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The Beechworth Burke MuseumPhotograph
... Ovens Tannery... and the Ovens Tannery located South-West of Beechworth due to its... and the Ovens Tannery located South-West of Beechworth due to its ...This rectangle black and white photograph shows a bush scene with part of a suspension rope and wooden plank bridge visible in the middle of the image. It is likely this suspension bridge was used by the Tannery workers to move between the town and the Ovens Tannery located South-West of Beechworth due to its secluded bush location, the bridge likely spanned the gorge across Spring creek. The tannery itself was located alongside Gimlet Creek, about three kilometres from town, down what is now known as Malakoff and Old Tannery Road but which at the time was remote and accessed through bushland. The Ovens tannery was stablished in 1858 by Matthew Dodd and Hallahan and later Matthew and his brother Thomas Dodd in 1866 who developed it over the years. According to Doyle, 'we have little information about its early operations except the tannery itself comprised four small buildings' by 1870 ‘a small village with gardens of vines and fruit trees surrounded the tannery’ (Woods, 121), and by 1887 the Tannery employed fifteen men. The Ovens tannery was among several new businesses establishing themselves such as a foundry that brought industrial manufacturing alongside the developing township and which strengthened the economic stability of Beechworth after the receding mining surge. According to Woods (p. 121) in the 1860’s the government spent considerable sums to establish several public buildings such as the Benevolent Asylum, the Hospital and Insane Asylum to support those in need of care in the area directly after the Indigo gold rush which had left Beechworth, a fairly remote regional and newly formed township (Gold was first discovered in Beechworth in 1852) with a number of infirm and destitute people in its wake and which due to the support and establishment of these facilities ‘made Beechworth a significant social welfare centre in Victoria’ (Woods, p. 121). The tannery provided employment and connected the regional centre with other parts of Victoria and the wider colonial outposts and would have been a welcome opportunity for those seeking work after gold was no longer a source of income.A good example of the ingenuity of regional settlers to achieve what would have been a difficult and remote construction of a bridge as a means of access. This bridge is evidence of planning and forethought and shows dedication to establishing a life in a remote landscape.Black and white rectangular photograph printed on paperreverse: / 2983 / / BMM2983 /black and white photograph, bush, suspension bridge, rope bridge, tannery, spring creek, ovens tannery, bushland, gimlet creek, matthew dodd, beechworth -
The Beechworth Burke MuseumAudio - Oral History, Jennifer Williams, Gwen and Jack Scott, 24th February 2000
... Tannery Zwar Tannery beechworth tannery Ovens and Murray Hospital ...Jack Scott was born in Beechworth on the 24th January 1919 into a third generation Beechworth family who had migrated from Scotland, Cornwall and Ireland during the 1860s. Also present during the oral history recording is Jack’s wife, Gwen Scott. In 1878 Jack’s grandfather established the carrier business - R. Scott Carriers. Jack’s grandfather secured a contract with the Zwar Brothers' Beechworth Tannery to transport all goods between the tannery and train station via horse and cart. Jack’s father and uncle carried on the family business, before Jack and his brother eventually joined after the Second World War. The company expanded from a single horse and cart short route to multiple trucks operating interstate routes. Prior to joining the family carrier business, Jack on leaving school started work at the tannery and served in the air force during the Second World War. When asked about the working conditions at the tannery, Jack recalls while they did have union representatives, it was not particularly effectual. The union representatives were often placated by sharing multiple whiskies with the Zwar brothers when in their offices to discuss workers’ issues. Gwen’s father also worked for the tannery for a period of time, and she enjoyed the annual picnics the tannery provided for employee families. Both Jack and Gwen’s connections to the tannery reinforces the tannery’s role as a major employer and presence in the Beechworth community. Prior to marrying Jack, Gwen worked in a range of roles including at the Ovens and Murray Hospital for the Aged, managing the family home when her parents both worked during the Second World War, and apprenticed with her sister as a hairdresser. Jack and Gwen provide some insight into maternal health issues in brief discussions of hospital birthing trends and awareness of contraception and family planning. Both Jack and Gwen recalled attending the open-air cinema at ‘The Rock’ in their childhoods. Gwen remembers that the ‘elites’ would sit on chairs at the front, and Gwen’s family sat on a rug at the back, while Jack would jump the fence and get in for nothing. Jack and Gwen discuss attitudes towards both Chinese Australians and Italian migrants in Beechworth. They did not notice any racism and from their perspective felt they were accepted in the town. Jack did note that Italian employees lost their jobs at the tannery during the Second World War, but believed they all stayed within the area and found stonemason and concrete work in the interim. Jack socialised with members of the Italian community and joyfully recalled attending their homes for music nights with lots of drinking and instruments being played. 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. Gwen and Jack Scott’s account of their lives in Beechworth is historically and socially significant to the cultural heritage of the region. Gwen and Jack in reflecting on their everyday experiences of operating a family business, availability of work, leisure opportunities, interaction with migrants, and access to maternal health care provide essential economic, social, and healthcare insights. Gwen and Jack Scott’s oral history recording is part of a larger collection of oral histories recorded by Jennifer Williams in 2000, collectively they provide invaluable insights into Beechworth during the 20th century, much of the information in these oral histories would be lost if not documented and missed in the interpretation of tangible objects. 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.Mrs Gwen and Mr Jack Scott jack scott, gwen scott, r. scott carriers, scott brothers, zwar brother's beechworth tannery, zwar tannery, beechworth tannery, ovens and murray hospital for the aged, benevolent asylum, open-air cinema, the rock cinema, italians beechworth, hospital births 1920s, wang tech, wangaratta tech, nell scott, jennifer williams, oral history, listen to what they say: voices of twentieth century beechworth, tannery union -
