Fry’s Flat, Howqua Hills photographed in about 1890. Jim Fry (worked at Wonnangatta) and his wife, Mary Agnes Wheeler, moved into this house (bottom right hand corner) 1898 when he went fossicking for gold. The house was originally the mine manager’s house belonging to The Great Rand Mine. Their children, Mary Jane (Pat Arbuthnot’s mother), Frederick James and Patricia Catherine (died about 2 years of age – buried at Jamieson Cemetery) lived with them. The children rode ponies into Merrijig school. The family spent their whole lives at Howqua Hills. When Mary Agnes died in 1939, Frederick Stephen (a nephew of Jim Fry) moved into the house. James Barclay lived for a while in the cottage in the middle ground by himself. He married Lizzie Cantieni and it is not known whether he continued to live in the hut. (This is not Fry’s hut.)