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Glenelg Shire Council Cultural Collection
Painting, Ludmilla Meilerts, Still Life, 1970
Ludmilla Meilerts, Oil On Board, Botanical Gardens, Circa 1970 Ludmilla Meilerts (1908 - 1997), Botanical Gardens, Melbourne, an impressive work painted with bold brushstrokes and a vivid colourful palette which typifies the artists work. Born in Riga,Latvia in 1908 - After displaying an early talent for art she studied at The Latvian Academy Of Fine Arts graduating in 1940. Later that year she married Otto Meilerts, an Economist, and they moved to Stuttgart, Germany to avoid living under Soviet occupation and then emigrated to Australia in 1948 settling in Melbourne. She worked as a nurse's aid and in a clothing factory to fund the further development of her artistic career achieving considerable early success with her colourful work encompassing portraiture, florals and city and landscapes. She particularly like painting dockland scenes. She was a member of The Victorian Artists Society (VAS) and The Melbourne Society Of Woman Painters And Sculptors. Major prizes include The Dunlop Prize in 1952, Gosford Art prize 1971, Camberwell 1973, VAS Purstitz Gold Medal 1982. She is represented in The State Galleries of Victoria, NSW, Tasmania and Western Australia as well as several regional Galleries. Still life of fruit and a jog. Painted in thick impasto paint, creating a very textured surface. Fruit is depicted in green, brown, apricot, pink and red. Background is abstract. Upper left background is brown, upper centre and right background is in shades of grey, blue and green, with some white. Brown wooden frame.Front: L Meilerts 70 (lower right, black paint)still life, female artists, women, women artists -
Melbourne Tram Museum
Magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly, “Melbourne’s paintings on wheels”, 23/10/1978 12:00:00 AM
Magazine clipping titled: “Melbourne’s paintings on wheels” – The Australian Women’s Weekly – August 23 1978 Page (coloured) from magazine, written by Carol Veitch Artists Andrew Southall, Mirka Mora, other artists Mike Brown, Clifton Pugh, Les Kossatz & Sandra Leveson. Six well known painters have been commissioned to paint trams.trams, tramways, transporting art, decorated trams, tram 234 -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph, Walter Withers in his studio, Eltham, c.1906
Walter Withers (1854-1914) was born in Handsworth, Warwickshire, England. He migrated to Australia in 1882 and in time was to become one of the country's most famous painters. In 1887/8 he spent a year in London and Paris during which time he married Fanny Flinn. When he returned to Melbourne he was engaged by publishers doing black and white illustrations. In the late 1880's he became associated with artists who formed the renowned "Heidelberg School" and in 1890 moved to "Charterisville" at Eaglemont. He lived in the Heidelberg area until 1903 when he purchased a house on two and a half acres (one hectare) at the corner of Brougham and Bolton Streets, Eltham. He had long been attracted to the Eltham area, but needed access to Melbourne for his painting classes. The extension of the railway in 1901 made the move possible. He remained in Eltham until his death and is buried at nearby St Helena. Many of his important paintings were painted during these later years. There are important collections at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Geelong Art Gallery. His Eltham house remains and his name is honoured by a small park at the corner of Bible and Arthur Streets. Source: Information panel produced for Heritage Display exhibition by EDHS 1990.This photo forms part of a collection of photographs gathered by the Shire of Eltham for their centenary project book,"Pioneers and Painters: 100 years of the Shire of Eltham" by Alan Marshall (1971). The collection of over 500 images is held in partnership between Eltham District Historical Society and Yarra Plenty Regional Library (Eltham Library) and is now formally known as the 'The Shire of Eltham Pioneers Photograph Collection.' It is significant in being the first community sourced collection representing the places and people of the Shire's first one hundred years.Digital image 4 x 5 inch B&W Neg (duplicate of original)eltham local characters, pioneers and painters, sepp, shire of eltham pioneers photograph collection, walter withers, eltham, southernwood -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph, Walter Herbert Withers (1854-1914), c.1920
Walter Withers (1854-1914) was born in Handsworth, Warwickshire, England. He migrated to Australia in 1882 and in time was to become one of the country's most famous painters. In 1887/8 he spent a year in London and Paris during which time he married Fanny Flinn. When he returned to Melbourne he was engaged by publishers doing black and white illustrations. In the late 1880's he became associated with artists who formed the renowned "Heidelberg School" and in 1890 moved to "Charterisville" at Eaglemont. He lived in the Heidelberg area until 1903 when he purchased a house on two and a half acres (one hectare) at the corner of Brougham and Bolton Streets, Eltham. He had long been attracted to the Eltham area, but needed access to Melbourne for his painting classes. The extension of the railway in 1901 made the move possible. He remained in Eltham until his death and is buried at nearby St Helena. Many of his important paintings were painted during these later years. There are important collections at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Geelong Art Gallery. His Eltham house remains and his name is honoured by a small park at the corner of Bible and Arthur Streets. Source: Information panel produced for EDHS exhibition in 1990. john withers collection, artist, sepp, shire of eltham pioneers photo collection, walter herbert withers, walter withers -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Negative - Photograph, Walter Withers, c.1903-1914
Walter Withers (1854-1914) was born in Handsworth, Warwickshire, England. He migrated to Australia in 1882 and in time was to become one of the country's most famous painters. In 1887/8 he spent a year in London and Paris during which time he married Fanny Flinn. When he returned to Melbourne he was engaged by publishers doing black and white illustrations. In the late 1880's he became associated with artists who formed the renowned "Heidelberg School" and in 1890 moved to "Charterisville" at Eaglemont. He lived in the Heidelberg area until 1903 when he purchased a house on two and a half acres (one hectare) at the corner of Brougham and Bolton Streets, Eltham. He had long been attracted to the Eltham area, but needed access to Melbourne for his painting classes. The extension of the railway in 1901 made the move possible. He remained in Eltham until his death and is buried at nearby St Helena. Many of his important paintings were painted during these later years. There are important collections at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Geelong Art Gallery. His Eltham house remains and his name is honoured by a small park at the corner of Bible and Arthur Streets. Source: Information panel produced for EDHS exhibition in 1990.This photo forms part of a collection of photographs gathered by the Shire of Eltham for their centenary project book,"Pioneers and Painters: 100 years of the Shire of Eltham" by Alan Marshall (1971). The collection of over 500 images is held in partnership between Eltham District Historical Society and Yarra Plenty Regional Library (Eltham Library) and is now formally known as the 'The Shire of Eltham Pioneers Photograph Collection.' It is significant in being the first community sourced collection representing the places and people of the Shire's first one hundred years.Digital image 4 x 5 inch B&W Neg 120 format B&W negative B&W printsepp, shire of eltham pioneers photograph collection, eltham, walter withers, artist -
Bendigo Historical Society Inc.
