine. That harvest, too, was gathered. The new drying-rooms worked perfectly, and soon the pungent bales of drug leaves were being transformed at a city ware-house into the drugs for which military and civil hospitals had been pleading so desperately.

Assay and analysis proved Mr Grimwade's digitalis and atropa superior to the imported drugs, and, with hyosclne and colchicum, they were soon in use in hospitals throughout Australia and on every battlefront in the North.

Although a deadly poison, hyoscine in minute doses, is an antidote to sea and air-sickness, and hundreds of pounds' worth was extracted by Mr Grimwade's company from Australian-grown plants. Hyoscine tablets were issued to troops before all major landings.

Digitalis contains four important glucosides, of which three are invaluable heart stimulants; but it is an extremely poisonous drug and a lethal dose causes almost instant death. Colchicum is an amazing substance derived from a bulb. It has an immediate depressant effect on the heart and speedily causes death from collapse if an over-dose is taken, It is used, medicinally, for gout patients. Its most extraordinary property is its effect on plant life. Injected into trees or shrubs it causes giantism and the tree will grow to many time's its normal size.

Russian scientists evolved perennial wheat by soaking hybrid seed grains in a solution of colchicum before planting. The digitalis and hycscyamus leaves are treated in very much the same manner as tobacco leaves. They are strung on poles and quickly dried off at a temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit. They are then baled under great pressure and sent to the Melbourne warehouse for the extraction of the drugs. Each bale weighs 130lb.

Atropin is extracted from the root of the belladonna plant. Dahlia-like in appearance, the root is first sliced in a chopper, then dried off and crushed. Opium and morphine normally come from the white latex which is taken from poppy heads before they have ripened and dried. But by a new Australian process morphine is now extracted directly from the poppy capsules. This eliminates the laborious scraping of latex from the poppy heads.

Other products of Mr Grimwade's farm are nicotlana rustica, from which nicotine is derived, and the squill plant, which yields a valuable expectorant. Geranium oil is extracted from the Pelargonium radula, and lavender oil from carefully selected strains of the ordinary lavender plant. 

Footnotes
(1) Sir Wilfred Russell Grimwade (1879-1955). Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(2) Frederick Sheppard Grimwade (1840-1910). Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

(3) Alfred Felton (1831-1904), Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.

(4) https://www.mgs.vic.edu.au/about/our-history/history-grimwade-house
(5) I found the address from this advertisement in the Frankston Standard, December 1, 1949

  

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74253500

(6) The Age, November 28, 1924, see here.
(7) Weekly Times, March 13, 1886, see here.
(8) The Herald, August 24, 1946, see here.

A version of this post, which I wrote and researched, first appeared on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. This is an updated and expanded version.

Lady Talbot Milk Institute and George Hope's Model Dairy at Cranbourne

This is the story of the Lady Talbot Milk Institute and George Hope's Caulfield Model dairy, which suppled pure milk to the Institute. In 1912, George moved his operation to Mayfield at Cranbourne. The Hope family sold their property in 1949 to  Frederick Spottiswood who renamed it Nirvana Park. Fred had established the Nirvana Dairy on the corner of Waverley Road and Belgrave Road in Malvern East in the 1930s. 

On Monday, April 11 in 1927, Lady Stonehaven, the wife of the Governor General, Lord Stonehaven, visited the Caulfield Model Dairy Farm at Cranbourne. She was accompanied by Dr Vera Scantlebury (1), the Director of Infant Welfare and Sister Peck (2), Assistant Director of the Victorian Health Centres. The party was shown the milk production process by the proprietor, Mr George Hope. He explained the production process from milking, cooling, bottling and sealing to the final act of packing the milk in ice-lined cases for delivery to the railway station for distribution in Melbourne (3). 400 gallons (around 1800 litres) was produced daily at this dairy in the 1920s, principally for the Lady Talbot Milk Institute, which then distributed this special milk to around 1,600 babies (4).  The milk from George Hope's farm was regularly checked by laboratories at the University of Melbourne for contamination, the cows were checked Government veterinary officers to ensure they were free from tuberculosis and the farm employees also needed to have medical checks (5). These checks were done to ensure the milk was pure and safe for the babies

Early in the 1900s there was concern about the high infant mortality rate, and various schemes were introduced in order to improve the life of mothers and babies. Lillias Skene (6) a welfare worker and women’s activist, suggested the establishment of a safe milk supply and this led to the foundation of the Lady Talbot Milk Institute in 1908. The inaugural meeting was held on June 24, 1908 where the motion That an institute for the supply of safe clean milk to be called the Lady Talbot Milk Institute be established as a charitable institution in Melbourne was passed (7).  Lady Talbot was the wife of the Victorian Governor (8). Dr Jeffreys Wood (9), who moved the motion said that those medical men in particular who had had to work at the Children's Hospital, had felt the utter hopelessness of treating children as the result of drinking stale milk and sending them back home to drink the same milk. Absolutely fresh milk would do an immense amount of good for the poorer children of the state (10). The Children's Hospital also used Talbot Institute milk for the infants in their care (11). 

