The origins of the humble handheld driptorch have been lost in time. They are widely used for ignition in controlled burning operations in forest and grasslands. The “Pacific Forester“ with its short central wand and somewhat leaky ball-valve was made by the American Wajax company in the 1940s. The Pacific Forester is slightly different in design from the more robust and common “Panama” driptorch first manufactured in 1933 and used extensively by Queensland cane farmers. The Panama is closely related to the current “Firebug” used in Victoria which is manufactured by Rodney Industries in Brisbane and has an offset wand design which gives it good balance. The fuel is a mixture of petrol and diesel and every FCV District had their own closely-guarded secret formula ... 2:1, 3:1, 1:1, 4:1 or 3:2 ratio. There was also the choice of 91, 95 or 98 octane petrol mixed with summer or winter diesel. Occasionally some of the old Avgas or Jet-A1 lying around the depot was added with a splash of engine oil to make the mixture stick to the fuel to be ignited. The fuel mixed also varied between autumn or spring, heathland, mixed forest, or high-intensity slash burnsCommon driptorch used throughout AustraliaDrip torch with handle Wand has loop and valve. The loop is designed to assist with even flow of fuel which flows out onto the burning head of the wand. Pressure equalising value in top of aluminum fuel container which holds 4 litres of burner mix. Gravitational feed of the driptorch allows the unit to drip fire, making it simple and quick to operate. Instructions for use. CF+L written with texta pen.bushfire

Absentee landlords were common in Ireland and for many landlords the primary focus was income rather than the conditions of their tenants. Many landlords realized that they could get a higher income by turning their properties to pasture than to continue with the old practice of collecting rents from tenant farmers. Evictions was the most common way of getting rid of unwanted tenants. The tenant frequently built his cottage himself from local materials. However, his rent was higher if he had windows, if his door was over a certain height and if he made any type of improvements or enlargements to the dwelling. The landlords practiced "Rack Renting" in order to get rid of unwanted tenants. Rents were raised to the point that the tenant could not afford to pay them. The landlord then had the tenant evicted for non payment of rent. There were no appeals and no mercy shown. Although the only legal reason for eviction was non payment of the rent there were numerous examples of landlords who evicted tenants if they did not conform to the landlord's wishes.[http://www.maggieblanck.com/Mayopages/Eviction.html, accessed 13/12/2013] This image was also printed in he Illustrated London News, April 17, 1886, with the title 'all that is left, scene at a Mayo Eviction. A barefoot woman sits on a table in the rain, outside a cottage with thatched roof. She is surrounded by her possessions.ballarat irish, eviction, rent, cottage, tenant, homeless, mayo

Printed book. 112 pages in total. Pages 13 -64 numbered.non-fictionPublication details: 'Railway guide book and time table for Melbourne, Ballarat, Adelaide and all intermediate stations, also gazette for Bacchus Marsh, Ballan, Melton, &c., and almanac for 1891', compiled by Christopher Crisp. Printed and published by Crisp and Lane, Bacchus Marsh, Vic., 1891. SUMMARY OF CONTENT: Includes detailed timetables and schedule of fares, descriptions of stations and refreshment facilities pp.6-26; overviews of Shires of Bacchus Marsh, Ballan and Melton, pp.27-30; historical, geographic, and economic background notes about places on the Melbourne to Adelaide route, pages 31-64, including descriptions of Bacchus Marsh, pp.34-42 and briefer notes on Ballan, pp.42-43 and Melton, pp.32-33. Almanac section is pp.65-95 (not numbered), containing common information in nineteenth century almanacs such as a calendar of the days, weeks, and months of the year; a record of various astronomical phenomena, climate information and seasonal suggestions for farmers, the rising and setting times of the Sun and Moon, dates of eclipses, hours of high and low tides, and religious festivals. A brief history of Irrigation in Mildura is on pages 1 and 112 (first and last pages). Advertisements, mostly for Bacchus Marsh businesses are on pp.96-111. The Almanac section is illustrated with drawings of scenic views of various places in Australia, but none of the Bacchus Marsh region. Online access is available on Trove at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-392504046railways, railway lines, almanacs, railway lines timetables

