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One of the major commercial features of the Flemington/Kensington area was the Newmarket Saleyards and Abattoirs. Located off Epsom Road near Smithfield Road (not far from Flemington Racecourse), it had been in existence since the 1858, and was officially considered complete by 1861. The Saleyards were Melbourne's livestock trading market for 130 years, at one time described as the largest supply of sheep and cattle in the world. The area of the Saleyards was approximately ten hectares and the City Abattoirs was approximately twenty three hectares. The Saleyards were officially closed on 26 March 1987. Today the site has been transformed into a medium density residential estate, known as Kensington Banks, where building is still in developing stages.
The Newmarket Saleyards were the principal livestock centre of the state. At the peak period in the 1940s, the highest annual sheep and lamb yardings were 6,206,550 head. The air of the Saleyards and Abattoirs was full of the smell and noise of men and dogs, and livestock and machiney and equipment. Sales at the Newmarket Saleyards were on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Some of the people you would find at the Saleyards were auctioneers, drovers, agents and buyers, including wholesale butchers and master butchers.
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Some of the big buyers were the export firms, like Angliss, Simms Coopers, Flemington Reynolds, Bothwicks, Colonial Meat, Gilbertsons and Smorgans. In a season they would account for three quarters of sales at the Saleyards, taking tens of thousands of heads at a time. On busy trading days there could be two to three hundred buyers at the Saleyards. Buyers and other people associated with the sale had to make their judgement very quickly, as there was only short time for each pen auction. A pen of lambs could be sold in about half a minute. On one day it was known that one firm of stock agents alone had accounts with over eighty individual buyers.
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The drovers who worked at the Saleyards were hardy men that worked in all conditions -- heat, rain or frost. They generally started their day at around 6:30 am or 7:30am and would finish between 3.00 pm and 5.00 pm, working five days a week. Drovers were responsible for unloading animals from trucks and into their sale pens. Drovers would usually work with their own dogs. Most drovers were employed by the stock and station agents with offices at the market.
In their heyday, the Saleyards were serviced by a railway line. The trains would run down almost to Kensington station and then have to back up into a Saleyard siding where they would be unloaded one at the time. As soon as one was unloaded, another would be arriving. The mode of stock transport has changed considerably since the early days of the Newmarket Saleyards.
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In the early 1900s the greater majority of stock transported to Newmarket was by rail, but by the '50s approximately 60% of stock transported to Newmarket came by road. In the 1980's virtually all stock (99.5%) was by road.
In 1897 the people of Flemington wanted the Saleyards and the Abattoirs to be removed because they were deemed unsightly in their fast growing municipality. But they survived for another ninety years, until1987. By that time the Saleyards were not making a profit, and the Melbourne City Council and the State Government were no longer prepared to subsidise their operation. Another reason for the closure of the Saleyards was the dilapidated state of the yards, not to mention the ever-present stench of animal manure.
The City of Melbourne Employment Trust Ltd was appointed the job of dismantling the yards in 1987 and about one hundred long-term unemployed people from surrounding suburbs helped clean up the area. One of the principal ideas behind the dismantling process was to recycle much of the bluestone paving, timber, furniture, gate hinges, nails, nuts and bolts of the Saleyards and Abattoirs. It is estimated that there were 1.6 million bluestone paving stones at the Saleyards. Some 480,000 of these went to council depots, another 480,000 for reuse on the project site and the remaining 700,000 were sold to the public at $2.50 each.
After 130 years of cattle trading, the Newmarket Saleyards were handed back to the state government to be redeveloped into a private and public housing estate under the Lynch's Bridge Project. The reconstruction of 80 hectares of land cost $100 million over 10 years. Some old office buildings have been retained and have been extensively renovated like the administration offices which now house the Kensington Community High School. The original stock-route now provides a pleasant walk from Racecourse Rd to the edge of the Maribyrnong River and across Lynches Bridge into Footscray. About 40% of the estate is public housing which includes a nursing home and a hostel for the elderly. The housing development includes terrace houses, mews, studio apartments and town houses on individual titles linked by the historic bluestones-paved Stock Route together with parkland, bike tracks and other open space corridors. Today the site known as Kensington Banks. It has been described as Australia's largest city living project, consisting of a thousand homes built in areas to be released in seven stages. According to the Kensington Banks Newsletter March 1995 issue 2, the project's total value was approximately $200 million. In many ways the project sets an example for other inner urban redevelopment projects in Australia.
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