The Municipality of Kew (1860-1863), the Borough of Kew (1863-1910), the Town of Kew (1910-1921) and the City of Kew (1921-1994) were local government instrumentalities in the State of Victoria. In 1994, the City of Kew was amalgamated, together with the former Cities of Camberwell and Hawthorn, into the new City of Boroondara (1994- ). Like other local government entities of the period, Kew was administered by town clerks. The two notable town clerks in Kew's history were H. H. (Henry Hirst) Harrison (1868-1955) and W. D. (William Dickie) Birrell (1899-1974). Harrison was appointed to the position in 1901 and retired in 1938 after 37 years. Birrell, appointed Acting Town Clerk in 1921, became Town Clerk in 1938, following Harrison's retirement. He continued in this role until his retirement in 1966. A large part of this collection of civic ephemera was assembled by W. D. Birrell. This is part of an historically significant civic collection, containing hundreds of separate invitations, documents, greeting cards, programmes and tickets issued and/or collected by successive town clerks. Items in the collection illuminate the political, social and cultural history of the district. As a continuous record, ranging across most decades of the Twentieth Century, they reveal changing tastes in design, values and relationships in the history of local government in Victoria.ephemera, civic ephemera, civic invitations, city of south melbourne, south melbourne town hall, mrs h a layfield, mayoress of south melbourne

Postcard to celebrate 130 years of South Melbourne in 2010, announcing talk by award winning heritage architect Roger Beeston about his work on the buildingcolour postcard of drawing, unmounted, good condition

Antique Bottles and Nostalgia Collections. South Melbourne Town Hall, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th February, 1978. Exhibitor's Certificate presented to James Lerk. A red stamp of the Melbourne Historical Bottles Society is at the centre.event, exhibition, bottle collectors exhibition

A programme for a showing of film footage of Queen Elizabeth's coronation a couple of weeks after the coronation. In the 1950s few households had televisions so although the Coronation was broadcast, many people may not have had the opportunity to watch it live. A screening at South Melbourne Town Hall on 23rd June 1953 was for Junior Legatees. Approximately 1,200 children attended with their mothers (from 'History of Legacy 1953' at 01491). The Governor Sir Dallas Brookes was unable to attend due to illness and his wife, Lady Brookes spoke and read a message from him.Junior Legatees pledged allegiance to the Queen at rallies and classes, so they would have been excited to see the Coronation screened.White paper programme with a colour photo of the Queen and black type, folded in half.coronation, gala performance

Photo album, brown hard cover, writing in gold leaf ' Victorian Centenary Illuminations 1934' Contains black and white images of Melbourne, taken at night. Includes, south bank of Yarra, Princes Bridge, Collins Street, Flinders Street, Elizabeth Street, Shrine of Remembrance, St. Kilda, Swanston Street, Hawthorn War Memorial, State Electricity Commission Head Office, Electricity supply Building, Electricity Commission and Port Authority buildings, South Melbourne Town hall, Hotel Windsor, Parliament House, Town hall, Fire Brigade building, State Savings Bank, National Bank, Melbourne town hall, Bank of Australia, Port Authority Building, Steam Tower. All the photographs in this album pertain to the City of Melbourne, and have NOT been scanned.cottage, miners, melbourne, melbourne, centenary

A document summarising events significant to Legacy in the year 1953. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was a highlight, with Legatee Stan Savige travelling to London to attend as a representative of Legacy (his account of the event is at 01164). 1,200 children attended a rally at the South Melbourne Town Hall to watch films of the life of the Queen, her visit to Canada and the Coronation. (A copy of the programme of this event is at 01163). It was decided that the Intermediate Legacy Club had degenerated into a club without a distinct purpose. They were encouraged to help the Legatees in the senior Club. For instance in the repairs to widow's houses. There is mention of the country clubs with a new club formed in Benalla. Education of Legatees was seen as something that needed to be addressed and a formal induction process with proper training would be necessary. A two page report was included as attachment 'C', which is stored as 01492. Welfare committee had prepared reports with were attached as 'D' but the whereabouts is not known. Camps and holidays. Country clubs would take city children and work had started at Blamey house to clear land for tent sites and country children could have a holiday in the city. The annual conference was held in Brisbane, a general report was attached as 'J' but the whereabouts is not known. Widows - childless and aged widows were identified in the Brisbane conference as needing more attention and a committee was formed to look into it. A report marked 'G' was mentioned but the whereabouts is not known. Dureau House. It was recognised the premises purchased some years before was not suitable as too much renovation was required and should be sold. The original donor, Mr Goldsmith of the B&G Corporation in New York was approached and he agreed the money could be used directly for the widows and children if provision of a headquarters was not important, but the decision was to be up to Legacy to make. The building was sold to Mr Bernard Evans for £57,000. Contact committee reported that the need for contact outstripped the present membership and new members were needed. The dental committee there were issues with payments by the Repatriation Department. The medical committee had decided that children in all classes would be given a Mantoux test for TB. The notation H18 in red pen shows that it was part of the archive project that was trying to capture the history of Legacy. A report covering the main work of Legacy in 1953.White foolscap paper with black type x 4 pages of the history of Legacy in 1953.Handwritten H18 in red pen.history, annual summary

