"Inside History" July-August edition is now on sale and has a feature article about the "Pioneers and Suffragists" book that we are launching in Colac on Saturday 18th July.
Descendants of the women featured in the book are making their way to Colac, South West Victoria to celebrate these amazing women who were true pioneers of white settlement.
The last four years researching these women has been a humbling experience, learning about their reslience and stoicism in the face of adversity.  Students and supporters of women's liberation will be able to reflect on how much has been achieved, and perhaps be re-invigorated in the quest for true equality. Our female forebears would expect no less.

Colac Cemetery and the Pioneering Women

The Colac Cemetery Trust has offered to open the Colac Cemetery on the weekend of the launch of "Pioneers and Suffragists" August 18 and 19, and to have staff on hand to assist descendants to find the gravesites of the women.
This is a generous gesture and a great opportunity.

We will prepare a list of our women who are buried in the cemetery and the Trust is going to do their best to locate the gravesites prior to the weekend.

Another good reason to come along to the launch and perhaps spend the weekend in Colac, renewing relationships, finding new connections and collecting other family tree information.

A dream day

Lynne Johnston - our new team member - and I just spent the full day at the Public Records Office and uncovered some really great information from Wills and Probate papers.

Hopefully now we will be able to track down some more information on the elusive Sharrow family. There were four in the family that signed the 1891 petition in Colac. A mother, two of her daughters and her daughter in law and yet we haven't been able to track down many people associated with this prominent Colac pioneering family.

Thomas Sharrow, and later his son also Thomas,both undertakers, buried many of the pioneers of the Colac district.  There has to be a photo somewhere.

Inside History

Very exciting news.  The story about this project will be in the 11th edition of Inside History, July /August 2012.  It will hit the news-stands mid June.

Righting History

Yes, thats the correct spelling!

This is about the forgotten part of white settlement - the lives of some of the women pioneers and suffragists.

In 1891, 30,000 women across Victoria signed the Monster Petition in support of Victorian women gaining the vote.

This project is about the 360 women who signed the petition in the Colac district.

The only information on the petition is the women's names and towns where they lived. Our aim is to find out who these women were, what their lives were like and where possible, to obtain photographs and anecdotal information from descendants.

The research began in 2007 and over 95% of the women have been identified and 80 photographs found.

A small team of obsessive researchers has been working on the project and the outcome will be a book that will ensure these women are given their rightful place in history.

Your comments and contributions are most welcome.