CONTENTS
ABOUT KURTH KILN
Kurth Kiln Park
History
Professor Kurth
Cultural Heritage
The Friends Group
Vale Meinhard Holtz
Friends of Kurth Kiln
The People
A Map
ACTIVITY REPORTS
Natural Heritage Trust Project;
Kurth Kiln Projects Summary
Friendship Festival Pictures;
Background to the
Kurth Kiln Festival
Archive Work
The Thornton
Track & Bridge Project
2004-5 Grant Revegetation;
Repairs to the Big Shed
2005 Heritage Festival
2006 Heritage Festival
2006 Projects:
The Interpretation Boards Grant;
The Brochure Production Project
2007 Heritage Festival
2007 Projects:
The Waratah Grant:
The Melbourne Water & PPWCMA Grant:
The Digital Camera
Grant;
The Show-Room Display;
Parks Victoria International
Students
2008 Projects:
2008 Heritage Festival;
Tonimbuk Kiln Project;
2009 Projects:
2009 Open Day;
Melbourne Water Fencing & Revegetation Project
; GVEHO Heritage Project; Parks Victoria Community Grant;
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MINUTES & NOTICES of MEETINGS = Last month
-- This month -- AGM
2008
NEWSLETTER
Issue 20 June 2009; Issue 19 December 2008; THE KILN Issue 18 June 2008; The KILN Issue 17 (December 2007) pdf; The Kiln (June 2007) pdf; The Kiln (December 2006) pdf; The Kiln (June 2006) pdf; The Kiln (December 2005) pdf; THE KILN (June 2005) pdf; The Kiln (December 2004) pdf, The Kiln (2003); Excerpts from past issues CALENDAROur Objectives are:
THE CARETAKER RESIDENCE
At one stage there had been !8 huts at Kurth Kiln, built to accommodate workers
employed by the Forestry Commission. of Victoria and Kurth Kiln became the centre for forest management
in the area after the war.
A number of huts were lost in a bush fire in 1963 and the rest were consolidated, with one built out as a
manager / caretaker
residence. Today there are only four left.
In the early 1980 Ron Thornton used to come to Kuth Kiln often, and in 1985 took
up residence here and became the "unofficial Caretaker" till he died in 2000.
Since then the huts are used intermittently only by students and volunteers
doing environmental project work in the Bush.
Alfred and Ursula live not far from Kurth Kiln and if you or your group are interested, or would like to have a closer look, let them know when next you plan to visit the picnic ground and they can arrange to open the facilities and tell you more about it. Telephone (03) 5967 4201 or e-mail.
Following the success of the 2003 Friendship Festival it was decided to make the festival an annual event. Usually staged in April all the popular activities and character will be back. Here is a sample of the promotional Flyer - (PDF) produced for an earlier festival by one of our members. We hope to see you there at the next one.
Nb: The Kurth Kiln 2004 Friendship / Heritage Festival has won the Cardinia Shire 'Event of the Year Award' at the 2005 Australia Day Celebration in Pakenham. Kurth Kiln member Dick Cleary accepted the award on behalf of the group. The 2008 Festival was staged on Sunday, 6 April 2008 at the Kurth Kiln Picnic Ground and was a great success; bigger than ever. Thank you all for supporting our activities. A special thank-you to the local Red Cross Group for doing such a marvellous job with the catering. A collage of pictures from the event, caught on camera, can be found here.
Black Saturday, Victoria's worst ever bushfire disaster in early February 2009 affected many of our Friends who normally participate in the annual festival, and several of the traditional activities had to be cancelled. As a mark of respect the Friends of Kurth Kiln have decided not to proceed with the traditional Heritage Festival this year, but have a simple OPEN DAY at the kiln instead. There were guided tours through the historic site, bushwalks, lots of equipment on display and talks about its heritage. The Red Cross provided coffee all day, and there were surpise display and other activities as well.
Scheduled Working Bees for the year 2010 are on the second Saturday each month, starting at 10:00am on site at Kurth Kiln, preceded by a short General Meeting, unless otherwise advertised. That is:
| Saturday, 09 January | Saturday, 08 May | Saturday, 11 September |
| Saturday, 13 February | Saturday, 12 June | Saturday, 09 October AGM |
| Saturday, 13 March (Festival discussion) | Saturday, 10 July | Saturday, 13 November |
| Saturday, 10 April (Festival on Sunday 18) | Saturday, 14 August | Saturday, 11 December EoYP |
For those who can help us out we start at 10am and usually work till 3pm.
Our 2008 Melbourne Water Application for funding a conservation project near the Thornton Bridge, called Tomahawk Creek Fencing & Revegetation, has been completed. 200m of fencing has been installed and the 700 selected native seedlings from the Maryknoll Nursery have been planted with the help of the Gembrook State School Grade 5/6 students. A series of pictures from the project can be found here.
