Yields information about the condition of the ESCo tram fleet at the time of the SEC takeover of the operations their appearance, the reconstruction work and trackwork to rehabilitate the system. Demonstrates an important era of the Ballarat Tramways through the SEC preparing an album of photographs. The completeness of the record adds to the significance.Photo Album - comprising folded manila card covers, 11 photo sheets each with two, one with three black and white photos. Has three metal - steel fold back clips holding the sheets together. Folded so that the metal clips are not exposed on the outside. Has the title "Photographs of Ballarat Tramways Rolling Stock & Track Reconditioning Works". Album contains 23 photos, glued to the manila sheets - assembled by the SEC. All SEC photos except as noted below. Each of the photographs have been separately registered, as shown in the table below. Scanned images made of photos. Conservation Notes prepared - within the cataloguing sheet. Inside cover Typed notes, dated 1935, of the early trams of Ballarat, trailers ex Sydney, new trams ex Melbourne in 1930, and a further 5 in 1931. Lists the original Brill trams still in service (9 Number), and a noted on the recent scrapping of No. 11. Also had a note re the Sebastopol cars and the timber quality used in their construction - see hi Res image btm3000h-cover.jpg (added 16-12-2015) Folio Reg. Notes Item No. 1 3001 ESCo 14 see also Reg Item Image 755 for early copy. 3002 ESCo 21 ditto 1354. 2 3003 ESCo 1 ditto 756 3004 ESCo 1 ditto 758 3 3005 SEC 30 1357 and N204 3006.1 Interior photo 3006.2 Interior photo 4 3007 189 1356 and N203 3008 SEC car? 5 3009.1 Track work at Grenville St 3009.2 Track work at Grenville St with 27 in photo. 6 3010 Official party for launch of new rolling stock 1935 - Richards & Co photo 3011 No 30 on ditto - Richards & Co photo 7 3012.1 Interior photo of ex MMTB car 3012.2 ditto 8 3013.1 Track reconstruction photo 3013.2 ditto 9 3013.3 ditto 3013.4 ditto 10 3013.5 ditto 3013.6 ditto 11 3009.3 ditto - City Loop (See note below) 3009.4 ditto - Grenville St It would appear or is possible that folio 5 is out of position relative to No. 10 and 11. This is given the location of the photographs contained and would be more consistent with that of No. 11. Also the silverfish damage to the photographs would be consistent. The folio arrangement has been left as found, although catalogued to the follow style of photographs. Photos not to be taken out of the album unless for photographic copying. Use image files.Handwritten notes re trams history under each photo on sheet 1 in pencil., On front cover in ink "Ballarat Tramway Preservation Society Catalogue No. 601"trams, tramways, ballarat, reconstruction, tramcars, esco, mmtb, new trams

Typed table card or run card, for Geelong Trams Run 129 glued and varnished onto a sheet of three ply timber - plywood. Gives details for the Motorman and Conductor, starting at 125, working Eastern Park and Newtown. Gives meal times, relief and taken by details. Not known when made - 1950's? See also Reg Item 6270 and 8134 for other examples and 8135 for a Bendigo example.trams, tramways, secv, forms, timetables, geelong

Set of three Typed table card or run card, for Geelong Trams Runs glued and varnished onto a sheet of three ply timber - plywood boards. Gives details for the Motorman and Conductor, starting times, meal times, relief and taken by details. Not known when made - 1950's? .1 - Run 5- Ryrie St - Belmont and North .2 - Run 12 - Ryrie St - Belmont and North with further details on rear. .3 - Run 33 - City - Eastern Park and Newtown for Motorman and Conductor See also Reg Item 3155 and 8134 for other examples and 8135 for a Bendigo example.trams, tramways, secv, forms, timetables, geelong

Manufactured by E. Hoppus the Hoppus's Practical Measurer, or measuring made easy by a new set of tables which show by looking the solid content of any piece of timber, stone, etc, either square, round or unequally sided, and the value at any price of cubic feet. The book also gives the superficial comtent of boards, glass, painting and plastering with explanations of the uses and applications of the tables. The contents are given in feet, inches, quarters and twelfth parts of an inch. It includes the measurment of timber by several dimensions together with tables showing the weight of iron by measure.Hoppus's Practical Measurer; or, Measuring made easy by a new set of tables, which show, at sight, the solid content of any piece of timber, stone, &c. W. Nicholson & Sons; London; nd. 238 p. Hard cover.e. hoppus; measurment; timber; stone; boards; glass; painting; plastering, iron;

