Coode chose the canal route so as to avoid dangerous tidal ebbs and inflows that would occur along one that went straight from the Yarra River docks to Hobsons Bay. Inflows endangered flood-prone land upstream as far as Gardiners Creek, by the banking up of stream waters. The route also ensured that the Yarra waters would discharge into the river mouth, scouring the bay and reducing silt deposition.

The meander was known as Fishermen’s Bend or Humbug Reach (1887). Later “Fishermen’s Bend” came to be applied to the land opposite Coode Island, on the other side of the canal, and even to Sandridge Beach, Port Melbourne west, which became Garden City.

By 1909 the marshy surface of Coode Island was being filled for reclamation. Its chief use was as a quarantine station for stock, and buildings were erected there in the event of the need for a bubonic plague sanitarium. Much of the native vegetation had been replaced by exotics, probably from abandoned ships’ ballast. By the late 1930s the meander was almost abolished and the “island” joined to West Melbourne, but the name continued to be used.

In 1929 the construction of Appleton Dock on the south-east corner of Coode Island was begun. Swanson Dock was excavated out of the island near its south-west corner when containerised cargo services began in the 1960s. MacKenzie Road was constructed southwards, west of Swanson Dock, and bulk petro-chemical storage tanks were built along it, beginning in 1960. The liquids were unloaded from Maribyrnong No. 1 berth on the western bank of Coode Island.

In 1990-1 about 70% of liquid chemicals through the Port of Melbourne went through Coode Island. On 21-2 August, 1991, fire broke out at a liquid tank storage facilities, destroying or severely damaging 27 tanks. The event provoked a review of the facilities, leading to proposals for its transfer from metropolitan Melbourne. Six years afterwards a new site was not agreed, but in the meantime improved safety measure had lessened anxiety about future risks.

Coode Island also has transport companies, cargo storage, bulk (non-liquid) storages and port facilities.

Morgan’s Street Directory, 1939

Burnley, River Yarra

River Yarra, Burnley, c.1911.
Image courtesy of Mr. Tony Davies, London, U.K.

The first land sale at Healesville was in 1865,and in the following year there were thirty business premises, includingsix hotels and a primary school. Healesville was also selected as a sitefor “neglected black and half-caste children and an asylum for infirm blacks.” Thus the Coranderrk reserve on Badger Creek, south of Healesville,was created in 1865.

Healesville was situated on the most convenient coach route to the goldfieldsin the Woods Point area, and it was the place where fresh horses were takenfor the ascent to Fernshaw and Blacks Spur. In 1881 The Australian Handbookdescribed Healesville as –

As the Gippsland goldfields declined some miners took up farm occupations in Healesville. Timber cutters found employment, and hop gardens were established.In 1881 the railway had been opened between Hawthorn and Lilydale, 12 km.south-west of Healesville. Expectation of the railway’s extension to Healesville stimulated business and population growth. In 1889 the railway link was opened, two years after the Healesville shire had been created on 30 September,1887. The scenery of Fernshaw was more readily reached from the Healesville train terminus and tourism entered Healesville’s local economy. Gracedale House of 60 rooms was built in 1889.

Farming developed in the newly cleared Don and New Chum Creek Valleys.Upstream on the Watts River the Maroondah Weir was built in 1891, the watershed requiring the removal of the Fernshaw township and curtailment of timber cutting. In 1893 the library and Mechanics’ Institute was opened. Despitethe limit put on timber cutting, Healesville’s economy grew – day outingsand travel to cool mountain retreats brought hundreds of people. The Australian Handbook’s description of Healesville in 1904 was –

Orchards and vegetable growing increased their acreages, along with a successful increased tobacco plantation. Elaborate country-retreat residences were built alongside hotels and guest houses, and a Tourist and Progress Association was created before 1914. In the 1920s the Association published “Healesville, The World-famed Tourist Resort”, listing over 40 beauty spots and 20 hotels and guest houses. The construction of the Maroondah Dam in 1927, replacing the weir, brought several hundred workmen to Healesville.Their departure, and the onset of the 1930s depression exposed Healesville’s restricted range of industries. Timber and tourism were not stable enough for sustained growth. Notwithstanding the depression, the 1930s saw increased motor tourism, partly bypassing Healesville, and decreased railway patronage.Only 10% came by rail in Easter, 1934. Tourism was still active but a local newspaper commented that Healesville would be “heaps better off callingitself the good-time town instead of the world-famed-tourist-resort – that’sgot whiskers on it.”

