NFHM post 3

Week 3 -  Is Nancy Cato's All the Rivers Run- a saga which spanned eight decades and four generations.

Orphaned after a shipwreck off the Victorian coast in 1890, the beautiful and spirited Philadelphia finds both love and adventure aboard a paddle-steamer on the Murray River.

Sent to live with her guardians Uncle Charles and Aunt Hester at Echuca, she invests some of her inheritance in the paddle steamer PS Philadelphia. Her life is changed forever when she meets the paddle steamer's captain Brenton Edwards. Delie is torn between the harsh beauty of life on the river with its adventures, and the society life in Melbourne with her blossoming career as a painter.
 

It is the image of river life that is the backdrop to the story. 
At the time Echuca was Australia's largest inland port, and the paddle steamers were responsible for the majority of goods transportation to the inland. At its peak, nearly 200 steamers plied their trade on the Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee Rivers.
Supplies were carried by steamers to remote rural properties, and farm produce transported back to ports like Echuca to connect with the railway system and ultimately the cities and the sea ports. 
The paddle steamers lasted into 1900s till improved road and rail services replaced the river trade. 
 

Yanga wool loaded on the PS Trafalgar at the station wharf

The main or major cargo was wool. Steamers transported the wool clip when the water levels were up and the flow most reliable, from pastoral stations like 'Yanga' near Hay in New South Wales. Wool from 'Yanga' was transported by steamer to Echuca. The stations were veritable small towns.

Details of 'Yanga' at the turn of the century

The 'Yanga' woolshed was erected 8 miles west of the homestead in the 1850s. The site, normally above flood level at a point where the deep water was suitable for a wharf, was chosen to take advantage of paddle steamer transport to ship the wool to market. 

The 'Yanga' shed with machine stands on the left and blade stands on the right

The woolshed had 40 shearer stands, a pen capacity of 5,000 sheep, and could store 2,000 bales of wool. On a single day it shore 5,000 sheep and pressed 96 bales.
And the family history link - with a tradition of sheep farming, ancestors shore around the district and up into New South Wales. Family folklore had Old Tom involved in the shearers' strife and the burning of the 'PS Rodney', but more of that next post. 

Soldiering on the land

A PROV “Soldier On” exhibition will be at Horsham Library from Monday October 17th until Friday 25th November, and then at St. Arnaud Library from Tuesday 29th November 7 until Friday 16th December.

Victoria sent about 90,000 men and women to serve overseas in the First World War, about 70,000 of whom survived to return home. As the war continued, the issue of repatriating returning soldiers became increasingly urgent. As well as providing War pensions and other financial assistance, State governments of the time set up ‘settlement’ schemes to support returning soldiers with work. These ambitious and controversial schemes involved subdividing large rural estates into smaller parcels of land for family farming blocks and leasing them back to discharged service-people. In Victoria around 11,000 farms were created. Each potential settler was required to be certified as qualified to apply, and if successful to remain in residence on that land for 5 years. In this way remote rural areas set aside for such settlement were guaranteed a population expansion for a number of years

Erecting a standard soldier settler home (SLV)

The First World War Soldier Settlement Scheme had been administered by the Lands Department and culminated with the majority of farmers walking off the land and ultimately a Royal Commission. The Soldier Settlement Commission (later called The Rural Finance Commission) began in 1945 to oversee the WW2 Soldier Settlement Scheme.

Oliver Telfer's (ex-22nd Battalion Gallipoli veteran) first house, Lascelles, 1922 (Vic. Museum)

The Public Record Office Victoria have digitised selected documents from Victorian Government files kept on returned World War One soldiers who were approved to lease a block of farming land in Victoria. These government records will help family and Australian history researchers understand the individual experience of a soldier settler, as well as the historical context of the Victorian Soldier Settlement Scheme.

An Exhibition Launch with a talk from the Exhibition Curator Kate Luciano of the Public Record Office Victoria, will take place at Horsham Library on Monday October 17th at 6.30pm. Bookings are essential via visiting the library or phoning 5382 5707.

