The long Toodyay chronology: events in Toodyay’s history. Part 1, 1829-1900. 2nd ed. (2011)

Description

Author: Compiled by Beth Frayne. Publication details: Toodyay WA: Toodyay Historical Society, 2011. Third printing (with minor typographical corrections), June 2016.  (Toodyay Historical Society publication series; no. 1)  vi, 66, 48 p.: bib. Index. “Launched on 6 August 2011 on the occasion of the Toodyay 175th Anniversary History Quiz, held in the Toodyay Memorial Hall.”

From the Introduction by the compiler:

“The Long Toodyay Chronology is primarily a reference work for the members of the Toodyay Historical Society. It is a self-serve, fast fact finder to help remind us of the critical events and dates in Toodyay’s history. It brings together events on the same page that allows us to see correlations in the happenings in Toodyay, and perhaps causes and effects. Only events that can be matched to at least a year have been included, as this work does not aim to be a broad analytical history. The intention is to identify a day and month for events where possible and appropriate, and confirm this information in primary and secondary sources.

Dates relating to firsts and lasts, building and demolition, beginnings and endings, main street and heritage precinct activities, landscape changes, important events and amusing ‘not so important’ events have been included. There are some facts about people, but not everyone, of course. Other sources specialize in this sort of biographical information. However, people holding significant positions, particularly in local government, have been included.

This second edition of Part 1 (1829-1900) of the Chronology is now quite a hefty work. I have become much more familiar with Western Australian content of the National Library of Australia’s TROVE service (http://trove.nla.gov.au), which offers free online access to digitized and searchable Australian newspapers. I did think I would have to get on and read the microfilmed Inquirer newspaper at the J.S Battye Library of West Australian History, but, lo and behold, this paper is also starting to appear on TROVE. This is a great relief as reading those old microfilmed papers is a sore trial to one’s eyes. …”