Dandenong Market, Clow Street, Dandenong, 1930

This view looking across Lonsdale street to the new Produce Market after it's move to the present site. Before the relocation the Produce Market was held on Lonsdale Street besides the old Stock Market.

Eventually the market grew too big and was extended onto the street itself, after many years of this a site was selected on Cleeland Street. The Stock Market would later be moved behind the train station on Cheltenham road until it was ultimately closed in favour of country Stock Markets.

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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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Butter Factory, 25 Stud Road, Dandenong, 1930s.

Located between Herbert and King Streets, the old Butter Factory moved to this location by 1922. A new building was erected in 1932. The butter factory closed around 1977, after which it stood for many years before finally being demolished. 

Discussion about building a Butter factory first started in 1895 at a number of public and council meetings. The location/building chosen for the original factory was in Walker street, later the factory was move to an old structure, having been built in the 1870s, at the Stud Road location. (we couldn't find trace of it's original purpose.) The original Butter Factory ceased operations in 1907.

The new Butter factory opened in 1912 near the intersection of Pickett Street and Railway Parade, operating from this site for a number of years, by 1922 they were at the Stud Road site pictured.

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We found the following in a copy of The Dandenong Journal for Sun 3 Jul 1932:
Industrial architecture of unusual design is applied to the new Dandenong butter factory (writes the “Herald.”) The new structure will occupy the site of the.old butter factory, which is one of Dandenong’s pioneer buildings, having been erected in the 1870’s. The area is 13,000 square feet, and the main factory covers about 3000 square feet. It is picturesquely situated behind the tree lined drive from Stud road. Yellow brickwork and struck jade green joints will provide a fresh color scheme.

The cream receiving room, testing room, can washing and drying rooms open off the main factory and are served with a side driveway for vehicles., The building is being floored throughout with steel-reinforced concrete covered with specially hard burnt tile paving graded to open concrete channels on either side. The walls are wainscotted inside with glazed tiles up to 7ft. high, and are continued to the ceiling height in yellow struck brickwork.

A mazanine floor is provided over a set of offices, print room and cool rooms. Cool room insulation is being carried out in a 4-inch cement surfaced cork-board for the doors, 2-inch cement reinforced corkboard for the walls and arctic packing over fibro cement sheeting for the ceilings. The coolrooms are separately insulated, allowing for either room to be used or the two at peak periods. The mezzanine floor is to accommodate butter boxes which are received from outside the building, through a front overhead doorway, and as required are lowered into the inside main factory, filled and conveyed with a minimum of handling to the cool rooms under the mezanine floor.

The main ceiling, which is surmounted by lantern louvres running longitudinally from the front to the rear of the buildings to provide permanent outlet ventilation, is finished with damp-proof, tinted cement sheeting. The roof is covered with a special composition to provide the maximum insulation of coolness in summer. Broad roof over-hangs are provided, externally, and the fenestration and general architectural treatment are suited in detail to the special functioning of a modern butter factory.

The architect for the work is Mr. I. G. Anderson; A.I.A.A. (Lond.), of 20 Queen street, Melbourne.

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Parcels Office/Department, Dandenong Station, 1978-79

In time past, the parcels office was the main point for parcels coming in and out of Dandenong. A lot of cargo travelled through these offices in the early days, one existing on almost all stations. Before the railways the tedious journey was performed by horse and cart. With the building of railways to connect and move people, there also came an easy way to move large amounts of parcels to the outer towns.

Do you remember the Parcels Office/Department?

Many people worked in the parcels office at Dandenong, from the early days of just one Porter handling all the incoming and outgoing, till near the end when cutbacks started to bite as trucks and couriers finally took control.

Photo supplied by Silvia Mete McMahon
https://www.facebook.com/silvana.mcmahon.5

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Aerial View, Dandenong, late 1920s/early 1930s.

This early view, from sometime after 1915, shows how much smaller Dandenong was over 100 years ago. Looking from below the railway line towards the town centre. What landmarks can you recognise? 

-Below is an excerpt from Reminiscences of Early Dandenong by G.F.R., 1932.

Who named the town? The honour is generally ascribed to Captain Lonsdale, who, in an official report on the district, in 1837, spelt the name “Dan-y-nong.” The original surveyors spelt it “Tangenong” when they made the first survey in the 1840’s. Captain Lonsdale wrote that it was always most difficult to catch the sound of native names as spoken by aborigines, who rapidly ran over “d” and “t,” making it difficult to catch either consonant, but he thought that “Dandenong” sounded, more euphonious, so there we have it. The native name was, as nearly “Dandenong” as the authorities could make it, so the name was bestowed upon the creek, district and township.

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New World (Coles) Supermarket, Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, early 1960s

The store was built where the present store stands between the Princes Highway and Cleeland Street, Opposite the Dandenong Market. When first built the Dandenong Store included the iconic rocket and glass panels along the highway side wall, featuring pictures of old Dandenong

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Dandenong Lions Club Recipe Book from 1971 or 1972

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