This letter of thanks, written to the Shire of Mornington from the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution in 1897, is an example of the sustained role local government played in supporting charities.  In the absence of structured health care or social services, people in the margins of society relied on help provided by the Church and charity institutions.

These photographs are of local men in the Balnarring area from the late nineteenth century.  Many of them contributed to local government and are remembered today through local place names including Stanleys Road and Tonkin Road.   A restored framed work of these portraits can be seen in the Balnarring Hall.  We have preservation copies in the Shire Archives.

Historical Cemetery Records for the four Council-managed Cemeteries are held in the Shire Archive.  Dromana, Flinders, Mornington and Tyabb are all represented. These early records illustrate the brutality of life in the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries and are important permanent records.   

This 1866 extract from the Tyabb Cemetery Register, shows how closely connected the Western Port community was to the sea.  There are burials where the method of ‘carriage’ to the cemetery was by boat, and people interred were from communities such as Phillip Island and Sandstone Island.  The register also reminds us that the early name of Hastings township was ‘Star Point’.  The deceased’s occupation is listed and provides a fascinating snapshot of the demographic.  Fisherman’s Wife, Solicitor, Farmer, Blacksmith, Carpenter.

This Petition to the Shire of Frankston and Hastings and the Shire of Mornington in 1919, shows the signatures of rate payers requesting that Balnarring Road should be better maintained to encourage wider settlement.  The original signatures are a terrific local and family history resource.  It is also interesting to see both the Shire of Mornington and the Shire of Frankston and Hastings, referred to.  There is very little material in the Archives for the former Shire of Frankston and Hastings, which separated in 1960 when the Shire of Hastings was formed.    

Since the appointment of Road Boards in the 1860s, the maintenance of road infrastructure has been a key local government service.  This evocative letter from local resident, Mr Vale, in 1918, illustrates the challenges that were presented by poor roads, especially when horse and cart was the dominant method of transport.  Mr Vale re -tells the story of a heavy horse drawn cart being rescued after swerving to avoid a collision with other horse drawn vehicles on Dromana road.

During the Second World War (1939-1945) the State and Federal Governments were dealing with the new experience of the threat of attack on the home front.  The Archives contain records that illustrate the disruption to normal life including the construction of air raid shelters, provision for the evacuation of schools by rail and impacts on the workforce.  The War meant that many key staff enlisted.  This letter to the Council  is from the Shire Secretary, who enlisted in 1942.

By 1942 fear of a Japanese invasion of Australia had significantly escalated in response to the War in the Pacific.  Provision was made for evacuating school children on the Mornington Peninsula in the event of an attack, using rail transport.

Bathing Boxes are both iconic and controversial on the Mornington Peninsula.  They represent a colourful part of our recreational history. We hold a small collection of records associated with the Mornington Foreshore Committee, which managed the registration of bathing boxes.  These include a series of template plans for the construction of a bathing box and accounting records for their registration.  Permit records provide a list of bathing box owners arranged by beach and year and represent families such as the Tallis family from ‘Beleura’.

Mornington Peninsula beaches have always been a haven for locals and holiday visitors.  While the summertime crowds we experience every year remain a feature, attitudes to crowd management have certainly changed.  This report to the Council by Mornington Police Station in 1898 recommends ‘…a portion of the beach be set apart for the Females and the other portion for the Males’.  This was following complaints about crowds of night-time bathers at Fisherman’s Beach.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some Councils were able to purchase electricity which was then supplied to their residents.

We have records for the supply of electricity by both Flinders and Mornington Shires.  Accounting and collecting records show the names of residents, businesses and organisations, making them a useful tool for local and family history research.  These records for the Shire of Flinders show the number of lights being supplied, adding another layer of social history meaning.

Gas was a popular energy option for residents in towns at the turn of last century.  By 1890 the Shire of Mornington had commissioned the construction of two Gas Works; one in Mornington and another in Frankston.  The Shire Archives include records for the Mornington Gas Works until the early 1960s, when the supply of gas had become centralised and natural gas was discovered.  Accounting records, Gas Collector reports and Consumer records describe Mornington households and businesses being supplied gas.  These social history gems show residents’ names and addresses, the names of local businesses, and the appliances they were using.

