[from EDHS Newsletter No. 86, September 1992:] SPRING EXCURSION MARYBOROUGH: As a Spring excursion our bus trip on 27th September is well timed - Maryborough is conducting its Wattle Festival on that weekend. We are to be guests of the Midlands Historical Society who will provide a guide for our tour of the town. This is a somewhat longer trip than we usually undertake so we have an earlier start at 8.00 am and the cost is a little more than usual at $20.00. The entry to the Midlands Society's Worsley Cottage is included. At the end of the town tour we will visit the C.W.A.'s Fair which is part of the Wattle Festival. Afternoon tea will be available there for a small charge. Bring your lunch and something for morning tea if you wish. We will be travelling to Maryborough via Creswick and Clunes and returning via Castlemaine. We will return about 6.00 pm and transport home can be arranged if required. Maryborough has a rich history with the gold era being particularly significant. Local historian Betty Osborne has produced the book "Maryborough - a Social History 1854-1905". You might like to try and obtain it from the library for advance reading or it will be available for purchase on the day at $25.00. To book for this tour please complete the attached from and return with your payment to the September meeting or send it to our post office box. Friends are most welcome as usual.Colour photographactivities, maryborough

A photo of Old Calder Highway in Diggers Rest with houses on one side and a manmade waterhole on the other side beside the railway line. The railway crossing can be seen in the background next to the railway station.A colour photograph of a waterhole on the side of the road and beside a railway line. It is unmounted.old calder highway, diggers rest, diggers rest railway station, railways, george evans collection

A "Cash Book" being used as a recipe book. The cover is brown / red / purple fabric. On the spine in gold print is "Cash Book". It contains hand-written recipes.inside cover - "Mrs J. Kennedy, Waterholes, Fernbank"recipes domestic cookery

Black and white copy of a sepiaPostcard. Boy on a bike standing by a waterholeSwamp Creek Buchan Road

Inspection of Abraham Rook's holding of 80 acres including description of house, outhouse, fencing, waterhole, stable by the Crown Lands Bailiffthompson, robert, rooks, abraham, land settlement

Eadie's Mill on Jacksons Creek was one of the earliest mills to be established in the area. Sunbury Waterworks now occupies the site.A black and white photograph of a small waterfall cascading over rocks into a waterhole in Jacksons Creek. It is near the ruins of Eadies Flour Mill, Sunbury, just up from the sewerage treatment plant.eadies flour mill, jackson creek, eadie, peter, waterfalls, george evans collection

Aerial photograph of Moorabbin, including Chesterville Road, Keys Road and Wickham Road, Moorabbin, Briggs cottage, Neill's waterhole, McKittrick property, site of FRUMELBlack and white aerial view of Moorabbin. Houses, market garens, roads, and water features are all clearly visible.Handwritten in red ink on reverseL A 603 / 97% [in red circle] Handwritten in blue ink on reverse: 9502 06111 / M'bbinmoorabbin, city of moorabbin, chesterville, keys, wickham

Hand-drawn map of Bendigo - Golden Square in 1851. Map shows the chain of waterholes, Golden Gully, hill and bush areas and open treeless flat. Mentioned on the map are places where there were mia mias, stockyards, Gibson & Fenton's butchery & First Store.map, bendigo, goldfields, map the infancy of bendigo & golden square 1851, capt dane, william johnson, mrs kennedy, mrs farrell, ben hall, chris asquith, gibson & fenton's butchery & first store, p odonnell, walter r sandbach, william sandbach, mr frencham, john ross, thos myers, bendigo hut & little stockyard, commissioner horne, j jones, c cohen

Framed watercolour titled "Late Afternoon" painted by Julie Lundgren Coulter. Features a country scene of trees, low hills, and a waterhole or dam. Painted in colours of browns, creams and yellows. Gold frame with triple cream card mount. On reverse is a name and address label of the artist & the text: "PEACE IS SEEKING A SUNSET & KNOWING WHO TO THANK""PEACE IS SEEKING A SUNSET & KNOWING WHO TO THANK"

"Narrapumelap" homestead, Wickliffe. The aboriginal meaning of Narrapumelap is a chain of waterholes. Begun in 1873 by John Dixon Wyselaskie and completed in 1878. The new owner in 1883 was Gerald Neville Buckley, son of Mr Mars Buckley, founder of Buckley and Nunn LTD, who 'enhanced' the building. The property was acquired for by the government in 1914 and later split up for Soldier Settlement.wickliffe, "narrapumelap, buckley, buckley and nunn, wyselaskie, soldier settlement

