Historical information

Ken Peeler (at head of horse), Ken's father, Ern Peeler and brother Don Peeler (sitting on load) with dray-load of 'five-foot wood'. Peeler's Road, Barkers Creek. Photographed by Alice 'Girlie' Adams, approx. 1942. Families living at Barkers Creek and Woodbrook obtained contracts to supply 'five foot wood' to Thompson's Foundry and Castlemaine Woollen Co. Rows of wood, neatly stacked, 10’ high X 5’ wide covered many acres at each factory, ready for use in firing the boilers. Much bushland was thus cleared for orchard or pasture. The horse depicted is fully harnessed with bridle, eye-winkers and reins, dray collar, hames, shaft saddle with girth & pole straps and breeching straps. Neatly stowed under the dray shafts can be seen the props, used to keep the dray horizontal when the horse was to be taken out of the shafts. The dray was almost entirely constructed of wood, with steel tyres on the wheels

Significance

A reminder of the significance of local sources of fuel to some of Victoria’s biggest manufacturing concerns as well as depicting a major source of employment involving minimal capital.

Physical description

A B&W photograph depicting 2 men and a boy with a horse-drawn dray filled with wood. Photograph taken by Alice 'Girlie' Adams in 1942. Ken Peeler, Ern Peeler and Don Peeler appear in the picture along with a horse with no known name.