Locally on BorrowBox

 Local ebooks are available on BorrowBox.

The people at BorrowBox allow member libraries to add local content to their library's collection. Wimmera Libraries now have 3 locally produced ebooks on BorrowBox.

"Lost in the bush" In 1864 Isaac, Jane & Frank Duff became lost in the bush. Locals searched for the children for 9 days. This book is a day by day account of what happened on each of the 9 days, with information from contemporary articles and books.

"The fate of the Imperials"

 In 1914 the Warracknabeal Imperials decisively won the football premiership against Rupanyup. Within a month four players had joined the first local contingent to be sent off to fight in the First World War. In all fourteen of the players would enlist. This is the story of the fate of those Imperials, collected from local newspapers and their Service records.

"Sugar gums and cactus: schools of the Wimmera"

An alphabetical listing of all the schools that have existed in the Wimmera and Southern Mallee districts. Entries include a brief history of the school, GPS coordinates and one or more photographs of the school or site.

The title comes from the fact that many of the now deserted and abandoned rural school sites are marked with trees planted by school children on Arbor Days and special occasions.

Primarily the variety of tree chosen was the sugar gum, though there are peppercorns, various cypress & pines, and ornamental deciduous trees. School gardens were also marked by large and small species of cacti & succulents, and annual bulbs - jonquils, daffodils and lilies.

Along with monumental plaques, these are often the only signs that schools have existed, and they stand as testament to the tenacity of the teachers, parents and children who attended these schools.

It is likely that more Wimmera stories may be added as local content.

Just like other ebooks in the BorrowBox collection, these books can be borrowed, so check out one today. 

Instructions for installing and using BorrowBox are available on the Library's website, if you haven't used ebooks previously.

A place in the Wimmera

Explore the history of the Wimmera and Southern Mallee region at the launch of the online book 'Place-names of the Wimmera' - an alphabetical list of place names of localities & towns, parishes & counties, lakes & streams, hills and mountains in the area covered by the Wimmera Regional Library. It includes Aboriginal and historic etymology of place names.
The online book will be accessible on the Wimmera Regional Library's website. 

The launch includes a presentation showing how explorers and surveyors named specific places and landmarks across the region.

The 'Place-names of the Wimmera' launch will be held at the Horsham Library on Wednesday 25th May from 7:00 to 8:30pm. It is a free event and bookings are essential by either visiting the library or phoning 53825707.

The launch of the 'Place-names of the Wimmera' book, is a part of the National Trust Heritage Festival for 2016.

Check out other Heritage Festival events at the National Trust website

Family via letters

Archival records can help people connect with their histories, trace the experiences of ancestors and learn about the times and places in which they lived.
Footprints: The journey of Lucy and Percy Pepper reveals the story of Lucy and Percy Pepper and their family. The book reveals through letters and correspondence how they were affected by laws and government policies that defined who was ‘Aboriginal’ and who was not. It chronicles their struggle to keep their extended family together, fight for Australia in World War I, make  good on a soldier settlement block in Gippsland, and survive ill health and poverty.

Lucy with her children - Gwendoline, Phillip, Alice, Sarah, Lena & Sam

This extraordinary story of the fight is told through correspondence between Percy and Lucy Pepper, government officials and Aboriginal administrators. The letters now form a part of the collections of the National Archives of Australia and Public Record Office Victoria, they were gathered together by Simon Flagg when he worked for PROV.
Through telling the story of the Peppers, the book  illustrates many of the issues that Aboriginal families faced in early twentieth-century Victoria.
This is an ebook in epub format and requires a compatible ebook reader application on a portable device (such as iPad, other tablet computer, Kindle or Kobo), or on a laptop or desktop PC, and is available for $9.95 from the Public Records Office
Don't wish to buy the book, just borrow it? then place a Hold on "Footprints"

Percy Pepper was the son of Nathaniel and Louise Pepper. Nathaniel had grown up on the Ebenezer Mission Station at Antwerp, before moving to the Ramahyuck Mission Station in Gippsland.

The headstone of Nathaniel's brother Phillip at Ebenezer

ebook history

Digital Book Index provides links to more than 165,000 full-text digital books from more than 1800 commercial and non-commercial publishers, universities, and various private sites. More than 140,000 of these books, texts, and documents are available for free.

About one tenth of the Index are History volumes, with an emphasis on North American history, but including English & Irish history, European, (ancient, medieval, & Renaissance texts through World War I & II), Latin American, Middle-Eastern, Asian, & African history, as well as military history and the history of science, medicine, & technology. Local & regional history are organised by states & regions. There are more than 1000 historical documents arranged in chronological order.

For Australia, search History & Area Studies - Australia where you'll find a mix of early explorers journals (Cook, Banks, Eyre, Kennedy, Sturt etc), a number on politics (Constitution, Federation etc), and some historic gems such as CEW Bean's "On the wool track", Rolf Bolderwood's "Shearing in the Riverina, and "Handbook to Victoria (Australia), a short description of the colony, its productions, manufactures, & capabilities, especially with regard to its new agricultural industries and settlement on the land" from the Paris Exhibition in 1877. What is also interesting about this item is its provenance, coming from the collection of the University of California.

With History Week next week, it may be just the time to use modern resources like ebook readers to check out some ancient history.

Where in the world

I am currently working on a list of place-names within the Library's catchment area.
This list which includes names, meanings, locations, schools, pastoral runs...
Currently the word count has reached 30,510 words covering nearly 60 pages of text.

A picture emerges of interesting facts, i.e. proving the importance of water in settling this area - Jess's Tank, Cronomby Tanks (the original name for Woomelang) in the arid north of the region, or wells on outstations in the west at Boyeo, Ni Ni, or Propodollah; the evidence of Aboriginal origins in most of the names of places and features; and the disappearance of some locations especially the gold-mining localities around St Arnaud and Stawell - Diamond Hill, Gap Gully, & Tellow Streak. The list will ultimately become available as one of the digital assets on our new website.