The township of Emerald was settled after gold was discovered in the area in 1858. Emerald's 'square mile' was established and roads between the township, other towns in the region and Melbourne were established (with alterations to the original layout in the intervening years). From these first years of the settlement roads and services to support the transport of goods (from businesses making and repairing carts and drays to mechanics' workshops to service cars and industrial vehicles) were integral to the economic survival and development of the township. Closely associated with the history of Emerald is the history of the Gembrook or Nobelius Nurseries, which transported trees and other plants to parks and private gardens in Melbourne, in other Australian locations and in many other countries. Impassable roads to transport goods in Winter, and the difficulty of transporting goods by bullock team or horse and cart over a route that at that time went via the railway station at Narre Warren led to Carl Axel Nobelius and other local business owners successfully lobbying the Victorian Government to build the narrow gauge railway to the Ferntree Gully line that is now operated as the tourist attraction 'Puffing Billy.' Puffing Billy was primarily a goods transport service, but did transport passengers in both directions of travel for both everyday needs and recreational purposes. The Puffing Billy service did not remove the need for local families and businesses to provide their own transport options, however, whenever they needed to move smaller loads or to access places not served by the railway lines or stations. In the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries transport options included carts of various sizes pulled by horses, oxen or bullocks. In the 1920s and 1930s cars (which had existed in Australia in early forms from approximately 1896) began to replace horses as the primary mode of transportation across Australia. By the end of the Second World War cars dominated transport options in rural areas as well as urban. Correspondingly, businesses to service vehicles shifted from focusing on repairs and maintenance of harnesses and cart structures to the repair and servicing of cars and other vehicles. Museum records indicate that the image was taken in the Shell Service Station in Emerald in approximately 1990. There is still a Shell Service Station in Emerald, located at 336-338 Belgrave-Gembrook Road, though it is now part of the Coles Express network.This image is significant because it provides insights into the development of automotive and engineering workshop businesses in the region, part of the progression from wheelwright and cartwright businesses in the days of oxen drays to businesses servicing cars and other vehicles. As part of this, it also provides insight into the equipment available at the time the photograph was taken, which is speculated to be the late 1980s or early 1990s. Identification of the two men pictured may also help ascertain the significance of the image.Black and white rectangular photograph printed on print media paper. The image depicts two men standing in front of a piece of mechanic's workshop equipment on which a Bridgestone tyre has been loaded. One of the men is wearing long-sleeved overalls, the other is wearing dark trousers and a polo-neck T-shirt. Museum records indicate the photograph may have been taken at the Shell Service Station.Obverse: BRIDGESTONE / SF-340 EAGER /emerald, victoria, australia, transport, automotive services, shell service station, cars, motor vehicles, puffing billy, businesses, local business

Captain John Mason came from Stirling in Scotland, arriving at Port Fairy in 1844. One year after James Atkinson obtained his Special Survey of the area. Thus his life covers all the history of Port Fairy when it was known as Belfast. He married Jane Murray in Portland in 1846 and they had 5 children, Jane died in 1855 and ten years later he married Ann Brown widow of Abijah Brown. They had no children and she died in 1887. In due course he became known as Captain Mason, he was not a sea captain, but captain of the Belfast Volunteers, a Rifle Corps formed in 1859 as a consequence of the Crimean War, and later reconstituted as the Belfast Volunteer Corps. For 40 years he displayed a remarkable versatility in his various occupations. Starting as an Innkeeper - he took over the Stag Inn from Captain Saunders in 1852, for 3 years. He then became a carpenter, stonemason, architect, estate agent honorary technical advisor to the Borough and treasurer to the Shire, and Savings Bank Secretary. They thought so well of John mason in Belfast that they elected him to the first Roads Board in 1853 and to the first Municipal Council in 1856. He was Chairman four times and with Councillors David Talbot and Joseph Whitehead designed the Council's Common Seal and the Motto "Commune Bonum".He was the first Mayor of the Borough in 1863 for a period of 7 weeks. He was responsible for the design, supervision or construction of many of the buildings in the town; most still standing today. He built the Rosebrook Bridge in 1855 and the first official Post Office ( a timber structure in Bank Street) in 1857, replacing it with a stone office in 1865. he built the Court house in 1859 and completed the breakwater between Rabbit Island and Griffith Island started by James Atkinson and John Griffith in 1849, also the first bridge over the Moyne river which connected with Battery Lane and the Bay. Among the many buildings associated with John Mason are Gobles Mill, Tynemouth Villa, 10-12 Princes Street, the Mechanics Institute, the Commercial Hotel, Yambuk and Mickey Bourke's Pub in Koroit. However, he did not build "Riverdale" in Gipps Street as is thought. He had a store and workshop on this site but sold the property in 1872 before the house was built. After an almost uninterrupted term as Councillor starting with the Municipality in 1856, John resigned from the Council in 1873. He well deserved the illuminated address they gave to him and the toast that they drank in the Bank Hotel champagne. Within the year he was working for the Borough as its engineer., surveyor, general supervisor and advisor of public works, simply as the man to whom all difficult problems were referred and at very little expense. John Mason was a great worker for his town and devoted himself unsparingly to the community. That his work was appreciated was shown by the way in which people rallied to his aid when, in the end, he found himself in financial difficulties and his reputation was challenge; arrested for embezzling from the Savings Bank of which he was the actuary in 1882. The money was repaid and the charges found not proven at his trial. He was an early member of the Loyal Prince Albert Lodge, and a founding member of the smaller Loyal Belfast Lodge in 1863. He was also a member of the Horticultural Society. Captain John Mason Died on the 14th of October 1891 (see also 62-04-046 photo)Sepia photograph on heavy cardStevenson & McNicoll photo. 108 Elizabeth Street Melbourne copies can be obtained at anytimedefence, captain, mason, carpenter, councillor, mayor