The role of the Lady Talbot Milk Institute was to supply pure bottled milk to infants to reduce deaths caused by unsanitary milk. Before refrigeration and pasteurization, coupled with generally low standards of hygiene and germ control, unsanitary milk was a major cause of infant death and illness. Contaminated milk could cause tuberculosis, gastric upsets, diarrhoea and typhoid. The process of  pasteurisation was invented by Louis Pasteur in the 1860s, and it was being used in Victoria from the 1890s but did not become compulsory in Victoria until after the Second World War (12).  Interestingly, even in 1927 the milk from George Hope’s farm was not pasteurised, and its purity came from the stringent handling methods (13). 

Letter from George hope regarding pasteurisation of his milk

The Argus, April 14, 1927 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3849131

The Lady Talbot Milk Institute supplied milk, with an ice chest, to ‘deserving’ cases. Families had to apply through Infant Welfare Centres, the local council or be recommended by their doctor and the milk was subsidised by a combination of the local council, the State Government and Institute funds. In an Annual report around 1910 the City of Prahran noted  Splendid work has been done in this city through the agency of the Talbot Milk Institute, towards which the Council contributed £100. During the year 90 babies have received the special milk, the mothers in most cases paying the market price for it, viz., 2d. per pint, although the cost to the Institute is about 4½d. The nurses in charge of the district have taken considerable trouble to keep in touch with the babies receiving the milk, advising mothers in respect to the general treatment of young children, feed, nursing, etc. (14). 

The Argus reported in 1923 - The value of Talbot milk as an infant food is shown by figures, supplied by Dr Jeffreys Wood, who, in a report to the association, stated that of 386 babies housed on the milk during last summer only five died, while only nine suffered illness. The mortality rate for the Commonwealth is 53 deaths per thousand infants (15). The Lady Talbot Milk Institute was still in existence in 1940, but I have no information when it ceased operation. 

Who was George Hope? George had commenced his Model Dairy on 60 acres in Kooyong Road in Caulfield.  In 1909, his farm was the subject of an article in the Weekly Times which started with There is a property in the Melbourne metropolitan area which is fast becoming one of the show farms of Victoria. A report a year earlier described his new concrete silos which could conserve up to 400 tons of silage (16).  In 1912, George Hope purchased 592 acres (240 hectares) at Cranbourne and moved his Caulfield Model Farm to this new location. This land was the Mayfield pre-emptive right, originally owned by Alexander Cameron (17). George had been supplying milk to the Lady Talbot Milk Institute since 1908 and this continued at Cranbourne (18). 

George was protective of his milk’s reputation and in November 1925 he went to court to seek an injunction to stop other dairies using the milk bottles with the Lady Talbot Milk Institute label and filling them with ordinary milk. A public advertisement, see below, appeared in The Argus of December 5, 1925 warning dairymen against the use of the specially labelled bottles. 

Warning to dairymen about using Lady Talbot branded bottles.

The Argus, December 5 1925 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2171319

George Hope (1865-1941) had married Mary Elizabeth Robinson (1867-1948) in 1900 and they had four  children - Elizabeth (1901), George Robinson (1903), James Haworth (1906) and David Dickson  (1911). James died in 1916 at the age of ten and is buried in the same grave as his parents at Cranbourne Cemetery. Elizabeth married Noel Sumner Nash in November 1935, he was the first cousin of  Maie Casey, the wife of Lord Casey, engineer,  politician and Governor General of Australia from 1965-1969.  George married Edna Josephine Warburton in 1939 and the same year David married Thirza 'Jill' Cargill in New South Wales. Both George, David  and their  brother-in-law, Noel, served in World War Two - George and Noel in the Army and David in the Air Force (19).

