black and white photograph on grey board. Oval shaped image with embossed surround. Two young girls sitting on couch. Pale dresses with frills, lace, sashes, dark socks and boots. Older girl with bow in hair. Melba MELBOURNE on front'Melba/Melbourne ' embossed on front bottom leftperson, family, two babies

This photograph shows Cora Lynn, Enid Eaton, Jim Trewin, Jean Trewin and Ivan Trewin. The photographer was Warren, Helena (1871-1962) who was a self-taught photographer who became both the local press correspondent and a producer of humorous trompe l'oeil postcard images. Helena Warren was a thirty-two year old settler living on a small mixed farm with her husband, William, at Newmerella, near Orbost in Gippsland, Victoria, when she bought her first camera, an Austral Box quarter-plate. Her family says she was entirely self-taught, like many women photographers who started out with nothing but the instructions on the packets of film and chemicals. In over fifty years practice she graduated from the total novice, who opened all her first mail order plates in bright sunlight and ruined them, to a competent photographer who became both the local press correspondent and an inveterate producer of humorous trompe l’oeil postcard images.This photograph has significance in its association with Helen Frances Warren, a popular Orbost identity who was well known as an accomplished photographer and needleworker. This item is associated with a popular activity of the Orbost community in the first half of the 20th century. Pumpkins have been been part of the district's agricultural history since settlement.A black / white photograph of three children and two babies in a carved out pumpkin. There is a flag at each endpumpkin warren-helena trewin lynn eaton

Life Governor certificates were given to those who supported the RVIB either through certain levels of financial contribution or by activities undertaken to support the institute. This is to certify that Mrs. Eileen Kempster has been appointed a Life Governor of the Institute. Charles Bennett, President S. Hedger, Executive Director1 x cream coloured page with brown writing and images (front view of St Kilda Road building across top, and pictures of children playing with boat, male working on carpet, female weaving rug and a nurse holding two babies along left-hand edge)Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind Babies, Children and Adults St Kilda Road, Melbourne Patron: His Excellency The Governor of Victoria General Sir Dallas Brooks, K.C.B, C.M.G., D.S.O Patroness: Lady Brooks President: Dr Charles Bennett Vice-Presidents: G.H. Grimwade, Esq. G.E. Newton, Esq. Hon. Treasurer: Percy W. Briggs, Esq. Members of Board: Harold E. Brookes, Esq, JP C.L. Kimpton, Esq. Mrs C.H. Tutton W.H. Cowper, Esq Joseph Taylor, Esq E.V. Willis, Esq. Leighton Irwin, Esq. F.F. Knight, Esq. Superintendent & Secretary: Stannus W. Hedger, M.B.E. Secretary: Kenneth R. Bunn Recreation, Industry, Education, Nurseryroyal victorian institute for the blind, eileen kempster

Life Governor certificates were given to those who supported the RVIB either through certain levels of financial contribution or by activities undertaken to support the institute. In this example, William Hughes was awarded a governorship in March 1949.1 x cream coloured page with brown writing and images (front view of St Kilda Road building across top, and pictures of children playing with boat, male working on carpet, female weaving rug and a nurse holding two babies along left-hand edge)Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind Babies, Children and Adults St Kilda Road, Melbourne Patron: His Excellency The Governor General of Victoria, Major-General Sir Winston Dugan, G.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O Patroness: Lady Dugan President: C.L. Kimpton, Esq. Vice-Presidents: Chas. W. Bennett, Esq. M.R.C.S. (Eng), F.R.A.C.S., R. Ramsay, Esq Hon. Treasurer: Percy W. Briggs, Esq. Members of Board: Harold E. Brookes, Esq, JP Mrs C.H. Tutton G.E. Newton, Esq G.H. Grimwade, Esq. W.H. Cowper, Esq Joseph Taylor, Esq E.V. Willis, Esq. Leighton Irwin, Esq. Superintendent & Secretary: Stannus W. Hedger, M.B.E. Recreation, Industry, Education, Nursery This is to certify that William Hughes Esq. has been appointed a Life Governor of the Institute. C.L. Kimpton President S. Hedger Superintendent & Secretaryroyal victorian institute for the blind, awards