This photograph of the 10 crew of the SPECULANT would have been taken prior to Feb 10th 1911, when the ship was wrecked on the south coast of Victoria at a place called Cape Patton. The barquentine SPECULANT was a steel, three-masted sailing ship built in 1895 in Inverkeithing, Scotland, registered in Warrnambool, Victoria and wrecked at Cape Paton, Victoria, 10th February 1911. The SPECULANT had been involved in the timber trade between the United Kingdom and Russia, until sold to its Warrnambool owners and timber merchants Messrs. P.J. McGennan & Co. (Peter John McGennan) in 1902 for 3000 pounds and had her sailed to Warrnambool as her new port. Peter John McGennan was born in 1844 and worked as a builder and cooper in Holyhead, Anglesea, Wales. He immigrated to Australia in 1869 as a free settler and arrived in Warrnambool in 1871 and undertook management of a property in Grassmere for Mr. Palmer. Peter met his wife Emily in South Melbourne and they married in 1873. They had ten children including Harry who lived to 1965, and Andrew who lived until 1958. (The other children were their four brothers - John who was killed in the Dardenalles aged 35, Frederick who died aged 8, Peter who died aged 28, Frank who died aged 5 weeks - and four sisters - Beatrice who died age 89, Edith who died aged 49, Blanche who died aged 89 and Eveline who died aged 48.) In 1874 Peter starting a boating establishment on the Hopkins River. In 1875 he opened up a Coopers business in Kepler Street next to what was Bateman, Smith and Co., moving to Liebig Street, next to the Victoria Hotel, in 1877. In 1882 he then moved to Lava Street (which in later years was the site of Chandlers Hardware Store). He was associated with the establishment of the Butter Factory at Allansford. He started making Butter Boxes to his own design and cheese batts for the Butter Factory. In 1896 established a Box Factory in Davis Street Merrivale, employing 24 people at its peak, (it was burnt down in 1923); and in Pertobe Road from 1912 (now the Army Barracks building). Peter was a Borough Councillor for Albert Ward from 1885 to 1891, he commenced the Foreshore Trust (including the camping grounds along Pertobe Road), and he was an inaugural Director of the Woollen Mill in Harris Street, buying an extensive share-holding in 1908 from the share trader Edward Vidler. They lobbied the Town Hall to have a formal ‘Cutting’ for the waters of the Merri River to be redirected from its natural opening south of Dennington, to its existing opening near Viaduct Road, in order to have the scourings from the wool at the Woollen Mill discharged into the sea. He sold Butter Boxes around the state, and had to ship them to Melbourne by rail. Peter’s purchase of the SPECULANT in 1902 enabled him to back-load white pine from Kaipara, New Zealand to Warrnambool to make his butter boxes then, to gain profitability, buy and ship potatoes and other primary produce bound to Melbourne. (McGennan & Co. had also owned the LA BELLA, which had traded in timber as well, until she was tragically wrecked with the loss of seven lives, after missing the entrance channel to Warrnambool harbour in 1905. It appears that the SPECULANT was bought to replace the LA BELLA.) In 1911 the SPECULANT had been attempting to depart Warrnambool for almost the entire month of January to undergo docking and overhaul in Melbourne. A month of east and south-easterly winds had forced her to remain sheltered in Lady Bay, Warrnambool apart from one morning of northerlies, when an attempt was made to round Cape Otway; she had to return to shelter in Portland after failing to make any headway. With only 140 tons of sand ballast aboard, the ship would not have been easy to handle. Captain Jacobsen and his crew of nine, mainly Swedes, decided to make for Melbourne, leaving Portland Harbour on 5th February 1911. By the 9th they had reached Cape Otway, where they encountered a moonless night, constant heavy rain, and a heavy sea with a south-easterly wind blowing. After safely rounding Cape Otway the course was changed to east, then north-east to take the vessel to a point six miles off Cape Patton, following the orders of Captain Jacobsen, who told the crew to be very careful with the steering, as the wind and sea was running to leeward. The patent log (used to measure speed) had been out of order for the last four months as no-one in Warrnambool was able to fix it: it was intended to have it repaired in Melbourne. In the meantime the crew measured the vessel's speed by looking over the side and estimating wind strength. This compounded the difficulties of imprecise positioning, as the strong cross wind and sea were acting on the lightly laden vessel to steadily drive it towards the shore. At 3.30am on Friday 10 February 1911 Captain Jacobsen and the first mate were looking over the side of the vessel when they heard the sound of breakers and suddenly struck the rocks. The crew immediately knew they had no chance of getting the SPECULANT off, and attempted to rescue themselves by launching the lifeboat, which was instantly smashed to pieces. One of the crew then volunteered to take a line ashore, and the rest of the crew were all able to drag themselves to shore, some suffering hand lacerations from the rocks. Once ashore they began to walk along the coast towards Lorne, believing it was the nearest settlement. Realising their mistake as dawn broke they returned westwards to Cape Patton, and found a farm belonging to Mr C. Ramsden, who took them in and gave them a change of clothes and food. After resting for a day and returning to the wreck to salvage some of their personal possessions, at 10am on Saturday they set out for Apollo Bay, a voyage that took six hours, sometimes wading through flooded creeks up to their necks. The Age described the wreck as "listed to starboard. All the cabin is gutted and the ballast gone. There is a big rock right through the bottom of her, and there is not the slightest hope of getting her off". A Board of Marine inquiry found that Captain Jacobson was guilty of careless navigation by not taking steps to accurately verify the position of the vessel with respect to Cape Otway when the light was visible and by not setting a safe and proper course with respect to the wind and sea. It suspended his certificate for 6 months and ordered him to pay costs. The location of the wreck site was marked for a long time by two anchors on the shoreline, until in 1970 the larger of the two anchors was recovered by the Underwater Explorers' Club and mounted on the foreshore at Apollo Bay. The bell from the wreck was also donated to the Apollo Bay Surf Lifesaving Club but is recorded to have been stolen. Rusting remains of the wreck can still be found on the shoreline on the southern side of, and directly below Cape Patton. Parts of the SPECULANT site have been buried by rubble from construction and maintenance works to the Great Ocean Road, as well as by naturally occurring landslides. Peter J McGennan passed away in 1920. The Gates in the western wall of the Anglican Church in Henna Street/Koroit St are dedicated to him for his time of community work, which is matched with other prominent Warrnambool citizens; Fletcher Jones, John Younger, J.D.E (Tag) Walter, and Edward Vidler. After Peter J McGennan's death Harry, Andrew and Edith continued to operate the family business until July 11th 1923 when the company was wound up. (Andrew lived in Ryot Street Warrnambool, near Lava Street.) Harry McGennan (Peter and Emily’s son) owned the Criterion Hotel in Kepler Street Warrnambool (now demolished). His son Sid and wife Dot lived in 28 Howard Street (corner of Nelson Street) and Sid managed the Criterion until it was decided by the family to sell, and for he remained Manager for the new owners until he retired. Harry commenced the Foreshore Trust in Warrnambool around 1950. The McGennan Carpark in Pertobe Road is named after Harry and there are Memorial-Stone Gates in his memory. (The Gates were once the original entrance to the carpark but are now the exit.). Peter’s great-grandson, also called Andrew, is a Security Officer in Warrnambool. The Patent Log (also called a Taffrail log) from the SPECULANT, mentioned above, and a number of photographs, are now part of the Collection at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village. The SPECULANT is historically significant as the largest ship to have been registered in Warrnambool, and is believed to have been the largest barquentine to visit Melbourne. It is evidence of the final days of large commercial sailing vessels involved in the Victorian and New Zealand timber trade. The SPECULANT is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register VHR S626Photograph, black and white. of the 10 crew of the SPECULANT on board the ship holding two 'Speculant Warrnambool' lifebuoys. Taken early 1900's flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, warrnambool historical photograph, la bella, speculant, cumming and ellis, international timber trade, p. j. mcgennan and co. warrnambool, peter mcgennan, capt. james jacobsen, warrnambool maritime history, h. pengilley apollo bay

