City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYGas and electricityGas lighting came to Northcote after the Merri Creek bridge was built at High Street in 1875.The bridge carried the Metropolitan Gas Company’s pipes across from Fitzroy. In the 1880sthe Metropolitan Gas Company was reluctant to extend its mains to the less populated parts ofDarebin, so a local group of speculators formed the Northern Gas Company. The Companyproposed to build their own gasworks, but instead, purchased the gas from Metropolitan andextended its mains along St George’s Road to Preston, supplying Metropolitan gas at a higherprice to Preston consumers. Northcote Council refused to participate at first, so Preston wasabout a year ahead of parts of Northcote in receiving gas (Lemon, 1983:98-9). The gas did notreach the northern parts of Preston, however. According to Sydney Bartlett, the streets ofPreston had kerosene lamps, then acetylene gas, before the gas mains arrived at the turn of thecentury (Bartlett b).Electricity supplies were late coming to Darebin. The Northcote and Clifton Brick Companiesgenerated their own supplies. In 1913, Northcote Council agreed to buy electricity from theMelbourne Electric Supply Company and built the necessary substation near the Merri Creekbridge and poles along St George’s Road. Preston Council continued the poles, and built threesubstations, one of them on the corner of Oakover and St George’s Road. The power wasswitched on in Northcote and Preston in May 1914, however it only served the built-up areas,and was extended as development took place. The electricity was not connected beyondPurinuan Road Reservoir until about 1946 (Lemon, pp. 162-3; Jones, 1994:87). In 1920, theState Electricity Commission took over the supply of electricity from all local companies, butboth Northcote and Preston Councils continued to buy the current in bulk and distribute it toconsumers. This proved to be a lucrative venture for both councils. A substation on the cornerof Murray and St George’s Roads enabled the transmission of power to Reservoir. Thedevelopment of Darebin’s industries in the twentieth century made it necessary to increase thesupply to three phase voltage, but the required terminals were constructed just outside Darebin(Carroll, 1985:97-9; Lemon, 1983:207; Jones, 1994:44-5).5.5 Creating public landscapesThe provision of open space for fresh air and recreation was a response to the overcrowdedindustrial towns of nineteenth century Britain, and the concept was established early in theEuropean settlement of Victoria. Parks, gardens and recreational grounds were consideredessential to public health and social harmony.Apart from Northcote Park in the original Northcote Township, no land was reserved forrecreation in nineteenth century Darebin. However large areas of open space were left alongthe Merri, Edgars and Darebin Creeks well into the twentieth century, which were used asparkland and were subsequently designated as parks in the twentieth century. Yarra Bend(formerly in the City of Northcote, but not in the City of Darebin) remained as an area ofopen space, becoming a park in 1926. There were also some early privately ownedsportsgrounds in the nineteenth century, such as Croxton Park, that have succumbed tosuburban development. Preston Council acquired some sites for parks in the nineteenthcentury. In the twentieth century several former clay pits, and other swampy areas unsuitablefor other development were converted into parks. In later years there have been strongcommunity efforts to restore the natural environment, especially the remaining open spacesalong the creeks. This theme is linked with the theme, Appreciating and Defending theEnvironment.Providing for public recreationIn the land boom of the 1880s large areas of land were subdivided and offered for sale, withlittle attention paid to providing open space and parkland. By the early years of the twentiethcentury, Darebin was under-provided with open space particularly when compared withneighbouring municipalities. The situation was particularly critical in the built-up central partsof the Northcote municipality where Northcote Park was still the only public park in 1906. In79