Publications

Publications

The Plenty Bushrangers of 1842: the first Europeans hanged in Victoria
Written by Lindsay Mann (1996)

This is a colourful account of a series of incidents which led to a pitched battle between the gang and members of the Melbourne Club, leading to Melbourne’s first bushranger trial and white hangings in Victoria. It explores the conflicting interests of the Aborigines and the landed gentry that created turbulence in the 1840’s.

The terror that this gang brought almost led to a militia force called The Port Phillip Volunteers being created.

WHITTLESEA TOWNSHIP HERITAGE WALK
Compiled by Angela Roper (2013)

This booklet contains an easy to read map of the Township of Whittlesea, marked with significant historical points.
These are then described in more detail within the booklet. The self-guided walk is approximately 2.7 km in total  from point 1 to 27 and return.

There’s Work to Be Done: A Farming Family Story 1924-1945
By Arthur Bebbington (2020)

Arthur Bebbington recalls his childhood and youth, growing up in a large dairying family in rural Victoria beginning with the Soldier Settlement Scheme. With many anecdotes of the privations of pioneering rural life country schooling and childhood adventures of his brothers and sisters, and the complications of early mechanised milking it is a fascinating portrait of farming in rural Victoria in the 20 years before the end of World War II.

Then and Now: Search for Command Assumptions in the Mayfield Heritage Precinct, Mernda, Victoria
By Richard Ely (University of Tasmania) (2022)

This book is about the cottage, the school house, teacher’s residence, and stone church described by Stevens in the decades before the Metricon development which filled the fields around them. It is about the members of the rural community that lived, loved, and worshipped there. In particular it tells the story of a Scottish immigrant family – the Thomas clan. Moses Thomas, the ‘lad o’ parts’ who gave some of the land and built the master’s schoolhouse and church and his son, Walter Thomas, the quiet achiever, are the main characters. Moses lived in the ‘Mayfield’ homestead and Walter lived in what once had been known as the Britannia Inn. When he purchased it he called it ‘The Poplars’.

Mayfield Presbyterian Church, Victoria – Origins, Early Years, and Character
By Richard Ely (2012)