Veritable Heritage

Three influences in the one picture. 

Jack Mundy was president of the NSW Builders Labourers Federation from 1968 to 74 when he led the union to improve safety on building sites, but also to campsign for social and environmental improvements. He instigated the Green Bans that saved many historic buildings from destruction and forced developers to retain parkland and social housing.

GoughWhitlam, in his brief stint as PM and with the most radical government agenda in Australia's history, spiked the punch of cultural heritage in the early 70s by establishing the Australia Council and the Australian Heritage Commission. He also created opportunities for me snd countless others with no fee tertiary education (giving me somewhere to go other than factory work), no fault divorce (freeing my parents from each other), abolishing conscription (freeing me of the fear of war), supporting mothers' pension, (freeing my single sister from a life of struggle) and many other things that improved my family's life.

Verity Burgman was my lecturer in history at Melbourne Uni and although I didn't realise it at the time, turned me on to concepts of social justice and class. Her surprise at my approach to an essay on the environmental and social damage of American Railways in the 19th century made me realise everybody didn't already think like that.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/labourhistorymelbourne.org/2020/05/17/jack-mundey/amp/

Markwood Mill

Tucked in behind farm buildings between Everton and Markwood in northeast Victoria, is the only surviving standing building from a nineteenth century small scale water powered flour mill (as opposed to the huge Anderson Mill complex at Smeaton).

The "Ovens River Flour Mill" was constructed in about 1867 by partners James Henley and Jonathon Thomas Bell. Bell described himself as a mill owner in an 1868 inquiry into the death of Michael Manning, an employee at the mill, who accidentally drowned in the Ovens River.

In 1879 Bell left for Europe and held a clearing sale at the mill, after which little is heard about it, so presumably it had ceased milling.

The mill is a substantial structure of local sedimentary stone, with a grid of 4x2 290 mm square posts supporting two upper floor levels. the floorboards and beams were removed at some point to accommodate tobacco drying sticks. Shafts and pulleys from former milling equipment are also located in the roof space.

Evidence of the main wheel shaft and gearing can be glimpsed through gaps in the floor, and bolts from the bearings near the wheel pit. The shaft passed through the water wall through an arched opening.