From Jessie Smith's collection. Current Post Office front extensively renovated in c August 1994. 72-23a. Side view of Post Office, Cowes. J. Harold Smith shop front at left. 72-23b. Cowes first Post Office on the cnr Thompson Avenue & The Esplanade. (Now where Isola Di Capri Italian Restaurant is located)local history, photographs, post office, cowes phillip island, black & white photograph, public buildings, thompson avenue, cowes, jessie smith collection, stan mcfee

Post Office on corner of Thompson Avenue and The Esplanade. Brick above concrete building with two brick chimneys. Iron roofing, fenced verandah. Group of 12 people, males suited, with collars and ties, ladies all in long skirts, jackets and hats.Post Office with group of people standing and seated in front of buildingP.O.Cowes (written on back of photograph)local history, photographs, post office, cowes, black & white photograph, ann brown collection, bruce bennett

One of a collection from the Jessie Smith Collection. Donated by Stan McFeeLetter addressed to Mrs J. H. Smith from Mary Mac (Lardy) dated 21st July 1959. Stating "This is one of the first letters to be posted in the new Cowes Post Office" etc. Envelope to Mrs J. H. SmithOn back: Mrs M McLardy and self posted a letter addressed to each other - the first letters stamped at new Post Office. Signed JHS.cowes post office, phillip island, mrs j h smith, mrs m mclardy, jessie smith collection, stan mcfee

Cowes Post Office built in 1909 with handmade bricks which were first used in the building of first Chicory Kiln in Cowes on Phillip Island in 1870 by the West brothers, Solomon and John. It is now a Restaurant and Pizza outlet.Large white building on the west corner of Thompson Avenue and The Esplanade, Coweslocal history, photographs, buildings, historic, buildings - historical, coloured photograph, john cook, phillip island, cowes old post office

Part of a collection of 'Rose & Valentine' series of Post Cards. Copied by John Jansson 1984Post Card of Main Street, Cowes showing Post Office at right. Policeman and female in front of P.O.local history, photography, photographs, postcards, cowes phillip island, post office, black & white photograph, thompson ave cowes, phillip island

A Souvenir Postcard Folder donated by Derick White.Strip postcard folder of 12 coloured views. 341-01,2,3. The Koala Cafe, Post Office & Bayview Guest looking towards the crn of Thompson Avenue and The Esplanade. The Cowes beach & Pier. The Nobbies and steps to the Blowhole. 341-04,5,6. The Cowes Pier with a ferry and crowd of people. Cape Woolamai coastline. Close up of a koala in a tree. 341-07,8,9. Seals on Seal Rocks. The San Remo pier with a group of people, beach, and main street with Westernport Hotel in the background. Four people standing looking at The Nobbies. 341-10,11,12. The Isle of Wight Hotel and garden (now where the War Memorial stands). View of the Suspension Bridge. View overlooking Rhyll and Westernport with French Island in the background.Description similar to as above.cowes post office, koala cafe, bayview guesthouse cowes, the nobbies, the nobbies & blowhole, seals on seal rocks phillip island, wildlife - koala, cowes pier phillip island, coastline cape woolamai, san remo and pier, the isle of wight hotel cowes phillip island, rhyll phillip island, phillip island suspension bridge, derick white

One of 23 photographs from the Jessie Smith Collection. Donated by Stan McFeeBlack & White photograph of the Cowes Post Ofice Building with two storey brick shop building on the left overshadowed by the branch of a Pine tree.On Back: "New P.O. Cowes"phillip island, cowes, cowes post office, jessie smith collection, stan mcfee

Collection of Newspaper clippings from Scrap Book 1960 - 1973Article about PMG and National Bank argument re $73,600 gone missing when sent in a mail bag from Cowes Post Office to the Mail Exchange in Spencer Street Melbourne.pmg cowes, national bank cowes, mail exchange spencer st melbourne, jean jamieson

