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 documents:

8672.50a This document is a brief letter dated 21 September 1933 addressed to the Station Master, Bendigo. It requests that Mrs. E. J. Fagen, the bearer of the letter, be provided with one adult second-class return railway ticket and one half-fare second-class single ticket for travel from Bendigo to Melbourne.

The letter states that His Worship the Mayor (Cr. G. Tonnetts) will accept responsibility for payment of the tickets, authorising the Station Master to issue them without requiring immediate payment from the traveller. This indicates that the travel was being arranged under the authority of the Mayor's office.

The correspondence concludes with a formal closing, "Yours faithfully," and is signed on behalf of the Town Clerk, reflecting the official nature of the request.