Sepia Saturday: Swimming in the '20s

Swimming in the 1920s, probably at Kow Swamp.

This week's photo is in a family album but I don't know who the people are. I think it was taken at Kow Swamp in the 1920s.

Kow Swamp is a shallow freshwater lake in northern Victoria near Gunbower now used for water storage and some recreational activities such as fishing and birdwatching. It is also a significant archaeological site of Aboriginal heritage and history.

You can find more responses over at Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday: Keith's chair

I've always liked these photos of Uncle Keith in his high chair. I wish we still had the chair because it looks pretty amazing but it was probably destroyed when the family's home was burnt down about 15 years later. The chair has wheels and a wheelbarrow-type handle, adjustable height mechanisms, decorative bibs and bobs ... and would be a horror to clean!! The seat doesn't look very comfortable either but Keith isn't complaining. The photo was taken in about 1926 in Victoria, Australia.

Keith Phelan in his adjustable high chair

Keith in his high chair

This post has been in response to the Sepia Saturday theme photo of two women in Belgium in 1914 carrying a painting and dismantled furniture to a safer area. I couldn't find a 'painting' photo in my albums to match so I chose to highlight the furniture instead.

Sepia Saturday: YMCA teams

I'm on the road on a caravan holiday this week and don't have access to my old picture files, but I do have access to the photos I scanned for the Genealogical Society of Victoria so I've selected one of theirs.

The photo was taken in the 1920s in Victoria at a YMCA camp. It appears to be the volleyball and baseball teams, in white 'uniforms'. Perhaps the teams are defined by the colour of the tie each man is wearing, or maybe it's a YMCA tie. The photo isn't clear enough for me to decide one way or the other.

The young men look happy to be where they are. (As an aside: I wonder if the side part in hair will ever come back.)

YMCA camp baseball and volleyball teams, Victoria, 1920s

This post has been in response to the Sepia Saturday's theme photo in which the women are wearing loosely tied neckties over white dresses.

Sepia Saturday: Neil the fuel agent

Open theme for Sepia Saturday this week had me more indecisive than usual. I think I prefer a theme photo. The family albums hold quite a few intriguing photos so I've selected one from my father-in-law's album that I scanned just a few weeks ago.

Neil understands fuel. When he was growing up in Mitiamo his father had a country store that included fuel pumps and supplied oils and fuel to the local farming community. After his war service, in the 1950s, Neil took over the management of the Vacuum Oil fuel depot in Kerang (and later the Amoco depot). He stayed in the business until he retired.

In the fifties the fuel was delivered from Melbourne to Kerang by train, the steam train shunting the tanker-laden carriages back onto a siding at the depot. The fuel then had to be decanted into tanks at the depot. The fuel and oils were then further decanted into 44-gallon drums so they could be loaded onto a truck for delivery around Kerang and the farms. In later years the fuel was delivered to Kerang by road tanker. This is one of the three trucks Neil and Tom had. It was used to deliver heating fuel. (It still exists - we have it in one of our sheds. It's never been restored but Phil gives the motor a run every now and again.)

N K Phelan and T Henderson, Kerang. The 1948 Morris Commercial
 truck that was used to deliver Amoco heating oil around the town.

It was all a lot of physical work and at each stage the fuel had to be dipped to measure quantities, drums had to be cleaned and painted and labelled, paperwork had to be filled in, accounts prepared, cheques banked. Neil is a very meticulous person by nature so everything was done properly. Neil and his partner delivered fuel out to the cereal farmers - on roads that were unsealed so it was often a slow, bumpy, muddy, slippery, hot or dusty process. They also delivered heating oil to homes in Kerang, they delivered fuel oil to the local power station (in the 1950s before the power came through), they sold fuel at the depot and they refuelled light planes and helicopters at the Kerang Airport.

