RITCHIE ERA 0THE

117 DAYS THE RITCHIE ERA

1852

THE goldfields lured 18-year-old Manxman Thomas Ritchie to Australia in 1852. He saw no future for himself on the Isle of Man, with its age-old agriculture and fishing industries. He built up a stock of sturdy boots to sell on the goldfields and boarded the barque Isabella Watson.

After 117 days at sea, the ship sailed safely through the hazardous western entrance to Bass Strait. At dusk it entered Port Phillip Heads, nearing Point Nepean, and passed through the rip, finally reaching smooth water. The passengers began to relax.

In moments, a squall sprang up. The ship wheeled and struck the now infamous Corsair Rock. Lifeboats were launched and in the high seas nine passengers perished. Thomas washed ashore clinging to the ship’s spar. His supply of boots was lost. But not his ambition.

Thomas’s family followed, migrating the next year. Thomas, after unsuccessfully trying his hand at mining, opened a grocery store with his brother James at Gardiners Creek, later known as Malvern. In 1854 Thomas moved to a small fishing village called Frankston, where he bought four acres of land at Oliver’s Hill, overlooking the bay. There he w ed an Irish lass called Maggie Kennedy.

1858

FIRST OFFICIAL AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL GAME

First organised game of Australian Rules football is held in Melbourne.

1867

Thomas

soon became involved in a cartage business that brought fish from Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula to the Melbourne markets. With partners, he formed the Frankston Fish Company in 1867. It became a successful venture, at its peak turning over £20,000 a year. In the late 1860s, Thomas and Maggie moved on, selling their house and land and purchasing an allotment in Frankston town, bordered by Bay and Playne Streets. Here they built a sixroomed cottage and outbuildings with a shop attached. In 1870 Thomas established the first Ritchies General Store on their land in Bay Street. In 1872 he applied for a licence to sell liquor, which was granted in the following year.

Thomas Ritchie (lower right) and Frankston Fish Co.

Postcard of the Ritchies buildings on Lot 14: the new corner general store, the adjacent chaff and grain store, and next door, the Ritchie residence, Ballacrane House. Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria

1870

The general store was the focus of the neighbourhood and district. Products were sourced straight from the manufacturers and everything was sold in bulk. Barrels, more expensive than sacks and packing cases, might contain tobacco, tea, nails or butter and, once opened, would serve as holding bins for displaying goods.

Products were wrapped in brown paper or newspaper and tied with string. Eggs were bought from locals and sold individually. Home-cured bacon was sliced from the slab; cheese was cut from a huge wheel; flour was sold bulk and scooped from great bins; sweets were housed in large jars. Everything was weighed on cumbersome measuring scales. Thomas had other strings to his bow. Teaming up with his partners, he branched out into another sound venture – general auctioneering and real estate. Land, houses, furniture, horses and cattle were auctioned by the group. His other ventures included one of Frankston’s first bakeries, with Thomas Ryan installed as baker. Thomas also began a business cutting and supplying wood.

1876

IN the mid- '80s Thomas built the Ballacrain House Temperance Hotel, named for his birthplace on the Isle of Man. It soon doubled in size. He purchased more land and expanded across Playne Street.

In the late 1880s, to cater for the burgeoning tourist trade, Thomas extended the Temperance Hotel, which became known as Frankston Coffee Palace, or Frankston House. Underneath, it continued to house Ritchies General Stores and a number of other shops. By 1876-7, Ritchies original stone building had expanded to 13 rooms, still with outbuildings and 16 stables. During the land boom of the 1880s, Thomas opened on his allotment a separate produce store, selling grain and corn. In the mid-1880s he became the major shareholder in the Frankston Brick Company, which by the end of the prosperous decade reached a capacity of 24,000 bricks a day.

"Thomas Ritchie had more to do with Frankston than any other man still living"

Ballacrain House Temperance Hotel, about 1888 (honouring the original store by the 'EST 1870' on the façade), now rebuilt, with an expanded six verandah posts.

In 1891 came the Great Crash and a decadelong depression. The population of Frankston declined from 794 in 1891 to 523 in 1901.

Thomas was caught up in the land collapse. The Frankston Brick Company went into liquidation, but by then Thomas had extracted himself. He frequently rearranged his finances and mortgages to counter downturns in the economy.

In 1892 Thomas Ritchie announced his general store’s first “Great Cash Sale”, advertising “special bargains for specially dull times”. The youngest Ritchie, Florence, managed the general store on the original allotment. Thomas Jnr managed the grain store, now moved across Playne Street. Daughter Rose ran the Coffee Palace on the original land. Their widowed daughter, Jannet Pownall, managed the newly built (and newly spelt) Ballacrane House on their new allotment.

Thomas Ritchie offered a “shilling for every pound” spent in his store. Healthy competition in grocery advertising began in Frankston.

1901 AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION

Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia unite to form the Commonwealth of Australia.

In 1901 Thomas opened a grain store branch at nearby Somerville and soon afterwards combined that with a general store. In 1902-3 the Frankston general store was moved across to the north west corner of Playne and Bay Streets and daughter Jannet Pownall took on the running of the business.

Thomas and his wife Maggie died in 1907, one month apart. A newspaper report noted that “in the early days Thomas Ritchie had more to do with Frankston than any other man still living”. Daughter Jannet Pownall moved on to manage a general store at Mile Bridge and daughter Rose Deane then became the everyday face of Ritchies’ General Store (known as the “corner store”) until the end of the 1920s. She advertised it as the only licensed grocer in the district.

In 1928, Rose sold the business (and later the property) to Melville Charles Tomasetti.