Lonsdale Street, Dandenong in 1915.

Tony Cosentino Notes:

Lonsdale Street, Dandenong in 1915

In this view towards the west side of the street a few of the businesses grace the country town which Dandenong was at the time, with around 2000 residents, the community was close knit.

O.D. Notes:

The first 2 floor building on the right is the old Caffin and Caffin store, the two floor building on the left of it, was home to R. A. Titcher, he operated his pharmacy on the ground floor for about 40 years, living on the top floor with his family. On the left of this, single level building, with the two point tips, was the H. S. M. Ross news agency, in the old Melbe House building. This would pass through various operators, before eventually becoming Ewarts, and moving down next to Vanity Court.

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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, between 1912 and 1928.

There was no date for this photo, but the landmarks do suggest it as late 1800s to early 1900s. The hall was built in 1890, and the cenotaph, which is missing, was originally unveiled in 1928. The grandstand in the background to the left of the hall was erected in the showgrounds in 1912. So, we can narrow it down to between 1912 and 1928.

Christopher Simmins notes:

Possible Empire Day 1913...as can't see any sign of 1st AIF uniforms. WW1 soldiers' uniforms featured in all parades during and after the war. The overhead wires are telegraph (morse) not for the town power supply, (the Gutta Percha power Co) would come later. Vehicle looks to be the famous CRB Itala of Chaiman William Calder. BTW car was called 'Prudence'.

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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, in 1913

Tony Cosentino writes:

Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, in 1913

This picture was taken during the early days of VicRoads, then known as the C.R.B., the exact location IS UNCERTAIN BUT it was possibly close to the Scott Street (EDIT: It is Scott Street.) intersection, as the Town Hall clock tower can be seen in the rear left behind the trees.

The man on the side of the street, with the white beard, hat and coat, is John Hemmings, a well-known local identity of the time.

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275-283 Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, 1915.

This charming view of the simple shops covering this section of Lonsdale Street dates from 110 years ago. It's hard to believe it once looked like this.

The large building to the left (partly in the photo), would be replace with the former Coles Stores building, presently home to Chemist Warehouse. These shops were almost opposite the end of Langhorne Street.

Outside the Caffin & Caffin shop, to the right of the first image, 1915.

Partially in the right of this picture is the building used by Mr. Robert Andrews Titcher, this was the original Titchers chemist. Robert did business from this building for about 46 years, before passing away in May 1928.

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Walker Street, Dandenong, 1910s.

Looking N.E. from the Town Hall, with Walker Street running up the right-hand side, Langhorne Street across the bottom, and McCrae Street across the middle.

Image curtesy of PROV.

If you look closely you can see Clow street running across the top. E. Ordish was in control of the Timber Yards on Langhorne Street at this time.

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Dandenong Fire Station, 1910.

Located on the triangle of land bounded by Mason, Walker and Robinson Streets.

Photo credit to Keith Pakenham.

The present-day location of the Walker Street Gallery has a long history with the local Fire Station. This building was moved in the 1930's to Bangholme, to make way for the new/present building, and became the Bangholme Memorial Hall and is still there and being used for Dances, the last I knew/checked on it.

This building was replaced with the present building around 1930, sadly the present building has had many modifications leaving it almost unrecognizable. The Dandenong Fire Station moved to bigger premises at 120 Princes Hwy in 1986, and they move again in 2021, further up the highway into bigger premises.

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Pultney Street, Dandenong, 1916 Floods.

Below is an except from the " South Bourke and Mornington Journal, Thu 28 Sep 1916, Page 2"

On Thursday night, 21st inst., rain commenced to fall, and there was every indication of a heavy downpour, and, unfortunate to relate, the outcome was the heaviest flood experienced for upwards of twenty years. All parts of the State have been similarly affected, the amount of damage is almost beyond calculation, and to this must be added the many sad fatalities which have been recorded at different centres.

