This is a medallion awarded in 2000 by Powercor Warrnambool to Elmac Hydroponics. Powercor Australia, founded in 1994, is an electrical distribution company operating in the Western District of Victoria and the western suburbs of Melbourne. Powercor Warrnambool, like other Powercor organizations, is involved in giving Business Excellence Awards annually to businesses in its area of supply. In 2014 there were 15 awards for Business Excellence. Elmac Hydroponics was a business growing and supplying organically-produced tomatoes from 1997 to 2004. It was situated at Mount Pleasant, Princes Highway, Allansford, Victoria. The business was operated by Graeme and Barbara McLeod and Keith and Leonie Ellerton. Hydroponics is a system of growing plants without soil, using a nutrient solution. Elmac Hydroponics had a 2,000 square metre greenhouse with 10,000 growing points. This is a significant medallion, showing the award given to a small business in the Warrnambool area and indicating its achievements in the environmental area. Elmac was an industry leader in in implementing an ‘Autopot’ hydroponic system which is aimed at reducing nutrient and waste water to zero. Elmac was also a finalist in the Ericsson 2002 Innovation Awards.This is a gilt metal medallion, oval-shaped, with an ornamental edging and a shield-shaped design on one side and a circular design on the other. The top has two metal rings for attachment to a chain or wall hook. On one side: ‘Environmental Achievement, Elmac Hydroponics’ On obverse side: ‘Powercor Warrnambool Region Business Achievement Awards, 2000’ elmac hydroponics, powercor business awards, warrnambool

AMF Operational Ration This ration pack was developed by Sir Stanton Hicks. It contained three meals, each waterproofed (a vital consideration for the tropics), which offered a balanced selection of meat, vegetables, fruit and vitamin supplements. Before the development of this ration pack, Australian soldiers were supplied with quantities of preserved food that were difficult for a man to carry and divide, and which often did not provide a nourishing diet. Sir Cedric Stanton Hicks (1892-1976), university professor and army catering officer, was born on 2 June 1892 at Mosgiel, New Zealand. University of Otago (B.Sc., N.Z., 1914; M.Sc. Hons, 1915; M.B., Ch.B., 1923) 1916-18 Hicks served as a non-commissioned officer in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and he assisted Professor J. K. H. Inglis in the synthesis and production of Chloramine-T for use against meningitis among the troops. Hicks was appointed government analyst in 1918. On a Fellowship 1923, he travelled to England and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (Ph.D., 1926) and caried out research in Switzerland, Germany and the United States of America. 1927 he was appointed to the new chair of physiology and pharmacology at Adelaide University, which he was to hold until 1957. During the Depression he studied the dietary patterns of five hundred families receiving relief. 1940 Hicks was appointed temporary captain, Australian Military Forces, and performed part-time duty as catering supervisor. Moved to Melbourne as chief inspector of catering, he began a campaign for applying scientific principles to the feeding of troops. 1943 the Australian Army Catering Corps was formed. Hicks altered the basis of the allowance for military rations from a monetary to a nutrient entitlement, improved the pay and promotion opportunities of cooks, established schools of cooking and catering, devised new methods for preparing food, supported the service's adoption of the Wiles steam-cooker, and designed jungle-patrol, emergency and air-drop rations. His 'Who Called the Cook a Bastard?' (Sydney, 1972) gave an account of his experiences in military catering.Men from most families in the City of Moorabbin area served in the Australian Military Forces during World War 2.A tin container , khaki colour, used for the storage of a food ration item for a soldier serving in the Australian Military Forces World War 11.TURN KEY ← TO OPEN CAN / diagram of key / A.M.F. / OPERATION/ RATION/ 02 / D↑Dworld war 11, australian military forces, sir cedric stanton hicks, army catering corps, soldier rations, food supplys, australian diggers, food preservation

