Strathewen Public Hall, social and spiritual centre was later lost in the Black Saturday fires 2009. The Strathewen Community decided a community hall was needed in 1901. In 1902 locals built the hall with messmate trees. It was located on the Cottlesbridge-Strathewen Road. The first function was a Grand concert and Balll attended by about 120 people. Several denominations held Church services and Sunday School services in the Hall. It survived several bushfires until after this photo was taken when it was destroyed in Black Saturday, 9 February 2009. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p89 Strathewen was settled late, largely because it was difficult to access.1 Early selectors found it a struggle to survive. They had to do everything themselves, from felling trees for buildings, to taking produce to market along bush tracks that they had helped cut. Small dairy farms were typical but fruit became the district’s prime produce. The first settlers east of Arthurs Creek were brothers John and Duncan Smith whose station Glen-Ard was probably operated as a sheep run. Other early settlers were the Mann family, who were to donate land for the hall, provide postal services and John Mann was an Eltham Shire councillor from 1916 to 1919.2 In 1873 James Mann, his wife Jane and their six children, settled on 207 acres (83.7) (Lang Fauld Farm) on both sides of Eagles Nest Road, from the foot of Mount Sugarloaf to the bank of the Arthurs Creek. In 1883 James took up another selection on Chads Creek. It was very hard work and at times he was well behind with his rent. However the family had a good social life, attending the Primitive Methodist Church at the Arthurs Creek Township and on New Year’s Eve throwing a party for all the locals. By 1874 James Mann’s younger brother, John, selected 311 acres (125.8ha) between Eagles Nest Road and upper Arthurs Creek. He called it Carseburn after his home parish in Scotland. Tragically in 1875 John drowned in the Yarra River, at Richmond.3 John Mann’s oldest son, also John, later purchased Duncan Smith’s land, which he named Violet Glen. He was to give one acre (0.4ha) of this land for the Strathewen Hall site. A Mann family diary written at Carseburn in 1897, tells how the district’s name was selected. Strathewen is derived from ‘strath’ meaning ‘broad mountain valley’ and from the name of Ewen H. Cameron, the local parliamentarian for almost 40 years. ‘George Brain came around to get a petition signed to get a post office up here and we had to vote for a name—Strathewen, Glen-Ard, or Headcorie’.4 It was at Carseburn that a public meeting in 1901, decided to build the Strathewen Hall on the Cottlesbridge-Strathewen Road. In 1902 the locals built the hall with messmate trees. The first function was a Grand Concert and Ball attended by around 120 people and several Protestant denominations took turns to hold church services and Sunday School there. Fortunately the hall has survived bushfires to be the town’s spiritual and social centre.5 The area continued to develop and in 1909 a post office operated somewhere at Strathewen and from around 1916 at Carseburn.6 It was not until 1914 that land was bought to establish the Strathewen State School on School Ridge Road. The residents paid £100 to build it on two acres (0.8 ha) while the Education Department contributed £30 and leased the building annually for £1. When teacher Miss Mary Golding opened the school in 1917, it had no equipment.7 But in 1921 the Education Department provided desks and a hexagonal shelter shed (now a rare style in Victoria) and took control in 1925.8 By 1917 Strathewen was booming.9 George Apted had built a coolstore in 1916, and local orchardists bought storage space until the 1950s. This allowed the area to supply the market in and out of season. Guesthouses catered for growing tourism. In the mid 1920s Mrs Eleanor Sparkes built the guest-house Singing Waters, which operated through the 1930s. Her daughter Mrs Vera McKimmie, ran it until the 1950s and the house remains in Chads Creek Road. In the Great Depression land was cleared for timber to be sold as firewood and there was small scale sawmilling. However the orchard industry diminished for several reasons including the 1939 bushfires and rapid changes in production methods. Today the Apteds still operate an orchard and farm at Glen-Ard, which straddles the border between Strathewen and Arthurs Creek. It includes the southern part of Duncan Smith’s original Glen-Ard selection.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, strathewan public hall