Previous post office was in Thompson Ave on corner of The Esplanade, where the Isola Di Capri now stands.HistoricalQuarto size page folded in half with blue typing. Outlines procedures of opening, history of the Cowes Post Office and figures on postal articles and services eg wireless licences and pensions. Cover has signatures of dignitaries eg R. Lindsay M.P., H. Quinn Official Opening of the New Post Office, Cowes by R.W. Lindsay, Esq., M.P.. post office cowes phillip island, mr h.quinn postmaster

"Waiting to meet the Boat". Cowes Post Office, corner Main Street and The Esplanade. A brick building with corrugated iron roof, two brick chimneys, a porch extending across front verandah, wooden posts, awning roof striped. Fencing across with free access above four steps. Ten figures on verandah and in front with hats, bags and jackets. Women with long skirts and dresses. In foreground a small fenced area.Post Office, crn Esplanade and Main Street, Coweslocal history, photographs, buildings - historic, post office, black & white photograph, mary robb

One of 17 photographs donated by Olive BlameyBlack & White photograph of J & S West Cowes General Store and Post Office. Men, women and children outside with bullock team on far right.j & s west general store cowes, cowes phillip island

A stretch of the main Street of Cowes, looking towards Westernport Bay. A narrow strip of the Peninsula in the background. Left side of road depicts a group of buildings and Post Office. A Norfolk Pine in the background. On right side of road on footpath are three women and a child. The women are attired in long black dresses and large smart hats. Along side them is a picket fence, shrubby garden and a house. A small child and male figure popping out the gate.Thompson Avenue, CowesMain Street Coweslocal history, photographs, streetscape, cowes, black & white photograph, mary robb

Photograph of old Post Office on right side looking towards to War Memorial. To left features white fencing and Cyprus trees.Looking along The Esplanade, Coweslocal history, photographs, the esplanade, cowes, streetscape, sepia photograph, mary karney

The first kiln built on Phillip Island in the 1870's for Mr John West. It was situated in Thompson Avenue next to Wests General Store. When the kiln was demolished, the bricks were used to build the old Post Office on the corner of the Esplanade. Mr John West gave a Banquet at the Isle of Wight Hotel to celebrate the opening of his kiln.Water Colour Sketch. This picture was reconstructed by Jean Archibald from pencil sketches by S Serpell in 1905, and an artist who travelled to Phillip Island with the "Vagabond", a journalist for the "Leader", in 1889. Chicory Kiln built for John West situated in Main Street, Cowes. First Chicory Kiln built on Phillip Island in the 1870's.Signed J. D. A.local history, illustrations, agriculture buildings, historic, chicory kiln, water colour sketch, west family, post office cowes phillip island, jean archibald, s serpell, john west, n & j archibald

Black and white photograph of wooden building. Picket fence around veranda. Unusual wooden seat on veranda and black cow standing to right of photograph. (2 copies, 1 original small sepia photograph and 1 enlargement).Typed below photograph, "Ringwood Post Office, Whitehorse Road, opposite Holeproof 1890." Written on back of small photograph, "Opposite Holeproof, cow 'Flora'".

