Alice McGREGOR Born: 1908; unknown parents. Possibly adopted by the Salter family? Electoral Roll 1936: Highland Terrace Kangaroo Flat. Alice Mary Salter and William Robert Salter living together; presumed to be sister and brother. William Robert Salter was killed in a MVA in Bendigo in 1937 aged 26. In Victoria in 1938, Alice Mary Salter married James Thomas McGregor (born Victoria 1917, died Victoria 1983, buried Fawkner Cemetery) Lived: 1968; 22 Wade Street Golden Square Alice McGregor Died: 1999 aged 91 at Anne Caudle Centre, Bendigo Buried: Kangaroo Flat Cemetery See additional research. Postcard Album of Alice McGregor contained 86 post cards.Postcard Album of Alice McGregor containing 86 post cards. See 1400. Colour photo of Newnham Bridge, Bedford, England. Man standing on wooden bridge over a stream. Fallen tree in foreground. Addressed to Miss A. Stapleton, Arcade, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia Sender - Miss E Peters, Church Farm, Gamlingay, Cambs., England. Undated postcard, collector, alice mcgregor

Alice McGREGOR Born: 1908; unknown parents. Possibly adopted by the Salter family? Electoral Roll 1936: Highland Terrace Kangaroo Flat. Alice Mary Salter and William Robert Salter living together; presumed to be sister and brother. William Robert Salter was killed in a MVA in Bendigo in 1937 aged 26. In Victoria in 1938, Alice Mary Salter married James Thomas McGregor (born Victoria 1917, died Victoria 1983, buried Fawkner Cemetery) Lived: 1968; 22 Wade Street Golden Square Alice McGregor Died: 1999 aged 91 at Anne Caudle Centre, Bendigo Buried: Kangaroo Flat Cemetery See additional research. Postcard Album of Alice McGregor contained 86 post cards.Postcard Album of Alice McGregor containing 86 post cards. See 1400. Colour photo of The Recreation Grounds, New Plymouth, N.Z. Gravel path in foreground. Trees and partially hidden rotunda in background Addressed to Miss A. Stapleton, Arcade, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia Sender - Miss D. Ellis, Hastings, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand Dated 8/10/05 postcard, collector, alice mcgregor

Be Fruitful and Multiply. Hardcover, blue cloth gold embossed, with outline of Australia and the Jewish star in centre, (star of David). Publisher: Lutheran Publishing House, Adelaide. ISBN: 0 9595396 0 3. 1979. 254 pages. Photographs, illustrations & Maps. Signed by Beverly Davis.Beverly Davisfamily tree, family history, marks, solomon, jewish australians

On the afternoon of 18th August 1966, just five kilometres from the main Australian Task Force Base at Nui Dat, a group of Viet Cong soldiers walked into the right flank of Detla Company, 6 RAR. Under a blanket of mist and heavy monsoon rain, amid the mud and shattered rubber trees, a dispersed Company of 108 men held its ground with courage and grim determination against a three-sided attack from a force of 2,500 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army Troops vietnam, 1966, major general john cantwell, major harry smith mc, battle of long tan, australian task force base, nui dat, viet cong soldiers, delta company, 6 rar, north vietnamese army

After a quiet period, interest in bookplates in Australia began to increase in the early 1970s, Entrepreneurial art and book collectors such as Edwin Jewell and others commissioned multiple Bookplate designs from a range of well known fine artists. At a 1997 meeting in Melbourne of the Ephemera Society of Australia Edwin Jewell and others announced the formation of the Australian Bookplate Society. The society was instrumental in promoting the art of the bookplate through establishment of the Australian Bookplate Design competition. Silhouette of man sitting beneath tree in a landscape.Signed D Fraser in pencil lower right beneath image.landscape, woodengraving, ex libris, bookplate, austra, australian bookplate design awards 2020

A brown hardcover landscape format book with a red dust jacket which has a large coloured painting of a country cottage set amongst gum trees, by the author and artist Frank Mutsaers. It has 42 coloured plates with many accompanying black and white sketches. The title page is signed by Frank in blue biro.non-fictionFrank's love for Australia is reflected in his paintings which capture the moods of the Australian landscape.art books, australian landscape, australian art, australian heritage

The Album was compiled by Nancy McHaffie late 1990's, with the assistance of Edith Jeffery's, with her book "Garden of Memories" and extensive knowledge of Phillip Island. The Cemetery lies back from the road and is surrounded by Manna Gums, rare Peppermint Gums, Blackwoods and other native trees. In all 25 acres of land were set aside as Crown Land in the land settlement of 1868. There are 6.2 acres of wetlands near the cemetery entrance.a) Grave stone of Eliza Coghlan b) Grave stone of Eliza Coghlan with Edith Jeffery standing beside. Eliza was born in West Heath, Ireland. She arrived in Australia on the immigrant ship "Thomas Arbuthnot". She came to Phillip Island as house-keeper to James Duffus and served for 40 years. She was often seen walking to Cowes, about five miles, carrying a heavy turkey. The main road to the cemetery was named in her honour. It has been claimed that Eliza with the oldest subject of Queen Victoria. She died in February 1910, at the age of 113.phillip island cemetery, nancy mchaffie, edith jeffery

Print Council of Australia Members' Print Commission, 1973Four figures swimming in a swimming pool. In the upper image there are reflected objects in the pool. The top of the image does not include the reflected object, being instead framed with a theatrical stage awning motif. These objects include a canopied shelter, rails, trees and part of a building. Four naked male figures (different views of the same figure) are swimming, jumping or standing. Foreground shows edge of pool with two deckchairs. Printed n pale blue and black inks. Mounted in cream matt with a timber frame, with glass glazing.Front: 2/15 (lower right) Swimming Pool (centre) Ermes De Zans '73 (lower left) (pencil) Back: Ermes De Zan "Swimming Pool" Etching (1973) (typed lable, upper left) 1973 (yellow sticker, upper left)

Horace Pickford was born at Clunes. His mother was Bessie and his wife was Ida. Horace enlisted on 22 June 1915. He was killed in action on 27 September 1917. He was buried in the vicinity of Polygon Wood. Horace was the brother of Edith Pickford ( m Holmes) and the maternal uncle of Elizabeth Mary Holmes ( m Chatham)Images relating to Australian World War One Soldiers from Ascot. . 2 Black and white carte postale of 17 Australian soldiers in uniform. Many hold a bugle and 5 drums are placed in the foreground. The Battalion colonel sits in the centre. The card was written by Horace Pickford (2282) of 'C' Company, 58th battalion. .3 Certificate of Marriage for Henry Robbins Pickford Family Tree .7 John Pickford Written in ink verso "France 14 July 17 Dear Edie I received your ever welcome letter a few days ago, this is but a card, but you will hear from other letters Ed. This is our batt bugle band, one of my friends belongs to it. I will march him out. Our colonel is in the center. Keep this little photo, it will be a little momento of the old battalion. We have a brass-band also. I have just received a letter from Ethel Pickford from England. Ta Ta now old kid with love. Horace (2882)chatham family collection, chatham, world war one, world war 1, france, horace pickford, ethel pickford, polygone wood, band, music, edith pickford, clunes, brass band, bugle band, henry robbins, family history, william pickford, charles pickford, elizabeth millard, sarah pickford, john pickford, alexander pickford

Australian women's shirt from the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Designed by Mambo Graphics.Short sleeved and collared with six clear plastic buttons down the right side of the shirt. Shirt features the Mambo "Suburbia" design. The collar and sleeves are blue with yellow and red clouds the rest of the shirt is made up of a suburban street scene - houses, trees, telegraph poles, parked cars and dogs and chickens running along the street. The Mambo logo appears in the centre back of the shirt above the clouds in the design. Double stitched seams. Mambofashion, woolmark company mambo graphics, sport, the woolmark company 2000 australian olympic display - exhibition (21/12/2001 - 24/05/2002), sydney 2000 olympic games

Ross Milne grew up on his family's tobacco property in Myrtleford, and began skiing at Falls Creek at an early age. He was taught by Austrian Sigi Haberzettl, who was chief coach at Falls Creek for 17 years. Ross went on to win the North-Eastern District Ski Association (NEDSA) Junior Championships for three consecutive years. In 1961 Ross was a member of the Australian team which competed against New Zealand in the Inter-Dominion Championships. In 1963, he won the Downhill and Alpine Combined title at the Australian Championships, while placing second in the Grand Slalom event. Ross was selected in the Australian team that participated in the 1964 Olympic Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria. A few days before the opening of the Games, on 25th January 1964, he tragically lost his life when he crashed into a tree during a training run for the Men's Downhill. He was only 19 years of age. The construction of the Ross Milne Memorial Ski Jump was first discussed and built between 1964 and 1966. It was located at the top of Gully, Site 99, heading down the gully and ending with a run out onto Falls Creek Road. The Jump was constructed by the Nordic Committee of the Victorian Ski Association. Problems plagued the construction of the Jump and continued until 1974 when it was deemed unsafe. Problems such as construction methods and materials, snow loading and soil foundations and footings were some of the issues which the VSA Nordic Committee faced. On top of this there was discontent with Resort Management and the Lift Company of the day with respect to safety of the Ski Jump and its effect on adjoining chair lifts if an emergency should occur. The cost of reconstruction was prohibitive and an order was given that the SkiJump was not to be used during the 1974 ski season. The Jump was dismantled not long after.These items are significant as they document the development of a memorial to an Australian Olympic Skier, Ross Milne.A collection of documents and photographs documenting the construction of the Ross Milne Memorial Ski Jump built at Falls Creek in 1966. A display board including photographs and explanatory text is part of this collection.ross milne, ross milne memorial ski jump

