Dr Michele Matthews has been a local and social historian for nearly three decades since she first used correspondence held by the then Bendigo City Council for her Honours thesis. She is an ardent advocate for the use of local history records to tell Victorian and Australian history from a grassroots perspective. Michele’s MA thesis, ‘A forgotten “Father” of Federation: Sir John Quick 1852‑1911’ (2003), and her PhD thesis, ‘Survivors, schemes, Samaritans and shareholders: the impact of the Great Depression on Bendigo and District 1925‑1935’ (2007), both drew heavily on Bendigo and district records. Michele Matthews Collection: PHD Research - Relief during the great depression This item includes the following documents: 8672.43a The document is a letter dated 22 November 1932 from the Town Clerk to the Secretary of the Public Works Department in Melbourne. It confirms that the Council accepts the conditions of the Victorian Government's Christmas Relief Work Scheme, under which £1,500 had been allocated to the municipality to provide employment for registered unemployed people before Christmas. The Council explains that it will supplement the government grant with an additional £574 of its own funds. The proposed program is intended to employ approximately 200 workers, including labourers, painters, carpenters and concreters, on projects that are described as being of a permanent nature and outside the normal municipal works program. The letter emphasises that these projects will provide meaningful employment while also improving local infrastructure. The schedule of works includes a range of road construction and improvement projects. These include extending Hargreaves Street into Panton Street with a flood crossing and pipe culvert, constructing Murphy Street and repairing a large culvert, cutting down Comet Hill on Holmes Road to improve traffic visibility, constructing Hodgkinson Street, widening the intersection of Howard, Reginald and Harkness Streets, and removing stone outcrops and cutting back the embankment on Mackenzie Street. In addition to road works, the proposal includes municipal maintenance projects such as demolishing the old lock-up and sheds, screening material for top dressing and trimming paths in Rosalind Park, removing grass and vegetation from residential roads, and cleaning and repainting the exterior woodwork of the Town Hall. These works combined infrastructure improvements with general civic maintenance, allowing a wide variety of unemployed workers to be engaged. The accompanying budget allocates separate amounts for materials and labour for each project. The total expenditure is £500 for materials and £1,574 for labour, matching the Council's contribution and demonstrating that the majority of funding would be directed towards wages to maximise employment opportunities. The letter concludes with the Town Clerk's formal endorsement of the proposal.bendigo, michele matthews collection, letters seeking support in bendigo during the great depression 1932 to 1934

English currency before decimalisation in the 1970's consisted of pounds, shillings and pence with twelve pennies to the shilling and twenty shillings to the pound.Coins ranged from farthings which were one quarter of a penny through to pennies, threepence, sixpence, shillings ,half crowns and crowns. Most coins had a variety of common names such as a " bob" for a shilling a "quid for a pound and a tanner for a sixpence. This coin is the equivalent of five shillings and is known as a crown. The text around the obverse, "Victoria Dei Gratia 1844". On the reverse the text of Regina Fid Def"Britanniarum translates as Queen of Britain and defender of the faith.The text around the edge, DECUS ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI VIII translates as " an ornament and a safeguard. Coins were thus stamped in an effort to reduce the incidence of penny pinching whereby small amounts of precious metal were shaved from the edge of coins and still passed as full value coins.This coin was minted in the eighth year of the reign of one of England's longest ruling monarchs.It is of historical and social significance with the study of coins having considerable interest for many people. Large silver coin with image of Queen Victoria on the obverse or heads side of the coin and a coat of arms with crown at the top surrounded by a wreath of leaves is on the reverse. Text is around the edge of both sides with text also stamped into the edge of the coin as well. Obverse " Victoria Dei Gratia 1844." Reverse "Regina Fid Def"Britanniarum"On edge of coin is "DECUS ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI VIII english coins, coin half crown, english coin crown, warrnambool