Rup on film at Rup

The film ‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ will have a special one-off screening at the Rupanyup Memorial Hall at 2pm on Sunday 9^th October.

‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ tells a story that comes from Rupanyup, although it could equally be a story from many other country towns. For more details on the history of the film see this previous post.

There’s a poetic resonance to this event, as the late John Teasdale, creator of most of the archival celluloid interpreted within the film, served many years as the projectionist for the Memorial Hall, in between his farming and his filmmaking. (The Memorial Hall makes a few appearances within the film.)

For information on the film, including a 2 minute teaser, please follow the link.

Admission to the Rupanyup screening costs $5  and includes afternoon tea.

A DVD version of ‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ will be launched at the screening, and copies will be available to purchase.

Such was life

This month the State Library’s “Our story : Such was life” is ‘The Mallee’

In Victoria’s north-west lies the Mallee; a dry, hot region featuring sand dunes, salt bushes, shrubs and a ‘strange dwarf gum tree, Eucalyptus Dumosa, usually called Mallee…The tough land and climate certainly made an impression on Dr. Neumayer, a surveyor who recounted his experiences in 1864, ‘I can readily imagine why most people speak of this part of the country with a certain dread for there is actually no grass and no water to be found’…Over the years the land has endured its share of rural disasters, namely plagues (rabbits, mice, grass hoppers), drought and dust storms. Today its 100,000 occupants mainly reside in major towns like Mildura, Swan Hill and Kerang, but the Mallee is also dotted with smaller towns with delicious names such as Patchewollock, Cowangie, Boinka, Underbool, Piangil, Walpeup and Manangatang…In 1995 the State Library received a collection of photographs from the Rural Water Corporation (State Rivers & Water Supply Commission) which span the late 19th century to 1980. The thousands of images document Victoria’s water use and include many from the Mallee and Wimmera, which feature in this post.

Unfortunately some of the records have little or no information attached, they were grouped together under titles like:  [Wimmera - Mallee District] [picture], or [Wimmera region] [picture] with Accession no(s) RWP/1855; RWP/1870; RWP/1884; RWP/1883;RWP/1906; RWP/1862; RWP/1873; RWP/1926; RWP/1895; RWP/1932; RWP/1881; RWP/1878; RWP/1871; RWP/1872; RWP/1896; RWP/1923; RWP/1860

And Summary Descriptions: Shows sand drift on a Mallee farm, crops on Mr. Black's property, sheep at drinking storage at Dumosa, crops near Murtoa, ploughing at Murtoa, Miss Lodwick in her father's vegetable garden at Timberoo, interior of wheat storage shed in Murtoa, abandoned homestead at Galah, horses drinking from bore-water trough, Consolidated State School at Murrayville, bowling green at Ouyen, sand and crops at Patchewollock.

For some, it is easy to positively identify - for example the 'ploughing at Murtoa' can only be the 'RWP 1870' as the Stick Shed is visible in the background.

Ploughing at Murtoa (RWP 1870)

Likewise 'interior of wheat storage shed in Murtoa' is 'RWP 1884' a great shot of inside the Stick Shed.

Interior of wheat storage shed in Murtoa (RWP 1884)

 

Sand drift on a Mallee farm (RWP 1906)

It gets trickier with descriptions like 'abandoned homestead at Galah'. This is possibly 'RWP 1883' if you consider the building to look abandoned or derelict. Galah was a siding on the way to Walpeup.

Possibly abandoned homestead at Galah, it is RWP 1883

Another photograph which could be 'crops near Murtoa' or 'crops on Mr. Black's property' is 'RWP 1855'.  Mr Black's property was at Timberoo - north of Patchewollck and south east of Walpeup, and south west of Ouyen. Looking at the health of the crop and the vegetation in the background, it looks more like the Wimmera, than a really good year in the Mallee.

RWP 1855

From another catalogue record comes this graphic photograph, likely to be - 'wind erosion and sand drift at Patchewollock' and the gentleman, one of the commissioners - McClelland, Greenwood, Stafford, McNab, Fitzgerald, Hall, Rogerson, Welch, Godkin or East. It was taken during Royal Commission on Water Supply in 1936.