This document is has been compiled by Wendy Barrie daughter of Ernest (Bon) and Edna Barrie and granddaughter of Charles E and Jessie M Barrie. I was born in during WW 11 and the first child of my generation to live on the ‘ Darlingsford’ property at Melton. My grandfather was well known in the district and was mostly referred to as Ernie. He shared the same initials as his second son Edgar. His three eldest sons lived and farmed in Melton for their entire lives. His descendants are still associated with farming, engineering and earthmoving in Melton. Ernie Barrie operated a travelling Chaff Cutter in the St Arnaud area where his parents William and Mary Ann had taken up land at Coonooer West in 1873. Ernie commenced his working life with a team of bullocks and a chaff cutter. The earliest connection he had with Melton was in 1887. By the beginning of the 20th century Ernie and his father William and brothers, William, Samuel, James Edwin,[Ted] Robert, Arthur and Albert have been associated with farming and milling in the Melton district. In the early 1900’s Ernie and his brother Ted were in partnership in a Chaff cutting and Hay processing Mill on the corner of Station and Brooklyn road Melton South. The mill was managed by William for a time. By 1906 Charles Ernest and James Edwin were in partnership in the Station Road mill when a connecting rail line across Brooklyn Road for a siding was constructed to the Melton Railway Station. In 1911 the Mill’s letterhead shows C.E. BARRIE Hay Pressing and Chaff Cutting Mills. Melton Railway Station. Telephone No 1 Melton. This Mill as sold to H S K Ward in 1916 and stood until 1977 when it burnt down in a spectacular fire. Ernie built a house at Melton South beside the Chaff Mill at Station Road in 1906 and married Jessie May Lang in August at the Methodist Church. Jessie’s father was Thomas Lang. He came to Melton in 1896 and was the Head Teacher at Melton State School No 430 until he retired in 1917. They had 9 children with 8 surviving to adulthood. Jessie and Ernie had 6 sons and 3 daughters. All the children lived at Darlingsford. In April 1910 the family left Melton for a brief period and moved to a farm in Trundle in NSW. They returned to Melton and purchased Darlingsford in May 1911. For a time during WW1 they lived at Moonee Ponds near the Lang grandparents at Ascot Vale. Mary and Bon attended Bank St State School. The children developed diphtheria in 1916 and their youngest boy, Cecil died of complications. Mary and Bon were taken to Fairfield Hospital and both recovered. At the end of the war influenza broke out the family returned to Darlingsford and shared the home for a short while with the Pearcey family who had been working the farm. By 1922 the family had and grown and Edgar, Tom, Horace, Jessie, Joyce and Jim were living a Darlingsford. Ernie continued during the 1920’s working the farm and attend his many civic and community commitments. Two 8 clydesdale horse teams were used to work the land which meant early rising for the horses to be fed and harnessed to commence the days work. In 1916 Ernie also became involved in a Chaff Mill on the corner of Sunshine and Geelong Road West Footscray, which at the time was being run by John Ralph Schutt. It was known an Schutt Barrie. A flour mill was added at a later stage. Other Schutt and Barrie mills were situated at Parwan and Diggers Rest. Another mill was situated beside the railway line at Rockbank. The Footscray mill ceased operation in 1968 Ernie spent a lot of time and energy at the Parwan Mill and travelling around Parwan and Balliang farms, where he came to know many of the families in the district. Ernies commitment to the civic development to the Melton and district was extensive, he was involved with a number of large events during the 1920’s such as the Melton Exhibitions and the 1929 Back to Melton Celebrations. He was a member of the Australian Natives Association at the turn of the century. He was Chairman of the School Committee at Melton State School 430 and the Melton South State School in thw1920s. He donated the land for a Hall for Melton South in 1909, known as Exford Hall and later in 1919 renamed Victoria Hall. The Hall was demolished in 1992. He was a Councillor, JP, and Vice President and President of the Melton Mechanics Institute Hall Committee in 1915- 1916. He was a member of the Methodist Church and later the Scots Presbyterian Church. He was Superintendent of the Sunday School of the Methodist Church to 1910 and later Scots Presbyterian Church until 1931. This is reflected in the theme of children in the stained glass window which was dedicated in his memory by his wife Jessie as a gift to the Scots