Poster presentations
Museum of Chinese-Australian History
Renée Gardiner and Lorinda Cramer
Fields of Green and Gold: Chinese in North West Victoria – a
regional view of economic pursuits
The poster presentation focused on three aspects of Chinese economic pursuits in
the Wimmera-Mallee region, including rural labour, market gardening and gold
mining. The posters displayed the relationships between the space and place that
is the Wimmera-Mallee and the Chinese migrants that contributed and continue to
contribute to its cultural heritage.
At a macro level, evidence of the Chinese occupation in the region remains in
structural form. Many Chinese labourers were involved in the construction of
masonry and timber woolsheds from the early 1850s. Examples include the
woolshed and cookhouse at Mundarra Station (1851) and the woolshed at
Benayeo Station (1850s). The Chinese were also significant in the founding of
Ararat, which grew from their discovery of an incredibly rich shallow alluvial gold
deposit, known as the Canton Lead.
From a micro point of view evidence of the Chinese relationship to the land
remains as archaeological sites relating mainly to gold mining and market
gardening pursuits. At some point in almost every town in Victoria, Chinese
market gardens contributed to local fresh food supply. While agricultural activities
within the gardens took place on a much smaller and more delicate scale than
those associated with wheat and other crop farming in the district their cultural
heritage significance is no less important.
Remnants of Georgie Ah Ling’s garden located in Donald are a beautiful example
of a regional Chinese market garden. The garden, which is included on the
Victorian Heritage Register (H0873), was established from about the 1920s to the
1980s. Georgie had family connections with other gardeners working in Boort,
Ararat and Ballarat which shows the distribution of family ties woven across the
landscape. A contemporary theme and economic pursuit related to market
gardening and food supply is Chinese restaurants; several are located throughout
the region.
The early Chinese were pioneers. The term ‘pioneer’ has typically been associated
with men and women of Anglo descent. We must reflect and reconsider the
validity of this image. To view the Chinese as sojourners, a transient floating
population, does them a great injustice. They have had an incredibly rich and
colourful influence on our cultural heritage.
34
Murtoa & District Historical Society & Community Museum
Val Gregory
As you know, the Water Tower is listed on the Heritage Register. Originally the Historical
Society purchased the building from the Railways for $1. This cost did not include the
land (try explaining this to 90 year olds!) At some stage the land was transferred to
Yarriambiack Shire. Early this year the Shire transferred it to us – so we now own both
the land and the building.
The James Hill taxidermy Collection somehow (still not quite sure, neither are others)
became a part of the Fisheries & Wildlife Department, with the proviso it must never
leave Murtoa. The Lions Club of Murtoa then undertook to be responsible for it and its
upkeep. The F&W Dept. arranged for a full audit to be carried out (we have a copy of the
audit, the original is somewhere in the deep dark underground cellars of what is now
Dept of Sustainability, etc.), and a Scientific Licence was issued to the Murtoa Lions.
(Fortunately for me my husband Syd is a member of Murtoa Lions, and a Past District
Governor.) After consultation with the Historical Society the Collection was housed in the
Water Tower.
Predominantly the birds are from Australia. Strangely, we don’t have a corella in the
collection. Also in the collection are – a Kangaroo (with a very checkered past), emu
(there were 2, each having a great tale to tell) echidnas, snakes, several goannas,
legless lizards, lizards, bats, and other mammals (which were thought to be extinct.
These were “given” to the Melbourne Museum, and we received photographs of them.
There are also over 600 birds’ eggs from the tiniest to the largest. Many of the birds are
still housed in their original cases. James also collected shells and crabs, and we still
have some of these (also in their original cases).
James was a Methodist Lay Preacher, and sent money overseas to Missions. In return all
he wanted back were “skins” of their local birds. Therefore, we have possibly the largest
collection of American Cuckoos in the world as well as other species. We also have birds
from New Guinea, including the Blyth’s Horn Bill (one of the ugliest but beautiful birds in
my opinion). One little green bird came all the way from South Africa.
James came from England at the age of 5 with his family. His father had dabbled in
taxidermy in the U.K. and taught James how to do it. James became a world authority on
beetles and insects – we do not have this collection, the family sold it privately. James
used to visit local schools to educate them on all of the above, and what it would mean if
they lost their habitat – today’s topics.
Amongst the Australian birds are the “Plains Wanderer” and a yellow bird similar to a
canary. The Plains Wanderer is a scientific marvel in that it has no other similar species
or sub-species. The “canary” is actually a mutant of a sparrow.
Video presentations on the James Hill Taxidermy Collection are shown in this building,
together with stories on how the taxidermy was done, the saga of the kangaroo, and
where and when one of the goannas was caught.
The first floor has written stories of the early days of the railways, farming implements
and farming from the early days, and a great collection of photographs. One photo is
particular – Carl Hempel, a German migrant, with a great story (also featured on video
presentation in Concordia) – Carl was a master craftsman in stonemasonry and timber.
He made his own traditional coffin, which he kept under his bed and used as a storage
for apples and walnuts; his children would never touch the coffin! He also knew he was
35
Poster presentation – Murtoa & District Historical Society & Community Museum
going to die during 1901-9, so he carved his own tombstone with all the words he
wanted (all in German) and the figure 190 so the missing digit would be put in when he
died; unfortunately he died in 1910 and the tombstone had to be altered accordingly –
this became 190 with a 1 across the 0.
The next floor contains some clothing, many household and farm implements and
general artefacts indicative of the area.
Concordia College building – on National Trust Regional Importance Register. Concordia
was built in 1890 as a Lutheran training College and an education college open to other
students of different religions. There were 10 buildings in the original cluster. In 1980
they travelled from America to teach and study in Murtoa. A few students and pastors
drowned on the way over. Therefore Concordia was an important part of Australian
history in that in the 1890s they TRAVELLED from USA to study. MIGRATION &
IMMIGRATION, as some stayed others returned to America. EDUCATION, RELIGION,
SPORTS (they had tennis, football, cricket, athletics and competed against other
schools), SOCIAL and INTERSTATE (they came from all walks of life in Australia to attend
this prestige school). The College was very well known for its academic studies, as shown
by their Matriculation marks and University passes. Two students were drowned in the
lake, when found they were wrapped in each other’s arms. It is believed one fell from the
boat (they had “pinched” from the local undertaker) and the other dived in to save his
friend.
At the end of 1904 it was decided to move the college to Adelaide, where it is a very
successful college in its own rights today.
All but the building we have were demolished. The building was removed from its original
site (opposite the showgrounds) to Cromie Street, and was used as a Salvation Army
Hall, and later a private home. It was purchased for the Historical Society and given to us
free gratis. It was moved to where it is now (and hopefully its last resting place).
Within Concordia you will find history and photographic details of the earliest settlers.
Coromby Brass Band, which is the oldest longest-running brass band in the world,
features in our video presentations, together with this and photos/stories it shows the
importance of a band to any country town. We also have three gorgeous wedding
dresses (one brown and two white) from the earliest 1900s. The brown dress is very
unusual in style, similar to what is worn when riding side-saddle today, and the daughter
of the bride in brown wore one of the white dresses. Another very different one – a
child’s jumper made from socks, you can’t see where they have been joined to make
this.
Obviously there are many photographs of Concordia Murtoa, including the first student,
and, shock horror, a report card. Two beautiful German Bibles can be seen.
The Marma Masonic Masters Board, and a few Masonic “jewels” take up one wall. Stories
and pictures of the Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist churches also are
exhibited. Obviously the building is definitely not “just German.” It actually is very
ecumenical.
There are three musical organs – one beautiful large ornate organ from the early
Lutheran Church; one travelling organ for the young children to practice on during the
early 1950s; the other one is from the Kewell Church of England, and we have been
informed it is very valuable because of the different woods used.
In other words, we have much to show those willing to visit.
36
Millewa Pioneer Village, Meringur
Heather Yates
Our village is set on 12 hectares at Meringur in the far north-west corner of the state. We
have 17 buildings and many other attractions including a working horse works, hand
pump and items of machinery set among natural scrub and a plantation of native trees
with plaques as memorials to our pioneers. A feature is larger that life sized figures from
an original pioneering families photos which is the National Memorial to the Dryland
Pioneers of Australia.
