This black and white photograph of the grave of A.W. Eustace is believed to have been taken in September 1987 at the Chiltern New Cemetery. Alfred William Eustace, an Australian artist, was born in the small village of Ashbury, Berkshire, England, the son of John Eustace, Head Game-keeper to the Earl of Craven at the beautiful Ashdown Park. He migrated to Australia with his wife and children in 1851 and camped next to the Ullina and Eldorado Runs on the Black Dog Creek at Chiltern, which was owned by the Withers family and was in excess of 55,000 acres of grazing land. A.W. Eustace was employed as a shepherd by Jason Withers and while tending his flocks in the solitude of the bush, Eustace turned his attention to painting and music to while away the long and weary hours. He endeavoured to capture the spirit of the bush painting on board, canvas or tin plate, but as these materials were not always readily available he then started painting on large round eucalyptus leaves from the White and Red Box trees that grew around about him. About 1856 he painted a small picture of the famous Woolshed goldrush and during the next few years became well known in North-East Victoria. John Sadlier, a police officer stationed at Beechworth said that Eustace painted 'some really exquisite scenes. He was of an easy-going dreamy temperament, a student of nature only, despising the works of men. Unfortunately his drawings were on eucalyptus leaves, the largest and roundest he could find and not on canvas, and no doubt have all perished long ago.' In 1876 the Melbourne Age newspaper reported, 'Eustace’s celebrated paintings on gum leaves are again attracting attention,…Mr Eustace is an elegant artist…he seems without effort to catch the colour and spirit of Australian scenery…' In 1864 A.W. Eustace held an Art Union in Albury, and again in 1884 in Ballarat. He exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Arts in 1877 and also held an exhibition of gum leaf paintings at Stevens Gallery, Melbourne in 1893. By 1896 he was receiving orders from heads of states in Europe, with his works acknowledged by Queen Victoria, Emperor Frederick of Germany and the Czar of Russia, as well as the Governors of New South Wales and Victoria. His paintings reflected his ability to paint the sky in his realistic style which is still noted by art critics of the day. A.W. Eustace was also a skillful taxidermist. The collection of birds and animals that are in the Beechworth Museum collection are examples of his taxidermy skill. When not doing his work, painting or taxidermy, he regularly contributed letters and verse to the Chiltern newspaper, The Federal Standard. A book of verse in his hand writing was presented to The Athenaeum Trust by his relatives from the Boadle family. In the 1870’s he became interested in spiritualism often being involved in lively debate at lectures and séances. Alfred William Eustace died in 1907 and is buried in the Chiltern New Cemetery with his wife Sarah and one of his daughters, Elizabeth.A. W. Eustace, as well as being a well-known Australian artist, was a significant member of the Chiltern community.Black and white photograph of the grave of A.W. Eustace, under glass, in a metal frame.Sticker on back: 184 (original Registration number)a. w. eustace, grave, chiltern new cemetery

Alfred William Eustace (1820-1907), an Australian artist, was born in Berkshire, England, where he was an assistant gamekeeper to the Earl of Craven at Ashdown Park. He migrated to Australia with his wife and children in 1851 and camped beside the Ullina and Eldorado Runs on the Black Dog Creek at Chiltern, which was in excess of 50,000 acres of grazing land. A.W. Eustace was employed as a shepherd by Jason Withers and while tending his flocks in the solitude of the bush, Eustace turned his attention to painting and music to while away the long and weary hours. He endeavoured to capture the spirit of the bush and painted on board, canvas or tin plate, but as these materials were not always readily available he then started painting on large round eucalyptus leaves from the White and Red Box trees that grew around about him. He became known as the "Bush Artist." About 1856 he painted a small picture of the famous Woolshed goldrush and during the next few years became well known in North-East Victoria. John Sadlier, a police officer stationed at Beechworth said that Eustace painted 'some really exquisite scenes. He was of an easy-going dreamy temperament, a student of nature only, despising the works of men. Unfortunately his drawings were on eucalyptus leaves, the largest and roundest he could find and not on canvas, and no doubt have all perished long ago.' In 1876 the Melbourne Age newspaper reported, 'Eustace’s celebrated paintings on gum leaves are again attracting attention,…Mr Eustace is an elegant artist…he seems without effort to catch the colour and spirit of Australian scenery…' In 1864 A.W. Eustace held an Art Union in Albury, and again in 1884 in Ballarat. He exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Arts in 1877 and also held an exhibition of gum leaf paintings at Stevens Gallery, Melbourne in 1893. By 1896 he was receiving orders from heads of states in Europe, with his works acknowledged by Queen Victoria, Emperor Frederick of Germany and the Czar of Russia, as well as the Governors of New South Wales and Victoria. His paintings reflected his ability to paint the sky in his realistic style which is still noted by art critics of the day. A.W. Eustace was also a skilful taxidermist. The collection of birds and animals that can be seen at the Beechworth Museum are examples of his taxidermy skill. When not doing his work, painting or taxidermy, he regularly contributed letters and verse to the Chiltern newspaper, The Federal Standard. A book of verse in his hand writing was presented to The Athenaeum Trust by the Boadle family. In the 1870’s he became interested in spiritualism often being involved in lively debate at lectures and séances. Alfred William Eustace died in 1907 and is buried in the Chiltern New Cemetery with his wife Sarah and one of his daughters, Elizabeth. A.W. Eustace was a significant member of the Chiltern community during the 19th century and his artwork was displayed widely, even in European royal homes.Copy of sepia photograph of A.W. Eustace in a brown wooden oval frame with a copy of A.W. Eustace's signature across the bottom of the photograph.Sticker on back: 194 Sticker on back: MADE IN/ CHINA/ FABRIQUE 'AU/CHINEa.w.eustace, photograph, chiltern

These copies of five oil on gum leaf paintings by Alfred William Eustace (1820-1907) display the subjects and detail of his small gum leaf paintings. A.W. Eustace, a well-known Australian artist, was born in Berkshire, England, where he was an assistant gamekeeper to the Earl of Craven at Ashdown Park. He migrated to Australia with his wife and children in 1851 and worked on the Ullina and Eldorado Runs on the Black Dog Creek at Chiltern, which was in excess of 50,000 acres of grazing land. A.W. Eustace was employed as a shepherd by Jason Withers and while tending his flocks in the solitude of the bush, Eustace turned his attention to painting and music to while away the long and weary hours. He endeavoured to capture the spirit of the bush and painted on board, canvas or tin plate, but as these materials were not always readily available he then started painting on large round eucalyptus leaves from the White and Red Box trees that grew around about him. He became known as the "Bush Artist." About 1856 he painted a small picture of the famous Woolshed goldrush and during the next few years became well known in North-East Victoria. John Sadlier, a police officer stationed at Beechworth said that Eustace painted 'some really exquisite scenes. He was of an easy-going dreamy temperament, a student of nature only, despising the works of men. Unfortunately his drawings were on eucalyptus leaves, the largest and roundest he could find and not on canvas, and no doubt have all perished long ago.' In 1876 the Melbourne Age newspaper reported, 'Eustace’s celebrated paintings on gum leaves are again attracting attention,…Mr Eustace is an elegant artist…he seems without effort to catch the colour and spirit of Australian scenery…' In 1864 A.W. Eustace held an Art Union in Albury, and again in 1884 in Ballarat. He exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Arts in 1877 and also held an exhibition of gum leaf paintings at Stevens Gallery, Melbourne in 1893. By 1896 he was receiving orders from heads of states in Europe, with his works acknowledged by Queen Victoria, Emperor Frederick of Germany and the Czar of Russia, as well as the Governors of New South Wales and Victoria. His paintings reflected his ability to paint the sky in his realistic style which is still noted by art critics of the day. A.W. Eustace was also a skillful taxidermist. The collection of birds and animals that can be seen at the Beechworth Museum are examples of his taxidermy skill. When not doing his work, painting or taxidermy, he regularly contributed letters and verse to the Chiltern newspaper, The Federal Standard. A book of verse in his hand writing was presented to The Athenaeum Trust by the Boadle family. In the 1870’s he became interested in spiritualism often being involved in lively debate at lectures and séances. Alfred William Eustace died in 1907 and is buried in the Chiltern New Cemetery with his wife Sarah and one of his daughters, Elizabeth.Alfred William Eustace was a well-known self-taught Australian artist who was known worldwide for her unique oil on gum leaf paintings. He was also a prominent Chiltern citizen.Copies of five A.W.Eustace oil paintings on gum leaf, under glass, displayed on blue paper in a black metal frame.alfred eustace, gum leaf painting, chiltern

The donor and family of this gown were long-term Brighton residents, and the gowns were held by them as family heirlooms prior to donation to Brighton Historical Society. Originally owned by Elizabeth Emma Adams and Cecilia Elizabeth Adams, it is believed that the dress was brought to Australia by either a half brother, James Smith Adams, or a younger sister, Sophia Charlotte Louisa Adams (later known as Mother Rose Columba Adams). Elizabeth and Cecilia were the daughters of James Smith Adams (a squire, 1780-1860) and Elizabeth Emma McTaggart (1793-1843) of Tower House, Woodchester in Gloucester, a property which Elizabeth later inherited. Originally a monastery, Tower House had been converted into a stately home after the Reformation. According to information originally provided by the donor, the skirt portion of this dress (along with the bodice T0004.3) was made for either Elizabeth or Cecilia to be worn at the young Queen Victoria’s first 'drawing room ball' following the end of court mourning in 1838 for her uncle William IV who died in 1837. In 1838 Cecilia would have been twelve years old and Elizabeth would have been ten years old. It is possible that this dress was worn by one of the girls to this event as it is of appropriate dimensions for a child of that age, although its design is very formal and adult. Elizabeth was born on 30 June 1828 at Tower House and died on 1 May 1909. She created a scandal when she eloped with her first husband, Thomas Charles Gardiner at the age of 18. The validity of the marriage was later formally investigate and, while it was confirmed as valid, a second church wedding was subsequently held. Thomas died in 1878. Elizabeth subsequently remarried Reverend R. E. Blackwell, but was widowed again by 1889. Cecilia was born on 17 December 1826 and died in 1902 a spinster recluse in England. At the inquest into Cecelia's death in 1904 it was revealed that she had clearly come from a family of means as her home was filled to the brim with highly valuable goods, many in boxes. She was buried in the family vault at Woodchester. Elizabeth and Cecilia's sister Sophia converted to Roman Catholicism in 1851 and became a nun, taking the religious name 'Rose Columba'. In 1883 Mother Rose Columba led a group of eight to Australia, answering a call for Dominican sisters to nurse the sick in Adelaide. Upon arrival, she founded St. Dominic's Priory and the Church of Perpetual Adoration in North Adelaide, using her inheritance to build the chapel. Elizabeth's second son, George Henry Somerset, who inherited the Adams family estate dropped the 'i' in Gardiner and added the maiden name of his grandmother. Therefore, the family name has now become Gardner McTaggart. These Adams family entries have been updated with information provided by Dr Herbert Gardner McTaggart, great-grandson of George Henry Somerset in April 2016. Mr McTaggart contacted the society after finding our entries online.A hand and machine sewn cream, pale blue, orange and gold embroidered satin formal dress, the bodice dates from circa 1890. This dress shares a skirt with T0004.3, which dates from circa 1840. The bodice features a high scoop neckline with gathers at the base of the scoop and directly below where the bodice finishes creating fullness over the bust. The bodice front encloses the bust with a right panel over the top of a left panel and securing with two hook and eye closures over the left shoulder. The panels are secured together with 15 hook and eye closures. The sleeves are set neatly on the true shoulder and are elongated full puffs to just above the elbow. The fullness is created by nine pleats from the top of the shoulder over the back of the shoulder. At the base of the sleeve the fullness is gathered just above the elbow. At the centre back of the bodice are four inward facing pleats running from the centre neck to the waist. The bodice is secured around the waist with a tape and four hook and eye closures. The bodice is boned around the sides and back of the torso with eight bones. This bodice is finished at the waist with a pleated cummerbund of the dress fabric that is designed to appear to be a sash with two decorative bows. One front left of centre and one back right of centre. The skirt secures at the waist with an opening to the left of centre at the back. The skirt gathers tightly at the centre back with a dart on either side. The skirt has a front central panel and the skirt falls to floor length. At the back, the skirt is also floor length. The back of the skirt may have been modified at some time and may have originally finished in a train. It would be more appropriate to the period of the bodice, and the believed use of the dress with a train.cecilia elizabeth adams, elizabeth emma adams, queen victoria, tower house, woodchester, james smith adams, elizabeth emma mctaggart, sophia charlotte louisa adams, 1890s fashion

The donor and family of this gown were long-term Brighton residents, and the gowns were held by them as family heirlooms prior to donation to Brighton Historical Society. Originally owned by Elizabeth Emma Adams and Cecilia Elizabeth Adams, it is believed that the dress was brought to Australia by either a half brother, James Smith Adams, or a younger sister, Sophia Charlotte Louisa Adams (later known as Mother Rose Columba Adams). Elizabeth and Cecilia were the daughters of James Smith Adams (a squire, 1780-1860) and Elizabeth Emma McTaggart (1793-1843) of Tower House, Woodchester in Gloucester, a property which Elizabeth later inherited. Originally a monastery, Tower House had been converted into a stately home after the Reformation. According to information originally provided by the donor, both this dress and the dress T0004.1 were made for Elizabeth and Cecilia, to be worn at the young Queen Victoria’s first 'drawing room ball' following the end of court mourning in 1838 for her uncle William IV who died in 1837. In 1838 Cecilia would have been twelve years old and Elizabeth would have been ten years old. It is possible that this dress was worn by one of the girls to this event as it is of appropriate dimensions for a child of that age, although its design is very formal and adult. Elizabeth was born on 30 June 1828 at Tower House and died on 1 May 1909. She created a scandal when she eloped with her first husband, Thomas Charles Gardiner at the age of 18. The validity of the marriage was later formally investigate and, while it was confirmed as valid, a second church wedding was subsequently held. Thomas died in 1878. Elizabeth subsequently remarried Reverend R. E. Blackwell, but was widowed again by 1889. Cecilia was born on 17 December 1826 and died in 1902 a spinster recluse in England. At the inquest into Cecelia's death in 1904 it was revealed that she had clearly come from a family of means as her home was filled to the brim with highly valuable goods, many in boxes. She was buried in the family vault at Woodchester. Elizabeth and Cecilia's sister Sophia converted to Roman Catholicism in 1851 and became a nun, taking the religious name 'Rose Columba'. In 1883 Mother Rose Columba led a group of eight to Australia, answering a call for Dominican sisters to nurse the sick in Adelaide. Upon arrival, she founded St. Dominic's Priory and the Church of Perpetual Adoration in North Adelaide, using her inheritance to build the chapel. Elizabeth's second son, George Henry Somerset, who inherited the Adams family estate dropped the 'i' in Gardiner and added the maiden name of his grandmother. Therefore, the family name has now become Gardner McTaggart. These Adams family entries have been updated with information provided by Dr Herbert Gardner McTaggart, great-grandson of George Henry Somerset in April 2016. Mr McTaggart contacted the society after finding our entries online.A hand sewn cream, pale blue, orange and gold embroidered satin formal dress, the bodice dates from circa 1840. This dress shares a skirt with T0004.2, which dates from a different period (circa 1890). The bodice features a wide shallow neckline finished with a beige coloured cord in two decorative lines. The sleeve is set on the true shoulder and is a short fitted sleeve with decorative gathering and two lines of corded detail. The bodice is shaped to the body with 2 sets of six fine knife pleats diagonally positioned narrower over the waist and spreading out over the bust. These pleats are secured with six double lines of stitching. The bodice finishes high on the waistline at either side and points down to a point over the centre front. The base of the bodice is finished with a piped edge and beige decorative cording. The bodice encloses the body at the centre back where it has holes that presumably would have held lacing. The back features four diagonal knife pleats finishing at the centre back and splaying out over the shoulders. The waistline at the back features only a very gentle point.cecilia elizabeth adams, elizabeth emma adams, james smith adams, elizabeth emma mctaggart, sophia charlotte louisa adams, queen victoria, drawing room ball, 1840s fashion, tower house, woodchester