After a quiet period, interest in bookplates in Australia began to increase in the early 1970s, Entrepreneurial art and book collectors such as Edwin Jewell and others commissioned multiple Bookplate designs from a range of well known fine artists. At a 1997 meeting in Melbourne of the Ephemera Society of Australia Edwin Jewell and others announced the formation of the Australian Bookplate Society. The society was instrumental in promoting the art of the bookplate through establishment of the Australian Bookplate Design competition. The competition includes a design award for secondary schools students.shades of black and white tree in landscape.Signed beneath plate in pencil Olivia Moroney. 2020

Bookmark from the period of the Great War possibly sent to someone serving overseas with inscribed message from Australia.Inset watercolour of gum tree with inscription "Greetings from Australia" and on the reverse of image "1915-1916 from Marjorie".

non-fictionA typescript with some pages handwritten of the life of Nathan Spielvogel founder of the Ballarat Historical Society, teacher and community leader. Tied at top corner with ribbon.memoir, spielvogel, ballarat, dimboola, jewish

non-fictionmt pleasant school, ballarat, bicentenary, michael taffe, francis ellis, tree planting

The grave of Thomas Sweeney, former convict turned respectable citizen. The Murray and Sweeney families were both early settlers of the Eltham district and connected by marriage. Their family plots are located side by side in the Catholic section of the Eltham Cemetery. Irish-born Thomas Sweeney is regarded as the first settler in Eltham. He was transported to Sydney in 1823 after being convicted of arson. He was granted his freedom in 1838 and married Margaret Meehan in the same year. They moved to Melbourne and in 1842 Thomas purchased 110 acres beside the Yarra River in the vicinity of present-day Sweeneys Lane. He called the property ‘Culla Hill’ and built a small slab hut (reputedly with Wurundjeri help; Margaret is said to have run an informal hospital for them in return). This was followed in 1846 by more substantial buildings consisting of a three-roomed Irish-style ‘longhouse’ and a barn made of stone and handmade bricks, with doors large enough to accommodate a fully loaded wagon. When the gold rush came, Thomas prospered by selling meat and potatoes to the prospectors, enabling him to purchase a further 308 acres in 1856. He promoted the construction of a bridge over the Plenty River and the establishment of a school at Eltham. Roman Catholic Church services were held at Culla Hill in the early years. When he died in 1867, he was regarded as a respected member of the community. Thomas and Margaret are buried in Eltham Cemetery with many of their descendants. Their first son John continued to farm Culla Hill until his death in 1909. Culla Hill passed out of the Sweeneys' possession in 1939. The house and barn remain today, though lesser outbuildings have gone. The facade of the house is much the same as it was in the 1840s. Sacred To the memory of Thomas Sweeney Who died Sep 6th 1867 Aged 65 years May his soul res in peace Also his wife Margaret Died Oct 3rd 1884 aged 73 years And their daughters Annie Died Aug 22nd 1860 aged 21 years Johanna Died Aug 19th 1872 aged 22 years Margaret Died 7th Sep 1913 aged 72 years R.I.P. Also In Memory Of John Sweeney Died 24th May 1909 Aged 65 years Also of his wife Ellen Died 8th March 1910 Aged 64 years R.I.P Also In Memory Of Caroline Infant daughter of John & Ellen Sweeney Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p55 From the piety and poverty of 19th century Eltham, 20th century artists and environmentalists, to today’s comfortable middle class, Eltham Cemetery records it all — and more. A visit to Eltham Cemetery reveals an important social record since its beginnings in 1858. The cemetery was situated on about six acres (2.4ha) (now around 4.8ha) at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Metery Roads.1* It is thought that Metery Road was originally called Cemetery Road, but in the early 1940s, a resident, possibly a councillor, objected to the name resulting in the change.2 Much can be gleaned about the developing Eltham community from burial styles and the names of former local residents. Originally the cemetery was divided into Christian denominations, like others of that time, following the United Kingdom burial system. In 1861 the cemetery included Church of England, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Wesleyans (later Methodist) sites. Graves also indicated social class. Some had grand tombstones, perhaps fenced with ornamental cast iron railing, but most in the 1860s and 1870s were constructed of modest stone slabs.3 This indicated the poverty of the district, which was largely inhabited by farmers on small landholdings. A poignant reminder of the high rates of infant mortality of those times, are the many infants and young children recorded on the headstones. Major changes occurred in the cemetery in the late 20th century as Christian adherence weakened and society became more egalitarian and informal. In the early 1970s a non-denominational lawn section for burials was established. Since then all new areas have been non-denominational to accommodate the more diverse local community. Now, instead of large ornamental headstones, some mourners have chosen boulders, reflecting the natural Eltham style, while others choose graves in the lawn areas or niches in walls. In the late 1970s, the University Donor Section was established north-west of Candlebark Lawn for those who donated their bodies for The University of Melbourne medical research. In the early 1980s the natural Australian garden style, popular in Eltham, was mirrored in a new section called Ashes Walk. Local landscape architect Gordon Ford, who had popularised this style, designed the Walk using boulders shaded by native plants beside curved pathways. Landscape architect Robert Boyle later redesigned Ashes Walk and developed other parts of the cemetery in keeping with this style.4 Appropriately Ford, who died in 1999, was interred in the Native Garden Section in a cluster of sites shaded by a large eucalyptus tree.5 By 2007, about 6400 interments were recorded in the Eltham Cemetery. Close inspection reveals notable names in the district’s history. The grave of Thomas Sweeney, a former convict who became a respected citizen, can be found in the Roman Catholic section near the path. Eltham Primary School’s first headmaster, David Clark, is buried in a modest grave in the Church of England section to the east of the path from the main entrance. Sir William Irvine, Victorian Premier from 1900 to 1902, whose grave is in the north-east Presbyterian section was at various times Victoria’s Chief Justice, Deputy Governor and Treasurer.6 Further south is the grave of social reformer Bertram Wainer, born in Scotland in 1928 and died in 1987. He campaigned to legalise abortion and exposed police corruption in allowing illegal ‘backyard’ abortions. Other prominent local residents interred in the cemetery include: Justus Jörgensen, who founded Montsalvat; Alistair Knox, the mud-brick housing pioneer and Eltham Shire Councillor from 1971 to 1975 and President in 1975; Clem and Nina Christensen, who had a major influence on the literary development of post World War Two Australia. Others were: composer Dorian Le Gallienne; artist Peter Glass; Stephen Dattner, a prominent Melbourne furrier; ALP parliamentarian for Greensborough, Pauline Toner and political scientist and commentator, Professor William Macmahon Ball.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, annie sweeney, caroline sweeney, ellen sweeney, eltham cemetery, graves, gravestones, johanna sweeney, john murray, john sweeney, margaret sweeney, mary ellen drain, mary murray, thomas murray, thomas sweeney