Commemoration of the crash of USAAF B-24 Liberator #41-23762 'Little Eva' of the 321st Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group based at Iron Range. Crashed near Burriejell waterhole at Moonlight Creek, Escott Station in far north Queensland on 2 December 1942. Two of the ten crewmen were rescued by the manager of Escott Station after 13 days of deprivation.2bxThe tail plane/fin from the crash site of Liberator 'Little Eva'. This site is registered as Doomadgee Queensland Australia, approximate GPS Co-ordinates: Latitude -17 56 24 Longitude +138 49 47.Faded USAAF Insignia 41-23762little eva, 4123762, usaaf

Yields information about the appearance of tram No. 39 at Lismore after being placed there.Set of two Colour 27 x 27 mm slides in Agfachrome blue and white plastic mounts of Ballarat tram No. 39 and D3 671 at Brown's Waterhole Park Lismore c1972. Note: The locomotive is showing remaining at the park during 2009 - see vicsig.net accessed 15-9-2016 Photo from the collection of Lilian Butler. See also Reg Item 6605 for another set of photographs after the tram has had a shelter built over it.ballarat, tramways, trams, preserved trams, lismore, railway locomotives, tram 39

Bendigo Advertiser "The way we were" from Wednesday, October 6, 2004. A full life: this photograph is of Annie Carr, born in 1849 in New Zealand. Her parents were William Carr, a blacksmith from London and Jane Jamieson of Kilbirnie, Scotland. She arrived in Sandhurst in June, 1854 with her parents and her sister Sarah. Sarah drowned in October 1854, in a waterhole at Maiden Gully. Annie married Louis Searle in 1871 and went on to have 14 children. Annie died at Northcote in 1922.newspaper, bendigo advertiser, the way we were

This cash book contains entries which relate to the everyday operation of the Borough Common which predates the establishment of Warrnambool as a town. All ratepayers had the right to graze their cows on the common, with the cows being collected every morning by the herdsman and walked to the common. Entries relate to items such as eradication of thistles, repairs and erection of stock yards, burying of dead stock, purchase of bulls and clearing of waterholes. Salaries were paid to E. Margetts, D Allan, T Raingill, and M T Read. Auditors were James Dickson. After WW1 parts of the common were allocated to soldiers’ settlement blocks ranging from 18 to 30 acres. Other parts remained with the Crown for Municipal uses and part became the Warrnambool Golf Course. In 1925 the common was abolished.The entries in this book record the operations and earliest residents who were involved in the Common in the early days of WarrnamboolGrey and red mottled card cover with dark green points and spine. Paper label on front cover. Dark blue and tan mottled paper inside front and back covers. Warrnambool Municipal Common Cash Book.warrnambool borough, warrnambool common, e margetts, raingill, d allan, m t read, warrnambool common cash book

One of these items is an 1894 letter written by the artist Tudor St George Tucker regarding one of his artworks in the Warrnambool Art Gallery collection. The other eight letters were written between 1889 and 1897 and document the controversy of the time when the authenticity of the art work by Louis Buvelot, The Waterhole at Coleraine, in the Warrnambool Art Gallery collection, was questioned. The Warrnambool photographer Daniel Clarke was querying the authenticity of the art work in the Art Gallery but evidence in the form of letters from George Folingsby of the National Gallery in Melbourne and from Louis Buvelot’s widow, Caroline-Julie, confirmed that there was confusion over the number of art works that Buvelot had executed with a similar theme. It was eventually proven that the Buvelot art work was genuine. The public spat was largely played out in the Warrnambool Standard but these original letters fill in the gaps of our knowledge on the subject. The letters came into the possession of George Lance who was involved with the Warrnambool Mechanics Institute /Art Gallery in the 1880s and 1890s and was the secretary of these institutions from 1892 to 1901. The letters were then handed on George Lance’s grandson, Bruce Morris, a well-known Warrnambool historian who was the editor of the Warrnambool Standard from 1946 to 1968. These letters are of great significance as eight of them are the original letters written in connection with the 19th century controversy in Warrnambool over the authenticity of a Louis Buvelot art work owned by the Warrnambool Art gallery. .1 A sheet of paper folded in two containing three pages of writing handwritten in black ink and pasted on paper. .2 A sheet of paper folded in two containing one page of writing handwritten in black ink and pasted on a sheet of paper. .3 A sheet of paper with handwriting in black ink pasted on a piece of paper. .4 One sheet of paper folded in two to make four pages of writing, handwritten in black ink. .5 .6 .7 A sheet of paper with handwritten material in black ink pasted onto another sheet of paper .8 A sheet of paper folded in two with three pages of handwritten material pasted onto another sheet of paper. .9 A sheet of paper folded in two with one page of handwritten material pasted onto another sheet of paper. tudor st. george tucker, artist, louis buvelot, artist, george lance, warrnambool, daniel clarke, warrnambool, george folinsby, melbourne, history of warrnambool