Photograph - 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition, abt 1990-2019
The Red Ribbon Movement of 1853 represented a significant series of events in the history of Bendigo. During that year there was much agitation on the Bendigo gold fields, particularly during July and August of 1853, directed against the payment of what the miners called a tax - a licence fee of thirty shillings ($3) a month for the right to search for gold on what was declared Crown land. They had to pay the licence whether they found gold or not. The miners, or diggers as they were called, also resented the means used by the authorities at the time to collect the gold licence - through so-called 'digger hunts'. The miners were expected to carry their licences with them, and the police, who were often untrained, used harsh methods to check these licences. In Bendigo, the miners took to wearing a red ribbon ‘as a symbol of their protest against the licence. Red was a very common colour in items such as shirts, so was readily available. Shopkeepers too tied red ribbons to their premises as a sign of support for the miners. It should be remembered at that time virtually everyone was a miner. The diggers also had their own banner, designed by William Dexter, a china painter from Devon. This flag showed the pick, shovel and cradle representing labour, the scales representing justice, the Roman bundle of sticks meaning unity and the kangaroo and emu of Australia Many thousands of Bendigo miners signed a petition to La Trobe, the Governor of Victoria, protesting against the licence fee. When the Governor rejected the petition, thousands of diggers marched in peaceful protest. Miners from White Hills, Eaglehawk, Golden Square, Kangaroo Flat as well as from Bendigo Flat, converged on what is now Pall Mall and View Point, surrounding the ~government camp on Camp Hill. The camp had been reinforced with soldiers of the 40 Regiment, as the Government feared bloodshed. The miners then gathered on the hill behind View Point to hear from their leaders - among them George Thomson, Captain Harrison, Captain Brown and W.D.C. Denovan. They resolved to pay a token fee often shillings ($1) for the September licence, whenthey met with Commissioners Panton and Wright on Camp Hill. Although Wright and Panton were sympathetic to the miners, the offer was rejected, but no licence fees were collected for September. Thus a possible bloody conflict was averted by the common sense shown by the miners' leaders and the commissioners. It was a truly democratic protest against arbitrary government and preceded the Eureka Stockade Incident by over a year. Bendigo Historical Society Committee on a Tram, two photos, one of five people standing behind a display cabinet, and the second one a Banner stretched across the tram. On the rear of the photo is "L-R Jim Evans, Terry Davidson, Ron Monro." Second from left is Jim Evans (President) and fourth from the left is Terry Davidson, with extreme right, Ron Munro (Vice President). In the cabinet is the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition (Red Ribbon Rebellion) The society holds the petition in digital form. The diggers had their own banner, designed by William Dexter, a china painter from Devon. This flag showed the pick, shovel and cradle representing labour, the scales representing justice, the Roman bundle of sticks meaning unity and the kangaroo and emu of Australia history, bendigo, tram, 1853 bendigo goldfields petition, red ribbon rebellions -
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Book - Bible, Thomas Kelly & Sons, The Holy Bible - Douay Bible and Rheims Testament, 1880
The Douay (Douai) Rheims Bible is an English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible (which had been the Latin Bible used by the Catholic Church since the 4th century). It was produced by Roman Catholic scholars in exile from Elizabethan Protestant England at the English College of Douai (then in the Spanish Netherlands but later part of France). The New Testament translation was published in 1582 at Rheims where the English College had temporarily located in 1578. The Old Testament was translated shortly afterwards but was not published until 1609-1610 in Douay (which makes it older than the King James version). The completed work was the only authorized Bible in English for Roman Catholics until the 20th Century. Its purpose was to uphold the Catholic tradition in the face of the Protestant Reformation and was produced as an alternative to the several Protestant translations then in existence. Prior to it being published, the Roman Catholic practice had restricted personal use of the Bible, in the Latin Vulgate, to the clergy. Bishop Richard Challoner issued a series of revisions (1749 - 1772) intended to make the translation more easily understandable and subsequent editions (including this one) were based upon this revision. In 1871, an edition of the Douay - Rheims Bible was published by Thomas Kelly & Sons of Philadelphia (and later, New York). Thomas Kelly described himself as a "Publisher, Printer, Binder, Lithographer and Steel Plate Engraver". In 1876, Thomas Kelly won an award (a Diploma of Honor and a Medal of Merit) for "the Best Catholic Bibles and Prayer Books" at the International Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia and his firm continued to print editions of the Bible throughout the 1870's but little is known of him after 1880 when this edition was published. This Bible has been in the Kermond family from 1888 until 1984 when Laurence Kermond (its last owner) died. The Kermonds were an old Warrnambool family with ties to the district going back to the mid 1840's. Joseph Kermond's mother, Catherine (1818 - 1895) and her husband John Kermond,, an ex-convict (1809 - 1877), had moved from Tasmania around 1843 and were living in the Warrnambool area in 1844 where their eldest son was born. They had six more children born at Port Fairy (or Belfast as it was then called). Catherine is buried at the Tower Hill cemetery. The last owner of the Bible was Laurence Kermond (1918 - 1984). He was the great grandson of John and Catherine Kermond and was a well known painter who lived in the Merimbula and Paynesville areas of N.S. W. and Victoria during the 1970's and early 1980's. The story of Joseph Kermond finding the Bible on a beach on the Shipwreck Coast near Peterborough on the southern coast of Victoria, Australia is plausible as it was not uncommon for items from shipwrecks to be washed ashore. However this Bible would not have come from the wreck of the Loch Ard as the dates don't align. The Loch Ard was wrecked in 1878 and this Bible was printed in 1880. It appears to have been printed for the Australian market as there is a page (with an engraved portrait) dedicated to the "Most Rev. Roger Bede Vaughan, O. S. B. Archbishop of Sydney, N. S. W.". It may also have been aimed at the Irish immigrants as the four "Family Register" pages are decorated with borders of shamrocks. The donor found the Bible in a box of secondhand books on a market stall in Gippsland and recognised its links to the Shipwreck Coast through the name of previous owners (a well-known Warrnambool name) and the story of it being found on a beach near Peterborough. This Bible is a rare example of Douay and Reims Catholic Bible of the late 19th century that was once a treasured item belonging to the Kermond family - one of Warrnambool's early settlers. It also has a most unusual story attached to it - being found (and rescued) washed up on a local beach and almost one hundred years later, being rescued again from a secondhand book stall.This Catholic Bible is an 1880 edition of a "Douay Bible and Rheims Testament", printed and published by Thomas Kelly of New York. Its full title is "The Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate Diligently Compared with The Hebrew, Greek and Other Editions in Various Languages". It is revised with annotations by the Right Rev. R. Challoner D.D. The Bible has brown leather embossed front and back covers decorated with identical ornate gilt patterns and a central picture of a cross. It has two