A world without Trove

The National Library at Canberra under suitably stormy skies (photo from Pinterest by Jared Adamo on 500px)

Remembering the last funding cuts (see Treasure Trove: why defunding Trove leaves Australia poorer) it seems that once again Trove is in the gun sights.

Without additional funds the National Library of Australia is threatening to pull the plug on Trove or reduce it to a service focused on the National Library’s collections. 

Trove (as detailed in previous posts) is the bestest resource Australia has for finding stuff, and not just for librarians and academics. There are Average Joes and Janes out there who may never visit or consider joining a library, but who access Trove regularly.

Any service (‘service’ as distinct from providing a search engine) that boasts more than 22 million visits per year is on the right track. If not for Trove delivering access & consolidation to over six Billion digital items, these items would be either not be available digitally or scattered around all the organisations that contribute to Trove.

The daunting aspect is already past – it has been created and embellished and improved over the years. Digitising more items – newspapers, photographs, ephemera… is an ongoing process that will continue to add to Trove’s importance (and a Shout Out to all the volunteers who make Trove even better by correcting text and making our search results more accurate). 

How good is Trove? Try an experiment - search Trove’s newspaper collection then, do the same for British newspapers. What, access to the British is not free! The Search results and functionality is not as easy or as clear! Thank goodness for Trove.

Want to raise the issue or help campaign - check out Speak up for Trove.

Photos telling their story

Time to resurrect Way Back When. This one comes from researching Asylum Records - the Victorian Asylum Records for 1853-1940. The records are from PROV (Public Record Office Victoria) and are now available via Ancestry (which makes for easier searching).

In general, the patient records include:

• the patient’s name
• the dates of their admission and discharge
• spouse’s name and profession
• who and why patient was admitted
• basic details of their history (age, place of birth, current residence)
• details of their illness or disability
• patient case books (one page or more of notes on patient)
• date of death  (if they died in the asylum)
• some records include a photo (many don’t).
• Admission warrants 
• Patient registers 

PROV has this statement: The language used in these records can be distressing or offensive.  The terms used to describe health (e.g. ‘lunatic’) reflect the attitudes of the time and may not represent current day understandings. and it is not only the language, but the reports themselves that may not represent current day understandings. Looking back, we can use more modern interpretation of symptoms and the diagnosis on some who were "cured" only to be re-admitted at a later date with worse or more advanced illness. Many of these were long before terms like post-natal depression were invented.

The patient record that quiped my interest was one from Ararat, the Aradale Asylum. It had photos! As they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, this one or all three speak to you.

The January 1908 admission photo is of a 27 year old who was admitted suffering sun-stroke. He was discharged 10 months later, healthier and cured (very few Discharges have photos). However he was re-admitted 2½ years later in May 1911, still apparently with the same suit but looking drawn. The record for the re-admission is very brief and it looks like he was released after just 12 days.

Aradale

Like the prison or criminal record photos, these asylum photographs serve to portray these people as 'real people'.

Big Lizzie

The State Library of Victoria is always adding to their collection, and have just highlighted the release of the images of amateur photographer Wilf Henty, who worked for the Victorian Railways and took photographs documenting life from 1901 through to 1940.

Wilf Henty, a collateral descendant of the Henty family who took up residence in the Portland district of Victoria in 1829. Wilf worked for the Victorian Railways, and his photographic work documents the life and interests ranging from Manangatang in the Mallee to the tall forests of East Gippsland around Bruthen.

See Wilf’s collection here

The two images here, are of Big Lizzie, and would have been taken between 1920 and 1924 when she was in the Mallee.

Big Lizzie with a man standing between the engine and trailer

 Big Lizzie was built by Frank Bottrill, in Richmond, in 1915, with a 60hp Blackstone water-cooled crude oil engine and fitted with Bottrill's Dreadnought wheel, patented in 1906. Lizzie worked in the Mallee clearing fruit blocks, and traveled down through the Wimmera to Glendinning near Balmoral in 1924.

 

Big Lizzie's trailer with 2 stationary engines

Teaching at Jung

The library was gifted a number of photographs today, for our 'Wimmera in Photographs' collection.
Yes we are still accepting donations.
A couple were interesting for different reasons:
Firstly one of Jung State School in the early 1900s. It is of great clarity showing the students in the garden they manage, with the school building and attached residence in the background.