The Beechworth Burke MuseumAudio - Oral History, Jennifer Williams, Mrs May Sewell, 23rd November 2000
... ' Beechworth Tannery. Her father and then her three brothers worked ...May Sewell was born in Beechworth in 1917, her paternal grandparents had come to Beechworth from Ireland and her maternal grandparents from Scotland. She was the youngest of five siblings and the only one to be born in a hospital rather than at home. May loved growing up and living in Beechworth, and fondly recalls knowing all her neighbours, meeting friends at the pictures, attending girl guides, picking wildflowers around the gorge, participating keenly in the Church of England choir and dances, and the big Easter festivals. May worked various jobs before getting married. After leaving school at fifteen, May learnt dressmaking with Lal Anderson (and was delighted with her wage of two and six pence a week) and then went on to learn tailoring with Mr Charles. May then worked in the dining rooms at the Commercial Hotel and Hotel Nicholas. May was at the Hotel Nicholas for seven years but stopped when she got married as female employees were not asked to stay once they were married. May married her husband in 1944 and had known him since school. They went on to have six children, sadly three did not live past infancy. Her first children were twin girls who died six hours after birth. May briefly discusses the difficulty in grieving her twin daughters, the lack of available support, and the expectancy to carry on. Her next child, a son named Ian James, died when he was only ten months old from a tumour. May described Ian James as a lovely boy. May had multiple connections to the Zwar Brothers' Beechworth Tannery. Her father and then her three brothers worked there, and also her husband for a short period of time. The tannery was a major employer in Beechworth, and May having multiple family members employed by the tannery underlines the significant role of the tannery in Beechworth. May described her husband as very hardworking, he worked as a cleaner overnight at the Ovens and Murray Hospital for the Aged while during the day tended his cattle and sheep farm. 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. Miss May Sewell’s account of her life in Beechworth is historically and socially significant to the cultural heritage of the region. May in reflecting on her experiences of leisure opportunities, town festivals, work available for women, leaving the workforce once married, the tannery, post-natal care, grief and child mortality provide essential historic, economic, social, and healthcare insights. May’s oral history recording is part of a larger collection of oral histories recorded by Jennifer Williams in 2000, collectively they provide invaluable insights into Beechworth during the 20th century, much of the information in these oral histories would be lost if not documented and missed in the interpretation of tangible objects. 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.Mrs May Sewellmay sewell, oral history, jennifer williams, listen to what they say: voices of twentieth century beechworth, beechworth church of england, easter festival, beechworth girl guides, hospital birth 1917, lal anderson, tailor beechworth, commercial hotel, hotel nicholas, zwar brother's beechworth tannery, ovens and murray hospital for the aged, dressmaking beechworth, beechworth cinemas, paul voglis -
The Beechworth Burke MuseumAudio - Oral History, Jennifer Williams, Maxwell Pemberton, 23 June 2000
Mr Maxwell Pemberton was born in Goulburn, NSW in 1923 and moved to Beechworth as a child just before the Great Depression. Mr Pemberton's father was a baker who opened a grocery store in Beechworth to support his seven children. The store, which competed with eight other grocery traders in Beechworth for finite local business, delivered goods by horse and cart to customers all over the district, including the hamlet of Stanley. Mr Pemberton's oral history testifies to the sorts of economic struggles faced by the majority of Beechworth's residents during the depression years. Mr Pemberton worked in many different industries in and around Beechworth, including in his father's grocery store, which he later took over with his brother; the Zwar Tannery, where he served as a union representative; and at the Ovens and Murray Hospital for the Aged, formally the Ovens Benovolent Asylum, established in 1862 for care of the district's destitute, disabled and aged people from Euroa to the Murray, among them, homeless people Mr Pemberton referred to as 'river-bankers'. The hospital's founding in the 1860s was driven by a committee headed by the notable figure, G.B Kerford. Beechworth's institutions were a major source of local employment in the twentieth century. Mr Pemberton joined the Australian Navy during WWII and served at Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. During his period of service, he received an honorary award from the Royal Humane Society of Australia for aiding and saving a drowning civilian at risk to his own life. Mr Pemberton's oral history also touches on the complex relationship between Australian forces and local Papuan people during the war. 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.Mr Maxwell Pemberton's oral history recalls many aspects of life in Beechworth and the Oven's district during the twentieth century and enriches our understanding of the effects of the periods of socio-economic decline and renewal that unfolded as the century progressed. His singular account of his various jobs and colourful memories of life as a youth and young man in Beechworth, and abroad as a serviceman, contributes to our understanding of society's attitudes and expectations regarding ideals of masculinity and Australian national identity. 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 would have 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.Mr Max Pemberton /twentieth century beechworth, benevolent asylums, wwii, beechworth's institutions, local employment, government institutions, listen to what they say, oral history, burke museum, maxwell pemberton, ovens and murray hospital for the aged, zwar tannery, beechworth grocers, australian navy, port morseby, papua new guinea, trade unions, welfare services, homelessness, 'river bankers', aged care, g.b kerford, ovens benevolent asylum, ovens benevolent home
