Purpose of the meeting was the reforming of the Historical Society. Discussion included a suitable building to house exhibits, finance and insurance. A Committee of nine members was formed.Two typed pages on yellow foolscap sized paper of minutes of the Inaugural Meeting of the Historical Society of Phillip Island. 21st August 1967 held at the Council Chambers, Cowes.local history, phillip island historical society, local identities

Conditions of sale by private contract issued by H.A. Wilkinson house, land, estate, insurance and commission agent, 190 Mitchell street, Bendigo and dated 5th June 1935between G. Every (seller) and Miss A.E. Treganowan (buyer) for land situate George Street, Bendigo being part of Crown allotment 77 section H described in certificate of title volume 5378 folio 1075507, together with 4-roomed bungalow and all sundry. Price 534 pounds.organization, business, h.a. & s.r wilkinson real estate

Sepia photograph of Hunniford’s Eltham Post Office, Main Road near Bridge Street, Eltham, c.1888 (Postmistress Anne Hunniford possibly on left). The building originally had a shingle roof. Anne Hamilton born 1814 Co Tyrone, Ireland married Michael Head Burgoyne (1820-1843) in 1839, Co. Tyrone, Ireland. They had two children, Charlotte Caroline (1840) and John James Thomas Neville (Londonderry, Ireland 1844) Whilst pregnant with John, husband Michael died. Following John’s birth, she emigrated to Victoria, Australia where she married Thomas Hunniford in 1854. Daughter Anne Jane Hunniford was born in Eltham in 1855. Anne (Annie) Jane Hunniford and John James Thomas Neville Burgoyne were half siblings. In the mid 1860s Annie Hunniford succeeded her father, Thomas Hunniford as Post Mistress for Eltham. Photo dated based on advertising on façade of the building by Annie’s half-brother, John James Thomas Burgoyne promotes his services as the area manager for John M’Ewan and Co, Auctioneers as well as him being agent for the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia, National Insurance Company of Australasia, Federal Mutual Livestock Association of Australasia, and as a House, Land, Estate, Insurance and Financial agent. This was the time period that he placed advertising for same in the local paper. Australia Post: Gold brought life to the township - Diamond Valley News, Tuesday July 2, 1985, p17 On February 1, 1854, the first Eltham Post Office was established, commencing an association between the township and the Postmaster-General's Department that has continued for 131 years. At that time, the number of permanent residents would have been fairly small, probably less than 200. The discovery of gold in June 1851, at Anderson’s Creek, some five miles away, and later at Caledonia Diggings, Queenstown (now known as St Andrews), about 14 miles to the north-east, brought large numbers of prospectors passing through the township, hopefully culling the creeks and gullies for the precious metal. This additional "floating population" brought a greater demand for supplies and for communication with the outside world, and so it helped in the development of Eltham. Today, Eltham is a thriving township. It boasts an excellent shopping centre, municipal offices, court house. post office and many other amenities. Eltham continued to develop at a leisurely pace. During 1860, a total of just over 8000 postal articles were handled at the Eltham Post Office. By 1862, the mail route was "to and from Melbourne by way of Eltham and Kangaroo Ground, three times a week, by coach". There was also a branch mail that operated between Eltham and Greensborough, three times weekly. This was also conveyed by coach. Some time between 1864 and 1868 the management of the post office passed from Thomas Hunniford to his daughter, Miss Anne Hunniford, who managed the Eltham Post Office until her death in 1928. A big improvement in communication was provided for Eltham residents when a telegraph office was established at the post office in 1877. During 1923 a manual telephone exchange was provided at Eltham, the first two subscribers being J.J. O’Connor and Eltham Police Station. In 1949 the manual exchange was replaced by an automatic exchange and there were some 150 subscribers. Following the death of postmistress Miss Anne Hunniford in 1928, B.M. Burgoyne was placed temporarily in charge of the office. In 1929, J. N. Burgoyne was appointed postmaster, and he in turn was succeeded by H. C. Burgoyne in 1951. The post office was moved to a new site in 1954, but continued under the charge of Mr Burgoyne. In January 1958 there was a further change of site when the post office was raised to official status and transferred to new premises in Main Rd. William Donoghue was acting postmaster when the new office was opened. In March 1958 Mr W.E. Tovey was appointed postmaster, followed by Douglas McG. Gilmour in 1959. William Donoghue was fully appointed in 1966 and Barry Reichelt followed in 1973, prior to the present postmaster, Peter Jolly in November 1982. Peter is a young man with 18 years' experience. He commenced his training as a postal clerk at the training school in Melbourne in 1968 and was promoted to postal clerk at the Brunswick Post Office in 1969. He was finally transferred as postmaster to Fawkner Post Office in 1980. He has been at Eltham Post Office for the past 2½ years. He is married with one child and lives in Montmorency. The Eltham Post Office employs a staff of 21, of whom seven are indoor staff, 12 are postmen and two are drivers. The postmen in Eltham have an uphill battle delivering mail because of the hilly terrain. Nine of the postmen deliver mail on motorbikes, and the two delivery vans are both four wheel drives. Eltham Post Office services basically a residential area, with deliveries to 5600 homes. This is growing at the rate of 600 homes every 18 months, i.e. about 32 homes per month. At the present rate we will need a new postman every 18 months.Sepia photograph (two copies plus two black and white enlargements)Shop originally had a shingle roofpost office, eltham, main road, anne jane hunniford (1855-1928), federal mutual live stock insurance association of australasia, federal mutual livestock association of australasia, john j burgoyne, john m'ewan and co. auctioneers, national insurance company of australasia, national mutual life association of australasia

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

A late afternoon storm on Christmas Day 2011. A flash flood occurred from significant rain fall and hail, which accumulated along an old waterway with floodwater submerging cars along Valonia Drive then down Grove Street flooding houses, through the Bible Street Reserve where it then submerged Main Road washing away the small railway trestle bridge opposite the reserve then flooding the Judge Book Village before finally entering the Diamond Creek. Widespread damage occured from hail and flash flooding.fay bridge collection, eltham, 2011-12-27, flood damage, floods, floodwater

Photographed during the first Covid19 Lockdown.Double storey brick house with a slate roof.elders insturance, architecture, armstrong street south, ballarat