Lorne Victoria Australia

Bullock Teams

In the early days, pioneers uses bullock teams to transport all kinds of things, essential for building houses and businesses. Teams of bullocks were often used to haul heavy loads across rugged terrain. They were a less expensive to buy and didn’t require reins. A bullocky was a highly skilled person who managed and controlled the teams, understanding the animals’ personalities and building strong bonds with them. The teams were led by skilled bullocks who were trained to guide the team.

Bullock teams were often preferred to horses because they were cheaper to buy, about 5 per head and would go their anywhere at their slow, lumbering, steady pace. A team was usually made up of 14 bullocks. Two were harnessed to the pole that was connected to the load and the other 6 pair pulled the chains. There were no reins, the driver walked on the left side and control his team with a whip and with calls such as “Gee off”. Bullock drivers said they were quite easy to control.

Thomas Smith bullock team: Front Nugget and Bright, 2nd Broady and Robin, 3rd Sandy and Spider, 4th Bluey and Major. Driver Tom

Horse Teams

W. Anderson photo from Melbourne Museum collection, road construction.

1910, boiler moved by Jack Smith’s horse team to Erskine House. Gilbert on horseback, Marshall standing next to his father Jack.  (LHS photo 2277)

Travel to Lorne by Coach

Travel back to the late 1800’s and you will see what a struggle getting to town really was. Hours of jolting and swaying had to be endured over a dusty track from the railway station at Winchelsea, endured in the tight packed company of a dozen or so others jammed inside or on top of a coach drawn by horses. The ‘road’ followed part of the track the enterprising Mountjoys blazed when they first brought cattle to graze on their run by our bay in the 1860’s. Some of the inclines were too steep for the horses and everyone save the driver had to get off and walk, or in extreme cases, push. Six hours or more after boarding, the weary travellers could alight in Lorne, some clambering from the roof via a ladder.

The trip by coach from Lorne to Winchelsea would have taken about six hours so it was necessary to have a place about halfway along the route where the horses could be changed for a fresh team and also to provide refreshment for the travellers. The Deans Marsh hotel provided these needs and became known as ‘The Half-Way House”. Mountjoys used stables at the hotel, but not Cobb & Co for they had stables just north of the bridge on the Deans Marsh to Winchelsea road. These stables were owned by Winchelsea hotel manager Mart Gullin, and were in existence from 1878 to 1885. Other places for refreshments were at the Ingleby woodshed and at Benwerrin.

The journey from Dean’s Marsh was much improved in 1879 from the tortuous old ridge track. The new coach road followed the contours more and made the trip easier on the horse teams, but it still took about 4 hours to negotiate the Otway range. It then entered the town via Howard Street down to the Erskine River and made a right turn up to the ford and over the river beside the present road bridge. For some time even after the first bridge was built, coach drivers still used the ford to wash the dirt from the brake shoes of the coach and to clean the dust and grime from their team of horses.

The coaching business flourished during the 1880s. Koenig’s “History of the Winchelsea Shire” reports that, at its peak, coaches were able to seat 120 passengers each day. Every day 90 horses were fed at the stables at the hotel and 45 were stabled there overnight. In 1891 the Birregurra-Forrest branch of the railway line was completed, so tourists travelled to Deans Marsh by train and boarding coaches at the station. Mountjoys built stables near the station. The last coaches ran about 1921 and the stables were  removed in 1933.

I seems that Cobb & Co withdrew their service at about 1886, leaving the Mountjoys to carry on without competition. Opposition was provided in 1912 when Walter Hollingsworth began running a line of coaches from Lorne to Deans Marsh. The competition was short lived as the drought of 1914 caused the price of chaff to rise exorbitantly and force him out of business. W.A. Mountjoy was better established as they produced their own feed and were able to carry on for a few more years. The increasing popularity of the motor car meant coaches were not longer needed. About 1921, Bob Sanderson of Birregurra bought the coaches and closed the service. He then introduced a service of motor cars from Birregurra to Lorne.

