Time Travellers in Essendon, Flemington and the Keilor Plains

Articles

Essendon Weighbridge

by Marilyn Kenny

THE AUTOMOBILE CLUB: HILL-CLIMBING CONTEST AT WILDWOOD HILL (1914, May 2). 

Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), p. 31. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121132399

The photo is taken looking south towards the Royal Hotel. 

All industries that sold by weight needed to have access to a weighbridge. In Essendon the public weighbridge was located on the Mount Alexander Road  at the Essendon Junction, with Stuckeys appearing to have their own facility within the siding. The Mount Alexander Road weighbridge was a privately erected and run service, though located on Essendon Council land, which was leased for a token rent. In 1890 the Council  had  found that private enterprise was not interested in providing such a service. They had therefore leased the allotment to Frank Davenport at one shilling per year and he in turn erected and ran a weighbridge. The location was convenient to farmers travelling to Melbourne markets from Keilor, Broadmeadows and beyond, and to those collecting goods from the railway siding.

Once the age of the motor arrived, cars competing in time trials also were required to weigh in all at the same service before starting the race. Davenport (1854-1935) also ran a retail business alongside the weighbridge, selling goods of interest to travellers such as buggy rugs, tarpaulins, binder twine and oilskins.

This above entry from the 1910 Sands & McDougall Directory shows O J Harris's woodyard at 790 Mt Alexander Rd, east side, with F Davenport selling farmers' requisites next door.  This is on the corner of Mt Alexander Rd and Napier St, where the 7 Eleven store is now.

MMBW Plan of Essendon, 1907.  The building numbered 790 is the location of the 7 Eleven Store today. 

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/143086  Number 806, occupied by James Grant, is further north along

Mt Alexander Rd, so presumably the building in between those two is the weighbridge and shop of Frank Davenport. 

Fees at weighbridge seemed at the beginning of the century to have been about 3d (threepence) a load. In 1927, with Davenport aged and infirm and road works needed at the Junction, the Council decided to end the lease.  Davenport retired in 1928. A Municipal Conference of Essendon, Bulla, Keilor and Broadmeadows then ensued, which resulted in a Council weighbridge being erected within the railway siding itself. The cost and proceeds were to be divided, with Essendon’s share being 50%.

See also The Woodmen