Church. Charles Ernest Barrie made many generous donations to many charities who supported young people and children. In 1918 Jessie and Ernie made the first donation to a very prominent Victorian charity whose work still continues. Yooralla. In July 1931 Ernie’s untimely death was a major blow to the family and the Melton community. To this day people still vividly recall the day they lined the streets for his funeral. The day of the funeral is recalled as the day Melton stood as two of their prominent citizens who tragically died on the same day. Their eldest daughter Mary had married Keith Robinson in 1930 and had just moved to Heatherdale Toolern Vale with their year old baby son. Bon the eldest son was 22, Edgar 18, Tom 16, Horace 15, Jessie and Joyce 10 and Jim 8 years old. A heavy burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of the two eldest children, Mary particularly for her mother and Bon stepped in assuming head of the family for his mother, brothers and sisters living at the Darlingsford homestead. In the early 1930’s the three eldest sons took on many of the Civic and Church commitments which their father had held. This community involvement extended well into the 1980s. In 1941 Bon married Edna Myers and they moved into a house shifted from Harkness Lane to Harkness Lane on the eastern section of the Darlingford property. Edgar married Margaret Hodgkinson a Primary school teacher at Melton in 1949 and they lived in the Darlingsford house. Earlier Tom married May Ferris and lived on the eastern side of Ferris Lane in the Ferris home. Bon , Edgar and Tom often operated as a team effort, in particular at harvest time when a larger team of workers was needed. The three farms cultivated wheat, barley and oats and supplied the Mill with sheafed hay. They continued using horse teams until mechanisation in the 1940’s made the horses redundant. By the 1960s their five sons continued with farming. Many loads of hay were transported to the Mill in Footscray. Well into the 1960s hired harvest hands along with agricultural university students were involved in bringing in he harvest. Stacking was an art form in itself and Tom held the expertise for building and shaping the sides and roof. The stacks built in the district each had their own unique shape and could be recognized by their builders. The Barrie brothers developed a mechanical fork lift for picking up complete stooks and moving them to be loaded to the elevator to build the haystack. The prototype built by Bill Gillespie was attached to a Bedford truck. Later refinements in a collaborative effort with the Gillespie brothers a multi pronged fork was attached to the front of tractor which was hydraulically operated to raise each stook onto trucks to be transported to the site of the haystacks. This method of handling sheaves significantly reduced laborious pitchforking individual sheaves. This invention was soon taken up by farmers far and wide and was a common sight in the district at harvest time in the stacking season. I recall visiting farmers calling in at the house at Ferris Road farm to inspect this break through invention. The Clydesdale horse teams were used into the 1940s but by the 1950s the Barries’ farms were fully mechanised. When the demand for sheafed hay declined other crops were introduced these included barley, lucerne, wheat and peas. Sheep were added to the mix in the 1950s in an attempt to keep the farms more viable. In the 1970s part of the Barrie’s farms were facing a major disruption with the impending compulsorily acquisition of a strip of land for the construction the freeway bypass, which divided access between the Darlingsford homestead with those on Ferris Lane. Charles Ernest Barrie and Jessie May Lang's children: 1. Mary Ena BARRIE was born on 07 October 1907. She died on 29 April 1999. 2. Ernest Wesley BARRIE was born on 29 April 1909 in Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia.He died on 25 December 1985 in Melton, Victoria, Australia. 3. Cecil William BARRIE was born on 23 February 1911.He died on 25 May 1916. 4. Charles Edgar BARRIE was born on 01 June 1913.He died on 06 October 1975. 5. Thomas Lindsay BARRIE was born on 25 November 1914.He died on 14 September 1990 in Melton, Victoria, Australia. 6. William Horace BARRIE was born on 11 October 1915.He died on 19 December 1950. 7. Jessie Maud BARRIE was born on 06 November 1920 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.She died on 26 February 1994. 8. Dorothy Joyce BARRIE was born on 06 November 1920 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.She died on 18 March 2003.. 9. James Edward BARRIE was born on 17 January 1922 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.He died on 23 August 2004Family Photo with Edgar, Tom, Mary, Ernest (Bon), Horace, Jim, Charles Ernest, Jessie and Joycelocal identities

