A holiday at the Bonny Dell Guest House, Oilnda

In 1936, William and Leah Elsie Brann, and their two children Marjorie and Geoffrey,  moved from Mills Street, Hampton to Olinda, where they operated the Bonny Dell Guest House.

Bonny Dell advertisement

The Age, September 23, 1936 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205908081

Bonny Dell, Olinda

Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. State Library of Victoria H32492/803

Over the Christmas - New Year period of 1938-1939, Mrs Meyers and her son Gordon were amongst the guests at Bonny Dell.  Young Gordon looks like he is about 4-years old, so would have been born around 1934. Mrs Meyers, or perhaps Mr Meyers (who does not feature in any photos) took the following 15 photos of their time at Bonny Dell.  They have remained as a set with the negatives all these years, in their original paper packet and were discovered by my research colleague, Isaac Hermann, in an Opp shop in St Kilda recently.  I have scanned them all here, so we can all enjoy a few weeks at Bonny Dell, and as the photographs are labelled in a very informative manner, I have scanned the verso as well. This collection of photos will be passed on to the local Historical Society.

Bonny Dell Guest House Olinda, Xmas 1938-39

Guest's (Bonny Dell) Olinda Xmas 1938-39.

Mr +Mrs Anderson + Daughter; Mr + Mrs McAuley + Daughter; Miss Powell; Mrs Langford; Mr Sellars; Mr Lynch (Les); Mr Keith Kemp; Miss P. Futcher; Mrs Meyers; Gordon Meyers; Jean Walker.

Gordon Meyers (Bonny Dell) Xmas 1938-39 (Olinda). 

I wonder if Gordon received this Red Indian (as it would have been called in 1938) outfit for Christmas?

View from Bedroom door (Bonny Dell) Olinda 1938-39

Water dam Bonny Dell Olinda 1938-39

Ferns Bonny Dell Olinda 1938-39

Guest's Bonny Dell on hike Xmas 1938-39 Olinda

Olinda Bush Xmas 1938-39

Olinda Bush Xmas 1938-39

Mt Dandenong Bourke's Lookout Xmas 1938-39

Bourke's Look out Mt Dandenong Xmas 1938-39

Silvan Dam in the distance partly hidden by smoke from the Great Bush Fires  Jan 1939. Taken from Bourke's Look out Mt Dandenong.  

[The Great Bush Fires were the Black Friday fires of January 13, 1939. Read more here]

Mt Dandenong  Scene of the Great air crash, 14 killed, 1938. Taken Xmas 1938-39. 

[This was the crash of the Kyeema, October 25, 1938. Read more here.]

Silvan Dam Xmas 1938-39. 

Resting after inspecting dam - Mrs Meyers, Gordon Meyers, Miss Powell, Mrs McAuley.

Silvan Dam Xmas 1938-39.

Length 2 ¾ Miles; Height above sea level 810 ft; Crest width 20 ft; Earth fill 1679000 Tons; Water stored 8853 Million Gals; 822 acres. Reservoir Margin 8 ¼ Miles. 

The photographs were still in their original packet, together with the negatives. You can see the name Meyers written on the packet. 

The Brann family

William Edward Brann (born in 1891) married Leah Elsie Durham  (born in 1897) in 1927. They had three children Marjorie, Donald (died in 1931, aged 13 months) and Geoffrey. The Electoral Rolls show they lived at 66 Mills Street, Hampton from 1928 until 1936, when they moved to Bonny Dell. The first advertisment I can find of the Branns at Bonny Dell is the one from September 1936, at the top of this post.  The Branns were at Bonny Dell until 1954, when they sold Bonny Dell and moved to England.

Fern Tree Gully & District Times, July 29, 1954 

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264223314

However, at some time they moved back to Victoria as William died here on July 9, 1977. Elsie (as she was known rather than Leah) died on September 5, 1986. They were both cremated at Springvale Cemetery (https://www.smct.org.au/deceased-search)

The Age, July 11, 1977, p. 22 from newspapers.com

The Meyers Family

Apart from little Gordon being born around 1934, I currently have no information about the Meyers family.

Other guests

These are the other guests -  Mr and Mrs Anderson and  daughter

Mr and Mrs McAuley and  daughter

Miss Powell

Mrs Langford

Jean Walker

Mr Sellars

Mr Lynch (Les)

Mr Keith Kemp

Miss P. Futcher

I have discovered that Keith Kemp married Phyllis Margaret Futcher in 1941; they had a son Ronald in October 1942 (see birth notice in The Herald here) and a daughter Barbara in October 1945 (see birth notice in The Age, here) and also a son Geoff. Phyllis (born in 1918) died in 2010.

https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/death-notices/kemp-phyllis-margaret/3787459/

This is all I know at the moment about the other guests.