The Beechworth Visitor Information Centre has been extremely busy booking accommodation and selling tickets to the Celtic Festival and Opera in the Alps. Over the Melbourne Cup break accommodation in Beechworth was very nearly sold out! There was an increase in visitor numbers for September as well as email and phone enquiries.
The Beechworth VIC is taking part in a program along with a number of other accredited Victoria information centres to collect data from visitors by getting them to complete a questionnaire. The end results will be used to help in identifying the value of visitor information centres to local communities and assisting to increase tourism yield in the future. The Beechworth online operators of the month for November are Colby Cottages, Railtrail Retreat, The Beechworth Sweet Company and Alba Country Rose B&B.
Monday 26 November 2007
FIRST DEMAND FOR POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN 1853 Memorial Unveiled At Beechworth
The first demand for wider political representation in the Victorian Legislative Council was made at Madman’s Gully, Beechworth at a public meeting of about 800 gold diggers on 2ndApril 1853. It was a continuation of the underlying conflict about injustice and civil liberties which was first manifest in Victoria at Buninyong in August 1851 following the discovery of gold there. Meetings followed at all the major Victorian Goldfields, Mt Alexander, Bendigo and Ballarat. By April 1853 in Beechworth the diggers were disappointed that repeated requests for action to address injustice had been ignored or brushed aside. The demand for representation was seen as the only way to be heard and “to accomplish your objects and obtain your rights”. The unrest and conflict continued across the Victorian goldfields and culminated tragically in the Eureka Rebellion of 3rd December,1854 in Ballarat.
At Madman’s Gully, Beechworth in April 1853 as the rain poured down speakers called for the diggers to have a voice in the Legislative Council:
“Diggers must have a voice in the Council, if you will only combine together, hold meetings such as the present, express your will in a firm and detemined manner, you will accomplish your objects and obtain your rights; there is no need of force and of arms; for reason, mind, intelligence, are all-sufficent for the attainment of your rights. I trust this is not the last meeting that will assemble here, and that diggers will never rest till fairly represented in the Council.”
George Black, Chartist, later a founding member of the Ballarat Reform League
“Do you know what the word representation means? Of course you do! It means that if those who by wealth, or station, or authority, are placed over you, do wrong, you have the power of compelling them to do right. At present you have no such power ... This should not be.”
Dr J.D. Owens, Diggers’ representative, Reeds Creek Petition.
From “The Argus” Friday 8th April 1853
A Memorial Plaque will be placed alongside Stanley Road, Beechworth (Madman’s Gully) and be given to the Indigo Shire by the Ballarat Reform League Inc. This is the sixth plaque placed by the Ballarat Reform League Inc across Victorian goldfields marking the sites of major activity that led to the Eureka Rebellion and the beginnings of democratic reforms to our system of government. The project is generously supported by The Vera Moore Foundation.
An invitation is extended to the public to attend the unveiling of the plaques by Professor Weston Bate at 3pm Thursday 15th November 2007 at Stanley Road, Beechworth. The Rutherglen Brass Band will play “St Patrick’s Day in the Morning” as did Mashford’s Band from Madman’s Gully in 1853. There will be many who will be hoping that it will once again pour with rain as we commemorate that original meeting.
Media contacts: Professor Weston Bate (03) 9592 0657
Tony Moran (03) 5341 2369
John Semmens 0408 318 325
Friends Of The Beechworth Golden Horseshoes Festival
Friends Of The Beechworth Golden Horseshoes Festival
6:00pm Wednesday 5th December 2007 – Rotary Park
BYO BBQ - Information night and get together.
Some of the duties that we could ask your help with:
· Casual Volunteering from now and at the festival
· Raise Funds - Raffle
· Help on food stall
· Deliver Brochures
· Supply billets for entertainers.
· Donate goods for food stall
· Take photos during the festival
· Supply advice when needed
· Sponsor an activity
· $5.00 membership
Volunteers will be given a badge to wear when volunteering to show their help and support for this great historic event. The Golden Horseshoes Festival has been a part of Beechworth’s history initially since Daniel Cameron rode the horse with the golden horseshoes down Ford Street in 1855 and then from the 1960’s.
For more information ring Leo on 5728 1873
6:00pm Wednesday 5th December 2007 – Rotary Park
BYO BBQ - Information night and get together.
Some of the duties that we could ask your help with:
· Casual Volunteering from now and at the festival
· Raise Funds - Raffle
· Help on food stall
· Deliver Brochures
· Supply billets for entertainers.
· Donate goods for food stall
· Take photos during the festival
· Supply advice when needed
· Sponsor an activity
· $5.00 membership
Volunteers will be given a badge to wear when volunteering to show their help and support for this great historic event. The Golden Horseshoes Festival has been a part of Beechworth’s history initially since Daniel Cameron rode the horse with the golden horseshoes down Ford Street in 1855 and then from the 1960’s.
