Park Street Level Crossing

 

Park Street level crossing, Moonee Ponds, 2021.

In this followup article to Gatekeepers at the Park Street Crossing, Marilyn Kenny outlines just how difficult it was to get a staffed level crossing.   Without a railways staff member to open and close the gates, the gates remained closed to vehicular traffic.   

Lobbying from Council went on  for years before the Railways decided to build a Gatekeepers' Cottage at Park St and provide a gatekeeper to open and close the gates, the subject of the previous article.

Park Street, Moonee Ponds Gatekeeper's Cottage

 

Once upon a time you would often pass a gatekeeper's cottage or cabin at level crossings, but they have been largely swept away with the advent of boom gates, and even boom gates are disappearing these days. Marilyn Kenny has done a wonderful study on the Moonee Ponds Gatekeeper's Cottage, which disappeared 50 years ago, and what the work and conditions were like for these men and women who manned the gates. I can assure you they were not good conditions, and the pay was lousy, so if you have a relative who worked as a gatekeeper, this will be of considerable interest to you. It is followed up by a personal reminiscence from Rod Berry, who will tell you what it was like to grow up in a house two feet from a railway line. See the full story here:

Moonee Ponds Midwife - Mary Ann Scharness

Dominey's Hall, Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds, once the home 

of the Scharness family in 1893. Photo: M Kenny, 2017.

"A heavy knocking awoke Mary Anne Scharness.   It was the cold, early hours of a Saturday in late June 1919.  Although she may not have expected such a call it would not have been an unusual intrusion because Mrs Scharness was a midwife and used to responding to the midnight bell.   This wakeup call however was different.   On her doorstep was a distressed, confused, angry and embarrassed man.  He lived with his wife and children, five minutes’ walk from Nurse’s private hospital and they probably knew each other by sight.   Out tumbled a story that even Nurse Scharness with all her experience had not yet encountered.   His wife had woken him very ill at 2am and told him that she was about to become a mother.   His initial reaction was disbelief for he did not know she was pregnant.   When the reality sunk through he summoned a neighbor then went seeking professional help from the local midwife.   This might not seem a particularly unusual story however the husband in this case was a returned soldier who had disembarked in Melbourne only some four months before.   He had served overseas for three and a half years and during that time his wife had received his allotment of four shillings a day.   The family were just re-establishing itself and only the week before the birth had welcomed home the second of his brothers who had also been with the AIF.  The mother to be was brought to Nurse Scharness’ Lorne St hospital, local doctor Dr Newing  summoned and eventually a male infant born".

While women relied heavily on the service of their local midwives, following that profession was not without risk of prosecution and financial penalties.  As more and more regulation was placed on the midwives themselves and their private hospitals, more scrutiny was placed on their activities.   Not that the government should not have interested itself in the safety of expectant mothers, but sometimes the prosecutions around the Essendon district seemed to be more to do with malicious intent that the safety of mothers and babies.  It should be noted that at the same time obstetricians were not scrutinised to the same degree. 

Mary Ann Scharness fell foul of the law on more than one occasion, but she remained a Registered Midwife until her death in 1931, having commenced perhaps in the 1890s.

Marilyn Kenny has taken a detailed look at the regulation of midwives and their hospitals and the changing situation as the laws developed to try to protect infant lives from baby farmers, to ensure good standards of training and hygiene and so on.   If you have an interest in this subject, you will be rewarded by perusing Marilyn's story about the Moonee Ponds midwife, Mary Ann Scharness. 

William F Salmon and the Evolution of a Park

 

City of Essendon memorial walks and children's playgrounds. H. Y Frew, compiler. 1919.  State Library of Victoria Collection. Accession no: H2013.297/1-24

On 1 September 1918, mere weeks before the Armistice, William Frederick Salmon's only son, Percy Salmon, fell at the Front.  Two months later, Salmon offered to the Essendon Council 8 acres of parkland, planted and nurtured by himself over a period of years, as a memorial to "Essendon's brave soldiers".  The reserve became known as Salmon Reserve.  The Council took over the maintenance of the reserve, though it was a further 14 years before the land was transferred to the Mayor and Councillors of Essendon.  And when the land was transferred, it was four acres, not eight.   

Marilyn Kenny in her usual inimitable style, has had a detailed look at why the transfer took so long, and why the size of the land had shrunk to four acres.  

William Salmon came very close to succumbing to the last major pandemic in Australia - the influenza epidemic - and caused a local sensation by remarrying from what was tantamount to his deathbed.  He married Annie Laing Reid Sutherland, the sister of his doctor, Bertram Sutherland, with Salmon's three daughters and husbands strongly disapproving of this deathbed marriage.  They refused to attend the wedding. If you want to know the outcome of this strange affair, you can find more details on the Time Travellers website.   

Many Moonee Ponds Medicos

 

Dr Arnold Finks was one of the many General Practitioners who operated from the residence Ardconnell  in Mt Alexander Road.  In Dr Finks' time excitement was provided by football matches rather than rioting crowds seeking smallpox vaccinations.   In this third part of her story Marilyn Kenny rounds of the picture of a suburban practice.  See Many Moonee Ponds Medicos for the last part of the saga. 

Death or Disfigurement

The Ruby Princess was not the first vessel to arrive in Sydney and allow infectious passengers to 'walk the city'.  In 1913 a steam ship arrived with smallpox on board, and a failure in the quarantine system in Sydney caused citizens of Melbourne to become anxious about outbreaks in their city - and the available lymph for vaccination was being soaked up by New South Wales. A sudden panic caused Melbourne doctors' surgeries to be overrun by people anxious to be vaccinated. The mortality rate for smallpox was at least 70%, and it was rightly feared.

Marilyn Kenny continues the story of vaccination in Melbourne and Essendon in Death or Disfigurement.

