Pictorial History Sunbury And District Emu Bottom Homestead 1836
Australian History Local History Antiquarian & Collectible Young Adult Non-Fiction Pictorial History Australiana Genealogy & Family History Heritage Architecture
Emu Bottom Homestead 1836: Pictorial History Sunbury & District is the definitive illustrated chronicle of one of Victoria’s oldest surviving farm complexes and the township that grew around it. Ronald Fisher’s 1994 soft-cover gathers rare photographs, maps and plans to trace the stone homestead from its pre-gold-rush beginnings beside Jacksons Creek through sheep, wheat and wine eras to its place in today’s Sunbury heritage trail. For collectors of Australiana and anyone whose family lines thread back to the Port Phillip District, the book doubles as a visual time-capsule: every page pairs archival images with on-site photography taken before recent restorations, making it an unmatched reference for heritage architects, genealogists and local-history classrooms.
What sets this copy apart is its vintage 1994 first-printing status—already out of print and increasingly scarce in tidy condition. The binding is still tight, pages are unmarked and free of the foxing that plagues later reprints, while the generous landscape format lets the 150-plus photographs and historic sketches breathe. Light exterior scuffing is noted but commensurate with age; internally it presents as near-fine, giving collectors a shelf-worthy example without the premium price of a pristine hardback.
Sunbury locals, CFA history groups and descendants of the original settlers value the book for its meticulous captions: every image is tied to a block, road or paddock that can still be walked today. Teachers use it for Year-9 Australian Curriculum depth studies on contact and colonisation, while vintage-photo enthusiasts appreciate the sepia panoramas of the 1850s township, the arrival of the railway, and the 1890s vineyard boom that produced the district’s first export wines. Whether you are tracing property titles, planning a heritage weekend, or simply want a readable, picture-rich account of how an 1836 slab hut grew into a prosperous merino stud, Fisher’s pictorial history remains the single most comprehensive guide on the subject.
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