Ringwood Historical Society

The non-Aboriginal recorded history of the district which has become Ringwood commenced not long after the establishment of Melbourne in 1834. Squatters, timber getters and explorers made their way eastwards from the village of Melbourne, variously following the Yarra River or Dandenong Creek, towards the timber of the Dandenong Ranges or the grazing and agricultural lands of Gippsland.

The first land sale in Ringwood took place around 1854 with parcels of 640 acres (one square mile) selling for one pound per acre.

Early land uses were for subsistence agriculture, mainly orchards, for mining (notably antimony) and quarrying (of rock and clay and for brick and tile making), for timber getting and, around the fledgling settlement of Ringwood, for residential and business purposes.

The familiar road network of today, particularly Whitehorse Road (Maroondah Highway), Wantirna Road, Mt Dandenong Road, Canterbury Road and Heatherdale Road can be traced back to the earliest 1850s Crown Subdivisions.

The major impetus to the development of Ringwood was the advent of the steam railway in 1882 as part of the railway extension from Camberwell to Lilydale. That focused the centre of Ringwood around the railway station and away from the previous centre of activity, the antimony mines of Ringwood East.

As a result of the coming of the railway, a township more formally took shape, along the north side of Whitehorse Road generally between Warrandyte Road and Ringwood Street.

Antimony mining had been a major industry since the 1860s with several mines dotted around Ringwood East, most notably Boardman’s Mine, on which is now located the Maroondah City Council offices, in Mines Road, Ringwood East.

Antimony was a metal used in industry and medicine. Production continued until the 1890s although some “scavanger prospecting” resumed during the 1930 depression.

The other major industry in Ringwood was orcharding, with many acres of land covered with apple, pear and peach trees, berries and other fruits. A substantial cool store was erected on the south-eastern corner of Maroondah Highway and Wantirna Road in which was deposited produce for sale to the local, national and international markets.

Residential development in Ringwood was accelerated by the electrification of the railway in 1923 with much land subdivided in a speculative manner. Much of that land lay vacant as the booming 1920s were quickly followed by the stagnation of the Depression and by the effects of the Second World War. Demand for land accelerated from the late 1940s. It was in the decade of the 1950s that Ringwood ceased being a village in its own right and simply became a suburb of Melbourne.

The development of Eastland Shopping Centre in 1967, and its numerous subsequent extensions, has lead to Ringwood becoming the major regional activity centre of eastern Melbourne.

In all its history, it is the people of Ringwood who have made its history. Through industry, commerce, civic involvement, sporting achievement or care for their natural environment, Ringwood residents have shaped their history, and benefit from it.

Football, cricket and tennis clubs played a strong role in the social life, as well as the sporting life, of early Ringwood.

The earliest sporting grounds were East Ringwood reserve, which was a large area of Crown land on the corner of Mt Dandenong Road and Dublin Road Ringwood East.

It was joined by the other major ground, Ringwood Reserve, on the site of Eastland on land given to the then Lilydale Council by the Grant family in 1915.

The membership and administration of the sporting clubs represented a broad cross section of the early Ringwood community.

Following the development of Eastland, Ringwood Council upgraded Jubilee Park, a large area of land it had acquired from the Sanders family in the late 1940s, to become the home of football, cricket, tennis and croquet in Ringwood.

Ringwood Bowling Club was established in 1929 in Warrandyte Road on the banks of the Mullim Creek on part of the Grant’s original holding with the rinks being opened by Mr R.G. Menzies MLA in October 1931. They remained in that site until the mid 1990s until relocation to Loughnan Road. Early correspondence with Council refers to the problem of stray cattle walking across the greens. The hoove marks are hard to get out, said the club! The problems of life!!

The photograph shows the bowling green with its second clubhouse. Notice the presence of Eastland looming to the left. Eastland would eventually expand to consume the area occupied by the Club.

Ringwood has played host over the years to the formal and the informal.

In 1931 it witnessed the funeral cortege of Dame Nellie Melba on its way to Lilydale Cemetery. Note the shops in the background still exist between the station entrance and the present site of the clock tower.

The Highland Carnival has been on Ringwood’s Calendar for 40 years. Here local member Jim Manson, MLA, takes the salute in 1964.

The Inauguration of the City of Ringwood took place amidst much pomp in March 1960. These photos show the Governor, Sir Dallas Brookes, reading the Proclamation and presiding over festivities.

Likewise the Clock Tower, in its original position, was the focus of Anzac Day celebrations, with parades down the Main Street as late as the 1960s - note the blue “Harris” train in the background.

Churches played an important role in Ringwood from the earliest years of the township.
Early churches were usually simple timber structures which sometimes literally moved locations as the population moved, say from near the antimony mines in the early days to near the station in the 1880s.

The Church of England was first established in Mt Dandenong Road opposite the Club Hotel (”Daisys”) in 1883. That modest building served until 1915 when a new site was purchased on the corner of Main Street and Pratt Street and a substantial timber structure erected.

In turn the Church moved (this time the building physically moved) to Ringwood Street (corner of what is now Civic Place) on part of what was the old Ringwood State School. That Church in turn became too small by 1967, by which time Eastland had been built opposite. The site was sold for commercial development and the Church once again moved, this time to its present site in Warrandyte Road.

The Methodist Church bought land on the corner of Main Street (Maroondah Highway) and Melbourne Street in 1905 and built a simple structure and hall. It relocated in the 1930s to the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Station Street.
The first Catholic Church building was also a modest timber structure on Main Street opposite Mt Dandenong Road opened by Archbishop Carr in 1893.

