Up with The Times

A great Christmas present for the local community.
After anticipating this milestone for a couple of years, the time has finally come -
The Horsham Times newspaper is now on the historic Australian Digitised Newspapers site.
More than six million historical Australian newspaper pages have been digitised, indexed and are now fully searchable on the National Library of Australia's TROVE site.
The aim of the Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program is to provide a range of metropolitan and regional newspapers from across Australia. The newspapers have to have been microfilmed, as it is the film which is digitised, and to have been originally published prior to 1955 (copyright provisions still exist for material published from 1955 onwards).

The 'Ararat Advertiser' undergoing quality assurance

The process uses a master copy of the microfilm which is scanned by a contracting firm. Each newspaper page image is then quality assured by real humans (a time consuming and repetitive operation) and then sent to an OCR Optical Character Recognition contractor, this is the action which makes the image content searchable, and truly useful.

Major newspapers have been available for some time, and checking The Argus has found a whole range of local information which made the national news, but now with The Times so much more is available. The digitised copies cover the period from  Tuesday 17th January 1882 to Wednesday 30th December 1953.

The first digitised issue - Tuesday 17 January 1882

The front page on Friday 13th in 1950 has the library article - "Free Library To Open Soon The City Council hopes to be able to open the Horsham Free Library soon. At the council meeting on Tuesday night, Cr. T. Conroy reported that good progress was being made with the work at the library. It was hoped to have the library open soon. When asked by the Mayor (Cr. Bennett) for an opening date, Cr. Conroy said that he was unable to set a date." 
This relates when the City Council took over the existing subscription library (free being the costs were to be financed from rate revenue and all residents could use the library), and closed the Mechanics Institute building for extensions and renovations.
This new resource is going to be a great boon to both family researchers and local historians. The Horsham Times section is at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/title/225 
Check it out for yourself

Front page, Friday 13 October 1950

A lesson in teaching

Have been collating information on the local schools, chiefly from "Vision & Realisation" (the history of state education in Victoria), and have come across all sorts of snippets of information and have found a new appreciation of the trials and tribulations for the children and teachers in some of those rural schools.

from Victorian Government Gazette 15 May 1885

The best one so far concerns the Boyeo school -

Boyeo School No. 2577 (formerly Tarranginnie North became Boyeo in 1888) opened in February 1884 in a temporary building with an iron roof, timber floor, 2 doors & 1 window built by selectors, on Patterson’s selection. A 2 acre site was gazetted 15.5.1885, near the southeast corner of a block largely taken up by a large swamp. In 1885 the Department erected a timber building with an attached four-room residence. An underground tank was provided in 1887. In 1898 permission was given to construct an underground room to combat the excessive heat. By 1910 in an unusually wetter year, the school was completely surrounded by water. Children arrived in boats or waded knee-deep (the school closed from September until January). It finally closed in February 1944. 

This is essentially the published article submitted by Joan Pickering. Fortunately the Library also has her book "Tarranginnie Schools" which has a section devoted to the Boyeo school.

The swamp - interesting to park a school near it - in 1909 the teacher Janet McVicar found "the school is almost surrounded by a swamp and the flies and other insects are often so troublesome that the children have to work in a state of torment", she was requesting a wire door & wire windows.

The flood of August 1910 led to the school becoming an island, some parents refused to send their children till the water receded. A month later the school closed when the water rose to cover the schoolhouse floor, entered the outlet pipe of the underground tank, polluting it. The water fell at the end of the year, but rose again with February rains. There were several attempts to shift the school but with no agreement, it remained perched on the edge of the swamp.

The Boyeo Swamp with the school site circled

At the other extreme - The underground room was requested by the teacher Thomas Posser as his wife and child had found the heat so intense he had been obliged to send them away to Western Port. He proposed to excavate 8' square by 6' deep with wooden steps leading down, a roof of iron with hessian beneath, with a draught pipe, and whitewashed walls. The Department did not object, provided he filled the hole in should he cease teaching at the school.

Boyeo School in the late 1880s

Like many other small schools Boyeo suffered from bouts of measles, whooping cough and scarletina. The children (with assistance) tended a school garden and trees for Arbor Days (they won the prize for best garden). And finally like most rural schools it succumbed to declining attendance and closed in 1944, and the school building was sold at auction in Kaniva.

Must-Read Histories

What are the indispensable works of Australian history? 

