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25.01.2022 http://www.oddhistory.com.au//jerry-the-gembrook-railway-/

24.01.2022 Something I did not know!

23.01.2022 Every once in a while I revisit articles that I have written previously in the hope that I can discover new material. This is one of those articles with the new information included. http://www.oddhistory.com.au/tynong/the-skeleton-in-a-tree/

23.01.2022 http://www.oddhistory.com.au/pake/young-elizabeth-mcmullen/

23.01.2022 Finding the Lihou Family -

23.01.2022 Love that the article tells you that the strongroom is at the front and faced with blue mosaic tiles, just in cast a bank robber was concerned about access or decor.

22.01.2022 Visited there about ten years ago..magnificent! Isis Downs station about 14km from Isisford or 170km Longreach. It is a semi circular all steel construction exc...ept the floor . The steel was shipped from England to Melbourne then sent by rail to Rockhampton. The most infamous story of this shed is that half of the construction materials were sent by mistake to Argentina. It was to be double the size. Building was completed in 1914 at a cost of $36,000. It had 52 stands (shearing bays) and was way ahead of its time being steam powered electric. Some 200,000 sheep were shorn in those early days. The high roof and steel structure is apparently excellent acoustics for music. Two major fundraising events were held in the shed Qld Conservatorium of Music had a full symphony concert and several years later a complete Opera was performed. Sadly the station was sold up and no longer has any sheep ,so the old shed sits lonely and unused. This and many other old wool sheds are a huge part of our history ,with some beautiful buildings. See more

22.01.2022 Bairnsdale & Paynesville, Victoria, circa 1910.This is the year I believe the Bodies in the Cemetery floated all the way through the Lakes. It took some days to retrieve them and the cemetery was relocated to higher ground.

21.01.2022 Snow has only fallen in Upper Beaconsfield a few times. This postcard, from 1905, shows a woman in a long white gown playing in front of Salisbury House. (Postcard from my collection, The "State" Series, Norman Bros., Melbourne.)

20.01.2022 Sad but interesting story of Jimmy the Chimp and his life in Australia.

19.01.2022 An amazing story and one I knew nothing about.

19.01.2022 This article was written by Garry Linnell for The New Daily and published on June 3. Photo of Lennie Gwyther and Ginger Mick, courtesy of the Leongatha Chamber Of Commerce. Its 1932 and Australia is in the grip of the Great Depression. One in three workers are unemployed. Decrepit shanty towns hug the outskirts of the big cities. A scrawny rabbit caught in a trap will feed a family for a week. Country roads are filled with broken men walking from one farmhouse to another see...Continue reading

19.01.2022 THE ANZAC ON THE WALL By Jim Brown I wandered thru a country town cos I had time to spare, And went into an antique shop to see what was in there....Continue reading

18.01.2022 A brilliant and true article about humble man fighting the rich and powerful in the little town of Heyfield (with thanks to Graham Peters and Gippsland History).

18.01.2022 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:- Can you believe this was 33 years ago ??? Sunday, May 13, 1984. : The Australian $1 banknote is replaced with a $1 coin.

18.01.2022 The Albert Edward Kemp Mourning Collection is part of The Museums Victoria Collection and comprises of 69 objects acquired by Museum Victoria in 2006. It represents one family's memoralization of a soldier who died in World War I, leaving a young family to mourn him. His widow and later his daughter cherished the few items remaining from his service: letters and postcards from and to the front, sweetheat brooches and photographs of him in uniform. They also kept the heart-bre...aking letters advising of his death and how he died, and later correspondence concerning official recognition of his sacrifice: a tree in an avenue of honor, a scroll, medals and a plaque, and his name at 29 The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium. Albert Edward Kemp was a 32-year-old butcher living in Caulfield, married to Annie Josephine and with two young children, when he enlisted to fight in World War I in 1916. He enlisted at Royal Park on 4 October 1916 and was assigned to the 22nd Reinforcements, 6th Battalion - regimental number 6800. His battalion left Melbourne on 25 October 1916 - just 21 days after he enlisted - on the Ulysses. The ship arrived in Plymouth three days after Christmas. Albert was shipped to France on 27 March and was 'taken on strength' on 4 April. On 21 September 1917 he died in the trenches at Glencorse Wood, Ypres, during a fierce battle. His body was never found. Annie received a war pension but appears to have fallen on hard times. She was eventually evicted and moved to 19 Raleigh St, Malvern in 1922. She never re-married, and was still living at that address in Malvern when she died in 1961, alone but cared for by an elderly woman. Her daughter Ethel never married either, and lived until old age, dying about 1993. She never liked to talk about the past, although carefully kept momentoes of her father. Her family describe her house as 'a museum'.