We don't appear to have any photos of the depots and I checked online to see if there are any other photos of small-town fuel depots, and failed, so this photo probably has historical merit. Neil is the tall bloke in the centre and  he is preparing to load avgas into the helicopter. He had a storage shed at the airport where he kept the hose reel and trolley, several drums of avgas, signs and other equipment. The trolley had four wheels, the front ones on a swivel and the back ones fixed, and had a hand pump attached. The handle that you can see on the ground was used to pull the trolley.

Neil Phelan refuelling a helicopter at Kerang Airport c1960

We have this metal sign (below) from those days - we mounted it on the wood. It was on the wall of the shed at the airport to remind Neil and others of the correct safety procedures when they were fuelling the aircraft. They probably didn't need to read it as they knew the procedures backwards, but... 

...I notice that the sign doesn't mention other OHS (Occupation Heath and Safety) issues such as refuelling when there is a whole class of children clustered around! There are children in the helicopter (who knows what switches they're touching), the trolley handle is in a dangerous position and they are in an extremely volatile work environment.

Aircraft Fuelling Drill. Vacuum Oil metal sign

In the 1960s Neil had the contract to refuel the SEC (State Electricity Commission) helicopters. They were used to check the powerlines. Neil's daughter, Kay, remembers occasionally riding in the helicopter from the airport to the local motel where the pilot and the SEC employee were staying the night - and the helicopter being landed in the grounds of the motel!! It wouldn't happen today. We don't know whether the helicopter in the photo is one used by the SEC.

Now it is all much easier. The roads are in much better condition and the big fuel tankers deliver directly to the farm storage tanks. But Neil is 90 years old and in good health so the physical work doesn't appear to have been damaging.

Click on any image to view larger. You can see other significant photos over at Sepia Saturday.

Sepia Saturday: Tea time in the garden

The delightful theme photo for Sepia Saturday this week is of two sisters playing with blocks on a wicker table in the garden. It dates to about 1884.

My photos don't date from 1884, and neither are they sisters. My husband's aunt, Joy Phelan, and her friend, Norma Stewart, lived in the little town of Mitiamo in northern Victoria. It looks like they were enjoying a teaparty in the garden on a summery day. Or probably not, because that looks like real crockery to me, so maybe their mothers were having a cuppa and a chat. I hope they remembered to give the cute girls a treat. They both look so neat and clean, their hair neatly tied back in a bow and their socks folded down tidily. Could they have just been to church?

Joy Phelan and Norma Stewart, c1936

Joy Phelan and Norma Stewart

Trove Tuesday: In which the Sims holiday in Hepburn Springs

In the 1930s Charles and Euphemia Sims were living at Mitiamo and had operated a busy general store there as well as a farm and store at Pine Grove. They dabbled in other business enterprises as well - an ice store, a butter factory, providing electricity, running a cafe and selling icecream at the Mitiamo railway station.

They and their family were very busy in work and community activities in the farming community on the hot plains north of Bendigo. So it is natural that they would look to the cooler climate of Hepburn Springs in central Victoria when they purchased a holiday house and there was the added attraction of the mineral springs that abound in the Hepburn Springs/Daylesford area. It was a popular health resort. Maybe they had holidayed there a number of times before they decided to purchase - we'll never know - but at some stage they bought a house in Church Avenue and called it 'Mitiamo House'.

'Mitiamo House', Church Avenue, Hepburn Springs

I didn't know what street the house was in until I found several advertisements using the resources at Trove. 'Mitiamo House' was advertised as a holiday rental during the 1930s and early 1940s. I found out that it accommodated four to eight people, was furnished, had all conveniences including electric light, sewerage, had a garage and was situated in a favourite position in Church Avenue near the springs. It was also next to the Grand.

From a tourist folder: 'The Grande' guest house, Hepburn Springs

The Argus, 5 August 1933

The Argus, 22 January 1938

The Argus, 27 April 1940

The female Sims were meticulous and proud housekeepers so there are stories of the daughters having to travel down to Hepburn Springs to clean the house after the holidaying tenants had departed. There are also stories of fun times when the family holidayed there themselves.

