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Our History
Our History

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...

Carolyn Turner
17 Dec 2024
Our History

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...

The Gazette
17 Dec 2024
Our History

“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...

The Gazette
10 Dec 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of a community swimming carnival at Picnic Point at Longwarry North in 1926. As the long, hot days of summer approach and people turn their minds to how to stay cool, give a thought to those in the 1920s. There certainly wasn’t the modern...

The Gazette
10 Dec 2024
Our History

The bonfires that once were

I looked at my calendar just now, and I realised that November 5th had passed me by without me even noticing it. Back in the 40s, 50s and even 60s that could not have happened. Not even close. Bonfire night was one of the biggest things in our year...

The Gazette
03 Dec 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of SES volunteers filling sandbags to protect a Trafalgar from flood waters in November 1995. The SES volunteers include Peter Wood, Jim Hoskins and Darren Bell. This photograph appeared on the front page of “The Trader” on November 9 as...

The Gazette
03 Dec 2024
Our History

Photographs capture rail history

I want to continue my review of “Whistles Through the Tall Timber” this week. I said it is a book that impresses me. Author/photographer Nick Anchen was born with railways in the blood. His father and great grandfather were both railwaymen, so many...

The Gazette
30 Nov 2024
Our History

Snapshot of the past

A photograph of Vin Rowe’s new premises in Warragul captured in November 1974. Established in 1961, the business still provides a range of agricultural equipment to the farming community. The new premises built in Endeavour St allowed business...

The Gazette
26 Nov 2024
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