Memories of Train Travel compiled by Wendy Barrie 4/09/2013 Train travel had changed very little from the time my mothers generation to mine. The timetable meant the usual rush to Melton South by bike in her case and if she was running late the train pulled up on the crossing. I was driven to the Station from home past Keith and Mary Gillespie’s house near the Ferris Road rail crossing to Bridge road to Melton South for the 7.32 train. While attending Sunshine High School in 1961 I would meet up with three other students, two of whom I knew from Bacchus Marsh High School days. We usually got into the same compartment on the train, it was a typical country train with a corridor along the side and compartments with a door, roof racks and sometimes heated metal containers for the feet in the winter. Some of the trains came through from Horsham and Ballarat, and the Overland from Adelaide passed through in the evening, we could hear it in the distance from the Ferris Lane home. The carriages had 1st and economy class compartments showing photographs of county scenes and holiday destinations. The engine was the large A class diesel. They are still running to Bacchus Marsh 50 years later, due to the need for the greatly increased number of commuters travelling to work in the city. Sometimes the carriages were pull by a Steam engine, these were a problem in the summer time because the sparks caused fires along the train lines and then quickly spread into the dry grass, crops and stubble. The Motor Train left Spencer Street at 4.23 pm and was the best train for me to catch. Ferris Road was a designated stop and train pulled up on the road crossing. It had steps at the door and rungs to hold while alighting to the ground. The ballast along the tracks was rough and uneven and awkward to land on. The train was painted blue and yellow with the letters VR pained on the front. This saved may parents the afternoon trip to collect me from the Station. On the walk home on the gravel road I would pass Uncle Tom and Aunty May’s house before reaching home. Melva Gillespie was studying at Sunshine Technical School and we sometimes both got off the train at the same time. On other occasions the Motor Train was replaced with a diesel engine with carriages, it was also required to stop and the driver had to be notified in advance. This meant getting into the guards van a Rockbank. It was more difficult alighting from the carriage as the gap was greater and more precarious to swing out and land on the ground. A few times in my last year of study at Melbourne Teachers College in Grattan Street Carlton. I managed to catch the 2.30 pm train to Serviceton, it was express to Melton and was very quick trip. The last train, was the 5.25 pm diesel to Ballarat and I usually caught this train to Melton South Station. On one occasion after being held up on the tram in Bourke street I had to make a mad dash to the platform chasing the train as it was just moving off and yelling to the guard, fortunately I was noticed and the train ground to halt. I scrambled into the end door and took most of the journey home to recover. After the last year at High School I continued to travel on the train, 2 years to Prahran Technical School changing at North Melbourne. There were a lot school children travelling to private schools and some at the primary level and mainly from Bacchus Marsh. Rockbank children also travelled by train from the beginning of their high school years, quite a few went to Sunshine High School. Book provided a timetable and information about the stations the train travels to from Melbourne to Adelaide. transport

This painting is one of my key early works incorporating the Baroque dualities of theatrical drama and inner emotional worlds. Interpreting the Baroque subject of the Sacred and the Profane, the swirling diagonal composition of crossed figures, transparent and billowing drapery in contrasting colours and dramatically tense gestures, in this work combine to suggest both religious ecstacy and physical sensuality. The glade is portrayed as white light. It is the open space for the drama. One face gazes ambiguously at the viewer, questioning, whether she is - the willing but (guarded OR mysterious?) seductress the title suggests. Julie Watkins, 2015 Julie WATKINS (1949- ) In 1969 Julie Watkins completed an Associateship Diploma Fine Art-Painting at RMIT, and a Fellowship Diploma of Fine Art-Painting the year after. In 1973 she was awarded a Diploma of Education at Hawthorn State College. Julie Watkins worked as a TAFE teacher from1973 to 1978, then as a tutor for the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at RMIT between 1979 and 1992. Between the years 2003 to 2003 she was a tutor at the University of Melbourne (Victorian College of the Arts. 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.Acrylic on stretched canvas art, artwork, julie watkins, watkins, painting, acrylic on canvas, available, julie meyer

Bruno LETI (1941- ) Born Rome, Italy Arrived Australia 1950 Bruno Leti was nine years old when he came from post World War Two Italy. Known as a painter, printmaker, photographer and publisher of artists’ books, he studied at RMIT, studying Printnaking under Tate Adams, and Melbourne Teachers' College. He has taught art in Italy, Canada, USA, and Melbourne, Australia. Bruno Leti lives and works in Melbourne. 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.This etching by Bruno Leti was exhibited as part of "Parallel Prints", a limited edition print project which presents the same exhibition simultaneously in New Zealand, at Art at Wharepuke and at a gallery in another part of the world. Eleven Australian artists were invited to join New Zealand-based printmaker Mark Graver to contribute to a portfolio that will be shown simultaneously at Art at Wharepuke, New Zealand and the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria. Using the uniqueness of the reproducible print allows for the same works to be viewed at the same time on opposite sides of the world. This highlights the democratic nature of printmaking and questions the aura of the unique. Which venue is showing the 'real' work? Which the reproduction? The Australian artists showing alongside Mark Graver are James Pasakos, Bruno Leti, Martin King, David Frazer, John Neeson, Antonietta Covino-Beehre, Deborah Klein, Deborah Williams, Melissa Smith, Jodi Heffernan and Susanna Castleden. The original concept, Parallel Prints NZ-UK in 2013, included invited artists from the UK and New Zealand. It featured the work of twelve diverse artists presented in a portfolio set. Each artist contributed one work on 300 x 300 mm paper in an edition of thirty-six. Part of the concept behind the project was to donate twelve of the portfolio sets to international collections. Institutions that have accepted a portfolio include the Victoria & Albert Museum and The Ashmolean Museum in the UK, the Jinling Museum of Art in Nanjing, China, and the Whangarei Art Museum, in New Zealand. In 2015 a portfolio set was donated to the Federation University Art Collection.trees, printmaking, etching, bruno leti, artist, artwork, parallel prints, landscape

Tom NESTOR Tom Nestor studied a Diploma of Fine Art at Ballarat College of Advanced Education (later Federation University) in 1980, 1981 and 1982 with the intending to be a secondary teacher. Instead, he opened his own ceramics studio in Bald Hills at his parents property near Creswick. He worked for potteries in Albury and Healesville as well as Old Ballarat Pottery as a production thrower. In 1985 he moved to Belgrave where he continued to work producing kitchenware and garden pots till mid 1986. Works may be marked with an impressed stamp as on this vase "Tom Nestor Bald Hills Handcrafted"Glazed vase with cobalt blue leaves.ceramics, australian studio pottery, tom nestor, bald hills pottery