This photograph of the SPECULANT was taken while she was in dock at the Warrnambool, Victoria, Breakwater in the early 1900's. Crew seem busy on her decks and others are watching from the breakwater. There are also 2 steamships in the photograph. The barquentine SPECULANT was a steel, three-masted sailing ship built in 1895 in Inverkeithing, Scotland, registered in Warrnambool, Victoria and wrecked at Cape Paton, Victoria, 10th February 1911. The SPECULANT had been involved in the timber trade between the United Kingdom and Russia, until sold to its Warrnambool owners and timber merchants Messrs. P.J. McGennan & Co. (Peter John McGennan) in 1902 for 3000 pounds and had her sailed to Warrnambool as her new port. Peter John McGennan was born in 1844 and worked as a builder and cooper in Holyhead, Anglesea, Wales. He immigrated to Australia in 1869 as a free settler and arrived in Warrnambool in 1871 and undertook management of a property in Grassmere for Mr. Palmer. Peter met his wife Emily in South Melbourne and they married in 1873. They had ten children including Harry who lived to 1965, and Andrew who lived until 1958. (The other children were their four brothers - John who was killed in the Dardenalles aged 35, Frederick who died aged 8, Peter who died aged 28, Frank who died aged 5 weeks - and four sisters - Beatrice who died age 89, Edith who died aged 49, Blanche who died aged 89 and Eveline who died aged 48.) In 1874 Peter starting a boating establishment on the Hopkins River. In 1875 he opened up a Coopers business in Kepler Street next to what was Bateman, Smith and Co., moving to Liebig Street, next to the Victoria Hotel, in 1877. In 1882 he then moved to Lava Street (which in later years was the site of Chandlers Hardware Store). He was associated with the establishment of the Butter Factory at Allansford. He started making Butter Boxes to his own design and cheese batts for the Butter Factory. In 1896 established a Box Factory in Davis Street Merrivale, employing 24 people at its peak, (it was burnt down in 1923); and in Pertobe Road from 1912 (now the Army Barracks building). Peter was a Borough Councillor for Albert Ward from 1885 to 1891, he commenced the Foreshore Trust (including the camping grounds along Pertobe Road), and he was an inaugural Director of the Woollen Mill in Harris Street, buying an extensive share-holding in 1908 from the share trader Edward Vidler. They lobbied the Town Hall to have a formal ‘Cutting’ for the waters of the Merri River to be redirected from its natural opening south of Dennington, to its existing opening near Viaduct Road, in order to have the scourings from the wool at the Woollen Mill discharged into the sea. He sold Butter Boxes around the state, and had to ship them to Melbourne by rail. Peter’s purchase of the SPECULANT in 1902 enabled him to back-load white pine from Kaipara, New Zealand to Warrnambool to make his butter boxes then, to gain profitability, buy and ship potatoes and other primary produce bound to Melbourne. (McGennan & Co. had also owned the LA BELLA, which had traded in timber as well, until she was tragically wrecked with the loss of seven lives, after missing the entrance channel to Warrnambool harbour in 1905. It appears that the SPECULANT was bought to replace the LA BELLA.) In 1911 the SPECULANT had been attempting to depart Warrnambool for almost the entire month of January to undergo docking and overhaul in Melbourne. A month of east and south-easterly winds had forced her to remain sheltered in Lady Bay, Warrnambool apart from one morning of northerlies, when an attempt was made to round Cape Otway; she had to return to shelter in Portland after failing to make any headway. With only 140 tons of sand ballast aboard, the ship would not have been easy to handle. Captain Jacobsen and his crew of nine, mainly Swedes, decided to make for Melbourne, leaving Portland Harbour on 5th February 1911. By the 9th they had reached Cape Otway, where they encountered a moonless night, constant heavy rain, and a heavy sea with a south-easterly wind blowing. After safely rounding Cape Otway the course was changed to east, then north-east to take the vessel to a point six miles off Cape Patton, following the orders of Captain Jacobsen, who told the crew to be very careful with the steering, as the wind and sea was running to leeward. The patent log (used to measure speed) had been out of order for the last four months as no-one in Warrnambool was able to fix it: it was intended to have it repaired in Melbourne. In the meantime the crew measured the vessel's speed by looking over the side and estimating wind strength. This compounded the