Migrating by ship

Migrating by ship Grace migrated from Italy to Australia, and being on the ship is one of her favourite life memories. She had never been on holidays before so it was very exciting to board the ship, and she will always remember this experience. Upon arriving in Australia it was difficult initially as she could […]

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Pentridge Prison

As a result of a greatly increased crime rate in Victoria due to the gold rush, the government decided to establish a number of penal stockades and also make use of abandoned ships. One of these stockades was set up at Pentridge (the old name for Coburg) to receive, in December 1850, sixteen prisoners from […]

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Bruce Kingsbury (1918 – 1942)

Bruce Kingsbury was born in Armadale in 1918.  After working interstate for a while he joined his fathers real estate business in Northcote.   Kingsbury lived in Gilbert Road in West Preston. When the World War II broke out Kingsbury quickly enlisted.   Sent to Palestine Kingsbury saw action in both Egypt and Syria. In 1942, Kingsbury’s […]

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The Whalley brothers

The local Leader newspapers were established in 1888, the Preston and Northcote editions being identical except for the masthead. At the outbreak of the war, the papers were published by the Whalley brothers, (John Stott and Richard James Whalley) and local readers were uniquely fortunate that the proprietors were touring Europe when war was declared.    […]

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