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:

8672.70a The document is a letter dated 23 April 1934 from the Town Clerk to the Assistant Minister in Charge of Sustenance regarding a proposal to provide employment for unemployed sustenance workers in Bendigo through the construction of a new sewer branch.

The letter begins by expressing support for the government's policy of providing useful work in exchange for sustenance payments, but notes that difficulties have arisen in funding employment opportunities for the approximately 650 men still receiving sustenance in the city. It explains that while the government has recently funded labour-intensive drainage works in Melbourne, Bendigo has a pressing infrastructure problem that could similarly provide meaningful employment.

The proposal focuses on a low-lying area in Bendigo where polluted drainage from houses has contaminated channels and waterways. The Town Clerk argues that the only effective solution is to construct a new independent branch sewer connected to the main outfall sewer. Under normal circumstances, the project would be financially impossible because the sparsely populated area could not generate sufficient sewerage rates to cover the capital costs.

The letter emphasises that the project would have dual benefits. It would solve an important public health problem while providing winter employment for unemployed men. The Bendigo Sewerage Authority would contribute the costs of skilled labour, supervision, materials, and cartage (estimated at £1,220), while requesting government assistance to cover £1,980 in unskilled labour costs. This funding would provide approximately three months of winter work for around 150 sustenance workers, following the existing system of one week's work in every three.

To finance the proposal, the Town Clerk suggests two alternatives. The first is to classify only the excavation work as approved sustenance work. The second is to provide a government grant covering the cost of unskilled labour, with workers being recruited through either the local Sustenance Office or Labour Bureau and employed under the same rotational arrangements already used for sustenance workers. The letter argues that either approach would maximise employment without requiring sustenance workers to undertake the specialised sewer construction itself.

Finally, the Town Clerk notes that the project would generate wider economic benefits by creating additional full-wage employment in the manufacture of sewer pipes and in subsequent sewer construction and house connections. Because surveys and planning would need to begin before construction, the writer urges the government to consider the proposal as quickly as possible so that winter work can commence without delay.