Used circa 1890.A blacksmith handmade bush rake with a steel head and a handmade long wooden handle which was roughly hewn from tea-tree wood. The head with 11 prongs is attached to the handle by a fork shaped steel fitted extension with three rivets. It was used to rake up debris after clearing land circa 1890.gardening tools, gardening rakes, rakes, gardening equipment, domestic equipment, tools

Used late 19th and early 20th centuries.A blacksmith handmade hay fork or pitch fork with three thin forked metal spikes and a handmade long wooden handle. The head is attached to the handle with two rivets. It was used in the late 19th century and early 20th century.gardening tools, gardening equipment, domestic equipment, tools, gardening forks, pitchforks, agricultural equipment

Used to break up soil in gardeningGarden fork, four steel tines bolted to wooden shaft and wooden handle gripgarden fork, garden equipment

In 1857, tanner John Pearson purchased three and a half acres of land in Little Eltham, at the western end of Pitt Street, with a 70-foot frontage to Maria Street (Main Road) and stretching down to the Diamond Creek for £100. He contracted Benjamin Oliver Wallis to build house for him. Wallis, a mason by trade who originated from the Cornish village of Newlyn, migrated to Melbourne in 1853 and was shortly engaged by Richard Warren to build the Eltham Hotel, which opened in 1854. When Warren fell into financial difficulty in 1858, Wallis purchased the hotel. That same year, Pearson constructed a tannery below the house with access to the water in the Diamond Creek. When Pearson became bankrupt in 1867, Wallis similarly acquired the house from Pearson’s creditors in 1868 and lived there until his death in 1896. For some of this time the house was in the name of Wallis’s son Richard but following his death in 1888, ownership reverted to his father. It was purchased by retired teacher Richard Gilsenen in 1899. Gilsenen was made acting head teacher at the Eltham State School in 1906 following the sudden death of head teacher John Brown. In the 1950s the house was bought by retired engineer Dr Alfred Fitzpatrick and his wife Claire who made various modifications to house goats and poultry as well as structural modifications to the house. In the early 1970s, Eltham Shire Councillors Frank Maas and Don Maling proposed an extended communities’ activities program be set up and the Commonwealth Grants Commission was approached for financial assistance. In 1974 a $50,000 Commonwealth Grant was received by the Shire Council to acquire the Fitzpatrick property as part of the planning to establish an extended communities’ activities program. The Fitzpatricks moved next door and Claire taught at the new Living and Learning Centre, which began in 1975, one of the first community education centres in Victoria. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p59 It’s a centre for sharing knowledge and friendship and it stands on the former hub of Eltham’s original township near Pitt Street. The Eltham Living and Learning Centre, with around 2000 participants a year, began in 1975 as one of the first Community Education Centres in Victoria. Classes ranging from macramé to wine making to environmental living have enriched the lives of thousands of people through the generosity of tutors sharing their skills free of charge. The centre’s heart is the brick cottage, built in 1858 by tanner John Pearson. He bought the three and a half acre (1.4ha) allotment fronting Maria Street (now Main Road) and stretching down to the Diamond Creek. The allotment formed part of a 316 acre (127.8ha) subdivision, owned by Josiah Holloway, called Little Eltham, north of the original Eltham Reserve.1 The allotment then passed through the hands of several speculators before it was sold to Pearson for £100 in 1857. Mr Pearson’s children attended the Eltham Primary School from 1864 to 1867. But creditors took possession of the property when his tannery folded in 1867. It was then sold to publican Benjamin Wallis, who owned the Eltham Hotel at the corner of Pitt Street and Main Road. In 1899 the property was bought by Richard Gilsenan, who became acting head teacher of the Eltham Primary State School in 1906. In the 1950s, retired engineer Dr Alfred Fitzpatrick and his wife Claire bought the property, and made structural changes. Claire, a journalist and community campaigner, modified and built pens for goats and poultry, a stable, a garage and planted fruit trees and a vegetable garden. In the early 1970s a young woman called Carina Hack approached Gwen Wesson at the Diamond Valley Learning Centre (Victoria’s first Community Education Centre) about starting a community centre. Following Wesson’s suggestion, Hack spoke to Shire President Alistair Knox ‘one bleak rainy afternoon, sipping hot drinks and discussing life’.2 Eltham Shire Councillors Frank Maas and Don Maling proposed a community activities program and the council received a $50,000 Commonwealth Government Grant for this venture.3 The Fitzpatricks sold their property to the council and moved next door and Claire taught at the new centre, which Hack named. Eltham obviously wanted such a centre as Hack recalls. ‘During the next two months we had about 50 volunteers working day, night and weekends, scrubbing down, plastering and painting walls, replacing floors, repairing fences, recycling furniture, sewing curtains and cushions, donating furniture, toys, equipment, clean-ing and gardening…’4 The first enrolment day saw a queue stretching up the driveway nearly to the gate and the first sessions attracted 270 people a week. Soon the outbuildings were converted into pottery studios and a large workshop. From 1979 the Eltham Art and Craft Market was held in the centre’s grounds and the Friends of the Centre ran it from 1980. A former program coordinator, Margaret Johnson, remembers enrolment day in the late 1970s and 1980s, when hundreds of people would queue – and some even camped overnight! Overnighters were greeted in the morning with fresh tea and toast. Another tradition was The Enrolment Day Cake with Recipe, given to volunteers. ‘One happy Enrolment Day fell on February 14 and let’s just say that St Valentine found some willing participants, paying $2 for a kiss.’5 Meanwhile the participants’ children could play at the Council Eltham Lower Park house in Hohnes Road, later in Susan Street. But the centre has had difficulties too. In 1990 a fire destroyed the stable and the police suspected arson. However the pavilion was built in its place.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, benjamin oliver wallis, claire fitzpatrick, don maling, dr alfred fitzpatrick, eltham living and learning centre, frank maas, john pearson, richard gilsenen, tannery