RWP 589

Farming women

The Library is taking part in the Hopetoun Women on Farms Gathering. Hopetoun is hosting the annual event over the weekend of 18-20 March.

The Women on Farms Gathering provides a unique opportunity for women to network, increase their skills base in farming & business practices, share their stories and experience a wonderful sense of support. The gatherings help promote and establish the notion of rural women as farmers, business women and community leaders.

The Library will be running three sessions on Saturday, from the RSL Hall in Austin Street.

“Digital Details : shooting, scanning, saving, storing” providing information and tips on curating and preserving your digital photographic collection.

 “Delve into your history : using electronic tools” how to research local & family history using online resources such as TROVE, Find My Past, Ancestry, and PROV.

 “Crafting your story : inspiration and sources for your book, journal or story” how to construct the elements of a story & tell a story in pictures, photos, anecdotes - using bit n’ pieces, scrap and memory objects to create a look for your book, journal or album.

Checkout their website for more information, details and bookings

The R.F.C. family

It is not that often that we get excited about donated books published to commemorate business/organisational histories. Usually we receive multiple copies of expensive looking hard-bound books full of facts and figures.

 This is an exception – “Just like family : a history of Victoria's Rural Finance Corporation” by Adam McNicol and Andrew Chapman, is a coffee-table book in the tradition of Andrew’s other titles (Woolsheds, Working dogs, & The long paddock).

It is the history of the Rural Finance Corporation, how the organisation - that began life as the Soldier Settlement Commission - grew to become a billion-dollar backer of Victorian agriculture, while fostering family-like ties between its staff and clients.

Adam has endeavoured to make the book personable with stories from farming families in different regions across Victoria.

Abandoned truck, Chinkapook (A.Chapman)

The Rural Finance’s history ended last year, when Bendigo Bank purchased the assets/business of the Corporation & essentially the Government, terminating its role as the ‘farmers’ financier’.

The Soldier Settlement Commission began in 1945 to oversee the WW2 Soldier Settlement Scheme (the WW1 scheme had been administered by the Lands Department and culminated with the majority of farmers walking off the land and ultimately a Royal Commission). The Rural Finance Commission was tasked with learning from the previous scheme and not repeating the same mistakes.

There are emotive stories from families coupled with photographs, like the Tucker family from the Mooramong Soldier Settler Estate, near Skipton. Like many families their life on the farm began in the single-room hut/garage, prior to the soldier-settler-style house being erected.

The temporary 30' x 15' housing (A. Chapman)

There is a section on particular schemes, like Robinvale's irrigation blocks, and the Heytesbury Project – the clearing of about 100,000 acres of forest in the Otways for dairy farming.

Henry Bolte at the official opening of the Heytesbury Settlement, 1959 (RFC)

 The book details Rural Finance's role through fires, droughts, floods & governments.

A Mallee farm in the 1982-83 drought (RFC)

The facts and figures and charts have been kept to a minimum, which is a feat when you're talking about finance, replaced by carefully chosen photographs, so well done Adam & Andrew.

Archival film launch

The library has been involved in the creation of ‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ for some time, and now finally the film is born.

John and Relvy Teasdale were farmers in the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria. Over more than fifty years they created a rich and evocative filmic record of working and community life in their particular dry-land farming district of Rupanyup. For John and Relvy, farming and film-making were an inter-related devotional practice. 

Upon his death ten years ago, John Teasdale left a cupboard full of films that reveal and evoke a rich and nourishing terrain. Spanning five decades from the late 1930s to the late 1980s, the Teasdale films offer views into the psychological, social and economic complexities of a wondrous and sophisticated rural world that on the one hand seems to be disappearing but on the other continues to sustain, adapt and recreate itself. 'The Farmer's Cinematheque' exhumes the Teasdale films from the archive and explores their resonance in the context of a world rapidly changing but connected still to a profound legacy of ideas, desires and rituals.

