TRARALGON SHIRE COUNCIL - "THROUGH THE MAIL, 1883-1891"
by M.A. Wood (M. Fullard)

Approximately 2,500 letters have been indexed so far, covering a period from 1883 to 1891. They are being indexed by date, by the name of the writer and by subject. The collection of letters dates from 1883 to the 1950's and members have spent countless hours putting them into chronological order. The later ones are mostly business correspondence whereas the earlier ones are fascinating as a social, family and municipal history of this area. Most of the letters were from ratepayers, many were from government departments and some came from other municipalities.

Traralgon was the administrative centre and it was a huge Shire with huge problems. It was bounded by the Shires of Rosedale, Alberton, Woorayl and Narracan and included Morwell and several small townships which were many miles apart. Rates were really low and the Council was constantly in dire straits for money.

In 1887 Treasury wrote about a subsidy due to the Council; before they would pay the subsidy, they required information that the Council had omitted to send and enclosed 2 more forms in case these had been lost. One letter referred to the Council's illegal overdraft and asked what action had been taken to liquidate this.

Mr. James Campbell was the Engineer and Secretary, and how he must have worked! We have his beautifully drawn plans of designs for bridges, roads and buildings and some of his letters.

Many of the letters were written on their behalf and just signed by the correspondent. Someone at Kelleher's Hotel, in Morwell, wrote a lot of them and neighbours, children and councillors also wrote for others. Many have strange spelling - often phonetic - and grammar was very basic, leading to anomalies and more than one interpretation. Some of the writing and the signatures were almost illegible. Most of the letters were from men, only about 6 from women.

There were requests and complaints about roads, bridges, livestock problems, roads, neighbours, council services, roads, access, drainage and roads! Annie Mulvenna's selection was behind another selection and she wanted access to her property. Others asked that they be recompensed if a road was made through their selection.

Contractors were always wanting to be paid. Bladin, from Sale, wrote to James Campbell stating that if the Council couldn't pay him straight away he would agree to them paying him when finance became available. In 1887 one Contractor wanted £20 Sterling; he wrote, "Please manage to get my payment passed re the corduroy road to Yarram. £110 work has been done. Please give me some payment.

Litigation: George Wise, of Sale, was an excellent solicitor and he frequently advised James Campbell about legal matters. There were many Court cases. One action was filed when neighbours knocked down a fence. Contractor Bowen wrote to Mr. Campbell that a neighbour had burnt down 7 chains of fencing; he asked the neighbour to replace it and then he asked Council whether he could be compelled to replace the fence.

Compensation: In 1888, the loss of stock meant very real financial hardship. One letter was about a bad road. Fowls to the value of 25/- had been killed, an axle broke and £5 damages was claimed from the Council. A ratepayer from Yinnar wrote, "I wish to protest against any work being done on my (creek) frontage. If the frontage were to be taken away, it is spite on my neighbour's part to decrease the value of my property as he has given the frontage to someone else.

1st July, 1889: Sheep were driven over Morwell Bridge and 2 were badly injured in the holes. There was a claim for compensation.

1887. Callignee. A ratepayer was crossing a bridge. He stated that the horse he was riding fell and was badly hurt; this was a serious loss as he used it for his living. He asked for £10 compensation. (The Council did try to repair roads but stock put holes in the bridges and in winter the condition of the roads was awful - they were gravel, wet and slippery.) To construct a road, the surveyor made a line and the con- tractor followed, however, they sometimes bent the road round difficult trees, difficult fords or steep patches. There was one complaint about a track that was cleared to only 5 ft. wide which a dray couldn't get through. At Mirboo the ford over a creek was very dangerous and slippery and bullock drivers had put ferns in. Another writer told had contractors had deviated into a settler's land so he had put a gate across the road and locked it thus denying anyone access to the road. When the Budgeree school was to be opened there were 23 trees across the road and the furniture couldn't be delivered.

William Benn, of Mirboo South, wrote that he tried to cross a river with 3 horses and a dray. The river was too high and he lost his best horse. He brought his cattle to the crossing and the dray was smashed. He requested compensation for the horse.

Drainage: There were many problems with drainage in towns and into paddocks. In 1888, Mr. Lang wrote that the drain in Hotham Street was a dangerous nuisance. There was a dreadful smell during the day and at night houses were almost uninhabitable. He requested that Council put carbolic acid in the drains. A man was employed to dig out the drains and he said that as fast as he cleaned them they were filled with rubbish again which included dead animals.

However, despite the drains,this was a healthy place; there were no epidemics but there were odd cases of diphtheria.

Water Supply: Dr. John Montgomery requested that the drainage system be cleaned and that he would like a water supply for flushing the drains.

In 1888, Mr. Campbell wrote to the Railways asking that water from the tank from the Railway Reservoir be made available for fire-fighting and for flushing the drains. The Railways replied that they had only half enough water for their engines. They allowed the Shire to use water for fire-fighting but refused water to flush the drains. Mr. Campbell tried again in 1889, requesting that a pipe be put under the railway line. This was eventually done. In 1891 the Fire Brigade wrote to the Shire about the inadequate water supply; they couldn't get enough water to half- fill their fire engine. That year, 1891, there was a very big fire in which one side of Franklin Street was burnt down. After this, Traralgon obtained water from the Tyers River.

Public Health: "A storm in a teacup". Senior Constable Keen was Inspector of Saleyards and Nuisances and sometimes he had to ride great distances to make his inspections. He wrote, "Dr. Montgomery and I visited Grubb and Price Butchers, and we found beef unfit for human  consumption. Cattle which were diseased had been given to Mr. Grubb." He cautioned both parties not to sell the beef. James Campbell sent 3 telegrams about the 3 carcasses to the Public Health Department in Melbourne and asked for instructions about what he should do. An Inspector came on the train from Melbourne and he stated that the meat was perfectly alright. All this took about 3 days.

There was a letter in 1887 about ordering trees from a plant nursery which stated that it could supply elms, oaks and plane trees for 1/6d. plus postage.

In 1889 J.H.McDonald wrote to Mr. J. Campbell that he had seen brown coal, not in the selected area. It was on the right-hand side of the road towards Morwell Bridge, and he asked if Mr. Campbell could organize the exploitation of this brown coal.

1886. The Shire of Narracan wrote about slow trains including the many stops at small towns, especially between Warragul and Melbourne. Mr. Campbell again wrote to the Railways, this time about the position of the Traralgon Station - this should be moved to the north side of the line as trains blocked access to the platform. He said that it was dangerous for people having to cross the many railway lines to reach the platform, which should be moved, or someone would be killed due to con- tinuous shunting. 1887.

A letter came from the Town of Footscray stating that a resolution had been passed protesting about all Members of Parliament being given free rail travel after being a Member for 7 years.

We really enjoyed this glimpse of life in our Shire over 100 years ago. Often it was desperate as shown by a letter from Mrs. James Parker. Her husband was a contractor and the Council owed him money for work completed. She requested that this money be paid to her as her husband had deserted her 3 months before. She had 4 children and was destitute.

We do not know how many of these problems were solved as, usually, we have no record of any action taken. Our President thanked Mrs. Wood for her well-researched and most interesting talk and presented her with a memento of the evening.