S.s.Casino 1910. The people on the decks are tourists coming from Terang and surrounding areas to spend the day at the seaside. The steamer S.S.CASINO was much loved by the whole Port Fairy community- with the possible exception of some of the fishermen whose boats she ran down! Transport of the large quantities of wool, potatoes, onions, grain, sheep, cattle and other produce grown on the rich lands of the Western District Belfast was served by a plethora of shipping, both sail and steam, but only one of the steamers then in the regular trade (S.S. DAWN) would ever be able to get up the river and reap the cost savings of loading against a wharf. It was not unusual for four steamers to be anchored in the bay at once and for seven or eight different steamers to call during a week. A number of inter-colonial steamers also called to pick up produce for delivery to Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Production in the Western District was increasing and virtually all of that production had to go through one of the western ports in order to reach markets. By 1882 a meeting 15ft. March, 1882, in the office of auctioneer, J.B. HoIden in Cox Street took action and it was unanimously resolved - that the Belfast & Koroit Steamship Company be formed with a capital of £20,000 in 10,000 shares of £2 each". A number of steamers were offered by letter to the fledgling company, including the new and almost sister ships, CASINO and HELEN NICHOLL. The CASINO was on her delivery voyage from England was due to arrive in Warrnambool to load potatoes for Sydney and, initially, arrangements were made for her to call into Port Fairy for inspection by the BKNS Co directors. She eventually proceeded direct to Warrnambool and the Directors inspected her there. Without hesitation they purchased her even though they had to raise a large bank loan to do so. The CASINO arrived in Port Fairy on Saturday, 29th. July, 1882, steaming triumphantly up the Moyne River, and was greeted by crowds, many of whom had driven in from the surrounding countryside, which gave her “loud ringing English cheers". By 1884 the CASINO could not carry all the cargoes available to her and in December of that year the company purchased the new steamer BELLINGER to provide additional capacity. She helped to open up the intermediate ports of Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Campbell, but the BELLINGER was not really suitable for the trade and she was sold in 1887, leaving the CASINO to operate alone -as she was to do for almost all of the next 45 years. The opening of the railway in 1890 decreased the cargo available to the steamers and the economic depression of the early 1890's worsened the situation. The weak soon began to fall by the wayside and when the Portland & Belfast SN Co. decided to go into liquidation in April 1895, the Belfast & Koroit Company bought the Portland Company's steamer DAWN on advantageous terms, a substantial part of the payment being in BKSN Co shares. The BKNS Co and the Howard Smith Line came into direct head to head competition and nearly forced the BKNS Co out of existence. Cargo dropped to such an extent that in 1899, they reached agreement that only one ship would run and that the ship which ran would pay a weekly amount to the competitor to stay out of the trade. This controlled service ceased in1909, and competition intensified when Howard Smith placed the newly built, larger steamer EUMERALLA on the run. The BKNS Co survived this competition and even prospered during it partly by extending on a more regular basis, the CASINO'S voyages to South Australian ports Port Macdonnell, Kingston, Beachport, Robe and, on occasions Adelaide. There were setbacks when, on 20 October 1924, CASINO went ashore at the Kennett River, near Apollo Bay, and again, in February l929, when she struck a submerged object at Warrnambool and had to be beached. The railways placed great competitive pressure on the small steamship company and this pressure was intensified when the Great Depression slashed the market for Western District produce, BKNS Co struggled on, paying dividends in most years, and the company planned a big celebration for the CASINO'S fiftieth anniversary in the trade on 29th July, 1932. Disaster struck soon after 9 o'clock on the morning of Sunday I0 July, 1932 when the CASINO was lost at Apollo Bay together with the lives of 10 crew members. Black and white photograph of tourists crowded on the decks of s.s.Casino during a sail around the bay for Terang dayship, boat, sea, river, s.s.casino 1910, transport, 1910, wool, onions, grain, sheep, cattle, steam, terang day

