Obituary, Ferntree Gully News, 1st June 2022
Helen Coulson, regarded as the finest historian of the Dandenong Ranges, passed away at the age of 103 years at Echuca on the Easter weekend. Ray Peace, Knox Historical Society researcher, reports:
Helen Carlyle Duncan was born in December 1918 at Tecoma, then a tiny township in the Dandenong Ranges. Helen was the only daughter of Vincent Duncan, the East Riding member of Ferntree Gully shire council in 1930-32. The young Helen was involved in community affairs early in life, taking part in a community fair at Upwey in December 1928. In February 1946 Helen married Max Coulson of Mornington, and had two sons, Graeme and Richard; in later life she became a grandmother and great-grandmother.
From her early years, Helen was aware of the district’s rich history. She started work for the shire of Ferntree Gully as a typist in January 1936. In the latter 1940s, Helen was writing regular feature articles for the metro media, such as The Argus and the Weekly Times.
Helen’s two interests came together in February 1952 when she was commissioned by the shire council to create a comprehensive history of the district. In a 1953 article in the Ferntree Gully & District Times, Helen described herself as ‘an everyday housewife who enjoys writing’; Helen made good use of the local media to trace some of her more elusive contacts.
The project took years of meticulous research and writing to complete. Helen was doubly fortunate, not only having the support of the shire council, but also in having the book published by a major publishing house, Longman Cheshire.
The Story of the Dandenongs was published in 1959 and was an immediate success. The book was reprinted in 1968 and 1982, and is now considered a collector’s item. More than six decades after publication, Helen’s book remains a standard reference for the history of the district and is considered by many to be the finest work of its type. Helen was also commissioned to create a private family history for the Chandler family in the 1970s.
Helen’s love of local history did not end with Ferntree Gully. In 1959 Helen moved to Horsham in western Victoria, a city to which she was closely linked for many years, then in 1977 to the port town of Echuca on the Murray River. Once the largest inland port in Victoria, by the 1970s the river port was dilapidated, and at risk of demolition. Helen Coulson was one of the prime movers of the restoration of the Port of Echuca as a heritage precinct which remains open (and popular) today.
Helen Coulson celebrated her 100th birthday at Echuca in December 2018. The event was attended by more than 100 people from all over Victoria. At the time Helen attributed the success of her first book to being the right person in the right place at the right time.
Helen spent her final years in a retirement village in Echuca but remained lucid, active and engaged with the local community to the end of her life. Helen’s dedication to the cause of local history, and the published works she leaves behind, will remain as a lasting legacy in Ferntree Gully, and other areas of Victoria where she lived and worked.
Ray Peace, Knox Historical Society