In the early 1880s a small circus travelled between Millicent and Mt Gambier, South Australia. After camping overnight they discovered their Bengal Tiger at escaped and disappeared into dense scrub. After searching for hours they continued to Mt Gambier and reported the loss of the tiger to police. Police and local volunteers continued the search for the escaped tiger, but no sighting were made. In the early 1890s sheep in the Tantanoola area started to disappear with the still unsighted tiger being blamed. In 1893 reports of an unusual animal in the Tantanoola area started, with many describing the animal as the missing tiger, or a large dog. One eye witness claimed to have seen the animal carrying a full grown sheep in its mouth. The reports grew in number and exaggeration with sightings from Robe to Bendigo. In the Tantanoola district children were escorted with shotgun guards to and from school, with many homes keeping guns at the ready in case the tiger suddenly appeared. In August 1895 Tom Donovan shot the "Tantanoola Tiger" on Mt Salt Station, around 20 kms south of Tantanoola. The corpse was taken to Marks, a Mount Gambier taxidermist, at which time the animal was identified as an Assyrian or Northern Russian Wolf. Donovan displayed the animal far and wide. Despite the animal's death sheep continued to disappear from properties in the district over many years. It was of particular concern between 1909 and 1910. At that time Herbert Allchurch, an Adelaide detective, was sent to solve the mystery. A few days after his arrival Allchruch went to the front bar of the Tiger Hotel and arrested local rabbit shooter and trapper, Charlie Edmunson, with sheep stealing. After his 1911 trial Edmunson admitted to stealing over 4,000 sheep during the previous 20 years. He was gaoled for six years with hard-labour in January 1911. Edmunson had been selling the skins of the stolen sheep, leaving the carcusses to rot. He earned around five pounds per week during the 1990s and early 1900s, a time when the economy was depressed. It is not known had the animal known as the Tantanoola Tiger came to Australia, but it is believed it survived one of three ships wrecked of the coast between 1890 and 1893, making it to shore along with some of the shipwrecked passengers. (From a card produced by the Tantanoola Tiger Hotel, where the 'tiger' is on display.)A collection of Newsclippings from 1892 - 1895 photocopied onto A4 white paper. The clippings relate to the Tantanoola Tiger. Clippings include: * Border Watch 1892 - Tantanoola Tiger Reward * Sydney Morning Herald, 04/07/1857 - Animals in Zoological Gardens, including a number of large cats. * Claims the Tantanoola Tiger was an escaped circus animal (ie The Advertiser [Adelaide], 31 October 1893) * Search parties for the Tantanoola Tiger (ie Barrier Miner 19/05/1893; Barrier Miner 03/1081893) * Thylacine claim (ie Morning Bulletin [Rockhampton] 11/03/1895 * Afghan and Indian Hunters (ie Barrier Miner 07/02/1895) * Sighting by John Bird of Scarsdale - Wanganui Herald 15/12/1900. " ... Mr Bird was travelling on foot along a lonely track through very dense scrub, when he was stricken with amazement to see a full-grown tiger standing in a small dam about 30ft away, and holding in its jaws the carcass of a newly-killed lamb. He remained long enough to thoroughly take in the animals appearance, and then beat a hasty retreat unmolested. His description of the animal is as follows: A tawny-coloured creature, with a dirty mottled skin; in general appearance like an immense cat; body 4ft long, and of a uniform thickness from shoulder to hindquarters; in bulk equal to a very large pig. The legs were hidden in the water. A similar animal is reported to gave been seen near Canico, some miles away. ..." * Victorian country sightings # Bullarto - Argus 06/05/1905 # Dean - Launceston Examiner 28/01/1895 # Bendigo - Hobart Mercury 15/03/1895 # Ballan - Launceston Examiner 03/08/1895 * South Australian register 17/06/1885 " There is a tiger or panther wandering at large in Victoria, according to a rumour. It has taken the place of the Bunyip, whom hundreds have seen but none captured. This tiger is supposed to have broken loose from a travelling menagerie in the North-eastern district. At the beginning we should like it roved that such an escape ever took place. Perhaps the showmen were afraid to report the fact to the police; at any rate they did not do so. The first story about the tiger being seen came from the neighborhood of Wangaratta, 60 miles from the place where it is said to have commenced business on its own account. He was followed, but vanished among trees. Next we hear of a strange animal, bigger than a St Bernard's dog, but shorter legged, having appeared at least 150 miles from Wangaratta. Between Lilydale and Wangaratta there is a dividing range 2,000 feet high in the lowest past, besides several large rivers. An finally, the tiger - changed from a panther - is reported as having been seen within the suburban circle, about 8 miles from the general Post Office. They show you footprints, and point to the carcasses of mangled cows and calves. Casts have been taken of the footprints for examination by scientific men, who pronounce them doglike, and yet not doglike, but panther-like, which gives a nervous turn, for the panther may take up killing children and grown-up people. One tiger will not account for so many apparitions. There must have been a general strike among the menageries, and a breaking-up companies. ... * Research article by Philip A. Clarke "Indigenous Spirit and Ghost Folklore of 'Settled' Australia. australian animal folklore collection, tantanoola tiger, tom donovan, herbert allchurch, charles edmunson, sheep, charlie edmunson, mythical, myth, folklore