It is open every day, and we have a special open day on the first Sunday each October,
which takes the form of a working history day. This day includes BBQ lunch and fresh
scones from our baker’s oven. Some of our historic building include a pine chaff shed,
blacksmith’s shop, original settlers cottage, a school, railway station and guards van, and
a pine log hut from the 1880s rescued from Kulnine station. These are all filled with the
history of the Millewa and surrounded by other items of interest –and peace and quiet.
Visitors are always welcome, we have toilets, outdoor seats and tables and BBQ facilities.
When you visit please sign our visitors book and leave a small donation.
Shadows of the Past
Simpson's Cottage,
Millewa Pioneer Park at Meringur
37
A relict stand of original red dune Mallee vegetation
Associate Professor Bernie Joyce
School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne
William Blandowski, naturalist, scientist, explorer, Government Zoologist and the first
Curator of the Melbourne museum, rode westwards on a hot summer day in 1856 with
one of the Beveridges of Tyntynder Station. The dense Mallee vegetation proved a
hazard as they sped across the wooded landscape to investigate a strange soft-floored
depression about 20 miles west of the River Murray.
Known today as the Towan Plains reserve, and formerly mined for gypsum, the
depression’s scattered trees have now died as the saline groundwater has risen.
Now most of the original plains vegetation has been cleared, but one exception - an area
about 250 m by 350 m - survives on a red Mallee soil farm not far from the River Murray
town of Nyah. As a child I saw this area as a “great forest” stretching southwards from
my grandparent’s ripple iron house and earlier log cabin.
Last year, 70 years later, I walked through it from one end to the other. I identified
Yellow Mallee (E. incrassata) and perhaps also White Mallee and Bull Mallee, and
recorded a short video on a digital camera, complete with the sounds of birds and the
wind.
On the State Government 1:100 000 topographic map sheet, and on Google, this isolated
area of trees stands out as a dark rectangle on the bare red and brown soils of the
otherwise treeless Mallee dunes, farmed for over 100 years since my grandfather first
settled there.
Blandowski’s ride would have passed due west from Tyntynder Station, and straight
through this remaining patch of Mallee.
TWO QUESTIONS:
Is such a stand of surviving Mallee of landscape heritage value today?
And if so, could it be preserved?
Footnote
BLANDOWSKI, WILLIAM (1822-1878), naturalist, was born on 21 January 1822 in Gliwice
(Gleiwitz), Upper Silesia, son of a Prussian lieutenant-colonel of the Medical Corps and his wife, née
von Woyrsch. The Blandowski family, well known since 1610 and bearing the coat of arms of
'Wieniawa', was of Polish origin and belonged to the Silesian nobility, but later became germanized,
abandoning the Roman Catholic faith for the Lutheran. On 31 August 1834 Blandowski entered the
Royal Prussian Cadets at Chelmno (Kulm) but was dismissed or left at his own request on 5 August
1836. Whatever his education he was once described as a mining engineer by profession.
He arrived in Australia in 1849. On 2 December 1856 the government appointed him leader of an
expedition to investigate the natural history of the region at the junction of the Darling and Murray
Rivers, with a view to collecting specimens for the National Museum. Aided by a German naturalist,
Gerard Krefft, and overcoming many personal and physical setbacks often created by his own
faults, Blandowski accomplished his task, arriving in Adelaide in August 1857 with twenty-eight
boxes containing 17,400 specimens.
38
Poster presentation – A relict stand of original red dune Mallee vegetation
The relict stand of original Mallee vegetation in a sea of ploughed red dunes,
as seen on Google Earth (2008)
Downloaded by Bernie Joyce 15th April 2008
39
Workshops – discussion summary
Workshop discussion summary
Topics
1.
'Mud or dust' - the heritage of drought and water supply in the
Wimmera-Mallee
2.
'Silos like deserted cathedrals' - the impact of railways on the
Wimmera-Mallee landscape
3.
'It's flat, dry and intriguing' - tourism, recreation and the cultural
landscape of the Wimmera-Mallee
4.
'What are the flora and fauna telling us?' - management of the natural
heritage values of the Wimmera/Mallee
5.
'Something out of nothing' - rural heritage and the Mallee/Wimmera
landscape
6.
'What have we learnt?' - tools for interpreting and promoting the
character and heritage of the Wimmera-Mallee landscape
'Mud or dust' - the heritage of drought and
water supply in the Wimmera/Mallee
Workshop facilitator: Juliet Bird
Our history is inscripted in the landscape for those who want to see it
The group discussed two aspects of water and heritage:
(a)
the natural water landscape, which has been affected by extraction of
water, changes in run-off, etc, and will now have a major impact from
climate change and
(b)
the structures associated with water management
Nature and water
• Wet lands
• Terminal lakes
• Natural water holes
• Streams
• Canoe tree
• Creeks
• Blue gums plantations
• Waterways
• River flows
• Natural Springs
Structure and water
40
• Canoe/pullie
• Environment water allocation
• Channels
• Bores
• Pipelines
• Tanks
• Dams
• Gray water (recycled water)
• Windmills
• Water conservation
• Pumps
• Unbungling water/land
• Whim horse
• Stock and domestic water
Workshop – discussion summary
What do we want to preserve?
1.
Need to identify where important water related sites are, educate young and old,
tourist/drives
2.
And to recognise that water is life; life is our heritage and our experience and our
future
Pre 1800s
Minimal
2000
Wim horse
scoping dams
Waranga
channels
1920
Pullie
IMPACT
1927
Pipeline
restore
environment
flows
Mallee channel
dams
Restoring
incidents via
interventions
Started to worry about
impact of water
intervention
Rocklands Dam
1962
Changing attitudes to water management in the Wimmera
We can learn from past practices – an important value of heritage
e.g. best practices of what has survive
Ways of learning:
• Field days
• Understand importance of terminal lakes
• Landcare
• Footprints of farm practices
• Competitions
• Recognise Wetland complex system
• Greening Australia
“The old ways not necessary the wrong way”
41
Workshop – discussion summary
'Silos like deserted cathedrals' - the impact of railways
on the Wimmera/Mallee landscape
Workshop facilitator: Neville Wale
The Selection Act of 1869 opened up of the Wimmera to grain farming in the early 1870s
accompanied by rapid expansion of the rail network which continued up 1930s providing
access to most of the arable land in the western plains.
Early railways were labour intensive - train servicing facilities provided employment and
necessitated major locomotive servicing centres and infrastructure such as water towers
at regular intervals to meet needs of locomotives.
Heavy horse transport gave way to motor trucks in the 1920s for not only farm to rail
head transport but longer journeys. Bagged grain was loaded manually from dray or
truck to train, and exported in small ships from various ports – usually Melbourne or
Geelong.
In the 1930s the small ships were replaced by larger steamers and bulk grain handling
methods were widely adopted with the establishment of the Grain Elevators Board in
1934
At the end of WW2 the Victorian Railways replaced ageing locomotives and rolling stock
with new J and R Class steam engines. However in 1952 the first Clyde–GM “B” Class
diesels went into service needing neither specialized coal, nor highly specialized and fit
crews.
Communities along the rail network declined as steam locomotive depots closed and
passenger services were replaced by road transport. Numbers of branch lines also closed,
their buildings removed and other material such as bridge girders reused to upgrade
functioning lines.
Rail freight services are increasingly the province of private operators. Modern methods
of farming place emphasis on large scale operations, greater diversity of crop, with bulk
handling and storage facilities. Many older forms of storage such as grain silos are
threatened with redundancy.
• Railways had social as well as economic impact – important locations marked by
infrastructure such as water towers.
• Silos, water towers, telephone lines and lattice communication towers are vertical
elements or reference points in the landscape of the western plains.
• Railway reserves, like streamlines, are marked by remnant vegetation significant
within the plains landscape.
• Railway reserves function as biolinks.
• Past regular burning of railway reserves developed certain herb ecology - now
changing because the former burning regime is too labour intensive.
• Change from bagged grain to bulk handling and replacement of steam locomotives
with diesels has increase efficiency but impacted on communities.
• Need to look at alternatives for retention of population and services.
