Rup on film at Rup

The film ‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ will have a special one-off screening at the Rupanyup Memorial Hall at 2pm on Sunday 9^th October.

‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ tells a story that comes from Rupanyup, although it could equally be a story from many other country towns. For more details on the history of the film see this previous post.

There’s a poetic resonance to this event, as the late John Teasdale, creator of most of the archival celluloid interpreted within the film, served many years as the projectionist for the Memorial Hall, in between his farming and his filmmaking. (The Memorial Hall makes a few appearances within the film.)

For information on the film, including a 2 minute teaser, please follow the link.

Admission to the Rupanyup screening costs $5  and includes afternoon tea.

A DVD version of ‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ will be launched at the screening, and copies will be available to purchase.

The big palette

Compliments to the Yarriambiack Shire who are chasing dollars for 'the world's biggest art gallery'.

On the back of the phenomenal success of the Brim Silo Art project  (see the previous 'High art' post) the Shire is proposing a 'Silo Art Trail' - a 200km trail of landscape size silo art from Rupanyup in the south to Patchewollock in the north.

Sheep Hills silos (which would have looked the part in 'The dressmaker' film)

Yarriambiack Mayor Cr Ray Kingston wants to commission renowned artists to paint giant murals on silos along the length of the municipality at Rup, Sheep Hills, Rosebery, Lascelles and Patche.

Guido, Adnate & Rone 'Wall to Wall' in Benalla

Discussions are taking place with the local communities, Graincorp, Juddy Roller (who helped bring Guido Van Helten to Brim), and government. They are targeting high profile street artists for the project, so it would be great to see, say an Adnate piece decorating a silo wall.

Silos at Rosebery, across the road from the Desert Gallery & Cafe

WDA's new director Ralph Kenyon said that the project would tie the long narrow municipality together (Yarriambiack is over 7,000 square kms, but over 160kms long and under 70kms at its widest).

Lascelles provides a variety of canvases

 As Dean Lawson stated it is a master stroke for increasing growth & development via tourism in Yarriambiack, as visitors will want to tick off each location as they bag each 'peak', in the biggest regional art project in Australia's history.

Adnate in the Geelong B Power Station

Would have liked to have seen the Nullan silos get a guernsey, they have a wonderful symmetry as they rise from the plain, particularly good at dawn.

Nullan siding silos, near Minyip

 

Can never find a toilet when you need it

Amusing item in the Education Departmental file on Dalcross School.

Dalcross School site at the group of sugar gums

 Dalcross School No. 4381 (named after Dalcross pastoral station, part of which was taken over for the Dyers Estate soldier settlement) opened temporarily in a room in the residence of Miss Helen D’Alton on 27.4.1928 till 13.7.1928, then in new premises on 16.7.1928 on 5 acres Allotment 34C Lallat Parish.

Section of the Lallat Parish map showing the school site

In 1927 the Education Department had purchased the site with house, from the Closer Settlement Board. The school operated in a weatherboard soldier settler’s home altered for the purpose. A shelter shed was erected in 1934. The school closed in April 1946.
The books were sent to Rupanyup State School. The 29’x14’ building was considered unsuitable for removal, and was sold by tender to Mr R. McRae of Rupanyup in August 1965, to become a plumber’s shop. 
The site is now landlocked and only a row of sugar gums mark its position.

The Argus article

The file item concerns the school's toilet/outhouse/out-office/loo/lavatory. There is an article from the Argus newspaper 7.7.1955 by Michael Fitzgerald.
One night in March some locals in a truck drove to the Dalcross school site and removed one of the toilets (there was a boys & a girls toilet. The school had been closed for nine years and the buildings were still there). In the morning the landowner rang the Rupanyup police (he was on Leave), so he then rings Constable Megee at Marnoo. Megee investigates and when driving through Rup, spies the loo in the backyard of a house owned by the Rupanyup Football Club (for the new team coach), then in the Wimmera League (Megee was the president & coach of the Marnoo Club, then in the Southern Wimmera League).
A week passes and low & behold the missing loo turns up back at Dalcross.

The Chief Commissioner's letter

The Chief Commissioner of Police & the Education Department are notified.
Megee presses charges, a summons is issued, and the case scheduled for the next court sitting at Rupanyup. The Police Divisional Inspector was to attend the Hearing in August, to ask that the case be struck out. No further Police action was contemplated.

The final fate of the toilets is unknown. 

But in light of the above, is the screen shot below related to the Dalcross incident? (taken from Malcom McKinnon's "Chronicle of a country life" the photographic work of John Teasdale of Rupanyup who filmed social life in the town in the 50s & 60s).

Archival film launch

The library has been involved in the creation of ‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ for some time, and now finally the film is born.

John and Relvy Teasdale were farmers in the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria. Over more than fifty years they created a rich and evocative filmic record of working and community life in their particular dry-land farming district of Rupanyup. For John and Relvy, farming and film-making were an inter-related devotional practice. 

