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Geographic Names Victoria has gazetted the renaming of Jim Crow Creek to Larni Barramal Yaluk in the Victoria Government Gazette.
Dja Dja Wurrung Group CEO Rodney Carter reiterated the importance of the name change. “This creek has an identity and has a spirit. We are at last affording it the respect it deserves by giving back its name, to now say its name is speaking to Country in the most beautiful way.”
Hepburn Shire Mayor Brian Hood said: “The term Jim Crow has its origins in racial segregation and anti-black racism and is therefore unacceptable. Larni Barramal Yaluk, which means home or habitat of the Emu Creek, reconnects the landscape with Dja Dja Wurrung culture and language,” Mount Alexander Shire Mayor Rosie Annea said:.“Changing the name is important for many reasons – it recognises and honours the traditional owners of our region, is inclusive, and connects us to our Aboriginal heritage. It also reinstates Dja Dja Wurrung language into the landscape.”
‘Yaluk’ also ‘Yallock’ means a creek, and appears to be widespread in nearby aboriginal languages. One will recognise names like ‘Woori Yallock’, ‘Natte Yallock’ and ‘Mordialloc’. Our first nations people were blessed: not having a written language (at least in the Western sense) they were never burdened by ‘spelling’! Romanisation of Aboriginal languages can only ever be a lame approximation, always a bit arbitrary.
How did the Creek ever have the name ‘Jim Crow’? …
Not local history, but I thought I should share it as it gives more than a glimpse of shearing in the early days. “Duke” Tritton began shearing, with blades, in 1905. Duke sings his song, written in 1905 (but obviously updated, as it mentions ‘Vanguards’ and ‘Holdens’, originally ‘buggies’ and ‘sulkies’, from transcriptions): ‘Shearing in a Bar’…
6pm, Saturday April 7th at the Yandoit Hall,
BYO barbecue from 6pm
This unique event will explore the long history of music and dance in our area.
- Multimedia presentation and display
- Panel discussion on the musical history of Yandoit and district
- Demonstration old-time dances
- Dance participation for all to join in
- Live music from Maurie Gervasoni, Greg and Helen O’Leary, Ian White, Peter Sullivan, Natasha Mullings and John Ross.
“Mr McKinnon, who first saw the finished work in October, described the painting as “pretty realistic”, and said he hoped it would come away with an award.
While part of the hut has begun to fall down and Mr McKinnon has been restricted to the front rooms of the quaint property, the historic property which boasts a large open fire still provides the regular meeting place for Mr McKinnon’s mates to come over for a cuppa.
And despite the lack of power, Mr McKinnon says he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”
(Advocate, Brendan Wrigley)
http://www.hepburnadvocate.com.au/story/4724944/immortalised-in-paint/
An earlier article on Duncan McKinnon, of Old Nuggety Farm, Yandoit
(from the Advocate).
http://www.hepburnadvocate.com.au/story/2855130/a-simple-but-good-life-at-old-nuggetty/
HMS Terror sank during a disastrous expedition led by British explorer Sir John Franklin, after whom Mount Franklin is named. Franklin was attempting to chart the North-West Passage, from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Canadian Arctic.
”The long-lost ship of British polar explorer Sir John Franklin, HMS Terror, has been found in pristine condition at the bottom of an Arctic bay, researchers have said, in a discovery that challenges the accepted history behind one of polar exploration’s deepest mysteries.”
And here’s a song to go with it…
In 2013 I came across a very interesting grave in the Newstead Cemetery. The inscription on the grave said that Henry Mertin and his wife Christina were buried there. It was not the surname Mertin that attracted my attention, but the first names, Henry and Christina, because I knew from my family history work that there was, in my family tree, an interesting couple with those names who had lived in Yandoit in the mid-1800’s. The surname though, was wrong . The couple in my family tree were Henry and Christina Martin, not Mertin. So the name was wrong, but close enough for me to follow up to find if this couple was in fact the one I was interested in.
