Tom and Libby Luke's Newsletter from Australia

March 2010

The Bards of Gorseth Kernow resident in Victoria appointed John Whitburn of South Australia to take the official Bardic photographs at the recent Eaglehawk Festival.and the above photos are by him. 

Click to see larger photo

Thanks to Jan Brooks  for permission to publish her photos Their are more of Jan's photo's on the Bendigo Cornish Associations Facebook site . (GP)

Hello One and All,

The Festival at Eaglehawk was a great success.

24 Bards were at the gathering and a DVD of photographs will be on it's way to Pat Miller later this week. Number of Bards was down on 29 last year at Wallaroo as age and long distance travel start to overtake so many of our members.

Renewal of our members is an urgent priority for the council to look at as so many of us here are aged and infirm !!!

We do need a strong presence in the Diaspora so we can maintain the Cornish Heritage Worldwide.

Help us please as we nominate younger people to keep us viable !!!

The Message to the Bards and the people of Bendigo from Barth Mur was received with great applause.

Peter Williams "Map Carrek Dhu"  was a magnificent ambassador for Kernow and won the hearts and respect of all he came in contact with.

We erected a plaque in front of the Eaglehawk Town Hall to Lt. Willliam Symons a Cornish boy from Eaglehawk who won a Victoria Cross at Gallipoli.

The local primary school now produce a medal each year in his honour and this is awarded to the School's outstanding pupil. The medal has a photograph of Lt.Symons embedded in it.

Two of the winners were present at the ceremony.

On 2 May we will hold a Cornish church service here in Bendigo at which his grandaughter from Somerset will attend.

During the Festival there was a procession in which over 100 school children did the Floral dance and these were trained by Julie Wheeler who travelled over 1000KM's to spend time and train them,

She was ably assisted by other ladies who spent a week in Eaglehawk.

The children were followed by over 200 Cornish descendants all carrying banners wearing the Cornish Tartan and St.Piran Flags.

Finally nine Bards (Robed) bought up the rear of the Cornish contingent. The applause from the huge crowd assembled was deafening and made one so proud to be Cornish. Four Bards all with Bendigo in their Bardic name marched abreast together.

The Mayor of the Copper Coast in South Australia and Bard Paul Thomas attended and is to invite the Mayor of Bendigo back to Kernewek Lowender next year.

The support of the Mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo Cllr. Rod Campbell for this Festival has been fantastic. He has offered us his support as we now work to place a monument at St.Just Point to commemorate the solidarity between Bendigo and Kernow and remember with pride our ancestors who in the 19th century came from Kernow and made this the worlds richest goldfield. Finally and on a personal note Libby (Rosen Wyn Bendygo) and I have decided to move from Melbourne and live here in Bendigo. I grew up here as did Libby's mum.

We are both 4th generation Bendigonians.

The words "Kernow Bys Vyken" have rang loud and long so many times this last weekend maybe you heard them in Kernow ? !!!

Long may they do so.

The Cornish Association of Bendigo and District has just released a new CD for all you Cornish researchers.

If you had a Cornish ancestor who kicked a stone, :-) had a meal, dug a hole, attended a church service, got married, had children or died in Bendigo then this CD is for you.

On it you will find the names of thousands of Cornish people who came from Cornwall to help make Bendigo  the wonderful city it is today.
Also listed are the names and addresses  of the people who are researching the various names.

There is a list of over 200 Cornish Mining Managers (Captains) who were the men responsible for running Bendigo's numerous mines.

There are two complete books on Long Gully the Cornish Hub of Bendigo including all photographs.

A large majority of the Cornish Miners in Bendigo came from St.Just in Penwith and there is an article on interesting graves in the Pendeen (St.Just) Cemetery.

The list of articles just goes on and on.

This CD is wonderful value and can be purchased for $25 including postage and packaging.

A copy of the CD cover is attached along with a photograph of four of our members marching in the procession at Eaglehawk  who all have Bendigo proudly in their Bardic names.

To order send Cheque or Money Order made out to the:

Cornish Association of Bendigo Inc.
P.O. Box 121
Eaglehawk Vic 3556
Australia

You can contact the Association also by email at: bendigocornish@hotmail.com
Read all about us at our new and vibrant web page just click on: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~bendcorn/  as thousands of others have done.
We are also available on Facebook.

 Kernow bys Vyken...Tom and Libby Luke.

