Historical information

Photographer notations on slide: "Poultry for Christmas Dinners Age 21-12-33 B9"
Published: Age (Melbourne, Vic.: 1854- ), Thursday 21 December 1933, page 11
Published title: : POULTRY FOR CHRISTMAS DINNERS
Published caption: With the approach of the Festive Season, the demand for poultry of all descriptions tends to harden and good clearances of many thousands of birds have been effected at recent auctions. The above picture was taken yesterday at the sale conducted by Messrs. Parnham and Carter of Bentleigh, whose auctions are the largest in Melbourne on the basis of individual sales. The auctioneer's assistant is holding up a prime goose for the appraisement of bidders preparing for Christmas fare.
Trove article identifier: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203351699

Research by project volunteer, Louise McKenzie:
This photo is full of action! A poultry auction is in full flight. The serious-looking auctioneer and his assistant stand on a Parnham & Carter wooden box so that the auctioneer can make eye contact with the bidding crowd. The auctioneer is wearing a waistcoat and tie and has his pencil and paper ready to record the winning bids. The assistant in overalls is holding a live white duck in each hand. Two other assistants also hold live birds. A wire cage on the ground holds a few white chickens – presumably the next auction items. The majority of the substantial crowd is male, mostly wearing Fedora hats and jackets or suits and ties. Some women are present, wearing hats and coats, and at least seven children are visible, some dressed up, others dressed more casually.

The auction is taking place in a rural setting, possibly on the site where the birds are farmed. It is an informal, rather rough, grassed area next to a large shed with a high verandah. Two horse drawn vehicles are visible in the background, as well as five motorised vehicles. There are stacks of wooden boxes or crates which look as if they transport birds, and two cows are grazing by the fence. There are two telegraph poles with many lines. In the adjacent block is a very large car business comprising two large brick warehouse style buildings, plus outbuildings. The signage on one brick warehouse mentions Standard Cars.

Both a man and a woman have their arms raised to bid. It is an occasion – but a serious one. We cannot be sure if these birds are for breeding or the table, but buying poultry for the Christmas meal was a tradition in Melbourne with purchasers going either to the auctions, or perhaps the Queen Victoria Market. The Argus in its article “Christmas Dinner” on 6 December 1932 advised of increased demand for turkeys and chickens ahead of a possible Christmas shortage. Part of this shortage would be because of the outbreak of Newcastle disease which resulted in a quarantine around Melbourne within which all killing must be under supervision and bear the Government brand. They believed this would result in smaller producers not bothering to get such a permit as "for many of them the poultry cheque is only pin money for their wives.”

Interestingly, an article in the Sun News Pictorial of 26 January 1934 reported a strong market, and “One auctioneer stated that buyers were taking up chickens freely now for the Centenary celebrations because they would probably never be as plentiful at the present levels of prices until next season.” That same article quoted officials of the Department of Agriculture stating that "…they had received a fair number of inquiries from farmers recently on the possibilities of table poultry breeding for local and export markets. The good prices being paid for poultry were attracting interest.”

In fact, on 29 December 1933, the Sun News-Pictorial had reported that for the first time, the innovation of holding poultry sales in Melbourne between the Christmas and New Year holidays had been trialled the day before, and had proved successful.

The Bentleigh area had a long history of poultry farming. The Seal of the Municipality of Moorabbin has a cockerel featured in the top right quadrant, and according to its local history website, “Writers in the local press gave advice on breeding, feeding, marketing and other matters of concern to anyone keeping fowls. In 1914 poultry farms were spread from Ormond, through Cheltenham and Mentone to Mordialloc.” The Encyclopedia of Melbourne online advises that the Shire of Moorabbin once covered an extensive area of the south-eastern suburbs, land where the Boon wurrung people had hunted, fished and collected water from the natural springs near Beaumaris and Cheltenham.

The Boon wurrung reputedly called this district Mooroobin, a name that Richard and John King adapted to Moorabbin for the cattle run they established in the mid-1840s. The sandy soil of much of the district proved suitable for market gardening which flourished in Moorabbin from the 1850s. Some districts, such as Highett, remained largely devoted to cattle, while fishing was a major activity in the coastal villages.

Moorabbin's population remained tiny throughout the 19th and much of the early 20th century with less than 1000 ratepayers in the shire. When the more popular coastal resort areas of the shire seceded after World War I, Moorabbin was left as an under-serviced, still largely rural area. It was not until the 1930s that the population rose above 20,000. By the late 1930s poultry farming had been added to market gardening as a local industry. But northern sections of the city, such as Bentleigh and McKinnon, were beginning to develop as residential areas.

The local council took steps to attract industry and new residents to the city by erecting reputedly the largest neon sign in Melbourne at the time on the Point Nepean Road (later Nepean Highway), pointing out that plentiful residential and industrial land was available. The era of gardeners’ picnics, the formation of the Market Gardeners’ & Fruit Growers’ Association, and the Moorabbin Horticultural, Poultry & Dog Society Spring Shows was over.

References:
POULTRY SALES HELD (1933, December 29). The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956), p. 20. Retrieved July 30, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article276124760
MUCH INTEREST IN POULTRY (1934, January 26). The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956), p. 30. Retrieved July 30, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article277292695
Christmas Dinner. (1932, December 6). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 6. Retrieved July 30, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4512606
'Moorabin', eMelbourne, https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01004b.htm
'City of Glen Eira Thematic Environmental History [Refresh] 2020', prepared for The City of Glen Eira by Built Heritage P/L, https://www.gleneira.vic.gov.au/media/7583/glen-eira-c214glen-city-of-glen-eira-thematic-environmentla-history-refresh-2020.pdf

Physical description

Glass plate negative

Inscriptions & markings

Photographer notations on slide: Poultry for Christmas Dinners Age 21-12-33 B9