Monday 23 January 2017

Sydney F HULME - Trove Tuesday

Sydney Frederick HULME was my maternal grandmother's Uncle.
His birth was registered at Oxley, Victoria in 1882 and he was the eldest son (fourth child) of Joseph HULME and Anna Dorothea nee BARTSCH.

I can't really grasp what the incident was all about but Sydney was found not guilty.




Sometime between 1914 and 1924 Sydney and his wife, Jane moved from the Milawa area to Heidelberg,  a suburb of Melbourne.

Sydney died in 1963.  
Death was recorded at Preston which is near Heidelberg.

Friday 20 January 2017

Sepia Saturday 351 - Grandmothers


The Sepia Saturday challenge this week is two pictures of the same woman at different stages of her life.
Read more contributions to this weeks Sepia Saturday posts HERE.

My Maternal grandmother, Daisy Marion FLEMING nee MORGAN at ages 16 and 86.


















Only recently I was gobsmacked to receive the early photo below of my Paternal grandmother, Brenda Mary FORSYTH nee ADAMS, aged 21.  It was sent to me, along with other family letters and photos, by descendants of her maternal Uncle, Alexander MORGAN, who had moved to New Zealand in 1886.
(I have MORGAN ancestry on both sides of my family).
He had kept many photos and letters, perhaps because he was so far from "home"
We had never seen a photo of her so young.
The second photo was taken when she was 91. 

Back of the photo of young Brenda Adams


Some good news for our family

Shared recently on a social media family history page by cousin Harold Shipston.

"I had the new owners of "Fermoy" ring me today.
They are lovely people whose intent in buying the historic building is to restore it as close as they can to the original condition, just as it was when the last of our Garrett family moved away.
The couple purchased it with the sole interest of collecting every scrap of history they can find and documenting the stories of the people that lived their lives here.
Fermoy is the oldest standing building in Euroa and it was founded by Maurice Garrett. Maurice and Isabella Beaton made a formidable team in the foundation of Euroa with Maurice arriving in the mid-1800's At the age of 22.
He and Isabella combined to set not only our families history but that of Euroa too.
For those of us that feel a strong connection with this home, rest assured, it is in good caring safe hands."


Family of Maurice GARRETT who opened one of the first Hotels & General stores in North Eastern Vic in 1860's at Euroa.

Isabella GARRETT nee BEATON (Formerly PIKE and HARRISON)

Photos from the Garrett and Beaton family history collections which have been generously shared by our many family researchers.

Tuesday 17 January 2017

January bushfires in Victoria

There was a Friday the 13th in Victoria this year and also in January 1939, a horrendous time of bushfires now known as Black Friday.

Victoria had been through a prolonged drought so the fires, combined with extreme heat and strong winds, caused widespread destruction as it swept across nearly two million hectares.  Seventy-one people perished along with sheep, cattle, horses and other animals.
More detail can be found at the Victorian DEPI  webpage.

It seems like only a short time ago that even more lives (173) were lost in the tragedy of the Victorian 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.

In 1939 my Mum's cousin, Allan Percy Fleming, was a journalist for the Brisbane Courier Mail.  He wrote about Powelltown in Victoria where the fire had thankfully only claimed 2 lives this time compared to 31 lives lost in the Black Sunday fires of 1926.
He wrote about the bravery 15-year-old Florrie Hodges in saving her 3 younger sisters.


Transcription:-

Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), Wednesday 11 January 1939, page 6

Fire Over Victoria
Heroism In The Rugged Bush
Bv ALLAN FLEMING
IN the rugged mountains of north eastern Victoria the bush fire is again spreading devastation. The people of the sawmilling districts of
Erica, Noojee, and Powelltown have one small mercy to be thankful for— the fires have claimed only two lives. In 1926, in the same district, 31 men, women, and children were burnt to death on Victoria's Black Sunday — the worst bush fire disaster in the history of Australia It was on Black Sunday that Florrie Hodges, a girl of 15, became a national heroine. The scene of her heroism was near Monett's Mill, where nearly every family has already lost its life's savings this year. When the fire was at its height, raging through the timber to the mill, she set out with her three sisters and six other persons to go to Powelltown, five miles away. Her sisters, were aged seven years, four years, and 17 months respectively. She had the eldest sister on her back, and the other two under her arms. The fire trapped them. The eldest sister was taken by another member of the party, and Florrie flung her body over the other two while the fierce flames swept over them. They remained there until help arrived. Florrie, who was the most severely burned, spent many weeks in hospital recovering, and her bravery won her the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society of Australasia. EVERY year the people of the district have had to do battle with bushfires, and occasionally tragedy is added to the destruction. After the disaster of 1926 many dugouts were built and equipped near the mills, but in the vast, forest areas it is impossible to create absolute safety. When the undergrowth becomes tall and dry a spark will start a blaze that leaps over fire-breaks in front of a strong wind and lights up miles ahead. A man riding hard on a horse could not escape it unless the wind changed.
Although the district is only a few hours' run from Melbourne it is as rugged as any part of Australia. Tall trees cover the steep mountainsides, timber tracks of wood or steel wind around narrow cuttings above wattle and scrub shrouded gullies. Wooden trestle bridges span the waters of rocky creeks. There is usually a small settlement of bark or wooden huts around, the outlying sawmills, but the forest encroaches upon them so closely that a raging fire will take them in its path. Wallabies, kangaroos, rabbits, and foxes join in the wild race to escape the flames. Even settlements like Powelltown are so deeply set among the frowning hills and thick forests that any big fire roaring before a wind is a constant menace. HEALESVILLE and Toolangi, which are being threatened also in the outbreak which began on Sunday, are not far away. They are in the same type of country. Their tourist attractions, however, have led to the building of many good roads winding round the sides of the mountains. . In the Powelltown district most of the tour- ists are hikers who follow rough paths or the tracks of the timber trains. Latest reports indicate that many homes have been burnt, and hundreds are threatened . further north in the Mansfield-Tatong- Whitlands districts — the Kelly country. It was in a gully not far from Tatong that Ned Kelly shot dead a mounted constable who had come to surprise and capture him. Some settlers there still remember seeing the bushranger in their childhood. The country has been opened up by a fine scenic road that gives a glorious view of Mount Buffalo and the Australian Alps as it winds round gorges and along a rough tableland. Most of the settlers on the tableland have been trying to grow potatoes on virgin country that they have sweated to clear. The fire will be a severe setback to them.