Home of Fred & Laura Howard married 1902. Standing in front of Slab hut home are four people. Jack Howard, Alan (Ike) Howard. Rene Howard, Sorrie Howard and the twins in the crib Rodger and Andrew Howard. Little Wimmera River Dadswell's Bridge.Black and white photograph of a family group in front of a timber slab home with a corrugated iron roof. The family group consists of two standing and two closer to a crib with two young babies. Two of the females look to be holding animals and a cat can be seen nearby. Jack Howard, Alan (Ike) Howard, Rene Howard, Dorrie Howard and the twins in the crib, Rodger Howard and Andrew Howard. house

This is a rare and hazardous obstetric complication, occurring approximately once every 90000 deliveries. It usually results in a low survival rate for the twin that presents first, with a stillborn rate over 50%. This piece is believed to be from South America, and is either from Colombia or Peru.Ceramic childbirth scene with three figures. At centre, a woman lies on a table giving birth. A figure wearing a hat stands to her right, resting their hand on her upper chest in a gesture of support. On her left, a gloved man with receding hairline and a moustache is leaning over her abdomen and is extracting two babies from her womb.obstetric delivery

Two white baby bibs: one is silk crocheted and the other is made of white cotton with two embroidered outlines of ladies wearing purple bonnets - c1920.baby clothing, baby bibs

Mrs Peggy Bateson, a Mirridong resident, with her great granddaughter Tina Howe and great great granddaughter Stephanie.1 b/w photograph of two woman and a babyMrs Peggy Bateson, Mirridong Home, Bendigo, with great great granddaughter Stephanie and great granddaughter, Mrs Tina Howe. L122a/B13 2440-90% P.2association for the blind, kelaston home (ballarat), peggy bateson, tina howe, stephanie howe

This baby's crocheted outfit is an example of the clothing made for their children by the families who had settled in the Moorabbin Shire c1900. The Blackburn family were early settlers in Moorabbin ShireThis baby's crocheted cape and dress aesethetically significant as an example of the skill of the women of the families who were pioneer settlers and market gardeners in Moorabbin Shire who made their own clothing for their families. It was made by a member of the early settler Blackburn family and passed down through the generations. This is a white cotton baby's two piece, cape and dress outfit, with extensive hand-crotchet lace trim.clothing, moorabbin, crochet, bentleigh, pioneer settlers, baby outfit

BHS CollectionStudio posed sepia photograph of three children (two girls and a baby).Photographer's stamped mount - D. Mendelson Albury; under Vice-Regal patronage. To dear Mrs. Harvey with Ethel's best love, inscribed on the rear of the mounted photograph.history, eaglehawk

An original coloured painting four women in uniform (possibily nurses) with two holding a baby. Also in the painting are two people and several others looking on.painting, nurses - vietnam, vietnam lest we forget

Donated by Stan McFee from the Keith McIlwraith Collection.Black & White photograph of a man holding two koalas with a baby koala on his head. Tree in background.koalas, wildlife - koala, phillip island, stan mcfee, keith mcilwraith collection

Churchill Island Heritage Farm has a large collection of photographs dating from the nineteenth century. This photograph may have been taken as part of the Boat Trip to farewell Colonel Wilton on the 24th August 1985.Photograph of a group of people including three women, two children, and a baby, sitting on a wooden bench on a boat.catalogue number written on reverse in pencilchurchill island, photograph

