Bulletin Volume 90 No 09 Monday August 06 2018

Rotary Club of Sale www.rotaryclubofsale.org.au

Rotary District 9820 Incorporated

Last Meeting: • Chairman: Leo O’Brien

• Sergeant: Leo O’Brien

• Guest Speakers: Pauline Hitchens

• Guests: Visiting Rotarians: Sandra Houghton, Trevor Watt, Bill Dignam

Monday August 06 2018

Pauline Hitchens History Tragic

Lakeside Club

Guest Speaker Pauline Hitchens chats with President Jeanette and Alan.

President’s Announcements:

• Welcome to Pauline, Sandra, Trevor and Bill.

• Bairnsdale’s 80th. Saturday 4th August. Thanks to Mike and Don who attended. Mike reported an

excellent night.

• Our 90th birthday celebration planned for 21st October. Sale Greyhounds venue now unavailable.

Perhaps Laurels for Sunday Lunch. Stay tuned.

• Rotary Health Night to be held at Duarts September 03. Attendance sheet being circulated. Darren

Chester guest speaker.

• Rotary Website – Form 3. Everyone needs to fill out this form to comply with new levels of

assurance.

• Club Night and Board meeting August 20th .

• Trevor Watt from R.C. Sale Central advised of a tree planting working bee on Sunday, 2.00 –

4.00pm, Ross St. Reserve. Volunteers welcome.

• “Bring the Boss”. Partner’s night August 27th. A casual, social evening.

• Please return Surveys from last meeting ASAP. Jeanette has copies for those

who missed out.

GUEST SPEAKER

Chair: Leo O’Brien

Sergeant: Leo O’Brien

Chairman Leo introduced Pauline Hitchens, self-described “history tragic” who presented a fascinating insight into

her personal local history and the local scene more broadly.

Her presentation is reproduced below to do justice to its quality and for the historical

record:

I am basically a history tragic – a tragic being defined as a ‘boring or socially inept person, typically having an obsessive

and solitary interest.’

Hopefully you won’t agree with that – my interest may be obsessive but there is nothing singular about history – it is all

about stories and every one of them is different.

Obviously my favorite destinations are historic homes and gardens and I’ve been known to spend long periods

wondering around cemeteries. And I’ve been lucky enough to work with the National Trust and the Heritage Council

of Victoria.

In return, I am now a member of Sale Cemetery Trust as well as heavily involved in Sale and Maffra Historical Societies,

the local Family History Group and Wellington Shire Heritage network, and I always seem to end up with responsibility

for newsletters, websites and social media – not that that’s a problem as it combines everything I enjoy.

I am also privileged to write occasionally for a number of publications on special historic places and works – such as

recent stories on Kilmany Park and the restoration of the 1841 Woodcot Park. (James Neilson, worked for the Laird of

Glengarry Aineas Ranaldson Macdonnell, who had brought some 25 clansmen and employees and stock to establish a

model dairy – eventually settling on Greenmount near Yarram, but the venture lasted only a year or so. The Laird

discharged his staff and returned home but many remained in Gippsland and did quite well – Archie McIntosh, Sale –

Flooding Creek’s first resident hotelier was one.)

My family is not particularly special, but I think there are interesting stories to be found even within that limited subject.

We find that even the most everyday of families reflects many national and international events and trends.

But where did my interest start? When we were young we used to have regular weekend drives and Easter holidays to

explore Victoria.

When we lived in Northern Victoria, one of those destinations was Beechworth – in those days several decades ago -

the local museum had what today would be considered a rather disorderly display, but the town’s early newspapers were

on display and available for the visitor to peruse! To me that was bliss!

Another destination was the former goldfields near Rushworth – the Balaclava mine (which one could venture into in

those days) and Whroo cemetery where many of those gold seekers were buried.

Our favourite memorial was the verse

Remember me as you pass by

As you are now so once was I

As I am now so you will be

Prepare yourself to follow me

Looking at my family history, Conrad Hildebrand a local coach drive , my great grandfather is probably the earliest to

settle in Gippsland. He was born in Nieder Weisel in Hessen Germany in 1840 – which makes us Hessians. He came

to Australia with his father and sister in 1857.

It was a time when many residents of the town migrated to Australia – most ending up in Ballarat, where there is a

memorial to those early migrants. (Tax, religious differences, crop failures)

I gather Conrad Hildebrand is a bit like John Smith but the Germans, with their meticulous record keeping, can tell who

is who.

