Celebrating Nillumbik Women 2009 - Nillumbik Shire Council

Irene ‘Rennie’ Harrison
Nominated by Sue Dyet
Irene Harrison was born in Gippsland and
lived on farms until her family moved to Box
Hill when she was 15. There were eight
other children in the family.
She married Len Harrison in 1932, aged
22 and lived in Richmond before moving
to Eltham. They rented a house for 12/6 a
week — cow included.
When Irene moved to Eltham it was a town
of open paddocks, plum orchards and
poultry farms. ‘Farmer Walsh had a big farm
down at the back of Eltham Lower Park and
Jack Currugan had a dairy on the corner of
Bible and Dalton Streets. Annie Bremmer
had a milk bar on the corner of Main and
Mount Pleasant Road, which later also sold
petrol’.
In the bushfires of 1939, Irene recalled the
fence posts around the cemetery burning
near her home in Metary Rd. Irene watched
Montsalvat being built from her cottage.
In 1941, when her youngest daughter
was four, Irene realised that there were
children of a similar age all around Eltham
but there was no kindergarten. She with Cr
Freddie Griffiths, came to an agreement
that he would find a teacher if she found
the children to attend. The kindergarten
opened in St Margaret’s original church hall.
The local bus picked the children up and
returned them home, the total cost was 2/6
a week. This was the start of kindergarten
education in Nillumbik.
After the start in St Margarets Hall,
the kindergarten became the Eltham
Kindergarten and moved next to the
Infant Welfare Centre in the War Memorial
complex, Main Road Eltham where it still
operates today.
It is fitting that Eltham South Kindergarten
was built opposite Irene Harrison’s home in
Metary Road.
During the war years, Irene’s mother-in-law
had the tea rooms opposite Lower Eltham
Park (where Yings restaurant is now) and
Irene used to go down to make the scones
for afternoon teas.The tea rooms were often
flooded by the Diamond Creek.