And what makes this special is teaming it with the one below from Museums Victoria's "The Biggest Family Album in Australia" collection, to see the changes in the buildings, the children's attire, and the growth of the garden.

Much of the garden's credit would be due to one of the men in the photo below (another of today's donations). The man with the cross, marked above his head - teacher at Jung from 1900 to 1920 - Mr George Page.

Mr Page was in charge of the school when it reached its peak of 80 pupils around 1910. 
A theory has been advanced as to why the men are gathered for the photograph, and we're wondering whether it is due to the ribbons on their lapels, and maybe they are White and Blue Ribboners in the Temperance League (as discussed in a previous post 'The church, the hotel, the society') as there was a branch of the Temperance Movement in Jung.
There are stories behind many of our photographs. If you wish to have some of your photos added to 'Wimmera in Photographs' just contact your local library branch.

Budding authors

You thought that actually writing the manuscript was the difficult part, but had you considered the following aspects?

ISBN 

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique identifier for books. An ISBN is not mandatory, and does not provide copyright on a work. However, ISBNs are the global standard for identifying titles, and are used internationally across the book trade and library sector. Most retailers require ISBNs to track book inventory for ordering, stocktake etc.

An ISBN is unique for a single version of a single book. If you wish to publish multiple versions of the same book eg. hardback, paperback, large print, digital (EPUB, MOBI, PDF), audio (CD, playaway, MP3) etc. each version has a different ISBN, thus identifying which version you have. Even different editions of the same book have different ISBNs.

In Australia the agency for providing an ISBN is Thorpe-Bowker, you can find more information and purchase an ISBN at their Identifier Services.

Legal deposit

A copy of most works published in Victoria must be deposited with State Library Victoria, within 60 days of publication, under Section 49 of the Libraries Act 1988 (Vic). As well, a copy must also be deposited with the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

Legal deposit, which has its origins in the Copyright Act 1869, has helped preserve and maintain a lasting record of Victoria’s publishing history. It has also enabled the State Library to collect Victorian publications not held in other libraries, providing valuable material for researchers.

A work can be written or printed, including books, magazines, newspapers, brochures, catalogues, newsletters, annual reports, maps, and musical scores, or in another format such as audio, video, CD-ROMS, DVDs or microfiche & film

While the legal deposit provisions of the Libraries Act 1988 do not specifically cover digital/electronic publications, the State Library is accepting and actively collecting these publications.

Works produced for companies, organisations, community groups, private individuals or the public must be deposited by the publisher. Even if your work isn't commercially published, you still need to deposit a copy of it.

Copyright

A word about copyright. Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use, and the right to control certain activities with their works. These activities include copying and re-use, such as publication, performance, adaptation and communicating the work to the public (eg. by making it available online).

Copyright should be a balance between the creator protecting their work, and the work being available for legitimate use.

Generally, in Australia, copyright for photographs lasts for the life of the creator plus 70 years. Ownership of a photo varies depending on the circumstances under which it was taken, eg. if it was created under an agreement or by commission, it was taken for the government, if an employee takes a photo as part of their job, copyright rests with the employer, except if the employer is a newspaper or magazine publisher – but excepting freelance photographers, and unless they have made a contrary agreement – yes copyright is a murky area.

Creators of copyright works, including photographers, have “moral rights” separate from copyright. Moral rights impose certain obligations on people who use a copyright work. A photographer has the right to:

• be attributed as creator of the photo

• take action if their work is falsely attributed

• take action if the work is distorted or treated in a way that is prejudicial to their honour or reputation.

It is just common decency to apportion credit, recognise sources, or admit the information came from elsewhere and wasn't your own work. An acknowledgement of where the information, image...was obtained, is the way to go.

 

NFHW post 1

Week 1 of the National Family History Month Blogging Challenge.

The first author and book is "Poor man's orange" it is Ruth Park's novel published in 1949. "Poor Man's Orange" is the third and final novel of the Darcy Family Trilogy. Together with the first book "Missus" and "Harp in the South", the trilogy traces the saga of the Darcy family over thirty years. An unforgettable family and a cast of unforgettable characters enliven a story that is sometimes tragic but often humourous in a time of poverty and destitution, hope and promise. 
The novels were set in the slums of the inner city suburb of Surry Hills in Sydney and centred on an Irish Catholic family. The Darcys are broken people after Roie their oldest daughter dies giving birth to a baby boy. Roie's husband Charlie takes to the drink to forget his loss, remembering only Roie and forgetting about his children. As they fight for the strength to keep the family together in this hard-bitten Irish-emigrate community, the Darcy's find that what they need most to survive is one another.