Included in the photograph are Mrs P. Nixon and her two children, Mary Gilbert, Margaret Irvine, Mrs A. Hossack, Annie Gilbert. they are watching a football match around 1920.This photograph is associated with Mary Gilbert, a well-known Orbost citizen. It is a pictorial record of a social activity of the first half 20th century. It also shows the clothing and transport of that time.A sepia photograph of some women and children sitting in cars. Two of the women are holding babies. Two older girls in school uniforms are seated in the back of the car on the right.cars-1920 gilbert-mary nixon-mrs p. hossack-mrs a. gilbert-annie irvine-margaret

Six photographs set into a white, wooden frame, each with their own description at the base of the picture. Image 1 is of two girls, one with a doll in a pram and the other holding a doll. Image 2 has four children with a large doll dressed as a sailor. The caption runs under both pictures: "They love their dolls." Image 3 is of a girl in a pinafore washing doll's clothes in a bucket on a table which also contains a miniature clothesline, iron and washing basket, the caption reads "Washing day for the dolls". Image 4 shows children touching the tactile picture of Prince Charming and Snow White on a horse, with the caption "They follow by touch the story of the seven dwarves." Image 5 is of a baby in a chair with a cushion and a blanket "The Institute's youngest blind boy". Image 6 shows Matron holding two babies, with the caption "The Institute offers them it's care from 'the cradle to the grave".6 black and white photographs ; in white frame Descriptions below each photographroyal victorian institute for the blind, rvib nursery

Georg Hoffman and family were internees in Camp 3 Rushworth during WW2. One of a number of Lutheran Missionary families interned.Black and white photograph of a man and women, holding a baby, two girls (one to the left of the parents) and a boy. Women in sitting in a chair with man sitting on arm of chair. Shrubs behind them.georg hoffman, camp 3 rushworth

Cecilia was a Harrington born at Blue Bridge in the latter part of the 19th century. She married into the Prunty family and both families still have descendants living in the district in the 21st century.Both the Harrington and Prunty families were well known early settlers in the Clarendon area and had links to the railway and agricultureBlack and white copy of photograph of Cecelia Prunty and her two daughters Mary and Baby Lou at the gate of the original "Innisfail" 1910Cecilia Prunty with Mary and Baby Lou at original "Innisfail" - 1910clarendon, blue bridge, prunty family, harrington family, "innisfail"

Portrait layout cradle roll certificate bearing an image of a girl in a pink dress holding a baby with two lambs, small animals and flowers. "CRADLE ROLL FEED MY LAMBS" "born ... has been enrolled at ..."cradle roll

Small black and white photograph showing the outside of Rob Shaw stationery store, several men and boys are standing at the front, also a lady holding a baby. There two copies of this photo.business, retail, rob shaw

Photograph of an Iron roofed wooden building. Piepers Hill Hotel, Strathfieldsaye Road,Kennington, is painted on a wooden sign above the veranda. In front of the veranda is a lady wearing a dark coloured long dress, holding a baby. Two small girls standing beside her. An elderly woman is standing on the veranda and there is a dog in the foreground.buildings, commercial, hotel, piepers hill hotel

The family is said to be that of the Langley, standing at the back of "Morningside".Photo shows two women, three men, three girls, two boys and a baby held by one of the women (in the centre). A four horse team hitched to a wagon loaded with sacks stands behind the people and a longish house stands at the back."Langley 'Morningside" - Halls Gap" is written on the back with blue pen.accommodation, morningside, people, langley

John Kelly (1859-1941) was born at Lockwood, the son of Patrick and Ann Kelly. In 1873 he married Sarah Ann Nievandt and they had 11 children. John Andrew (Jack) 1874-1952; James 1877-1878; James (1878- ); Mary Ann (1880- ); Eleanor Harriet (1883-1982); William Patrick (1885-1965); Elizabeth Margaret (1887- ); Sarah Louise (1889- ); Annie (1892-1902); Lottie (1897- ) . Eleanor married George James Lakey in 1904. No birth record found for Martha. This photo can be dated to 1897/98Bendigo Advertiser ''The way we were'' from 2003. Family snap: John Kelly and wife Sarah with their family outside their Shelbourne home in 1897. Left to right: James, Elizabeth (Lizzie), Sarah, John (Jack), John Kelly Sen., Sarah, Ellenor (Eley), Martha, Mary Ann, Annie and William with his bike. Two-week old baby Lottie was in the house. The clip is in a folder.newspaper, bendigo advertiser, the way we were

