A photograph of a 1911 bush wedding at the Tin Creek Mill near Longwarry.
It captures the wedding of John Freeman's daughter Isobel to Robert Pearse.

The beginning of the 1900s saw a changing of the guard amongst sawmillers in the Longwarry district. The depression of the 1890s resulted in Donald Fraser's Longwarry Timber Company being declared bankrupt, whilst the Trinca Brothers, who were based out of Warragul, moved their operations back to the north of Warragul and further east.
Harry Collins was suffering ill health and unwilling to put a huge injection of funds into the required work to modernise his holdings. He sold his interests by auction at The Longwarry Hotel in 1903.
Men such as Proctor, Pearce, Gardner, Furhmann and Kerr were the new generation to enter the sawmillers industry after 1900.
One of the biggest newcomers was John Freeman, who came to the district from Western Victoria near Beaufort. He bought the ill-fated venture of Tom Maisey in 1905 and set about repairing the existing tram lines that crossed the district to take the timber into Longwarry. Bridges across the numerous creeks had to be repaired, or new ones built, and mill machinery modernised.
This was a large expense as operations headed further into forests behind Labertouche.
His first mill site was at the intersection of Sardine Creek with the Bunyip River in 1905 until 1910, originally a Maisey mill.
In 1911, this was moved further north to the headwaters of the Bunyip River on the Tin Creek tributary. It operated until the massive fires of 1926 which burnt out the mill and much of the tram and bridge infrastructure.
There is a defined 13km walking track out to this site today called The Freeman's Mill Track.
The continual extension of the tram line as the mills moved further out, meant the time to make the trip to and from Longwarry became increasingly longer. The trip was broken into two parts, with two drivers and two teams. Teddy Ford would travel up from Longwarry to a loop siding with his team of horses once a day and drop off his empty trucks, whilst Bill Eacott would make two trips a day from the mill site to the siding with his loaded trucks. Teddy would then take them back to Longwarry
Mill workers and their families lived in the bush communities at these sites, including Freeman and his family. Life resembled township life. Gardens were planted and schools operated, with weekend trips into Longwarry on the tram trucks for shopping, sport and dances. Even weddings took place in the bush, as seen above. However, work for the men and women was hard.
The 1926 fires almost resulted in Freeman's death. Reports stated the huge fires, known as Black Sunday, raged from Noojee to Powelltown with Freeman's mill directly hit.
Fortunately, the fires arrived at the mill on a Sunday when many workers and families were in Longwarry for the weekend. The 10 people left took refuge in Freeman's house.
Although the house had a firebreak around it, reports of the dramatic events on this day have it that three men - Lang Towers, Dick Armstrong and John Freeman - had to douse flames with buckets of water as they struck the house, thus saving it. The group, including women and children, had to walk along the burnt out tram line towards Longwarry. They were found totally exhausted and having to be led by the women as the smoke had temporarily blinded them.
With his mill gone, John Freeman opened up a new mill on Tea Tree Creek in 1927. This was a big part of his operations until 1933, and his last major venture in the industry.
A fire at the mill in 1932 then floods in the same year again caused huge property losses.
Photograph from the Museums Victoria Collection.
Information courtesy of the Longwarry and District History Group, with acknowledgement of Mike McCarthy's book "Settlers and Sawmillers" and Clarrie McDermott's "From Fraser Siding To Longwarry".
The history group focuses on the history of the 3816 postcode, including Longwarry, Labertouche and Modella.
Visit longwarryhistory.org.au for further information.