Ruth Park was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1917, and spent most of her adult life in Australia. She was widely read and well-loved for her books which were as equally successful for adults as for children (she wrote the Muddle-headed wombat series). Ruth moved to Sydney and married fellow Australian author D’Arcy Niland in 1942. For a time they lived in the slums of Surry Hills. Ruth was catapulted into fame when she won the inaugural Sydney Morning Herald Literary Competition in 1946, with ‘The Harp in the South’. This book has never been out of print. ‘Poor man’s orange’ was the follow-up in 1949. Her literary reputation grew as she honed her craft, writing fiction and non-fiction, her output of work spanned nearly seven decades. Ruth Park died in Mosman, Sydney in December 2010.

Ruth Park’s "Poor man’s orange" is available as a real book, eBook, DVD or audio book.
 

My take on the theme is ‘Now & Then’ images of the inner Sydney slums, utilising NSW State Records Authority's Flickr images.

This is Cumberland Place in The Rocks, Sydney, at the corner of Ferry Lane and Pottinger Street. Showing the old worn original steps alongside the newer concrete ones.The "then" photo was taken 1901 and is from the NSW State Records Authority's "Moments in Time". It was taken at the time when the area was part of the gazetted Darling Harbour Wharves Resumption Act 1900.

'Rear of No.2 Walton Place, Sydney' Dated: c.17/07/1900 is from a series of images showing the areas in Sydney affected by the outbreak of Bubonic Plague in 1900. Taken by Mr. John Degotardi Jr., a photographer from the Department of Public Works, the images depict the state of the houses and 'slum' buildings at the time of the outbreak and the cleansing and disinfecting operations which followed. Walton Place was typical of many homes with the outside toilet and open air washhouse, and the style of backyard the Darcys would have lived in.

'View from The Rocks looking south towards Sydney' dated: 1904, it shows a general view of inner Sydney. The landmark (and one of few still present) feature is the Post Office clock tower in the upper left.

< The ghosted image of 'George Street' was taken near the corner of Hunter Street, looking towards Martin Place. There have been many changes to the street and buildings, so I lined up the most recognisable element - the 1880 George Street Post Office clock.
The original clock tower (as mentioned in the 1904 photo) atop the building was removed in 1942 to remove its visibility in case of air raids, and was restored in 1963. 
The "Then" photo is from Ian Collis' "Sydney : from settlement to the bridge" and was taken in 1890, just before the wonderful ornate Romasnesque Societe General House insurance building was erected in the middle of the photo. Below are the 'then and now' images side by side.

Sharing

Sharing...and acknowledging

Nowdays everything is visible on the Net, and distributing, liking, RSS, sharing & copying are part and parcel of this phenomenon.
And unfortunately issues of intellectual property and copyright breaches are also phenomenal.
With regard to posts on this blog, or Pinterest, and the like - yes we allow sharing, in fact we encourage it - but we'd like acknowledgement of where this information was obtained. 
It is just common decency to apportion credit, recognise sources, or admit the information came from elsewhere and wasn't your own work, even before entering into the murky world of what is or is not covered by copyright or intellectual property. 
And yes, permission was requested and provided to use this photograph.

Returning to Carpolac

The story that won’t go away...still on the Carpolac line

Kym Phillips commented on the post "Railways - Carpolac line" which mentioned that the Goroke Passenger service ended in 1965.

Kym found the following excerpt in "A centenary of education 1885-1985 : a history of Goroke Consolidated School", which while not saying that the passenger service continued after that date, is interesting to note that conditions for passengers must have continued to be suitable:
"In 1969 the Victorian Governor, Sir Rohan Delacombe visited the Kowree Shire. The Governor's train was stationed at Goroke for several days while the Governor and Lady Delacombe attended various functions in the area - at Edenhope, Goroke and Lake Charlegrark."

So that entailed a number of searches: firstly to see how the 'Mail-Times' covered the event - it had two articles from 22nd December

From the front page

And page 11

As well as, how did vice regal dignitaries travel in the 60s? That was a search of PROVs collection of Public Transport photographs which yielded up a variety of images.
Believe this would be the now derelict ballroom at the Flinders Street Station.

