Insight into historical chapter

A MOORABOOL author will share the story of one of her English ancestors, and the challenges that came with moving to the region, at a free session this weekend.

Jenny Trewhella has lived in Bacchus Marsh since 1996, but it was at Blackwood where her great grandmother made home in the 1850s, after moving from Cornwall.

Ms Trewhella said her great grandfather, Ben, had moved to the area in 1854, mining at the Garden of St. Erth, but it wasn’t until 1858 that his wife Betsey and their children came over to join him.

While Victorian history from the period is full of stories of miners trying to make their fortune striking gold, Ms Trewhella said the wives and children back home are less often talked about.

“It was common in Cornish history that husbands all did this, because the tin mines had run dry. There was no income coming in, so they started coming over here,” she said.

“A lot has been recorded about the Trewhella brothers and their mining and engineering achievements, but I wondered about the lives of the women and children.”

This, she said, was what inspired her to write Over the Log – a Tale of Pioneering Women.

“On arriving in the late afternoon at Barrys Reef, and seeing the small hut opposite that Ben had built, Betsey was shocked to discover that to reach it, she had to cross a log bridge,” Ms Trewhella said.

“After all those challenges, she said to Ben, ‘once I cross that log I’m never going back’, meaning back to Cornwall. And sure enough, once she was ‘over the log’, they never went back.

“I want to share the history of the women in those day. When the children got really sick there was no hospital, there were no high schools, and then on the personal scale, there were no bathrooms, just a tin bath once a week in front of the fire.”

Ms Trewhella will be holding a free BacchChat session at Lerderderg Library on Saturday 2 March, between 10am and 12pm.

The first hour will include a presentation, while a morning tea and discussion on how she wrote the book will take place in the second hour.

For more information and to book a free place at the BacchChat session, visit Moorabool Shire Council’s website and search ‘Over the Log’.