Blackboards to battlefields

It is great to see that local groups are applying for grants from the government's Anzac Centenary Program to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of Australia's involvement in the First World War (see my post of 8 June 2012).
The Warracknabeal Historical Society is looking to locate all the Honour Boards from local schools and collate all their information into a database. A seriously involved operation when you realise that most of the local rural schools no longer exist and it will be a detective job to research who may have inherited the boards (and shudder with the thought that some may no longer exist).

On the subject of school honour boards and teachers & ex-students serving in World War I is a new book - 'Our schools and the war' by Rosalie Triolo.

The Great War profoundly touched the lives of Australian teachers, school children and local communities, and with lasting consequences. Every teacher had the task of explaining the war to their students. Many teachers, a disproportionately large number, fought and died, and were joined by their older students. For years after, the names of those who fell were respectfully displayed on school honor boards, in honor books and remembered by other commemorative means, including through the introduction of Anzac Day. 
How teachers and school communities were affected by patriotic appeals and activities, and how they responded to the long years of grim news from Gallipoli, the Western Front and other sites of training, fighting and convalescence, is revealed in an account that historians, general readers and today’s students will find illuminating and deeply moving. 
Many of the contributions to the book come from Norman Heathcote a school teacher who joined up  in July 1915, when he was 28, and wrote about his experiences and about teachers, trainees and pupils he knew on active service from schools where he'd taught. He was a quartermaster during the war, he sailed with fellow teacher-soldier Lance-Corporal Henry Pender of Dadswells Bridge. After the war he became a School Inspector in 1924. He was the President of the Nhill RSL in 1921.

A wonderfully fascinating account from the book concerns a Ni Ni East teacher who arranged for a pair of socks to be knitted for General W.R. Birdwood (he was the commander of the Australian forces at Gallipoli), and as a fund-raiser, a charge was made for the privilege of knitting a row. The General replied that it "is really wonderful that your school, with only 10 pupils, has been able to build up a fund of 50 pounds".
If you know the location of a school honour board, the Society would love to hear from you.

Stately homes too

When I was trawling the Net for information on the Bishop's Palace, I came across a reference to the sale of the historic Ercildoune.
Thomas Livingstone-Learmonth (1783-1869), a strict Presbyterian, was a merchant in Edinburgh, Scotland who made a great deal of money in the service of the British East India Company. Thomas was a merchant in Hobart, Tasmania in 1835 with his four sons John, Thomas Jnr., Somerville and Andrew. Thomas and Somerville were still in their teens when they were sent by their father to Victoria to find suitable sheep farming land. Leaders in the pastoral settlement of the Port Phillip district, they first settled at the head of the Barwon River, Geelong, and then at Buninyong followed by Burrumbeet in 1838. In 1849 Ercildoun was licensed in the names of John, Thomas Junior and Somerville. Erection of the house started in 1840 and additions added until it was finally completed in 1858-59.

The home and gardens from the air

Ercildoun became one of the more famous stately properties in rural Victoria. The Scottish baronial homestead with gabled wings and crow stepped and castellated parapets, was built of granite hewn from the slopes of Mount Ercildoun and handmade bricks from a kiln on the property.

Set on 73 hectares the two-storey homestead comprises nine bedrooms and three bathrooms, and features a ballroom and a library. A self-contained three-bedroom residence in the former maid's quarters is at the rear of the homestead. 22 houses were built on the property for 64 men and their families with its own school and gaol.

The Learmonths were also outstanding gardeners and created a network of paths and cultivated garden beds including oaks, elms, poplars, chestnuts and plane trees in pots brought from Scotland. They were leaders in the use of machinery with threshing and winnowing machines and had a flour mill powered by a water-mill which ground their wheat.

The main door with the 1838 keystone

The Learmonth family history dates back to the 13^th century. Ercildoune has a copy of the tower or keep situated in the Borders region of Scotland to the west of the homestead. They apparently brought back to Ercildoun a stone from this keep and it was inscribed and placed in to the replica built here: ‘Stone from Rhymer’s Tower at Earlston, Scotland, occupied in the 13th century by Thomas the Rhymer’ whose direct line is Mary Livingstone a favourite maid of Mary Queen of Scots and the African explorer.

Thomas eventually married and sadly a daughter died at only a few weeks of age in 1858 and she is buried in the Ercildoun Cemetery that closed for interments in 1895.

In 1873 the Learmonths sold the station to Sir Samuel Wilson on a walk-in walk-out basis. Sir Samuel with his brothers - John and Charles, had bought Longerenong in 1856. He created an irrigation system that became the forerunner of today’s Mallee-Wimmera water gravitation scheme. He established a Sambar deer park on Mount Ercildoune and released chital deer into the Wimmera in the 1860’s from his Longerenong property.

