Presented by Mildura & District Historical Society
Compiled by Judi Hyde for Mildura Rural City Council Service
100 years ago
TRIBE: Games occupied the greater part of the time of the men of the Wotty Wotty tribe. The women were always otherwise engaged. It is quite possible that many of the ceremonies that are supposed to be of a sacred character should really come under the heading of pastimes as most of the more important games were indulged in when several tribes met and that was not possible to any extent unless food was plentiful then the women put forth their best effort to keep the men well fed in the intervals between “dressing up” for the elaborate games. Wrestling was a favourite occupation with the young men – it was catch if catch can, there were many variations of ball games – the ball had a core of tightly wound strips of skin covered with a strongly sewn piece of new possum skin. Sides were chosen, the number often amounting to 100 a side and women were allowed to take part – there was no goal – the game lasted all day. The weet weet was a toy that afforded much opportunity for skill. This was a knob of belar or mallee wood two to three inches in length and more pointed than oval with a thin twig about 30 inches long and 1/8th of an inch in diameter inserted in one end. The object was to make the weet weet fly along the ground in erratic twistings, much like a cracker-jack. Sometimes it reached several hundred yards. It was capable of considerable execution if sent among a mob of wood ducks. Skipping, in companies of a dozen or more, on one long rope was indulged in by the girls and young men. The Wotty Wotty – once the unchallenged lords of the territory from Swan Hill to Euston – have till now disappeared and left little behind save a few oven mounds and a few trees showing where a canoe or shield was cut from.
WAGE: Speaking before the Board of Trade in Sydney into the inquiry as to the establishment of the basic wage in rural industry, a grazier from Hay used the argument that “came over with the Conqueror or was introduced by Attila the Hun or possibly came out with the Ark” that it is better for three men to be employed at one pound each than for two men to be employed at one pound, 10 shillings each. In China these theories have been the guiding rules for centuries.
NEWS: At a meeting of the Mildura Borough Council, a letter from the Traders Assoc asked if the electric lights could be kept burning till daylight so the policeman on patrol would be greatly assisted in his duty of protecting property. Opposition of an unexpected kind has arisen in the path of a proposed flour mill as the site is near Sister Scott’s private hospital and the machinery’s constant whirr and the shunting of trains at the mill might affect the recovery of patients. During the past week the Rothbury has been hauling red gum logs to the Mildura sawmill for the season’s work, now over a thousand logs are moored between the punt and the mill under water and piled from the river-bed some 30 feet down to a few feet above water-level. The eastern side of Deakin Ave in the town area is to be closed to traffic from one to five o’clock to enable the lawns to be watered by council employees by fire hoses which have to be placed across the road. A crusade against rats in Sydney is being carried out Since August, 2975 rats have been killed – 500 in one day. In Russia, the lack of food is so great that 25,000,000 people are starving … children are eating grass, moss, sawdust or bark and people are exchanging a horse or cow for 2lb of bread – a 2lb loaf costs 800 roubles – 4000 in Moscow, quoted the Finland consul in Sydney.
75 years ago
CHURCHILL: “Is the remedy Mr Churchill proposes for ills one to which Europe will readily submit,” asked the Times. He has advocated the establishment of a United States of Europe, that Russia comes into the projected Council of Europe – that France should bury the hatchet with Germany. Later Churchill narrowly escaped assassination during his visit to the United States of America in June 1942, by a field guard at the plane who was muttering “I am going to kill that – Churchill”. He was later certified insane and committed to an institution, according to Michael R. Riley, who headed the Secret Service at the White House during much of the Roosevelt administration. When May and June, 1942 seemed to be critical months for India, Lord Wavell (then General Sir Archibald Wavell) C-in-C of India, protested to Mr Churchill when he learnt he had agreed to the Australian Government’s demand for the return to Australia of two Australian brigades stationed in Ceylon also the diversion of reinforcements for Vichyites in Madagascar and the transfer of Eastern Fleet units in the Mediterranean to help provision Malta. Wavell later commented Churchill’s judgement was right as the danger to India never eventuated.
NEWS: “Any Government which is not prepared to protect and defend its defenders is a blot on the face of the earth and should be abolished,” said Mr W. Turnbull, on the subsistence pay of former POW’s when he was in Mildura speaking at the Capitol ballroom. On display in the store for men are coloured shopping bags made by the district servicemen – the workmanship of the bags is a credit to the blinded soldiers’ handiwork. Among many distinguished members of the Polish New Education Fellowship Conference is Dr Marie Zebrowska, assistant professor of Educational Psychology from the University of Warsaw, who is not only a scientist, but also a worker for the Polish resistance movement against the Germans. For 18 months she was imprisoned by the Gestapo for assisting English escaped prisoners of war. She is here to talk about the plight of Polish children, about 5 million of them, who live in bad conditions without food, proper living accommodation or school arrangements. These children never had an opportunity to be really juvenile – they only remember German atrocities and the tragedy of their parents and neighbours, the emaciated and homeless children must be clothed and fed – not in the future but now.