The Bentwood chair has been called ‘the world’s most popular chair’. The original Bentwood chair, was designed by German-Austrian cabinet maker and Master Joiner, Michael Thonet (b.1796 - d.1871) and introduced to the market in 1859. Thonet started his business in his home town of Boppard as an independent cabinet maker in 1819. In the 1830’s he began trying to make furniture from glued (laminated) and bent wooden slats. Over the next few years his attempts to patent this process failed in Germany, Great Britain, France, and Russia. He then began using lightweight, strong wood and bending it into elegant, comfortable furniture. The Bentwood technology took Thonet years to perfect. In simple terms, the wooden rods or lengths were wet by soaking or steaming, bent into shape and then held in place until they hardened into the moulded curved shape or pattern. The wood usually chosen for the bentwood chairs was maple or beech. Thonet had revolutionised an older process by industrialising the process. The dowels of wood were cut and prepared as components of furniture, treated by the ‘bentwood’ process, then ready immediately for assembling with very little extra workmanship needed. Thonet held 2 patents for this process, the second one ended on 10th July 1869 and was non-renewable. At the Trade Fair at Koblenz of 1841 Prince Klemens Wenzel von Mettemich was very impressed with Thonet’s furniture, especially the chairs. In 1842 Thonet sold his Boppard business and emigrated to Vienna, and began working, along with his sons, on the interior decoration of the Palais Leichtenstein, for the Carl Leistler establishment. In 1849 he began his own business again, the Gebruder Thonet to include his sons (translated “Brothers Thonet”). He produced the “No. 1” Bentwood chair. He received a bronze medal for his Vienna bentwood chairs at the World Fair in London in 1851, and a silver medal in Paris in 1855. In 1856 he opened a new factory in Koritchan (Moravia), where there were extensive woods of beech trees available for his enterprise. In the next years, five more Eastern European production sites were established in Bystritz (1862), Nagy-Ugrócz (1866), Wsetin (1867), Hallenkau(1867) and Nowo-Radomsk(1880). Thonet’s 1859 No. 14 “chair of chairs” (or “Konsumstuhl Nr. 14” – coffee shop chair no. 14) was the most famous of all of Thonet’s Bentwood chairs. In 1867 he received a gold medal at the Paris World Fair. This new style of furniture making became very popular. Up until 1830 50 million of these chairs had been produced. By the 1870’s Thonet owned offices in almost 20 countries, with sales locations across Europe, in Chicago and New York. In 1889 he set Thonet set up a head office in Frankenberg, Hesse. Bentwood models designed in the mid to late 19th century featured hand-caned or laminated wood seats and were usually stamped with the country of origin. The Bentwood elements were the backrest, seat rim and legs. Typically the seat was covered with ‘bucket’ leather. After the Patent ran out in 1869, companies such as Jacob & Josef Kohn began the production of bentwood furniture.The popularity of the Bentwood chair that was introduced by Michael Thonet in the 1850s is due to its versatility and timeless quality. Its style, whether varnished or painted, suits any room in the house. The lightweight chairs are also popular for café and restaurant seating, as well as for public gatherings. They can be easily moved around and grouped in a variety of ways to suit any occasion.Chair, bentwood, pair of two. Backrest has full length inverted U inside frame. Support rail and wire reinforcing between legs. 3692.01 seat has floral pattern pressed into wood 3692.02 seat is plain (replacement seat). Made by Harnison & Co.3692.01 chair's marks; Label ""HARNISON & CO./ NEUSOL / BUDAPEST" and "WIENER NOBEL" and "(symbol) N inside circle, under Crown" flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, domestic furniture, dining furniture, bentwood chair, harnison & co., neusol, budapest, wiener nobel

Post Office Receiving Pillar was Collected from Warrnambool City Council’s Scott Street Depot and transported to Flagstaff Hill, stored in the Barracks area Friends of Flagstaff Hill began the project of restoring the Post Office Receiving Pillar in early 2011. The replacement dome required a pattern to be made from paper, then timber, then someone to manufacture it. The cast iron body required sand blasting and undercoating. The pillar was installed in Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village in March 2014. A specialist visited the Village and painted the pillar with 7 coats of ‘post office red’ then completed the job with gold paint on the details. In 2015 an information plate of brass was fitted to the Pillar in the position that would have originally announced the clearing times. It was originally manufactured by G Couch, Engineer, Alliance Iron Works, Melbourne. Gordon Couch passed away in June 1896 and his Works were offered for auction in November 1897. HISTORY OF POST OFFICE RECEIVING PILLARS In 1851 ‘pillar boxes’ were installed at roadside locations in the island of Jersey, England; they had already been successful in several European countries. The use of new prepaid, adhesive postage stamps as well as the roadside pillar boxes meant there was no need for the public to take a trip to the Post Office just to post a letter. By 1855 London had installed its first six Pillar Boxes. In 1856 the pillar boxes were first introduced in Sydney. These were circular with a crown on the dome, supported by leaves. Early Victoria Mail was originally collected by ‘letter carriers’, first appointed in Melbourne in 1841, equipped with leather bag and hand bell. He wore a red coat with brass buttons and a black top hat! In 1844 two wooden receiving boxes were erected in Melbourne. The first cast iron boxes were installed in South Melbourne (Emerald Hill) and were still in service until 1967. They were a fluted circular design and made in England. In the early 1860’s the ‘low door round’ design posting box was introduced, being circular and surrounded by a crown, with two broad embossed bands around its circumference. The clearance door was in front of the box and low down. These were made in Australia. In the early 1870’s square boxes with a tapering top were being used. These too were made in Australia by different manufacturers with slight variations on style such as the orientation and number of slots. Next came the circular boxes again, similar to the ‘low door round’ but with the clearance door extending to just below the posting slot, often referred to as ‘high door round’. These boxes did not have embossed bands. In 1887 small cast iron boxes were introduced, attached to posts and poles and called ‘lamp post receivers’. Around 1930 a ‘London’ model was used in Victoria. It was copied from the flat-domed type in London but made in Tasmania. … [References: Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village records, The Argus, 11th April, 1890, The Argus, 2nd July, 1896, The Argus, 30th Nov. 1897, “Stamps.Au” http://www.stampsau.com, 4th April 2011 (Extracted from “Australian Street Posting Boxes” by Ken Sparks – out of print)] Post Office Receiving Pillar, or letterbox.1885 "High Door Round" design, restored 2014 Tall cast iron sylinder with decorative dome cap, slot in side, hinged door with handle shaped as a fist. Painted red with gold trip..Reconditioned barrel, reconstructed dome. Restored by Friends of Flagstaff Hill, 2014. Now a working letterbox. Made in Melbourne.Oval maker's plate “ - G. COUCH - / ENGINEER / ALLIANCE IRON / WORKS / MELBOURNE”flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, post office receiving pillar, letterbox, mailbox, australia post

Alfred William Eustace was a well-known self-taught Australian artist who spent his spare time painting the local landscapes in the Chiltern area. When not doing his work or painting, Eustace regularly contributed letters and verse to the Chiltern newspaper "The Federal Standard". A collection of A. W Eustace's verse and other writings, written between 1845 and 1899, was presented to The Chiltern Athenaeum Trust by Cam Boadle, a grandson of A.W. Eustace, and his wife Connie. The Chiltern Athenaeum Trust created a booklet of some of his poetry which was published in 1992. Copyright for the booklet is held by Chiltern Athenaeum Museum 1992. In the 1870’s he became interested in spiritualism often being involved in lively debate at lectures and séances. A.W.Eustace was born in Berkshire, England, where he was an assistant gamekeeper to the Earl of Craven at Ashdown Park. He migrated to Australia with his wife and children in 1851 and worked on the Ullina and Eldorado Runs on the Black Dog Creek at Chiltern, which was in excess of 50,000 acres of grazing land. A.W. Eustace was employed as a shepherd by Jason Withers and while tending his flocks in the solitude of the bush, Eustace turned his attention to painting and music to while away the long and weary hours. He endeavoured to capture the spirit of the bush painting on board, canvas or tin plate, but as these materials were not always readily available he then started painting on large round eucalyptus leaves from the White and Red Box trees that grew around about him. About 1856 he painted a small picture of the famous Woolshed goldrush and during the next few years became well known in North-East Victoria. John Sadlier, a police officer stationed at Beechworth said that Eustace painted 'some really exquisite scenes. He was of an easy-going dreamy temperament, a student of nature only, despising the works of men. Unfortunately his drawings were on eucalyptus leaves, the largest and roundest he could find and not on canvas, and no doubt have all perished long ago.' In 1876 the Melbourne Age newspaper reported, 'Eustace’s celebrated paintings on gum leaves are again attracting attention,…Mr Eustace is an elegant artist…he seems without effort to catch the colour and spirit of Australian scenery…' In 1864 A.W. Eustace held an Art Union in Albury, and again in 1884 in Ballarat. He exhibited at the Victorian Academy of Arts in 1877 and also held an exhibition of gum leaf paintings at Stevens Gallery, Melbourne in 1893. By 1896 he was receiving orders from heads of states in Europe, with his works acknowledged by Queen Victoria, Emperor Frederich of Germany and the Czar of Russia, as well as the Governors of New South Wales and Victoria. His paintings reflected his ability to paint the sky in his realistic style which is still noted by art critics of the day. A.W. Eustace was also a skilful taxidermist. The collection of birds and animals that can be seen at the Beechworth Museum are examples of his taxidermy skill. Alfred William Eustace died in 1907 and is buried in the Chiltern New Cemetery with his wife Sarah and one of his daughters, Elizabeth. Alfred William Eustace made a valuable contribution to the culture of 19th century Chiltern and his booklet of Selected Verse gives us an insight into life during that time.22 page booklet of Selected Verse/ A.W. Eustace of Chiltern/ 1820-1907. Printed on thick cream paper with a copy of an oval photograph of the author.a. w. eustace, selected verse, chiltern

The donor and family of this gown were long-term Brighton residents, and the gowns were held by them as family heirlooms prior to donation to Brighton Historical Society. Originally owned by Elizabeth Emma Adams and Cecilia Elizabeth Adams, it is believed that the dress was brought to Australia by either a half brother, James Smith Adams, or a younger sister, Sophia Charlotte Louisa Adams (later known as Mother Rose Columba Adams). Elizabeth and Cecilia were the daughters of James Smith Adams (a squire, 1780-1860) and Elizabeth Emma McTaggart (1793-1843) of Tower House, Woodchester in Gloucester, a property which Elizabeth later inherited. Originally a monastery, Tower House had been converted into a stately home after the Reformation. According to information originally provided by the donor, both this dress and the dress T0004.3 were made for Elizabeth and Cecilia, to be worn at the young Queen Victoria’s first 'drawing room ball' following the end of court mourning in 1838 for her uncle William IV who died in 1837. In 1838 Cecilia would have been twelve years old and Elizabeth would have been ten years old. It is possible that the dress T0004.3 was worn by one of the girls to this event as it is of appropriate dimensions for a child of that age, although its design is very formal and adult. However, it is unlikely that either of the girls wore this dress at the ball due to the size and styling of the dress. It is likely that the dress belonged to one of the girls, but was worn at a later date. Elizabeth was born on 30 June 1828 at Tower House and died on 1 May 1909. She created a scandal when she eloped with her first husband, Thomas Charles Gardiner at the age of 18. The validity of the marriage was later formally investigate and, while it was confirmed as valid, a second church wedding was subsequently held. Thomas died in 1878. Elizabeth subsequently remarried Reverend R. E. Blackwell, but was widowed again by 1889. Cecilia was born on 17 December 1826 and died in 1902 a spinster recluse in England. At the inquest into Cecelia's death in 1904 it was revealed that she had clearly come from a family of means as her home was filled to the brim with highly valuable goods, many in boxes. She was buried in the family vault at Woodchester. Elizabeth and Cecilia's sister Sophia converted to Roman Catholicism in 1851 and became a nun, taking the religious name 'Rose Columba'. In 1883 Mother Rose Columba led a group of eight to Australia, answering a call for Dominican sisters to nurse the sick in Adelaide. Upon arrival, she founded St. Dominic's Priory and the Church of Perpetual Adoration in North Adelaide, using her inheritance to build the chapel. Elizabeth's second son, George Henry Somerset, who inherited the Adams family estate dropped the 'i' in Gardiner and added the maiden name of his grandmother. Therefore, the family name has now become Gardner McTaggart. These Adams family entries have been updated with information provided by Dr Herbert Gardner McTaggart, great-grandson of George Henry Somerset in April 2016. Mr McTaggart contacted the society after finding our entries online.A hand sewn white purple, pink, green, blue and yellow floral silk chiffon dress from circa 1870. The dress consists of two pieces worn together as a dress. This dress has received a great deal of mending and alteration and so it is difficult to be sure of what constitutes its original state. The following description is of its current state. The bodice has a high neck with a simple shallow band collar, an olive braid and a press stud closure. The bodice fastens down the centre front with ten hook and eyes closures and two sets of ribbon ties . The bodice has three darts providing shaping into the waistline. The bodice finishes at the waist and gently tapers towards the front creating a 'V' line. Down the centre front from the neck to the waist concealing the bodice opening is a pressed pleated ruffle of the dress fabric and a line of olive braid. The dress features pagoda sleeves finished at the hem with pressed pleated ruffle of the dress fabric, a line of olive braid and a silk fringe of 4 cm pale pink and white. The skirt part of the bodice section attaches to the front of the dress with two hooks and eyes on the left hand side of the waist. The fabric drops down to approximately the knees at the front, curving up and splitting on either side over the hip. The edge of this piece is also trimmed with a pressed pleated ruffle of the dress fabric and a line of olive braid. Just below the hip on either side is a large bow of pink, cream, purple and green taffeta. The bodice at the back is shaped with four panels into the waistline. Where it joins the bodice skirt the skirt is pleated, creating fullness. The skirt of the dress ensemble secures at the waist on the left hand side. At the front it has two pleats (that may have been repositioned during repair), and is fully gathered at the back. At the front the dress falls to the floor whilst at the back it is longer to accommodate the bustle and possibly a small train.cecilia elizabeth adams, elizabeth emma adams, 1870s fashion, tower house, woodchester, james smith adams, elizabeth emma mctaggart, mary rose columba adams, sophia charlotte louisa adams

