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:

8672.53a The letter, dated 5 December 1935, was sent by the Victorian Department of Labour, Sustenance Branch to F. T. Amer, Town Clerk of Bendigo. It acknowledges receipt of the Town Clerk’s earlier correspondence and clarifies the department’s policy on payments to men undertaking sustenance work.

The department states that workers must not be paid the higher rate of sustenance unless they are actually performing work. It emphasises that payment at the higher rate is strictly conditional on work being carried out and should not be granted simply because a worker is enrolled in the scheme.

The letter further advises that if work is suspended between 23 December 1933 and 2 January 1934, men who are not undertaking work during that period should receive only the lower sustenance rate. This reinforces the department’s position that higher payments are tied directly to active employment rather than periods of inactivity.

Finally, the department suggests that municipalities may arrange for workers to complete additional hours before the Christmas and New Year holiday period so that their accumulated work credits will carry their sustenance payments through the shutdown. However, it makes clear that no credit is to be given for the holiday period itself. The letter closes with the signature of the Officer-in-Charge.