Mary Tolhurst M&DHS - March 29th Dunvegan Willows Park Melton 1992 Ladies Oral History Day Graham Minns President Ray Radford MC Sound recording transfer to CD 2011 by Tom Wood Edited typescript by Wendy Barrie 2013 I was born in Rockbank, and when I was five years old moved to Toolern Vale and started and finished school there. Toolern Vale only consisted of the Store, Post Office and shop, where you could buy your fodder, and pollard supplies, the Hall, the little Church and the bluestone School. The School changed shape three times from the 1800s[1869] til the time I went there. There was four generations of my family that went there and it was destroyed by fire in 1965. Marjorie nee Myers Butler. Yes, I remember along with it your lovely Ronisch piano. Mary, quite true! Marj what you say about the Ronisch piano. When I came the age to learn music my mum and dad couldn’t really afford it, but still what parents do for their children. They had Marj go along with them and pick this lovely Ronisch piano. It was known round the district. Everyone commented about the loss that lovely piano. After leaving school it was war time, 1939, then it was work, When I was 7 year old I was put out into the cow yard. In 1940 when the soldiers were going away our milk was confiscated it had to go to Bacchus Marsh. It used to go the Sunbury to be brine cooled and then go to Melbourne. Then they took it then to the Lifeguard Milk Factory at Bacchus Marsh. It had to go as condensed milk to the soldiers. This year is 50 years of the Land Army. I was an unofficial Land Army but they still kept check on me. I went onto married life and I followed the cows right through [howls of laughter] and we went on until the 1965 fire. That’s when we got out of the cows. Marjorie asks, was Granny Watts your grandmother or great grandmother? Mary: She was my great grandmother, the midwife of Melton. The 1965 fire started ¾ of a mile above our place, Frank Ryan’s sheds were burnt and his house was saved, then it wiped the School out, the Hall, the Church the Post Office and Store and little house that was Charlie Charlton’s in the early days. Mrs Wilson’s place was saved by the Fire Brigade by pulling boards off the side, and from there it went over the hill and it was stopped at the Rockbank Railway Station. If it had of got over the railway they said it would have gone into Werribee. A lot was burnt out in that strip. Mary nee Nixon Collins: 18 houses burnt that day. Audience question, did Melton get burnt that day? Ray: No. It came down through the Toolern Vale road and cut across about a mile and a half from the cross roads at Toolern Vale from north westerly to the south east and cut through over the Keilor road. Mary: It came in across the creek at Funstons in Toolern, then through Jim Minns. Dorothy was it your place then [nee Knox Beaty] to Ken Beatty’s and from there it went through to Doug McIntosh’s and to Cockbills and the wind changed and it came across to the railway line, and that is where they stopped it. [the cause of the fire was controversial, they had been burning off the night before and there was some talk of someone starting it. It was very hot and very strong wind, it was a terrible day] Ray: When the fire went through McIntosh’s they had a haystack on the north side of their house and the haystack got caught and the fire burnt a hole through the side of the house and the boys pyjamas on the bed. The house was saved. It came through like and express train roaring at you, I was at McIntosh’s when it went roaring past. You couldn’t see, dust and ash and tremendous heat. The fire started about 12 o’clock Jack [husband] said to me, fire, I said where, where? Just up the road, what have I got to do? and he went out and he had gone to the fire and left me. I tried to get the animals and I put out buckets of water, putting the buckets of water out saved my life. Chas Jones and another friend of his came in and they picked up the buckets of water, I thought I had better get out because the fire was on the haystack up the paddock and when I went to go out through the north side of the house and couldn’t get out, I’ll go through the front gate so I went around the other side of the house. I got caught there and Chassy Jones and his friend came round carrying the bucket of water and I panicked. He threw the bucket of water over me. Well that is what saved my life because I was damp, whenever we tried to leave the ball of fire came over me and over my shoulder and my hair was scorched. Chassy Jones lost his truck and Keith Watt his big truck because he had the water tank on it and they couldn’t get out of the yard. Granny Watt’s house, the first private hospital had condemned and Jack and I pulled it down and had it moved up to Toolern and had it in the yard a fortnight and it was all burnt and we didn’t get the shed we wanted. Every 13 years right up until Ash Wednesday fires, there has always been fire close at hand. The 1952 fire went down the back of the house, the 1965 fire took the house, and the house that I live in now, it is the third house that has been on that spot. When the Hunters owned it, Mrs Hunter was nearly burnt in her bed. They had a 13 roomed house. In 1924 the house burnt down, and there was another house was built there and that was the one that burnt down. Edna: So Mary built a brick veneer house. Marjorie: like the three little pigs [laughter] Mary Tolhurst member of the Melton & District Historical Society in the Melton and Moorabool Leader local identities, local special interest groups