George Box 1808-1867 an 'agricultural labourer', of Sussex England, married Mary Cripps in 1831 and with 3 three of their 4 four sons and 3 three of their 4 four daughters left Liverpool in the Sailing Ship 'Atlanta' in March 1856 to begin a new life in Melbourne, Victoria , Australia. George and son Henry paid their own fares while sons , Francis and John, were 'assisted passengers'. Their baby daughter Cecilia Lydia died a few days into the voyage.. Caroline Box, the eldest daughter, remained in England working as a cook until she joined the family in Australia in 1863. William Box 1834-1902, the eldest son of George Box, married Elizabeth Avis 1833- 1914 and they resided in Box Cottage 1865 -1914 where they established a market garden and raised 13 children. William and Elizabeth had emigrated in 1854 so George and sons probably worked on their market garden before setting up in Tucker Road and Patterson Road. Sadly Mary drowned in a water hole only 4 months after their arrival in Brighton. Mary suffered from headaches and had occasional fits and the coroner found she passed out and died while trying to ease the pain with cold water from a waterhole. It is supposed that Elizabeth helped him raise the children while he established his market garden. George died from Tetanus following an infected broken leg caused by falling from his dray in 1867. George and Mary were both buried in the Brighton Cemetery. Box Cottage Museum, a reconstruction of an early settler hut, is named after the Box family who resided there 1865 -1913 . George Box was the father of William Box who with his wife Elizabeth Avis Box and 13 children lived and farmed on the block of land in Jasper Road, East Brighton ( now McKinnon / Ormond) that was part of the Henry Dendy Special Survey 1841 Inscribed in Album : “ The early photos in this album were found by Mr (Laurie) Lewis when he was demolishing the Old Box Cottage. He gave them to Mrs Avis Box Eldridge who in turn gave them to me. They were not identified. I believe they rightly belong in the Cottage. I have attempted to identify them and present them in a way they can be preserved as a historical record of the era.” A B Leigh A black and white photograph of George Box taken in Tunbridge Wells, England c1855Photo at base ; TUNBRIDGE WELLS Album inside cover ; Donated to / Moorabbin / Historical Society / by / Avis Box Leigh box george, box mary, box william, box elizabeth, box alonzo, box mary louisa, dendy henry, were j b, dendy's special survey 1841, brighton, moorabbin, bentleigh, mckinnon, ormond, market gardeners, dairy farms, early settlers, pioneers, jasper road, gurr jabez, gurr eliza, pay henry, pay anna, ward willam, box henry, ward elizabeth emma, box john, sheldrake martha, rushall eleanor, box caroline, tetanus