Early last century, before sewerage or septic systems, households in townships relied on toilet ‘pans’ that were regularly collected and emptied by the Shire.  Our Sanitation records for the Shires of Flinders and Mornington provide another access point for local and family history researchers.  Registers of households requiring pans to be delivered and emptied, provide household names and sometimes addresses.  These are further supported by letters in our Correspondence files, requesting an extra ‘pan’ visit for the holiday season, or a reduction in sanitation services.  This is a quirky but essential aspect of the role local government plays in our social history.  As sanitation technology advanced, Councils responded by supporting the implementation of septic and sewerage systems.  These are also represented in Shire Archive records.

By the early twentieth Century, Mornington Peninsula farmland was increasingly subdivided into residential Estates.  The Archive holds many subdivision plans and posters for these Estates up to the 1960s.  This development explosion significantly expanded the role of local government and saw a dramatic increase in holiday properties and family homes. 

Council work diversified due to the development of Estates.  Private Street Schemes were a significant aspect of this.  New property owners were charged for the building of streets through Private Street Schemes.  This practice generated volumes of financials and title information.   Often arranged by Estate and year, these records list owners by street, creating a resource for researching street names and family history.

Records for Mechanics’ Institutes convey the diversity of these organisations in Australia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  The concept came from England where they were largely designed to offer further education to trades people.  Here they expanded to serve the wider community as meeting places, libraries, venues for lectures and conduits for information from Britain.  We are fortunate to hold some financial records and minutes for the Mechanics’ Institute in Mornington.  These records show fees paid to speakers, the purchase of periodicals and books, hiring out the halls and borrower information.

By the 1950s, Public Libraries had become the dominant community lending resource, replacing Mechanics’ Institutes.  The Archive has a rich collection of organisational history for the Public Library Service on the Mornington Peninsula.

Archive Records for the former Shire of Hastings include the specifications for fitting out the new Civic Building on Marine Parade Hastings in 1964.  The Shire of Hastings was formed in 1960 after nearly seventy years as part of the Shire of Frankston and Hastings, based at Somerville and Frankston.  The new Shire’s meetings were held at the pub in Hastings before the new Office building was opened.  

The building is still home to local government, and some of the ‘artefacts’ listed in the Furniture Specifications remain today, including the female change room lockers described here!

The social impacts of restrictions designed to contain the spread of Influenza appeared in early 1919.  The Park at Mornington was a popular venue, hired from the Shire by clubs and societies in Melbourne for celebrations.  We have many letters addressed to Miss Robinson from organisations cancelling their bookings due to the restrictions:

I beg to inform you that owing to the restrictions placed on travelling and gatherings in connection with the influenza epidemic, we have been compelled to abandon our picnic arranged for March 8^th.   

Mornington Shire decided to set up a temporary isolation hospital in the grounds of the closed Mornington Primary School. We have a telegram from the Major at The Langwarrin Army Camp, confirming the dispatch of 40 squares of Army tents, by goods train, for the temporary hospital.

Establishing the temporary hospital was not without difficulty within the community.  Our Collection includes letters from residents who protested against its location.   Mr Brown, a resident of Vale Street Mornington, wrote to the Council in early February 1919 expressing his displeasure:

Gentlemen, I wish to enter an emphatic protest as a ratepayer of this town against what I call ruination in value of my property by council allowing an Isolation Camp for one of the most virulent diseases to be established right next to my place and closer still to others in an absolutely unsuitable position…. 

Many resources within the community were employed to assist with containing the influenza outbreak.  Miss Robinson approached the Convent of Mercy in Mornington and received a generous response:

 Dear Miss Robinson, your letter to hand re-giving the use of our Bathing box to the voluntary nurses in case of an outbreak of influenza – I shall be very pleased to do so, if there is necessity for it.