"Railways Ballroom function for Sir Rohan Delacombe"

The Royal Sleeper, don't know if it was limited to royalty or extended to royal representatives. It could be one reason why the Delacombes were based at Goroke (with a railway), and not put up at the pub.

"Sleeping compartment Heritage Carriage, Royal train, 1927"

This was included as it was titled Wimmera Buffet Carriage just to show how railway travel used to be.

"Wimmera Buffet Carriage"

Likewise this one of a rather grand Better Farming train carriage. The Better Farming trains toured the state demonstrating new equipment, and promoting improved methods to farmers.

"Better Farming Train Display. K Class loco No. 109 and various carriages & displays c1930s"

After the cessation of regular passenger services on the various local branch lines, there were still a number of special trains.
From the 'Power to the rails' book, this photo taken by Bob Wilson of an Australian Railway Exploration Association special excursion train returning from Carpolac, crossing the Wimmera River at Quantong, on 18th March 1983.

From the Western Victorian Railfan page is this image from 1985/86 of Loco D3 639 hauling a special steam train at Jeparit, on the Dimboola to Yaapeet line, showing the jumbo grain silo on the left and the station building & verandah that was demolished soon after.

Special train at Jeparit

And still on the Carpolac line - A. Ampt has commented on the much discussed Museum Victoria pic of the wheat stack at Remlaw, or is it Natimuk?

Stack of wheat bags, 1930

He says it IS at Remlaw looking east, towards Horsham. And yes there is a peppercorn in the Remlaw siding yard too!

So another road trip out to Remlaw Station Rd to see if we can line up all the elements. A road that could be the Remlaw Station Rd (or Sission St) is visible entering from the right. And is the peppercorn tree hiding the Remlaw Rd to Horsham?

Okay after a drive by here is a present day photo of Remlaw Siding looking towards Horsham.

Remlaw, the shadow is cast by one of the silos

And the verdict - yes the Museum photo is Remlaw. Even though not taken from the same height, the weigh-bridge is visible on the left, the peppercorn to its right (though strangely it appears to be shorter now & impossible to park a vehicle under), then the tall sugar-gum now with a sparser canopy, then the plantation at the paddock corner. There is a shed at the group of trees on the right which may or may not be faintly visible just above the stack.

Leaning to oblivion

The importance of recording and digitally preserving abandoned buildings before they too succumb to the elements is indisputable.

Dinyarrak Hall in March 2013

This was no more obvious than approaching the Dinyarrack Hall to find it collapsed onto itself.

Remains of the Dinyarrak Hall in December 2016

'Border Chronicle' 4.4.1933

The Dinyarrak Hall was the center of the community for many years, which had a racecourse, a hunt club, the Dinyarrak Bush Fire Brigade was formed in the hall, and the Wild Dog Club was just one group which met in the hall.
It also housed Dinyarrak State School No. 4178. The school opened on a trial basis in October 1923 for the children of soldier settlers (the number of pupils was insufficient to warrant the establishment of a school for the district close to the South Australian border) in the Dinyarrak Hall leased from the Trustees of the Hall Committee from July 1923. In 1926, a proposal to move to a more central site was defeated. It was the opening of the new school at Cove Estate that reduced the number of pupils, and Dinyarrak closed under ministerial direction in November 1930 in favour of the more central SS4457 Cove Estate. The school furniture & equipment went to Cove Estate.

Interior of the Dinyarrak Hall

Further down the road at Diapur, it was a similar situation for the little grain receival/sampling shed at the railway siding. After adopting a definite lean for some years, it finally toppled over.

The Diapur shed in January 2008

Diapur with the Melbourne-Adelaide rail line behind, December 2016

And so it was with some trepidation to continue on to Boyeo, knowing that it was only the sturdy construction with extra rafters and internal bracing that had prevented it from collapsing earlier.

Had the wild weather affected Boyeo too?

Boyeo School in March 2013

And in December 2016

Fortunately not, apart from a greater degree of incline it was still upright. A few more weatherboards were missing, the door was no longer swinging on its hinges and someone had propped it against a wall, but essentially it was much the same - for now.

The message though is don't expect abandoned or neglected buildings to remain or be saved and restored. Capture them while you can because tomorrow may be too late.

Christmas in times gone by

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to All

Christmas in the Adelaide Children's Hospital, 1918 (Trove)

 

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.

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