Our History

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Saturday, 22 February 2025

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Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Drouin nurse Kate Ethel Hearn standing outside her home “Thorney” at 144 Princes Way in the early 1900s. Kate opened “Thorney” - located opposite the primary school site - as a private hospital. Kate was born in St Arnaud in 1878 to...

Snapshot of the past

Jim Fitzpatrick’s 1944 series of photos of Drouin includes two of women from the Women’s Land Army working at the Drouin Flax Mill. In 1942 Australia’s farmers were struggling. The countryside emptied as young men enlisted to fight in the war and...

The single copper wire

Most of us know about the Overland Telegraph between Adelaide and Darwin. We don’t all realise that it was built in three stages, beginning with the middle section for some reason I have never found out. The contractors had to deal with a lack of...

Snapshot of the past - 1944 Drouin: A Small Town at War

This ‘staged’ photograph from the ‘1944 Drouin: A Small Town at War’ collection of photos taken by Jim Fitzpatrick, shows Arthur Holmes the Chairman of the War Agricultural Committee for Central Gippsland with its headquarters in Drouin. The photo...

Snapshot of the past

In January 1966, Warragul’s ornate old brick post office came tumbling down to make way for a new brick office. The photograph shows the first stages of demolition as the roof was removed from the old Warragul Post Office. The wreckers – Harris...

Rail lines and timber yards

This column has carried the story of the Gippsland railway before. It has covered the history of almost every mile of track, open and closed. There is always, though, something more to be learned. Always. It is 40 years this year since the township...

A feat of endurance

At noon on Monday, January 24, 1836 the summer silence of Western Port was broken by the rattle of anchor chains and shouts of command. The 300-ton barque’Norval’, under Captain Coltish, wasanchoring off Sandy Point. She carried a cargo of sheep for...

120 years of croquet

Warragul Croquet Club will celebrate its 120th anniversary this Saturday. The anniversary will be celebrated with an open day from 10am to 3pm on Saturday. The day provides an opportunity for community members to go along and try croquet in a casual...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph featuring Harold Higgs who is one of Drouin’s World War I heroes. Harold, on the right, is captured alongside some of his regiment in July 1917, presumably whilst on leave from the fighting. Harold was born June 5, 1890, the fifth child...

Changes in the chook house

Chooks have played an important part in our history, believe it or not. When my mother’s great grandfather came down from Mount Cole, in the Western District to Officer he transported his family and all his good on a bullock dray. He even camped for...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Lambert Lieshout carting milk cans in the Longwarrydistrict. We often hear how technology is changing our lives forever. But, of course, it has always been this way, just as the invention of the wheel changed the way we cart goods...

Croajingolong National Park

I recently put together some notes on the Errinundra and Coopracambra national parks but I did not have room for the third large national park in the far east of Gippsland. I did not have room to include the Croajingolong National Park which has...

Snapshot of the past - “Jackie” the lyrebird

A photograph capturing the framed tail feathers of “Jackie the Lyrebird” who was part of the McNeilly family and became quite a famous resident of Drouin. To put the story into context, the forests of West Gippsland were alive with native lyrebirds...

The voice of nature study

When I was recently - and rather desperately - looking for information on the three big National Parks in East Gippsland, I came across the name of Norman Wakefield. It rang a loud bell. I then remembered that Norman Wakefield was the “voice of...

Our changing Christmas

One of the few delights in aging is that one can look back and enjoy reminiscences of the past. Perhaps fortunately, we wear rose-coloured glasses when we do that, so the past usually looks at least as good as the present, and often better. I can’t...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of workers, including William McNeilly (third right), felling trees and clearing land in Drouin. William McNeilly was born in 1871 as the fourth child of John and Eliza McNeilly, acknowledged as the first European settlers to take out...

Seaforth, the town that never was

On July 5, 1889 the Victorian Gazette announced the creation of a township at Mount Singapore on Wilson Promontory. This was to be one of several townships to be created around Corner Inlet and on the Prom, but the others did not get far enough to...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the Waugh Motors building in Drouin under construction in August 1952. This building at 116-126 Princes Way still stands today. It houses three businesses, including Roger Manson Panels. William Waugh built Waugh Motors after...

“Wreckers” on the Gippsland coast

A “wrecker” was some one who set false lights and fires to lure ships onto rocks, there to be pillaged. Jack Loney uses the term for those who stole from wrecks but did not actually cause themLoney has produced many small books of historical and...