1900s - Culla Hill painting

In the early 1900s, Mary Sweeney commissioned travelling painter Charles Bertie to paint the Culla Hill homestead. She took this painting with her when she married Michael Carrucan in 1910 and it hung in the Dalton St farmhouse for many years. In the 1960s, the Burstons (the then owners of Culla Hill) had a card printed from the painting. This copy of the card has been given to me by Peter Cuffley.
This painting was thought by the family to have been lost but it has now come to light that the painting was donated to the Shire of Eltham in 1970 when there was a community callout for historical contributions to the Shire's centenary history project.
The very fragile original was kept in the Council strongroom and suffered significant damage to its edges over the years. It has also yellowed and lost its frame.
A comparison of the original when it was digitised in 2022 with the negative taken 50 years earlier reveals that the left 20% of the sketch has been cut off, probably due to damage.
The Shire of Nillumbik gave EDHS the Shire of Eltham archives in 2004 but the sketch was not part of that listing. EDHS probably received it after that time.