AIF founder's resting place

A recently announced successful grant, will restore the grave of General Sir Cyril Bingham Brudenell White, KCB, KCMG, KCVO, DSO at Buangor.

The government has announced funding under the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program which assists communities undertake Anzac Centenary projects commemorating the service and sacrifice of Australian servicemen and women in the First World War

Cyril Bingham Brudenell White was born September 23 1876 in St Arnaud and grew up on pastoral stations in Queensland. He went to school in Brisbane and at sixteen he started work as a clerk at the Australian Joint Stock Bank in Brisbane.

In 1897 he was a commissioned as an officer in the Royal Australian Artillery and during the Boer War went to South Africa with the Australian Commonwealth Light Horse in 1902. In 1905 he married Ethel Davidson and attended the British Army Staff College in England.

He returned to Australia in early 1908 and at the outbreak of WWI was appointed Lieutenant Colonel and Chief of Staff of the 1st Australian Division, AIF.

Lieutenant Colonel White landed at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. In October 1915 he was given the task of planning the withdrawal of the ANZAC forces from Gallipoli. It was White's organisational skills that saw the withdrawal was conducted without loss. Read more in ‘The silence ruse : escape fromGallipoli ; a record and memories of the life of General Sir Brudenell White’ byRosemary Derham.

From March 1916 until May 1918 he continued as a staff officer under General Birdwood in France and Belgium and was widely regarded as the man who truly ran the AIF. In May 1918, when General Birdwood was promoted to command the British Fifth Army, White accompanied Birdwood as his Chief of Staff, and Monash was appointed to command the Australian division (General Haig had suggested White should be given the command, but he declined).

After the armistice in November 1918, White was appointed to preside over the Demobilisation and Repatriation Branch in London. He was first knighted in 1919, and returned to Australia in 1920 and was appointed Chief of the General Staff.

He retired from military service in 1923 and took up the positions with the Commonwealth Public Board, then with the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency.

He purchased ‘Woodnaggerak’ at Middle Creek followed by ‘Challicum’ near Buangor.

In March 1940, White was recalled to active duty as a full general and reappointed as Chief of the General Staff .

Insiginia recovered from the crash

In one of the worst air crashes in Australia, on August 13 1940, General White was flying in an Australian Air Force aircraft from Melbourne when the aircraft crashed as it approached the aerodrome at Canberra, killing White and 9 others on board instantly. Others killed included Brigadier Geoffrey Austin Street, Minister for the Army, and Member for Corangamite, James Fairbairn, Minister for Air and Civil Aviation, and Member for Flinders, and Sir Henry Gullett, Vice-President of the Executive Council. The story of the crash and its effect on the Australian government is in ‘Air disaster - Canberra : the plane crash that destroyed a government’ by AndrewTink.

 

The funeral procession down St Kilda Rd

His funeral was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, then returned soldiers from the Ararat and Beaufort areas preceded the hearse and a cortege of about 150 cars when he was buried in the Buangor Cemetery.His wife Ethel was buried there in 1975.

100 years of Zumsteins

This weekend will celebrate 100 years of the Zumsteins Picnic Ground in the Grampians. The picnic ground re-opens after the severe damage of the 2011 floods.
  Walter Zumstein was born in Melbourne in 1885, of Swiss ancestry, about 1906 he came to the Grampians as a bee-keeper for W. Barnes of honey fame. Leaving Barnes, he took his bees in a wheelbarrow as far up the MacKenzie Creek as he could manage (the Shanty Crossing site) where he built a cottage and hives.

At the outbreak of World War I, Walter enlisted in the 5th Battalion and was in Scotland when he met his future wife Jean, they married in 1916 and returned to the Grampians in 1919. They had one daughter Jeannie, who moved to America. Walter died after a long illness in the Wimmera Base Hospital in 1963. His body was cremated and the ashes scattered at the back of their cottage.


 
Between 1934-35 Walter & Jean built pise (rammed earth/clay) cottages using local earth and stone, and second-hand building materials. Walter was sympathetic to the environment, if a rock was in the way, he just built around it, and improvised - holding the walls together is barbed-wire.

Some attempts were made to restore the cottages and surrounds a number of years ago when the Picnic and parking areas were updated. 



Unfortunately  the cottages have suffered from vandalism and decay.

 The cottages and surrounding gardens, tennis court and swimming pool provided accommodation for the tourists increasingly attracted to the area, then and now.

