Another no longer with us

In the first article of this little series on "ghost towns," I wrote about Dewhurst and its drowning for the Cardinia Dam. But, it was not the only one town to disappear beneath waters.
The original Glenmaggie village was also drowned when the Glenmaggie Weir was built over the 10 years from 1919 to 1929.
One purpose was the "taming" of the Macalister River, which could come out of the mountains with a rush and a roar. But, the main purpose was irrigation, important to the emerging beet-sugar producers and to the farmers in the area more generally.
Glenmaggie's history dates back to the first settlers in the Lakes area. Malcolm McFarlane took up the Heyfield pastoral licence in 1851. It covered more than 60,000 acres but was subdivided in 1859, with one part then being called Glenmaggie.
People say the name was given by Angus McMillan after Margaret McKinnon, a girl he knew back on the island of Skye, though I am not sure of this.
Various sites were considered over the many years of discussion, including one on the Avon River and another site further into the mountains.
Work began on December 1, 1919. This was earlier than planned, but low river levels provided an opportunity to start.
The job was intended to take three years but the dam wasn't finished until 1929, and there have been several additions and alterations since then.
There was even a narrow-gauge railway built from Heyfield. Some say the rail wagons were drawn by horses, but there is plenty of photographic evidence that the line had a tiny steam locomotive. This was one of the smallest steam engines you can imagine but it worked hard.
It was also used in the construction of the Torrumbarry and Yarrawonga weirs and worked on the Oceana Tramway in Tasmania.
Construction on the Torrumbarry Weir and Lock was started in 1919, and the first stage was completed in 1924, so it is hard to see the little loco there.
The Yarrawonga Weir was built much later - 1935 to 1939, so that was possible.
The Oceana Tramway ran between Oceana and Argenton, close to Zeehan, in Tasmania before the work on Glenmaggie, so that is quite possible too. That tramway was two-foot gauge, so the Glenmaggie line from Heyfield must have been the same gauge.
That is a diversion; back to Glenmaggie.
There were about 150 men employed on building the dam wall and they had a "township" of their own, with the married men in tents with their families and the single men in barracks. There was a recreation hall and even a football field.
The first farm irrigated was that of Mr Goldie, a sugar-beet and maize farmer who'd been prominent in getting the government to approve an irrigation scheme for the Boisdale flats. The water travelled 16 kilometres before reaching his place. Willis and McCarthy were next.
Farmers had been moving into the Glenmaggie area since the 1870s and Glenmaggie had about 500 people out on the local farms who used it as their community hub.
They grew wheat (there was a mill at Heyfield), various other cereals, maize, sugar beet (there was a mill at Maffra) and vegetables of all kinds. There were dairy farms across the district and the original creamery became a milk depot for the Heyfield butter factory.
There were also many pigs. Wherever there was a creamery, there was leftover skimmed milk on which pigs could flourish.
The 16 kilometres of channel out to Goldie's place was a part of a large channel system, based upon the northern channel out to Newry and Boisdale, operating from 1929. There was a much later southern channel system opened in 1955, serving the Nambrok and Denison areas. Among the other extensions and alterations was a small hydro-electric power station.
I have found it hard to get a "picture" of Glenmaggie as it was before 1919. But, a 1903 directory says that it was "on the Glenmaggie Creek" - it wasn't - and had three churches, a Mechanics Institute with a sizable library and a creamery. The town population was 120, and the town was lighted with kerosene lamps. There was a post office from 1872.
There was also a local hotel, of course, and local legend has it that last drinks were served with the slowly rising waters reaching the verandah floor.
Compensation was given to those whose homes and businesses, and a few farms, were submerged as the water level rose.
In 1924, an Argus editorial pointed out that "completion…will result in the inundation of practically the whole of the Glenmaggie township… compensation will be paid". Sometimes that compensation took several years to come through, partly because the Public Service moved slowly back then and partly because some of the compensation claims were a little imaginative.
There were three Glenmaggie schools. In 1875, a school named Gower Creek Bridge was opened; changing its name to Glenmaggie about 10 years later, in 1875. There is no mention in the official 1972 history of the Education Department's schools of it ever being "drowned" and replaced, and that is a very reliable source.
It might well have been the Gravel Hill State School that got wet. It opened on Gravel Hill in 1877, and was later renamed Glenmaggie North. It was near the weir, burned down and closed in 1900, reopened in 1902 and closed in 1921. That was when the lake was starting to grow, so the timing fits.
The third school was Glenmaggie Weir State School, opened in 1921 - the year Glenmaggie North closed. It lasted until 1928. Although the district was steadily growing, this school had the sole purpose of educating the children of the men building the dam.
Not all of "old" Glenmaggie was submerged as the reservoir filled. The Catholic church, built in 1878, was moved to higher ground. However, the other two - Anglican church built in 1882 and Presbyterian church built in 1884 - apparently were not.
The Mechanics Institute was also moved to safety. The Glenmaggie State School - once Gower Creek Bridge - was apparently not threatened.
The road bridge across the Macalister River here was submerged by the growing Lake Glenmaggie. However, at times of drought, the lowered water levels would expose it again and people would cross it, even by motor car. In the end, the State Rivers people took out the centre span to stop what it saw as a dangerous practice.
Glenmaggie was the first Gippsland township to be the victim of a new dam being built. The second was Dewhurst; and the third has not yet been identified. Just where will it be?