Finding Jane's flowers

It is 155 years since the Duff children - Isaac, Jane, and Frank - were lost in the bush at Nurcoung.
The Library is commemorating the anniversary in a number of ways.

Firstly it has organised a further batch of the 'Lost in the bush' DVD. Copies of this DVD, of the 1970s film, quickly ran out after the 150th celebrations, and these DVDs will be the last produced.

Secondly the Library has produced a booklet "Lost in the bush : day by day" which as the title suggests is a day by day account of what happened on each of the 9 days.

And finally the Library is conducting a special event "Finding Jane;'s flowers : the role of plants in the 'Lost in the bush' story". Locals will show and talk about some of the plants endemic to the area, plants the children would have encountered. The talk will also discuss life and stories of the bush around the Nurcoung district.
"Finding Jane's flowers" will be held at the Goroke Library, 30 Main St Goroke on Thursday 15th August at 2:00pm, and will include afternoon tea. There will be copies of the DVD and booklet available for sale. The event is free and bookings are essential. Go to the library's website and follow the "Finding Jane's flowers" link.

To be sure

With such a large ancestry from the Emerald Isle, researching your Irish family heritage is part of many a family history.
The Genealogical Society of Victoria are conducting "Beginning your Irish family history"
The presenters are Maureen Doyle and Beryl O'Gorman.
Topic covered will include BDMs,census & other substitutes, and land records. 
The session is on Thursday 15th August from 10:30am to 1:00pm, at Level 6, Queen St in Melbourne.
Costs for GSV members: $30, RHSV/CAV/FHC members: $45, Non-members: $60.
Books are essential. Contacts Phone: 9662 4455 Email: gsv@gsv.org.au Website: www.gsv.org.au

B.D.Ms

Records of births, marriages and deaths can provide unique insight into your family history and identity.

Effective 1 July 2018, the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages will reduce the price of their historical images from $33.00 to $24.50.

The historical index holds these life events registered in Victoria.

Life event	From	To
Births	1853	100 years before today's date
Marriages and relationships	1853	60 years before today's date
Deaths	1853	30 years before today's date
Church baptisms, marriages and burials	1836	1853

An 'Uncertified historical certificate' is a scanned image of the original, often handwritten, record that you can download.Great for family history purposes, but if you require a Certificate for official purposes you'll need a physical printed certificate that the Registry mail out to you.

Cataloguing for collections

Always wanted to be a cataloguer, but didn't know how?
Have a historic collection, but no idea on how to organise it? 

Then the 'Victorian Collections Cataloguing Workshop' is aimed at you. 

This hands-on workshop provides an introduction to the principles of digitisation and collection management. Participants will learn how to catalogue collection items using the free, online and custom-built Victorian Collections cataloguing system. 

Check out the Victorian Collections website to see what has already been added to their catalogue, and some of the stories they have collected.

Victorian Collections workshops offer a relaxed and open environment and cater for participants with any degree of museum and computer literacy, as well as ongoing cataloguing support for community museums, and small and medium collections.

Date: Wednesday 8th May 2019.
Time: 10am to 3:00pm.
Venue: Horsham Library, Mibus Centre, 28 McLachlan Street, Horsham
Cost: Members $10.00 Non-members $20.00
Further information contact: 1800 680 082 (Australian Museums & Galleries Assoc.)
 

Stick Shed by drone

Some great video of the Stick Shed by the ABC Western Victoria crew.
 

(Video from ABC Western Victoria's Facebook page)

The Murtoa Stick Shed is a National Heritage listed building (Australia's 101st), constructed in the 1940’s to store grain. It is now in high demand by tourists who want to see this iconic building.
Originally it only re-opened for the Murtoa Big Weekend in October each year, then once a month, now it is open 6 days per week!
Tourists are coupling the Stick Shed with the Silo Art Trail.
Opening times are: Tuesday-Saturday 10am to 12:30pm and Sunday 10am to 2pm.

Is The Dry on?

There has been more speculation, informed speculation, that the film version of the novel 'The Dry' by Jane Harper will be filmed in the Wimmera.
In December news reports stated that Eric Bana had been in the district scouting for locations.

Movie star Eric Bana dropped into Minyip today for an ice cream and the latest Minyip Show & Shine calendar (from ABC Western Victoria's Facebook page, 7th December)



 "Filmmakes have selected the town's (Minyip) iconic Club Hotel - which featured heavily in 'The Flying Doctors' - as a shooting location...of a film adaptation of author Jane Harper's novel 'The Dry'" (The Weekly Advertiser newspaper 19 December 2018).

Eric Bana is an executive producer for the project, his first role in an Australian film since 2007 with the release of 'Romulus, my father' another book to film drama.

Roll forward to February, and last weekend a casting call went out to Beulah and Minyip for extras for the shooting of "a major film".

The producers did not specify the name of the film, and the media spokespeople for 'The Dry' have refused to divulge filming locations, but as the casting people required 60-70 people for a funeral scene, and as  a funeral sets up the story for 'The Dry' it is reasonable to guess there aren't two funeral films in the offing.

The understanding is the film will be shot around Minyip, Hopetoun, Beulah & Warracknabeal, another tourism boost for Yarriambiack Shire adding to the Silo Art Trail.

Postscript: Yes it happened - check out some of the real locations from the film in this later post "Describing the Dry"