Bacchus Marsh & District Historical Society Inc. | Community

Bacchus Marsh & District Historical Society Inc.

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24.01.2022 GSV December Events All classes are via Zoom in Australia Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) For access, please register on our web page: https://www.gsv.org.au/civi...crm/event/list?reset=1 DNA Genetic Genealogy Study Group 1 Dec 2020, 10:00 - 12:00 Discussion Circle GSV library catalogue & databases 1 Dec 2020, 13:30 - 14:30 Class GSV Writers Discussion Circle 2 Dec 2020, 12:30 - 14:30 John Marshall, shipowner and Lloyd's agent, and immigration to Victoria before the Gold Rushes 3 Dec 2020, 10:30 - 11:30 Talk Scottish Ancestry Group Quarterly Meeting 5 Dec 2020, 11:00 - 12:30 GSV Volunteers Thank You Get-together 7 Dec 2020, 10:30 - 12:00 Special Event DNA Painter (Part 2) 8 Dec 2020, 11:00 - 12:30 Talk Counties of Northern England Discussion Circle 8 Dec 2020, 13:00 - 14:00 National and State Archives in Australia 10 Dec 2020, 13:30 - 14:30 Class South West England Research, covering Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset (SWERD) 11 Dec 2020, 13:00 - 14:30 Discussion Circle Introduction to the Society, and our resources 12 Dec 2020, 9:30 - 10:30 Orientation Starting Family History 12 Dec 2020, 11:00 - 12:30 Class

24.01.2022 The Bacchus Marsh Agricultural Society and Pastoral Society 1893. Front Row: C. Crisp (Bacchus Marsh Express), P. McCormack, W. Jeffrey, T. Cain, J.P. (President) W.S. Harkness, J.P, F. Howe (Secretary) Second Row: G. Bence, A.S. McDonald, W.H. McFarlane, N. Cosgrove, R. Flagg Third Row: P. McGrath, E.A. Porter, M. Griffin, A.C. Simon. Back Row: G. Burnip, J.P., J. Scott, J. Lodge, M. Cameron, G. Vallance.... Are you related to any of these men? Have you any stories to share about your relative?

23.01.2022 Who were the newspaper boys in Bacchus Marsh?

22.01.2022 Bacchus Marsh 1925.

21.01.2022 Water Wheel at the Rip Van Winkle mine that used to be at the Blackwood Mineral Springs Caravan Park, showing flume up top and mullock heap on the right. Courtesy and copyright Margot Hitchcock, Historian for the Blackwood Historical society.

20.01.2022 Celebrating the Royal Exhibition Building’s 140th anniversary.

19.01.2022 The Bacchus Marsh 1000+ is just the start... Curious about the Bald Hill Activation Project? All access walking trail, art trail, mountain bike trail and more. Check out the full report: https://bit.ly/35YgEcq

19.01.2022 With nominations now open for the 2020 Victorian Museums and Galleries Awards we reflect on previous winners. Each week we are celebrating our award alumni and ...sharing what impressed our judges. This week: 2019 Winner of the Archival Survival Award for Small Museums (2-7 Paid Staff) City Gallery for Emblazon: Melbourne's coat of arms. The judges awarded City Gallery for the Emblazon: Melbourne’s coat of Arms exhibition for its innovative approach to presenting the history, development and contemporary viewing of objects in the City of Melbourne’s heritage collection. The judges applauded this exhibition’s stand-out delivery of a traditional subject that engaged with a diverse selection of artists interpreting the subject and achieved excellent visitation and feedback. The judges commented on this weaving together of unusual objects and stories to deliver an exciting project using the City of Melbourne’s collection. Guidelines and nomination forms for the 2020 can be found: https://amagavic.org.au/awards Images: 1+2: Emblazon: Melbourne’s Coat of Arms exhibition documentation 3: Winners accepting their award at the 2019 award ceremony, Image: Simon Fox

