VFF is seeking an appropriate framework to ensure farmers do not bear the cost of infrastructure on their farms. Overhead powerlines are proposed through the rich volcanic soils around Ballarat. This land supports 1200 jobs in processing in Ballarat. The towers would impact on the ability to irrigate crops, to use tractors around them, on biosecurity and on ability to use emergency equipment near them. VFF wants assurances that the managing entry to farm policy position will be adhered to and that a statewide strategic plan for renewable energy is prepared. https://www.vff.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/PS210901LG-Managing-Entry-to-Farms-adopted.pdf https://www.vff.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/VFF-Renewable-Energy-and-Energy-Efficiency-Policy-Statement-Meeting-172-June-2021.pdfphotos of Lydiard St Stop Ausnet Rallyadvocacy, renewable energy, farmers, protest, rally, managing entry to farm, victorian farmers federation, ballarat

Hawthorn hedges are important reminders of Kangaroo Ground's Scottish heritage. They are Registered on the Victorian Heritage Register. They are "historically significant because the planting of hawthorn hedges reflects the adoption of Eurorpean farming techniques by the Kangaroo Ground population in the period following settlement and because the grid pattern of paddocks that the Hawthorn hedges define is very different to today's farm landscapes." Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p21 Hawthorn hedges bordering Kangaroo Ground’s gently rolling farmlands are important reminders of its Scottish heritage and are rare so close to Melbourne.1 As early as the 1840s newly arrived farmers from Scotland planted hawthorn hedges around their properties, to protect crops from the numerous kangaroos and wallabies. Many of these hedges survive today. These farmers had the good fortune to settle some of the most fertile land available for cropping in the Colony of Victoria. At that time the black volcanic soil could sustain an amazing two crops a year. By the mid 1850s, 500 acres (202ha) of wheat were growing in Kangaroo Ground. But the crops were threatened by kangaroos, which were so plentiful, that Surveyor-General, Robert Hoddle, named the district Kangaroo Ground in 1838. As post-and-rail fences proved inadequate barriers for the bounding kangaroos, the Scots planted hawthorn hedgerows as they had done in Scotland. Some also used the hedges to net birds, presumably for the table. Interestingly the farmers in the bordering townships of Panton Hill and Christmas Hills, did not plant hawthorn hedges around their properties. Perhaps it was because by the time they settled in the 1860s and 1870s most of the wildlife had been gunned down by residents.2 The canny Scots planted the hedges on public land outside their own farms, as the hedgerows could spread to about five yards (five m) in width. With this impenetrable barrier Kangaroo Ground’s industrious farmers flourished to gain the economic power that saw the Shire of Eltham governed from Kangaroo Ground for 79 years (1858-1937). The Scots jealously guarded their land, so hard to get in Scotland. That is why they refused to release any of it ‘for local roads to follow easier grades as was the case in surrounding districts where roads generally followed ridgelines or streams’.3 Instead the roads were built in accordance with the magnetic bearings of their first survey in 1847 whether that suited the steep topography or not. This could force traffic to diverge when wet through Greensborough and Diamond Creek. Until 1921, the Eltham-Yarra Glen Road beside Wellers Restaurant, ‘dipped down into the upper reaches of Stony Creek’.4 Later some corners were compulsorily cut for the increasing motor traffic. As late as the 1960s, corners were cut to form sweeping curves above and alongside the Kangaroo Ground Cemetery and opposite the Emergency Operations Centre. In the latter case, the farmers – understanding their hedgerows as important heritage – insisted upon their reinstatement to conform to the altered road alignment. Kangaroo Ground’s ancient manna gums also point to the district’s history and to that of the hedgerows. The Aboriginal people had transformed the original forests into grasslands with the fires they lit to attract kangaroos, (which the Scots were to exclude by planting hedgerows). But the Wurundjeri hunters left the gums (Eucalyptus vimminalis cygnetensis), on the grasslands as ‘stalking trees’ to hunt kangaroos. The hawthorn hedges in Kangaroo Ground were neglected for around 60 years from about the middle of the 20th century. Bushfires had created gaps and the hedgerows were not trimmed. Then in late 2005, local historian Mick Woiwod, formed a group to lobby the Nillumbik Shire to restore the hedges, which could last for many centuries. Some hedges in parts of Britain date back to AD 800.5 Although the original Scottish farmers have gone, the hedges are a reminder of when they flourished in the district, which has changed little in 150 years.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, hawthorn hedgerow, kangaroo ground