Edendale Farm is Nillumbik Shire Council's environment centre situated in Gastons Road, Eltham between the railway and the Diamond Creek. The homestead on the property was built in 1896 and is of historical significance, being the subject of a Heritage Overlay under the Nillumbik Planning Scheme. The Edendale property was originally part of an extensive land purchase in 1852 from the Crown by pioneer Eltham farmer Henry Stooke. He initially purchased 51 acres and later expanded his holdings by purchasing another three adjacent Crown allotments extending northerly from Josiah Holloway's Little Eltham subdivision. Despite clearing the land, Stooke did not build on this property, choosing to live on his property "Rosehill" at Lower Plenty. In 1896 Thomas Cool, Club Manager of the Victoria Coffee Palace in Melbourne purchased 7 acres of the original Stooke land and built the house now known as Edendale. Cool did not farm the land, instead using it as a gentleman’s residence, retiring to Eltham at weekends. In 1918 he purchased an additional 7 acres but in 1919 he sold the property. Later owners included J.W. Cox, the Gaston family and D. Mummery. In the 1980s the Eltham Shire Council purchased the site for use as a Council depot, but this use did not proceed. Subsequently, it was used as the Council pound. The Edendale Farm Pet Education and Retention Centre was established in the summer of 1988/1989 and was set up to replace the existing dog kennels with a high standard pet retention centre. The design style of the building was established to compliment the features of the existing house. It was equipped with 10 retention pens, a veterinary room and a pet education area where school children and other interested parties learnt about pet care procedures. It was later developed into a community farm and was run by an advisory committee and in 2000 it became an Environment Centre. In early 2006 an advisory committee was established for the development of a master plan for future development at Edendale Farm. The committee included Russell Yeoman, a former long-time shire planner and founding member of the Eltham District Historical Society. At the time of filming the Master Plan and future for Edendale was about continuing to develop Edendale as a centre of environment learning and looking at expanding displays and school program, running a lot more of life-long learning and workshops around sustainable living. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p101 A sharp turn from busy Wattletree Road by the railway line, brings a surprise. Only 1.4 km from Eltham’s centre, sheep feed, blissfully unaware of the hectic suburban activity so close by. At the entrance to the 5.6ha Edendale Farm is another surprise. A work of art that looks like huge tree trunks transformed into bowler and top-hatted men. The Fences Act 1968 by Tony Trembath with Mark Cain and John Doyle, 1996, is classified by the National Trust of Australia as having Regional Significance. The title refers to a government act on disputes between neighbors over the placement of fences and boundaries. This takes a ‘wry swipe’ at a community divided by trivial squabbles. It also celebrates making do with limited resources.1 Further along on the left, the office wall is decorated with a massive Eltham Copper Butterfly, designed by Robert Tickner and made by school children with used plastic bottles and other waste material. Nillumbik Council runs Edendale as an Environmental Education Centre, to help preserve and enhance the local environment. As early as 1988 the former Eltham Shire Council realised Edendale’s importance in meeting people’s needs, particularly of children, to enjoy farmland. The centre, with the Eltham North Reserve to the north - including remnant bushland and open parkland - makes up the major part of the public open space for this area. The council considers this area will become increasingly important to the local community for recreational use.2 Educational programs aim to encourage community involvement to ensure the long-term rehabilitation and protection of natural bushland areas. Edendale is used by people of all ages - from school children to adults - for environmental programs and workshops, as well as for recreation, to enjoy the domestic animals and to picnic. Edendale is also home to the Environmental Works staff who manage reserves and roadsides and support Nillumbik Friends environmental groups. The Friends propagate plants at the nursery, which grows indigenous plants and sells these to the public.3 The centre demonstrates the sustainable living the farm teaches, with features like solar hot water and drive lighting and for the fireplace, logs of recycled cardboard. Edendale has had a varied history as a dog pound and even as a retreat for Thomas Cool, Club Manager of the Victoria Coffee Palace in Melbourne. His single-storey weatherboard house built in 1896, which still stands, was grander than most homes in Eltham. Although such buildings were common in many other parts of Melbourne, Eltham’s poverty and remoteness did not encourage such construction. The Victorian rectangular-shaped house, with a corrugated iron roof and veranda, has elegant large rooms, leadlight windows, ceiling roses, two bay windows and ornately carved wooden fireplace surrounds. Cool bought seven acres (2.8ha) from pioneer Eltham farmer Henry Stooke’s 200 acre (81ha) farm, which he had bought from the Crown in 1852. In 1918 Cool bought an extra seven acres (2.8ha) but in 1919 sold the estate to farmer John Cox. In 1933 Cox sold Edendale to Mrs Elizabeth Gaston, after whom the road leading to the centre was named. The property was owned by several Gaston family members, who called it Edendale, then by a police constable, Douglas Mummery, until the Shire of Eltham bought it in 1970. Oddly Edendale was known as Mummery’s for almost 20 years, although Mummery owned it only for a short time.4 The shire used Edendale as a dog pound until amalgamation with other municipalities in 1996. The pound then moved to the Yan Yean Road, Plenty site, which had been used by the former Diamond Valley Shire Council. To the west and north the centre is bounded by Diamond Creek and on the east by the Melbourne-Hurstbridge railway line. Part of the Research creek forms the centre’s southern boundary.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, edendale farm

Art Gallery with mural painted by Clifton Pugh (1924-1990) at his Artists' Colony, Dunmoochin, Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. Following military service in the second world war, Clifton Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne as well as Justus Jorgensen, founder of Montsalvat. For a while he lived on the dole but also worked packing eggs for the Belot family saving sufficient to purchase six acres (2.4 ha) of land at Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. He accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in a property of approximately 200 acres, stablishing it as one of the first artistic communes in Australia alongside Montsalvat in Eltham. It was around 1951 that Pugh felt he had '"done moochin' around" and so the name of the property evolved. He bought timber from Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminer's huts, it was a one room wattle-and-daub structure with dirt floor. Over the years it expanded with thick adobe walls made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors. All materials other than the local earth were sourced from second hand materials, most found at wreckers' yards. Artists from across the nation were drawn to Dunmoochin, with several setting up houses and shacks on the property, maintaining their independence but sharing their artistic zeal. Artists who worked or resided at Dunmoochin included Mirka Mora, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and John Olsen. In 2002, Pugh's house along with its treasure trove of art and a library of some 20,000 books was destroyed by fire. Traces of Pugh's home remain with the presence of the Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design, procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. In place of Pugh's house rose two double-storey mud-brick artists' studios topped with corrugated iron rooves curved like the wings of a bird with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings survived the fire. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p153 It’s not surprising that artist Clifton Pugh was drawn to Cottles Bridge to establish his artists’ colony Dunmoochin. Undisturbed by the clamour of modern life at Barreenong Road, Pugh was surrounded by the Australian bush he loved, and where his ashes were later scattered. The 200 acres (81ha) of bushland, broken by glimpses of rolling hills, has more than 50 species of orchids and Pugh shared his property with native animals including kangaroos, emus, phascogales, wombats, and diverse bird life. Pugh encouraged these creatures to join him in the bush by creating, with Monash University, a holding station where the animals were raised. Dunmoochin inspired Pugh for such paintings as in a book on orchids and the Death of a Wombat series.1 But his love for the bush was accompanied by the fear that Europeans were destroying it and much of his painting illustrated this fear and his plea for its conservation.2 However it was his house rather than the surrounding bush that was to be destroyed. Tragically in 2002 Pugh’s house, with its treasure of art and library of 20,000 art books, was destroyed by fire. Traces of the beauty of Pugh’s home still remain, however, in the magnificent Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. Now in place of Pugh’s house, are two double-storey mud-brick artists’ studios topped with corrugated roofs curved like birds’ wings, with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings remain.3 Pugh grew up on his parents’ hobby farm at Briar Hill and attended the Briar Hill Primary School, then Eltham High School and later Ivanhoe Grammar. At 15 he became a copy boy for the Radio Times newspaper, then worked as a junior in a drafting office. Pugh was to have three wives and two sons. After serving in World War Two in New Guinea and Japan, Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie, at the National Gallery School in Melbourne.4 Another of his teachers was Justus Jörgensen, founder of Montsalvat the Eltham Artists’ Colony. Pugh lived on the dole for a while and paid for his first six acres (2.4ha) at Barreenong Road by working as an egg packer for the Belot family. Pugh accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in the 200 acre property. They, too, purchased their land from the Belot family by working with their chickens. Around 1951 Pugh felt he had ‘Done moochin’ around’ and so the name of his property was born. Pugh bought some used timber from architect Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminers’ huts it was a one-room wattle-and-daub structure with a dirt floor. It was so small that the only room he could find for his telephone was on the fork of a tree nearby.5 Over the years the mud-brick house grew to 120 squares in the style now synonymous with Eltham. It had thick adobe walls (sun-dried bricks) made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors with the entire structure made of second-hand materials – most found at wreckers’ yards. Pugh’s first major show in Melbourne in 1957, established him as a distinctive new painter, breaking away from the European tradition ‘yet not closely allied to any particular school of Australian painting’.6 Pugh became internationally known and was awarded the Order of Australia. He won the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times, although he preferred painting the bush and native animals. In 1990 not long before he died, Pugh was named the Australian War Memorial’s official artist at the 75th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. Today one of Pugh’s legacies is the Dunmoochin Foundation, which gives seven individual artists or couples and environmental researchers the chance to work in beautiful and peaceful surroundings, usually for a year. By November 2007, more than 80 people had taken part, and the first disabled artist had been chosen to reside in a new studio with disabled access.1 In 1989, not long before Pugh died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 65, he established the Foundation with La Trobe University and the Victorian Conservation Trust now the Trust for Nature. Pugh’s gift to the Australian people – of around 14 hectares of bushland and buildings and about 550 art works – is run by a voluntary board of directors, headed by one of his sons, Shane Pugh. La Trobe University in Victoria stores and curates the art collection and organises its exhibition around Australia.2 The Foundation aims to protect and foster the natural environment and to provide residences, studios and community art facilities at a minimal cost for artists and environmental researchers. They reside at the non-profit organisation for a year at minimal cost. The buildings, some decorated with murals painted by Pugh and including a gallery, were constructed by Pugh, family and friends, with recycled as well as new materials and mud-bricks. The Foundation is inspired by the tradition begun by the Dunmoochin Artists’ Cooperative which formed in the late 1950s as one of the first artistic communes in Australia. Members bought the land collaboratively and built the seven dwellings so that none could overlook another. But, in the late 1960s, the land was split into private land holdings, which ended the cooperative. Dunmoochin attracted visits from the famous artists of the day including guitarists John Williams and Segovia; singer and comedian Rolf Harris; comedian Barry Humphries; and artists Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Mirka Mora. A potters’ community, started by Peter and Helen Laycock with Alma Shanahan, held monthly exhibitions in the 1960s, attracting local, interstate and international visitors – with up to 500 attending at a time.3 Most artists sold their properties and moved away. But two of the original artists remained into the new millennium as did relative newcomer Heja Chong who built on Pugh’s property (now owned by the Dunmoochin Foundation). In 1984 Chong brought the 1000-year-old Japanese Bizan pottery method to Dunmoochin. She helped build (with potters from all over Australia) the distinctive Bizan-style kiln, which fires pottery from eight to 14 days in pine timber, to produce the Bizan unglazed and simple subdued style. The kiln, which is rare in Australia, is very large with adjoining interconnected ovens of different sizes, providing different temperatures and firing conditions. Frank Werther, who befriended Pugh as a fellow student at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, built his house off Barreenong Road in 1954. Werther is a painter of the abstract and colourist style and taught art for about 30 years. Like so many in the post-war years in Eltham Shire, as it was called then, Werther built his home in stages using mud-brick and second-hand materials. The L-shaped house is single-storey but two-storey in parts with a corrugated-iron pitched roof. The waterhole used by the Werthers for their water supply is thought to be a former goldmining shaft.4 Alma Shanahan at Barreenong Road was the first to join Pugh around 1953. They also met at the National Gallery Art School and Shanahan at first visited each weekend to work, mainly making mud-bricks. She shared Pugh’s love for the bush, but when their love affair ended, she designed and built her own house a few hundred yards (metres) away. The mud-brick and timber residence, made in stages with local materials, is rectangular, single-storey with a corrugated-iron roof. As a potter, Shanahan did not originally qualify as an official Cooperative member.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, art gallery, clifton pugh, dunmoochin, cottlesbridge, cottles bridge, barreenong road

