Four families of Kerrs lived at Thalia, out of Wycheproof and when Tom's daughter Margaret donated the framed certificate she commented,"it has found a good home at the Wycheproof Historical Society."A valued Wycheproof SHOW prize for best practice agriculture in its day,year 1939. This item relates well to key themes in the history of the region,in particular progress in agriculture and pastoral production. Framed Special Certificate issued by the Farm Competitions Associations of Victoria and awarded in 1939 by the Wycheproof & District Agricultural & Pastoral Society - Secretary A.B. Hackwell. Coloured images of wheat grains and stalks surround the printed and written words."Donated by Margaret Smith nee Kerr 29. 2. 2008."1939, , wycheproof, show, wheat crop, winner

The John Bovaird Collection : Commonwealth of Australia Wheat Bounty Act 1934 State of Victoria Claim for Payment. By Errol Balfour Bovaird of May Reef PO via Avonmore. Regarding 150 bushels delivered for sale to John T Stewart of Lockington. Wheat produced on 50 acres : Allotment 25 Parish of Pannoo Bamawm. Dated 13/4/1935. Pink paper.agriculture, farm, wheat crop

The John Bovaird Collection. Commonwealth of Australia Wheat Bounty Act 1934 State of Victoria Claim for Payment. By Errol Balfour Bovaird of May Reef PO via Avonmore. Regarding 96 bushels delivered for sale to R. Anderson of Lockington. Wheat produced on 50 acres : Allotment 25 Parish of Pannoo Bamawm. Dated 13/4/1935. Pink paper.agriculture, farm, wheat crop

The John Bovaird Collection. Commonwealth of Australia Wheat Bounty Act 1934 State of Victoria Claim for Payment. By Errol Balfour Bovaird of May Reef PO via Avonmore. Regarding 96 bushels delivered for sale to R. G. Anderson of Lockington. Wheat produced on 50 acres : Allotment 25 Parish of Pannoo Bamawm. Dated 13/4/1935. Pink paper.agriculture, farm, wheat crop

The John Bovaird Collection. Commonwealth of Australia Wheat Bounty Act 1934 State of Victoria Claim for Payment. By Errol Balfour Bovaird of May Reef PO via Avonmore. Regarding 96 bushels delivered for sale to Henry Jackson of Lockington. Wheat produced on 50 acres : Allotment 25 Parish of Pannoo Bamawm. Dated 13/4/1935. Pink paper.agriculture, farm, wheat crop

Churchill Island was discovered by Lieut. James Grant in 1801 and he planted the first wheat crop in Victoria there. The Cairn was erected to commemmorate this by the Victorian Farmer's Union. The Minister of Agriculture The Hon. G. L. Chandler CMG. MLC unveiled the Cairn on the 4th May of November 1968.Mrs J Jenner with grandson on left hand side of photograph and daughter Nancy on right hand side of photograph sitting on the Cairn which was erected by the Victorian Farmer's Union commemorating the first cultivation of wheat in Victoria by Mr James Grant in 1801 on Churchill Island. Plaque unveiled on 4/11/1968Hand written "Unveiling Plaque 4/11/68 / Back To"churchill island, cairn, victorian farmer's union, james grant, first wheat crops for victoria

Crop Competitions have been held at local Shows dating from late 1800’s to todayCream card red and blue print. Hand printed details of winner and description of Crop Competition. Also has tractor and plough, silos, tractor and header logos on top and wheat head logos on sides and bottom.The Farm Competitions Association of Victoria. Special Certificate awarded to J C Thom, Winner of Open Wheat Crop Competition (40 acres) 1963. Variety exhibited - Olympic. Conducted by Yarrawonga Agricultural Society Signed by Deputy Chairman JW McCann, Hon Secretary R A Andrew

Crop competitions have been held at local shows dating from late 1800’s to todayCream card Red and Blue print. Hand printed details of winner and description of Crop competition. Also has tractor and plough, silos tractor and header logos on top and wheat head logos on sides and bottom.The Farm Competitions Association of Victoria. Special certificate awarded to J C Thom ad P Bruce Open Wheat crop competition 1957 Area 40 acres. Variety Sherpa Conducted by Yarrawonga and Border Agricultural and Pastoral Society. Signed by Chairman Wm B Miller, Hon Secretary JWC McCann

The Stripper was invented by John Ridley in 1843, while trying to overcome harvest labour shortage. In the early ays of Colonial South Australia a labour force was essential to harvest the wheat crop quickly before the grain shook out and fell to the ground. The stripper solved this problem, as t could strip 10 acres [4 hectares], handling approx. 180 bushels [5 tonnes] per day. This replaced 14 men using scythes.Strippers were used in this area between 1870's to the early 1900's.Then the Stripper Harvestors took over this processprinciple of the stripper----The wheat heads were knocked off the straw by a fat revolving beater ,and the grain, mixed with the husks and short straw, was propelled to the rear tin box. When the box became full, the contents were emptied into a winnower for cleaning. Recorded as Mitchell Stripper