For more information ring Leo on 5728 1873
Saturday 17 November 2007
Burke Museum on the hunt for hidden collections as Cabinet of Curiosities comes to town
14 November 2007
Beechworth’s Burke Museum is on a treasure hunt for weird and wonderful local collections to showcase in the Cabinet of Curiosities, on loan from the National Museum of Australia from January to June next year as part of a national tour.
The museum is keen to hear from any individuals or local organisations with a distinctive, bizarre, ornamental, sentimental or just plain ordinary collection of objects small enough to fit into one of the 35 drawers of the Cabinet.
Burke Museum Collections Officer, Linda Peacock, said the exhibition would provide a fascinating insight into the nature of collecting as well as the community from which the collections will be drawn.
“The items maybe as everyday as a collection of ballet shoes from a local dance company or decks of cards from a local Euchre club. The Cabinet of Curiosities is very much about reflecting the interests and concerns of the community and offering local people the chance to involve themselves directly in the process of curating their own exhibition.”
She said that one of the more unsettling inclusions would be a collection of contraband seized from former inmates of the historic Beechworth Prison. Mostly homemade weapons, these sinister objects are remarkable for their simplicity and sheer ingenuity.
The Cabinet of Curiosities was originally developed for a major exhibition at the National Museum in Canberra. An eccentric pyramid of 35 drawers jutting out at odd angles, it was inspired by the original Wunderkammers - Cabinets of Wonder or wonder-rooms, whose intriguing collections belonged to those aristocrats, monarchs or merchants who could afford to create and maintain them. They were usually made from exotic and expensive materials and often filled with contents and ornamental details intended to reflect the entire cosmos on a miniature scale.
In the 17th Century a Cabinet of Curiosities could contain specimens collected during exploration and trading voyages such as preserved animals, tusks, skeletons, botanical and cultural artefacts.
The Cabinet of Curiosities arrives in Beechworth in January after a successful season at the Albury Library Museum, and ahead of a tour to the Tasmanian Museum and Gallery in Hobart (July – December 2008) and the Pioneer Museum in Zeehan, Tasmania (January – July 2009).
For more information about including a collection in the
Cabinet of Curiosities exhibition in Beechworth, contact
Linda Peacock, Burke Museum, phone (03) 5728 8067
Cabinet of Curiosities
Where: Robert O’Hara Burke Memorial Museum
Address: Loch St, Beechworth
Dates: January – June 2008
Beechworth’s Burke Museum is on a treasure hunt for weird and wonderful local collections to showcase in the Cabinet of Curiosities, on loan from the National Museum of Australia from January to June next year as part of a national tour.
The museum is keen to hear from any individuals or local organisations with a distinctive, bizarre, ornamental, sentimental or just plain ordinary collection of objects small enough to fit into one of the 35 drawers of the Cabinet.
Burke Museum Collections Officer, Linda Peacock, said the exhibition would provide a fascinating insight into the nature of collecting as well as the community from which the collections will be drawn.
“The items maybe as everyday as a collection of ballet shoes from a local dance company or decks of cards from a local Euchre club. The Cabinet of Curiosities is very much about reflecting the interests and concerns of the community and offering local people the chance to involve themselves directly in the process of curating their own exhibition.”
She said that one of the more unsettling inclusions would be a collection of contraband seized from former inmates of the historic Beechworth Prison. Mostly homemade weapons, these sinister objects are remarkable for their simplicity and sheer ingenuity.
The Cabinet of Curiosities was originally developed for a major exhibition at the National Museum in Canberra. An eccentric pyramid of 35 drawers jutting out at odd angles, it was inspired by the original Wunderkammers - Cabinets of Wonder or wonder-rooms, whose intriguing collections belonged to those aristocrats, monarchs or merchants who could afford to create and maintain them. They were usually made from exotic and expensive materials and often filled with contents and ornamental details intended to reflect the entire cosmos on a miniature scale.
In the 17th Century a Cabinet of Curiosities could contain specimens collected during exploration and trading voyages such as preserved animals, tusks, skeletons, botanical and cultural artefacts.
The Cabinet of Curiosities arrives in Beechworth in January after a successful season at the Albury Library Museum, and ahead of a tour to the Tasmanian Museum and Gallery in Hobart (July – December 2008) and the Pioneer Museum in Zeehan, Tasmania (January – July 2009).
For more information about including a collection in the
Cabinet of Curiosities exhibition in Beechworth, contact
Linda Peacock, Burke Museum, phone (03) 5728 8067
Cabinet of Curiosities
Where: Robert O’Hara Burke Memorial Museum
Address: Loch St, Beechworth
Dates: January – June 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)