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WW1 HONOUR ROLL
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Alfred William Eustace - Oil on gum leaves
Night at the Museum

Alfred William Eustace - Oil on gum leaves
Alfred William Eustace - Oil on gum leaf

Outdoor Exhibition - A typical trolley from the Chiltern Goldfields
Typical trolley from the Chiltern Goldfields

A Collection of photos of soldiers from the WW1 Honour Roll
Photos of soldiers from the WW1 Honour Roll

Athenaeum Collection - A set of Gold Weighing Scales from the Gold Rush Era
Gold Weighing Scales from the Gold Rush
























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The Old Colonists' Association of Victoria

The Old ColonistsThe Old Colonists’ Association was founded in Victoria in 1869 by Politician and actor George Coppin to form a permanent Society of old colonists and a memorial to the pioneers of the Port Phillip District. It was a charitable organisation to house and care for elderly people who were far from home and often destitute. Coppin’s aim was not simply to found a social club for prosperous old Colonists to meet one another in comfortable surroundings and exchange success stories, but to assist those Pioneers who had been unable to provide for their old age by providing accommodation for them.  His own precarious existence in the theatre may have made him sympathetic to those experiencing financial hardship.

It appears that a very close association was formed between the Old Colonists’ Association and the Australian Natives Association that was formed in 1871. The ANA made regular contributions to the funds of the OCA.

The Old Colonists’ Association of the Ovens and Murray District was formed in 1886. It appears that the headquarters was at Chiltern where meetings were held at the Star Hotel next door to the Chiltern Athenaeum (Town Hall). The Old Colonists’ Association register, held at the Athenaeum museum along with a framed photographic collection of 33 members, records a membership of 59, with 23 members joining on 13th May 1886. This branch of the Association had been wound up by 1904 although the organisation still has offices in Melbourne and Ballarat and housing estates at North Fitzroy, Eltham North, Braeside Park and Euroa.

Members of the Old Colonists’ Association of the Ovens and Murray District 1886

Edward Barrass
Benjamin Jackson Bartley
John William Beck
James Black
Frederick Brown
Richard Henry Watt Carlington
Thomas Bayley Somers Carwithen
Neil Christian
Alfred William Eustace
Thomas Gardiner Findlay
Joseph Gaggioni
Alexander Hodge Gibson
Dr Frank Haley
Andrew Kilgour
Thomas Lambert
Charles Martin
Robert McLachlan
William Hogg McNeill
Thomas Kidston Mein
William Milne
Thomas Peel
Joseph Sammons
William Shaw
John H Smith
Oscar Smith
John Strickland
Frederick William Thompson
Alexander Tone
Walter Frederick Tuck
Martin Wenke
John Reeves Whitehead
Thomas Whitmore
Frederick Francis Woodward
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