Brass band instrumental music competitions were enthusiastically followed in Australia in the early twentieth century. Ballarat was a leading centre for these musical competitions and Michael Taffe played cornet and flugelhorn with several local brass bands. He was Australian Junior Cornet solo Champion in 1920 and won the open section of the instrumentals at the VRI competitions held in the ballroom at Flinders Street Station in 1924.

michael taffe, victorian railways institute, cornet solo, flinders street station ballroom

non-fiction

city of ballaarat, welcome, ballarat, lake wendouree, rowing, canoeing, 1956, southern hemisphere,

eureka stockade, royal australian mint

non-fiction

frank clune, china, nathan spielvogel, travel, australian writers

mt pleasant school, ballarat, bicentenary, michael taffe, francis ellis, tree planting

non-fiction

avenues of honour, remembrance, world war i, italy

non-fiction

ruby lindsay, naturalist, barrett, art nouveau, creswick, ballarat

non-fiction

olympic games, melbourne, australia, invitation to holld olympic games

Small 95 page booklet published in 1857 by Fairfax, Melbourne and inscribed by W. D. Lang.

non-fiction

Rev John Dunmore Lang's defence of his son who was imprisoned for his part in the fraud at the Bank of New South Wales Ballarat and Clunes in 1854.

drake, lang, rev john dunmore lang, ballarat, clunes, select committee of enquiry

eureka stockade, ballarat, nathan spielvogel

non-fiction

eureka stockade, centenary, sydney, fellowship of australian writers, mary gilmore

non-fiction

memoir, spielvogel, ballarat, dimboola

victorian railways, michael taffe, ballarat, transportation of goods,

burke, mckew, st arnaud, wedding photography

burke, st arnaud, donald, photograph, tintype

irish, celtic, pokerwork, picture frame, arts and crafts,

An example of the furniture manufactured on the goldfields at Ballarat c.1900. Originally the business was established by Emanuel Steinfeld furniture manufacturer and retailer, who settled at Ballarat and in 1856 opened his furniture warehouse. Steinfeld left the Ballarat in 1881 and lived at St Kilda. He left his Ballarat business in the hands of two nephews, Sussman & Kornblum who continued the business in their own name.

An example of colonial cabinet making in one of Ballarat's pioneering furniture manufacturing businesses that was founded in the 1850s.

Backstamp of Sussman & Kornblum Ballarat

ballarat, jewish, cabinetmakers

melbourne punch, charles hotham, eureka stockade, ballarat, nicholas chevalier

tea strainer, tea infuser,

non-fiction

victorian railways

The celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday on May 24 was renamed Empire Day in 1903 after her death in 1901. It was celebrated throughout the British Empire, including in Australia. Ballarat schools marched in procession with a salute at the Town Hall before attending church services at their respective churches. By the late 1950s the celebration became Commonwealth Empire Day the reference to Empire being dropped by the 1960s.

These form part of a large family collection of bookmarks and local & family history items at Hymettus Cottage, home to the same family for the past 125 years in 2024. They have a well documented provenance and a known owner forming part of a significant and representative historical collection that reflects Ballarat's local history from a family perspective. They contribute to our understanding of social and family life in twentieth century Ballarat and providing interpretative capacity for family, local, and social history themes.

Three Empire Day cardboard bookmarks each featuring an illustrated crown, with crossed Australian and British flags, each bookmark trimmed in gold. The first is simply for Empire Day and two commemorate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the 1953 Royal Visit respectively.

empire day, royal visit, bookmarks, empire day movement, melbourne, coronation year 1953

non-fiction

victorian railways, mildura, souvenir, mildura sunlight, 1960, ballarat, melbourne

non-fiction

john pascoe fawkner, london, melbourne