difficulties of imprecise positioning, as the strong cross wind and sea were acting on the lightly laden vessel to steadily drive it towards the shore. At 3.30am on Friday 10 February 1911 Captain Jacobsen and the first mate were looking over the side of the vessel when they heard the sound of breakers and suddenly struck the rocks. The crew immediately knew they had no chance of getting the SPECULANT off, and attempted to rescue themselves by launching the lifeboat, which was instantly smashed to pieces. One of the crew then volunteered to take a line ashore, and the rest of the crew were all able to drag themselves to shore, some suffering hand lacerations from the rocks. Once ashore they began to walk along the coast towards Lorne, believing it was the nearest settlement. Realising their mistake as dawn broke they returned westwards to Cape Patton, and found a farm belonging to Mr C. Ramsden, who took them in and gave them a change of clothes and food. After resting for a day and returning to the wreck to salvage some of their personal possessions, at 10am on Saturday they set out for Apollo Bay, a voyage that took six hours, sometimes wading through flooded creeks up to their necks. The Age described the wreck as "listed to starboard. All the cabin is gutted and the ballast gone. There is a big rock right through the bottom of her, and there is not the slightest hope of getting her off". A Board of Marine inquiry found that Captain Jacobson was guilty of careless navigation by not taking steps to accurately verify the position of the vessel with respect to Cape Otway when the light was visible and by not setting a safe and proper course with respect to the wind and sea. It suspended his certificate for 6 months and ordered him to pay costs. The location of the wreck site was marked for a long time by two anchors on the shoreline, until in 1970 the larger of the two anchors was recovered by the Underwater Explorers' Club and mounted on the foreshore at Apollo Bay. The bell from the wreck was also donated to the Apollo Bay Surf Lifesaving Club but is recorded to have been stolen. Rusting remains of the wreck can still be found on the shoreline on the southern side of, and directly below Cape Patton. Parts of the SPECULANT site have been buried by rubble from construction and maintenance works to the Great Ocean Road, as well as by naturally occurring landslides. Peter J McGennan passed away in 1920. The Gates in the western wall of the Anglican Church in Henna Street/Koroit St are dedicated to him for his time of community work, which is matched with other prominent Warrnambool citizens; Fletcher Jones, John Younger, J.D.E (Tag) Walter, and Edward Vidler. After Peter J McGennan's death Harry, Andrew and Edith continued to operate the family business until July 11th 1923 when the company was wound up. (Andrew lived in Ryot Street Warrnambool, near Lava Street.) Harry McGennan (Peter and Emily’s son) owned the Criterion Hotel in Kepler Street Warrnambool (now demolished). His son Sid and wife Dot lived in 28 Howard Street (corner of Nelson Street) and Sid managed the Criterion until it was decided by the family to sell, and for he remained Manager for the new owners until he retired. Harry commenced the Foreshore Trust in Warrnambool around 1950. The McGennan Carpark in Pertobe Road is named after Harry and there are Memorial-Stone Gates in his memory. (The Gates were once the original entrance to the carpark but are now the exit.). Peter’s great-grandson, also called Andrew, is a Security Officer in Warrnambool. The Patent Log (also called a Taffrail log) from the SPECULANT, mentioned above, and a number of photographs, are now part of the Collection at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village. The SPECULANT is historically significant as the largest ship to have been registered in Warrnambool, and is believed to have been the largest barquentine to visit Melbourne. It is evidence of the final days of large commercial sailing vessels involved in the Victorian and New Zealand timber trade. The SPECULANT is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register VHR S626Photograph. black and white, of the three-masted barque SPECULANT in dock at the Warrnambool Breakwater in the early 1900's. A steam ship is docked behind her and another steamship is in Lady Bay on her left. There are people on the SPECULANT and others walking nearby. flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, la bella, speculant, cumming and ellis, international timber trade, p. j. mcgennan and co. warrnambool, peter mcgennan, capt. james jacobsen, warrnambool maritime history, h. pengilley apollo bay