"Although horse breeding and racing was an established and popular tradition in the district by the 1900s, one horse is credited with raising the profile of the industry in Melton during this period. The Welkin was bred in England and brought to Melton in 1910 as the foundation sire of Ernest Clarke’s Melton stud. Clarke, brother of Sir Rupert, enjoyed remarkable success with his champion stallion. By the time of the horse’s death in 1925, The Welkin had sired individual winners, with total winnings of almost £600,000. His most celebrated offspring, Gloaming, achieved 57 wins from 67 starts and won a then-record of £86,000 in prize money. The Welkin was buried at the entry gates to Clarke’s Melton stud under an inscribed marble headstone, as the racing world mourned the loss of ‘one of the most successful sires that ever did stud duty in Australia".Articles about Welkin the Champ featured in The Mail Express and Melton Express local identities

Group of people standing in front of a church, photo featured in the Telegraph churches

Machinery Shed Establishment. Involved with Jeff Robinson in the construction and collection of machinery display Restoration of the Willows shed article featured in the Express/Telegraph local identities, local special interest groups, local architecture

Works being undertaken at the Willows Homestead article featured in the Express Telegraph local architecture, council, local special interest groups

Minns descendants reunion at the Willows featured in the Melton and Moorabool Leader local identities

Siblings dressed in Irish costumes, article featured in the Melton Express Telegraphlocal identities

Family reunion of Jongebloed descendants article featured in the The Mail Expresslocal identities, local significant events

Born in October 1915 The life of Fred Hunter, a Melton resident, article featured in Fairfax community Newspapers local identities

Photos taken by Wendy Barrie of the interior and exterior including bell tower. These photos were used in its application to National Trust for its classification. Wendy and Edna Barrie. It was eventually dismantled and rebuilt in Wadonga. Efforts were made to save the building. The foundations needed significant work. Many of its adherents were deeply distressed by its loss. It was strongly linked with the Staughton family and therefore of important significance to Melton. Church of England – Christ Church built in 1869 Memorial interior windows of the church local architecture, churches

Mr Colin Trethrowan seeking election for Melton Shire Council, article featured in The Express council, local identities

Tom Thumb production advertised in the Regional News Gazette local identities, misc

Express Telegraph article about Ray Radford, local identity of the Melton communitylocal identities

Melton and Moorabool Leader article about Sophie Ramsay local identities, council

Members of the Pinkerton family in November 2017 at the opening of the time capsule that was buried in 1992 to mark the rejuvenation of the land through the Surbiton Park and Pinkerton Forest projects. A time capsule was first buried in the memorial cairn marking the graves of members of the early settler family in 1931. A third time capsule was created in 2017, to be opened in 2042.Star Weekly article about the descendents of the Pinkerton familylocal identities, pioneer families

"James Pinkerton, described by fellow settler Isaac Batey as ‘a fine old Scotish [sic] gentleman’, and his wife Margaret established ‘Chamois Ponds’ on Kororoit Creek in the Keilor district in 1840.44 After a fire in 1848, the Pinkerton family moved further west to a holding called Yaloke, on the Werribee River in the Melton district.45 Today, the Surbiton Park water treatment plant operates on part of the Yaloke run. The Pinkerton family is remembered in Melton in part due to the historic graves of the original settler, Margaret Pinkerton, and four of her grandchildren, which were marked by a memorial cairn in 1931. Changes to sewage flood zoning in the area in the 1990s necessitated that these burials be relocated. Members of the Melton & District Historical Society oversaw a project to relocate the Pinkerton graves and cairn 200 metres from their original site to their current resting place at Mount Cottrell. This relocation ceremony took place on 8 November 1992, with the participation of local school students and with Pinkerton descendants playing a central role. This occasion also marked the opening of the Pinkerton Forest Project, which saw 50 hectares of degraded woodland in Surbiton Park protected for regeneration".Photograph of Jame Pinkerton featured in the the Telegraphlocal identities, pioneer families