You are welcome to join us in our work at anytime. We have a number of other projects going such as:
Come and see us. You can help in whatever capacity you feel comfortable in, or just come, look around and say hallo.
A big welcome to our newest members: Philip Hughes, Albert and Bery Campbell, Mark Adams, Annie Stevens Ruth and Dave Manning, Robyn Burke, George Hedanek and Cindy Brown, Gary and Lyn Pendlebury. And in January the third and fourth generation of the Kurths (Byron, Vicki and Isabella Kurth ) joined the group. We sincerely hope you will all enjoy being part of the friends group and value your participation in whatever form it may take.
Farewell to Ken and Dawn Banks
At the November Meeting we said farewell to Ken and Dawn. They have
sold their property in Yellingbo and are moving closer to their grandchildren in
Warrnambool. We wish them all the best in their new environment. Our group will
miss both their valuable volunteering input..
Farewell to our President and
Secretary
Dick Cleary and Kerrie have decided to pull up stakes and have moved from
Macclesfield far down Gippsland way. In a
Farewell Meeting on 10 May we paid tribute to both of them for their
valuable and creative input to the Friends of Kurth Kiln Group. We hope to still see them
from time to time, and that they may find time to help organise next year's
festival.
Our thanks to Vice President Ken Banks for taking on the additional duties of
Caretaker President to the next election in October.
REFLECTIONS and Ongoing Activities:
On Saturday 13 September we had a Guest Speaker at the Kurth Kiln Meeting.
Don Bartlett, chairman Engineering
Heritage Australia, gave a Presentation on
"Producer Gas and the Australian Motorist". Some 30 people attended
and a lively discussion followed.
We have applied to Melbourne Water (PPWPCMA) for funding to Fence and Re-vegetate an area badly overused between the Thornton Bridge and Scout Camp Track (where the new Toilet Block is). Keep your fingers crossed.
Our
2008 Heritage Festival was staged on 6 April on a glorious and sunny day,
following some wild and windy weather. A record crowd of over 500 people
attended during the day and all had a great time. Thanks to all the
participating Volunteer Groups for adding variety to the activities. Thanks to
the Red Cross for looking after the Catering. we hope to see you all again next
year.
Good News just to hand is that our application for funding to acquire a quality
Digital SLR Camera has been approved. It will be good to have a camera for
general use in our group.
The three major projects for 2007 have
been completed. The Post and Rail Heritage Fence project funded by
Melbourne Water together with the Port Phillip & Westernport Catchment Authority
took longer than expected, but it now blends well into the historic environment
and looks terrific. The accompanying revegetation was done with the help of
Grade 3 and 4 of the Cockatoo
Primary School; a barbecue was hel and a
Certificate issued on the occasion. The extension with the Waratah Fence
Project now covers most of the Northern Picnic and Camping Ground with a
protective border. With the onset of the wet weather already some signs of
ground cover recovery can be seen. We are grateful for the tangible support by
the two organisations and thank Parks Victoria for their In-kind contribution
towards the project. The promotional sign has been fitted to the fence facing
Soldiers Road. The two new Interpretation Boards are finally completed and
installed, one next to the kiln and the other in the centre of the Caretaker's
Compound. Both are pleasant to look at as well as informative and will help
visitors to a better understanding of the Kurth Kiln Cultural Heritage.
For the Records
The Friends of Kurth Kiln were represented at the Yarra Ranges Shire day
long Forum in Yarra Glen "Conserving our Environment in a Changing World" on 6
June 2008. Here is a poster of
the Event Activities.
Our 2007 Heritage
Festival was staged on Sunday 22 April. Officially opened by Tammy Lobato
MLA (introduced by Bill Parker) it again was a great success, with most of the
now traditional activities and displays on show (See Picture Gallery above).
In 2006 the Friends of Kurth Kiln lost their foundation President,
Meinhard Holtz, and with his family we bade farewell to Meinhard in
Gembrook Park. Vice President Ken Banks took on the task of Caretaker
President until, in the Annual General Meeting in October, Dick Cleary
was unanimously elected as our new President. Our thanks go to all the
committee members, past and present, for their generous commitment to
our cause.
The Friends of Kurth Kiln were represented at a number of functions in the last
few months. Our thanks to Parks Victoria for the invitation to the informative
Wetland Seminar at the Coolart Homestead; to the HeHos for the invitation to the
launch of their beautiful new book Yellingbo, a special place; to Cardinia Shire
for the Grant Information Session; to Gembrook Township Committee for the
Heritage Trail and to Parks Victoria again for the Lysterfield Lake Twilight
Stroll.
Kurth Kiln was proclaimed a Regional Park recently, which means there are now
set regulations to control activities in the Park. In a Regional Park there will
be more development planning and better signage to raise the profile of the
Park.
Our annual Heritage Festival was again a great success. A big thank-you to all
the organisers, the contributors, the participants and the many visitors.