Derryl Towers wrote to the editor of the Colac Herald about his concerns about the proposal for a loan to create a new municipal workshop and Shire Engineer's office in the Apollo Bay riding. He made several points: a lack of attendance at the poll could bring the matter back to the Council table again; the representative of the Regional Committee is exploring some downward adjustment in Shire contributions; 2/3 of the Shire is reserved for water catchment or timber purposes, in effect a national asset; that the Council Sub-committee's report was sound; all Councillor's agree that new buildings are a necessity; and if we spend money on the loan to renovate old buildings what happens to the proposal for new buildings? Derryl Towers, Letter to the editor. Handwritten, 4 pages, draft, quarto. shire of otway; ratepayers;

Two small identical wooden tables that are 17 centimetres high, 34 centimetres long and 21 centimetres wide. One is painted green, the other has a clear timber finish. The legs are two and a half centimetre square at the top tapering to one and a half centimetre. Pieces of wood one centimetre by three centimetres secure the legs to the underside of the table. A one centimetre by a half centimetre wooden bead is attached to the underside of the table between the legs and the edge of the table. woodwork, small table

Bedside table with round top, made of timber. 3 legged, round pedestal. Spiral turned and carved stem. Varnished.furniture, domestic, bedside, table, wood, varnished, turned

Skein holder is from c1890-1900 and used by four generations of the donor's family who lived around Woori Yallock and Yellingbo. Donor's family descended from settler John Douthie (1831-1897), his son Andrew Douthie married Jessie Sands Smith (1875 - 1948). Item believed to have been owned by Jessie who passed it on to her fourth child, Mary, who passed it to her child Lillian who passed it to her daughter Leanne, the donor. No makers mark on item. Mary worked as a teacher and sewing mistress at Woori Yallock Primary School and used the item in her personal time to make clothing for the family.An umbrella-style wooden skein holder with a metal clamp at the base to allow it to attach to a table or similar. When not in use, item is small and compact, however once unfolded the arms extend out in an umbrella shape with thin timber rods bound together with leather ties.

041 - Gift of a table to Tinker for $100,000 donation from Werdouna Charitable Fund. L to R: Peter Duffy (manager Australian Timber), Vern Robson (Chief Commissioner, City of Ballarat) and Rex Hollioake (appeal chairman). 042 - Donation of $100,000 from the Timber Charitable Fund to the Kelaston Centenary Appeal. L to R: Clark Chester, Hugh Morrow, Neil Titheridge, Peter Duffy, Rex Hollioake and Jim Selkirk.2 x coloured photographs of men in suitskelaston home (ballarat), rex hollioake, association for the blind, peter duffy, vern robson, clarke chester, hugh morrow, neil titheridge, jim selkirk

Timber framed oil on canvas. Painting depicts a woman sitting at a table reading a letter (her back to viewer). To her left on the table is a framed photograph of a WWII soldier, immediately in front of him is a poppy and behind him to his right, is a mantel radio and to his left, an oil lamp. Timber framed oil on canvasPlaque "Lilydale Art Society Inc / Spring Show Nov 18 & 19 1995 / "Australia Remembers 1945-1995" / Art Competition / 1995/ 1st Prize / Sponsored by Lilydale Sub Branch RSL / and "Australia Remembers 1945-1995 Assoc."