Programme with dark yellow front cover and cream inside. Souvenir of Visit to Bendigo. 15th Annual Convention of Chamber of Agriculture. At the top are two pictures, one of four horses pulling a harvester and the other, a jersey cow. At the bottom is a sow with piglets and the other some sheep. In the centre on the left is the old Post Office and clock and further away, the Law Courts. Inside is Smoke Social tendered to The Visiting Delegates of the 15th Annual Convention of the Chamber of Agriculture by the Bendigo Agricultural & Horticultural Society. Held at the Town Hall, Bendigo on Thursday, 5th July, 1917. Program details entertainment items and performers.Bolton Bros, Bendigoorganization, club/society, bendigo agricultural and horiticultural, souvenir of visit to bendigo, 15th annual convention of chamber of agriculture 1917, bendigo agriculture & horticultural society, s h mcgowan, h s marks, bolton bros, bruhn's orchestra, cr m and mrs hamburger, mr h s barkell, miss irene dorrity, mr a j hamilton, miss sherlock, miss v o'donnell, mr h currie, miss h veale, mr w honeybone, mr f cavagna, messrs wenborn & owen

The Gavin family are generational farmers at Moyne.Digital images of cows at Moyne, Victoriadairy, cows, moyne, farm, cattle, livestock, herd, 1086

This item was presented to Elizabeth Hogan by her Inglewood friends on the occasion of her engagement to Gus Gervasoni. After her death it went to her sister Nell Brislane, until it was passed onto Elizabeth's son, John Hogan Gervasoni.Blue jardiniere with gold trim, featuring country scene with cows.elizabeth gervasoni, elizabeth hogan, inglewood, jardiniere, nell brislane, ellen brislane, bess gervasoni, bess hogan, cows

Colour photographs of cattle at Newlyn, Victoriafarm, agriculture, livestock, cattle, cows

Ron Carroll and his uncle Tom John Fitzgerald on the Fitzgerald Farm. Ronald Patrick Carroll (left) and Thomas John Fitzgerald at Moyne, Victoria.ron carroll, tom fitzgerald, moyne, cow, farm

