Football Teams in South Kensington, Victoria

 
I was fortunate to be given access to a South Kensington Football Club (Victoria) with all players and office bearers named of the Premiership team of 1932.   This was followed a day later by another photo, of the Kensington Football Club Grand Finalist team of 1961, also named.

The 1932 team has many surnames reflected in a "History of Kensington" written by Sylvester Baker in 1976.  Sylvester grew up in Kensington, and his recollections of the various areas around Kensington are very good - including South Kensington, West Melbourne and an area called Brown's Hill.

Funding for the 2023 Victorian Community History Awards announced

 In a message from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria today.......

VICTORIAN COMMUNITY HISTORY AWARDS ARE BACK! AND NOW OPEN. HOORAY!

Info for publishers, authors, curators, podcasters - everyone involved in history projects.

We are thrilled to announce that the Victorian Community History Awards have retained their funding for 2023 and are launched today (8 September 2023). We thank all our members and friends, led by our President Richard Broome, for their intelligent advocacy in engaging with their local members of Parliament and Minister Danny Pearson, Department of Government services over the last 3 months. With so many budget cuts we almost despaired of funding and we were prepared to go it alone with a no-frills program but the Minister, Danny Pearson, really fought hard to get these awards up. Our heartfelt thanks to the Minister and his hard-working staff.

Below is the I message I sent to Minister Danny Pearson to thank him personally for his efforts:

Dear Danny,

Your name was mentioned in glowing terms in a newsletter I received today from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria in relation to your considerable efforts as Minister for Government Services to have funding for the Victorian Community History Awards retained for 2023.

I was involved in the VCHA Committee for many years on behalf of the RHSV, and attended many of the Awards Ceremonies.   In talking to both Award recipients as well as those who received a Commendation from the judges, I am aware of how very thrilled those entrants were at receiving recognition for their work.   

Local historians devote many years, usually, researching and writing local history, but it is a very under recognised field of endeavour, except for the VCHA.   Every entrant for that years' awards receives an invitation to attend the event, and I have met people from all over the state who come down to Melbourne  in the hope of receiving an award.  They  have often got up early to catch a 4 am train to be able to make the awards, or driven for hours to get here.   

The Awards and Commendations are big news for these people and feature in local newspapers, websites and radio programs.

The Awards are truly a wonderful thing for people engaged in local history activities, and I would like to thank you personally for your efforts in having the funding retained for 2023 (and into the future, I hope!)  The Awards are a very worthwhile program for the Victorian Government to support.

Yours sincerely,

Lenore Frost

Essendon, Vic

FRHSV

George Hyde, pastoralist, insolvent, man of colour, who died at the Keilor Inn, 1844

         Keilor Inn, by George Alexander Gilbert, 1845.

    Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection. 

Even in death, George Hyde, pastoralist, found himself embroiled in controversy.  He was one of the Port Phillip Pioneers who was dis-interred from his grave at the Old Melbourne Cemetery and re-interred at the Fawkner Pioneer Cemetery, to make way for the Queen Victoria Market in 1922.  It was another indignity for a man who had suffered many indignities in life owing the circumstances of his birth.

George Hyde was born in British Honduras, the illegitimate son of a Scottish timber merchant and the daughter of a West African Mandigo slave women.  Educated in Britain, and like his father one of the largest slave owners in Honduras, the colour of his skin precluded him from many of the civil rights and privileges afforded his father.  In 1827 George Hyde petitioned the British Parliament for the extension of civil rights to the free coloured population, as were enjoyed by their counterparts in the West Indian colonies.

Hyde returned to Scotland in 1836 where he married Margaret Collier, and together with their only son, George Robert Hyde,  born in 1840, boarded the Ariadne for Port Phillip.

Christine Laskowski has taken a detailed look at the fortunes and misfortunes of the Hyde family, outlining their life in British Honduras, the pioneering colony of Port Phillip, and his unfortunate demise in the Keilor Inn while travelling from his holding at Green Hills (now Toolern Vale) and Melbourne.   For the full story, see her excellent article on the Time Travellers website. 

Texas Star Memorial, Essendon Airport

Memorial tree and garden bed at DFO, 2018. Photo:  ABC News  

A few weeks ago I watched a report from Channel 7 on the small aircraft crash at Essendon Airport in 2017 which killed five people, including four passengers from Texas.  They'd taken the flight to play golf.   I later did an internet search on the crash, and found an article written on the anniversary of the crash which showed a memorial planted at DFO near the site of the crash.  They planted a Japanese Maple in a garden bed shaped like the Star of Texas, as in the photo above. 

