Today I have made some updates to the Len Petschel story below (photo Added) and the story of the netting fence in the history section. (photo added with dialog)
Sir William Molesworth BT
This is a page I have recently updated.
While Sir William Molesworth was very much an Englishman, he had a lot to do with Australia’s early history, particularly that of South Australia and Adelaide.
His story is about early Australia and his campaigns and battles in parliament, so I thought he deserved a place in the front of Australian history.
I have added some information on him and his speech in parliament where he attacked Lord Glenelg calling for his resignation as Secretary for the Colonies. On this page you will also find a link to a book produced on a selection of his speeches.
While most of his campaigns were from the 1830 it wasn’t until July 1855 that Sir William was appointed secretary for the colonies a position he held until his untimely death.
His speeches led to the resignation of Lord Glenelg as the Colonial Secretary a position later held by Sir William Molesworth. He was also responsible for the removal of Governor Hindmarsh who he considered had done a poor job in South Australia.
Sir William Molesworth was one of the architects along with Lord Wellington of the development of free settlements with no convict content in the region which led to the creation of Adelaide in South Australia and Wellington in New Zealand.
There is also some evidence that Adelaide was at one time to be named Molesworth in his honour in the same way as Wellington in New Zealand received its name from Lord Wellington as these two were the main campaigners for the creation of the two settlements. Adelaide ended up with a street named after Sir William while the men he removed from power Glenelg and Hindmarsh both got a suburb.
He had much concern about the treatment of the convicts and the practice of flogging, eventually having the practice stopped. He also questioned Glenelg and Hindmarsh about his observation of the decline of the Aboriginal inhabitants in South Australia which he presented in his speech to parliament in England on Lord Glenelg which can be found at the end of this page.
His other campaign was for the abolition of the transport of convicts. This was another campaign where he was successful in achieving a result in his favour.
Related Images:
Dawns Story
I finally finished gathering the information for Dawns Story. It was published over 9 weeks in the local paper 20 years ago and follows her life up to the age of 16. Dawn arrived in Rainbow a short time after my mother left with her family and Dawns first job was behind the counter in the local café in the same job mum had vacated a short time before.
You can check out Dawn’s story in the Mallee history section.
Related Images:
Trip to Dimboola formerly Nine Creeks.
Tuesday 2nd December 2014
While attending a tourism meeting of the Wimmera Mallee committee in Dimboola, We were taken for a look at the print Museum that is soon to be opened in the town. It is almost complete and it was amazing to see all of the equipment fully operational. some of the pieces are over 100 years old, one has been in a building that was burned down and it is restored and fully functional today. We were privileged to be shown through the display by a man that had apprenticed in the business eventually becoming the owner and then selling it to retire. He is still a very capable operator and surprised all as he started up each machine and operated it. Some of these were powered by a peddle that he pushed with his foot as he placed the sheets of paper into it and then removed it again on the next cycle as he placed the next in to be printed. (It reminded me of a person rubbing his stomach while patting his head but with the added piece of pushing a peddle with the foot at the same time.)
As you pass through this building you walk through the history of the local newspaper industry in these towns and see how much effort it took to produce a newspaper. The picture of the fireplace in the photo section is where he worked every Saturday morning melting down the lead from the past week to form the ingots ready for the next print run. He filled hundreds of ingot moulds with the molten lead each week.
This shop is well worth a look if you are passing this way.
Related Images:
Visit to Jeparit
Monday the 1st December 2014
I had made an appointment to visit a David Livingston in Jeparit in search of the Hindmarsh Run homestead as it was a bit of a mystery as to where it was located. David’s family goes way back to the beginning of Jeparit and as it turned out he was living on the very spot where the old station homestead was and even lived in the old house while building his home and dairy on the site.
It was a great afternoon as David is a walking encyclopaedia of the location. And I came away with enough material to write a book. I still need to spend some time in their archives to collect some more pictures before starting the Jeparit page in the history section. But I will add a few pictures in the picture album to get it started.
The site was on a bend of the Wimmera River and had the water on three sides. It would have been a picturesque spot sitting on the rise with a view of the river on three sides. However today the rise is covered with houses but there is still a lovely view of the river from the Livingston garden.