Dr. Gwen Wilson, Emeritus historian, gifted this book at ANZCA's first independent Annual Scientific Meeting held in Launceston in 1994. Dr Wilson presented this gift after her speech about the life of William Russ Pugh and his significant contribution to anaesthesia in Australia. It is unclear as to how the book came into Dr Wilson's possession. Published in London, 1845, for Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, this book was formally owned by general practitioner Dr William Russ Pugh, being the first medical practitioner in Australia to administer ether anaesthetic on 7 June 1847, in Launceston. The author of the book, P E De Strzelecki acknowledges Pugh for his assistance during his stay in Launceston and for allowing him the use of his laboratory for the analysis of the soils and minerals that were subsequently reported in this book (Page 131). Tan coloured cloth book with an embossed circular motif on the centre of the front and back cover. The same embossed motif is repeated four times along the spine of the book. An embossed design of small, four petal flowers borders the edge of the front and back cover. The title of the book 'Strzelecki's New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land' is printed in gold on the spine. The cloth has come unstuck at various places around the spine and a small section is missing from the base of the spine. The cover is worn and has numerous dark stains possibly from mould. The book contains 19 engraved and lithographed plates. This includes a handcoloured octavo folding, geological map, bound as a frontispiece, depicting the NSW coast down to Gippsland and Tasmania, a fold out single colour geological cross section of the Newcastle Coal Basin, 14 plates illustrating shellfish and flora and three tinted lithographs. Single page maps at the back illustrate wind patterns around Australia. [front title page, two black ink stamps that have bled through to the next page] W R.PUGH [front title page, black ink, cursive writing] H Grant \ 5 May 1910 [front title page, pencil, cursive writing, written around Pugh's stamp] Purchased from \ (unrecognizable script) [front title page, previous owner's name was rubbed out and consequently tore the page making the entry unreadable] [Inner back cover, bottom LHS, blue stamp] BOUND BY \ WESTLEYS & \ CLARK \ LONDON [Inner front cover, bottom LHS, black and purple ink] P65 \ 76 \ 78 \ 98 \ 163 \ 164 \ 217strzelecki, van diemen's land, wilson, gwen, pugh, william, launceston, green and longmans

Circa late 1800's to early 1900s. A horse-drawn furrow plough was the most common type of agricultural implement used by the pioneer market gardeners, in Moorabbin Shire, of the 1800s and continued on into the 1940s when motorised tractors came into use. This plough is an example of a single-mullboard plough which would have been pulled by horse. The long handle was used to lower the silver plate, (mullboard), to the chosen depth of soil. Following 'Dendy's Special Survey' of 1841 and the Crown Land Sale in 1852, land allotments were bought by pioneer settlers who established or rented allotments for market gardens in the area and they supplied produce to the markets in St Kilda and Melbourne. During the gold-rush of the 1850s the rapidly increasing population of Melbourne saw a huge demand and a rise in prices for all foodstuffs, including the vegetables and fruit grown in the Shire of Moorabbin. An "Oliver" single mull-board plough in good condition with faded manufactures markings on shaftsPainted on shaft "MANF'D BY/OLIVER CHILLED PLOW WORKS/Southend Ind. USA/" Engraved on blade " 13 OLIVER"brighton, moorabbin, plough, dendy henry, east bentleigh, market gardens, horse drawn plough, plow, mullboard