City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY3 TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONSIntroductionRoads and transport services were crucial to the suburban development of the area, andtransport routes influenced patterns of settlement. Indeed, the lack of efficient services waspartly responsible for the delayed development of parts of Darebin. Train services, when theyarrived in the late nineteenth century, followed a circuitous route until the early twentiethcentury. Darebin has seen each era of tram technology from horse-drawn to electric, andmaintained Melbourne’s last cable tram route. This theme is closely connected to the theme ofBuilding Suburban Darebin, which is explored in Chapter 5 as the building of more efficientnetworks supported the development of Darebin, particularly during the 1920s boom.Darebin’s location between two creeks means that bridges are also a vital part of its transportlinks.This chapter incorporates the following themes:AAVAHT4.4 Historic travelling routes3.8 Moving goods and people; 5 WorkingHistory3.1 Establishing road routesDeveloping main roadsAs Kenna notes, the earliest tracks through the area were made through the bush by theindigenous people (Kenna, 1988:61).The Heidelberg district to the north-east of the study area, with its fertile river flats andpleasant mountain views, attracted wealthy settlers in the 1830s, necessitating a road betweenMelbourne and their estates. The track to these country estates was a busy road by 1841 whenHeidelberg landowners formed the Heidelberg Road Trust to raise funds for road making andmaintenance. The Trust put a toll gate on the Heidelberg side of the Merri Creek and formedVictoria’s first section of macadamised 12 road between the Merri and Darebin Creeks. Thissection of Heidelberg Road now forms the southern boundary of the study area. Before theformation of the Trust, Heidelberg residents had subscribed to the cost of the first bridge overthe Darebin Creek (Garden, 1973:53-61).Plenty Road was an early stock route for bringing sheep and cattle from the north toMelbourne. It followed the Plenty River southwards, then westwards into the study area,fording the Darebin Creek to join up with what is now High Street. This route from itsjunction at the Heidelberg Road was known as Upper Plenty Road as it served the importantagricultural district of the Plenty. The northern section of High Street, from the Plenty RoadJunction was originally known as Epping Road, and was the main route to Kilmore (Lay,2003:114-5).St George’s Road originated as the pipe track from the Yan Yean Reservoir. Construction ofthe Reservoir and pipe track commenced in 1853. The route was chosen to avoid Rucker’sHill on the Upper Plenty Road. To overcome the bad roads, or lack of roads in some places,19 miles of tramway was built along the pipe track for the hauling of the pipes, but it was littlebetter than the roads, and many horses were injured through plunging into the holes betweenthe sleepers. A tubular girder bridge on bluestone piers carried the pipeline across the Merri12 Broken stone of even size bound with tar or bitumen, used for surfacing roads and paths.33