In 1945, George and David held a clearing sale as they were giving up dairying - they had close to 380 head of cattle on offer, mainly Illawarra-Ayrshire cross and all guaranteed to be tuberculosis free (20). The property was then sold in 1949 to Fred Spottiswood, of Nirvana Park, Camms Road, in Cranbourne, where he operated a Illawarra cattle stud.  Mr Spottiswood was a Shire of Cranbourne Councillor from 1949 until 1955 and he was Shire President from 1951 to 1952. He was also on the Committee of the Cranbourne Turf Club and Chairman in 1951/52. Before he came to live full-time on his farm in Cranbourne in 1946, Mr Spottiswood operated the Nirvana Dairy (hence the name of his farm) on the corner of Waverley Road and Belgrave Road in Malvern East (21). An article in the Kiama Reporter of July 4, 1945 noted that Mr Spottiswood  who has achieved distinction for the extensive milk retailing business he has built  up in  Malvern and in a similar manner to the model business thus established, he aspired to the creation of  a model stud farm with the noted Australian Illawarra Shorthorns the breed to be utilised (22). 

I am not sure when Fred Spottiswood started the Nirvana Dairy, the earliest reference I can find to it is in November 1934 when the Dairy won a prize for the best 'four wheeled light delivery turnout'  in a parade of business vehicles held in Malvern (23). Nirvana Dairies opened  a new building on October 28, 1938. It was opened by the Minister of Agriculture, and the newspaper report said It must be a great comfort to mothers to know that milk is clean and pure," Mr. Hogan said. "To achieve cleanliness and purity it is necessary that dairies should be sanitary, with durable Interiors, ample space, arrangements for expeditious handling, and good lighting, ventilation, and drainage"  (24). 

An interesting new building was how Nirvana Dairy was described in Building magazine.

The building was the Dairy Bell Ice Cream building from the mid-1970s to 2015.

Image: Building: the magazine for the architect, builder, property owner and merchant 

Vol. 63 No. 378 (24 February, 1939), p. 63. (from Trove)

The Interior of the Milk Bar at the Nirvana dairy

Image: Building: the magazine for the architect, builder, property owner and merchant

Vol. 63 No. 378 (24 February, 1939), p. 63. (from Trove)

The opening of the Nirvana Dairy is a good example of the connection between rural and urban industries that was once obvious to most Australians and is now largely lost. It was the Minister for Agriculture opening the new dairy because it was recognised that rural industries, such as the dairy industry, needed secondary industries, such as Nirvana Dairy which produced milk products and ice cream and also had a milk bar and cafe. Small factories like the Nirvana Dairy, often had a house attached where the owner lived and they were part of the fabric of every suburb; unlike today where the industrial area in many towns is set well away from the residential area.

Fred Spottiswood sold the Nirvana Dairy in 1946 and the family, as we said before, moved to  Nirvana Park in Cranbourne (25). The 1945/46 Shire of Cranbourne Rate Books list about 60 acres in various parcels owned by Fred Spottiswood and also show that he leased land from the Crown and the Railways - the railway land was from the Railway line, north to Camms Road, with High Street/South Gippsland Highway being the western boundary and Narre Warren Cranbourne Road,  being the eastern boundary. In 1954, the Spottiswoods moved again, this time to a new house they had built on the site of the old Mayfield homestead. Spottiswood then renamed the property from Mayfield to Nirvana Park. (26).

Frederick David Spottiswood (1903-1992)  married widow, Vevers Lorna Hemsworth (nee Lasslett, 1915-1999)  in 1942. There were two sons from the marriage and Vevers had a daughter from her previous marriage. Fred and Vevers Spottiswood are listed in the Electoral Rolls in Cranbourne until 1968 and by 1972 they are in Frankston. They are both interred at the Bribie Island Memorial Garden in Queensland, his plaque describes him as always optimistic and her plaque describes her as stylish and witty (27). 

The lives of many babies were saved over the years due to women such as Lilias Skene advocating for a clean milk supply and dairy men like George Hope and Fred Spottiswood providing the pure milk and clean processing plants required for its distribution.

Acknowledgement - I first found out about Fred Spottiswood from a long term Cranbourne resident, the late Val Bourke, and she told me that his dairy was  a red brick building on Camms Road. Val also told me that the Spottsiwoods moved from the original farm in Camms Road to another property in Cameron Street, south of Sladen Street or Berwick-Cranbourne Road as that part of Sladen Street is now called  (about opposite the back entry of the old Cranbourne RSL) where they also had  a dairy. I used Val's information as the basis for the rest of the Spottiswood story. Val Bourke was such a lovely woman, and I still miss her.