Which titles do our leading historians and writers nominate as the history books we should all read and know? Manning Clark’s A history of Australia or Robert Hughes’ The Fatal Shore? Anne Summers' Damned whores and God’s police or Henry Reynolds’ Why weren’t we told? Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country or Tim Flannery’s The Future eaters?

Which works of art most acutely reveal the Australian experience? Does Peter Carey’s novel The true history of the Kelly Gang evoke the Kelly story better than any history? Is Kate Grenville’s The Secret River a better evocation of first contact in Australia than Inga Clendinnen’s Dancing with strangers? 

Books, monographs, plays, novels, even films and poetry, are all up for discussion as the nation’s leading historians outline and debate their choices for the must-read texts on Australian history.

6:15pm - 7:15pm, Tuesday 29 November 2011 at The Wheeler Centre

This is a free event. Bookings recommended: http://wheelercentre.com/

Why history is important

Making Public Histories Seminar: Why is history important?

In celebration of 20 years of the Professional Historians Assoc (Vic) this year, PHA (Vic) is hosting a Making Public Histories seminar on ‘Why is history important? And what do professional  historians have to give?’ The session will be a series of short presentations from PHA (Vic) members discussing their work and how it reflects the continuing importance of history in our community. 

This will be followed by a panel discussion addressing a number of questions facing the profession: How does technology impact on the historian’s role? What sort of histories will we be writing? Will we still be writing? What is the future of history? So get in early and book your place for what will no doubt be a thought provoking way of celebrating 20 years of professional historians.

 

Date: 5:30pm - 7:00pm on Thursday 10 November 2011 

@ State Library of Victoria’s Village Roadshow Theatrette, Entry 3 on La Trobe Street

Cost: Free

Bookings: with the State Library

ebook history

Digital Book Index provides links to more than 165,000 full-text digital books from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available for free.

About one tenth of the Index are History volumes, with an emphasis on North American history, but including English & Irish history, European, (ancient, medieval, & Renaissance texts through World War I & II), Latin American, Middle-Eastern, Asian, & African history, as well as military history and the history of science, medicine, & technology. Local & regional history are organised by states & regions. There are more than 1000 historical documents arranged in chronological order.

For Australia, search History & Area Studies - Australia where you'll find a mix of early explorers journals (Cook, Banks, Eyre, Kennedy, Sturt etc), a number on politics (Constitution, Federation etc), and some historic gems such as CEW Bean's "On the wool track", Rolf Bolderwood's "Shearing in the Riverina, and "Handbook to Victoria (Australia), a short description of the colony, its productions, manufactures, & capabilities, especially with regard to its new agricultural industries and settlement on the land" from the Paris Exhibition in 1877. What is also interesting about this item is its provenance, coming from the collection of the University of California.

With History Week next week, it may be just the time to use modern resources like ebook readers to check out some ancient history.

Stick Shed was Big

The Stick Shed opening during Murtoa's Big Weekend was a huge success with more than 1,250 people taking the opportunity to go inside. Unfortunately if you couldn't visit on the 2nd October, you need to wait till next year, as the site is again closed to the public - mark it in your diaries! 

The Stick Shed exterior

The roof and walls of the Stick Shed are made of corrugated iron painted ferric red, the floor is a concrete slab, and a three metre wooden bulkhead runs along either side. The roof angle reflects ‘the natural angle of repose’ of stacked bulk grain.

Mapping your history

Family History with Maps at the State Library of Victoria on Tuesday 11th October 2-3pm. It is a free event but bookings are required. Attendees are to meet in the Library's grand front foyer.

The State Library has a large impressive collection of historic maps (over 110,000 maps – enough to carpet metropolitan Melbourne). Victoria is divided into administrative districts - counties, parishes and townships. The maps of these districts record the transfer of land from government to private ownership, each plan shows the boundaries of occupied, reserved or privately owned land, the names of first grantees, and the purchase dates.
 Parish plans provide an indication of the size and shape of local settlements and the location of major buildings, roads, railways and other built structures, as well as natural features such as rivers, lakes and mountains. They sometimes include notes on local vegetation types, and even the quality and colour of local soils. They may also show the location of houses, businesses, schools, churches and other local landmarks.The State Library has around 8500 country, parish and township plans, produced between 1837 and 1986.
Learn about the map resources in the State Library's collection, and how you can use them to enrich your family and local history research.