This particular geological specimen was found in Mount Franklin or Lalgambook in Djadjawurrung, located between Daylesford and Newstead, approximately ninety minutes drive from Melbourne. The mountain is an example of a breached scoria cone (a steep conical hill of loose pyroclastic fragments) which was created by a volcanic eruption about 470,000 years ago, a date which may indicate the age of this geological specimen. The volcanic eruptions of Mount Franklin were most likely witnessed by members of the Dja Dja Wurrung Aboriginal tribe, who referred to this country as the 'smoking grounds'. Mount Franklin and the surrounding area appears to have been a place of considerable religious significance to Aboriginal people, there is evidence which indicates that frequent large ceremonial gatherings took place in the area. Basalt is the most common rock on Earth’s surface, more than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Basalt is an aphanitic extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. Specimens are black in colour and weather to dark green or brown. Basalt is rich in iron and magnesium and is mainly composed of olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase. Olivine is the name of a group of rock-forming silicate minerals with compositions ranging between Mg2SiO4 and Fe2SiO4. Unlike other minerals, Olivine has a very high crystallisation temperature which makes it the first of the minerals to crystallise from magma. As magma cools, the crystals begin to form and settle on the bottom of the lava and form basalts that are abnormally enriched in olivine in the lower part of lava flows. According to H. M. King (on geology.com) "Olivine is thought to be an important mineral in Earth's mantle. Its presence as a mantle mineral has been inferred by a change in the behaviour of seismic waves as they cross the boundary between Earth's crust and mantle". Lava from Mount Franklin and other volcanoes in the area filled valleys and buried the gold bearing streams that became the renowned ‘deep leads’ of the gold mining era. In 1852, as part of the Victorian gold rush, gold was discovered in the immediate area, this gold was created by lava flows during the Newer Volcanic period, which were mined intensively during the nineteenth century. Around 1865 the presence of a deep lead in Mount Franklin was established. Deep lead mining was initially unsuccessful, and it was not until the late 1870s that the Franklinford Gold Mining Company mined at Mount Franklin on a significant scale. A few years later the Mount Franklin Estate Gold Mining Company also struck gold, followed by the Shakespeare and Great Western companies in the mid-1880s. By the late 1880s, however, deep lead mining had ceased in the area. Soon after gold was discovered in 1851, Victoria’s Governor La Trobe wrote to the Colonial Office in London, urging ‘the propriety of selecting and appointing as Mineral Surveyor for this Colony a gentleman possessed of the requisite qualifications and acquaintance with geological science and phenomena’. Alfred Selwyn was appointed geological surveyor in Australia in 1852 which began the Geological Survey of Victoria. In 1853-69 the Geological Survey issued under Selwyn's direction sixty-one geological maps and numerous reports; they were of such high standard that a writer in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London bracketed the survey with that of the United States of America as the best in the world. During his years spent in Australia, Selwyn collected numerous significant geological specimens, examples of which are held in collections such as the Burke Museum.This geological specimen is an example of basalt and olivine which shows the volcanic lava activity and geographical specific nature of Mt Franklin as a significant volcanic site. According to Agriculture Victoria 'The crater is one of the deepest in the Central Highlands area. It is a major megacryst site with some of the largest known Victorian examples of megacrysts of augite and an orthoclase. The small parasitic mound of Lady Franklin on the western flanks adds to the geological interest of the site'. This specimen also highlights the locality as a significant place for both indigenous activity and Victorian gold rush era mining practices. This specimen is part of a larger collection of geological and mineral specimens collected from around Australia (and some parts of the world) and donated to the Burke Museum between 1868-1880. A large percentage of these specimens were collected in Victoria as part of the Geological Survey of Victoria that begun in 1852 (in response to the Gold Rush) to study and map the geology of Victoria. Collecting geological specimens was an important part of mapping and understanding the scientific makeup of the earth. Many of these specimens were sent to research and collecting organisations across Australia, including the Burke Museum, to educate and encourage further study.An angular, solid hand-sized piece of grey volcanic Basalt with green/brown Olivine phenocrysts along one flat edge.Olivine in basalt / - label is probably / correct. / C. Willman / 15/4/21burke museum, beechworth, indigo shire, beechworth museum, geological, geological specimen, mineralogy, basalt, igneous rock, igneous-volcanic, volcanic geology, volcanic, olivine, olivine specimen, basaltoid

Date estimated to be circa 1912 based on the style of printing on the reverse of the card - Kodak Austral paper for real photo postcards, the paper was manufactured c.1908-1914 (See also POSTCARDS ON KODAK PAPER - IS IT POSSIBLE TO "DATE" THEM? http://tps.org.au/bb/viewtopic.php?t=115) Brougham Street was created in Josiah Holloway's 1851 subdivision of Little Eltham. It was one of several east-west streets shown on the subdivision plan as crossing the Diamond Creek. The western part was named Wellington Street on the subdivision plan but was later changed to conform with the name of the eastern part as acknowledgement of the continuity of the street. It is not known when the first bridge was constructed in Brougham Street however it was certainly mentioned at Council’s meeting of 2 June 1884 as being in a dangerous state of repair. This photo (c.1895) of an old bridge shows a very low-level simple log girder bridge crossing the creek at a right angle and so the approaches involved bends in the road alignment. This bridge was generally known as Kaylocks Bridge or Kaylock’s Crossing after the owner of the adjoining land. It was most likely built from around the mid-1850s, or a crossing of some fashion established as Richard George Kaylock, butcher of Little Eltham and his wife Emily Ann settled there in 1854. His property was in Wellington Street (now Brougham Street) and apparently extended across the Diamond Creek. The land on the western side of the creek was farmed, the house being on the eastern side. Kaylock's Bridge formed part of the original coach road to Eltham and in 1922 was described as an "old rustic bridge". Its low level and insubstantial construction made it susceptible to flood damage, necessitating frequent closures until repairs could be carried out. In September 1922, Council called for tenders for a new timber bridge to be constructed at Kaylock’s crossing. An engineering assessment carried out for the Council by Macleod Consulting at the time of the replacement suggested that the construction details indicate that it was in the 1900s, however this dating could possibly have been the result of numerous repairs undertaken over the years to flood damage. The tender was awarded to Mr Weller of Kangaroo Ground who commenced work in February 1923 on a higher-level timber trestle bridge. Work was slowed due to illness of the contractor and the accidental death of a man in March 1923 following the collapse of the bank after he had jumped into a hole that had just been blasted. The bridge was completed around July 1923 at which point the old structure was pulled up, marking what was described in the ‘Advertiser’ newspaper as the passing of an old and well-loved landmark in the district. In April 1924 the approach to Kaylocks bridge was washed away during the heavy flooding that destroyed the Main Road bridge. The western side was repaired, and an extra span was added to the eastern side using timber from the destroyed Main Road bridge. The bridge was again severely damaged four months later in August 1924 When a lack of finances delayed repairs to the Bridge Street bridge in 1931 (also referred to as Obelisk Bridge at the time), traffic had to detour via Brougham Street for some time. Local residents feared that the Bridge Street bridge might never reopen. Kaylocks Bridge was constantly subject to damage by floods. In the 1934 flood it was submerged by two feet of water. In more recent times the bridge was again severely damaged by flooding and repairs made. A new bridge and adjoining footbridge were constructed in 2009.Digital file only Postcards scanned from the collection of Michael Aitken on loan to EDHS, 2 Sep. 2022michael aitken collection, eltham, postcards, bridge, brougham street, diamond creek (creek), kaylocks bridge, wellington street

Brougham Street was created in Josiah Holloway's 1851 subdivision of Little Eltham. It was one of several east-west streets shown on the subdivision plan as crossing the Diamond Creek. The western part was named Wellington Street on the subdivision plan but was later changed to conform with the name of the eastern part as acknowledgement of the continuity of the street. It is not known when the first bridge was constructed in Brougham Street however it was certainly mentioned at Council’s meeting of 2 June 1884 as being in a dangerous state of repair. This photo (c.1895) of an old bridge shows a very low-level simple log girder bridge crossing the creek at a right angle and so the approaches involved bends in the road alignment. This bridge was generally known as Kaylocks Bridge or Kaylock’s Crossing after the owner of the adjoining land. It was most likely built from around the mid-1850s, or a crossing of some fashion established as Richard George Kaylock, butcher of Little Eltham and his wife Emily Ann settled there in 1854. His property was in Wellington Street (now Brougham Street) and apparently extended across the Diamond Creek. The land on the western side of the creek was farmed, the house being on the eastern side. Kaylock's Bridge formed part of the original coach road to Eltham and in 1922 was described as an "old rustic bridge". Its low level and insubstantial construction made it susceptible to flood damage, necessitating frequent closures until repairs could be carried out. In September 1922, Council called for tenders for a new timber bridge to be constructed at Kaylock’s crossing. An engineering assessment carried out for the Council by Macleod Consulting at the time of the replacement suggested that the construction details indicate that it was in the 1900s, however this dating could possibly have been the result of numerous repairs undertaken over the years to flood damage. The tender was awarded to Mr Weller of Kangaroo Ground who commenced work in February 1923 on a higher-level timber trestle bridge. Work was slowed due to illness of the contractor and the accidental death of a man in March 1923 following the collapse of the bank after he had jumped into a hole that had just been blasted. The bridge was completed around July 1923 at which point the old structure was pulled up, marking what was described in the ‘Advertiser’ newspaper as the passing of an old and well-loved landmark in the district. In April 1924 the approach to Kaylocks bridge was washed away during the heavy flooding that destroyed the Main Road bridge. The western side was repaired, and an extra span was added to the eastern side using timber from the destroyed Main Road bridge. The bridge was again severely damaged four months later in August 1924 When a lack of finances delayed repairs to the Bridge Street bridge in 1931 (also referred to as Obelisk Bridge at the time), traffic had to detour via Brougham Street for some time. Local residents feared that the Bridge Street bridge might never reopen. Kaylocks Bridge was constantly subject to damage by floods. In the 1934 flood it was submerged by two feet of water. In more recent times the bridge was again severely damaged by flooding and repairs made. A new bridge and adjoining footbridge were constructed in 2009. Part of a slide show presentation "Bridges & Waterways of the Shire" by Russell Yeoman to the 13 September 1989 Society meeting. The presentation included slides of historic photos from the Shire of Eltham Pioneers collections as well as several recent views.Photo of earliest known crossing of the Diamond Creek at brougham StreetPostcard photo printbrougham street, eltham, wellington street, kaylocks bridge, bridge, diamond creek (creek)

This Singer Sewing Machine oil bottle was made by hand, with the glass blown into a mould. Isaac M. Singer established his sewing machine company, I.M. Singer & Co. in America in 1851. A brief history of the Loch Ard (1873-1878): - The sailing ship Loch Ard was one of the famous Loch Line ships that sailed from England to Australia. Barclay, Curdle and Co. built the three-masted iron vessel in Glasgow in 1873. It had sailed three trips to Australia and one trip to Calcutta before its fateful voyage. Loch Ard left England on March 2, 1878, under the command of recently married, 29-year-old Captain Gibbs. It was bound for Melbourne with a crew of 37, plus 17 passengers. The general cargo reflected the affluence of Melbourne at the time. Onboard were straw hats, umbrellas, perfumes, clay pipes, pianos, clocks, confectionery, linen and candles, and a heavier load of railway irons, cement, lead and copper. Other cargo included items intended for display in the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880. The Loch Ard had been sailing for three months and was close to its destination on June 1, 1878. Captain Gibbs had expected to see land at about 3 am but the Loch Ard ran into a fog that greatly reduced visibility and there was no sign of land or the Cape Otway lighthouse. The fog lifted at 4 am and the sheer cliffs of Victoria's west coast were much closer to them than Captain Gibbs expected. He tried to manage the vessel but failed and the ship struck a reef at the base of Mutton Bird Island, near Port Campbell. The top deck loosened from the hull, and the masts and rigging crashed down, knocking passengers and crew overboard. The lifeboat was launched by Tom Pearce but crashed into the side of Loch Ard and capsized. He clung onto its overturned hull and sheltered under it. He drifted out to sea and the tide brought him back to what is now called Loch Ard Gorge. He swam to shore and found a cave for shelter. A passenger, Eva Carmichael, had raced onto the deck to find out what was happening and was confronted by towering cliffs above the ship. She was soon swept off the ship by a huge wave. Eva saw Tom Pearce on a small rocky beach and yelled to attract his attention. He swam out and dragged her to the shelter of the cave. He revived her with a bottle of brandy from a case that had washed up on the beach. Tom scaled a cliff in search of help and followed some horse hoof prints. He came from two men from Glenample Station, three and a half miles away. He told the men of the tragedy and then returned to the gorge while the two men rode back to the station to get help. They reached Loch Ard Gorge and took the two shipwreck survivors to Glenample Station to recover. Eva stayed at the station for six weeks before returning to Ireland by steamship. In Melbourne, Tom Pearce received a hero's welcome and was presented with a medal and some money. Of the 54 crew members and passengers on board, only two survived: the apprentice, Tom Pearce and the young woman passenger, Eva Carmichael, who lost her family in the tragedy.The bottle is significant for representing an early innovation in domestic sewing, the treadle sewing machine. It is also significant for its connection with the Loch Ard shipwreck. The shipwreck of the Loch Ard is of significance for Victoria and is registered on the Victorian Heritage Register ( S 417). Flagstaff Hill has a varied collection of artefacts from Loch Ard and its collection is significant for being one of the largest accumulation of artefacts from this notable Victorian shipwreck. The collections object is to also give us a snapshot into history so we are able to interpret the story of this tragic event. The collection is also archaeologically significant as it represents aspects of Victoria's shipping history that allows us to interpret Victoria's social and historical themes of the time. The collection's historical significance is that it is associated unfortunately with the worst and best-known shipwreck in Victoria's history. Clear glass bottle, straight neck, broad shoulders tapering to slightly narrower indented base. Bottle once contained Singer Sewing Machine oil. Inscription embossed in the glass. Bottle was recovered from the wreck of the Loch Ard.Embossed in the glass "The Singer Manufacturing Company" on one side on the reverse "Extra Quality Machine Oil." flagstaff hill, flagstaff hill maritime museum and village, warrnambool, maritime museum, maritime village, great ocean road, shipwreck coast, singer sewing machine, sewing machine oil, singer sewing machine oil, oil bottle, isaac m. singer, loch ard artifacts, loch ard

