A story to tell under the umbrella

LIKE Ballarat’s shoppers of yesteryear, it’s time to Look for the Red Umbrella.

Local researcher Geoff McArthur is publishing his first non-fiction book about the city’s foremost umbrella salesperson of the mid-to-late 19th century.

The story follows Margaret Muller, and her family, who went on to have a thriving chain of umbrella shops in Ballarat and Bendigo in the 1870s and 1880s.

“The book is set amongst the streets and shops we know so well, predominantly in Sturt Street and Bridge Street,” McArthur said. “One of the shops was in the Old Colonists’ building on Lydiard Street.

“Mrs Muller’s husband ended up in Pentridge Prison. She showed incredible strength and resilience to save the business and expand it.

“At a time where business was dominated by men, what she achieved was quite remarkable.

“Through my research, I have retrieved many great newspaper reports of the incidents surrounding them, letters to the editors and court reports.”

McArthur began to focus on this part of Ballarat’s history when he discovered Agnes Greig, Mrs Muller’s older sister, had lived in his home on Rodier Street.

“I found out the family had been witnesses to the Eureka Stockade, and that Agnes’ sister had married a man who became an umbrella manufacturer,” he said.

“I left it for 30 years, but after I retired from being a schoolteacher… I set off to investigate the story.

“As I dug into Trove, I realised something had happened to the family. It was like a massive jigsaw puzzle; crime, deaths, all sorts of things. It was a story that needed to be told.

“I spent a year pulling all these stories together, trying to work out what had happened, and gradually it all started to piece together into quite a remarkable story about the family, and the father, who had been a civic leader involved in scandal.”

Look for the Red Umbrella is not only the title of the book but was the advertising slogan of Mrs Muller’s chain of shops.

McArthur expects local readers will enjoy for the familiar scenery. It is set for release next week, and copies can be purchased at bit.ly/3NgjHlW.