In the 1778 census, there were more than 1000 people living in Nieder-Weisel and 93 of them were Hildebrands

By 1866 when he married Elizabeth Theiss (at the Lutheran Church in Melbourne), he was described as a coach driver

living in Sale.

He drove the first coach to Melbourne and in 1865 and the first to Bairnsdale in 1861 and the last of the regular coaches

out in 1899.

A decade later he was also running his own livery stables with ‘horses, buggies and coaches always on hire’

When he retired he was presented with a gold watch for his 20 years as one of the ‘whips’ .

The advent of trains into Sale was another nail in the coffin for someone with a career in Coach Driving. In the years

before his death in 1919, he only found work with the local council and some of his friends took up a collection to assist

him.

Around the same time there was groom named George Chubb who no doubt Conrad came across – although we cannot

be sure that they worked together.

George’s son James was born in Sale in 1870. James was indentured as a printing apprentice to Overends (the Gippsland

Times) and continued to work there, retiring in 1948 but still described as working as a supernumery when he died the

following year.

In 1900 he had married Conrad’s daughter Margaretha.

One of their daughter’s (Maisie) married a Glover – another well known early Sale family. (The other daughters married

a Sheill from Rosedale and a Pollard from the Maffra hotel family.)

The Glovers migrated to Victoria from near Lisburn, Ireland – we don’t really know where they originated but in the

17th century numerous settlers from England and Scotland created a dominant Protestant settlement in Northern Ireland.

The original Gippsland Glovers were George and Ellen (Dugan) who arrived on the ‘Shackamaxon’ in January 1861.

George’s brother Henry arrived a couple of years later.

Further changes in Ireland, in particular the mechanization of the linen and cotton industry, probably prompted the move

of this family of weavers. George was also a younger brother and would not inherit what land his father had.

We think Ellen already had family in the area and George found work with local farmers. Eventually they took up land

in the Clydebank area – a farm now owned by my cousin (George’s great great grandson).

George and Ellen migrated with three youngsters under five and another seven were born in Australia.

George began the entrepreneurial ventures with Jane Glover ointment – apparently boiled up in the copper on the farm.

(There is no Jane Glover but his mother was Sarah Jane). It only seems to have lasted a year or so but the containers

today are greatly valued by bottle collectors – if only the stash of jars had been more carefully tended, we all could have

retired on the proceeds.

Their second youngest son was Alex who, like his younger brother, married a Fox sister, Ellen Elizabeth – (Ned married

Elizabeth Ellen).

The brothers continued to cooperatively farm the Clydebank farm and eventually bought other property at the Heart.

Alex and his family moved into Sale where they built the Gables on the corner of Macarthur and Marley Streets.

Alex had the farm and a grain store – initially in Foster Street and later in Raymond St - and he and his sons soon

branched into other ventures.

Around 1926 the grain store was replaced with the Palais, a theatre and retail development, which also hosted dances,

roller skating, fetes and community singing. It later became a basketball stadium and was replaced in 1969 by Coles

New Word and is now a discount store.

Around the same time, a Melbourne company opened the Regent Theatre but the locals didn’t support the ‘foreign’

venture and the Glovers, with support from a Melbourne partner, bought it out and the Regent ran until around 1973.

They also owned Victoria Hall at one stage to prevent further competition.

The family continued in a range of ventures including farming, the theatres – showing pictures around Gippsland,

refreshment rooms associated with the theatres, a jewelers and even took their skills to the drive-in, but as an employee

not an owner.

On the other side of my family, George and Johanna Robertson migrated from Haddington, East Lothian in Scotland to

Australia in 1863, basically spending their honeymoon on the ship the “Naval Reserve. “

George was employed as the farm manager at St Enoch’s near Skipton – the cottage, fast becoming derelict, is still

known as Robertsons.

They had nine children but Johanna and the baby Ronald died within a few months of each other in 1882. George moved

the family to Gippsland where he named his Valencia Creek property Lammerdale after the Lammamuir (lambs’ moor)

hills of his native Scotland and where photographer W B Hammond took this well known shot of him surveying his

property.

His eldest son John married Mary Jane Mildenhall and they had seven children. John worked for various local farmers

– Theo Little at Briagolong, on several Gilder properties and Lyon’s Craigash

John then began speculating and buying property at Kilmany.

