The dam at the entrance to the Nerreman Gateway in Eltham was built according to an internationally acclaimed theory developed by the builder's father. In 1920, Victorian engineer B.A. Smith was awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers J. James R. Cross Gold Medal for his Technical Paper titled 'Arched Dams'. It was the first time this medal had been awarded outside the United States. The concrete arched dam across the Eltham West Drain was built in 1940 by B.A. Smith's son and engineer, D. B. (Bernie) Smith to water the 24 acre (9.75 ha) hobby farm owned by himself and new wife, Isa Smith. Upon completion of the dam a pump-house was constructed beside the creek but before the water could be pumped up the hill they had to dig a trench and lay 500m of 100mm water main to an elevated holding tank. The Smiths made the pump-house their home for several years until they constructed their home at the top of the hill overlooking Eltham and views extending to Kinglake. Following Bernie's death in 1983, Nerreman Park was subdivided between 1993 and 1995. Gordon Ford designed the landscaping and the pump-house was demolished. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p137 The dam at the entrance to the Nerreman Gateway in Eltham, was built according to an internationally acclaimed theory developed by the builder’s father. In 1920, Victorian engineer B A Smith was awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers J. James R. Croes Gold Medal, for his Technical Paper titled Arched Dams. It was the first time this medal had been awarded outside America. An international example of the application of Smith’s work can be found in the design of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, Nevada, USA. Built between 1930 and 1936, it is recognised by the ASCE as one of ‘America’s Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders’.1 The concrete arched dam across the Eltham West Drain was built by B A Smith’s son and engineer, D B (Bernie) Smith. Bernie’s dam followed his father’s theory, having a curvature that takes maximum advantage of concrete’s great strength in compression. The water load is carried into the abutments because of this curvature, which permits a wall thickness of only 225 millimetres thick at its crest, despite the dam’s capacity of more than 4.5 megalitres. The Eltham dam was designed to water the 24 acre (9.75 ha) hobby farm belonging to newly married couple Bernie and Isa Smith. Bernie, from Armadale, and Isa, from a farm at Tyntynder near Swan Hill, were attracted to the hilly topography and the creek running through the property. It extended from Ryans Road, Eltham, to Karingal Drive, Montmorency and was adjacent to Meruka Park. The Smiths named it Nerreman Park using the Aboriginal word Nerreman meaning ‘River Bend’ as their creek had a pronounced bend.2 In 1940 the first thing Bernie did was to build a dam, and with Isa’s help, a pump-house, to secure a water supply for their cattle, pigs, chickens, orchard and vegetable gardens. It was also available for the fire-plugs, which they placed all over the property in case of bushfire. The couple built the pump-house beside the creek and installed a Tange three-plunger pump, which had originally supplied the City of Wodonga with water. But before the Smiths could pump water up the hill from the dam they had to dig a trench and lay about 550 yards (500m) of a four-inch (100mm) water main up to an elevated holding tank. The trench was dug with a single furrow plough drawn by an old draught horse. Living in rough conditions did not deter the Smiths, who made the pump-house their home, where they still lived when their first child was born in 1944. They later built their home at the top of their property overlooking Eltham, with magnificent views to Kinglake, the Dandenong Ranges and Melbourne. From 1946 it took them almost 20 years to complete the 36-square house with its 12-foot (3.6m) high ceilings. Material for the concrete roof and walls faced with sandstone, was ripped out of the ground on their property by plough pulled by tandem Clydesdale horses. Isa was a strong woman – two days before their second child was born – she set three huge sandstone boulders in place in the bottom wall of the garage. She also mixed all the cement for the house. A collapsed kitchen wall did not discourage her from rebuilding it in a week, while her husband was away working in the country. She later recalled: ‘We stood back to admire this beautiful wall we’d built and while we were looking at it, it came tumbling down’.3 Following Bernie’s death in 1983, Nerreman Park was subdivided, between 1993 and 1995. Local Gordon Ford designed the landscaping and the pump-house was pulled down. But the dam remains as a reminder of exceptional engineering4 – and of a remarkable couple.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, karingal drive, smiths dam, bernie smith, gordon ford, isa smith, nerreman gateway, nerreman park estate, dams

A quarry was transformed into the Blue Lake. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p179 The dramatic steep-sided Plenty Gorge lies along the divide of two geological areas, and separates the Nillumbik Shire and the City of Whittlesea. On the Nillumbik side are undulating hills and sedimentary rock, and in Whittlesea, lies a basalt plain formed by volcanic action up to two million years ago. This provides the Plenty Gorge Park with diverse vegetation and habitats, making it one of Greater Melbourne’s most important refuges for threatened and significant species. The park, established in 1986, consists of around 1350 hectares, and extends 11 kilometres along the Plenty River, from Greensborough to Mernda. It provides a wildlife corridor for around 500 native plant and 280 animal species. The area’s plentiful food and water attracted the Wurundjeri Aboriginal people and then European settlers. By 1837 squatters had claimed large runs of land for their sheep and cattle. The Plenty Valley was among the first in the Port Phillip District to be settled - mainly in the less heavily timbered west - and was proclaimed a settled district in 1841.But by the late 1880s, the settlers’ extensive land clearing for animal grazing, then agriculture, depleted the Wurundjeri’s traditional food sources, which helped to drive them away. Many Wurundjeri artefacts remain (now government protected), and so far 57 sites have been identified in the park, including scarred trees, burial areas and stone artefacts. Pioneer life could be very hard because of isolation, flooding, bushfires and bushrangers. Following the Black Thursday bushfires of 1851, basalt was quarried to build more fire-resistant homes. Gold discoveries in the early 1850s