The Rosebrook Cheese and Butter Factory was opened in November 1888 by Messrs Lydiard &T F Rutledge & was a cooperative factory managed by Mr. Goldie. It operated out of the former Rosebrook Flour Mill which was built on the banks of the Moyne River near the Rosebrook bridge in the late 1840s. In 1896 the factory commenced the production of the condensation of milk. The company closed in 1911. The building and machinery were sold in 1917. Rosebrook is situated about 20 kilometres from Warrnambool on the Princes Highway. This label is of some local significance as the Rosebrook Cheese and Butter factory operated for 30 years Rectangular dark blue and white label featuring text and a trade mark. The latter is circular with three cows pictured. There are decorations of flowers and leaves. The central area of the label is white with three lines. The label is adhered to a piece of pink card.FROM THE Rosebrook Cheese & Butter Factory Company Limited, MANUFACTURERS OF "PURUS BRAND CONCENTRATED MILK Rosebrook, Port Fairy. "PURUS" TRADE MARK FOR CONCENTRATED MILKrosebrook, cheese and butter, concentrated milk, lydiard, rosebrook butter factory

Rosebrook bridge opening - 1950PhotographOpening of Rosebrook Bridge Princes Highway, by the chairman of the C.R.B. Mr D.V. Davison? om thursday the 15th of June 1950 Bluestone abuttments of old bridge washed away by floods in 1946 in the foregroundnew rosebrook bridge - opening, 1950, bridge, opening

Port Fairy reunion in 1965 at unknown gardens.Historic photograph showing fashions of the era.Black and white photograph mounted on card, rectangular.Some names noted on photograph, Addie Revell, D. Murray, Mary Smith, Mres Searle, Doc Keates, L. King, Dorrie Masterton. George Brown and Beryl Brown. M. Sharkey, Rosebrook. Port Fairy Reunion, 1965. On back of photo, M. Sharkey, Rosebrook, Port Fairy Reunion, 1965.port fairy, reunions, group, 1965

Councillor Conheady occupied a farm at Rosebrook. Cr P Conheady Shire of Belfast President 1919-20 1928-29Black and white portraitpresident, government, belfast, portrait, shire, municipal, local-government, conheady

This chair was made by a sailor in the crew of S.S.Casino it was presented to Miss Claire Lydiard in the late 1800's. (She later met her death by drowning in the lake at Rosebrook)Child's folding chair with carpet seatlocal history, furniture, domestic-nursery, s.s.casino, miss. claire lydiard

This is a brochure commemorating the arrival in Australia of John and Isabella McLeod and the unveiling of a plaque at the Immigrants Wall in Portland in 2015. The Immigrants Wall is located in Bentinck Street in Portland, Victoria and was a Glenelg Shire Bicentenary Project to enable descendants of those who first set foot on Australian soil at Portland to commemorate this event by placing a memorial plaque on the wall. John and Isabella McLeod were two of these immigrants to come to Portland in 1854. They came from the Isle of Raasay in Scotland and they and their families settled in areas around Warrnambool (Purnim, Port Fairy, Framlingham, Rosebrook etc)This brochure is of some interest as giving some information on John and Isabella McLeod and their families who came to Portland in 1854 and settled in areas around Warrnambool. These McLeods are ancestors of Graeme McLeod, a Warrnambool and District Historical Society memberThis is an A3 sheet folded three times. It has printed information on the Immigrants Wall at Portland and on John and Isabella McLeod. The front page has an outline of the McLeod tartan and the clan badge. The pages include colour photographs and a McLeod family tree.Front page: ‘McLeod, John & Isabella, Commemoration of arrival in Australia, 1854, 7 June 2015, Immigrants Wall, Portland’john and isabella mcleod, immigrants wall, portland, warrnambool