Tom and Libby Luke's Newsletter from Australia

January 2010

Mailing on the 8th Jan 2010

CORNISH FEDERATION OF MALE VOICE CHOIRS

MASSED CHOIR CONCERT

Supporting Those of Cornish Descent Affected

By The Victorian Bush Fires of Last February in Australia

ST MICHAEL’S CHURCH, NEWQUAY

7.30PM, SATURDAY 20^TH FEBRUARY, 2010

On the 7^th February 2009 (‘Black Saturday’) a horrific bush fire swept through St Just Point and Long Gully in Bendigo , Victoria , Australia destroying property and taking a life.  Such an event occurring so very far away would appear to have little more than general humanitarian interest to those who live in the far South West of the UK until one registers the familiarity of one of the locations – St Just Point (sometimes referred to locally as ‘Pasty Point’).  Yes, there is a direct link with a Cornish St Just, that in Penwith, for this area of Australia was settled and developed by Cornish miners who were the only ones deemed skilled enough in hard rock mining to extract the gold that was discovered in the area.  Indeed, an advertisement in the Bendigo Advertiser newspaper of August 1861 read, “Wanted: miners at St Mungo Gold Mining Company Works.  None need apply to John Addicoat except practical miners from St Just, Cornwall .”  Some of the property destroyed in the fire would have been recognisable to anyone familiar with the traditional mining buildings and cottages found within the Duchy and even the names of some of those who perished in the fires of Victoria have a recognisable Cornish connection.

Today, Bendigo is arguably the largest city of Cornish descendants in the world!  It has a thriving and active Cornish Association including seven members of the Gorsedd of Cornish Bards.  Cornish festivals are held regularly in the Greater Bendigo area, with the next, ‘Welcome Back Cousin Jack’, taking place at Eaglehawk in March of this year.  There is enormous and passionate local pride in Bendigo ’s Cornish mining heritage.  It appears that William Tom, a Cornishman, was one of those who first discovered payable gold in Australia in 1851, starting a gold rush which brought in Cornish miners from the South Australian copper fields and then from Cornwall itself.  By 1880 Bendigo had become the world’s richest gold field, a position it held until 1954.  Even the first Australian pound note featured a picture of a Cornish miner drilling in the Victoria Quartz Gold Mine in Bendigo .    By 1881, 49% of all heads of households that were British born in what is now Bendigo were native born Cornishmen while 41% of the females were Cornish.

As the mining settlements expanded and developed professions and businesses other than mining were required and many of these were provided by people of Cornish decent.  Jimmy Jeffery, a Wesleyan lay preacher from Illogan, led the first church service in the area, standing on a stump which is today the site of a church.  Henry Madren Leggo, whose parents came from St Just in Penwith, set up a food processing business which still survives today.  Fletcher Jones, the son of a Cornish miner, set up a tailoring business which eventually became Australia-wide.  Many mayors had Cornish ancestry with names such as, Delbridge, Hoskins, Dunstan, Semmens, Michelson, Bennetts, Truscott, Grainger, Snell, Jeffrey and Nankervis.  James Henry Curnow, born in 1861 in Ludgvan, was mayor five times and, welcoming the Prince of Wales to Bendigo in 1920, stated, to rousing cheers, “Your Highness, as Duke of Cornwall you will be pleased to know that it was the Cousin Jacks who made Bendigo and when your Highness visits the mines this afternoon you will note that 90% of the miners are Cornish.”

The choirs in the Cornish Federation of Male Voice Choirs feel a strong affinity with such passionately Cornish people living so far away from Cornwall, indeed many of the members of the Kernow Male Choir which visited this part of Australia in 2003, singing at the opening ceremony of the world’s largest Cornish festival, the bi-ennial ‘Kernewek Lowender’, were also members of Federation choirs.  The Federation’s first inclination was to raise funds to support those who lost property and/or loved ones as a result of the fire.  However, it appears that a public appeal, insurance companies and the Australian Government have been able to provide what financial support is required.  Consequently, in discussion with members of the Bendigo Cornish Association and the Victoria Cornish Association, it has been decided that it would be both fitting and appropriate for the Federation to contribute to the erection of a monument in the St Just Point area marking and celebrating its Cornish heritage.  As Tom Luke, Past President of the Cornish Association of Victoria, committee member of the Cornish Association of Bendigo and Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd, Bardic name: Colon Hag Enef yn Bendygo (Heart and Soul in Bendigo)) observed, “St Just Point may never look the same again but its Cornish heritage will always be remembered.”  (Tom is also holder of the Paul Smales Award for Service to Cornwall , awarded at Launceston in 2003.)

