South Eastern Historical Association Inc.

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  • News from the Newsletters – November 2020

    This is a summary of some of the articles taken from the newsletters sent to the Secretary from SEHA Groups and Societies, November 2020. With Covid 19, our groups have had to close their Museums and Research rooms, and some have also stopped producing newsletters, but there are still some coming through. We are all doing the best we can under unusual circumstances. Let’s all hope we can get back to ‘normal’ in 2021 and re-open to the public and share our history in person again. Compiled by Heather Arnold.

    Bass Valley
    • The History of the Bass Valley area is recorded in the Western Port Times, a monthly on-line newsletter. You can access it through the Granville history website http://www.grantvillehistory.com.au/

    Brighton Cemetorians   http://www.brightoncemetorians.org.au/
    • The Cemetorian has many interesting articles on the people buried at the Brighton Cemetery. The September issue includes Sir Henry Cecil Colville (1891-1984), honorary paediatric surgeon at the Alfred Hospital, 1924-1951; Joseph Wolfenden (1850-1922) resident surgeon at the Dunolly hospital for 40 years and George Peter Desailly (1823-1876) Riverina pastoralist. The December issue includes John Plisch (1864-1933) Prahran baker; John Joseph Coffey (1871-1957), coachbuilder; Jan Learey (1820-1900) early East Brighton resident and Charles Brewer (1856-1925) Anglican Minister. All articles are written by Lois Comeadow.

    City of Moorabbin Historical Society http://home.vicnet.net.au/~cmhsbcm/
    • The Society turned 60 this year. Celebrations were limited due to the Covid 19 restrictions, but they had an interesting write-up in the Glen Eira News of October 2020. More information https://seha.org.au/moorabbin-historical-society-turns-60

    Dandenong & District Historical Society http://ddhs.com.au/
    • Their Annual report from 2019/2020 includes the following facts – their volunteers worked the equivalent of 253 days with 2,025 hours contributed by volunteers for the year. It would have been more, but the Research Room was closed from March 11, 2020 due to Covid 19 restrictions.

    Friends of Cheltenham & Regional Cemeteries http://www.focrc.org/
    • Raves from the Graves October 2020 includes more memories of Fairlie Taylor and life in Cheltenham and Beaumaris from early times. Sue Beazley has written an article on Charles William Morrison (1899-1943) a POW who died at the Hainan Island Prison Camp. He has a memorial plaque at the Cemetery. Sue has also written an article on Hector St Clair (1898-1932) English comedian, who died of consumption and is buried at the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery. Another comedian buried at Cheltenham is ‘Lucky’ Grills. His ashes were placed in his parent’s grave at the Cheltenham Memorial Cemetery.

    Hastings Western Port Historical Society http://www.hwphs.org.au/
    • The September 2020 newsletter has an article, by Linda Tredwell, on Dr Robert Dane, descended from a Tyabb family, who invented an unmanned surface vessel (USV) or sea-going drone. The drone is solar, wind and wave powered, and it can travel vast distances. His company, Ocius, was granted $5.5 million by the Australian Defence Department to test and develop a fleet of 6 USVs. This article is a reminder to us all that history is now, not just 100 years ago.

    Heritage Hill, Dandenong
    • Words of Wisdom Exhibition Curator’s Talk – this presentation explores the narratives of life as told and recorded through the printed word and features material from the City of Greater Dandenong Civic and Cultural Heritage Collection, Dandenong and District and Springvale and District historical society collections as well as private collections. You can view it on YouTube here https://youtu.be/ZlhVzhDCLnE

    Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society
    • The September 2020 newsletter has part three of Henry Boxshall’s history of Yallock. It was written in 1957 and published in the Koo Wee Rup Sun in July 1968. The October newsletter takes a light-hearted look at the use of potatoes in health and beauty. The Koo Wee Rup Swamp used to be a major potato growing area. The November newsletter looks at Cora Lynn in 1907, the year the State School opened. It was written by Heather Arnold.

    Mornington Peninsula Family History Society https://www.mpfhs.org/
    • The Peninsula Past Times newsletter of November 2020 includes pages of useful genealogical resources as well as an article by Mary Vanderfeen on Robert Smith, a convict sent to Van Diemen’s Land who later became a publican at Geelong.

    Narre Warren & District Family History Group http://nwfhg.org.au/
    • The November 2020 Spreading Branches has an article by Lynne Bradley on the fall of Rabaul and the sinking of the Montevideo Maru, our greatest maritime disaster when over 1,000 lives were lost in 1942. Marianne Rocke has written an article on some of the interesting facts she gleaned from the Berwick State School registers.

    Phillip Island & District Genealogical Society   http://piadgs.org.au/
    • In the August 2020 Reflections newsletter Duncan McPherson writes about the 1919 Spanish Influenza epidemic which took four members of his wife’s extended family – Ada Spink and three of her children, 16-year-old Ada, 14-year-old Joshua and 13-year-old Herbert. The family lived at Salford, near Manchester.