• Railway use reduces road traffic, improves amenity in cities and towns along rail
routes and is the most efficient user of transport energy.
• Silos, like cathedrals, are the “lighthouses of the plains”. Like community centres and
places of worship they need support to find alternative use for future generations.
42
Workshop – discussion summary
• Leave concrete silos standing as symbols in recognition of the way of life of the
community they represent.
Issues
1.
Water
• Infrastructure of
railways such as water
towers now largely
redundant.
• Towers are now rare and
are of significance.
• Examine carbon offsets
and rate rebates.
2.
Landscape
• Visual impact of railways as
defining element in the
landscape.
• Linear routes containing remnant
vegetation valuable as biolinks.
• Encourage restoration of habitat
through carbon offsets.
• Rail reserves alternative use as
recreational trails.
3.
Cropping
• Infrastructure (silos)
introduced after
1920s response to
bulk handling needs.
• Encourage other uses
that facilitate
retention.
• Document and
photograph silos.
'It's flat, dry and intriguing' - tourism, recreation and
the cultural landscape of the Wimmera-Mallee
Workshop facilitator: Helen Martin
Characteristics
• All landscape is ‘cultural’.
• Big sky landscape, distance is relative.
• ‘Dark sky’ (no light pollution); extensive ‘star scape’ – something that that is very
attractive to visitors.
• Vegetation: Bulokes, Sheoaks, open woodland, August flowering in grasslands and
heathlands.
• The openness, flatness, mirages, morning fog and frost, sunrise and sunset.
• Pink salt lake, birdlife, sound across the landscape.
Myths and stores
• Duff children – story of rescue after being lost in the bush (1864)
• German history (1870 selection)
• Aboriginal sites, canoe trees.
Built fabric
• Brickworks, remains of German building styles, below ground rooms
• Mud brick
• Remains of farming technology
• Windmills for power, gas works
43
Workshop – discussion summary
• The town in the landscape – very important, given the length of views
• Silos as focal points.
‘Symbolic’ tree on local property
• Scar where bark removed for canoe (tree continue to live)
• Scar from ring- barking to make way for agriculture (tree killed)
• Demonstrates different attitudes to the land and its vegetation.
Issues
• Funds for museums and maintenance of collections.
• Lack of good accommodation and tourism information.
• Volunteers not always well suited to the role of interpretation.
• Quality of publications for marketing.
• Need to understand what we’ve got! This includes ‘Modernist’ sites, e.g. some fine
inter-War architecture.
• How to penetrate the area? Guidance of tours, threats of loss.
• Loss of young people.
• Loss of vegetation, need for basic maintenance.
• Need for more indigenous planting, direction on where urban growth goes, protection
of water catchments.
• The region is seen as a ‘drive through’ space, rather than as a destination in its own
right.
• This is the ‘outback’ of Victoria.
• Travel is solitary and many visitors touch the towns lightly. They come to camp in the
Parks or for recreational activities, but don’t engage with the people or culture.
• Climate change: less vegetation may make the landscape less appealing.
• Owners’ rights vs. heritage - sometimes controls are not wanted!
Summary of points
• Recognition of ‘what’s there’ – the need to protect existing fabric, both built and living.
• Support for tourism, including:
– facilities
– breadth of ‘product’, better services
– a more sophisticated approach – accommodation, food!
• ‘Containing’ a town character that protects the local identity.
• A need to attract young professionals and provide the things they value.
• Funding for services.
• The need for ‘sustainable’ landscapes and protection of vegetation.
• Sustaining the environment is essential to sustaining communities.
44
Workshop – discussion summary
'What are the flora and fauna telling us?' - management of the
natural heritage values of the Wimmera/Mallee
Workshop facilitator: John Hawker
• Strong interaction between vegetation and soil types, and rainfall.
• The flora and fauna can change within a few kilometres of each other.
• Great diversity of flora and fauna – need to observe, some subtle and others marked.
It’s not all the same!
• 25% of wetlands in West Wimmera.
• Clearing done on better soils for farming
• National Parks on poor soils
• Sugar Gums grown to drain swamps, a potential source of disease , eg typhoid,.
• Monterey Pines, Sugar Gums and Pepper Trees were the main trees planted around
1900 and early 1900s. Now dieing and disappearing. The planting of Aleppo Pines is
changing the landscape.
• Need to use the landscape, ‘new people’ don’t understand,
• For 6 months the bush is dry, the other 6 months the bush is green.
• Trees in the paddocks are a feature, but now disappearing due the age, impact of
farming and changes in farming practices
• Roadsides, aim to increase planting and increase width of ‘corridors’ and provide
connection for wildlife and plant survival.
• 5 chain roads have significant habitat and revegetation opportunities
• Buloke country – lots dying, ringbarked in 1880s. Poor regrowth and slow to establish
• Landcare and Greening Australia symposium on one species or community –
successful in increasing awareness in the community.
• Rare Plants Committee – CMA (biodiversity) and conservation groups.
• Removal of rabbits and stock on roads has been good for revegetation.
• Removal of trees, require 10 new tress/removed tree. 75% required in 5yrs but not
monitored. The drought has a large impact on revegetation.
• Mines, agreements to plant up other areas.
• Some roadsides under cultivation for cropping, threat to vegetation and soil.
Need a Wimmera Land Trust, coordinate various groups, and increase expertise.
Successful groups in revegetation.
• Funding for fences.
• Habitat 141 – brings 3 states together, farmers and landcare groups.
• Now buy land, plant – carbon offsets, bush tender.
• Clearing of the Little Desert, now marginal, biolink, Little Desert and Sunset,
Envirofund, council.
• Expanding width of roads – ‘corridors’, give farmers money for fencing.
• Adopt a tree – difficult to manage, not sustainable.
45
Workshop – discussion summary
• Need connections (e.g. Hindmarsh) Little Desert and Big Desert.
• Use disused railway lines.
• Indigenous vegetation, includes area and threatened species, eg Acacia pendula.
• Vermin and weed control. Weeds, include olives, bridal creeper, and horehound
• Can’t leave everything up to ‘nature’.
• Use local knowledge – ‘ownership’, part of decision making.
• Post World War II, West Australian natives planted (influenced by Alf Grey & Bill
Middleton) by CRB and were propagated at Wail Nursery.
• Scar trees are protected but are disappearing due to decay
'Something out of nothing' - rural heritage
and the Mallee/Wimmera landscape
Workshop facilitator: John Dwyer
Space – geographical
• flatness – low horizon
• big sky
• no view points/always ‘in it’
Importance of community
• settlers
• challenge of survival within landscape
• declining population of concern
Built landscape
• Silos – prominent landmarks/physical presence & symbolic
–
–
–
–
food
are they full/empty? fluctuating riches
past wealth
stand for “monoculture”
• Railways
Murtoa as a place to – live in OR – pass through to destination …
È Water – major issue:
• cultural/changes: – eg recreation È (sailing È), È fishing/yabbies – lakes È - towns
were built near them in Wimmera, can they be preserved?
• Pipelines: - open channels, closed channels – in landscape
• Settlement can’t survive without water
46
Workshop – discussion summary
Wind?
• but ‘no wind breaks’/plantings/hedges
• windmills
• soils blowing across landscape
Trees
• sugar gums – remain as monument to buildings/property now gone, preserved/
replaced (symbolic of absent people)
Dry land farming area
• unique farming challenge
• depend on natural rainfall
• ‘wait and hope’
How is community responding to change?
• What to do about È population
• Need to maintain basic infrastructure
• Its (communities) capacity to sustain ‘wait and hope’ view of those remaining is vital
Does the communities sense of past help with its sense of the future?
• Appreciated more as get older
• Young more interest in immediate world – need relics for future interpretation
'What have we learnt?' - tools for interpreting and promoting the
character and heritage of the Wimmera/Mallee landscape
Workshop facilitator: Renee Gardiner
What are the important characteristics of Wimmera-Mallee
• Big old eucalypts in low lying areas
• Waterways & associated vegetation
• Irrigation
• Single trees in paddocks
• Vertical silos acting as sign posts for town
• Roadways, stock routs
• Towns
• Cleared land
• Farm buildings – corrugated iron sheds
47
Workshop – discussion summary
• Powerlines
• Fences
• Openness, big sky
• Exotics – prickly pear (weed)
Issues and possible future directions
• Historical village
• Historical societies – fabulous repositories of local information & knowledge but they
need to be brought together on a larger scale – pooling of resources – large scale
approach
• Feed oral history into a bigger project make part of virtual experiences
• Oral history project capturing knowledge of generations (farming families)
• Digitisation of historical e.g. newspapers
• Visually through art – thematic approach
• Tourist outlets
• Make use of internet
• Councils, regional bodies, state bodies – funding & resources – intellectual resources
• Car, clubs, motorbikes club – attracting tourists – flow on effect to local economy
• Individual markets – branding landscape
• Big events – bring people to region – and then promote heritage
• Geo Park – individual elements within the boarder landscape
• Virtual tourism – making use of Google Earth & various overlays. geological/geomorph
maps, photographs of landscape, photographs of townscapes, historical information
• Thematic studies – guiding planning decisions
• Thematic histories – regional approach to the elements of collections that are on
display in local museums
3 most important values:
1.
2.
3.
48
Vegetation
Towns
History of land use, farming landscape
Day tour
Field trip
Saturday 19 April 2008
Trip planned and led by Horsham Historical Society Secretary, Lindsay Smith
Leave Horsham 9 am
Travel up the Blue Ribbon Road to Dimboola passing through the Wimmera Plains
and along the 5 Chain Minyip Road to Dimboola
Along the way plaques on memorials were pointed out to us showing us, that with
reduction of population in area and increased use of cars, how much has been
lost in terms of schools, churches etc
Site of Greenland Dam State School 2042
Also Tennis Club 1902/1923-1945/1957
Unveiled October 22 1995
1880/86-1887/96-1906/53
Kalkee Methodist Church
First erected 1876. 1 kilometre north closed on this site 17-8-1975
Centenary
This plaque commemorates 100 years of education at Kalkee Primary School no.
1840 1877 – 1977
Kalkee Primary School no. 1840
In commemoration of closure after 117 years of education 1877 – 1993. Unveiled
5 December 1993
This plaque commemorates the selection of land 315 acres by James Reynolds on
August 25 1874.
In March 1875, James, his wife Flora and their two sons, John and Alexander
moved from Strathalbyn to take possession. In the following years five more boys
were born and added to the family, Donald, Harold, James (Dec 1894), Bert and
Charles. Unveiled 17 October 2004
We drove past the Sailors Home Hall
James Ryan Kelly, known as 'Sliprail' (a teenage nickname that carried through
his life), was born in 1876 and was the second son of Mr and Mrs J. B. Kelly. He
married Margaret May Cassidy. The estate grew to 1100 acres which incorporated
the historic Sailor's Home property. A small piece of the Sailor's Home property
(otherwise known as the Blackheath Homestead) was donated on which the
Sailor's Home Hall was later built. The hall was officially opened by James Ryan
on October 16 1923. James was the first person holding the secretary role of the
hall, carrying this official duty from 1923 to 1925. He was also a councillor of the
Wimmera Shire and was involved with the Victorian Farmers Union. He loved
politics and poetry. In later years he wrote articles for the Mail Times on a regular
basis giving his opinion and views on any topic. Armed with an astounding
knowledge of local affairs, his advice was keenly sought. During 1925 he moved
to Horsham and towards the end of his farming career he let out land and sold
parts off until the last of the estate was sold in 1953. James Ryan died in 1954
aged 78.
This plaque commemorates the site of Murra Warra State School No. 2344
opened Jan 1881 closed Dec 1980. Unveiled March 1994
49
Day tour
Plaque read
Francis Smith marked this allotment of 320 acres on 18 December 1873 at 2 pm. He
applied for a licence on 18 May 1874, purchase was completed on 7 February 1884.
Francis Smiths’ family sold to Victor Percival Lehmann in 1920.
This plaque was unveiled at a Smith Family reunion on 15 April 2006, 150 years after
Francis Smith arrived in Adelaide.
Francis Smith’s selection
On 9 August 1877 Francis Smith made a declaration at Dimboola in front of William
Henry Lloyd JP that he had met the requirements of the first three years of the selection
process. He had constructed a five room house in which he was living with his family.
This house was 37 feet long, 20 feet wide and 8 feet high and constructed of peasy walls
(semi-dry earth of a low clay content rammed into temporary formwork), plastered
inside with a grass roof. It was valued at £65. Part of the application is shown below.
Adjoining landowners, G.F. Miller (north side) and Drabsch and Harders (west side) each
paid their own share of fencing. The fencing consisted of:
Post, Rail and Wire
Post and Wire
90 chains @12/6
154 chains @12/6
£56.5.0
£96.5.0
Cultivation he had carried out consisted of
First year
Second year only
Third year only
Number of acres
ploughed and cultivated
40 acres
70 acres
70 acres
Cost per
acre
25/25/25/-
Crop
Wheat
Wheat
Wheat
Yield per
acre
13
6
Total
£50.0.0
£87.10.0
£62.10.0
He had stable and shed that was 36 feet long and 18 feet wide valued at £20 and a barn
that was 28 feet long and 18 feet wide valued at £20. Both buildings were wood with
straw roofs. There were two dams valued at £30 and £15. The first was 25 yards by 10
yards and 2 yards deep and the other was 25 yards by 7 yards and 4 feet deep. The
lease was approved.
Group split into 2 to visit the Dimboola Banner office and the Court House both managed
by the Dimboola and District Historical Society
The Dimboola Banner
The first issue of the Dimboola Banner was printed on May 10th 1879 by Chicago born
Henry Bond Barnes who had previously shared ownership of newspapers in Beaufort The
Riponshire Advocate and East Charlton The East Charlton Tribune. It appears the printing
plant had been set up by one John Edgar in late 1878. Barnes only stayed three years in
Dimboola before selling up. He became a colourful character in the newspaper industry,
going on to establish the Nhill Free Press and eight more rural newspapers throughout
the state. Over the years the Banner was printed in four different town locations. The
present building has been the home of the Banner since 1929. The print Museum became
a project of the Dimboola & District Historical Society in late 2003 when the paper and
premises were put up for sale. The Dimboola banner is one of the oldest continuously
printed newspapers under its original title in the Wimmera-Mallee region. It is now
printed in Warracknabeal although the premises are still used by the local journalist.
The Dimboola Court House
The original Dimboola Court House building was designed by A T Snow of the Public
Works Department, and erected in 1875 by R Spry of Horsham at a cost of £660. It was
located at 51-61 Lloyd Street on the Police Reserve some 200 metres south of its present
site. The building was also used for the first meetings of the Lowan Shire Council before
50
Day tour
the Shire Hall was completed in 1877. A Magistrate’s room and a 15’ extension of the
courtroom was agreed to in 1899 after considerable community demands for a
completely new court house. In 1913 the court was upgraded to County Court status and
another room was added for the use of the jury. This new status was withdrawn,
however, in 1917. In 1998 the Court House was sold by the Dept of Natural Resources
and Conservation who had taken possession of it in 1987. The building was to be
demolished by the purchaser but a public campaign led by the Dimboola & District
Historical Society saved the building and saw it relocated to its present site where it
(along with a two-roomed extension at the rear) became the home of the Society and its
museum.
Ebenezer Mission
Our Land – Our People
In Wotjobaluk country our people spoke the Wergaia language. A total of 57 clans were
divided into two major clan groups, the Wergaia and Jardwadjali. The areas we occupied
stretched from Ouyen to the Northern Grampians, down to Cavendish and around to the
South Australian border.
We had a good life, shifting around in our own clan area, depending on the season, in
order to hunt and gather our food.
Our elders taught us the history, knowledge and laws of our country. We learnt where to
collect food in the different seasons. They taught us the many skills required to survive in
our fry country.
The knowledge and skills were developed over more than 40,000 years. Our people
learnt to be good conservationists, collecting what was necessary for survival and leaving
enough for future years.
Then a change occurred with the new sickness spreading across the land and reducing
our population. This occurred before the passage of the explorer Major Mitchell through
our land.
After the explorers, squatters came to our land. In October 1847 George Shaw and
Horatio Ellerman brought sheep that started to eat our food supply.
We tried to protect our land and food source, but hunger drove us to eat sheep. This
upset Horatio Ellerman who took punitive action resulting in our men folk disappearing
and our women and children hiding in the bush.
Wild shooting into the bushes b Horatio Ellerman resulted in the death of one of our
women. Horatio Ellerman found the dead woman with her son still clinging to her neck.
This child was later named Willie Wimmera, although we knew him as Jimmy Crow.
More change occurred when a house was built on our corroboree grounds. Two
missionaries, Spieske and Hagenauer moved in to this house.
Our life was about to change again. Food was being offered to our women and children,
who were starving. So the women moved into the Mission Station area. Our men were
not so sure, and did not follow the women. Eventually Phillip Pepper, who had been
converted to the new religion, convinced them that they would be safe living at the
Mission Station.
Many of our traditional practices were discarded, although the men would kill animals for
meat and the women still gathered what they could find.
51
Day tour
New skills were learnt while helping to build a log church and huts of wood and stone for
permanent homes. We helped clear our land, set up an orchard, vegetable garden and to
grow crops.
All our work was paid for, and we could purchase food and clothing from the Mission
Station. The main source of income was managing sheep.
We were good workers and our labour was in demand by squatters and our labour was in
demand by squatters and later by settlers. The money we were paid caused problems for
our people when a Wine Shanty opened at Nine Creeks (now Dimboola).
People from other clans, some as far away as the Murray River, were shifted to the
Mission Station. The change of diet and white man’s diseases meant many deaths and all
were buried near the church regardless of whether this was the land of their clan or not.
The missionaries recorded 94 burials between 1875 and 1901. later investigation
indicates there are around 150 burials in the area of the church.
The legacy of the Mission Station is the loss of our history, much of our language, our
names, culture and sustainable lifestyle. We gained improved shelter, food production
skills and learnt to trade our effort for money to purchase our requirements. Our thanks
go to the missionaries, who offered protection resulting in the survival of our people.
The history of the mission is now interwoven with our history and has become an
important part of our heritage.
Wimmera Mallee Museum, Jeparit
The Wimmera Mallee Pioneers Museum was originally started off by the efforts of one
man who would see that the days of horse drawn machines were coming to a close. From
this came the idea to collect some of the very early pieces of machinery which grew into
what is now known as the Wimmera Mallee Pioneers Museum. The Museum is located on
the 4ha of land adjacent to the Wimmera River on the outskirts of Jeparit which was
officially opened on September 3, 1970 by Sir Henry Bolte the then Premier of Victoria.
The Hindmarsh Shire Council has the overall control of the museum but the day to day
operations of the Museum are carried out by volunteers on a roster system. The
volunteers under guidance of a committee help to look after the surrounds and any other
jobs that come up, this helps to maintain the image of the Museum as you see it today.
As the Museum grew it was decided to collect household items as well as machinery. The
committee were able to procure several old buildings and halls were rebuilt at the
Museum as was the case with Albacutya Homestead. These buildings are classified by the
National Trust and period furnished. The surrounds of the house have been maintained to
help in giving a vision of station life; old fences, wool presses and the like give a portrait
of white settlement in the area.
Over the years and even right up to today we are still being offered various bits and
pieces of by gone days which has allowed the coverage of a wide range of many different
things. From these donations the Museum has been able to keep items in reserve and
periodically change the displays. This stops the complex from becoming static and
persons re-visiting the museum always find something new to retain their interest. Items
of farm machinery are being added when available and in this way the sequence from the
time of the first settlers is maintained.
52
Day tour
Machinery
The machinery display at the museum is the latest collection in Australia and ranges from
very early blacksmith made cultivating machines to early model strippers and harvesters
for the 1890s right up till the 1940s. The H. V. McKay Pavilion houses a collection of
restored McKay implements. A wide range of early model oil engines which were used to
drive stationery machines such as chaff cutters, grain thrashers etc are also on display.
The tractors on display range from mainly 1920 to 1940 models and are kept in running
order. Almost all machinery is restored to working order and are given a run every now
and again.
Buildings
There are a number of early buildings on display and are as they were when originally
built:
• Flock owners’ Huts
• Albacutya Homestead (c 1840) features axed logs with hand sawn timber frames in
furnished with period items of the 1850-1900.
• Werrap Hall (c 1886) made of wattle and daub displays household items and handcraft
work.
• Tarranyurk Hall (c 1922) of timber frame clad with small fluted iron is the display for
saddlery, carpentry and plumbing tools along with and interesting display of weapons
and stones used by the Aborigines of the area.
Other buildings exhibited are a country gaol of the 1800s, a rural state school, complete
with desks, books, teacher’s desk and high stool and hand bell. Rural chemist shop has a
complete dispensary and many items of patent medicines etc, rural church complete with
organ, hymn books, pews and altar. The straw thatched roofed shed as used by the early
pioneers for stables and machinery sheds. The Blacksmiths Shop features a forge
complete with tools, iron tyre shrinker, anvils etc. The administration area is an early
1900 homestead which is characterised by the iron laceworked wide verandah and
decorated ceilings.
Among the hundreds of household items in the Museum there are some of particular
interest. A Spiral Turned Half Tester Bed made in 1790, an Edison Gramophone and
Cylinder records and various other records. A combination Organ and Piano probably the
only one in Australia along with various other records. A combination Organ and Piano
probably the only one in Australia along with various other pianos and organs. A
collection of ornate hanging kerosene lamps along with a Kangaroo Butter Churn, early
model washing machine and refrigerators, button accordions and ornate clocks.
Briarley History
When Alfred Deakin, late Prime Minister of Australia, visited the USA to study the latest
techniques in irrigation in 1885, he met the Chaffey Brothers and persuaded them to
commence a project in Mildura.
In 1997, new settlers came from all over the world, and began to plant their orchards.
Mildura went through times of severe depression until in 1903 the new rail link with
Melbourne gave an assured transport outlet.
The land that the Briarley House was built on was owned by various people, including
Ben Chaffey, a relative of W.B. & George Chaffey, the founders of Mildura.
In 1909, the Briarley Home was built by Mr & Mrs Hubert Goldie. It was timber framed,
with American Red Pine weather boards, with choice cas lace on both sides and front.
53
Day tour
Mrs Goldie was the widow of Mr J Burgess, who was the Customs Officer in Mildura, when
the river was the main means of transport and trade between the states was subject to
duty. Mr and Mrs Goldie lived in the vineyard until 1937, then went to live in Elwood.
They died childless, Mr Goldie a few years prior to Mrs Goldie.
The house was built by Mr Austing who was also the undertaker in Moama.
In 1972 the property was sold by its owner of many years, Mr Briarley for subdivision.
The house was removed to Jeparit for the Wimmera Mallee Pioneers Museum, the
building is used as an administrative block, also for sales of literature, souvenirs and for
general tourist promotion. Mr Ken Wright, MLC for North Western Province was
associated with Mr Griff Perkins in finding the property. The Mayor of Mildura, Mr Bruce
Weir opened the house at the Museum on August 19.
Of the 23 acre property at Mildura, eight acres will be a parkland 15 subdivided.
An unusual feature of the subdivision is that the magnificent Norfolk Island Pine in what
was formerly the front garden has been preserved, in spite of the fact that it is right in
the middle of Sandpiper Drive the main street of the subdivision.
The street forks around both sides of the tree and must be the most expensive tree in
the north west. Three feet of land has been taken form the park and from the corner
allotment and expensive kerbing has been built around it.
Albacutya Homestead
Albacutya lease was granted to John Coppock in 1846. The area extended from Lake
Hindmarsh in the north of Lake Albacutya. Seven log cabins had been erected by 1850.
John Coppock never married and his nephew J.C. White succeeded him in 1865. His
grave is on the Homestead site engraved thus:
1865
John Coppock
An Honest Man
In 1877 the station was purchased by Spencer & Scott the price being £64,000. Stock on
hand 26,000 sheep. The bushranger Dan Morgan held up the occupants in 1868, the
staff were confined to the kitchen which is the bark roofed cabin at the rear of this
building. The buildings were donated to the Museum by Mr & Mrs Petschel of Rainbow,
the last owners.