BUSINESS TRADE AND DIRECTORY MAP NORTH of High Street RALIEGHS Road - Early settlers Oliver Reierson ( Norwegian) Raliegh SHEBLER Court Auguste EMIL Court Jongebloed Family residence “Hemlich” ALEXANDRA Street Coronation King, Queen Alexandra - 1903 O’NEILS Road Farmer OLDERSHAW Road CORR Grove Early landowner, Teacher at the Common School – Denominational Churches, 1850’s Wesleyan (Methodist) BRYAN Court 1850’s resident renamed from earliest town site - Flat HURLEY Street Early settler and farmers - CHESNEY Road was named Minns, due to duplication altered to Chesney (Minns) SOUTH of High ALKEMADE Drive. Family name ARNOLD Court Family BARRIES Road Charles Ernest Barrie “Darlingsford” 1911 Residence KILPATRICKS Road became Barries Road west of Station Road BLACKWOOD Drive Alexander, Early settler CALLANAN Drive Surveyor early LUBY Court John Luby - Crown Grant Land title KERWIN Street Michael - Crown Grant land title (deleted due to Freeway)Pamphlet of Melton Businesses and map of the townlocal identities, misc., council

Beryl Knox speaking about early life in Melton. Page 1 1949 – 64 years ago. We began our married life at Melton Sth. The house on the corner of the Exford Rd and Staughton St-- dusty gravel roads, box thorns and noxious weeds everywhere and a sprinkling of houses and vacant land. It was a friendly community consisting of old family names. McDonalds, Blacks, Dodemaide, Cahill, Coopers, Minns, Tinklers, Nesbitts, Cochranes, Wickhams, Exells. Mavis Butler. The home owned by Mr. Robinson and Miss Robinson had been shifted in two parts transported from Diggers Rest and it is still standing 2013. Bruce’s father purchased the house and two adjoining blocks, the Conways built on one and the Rawlinson family on the other block. Eileen still resides there, she was only a baby in a pram and the family had not long arrived from England. The railway line was close to the house and the contents would rattle when heavy steams trains went through, and on a clear frosty night the 1am paper train would echo roar through very loudly when labouring towards the Exford Bridge. Then the two carriage motor train was introduced, this was great for the workers and schoolies who travelled to Melbourne. The train pulled up at the crossing or riding to pick up or drop off. Melva Gillespie (nee Hirt) Bill Cahill delivered the milk by the billy and then in bottles. Len Kennedy (Paul Kennedy’s father, Norma Murrays son) delivered Jongebloeds bread, he always had a sweep going for the Melbourne Cup and raffles for the footy club. Mr. Woodgate owned an old bus and pick up point was the Post Office when there was a Saturday film on a Melton. There were no doctors or dentists in the district. If we need a Doctor we had to travel to Bacchus Marsh or discuss problems over the phone. In later years a Bacchus Marsh Doctor rented the Bluestone building in McKenzie St a couple of days a week. If we needed the Dentist we had to travel to West Footscray or Footscray. We did our banking at “State Savings” then the Miss Minns had the agency and then Bardsleys Store. We travelled to Bacchus Marsh to the National and Commercial banks. Station Rd to Western Highway, now (High Street) was a narrow stretch of bitumen and gravel farmland either side and a couple of farm houses and large gum trees on the properties. Page 2 North of the Railway line Mrs Bessie Jones, mother of Chas and Betty Jones managed the Post Office, next door to her Chas and Betty had the Shell Centre, and later moved the business to Melton. Hughie Nesbitt and mother owned the grocery and hardware store, and I bought my first set of saucepans there. On the opposite side of Station road Mr Coombe owned the fruit shop, and also provided soft drinks and lollies for children. The Chaff Mill was on the corner of Station Rd and Brooklyn Rd. Mr Lumsden was manager and later years Bernie Trethowan and Jack Butler were partners. It finally burnt down and is a Service Station now. Along Brooklyn Rd there were a few houses and Victoria Hall, not a very big hall, but catered for lots of functions, Balls, Fancy Dress, Bazaars, Square Dancing and meetings. The Bacchus Marsh Baptists held Sunday School in the hall. A group of shops were built south of the railway line Molly and Len Skinner managed the Post Office and handled a few essential groceries. Tom McDonald and Ron Lunsberg were the butchers. Mary and Syd Cooper lived next door to us and often in turn would run out of something when we had a baking spree we would borrow or exchange, sugar flour