Henry Dendy (1800-1881) is best known as the founder of Brighton. It is not well known that years later he lived far longer at Eltham than he did at Brighton. In 1840 whilst still in England, he bought eight square miles of unspecified land in the Port Phillip district. This entitled him to bring a number of other people to the colony and in 1841 he arrived in Williamstown in the York with his family and 139 others. He took up this land entitlement at what is now Brighton and most of the emigrants settled there. He encountered financial problems and lost his interest in the estate in 1844. He left Brighton in 1847. He successfully not always successfully became a brewer at Geelong, a sheep farmer at Christmas Hills and Upper Moira, a flour miller at Eltham, a sheep farmer again at Werribee and finally a copper miner at Walhalla. Dendy came to Eltham in 1856 after having spent a year in England, he purchased about 5 acres of land in two parts situated each side of Maria Street (Main Road). There was a steam flour mill on that part of the land adjoining the Diamond Creek. He became prominent in local affairs serving for a time on the Eltham District Roads Board including one term as President. Dendy’s wife Sarah died at Eltham in 1860 and also in that year he was appointed Chairman of a committee to establish a Church of England in Eltham. He donated one of his Pitt Street lots for this purpose. St Margaret’s Church was opened on this site in 1861. In 1867 Dendy sold his mill to W F Ford and moved to Werribee and then Walhalla where he remained until his death. He is buried in the Walhalla cemetery. Part of the land on which the Eltham Community Reception Centre stands was the site of Dendy’s house and Mill. Some of the old trees on the site could well have been planted in Dendy’s time. Much of this information was obtained from the book “Henry Dendy and his Emigrants” by L A Schumer.Colour photograph copy of Portrait of Henry Dendy c.1875henry dendy

Diaries of Tim Burstall November 1953 to December 1954. Tim Burstall lived in Eltham. Tim Burstall, the celebrated director of Stork, Alvin Purple and numerous other definitive 'ocker' comedies, is credited with shaking the moribund Australian film industry out of its torpor. But long before that, in the early 1950s, he began keeping a diary to record the world of the group of 'arties' and 'intellectuals' he was living among in Eltham, then a rural area outside Melbourne, where cheap land was available for mudbrick houses and studios, and where suburban rigidities could be mercilessly flouted. Burstall was in his mid-twenties, with two young sons and an open marriage with his wife, Betty. Eager to become a writer, to go against the grain, he kept a record almost daily-of the parties and the talk in pubs and studios, about art and politics and sex, of Communist Party branch meetings and film societies, of political rallies and the first Herald Outdoor Art Show. Somehow, while holding down a public relations job in the Antarctic Division and juggling his love affairs and obsession with the beautiful, brainy Fay, he wrote 500 words almost every day. Betty, according to the diaries, kept the show on the road, feeding friends after the pub, milking goats and working in her pottery making bowls and mugs, which Tim sometimes decorated at weekends. These Memoirs of a Young Bastard, as Burstall dubbed himself and them, are among the most evocative Australian diaries of modern times. Burstall can write. He has an eye for the telling detail, an unerring ear for cant and pomposity and, most endearingly, an ability to mock himself-always from the perspective of a bloke of his generation. Source: Publisherxxiv, 343 p., [18] p. of plates : ill., maps, ports., facsims. ; 27 cm.ISBN 9780522858143diary, motion picture director, film director, author

EDHS Newsletter No. 274 February 2024 Our EDHS member Irene Kearsey is forever searching, researching and at times discovering hidden historical gems. One such discovery is finding details about the life and career of “Senior Constable Dungey – Eltham’s third policeman” and what he and his wife had in the Eltham police house; now our Local History Centre at 728 Main Road, Eltham. At our meeting on Wednesday 14th February 2024, Irene with talk about the career of Arthur Eggleston Dungey leading him to Eltham and then describe what was in the house. We now know how he and wife Louisa furnished the house in 1890, down to the number of teaspoons. If you had ancestors in 19th century Victoria, Irene has a suggestion for your research that might reveal such details1:02:35 duration Digital MP3 file; 21.4MBaudio recording, eltham district historical society, meeting, society meeting, eltham, guest speaker, eltham police station, irene kearsey, snr constable arthur eggleston dungey, eltham police residence