257 Part of the Parish of Prahran Map, Crown Lands Office, 23 June 1857 Port Phillip City Collection This map shows more clearly the unsurveyed area of the Elwood Swamp. 258 Proclamation Re: Elwood Swamp Town Hall St Kilda, 28 January 1888 Photocopy of document Port Phillip City Collection 259 The Von Schmidt Dredge, Elwood, cl889 Print from J B Cooper, The History of St Kilda 1840-1930, Vol 1 Port PhiUip City Collection In 1835 when John Pascoe Fawkner's schooner was looking for a place to land in Port Phillip Bay, his crew investigated the Elster Creek/ Elwood swamp. They described it as a water course hinged by wattle and small gums, with lovely knolls around the lagoons and with flocks of teal, ducks, geese, swans and minor fowls. But there was no fresh water so the party moved on. At its deepest the Elwood swamp was three and a half feet deep. It was used as a rubbish tip by early settlers, and as a night soil dump (as Melbourne was as yet unsewered). The military and volunteer riflemen used it, and its scrub timber was consistently removed for firewood. Nearby residents continued to graze their livestock around the swamp well into the 1920s. The occasional cow stumbled into the swamp, got bogged and drowned. It was not until 1871 that the Borough of St Kilda was forced to give serious thought to this large swampy area of crown land within its boundaries. Brighton Borough cut a drain to St Kilda's borders, discharging considerable effluent into it. The Commissioner of Crown Lands requested that St Kilda continue the drain to the sea which it did in 1873. The grades of the drain were so flat however that it was tidal well past Glenhuntly Road, and it did not stop the noxious vapours still rising from the swamp. In 1888 the Government let a contract to George Higgins CJE. tofill up 108 acres of the swamp adjacent to Barkly Street. Higgins went to America to buy a Von Schmidt suction dredging machine. As none were available he returned to Melbourne with Von Schmidt, and the machine was constructed here. In 1887 Higgins had made a series of borings off Elwood foreshore. He found that splendid sand, and good clay, admirably suited for filling, could be obtained from below the high water mark north of Point Ormond. Elwood Swamp was, with the aid of Von Schmidt's machinery,filled with this. Silt dredged from the Yarra River by the Melbourne Harbour Trust was also used. The machine at the same time spread clay and sand.
The water, by means of chutes, drained into the bay. The remaining 26 acres of the swamp between Barkly Street and the Beach belonged to private owners. The council served the owners with notices to raise their land and to dry up the swamp covering their property. Compulsion caused them to make arrangements with the Government tofill in the land under the general scheme of improvement, and to pay their share of expenses. The reclamation of the Elwood Swamp was completed in 1905 when the surface of the reclaimed land was raised with earth from the Red Bluff. Roads were then marked out and partly made, and a plan of subdivision prepared by the Surveyor General. Thefirst sales of Elwood Crown Lands were held in 1905. 260 Red Bluff, Elwood, c 1860 Thomas Clark (1814-1883) Oil on canvas Courtesy Joan McCeliand, Joshua McClelland Print Room 261 Report of Conference on the Best Means of Improving the Sanitary Condition of the Elwood Swamp, 21 March 1904 Document Port Phillip City Collection 262 Letters to the Mayor and Councillors, 2 8 , 2 9 , 3 0 October 1918 Handwritten and typed letters Port Phillip City Collection 263 Newspaper Articles on Elwood Canal, 1937,1938 Port Phillip City Collection 264 Plan of Land Required for Deviation of Elster Creek, Elwood, cl955 Ink on linen paper Port Phillip City Collection 265 Aerial View, cl980 Colour photograph Port Phillip City Collection The Elster Creek drained into the Elwood Swamp but because the Elwood Swamp was below the high water mark it could not drain into the sea. As the original drain was unsuccessful the Elwood Canal was built roughly along the bed of the Creek. In 1889, sixty men were employed to make the 54 foot wide, 11 foot deep, three quarter mile canal. The canal was supposedly designed to deal with floodwaters and serve as an anchorage for small boats. In 1891 the new Byron Street main drain diverted into the canal. The scheme was not a success, as the tides held the