This photograph show the ship in dry dock (possibly Melbourne) for maintenance. The steamer S.S.CASINO was much loved by the whole Port Fairy community- with the possible exception of some of the fishermen whose boats she ran down! Transport of the large quantities of wool, potatoes, onions, grain, sheep, cattle and other produce grown on the rich lands of the Western District Belfast was served by a plethora of shipping, both sail and steam, but only one of the steamers then in the regular trade (S.S. DAWN) would ever be able to get up the river and reap the cost savings of loading against a wharf. It was not unusual for four steamers to be anchored in the bay at once and for seven or eight different steamers to call during a week. A number of inter-colonial steamers also called to pick up produce for delivery to Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Production in the Western District was increasing and virtually all of that production had to go through one of the western ports in order to reach markets. By 1882 a meeting 15ft. March, 1882, in the office of auctioneer, J.B. HoIden in Cox Street took action and it was unanimously resolved - that the Belfast & Koroit Steamship Company be formed with a capital of £20,000 in 10,000 shares of £2 each". A number of steamers were offered by letter to the fledgling company, including the new and almost sister ships, CASINO and HELEN NICHOLL. The CASINO was on her delivery voyage from England was due to arrive in Warrnambool to load potatoes for Sydney and, initially, arrangements were made for her to call into Port Fairy for inspection by the BKNS Co directors. She eventually proceeded direct to Warrnambool and the Directors inspected her there. Without hesitation they purchased her even though they had to raise a large bank loan to do so. The CASINO arrived in Port Fairy on Saturday, 29th. July, 1882, steaming triumphantly up the Moyne River, and was greeted by crowds, many of whom had driven in from the surrounding countryside, which gave her “loud ringing English cheers". By 1884 the CASINO could not carry all the cargoes available to her and in December of that year the company purchased the new steamer BELLINGER to provide additional capacity. She helped to open up the intermediate ports of Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Campbell, but the BELLINGER was not really suitable for the trade and she was sold in 1887, leaving the CASINO to operate alone -as she was to do for almost all of the next 45 years. The opening of the railway in 1890 decreased the cargo available to the steamers and the economic depression of the early 1890's worsened the situation. The weak soon began to fall by the wayside and when the Portland & Belfast SN Co. decided to go into liquidation in April 1895, the Belfast & Koroit Company bought the Portland Company's steamer DAWN on advantageous terms, a substantial part of the payment being in BKSN Co shares. The BKNS Co and the Howard Smith Line came into direct head to head competition and nearly forced the BKNS Co out of existence. Cargo dropped to such an extent that in 1899, they reached agreement that only one ship would run and that the ship which ran would pay a weekly amount to the competitor to stay out of the trade. This controlled service ceased in1909, and competition intensified when Howard Smith placed the newly built, larger steamer EUMERALLA on the run. The BKNS Co survived this competition and even prospered during it partly by extending on a more regular basis, the CASINO'S voyages to South Australian ports Port Macdonnell, Kingston, Beachport, Robe and, on occasions Adelaide. There were setbacks when, on 20 October 1924, CASINO went ashore at the Kennett River, near Apollo Bay, and again, in February l929, when she struck a submerged object at Warrnambool and had to be beached. The railways placed great competitive pressure on the small steamship company and this pressure was intensified when the Great Depression slashed the market for Western District produce, BKNS Co struggled on, paying dividends in most years, and the company planned a big celebration for the CASINO'S fiftieth anniversary in the trade on 29th July, 1932. Disaster struck soon after 9 o'clock on the morning of Sunday I0 July, 1932 when the CASINO was lost at Apollo Bay together with the lives of 10 crew members. Black and white photograph of ship in dry dockship, boat, sea, river, industry, belfast and koroit steam navigation company

Daphne WALLACE (1964- ) Gomaroi, Ullaroi, Wurralli, Muralli Country Wallace is a Gamilaroi/Ullaroi-Yuwaaliaay artist whose intensely coloured and textured abstract and pictorial paintings are interpretations of the Yuwaaliaay stories passed down to her by her grandmother. They are evocative of her spiritual and emotional attachment to her home in Lightening Ridge.Daphne WALLACE Gomaroi, Ullaroi, Wurraili, Muraili country Artist's statement: This painting tells of many different stories, most of them I knew growing up and some were told to me since working on the Bubbles of the Surface Project. ... Reading this landscape through Murri / Murdi eyes and our relation to country. In the top, Yurri Yurri women/people, Rainbow serpents the other side of Coocoran Lake, Bunyip waterhol near Angledool, Ants nest believed to be where Baiame laid his tow wives, where the ants ate off the slime and brought them back to life, mining fields around Lightning Ridge, Bush