History

Located on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia, around 60 kilometres from Melbourne, the rapidly growing township of Somerville and the popular antique centre of Tyabb were once at the heart of one of Australia's largest fruit growing areas. Apple and pear trees were grown in nurseries and the fruit from the orchards was sent Australia-wide and around the world. Horticultural shows were the highlights of the year, at a time when life was different to the way it is today.

Two pastoral runs, Carrup Carrup, taken up in 1840, and Bunguyan in 1845, were the first European settlements in the area. In 1859 these large cattle runs were surveyed into various parishes, with our area forming part of the Parish of Tyabb. Crown allotments were then released for sale.



The early settlers established nurseries and planted orchards and the area went on to become one of the most important fruit growing areas in Australia. In 1892 a Fruitgrowers' Association was formed and the first Horticultural Show was held in 1895. These shows were the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and special trains ran from Melbourne to Somerville on show days.

The coming of the railway in 1889 saw the development of the townships around the railway line. The Somerville Mechanics Institute was built in 1891 and the hotel in 1901.

The first school was opened in Somerville in 1864 on Lower Somerville Road, in a building that served both as the school and a church. State School No. 2656, also on Lower Somerville Road but on a different site, opened in 1885. The school was replaced in 1914 on a site one mile west, on Eramosa Road East, because the township had developed around the railway line. In 1954 this building was destroyed by fire. Classes were held in church halls until the new school was ready in 1956.

The first Tyabb School, known as Top Tyabb State School, No.3129 was built in 1891 and the second, Tyabb Railway State School No. 3544, in 1913.

Life continued at a reasonably slow pace until the 1960s when the development of Westernport started. Orchards and dairy farms were subdivided and, at the present time, there are no longer any orchards in Somerville and just a few in the Tyabb area. The only rural industries remaining are a handful of market gardens, broiler farms and hobby farms.


Tyabb has become an antique centre, with the coolstore once filled with fruit, now filled with old wares of yesteryear. Somerville's population increased rapidly to become a bustling residential area with a population of around 15,000.