The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history.

It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples.

It blamed anew in the Middle Ages.

It was written in Magna Carta.

US President Franklin G. Roosevelt 1941

An eclectic collection of Dot's small articles

A Bowl of Bitter Tears: Immigration

James Joyce the renowned Irish author described the Atlantic ocean as a ‘Bowl of Bitter Tears’. He…

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Albert Whitelock Steane

  Albert Steane was important as the instigator of the Sloyd Centre at the School of Mines…

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Almeida

‘Stick ’em Up!: The Heroics of William Charles Almeida’ Around three in the afternoon two men from…

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Archery

Archery: Something to do with Bows and Arrows, Isn’t it? I have seen people playing with them,…

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Art Deco Buildings in Ballarat

The Jubilee of Ballarat coincided with Federation and many unusual features reflecting the pride in nationhood abounded…

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Art Education at Ballarat

An exhibition at the Post Office Gallery celebrated the centenary of continuous Art Education at Ballarat. It…

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Ballarat Benevolent Asylum

George Wright, his wife and two small children arrived in Ballarat in 1857 from their native Cornwall….

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Ballarat Gaol

The last execution at Ballarat Gaol took place on 29 June 1908. The prisoner Charles Henry Deutschmann,…

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Ballarat: A Genealogist’s Goldmine

If you have ancestry in Australia before World War Two then there is a one in ten…

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Beaufort

Katharine Kirkland according to her writings in ‘Life in the Bush’ arrived ‘over the straits’ from Tasmania…

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Boxing Day

Boxing Day, the day immediately after Christmas was so named because of the tradition started by the…

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Campaspe Common

The administration of Crown Lands including provision for their alienation and occupation and the provision and management…

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Cemetery Symbolism

Symbolism plays an important role in the ritual of death. Throughout the ages society has remembered the…

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Christmas 1857

Christmas Eve in Main Road was hot and dusty in 1857 according to Ballarat historian Nathan Spielvogel….

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Christmas 1858

The celebrations over Christmas and New Year proceeded somewhat differently in Ballarat back in 1858 as this…

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Christmas Memories

 In the gold discovery years of the 1850s Withers recalls: ‘One Christmas Eve, in the middle fifties…

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Clendinning House

There was great concern in Ballarat in 1970 about young women who had no means of support…

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Cornish at Eureka

  Peter ELLIS, from Boscaswell Row, St Just, Cornwall, was residing on the Eureka Lead, Ballarat East,…

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Creswick Hospital: A Caring Community

“I saw my mother taken away to hospital. I never saw her alive after. I did not…

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Cricket or Crockett?

Cricket was a popular sport among Ballarat miners since at least 1853. One of the first cricket…

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Dana Street School

Dana Street School, the first National School in Ballarat West, was opened on 12 January 1857 in…

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District Vineyards

Vineyards and wine making have been significant in the Central Highlands district of Victoria since the early…

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Easter Trees

Two things were ‘engaging the public’ in Ballarat during Easter festivities in 1870. One was the performances…

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Edwards Pyrites Ore Reduction Works, Sebastopol

Edward’s Pyrites Ore Reduction Works, Sebastopol Overtones of current environmental and health issues appear like ghosts, hovering…

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Electricity: The New Wonder

The “wonder of the 19th Century”, electricity, was introduced to Ballaratís householders in 1905. According to the…

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Eureka: A Multicultural Affair

Dorothy Wickham & Clare Gervasoni   EUREKA: A MULTICULTURAL EVENT The Victorian goldfields boasted a community comprised…

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Eureka: Benden Hassell

A Pre-Eureka Incident, 28 Nov 1854 “The onslaught upon the troops appears to have been unprovoked and…

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Eureka: The Drummer Boy

For nearly 150 years it was widely accepted that John Egan, the drummer boy of the 12th…

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Eureka’s Fallen

Controversy, innuendo, and emotion abound in the vast body of literature about the Eureka Affair. The scholarly…

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Female Suffrage 18 November 1908

On Tuesday a group of Ballarat women met to celebrate a centenary of women obtaining the right…

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Football Fever

Ballarat Football Club, formed on 20 May 1860 played some of its first matches on Green’s and…

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Freemasonry in Early Ballarat

Freemasonry was present in Ballarat from its earliest years. A French Lodge, ‘Rameau d’Or d’Eleusis’ met at…

