NEWS, OBITUARIES, NOTES, AND DONATIONS

Donations Received

Clarrie Heron - Copies of two Australian produced maps, showing a detailed entry to Port Phillip Bay and the City of Melbourne.
These maps have been overwritten with Japanese descriptive characters.  The originals were found by W/O  Brian Meehan of the Sixth Australian Topographical Survey Unit WWII in a Japanese map depot in Rabaul.  They were left by the retreating Japanese Army in 1944.

At the Annual General Meeting of the T.D.H.S. held in March, the following office bearers were elected:

President:  Jim Hood
Vice President: Terry Fisher
Treasurer and Public Officer: Fred Lancaster
Secretary: Thelma Mayze

Ordinary Members: Lois Couch, (Assistant Secretary), Marj Wood (Archivist), Lori O'Connor (Assistant Archivist), Adele van Rosmalen (Bulletin Editor), Jeanne Drane, Ron Hore, Joy Lancaster, Mary Lang, Reg Lang, Merle Morrison and Dorothy Street.

National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Photographic Committee Tour of the Traralgon Area in June 2006

The National Trust Photographic Committee will be visiting our area over the Queen's Birthday weekend in June.  They are interested in photographing older and interesting buildings, houses and commercial structures to expand and update their photographic archive.  The group will consist of several photographers and other interested persons, and they would like to visit 5 - 6 homesteads for each of the three days that they are here.  They seek our help in planning and arranging which properties to visit during their stay.

 Parliament of Victoria - 150 Years

On 25th November, 1856, the Parliament officially opened as the seat of democracy in Victoria; in 2006, the Parliament of Victoria is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

The 2006 August T.D.H.S. meeting will be held at Parliament House in Melbourne.  The Honourable Mr.  Peter Hall, M.L.C. Member for Gippsland Province, has offered to host a dinner with guest speakers including Peter Ryan M.L.A. Leader of the Nationals and Member for Gippsland South, for T.D.H.S. members.  After dinner Parliament will be sitting and members are invited to watch.  The total cost for dinner and coach trip is $60.  As numbers are limited, please register your interest no later than 12th June with Lois Couch on 5176 6356.

Charles Bridges-Webb spend his early childhood as the son of a country doctor and then grew up in Melbourne.  He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and from 1960, spent 15 years as a country general practitioner in Traralgon.  This book is an account of the personal and professional life of a quiet, conservative general practitioner and academic with a  wide range of interests. It describes his life of  travelling hopefully and organizing his curiosity to try to find meaning in all that he experienced. It encompasses a broad scope, from country practice to international committees; from gardening to medical research; from family life to philosophical quest. There is little drama but much personal satisfaction through interaction with many different people.

Sid Harta Publishers, Melbourne 2005, ISBN 1-921939-26-7, RRP $29.95

Obituary

Precis-from an article in the Australian Rechabite, December 2005 Dorothy Alice Fry, 10/10/1914 - 9/1/2004 

The fourth of six children to Gurney and May Fry,  Dorothy began her education at Footscray Primary School, moving to Williamstown High School and then to Melbourne Girls High School when her parents moved to Ivanhoe. Problems with a rheumatic heart kept her away from school in 1929 but in 1931 she completed her Leaving Honours, commencing as a Junior Teacher at Sutherland homes in 1932, an appointment that entailed a 2 1/2  mile daily walk to and from Greensborough station.

In 1935 she entered Melbourne Teachers' College and on completion of her course, was appointed to to Bannockburn School, later becoming relieving Head Teacher at Wuk Wuk near Lindenow. As a teacher at North Wonthaggi in 1936, near the end of a 90 day miners' strike that year, she served in the soup kitchens to help feed miners' children. When the school closed due to a polio epidemic she, with the other teachers, arranged correspondence lessons for the children. 1950 saw her as Infant Mistress at Traralgon with classes of 60 children accommodated in Army huts with an overflow in a church hall. While teaching at Morwell, she received a promotion to Infant Mistress, First Class. Glowing inspector's reports ensured rotation to Special Class infant Mistress.

In 1978, after retiring,  Dorothy became President of Victorian Retired State Teachers' Association and was Secretary from 1979 to 1996. In 1980, as a member of Syndal Baptist Church, she became Secretary of their Women's Fellowship as well as Secretary and, for part of the time, Treasurer of the Eastern suburbs Baptist Women's Fellowship.  She belonged to several other organizations and was possibly Secretary of all of them at some time, including Victorian Council of Churches local ecumenical group, Waverley Interchurch Council, Australian Church Women Victorian Unit, Interlink (which began as the Baptist Business and Professional woman's Group), The Bible society, Leprosy Mission, Primetime (Syndal Baptist), Business and Professional Women Traralgon and Ringwood, and Probus Women's Housing Association where she became a Life Governor. In 1999 she was awarded a richly deserved Commonwealth Senior Award and right up till her death, was still Secretary of a number of organizations.

After 91 active and fruitful years, years in the service of others, Dorothy Alice Fry has passed to her eternal reward.