Following military service in the second world war, Clifton Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne as well as Justus Jorgensen, founder of Montsalvat. For a while he lived on the dole but also worked packing eggs for the Belot family saving sufficient to purchase six acres (2.4 ha) of land at Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. He accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in a property of approximately 200 acres, stablishing it as one of the first artistic communes in Australia alongside Montsalvat in Eltham. It was around 1951 that Pugh felt he had '"done moochin' around" and so the name of the property evolved. He bought timber from Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminer's huts, it was a one room wattle-and-daub structure with dirt floor. Over the years it expanded with thick adobe walls made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors. All materials other than the local earth were sourced from second hand materials, most found at wreckers' yards. Artists from across the nation were drawn to Dunmoochin, with several setting up houses and shacks on the property, maintaining their independence but sharing their artistic zeal. Artists who worked or resided at Dunmoochin included Mirka Mora, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and John Olsen. In 2002, Pugh's house along with its treasure trove of art and a library of some 20,000 books was destroyed by fire. Traces of Pugh's home remain with the presence of the Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design, procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. In place of Pugh's house rose two double-storey mud-brick artists' studios topped with corrugated iron rooves curved like the wings of a bird with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings survived the fire. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p155 It’s not surprising that artist Clifton Pugh was drawn to Cottles Bridge to establish his artists’ colony Dunmoochin. Undisturbed by the clamour of modern life at Barreenong Road, Pugh was surrounded by the Australian bush he loved, and where his ashes were later scattered. The 200 acres (81ha) of bushland, broken by glimpses of rolling hills, has more than 50 species of orchids and Pugh shared his property with native animals including kangaroos, emus, phascogales, wombats, and diverse bird life. Pugh encouraged these creatures to join him in the bush by creating, with Monash University, a holding station where the animals were raised. Dunmoochin inspired Pugh for such paintings as in a book on orchids and the Death of a Wombat series.1 But his love for the bush was accompanied by the fear that Europeans were destroying it and much of his painting illustrated this fear and his plea for its conservation.2 However it was his house rather than the surrounding bush that was to be destroyed. Tragically in 2002 Pugh’s house, with its treasure of art and library of 20,000 art books, was destroyed by fire. Traces of the beauty of Pugh’s home still remain, however, in the magnificent Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. Now in place of Pugh’s house, are two double-storey mud-brick artists’ studios topped with corrugated roofs curved like birds’ wings, with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings remain.3 Pugh grew up on his parents’ hobby farm at Briar Hill and attended the Briar Hill Primary School, then Eltham High School and later Ivanhoe Grammar. At 15 he became a copy boy for the Radio Times newspaper, then worked as a junior in a drafting office. Pugh was to have three wives and two sons. After serving in World War Two in New Guinea and Japan, Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie, at the National Gallery School in Melbourne.4 Another of his teachers was Justus Jörgensen, founder of Montsalvat the Eltham Artists’ Colony. Pugh lived on the dole for a while and paid for his first six acres (2.4ha) at Barreenong Road by working as an egg packer for the Belot family. Pugh accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in the 200 acre property. They, too, purchased their land from the Belot family by working with their chickens. Around 1951 Pugh felt he had ‘Done moochin’ around’ and so the name of his property was born. Pugh bought some used timber from architect Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminers’ huts it was a one-room wattle-and-daub structure with a dirt floor. It was so small that the only room he could find for his telephone was on the fork of a tree nearby.5 Over the years the mud-brick house grew to 120 squares in the style now synonymous with Eltham. It had thick adobe walls (sun-dried bricks) made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors with the entire structure made of second-hand materials – most found at wreckers’ yards. Pugh’s first major show in Melbourne in 1957, established him as a distinctive new painter, breaking away from the European tradition ‘yet not closely allied to any particular school of Australian painting’.6 Pugh became internationally known and was awarded the Order of Australia. He won the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times, although he preferred painting the bush and native animals. In 1990 not long before he died, Pugh was named the Australian War Memorial’s official artist at the 75th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. Today one of Pugh’s legacies is the Dunmoochin Foundation, which gives seven individual artists or couples and environmental researchers the chance to work in beautiful and peaceful surroundings, usually for a year. By November 2007, more than 80 people had taken part, and the first disabled artist had been chosen to reside in a new studio with disabled access.1 In 1989, not long before Pugh died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 65, he established the Foundation with La Trobe University and the Victorian Conservation Trust now the Trust for Nature. Pugh’s gift to the Australian people – of around 14 hectares of bushland and buildings and about 550 art works – is run by a voluntary board of directors, headed by one of his sons, Shane Pugh. La Trobe University in Victoria stores and curates the art collection and organises its exhibition around Australia.2 The Foundation aims to protect and foster the natural environment and to provide residences, studios and community art facilities at a minimal cost for artists and environmental researchers. They reside at the non-profit organisation for a year at minimal cost. The buildings, some decorated with murals painted by Pugh and including a gallery, were constructed by Pugh, family and friends, with recycled as well as new materials and mud-bricks. The Foundation is inspired by the tradition begun by the Dunmoochin Artists’ Cooperative which formed in the late 1950s as one of the first artistic communes in Australia. Members bought the land collaboratively and built the seven dwellings so that none could overlook another. But, in the late 1960s, the land was split into private land holdings, which ended the cooperative. Dunmoochin attracted visits from the famous artists of the day including guitarists John Williams and Segovia; singer and comedian Rolf Harris; comedian Barry Humphries; and artists Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Mirka Mora. A potters’ community, started by Peter and Helen Laycock with Alma Shanahan, held monthly exhibitions in the 1960s, attracting local, interstate and international visitors – with up to 500 attending at a time.3 Most artists sold their properties and moved away. But two of the original artists remained into the new millennium as did relative newcomer Heja Chong who built on Pugh’s property (now owned by the Dunmoochin Foundation). In 1984 Chong brought the 1000-year-old Japanese Bizan pottery method to Dunmoochin. She helped build (with potters from all over Australia) the distinctive Bizan-style kiln, which fires pottery from eight to 14 days in pine timber, to produce the Bizan unglazed and simple subdued style. The kiln, which is rare in Australia, is very large with adjoining interconnected ovens of different sizes, providing different temperatures and firing conditions. Frank Werther, who befriended Pugh as a fellow student at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, built his house off Barreenong Road in 1954. Werther is a painter of the abstract and colourist style and taught art for about 30 years. Like so many in the post-war years in Eltham Shire, as it was called then, Werther built his home in stages using mud-brick and second-hand materials. The L-shaped house is single-storey but two-storey in parts with a corrugated-iron pitched roof. The waterhole used by the Werthers for their water supply is thought to be a former goldmining shaft.4 Alma Shanahan at Barreenong Road was the first to join Pugh around 1953. They also met at the National Gallery Art School and Shanahan at first visited each weekend to work, mainly making mud-bricks. She shared Pugh’s love for the bush, but when their love affair ended, she designed and built her own house a few hundred yards (metres) away. The mud-brick and timber residence, made in stages with local materials, is rectangular, single-storey with a corrugated-iron roof. As a potter, Shanahan did not originally qualify as an official Cooperative member.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, art gallery, clifton pugh, dunmoochin, cottlesbridge, cottles bridge, barreenong road