At Dandenong the rain was almost continuous until Saturday night, and by that time the creek had overrun its banks, and at Carrum a washaway occurred, in consequence of which many of the residents will suffer severe loss. The "straight cuts" made some time ago near the Dandenong creek certainly enabled the flood waters to get away from beyond the railway embankment, although it did not tend to improve matters in the Carrum area.

On Sunday the Main road, from the blue stone bridge, almost to the Cranbourne road junction, was under water, in places up to five feet, and quite a crowd of people went to view the scene. The low lying portion of Gordon Park and the Grange Estate (near Kidd's bridge) were inundated to a great extent, whilst at McLeod road, in the South riding, there is said to have been a depth of 10 feet of water.

The ti-tree flat on the Cranbourne road was a vast expanse of water, and one of the bridges nearby on the Main road was damaged, and had to be hastily attended to by the Cranbourne shire daymen late on Saturday night and on Sunday. On Monday morning the water had practically cleared from the Main road, and from then on the rainfall moderated somewhat.

Up till 6 o'clock on Saturday 5 inches 23 points were registered at Dandenong, and at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. the total had reached 6 inches 59 points.

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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, 1913

Looking towards the Town Hall (behind the tree) from just after Clow street. The photo is titled "Market Day - 26/8/13". Look at the size of that crowd. At this time the market was still located on Lonsdale street, from the Clow street intersection, to about where the tree is. The stock was penned in an open section on the corner of Lonsdale and Clow. Tuesday was Market Day.

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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, 1910-2016

Looking from Foster street towards the town hall, it's not surprising to see a lot of changes have happened over the 106 years between these photos, but some still remain.

The Bridge Hotel, with it's small upstairs balcony, still remains, although drastically modified, now operating as the Jim Dandy. The town hall facade also still remains, although the clock wasn't installed until 1934.

It is interesting to note that even with all the redesigning of Lonsdale street over the decades, the basic dimensions of the service road next to the shops remains similar.

This image is courtesy of: PAST 2 PRESENT
https://www.flickr.com/people/past2present/

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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, late 1910s

In the background you can see Crumps General Store. In 1913, Frank Facey purchased the well know Coach business started by John Hemmings, in Pultney street, but by 1917 he had started his real estate business in the shop to the left of Crumps store on Lonsdale street. In 1956, with his son Angus now in charge, Facey Real Estate moved into their new premises further up Lonsdale street, at number 254, where they now trade as First National.

John Crump opened the Crump General Store in 1904 and sold everything from groceries, crockery, linen and hardware to stock feed and farm supplies. Although the prominent Dandenong business’s store front was in Lonsdale Street, the lane was a bustling hub of activity where goods were loaded and unloaded at the rear of the store.

Customers would come up the laneway and park their horse and buggy in stables. The lane accommodated many businesses, including one of the early coach-building businesses and the mortuary of J.W. Garnar’s undertakers.

Crump’s delivered grocery orders around the district via a horse-drawn lorry and when customers unpacked their box there would always be a free paper cornet filled with boiled lollies.
Right on the corner of Walker and Langhorne streets was the slip rail to the farrier’s shop and forge, and in the other end of the Langhorne Street frontage was the blacksmith’s forge and wheelwright’s shop.

Young children could be seen standing at the slip rail to watch in fascination as the farrier forged the shoes and shod the horses.
Crump’s prided itself on being the ‘popular store’ with exceptional quality of goods. After John Crump’s death, his son Albert Crump operated the store with the help of wife Hazel. In those days there was no cash register and no refrigeration – butter and other perishables were stored in a cellar.

A large billboard once adorned the wall at the entrance to Crump Lane – it advertised films at the local Boomerang Theatre and notified people of events taking place at the Dandenong Town Hall opposite. The site occupied by the Crump General Store later became the McEwans hardware store.

Infomation courtesy of Dandenong and District Historical Society
http://www.ddhs.com.au/

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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, 1910.

Looking from near the Foster street intersection towards Walker street and beyond. Long before the clock face was added to the Town Hall. The Bridge Hotel (more recently the Jim Dandy) can be seen on the left.This is before the commonly remembered palm trees had even been though of.