Mechanics Institutes were first established in the 19th century in Scotland and England to improve the education of working class men and to instruct them in their various trades. In Australia Mechanics’ Institutes were set up in the late 1920s with the first one in Melbourne dating from 1839. The Institutes in Victoria were (and some still are) a feature of Victorian country towns, usually consisting of a hall containing a Library and in bigger centres art class rooms and other recreation areas. The Woodford Mechanics’ Institute was established in 1861, enlarged in 1868 and burnt down in 1917.This seal is of major interest as it is the only seal we have of Mechanics’ Institutes in our district. These Mechanics’ Institutes were very important in the educational and social development of Victorian country towns. This is a seal or stamp made of brass and attached to a wooden handle. The wood on the handle is of a dark colour and is urn-shapedStamp - Woodford Mechanics Institutemechanics’ institutes, woodford, early mechanic institute seal

This is a ticket for a complimentary concert to the Victorian soprano, Miss Mollie Hayres, in the Warrnambool Town Hall in 1926. Inez Mary (Mollie) Hayres (1897-1980) was born in Port Fairy and received her early musical training from the Good Samaritan Sisters in Port Fairy. She received local funding to enable her to study at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music under Madame Weiderman and toured the Western District in 1926, supported by the pianist May Broderick and the violinist Cecil Parkes, in a series of complimentary concerts to give her funding to study in Europe. She became a well-known singer and singing teacher in Melbourne, featuring in radio programs and concerts. This ticket is of interest as a memento of Mollie Hayres, a noted singer in Victoria in the first half of the 20th century.This is a small white card with black edging and printing. Grand Complimentary Concert to Miss Mollie Hayresmollie hayres soprano, good samaritan sisters port fairy