Walter planted 100s of trees both native and exotic (the pictured gum is believed to be the only specimen existing in Victoria). 
There was an attempt to remove the exotic trees - as not being indigenous to the national park - but after some public outcry, most remain. 



The camellias and bulbs still flower in spring alongside the wattles.

Posting history

Browsing through some of the library's online magazines ( the Wimmera Regional Library now has access to a range of magazines via our website - checkout the eNewspapers & Magazines page and click on the Zinio link to join - its the best way to get access to brand new issues from the comfort of your pc or device and use the app to see magazines in a whole new light).

 Back to the magazines, in Sept-Oct issue of 'Australian Country' is an article on collecting postcards. 
Ron Pollard has a huge collection of postcards all organised into sets & themes and filed in boxes. 
There are the beautifully delicate <<=French silk cards - handmade by French women and sent between soldiers and their families during World War I, as well as 19th century cards, special commemorative ones, and works by recognised artists.
The postcards most people immediately think of are the travel scenes sent by family and friends on holiday. However these are ultimately historic items too, as scenes alter, streetscapes change, fashions restyle, and occasions shift.

So, save these little glimpses of the past even if you can't an avid collector, postcards are an authentic local history source.

Balmoral line again

I'm re-posting the Balmoral line, as I've come across some more information and taken some recent photos. This post does not replace the original one from November 2012, I've just swapped some photographs, added new ones of current views to compare against the old, and finally I'm including Natimuk itself (really on the Carpolac line) in reply to a Comment I had on Remlaw (see below).
The Balmoral line was a north-south running cross-country line that connected Hamilton, and ultimately Portland, with Horsham, via the junction at East Natimuk. The line from East Natimuk to Noradjuha officially (and finally) closed in 1986, with the Horsham to East Natimuk closing in October 1988. Noradjuha to Hamilton had been closed since July 1979.
Leaving Horsham the line to Natimuk passes Remlaw. I had an historic photo from Museum Victoria purporting to be a wheat bag stack at Remlaw in 1930.

Museum Victoria photograph

I've since had a Comment posted saying they believe the location is in fact Natimuk, not Remlaw, so I felt compelled to investigate, and now I too conclude that it is at Natimuk, facing west towards Carpolac.

Natimuk today - with the same peppercorn tree & gum tree on the horizon

Checking at Remlaw, the trees in that locality don't match, so well done that eagle-eyed follower, and thanks for your comment (I've contacted the Museum too).

Rows of sugar gums in front of the Remlaw silos

Before reaching Natimuk East, the line had to negotiate a crossing of the Wimmera River at Quantong (though the road bridge was called the Vectis Bridge in the early days). Below is a great photo by Bob Wilson of one of the last trains to cross the bridge in 1983. The timber trestle bridge was built in 1887, and is 133m long.

The road & rail bridges at Quantong (from 'Power to the rails' by John Scott)

Natimuk East was the former junction station, splitting the westward Carpolac line and the Hamilton cross-country branch line heading south via Balmoral. Not much trace of the platform remains, it is still an important grain receival point with large bunker storages. 

At Natimuk East, the Carpolac line ran in a curve from the left then down the centre of the photo, while the Balmoral line enters from the right, its platform mound is between the two groups of trees then it runs parallel to the Carpolac one past the silo, where they join and veer right towards Horsham at about the shadowed area.

The Natimuk East silo shed with the bunkers behind

From Natimuk East the line passed through Noradjuha to Jallumba. Jallumba opened in September 1912 and closed in 1979.

Jallumba, the platform mound is on the left

The Jallumba Goods Shed 1989 (from When There were Stations)

Site of the Jallumba Goods Shed today - no trace

From Jallumba the line continued south passing Carchap. Though not a listed siding, Carchap boasted a school and pumping station as it was on the water channel from the Toolondo Reservoir (built 1952-53).

The Carchap bridge the school was on the right

This bridge is the only one I've found still existing (apart from the Fulham trestle) on the Balmoral line all the other bridges and culverts have been removed. From Carchap it was only a few miles to Toolondo.

The abandoned Toolondo yard, not even the Super works operate from there any more

With the rails removed at Jeffries it is now difficult to plot the line's course.

Jeffries in 1980 (VRS photo)

The overgrown track at Jeffries today

Further south was Kanagulk, due to wartime shortages the line did not extend to Kanagulk until the end of 1917, and strangely the Kanagulk station looks better today than it did back in 1980.

Kanagulk in 1980 (from Winkieg on Flickr)

Kanagulk today