CONTENTS
Introduction iii. Acknowledgments iv. The squatters p1. A town is born p4. The 1870s and closer settlement p8. Wooroonook p10. The Bark Hut School 1875 p11. Charlton township grows p13. The Railway 1883 p16. Charlton becomes a Shire [local government] p18. Charlton at the turn of the century p20. Charlton’s early medical history p23. Growth period 1908-1910 p25. 1909 flood and fire p27. 1911 electric light and telephones p28. Secondary education for Charlton [Charlton Higher Elementary School] p30. Town progress 1912 p31. 1914 hail storm p33. A war to end all wars [World War One] p34. The home front p36. Peace and the influenza epidemic p38. Post-war progress p39. A new bridge p41. Back to Charlton celebrations 1923 p42. The boom years of the twenties [1920s] p43. The Depression p46. Storms hamper farmer’s recovery 1933-34 p49. The slow recovery p51. The new Bush Nursing Hospital p53. Charlton holds a ‘back to’ (1938) and gains a theatre and a radio station p53. 1939 Charlton faces another war [World War Two] p54. The war years in Charlton p58. A health centre and a high school – almost p60. Peace, and a steady return to prosperity p62. 1946: the changing face of High Street p64. Golf p68. Post war progress p70. The Mill fire and Charlton is nearly ‘top town’ p71. Sport in Charlton p73. The fifties [1950s]: a time for planning p82. New municipal offices at last p85. Town development in the sixties [1960s] p90. Charlton’s service organizations p97. Centenary celebrations p100. Summer storms of the seventies [1970s] p102. North Central Technical Centre [TAFE] p105. High Street’s diminishing shops p107. Football Hall of Fame p111. The plight of the farmers p115. Local industries p118. A new weir and an aerodrome p121. Recent celebrations p124. Municipal changes [local government] p127. Charlton personalities p129. Epilogue p133.