History Issue No. 257 MAY - JUNE 2005 NEWS Royal Historical Society of Victoria Looking forward to seeing you at: NOTICE OF 2005 Annual The Great RHSV General Meeting All members are advised that the 95th Annual Annual Book Sale General Meeting of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria Inc. will be held as follows: Sunday 15 May 2005, 10am to 4pm Date: Tuesday 14 June 2005 Time: 5.00pm at the RHSV, 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne Place: 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne, 3000 We are now truly in the throes of Business: organising this event and hope to see as 1. To confirm the minutes of the 94th many of you here as possible on the day. Annual General Meeting Don’t forget to tell your friends about 2. To receive the Annual Report for the the sale too. year ended 31 December 2004 As well we need volunteers to ‘man’ the sale which 3. To receive and consider goes from 10 am to 4pm. the Financial Statement for the year ended 31 December 2004 Books that you don’t need can be delivered to the Society until May 11. 4. To appoint the Hon. Auditor for 2005 5. To adopt revisions to the Constitution Please call Ged on 93269288 if you can help or have any enquiries. 6. To elect Office-bearers and Members of Council 7. To receive expressions of interest for History Victoria Support Group 8. To elect any member or members History News to be who have been nominated for election INSIDE THIS ISSUE as Fellows published 6 times a year 9. To announce Awards of Merit recipients RHSV News 2 10. To transact any special business All bound for Morning Town instead of 11 times of which notice has been given in Behind the scenes accordance with the Rules of the Western Port Ho! Just letting you all know that this Society Out & About 3 History News will be the last monthly Further details regarding the revisions to the Lectures, Excursion,Exhibitions edition. The next issue will appear in Constitution are to be found on page 5. July and after that there will be issues The AGM will be followed by a lecture by Writing historical poetry 4 in September and November. Max Waugh titled “A beautiful place for a town”. MC2 Update 5 Please Note. The deadline for the July issue is June 1. The editor of the newsletter will be CLOSING DATE FOR NOMINATIONS Community News 5 away from June 12 to July 4, so copy for the Nominations for Members of the Council and July-August History News must be received by office-bearers of the Association will close at June1. 5.00pm on Tuesday 7 June 2005 . Nomination HSVG Report 6 In 2006 we will publish 6 issues throughout forms are available from the Executive Officer. Around the Societies 7-8 the year. February, April, June, August, October, December. Deadlines will be the 10th of the Kate Prinsley month before publication, except for the July- What’s on 8 August 2005 edition. Executive Officer 18 April, 2005 If you have events that you want to have listed, please keep this in mind. RHSV NEWS ‘All bound for Western Port Morning Town’ Ho! y red-letter day at Macarthur (see April History News) was followed by a ruby birthday, Mthe 40th of the Mornington Historical Society on Friday 7 April. It gave me the chance to talk about the 1960s as a local history maternity ward. The decade began with 23 societies affiliated to the RHSV and finished a hundred stronger. Why such activity, I wondered? Perhaps it was the long-term outcome of the efforts of this society from its inception in 1909 to save documents and to research, lecture and publish the story of our own state. Most history in schools and universities dealt with empire, battles, dates and famous people, not ordinary, not Australian life. National history began with C. E. W. Bean’s treatment of the achievements of the AIF in the Great War. To him they were a true expression of the democratic, egalitarian Australian spirit. But Australian history had to wait until the 1940s. Although (R)HSV Councillor, Professor Ernest Scott kindled the flame in the 1920s with a documentary emphasis (the hallmark of the Excursionists to Western Port Society) it was Manning Clark, under Professor Crawford who started the explosion that led in the 1960s to a spate of publishing by Clark himself, Serle, Blainey, Kiddle and many others. and surrounds came from all The library movement, the local government associations and the RHSV all held conferences compass points, and as far away as to stimulate grass root history. I published my Brighton book in 1962 when Lesley Moorhead Warrnambool and Tooradin. was lobbying and labouring to put Mornington on the map. Their Society, founded in 1965, n our way down the Mornington Peninsula, th is a strong one, as its contribution to the Rail 150 showed. Appropriately, at