City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 24 DEVELOPING DAREBIN’S ECONOMIESIntroductionMany of the early European settlers in Darebin were small farmers, who made their living bydairying, cropping and to a lesser extent grazing. Although parts of the area gave way tosuburban and industrial development in the latter part of the nineteenth century, farmingpersisted in the northern parts for longer. One of the larger properties, Bundoora Park, wasused for breeding race horses well into the twentieth century.The area’s natural deposits of clay attracted significant industries. At its peak, Darebin wasMelbourne’s second largest producer of bricks. The area’s isolation and the availability of waterfrom the creeks and the Yan Yean pipeline attracted two industries in the 1860s - bacon curingand tanning - which became Darebin’s principal nineteenth century industries. The side effectsof these industries were pollution of the air and waterways. Other industries followed,including shoe, glue, soap, clothing and hat manufacture, dye works and food processing. Theexpansion of the tramway network in the twentieth century as described in the previouschapter was underscored by the largest employer being the Melbourne & MetropolitanTramway Board workshops in Preston.Darebin has a special place in the history of Melbourne’s water supply. The pipeline from YanYean, built 1853-57, traversed the whole length of the study area, and the suburb of Reservoirtakes its name from the three service reservoirs built to assist in the distribution of the watersupply.As each small settlement took shape commercial enterprises, including shops, opened to servicethe local residents and passers-by. Large shopping centres developed, drawing shoppers fromfurther afield, particularly the High Street shopping strip and later Northland. Hotels served avariety of functions as centres of local entertainment and meeting places for the localcommunity. One hotel also provided a significant sporting venue. The new entertainmentmedium of cinema took hold of Darebin in the 1920s. Westgarth Theatre is Melbourne’soldest purpose-built cinema still operating.This chapter incorporates the following themes:AAVAHT4.5 Places where people procured food or raw materials; 1 Associations with rural industry3 Developing local, regional and national economies; 3.11 Altering the environment;5Working.History4.1 Utilising natural resourcesFarming and grazingAlthough Darebin was blessed with some fine grasslands, created by Aboriginal burning andland management, it was not to be the realm of a few wealthy pastoralists as the Port PhillipAssociation envisaged. Nevertheless its pasture was used for grazing, mostly in the short termwhile awaiting suburban development. A remnant of the brief squatting era in the districtsclose to Melbourne is the bluestone stables from Oakhill homestead, built by pastoralistAlexander Brock. Brock’s sheep station was at Janefield, just to the north of Darebin’sboundary. The homestead was demolished in the 1960s (Summerton, 1997:19).One of Darebin’s few large properties to remain intact was the 1005 acre property comprisingpart of Allotment 15 Parish of Keelbundora, purchased by John Brown at the first Preston landsale. Brown leased it to Jonathon Boadle, who named the property Prospect Hill. Boadle42