The past in its many variations.

 

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.