Black & white photograph of three women from Montmorency Tennis Club; Florrie Kent in centre, c.1941tennis club, montmorency, florrie kent

Colour photograph of the Kangaroo Ground Tennis Club Room and Courts (formerly Country Fire Authority), Feb. 1990. building under construction.tennis, kangaroo ground, cfa, country fire authority, buildings

A group of men and women, some holding tennis rackets pose for photo. Local families from Hurstbridge are represented including Hurst, Burston, Yates, Clark and Gray. (L to R) Frederick George Hurst, Ida Burston, unidentified man, Annie Yates, (kneeling) Ada Hurst, unidentified man, (sitting) Annie Yates sen., Tom Clark, Mrs Catherine (wife of F.G.) Hurst, Walter Yates Sen., unidentified woman, unidentified man, F.E. Hurst ( Mrs Gray), Laura Yates, unidentified kneeling woman, 2 unidentified men, lady in black, Mary Ellen Hurst. Reproduced on page 81 of "Pioneers & Painters" 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 image Printsepp, shire of eltham pioneers photograph collection, hurstbridge, ada alice hurst, annie yates, annie yates snr, catherine e. hurst, frances ellen hurst, frances ellen gray (nee hurst), frederick george hurst, hurst family, ida burston, laura yates, mary ellen hurst, tom clarke, walter yates snr, yates family, tennis, pioneers and painters, hurst

A concave, wooden racquet, with white cloth-taped shoulders, fine plastic string whipping, blue cloth collar, and a medium-depth grooved handle. Decal across throat on obverse: THE/ELTHAM. Inscription stamped along right side of handle: SLAZENGERS LTD/MADE IN ENGLAND. Inscription along left side: LAURENCE POUNTNEY HILL/LONDON. E.C.4. Butt cover contains maintenance instructions. Materials: Wood, Gut, Plastic, Cloth tape, Metal, Glue, Lacquer, Leathertennis

Charles Meynell Pitt Withers (aka Bill) was the youngest son of artist Walter Withers and Fanny (nee Flinn). He was born at Eltham 5 February 1902. Tyrrell George Granville Evans was born on 17th August 1892 Enlisted (No. 789) 7 July 1915 as a Private and was assigned to the 31st Battalion. Promoted to Sergeant 1 Nov 1915. Disembarked Suez 7 Feb 1916 Admitted to 32nd Stat. Hospital in France 21 July 1916 with a gunshot wound to the left arm. According to daughter-in-law, Janet Evans, on 19 July 1916, in the battle near Pozieres on the Somme, he was hit by a German high explosive shell and was unconscious and badly wounded. His left arm was shattered, and he had a bullet wound on his leg. Embarked at Boulogne on H.S. Cambria for Middlesex War Hospital, England 24 July 1916. Evans returned to Australia and was discharged medically unfit, 7 April 1917. After months in the Caulfield Hospital his arm could not be saved, and it was amputated 18 July 1917. On July 6, 1918, Tyrrell George Granville Evans married Mary Pitt Withers at Eltham, daughter of artist Walter Herbert Withers (deceased) and wife Fanny (nee Flinn). They had three children, Mary Roberta Evans born February 8, 1921, at Balwyn and twins Shirley and Joyce born June 10, 1922. Mary died 17 days later, June 27, 1922, at Balwyn. Tyrrell had to cope with three children under three years old and a missing left arm. He had been lefthanded before his war injuries. He had help from the family, especially his sister. On August 1, 1924, Tyrrell George Granville Evans married Marian Frances Wilcox and they had two children: Barbara Marian, born 27 July 1925 and Tyrrell Granville, born 3 July 1928. The children were all brought up together in Glen Iris. Tyrrell became renowned as a one-armed golfer and tennis player. He was Senior Vice-President of the Lawn Tennis Association of Victoria and was on the committee of the Metropolitan Golf Club. At the time of his retirement, he was General Manager of the Colonial Meat Company. Tyrrell died September 3, 1962 and was succeeded by sixteen grandchildren. Contributed to by Janet Evans (daughter-in-law), 27 May 2024Many items in this collection have suffered from significant water damage and black mouldjohn withers collection, eltham, tyrrell george granville evans, 1917, bolton steet, scan - 620 format 6x9 negative, southernwood, charles meynell pitt withers

