As some readers will know I like to go riding, and here I mean “real” bike riding with me as the engine on a road bike. I have a few favourite rides depending mainly on the wind conditions. When I head north out of Geelong there’s a number of things that I see that I wanted to share, and that’s exactly what I did today.
Bell Post Hill
I was born and grew up in Bell Post Hill, so there’s a few things that I’m going to share here that occur to me as I ride out through here at least once a week.
Water
The first thing that occurs to me is that there used to be a large water basin on top of the hill. Heading up the hill it was on the left (or south) side of the Ballarat Road (Midland Highway.) It had a very secure wire fence and the perimeter was lined with large, and very old pine trees. I vividly remember it. Beyond it to the west and towards Ballarat was all farmland, no houses at all. To my memory, there were no houses there as late as 1984 when we moved to Queen’s Park. At that time, and across the road was Morongo College, my mother and sister both attended here. It’s still there today, but it is now called Kardinia College.
The actual water basin was located where we now find Sharland Park. The basin was built in 1926 to service Bell Post Hill and Hamlyn Heights’ needs for water. The basin was removed in 2002 and the Sharland Park Estate was developed there in 2003. The heritage listed valve house from the basin is still there, but has been moved to the Estate’s entrance, on Heritage Drive.
The scout hall
Making my way out to Bell Post Hill brings back a lot of memories as this is where I first lived in Geelong. Neil Street was our home and stomping ground and the end of the street was a Scout Hall and small “park.” It was here, at the top end of the street, where we spent a lot of time. The hall is long gone but the vacant land is still there. There’s still a bus shelter, it’s been upgraded a few times since we were there. For us it was the automatic “wicketkeeper” for our test matches there. We even had a cement drum roller for the pitch! The trees at either end were much smaller and formed our goals when we played football there. They’ve grown somewhat over the years. Really great memories.
The Drive-In
A bit further out of Geelong and on the north (right) side of the Ballarat road I come to the first gate in this post. It’s no ordinary gate though, this is the gate of the former drive-in that used to be there. It seems that the drive-in opened in the 1950s, and with a bit more time and some access to land records post lock-down I’ll pin that down. But needless to say, I remember the drive-in here very well. Not that we visited it in our car; no, as local teenagers we traversed the field west of Rollins Road, climbed the fence, and took up a position at the front to watch. At this time the ring-road hadn’t even been thought of and there were no houses around here. I do remember the drive-in being quite large and was popular at the time.
Photographs that I have located show it to be a Village Drive-in. Suggestions are that it closed in 1994. I’ll leave it at that for now but, rest assured, when I get full access to the right resources there’s more to come on this one.
Even more gates
I continued my ride, setting course for Geelong Grammar’s Corio campus. Yes, the enemy as I attended Geelong College. In particular I was heading to another set of gates. You find these ones on the south side of the school, on Foreshore Road. They’re very ornate and a little out of place for this location and that’s because they haven’t always been here.
These gates were built for and originally stood as the entry to Lunan House. Now, Lunan House is in Drumcondra and we’re in Corio here, so how did they get here you ask? It’s a fair question, for as you will see later, as I continue my journey, Lunan House is still very much standing as well. But it seems that gates have a bit of a habit of being moved, lasting longer than structures, or as we’ll see later, remaining in place but the surrounds have changed.
The plaque on the gates at Grammar reads:
LUNAN GATES
THE GIFT OF
WILLIAM MAXWELL BELL
JOHN BELL
ALAN CARSTAIRS BELL
GEORGE RUSSELL BELL
3rd APRIL 1913
I pushed on and back towards Geelong.
Even more gates, and a distillery
I’ve ridden past this weekly for years and I’ve been meaning to investigate. So today I did. I started with the gates. Not in the best condition and not in use for some time. There’s a logo on the gates – it has an L, D and a C. Next was the building and across its front is “The Distillers Corporation Pty Ltd” with the same logo on either side.
Clearly the building and the gates once belonged to this company and here they distilled. So, I’ve seen this from the rear view on the Melbourne train but never really looked into it. This is the former Corio Distillery. The announcement was made in April 1927 that the site had been selected in North Shore for a new distillery by the London based Distillers Corporation.
Construction commenced in early 1928 and it was estimated that at least L200,000 was to be spent on the distillery. It’s important to note that no product from the distillery would be sold for at least 5 years as the product aged in oak. The distillery was officially opened in March 1929. In December 1929 it was announced that the first product of the distillery was ready. It was Burnett’s dry gin. The distillery was also making whisky but it was not yet ready at this point.
By 1954 it was reported that the distillers of Vicker’s Gin and and Corio Whisky had produced 12 million gallons of whisky and 5 million gallons of Gin, said to be 2/3rds of the Australian Whisky trade and ½ the Gin market.
Today, as I ride past, it’s the home of Distillery Logistics Pty Ltd.
