Boy on a Bike

This is Bob Kent, a telegram boy in Queenscliff in 1923.  We do not as yet have a photo of a telegram boy from the local area - yet. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection.

Marilyn Kenny has spun us a wonderful new story, called A Boy on a Bike, about telegram boys and postmistresses in Ascot Vale, Moonee Ponds and Essendon.  In this story you will learn about the Essendon Postmistress who rode to work sidesaddle on a Shetland pony; a telegram boy who was highly commended by a customer for delivering a telegram (on foot) within two and a half hours of receiving it at the Essendon Post Office; and ponder the identity of the mysterious Miss Young, postmistress at the Moonee Ponds Post Office.

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Burke and Wills tree again

Courtesy of the Moonee Valley Library Service, HER-00102.

On the grounds that you can never have too many photos of the Burke and Wills tree in Moonee Ponds, this one has turned up in the Moonee Valley Library Service Community Heritage Collection which has lately gone online.

This one has a rural flavour to it with the horse and cow grazing quietly in the background.  The young trees look about the same size as in the photo taken in 1910, which is the year given also by the library.   I have added the photo to the article on the Burke and Wills tree in the Time Travellers website.

Is this Edward Webster Dodgshun of Moonee Ponds?

Most likely the Essendon Lacrosse Club circa 1914.  The man who may be Edward Webster Dodgshun is seated third from the left in the front row.

This photo shows a duffle bag in the foreground labelled E W Dodgshun. It is by no means certain that Dodgshun is in the photo, but the man with the arrow over his head looks similar to the man in the lacrosse team.

This detail from the above photo shows the head of the man possibly Dodgshun straightened for purposes of comparison.

The man in the lacrosse team  on the top photo who may be Dodgshun is evident in several other photos of the Woman Haters' Club.  He is shown to be quite tall in photos where he is standing, and Dodgshun's height according to his WW1 service record was 5 feet 11 and a half inches or 181.6 cm.

Here he is again, third from the left, taller than his friends at the Women Haters' Club.

These and other photos associated with the Woman Haters' Club, have been kindly loaned for scanning by Jenny Ryssenbeek, and will find their way onto the Time Travellers website in the next few weeks.  Identifying and dating the people in the photos will be a challenge, and I warmly welcome any assistance with this.

St Thomas' Church Choir, Essendon, circa 1912

St Thomas' Church Choir, Essendon,  circa 1912.

Help needed with identifications.  Go to Time Travellers to see a larger image and the identifications to date. (Not many!)