Hindmarsh Run Homestead in the late 1800’s
Related Images:
Short Trip
We went for a short drive to check out a few locations today. Travelled from Rainbow to Kenmare then Brentwood (not much left just a fence where the school was and another where the Baptist church was with a marker) Then we travelled west to the point where the 142 meridian crosses the 36th parallel. This was the point where the survey started for the netting fence in 1884. You can see the full article under the netting fence in the History/Mallee section.
We also checked out a location where there is supposed to be a cottage from the 1800’s on a sand dune not far from Lake Hindmarsh on the Werrap road, but couldn’t get to it as the dune is surrounded with a crop and they haven’t harvested it yet so we will have to return later.
Related Images:
Birchip
Went to Birchip. Big mistake.
We used to travel to Bayswater to purchase their vanilla slices as they won the best in the bakeoff and their slices were great. We thought we were safe now that we lived so far away from Bayswater but we have discovered that the Birchip bakery has stolen the trophy that used to sit behind the counter at Bayswater.
After an obligatory taste test that required several samples. We discovered that we agreed with the judges. This may not be good for the waistline if we pass that way too often.
At least they are a reasonable distance away so I can’t get an urge and duck down the street.
Check them out at.
Related Images:
New Discoveries
We went for a drive today temp outside was 33 to 35 all day but cool in the car. First after the morning cappuccino to start the day, we just couldn’t resist the strawberries and of course we had to finish the punnet didn’t we.
After deciding that we would have to return after our drive for another punnet to have with cream tonight. we headed off to Jeparit to talk to the Pioneer Museum about the travellers we have been sending their way.
We decided to check out the state of the wimmera river at the weir and discovered the old trestle bridge built for the train to Lorquon opened 10 December 1912. It was another line decommissioned on 8 December 1986 when the Cain government closed 15 lines across the state, This ill informed and short sighted decision saved money in the rail system but caused a massive increase in road maintenance and the toll as hundreds of trucks replaced the rail. This also had the effect of causing the demise of many small towns.
No tracks left but the line and towns have been added to my to do list for the future.
Now we need to think of where we will have lunch and we selects Warracknabeal. So off we go but as we travelled along the back road Sue noticed a sign on the fence near an old church so we stopped to check it out and to our surprise we have stumbled across another ghost town with one building left.
Welcome to Peppers Plain.
A football ground, school, church tennis courts and homes. All gone except the church and just inside the Hindmarsh shire so another one to look into.
Then off for lunch, a visit to Brim, Beulah, Beulah West, Kenmare and back to Rainbow where Sue needed another cappuccino to recover from the trip.
Now she is settling into watching TV while I search for information about both the old and new projects.
The squatter section is almost ready to install the first instalment under the history tab and should be posted soon.
Related Images:
Sometimes you have to just wonder
Went for a drive yesterday and while Lake Albacutya has no water we thought we would go and look around anyway. We were surprised to find about 10 campers in the free camp grounds close to the toilet block. so we went around the back to see what was there and saw the following sign.
How good it was to see that parks had thought of horse riders coming through and set up a camp for them so we checked it out.
look at that they have hitching posts a camp fire area with a BBQ swing plate to cook on. can’t carry much on horse back they seem to have catered for everything. Dismount roll out the swag and set a fire and you are set for the night.
But wait what is the sign between the hitching posts?
How smart of Parks to think of that.
It only stands to reason that people traveling on horse back would carry a poo bag to pick up after the horse doesn’t it?
Related Images:
The Town of Werrap
Went for a drive and saw a sign saying Werrap 7 kilometres so just had to go and have a look.
It turned out to be the first settlement over the netting fence but was gone with just signs saying where things used to be. The one building left was a very substantial new fire station.
Just love the history of these places. The train line and main road missed it by a couple of kilometres so it died. Now I need to find out more about it.
A town that dates before all of the others North of the Netting Fence that had homes a hall, school, tennis courts etc. that simply disappeared.
You will find more about this town that once was, under the History Tab
