The past in its many
variations.
Having lived in the outer eastern suburbs now for over 35 years and in Boronia itself for the last 15, I have grown to appreciate the history of the area, though it may be disappearing at an exponential rate due to progress there is still lots to discover in the area and its surrounds.
Little things like the Progress Hall or a hidden piece of ballast where the trolley ran along the boundary of the Ferntree Gully Quarry, to the ruins of Doongalla and Ferndale weir above the Basin to more latter-day examples and architecture like the Boronia Post Office and the Telecom exchange building just opposite in Hasting Avenue. I find myself finding new discoveries all the time, mainly due to posts and recollected memories of people who contribute to the “Boronia – the good old days” Facebook page. They have a passion and a respect for where they live and it can be contagious. I’ve written a lot about my adopted suburb, and it was only recently that I realised why, and why I don’t have the same passion for the place where I grew up and spent over twenty years living in - Jordanville.
Though Boronia is twice the distance from the city as Jordanville (15 km compared to 30km) Boronia has been around a lot longer, even if it was as a little brother to the Basin and Bayswater until the train station was built. The estates in Jordanville was built along with Ashwood in the 1940s / early 50s to accommodate the post-war population boom. Before then, the area was open fields dotted with farmhouses and a motorbike track, that at one time soon after the war attracted 10,000 people one weekend for a charity event.
The Jordanville/Ashwood
estate was established by the Victorian Housing Commission and was bordered by Warrigal
Road in the west, Huntingdale Road in the east, High Street Road to the north
and Waverly Road to the south with the Glen Waverly train line running down the
middle separating Jordanville from Ashwood. An area of approximately 20
hectares. Families were moved in before roads were constructed and sewerage was
connected, making hepatitis a major problem in the estate’s formative years.
The area consisted of five State schools; one boy’s technical school, one high
school and three primary schools, though only one was inside the estate’s borders,
the others were all on the opposite side of the boundary roads. One Catholic
school was also on the estate directly opposite the primary school. Included
within the estate boundaries were four recreational parks/playing fields which
were originally areas where the commission houses were shipped from the nearby
Housing Commission factory in adjoining Holmesglen and partially constructed
before they were put onto the site blocks. When construction was complete, they
were transformed into playing surfaces. It also had four shopping strips.
Usually consisting of a Milk Bar and a mixed grocery store to service the residents.
Major shopping trips meant bus trips to Oakleigh and Ashburton or later to the
new modern Chadstone shopping centre which opened in 1961. The nearest pubs were
located in Oakleigh or Carnegie several miles away. Also built on its Western
edge was a migrant hostel that due to its role to supply temporary housing it
was built a lot faster using ex-army Nissen huts.
Over the next twenty
years as the estate settled, roads were completed, services installed and during that time over 1600 trees that were planted to brighten the barren landscape matured.
Jordanville developed into a strong community. The roads lined with oak trees
with all the neat lawns and gardens and lots of children playing outside, as
cars were few and far between. The majority of the occupants were renters but
still very house proud. Things started to change near the early to mid-seventies
as the children grew up and the availability of jobs and cheap cars flourished.
Gangs became a thing for a while, the migrant hostel was abandoned and pulled
down and the huge beer barn the Mathew Flinders was constructed to the delight
of every male who had to travel miles for a beer in the past. Suddenly the
gardens were not as neat as before, cars started appearing on nature strips.
The kookaburras no longer laughed near the train station, they had moved
further up the line, most probably to Boronia.
Come the late 1980s. the concrete houses that
made up the majority of dwellings (that were always meant to be temporary) were
approaching their use by date and after a wet winter and a hot dry summer, many
had cracks appear that could be seen through from the street to the backyard.
