ESSAYS ON BASS COAST LOCAL HISTORY - Bass Coast Post

Bass Valley’s Anzacs

20/9/2018

Private Ernest John Henry Berryman of Glen Forbes, who was killed in action in 1918, is among those honoured by the Bass plaque.

Two days after leading a crazily brave attack on enemy lines in April 1918, Ernest Berryman of Glen Forbes, was killed in action. He is buried in a French cemetery.

The young private is one of 103 service men and women with connections to the Bass Valley district who will be honoured at the unveiling of a plaque in Bass next month.

The plaque will be unveiled at 2pm on Sunday, October 7, opposite the Cenotaph in Hade Avenue, Bass, followed by a presentation at the local cricket club, where many of the soldiers played cricket before enlisting.

BASS Valley Friends of the RSL secretary Trish Thick says descendants of the Anzacs are warmly welcome to attend both events but they need help in locating them. (The Anzacs’ names are listed below.)

The stories of Arthur Baker

12/9/2018

element_settings.Image+Text_94464494.default

Plant fossil, by Arthur Baker, date unknown. In the collection of the Wonthaggi & District Historical Society

The Wonthaggi & District Historical Society has many hand-written reminiscences which are being transcribed into typewritten form, both for legibility and longevity. They include a series of notes and memoirs written by Arthur Baker. Not much is known about Arthur but his writing is distinctive and quite beautiful, both in content and form.

Carol Cox, who is transcribing the stories, said they were passed to the historical society by Peter and Lorna Hall. In the 1980s they were lessees of a caravan park in East Gippsland where Arthur lived in an old small caravan, and he entertained them for many hours with his stories which he eventually put into writing for them.
Mr and Mrs Hall knew Arthur as a retired wild dog trapper who had a vast knowledge of the East Gippsland Highlands, possibly because his father had been a botanist. Judging from his notes, he was also a miner at some stage.

Arthur is buried in the Marlo cemetery - Mr Hall believes he died in the late 1980s aged in his late 70s.

A newspaper is reborn

29/8/2018

More than a century after the first Western Port Times went out of business, a new online version is uncovering the rich history of the Waterline communities.

Inverloch, but not as we know it

16/8/2018

Real estate agents like to accentuate the positive and when it comes to Inverloch their imaginations have run wild. The results of a century of spruiking are on display in a fascinating new exhibition.

'Commies’ Corner'

18/7/2018

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.

The big fix

6/7/2018

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.)

Life and death in old San Remo

1/6/2018

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.

The story of everything

3/4/2018

Mark Robertson is uncovering the stories of the everyday objects in the Wonthaggi museum. He shares some of them with Carolyn Landon.

Out to the Wreck

13/2/2018

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.

Full and plenty

29/11/2017

No pasta, no salami, no tinned tomatoes … Italian migrants had to start from scratch when they arrived in Wonthaggi.

The town that vanished

2/11/2017

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.

Miss Somerset teaches in Tent Town

18/10/2017

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.

House of learning

20/9/2017

Inverloch Mechanics' Institute. Drawing by pat Dale

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.

Back to nature

1/9/2017

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.

Memories from a country school

18/8/2017

In 1990, the Dalyston School celebrated 90 years, and former pupils shared memories of their school years.

From telegram boy to postmaster

7/7/2017

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.

The John Sparks mystery

17/6/2017

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 Wonthaggi monster

2/6/2017

The first newspaper reports of Wonthaggi’s “Monster” were mocking, but in later years the tone changed.

What happened to Freddy and Rex

19/5/2017

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.

All aboard for Port Albert

3/5/2017

Port Albert Station, 1912. Photo: State Library of Victoria

John Wells guides us on a journey on the Great Southern Railway.

Stuff and stories

22/4/2017

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.

Remembering Kit Sleeman

31/3/2017

Kit Sleeman, 2002

Carolyn Landon celebrates Kit Sleeman’s exquisite essays on growing up in Wonthaggi.

Our Shangri-La

14/3/2017

The Back Beach has exerted a powerful pull on generations of Terri Allen's clan.

Signs of the times

3/3/2017

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?

Wonthaggi’s blackest day

17/2/2017

At 10.15am on Monday, February 15, 1937, Wonthaggi was rocked by an explosion at No. 20 shaft that killed 13 men.