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

Mary Tolhurst M&DHS - March 29th Dunvegan Willows Park Melton 1992 Ladies Oral History Day Graham Minns President Ray Radford MC Sound recording transfer to CD 2011 by Tom Wood Edited typescript by Wendy Barrie 2013 I was born in Rockbank, and when I was five years old moved to Toolern Vale and started and finished school there. Toolern Vale only consisted of the Store, Post Office and shop, where you could buy your fodder, and pollard supplies, the Hall, the little Church and the bluestone School. The School changed shape three times from the 1800s[1869] til the time I went there. There was four generations of my family that went there and it was destroyed by fire in 1965. Marjorie nee Myers Butler. Yes, I remember along with it your lovely Ronisch piano. Mary, quite true! Marj what you say about the Ronisch piano. When I came the age to learn music my mum and dad couldn’t really afford it, but still what parents do for their children. They had Marj go along with them and pick this lovely Ronisch piano. It was known round the district. Everyone commented about the loss that lovely piano. After leaving school it was war time, 1939, then it was work, When I was 7 year old I was put out into the cow yard. In 1940 when the soldiers were going away our milk was confiscated it had to go to Bacchus Marsh. It used to go the Sunbury to be brine cooled and then go to Melbourne. Then they took it then to the Lifeguard Milk Factory at Bacchus Marsh. It had to go as condensed milk to the soldiers. This year is 50 years of the Land Army. I was an unofficial Land Army but they still kept check on me. I went onto married life and I followed the cows right through [howls of laughter] and we went on until the 1965 fire. That’s when we got out of the cows. Marjorie asks, was Granny Watts your grandmother or great grandmother? Mary: She was my great grandmother, the midwife of Melton. The 1965 fire started ¾ of a mile above our place, Frank Ryan’s sheds were burnt and his house was saved, then it wiped the School out, the Hall, the Church the Post Office and Store and little house that was Charlie Charlton’s in the early days. Mrs Wilson’s place was saved by the Fire Brigade by pulling boards off the side, and from there it went over the hill and it was stopped at the Rockbank Railway Station. If it had of got over the railway they said it would have gone into Werribee. A lot was burnt out in that strip. Mary nee Nixon Collins: 18 houses burnt that day. Audience question, did Melton get burnt that day? Ray: No. It came down through the Toolern Vale road and cut across about a mile and a half from the cross roads at Toolern Vale from north westerly to the south east and cut through over the Keilor road. Mary: It came in across the creek at Funstons in Toolern, then through Jim Minns. Dorothy was it your place then [nee Knox Beaty] to Ken Beatty’s and from there it went through to Doug McIntosh’s and to Cockbills and the wind changed and it came across to the railway line, and that is where they stopped it. [the cause of the fire was controversial, they had been burning off the night before and there was some talk of someone starting it. It was very hot and very strong wind, it was a terrible day] Ray: When the fire went through McIntosh’s they had a haystack on the north side of their house and the haystack got caught and the fire burnt a hole through the side of the house and the boys pyjamas on the bed. The house was saved. It came through like and express train roaring at you, I was at McIntosh’s when it went roaring past. You couldn’t see, dust and ash and tremendous heat. The fire started about 12 o’clock Jack [husband] said to me, fire, I said where, where? Just up the road, what have I got to do? and he went out and he had gone to the fire and left me. I tried to get the animals and I put out buckets of water, putting the buckets of water out saved my life. Chas Jones and another friend of his came in and they picked up the buckets of water, I thought I had better get out because the fire was on the haystack up the paddock and when I went to go out through the north side of the house and couldn’t get out, I’ll go through the front gate so I went around the other side of the house. I got caught there and Chassy Jones and his friend came round carrying the bucket of water and I panicked. He threw the bucket of water over me. Well that is what saved my life because I was damp, whenever we tried to leave the ball of fire came over me and over my shoulder and my hair was scorched. Chassy Jones lost his truck and Keith Watt his big truck because he had the water tank on it and they couldn’t get out of the yard. Granny Watt’s house, the first private hospital had condemned and Jack and I pulled it down and had it moved up to Toolern and had it in the yard a fortnight and it was all burnt and we didn’t get the shed we wanted. Every 13 years right up until Ash Wednesday fires, there has always been fire close at hand. The 1952 fire went down the back of the house, the 1965 fire took the house, and the house that I live in now, it is the third house that has been on that spot. When the Hunters owned it, Mrs Hunter was nearly burnt in her bed. They had a 13 roomed house. In 1924 the house burnt down, and there was another house was built there and that was the one that burnt down. Edna: So Mary built a brick veneer house. Marjorie: like the three little pigs [laughter] Mary Tolhurst member of the Melton & District Historical Society in the Melton and Moorabool Leader local identities, local special interest groups

Malcolm Cameron, came from Scotland to Australia with his wife in 1862. From late 1862 they lived in Bacchus Marsh and remained there for the rest of their lives. After working as a shepherd for sometime Malcolm Cameron was able to acquire land for a farm a few kilometers north west of Bacchus Marsh. The farm was called Glen View but this was later changed to Grand View. It is known to have been a wheat farm, Malcolm Cameron died aged 89 in 1922. His wife died in 1926. Small sepia unframed photograph on card with gold border framing photograph. Housed in the album, 'Photographs of Bacchus Marsh and District in 1883 by Stevenson and McNicoll'. The image shows a family group, the Cameron family of Bacchus Marsh, standing and sitting in a paddock on their farm. Cows graze in the paddock nearby. In the background, in the distance, can be seen the Cameron family home.On the front: Stevenson & McNicoll. Photo. 108 Elizabeth St. Melbourne. COPIES CAN BE OBTAINED AT ANY TIME. On the back: LIGHT & TRUTH inscribed on a banner surmounted by a representation of the rising sun. Copies of this Portrait can be had at any time by sending the Name and Post Office Money Order or Stamps for the amount of order to STEVENSON & McNICOLL LATE BENSON & STEVENSON, Photographers. 108 Elizabeth Street, MELBOURNE. stevenson and mcnicoll 1883 photographs of bacchus marsh and district, farmers, farms, wheat farms, cameron family bacchus marsh