The Race for a Vaccine

Ardconnell, the scene of a riot in 1913 involving crowds seeking a small-pox vaccine.

With her usual eye for a good story, Marilyn Kenny begins her account of the various doctors who lived and practised medicine at Ardconnell in Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds with  riot among crowds outside the house seeking a vaccine.  

The pracise of medicine, and the implementation of public health measures over a period of decades, from this house, is a surprisingly rivetting story, and you can read the first part of this epic at the Time Travellers website, with more to follow.  The details of the riot itself will appear in Part 2 of the story, yet to be posted.  If you want to be sure you see the second part, subscribe to this Blog.   

Poverty, Plague, Pestilence

The Larsen Family c 1901 posted by Ian Smyth on Ancestry Kenny Kith and Kin site

This respectable-looking family from Kensington were the centre of attention in a Bubonic Plague outbreak in 1900.  Marilyn Kenny turns her quizzical eye on the case, examining the actions of the Council, the Department of Health, and the quarantine station at Portsea. Also a guinea pig is mentioned.  For the full story, visit Poverty, Plague, Pestilence.

Dr Flanagan, Medical Health Officer - a career

Dr Flanagan is in this group of Moonee Valley Racing Club officials, fifth from the right in a light coloured hat. 

 While Patrick Flanagan's family mainly worked in the hotel industry, Patrick's interests took a different turn, and he studied Medicine at the University of Melbourne.  He was also a very active sportsman, and managed to combine those interests by not only managing a private practice and becoming Essendon's Medical Health Officer, but also by becoming Honorary Surgeon for a number of horse racing clubs, and was a keen and active rider in the Oaklands Hunt Club.

Marilyn Kenny has put together a detailed account of his life and interests which has many unexpected turns.  Have you heard of the Russian flu epidemic of 1890?  If not, you had better read on....

The Woodmen

I'll bet you thought you know everything you need to know about woodyards.  Well, Marilyn Kenny has proved all of us wrong, so the first Time Travellers excursion for 2020 will be a visit to local woodyards, starting at Essendon Station.  Don't trip on the steps.

Marilyn will tell us everything we ever wanted to know about "The Woodmen" - who they were, what they did, and how good they were at football.

Dr Thomson - A Name on a Certificate

Melbourne Medical School University of Melbourne. Archives Accession no: MHM00460

Taken in the courtyard of the Old Medical Building, c1880 with the students wearing academic

robes and mortar boards, and some are supporting human skeletons and skulls;

J R M Thompson is identified as seated in the middle of the front row.

John Rae Menzies Thomson was one of the first medical students at the University of Melbourne who did not go on to do further study overseas, being wholly trained in Australia.  He had many and varied professional and recreational interests, which Marilyn Kenny outlines in her article about Thomson.   

By 1889 "an advertisement in the Essendon Gazette announced that Dr J R Menzies Thomson, formerly Resident Medical Officer at the Melbourne Hospital had commenced practice at the Presbyterian Manse in Mt Alexander Road.  By 1890 the practice had moved to Rose St, Essendon, second in from the corner with Buckley.  In 1891 after Martha Thomson came to reside with the couple they moved to 2 Napier St, west side.  By 1900 they were living in St Ronan’s, Mount Alexander Road, next to St John’s".

 Read Marilyn Kenny's short biography of  Dr Thomson on the Time Travellers' website here. 
 

Boy on a Bike

This is Bob Kent, a telegram boy in Queenscliff in 1923.  We do not as yet have a photo of a telegram boy from the local area - yet. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection.

Marilyn Kenny has spun us a wonderful new story, called A Boy on a Bike, about telegram boys and postmistresses in Ascot Vale, Moonee Ponds and Essendon.  In this story you will learn about the Essendon Postmistress who rode to work sidesaddle on a Shetland pony; a telegram boy who was highly commended by a customer for delivering a telegram (on foot) within two and a half hours of receiving it at the Essendon Post Office; and ponder the identity of the mysterious Miss Young, postmistress at the Moonee Ponds Post Office.

Don't forget, you can sign up to receive an email alert when there is something new added to the Time Travellers blog and website - see the panel on the right of this page.

Judy Allen's "Gay Social Chatter"

Melbourne's ladies brush up their tiaras for a Royal Ball, 1954

Although Judy Allen wrote a social column for the Essendon Gazette for thirty-five years, from 1947 to 1983, the highlight of her reportage was the Royal Visit in 1954.  For the most part Judy described the major social events of the City of Essendon, and the comings and goings of the people and what they wore for the occasion.  She also made a signficant contribution to charity work in Melbourne and Essendon. 

Follow the link to read Marilyn Kenny's story of Ada Alice Ely, known professionally as Judy Allen, JP, MBE, who became a  local institution.

The Moonee Ponds Post Office

The new Moonee Ponds Post Office a few years after construction in 1906.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria. H89.105/158

In the 1916 Sands & McDougall Directory, Mrs Ethel May  Knowles ran the Confectionary and Tea Room next to the Post Office, and George Oswald Leighton Marrison was the chemist further west. These two business persons were residing in Puckle St next to the post office as early as 1909 in the Electoral Roll.

Marilyn Kenny has tracked down the incredible machinations behind the effort to get a suitable  post office for the district (ie, one that could accommodate more than two people at a time buying stamps).  Despite the will of the people to have the post office in Mount Alexander Road, which was then the main business thoroughfare, other business interests dragged out the proceedings.

Marilyn says

The matter of selecting a site for a Moonee Ponds Post and Telegraph office was in 1890 already an Ancient question having been on the agenda since 1882. However the issue still had another remarkable sixteen years to run, consuming the energy, interest and passion of the community. 

Read the whole story on the Time Travellers website.