By the end of the nineteenth century, the firm of Edward Preston & Sons was founded in 1825, becoming one of England's leading makers of hand tools and in many ways a British counterpart to America's "Stanley" for its wide range of quality utilitarian tools at affordable prices. Edward Preston Sr. (1798–1883) was first listed as a plane-maker at 77 Lichfield Street in the Birmingham Directory of 1833, but later listings and advertisements assert that the business was started in 1825. Preston is likewise recorded as a plane-maker living with his family in Lichfield Street in the 1841 census, at which time his younger son Edward was 6 years old. Around 1850, his son Edward left school to join his father's business and is recorded in the 1851 census as a plane-maker at his father's address. He appears to have been quite a talented and resourceful young man, as he had later been able to start up his own "wood and brass spirit level manufacturing business at 97½ Lichfield Street by 1864. By 1866, Edward Jnr had added planes, routers, joiners, coach, gun, cabinet, and carpenters tools to his line, and the following year he moved his shop from his father's address and relocated to 26 Newton Street, before moving again to much larger premises at 22–24 Whittall Street. This location became known as the Whittall Works and later was the office and factory of Edward Preston & Sons, Ltd. In 1889 Edward Preston Jnr and his three sons were brought into the firm and the name was changed to Edward Preston & Sons, becoming Edward Preston & Sons Ltd on incorporation in 1898. Part of the firm's output was a healthy line of malleable and gun-metal planes and patent adjustable iron smoothers, shoulder planes, bull-nose, and block planes - a range that was expanded in later years. The 1901 catalog shows several styles of planes that were unique to the Preston brand, along with the usual styles which had already been set by other makers. The death of Edward Preston Jnr was reported in the Lichfield Mercury of 26 September 1913. "Mr. Preston was decided of an innovative turn of mind," the newspaper wrote, "as many of the machines in use at his works, as well as of the tools produced were the invention of himself and his three sons, who now manage the business." The report noted that at the time of his death, the business was carried on at Whittall Works, Cheston Street, Aston, Birmingham. Falling on hard times, the firm of Edward Preston & Sons was sold to the Birmingham firm of John Rabone & Sons in 1932, and shortly thereafter manufacturing rights to some of the Preston range of planes were sold to the Sheffield firm of C. & J. Hampton, who would later merge with the Record Tool Company. Some of the Preston planes were directly added to the Record line by the Hampton firm, while others were modified or discontinued altogether. Generally, all Preston wooden planes are stamped on the front of the plane, the shape, size, and character type of the stamp indicating the age of the plane. On some metal planes, all the parts were stamped with a number or symbol during manufacture. This number was used to re-assemble the parts following a batch process. Not all Preston tools are trade-marked clearly. Early shoulder, rebate, chariot planes, and chamfer rebates commonly appear without trademarks but may have assembly numbers. The "E P" trade-mark was already in use by 1882. The trade-mark "Preston" also appears on some later tools that were manufactured in Sheffield, England. These are generally smoothing planes and appear modern and very similar in construction to other modern manufacturers' planes.The item gives a snapshot of one of England's premier tool manufacturing companies at a time when significant industrial changes were occurring in manufacturing and business structures in the World that were beginning to affect social changes.Ogee moulding Plane Maker E Preston & Sons sticker with date 1904 -1931flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village

George Knapman was born c.1851 in Ashburton, Devon, England, the son of George Knapman and Elizabeth Grant nee Wyatt. George, his mother and three sisters arrived in the Port of Melbourne, 28 Jul 1857 aboard the ship, Mindoro from Plymouth, his father having preceded them some eighteen months earlier. George married Mary Jane Williams in 1877 and they settled in Eltham where they had five children; Percival George (1878), Florence Maud (1880), Laura Blanche (1882), Alfred Edgar (1886) and Gladys Victoria (1897). In 1879 George was elected a vestryman for St Margaret’s Church, a position he would be re-elected to for many years. Both he and Mary were active members of the church and social activities. In 1884 George was also engaged in collecting funds for the renovation of the St Helena church George was also a member of the Eltham Cricket Club. In May 1884 following completion of the cricket season, several players banded together to form a group holding fortnightly meetings for the purpose of giving readings, recitations, etc to relieve the dullness of the long winter evenings. Charles Wingrove was elected President, Rev. J.B. Gason Treasurer and George along with Messrs Evans, Bourke, D. McColl, C. Jarrold, George Hill and William Brown, members of the Committee. In 1885, George advertised two horses had strayed from his premises (reward £2) and in 1891 he had a cultivator for sale (price £7/10/-). In 1902 he was treasurer of the Eltham Rifle Club. His children attended Eltham Primary School. In 1904 he was a member of the school's Board of Advice and addressed children at an Arbor Day planting activity. In 1907 he was elected president of the Eltham Progressive League, calling for public toilets to be erected at a local picnic spot. George along with William John Taylor and Isaac Hill was also appointed a Trustee of the Eltham Rechabite Hall in Henry Street on behalf of the Hope of Eltham Tent No. 195 Victoria District Independent Order of Rechabites from December 1901 until its sale to the community in December 1921 for use as a public hall. George ‘Snowy’ Knapman was a blacksmith by trade. He owned and operated a shoeing forge and wheelwright workshop, known as Snowy Knapman’s Forge, in Main Road Eltham, next door to the Eltham Court House. The location was well chosen. Mail coaches from Melbourne passed through Eltham enroute to Christmas Hills and Yarra Glen, with another heading to Kingstown (now Panton Hill). It was common practice for horses to be changed at Eltham. Two photos taken June 4, 1907, captioned ‘Election Day Eltham’, show a large crowd of men assembled in Main Road outside Knapman's premises. They are waiting to vote at the Court House. There are no women in the crowd; they were not empowered to vote. George's brothers William and John were also blacksmiths at Heidelberg, continuing the business established by their father George, who had died in 1900. After William died in 1909, George moved to Heidelberg to take over from him. George died at his residence, ‘Devon’, Yarra Street, Heidelberg on March 16, 1923, and is buried in Eltham Cemetery with his wife Mary who died July 16, 1935, at Kew. Their former house at Eltham was located near where the WW1 Monument was erected in 1919, after they had moved to Heidelberg, at the corner of Bridge Street and Main Road and occupied by Mr. R. Trevena at the time of Mary’s death. Mary was sister to E.J. Williams, W. Williams and Mrs Fawkner, all residents of Eltham. In Loving Memory of George Knapman Died 15th March 1923 Also his wife Mary Jane Died 16th July 1935 Sadly Missed Born Digitaleltham cemetery, gravestones, george knapman, mary jane knapman (nee williams)

A history of Eltham Post Office. Australia Post: Gold brought life to the township - Diamond Valley News, Tuesday July 2, 1985, p17 On February 1, 1854, the first Eltham Post Office was established, commencing an association between the township and the Postmaster-General's Department that has continued for 131 years. At that time, the number of permanent residents would have been fairly small, probably less than 200. The discovery of gold in June 1851, at Anderson’s Creek, some five miles away, and later at Caledonia Diggings, Queenstown (now known as St Andrews), about 14 miles to the north-east, brought large numbers of prospectors passing through the township, hopefully culling the creeks and gullies for the precious metal. This additional "floating population" brought a greater demand for supplies and for communication with the outside world, and so it helped in the development of Eltham. Today, Eltham is a thriving township. It boasts an excellent shopping centre, municipal offices, court house. post office and many other amenities. Eltham continued to develop at a leisurely pace. During 1860, a total of just over 8000 postal articles were handled at the Eltham Post Office. By 1862, the mail route was "to and from Melbourne by way of Eltham and Kangaroo Ground, three times a week, by coach". There was also a branch mail that operated between Eltham and Greensborough, three times weekly. This was also conveyed by coach. Some time between 1864 and 1868 the management of the post office passed from Thomas Hunniford to his daughter, Miss Anne Hunniford, who managed the Eltham Post Office until her death in 1928. A big improvement in communication was provided for Eltham residents when a telegraph office was established at the post office in 1877. During 1923 a manual telephone exchange was provided at Eltham, the first two subscribers being J.J. O’Connor and Eltham Police Station. In 1949 the manual exchange was replaced by an automatic exchange and there were some 150 subscribers. Following the death of postmistress Miss Anne Hunniford in 1928, B.M. Burgoyne was placed temporarily in charge of the office. In 1929, J. N. Burgoyne was appointed postmaster, and he in turn was succeeded by H. C. Burgoyne in 1951. The post office was moved to a new site in 1954, but continued under the charge of Mr Burgoyne. In January 1958 there was a further change of site when the post office was raised to official status and transferred to new premises in Main Rd. William Donoghue was acting postmaster when the new office was opened. In March 1958 Mr W.E. Tovey was appointed postmaster, followed by Douglas McG. Gilmour in 1959. William Donoghue was fully appointed in 1966 and Barry Reichelt followed in 1973, prior to the present postmaster, Peter Jolly in November 1982. Peter is a young man with 18 years' experience. He commenced his training as a postal clerk at the training school in Melbourne in 1968 and was promoted to postal clerk at the Brunswick Post Office in 1969. He was finally transferred as postmaster to Fawkner Post Office in 1980. He has been at Eltham Post Office for the past 2½ years. He is married with one child and lives in Montmorency. The Eltham Post Office employs a staff of 21, of whom seven are indoor staff, 12 are postmen and two are drivers. The postmen in Eltham have an uphill battle delivering mail because of the hilly terrain. Nine of the postmen deliver mail on motorbikes, and the two delivery vans are both four wheel drives. Eltham Post Office services basically a residential area, with deliveries to 5600 homes. This is growing at the rate of 600 homes every 18 months, i.e. about 32 homes per month. At the present rate we will need a new postman every 18 months.Digital file only - Digitised by EDHS from a scrapbook on loan from Beryl Bradbury (nee Stokes), daughter of Frank Stokes.anderson's creek, anne hunniford, b.m. burgoyne, barry reichelt, beryl bradbury (nee stokes) collection, eltham police station, eltham post office, eltham post office history, gold, h.c. burgoyne, j.j. o'connor, j.n. burgoyne, peter jolly, postmaster, telephone exchange, thomas hunniford, w.e. tovey, william donoghue

By the end of the nineteenth century, the firm of Edward Preston & Sons was founded in 1825, becoming one of England's leading makers of hand tools and in many ways a British counterpart to America's "Stanley" for its wide range of quality utilitarian tools at affordable prices. Edward Preston Sr. (1798–1883) was first listed as a plane-maker at 77 Lichfield Street in the Birmingham Directory of 1833, but later listings and advertisements assert that the business was started in 1825. Preston is likewise recorded as a plane-maker living with his family in Lichfield Street in the 1841 census, at which time his younger son Edward was 6 years old. Around 1850, his son Edward left school to join his father's business and is recorded in the 1851 census as a plane-maker at his father's address. He appears to have been quite a talented and resourceful young man, as he had later been able to start up his own "wood and brass spirit level manufacturing business at 97½ Lichfield Street by 1864. By 1866, Edward Jnr had added planes, routers, joiners, coach, gun, cabinet, and carpenters tools to his line, and the following year he moved his shop from his father's address and relocated to 26 Newton Street, before moving again to much larger premises at 22–24 Whittall Street. This location became known as the Whittall Works and later was the office and factory of Edward Preston & Sons, Ltd. In 1889 Edward Preston Jnr and his three sons were brought into the firm and the name was changed to Edward Preston & Sons, becoming Edward Preston & Sons Ltd on incorporation in 1898. Part of the firm's output was a healthy line of malleable and gun-metal planes and patent adjustable iron smoothers, shoulder planes, bull-nose, and block planes - a range that was expanded in later years. The 1901 catalog shows several styles of planes that were unique to the Preston brand, along with the usual styles which had already been set by other makers. The death of Edward Preston Jnr was reported in the Lichfield Mercury of 26 September 1913. "Mr. Preston was decided of an innovative turn of mind," the newspaper wrote, "as many of the machines in use at his works, as well as of the tools produced were the invention of himself and his three sons, who now manage the business." The report noted that at the time of his death, the business was carried on at Whittall Works, Cheston Street, Aston, Birmingham. Falling on hard times, the firm of Edward Preston & Sons was sold to the Birmingham firm of John Rabone & Sons in 1932, and shortly thereafter manufacturing rights to some of the Preston range of planes were sold to the Sheffield firm of C. & J. Hampton, who would later merge with the Record Tool Company. Some of the Preston planes were directly added to the Record line by the Hampton firm, while others were modified or discontinued altogether. Generally, all Preston wooden planes are stamped on the front of the plane, the shape, size, and character type of the stamp indicating the age of the plane. On some metal planes, all the parts were stamped with a number or symbol during manufacture. This number was used to re-assemble the parts following a batch process. Not all Preston tools are trade-marked clearly. Early shoulder, rebate, chariot planes, and chamfer rebates commonly appear without trademarks but may have assembly numbers. The "E P" trade-mark was already in use by 1882. The trade-mark "Preston" also appears on some later tools that were manufactured in Sheffield, England. These are generally smoothing planes and appear modern and very similar in construction to other modern manufacturers' planes.The item gives a snapshot of one of England's premier tool manufacturing companies at a time when significant industrial changes were occurring in manufacturing and business structures in the World that were beginning to affect social changes.Ogee wood moulding plane Maker E Preston & Sons No 5 (Owner A T Nipe) also has A's stamped on ends and the No 7flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village

Alistair Knox Park, an oasis of peace and beauty. Covered under National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Landscape Significance and Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p173 It is hard to imagine that the Alistair Knox Park, an oasis of peace and beauty beside busy Main Road, Eltham, was once the township’s rubbish dump. It was only in the 1970s that the tip was transformed into this beautiful six hectare space, which later earned it a National Trust Landscape classification. Before its life as a dump, the area was used for small farms. Thanks largely to the foresight and efforts of local environmental builder Alistair Knox, the park was designed sympathetically with the character of the wider Eltham landscape. Then, appropriately, the park was named after Knox, who was an Eltham Shire Councillor from 1971 to 1975 and Shire President in 1975. The park designers were four major forces in the urban bush landscape garden –Knox, landscape designer Gordon Ford, artist Peter Glass and landscaper Ivan Stranger.1 The National Trust citation for the park, originally called Eltham Town Park, includes the Eltham railway trestle bridge and the Shillinglaw Cottage. The citation states ‘the semi-natural setting of the parkland provides a landscape which is evocative of the history of the area’. Manna Gums (Eucalyptus viminalis) and Candlebarks (Eucalyptus rubida) are significant features. Most of the park’s construction was directed by Bob Grant, Superintendent of the Parks and Gardens Department for the Eltham Shire Council. First plantings occurred in Arbour Week in 1973, then the lake and botanic area were completed in 1975, with Federal Government funding, and the toilet block in 1978. Bounded by the Eltham railway line, Panther Place, Main Road, Bridge and Susan Streets, the park is in a valley about a kilometre wide overlooked by steep hills at the east and west. The Diamond Creek flows through it and the picturesque historic timber trestle railway bridge edges the north. Informal plantings of Australian indigenous and native species in open and undulating grassed settings blend with the natural landscape of the Diamond Creek to the west. The bush-style plants, particularly around the creek, balance with open lawns, paths and a cascade flowing from a small lake to another below. A footbridge over the creek leads to the park’s west. The park includes an adventure playground and barbecue areas. The park stands on part of the land bought from the Crown in 1851 by Josiah Holloway, who subdivided it into allotments and which he called Little Eltham. Most of the land was subdivided into residential lots, but the creek valley, on which the park stands, was subdivided into farm-size lots, used mainly for orchards and grazing. One of the earliest owners was John Hicks Petty, who in 1874 bought a plot from Holloway. Other families who owned properties in that area, included Rees, Clark, Waterfall, Graham, Hill and Morant.2 In 1901 the railway was built through the area. Jock Read, an Eltham resident since around 1920, remembers several farms in the 1920s and ’30s that occupied the site of today’s park. A poultry farm, which extended from present day Panther Place, was owned by the Gahan family. Next to that farm was another for grazing cattle owned by Jack Carrucan. Beside this was land owned by John Lyon. A doctor lived beside this, and at the north-west corner of Bridge Street and Main Road stood a memorial to the soldiers who died in World War One, which was later moved to the RSL site. Mr Read also remembers other farms and orchards west of the creek In the early 1960s the Eltham Council began buying these farms and in the late 1960s turned the areas east of the Diamond Creek into a garbage tip. When this was filled above the creek’s flood plain, the tip was moved to the west of the creek.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 knox park, eltham