Enid Beatrice Gilchrist (1917-2007) was a fashion designer best know for her development of self-drafting dressmaking patterns. Her patterns were first printed in "The Argus" in Melbourne in 1946 and were soon collected into books for the home sewer.A small cardboard box containing various two books and various baby wear transfers. The books are: "Clothes for your baby, designing, cutting and making" by Enid Gilchrist and "Baby book for mother, baby and child" Also in the box ten transfers, some in folders, some loose. Aileen and john Ellison Collection."Transfers" on lid of the boxbaby clothes, dressmaking, transfers

Images of people celebrating Vision Victoria week during May 1-7, 1989 at various events, or taking part in publicity shots to promote the week. School children receive Vision Victoria balloons from clowns at a carnival, a volunteer reads the Bendigo Advertiser to two Mirridong residents, a baby is held by a Mirridong resident whilst others look on, a game of chess is played, staff and residents enjoy a laugh in the gardens, plants are displayed and presentations are made.10 x black and white photographsassociation for the blind, mirridong home (bendigo)

Sepia photograph. Interior group studio portrait of football team. Five in front row, seven seated, seven standing and four men at rear not in football clothing. General pose is arms folded across in front of body. Mounted on fawn card with family photo on back. Inscriptions: Front 'RHSV stamp GP49', 'Presented to Mr F Richardson by the members of the St Andrews Football Club, First of October 1894'. On back - RHSV stamp. Photograph of family group - father, mother, children and young adults. Rear row: two males, four females. Middle row: mother, father? And two boys. Front row: baby held by mother, boy and two girls. 'STKing, Bendigo'. History Prev. Acc. No. GP49cottage, miners

