The Sloyd room is believed to be the last one in a secondary school in the state. These rooms were once common and were used for the teaching of woodwork. At the rear of the Sloyd room is a metalwork room which has a brick floor.

The 1934 building was erected as a replacement for the original 1912 school. This building was similar in design to the original but was larger. There are very few early weatherboard high schools left in the state and none in Gippsland. The original Warragul High School was demolished some time ago and the original Sale High School c 1910 was built of brick.

The oak tree was planted in 1912 when the school was opened and has been a landmark feature of the school ever since. Countless students will remember it fondly.

The Jubilee Park was planted to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the school.

There were some beautiful exotics planted in the park and the majority are still there. Some died and were removed, some others were removed for the building of Mesley Hall and the recent Mesley Hall extension. It was considered a planting of significance because it marked an important event in the community’s history.
The buildings and the trees belong to our community and need to be preserved for the future.

Patrick Morgan, noted Gippsland historian, proposed a toast to John and referred to him as a giant amongst local historians and the envy of many trained historians.

John has written two major works “No Parallel” and “On the Ridge” and some 15 monographs on a huge range of subjects. Without John we would not know much about The Leongatha Labour Colony, the Memorial Hall, the town water supply, St Laurence’s Catholic Church, the Murray Goulburn Factory, the Mechanics’ Institute, Nerrena and much more.

“One Bag in Six: The history of Onion Growing in Gippsland” is available from the Leongatha and District Historical Society for $20 plus $5 postage and handling.

The day attracted a good number of attendees, and so impressed the South Gippsland Shire that the day may become an annual event.

 The newsletter also includes a feature article by Pat Spinks on Peter Peterson, a fisherman-turned-knife maker, who worked from Port Welshpool, and whose workmanship was prized by many who used his tools. Lyn Skillern has contributed a feature article on early education, including mention of John Jeffrey, after whom Leongatha’s Jeffrey Street is named, who was the first permanent head teacher at the Leongatha Primary School.

The newsletter may be downloaded from the archives page.

Come and learn more about South Gippsland’s unique history.

The South Gippsland Historical Network, together with the Leongatha Historical Society, will be running a history conference at Coal Creek, Korumburra.

The theme of the conference is “No History, No Culture”, and the speakers will be telling those present about a number of fascinating topics related to the development of South Gippsland and its special cultural identity.

Subjects to be covered include the:

• Development of the Coal Mining industry in Wonthaggi
• Holiday shacks along the coast
• Goldrush at Foster
• Early dairy industry
• Education in the bush
• History in post-cards
• Maritime history
• Dinny Justice, pioneer of Phillip Island
• Pioneer handtools
• Reseaching family history

The two keynote speakers are experts in the preservation of heritage and will give a different perspective to the issue of how to save unique local heritage.

Each of the speakers will give their presentations twice.

The keynote speakers will be in the auditorium, and the other speakers will be located in some of the various heritage buildings that make up Coal Creek Village.

Those attending the conference will have the opportunity to not only hear the speakers but to also enjoy the great venue.

Speakers

• John Murphy: South Gippsland’s most noted local historian will speak on the history of dairying
• Sam Gatto: expert in Wonthaggi’s early days
• Terri Allen: will speak about the unique shacks that were used along the Bunurong Coast
• John Cocking: noted speaker on the subject of post-cards
• John Woolley: maritime historian from Port Welshpool
• Lyn Skillern: former teacher and researcher on early education in the region
• Marion Haupt: Foster historian, who will speak about the Stockyard Creek Gold Rush
• Ian Lester: expert on pioneer tools and timber skills
• Julie Box: Phillip Island historian, will speak on Dinny Justice
• Representatives of the South Gippsland Genealogical Society will give a presentation on researching family history

For further information contact: Lyn Skillern on 5668 6304, or email leongathahistsoc@yahoo.com.au

Correspondence can be sent to:

The Secretary
Leongatha and District Historical Society
P.O. Box 431
Leongatha 3953

The society’s phone number is:

03 5662 2492

The newsletters feature information on the society, updates on new and ongoing projects, historical articles, and reports from guest speakers.

The newsletters were prepared in MS Word format and saved as PDF (Adobe’s Portable Document Format) for easy viewing on the web. If you don’t have the PDF reader installed, a link is available from the archive page to download the reader.

The archive will be kept up-to-date, and newsletters will be freely available as new issues are published.

(Please note: As the original was photocopied for distribution, and some images were pasted in at the time of photocopying, there may be some blank spaces on pages where photos were later added.)

Native plants specialist, Ian Starkey, told the Leongatha and District Historical Society’s September meeting that remaining stands of remnant vegetation were being well looked after, but the efforts of farmers through Landcare and similar programs were seeing sensitive areas, such as river banks, revitalised under new plantings of native vegetation.

 Mr Starkey brought samples of local and regional indigenous plants for society members to become acquainted with.

His detailed knowledge is built up from over 30 years working as a native plant nurseryman in the local area, and working with farmers and revegetation officers.

Mr Starkey said that the better efforts at revegetation came from the co-operative efforts of farmers working together with neighbors to plant along boundaries and rivers.

He cautioned that farmers could waste effort if they planted windbreaks in narrower strips (three metres), saying that 10-metre windbreaks of at least three rows of plantings were the minimum needed for the effort to be effective.

He also said that funding authorities were now encouraging greater diversity in the mix of plants used in revegetation works.

Whereas 10-15 years ago, they may have allowed mono-culture plantings of eucalypts, now there could be up to 30 species in the mix, ranging from grasses or sedges up to the taller trees. 

By John Murphy

No Parallell: The Woorayl Shire 1888 to 1988 – $20
The Meeting Place: The Leongatha Memorial Hall 1924 to 2004 – $15
The Leongatha Labour Colony  –  $10
Leongatha Mechanics’ Institute and Free Library 1891 to 1991 – $6
Knox’s Rockhill Farm – $5
Faith of Our Fathers – $10
Town Water – $15
The First Century : 100 Years of the Leongatha Butter Factory – $15

By Ellen Lyndon

Mossvale Park – $6

By Eulalie Brewster

Looking Back at Inverloch – $5

By Mabel Sharrock

Stories of Waratah and The Ten Mile – $6

Also available

En Avant: Leongatha High School 1912 to 1987,  by Lynette Skillern  – $6
The Significant Trees of South Gippsland  – $15
Gathering at the Mount, By Pat Spinks  – $20
Stony Creek, a history – $6
Lord Brassey Lodge No 180  – $5

Send a cheque and request to:
Leongatha and District Historical Society,
P.O. Box 431,
Leongatha 3953

Postage and handling  – add $5

References used in the kit include “The Land of the Lyrebird”, published by the Korumburra Historical Society; and “Mountain Forests of Gippsland”, by the late Phyllis Reichl, published by Nelson Australia Ltd in 1968, and now out of print.

Work on preparing the Pioneering kit for this website was performed by Andrew Cantwell.

As with any work, there may be some errors or omissions, or the information may be awkward to access — and we need your feedback to make it better.

Please make your comments and corrections through the form below, and we’ll make the changes needed as soon as possible.

Funding for the website has come from the Local History Grants Program of the Public Records Office. The society is sincerely grateful to the PRO for the grant.