Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society, Schramm's Cottage, Muriel Green Drive, Doncaster (2026)

21/04/2026

Templestowe State School No. 1395 - World War 1 Honor Roll and Honor Book

Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society (DTHS) has researched the history of the Templestowe State School No. 1395 World War 1 Honor Roll and Honor Book.

At the end of the war, many schools, town councils, communities, churches, sporting clubs, government agencies such as post offices and railways, etc. decided to undertake the preparation and public display of Honor Roll boards and accompanying Roll of Honor books. These were to place on record and pay a tribute to the memory of the soldiers of their districts who had who had served in the Great War, including those who had made the supreme sacrifice through loss of their life in the war.

Templestowe State School was one of the schools which participated in this important undertaking. On 23 April 1920, the school unveiled their honor roll board with 31 names, including the names of 9 men who lost their lives, as a tribute to the memory of the soldiers of the district.

The names on the honor roll board are:
Left side column: Adams, A. | Beale, J. | Betheras, Alice (Nurse) | Chivers, H.G. | Chivers, S. | Chivers, A. | Cole, R. | Crouch, W. | Gaff, J. | Glynn, H. | Glynn, F. |

Right side column: Kent, T. | Lawson, T. | Ling, T. | Mahoney, A. | Read, R. | Schuhkraft, E. | Sheahan, J.M. | Sheahan, E.P. | Smith, A.R. | Townsend, A. | Wright, A |

Centre (In Memoriam) column: Aumann, C.F. | Chivers, C. | Johnston, A. | Osborne, E. | Richardson, E. | Richardson, F. | Scragg, A. | Svanborg, F. |

The DTHS research also includes a brief service history of those named on the board.

It is not fully known if the names on the board were just those of pupils who had attended the school but may have also included the names of parents, teachers, relatives, others that had an association with the school, or were from the wider Templestowe community and who had also served.

The honor board and honor book may also not show all persons associated with the school who enlisted and fought in the AIF. With honor boards and rolls, a call was generally made to the soldiers or parents or relatives of soldiers to provide details of service for inclusion. Not all may have been aware of or responded to the call, or may not have wanted to be included.

The school was located at the corner of Anderson Street and Parker Street, Templestowe and was closed at the end of 1993. The board however still remains in the now heritage listed 1874 original brick school house building that has since been retained and restored by the Manningham City Council and which is now being used by the Woodcraft Manningham Wood Working Club.

The board allows us to remember and pay respect to members of our local community who served the nation and of the sacrifice of our service men and women, and to those who sadly lost their lives.

The full research can be found on the DTHS website at: https://dt-hs.blogspot.com/2026/04/templestowe-state-school-no-1395-world.html

19/04/2026

Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society (DTHS) has received from Ron Douglas (a former trade school teacher at Templestowe Technical School) around 30 photos of class and teacher groups from his time at Templestowe Technical School from 1973-1991.

DTHS has uploaded the photos onto its website at:
https://dt-hs.blogspot.com/2018/11/templestowe-technical-school.html .

Here’s a couple of typical photos from the collection. And in the DTHS website, click on the photos for a full screen copy.

At the bottom of the website, there is also a link to a book written by Ron (see The Life and Times of Ron Douglas: Reminiscences of a Raconteur or The Ravings of a Ratbag @ link - https://dt-hs.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-life-and-times-of-ron-douglas.html ). Here’s some extracts of his time at the school:

“I was sent to Templestowe Technical School in 1971, which was a brand-new school then. It was so new in fact, that the buildings had not been commenced at that time. My appointment notice read – “Appointed to Templestowe Technical School C /- The Vice Principal, Altona North Tech.” Dave Donaldson was the newly appointed first Principal of Templestowe Technical School.

We commenced operation in February 1971 in temporary accommodation with building works taking place around us and with an enrolment of 80 students - boys only. We became Co-Ed some 3 years later. I taught Sheetmetal, Solid Geometry, and Woodwork, due to the unfortunate passing of our Woodwork teacher. Being the only "Tradie" on staff was a challenging but rewarding time.

As mentioned elsewhere, there were originally two Trade Teachers appointed to Templestowe Tech., me and Harold Jones. Harold was a Woodwork Teacher of many years’ experience, he was appointed as Senior Master being second in command to the Principal, Dave Donaldson. Early in the school year Harold was taken seriously ill and unfortunately passed away. This resulted in a re-shuffling of his duties. As well as Sheetmetal, I also taught Woodwork classes and Solid Geometry.