the celebratory Owe heard about European exploration dinner, a history of the Old Post Office, now home to the Society, was launched. It has a red and development, with an update on current cover. challenges to the area’s heritage from our poet Weston Bate historian President. Then along Main Ridge towards Flinders, overlooking the Bass Strait entrance to Western Port. Ken Lacey from BEHIND THE SCENES Flinders Historical Society joined the coach to orient us around the township, with the pier and ‘The Garden of the Moon’ golf course providing the evocative ambience RHSV Newspaper Collection for some Weston poems. At the beautifully A plain white envelope arrived at the RHSV Over the years we have received donations kept Anglican Church we saw the memorial to front desk some weeks ago. It contained two of country and metropolitan newspapers. A Matthew Flinders, his wife and daughter which souvenir postcard folders, one of Lorne, the significant portion of our holdings has now was sent out from a now demolished London other designed to act as a remembrance of a visit been filed systematically and carefully and the church. At the Flinders Historical Society rooms to ‘The Garden of the Moon’, Arthur’s Seat. A inventory can be searched on a computer in located at the old Shoreham school house, we brief note from the sender indicated the date the RHSV Library. These items are all very were privileged to have an early display of their when they came into the family – 1951 and fragile and need gentle handling. They can impressive research, led by Dr Marie Fels, which a quick check of our images database showed only be accessed with the assistance of Library maps the Aboriginal presence on the peninsula. that there would be no duplication by accepting Assistants. The old Byrne farmhouse was the occasion these items, which were in good condition for another evocative Weston poem. [Pic of and included photographs which tell a tale of RHSV Vertical Files Shoreham school house here.] times gone by and allow us to reflect on recent After a perfect picnic lunch in the ‘Imaretta’ developments. After some necessary paperwork, Visitors to the Library are always impressed by garden at Merricks, it was on to HMAS Cerberus the items were passed for indexing, the indexes the stand of a dozen filing cabinets containing at Crib Point to visit the extensive museum, the for typing and the typing for incorporation into all types of material on a vast range of subjects. two chapels and enjoy an entertaining grounds the database for use by members. Small and large The format of this material includes newspaper tour by the Curator, Toni Munday. She also donations to the Society are basically handled extracts, menus, prospectuses, descriptive generously presented the Society with a history in this way. Members will appreciate that, with brochures and the like and is held in manila of the base and a photo of a Balnarring gentleman a few exceptions, the Society’s collections only folders labelled according to a key subject, said to be have been our Secretary in 1916. More grow with donations. These are enhanced for us identity, organisation etc. Computer cataloguing research needed! On the way to Hastings Valda by personal comments and supportive material is proceeding and now 4100 items have been Cole provided illuminating insights into life in the providing context and additional information. subject indexed. The index is available on a vicinity, past and present. At Hastings Historical Library computer. Society museum President Shirley Davies History Internship welcomed us with a poem, as a counterpoint RHSV Parliamentary Papers to Weston’s, highlighting in an amusing way the The RHSV welcomes the opportunity to perils of interpreting oral history. Other Hastings give students of history practical opportunities Collection enthusiasts explained archaeological research to learn and exhibit their craft. Annually The RHSV Parliamentary Papers Collection and reconstruction of gunnery installed in the the Society offers a ‘place at the podium’ spans 100 years: 1853–1953. Since last reported, local battery in the 1880s, and provided a much for young historians and where possible we Collection has increased by 200 items. An index appreciated afternoon tea. On the run home to Melbourne, there was vigorous discussion of the provide placement for interns from tertiary is available on a Library computer. institutions. This year Rachael Vansittart from day’s events. Perhaps some were inspired to use Deakin University is working on a bibliography poetry as a tool for historical expression. But of primary sources held within the RHSV not this writer! collections pertaining to World War I and its Susan Priestly impact on social life.