Last week I was at DFO and decided to have a hunt for the memorial.  It had been a few weeks since I had looked at the photo, and didn't remember the details clearly, so I inspected the trees planted along the side of Spotlight, where the plane had fallen to earth, but couldn't see anything that looked like a star-shaped garden bed.  I trekked all over the place before I thought I should probably find the photo again on my phone. Needless to say it was in a spot I hadn't looked at, opposite Spotlight, near the roundabout.  It was made somewhat harder by virtue of the fact that the tree had disappeared. 

Photo:  Lenore Frost, 2023.

The tree appears to have been broken off at the bottom some time ago, but the star-shaped box hedge has been well maintained and looks terrific.   It would be nice to see the tree replaced, and as the garden bed is otherwise unmarked, a small explanatory plaque might be good as well.

Sources

Code 1:Minute by Minute.,  Essendon Plane Crash. Screened on Channel 7 on 1 March 2023, 8.30 pm on Channel 7.   (Available at 7+ On Demand.)

Essendon DFO Plane Crash Anniversary. 

Flemington House, Travancore

 

Essendon Historical Society's new publication,  Flemington House, Travancore is to be released in May.

When completed in 1856, this mansion and gardens equalled, if not surpassed, any similar private residence at the time in Victoria. The book’s author, Alex Bragiola, explores the mansion and lives of the Glass and Madden families and has included many photographs never before published.

The book can be ordered for mid-May delivery on the EHS Website Online Shop or by emailing EHS@esshissoc.org.au. Initial price is $35 with free delivery for Moonee Valley and Kensington.

More titles for the Bibliography of Local History

Image courtesy of The City Journal.

Essendon Squash Centre published a history celebrating its 50th Anniversary.  Called "Cede Nullis: 50 Golden Years of Essendon Squash Club".  Allan Murphy, OAM, Sue Rainey, Maxine Kosnar and Amanda Powell (editor) worked together on this book which was published in 2020.  Essendon Squash is one of the few remaining squash courts in Melbourne.   A blog post by Otto McKinnon in March 2020 spells out the problems facing the Essendon club:   https://thecityjournal.net/sport/squash-the-decline-of-a-well-loved-sport/

Thus far Essendon sticks to it's motto Cede Nullis: Yield to None.

Today I am adding 12 titles to the Bibliography of Local and Family History Sources

A is for aunty and z is for zigni : an alphabet book of African stories : sharing a women's lives - a project of Jesuit Social Services.  Richmond, Vic. : Jesuit Social Services, 2010. [Women from Flemington] [SLV]

Cede Nullis : 50 golden years of Essendon Squash Club / Alan Murphy, OAM ; Sue Rainey, Maxine Kosnar ; Amanda Powell (editor).  Moonee Ponds, VIC : Sue Rainey 2020. [SLV]

Flemington ... town in the shadow of a racecourse : self-directed walk. Publisher [Flemington, Vic.] : [Wild West Walks] [1996]. [SLV]

Flemington Racecourse : a memoir, history, autobiography / David Maughan. The author, Queensland : Wombat Press 2021. [SLV]

Mannix Era, The : Melbourne Catholic leadership 1920 -1970. Morgan, Patrick, 1941-, The author: 2018

Materials research laboratory : west of the Yarra up Maribyrnong way. Ascot Vale [Vic.] : Materials Research Laboratory 1991. [SLV]

Now that we are in paradise, everything is missing : a study of the health experiences and needs of older Italo-Australians in Ascot Vale / V. MacKinnon with A. Nelli.  [Melbourne, Vic.] : Department of Nursing, Victoria University, 1996. [SLV]

Mamma's kitchen.   Moonee Valley City Council: Moonee Ponds, 2022. [SLV]

Peppercorn tree / [DVD] [Melbourne, Vic.?] : Barbara Pater, c2008.