Wallace's Hut is the oldest surviving cattlemen's hut on the High Plains, built in 1889 by the three Wallace brothers - Arthur, William and Stewart. Their father David bought land at Kergunyah as well as grazing land on the banks of the Kiewa River, North East Victoria. Once the boys were old enough, the family followed the local squatters’ custom of taking their cattle up to the mountains for the spring and summer to fatten the mob, at the same time resting their home pastures. They decided to build a hut where they could shelter from the extreme mountain weather. The timber was cut from the forest about four hundred metres east of the hut, and the hearth stone was dragged in from Pretty Valley. The chimney had a base of rubble and above this iron sheeting on a timber frame. The slab walls were lined with hessian and later with tar-paper, and inside there was a bush table, sleeping platform and a rustic fire-side settle. The hut nestled among snow gums sheltered by a rocky outcrop. The names of the Wallace brothers were burnt into the tie-beams of the roof and at the back of the mantelpiece. The Wallace family’s lease expired in the late 1930s and the hut was bought by the State Electricity Commission to house staff on the High Plains and it became the first home of Toni and Skippy St. Elmo. The SEC covered the old shingles with iron, and later on the walls and chimney as well, and they added a lean-to. Wallace’s Hut is now owned by the Crown and maintained by Parks Victoria. It is on the Historic Buildings Register and is classified by the National Trust.This image is significant because it depicts an important heritage-listed structure and refuge for cattlemen and other travellers in Victoria's High Country.A black and white photograph of a skier outside of Wallace's Hut. Several sets of skis and poles are standing around and other skiers are in the background.wallace's hut, toni and skippy st. elmo, high country huts

Colour slide of five ladies with a table of refreshments for legatees in a timber yard in Eildon. It was during Operation Firewood. They were wives of the legatees who were cutting and loading wood. Legatees would organise collection of wood from the country and distribute it to widows in metropolitan Melbourne. Other slides show the cutting and loading of wood and delivery to widows in metropolitan Melbourne. Was with many other slides taken in the 1950s and 1960s. The slides have been photographed to make digital images and moved to archive quality sleeves. In many cases the original images were not well focussed and the digital image the best available.A record of Legacy helping widows by sourcing, supplying and delivering firewood. When open fires were the main source of heating, a load of firewood and help moving it, would have been very important to the widows.Colour slide of five ladies near a table with refreshments in a timber yard in Eildon during Operation Firewood in brown Anscochrome cardboard mount.Printed on front in red ink 'Anscochrome / View from this side / Made in Australia'. Hand written on front 'Wives look after the _____ / Eildon' in blue pen. Printed on reverse in red ink 'Processed by Verycolor photo labs. Melbourne, Victoria'.operation firewood, wood, wives

A music box table with a decorative hinged lid of dark brown, light brown, yellow and green inlaid timber in a pattern of nine squares and rectangles on the top of the lid. Inside is plain wood with a recessed open box cavity. Around the edges of the table under the lid on the outside there is a green and yellow patterned inlay. It has four finely shaped wooden legs."Hand work Made In Italy"music boxes, tables

A damaged small brown cardboard Saw Millers' Complete Log and Timber Ready Reckoner book. It has a Preface, Tables No. 1, 2 and 3. which give full details of round timber, circumference of logs, contents of timber in general building sizes and full details of circumference of circles and more. There are handwritten notes inside the back cover. Opposite the title page is an advertisement for high grade circular saws and knives. Pp.120non-fictionLog Books and Ready Reckoners were used and still are these days to record information for many different work needs. This small one would have been very practical for ease of use kept on-hand in a pocket. It was invaluable to carriers and all persons engaged in the timber trade.books, documents, notebooks, log books, ready reckoners

Two guides or leaflets: 1. A Cherry Growing in Victoria Bulletin 67 from The Department of Agriculture, Victoria, Australia. Pp. 24. It has full details and photographs for cherry growing contributed by several writers. Advertisements for agriculture are inside the front and back covers. Price 3D. is printed towards the bottom of the front cover. 2. A very damaged four page leaflet titled, Fruit Spraying Guide for the Home Gardener compiled by two contributors, (Reprinted from The Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Victoria.) It has several tables for various fruits, diseases, symptoms and treatment. (It is reprinted from The Journal of the department of Agriculture, Victoria.) Two Invoices are included in this entry: 1. F.W. Britton & Son Timber and Hardware Merchants. Invoice No. 2441 12 June 1948 for three items sold. 2. An account Sales Note Barrow Bros. Commission Agency Proprietary Limited Produce & Dairy Produce merchants and Manufacturers in Melbourne. Four items were sold, plus cartage on 23.3.50.non-fictionThe Cherry Growing in Victoria booklet and Fruit Spraying Guide for the Home Gardener leaflet were useful for understanding how to grow the local produce in Victorian conditions at the time. dockets, receipts, sales records, leaflets, information sheets, information booklets, instruction leaflets, fruit growing, fruit pests