16.01.2022 From Scott Gallop. Ted Huther at Warragul Grocers in 1940. Looks like you could buy any thing there, well almost.

14.01.2022 Walhalla, Victoria, 1905-1920 A miner 's hut called Virtue Villa. Taken by William Harrison Lee, famous Walhalla photographer. Information supplied by Dianne Carroll. (a member)

14.01.2022 Ellen Kelly (c.18321923), matriarch and mother of Ned Kelly, was born in County Antrim, Ireland, fourth of eleven children of James Quinn, farmer, and his wife... Mary, née McCluskey. Ellen had an adventurous spirit that rebelled against any confinement and led her often to play truant from school and roam the countrysidea practice that left her able to read but not to write, and with a lifelong affinity for horses and the land. The Quinns, then numbering ten, reached Port Phillip as assisted migrants in July 1841.(http://bit.ly/2sbFtiP) PROV holds Ellen Kelly's #prisonerrecord for the years 1878-1881 which has been digitised and available for download here http://bit.ly/2tUY5Qy (click link twice). VPRS 516/P2 item volume 7, record page 197 See more

14.01.2022 I could not resist this beauty from a friends page.

13.01.2022 Thank you, Dennis Noone who posted this on Australia- Vintage Photos of Cities and Towns in Australia.

12.01.2022 Carving the Fairies Tree in 1932, in the Fitzroy Gardens. Ola Cohn's Fairies Tree comprises a series of lovely carvings on the stump of one of the original Re...d Gum trees in the Fitzroy Gardens, well over 300 years in age. From 1931 to May 1934 - Victoria's Centenary Year - Miss Cohn worked on the delightful likenesses of fairies, dwarfs, gnomes, a marvelous jackass, koalas, flying foxes and a host of typical Australian animals and birds. She used all the natural irregularities and curves to transform the tree trunk into a thing of beauty. The carvings were done years after the death of the tree and so the problem of the trunk's preservation presented a problem. In 1977, the trunk was extracted from the ground for chemical treatment and the removal of rotted wood, and during the process, a mummified brush tail possum over 40 years old was found perfectly preserved within the trunk. The tree was remounted on a concrete base to prolong its life. See more

12.01.2022 Over 200 years ago on this day, William Buckley's unlikely emergence spawned the phrase: 'Buckley's chance'.

12.01.2022 My latest article about a woman, a hotel and the mysterious Min Min Lights. http://www.oddhistory.com.au//the-mysterious-min-min-ligh/

11.01.2022 Charman Rd Looking North Across The Cheltenham Railway Crossing.c1915

10.01.2022 Dorothea Mackellar might have loved a sunburnt country, but did you know she was also a dab hand at carpentry? We have her splendid carved cedar bookcase in our... collection. #onthisday in 1908, "I Love a Sunburnt Country" first appeared in print - in The Spectator magazine. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-139320955 See more

09.01.2022 Carving the Fairies’ Tree in 1932, in the Fitzroy Gardens. Ola Cohn's Fairies’ Tree comprises a series of lovely carvings on the stump of one of the original Re...d Gum trees in the Fitzroy Gardens, well over 300 years in age. From 1931 to May 1934 - Victoria's Centenary Year - Miss Cohn worked on the delightful likenesses of fairies, dwarfs, gnomes, a marvelous jackass, koalas, flying foxes and a host of typical Australian animals and birds. She used all the natural irregularities and curves to transform the tree trunk into a thing of beauty. The carvings were done years after the death of the tree and so the problem of the trunk's preservation presented a problem. In 1977, the trunk was extracted from the ground for chemical treatment and the removal of rotted wood, and during the process, a mummified brush tail possum over 40 years old was found perfectly preserved within the trunk. The tree was remounted on a concrete base to prolong its life. See more

08.01.2022 Looking for a job? Why not apply for an apprentice linesman with the SEC? This is from the Koo-Wee-Rup Sun of September 9, 1970 - back when the SEC existed and took on apprentices.

08.01.2022 This is a ripper photo originally posted by Lost Country Victoria.

08.01.2022 Listen in to 3UL for daily specials at the Bayles General Store! Koo-Wee-Rup Sun May 7 1947

07.01.2022 An original May Gibbs drawing from 1919 which she drew for the Spanish Flu epidemic - The Northcott Society and Cerebral Palsy Alliance 2020 Please also note, as the image is under copyright it cannot be used for commercial purposes without permission.

07.01.2022 Before the swastika was adopted by the Nazi Party in Germany, it was considered by many cultures to be a sign of good luck - here it is being used on Colvin's Garage in the 1920s. There was also an adjacent Swastika Cafe. Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society photograph.

06.01.2022 This brings back a few memories.

05.01.2022 Australia was one of the last countries in the world to suffer through the Spanish flu or Pneumonic Influenza epidemic. Most of the world had already suffered through the horror and tragedy before it arrived on our doorstep. With the return of the soldiers back from the First World War an unwelcome addition to their baggage was one of the worst pandemics Australia had ever seen. Australia was in the unique and fortunate position of having knowledge, time, and medical staff to deal with the crisis. We were an island nation with strict borders. We had plenty of fresh air and sunshine, good food and a relatively healthy population. Read the whole article on oddhistory.com.au

05.01.2022 It Has Only Taken 165 Years Finally a Statue to Yarri at Gundagai I notice, with some droll amusement, that the good citizenry of Gundagai finally recognized ...the towns one true hero (not a manufactured one but a person who risked his life to help fellow humans) in June this year. It is a cautionary tale of European arrogance and of Aboriginal bravery. For nearly two decades the Wiradjuri people living along the banks of the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai had been warning of a potentially catastrophic flood. The rivers indigenous name wasnt one big water for nothing. Typically the European settlers took no notice and built their settlement on the floodplain beside the river. Consequently, on the night of 24 June, 1852, after three weeks of solid rain, the Murrumbidgee broke its banks and poured through the riverside town. The results are still recorded as the worst natural disaster in Australias history. One third of the towns residents (83 out of a population of 250) were drowned and 71 buildings were destroyed or washed away. It was a cruel consequence of a refusal to listen to the advice of people who had been living in the area for tens of thousands of years. Cometh the hour, cometh the man! At this point let me hand the story over to Kamilaroi man and one-time editor of Tracker magazine, Chris Munro: The population of Gundagai were now either on the roofs of their houses, or had chanced a perilous swim to higher ground to escape the rising water level [when a young Wiradjuri man, Yarri, sprang into action. Yarri launched into the now kilometre wide flood zone in a traditional bark canoe hed carved himself from local timber. Many dwellings had already been washed away, torn off their foundations and sent downstream with their human cargo. In the black of night, Yarri was guided by the screams of survivors clinging to trees and rooftops in the freezing waters. Dodging huge logs and other debris, he went back and forth rescuing anyone he could find. He spent the entire night in his canoe, paddling up and down stream to conduct rescue after rescue. His canoe would usually only hold one person, but such were the water skills of Yarri, he ferried up to six people at a time to a safe spot on the river bank. John Spencer the Inn Keeper spent 36 hours in a tree until Yarri came for him. Spencer was near frozen and completely naked at the time, save for a cash box strapped around his neck. Whole families were torn from the roofs of their houses, the carcases of sheep, horses and cattle were found wedged in the branches of trees the following day Yarri saved 49 people from the great flood over a 40-hour period. In a disaster of any kind, such a truly amazing act of bravery is simply mind-blowing, but given the date was 1852 and Yarri was atop a bark canoe in the black of night, it makes this yarn all the more astounding. But whats perhaps more mind boggling is the lack of recognition in Australian history books of such a superhuman feat. Theres no poetry, folk song or bronze statue to honour Yarri in Gundagai. Well, Chris, the locals have finally put up a sculpture. A small recognition for one of the greatest acts of heroism in Australias history. See more

03.01.2022 Busy day at the Koo-Wee-Rup Railway station, early 1960s. Photographer: Jim Graham. Brilliant photo. Image from 'When there were Stations' website http://www.stationspast.net

03.01.2022 Wonderful post by Casey Cardinia Heritage on the Cranbourne Meteorites. Between 200 and 1000 years ago, a meteorite shower rained down in a (roughly) straight line between Pearcedale and Pakenham. Thirteen pieces of meteorite material have been discovered, the first in 1853 in Devon Meadows and the last at a market garden in Clyde in 2008. These rocks are comprised predominately of iron and are incredibly heavy. The largest piece is at The National History Museum in London ...and weighs 3.5 tonnes (the weight of two Holden Commodores). These meteorites are the second largest ever found in Australia and are extremely important as a research tool for scientists who are looking to discover how our solar system formed. Each of these "rocks" is extremely valuable and I wonder if any more will be discovered as those bulldozers and graders tear up the farmland to make new suburbs. See more

02.01.2022 A gorgeous 1950 James Autolux autocycle at Gippsland Vehicle Collection, Maffra.