Digitised World War One newspapers

The State Library of Victoria has undertaken a project to digitise a number of World War One newspapers and these papers are now available on Trove - http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper  With the centenary of the commencement of the War in 2014 it is expected that there will be a huge amount of interest in how our ancestors and our community lived during this time and the  local newspapers will  provide a wonderful resource to both local and family historians. The newspapers were selected to provide as  broad a coverage of Victoria as possible and the papers  for the Casey Cardinia region are the Pakenham Gazette and its forerunner the Berwick Shire News which  have now been digitised from 1914 until 1918 as has the Lang Lang Guardian. The Bunyip Free Press is available from 1914 to 1915. The South Bourke and Mornington Journal has also been digitised previously and also covers much of our region, as does the West Gippsland Gazette.

Berwick Shire News and Pakenham and Cranbourne Gazette  8 September 8,  1915, pg 3

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92095834

The papers recorded sad news such as the death of local soldiers including Private Frank Leigh A'Beckett, who was the son of the grandly named Edward Fitzhayley A'Beckett and his wife, Jane Deodata A'Beckett (nee Bourke). 

Pakenham Gazette and Berwick Shire News   June 15,  1917, page 2

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92153530

The women also played their role in the War effort, some of course served as nurses overseas, but for the women who remained at home they worked on the family farms, fund raised for patriotic causes, joined the Red Cross, or as we can see from this report, knitted sock for the soldiers.

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Australian Newspapers Beta project

The National Library of Australia commenced a four year project of digitising Australian newspapers in 2007 and ultimately aims to digitise 3 million pages. The project currently involves twenty six newspaper titles and the only Victorian one so far is The Argus which is on-line from 1915 to 1940. These newspapers are a great resource for both local and family historians. The Argus started in 1846 and closed in 1957 and covered State and National news but you can also find lots of local news. I did some searches using the names of various Casey Cardinia towns and found the following local items - a letter to the editor about the 'deplorable conditions' of the roads in Pearcedale in 1923 ; a report on the Congregational Church girls' camp at Harkaway in 1927 ; a photograph and short report on the unfurling of the Union Jack, by Miss Ada Arymtage, at the Beaconsfield Primary School. The School had sent an Australian flag to the Beaconsfield School in England in exchange ; a visit by the Governor of Victoria, Lord Somers, to the Gilwell Scout Camp at Gembrook in 1931 and a report on the official opening of the re-modelled Cora Lynn cheese factory in 1932 (see below)

The Argus, Thursday 29 September 1932, page 10.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4500697

You can search by any key words including family names which makes this project a great resource for Family historians. My great, great, great Grandfather Thomas Weatherhead, was a Sea Captain. I found a few reports in the Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser which mentioned Captain Weatherhead. On May 25th 1822 it was reported that Captain Weatherhead and the transport ship The Phoenix, carrying 182 male convicts, had arrived on the previous Monday. The Phoenix had left Portsmouth on January 5th. In the June 1st 1822 edition in the Claims and Demands column in the Classified Advertisements it tells us that Captain Weatherhead and The Phoenix was leaving the Colony and that any claims (debts etc) should be presented (see below).

Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser, Saturday 1 June 1822, page 1.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1089707

As you can see there is a wealth of information in these old newspapers and it is a fantastic project and a fabulous resource. You can find the newspapers on the National Library of Australia website at www.nla.gov.au > Find > Newspapers > Digitised newspapers or click on this link http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home

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