Trove lists - I have created a list of articles on the Lady Talbot Milk Institute and George Hope's Model Dairy, access it here; and a list of articles on Nirvana Park and Fred Spottiswood, here.

Footnotes
(1) Vera Scantlebury Brown (1889-1946), read her Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(2) Muriel Peck (1882-1947), read her obituary in The Herald of May 21, 1947, here and a tribute to her in the Gippsland Times of June 5, 1947, here. Sister Peck was instrumental in the establishment of Baby Health Centres, I have written about this here. Sister Peck also visited many country towns on the Better Farming Train and gave valuable advice to many rural mothers. I have written about the Better Farming Train, here. 

(3) The Argus, April 12, 1927, see here.
(4) The Argus, October 22, 1923, see here.
(5) The Argus, April 12, 1927, see here.

(6) Lilias Skene (1867-1957), read her Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(7) The Argus, June 25, 1908, see here.
(8) Lady Talbot - The Institute was named for Lady Talbot, the wife of the Governor of Victoria, Sir Reginald Talbot. Lady Talbot, born Margaret Jane Stuart-Wortley in 1855, married Sir Reginald in 1877. Sir Reginald was Governor of Victoria from 1904 until 1908 and during this time Lady Talbot promoted many charitable ventures including the Talbot Colony for Epileptics, which later became the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre. 
(9) Arthur Jeffreys Wood (1861-1937), read his obituary in The Herald, April 13, 1937, here.
(10) The Argus, June 25, 1908, see here.

(11)  Gardiner, Lyndsay Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne 1870 - 1970 (published by the Hospital in 1970), p. 57.
(12) There was a report in 1898 of David Mitchell (famous as the father of Nellie Melba) pasteurising his milk in The Age January 1, 1898, here; The Milk Pasteurisation Bill finally passed Victorian Parliament in December 1949, but still wasn't implemented a year later, see The Age January 8, 1951, here.
(13) The Argus, April 14, 1927, see here.
(14) Cooper, John Butler The history of Prahran from its first settlement to a City (Prahran Council, 1912) pp., 313-314
(15) The Argus, October 22, 1923, see here.

(16) Weekly Times, February 27 1909, see here; The Australasian, August 15, 1908, see here.
(17) Shire of Cranbourne Rate Books. In March 1851, Alexander Cameron (1815 - 1881) took up the lease of the Mayune Run and a few years later at the Government land sales he purchased 592 acres, the Mayfield Pre-emptive Right, on the corner of what is now Cameron Street and the South Gippsland Highway. The Cranbourne Road Board was proclaimed in June 1860 and Cameron was elected in 1863 and served until 1867. He was married to Margaret (nee Donaldson, 1822-1895) and they had seven children (The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson ( Cheshire, 1968)
(18) The Australasian, June 27, 1914, see here.
(19) Family information - Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; personal advertisements in the newspapers and WW2 Nominal Roll.  Noel Sumner Nash was the son of Albert and Mary Maud Nash, of Ballarto, Cranbourne. Maud was the daughter of  Theodotus Sumner and his wife Sarah (nee Peers). Her sister Annie was married to James Grice, who was the brother of Richard Grice, land owner in Berwick and Cranbourne, after whom Grice's Road is name. Another sister, Alice, married Charles Ryan, they were the parents of Lady Casey who owned Edrington at Berwick. In spite of being socially well connected it doesn't seem like it was  'happy families' all the time as there was a family dispute over Theodotus Sumner's will - you can read about this here.
(20) Dandenong Journal, December 5 1945, see here.
(21) Cranbourne Shire Rate books; The Good Country: Cranbourne Shire by Niel Gunson  (Cheshire, 1968); The Dandenong Journal, March 6, 1946, see here. 

(22) Kiama Reporter, July 10 1945, see here.
(23) The Argus, November 15, 1934, see here.
(24) The Argus, October 29, 1938, see here.

(25) The Dandenong Journal, March 6, 1946, see here

(26) The Dandenong Journal, November 10, 1954, see here.

(27) Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages; personal advertisements in the newspapers and http://www.chapelhill.homeip.net/FamilyHistory/Photos/Bribie_Island_Memorial_Gardens/

This post is an updated, expanded and much improved version of two posts I wrote and researched on my work blog, Casey Cardinia Links to our Past. I wrote the Lady Talbot Milk Institute post in 2009 and the post on Nirvana Park in 2014.