Volume 1: contents include: recipes, cookery, weights and measures, kitchen improvements, equipment, setting table, mother and baby section, toys, pottery, gardening, dressmaking, sewing, marriage. Volume 2: contents include: what makes a home, rooms, decorating, furniture, soft furnishings, flower arrangements, plants, etiquette, cookery and more.home management, newnes

An adjustable metal headed hand scarifier with a wooden handle attached with a screw. It has nine teeth with the middle one lower, fixed and wider. It could be altered to suit the width of the row being worked. It was patented 1905.Patented 1905agricultural tools, agricultural equipment, tools, rakes, scarifiers, gardening tools, hand tools

A metal King Eye slasher with an unusual rounded 'U' shaped open blade and a wooden handle. On the blade is stamped, 'King Eye, PATT NO, 3868 A & F PARKES & CO BIRMINGHAM England'. It was efficient for clearing thin and dense low-lying scrub or bush where an axe would be too clumsy. It is similar to a billhook, but with a longer handle.'KING EYE, PATT NO, 3868 A & F PARKES & CO BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND'tools, agricultural equipment, agricultural tools, slashers, gardening tools

Used by Wandin T Sebire.A thick curved forged steel scrub slasher - head only. It has two bent steel clamps to attach a handle, one which is small and is attached by a screw, the other large one is attached by two rivets. It was efficient for clearing thin and dense low-lying scrub or bush where an axe would be too clumsy. tools, agricultural equipment, agricultural tools, slashers, gardening tools

A handmade slasher with a long wooden handle and a heavy sharp steel blade attached with a rivet to the handle. It was efficient for clearing thin and dense low-lying scrub or bush where an axe would be too clumsy. Indiscernable inscriptiontools, agricultural equipment, agricultural tools, slashers, gardening tools

A hand slasher with a long wooden handle and a heavy sharp steel rectangular blade attached with rivets to the handle. It was efficient for clearing thin and dense low-lying scrub, ferns or bush where an axe would be too clumsy. '232205' is stamped on the flat blade but the writing is Indiscernible. tools, agricultural equipment, agricultural tools, slashers, gardening tools