The name bandicoot is taken from the term ‘pandi-kokku’ which means ‘pig-rat’ in Teluga, an Indian language. The bandicoot is endemic to Australia, and is a nocturnal marsupial. When first discovered, the bandicoot was originally mistaken for a type of rodent. This confusion can still occur among people today who don’t know the difference. However, the bandicoot actually descends from the marsupial lineage. Its most distinguishing features are the pointed snout, big ears, long hairless tail, round black eyes, and plump body. The hair colour is brown or tan, sometimes mixed with black or white markings. The hind limbs tend to be longer than the front limbs, and two of the toes are fused together, similar to the kangaroo. They play an important ecological role – turning over soil, which increases the rate of leaf litter decomposition, soil production and nutrient cycling. They're also critical in dispersing fungi spores, so losing bandicoots (and bettongs) from ecosystems has cascading effects on plant diversity, species composition and structure of forests and woodlands. Due to its immense diversity, the bandicoot has a large range of different body sizes. It typically varies between 12 and 31 inches in length, while the tail adds another four to 12 inches. This makes it on average about the size of a house cat. Males may be up to twice as large as females, but otherwise the sexes are similar in appearance. The main difference exhibited by the female is the rear-facing pouch with six to 10 teats to protect and feed the young. The bandicoot is one of the few marsupials to have a developed placenta. However, this placenta is small and lacks certain features, thus separating it from most other placental mammals. This specimen is part of a collection of almost 200 animal specimens that were originally acquired as skins from various institutions across Australia, including the Australian Museum and the National Museum of Victoria, as well as individuals such amateur anthropologist Reynell Eveleigh Johns between 1860-1880. These skins were then mounted by members of the Burke Museum Committee and put-on display in the formal space of the Museum’s original exhibition hall where they continue to be on display. This display of taxidermy mounts initially served to instruct visitors to the Burke Museum of the natural world around them, today it serves as an insight into the collecting habits of the 19th century. This specimen is part of a significant and rare taxidermy mount collection in the Burke Museum. This collection is scientifically and culturally important for reminding us of how science continues to shape our understanding of the modern world. They demonstrate a capacity to hold evidence of how Australia’s fauna history existed in the past and are potentially important for future environmental research. This collection continues to be on display in the Museum and has become a key part to interpreting the collecting habits of the 19th century.Small sized bandicoot with a pointy snout, small rounded eyes made of glass, a thin tail, small rounded ears, and sharp clawed legs. The fur in colouring is golden brown with streaks of dark brown, and is of medium length and fine.On wooden mount: BMM5896/ On Catalogue Tag (attached to left foreleg): Bandicoot Mou(...)/ Catalogue, Page. 45/ burke museum, taxidermy, taxidermy mount, fauna, animal, animalia, reynell eveleigh johns, bandicoot, marsupial, peramelemorphia

Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p175 It’s Saturday morning and thousands of people are visiting St Andrews Market at the corner of Heidelberg-Kinglake Road and Proctor Street. It’s hard to find a park. Cars are banked up along the narrow road and crammed in a nearby parking area. Yet, at the market, people look relaxed and happy amongst the yellow box gums on the site where the Wurundjeri people used to gather. Stone artefacts unearthed there by Koorie researcher, Isabel Ellender, indicate the site was once a Wurundjeri meeting place, according to Aboriginal Affairs Victoria.1 Acoustic sounds mingle with quiet conversations. A guitarist blows a mouth organ while his bare toes tickle chimes. A tiny busker, perhaps five years old, plays a violin while sounds of a harp emerge from the hall. One stallholder, selling delicious-looking pastries, chats to another in Spanish, then to me in broad Australian. ‘I was born in Fitzroy but my mother came from Mexico and my dad from Serbia,’ she smiles. A New Zealander fell in love with Mongolia and now imports their hand-made embroidered clothes and Yurts (tents) and runs adventure tours. A young woman visited Morocco and when friends admired the shoes she bought, she decided to import them and sell them at the market. Oxfam sells Fair Trade toys and clothes and displays a petition to Make Poverty History. Other stalls sell Himalayan salt, jewellery made from seeds from northern Australia, glass paper-weights from China as well as locally grown vegetables, flowers and organic freshly baked bread. A woman sits in a state of bliss under the hands of a masseur. Another offers Reiki or spiritual healing. A juggler tosses devil sticks – ‘not really about the devil,’ he smiles. This skill was practised thousands of years ago in Egypt and South America he says. At the Chai Tent people lounge on cushions in leisurely conversation. The idea for the market was first mooted among friends over a meal at the home of famous jazz and gospel singer Judy Jacques.2 Jacques remembers a discussion with several local artists including Marlene Pugh, Eric Beach, Les Kossatz, Ray Newell and Peter Wallace. ‘We decided we wanted a meeting place, where all the different factions of locals could meet on common ground, sell their goodies and get to know one another,’ Jacques recalls. They chose the site opposite another meeting place, St Andrews Pub. A week later Jacques rode her horse around the district and encouraged her neighbours to come along to the site to buy or sell. On February 23, 1973, about 20 stallholders arrived with tables. They traded ‘second-hand clothes, vegetables, meat, cheese, eggs, chickens, goats, scones, tea, garden pots and peacock feathers’. Now around 2000 people visit each Saturday. People usually linger until dusk. The market – with around 150 stalls of wares from a wide variety of cultures – stands alongside Montsalvat as the most popular tourist attraction in Nillumbik. By the 1990s St Andrews Market was in danger of being loved to death, as the site was becoming seriously degraded. The market was spreading in all directions and the degradation with it. A local council arborist’s report in 1994 noted exposed tree roots from erosion and compaction. The Department of Sustainability and Environment threatened to close the market if the degradation was not rectified. After many months of research, discussions and lobbying by a few residents, the council formed a Committee of Management, with an Advisory Committee, and introduced an Environment Levy. The State Government, the council and the market, funded terracing of the site to stop erosion, and retain moisture and nutrients. Vehicles were excluded from some sensitive areas and other crucial zones reserved for re-vegetation. Volunteers planted more than 3000 locally grown indigenous species. The old Yellow Box trees fully recovered and are expected to give shade for many years to come.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, didgeridoo, jesse tree, st andrews market, swiss hang drum