coloured illustrations and numerous black and white lithographs and engravings including portraits of past popes, events and places from Bible stories and decorative borders. The Bible includes the Old and New Testaments, approbations from Pope Pius the Sixth and Archbishops of the United States and other countries (including Archbishop Vaughan of Sydney), a Family Register with handwritten notes on births, deaths and marriages from the Kermond family (as well as a description of how they obtained the bible), a Catholic dictionary of the Bible, a history of the Holy Scriptures, a chronological list of heretics (Theological history) and a description of the "Centennial Award - Diploma of Honor and medal of Merit" won by Thomas Kelly (for the "Best Catholic Bible") at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. The Records section has a note on the Memoranda page written by William John Kennard in 1920.Spine: HOLY BIBLE Title Page: THE/ HOLY BIBLE /TRANSLATED FROM/ THE LATIN VULGATE/ DILIGENTLY COMPARED WITH/THE HEBREW, GREEK AND OTHER EDITIONS/ IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES/ THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT DOUAY, A.D. 1600 / AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, BY THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT RHEIMS, A.D. 1582./ REVISED WITH ANNOTATIONS/ BY THE RIGHT REV. R. CHALLONER D.D./ TOGETHER WITH REFERENCES, AND AN HISTORICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX./ NOW CAREFULLY CORRECTED ACCORDING TO THE CLEMENTINE EDITION OF THE SCRIPTURES/ NEW YORK / THOMAS KELLY, PUBLISHER/ 17 BARCLAY STREET. / 1880 Dedication Page: DEDICATION OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION/ TO/ THAT LOYAL, RELIGIOUS AND ENLIGHTENED BODY OF MEN / THE/ CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA/ IN ADMIRATION OF THE STEADY ZEAL WITH WHICH THEY HAVE KEPTTHE/DEPOSIT OF FAITH/ BEQUEATHED THEM BY THEIR FOREFATHERS/ AND HANDED DOWN, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OT ADULTERATION, TO THEIR GRATEFUL POSTERITY/ THIS EDITION/ OF THE/DOUAY BIBLE AND RHEIMS TESTAMENT/ IS / WITH GRATITUDE FOR PAST FAVORS AND HOPES OF FUTURE ENCOURAGEMENT/ MOST RESPECTFULLY ENSCRIBED. Handwritten note: ""This Holy Book was found . on the beach . near Peterborough Vic. having been washed ashore . from the wreck of the Loch Ard, (sailing ship) in the year 1888 . By .Joseph . Kermond; and presented to . his mother . Catherine Kermond , who in turn passed it - on . to her youngest . son ; one Jacob Kermond. He in turn presented . it to his son . William John Kermond , (the writer), 23/3/20)" [Original punctuation]flagstaff hill maritime museum and village, warrnambool, shipwreck coast, peterborough, kermond, kermond family, loch ard, bible, douay and rheims bible, catholic bible, thomas kelly and sons publiisher, douai, rheims, holy bible, religious bible, catherine kermond, john kermond, william john kermond' -
Dandenong/Cranbourne RSL Sub Branch
Painting, Painting of S.S Egyptian Transport
The cargo ship" Egyptian Transport" depicted in the painting was a cargo ship landing in Sydney Australia and transporting supplies via Honolulu America to the Western front. She was Captained by Captain Gordon Trent Chambers. He later Captained a vessel in 1940, the Titania used during Operation Dynamo rescuing British soldiers from Dunkirk in France. The painting is an original by L. Papaluca a renowned painter of ocean vessels.Gilded wooden frame with painting of S.S. Egyptian Transport.Inscribed on bow "Egyptian Transport". -
Federation University Art Collection
Painting - Artwork - bookplate, Olley, Margaret, 'Apple with Glass' by Margaret Olley, 2005
Margaret Olley (24 June 1923 – 26 July 2011) Born Lismore, New South Wales In 1941 Margaret commenced classes at Brisbane Central Technical College. In 1943 Olley moved to Sydney and enrolled in an art Diploma course at East Sydney Technical College graduating in 1945 with A-class honours. She is known as a still-life and interior painters Margaret who drew inspiration from her home and studio, and the beauty of the everyday objects she gathered around her. Her paintings often feature arrangements of fruits and flowers, set amid domestic ware art and souvenirs of her travels. For her service as an artist and to the promotion of art, she was awarded the Order of Australia in 1991 and made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1996. This item is part of the Federation University Art Collection. The Art Collection features over 2000 works and was listed as a 'Ballarat Treasure' in 2007.Framed oil painting of an apple on a table with red gingham cloth. art, artwork, margaret olley, olley, apple, fruit, still life -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Digital Photograph, Marguerite Marshall, Art Gallery at Clifton Pugh's Artists' Colony, Dunmoochin, Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge, 5 February 2008
Art Gallery with mural painted by Clifton Pugh (1924-1990) at his Artists' Colony, Dunmoochin, Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. Following military service in the second world war, Clifton Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne as well as Justus Jorgensen, founder of Montsalvat. For a while he lived on the dole but also worked packing eggs for the Belot family saving sufficient to purchase six acres (2.4 ha) of land at Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. He accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in a property of approximately 200 acres, stablishing it as one of the first artistic communes in Australia alongside Montsalvat in Eltham. It was around 1951 that Pugh felt he had '"done moochin' around" and so the name of the property evolved. He bought timber from Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminer's huts, it was a one room wattle-and-daub structure with dirt floor. Over the years it expanded with thick adobe walls made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors. All materials other than the local earth were sourced from second hand materials, most found at wreckers' yards. Artists from across the nation were drawn to Dunmoochin, with several setting up houses and shacks on the property, maintaining their independence but sharing their artistic zeal. Artists who worked or resided at Dunmoochin included Mirka Mora, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and John Olsen. In 2002, Pugh's house along with its treasure trove of art and a library of some 20,000 books was destroyed by fire. Traces of Pugh's home remain with the presence of the Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design, procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. In place of Pugh's house rose two double-storey mud-brick artists' studios topped with corrugated iron rooves curved like the wings of a bird with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings survived the fire. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then / Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p153 It’s not surprising that artist Clifton Pugh was drawn to Cottles Bridge to establish his artists’ colony Dunmoochin. Undisturbed by the clamour of modern life at Barreenong Road, Pugh was surrounded by the Australian bush he loved, and where his ashes were later scattered. The 200 acres (81ha) of bushland, broken by glimpses of rolling hills, has more than 50 species of orchids and Pugh shared his property with native animals including kangaroos, emus, phascogales, wombats, and diverse bird life. Pugh encouraged these creatures to join him in the bush by creating, with Monash University, a holding station where the animals were raised. Dunmoochin inspired Pugh for such paintings as in a book on orchids and the Death of a Wombat series.1 But his love for the bush was accompanied by the fear that Europeans were destroying it and much of his painting illustrated this fear and his plea for its conservation.2 However it was his house rather than the surrounding bush that was to be destroyed. Tragically in 2002 Pugh’s house, with its treasure of art and library of 20,000 art books, was destroyed by fire. Traces of the beauty of Pugh’s home still remain, however, in the magnificent Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. Now in place of Pugh’s house, are two double-storey mud-brick artists’ studios topped with corrugated roofs curved like birds’ wings, with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings remain.3 Pugh grew up on his parents’ hobby farm at Briar Hill and attended the Briar Hill Primary School, then Eltham High School and later Ivanhoe Grammar. At 15 he became a copy boy for the Radio Times newspaper, then worked as a junior in a drafting office. Pugh was to have three wives and two sons. After serving in World War Two in New Guinea and Japan, Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie, at the National Gallery School in Melbourne.4 Another of his teachers was Justus Jörgensen, founder of Montsalvat the Eltham Artists’ Colony. Pugh lived on the dole for a while and paid for his first six acres (2.4ha) at Barreenong Road by working as an egg packer for the Belot family. Pugh accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in the 200 acre property. They, too, purchased their land from the Belot family by working with their chickens. Around 1951 Pugh felt he had ‘Done moochin’ around’ and so the name of his property was born. Pugh bought some used timber from architect Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminers’ huts it was a one-room wattle-and-daub structure with a dirt floor. It was so small that the only room he could find for his telephone was on the fork of a tree nearby.5 Over the years the mud-brick house grew to 120 squares in the style now synonymous with Eltham. It had thick adobe walls (sun-dried bricks) made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors with the entire structure made of second-hand materials – most found at wreckers’ yards. Pugh’s first major show in Melbourne in 1957, established him as a distinctive new painter, breaking away from the European tradition ‘yet not closely allied to any particular school of Australian painting’.6 Pugh became internationally known and was awarded the Order of Australia. He won the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times, although he preferred painting the bush and native animals. In 1990 not long before he died, Pugh was named the Australian War Memorial’s official artist at the 75th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. Today one of Pugh’s legacies is the Dunmoochin Foundation, which gives seven individual artists or couples and environmental researchers the chance to work in beautiful and peaceful surroundings, usually for a year. By November 2007, more than 80 people had taken part, and the first disabled artist had been chosen to reside in a new studio with disabled access.1 In 1989, not long before Pugh died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 65, he established the Foundation with La Trobe University and the Victorian Conservation Trust now the Trust for Nature. Pugh’s gift to the Australian people – of around 14 hectares of bushland and buildings and about 550 art works – is run by a voluntary board of directors, headed by one of his sons, Shane Pugh. La Trobe University in Victoria stores and curates the art collection and organises its exhibition around Australia.2 The Foundation aims to protect and foster the natural environment and to provide residences, studios and community art facilities at a minimal cost for artists and environmental researchers. They reside at the non-profit organisation for a year at minimal cost. The buildings, some decorated with murals painted by Pugh and including a gallery, were constructed by Pugh, family and friends, with recycled as well as new materials and mud-bricks. The Foundation is inspired by the tradition begun by the Dunmoochin Artists’ Cooperative which formed in the late 1950s as one of the first artistic communes in Australia. Members bought the land collaboratively and built the seven dwellings so that none could overlook another. But, in the late 1960s, the land was split into private land holdings, which ended the cooperative. Dunmoochin attracted visits from the famous artists of the day including guitarists John Williams and Segovia; singer and comedian Rolf Harris; comedian Barry Humphries; and artists Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Mirka Mora. A potters’ community, started by Peter and Helen Laycock with Alma Shanahan, held monthly exhibitions in the 1960s, attracting local, interstate and international visitors – with up to 500 attending at a time.3 Most artists sold their properties and moved away. But two of the original artists remained into the new millennium as did relative newcomer Heja Chong who built on Pugh’s property (now owned by the Dunmoochin Foundation). In 1984 Chong brought the 1000-year-old Japanese Bizan pottery method to Dunmoochin. She helped build (with potters from all over Australia) the distinctive Bizan-style kiln, which fires pottery from eight to 14 days in pine timber, to produce the Bizan unglazed and simple subdued style. The kiln, which is rare in Australia, is very large with adjoining interconnected ovens of different sizes, providing different temperatures and firing conditions. Frank Werther, who befriended Pugh as a fellow student at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, built his house off Barreenong Road in 1954. Werther is a painter of the abstract and colourist style and taught art for about 30 years. Like so many in the post-war years in Eltham Shire, as it was called then, Werther built his home in stages using mud-brick and second-hand materials. The L-shaped house is single-storey but two-storey in parts with a corrugated-iron pitched roof. The waterhole used by the Werthers for their water supply is thought to be a former goldmining shaft.4 Alma Shanahan at Barreenong Road was the first to join Pugh around 1953. They also met at the National Gallery Art School and Shanahan at first visited each weekend to work, mainly making mud-bricks. She shared Pugh’s love for the bush, but when their love affair ended, she designed and built her own house a few hundred yards (metres) away. The mud-brick and timber residence, made in stages with local materials, is rectangular, single-storey with a corrugated-iron roof. As a potter, Shanahan did not originally qualify as an official Cooperative member.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, art gallery, clifton pugh, dunmoochin, cottlesbridge, cottles bridge, barreenong road -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Digital Photograph, Marguerite Marshall, Doorway of Clifton Pugh's former house at Dunmoochin, Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge, 5 February 2008
Following military service in the second world war, Clifton Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne as well as Justus Jorgensen, founder of Montsalvat. For a while he lived on the dole but also worked packing eggs for the Belot family saving sufficient to purchase six acres (2.4 ha) of land at Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. He accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in a property of approximately 200 acres, stablishing it as one of the first artistic communes in Australia alongside Montsalvat in Eltham. It was around 1951 that Pugh felt he had '"done moochin' around" and so the name of the property evolved. He bought timber from Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminer's huts, it was a one room wattle-and-daub structure with dirt floor. Over the years it expanded with thick adobe walls made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors. All materials other than the local earth were sourced from second hand materials, most found at wreckers' yards. Artists from across the nation were drawn to Dunmoochin, with several setting up houses and shacks on the property, maintaining their independence but sharing their artistic zeal. Artists who worked or resided at Dunmoochin included Mirka Mora, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and John Olsen. In 2002, Pugh's house along with its treasure trove of art and a library of some 20,000 books was destroyed by fire. Traces of Pugh's home remain with the presence of the Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design, procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. In place of Pugh's house rose two double-storey mud-brick artists' studios topped with corrugated iron rooves curved like the wings of a bird with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings survived the fire. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then / Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p155 It’s not surprising that artist Clifton Pugh was drawn to Cottles Bridge to establish his artists’ colony Dunmoochin. Undisturbed by the clamour of modern life at Barreenong Road, Pugh was surrounded by the Australian bush he loved, and where his ashes were later scattered. The 200 acres (81ha) of bushland, broken by glimpses of rolling hills, has more than 50 species of orchids and Pugh shared his property with native animals including kangaroos, emus, phascogales, wombats, and diverse bird life. Pugh encouraged these creatures to join him in the bush by creating, with Monash University, a holding station where the animals were raised. Dunmoochin inspired Pugh for such paintings as in a book on orchids and the Death of a Wombat series.1 But his love for the bush was accompanied by the fear that Europeans were destroying it and much of his painting illustrated this fear and his plea for its conservation.2 However it was his house rather than the surrounding bush that was to be destroyed. Tragically in 2002 Pugh’s house, with its treasure of art and library of 20,000 art books, was destroyed by fire. Traces of the beauty of Pugh’s home still remain, however, in the magnificent Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. Now in place of Pugh’s house, are two double-storey mud-brick artists’ studios topped with corrugated roofs curved like birds’ wings, with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings remain.3 Pugh grew up on his parents’ hobby farm at Briar Hill and attended the Briar Hill Primary School, then Eltham High School and later Ivanhoe Grammar. At 15 he became a copy boy for the Radio Times newspaper, then worked as a junior in a drafting office. Pugh was to have three wives and two sons. After serving in World War Two in New Guinea and Japan, Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie, at the National Gallery School in Melbourne.4 Another of his teachers was Justus Jörgensen, founder of Montsalvat the Eltham Artists’ Colony. Pugh lived on the dole for a while and paid for his first six acres (2.4ha) at Barreenong Road by working as an egg packer for the Belot family. Pugh accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in the 200 acre property. They, too, purchased their land from the Belot family by working with their chickens. Around 1951 Pugh felt he had ‘Done moochin’ around’ and so the name of his property was born. Pugh bought some used timber from architect Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminers’ huts it was a one-room wattle-and-daub structure with a dirt floor. It was so small that the only room he could find for his telephone was on the fork of a tree nearby.5 Over the years the mud-brick house grew to 120 squares in the style now synonymous with Eltham. It had thick adobe walls (sun-dried bricks) made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors with the entire structure made of second-hand materials – most found at wreckers’ yards. Pugh’s first major show in Melbourne in 1957, established him as a distinctive new painter, breaking away from the European tradition ‘yet not closely allied to any particular school of Australian painting’.6 Pugh became internationally known and was awarded the Order of Australia. He won the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times, although he preferred painting the bush and native animals. In 1990 not long before he died, Pugh was named the Australian War Memorial’s official artist at the 75th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. Today one of Pugh’s legacies is the Dunmoochin Foundation, which gives seven individual artists or couples and environmental researchers the chance to work in beautiful and peaceful surroundings, usually for a year. By November 2007, more than 80 people had taken part, and the first disabled artist had been chosen to reside in a new studio with disabled access.1 In 1989, not long before Pugh died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 65, he established the Foundation with La Trobe University and the Victorian Conservation Trust now the Trust for Nature. Pugh’s gift to the Australian people – of around 14 hectares of bushland and buildings and about 550 art works – is run by a voluntary board of directors, headed by one of his sons, Shane Pugh. La Trobe University in Victoria stores and curates the art collection and organises its exhibition around Australia.2 The Foundation aims to protect and foster the natural environment and to provide residences, studios and community art facilities at a minimal cost for artists and environmental researchers. They reside at the non-profit organisation for a year at minimal cost. The buildings, some decorated with murals painted by Pugh and including a gallery, were constructed by Pugh, family and friends, with recycled as well as new materials and mud-bricks. The Foundation is inspired by the tradition begun by the Dunmoochin Artists’ Cooperative which formed in the late 1950s as one of the first artistic communes in Australia. Members bought the land collaboratively and built the seven dwellings so that none could overlook another. But, in the late 1960s, the land was split into private land holdings, which ended the cooperative. Dunmoochin attracted visits from the famous artists of the day including guitarists John Williams and Segovia; singer and comedian Rolf Harris; comedian Barry Humphries; and artists Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Mirka Mora. A potters’ community, started by Peter and Helen Laycock with Alma Shanahan, held monthly exhibitions in the 1960s, attracting local, interstate and international visitors – with up to 500 attending at a time.3 Most artists sold their properties and moved away. But two of the original artists remained into the new millennium as did relative newcomer Heja Chong who built on Pugh’s property (now owned by the Dunmoochin Foundation). In 1984 Chong brought the 1000-year-old Japanese Bizan pottery method to Dunmoochin. She helped build (with potters from all over Australia) the distinctive Bizan-style kiln, which fires pottery from eight to 14 days in pine timber, to produce the Bizan unglazed and simple subdued style. The kiln, which is rare in Australia, is very large with adjoining interconnected ovens of different sizes, providing different temperatures and firing conditions. Frank Werther, who befriended Pugh as a fellow student at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, built his house off Barreenong Road in 1954. Werther is a painter of the abstract and colourist style and taught art for about 30 years. Like so many in the post-war years in Eltham Shire, as it was called then, Werther built his home in stages using mud-brick and second-hand materials. The L-shaped house is single-storey but two-storey in parts with a corrugated-iron pitched roof. The waterhole used by the Werthers for their water supply is thought to be a former goldmining shaft.4 Alma Shanahan at Barreenong Road was the first to join Pugh around 1953. They also met at the National Gallery Art School and Shanahan at first visited each weekend to work, mainly making mud-bricks. She shared Pugh’s love for the bush, but when their love affair ended, she designed and built her own house a few hundred yards (metres) away. The mud-brick and timber residence, made in stages with local materials, is rectangular, single-storey with a corrugated-iron roof. As a potter, Shanahan did not originally qualify as an official Cooperative member.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, art gallery, clifton pugh, dunmoochin, cottlesbridge, cottles bridge, barreenong road -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Digital Photograph, Marguerite Marshall, Alan Marshall by Marcus Skipper (1995) outside Eltham Library, Panther Place, Eltham, 11 October 2006