Ouyen is a rural township near the centre of the Mallee region in north-west Victoria. It is on the Sunraysia Highway, 100 km south of Mildura, and is a railway junction for the lines to Mildura and westwards through the Mallee to Murrayville and Pinnaroo, South Australia. In 1903 the railway line was extended from Woomelang (80 km south of Ouyen) to Mildura, the site of an irrigation settlement on the Murray River. The prospect of farming in the Mallee had been enhanced by settlements at Hopetoun and Lascelles (both near Woomelang), and the opening of the railway line invited settlement along its route. Settlers began arriving in the Ouyen district in 1906, and the township was proclaimed in 1909. It is thought that the name was derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ghost or waterhole. West of Ouyen an area of land extending to the South Australian border was found to be adequate for farming and contained bore water (1906). Settlement spread westwards from about 1909 to Walpeup and beyond. Ouyen began functioning as a service centre. A school was opened in 1909 in a coffee palace and public hall. Within 15 years of its settlement Ouyen had 900 people, and was the administrative centre of Walpeup shire (1911). A shire hall was built in 1918. A district hospital was built in 1929, and a higher education school was opened in 1928. It became a high school in 1952. A Catholic primary school was also opened in 1952. By the 1930s, though, Ouyen had a local court, four banks, an agricultural society, sporting and racing clubs, and local industries such as cordial making, plaster sheet, a freezing works and an electricity generation plant. Silos were later built for the storage and railing of cereal grains."A Mallee Album. Reflections on Mallee Life" published by Local History Resource Centre, Ouyen. Foreword by The Local History Resource Centre Committee, Ouyen. A collection of images from the area and brief description associated with each image. Published in Australia by Local History Resource centre, Ouyen, 1988. White colored hard cover book. Black and white photograph on front cover. Titles printed in black. Book includes black and white photographs of local people and events. 153 pp.mallee, ouyen

Alexander Sutherland Bremner was born in Lyster, Scotland in about 1890. He migrated to South Australia and by 1914 was stationed in Mount Gambier as a missionary in connection with St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. At that stage he was a student of Divinity. He moved to Victoria and served in Beech Forest and Kyabram. After three years in Kyabram, Reverend Bremner transferred to Wodonga in April 1919. Although only in Wodonga for two years, Reverend Bremner quickly became highly regarded in the community for the compassion he brought to his calling. He was particularly concerned about the welfare of boys in Wodonga and became involved in the Scouts as well as establishing the Wodonga Boys’ Club. Although the Boys’ Club had been formed through the Church it was open to all local boys. Tragedy struck on 20th November 1920 when Reverend Bremner was accompanying a group of boys on an outing to the Wodonga Creek. In order to stop the boys from entering a deep water hole he positioned himself on a log between it and the shallower water. Unfortunately he slipped off the log himself and fell into the waterhole. He was unable to swim and despite the best efforts of one of the boys to rescue him, he drowned. To add further to the tragedy, his fiancé was on her way to Wodonga by train to visit Reverend Bremner for the weekend. She could not be advised of his death before arriving at the station where she expected him to be waiting. As a mark of respect, a hall was erected at the back of the Wodonga Presbyterian Church in High Street to serve as a kindergarten and Sunday School. It was officially opened on Sunday 6th November 1921 and named Bremner Hall.This album is significant because it documents the service and untimely death of a highly regarded Minister of the Presbyterian Church in Wodonga.A small brown photo album containing photos and newspaper articles chronicling the drowning of Reverend Alexander Sutherland Bremner in Wodonga.reverend a.s. bremner, presbyterian church, bremner hall

This is a set of 19 photographs taken in 1989 during 4th Field Survey Squadron’s deployment on Operation NERIGHT 89 in Queensland and the Northern Territory. It was a two-part operation in 1989 with work conducted in the areas of Camooweal and Weipa. Part 1 was the field completion of topographic maps conducted near Camooweal QLD, along the Barkley Highway on the border between NT and QLD, from the 12th of September to the 20th of October 1989. A Bell Kiowa LOH helicopter from 162 Recce Sqn supported topographic field completion. Operation NERIGHT 89 Part 2 was the acquisition of mapping control by GPS field parties utilising Texas Instruments TI4100 Global Positioning System receivers around Weipa on Cape York Peninsula from the 22nd of September to the 22nd of October 1989. Part 2 Two Bell UH-1H Iroquois helicopters from RAAF’s 35 Squadron were principally used to deploy GPS field parties. Identification photography of control points was taken by air camera operators in AAAvn Pilatus Porter aircraft from 173 Gen Spt Sqn fitted with an RC10 aerial camera. The two parts of the operation were conducted concurrently. This is a set of 19 photographs taken in 1989 during 4th Field Survey Squadron’s deployment on Operation Neright in Queensland & the Northern Territory. The colour photographs are on 35mm negative film and are part of the Army Survey Regiment’s Collection. The photographs were scanned at 96 dpi. .1) to .3) - Photo, colour, 1989. En-route to areas of survey operations. .4) to .5) - Photo, colour, 1989. Unidentified personnel relax next to river/waterhole. .6) - Photo, colour, 1989. Two Bell UH-1H Iroquois helicopters from RAAF’s 35 SQN utilised in the movement of GPS parties. .7) to .9) - Photo, colour, 1989. Unidentified soldier practices repelling from a UH1H Iroquois helicopter. .10) - Photo, colour, 1989. Inside the cockpit of a UH1H Iroquois helicopter. .11) - Photo, colour, 1989. Field Party camp with GPS equipment in foreground. Unidentified soldier prepares a meal. .12) - Photo, colour, 1989. GPS antenna plumbed over a survey ground mark. Witness post on left. .13) & .14) - Photo, colour, 1989. Unknown Cape York Peninsula beaches. .15) & .16) - Photo, colour, 1989. Dramatic fire next to base camp. .17) - Photo, colour, 1989. Aboriginal rock art at unknown location. .18) - Photo, colour, 1989. Aboriginal rock art at unknown location. L to R: unidentified, SPR Andrew Quin. .19) - Photo, colour, 1989. Aboriginal rock art at unknown location. LT Chris Topovsek..1P to .19P – There are no personnel identified. ‘1989 OP NERIGHT’ annotated on negative sleeve.royal australian survey corps, rasvy, 4 fd svy sqn, op neright 89