tucker such as bumbull, burrigan, nappan, greewee, snotty gubbuls. In the middle, Gurra the crocodile, Gurra the crocodile himself, when Baiame killed him to retrieve the two wives, a rainbow shone no him and his scales turned inot opals, left to the Narran Lake was where Baiame sat down and left his bottom imprinted in the rock. he got up and moved onto the blue mountains where his wives gave birth to the three sisters. At the botttom of the painting, Walgett council dug up two old Kings sitting up face to face with their legs crossed, with their Tin King plates around their necks; Their head bands of kangaroo teeth were still inbedded in their skulls. The water dog stories are at spots along river "don't go down thereon the bend (Namour Researve River) the water dog witll get you" Nan used to tell us. It is believed that the water dog makes whirlpools and will drown you. He makes a druming sound, which can be heard along the Namoir, Barwon, Darling, Gwydir, Mihi and the Narran River; and the Duck is part of the creation story, with the twin platypus. It tells how the water dog kidnapped her and kept her in a cave on the river bank, she escaped back to her people. They knew she was bingal therefore vanished her fro that region, she travelled to New England region giving birth to twin platypus.daphne wallace, aboriginal, gippsland campus, churchill, gomaroi, ullaroi, wurraili, muraili

p.240.fictionThis dramatic nineteenth-century nautical adventure and classic coming-of-age story is one of Rudyard Kipling's most enduringly popular works. Harvey Cheyne Jr., the teenage son of a millionaire American railroad tycoon, is sailing to Europe on a luxury liner when he falls overboard off the coast of Newfoundland. He's saved from drowning by the We're Here, a New England fishing schooner captained by Disko Troop. He's alive, but his tough new companions find him to be spoiled and ignorant. Desperate to get back to the world he knows, Harvey must prove his worth as one of the crew by mastering the challenging tasks and physical labor of life at sea. With help from the captain's son, Dan, he braves a number of risky exploits and adventures as they travel along the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Shedding his expectations of a pampered life, Harvey begins to embrace the tough work of a fisherman. Filled with thrilling action, this classic sea story will delight and excite readers of all ages.england - fiction, juvenile fiction

Ill, p.344.fictionThe afternoon sun was lowering towards a heavy bank of clouds hanging still and sullen over the Medite-rranean. A mistral was blowing. The last yellow rays shone fiercely upon the towering coast of Corsica, and the windows of the village of Olmeta glittered like gold. There are two Olmetas in Corsica, both in the north, both on the west coast, both perched high like an eagle's nest, both looking down upon those lashed waters of the Mediterranean, which are not the waters that poets sing of, for they are as often white as they are blue; they are seldom glassy except in the height of summer and sailors tell that they are as treacherous as any waters of the earth. Neither aneroid nor weather-wisdom may, as a matter of fact, tell when a mistral will arise, how it will blow, how veer, how drop and rise, and drop again. For it will blow one day beneath a cloudless sky, lashing the whole sea white like milk, and blow harder to-morrow under racing clouds. england - fiction, fiction - corsica

Mary Tolhurst M&DHS - March 29th Dunvegan Willows Park Melton 1992 Ladies Oral History Day Graham Minns President Ray Radford MC Sound recording transfer to CD 2011 by Tom Wood Edited typescript by Wendy Barrie 2013 I was born in Rockbank, and when I was five years old moved to Toolern Vale and started and finished school there. Toolern Vale only consisted of the Store, Post Office and shop, where you could buy your fodder, and pollard supplies, the Hall, the little Church and the bluestone School. The School changed shape three times from the 1800s[1869] til the time I went there. There was four generations of my family that went there and it was destroyed by fire in 1965. Marjorie nee Myers Butler. Yes, I remember along with it your lovely Ronisch piano. Mary, quite true! Marj what you say about the Ronisch piano. When I came the age to learn music my mum and dad couldn’t really afford it, but still what parents do for their children. They had Marj go along with them and pick this lovely Ronisch piano. It was known round the district. Everyone commented about the loss that lovely piano. After leaving school it was war time, 1939, then it was work, When I was 7 year old I was put out into the cow yard. In 1940 when the soldiers were going away our milk was confiscated it had to go to Bacchus Marsh. It used to go the Sunbury to be brine cooled and then go to Melbourne. Then they took it then to the Lifeguard Milk Factory at Bacchus Marsh. It had to go as condensed milk to the soldiers. This year is 50 years of the Land Army. I was an unofficial