Please Note: This edition is LATE!! Therefore several items will appear to be “stale news”!!! The first two pages were written in early December but the acting Editor lost his enthusiasm to finish it until reminded several times over recent weeks. Hopefully a new Editor will be appointed soon.
Season’s Greetings from the Committee to all of our members & readers.
The Society’s museum and archives in the Avoca Court House will be closed from 17th December, 2012 to 31st January, 2013; both dates inclusive.
The ADHS Inc AGM was held on Sunday, 18th November, 2012. Seventeen members were in attendance (compared with seven last year!) and four apologies were tendered.
President’s Report to the Members at the 2012 AGM:
It has been a relatively uneventful year. Despite our opening days and hours being more widely advertised, the number of visitors to the Courthouse has been very spasmodic, and our volunteer workforce has been similar. There has been an increase in the number of visitors who have opted to pay $25 for a “Special Opening” rather that come on the usual open days. Tammy operated our stand at the recent CHHA History Festival, and took no money; whereas we had Special Openings on both days which earned $50 plus copying fees, publication sales, etc. If this trend continues, we may decide to open the Court House by appointment only, as many other Societies have done in recent years.
Our stand at the Avoca Antiques Fair held in the Convention Centre at the Avoca Racecourse was again successful, and, together with the monthly Garage Sale at 182 High Street, resulted in a good contribution to the Society’s funds. Thanks to the team which continues to staff these efforts.
Earlier in the year we sought a replacement Editor, and one came “out of the woodwork” so to speak, however this was short-lived due to illness. A second applicant for the job has been contacted to see whether she is still interested, and yes, she is, but not until next year as she is moving house.
The Chinese Memorial Foundation Inc is busily erecting memorials to their countrymen who toiled in the goldfields in the nineteenth century and are buried in various cemeteries around the State. They have erected one in the Avoca Cemetery, and it is being dedicated on Sunday, 25th November. We are invited to send two representatives to join with the 150 Chinese coming in coaches from all over the place, and to also join them in a “Roast Pig” luncheon at the Avoca RSL afterwards. The Society’s committee will be hard-pressed to accept that invitation, due to the fact that it is the 4th Sunday, when we are open for business at both 85 High Street and at 182 High Street. Any member willing to represent the Society at the Cemetery from 11.45am that day till mid-afternoon please let me know. (Or alternatively to staff our other efforts so we can go!!)
We have been planning to erect our own memorial wall in the cemetery, to commemorate those who were buried in unmarked or unknown graves. The Cemetery Trust has approved this in principle, and we are awaiting plans and specifications being prepared by contacts of Mary Dridan and Cheryl Mallinson, from which we will choose one and submit it to the Trust for their approval.
We have lost the services of John Smith, who has done a great job over the past three years as a volunteer for half-a-day each week. He has repainted the rear deck and ramp, the front picket fence, and almost completed re-painting the exterior of the Helen Harris Room. John also used our brushcutter to clear the jungle that had almost buried the old section of the cemetery. We will present John with a Certificate of Appreciation at the first opportunity in the near future. If you know anybody who may be interested in taking over where John left off, please ask them to talk to me.
Tony O’Shea.
ADHS Inc Image Collection
For a number of years during the early history of ADHS Inc., a member named Noel Tunks was the official custodian of our image collection. Noel was a skilled photographer using “old-fashioned” film and he developed, printed and copied photographs of historic significance for other Societies as well as Avoca. Unfortunately this got a little out of hand and was unfinished when dementia set in. Noel had accumulated “thousands” of images, many of which were the property of ADHS Inc., and we only managed to get hold of them several years after his death. Dorothy Robinson has occupied herself for a substantial part of the few weeks since the Court House closed for the holidays sorting them, scanning and cataloguing them. There were also a number of documents, one of which is reproduced on page 4. It is typewritten, and has a handwritten note in the margin: “Copy taken from Manuscript M3248 held at the Public Library Melbourne”. The writer was Thomas Tasker, Head Teacher at the Amphitheatre School S.S. 1637. Our member Mary Dridan was able to tell us that Mr Tasker was there from 1919 to 1923. It starts with a brief history of the district from 1842 and continues with a pen-portrait of the Mr Tasker’s impressions of a number of the early settlers who were still around at that time.
Chinese Memorial in the Avoca Cemetery:
As things turned out, your President was seriously ill on the Saturday night preceding this event, and would not have attended had he not agreed a few days earlier to the Cemetery Trust’s request to speak on the history of the Cemetery. In the foreground of the photo can be seen the three roasted pigs, fowls, bananas, etc., which were consumed at the feast which followed in the Avoca RSL Hall. The President tendered his apology for the banquet and went home to bed. At the microphone is Sunny Duong, CEO of the Chinese Memorial Foundation, and behind him is Peter Howell, Chairman of the Avoca Cemetery Trust. Obscured by Sunny Duong is Tony O’Shea, seated in the shade mustering the strength to deliver his speech!