Big Weekend

Murtoa's Big Weekend is coming up on 1st & 2nd October.

The highlight will undoubtedly be the iconic Stick Shed.

The unique structure has been stabilised and is now deemed safe to allow the public access to the interior again.

The entire shed will be open on Sunday, and members of the public will be free to wander amongst the full extent of the vast area of bush-cut mountain ash poles.

Technically the weekend kicks off with the 127th Murtoa Show, the Art Exhibition and the Gala Opening of the Weekend on the Friday.

Other attractions of the Big Weekend include the Monster Street Market, and the Saturday night "film" movies.
On Sunday its the running of the Murtoa Cup, the Writers Breakfast, and Poets by the Pier, and of course the opening of the Stick Shed from 10am to 4pm.
On both days there are the Dunmunkle Sumpoiler's vintage rally at the Inland Freezing Works, and the Water Tower Museum & Concordia College which is showing the "Shearing of the rams" DVD.

Money for history

The Local History Grants Program provides grants of up to $12,000 to community organisations to support the cost of any project that preserves, records or publishes Victorian local history. The program is administered by Public Record Office Victoria and will distribute $350,000 to projects in the 2011-12 financial year.

Applications are now open and close on Friday 11 November 2011.

A free information session about the Grants program and the application process will be held at the Public Records Office/Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel St North Melbourne at 10am on Wednesday 14 September 2011. Bookings are not necessary.

  http://prov.vic.gov.au/community-programs/grants-awards/local-history-grants

Where in the world

I am currently working on a list of place-names within the Library's catchment area.
This list which includes names, meanings, locations, schools, pastoral runs...
Currently the word count has reached 30,510 words covering nearly 60 pages of text.

A picture emerges of interesting facts, i.e. proving the importance of water in settling this area - Jess's Tank, Cronomby Tanks (the original name for Woomelang) in the arid north of the region, or wells on outstations in the west at Boyeo, Ni Ni, or Propodollah; the evidence of Aboriginal origins in most of the names of places and features; and the disappearance of some locations especially the gold-mining localities around St Arnaud and Stawell - Diamond Hill, Gap Gully, & Tellow Streak. The list will ultimately become available as one of the digital assets on our new website.

Bridges in floods

With news reports on the Dimboola Weir this week, it harks back to the "Still going strong" post in January, when I mentioned a number of wooden bridges. Since then the flood waters have come and gone, and now the roads are open again, We've had our first chance to see the bridges on the lower reaches of the Wimmera River.

Firstly at Jeparit - as seen in the photograph above (2008) and below (2011) not much has changed, despite the township of Jeparit being surrounded by floodwater and the sandbags still on the levee bank. Maybe the corbels on the extreme left have fallen away more, but really it looks remarkably similar.

The Jeparit Bridge was built in 1892 with hewn timber corbels supported by big timber struts. It has seven main trestle and girder spans using strut & crown girder construction.




It was evident from this approach shot ^ of the Tarranyurk Bridge that this one had suffered more than the Jeparit one. It looks as if a chunk has been removed from the upstream side of the roadway. This is a bypassed road bridge west of Tarranyurk on the Tullyvea Road.

Two views of the Tarranyurk Bridge, taken from on the new bridge. In the 2008 photograph, the bowing and buckling of the deck can be seen, and now with the missing trestle the bending is more pronounced.





From under the deck, you can see the reason why the bridge fell in.

The March 2008 photograph shows that the right-hand support had already rotted through and was misaligned, and the one next to it was also extremely worn at the straight beam level.

The 2011 photo was taken from a different spot due to the higher water level and is a span further away. You can see the light coming through from the missing deck area.






At Antwerp the bypassed timber road-bridge on the Antwerp-Woorak Road, was already missing a roadway span, as evident in the 2008 picture.

This probably helped lead to the partial collapse of that section as the trestles have given way and now lean into the river, and the roadway bitumen has separated and dropped several feet from where it met the approach ramp.





A large amount of debris was piled up against the supports on both the new bridge on the upstream side, and the old bridge. The tree trunks still lodged in the old bridge attest to that, and to the height of the river level at the time.

Farm history

"A century of farmyard relics in Australia : 1840-1940" is the latest production by Ken Arnold.

Famous for his earlier books on old bottles, Australian tools, Victorian demijohns and more, Ken has out-done himself with this huge 5 volume epic (over 3,000 pages in total).

