Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

 For anyone wanting to explore their family history, Ancestry and Find my Past can be useful places to get started. Ancestry has thousands of databases including many Australian records, with new information continually being added. Available Australian data includes electoral rolls, convict indexes,  passenger lists, birth, death and marriage indexes and a growing number of other resources. Find my Past  has numerous records including postal directories, funeral records and electoral rolls. Both Databases feature thousands of records from the United Kingdom and America.  Ancestry and Find my Past are available within the library at any of our five branches.

Moonee Valley Thematic Environmental History (TEH) is available to view online or in hard copy at your local library. The TEH has been prepared in consultation with  a range of community members and Living Histories, and creates a framework for identifying local iconic features, places, people and stories in Moonee Valley. The study provides information on a variety of different themes including migration, farming, recreation, transport, communications, banking and finance, and is a great source for anyone interested in the history and development of Moonee Valley over the last 200 years.

On November 22nd  1958 the new swimming pool in Queens Park, Essendon was opened. The state of the art Olympic size pool featured an aluminium  diving board imported from England and an up to date “most efficient filtration system” ,  capable of changing the 420,000 gallons (1.55 million litres) of  water in the pool every eight hours.  In the grounds of the pool, a flat roofed dressing pavilion provides bathers with a sunbathing area and view of the pool. An area has been set aside for the parking of up to 120 bicycles. You can read further details in the 20th November edition of the  Essendon Gazette available on microfilm in the Sam Merrifield Library.

November 11, Remembrance Day, is a time of reflection as we think about the end of World War I and the tragic loss of life from 1914 -1918. In November 1918 cities, towns and municipalities around Australia marked the end of this conflict  with celebrations and memorial services.  In Moonee Ponds, ANZACS were welcomed home by the Mayor and Councillors outside the Town Hall, and other services were held across the community. The Essendon Gazette has many articles detailing these events, and reading them conveys the emotions and feelings generated by loss and the  turmoil of war. The issue of conscription for example was still divisive even at the end of 1918. You can read original articles from The Essendon Gazette on microfilm in the Sam Merrifield Library or visit the Trove website and view digitised copies of this newspaper from 1914-1918.