Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

Moonee Ponds Court House Museum has been beautifully repaired and renovated after the devastating fire of mid 2016. If you want to take a sticky-beak, this weekend, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 January 2020 is your chance as the Court House will be open to the public. Come and see how the 1890 building has been restored, view the History Reclaimed exhibition which tells the story of the courthouse building and other local buildings which have been reclaimed, and find out about the Essendon Historical Society. Moonee Ponds Court House Musuem is at the corner of Mount Alexander Road and Kellaway Avenue (opposite Queen's Park) in Moonee Ponds. For more information, see the Essendon Historical Society website: https://esshissoc.org.au/the-courthouse-opens/

A year has passed since a fire caused by a faulty light transformer caused significant damage to the Courthouse Museum in Moonee Ponds.  27 June 2016. Photo by Suzanne Balding, Moonee Valley Libraries. A year after the fire, 26th June 2017. Photo by Julia Marshall, MVL. The great news for local heritage enthusiasts is that $1.5 million dollars has been secured to restore the 1890s building.  27 June 2016. Photo by Suzanne Balding, MVL.  The Society has shown great resilience, continuing to operate out of the basement of our Niddrie Library branch. It will be wonderful to see the Courthouse renovated, operational and open to the community as Essendon History Society HQ once again.      The courthouse in the 1970s or 80s.   T ax deductible donations to the Historical Society are welcomed, as are new memberships . All the photos in this post are in our collection and can be found online via the library ...

To help raise funds for the restoration of the Moonee Ponds Courthouse the Essendon Rotary Club and Essendon Historical Society are holding a steam train ride day on Sunday 20 November 2016.  Departing from Essendon Station there are 5 trips going to:  Box Hill return  Wyndham Vale return  Broadmeadows return   Newport via Broadmeadows one way  Prices vary between $25 - $50 for an adult ticket with children and family booking available. For bookings visit:  www.trybooking.com H Class Steam Locomotive hauling Albury Express passenger train at Essendon in 1949. Sourced from PROV (www.prov.vic.gov.au) with written permission. 

As many of you might know, on Monday there was a fire at the Moonee Ponds Courthouse, home to the Essendon Historical Society and it's museum. While it was lucky there was no one there substantial damage was done to the building itself, with the roof and the main chamber suffering severe damage. However thanks to the efforts of MFB firefighters most of the records, photographs, rate books and more have thankfully been saved from damage. At this stage we are still waiting for information as to the total cost of the damage as well as what has been lost, however we will keep people updated when we find out. For those who are interested in helping our the Essendon Historical Society, please contact them via email at:  esshissoc@mail.com  or mail them at: PO Box 557, Essendon, 3040  Photographs taken by Suzanne Balding.