Have you ever wondered when your house was built? Who lived there? Our researcher, Margaret Fleming is running a session on Unearthing the History of Your House as part of the National Trust Heritage Festival.
Margaret has extensive experience in property research and will take you through the various sources and how to use them.
Saturday 3 May at 1.30pm in the Kirrip Djerring Room, Brunswick Town Hall (above tje Counihan Gallery).

This beautiful embroidered panel is at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. It was presented to Councillor David Methven in appreciation of his work for the community. David Methven (or 'Dave' as he preferred to be called) , 1840-1918 was a Councillor in Brunswick from 1880-1913. He was Mayor four times. He also served in state parliament as the MLA for East Bourke from 1889-1904.

Methven's obituary made reference to his 'great and kindly heart' as he was well known for providing assistance to constituents who had fallen on hard times.

David Methven's father Alexander had operated a quarry on the site which is now Methven Park.

Brunswick in the Great Depression History Walk

Join us for a walk around sites important to Brunswick during the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a working class industrial suburb, Brunswick was particularly affected by this event. It was also notable for the political activity and protests which took place at that time. The walk will be led by Professor Joan Beaumont, author of Australia's Great Depression.
Saturday 12 April at 11.00am starting from outside 51 Lydia Street.

Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/brunswick-in-the-great-depression-history-walk-tickets-1306095880939

Have you booked for our Great Depression Walk? We suspect there has been a glitch with Eventbrite and and some bookings made in the last couple of days have not gone through. If you did not receive a confirmation email please contact us and we will check your booking

Brunswick in the Great Depression History Walk

We are repeating this popular Brunswick Walk on Saturday April 12.

The walk is conducted by Professor Joan Beaumont, author of Australia's Great Depression. As a working class industrial suburb Brunswick was particularly affected by the Depression and was also the scene of political protests, The walk covers sites important in Brunswick during this turbulent period.

Book here:
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/brunswick-in-the-great-depression-history-walk-tickets-1306095880939

The last day of Womens History Month and the last of our series on important women of Brunswick. There are many others of course but we need to also talk about other aspects of Brunswick history.
This week - Corinne Cantrill. Corinne, who died last month aged 96, and her husband Arthur were well known experimental film-makers. Corinne was born in Sydney. She left school after Intermediate (year 10) and at the age of 19 departed for London. For several years she led a bohemian life in Europe - at one stage living on ten pounds a month. She returned to live in Brisbane, married Arthur and in the early 1960s they began their film-making career, initially with children's films, and moved on to experimental films. After a period in London they returned to Australia and lived for many years in the tower house - Prestonia - in Brunswick Road. Here they made and screened many of their films. They felt their films were inadequately appreciated in Australia but they were widely acclaimed in Europe and by their many local followers
Photo shows Arthur and Corinne Cantrill at the Kino Arsenal in Berlin, 1985.
(Photograph by Stijepo Pavlina from the Cantrills' website)

A Brunswick Man Goes to War

Michael Carney will talk about his great uncle - an ordinary Brunswick man who, like many others, enlisted in 1915 and went to Europe. Also like many others, he did not return. Michael will talk about his brief life, the Brunswick he grew up in and left and why he enlisted.
Saturday 5 April at 1.30pm at Kirrip Djerring Room, Brunswick Town Hall - above the Counihan Gallery.

Continuing our Womens History Month series on prominent women of Brunswick.

Ruth Crow , AM ( 1916-1999) and her husband Maurie are usually associated with North Melbourne where they spent the later part of their lives but they also had a strong connection to Brunswick. They were long serving members of the Communist Party and devoted over 50 years to campaigning in the fields of social justice, urban planning and environmental protection. Ruth Crow worked at the Holeproof factory in Brunswick in the 1930s. She worked in the company canteen where, as a nutritionist, she worked towards providing healthy meals for the staff. In 1943 she and Maurie moved to Brunswick as she had been appointed Secretary of the Brunswick Childcare Centres. These were the first federally funded childcare centres in Victoria and had been set up to enable women to work in support of the war effort. The family, including two small daughters lived for 14 years in a tiny flat above a shop at 211 Sydney Road. It cannot have been easy living in such cramped quarters with a bathroom shared with other tenants but she later wrote very fondly of her time in Brunswick.

Continuing our series on prominent women of Brunswick to commemorate Womens History Month.
Sister Elizabeth Hartnett ( 1858-1931).
Elizabeth Hartnett was neither a nun nor a qualified nurse. The courtesy title 'sister' was used by the Melbourne City Mission for its female missionaries. The City Mission movement had been founded in England by evangelical protestants to assist the destitute and its Melbourne branch was set up in 1854. Local woman Elizabeth Hartnett was appointed as a missionary in Brunswick in 1896. At the time Australia was in the depths of a depression and, as a working class industrial suburb, Brunswick was badly afflicted. Elizabeth Hartnett was particularly concerned with the plight of young single mothers and in 1900 set up a maternity home for them in Lygon Street near Stewart Street. Two years later the City Mission purchased a property in Albion Street. which had been used by the Salvation Army for welfare purposes. By 1907 Sister Hartnett was nearly blind but continued her work until her retirement in 1919. After that she worked with the Home's Auxiliary until 1926. By the time of her retirement the Home had assisted 571 women and their babies and an additional 70 neglected children. The present building was constructed in 1934 and named in honour of its founder.

Photo from the book Hartnett House Brunswick, its Founder, its Work, its History by Banda Dagher.

A Brunswick Man Goes to War

This is a talk about a local born and bred Brunswick man who enlisted in the AIF for World War 1 and was killed in France. The talk focuses on his working class background, the unremarkable nature of his short life and the few but important remnants of Brunswick that remain from that time.

Michael Carney - a member of the Brunswick Community History Group whose immigrant Irish family first settled in Australia in Brunswick - will deliver this talk. about his great uncle who grew up in Brunswick and enlisted during the First World War.

The talk will be on Saturday 5 April at 1.30pm in the Kirrip Djerring Room, Brunswick Town Hall. Enter through the Counihan Gallery door and go to the first floor.

Celebrating Womens History Month with posts about prominent Brunswick women.
Marian Kermonde (nee Newman) . Brunswick's first female Councillor and Mayor.

Brunswick City Council was an all-male club from its inception in 1857 until Marian Kermonde was elected in 1971. Marian had grown up in Brunswick, as had her parents, and moved to West Brunswick with her husband Grahame (also a Brunswick Councillor ) in 1964. Marian served on Council until 1977 and was Mayor in 1975-76. After her retirement from Council she continued her community work and was a volunteer with the Brunswick Benevolent Society for many years. Marian Kermonde died at her home in West Brunswick in 2024.
Photo from Barry York.