Land Army but they still kept check on me. I went onto married life and I followed the cows right through [howls of laughter] and we went on until the 1965 fire. That’s when we got out of the cows. Marjorie asks, was Granny Watts your grandmother or great grandmother? Mary: She was my great grandmother, the midwife of Melton. The 1965 fire started ¾ of a mile above our place, Frank Ryan’s sheds were burnt and his house was saved, then it wiped the School out, the Hall, the Church the Post Office and Store and little house that was Charlie Charlton’s in the early days. Mrs Wilson’s place was saved by the Fire Brigade by pulling boards off the side, and from there it went over the hill and it was stopped at the Rockbank Railway Station. If it had of got over the railway they said it would have gone into Werribee. A lot was burnt out in that strip. Mary nee Nixon Collins: 18 houses burnt that day. Audience question, did Melton get burnt that day? Ray: No. It came down through the Toolern Vale road and cut across about a mile and a half from the cross roads at Toolern Vale from north westerly to the south east and cut through over the Keilor road. Mary: It came in across the creek at Funstons in Toolern, then through Jim Minns. Dorothy was it your place then [nee Knox Beaty] to Ken Beatty’s and from there it went through to Doug McIntosh’s and to Cockbills and the wind changed and it came across to the railway line, and that is where they stopped it. [the cause of the fire was controversial, they had been burning off the night before and there was some talk of someone starting it. It was very hot and very strong wind, it was a terrible day] Ray: When the fire went through McIntosh’s they had a haystack on the north side of their house and the haystack got caught and the fire burnt a hole through the side of the house and the boys pyjamas on the bed. The house was saved. It came through like and express train roaring at you, I was at McIntosh’s when it went roaring past. You couldn’t see, dust and ash and tremendous heat. The fire started about 12 o’clock Jack [husband] said to me, fire, I said where, where? Just up the road, what have I got to do? and he went out and he had gone to the fire and left me. I tried to get the animals and I put out buckets of water, putting the buckets of water out saved my life. Chas Jones and another friend of his came in and they picked up the buckets of water, I thought I had better get out because the fire was on the haystack up the paddock and when I went to go out through the north side of the house and couldn’t get out, I’ll go through the front gate so I went around the other side of the house. I got caught there and Chassy Jones and his friend came round carrying the bucket of water and I panicked. He threw the bucket of water over me. Well that is what saved my life because I was damp, whenever we tried to leave the ball of fire came over me and over my shoulder and my hair was scorched. Chassy Jones lost his truck and Keith Watt his big truck because he had the water tank on it and they couldn’t get out of the yard. Granny Watt’s house, the first private hospital had condemned and Jack and I pulled it down and had it moved up to Toolern and had it in the yard a fortnight and it was all burnt and we didn’t get the shed we wanted. Every 13 years right up until Ash Wednesday fires, there has always been fire close at hand. The 1952 fire went down the back of the house, the 1965 fire took the house, and the house that I live in now, it is the third house that has been on that spot. When the Hunters owned it, Mrs Hunter was nearly burnt in her bed. They had a 13 roomed house. In 1924 the house burnt down, and there was another house was built there and that was the one that burnt down. Edna: So Mary built a brick veneer house. Marjorie: like the three little pigs [laughter] Collins - Mary M &DHS - March 29th 1992 Ladies oral history day at Dunvegan, Willows Park Melton. Graham Minns President Ray Radford MC Sound recording transferred to CD 2011 Edited typescript by Wendy Barrie 2013 Mary Collins nee Nixon born in Terang 1907 down in the Western District and we shifted to Melton when I was 5 and a half then I started school here in Melton, and spent all my school life at Melton State School, next to the Church of England, it’s called the Primary School now. I got my Qualifying and Merit Certificate then I left School because there wasn’t a High School. When I was 16 I got and job in the Melton Post Office and I worked there, I was the first girl in Melton to deliver the mail, and worked on the telephone and the Bank business. Mrs Ross and myself behind the counter, there were about 500 – 600 people in the Shire at that time and now when I go into the new Post Office there is 36,000 here there’s still 2 people behind the counter [laughter from the audience] and wait in a queue right out to the door. Times haven’t changed much have they! There was a manual telephone and you had to ring the handle, and there were eight subscribers when I went