Avalon is an aeronautical establishment 55 km.south-west of Melbourne between the Princes Freeway and Corio Bay. The nearest town is Lara, 4 km. to the west.
An early owner of large land acreages in theAvalon area was James Austin, the person responsible for successfully acclimatisingthe European rabbit at another of his family properties, Barwon Park, Winchelsea. Austin returned to England in 1859, where be bought the historic ruins ofGlastonbury Abbey. His nephews managed the property at Avalon, and the Avalon homestead (at the end of Avalon Road, east of Limeburners Bay) is recorded as exisiting in 1870. The name derived from the Isle of Avalon, the site of the abbey, the first Christian church in England and burial place ofArthur of the Round Table.
Austin’s nephews served on the Corio shire council and rebuilt Avalonhomestead after it was destroyed by fire in 1880. The property was usedby the Geelong District Coursing Club, used for breeding stud sheep and Arab ponies, and later stud cattle. Part of the property was sold for closer settlement farms in 1910, and a primary school operated from 1911 to 1950.
In 1949 much of the Avalon property was sold to the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation for a jet test field and assembly plant. In 1960 the homestead and grounds were given to the Brotherhood of St. Laurence as a haven for temporary residents.
In 1951 the Cheetham Salt Works opened a harvesting area west of theairport.
In 1992 Aerospace Technologies of Australian Ltd. (ASTA), wholly owned by the Commonwealth Government, assumed responsibility for Avalon airport(1,750 ha.). It ran the first Australian Airshow and Aerospace Expo at Avalon.
Almost 1,100 persons are employed at Avalon in activities concerned withdefence manufacturing and testing, the airport, and maintenance of commercialaircraft. There are plans for use of the airport for the export of freshfood. Avalon is also well located for access to the ports at Melbourne and Geelong.
Avalon Homestead has become a conference centre.
Avalon is an aeronautical establishment 55 km.south-west of Melbourne between the Princes Freeway and Corio Bay. The nearest town is Lara, 4 km. to the west.
An early owner of large land acreages in the Avalon area was James Austin, the person responsible for successfully acclimatising the European rabbit at another of his family properties, Barwon Park, Winchelsea. Austin returned to England in 1859, where be bought the historic ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. His nephews managed the property at Avalon, and the Avalon homestead (at the end of Avalon Road, east of Limeburners Bay) is recorded as existing in 1870. The name derived from the Isle of Avalon, the site of the abbey, the first Christian church in England and burial place of Arthur of the Round Table.
Austin’s nephews served on the Corio shire council and rebuilt Avalon homestead after it was destroyed by fire in 1880. The property was used by the Geelong District Coursing Club, used for breeding stud sheep and Arab ponies, and later stud cattle. Part of the property was sold for closer settlement farms in 1910, and a primary school operated from 1911 to 1950.
In 1949 much of the Avalon property was sold to the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation for a jet test field and assembly plant. In 1960 the homestead and grounds were given to the Brotherhood of St. Laurence as a haven for temporary residents.
In 1951 the Cheetham Salt Works opened a harvesting area west of the airport.
In 1992 Aerospace Technologies of Australian Ltd. (ASTA), wholly owned by the Commonwealth Government, assumed responsibility for Avalon airport(1,750 ha.). It ran the first Australian Airshow and Aerospace Expo at Avalon.
Almost 1,100 persons are employed at Avalon in activities concerned with defence manufacturing and testing, the airport, and maintenance of commercial aircraft. There are plans for use of the airport for the export of fresh food. Avalon is also well located for access to the ports at Melbourne and Geelong.
Geelong West is a residential suburb immediately adjoining Geelong on Corio Bay, which is on the western side of Port Phillip Bay. Between 29 May, 1875, and 18 May, 1993, Geelong West was also a municipality, which included Herne Hill and Manifold Heights.
In 1839 blocks of land of about 10 ha. were sold by the Government in Geelong West between Pakington Street and Shannon Avenue, northwards from the Barwon River to Church Street. Smaller blocks of about 0.6 ha. were sold two years later. Within a year a contemporary almanac referred to the Ashby Village.
The reason for releasing the land was probably the high speculative prices being paid for land in Geelong central. Between 1843 and 1846 the empty land between Geelong and Geelong West, i.e. between Pakington Street and Latrobe Terrace (later the municipal boundary), was sold as suburban allotments. An area south of Ashby became known as Little Scotland, although in the 1857 census it did not have a particularly high population of residents with a Scotch or Presbyterian religious affiliation.