Volume 1 covers windmills and water related, grubbers, fencing and strainers, manures, sprays, poisons and bait, rabbit traps, skins, buggies, buggy plates, wagons, carts, blacksmith and wheelwrights. Volume 2: dips and drenches, shearing machines and handpieces, wool presses, caring for animals, saddles, harnesses, collars, cans, milking machines, separators and churns. Volume 3: old stationary portable and traction engines, old tractors, saws and saw benches, chain saws, for the smithy, old tools and spanners, old makers plates and plaques. Volume 4: the machinery manufacturers. Volume 5: machinery manufacturers and machinery agents.

The machinery book mentions many of the local agricultural machinery manufacturers : Beard & Sisson, Ackland, May & Millar, Petschel & Brothers, Promnitz, Petschel, Arthur Wallis, James Elsden, E.F. Gersch, Rawling & Co, Braybook & Dimboola Implement Works, etc.

It is also complemented with advertising bills, and photographs some historic and some taken by Ken at agricultural museums, so photos taken at Patchewollock, Jeparit, Rupanyup and Warracknabeal are dotted through it.

Undisputed heritage

At its June meeting the West Wimmera Shire announced it is currently negotiating a new five-year lease with VicTrack for the Serviceton Railway Station.
VicTrack owns the heritage listed railway station building, which has been managed by the Shire and the Serviceton community. Previously the Shire has employed people on different Works Schemes to assist the local community in maintaining the iconic building.


The town of Serviceton (named after former Victorian Premier - Sir James Service) was gazetted on 1st January 1887. In the early years in had general stores, bakery, butcher, blacksmith, boarding houses and livery stables, temperance hotel, coffee palace and wine bar. It became a major border crossing and an important customs station for goods passing between the colonies of South Australia and Victoria.

A Late Victorian railway station was built in 1887 of red bricks transported from Horsham. The building opened in 1889.
From the front, it had a central two storey symmetrical neo-Classical polychromatic brick station building accommodating former residential functions with flanking office wings.

The ground floor level consists of 15 main rooms, and accommodated toilets, waiting rooms, dining and sitting room, bar and kitchen, offices, lobby and customs office.
The Refreshment Room is 52 feet long with high ceilings, it is still used today for functions.



The extensive underground storage and service area was equipped with a mortuary for bodies being shipped across the border and there is a dungeon lock-up furnished with iron rings fastened to the walls, which was used for criminals captured in the Disputed Area or being held over until the next train, and prisoners who were being transported interstate.

The enormous 70-metre platform with its cast iron posted verandah of standard-design faces the running lines and is the largest example of its type, the platform was the longest in the State, until a portion was removed in the late 1980s.

The outbuilding/staff hostel, van goods shed, lamp room signal box goods shed and platform have all been removed. There were two engine sheds but, with the lack of local water, the original water reservoir for the trains was constructed astride the boundary line.

The Customs Office set up shop in the railway station to ensure duty was paid for goods being taken interstate, but the law was difficult to enforce as the town was in the 'Disputed Territory', a strip of land 4.5 km in width which stretched along the length of the state border between Victoria and South Australia. Serviceton was legally in Victoria in 1913.

The station was closed in 1986, but the Melbourne to Adelaide trains still speed past this unique station each day.

Rainbow on show

"100 years of the Rainbow Show" has been compiled by members of the Rainbow Archive & Historical Society to commemorate the 100th Rainbow Show which occurred on 12th October in 2010.
The book offers a snapshot view of shows over the years, drawing on the extensive records, memorabilia and documents held by the Society, photographs from the "Argus" and contributions from the local community.
Contained in the glossy pages are recollections of local entrants and attendees, a number of colour photographs which really add to the book. It has unusual elements from the normal run of show histories, it includes snippets like cake recipes (still in imperial measurements).

Writing memoirs

Two very different memoirs - Mary Delahunty's Public life, private grief is a love story, a political memoir, a parallel journey into and through grief and loss, going inside State Cabinet and inside the heart. In part, the book deals with the grief of the death of her husband Jock Rankin. A Murtoa girl, she went to Loretto College in Ballarat, then on to Latrobe Uni. Mary is a Gold Walkley award-winning journalist, former ABC-TV presenter and ex-Victorian government minister.
The other is the story of author Rodney Hall's childhood in England during the Second World War, a time that would shape his life in Australia as a writer and musician. Rodney is the author of more than 30 books, and twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award.
Mary Delahunty and Rodney Hall will be 'In Conversation' discussing their own and each other's work. At the Woodend Community Centre on Sunday 12th June from 2.00 to 3.00pm, admission $15 (concession $12).

