Templestowe, Victoria

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Templestowe Melbourne, Victoria
Population:	16,428 (2006)[1]
Postcode:	3106
Area:	14.7 km² (5.7 sq mi)
Property Value:	AUD $650,000 [2]
Location:	19 km (12 mi) from Melbourne
LGA:	City of Manningham
State District:	Bulleen, Warrandyte
Federal Division:	Menzies
Suburbs around Templestowe: Lower Plenty Eltham Warrandyte Templestowe Lower Templestowe Doncaster East Doncaster Doncaster East Donvale

"Templestowe" redirects here. For the Victorian Legislative Council Province, please see Templestowe Province.

Templestowe is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its local government area is the City of Manningham. It has a number of natural attractions, including ample parklands, contrasted with large, modern shopping malls.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Founding Families 1.1.1 Pontville Homestead 1.2 Namesake 1.3 Development 2 Transport 3 Geology 4 Education 5 Sporting Teams 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

The area today known as Templestowe has had two notable waves of human settlement. The first occurred circa 40000 B.C.E., its history being preserved in legend amongst the tribes of the Kulin nation via the dreamtime pathways. Most interpretations depict a pathway from the area today known as Port Phillip Bay along the Goulburn River, across "Blacks' Spur" at Healesville and down the Yarra River to what are now the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

The land to the east of Melbourne was acquired by The Crown early in the 19th century, during the enclosure movement; the Wurundjeri people, who inhabited the Yarra River Valley and its tributaries, were granted "permissive occupancy" of Coranderrk Station, near Healesville, and forcibly resettled. The subsequent, pioneer settlement process was drawn out due to the area's geographic inaccessibility relative to that west of Melbourne: the land was hilly and thickly timbered, as opposed to the open plains of greater Geelong. Additionally, it was believed that the soil was shallow and infertile, a fallacy which was not debunked until T. R. Nutt surveyed the land in 1839.

The original Templestowe village was situated between what are today Finns Reserve and the Templestowe Hotel, as this expanse of land ran by a fresh water stream. It was formally recognised in legislative writ following the establishment of the school in Tom Hicks' barn, as the educational facility was also utilised in an official capacity by the community, id est it facilitated the burial of the dead and town meetings. The original building was roughly situated on the corner of Serpells Road and Williamsons Road and was first cited in a judicial trial in 1856.^[3]

[edit] Founding Families

The first permanent resident in Templestowe was Major Charles Newman (1795-1866). He served for 30 years in the Honourable East India Company and rose to the rank of Major in the 51st Bengal Native Infantry. As his vision had degraded, Newman retired from the military and migrated to the penal colony of Van Dieman's Land with his wife, children, and two step daughters. He purchased a large area of land near the town of Pontville, which was to become the colony's second largest estate. Hearing that land was selling quickly in the newly formed town of Melbourne, he purchased 36 square kilometres (13.9 square miles) during the 1830s around what is now Newmans Road. In 1840 he began construction of Pontville Homestead, relocating there with his remaining family in 1843. The Newman family were at the time the furthest settlers east of Melbourne. Their descendants occupied the land until 1950.^[4]

The other founding families include:

• Atkins
• Bell
• Britton
• Clancey
• Collins
• Channey
• Cunningham
• Chivers
• Eccleston
• Finn
• Fitzsimons
• Fromhold
• Griffin
• Hunter
• Hodgson
• Haughton
• Howett
• Howith
• Hardidge
• Johnston
• Jacks
• Jenkins
• Joughin
• Kent
• Kean
• Lowe
• Lacey
• McNamara
• McEwin
• Mahoney
• McGahy
• Parker
• Read
• Rhodes
• Schuhkraft
• Smith
• Stacher
• Taylor
• Trott
• Todd
• Williamson

[edit] Pontville Homestead

Pontville Homestead was constructed in the early 1840s on part of Newman's pastoral holding, at the confluence of the Yarra River and the Mullum-Mullum Creek. The remains of his first dwelling, a turf hut, was located near the site.^{[citation needed]} Pontville now comprises a house constructed circa 1843-1850 and extended in the 1870s, remnant plantings, cottage foundations, outbuildings, bridge foundations, tracks, and a range of other features associated with the farming use of the area since the 1830s. Pontville was acquired by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works in 1978, and Melbourne Water and Parks Victoria now manages the property as part of Paddle Reserve.

Pontville Homestead is socially important as the one of the last 1840s pastoral selections on the Yarra River within the metropolitan area, and for its associations with the earliest development of the Templestowe area. Newman, one of only two ex Indian Army officers resident in Victoria at the time, was influential in the development of Australian colonial society, and his Indian experience strongly influenced the architectural form of the Pontville homestead. Newman was also associated with gold prospecting in the district following the discovery of gold at Anderson Creek in Warrandyte. He was among the first in colonial Victoria to mine quartz reefs.

