Service Australian Army Service Number VX92204 Date of Enlistment 14 Dec 1943 Locality on Enlistment BALLARAT, VIC Place of Enlistment ROYAL PARK, VIC Date of Discharge 01 Feb 1946 Rank Private Posting at Discharge 2/17 AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY BATTALION
L-R: William Edward Palmer, Maud Palmer, Kenneth Palmer, Archibal Palmer
William Edward Palmer
Service Australian Army Service Number VX13702 Date of Enlistment 30 Apr 1940 Locality on Enlistment BALLARAT, VIC Place of Enlistment CAULFIELD, VIC Date of Discharge 11 Oct 1945 Rank Sergeant Posting at Discharge 2/2 Field Company
Margaret Anna Parkes (Woodgate)
Service Australian Army Service Number VF395558 Date of Enlistment 01 Oct 1942 Locality on Enlistment DOOKIE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE Place of Enlistment MELBOURNE, VIC Date of Discharge 06 Feb 1945 Rank Lance Sergeant
George Bartlett Woodgate
Service Australian Army Service Number V158323 Date of Enlistment 15 Oct 1941 Locality on Enlistment CARLTON, VIC Place of Enlistment CARLTON, VIC Rank Private Posting at Discharge MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY RIFLES
Edmund Richard (Dick) Fraser Parkes
Service Australian Army Service Number VX139188 (V390045) Date of Enlistment 09 Jun 1942 Locality on Enlistment MERTON, VIC Place of Enlistment CAULFIELD, VIC Date of Discharge 25 Jan 1945 Rank Bombardier Posting at Discharge 29 AUST TANK ATT BTY
L-R: Edmund Spreadborough, Robert Spreadborough, Dick Parkes
Edmund Frank Spreadborough
Service Australian Army Service Number VX43014 Date of Enlistment 01 Jul 1940 Locality on Enlistment MITCHAM, VIC Place of Enlistment CAULFIELD, VIC Date of Discharge 08 Nov 1945 Rank Lieutenant Posting at Discharge 2/1 SURVEY REGIMENT RAA
Robert Spreadborough
Service Australian Army Service Number VX52924 Date of Enlistment 10 Apr 1941 Locality on Enlistment MITCHAM, VIC Place of Enlistment ROYAL PARK, VIC Date of Discharge 11 Jan 1946 Rank Sapper Posting at Discharge 2/1 AUST BORING PLATOON RAE
Service Number: 5561
Rank: Lance Corporal
Unit: 24th Australian Infantry Battalion
Date of death: 29 August 1918
Place of death: France
Cause of death: Died of wounds
Age at death: 24
On 17 August 1918 he was wounded in action for a second time but remained on duty. Five days later Lorry was promoted to Lance Corporal, but his good fortune was about to expire. On 28 August 1918 he received a third wound, a ‘G.S.W.’ [gunshot wound] to the chest and right arm. Lieutenant Percy Salmon, who was killed a few days later, wrote of Colclough’s wound: ‘It happened while we were on a daylight patrol. We ran into a nest of machine guns that had been waiting for us, and W.L. Colclough was hit by a machine gun bullet in the right side.’ Lorimer was admitted to the 61st Casualty Clearing Station, but died there the following day. Testimony in his Red Cross Wounded and Missing file confirms that he was wounded on a daylight patrol, though all other eyewitnesses said ‘Col’ was hit in the stomach by a machine gun bullet or a sniper’s bullet. The CCS said he had a shell wound to the chest. The effects transferred to his mother after the war included ‘1 Pr Spectacles (broken).
Herbert George Howe Colclough
Herbert George Howe Colclough
Regimental number 5935
Rank on enlistment Private
Unit name 24th Battalion, 16th Reinforcement
War service: Western Front
While with 58 Battalion at Polygon Wood, he was wounded in the right knee and neck but recovered well and returned to his unit only to sustain an inguinal hernia that eventually caused his repatriation to Australia.
John James Graham Colclough
John James Graham Colclough
Service Number: 5073
Rank: Sergeant
Unit: 58th Australian Infantry Battalion
Service: Australian Imperial Force
Award: Belgian Croix de Guerre
Ernest Morton Rolfe
Ernest Morton Rolfe
Killed in Action
Regimental number 3621
Rank on enlistment Private
Unit name 23rd Battalion, 8th Reinforcement
Date of death: 5 August 1916
Age at death: 35
3621 Private
A resident of Brighton & Gadenvale, Victoria had been engaged in farming at the time of his enlistment for War Service on the 6th of September 1915 at the age of 34. Ernest was allocated to reinforcements for the 23rd Battalion 1st AIF, but prior to embarking for Egypt on the 5th of Janurary 1916 he was transferred over to the 24th Battalion. After further training Ernest was shipped to France, arriving on the 26th of March 1916, and soon entered the trenches with his Battalion in the vicinity of Mouquet Farm. Surviving this action unscathed Ernest’s Battalion was then committed to the fighting around Pozieres, and it was here that Ernest was Killed in Action on the 5th of August 1916, aged 35. Private Rolfe was noted to have been buried in the vicinity of Pozieres, but due to futher action in the locality of his burial, his actual gravesite became lost, and following War’s end there was still no trace of his place of burial. Owing to this Ernest was officially commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France, where those members of the 1st AIF who have no actual grave in Northern France have been recorded. Ernest’s mother had her son’s loss during The Great War privatley memorialised at the familly’s collective gravesite within St.Kilda General Cemetery, Victoria.
Leonard Parkes Rogers
Leonard Parkes Rogers
Killed in Action
Service Number: 4583
Rank: Private
Unit: 59th Australian Infantry Battalion
Date of death: 26 September 1917
Place of death: Belgium
Age at death: 24
John (Jack) Graham Antill Pockley
John (Jack) Graham Antill Pockley
Killed in Action
Rank: Lieutenant
Unit: 33rd Australian Infantry Battalion
Date of death: 30 March 1918
Place of death: France
Age at death: 26
Archibald Palmer
Archibald Palmer
Service Number: 279
Rank: Private
Unit: 8 Infantry Battalion (B Company)
They took part in the Landing at Anzac Cove, coming ashore as part of the second wave on 25 April 1915.
Last spring I had the privilege of photographing the gardens at the Lexington Homestead in Moyston, Victoria.
The homestead is a very significant site not only for the Grampians District, but also Australia, as this was the home of Thomas Wills from the age of 4, the inventor of Australian Rules Football (AFL). It is said that he combined parts of a game called Marn Grook played by the Djab wurrung Aboriginal people and Rugby, creating the best sport in the world.
It is a beautiful homestead, and during the spring the gardens are in full bloom with a magic display of colour.
Extract from Heritage Victoria
Lexington homestead is a large brick homestead constructed circa 1851 for pastoralist Horatio Wills to replace an earlier structure of the 1840’s. Symmetrical in composition, the single storied house has three windows on either side of the central doorway. The timber framed verandah returns down the long side wings, which enclose a courtyard also with verandah. The hipped roof is clad in iron. Lexington Homestead is one of the earliest surviving substantial homesteads in Victoria. The house is an important example of the Colonial style in Victoria and is architecturally important for its form and furnishing. Lexington also has historical associations with the early settlement of the district, having been taken up by Wills in 1842. The arrangement of the windows of the principal facade is unusual and the use of courtyard verandahs is notable. Lexington homestead is largely intact and in good condition.
Hi all just a followup on the Purple Peruvian Potato. Since my last post they have recieved a lot of attention.
I have been recieving emails from all over the world regarding this odd spud.
After a few attempts on Google I have since found that they are also named the ‘Purple Congo’
Today marked 48 days without rainfall, given that the last bit of rainfall was only 2mm on the 30th of December.
So with the tanks dwindling to less than a quarter full and a thick haze of smoke wafting in the air, it was time to begin the 2nd annual harvest of the Purple Peruvian Potatoes. We were given these oblong strange tubers from a friend. So I planted them out from the very few we were given in 2007/08 season. After te first harvest we kept a few for seed stock and ate the large ones in one sitting. These potatoes turned out to be the most delicious and creamy potato I had ever eaten.
Our seed stock has multiplied considerably after this recent harvest, and we have had a bumper harvest fillingone basket full, that will probably keep us going for 3 meals.
The sandy, poorly drained soils of the Grampians are no match for the rich rolling hills of west Gippsland where Tony Middleton resides. It would be awesome to put some of these in the ground down there.
The shape of the potato is a bit off putting and somewhat resembles human faeces, however you wont be disappointed, I was reluctant to try at first, and used my family members as Guinea Pigs and waited to see what allergic reaction or side effect took place. As you can see the spud isn’t the biggest you’ve seen but is worth its weight in gold.
Hopefully after next season we might have purple mash potato on the table.
If the opportunity arises for you to taste, or to grow this great food source, I highly recommend it.
I bet you the Irish were pissed off when this particular variety of potato wasn’t washed up on their shoreline.
Now for another history lesson, and probably my favourite Artist.
Eugene Von Guerard arrived in Victoria, determined to try his luck on the Victorian Goldfields. As a gold-digger he was unsuccessful, but he did produce a large number of intimate studies of goldfields life, quite different from the deliberately awe-inspiring landscapes for which he was later to become famous. Realising that there were opportunities for an artist in Australia, von Guerard abandoned the diggings and was soon undertaking lucrative commissions recording the dwellings and properties of wealthy pastoralists.
This was a time when Europeans first started to settle Western Victoria and the landscape would have been in far contrast to what exists today.
The last of the Aboriginal people would have been moved off the land after a dreadful period over the previous 2 decades.
Von Guerard would have been the first and last person to have the opportunity to paint the natural landscape before the clear felling.
My intention for Saturday was to find the location where Von Guerard painted probably my favourite landscape.
It is a view in the Southern Grampians looking right down too Signal Peak and Mt Abrupt.
The general location was easy to find with my local knowledge, however finding the exact location is a little different.
To make matters worse the vegetation has dramatically changed and speaking to an art student a few weeks back he mentioned that Von Guerard was renowned for manipulating, enhancing and creating detail in his paintings.
Therefore in my conclusion, he made it to this point/peak and painted as much as he could during the day, and finished off later on from memory.
As some of the peaks are very are more jagged than in reality and the foreground general layout of rocks are correct but very different in appearance.
The other thing was that the heathland in the foreground depicts a river runing through it, whereas the current river is further tot he right where all the trees are.
However that could even be a result of Aboriginal burning regimes at the time.
Source of the Wannon, 1866.
Source of the Wannon, 2008.
Thomas Parkes 