Originally published in the Dandenong Journal from 10 March to 22nd September, 1932.
This copy is taken from the original published then, not the book version now used by others.
This section is the impression of a very old friend and resident, who has lived almost all his life in Dandenong and district (and who, I am pleased to say, is still with us), and who very kindly detailed them to me for publication in “The Journal,” when I informed him that it was the wish of the proprietors to make this article as complete as possible by the inclusion in it of reminiscences of any of the old residents who were willing to detail them.
“My earliest impressions,” he said, “of the town in which I was to pass from youth to age were gained in the year 1854, when, as a very youthful personage, with my parents, I made to my mind, a very long and momentous journey from the vicinity of Melbourne to Dandenong. Our mode of travelling was in quite the orthodox manner of the times. We got as far as Brighton in a spring-cart; and after dinner, we clambered into a bullock dray, which was to be our mode of conveyance, then onwards to our destination.
“It was a two-wheeled structure of strong though primitive make, and we had a rough and slow journey through the bush. We travelled by way of Brighton and Cheltenham, through Kingston, across Damper Flats, thence by a track somewhere between Springvale and Noble Park, and so on to Dandenong. “The journey took about six hours, the track winding in and out between the trees. We saw plenty of kangaroo and wallabies on the way enroute, but no native companions or emus, they keeping to the open places on the flats. There were then very few houses in the outlying places. I mean after we left Brighton, and I don’t think a habitation other than a hut or tent until we were close to Dandenong.
“It was very different journeying down the main street from what it is now. Then our cart wound around trees and stumps, following a doubtful sand track where now a beautiful tarred and metalled road is laid. I recollect crossing the creek at the old ford. This was the method until the first chock-and-log bridge was made, which was one of two similar structures that did service until the recently demolished stone bridge was erected. Turning to the right, we went through the creek to what was then Collins’ paddock, and where we made our home for the time being.
“We camped on the south bank of the creek, near where now is Kirkkam road, and, to my juvenile mind, it was all very awesome and lonely. We were not troubled by neighbours, unless they were four-footed ones, and they were numerous enough, as just over the creek, in “Yarraman Park,” the bush teemed with life. A big gum tree overhung our tent, and I went to sleep to the lullaby of dingoes howling at the moon, maybe, or for the sheep which were securely enclosed in the folds, and guarded by watchful dogs and men, a very necessary precaution those times, as the gentry in rusty pelts were keen on the jumbucks, as a change from kangaroo and other native game, which was rather fleeter of foot than the poor woollies.
“I doubt not that the boys of today would enjoy such a ride as I had, not withstanding the rib-shaking I got, and I’ll wager many of them would give something to be behind a team of bullocks going on such a journey, holding on for dear life as the dray tossed and bumped through holes, and over logs, all helping to drive, or, at least, adding their persuasive voices to the regular vocabulary of the professional wielder of the bullock whip.
In the township, or rather I should say village, there was only one house, as houses go. Shanties of the wattle and daub pattern were scattered through the bush, tents also, and, slab and bark huts, which, as they were, were considered very suitable, and in them the pioneers of Dandenong lived their lives, fought a hard battle for; and brought up their families. “Those were the days when a fight for existence was a battle indeed, as nothing was wrested from the bush but what was fought for determinedly from daylight till dark. It is a far cry from now to then, and I am, perhaps, one of the very few who can give a word picture, even if it is an imperfect one, of Dandenong in those early days.”
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