page_title: Frankston, Victoria
section_title: Early economy
hierarchical_section_title: Frankston, Victoria / History / 19th century / Early economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Lithograph of Mark Young's Pier Hotel, Young's Baths (background) and Colonial Bank of Australasia (right) in Frankston in 1888 by Clarence Woodhouse.
context_page_description: Frankston is a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, in the local government area of the City of Frankston. It is located 41 km south-east of the Melbourne city centre, north of the Mornington Peninsula. Due to its geographic location, it is often referred to as "the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula".
  European settlement of Frankston began around the same time as the foundation of Melbourne in 1835—initially as an unofficial fishing village serving the early Melbourne township. Prior to its settlement, the Frankston area was primarily inhabited by the Mayone-bulluk clan from the Bunurong tribe of the Kulin nation. The official village of Frankston was established in 1854, with its first land sales taking place on 29 May. It has subsequently given its name to the broader Frankston local government area since 1893, and serves as both its activity and administrative centre.
  Situated on the eastern shoreline of Port Phillip, Frankston has been a popular seaside destination of Melbourne since the 1880s. Frankston Beach is still one of the most frequented in Victoria, and is recognised as one of the cleanest in Australia.
context_section_description: Frankston's fishing industry was further developed with the assistance of Thomas McComb, who funded the construction of Frankston Pier in 1857. Following a petition by residents, to the Victorian colonial Department of Public Works, the pier was extended into deeper water in 1863. A gaslamp was installed at the end of the pier and a lamplighter was also employed. Frankston Fish Company was founded in 1867, by a consortium of local businessmen including Thomas Ritchie, in order to transport the catches of local fishermen in bulk to the fish markets of the Melbourne city centre.
  In 1870, Ritchie established his first general store on what is now the southwest corner of Playne Street and Nepean Highway in the Frankston Central Business District (CBD). Ritchies Stores is now the largest independent grocery chain in Australia—with its headquarters still located in the Frankston area.
  On 15 November 1873, William Davey Jr., grandson of pre-emptive Frankston settler James Davey, applied for the license to establish the Bay View Hotel, on what is now the northeast corner of Davey Street and Nepean Highway (the present site of The Grand Hotel) in the Frankston CBD. It was constructed with a guest house which Davey had shipped from Jersey.
  Following a petition by residents to the Victorian colonial Department of Education in 1873, headed by Grace McComb, the first government school in Frankston was built on Davey Street in 1874. The No. 1464 Frankston School (Which later became Frankston Primary School) opened on 1 November of that year with an initial enrolment of 45 students.
  Mark Young purchased the Frankston Hotel on 13 August 1875 for £380, and renamed it the Pier Hotel (under which name it continues to operate). Young spent an estimated £3700 on improvements to the hotel, making it one of the finest in the colony of Victoria at the time.
  In 1879, following a conference of city councils in inner-Melbourne, the Frankston area was chosen as the preferred site to replace the Melbourne General Cemetery. The roughly 3000 acre Crown land site was bordered to the north by Charles Wedge's Banyan sheep station (over what are now the City of Frankston suburbs of Carrum Downs and Seaford), to the south by Frank Liardet's Ballam Park estate (in what is now the Frankston locality of Karingal), and is now the suburb of Frankston North. Its south-west corner is described as being "about a mile [1.6 km] north of the village of Frankston, and the same distance east of the beach".
  Frankston Mechanics' Institute was established on the former site of the Cannanuke Inn, at what is now 1 Plowman Place in the Frankston CBD, in 1880. Its construction was funded by public donations, headed by a residents' committee, and supported by friendly and temperance societies including a Frankston group of Freemasons and the Independent Order of Good Templars, Independent Order of Rechabites and Manchester Unity of Oddfellows. Its foundation stone was laid by committee president Mark Young on 22 March of that year, and the building was opened on 24 May at a cost of £280.
  On 16 March 1881, the Colonial Bank of Australasia (later the National Bank of Australia) was the first bank to open a lending branch in Frankston. It was located next to Mark Young's Pier Hotel on what is now Nepean Highway. The first library in Frankston, the Frankston Free Library, opened at the Mechanics' Institute to mark its first anniversary. The first 400 books of the new library were a donation from the banker H.D. Larnach.
  To service the proposed new metropolitan cemetery the railway line to Melbourne was extended from Caulfield to Frankston between 1881 and 1882. The first section from Caulfield to Mordialloc opened on 19 December 1881. The second section from Mordialloc to Frankston opened on 29 July 1882. The course of the railway line was directly influenced by the location of the proposed cemetery. From Mordialloc to Seaford it runs adjacent to what is now Nepean Highway—which was built over a 1000-year-old sand dune that once ran parallel to the coastline. After Seaford it curv
caption: Mark Young's Pier Hotel as well as the Colonial Bank of Australasia in the seaside resort of Frankston in 1888.
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