The clock face wouldn't be added to the Town Hall until the 1930s, and Crumps General Stor was still located in its small wooden building. Crumps would later be bought by McEwans, with new buildings being built on the site. Presently Best Way occupies this site, continuing the tradition set by Crump a long time ago, providing a shopping destination on the main street.

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Dandenong Contingent of 1915

Nurses were often the unsung heroes of the Gallipoli campaign. Behind the front lines they patched up wounded soldiers and comforted men who were destined to die of their wounds and never to return to loved ones in Australia. More than 3000 Australian civilian nurses volunteered for active service during World War I. One was Milicent Miller.

In July 1915 the Journal reported on a letter Miss Miller sent to friends in Dandenong from the Australian military hospital at Heliopolis, Cairo. The grand Heliopolis Palace Hotel, built in 1910, was used to treat evacuated soliders. Famous pictures of it show a sea of hospital tents erected in the grounds of the hotel.

According to Miss Miller, the hospital had space for 1000 beds which made it a huge medical facility for its time. “Our brave Australian lads are conveyed to hospital after having acquitted themselves in such a glorious manner at Gallipoli in upholding the prestige of the British Empire,“ stated the Journal.

“Fighting against the best soldiers in the world and beating them too.
“Their deeds of heroism and dash in attack must make Australians feel proud of their countrymen in arms at war."

From Nurse Miller’s letter an idea can be formed of the magnitude of the task so cheerfully carried out by the surgeons, nurses, stretcher bearers and all engaged in attending to the wounded men who have been in the firing line. “It is good to read also of the brave manner in which the Australian soldier conducts himself when sticken with his battle wounds.“

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Lonsdale Street, between Walker and Scott Streets. Photo dated 1912.

At this time Dandenong was still a small country town with a population of around 2000 residents. In the previous year Dandenong House had been built near the train station, boasting some 40 rooms, a dining room, ground floor tea rooms and an underground kitchen.

The Dandy Bacon Factory had also opened in 1911 bringing more business to Dandenong. Dandenong by this time had also had its own telephone exchange since 1908 with numerous local subscribers. Around this time the Mechanics Institute and local library were on the second floor of the Town Hall.

The Dandenong Market was also at this time still on the main street. The Albion at this time still had its majestic verandahs, The Bridge Hotel (the Jim Dandy), was at the opposite end of Lonsdale Street near Foster Street. The Turn Pike by this time was in place allowing the steam engines to either be turned around to return to Melbourne or be stored overnight.

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Savings Bank, 217 Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, in 1912

By the 1890s, an extensive row of shops, many of them two storey and of brick, lined Melbourne Road (in the area now known as Lonsdale Street). One of the most elaborate was Caffin and Caffin’s Dandenong Cash Store, built in 1893.

In a photo taken about fifty years later, in 1945, the roof line and general appearance of the line of shops hardly seems to have changed. The main visible change is the number of motor vehicles parked in the street and the increased number of shops and businesses.

A few surviving buildings, such as the Cosy Corner Café, with corner tower and cupola (former Arkana buiding), are a reminder of the Dandenong shopping precinct as it was in the early years of the 20th century. By 1939, chain stores such as Williams the Shoeman and Crofts had arrived.

By 1950, more chain stores such as Woolworths and Moran and Cato were here, and even an American Hamburger Bar. There were some shops in Foster Street and a few in Langhorne Street, at the town hall end. Within the next thirty-five years, drastic changes occurred and the whole character of the shopping precinct altered dramatically.

In 1962, a visiting journalist noted ‘the brashly modern shops of glass and steel with spruikers shouting into microphones to lure customers in. He commented, "The influence of migrant ways and tastes is evident in the Dandenong shops, in the exotically named foods on display, in sharp-toed shoes and the expresso machines in milk bars".