My grandmother, Johanna, known as Dolly, had been born on her grandparent’s farm “between morning and afternoon

milking”. She left school at 14 and worked on the Kilmany for a coupe of years and then went to work at the Sale Hotel

before she married.

My grandfather was Alex Hitchins who many will remember from Dove Cycles on the site of what is now Dove Court.

He came from Ensay/Swifts Creek area where his family had finally settled after migrating from Cornwall to Australia,

then to New Zealand and back again.

Alex arrived in Sale around 1920 and originally worked for Jensens (site of Sale Motor Group/Ford car dealership on

York Street).

A keen cyclist, involved with Sale and other local cycle clubs, his interest developed into a business when he began

repairing bicycles and selling Ace cycles from his home in the early 1920s.

He opened his first shop at what was 180 Raymond Street about 1928 and moved to a purpose-built two-storey shop and

residence at what was 154 Raymond Street (now Dove Court) in 1934.

For many years Alex produced his own Dove Cycles, employing staff to manufacture and hand-decorate the cycles.

I have all of these stories mainly because of my mother’s family history research – all done in the days before online

records and the magical resource of digitized papers on Trove. And because she did this about 40 years ago, there were

still many people to talk to who had been part of or heard stories of this history. It’s a discussion we often regret. I have

stories my father told me such as the migrants he worked with on extension of Glenmaggie after the war, but I never

wrote them down and now it is too late to go back and check the details.

All this highlights the importance of a new project the Wellington Shire Heritage Network is about to undertake, with

funding from Wellington Shire and its Age-Friendly strategy.

When the lovely Sam Forbes undertook the initial projects in this area, he discovered a great interest in local family

history. We had several meetings with Sam and have developed a program to be run across the shire through our member

historical groups to undertake an oral history project. As well as our own members, we will be working with schools to

undertake some of this work with older residents, some in aged care and others still in living independently.

We will produce a short video of the histories to be available on a new website – Wellington Words – as well as

producing a small publication of these recollections for our participants and their families.

It’s a project we all could have started years ago, but it’s better to start now than never.

We are really looking forward to making a positive contribution to local oral history.

Guest speaker Pauline Hitchens is thanked by President Jeanette.

Raymond St Foster St corner looking North

Prince Regent Theatre

Next

Meeting:

Guest Speaker: Sandra Houghton. Job Talk Chair: David Tulloch

Sergeant: Mike Smith

Next Meeting

Monday Aug 13

Sandra Houghton Job Talk

6.00 pm for 6.30 Lakeside Club

Apologies to Laurie

0419132824

It is very important to ring, (not email) 0419132824 Laurie before 12 noon on the

day of the meeting with apologies and/or guests. No emails please as they are often

delayed, and the Club may be charged for late apologies.

Upcoming Programs

Date Program Chair Sergeant Venue Aug 13 Sandra Houghton- My Life in the Uniting Church David Tulloch Mike Smith Lakeside

Aug 20 Club Night Pres. Jeanette Leo O’Brien. Lakeside

August 27 Bring the Boss / Partner’s night Pres. Jeanette Social/Casual Lakeside

Sept 03 Darren Chester - Partners Night

Jacob van Wees, Melisa Bruerton – Rural Medicine Philip Davis Other Clubs Invited Duart

Nov 2-3 Show Gates

Member First

Name Partner

Davis PE Philip Elizabeth

Dyer PP PHF Graeme Alida

Exton PHF IPP Rod Gillian

Henwood PRESIDENT Jeanette

Jeremiah Laurie Helen

Langley PP PHF Noel Betty

Lewis PP PHF Alan

Miller PHF Keith Gwen

O’Brien Danny Vicki

O’Brien PP PHF Leo Debbie

Rijs PP PHF Adrian Louise

Ripper PP PHF IPDG Don Jude

Ross PHF Neil Maree

Smith PHF Mike

Smolenaars PP PHF Daniel Norrisa Wheal

Smyth PP PHF Laurie Jill

Strauss PP Rachel David

Strauss PP David Rachel

Thomas Jenni

Tulloch PP PHF David Judy

Webb Carmel Lyndon

Webb PP PHF Lyndon Carmel

Happy birthday Graeme – 80 years young with guest Bill Dignam

Visiting Rotarian Trevor Watt, RC Sale Central.