Historical information

social, people

Physical description

Colour photo, Sts. Peter and Paul's Church, Buninyong

Inscriptions & markings

Mrs. MATILDA WHITTEN. of Buninyong.
who Is sald to be the oldest living pioneer
ot Buninyong district, which will achleve
its centenary in August this year. She
was 81 years old yesterday. Settlement
began In Buninyong with the arrival of
Mr. Learmonth in August, 1837, when new
arrivals in Australia Felix were venturing
out from the settlement at Port Phillip
In search of pastures for their flocks.
The centenary of Buninyong was officially
celebrated last Easter, when many former
residents and descendants of pioneering
families returned to the "Ancient Village"
and renewed old friendships. Mrs. Whit-
ten is a daughter of the late Mr. George
House, who was one of the first arrivals
In the district after the discovery of gold
by Hitchcock at a place which now bears
the discoverer's name, about a mile and
a half from Buninyong. One of a family
of ten, Mrs. Whltten was born at Bunln-
yong, and still lives in the house in which
she was reared as a child, and In which
she has reared her own family.