The Shipwreck Board is a feature of Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village/ its subject is explained briefly in the Museum's handbook, The Flagstaff Hill Navigator, published in 2008: - "Known as the ‘Eye of the Needle’ the treacherous entrance to Bass Strait is littered with the wreckage of large international vessels and smaller sail and steam craft used in coastal trade. The vessels bringing emigrants and cargo to Australia found the western entrance to Bass Strait the most dangerous part of their voyage. They had to thread their way between the southern point of Victoria (Cape Otway) and the northern point of King Island, a stretch of water less than 90 km wide. Many smaller coastal vessels were lost at Portland, Port Fairy, Warrnambool and Apollo Bay which are not safe harbours in certain weather conditions. "The Shipwreck Board shows shipwrecks, strandings and collisions which occurred in this area up to the year 1940. Wrecks are identified by a yellow light and collisions/strandings by a green light. These lights also identify the decade the wreck occurred by lighting up when the relevant decade button is pushed. Interesting happenings of the decades are listed next to the buttons." The Shipwreck Board's demonstration of The Eye of the Needle is an interactive visual display that helps teach the perils and dangers faced by early settlers in Victoria. It tells of the vast number of lives lost. It lists the names of many infamous shipwrecks and significant events.The large stained and lacquered timber board is mounted in a timber, frame. It is painted with a small sketch of Australia, and an enlarged outline of the southern coast of Victoria, King Island and the North West coast of Tasmania. The interactive display highlights the shipwrecks, standings and collisions suffered by many vessels as they navigated the 'Eye of the Needle', a narrow stretch of Bass Strait. The locations of the Lighthouses are pinpointed. Lists of groups of ships are below the coastlines. A painted scroll shows eight major shipwrecks with the number of lives lost for each one. A table shows historical facts associated with the decades from pre-1830 to 1940. A system of coloured lights compares the decades with the vessels that suffered damage. The board was created by artist and signwriter, Alex O'Flynn Computer Signs.flagstaff hill, maritime museum, maritime village, shipwreck coast, eye of the needle, shipwreck locations, bass strait, basses strait, king island, north west tasmania, south coast of victoria, cape otway, victorian lighthouse, king island lighthouse, strandings, coastal tracers, emigrant ships, sea trade, 1930s-1940s, shipwreck board, the eye of the needle, collosions, alex o'flynn, alex o’flynn computer signs

Built by artist and cartoonist Percy Leason in 1927 in what was then New Street but renamed Lavender Park Road in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p121 Said to be a genius, cartoonist Percy Leason’s career was at its peak when in 1925 to 1926 he built his home at New Street (now Lavender Park Road) Eltham. The Herald newspaper owner, Sir Keith Murdoch, had hired Leason for his newly acquired Melbourne Punch magazine at a salary of £1750, making him ‘one of the highest paid cartoonists in the world’.1 With this salary and financial help from Murdoch, Leason was able to build his lovely home in Eltham. At the crest of a sweeping drive, the home now two-storey in white brick with a gabled grey slate roof and dormer windows is flanked by an extension built by another owner in the 1980s. Leason lived in the home with his wife, Isabel and children, until 1937, when he left for the United States of America, where he lived until his death in 1959. The four-bedroom house and garden would have been well-suited to bringing up his family and to entertaining their friends in style. Large airy rooms have high ceilings with moulded plaster, timber floors and several are brightened with bay windows. Leason made friends with many of the artists and personalities who gravitated to Eltham. Around 1931 Justus Jörgensen, founder of the Montsalvat Artists’ Colony, helped Leason build his large studio at the back of the house. Another friend was journalist Mervyn Skipper, father of jeweller and sculptor Matcham, and artists Helen and Sonia. Leason’s teacher, artist Max Meldrum, also visited and rented accommodation in Eltham, opposite Wingrove Park. Punch folded in 1925, but Leason continued as cartoonist for Table Talk. In 1926 Leason began the cartoons of a mythical Australian town Wiregrass, which were inspired by Kaniva, his home town. The art gallery in Main Road Eltham was named Wiregrass in Leason’s honour. Leason completed 1000 drawings from 1919 to 1937, which author Garrie Hutchinson claimed, were technically unsurpassed and had regional and universal interest. Leason’s acute observations of country life stemmed from his childhood in Kaniva in Victoria’s western Wimmera, where he was born, the son of a selector, in 1889. Meldrum claimed that Leason could name every plant and the habits of every animal.2 Leason also painted 28 portraits of the last full-blooded aboriginals in Victoria at Lake Tyers in Gippsland, most of which are in a private collection. In Sydney Leason illustrated Henry Lawson’s Selected Poems and worked for The Bulletin. Leason had begun his career at 13 as an apprentice lithographic artist at Sands and MacDougall. He attended night classes at the National Gallery and the Victorian Artists Society. Leason first visited Eltham in 1910 to paint with fellow artist William ‘Jock’ Frater. They camped near Bible and Pitt Streets and along the Diamond Creek on the site of the present Eltham Retirement Centre. Despite his success as a cartoonist, Leason wanted to be recognised as a serious painter and for his anthropological work.3 He was also conservative and felt uncomfortable with the modern art scene in Melbourne.4 So he left for the United States of America to work as a painter. Ironically his time in New York saw the burgeoning of modern art, notably by artists such as Jackson Pollock. But Leason found his niche by running an art school, painting society portraits and illustrating books and magazines.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, landscape, lavender park road, percy leason, new street