Sculture in bronze of Alan Marshall by Marcus Skipper, 1995 Alan Marshall, AM., O.B.E., Hon.LL,D. (1902-1984) was born at Noorat, Victoria and became one of Australia's most famous authors. His association with the Eltham area began in 1920 when he started his first job as a junior clerk at the Eltham Shire Offices, Kangaroo Ground. In the 1940's he spent some time living at Research. From 1955 he lived in Eltham for nearly 20 years. Disabilities resulting from polio as a young child did not prevent a wide range of experiences. Alan's occupations have been listed as clerk, night watchman, fortune teller, freelance journalist and author. He has been patron of many disadvantaged Children's Societies. Alan's books are numerous and include novels, short stories, children's books, history and travel. Among the best known are his autobiographies "I Can Jump Puddles" and "This is the Grass". Others include "These are My People", "Ourselves Writ Strange", "People of the Dreamtime"; "The Gay Provider" and "Wild Red Horses". In 1971 he wrote the Centenary History of the Shire of Eltham, "Pioneers and Painters". Covered under National Trust of Australia (Victoria), State significance. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then / Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p159 Outside the Eltham Library a bronze figure of a short one-legged man with a crutch invites people to the world of literature. The bronze statue, by Marcus Skipper, is of author Alan Marshall, who is famed for his autobiography I Can Jump Puddles, about growing up and overcoming the effects of polio. That plucky little boy later lived in the Nillumbik district for more than 50 years, and on his death in 1984, was buried in the Nillumbik Cemetery at Diamond Creek. Although a hugely successful author, his grave is modest with only a tiny boulder and simple bronze plaque on a grassed plot. From 1955 to 1972 Marshall lived in a tiny fibro-cement bungalow at the rear of a house at Park West Road, Eltham, owned by his older sister, Elsie McConnell. It was there that he wrote most of his autobiographical trilogy and his history of the former Eltham Shire, Pioneers and Painters. His long association with Eltham Shire began in 1918 when his family moved to Diamond Creek. Then in 1920 he began work as a junior clerk at the Eltham Shire Offices on Main Road, Kangaroo Ground near the Yarra Glen Road, while boarding at the hotel next door. Marshall later bought a block of land in Research, which had three bark huts. In one of these he wrote his first book These Are My People. He later sold the land but lived in a caravan there and in 1955 wrote I Can Jump Puddles.1 Proud of its citizen, the Eltham Shire named a park after Marshall at the corner of Main Road and Leanne Drive, Eltham. In 1985 the Shire initiated the Alan Marshall Short Story Award. It was Marshall’s early life in the country that taught him to live courageously in spite of his crippling polio, and he inspired many. This informed his writing – full of courage, championing the battler and love of the bush. Alan Marshall was born in 1902 at Noorat in Western Victoria, as the only son of Billy a drover, horse breaker, hawker and then general store owner. At the age of six, Marshall contracted infantile paralysis and was later hospitalised in Colac for 18 months. With his father’s encouragement, Marshall learnt to swim, wrestle and box, ride a bicycle (downhill), ride a horse and drive a car. Marshall won a scholarship to Stott’s Correspondence College to study accountancy. To help him continue his studies and find employment, his family bought 12 acres (4.8ha), in Ryans Road, Diamond Creek, opposite Windmill Court. There they ran cows, some poultry and an orchard. But life with a disability and during the Depression was hard for Marshall, who for 20 years, endured long periods of unemployment and loneliness and was often exploited at work.2 However, life improved in the 1930s, when he published short stories and articles in newspapers and magazines, including a column of advice to the lovelorn, which he wrote for nearly 20 years. At age 42 Marshall published his first book and in the next 30 years he published more than 20. His most successful book was I Can Jump Puddles, which sold more than three million copies internationally. It was made into a film, released in 1971, by Czechoslovakian director Karel Kachyna. Marshall was one of the first Australians to write about Aborigines who called him Gurrawilla - teller of tales - when he lived with them in Arnhem Land for eight months.3 In 1941 Marshall married Olive Dixon, with whom he had two daughters, Catherine and Jennifer. Marshall and Olive divorced in 1957. In 1972 Marshall was awarded an OBE for his work with the handicapped. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by Melbourne University, an Order of Australia for services to literature and the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples.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, alan marshall, art in public places, eltham, eltham library, marcus skipper, panther place, public art, sculpture -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Digital Photograph, Alan King, Stanhope, Peter Street, Eltham, 15 March 2008
On the crest of Stanhope Hill at Peter Street, Eltham, stands the former home of a couple, Clem and Nina Christensen who had a major influence on the literary development of post World War 2 Australia. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then / Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p109 On the crest of Stanhope Hill at Peter Street, Eltham, stands the former home of a couple, who had a major influence on the literary development of post World War Two Australia. In 1946, Clem and Nina Christensen bought the house, which had been designed by Harold Desbrowe Annear, considered to be one of Australia’s most innovative architects in the first quarter of the 20th century.1 That year the stucco building with a metal roof, built in 1910, was extended to the north and south. The main residence was built of jarrah, with stucco walls, floors of Tasmanian hardwood and rooms panelled with Californian redwood (sequoia). The property included a cottage, former stables, a dairy and meat-house. From its beginnings the property has attracted artists and intellectuals. Official World War One artist, Will Longstaff, bought the property – then 15½ acres (6ha) around 1900. Famous for his painting The Ghosts of Menin Gate, now in the Australian War Memorial Canberra, Longstaff was the cousin of another well-known painter, Sir John Longstaff. Several leading artists visited Longstaff at Stanhope including Walter Withers of the Heidelberg School, who lived in Brougham Street, Eltham. In 1919, Theo Handfield, father of author and journalist John Handfield, bought the property from Mrs Longstaff. Then in 1924 the land was subdivided and most of the estate (80 blocks) was auctioned. The next owner was related to novelist Virginia Woolf. Bishop Reginald Stephen, Warden of Trinity College, bought the house and five acres (2 ha) in 1928. He was related to Sir Leslie Stephen, the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and Woolf’s father. Novelist and music critic John Harcourt, was the next tenant, while he and his wife Fay, built their mud-brick house Clay Nuneham, at the foot of Stanhope Hill. Dr Clem and Mrs Nina Christensen, lived in the house until their deaths. Clem Christensen – who died aged 91 in 2003 – was a poet, short story writer and painter. However, he is most noted for founding Australia’s foremost literary journal2 Meanjin (originally Meanjin Papers), which he described as ‘democratic left of centre’, in Brisbane in 1940. Clem brought Meanjin to Melbourne in 1945 and remained editor until 1975. Enormously influential, Meanjin spawned and