Presented by Mildura and District Historical Society.
Compiled by Judi Hyde and Sue Kelly for the Mildura Rural City Council Library Service.100 YEARS AGO
SHOWS: The Mildura Horticultural Society would like newer residents of Sunraysia to know their society that produced a display of the irrigation colony, probably one of the finest displays of fruit ever made in the Commonwealth, held in Melbourne. It was such an eye-opener to the press and the Melbourne public and did so much to bring the river settlement into the limelight and create the beginning of its prosperity. A photograph of the exhibit in its first show hangs in the office of Mr J. Hawkes and it is remarkable for the variety produced by such a young settlement. The picture of the great group of watermelons which in those days almost grew wild around the boundaries of the blocks. The oft told fairy tale was that there were giants in those days and nothing that might contribute to the advancement of their town was too much trouble for the early settlers. There was a time when even Deakin Ave was still mostly bush and when courting couples used to bill and coo beneath the shady malus where Shilliday’s big store now stands. There was a huge body of men with sufficient enterprise to organise a local fruit and flower show so large it overflowed the limits of the Mechanics’ Institute that then stood where the Shire Hall now stands and had to be accommodated in a huge marquee on the site of the Carnegie Library. During the first three years of the society’s existence there were over 40 entries from the Old Mildura holding. Two shows were held yearly – a fresh and dried fruit show in July and a chrysanthemum show in April. A chrysanthemum cup was offered and Mr G. Gallagher won two years running, the third year Mr Gurney won. Interest in the Japanese flower lapsed after three years and the Autumn Show was dropped but Mildura entrants won several prizes at the Sydney Show.
ITEMS: The Education Department is sending an inspector to Mildura to beat up the absentee scholars. From the department’s standpoint and possibly that of the teachers it is clearly great evil that for two months of the year children should be in the vineyards instead of at school but from the standpoint of the children’s health and well-being to say nothing of the industry quite another case might be stated. For five weeks at a time at Christmas the school children are idle at home and no parent is fined then when the busiest season of the year begins the children could be happily and healthily and profitably employed among the laden vines or in their parents’ home – they are dragged away to school under threats of five-pound fines for the parents. In the wheat country holidays should be at harvest time and in February-March the teachers could also help with the harvest. Mr G. Cameron, one of Merbein’s earliest settlers, has decided to “go West” – he is a native of Ballarat and claims he’s a real Australian as he has never been outside of Australia. He came to Mildura as a pastor of the Mildura Church of Christ – services were held in St Margaret’s Parish Hall, which was rented out by the congregation. The imposing new church is in course of erection by Mr Mansell Snr, now of Merbein, and the honour of conducting the opening services fell to Mr Cameron. He wisely saw in the new settlement good openings for his large family and decided to take up a block selecting 11 acres — four of which he cleared and ploughed at once with the help of two sons in order to grow vegetables for the market to secure immediate return from the land, pondering the time when the vines he planted should come into bearing.
THEATRE: With the opening of a new picture house in Wentworth, the proposal to build another cinema at Mildura, the activity of Merbein and Irymple and the rumour concerning Red Cliffs taken together suggests the coming of a picture boom in Sunraysia. Such a boom should be a blessing not a curse for the movies are a questioner of the intelligence and the improver of the intelligence and the morals of the community. There are dramas of the film that are not elevating but in the main, the pictures constitute the pleasant method of imbibing knowledge that the world yet knows. All the moral arguments were used against the printed page. It may be said that the vicious put them to vicious use yet who would turn back the clock of time to the days before Caxton and Gutenberg and who save the mentally fossilised would wish the world to be without a picture theatre. Pictures can bring lessons in deportment, taste and conduct that formerly could only be learnt in books. It gives us the news more vividly than newspapers, teaches geography, history and manners. 75 YEARS AGO
RIVER: The heavy rains experienced in Sunraysia during recent weeks caused the Murray to rise nearly a foot, necessitating the placing of eight extra bars in the Mildura weir. The river is very dirty, particularly below the weir. According to the lock keeper at Mildura, this was caused by the backing of waters from the Darling. Fishermen in the district were experiencing great difficulty at the moment and this will continue until the river become clearer.
LULU: Mr Lee-Proops’ five-seater, six cylinder launch “Lulu” will be running between Lock Island, the weir and the bridge. Passengers will be picked up at the Rowing Club lawns. During the afternoon an amplifier will supply music, racing and sporting results. All proceeds will be devoted to the Food-for-Britain Appeal.
RED CROSS: The Australian Red Cross Society made a gift offer of a large amount of equipment. This equipment is at present at the RAAF hospital, and will be handed over when the station ceases to function in the future.50 YEARS AGO
PICKERS: Another pickers’ train arrived in Mildura loaded with 500 pickers. It was the second special train to arrive. The 1971 vintage is facing a labour shortage of several hundred pickers. Harvest labour was rationed to growers in Sunraysia. In some cases, growers’ requests for labour had to be halved.
MURAL: Wentworth now boasts a 50 x 15 foot mural in the Wentworth Folk Museum. The painting commissioned by the Wentworth Rotary Club was painted by Mr Kevin McLaren who is a former Mildura resident. It covers one entire end of the hall, which was formerly a picture theatre.25 YEARS AGO
GRADUATION: An Irymple man is one of only three people to have received a Bachelor of Management (Rural Resources) after the completion of the six-year course. Mark Jenkins, who is employed as a horticultural officer at the Mildura Rural City Council, was also the only one of three graduates to pass with distinctions. The course – offered through Orange Agricultural College, an arm of Sydney University – was the first of its kind dealing with the land and natural resources management.
MEDALS: Memories of one of the biggest invasions of the Pacific war, the invasion of the Philippines, have been revived for three Mildura ex-servicemen. The men – Lisle Barnden, Ern Chatfield and Keith Curtis – were each presented with the Philippine Liberation Medal by the Philippines Ambassador to Australia, Mrs Delia Albert, in Melbourne last week.
FENCE: Work will begin next week on another section of the 120km fence to protect Millewa farmland from kangaroos swarming in from national parks. Millewa farmers claim kangaroos are increasing in the parklands and moving into farmlands in search of water. With cattle grazing now banned in the bush, kangaroos have more food than before, but watering points no longer needed for cattle have dried up. So the kangaroos head for the farms. About 29km of fencing in the eastern section of the Millewa, from the Meridian Road to south of Karawinna, was completed a few years ago and has been reasonably successful.