Ukraine Downunder / edited by Darka Senko, Tetiana Koldunenko and Marko Pavlyshyn. Essendon, VIC : Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations [2020]. [SLV]

Variety is the spice of life : an account of my life.  Morrison, Stanley Campbell, 1914-2004. edited by  Grant, Dalys, [2004]  [MVLS]

Victoria Derby, The / Marc Fiddian. The Author: Pakenham [Vic], 1991. [SLV]

Additions to the Bibliography of Local and Family History Resources for Essendon, Flemington and Keilor

"Lyndoch", Levien St, Essendon, painted by Karen Price, featured in an Exhibition at the Avondale Heights Library in 2018.   A print edition of the exhibition is held in the Local History Collection of the Sam Merrifield Library.  The exhibition was called Here today, Gone Tomorrow: an exhibition of paintings of houses in Moonee Valley. 

The following publications have also been added to the Local History Collection at the Sam Merrifield Library, and my bibliography of  Local and Family History Resources for Essendon,  Flemington and Keilor

The Art of Lockdown: Australian Ukrainians making art  in 2020.  Graphic Design and Layout by Stephan Moravski. Essendon: 2021.

Stories from the Suburbs. Moonee Valley: an anthology by memoirists,  life writers, poets, and local and family historians of Moonee Valley. Edited by Lyndel Caffrey and Diane Williamson. [Moonee Ponds], Doubleland, 2019.

Young Women on the Ascot Vale Estate: an exploratory study. Essendon CYSS, 1986. 

Park Street Level Crossing

 

Park Street level crossing, Moonee Ponds, 2021.

In this followup article to Gatekeepers at the Park Street Crossing, Marilyn Kenny outlines just how difficult it was to get a staffed level crossing.   Without a railways staff member to open and close the gates, the gates remained closed to vehicular traffic.   

Lobbying from Council went on  for years before the Railways decided to build a Gatekeepers' Cottage at Park St and provide a gatekeeper to open and close the gates, the subject of the previous article.

Not the Explorers' tree

 

Not the Explorers' Tree

ESSENDON is very particular about its ancient history, and at the risk of spreading gloom by the shattering of a tradition the author of the district's chronicles (Mr J. McJunkln) points out that the old red gum on the Mt. Alexander Road does not mark the first camp of the Burke and Wills expedition after it left Royal Park on its ill-fated journey.

 

The explorers camped about a quarter of a mile away, watering their horses and camels at the chain of ponds which has since been transformed into the ornamental lake of Queen's Park.

 

The genuine explorers' tree grew at what is now the intersection of the Strand and Robinson Street. The oldest inhabitants support Mr McJunkin. Cr. E. H. Kinnear, who was born close to the explorers' actual camping place, says that councillors know full well that a false glamor has been woven round the gnarled trunk now covered with ivy and standing in the street plantation. He believes the tradition arose years ago through the statement of a councillor, who wished to preserve the tree from the municipal axe, and with that object invested it with historical significance.

 

In Town and Out (1930, July 10). The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), p. 4.   http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242816383

Councils have indeed been notorious for taking the axe to any well-grown tree, so this story has the ring of plausibility to it.  However, in view of Burke's instructions to blaze a tree along his route, I am somewhat inclined to think he may have blazed the tree in Mt Alexander Rd rather than one off the main track in The Strand, so perhaps both things are true.

For a survey of the known images of the Burke and Wills tree in Mt Alexander Road, see the Time Travellers website.

Park Street, Moonee Ponds Gatekeeper's Cottage

 

Once upon a time you would often pass a gatekeeper's cottage or cabin at level crossings, but they have been largely swept away with the advent of boom gates, and even boom gates are disappearing these days. Marilyn Kenny has done a wonderful study on the Moonee Ponds Gatekeeper's Cottage, which disappeared 50 years ago, and what the work and conditions were like for these men and women who manned the gates. I can assure you they were not good conditions, and the pay was lousy, so if you have a relative who worked as a gatekeeper, this will be of considerable interest to you. It is followed up by a personal reminiscence from Rod Berry, who will tell you what it was like to grow up in a house two feet from a railway line. See the full story here:

St Paul's Church of England Football Team, Ascot Vale, circa 1939

This photo comes courtesy of Peter Nankervis, whose father Frank Nankervis is in the back row, fourth from the right.

The carpet on the floor of the Dover Studio suggests the photo was taken after July 1939, but before August 1940 when Frank Nankervis joined the 2nd AIF. 

Frank served as a  Lieutenant in the 2/29th Australian Infantry Battalion. He became a Prisoner of War on Burma Railway and in Selarang Prison Camp in Chiangi, Singapore.  Frank took his oath of enlistment in the AIF on 5/8/1940 at Royal Park and ended his service on 12/2/1946. Active service in Australia of 126 days and overseas in Malaya for 1369 days.

