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:

8672.63a This letter, dated 19 February 1934, was sent by the Bendigo Trades Hall Council and Literary Institute to the Town Clerk of Bendigo. It requests that the Bendigo City Council receive a deputation made up of representatives from both the Trades Hall Council and the Trades Hall Unemployed Association to discuss concerns relating to unemployment and relief work in the city.

The deputation sought to raise three main issues. First, it advocated for men employed on government sustenance (relief) work to be transferred into permanent employment with the City Council wherever possible. Second, it objected to the practice of using sustenance workers in positions that, in the Council's view, should be reserved for permanent employees. Finally, it wished to discuss the broader situation of sustenance work in Bendigo, indicating wider concerns about employment conditions and the administration of relief labour during the Great Depression.

The letter concludes by requesting that the deputation be heard by the City Council at its next meeting, scheduled for the following Thursday. The Trades Hall Council expresses its intention to attend and hear the Council's views on these matters before closing with a formal sign-off from the Secretary.