17.01.2022 30th SEPTEMBER 1813 . . . On this day, 30th September 1813, the strange coins "holey dollar" and "dump" are circulated in NSW to combat currency shortages. The ...coins "holey dollar" and "dump" were created by punching the centre out of Spanish dollars. The external circle was the "holey dollar" and the punched-out inner circle was the "dump". They were only ever used in New South Wales, Australia, and on Prince Edward Island, Canada. In 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie faced the problem of currency shortages in the young colony of New South Wales. When the British Government sent 10,000 worth of Spanish dollars (40,000 Spanish dollars) to New South Wales, Macquarie took the initiative to create "holey dollars" and "dumps". The dumps were assigned a value of 15 pence and were restruck with a crown on the obverse side and the denomination on the reverse. The dollars were worth 5 shillings and were stamped with "New South Wales 1813" around the hole. The coins were released on 30 September 1813. The holey dollar became the first official currency produced specifically for circulation in Australia. There are estimated to be around 350 Holey dollars and 1500 dumps still in circulation today. The coins were replaced by sterling coinage from 1822. Pictured: Holey dollars and dumps, Silver, Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952, DN/C 455-637 #australianhistory #sharinghistory #rtpa See more

16.01.2022 For educated middle-class women in nineteenth-century Britain, options were limited. Some of these ladies, not content to settle for married life or the drudger...y of housekeeping, forged a different pathas governesses to wild colonial boys and girls on the other side of the world! Often fluent in multiple languages, skilled artists and musicians, the women came with great expectations. Some gained employment with well-established families or as teachers, some found husbands, while others battled extreme loneliness, poverty and disillusionment. Discover the stories of these intrepid women in our new NLA Publishing book ‘Great Expectations: Emigrant Governesses in Colonial Australia’: https://bit.ly/32rTlGv. #NLAPublishing bit.ly/3lHoDQN

15.01.2022 DARLEY ARMY CAMP 80th ANNIVERSARY INTERVIEWS, LETTERS and ARTICLES 2020 Each interview, letter or article is a snapshot of a particular time in history. A process of recording and preserving memories of people in their own words....Continue reading

14.01.2022 28th SEPTEMBER 1861 . . . On this day, 28th September 1861, the cache buried beneath the 'Dig' Tree, revealing the notes and journals of Burke and Wills, is dug... up by Howitt's rescue party. Burke and Wills, with a huge party of men and supplies, departed Melbourne in August 1860 to cross Australia to the north coast and back. Burke, being impatient and anxious to complete the crossing as quickly as possible, split the expedition at Menindee. He moved on ahead to establish a depot at Cooper Creek, leaving William Wright in command of the Menindee depot. Splitting his party yet again at Cooper Creek, Burke chose to make a dash to the Gulf in the heat of Summer with Wills, Gray and King. He left stockman William Brahe in charge with instructions that if the party did not return in three months, Brahe was to return to Menindee. The trek to the Gulf and back took over four months, and during that time Gray died. A full day was spent in burying his body. When Burke returned to Cooper Creek, he discovered lettering freshly blazed on the coolibah tree at the depot, giving instructions to dig for the supplies Brahe had left. Thus the name 'Dig' Tree was spawned. When Burke left the Dig tree to try to reach the police station at Mt Hopeless, 240km away, he failed to leave further messages emblazoned on the Dig Tree. Thus, when Brahe and Wright returned to check the depot, they found no evidence of Burke's return and saw no need to dig up the cache beneath the tree. Believing Burke and Wills were lost, a rescue expedition was organised in Melbourne. Headed up by Alfred Howitt, the rescue party reached the Dig tree in September 1861. Finding no sign of Burke and Wills, the men moved downstream. It was there that they found King, the only survivor, who was able to tell how Burke and Wills had died six weeks earlier. On 28 September 1861, Howitt dug up the cache beneath the Dig Tree and found the evidence which could have saved Burke and Wills. Had the cache been dug up earlier, Burke and Wills' movements could have been tracked and the tragedy avoided. A Royal Commission into the failed expedition laid the blame on Burke for splitting the expedition party, on Wright for not moving from Menindee more quickly and opening the cache, and on the exploration committee for not acting sooner to rescue Burke and Wills. Pictured: John Longstaff, Arrival of Burke, Wills and King at the deserted camp at Cooper’s Creek, Sunday evening, 21st April 1861, oil on canvas, 1907. National Gallery of Victoria. Courtesy: Wikimedia. #australianhistory #australianexplorers #explorers #queensland #queenslandhistory #sharinghistory #rtpa

13.01.2022 Would you like to know who this lady is? It’s Mrs Daly (Val Dickson’s mother) For those who guessed it is at the Avenue Bowling Club- well done. Check out the background it was called Clarke St- now Candeloro St. Thanks to Cathy Pevitt for sharing the photos.