etc over the fence. Mavis and Jack Butler lived there before the Coopers. Bernie and Iris Trethowan lived two doors up. Neighbours were invited into their home to view the first black and white television in Melton Sth. Bill Exell was one of the first Melton Sth farmers to sell his land to developers, the land was idle for years before housing developed. I joined the Melton Valley Golf Club in 1960. The Gun Club as our Club House, an old tin shed consisting a water tank, trestle table and forms and dirt floor. It was a 9 hole course with sand scraps and landscape putting before greens. The Common or parkland was part of the Golf Course. It was open for every ones recreation. Roy Norton an old identity trained his trotters on the Common and wouldn’t clear the track for the golfers. The golfers had to avoid him to continue to play. We had to keep clear when the young youths came in their paddock cars and motorbikes. Over the years the Toolern Creek flooded its banks, water and debri covered the course on one year our first Club house was flooded out. It took several working bees to clean it up. We lived at Melton Sth for 15 years and moved to Melton on the farm “Croxton Park.” The Nixon family farm “Mowbray” adjoined the farm. Bruce worked the land cropping the farm when Mrs Nixon died. Page 3 (page 4 on the handwritten script) Bruce had the first offer to buy, in those days it wasn’t easy to get good bank loans. Part of the land is the Golf Course now and Mr O’Shea purchased the bulk. Moving to Melton was totally different – I became involved with Committees, Scouts, Guides, Mothers Clubs, CWA, Church Op shop (8 years). Melton Amateurs players produced and tutored by Mabel Rogers exerts from Pyjama Game, South Pacific, Carousel - later years a group of ladies did gentle water exercise at Essendon and Station Road swimming pool. I was 20 or so years in Probus. The local followed the football, there was always a Gymkhana on the long weekend in June. The tennis always created a lot of interest during the finals. It didn’t matter which team played the supporters were treated to a cup of tea and leftovers from their afternoon tea. In 1978 were the first residents to move into the Jennings Estate Kurunjang and lived there 31 years and retired 4 years ago into Unit. The amazing changes I have experienced. Merrimu supplied our water, after depending on tanks. The landscape changed completely when developers came in, no more dusty plains \ typed web Sept 2013 McFarlane, Mrs Knox and Beryl Gillespie at the First Hundred Years Celebration of Melton State School 430. The event was held at Mechanics Hall, Melton.local identities, local significant events, education

Hay bale saws were a common agricultural tool. Ed Nolt, a Dutch resident of Pennsylvania, USA, invented the prototype for the small square baler back in the 1930s. His patent was purchased and mass produced during the 1940s. These balers quickly spread throughout the world and became a common agricultural machine. The hale bale saw was used to cut up the bales when distributing feed to livestock. As modern agricultural production has turned more to the use of large round bales, these small saws have become obsolete. This saw was used by a farmer in North Barnawatha approximately 18 kilometres from Wodonga, Victoria.This saw is representative of the agricultural tools in the mid to late 20th century.A metal saw with 2 wooden handles. The saw has a very coarse serrated edge. One of the handles is parallel to the blade, and the other handle is perpendicular to the blade.agricultural tools, hay bale saws, north east victoria

A4 copies of Landata Victoria Historical Search documents - Vol 4197 Fol 839286.Winifred Cambridge of Balwyn, Married Woman, is now the proprietor of an Estate in Fee-simple subject to the Encumbrances notified hereunder ... 17 acres 2 roods 3 perches or thereabouts, being part of Lot 9 on plan of subdivision no.4315, Bemboka Road, Warranwood, Victoria. Encumbrance comment "Appurtenant to carriageway over Omeo Parade on LP12040". Transfers include John Collins of Brysons Road Ringwood, Farmer - 16th June, 1944, Kevin Collins of Warranwood, Carrier - 20th September, 1951, Francis Mohan of St.Kilda - 19th January, 1968, Vivian Campbell Rush, Engineer, and Dorothy May Rush, Married Woman, both of Main Road, Warrandyte, joint proprietors, and Alan Humphrey Croxford, Gentleman, and Eleanor Pearl Croxford, Married Woman, both of Pound Road, Warrandyte, joint proprietors as Tenants In Common - 31st March, 1969, Transferred as to the interest of Alan Humphrey Croxford and Eleanor Pearl Croxford - 13th July, 1973. (See Alan Humphrey Croxford biography link https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/croxford-alan-humphrey-12375)