Horses and Drag outside Birregurra Railway Station preparing for the six hour trip to Lorne. (LHS photo 332)

c1898, Coach at Erskine House (Photo LHS 840)

This photo shows a typical coach load of travellers at Erskine House. It wasn’t only people coming on the coach. The town’s mail came this way as well. The Mountjoy family had their own stables in Smith Street and grew food for their horses in Lorne.

Coach for Birregurra outside Post Office, mail bag drop, c1919

(LHS photo 2593)

 The famous name of Cobb & Co also ran coaches over the Otway ranges from Deans Marsh, and had stables behind the Pacific Hotel. They had to transport feed for their horses to Lorne and so were at a competitive disadvantage to Mountjoy coaches.

Lorne, Oscar Mountjoy at Mountjoy Stable (LHS photo 8543)

The coaches collected Lorne-bound tourists from the Winchelsea Railway Station. After 1891 passengers were transferred at Birregurra onto a smaller train to travel a branch line to the new Deans Marsh Station. The Mountjoys built more stables at the rear of the new station, and before the trip to Lorne, the travellers were taken to the Deans Marsh Hotel where they were served huge three course meals for only eight pence.

The horses struggled with up to 26 passengers plus luggage. You can imagine how relieved the horses were when all the men got off on the hills to do the pushing. When descending a slippery steep section of the roadway during the wet weather, the driver would sometimes have to drag a large log of wood behind the coach on the way down the hills to slow down.

Coaches had to use a ford to cross the Erskine River before the bridge was built in 1898. Photo from Museums Victoria Collections.

Lorne, Dr Barker in his Buggy Crossing the Erskine Bridge. (LHS photo 2298)

c1901, Benwerrin. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4189378

The Benwerrin Refreshment Rooms was a popular place for tourists to break their coach trip to Lorne, and sample strawberries and cream. The Benwerrin Post Office inland from Lorne opened in 1886 and William Mountjoy was awarded the contract to run a mail coach between Birregurra and Lorne via Dean’s Marsh and Benwerrin.

Travelling by Car, Bus, Train

Once the Great Ocean Road and the Deans Marsh Road were completed, before car ownership was common, travellers to Lorne had a few ways to travel to Lorne. Travellers to Lorne could leave Melbourne by the afternoon train, disembark at Geelong, then take a car via the Great Ocean Road arriving at Lorne about 9 pm. Alternatively you could depart from Spencer Street Station, Melbourne, at 6:30 am and travel to Birregurra by train. Then take a car and do the trip over the Otways to Lorne. At Benwerrin, the half-way house on the ranges at an altitude of about 1500 feet (457 metres), people could stop for refreshments, before travel to reach Lorne at sea level arriving around noon.

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

Travelling by Sea

Before the opening of the Great Ocean Road, visitors to Lorne could travel by boat and land at the Lorne Pier.

Manawatua and passengers at Lorne Pier 1910

A tall pole was erected on Bald Hill, above the pier at Pt Grey, upon which a flag was raised to alert passing vessels such as the Manawatu and the Moonah sailing from Warnambool to Melbourne to stop and pick up passengers. Henry Gwynne’s daughter Gracie was a regular passenger to Melbourne or Warnambool, apparently mostly for shopping. Gracie was often seen standing at the helm of the Moonah in her sou’wester and was affectionately known as ‘Sailor Gwynne’. The Gwynnes were keen travellers and it was on a trip to California that they were inspired to build their elegant American style Grand Pacific Hotel in 1879 next to the Lorne pier.

Moonah at Lorne Pier

The Erskine Ketch was built in Geelong to transport timber from the Lorne Pier to Geelong and Melbourne. As well, it would also bring equipment and goods to Lorne, prior to the opening of the Great Ocean Road to Lorne in 1922.

Sources:

• Lorne Historical Society Collections
• Lorne Independent March 2025 page 17, IT’S NEVER BEEN EASY GETTING TO LORNE by Chis Cairns
• Western District Families
• The Deans Marsh Story by Ron Millard
• “The closure of the Benwerrin Refreshment Rooms” – Geelong Advertiser
• Lorne a Living History by Doug Stirling