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What makes your Nillumbik home town/area unique? Who are the characters who have made it so? What sites have significance and why? During 2005 Nillumbik Shire Council and the Literary Reference Group invited members of the community to respond to these questions, to show us the history and flavour of your place - then and now - in a 500 word anecdote. This article by Elain Rank is reproduced here with her permission.

I was ten years old when we moved to Briar Hill. Dusty unmade roads with potholes replaced the made roads and footpaths of Thornbury where we had lived. However, it didn’t take long to fall in love with this little township that fitted cosily between Greensborough and Montmorency. If ever asked by outsiders, where do you live, and you answered Briar Hill, the response was always the same, never heard of it. Apart from the quiet simple life, there was much more to Briar Hill than most folk knew, with many highly successful businesses that kept many locals employed.

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The following is an edited version of the speech given by City of Whittlesea Mayor, Cr Mary Lalios on the ocassion of the 10th anniversary of the Whittlesea Heritage Program, 17 July 2009

Good evening everyone and welcome to the Great Hall for the start of our tenth anniversary heritage celebrations –a genuine milestone.

Over the next six months we will enjoy 33 different heritage events, our largest program ever and possibly the largest in Australia.

It’s a program that reflects the diversity of our City and our residents. It includes indigenous history and the City’s community life since the earliest days of settlement.

Black Saturday

It’s a big year for heritage in more ways than one and I will start by saying that one of the most recent events that has happened in our backyard, the Black Saturday bushfires, which occurred on the 7th of February will be part of our heritage for ever. Our hearts and prayers go out to all ...