Wingrove Cottage built 1858-1859 of hand made bricks is historically significant for its long association with Charles Wingrove, a prominent figure in Victorian local government, as secretary to the Eltham District Road Board and Shire Council from 1858 to 1904, and Shire Engineer and Secretary to the Heidelberg Road Board. The cottage was used as the office of the Eltham District Road Board and Council for many years It is one of the Shire's oldest dwellings, and one of the few surviving 19th century buildings associated with early Eltham and located in the original Eltham Village Reserve. The symmetrical planting of a pair of Pencil Pines (not visible in photo) is also historically and aesthetically significant as characteristic of the early period of planting in the district and because they are a distinctive landscape feature. In October 2002 new owners demolished the outbuildings attached to the rear of the cottage. Community protest at the demolition resulted in Council issuing a Stop Work order. The owner was issued with a court order in September 2003 to develop a conservation management plan and restore the heritage listed property. The owner sold the property in 2005 to Cameron Construction in 2005 who undertook the restoration work. In 2007 a planning application to build two offices and seven dwellings at the rear of the property was ultimately rejected. The cottage is now the main office for Cameron Construction. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p57 Wingrove Cottage on Main Road beside Eltham Primary School, is one of the Shire’s most important historical buildings and was central to local government for almost 50 years. The cottage was built in stages from 1858 to 1888 for Charles Symons Wingrove JP. He was the Eltham District Road Board’s first paid secretary and later the Shire Secretary when the board became the Eltham Shire Council. Wingrove held those positions, and that of engineer for a time, for 46 years. He was also one of the main figures in the Municipal Association of Victoria. As Eltham’s first paid municipal officer, Wingrove used one room in his 11 – (originally two) roomed home, as the office for the board then the council. Meetings were held there from the late 1850s (as well as at more central locations) until Wingrove’s retirement in 1904. The cottage is a rare example of a local government office occupying a Road Board /Shire Secretary’s purpose-designed house. The cottage is also significant because it is the oldest largely intact building from the original Eltham township reserve (south of Dalton Street).1 The township had its origins in the 1848 Nillumbik Parish Plan and was one of the state’s earliest township reserves. The rectangular house of handmade bricks, roofed with grey slate tiles and with a veranda encompassing three sides, is reminiscent of those in the central goldfields including Castlemaine. Its overhanging eaves and gables were unlike houses in Melbourne at the time. Wingrove, who was born in 1827, had been a gold digger and a road surveyor. Impossible to imagine in today’s world, Wingrove was also the Shire of Heidelberg’s secretary and engineer for part of the time that he was secretary in Eltham. Living next door to the primary school was a mixed blessing. Wingrove and his wife Katherine, who had ten children, sent their eight surviving children to the school. But they had occasional disputes with the school authorities when their cattle wandered into the schoolyard. Eltham showed Charles Wingrove its appreciation of his services by giving him two illuminated addresses, one after ten years and the other at retirement. Wingrove died in 1905 aged 76 and was buried in the St Katherine’s Church of England cemetery in St Helena. His grave is surrounded by those of family members including his wife, Katherine and two babies, Henry, 12 months and Isobella, 15 months, who died in the mid-1860s. Cottage ownership passed to his wife, then to daughter Caroline and then to daughter Bessie, a Melbourne University graduate and artist. During the Great Depression their brother Walter was the ratepayer. At one stage the Wingrove property extended to Metery Road and included a small creek. The family ran a small dairy and orchard, with associated farm buildings, which were later removed. In 1949 part of the property was compulsorily acquired by the Eltham Primary School, which infuriated owner Bessie Wingrove. She protested in a letter about this ‘monstrous act of unmitigated tyranny’.2 She was the last Wingrove to occupy the cottage and died in 1955. Wingrove descendants sold the house in 1974 and the property was subdivided. In the 1960s the Eltham Shire named the park opposite the cottage in Wingrove’s honour. The cottage has since had several owners including psychiatrist Dr Daniel Kahans, who practised there. In October 2002 late rear additions which had been substantially altered were demolished contrary to council planning controls. This caused a community outcry and resulted in legal proceedings against the owner. Fortunately the historical significance of the demolished section was not as great as the older front part of the building, which has been retained and was later restored.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, cameron construction, charles symons wingrove, eltham, eltham road district board, eltham shire council, main road, wingrove cottage

Two photos from an album belonging to JB McLean, of his voyage home from World War 1 in 1920 on the Ceramic. Two photos of a baby show on board. The babies are sitting on a Union Jack flag. It shows one of the activities on board during the journey. The Ceramic departed Tillbury, UK 12th March and docked in Freemantle on 27th April 1920 and then went onto Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The Ceramic was a transport vessel built in Belfast in 1913 for the White Star Line to transport frozen produce and apples from Australia to UK. It was taken over by the Australian Government for troop transport in October 1914 and could carry over 3,000 troops. This trip in 1920 there were 1467 on board, there were women and children as well as 439 soldiers returning home, one of whom was John 'Basil' McLean. Was with other World War 1 memorabilia that has come from Private John Basil McLean, 2nd Reinforcements, 37th Battalion, A.I.F. There was a large collection of postcards so he may have been collecting them as souvenirs. J.B. McLean (Service No. 13824) was from near Maffra, Victoria and enlisted on 22 January 1916. He embarked on 16 December 1916 for Europe. His full war record is available from AWM. He spent time with the Australian Field Artillery (Pack Section). At the end of the war he worked for a year at the A.I.F. Headquarters in London before returning to Australia on the 'Ceramic', arriving Portsea in 1920.A collection of items from John Basil McLean is in the archive. Kept as an indication of what founding legatees experienced in World War One and what they saw on the way home.Sepia photo x 2 of a baby show onboard the Ceramic glued to black cardboard in an album of photos from 1920.Handwritten caption 'Baby Show Ceramic' in white ink.souvenir, world war one, jb mclean, ship, ceramic, babies