Following the formation of the Parish of Our Lady’s Ringwood in 1920 land was purchased on the corner of Wilana Street and Bedford Road. The foundation stone of a modern brick building was blessed by Archbishop Mannix in 1929.

Other denominations and Churches were also represented including the Presbyterian Church in Adelaide Street and the Salvation Army in Warrandyte Road.

For over 100 years, the major agricultural pursuit in Ringwood was orcharding.

Dating from the 1860s, becoming more predominant over the following 40 years, orchards of plums, pears, apples and cherries could be found throughout Ringwood, Ringwood North and Heathmont.

A Ringwood and Districts Horticultural Society was formed in 1897, not only to show case the produce from the district but also to work to improve methods of production and marketing.

The Ringwood Coolstores, with capacity of 10,000 cases of fruit, was built in 1911 on the south-eastern corner of Whitehorse Road and Wantirna Road, at a cost of nearly £5,000.

The Coolstores operated for nearly 50 years until they closed in 1960 and were demolished shortly after. On the site is now erected the Ringwood Clock Tower.

The history of a town is the accumulation of the life, times and work of many people. Some have been well-known, others requiring a bit of research to bring out their full story.

Ringwood has been fortunate to have many civic minded organizations to help guide its development. These included a wide range of churches, business associations and horticultural organizations. Sporting organizations and service clubs were integral to the fabric of the society.

As the well-used adage says, “Everyone has a story to tell” and every circumstance that has occurred in many a country or suburban town, in past decades and centuries, has been replicated in Ringwood.

We have had our sporting heroes, politicians and people of note. Some have become world leaders in their fields. In the end, most often return to the stability of the Ringwood environment and the families that have made up the social fabric.

Much of the early history of Ringwood was recorded by Ron and Ellie Pullin and by former councillor J.K. McCaskill. It is because of the work of these and other people, that we are fortunate to have such strong archives in the RIngwood Historical Society and are able to produce this website.

For much of its history, Ringwood was part of Lillydale Shire with prominent Ringwood identities such as G.T. Wiggins(1878 - 1889), Thomas Grant (1889 - 1894), James Maggs (1887 - 1888) and J.B. Mc Alpin (1909 - 1917) serving on Lillydale Council.

As the interests of the Ringwood area were not able to be adequately advanced whilst part of Lillydale Shire, pressure mounted for severence and the formation of the separate municipality for Ringwood. This resulted in the creation of the Borough of Ringwood in October 1924.

The first Mayor of the Borough of Ringwood was Cr. A.T. Miles with other Councillors being J.B. Mc Alpin , W. Mackinlay, A. Blood, J.K. Mac Caskill and R.G. Wilkins.

A fine Town Hall was built on Main Street (now Maroondah Highway) on the corner of Melbourne St. in 1927. It stood until 1969.

The growth of the Borough of Ringwood led to the Proclamation of the City of Ringwood in 1960. Cr. A.G. Lavis was the first mayor of the new City.

Ringwood ceased to be a separate municipality when it was merged in 1994 with the City of Croydon and portion of surrounding municipalities to form the municipality of Maroondah.

Subdivisions of land around Ringwood commenced with the first sales by the Crown in the 1850s often of parcels of 640 acres which sold at one pound per acre.

Later more intensive subdivisions took place from the 1920s, with speculative development capitalising on the prospects of growth in the district following the electrification of the railway in 1923.

Buyers were enticed out to the land sales with free rail tickets, car transport to the land and with bands playing to create a carnival atmosphere.

Much of that newly subdivided land remained vacant - and largely unsaleable - for almost twenty years following the Depression of the late 1920s to early 1930s and because of severe curtaillment of residential building during the Second World War.

It was only in the year following the end of the War that demand escalated sharply for vacant land and the old orchards of Ringwood again succumbed to subdivision.
As Melbourne grew outwards, Ringwood simply became suburb.

Early subdivisions did not offer made roads, or reticulated water, sewerage and gas. These only became common in the 1960s to 1970s.

The last orchards in Ringwood fell to residential subdivisions in the mid 1990s.

Because of its position as the junction of the railway from Melbourne to Lilydale and Ferntree Gully and of the roads to Warrandyte and to Dandenong, it was inevitable that Ringwood would develop as a centre of commerce.
Shops took shape in Main Street Ringwood from the late 1800s. The advent of the railway, and the construction of the station, concentrated development generally between Warrandyte Road and Ringwood Street.

The “ribbon development” of Ringwood moved Westward in the 1950s with development of the Olympic Shopping Centre on the site of the old McClellands Ringwood Market and the Drive-In Shopping Centre (now Murray Place).

It came back firmly and finally with the opening of Eastland Shopping Centre on the former Ringwood Football Ground, although the late development of Ringwood Square, on the site of the old Ringwood Timber and Trading Company on the corner of Maroondah Highway and New Street, still streched the centre out.

As well as being one of the dominant retailing centres of Melbourne, Ringwood has also had a prominent presence in the automotive trade and in service businesses.

Mining of antimony commenced in Ringwood shortly after its discovery in 1869.

Antimony was a sought after mineral in its time. It was used for making pewter, in the manufacture of vulcanised rubber, as pigment in paint, for the manufacture of medicines and in the printing industry. Today it is little used and little known.

Various mines operated generally south of Whitehouse Road and north of Mt Dandenong Road Ringwood East, most notably Boardman’s Mine in Mines Road, now the site of Maroondah City Council offices.

Mining took place during the 1870s and into the 1880s although was generally discontinued after 1892. Elsewhere in the locality, brick works and tile works operated in the 1880s, producing bricks and terracotta roof tiles for an expanding Melbourne. That enterprise was brought to an abrupt end by the recession of the 1890s.