A habitat corridor and it strengthens the community. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p185 Barak Bushlands lie west of the Diamond Creek on the corner of Falkiner Street and busy, noisy Main Road. They form part of an important habitat corridor linking the Yarra River to the Kinglake National Park.1 Manna Gums, tawny frogmouths and platypuses are some of the indigenous plants and animals that have made their home there. The bushlands are the result of more than nine years of hard work by the local community with the Nillumbik Council, to transform a degraded flood plain into this refuge of natural beauty. In 1997, shortly after moving into the new Riverside Estate on Falkiner Street, Eltham, several residents noticed the sorry state of the Diamond Creek and surrounding area. Part of it was used as a cow paddock and although small patches of vegetation survived, the area was infested with weeds, rabbits, rubbish and drainage from the housing estate. At various times the 4.4 hectares had been used as a market garden and for shire stock piles. The residents began to restore the area by revegetating land along the Diamond Creek. In 1998 they established the Friends of the Diamond Creek Falkiner Street Reserve2 and 35 families joined from the 90-house Estate. Carolyn Mellor, as the Friends’ Land Manager, undertook a four-year horticulture course to guide this massive project for a volunteer organisation. Since 1999, she has been the Friends’ President. In 1999 the Friends urged the Nillumbik Council to undertake a feasibility study into establishing a wetland system and urban forest. Work began in 2002 with Nillumbik Council funding the project, supplemented by government grants. The Friends also received grants from Melbourne Water and Parks Victoria.3 Aided by the Friends and other community members, the Council created the Barak Bushlands consisting of a forest, a wetland, a bridge, a path and open space. The beautiful wetland treats most of the estate’s stormwater runoff. Storm water is filtered through plants in the wetland ponds then is released slowly into the billabong, before flowing into the Diamond Creek. The wetland also helps to minimise flooding and the improved water quality provides a flora and fauna habitat. The Friends and other volunteers planted more than 27,000 plants, more than one third of which they grew from seeds they collected at Lower Eltham and Wingrove Parks. Eltham High School students planted thousands of these through a Year Eight program introduced for this purpose. Other groups who assisted were: Green Corps, local Scouts and Guides – 2nd Montmorency, 1st Diamond Creek and 1st Eltham Cub Packs, Eltham College students, Eltham East Primary School, Landcare members, Eltham Lions Club and the Eltham Baptist Church. To maintain enthusiasm for the mammoth task, the Friends and other volunteers ‘adopted’ trees to water and wrote their names on the stakes. In 2004, to recognise the area’s original occupiers, the reserve was named Barak Bushlands. William Barak, who lived from 1824 to 1903, was the last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe of the Wurundjeri-willam people.4 Traces of these original inhabitants remain in scar trees (bark sections removed to make a shield or canoe). That same year the Friends’ group was a finalist in the prestigious Federal Government, Banksia Environmental Awards. The Friends have also participated in Clean Up Australia, removing tonnes of rubbish and regularly testing the billabong, wetland and creek, for pollutants. For years the Friends, together with the Australian Platypus Conservancy, have tagged, measured and checked the health of platypuses from the Diamond and Mullum Mullum Creeks. With Latrobe University the Friends have conducted night walks to view owls, possums, bats and sugar gliders.5 Challenges for the council and the Friends continue with a large rabbit population, some vandalism, weed eradication and maintenance. However, thanks to this community effort, locals can now escape confined urban living on small blocks of land and enjoy the beauty of indigenous plants and animals. Working together has also strengthened the local community,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, barak bushlands, diamond creek (creek), eltham

This old apple tree situated beside the Plenty River Trail at Greensborough has been associated with Melbourne Founder John Batman. Known as Batman's Tree, this apple tree is on the bank of the Plenty River near Leischa Court, Greensborough. It is said that Melbourne Founder John Batman may have planted the tree and later signed his treaty here with the Aboriginal people. It still bears fruit and its recorded on the National Trust's Register of Significant Trees, as the oldest apple tree in Victoria. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p7 Was This John Batman's Tree? An apple tree on the bank of the Plenty River near Leischa Court, Greensborough, is believed to have belonged to Melbourne’s founder, John Batman. It could also stand where John Batman signed his famous treaty with the Aboriginal people.1 Known as Batman’s Tree, it still bears fruit and is recorded on the National Trust’s Register of Significant Trees, as the oldest apple tree in Victoria. It is ‘Believed to have been planted by either John Batman, (c1837) or Martin Batey (1841)’.2 In 1966 a Horticultural Adviser, Mr Rolfe, after extensive questioning of aged Greensborough residents, wrote: ‘it thus seems fairly certain that the old tree on the banks of the Plenty River is an original Batman apple tree’. Mr Rolfe said that the tree stood on a spot formerly called Wattle Bend: ‘one of the sites claimed to be where John Batman signed his famous treaty with the aboriginals. ‘My main source of information has been interviews with people who attended school in the Greensborough area from 70 to 80 years ago. Their parents were close to the days when Melbourne was founded so information passed on by word of mouth.’ Around 1920 the tree was struck by lightning and a concrete block was placed in the split. The concrete is inscribed with the date 1841 when the tree was thought to have been planted. Not everyone agrees with Mr Rolfe however. Former secretary of the Nillumbik Historical Society, Kevin Patterson, said there was no written evidence to support the claim. But he said the tree had been known to locals for decades as Batman’s Tree. In the 1920s a holiday resort in the area advertised: ‘Come to Greensborough and see John Batman’s tree’. Mr Patterson said it was thought that when Batman died in 1839 his land was sold and a Greensborough man Frederick Flintoff bought seedlings from his orchard for £1 each. This was the only one left.3 Mr Rolfe said: ‘If planted in 1837, or even a few years later, it undoubtedly is the oldest living apple tree in Victoria. Title records of the property on which the tree grows show that the land was a crown grant of F D Wickham in 1840. Mr Wickham was reputed to be a friend of John Batman. All the early settlers prior to the crown grants were squatters, by virtue of Batman’s treaty. This treaty was revoked by the then New South Wales Government, so it is likely that Wickham or an agent was in occupation before 1840. ‘According to Mrs Mavis Latham (John Batman – Great Australian Series, Oxford University Press) when Batman came to Port Phillip in 1835 he brought fruit trees with him. He failed to get a crown grant for his selection on Collins Street, which included 20 acres (eight ha) of orchard and cultivation. His residence became the Government Office and Melbourne grew from wild bushland in 1835 to a town of over 20,000 people by 1841. It is possible Batman visited Wickham and presented him with a tree.’ However a Flintoff descendant in 1933 said Frederick Flintoff ordered his bailiff Martin Batey to transplant the Batman Tree from the Spencer Street orchard to its present site as a memorial to his friend Batman.4 Mr Rolfe spoke to many people, including descendants of the Bateys and Flintoffs and pupils at the Greensborough Primary School. Many had gained their information from a ‘very highly respected’ head master Lewis Amiet at the Greensborough School from 1895 to 1917. He must have gained this information from residents in the district and had this information been incorrect, the parents of the children would have promptly corrected him.’ One woman who attended the school before Mr Amiet’s appointment, said the previous teacher also taught that the tree on the Plenty River was a Batman tree, Mr Rolfe said.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, greensborough, john batman tree, plenty river trail