The ballroom with the balcony in the ceiling

The ballroom's balcony

Sir Samuel also added the letter ‘e’ to Ercildoune because he wanted an even number of letters on his gates. The garden was extended to 40 acres and the impressive 1 mile long carriage way planted out with pine trees. He built a 1 acre 10’ high walled garden modelled on similar gardens in England for the cultivation of tender plants and vegetables and built a massive glass curvilinear conservatory that unfortunately is no longer in existence. He may have added the back wing to the homestead, and is believed to have built the Gothic style Manager’s House above the lake. At the height of his residency there were 125 people employed including 13 gardeners.

A section of the walled gardens

Dame Nellie Melba leased Ercildoune in 1907 and had a tennis court built for her use.

Sir Alan Currie bought Ercildoune from the Estate of Sir Samuel in 1920-21., and Lady Currie carried on the property after Major Currie died in 1942, until she too passed away on 1962.

John and Christine Dever from Melbourne purchased the property in 1999, restored it and were looking to sell it for about $4 million in May this year.
(Historical information & photographs from the Ercildoune website) 

Stately homes

Researching the stately homes in this half of the state led to a couple of homes which could be yours, firstly - The Bishop's Palace, an important heritage listed landmark property of Australia's past, is currently for sale.

Situated in a beautiful botanical like garden setting of 3.6 acres (14,500m approx), this historic palace is uniquely placed in the heart of Ballarat's prime residential area. This property has only had 2 owners since it was constructed in 1876. Meticulously maintained with outstanding original decorative features. This stately residence offers grandeur, comfort and an enviable living environment.

It boasts a Reception hall, grand formal dining room, formal sitting room, family living room, 6 bedrooms, parents retreat, 6 bathrooms, 2 studies, kitchen, breakfast room, wine cellar, spa pavilion, and 3 garage spaces.

Making a grand entrance

The Bishops Palace was constructed in 1876-77 to designs by Melbourne architect Joseph Reed (1823 - 1890). Reed's buildings include the classical State Library of Victoria (1856), Collins Street Independent Church (1867), Frederick Sargood's Rippon Lea Estate (1868) and Melbourne Trades Hall (1873). 

It was built as the residence of Bishop Michael O’Connor – the first bishop of the Diocese of Ballarat – and to provide space for the diocesan headquarters. The Ballarat Diocese was the first Victorian diocese outside of Melbourne and had opened the St Patrick’s Cathedral down the street  just six years earlier.

The 2-storey Gothic bluestone mansion was built at a cost of £6,000. It was constructed by George Broom with internal plasterwork by William Taylor. It featured cast iron verandahs with ecclesiastical designs, a dining room that could seat fifty guests, and a private chapel with an Italian marble altar. The altar is inlaid in marble with the arms of the then Pope on one side and those of the Bishop on the other. The palace still bears the original stencilling across its walls, mahogany balustrades on staircases and even the original dining table.

The dining table which stays with the building

Grand entrance gates open to a winding driveway which leads through a formally landscaped area with mature trees and shrubs to the house. The land was originally on a larger 11 acre block which sloped down towards Lake Wendouree. Consequent subdividing over the years has whittled the block down to a still impressive 3.6 acres.

The six-bedroom home is no longer in the Church, who sold it to current owners Robert and Vikki Smith 20 years ago. The asking price is $6,500,000 so if you’re interested tenders close on the 14^th June.

Information and photos from PRD RealEstate

History at war

Gun emplacement, Tobruk Defences

The annual Family History Feast will be held at the State Library on 5^th August. It is a day of free information sessions for family history researchers to discover the major Victorian government agencies for genealogical research and how they can help with your family history research.

WWI trenches at Gaza, 1942

 This year’s theme is on military history -

·         Identity and dignity: family history and the missing Diggers of Fromelles

·         The Third Front: WWI and beyond in the PROV Collection

·         Behind barbed wire: Researching enemy POW and internee records in the National Archives

·         Well armed! The military history collection at the State Library of Victoria

·         The 2013 Don Grant Lecture -That elusive Digger: tracing your military

ancestors in Australia

Bring your old photographs, letters and memorabilia for a lunchtime conservation clinic with State Library and National Archives of Australia conservators who will advise you on preserving these precious items. 
 

Field guns firing at night, Western Desert

The 2013 Family History Feast will be held on Monday 5 August 2013, 10am–3.30pm at the Village Roadshow Theatrette (Entry 3) in the State Library of Victoria, La Trobe Street, Melbourne

Entry is free and bookings are essential.

Bookings open Monday 17 June, with online bookings preferred at

https://register.eventarc.com/11767/family-history-feast

Email: enquiries@prov.vic.gov.au

Phone: 03 9348 5609 Monday to Friday 10am–4.30pm

Members of the 2/4th Australian General Hospital