It was with great pleasure that the Avoca & District Historical Society Inc obtained the agreement of Miss Betty Beavis to assign to the Society the rights for reprints of her books, Pioneers of the Pyrenees and Avoca - The Early Years,  both of which have been out of print for some years.  The Society has regularly been asked whether these books are available for purchase, and we believe that a ready market exists, which we are about to satisfy.

"Pioneers of the Pyrenees"  will be available early in January,  2008 and orders are now being accepted.  An order form may be downloaded here.

"Avoca - The Early Years" will take a little longer, as we are working on a revised edition, which will contain corrections of a number of mistakes and typographical errors in the original,  also inclusion of some additional material discovered by the authors after the original version was printed.  

Both of these books are a delight to read and to use as a tool for further research, as they are copiously indexed and annotated with details of sources and attributions.  We only wish that all authors of histories would more closely follow the example of the Beavis sisters in this regard.   Margery has been deceased for some years, but Betty is still hale and hearty and regularly contributing items of interest to the newsletter of her local historical society in Warrnambool, as well as continuing her membership of the Avoca Society.

BARKLY BOOK AVAILABLE

"The Barkly Story" by Eulalie Driscoll; an account of the early days of the townships of Barkly and Frenchman's, between Moonambel and 
Landsborough in Central Victoria.   Prior to November, 1861, Barkly was known as "Navarre Diggings".  Frenchman's is nearby, and was 
originally known as "Frenchman's Diggings" after a man of that nationality, nicknamed "French Froggy"  is believed to have "sunk the first claim" there.

The book is available from ADHS Inc at the Avoca Court House for $15.00 or by mail using the Order Form which may be downloaded here.

Avoca & District Men and Women Who Served in the Great War - a list prepared by Anne Young (A.C.T.) during her academic research of the subject. Click here.

The book is built from a collection of postcards exchanged between members of the Powers family in Avoca and the Wills family in Lake Bolac, in an era when postcards were the equivalent of today’s email in enabling people to exchange news and gossip. This collection, consisting of some 140 postcards, was recently discovered within the Wills family by Margaret Wills, author of several local history books published in recent years, who has assembled the best of them into a book containing both sides of the postcards. The messages on the reverse side of each card have been transcribed, using a word processor, as they would not have reproduced in a sufficiently legible quality if scanned. Margaret’s transcriptions have faithfully retained the original spelling and punctuation as written by the sender, thereby conveying the authenticity of the language used.

Download order form here.

One of the postcards.

This is a 'free' search capacity whereby you can search globally the text of the 260+ pages linked to this website (including each alphabetical page of the name indexes) as they existed when the search "base" was created each month. The search facility is 'paid for' by the advertisements which appear on your screen when you conduct a search. I have no control over these advertisements so I trust they are all 'above board' (if not, tell me). By the way, if there are any local businesses who might care to sponsor the Avoca site or advertise on it, contact the website maintainer.

Once you conduct a search you will be presented with a list of webpages in which the selected text/name appears. When you open up a page it might not be clear immediately where your text/name is located e.g the name might appear as a sponsor for the Christening of another person or as a witness in a court case listed under another person's name. Use the "Find in page" facility on the toolbar of your net browser to pinpoint the location. For Netscape the commands are: EDIT - FIND IN PAGE. For Internet Explorer the commands are: EDIT - FIND (ON THIS PAGE).

FreeFind index created on 13 January 2008. The Index incorporates the text of 273 separate webpages.

Written requests for research

Although it is possible to search thousands of names at no cost on the Avoca website via the on-line search facility (see the FreeFind facility above) these represent only a fraction of the names indexed by the ADHS. It could be worth your while to join the Society and, if you are able to visit the Court House, carry out your own research at no additional cost except for copying, scanning, printing, etc., if required. If unable to personally visit the Court House, the Society can carry out research for you. The cost is $10 per hour for members, and $20 per hour for non-members. with a minimum charge of one hour, plus any copying, scanning or printing if required.

Enquiries about membership, or research, or any other aspect of the Society's activities, may be directed to tonyoshea@iinet.net.au

Membership Fees: $17 single; $20 family, living at same address. Corporate $50. Joining Fee $5. Click here to download a membership form. (Pdf)
Donations of $2 and over to either the Court House Restoration Fund, or the Daly's Cottage Restoration Fund, or the Avoca Cemetery Fund, are tax deductible.

Quick jump to main ADHS resource pages:

Links to other ADHS pages

ADHS member Mrs E.C. Graham has kindly allowed the Society to place on this website an electronic version of the more than 2,000 names contained in her publication "Avoca Lists of Unclaimed Letters from 1854 to 1864 Published in the Victorian Government Gazette", plus her compilations of other local lists. These resources are copyright to Mrs Graham and the ADHS.

- Consolidated list of Unclaimed Letters names (2,000 plus names)
- Key to numbers appearing beside each UL name
- Explanation of Unclaimed Letters
- Assembly Roll for the Avoca Electoral Division 1856/57 (several hundred names)
- Deep Lead Mining Company shareholders 1864 (14 names)
- Avoca Goldmining Association shareholders 1864 (115 names)
- Minute book of the Avoca District Butter, Cheese & Freezing Co Limited 1894-1903 (70 names).
- Drownings in the Avoca Cemetery (49 names)

Index to Inquests material held by the ADHS

Links to Members' Webpages containing family and local history information

Other links

Contact for the Ararat Genealogical Society - Marion McAdie (research officer) arabooks@netconnect.com.au

Index to the Argus newspaper 1870-79. Go to this website and enter Avoca in the search facility. Untick the "headings only" choice. You can also search within the results.

