Annie Beauchamp takes her first aeroplane ride aged 93

Herald, 16 November 1951

The newspaper article that goes with this photo tells us that this was Annie Beauchamp's first trip in an aeroplane and that she was travelling to Bathurst. It also tells us that 'in her early days Mrs Beauchamp travelled from Pentridge (now Coburg) to the city by horse bus. This probably took longer than today's air trip,' said the newspaper.

Annie as a younger woman. Image courtesy Louise Ruzic.

Annie Beauchamp’s father, Thomas Watts was seven years old when he arrived in Victoria with his family from his home town of Worle in Somerset.

Ten years later, aged 17, he married Sarah Banwell and the couple settled at Pentridge where their first child Annie (later Annie Beauchamp) was born in 1859.

Soon after her birth, Sarah took baby Annie home to visit her family in Somerset, because they are both recorded on the 1861 Census at Weston Super Mare. So Annie’s journey to visit family at the start of her life is mirrored by the aeroplane trip to Bathurst that she made at the other end of her life.

Annie was one of 9 children born to Thomas and Sarah Watts, although three of them died as infants. She was the only surviving girl. The first children's births were registered in either Pentridge or Newlands but from the early 1870s their children were born in either Moonee Ponds or Essendon.

In 1890, when she was 31 (quite old to be a first-time bride in those times), Annie Watts married William Beauchamp and settled in the Moonee Ponds area. The couple had two children – Eva born in 1891 and Arthur born in 1893.

After her husband’s death in 1905, Annie remained in Moonee Ponds until the mid-1920s when she moved to nearby Essendon.

Annie's daughter Eva divorced her first husband in 1936, remarried and moved to Bathurst in New South Wales.

The photo you see here is of Annie aged 93, taking her first ever plane trip to visit her daughter, now Eva Sutherland.

Annie died a year later, on 23 November 1952 and is buried at the Bathurst Cemetery. Her daughter Eva died in 1962 and her son Arthur in 1965.

Fun at the Coburg Fair - Sports Carnival, February 1925

Argus, 2 February 1925

The annual Sporting Carnival, held on what is now known as Bridges Reserve, raised money to improve the City's playgrounds and reserves. You see here a 'swan pond', provided by the Coburg Horticultural Society. The aim was to try use the rods (and rings) to ensnare miniature water fowl (toys, of course, not the real thing).

The Carnivals were well patronised annual events and for many years drew huge crowds. 

Athletics and cross country running may not have stood up against footy and cricket as must-do and must-see activities, but they were still very popular. 

Coburg Harriers Athletics Club was founded in 1896 and is still going, so it has long history in the area. If you'd like to read more about the Club's history in Coburg, you can do so here.

Floods in Coburg, October 1916

The rain's been coming down in buckets over the past few days and each morning I've gone out to find another 20mm or more in the rain gauge. Since last Thursday I've recorded 80mm - amazing.

The garden beds are very boggy, but the plants seem to love it, and so do I when I see the first of the broad bean shoots coming through the ground.

Let's hope it eases off now and we see some sunshine again soon. We could all do with some sunshine in our lives right now!

Taking you back 100 or so years now ...

The world was in the middle of a devastating world war when the photographs you see below were taken. 

A few months before (in July) Australian troops suffered more than five and a half thousand casualties in a two-day period at Fromelles. And between 23 July and 3 September 1916 23,000 Australians were killed or wounded in action at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm in France. Statistics like these certainly put the damage done by the October floods into perspective.

These two photos were featured in the Weekly Times, 7 October 1916, The first is of the Merri Creek in flood at Coburg. The second is of the Coburg Weir (at Coburg Lake) overflowing. The photographer was E. Moody.

And to put these floods into perspective again, the men at the Front had a terrible time over the (European) winter of 1916/17. The Somme campaign ended on 18 November but Australian troops manned the trenches during the bitter winter that followed. Rain, mud and slush turned to ice and the ground froze. Morale was low as men fell ill with rheumatism, bronchitis, trench foot and frost-bite and there were constant enemy raids and shelling.

One member of the 15th Battalion wrote 'One would open a tin of fruit or meat to find ice inside, or see liquid, spilled on his coat, freeze in a minute. The bread came frozen so hard that an ordinary knife made hardly an impression on it...'

Floods seem like nothing in comparison.