12.01.2022 Forty Five years ago.

11.01.2022 On this day, 29th November 1948, Australian Prime minister Ben Chifley launches the first mass-produced Australian car, the Holden FX. "Made in Australia, For A...ustralia". These are the words spoken by Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley when he launched the Holden FX on 29 November 1948. The real name of the Holden FX is 48/215. '48 was the year it started production, and 215 indicated a Standard Sedan. The name "FX" originated as an unofficial designation within Holden after 1953, and was a reference to the updated suspension of that year. The Holden company began as 'J.A. Holden & Co', a saddlery business in 1856, and moved into car production in 1908. By 1926, Holden had an assembly plant in each of Australia's mainland states, but due to the repercussions of the great Depression, production fell dramatically, from 34,000 units annually in 1930 to just 1,651 units in 1931. In that year, it became a subsidiary of the US-based General Motors (GM). Post-World War II Australia was a time when only one in eight people owned an automobile, and many of these were American styled cars. Prior to the close of World War II, the Australian Government put into place initiatives to encourage an Australian automotive industry. Both GM and Ford responded to the government, making proposals for the production of the first Australian designed car. Although Ford's outline was preferred by the government, the Holden proposal required less financial assistance. Holden's managing director, Laurence Hartnett, wished to develop a local design, but GM wanted an American design. Compromises were made, and the final design was based on a previously rejected post-war proposed Chevrolet. Thus, in 1948, the Holden was launched - the first mass-produced Australian car. Although the automobile's official designation was the 48/215, it was marketed as the "Holden". This was to honour Sir Edward Holden, the company's first chairman and grandson of J.A. Holden, who established the original Holden saddlery. Other names that were considered included the 'Austral', 'Woomerah', 'Boomerang', 'Melba', 'GeM', 'Emu' and even the 'Canbra', a name derived from Australia's capital city. The original retail price was AU760. Pictured: Prime Minister Ben Chifley at the launch of the first Holden car. National Archives of Australia.

11.01.2022 Ingliston, Victoria, 1939 Two railway gangers posed on their ganger's trolley. There is a goods truck and a platform in the background. A ramp, possibly a stock ramp, is positioned beside the railway line. Who are these two gents?

11.01.2022 Who knew this? The original meaning of a deck of playing cards: - 52 cards for 52 weeks in the year. - 2 colours for day and night... - 4 suits for the 4 seasons and 13 weeks per season. - Twelve court cards representing the 12 months. If we add each of the cards (ace + ace + ace + ace + two + two + three + seven + eight ... and etc) of the game we will get 364. The card game is an agricultural calendar that told us about the weeks and the seasons. With each new season, it was King's week, followed by Queen's week, Jack's and so on until AS week changed seasons and we started over with a new colour. Jokers were used in leap years. See more

10.01.2022 How some of the suburbs in Victoria’s capital city got their name!

10.01.2022 On This Day: Sunday, November 29, 1970. : Recreated goldfields town, Sovereign Hill in Victoria, is officially opened. In August 1851, the Australian sta...te of Victoria had its first gold strike at Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, in the same month it gained its independence from the NSW colony. While the Ballarat goldfields were rich and promising, the real goldrush began when gold was discovered at Mt Alexander, 60km northeast of Ballarat, and close to the town of Bendigo. Nowadays, Sovereign Hill offers a re-creation of life on the goldfields and in a goldmining town. Officially opened on 29 November 1970, Sovereign Hill is an interactive outdoor museum which covers some 25 hectares on the southern outskirts of Ballarat. The town has been recreated with historic authenticity, complete with antiques, confectionery and foods, machinery, books, documents, livestock and other animals, carriages and other transport, all appropriate to the 1850s goldrush era. Visitors to the site can pan for alluvial gold, which can still be found in Sovereign Hill's Red Hill Gully Creek. Photos: S.Hill

08.01.2022 What can you see in this 1936 aerial photo of Bacchus Marsh? Can you see your house? Please add a comment, would love to hear from you.

07.01.2022 Where has this photo been taken from?

07.01.2022 Here are two photos of 'Wicks Hamburger Shop' Main St Bacchus Marsh. It was spoken of in last Satuday's post in Allan Comrie's interview regarding the Darley Military Camp. Many thanks to Elizabeth Wick for sharing these photos.

