The constitution states that the object of the Society is to relieve the wants of the poor -especially women and children- by suppyling them with clothing ,boots, food, fuel and other necessaries. The members of the Society to be councillors wives and representatives of Religious organisations.The President shall be the Mayoress. the positions of Treasurer and Secretary shall be Honorary. Mrs. McCaskill , whose husband was a Councillor at that time was the first President, a position she held for many years. There were 32 Ladies Benevolent Societies in the metropolitan area at this time. By the early 2000s there only a few left and Ringwood was one of the last to close about 2008 when it was absorbed into the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Various typed and hand written documents relating to the Ringwood Ladies Benevolent Society formed in 1929. 1- Constitution and Rules. 2- First Annual Report dated 1930. 3- Financial report submitted to The Charities Board of Victoria. 4- Receipts and expenditure for year ending 30th June 1930. 5- List of Societies affiliated with the Central Council of Victorian Ladies' Benevolent Societies. 6- Notification of first Annual Meeting of the Society in 1930. 7- Miscellaneous documents and newspaper clipping relating to the Ringwood Ladies Benevolent Society.

Rev Alan Body ministered at Wentworth (the Victorian parish in New South Wales) for 10 years, and was subsequently transferred to Boort. During his time at Wentworth he conducted a patrol ministry, travelling between 8000 and 10,000 kilometres per year visiting the area from Wentworth to Pooncarie, to Coombah on the Broken Hill road, out west to the South Australian border, south to the Murray and upstream to Wentworth.B & W waist length photograph of Rev. Alan Body with his Wentworth Shire Australia Day Citizen Award."Alan Body page 31 C&N 24/2/1988"rev alan body

8th Australian Light Horse Regiment was raised following Federation from companies of the Victorian Mounted Rifles in North East Victoria. It was an all volunteer force of citizen soldiers. The annual encampment, usually conducted over the Easter break, was the culmination of training conducted in local areas throughout the year. Study of citizen soldiers in first decade following FederationDamaged black and white photograph of group of soldiers of the 8th Light horse Regiment at Seymour 1908.Seymour 1908. / Sgt W Luscombe 2nd right centre row. / Holder of the Local Forces Victoria Long Service and / Good Conduct Medal, also holder of the Colonial Forces / Long Service Medal. / Donated by I Errey Baddaginnie.seymour, light horse, luscombe

Badge awarded to Senior Citizen of the Year, Mrs Kitty Rose, in recognition of her outstanding efforts for blind and vision impaired people within the Bendigo region. The top circular part of the badge has the council crest has four images which represent the shire's main industries at the time of it's establishment in 1866: wine, tanning, mining and farming.1 metal badge with circular top and rectangular baseShire of Strathfieldsaye Victorian 1866 (circular top) Mrs Kitty Rose Citizen of the Year 1988 (base)association for the blind, badges, katharine (kitty) rose

Jean-Pierre Trouette was natuarlised in 1862 the year he, his wife Anne (nee Blampied) and her brother Emile purchased land at Great Western and established the Great Western wineries. Unless a person was a Victorian citizen they could not own freehold land and run a business. This certificate testifies to Trouette's legal status and entitlement to establish the Great Western vineyards. At the Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne in 1866 his wines were noticed and was noted also in 1867. His vineyard was named St Peter's and visitors included Hubert de Castella in 1882. blampied, trouette, great western, st peter's, intercolonial exhibition, naturalisation, henry barkly

