This blog provides information, stories, links and events relating to and promoting the history of the Wimmera district.
Any additional information, via Comments, is welcomed.



Sunday, 29 June 2014

Overland now

The synchronicity - At the same time that I was researching William David Hamilton's narrative of his overland journey, unbeknown to me was a group of locals was about to re-enact the trip.
The following is from an article in this week's 'West Wimmera Advocate' newspaper.
A re-enactment of the trek will be undertaken by a number of William Kealy's descendants. William Kealy a shepherd, was a station hand on Bringalbert who accompanied the Hamiltons on their overland journey from Bringalbert to Darwin in 1872. William also recorded an account of his travels, and this account was part of the research the group has undertaken to support their endeavours.
The group includes Kealy relatives Sue Close (nee Kealy), Richie Foster, and Jeremy Moore, as well as 6 horses and 3 horse floats.
The group planned to depart on 25th June, and aim to travel 100-150kms per day with the horses, and to drive back from Darwin.

from 'The West Wimmera Advocate'

Monday, 23 June 2014

Library takes the prize

The library has just been successful in winning a Local History Grant from the Public Record Office of Victoria.
The grant will be used to fund the creation of a master disc of the 'Lost in the Bush' film, the replication of the master into DVDs for sale, and to conduct a Premiere Screening of 'Lost in the Bush'.

In August 1864 the three Duff children - Isaac, Jane and Frank - were lost for 9 days and 8 nights in the local scrub, before being found by searchers and Aboriginal trackers.
In 1972 the story was filmed in the same area, utilising local talent and shown in Victorian State Schools during the 1970s. The Library has obtained permission from the Education Department, and sourced the 16mm film stock from the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, to produce the DVD.
The Library will launch the DVD at a screening on 15th August, as part of the local festivities during the 150th Anniversary of the 'Lost in the Bush' commemoration.
Further posts on 150th Anniversary events in future posts.

Sunday, 15 June 2014

Overland 7

The final installment of William David Hamilton's overland journey from Bringalbert to Darwin.
Seldom any rain and always the scarcity of water till we arrived at Newcastle Waters where we encountered our first heavy rains. Travelling became impossible. A loaded pack horse would sink to its belly in mud. A forced halt was therefore made at this oasis till conditions improved.
We had now reached the better tracts of land but my uncle by this time was far too ill to think any longer of settlement. His one idea was to reach civilization.
Whilst fishing at the (K)Catherine river I had my first experience with a crocodile. I was sitting astride a fallen log which was two or three feet above the level of the river and jutted into mid-stream. Placidly I watched the fish swimming round but not touching my bait in the clear water. I happened to glance over one shoulder and there was a huge crocodile between 15 & 20 feet a yard or so from me, his horrible bloodshot eyes hungrily viewing my dangling leg.

Of course he could not reach it as I was so high above the water and in midstream but I was too panic stricken to reason. I dropped my line and bait, ran back along the log and breathlessly sprinted tour camp a few hundred yards off. A couple of days later he or another of his kind got one of our pack horses which by a mischance became separated from the mob while crossing the river.
On again from the Catherine River till finally we covered the last odd 200 miles and reached Darwin where our stoch(k) of horses, less than a dozen of whom had perished, was sold at the phenominal  (phenomenal) price of £50 a head. Darwin at that time was the headquarters of the Pine Creek gold rush.
Suffering endless discomforts and hardships we had traversed with stock over 2000 miles in a vicarious trek across the heart of the continent, almost from coast to coast, taking a little over a year to do the journey.
This to our knowledge was the first successful transcontinental drove ever undertaken.

William was born in New Zealand, he came to Victoria in 1867. He was 15 years old when he accompanied his uncle Thomas Gibson Hamilton (1844-1875) from Bringalbert to Darwin. He played station cricket with the team of aborigines trained and captained by his uncle and sent to England under Thomas Wentworth Wills and W.M. Hayman. He was one of the last surviving original members of the Victorian Mounted Rifles. He died at his home in Riversdale Rd Upper Hawthorn on 11th October 1934 leaving a widow and 5 daughters. He was interned in the Melbourne Cemetery in Carlton.
This story was published in 'The Age' newspaper 11.6.1932.

Monday, 2 June 2014

No dispute, must attend

Don't forget the session on "Disputed Country" at Horsham Library tonight @ 7pm. The event is part of the "Art is...layers of time".

John Deckert of Westprint Heritage Maps will talk about his book chronicling the saga of surveying the South Australian/Victorian border and the ongoing controversy (see the Border Clash post).