5 photos of Caulfield Town Hall 1972caulfield south, glen eira rd, hawthorn rd, caulfield town hall, o’donnell, jenny

1 photograph of Caulfield Town Hall circa 1890caulfield south, hawthorn road, glen eira road, caulfield town hall

Drawing of proposed Shire Hall by Sydney Smith circa 1884caulfield south, hawthorn road, glen eira road, caulfield town hall, smith, sydney

1 photograph of Caulfield Town Hall circa 1890caulfield south, hawthorn road, glen eira road, caulfield town hall

Drawing of proposed Shire Hall by Sydney Smith circa 1884caulfield south, hawthorn road, glen eira road, caulfield town hall, smith, sydney

Displayed in History House. Portland Town Council?Sepia photograph of interior of room with wooden floors and ceiling. Pale-coloured walls. Three tall arched windows on each side (left and right) and fireplace in centre of rear wall. Single central light suspended from ceiling. Paintings and framed photographs on wall, wooden benches along 3 walls and at front left and right, with large central table and 10 chairs in centre of room. Mounted on buff card with decorative stencil.Front: Yeoman & Co. Extra copies can always be obtained. Royal Arcade melbourne. (ink stamp, centre right). Back: Yeoman & Co. The popular photographers, Royal Arcade Melbourne. [.....] Prahran, Richmond, Carlton and South Melbourne (purple ink stamp, centre left).portland town hall, local government, administration