My Story by Bruce Myers – June 2001 Arthur Bruce Myers was born on Wednesday morning on the 29/4/1925 at Kelvin Grove Hospital Bacchus Marsh. Background Information: Prepared by Niece Wendy Barrie. The early life of Bruce Myers “Burnbank” Ballarat Road Melton. The family home was built by his grandparents Ann nee Dowling and Henri Miers in 1867. His father Frederick was born in 1877 in Melton the youngest of four boys. Bruce the fourth son of Frederick and Martha, brother Frederick the eldest was followed by Marjorie and Edna. His brother Max was the youngest child. Father Frederick Myers attended Melton State School No 430 enrolling in 1881 and leaving in 1888 gaining his Merit Certificate No 116343. Bruce enrolled in July 1931 and completed and gaining his Merit Certificate in 1937. In 1938 he travelled to Melbourne Boys High School. Bruce was taught piano by his sister Marjorie, a respected Melton music teacher. He entered many Piano competitions and at the age of 10 winning the radio cup in the Junior Cavalcade at 3AW at Latrobe Street. At Melbourne Boys High School during his lunchtime was allowed to practice the piano in the basement for his recreation. He was pestered by another boy (name I have forgotten) a teacher intervened telling him to leave Myers alone. As a young child when listening to music he was able to on hearing it identify the key it was written in, due to his perfect pitch. I remember “Mum” Myers telling about the time they went to see Artur Rubeinstein at a concert, when Bruce was a small boy, it may have been on this occasion that he had noted the key of the piano composition. Bruce writes – In my early teens Max and I frequently accompanied the Williams boys, Wally and Jim on expeditions up the Toolern Creek near where the Gisborne exit now crosses it. The dogs would chase the rabbits into their burrows after placing nets over the burrows a ferret would be let in to burrow, much excitement would be involved in the rush to grab the rabbits as they bolted into the nets. In the same area I used too accompany Dad on an evening rabbit shoot (summer time). After the heat of the day the rabbits would emerge from their burrows at dusk. We would his behind the tree in silence, a mark contrast to the ferreting scene. Dad with the shotgun cocked would wait until 2 or 3 rabbits were close together then fire (Bang!). Hopefully killing two rabbits. They would have to be killed outright, otherwise they would run back into their burrows. Needless to say, one deafening shot ended the event, also it only cost one cartridge. Our only swimming pool was hole in the Toolern Creek at its junction with the blind creek at the eastern entrance to Melton. Dad swum there in the 1880’s teaching many of the youngsters to swim. Females never swum there to my knowledge. The dressing shed consisted of a 4 corrugated iron nailed to a wooden frame about 4 metres by 3 no floor or roof. We always walked the kilometre in our bathers anyway. The swimming hole once dried up leaving about 2 ft of mud. We Melton boys had so much fun fossicking around with our hands and feet and yanking out numerous eels, some very bid. I don’t know what happened to them all. No doubt Dad would have skun one or two for Mum to cook after cutting them up into short lengths. They used to jump around the pan when they were cooking. Dad accompanied by Max and I, frequently fished for eels in the Gillespie’s waterhole just below our place using a rod, line, sinker, hook baited with a worm, and a white floater so as to easily see when an eel was on the hook, so that it could quickly be pulled before it could anchor itself on and under water snag such as a tree root making it impossible to catch, or causing the line to be lost. At about the age of 8, I suddenly discovered amazingly easily means of movement. One day when I was riding the bike on rough bluestone road near the Presbyterian Church [Uniting Church] in Melton when the front fork broke and I landed on my right knee and right eye gashing both, the knee severely. I have carried the scars ever since. I started getting mobile by riding a scooter with good leg on the scooter and swinging the right leg, keeping is straight because bending it was too painful.Childhood photo of Brucelocal identities