Frank played A Grade Amateur Football with St. Paul's C of E Team in Essendon. He also later trained with Essendon 'Seconds' Football and with Essendon 'Thirds' Cricket. He was both good at batting and as a left arm swing bowler!

If you can identify any other players, please get in touch. See my email in my profile.

 

Moonee Ponds Midwife - Mary Ann Scharness

Dominey's Hall, Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds, once the home 

of the Scharness family in 1893. Photo: M Kenny, 2017.

"A heavy knocking awoke Mary Anne Scharness.   It was the cold, early hours of a Saturday in late June 1919.  Although she may not have expected such a call it would not have been an unusual intrusion because Mrs Scharness was a midwife and used to responding to the midnight bell.   This wakeup call however was different.   On her doorstep was a distressed, confused, angry and embarrassed man.  He lived with his wife and children, five minutes’ walk from Nurse’s private hospital and they probably knew each other by sight.   Out tumbled a story that even Nurse Scharness with all her experience had not yet encountered.   His wife had woken him very ill at 2am and told him that she was about to become a mother.   His initial reaction was disbelief for he did not know she was pregnant.   When the reality sunk through he summoned a neighbor then went seeking professional help from the local midwife.   This might not seem a particularly unusual story however the husband in this case was a returned soldier who had disembarked in Melbourne only some four months before.   He had served overseas for three and a half years and during that time his wife had received his allotment of four shillings a day.   The family were just re-establishing itself and only the week before the birth had welcomed home the second of his brothers who had also been with the AIF.  The mother to be was brought to Nurse Scharness’ Lorne St hospital, local doctor Dr Newing  summoned and eventually a male infant born".

While women relied heavily on the service of their local midwives, following that profession was not without risk of prosecution and financial penalties.  As more and more regulation was placed on the midwives themselves and their private hospitals, more scrutiny was placed on their activities.   Not that the government should not have interested itself in the safety of expectant mothers, but sometimes the prosecutions around the Essendon district seemed to be more to do with malicious intent that the safety of mothers and babies.  It should be noted that at the same time obstetricians were not scrutinised to the same degree. 

Mary Ann Scharness fell foul of the law on more than one occasion, but she remained a Registered Midwife until her death in 1931, having commenced perhaps in the 1890s.

Marilyn Kenny has taken a detailed look at the regulation of midwives and their hospitals and the changing situation as the laws developed to try to protect infant lives from baby farmers, to ensure good standards of training and hygiene and so on.   If you have an interest in this subject, you will be rewarded by perusing Marilyn's story about the Moonee Ponds midwife, Mary Ann Scharness. 

The Swamp Vanishes - an online exhibition

In this view of Melbourne, looking south west, taken by John Noone in 1869, the West Melbourne Swamp can be seen lurking unhealthily in the background.  By this time the swamp was evil-smelling and thought to be the source of disease.  Before white incursions, however, the swamp enabled large gatherings of First Nations people to gather for ceremonial, social, and law sessions by providing a veritable larder of food. (Royal Historical Society Collection, S-1292.001)

The Swamp Vanishes traces the slow eradication of what was a significant resource for the Kulin Nation for millenia. 

This exhibition, curated by me, was launched at the RHSV in late January 2020, but lockdowns brought a reduced opportunity to view the exhibition.  As a  result, the RHSV has now made the exhibition available online.  

Click here to see The Swamp Vanishes

Mrs Rule's Lending Library, Essendon

This book turned up recently in the Book Nook, Christ Church Op Shop, North Essendon (corner Marco Polo St), from a former lending library, recalling for us the days of circulating libraries dotted about the suburbs. 

Mrs Rule ran a confectioner's shop (cakes, or possibly a milk bar) with the library as a sideline.  Mrs Rule died in 1950 and the business was thereafter run by her son, Frank Rule.  The business in the 1960s has been recalled as a milk bar, fancy goods and stationery shop.  Does anyone remember it when it also had a lending library? 

You can learn a bit more about Mrs Rule's Lending Library by clicking on the link.

The Missing

See this tribute to the workers of the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau and the post-war work of the Australian Graves Detachment and Graves Services men who retrieved the remains of the fallen to bring together into a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery.  The Missing.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This media item is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). You may share (i.e. copy, distribute, transmit) this item provided that you attribute the content source and copyright holder; do not use the content for commercial purposes; and do not rework (i.e. alter, transform, build upon) the material.