there and when I left there were 46 I had coaxed that number to join the telephone, even the police station didn’t have the phone on. The two Hotels and the two Chaff mills and Mr Ernie Barrie, Parkers the butcher, the Shire Office was No 8, and the Police house was next to the Courthouse on the corner. They were number 9. I can remember a lot of the numbers still. The Post Office was the Agency for the Commonwealth Bank [comment from audience member] I used to do the Bank business too, I left after four years there, mother wasn’t very well. The Inspector who used to come up to the Post Office asked me if I would take up casual Post Mistress and to go around the different districts but I refused and when Mrs Ross’s holidays were due I was the replacement. I wasn’t 21. I loved my work meeting everybody and most people had horse and jinkers and when the elderly would come in there would be Mr Tom Morrow, he only had one arm and Mrs Dunn came from Bulman’s road in their horse and jinker. They were elderly I would see them pull up out the front and quickly get their mail and run out to them because they didn’t have to get out of the jinker to tie up their horse. If someone had a baby in arms I would tear out and hold the baby while they got down. Mrs Ross was very very strict. I had to sweep the Post Office, she had a couple of mats and there would be a threepence or a sixpence under the mats show she knew whether I lifted the mat, I was whether I was honest or not. Graham: How much were your wages? I got 27/7 pence a week for a 52 hour week. I had to work every holiday except Good Friday and Christmas Day and even when it was Monday holiday I always had to go to work from 9am - !0 am, the Post Office was always open. In the winter I had to wait until twenty past six in case there were any telegrams to deliver. I delivered them on a push bike. One time Tom Barrie told me this years afterwards. I used to go home for lunch. We lived on the Keilor road and I used to ride my bike home. On the hot days the boys used to go and swim in the swimming pool down near a turn in the creek there was a hole where the boys would swim in the nude, they didn’t have any bathers and they didn’t have any watches in those days. Tom Barrie said they always used to watched for me as I was always about 3 minutes past 1, my lunch hour was from 1-2. One particular day they missed seeing me and swam on, and of course they were all late for school when they got back and were all kept in a night. I did get a fortnight holiday. I loved my work and I knew everyone in the district right from Toolern Vale to the Marsh and everybody at Melton South. Did you listen into conversations on the Switchboard? Oh no. [laughter] Melton did not have electricity then. I had to fill the lamps everyday with kerosene. The Staughton Memorial was outside the Post Office. It had four posts with the chain looped around it, and that’s where the people used to tie up their horses. Marjorie nee Myers Butler comments about sitting and swinging on the chains. Mr Fred Coburn lit the acetylene gas light in the Memorial. It was the only streetlight in Melton. There was no electricity until 1939. Ray Radford comments about another gas street light which was on the corner of Station road. [later] Mary passes around her school photos. Mary mentions the names of those who have passed away, Maisie McDonald, ,Marian Wraith, Hilda McCreey, and Valda McDonald. I have written the names on the back. Marjorie comments about Marie Jongebloed and Greta are the only two girls left out of big family of ten I think there were [hesitates] 4 or 5 girls and the rest were boys. Mary. Flora Woodley, Dorrie Flynn and Margaret McDonald are still alive. They are my age we were all born about 1907. Marjorie points out herself in a later photo [1921 and 1922 School ] Mary mentions the name Walsh and identyfies following names, the Parker boys, Ken Beaty, Malc and Linda Cameron, Maisie Mc Donald, Ted Radford, George Nixon, Norman Minns, he was later the Shire Secretary of Werribee. One of the Woodley girls. [Maisie Arthur] Marjorie: Rosie Shearwood, June Whiting Mary. Lily Mc Donald, she has passed away. Isabel Harrison nee Tinkler, she lives at Werribee, Doreen Rogers, Marjorie Walker, Jess McIntosh, Mary Gillespie. Mr Malone was the Junior teacher Mr Roe and Miss Cooke. Fred Myers, my sister [Elizabeth] and the year was 1921. Myers (Barrie) School Photo Collection. Many of the names were identified at the 1970 Centenary of Melton State School No. 430. Edna Barrie organised, compiled and typed the lists to accompany these photos for the year 1921. The 1922 photo shows the higher grades. Ladies Oral History Day event held by Melton and District Historical Society, article featured in the Telegraphlocal identities, local special interest groups

Given by Church to the donor in around 1995. Church is now a private residence. A marble plaque originally made for and installed in the Tarnagulla Church of England. Dedicated to the Rev. W. J. Banks who died aged 31 years.