Family members at one of the springs, 1937

From a tourist folder: Locarno Springs, Hepburn Springs

From a tourist folder: Wyuna Spring, Hepburn Springs

From a tourist folder: The suspension bridge, Hepburn Springs

Joy Phelan on the suspension bridge, Hepburn Springs

The Blowhole, Hepburn Springs

Ina, Neil and Doug Phelan at The Blowhole, Hepburn Springs

Some time in the 1940s the house was sold. Reluctantly and resentfully. Apparently there was a government regulation about holiday houses that had to be complied with but I have yet to identify what that regulation was.

The house still exists, and so does 'The Grande' next door. Both have been altered but not so that they are unrecognisable.

The former 'Mitiamo House', 5 Church Avenue, Hepburn Springs. [Google Maps, Street View, 2014]

Sepia Saturday: Of droughts and flooding rains

The theme photo for Sepia Saturday this week shows old fences, a flood and a barge or ferry with cars aboard. I was tempted by the ferry idea because I have a few photos in that category but settled on the flood. I hope they're not too ho-hum:)

We Australians all know a verse of a poem published in 1908 called 'My Country' by Dorothea Mackellar, but strangely it's the second verse we know, not the first. And part of it is most appropriate for this week's theme:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

My husband grew up in northern Victoria where it is very flat and, for the most part, dry. But when it rains a lot the water just spreads out over the land and eventually drains north to the Murray River. It can take weeks to drain and is very inconvenient to residents, especially in past years when roads were just dirt that turned into mud. But of course kids love anything out of the ordinary so they're out to play in the flood waters.

Mologa in flood in the 1950s provides a fun experience for kids.

Mitiamo in flood in the 1950s. The Phelan kids are having fun and at least Neil is there to make sure they're safe.

An aside: One of the first things I do after I download my photos of the camera is straighten the horizons. But actually when I see the two photos above with their sloping horizons I think it adds to rather than detracts, but if I was to photoshop them I would straighten the horizons because they're 'wrong'. And I note that the younger generation taking selfies by the hundred don't worry about horizons at all! Call me old-fashioned but I prefer a straight horizon.

Toolamba Post Office in a flood in the mid-50s.

When he was about seven years old my husband's parents ran the Post Office and Telephone Exchange at Toolamba in central Victoria. It's not far from the Goulburn River that runs north to the Murray. Many, many rivers eventually drain into the Murray River - it has a huge catchment but the river mouth is continually dredged because mostly the flow is so meagre the sand continually blocks it. (Of course, irrigation and water storage complicate the issue now but it has always been a very seasonal river.) But I mustn't get myself side-tracked. In about 1955 the land around Toolamba and the Goulburn River flooded and the house/post office was surrounded by water.

Auntie Lena Larkin, Kooloonong, after it rained.

Auntie Lena lived in the mallee, nearer to the Murray River and in an even drier area. So when it rained after years of dry it was worthy of a photo. Here she is standing on an island in a flooded area that would have been dry and dusty the previous week and years.

Wyllie farm in flood, about 1960.

I grew up on the south coast of Victoria in a much wetter environment, on a farm where my dad had a herd of dairy cows. He didn't need to irrigate like they do in northern Victoria because it rained regularly and he had a permanent creek on the property that provided drinking water for the stock. But even so, a flood was an event that had to be recorded on camera. This is the view from my mother's garden, looking towards the track we used to get to the school bus each day. I remember her making sure we had our gumboots at the bus shelter (that dad had built for us) if it flooded while we were at school, or we would wear them to wade through the water and then change into our school shoes at the bus shelter. In our area the water soon drained away because it was undulating country.

