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.
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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.  This story was first published in The Waterline News. By Libby Skidmore
IN DECEMBER 1839, the first Victorian settlers gathered in age-old fashion for the fellowship and goodwill the Christmas season brings. They met at the hut of Edward Hobson near Arthur’s Seat. In attendance were Robert Jamieson and Samuel Rawson, the Meyrick brothers and the Desaillys who had settled in the Dromana area at Kangerong, along with George Smith and his wife, who were relatives of Edward Hobson.  By Tony Hughes
GRANTVILLE, how lucky are you to have Don and Irene Wheatley as part of your community! Not long after Don was born in 1928, his parents, Hubert and Mary, bought one-third of 116 acres of a bush block at the Shunt-Off, Grantville. His younger brother Ted was born in 1936. Steamers came to both the Queensferry and Grantville jetties to service the sawmills. The early sawmill workers camped in huts on the Grantville beach, presumably travelling to and from work on the sawmill railway.  Clara Letita Johnson, 1883-1972 Julius Johnson and Clara Letita Ah Chow on their wedding day, November 10, 1910 An astute business woman way ahead of her time, Clara Johnson opened Wonthaggi’s first hamburger shop and used wind energy to power her shops in Inverloch.
By Geoff Johnson CLARA Letita Ah Chow married Julius Johnson at Bruthen on November 10, 1910. It must be recorded that ‘Jule’, as my dad was known, was a happy participant in all of the lifetime endeavours of Clara. They accomplished so much in a long lifetime together. Bear with me, for what I now relate has a bearing on my parents’ lifetime of endeavours. I start with Clara’s honeymoon in 1910 at Blackwood in Central Victoria. Here, in a short time, she and her new husband, Jule, unearthed gold to the value of 600 English pounds. This was a sizeable amount of money for 1910.  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.
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