We invite Cornish people, with or without family connections in Australia , to show their concern for and kinship with their Cornish cousins.  Help the Federation to raise as large a sum as possible to contribute to the erection of this monument by attending the concert presented by a massed choir of the Cornish Federation of Male Voice Choirs at St Michael’s Church, Newquay at 7.30pm on 20^th February 2010.  Admission will be £5, payable on entry.  Ring 01822 612140 to reserve places.  Details are available on the Federation web site www.fed-cornishchoirs.org.uk or ring Jim Christophers on 01822 612140.

Jim Christophers (Publicity Officer, Cornish Federation of Male Voice Choirs)

e-mail:  Jimc49@hotmail.co.uk

Mobile:  07971271693

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Mailing on the 10th Jan 2010

G'Day  One and All,

The Breakfast Program along with Denis Nightingale on BBC Radio Cornwall will be broadcast from our lounge room here in Melbourne on Friday 15th January 2010 from 6AM to 9 AM throughout Cornwall.

This email is going out to approx 400 members worldwide on this Mailing List.

Everyone can hear this program as it will be streamed live on the Internet.

Just go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_cornwall/

If you are in Eastern Australia ( NSW, Vic, Tas.) it will be 5PM to 8PM in but you can judge the time difference from your locality.
In the USA it will still be Thursday !!!

The program will have wonderful music, interviews of local Cornish descendants etc.
We even promise you a real live Australian Weather Bulletin !!!! (hopefully a bit warmer than where many of you are) ?

Denis has travelled the length and breadth of the Commonwealth to put this program together, from Western Australia to the Cornish Capital of Bendigo and much more.
We look forward to welcoming Denis here to Victoria.

We are sure  most the people you hear will be known to so many of you.

Remember now !! turn on the Radio to BBC Radio Cornwall when you get out of bed on Friday morning next the 15th January.

Oll an Gwella...Tom and Libby.

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Mailing on the 22nd Jan 2010

Hello One and All,

Many of you in Cornwall and indeed around the world would have heard the broadcast last Friday morning Cornwall time on the Breakfast program on BBC Radio Cornwall from  here in Melbourne.
Today we would like to show you some photographs taken as the BBC Reporter Denis Nightingale visited Bendigo prior to the broadcast..

During the interviews Libby took some pictures and today we show four of them here

       
Click on photo to see larger version

Some in front of Bendigo's  statue to the Cornish Miner and others at St.Just Point in Bendigo where it is hoped we will be able to erect a monument to the Cornish Miners who made Bendigo the worlds richest goldfield in the 19th Century.

Unfortunately St.Just Point and it's little Cornish miners cottages was razed in the tragic fires of Black Saturday last February.

On 20 February in Newquay in Cornwall the massed Cornish Male Voice Choirs are running a concert to raise funds for this proposed monument.

Featured in the photographs are the Mayor of Bendigo Cllr. Rod Campbell whose support has been tremendous, George Ellis and Tom Luke of the Bendigo Cornish Association and Interviewer Denis Nightingale of BBC Radio Cornwall.

Enjoy the photographs.
Best wishes...Libby and Tom.

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Mailed on 26th Jan. 2010

Hello One and All,

We have received the following message from Bill Phillips Patron of the Cornish Association of Victoria:

"Nicholas Pryor has just phoned to say that Vivian passed away peacefully , Monday 25th January in  Newquay Hospital, As he had said he was surrounded by Cornish nurses and was happy in the Hospital. He had been there a few days after a fall.

He had many visitors whilst in the hospital .Nicholas is the central contact, and any messages can be sent to his email address which is nicholaspryor@sotheby-roadco.uk.

Vivian was aged 92..

Could folk please pass this message on."

Click to larger photo

The Cornish world is much the poorer for the passing of this grand old man.
He was aged 92.

To us and so many others in both Cornwall and the huge Cornish Diaspora he was our friend and we will miss him.
Always the first Christmas card to arrive and his visits to us here in Australia were welcomed by One and All

His lovely letter to Libby when she was made a Bard is one she will always treasure

He is shown here proudly carrying the Banner of the Cornish Association of Victoria at Gorseth Kernow.

When in 2002 we had a plaque unveiled at the birthplace of Sir John Quick a famous Cornish born Australian at Trevessa Farm at Towednack in Cornwall Vivian proudly carried the Banner of the South Australian Cornish Association.
We are sure whenever we watch the DVD of that event we will remember with pride our two great friends and great Cornishmen John Bolitho and Vivian Pryor.

Vivian was made a Bard of Gorseth Kernow in 2007 and took the Bardic name of: Map Prospennek Annell (Son of Prospennek Annell)

Farewell dear friend we will miss you but have many happy memories to share. Mur Ras.

On behalf of "One and All" ...Tom and Libby.

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