The tent model mentioned in the letters was displayed in the Ballarat School of Mines Museum. During the 1960s it was transferred to the Ballarat Historical Society. Two handwritten letters on paper with black mourning edge written by Walter M. Hitchcock to the Ballarat School of Mines, and another written by Walter's brother George M. Hitchcock.Letter transcription follow: Letter from Walter M. Hitchcock regarding the death of James Oddie and early gold mining at Ballarat, 1910 and 1911 48 The Memorial Hall Farringdon St London Dec1/10 The Secretary Ballarat Museum Dear Sir, I am just now sending you this line, i anticipation of further correspondence later on, simply to forward you a Post Card of the 1st mining tent erected 1851 on the site of he then newly proclaimed Township of Ballarat, which, as the sole survivor of the party who built the original, I have had the pleasure in making, and have decided to present it to your museum, Sir Jno Lasenor out Agent General for Victoria came to a Bazaar recently held in London. where I had it on view in the museum from 3 days, - and desired I would allow its [ ? ] exhibited in the first large window of the beautiful new building of the Victoria Agency situate in the Strand. It is there for the past few days and he may wish it to remain a week or two longer, I know of no other exhibition of it to delay it being packed and shipped to my relatives in Geelong (Mr [?] Bright of Hitchock's Firm) who may wish to show it in one of their windows before forwarding it to your museum - I have had an itemised pane glass case made for it with drop down end and [?} it stands on a plateau of moss, to represent grass 32 x 13 x 13 high and chimney 14 1/2 - the case is made 34 x 26 x 20 high inside - I shall have it very carefully packed - tent emptied tools, beds, &c &c in separate packing and insured for 50 pounds - I will send you full details later on. I hope and believe your President will accept it in due time Meantime believe me to be very truly Cat Walter Hitchcock G.F.B. 48 The Memorial Hall Farringdon St London March 15th 1911 The Secretary Ballarat School of Mines Dear Sir, Thanks for your letter received last week – I have unaccountably mislaid it, so cannot address you personally, shall no doubt find it among office papers. The model is being fetched today from Victorian Agent General’s (Sir John [Lavernor?] office window in the Strand where many thousands, he tells me, have stopped in passing to see it (their first peep of Ballaarat). It will be on view at Blackheath (Kent) for a week, then packed and shipped without further delay. I shall enclose in the glass case (which is 26 x 34 x 16 in high) some spare minced moss and gas (smoke) in case in transit the plateau suffers by shaking (though it is well glued down). All the tools, mining appliances, cradle, windlass, &c will be separately packed enclosed – which you can easily place in respective positions. HRH Prince of Wales has graciously accepted a photo of it – and in my letter to him when sending it for his acceptance I said – as he would probably ere long visit Australia as did his grandfather and father, which ought to (and certainly will) include at least a day or two in seeing your beautiful City, and also something of your mines &c instead of the hurried visit of his father (2 hours) when he, as Duke of York, unveiled a statue to the memory of those slain in the sad Boer War, which now is admitted by almost everybody to have been a big political mistake, - though in the future with England’s present wise policy towards that country it will prove for Africa’s welfare. It may interest you to know that when I ascertained that Geelong was not to be visited by the Royal Pair – I went up to St James’s Palace by appointed time the Duke’s private Secy Sir Arthur Bigge – taking with me a specially illustrated paper issued in Melb. showing many pictures of the beauties and industries of Geelong – Sir Arthur was impressed but said all the arrangements for the Royal stay in Victoria (10 days) were made locally, by Lord Hopetoun and collegues and committee, and were practically closed – which meant that only a brief trip to Ballarat to uncover the memorial was intended outside Melbourne. Perhaps if we were Melbourne residents we should have succumbed to the prevailing spirit of selfishness – forgetting (or trying to forget) that there are many beauty spots in Victoria and centres of great interest - Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo, &c that ought to have been visited instead of Melbourne only. Finding Sir Arthur favorably impressed about Geelong I thanked him and returned to City work again. I at once called to Geelong whose mayor and friends had been twice unsuccessful in trying for the Melbourne functions programme being altered to include a visit to Geelong and lovely spots in the Western District, reporting my interview with Sir A B and his favourable reception of my representations, but that any alteration to the programme of engagements during the Royal visit must be made locally and by the local authorities. This had the desired success for on receipt of my message the Geelong mayor and colleagues again reopened the question and went to Melbourne, resulting in a concession (but what an altogether inadequate one) and they graciously ? consented to the train, on its way with the Duke and Duchess to your city, to stop at the Geelong stn (15 minutes) and so it came about that by a hasty local effort, 3,000 school children, and not a few of the leading people including the Mayor &c were gathered to welcome them in Geelong. The National anthem being sung, an Address read and presented and kindly replied to. Now Ballarat should doubtless has influence. See to it when our P. Of Wales visits Victoria – an unselfish ¬ programme is fixed up – and HRH afforded ample opportunity of visiting leisurely your city, Geelong, Bendigo and other centres of beauty and importance. The Prince himself will be the gainer by such an equitable and enlightened programme, - and come back with all the more favourable views of the marvellous development ever since our family first settled in Geelong in 1850. A far preferable result of such a visit than night after night having Melbourne Banquets and the visiting of its undoubted attractions - whilst all the rest of the State remained unvisited. Such an official mistake must not be made again. I will write you again, stating name of steamer of which the model is shipped and date of departure – it is firmly built on a backing of 3/8 in oak tall uprights so through the 7/8 in plateau and am entrusting the packing be very careful. I expressed firm – so that except possibly any breakage in glass case – it should reach you in due time all right. The top of case will be screwed so that it can be readily removed temporarily to enable my [ ? ] firm to show it in one of their windows. Believe me Yours very truly Captn Walter M. Hitchcock My brother will deliver it on my a/c – all carriage paid. Mt very kind regards to my friend since 1850 Jas Oddie. University of Ballarat Historical Collection Cat. No. 8133.3 & .4 Letter from Walter M. Hitchcock regarding the death of James Oddie and early gold mining at Ballarat, 1911 48 The Memorial Hall Farringdon St London April 20th 1911 My Dear Sir, It is with no ordinary feeling of regret that I received the tidings of the death of my good friend, your fellow citizen for many years, Mr James Oddie. Living at Geelong from March 1850 I came to know him there as carrying on a foundry business in Ashby. With the discovery of gold at Ballarat started off almost of the working people, as well as of all other classes of the male population. Mr Oddie arrived in Ballarat I believe on or about September 1st 1851. My three comrades and I arrived October 1st 1851 – among the many thousands soon gathered within a mile or so of Golden Point – my friend Oddie and I often met. I returning to Geelong after a year mining – my friend on the other hand remaining at Ballarat ever since – a marvellous record, and I am sure his life has been one of unique value to your City in many ways, - his age (87) naturally prepared me for his call home – and only two mails before the news came I received from him on of his kindly chatty letters in which amongst other things – he referred with pleasure to having received from me two 10 x 12 photos – one being of my model and that he was arranging to have it placed in a shop window in your city. I am interested in the fact of your having known each of my three comrades of 1851/52. It was J.M. Garrett and I who got permission to conduct public Sunday morning service in their large Marquee – used all the week for issue of Licenses in the absence of any church buildings, and it being on wet Sundays impossible to have services as usual under the trees – Ballarat then was more like a Gentleman’s Park – than bush country – but the axe soon did its work – and all were felled for our cooking, and hencewith to make our kindling etc. Shafting of holes not being at first done because too shallow – our deepest (at Eureka) was only 115 ft. Bendigo I hear had now mines of 4,000 ft in depth (deeper than our tin or coal mines here). I fortunately have, in excellent state of preservation, my last of 12 licenses dated October 1 1852 and have recently purchased here a Miner’s Right dated 1864, to that when explaining on matters re Gold Licensing I can show sample of each. With kind regards Believe me Yours sincerely Walter M. Hitchcock Geelong June 20/11 Dear Sir, By rail to day through Messrs Bannister I send the model of miner’s tent packed in a case 50 donated by my brother Captain Walter M. Hitchcock of London. This model was made by my brother and represents the tent he worked in on the Ballarat Gold Fields in the year 1851 or 2. In a separate parcel a few extras omitted from the case. Please send me receipts in duplicate, one for my brother, the other for the Customs, Geelong, as being donated to your institution, after some little correspondence it was admitted [??] any payment for duty. You probably have my brother’s address and would like to acknowledge its arrival, direct. I hope it is in good order. I did not open it for show in Geelong, as there would be less risk of breakage on repacking. With kind remembrances. I am Yours Faithfully Geo. M. Hitchcock. A Mr G. F. B. Sharick who is living near my home called in to see my model – he said he knew FM [Fred Martell] and was lately at Ballaratballarat school of mines, frederick martell, fred martell, james oddie, walter m hitchcock, walter hitchcock, f m garratt, george hitchcock, hitchcock, golden point, gold discovery, j m garrett, gold license, j.m. garrett, t.m. hall, george m. hitchcock, f.m. garratt, walter m. hitchcock

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 4 x 5 inch black and white negative of original colour sketchculla hill, sweeey's cottage

This Bank Manager’s Diary is one of a set of five Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool branch, diaries that span the years 1895 to 1899. A Butt was Manager from 1895-1904 and J R McCleary was Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900. Either or both of these men could have filled in the bank’s Diary. This diary cost five shillings (5//-). Each of the diaries in the set was manufactured by the famous Melbourne stationers, Sands & Mc Dougall Limited. The business was established as a printing partnership in 1851 by John Sands and his brother-in-law Thomas Kenny, and in 1860 Dugald McDougal joined them. The firm was re-named Sands & McDougall a year later after Kenny retired. The company was renowned as stationers, booksellers, printers and account book manufacturers and by the 1870s was one of the largest businesses in Australia. The Bank of Australasia was incorporated by Royal Charter of England in March 1834. It had its Australian beginning on 14th December 1835, opening in Sydney. The Acting Superintendent of the bank at that time was David Charters McArthur. He was Superintendent from 1867 to 1876. The Melbourne branch opened on 28th August 1838 in a two-roomed brick cottage on the north side of Little Collins Street. By 1879 the bank had been upgraded to a magnificent two-storey building on the corners of Collins and Queens Streets, with the entry on Collins Street In 1951 the Bank of Australasia amalgamated with the Union Bank to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank, now known as the ANZ. Then in 1970, the ANZ merged with both the ES&A and the London Bank of Australia to form the ANZ Banking Group Limited. The ANZ Banking Group Ltd kindly donated a variety of historic items from the Bank of Australasia. BANK of AUSTRALASIA, WARRNAMBOOL – In 1854 Warrnambool had two banks, the Union Bank and the Bank of Australasia. Later, completely different bank businesses opened; in 1867 the National Bank of Australasia, then in 1875 the Colonial Bank of Australasia. The original Warrnambool branch of the Bank of Australasia was established in July 1854, and operated from a leased cottage on Merri Street, close to Liebig Street. The bank next bought a stone building previously erected by drapers Cramond & Dickson on the corner of Timor and Gibson Streets. Samuel Hannaford was a teller and then Manager at the Warrnambool branch from 1855 to 1856 and the Warrnambool Council chose that bank for its dealings during 1856-57. In 1859 Roberts & Co. was awarded the contract to build the new Bank of Australasia branch for the sum of £3,000; the firm built the Warrnambool Post Office in 1856 and purchased land in Timor Street in 1858. The land was on a sand hill on the northeast corner of Timor and Kepler Streets and had been bought in 1855 by investor James Cust. The new building opened on May 21, 1860. The bank continued to operate there until 1951 when it merged with the Union Bank to form the ANZ Bank, which continued operating from its Liebig Street building. Warrnambool City Council purchased the former Bank of Australasia building in 1971 and renovated it, then on 3rd December 1973 it was officially opened as the Art Gallery by Cr. Harold Stephenson and Gallery Director John Welsh. The Gallery transferred to the purpose-built building in Liebig Street in 1986 and the old bank building is now the Gallery club. Staff at the Bank of Australasia in Warrnambool included the following men but others were also involved: Samuel Hannaford, Teller then Manager from 1855-1856; Hawkins, Manager in 1856, W H Palmer, Manager from January 1857 until November 1869 when the Teller Basil Spence was promoted to Manager; H B Chomley, Manager from April 1873 and still there in 1886; A Butt, Manager in 1895-1904; J R McCleary Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900; A Kirk, Manager 1904; J Moore, staff until his transfer to Bendigo in December 1908; J S Bath was Manager until 1915; C C Cox, Manager until April 1923; Richard C Stanley, Manager 1923 to April 1928. The set of diaries has significance through its association with the Bank of Australasia. The early Australian bank was established in 1834 by Royal Charter and opened in Sydney, Australia, in Sydney in 1835. The bank had many Australian offices in November 1877, particularly on the east and south coasts. Victoria had 45 per cent of all Offices. The set of diaries is locally significant for its association with the Warrnambool Bank of Australasia, which was established in 1854. It was Warrnambool Council’s first bank. The bank continued to operate until the organisation's merger in 1951 when it became the ANZ Bank Group today. The Bank was an integral part of the growth of local commerce and the community.Bank Manager's Diary, 1895. One of a set of five diaries of the Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool, from 1895 to 1899. The front endpper has a pencil inscription and printed label attached. Manufactured by Sands McDougall Limited, Melbourne.Printed on spine "DIARY / 1895" Printed on label in blue ink "NO. __ Date __ 18 __ / Sands & McDougall Limited / Manufacturing Stationers / 365 Collins Street / Melbourne" "IN RE-ORDERING THIS BOOK IT IS NECESSARY THE NO. & DATE ONLY" In pencil "R- - - - - 5/-" [Five shillings]flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, bank of australasia, boa, union bank, australia & new zealand bank, anz bank, commerce, david charters mcarthur, d c mcarthur, bank of australasia warrnambool, sands & mcdougall, diary, set of 5 diaries 1895-1899, 1895, samuel hannaford, w h palmer, basil spence, h b chomley, a butt, j r mccleary, a kirk, j moore, j s bath, c c cox, richard c stanley