This document is has been compiled by Wendy Barrie daughter of Ernest (Bon) and Edna Barrie and granddaughter of Charles E and Jessie M Barrie. I was born in during WW 11 and the first child of my generation to live on the ‘ Darlingsford’ property at Melton. My grandfather was well known in the district and was mostly referred to as Ernie. He shared the same initials as his second son Edgar. His three eldest sons lived and farmed in Melton for their entire lives. His descendants are still associated with farming, engineering and earthmoving in Melton. Ernie Barrie operated a travelling Chaff Cutter in the St Arnaud area where his parents William and Mary Ann had taken up land at Coonooer West in 1873. Ernie commenced his working life with a team of bullocks and a chaff cutter. The earliest connection he had with Melton was in 1887. By the beginning of the 20th century Ernie and his father William and brothers, William, Samuel, James Edwin,[Ted] Robert, Arthur and Albert have been associated with farming and milling in the Melton district. In the early 1900’s Ernie and his brother Ted were in partnership in a Chaff cutting and Hay processing Mill on the corner of Station and Brooklyn road Melton South. The mill was managed by William for a time. By 1906 Charles Ernest and James Edwin were in partnership in the Station Road mill when a connecting rail line across Brooklyn Road for a siding was constructed to the Melton Railway Station. In 1911 the Mill’s letterhead shows C.E. BARRIE Hay Pressing and Chaff Cutting Mills. Melton Railway Station. Telephone No 1 Melton. This Mill as sold to H S K Ward in 1916 and stood until 1977 when it burnt down in a spectacular fire. Ernie built a house at Melton South beside the Chaff Mill at Station Road in 1906 and married Jessie May Lang in August at the Methodist Church. Jessie’s father was Thomas Lang. He came to Melton in 1896 and was the Head Teacher at Melton State School No 430 until he retired in 1917. They had 9 children with 8 surviving to adulthood. Jessie and Ernie had 6 sons and 3 daughters. All the children lived at Darlingsford. In April 1910 the family left Melton for a brief period and moved to a farm in Trundle in NSW. They returned to Melton and purchased Darlingsford in May 1911. For a time during WW1 they lived at Moonee Ponds near the Lang grandparents at Ascot Vale. Mary and Bon attended Bank St State School. The children developed diphtheria in 1916 and their youngest boy, Cecil died of complications. Mary and Bon were taken to Fairfield Hospital and both recovered. At the end of the war influenza broke out the family returned to Darlingsford and shared the home for a short while with the Pearcey family who had been working the farm. By 1922 the family had and grown and Edgar, Tom, Horace, Jessie, Joyce and Jim were living a Darlingsford. Ernie continued during the 1920’s working the farm and attend his many civic and community commitments. Two 8 clydesdale horse teams were used to work the land which meant early rising for the horses to be fed and harnessed to commence the days work. In 1916 Ernie also became involved in a Chaff Mill on the corner of Sunshine and Geelong Road West Footscray, which at the time was being run by John Ralph Schutt. It was known an Schutt Barrie. A flour mill was added at a later stage. Other Schutt and Barrie mills were situated at Parwan and Diggers Rest. Another mill was situated beside the railway line at Rockbank. The Footscray mill ceased operation in 1968 Ernie spent a lot of time and energy at the Parwan Mill and travelling around Parwan and Balliang farms, where he came to know many of the families in the district. Ernies commitment to the civic development to the Melton and district was extensive, he was involved with a number of large events during the 1920’s such as the Melton Exhibitions and the 1929 Back to Melton Celebrations. He was a member of the Australian Natives Association at the turn of the century. He was Chairman of the School Committee at Melton State School 430 and the Melton South State School in thw1920s. He donated the land for a Hall for Melton South in 1909, known as Exford Hall and later in 1919 renamed Victoria Hall. The Hall was demolished in 1992. He was a Councillor, JP, and Vice President and President of the Melton Mechanics Institute Hall Committee in 1915- 1916. He was a member of the Methodist Church and later the Scots Presbyterian Church. He was Superintendent of the Sunday School of the Methodist Church to 1910 and later Scots Presbyterian Church until 1931. This is reflected in the theme of children in the stained glass window which was dedicated in his memory by his wife Jessie as a gift to the Scots Church. Charles Ernest Barrie made many generous donations to many charities who supported young people and children. In 1918 Jessie and Ernie made the first donation to a very prominent Victorian charity whose work still continues. Yooralla. In July 1931 Ernie’s untimely death was a major blow to the family and the Melton community. To this day people still vividly recall the day they lined the streets for his funeral. The day of the funeral is recalled as the day Melton stood as two of their prominent citizens who tragically died on the same day. Their eldest daughter Mary had married Keith Robinson in 1930 and had just moved to Heatherdale Toolern Vale with their year old baby son. Bon the eldest son was 22, Edgar 18, Tom 16, Horace 15, Jessie and Joyce 10 and Jim 8 years old. A heavy burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of the two eldest children, Mary particularly for her mother and Bon stepped in assuming head of the family for his mother, brothers and sisters living at the Darlingsford homestead. In the early 1930’s the three eldest sons took on many of the Civic and Church commitments which their father had held. This community involvement extended well into the 1980s. In 1941 Bon married Edna Myers and they moved into a house shifted from Harkness Lane to Harkness Lane on the eastern section of the Darlingford property. Edgar married Margaret Hodgkinson a Primary school teacher at Melton in 1949 and they lived in the Darlingsford house. Earlier Tom married May Ferris and lived on the eastern side of Ferris Lane in the Ferris home. Bon , Edgar and Tom often operated as a team effort, in particular at harvest time when a larger team of workers was needed. The three farms cultivated wheat, barley and oats and supplied the Mill with sheafed hay. They continued using horse teams until mechanisation in the 1940’s made the horses redundant. By the 1960s their five sons continued with farming. Many loads of hay were transported to the Mill in Footscray. Well into the 1960s hired harvest hands along with agricultural university students were involved in bringing in he harvest. Stacking was an art form in itself and Tom held the expertise for building and shaping the sides and roof. The stacks built in the district each had their own unique shape and could be recognized by their builders. The Barrie brothers developed a mechanical fork lift for picking up complete stooks and moving them to be loaded to the elevator to build the haystack. The prototype built by Bill Gillespie was attached to a Bedford truck. Later refinements in a collaborative effort with the Gillespie brothers a multi pronged fork was attached to the front of tractor which was hydraulically operated to raise each stook onto trucks to be transported to the site of the haystacks. This method of handling sheaves significantly reduced laborious pitchforking individual sheaves. This invention was soon taken up by farmers far and wide and was a common sight in the district at harvest time in the stacking season. I recall visiting farmers calling in at the house at Ferris Road farm to inspect this break through invention. The Clydesdale horse teams were used into the 1940s but by the 1950s the Barries’ farms were fully mechanised. When the demand for sheafed hay declined other crops were introduced these included barley, lucerne, wheat and peas. Sheep were added to the mix in the 1950s in an attempt to keep the farms more viable. In the 1970s part of the Barrie’s farms were facing a major disruption with the impending compulsorily acquisition of a strip of land for the construction the freeway bypass, which divided access between the Darlingsford homestead with those on Ferris Lane. Charles Ernest Barrie and Jessie May Lang's children: 1. Mary Ena BARRIE was born on 07 October 1907. She died on 29 April 1999. 2. Ernest Wesley BARRIE was born on 29 April 1909 in Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia.He died on 25 December 1985 in Melton, Victoria, Australia. 3. Cecil William BARRIE was born on 23 February 1911.He died on 25 May 1916. 4. Charles Edgar BARRIE was born on 01 June 1913.He died on 06 October 1975. 5. Thomas Lindsay BARRIE was born on 25 November 1914.He died on 14 September 1990 in Melton, Victoria, Australia. 6. William Horace BARRIE was born on 11 October 1915.He died on 19 December 1950. 7. Jessie Maud BARRIE was born on 06 November 1920 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.She died on 26 February 1994. 8. Dorothy Joyce BARRIE was born on 06 November 1920 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.She died on 18 March 2003.. 9. James Edward BARRIE was born on 17 January 1922 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.He died on 23 August 2004Family Photo with Edgar, Tom, Mary, Ernest (Bon), Horace, Jim, Charles Ernest, Jessie and Joycelocal identities

