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"LAW AND ORDER"

Arrives at the Old Post Office Museum Mornington.

Mornington and District Historical Society have great pleasure in announcing the opening of the Museum on Sunday 5th October at 12.30 pm after its long awaited roof renovations.

It has been chaos and hard work during the week getting ready for our opening exhibition "LAW AND ORDER".
Features early police artifacts. Early memories of Mornington Police Station.
All being overlooked by the judges of the Supreme Court judiciary.
And so much more!

Only $5, see you on Sunday - Sunday 5th October at 12:30 pm until 3:00PM

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#7 Main Street South Audio Script

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 DW Barkly Street virtually marked the end of the retail section of the town until the 1950s with a few exceptions.

The view you can see on the information board was taken from the tower of the Grand Hotel circa 1910 looking towards the Nepean Highway. You’ll notice the empty blocks of land and only a few houses. In the distance, on the corner of Vale Street which leads to the primary school, Fosters then Gaults operated a business providing the farming community with farm tools and animal feed. When this was being built in 1900 a fierce storm hit Mornington and walls and roof were blown down.

As The Mornington Standard reported; KW Boisterous weather has been our lot these last few days and the roads are in a very heavy state as a result. Serious damage was done to the new brick building which is being erected for Mr. Foster Storekeeper. One of the sides and a portion of the roof was blown out.

DW Undaunted, the workmen continued, and the result was a substantial building with a fine deco- rative turret on the roof.
The two-storey building on the left hand corner in the photograph was a timber business started by the Grover family. William Grover and his son Joseph constructed some of the important early buildings and houses in Mornington. The timberyard was ideally situated near the railway line. The Grovers also operated an undertaking business, which could be seen as natural extension for some- one in the timber trade!
Both William and Joseph were Mornington Councillors, William was the first President of the Morn- ington Shire and a leader in other aspects of the town’s development. The Grover family lost two members in the 1892 Football Disaster.

Both of Grovers’ businesses were taken over by John Summerland during the First World War. The timber business continued for nearly 70 years.
Down Barkly Street on the left was a blacksmiths owned variously by a Mr. Cole, whose son Billy died in the Football Disaster. This was later expanded to incorporate a coachbuilding business run by a Mr. W. Ross [ad] followed by the Pitchford family. The site would later become the Guide Hall. To- day it is a carpark.

Further down Barkly Street across the railway gates, the town’s gasworks were strategically situated for the delivery of coal by goods train. Boadle’s ice works were also down in this area.

Back to the Main Street corner, on the right hand side, Tetley’s tinsmiths would later become Gomans hardware business and the shop on that corner started out as Little’s Grocery Store.

In the photograph on the right hand side you can see a huge open space. This had been a hay, corn and produce Store in the 1930s and 40s, an indication how the township serviced its rural surroundings. In the 1970s it was the scene of a spectacularly huge fire in Aler’s car showrooms.

To continue the tour, you should now cross over Main Street and travel down the street towards the beach, following the information panels. The first is at 137 Main Street.

#3 Commercial Bank Audio Script

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DW We asked local historian Michael Collins why such an impressive Italian Renaissance style struc- ture was built in the small town of Mornington.

MC Well, it was originally a bank and the date gives us a clue. It was built in the early 1890s and re- flects the 1880s boom when bank directors acted more like merchant princes and the banks they built were their palaces.
The Mornington Standard of February 8th, 1890 had the following report:

KW Mr. William Ireland, the well-known city contractor has secured the contract to build the new Commercial Bank in Main Street. He has just finished building Mt. Martha Coffee Palace.

MC This is now Mt. Martha House. All hello hello
The first bank manager was a Mr. Short had a particularly sad involvement in the 1892 football disas- ter. This is his account of the happenings on that fateful afternoon:

KW My young clerk William Grover usually called at my house to collect the keys for the bank. When he didn’t turn up at the expected time after the football match at Mordialloc, I contacted his father Joseph to let him know. Joseph immediately set off for Mordialloc on horseback to see what had happened. As it turned out young William had drowned when the boat they came back in sank off Mount Eliza. 14 others died including young William’s uncle, also called William.

