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The background/"watermark" picture of a horse rider , Charlie Waller at the "never fail" spring, was taken in the early 1930:s. 

Starting on Saturday 9th May, the recently re-painted inside "old" Penshurst Courthouse will be open 9.00 - 1.00 pm on the second Saturday of each month. Visitors can see one of our very few remaining intact Courthouses with its original furnishing. Those interested in family/historical research are likewise most welcome. Historical documents and pictures can be copied or the images "burnt" onto a CD/DVD. We will start on a trial basis, since we are dependent on two volunteers, including our research officer travelling from Hamilton. If we are successful i.e. if there is enough interest,  a future re-enactment is envisaged.
 13/11/2009: We are grateful to our new member Jane Lee for a type written manuscript entitled "The Diary of Private William Joseph Lewis" written during WW1, together with a picture of him. We intend to upload these in due course.

1. "Penshurst Portraits"

We, i.e. Mount Rouse & District Historical Society have now published a 100 page softcover book, entitled "Penshurst Portraits", subtitled "A brief history of the Penshurst District". It was formally launched on 9/10/2009 and is now available at Madigan's Tea Room, Rurik's Shed, and the Newsagency in Penshurst, and also in the old Courthouse during open days, i.e. the second Saturday each month, 9am-1pm. You can also order the book by mail. Proceeds fully to the Historical Society.

2. Mervyn Napier Waller

 i. Presentation by Guest Speaker Jean McCauslan on 27/9/2009

  Our Historical Society members and guests enjoyed a talk by invited guest speaker Jean McCauslan, who is researching the life and work of Penshurst born artist Mervyn Napier Waller. Approximately 40 people turned up for Jeans' presentation in the ballroom at Burnbrae Homestead, a well chosen venue, dating back to the 1880:s.

ii. War Memorial Tiles - 10/10/2009

Arthur Cook today donated a small collection of colored Italian tiles, approx. 8-14x4-6 mm each. These came from the batch that Napier Waller used to make the mosaic of the WWII service men and army nurse in the Canberra War Memorial, and were originally given to his sister Heather Waller, who subsequently gave them to Arthur.  This further strengthens our connection with the Penshurst born artist of national significance. Thank you Arthur.

3. Year of the Big Sun – 1914/1915

by Phillip Doherty

"Our local district diarist Keith Cameron (left) of Greenwood wrote drought very bad, worst since Grandpa was a little boy, good hay very scarce. Keith was working as a boundary rider for J S Ross of North Gums and recorded the ongoing dry."

6/7/2009 Ed.: We have uploaded the third and final installment of Phillip's article to our Serials and Stories section.

4. Visit from Heritage Victoria

Pam Enting and her "crew" from Heritage Victoria visited us in the old Courthouse on 14/5/2009. The main court room was arranged to look as authentic as possible to its period of use, i.e. the 1890:s to the early 1970:s. Several of our members were filmed cataloguing documents. Pam and her crew were also very interested in filming the old police lock-up. 

Ed.: The "old" lock-up has not been used for decades but is also of great interest to locals and visitors, who can inspect it during our monthly open day. 

5. Penshurst That I Knew So Long Ago

Our warmest thanks to our member Max Brown for giving us access to his father's hand written manuscript entitled:

"MAT BROWN 1979

"PENSHURST THAT I KNEW SO LONG AGO 1914 onwards"

It was hand written during l979 to 1983. He also adds, for the reader “To all who read this I ask to please excuse the writing I have a stricture of the right hand and also arthritis in my arm".

The transcription was done by Ruth and Eric Pihl and corresponded to 41 typed A4 pages, to which we added 56 subheadings and made it into an html document for easy access from a CD. We are amazed by its detailed accounts of a most interesting and hard working era in Penshurst's history, its personalities, its buildings, and many jokes. We will gradually upload it to this website during the coming year.  

11/1/2009: Thank you Max for letting us scan in several pictures, including mounted ones of Mat Brown, his aunt, her husband WH Bidmade, and younger brother, and of Penshurst Primary School team of 1922 (right). Please help us with more names of the players. We will gradually add pictures of persons mentioned in Mat Brown's  Penshurst Memories, to our CD (available from the Historical Society at $8), but only expect to get a small number. We consider Mat's memories to be of great historical value to Penshurst. You will find earlier installments in our archive.

20/11/2009: We have now uploaded "  A First Prize Plum Pudding ", which is the 25th installment of Mat Brown's article.

6. Penshurst Hotel – Day Book 1888

We have now uploaded all three installments of Phillip Doherty's  article "Penshurst Hotel - Day Book 1888" 

Ed.: The picture (left) shows Penshurst Hotel the way it would have looked in 1888, prior to a major fire in the 1890:s. It was rebuilt as shown in a recent picture (above right). The wrought iron balcony was removed in the 1950:s.

As usual, our website is  dependent on contributions, and we would welcome any Penshurst related historical articles and/or pictures. The latter can be sent to us electronically, or lent to us for scanning and digitalisation. We promise to return any "hard copies" within a couple of days.

4/2/2009: We have now uploaded the third and final installment of this article. 

7. Second World War Memories -  by Arthur B Cook 

Ed.: Thank you Arthur Cook for providing us with your biographical article, and thank you Mary Johnson for making it available to this website. It has now been archived.

8. Volcanoes Discovery Centre Open 

The Volcanoes Discovery Centre is now open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 1000 - 1600 hrs, and in addition when Penshurst News is being prepared (we can not guarantee any specific hours for the latter, since timing depends on very few overworked volunteers). The centre was officially opened by Helen Morrison on 18/10/2003.  It became possible thanks to grants of $100,000 from the Commonwealth Government, and $70,000 from the Southern Grampians Shire. The opening event was hosted by the Shire. 

27/5/2005: The Centre is running well, thanks mainly to a small number of volunteers (28 "on the books") and Val Rentsch's organising skills. We are presently preparing its own website, but its uploading is subject to finding  suitable host.

9.Tree Planting Day 1/9/02 - history in the making; the pine trees on Mt Rouse have been removed, a walking track made, and up to 5,000 tree saplings and grasses planted. The 1st of September 2002 started with an "invisible" Mt Rouse" swept in mist, but it soon cleared up, and the rest of the day was in glorious sunshine and warmth. By noon, 116 people had registered. The day was a great success. We are keeping it uploaded to demonstrate that our community spirit was alive and well at least five years ago, although several of our clubs, community organizations e.g. Advance Penshurst, and related internet websites are now (2007) in strife, attracting very few members or willing contributors.

Friday, November 20, 2009