The town borrows its name from the Koroitch Gundidj people who occupied the area prior to European settlement. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koroit, accessed 21 December 2016) Koroit was first surveyed as a township in 1847. Around the 1850 the district had the highest population of Irish immigrants in rural Australia. The Koroit Post Office was designed by architect and engineer John Mason of Port Fairy. (Moyne Shire Heritage Study 2006 Stage 2, Volume 2: Environmental History, Prepared for Moyne Shire Council Helen Doyle in association with Context Pty Ltd, 2006.) Rosebrook Bridge, Rosebrook (1853; replaced) Post Office buildings, Bank Street, Port Fairy (c.1857) The author Henry Handel Richardson lived in the Koroit Post Office as a child after her family moved to Koroit in 1878. Remembering Koroit from her youth, the third volume in her The Fortunes of Richard Mahony trilogy is set in the town. When the author was six, her father Walter died in Koroit on 1 August 1879 and was buried at the Koroit cemetery. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koroit, accessed 21 December 2016) In 1878 Mary Richardson was appointed postmistress of the Koroit Post Office at a salary of 72 pounds with free quarters, firewood and kerosene. She lived at the back of the Post Office. (From a Green and Pleasant Land by H. McCorkell and P. Yule.) Photographs showing the bluestone Koroit Post Office, phone box and postbox. It is located at 99 Commercial Road, Koroit. "Historic Area Statement of Significance: The significance of Koroit derives from its role as the urban centre of one of the most concentrated Irish Roman Catholic rural districts in Australia, noted for its mixed livestock and cropping argicultural patterns. This is reflected in two separate and distinctive areas in the town - the administrative/commercial area and the church precinct. The administrative and commercial area (focussing on the Boundary-Commercial Road/High Street intersection and the Koroit Hotel) consists of a number of significant public buildings and leads to a street of relatively intact humble shopfronts and kerbline verandahs, visually punctuated by opposing bank facades. The church precinct is dominated by a group of Catholic buildings larger in scale and more complete in range than those in any comparably sized Victorian town." http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/69338#sthash.ELLuSMvg.dpuf, accessed 21 December 2016."koroit, post office, phone box, payphone, bluestone, henry handel richardson, koroit post office

The Davidson brothers, James and John, were pioneer settlers in the Warrnambool district, with John establishing th property of Rosebrook in Woodford and James establishing the homestead of Woodend in West Warrnambool. Another brother William was an early storekeeper in Woolsthorpe. He died in 1904 and may be the W. Davidson who was the recipient of this book. The Midgleys came to the Yangery Creek area in 1852 and established the property of Yangery Grange. Mrs Midgley presumably belonged to one of these families from pioneer times. Ethel Davidson would be a descendant of one of the Davidson families but there were several women with this name born in the 19th century though one born to a William Davidson in 1887 may be the later owner of this book. This book is of interest because of its connection to members of the Davidson families – pioneer settlers in the Warrnambool area.This is a hard cover book of 461 pages. The cover is dark red with some ornamental borders and gold lettering. The book has two black and white full page illustrations, with the first one protected with tissue paper. The inscriptions are handwritten in blue and black ink. ‘To W. Davidson from Mrs Midgley’ ‘Ethel M. Davidson’ william davidson, ethel davidson, history of warrnambool.

This small shoe (or boot) was found at Rosebrook, a small settlement between Warrnambool and Port Fairy, after the 1946 Western District floods. These floods are regarded as the worst in the history of European settlement in the Western District. At least five lives were lost, many small settlements and towns were isolated resulting in food shortages, onion and potato crops were ruined, 20 bridges were destroyed or damaged, roads were swept away, hundreds of farm animals perished and road and rail services were disrupted. The floods were the result of a very high rainfall in five successive days (658 points of rain in one 24 hours) and there was more flooding a week after the first major impact of the rains. A link to a major weather event in the South west.This is a small child’s brown shoe made of leather with a lace-up upper part (no laces) and a leather sole. The sides of the upper part of the shoe have broken away at the edges. As the shoe has been water-logged (it was found after the 1946 Western District floods) it has become hard and brittle. warrnambool, rosebrook western district floods, 1946, 1940's shoe

Augustus Bostock was the 9th child of Robert & Rachael Bostock of Vaucluse Epping Forest, Van Diemen’s Land. He was only 4 years old when his mother died. He was inspired by his father to seek his fortune in the Western District of Victoria. He arrived around 1850. He married Margaret Aitkin in July 1865. Augustus owned several properties in the district and leased others. He sat on the court of Warrnambool, Mortlake or Hexham as required. He resided at Marramook in Hawkesdale and later moved to Vaucluse in Hopetoun Road Warrnambool, where he died in 1920 at the age of 87. He was involved in many aspects of life in the Western District, racing, cricket, and social activities to name a few. This letter relates to the earliest recollections of Augustus Bostock and relate to land of the Western district from Camperdown, Darlington, through to Grasmere, Rosebrook and Yambuk. He writes about the terrain, vegetation and stock. This is one of a number of documents which relate to the Bostock family who were one of the most important pioneering families of the Western District. They owned and leased various properties around Warrnambool and were involved in many aspects of social and business life. As Augustus Bostock arrived in the district in 1845, this is one of the earliest accounts of the district.Cream sheet newsprint quality, typed in dark blue.Dated 23rd Oct 1912, Augustus Bostock to G B Palmer of Terang.augustus bostock, warrnambool, vaucluse

