A Personal View of Andrew McCrae

By profession, Dilys Yap was a ballet teacher and Accredited Govennment Dance Assessor. Her love of history has come from her father who was fascinated with Tudor England and her husband, whose great grandfather founded Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. During her own time in...

John Cheyne

The Marriage of his Daughter From items of interest from the short lived newspaper “Miner’s Right and Castlemaine Advertiser” copied into exercise books by James Martin in the 1940’s now held at the Castlemaine Historical Society: An...

The Curr Sisters

The memoirs written in the early 20th century by two daughters of Edward Curr provide fascinating information about the lives of children in the early days of pre Separation Melbourne and early post goldrush days in country Victoria. Elizabeth Sarah was the fourth of...

John Allen, Pioneer of Melbourne’s Gas Supply

Reverend John Allen (1804-1861) The establishment of a gas supply for Melbourne owes much to the efforts of the Rev. John Allen. He arrived at Port Phillip on 1 November 1849 with his wife and family on the ship “Travancore” from London, England. The...

Captain John Eddington of Ballingeich

Captain John Eddington (1798-1873) John Eddington was born in 1798 into a military family in Scotland. On 25 December 1802 at a very early age his name was entered for a commission in the Royal Scots by the Duke of Kent, a friend of his father, and when he was about...

Michael Dawson: Man of Property

Phoenix Park, Home of Michael Dawson, Esq. In 1849 Michael Dawson, one of the original land purchasers in Brunswick, completed work on an ivy-covered mansion on his property called Phoenix Park. The property was named after Phoenix Park near Dublin, Ireland. Dawson...