Describing The Dry

As we did previously with 'The Dressmaker' posts, have endeavoured to find some of the locations used in the filming of 'The Dry'

A greener Beulah on Google Earth

 The opening shots of the approach to Kiewarra are from along the Birchip-Rainbow Rd coming into Beulah from Beulah East, with all the GEB silos & stacks, and the hay-bale storage.

St Joseph's

The funeral was shot in Banyena, at St Joseph’s Catholic Church where the mourners really do walk down the approach lane to the Banyena Hall for the Wake.

Banyena Hall

The Cemetery is the Beulah Cemetery, like the opening scene, on the Birchip-Rainbow road to Beulah East.

Entrance to the Beulah Cemetery

 

The old Hopetoun Primary School building

The schools are both in Hopetoun - the Primary school scenes at the old Primary School, and the High School photos at the P-12 College.

Hopetoun High School, now  Hopetoun P-12 College

 

Minyip's Club Hotel

There are a few hotels - the 2-storey red-brick Hotel with the rooms upstairs is the Club Hotel in Minyip, previously well-known from when it figured in the Flying Doctors tv-series. The hotel in the Kiewarra street scenes is the Victoria Hotel at Beulah. The interior dining room shots look a lot like the dining room of Royal Mail Hotel in Warracknabeal (unconfirmed).

Victoria Hotel taken from Taverner Street, Beulah

The salt pan or lake where Luke's body is found is the salt depression on the old Pearce land adjacent to the Dimboola-Rainbow road, just where the road has a couple of sweeping bends as it crosses the railway line, north of Jeparit.

The salt lake from the Dimboola-Rainbow Rd

A FilmVictoria video of the making & the locations of 'The Dry'.

Is The Dry on?

There has been more speculation, informed speculation, that the film version of the novel 'The Dry' by Jane Harper will be filmed in the Wimmera.
In December news reports stated that Eric Bana had been in the district scouting for locations.

Movie star Eric Bana dropped into Minyip today for an ice cream and the latest Minyip Show & Shine calendar (from ABC Western Victoria's Facebook page, 7th December)



 "Filmmakes have selected the town's (Minyip) iconic Club Hotel - which featured heavily in 'The Flying Doctors' - as a shooting location...of a film adaptation of author Jane Harper's novel 'The Dry'" (The Weekly Advertiser newspaper 19 December 2018).

Eric Bana is an executive producer for the project, his first role in an Australian film since 2007 with the release of 'Romulus, my father' another book to film drama.

Roll forward to February, and last weekend a casting call went out to Beulah and Minyip for extras for the shooting of "a major film".

The producers did not specify the name of the film, and the media spokespeople for 'The Dry' have refused to divulge filming locations, but as the casting people required 60-70 people for a funeral scene, and as  a funeral sets up the story for 'The Dry' it is reasonable to guess there aren't two funeral films in the offing.

The understanding is the film will be shot around Minyip, Hopetoun, Beulah & Warracknabeal, another tourism boost for Yarriambiack Shire adding to the Silo Art Trail.

Postscript: Yes it happened - check out some of the real locations from the film in this later post "Describing the Dry"

Footy facts

A great entry on the Boyles Football Photos website on local footballer Eric Zschech.

Charles Boyles was a professional photographer in Melbourne who took football photographs - player portraits and team photos, from the 1920s through to the 1960s. Many of these then appeared as collectible cigarette cards.
Eric Zschech was born in Minyip. His parents - Paul Zschech and Laura Peucker - were part of the wave of German migration from South Australia when the Wimmera was opened up for selection. His father was a produce merchant in town.
Eric attended Minyip Primary School till he was 15 years old when he began work at the Minyip Post Office. A keen sportsman, he played football, cricket and tennis for Minyip, during this time he played with and was coached by Roy Cazaly of 'Up there' fame.
After winning the Best & Fairest in 1928, Eric left to work in the telegraph branch of the GPO in Melbourne, and began playing for the Post & Telegraph XVIII, and the Richmond Football Club in 1929.
With Richmond he was part of their Premiership side in 1932 and 1934, he played in the Victorian state side. 
In 1936 Eric moved to Tasmania to become coach for Lefroy Football Club . He played and coached the club till 1939, with a premiership in 1937. He was Best & Fairest in 1936, 1937 and 1939, and played in 2 interstate and 7 inter-league matches.
During World War II Eric joined the R.A.A.F. and was based in Northern Australia. He married Dorothy Anderson in 1945.
In 1946 Eric was playing for Sandy Bay when they won their inaugural premiership. The next year he transferred to Snug as coach. Eric was inducted into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2005. 
Eric Zschech died in 1981 and is buried in the Fawkner Cemetery. The full story is in "Eric Zschech : the Minyip Tiger".

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

 

Railways - Patchewollock line

A Patche bound steam train at Warrack (from "C.R.S.V.")

The Patchewollock line branched from Murtoa, efforts to extend the line were due in a large part to the lobbying of pastoralist Edward H. Lascelles. He started construction of the private line, but it was completed by Victorian Railways. The line was changed from broad to standard gauge at the same time as the main line to South Australia. The line beyond Hopetoun was closed in December 1986 and the tracks removed.

