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uilt in the town to a design by Evander McIver. By 1912, the town included a post telegraph, money order office and savings bank in one building, State school, public hall, Shire hall and offices, fire brigade station, five churches, branches of five banks, electric light and power house, mechanics’ institute, flour mill, co- operative butter factory, two newspaper offices, an iron and brass foundry, carriage factories, agencies for ten insurance companies, a new courthouse, and six hotels. 120 Hawthorne’s Department Store was an important Kerang business. Established in 1878 by David Hawthorne, in the 1920s it drew people from as far away as Wycheproof and Deniliquin. Two views of Kerang in 1915 and 1921 can be seen in Figure 10. The Memorial Municipal Chambers (Gannawarra Shire offices) were built in 1926. In 1933 the Karlie McDonald Memorial Clock Tower was erected to honour the death of Kerang High School Teacher who gave her life to save students from drowning in the Loddon River during swimming training in March 1927. Kerang today is the commercial centre for irrigated holdings and Mallee farmland and is located at the heart of a wetlands system which supports many water birds and is a major ibis breeding ground. The site of old Kerang is evidenced by a cemetery marked by the gravesite and memorial tombstone of Lake Leaghur settlers John and Margaret MacMillan. 121 Figure 10. Top - Fitzroy Street Kerang looking south in 1921. Bottom – Wellington Street looking west in 1915. Photo courtesy Kerang Family History Group. 120 Kerang Online: Attractions - History of Kerang (Kerang Online Pty Ltd, 2006 [cited 10 November 2008]); available from http://www.kerangonline.com.au/history_of_kerang/. 121 Kerang history based on information provided by Kerang and District Family History Group and G. H. Morton, The Kerang District: Its Description and Resources (Kerang: Kerang New Times, 1906). Bill Webster and Graham Gardner, Glimpses of the Past...Kerang: 1848 to Present (Kerang: Back to Kerang Committee, 1984). Gannawarra Shire Heritage Study Stage One Volume One Thematic Environmental History Robyn Ballinger (History in the Making) December 2008 44
Koondrook After sawmillers arrived on Gunbower Island, selectors took up land in the area c1873 under the 1869 Land Act. At this time the settlement known as ‘The Junction’ was a paddle steamer stopping point. The settlement site, surveyed c1877, by 1878 was named Koondrook. Much of the early development began to the west of Vine Street, with blocks later subdivided on the river side. The Gunbower Junction Steam Flour Mill opened in 1878 to process wheat form the Murrumbidgee district. The timber industry developed rapidly. The nearby red gum forests provided the timber for fuel for steamers on the Murray, railway sleepers, shingles, blocks for stables, and water drains. The local timber was also used in the town to build paddle steamers and boats. Henry William began to supply wood to passing steamers in 1878, Thomas Buzza commenced his sawmilling business in the same year, and Arbuthnot’s saw mill began operation in 1889, building many of the paddle steamers that plied the River Murray. A school and hotel were built in 1880. Two years later an Anglican Church was built in the town. Three hotels in town were offered for sale in 1882, perhaps because of news that a new township was to be surveyed on the opposite side of the Murray. A punt began operation between Koondrook and the newly surveyed township of Barham in 1884. The town of Koondrook was proclaimed in 1888. A private tramway between Koondrook and Kerang opened in 1889. In 1901, the population of 339 were living in 64 dwellings. 122 In 1904 the Barham-Koondrook Bridge was built across the river between the two towns. The lift-span bridge allowed for the passage of paddle steamers along the Murray although river trade at that time was drawing to a close. Koondrook is today credited as the main production centre in Australia for quality redgum timber and furniture. Agriculture and tourism provide other local industries, with visitors attracted to the history of this Murray River town and scenery including the rich biodiversity of Gunbower Island. 123 8.2 Agricultural settlements Benjeroop The Benjeroop district was settled under the 1869 Land Act. With the arrival of selectors from the early 1870s, Benjeroop State School No. 2321 opened in 1880. Benjeroop East State School No. 2615 opened in 1883 and was moved in 1890. The Murrabit West State School No. 2616 opened in 1885. A bridge over the Loddon River was constructed in 1880 and opened the area between the Tyntynder and Gannawarra stations. The post office opened in 1883 and the Baptist church in 1885. In the same year, the Benjeroop Turf Club held a race meeting. A creamery was established in 1894. 122 Watson, Lost and Almost Forgotten Towns of Colonial Victoria: A Comprehensive Analysis of Census Results for Victoria 1841-1901, 247. 123 Koondrook history based on information supplied by the Barham and Koondrook Historical Society and "The Early Days of Koondrook District". Ibis Heritage Newsletter of the Kerang and District Family History Group. 7, no. 4, 1991- 92. Gannawarra Shire Heritage Study Stage One Volume One Thematic Environmental History Robyn Ballinger (History in the Making) December 2008 45
Page 1 and 2: Gannawarra Shire Heritage Study Sta
Page 3 and 4: Table of contents Statement of Sign
Page 5 and 6: Statement of Significance The physi
Page 7 and 8: Figure 2: Gannawarra Shire boundari
Page 9 and 10: It was at this point that Mitchell
Page 11 and 12: Country’ Charles Browning Hall ex
Page 13 and 14: un was subdivided in March 1848 int
Page 15 and 16: consumption and the resultant reorg
Page 17 and 18: conquer the scrub was perfected spe
Page 19 and 20: Acts 1893, families were given cash
Page 21 and 22: With the advent of World War One, a
Page 23 and 24: patch of sorghum and graded land’
Page 25 and 26: Maloga Mission Reserve in New South
Page 27 and 28: The onset of dry years from 1876 en
Page 29 and 30: Influenced by reports of the succes
Page 31 and 32: This region, once irrigated, Swinbu
Page 33 and 34: The irrigation landscape Under irri
Page 35 and 36: Central Irrigation Districts’, 10
Page 37 and 38: went either via Hay to Deniliquin,
Page 39 and 40: iver between Echuca and Koondrook i
Page 41 and 42: possible by railway accommodation a
Page 43: 8. Building towns and settlements 1
Page 47 and 48: Association was formed in 1915, and
Page 49 and 50: after. A store was constructed c190
Page 51 and 52: Lalbert Lalbert State School No. 29
Page 53 and 54: 105 people lived in twenty-three dw
Page 55 and 56: closer settlement of irrigated bloc
Page 57 and 58: Figure 14). This enabled the delive
Page 59 and 60: Commission in the 1960s, the refrig
Page 61 and 62: steam engine installed in the early
Page 63 and 64: 9.4 Extractive industries Gypsum Th
Page 65 and 66: of the hospital commenced in 1993.
Page 67 and 68: Vietnam Wars. 10.5 Wars Local resid
Page 69 and 70: Figure 22. Lake Tutchewop c1920s. P
Page 71 and 72: From the 1920s, numbers of urban dw
Page 73 and 74: Hinkins, John T. Life Amongst the N

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