The building was designed by Charles Maplestone of Heidelberg, son-in-law to Anthony Beale of St Helena. Maplestone was a prominent architect who came out to Australia with his family in 1852. The foundation stone was laid by Mrs Isabella Maplestone on 11th November 1867. The bricklayers for the church were George Stebbing, H Limmer, H Spicer and a Mr Timm while Thomas Day was the stonemason. Another three years were to pass before sufficient money could be raised for its completion. It was opened by Bishop Perry on 1st November, 1870. The church bell which hung under a tree for 50 years until it was incorporated in the parish hall was brought out from England and presented by Charles Orme. In 1916, the estate of George Martin Pizzey left sufficient money to build the red brick hall, which still stands today (2023) though in January 1969 the hall and bell tower were badly damaged by bushfire. Coincidentally the former home of benefactor, George Pizzey was destroyed in the same fire. Of particular significance are the interior and exterior of the church, the Sunday school and hall with emphasis on pre-World War I fabric (excluding the 1990s additions) and the three coloured glass windows currently suspended in the 1990s entry foyer. In 2011 further alterations were made to the front of the Church. The church is historically significant because it was the oldest public building in the former Diamond Valley Shire, is amongst the oldest buildings in the Shire of Nillumbik and is associated with the early settlement of the Diamond Creek district. The church is historically, socially and spiritually significant because it has been a place of worship for over 150 years and continues to be, an important meeting place in the Shire. The church is aesthetically significant for the three stained glass windows executed by the noted stained glass manufacturers, Ferguson & Urie, as well as the supporting coloured glass windows in the church. The Sunday school & parish hall is architecturally significant because the hall is a well executed and preserved example of the work of noted church architects, North & Williams. It is historically significant because it is connected with local parishioner and Melbourne industrialist, George Pizzey, who bequeathed funds for its construction. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. National Estate Ntionl Trust of Australia (Victoria) Local significance Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p85 St John’s Anglican Church stands like a beacon on the hill on Main Street, Diamond Creek. Today the church has a large congregation, but its early years were marked by a small congregation struggling to find enough money to survive. It was gold in Diamond Creek that resulted in the building of this National Trust registered property.1 This church is far removed from William Wilson’s humble barn (later the Bowling Green) where the first Anglican church services were conducted – probably the first in the district.2 In the mid 19th century services were infrequent as the Rev Francis Hales, travelling on horseback, also conducted services elsewhere, including at Heidelberg, Coburg, Kinglake, Arthurs Creek, St Andrews and Kangaroo Ground. In 1860 Diamond Creek came under the jurisdiction of the Eltham Parish. Until the mid 1860s the Diamond Creek settlement included only about 20 families who were struggling farmers. But this changed when gold was found in 1862. Then the township grew to 200 families, including miners, civil administration workers and shopkeepers. The resulting growth of Church of England adherents prompted them to petition the Government in 1866 for land to build a church. The area chosen, on which the original building still stands, was at the centre of the proposed township. Today church leaders believe that this conspicuous location is one of the reasons for its exceptional growth. Prominent architect Charles Maplestone designed the building as he did the Presbyterian Church at Kangaroo Ground. St John’s, which is still intact, was built in the Gothic Revival style with the traditional rectangular plan of a central nave and sanctuary at the end. It is typical of small churches built in Victoria at that time, with polychromatic hand-made bricks, a porch, diagonal buttresses and a slate roof.3 The church was officially opened by Lord Bishop Perry on November 1, 1870. But during the next 40 years, due to the varying fortunes of gold mining, the church struggled to remain viable. In 1909 it separated from the Eltham Parish to form a parish with Greensborough. Life became more difficult with the privations of World War One. Then disaster struck in 1915 when fire destroyed the Diamond Creek Gold Mine, wiping out the major livelihood of most parishioners. However the church’s morale was lifted in 1916, when it received a bequest to build the red brick hall, from late parishioner and prominent leather manufacturer, George Pizzey. As prosperity grew, in 1924 the congregation separated from Greensborough, but they rejoined in the 1930s Depression. In the 1950s the wider population soared, impacting on St John’s, and it became a separate parish, becoming responsible for six churches at St Andrews, Hazel Glen, Hurstbridge, St Helena and Yarrambat. As parishioner numbers outgrew the building, extensions were added in 1989 and then in 1993, blending in well with the original building. Church members have made a huge contribution to the local community. John Ryan was a Heidelberg Shire Councillor for 25 years from 1931, Mayor in 1939 and headed several local sporting and other organisations. His son Jock became a clergyman and a local historian heading the Nillumbik Historical Society. Another parishioner, Dr Ted Cordner, came to Diamond Creek in 1920. One of his sons Donald, who was a local doctor, won the Brownlow Medal, was President of the Melbourne Cricket Club and President of the Melbourne Grammar School Council. Roy ‘Monty’ Vale was a state Liberal MP and was related to May Vale, a member of the Heidelberg School of Artists.4 In the early 21st century St John’s Anglican Church is one of the fastest growing congregations in Melbourne. References: St Johns Anglican Church complex, Sunday School and Parish Hall 61 Main Street DIAMOND CREEK, NILLUMBIK SHIRE. (2023, June 7). Retrieved from https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/64023 Diamond Creek, VIC. – St John’s Anglican (2023, June 7). Retrieved from https://www.churchhistories.net.au/church-catalog/diamond-creek-vic-st-johns-anglican 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, st john's anglican church, diamond creek

Great Hall at Montsalvat built 1938-52, designed by Justus Jorgensen Covered under National Estate, National Trust of Australia (Victoria) State Significance, Victorian Heritage and Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p129 At first glance, Montsalvat, the artists’ community at Hillcrest Avenue, Eltham, could belong to another time and place. The French provincial Gothic-style buildings blend picturesquely with the introduced and native trees and farm animals on the five hectare property. But Montsalvat belongs very much to today’s Eltham, having inspired much of its creative activity and style. The use of mud-brick and recycled building materials, for which Eltham is so well-known, was largely popularised by Montsalvat. Montsalvat – unique in Victoria and probably in Australia – is registered by the National Trust and National Estate.1 Montsalvat, named after the castle of the Knights of the Holy Grail, has attracted artists and intellectuals since it was founded in 1934. For years at weekends, artists, lawyers, philosophers, politicians and others, who shared a love for what Montsalvat stood for, gathered for a meal and stimulating discussion. The focus for this gathering of talent was Justus Jörgensen, an eccentric man with vision and charisma. It was Jörgensen’s foresight that saw the creation of Montsalvat, which in 1975 was formed into a trust to benefit the Victorian people. The property was then valued at about three million dollars. It is now visited by thousands of people annually. Born in 1894 and brought up a Catholic, Jörgensen had trained as an architect. He later studied painting at the National Gallery School under artist, Frederick McCubbin, then joined the studio of artist Max Meldrum. In 1924, Jörgensen married medical student Lillian Smith, and with artist friends they travelled to Europe to study the great masters. In London Jörgensen exhibited in several major galleries. One of his still life paintings was included in the book The Art of Still Life by Herbert Furst, which featured 100 of the greatest ever still life paintings.2 In 1929, Jörgensen returned to Melbourne where Lil, now qualified, worked as an anaesthetist at St Vincent’s Hospital. They bought a small house in Brighton and Jörgensen rented a large building in Queen Street for his studio until the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria bought it in 1955. While designing and overseeing the building of a studio for his friend the famous cartoonist Percy Leason, in Lavender Park Road, Jörgensen decided to buy land for a country retreat in Eltham. So the building of Montsalvat began. Jörgensen gathered around a dozen of his friends and students from his Queen Street studio. They set to work, first at weekends then some decided to live permanently on the site. Jörgensen had seen mud-brick buildings in Spain and recognised that Eltham’s clay soil was ideal for mud-bricks and although labour intensive, it was a very cheap way of building. Jörgensen’s students and friends worked under his direction with the help of local tradesmen, including carpenter, Len Jarrold and later stone mason, Horrie Judd. In return Jörgensen would give the students a painting lesson or two. It was the Great Depression when many were out of work. Jörgensen also inspired people to give generously of money and materials. With their help Jörgensen found second-hand materials for building. Friends donated slate for roofing, discarded firebricks were used for flooring and windows and doors and a cast-iron circular staircase came from a wrecker. The students’ day started at 7am with building and domestic chores, shared equally between the sexes. The first building was used by his friends at weekends and then became a home for his wife Lil. It consisted of three rooms and an attic under a high-pitched roof. Jörgensen then built a similar structure with the same high-pitched roof as a more permanent home for his students. The two buildings were joined together with a tower and a studio for Jörgensen. While excavating for the studio a reef of yellow mud-stone was found and then used in construction. The next building was the Great Hall, to be used for dining, exhibitions and meetings and completed in 1958, after a halt during the war. Whelan the Wrecker donated the stone-framed windows from the building that housed the Victorian Insurance Co. in Collins Street, which had been demolished in the 1930s. The swimming pool was donated and cubicles were built for the students with their initials marked in tiles on each doorstep.1 One of Jörgensen’s great abilities was to recognise how to use material which harmonised. He would comb through wreckers’ yards for what he needed. Regarding his buildings as sculptural pieces, his first consideration was for the aesthetic quality of a building and only then for its functionality.2 At Montsalvat, Jörgensen found he was able to put his ideas into practice without compromise and those who worked with him had to conform to his ideas. With the Jörgensens, the colony’s original nucleus consisted of the Skipper family – Mervyn and wife Lena, daughters Helen and Sonia and son Matcham,who was to become an eminent jeweller and sculptor represented in National Gallery collections throughout Australia and in European museums.3 Other members were Arthur Munday, Lesley Sinclair, Helen Lempriere, Ian Robertson, John Smith, George Chalmers, John Busst and Sue Van der Kellan; also Jörgensen’s three sons – Max, Sebastian and Sigmund – and Saskia, Sonia Skipper and Arthur Munday’s daughter. Montsalvat went through some hard times when local gossips spread rumours of sexual shenanigans at Montsalvat. However Montsalvat also had many local supporters – especially amongst the local tradespeople. The colony was certainly unconventional – with Jörgensen’s wife Lil (and son Max) and life-time partner Helen Skipper, (mother of Sebastian and Sigmund) living at Montsalvat. Sonia Skipper says in her biography that the group were ‘very conscious of their responsibilities to each other and a desire to make their relationships work’.4 By World War Two many buildings around the Great Hall were completed. Jörgensen was a pacifist, as were most of his students. Some of the Montsalvat community enlisted while others engaged in essential services like dairy farming and market gardening for the war effort. It was then that Jörgensen constructed farm buildings. After the war many well-known personalities such as Clifton Pugh, landscape gardener Gordon Ford, and builder Alistair Knox, were drawn to Montsalvat. They learnt that building was not a ‘sacred cow’ only for professionals, but that anyone who was willing to get their hands dirty could do it. The post-war shortage of materials also encouraged builders to follow Montsalvat’s lead in reusing materials. When Jörgensen died in 1975, his influence did not – thanks largely to the vigilance of his son, Sigmund, who became its administrator. The weekend dinners have gone, but in 2008 about 14 artists still work at Montsalvat – some living there – including a couple who have been there since its early days. Under Sigmund’s direction Montsalvat further expanded its activities which included festivals, art exhibitions, concerts and weddings. Sigmund completed the Chapel, then the Long Gallery next to the pool, After the barn burnt down, he replaced it in 1999 (the builder was Hamish Knox, Alistair’s son) with a new gallery and entrance and added a restaurant. Sigmund has been careful that any new building blends in with the character of Montsalvat. In 2006 Montsalvat was restructured for its continued financial viability and with the help of Arts Victoria a new executive officer was appointed. A representative board from the wider community was established, which includes members from the former Montsalvat Trust including Sigmund Jörgensen – who is now the heritage and arts adviser to the new company Montsalvat Ltd.5 Today, visiting Montsalvat one still sees artists, students and visitors enjoying the unique and beautiful surroundings.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, eltham, great hall, montsalvat