Background on Bridle Path up Stony Creek Gorge Pre 1840 C. B. Hall, squatter on Mokepilly Run 1841-1842, first European to discover the Fyans Creek valley, the entrance of which became known as Hall's Gap. He later recorded that he followed a number of tracks which he assumed had been made by the Aboriginies and described one as "leading up a wild romantic glen and over on to the source of the Glenelg River". This could well have been the route taken up Stony Creek gorge by the first timber-cutters in this part of the Grampians to the saddle between the Wonderland and Mt. Difficult ranges known as Valley Gap 1850s/60s Timber cutters and shingle splitters were reported to be moving into the eastern side of the Grampians and by the mid 1860s there were a number of families connected to the supplying of timber to Pleasant Creek living in the "Hall's Gap ranges". John Wakeham, the first store owner in Pleasant Creek in 1854, established a timer-mill in upper Stony Creek Gorge in the late 1850s. Wakeham is credited for the clearing and levelling of the first bridle-path up the gorge. 1870s By the mid 1870s the track had been extended over Valley Gap to the Victoria Forest (the upper region of the Victoria Valley). McKeon's bullock team was known to have hauled red gum from the Valley to Stawell in the late 1870s and the 1880s. 1880s In 1887 an article in the Pleasant Creek news describes the Stony Creek Gorge track as "being a ledge alongside the mountain range, formed in the early days with the aid of earth and timber, along which the bullock teams used to travel to Horsham and plains of the Wimmera beyond." 1890s Gold was discovered in the catchment area of Stony Creek and by the end of the 1890s a new track was built from "near the junction of Fyan's and Stony Creeks, up the gorge to the diggings settlement. The mining Department had paid L300 for its construction and, when completed, the track was "three miles and 30 chains in length, the side cuttings at the narrowest part being 10 feet between" and "the watercourses which cross the track at various points" having been "filled up with rocks rolled down the sides of the hills, and consequently there can be no damage caused by bushfires which destroyed the former wooden bridges erected on the old track to Wakeham's saw-mill, the remains of which are still to be seen at the side of the diggings" The article goes on to further describe the track as one which "can with ease travel with a two horse conveyance either up or down" and that the workmen engaged in the construction of the track would be attending "a ball that night at McKeon's farm near the mouth of the gap to celebrate the successful completion of the undertaking". 1900s At what time the bridle path was extended beyond Valley Gap to the Wartook basin on the Mt. Difficult Range has not yet been determined. However, it is known that, by the turn of the century, people were travelling between Halls Gap and the caretakers' residence at Wartook Reservoir along what was now known as the "Bluff Road. Wartook's embankment had been constructed in 1887 and at that time there was already a track from Rosebrook Station homestead (near the present day Wartook Pottery) to the reservoir. Philip Rose owned both Rosebrook and Wartook Stations from the mid 1840s to the late 1850s and had regularly leased the Wartook basin to Cobb & Co. to rest horses there. 1920s Following the war of 1914-1918, tourism really took off in the Grampians, and Halls Gap rapidly grew. People would travel as far as they could on the many tracks then hike to the many lookouts being discovered by local tour guides. This led to the need for access across the range so that horse riders and the increasing number of vehicles could travel between Horsham and Halls Gap. To this end, the Bluff Road was improved and extended on 1929 and at its opening in March, 1930, by Lady Somers it was renamed the Mt. Victory Road.Map of Mt Victory Road and othersaccess routes, mt victory rd, bridle path, roads

James Goldie Mayor of Port Fairy 1915, 1922James Goldie as Mayor had a hand in forming the butter factory industry in Port Fairy and RosebrookBlack and white photographic portrait james goldie, goldie, mayor, port fairy, councillor, borough of port fairy, civic, council