A short article about William Wandless Limmer and his service in World War 1. William was born in Diamond Creek.One page, text and colour images.world war 1 project, william wandless limmer

A short article about Thomas James Bodycoat and his service in World War 1. Thomas James Bodycoat was born in Greensborough and at the time of his enlistment, he was living in Diamond Creek.1 Page, text and colour images.world war 1 project, thomas james bodycoat

View from Flodden Way, looking across to the next ridge. "I remember a row of houses being burnt beyond that ridge at Diamond Creek and having ash inside our home." The Noone family lived at 1 Flodden Way from 1966 to 1969. Caption by Julie Noone 2017.Shows the development of the area in the 1960s.Digital copy of colour photograph, taken from photographic slide.flodden way briar hill

The Diamond Creek Gold Mine was active from the 1860s and by 1912 had 12 known shafts. This book outlines ownership and contains anecdotes about the mine.A short history of the Diamond Creek Gold MineBook, 9 pages. Black and white illustrations and maps. Yellow front page with clear plastic cover.John Mackey in pencil inside front cover.diamond creek, john l ryan, jock ryan, diamond creek gold mine, gold discoveries victoria

Contains a history of St Katherine's Church St Helena, Major Anthony Beale and his wife Katherine Rose after whom the church and chapel are named. Includes current parish information and contacts. [Rev Di Nicolios become rector of St John's parish in Diamond Creek in 2002]Background to this well known pioneer church.One A4 page, folded in 3. Printed on buff coloured paper.st katherines church, st helena, anthony beale, rose chapel

Significant flooding of the Diamond Creek occurred in Eltham and Glen Park on Tuesday, August 26, 1924 with several houses swamped and all bridges covered except the Greensborough Road Bridge. [Houses at Eltham Flooded. (1924, August 27). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 19. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4156891] The Glen Park Bridge was originally built as a replacement for an older private bridge built by a man named Foley around 1880. In 1911 Heidelberg and Eltham agreed to share the costs to build a new bridge. Construction began in June 1915 and it was officially opened by Cr. Taylor on Cup Day, November 1915. The bridge was destroyed by floodwaters in the afternoon of 20 September 1959 during construction of the new Wattletree Road bridge. The new bridge west embankment joined the existing road at approximately where the bend in the road is situated in the photograph.Colour photograph of originalfloods, eltham, diamond creek (creek), egan's crossing, eltham-diamond creek road, glen park bridge, glen park road

Two colour photographs of Main Road Bridge over the Diamond Creek, Eltham: A. view from walkway below bridge B. Friday 26th October 1984, official opening of bridge after widening looking from Eltham towards Greensborough near Antoinette Streetbridges, main road, diamond creek, eltham, eltham south

A view of Greensborough township 1889, painted from the corner of St Helena Road and Diamond Creek Roads. This copy has been cropped from the original to show lower Main Street and Marble hall. The original of this painting is owned by Greensborough Primary School.From the John Mackey collection. this item was displayed at the offices of Ryan, Mackey and Kelly, solicitors, Main Street Greensborough.Small timber-framed photograph of road and houses, sepia.greensborough, main street greensborough, marble hall greensborough, arthur elliott, john mackey

Greensborough from Diamond Creek Road, includes a view of lower Main Street and lower parkFrom the John Mackey collection. this item was displayed at the offices of Ryan, Mackey and Kelly, solicitors, Main Street Greensborough.Timber-framed photograph of view of Greensborough from Diamond Creek Road, black and white.greensborough, john mackey, blue stone bridge, marble hall

Covered under National Trust of Australia (Victoria) State Significance and Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p103 The Eltham railway trestle bridge is the only one of its kind still regularly used in Melbourne’s metropolitan railway network. Opened in 1902, it is also one of Victoria’s very few timber rail bridges that still carries trains.1 The bridge is part of the railway line extension from Heidelberg - extended to Hurstbridge in 1912. This extension resulted in one of the greatest social changes experienced in Eltham Shire, as it considerably lessened its isolation attracting tourists, artists and suburban commuters particularly after World War Two.2 The bridge has been classified by the National Trust as historically, scientifically, aesthetically and socially significant at state level. But this has not always been recognised, and in 1977, locals fought to save it from destruction. The Victorian Railways proposed to replace the bridge with an earth embankment and large culverts to avoid maintenance problems and fire. This was rejected by the Eltham Council who protested that the bridge helped maintain the area’s rural character, historic link and beauty, as well as avoiding possible serious flooding on the flood plain if a culvert was blocked. The bridge stands as part of a National Trust classified landscape which includes the Alistair Knox Park, named after the local conservationist and architect who helped to make Eltham famous for its mud-brick houses. The landscape includes tall and spreading manna gums and candlebarks, and the historic Shillinglaw Cottage. Artist Walter Withers, one of the Heidelberg School of painters, painted the bridge early in the 20th century. The 38 span single-track railway bridge over creek and road has 34 timber-beam spans and four steel-joist spans, supported by four-pile timber piers and timber abutments. It has almost 200m of timber deck. All of the timbers have been replaced over the years, but the only change to the bridge’s character was the addition of pylons and wiring for electric trains in 1923. A petition for a railway to the shire was first made in 1883. A large deputation of local citizens to the Commissioner of Railways proposed a route passing through Alphington to midway between Greensborough and Eltham up the Diamond Creek valley towards Queenstown and Kinglake. As a result the Princes Bridge-Heidelberg Railway was opened in 1888. From 1888 locals demanded a railway extension. Kangaroo Ground farmers in particular, led by Shire Councillor and Member for Evelyn, Ewen Cameron, said it would assist local farmers and orchardists send their produce to the Melbourne market. In 1890, before the severe economic Depression, an extension of the line to Hurst’s Bridge (now Hurstbridge) was included in a new Railways Bill. The parliamentary delegations were regaled with a banquet at Hurst’s barn and entertained by the Diamond Creek Brass Band, but the extension was abandoned when the Depression struck in 1892-1893. The extension of the railway to Eltham, completed in 1902, was one of the few built in those hard times. That is why the Eltham timber-trestle railway bridge is a rare example of a broad-gauge rail bridge constructed between 1893 and 1910. At the opening, despite persistent drizzle, 300 children waving flags and banners were among the large crowd welcoming the first train, carrying official dignitaries, to Eltham. It had taken 24 years to bring the railway to Eltham. From then Eltham became a popular destination for outings. Mr Orford of Eltham recalled that after the railway came to Eltham ‘the craze for picnics on weekends and holidays began…. During the wattle season, wattle trains came to Eltham frequently. The visitors roamed the creek pulling great armfuls of wattle blossom to take back with them to Melbourne’.3 In 1926 the railway line was electrified as part of the metropolitan rail network. But the Victorian Railways decided not to complete the formerly planned Diamond Valley Railway to Queenstown (now St Andrews) and Kinglake.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 railway trestle bridge, eltham trestle bridge

