Victoria, Australia

The name ‘Dean’s Marsh’ appeared first very early in the white settlement of what became Victoria.  The name is older than those of Winchelsea Birregurra and Lorne. It was the name given to a 7000-acre pastoral lease in the 1840s – which is only 5 years after John Batman first arrived in Port Phillip. Before that, these were the lands of the Gadubanud people for millennia.

The name of the pastoral lease was given to a settlement which began to form in the late 1860s and early 1870s around what Deb Campbell calls Blakes’ corner – where today you take to turn off to the Blakes’ winery 2-3 kms North towards Winchelsea, near the corner of Smiths Lane.  As the land was divided up into lots for sale to small farmers and landowners, the colonial government gazetted land nearby to Blakes’ corner for town sites including for community facilities. However, those sites were never used, and were later sold to private landowners. In the late 1870s, as more small landowners bought land and began to farm, two schools were created by the community up at Blakes corner and a blacksmith. By the 1880s though, the store had moved to the Birregurra Road corner. More details about Deans Marsh can be found at the THE COTTAGE website.

c1895, Deans Marsh township looking North towards Winchelsea. Hotel is on left, hall on right (later moved) and blacksmith shop.

c1901, Deans Marsh

Deans Marsh, (L-R) Old Commercial Bank just to left of blacksmith, G.C. Moth Blacksmith & Wheelwrights, State SavingBank

The village of Deans Marsh developed on the edge of Dean’s Marsh. The marshy land was drained when a furrow was ploughed, thus establishing the Deans Marsh Creek. In 1874 John Bell built a grocery store and residence about 60 yards from the present corner store at the intersection of Winchelsea, Birregurra, and Lorne road. John Bell had a hotel constructed by local builder, Thomas Hunt, to cater for the tourist trade adjacent to his store. The hotel closed in 1924 and the building remained on its original site, later becoming a private home.

c1880s Deans Marsh Hotel. (LHS photo 7207)

The Australian handbook in 1903 described Dean’s Marsh, with the apostrophe, as a small postal village. It had a railway station on the branch line from Birregurra with fares of 16s 5d and 11s 0d. A coach ran to Lorne with a fare of 5s. Dean’s Marsh was reported to have a school opened in 1875, a hotel, used as a coach stop, as well as a Church of England, Presbyterian Church, a free library, creamery, store, a blacksmith, a coach builder and two butchers.

Deans Marsh – Lorne Road

Before 1872, the only route from Deans Marsh to Lorne was the ‘bridle’ track, used by people riding a horse or walking to Lorne. The Louttit Bay Track (old Lorne Road) was constructed in 1872. The first part of this road at Deans Marsh can still be seen going straight up the hill past the Anglican Church.

The Deans Marsh-Louttit Bay track was first blazed by William Box (or was in Benjamin Box) with his bullock team, then surveyed and established in 1872, giving another access to the tiny beachside settlement of Lorne other than by sea. Times were very tough with everyone employed on the road works having to provide their own tools, tents and food. You can imagine how important the new overland access track was to the early settlers. Until the first butcher shop opened in Lorne, they relied on deliveries of meat by packhorse from Deans Marsh.

Road works camp Lorne Road Benwerrin

The Lorne Road was reconstructed in 1912-14. The steadier grade was not popular with coach drivers who had to contend with one long pull for about 8 miles rather than the up and down hill which gave the horses frequent easier periods. The Deans Marsh Road (DMR) was the main way people travelled to and from Lorne before the opening of the Great Ocean Road in 1922. Over the years there were many attempts to put gravel on the dirt track that was the DMR. In 1930 the Country Roads Board began bitumen sealing the DMR, much to the delight of Lorne residents. It was considered a single lane road until 1966, when a white line was painted onto the road, deemed to be wide enough to be classified as a two-lane road.

Passengers and early bus (Birtles) on Lorne-Deans Marsh Road. (LHS photo 9021)

Birregurra to Forrest Railway Line, 1891 – 1957

The Deans Marsh Railway Station was located down Railway Terrace in Deans Marsh. The fairly large basin for the railway station was dug by fifty people engaged for the job with horse and scoop, called a ‘Tumble Tommy’, according to Bill Howard, a local legend as a butcher, horse breaker, farmer and shearer.

The train would arrive daily from Birregurra at 11 am and passengers bound for Lorne would alight for luncheon, then board coaches and set off for the 3 hour trip to Lorne. In winter, smaller coaches were used to carry 9 or 10 people and pulled by three horses. In summer, large coaches were used to carry as many as 25 people and would be pulled by a team of 5 or 6 horses. The luggage and mail would be put on one or more other coaches.

Deans Marsh Railway Station on the Birregurra – Forest branch line opened 1889, closed 1957

 

Sid Willcott and Laddie at Deans Marsh Railway Station

 

Train ticket Deans Marsh to Melbourne. (LHS photo B213)

Deans Marsh Railway Station

In a letter written to Doug Stirling in October 2000, Lindsay Stewart remembers activities at the Deans Marsh Railway Station. With his father Hughie Stewart, Lindsay and Syd recall unloading a railway truck of Superphosphate from the Cresco company, using a hand trolley to move the bags to the Goods Shed at the Deans Marsh Railway Station. Grace Walter controlled the operation of the Deans Marsh Railway Station with wonderful efficiency. She served tea and scones in the small refreshment room and organised transport of a large range of goods, including raspberries in wooden pails covered by hessian and cabbages from Penny Royal. Sawn timber from mills at Barwon Downs and the Forrest terminal. In 1901, a spur line was built by the ‘Great Western Colliery’ to connect the Benwerrin coal mine to the railway line for transporting coal.