The picture shows the Ararat Citizens' Band (as it was then known) competing in the Royal South Street Society contests in 1948 or 1949. The Ararat Citizens' Band is a very well known band and is still in existence as the Ararat City Band. The Ararat Band have been regular competitors in Victorian Bands' League events over the past century.This photograph is significant as it shows the discipline of a brass band while participating in a marching contest. The Quickstep and Street March contests at Ballarat were highlights of brass band competitions and always drew large crowds. The year of this photo is also significant as it was the first year the Royal South Street Society held band contests after the 2nd World War.Rectangular black and white photograph mounted on card. A sheet of paper has been stuck to the back with a list of the names of band members at the time.Front: (in pencil) Ararat City 1948-9? Ballarat N. R. Harvey Back: List of names: Drum Major W. Limmom F.R. A. Francis W. Ling W. Carther L. Vamos W. Cook 2nd R. T Lyth R. Humphries R. Lyth N. Cooper 3rd R. I. Tink A. Robinson J. Greenwell L. Ogilvie A. Chiller 4th R. L. Trafar L. Ling A. Turner D.W. Powell S. Caddy J. Riley ararat citizens' band, ararat city band, royal south street, ballarat, victorian bands' league, victorian bands' association, quickstep march

BHS CollectionThe Victorian Pocket Year Book: Cream and green card cover with two staples at the side. Contents of cream paper printed in black ink. On the cover it has a black banner with five white stars with a brown above the banner. The book is No.6 the year 1962. V. H. Arnold, F.I.A. Deputy Commonwealth Statistician and Government Statist. * Melbourne Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics Victorian Office May, 1962. 1299/62. The book lists members of the Legislative Assembly., Commonwealth Government Offices and all statistics for personal and business for the citizens of Victoria. N.B. - The above publications are issued Annually except where otherwise indicated. Box 625A.C. Brooks, Government Printer, Melbourne.government, state, pocket year book, the victorian pocket year book. 1962

Maude Jeffries was an acclaimed actress who performed in USA, Britain, New Zealand and Australia from the 1890s until the early twentieth century when she married and settled in New South Wales with her husband on his property, Bowylie, Gundaroo, New South Wales. A rare bookmark produced to act also as a postcard relating to an American actress who as a British citizen settled in Australian. This bookmark sent in 1906 from Melbourne to Ballarat in Victoria demonstrates her popularity in Australia where it was estimated that over Christmas New Year 1906 over 200,000 postcards were sold in Sydney alone.Image of Miss Jeffries.Used with two Victorian postage stamps, address and Seasons Greetings inscribed to verso from Melbourne sender to Tattersalls Hotel Ballarat 1906.bookmark, postcard, maude jeffries, actress, australian, ballarat, tattersalls hotel, melbourne