Sign of the times

Photo courtesy of Christine Laskowski.

This sign has recently been uncovered.  Go to the Time Travellers website to see where.

First Flemington and Kensington Borough Chambers and library

Councillors for the new Borough of Flemington and Kensington met on 10 May 1882. John Rigby, licensee of the Newmarket Hotel, offered the use of his 'second house' as temporary municipal chambers. The Council appears in the Sands and McDougall directories in the above location on Racecourse Road, from 1882-1884, two doors removed from the Newmarket Hotel with a saddler in between.   The Council remained there until removing to the New Hall further south Racecourse Road past the Doutta Galla Hotel.  See Early Libraries in Essendon and Flemington, Part 3 for more and update of the Flemington and Kensington Free Library and Mechanics' Institute.

The Flemington Institute

This new publication, These Walls Speak Volumes:  a history of Mechanics' Institutes in Victoria, by Pam Baragwanath and Ken James is a comprehensive inventory of Institutes throughout Victoria.  It was a monumental undertaking and is the culmination of many years' work.  I was interested to compare my findings with theirs on the local Mechanics' Institutes, and I found that they had identified an early Institute which I had failed to locate, but of which I had some hints. This was the Flemington Institute, which initially met in the first Flemington National School at the southern end of Mt Alexander Rd, though the location of the library is less clear.  Once I had the time frame spelt out in These Walls Speak Volumes, references to the Flemington Institute were readily located in Trove.  I have now been able to prepare an update for my article on the Early Libraries of Essendon and Flemington. Follow the link for the new section - scroll down a little to find it.  This earlier library predated the next attempt by twenty years.

St Brendan's Catholic Primary School, Flemington, 1924

St Brendan's Catholic Primary School Flemington.  Grade 3, 1924.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection. You can see a list of school photos on the Time Travellers website here.  If you can identify anyone in the photo, please let me know.