This Bank Manager’s Diary is one of a set of five Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool branch, diaries that span the years 1895 to 1899. A Butt was Manager from 1895-1904 and J R McCleary was Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900. Either or both of these men could have filled in the bank’s Diary. Each of the diaries in the set was manufactured by the famous Melbourne stationers, Sands & Mc Dougall Limited. The business was established as a printing partnership in 1851 by John Sands and his brother-in-law Thomas Kenny, and in 1860 Dugald McDougal joined them. The firm was re-named Sands & McDougall a year later after Kenny retired. The company was renowned as stationers, booksellers, printers and account book manufacturers and by the 1870s was one of the largest businesses in Australia. The Bank of Australasia was incorporated by Royal Charter of England in March 1834. It had its Australian beginning on 14th December 1835, opening in Sydney. The Acting Superintendent of the bank at that time was David Charters McArthur. He was Superintendent from 1867 to 1876. The Melbourne branch opened on 28th August 1838 in a two-roomed brick cottage on the north side of Little Collins Street. By 1879 the bank had been upgraded to a magnificent two-storey building on the corners of Collins and Queens Streets, with the entry on Collins Street In 1951 the Bank of Australasia amalgamated with the Union Bank to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank, now known as the ANZ. Then in 1970, the ANZ merged with both the ES&A and the London Bank of Australia to form the ANZ Banking Group Limited. The ANZ Banking Group Ltd kindly donated a variety of historic items from the Bank of Australasia. BANK of AUSTRALASIA, WARRNAMBOOL – In 1854 Warrnambool had two banks, the Union Bank and the Bank of Australasia. Later, completely different bank businesses opened; in 1867 the National Bank of Australasia, then in 1875 the Colonial Bank of Australasia. The original Warrnambool branch of the Bank of Australasia was established in July 1854, and operated from a leased cottage on Merri Street, close to Liebig Street. The bank next bought a stone building previously erected by drapers Cramond & Dickson on the corner of Timor and Gibson Streets. Samuel Hannaford was a teller and then Manager at the Warrnambool branch from 1855 to 1856 and the Warrnambool Council chose that bank for its dealings during 1856-57. In 1859 Roberts & Co. was awarded the contract to build the new Bank of Australasia branch for the sum of £3,000; the firm built the Warrnambool Post Office in 1856 and purchased land in Timor Street in 1858. The land was on a sand hill on the northeast corner of Timor and Kepler Streets and had been bought in 1855 by investor James Cust. The new building opened on May 21, 1860. The bank continued to operate there until 1951 when it merged with the Union Bank to form the ANZ Bank, which continued operating from its Liebig Street building. Warrnambool City Council purchased the former Bank of Australasia building in 1971 and renovated it, then on 3rd December 1973 it was officially opened as the Art Gallery by Cr. Harold Stephenson and Gallery Director John Welsh. The Gallery transferred to the purpose-built building in Liebig Street in 1986 and the old bank building is now the Gallery club. Staff at the Bank of Australasia in Warrnambool included the following men but others were also involved: Samuel Hannaford, Teller then Manager from 1855-1856; Hawkins, Manager in 1856, W H Palmer, Manager from January 1857 until November 1869 when the Teller Basil Spence was promoted to Manager; H B Chomley, Manager from April 1873 and still there in 1886; A Butt, Manager in 1895-1904; J R McCleary Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900; A Kirk, Manager 1904; J Moore, staff until his transfer to Bendigo in December 1908; J S Bath was Manager until 1915; C C Cox, Manager until April 1923; Richard C Stanley, Manager 1923 to April 1928. The set of diaries has significance through its association with the Bank of Australasia. The early Australian bank was established in 1834 by Royal Charter and opened in Sydney, Australia, in Sydney in 1835. The bank had many Australian offices in November 1877, particularly on the east and south coasts. Victoria had 45 per cent of all Offices. The set of diaries is locally significant for its association with the Warrnambool Bank of Australasia, which was established in 1854. It was Warrnambool Council’s first bank. The bank continued to operate until the organisation's merger in 1951 when it became the ANZ Bank Group today. The Bank was an integral part of the growth of local commerce and the community.Bank Manager's Diary, 1896. One of a set of five diaries of the Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool, from 1885 to 1899. Printed label attached on front endpaper. Manufactured by Sands McDougall Limited, Melbourne.Printed on spine "DIARY / 1896" Printed on label in blue ink "NO a 41969 Date 3 7 1895/ Sands & McDougall Limited / Manufacturing Stationers / 365 Collins Street / Melbourne" "IN RE-ORDERING THIS BOOK IT IS NECESSARY THE NO. & DATE ONLY"flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, bank of australasia, boa, union bank, australia & new zealand bank, anz bank, commerce, david charters mcarthur, d c mcarthur, bank of australasia warrnambool, sands & mcdougall, diary, set of 5 diaries 1895-1899, 1896, samuel hannaford, w h palmer, basil spence, h b chomley, a butt, j r mccleary, a kirk, j moore, j s bath, c c cox, richard c stanley

This Bank Manager’s Diary is one of a set of five Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool branch, diaries that span the years 1895 to 1899. A Butt was Manager from 1895-1904 and J R McCleary was Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900. Either or both of these men could have filled in the bank’s Diary. Each of the diaries in the set was manufactured by the famous Melbourne stationers, Sands & Mc Dougall Limited. The business was established as a printing partnership in 1851 by John Sands and his brother-in-law Thomas Kenny, and in 1860 Dugald McDougal joined them. The firm was re-named Sands & McDougall a year later after Kenny retired. The company was renowned as stationers, booksellers, printers and account book manufacturers and by the 1870s was one of the largest businesses in Australia. The Bank of Australasia was incorporated by Royal Charter of England in March 1834. It had its Australian beginning on 14th December 1835, opening in Sydney. The Acting Superintendent of the bank at that time was David Charters McArthur. He was Superintendent from 1867 to 1876. The Melbourne branch opened on 28th August 1838 in a two-roomed brick cottage on the north side of Little Collins Street. By 1879 the bank had been upgraded to a magnificent two-storey building on the corners of Collins and Queens Streets, with the entry on Collins Street In 1951 the Bank of Australasia amalgamated with the Union Bank to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank, now known as the ANZ. Then in 1970, the ANZ merged with both the ES&A and the London Bank of Australia to form the ANZ Banking Group Limited. The ANZ Banking Group Ltd kindly donated a variety of historic items from the Bank of Australasia. BANK of AUSTRALASIA, WARRNAMBOOL – In 1854 Warrnambool had two banks, the Union Bank and the Bank of Australasia. Later, completely different bank businesses opened; in 1867 the National Bank of Australasia, then in 1875 the Colonial Bank of Australasia. The original Warrnambool branch of the Bank of Australasia was established in July 1854, and operated from a leased cottage on Merri Street, close to Liebig Street. The bank next bought a stone building previously erected by drapers Cramond & Dickson on the corner of Timor and Gibson Streets. Samuel Hannaford was a teller and then Manager at the Warrnambool branch from 1855 to 1856 and the Warrnambool Council chose that bank for its dealings during 1856-57. In 1859 Roberts & Co. was awarded the contract to build the new Bank of Australasia branch for the sum of £3,000; the firm built the Warrnambool Post Office in 1856 and purchased land in Timor Street in 1858. The land was on a sand hill on the northeast corner of Timor and Kepler Streets and had been bought in 1855 by investor James Cust. The new building opened on May 21, 1860. The bank continued to operate there until 1951 when it merged with the Union Bank to form the ANZ Bank, which continued operating from its Liebig Street building. Warrnambool City Council purchased the former Bank of Australasia building in 1971 and renovated it, then on 3rd December 1973 it was officially opened as the Art Gallery by Cr. Harold Stephenson and Gallery Director John Welsh. The Gallery transferred to the purpose-built building in Liebig Street in 1986 and the old bank building is now the Gallery club. Staff at the Bank of Australasia in Warrnambool included the following men but others were also involved: Samuel Hannaford, Teller then Manager from 1855-1856; Hawkins, Manager in 1856, W H Palmer, Manager from January 1857 until November 1869 when the Teller Basil Spence was promoted to Manager; H B Chomley, Manager from April 1873 and still there in 1886; A Butt, Manager in 1895-1904; J R McCleary Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900; A Kirk, Manager 1904; J Moore, staff until his transfer to Bendigo in December 1908; J S Bath was Manager until 1915; C C Cox, Manager until April 1923; Richard C Stanley, Manager 1923 to April 1928. The set of diaries has significance through its association with the Bank of Australasia. The early Australian bank was established in 1834 by Royal Charter and opened in Sydney, Australia, in Sydney in 1835. The bank had many Australian offices in November 1877, particularly on the east and south coasts. Victoria had 45 per cent of all Offices. The set of diaries is locally significant for its association with the Warrnambool Bank of Australasia, which was established in 1854. It was Warrnambool Council’s first bank. The bank continued to operate until the organisation's merger in 1951 when it became the ANZ Bank Group today. The Bank was an integral part of the growth of local commerce and the community.Bank Manager's Diary, 1897. One of a set of five diaries of the Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool, from 1885 to 1899. Printed label attached on front endpaper. Manufactured by Sands McDougall Limited, Melbourne.Printed on spine "DIARY / 1897" Printed on label in blue ink "NO. __ Date __ 18 __ / Sands & McDougall Limited / Manufacturing Stationers / 365 Collins Street / Melbourne" "IN RE-ORDERING THIS BOOK IT IS NECESSARY THE NO. & DATE ONLY"flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, bank of australasia, boa, union bank, australia & new zealand bank, anz bank, commerce, david charters mcarthur, d c mcarthur, bank of australasia warrnambool, sands & mcdougall, diary, set of 5 diaries 1895-1899, 1897, samuel hannaford, w h palmer, basil spence, h b chomley, a butt, j r mccleary, a kirk, j moore, j s bath, c c cox, richard c stanley

This Bank Manager’s Diary is one of a set of five Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool branch, diaries that span the years 1895 to 1899. A Butt was Manager from 1895-1904 and J R McCleary was Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900. Either or both of these men could have filled in the bank’s Diary. Each of the diaries in the set was manufactured by the famous Melbourne stationers, Sands & Mc Dougall Limited. The business was established as a printing partnership in 1851 by John Sands and his brother-in-law Thomas Kenny, and in 1860 Dugald McDougal joined them. The firm was re-named Sands & McDougall a year later after Kenny retired. The company was renowned as stationers, booksellers, printers and account book manufacturers and by the 1870s was one of the largest businesses in Australia. The Bank of Australasia was incorporated by Royal Charter of England in March 1834. It had its Australian beginning on 14th December 1835, opening in Sydney. The Acting Superintendent of the bank at that time was David Charters McArthur. He was Superintendent from 1867 to 1876. The Melbourne branch opened on 28th August 1838 in a two-roomed brick cottage on the north side of Little Collins Street. By 1879 the bank had been upgraded to a magnificent two-storey building on the corners of Collins and Queens Streets, with the entry on Collins Street In 1951 the Bank of Australasia amalgamated with the Union Bank to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank, now known as the ANZ. Then in 1970, the ANZ merged with both the ES&A and the London Bank of Australia to form the ANZ Banking Group Limited. The ANZ Banking Group Ltd kindly donated a variety of historic items from the Bank of Australasia. BANK of AUSTRALASIA, WARRNAMBOOL – In 1854 Warrnambool had two banks, the Union Bank and the Bank of Australasia. Later, completely different bank businesses opened; in 1867 the National Bank of Australasia, then in 1875 the Colonial Bank of Australasia. The original Warrnambool branch of the Bank of Australasia was established in July 1854, and operated from a leased cottage on Merri Street, close to Liebig Street. The bank next bought a stone building previously erected by drapers Cramond & Dickson on the corner of Timor and Gibson Streets. Samuel Hannaford was a teller and then Manager at the Warrnambool branch from 1855 to 1856 and the Warrnambool Council chose that bank for its dealings during 1856-57. In 1859 Roberts & Co. was awarded the contract to build the new Bank of Australasia branch for the sum of £3,000; the firm built the Warrnambool Post Office in 1856 and purchased land in Timor Street in 1858. The land was on a sand hill on the northeast corner of Timor and Kepler Streets and had been bought in 1855 by investor James Cust. The new building opened on May 21, 1860. The bank continued to operate there until 1951 when it merged with the Union Bank to form the ANZ Bank, which continued operating from its Liebig Street building. Warrnambool City Council purchased the former Bank of Australasia building in 1971 and renovated it, then on 3rd December 1973 it was officially opened as the Art Gallery by Cr. Harold Stephenson and Gallery Director John Welsh. The Gallery transferred to the purpose-built building in Liebig Street in 1986 and the old bank building is now the Gallery club. Staff at the Bank of Australasia in Warrnambool included the following men but others were also involved: Samuel Hannaford, Teller then Manager from 1855-1856; Hawkins, Manager in 1856, W H Palmer, Manager from January 1857 until November 1869 when the Teller Basil Spence was promoted to Manager; H B Chomley, Manager from April 1873 and still there in 1886; A Butt, Manager in 1895-1904; J R McCleary Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900; A Kirk, Manager 1904; J Moore, staff until his transfer to Bendigo in December 1908; J S Bath was Manager until 1915; C C Cox, Manager until April 1923; Richard C Stanley, Manager 1923 to April 1928. The set of diaries has significance through its association with the Bank of Australasia. The early Australian bank was established in 1834 by Royal Charter and opened in Sydney, Australia, in Sydney in 1835. The bank had many Australian offices in November 1877, particularly on the east and south coasts. Victoria had 45 per cent of all Offices. The set of diaries is locally significant for its association with the Warrnambool Bank of Australasia, which was established in 1854. It was Warrnambool Council’s first bank. The bank continued to operate until the organisation's merger in 1951 when it became the ANZ Bank Group today. The Bank was an integral part of the growth of local commerce and the community.Bank Manager's Diary, 1898. One of a set of five diaries of the Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool, from 1885 to 1899. Handwritten inscription on a printed label attached on front endpaper. Manufactured by Sands McDougall Limited, Melbourne.Printed on spine "DIARY / 1898" Printed on label in blue ink "NO.a 08005_ Date 27 5 1887 / Sands & McDougall Limited / Manufacturing Stationers / 365 Collins Street / Melbourne" "IN RE-ORDERING THIS BOOK IT IS NECESSARY THE NO. & DATE ONLY"flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, bank of australasia, boa, union bank, australia & new zealand bank, anz bank, commerce, david charters mcarthur, d c mcarthur, bank of australasia warrnambool, sands & mcdougall, diary, set of 5 diaries 1895-1899, 1898, samuel hannaford, w h palmer, basil spence, h b chomley, a butt, j r mccleary, a kirk, j moore, j s bath, c c cox, richard c stanley