Born 1904, he attended Melton School 430 1913/14. Achieved fame in bicycle racing, later was a well known Member of Parliament, held ministerial positions both in Australia and overseas. On October 27th launched Melton’s History–Plains of Promise 1985.Memories of Hubert Opperman, article featured in the Agelocal identities

Newspaper clippings about the Uniting Church, Meltonchurches, local identities

" Designed by architect Norman Day, the school was built in an innovative postmodern style. Day’s vision was for the school’s students to feel as comfortable and familiar at school as in their own homes. He based the design on the local suburban typology. The buildings consisted of individual self-contained classrooms, each with a front door, back door and garden. Each class retained the same homeroom for the duration of their schooling. Norman Day won the inaugural Lustig & Moar Architectural Prize in 1988 for his Mowbray College design, and the Australian Library Promotion Council/RAIA Library Design Award for the school’s library building. The school officially opened on 7 February 1983 with an enrolment of 93 students from Prep to Year 7. Mark Fergus was a Prep student in the school’s inaugural year. He later remembered: It was good then because everyone knew each other. Our first few weeks at school we had classes in the Guide Hall because the Mill wasn’t finished. The rest of the school where the Labs and Coppin Court are now was only a big paddock. Another Prep student, Brooke Harrison, recalled: The only recreation we had was the rough playground which consisted of monkey bars, old tractor tyres and a sandpit and high bars. Accidents were a frequent occurrence in those days! It was a friendly atmosphere, you know everyone and their business ... During some classes we used to do horticultural work and planted trees out the front of the school. In 2003, Mowbray College celebrated two decades of educating students in Melton. By that stage, the school had expanded to two campuses with over 1,450 students and 120 staff. It was estimated that over the twenty years since its establishment, 13,000 students passed through the gates. By the mid-2000s, the school offered an International Baccalaureate program and operated across three campuses: the original campus, named Patterson after the first principal, and the Brookside and Town Centre campuses, both located in Caroline Springs. Unfortunately, in 2012 Mowbray College found itself in an unmanageable situation. The community had lost faith in the school’s financial security and as a result some parents withheld their school fees, fearing the school would collapse. It had been in financial difficulty since the mid-2000s and by 2012 was $28 million in debt. 84 In June 2012, all three campuses closed and within four months, each of the campuses of the former Mowbray College had been purchased by other education institutes. Heathdale Christian College bought the original Mowbray campus and established its own campus there and Grace Children’s Services bought the Brookside campus. The Town Centre campus was purchased by Intaj Khan from the Western Institute of Technology but remained vacant after some failed attempts at re-establishing a school. In 2017 the Australian International Academy established an Islamic school on the site".The Express article about a grant for Mowbray Collegeeducation

Visitors at Melton High School Melton Express articlelocal identities, education

In 1974 Edna Barrie took part in the Australian Choir at the fourteenth Triennial conference of the ACWW Interfaith Service held at the Perth Concert Hall on the 13th of October.News clipping from the The West Australian about the Associated Country Women of the World Conference local special interest groups

Mail Express article of events which took place in Melton between May and August in 1990local significant events

Express Telegraph article about the Future Project for the Toolern Employment Nodelandscapes of significance

Eddie and his wife Lorraine Gillespie were part of The Willows Restoration Committee and he was a member of the Mt Cottrell Fire Brigades Group.The Melton Express article about Eddie Gillespie elected as Shire president for Melton Councilcouncil, local identities