ITEMS: Low freight offered by the railways has dealt a blow to many of the romantic little ships whose hulls now lie resting on the banks of many Murray River ports but not all of these ships of Australia’s greatest waterway have been lost to modern times. Tired businessmen and people seeking a quiet holiday away from the blare of trumpets and the tension of modern life are giving a new interest to our inland ships. Captain G. Making, of The Gem, was in port with a full compliment of happy passengers and while they are on pleasure trips around the district the Daily’s photographers went on board and took the printed photos shown. Sunraysia Daily’s photographer also took the photo printed of a number plate Honolulu E-8966 belonging to a couple from Hawaii staying at the Grand Hotel. Because of the Custom’s strike in London, there is nothing to hinder smugglers who are making fortunes in France. Smugglers poured across the French frontier into Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain and bought back food, wine and clothes, which cannot be got in France, and sold them to the highest bidders. Tobacco worth 10,000 pounds sterling was brought in from Belgium.
50 years ago
PEOPLE: Entries in the walkathon and cyclathon organized by Sunraysia branch of Community Aid Abroad were down on last year. More than $1375 was raised by 130 participants. Walkers and cyclists had to contend with a humid day and the temperature rose to 79.1- most of the fundraisers were youngsters – some very young and St. John’s members dealt with a few blisters. .
FOOTY: Mildura’s Recreation Reserve looked like a municipal tip than a sports ground after Saturday’s football match. Hundreds of cans and wrapper papers littered the area around No.1 Oval, paper and streamers blew on to the field and a Mildura officer of the Murray Valley Development League described it as pollution, one spectator said it was the ugliest the ground had been seen, that people were too lazy to walk 25 yards to bin their rubbish and just tossed it on the ground. Council will look at the number of waste receptacles in the area.
ITEMS: St John’s Anglican Church, Wentworth, has attracted the interest of the Australian National Trust. The church’s centenary will be celebrated in November and photos of the inside and outside of the church will be sent to the Trust by the parish minister Reverend David Denly – it is believed to be the first church built on the Darling River. Gift packs of Sunraysia dried fruits are again proving popular as gifts to people overseas as over 300 packs were sent last year and demand for them has not peaked yet this year-a lot is sent to relatives and friends.
25 years ago
GROUPS: Tennis coaches Phil Lancaster and Ray Kilkenny will conduct the annual McDonald’s, Martin Petroleum Tennis Extravaganza at the Mildura Lawn Tennis Club, which will be split into three classes: learners, intermediates and advanced. One player from the beginner section will win a Prince tennis racquet, hat and wrist bands valued at $150. The Mildura Christie Centre is developing plans for a five-metre swimming pool that will be open to other community group users. Young people have been urged to take part in a youth conference at Lake Cullulleraine which will cover a wide range of topics relevant to the 15 to 18 age group – to discuss issues young people feel strongly about from the 70 youth expected to attend.
BUS: The 10.40am V/Line service did not leave Mildura on Saturday as the driver rostered to drive the coach was away on holidays. A V/Line employee got the paperwork in order for the service, locked up the office to help a train crew with a shunting job on a triple-loco mixed goods train knowing that all was ready for the coach driver to load his coach and head off to Melbourne. The V/Line employee returned at 11.10 to find all the passengers and luggage still waiting – a relief driver was found. The coach left one hour and 20 minutes late hoping to make the train connection at Swan Hill. That did not happen. The relief coach driver swapped with another coach driver before Swan Hill, the bus was then drove straight to Melbourne, the new driver said he might need directions from the passengers as he had never driven in Melbourne before, they arrived in Melbourne less than an hour late with an extra seven passengers.
PLACES: Demolition workers have revealed the old face of the former Washington’s Furniture building in Deakin Ave, the wording Drapery etc, and the figures 1910 and 1923. The building which housed Movie Busters and the Mildura Post Office private boxes is slowly being knocked down. The Commonwealth Government Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee chair, Professor Nancy Mills, of Melbourne, praised the community for its efforts in establishing the Sunraysia Oasis Botanical Gardens at Mourqoung, saying it was a credit to them, the choice of plants and the great use of drip irrigation. Plans for the new cemetery site off Deakin Ave near the airport, along with landscape enhancements and layout changes to the Nichols Point Cemetery, are now on public display at the Mildura Rural City Council offices in Madden Ave. Included at the new cemetery will be a mausoleum, forest area and ornamental lakes. A State Government grant of more than $150,000 to the Mildura Carnegie Library will assist information sharing, dial-in access to each library in the district, also Swan Hill, Kerang and Echuca.