This Directory of 1889 covers the location of Melbourne based trade and professional offices by street and in Alphabetical order. It covers all of Melbourne and its suburbs. It also covers government and official, ecclesiastic, legal, municipal and miscellaneous information. The directory details a cross section of a developing city with a splattering of advertisements opening up an in depth look of all aspects of living in the late 1800s. It is interesting to see that all the advertisements do not have any telecommunication numbers listed (personal shoppers or mail orders only). This was a period of high moral standing within the community and hotels advertised rooms " suites of rooms for families and single rooms for Ladies and Gentlemen" also "electric bells throughout the house. Telephone, night porter and hot and cold baths."This directory would be used by the majority of families and businesses working and living within the Kiewa Valley and the surrounding area. Melbourne was the only place where every aspect of living requirement was catered for. Although the delivery of services and goods were not at a high rate, certain items or transactions would require a visit to "the big smoke". Business information are listed both by suburb and alphabetically. There is also a section for British and Foreign Trade. This directory covered nearly everything to do with commerce, an example pay days for principle firms. Greater evolution of trade locations started to balloon out after the mid 1950's. Increased populations and greater levels of communication and safe fast transport facilities permitted greater devolution of commercial enterprises into rural communities, such as the Kiewa Valley.This directory has no front or back cover and is held together by its cloth spine. It contains over 1300 pages, however there may be some pages missing front and back of the directory which would have contained advertisements of some unknown shops. All the sides of this directory (except the spine) have advertisements and content information stamped on. The spine cover has been placed in the directory until further conservation work is carried out. It has gold coloured printing and in the central section, a gold coloured background with the words "Sands & McDougall's Melbourne Directory 1889." The spine has three adverts on the spine.On the spine in gold colour "South * British insurance Company Fire and Marine. Risks Lowest Current Rates No. 11 Queen Street, Arthur J Masters, Manager" and half way down " *Phoenix* Fire Office of London established over 100 years Annual Income exceeds (pound sign) 1,000,000" underneath "Losses Paid Over (pound sign) 16,000,000" underneath "Reserve Fund Exceeds (pound sign) 1,000,000" underneath "9 Market Buildings William Street, Melbourne " underneath " R. Manfield Taylor, Agent" and at the bottom section" Henry Scott Auctioneer and Estate Agent 49 Bridport St., Albert Park" stamped on the bottom side across the page endings "The Wonderful Wertheim Sewing Machines Swanston Street opposite Town Hall", stamped on the top side across the page endings " The Sweet Hapsburg Pianos & Organs Swanston Street Opposite Town Hall"state government listings, names and location of early melbourne population business names, 1889 members of the victorian executive council

This is a program of a concert organized by the Soldiers’ Christmas Comforts Group and the Red Cross in Warrnambool to raise funds for the soldiers on active service in World War One. The concert was held in the Warrnambool Town Hall in September 1916 and featured a Melbourne artist, Horace Wood, who gave several violin solos and the local Warrnambool orchestra of Miss Gertrude Rooney. The Rooneys were early settlers in the Dennington area and had the property, ‘White Rock’ in Dennington and a produce store in Warrnambool. Miss Gertrude Rooney was an accomplished musician and was prominent in musical circles in Warrnambool during the first half of the 20th century. This program is of interest as an example of the fund raising activities in Warrnambool during World War One and of the type of entertainment offered at concerts at that time. There are many well-known names listed among the orchestra members at the back of the program. This is a sheet of buff-coloured paper folded in two to make four pages. The front page has an ornate red edging and there is dark blue printing on the front and back pages. The front page has a large Red Cross emblem The inside two pages have the printed program of concert items in black print. There are also advertisements for local Warrnambool businesses. The edges of the program are torn and ragged. world war one, warrnambool in world war one, gertrude rooney, musical entertainments in early 20th century, warrnambool

Dame Nellie Melba, born Helen Porter Mitchell (1861-1931), was the first Australian to gain international fame as an opera singer and one of the best-known singers in late Victorian times. She took the name ‘Melba’ from her home town, Melbourne. She sang in Warrnambool on at least two occasions, staying at local homes, including ‘Summer Hill’, belonging to the Murray family and ‘Lyndoch’ as the guest of Florence Lake. In 1927 she sang at the Warrnambool Town Hall with three other assisting artists and this programme records that event. The Warnambool and District Historical Society has an evening bag that was given by Nellie Melba to Miss O’Donnell, a maid at ‘Lyndoch’ at that time. This programme is of considerable significance as it is a memento of the occasion in 1927 when the famous Australian opera singer sang at the Warrnambool Town Hall during her farewell tour. This is a cream-coloured sheet of paper folded into two to make four pages. The front cover has a decorative border and blue printing and a Warrnambool & District Historical Society stamp and the back cover has an advertisement. The middle pages contain blue printing. The folds are torn in parts.Dame Nellie Melba's Farewell Tourdame nellie melba, history of warrnambool, lyndoch, melba farewell tour

Black and white photograph, trees in foreground looking towards settled area. (3 copies).Various landmarks are noted on the backing sheet. They are, "Clock Tower, old Methodist Church, old Town Hall and old St. Paul's C of E spire".

