Searching by ScanPro

Access to the Library's microfilm and fiche collection has improved with the purchase of the new ScanPro 2000. The buzz is for its ability to search via OCR.
With OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology it is possible to convert a microform image to word searchable text, to edit the image, and to save it to any output process. By selecting the Word-Search button and typing in your term in the box, the software will search for, and highlight that word where ever it occurs on that page, scroll forward and perform the search on subsequent pages with a single click.

The giant LCD 24" sized pivot screen - in portrait mode - allows you to read an entire newspaper page in a single view.

You can select information on the image and copy it to a clipboard as text for pasting into a document. It can also convert a microfilm image to a word searchable PDF document. There are a  range of available file formats to output to - PDF, JEG or TIFF.

There are the standard controls for - focus, brightness, contrast, straightening, and cropping. It also features automatic image adjustment, live editing of selected image areas, and an on-screen magnifier to inspect text or image detail at up to 500%.

The ScanPro 2000 is available at the Horsham Branch, and the ScanPro 1000 is at the Stawell Branch.

Ned's burial wish

The Victorian Government recently announced that the remains of the bushranger Ned Kelly will be released to members of his family for burial.

This decision is in accordance with Kelly’s wishes which was recorded in a letter held in the PROV Collection (PROV holds the world’s largest accumulation of original records related to the Kelly Gang).
The letter, dated 10 November 1880, is held along with other letters Kelly wrote via dictation whilst in jail awaiting execution. Kelly was unable to write any of the letters himself owing to the injuries he had received at the Glenrowan Siege, and so signed them with his mark - an ‘X’. The letter is part of PROVs online Kelly Historical Collection, which are in turn effectively pages within the Kelly Capital Case file.
This file was created at the time by the Crown Law Department to document the process that occurred after his trial to determine whether a recommendation should be put to the Governor as to whether the mandatory death sentence should be commuted to a lesser one. (This was the case for all prisoners sentenced to death for capital offences).
Kelly was executed by hanging at the Old Melbourne Gaol 11th November 1880, and buried there.

Old Melbourne Gaol

 Following the closure of the Old Melbourne Gaol,in 1929 work was undertaken to allow extensions to the Working Men’s College (now RMIT) in the former prison yard (the initials of each executed inmate and the date of his or her execution were carved into the wall adjacent to the burial plot, some of these bluestone blocks are now in the Beaumaris breakwater). The remains of all executed inmates (approximately 30 individuals) that could be located were exhumed, transferred to Pentridge Prison, and re-interred in mass graves. In 1937, four additional coffins were unearthed in a different area, and taken to Pentridge for reburial.

The initial process of exhumation, re-internment was disorganised and over time the actual grave sites became confused, and after Pentridge closed and redeveloped into a housing estate, workers uncovered a mass graves site. Heritage Victoria were called in to investigate and identify the burial locations of the Old Melbourne Gaol  inmates, and also those of the ten executed Pentridge prisoners. In 2008-09 they discovered the individual plots of the Pentridge prisoners, and 3 mass graves of the Old Melbourne Gaol inmates.

Forensic profiling and analysis was undertakrn to identify the remains. This work identified one of the skeletons as Ned Kelly's, which his family descendants will re-bury in Kelly Country.

Changing traffic

A piece of Horsham and library history has disappeared with the removal of the Lions Club's Traffic School, which stood at the corner of Park Drive and Natimuk Road for many years.
Generations of children have learnt their road rules by cycling around its mini-streets.
In the past the Wimmera Regional Library Service ran Traffic Schools as part of their Childrens Holiday Activity Program (CHAPs). It was a fun activity for the kids, and for the staff manning the signal controls as well.

Childrens Librarian Michael Hogan directing traffic in the early 80s

The small triangular recreation reserve owned by the Horsham Rural City is currently under development, as the Council employs Millers Contractors to realign Park Drive, to off-set the road intersection with Gardenia Street. HRCC will be constructing a carpark between this road and the Skate Park to provide all-day parking spaces.
This work is occurring at the same time as construction begins at the allotment next door on the new Target shopping development, though work may slow down in the current wet conditions.

The oil on Antwerp

The Library was fortunate recently to have donated, a copy of One of nature's wonderlands : the Victorian Grampians by James W.C. Audas. It was published in 1925 in Melbourne, and is a natural history,concentrating on the flora of the different regions of the Grampians.

'Turret Falls' plate from the book

James Wales Clarendon Audas (1872-1959) was a member of the staff of the National Herbarium of Victoria. His visits to the Grampians made a particular impression on him. He recorded its plant life and brought together his investigations in One of Nature's Wonderlands. During his career Audas was a prolific writer; recounting tales of his botanical wanderings all around the state over half a century.

An interesting aspect of the book was a number of advertisements in the back of the book, including one for Bosisto's Parrot brand eucalyptus oil.

Joseph Bosisto was born on 21 March 1824 in Leads, England. He left school in 1839 and was apprenticed to a druggist. Engaged by F.H. Faulding, he sailed to Adelaide in June 1848. In 1852 he married Eliza Johnston, they settled at Richmond, Victoria, where in a renovated hotel stable he had a prosperous pharmacy and was consulted as 'Doctor' Bosisto.
Keenly interested in the eucalyptus plant and its multi-faceted uses, Bosisto with the encouragement of Ferdinand Von Mueller, the Government Botanist, began to explore eucalyptus oil on a commercial basis. He set up a small eucalyptus oil distillation plant near Dandenong Creek in1852. Bosisto was probably first to make distil eucalyptus oil commercially and to win repute for manufacturing Australia's first 'original' product. His decoctions of eucalyptus oil used in a variety of medicinal products were to make him a household name. The parrot sitting on the eucalyptus branch, inside the yellow circle was his most famous trademark.

James Bosisto

Bosisto was a founder of the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria in 1857, its president and co-editor of its Journal. He helped establish the College of Pharmacy. He served for 12 years on the Richmond Municipal Council and was mayor in 1865-67. He represented Richmond in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1874.

Bosisto lost heavily in the building society crashes and spent his last years in straitened circumstances. He died aged 74 in Richmond on 8 November 1898. He was predeceased by his wife, they had no children. Bosisto formed the Eucalyptus Mallee Oil Company with five other notable citizens. They purchased the Antwerp Station freehold and erected buildings for the distilling equipment. It commenced extracting oil on 24 May 1882. Another large lease of land was added in July 1884. It employed about 70 men, however it was difficult to maintain a sufficient work-force. EMU brand was distilled at the Bosisto & Co Antwerp distillery and Parrot brand at Dandenong or Emerald.

Bosisto was interested in local community affairs. It was through the gradual land settlement and employment at the distillery, that his untiring efforts gained the Antwerp district a Methodist church built on land he donated, he was the patron of the Antwerp Cricket Club. In 1887 he wrote to the Education Department requesting the establishment of a State School.

From 1900 onwards the distillery output began to wane, and in 1904-05, the Antwerp plant was moved to new sites in N.S.W. Surplus stock was disposed of, and later a section of land was sub-divided and sold by auction. Many employees received grants of land and the Antwerp township began to take shape.