Sepia Saturday 352 – Two Hats and a Funeral
This post is inspired by an image of Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie held by the Library of Congress and shared on Sepia Saturday. While there were many musicians in my family none were as accomplished or well known as these two. What did strike me in this image...
On This Day in Wangaratta – 24th January 1896
On this day in Wangaratta celebrations were held for the official opening of the new Wangaratta Fire Station in Ford Street. The Captain Alfred Pinkerton and Hiram A Crawford represented the Fire Brigades Board. Reputed to have cost £300, most of the cost of the...
On This Day in Wangaratta – 19th January 1910
This is an enlightening newspaper article from the Ovens & Murray Advertiser of the 20th January 1910 about a disastrous fire in Murphy Street the previous day. The fire occurred on a Wednesday afternoon which was a usual half-holiday before shops opened five days...
Radio 3WR
Wangaratta can lay claim to Australia's first country broadcasting station, going to air five months before Toowoomba's 4GR. Stationer and Wangaratta Sports Depot owner Leslie John Leo Hellier commenced radio 3WR in February 1925 in a shed in his backyard in Rowan...
Margaret Considine (c1818-1895)
Another post from my earlier university days. Much more research has been done since this was first penned in 1999. This post has NOT been updated with the new research. Margaret Considine was born circa 1818 at Sixmilebridge, a townland in the civil parish of...
Gordy Moore (1885-1967)
I am having a break from the blog while I concentrate on my PhD. This post comes from research I did for an Advanced Diploma in Local and Applied History that I was completing at the University of New England in 1999. My research has come a long way since then and the...
The Real Grandma
The impetus for this blog came out of many years tracing my family history and long talks and explorations of Wangaratta with family members. One of those family members was my dear Uncle Bert who had a wonderful memory and fabulous sense of humour, and a willingness...
“Scenes of riot and debauchery” – Dr Murphy’s letter
Dr Francis Murphy was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1809 to public servant Francis Down Murphy and Mary (née Morris). He trained in the medical profession in Cork, Trinity College, Dublin, and London qualifying as M.R.C.S., in 1835. The next year he migrated to Sydney in...
On This Day In Wangaratta – 4th July 1875
This day marks the 140th anniversary of the death of George Moore at the tender age of 28 years. George died at the home of his parents on the One Mile Creek after a four week battle with typhoid fever. It must have been a horrible lingering end for the young man....
A Young Bank Teller Writes Home
Regular readers of this blog will know that I don't spend a lot of time on Ned Kelly. Blogs and websites dedicated to the Kellys explore the subject in great depth. The history of north eastern Victoria is so much bigger than the story of the Kelly Gang and so I have...
On This Day in Wangaratta – 22nd June 1857
Bushranging has long been a part of Australia's history and folklore. We have all heard about the big stories, but we probably don't realise that bushranging occurred regularly in poorly policed areas and that Wangaratta was one such place, until at least the early...
On This Day in Wangaratta – 15th June 1930
On this day in Wangaratta the famous female aviator Amy Johnson landed at Bowser. The landing was quite a coup for the town as Wangaratta was the only stopover on her route from Canberra to Melbourne. Newspaper reports put the crowd at 17,000! These images were taken...
On This Day in Wangaratta – 9th June 1896
On this day in 1896 Dr William Joseph Carroll passed away after battling pleurisy for six weeks. He was only 41. Dr Carroll was born in Dublin to wealthy former Lord Mayor Sir William Carroll (also a doctor) and Margaret Elizabeth Pearson. Sir William was quite well...
Trove Tuesday – Wangaratta 1863 – Part 5
Following on from the last Trove Tuesday we continue reading an account of Wangaratta published in the Ovens & Murray Advertiser (O&MA) in January 1863. The progress of the town, although gradual, is very marked, and those buildings in course of erection are...
1856 politics Wangaratta style
The political and social alignments of the early residents of Wangaratta have long fascinated me. Who socialised or was in business with whom, was an indicator of town and sometimes family dynamics. While there were clearly divisions in Wangaratta, they were often not...
Doing business in 1873
A few weeks ago I was able to peruse early copies of The Dispatch and North Eastern Advertiser. This was the newspaper that John Rowan commenced in the early 1860s as the Wangaratta Dispatch. Rowan had moved on to Wahgunyah where he died in July 1873 but the newspaper...
Wareena and the Ned Kelly connection
I don't usually go in for gratuitous mentions of Ned Kelly but he has left a legacy all around the north east of Victoria and south east of New South Wales so can't be ignored. Mentions of him pop up in the most unlikely places and today's mention is in relation to a...
Corinya – home of the Callander family
Corinya, home of the Callander family, well known in Wangaratta for their Big Store (later Coles) in Murphy Street is up for sale. Images of the house and details including that it has a maid's bedroom can be found on the Stockdale and Leggo advertisement here....
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