The September Meeting of the Bendigo Historical Society will be held on Friday 4 September in the Bendigo TAFE Theatrette, McCrae Street Bendigo at 2 pm. Society historians will present their recent research on a variety of subjects in short ten minute talks. The speakers and subjects (in brackets) are: Anne Caldwell (Lydia Chancellor), Carol Holsworth (Lutheran Graves at White Hills Cemetery), Rita Hull (Cherry Tree Hotel) and Howard Nathan (Ned Kelly). Visitors are most welcome. Entry is by a gold coin donation.
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The current displays at Specimen Cottage include downstairs ones on Lydia Chancellor, Gertrude Perry and Basil Watson, prepared by Barb Johnson, Phil Wilkin and Ray Smith, whilst there is also a display featuring Bendigo Inventions upstairs installed by Carol Holsworth and Max Matthews. There are many items from the vast, varied and valuable Society collection in the displays.
Society member, Anne Caldwell, has been cataloguing the Lydia Chancellor Collection of over 5,000 items contained in 40 boxes for a number of years and will be giving a short talk on the results of her work. Lydia collected cuttings on almost every category, including birds, cats, dogs, houses and the outback. Her collection of Toby Jugs was donated to the Bendigo Art Gallery. Her father, George Pethard, was famous for his Tarax soft drinks and his house in Panton Street, Golden Square was called ‘Taraxville’. Lydia Chancellor survived a short-lived marriage and she devoted much of her time to charity work and she also spoke on 3BO radio as ‘Chance’.
In a previous ‘History Lives’ article, there was mention of picnics at Cherry Tree Hotel, by workers at the Abraham Roberts foundry. Rita Hull will speak about this hotel at the September meeting.
Gertrude Perry was a famous Bendigo singer and performer, appearing with the Bendigo Operatic Society (now Bendigo Theatre Company) productions, including the first ever performances of ‘Chocolate Soldier’. Born in Eaglehawk, she attended the famous ‘Belltopper’ Primary School in California Gully and in World War 2 worked at the munitions factory. She won the Popular Girl competition in 1941.
The Bendigo Historical Society produced a fine exhibition called ‘What a Good Idea Bendigo’s Inventions’, at Dudley House in 2002 and the panels from this exhibition may be seen upstairs at Specimen Cottage. One panel covers the invention of the scalebuoys, by Richard Hartley Smith Abbott Jr following World War 1. A scalebuoy included in the display was used for the treatment of water to remove and prevent scale corrosion and other effects of water action on boilers, tanks, pipes, valves and mechanical equipment. Each scalebuoy consists of a special glass container containing gases, treated mercury in a partial vacuum. It neither removes nor adds to the water and should never be referred to as a ‘water softener’.
Notices:
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