This quern was made from Harcourt granite. Querns were used for grinding wheat into flour. (Wooden handles missing from this catalogued object).It was most likely made on Mount Alexander, in spare time, by a quarry worker using his employer’s gang saw and other tools. Wheat is not now grown in Harcourt district . Early settlers engaged in cropping until they exhausted the fertility of the soil. This quern was utilized by a local pioneer who intended to be self-sufficient to the extent of grinding his own grain into flour.. Many local farmers sowed wheat immediately after clearing the land: raising of a wheat crop was evidence of use and improvement which, along with fencing and erecting other structures, was part of the mandatory steps to prove occupancy as a prelude to obtaining a Crown Grant for what had previously been deemed ‘crown land'The quern is of interest as a symbol of the desire for self-sufficiency and as a demonstration of the extent to which granite could be worked and shaped by masonry tools. Quern, granite, square slab with raised metal centre shaft and one rounded piece of granite with off-centre hole and side ridges.

On 28th March 1801, Lieut. James Grant sailed across from Rhyll, landed and inspected Churchill Island. His men cleared some ground and planted seeds including Victoria's first crop of wheat. Named Churchill Island after John Churchill Esq. of Dawlish in the County of Devon.Coloured photograph of Churchill Island taken from Jetty on Phillip Island. Low tide is evident.local history, photographs, buildings - historical, rural industry, coloured photograph, john cook, churchill island

""The public trial of reaping machines, under the auspices of the Port Phillip Farmers' Society, advertised to take place on Friday, last, but postponed on account of the weather, came off December 27. The place selected (Mr. Wade's farm, Belford, near Kew) is undulating ground, with a remarkably heavy crop of wheat upon it. This, taken in connection with, the state of the ground, still soft from the recent rains, made the trial an uncommonly severe one. ..."(South Australian Advertiser, 15 January 1859) Some bricks used in Kew buildings came from the brickworks on Wade's Farm at the end of Belford Road near the Yarra River (now part of the Kew Golf Club). (History of RSL by John Torpey)Wade's Farm, Kilby Road, Kew.wade's farm, farming (kew), kilby road, north kew, belford road, kew, kew golf club

The original sketch was photographed in 1970 for reproduction in the Shire history publication Pioneers & Painters (1971). The very fragile original was kept in the Council stoungroom and suffered significant damage to its edges over the years, no doubt it has also yellowed. A comparison of the original as digitised (2022) with the negative taken 50 years earlier also reveals that the left 20% of the sketch has been cut off, probably due to damage. In June 1842 Thomas Sweeney applied to the Superintendent, C.J. La Trobe, asking permission to purchase a portion of the recently surveyed ‘Parish of Nillumbik'. His request was allowed and handed to the sub-treasurer and Land Board. He paid £110 for 110 acres and called the land 'Culla Hill'. He first built a temporary house, a slab hut 12 feet by 10 feet, in which he lived with his wife, an Irish girl whom he had married in 1838. (His first wife had been drowned at Port Jackson.) Some time later he built a permanent residence on the model of a Tipperary farmhouse. It was a rectangular building of hand-made bricks and stone quarried from the Western Hill with a recessed verandah in front, and bore a slate roof. The out-buildings consisted of a detached kitchen, stable and a barn. It was in this house that succeeding generations of Sweeneys were reared. The original slab hut became a washhouse and survived till recent years. 'Culla Hill' became a social centre for the district, church services being held there on various occasions. The first wheat crop in the district was planted by Sweeney who also supplied the first grain for a mill that later was built at Eltham. He took an active interest in the development of the district. At this time travelling people--many of them runaway sailors or convicts--often passed the settlement, and some of them stayed and worked with Sweeney. A tribe of aborigines living on the river below 'Culla Hill' were apparently on good terms with Sweeney, for it is said that they helped him with the building of his house. Very little is known about the aborigines who originally lived in the Eltham district. There must have been many of them; their stone axes, grinding stones, and anvil stones have been found in the gullies around Research and canoe trees and artifacts were found on the Kangaroo Ground hills. Early settlers remembered a tribe that camped on the site of the present railway bridge at Eltham. They held corroborees there and visited settlers for hand-outs of 'flour and bacca’. There was an aboriginal reserve on the Yarra, upstream from Eltham, but most of those who had collected there later went to live on the Pound Reserve at Warrandyte, where the last aborigines in the area finally ended their days. The Pound Reserve, of 1,103 acres, was established at Pound Bend in 1841. The chief protector, George Robinson, and his four assistants, were given instructions to care for the aged and sick, to provide blankets and rations for all who lived there, to train the able-bodied men in agriculture and other trades and to find them jobs. The Yarra blacks, who later came under the protection of William Thomas, have been described as a 'fine race, well made and above the average height'. Thomas Sweeney died on 6 September 1867 and was buried in the Eltham Cemetery. To his wife Margaret and his son John, he left the entire property of 'Culla Hill'. To his other son Patrick, he left 150 acres, including a small two-roomed wooden cottage. He had five daughters: Kate and Margaret (twins) who were born in 1842, Ellen 1846, Annie 1848 and Johanna 1851. John Sweeney farmed 'Culla Hill' until his death in 1909. He had ten children; one of them, Mary, became Mrs M. Carrucan whose son, Mr John Carrucan, still lives at Eltham. 'Culla Hill' passed out of the Sweeneys possession in 1939 and was renamed by its new owners, 'Sweeneys', in memory of its pioneers. - Pioneers & Painters: One Hundred Years of Eltham and its Shire, Alan Marshall 1971, pp10-12 4 x 5 inch black and white negative of original colour sketchculla hill, sweeey's cottage