encouraged many of Australia’s best literary talents and it had an international reputation. Meanjin was the first to publish such writers as Judith Wright and David Malouf and it encouraged writers like Patrick White and Peter Carey. Nina Christensen – who died aged 89 in 2001 – was founding Editor of the Melbourne Slavonic Studies Journal and pioneered the study of Russian in Australia. In 1946 she established the Department of Russian Language and Literature at The University of Melbourne, which she led until 1977. Nina’s graduates largely staffed subsequent departments, in other Australian universities.3 However Nina’s Russian heritage and Clem’s outspoken views caused problems. They were forced to defend themselves in the Petrov inspired Royal Commission on Espionage in the 1950s, but were exonerated. The Christensens attracted and hosted many distinguished Australian and foreign writers, artists and academics, including Nobel prize-winning novelist, Patrick White and the world’s then leading cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich.4 Other writers and intellectuals who visited Stanhope were: Vance Palmer, Alan Marshall, A D Hope, Xavier Herbert, Nevil Shute, Geoffrey Dutton, Martin Boyd, Judah Waten, Bruce Grant, Dorothy Hewett and Sir Herbert Read. Painters included: Danila Vassilieff, Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Justus Jörgensen, Robert Hughes and Clifton Pugh. Academics included: Manning Clark, Geoffrey Blainey, W Macmahon Ball, Richard Downing, Geoffrey Serle and scientist Tim Marshall. Politicians included: Jim Cairns, Pauline Toner, Lance Barnard, Sir Paul Hasluck, Sheryl Garbutt and performance artists included: film star Olivia Newton-John, members of the Bolshoi ballet and the Russian State Ballet of Siberia.5 Nina Christensen was honoured in 2006 at the Eltham Living and Learning Centre with the building of an amphitheatre designed by V Sverdlin.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, clem christesen, eltham, nina christesen, peter street, stanhope -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Digital Photograph, Alan King, Southernwood, cnr Bolton and Brougham Street, Eltham, 30 January 2008
Walter Withers once lived at the corner of Bolton and Brougham Streets, Eltham. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then / Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p105 Walter Withers, one of Australia’s most famous artists, once lived in Southernwood, the weatherboard house at the corner of Bolton and Brougham Streets, Eltham. Withers, one of the first prominent artists to live in Eltham, was known for his lyrical paintings of the Australian bush and is associated with the Heidelberg School of artists.1 Withers was born in 1854 at Handsworth, Warwickshire, England, the grandson of an artist. He studied art at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. But in 1882 his father, opposing an artistic career for Withers, ordered him to go to Australia. However, after working as a jackaroo on several country properties for 18 months, Withers resumed painting in Melbourne, where he enrolled in evening art classes at the Melbourne National Gallery school of painting under G F Folingsby. Employed as a draughtsman by William Inglis & Co, then by Ferguson & Mitchell, lithographic printers, Withers produced portraits in black-and-white for several periodicals. His work was exhibited in the Old Academy, Melbourne. At this time he met and became life-long friends with artists Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts and Louis Abrahams.2 In 1887 Withers went to England and married Fanny Finn. They lived in Paris for awhile, where Withers studied at the Academie Julian. After his return to Melbourne in 1889, Withers lived at the artist camp at Eaglemont, then moved close to the Charterisville mansion, where he established a studio and sub-let cottages to other artists. Around 1892 Withers opened a Collins Street studio, had his first exhibition, and started giving painting classes. One of his pupils was Norman Lindsay,3 also to become a prominent artist. Withers had long been attracted to Eltham, but had to wait until 1903 to live there, after the railway line was extended to Eltham in 1902. He could then commute to the painting classes he gave in Melbourne.4 Withers lived on the two and a half acres (1.0ha) Bolton Street property with his wife and five children. They were joined for a short time by prominent painter Sir Hans Heyson who took lessons from Withers. Withers added a studio to the Queen Anne/Edwardian style seven-bedroom home, which had been built in 1891. Each bedroom included a fireplace and most rooms had 12 foot high (3.6m) ceilings. The house retains several fine leadlight windows. Withers painted his largest canvas The Return from the Harvest in 1905, at his Eltham studio. He is represented in national, state and regional galleries, and in many private collections in Australia and abroad. In 1904-05 Withers was president of the Victorian Artists’ Society. Withers at times stayed during the week at his studio in Oxford Chambers, Melbourne, and on weekends and holidays with his family at Eltham. Withers lived in Eltham until his death in 1914, aged 60 years. He had been plagued by rheumatism and in later life by heart and lung disease. It is said he died of a stroke peacefully in a rocking chair in front of the lounge-room fire. He is buried at St Helena in the St Katherine’s Anglican Church cemetery.5 In 1983, the auction of the house sparked fears that it would be pulled down, or substantially altered. Fortunately the new owners decided to retain the house. Some security was given to the house’s future when it was later included in the Heritage Overlay to the Nillumbik Planning Scheme. The property is also important because it is one of only a few left in the district, which were once owned by noted artists. These include three in Warrandyte: one formerly owned by Penleigh Boyd, another by Frank Crozier, and the other by Danila Vassilieff; and two in Eltham: Percy Leason’s in Lavender Park Road and Justus Jörgensen’s Montsalvat. A small park at the corner of Bible and Arthur Streets, Eltham is named in Walter Withers’ honour.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, bolton steet, brougham steet, eltham, southernwood, walter withers house -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph - Digital Photograph, Alan King, Stonygrad, 34 Hamilton Road, North Warrandyte, 30 January 2008
Vassilieff dynamited rock from his own property to build his house. Stonygrad is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then / Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p135 Stonygrad, the home built by Expressionist painter and sculptor Danila Vassilieff, is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Vassilieff, who amongst others influenced painter Sydney Nolan and Albert Tucker, was a member of the artists group the Angry Penguins.1 He was also a highly regarded art teacher at the nearby Koornong Experimental School and taught at Eltham High School. Art critic Robert Hughes described Vassilieff’s painting as ‘lyrical without social commentary’, and said Vassilieff was ‘the most oddly neglected artist in recent Australian History’.2 Vassilieff, who was born in 1897 in Russia, had an unusually adventurous life before he settled in Warrandyte. The 12th of 18 children, he lived on a farm in the Don Basin. Vassilieff trained with the Imperial Military Academy at St Petersburg and fought in World War One as an officer in the White Russian Army against the communists. In 1920 he was captured, then escaped from prison, stole a horse and rode bareback 150 miles to the Black Sea, helped at first by Tartar freebooters. He then travelled to India, Shanghai and arrived in Queensland as a refugee in 1923 where he began painting. He and his wife Anisia bought a sugar farm near Ingram,3 and later he constructed railway lines at Mataranka, in the Northern Territory.4 In 1929 Vassilieff went to Brazil for formal art training from former fellow-officer Dmitri Ismailovich, but he soon left to travel up the Amazon River. He