Upon his death ten years ago, John Teasdale left a cupboard full of films that reveal and evoke a rich and nourishing terrain. Spanning five decades from the late 1930s to the late 1980s, the Teasdale films offer views into the psychological, social and economic complexities of a wondrous and sophisticated rural world that on the one hand seems to be disappearing but on the other continues to sustain, adapt and recreate itself. 'The Farmer's Cinematheque' exhumes the Teasdale films from the archive and explores their resonance in the context of a world rapidly changing but connected still to a profound legacy of ideas, desires and rituals.

Set against contemporary footage and embellished with story-telling from members of the Teasdale family and the Wimmera community, the film stimulates thinking about the power of memory and the nature of our attachment to particular country, drawing parallels between Indigenous and settler modes of country-keeping and providing elements of revelation and affirmation about rural life. A meditation on the power of country and also a demonstration, quite literally, of the power of film, Combining sequences from the archive with contemporary footage and voices 'The Farmer's Cinematheque' teases out important questions about our custodianship of places and communities in the context of a rapidly changing global environment. It is a lyrical film about the power of memory, the nature of our attachment to country and the ways in which communities strive to balance change and tradition.

‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ has its own website, where you can get a sneak peek at the film trailer. The film is a Reckless Eye Production, written and directed by Malcolm McKinnon and Ross Gibson, with cinematography by Ben Speth, produced by Annie Venables, and music by Chris Abrahams.

The world premiere will be at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival, on 19th October, and importantly its local screening is a free event on 1st November, in Natimuk, part of the Nati Frinj Biennale.

'Combine Nation' 2004 Space and Place

The Nati Frinj Festival is a bi-annual event with an eclectic mix of programs and performances (one of the most notable has been the pictures and lights projected onto the exterior walls of Natimuk’s railway grain silos).

Styling stations

This post grew from this comment -

"Can someone please elaborate on 'Bealiba style'? I was brought up in Bealiba and spent years hanging around the Bealiba Station but have never heard of the term. Thanks Brian H." on the earlier post ‘Railways - Mildura line’ and led to a little research at the State Library.

The 1870s was an era of railway building, that ended with the financial crash of the early 1890s, when railway lines were extended westward. During this period, the development of a succession of standard plans coincided with the patterns of railway construction, establishing groups of stations common to sections of line.

Bealiba in 1980 (Andrew Ward)

There developed a "line style", in which similarly-designed station buildings imparted their distinctive character along a particular line. The Bealiba station building was one in the “light line” style along one of the “main trunk” lines and gave its name to a prototype style which was an economic solution to the previously costly construction of railway station buildings.

According to Andrew Ward in a ‘Study of Historic Railway Buildings and Structures’ and 'Victoria's Railway Stations: An Architectural Survey', the Bealiba Style is an earlier sub-group of the Rosedale Style. He says the Rosedale style developed in response to the need to save on construction costs,and was the first design to be widely employed for all-timber type buildings. In all, 12 Rosedale style buildings were erected (Cope Cope was the only example in this district) and 6 in the earlier Bealiba Style of station building - Bealiba, Broadmeadows, Euroa, Kilmore East, Lubeck, Murtoa and Wallan.

Lubeck in 1981 (from VRnet)

Constructed in 1878, the Bealiba building is still substantially intact as an example of the style. Elements of the Bealiba Style are: An oblong single-storey plan timber construction with bisecting longitudinal corridor which terminated at a porch. The combined station and residence had a verandah to the platform formed by an extension from the main roof. Four rooms were residential (2 bedrooms, parlour& kitchen) and 2 for railway purposes – the Booking Office and the Ladies Waiting Room. The 4 corner rooms all had fireplaces. The lamp room & toilets were all in the station yard. Copying the diminutive Dooen Style, the barge boards were fringed with cast-iron lace-work, and ornamental brackets adorned the porches. The verandah post capitals, gable vents and finials all had decorative timber work. The interior walls & ceilings, and lamp room & toilets were lined with tongue & groove boards.

Plan of the Bealiba building (Andrew Ward)

The later Rosedale style omitted the cast-iron lace-work, the end porches and 2 fireplaces, but now included a General Waiting Room.

Other stations in the area awarded a “style” are:

·     The "St. Arnaud style" (1879) comprised an architectural symmetrical single-storey hip roofed brick station with cast-iron platform verandah and pavilions and a standard U shaped plan for the station building. It is the most intact example of the largest standard station building design erected on the early light lines.

St Arnaud's water tower

Also the St Arnaud water tower was built as a standard 'Type B2' hemispherical design carried by a 'T' iron frame and installed onto a cement rendered brick column. It is the last remaining example of this construction, with other B2 type towers originally located at Cranbourne, Bealiba and some metropolitan locations.

Diapur station building in 1971 (from "VR stations & stopping places")

·     The “Kaniva Style” which in addition to Kaniva itself, included Diapur, Leeor (to Melton), Miram and Nhill. Small timber buildings with classical decoration & gables.

The ornate platform verandah, Minyip

·     The “Minyip Style” used for Minyip and Yarra Junction.