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Dandenong House Hotel, 50 Foster Street, Dandenong, 1911/1912

One notable historical inclusion to Dandenongs history came in 1911 when the Dandenong House, a majestic 40 room guest house with dining room, ground floor tea rooms and an underground kitchen, first opened on Foster Street near the station. The growing need for over night accommodation became obvious with the population swell brought on by market day.

James Fenton Andrews built on this site, incorrectly believing that the new cattle market would be directly across Foster Street, a large section on the corner of Foster, Thomas & Mason Streets, was earmarked as a Cattle yard reserve and this was incorrectly tipped to be the site of the new cattle market. It often housed livestock overnight, that arrived by rail, on its way to market the following morning. This section also remained relatively undeveloped along with the portion up to Walker St that together, became the site of the earliest Dandenong Agricultural Show grounds from 1872.

Unfortunately the building was destroyed by a fire in 1977. A portion of the land, now part of the station car park, at the rear of this property was sold in 1907 to enable the railways to dig a large trench and create a turn pike for railway engines to be turned around to point back toward Melbourne, They also included sheds to store the engines overnight. The turntable would later be replaced by the Southern Aurora hotel which would be replaced by the station carpark.

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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong in 1915

In this view towards the west side of the street a few of the businesses, some now lost even to memories, still grace the country town which Dandenong was at the time, with around 2000 residents, the community was close knit.

In this view can been seen Caffin & Caffin, the old Cash Store, the traditional tobacconist, one of the earliest newsagents and the now forgotten grain store.

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Opening of Noble Park Primary School 1911

With ¼ acre block subdivisions by Frank Buckley in the Noble Park area that began in 1909 and the establishment of market gardens, a rural population developed, this in turn saw the need for a school to be established to cater to the children within the area.
So it came to be that in January of 1911, the Head Teacher, Olga Ernst, began teaching local students in the public hall. By the following year when the new Head Teacher, E. Beguin began teaching, enrollments had already risen to 50. By 1917 enrollments had risen to 100, so Frank Buckley donated ground where the Education Department built a two room school in the same year. By 1926 when there were 300 students recorded, three more rooms were added to the site.
With the combination of industry growth in Dandenong, the migration influx of post war years and the general availability of cheap land in the Noble Park area, student numbers rose even higher. So, in 1951 the Department of Education provided a second Bristol unit to the school. The Department then decided to purchase a three acre block further along Buckley Street where it then established what was known as the infant school.
By 1965 despite the opening of the new Southvale Primary School which relieved Noble Park of 250 students, along with Heatherhill Primary, Harrisfield Primary and Yarraman Park Primary, Noble Park was still recording a student attendance of 750 in 1969. 
The Noble Park P.S continued to operate as a split school until 1978. It was in that same year under the then Principal, Mr J. C. Campbell, that the original site was finally vacated altogether as senior students were all moved to the junior school as it had been extended to accommodate all of the students, this is where the school is currently located today

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Laurel Lodge, 51 Langhorne Street, Dandenong, in 1910.

Back when the tree's were still small.

Laurel Lodge is one of the few physical reminders of Dandenong in the nineteenth century. Built around 1869, it is one of the region's oldest buildings.

Laurel Lodge derives considerable local and regional significance from its association with its past owners, who were prominent citizens of the district, and have made important public contributions. These include: Early Dandenong pioneer Mrs Janet Bowman, Colonial architect Robert Huckson, District doctor Henry Ogle Moore, Flamboyant stock and station agent and auctioneer Joseph Clarke and Robert Woodcock the Secretary and Engineer of Dandenong Shire.

Laurel Lodge was also the site of an elite ladies private school between 1869 and 1884. Headed by Miss Matilda Shaw it was "one of the leading boarding schools in the colony", She later moved her school up the road to what became Merlin Private Hospital.

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Lonsdale Street between Scott and Walker streets, 1912

Lonsdale Street between Scott and Walker streets, 1912

Image courtesy of State Library Victoria


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Lonsdale Street, Dandenong in 1910

View of Lonsdale Street, Dandenong in 1910, is looking from the Foster Street end towards the Town Hall.

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