Thomas Tasker’s view of Amphitheatre
Amphitheatre was probably named by Major Mitchell who was fond of classical nomenclature. He crossed the Avoca River at Avoca – 8 miles NW. from Amphitheatre in 1836. The Avoca rises in Mt.Lonach, 6 miles to the South.
Amphitheatre is derived from two Greek words, Amphi – round about & ‘Theaomai’ I see, and is a fitting name for the place situated as it is in a basin formed by high surrounding hills of the Pyrenees. Ben Major and Ben More, lying south, are two of these. In 1842 Mr Alec Irvine settled on the banks of the Avoca as a sheep farmer. Another settler named Norris, occupied, in 1847, what is now known as the Amphitheatre Estate, which passed into the hands of Gillespie Bros., & is now owned and occupied by Mr Robert Laidlaw, whose father resided on the estate for many years. In the ‘roaring fifties’, as early as 1854 Amphitheatre was prospected by adventurous spirits from neighbouring’ rushes. Soon there were from 5000 to 6000 men in the field including many Chinese. In many places one can see numerous shafts – the graves of many hopes. Shanties, public houses & shops etc., sprang up rapidly and the place was a veritable beehive of industry, the whirring of the windlass, the clink and clunk of the buckets, the rumble of the cradle and the puddling machine, the tents, the lights-innumerable at night, the singing – oft bacchanalian, the laughter and the brawl, made a medley of sound, incidental to a busy mining camp. Many of the miners found payable gold. The majority as is always the case, were doomed to disappointment. Those, who were fortunate spent it quickly, believing blindly in the infinite stores laying buried in the bowels of the earth.
Pioneers. Among the early pioneers for over half a century connected with the life and progress of the village, may be mentioned Mr & Mrs W. Howell, Mr & Mrs Betts, Mr & Mrs Spiers and Mr D. Egan. Mr Howell came here as a young man with only 2/6 in his pocket, shrewd, determined and persevering. Starting a butcher’s shop he quickly secured a competency. Mr Bird, now deceased, conducted the Amphitheatre Hotel for 50 years. Mr Spiers opened up one of the first stores. It soon became a flourishing business & was carried on later by his son-inlaw for many years, Mr T. Ennis. His widow, affectionately known as Granny Spiers, is still hale and hearty. Her recount of these early days & incidents was very interesting, including several bushranging episodes. Mr Howell, a sturdy pioneer for years & years, in all sorts of weather, made his weekly trip to Ballarat Stock Market 40 miles away. Mr Bird was a pioneer of 63 years. His hotel is carried on today by his son, Mr J. Bird, whilst Mr Geo Howell still does a lively butchering trade in the premises of his father, who has also passed away. Mr D. Egan settled in Glenlogie. He is 90 years of age & still hearty & cheerful. At a picnic last year he won an Old Buffers race. These grand old pioneers with shrewd sagacity and foresight acquired many valuable blocks of land and today their numerous descendants, in many ways, are still ‘carrying on’ being amongst the best known, most helpful & most prosperous people in the place. Mr Betts has passed away but Mrs Betts, an Amphitheatre pioneer of 61 years has still all of her faculties and it was quite a refreshing experience to hear her recount many incidents of those early stirring days of the sixties.
For many years after the gold rush died out many Europeans and Chinese ‘fossickers’ continued to prospect & search for the hidden wealth, eking out, in many cases, a scanty livelihood. Some are even now occasionally smitten with the gold fever & will pierce the earth to the wash in the hope of discovering the precious metal.
Transition. Amphitheatre today, is famous, the world over, for its apples, their reputation even extending to Germany. The passing from the elusive gold hunt to the more certain product, ‘the golden apple’ reads like a romance. Orchards are dotted all over the place.These range from 5 to 10 acres to 40 acres in size, Mr Wm. Poynton- a present day prominent orchardist is credited with having planted the first orchard. Another authority gives this palm of honour to Mr Robert Neil, now 70 years of age and a cricketer of 50 years. His father, by the way, used to cart stores etc. in the early days from Castlemaine.
Timber. The timber industry is important, including firewood. Numerous small farmers have selected the hills on which to graze sheep. Which farming is easy and lucrative. The opening of the first school, first church & railway etc. were important events.
Time Line.
- 1842 Mr A. Irvine opened up land- a sheep farmer.
- 1854 Gold discovered. Mr H. Bird settled in district.
- 1865 Presbyterian Church opened.
- 1872 Free School opened by Government. Mr Walker, Teacher.
- 1887 Trees planted in street.
- 1890 Railway opened.
(Signed) Thos Tasker Head Teacher.
