The day Greensborough was the centre of the universe

Wonder if they knew what they were getting themselves into?

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Advertiser (Hurstbridge, Vic.: 1922 - 1939) newspaper
Friday, 13th March 1936 – page 6

.... and here is the result!

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Advertiser (Hurstbridge, Vic.: 1922 - 1939) newspaper
Friday, 20th March 1936 – page 6

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This article was originally published in the Society's May 2012 members newsletter.

Our catalogue of local history is now on-line

Storing and archiving 170 years of local history in photographs, documents, maps and memorabilia etc can be very onerous but equally rewarding, particularly when a long lost photo or a snippet of long lost information comes to hand that binds together the threads of local history to solve a mystery most knew about but had never been able to prove.

But unless it's made available to others, it's not much use locked away in a drawer with nothing but a fleeting reference in an index in a remote location opened occasionally only by those in the know. Or worse still, you have to seek the blessing of the 'keepers' of that information just to find out if it exists!

Some years ago, Museum Victoria embarked on an ambitious task to provide free, to small collecting organisations like this Society throughout Victoria, the opportunity to go from manual to digital for their catalogues and so Victorian Collections was born.

Greensborough Historical Society saw a great opportunity early in the development of the on-line catalogue to make its collection more accessible and so embarked on a program of dedicating resources to the task.

The Society's Archivist, Sue Ballantyne and her team of cataloguers have worked hard over the last twelve months and continue the ongoing task of cataloguing the collection to ensure the Society's archives will mature into a system that is not only comprehensive but easy to use and has the capacity to grow as the Society continues to expand its growing collection of local history.

Congratulations Sue and to all of your team. Well done for a wonderful result and you should be rightly proud of what you have achieved in such a short time - over 230 items have been catalogued and still growing.

And here is the all important link to the Society's catalogue. Enjoy.

If you would like further details about an item or would like to contribute to the Society's collection or better still become a member, please email us or visit our resource centre in Lower Plenty.

Hazel's Story

Stan and Hazel Amos of Doris Street.

Society member and collector of collectables, Marilyn Smith, has recorded a wonderful history from a neighbour, Hazel Amos. Hazel recalls the hardships of establishing the family home in the 1950’s, yet she still found time to embrace the community spirit of volunteering and she still does today. Enjoy Hazels’ story.

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Hazel was born in England. She met Stan when she was sixteen, and in 1942 they were married, they had a son and in 1947 their daughter was born.

Here is her story.

On 8th May 1949 we set sail for Australia on the S.S. Ranchi, and arrived on 8th June a cold and frosty June morning.

We lived in Garden City (Port Melbourne), as there were no houses to rent we bough this block of land in Doris Street Greensborough in 1950.

We bought the land for 75 pound. The block of land was originally owned by Councilman Santon's wife, she had brought two blocks of land for their children but they didn't want them, so she sold them and we bought one. We then borrowed a thousand pound from the bank for building materials, and my husband Stan built our house from the ground up.

Hazel at the door of the ‘car case’ they
lived in till the house was finished.
[Click to enlarge]

I had said to Stan I don't know whether we should be living out here in the sticks. We had borrowed a caravan for six months and after we gave it back we moved in to a car case till the house was finished.

Things were different in those days, we had no electricity or gas supply we used kerosene for lights and the heater. We had an ice chest for our food and our milkman would come and fill a billy we left out the front for him, and our mail was delivered by a postman on horseback. As I didn't have a copper I would boil my whites outside in a kerosene tin on four bricks. I think the gas came in the 1980's.

As I said we had a son and daughter and now we have eight grandchildren and two great granddaughters, unfortunately Stan is not here to enjoy their company as he passed away in September 1987.

Stan at the front of the house.
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My son went to Greensborough Primary School and Macleod High School and was to have gone to the Anglican Church for Sunday school, but we found out about a month after he started that he was going to the Methodist Church, at that stage I didn't know anything about the Methodist Church so I had to get a book and read about it. Stan said if they are happy we should leave them there so we did.

My son was in the Boy Scouts and my daughter in the Girl Guides so I helped out at both of them. My daughter played netball and I was one of the umpires. We didn't have a car until 1956 when we got a 1927 Chev with a dicky seat at the back, the kids thought that was lovely, we payed 50 pound for that car.

Hazel next to the woodpile and the
clothesline in Doris Street.
[Click to enlarge]

Before the Safeway store was in Greensborough, opposite the school there was a shop that sold lollies and groceries and in Main Street there was a Green grocer, a Post Office, the little old Methodist church, the one butcher, a chemist and a feed shop opposite Hailes Street.

