Old Melbourne Newspapers

Miserable Rags or the Resplendent Light of Publicity: The Early Newspapers of Victoria 1838 – 1851 In 1883 Australia was described as the land of newspapers, with the proportion of people subscribing to a newspaper being 10 times that of England. Tim Hogan,...

The Melbourne Story

The Australian History section of the Museum of Victoria was found to be quite unpopular with the public when it opened in 2000. It seemed to have no sense of story or history that people could understand and it was decided that a new approach was needed. Money was...

Black Thursday Bushfires 1851

Bushfires were but one of many hardships faced by our pioneering ancestors. However the fires of 6 February 1851 were so extreme that they led this day to become known as “Black Thursday.” Thomas McCombie recorded the scene in Melbourne on that day:...

William Buckley – a Skilful Survivor

At two o’clock on Sunday afternoon the 6th July 1835, William Buckley walked into the camp site set up by John Batman’s men on Indented Head at the mouth of Port Phillip Bay. Buckley was a large man, estimated to be about 6 feet 7 inches tall and was at...

Sand, Sea & Money-Making: Brighton in the 1840s

“A History of Brighton” was the first book that Professor Weston Bate wrote after graduating with honours in history. He used council minutes, rate books and took 10 year slices from local newspapers to see how things were changing. He considers Victoria...

Cambridgeshire Assisted Emigration

Allan and Sarah Hines (nee Rook)  The ship “Royal George” arrived at Melbourne, Port Phillip District in November 1849 bringing a bit of Cambridgeshire with it. Allan and Sarah Hines (nee Rook) with their two daughters, Elizabeth and Fanny, and...