I was the only Tradie, and assumed practical person, on staff now. I also became responsible for setting up a Student Locker system. This was very demanding, students being students. Initially, I was able to get Locker keys, and others, cut at the local Hardware store which was owned by a parent of the school. It soon became obvious that to purchase our own Key Cutting Machine was the more practical option. Therefore, I gained another worthwhile experience / skill that of key cutting and I was able to pass on the job after three years to another Tradie”.

Have full read of Ron’s book to see what he got up to in life.

28/03/2026

The Gazebo from the Templestowe Cemetery

Sadly the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society has recently seen the probable loss from its Museum Complex, of the former gazebo from the Templestowe Cemetery.

White ants, wood rot and recent strong winds saw the complete collapse of the roof structure and some walls and it appears to be irreparable. The society had earlier arranged for the gazebo to be fenced off and had been in discussion with council on its condition and whether repairs could be undertaken. It’s a sad end however to a long and valued history.

The gazebo located at the top of the north lawn at Schramms Cottage Museum Complex was built in 1900 at the Templestowe Cemetery. At that time many Melbourne cemeteries built hexagon pavilions as shelters for visitors, frequently these were elaborate with decorative fretwork around openings, metal lattice and patterned tiles on the floors. The trustees at Templestowe planned a hexagon building constructed with three sides weather-boards and the other three, lattice work, the floor to be asphalt. The kiosk as they called it cost, 22 pounds 15 shillings and three pence.

This type of building is referred to by many names; pavilion, kiosk, summer house, folly or gazebo. The correct name is the Turkish word, "Kiosk". This name has come to have a different meaning and the best word that specifically identifies a building such as this in Australia, is the Spanish word, "Gazebo". A building to sit in and look around, or gaze about.

When Schramm's Cottage was being set up, the Trustees of the Templestowe Cemetery offered their Kiosk to the Historical Society for Schramm's Cottage as the Trust were planning to construct a cemetery office to replace the old pavilion. It had been changed for use as an office, store room and changing room for visiting clergy. The Trustees had previously removed the weather-boards and lattice, recovering the walls with fibro cement sheets and added a lockable door.

Volunteers from our Society dismantled the building and moved it to the cottage where it was stored. In 1979 the Rotary Club of Doncaster re-erected the gazebo. They built the floor of concrete and replaced the walls with weather boards and lattice as it had been originality constructed.

16/03/2026

The Schramm Neher Craig Family Piano

Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society recently took delivery of new addition to its collection - it being the Schramm Neher Craig family piano.

In 1866, Rachel Schramm was born in Doncaster to parents Kate (nee Pickering) and Max Schramm.

In 1882, at the age of 16, Rachel and her sister, Rhoda went to Germany and were guests of their uncle Colonel Heinrich von Schramm for two years. They were happy years for the girls as they absorbed the Prussian culture and furthered their singing and musical education.

In 1893, many years after returning to Doncaster, Rachel fell in love and married a tall, handsome farmer, Carl Neher, who had emigrated from Wurttemberg, in Germany. The family worked an orchard in Bayswater and created a family: 1896 Edward “Rolf”; 1897 Alix; 1900 Geoffrey; and 1905 Selwyn.

In 1908 Carl died leaving Rachel with children aged between 3 and 12. Rachel raised her family and later moved to Box Hill. She died in 1951.

At some time during these years, Rachel acquired a piano to further her lifelong love of music. The piano was made by the Julius Bluthner company of Leipzig. The piano serial number appears to be 3325 which makes the date of manufacture 1891. Bluthner pianos are of very high quality and have been used by musicians such as Brahms, Debussy, Wagner, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and the Beatles.

Michael Craig (born in 1931 to Alix) remembers learning how to play this piano on visits to his grandmother, Rachel. Michael later acquired the piano and passed it on to his daughter, Robin Craig-Boyle.

Robin recently offered not only to donate the piano to DTHS but to organise and pay for its transport. DTHS Committee gratefully accepted the generous offer. The piano is now proudly on display in Schramms Cottage schoolroom.

Thank you (again) to the Craig-Neher families !

Come visit and have a look at the piano (and you can even have a play on it although its badly out of tune and in need of a lot of work to ever bring it back to its full playing condition).

Visit Schramms Cottage Museum Complex
Muriel Green Drive (off Victoria Street), Doncaster East
Sundays 2 - 5 pm (last entry 4.30pm)
https://dt-hs.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html

13/02/2026

Celebration of 50 years since Schramm’s Cottage relocation 1976-2026

February 2026 sees the 50th anniversary of the official opening of the relocated and rebuilt Schramm’s Cottage at a new site at Doncaster east.

The story of the cottage started around 150 years before. The cottage is named after Max von Schramm. He came to Doncaster in 1860 to start a school for the Lutheran children. He held his school in the primitive Lutheran church in Victoria Street, then known as Bismark Street. Four years later he built a new school in Doncaster Road. The Education Department bought out this building, so, in 1875, he constructed a sandstone building both as a home and a Lutheran School near his old building.