07.01.2022 GSV October Events using Zoom. Please register on the website: https://www.gsv.org.au/civicrm/event/list?reset=1 Internet for genealogy 1 Oct 2020, 13:30 - 14...:30 Class DNA Genetic Genealogy Study Group 6 Oct 2020, 10:00 - 12:00 Discussion Circle GSV library catalogue & databases - FULLY BOOKED 6 Oct 2020, 13:30 - 14:30 Class GSV Writers Discussion Circle 7 Oct 2020, 12:30 - 14:30 National and State Archives in Australia 8 Oct 2020, 13:30 -14:30 Class South West England Research, covering Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset (SWERD) 9 Oct 2020, 13:00 - 14:30 Discussion Circle DNA: Ancestry's Thrulines 13 Oct 2020, 11:00 - 12:30 Talk Counties of Northern England Discussion Circle 13 Oct 2020, 13:00 - 14:00 Scottish Research Assistance 15 Oct 2020, 10:30 - 16:00 Library Assistance Victoria and Tasmania Discussion Circle 16 Oct 2020, 13:30 - 15:00 Introduction to the Society, and our resources 17 Oct 2020, 9:30 - 10:30 Orientation Starting Family History 17 Oct 2020, 11:00 - 12:30 Class The Good Oil - Managing Digital Images and Files 20 Oct 2020, 13:30 - 15:00 Talk Australian Births, Deaths and Marriages Online 21 Oct 2020, 13:30 - 14:30 Class London Research Discussion Circle 22 Oct 2020, 10:30 - 11:30 FamilySearch 22 Oct 2020, 13:30 - 14:30 Class ScotlandsPeople Website 27 Oct 2020, 11:00 - 12:00 Class Finding More DNA Matches 27 Oct 2020, 14:00 - 15:30 Talk Irish Research Assistance - Online 28 Oct 2020, 14:00 - 15:30 Library Assistance

05.01.2022 Here is a comparison view of 1936 aerial post below, from Google maps today. Thanks to Darren Rogers.

05.01.2022 The Ballarat Research Hub at Eureka (BRHAE) has reopened from Monday to Thursday. Access to BRHAE will be delivered through pre-booked, two hour visits at 10am ...and 1pm. These sessions be limited to three people in the main research library and two people in the Ballarat Archives Centre’s Joan Hunt Reading Room. To pre-book your visit for any of these sessions, please go to the Eureka Centre website: https://www.eurekacentreballarat.com.au/ For booking assistance and information, please phone 5333 0333. BRHAE provides the combined resources and services of the City of Ballarat Australiana Research Collection, the Public Record Office Victoria’s Ballarat Archives Centre and the Ballarat and Genealogical Society Inc. BDGS members will also have one hour of exclusive access to BRHAE each afternoon from 3.30pm to 4.30pm. Access will be limited to three members per session and pre-booking via the Eureka Centre website is required. To ensure a COVID-safe environment is maintained, the on-duty librarian will be present to facilitate access. Free browsing of resources cannot occur. BDGS members will have the opportunity to book into the 10am and 1pm BRHAE sessions and may request access to BDGS resources through the on-duty librarian. BDGS members are asked to be patient and judicious when making resource requests to assist the on-duty the librarian in the efficient maintenance of a COVID-safe environment. Conditions of entry apply and access to technology and materials will be facilitated in line with restictions

04.01.2022 We congratulate Moorabool's new Mayor, just elected for a one year term at our Statutory meeting tonight, Cr Tom Sullivan. Congratulations also to our elected deputy Mayor, Cr Rod Ward.

04.01.2022 Who can identify with this ......

04.01.2022 Railway Guard, Ingliston, Victoria, 1939. Would anyone know the mans name please?

02.01.2022 Today is Love your Bookshop Day! The Love Your Bookshop Day celebrations are initiatives designed to celebrate bookshops across the country and highlight what m...akes local bookshops great. While it's originally designed to encourage people to visit their local bricks and mortar bookshop, us Melburnian's will have to make do with online visits for the time being https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/bookshop/ If you've never visited our online bookshop, treat yourself! We have loads of categories, amazing new titles, self published books, big glossy books, niche family history books, award winning books, controversial books, funny books, all focussed on celebrating history in all its forms! As a specialist retailer focusing on Victorian History and Australian History books, we're so grateful to all our history loving customers who have kept us very busy this lockdown, sending out all your orders and sourcing exciting new titles! We can't wait to welcome everyone back into our physical bookshop once lockdown restrictions have eased - we all know there is nothing better than a good bookshop browse! #loveyourbookshopday #LYBD2020

02.01.2022 On this day- 28th September 1946- Maddingley Brown Coal Pty Ltd, reported they have purchased Mr T. Gaynor’s property in Maddingley which will allow years of open-cut excavating.