The original site of the Homestead was about 25 miles north of the this spot on the
southern end of Lake Albacutya.
The buildings were all measured and photographed before removal. The timbers in the
Log Cabins were numbered before dismantling.
Timber used in restoration was cut in the vicinity of the original. All material (Red Gum
and Native Pine) used in the buildings was cut from trees in the area have been vacuum
pressured and treated against white ants.
Albacutya Station - 1846
Lease granted to John Coppock of Little River ( Inn keeper). Coppock settled at ‘Yon Yon’
in the sand hills on the north-east corner of Lake Hindmarsh near the 36th parallel. The
station was called Halbacutya and Lake Albacutya was known as Halbacutya Lake. Robert
William Von Steiglitz of Pine Hill Run (Lake Hindmarsh) protested that Coppock had
settled on his boundary, Coppock moved permanently to the south end of Halbacutya
54
Day tour
Lake. Coppock died in 1865 and was buried on the station. J.C. White nephew of John
Coppock became owner of the lease. Melbourne Banking Co appeared in control in 1867.
John Coppock never married and it was an all male station until in 1868. Eugene
O’Sullivan became manager and the front portion of Albacutya Homestead was built for
residence. Mrs O’Sullivan remained at Nine Creeks (now Dimboola) awaiting arrival of
their first child. This birth certificate is still held by the O’Sullivan family.
1870
1874
1876
1877
–
–
–
–
Lese purchased by Turnbull & Murray Smith.
Rowe Bros in possession.
Transferred to new Zealand Loan Co.
Purchased by Spencer & Scott for £32,000 ($64,000). 26,00 sheep were on the
station at this period, rabbits appeared and ate the station out and the lease
lapsed for several years. Later New Zealand Loan Co., again took up the lease
with Scott as Manager. The lease was transferred to M.A. McCrae who remained
until 1912. The area was much reduced in the late 1930s owing to subdivision
for agriculture.
1912 – Tom Dumphy took over the home block followed by Norman Dart. Fred Liesfiels
became owner in the 1920s followed by C.N. Gould and his sons. Mr & Mrs Len
Petschel are now the owners and they made the homestead available to the
Museum.
1968 – The Homestead was moved to the site at the Museum and was officially opened
in 1970.
The Robert Menzies ‘Thistle’ at Jeparit
This spire was erected in September 1966 to honour Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, former
Prime Minister of Australia, who was born in Jeparit on 20 December, 1894.
Alfred Hermann Traeger
Alfred Hermann Traeger was born at Glenlee, Victoria on 2 August 1895. Alf’s family
moved to a farm near Balaklava in South Australia. As a schoolboy age of 12 years he
successfully set up a communications link between the house and an implement shed 50
metres away. Bits and pieces from around the farm were used to make a microphone
and earpiece. The diaphragm for the earpiece was made from a tobacco tine lid, the
magnet was the prong of a pitchfork and the carbon for the microphone came from the
kitchen stove.
At 16 Alf commenced studies at the Adelaide School of Mines where he completed a
Diploma of Electrical Engineering. During his studies he became interested in the work of
Guglielmo Marconi & Heinrich Hertz into the nature of radio waves.
Alf went on to become an Amateur Radio Operator with the call sign VK5AX. He was a
member of the Wireless Institute of Australia – the oldest amateur radio society, which
was established in 1910.
For his final practical examination at the School of Mines, Alf had to build a high voltage
generator. Because of this project he met the Reverend John Flynn in 1925. Alf went on
to invent a low cost pedal driven generator capable of producing about 20 watts of DC
power to run a HF transceiver which could be used at remote stations all around
Australia. The future of communications in Australia – the Pedal Wireless and the Royal
Flying Doctor Service was decided by the ingenuity of Alf Traeger, and the vision of
Reverend John Flynn.
In 1929 Alf installed the first RFDS base station at Cloncurry in Queensland. This was the
first of many stations he installed and then trained operators.
Alf Traeger died in Adelaide on 31 July 1980.
55
Day tour
• 4 Mile beach on Lake Hindmarsh
• Glenlee
• Pink Lake
• Grain silos
Concrete silo construction
1.
Silos were built by many specialized work gangs – housed in tent work camps and
local billets.
2.
Vic Railways construction teams and some local labour. Langford – name of railway
engineer chief.
3.
Foundations involved the digging of a 20 foot deep pit, by approx. 10 foot
diameter. This provided the gravity feed to the elevator boot from the receival
hopper and bin pipes all controlled by manual valves.
4.
Form work was elevated by a series of jacks as the walls rose.
5.
Wooden boxing held the concrete pouring – approx. 4 ft each around the bin. 2½ ft
mobile gantry surrounds. Marks can be seen today both inside and out, often used
to calculate stock inside.
6.
Much steel was used to reinforce the concrete, each 12” there were 1” steel jack
rods, hooking into each other at 4ft intervals.
7.
Gravel and stone for cement mixing was usually obtained within the districts where
silos were constructed such as Wal Wal (tram line), and local quarries.
8.
Water was carted usually by Furphy tanks and horse from nearby dams.
9.
A plumb bon suspended into a small circle at dead centre of silo pit provided the
exact vertical for the upright construction of walls.
10.
Carpenters were involved for the roof work and cupola area. Cupola is the name
given to the workhouse above the bins.
11.
Mechanisation was limited, horses used to lift concrete bucket trolleys to gantry by
winch. Some small engines and pneumatics were in use, but mainly pick and
shovel. Safety work practices were not existent. Workers were oblivious to vertigo,
gravity and mortality. The job would not have got done today. When materials ran
out workers were stood down without pay. It has been stated that up to 40 men
would be at some sties waiting for work if available.
12.
Silos were powered by 22hp KL engine driving a flat horizontal belt to a 4 sheaved
pulley to run the vertical rope driven lift to the top of the elevator. Continuous rope
870 feet, 3 ½ times the height of the silo to lift the wheat up the conveyor belt.
365 buckets on a rubber elevator belt, 4 bolts holding each bucket to the belt. Only
a few people knew how to join/splice the rope when it sometime broke! A
suspended weight held the tension on the pulley ropes (i.e. the ½=4th rope). The
KL engines were sold off after electric conversion. Some were then used as
pumping units in irrigation districts and a few sold offshore to New Guinea.
13.
A series of cables to the top of the elevator – known as distributor box, determined
which bin the wheat was to go to. This was operated from the ground floor office
bin inside the silo. Bins were known as up and down, engine and office. Up and
down being railway terminology! Later bins were numbered (about 1975).
14.
During construction there were several accidents resulting in deaths and injuries.
Goornong and Lascelles were tow known sites. Reported that work gangs were
rough and tough, and weekends could be wild! However labour was readily
available with many men willing to do any form of work.
56
Appendices
Railways and the Wimmera region
Neville Wale
Initially the Colony of Victoria entered the railway age with private enterprise
developing the network in and from Melbourne. The first country railway (the
Geelong and Melbourne Railway) opened in 1857. Because of a lack of private
capital it was not long before the Government intervened and took over the
construction of the main trunk railways of which the Mt Alexander and Murray
River Railway north west to the goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo was the
first. It was built to the British standards encouraged by the wealth flowing from
Gold (1862-64). The North East Railway to Albury was opened in 1873.
Light lines
Possibly because of the need to provide transport links to the rapidly expanding
areas of the Colony encouraged by the Selection Act of 1869 which resulted in
the opening up of the Wimmera to grain farming, the early 1870s were a time of
rapid expansion of the rail network. They were also accompanied by cost cutting
measures which ushered in the era of “Light Lines”. Further construction of the
main lines occurred during this period as well as branch railways to places such
as Daylesford and Wahgunya. Most of the goldfields towns were connected with
the expanding network to ports such as Portland and Geelong.