This house originally stood beside Doncaster Road where the Manningham MC Square Community Centre is now located, but in 1970 a road-widening project threatened its existence. Local residents who had formed the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society earlier in 1967, found a new site for the house in the grounds of the old primitive Lutheran church and cemetery at Victoria Street, Doncaster east.

Then in 1971 they began the mammoth task of pulling the cottage apart stone by stone. It was dismantled under the careful supervision of the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society and a local stonemason. Each stone was numbered and taken to the new site and laid out in order. Slowly the cottage was re-built. It gained a new iron roof and new timber ceilings — but, apart from these, it was erected exactly as it had been by Pastor Schramm in 1875.

The official opening of Schramm’s Cottage took place on Saturday 14th. February, 1976. A plaque to mark the occasion was unveiled by the Mayor Cr R. Poppins in the presence of over 200 people, and Sir Raymond Garrett MLC formally declared the cottage open and opened the front door with the original key. This day was the climax of five years combined efforts by many people, as there were over one hundred volunteers; mainly from the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society, who all helped with the removal, rebuilding and setting up of the cottage.

Over the years, many additional buildings and features of an historic nature have been added into the Schramm’s Cottage Museum complex including Fingers barn, the Atkins family cottage, the Sloyd woodwork room, the machinery shed, the wheelwright shed, the replica tram as well as the cottage gardens and the restoration of the old Lutheran Waldau cemetery.

If you haven’t visited Schramms, please come along and have a look at the various buildings, old orchard equipment and associated displays at the museum complex.

Visit Schramms Cottage Museum Complex
Rieschieks Reserve
Muriel Green Drive (off Victoria Street), Doncaster East
Sundays 2 - 5 pm (last entry 4.30pm)
Admission: Adults $5, children $1

29/12/2025

Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society wishes everyone a happy 2026 New Year. We’ve arranged for the Doncaster Brass Band to play us all into the New Year.

Photograph of the Doncaster Brass Band c1920. The band played on Sunday afternoons at Federal Park, at the rear of the Doncaster Primary School.

The musicians include: Alf Petty, Fred Tolly junior, Harrold Smith, Ralph Corbett, Ernie Aumann, Archie Crouch, Jack Hewish, J. Smith, Horrie Corbett, Mr Plunkett [Band Master], Fred Tolly senior, Ted Bienvenue, Roy Tully, and Philip Tolly.

11/12/2025

Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society wishes everyone a merry Christmas.

Doncaster Church of Christ Picnic 1890. Names include:
Back row - George Petty | Thomas H Bates (Minister) | Alfred Smith | Henry W Crouch } Lizzie Middleton | Arthur Taylor |
Front row - Harry Stones | Albert Smith | Lily Clay (Mrs Harry Reynolds) | Mrs John Petty | Herbert Petty | ? | William G Petty | ? | Mrs George Petty | Mrs John Tully | Ada Tully | ? | Rose Tully | ? | Albert Tully | ? | John Tully | John J Tully | ? | Rosa Petty (Mrs William A Webb) | Ella Sinclair (Mrs Alfred Smith) | Charlie Gill |

09/11/2025

Remembrance Day 11 November

Some of the men listed on the Shire of Doncaster Roll of Residents WW1 Honor Board who lost their lives in the war.

08/11/2025

REMEMBRANCE DAY – 11th November
Those from Doncaster and Templestowe who served in the Great War (WW1)

In World War 1 (the Great War) and from a population of around 4.9 million, 416,800 Australian men and women enlisted, with over 60,000 killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. The vast majority of Australian casualties occurred on the Western Front between 1916 and 1918.

Both at the start and at the end of the war, many schools, town councils, churches, friendly societies, sporting clubs etc. decided to prepare and erect Honor Roll boards to place on record and pay a tribute to the memory of the soldiers of their districts who had who had enlisted and served in the Great War, including those who had made the supreme sacrifice through loss of their life in the war.

The Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society (DTHS) has identified a number of such boards that were erected in Doncaster and Templestowe including those by the Doncaster East state school, the Doncaster state school, the Templestowe state school, the Shire of Doncaster, the Doncaster branch of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows and the Doncaster branch if the Independent Order of Rechabites. Photographs along with some of the history of each of the boards are shown in remembrance of those who served.

DTHS will shortly be publishing on its web page more on the history of the boards and on some of those who served. DTHS would also appreciate knowing if any other similar boards were ever prepared and that still exist in Doncaster and Templestowe so they can be recorded and those named remembered as part of the long history of the district. Others from the district may also have served but were not recognised on honor boards.

