By JESSE GRAHAM
THE main street of Healesville has changed dramatically in the last 150 years and, like the town, has become modern and unrecognisable when compared to its beginning, with some exceptions.
Healesville as a town was surveyed in 1864, as a settlement on the path to the goldfields in Jamieson, Enoch’s Point and Gaffney’s Creek, though it may not have existed in its current state at all.
According to the Healesville and District Historical Society’s book Images of Time Volume 1, a road to the goldfields was to be set up for travellers and their carts.
Numerous exploring parties favoured a route in a similar vein to the current Reefton Spur Road, but bad country necessitated the route from Healesville to Marysville and beyond.
However, the town did not receive its name because of the high hills that ringed it, but was named after Richard Heales, a leader of the Victorian assembly in 1860 and member of the Melbourne City Council.
Heales passed away in 1864, and as a sign of respect and grief, the government named Healesville after the man.
A medal bearing his image was even distributed to all Healesville residents at the town’s centenary in 1964.
The newly-named Healesville was surveyed by George McDonald in 1864, and land sales took place the following year – two buildings were erected on the corner of Church and Nicholson streets in 1865.
By 1866, there were around 30 businesses along Nicholson Street, which most people refer to as Maroondah Highway or main street.
One of the most common sights in the main street is the Grand Hotel, which is one of the town’s oldest buildings, erected in 1888.
The building replaced the Royal Mail Hotel, which had a series of names in its history.
Starting as the Yorkshire Arms in 1864, the hotel was purchased by John Morrison in later years and renamed the Glasgow Arms, before being purchased by Adolphus Edgcumbe in 1885 – he named it the Edgcumbe’s Royal Mail, before demolishing it to build the building seen today.
However, the facade of the building was slightly different, with original iron lacework on the verandah and towers replaced by a portico in 1932.
The Grand is not the only hotel in town that received a facelift over the years, though – the Boone’s Hotel, established in 1865, was removed in part and relocated for the construction of the current Healesville Hotel in 1912.
As can be seen by the town’s history, Healesville quickly flourished from its humble beginnings and grew to become the town rated as a must-see tourist destination on a world-wide scale.