There was also a Kildare Village east of Shannon Avenue and north of Ashby, and census data does not reveal a particularly large Irish population despite the village’s Irish name.
The churches opened several schools: Anglican at Kildare (1851); Presbyterian at Ashby (1852); Catholic at Ashby (1853) and Kildare (1855); and Methodist at Ashby (1855). None lasted much beyond 1874 when the Ashby Public School – later Geelong West primary – was opened.
The Geelong railway station (1857) was in Ashby and the Geelong Gas Works (1858) were in Kildare.
During the mid 1850s there was local agitation for municipal separation from the Geelong town council. Twenty years of effort were rewarded on 29 May, 1875, when the Geelong West borough was proclaimed. Its western and eastern boundaries were McCurdy Road and La Trobe Terrace respectively, and the northern and southern boundaries more or less Church Street and Aberdeen Street.
Several industries were established in Geelong West, the largest being Donaghy’s Rope Works (1873) in Pakington Street. The Newberry foundry (1886) in Lupton Street was a source of both local employment and cast-iron building materials used for the many timber houses to be found in Geelong West.
Shopping in Geelong West had begun in Pakington Street in the 1850s, and it became the main shopping strip in Geelong West. It was served by a tram line (1912). Other tram lines ran along Church Street and Latrobe Terrace, confined to the eastern side of the municipality. This left nearly two-thirds of the municipality to be served by buses which came in 1926 with Benders Busways.
Commercial and industrial buildings in Geelong West are sometimes two-storeyed and made of brick, but the vast majority of houses are single-storey timber structures, varying from cottages, double-fronted Edwardian or Federation style and through to Californian bungalow.
In 1924, two years after Geelong West became a town, the Victorian Municipal Directory described it as –
Geelong West was proclaimed a city on 17 April, 1929.
After the 1939-45 war the timber houses fell in popularity as families preferred newer, brick residences. Some cottages were knocked over for car-parking space. Not until the 1980s were the timber houses seen as desirable, from the points of view of price and restoration.
Pakington Street remains the civic and commercial centre with Baptist, Uniting and Presbyterian churches, the former Geelong West town hall (rebuilt 1923), library, nearby Ashby and St. Patricks Catholic primary schools and a long shopping strip with off-street parking. One of Victoria’s oldest buildings, the former Harp Inn, is at 22 Pakington Street. Shannon Avenue has a smaller shopping area, but with a large supermarket. Geelong West has four reserves (three with ovals), and there are more reserves in the former municipality’s suburbs of Herne Hill and Manifold Heights. The technical school (1954), later Western Heights secondary college, is in Herne Hill.
A small bayside suburb of Drumcondra, in the former municipality’s north-east, had part of Corio Bay’s Explanade foreshore park. The Drumcondra Estate subdivision was released during 1910-20, and contains Luran House (1849-50), of a Georgian design by an early Port Phillip architect and surveyor, Charles Laing. It is on the Victorian Heritage register.
Geelong West’s median house price in 1987 was $52,750 and in 1996 it was $78,000. (House prices in Herne Hill and Manifold Heights showed a stronger improvement over the period.)
On 18 May, 1992, Geelong West city became part of Greater Geelong city.
The name continues, however, as a suburb and as a football club. Geelong West Football Club won its first premiership in 1881, moving through the Geelong District, Ballarat District and Victorian Football Association competitions. Its home ground is the West Oval, incidentally home for Geelong cycling and gold-medal Olympian Russell Mockridge (1928-58).
Geelong West’s municipal census populations were 4,845 (1881), 5,871 (1901), 9,641 (1921), 15,763 (1947), 17,538 (1966) and 13,448 (1991).
Further Reading:
Cahir, Anne, “The Bay, Barwon and Beyond: Heritage Places of Geelong, Heritage Council”, Victoria, 1997.
Seaton, Gladys, “The Ashby Story, A History of Geelong West, Geelong” West City Council, 1978.
“Timber Houses in Geelong West”, Geelong Regional Commission, c.1986.
Geelong, Victoria’s largest provincial urban region, is 65 km. from central Melbourne across the Port Phillip and Corio Bays. It is on the Princes Highway between Melbourne and Victoria’s Western District.
Hume and Hovell, explorers, recorded the Aboriginal word “jillong” in 1824, thought to mean land or cliffs, when they came to Corio Bay. The name “Geelong” was derived from the Aboriginal word, and was given to the area by Governor Bourke in 1837 when he visited Port Phillip and also formerly named Melbourne and Williamstown.
