YARRA RANGES BUSH CAMP
  • HOME
  • About
  • Contact
  • Bush Camp News
  • Companion Guide to Healesville
  • YARRA RANGES NATIONAL PARK
  • Historic Photographs Yarra Ranges National Park
  • Dr Annie Yoffa's 1928 Walk from Warburton to Walhalla
  • Black Spur
  • O'Shannassy Aqueduct
  • Graceburn Weir
  • Badger Weir
  • Donnelly's Weir
  • Maroondah Dam
  • Mt. Donna Buang
  • Cement Creek
  • Upper Yarra Dam
  • Fernshaw
  • Cambarville
  • Mt St Leonard
  • Yarra Track 1895
  • Warburton to Walhalla 1928 Easter Expedition
  • Donnelly's Weir
  • Dr Annie Yoffa's 1928 Walk from Warburton to Walhalla via Yarra Falls
  • Baw Baw track
  • WarburtonVerticalK

The Queen 1954 at O'Shannassy Chalet in the O'Shannassy closed catchment. 

11/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will spend a typical Australian bush weekend on March 6 to 8, at O'Shannassy Reservoir.
It is their only free weekend in Victoria and the only other place the will reside in the State apart from Government House in Melbourne and the Royal Train.
The 40-year-old Board of Works chalet at O'Shannassy, 60 miles from Melbourne, has been renovated for the Queens stay.
It is an unpretentious timber cottage painted white, with red-painted galvanised iron roof and wide verandahs.
The chalet is in two blocks, the sleeping quarters and dining room and kitchen.
The Queen will have to walk along an exposed concrete path from the sleeping quarters to the dining room 50 ft. away for meals.
She will eat vegetables grown in the kitchen garden, eggs from the poultry shed, milk and cream from the Jersey cows, and home-made butter churned by Mrs. Bill Holding Manageress.
Mrs. Holding, as slim, attractive woman, with short grey hair, does all the chalet cooking on a big wood range. Electric light is from the Chalet's own generator and there are kerosene refrigerators.
Mrs. Holding also waits on table. She says she will wear a simple afternoon frock and high-heeled shoes when she waits on the Royal party.
A typical Australian touch on the weekend will be a cluster of koala bears, gathered for the occasion and loged in a tree near the house.
The Queen will also be able to fish for trout in the 75 acre O'Shannassy dam, four miles from the house. Other diversion include quoits, a putting green and tennis court.
The Queens bedroom, which overlooks an expanse of forested mountains, has been re-decorated in lilac and white lilac grey carpet and glazed chintz curtains in lilac and chartreuse.  
    
Picture
O'Shannassy Chalet

Probably no better place than the O'Shannassy Chalet could have been chosen to give the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh a glimpse of Victorian bushland. 
The Chalet where the Royal couple  have been spending a two-day rest period before leaving the State, stands on the side of the O'Shannassy River Valley, about 10 miles beyond Warburton.
It consists of two timber buildings, framed by wide verandahs and separated by 50 ft. of garden.
The building used by the Queen and her husband and their personal staff contains six bedrooms and a lounge. Four more bedrooms and the dining room are in the other building.
Both buildings front a semi-circular lawn dotted with trees and sloping away to the valley below.
In the surrounding gardens petunias, phlox, marigolds, dahlias, zinnias, pansies portulaca and sweet peas blaze with colour.
Misspelt
​The Chalet was not built as some unkindly believe, as a sort of rest home for weary Commissioners of the Metropolitan Board.
When the board first began work on the O'Shannassy Weir in 1910, the area was almost a day's travel from Melbourne.
The Chalet was built to give overnight accommodation to supervising engineers and members of the board on visits of inspection.
It was retained on completion of the works for the use of the board, distinguished visitors and suburban councillors who might visit the area to learn sometimes at first hand of Melbourne's Water supply.
Oddly though perhaps appropriate in a bushland setting where time and formality mean little, the chalet and the river from which it is named have been spelt with an "n" too many for years beyond memory.
The river was named after Sir John O'Shanassy three times Premier of Victoria between 1857 and 1861. 
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.