September 12 – 18, 2021
Presented by Mildura & District Historical Society
Compiled by Ann Ziguras and Sue Kelly for Mildura Rural City Council Library Service
100 years ago
Today’s Slogan: Be generous! Men love a free-handed giver as they do an ardent lover, an enthusiastic worker, a vigorous fighter. They love to go out too. Their hearts go out to the man with red blood in his veins and they loathe the cold blooded reptilian biped.
EUROPE NEWS: Most of the English society has gone to Scotland to shoot grouse – the King, the Prince of Wales, Mr Lloyd George and members of the Cabinet. Today is the day Charlie Chaplin has arrived in London with hysterical scenes. Seldom has a single individual captured the popular imagination and affection as this man. There is now nothing of the experiment about women’s entry in to the London police force. The police women are a very definite factor in the force. The pilot of a military aeroplane died after he was flying very low near Chateau in Paris and his machine struck an electric tram-car. Three persons were killed and three injured as the result of an explosion during the dismantling of an ex submarine, the “Deutschland”. Admiral of the Fleet, Prince Louis of Battenberg, who only yesterday returned to London from Scotland, died of heart failure. Australians again defeated Thornton’s Eleven winning by 33 runs at Scarborough on Saturday with only three minutes to go after an exciting game. Before the record attendance at the International Athletic Meeting Britain beat France by 123 points to 118. Mr Venizelos, the former Prime Minister of Greece, who is 56 years old, has just married at a London Registry Office, to Miss Schillizzi. At the present rate of recovery of bodies there is at least another year’s work for the Australian graves Section stated Colonel F.J. Hayter. (12.9.1921)
ENGLAND AND AFGHANISTAN: Reuter at London is informed that the latest reports of the Anglo-Afghan negotiations are favorable. The conversations have not been broken and there is no prospect of a rupture. It is fully realized when the conversations were opened that they would be long with sometimes disheartening business. The course of the negotiations is always uncertain varying from brightest to blackest at short notice and affected particularly by outside events like the Turco-Greek war until Turkish propaganda is rife. The framing of a treaty must be written not in weeks but months. (14.9.1921)
FATALITIES: In a drowning fatality which occurred yesterday, two brothers, George and Herbert Kelly, drowned in the Merri Creek which is in flood. John Boyle aged 75 years employed as winchman had just knocked off duty in the Melbourne Steamship Company’s Steamer when he tripped over a rope and died. A woman in Melbourne was tired of life and took a dose of Phenyle. On Friday last Joseph Booth Fisher was ploughing at Koorlong Ave Irymple when he dropped dead. A sad story was unfolded at the inquest today concerning the death of William Weangh, aged 4, who while seated in a “billy-cart”, collided with a taxi in Sydney. It is feared that a heavy list of casualties from the floods in Texas will reach a hundred.
SPORT: In the Goulburn to Sydney cycle race there were 57 starters including H. Paulton aged 18 years. The first cricket match of the season was played last Saturday at the 9th ground between High School Boys and the newly formed Sunraysia Daily team. Mildura defeated Red Cliffs by 19 pts in the second semi-final of the Mildura Football League’s competition at the Recreation Oval on Saturday, Jamito beat McCarthy on Points at the Melbourne Stadium last evening and in West Maitland a foul blow was claimed but the referee is still counting. At the Newcastle Stadium Bill Janees defeated Andre Dupre. In the last round Dupre received a severe blow over the eye. In The Open Golf championship Le Ferre leads in the Second Round for the Australian Title. On Thursday afternoon a friendly billiard match, arranged by Messrs. Gilbert and Bargtf, was played at Berri between Loxton and Berri teams. Berri, 1,843, beat Loxton, 1,153. The games were equal, the sides playing four each, the match being won on points. Four couples were played at Mr. Guy’s saloon and four at Gilbert’s Billiard saloon. The match was a purely social affair, the prize for which was dinner at the Riverside Hotel. During the afternoon the Loxton party, who were proceeding to Berri by river, were met with a motor-boat along the way and the teams completed the journey together. The visitors were taken for a run around the district before the match was played, after which a social evening was spent with Renmark visitors. During the evening 162/19/ was collected for the Berri Football Club.