William M Pyke was born in 1815, Wiltshire England and died in 1850, 35 year old.William M Pyke headstone, located on the banks of Toolern Creekpioneer families, local identities

Slaughterhouse Hill was so named because Bennett's butchers had a slaughterhouse there.A view of Linton taken from Slaughterhouse Hill to the north-east of the town. Numerous buildings are identifiable in the photograph. In the middle foreground are the railway station, platform and station-master's house. The Grenville Standard building is visible in Clyde Street, and the Post Office and Bank of NSW buildings can be seen near the corner of Clyde and Sussex Streets. In the distance (along Sussex Street) the Royal Standard Hotel and the Shire Offices (original building) can be seen. St Paul's Church of England is on the far left of the photograph."Esther Cluff, Linton".linton township, slaughterhouse hill

Covered under National Estate, National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Local Significance and Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p95 Thanks to an Australia first effort by local residents, the historic Shillinglaw Cottage still survives. The cottage at Panther Place, Eltham, once stood about 100 metres away on Main Road. But in 1963 it faced demolition to make room for the Eltham Shire Offices (since demolished). However residents rallied to save Shillinglaw Cottage and became the first in Australia to remove and reconstruct an early settler’s brick building. A fundraiser was the residents’ compilation of loved recipes into the cookery book, Flavour of Eltham. The cottage, built in the late 1870s by noted pioneer builder George Stebbing, is one of Eltham’s earliest buildings and associated with significant early settlers. It is on the National Estate and National Trust Registers. The cottage was constructed with handmade bricks in the Flemish Bond style, typical of cottages and farmhouses in Flanders, Europe. It features burnt ‘header’ bricks over the façade, which gives a chequered effect. The roof is made of slate, while the windows are 12-paned sash with relieving arches. It is not clear who were the first owners of the cottage. The National Trust claims that Stebbing built it for farmer Thomas Cochrane.1 Others say Cochrane first owned the land but Stebbing was Shillinglaw’s first owner and remained so until 1887. The Shillinglaw family then bought it and lived there for around 80 years until 1963 when they sold it to the Eltham Council.2 Farmer Thomas Cochrane bought the Shillinglaw Cottage site from land developer Josiah Holloway. The site was the largest in what Holloway called Little Eltham, of some 30 acres (12 ha), extending along the creek from Henry Street to Luck Street. In 1874 Cochrane sold the land to George Stebbing. Meanwhile in 1861, Stebbing was the owner and occupier of a house at Pitt Street, Eltham, which he had built. Evelyn Observer journalist James Rossiter rented the Pitt Street house, then in 1881 Phillip Shillinglaw occupied it. Stebbing constructed several buildings of note in the area, including the Uniting Church at John Street, the building beside it – a former bank – and St Margaret’s Church of England in Pitt Street. Stebbing was also an Eltham Shire Councillor from 1871 to 1873 and a trustee and treasurer of the Eltham Wesleyan Church.3 In the 1870s he is recorded as the owner of up to five houses. Earlier he had been described as a bricklayer and later became a farmer. In 1882 Stebbing returned to the Pitt Street house and Shillinglaw occupied the new house in Main Road, which he owned from 1887. Shillinglaw was a prolific poet and preached at the Eltham Primitive Methodist Church, where he also served as Sunday School superintendent and led the Young People’s Society Christian Endeavour. The Shillinglaws saw many changes in their property’s boundaries – the major one occurring at the turn of the century when land for the railway and Eltham station was acquired from their holding. The northern part of the remaining land was then used for some of the first commercial developments in what was to become the Eltham Shopping Centre. Later still, the land immediately north of the cottage was bought by the Eltham War Memorial Trust for the War Memorial Buildings and the fire station. The Trust’s land eventually passed to the council. The council bought the remaining two acres (0.8 ha) with the house, and with the exception of the commercial development between the fire station and the post office, all of the former Shillinglaw land is owned by the council or government instrumentalities.4 Since the late 20th century, the cottage has had varied uses, such as a handcrafts store and as a restaurant.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, shillinglaw cottage

