Our History

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Wednesday, 16 April 2025

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Our History

Snapshot of the past - Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser in Warragul

A photograph of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser meeting a group of anti-dam protestors in Warragul in 1983. The Prime Minister spoke with a group of about 20 protestors holding “No Dams” signage for several minutes whilst visiting the town on February...

Coastal villages of Westernport

Warneet is one the “five Coastal Villages” on the northwest coast of Westernport. The others are Tooradin, Cannon’s Creek, Blind Bight, Dalmore and Tooradin North. Yes, I know that is six, not five. I’m not at all sure that Tooradin North should be...

Snapshot of the past: Gough Whitlam visits

A photograph of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after attending Farm World on February 26, 1974. The Labor leader is captured at a civic reception in Warragul flanked by Warragul Shire president Cr Neville Cottrell (left) and Cr Max McCarthy. Mr Whitlam...

Quail and Chinaman Islands

Westernport’s two biggest islands are French and Phillip Islands. Do you know the third and fourth largest? They are in the northwest corner of the bay, either side of the Rutherford Inlet, and there is precious little known about them. Then, again...

HMAS Goorangai

She was a brave little ship, and neither she nor her 24 crew deserved the terrible fate they suffered off Portsea on November 20, 1940. HMAS Goorangai was built by the NSW government at their Newcastle dockyard and launched in 1919, the year after...

Snapshot of the past - Drouin’s Elm Trees

A photograph capturing the row of elms along Drouin’s main street in the early 1900s. It also shows shops to the north. The elms were planted to beautify the town. Early photographs indicate the elms were likely planted in about 1894. The long row of...

Baw Baw plateau, land of mysteries

The High Country of Victoria lends itself to the creation of myths and mysteries. There are many unexplained disappearances of people in that huge area but there are many other mysteries that might be less dramatic but almost as important. Just...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Bert Currie’s bullock team pulling the old Lardner Hall along Burnt Store Rd in 1926. At a meeting of the Lardner Mechanics Trustees in April 1925, a tender was accepted from W. Brown for the erection of a new hall. It was also...

Taking the long way home

In last week’s story I was doing another trip down memory lane, which always feels a little self-indulgent, but so be it. I talked abut travelling to and from Longwarry State School from our dairy farm at the railway line end of Hammond Rd. I also...

Snapshot of the past - Ficifolia Festival

A photograph of the Ficifolia Festival promotional sign at Drouin in about 2000. The signage shows the iconic importance of the flowering gums, officially named “Corymbia Ficifolia”, to Drouin residents. Although Ficifolias have a clear association...

Taking the long way to school

When we walked from the farm to the Longwarry State School we didn’t really take the long way but we could make the two miles or so take a very long time. I remember quite clearly going to school for the first time, in 1951. I was quite looking...

Snapshot of the past

A photograph capturing the McNeilly family’s Bhutan Cypress driveway at the intersection of McNeilly and Albert roads in Drouin. This significant avenue of trees, consisting of about 160 Bhutan Cypress (Cupressus torulosa) planted in an “L” shape...

Sinking of the Iron Crown

There were three ships sunk off the Gippsland coast during World War Two. There also was also the City of Rayville, the first American ship sunk in WW2, she went down on November 28, 1940, almost exactly a year before the attack on Pearl Harbour...

Snapshot of the past

An aerial photograph capturing the area south of the Drouin railway crossing in 1944. The livestock yards, captured in the middle of the photograph, were in close proximity to the Drouin Railway Station. The Royal Hotel is to the right. Of note is the...

The history behind park names

People asking for our traditional place names to be changed to Aboriginal place names will be comfortable with the names of the three big national parks at the pointy end of Gippsland. There are three National Parks in East Gippsland with Aboriginal...

Snapshot of the past - Russell and Son Pty Ltd

A photograph of Russell and Son Pty Ltd garage in Main St, Drouin in the late 1940s. William Durie Russell started on the site as a blacksmith, coach builder and wheelwright in 1890, eventually transforming it to a car dealership and garage. Just...

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...