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Thursday, 21 November 2024
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Our History

Stories from the Noojee line

Sometimes I get a pleasant surprise, and it happened a few weeks ago. Val and I took some German friends to lunch at the Nooj Pub and there I saw a book on sale. It was the last copy they had and I snapped it up. I am very glad about that because...

The Gazette
19 Nov 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the large crowd gathered to officially open a new outdoor swimming pool at Drouin High School in December 1961. The new pool, officially opened by Minister for Education Mr Bloomfield before parents and students, cost £15,000 to...

The Gazette
19 Nov 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of St Thomas Anglican Church in A’Beckett Rd, Bunyip in 1975. This photograph appeared in The Gazette as part of a Bunyip Chamber of Commerce campaign. It aimed to publicise Bunyip along the theme, “Bunyip is Beautiful”, with the church...

The Gazette
12 Nov 2024
Our History

Businesses along the coach line

In last week’s story I was talking about the coaches that ran from Port Albert to Sale and beyond, to Bairnsdale and to much smaller but then-growing places like Bald Hill. I was talking about the year 1863, and I was using the front page of the...

The Gazette
12 Nov 2024
Our History

Coaches to the goldfields

I was wandering about on the web, looking for more information on the McEvoy of McEvoy’s Track fame when I came across page one of the Gippsland Times edition of Friday, March 13, 1863. It was a little hard to read but it told a fascinating story...

The Gazette
06 Nov 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Arthur Welesley Towers of Longwarry who was recognised for bravery in World War I. Each year, Longwarry and District Heritage Group record the story of one local man or woman to mark Remembrance Day. This year’s story is that of...

The Gazette
06 Nov 2024
Our History

Value of a good railway

A few weeks ago, I began to talk about the closing of the South Gippsland railway, but I do have a little railway anecdote that says a little about what we have lost. In the early 1980s I was teaching at Upper Beaconsfield and my wife, Val, was...

The Gazette
30 Oct 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Sergeant Ernest James Brough showing correct handball technique to Drouin State School students in 1944. In the lead-up to Remembrance Day, it is timely to remember a distinguished local soldier who served in World War II. Brough, aged...

The Gazette
29 Oct 2024
Our History

Closing the Great Southern rail

The South Gippsland railway has almost all gone now, and services can only run as far as Cranbourne, but in its glory days it ran from Dandenong to Woodside, and it was critical to the growth and survival of many little towns along the way. We’ve...

The Gazette
25 Oct 2024
Our History

Baragwanath - the finder of energy

Many of you will know that I have an interest in Gippsland’s place names and how they came about. Some of the stories behind them are a little uninteresting, but a few provide stories from our past that we should remember. When I added Barry’s Beach...

The Gazette
22 Oct 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

An aerial photograph of the Drouin Co-op Butter Factory in Lardner Rd in the 1950s. This photograph of the production centre appeared in a Gazette feature in 1974 to celebrate the factory’s 70th anniversary. The formation of the Drouin Co-op in 1904...

The Gazette
22 Oct 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of about 260 dairy cows in Queen St, Warragul in September 1974. It wasn’t a great escape, mirage or even a demonstration captured outside The Warragul Gazette offices. Instead, this herd of cows was heading to the Warragul saleyards for...

The Gazette
15 Oct 2024
Our History

Blackwarry, nearly a ghost town

There is no longer a great deal of ‘old’ Blackwarry left. It sits high on the Grand Ridge Rd, 40 kilometres south of Traralgon and 25 kilometres north of Yarram. It has magnificent views down to Wilson Promontory and the Ninety Mile Beach, and north...

The Gazette
08 Oct 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of a four-horse team pulling a “Sunreed” plough at Mr A Wakenshaws’ farm in Modella in 1929. Resilient is a word used to describe our early district pioneers. And, none were more resilient than those who settled the swamp land of what is...

The Gazette
08 Oct 2024
Our History

The vanishing Victorian governor

March to November 1889 saw Victoria under the nominal rule of a man of whom most of us have never heard. When we read a list of Victorian governors we don’t find him there. The names of most of our governors are shown on our various maps in great...

The Gazette
01 Oct 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the Vallance and Edney Store in Longwarry c1895. At about the same time that the railway line was completed in 1878, so was a rough road that started at Sale Rd and ran south to cross the railway line at Longwarry. This is still where...

The Gazette
01 Oct 2024
Our History

More mountain cemeteries

I gave the Aberfeldy Cemetery its own story recently but there are three others close by and yet remote, are well-known to four-wheel-drivers and others. They are also now the de facto responsibility of the Aberfeldy Cemetery Trust. I am talking...

The Gazette
24 Sep 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of the original Longwarry Railway Station in 1911. The look back in time comes after a second platform was built at the current train station. In 1867, a road of sorts had been constructed from Melbourne to Sale. This road is now...

The Gazette
24 Sep 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past - Main St Drouin

An historic photograph of the southern side of Main St in Drouin. Amongst the stores is the C.W Sunley’s wheelwright, blacksmith and undertaker business. It was located on the parcel of land running between Memorial Park and the Anglican Church. Mr...

The Gazette
17 Sep 2024