Other links
early editions of the Avoca Mail on Trove: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-title756
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 and has been updated to 2008. It is a 4 Mb 334 pps PDF file available here. It has a section covering Victoria which lists some useful sources on goldmining history.
Link to ABC program about the Rosehope and Mahomet families and AVOCA. The references commence at about the 19 minute mark.
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 – 1920Deaths Index 1921 – 1985Marriage Index 1921 – 1942Marine Births & Deaths 1853 – 1920Inquest Index 1840 – 1985Immigration Index (Assisted)1852 – 1879Coburg / Fawkner cemetery (plus other various Cemeteries)Victorian Federal Referendum 18991904 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
National Library of Australia – Australian Newspapers beta search program.
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.
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.