MC The monument at the beach end of Main Street, across the Esplanade from the courthouse, gives a brief history of this tragedy.
Three banks have occupied this building. You can just make out the faded sign of the Commercial Bank of Australia across the front. This was followed by the Colonial Bank of Australasia which merged with the National Bank of Australia in 1918. Up to the 1960s it remained the only major bank in the main street. In 1986 the National Bank moved to new premises up the street. In the following year this building was converted, firstly into a restaurant, appropriately named Le Banque, and then into a hotel.
The upper floor was occupied by the bank manager as his residence until 1970. The banking chamber was on the lower floor. This lovely building is now without the original decorative parapet features and lower bank windows. The high ceilings remain along with the wooden floors.

DW At one stage in its life pioneer Mary Jenkins claimed that it too was a guest house. Why not go inside and look around and perhaps have a drink.

#9 Plaza Cafe Audio Script

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DW The Plaza Cafe took obvious advantage of being next door to the newly-opened Plaza Theatre. There was an interconnected entrance area and you could also book theatre seats at the Cafe. And so, although it was separately owned, it became an integral part of the theatre, During the 1950s and into the 1960s this was a meeting place for the younger people of Mornington.
You can still see the pressed steel ceiling and the 1930s style window.
The Mornington Plaza Theatre on the left of Number 115, was opened in the late 1920s. [See The Ad In Tourist Brochure] with the advent of talking pictures. It was paired with the Frankston Plaza. It was known for many years just as Plaza Talkies, as you can see on the advertising hoarding on the cafe wall in a 1930s photograph. Prior to this purpose-built theatre, movies had been shown regularly in the Mechanics Institute further down the street.
The Plaza was a large building with a huge stage, a beautiful dance floor and an upstairs section. As well as films, socials, debutante balls, concerts and meetings were held here. Alf Florence owned the cinema for many years.
In the 1950s a major refit was done along with the name change to The Matthew Flinders Theatre. The foyer was tiled and had a large depiction of the voyage of Matthew Flinders who had come ashore briefly near the site of the future Mornington in 1802. At the rear of the hall, the proprietor put in ‘love seats’ – double seats without a central arm!
You may have noticed the tiled plaque set into the pavement outside commemorating the site of the theatre.
The advent of television during the 1950s saw many movie houses begin to struggle and Morning- ton’s Matthew Flinders Theatre closed its doors for the last time in 1970.
Shortly afterwards however, a group of enterprising Mornington citizens opened a new cinema at the beach end of Main Street where it still operates successfully today.
 
As you continue down the street towards numbers 78 and 81, you will see early photographs taken before the First World War, [PIC as well as cows walking down the street] which show a number of grocers operating under the name of Cash Stores or Railway Stores. There was also a baker and a boot repair- er. By the 1930s Charlie Franklin’s boot repairers were operating along here and next door Sheedy’s photography and haberdashery.

#1 Intro & Courthouse And Lock Up Audio Script

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I am Diane White and along with my fellow members of the Mornington and District Historical Society, we hope you enjoy this Main Street walk.
Main Street Mornington is today the heart of a bustling township which serves a large community and visitor population. But close your eyes, go back 160 years and imagine when Mrs Turner and her husband arrived in November 1854 for the first land sales in the area. She recalled that the Pier was still to be constructed and Main Street itself was just a sand track with only a few buildings comprising what was then the tiny village of Schnapper Point. Yet within a few years Mornington, as it was renamed in 1861, had become the hub of a vibrant fishing and rural community.

Over the next hundred and fifty years Mornington was the main township of the Peninsula but its composition was constantly changing. From a street of houses interspersed with traders and produce merchants Main Street evolved into a typical High Street. It offered every variety of shops, banks and services. There were also hotels and boarding houses as Mornington became a major tourist and holiday destination thanks to the paddle steamers, the train and improved roads. New shops and buildings replaced the old, particularly after the Second World war. The 1990s saw further transformations. Fortunately a number of the grandest buildings have survived in some form to give Main Street the charm it has today.

1. COURTHOUSE AND LOCK UP
DW At the start of your walk stands the Court House on the corner of Main Street and the Esplanade. Originally Schnapper Point Court House, it is the Town’s oldest building and was built in 1860 to dispense justice to the local community..

Local Historian Michael Collins takes up the story . . .

MC The earliest record we have of this was a telegram sent from Mornington in 1862.

KW To: Superintendent of Police, Richmond depot. Be good enough to send a spring cart to Coles Wharf. A prisoner en route to Melbourne jail per steamer Vesta expects to arrive about 2 o’clock this day. Senior Constable McAdam

MC The building served as a Magistrates Court and Court of Petty Sessions for the Mornington Peninsula area until 1988. Many of the township’s councillors and other important residents served as Justices of the Peace and Magistrates. Some of the first matters brought before the court were the registration of slaughterhouses, with 27 applications from all over the Mornington Peninsula lodged in the first two years. The granting of publicans’ licences also made up much of the early work of the court. Most of the court cases were relatively minor, typically involving drunkenness, theft, by-laws infringements and later, motoring offences.