Vassilieff dynamited rock from his own property to build his house. Stonygrad is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p135 Stonygrad, the home built by Expressionist painter and sculptor Danila Vassilieff, is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Vassilieff, who amongst others influenced painter Sydney Nolan and Albert Tucker, was a member of the artists group the Angry Penguins.1 He was also a highly regarded art teacher at the nearby Koornong Experimental School and taught at Eltham High School. Art critic Robert Hughes described Vassilieff’s painting as ‘lyrical without social commentary’, and said Vassilieff was ‘the most oddly neglected artist in recent Australian History’.2 Vassilieff, who was born in 1897 in Russia, had an unusually adventurous life before he settled in Warrandyte. The 12th of 18 children, he lived on a farm in the Don Basin. Vassilieff trained with the Imperial Military Academy at St Petersburg and fought in World War One as an officer in the White Russian Army against the communists. In 1920 he was captured, then escaped from prison, stole a horse and rode bareback 150 miles to the Black Sea, helped at first by Tartar freebooters. He then travelled to India, Shanghai and arrived in Queensland as a refugee in 1923 where he began painting. He and his wife Anisia bought a sugar farm near Ingram,3 and later he constructed railway lines at Mataranka, in the Northern Territory.4 In 1929 Vassilieff went to Brazil for formal art training from former fellow-officer Dmitri Ismailovich, but he soon left to travel up the Amazon River. He then worked as a sidewalk artist in the West Indies and travelled for two years in England, France and Spain. In 1937 he arrived in Melbourne where he lived until his death in 1958. His first major Australian series was the Carlton streetscapes and from 1951 he sculpted in local hard limestone.5 Vassilieff rejected all dogma and regarded religious subjects as suitable only for decorative arts. In 1944 he helped defeat a communist attempt to take over the Contemporary Art Society. For a short time, from around 1955, Vassilieff taught at various Victorian schools.6 The Angry Penguins painted mainly between 1937 and 1947, and included Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Joy Hester. The group formed as they felt isolated from European thought and art (including Surrealism) from which their work was derived. They were also angry at what they considered to be the complacency and insularity of their society. They maintained Australians at first were scarcely aware of the threats of the Wall Street Crash and Hitler and were little interested in the Spanish Civil War. The Angry Penguins also objected to the White Australia Policy. Hughes said although most of the Melbourne Expressionists in the 1940s were unskilled and their work crude in style, they helped jolt Australian painting from its pastoral complacency. Their style influenced nearly every painting produced by significant figurative artists in Melbourne in the 1950s such as Charles Blackman. From 1939 Vassilieff built Stonygrad, mainly with local stone. The house stands at the end of a private road surrounded by trees with the quiet occasionally broken by the sounds of bellbirds. To build his house Vassilieff dynamited rock and cut trees from his own property. The original section of the three-level house is of irregular-shaped pieces of solid stone, exposed inside like the exterior. Vassilieff later built sections with timber and brick. Inside is rustic and cave-like, and several rooms are linked by arched openings with no doors. One undulating wall was carved out of rock from which two sculptured heads protrude. Several ceilings are of rough-hewn logs and the built-in table and bookcase are rough, as is a timber ladder leading to a bedroom. Not for the elderly or unsteady! Yet the general impression in the muted light is beautiful, with artistic originality.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, danila vassilieff, hamilton road, north warrandyte, stonygrad

'Fulling', the half-hectare property at Pitt Street, Eltham was the home of landscape designer Gordon Ford and his wife Gwen. Ford bought the property in 1948, originally part of an orchard. The garden encapsulates the major trends of Australian garden design in the second half of the 20th century. The garden design is based on mass (plants) and void (paths and pools), textures and forms. It epitomises the Eltham style because of its relaxed informality and attraction to native wildlife. The mud brick house and designed and built by Ford commenced in 1948. Several extensions were added up to 1970 and were built by Graham Rose (Source: information panel for exhibition, n.d.) Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p147 A narrow timber gate opens onto a garden that has had a huge impact on natural garden development in Australia since the 1950s.1 Fulling, the half-hectare property at Pitt St, Eltham, was the home of the landscape designer, Gordon Ford, who died in 1999. The garden ‘encapsulates the major trends of Australian garden design in the second half of the 20th century...and epitomises the Eltham style of garden’.2 It in turn, was influenced by several Victorian major landscape designers of the mid 20th century – Ellis Stones, Peter Glass and Edna Walling. The gate opens onto a sandy gravel path, one of several, which wind around dramatic pools and what appear to be natural bush, but on close inspection are carefully integrated native, indigenous and exotic plantings. Retaining walls and steps of rock through the garden link different terrace levels. Lichen-covered boulders serve as steps across a pool, leading to the triple level mud-brick house. Ford bought the property, which was originally part of an orchard, in 1948. As the son of a Presbyterian minister, Ford received a good education, which included learning Latin. This was advantageous when he worked in plant sales for the Forestry Commission, before the Second World War. In the late 1940s, however, Ford turned to building and landscape gardening. He worked on the Busst house, an early mud-brick building designed by Alistair Knox and at the same time, Ford was employed by Ellis Stones. Knox described Ford as, ‘one of the funniest men of the district. ...Rocky’s (Ellis Stones) Depression stories and Gordon’s memory and quick tongue made the jobs the most enjoyable of all those hysterical times that made Eltham the centre of the eternal laugh, between the years of 1945 and 1950’.3 Ford’s house, like so many after the war, was built progressively, as more space was needed and formerly scarce materials became available. It began with an army-shed of timber-lined walls, now used as the kitchen. Ford then built what is now the lounge room, and the house grew ‘like topsy and on a shoestring,’ says his widow Gwen. A lot of second-hand materials such as window frames were used, a style made famous particularly with their extensive use at Montsalvat, the Eltham Artists’ Colony. The house was constructed as a joint venture with friends, including artist Clifton Pugh, who built Ford’s bedroom for £10. The polished floorboards and solomite (compressed straw) ceilings, interspersed with heavy beams, exude warmth. The result is a home of snug spaces, with soft light and garden vistas. Several other mud-brick buildings were constructed as needed, including a studio and units for bed-and-breakfast clients. The garden, which has been part of the Open Garden Scheme since the mid 1980s, is based on a balance of mass (plants) and void (paths and pools), textures and forms. It epitomises the Eltham style because of its relaxed informal ethos and attracts native animals. Wattlebirds, scrub wrens, pardalotes, currawongs, owls and even kangaroos, have been seen at Fulling. Gwen, a former English teacher who has worked on the garden since around 1970, urged and helped Ford write his book, The Natural Australian Garden.4 Several of Ford’s favourite trees are in the garden, including the native Casuarina or She-Oak. In spring, the garden is dusted with the purple Orthrosanthus multiflorus or blue native irises and rings with the calls of birds attracted to plants like the callistemons, correas and grevilleas.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, eltham, fulling, gordon ford garden, pitt street, eltham mud brick buildings, mud brick house

