Author: WHSadmin

Dyson’s Moving with the Times by Wendy Lowry. As part of the Whittlesea Cultural Heritage Program in October 2017, Dyson’s Bus Company allowed a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes and learn more about this iconic local, Australian family owned  and operated business. The family business started out  in Melbourne’s north in 1952, beginning in Reservoir and East Preston....

By Wendy Lowry abridged from an article by Robert Wuchatsch The City of Whittlesea adopted in 1991 a Heritage study that saw some of the drystone walls protected under the City’s planning scheme. However much greater effort is required to identify and record our heritage walls, especially in an area where increasing residential development is seeing many of them disappear....

By Wendy Lowry and John Waghorn The origins of Pubs and Hotels are often a forgotten aspect of local History. It seems strange because the hotel is looked upon as a hub venue in any town. People congregate there to gossip, to bet and certainly to relax and tell stories. The City of Whittlesea has many old Pubs and Hotels...

Part of the Whittlesea Cultural and Heritage Program saw a tour of the Donnybrook Cemetery which was conducted  and led by Historian David Weatherill. On the 10th September 1857 a request was made to the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Victoria for land to be set aside for a proposed Cemetery at Donnybrook. Following this request and a favourable response from...

The Castle Hill farm was originally owned by John Bear who had bought the land on the 24th November 1842, under a “Deed of Grant Purchase”. Section 20, Parish of Yan Yean, County of Bourke, lot 52 consisted of approximately 932 acres. John Bear died in 1851 and in 1855 John’s son, Thomas Hutchings Bear entered an indenture under which...

By Lindsay Mann This article intends using existing Documentation to discover when the brick section of the Caretaker’s House at Yan yean Reservoir was built and occupied. Meredith Gould in her 1991 Whittlesea heritage Study speculated that the oldest or masonry section of the building known as the Caretaker’s Cottage may have been designed by James Blackburn. This is entirely...

On the 13th June 1863 a meeting took place in the school house for the purpose of electing trustees for the land, donated by prominent local resident Thomas Wills Esq. for the building of an Anglican Church. The Chairman of this meeting was another respected resident Mr George Sherwin Esq. Within three months  they had raised 230 and an architect...

Heritage Victoria has undertaken yet another excavation site along the Plenty River  and within the Plenty Gorge Park. It stemmed from historical investigations carried out as part of the Mernda Rail Extension. This dig site however was to solve the mystery of the whereabouts of the original Bridge Inn Hotel which was one of the earliest buildings  constructed outside Melbourne ...

In 2015, St Peter’s Catholic Church, Epping celebrated its 150 year old birthday. The Foundation stone of the Church was laid by Bishop Gould on the 5th November 1865. The actual opening was on 13th January 1867. It is believed to be the second oldest Victorian Catholic Church outside inner Melbourne, after Keilor. This is an early photo, possibly around...