Alexandra Times at KellyGang 15/7/1876 (2)
Coach building is carried on in a very superior manner. In fact, butchers, bakers, grocers, tailors, hotel keepers and others seem to be like the, American settlers, well and doing well. The Commercial Bank establishment here is a fine structure, and they not only attend to the wants of the residents of this town ship, but have travelling agencies to Berwick and Cranbourne. That well known journalist Mr J W Swords publishes the Dandenong Advertiser, a journal which not only reflects credit on the owner for his energy and talents, but also to the residents of the district in supporting the same. A plan has been carried out here which every township in the colony would do well to adopt, namely, the planting of a row of trees on one side of the street.
Take it all in all, Dandenong is one of the best business inland townships in the colony which it has been my luck to visit, and they are not a few. Market yards have been constructed here, in which a market is held every Tuesday, where you can buy any description of fowl or game from a wren to an eagle, from a guinea pig to a bullock, from the most diminutive Shetland to a thorough-bred of the first quality. Three auctioneers hold forth. I was highly amused at one of those gentlemen, auctioneer Egan, who seems to be a favorite with the canny housewifes and their blooming daughters, not to speak of the old men. His style is like a steam engine in good working order, every joint and valve well greased.. About eleven o'clock the market was in full swing. At one place you would see buttes, at another fowls, then bacon and pork, pigs dead and alive, sheep, cattle, horses, geese, swan, and all manner of game, but the cheese and butter would have done the eyes of any epicure good. Then the looks of the better halves!
Why, they are sonsie, while the young ladies are blooming. The elders of the family - the imported article - are fine specimens of the industrious yeoman, while their sons, and in fact all the young men, look very horsefied. I can assure you I enjoyed a the day very much. I believe thirteen coaches arrived and departed within fourteen hours, and bustle and excitement of the solid kind seemed to be the order of the day. Then you can attend a concert at night which is held in the Mechanics, or if you like billiards, there is one of the best tables in the colony to be had. Stopping up till it was late, enjoying myself, I put up for the night at Dunbar's Hotel, and was well content with the accommodation.
Starting in the morning, half a mile from Dandenong on the road to Cranbourne you cross the railway line. From this to Cranbourne is nine miles of a really good road bridges culverts, and everything in good order. Between the two townships the land is from good to fair quality, and grazing seems to be the order of the day. With Dandenong market within a short distance, and Melbourne only 19 miles, it gives them a rare chance to hit the markets, therefore there is no inducement held out to them to turn agriculturists. A little further on the road to Berwick, the highway to North Gippsland, through the far-famed Brandy-Creek (now called Buln Buln), and from this into Cranbourne, you can see the course of former years staring you in the face; for miles large frontages and the pick of the land is held by the Melbourne “take-alls" and absentees, and the bose and sinew of the colony must take the leavings. When will this stench-pot of corruption, the Land Office, transact business for the good of the colony?
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