Reproduced here with permission of the author, Kevin. This article first appeared in two parts of the “Nillumbik Custodian” newsletter of the Nillumbik Historical Society Inc. August and November 2008.
By the start of the 20th Century the big pastoral runs of first settlement in the Nillumbik area had become small holdings of farms and orchards and several townships. Many battlers on these small holdings and in townships often didn’t have two bob to rub together and had to earn an extra quid here and there to make ends meet.
Local native animals, including koalas, were fair game and their skins were processed in a small tannery that once stood on the corner of Osborne and Mt. Wise Roads, Christmas Hills. Sale of the skins helped to balance the budget but as the game numbers dropped the tannery closed.
Then the increasing numbers of rabbits started to erode land, dig crops and munch garden veggies. But, there was a predator after them: hungry battlers. Underground mutton was common fare for struggling families. As well as getting rid of a pest and providing food, rabbits also supplemented income when their sun dried skins were sold.
Skin companies like J. Kennon & Sons and Wm. Haughton & Co. advertised regularly for rabbits skins and the skins of those chook house villains, the foxes. Sometimes there was a bounty on foxes and their ears or scalps could also be cashed in. The companies accepted consignments of skins via rail to Spencer Street Station and sent out cheques on the day of arrival.
In those far off rabbiting days the little stinkers could be trapped, poisoned, gassed, shot or driven from their cosy burrows by needle toothed ferrets. In 1929 the Muller brothers of St Andrews put in a week’s work poisoning 1,000 rabbits around Glenburn. The skins were sun dried on wire loops and sold for much needed cash. When shooting rabbits it was necessary to shoot the eye so as not to damage the skin or carcass. Dogs could be trained to point out squatting rabbits in tussocks so their shiny black eye could be easily targeted.
Christmas Hills Tannery
The old Christmas Hills tannery used black wattle bark for tanning and it was another cash crop for local battlers. The tannery paid for 3 foot long bundles of bark. Closure of the old tannery by the 1920’s didn’t bother the local barkers that much because the three big tanneries at Preston also bought the wattle bark. The tanners used the bark to obtain liquid tannic acid. The bark was chipped to bruise it and make it easier to leach out the tannic acid when the chips were soaked in water. Hides were soaked in vats of tannin to be processed into high quality leather. This type of tanning is called vegetation tanning and is still used at the Ballarat Tannery today. The leached out bark chips were then used in public playgrounds, circus floors, riding schools and saddling paddocks at racecourses.
Housewives liked tea but didn’t like the tannin as it stained the insides of their cups, but blokes working outdoors who made billy tea said their tannin stained billies and mugs made the brew taste better. Besides being a refreshing drink cold tea could be a soothing relief when dabbed on sunburn. In the late 1920’s those battling Muller brothers were busy gathering wattle bark up Glenburn way while they stayed in their relatives bush hut. They trucked the bark to the Preston tanneries in a home made ute cut down from a T-Model Ford, a common bush practice in the days of tourer cars with their canvas tops and before the first factory built ute rolled out of Ford’s Geelong factory in 1934.
In 1917 Herbert Verso bought a property at Hurstbridge which included a plantation of Tasmanian Blue Wattle trees whose bark is ideal for tanning purposes. Herbert’s son, Allan, recalls his Dad stripping bark from mature trees in Springtime when the sap was rising. The Blue Wattle’s thick, juicy bark was rich in tannin and always pleased the tanners. Stripping killed the tree but the trunks were good firewood. Herbert trucked bark to the Preston tanneries on his 4 wheel horse lorry but in the mid 1930’s cut down a Dodge tourer into a bush ute to carry the bark.
Another way of earning a bob or two was to save kitchen fat and fat trimmings from butchered stock. Melted down and sealed in small drums this tallow could be consigned to Kennon’s or Haughton’s at Spencer Street Station. Some farms also saved the tallow to make their own soap by mixing in the white ash from burnt Black Wattle. To top off the mixture a bit of much needed scent like lavender oil was added.
Some battling families, even on residential lots, milked a cow to provide milk and butter for home consumption and sometimes sales to neighbours to bring in a deener or two.
Roadside stalls, on weekends brought in a few quid selling home grown produce, our area ‘ s rural landscapes attracted many visitors out for the day and in Springtime the sight and perfume of the wattle and flowering orchards was a delight to city dwellers.
In September 1912, the recently opened railway delivered 989 visitors to Hurstbridge to celebrate Wattle Day and buy local produce. Unfortunately, some larrikins thought orchard fruit was free. These were the days when households had a last for dads to resole worn shoes and tack metal on heel and toe plates and mums sat up at night darning spuds in socks.
In 1926 a bushfire swept through the Mluller’s property missing the house but destroying the cool store and burning some of their big trees. The battling Muller brothers were soon on the go salvaging burnt trees, cutting the trunks into lengths and dragging them back to the farm with the tractor. Using their large circular saw, bark and charcoal was trimmed off, the logs squared up and cut into thin planks. The damaged wood was then recycled into fruit boxes saving the orchard a few quid in costs.
From the time of the Smiths Gully gold rush of 1854 the Nillumbik area has been an ongoing gold producer. One Tree Hill at Christmas Hills, has been the nearest area to Melbourne where surface nuggets were found and maybe it still is if the current pock marks from detectors around the hill is any guide.
The Muller brothers father had a mine tunnel on One Tree Hill but daughter Mabel doesn ‘t ever remember her dad plonking bags of gold on the kitchen table to help Mrs Muller’s housekeeping budget. Like any gold area many locals like the Mullers, lived in hope of finding elusive reefs or alluvial deposits to earn that extra quid. To assist the many small claim battlers and prospectors in our area the Government erected the Smiths Gully steam powered battery in 1912. This was an important local event and the grand opening was kicked off with a humdinger of a party for the big mob of onlookers.
By 1936 there were 34 state batteries operating in Victoria. Parcels of ore could be crushed for six shillings per ton or 22 cubic feet. Battlers concessions were allowed for small yields and long distance cartage.
A public battery also operated in Warrandyte on the Yarra bank and was powered by a water wheel. It was a standard battery with a mixture of crushed ore and water flowing over a very flat and smooth copper plate coated with mercury to trap the gold particles. One dark, and maybe stormy night in the 1920’s a person or persons unknown knocked off a valuable new copper plate ready for installation on the battery.
The tea leafs were never caught and they got away with an easy few quid. Locals also earned that extra quid by working as navvies on projects in the area such as the Maroondah Aqueduct in 1891.
Ex miners worked on the aqueduct tunnel below Yan Yean Road where the tunnel portal can be seen behind the mowing machine outlet on Yan Yean Road. The Hurstbridge railway in 1912, the Monash Bridge at Hurstbridge in 1917 and the duplication of the Maroondah siphon over the Plenty River in 1927 were all battlers pick and shovel jobs. Many refer to the past as “The Good Old Days” but for battlers in Nillumbik it was “The Tough Old Days”.