Set against contemporary footage and embellished with story-telling from members of the Teasdale family and the Wimmera community, the film stimulates thinking about the power of memory and the nature of our attachment to particular country, drawing parallels between Indigenous and settler modes of country-keeping and providing elements of revelation and affirmation about rural life. A meditation on the power of country and also a demonstration, quite literally, of the power of film, Combining sequences from the archive with contemporary footage and voices 'The Farmer's Cinematheque' teases out important questions about our custodianship of places and communities in the context of a rapidly changing global environment. It is a lyrical film about the power of memory, the nature of our attachment to country and the ways in which communities strive to balance change and tradition.

‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ has its own website, where you can get a sneak peek at the film trailer. The film is a Reckless Eye Production, written and directed by Malcolm McKinnon and Ross Gibson, with cinematography by Ben Speth, produced by Annie Venables, and music by Chris Abrahams.

The world premiere will be at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival, on 19th October, and importantly its local screening is a free event on 1st November, in Natimuk, part of the Nati Frinj Biennale.

'Combine Nation' 2004 Space and Place

The Nati Frinj Festival is a bi-annual event with an eclectic mix of programs and performances (one of the most notable has been the pictures and lights projected onto the exterior walls of Natimuk’s railway grain silos).

The family farm 2014

The International Year of Family Farming 2014 is an initiative promoted by the World Rural Forum and supported by over 360 civil and farmers' organisations on 5 continents. The I.Y.F.F. was declared by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to highlight the enormous role that family farms play in the world's food production, and to promote the sustainable and environmentally friendly development of the over 500 million family farms throughout the world.

A family farm encompasses familial groups, indigenous clusters and neighbourhood co-operatives, whether they are involved in farming crops, livestock or marine creatures.

The I.Y.F.F. aims to raise the profile of family and small-scale farming by focusing world attention on its significant role in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable development, particularly in rural areas. Through local knowledge and sustainable, innovative farming methods family farmers can improve yields and create more nutrient-dense and diverse food systems.

In both developing and developed countries, family farming is the predominant form of agriculture in the food production sector. The world's family farmers produce 80% of the food consumed in the developing world, and produce the food that feeds billions of people.
There are a number of factors essential to the successful development of family farming: agro-ecological conditions, access to markets, access to land & natural resources, access to technology & extension services, access to financial, demographic, economic & sociocultural conditions.

Family farming has an important socioeconomic, environmental and cultural role:

• family and small-scale farms are inextricably linked to world food security
• family farms preserve traditional food products, while contributing to a balanced diet and safeguarding the world's agro-biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources
• family farming represents an opportunity to boost local economies, especially when combined with specific policies aimed at social protection and well-being of communities

Family farmers aren't just food producers - they're business women and men, they're teachers in their communities, they're innovators & inventors, and they're stewards of the land. They provide the ecosystem services that benefit us all.
Thoughout this region there has been a proud tradition of family farms being the backbone of agriculture and an essential element of the history of land settlement, so spare a thought for our farmers now and then.

The farming year

As 2012 draws to a conclusion, we can look back on the 'National Year of Reading', and the 'Australian Year of the Farmer'.

The Year of the Farmer was a year-long celebration of the vital role that farmers play in feeding, clothing and providing building materials to house us all.

From small family farms handed down over generations, to our largest agribusinesses, farming is inherent to the Australian way of life.

McCormick-Deering W-6 tractor

Australian Year of the Farmer served to remind us all, from both rural and urban centres, of the critical role of farming in Australia. Agriculture has made and continues to make a significant contribution to our economy and prosperity.

Bullock team carting a load of wool bales

Farms and farmers are vitally import to our rural communities, indeed to our national economy and social fabric. There are approximately 134,000 farm businesses in Australia, 99% are family owned and operated. Each Australian farmer produces enough food to feed 600 people.

And as the grain harvest ramps up it is worth reflecting on some the technological innovations and changes seen on the rural landscape, and how important it is to record and document the local history of the land.

McCormick International 403 combine harvester

So keep those shoe-boxes of old photos, add any information concerning who, where & when on the back, visit an agricultural museum, check out old sheds and barns, and listen to & record the stories & tales of old farmers - all before it's too late.