·     The “Rupanyup Style” used at Rupanyup and Bairnsdale

Past glories - the dilapidated Rupanyup building

A “Special Design” was used for Serviceton, Warracknabeal (1887) was built in the “Casterton Style” a Tudor/Late Victorian look, while Dimboola (1882) is in the “South Melbourne Style” the Italianate/Late Victorian style.

The same style - Donald & Birchip

 

Drawing the curtain

Ever thought about 'stage curtains' the section of the stage which sets the scene?
These backdrops were works of art, huge canvases often depicting rural/garden scenes or town/cityscapes.

One of the most prolific artists of stage curtains in Victoria was scenic stage painter Barry Henry George Jaggers (1869-1940). He painted a number of scenic backdrops for Mechanics' Institutes in Gippsland, and Central Victoria.

The stage curtain in the Aubrey Hall relegated to the background behind the ubiquitous white board

There are still a number of local halls which have not succumb to the mere film screen perched at the rear of the stage - Aubrey (see photo), Rupanyup, and Kooreh.
450mm of flood water inundated the Kooreh Hall during the floods in January 2011, leaving behind 15cm of silt. While the floorboards and some fittings were ruined and had to be replaced, the historic stage curtains were saved.
So spare a thought for the important historic value of these large scale art objects.

Railways - Bolangum line

Approaching Bolangum station from the west, with Mt Bolangum on the horizon

The Bolangum branch line officially closed in October 1983, passengers services ended earlier.

Lubeck station building (from VR.net)

 Lubeck was the junction of the main Melbourne to Adelaide line, and the Bolangum branch line. The birth of the town was closely associated with the arrival of the railway. The main line was extended from Stawell to Murtoa through Lubeck in 1878, and the railway station opened in February 1879. The station site was created with earth excavated from the Lubeck dam. Initially the station served as the Post Office.

Lubeck today, with the platform mound in front of the silos

Jackson is no longer a station, and is clearly a disused grain receival site too. To reach Jackson I had to pass five B-double trucks carting grain from surrounding paddocks to other locations!

Jackson, with the platform mound in the shadow of the silo

The dilapidated Rupanyup building (V.R.S. photo)

The line to Rupanyup opened in June 1887. The red brick station building is now privately owned.

Rupanyup, looking east towards Bolangum, 1959 (from "C.R.S.V.")

Rupanyup again, after the line closure (V.R.S. photo)

Burrum 

Burrum, looking east along the line to Banyena

Banyena

Harvest activity at the Banyena silos

The rail-line crossed the Richardson River east the Banyena silos and curved south towards Marnoo.

Remains of the Banyena trestle bridge over the Richardson River

 

Work on the line to Marnoo started in September 1908 and it became the terminus of the line in June 1909. Part of the line was washed away in a flood in August 1909. The silos first opened for the 1940-41 wheat harvest.
A daily passenger and goods service for many years, it decreased on a once-a-week timetable, before ceasing altogether. 
The two platforms remain at Marnoo, and the silos are still active, however the water tank (left) has not been utilised for many years.

Passengers looking towards the Marnoo township in 1968 (from "C.R.S.V.")

Bolangum bound goods train at Marnoo, 1961 (from "C.R.S.V.")

The Marnoo passenger platform looking to the highway intersection (V.R.S. photo)

Below - Remains of the Bolangum line crossing the Marnoo-Kanya/Bolangum Inn Road. A gravel road runs down the railway reserve beside the old line. The Bolangum silo is just visible in the centre of the photograph on the left of the native pines.

The line finally reached its final terminus at Bolangum in July 1927, existing for only 56 years.The silos and grain shed are no longer used.

Bolangum's silos and platform mound (V.R.S. photo)

Bolangum rusting away

 Further information and photographs at

 VictorianRailway Stations and Neville Gee's "VR stations and stopping places" and John Sargent's "Country railway stations Victoria" series and Mark Bau's VR.net site.

Farm history

"A century of farmyard relics in Australia : 1840-1940" is the latest production by Ken Arnold.

Famous for his earlier books on old bottles, Australian tools, Victorian demijohns and more, Ken has out-done himself with this huge 5 volume epic (over 3,000 pages in total).

Volume 1 covers windmills and water related, grubbers, fencing and strainers, manures, sprays, poisons and bait, rabbit traps, skins, buggies, buggy plates, wagons, carts, blacksmith and wheelwrights. Volume 2: dips and drenches, shearing machines and handpieces, wool presses, caring for animals, saddles, harnesses, collars, cans, milking machines, separators and churns. Volume 3: old stationary portable and traction engines, old tractors, saws and saw benches, chain saws, for the smithy, old tools and spanners, old makers plates and plaques. Volume 4: the machinery manufacturers. Volume 5: machinery manufacturers and machinery agents.

The machinery book mentions many of the local agricultural machinery manufacturers : Beard & Sisson, Ackland, May & Millar, Petschel & Brothers, Promnitz, Petschel, Arthur Wallis, James Elsden, E.F. Gersch, Rawling & Co, Braybook & Dimboola Implement Works, etc.

It is also complemented with advertising bills, and photographs some historic and some taken by Ken at agricultural museums, so photos taken at Patchewollock, Jeparit, Rupanyup and Warracknabeal are dotted through it.