Gallipoli on foot

Walking the Gallipoli Peninsula : making the most of your visit to the battlefields by Tony Wright.Tony Wright first travelled to Gallipoli with Australian Prime Minister John Howard in 2000. He found himself intrigued by the swelling crowds of mainly young people making the pilgrimage to Anzac Cove. He returned again and again over the decade, shouldering a backpack containing his great-uncle's Gallipoli diary. Along the way he fell in love with Istanbul and the nation of Turkey. He has learned the secrets of both Istabul and the Gallipoli region, and explored underground Cappadocia, while meeting many colourful and memorable characters on his journey.
This book is different from the battlefield guides, it is a travel adventure to inspire you to shoulder your backpack, hop on a flight and follow Tony Wright's footsteps through Turkey and the Gallipoli Peninsula.
If you do want a battlefield guide, you can't go wrong with local authors Pam Cupper & Phil Taylor's "Gallipoli : a battlefield guide".

Dimboola weir

Dimboola's orginal weir on the Wimmera River was a timber structure. In the late 60’s the Rural Water Commission recommended that the existing structure be replaced by a concrete weir. This reconstruction was undertaken in 1975. It saw a number of floods including the 1981 flood.
Then in January this year, a major one hit the Wimmera and Dimboola. Hundreds of volunteers and 20,000 odd sandbags limited the inundation, but some homes and the weir suffered at the flood peak. A large amount of debris and tree limbs smashed into the weir and a section of the south bank of the river gave way, taking a large portion of the carpark with it.


The river level has dropped since and damage sustained by the weir and river bank is clearly evident. (My photos taken 17.4.2011)

A temporary sandbag leeve has lifted the river level in Dimboola to allow investigative work by GWM Water consultants. GWM Water (as the owner) is in discussions with its insurers for funding for restoration works, and options to alleviate any possible future failings to the embankment.
The operators of the weir, the Hindmarsh Shire, are seeking money from the Natural Disaster Fund to repair the damage to the weir, but restoration would take several months.

Heritage Week

Australian Heritage Week this year is from Thursday 14th to Wednesday 20th April. There are a large number of events across the country, check out the website

Locally on offer are "Local History Tours of the Water Tower and Concordia College" in Murtoa.
The tours will be run by the Murtoa & District Historical Society & Community Museum Inc. on Sunday 17th April from 2:00-5:00pm or by appointment. Cost - $5 per adult & 50 cents per child.

The 4-storey Murtoa Water Tower built in 1886, houses the town's museum. Concordia College is adjacent to the Tower and also holds some of the artefacts. The Lutheran Concordia College was established in Murtoa in 1890 and moved to Adelaide in 1905.

History with the Master

The lecture: "How to Write Books with Geoffrey Blainey" is to be held at Duneira on Saturday 30th April from 5-6pm, cost $25 ($20 - concession). Professor Geoffrey Blainey comes to Duneira to give a rare insight into the craft of writing. He is one of Australia’s most pre-eminent social and economic historians. Professor Blainey has published more than 32 books, including A Short History of the World, The tyranny of distance, Triumph of the Nomads, The rush that never ended, and A History of Victoria. His literary prizes include the 1988 Britannica Award, the world’s major award for the dissemination of knowledge. He is equally well-known as a social commentator whose penetrating and often provocative statements have stirred national debate. Professor Blainey was professor of Economic History at the University of Melbourne, Ernest Scott professor of History, and is now Professor Emeritus. He was also inaugural chancellor of the University of Ballarat, and in the early 1980s he was visiting professor of Australian Studies at Harvard University. Professor Blainey has now been writing about Australian history for more than 50 years. I saw him address the Family History Feast in August last year, and he is still a powerful speaker with a grasp of a vast array of subjects.

The 400 metre Main Drive lined with English elms & a carpet of bluebells and ivy

Duneira of Mount Macedon is a living reminder of Victoria's British heritage. It was purchased by Suetonius Henry Officer in 1872 (the same family that settled Mt Talbot station). The late-Victorian house is about 84 squares, with a large library and archive storage facility. Set in picturesque gardens, beyond the elms are groves of sycamore and oak. The sweeping drive passes towering firs, redwoods and cypresses that surround the large formal lawn.