This tiny picturesque building near the corner of John Street has served the community since 1878. At that time it served as an agency of the Heidelberg branch of the Commonwelath Bank of Australia. It has a small space inside measuring about 3.6 metres by 4.5 metres. It was built by George Stebbing who was also responsible for other heritage buildings nearby in Eltham. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p93 The tiny picturesque building on Main Road, Eltham, near the corner of John Street, has served the community since 1878. At that time the building, which inside measures only about 3.6m by 4.5m served as an agency of the Heidelberg branch of the Commercial Bank of Australia. The yellow and orange Victorian brick structure was built by Mr George Stebbing.1 Mr Stebbing, who also built the Anglican and former Methodist churches and the Shillinglaw Cottage, had come from England and lived in Pitt Street. The bank is a fine example of a once common but now rare building style – the single room bank. It compares with another in the municipality, also a former Commercial Bank of Australia branch, the timber Little Bank Building in Hurstbridge, built around the early 1900s.2 The Eltham bank, which was said to store gold from the Eltham - Research mining areas, has had exciting moments. A bullet hole still visible in a cedar bench testifies to the drama in 1949 when a youth held up the bank. After the 19-year-old opened an account as John Henderson, he walked to the door and then turned pointing a pistol. But it was shots fired by the clerk, Lindsay Spear, that saved the day, frightening the youth, who drove off empty-handed in a grey sports car. He was later apprehended and given a two-year sentence. Soon afterwards the agency was upgraded to a branch. However by 1954 the bank no longer needed the branch and the adjoining Methodist Church bought the building. It proved useful for the Church’s young people who furnished it and used it for their meetings. A youth club developed, led by young adult member, Ross Gangell. The building was also used as a Sunday School, which with junior membership numbered 27.3 Around 1960, Mrs Alma Bell, of the Methodist Church Women’s Guild, suggested using the building as an opportunity shop to raise funds for a chaplain at the Eltham High School. The women later asked the nearby St Margaret’s Anglican Church to help them in the shop. In 1960 the Eltham Combined Churches Opportunity Shop was established and staffed by Methodist and Anglican parishioners, notably Methodist Mrs Gwen Miller. The shop originally opened on Child Endowment Days to help the needy, but later for years, it opened twice a week. In 1962 it donated clothing and shoes to the Eltham Bushfire Appeal. By 1963 the chaplaincy scheme ceased. So the £450 raised was then donated to the Council for Christian Education and to the participating churches. Funds were also donated to local charities including the Eltham and Research Fire Brigades, the Austin Hospital Auxiliary, the Benevolent Society, the Red Cross and the Diamond Valley Hospital.4 In 2008 the Opportunity Shop volunteers continue to work together to help the local community. Although crammed with second-hand goods, the simple, almost stark interior, is still evident and is relieved only by a front rectangular window and an unused fireplace. Outside, the chimney, the corrugated iron peaked roof, and the surrounding varied plants, add to the charm of this sound building which continues to serve the community well.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, cba bank