But first, why am I interested in the history of the Newstead/Yandoit area at all? Very briefly, my great grandfather and great grandmother came separately to Australia for the gold rush. They met, married and settled in Yandoit in the 1850’s. They ran a hotel and store in Yandoit and lived there for the rest of their lives. Some of their descendants lived there until the 1940’s. My great grandfather came to Australia from America, and my great grandmother came from Germany.
I have always been interested in the lives of these ancestors of mine, and particularly in my great grandmother, Anna Elisabetha Dern. Although my father knew a lot about our family history, all he could tell us about Anna Elisabetha was that she came from Germany, at the age of 16, apparently accompanied only by another girl of about the same age.
Over many years of research, I have found a lot more information about Anna Elisabetha, why she came to Australia and who came with her. In fact, many German immigrants came here in the mid 1850’s to escape very hard times in Germany, and Anna Elisabetha was actually accompanied in the sailing ship that brought her here by many other Germans from the same village including some close relatives. These included two brothers and a number of first cousins. Several of the cousins had the first name of Christina, a very popular name for girls in Germany at the time.
That’s enough background. What follows is an account of what happened to one of those cousins, Christina Dern. Continue reading
(from ABC Central Victoria: Larissa Romensky)
”Don Morrison is still milking cows at the age of 83 alongside his son Robert and twenty-three year old grandson, Nick”.
You’d think they would let him retire!
Good read…
http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/09/21/4316522.htm?xml=4316522-mediarss.xml&1442799173283
I am informed of the sad passing of Peter Ellis following a short battle with pancreatic cancer. Peter Nicalous Ellis of Bendigo (b 1946) has been an avid collector and instructor of traditional and old time social dances and the relevant music 
in Australia since late 1970s. He has presented numerous workshops in both areas in several states and at many folk festivals including the National, Maldon, and Port Fairy.
Also a historian on the early social dance and music, he regularly provided articles and photographic material for Trad & Now magazine.
He was a member of the Wedderburn Oldtimers Orchestra (since 1979, led his own Emu Creek Bush Band since 1983, founded the Bush Dance & Music Club of Bendigo and through the auspices of both, who work hand in glove together, has produced numerous recordings.
Much of his knowledge has come from a close acquaintance with the late Harry McQueen of Castlemaine.
Publications include the Collector’s Choice series in 3 Volumes, Music Makes Me Smile (music and dances of the Nariel Valley), The Waltz, the Polka and all kinds of Dance Music and The Merry Country Dance. He has also made extensive collections for the National Library of Australia and his section on dance is said to be the most extensive.
Peter was a Laboratory Technician (Chemistry) and worked at LaTrobe University Bendigo and its former Technical College and CAE as well as local Secondary Colleges. He retired in 2012 from Bendigo Senior Secondary College.
Peter was known in our area through his association with the old-time dances at the Yandoit Hall.
He made a difference and will be sorely missed.
(Text, Billy Folkus; photo, Bendigo Advertiser).
Note: Creek photos generously donated by local resident (name withheld)
With winter rains, the creek is flowing. Out walking last week there was no stepping over stones to get to the other side. The creek was alive, coursing its well-worn channel, enticed as ever by the laws of gravity towards the Loddon, to join the Murray, to empty into the ocean. I sat and listened. What is it about the sound of moving, bubbling water that so compels, that draws us in? At the creek’s edge there is only the sound of pure music, of water tumbling, cascading between stones, earth, roots, branches. The song of water touching everything in its path. A Psalm reverberating between the banks.
I have entered a sacred world. Everything is animate. I am mesmerised. A blue superb wren joins the song. Ears alert to the chatter of buff-rumped thornbills darting in and out of callistemon, once again thriving along the creek. My eyes dip beneath the water’s surface, watch the lively dance of refracted sunlight and shadow on stones. Out of their warm casings come my bare feet, slipping into the cold wet rush, testing for steady footholds. From inside the creek bed I survey the landscape: branches of woolly tea-tree, stands of phragmites further downstream, the vertical camber of the western bank, the shade of river reds, a paddock of kangaroo and wallaby grass, a stone wall skirting the hills, in the distance along the fence line the gnarled rough trunk of eucalyptus melliodora, yellow box, statuesque, those same branches outstretched for who knows how many years, clusters of delicate leaves bunched together like heads of broccoli.
