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Templestowe

(3106, 18 km NE, Manningham City)

The village of Templestowe was surveyed in 1852, and four years later the Templestowe Road Board was proclaimed. In 1889 the Shire of Bulleen, which replaced the Templestowe Road Board in 1875, was divided and the Shire of Templestowe formed. In 1926 the shires of Templestowe and Doncaster were united to form the Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe.

Two theories have been offered to explain the derivation of the name Templestowe. One suggests the name derived from Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe; the second that the name originated from a small English settlement called Temple's Stowe. Major Charles Newman was one of Templestowe's first European settlers. He took up land at the junction of the Yarra River and Deep Creek (also known as Mullum Mullum Creek) in 1837 and built a stone homestead called Pontville.

Prospectors were attracted to the district after the discovery of gold at Anderson's Creek (Warrandyte) in 1851. Some prospecting was also undertaken on Unwin's Special Survey, by then renamed the Carlton estate. In 1890 the Antimony Hill Gold & Antimony Mining Co. began operating on a large scale. The quartz mined by the company was treated to recover gold and antimony at a plant constructed at Ruffeys Creek. The mine closed in 1915. Stone was also quarried at Templestowe after 1850. In 1857 Templestowe resident Joseph Johnson won the prize offered by the Victorian Government for superior building stone.

Heidelberg School artists were attracted to the Yarra River at Templestowe where dairying, market gardens and, by the early 20th century, fruit-growing were the main industries. Fruit-growers formed a co-operative, which constructed the Templestowe Cool Store in 1919 with the financial assistance granted under the provisions of the Victorian Cool Stores Act 1915.

Suburbanisation after World War II resulted in residential housing supplanting Templestowe's orchards. Brick kilns commenced operating in Templestowe by the 1940s. Later the Glen Iris Brickworks opened a quarry to produce the then fashionable lighter-coloured bricks. Project builders constructed display homes in the area. In the mid-20th century city planning and urban design principles also had an impact on Templestowe's appearance with cul de sacs and streets designed to follow topographical forms.

Mary Sheehan

References
Green, Irvine, Templestowe: the story of Templestowe and Bulleen, Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society, Melbourne, 1982. Details