then worked as a sidewalk artist in the West Indies and travelled for two years in England, France and Spain. In 1937 he arrived in Melbourne where he lived until his death in 1958. His first major Australian series was the Carlton streetscapes and from 1951 he sculpted in local hard limestone.5 Vassilieff rejected all dogma and regarded religious subjects as suitable only for decorative arts. In 1944 he helped defeat a communist attempt to take over the Contemporary Art Society. For a short time, from around 1955, Vassilieff taught at various Victorian schools.6 The Angry Penguins painted mainly between 1937 and 1947, and included Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Joy Hester. The group formed as they felt isolated from European thought and art (including Surrealism) from which their work was derived. They were also angry at what they considered to be the complacency and insularity of their society. They maintained Australians at first were scarcely aware of the threats of the Wall Street Crash and Hitler and were little interested in the Spanish Civil War. The Angry Penguins also objected to the White Australia Policy. Hughes said although most of the Melbourne Expressionists in the 1940s were unskilled and their work crude in style, they helped jolt Australian painting from its pastoral complacency. Their style influenced nearly every painting produced by significant figurative artists in Melbourne in the 1950s such as Charles Blackman. From 1939 Vassilieff built Stonygrad, mainly with local stone. The house stands at the end of a private road surrounded by trees with the quiet occasionally broken by the sounds of bellbirds. To build his house Vassilieff dynamited rock and cut trees from his own property. The original section of the three-level house is of irregular-shaped pieces of solid stone, exposed inside like the exterior. Vassilieff later built sections with timber and brick. Inside is rustic and cave-like, and several rooms are linked by arched openings with no doors. One undulating wall was carved out of rock from which two sculptured heads protrude. Several ceilings are of rough-hewn logs and the built-in table and bookcase are rough, as is a timber ladder leading to a bedroom. Not for the elderly or unsteady! Yet the general impression in the muted light is beautiful, with artistic originality.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, danila vassilieff, hamilton road, north warrandyte, stonygrad -
Glenelg Shire Council Cultural Collection
Work on paper - Watercolour, Florence Tatham Mellblom, Portland Shire Hall, n.d
From Antiques Reporter: Florence Tatham Mellblom, (Australian, 1900 - 1983), Visit Portland The First Victorian Settlement, during the Centenary Celebrations from 15th to 23rd November 1934', 1934 colour lithograph, signed 'F. Mellblom' in image lower left, 63.5 x 101.5 cm. Linen-backed. Text continues in lower margin: 'Arbuckle, Waddell Pty Ltd Print, Melb.', Mellblom (nee Henry) was a painter, naturalist and photographer. She was born at Portland, Victoria, and studied art in Ballarat. She was a talented etcher from childhood, and joined the Portland Camera club. She also produced many watercolour paintings of the historic places of Portland. She was married (1932) to Karl Enoch Mellblom.A bluestone building on an arid landscape. Yellow grass in the foreground with one tree standing at the front. There is a blue sky behind. The left hand wing has a door which is slightly open. Above each wing is an engraved piece of stone. Left - Portland, right - Shire. An old rickety fence to the left of the building.Bottom Right - F. Mellblomfemale artist, women, female, landscape, portland landscape, portland shire -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph, Alan Marshall, ca 1970
Portriats of Alan Marshall, and some with his secretary, Pat Wiltshire, at work in his Park Road, Eltham home and garden, c.1970 at the time he was writing "Pioneers and Painters". Alan Marshall, A.M., O.B.E., HON., LL. D. (1902-1984) was born at Noorat, Victoria and became one of Australia’s most famous authors. His association with the Eltham area began in 1920 when he started his first job as a junior clerk at the Eltham Shire Offices, Kangaroo Ground. In the 1940’s he spent sometime living in Research. From 1955 he lived in Eltham for nearly 20 years. Disabilities resulting from polio as a young child did not prevent a wide range of experiences. Alan’s occupations have been listed as clerk, night watchman, fortune teller, freelance journalist and author. He has been patron of many disadvantaged children’s societies. Alan’s books are numerous and include novel, short stories, children’s books, history and travel. Among the best known are his autobiographies “I can jump puddles” and “This is The Grass”. Others include “These are my people”, “Ourselves Writ Strange” and “Wild Red Horses”. In 1971 he wrote the centenary history of the Shire of Eltham, “Pioneers and Painters”. Black and white photographs of Alan Marshall at his home.pioneers and painters, alan marshall, pat wiltshire, park road -
Federation University Art Collection
Work on paper - Artwork - Printmaking, Jack, Kenneth, "Glasshouse Mountains, Queensland" by Kenneth Jack, 1961
Kenneth JACK AM MBE RWS, (5 October 1924 – 10 June 2006) Australian watercolour artist Kenneth Jack who specialised in painting the images of an almost forgotten outback life; old mine workings, abandoned ghost towns, decaying farm buildings. He became a professional painter at the age of 39 after giving up his job as senior instructor at the Caulfield Institute of Technology. In 1977 he was elected to The Royal Watercolour Society and in 1982 was awarded the MBE, and the Order of Australia (AM) followed in 1987. Framed three block linocut depicting the Glasshouse Mountains in the Australian State Queensland. Donated through the Australian Gifts Programme by Katherine Littlewood.21/32artwork, artist, kenneth jack, printmaking, glasshouse mountains, queensland, available, linocut -
Lakes Entrance Regional Historical Society (operating as Lakes Entrance History Centre & Museum)
Postcard, Scan Colour Australia, 1950 c
Colour postcard of one of the eighteen murals decorating the internal walls of the Glenara Motel, Lakes Entrance, Victoria. This one reflects the painter's romanticism showing a young couple in a small boat on a lake with water lilies and swans.Glenara Motel Motel of Many Murals (on front)motels, arts, rsl clubs -
Eltham District Historical Society Inc
Photograph, Samuel Calvert, Eltham, The Illustrated Australian News, December 26, 1884, p212, 1884
A description in the newspaper near the illustration (page 210) reads as follows: "Eltham is a pretty little township on the Yarra Flats road, about 14 miles east north east of Melbourne, from which place there is communication by way of Heidelberg. It has a population of nearly 400 inhabitants, but in addition it is the centre of a large district extending over about 203 square miles, having a population of 2344. The land in the district is mostly used for grazing purposes, although as a rule the small farms grow a good deal of wheat, oats and other agricultural produce. A large quantity of fruit, especially raspberries and strawberries, is also produced, the rich alluvial flats along the creek upon which the township is situated being very well adapted for that purpose. Gold has also been found in the vicinity of the township, but not in remunerative quantities". This photo forms part of a collection of photographs gathered by the Shire of Eltham for their centenary project book,"Pioneers and Painters: 100 years of the Shire of Eltham" by Alan Marshall (1971). The collection of over 500 images is held in partnership between Eltham District Historical Society and Yarra Plenty Regional Library (Eltham Library) and is now formally known as 'The Shire of Eltham Pioneers Photograph Collection.' It is significant in being the first community sourced collection representing the places and people of the Shire's first one hundred years.Digital imageshire of eltham pioneers photograph collection, eltham, illustrated australian news