I try to imagine what the creek has witnessed, this ancient meandering gathering place, this spring-fed life source, this bountiful commons for flora, fauna and humans alike. Like a goldminer prospecting, I am besieged with possibilities in the form of questions: what companions has the creek nourished and what visitors hosted? What passages has it enabled and what crossings forded? What flows has the creek carried and what landscapes carved? What depths has it reached? What minerals flushed out? Who’s thirsts have been quenched? What images reflected? What losses has the creek borne and what revivals has it welcomed?
Memory keepers Don Morrison, Fleur Smith (nee Staley) and Maurie Gervasoni.
Don Morrison and Maurie Gervasoni
In the beginning-it’s raining stories and laughter
At our first session in August 2013 the hall overflowed with people while voices of story tellers competed with downpours on the roof. We opened with intimate details of creating home and garden, described by Margaret Morrison in an 1856 letter encouraging her Scottish sister to join them in ‘this beautiful valley’ of Yandoit, ‘about half a mile long and not quite so broad’. Listening to Kay O’Connor reading her great, great, great, great grandmother’s letter we saw the creek through a new settler’s eyes ‘running down one side of the valley with almost every description of flowers, beautiful shrubs, and good large trees in bloom growing on its banks’. We learnt of land ploughed to sow oats and wheat and were invited to imagine this ‘mixture of all nations’, this locale which inspired the new minister to remark: ‘I never knew there was such a pretty place’. We appreciated skills passed down through the generations: ‘what a baker I have become’ writes Margaret, ‘making bread, baps, scones and fancy cakes’. Her descendant Kay has a reputation for making the best scones in Yandoit and hers were among many batches generously baked for our ‘words in winter’ history in story café.
I am interested in the route taken by coaches between Castlemaine and Ballarat and the stops along the way.
I believe they came through Guildford, down Yandoit – Guildford Rd (Limestone Rd) and stopped for a change of horses at Yandoit before travelling on to Ballarat.
From a search of the internet (http://www.niederweisel.com/hauserm41.html) I have found that Georg Fleischer whose home was in Camp St Yandoit, extended his home to provide lodgings for travellers and Cobb & Co horses, in the 1860s.
Is Camp St now either High Street or Yandoit Creek Rd or some other location within Yandoit?
Did the coaches leave Yandoit via continuation of High St or did they go up Yandoit Creek Rd, possibly both over time
Would appreciate any information or guidance towards other information
regards
Mal
Churches and settlement of Yandoit, Franklinford and Clydesdale
When: SATURDAY MAY 10th, 1.45pm for 2pm start
Where: meet at the YANDOIT UNITING CHURCH
Afternoon tea at 4.00 followed by optional visit to several local churches between 4.30 to 5.30pm.
See the May 2014 Chronicle for details
Produced by Alfred Selwyn, Mineral Surveyor for Victoria, in 1853, this map notes the vegetation types and distribution not long after white settlement.
See also:
http://www.fobif.org.au/2013/03/the-selwyn-map-quiet-calm-terrible-disturbing/
Click here to download the full-size map:
large.selwyn_map2-3.pdf
After our successful first Yandoit History in story event in August, the second event will be held on Saturday November 23rd 2013, 2.30pm until approx. 5.30pm. This time the theme is Yandoit Hills- stone Houses and the vineyards.
This second event will take the form of a short magical mystery walk around several old stone properties with underground wine cellars, followed by stories from memory keepers Betty Pedretti and Maurie Gervasoni. The event will be filmed and will contribute towards a local oral history archive.
This event is only available to locals or those with connections to Yandoit and Yandoit Hills. Numbers will be limited and RSVP is essential.
RSVP: to Nikki Marshall- mobile 0432 232 073 – nikki.marshall@oases.edu.au
or to Andrew Kimpton – mobile 0419311230 – made@yandoit.com.au
Once you RSVP more information will be provided about the location. BYO folding chair. Assistance will be provided to those who may have difficulty walking. Afternoon tea in the Swiss-Italian Style will be provided. A small donation is asked to cover food and other costs of the event.