    Rye Historical Society    http://ryehistoricalsociety.weebly.com/
    • The Whitecliffs newsletter October – December has a history of the Rye jetty, first constructed in 1866, written by Noel Erbs. Noel has also written a history of the tea-rooms on the Rye foreshore.

    Wonthaggi and District Historical Society http://www.wonthaggihistoricalsociety.org.au/
    • The essay in the October 2020 Plod is titled Thoughts on the Origins of the Street Names in the Old Part of North Wonthaggi and is written by Sam Gatto. Sam writes that the ‘suburbs’ of North Wonthaggi, Edgartown, Dudley and Hicksborough were not part of the State Model Town project of 1909/1910. They were private subdivisions, outside the boundaries of the proposed State Model Town’. Interesting read. The essay in the November Plod is an account of life on the Powlett River coal field from The Argus, 31 December 1909

  • Moorabbin Historical Society turns 60

    Congratulations to the Moorabbin Historical Society who are celebrating 60 years of preserving and collecting history. Tom Sheehy was instrumental in establishing the Society and the first meeting was held on October 26, 1960 at the Moorabbin Town Hall. The Society is based at Box Cottage in Ormond.

    More information- http://home.vicnet.net.au/~cmhsbcm/

    The Glen Eira News has published an article on the Society, you can read it in the October 2020 edition http://gleneira.smedia.com.au/news/#
    This is the text of the article –
    Moorabbin Historical Society celebrates 60 years
    October marks the 60th anniversary of the Moorabbin Historical Society. We spoke with Joan Moore and Carol Poole about the early years of the Society and plans for the future.

    Congratulations on your 60th anniversary. When and how was the Society established?
    Local historian Tom Sheehy instigated, organised and motivated the first meeting on 26 October 1960 at Moorabbin Town Hall, where it was resolved that an historical society be formed in Moorabbin. The name “City of Moorabbin Historical Society” was later adopted. Early members included Clarice Whitehead, Nance Blackman, Joan Marshall and Hazel Deam, who along with Les Schumer contributed valuable records to the Society in those early years.

    The Society moved around quite a bit before finding its permanent home at Box Cottage, Ormond. Tell us about that.
    At first the Society met wherever we could, including at some people’s homes. It later operated out of a home called Healey’s, formerly The Grange, and at times from Moorabbin Town Hall. In the early 1980s, the Society left The Grange after it was broken into and most of the Society’s collection stolen. The property was later sold and demolished.

    Around the same time, local timber merchant Laurie Lewis drew attention to the historic, but slightly dilapidated Box Cottage on his Ormond property. In 1983, Moorabbin Council gave permission for the cottage to be relocated to Joyce Park next to his business on Jasper Road.

    Laurie donated the timber so that the Cottage could be reconstructed. He also donated the timber for the barn to be built at a later date. By 1984, the reconstruction of Box Cottage was well underway. A lease was arranged by Council and the Moorabbin Historical Society had finally found its home.

    Can you tell us a bit about the collection?
    Much of the original collection was unfortunately stolen from The Grange in the early 1980s. The Society soon set about re-building its collection with donations from locals.

    The cottage itself is a reconstruction of a small settler’s cottage, c.1840s. Box Cottage is named after long standing residents William and Elizabeth Box, who lived there from 1865 to 1914 with their 11 children. Many of the original cottage’s items have been incorporated. The Cottage Museum also houses an interesting eclectic collection of historical artefacts and photos that have been generously donated over the last 50 years by local residents.

    A lot of work has been done by members over the years to make the Cottage and barn a showcase of how the early settlers lived and worked in the area, and this work is still ongoing today.

    How did the 1994 Council amalgamations affect the Society?
    The amalgamations meant that the City of Moorabbin was split three ways between the new councils of Bayside, Glen Eira and Kingston. The Moorabbin Historical Society, being located in the new Glen Eira area, soon found itself straddling two councils — much of our history in Kingston, and our governance in Glen Eira. We enjoy working with both councils and both are very supportive of the Society to this day.

    You’ve always played an important role in the community. What are some of the events and activities you are most proud of?
    The Cottage has always opened on the last Sunday of each month, staffed entirely by volunteers. Over the years we have had visits from local schools and we have also visited schools to do historical presentations. The Society has also held history displays at Southland Shopping Centre and Bentleigh Shopping Centre.

    We’ve produced regular newsletters over the years and we are cataloguing and photographing our artefacts so that they can be viewed on the Box Cottage pages within the Victorian Collections website.

    What do you wish for in your 60th year and beyond?
    In our 60th year, the present committee and members are passionately involved in keeping the Society going. Our hope is that we can attract some more members a bit younger than us to join and take the Society to its 100th birthday.