swelled the population, particularly around Smugglers Gully; but food production made more of an impact. In the late 1850s wheat production supplanted grazing. In the 1860s the government made small holdings available to poorer settlers. These had the greatest effect on the district, particularly in Doreen and Yarrambat, where orchards were established from the 1880s to 1914. Links with a prominent early family are the remains of Stuchbery Farm, by the river’s edge bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La Trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. The Stuchberys moved to the valley in 1890, and the family still lives in the area. In 1890, Alfred and Ada first lived in a tent where four children were born, then Alfred built the house and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden, and developed a dairy. The family belonged to the local Methodist and tennis communities. Their grandson Walter, opened the Flying Scotsman Model Railway Museum in Yarrambat, which his widow, Vi, continues to run. Wal was also the Yarrambat CFA Captain for 22 years until 1987. Walter sold 24 hectares in 1976 for development - now Vista Court - and in 1990, the remaining 22.6 hectares for the park. Remaining are an early stone dairy and remnants of a stone barn, a pig sty and a well. Until it was destroyed by fire in 2003, a slab hut stood on the Happy Hollow Farm site, at the southern end of the park. The hut is thought to have been built in the Depression around 1893. This was a rare and late example of a slab hut with a domestic orchard close to Melbourne. Emmet Watmough and his family first occupied the hut, followed by a succession of families, until the Bell family bought it around 1948. There they led a subsistence lifestyle for 50 years, despite encroaching Melbourne suburbia. The Yellow Gum Recreation Area includes the Blue Lake, coloured turquoise at certain times of the year. Following the 1957 bushfires, this area was quarried by Reid Quarries Pty Ltd for Melbourne’s first skyscrapers, then by Boral Australia. However in the early 1970s water began seeping into the quarry forming the Blue Lake and the quarry was closed. The State Government bought the site in 1997 and opened it as a park in 1999.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, blue lake, plenty gorge park

Stuchbery Farm was situated on the Plenty River bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. Alan and Ada Stutchbery moved to the valley in 1890, first living in a tent where four children were born. Alfred built a home and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden and developed a dairy. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p179 The dramatic steep-sided Plenty Gorge lies along the divide of two geological areas, and separates the Nillumbik Shire and the City of Whittlesea. On the Nillumbik side are undulating hills and sedimentary rock, and in Whittlesea, lies a basalt plain formed by volcanic action up to two million years ago. This provides the Plenty Gorge Park with diverse vegetation and habitats, making it one of Greater Melbourne’s most important refuges for threatened and significant species. The park, established in 1986, consists of around 1350 hectares, and extends 11 kilometres along the Plenty River, from Greensborough to Mernda. It provides a wildlife corridor for around 500 native plant and 280 animal species. The area’s plentiful food and water attracted the Wurundjeri Aboriginal people and then European settlers. By 1837 squatters had claimed large runs of land for their sheep and cattle. The Plenty Valley was among the first in the Port Phillip District to be settled - mainly in the less heavily timbered west - and was proclaimed a settled district in 1841. But by the late 1880s, the settlers’ extensive land clearing for animal grazing, then agriculture, depleted the Wurundjeri’s traditional food sources, which helped to drive them away. Many Wurundjeri artefacts remain (now government protected), and so far 57 sites have been identified in the park, including scarred trees, burial areas and stone artefacts. Pioneer life could be very hard because of isolation, flooding, bushfires and bushrangers. Following the Black Thursday bushfires of 1851, basalt was quarried to build more fire-resistant homes. Gold discoveries in the early 1850s swelled the population, particularly around Smugglers Gully; but food production made more of an impact. In the late 1850s wheat production supplanted grazing. In the 1860s the government made small holdings available to poorer settlers. These had the greatest effect on the district, particularly in Doreen and Yarrambat, where orchards were established from the 1880s to 1914. Links with a prominent early family are the remains of Stuchbery Farm, by the river’s edge bounded by Smugglers Gully to the north and La Trobe Road, Yarrambat, to the east. The Stuchberys moved to the valley in 1890, and the family still lives in the area. In 1890, Alfred and Ada first lived in a tent where four children were born, then Alfred built the house and outbuildings around 1896. They planted an orchard, then a market garden, and developed a dairy. The family belonged to the local Methodist and tennis communities. Their grandson Walter, opened the Flying Scotsman Model Railway Museum in Yarrambat, which his widow, Vi, continues to run. Wal was also the Yarrambat CFA Captain for 22 years until 1987. Walter sold 24 hectares in 1976 for development - now Vista Court - and in 1990, the remaining 22.6 hectares for the park. Remaining are an early stone dairy and remnants of a stone barn, a pig sty and a well. Until it was destroyed by fire in 2003, a slab hut stood on the Happy Hollow Farm site, at the southern end of the park. The hut is thought to have been built in the Depression around 1893. This was a rare and late example of a slab hut with a domestic orchard close to Melbourne. Emmet Watmough and his family first occupied the hut, followed by a succession of families, until the Bell family bought it around 1948. There they led a subsistence lifestyle for 50 years, despite encroaching Melbourne suburbia. The Yellow Gum Recreation Area includes the Blue Lake, coloured turquoise at certain times of the year. Following the 1957 bushfires, this area was quarried by Reid Quarries Pty Ltd for Melbourne’s first skyscrapers, then by Boral Australia. However in the early 1970s water began seeping into the quarry forming the Blue Lake and the quarry was closed. The State Government bought the site in 1997 and opened it as a park in 1999.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, ada stuchbery, alan stuchbery, dairy, stuchbery farm, farm buildings, yarrambat, plenty gorge park