Australia Day 2017
We were very pleased to have had a very large number of visitors to The Rocket Shed. Over 130 people entered the Shed to view the excellent display of photographs, artefacts and memorabilia. Many questions were answered, and several visitors said they remembered Inverloch in the 1950’s, one couple recalled that while on their honeymoon 59 years ago, they stayed in a borrowed caravan, towed by a borrowed car and they camped on the foreshore. Their big night out was having dinner at Two Views Guest House dining room. Another visitor told us that he learnt to swim at the Pine Lodge Swimming Pool, and a number of questions were raised about the position and extent of the old Sea Wall.
To add to the earlier number of visitors to the Rocket Shed on Australia day, a further 200 people viewed the display on Friday and Saturday. Two young lads took photographs and showed a keen interest in the purpose of the rescue service procedure early in the last century. Comments from the Visitors book were included one which said “A great maritime asset” and another said “I learnt something new today”.
Exhibition funding
On Monday 12th of December 2016, at The Hub Inverloch, a cheque for $4,000 was presented to The Inverloch Historical Society. It was the result of a successful application to the Bass Coast Shire for funding to stage a month long exhibition at The Hub in June 2017. The Exhibition also coincides with our Society’s 21st birthday.
As our President John Hutchinson has said, we have been handed a wonderful opportunity through the Exhibition to publicly announce our Society is a practical, positive and valuable community group within, not only Inverloch and District, but in the wider sense to the Bass Coast and the many Historical Society’s within Gippsland and Victoria.
Vale
In recent months we have been saddened to learn that Ivy Yann a member of our Society for many years had passed away, we send our condolences to her family.
One of our former members, Betty Howsam, wife of the late Dr. Ken Howsam passed away in December in Melbourne. Ken was a very active worker for the Society in its early years, ably supported by Betty. We send our condolences to her family also.
Len Cuttriss another member of the Society who had been greatly valued by us all passed away recently. Len was a keen supporter and was Newsletter Editor for a short time. We extend our condolences to all members of his family.
Many thanks to Eulalie Brewster for providing the following extract from Len’s Eulogy for us
Our late member, Len Cuttriss, was a descendent of the Wain and Cuttriss families that in the late 1870’s were two of the earliest settlers of Inverloch district. His great grandfather, J.P.Wain had livery stables on Savage’s Hill where travellers from Tarwin to San Remo could stay while they waited for low tide on Screw Creek for them to cross at the ford. J.P. Wain’s daughter married John’s Grandfather Alfred Cuttriss, and they also ran the Livery stables until in 1890 the first bridge was built across Screw Creek. When a quarry was opened on the Cuttriss property by Anderson’s Inlet, Len’s grandfather, two uncles and his father used their sailing boat to tow a barge of rock to Lower Tarwin for road surfacing.
Len’s father enlisted in WW 1 and upon his return and marriage settled on a Soldier Settlement farm at Werribee growing lucerne and vegetables. When Len was 17 years old, his father brought the family to a small property at Inverloch. A few years later his father bought 300 acres of bush seven kilometres away on the Leongatha road so that Len and his brother could clear it to become a dairy farm. They worked hard at this tough job as well as building a house and sheds.
In 1953 Len married Irene Thompson of Wonthaggi and they reared a family of three for whom they made a good life supporting the children in the school and extra activities of guides, scouts, lifesavers, little athletics. football and netball. Len was involved in community activities, including being a member of the School Committee, 45 years a member of CFA, and captain for over 10 years, a member of the Cemetery Trust and President for 15 years. When Len and Irene retired to Inverloch, he took up new activities. He joined the Wonthaggi Woodworkers (Woodies),Inverloch Historical Society, Inverloch Probus Club, and he learnt new skills. Len was proud of his family’s contribution to the development of Inverloch and District, and after doing
a computer course wrote the “History of the Cuttriss Family”, and another on the history of Cuttriss Street.
Editor: Ian McBurnie