The circular cast iron object is a lid that was originally fastened into a ship tank. This particular lid is cast with the name ‘Lancaster & Co Bow London E’ in capitals in a continuous circle on the outer edge of the lid face, and has the words ‘Bow Tank Works’ on the inner circle. It is the same type of round heavy lid that was made by tank manufacturer John Bellamy although it may be a younger example. According to Pearson, the Lancaster & Co firm produced tanks between 1910 and 1930 from their works in Bow, East London. It was possibly preceded by the company, Lancaster & Bawn, which ran between the 1870s and 1890s.Pearson has collected a list of Lancaster & Co tank lids that he and others have sighted at various locations in Australia including Coolgardie, WA; Gulgong Museum, NSW; the Quarantine Station, Sydney NSW; Blundell’s Cottage, NSW; and Woolmers homestead complex, TAS. In addition, Lewis has identified lids at Ayrdale, NSW, and the shearing shed at Murndal homestead, Western Victoria. It is most likely that more than three lids survive in Victoria and more will be identified, however, as noted by Pearson, ‘surviving lids are far less numerous than the tanks themselves, presumably because the uses to which the tanks were put did not require the lid to be retained’.Parks Victoria has identified five tank lids in the lightstation collections. There is another Lancaster & Co lid at Cape Otway and possibly a second example there as well. In addition there are Bellamy lids at Point Hicks and Cape Otway and an unidentified lid at Wilsons Promontory, and a tank without a lid at Wilsons Promontory. The Lancaster & Co ship tank lid has first level contributory significance for its historic values.Circular cast-iron disc, with raised outer ridge with inscription and inner depression with inscription. One metal section forms a handle over an inner depression.Around perimeter of outer edge "BOW LONDON.E LANCASTER & CO " Around inner area "BOW ANK WORK"

Colour photograph of copy of Flora Minters painting of the PS Murray in Cunninghame Arm, 1860s/1870s. Below Merrangbaur Hill near old natural entrance to the lakes. Tug boat beside it, and row boat with people. Cottage on bank far left. Photographed from a book. Lakes Entrance Victoriaships and shipping, waterways, vegetation, painting, artist

Image No. 1 Brocksopp House erected about 1860 Originally known as Souters Cottage Eltham's first mud brick building Falkiner's Cottage The Alistair Knox Collection The Alistair Knox Collection is a series of mounted enlarged photos of mud brick houses and related subjects. The collection is understood to have been put together by Alistair Knox although it is the work of several unacknowledged photographers. For some years it was held by the Building Department of the former Eltham Shire Council and was then passed to our Society for safekeeping. Some of the photos have been used in Knox's books and from time to time some of them have been part of various historical displays. As far as we know there has not been a public display of the whole collection which numbers about forty photographs. The collection has been copied on to slides for the purpose of this meeting and to be retained as part of the Society's pictorial collection. Alistair Knox 1912 - 1986 is acknowledged as the founder of Eltham's mud brick building movement. Many of the buildings shown in the collection are of his design and he was also involved with the construction of several of them. Others are the work of his contemporaries and associates such as Peter Glass, Gordon Ford, and John Harcourt. (EDHS Newsletter No. 145 July 2002)Handwritten notes in pencil re details of building, year of construction, owner, designer, builder, etcbrocksopp house, falkiner cottage, houses, mud brick construction, souters cottage, alistair knox collection

Part of the original cottage named Culla Hill built by Thomas Sweeney (a former convict) remains as a small section of today’s house. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme National Estate National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Local Sifgnificance Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p19 Thomas Sweeney, a former convict who became a respected citizen, once lived on a property at what is now the corner of Sweeneys Lane and Culla Hill, Eltham. As Sweeney was one of the district’s first settlers, the property is registered by the National Trust. Thomas Sweeney was born in 1802, son of impoverished tenant farmers in Tipperary County, Ireland. He became a ploughman, then at 21 he was sentenced to hang for setting on fire the house of Patrick Guyder at Gullshill. It is said the arson was due to a dispute over undelivered guns to a social justice guerilla group, the White Boys, of which Sweeney was a member. But the sentence was commuted to life transportation to Australia in 1823.1 Apparently in Sydney he became a servant to James Chandler at Botany. Soon James Chandler leased his farm and became a catechist on the Hawkesbury River, so Sweeney was reassigned to a former convict, John Brown, at Liverpool. Later Sweeney was assigned to George Brown of Lake Illawarra. In 1831, Sweeney was granted a ticket-of-leave and bought a boat to carry goods between Illawarra district and Sydney Town. He married his first wife who had come to Australia as a free woman. However she drowned after bearing him a daughter. In 1838, one month after he had received a conditional pardon, Sweeney married a blacksmith’s daughter, Margaret Meehan, newly arrived from Ireland. They then moved to Port Phillip and squatted on the south side of the Yarra River, about seven miles (11km) from Melbourne. Around 1842, Sweeney bought 110 acres (44.5ha) in the parish of Nillumbik for £110. He built a slab hut 12 x 10 feet (3.6m x 3m) and then his homestead, Culla Hill, a typical Tipperary style cottage, now known as Sweeney’s Cottage. It was here that many generations of Sweeneys lived for almost 100 years. Culla Hill became a social centre for the district and the Catholic community used it as a church. Sweeney was apparently on good terms with a tribe of Aborigines living on the river nearby, who helped him build his house.2 Sweeney proved himself a civic-minded leader. In 1844, he led a call for a bridge over the Plenty River. He was on the first school board and supplied the first grain for Eltham’s mill. Sweeney profited during the gold rush, not by gold digging, but by providing supplies for nearby fields and others as far away as Beechworth.3 Thomas Sweeney died in 1867 and was buried at the Eltham Cemetery, leaving two sons, five daughters, and 300 acres (121.4ha), as well as Culla Hill. Culla Hill – by then reduced to 75 acres (30ha) – was sold out of the family in 1939, then renamed Sweeneys. The present Sweeneys Lane, running diagonally through the original holding, was the track to the house. Part of the original cottage remains as a small section of today’s house. The dining-family room fronted by a veranda is original, and although there have been some changes, the cedar door and most of the small 12-paned wooden-framed windows are original. The walls are made of the original hand-made brick. After buying the property in 1952 Mr and Mrs Burston demolished a dilapidated slab hut, a three-roomed detached kitchen and cellar, as materials needed to restore them were very difficult to obtain so soon after the war.4 However the barn remains almost in its original condition. It is believed to have been built from stone quarried on the property. Now roofed with iron sheets it was probably originally thatched. The sandstone barn has a peaked roof supported by the original saplings and a doorway large enough to accommodate a fully loaded wagon.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, culla hill, eltham, sweeney's cottage, sweeneys lane, thomas sweeney

Most likely an F-Class 2-4-0 Steam Locomotive pushing carriage about to cross the Eltham Railway Trestle Bridge heading towards Greensborough, viewed from what was later Eltham Common and site of the re-located Shillinglaw Cottage (1964) and Eltham Library (1994). On the far side of the track on what is present day Central Park oval is a crop field. The railway was commenced in 1900 and passed through the middle of the Shillinglaw Farm. Here it passes through the farm paddocks. The train station at Eltham opened in 1902. Colour photocopy of original photo print (on loan?) 25.5 x 39 cm mounted on coreflutePencil mark at bottom "(c) 1910"eltham, trestle bridge, bridges, shillinglaw farm, f-class 2-4-0 steam locomotive, eltham railway trestle bridge, eltham trestle bridge, railway bridge, steam locomotive