COVID-19 Musings - Community Organisations

Community Organisations

Community organisations also interact with their members online.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) held its AGM via Zoom.

The lockdown and restrictions as a result of COVID-19 have caused community organisations to rethink how they can still connect with members and provide services in a different way.

The RHSV Bookclub, held monthly, is now a Zoom Bookclub

The podcasts of previous meetings have been available via the website for sometime but with the lockdown these have been publicised more widely.

This page on the RHSV website contains a range of ideas and activities that people may like to investigate during the lockdown including turning photos into jigsaws using Jigsaw Planet or trying some of the writing exercises from the RHSV History Writers Group.

Community Group Activities

Computer programs such as FaceTime and Zoom and Skype allow groups of people to interact online at one time. This is proving to be an excellent way for groups of people to stay connected.

Due to the lockdown, our local cricket club is holding its seniors Presentation Night this year via Facebook. The coach, captains of the teams, committee members and some life members etc have recorded their part of the proceedings which will be included in the online presentation at the end of the month.

Many groups are experimenting with ways to keep their participants involved while in isolation.

Dance studios, including Studi-O Dance School, are including online dance demonstrations on their websites for students to practise.

Girl Guides Victoria  is using  technology to run regular meetings of guide groups via Zoom. and have also produced a series of Guiding in Your Pocket guides showing activities that girls can try.

The local cub / scouts group also meets via Zoom sessions.

A number of family history research groups have also arranged online get togethers.

See also all posts relating to COVID-19 including:

COVID-19 Musings - Staying Connected

The Arsonist

On 7 February 2009 approximately 400 bushfires broke out in the state of Victoria. Among the devastation caused by the fires, 173 people died and 2,029 homes were lost. Some of the bushfires were started by arsonists.

The week preceeding the bushfires Victoria experienced a heat wave with temperatures regularly above 40 degrees celsius. On the 7th February the temperature in Melbourne reached 46 degrees. It was hotter in Gippsland. This was also the time of the Millenium Drought (2001-2009).

In The Arsonist: a mind on fire, Chloe Hooper describes the devastation of the fire near Churchill in Gippsland and the attempt to find and prosecute the person who started it. Eleven people died during this fire and 145 homes were destroyed.

The book is divided into three sections - the detectives, the lawyers and the courtroom. The author describes how the police investigated the cause of the fire and how they located the perpetrator. This is followed primarily about the work of the Legal Aid lawyers attempting to build a case to defend the suspect who was autistic. A summary of the court case follows with the verdict. Thoughout the books the author includes descriptions of some of the events that occurred on Black Saturday as people attempted to defend their homes from the inferno and / or escape from the area. Interviews with many of the survivors are included.

This work is a valuable record of how bushfires have a long term impact on communities, families and the state as a whole. It is made all the more relevant considering the severe bushfires that recently occured in eastern Australia including Victoria.

This book was the first title discussed at the RHSV Book Club in March 2020 which I did not attend but I will still try and read the books.

Bushfire - Black Saturday

Nothing New: a history of second-hand

On a trip to England with the Australian overs 70s cricket team in 2018, as well as watching the cricket there was opportunity to explore the aea where the games were being played. On this trip many of the WAGs (wives and girlfriends) regularly spent much time exploring charity shops (opportunity shops or op-shops in Australia).

In Nothing New: a history of second hand, Robin Annear provides a history of the trend for purchasing and sometimes repurposing second hand items, not just in Australia but developments in other countries. Second hand clothing for general wear or fancy dress immediately springs to mind but the author also looks at scrap metal yards, antique and vintage stores, lost and found, recycling, trash and treasure markets, garage sales as well as the growth and operation of of op-shops.This is not just a study of second hand goods today but a history of how used goods have been collected, distributed and sold for hundreds of years. The concept of second-hand is definitely not new.

The maddest place on earth

The 1850s in Victoria and Melbourne had grown to a large city with people travelling to the state to search for gold and for adventure. The sudden influx of additional people put a strain on the infrastructure of the new city, especially when the mental health of a number of the newcomers was considered to be unstable and they required housing.

In The maddest place on earth Jill Giese examines documents and newspapers from the second half of the nineteenth century to learn about the conditions in which inmates lived in asylums, especially the asylum at Yarra Bend and a second asylum across the river at Kew. These were large establishments but they soon became overcrowded and additional  accommodation, usually in the form of cottages, was built.

Jill Giese looks at the treatment of the patients primarily through the eyes of three people - the artist, George Foley, who spent his life in and out of asylums; Dr Edward Paley who for twenty years was in charge of the lunatic asylums in Victoria, especially Yarra Bend and Kew; and 'the Vagabond', a journalist who went undercover and wrote about social issues in the State.

This book provides an informative look at a little known part of Melbourne's history. It is listed as the book to be discussed at the RHSV Book Club in May 2020.