Monbulk Historical Society

KALLISTA PRIMARY SCHOOL PICTURES 1962-1964

When Kallista Primary School celebrated their centenary in 2019 many former students turned up to participate in re-unions. Some of these brought along mementos, such as old photos, and some of these were donated to the school archives.

On a recent visit to the school to copy their pupil registers from 1919-1999, which are about to be donated to PROV, we came across some of these donations. This included some 1960s class photos that we had not seen before, along with 17 colour slides and 17 b&w photo reproductions. The b&w photos were donated by Lois Sinclair (described as Grade 3 1963) while there was no provenance for the colour slides, dated as 1962-1964.

The colour images are the oldest colour pictures we have seen of the school. The fourth image shows the middle steps from the top basketball court leading up to the asphalt area that had two portables on it then. This became the area where the library, art room and new classrooms were added in 1977.

Here are some images of Kallista Primary School from over 60 years ago.

THE JUNE 9 2021 STORMS

Not all history that we cover is from long ago. On June 9-10 2021, 5 years ago today, the Dandenongs were hit by a strong wind of up to 120km an hour. That in itself was not the most unusual aspect, it was that the wind came from the east and south-east, which it rarely does.

At the time it was mentioned that about 10,000 trees had been uprooted or broken off in the storm in the Dandenongs between Croydon and Emerald, although figures were later adjusted to 25,000. The ridge and eastern slopes of Mt. Dandenong copped the brunt of the storm damage.

Just about every road was blocked by multiple trees having fallen. One report says 112 homes were destroyed and hundreds of others damaged. Power was out for weeks in some places.

Some areas that were particularly hit include the Silvan Reservoir forest where several acres were flattened beside McCarthy Road. Also along the Mathias Track in the Hamer Arboretum where limited views over the Yarra Valley were suddenly wide open above the Valley Picnic Ground. Around the Mt. Dandenong Primary School was heavily impacted.

At a time when Covid movement restrictions were still in place this gave the hills residents an extra hurdle along the way.

KALLISTA-THE PATCH BROWNIES AT THE MONBULK ANIMAL KINGDOM

This week's post is of a pictorial nature. We are currently digitising the Monbulk Guides archives and continually find ourselves coming across interesting photos.

Here are some images of the 1st Kallista-The Patch Brownies visiting the Monbulk Animal Kingdom in the 1980s, which was run by Fritz Maaten and Andy Stevens.