Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

Did you know that West Melbourne once had an enormous picturesque lagoon? Now the spot is an industrial hub of the freight terminal and a tangle of road and rail links. But once a great lagoon stretched out to the west of the city, from near where North Melbourne now stands, out to South Kensington and across towards much of West Melbourne, towards Footscray. The lagoon in 1844. View from Batman's Hill February 5 1844 looking North West Robert Russell, 1884.  Courtesy of the State Library Victoria Collection.  H24487. See the lagoon behind the city? View from the top of the Scots Church steeple, Collins Street, 1875, Photographic studio of Paterson Bros, 1875. Courtesy of the State Library Victoria Collection. H96.160/2713 Local public historian Lenore Frost curated an exhibition for the Royal Historical Society of Victoria about this fascinating but sadly now vanished waterhole. Sadly the pandemic limited access to the physical exhibition, but the RHSV have now made the exhib...

Essendon Town Hall with Lending Library inside. Sam Merrifield Local History Collection Local Historian Lenore Frost has been busy over the past few months researching the history of libraries in Moonee Valley. Looking at the libraries of Essendon and Flemington, Lenore tells the story of how libraries begun in our area and how they grew out of a public desire for books. If you're looking to learn about how the libraries of Moonee Valley begun, Lenore's work is a great resource. You can find the link to her time travellers website below: Essendon Time Travellers Blog

If you haven't seen it recently, the Moonee Valley Libraries Facebook page has been posting every Friday an image from Moonee Valley's past. #Flashback Friday as it's known has provided us with some great images. It was great to see a post by Lenore Frost on Friday about the recent photo of the Burke and Wills Tree in Moonee Ponds. After see the image of the tree Lenore had gone and done some research and created a timeline of the tree on her website. To see the timeline and other research post from the Moonee Valley and Keilor areas take a look at Lenore's blog and website. Time Travellers blog Time Travellers website

Lenore Frost will be leading a guided heritage walk through Flemington, Kensington and Newmarket this Sunday, 3rd May, 2.30-4.00pm. This walk, presented by the National Trust, will highlight how the area was impacted by the First World War. For details on how to book, and more information, see Lenore's blog post here .

Join us next Tuesday evening as we commemorate the centenary of ANZAC Day at Sam Merrifield Library with a special talk about the local impact of Gallipoli and wider war on what is now the Moonee Valley area. The local contribution and impact of the First World War was enormous, but is now not well known. Local Historian, Lenore Frost, will share some of this amazing, often tragic, history, particularly the stories of early World War One enlistees from Moonee Ponds and Essendon, several of them former cadets in the Essendon Rifles. Many of these men went on to serve as officers on other fronts, if they were first fortunate enough to have survived Gallipoli. To book call Sam Merrifield Library on 8325 1950, or book online .

For the last few weeks both Jennie and I have been doing lots of reading and researching about the war and how it impacted on the local community. The stories we've uncovered have been fascinating. Volunteer soldiers from this area were involved in some remarkable, often tragic and harrowing, exploits - and we both feel that these are stories of great local relevance that deserve to be better known by the community. This is why we're holding a special event at Sam Merrifield Library, Essendon 1914: local impact of WWI . This event is happening on Saturday 23rd August from 2pm until 4pm, and will involve special guests Ross McMullin (author of Pompey Elliott and Farewell Dear People ) and local historian and life member of the Essendon Historical Society, Lenore Frost (author of Bandsman Vosti and many other titles). Ross and Lenore will join library staff in a discussion about how local people contributed to the Great War, and how this conflict affected the local area. Each...