EXHIBITIONS:

Lucy: A private life revealed through public records. A travelling exhibition of the Public Record Office of Victoria

Plus, 19th Century Women of Keilor, Curated by Susan Jennison OAM

In light of the Public Record Office of Victoria lending to the Keilor Historical Society the travelling exhibition titled Lucy: A private life revealed through public records we decided to continue our exhibition talking about women of Keilor in the 19th Century. We have also added part of the story of two women who visited Keilor and who played a role in our local history.

The following biographies of Keilor women are based on a variety of sources available at the Public Records Office of Victoria such as records of births deaths and marriages, wills, shipping lists and the Keilor Court Case Books 1858–1869 (VPRS 3211).

Although our Keilor women came from a variety of backgrounds, achieved different levels of prosperity and lived in homes ranging from a mansion to a tent, they had many factors in common. They had braved the arduous journey to Australia; they had large families; some suffered the loss of one or more children in infancy; they nursed their husbands and children through illnesses which occur infrequently today, if at all. Anaesthetics and antiseptics were in their early stages while antibiotics were at least a century away. Some lost their husbands in tragic circumstances but succeeded in raising their families on their own.

Curator: Susan Jennison OAM

I am indebted to the work of my academic colleague Dorothy Minkoff in researching a lot of the material you are about to read. March 2010

Harrick's Cottage Open Day photo album

Invitation download as a pdf (784KB)

Sponsors for the day were Brimbank City Council
and Ferguson Plarre, Overnewton Castle and EMC Technologies.