Ode of Remembrance
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them

21/10/2025

Manningham is celebrating a new chapter in its history with the official opening of the new Schramms Cottage Museum Visitor Centre building in Doncaster East.

The $3.5 million building and precinct upgrade was officially opened on Friday 17 October 2025, and will help the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society preserve the history of Manningham for generations to come.

The new visitor centre building was opened by Mayor Councillor Deirdre Diamante, Manningham CEO Andrew Day, and DTHS President Geoff Broome. A plaque commemorating the event was unveiled and will be placed in the foyer of the building.

The new visitor centre building will be open to the public from Sunday 2 November.

Visit the Manningham Council web page for more on the opening - https://www.manningham.vic.gov.au/news/history-turns-page-schramms-cottage

and the ManninghamLife web page at https://www.manninghamlife.com.au/schramms-cottage-visitor-centre-officially-opens/

We hope that you can come and have a look at the new visitor centre (from Sunday 2 November) and the overall museum complex with its new pathways (open all Sundays).

Visit Schramms Cottage Museum Complex
Muriel Green Drive (off Victoria Street), Doncaster East
Sundays 2 - 5 pm (last entry 4.30pm)

21/09/2025

A recent addition to the Doncaster Templestowe collection of photographs was that of a photograph of the Doncaster Ramblers football team. It showed twenty-one men and boys in football gear posing in a typical team photograph. The players appear to be mainly young boys and men, with only a few older aged players. Many are wearing what appears to be the team jumper that has a light-coloured sash or stripe running from over one shoulder and across the front of the jumper. The sitting players at the front are wearing either long pants or knickerbocker type shorts. An older aged player in the front centre is holding a football that has the name “Ramblers” and the date “1909” written on the ball which gives a date to the photograph.

From some research, it appears that the Ramblers were only a short lived local club between 1909 to 1911. But in that short time, they got themselves into a dispute with the Doncaster football club on the use of the Doncaster recreation reserve ground, and a dispute with the Doncaster and Blackburn clubs on playing “imported” players. At a Doncaster council meeting to resolve the matter, “councillor Tully eventually moved that the matter be deferred for a month the hope that the matter be resolved between the two clubs. He thought it better for a club to play only local men and be beaten than to "import" players and win. He did not know that there was much credit in Blackburn's victory if half their team had been "imported."

Read the full story on the Ramblers on the DTHS web site at https://dt-hs.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-doncaster-ramblers-football-club.html

31/08/2025

Tony Green, son of the late Irvine Green (a founding member and past president of the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society (DTHS)), has published a book titled “A Mouse at Moresby”.

The book, containing information from Irvine and Tony as well as photos from Irvine, is a first-hand account of Irvine as a World War II RAAF photographer in New Guinea in 1941-43, both on the ground and in the sky in the battle for Port Moresby and the fight for Australia.

Tony Green writes:
“After my father Irvine Green passed away, I found an exciting collection of photos, diaries, and letters from his service in the RAAF in WW2. As a well-known professional photographer and local historian who wrote many books, he always intended to publish his diaries.

I’m thrilled to announce that my book “A Mouse at Moresby” will be released by Big Sky Publishing of Australia on October 6th 2025 — now available for pre-order!

Irvine Green tells his story of the critical time when Port Moresby stood between the invading Japanese and the Australian mainland. Seen through the eyes of a skilled RAAF photo reconnaissance officer, Irvine has left a feast of previously unseen photographs and writings from the New Guinea theatre and across the Australian mainland.

This book honours my father’s remarkable story that he never had the chance to publish.
After my father Irvine Green passed away, I found an exciting collection of photos, diaries, and letters from his service in the RAAF in WW2.

Irvine articulates a firsthand view of World War II in New Guinea from 1941–1943, and captures the critical time when Port Moresby stood between the invading Japanese and the Australian mainland. He titled his diary “A Mouse at Moresby”, a nod to the name coined by Tokyo Rose for the ‘rats of Tobruk’; the Australian and Allied soldiers who earlier withstood a siege in North Africa.

In publishing his diary entries alongside letters he wrote to his family and previously unseen photographs from the trenches, I believe this is the book that Irvine always wanted to write, and now we have written it together.”

The book published by Big Sky Publishing @ www.bigskypublishing.com.au/books/a-mouse-at-moresby/ will be available in Australia and New Zealand at your favourite bookstore, and online at Amazon and Booktopia. An eBook is also available.

Further information on Tony’s book and where it can be purchased is available on the Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society at:
https://dt-hs.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-mouse-at-moresby-tony-green-irvine.html

Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society

21/04/2026

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28/03/2026

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13/02/2026

29/12/2025

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31/08/2025

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