Welcome to the Nillumbik Historical Society
Nillumbik Historical Society is a group founded and maintained by volunteers who freely give many hours of their time to collect and preserve our local history for future generations.
Our home is Historic Ellis Cottage that sits on the Ellis Cottage Reserve, Diamond Creek, Victoria.
Our aim is to preserve and share the history of Diamond Creek District. We have a large archive of photographs, artefacts and historical documents relating to people who have lived in the area and places in the district where they lived, farmed and mined, with particular focus on the wider area around Diamond Creek. The Nillumbik Historical Society was formed in 1973 with the inaugural meeting held at Lovitt Cottage, now known as Ellis Cottage.
We are open to the public on the first Sunday of each month, except January, or by appointment
Entry to Ellis Cottage and our Barn is
ADULTS $5
NILLUMBIK HISTORICAL SOCIETY MEMBERS Free
CHILDREN (under 16) Free
For further information about the Society and Ellis Cottage please go to the Ask Us or Find Us page.
You can also find us on Facebook
New Members are very welcome.
Our Work and Achievements
Since Ellis Cottage site was handed to the Nillumbik Historical Society a number of additions have been made. The historic Lock-up from the site of the Collins Street Police Station was donated and moved to the cottage precinct and is a good example of its type. We use it as a standalone display.
The Nillumbik Historical Society added a barn to the precinct to maintain and display items from our district. We also use it for meetings and other gatherings. It was made possible by volunteers and a great deal of fundraising work over 15 years.
The barn also houses an archival facility which allows the Society to efficiently meet growing demand for information about the area. The barn and archives area, along with the cottage, hold many of our historical documents, photographs, and artifacts.
Our latest addition to the historical precinct is the Lone Pine Memorial, completed in October 2017 after six months of dedicated work by VCAL students from Diamond Valley College, and Diamond Creek Men’s Shed, and with the support of the Montmorency-Eltham RSL and Banyule Nillumbik Local Learning and Employment Network.
We take every opportunity to share information, photographs, and objects we have gathered, and received as donations, over more than 40 years with the community. New projects include storing images of our artifacts so we can put them online, enabling those with links to the area to view our collection no matter where in the world they are located.
We are also undertaking a project to transcribe many of the letters we have, particularly those from local families during WW1.
Nillumbik Historical Society would like to thank the Shire of Nillumbik for their support through regular grant opportunities which help with our administration and other costs and allow us to better engage with the local and wider community. We are fortunate to have a Shire and their representatives who recognise the importance of preserving and sharing our local history. The Shire’s support is appreciated, both for the grant funding and the maintenance of Ellis Cottage and the reserve.