Out the back in Nell Street towards Watsonia there was a golf club where the Greensborough College now is. During the earlier days Watsonia station was very small and had a lot of a plant called Watsonia growing there.

Stan worked at the Repat Hospital in Heidelberg and I worked in East Ivanhoe cleaning people’s houses that was where the money was in those days. I would put my daughter in the pusher and catch the train to Heidelberg and then the bus to East Ivanhoe. I also worked in Flintoff Street Greensborough.

Stan and Hazel’s finished hous
in Doris Street, Greensborough.
[Click to enlarge]

After learning earlier about the Methodist Church I joined the church's ladies guild in the 1950,s and still go to that same church. I have been involved in a lot of charity work in my life, and during the 1950's I visited people in the Austin hospital reading to them and writing letters for them.

I also enjoyed 31 years with the Brotherhood of St. Laurence and at Gabonia Avenue as a kinder granny for 5 years, 6 years with a playgroup with our church and two years at the Plenty Mental Hospital on Monday afternoons in the kiosk.

When I had my 80th birthday party Tom Vickers came, he was the chemist in Greensborough for 31 years; he was a Probus member and also a member of Nillumbik Historical Society.

I still go to the Methodist Church that I started to follow in the 1950's. I also go to Probus and Noel Withers from the Greensborough Historical Society came to one of our meetings and showed us lots of photos of old Greensborough.

I am also a caller at bingo for senior citizens in Macleod I've been doing that for a couple of years.

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My thanks to Hazel for telling us some of her reminiscences of days passed.

Marilyn Smith

2011

The Drinkers Saviour

To anyone who is an avid collector (and yes, they are also known affectionately or otherwise as hoarders, magpies, squirrels, stashers etc), Society member Marilyn Smith’s enthusiasm for collecting collectables is to be admired. The following is but one of a variety of items Marilyn has acquired over the years

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Now let’s be honest. How many of you have painstakingly selected that special bottle of wine for a family gathering or a picnic with dear friends, lovingly packed the bottle to avoid trauma to its contents along with the food, cutlery, plates and of course, the all important glasses to partake of that special drop of grape juice.

On arrival, the table is set and the feast is displayed and readied for consumption. The bottle is extracted from its travelling baggage and presented for all to marvel. Time to open this sacrifice of your bank account and share your wise selection with those present with of course the obligatory salutations on your choice of wine.

Hand me the bottle opener someone! What do you mean it’s not here! Me - forgot it?  No, I asked you to pack it.  And so the grand event goes downhill from there.

Well it seems that one of our number, Society member, Marilyn Smith, has that problem well and truly solved. Feast your eyes on her collection of corkscrews and bottle openers from the early 1900’s to the 1960’s.

No doubt Marilyn would have been everyone’s best friend whenever a bottle needed attention at such events.

An excellent collection Marilyn and we hear on the ‘grapevine’ you have many more collectables to admire from your shopping adventures over the years. We look forward to seeing more. Watch this space.

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This article was originally published in the Society's November 2011 members newsletter and is now published here in its entirety.

Greenhills Mine Collapse - 1936

Society member and district pioneer descendant, Faye Fort (nee Partington) has prepared this story from newspapers and family connections with the tragedy.
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Entombed in Mine Collapse

Thomas Tangee age 71, pensioner of Green Hills, was entombed for half an hour, and suffocated, when the sides of the mineshaft they were working on collapsed.

Tangee was mining with Ben Partington age 71 and William Merral of Greensborough on the hillside, where they had sunk the shaft to the depth of 20 feet.

With Tangee below loading buckets of mullock, which Ben was hauling to the surface, when it happened, the sides of the shaft had fallen in without warning, burying Tangee in 8 feet of clay.

Ben immediately descended and began digging furiously, while Merral ran to the telephone in Greensborough and summoned a wireless patrol, because the constable stationed at Greensborough was in Melbourne attending a murder trial.

A police patrol made a dash from Melbourne, 16 miles to the scene in 12 minutes, in an unsuccessful attempt to save the man, by the time the patrol arrived Ben had found Tangee’s body. A conveyance came from Melbourne to take his body to the morgue.

The steep sides of the hill and rough surrounding country made it difficult to return the victim to Greensborough and a way had to be cut for the vehicles.

Valuable time was saved by the patrol being able to communicate with Melbourne by wireless and quickly made arrangements, which otherwise would have taken a lot longer.

The people were tough back then, weren't they?

Ben died in 1942 age 77.

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This article was originally published in the Society's November 2011 members newsletter and is now published here in its entirety.