Australia's first telephone exchange was opened in Melbourne in August 1880. It was operated by the Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company. Owned by W. H. Masters and T. T. Draper, the Manager of the Company was H. Byron Moore. This was only two years after the world's first exchange in the United States, and just four years after Bell first spoke on a telephone. The exchange was located in the old Stock Exchange building at 367 Collins Street, a site now occupied by the Commonwealth Bank. In 1884, the operations of the Company, by then known as the Victorian Telephone Exchange Company, had grown considerably and were transferred to Wills Street, Melbourne. Private ownership of this company continued until 1887 when it was bought out by the Victorian Colonial Government. Other colonial governments followed this example. By 1910, the growth in telephone services made additional accommodation necessary. This could not be provided in the existing building in Wills Street and arrangements were made for a new exchange in Lonsdale Street. Alexander Graham Bell visited Australia in 1910 to advise the Federal Government's Postal Commission. Telephone exchanges were established in Adelaide with (48 subscribers), Hobart (10 subscribers) and Launceston (35 subscribers). The first exchange in Western Australia was established in 1887 and located in a small three-room cottage in Wellington Street, Perth with 17 subscribers. The year 1888 marked the opening of the Fremantle exchange in a small room at the rear of the Town Hall. There were nine subscribers. Australia's first automatic exchange was installed in the GPO in Sydney, in 1911, for internal use. But the first automatic exchange for public use was opened at Geelong in Victoria in the next year July 1912 with 800 subscribers. Melbourne's first automatic exchange was opened in the suburb of Brighton in 1914; the first public automatic exchange in NSW began operating at Newtown, Sydney in 1915; and Queensland's first was installed at South Brisbane in 1925. 1929 saw the opening of Tasmania's first automatic exchange in Hobart. an automatic telephone service. In June 1977, the manual telephone exchange at Swansea was replaced with an automatic service and made Tasmania the first State in Australia to have a fully automatic network. The half-century following Federation saw the growth of the automatic operation; a great extension of trunk line services; The automatic telephone contributed greatly to the early popularity of telephones in Australia. It was a quicker and more convenient way of communicating with another person on the same exchange — instead of having to go through tedious processes with the operator. From its introduction, the number of automatic telephones in operation grew to a remarkable extent. In 1886, the first trunk link of 16 km was connected to the exchanges of Adelaide and Port Adelaide in South Australia. Then, in 1907, the first inter-capital telephone trunk line was opened between Sydney and Melbourne. It was followed by a line between Melbourne and Adelaide in 1914. Sydney and Brisbane were linked in 1923, and Perth and Adelaide in 1930. In 1930, the first overseas calls from Australia came possible with the introduction of a radiotelephone service to England, and through there to Europe and America. A similar service opened to New Zealand in the same year. Initially, trunk channels linked different manual trunk exchanges. It was necessary for a succession of trunk operators to connect the appropriate channels, one after the other until the connection was made. As trunk traffic grew. the system became increasingly unsuitable. More trunk operators had to be employed and so labour costs increased. It was a tedious and slow way of making a long-distance call, and it was sometimes hard to hear, particularly when several exchanges were linked With technical advances, trunk switching moved from manual operation through a partly automatic phase. Automatic transit switching equipment was used and only a single operator was required to connect a trunk call to a wanted automatic subscriber. Until well beyond the middle of this century, the majority of trunk traffic went through this single telephonist control. In 1953, the number of telephones in use in Australia passed the one million mark. By then, the need for improvement in the automatic exchanges was becoming well recognised. The need was for a telephone switching system which would do a better job more economically than the conventional step-by-step ex-change. This led to the adoption of the Crossbar system as the standard in automatic telephone exchanges in 1960. The introduction of Crossbar switching was a big step forward in the automation of trunk calls. It substituted automatic switching and charging equipment for the originating trunk operator, and improved the quality of the system radically. Before the introduction of the Crossbar system there were often very long delays in obtaining a booked trunk call, and the quality of sound was often very poor. With Crossbar, Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) became a reality. A trunk call by STD was as easy to make and almost as fast to connect as a local call.The item was made around the 1940s and used up until the 1970s in manual cord telephone exchanges as a way to time and charge users for trunk calls made over the telecom system of the time. Post Master General dept. - Trunk Call Timer.Inscribed PMG, C. of A, 37. 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