Stick Shed photographs

A number of photographs (89 in fact) of the Murtoa Stick Shed taken by Heritage Victoria in 2009 are now available for viewing on Flickr.

The Marmalake/Murtoa Grain Store, originally the No.1 Murtoa Shed, is located within the Murtoa Grain Terminal, adjacent to the grain elevator tower and railway line.

The shed is 280m long, 60m wide and 19m high at the ridge, with a capacity of 3.4 million bushels. The hipped corrugated iron roof of the shed is supported on approximately 600 unmilled hardwood poles set in a concrete slab floor and braced with iron tie rods. These poles are the reason for use of the term "stick shed". With its vast gabled interior and long rows of poles the space has been likened to the nave of a cathedral. (Hence possibly Heritage Victoria's most widely recognised photograph of the cathedral-like expanse of the interior of the shed, below)

An elevator at one end took wheat from railway trucks to ridge level where it was distributed by conveyor (there are a couple of conveyor shots in the set) along the length of the shed, creating a huge single mound of grain. Braced internal timber bulkheads on either side took the lateral thrust of the wheat, and conveyors at ground level outside the bulkheads took wheat back to the elevator for transport elsewhere.
Wheat had been handled and stored in jute bags from the beginning of the Victorian wheat industry in the mid nineteenth century, but in the 20th century, storage and transport of loose grain in bulk was gaining popularity. In 1935 the Victorian Grain Elevators Board (GEB) planned a network of 160 concrete silos in country locations, connected by rail to the shipping terminal at Geelong. However, with the outbreak of the Second World War, and a worldwide glut of wheat, Australia had a massive surplus which it was unable to export. In 1941 the GEB proposed large temporary horizontal bulk storage sheds, and Murtoa was chosen as a suitable site for the first emergency storage.

Not as well known, this photograph of the building of the Stick Shed

The main contractor, Green Bros, commenced work on the No.1 Murtoa Shed in September 1941, deliveries of bulk wheat began in January 1942, and the store was full by June. Use of the No.1 shed and the larger No.2 shed, erected in 1942/43, continued for many years. The No.2 shed was demolished in 1975. The No. 1 store was also becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, and its use was phased out from 1989.
The Marmalake/Murtoa Grain Store is the earliest and only remaining of three large sheds of an unusually grand scale of the Australian rural vernacular corrugated-iron tradition built in Victoria during the early 1940s.
link to Heritage Victoria'a set of Stick Shed photos on Flickr for more information & photos check out Leigh Hammerton's Stick Shed site , and blog posts on the Stick Shed.

Horsham Cemetery tours

The Library is conducting a Night time tour of the Horsham Cemetery on the 16th March, and then a Virtual Tour of the Cemetery on the 17th at the Horsham Library.
 The Night time tour is currently booked out, but there is still a chance to attend the Virtual tour in the Library, just contact the Horsham Branch on 5382 5707, or drop in to book a seat.
 There will be an afternoon tea following.

Living in the Treasury

The scullery

In this the third and final posting regarding the Old Treasuy building, we look at the Maynard family who actually lived in the building from 1916 to 1928, and the National Archives/Public Records Office Victoria who provide a number of displays in the building which is free to visit from 10am to 4pm on Wednesdays and Sundays.

LUX wood stove

 Maynard was the building's superintendent/caretaker, in charge of security and maintenance. His wife Emma prepared the Governor's morning & afternoon teas. John, Emma and their 8 children grew up in the Treasury. They lived downstairs in 5 rooms, which within the bluestone walls is cool in summer, but cold in winter (and believe me & in spring too). After the official business was conducted the children had the run of the building, however they were isolated from other families living alone on the top of the hill.

The Public Records Office has a number of permanent displays in different rooms - Indigenous Victorians - early interactions with the government, including the Peppers at Ebenezer; Early Melbourne - settlement by Batman & Fawkner, and the Burke & Wills expedition; Ned Kelly - original documents, extracts from "The story of the Kelly Gang" film and the Kelly family tree; Crime & criminals - gangsters Squizzy Taylor, and female prisoner mug shots;   Victorians at work & on holiday - posters and photographs from the 1930-1950s; Victorian buildings - a range of architectural plans of public buildings; and Victorian democracy -how the gold miners helped shape Victoria's government.

Strutt sketch of the Expedition on the march