With the ageing population, it was decided during the Kennet years that the
area didn’t need as many schools. This resulted in every school, bar the
Catholic school being sold off, demolished, and sold to developers. With the
schools also went the Junior football club, once, one of the biggest and
successful in the State, at the same time older houses were being demolished to
make way for one or more modern and smaller units as each house was built on a
fifth of an acre site. As time progressed into the 21st century old was replaced
with new or was replaced with something different. The only other large church
in the area, the United Church was sold after attendances dropped it was demolished
and replaced with a childcare centre. Even the pub saw a drop in clientele when
it became a hostile place and was temporarily closed to be rebuilt. When the
Housing Commission factory in Holmesglen – a source of work for the early
residence-was converted to a TAFE in the early 1990s, the area saw a rebirth
and with nearby Chadstone shopping centre continuously expanding and the
proximity of the then Mulgrave freeway, this meant a need to modernise the area
to suit. Those lucky enough to buy their old rental properties were sitting on
a gold mine in property value. This created another boom of older residence
moving out and new more modern buyers capitalizing on the large block sizes. By
the turn of the century, the oldest remaining building that was not a Housing
Commission home was the old Catholic church which had been replaced in the 90s
with a new one and was now used as a community hall. In roughly 50 years
Jordanville had sprung from nothing and nothing was its landmark. It was always
in a constant flux of change. Even the once majestic oak trees that had grown
so large over the years were pruned down to obscene parodies of themselves when
the Optus telephone lines were introduced and had to sit one metre below the
standard lines.
I know this grossly
simplifies the history of the area, but after I left, I never felt the urge to
return even though members of my family still live there. It always felt like
the place rejected physical memories.
Boronia didn’t just spring
into being. It took years for it to become established, sure the train station
helped speed things up, but it was a slow burn. Things had time to settle, it
grew while the Basin’s glory days were starting to disappear in the rear-view
mirror. Because of this, the locals had more time to appreciate what they had
before it was stripped away for
something new. Not always but there is still good signs and remnants of the
past to feel that someone cares. I mentioned earlier how in Jordanville all the
schools were closed and demolished, what also happened was that all the records
disappeared with them and only those scraps of memorabilia like class photos,
magazines and reports held by individuals are all lost. Of course, that
happened all through the metropolitan area and Boronia and surrounding suburbs
weren’t exempt, however, here we have the Knox historical society where they
have made a concerted effort to collect as many of the class photos and
magazines from closed schools as possible for future generations to see. I attempted
to find some records of anything from Jordanville Tech after it closed
and all I encountered was a brick wall of “No one knows” from various
departments and Ministries.
I know a lot of people
who have lived here longer than me will disagree and say nothing has been good
since the railway crossing went underground, but to use an example of a recent
bit of history, when Boronia High school in Mount View Road closed and was
eventually demolished, its shadow is still visible. It’s like a present-day
archaeology site, there’s still time to walk around and picture what once was
and maybe even find something in the long grass whilst walking the dog. Back in
the old days, half an estate was built as soon as the last wall fell. To me
it’s not what’s gone it’s what’s left and that is what can pique people’s
interest and start to search and find out more of what came before. It’s
all around us. The empty fields that were the old Daniel Robinson clay pits,
the greenway between that paddock that separated it from the old Abattoir, the
old pylons next to the tracks heading into boronia station that held the
overhead lines before the station was set lower. Even things like the crossover
in the middle of the road opposite the Boronia bowl that was used by the old
CFA trucks when the base was situated there. There is evidence everywhere,
which is why I think more about history here than where I grew up because there
is nothing back there, no old traces, no evidence, everything was ripped up and
replaced leaving nothing to the imagination. The only constant is change. I
must point out that during all this change up until recently because there now
are a lot more property owners, no one cared. No one petitioned the loss or
sale of anything. It just happened. A lot of this pertains to the fact that the
majority of residences were renters, so they always felt they had no choice, in
my opinion. Compare this with recent times here in Boronia and Knox in general
and the outcry to any new building or developments when they are announced,
people are quick or keen to voice their concerns. That’s proof a community
still cares.
I love looking at old
photos of the Basin, Boronia and Ferntree Gully and then visiting those places
to see how much it has changed or evidence of things that remain. It’s even
more fun up the mountain because things up there tend to change a bit slower. In
the decade and a half I’ve lived here I have discovered and documented dozens
of places that I never even knew existed before and to share that gives me
great satisfaction
As populations increase
in the outer east and our home suburbs, I believe it’s important to stay in
touch with the past to appreciate how we got here. I’m not advocating a no
change or development policy but to keep us in touch with our memories and not
like where I grew up that has stripped it clean, at least for me.
