Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

The July/August, 2011 History News is now available online.  The Sam Merrifield Library has the latest edition of the Victorian Historical Journal for June, 2011 and available in the Local History Room. Some of the articles in the journal include the following - Community Cookbooks: Women's Words and Hospitality at Bayswater Church of Christ 1962-1990 by Kerrie Handasyde. The Arrival and Settlement of Macedonians in the Inner Western Suburbs of Melbourne by Nick Anastasovski.  Singing in 'a sort of musical chaos': Dame Nellie Melba and the campaign to Lower the Pitch of the Grand Organ in the Melbourne Town Hall by Simon Purtell. 

This website allows you to search WW1 photos from South Australia, currently 1,995 have been added for South Australia. Other states include Tasmania, Victoria (113 photos), Queensland, Wetern Australia and New South Wales. The pages are sorted by state, service unit and one for unidentified personnel. You can download your WW1 photos, email addresses are provided to identify the holders of the original photos. For more information go to http://www.gravesecrets.net/

Preserving Your Documents Learn how to preserve the old and use the new in exploring your family heritage. Have you go old photographs, paper documents or even more recent disks full of digital photographs and family videos, are you worried about how to preserve and store them? Ada Ackerly, history and genealogy researcher, will talk about document preservation as well as contingency planning for disasters which may wipe out these irreplaceable collections. Sam Merrifield Library Wednesday, 3rd August at 7pm Free, but bookings necessary. Call 8325 1950 Digital Storytelling Learn the concepts of digital storytelling as a way of telling family and personal stories using recent computer technologies through an introductory workshop conducted by Hisham Atia, a local multi-media and IT engineer. Workshop participants can use their own photos if already scanned onto a USB stick. Avondale Heights Library and Learning Centre Saturday, 6th August, 1.30-3.30pm Free, but bookings ...

The Essendon Historical Society presents the 11th Fireside Reading Travellers' Tales , Saturday 6th August 2011 commencing at 1.45pm, venue is The Old Courthouse, 768 Mt. Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds 3039. Come in from the cold, step back in time and enjoy a magnificient building, sit by a roaring open fire and candlelight. Enjoy presentations from classic Australian authors by costumed Readers. Afternoon tea included. Enquiries 9370 4607 $10 admission.

The Aboriginal Moomba: 'Out of the Dark' is a significant exhibition which re-visits the 1951 landmark Moomba performance that took traditional and contemporary culture out of the shadows and onto the national and international stage. It features high quality reproductions of photographs held in Public Records Office Victoria's collection and images reproduced from the personal scrapbook of political activist and film-maker Bill Onus. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this exhibition contains images of deceased Indigenous people. This exhibition is at the Sam Merrifield Library,Saturday 2nd July to Tuesday 26th July. Free. Open during library hours.