I finally finished gathering the information for Dawns Story. It was published over 9 weeks in the local paper 20 years ago and follows her life up to the age of 16. Dawn arrived in Rainbow a short time after my mother left with her family and Dawns first job was behind the counter in the local café in the same job mum had vacated a short time before.
You can check out Dawn’s story in the Mallee history section.
Tuesday 2nd December 2014
While attending a tourism meeting of the Wimmera Mallee committee in Dimboola, We were taken for a look at the print Museum that is soon to be opened in the town. It is almost complete and it was amazing to see all of the equipment fully operational. some of the pieces are over 100 years old, one has been in a building that was burned down and it is restored and fully functional today. We were privileged to be shown through the display by a man that had apprenticed in the business eventually becoming the owner and then selling it to retire. He is still a very capable operator and surprised all as he started up each machine and operated it. Some of these were powered by a peddle that he pushed with his foot as he placed the sheets of paper into it and then removed it again on the next cycle as he placed the next in to be printed. (It reminded me of a person rubbing his stomach while patting his head but with the added piece of pushing a peddle with the foot at the same time.)
As you pass through this building you walk through the history of the local newspaper industry in these towns and see how much effort it took to produce a newspaper. The picture of the fireplace in the photo section is where he worked every Saturday morning melting down the lead from the past week to form the ingots ready for the next print run. He filled hundreds of ingot moulds with the molten lead each week.
This shop is well worth a look if you are passing this way.
Monday the 1st December 2014
I had made an appointment to visit a David Livingston in Jeparit in search of the Hindmarsh Run homestead as it was a bit of a mystery as to where it was located. David’s family goes way back to the beginning of Jeparit and as it turned out he was living on the very spot where the old station homestead was and even lived in the old house while building his home and dairy on the site.
It was a great afternoon as David is a walking encyclopaedia of the location. And I came away with enough material to write a book. I still need to spend some time in their archives to collect some more pictures before starting the Jeparit page in the history section. But I will add a few pictures in the picture album to get it started.
The site was on a bend of the Wimmera River and had the water on three sides. It would have been a picturesque spot sitting on the rise with a view of the river on three sides. However today the rise is covered with houses but there is still a lovely view of the river from the Livingston garden.
Hindmarsh Run Homestead in the late 1800’s