THE WEEK REVIEWED (Article; Bush Fires: A pictorial survey of Victoria's most tragic week, January 8-15, 1939. Published in aid of the Bush Fire Relief Fund by the Sun News-Pictorial in co-operation with its newsagents, pp2-3) THE fiercest bush fires Australia has known since its discovery are quiescent at the moment, and Victoria, in the comparative coolness of the change which came with rain on Sunday night, has begun·to count its losses. In the fiery eight days, from Sunday to Sunday, at least sixty-six men, women and children have lost their lives in forest fires, or have succumbed to burns and shock; many others have died from heat; and several serious cases of burns are being treated in hospitals. Two babies in Narrandera district have died, and ten others are in hospital, because of milk soured by the record temperatures of those eight days. Forest damage totals at least a million pounds, and incalculable damage has been done to the seedlings which were to have been the forests of the future. Water conservation will be seriously affected by the silting-up of reservoirs and streams from which protective timber has been taken by the all-engulfing flames. More than a thousand houses have been destroyed, and these, with 40 mills, and schools, post-offices, churches, and other buildings, represent a loss of at least half a million. At least 1500 are homeless. For their aid, money raised in appeals has now passed the £50,000 mark, and the biggest relief organisation ever set up in peace time has swung into operation. The First Hint Victoria's first hint of what was to come appeared on Sunday, January 8, when most parts of the State awoke to find a blistering day awaiting. At 12.20 p.m., when the thermometer reached its highest for the day, 109.6 degrees, the first fire victims were at that moment going to their death on a bush track five feet wide off the main road to Narbethong. They were the forestry officers Charles Isaac Demby and John Hartley Barling, who went to warn Demby of his danger when he parted from his companions, and was himself surrounded by the treacherous fire. It was not until 8 o'clock next morning that the tragic news was flashed throughout the State. Searchers found the two charred bodies close together, one seeking protection in the nook of two logs. Barling's watch had stopped at 1.20. In the meantime, tragedy was spreading its cloak. By Monday, big fires were raging at Toolangi, Erica, Yallourn, Monbulk, Frankston, Dromana, Drouin South, Glenburn, and Blackwood, with smaller outbreaks at many other centres. In the ensuing week, while women and children were evacuated as fast as the flames would permit, Erica-scene of the 1926 fire disaster-thrice escaped doom by a change of wind. Indeed, those who have been in the fire country these past days say that the numbers of times a change of wind has saved towns from destruction is amazing. In the towns they speak of miracles. Monday's Miracles The escapes from Monett's Mill at Erica and from the Hardwood Company's Mill at Murrindindi, near where Demby and Barling went to their death, were Monday's miracles. Twenty came out alive from each mill. At the first a 60ft. dugout provided an oven-like refuge; at the second, 12 women and children survived in the smoke-filled gloom of a three-roomed cottage while their eight men, their clothes sometimes afire, poured water on the wooden walls. Three houses out of ten remained when the fire had passed. Record Temperatures Sunday had been the hottest Melbourne day for 33 years; Monday dropped to a 76.1 degree maximum; but Tuesday dawned hotter than ever, the mercury reaching 112.5. By now rumor was racing ahead of fact; whole towns were being reported lost; the alarm was raised for scores of missing persons. But fact soon overtook rumor, and within a few days the staggering toll began to mount to a figure beyond the wildest imaginings of the