Art Gallery with mural painted by Clifton Pugh (1924-1990) at his Artists' Colony, Dunmoochin, Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. Following military service in the second world war, Clifton Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie at the National Gallery School in Melbourne as well as Justus Jorgensen, founder of Montsalvat. For a while he lived on the dole but also worked packing eggs for the Belot family saving sufficient to purchase six acres (2.4 ha) of land at Barreenong Road, Cottles Bridge. He accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in a property of approximately 200 acres, stablishing it as one of the first artistic communes in Australia alongside Montsalvat in Eltham. It was around 1951 that Pugh felt he had '"done moochin' around" and so the name of the property evolved. He bought timber from Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminer's huts, it was a one room wattle-and-daub structure with dirt floor. Over the years it expanded with thick adobe walls made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors. All materials other than the local earth were sourced from second hand materials, most found at wreckers' yards. Artists from across the nation were drawn to Dunmoochin, with several setting up houses and shacks on the property, maintaining their independence but sharing their artistic zeal. Artists who worked or resided at Dunmoochin included Mirka Mora, John Perceval, Albert Tucker, Fred Williams, Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and John Olsen. In 2002, Pugh's house along with its treasure trove of art and a library of some 20,000 books was destroyed by fire. Traces of Pugh's home remain with the presence of the Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design, procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. In place of Pugh's house rose two double-storey mud-brick artists' studios topped with corrugated iron rooves curved like the wings of a bird with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings survived the fire. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p153 It’s not surprising that artist Clifton Pugh was drawn to Cottles Bridge to establish his artists’ colony Dunmoochin. Undisturbed by the clamour of modern life at Barreenong Road, Pugh was surrounded by the Australian bush he loved, and where his ashes were later scattered. The 200 acres (81ha) of bushland, broken by glimpses of rolling hills, has more than 50 species of orchids and Pugh shared his property with native animals including kangaroos, emus, phascogales, wombats, and diverse bird life. Pugh encouraged these creatures to join him in the bush by creating, with Monash University, a holding station where the animals were raised. Dunmoochin inspired Pugh for such paintings as in a book on orchids and the Death of a Wombat series.1 But his love for the bush was accompanied by the fear that Europeans were destroying it and much of his painting illustrated this fear and his plea for its conservation.2 However it was his house rather than the surrounding bush that was to be destroyed. Tragically in 2002 Pugh’s house, with its treasure of art and library of 20,000 art books, was destroyed by fire. Traces of the beauty of Pugh’s home still remain, however, in the magnificent Victorian doorframe archway with leadlight of intricate design procured from a demolished Melbourne mansion; and two bronze life-sized female statues created by Pugh and cast by Matcham Skipper. Now in place of Pugh’s house, are two double-storey mud-brick artists’ studios topped with corrugated roofs curved like birds’ wings, with accommodation for seven. The original studios, gallery and other buildings remain.3 Pugh grew up on his parents’ hobby farm at Briar Hill and attended the Briar Hill Primary School, then Eltham High School and later Ivanhoe Grammar. At 15 he became a copy boy for the Radio Times newspaper, then worked as a junior in a drafting office. Pugh was to have three wives and two sons. After serving in World War Two in New Guinea and Japan, Pugh studied under artist Sir William Dargie, at the National Gallery School in Melbourne.4 Another of his teachers was Justus Jörgensen, founder of Montsalvat the Eltham Artists’ Colony. Pugh lived on the dole for a while and paid for his first six acres (2.4ha) at Barreenong Road by working as an egg packer for the Belot family. Pugh accumulated more land and persuaded several other artists and friends to buy land nearby, resulting in the 200 acre property. They, too, purchased their land from the Belot family by working with their chickens. Around 1951 Pugh felt he had ‘Done moochin’ around’ and so the name of his property was born. Pugh bought some used timber from architect Alistair Knox to build his house on the crest of a hill. Inspired by local goldminers’ huts it was a one-room wattle-and-daub structure with a dirt floor. It was so small that the only room he could find for his telephone was on