A quarry was transformed into the Blue Lake. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p179 The dramatic steep-sided Plenty Gorge lies along the divide of two geological areas, and separates the Nillumbik Shire and the City of Whittlesea. On the Nillumbik side are undulating hills and sedimentary rock, and in Whittlesea, lies a basalt plain formed by volcanic action up to two million years ago. This provides the Plenty Gorge Park with diverse vegetation and habitats, making it one of Greater Melbourne’s most important refuges for threatened and significant species. The park, established in 1986, consists of around 1350 hectares, and extends 11 kilometres along the Plenty River, from Greensborough to Mernda. It provides a wildlife corridor for around 500 native plant and 280 animal species.1 The area’s plentiful food and water attracted the Wurundjeri Aboriginal people and then European settlers. By 1837 squatters had claimed large runs of land for their sheep and cattle. The Plenty Valley was among the first in the Port Phillip District to be settled - mainly in the less heavily timbered west - and was proclaimed a settled district in 1841.2 But by the late 1880s, the settlers’ extensive land clearing for animal grazing, then agriculture, depleted the Wurundjeri’s traditional food sources, which helped to drive them away. Many Wurundjeri artefacts remain (now government protected), and so far 57 sites have been identified in the park, including scarred trees, burial areas and stone artefacts. Pioneer life could be very hard because of isolation, flooding, bushfires and bushrangers. Following the Black Thursday bushfires of 1851, basalt was quarried to build more fire-resistant homes. Gold discoveries in the early 1850s swelled the population, particularly around Smugglers Gully; but food production made more of an impact. In the late 1850s wheat production supplanted grazing. In the 1860s the government made small holdings available to poorer settlers. These had the greatest effect on the district, particularly in Doreen and Yarrambat, where orchards were established from the 1880s to 1914. Links with a prominent early family are the remains of Stuchbery Farm, by the river’s edge bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La Trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. The Stuchberys moved to the valley in 1890, and the family still lives in the area. In 1890, Alfred and Ada first lived in a tent where four children were born, then Alfred built the house and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden, and developed a dairy. The family belonged to the local Methodist and tennis communities. Their grandson Walter, opened the Flying Scotsman Model Railway Museum in Yarrambat, which his widow, Vi, continues to run. Wal was also the Yarrambat CFA Captain for 22 years until 1987. Walter sold 24 hectares in 1976 for development - now Vista Court - and in 1990, the remaining 22.6 hectares for the park. Remaining are an early stone dairy and remnants of a stone barn, a pig sty and a well.3 Until it was destroyed by fire in 2003, a slab hut stood on the Happy Hollow Farm site, at the southern end of the park. The hut is thought to have been built in the Depression around 1893. This was a rare and late example of a slab hut with a domestic orchard close to Melbourne. Emmet Watmough and his family first occupied the hut, followed by a succession of families, until the Bell family bought it around 1948. There they led a subsistence lifestyle for 50 years, despite encroaching Melbourne suburbia.4 The Yellow Gum Recreation Area includes the Blue Lake, coloured turquoise at certain times of the year. Following the 1957 bushfires, this area was quarried by Reid Quarries Pty Ltd for Melbourne’s first skyscrapers, then by Boral Australia. However in the early 1970s water began seeping into the quarry forming the Blue Lake and the quarry was closed. The State Government bought the site in 1997 and opened it as a park in 1999.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, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Captain Charles Ferguson was born in Scotland in 1813. He was the Master of the "Rajah" from 1838 to 1850 on voyages from England to Australia and vice versa. He became the First Chief Harbour Master for the port of Melbourne in 1852 after being the first Harbour Master and Water Police Officer in Geelong for 12 months. On the 5th of April 1841, the Rajah sailed with James Donovan M.D. as Surgeon Superintendent, and the Rajah sailed from Woolwich with 180 female convicts. The Rajah arrived on the 19th of July in Hobart, with 179 females (one died during the voyage) and 10 children. Miss Kezia Elizabeth Hayter was the matron on board. On page 28 of the "Sailing directions for Port Phillip, in the colony of Victoria including the ports of Melbourne and Geelong", a mention is made of the Mariner's Hospital and Floating Church soon to be established. There were discussions to built the hospital in Williamstown but instead the Government decided to build it in Melbourne. The Harbour Master and a commiittee decided to use the water police hulk, Emily, left unsold in 1856, to create a floating church: the Bethel was open in July 1857 with Reverend Kerr Johnston as Chaplain. Latrobe wrote a letter to Captain Cole in 1869, a few months after learning his death : "To Captain George Ward Cole † [from a draft in another’s hand] Clapham House, Lewes, Sussex, January 28th, 1869. My dear Captain Cole, Last mail will have taken out the sad intelligence of the death of our excellent old friend, Captain Ferguson. This will have been a terrible blow to his children and to his friends in the colony, who may have held reason to expect his early return to his home, with a not unreasonable prospect of ultimate restoration to health and activity. In the course of last October I went up to town with one of my children, mainly with the purpose of finding my way to Pinner, where he and Mrs. Ferguson were staying with an intimate friend. I found him in excellent health and spirits, and enjoying the prospect of a speeding resumption of the service to which he had devoted his best days, and upon the furtherance of which his entire energy was still directed. A week or two later Captain and Mrs. Ferguson went to Dover for change of air, and being still under the impression received from the advisers by whom they had been guided during their residence at a hydropathic establishment at Matlock, felt encouraged to plan almost immediate return to the colony by the Jerusalem early in December. However, certain misgivings in the mind of a medical gentleman, then in England, under whose care Captain Ferguson had at one time placed himself in Williamtown, led them to consider it judicious before departure to take the advice of some surgeon of eminence in London. Accordingly they came up to town at the close of November. The first London practitioners they consulted shook their heads, and advised consultation with Sir Wm. Ferguson. The result was that amputation, without loss of time, was pronounced necessary. The rest is soon told. He received the painful intelligence with calmness and full resignation to God's will, and underwent the operation at King's College Hospital with exemplary firmness and Courage on the 28th of November. Perfect success seemingly attended it, and there seemed, humanly speaking, to be every prospect of a prompt cure and early convalescence; everything seemed in his favour. A few days later, however, all was clouded by symptoms of hospital fever (pyoe æm ia). This resisted all control, and finally carried him off on the 27th of December, just one month after the operation. He had lived a Christian life, and his death was the peaceful and resigned death of a Christian. It was a melancholy satisfaction to me to be able to join a few friends in following his remains to their resting place in one of the outlying London cemeteries on the last day of the year. You know Mrs Ferguson well, and will be prepared to hear me say that her whole conduct and demeanour throughout this period of suspense and bitter trial has been worthy of her high character and steadfast principle. Come what will, and happen what may, I have the fullest conviction that neither the widow nor the children will be forsaken, however doubtful and clouded the future may appear, in consequence of the irreparable loss which, they have sustained. And now, dear Captain Cole, it is possible that you may already have heard all this from other sources, but I have dictated it to you under strong impulse, for I feel assured that there is no member of the community in which you live who will more sincerely deplore the loss of Captain Ferguson on private grounds; at the same time that there is no one who, from long acquaintance with his official character and services, will be in a better position to estimate their real value or the loss which the colony has sustained. The circumstances in which Captain Ferguson's family are left not only demands the utmost display of sympathy and interest on the part of friends, but may call for decided and prompt action; therefore I cannot rest satisfied without discharging what I consider my duty, and seeking to strengthen your hands as far as I may in bringing the character of his long services before the existing colonial authorities. Of his private career previous to his entering the service of the Colonial Government in 1851 nothing need be said. Captain Ferguson was appointed as the Harbour Master at Geelong in April, 1851 – a few months before the separation of the colony from New South Wales. He there did excellent service in a variety of ways calculated to advance the interests of the port, and to introduce www.latrobesociety.org.au 27 order, where, from circumstances, but little order had hitherto prevailed. His was the first appointment of this class in that locality. The separation of the colony from New South Wales took place in the month of July following. Shortly after, the late Captain Bunbury resigned the Harbour Mastership of Port Phillip. Captain Ferguson was at once (February, 1852) appointed to succeed him, and from that time performed all duties of Chief Harbour Master of the colony. The previous year (May 1851) the first gold discoveries in New South Wales had taken place, and in the month of August those of our colony followed. At the time of Captain Ferguson’s taking charge of the Port of Melbourne their influence had begun to be fully felt, and in no department more seriously than in that of the Harbour Master. This is no place for statistical details, but they must bear me out in reminding you of a few facts connected with our late friend’s career. At the time of separation that department comprised only 30 individuals of all ranks, and when he took charge the number was much reduced. There were at that time, according to the returns, no fewer than 54 vessels, registering 26,785 tons, in Hobson’s Bay alone. The crews on arrival numbered 1,235 men. Of this number only 463 remained on board, 500 having deserted, and the rest having been discharged by arrangement or pure necessity. For the first six months after Captain Ferguson’s assumption of office as Harbour Master the duties of Police Magistrate and Chief of the Water Police were superadded, and how much labour they involved may be surmised from the fact that from 1st of April to the 31st July, 1852, four months only, no less than 236 marine cases were brought before the bench at Williamstown - sometimes as many as 30 in a day. A year later (March 1853) the returns show that the number of vessels in the harbour in Hobson’s Bay alone were 91, tonnage 43,754; and passing on to the still later returns of May, 1853, two years after Captain Ferguson’s assumption of office, we find from the records that the number of ships in port had increased to 129; tonnage, 63,292; crew on board on arrival, 2872, and at the date of report, 1628; the amount of desertions at that time having, however, proportionally diminished, in consequence of the abatement of the gold fever, caused by the non-success attendant upon the labours of thousands at the goldfields. The above numbers take no account of the large number of vessels and amount of tonnage lying at the wharves at Melbourne or elsewhere. From these figures alone it may be judged what must have been a struggle in which the Chief Harbour Master was engaged from the very outset to secure order, and answer the innumerable calls on every branch of his department, at the same time that there was for many months an almost complete impossibility of securing subordinate agency, such as boatmen, pilots, and police, at any price. But I may bear witness to the untiring diligence, energy, and self-devotion with which Captain Ferguson grappled with the difficulties of his position, and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles which stood in his way. Ashore and afloat he was always ready, showing the same directness of purpose, intelligence, and forgetfulness of self. He shunned no responsibility, and turned his hand from no work, whether within or beyond the ordinary scope of his duty, which the hard necessity of the times forced the Government to bring under his notice. Already in 1852, when the overflowing of our gaol and stockade rendered the adoption of other methods of restraint absolutely necessary, and addition to the existing buildings could not be thought of, it was Captain Ferguson who first suggested the employment of hulks; and it was with his personal assistance and supervision, and under his unflagging energy, that the three first of these – the Success, the President, and the Sacramento – were purchased, fitted up, and made available for the purpose in view, and the rules and regulations for the employment and safety of the men afloat and ashore prescribed and carried out. He carried the same energy into every branch of his department, and his influence was soon apparent. His subordinates of every class became actuated by his spirit. As time moved on, the range of his duties, both ordinary and extraordinary, increased. In the formation of the quarantine station at the heads, in the management if not the erection of lighthouses, sailing directions, port and wharf regulations, buoys, signal stations, www.latrobesociety.org.au 28 steam dredging &c., he was the main and most active agent. The whole pilot establishment and regulations, men, and vessels, were under his charge; and when I left the colony in May, 1854, the entire range of ports outside Port Phillip Heads from Point Lonsdale to Portland, as well as that of Geelong had felt the influence of his intelligent supervision and care. The entire department of Chief Harbour Master, which I have numbered at the period of separation about thirty individuals, then numbered 230. The character of Captain Ferguson’s unbroken service during the fourteen years which have elapsed since I left the colony must be well known to the Government and the people he has served so long and so faithfully. I confine myself to recalling to mind those earlier, and what must have been the hardest and most difficult, period – none can know how difficult but those who were in that fierce struggle for the maintenance of order under so many disadvantages; and on this subject I have spoken advisedly and with reason, for I may truly say he worked under my own eye. I had sincere regard for the man, and just pride in the qualities of his heart, head, and hand. Whatever mistakes may have been made by the Government of the colony in those hard and difficult times (and I am quite ready to admit that there were many, especially if the past is to be judged by the light of the present), I never have hesitated in believing that, in appointing Captain Ferguson to the office he has so long filled, it was the right man in the right place. I shall be heartily rejoiced to find that the Government and inhabitants of the colony admit that this has been the case, and to learn that they have not forgotten the strong claims of one who has served them so long and so faithfully, and who, removed by God’s providence, so to say, in the maturity of his powers, has left a widow and young family behind him. I have done, I leave you to make use of this communication, or any portion of it, which you may think judicious and called for. There may be among Ferguson’s friends those who may not be sorry to be reminded of facts. By-the-bye, I may mention as a proof how completely Captain Ferguson’s mind was engrossed by devotion to his public duty, that while in Dover, only ten days before the operation, he took an opportunity to drag himself up into the lantern of the S. Foreland Lighthouse, and made a most careful scrutiny of the whole apparatus and arrangement, with a view of the adoption of any hint for the perfection of those under his charge in the colony. And now, goodbye. I trust this will find you in good health, and in comparative vigour. Believe me ever, dear Captain Cole, Yours very truly, C. J. La Trobe"The attempt for a floating church was made as early as 1853 following similar examples in London like the Seamen's Hospital. Captain Ferguson was instrumental in the foundation of the Bethel Church.Digital copies of the 37 pages ; 22 cm.1854, hobsons bay, geelong, melbourne, williamstown, sandridge, mariner's hospital, floating church, seamen's hospital, captain charles ferguson (1813-1868), kezia elizabeth hayter (1818-1885), rajah quilt, prison hulks, water police, harbour master, harbor master, gaols