Boom years and the octopus acts 1880s
The 1880s saw the passage by the Victorian Parliament of the “Octopus” Act of
1884 which resulted in the construction of some 51 country lines and 8 suburban
lines. Substantial brick station buildings were erected in important country towns
and more elaborate decorated timber buildings in lesser towns, although the
majority of stations on branch lines and branch termini received temporary
timber buildings. Cutbacks in railway expenditure by 1890 were caused by the
perception of excess and news papers of the day attacked the Railways
Commissioners for extravagance:– bridges had been built to standards higher
than deemed necessary, earthworks and embankments were excessive, stations
were over manned, serious cost overruns had occurred during construction,
station grounds were often too large, and standards generally higher than those
adopted for minimum gradients and curves for “Light Lines”. Although railway
construction in much of Victoria was severely curtailed in consequence, works
continued in the Wimmera – Mallee.
Railways and population distribution
The early railways were labour intensive and the need to locate personnel and
train servicing facilities throughout the network provided employment and
necessitated the building of housing for workers and their families in many towns
along the routes. The driving and firing of stream locomotives was demanding on
personnel involving long shifts and dirty working conditions. Key town became
centres for major locomotive servicing such as Ararat and Ballarat. Major
structures such as Water towers were required at regular intervals to meet the
water requirements of locomotives. With railway stations came station masters
and administrative staff who generally took a prominent part in town affairs. In
small towns the permanent way gangers and in isolated places the fettlers were
often the only people in communities with permanent positions and regular
wages.
57
Appendix 1 – Railways in the Wimmera region
Western plains and Mallee lines
The first trains rolled into Mildura in 1903 establishing the transport spine upon which the
other the Mallee lines were based including a line west to South Australia.(1903 -1931).
The Border Railway and Development Act lines were built from 1912 -1938 to southern
South Australia enhancing the connection to the port of Portland.
Grain operations from 1930
The drought of 1929 stimulated a record sowing in 1930 when 1.8 million hectares was
committed mainly to wheat. The world price for grain was low and growers were hurting
as the world depression struck. This level of cropping was not sustainable and
contributed to the subsequent and frequent dust storms and red rain affecting
Melbourne. The demand for oats declined as heavy horse transport gave way to motor
trucks for not only farm to rail head transport but longer journeys. At the peak of the
network in the 1940s the railways were able to serve most of the arable land in Victoria.
Throughout the western plans most properties had access to a rail connection less than
25 km from the farm gate.
During the 1800s grain crops had been sold to Corn merchants who undertook the
shipment of the bagged grain from farms or rail centres to various ports – usually
Melbourne or Geelong. It was sent in small sailing ships to Britain – trade was all in bags,
loaded manually from dray or truck to train and ship. During WW1 export ports became
clogged and two new grain lines were built connecting Horsham and Hamilton (1920) and
another running west from Heywood to South Australia (1916) to Portland although the
port suffered from the lack of shelter and was less than efficient. The introduction of
more powerful steam locomotives allowed longer trains and changes to some country
lines facilitated access to Geelong which became the focus for the bulk haulage of wheat
by train.
In the 1930s the small ships began to disappear and were replaced by larger steamers
and grain accumulation and discharge methods changed. In 1933 an expert committee
was set up to study the receipt, transport and storage of grain in Victoria. This resulted
in the establishment of the Grain Elevators Board in 1934 charged with all activities
involving grain handling from storages, supply management, quality control and data. It
also established a corporate structure for management and facility operations, and the
construction and maintenance of grain elevators. The demand for orderly marketing grew
and finally the Australian Wheat Board was established in 1939 under wartime
emergency powers. Government monopoly of wheat marketing ended in 1948 when
growers gained control of the AWB.
In 1977 the Grain Elevators Board became the sole grain handling authority in Victoria.
In addition to a number of regional offices it maintained two export terminals at Geelong
and Portland. The Grain Elevators Board was dissolved in 1995 and its assets sold to a
private operator, Vic Grain Ltd, which continued the key operations of the Board. Grain
has moved increasingly to deregulation and the range of grain production has also
diversified to different cereals, pulses oilseeds and process products.
The end of steam - 1960
At the end of WW2 the Victorian Railways were in serious plight needing to replace
ageing locomotives and rolling stock. Operation Phoenix saw the introduction of new J
and R Class steam engines and the electrification of lines to the Latrobe Valley. It
became more difficult to find fit steam engine crews and when added to the shortages of
fuel and fuel handling the advantages of diesel traction saw the virtual end of stream
during the 1960s. In 1952 the first Clyde–GM “B” Class diesels went into service, soon
proving economic needing neither specialized coal, nor highly specialized and fit crews.
58
Appendix 1 – Railways in the Wimmera region
Diesels ran an average of 130,000 miles per year compared with the 35,000 to 60,000
miles for main line stream locomotives. The consequence of these changes, compounded
in later years, saw line closures and changes in freight handling. This impacted on the
communities along the rail network causing a decline in employment and population as
many rail depots closed and passenger services were replaced by road transport.
Current rail operations
In recent decades the emphasis in the rail network has been on deficit reduction, lifting
cost recovery for freight and passenger services and improving service quality. Bulk
commodity transport has become a major part of rail operation. The advantage of grain
handling in bulk by rail transport is acknowledged. Operations have however been
restructured and 60% of traffic is now directed through “central receival points”.
Numbers of branch lines have been closed and their buildings removed and other
material such a bridge girders reused to upgrade functioning lines. Rail freight services
are increasingly the province of private operators. Modern methods of farming place
emphasis on large scale operations, with bulk handling and storage facilities so that
many older forms of storage such as grain silos to be threatened with redundancy. Port
facilities also become bigger with each new development.
59
Sites of geological and geomorphological significance
Horsham 1:250 000 mapsheet area
Associate Professor Bernie Joyce
HR 001 Mount Arapiles Mitre 574000 5932000 A mesa-type mountain of SilurianDevonian sandstone rising abruptly above the Wimmera Plains. The area is an outlying
peak of Grampians Group sediment that form the bulk of the Grampian to the southeast.
Mount Arapiles is bounded by impressive near vertical cliffs of horizontally bedded
sandstone to the north and northeast. Excellent views can be obtained of Mitre Rock (HR
004), Mitre Lake (HR 013) and the surrounding Wimmera Plains. State Although similar
rock types and cliffs occur 40 km to the southeast in the Grampians, Mt Arapiles is
probably the largest and most impressive Monadnock in the State. Hills, 1940a Hills,
1975 King, 1984a Land Conservation Council, Victoria, 1979 Land Conservation Council,
Victoria, 1982
HR 002 Briggs Bluff - Mount Stapylton Dadswell Bridge 630400 5914900 This area
of Silurian-Devonian aged sediments of the Grampians Group forms the northern tip of
the Grampians Range. Apart from numerous individual rock outcrops, these sediments as
a group form a rugged and spectacular landform providing a dramatic contrast with the
surrounding Wimmera Plain. Local The area on its own is of local significance as
numerous and better examples of these features occur to the south. However, this area
forms part of the larger landform that makes up the Grampians which, as a whole, is of
national significance.
HR 003 Diapur Railway Cutting Diapur 539600 5980700 Cutting in the Pliocene
Parilla Sand displaying lithology and bedding. Local Good exposure of a widespread and
uniform unit.
HR 004 Mitre Rock Mitre 574000 5937000 Monadnock of Silurian-Devonian sediment
standing above the Wimmera Plains. It is separated from Mt Arapiles by a broad saddle
of weathered Silurian-Devonian sediment and Quaternary scree. It provides good and
easily accessible outcrops of sandstone and mudstone, as well as good views of the
surrounding landscape. When viewed from the west the rock has the form of a bishops
mitre. State Isolated monadnocks of sediment such as this are rare in the State. Being a
small outlier of Mt Arapiles its significance is linked with this larger monadnock to the
south. Hills, 1975 King, 1984b Land Conservation Council, Victoria, 1985a Land
Conservation Council, Victoria, 1986 Lawrence, 1974
HR 005 Little Desert (central) Nhill 577000 5958300 The Little Desert is an area of
irregular siliceous sand dunes of Quaternary age (Lowan Sand) and can be equated with
more well developed irregular subparabolic dunes to the north and interstate. There is a
wide variety of dune forms varying from flat sheets to areas with a relief of 30 m. The
dunes have been derived from deflation of the Late Tertiary Parilla Sand. Regional This
dune type, widespread in central and eastern Australia, is near its southern limit and
therefore rather subdued in form. In Victoria better developed dune systems in the
Lowan Sand are present in the Big Desert and the Sunset Country to the north. The
dunes at this locality are representative of the dune forms that occur in the Little Desert.
