2 Walsh Street, Coburg is demolished - 1978

The Courier, 28 February 1978.

2 Walsh Street while demolition was in progress, The Courier, 28 February 1978. 

This once grand house was the home of Dr Carl Dyring, Coburg's Health Officer in the years leading up to World War One. You can read about him here. 

Dr Carl Dyring's Residence, 2 Walsh Street, Coburg, circa 1890. 

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.

Dr Carl Dyring and his wife Dagmar standing at the front door of their Walsh Street home. (Detail from the photo shown above.)

The Dyrings were a very interesting family. Carl's second wife Dagmar was a member of the Bendigo Cohn cordial and beer manufacturing family. She went to Egypt to work as a hospital matron in 1915, leaving her two children with her family in Bendigo. You can read her story here. 

Their daughter, Moya Dyring (1909-1967), was one of the first women cubist painters to exhibit in Melbourne. She married fellow artist Sam Atyeo (born in Coburg), whose parents are buried at Coburg Cemetery with his uncle, Laurence Cohen, monumental mason and trade unionist. 

Carl Dyring was invalided home from the war in December 1916. He sold his practice (run from Walsh Street) to Dr R.A.R. Wallace, who also took over his role as Coburg Health Officer. (Wallace had taken Dyring's place during his absence in 1915.) Dyring then retired to Brighton. 

Dr Wallace called the house 'Kilcorran'. 

Sources: 

Fighting the Kaiser blog.

Brunswick and Coburg Leader, 15 Oct 1915.

The Courier, 28 February 1978.

Coburg Historical Society picture collection (Accessed via Picture Victoria).

The new suburb of Merlynston - 1922

Advertising in 'The Inception of a New City', 1922, published when Coburg reached City status.

You can read more on Donald Stuart Bain and the early development of Merlynston here.

Donald Stuart Bain, the founder of Merlynston, c1935. Courtesy Coburg Historical Society.

The old army hut at Coburg North Primary School in 1975

Coburg Courier, 21 October 1975.

The caption that goes with this photograph in the local newspaper caught my attention. I was intrigued by the reference to the old army barracks and no one seemed to be able to tell me much about it. 

It took me a long time, but I finally discovered how the army hut came to be on the site of 4543 Coburg North Primary School.

The answer was in the school's 1987 history, written to celebrate its first 50 years. And here's the answer:

So the army barracks was an army hut and it was moved from Ballarat in August 1947 when the school was 10 years old. By the time they'd found someone to convert the building into three classrooms it was March 1949. A considerable delay!

It wasn't an ideal learning space:

And here's a bit more about how that building was used in the 1960s when it was an art classroom and a library:

Maybe you can fill in a few more details. Perhaps you remember arts and crafts lessons in this area of the school or can describe what the library was like. 

Its location (and a plan of the school) in the 1950s (I think), still from the 1987 school history:

Part of the hut was also used for Mothers' Club meetings where the committee planned its fundraising activities, including the inevitable school fete. According to the Mothers' Club report in the 1987 school history, their room became a canteen on Mondays during winter where pies, pasties, sausage rolls and hot chocolate were sold.

Finally, in the second half of the 1970s, a few years after the Courier newspaper article was published, the army hut was removed:

Perhaps you attended Coburg North Primary School at some other time. Why not share your story of going to school at Coburg North?

And if you'd like to know more about the school today, check out its Facebook page and website.