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George & Martha Clendinning

  George and Martha Clendinning were prominent Ballarat citizens and pioneers. Born in Ireland, they emigrated to…

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Ghosts Lurked in the Bush

The history of the Hillis family in Australia began in 1865 when James Hillis and Margaret O’Brien…

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Gold Licenses

Gold Licenses (The Miner’s License) The die is cast and fate has stamped upon the movement its…

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Grenville College

Mr William Stallard established Grenville College in 1855 under the name Ballarat Grammar School, according to an…

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Henry Cuthbert

Cuthberts legal firm celebrates 150 years of legal practice in Ballarat with an art and memorabilia exhibition…

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Hints for Researching Gold Miners

Sometimes gold miners on the Victorian goldfields during the early 1850s are difficult to trace. Early mining…

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Irwin family

‘Dear son, it may be that never will we meet on earth but I hope we will…

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Killarney: Loughlin’s Home

  The beautiful bluestone mansion called Killarney that nestles in a tranquil pastoral setting near Mount Warrenheip…

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Lake Wendouree

A prestigious stretch of water, with real estate to match Lake Wendouree in Ballarat was used in…

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Madam Midas

Alice Cornwell has been described as a ‘strikingly good looking woman’, the ‘girl with the golden touch’,…

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Marks of Mystery

  The Yarrowee channel, part of a storm water system that runs through Ballarat, Victoria, Australia was…

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Matilda Broadbent

A Remarkable Woman Matilda Dixie’s teaching career began with much excitement in tent schools on the gold…

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Miner’s Right

  The mists of time have tempered the harsh reality of life on the goldfields, and how…

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Mothers on the Goldfields

Although there were diverse relationships on the goldfields the most prevalent and most stable was the monogamous…

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Music on the Goldfields

The first performance of the Ballarat Philharmonic Society in June 1858 was held in the Montezuma Hotel…

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New Year 1861

New Year brings with it new resolutions and rewards. It is both a time of celebration and…

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Notre Dame de Vire

As the leaping flames engulfed the steeple we watched in horror as the spire crumpled and fell…

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Opera on the Goldfields

Soon after the discovery of gold when hordes converged on the goldfields of Victoria the Ballarat Star…

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Palma Rosa

  Palma Rosa a three storied Filigree Italianate mansion is located at 9 Queens Road, Brisbane, built…

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Philanthropy and Freemasons in Ballarat

The Yarrowee Freemasonic Lodge of Ballarat East met for the first time on 22 April 1857. Present…

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Policing in Victoria

Within three years of the Ballarat goldfields being settled, British military detachments of the 12th and 40th…

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Salvation Army

The Salvation Army caused a furore in Ballarat in the early 1890s by marching through the streets…

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Society for the Promotion of Morality

A look back in history shows that problems are not new! The Society for the Promotion of…

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Taxi!

Around 1920 a copy of the Prospectus of the Ballarat Red Cabs and Carriers Limited was lodged…

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Ted Cannon

Ballarat artist Edwin Joseph (Ted) Cannon was killed in action in France in 1916. An intelligent, witty,…

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The 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition

  On the first of August 1853 George Edward Thomson, Dr David Griffith Jones and an Irish-born…

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The Canadian Rescue & Children’s Home

  The provision of aid for women and children on the goldfields in the 1850s was poor….

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The Papyrograph or Office Printer

Papyrography was a system of printing from paper or from an original manuscript which is written upon…

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The Silver Club

Charles Cairns, a tailor, founded The Silver Club in 1921 and was also associated with the work…

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Vegemite

The Callister family made some interesting contributions to Ballarat and through their connections with the School of…

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Vire, Normandy

Vire, Normandy, France “If I sleep for an hour, thirty people will die …” Adolfo Kaminsky fought…

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Water

Water has been a source of consternation in Victoria, from the time of the early settlers to…

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White Flat National School

Miss Elizabeth McKay opened the White Flat National School late in 1857. It was distinctive being run…

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Wizard of the South

WHO was the WIZARD OF THE SOUTH? He exhibited 100 illusions, with money, cards, balls, rings, knives,…

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Women of the Goldfields

A mass of gold weighing almost 50 kilograms was found embedded in quartz in July 1851. It…

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Women’s Role in Death

The relationship between death and women is one of the least explored aspects of the history of…

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X-Ray Pioneers

X-Ray Pioneers The School of Mines Ballarat kept abreast of affairs worldwide. Frederick Martell and John Sutherland…

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