HR 006 Cliffs (The), Lake Hindmarsh Jeparit 577200 6011500 Cliffs of Pliocene
Parilla Sand form part of the western coastline of Lake Hindmarsh. Such wave-cut cliffs
are found on the western side of a number of lakes in the Wimmera/Mallee region. The
cliffs just north of Shultz’s Beach are 4-6 m high and display the nature of the Parilla
Sand in this area, with coarse cross-bedded sandstone and micaceous sandstone. The
60
Appendix 2 – Sites of geological and geomorphological significance
sediments are highly ferruginised. The sediments are late Miocene-early Pliocene in age
while the ferruginisation is probably Pliocene in age. Regional Best example in the
region of sandstone cliffs bordering a lake. Good exposure of the Parilla Sand overlain by
the Woorinen Formation King, 1984b Land Conservation Council, Victoria, 1985a
HR 007 Salt lake, northwest of Mitre Mitre 668500 5937000 A small depression
bordered by a lunette to the east. When wet the depression contains saline water
indicating the area is one of groundwater discharge. This small depression and lunette is
typical of the saline lakes found in the narrow groundwater discharge zone running south
from the Dimboola area to Douglas (on adjoining Hamilton mapsheet). Local A
representative example of a locally common feature.
HR 008 Mortat Swamp to Round Hill Swamp Goroke 574150 5933800 This is a
typical group of swamps (freshwater) and associated lunettes located between low
sandstone and dune ridges trending north-northwest-south-southeast, marking former
coastal strandlines. There is probably sluggish movement of surface water from time to
time from south to north which terminates at Round Hill Swamp butting against the
dunes of the Little Desert. Local A representative example of a common geological
phenomenon in this area south of the Little Desert. Land Conservation Council, Victoria,
1985a Lawrence, 1974
HR 009 Lake Bringalbert Apsley 514500
5923000 This general area has no
substantial development of a surface drainage system apart from sluggish surface water
movements in wetter periods. Most of the surface water collects in numerous small lakes
and swamps, with the whole area acting as a groundwater recharge area. This small lake
is typical of those in the area. It is freshwater and is bounded to the east by dune and to
the north-west by a low wooded hill of Parilla Sand of Late Miocene? - Pliocene age.
Local Typical example of one of the numerous small freshwater lake-lunette complexes
in the area.
HR 010 Tullyvea gypsum flats Jeparit A series of swamps and gypsum flats often
bordered to the east by gypsum rich lunettes. The area lies in a more general linear zone
running from Lake Hindmarsh to Dimboola where numerous deposits of gypsum occur.
This narrow zone is an area of groundwater discharge which has resulted in lake
development and the deposition of gypsum. Gypsum has been mined for many years in
this zone from both the flats (where it has precipitated from groundwater) and the dunes
(where it has accumulated from deflation of the adjacent gypsum flat). Regional This
group of depressions and dunes is representative of the landscape in this linear zone of
saline groundwater discharge.
HR 011 Lake Hindmarsh and dunes Jeparit 583000 6008000 A large freshwater lake
about 17 km by 10 km bordered to the west in part by low sandstone cliffs and to the
east by a series of lunettes. The Wimmera River flows through the lake and hence it is
freshwater. It is likely that Lake Hindmarsh has always contained a substantial amount of
water through the Quaternary climactic variations that in the Wimmera/Mallee region,
saw the drying of many lakes and the development of adjacent clay rich lunettes. The
Wimmera River has ensured a continuing source of water and sand to the lake and hence
the lunettes to the east contain a high proportion of sand, having been constructed in
part by deflation of sandy beaches. Sand is quarried under extractive industry licences on
the inner lunette. The maximum height of the dune is about 60 m above water level.
State This area an impressive relic of the once numerous and more extensive water
bodies and associated dunes that dotted the Wimmera/Mallee region around 50 000
years B.P. Its size (second only to Lake Tyrrell), permanent water, western cliffs and the
high sandy eastern dunes make this lake-lunette complex significant at state level. Hills,
1940a King, 1984a King, 1984b Land Conservation Council, Victoria, 1985a Land
Conservation Council, Victoria, 1986 Lawrence, 1974
61
Appendix 2 – Sites of geological and geomorphological significance
HR 012 Lawloit cutting Nhill 542300 5971000 A large road cutting in a prominent
sandline of Parilla Sand. This heavily ferruginised sandstone, showing various
sedimentary features is Late Miocene? or Pliocene in age. Local This is the best cutting in
the region of a widespread and uniform unit. Land Conservation Council, Victoria, 1986
HR 013 Mitre Lake Mitre 574000 5937000 A saline lake and lunette that is particularly
conspicuous from the top of Mt Arapiles and Mitre Rock. Local A good example of a
locally common feature. Hills, 1975King, 1984bLand Conservation Council, Victoria,
1985a Land Conservation Council, Victoria, 1986 Lawrence, 1974
HR 014 Connan Swamp lunette Mitre 570300 5940000 Lunette adjacent to swamp.
The part of the lunette that lies on Crown land (8 ha) is a geological reserve. Local An
example of a landform that is common in northern and western Victoria. Land
Conservation Council, Victoria, 1986
Further information: Susan White, Convener, Geological Heritage Subcommittee, Victoria
Division, Geological Society of Australia Inc.
([email protected])
http://vic.gsa.org.au/heritage.html
62
List of attendees
Name
Peter
Juliet
Roger
Jan-Bert
Mabel
Paula
Lorinda
Robin
Mary
Ron
Helen
Joan
John
Marie Ruth
Wendy
Peter
Chris
Bart
Renee
Fiona
Val
Adam
Gail
Alison
John
Jim
Timothy
Bernie
Helen
Dawn
Doug
Colin
Garry
Janet
Helen
Rob
Trudy
Terry
Roslyn
Bryan
Adler
Bird
Borrell
Brouwer
Brouwer
Clarke
Cramer
Crocker
Dodds
Dodds
Doyle
Dwyer
Dwyer
Dwyer
Dwyer
Forbes
Gallagher
Gane
Gardiner
Gormann
Gregory
Harding
Harradine
Harris
Hawker
Heard
Hubbard
Joyce
Martin
McBride
McCroll
Mibus
Moorfield
O'Hehir
Page
Pilgrim
Rickard
Sanders
Savio
Small
Organisation
Dinner speaker
National Trust
Heritage Matters Pty Ltd
Friends of Wail Arboretum
Friends of Wail Arboretum
Manager Community Services - Yarriambiack Shire Council
Museum of Chinese-Australian History
Robin Crocker & Associates
Local
Greening Australia
Historian
Heritage Council Landscape Advisory Committee
National Trust
Department of Sustainability Environment
Chair, Heritage Council
Warrnambool City Council
Cultural Heritage Specialist
Swan Hill
Murtoa Museum
Horsham Art Gallery
Barengi Gadjin Land Council
Department of Planning and Community Development
Heritage Council
Horsham Historical Society
Heritage Matters Pty Ltd
University of Melbourne
Shearwater Associates Pty Ltd
Water in Drylands Collaborative Research Program (WIDCORP)
Warracknabeal Historical Society
West Wimmera Shire Council
Corangamite Shire
Student (Uni of Melb, Burnley)
Heritage Council Landscape Advisory Committee
Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement
Light House
Manager Economic Development - Yarriambiack Shire Council
Landscape Architect
North Grampians Shire
63
Appendix 3 – List of attendees
Name
Robert
Damien
Simon
Brooke
Neville
Annabel
Dane
Kelly
Heather
Rob
David
64
Stephen
Sutton
Torok
Turner
Wale
Walton
Walton
Wynne
Yates
Youl
Young
Organisation
Warracknabeal Historical Society
Department of Planning and Community Development
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
CFA
Heritage Council Landscape Advisory Committee
Heritage Matters Pty Ltd
Heritage Matters Pty Ltd
Heritage Matters Pty Ltd
Millewa Community Pioneer Forest & Historical Society
Landcare Australia
Planning Officer - Yarriambiack Shire Council