the fork of a tree nearby.5 Over the years the mud-brick house grew to 120 squares in the style now synonymous with Eltham. It had thick adobe walls (sun-dried bricks) made from local clay, high ceilings and stone floors with the entire structure made of second-hand materials – most found at wreckers’ yards. Pugh’s first major show in Melbourne in 1957, established him as a distinctive new painter, breaking away from the European tradition ‘yet not closely allied to any particular school of Australian painting’.6 Pugh became internationally known and was awarded the Order of Australia. He won the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times, although he preferred painting the bush and native animals. In 1990 not long before he died, Pugh was named the Australian War Memorial’s official artist at the 75th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. Today one of Pugh’s legacies is the Dunmoochin Foundation, which gives seven individual artists or couples and environmental researchers the chance to work in beautiful and peaceful surroundings, usually for a year. By November 2007, more than 80 people had taken part, and the first disabled artist had been chosen to reside in a new studio with disabled access.1 In 1989, not long before Pugh died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 65, he established the Foundation with La Trobe University and the Victorian Conservation Trust now the Trust for Nature. Pugh’s gift to the Australian people – of around 14 hectares of bushland and buildings and about 550 art works – is run by a voluntary board of directors, headed by one of his sons, Shane Pugh. La Trobe University in Victoria stores and curates the art collection and organises its exhibition around Australia.2 The Foundation aims to protect and foster the natural environment and to provide residences, studios and community art facilities at a minimal cost for artists and environmental researchers. They reside at the non-profit organisation for a year at minimal cost. The buildings, some decorated with murals painted by Pugh and including a gallery, were constructed by Pugh, family and friends, with recycled as well as new materials and mud-bricks. The Foundation is inspired by the tradition begun by the Dunmoochin Artists’ Cooperative which formed in the late 1950s as one of the first artistic communes in Australia. Members bought the land collaboratively and built the seven dwellings so that none could overlook another. But, in the late 1960s, the land was split into private land holdings, which ended the cooperative. Dunmoochin attracted visits from the famous artists of the day including guitarists John Williams and Segovia; singer and comedian Rolf Harris; comedian Barry Humphries; and artists Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Mirka Mora. A potters’ community, started by Peter and Helen Laycock with Alma Shanahan, held monthly exhibitions in the 1960s, attracting local, interstate and international visitors – with up to 500 attending at a time.3 Most artists sold their properties and moved away. But two of the original artists remained into the new millennium as did relative newcomer Heja Chong who built on Pugh’s property (now owned by the Dunmoochin Foundation). In 1984 Chong brought the 1000-year-old Japanese Bizan pottery method to Dunmoochin. She helped build (with potters from all over Australia) the distinctive Bizan-style kiln, which fires pottery from eight to 14 days in pine timber, to produce the Bizan unglazed and simple subdued style. The kiln, which is rare in Australia, is very large with adjoining interconnected ovens of different sizes, providing different temperatures and firing conditions. Frank Werther, who befriended Pugh as a fellow student at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne, built his house off Barreenong Road in 1954. Werther is a painter of the abstract and colourist style and taught art for about 30 years. Like so many in the post-war years in Eltham Shire, as it was called then, Werther built his home in stages using mud-brick and second-hand materials. The L-shaped house is single-storey but two-storey in parts with a corrugated-iron pitched roof. The waterhole used by the Werthers for their water supply is thought to be a former goldmining shaft.4 Alma Shanahan at Barreenong Road was the first to join Pugh around 1953. They also met at the National Gallery Art School and Shanahan at first visited each weekend to work, mainly making mud-bricks. She shared Pugh’s love for the bush, but when their love affair ended, she designed and built her own house a few hundred yards (metres) away. The mud-brick and timber residence, made in stages with local materials, is rectangular, single-storey with a corrugated-iron roof. As a potter, Shanahan did not originally qualify as an official Cooperative member.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, art gallery, clifton pugh, dunmoochin, cottlesbridge, cottles bridge, barreenong road