Hunniford's Eltham Post Office, Main Road near Bridge Street, Eltham, c.1895. Possibly Miss Anne (Annie) Hunniford, Post Mistress, on left. Annie was post mistress from the mid 1860s until her death in 1928. Photo taken by Clark Bros, 25 Thomas St, Windsor. Clark Bros operated from this address from c.1894 to 1914. Australia Post: Gold brought life to the township - Diamond Valley News, Tuesday July 2, 1985, p17 On February 1, 1854, the first Eltham Post Office was established, commencing an association between the township and the Postmaster-General's Department that has continued for 131 years. At that time, the number of permanent residents would have been fairly small, probably less than 200. The discovery of gold in June 1851, at Anderson’s Creek, some five miles away, and later at Caledonia Diggings, Queenstown (now known as St Andrews), about 14 miles to the north-east, brought large numbers of prospectors passing through the township, hopefully culling the creeks and gullies for the precious metal. This additional "floating population" brought a greater demand for supplies and for communication with the outside world, and so it helped in the development of Eltham. Today, Eltham is a thriving township. It boasts an excellent shopping centre, municipal offices, court house. post office and many other amenities. Eltham continued to develop at a leisurely pace. During 1860, a total of just over 8000 postal articles were handled at the Eltham Post Office. By 1862, the mail route was "to and from Melbourne by way of Eltham and Kangaroo Ground, three times a week, by coach". There was also a branch mail that operated between Eltham and Greensborough, three times weekly. This was also conveyed by coach. Some time between 1864 and 1868 the management of the post office passed from Thomas Hunniford to his daughter, Miss Anne Hunniford, who managed the Eltham Post Office until her death in 1928. A big improvement in communication was provided for Eltham residents when a telegraph office was established at the post office in 1877. During 1923 a manual telephone exchange was provided at Eltham, the first two subscribers being J.J. O’Connor and Eltham Police Station. In 1949 the manual exchange was replaced by an automatic exchange and there were some 150 subscribers. Following the death of postmistress Miss Anne Hunniford in 1928, B.M. Burgoyne was placed temporarily in charge of the office. In 1929, J. N. Burgoyne was appointed postmaster, and he in turn was succeeded by H. C. Burgoyne in 1951. The post office was moved to a new site in 1954, but continued under the charge of Mr Burgoyne. In January 1958 there was a further change of site when the post office was raised to official status and transferred to new premises in Main Rd. William Donoghue was acting postmaster when the new office was opened. In March 1958 Mr W.E. Tovey was appointed postmaster, followed by Douglas McG. Gilmour in 1959. William Donoghue was fully appointed in 1966 and Barry Reichelt followed in 1973, prior to the present postmaster, Peter Jolly in November 1982. Peter is a young man with 18 years' experience. He commenced his training as a postal clerk at the training school in Melbourne in 1968 and was promoted to postal clerk at the Brunswick Post Office in 1969. He was finally transferred as postmaster to Fawkner Post Office in 1980. He has been at Eltham Post Office for the past 2½ years. He is married with one child and lives in Montmorency. The Eltham Post Office employs a staff of 21, of whom seven are indoor staff, 12 are postmen and two are drivers. The postmen in Eltham have an uphill battle delivering mail because of the hilly terrain. Nine of the postmen deliver mail on motorbikes, and the two delivery vans are both four wheel drives. Eltham Post Office services basically a residential area, with deliveries to 5600 homes. This is growing at the rate of 600 homes every 18 months, i.e. about 32 homes per month. At the present rate we will need a new postman every 18 months.Sepia photograph mounted on cardpost office, eltham, main road, anne jane hunniford (1855-1928), clark bros. photo

This Bank Manager’s Diary is one of a set of five Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool branch, diaries that span the years 1895 to 1899. A Butt was Manager from 1895-1904 and J R McCleary was Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900. Either or both of these men could have filled in the bank’s Diary. This diary of 1899 has handwritten names on the front endpage, with figures beside each name. Perhaps people with loans and repayments. Each of the diaries in the set was manufactured by the famous Melbourne stationers, Sands & Mc Dougall Limited. The business was established as a printing partnership in 1851 by John Sands and his brother-in-law Thomas Kenny, and in 1860 Dugald McDougal joined them. The firm was re-named Sands & McDougall a year later after Kenny retired. The company was renowned as stationers, booksellers, printers and account book manufacturers and by the 1870s was one of the largest businesses in Australia. The Bank of Australasia was incorporated by Royal Charter of England in March 1834. It had its Australian beginning on 14th December 1835, opening in Sydney. The Acting Superintendent of the bank at that time was David Charters McArthur. He was Superintendent from 1867 to 1876. The Melbourne branch opened on 28th August 1838 in a two-roomed brick cottage on the north side of Little Collins Street. By 1879 the bank had been upgraded to a magnificent two-storey building on the corners of Collins and Queens Streets, with the entry on Collins Street In 1951 the Bank of Australasia amalgamated with the Union Bank to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank, now known as the ANZ. Then in 1970, the ANZ merged with both the ES&A and the London Bank of Australia to form the ANZ Banking Group Limited. The ANZ Banking Group Ltd kindly donated a variety of historic items from the Bank of Australasia. BANK of AUSTRALASIA, WARRNAMBOOL – In 1854 Warrnambool had two banks, the Union Bank and the Bank of Australasia. Later, completely different bank businesses opened; in 1867 the National Bank of Australasia, then in 1875 the Colonial Bank of Australasia. The original Warrnambool branch of the Bank of Australasia was established in July 1854, and operated from a leased cottage on Merri Street, close to Liebig Street. The bank next bought a stone building previously erected by drapers Cramond & Dickson on the corner of Timor and Gibson Streets. Samuel Hannaford was a teller and then Manager at the Warrnambool branch from 1855 to 1856 and the Warrnambool Council chose that bank for its dealings during 1856-57. In 1859 Roberts & Co. was awarded the contract to build the new Bank of Australasia branch for the sum of £3,000; the firm built the Warrnambool Post Office in 1856 and purchased land in Timor Street in 1858. The land was on a sand hill on the northeast corner of Timor and Kepler Streets and had been bought in 1855 by investor James Cust. The new building opened on May 21, 1860. The bank continued to operate there until 1951 when it merged with the Union Bank to form the ANZ Bank, which continued operating from its Liebig Street building. Warrnambool City Council purchased the former Bank of Australasia building in 1971 and renovated it, then on 3rd December 1973 it was officially opened as the Art Gallery by Cr. Harold Stephenson and Gallery Director John Welsh. The Gallery transferred to the purpose-built building in Liebig Street in 1986 and the old bank building is now the Gallery club. Staff at the Bank of Australasia in Warrnambool included the following men but others were also involved: Samuel Hannaford, Teller then Manager from 1855-1856; Hawkins, Manager in 1856, W H Palmer, Manager from January 1857 until November 1869 when the Teller Basil Spence was promoted to Manager; H B Chomley, Manager from April 1873 and still there in 1886; A Butt, Manager in 1895-1904; J R McCleary Accountant and Acting Manager for 12 months, until 1900; A Kirk, Manager 1904; J Moore, staff until his transfer to Bendigo in December 1908; J S Bath was Manager until 1915; C C Cox, Manager until April 1923; Richard C Stanley, Manager 1923 to April 1928. The set of diaries has significance through its association with the Bank of Australasia. The early Australian bank was established in 1834 by Royal Charter and opened in Sydney, Australia, in Sydney in 1835. The bank had many Australian offices in November 1877, particularly on the east and south coasts. Victoria had 45 per cent of all Offices. The set of diaries is locally significant for its association with the Warrnambool Bank of Australasia, which was established in 1854. It was Warrnambool Council’s first bank. The bank continued to operate until the organisation's merger in 1951 when it became the ANZ Bank Group today. The Bank was an integral part of the growth of local commerce and the community.Bank Manager's Diary, 1899. One of a set of five diaries of the Bank of Australasia, Warrnambool, from 1885 to 1899. Handwritten inscriptions are on the front endpage. The right edges of the pages are alphabetically indexed. Manufactured by Sands McDougall Limited, Melbourne.Printed on spine "DIARY / 1899" Handwritten inscriptions on front endpaper include names with figures beside them e.g. - "Allansford Bacon Curing Co. 23.26, 89, 133.323 / Anderson John 27, / Aitkin John 32, / Archie a.S. 55 / Angus David 65, 131 /Allen Bridget 100, 285 / Aitkin & Darling 174 / Angus Lorris 202 / Abraham W. S. 204, 246 / Anderson Elizabeth 264 / Allen W.B. 348." flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, bank of australasia, boa, union bank, australia & new zealand bank, anz bank, commerce, david charters mcarthur, d c mcarthur, bank of australasia warrnambool, sands & mcdougall, diary, set of 5 diaries 1895-1899, 1899, samuel hannaford, w h palmer, basil spence, h b chomley, a butt, j r mccleary, a kirk, j moore, j s bath, c c cox, richard c stanley, allansford bacon curing co.

Gold was discovered on One Tree Hill in 1854. The site has been worked intermittently until fairly recent times. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p53 Though still a working mine, One Tree Hill Mine at Smiths Gully, now stands in a tranquil reserve surrounded by bush and native animals - in contrast to its heyday. In the mid 19th century, when the mine was part of the Caledonia Goldfields, hundreds of men in search of their fortune worked the alluvial gold in the Yarra River, its tributaries and the reefs that made up the goldfields. Miner Stan Bone, assisted by Wilfred Haywood, is the last of the independent gold miners in the area and still uses the quartz crushing battery as miners did when gold was first discovered in the area in 1851.1 Stan, who is the last of six generations of miners in his family, was aged 17 when he began mining on his father Alex’ mine, The Golden Crown in Yarrambat. These days, after blasting the gold-bearing rock in Mystery Reef, one of the four reefs at One Tree Hill, Stan transports it around five kilometres by tip truck to the Black Cameron Mine for crushing. There he uses water from the waterlogged mine, (which still contains gold), as the Happy Valley Creek at One Tree Hill is usually dry.2 The One Tree Hill Mine has been worked for close to a century since it opened around the late 1850s.3 The Swedish Reef was its most productive reef and one of the largest in the area. Around 1859, extractions included 204 ounces (5.8kg) of gold, won from 57 pounds (26kg) of stone.4 Then during World War Two, Stan’s uncle, Bill Wallace, and Alex Bone, closed the mine. In 1973, Stan, with his Uncle Bill, reopened the Black Cameron Mine and worked there until 1988. Stan resumed mining One Tree Hill in 1998. As late as the 1920s gold was picked up by chance! When crossing a gully on his way to vote at the St Andrews Primary School, Bill Joyce picked up some quartz containing gold. This site was to become the Black Cameron Mine. The Caledonia Diggings, named after Scotland’s ancient name by local Scots, began around Market Square (now Smiths Gully) and included Queenstown (St Andrews), Kingstown (Panton Hill) and Diamond Creek. There were also poorer bearing fields in Kangaroo Ground and Swipers Gully (now Research). * None of these compared in riches to the Ballarat and Bendigo fields5, but the Caledonia Diggings continued intermittently for close to 100 years. Gold was discovered in Victoria following a bid to stem the disappearance of much needed workmen to the New South Wales diggings. Several businessmen offered a reward of £200, for the discovery of gold within 200 miles (322 km) of Melbourne. Late in June 1851, gold was first discovered at Andersons Creek, Warrandyte. Then in 1854, George Boston and two other men discovered gold at Smiths Gully. Gold transformed the quiet districts, with a constant flow of families and vehicles on the dirt tracks en route to the Caledonia Diggings. Three thousand people worked the gullies in Market Square, including about 1000 Chinese miners. The square established its own police, mining warden, gold battery, school, shops and cemetery and grog flowed. Market Square flourished until the middle 1860s. Bullocks transported quartz from the Caledonia Goldfields to the crushing machinery at the Queenstown/St Andrews Battery, near Smiths Gully Cemetery. It was destroyed by bushfire in 1962. By the late 1850s, most early alluvial fields were in decline, but minor rushes continued until around 1900 and some until the early 1940s. Some miners did well, although most earned little from their hard labour in the harsh and primitive conditions.6 But according to historian, Mick Woiwod, the gold fields helped to democratise society, as individuals from all walks of life were forced to share experiences, and the ability to succeed, depended less on inherited wealth or social rank.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, gold mining, one tree hill mine, smiths gully

Stuchbery Farm was situated on the Plenty River bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. Alan and Ada Stutchbery moved to the valley in 1890, first living in a tent where four children were born. Alfred built a home and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden and developed a dairy. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p179 The dramatic steep-sided Plenty Gorge lies along the divide of two geological areas, and separates the Nillumbik Shire and the City of Whittlesea. On the Nillumbik side are undulating hills and sedimentary rock, and in Whittlesea, lies a basalt plain formed by volcanic action up to two million years ago. This provides the Plenty Gorge Park with diverse vegetation and habitats, making it one of Greater Melbourne’s most important refuges for threatened and significant species. The park, established in 1986, consists of around 1350 hectares, and extends 11 kilometres along the Plenty River, from Greensborough to Mernda. It provides a wildlife corridor for around 500 native plant and 280 animal species.1 The area’s plentiful food and water attracted the Wurundjeri Aboriginal people and then European settlers. By 1837 squatters had claimed large runs of land for their sheep and cattle. The Plenty Valley was among the first in the Port Phillip District to be settled - mainly in the less heavily timbered west - and was proclaimed a settled district in 1841.2 But by the late 1880s, the settlers’ extensive land clearing for animal grazing, then agriculture, depleted the Wurundjeri’s traditional food sources, which helped to drive them away. Many Wurundjeri artefacts remain (now government protected), and so far 57 sites have been identified in the park, including scarred trees, burial areas and stone artefacts. Pioneer life could be very hard because of isolation, flooding, bushfires and bushrangers. Following the Black Thursday bushfires of 1851, basalt was quarried to build more fire-resistant homes. Gold discoveries in the early 1850s swelled the population, particularly around Smugglers Gully; but food production made more of an impact. In the late 1850s wheat production supplanted grazing. In the 1860s the government made small holdings available to poorer settlers. These had the greatest effect on the district, particularly in Doreen and Yarrambat, where orchards were established from the 1880s to 1914. Links with a prominent early family are the remains of Stuchbery Farm, by the river’s edge bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La Trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. The Stuchberys moved to the valley in 1890, and the family still lives in the area. In 1890, Alfred and Ada first lived in a tent where four children were born, then Alfred built the house and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden, and developed a dairy. The family belonged to the local Methodist and tennis communities. Their grandson Walter, opened the Flying Scotsman Model Railway Museum in Yarrambat, which his widow, Vi, continues to run. Wal was also the Yarrambat CFA Captain for 22 years until 1987. Walter sold 24 hectares in 1976 for development - now Vista Court - and in 1990, the remaining 22.6 hectares for the park. Remaining are an early stone dairy and remnants of a stone barn, a pig sty and a well.3 Until it was destroyed by fire in 2003, a slab hut stood on the Happy Hollow Farm site, at the southern end of the park. The hut is thought to have been built in the Depression around 1893. This was a rare and late example of a slab hut with a domestic orchard close to Melbourne. Emmet Watmough and his family first occupied the hut, followed by a succession of families, until the Bell family bought it around 1948. There they led a subsistence lifestyle for 50 years, despite encroaching Melbourne suburbia.4 The Yellow Gum Recreation Area includes the Blue Lake, coloured turquoise at certain times of the year. Following the 1957 bushfires, this area was quarried by Reid Quarries Pty Ltd for Melbourne’s first skyscrapers, then by Boral Australia. However in the early 1970s water began seeping into the quarry forming the Blue Lake and the quarry was closed. The State Government bought the site in 1997 and opened it as a park in 1999.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, ada stuchbery, alan stuchbery, dairy, stuchbery farm, farm buildings, yarrambat, plenty gorge park