This specimen is part of a collection of almost 200 animal specimens that were originally acquired as skins from various institutions across Australia, including the Australian Museum in Sydney and the National Museum of Victoria (known as Museums Victoria since 1983), as well as individuals such as amateur anthropologist Reynell Eveleigh Johns between 1860-1880. These skins were then mounted by members of the Burke Museum Committee and put-on display in the formal space of the Museum’s original exhibition hall where they continue to be on display. This display of taxidermy mounts initially served to instruct visitors to the Burke Museum of the natural world around them, today it serves as an insight into the collecting habits of the 19th century. The Regent Parrot has two separate populations separated by the Nullarbor Plain: one in the Mallee regions of eastern Australia, and the other in the Wheatbelt region of southern Western Australia. Though the populations are widely separated, the birds of each region do not appear especially different, one being a little duller than the other. There are, however, other differences between the two populations, especially in how they have fared: eastern populations are endangered, while the western population is thought to be increasing. The Regent Parrot eats seeds of grasses and plants and cereal crops, especially wheat. It also eats buds and flowers, insect larvae, psyllids and lerps. It forages in pairs or small parties, usually on the ground, but also in the canopy of trees or in spilled grain on the ground. The Regent parrot is endangered in NSW and Vulnerable in VIC This Particular specimen has been mounted correctly.This specimen is part of a significant and rare taxidermy mount collection in the Burke Museum. This collection is scientifically and culturally important for reminding us of how science continues to shape our understanding of the modern world. They demonstrate a capacity to hold evidence of how Australia’s fauna history existed in the past and are potentially important for future environmental research. This collection continues to be on display in the Museum and has become a key part to interpreting the collecting habits of the 19th century.A slim parrot with a long, dusky tapering tail and back-swept wings. It is mostly yellow, with blue-black wings and tail. There is a prominent yellow shoulder patch and red patches in the wings. The bill is deep pink. It is mounted on a thin wooden branch that is attached to a wooden mount with the scientific name located Label: T.L. 430MM / W.S. 540MM / WT. 200GMS / SEX [female symbol] Mount: Polytelis / Anthopeplus / Regent Parrot taxidermy mount, regent parrot, taxidermy, animalia, burke museum, bird, parrot

Scythes were used to manually mow wheat or grass. Scythes were used with a long sweeping movement which made them much less tiring for labourers to use than reaping hooks or sickles though they still involved great physical labour and considerable skill to perfect. Both hands were in use and the operator did not have to bend his back to reach down to the crop. On farms scythes were sharpened on a sandstone wheel mounted on an axle with a crank handle on one side. This was hand powered and used with water. Scythes were not used as often on farms after the mechanisation of harvesting. They were still used for cutting awkward shaped small plots and for opening a path for the tractors. This item is an example of a tool used by the early settlers of the Orbost district. An iron scythe blade, curved and tapered. There is no handle and the blade is rusted and pitted."ROSE"scythe tool agriculture rural

Collection of newspaper clippings from Scrap Book 1960 - 1973Article about the first wheat planted in Victoria on Churchill Island by surveyor James Grant 166 years ago and a Monument should be erected to commemorate the occassion.first wheat crops for victoria, churchill island, james grant, newspaper clipping, jean jamieson

Port of Portland Authority archivesFront: (no inscriptions) Back: [instructions for enlargement and cropping on back in lead and pale blue pencil]port of portland archives, construction, wheat storage

Mouat Collection - Farming in the Wimmera. Markings; Bulk Wheat being unloaded into silo. C1960s - 70s. Used as a teaching aid.kodakagriculture, farm, crop transport

Mouat Collection - Farming in the Wimmera. Markings; Bulk wheat trucks waiting to be weighed. 6 SEP 64M. Used as a teaching aid.Kodakagriculture, farm, crop transport

Printed Lien on Crops dated 1 November 1904, Mr. John Hurley to G. H. Watson. George Harold Watson may sell the wheat and oats delivered to the Gredgwin siding and retain the expenses of sale and the money due to him on this security fromn the proceeds of sale. Olive coloured Victoria One Penny Stamp Duty attached.business, legal, connelly & tatchell, connelly & tatchell collection - document, lien on crops, john hurley, george harold watson, jonathan raisbeck, h hosken, connelly tatchell & dunlop, a g dunlop