The Woodmen

I'll bet you thought you know everything you need to know about woodyards.  Well, Marilyn Kenny has proved all of us wrong, so the first Time Travellers excursion for 2020 will be a visit to local woodyards, starting at Essendon Station.  Don't trip on the steps.

Marilyn will tell us everything we ever wanted to know about "The Woodmen" - who they were, what they did, and how good they were at football.

The Swamp Vanishes

I've been missing in action for a while now, but if you want to know what I have been doing, call in at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria where I have been curating an  exhibition called "The Swamp Vanishes".

The view in the poster above was taken from Flagstaff Hill, which is just across the road from the RHSV headquarters.  Right up until comparatively recently you would have seen a great pool of water known as West Melbourne Swamp, in earlier times called Batman's Swamp.  This swamp, or wetland, was the end point of the water flowing through the Moonee Ponds Creek in a wet year, but also received floodwaters from the Yarra River.  It was only some years later when concerted efforts were made to drain the swamp that the Moonee Ponds Creek was diverted elsewhere.

The exhibition opens next Thursday and can be seen 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays, at our headquarters at 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne.  (A short walk from Flagstaff Station, opposite Flagstaff Gardens in William St.)