Our next meeting is on Saturday 5th February 2022 and it includes a talk by Margaret Fleming who will talk about John Wood Fleming – the Olds Man of Brunswick. He was from a pioneer family, built a mansion in Park Street was a Councillor for over 50 years.
Moreland City Council is hosting a community forum on the history of Moreland. It is for interested community members to share their views on the history of the naming of Moreland. Our guest speaker will be Dr James Lesh. James is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow specialising in urban history and heritage conservation at the […]
Brunswick Community History Group has assisted Moreland Bicycle Users' Group to organise a bike ride to commemorate International Women's Day and celebrate women in Moreland's history. THe ride will visit various locations and hear short accounts of women associated with the sites. A list of the sites will be published later for those who would prefer to follow the ride by car. Bookings for cyclists are essential.
Ann and Bruce McGregor have been the leading lights in the successful campaign to convert the Merri Creek from a drain bordered by industrial sites such as Whelan's Tip (photographed by Bruce McGregor in 1986) to the attractive waterway surrounded by parks that it is today ( Kirkdale Park photographed by Bruce McGregor in […]
We often think of Brunswick History as commencing when Thomas Wilkinson took up his land in 1840 but of course there were people living here for thousands of years before this. Dr. Cheryl Griffin will shed some light on this in discussing her research on William Thomas., Thomas, who lived in Brunswick, was the Assistant […]
We can only be in awe of the generation of Australians who survived the Great Depression little more than a decade after the Great War. Like many working-class suburbs in Australian cities, Brunswick was especially hard hit by soaring unemployment. Professor Emerita Joan Beaumont and author of Australia’s Great Depression will discuss this including the suburb being the site of some of the most powerful protests against the humiation of the “susso”, the eviction of the unemployed from their homes and the repression of free speech
Dr Gary Presland will be the speaker at the AGM of the Brunswick Community History Group. Gary is a well known archaeologist and historian specialising in natural history. He has written a number of books on this subject.
Kitty Owens will speak about her research project on Melville House - 104 Melville Road West Brunswick. Melville House is an imposing nineteenth century villa, hidden by a large hedge, which has intrigued neighbours for many years. This talk explores the interesting history of Melville House (including a couple of scandals), and also reflects on suburban history, and writing about a place with a personal connection. 104 Melville Road West Brunswick was built by a herbalist, and was home to a series of large families, the Mentiplays, Bastows, Ryans, and Skardons, between 1892 and 1969. The house was sold to the Paraskevopoulos brothers in 1969, and was rented out. The house was a convalescent home for some time in the 1970s, before becoming a shared house full of performers, musicians, artists (and a donkey), finally becoming a family home again in 1994. Kitty Owens is a freelance history curator, artist and writer, who lived in Melville House in 1989-1991, during the ‘shared house era’. This project was supported by the Moreland City Council Making Spaces program.
Image Courtesy the Skardon Gist family
Our November meeting will include a presentation by Mal Rowe on Trams in Brunswick
Brunswick's public transport started with horse drawn omnibuses around
1870; the railway came in 1884, but from 1887 to the present time it has
been the four tramways that run through Brunswick that have provided the
most accessible and busy public transport in Brunswick.
Mal Rowe will trace the history of those tramways in the context of the
pressures and opportunities of the times in the suburb 'between the creeks'.
Mal's interest in trams has extended over 60 years. He is the secretary
of the Council of Tramway Museums of Australasia and has collaborated in
the production of short magazine articles and books on tram history.
The spectacular mural in Brunswick Library is 30 years old in December! The artist Dr Geoff Hogg will talk about the work and explain the symbolism in it. Geoff is a local resident and one of Melbourne's most prominent muralists.