panic-stricken. Six died from heat on this torrid Tuesday, and the fires spread in a wide swathe from south-west to north-east across the State. Fish died in shallow streams. A curtain of smoke hid the sky from all Victoria, and hung far out to sea. It alarmed passengers on ships. On the Ormonde, on the voyage to Sydney from Burnie, women ran on deck, believing fire had broken out in the hold. Days later the smoke reached New Zealand. In Melbourne thousands of fire-volunteers were leaving in cars: vans, motor-buses-anything reliable on wheels-to aid the country in its grim fight. In the fires at Rubicon and. Narbethong, seventeen were facing death this day. But not till Wednesday, when Melbourne breathed again in a cool change, while the country still sweltered in temperatures up to 117 degrees, did the news come through the tree blocked roads. A woman and her little daughter, trapped on the road, were among those who died. Their bodies, and those of menfolk with them, were found strewn out at intervals along the road, where the furnace of the surrounding fire had dropped them in their tracks as they ran. Twelve died at a Rubicon mill, five on the road at Narbethong. At Alexandra, not far distant, a baby was born while the fires raged, and stretcher-bearers brought in the injured. On Thursday the State Government voted £5000 for the relief of fire victims. The Governor (Lord Huntingfield) and the Lord Mayor (Cr. Coles) visited some of the stricken areas, and dipped into their pockets personally. Later, the City Council, too, voted £5000. Friday, The 13th Friday, the Thirteenth, justified its evil name. A blistering northerly came early in the morning, presaging destruction, and forcing the mercury to a new record of 114 degrees. Racing fires killed at least ten in those terrible 12 hours. Four children were engulfed in the furnace at Colac. Panic drove them, uncontrollable, into the smoke-filled road when the fire raced down behind their home. They choked to death. In other parts fires were joining to make fronts of scores of miles. Kinglake was being menaced on two fronts, £60,000 worth of timber was going up in smoke in Ballarat district. Warburton was surrounded. Residents at Lorne, favoured resort, were being driven to the sea-front by a fire which destroyed at least 20 homes. Healewille. with flames visible from the town at one stage, was in a trough between two fires which burned four guest-houses, seven homes and left its surrounding beauty-spots wastes of bowed-over, blackened tree-fern fronds; with its famous Sanctuary, however, intact. Most of Omeo was destroyed this black day: Noojee. while 200 residents crouched in the river, was being reduced to a waste of buckled iron and smoking timber; Erica was once again saved by a change of wind. Beneath a pall of smoke, the Rubicon victims were buried at Alexandra. Friday night and the early hours of Saturday saw the streets of beleagured towns strewn with exhausted fire-fighters. Their flails beside them, ready for the next call, they lay where exhaustion overtook them-on footpaths, beside lamp-posts, in gutters, in cars, under trucks. Saturday's dawn brought clear skies and lower temperatures in many parts, and from the burnt-out areas came a great rush of tragic reports. The death-roll rushed past the fifty mark with incredible speed. Some had been trapped on roads, others at mills; some, after burying their treasures, had clung too long to the places they had made their homes for many years. Four men lost their lives because one went back for his dog. By Sunday, when the first of the saving rain came, nearly another score of names had been added to the list.Newspaper magazine, 48 pages (incl. covers). Fully digitised and searchable PDFPublished in aid of the Bush Fire Relief Fund by the Sun News-Pictorial in co-operation with its newsagents.bushfires, 1939 bushfires, black friday, warrandyte