Situated in King Street, Eltham, Alistair Knox built his home and office in 1962-1963 with mud-bricks made from the local soil and recycled materials blending the house with bush around it. Knox popularised the Eltham earth building movement, begun by Montsalvat founder, Justus Jorgensen. Alistair Knox (1912-1986) was also an Eltham Shire Councillor 1971-1975 and Shire President in 1975. Knox established the inaugural Eltham Community Festival in 1975. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p145 Lack of money was a strong incentive for Alistair Knox to do what he did best when he built his house and office at King Street, Eltham in 1962-63. He used mud-bricks from local soil and recycled materials, characteristically blending the house with the bush around it. The result was a work of art. Knox popularised the Eltham earth building movement,1 begun by Montsalvat founder Justus Jörgensen. He was also an Eltham Shire Councillor from 1971 to 1975 and Shire President in 1975. For Knox mud-brick building was not just a building style, but a spiritual experience and a way of relating with nature. At 40 he rediscovered God and his building reflected his theological, political, philosophical and particularly environmental world view, which was far ahead of its time.2 He also contributed to building development in his use of concrete slab foundations when stumps and bearers were the norm. Knox was introduced to mud-brick construction in 1940 by Jörgensen, then shortly after, Knox joined the Navy. In 1946 Knox studied Building Practice and Theory at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University). There he befriended fellow student and artist Matcham Skipper who belonged to what was then called the Jörgensen Artists’ Colony. Knox decided to build an earth building in Eltham, partly because the post-war huge building demands resulted in expensive and scarce building materials. He asked artist Sonia Skipper for help who, with Matcham, had constructed mud-brick buildings at the Artists’ Colony. The simple rectangular low-lying house at King Street is framed by native plants and a 3.6 metres wide pergola surrounds the building. Wedded to the landscape, a door in every room at the perimeter, opens outside. The property also includes a forge, a small hut built by son Macgregor at 15, and a mud-brick tower for chickens. Building materials were foraged from a wide variety of sources. Some of the joinery material came from old whisky vats. When the Oregon of the highest quality ‘was put through the wood-working machines, it gave off a deep smell of whisky that made the whole atmosphere exotic and heady’.3 Amateur builders, including schoolboys from Knox’s Presbyterian Church, made some of the mud-bricks. But the building was finished with the professional help of Yorkshire builder, Eric Hirst. Inside, the light is subdued with the mud-brick, beamed timber ceilings and floors of slate, timber or orange-brown tiles. Skylights, with rich blue and red leadlighting, illuminate one entrance area and this feature is repeated as edging on the door. The centre of the house is like a covered courtyard, with rooms built around it. The central room, 11 metres x 7 metres, was built in the same proportions as Knox’s mud-bricks. Clerestory windows on four sides infuse the room with a soft light. A huge brick fireplace extends beyond one corner and opposite is a small one where timber can only be placed vertically. The slate for the floor was discarded from the Malthouse Brewery now used as a theatre in Southbank. In the middle is a large refectory table and benches that seat 18. Like much of the house, it is rugged, yet beautiful. Made of Western Australian Jarrah by Macgregor with a chain saw and an adze, it retains knot and nail holes. Each wall has an opening, 2.4 metres at the ends and 3.6 metres at the sides. Only one has doors and these concertina doors are made of the backs of old church pews. The main bedroom has an ensuite with a marble hand basin discarded from the Victorian Parliament building; and a dressing room, where two wardrobes of polished timber recovered from a tip are attached to the walls. Separate from the house is the strikingly original circular-shaped office made of bluestone sourced from the original Army campsite at Broadmeadows.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, alistair and margot knox house, alistair knox design, mudbrick construction, eltham, king street