Hawthorn hedges are important reminders of Kangaroo Ground's Scottish heritage. They are Registered on the Victorian Heritage Register. They are "historically significant because the planting of hawthorn hedges reflects the adoption of Eurorpean farming techniques by the Kangaroo Ground population in the period following settlement and because the grid pattern of paddocks that the Hawthorn hedges define is very different to today's farm landscapes." Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p21 Hawthorn hedges bordering Kangaroo Ground’s gently rolling farmlands are important reminders of its Scottish heritage and are rare so close to Melbourne.1 As early as the 1840s newly arrived farmers from Scotland planted hawthorn hedges around their properties, to protect crops from the numerous kangaroos and wallabies. Many of these hedges survive today. These farmers had the good fortune to settle some of the most fertile land available for cropping in the Colony of Victoria. At that time the black volcanic soil could sustain an amazing two crops a year. By the mid 1850s, 500 acres (202ha) of wheat were growing in Kangaroo Ground. But the crops were threatened by kangaroos, which were so plentiful, that Surveyor-General, Robert Hoddle, named the district Kangaroo Ground in 1838. As post-and-rail fences proved inadequate barriers for the bounding kangaroos, the Scots planted hawthorn hedgerows as they had done in Scotland. Some also used the hedges to net birds, presumably for the table. Interestingly the farmers in the bordering townships of Panton Hill and Christmas Hills, did not plant hawthorn hedges around their properties. Perhaps it was because by the time they settled in the 1860s and 1870s most of the wildlife had been gunned down by residents.2 The canny Scots planted the hedges on public land outside their own farms, as the hedgerows could spread to about five yards (five m) in width. With this impenetrable barrier Kangaroo Ground’s industrious farmers flourished to gain the economic power that saw the Shire of Eltham governed from Kangaroo Ground for 79 years (1858-1937). The Scots jealously guarded their land, so hard to get in Scotland. That is why they refused to release any of it ‘for local roads to follow easier grades as was the case in surrounding districts where roads generally followed ridgelines or streams’.3 Instead the roads were built in accordance with the magnetic bearings of their first survey in 1847 whether that suited the steep topography or not. This could force traffic to diverge when wet through Greensborough and Diamond Creek. Until 1921, the Eltham-Yarra Glen Road beside Wellers Restaurant, ‘dipped down into the upper reaches of Stony Creek’.4 Later some corners were compulsorily cut for the increasing motor traffic. As late as the 1960s, corners were cut to form sweeping curves above and alongside the Kangaroo Ground Cemetery and opposite the Emergency Operations Centre. In the latter case, the farmers – understanding their hedgerows as important heritage – insisted upon their reinstatement to conform to the altered road alignment. Kangaroo Ground’s ancient manna gums also point to the district’s history and to that of the hedgerows. The Aboriginal people had transformed the original forests into grasslands with the fires they lit to attract kangaroos, (which the Scots were to exclude by planting hedgerows). But the Wurundjeri hunters left the gums (Eucalyptus vimminalis cygnetensis), on the grasslands as ‘stalking trees’ to hunt kangaroos. The hawthorn hedges in Kangaroo Ground were neglected for around 60 years from about the middle of the 20th century. Bushfires had created gaps and the hedgerows were not trimmed. Then in late 2005, local historian Mick Woiwod, formed a group to lobby the Nillumbik Shire to restore the hedges, which could last for many centuries. Some hedges in parts of Britain date back to AD 800.5 Although the original Scottish farmers have gone, the hedges are a reminder of when they flourished in the district, which has changed little in 150 years.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-yarra glen road, hawthorn hedgerow, kangaroo ground