Our meetings schedule for 2012

GENERAL MEETINGS AND FORUMS DATES FOR 2012
 
The Society members regularly meet once per month.  General Meetings are held on alternate Fridays and the informal forums are held on the alternate Saturday. Please note the venue for each of the alternate meetings and especially the change for the Friday meetings.

A full list of the meeting dates is available on the 'Meeting dates' page.

Any changes to the venue, dates or times will posted on this blog site so please check regularly before the meeting date.

All new members and visitors are most welcome to attend these informative and friendly meetings.

For further details about the above schedules, requests for historical information, general or membership enquiries, please email the Society at info@greensboroughhistorical.org.au

October - we made history.

October has been a very busy month for the Society. Our Resource Centre was official opened by the Mayor and our annual Heritage Weekend was another successful event.

The Committee of the Society should be congratulated for their hard work in getting the Resource Centre into shape in time for the occasion and for making the official day a memorable event for all who attended. One week later, the Heritage Weekend activities held over two days was a wonderful opportunity for the local communities, family historians and enthusiasts of all things historic to participate in the Society's annual event.

To the Society's President Noel Withers, Vice President Jasmin Burge, Secretary Norm Colvin, Treasurer John Gibson and Committee Members Sue Ballantyne, June Hall and Dennis Ward, we say a big thank you for all your hard work. And of course not forgetting those members of the Society who gave their time and resources to assist in many ways. Sometimes it is forgotten that we are all only volunteers but that is what makes our Society special. Well done everyone.

OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE RESOURCE CENTRE

At 2:07pm on Saturday, 22nd October 2011, Cr Peter McKenna, Mayor of Banyule City Council, cut the ceremonial ribbon and officially declared open the Greensborough Historical Society Resource Centre.

Society President, Noel Withers,
welcoming Mayor Peter McKenna
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The Society's President, Noel Withers, had earlier welcomed the Mayor and approximately 50 members and guests, all of whom had signed the Attendance Register which now has its own place in history in the Society's archives.

Noel commenced the proceedings with an address outlining the short history of GHS and thanking a number of local organisations which had all contributed to our founding and early successes, not the least of all being the granting of a lease by Banyule City Council. Amongst the organisations mentioned were Banyule City Council, Greensborough RSL, Greensborough Chamber of Commerce, Yarra Plenty Library Service, Diamond Valley Learning Centre and Diamond Valley Community Support.

.. and not one of them over 25!!
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Noel also took time to thank those members who were instrumental in setting up the GHS and in particular the original Committee members and those who have assisted in the various working bees in preparing the Resource Centre for its opening. Noel then introduced the Mayor, Councillor Peter McKenna.  Cr McKenna thanked Noel and spoke of Noels due diligence in ensuring that Council knew of our existence and various projects we have underway. He expressed a particular interest of his own in wondering about the origins of the many street names in our area.

After the formalities and the essential group photo of those present, the official party, members and guests then enjoyed many conversations throughout the afternoon over tea and coffee and tables laden with home cooked delights for all to enjoy.

HERITAGE WEEKEND

Saturday 29th October: Heritage Weekend got off to a fine start with a display of interesting historical photos and projects being undertaken by members. The meeting began formally with an entertaining presentation by our President Noel Withers on the history of Greensborough. Afternoon tea was followed by a talk on Watsonia High School by former teacher Margaret Willimont who regaled us with stories of her 20 plus years at the school (she even fitted into an old uniform!). Part of Margaret’s collection of school memorabilia will be gifted to Greensborough Historical Society. Next, Sue Ballantyne showed some of the Blackbourn collection of photographs of this extended Lower Plenty family and discussed the importance of recording the “Who, When and Where” on photos for future generations. It was great to see some of the heritage of the surrounding areas covered by the Society.

Sunday 30th October: The Heritage Walk took us onto the Main Street bridge for a peek at the Plenty River Pool, then across the park for a wander around the Greensborough Cemetery, stopping at areas of historical interest along the way. The Walk was led by Noel Withers but the presence of the Partingtons – Gary and his ‘big’ sister Faye – greatly enhanced the experience with their first-hand knowledge of the area and many tales of life on the land. We ended our walk at the site of Willis Vale, not quite making it to the Batman Tree due to the inclement weather.

On our return to “Lobb’s Kiosk” (now Diamond Valley Learning Centre), we completed the day with a lovely afternoon tea, thanks to Suzanne Crellin and her crew.

Thanks to Noel for his organization of the weekend and to the members and visitors who joined us on both days. We hope you enjoyed the Heritage Weekend and look forward to seeing you again next year.