The growth of Yarram

Yarram has kept most of its grand buildings along the main street. It has a long history, and some parts of that history are still visible.

Edmund Buckley had the Gammon Creek run of 16,000 acres, between Woodside and the beach in 1844-1845 but in 1844 he also took up the Yarram run. This got a bit complicated because Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip, a very thorough list indeed, makes no mention of a Yarram run. There is a Yarram Yarram up near the Grampians but that is all.

I was able to establish that Buckley also took up the Tarra Creek run, which I'm fairly sure, was the 'Yarram run'. That was 26,000 acres, for a total of 42,000 acres.
Buckley was married four times, and that was significant even in a time of relatively short female mortality. One part of the Yarram run was called Bourke's Morass, because his half-brother got lost in it and was lucky to survive.
The Alberton District Roads Board was established in 1856 (it became the Shire of Alberton in 1864).

In March 1857 Trove tells us the board decided to bridge the Tarra near Brown's brewery. By this time the overland route from Port Albert to Sale was becoming quite busy. The entry to the Gippsland lakes had not been thought suitable for shipping, so Port Albert was the point of entry. It was also the 'port of exit' for Gippsland's produce, especially cattle bound for Tasmania and to a lesser degree to Melbourne.

The area was licensed as the Tarra River run, but during the 1850s the days of the large landholdings in Gippsland already seemed numbered. A flour mill and a sawmill were built on the Tarra River, on the east side. This was built by John Carpenter This was soon facing a growing town on the west bank, briefly called Barkly, after Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria. There were several stores and by 1861 there was a Mechanics Institute – and a school.

Charles Devonshire opened the first store in 1857, John Walsh built another and William Ostler ran the necessary shanty where the Yarram Hotel stands today.
Yarram Yarram's first school opened in 1861 as a National School. As early as that was, there were still 23 children enrolled. It was on leased premises into 1877 when the lease was cancelled, but the Education Department had a new school built on a new site by the end of the year. That was State School No. 693.

Enrolments grew steadily as Yarram's role as a district centre grew. In 1918 Yarram SS became a Higher Elementary School, meaning it had classes of what we now call years seven and eight. A mere 33 years later it became a high school, in 1951, and in 1956 the secondary school year levels moved to a new high school building and No. 693 reverted to being a normal State School.

By the end of the 19th century Yarram was emerging as the main town of the area as Port Albert and Tarraville began to fade away. Alberton had been the municipal centre but this moved to Yarram in 1897. Of as much importance was the continuing release of farming land, so that dairying could grow rapidly. The town had a weekly cattle market.

The railway, though, did not reach Yarram itself until 1921. I don't have the dates to hand but Yarram had a small hydro-electric system on the Tarra River which dated, I think, from about 1910. Don't quote me!

In 1903 one of the several directories wrote enthusiastically that the commercial future of Yarram was bright indeed. "It is a pastoral district and Yarram is the cattle market for the whole of South Gippsland. Dairying is now largely carried on, butteries and creameries have been established and a large trade is being done. Flax is grown. Coal and valuable clays re found within a few miles of the township. Gold and tin are also found but the country is undeveloped."

It is of no great significance that this is the first time I've come across the word 'butteries', but why not? The butter factory opened in 1891.
In that year Yarram had a post office (1861) with telegraph, a bank and a school. It had a Mechanics Institute and an associated free library. There were four churches, two hotels and the Shire Offices (Alberton Shire).

It even had two newspapers, the Chronicle and the Gippsland Standard. The population was 400, but I don't know how widely the definition of 'population' went. If all 400 lived in the township than it is a very large number for the time.
In 1914 it even had a hospital, a crucially important facility in what was still a fairly remote location, but one which now served farmers on the coastal plain and also well into the hill country.

The 1938 Municipal Directory of Victoria reflected the steady growth of Yarram, now with a population of 1400, still with four churches but now with three hotels, four schools and a police station, but only one newspaper. It now had the Shire Hall, which was not saved from demolition as were the other handsome buildings that still line Commercial Street and which are worth seeing. Access was by railway (the station was about three miles out) or by coach. The railway reached Alberton in 1892 and lasted until the 1940s. In 1921 the line was extended just beyond Woodside and there was always hope that it would eventually go on to Sale.

Trucks effectively killed the railway, and cars effectively killed the coaching lines. In 1903 there were coaches between the town and the railway station, and there was a three times a week coach service up to Sale. That cost 15 shillings each way, quite a steep fare, but for a long road.

In 1938 the railway was the fastest and most comfortable way to get up to Melbourne for those who did not have a car, and there were many such, but the railway fares were expensive, 26 shillings and elevenpence for first class and seventeen shillings and elevenpence for second class.

Yarram Yarram started out as a minor river crossing and grew to be the headquarters of the shire and a substantial township. It now has a large and diverse local economy – and the people of the town have been wise enough to preserve most of their 'grand old buildings'. More power to them.