SAMUEL MAUGER & THE FIRE SERVICES MUSEUM

Samuel Mauger Jr (pronounced "Major" - 12 November 1857 – 26 June 1936) was an Australian social reformer, hat manufacturing unionist and a Protectionist politician. He was born in Geelong, Victoria, son of immigrants from Guernsey, Channel Islands, Samuel Mauger Senior and Caroline née Liz who migrated to Australia in the 1850s. Mauger junior was educated at the Geelong National School, but left school early to become an errand boy for a hat maker when his father contracted rheumatic fever. Mauger later owned the hat manufacturing business. Mauger was a Bible class teacher at St Mark's Church of England in Fitzroy. He later became the Sunday-school superintendent at St Paul's Congregational Church in North Fitzroy. On 13 May 1880, Mauger married Hanna Rice who he had metat St Mark's; they eventually had four sons and four daughters.

Mauger held various memberships to various organisations. He was a superintendent in the Fire Brigades' Association of Victoria and four times president of the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board. Mauger was one of the founders and secretary of the Anti-Sweating League (against sweatshops in manufacturing) from 1895. Mauger was on the Board enquiry for unemployment in 1899 and involved in the royal commission of Victorian factories and shops law in 1900.

Being a devout Christian of the Australian Church, Mauger was president of the Young Men's Christian Association and president of the Melbourne Total Abstinence Society. Mauger attempted to run for politics in various State electorates before becoming a Member of Parliament. He stood for the seat of Fitzroy in 1892, South Melbourne in 1896 and Portland in 1897. In 1900, Mauger was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly to the seat of Footscray. He held the seat of Footscray until May 1901, where he resigned from State politics and ran for Federal politics. Mauger was the first member for Melbourne Ports in 1901 until his defeat to ALP candidate James Mathews in 1906. Mauger then shortly got elected to the Federal seat of Maribyrnong and became the electorate's first Federal Member of Parliament. He was a Minister without a Portfolio from 1906 until 1907 and then Postmaster-General until 1908.

Mauger lost his seat of Maribyrnong to ALP candidate James Fenton in 1910. Mauger ran for the Victorian Senate in 1913 and 1914, but failed to get elected. He was an ardent protectionist and was for some time honorary secretary of the protectionists' association of Victoria; he was for a time president of the Melbourne Total Abstinence Society, and chairman of the Indeterminate Sentences Board; and he presumably found some time for his business as a hatter and mercer. For about 50 years in every movement in Melbourne intended to better the conditions of the mass of the people, Mauger was to be found working incessantly and showing much organising ability.

In 1934 Mauger wrote a brochure on "The Rise and Progress of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Victoria, Australia", on page 29 some verses relating to the success of the staff fund illustrate his philosophy of life. Basically it was that if anything is brought forward for the good of humanity, difficulties will vanish if the problem is tackled with sufficient courage. Mauger died in Elsternwick, Victoria and is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery. At his funeral, he was given a fire guard honour.

In East Melbourne, adjacent to the city on Victoria Parade, there is a monument to Mauger opposite the old Eastern Hill Fire Station, which is now the Fire Services Museum.

This post is part of the Taphophile tragics meme hosted by Julie,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme.

The central reserve of Victoria Parade in East Melbourne, along which the tram tracks run

The monument to Samuel Mauger in the central reserve of Victoria Parade, opposite the Eastern Hill Fire Station. In the background is St Vincent's Hospital

The inscription reads: "Erected by Commonwealth Admirers in Memory of Samuel Mauger, Born 1857 - Died 1936. Industrial, Prison, Temperance & Social Reformer. He Gave His Life to the Service of Mankind. This Memorial is Erected to Commemorate the Life and Achievement of one who Spent his Years in Seeking to Serve his Fellow-Men. 'Go Thou and Do Likewise'. 26th June 1937." 

The old Eastern Hill Fire Station, now the Fire Services Museum

The Board Room in the Museum. The figure on the left is Samuel Mauger, in his role as president of the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board

Painting titled "1891-1991 Celebration of a Century" by R Horne (an ex-fireman), installed on 25th August 1992

The Fire Chief's Office

The first floor Watchroom

Fire Services Museum Victoria provides a home and focus for the history of fire fighting services in Victoria. The Museum includes a collection of over 10,000 fire related items, the largest collection in Australia, featuring fire brigades, fire appliances, personnel histories, memorabilia and associated items.

Part of the protective equipment display

The international fire services room

Country Fire Authority room - Large painting by Jamie Cooper titled: "Spirit of CFA"

ARTISTS' SUPPLIES, CITY

This Artists' Supplies shop in Little La Trobe St in the City has an interesting façade, which is in keeping with its merchandise. I love shopping here and the shop has an immense range of supplies on the ground and first floor. Even when I don;t buy things there, I love to browse and talk to the staff about paints, paper, canvas, pencils, etc.

The detail of the mural shows several renderings of Ned Kelly, the famous bushranger of the 19th century. Edward "Ned" Kelly (June 1854/June 1855 – 11 November 1880) was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class. Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish convict father, and as a young man he clashed with the Victoria Police. Following an incident at his home in 1878, police parties searched for him in the bush. After he killed three policemen, the colony proclaimed Kelly and his gang wanted outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police took place at Glenrowan on 28 June 1880. Kelly, dressed in home-made plate metal armour and helmet (see him in his full armour at the extreme right? It's the man wiht a bucket on his head :-), was captured and sent to jail. He was convicted of three counts of capital murder and hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in November 1880. His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folklore, literature, art and film.