In June, 1835, John Batman crossed Bass Strait from Tasmania and claimed treaty lands from local Aborigines. The western boundary of Batman’s treaty land included Geelong.
Seventeen months later two of Geelong’s earliest settlers, John Cowie and David Stead, came from Tasmania to the Geelong district to depasture sheep. The Manifold brothers landed sheep at Point Henry two months later. Early in 1837 a pioneer Geelong citizen, Dr. Alexander Thomson, settled at the future Geelong suburb, Belmont, and established his Kardinia estate overlooking the Barwon River.
In 1838 the shipping activities caused a customs house to be erected. It has survived as probably Victoria’s oldest building – a round portable structure – and is in the Geelong Botanic Gardens. A town survey was made and land sales were conducted in February, 1839. The Woolpack Inn (later Mack’s) was opened in 1839 and the “Geelong Advertiser” began publication the following year. St. John’s Presbyterian church was opened in 1841. The sandbar blocking access past Point Henry was successfully passed over, and cargo movements were henceforth shared between Point Henry ad the Geelong waterfront.
During the late 1840s churches and schools were established and local industries such as flour mills, tallow works and vineyards were established. The Geelong town council was incorporated in October, 1849.
In the year before the gold discoveries at Ballarat and Bendigo the first Bright and Hitchcock’s store was opened. (It became a Geelong landmark until acquired by the Foy and Gibson’s chain in 1959.) The opening of the goldfields greatly increased Geelong’s maritime activity, not least because the inland route to Ballarat was flatter than the one from Melbourne over the Dividing Range. Outwards traffic also increased with wool from the Western District pastoral properties. The rapid growth also brought Geelong’s second major retailer, Morris Jacobs, whose store was also a landmark until acquired by Myer Melbourne in 1950. Geelong’s population went from 8,000 in 1851 to 22,000 in 1853. It thereupon stabilised, not reaching 30,000 for another sixty years.
During the late 1850s some of Geelong’s notable institutions and buildings were created: Geelong Grammar School and Geelong National Grammar School (later the Matthew Flinders Girls’ Grammar) in 1858, the Town Hall, Market Square, the mechanics’ institute, and the railway connection to Melbourne was opened. In the municipal sphere Geelong’s future was curtailed like Melbourne’s, with the creation of closely adjacent road districts and suburban councils – South Barwon and Bellarine/Indented Head roads districts, Newtown borough (1858) and Geelong West borough (1875). The resulting patchwork became the obvious first candidate for municipal reform in 1993.
In 1860 the Geelong football club won its first local premiership. The year after, one of the club’s notable players, Charles Brownlow, was born. His first year as a player was 1879, and he captained the team in 1884 and coached it from 1892 to 1917. He is commemorated with the Brownlow Medal for the competition’s best and fairest player. Geelong played a pivotal role in the growth of football, and was called the Pivotonians until the 1950s when the name was replaced by the Cats. (The Pivotonians came from Geelong’s rail and port role as a pivot for Western District Commerce.)
Geelong’s third notable educational institution, Geelong College, began in 1861. It was headmastered by the father of George (Chinese) Morrison.
During the late 1860s and the 1870s woollen mills, a meat preserving works and a brick and tile company were opened. The Barwon Paper Mill was opened near Fyansford in 1878, which was also the year when serious infestations of phylloxera were reported in the Geelong district’s extensive vineyards.
The Geelong mechanic’s institute fostered a technological school in 1869, which evolved to become the Gordon Technical College (1887) as a memorial to General Gordon of Khartoum. Extension of curricula led to it becoming the Gordon Institute of Technology (1921) and expansion to a campus at Waurn Ponds (1971), later Deakin University.
In 1894 a better seafaring lane across the sandbar was created with the Hopetoun Channel. Just before the formation of a harbour trust for the Geelong port, The Australian Handbook (1903) described Geelong –
Geelong town became a city on 8 December, 1910 and electric trams began running in 1912, but the first world war and the years immediately after it were a quiet period. Between 1922 and 1925 Geelong’s future industrial growth began: three woollen mills, Cresco fertilizers and the Ford Motor Company’s vehicle plant near Corio. The Corio whiskey distillery (1928) and the Geelong Advertiser’s radio station 3 GL (1930) were opened. In 1938 one of the last Port Phillip Bay steamers, Edina, (Edina?) made its final trip to Geelong, ending a romantic period of seaside excursions and contests for the fastest trip., On the eve of the second world war the International Harvester Works were opened beside Ford, and a grain-elevator terminal was built at Corio Quay.
