Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

Now that the weather is warming up and we can venture a little further from home, why not take advantage of a sunny day and enjoy a walk along the river? With our self-guided history walk, you can get to know a little more about the history of Aberfeldie while taking a stroll along the lovely Maribyrnong River. This walk begins outside the iconic Incinerator Gallery on Holmes Road in Aberfeldie and follows a gentle westerly path with stops along the Maribyrnong River, concluding at the newly restored Afton Street bridge. View of the Afton Street Bridge from the Afton Street Conservation Park. August 2020, photograph by S. Holmes. Click  here  to download the Aberfeldie Self-Guided Walk PDF, and either print it, or follow it on-screen on your phone or tablet. The PDF also contains links to photographs, newspaper articles, websites and items in the Moonee Valley Libraries catalogue, so you can look further into Aberfeldie’s interesting history in your own time, from home. We hop...

Our friends at the Incinerator Gallery in Aberfeldie have re-opened to the public! Essendon Incinerator, Walter Burley Griffin, Holmes Road  (1975) Photograph by John T. Collins, courtesy of State Library Victoria. One of the current exhibitions showing at the gallery is Fluidity- An Exhibition in Digital Waves . You can experience it in person at the gallery, or online in the digital space. "Fluidity is an exhibition presented on-site at Incinerator Gallery, and as an online resource via the Gallery’s website. It explores the force of soft power to affect change in the world through the political and poetic navigation of water. Fluidity brings together newly commissioned works by some of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists, as well as works curated from the City of Moonee Valley Art Collection. These are presented alongside long-standing ecological projects that celebrate sustainable and healthy waterways in Melbourne’s North West." Fluidity runs from June 19th until A...

There's plenty do this week, as it is National Reconciliation Week from 27 May - 3 June. As Reconciliation Australia explain: National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. The dates for NRW remain the same each year; 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively. Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider Australian community, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Locally, check out Silent Witness: A Window to the Past by Gunditjmara Elder and Moonee Valley resident, Uncle Jim Berg. His immersive exhibition has been translated into an ...