Federation of Australian Historical Societies

FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETIES INC

e-BULLETIN No. 140 – 3 August 2015

Hon Editor, Dr Ruth S. Kerr

1) Australian Sketchbook: Colonial life and the art of S T Gill - exhibition, Melbourne

2) Heritage value of Windsor Hotel, Melbourne

3) Proposed Central Australian electorate name - Battarbee

4) South Australian History Fund

5) Parramatta Female Factory being assessed for National Heritage List

6) Tasmanian heritage - Clarendon House, Evandale

1) Australian Sketchbook: Colonial life and the art of S T Gill - exhibition, Melbourne

There is an exhibition and a range of associated programs, a publication (S T Gill and his audiences) and details are online at the State Library’s website :

www.slv.vic.gov.au/australian-sketchbook-exhibition

(Source: History Council of Victoria – Email – 13 July 2015)

2) Heritage value of Windsor Hotel, Melbourne

The Victorian Minister for Planning, Hon Richard Wynne MP, has refused to extend beyond early 2017 the planning permit for a $330 million redevelopment of the Windsor Hotel site. The hotel is owned by the Indonesian Halim Group. They planned 100 new rooms and a new glass tower rising 93 metres at the rear of the present hotel. The current planning minister has placed strict height and set back controls on the entire Bourke Hill precinct. Other buildings included are Parliament House and Princess Theatre. The Halim group have stated that the hotel must expand to remain viable, citing the cost of urgent maintenance works being beyond the current revenues generated.

(Source: Australian Financial Review 11-12 July 2015 p.38 including two photographs)

3) Proposed Central Australian electorate name - Battarbee

The proposed name of a new electorate in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly is Battarbee after Reginald Ernest Batterbee (1893-1973), artist, exhibitor and writer on indigenous art. He taught classes for Aboriginal artists and arranged exhibitions of Albert Namatjira’s art in southern capitals. In 1942 he became Protector of Aboriginals and Commonwealth Government Officer at Hermansburg. He received the honour of OBE in 1971 and was awarded a Fellowship of the South Australian Society of Arts. He had fought at Bullecourt and was gassed and severely injured in World War I and first went to the Northern Territory to paint in 1928. A new book, Battarbee and Namatjira , by Martin Edmond has been published by Giramondo Publishing.

(Source: Centralian Advocate 19 June 2015 p.5 and Weekend Australian 11-12 July Books pp.16-17 including three photographs)

4) South Australian History Fund

History SA's annual South Australian History Fund (SAHF) grant round is currently OPEN.

Applications are invited from community groups for small project grants up to $2,000; and individuals and organisations for publication and research grants up to $3,000 and $5,000 respectively.

Applications close Monday 17 August 2015.

In addition, there are two special categories for this year: grants for training in historical skills or collections management(up to $200); and bursaries to attend the SA State History Conference in Robe 23-25 October 2015(equivalent of a single registration fee)

Applications close Wednesday 29 July 2015.

Guidelines and applications forms for the SAHF are available on the South Australian Community History website

You are welcome to contact us to discuss potential applications, to check your eligibility to apply, and to request guidelines or application forms to be sent to you either by post or electronically.

Call History SA on 08 8203 9888 or email staff@history.sa.gov.au

(Source: FAHS Email - 17 July 2015)

5) Parramatta Female Factory being assessed for National Heritage List

The Minister for Environment, Hon Greg Hunt MP, and Federal Member for Reid, Mr Craig Laundy MP, issued a press release on 31 July 2015 about the Parramatta Female Factory being considered for the National Heritage List. The site is in the Reid electorate.

Located five minutes from the Parramatta CBD, the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct is Australia’s earliest and longest surviving female convict site. Designed by emancipated convict, Francis Greenway, the Female Factory was the first destination of all unassigned convict women sent to colonial Australia. Established in 1818, the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct has become a symbol of Australia’s convict past.

“The inclusion of the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct in the Australian Heritage Council's work plan is an important first step towards possible national heritage recognition of this remarkable place,” Minister Hunt said.

“During the convict era, the Female Factory provided medical care for the wider female population and served as a work assignment place, marriage exchange, hospital and prison.”

The end of convict transportation in the 1840s saw the Female Factory become an invalid and ‘lunatic’ asylum, In addition, a Roman Catholic orphanage was established on the site at this time.

In 1887, the orphanage became the Industrial School for Girls, which in time become the now-notorious Parramatta Girls School, which closed in 1974. It is estimated 30,000 young girls passed through the institution with an average of 160 girls in residence at any given time.

“Parramatta Female Factory Precinct represents the change in the philosophies, attitudes, policies and practices in state-provided intuitional based care towards women, children and the mentally ill from the nineteenth to the latter half of the twentieth century,” said Mr Laundy.

“The Australian Heritage Council's assessment will consider whether the Parramatta Female Factory’s heritage values are of outstanding significance to the nation, with the assessment expected to be completed by June 2017.”

(Source: Email – FAHS - 31 July 2015; Joint Press Release on 31 July by Hon Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Environment, and Mr Craig Laundy MP, Member for Reid, www.environment.gov.au/minister/hunt/2015/pubs/mr20150731.pdf)

6) Tasmanian heritage - Clarendon House, Evandale

In the first week of July the National Trust of Tasmania announced that it has commissioned the re-roofing of Clarendon house at Evandale by securing $261,000 in Australian Government funding under the Tasmanian Jobs and Growth Package.

A further $70,000 to complete the roof repair will be raised through a variety of other sources, including crowd-funding.

The new roof will replace the roof installed at Clarendon in 1880, making this only the third roof in the property’s 200 years. 10,000 Welsh slates are being imported to match the 1880s roof as closely as possible.

Once the roof is repaired, water damage to some of the upstairs rooms can be rectified and the property will continue to undergo its ongoing program of rejuvenation to return it to its former glory.

The house will be closed until Christmas 2015.

(Source: Heritage Tasmania News – July 2015 - www.heritage.tas.gov.au/showItem.php?id=3447)