When Melbournians consider the Yarra River, they think of the last few kilometres flowing through the city. But the Yarra is much more than this. It flows 242 kilometres from headwaters to sea – from its source on the flanks of Mt Baw Baw in the Yarra Ranges National Park, north-east of Melbourne, through the Yarra […]
Yan Yean Reservoir
Yan Yean Reservoir: Celebrating its birth 150 Years on by Lindsay Mann ‘Of the first importance to a community is the plentiful supply of good water. In the formation of towns all other desiderata are subordinated to this …’. So wrote George Slater, in The News Letter of Australasia (March 1857, p. 3), in commenting […]
Peck’s dam Montmorency
This man-made dam, located between Napier Crescent and Pedersen Way, was built in the early 1900’s to service the surrounding farmland. It came to be named after the Peck family who lived in an adobe house next to the dam from the 1950’s until the 1970’s. The dam is about three quarters the size of […]
Plenty Memorial Gates
In September 1945, the Federal Government offered funding to municipalities to establish War Memorials in various localities. A local committee of residents (called Plenty War Memorial Community Centre) was formed following a public meeting with the objective of planning an appropriate memorial. In attendance at this public meeting were: Cr W Elwers, Mrs L Elwers, […]
Nillumbik Now and then
The following article outlines the book “Nillumbik Now and Then” by Marguerite Marshall, Pictures Alan King with Marguerite Marshall (Research, Vic. MP Print Publications, 2008) Nillumbik Shire’s history in many ways mirrors that of Australia. Apart from the first people here, the Wurundjeri, this area’s characters and places have included a former convict, Thomas Sweeney, […]
Greensborough 1912
From Para Road corner at Greensborough, looking north over the Railway Bridge towards Apollo Parkways. The lamp in the foreground is a carbine lamp. Carbide granules were placed in a sealed container and water was dipped into the carbide to generate gas. The lamp lighter placed his ladder against the step on the side of […]
Eltham Railway Trestle Bridge
Mona Bromely was in her early twenties when she first moved to Eltham, after marrying a pioneer to the area, Jack Bromley, who worked as an engineer building the Railway Trestle Bridge at Panther Place, Eltham. Mona is profiled in Celebrating Nillumbik Women 2010. Age 97, she is a resident of Eltham of more than […]
Briar Hill
Briar Hill, situated in the City of Banyule was established in the early 1920s and named because it was a hill of briars. The area then mainly consisted of weekend shanties owned by people from inner suburbs such as Northcote and Collingwood. A local progress association was established in the early 1920s and a result […]
St Katherine’s Church, St Helena
The story of St. Katherine’s Church begins on the Island of St Helena in the Atlantic ocean, where Anthony Beale was born on 3 November 1790. Anthony became Paymaster for the East India Company which then controlled the island on behalf of the British Crown. On 15 June 1814 he married Katherine Rose Young, niece […]
Ships as street names in Diamond Creek
Although land locked Diamond Creek township does have nautical connections in twelve of its street names. Galatea Street was named by surveyor Barge when he mapped out Diamond Creek in 1867: The war ship “Galatea” carried Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Albert, on the first Royal visit to the Australian colonies in 1867. The name Galatea […]