| Bass Coast Post |
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 The original Harmer's Haven sign posted outside Eddie Harmer's beach house. Photo 2004 The shacks built in the dunes of Harmers Haven and the fibro shacks that followed were holiday homes to a tight-knit socialist community, writes Marguerita Stephens.
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 The raids, as reported by the Powlett Express, September 4, 1952 Jim Bell never forgot the day the gaming squad raided the Wonthaggi Workmen’s Club with sledgehammers and axes. (Warning: Jim’s stories always contained strong language.)
 San Remo with early houses, possibly San Remo Hotel in the distance,1920s. Photo: Phillip Island & District Historical Society A memoir of life at Griffiths Point (San Remo) in the 1870s and 1880s makes fascinating and often harrowing reading.
Mark Robertson is uncovering the stories of the everyday objects in the Wonthaggi museum. He shares some of them with Carolyn Landon.
Any time after Guy Fawkes Day, the cry would be raised, “Let’s go out to the Wreck!” Carolyn Landon revisits Joe and Lyn Chambers’ evocative essay.
 No pasta, no salami, no tinned tomatoes … Italian migrants had to start from scratch when they arrived in Wonthaggi.
 The remains of the Queensferry jetty are a ghostly reminder of a thriving seaside settlement. If you’d visited Queensferry a century ago, you would have found a seaside settlement with hotels, a licensed colonial wine saloon, three public halls, a store and a series of large and small houses.
 By Mrs I K Ledwidge
As Miss Somerset, I was appointed by the Victorian Education Department to the Powlett Coal Field School in 1910. The school was situated opposite the State Mine Office, one of the few buildings that wasn’t a tent in a town of tents that had sprung up, almost miraculously, when the first shaft was lowered for the State Coal Mine in November 1909.  Inverloch Mechanics Institute. Photo: Alfred Wesson. Source: Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria Inc, MIRC, Baragwanath Collection. The minute books of the Inverloch Mechanics’ Institute provide a fascinating insight into the social life of a small town over 81 years.
 With views of Western Port, Scenic Estate was a developer’s dream and a planning nightmare. John Eddy delves into the history of Phillip Island’s new conservation reserve.
 In 1990, the Dalyston School celebrated 90 years, and former pupils shared memories of their school years.
 Wonthaggi Post Office, c. 1920, about the time that Laurie Notley began his long career there. Photo: State Library of Victoria The telegram reigned supreme when Laurie Notley started work at the Wonthaggi Post Office in 1922.
 A fine bit of historical detective work has uncovered the story of a Wonthaggi Fire Brigade member who was killed in the First World War. Carolyn Landon reports
 The first newspaper reports of Wonthaggi’s “Monster” were mocking, but in later years the tone changed.
 Author Joe Fairhurst By Catherine Watson
A PRIVATE home for boys, a callous superintendent, two dead boys and links to the shadowy world of eugenics … it sounds like the stuff of a thriller. But they are the elements of a harrowing true story that journalist Joe Fairhurst uncovered in his quest to find out what happened to the two boys, who died horribly at Newhaven on Phillip Island, 11-year-old Freddy in 1926 and 10-year-old Rex in1933.  Port Albert Station, 1912. Photo: State Library of Victoria John Wells guides us on a journey on the Great Southern Railway.
 By Kirsty Mawer
SAN Remo residents and visitors are being invited to bring out their old mementoes, memories and photos in a project to record the characters and culture of San Remo’s past.  Kit Sleeman, 2002 Carolyn Landon celebrates Kit Sleeman’s exquisite essays on growing up in Wonthaggi.
 By Libby Skidmore
WE SEE so many signs along the roadsides as we travel. Many are quite useful and some are obvious but some make you think! But do you know where the first road sign in Victoria was placed?  At 10.15am on Monday, February 15, 1937, Wonthaggi was rocked by an explosion at No. 20 shaft that killed 13 men.
By John Wells
A talk given to the Wonthaggi and District Historical Society 54 years ago gives an invaluable insight into the lives of the early settlers.  Every December, Alistair Stirton’s family packed up and moved from Wonthaggi to Inverloch. He recalls blissful times on a beachside block.
 CSS Shenandoah on the Williamstown slip, February, 1865. Photo: US Naval Historical Center David Maunders shoots down the theory that the Churchill Island cannon came from the rebel ship Shenandoah.
 The Churchill Island cannon By John Wells
THERE is a cannon in the gardens of the house on Churchill Island that has caused a great deal of concern in certain quarters. It has also caused me no small worry. In a story I wrote in about 1974 I said the cannon was from the Confederate States of America raider 'Shenandoah'. That was certainly my belief and, indeed, it still is. |