In 1934 the Sir Colin Mackenzie Sanctuary for Australian Fauna and Flora was opened on land that was formerly part of the Coranderrk reserve. The Healesville Sanctuary became one of Victoria’s premier tourist attractions.

The outbreak of the second world war stimulated timber cutting, which initially concentrated on harvesting trees damaged in the extensive Black Friday bushfire of January, 1939. The early postwar years saw a resumption of traditional Healesville tourism, while petrol shortages lasted, but motortravel gradually made Healesville a wayside stop for many travelers. The Australian Blue Book described Healesville shire in 1949 as –

Forestry operations in he 1940s had increased Healesville’s population,and continued activity was required to sustain them. During the 1950s theshire unsuccessfully contested the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Worksview that the watersheds should be kept unlogged. Small industries makingfoundation garments, knitwear, electrical appliances and soft drinks contributedto a much needed diversification of employment activities. The Golf Houseguest house was taken over the for RACV Country Club in 1951. In January,1957, a new hospital was opened and in 1961 the central school (1952) wasreplaced by a high school. A new swimming pool was opened in 1964.

Healesville shire until the 1950s had undergone only minor boundary adjustments. However, the relatively close Yarra Glen had more in common with Healesville than with Eltham shire, and the Yarra Glen district wasadded to Healesville shire on 18 June, 1958. Northwards, Buxton went toAlexandra shire on 1 October, 1963. Healesville remained the larger commercialcentre in its shire, having 64 commercial establishment compared with 35in Yarra Glen in 1988.

The township has a comprehensive range of facilities. In addition tothe shopping centre there is a district hospital, Queens Park with a swimmingpool and sports facilities, a showgrounds and sporting complex, five churches,halls, Catholic school and State primary and high schools.

Healesville shire ceased on 15 December, 1994 when part was united withparts of Whittlesea city and Diamond Valley shire and most of Eltham shire to form Nillumbik shire. The other part was united with Alexandra and Yea shires and parts of Whittlesea city and Broadford, Euroa and Eltham shires to form Murrindindi shire on 18 November, 1994. At that time Healesville shire contained the localities of Badger Creek, Christmas Hills, Toolangiand Yarra Glen.

Healesville’s census populations have been 207 (1881),907 (1901), 2,035 (1933), 3,566 (1954) and 6,264 (1991).

Healesville shire’s census populations, after most of the significant boundary changes, were 5,941 (1961), 9,670 (1981) and 11,755 (1991). The urbanisation of Healesville shire was reflected in the median house price rising from 70% to 80% of the metropolitan average between 1981 and 1986.

Further Reading:

• Symonds, Sally, “Healesville, History in the Hills”, PioneerDesign Studio, 1982.

Southbank’s eastern and western boundaries are St. Kilda Road and Montague Street. Its southern boundary is irregular in shape, but south of the Westgate Freeway. Nearly half the area was owned by the State Government or its agencies when the area was defined.

Southbank is crossed by transport routes laid outwith no particular regard for Southbank itself. The reason for this is that the early routes originally traversed undesirable swamp or flat land: City Road more or less followed the track from Port Melbourne to Melbourne; the railway line (1854) followed the convenient ground from Melbourne to Port Melbourne; Kingsway was plotted to join King Street, Melbourne,to a south-eastern exit point; and the Westgate Freeway (1980s) was plotted to carry freight around instead of through the central city.

The industrial settlement of Southbank was part of the settlement of South Melbourne. Early wharves, building trades and a few noxious industries were displaced by manufacturers and warehouses. The wharves fell into disuse as port facilities were moved downstream, particularly after the low bridge joining Spencer and Clarendon Streetswas opened in 1929.