In the postwar years Geelong entered a glorious period of growth. Successive football premierships (1951-2) were won and local cyclist Russell Mockridge, won two gold medals at the Helsinki Olympic Games. Population growth was rapid as postwar migrants settled in new suburbs. The Shell Oil Refinery opened at Corio in 1954, and the on-rush to modernity saw retail takeovers from Melbourne and the closure of the electric-tram services. The Alcoa aluminum refinery was opened at Geelong’s pioneering landing place, Point Henry, in 1963. Between 1947 and 1965 greater Geelong’s population went from 58,400 to 101,600 persons.
The rapid development beyond central Geelong resulted in small old industrial premises becoming under-used or abandoned. The mixed-use core of Geelong, with a network of lanes for access to small subdivisions and loading yards, became anachronistic. Urban consolidation for redevelopment overtook older areas, much like inner Melbourne underwent site consolidation during the 1960-80s. Market Square was developed in 1985, adding a department store, supermarket and 95 shops. Three years later in the adjoining block to the north Bay City Plaza was built with a department store, discount department store and 82 shops. The two sites added 45,200 square metres of retail floor space to Geelong, bringing it to over 160,000 square metres.
The Geelong city council boundaries extended from Rippleside at the western end of Corio Bay, along Western Beach and Eastern Beach and ended at Eastern Park, just beyond Limeburners Point. Eastern Beach with breakwater jetties and a swimming enclosure are the most notable amenities. Easter Park contains the Botanic Gardens, which have numerous rare exotic trees, sports facilities and the Geelong High School (1910). There are several foreshore reserves, smaller reserves, Johnstone Park beside the town hall and art gallery and Kardinia Park at Geelong South, home of the Geelong Football Club since 1940.
Geelong’s commercial and retail centre runs along the Moorabool Street spine of the town’s 1838 survey. The waterfront end contains several wool-export and commercial buildings which are suitable for refurbishment. The Dennys Lascelles warehouse (1872) Moorabool Street, became the National Wool Museum in 1987. The retail heart runs along the east-west little Malop Street pedestrian mall, adjoined by the redeveloped Market Square.
Immediately south of the commercial area there are three Catholic educational institutions and St. Mary of the Angels church, the Matthew Flinders Girls’ Secondary College, the Swanston Street primary school (1871-1993), the South Barwon Secondary College (formerly Geelong Technical School, 1913) and the Geelong Hospital (Kitchener memorial Hospital, rebuilt 1922).
Beyond these institutions is Geelong South, served by a railway station near the Kardinia Park football ground, Kardinia Park also has netball courts, a swimming centre and an elderly citizen’s club. There is a neighbourhood shopping area and a reserve beside the Barwon river. Further around the river there is the industrial area of Breakwater, which adjoins Geelong East. The Breakwater railway station is near the Geelong racecourse and showground (1907).
Eastern Beach and swimming pool (on Victorian Heritage Register). (Valentine photographic booklet, c.1947.)
Eastern Beach and swimming pool (on Victorian Heritage Register). (Valentine photographic booklet, c.1947.)
Over thirty buildings and structures in the former Geelong city are on the Victorian Heritage Register. Notable among them are seven warehouse/commercial buildings, Christ Church (1843), St. John’s Lutheran Church (1841) and the old post and telegraph offices, in addition to those previously mentioned.
The median house price in Geelong in 1987 was $62,250 and in 1996 it was $104,000.
On 18 May, 1993, the Geelong city (13.4 sq. km.) was united with Geelong West and Newtown cities, three shires and parts of two shires to form Greater Geelong city (1,252 sq. km.).
Geelong municipality’s census populations were 16,613 (1861), 9,721 (1881, Geelong West severed), 14,805 (1921), 20,034 (1954) and 13,036 (1991).
Western Beach and Corio Wharves, postcard, c.1909.
City Hall. (Valentine photographic booklet, c.1947.)
Further Reading:
Billot, C.P., “The life of Our Years: A Pictorial Chronology of Geelong”, Lothian Publishing Co., 1969.
Brownhill, Walter Randolph, “The History of Geelong and Corio Bay, 1955, With Postscript 1955-1990” by Ian Wynd, The Geelong Advertiser Pty. Ltd., 1990.
Willingham, Allan, “Geelong Region Historic Buildings and Objects Study”, Vol. 2, Geelong Regional Commission, 1986.