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Director: Jary Nemo. Writers/Producers: Lucinda Horrocks and Jary Nemo.

Documentary film, The Missing, 2019, 11:21 minutes, director Jary Nemo, writer/producers Lucinda Horrocks and Jary Nemo, Australia, Wind & Sky Productions. 

William F Salmon and the Evolution of a Park

 

City of Essendon memorial walks and children's playgrounds. H. Y Frew, compiler. 1919.  State Library of Victoria Collection. Accession no: H2013.297/1-24

On 1 September 1918, mere weeks before the Armistice, William Frederick Salmon's only son, Percy Salmon, fell at the Front.  Two months later, Salmon offered to the Essendon Council 8 acres of parkland, planted and nurtured by himself over a period of years, as a memorial to "Essendon's brave soldiers".  The reserve became known as Salmon Reserve.  The Council took over the maintenance of the reserve, though it was a further 14 years before the land was transferred to the Mayor and Councillors of Essendon.  And when the land was transferred, it was four acres, not eight.   

Marilyn Kenny in her usual inimitable style, has had a detailed look at why the transfer took so long, and why the size of the land had shrunk to four acres.  

William Salmon came very close to succumbing to the last major pandemic in Australia - the influenza epidemic - and caused a local sensation by remarrying from what was tantamount to his deathbed.  He married Annie Laing Reid Sutherland, the sister of his doctor, Bertram Sutherland, with Salmon's three daughters and husbands strongly disapproving of this deathbed marriage.  They refused to attend the wedding. If you want to know the outcome of this strange affair, you can find more details on the Time Travellers website.   

Strathmore Presbyterian Basketball Team

Photo courtesy of Pam Beaumont.

With some help from the "We Grew Up in Strathmore, Essendon ad Nearby Suburbs" Facebook group, this photograph has been identified as showing a Strathmore Presbyterian Basketball team, in 1938.  Third from left is Ruby Kettle, and far right is Annie Jean Cook. The team was associated with the Strathmore Presbyterian Church in Uplands Rd, Strathmore.  The two identified players both attended Flemington Girls School.  You can read more about this team at the Time Travellers website. 

Glenthorpe College, Ascot Vale

 The former Glenthorpe College in Maribyrnong Rd, Ascot Vale, 1974, photographed by Sam Merrifield. Courtesy of the Essendon Historical Society. 

Although there is little available in terms of official records for the school, Jill Ridgway has put together a comprehensive picture of the operation of a private school which commenced as a family business and rose on the talent and strength of its principal, Margaret Hester Butler. Trained in the State education system, Margaret Butler created a successful academic school, which in its heyday had 130 pupils, helping many achieve excellent scholastic results.  In the end it was unsustainable, dependent as it was on one personality, and towards the end beleaguered by the changing regulatory environment.  If parents were satisfied by the crowded conditions of this school and others, the Education Department was not.  Jill has also created a list of students known to have attended the College.  Maybe you will find one of your relatives in the list. 

Glenthorpe College was typical of many private schools in this period, so even if you don't have a family member at this school, Jill's story will shed light on other similar schools.

Mrs Harding's Premier Tea Rooms, Mt Alexander Rd, Essendon

This shop was a little hard to identify, but with what appeared to be a saddle in the window of the shop to the right, and the beginning of a word 'SAD' at the bottom of the next door window, I went looking for a saddler's shop next door to a confectionery shop. On the left side of the confectionery shop is a shop advertising Medicated Soap, Weights (possibly scales), and cigarettes. This combination of shops appeared in Mt Alexander Rd, in the 1925 Sands & McDougall Directory:

In the window of the confectionery shop is an indistinct painted sign, saying "The Premier Tea Rooms". The store stocked Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Sweet, Pascall Sweets, Fry's Chocolate and Cadbury's Chocolate. It must have been a great relief to Wrigleys when someone came up with the idea of replacing "Chewing Sweet" with "Gum". You can learn more about Mrs Harding and her Tea Rooms at the Time Travellers website.

Miss Stife's Pharmacy, Rose Street, Essendon, circa 1930

Miss Sylvia Margaret Stife's pharmacy in Rose St, Essendon. She seems to have been at this address from 1925, when she was first registered as a chemist, until at least 1931 when she appeared there in a Sands and McDougall Directory. Learn a little more about Miss Stife at the Time Travellers website.