Exhibition Archive

Playing to Win

A local contribution to the Commonwealth Games, 7th Mar 2006 - 9th Apr 2006
This exhibition features local sporting heroes, personal triumphs, contests of man against machine and quirky competitions. It includes famous and not so famous local sporting heroes football’s ‘Captain Blood’ Jack Dyer; woodchopping’s famous O’Toole family; Wandin cricketer Donald Strachan and Sharon Morse, Australian number two ranked tennis player with an intellectual disability.

Come in and learn more about the stories that make up Playing to Win with the Lilydale, Montrose, Mt Dandenong, Mt Evelyn Historical Societies. Some of the participants in the Playing to Win exhibition will be at the Museum on the 1st of April to talk about the stories they have researched for the exhibition.

War Clouds Gather over Mt Dandenong, researched by Pat Hogan from the Mt Dandenong Historical society, tells the story of the dramatic effect World War I had on the young teams of footballers and cricketers. The winner of the 1913 Best and Fairest in the Olinda Football team Peter Johnston died in 1915 of wounds suffered at Gallipolli.

Race Against Time, by members of the Mt Evelyn Historical Research group, is the story of the Mt Evelyn First Aid Post where railway men competed every year to hone their emergency and first aid skills with improvised accident scenes.

Firemen on the Run is presented by Jeanette Dodson from the Montrose Historical society. In the 1950s and 1960s the various volunteer fire brigades in the local district came together ever year at the Fire Prevention Demonstrations to train and compete in the use of fire pumps, equipment etc. Jeanette will bringing along some of the equipment used in the 1950s in fighting fires.

The Lilydale Historical Society and the Museum of Lillydale will be hosting the session. The talks will follow the Lilydale & District Historical Society Meeting on the 1st of April at 2.30pm at the Museum of Lillydale. All are welcome and entry is free.

The exhibition also features unusual events including the one time popular First Aid Games, the race against Puffing Billy and the Aboriginal game of Marngrook – thought by some to have been the genesis for our very own Australian Rules Football.

A total of 12 stories have been collected and immortalised through the efforts of local historical societies working in partnership with the Shire of Yarra Ranges.