The temporary bridge was in use until for four years, following the collapse of the permanent bascule bridge on 17 November 1925 due to attack by teredo worm. The temporary bridge was swept away during a flood in June 1930.Sepia toned photograph of a pontoon bridge over the Tambo River at Swan Reach Victoria, built as a temporary crossing after the collapse of the bascule bridge on 17 November 1925. Tambo River Christmas 1927 on reversereligion, buildings

Presbyterian Church Reefs Pleasant Creek. Built 1860. Part of a collection of Photographs by Mr. O.G. Armstrong as commissioned by the Shire of Stawell in 1866 for the Inter-colonial and Paris Exhibition in Melbourne in 1866. This first Presbyterian church was built in Church Street and was of a modest design as it was to be only a temporary house of worship. The first services were held here on Sunday, August the 23rd, 1860. The present church, St Matthews Uniting Church is situated in Scallon Street and the first service were held there in 1869. House on left with picket fence and striped verandah roofing. Wooden Church Building on right.stawell religion

Pleasant Creek Hospital. Part of a collection of Photographs by Mr. O.G. Armstrong as commissioned by the Shire of Stawell for the Inter-colonial and Paris Exhibition in Melbourne in 1866. Due to a public outcry for medical services on the goldfield a public meeting was held in the Olympic Theatre at Deep Lead on the 7th of August 1858. It appointed a 50 man committee to establish a hospital at Pleasant Creek. A temporary Tent structure was soon erected at Doctors Hill, situated midway between Deep Lead and Commercial Street Pleasant Creek, just South of the later Western Highway. The site is now marked by a commemorative stone. Within two months the committee had collected £600 in subscriptions, a government Grant for £2500 and acquired 10 acres of land. The foundation stone of the hospital building was laid on 21st December 1860 and the building completed and occupied by 21st June 1861. In the 1930’s the hospital moved to the centre of Stawell in Sloane Street and the buildings then taken over by the Pleasant Creek Training Centre. Brick hospital building with two ward wings and central front door. Man standing on steps.stawell health

President's overview of the year including: the replacement of an older house with a 2 storey building at 12 Thanet Street, continued success of the St Leeor Nursing Home under director Anita Henley, need for permanent and temporary accommodation as offered by the hostel at 2 Derril Avenue, popularity of Day Activity Centre, loss of Adeline Levinson, thanks to Jan McCall and Dr Tony Mason, appeal for volunteers and opportunities for speaking engagements, and profile of Phyllis Gration.1 volume with text and illustrationsannual reports, lady nell seeing eye dog school, phyllis gration

The photographs show the removal or demolition of cable tram track in c1954 at the intersection of Gertrude and Nicholson St. Shows the temporary barrier system and the hurricane red lamps. Has the Royal Terrrace buildings in the background and the engine house. Photographer unknown.Yields information about the removal of the cable tram track at the intersection of Gertrude and Nicholson Sts. Set of two Black and white photographs with notes on the rear. Has the number "140" and "142" in pencil in top right-hand corner. tramways, cable trams, nicholson st, gertrude st, track removal

In 1855 the local Presbyterians were granted land in Myers Street. The first building they erected was a large church hall for use as a day school, Sunday school and temporary accommodation for church services. It was opened on 14th May 1855 as a Denominational School. New educational regulations were introduced in 1864 and were quite specific about standards. Children were required to attend at least 50 days each half year. Thomas H Smith, Inspector of Schools in the Sandhurst district examined the students in attendance and twice a year, over the period of the register. March 1864 to Match 1868. Sandhurst Common School, Examination Register Index 1864 - 1868. Published by Bendigo Area, Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies in 2002. Light blue card cover. Bound spine.education, schools

In the early 1900s, Mary Sweeney commissioned artist Charles Bertie to paint the main house at Culla Hill. He charged her 5 shillings for the picture and 18 pence for the frame She took this painting with her when she married Michael Carrucan in 1910 and it hung in the Dalton Street farmhouse for many years. At a later time (1960s), the Burstons (the then owners of Culla Hill) had a card printed from the painting. The original sketch was photographed in 1970 for reproduction in the Shire history publication Pioneers & Painters (1971). The very fragile original was kept in the Council stoungroom and suffered significant damage to its edges over the years, no doubt it has also yellowed. A comparison of the original as digitised (2022) with the negative taken 50 years earlier also reveals that the left 20% of the sketch has been cut off, probably due to damage. In June 1842 Thomas Sweeney applied to the Superintendent, C.J. La Trobe, asking permission to purchase a portion of the recently surveyed ‘Parish of Nillumbik'. His request was allowed and handed to the sub-treasurer and Land Board. He paid £110 for 110 acres and called the land 'Culla Hill'. He first built a temporary house, a slab hut 12 feet by 10 feet, in which he lived with his wife, an Irish girl whom he had married in 1838. (His first wife had been drowned at Port Jackson.) Some time later he built a permanent residence on the model of a Tipperary farmhouse. It was a rectangular building of hand-made bricks and stone quarried from the Western Hill with a recessed verandah in front, and bore a slate roof. The out-buildings consisted of a detached kitchen, stable and a barn. It was in this house that succeeding generations of Sweeneys were reared. The original slab hut became a washhouse and survived till recent years. 'Culla Hill' became a social centre for the district, church services being held there on various occasions. The first wheat crop in the district was planted by Sweeney who also supplied the first grain for a mill that later was built at Eltham. He took an active interest in the development of the district. At this time travelling people--many of them runaway sailors or convicts--often passed the settlement, and some of them stayed and worked with Sweeney. A tribe of aborigines living on the river below 'Culla Hill' were apparently on good terms with Sweeney, for it is said that they helped him with the building of his house. Very little is known about the aborigines who originally lived in the Eltham district. There must have been many of them; their stone axes, grinding stones, and anvil stones have been found in the gullies around Research and canoe trees and artifacts were found on the Kangaroo Ground hills. Early settlers remembered a tribe that camped on the site of the present railway bridge at Eltham. They held corroborees there and visited settlers for hand-outs of 'flour and bacca’. There was an aboriginal reserve on the Yarra, upstream from Eltham, but most of those who had collected there later went to live on the Pound Reserve at Warrandyte, where the last aborigines in the area finally ended their days. The Pound Reserve, of 1,103 acres, was established at Pound Bend in 1841. The chief protector, George Robinson, and his four assistants, were given instructions to care for the aged and sick, to provide blankets and rations for all who lived there, to train the able-bodied men in agriculture and other trades and to find them jobs. The Yarra blacks, who later came under the protection of William Thomas, have been described as a 'fine race, well made and above the average height'. Thomas Sweeney died on 6 September 1867 and was buried in the Eltham Cemetery. To his wife Margaret and his son John, he left the entire property of 'Culla Hill'. To his other son Patrick, he left 150 acres, including a small two-roomed wooden cottage. He had five daughters: Kate and Margaret (twins) who were born in 1842, Ellen 1846, Annie 1848 and Johanna 1851. John Sweeney farmed 'Culla Hill' until his death in 1909. He had ten children; one of them, Mary, became Mrs M. Carrucan whose son, Mr John Carrucan, still lives at Eltham. 'Culla Hill' passed out of the Sweeneys possession in 1939 and was renamed by its new owners, 'Sweeneys', in memory of its pioneers. - Pioneers & Painters: One Hundred Years of Eltham and its Shire, Alan Marshall 1971, pp10-12 Original colour sketch artwork 4 x 5 inch black and white negative of original colour sketchculla hill, art, charles bertie, drawing, mary carrucan (nee sweeney), sketches, sweeney's cottage