This post is part of the Monday Murals meme.

SUNDAY MARKET, BUNDOORA

There are many Sunday markets all over Melbourne, usually held in the morning and having all sorts of things on offer to buy. Trash & Treasure stalls, food kiosks, fresh produce, clothing, footwear, kitchenware, garden needs and tools, plants, etc, etc. Not to forget the entertainment: Buskers of all kinds - musicians, magicians, living statues, singers.

This market is regularly held in the car park of Latrobe University in Bundoora, rain or shine! The rain will not deter most stall holders and quite a few people will venture out in order to purchase what they need (and often what they don't), even in rainy weather!

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme hosted by James.

The rain won't keep the customers away, although admittedly on a fine day, it is quite crowded

His trumpet did sound a little hoarse...

Turkish spinach and cheese pies freshly made on sale

One type of merchandise that actually likes the rain!

Look into the waters and reflect...

QUEEN VICTORIA VILLAGE, MELBOURNE

Queen Victoria Village, generally known as QV Village or just QV, is a precinct in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. Covering the city block bounded by Lonsdale, Little Lonsdale, Swanston, and Russell Streets, and located directly opposite the State Library of Victoria and Melbourne Central, QV comprises a large shopping centre, a central plaza, an underground food court, Melbourne central city's first full-size supermarket, apartment buildings, and the global headquarters of BHP Billiton. Queen Victoria Village takes its name from the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne which formerly occupied the site.

The site was originally the Melbourne Hospital, built in the 1860s and designed in the gothic revival style, it was completey rebuilt between 1911–1912 by architect John James Clark to accommodate a larger number of patients and renamed in honour of Queen Victoria. The hospital was composed of several Edwardian pavilions or loggia, each of them with fanciful domed cupolas except for a corner building, which was based on a square plan and more of the Richardsonian Romanesque style. A women's hospital opened on the site in 1946. The hospital was closed in 1987, and the site was valued at A$63 million in 1987. It was eventually sold for merely $15 million to property developer David Marinner in 1992. All but three of the hospital pavilions were demolished in the following year.

The "urban village" of QV is a high-density, mixed use precinct containing retail, business, and living spaces. The site is split into four main structures, named QV1 through QV4, two of which are skyscrapers, the remainder being low-rise structures along Swanston Street (owing to strict height limits along the Swanston Street axis). The spaces between buildings were specifically designed as shop-filled laneways, pointing to Melbourne's historic lanes and arcades, many of which no longer exist due to the amalgamation of plots to build office buildings. These new laneways are named for figures in medicine: Jane Bell Lane, Albert Coates Lane, Artemis Lane, and Red Cape Lane. At the centre of the site is an open-air public square, behind the historic Women's Centre, housed in the remaining original hospital pavilion. QV began to open progressively from late 2003, and is now complete.

BHP Billiton has its world headquarters located in the skyscraper located on the corner of Lonsdale and Russell Streets. This building also houses offices of Telstra, GHD and Accenture.

This post is part of the Walk in the Streets Challenge meme.

MORNING COMMUTERS

I have blogged before about our Flinders St Train Station in the City. Here are some photos from this morning as I was commuting into work. Early in the morning (6:34 am) as you can see, the station and trains are not so crowded and make for a good commuting experience. Also, our public transport is free early in the morning, provided your trip finishes by 7:00 am. This makes for a less congested system at peak hour, which can get very crowded with packed trains, buses and trams.

This post is part of Lesley's Signs, Signs meme.

MELBOURNE WEATHER

There's a wry saying amongst Melburnians (mainly directed against complaining tourists!) that "If you don't like Melbourne weather, wait five minutes..." It is true that we have a lot of weather and it changes a lot. Several years ago in late Summer I personally experienced this very dramatically: We had been having an exceedingly hot day that is common every now and then in February, with the mercury climbing to about 44˚C. In the afternoon, after sweltering all day, in the space of half an hour a cool change came through and the mercury dropped down to about 14˚C - true story!

Here's is a photographic record of another such change of the kind that frequently swoops through our city. A lovely morning in the City as can be seen in the first photo, and as the change comes through, a drop in temperature and the rain begins to pelt down, the remaining photos taken at my local train station when I got home! This occurred on the 16th of February this year.

This post is part of the Watery World meme,
and also part of the Nature Footsteps Waters meme.

MELBOURNE CEMETERY 3: JEWISH SECTION

The Jewish community in Melbourne is a strong, vibrant and flourishing part of the social fabric of our metropolis for many decades now. Currently Melbourne has about 50,000 Jewish inhabitants. It is not surprising that the Jewish section of the Melbourne General Cemetery is a large area in the Southern part, where many of our citizens have been buried, including some prominent ones.

It is a very well maintained part of the cemetery, and most graves are simple and unostentatious.  Some more monumental graves are to be found here and there, but even they are quite restrained. The inscriptions on the headstones are mostly bilingual (Hebrew/English) and the Star of David is to be found on nearly all grave markers. A historic Metahar House (Jewish Chapel) is found in this section of the cemetery. Also, a Holocaust Memorial is to be found there.

This part of Julie's Taphophile Tragics meme.