My thanks to the State Library of Victoria and the photographer, Charles Daniel Pratt, for the following black and white aerial photographs. They're all dated 1936 but the detail does vary in them so appear to have been taken at different times. Most are taken from the rear, as you can see the train line and you can also clearly see the row of workers houses in front, most of which are now gone.
References:
"Distillers have paid £50 million in excise" The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954) 3 July 1954: 10. Web. 13 Aug 2020 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50603666>.
"WHISKY DISTILLERY." The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) 8 April 1927: 15. Web. 13 Aug 2020 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3848033>.
Osborne House
There’s a set of gates on the left-hand side of the Princess Highway as you come into Geelong. They stand alongside the Highway on the corner of Swinburne Street next to the Vietnam Veteran’s memorial.
These gates, that do nothing these days other than stand there next to a cricket ground, have no markings, plaque or indicators as to why they’re there or what they do. Beyond the gates and the two ovals, overlooking Corio bay stands a lovely old home. It was built in 1858 for local squatter Robert Muirhead, who named the mansion after Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, England. Muirhead commissioned the leading Melbourne architects Webb and Taylor to undertake this task. He lived at the house until his death in 1862, with the house being sold the following year after the death of his wife.
Today it’s meant to be used by local associations and council bodies. (Just quietly – the main house still looks pretty empty and underused. It would make an awesome home.) But the decision has been taken to keep it in Council ownership and use. Hopefully on the other side of all of this that will happen.
Back to the gates. They were once for the entry to Osborne House at a time when it covered a much larger area as most of these large homes once did.
References:
Lunan House
Lunan House was built in Drumcondra by James Strahan in 1849-50. Strahan is one of the better known pioneering names in Geelong, along with the likes of Austin, Dennys, Lascelles, and Harrison. The Victorian Heritage Database provides the following detail.
“Charles Laing, architect and surveyor, designed this spacious two storey colonial Georgian style residence as an axial composition with central Doric portico, Georgian casement sashes and simple parapet cornice. Barrabool freestone was used as ashlar cladding on a rubble stone carcass. In the 19th century ornate iron gates fronted the sweeping driveway entrance. Lunan House was named after the Muir of Lunan near Montrose, Scotland, the birthplace of James Strahan.”
Ownership of Lunan passed from James Strahan to Sydney Austin and then to James Bell. Then in 1911 James Bell subdivided the 18 acre property and it was sold off for L7,298 with the main residence and 2 acres realising L1,605, the purchasers being Messrs Macintyre and Mackey. As we saw earlier, the Bells gave the gates to the Geelong Grammar school in 1913, where a number of Bells had been students.
By 1950 Lunan House was a teachers college for the education department of Victoria. Today it’s back in private ownership. The land around it has been reduced slightly and there’s now a small park, including two tennis courts alongside.
References:
"LUNAN SUBDIVISIONAL SALE." Geelong Advertiser (Vic.: 1859 - 1929) 27 March 1911: 3. Web. 13 Aug 2020 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149201907>.
"Welcoming a Patriarch." Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic.: 1885 - 1939) 30 August 1889: 12. Web. 13 Aug 2020 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147279807>.
Harrison’s Ice Works
The next stop of my ride was something that’s not known by many at all. There’s a small plaque to James Harrison in a garden bed on Western Beach Road, opposite number 2A. As the plaque explains, near this location he created a plant for the artificial manufacture of ice.
While I’m at it, there are plaques and bridges for Harrison, truly an important person in the history of our great city. But does he have a statue? If you know of one please let me know.
Merchiston Hall
The final stop, as I pushed up the hill from Corio Bay was at the lovely house at the north end of Garden Street, again number 2A. It’s called Merchiston Hall. With thanks to the VHD:
“Merchiston Hall, an eight room two storey stone mansion with outbuildings was erected in 1856 for James Cowie, a pioneer Geelong merchant, businessman and politician. Backhouse and Reynolds were the architects for this stucco rendered Italianate mansion with single storey colonnaded verandah and upper balcony. James Leggatt built the mansion at a cost of c. 5,000 pounds. G F Belcher, a Geelong businessman, acquired the property in 1872.
Merchiston Hall, which was originally built to command views over Corio Bay and the infant Botanical Gardens, is perhaps the finest Italianate style mansion in Geelong and most distinguished work of the accomplished architectural firm of Backhouse and Reynolds. The disciplined axial composition is sensitively detailed and an examplar of Italianate architecture of the mid nineteenth century in Victoria. James Cowie was a significant pioneer resident and later MLC for Geelong. Merchiston Hall is maintained in excellent, near original condition.”
References:
Next it was up the hill and then headed west, home to Newtown.
When you’re out there make sure that you look around, you never know what you might just see. Best wishes to all, and please do stay safe in these very “different” times.
CG
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