Newspaper article: $6000 grant to Our Lady's, The Advertiser, July 2, 1996 - Grant given to Parish of Our LadyHelp of Christians which is taking over the use of the Eltham War Memorial Hall in Main Road and the Nillumbik After School Program. (Other items include: St Andrews Submission Re application to subdivide 1726 Heidelberg-Kinglake Road; Minister's decision awaited - A six-eight lot subdivision at Eagles Nest Road, Strathewen; Mt Pleasant Rd petition - Need for a shared pathway; Policy on ad signs - Amended policy on advertising signs for community events; Main Rd streetscape plan - Plans for streetscape improvement in Main Road to go on display; Special meeting dates set - Special meetings to consider formal submissions and then adopt a final proposal for Shire's electoral structure for Ministerial approval and gazettal. Letter Eltham District Historical Society to Nillumbik Shire Council, 16 September 1996: Proposed roundabouts Main Road Eltham at Dudley Street and Panther Place. Newspaper article: Diamond Valley News 16 October 1996, Pre-school welcomes plan for traffic lights.main road, eltham, property, roundabouts, dudley street, panther place, eltham pre-school, eltham war memorial

Various news articles pertaining to the January 1962 Victorian bushfires in the Dandenong and Healesville districts which by the third day had encompassed large areas of the State. Specific Eltham Shire districts mentioned include Panton Hill and Hurstbridge on page 1, Warrandyte on page 2, 3, 4 and 5, Hurstbridge, Smith’s Gully, Kinglake on page 3 and 4, Strathewen, Kangaroo Ground, Panton Hill, St. Andrews, Smith’s Gully on page 4 and Pound Bend, Smith’s Gully and Warrandyte on pages 20-21 • They Flee Night Peril, p1 (Illust.) • Their grim picnic; A flash fire strikes, p2 (Illust.) • Night of terror as towns quitted, p3 • Fought till he dropped, p3 (Illust.) • Rain in fire area, p3 • Wye River town goes, p3 • Black Friday Hero Dies In Fire; with wife, grandsons, p4 • Surrounded!, p4 (Illust.) • Main street houses ablaze, p4 • Hurstbridge is evacuated, p4 • Scores jump in river at Warrandyte, p5 • Hills people leave homes, p5 • “Fire” cry at Parlt., p5 • Blind – he’s safe now, p5 (Illust.) • Police Chief Runs Battle, p7 • From Fire Front: Hospital treats 34, p7 • Firms send help, p7 • Tragedy and Ruin: Third Day; Ferntree Gully; Warrandyte; Pound Bend; Smiths Gully; Escape for 18, pp20-21 (Illust.) • Church was a haven for the hurt, weary, p39 (Illust.) • A home is lost, p40 (Illust.) tom fielding collection, victorian bushfires - 1962, victorian bushfires – 1962, panton hill, hurstbridge, five ways crossroads, warrandyte south, dandenongs, upwey, mt. evelyn, monbulk, olinda, sassafras, st. andrews, warrandyte, christmas hills, yarra river, mitcham, whitehorse roiad, donvale, park orchards, metropolitan fire chief, w.t. aldridge, loughnan’s hill, ringwood, woori yallock, leslie ockwell, linda ockwell, kalorama, healesville, daylesford, fire damage – buildings, wye river, portland, eganstown, ballarat, sherbrooke park forest, forest commission headquarters, kallista, r.t. seaton, montrose, yallourn, central gippsland, smith’s creek, black friday, geoffrey ockwell, ronald ockwell, preston town hall, e.j. tenner, strathewen, kangaroo ground, eric farnsworth, adele farnsworth, robin farnsworth, roy cleland, ann cleland, belgrave, sassfras, kaloramalice commissioner porter, mansfield, box hill hospital, pound bend, ferntree gully, ferntree gully state school, w. carew, ann quinton