Mills At Erwen Station

When the railway line was extended to Colbinabbin in 1914, wood mills were opened up at stations on the line.  The station at Moora was known as the Erwen station, just up Geodetic Rd North from the present day settlement of Moora.  There were mills there, as well as at Wanalta and Colbinabbin stations.

Perhaps the best known of the sawmillers at Erwen station were the Curtis family.  The Curtis family had its origins in Kent, England.  Progenitor of this branch of the family, Peter Curtis came out to Tasmania as a free immigrant in 1842.  He was listed on the shipping record as a seventeen year old farm servant.  He later moved to Victoria where he was married in 1852.  Two of his grandsons, who were born in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, came up to Rushworth around 1900.

Curtis Family

In 1903, the Curtis boys bought the woodmill of Henry Campbell at the Rushworth railway station.  Campbell had been operating the mill there since 1892, one of the earliest millers to do so.1

The Curtis family began sawmilling operations at Erwen station late in the First World War.  In 1917, the Hicks Bros, who were from Broadford, sold their mill at the station and “two paddocks of wood” to Edwin William (Will) Curtis.  Will was politically active in gaining a 200m extension to the siding at Erwen in the same year.

As well as the mill at Erwen, members of the Curtis family had a mill at the Rushworth railway station.  Both Will and his brother Albert Ernest “Ern” Curtis both held permits for wood mills there at various times.  They also operated their business/es at Wanalta and Colbinabbin stations.

The Curtis Bros were apparently in partnership for 21 years (1903-24), before mutually dissolving the partnership and each continuing to operate in the timber industry in their own right.  Earlier, they had also run wood mills at Youanmite and Yabba North, small settlements north of Shepparton, as the land was being cleared for closer settlement.  They supplied their brother Walter, who was a wood merchant in Northcote.

Ern Curtis

Ern married Ruby Lester in 1914, but they did not have any children.  Apart from his business interests he was very much involved in the Jubilee (Masonic) Lodge and the Ancient Order of Foresters.  He also attended St Paul’s Church of England, where he was a vestryman. 

As a result of his efforts for the Annual Wood Day, he was awarded a Life Governorship of Mooroopna Hospital – equivalent to a Life Membership of a community organisation today.

His funeral was reputedly “one of the largest seen in the town”2 and after the church service at St Paul’s, proceeded down High Street then up to the cemetery.  The coffin bearers were several of Ern’s fellow vestrymen – T J Coyle, J L Ralph, E F Lyndon and J C Smith, as well as W Laurie and W B Heily.

Will Curtis

Will and his wife Lucy Florence (nee Muhlhan) were the parents of some of the boys who excelled in the great Rushworth football teams of the 1930s, particularly Gordon and Chas.  The Muhlhan family ran the Rushworth Chronicle for many years.

Like his brother, Will was active in the lodge and St Paul’s Church of England, as well as other community organisations like the Rushworth Waterworks Trust, sporting clubs, the reception committee for the 1928 Back-To, the Rushworth Woodcutters’ Association and the picture theatre (at the Shire Hall).  

He was also appointed a JP, which meant he sometimes sat as a magistrate or coroner.  Amongst his other business interests, he was a director of the Rushworth Printing Coy Ltd until late in life.  He was very interested in the Annual Wood Day and for a time was the president of the Mooroopna Hospital Wood Day Committee.  Like Ern, he received Life Governorship of the hospital because of his work for this committee.   

Will and Lucy had seven children – six boys and a girl.  They had moved to Melbourne in the late 1930s but retained a strong interest in Rushworth and district.  Sadly, one of their sons, Stanley Noel Curtis, was killed in World War 2 when serving in the RAAF as a tail gunner in a Wellington bomber.

At the time of his own death, Will was still actively involved in the timber milling game as well as successfully farming around 1800 acres of land.

References:  1  Cerchi, Samantha, summary from Waranga Shire rate books 1891-1904; 2  Rushworth Chroni-cle 6.4.1934; Other – Ancestry, Victoria BDM websites