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A couple of years ago I set out on a line of research to establish the actual date of the establishment of Rowville.
The most authoritative reference for the history of the Knox area is Helen Coulson’s book, Story of the Dandenongs (Cheshire, Melbourne 1959) and in it Coulson indicates – in two separate sections – that Rowville was given its name in 1903. First, on page 174 she records:
“The history of Rowville dates back 120 years, yet the district has only been known by that name since 1903. It was originally regarded as part of Narree Worran, due to its situation within the parish of that name, but became part of Lysterfield in the early 1870s, when that locality received its title. The name “Rowville” was adopted … at the suggestion of Nicholas Bergin, as a compliment to the Row family, whose property Stamford Park had been the focal point of the district for many years.”
… and on page 178:
“Letters were originally sorted at nearby schools but in 1903 Nicholas Bergin established the Rowville Post Office and remained postmaster for 33 years.”
No Luck With 1903
All of the old timers I have spoken to support most of the information in the above paragraphs. They agree that Nick Bergin was the one behind the establishment of the post office and that it was he who chose the name Rowville in honour of Rowville’s richest and most prominent family. The old timers also suggest that it was a shrewd move on Nick’s part as Edward Row, with his large string of well bred horses, was by far Nick’s best customer. Nick, you see, was a blacksmith and he had the responsibility of shoeing the Row horses and also, no doubt, providing much in the way of metal tools and implements for the Row farm at Stamford Park. The good relationship between Ted Row and Nick is well illustrated by the fact that many of the show certificates won by the Row horses were given to Nick to display on the walls of his smithy.
The old residents also agree that the naming of Rowville coincided with the establishment of the post office as the postal authorities asked Nick to provide a name as a destination for the mail.
However, none of the memories of those I have spoken to go back as far as 1903 so I felt it was essential to verify that year because the celebration of a centenary, on what might subsequently turn out to be the wrong year, would be a major embarrassment. Neither of Coulson’s paragraphs quoted above was footnoted with references to any documents so I assumed that she had accepted that date from somebody’s recollection and therefore its authenticity had to be proved.
1905 Is The Year of Rowville’s Origin
During 2001 I carefully checked the microfilm copies of the Dandenong Advertiser held at the State Library. I went through all of the editions for 1903 without any luck. There were no references to a place named Rowville. I then wondered if Coulson had used notes provided by some person and perhaps mistaken a hand written 5 for a 3 – in my researches over the years I have experienced a problem with these two similar looking numbers when trying to decipher old writing. Therefore I decided to focus my attention on 1905 but could not commit to the many days it would have taken to review that year’s copies of the Dandenong Advertiser. Instead I decided to chase up the Post Office records for 1905 held at the National Archives in Melbourne.
While going through the records I came across the name of a man who has taken a great interest in the history of the post office in Victoria. John Waghorn, a retired postal employee living at Lalor, very kindly agreed to go through his records and from them he was able to provide the following information:
It (the Rowville Post Office) opened on 20 Dec 1905 as a Receiving Office.”
A letter dated November 1st 1905 was received and recorded in the Post Office’s Inward Letter Register from the “Residents Rowville (Lysterfield) For establishment of a Post Office at the residence of N. Bergin”.
Primed with this date I returned to the Archives and was able to photocopy the entry which appears below. (Its Archives reference is MP311 Series 11 Volumes 47 to 60 for 1901 to 1908).
So, there is the proof. Rowville will celebrate its centenary in 1905.
In the same register I came across a later entry for a letter received on 28th February 1906 from “Inspectors Branch and Post Master Scoresby – Record of letters despatched to and Received from Rowville during 2 months 20th December 05 to 14th February 1906″. The volume of mail must have been satisfactory as the Post Office continued to operate from the home next to Nick Bergin’s blacksmith’s shed until 1965 when Irene Gilligan took over the role as postmistress and ran the post office from her shop on the corner of Stud and Bergins Road.
John Waghorn also provided me with the names of the Postmasters/ Postmistresses at Rowville and their years of service:
1905 to 1936 BERGIN, N.T.
1936 to 1960 BERGIN, Elizabeth (Miss)
1960 to 1965 GIBSON, Daniel
1965 to 1965 HOBBS, Marlene June (Mrs)
1965 to 1968* GILLIGAN, I. L. (Mrs)
*John Waghorn’s records extend only to 1968. Irene Gilligan actually continued as Postmistress until her retirement in the 1980s.
Bryan Power
First published in the February 2003 edition of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News
HAPPY CENTENARY ROWVILLE!
On the 20 December 1905 the Rowville Post Office was officially opened with Nick Bergin, the local blacksmith, as postmaster. Nick had successfully applied to have a post office established and when asked the name of the destination for the incoming mail he decided to use the name of the area’s leading family (and Nick’s best customer) the Row family of Stamford Park. To “Row” Nick added “ville”, the French word for town, and so our district received its fourth but most distinctive name.
The general area in the early days of white settlement was known as Narree Narree Warren, an aboriginal term meaning “no good water” referring, it was believed, to the fact that for three months each summer the local creeks dried up as the limited flows were absorbed into the swamplands that extended over much of what is now Rowville and Lysterfield. The second name commonly used was the “South Riding” for what was the large southern area of the Ferntree Gully Shire. In 1874, after the settlers in the east gained a school on land donated by William Lyster, the whole district came to be known as Lysterfield. So, although the area now known as Rowville was the first to experience white settlement when the Reverend James Clow took up the Corhanwarrabul Run in 1838, it was not until Nick Bergin’s initiative in 1905 that Rowville as a separate entity was named.
From 1905 to the 1950s there was very little change in the Rowville landscape. The construction of the Army/POW camp in 1942 had brought a limited reticulated water supply to about as far as Timbertop Drive but when the camp was closed in 1946 all of its infrastructure was rapidly removed. In 1953 when Stewart Finn was trying to create the Rowville Cricket Club there were only 16 families in Rowville and in the first game only six of the players were Rowville residents.
The opening of the Seebeck, Stamford and Twin Views housing estates in the early 1960s saw a steady stream of new residents move out to the attractions of the open spaces that Rowville then offered. However, for many years the best way for these new residents to indicate to family and friends the location of their new living place was to say “we live near the Stamford Hotel”. Everybody in Melbourne, it seemed, knew where the Stamford Hotel was, but nobody had heard of Rowville.
The trickle of new residents in the 60s became a torrent from the 1970s and, as we all know, there is now very little undeveloped land remaining in a Rowville that has become a Melbourne suburb.
As this centenary year draws to a close I must pay a warm tribute to the Rowville Centenary Committee that, under the chairmanship of Cr Emanuele Cicchiello and with the full support of Knox City Council, has enthusiastically co-ordinated the many celebrations that have occurred throughout this special year in our history.
May the next century be a prosperous and happy one for all who live here.
Bryan Power
First published in the December 2005 edition of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News.
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