The Court House was also the venue for the second inquest into the 1892 Mornington Football Disaster. This was held two weeks after three more bodies had been found washed up on beaches along
the coast. To find out more about this tragedy, walk across the street to the monument and information board on the park corner.

DW and there was a case of some notoriety?

MC There certainly was! The case known as the “Mornington Scandal” in 1919 concerning ex Shire President and local corn merchant, John Blacker was heard here. Blacker had been charged with forgery and falsification of accounts. He was let off lightly, raising allegations against the Victorian Solicitor General of attempting to exert improper influence. This trial at Mornington eventually led to a Royal Commission.

DW and can you describe how the court functioned?

MC If you are able to go inside the building you will see its original layout has been preserved. The clerks of court sat in the raised section and the Magistrate sat at his desk below facing the gallery. The public gallery was so small that many people attending a case would have to sit on the wall out-side waiting to be called.

The adjacent Lock Up operated as a gaol for twenty years after it opened in 1862 but was later used mainly for holding persons overnight or during the court sessions.
The original police station was situated in part of a Victorian house until replaced by the current building in 1990. In the early decades Mornington had only a single policeman on horseback to serve the District. Over time as the police force grew horses were replaced by motor cycles and cars.

DW The growing population of the area eventually forced the closure of the courthouse in 1988 even though an additional portable structure had been added next door. The area is now served from Frankston.

Although many of Mornington’s early buildings have been replaced,as you walk up Main Street, we want to give you a picture of some of the early residents and their businesses. Just past the police station was a guesthouse and cafe originally owned by Mrs Ross after whom Ross Street was named, and later by the Swiss Bieri family until the 1920s. At Ross Street you might like to turn left and see St. Peter’s Manse, or cross over to the corner which was the site of Mornington’s first public school in the early 1860s – a little wooden building with a picket fence. If you now go to number 28 – 30 Main Street and look up, you will see the words Coffee Palace on the parapet.

#2 Coffee Palaces Audio Script

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 DW Coffee Palaces were hotels and guest houses which did not serve alcohol. A largely Australian institution, they were encouraged by the Temperance Movement in the 1880s.

We asked Janet Groves, descendant of an important early pioneer family, to tell us about coffee pal-aces in Mornington.

JG Mornington had two Coffee Palaces, both built in the late 1880s. The larger, further along Main Street, later became the Grand Hotel. We’ll talk about that later in the tour. This building at 28 -30 Main Street was built for a Scottish lady Mrs. Robertson. It was firstly used as a guest house and lat-er as a shop with a dwelling. According to pioneer resident Mary Jenkins, Mrs. Robertson was well known for her little meat pies.
In the early 1900s it became a newsagency started by a Mr. DeZoete who was also the lamp lighter of the original wooden lighthouse on Schnapper Point. Every evening he used to climb a ladder to light the lamp. He sold the business to a Mrs. Wood who had been running a stationery and fancy goods business a few doors further up Main Street at Clifton House. In the 1920s the newsagency also sold pianos, sheet music and gramophones!
Under the Wood family the former Coffee Palace continued as the town’s newsagency for 50 years. The Pender family later bought it from the Woods and added a lending library. They ran it until the newsagency moved further up the street.

DW This north end of Main Street was a cluster of many businesses early in the 20th Century until town development expanded gradually south towards the highway. Even in the 1950s, there were still small houses and paddocks dotted along Main Street. There were stables around here some-where, weren’t there?

JG There were. If you look on the left hand side of the building, you will notice an archway. Stables for a Cobb and Co Coach were located at the rear of this building. This archway may have been the original access to the stable area – the little laneway at the rear wasn’t opened until much later. Local identity Alan Denham tells us that around 1900, there was a funeral parlour and this was used as the entrance. (see photo)

On the right hand side, and as part of the next building, there is a small tiled doorway leading to the upstairs level. Although it was built much later it’s an interesting feature.

DW Thanks Janet. Further up Main Street, Dickinson Brothers opened a furniture and drapery store at the beginning of WW1 and Coles Variety store opened with much fanfare in 1949. The next stop will be 62 Main Street.

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