A photograph of families at John Freeman's bush mill setting off to Longwarry for the weekend c1911.
This cart was the only means of transport available and provided a temporary relief for those living in the mill community.
There is no doubt that the early history of the Longwarry district was centred on the timber industry and the huge stands of timber to the north of the town.
By the 1890s, there were at least three sawmills in the town which were supplemented by "bush" mills established out in the forests.
In many cases, these bush mills had a whole community living around them. Housing was often more than just bark huts for workers, with more established slab timber housing catering for women and children.
Life was hard and, generally, the only relief from the constant work would be weekend trips into Longwarry for shopping, sport, dances and - generally, for the men - the pub.
These mill communities pretty much came to an end as a result of massive fires in 1926, known as Black Sunday.
The bushfires ran from Noojee to Powelltown, with John Freeman's bush mill directly in their path.
Fortunately, the fires arrived at the mill on a Sunday, when many of the workers and families were in Longwarry for the weekend. Only 10 people were at the mill on this Sunday and they took refuge in Freeman's house.
The following extract from a written account gives a vivid image of the desperation of the time.
"Despite the firebreaks around Freeman's house, three men - Lang Towers, Dick Armstrong and John Freeman - doused flames with buckets of water as the fire struck the house," it said.
"The three men, women and children, 10 people in all, survived and, after the fires passed, they began walking along the burnt out tram line towards Longwarry. A party that had set out from Longwarry to check on folk from the mill found the men totally exhausted and having to be led by the women as the smoke had temporarily fully blinded them."
These fires raged across Victoria for nearly two months in 1926, damaging 1000 buildings and resulting in 60 deaths and 700 injuries.
This put an end to bush mill communities. Apart from the loss of houses and buildings, it was clearly not safe.
Photograph courtesy of Clarrie McDermid Collection and information courtesy of Longwarry and District History Group.
The not-for-profit group is dedicated to the history of the 3816 postcode which includes Labertouche, Longwarry North and Modella.
To find out more, visit longwarryhistory.org