The Palm Trees of Elm Avenue, Elsternwick

Elm Avenue in Elsternwick runs from the Nepean Highway to the Sandringham railway line. It was part of the Garden Vale Estate subdivision, first sold in 1882. (1)

The Highway end of Elm Avenue now has the big car yards on both sides.  In 1955 there were eleven residences on the north side of the Avenue, there are now four; there were five residences on the south side, plus the Garden Vale Tennis Club; there is now only one, the Repton Court Flats. Repton Court Flats border Marmara Drive, named presumably for George Marmaras listed in the 1955 Sands and McDougall Directory of Victoria (see below).  If it wasn't named for George Marmaras, then it is very much a coincidence. (2) Marmara Drive was established as a private road around 1962. (3)

Elm Avenue residents in 1955

Image: Sands & McDougall's Directory of Victoria, 1955

 (on-line at the State Library of Victoria)

Also listed in the 1955 Sands and McDougall is Mr Robert Smith at No. 8 Elm Avenue. In January 1953, his son Daryl was bitten by a snake and this misadventure was reported in The Herald -

Snake or rat bite - A snake or a large rat bit a 5-year-old boy while he was playing in Elm Avenue, Elsternwick, today. The boy, Daryl Smith, said he thought a rat had attacked him, but doctors at Elsternwick and the Alfred Hospital, believe two punctures on his left thigh were made by a snake. They gave him a snake serum injection.

Daryl's home is near a railway line and tennis courts fringed by long grass. He and other children were sitting on the ground near a palm outside his house when he was bitten.

Daryl's father, Mr R. W. Smith, said his son came home crying and complained of a "stinging pain" in his left thigh. "The boy said he thought a rat had bitten him, but a local doctor told me he was almost certain the punctures were made by a snake," Mr Smith said. "He advised me to rush him to Alfred Hospital. We had him there in about 15 minutes. By that time, Daryl had stopped crying and said he could not feel any pain." (4)

The article mentions that young Daryl and his friends were sitting near a Palm Tree. This Palm Tree was one of twenty which once lined Elm Avenue. They were removed in December 1953, nearly a year after young Daryl was bitten by the snake

The twenty Palm Trees in Elm Avenue are clearly seen in this 1949 aerial (5)

The Repton Court Flats are next to the railway line on the top right; the Palm Tree in their front garden is still there. You can see the Garden Vale Tennis Club courts (the little dots are people playing tennis) on the right. 

Title: Part of Nepean Highway, from Glenhuntly Rd. to Bay St., 1949.  

Photographer: Aerial Survey of Victoria, published by the Department of Lands and Survey.

State Library of Victoria- see the full image here https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/358991

The Herald, December 19, 1953 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245028856

The Herald had this report of the removal of the Palms, under the headline - Elsternwick Protest on Tree "War" - 

Residents of Elm Avenue, Elsternwick, protested today to the Caulfield Council when workmen began removing 20 palm trees from their street. 

"There is no reason for it. The council is spoiling our beautiful street," Mrs R. Webb said. "I rang the council to protest but they said the trees were interfering with power and telephone lines and had to come out. The trees will be replaced with saplings but that does not help." Another resident, Mr P. Stevens, said, "If the council does not stop this, we will put them out at the next election."

A council employe [sic] said "The trees are poisonous and interfere with over-head wires. A council employe who was trimming the trees and was cut by a palm spike could not work for 11 months," he said. (4)

And that was the end of the Elm Avenue Palm Trees.

Footnotes

(1) Plan of the Garden Vale Estate, Elsternwick, 1882 - see plan at the State Library of Victoria  here https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/161743

(2) Sands & McDougall's Directory of Victoria, 1955 (Sands & McDougall P/L, 1955)

(3) Marmara Drive does not appear  in the 1960 Sands & McDougall Directory,  but is in the 1965 Directory. Also I found the following advertisement in The Age of  May 19 1962, advertising brand new individual villa homes in Marmara Drive -

The Age, May 19 1962, p. 39 from Newspapers.com

In The Age from March 18, 1967, No. 2 Marmara Drive is advertised as being 3-years old and in a private court.

The Age, March 18, 1967, p. 42. from Newspapers.com

(4) The Herald, January 17, 1953, see here.

(5) To say I was excited to find this photograph and be able to identify Elm Avenue and then find the Palm Trees are shown so clearly, is an understatement!

(6) The Herald, December 14, 1953, see here.