The AUS -VIC-GOLDFIELDS e-mail list. To quote the owner, Andrew Billinghurst: "This list covers the history and the genealogy of the people of the geographic area (loosely defined) of the golden triangle of the cities of Ballarat (Central Highlands), Bendigo and Maryborough and their environs." To subscribe, send a message that contains the word 'subscribe' (in the body of the message), to this address: AUS-VIC-GOLDFIELDS-L-request@rootsweb.com There is another e-mail list called AUS-VIC hosted by Rootsweb which might also be of interest. This webpage contains all the information.

This is the webpage for an Australian Mining History Bibliography which was compiled by Mel Davies in 1997. It has a link to the section covering Victoria which lists some useful sources on goldmining history e.g. 'Recollections of mining at Percydale in the Avoca district'.

Ballarat and District Genealogical Society

Benalla and District Family History Group

Bendigo Regional Genealogical Society Inc.

Buninyong and District Historical Society Inc.

Central Highlands Historical Association - contains a useful Webpage listing of contact details for Northern and Western Victorian genealogical and historical societies.

Here is a link to a 1974 B&W photo by John T Collins showing a cairn marking the location of a pre-1857 cemetery opposite the area where the Lamplough rush took place. The photo is part of the multimedia collection of the State Library of Victoria which can be searched on-line. Type in the word Avoca and you will get 80 hits and while many are of the Avoca (Vic) town and area, others include a Paddle Steamer called "Avoca" and a railway dining car called "Avoca".

Descendants of Convicts Group Inc.

East Gippsland Family History Group Inc.

Greg's genealogy page for Old Avoca contains an interesting miscellany of links to useful resources on his Website, including: 1868 Post Office Directory lists for Avoca, Amphitheatre, Lamplough, Moonambel, NatteYallock, Pyrenees, and Redbank; 1881 Trade Directories for Avoca and Landsborough; Lists of Shareholders in Gold Mining Companies in the 1860s and 1870s for Monte Christo, Avoca, Golden Lake, Pyrenees, Perseverence, Homebush and Avoca Tribute companies; lists of Residents Signing Petitions at Avoca in 1858, at Moonamel in 1861, and at Avoca in 1862; photos of the Avoca Fire Brigade 1888-1890, and photos of Avoca Pioneers and Buildings.

Libraries Australia - this is a link to valuable new search tool by which you can search the catalogues of Australian libraries. This is a link to the Australian Family History and Genealogy website at the National Library of Australia.

Lookups. Dorne Saunders, a member of the Australia-L genealogy discussion list is prepared to do lookups on some of the Victorian CDs she has. They cover these subject areas:

BD&Ms 1836 - 1920

Deaths Index 1921 - 1985

Marriage Index 1921 - 1942

Marine Births & Deaths 1853 - 1920

Inquest Index 1840 - 1985

Immigration Index (Assisted)1852 - 1879

Coburg / Fawkner cemetery (plus other various Cemeteries)

Victorian Federal Referendum 1899

1904 Post Office Directory

*plus various other CDs*

This is a very generous non-commercial offer, please do not abuse it. Dorne may be contacted at: Dornes1@bigpond.com 

Maryborough Midlands Historical Society Inc

Oldnewscopy is a commercial organisation that has indexed various Victorian newspapers from the 1840s onwards and will provide a copy of the relevant page for $3AUD.

This is a link to an on-line map. Avoca appears in the north-west sector of the map.

Paul Alexander Whitrow's Family History website. His family lived at Avoca during 1858-1906.

This is a link to the reproduced section of the Picturesque Atlas, originally published in 1886, which deals with Avoca and related geographical areas.

Here are entries relevant to "Avoca" in the database of the Register of the National Estate: Avoca Courthouse, Avoca Primary School No 4, and Hedon Farm. There might very well be entries for other sites in the areas covered by the Society. Go to this search site and enter details.

Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

State Library of Victoria - search all catalogues. This link will take you to a list of Avoca-related newspaper holdings.

Stawell Historical Society Inc

Photographs relevant to the Studd family, Amphitheatre.

Tarnagulla (formerly Sandy Creek) A very comprehensive website of an area which was also active as a goldmining site in the 1850s. Miners might have travelled between Avoca and Sandy Creek in search of gold.

Talbot Arts and Historical Museum Inc - Contains an on-line database search of the 1868 Directory.

VictoriaGenWeb project

Victorian Local History Index "The Victorian Local History Index is a database compiled from the index pages of books relating to Victorian History. The idea behind it is that people researching family history in Victoria will be able to check the index for names they are researching, and then consult the relevant book for further information. I have also compiled indexes for books without indexes, or only partial indexes ..." Books likely to be of particular interest to Avoca researchers include: "A Homestead History being the Reminiscences and Letters of Alfred Joyce of Plaistow and Norwood, Port Phillip 1843 to 1864" by Alfred Joyce, edited by G. F. James; "A Valley of the Finest Description - A History of the Shire of Lexton" by Margaret Oulton; "Goldfields Reminiscences - Castlemaine's Golden Era" by "Bonanza" (S. W. Jonnes); Castlemaine: "From Camp To City 1835-1900, A Pictorial History of Forest Creek & the Mount Alexander Goldfields". by Geoff Hocking; "Maryborough, Victoria - Goldfields History" by James Flett; "The Golden Years of Stawell" by Robert Murray & Kate White, and "The Barkly Story 1859-1985" by Eulalie Driscoll. There is also a links page which contains a veritable "goldmine" of on-line searchable data bases.

Western Victorian Association of Historical Societies Inc.

ADHS Website contact -Denis Strangman - string@hotkey.net.au I might not be able to respond to you quickly but you will not be forgotten.

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Site last updated 15 April 2008.