BHS CollectionHanro 100 Ordinary Shares Certificate: Cream Paper with black print. Certificate No. 1738. On the left side is perforations for tearing and a vertical repetitive design of an open book. Each certificate is for 100 ordinary Shares. At the top is printed *Hanro (Australia) Knitting Mills Limited. (Incorporated in Victoria Under the Companies ACT 1928). It gives the breakup, number and the price of the different types of shares. The registered office is 163 - 175 Hargreaves Street, Bendigo. It is a blank certificate. At the bottom is *The Common Seal of Hanro (Australia) Knitting Mills Limited was hereto affixed in the presence of...... Directors..... Secretary. This Certificate must be given up to the company on the transfer of any or all of the above shares. A box is provided for the Progressive numbers of the shares. On the back hand written in Blue biro is *Wreath $2.50. Wood Farmers 11am 2/4/68Hanro (Australia)document, certificate, share certificate, hanro

Edendale Farm is Nillumbik Shire Council's environment centre situated in Gastons Road, Eltham between the railway and the Diamond Creek. The homestead on the property was built in 1896 and is of historical significance, being the subject of a Heritage Overlay under the Nillumbik Planning Scheme. The Edendale property was originally part of an extensive land purchase in 1852 from the Crown by pioneer Eltham farmer Henry Stooke. He initially purchased 51 acres and later expanded his holdings by purchasing another three adjacent Crown allotments extending northerly from Josiah Holloway's Little Eltham subdivision. Despite clearing the land, Stooke did not build on this property, choosing to live on his property "Rosehill" at Lower Plenty. In 1896 Thomas Cool, Club Manager of the Victoria Coffee Palace in Melbourne purchased 7 acres of the original Stooke land and built the house now known as Edendale. Cool did not farm the land, instead using it as a gentleman’s residence, retiring to Eltham at weekends. In 1918 he purchased an additional 7 acres but in 1919 he sold the property. Later owners included J.W. Cox, the Gaston family and D. Mummery. In the 1980s the Eltham Shire Council purchased the site for use as a Council depot, but this use did not proceed. Subsequently, it was used as the Council pound. The Edendale Farm Pet Education and Retention Centre was established in the summer of 1988/1989 and was set up to replace the existing dog kennels with a high standard pet retention centre. The design style of the building was established to compliment the features of the existing house. It was equipped with 10 retention pens, a veterinary room and a pet education area where school children and other interested parties learnt about pet care procedures. It was later developed into a community farm and was run by an advisory committee and in 2000 it became an Environment Centre. In early 2006 an advisory committee was established for the development of a master plan for future development at Edendale Farm. The committee included Russell Yeoman, a former long-time shire planner and founding member of the Eltham District Historical Society. At the time of filming the Master Plan and future for Edendale was about continuing to develop Edendale as a centre of environment learning and looking at expanding displays and school program, running a lot more of life-long learning and workshops around sustainable living. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p101 A sharp turn from busy Wattletree Road by the railway line, brings a surprise. Only 1.4 km from Eltham’s centre, sheep feed, blissfully unaware of the hectic suburban activity so close by. At the entrance to the 5.6ha Edendale Farm is another surprise. A work of art that looks like huge tree trunks transformed into bowler and top-hatted men. The Fences Act 1968 by Tony Trembath with Mark Cain and John Doyle, 1996, is classified by the National Trust of Australia as having Regional Significance. The title refers to a government act on disputes between neighbors over the placement of fences and boundaries. This takes a ‘wry swipe’ at a community divided by trivial squabbles. It also celebrates making do with limited resources.1 Further along on the left, the office wall is decorated with a massive Eltham Copper Butterfly, designed by Robert Tickner and made by school children with used plastic bottles and other waste material. Nillumbik Council runs Edendale as an Environmental Education Centre, to help preserve and enhance the local environment. As early as 1988 the former Eltham Shire Council realised Edendale’s importance in meeting people’s