Alan French was born in Beechworth in 1918 on Christmas Day, an only child descendent from French, Irish and Scottish family who had moved to and stayed in the area years before, both of his parents were born in Beechworth and were fourth generation Indigo Shire locals. Alan grew up in the depression era working the land with his dad when they could, cutting wood or helping on the local farms in and around Wooragee. Everyone able in those days bartered for goods, little coin and vegetables if there was spare to go around with labour or what little they produced from their efforts. In this interview, Alan discusses how his great grandparents Francois (French) and Catherine (Irish) Bertrand were the first vignerons in Beechworth, even mentioned in Beechworth, a Titans Field; 'Vines were draped across 156 acres of Beechworth shire in 1880, and notable vignerons included Francois Bertrand [...]' (Woods: 162) according to Alan 'you can still see where the old vines used to be, Malakoff Rose Garden' but whether or not the wine they produced was any good for drinking is open to interpretation and lost to the history of Beechworth and those who tasted it. This oral history recording was part of a project conducted by Jennifer Williams in the year 2000 to capture the everyday life and struggles in Beechworth during the twentieth century. This project involved recording seventy oral histories on cassette tapes of local Beechworth residents which were then published in a book titled: Listen to what they say: voices of twentieth century Beechworth. These cassette tapes were digitised in July 2021 with funds made available by the Friends of the Burke.This oral history account is socially and historically significant as it is a part of a broader collection of interviews conducted by Jennifer Williams which were published in the book 'Listen to what they say: voices of twentieth-century Beechworth.' While the township of Beechworth is known for its history as a gold rush town, these accounts provide a unique insight into the day-to-day life of the town's residents during the 20th century, many of which will have now been lost if they had not been preserved.This is a digital copy of a recording that was originally captured on a cassette tape. The cassette tape is black with a horizontal white strip and is currently stored in a clear flat plastic rectangular container. It holds up 40 minutes of recordings on each side.listen to what they say, beechworth, oral history, burke museum, vigneron, a titans field, beechworth a titans field, francois bertrand, wooragee, indigo shire, depression era, wood cutting, labour, farming, vines, history, malakoff rose garden

This file contains one volume of Mufti, the official journal of the Victorian Returned Servicemen’s League (RSL): 1/Volume 38, No. 6, dated 06/1998. Page 26 features an announcement of the ‘Back to Caulfield’ race day, a festival held at the Caulfield Racecourse on 23/08/1998 to commemorate Caulfield’s role as an AIF camp during WWII and the 75th anniversary of Legacy. Pages 31 to 39 detail the agenda of the 83rd Annual Conference. The name ‘Bentleigh’ appears beneath a little over a dozen items, but otherwise none of them appear to pertain specifically to Glen Eira. Page 45 details the results of the season of indoor bowling concluding 11/03/1998, and mentions the Bentleigh RSL. Pages 49 to 51 list deceased members, and several of them hail from the Bentleigh and Caulfield RSLs.victorian returned servicemen league (rsl), caulfield, bentleigh, caulfield returned servicemen league, bentleigh returned servicemen league, ex-service organisations, aged people, senior citizens centres, festivals and celebrations, back to caulfield raceday, caulfield racecourse, meetings, glover c.r, jepson a.f.m, king c.j, mcdonald h, mcneil d.c, neck l, clubs and associations, returned servicepeople, armed forces, soldiers, conferences, sport, allen k.f, bell r.t, penny n.i, taylor r.s, williams r.d