This anecdote is more of a rain event rather than a flood. In the summer of 1969 my two friends and I travelled to Sydney to attend to NCYC, National Christian Youth Convention. I took my car and we camped at Nowra on the New South Wales coast on the way. The first photo below shows our camp set up for the night. The second photo shows the same tent after it rained two inches (about 50 mm) during the night! Everything was wet, wet, wet. Just as well we were in accommodation for NCYC because it took all week to dry everything out.

Camp at Nowra, January 1969

 Joyce Turner and helper, with our tent the next morning.

Bogged

And finally, one that is interesting but doesn't belong to me. I have been scanning old photos for the Genealogical Society of Victoria's Flickr page and this was one I processed this week. It's a Fiat car bogged to the axles, somewhere in Victoria, in the 1920s. I wonder how he got the car out? I'm guessing he walked to the nearest farm and asked the farmer to bring his horses down to tow him out. But I'm glad he, too, thought to take a photo.

You can see what others have made of the theme photo over on the Sepia Saturday webpage.

Trove Tuesday: In which Germanton and Germantown are featured.

Christmas 1909. Edie from Germanton (NSW) sent her friend in Collingwood (VIC) a postcard wishing her a merry Christmas. I don't know these people because it's postcard I found at a market.

The card has a Greek or Roman theatrical theme that doesn't strike me as particularly relevant to Christmas but then I shouldn't be too critical because someone in a hundred years time will look at today's cards in amazement or amusement. Or maybe they'll be sending each other e-cards instead of wasting earth's resources. Or maybe the tradition will have died out altogether by then.

I wondered where Germanton was because I'd never heard of it, and it sounds similar to Germantown (now called Grovedale) near Geelong. So I searched the newspapers on Trove.

It turns out that in 1909 Germanton did indeed exist but a few years later the name was changed to Holbrook because of hostilities in World War 1. The area had been settled by a large and industrious community of German families from the mid 1850s.

The Argus, 19 June 1915

The same thing happened to Germantown near Geelong. The area was settled by many German families from the 1850s onwards and they had developed vineyards, orchards and vegetable gardens. In July 1915 the council voted to rename it Cornwall, one of the titles of the King, but the name was later disallowed because it was already in use in Victoria so the name Grovedale was chosen.

Geelong Advertiser, 3 July 1915

Germanton and Germantown weren't the only towns and localities in Australia to have a name change because of the war. And it wasn't just the town name that was changed - hotels, railway stations, sport teams and numerous other examples can be found. Why did they go to all that trouble? The residents with German background had been here for two or three generations and weren't stirring up trouble at the time but there were certainly tensions in the town. It must have been an uncomfortable time for all residents of German background.

Sepia Saturday: An independent colony

The Sepia Saturday theme photo, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 28 June 1914, and the call to find an association between an important date in history and our own family.

Today is an anniversary for the state I live in, the state of Victoria in Australia. On this date in 1855 the 'Act to establish a constitution in and for the Colony of Victoria' was formally proclaimed. It had been drafted in Victoria and sent to the British Parliament for formal approval. It followed the 1 July 1851 declaration of Victoria as a colony independent of New South Wales. (Since the first permanent European settlement in 1834 it had been called Port Philip District.) In 1901 the colony became a state when the six separate colonies in Australia became the Commonwealth of Australia.

As an aside, I had a look for our state's Coat of Arms (not granted until half a century later). I've never noticed before, but there's a kangaroo holding the royal crown for some reason and appears to be standing in a top hat! At least our state's emblems make more sense - Common Heath Epacris impressa (floral), Weedy Sea Dragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus (marine) and Helmeted Honeyeater Lichenostomus melanops and Leadbeater's Possum Gymnobelideus leadbeateri (fauna).

Weedy Sea-dragon

Common Heath

Helmeted Honeyeater

Leadbeater's Possum

So I got to thinking. Which of my ancestors were living in the state when it was declared an independent state? Only four. John Brown and Maryanne Howe who were both Irish and migrated separately in the 1840s and married in Melbourne in March 1850. And William Chaundy, who was sent out here in 1849 by the English courts, and his wife Rachel who was sponsored to join him out here by her parish.