Pontville is historically and aesthetically important because its landscape contributes to the greater understanding of 1840s agricultural and garden history, as well as for containing numerous relics of aboriginal life. Pontville is significant for the survival of its formal garden terracing and its remnant plantings including Cupressus torulosa cypresses, Crataegus monogyna hedgerows and Morus nigra mulberries. The surrounding remnant grasslands are important for understanding the early pastoral settlement of Pontville. Additionally, the integrity of ancient scar trees, ancestral camping sites and other spirit places of the Wurundjeri aborigines was respected by the Newman family. They can be observed in their original form along the trail systems at the Tikalara ("meeting place") plains tract of the Mullum-Mullum Creek.^[5]

Pontville is architecturally important for the evidence surviving from the original homestead building, notably its distinctive Indian Bungalow form (a core of three interconnected rooms surrounded by a broad verandah formed by the continuation of the main hipped roof slope, within which the ends were built in to create further rooms) and elements of the original fabric which are of great technical interest. Important items include a displaced hearth of a stone clearly imported from outside the Port Phillip District, possibly English millstone grit, some unexplained sallow cream bricks, probably of local manufacture, pit sawn hardwood ceiling joists, and a stair opening in the ceiling trimmed with tusk tenon joints. Other significant elements are the plaster finishes and remnant ruled lime stucco - the oldest such surface finish in authentic condition to be identified in Victoria, if not Australia. Indian influenced houses are a significant element in Australian colonial architecture, but are extremely rare in Victoria. Associated with the homestead building are the farm outbuildings which are important for their ability to contribute to the historical understanding of the homestead property.

Pontville is archaeologically important for the below ground remains inherent in the location of, and the material contained within the archaeological deposits associated with Newman's turf hut and the subsequent homestead building, cottage, associated farm and rubbish deposits. The structures, deposits and associated artefacts are important for their potential to provide an understanding of the conditions in which a squatting family lived in the earliest days of the Port Phillip settlement.^[6][7]

[edit] Namesake

The government of New South Wales initially adopted the Aboriginal name "Bulleen", meaning "resting place", to refer to the area near the meeting of the Plenty River and Yarra River. Settlers to the south, in Heidelburg, were known to have called the area "the forest", in reference to its stringy bark forests and eucalyptus gumtrees.

The name Templestowe was chosen when a village was proclaimed. Its exact origins are unknown, although "Templestowe" is mentioned in the book Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. As the village of Ivanhoe was settled immediately prior to Templestowe, it is believed by some that the name was chosen to preserve the literary parallel.

[edit] Development

Dairy farming was the primary vocation of the pioneer settlers, and was practiced along the river flats in Templestowe and Bulleen well into the 20th century. Orcharding was taken up in the 1870s, soon providing prosperity for the district. Apples, peaches, lemons, pears and other stone fruits were grown, providing inspiration for the post-modern "peel" statue on the roundabout on the corner of Porter Road and Fitzsimons Lane. Fruit, vine-growers and market gardeners were soon able to build new and more comfortable houses, using brick and weatherboard as materials. Many of these houses still exist, although for the most part they have been modernised beyond the scope for heritage classification by the National Trust of Australia.

Until the expansionism of the 1970s, Templestowe was scarcely populated. Additionally, it was then part of the so called "green belt" of Melbourne and subdivision into less than 5 acres was not possible in many parts of the suburb. As Melbourne spread past Kew and Balwyn, the price of land escalated and pressure mounted to change the boundaries of the restricted land subdivision. By the 1980s Templestowe was being openly marketed as an alternative to the "dry suburbs". The suburb today has many nouveau riche mansions. In 2006, a property on Church Road was sold for AUD $7.2 million, a record for the area.

[edit] Transport

Templestowe lays between two of Melbourne's rail services (the Hurstbridge and Epping lines) and did not facilitate the city's urban development. Throughout the 1970s the Doncaster line was planned by the the state government to run down the middle of the Eastern Freeway and serve the suburb, with land acquired for the line but sold in the 1980s.^[8]

A number of major roads combine to provide the basis for the infrastructure for the area. They include:

• Manningham Road
• Foote Street/Reynolds Road
• High Street
• Thompsons Road
• Williamsons Road/Fitzsimons Lane
• Porter Street
• Blackburn Road
• Newmans Road (named after Major Charles Newman)
• Websters Road (named after Robert William Webster)

The area has since been built into, and while there is still no rail service, there is now a modest bus network operating routes to the city in the west, Box Hill and Blackburn in the south, and Ringwood in the east. Service is comparatively poor, with average interval times between buses of one hour after peak hours and few services running after 10pm (departure time), although it is likely to improve from 2007-2010 under the Victorian Labor Government's AUD $1.4 billion "Smart Buses" program.^[9]

[edit] Geology

The geology of Templestowe is striking. Templestowe exists in a region of substantial geological activity.

[edit] Education

There are currently three state schools (Serpell Primary School, Templestowe Park Primary School and Templestowe Valley Primary School) and one Catholic school (Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Primary School) providing primary education in the suburb.

[edit] Sporting Teams

• Soccer - Templestowe Eagles FC (formerly Templestowe Eagles Soccer Club) (play in Doncaster as there are no available grounds in Templestowe)
• Australian rules football - Templestowe Football Club

[edit] See also

• City of Doncaster and Templestowe - the former local government area of which Templestowe was a part.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Templestowe Park Primary School
• Templestowe Park Auskick
• The Manningham Leader Newspaper
• Manningham City Council Online

Coordinates: 37°45′11″S 145°08′06″E / -37.75306, 145.135

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