The petition signed by Wives and Daughters of Farmers from around the Ballarat region addressed to the Mayor and Council of Ballarat requesting a market to sell their local produce.
To the Mayor and Council
of the City of Ballarat,
We the undersigned Farmers Wives
and Daughters beg to solicit your aid in
establishing a Market for the Sale of Butter;
poultry, Eggs, Fruit, Bacon and other Farm support the Market by our attendance with the
produce of our Farms and Gardens and remain
most respectfully
Yours &c,
P Hume
Mrs Gordon - Walter Craig's Farm
The productive hinterland around Ballarat was able to sustain the huge influx of population for gold mining. These photos show the rich red volcanic soil north of Creswick described by Major Mitchell as - mammalian hills'. In some places the soil is eight metres deep. Combined with the plentiful water supply from springs, farming was a rewarding occupation.
Some Ballaarat Pioneers by Robert Gay published February 1935
Robert Gay (1859-1939) considered that these pioneers were worthy...
"Men and women, superfine as gold,
Crossing an ocean through dangers untold;
Gold, the magnet, a whole world drew …â€
He recorded names by year of arrival from 1836 to 1858 and another 65 as sometime in the 1850s without a specific year.
Robert Gay has written pen portraits about the people, many of whom were known to him personally. This small book may be seen in the Australiana Research Room of the Ballarat Library. The Ballarat & District Genealogical Society research team can do lookups if you submit a request. Go to our Research Page to submit a request.
School student registers, held by Ballarat and District Genealogical Society are available at the Eureka Centre, Ballarat East. Some are with local historical societies such as Beaufort, Daylesford, Napoleons, Snake Valley and Woady Yalloak.
Details from the registers generally include dates of birth, parents' or guardian names, residential addresses, occupations, distance from the school, dates of commencement and leaving, name of the previous school attended or transferred to, year level and attendance, certificates gained and date obtained.
School histories can be found in the three large red volumes of VISION and REALISATION, which are held in the Australiana Reference Collection which was relocated in 2019 to the Eureka Centre, Ballarat East.
Other historical resources held at the Public Record Office of Victoria, North Melbourne:
VPRS 795 1868-1975 School Building Files
VPRS 640 1878-1962 Primary School Correspondence Files
VPRS 892 1853-1946 Special Case Files
Included on the School Student index fiche are old photos (VPRS 1396) of these schools: Alfredton, Ballarat East, Ballarat North, Brown Hill, Buninyong, Creswick, Dana Street, Humffray Street, Macarthur Street, Magpie, Mt Pleasant, Pleasant St, Queen St, Sebastopol, Urquhart St, Wendouree.
For enquiries about lookups you can request assistance with our online request form here
Members have access to view a list of Ballarat Schools in 1865 along with street names.
Vision and Realisation : a centenary history of state education in Victoria, Volumes 2 & 3, Education Department of Victoria, Melbourne, Ed. L J Blake 1973. This is a three volume set of very large red bound books which make mention of all government schools which have existed in rural, regional and metropolitan Victoria. Ballarat is in the Central Highlands Region. This is one of the illustrations for a school designed by Henry R Bastow.
Online resources are available for members to do searches for specifics.