Maryanne Lee nee Howe who migrated to Victoria in 1849

By the time Victoria's constitution was approved on 23 November 1855 almost all my ancestral families were out here. William and Ann Wyllie arrived in 1853, William and Mary Ann Cook arrived in 1852, James Taylor arrived 1853, Ephraim and Elizabeth Smith arrived 1852, John Hillgrove arrived in 1852 and so did his future wife, Janet Blair. The only one of my ancestors who wasn't here by 1855 was Gabriel Duckett who didn't arrive until 1868. And my husband's family follow the same pattern.

So what happened in the early 1850s to prompt all this immigration? Gold. Gold was discovered in the state about a fortnight after it was declared independent. It was the catalyst for a huge influx of people. The population increased from 77,000 to 540,000 in ten years.

In 2012 a fifth emblem was added to the state of Victoria's list. Gold became the state's mineral.

Welcome Stranger, the largest gold nugget, was found in Victoria.
 It weighed 71 kg.

Sepia Saturday: The Phelan family's home

The theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday blog is a house.

Serendipity. I was browsing through the Picture Victoria's photo collection, randomly putting in key words as you do, and was absolutely astonished when this one popped up on my screen.

Phelan home, Sydney Rd, Coburg (Pentridge), c1870 [Picture Victoria ID 16437]

The original photo is held by the Coburg Historical Society and shows the home that the Phelan family lived in for almost 100 years. I was pretty excited because I had never seen a photo of it before.

When Daniel Phelan arrived from Ireland in 1856 he was employed by the Penal Department as a warder and worked at Pentridge Prison north of the city of Melbourne. He retired as Chief Warder in 1892. The village that grew around the prison was also called Pentridge but in 1869 that was changed to Coburg because of the stigma. 

In the 1850s the Governer of the prison and the fifty warders lived on site, with about 400 prisoners housed  in dormitories that were clean and well-ventilated but crowded. The prisoners worked as carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, coopers, tinsmiths, painters, stonecutters and labourers. For several decades the warders (mostly Irish) formed the majority of the district's adult population and they socialised together outside work as well because of their shift work hours of up to fifteen hours! 

In 1863 the rule about living on site was changed to a requirement that the warders must live within 400 yards of the prison in case of trouble so Daniel and Jane Phelan with their growing family were able to move from the prison into their own house on Sydney Road. An article in the Coburg Historical Society's Newsletter (September 1993) shows that in 1881 there were 74 warders and other staff were living in the local community, concentrated in a few streets near the prison. One in fifteen persons in Coburg was a prison officer.

An old sewerage map shows the Phelan home and Pentridge Prison

The house was only small but Daniel and Jane had nine children. Only two married and several died young but after the parents died three sisters (later four when a sister was widowed and returned home) and a brother stayed on in the house. I've heard a number of stories about 'the aunts' - they grew more eccentric as they got older and I think there may have been a 'pecking order' as in a chicken pen. Poor old Daniel, the brother, didn't hold much power. And the house never changed. I'm told they lived as if in the 1800s still.

In 1909 a brother, Jack, died and I found a newspaper item that amused me. Apparently the body had been lying in the coffin in the front room for a few days and after the funeral the sisters decided to fumigate the room by burning sulphur. And ended up nearly burning the house down!

A fire in the front room. The Argus, 1 Apr 1909

The street number of the Phelan's home was 401 Sydney Rd, directly opposite the Holy Trinity Church. (It was later changed to 543.) It remained the family home until the last sibling, Daniel, died in 1959. All the houses in that area were demolished by the Metropolitan Board of Works for road alterations but nothing was done to the road and there is still no house on the site.

Street view (from the same position as the original house photo), Google Maps (October 2013)

I suggest you wander over to Sepia Saturday to see the houses that the other participants blog about. I'm off to do the same.