Electricity – 1939 eeb Express Dec 9th 1937 Electric Light Petition First combined (schools) sports meeting, Melton south, Rockbank, Mt Cotterell, Toolern Vale, Sydenham West, Melton Park, Exford. Jack Wallace Starter, G Wilson (ref) G McDonald, F Ryan judges. A G Macdonald Gate Keeper, A Bamford, E W Barrie, S Rogers Announcers. M P A call meeting for 24th March Two or three progressive residence of Melton township are still pushing quietly for a water scheme for Melton and extension of electricity service expected to be provided for the beam wireless station a Rockbank. One of these has gone so far as to seek opinion of an independent engineer regarding the possibility of township water supply. May 1 1937 A move to combine in Melton Shire Council to convene a public meeting to agitiate for extension of the Electric Supply to Melton is being undertaken by the Progress Association and the Hall Committee. Melton Progress Association and Melton Mechanics Institute Committee joined in a decision to request Melton Shire Council to call a Public Meeting to push for extension of Yallourn electricity to Rockbank and Melton June 12th July 3rd Residents of Melton and Rockbank have an opportunity to reveal attitude towards proposed extension a result of MSC in convincing a public meeting MMI support from Amalgamated Wireless A/Asia Ltd directors Mr Townsing to preside which had been convened by MPAssoc and MMI nicely timed as SEC estimates for ensuing year known to be in course of preperation. Saturday 17th July 1937 Melton Move for Electricity. Meeting shows ….. extensive article …. meetin appointed Messrs Butler and Barrie canvass the town Dec 9th 1939 Mechanics Institute floor to be prepared next week Electricity installed in Melton, article featured in the Melton Expresslocal significant events

"Edna Barrie is one of countless women who have played a crucial role in the Melton communityover its history. She was a tireless volunteer and a stalwart of the community who helped to keep many organisations running and thriving. Edna was born in 1918 into a family with deep roots in Melton. Her grandmother Ann Dowling arrived in the colony from Ireland with her two sisters in 1855. Ann purchased land in Melton and settled on the Ballarat Road (High Street) at Ryans Creek with her husband Henry Myers. The three Dowling sisters had ten children between them who attended Melton State School No. 430, as did Edna. Edna was involved with the Melton branch of the Country Women’s Association for 50 years and was an active member of the Melton Mechanics’ Institute and the Melton Uniting Church throughout her life. She was involved with the local CFA branch from 1942. As a member of the CFA’s Women’s Auxiliary, Edna helped raise funds and provide meals to the firefighters. Edna was a founding member of the Melton & District Historical Society in 1968, and was passionate about preserving and sharing local history. The formation of the society at that time, during a period of increasingly rapid growth for the municipality, was crucial, ensuring that many photos, documents and stories of early Melton were not lost".Newspaper clippings about Edna Barrie local identities

"Donald Mackintosh was born in Rockbank on 21 September 1866. He quickly proved himself as an expert shot, joining the Bacchus Marsh Shooting Club at the age of ten and the Melbourne Gun Club at 23. In 1890 he won the Melbourne Gun Club £1000 Cup Handicap. Donald represented Australia at the 1900 Paris Olympic Games. However, due to confusion at the time over whether this competition was an official Olympic event, Donald was not recognised as an Olympic medallist during his lifetime. In 1987 the IOC issued Donald’s gold and bronze medals. Donald continued to travel around Europe and won many other competitions, including the London Gun Club Challenge Cup three times in a row and the Grand Prix at Monte Carlo twice. As well as being an expert shot, Donald was also well educated and wrote poetry. Most astonishingly, he was also completely blind in his left eye".Melton Bacchus Marsh Express article about Olympian Donald Mackintosh local identities, sport

Plans to save the Anglican Church in Meltonchurches, local architecture

"On 5 July 1936, locals in Melton South saw a plane emerge from behind clouds above the railway station, in heavy wind and rain. Engine roaring, the plane went into a spin and disintegrated into pieces in mid-air, before crashing to the ground near Arnold’s Creek. The pilot, young Australian aviator Jimmy Melrose, and a passenger, Alexander Campbell, were killed.Jimmy Melrose was a popular figure in international aviation, having been the youngest and only solo pilot to finish the London to Melbourne Centenary Air Race in 1934. His death, at the age of just twenty-two, caused an outpouring of sorrow. He was honoured with a state funeral two days later at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, which was attended by thousands of people. Locals Maisie Arthur, Ted Wickham and Bill Cahill gave eyewitness accounts of the accident to the authorities, and an inquest found that it was the result of structural failure and poor weather. A cairn erected by locals near the scene was reconstructed by the Melton and District Historical Society in Brookfield, opposite the Melrose Memorial Reserve, on the 40th anniversary of the crash in 1976".Regional Gazette article of a cairn erected by locals near the scene of the plane accident which involved Jimmy Melrose, and passenger, Alexander Campbelllocal significant events, landscapes of significance

Express Telegraph article about Melton Fire Brigadeemergency services, local identities