Historical information

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.

Physical description

Michele Matthews Collection: PHD Research - Relief during the great depression

This item includes the following document:

8672.38a The letter to the Mayor and Councillors of Bendigo is a request for relief from unpaid council rates by residents of the Sutton Ward. The writers explain that:

They are ratepayers seeking permission to work off their outstanding rates by undertaking whatever work the council has available.
If they cannot clear the entire debt through work, they ask to be allowed to do at least some work to reduce the amount owed.
The appeal is based on their financial hardship and unemployment.

The document also includes details of individual applicants, including notes such as:

W. W. Bennetts – unemployed for over two years, with five dependants.
C. G. Smith, of 17 Curnow Street, Golden Square.
T. R. Phillips, 44 Webster Street, unemployed for three years.

The letter is signed "Yours faithfully, W. W. Bennetts."

Overall, the document is a Great Depression-era petition illustrating the severe economic hardship experienced by unemployed residents, who asked the Bendigo Council to let them repay their local taxes through manual labour rather than cash