3. Water, Sewerage, Gas & Electricity
- Growth in the Oakleigh/Clayton Corridor
- The Metropolitan Town Planning Commission
- Water, Sewerage, Gas and Electricity
- Endnotes
Gas and some water were installed in Oakleigh by the 1890s. Sewerage took longer and the town operated with a pan collection system until the 1920s, when the western parts of the town began to enjoy the delights of flush toilets. The Shire of Mulgrave, Clayton and, indeed, the eastern parts of Oakleigh remained on a system of pan collection or septic tanks for many more years.
Night soil has a rather special place in the history of Oakleigh. Despite various attempts to ban it as harmful to the health, night soil was a major source of fertiliser for the surrounding market gardens. Oakleigh's night soil contractor sensibly combined the job with a market garden where he took the manure. Prosecutions of gardeners for using night soil did occur, but there is an impression that the law was not rigorously enforced. Night soil was supposed to be buried, after which it grew very good grass or vegetables. A Mulgrave by-law of 1909 noted that it should be buried to a depth of 6 inches by 7 in the morning in summer and 8 in the morning in winter. Meanwhile, Oakleigh's night soil was buried in trenches in the sand south of North Road.
In the early years of the century, there were many attempts to prevent market gardeners taking produce to Melbourne and bringing manure back on the same carts. Eventually, a compromise was reached whereby the gardeners covered the manure with tarpaulins and put the empty fruit and vegetable cases on top. In this context, the rise in popularity of artificial fertilisers after World War One was considered both healthy and progress. Worries about nitrogen and pollution were a long way in the future.
The above ground wires of electricity generally accompanied the below ground pipes of sewerage in Oakleigh. There was a flurry of installation of both in 1926 and 1927. However, only the built up areas were covered. Development in Abbeygate in 1937/8, for instance, was held up until 'water and electricity are put on.' [17] Generally, though, the state electricity grid was better able to keep pace with the growth in the number of customers than the sewerage system. The post World War 2 boom in growth did not see the same lag between building and service provision as characterised sewerage, and even water supply.
Tony Dingle, in his history of the MMBW, has described how the Board of Works was always running to keep up with development in this era. All the same, residents of Mulgrave managed to get standpipes from the mains running through the area to supply the City. [18] From 1923 a reservoir at Notting Hill was part of the MMBW system and the Mt Waverley reservoir was built in 1927/8. Electricity also reached pans of the Shire in 1926. Oakleigh had had kerosene, gas and oil street lights before electricity, but for the rural parts of the shire even the coming of electricity did not bring street lights. There were only 35 in 1932, mainly in Clayton.[19] However, photographs of the 1920s and 1930s began to record a new addition to the landscape - power lines and they're supporting poles and pylons.