Time Travellers in Essendon, Flemington and the Keilor Plains

The 1880s land boom

by Lenore Frost

Detail of the real estate subdivisional plan for the Rose Hill Estate in 1888.  From the

State Library of Victoria Collection. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/95447

The Victorian government copied English building society statutes in 1876, but with a significant weakening of the provisions, in that it allowed building societies to buy and sell or mortgage freehold or leasehold estate.  This allowed Victorian building societies to engage in speculative land dealings, using public money which had been subscribed for other purposes.

In the 1880s land speculation was engaged in by men who were members of the government, directors of banks, and directors of building societies and 'land banks'.  Many of the directors used depositors' money for their own purposes.  Thousands of acres of suburban paddocks, formerly orchards, market gardens and grazing paddocks, were floated into Estate companies, subdivided, and sold to a willing public. 

The old Borough of Essendon was particularly affected by this fever of speculation.  Between 1881 and 1888 at least 60 estates were subdivided and put on the market, including such well known names as the Maribyrnong Park Estate, Aberfeldie Estate, Locke's Paddock Estate, Tweedside Estate and Lincolnshire Park Estate.  Potential buyers were attracted to the auctions with free rail passes, free refreshments and low deposits.

The Essendon Land & Tramway Co Ltd was formed in 1889, and promoted by James Mirams who sold his own land to the tramway company.    The City of Melbourne Bank later foreclosed on its assets, and the tram line never built, though the promise of it was use to sell more building sites.

Weak banking regulations enticed banks to lend equal to or more than they received in deposits, and when prudent English investors began to withdraw their funds, the banks began to call in their overdrafts.  Borrowers who had put up their land speculations as collateral suddenly found that their land was worthless.  Banks, land banks and building societies began to topple, bringing down many honest traders who could not get their bills paid.  In eight months in 1891 to 1892, 120 public companies were wound up, and the number of bankruptcies increased by two thirds.  On 1 May 1893 all but two Melbourne banks suspended payment after a 'run' on deposits. 

A severe recession ensued, with Victoria losing 50,000 residents.  Thousands of people were unemployed  and 12,000 houses stood empty.   Private charity was the only recourse for those without family assistance.  The Essendon Ladies Benevolent Society was established in 1892 to assist distressed families in the area.    Generally assistance was in the form of orders on local tradesmen. By February 1895 the funds of the society were in debt, and Mrs M C Comely of "Maroondah", Vice President of the Society, wrote to the Essendon Gazette to appeal for more aid. 

Other sources of aid were a relief fund at St Paul's church in Ascot Vale, the Ascot Vale Unemployed Fund, and the council-promoted resettlement scheme for the unemployed, who were encouraged to move onto a Co-operative settlement at Bullarto, near Daylesford.

Much of the land subdivided in the 1880s was not built upon until the early 1900s or after the Great War.  This led to boom-style homes built in the 1880s being interspersed with Federation-style or California Bungalow-style homes in parts of Essendon and Moonee Ponds. The post-war era subdivisions, such as the Mar Lodge Estate, have a more homogenous building style. Many of the streets formed in the subdivisions of the 1880s bear the names of the leading land-speculators of the day - Bent, Mirams, Berry, Deakin, Nimmo, Robb and Munro, amongst others. 

The Tweedside Estate advertised in 1886 by Munro and Baillieu.  From the

State Library of Victoria Collection http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/169866

Detail from the reverse side of the  above Tweedside Estate Plan.

                                                                                                                        ©  Lenore Frost