Ferguson’s Paddock, Hurstbridge. A plaque on a boulder commemorates Peter Brock. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p167 On a rock in Ferguson’s Paddock, Hurstbridge, a plaque commemorates Peter Brock. It includes the words: ‘Boy from Hurstbridge without special privileges, grew to become champion of racetracks around the world but he never forgot his beginnings’. Brock came from a well-established local family. Born in Hurstbridge in 1945, he lived in Anzac Avenue as a child, attended the Hurstbridge Primary and Eltham High Schools and lived in the district most of his life. His father Geoff owned the Diamond Valley Speed Shop in Greensborough. Brock’s forbears were amongst the area’s earliest settlers. From Scotland, the Brocks arrived in Tasmania in 1830, to graze sheep. Family members moved to Sunbury, then Preston, grazing sheep in the Bundoora area. John Brock owned Janefield, possibly named after his wife. In 1855 he granted around two acres (0.8ha) of his estate for a school.1 In 1866 Lewis Brock bought 264 acres (107ha) in Nutfield, the first non-Aboriginal person to own that land. They planted an orchard, then from around 1935, Brock’s uncle Sandy and his grandfather Lewis, ran a dairy on the property. In the 1980s Brock and his then partner Bev, bought most of the property, which they sold after their separation in 2006.2 Brock’s father was a Hurstbridge Football Club President, but Brock’s uncle Sandy, of Brocks Road, Doreen, has been particularly active in local affairs. He was President of the Mernda Football Club (then Plenty Rovers), President of the Panton Hill Football League and he founded the Arthurs Creek and District Landcare Group. He also gave more than 50 years of service to the Whittlesea Agricultural Society, the Volunteers for Australian Football and the Doreen Rural Fire Brigade. Community service was important to Brock too. Brock, with his then partner Bev, established the Peter Brock Foundation in 1997, the year he retired from full-time V8 Supercar racing. The Foundation’s grants have included $100,000 towards the upgrade of a walking track in the Hurstbridge Parklands and other projects include a holiday house for the families of child cancer victims.3 Brother Lewis saw Brock as a spiritual person, who had a great affinity with people. He saw Brock as a role model of someone who could achieve their dreams. ‘The family didn’t have much money, yet that didn’t stop Peter realising his dreams. He was strong and didn’t let difficult times crush him.’4 Despite his later successes, Brock’s most treasured trophy was for running 100 yards (91.4m)at his primary school in 1955, and he appreciated his head master Ted Griffiths’ encouragement of his sporting endeavours. At high school Brock became captain of Everard House. In his first year he bought a 1928 Austin 7 for £5. He cut the car into a box shape with an axe and enjoyed driving it – despite it having no brakes - at his grandparents’ farm at Nutfield. The turning point in Brock’s life came at age 23, when he built an Austin A30 in an old henhouse in Wattle Glen, using a Holden engine. He was laughed at until it won the Australian Sports Sedan Championship in 1968. Brock’s career then took off and he became a professional driver. Brock won Australian motor sport’s best-known event, the Bathurst 1000, nine times. Brock endured a bitter split from Holden in 1986 over control of his Holden-backed vehicle modification business and a car performance-enhancing device he called the ‘energy polariser’– despite it having no scientific evidence to support its claims. But Brock returned to Holden in 1994.5 Then in 1997, aged 52, Brock retired from fulltime V8 Supercar racing. However he continued to race at motor sport events. Brock won several awards, including an Order of Australia Medal in 1980, the Australian Sports Medal in 2000, and the Centenary Medal.6 On September 8, 2006, Brock died; after his car hit a tree during the Targa West Rally in Western Australia.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, ferguson's paddock, hurstbridge, peter brock memorial, peter brock

Kids of all ages enjoy the Miniature Railway. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p163 On Sundays in Eltham thousands of children, mums, dads and grandparents can be seen travelling around Lower Eltham Park in tiny trains. They are among the two and half million passengers who have travelled on the Diamond Valley Railway since it officially began in 1961. The miniature railway originally operated from the 1940s at Chelsworth Park, Ivanhoe, until flooding caused it to be moved to the Eltham Lower Park in 1959. The railway is modelled on the 1920s era – the heyday of passenger rail travel – and the trains are built on a scale of two inches to the foot (1/6). Although not exact replicas, trains include models of the Spirit of Progress, Puffing Billy, The Overland, Dog Boxes, Vic Rail S class, G class and a NSW 81 Class. The three and a half kilometres of track is set amongst native plants and picnic areas. A friendly hoot or the clang of a bell occasionally punctuates the tranquillity as a train emerges from a treed bend with passengers excitedly waving to onlookers. For $3 the train takes you on a 13-minute two-kilometre ride. Passengers sit in single file in the narrow train, which clatters along tracks built to the scale of the Australian narrow gauge of three feet six inches (1.1m). These are used in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Safety standards are stringently kept. Even before you buy a ticket notices tell you that you must wear closed shoes. You can even borrow these, and you are given a pair of socks for the ride! Blue-overalled volunteers check tickets, see you aboard, and drive the train. They are mainly retired men who can at last devote their time to what little boys dream of – playing with trains. Passengers are instructed in safe behaviour, then the station master waves a white flag and off we go. The guard sits at the back with his whistle and green flag at the ready. The winding track, fringed by native trees and bushes planted by volunteers, stands on crown land managed by Nillumbik Council. The train clatters along the track and crosses a bridge over a drain elevated by name to The Blow Fly Creek. We pass by Meadmore Junction at a speed of three kilometres an hour. Then on through a tunnel, accompanied by squeals of delight, and after a few moments of blackness, light glimmers at the end. On we go, past the original platform, along another route past busy Main Road through Pine Creek Station, over a bridge and through another tunnel with more screams of delight.Then a signal stops us before the ‘all clear’ to return to our original point of departure. The railway services its passengers – the largest number of any miniature railway in Australia – with a fleet including: six diesel locomotives, three steam locomotives, eight sets of passenger cars and one battery electric Dog Box set. Members also privately own 20 locomotives and powered carriage sets as well as four carriage sets.1 All the trains are stored on-site in workshops, sheds and a tunnel. The railway is entirely run by volunteers, so that all ticket money is used for maintenance and extensions, and some goes to local charities. Since 1991, the entire railway has been rebuilt, including an upgraded signalling system. About half of the 120 volunteer members are active with about 35 working each Sunday, and a dozen or so working every Wednesday. Members are trained to positions of station assistant, booking officer, train guard, train driver or signalman. Members construct new carriages and locomotives as well as maintaining track, signalling and rolling stock.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, diamond valley railway, eltham lower park

This swimsuit belonged to Audrey May Ferguson (nee Fulton), a longtime Brighton resident. Ada of California was a Melbourne swimwear company founded in the early 1950s by Brighton locals Ada and Toni Murkies. Born in Poland in 1922, Ada was 17 when the Second World War reached her doorstep. She and her family were torn from their home by Soviet soldiers and sent to a brutal labour camp in Siberia as part of a series of mass deportations. In order to escape the horrific conditions of the camp, Ada and her sister Barbara joined the Soviet-backed Polish Army. During her time in the military she became close with a handsome young Jewish officer, Lieutenant Antoni Murkies, who later became her husband. After the war Toni was awarded 15 medals including the highest Polish military honour, the Virtuti Militari. Ada was awarded 10 medals, including the Order of the Cross of Grunwald. Emigrating to Australia as postwar refugees in 1948, Ada and Toni arrived in Melbourne with little to their name. Working initially in garment factories and building their connections, by the mid-1950s the couple were able to start a company of their own, with Ada designing the garments and Toni managing the business. Within ten years, Ada of California swimwear was being sold in department stores throughout Australia, and the Murkies family were able to build a permanent home of their own in Brighton. By the early 1980s they had acquired several other major labels, including Watersun.Black one-piece rayon and cotton swimsuit. Straps button at back. Asymmetrical zig-zag front with double-line of white stitching, embellished by a large cream button.Label, white with green palm tree logo and red text: "Ada / OF CALIFORNIA" Label, white with red text: "61% RAYON, 10% RUBBER, 29% COTTON 36"swimwear, audrey may ferguson, audrey may fulton, melbourne designers, ada of california, ada murkies, toni murkies, 1950s, 1960s