needs, particularly of children, to enjoy farmland. The centre, with the Eltham North Reserve to the north - including remnant bushland and open parkland - makes up the major part of the public open space for this area. The council considers this area will become increasingly important to the local community for recreational use.2 Educational programs aim to encourage community involvement to ensure the long-term rehabilitation and protection of natural bushland areas. Edendale is used by people of all ages - from school children to adults - for environmental programs and workshops, as well as for recreation, to enjoy the domestic animals and to picnic. Edendale is also home to the Environmental Works staff who manage reserves and roadsides and support Nillumbik Friends environmental groups. The Friends propagate plants at the nursery, which grows indigenous plants and sells these to the public.3 The centre demonstrates the sustainable living the farm teaches, with features like solar hot water and drive lighting and for the fireplace, logs of recycled cardboard. Edendale has had a varied history as a dog pound and even as a retreat for Thomas Cool, Club Manager of the Victoria Coffee Palace in Melbourne. His single-storey weatherboard house built in 1896, which still stands, was grander than most homes in Eltham. Although such buildings were common in many other parts of Melbourne, Eltham’s poverty and remoteness did not encourage such construction. The Victorian rectangular-shaped house, with a corrugated iron roof and veranda, has elegant large rooms, leadlight windows, ceiling roses, two bay windows and ornately carved wooden fireplace surrounds. Cool bought seven acres (2.8ha) from pioneer Eltham farmer Henry Stooke’s 200 acre (81ha) farm, which he had bought from the Crown in 1852. In 1918 Cool bought an extra seven acres (2.8ha) but in 1919 sold the estate to farmer John Cox. In 1933 Cox sold Edendale to Mrs Elizabeth Gaston, after whom the road leading to the centre was named. The property was owned by several Gaston family members, who called it Edendale, then by a police constable, Douglas Mummery, until the Shire of Eltham bought it in 1970. Oddly Edendale was known as Mummery’s for almost 20 years, although Mummery owned it only for a short time.4 The shire used Edendale as a dog pound until amalgamation with other municipalities in 1996. The pound then moved to the Yan Yean Road, Plenty site, which had been used by the former Diamond Valley Shire Council. To the west and north the centre is bounded by Diamond Creek and on the east by the Melbourne-Hurstbridge railway line. Part of the Research creek forms the centre’s southern boundary.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, edendale farm

The origins of the humble handheld driptorch have been lost in time. They are widely used for ignition in controlled burning operations in forest and grasslands. The date, origins and manufacturer of this particular model are unknown. The “Pacific Forester“ with its short central wand and somewhat leaky ball-valve was made by the American Wajax company in the 1940s. The Pacific Forester is slightly different in design from the more robust and common “Panama” driptorch first manufactured in 1933 and used extensively by Queensland cane farmers. The Panama is closely related to the current “Firebug” used in Victoria which is manufactured by Rodney Industries in Brisbane. The fuel is a mixture of petrol and diesel and every FCV District had their own closely-guarded secret formula ... 2:1, 3:1, 1:1, 4:1 or 3:2 ratio. There was also the choice of 91, 95 or 98 octane petrol mixed with summer or winter diesel. Occasionally some of the old Avgas or Jet-A1 lying around the depot was added with a splash of engine oil to make the mixture stick to the fuel to be ignited. The fuel mixed also varied between autumn or spring, heathland, mixed forest, or high-intensity slash burnsEarly driptorch designDrip torch with handle Wand has loop and valve. The loop is designed to assist with even flow of fuel which flows out onto the burning head of the wand. Soldered tin fuel container which holds burner mix. Gravitational feed of the driptorch allows the unit to drip fire, making it simple and quick to operate. bushfire, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Clarendon Primary School operated as a Common School from 1878 and ceased operating in the 1990s. The school was one of the oldest in the district and provided an education for the children of railway workers and farmersColour photograph showing the grounds of the former Clarendon Primary School8 March 1996 Clarendon Primary School Groundseducation, state schools, clarendon