The present store was built circa 1900 to replace another which had been destroyed by fire in 1898, which had replaced a predecessor on the opposite side of the road in 1865. The store was also used as a post office until early 2000s. The general store is historically significant because it has a long association with Kangaroo Ground and has been an important centre of community life for more than 120 years - Council meetings used to be conducted in the front room of the store at a time when Kangaroo Ground rivalled Eltham as the major centre of the Shire. The general store is historically and aesthetically significant as one of a group of three well preserved public buildings in the Kangaroo Ground hamlet and as a major heritage component of Kangaroo Ground which was one of the earliest settled areas of the Shire and which has the character of an English village rather than an Australian settlement. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p77 Today the general store is an uncommon form of trade but the one at Kangaroo Ground continues a long tradition of friendliness and service. For more than 100 years it has been a centre of community life. In the settlement’s early days a previous general store, on the same site, was the meeting place for the Eltham District Road Board, precursor to the Eltham Shire Council. For years Kangaroo Ground rivalled Eltham as the shire’s major centre. It developed very differently from the rest of the shire as its rich soil attracted prosperous Presbyterian Scots who had large agricultural properties.1 The present store was built to replace another one, which had burnt down in 1898, after replacing a predecessor on the other side of the road in 1865. The store retains its outward character and its cellar, although inside it has changed considerably. It now includes a café and offers local produce, milk bar products, grocery items, gas and other fuel. Until early this century the store was also used as a post office. Kangaroo Ground’s first postmaster was Andrew Ross, who first operated from the school opposite, then from his hotel next to the present tennis court site. The first postmaster at this store was Edward Weller, followed in 1868 by James Anderson. At that time a mail coach ran three times a week between Eltham and Woods Point through Kangaroo Ground, Yarra Flats, Healesville, Fernshaw, Marysville and Matlock. Some early postmasters were Rodger, McLaughlin, Greenway and Burns.2 Burns was the only postmaster operating from the store. The others operated from Andrew Ross’s hotel. The mail service improved in 1892 when coaches ran from Melbourne to Queenstown (now known as St Andrews) and changed horses at Kangaroo Ground twice daily. The only telegraph office in the district at that time was at the Kangaroo Ground Post Office. Telegrams to outlying areas such as Queenstown and Kinglake had to be sent by hand. A local resident in the early 1900s often rode his pony to deliver telegrams and was paid one shilling a mile porterage. The store has also contributed to the lighter side of Kangaroo Ground life. During the years that Con Wraight owned the store, between 1906 and 1946, a new piano was needed for the Kangaroo Ground Hall, so monthly dances were held to raise money. When the piano was bought, a grand ball was held in the Kangaroo Ground Hall to celebrate the occasion and supper followed at Mr Wraight’s barn, cleaned especially for the occasion. Every New Year’s Eve, a Scottish piper would set off from between the store and the schoolhouse, playing his pipes, and march to Cameron’s Pigeon Bank homestead on the Kangaroo Ground-Warrandyte Road. Between 1914 and 1922, the store was a station for the Kangaroo Ground Bush Fire Brigade’s tanker. It consisted of a wooden barrel on a cart, fitted with a hand-pump, and stood on the side of the road outside the store. Joy Ness, who belonged to an early Kangaroo Ground family, moved here in 1940 and recalled her impressions of the store at that time: ‘It was a very dark shop stained in a dark colour and on the walls just below the ceiling hung hurricane lamps, ropes, kitchen utensils and other goods for sale. ‘Goods were weighed on a brass scale with weights, on which mothers also weighed their babies, because the nearest Infant Welfare Centre was at Greensborough. The bacon was cut with a hand slicer and later a pot-bellied stove warmed the store. Farmers and other locals used to gossip around it as they collected their daily mail. In those days the butter and cheese were kept in the cellar as no ice was delivered for cooling.’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, eltham-yarra glen road, kangaroo ground general store