The Mountjoys and Cobb & Co coaches would meet the train at Deans Marsh from 1891 onwards to until about 1920, when Sanderson’s motor coaches took over. There was usually a passenger coach attached to the train, several when football was played at Barwon Downs and Forrest. The train simply stopped adjacent to the football oval to allow passengers to disembark.

In 1936, the steam train was discontinued and replaced by a passenger ‘Dodge’ tourer converted to rail, stripped with yellow and black paint and known as ‘The Tiger’. Improved roads and transport spelt the end of rail use, except for a minimal amount of passenger use with ‘The Tiger’.

‘Mac’ McDonald driver of the ‘Tiger’ rail motor, preparing to leave for Forrest

Coal Mines

There is a coal seam which runs through the Otway Ranges which has been used as a source of brown and black coal at various sites. In 1891, there are reports of black coal being found at Big Hill on the Great Ocean Road, and men working on the construction of the Great Ocean Road burning coal for heating. Most recently the Anglesea Power Station, now closed, used an open cut mine to source coal to generate electricity for the aluminium industry. Historically we know there were attempts to source coal near Deans Marsh. There were two competing companies. The Great Western Colliery Company extracted coal from a mine successfully for about year, near Benwerrin. The other company Wensleydale Coal Prospecting Association found potential sources of coal, but there is no record of any successful mining.

Wensleydale Coalmine

Benwerrin Coal Mine

In the 1890s, William Box discovered coal deposits at Benwerrin, while watering his bullocks at a spring. The mine was developed in 1895, the coal at first being brought to the Deans Marsh Railway Station by horse and dray. The mine owners established a Post Office, a General Store and built dwellings for the workers. In 1901, a 5 ft 3 inch gauge railway line from Benwerrin to the Deans Marsh Station was built by the Great Western Colliery Company to speed up the transport of the coal, but it remained in operation for only a little over 12 months. In that time, 6,800 tons of coal was mined, but the venture failed because the coal deposits proved to be very limited and the company ran into financial difficulties.

During its short period of operation the coal train encountered two serious accidents. On one occasion, when the engine and three trucks were standing on a slope ready to move up the hill, the train started to roll down the hill. Soon it reached a speed of 50 mph. The engine broke free, ran off the rails and ploughed into the soft ground before turning over. The two men in the engine were miraculously unhurt, but six men riding in the trucks were injured. On another occasion, September 3rd 1903, while the engine was stationary, the boiler exploded scattering pieces for as far as 20 chains. Soon after this the company went into liquidation.

One of the hazards was the very steep cutting, and vibrations of the train would often cause landslides. As a precaution, the driver, before entering the cutting, would set the train moving slowly, leap out, run around the hill, and intercept the train again as it came out of the cutting.

The enterprise, however brief, did benefit the Deans Marsh. The men employed on the construction of the line and working at the mine, probably about 60 in all, gave a big boost to business in the Deans Marsh township, especially the Bank.

Down at the mine were three tunnels leading into the hills. A steam winch pulled the coal skips out of the tunnels into the open. From there they were pulled up a narrow gauge line to the top of the hill by a big winding gear (situated at the top) where the coal was loaded into railway trucks.

Cecil Clissold recalled going into one of the tunnels for 1 or 2 chains in distance. There was a narrow gauge line into the coal face. There was a stream of fast running water alongside the line. The men all had naked lights on the front of their caps. Two men in singlets and trousers were lying on their sides in about two inches of water, picking a narrow trench along the bottom of the coal face to allow the coal to fall after the explosives were fired. The miners did not go back for some time to allow the coal dust and fumes to settle, then return to load the coal that was blasted down.

In the early 1900s, the Benwerrin coal mine fell into dormancy. In Doug Stirling’s book, ‘Lorne – A Living History’, he reports that the mine reopened during World War Two and for several years later the coal was taken to Deans Marsh Railway Station by road transport. The coal was mainly used for the electric power station at Geelong. After the mine was worked out, a large open cut mine began working the brown coal deposit at South Winchelsea. Other deposits were discovered, but by the late 1940s no mines were left after nearly all of the accessible coal was mined out.

Sources:

  • Deans Marsh Cottage
  • Handwritten letter to Doug Stirling from Lindsay Stewart October 2000, document B751, B752, B753, B754, B755
  • Lorne Historical Society Collections
  • Lorne – A Living History by Doug Stirling
  • Victorian Places Website
  • The Deans Marsh Story, by Ron Millard
  • Deans Marsh More About The Past, by Ron Millard
  • Deans Marsh Road by John Agar, Lorne Independent No. 285 August 2025, page 28
  • A Journey Through Time, Our District’s Time Line 1836 – 2003, Birregurra District Historical CentreCam
  • Sandra Dempsey, sixth generation Deans Marsh resident, 2025
  • Deb Campbell, Deans Marsh (Author of Before Louttit Bay)
  • Daryl Babington, Facebook page accessed 2025