Historical information

The Andrew Ross Museum organised Kangaroo Ground’s 1851 – 1996 Furphy week-end which was held Friday May 17th to Sunday 19th May 1996. In commemoration of the district's links with the Furphy family, a plaque was unveiled at the front entry of the Andrew Ross Museum by Roger Furphy of the Furphy Foundary, Shepparton. The event was preceded by an address by author, Dr John Barnes of La Trobe University, the country’s leading authority on the novelist, Joseph Furphy.

The date was seen as significant since it marked the 145th anniversary of the death of Judith, the young sister of John and Joseph Furphy, who died soon after commencing school in Kangaroo Ground 1851. Andrew Ross chronicled the event in his reminiscences.

The most distinctive product to carry the Furphy brand would certainly be the water cart. The presence of the cart in military camps in Australia and overseas during the First World War led to the name of Furphy becoming an indelible part of our language and idiom.
It was used extensively in Europe and the Middle East to carry water to the troops and the drivers of the carts were notorious sources of information and gossip for the men as they moved from camp to camp. As could be expected, not all their news was reliable and so it was that the word Furphy rapidly became a synonym for suspect information or rumour.
Source: Kangaroo Ground Chronicle, Vol 1 No 2 Autumn 1996

Note the Shire of Eltham Historical Society Community Banner on display.

Physical description

Five colour photographs