The completion of the Arts Centre complex at thenorth-east corner of Southbank in the 1980s was followed by the Jennings Southgate development immediately westwards. Southgate “Arts and Leisure Precinct” was opened in 1992 with 37 specialty shops, numerous restaurantsand 67,000 sq. metres of offices. It has a Yarra bank promenade and an attractivevista across the river. It is linked to the city by a `coathanger’ pedestrian bridge over the Yarra River. A Lutheran Church (1991) replaced the one nearby which was exchanged for the redevelopment.

In mid-1993 the Crown Casino was begun, replacing the temporary casino in the World Trade Centre. The casino complex was opened in 1997 and includes 350 gambling tables and 2,500 machines. There are a500-room hotel, the Palladium ballroom, shops, restaurants, a 14-theatrecinema and space for over 8,000 parked cars. Most of the complex runs 24hours a day. Kings Way is bridged by the complex. A 1,800 seat Lyric theatre is due for completion in 1999. The temporary casino’s gambling was considered to have reduced central city retailing and the effect of the entertainment and dining facilities in the Crown complex – as well as Southgate – are expected to put added pressure on central city retailing and entertainment.

On the west side of Clarendon Street, overlooking the Yarra River, the Melbourne Exhibition Centre was completed in 1996.It has 30,000 sq. metres of clear-span exhibition space. It absorbed a partially completed building for a new Museum of Victoria (1992-3), and the site contains the Polly Woodside sailing shop and maritime museum along the South Wharf.The Clarendon Street frontage contains the registered Tea House building,originally a stationer’s warehouse (1888).

Elsewhere in Southbank, new buildings include headquarters for the Herald-Sun and the Australian Broadcasting Commission, office buildings converted to apartments and newly constructed apartment buildings A notableapartments site is on the demolished Price Henry’s Hospital, nurses’ homeand car park. Underneath the Kings Way overpass the one time City Road primary school, later the J.H. Boyd Domestic College, became a campus of the Western Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

Further Reading:

• Butler, Graeme, and Lewis, Miles, South BankArchitectural and Historical Study, 1983.
• Priestly, Susan, South Melbourne: A History,Melbourne University Press, 1995.

The township of Diamond Creek is 23 km, north-east of Melbourne, just above Eltham, where Arthurs Creek joins Diamond Creek. Settlement was attracted to it rather later than the more open areas of the Plenty River and the Yarra River, and the first white inhabitants were mostly timber getters and paling splitters. Gold seekers opened up the Caledonia diggings further upstream in 1855, which were named after the Caledonia run (1841) situated near where the diamond Creek township was later created. In 1863 the Diamond Reef was discovered resulting in substantial gold mine workings, which coincided with the formation of the township. A post office, Methodist church and a school were established by the following year. In 1886-7 the township was surveyed and named Nillumbik – the name of the Parish and the town’s town name which continued to be used until the turn of the century.

The area became a mixture of bushland and small farms, and orchards had a period of strong prosperity from the mid 1880s to about 1912. A horticulturist society was formed in 1884. Diamond Creek/Nillumbik was described in The Australian Handbook, 1893, as –

The opening of the railway line from Eltham to Hurstbridge in 1912 coincided with the decline of orcharding. Fruit from Doncaster, Nunawading and interstate from Tasmania had superior marketing. Ironically a Government cool store was opened in 1913. The railway line allowed better access for excursionists and picnickers, but wealthy Melburnians built their weekenders and spacious residences in other country retreats. Diamond Creek remained a pleasant backwater, with no ostentation or evidence of wealth.

The pressure of metropolitan expansion in the postwar years affected Diamond Creek and the townships further south in the Diamond Valley. Population growth was enough by 1964 for the creation of Diamond Valley shire. Substantial residential growth in Diamond Creek came in the 1970s.

There is a shopping centre near the railway station and a second centre, separated from the first by the railway line and the large Diamond Creek reserve. The reserve has several recreational facilities. There are two state primary schools, a Catholic primary school, a secondary college and a large community centre.

Diamond Creek’s census population’s were 1,127 (1911) and 669 (1933), indicating how the decline of fruit growing decreased the number of small farms. There were no published census figures for Diamond Creek in the postwar years.

Further Reading:

• Edwards, Dianne, “The Diamond Valley Story”, Shire of Diamond Valley, 1994.