LOCAL NEWS: The Health Commissioner said today that there were no further cases of bubonic plague. He declined to say nothing further. The Maggie left Mildura for Ned’s Corner yesterday afternoon. Her skipper, Mr P.T. Srevellen, expects to return on Thursday with a load of firewood. A Land Board is to sit at the Mildura Court at ten o’clock this morning to deal with lands fronting the river at Karadoc, Carwarp and Colignan. Yesterday morning a start was made with the beautification of the Merbein streets. From Eighth to Ninth Streets at the western side of Deakin Ave Mildura, a new style of footpath is being experimented with. There was a good attendance at the Palais de Dans at Mildura last evening. Mr Higginbotham’s orchestra played the latest jazz. Under the auspices of the Mildura branch of the Australian Labour Party, a social and dance is to be held in the Mildura Town Hall supper-rooms. Mae Murray is the double attraction at the Olympia theatre tonight. She appears in “The Twin Pawns”. On Monday night slight damage was done to the Manager’s hut and the canvas on the walls to the new picture theatre at Red Cliffs. In this age of machinery the day of blade shearing is practically gone. The latest advance in shearing is an invention which increases the tally by 40 a day. A crossbred ewe at Mr J. Lindsay’s farm at Woodard near Barham has given birth to four lambs – three white and one black. (13-17.9.1921)
UNIQUE AUSTRALIA: The ugliest of most feared lizards in Australia are the Molochs of the West Australian deserts yet they are harmless. Apart from members of the swallow tribe, three species of Australian birds are skilled mud masons, building large round shaped nests of mud. Old bushmen assert that a wombat can throw its weight of earth behind it in six minutes. That is quick work and beats a rabbit out of sight. (17.9.1921)
75 years ago
MILDURA RACING CLUB: Widespread interest was taken in the formation of the Racing Club, the secretary Mr L.J. Cleary reported yesterday. This was indicated by the number of enquiries for member’s tickets. It appears likely that the first membership will exceed 200 by the first meeting on October 19 said Mr Cleary. Subscriptions have been fixed at five pounds, five.
DEBUTANTES: The largest presentation of debutantes ever held in Mildura took place at the highly successful annual hospital gala ball at the Old Mill on Tuesday, September 10, when 31 lovely debutantes made their dignified bows before the Mayor and Mayoress, Cr A.J. Jenkins and Miss A. Jenkins before a crowd exceeding 900.
BONES: While ploughing on his property at Nichols Point yesterday Mr R. Ferguson uncovered a human bone. With the assistance of Mr R. Clarke, two complete human skulls, portion of another, six different pieces of skull, and leg and arm bones were unearthed. The bones were discovered on river frontage about two feet below the surface and it is thought they were Aboriginal remains.
50 years ago
AWARD: Mildura Lock-master Mr Cliff Taylor has been awarded the Senator Collins trophy for 1970-71 for the most improved and best maintained weir and lock on the Murray River. The award is made annually by the River Murray Commission to the master of the most improved and best maintained of the 15 weirs on the Murray.
RIVERFRONT: Mildura Arts Centre Director, Mr Tom McCullough expects to finish a report on the possible development of part of the city’s riverfront in the next two weeks. Mr McCullough believes the whole of Mildura’s riverfront from Apex Park to the brickworks need development.
TOURISM: Journalists from three States will arrive in Mildura tonight for a quick look at Mildura and Hattah National Park as part of Tourism Development week. Newspapers and Magazines represented with the Press team will include The Age, The Sun News Pictorial, The Herald Sun, The News (Adelaide), and Mercury (Hobart), The Weekly Times, Travel Week and the RACV Journal.
25 years ago
BOOKMOBILE: Mildura Rural City Council’s Bookmobile has a colourful new image created by graphic designer Mark Haynes and painted by local company Mildura Stop Signs. The new design draws on the aspects of the region which the Bookmobile covers including the river, dryland farming and irrigated areas. The new look Bookmobile is today being restocked at the Carnegie Library before recommencing its normal service to Ouyen, Walpeup, Underbool, Cowangie and Murrayville. The Bookmobile carries 7000 books to provide a quality library service to these outlying townships. The Bookmobile will be on public display at the Red Cliffs 75th Anniversary celebrations on October 12.
FOOTBALL: Wentworth and District Football Club players and supporters celebrated long and hard on Saturday and yesterday as the full realization hit them. Their senior team had won the Sunraysia Football League premiership from the more favored Imperials in an incredible last-gasp effort! (16.09.1996)
FIRE: Nearly 100 firemen, police and local government officials were involved in battling a massive fire at the Red Cliffs storage yards of Aurora Packing and Mildura Co-operative last night. Four firefighters required treatment – three at hospital – for minor injuries and for smoke inhalation. As a result of the fire, thousands of sweat boxes stacked in the storage yards off Laurel Street ignited about 5pm. (16.09.1996)
BOOKS: Two books released at the Red Cliffs 1956 flood celebrations a fortnight ago are meeting a steady demand according to author and compiler, Mary Chandler. Mary has been working for some time on her Red Cliffs Today and Yesterday, which aims to help visitors and locals gain an insight into the history, heritage and culture that makes Red Cliffs and its environs distinctive to other places in Victoria. The second book, ’56 Memories, was compiled by Mary prior to the 1956 flood celebrations a fortnight ago. (14.09.96)