Eltham's original Wesleyan Methodist Church Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p97 The pretty Uniting Church building at the corner of John and Main Roads Eltham has served the community since 1881.1 Originally called the Eltham Wesleyan Church, the church became the Eltham Methodist Church in 1902, the year it united with the Primitive Methodists.2 As the church community developed, influencing and being influenced by the wider community, its buildings changed accordingly. Eltham Wesleyans first worshiped together in 1850 at the home of William and Mary Crozier on 24 acres (9.7ha) bounded by Mount Pleasant Road and Pitt Street. From 1855 the Wesleyans worshipped in a slab-and-bark hut; then in 1858 in a chapel on Henry Street close to Maria Street (now Main Road). Meanwhile, in 1860, the Primitive Methodists opened a brick chapel at the corner of Susan and Bridge Streets. The John Street building – in the Early English Gothic style with biochrome brick window frames, buttress heads and pinnacle – was designed by architects Crouch and Wilson. Church member George Stebbing built the church as he did Eltham’s St Margaret’s Anglican Church and Shillinglaw Cottage. The Church Honour Roll is a poignant reminder of how church members have served the wider community: 27 members enlisted and 11 died in World War One. Despite the Great Depression, 1931 was a time of expansion for the church. Its red-brick hall was opened by prominent Methodist and philanthropist F J Cato of the Moran and Cato Grocery chain. The hall enabled the church to attract people from outside through activities like its gymnasium – with 40 boys and youth participating – and the girls’ callisthenics club, which competed at the Ballarat South Street Competitions. The church also held concerts, bazaars, picnics and sports, with badminton and tennis played on the church court at 23 John Street. Two stained-glass windows commemorate tragic events. A dove representing the Holy Spirit and Comforter marked the death in 1936 of member Effie Lowerson from scarlet fever at 14 years. The other depicting the Biblical story A sower went forth to sow, commemorates Ross Gangell, who died in 1961 at 23 years of a rare blood condition. Eltham’s population expanson resulted in the growth of the church and an extension in 1971, designed by member and architect Colin Jones. The church was linked to the hall and additions included a foyer, vestry, meeting room and toilets. The design reflected the Eltham style of the time, with its simplicity, extensive clear glass, reused baked clay-bricks from the 1881 church, heavy ceiling beams and solomite (compressed straw) ceiling. On June 26, 1977 the church became part of the new Uniting Church in Australia consisting of the former Methodist and Congregational and most of the Presbyterian Churches. In 1981 membership peaked at 159 – about 20 years after most Protestant churches – and continued to reach out to the wider community.3 In 1987, 147 children attended Selihoo, the weekly after-school program organised with St Margaret’s Anglican Church. From 1993, the church with other local churches, participated in LINC (Love in the Name of Christ), helping the wider community in various ways including babysitting, transport, gardening and visiting. Despite such initiatives, church numbers declined, and on June 23, 1996, the church merged with the Montmorency Uniting Church.4 However, the church continued to proclaim its message of love in community service and strong social justice action, such as in Jubilee 2000, supporting debt relief to the world’s 45 poorest countries. Some of the many church members who have had an outstanding impact on the wider community include Philip Shillinglaw, farmer and poet, and Arthur Bird (after whom the Arthur Bird Reserve is named), a pioneer orchardist and the Sunday School Superintendent for 33 years. Others were: the Rev Dr Cliff Wright, who established the Methodist Youth Fellowship and was prominent in the World Council of Churches, the Rev Brian Howe, who became Deputy Prime Minister and Tim Marshall, awarded the Order of Australia in 2000 for his work on salinity.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, eltham uniting church, eltham methodist church