Alan Robertson was the City Engineer and Town Planner at the City of Ringwood for many years from 1958. He rceived several significant professional and community awards.Buff coloured bifold card with white paper insert. Photograph on front.

Horticultural award certificate for Daylesford Show 1921. Such certificates from a range of towns across the region illustrate the mobility of families and garden show enthusiasts from the early twentieth century.

The Eltham Community and Reception Centre was Australia's first public mud-brick building. Commissioned in 1977 by Eltham Shire Council, led by Shire president (and architect) Robert Marshall, architects Whitford and Peck were asked to design a multipurpose facility in mud-brick and timber. The official opening was performed by the Hon. R.J. Hamer; E.D., M.P., Premier of Victorai on Saturday, April 22, 1978. Architects: Whitford & Peck Pty Ltd Quantity Surveyor: D.J. Cant & Associates Structural Civil Engineers: Charlett & Moore Pty Ltd Landscape: Peter Glass, Dennis Edwards Mech Elec: Lobley Treidel & Partners Pty Ltd Acoustics: Riley Barden & Kirkhope Builder: L.U. Simon Pty Ltd Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p177 The Wiggles performed there, so has the ABC’s Play School. New citizens have made their vows, volunteers have been honoured, school children have performed, weddings celebrated and people mourned at funerals. Since 1978 the Eltham Community and Reception Centre at the corner of Pitt Street and Main Road, has provided a beautiful and quintessential Eltham environment for people from all over Melbourne. Recognised as Australia’s first public mud-brick building, the centre was built partly on the site of the parsonage of the former Methodist Church (now the Uniting Church).1 Commissioned by the Eltham Council headed by President Robert Marshall, architects Whitford and Peck were asked to design a multipurpose facility in mud-brick and timber. Following public consultation, it was agreed to build a centre for dances, exhibitions, films, plays or concerts. The results – at a cost of around $620,000 – captured the Eltham rustic style. The building – in soft tones of mud-brick and timber and immense floor-to-ceiling windows – overlooks the Diamond Creek and sporting fields. Eltham’s strong artistic heritage is reflected in the centre. Although the lighting is not ideal for a gallery and labels cannot be placed on walls, the centre hosts the Nillumbik Art Awards and displays around ten to 20% of the Nillumbik Shire Art Collection, usually for around a year at a time.2 On permanent display, close to the entrance, is local artist Clifton Pugh’s White Choughs in the Landscape. Further to the right is the Walter Withers Gallery, named after a local member of the Heidelberg School of artists. As part of the Eltham Gateway opposite the Eltham Hotel, the centre stands on what was once part of the Eltham Town Centre along this section of Main Road, then known as Maria Street. On the same site once stood the house and flour mill owned by Henry Dendy, best known as the founder of Brighton, although he lived longer in Eltham. Beside the drive is a wheel-rim tool with accompanying plaque, illustrating a technology important during the horse-powered age and now almost completely gone, as has the blacksmith’s shop that had housed it nearby. The implement is a platform for fitting iron tyres to the wooden rims of cartwheels. Beneath it is a capsule placed in 1985 to commemorate Victoria’s 150 years, which is to be opened in 2035. Although the plants, forming part of the landscaping by Peter Glass and Denis Edwards, are largely indigenous and other native species, some exotic plants are protected as an important link with the site’s past. Planted at the front around 1920, is a large Peppercorn tree with two joined trunks growing from the base, and close by is a Bhutan Cypress (Cupressus torulosa). Three other Peppercorn trees fringe the drive. The building includes two halls – the larger seating 250 people – and a large foyer overlooking trees and ovals. Both halls have retractable rear walls providing varying spaces as required, and guests can use several external decks. A site for outdoor theatre has been carved out of the natural slope outside the entrance. The Bricklayers Union refused to use the traditional mud-bricks, which weigh more than 22kg. As a result the mud-bricks were redesigned to reduce their weight and were laid back-to-back to produce a wall of normal thickness.3 The centre’s massive timber frame is reminiscent of timber bridge construction, with infill panels of mud-brick.4 In accord with the rustic style are colossal rough-sawn posts, bolts and steel brackets. The combination of mud-brick, exposed feature timber framing and creative design in this centre, characterises Eltham’s innovative buildings and the social movement behind them from the 1940s to the 1970s.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 community and reception centre, mudbrick construction

Kenneth JACK AM MBE RWS, (5 October 1924 – 10 June 2006) Australian watercolour artist Kenneth Jack who specialised in painting the images of an almost forgotten outback life; old mine workings, abandoned ghost towns, decaying farm buildings. He became a professional painter at the age of 39 after giving up his job as senior instructor at the Caulfield Institute of Technology. In 1977 he was elected to The Royal Watercolour Society and in 1982 was awarded the MBE, and the Order of Australia (AM) followed in 1987. Framed three block linocut depicting the Glasshouse Mountains in the Australian State Queensland. Donated through the Australian Gifts Programme by Katherine Littlewood.21/32artwork, artist, kenneth jack, printmaking, glasshouse mountains, queensland, available, linocut

This medallion was awarded to Mirth Marfell for swimming. The award was given to students in Victorian schools for advanced prowess in swimming and lifesaving. Mirth Marfell was a student at Warrnambool High School in 1935 when she received the medallion. Warrnambool High School was established as an Agricultural High School in 1907 and, after a merger with Warrnambool North Technical School, it is known today as Warrnamboool College. Mirth Marfell, the daughter of Henry and Helena Marfell, was born in Warrnambool in 1919. Her grandfather, John Marfell, a Warrnambool hay and corn dealer and miller connected to the Warrnambool Co-operative Milling Company, was prominent in community and civic affairs in the town. Mirth Marfell completed her nursing training at the Warrnambool Base Hospital and served in the Australian Army Nursing Service in World War Two for five years. She then became the first Australian nursing organizer for the Victorian Royal College of Nursing. This medallion is of interest, firstly as an example of the medallion given to students for swimming achievements in the 1930s in Victorian schools and secondly because it was awarded to Mirth Marfell, a Warrnambool person who had a distinguished nursing career.Circular metal medallion . Obverse features raised semi naked figure holding a cloth across the lower torso with one hand and a palm like branch in the other hand, an oval shield with text and decorative sprays of leaves. The reverse features the back of a naked female figure with long hair and a trident holding the hand of a child half immersed in the sea, another child"s head is raised above the sea. A lighthouse is featured on the distant shore. MIRTH MARFELL 1933. 34 on rim EDUCATION DEPARTMENT VICTORIA SWIMMING AND LIFE SAVINGmirth marfell, warrnambool co-operative milling company, australian army nursing service, history of warrnambool