Media Release

Treasures on Tour!

The pistol that Peter Lalor is said to have used at the Eureka Stockade, the diary of a Welsh swagman who lived in central Victoria and the silver trowel presented to Redmond Barry, when he laid the foundation stone of the Ballarat East Public Library.

These are some of the State Library of Victoria’s Travelling Treasures that will be touring around country Victoria during May, 2004. It’s all part of a year-long program of events, exhibitions and activities celebrating the 150th anniversary of the laying of the Library’s foundation stone on 3 July 1854.

Travelling Treasures will visit a number of regional centres during 2004. The program includes: Shepparton, Wangaratta, Wodonga during April; Ballarat, Maryborough, Sale, Morwell during May; and Geelong, Ocean Grove, Portland, Warrnambool, Hamilton and Bendigo during August/September.

Library collection experts will take to the road with selected treasures, visiting regional public libraries and schools, providing first hand access to rare manuscripts, books and artefacts.

Travelling Treasures will visit a host school during the day and in the evening at the library in each town free talks by heritage collection specialists will offer audience members an opportunity to ask questions and view the treasures.

In May, State Library of Victoria Director of Collection and Services, Shane Carmody, and his team will be taking the following treasures to Ballarat and Maryborough.

Peter Lalor’s pistol

Trouble was brewing on the Victorian Goldfields in 1853 and 1854. Miners were increasingly angered by the Mining License fee of thirty shillings a month imposed by the government, and the system by which fees were collected. In mid-1853 an Anti-Gold License Association was formed in Bendigo, a petition was drawn up, signed by somewhere between 5000 and 6000 diggers from all the Victorian goldfields and presented to Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe. The petition, once thought to have been lost, was presented to the State Library in 1988.

In 1854 the grievances regarding the license issue came to a head in the struggle between miners, police and troops known as the Eureka Stockade riot. The group of miners inside the stockade were led by Peter Lalor, who survived the brief battle, though badly wounded; he was pardoned in the subsequent amnesty. The Library has in its collection a pistol that belonged to Lalor and which he is said to have used at Eureka.

The Diary of a Welsh Swagman

Joseph Jenkins was born at Blaenplwyf, Cardiganshire, West Wales, and lived on his parents' farm until he married at the age of 28. He then had his own farm, named Trecefel, at Tregaron. He left his wife and family and emigrated to Victoria in 1869. He wrote poetry, specialising in the englynion, a Welsh verse form, and kept diaries from the age of 21 until he died. Between 1869 and 1895, Jenkins lived much of his life in central Victoria including Maldon, Ballarat and Castlemaine. This diary records his experiences as an itinerant agricultural labourer and provides a rare insight into his life and the nature of the society in which he worked. The diary provides a reflective view of Jenkins’ life and details the day-to-day tasks in a developing colony; splitting timber, digging ditches, hanging gates and fencing.

Joseph Jenkins’ diary is a rare, day-to-day record of the life of an agricultural labourer. Difficult conditions and a limited education usually prevented a person keeping such a detailed record of daily life, but Jenkins was not a typical labourer or swagman. He had literary as well as literacy skills and placed great value on maintaining his diary, especially during his time in Australia. Jenkins returned to his home in Wales in 1894.

Redmond Barry’s Ballarat trowel

Redmond Barry was an Anglo-Irish lawyer who settled in Melbourne in 1839 when the city was just a ramshackle village rising from a vast, flat marsh. By the time of his death, in 1880, he had helped to establish both the Melbourne Public Library and the University of Melbourne and contributed, like almost no other, to just about every aspect of the city’s legal, social and cultural growth. It was Redmond Barry who sentenced Ned Kelly to death.

In the mid-19th century, the colony of Victoria was awash with wealth from the goldfields and home to nearly half the nation’s population. Recently separated from the colony of New South Wales, Victorians were optimistic and wildly ambitious. Citizens such as Redmond Barry sought a balance against the worst excesses of the gold rushes, desiring instead to make a long-term, social investment in the future of the colony.

They resolved that land and funds should be set aside for the construction of ‘civilising institutions’ – chief among them, libraries. Redmond Barry would have been delighted to accept the invitation to lay the foundation stone of any new library.      

This engraved silver trowel was presented to Redmond Barry on the occasion of his laying the foundation stone of the Ballarat East Public Library, 21st January 1867. 

Travelling Treasures will visit:

Ballarat on Tuesday & Wednesday 4 & 5 May
Sebastapol Secondary College during Tuesday and St Patrick’s College during Wednesday 
Ballarat Public Library, 178 Doveton Street North, Ballarat
Session times: 6pm-7pm & 7.30pm-8.30pm.
Bookings: 03 5332 2615 

Maryborough on Thursday 6 May 
Daylesford Secondary College during the day. 
Maryborough Public Library, Resource Centre, cnr Alma & Nolan Streets, Maryborough
Session times: 6pm–7pm & 7.30pm–8.30pm.
Bookings: 03 5461 1950

Evening sessions are free of charge but bookings are essential.