Coromby's weighbridge scales still in situ

Coromby Grain has always been an important component of the Patche line, in fact all the rail-lines in the Wimmera. Though Coromby's silos are now disused, evidence of that grain cartage still remains, including its weighbridge manufactured by Hawke & Co of Kapunda in South Australia (Henry Binney Hawke established the H.B. Hawke iron foundry and engineering works in 1857, and created the first hydraulic car hoist, the broadcast seed sowing machine and the weighbridge. The company closed in 1983).

Minyip station and sheds (from "C.R.S.V.")

The first train steamed into Minyip in January 1886, but the station was not officially opened until May with a daily passenger service. Stock yards were erected in 1887, the goods platform extended in 1888, and a weighbridge and Diary Produce shed added in 1889. The tender for construction of the station building was let in 1890.When built in 1939, the silos were largest capacity in Victoria. A steel annex bin and oat shed were erected in the 1950s, and a 250,000 bushel bulkhead in 1969. In 1976 a road bus replaced the passenger rail-motor and by the mid 1980s the stock yards and goods shed were demolished. The classic boarded-up station and platform still remains.

The Minyip station building

Nullan

The symmetry of the Nullan silos

Originally known as Tarkedia, the name was changed to Sheep Hills in 1886, when the railway arrived and a township grew up around the station. The station was a brick building with a cool storage chamber.

The Sheep Hills siding with the main line on the right

The now abandoned Warracknabeal building

Warracknabeal the line from Murtoa reached Warracknabeal in May 1886. Now the disused red brick station building and passenger platform remain. The extension of the line northwards was orginally known as the Warracknabeal-Lake Corrong Railway Line.

Warracknabeal Station (from "C.R.S.V.")

Warrackside is still a major grain siding, a kilometer north of the Warracknabeal station, part of the facilities are a large silo and an old distillery grain storage. Below the Warrackside line branches from the main Patche line. Some of the silos are visible along with the large bunker sites in blue tarps.

Batchica Siding work to extend the line beyond Warracknabeal began in February 1892, at a time when the Mallee wilderness was being opened up to farming.

Lah A variety of silo styles sit on the plain surrounding Lah.

The line opened to Brim in January 1893 (the township wasn't surveyed until 1890). The station handled grain and stock and had a passenger service, now only the grain traffic remains. The grain shed constructed in 1894 was also used for community functions. The silos were constructed in 1938.

The Goods Shed at Brim

Brim Gangers quarters with an extra 2 room extension, shifted to Wardle's 'Klondyke' farm on the back of Keith Hunter's truck in the early 1970s

Galaquil station was located on the division between the Wimmera and Mallee, and it also served as the town Post Office (the postal boxes are visible below the Galaquil sign in the photo below) until the closure of passenger services in July 1976.

Galaquil in 1971 (from "V.R stations & stopping places")

Beulah The rail line reached Beulah in June 1892, and officially opened in March 1893. A second railway station building erected in 1910 was destroyed by fire in April 1928. A rail motor passenger service from Murtoa commenced in 1926, the last passenger train was in July 1976. The Beulah ticketing office is now used as a club meeting room.

A crowd of passengers await the train on the Beulah platform, 1986 (from "C.R.S.V.")

In contrast - the deserted Beulah station in 2009

Beulah's cement silos were built in 1939, and the 1 million bushel silo complex opened in 1963. Beulah GEB Siding while there is no longer a Beulah passenger service, the grain silos and bunkers are still operational.

Rosebery passenger services stopped in 1961, but the siding & silos remained. The silos are opposite the old church building which is now the Outback Cafe.

Goyura residents petitioned for the line to deviate to the township, and a siding was approved.

Hopetoun the first steam locomotive reached Hopetoun in December 1893, and the Beulah-Hopetoun section was officially opened on April 11 1894. The rail motor passenger services from Murtoa began in 1934 and ceased in July 1976. Hopetoun is again the terminus of the line. The passenger station building has been removed leaving only the silos and goods shed.

Hopetoun's goods shed from the platform mound

Burroin siding closed in 1953.
Dattuck siding closed in 1955. (below) J542 locomotive on the broad plains between Hopetoun and Dattuck with goods for Patchewollock, in December 1966

J542 near Dattuck (from "Patterns of steam")

Today, Yarto has more than the appearance of isolation, at the end of a 'no through road' backing onto the sandhills of the Big Desert and Wyperfeld National Park.

The 200 tonne silo at Yarto

Willa siding closed in 1953, today Willa is surrounded by encroaching mallee, and the faded sign is the only evidence of the 'Willa Railway Station'.

A forlorn looking Patche station

Patchewollock construction of the 27 mile line extension to Patche began in September 1923, and terminated 2 miles short of the town. It was officially opened in May 1925. The galvanised iron goods shed was erected in1928. A weekly goods train service ceased in September 1975. The 1925 weighbridge was computerised in 1985. The line closed in December 1986 and the rails were ripped up, but the small weatherboard station building and goods shed were left. The silos are still in operation.

J542 again, approaching a sand fence shortly after leaving Patchewollock in 1967 (from "Patterns of steam")

Further information and photographs at Shane McCarthy's "Patterns of steam" and Neville Gee's "VR stations and stopping places" and John Sargent's "Country railway stations Victoria" series