Vassilieff dynamited rock from his own property to build his house. Stonygrad is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p135 Stonygrad, the home built by Expressionist painter and sculptor Danila Vassilieff, is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Vassilieff, who amongst others influenced painter Sydney Nolan and Albert Tucker, was a member of the artists group the Angry Penguins.1 He was also a highly regarded art teacher at the nearby Koornong Experimental School and taught at Eltham High School. Art critic Robert Hughes described Vassilieff’s painting as ‘lyrical without social commentary’, and said Vassilieff was ‘the most oddly neglected artist in recent Australian History’.2 Vassilieff, who was born in 1897 in Russia, had an unusually adventurous life before he settled in Warrandyte. The 12th of 18 children, he lived on a farm in the Don Basin. Vassilieff trained with the Imperial Military Academy at St Petersburg and fought in World War One as an officer in the White Russian Army against the communists. In 1920 he was captured, then escaped from prison, stole a horse and rode bareback 150 miles to the Black Sea, helped at first by Tartar freebooters. He then travelled to India, Shanghai and arrived in Queensland as a refugee in 1923 where he began painting. He and his wife Anisia bought a sugar farm near Ingram,3 and later he constructed railway lines at Mataranka, in the Northern Territory.4 In 1929 Vassilieff went to Brazil for formal art training from former fellow-officer Dmitri Ismailovich, but he soon left to travel up the Amazon River. He then worked as a sidewalk artist in the West Indies and travelled for two years in England, France and Spain. In 1937 he arrived in Melbourne where he lived until his death in 1958. His first major Australian series was the Carlton streetscapes and from 1951 he sculpted in local hard limestone.5 Vassilieff rejected all dogma and regarded religious subjects as suitable only for decorative arts. In 1944 he helped defeat a communist attempt to take over the Contemporary Art Society. For a short time, from around 1955, Vassilieff taught at various Victorian schools.6 The Angry Penguins painted mainly between 1937 and 1947, and included Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Joy Hester. The group formed as they felt isolated from European thought and art (including Surrealism) from which their work was derived. They were also angry at what they considered to be the complacency and insularity of their society. They maintained Australians at first were scarcely aware of the threats of the Wall Street Crash and Hitler and were little interested in the Spanish Civil War. The Angry Penguins also objected to the White Australia Policy. Hughes said although most of the Melbourne Expressionists in the 1940s were unskilled and their work crude in style, they helped jolt Australian painting from its pastoral complacency. Their style influenced nearly every painting produced by significant figurative artists in Melbourne in the 1950s such as Charles Blackman. From 1939 Vassilieff built Stonygrad, mainly with local stone. The house stands at the end of a private road surrounded by trees with the quiet occasionally broken by the sounds of bellbirds. To build his house Vassilieff dynamited rock and cut trees from his own property. The original section of the three-level house is of irregular-shaped pieces of solid stone, exposed inside like the exterior. Vassilieff later built sections with timber and brick. Inside is rustic and cave-like, and several rooms are linked by arched openings with no doors. One undulating wall was carved out of rock from which two sculptured heads protrude. Several ceilings are of rough-hewn logs and the built-in table and bookcase are rough, as is a timber ladder leading to a bedroom. Not for the elderly or unsteady! Yet the general impression in the muted light is beautiful, with artistic originality.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, danila vassilieff, hamilton road, north warrandyte, stonygrad