Where in the world?

Have just come across this marvellous online list “Victorian BDM Place Name Abbreviations List”

The list is comprised of place name abbreviations used in the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages registry indexes. It is useful for all three versions of the indexes.

The list currently contains 3,215 abbreviations, including abbreviation errors, and is a work in progress. Please be aware that every effort has been made to ensure that place names are correct to the abbreviations. Research has been done with various resources to prove a birth or death in the locality that matches each abbreviation.

Abbreviations are generally representative of a settlement, town or suburb, but can be a shire, county, parish, area, creek, river, gully, forest, hill, mountain, road, hospital, asylum, convent or ship. And includes some interesting examples – ‘A Rat Hosp’ is Ararat Hospital, 'Greg' is Gre Gre South, ‘Astrens St’ is not some obscure street in a Melbourne suburb, but the abbreviation used for the McTavish births at Ashens Station in 1859.

Shed at 'Longerenong' probably built by Donald McTavish c1860

In 1856 Donald & Jane McTavish and their family moved from Hedi (Oxley's Plains near Wangaratta) to Ashens to work as a shepherd and carpenter for Dugald McPherson. They lived at an outstation, in a shepherd’s hut at the northern tip of Taylors (Drung Drung) Lake, then part of the Ashens Run, some 5 miles from the homestead.

A week before Christmas in 1856 Jane gave birth to a frail baby boy - Donald – with the help of the station women. Then in February 1859 Jane gave birth to her 9^th child – Margaret. (McTavish information from “Thy portion”). 

The Garden Shed today

Some abbreviations can represent multiple places (but at least you know the possible options) and there are also multiple abbreviations for a single place from different time periods (there are over 15 derivative abbreviations of Williamstown).
Some places no longer exist or are now known under a different name. They are indicated in the comments if known.
All in all a valuable asset if you're trawling through the BDM registers.

Update on local halls

Previously there have been a couple of posts concerning stage curtains - the section of the stage which sets the scene. These backdrops were works of art, huge canvases often depicting rural/garden scenes or town/cityscapes, see posts - Drawing the curtain and On stage in Watchem.

There are still a number of local halls which have not succumb to the mere film screen perched at the rear of the stage - Aubrey, Rupanyup, and Kooreh.

And here is Kooreh's stage curtains - very English

The stage curtains & the new flooring

450mm of flood water inundated the Kooreh Hall during the floods in January 2011, leaving behind 15cm of silt. While the floorboards and some fittings were ruined and had to be replaced, the historic stage curtains were saved.

The flood level peaked at the mark on the plaque now attached to the side door of the hall (photo on the left).

It was thanks to funds from the government & the Shire that the hall was restored.

The restored hall now

Kooreh represents what can be done with local community support and sufficient monetary funds. Unlike Gre Gre, where the hall building has to be approaching 'too-far-gone'

Gre Gre Village Soldiers Memorial Hall

The Gre Gre Village Hall was erected as a memorial to the soldiers of World War 1, in 1923. 

Fourteen Gre Gre district people served in the First World War, including Nurse A.C. Jackson.

The building has deteriorated even further since this photograph (on the right) was taken by Esma Barratt in 1988.