Honouring Lester

The 'Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll' is coming to the Horsham Library.
The Honour Roll recognises the many and varied contributions of Aboriginal people to the identity of Victoria.
Another local Honour Roll inductee is Lester Marks Harradine. A Wotjobaluk Elder who lived at Dimboola, Lester was a sportsman, a train driver and a returned serviceman.

Though he was born in Bordertown, his family had a long association with the Ebenezer Mission Station at Antwerp. Lester was only 8 months old when brought to Dimboola in 1920 to be raised by his aunt. He attended school at Dimboola and Lillimur, and was aged 13 when he left to work on the commercial vegetable gardens that lined the Wimmera River during the Depression.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Lester enlisted with the 19th Machine Gun Regiment and was transferred to Darwin. He was there when the Japanese bombed the town in 1942. By the end of the war he was stationed at Tarakan in Borneo. After the war Lester became  member of the R.S.L. and was actively involved through Legacy with supporting local war widows. Lester married Leila in 1958 and they had 4 children, he was employed by Victorian Railways where he got his driver's certificate in 1951 and worked until retirement in 1980. Lester died in 2010.

Lester was heavily involved in sport with the Dimboola Football Club, Wimmera Football League, Dimboola Bowling Club, and fire brigade competitions.
A keen cyclist he would ride from, Dimboola to Lillimur to visit family (a 175km round trip).
 In 2010 the Wimmera Football League granted Lester 'Legend' status, he had played for Dimboola in the 40s, 50s and 60s, including 2 senior premierships in 1946 and 1959, as well as a number of Reserves premierships in the 1960s. The Lester Marks Harradine Medal is awarded to the best & fairest in the Indigenous Recognition round.

In his later years, Lester shared the stories and the culture of his ancestors with talks to school children, tours of Ebenezer. and donations to the Dimboola Historical Society. He played a key role in the recognition of native title in the Wimmera. Lester was induced into the Honour Roll posthumously in 2012.

The Aboriginal Honour Roll will be launched in the Horsham Library on 4th June at 11am, and will be on display in the Library until the 11th.

Honour boards & memorials

"Looking after War Memorials and Honour Rolls" is a Heritage Skills Workshop presented by the Heritage Council of Victoria, Heritage Victoria in the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.

The ageing, flaking sandstone headstone of John Bell of Antwerp Station, 1861
Situated in the Horsham Cemetery
 
This workshop is aimed at owners and managers of War Memorials and Honour Rolls in the Wimmera and Southern Mallee area, and would be useful to members of Cemetery Trusts, local museums, and community halls.

Jeparit's War Memorial

 
The workshop includes sessions on:
• Documentation and records
• DPC - Veterans Affairs Branch grant programs
• Materials: stones, mortars, inscriptions, gilding, metals
• Care, including cleaning and graffiti removal
• Care of timber honour boards
There will also be a tour of relevant sites to inspect practical examples from the course
material. 
Workshop Presenters are David Young OAM, Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, an experienced heritage consultant specialising in building materials conservation, and Jenny Dickens Heritage Victoria’s Materials Conservation Officer.

Mitre State School Honour Board now in the Mitre Hall

 
The workshop is on Friday 29th May from 9am to 5pm (registration from 8.45am). 
The venue is the Horsham RSL, 36 McLachlan Street in Horsham. Lunch, morning and afternoon tea is included.
The workshop is free, but Bookings are essential as places are limited, email paulinehitchins@delwp.vic.gov.au (including dietary requirements). Enquires 9208 3622

Starring Mullagh

The 'Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll' is coming to the Horsham Library.
The Honour Roll recognises the many and varied contributions of Aboriginal people to the identity of Victoria.
One of the first Honour Roll inductees was a Wotjobaluk man - Johnny Mullagh (Unaarrimin), his athletic feats made him one of Australia's first international cricketing stars.
Johnny Mullagh was born in 1841 on Mullagh Pastoral Station (between present day Wombelano and Harrow). He worked on both Mullagh and Pine Hills stations as a shearer and as a groom. But it was as a member of the all-Aboriginal Cricket team for which he has been remembered.

A station cricket match at Mt Talbot

Station owners and workers played cricket against neighbouring stations. Thomas Hamilton of Bringalbert started teaching the rudiments of cricket to the Aborigines on the Station in 1864, likewise Edgars on Pine Hills. The Haymans of Lake Wallace formed a cricket club including Aboriginals. In 1865, station cricket was so popular a match was organised between the Europeans and Aborigines. Played near the Bringalbert woolshed, the Aboriginals out scored the Europeans.

Johnny Mullagh and other station Aborigines formed an All-Aboriginal team, coached in Edenhope by Thomas Wentworth Wills (of Australian football fame, the Wills family held Lexington, La Rose & Mokepille stations) and managed by William Hayman.
Englishman Charles Lawrence organised a tour of England for the team in 1868. Led by Mullagh, who batted, bowled and kept wicket, they beat English teams of vastly more experience. 
The team also provided displays of traditional skills - boomerang & spear throwing, and shield parrying. They also successfully participated in ball throwing and running backwards events.
 
A photograph of Johnny Mullagh, the original hung in the Harrow Hall for many years until it was burnt down in the 1970s.
 

Mullagh's headstone, Harrow Cemetery

When the team returned to Australia, Mullagh played for the Victorian state side, and the Melbourne Cricket Club for a season, before returning to play for Harrow until his death in 1891. His bat and stumps were buried with him on the crest of the Harrow Cemetery hill.
Rising above racial taunts, Mullagh deliberately hit a catch rather than play in the face of discrimination. He is still remembered in Harrow with a stone memorial, the annual cricket match, and the Cricket Centre named after him.

The Aboriginal Honour Roll will be launched in the Horsham Library on 4th June at 11am, and will be on display in the Library until the 11th.