"Who would have thought that a boy born in 1889 from the Victorian Mallee would become a successful artist on New York’s Staten Island? This finely illustrated, exhaustively researched and beautifully written biography on Leason features the artist’s entire career as a painter and cartoonist renowned for his depictions of Australian society in the 1920s and 1930s. Leason’s story is a poignant one tracing his beginnings as a cartoonist, to the bohemian Melbourne art scene in the early 20th century, to his involvement in the artists’ camps of Eltham, to his important series of portraits of Lake Tyers Indigenous Australians, and his eventual move to the US where he has been acknowledged as making an enormous contribution to the New York arts scene. This story, as yet untold, fills a gap in the history of art in Australia and offers a new perspective on Australian art in the first half of the 20th century." - Thames and Hudson website A NEW HOME IN ELTHAM Once they had settled back into Melbourne, Perry and Belle began to look for a place to make a permanent home. Having enjoyed the bush setting of Mosman, they decided to explore the rural fringes of Melbourne. Each weekend they packed a picnic and travelled to the towns in the nearby hills - such as Ferntree Gully, Sassafras, Lilydale and, of course, Cockatoo Creek. Eventually deciding these places might be a little too far from The Herald office, they searched closer to the city. The Heidelberg and Box Hill regions that had inspired his old teacher McCubbin, had become busy, urban areas but further east, towards Warrandyte and Templestowe, there were still large tracts of bush. Finally they settled on Eltham, an area Percy knew very well, having often painted there with Jock Frater. Perry's old friend Dick McCann and his wife Margery had also settled in Eltham. The township was fifteen miles from Melbourne and serviced by an electric train that went to the central Melbourne station of Flinders Street, near where The Herald offices were located. Eltham was a small village in 1925, separated from Melbourne by the Yarra River, and surrounded by orchards and large tracts of bush. Small farms dotted the landscape and the main businesses revolved around ironmongers, blacksmiths, and farming supplies. Of particular appeal to artists was Eltham Park, a large expanse of bushland bounded by the Yarra River on the south side and the Diamond Creek on the east. The park included a playing field that was busy on weekends with cricket or football matches, but for the rest of the week it was mostly empty and an ideal place to paint. The scenery there provided the inspiration for many paintings by Leason, Meldrum and other artists such as Colin Colahan and Peter (A.E.) Newburv. The Leasons found a rundown old farmhouse on four-and-a-half acres of land in New Street, now known as Lavender Park Road. The site was splendid, at the top of a gentle slope which gave panoramic views east to the Dandenong hills, south over the Templestowe orchards and north to Kinglake. The front lawn was taken over by onion grass (or wiregrass as Leason called it) and scattered about the property were many wattles and gum trees. Aloe cacti covered much to the front of the house, while old quince and lucerne hedges separated the house and out-buildings from a rundown apple orchard. Here they would build a new home. ·with financial assistance from The Herald, Leason bought the property and immediately commissioned an architectural firm to design a new house in the popular bungalow style of the time. The old farm house was demolished but Percy saved the siding boards, bricks and corrugated iron for the outbuildings of his new home. The new house was a two storey, triple brick with a large, gabled, terracotta tiled roof. It was situated at the very top of the slope. The paint and varnish were barely dry when the family moved in during the summer of 1925-26 and the fumes were overpowering in the heat. Despite the house being wired for electricity, power poles had not yet reached the area and initially the family had to rely on kerosene lamps and candles. When electricity did arrive, Leason reflected on the community's reception of electricity at the expense of the old growth gum tree corridors in his cartoon, Electricity comes to Wiregrass. The family had now grown to seven. Jack was nearly nine, Jean was seven, Marjory was four, Nancy was two and the baby Patricia was seven months old. Jack and Jean were enrolled in the local primary school down the hill. A retired farmer, Jock McMillan, came to live on the property and help out with the general maintenance. Jock built himself a shack and Belle provided him with meals. He was kept occupied building structures around the property·, such as the garage, the outside toilet, garden beds, trellis arbours and a number of ponds. The elderly, bearded Scotsman with his old hat and baggy pants also provided the inspiration for one of the characters Leason regularly included in his cartoons. Like Leason, Jock smoked a straight stemmed pipe. A neighbour was employed to help Belle with domestic chores, and so the family settled down to live comfortably in their new Eltham house. Two dogs, Maginary and Wodger, completed the large and vibrant household. “Percy Leason; an artist’s life” by Margot Tasca, Thames & Hudson Australia Pty Ltd, Port Melbourne 2016, pp 63-64 Hardback Bookpercy leason, margot tasca, biography, artist, landscape