The Kurth Kiln participation in the Gembrook Markets seems to be appreciated
by the management committee. It has just granted us a small electric fridge for
keeping perishables safe on Kurth Kiln function days. We have also won approval
from Parks Victoria for two new interpretative signs, one next to the kiln
and one in the Caretaker Compound. Preliminary
designs by the Ektavo Group look promising. An application for
Heritage Fencing with Melbourne Water and Port
Phillip & Westernport CMA as well as additional fencing on the North/East Picnic
Ground with the Waratah Company have just been confirmed.
Following the serendipitous article on Kurth Kiln in the November 2007 Royal Auto magazine, we have had numerous calls and letters with offers and information on Charcoal Gas Producers. All have been acknowledged and we thank everyone for their support. The Friends of Kurth Kiln now have five gas producers, all are different and maybe not quite complete, but with the help of Parks Victoria it will make for a fantastic, historic display.
From the Archives
The Friends of Kurth Kiln were delighted to have received
funding as part of the 2004/5 round of Parks Victoria Grants for
redefining the borders of the Kurth Kiln Picnic ground.
The works involves erecting fencing to protect
revegetated areas and defining access and parking for vehicular traffic
with concrete bollards and wire rope. As part of the work some straggly
non-native pine trees have already been removed with the help of
Parks Victoria experts. We thank the
Gembrook Primary School
for
their help with planting some 180 native shrubs as part of the re-vegetation
project.
Another project was for re-vegetation on the North Side Picnic Area . Our application for funding to the Australian Government Envirofund in Canberra has been approved, for which we are very grateful. The work involved planting and protecting 800 new native seedlings around the borders of the picnic areas. We were especially pleased to have the Hoodles Creek Primary School students, teachers and parents actively involved.
In 2002/2003 we have received funding for a small Solar electric system project for Kurth Kiln. This is essential to our work. Not only is a constant supply of electricity a vital part of our Open Day displays, electricity also enables the use of a computer on site, for cataloguing the hundreds of individual items that we have now started to enter into the Melbourne Museum Archives. In the not-too-distant future this process will enable anybody to initiate a Heritage Item Search on their own computer via Internet Access to the Museum's homepage. Furthermore a reliable supply of power allows us to consider installing some form of security system as a deterrent to vandalism.
So far we have repaired the kiln, re-constructed the Waterwheel and its associated Water Supply Dam, we have fitted three additional Information/Interpretation Boxes to the outside of the big shed for casual browsing of campers walking through. We have installed a Display Wall that serves the treble purpose of hiding most of the broken concrete floor in the big Shed, provide an out-of-sight storage facility for tables and chairs and other odds and sods of the Friends Group and thirdly, its primary function of providing neat shelves for arranging a display of some of the smaller, categorised historic memorabilia. Heavy duty benches on the other side serve to exhibit some bigger, functional displays.
A new picturesque Walking Track has been created, named Thornton Walking Track, in memory of the long-time caretaker at Kurth Kiln, Ron Thornton. Starting on the northern side of the Tomahawk Creek, it crosses the creek on a specially built bridge and is about a 2km round trip.
The initial December issue of our Newsletter "THE KILN" is still available. If you do not have a copy you can write or e-mail to us and we will send you one. On the other hand if you click on the Name in blue above you will find a couple of interesting articles reprinted. Also, Wendy Savage's informative Plant Workshop Report is still attached here.
Please Note: Following an article in the Royal Auto Magazine of
November 2006 we have been contacted by numerous people with offers of old Gas
Producers for our Kurth Kiln collection. Over the months we have
now collected six examples of these items (all different designs) from all over
Victoria.
Here is a picture of one made by the Ford Company. Together with Parks Victoria we are now looking at providing a
suitable,
permanent display at Kurth Kiln to show off the Gas Producers to best
advantage. Our thanks to all those good people who either donated or gave
them on permanent loan to the Friends of Kurth Kiln Group. An appropriate
acknowledgement will in time be part of the
proposed display Shelter.
Nb. Our member Dick Cleary has just completed restoration work on the first of
these 6 units, which is now waiting for a proper home.
For further details, and information on how to participate in these great
Kurth Kiln activiies
contact us either via PARKS VICTORIA, or email auk@c031.aone.net.au
You can also become a member of the Friends of Kurth Kiln Group by completing the attached Form.
Other local web sites of interest you can visit from here are:
Gembrook Village
www.gembrookvillage.com.au
Gembrook Town Council www.gembrook.net
Cardinia Environment Coalition
www.cecinc.net.au
Puffing Billy Railway in Gembrook:
http://www.puffingbilly.com.au
Country Getaway http://www.puffingbillycountrygetaways.com.au
Gembrook Cottages
http://www.gembrookcottages.com.au
Bed 'n Breakfast in the beautiful Dandenongs
Last updated 3 February 2010
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