02.01.2022 There are many lonely graves on properties from the time before the Melton cemetery opened in 1861. However the best known is the forgotten girl who sleeps in ...the wooded folds of the Green Hills at Toolern Vale. Although the person whose remains lie in the grave is thought to have been a young woman who died in the 1840s, her identity remains a mystery. The oldest and most enduring story is that it contains the remains of Ellen Batman, daughter of John Batman; another that it was a governess, perhaps a Miss Bateman, who pined away waiting for her sailor love to return. Yet another that it was Miss Collier, a friend or relative of an early station owner who died of a lingering illness. The traditional belief is that this grave contains the remains of Ellen Batman one of the seven daughters of John Batman, a notorious and divisive personality in the history of Victoria. The hillside and valley were a favourite location of hers, and one that she often painted. Three of the daughters, Eliza, Adelaide and Ellen ended up in Toolern Vale at the properties of John Aitken and the Collyer brothers and Ellen died at Greenhills Station in 1851. Their mother was murdered in Geelong in 1852. In the 1920s there was a debate in the Herald newspaper about who lay there. John Gilby thought with some confidence that, is that of a young governess at the station probably sometime in the forties. She had a sailor lover with whom on his visits to the station she used to walk often across the green hillside. He went away to sea for just one more trip and was not heard of again. The young lady waited long in vain for her lover’s return. Before her death she expressed an earnest desire to be buried there. Herald journalist James Corrigan suggested that the grave belonged to Miss Collier, who was a friend (and perhaps a relative) of a family named Macintosh who owned Green Hills station . Miss Collier contracted a lingering illness, and it was her request to be buried there. Mrs Macintosh was a relative of John Batman. Corrigan added a further poignant touch: I have seen graves on sandhills in Western Riverina, and of those who died out west of the Darling. I have seen tombstones huddled together at St Pancras almost in the heart of London. I have seen bodies stitched in canvass go down to the depths of the sea. But perhaps the most lonesome grave of all is that of the forgotten girl who sleeps in the wooded folds of the Green Hills. Station owners, while not knowing the name of the person buried there, always kept the grave in repair. It is a tradition that was continued when the Melton District Historical Society Inc repaired the grave fence in the early 1970s. We may never know for sure who the grave belongs to but we do know that ‘women without means’, in colonial society faced many difficulties. If you're interested in hearing local stories from our past join our Virtual Tour of Melton Cemetery on 27 October at 10am http://bit.ly/MeltonCemeteryTour Public Libraries Victoria #librarieschangelives

02.01.2022 DARLEY ARMY CAMP 80th ANNIVERSARY INTERVIEWS 2020 Each interview is a snapshot of a particular time in history. A process of recording and preserving memories of people in their own words.... John Hannah I was born in 1938, so I was only a 2 years old in 1940 when the Darley Army Camp was built, but I do recall a few events as I grew older. We lived in Dickson Street and at that time we had an uninterrupted view across the paddocks out to the Lerderderg Gorge and Ranges. There were no houses or large buildings blocking our view like there is today. We used to sit out the back and watch the red flash from the blast of the field guns during firing practice at the Camp. You could hear the crack of the blast reverberate around the hills. When we heard the Military band and the marching soldiers coming along Gisborne Road, we used to run up to the corner of our street and watch with amazement the show that was before us. Dad built an air-raid shelter in the backyard. It was a very simple structure. He just dug a hole, covered the top with logs to make the roof and then covered the logs with the dirt from the hole. I don’t recall if it was stocked with provisions or not, but we did have a peach tree growing next to it in the backyard. I did read a story from an old Express Newspaper where a thousand pound bomb being transported up to the Bomb Dump (RAAF Ammunition Store Area) in the Pentland Hills, slipped off the low tray trailer of a truck on the corner of Grant Street and Main Street. The streets had to be blocked off to all traffic and pedestrians until a crane and pulley arrived in town to lift the bomb back onto the tray.