Remembering Whitelaw

Compiled by Dennis Conn for the interest of the Korumburra Historical Society and the members who are assisting with the further development of the rail trail through markers that will inform users of historical aspects of the rail trail.

Due to the use of Whitelaw as part of our address Val and I are often asked “Where is Whitelaw”?

The small proposed town and district of Whitelaw was so named after a Government Surveyor with the surname Whitelaw. In 1891 the Rail line to Korumburra was opened as was a station at Whitelaw.

The Whitelaw Station closed circa 1963 and all of its infrastructure removed. Whitelaw was first surveyed with a small area of housing allotments included but they were never developed, a store was built and opened on Old Bena Road, now named Whitelaw Road near to the intersection with what is now known as the Bena Korumburra Road. With opening of the coal mines at Korumburra the area never developed as a town, the store failed and very little appeared other than dairy farming and grazing properties. However the name Whitelaw remained as a district that covered those properties off Old Bena Road now Whitelaw Road, Sullivans Road and the western end of Bena Korumburra Road.

During my early teenage years being the early 1960’s I lived in Station Street Korumburra near to the railway station. Of course the western side of the Korumburra township was far less developed than what can be seen now. Of particular note was the alignment of the South Gippsland Highway between Korumburra and the small town of Bena. After passing west along the north side of the Victoria Hotel (known as the bottom pub and now a petrol station site) the highway which was also aligned along Commercial Street then took an uphill turn onto Warragul Road and onto what is known as the reservoir hill. At a point opposite Charles Street and the eastern side of the Show Grounds there was a railway crossing on Warragul Road below the butter factory, it was controlled by a wigwag that had a swinging red light and a very loud alarm that warned of any oncoming train that was about to cross the road, now the site of the rail trail crossing.

The South Gippsland Highway turned west onto the Bena Korumburra Road at the top of the reservoir hill, also the site of the Strezelecki Monument, then ran down and through the township of Bena. While the rail line had an almost direct line between Korumburra and Bena.

A short road continued from Charles Street west past the Show Grounds and discontinued at the site of the cattle and pig Sale Yards then situated on the western side of the Show Grounds, now part of the industrial estate. On the south side of the rail line there was a siding that provided loading facilities for cattle and pigs that had been purchased at the Sale Yards and were then sent by rail to Dandenong and various meat processing establishments. Sale day for cattle was on a Friday.

The rail line then continued west and at a point of approximately 2.5 kilometres from Korumburra where it passed over Old Bena Road, now known as Whitelaw Road and often referred to as the back road, it then continued north to the then highway and what is now the Bena Korumburra Road.

Whitelaw as a district is defined by the now Whitelaw Road being the first local road on the west side of Korumburra, where it once crossed the rail line. The Whitelaw crossing had a pair of large wooden gates one each side of the rail line and had red glass kerosene lamps on them at night, they remained closed to traffic. A Railway house which was last occupied by Mr and Mrs Bob Barnes who were employed by the Victorian Railways to operate the gates, Mrs Barnes did so during the day while Mr Barnes worked on other aspects of Vic Rail. Should a vehicle driver wanting to cross the train line and travel to or from the Highway, the driver would toot the car horn for Mr or Mrs Barnes to come down the long steps from the house and open the gates. Should a train be close to passing through the crossing then one would then just have to wait for the gate operator to arrive after the train had passed by. Tooting of the car horn after 10.00 pm, especially on a winter’s night was definitely not welcomed by the gate operators. When the Victorian Country Roads Board or CRB realigned the South Gippsland Highway also in the early 1960’s it then ran as it does now, along the south side of the rail line from the then Sale Yards, now the industrial estate, to Bena. The Whitelaw rail crossing was closed and evidence of the crossing, house and platform passed into history.

In 1970 my wife Val and I married and from then on resided on Sullivans Road Whitelaw where we raised our four children and have remained for 54 years. The district of Whitelaw is delineated on maps by the properties along Whitelaw Road, Sullivans Road and the Western end of Bena Korumburra Road. Whitelaw district has what is considered to be its central point at the now Highway intersection with Whitelaw Road, on a crest only some 50 metres from the rail trail and the site of the once Whitelaw Gates rail crossing.

The last remaining iconic item at Whitelaw is “One Tree Hill,” visible on the sky line west of Korumburra as a single pine tree growing on the crest of a high hill 2 s from the start of Sullivans Road. There were other features that have now gone, such as the tennis courts on the Bena Korumburra Road, the copper telephone lines that were attached by glass insulators to the trunks of the last stand of massive blue gums that are still standing along the road sides at the start of Sullivans Road.

Our generation remembers Whitelaw as a comparatively small district being predominately comprised of dairy farms and grazing properties and we remember especially the people now gone before us who owned them. People such as Mr Jack Sullivan a 1st WW veteran who once owned the last property on Sullivans Road for whom the road is now named. At the end of this road is to be found the panoramic views to Korumburra and south over the coastal flat lands to Inverloch, Wonthaggi and the waters of Bass Straight. One may also on a clear day, look south east to the far distant Wilsons Promontory Mountain tops. We also recall Val’s parents telling us stories of Mr Edwards, the tea merchant with the slogan “There is only one T in Australia ” he owned several properties at Whitelaw. Along with the other owners and custodians of Whitelaw properties who, through the years of horse and dray, economic depression and two world wars, held fast to the district of Whitelaw. It was they who over a considerable period made their living under often harsh conditions, raised their families and contributed to local and regional development. All the while, passing through the Whitelaw Gates to access the highway or the passenger train, or maybe travel into Korumburra for the price of one penny. That which was Whitelaw, its limited infrastructure and peoples of well over more than half of the twentieth century have gone, but remain within the memories of those long-term residents who are encouraged to record their history of living within the district of Whitelaw. Compiled by Dennis Conn for the interest of the Korumburra Historical Society and the members who are assisting with the further development of the rail trail through markers that will inform users of historical aspects of the rail trail.