Lake Weeroona [Bendigo, Vic. Australia]

[Roderick Smith]

I am not researching this one today.
I can't recall if it had cruise ferries when I visited the city in 1961.
On a quick google, here is a cruise ferry, c1900, but not paddle:
www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/0/1/doc/a01532.shtml

Bendigo is Victoria's fourth-largest city, also developed from a goldmining background.
The lake is ornamental and recreational, and one could expect a boating history similar to that of Lake Wendouree.  However, there is no book and no preservation project with a website to kickstart research.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Eddy Matthews]

Just as a matter of interest for those of us who aren't from Aus.... Is Bendigo pronounced "Bendy-Go" or "Ben-Die-Go"?

Regards
Eddy

[Roderick Smith]

Pronunciation: Bendy-go

The area was originally Sandhurst.
The name was adopted from a prize fighter 'Abednigo', named after a biblical character.
It seems to be a nickname which became formalised.  I would have to search for the date, late 19th century.  As with Ballarat, the city features magnificent period architecture.  It also has an operating tram museum, running along city streets through the heart of the city.

Linking to other threads: it was the rich Sandhurst goldfields which spawned Murray River paddlesteamer commerce.  Randell was bringing a cargo of flour from the family mill to the Campaspe & Murray confluence (the site of the future Echuca), from which it was a relatively-short haul by bullock dray to the goldfields.  When railway construction got underway in the 1850s, the earliest line was Melbourne - Sandridge (city to port); there were some more urban ones; 1857 for Melbourne - Geelong (the largest two cities in the state); already work was in progress on Melbourne - Mt Alexander & Murray Railway: Melbourne via Castlemaine (another gold city) and Sandhurst (reached in 1862) and on to Echuca (reached in 1864).

In the topic which led to this one, I have just resequenced the material for Lake Wendouree, and added more.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[derekwarner_decoy]

OK PD's...I am "as OZ" as anyone from the First Fleet......

I understand that Roderick was a respected  teacher from a school of learning.... ......however the simplistic & correct pronunciation is Bend-E-Go

Funny thing this English language 

Bendy = able to be bent is OK & sounds correct...but Y is pronunced wy, whi or why...so therefore Bendigo cannot be pronunced as Bend-why-go ...or 

[Roderick Smith]

Perhaps try Ben-Dee-Go or BenDeeGo
The three syllables have equal weight; none is stressed.

Likewise, in pronouncing Melbourne, the two syllables have equal weight (MelBern, usually MelB'n, never MelBorn)

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[thewharfonline]

I've always pronounced it Ben- dig- o

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's.....I must admit Sean ....Ben- dig- o....sounds pretty good too....Derek

[jock]

As I come from that town and we pronounce it ben dee go.
As for lake weeroona the only boat I have seen are rowing boats, there is a 500m course when there is some water in it.
They havn't been game to clean it out because of the run off from the local saleyards over a number of years.
Jock

[Roderick Smith]

I have now checked my father's diary and photographs.
We went to Bendigo by train on Sun.5.3.61 (only 3 weeks before the Ballarat day by train, which spawned the Lake Wendouree topic).

We visited the lake.  There was no mention of a public cruise in the diary, and no photograph.  This hints that there was no public-cruise boat in that era.

I enclose the one photo of the day taken at the lake.  It  shows another classic hire-fleet pedalo (I have a couple of photos of this style of paddleboat in an APAM thread).  The boat sheds are the same ones which showed in the link offered earlier in the thread: 60 years separating the two photographs.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[jock]

There is a restraunt on that site now and with the low water level you can see the remaining stumps.
JOCK

[Walter Snowdon]

Many many many years ago I used to sing a 19th century folk song called BENDIGO THE CHAMPION OF ENGLAND. Apparently he fought a bare-knuckle fight with a boxer called CAUNT(?) for 88 rounds. At present I can only remember the last verse.

  So we"ll drink success to Bendigo who made such gallant play,
  for by his skill he won the mill and bore the prize away.

 Bendigo is a fairly common Cornish and Devon surname. I know its nothing to do with paddlers, but I also love folk music!  Regards, Walter.

[Eddy Matthews]

I know its nothing to do with paddlers, but I also love folk music!  Regards, Walter.

So YOUR the one!! 

Eddy

[Roderick Smith]

It was interesting to see a possible Cornish connection.  Particularly in South Australia, mining attracted many Cornish immigrants.

Here is the information in www.bendigo.ws/Chronology:
The area was originally known as Bendigo's Creek, named for an employee on a local property who was nicknamed "Bendigo" after the famous English prize fighter William "Bendigo" Thompson. The area was settled in 1851, proclaimed a municipality in 1855, a borough in 1863 and a city in 1871. The town was officially known as Sandhurst, after a town by the same name in England, but the name Bendigo was restored in 1891.  [VR renamed the station from 1.9.1891]
Bendigo grew as a result of gold mining in the mid to late 19th century and saw a large influx of Chinese to the area who knew it only as dae gum san or "Big Gold Mountain". Bendigo actually produced much more gold than rival town Ballarat but had fewer and smaller mines. The mines were deeper and the culture was more corporate than Ballarat.

Continuing the hunt for ferry photos
* www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/b/0/0/doc/b00785.shtml: a 1940s view of the lake, with a glimpse of the boathouses, and no ferry visible.
* www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/0/1/doc/a01508.shtml: a 1918 postcard, with no hint of a ferry.

There is a research avenue via Bendigo Historical Society: it researches for a fee.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor