Mount Victoria Museum
UPPER BLUE MOUNTAINS & DISTRICT HISTORY
THE MUSEUM is OPEN on Saturdays noon midday to 3 pm
GROUP BOOKINGS 7 days per week – enquiries via our Group Bookings page
Location: 35A Station Street, Mt Victoria NSW 2786, Australia. The Mount Victoria Museum is housed in 16 rooms including the old Refreshment Room, entrance at the rear of Mt Victoria Railway Station.
Entry fee: $8 adults and $1 children
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Find us here — right at the train station in Mt. Victoria.
From The Archives
ANZAC Day - follow the link to a short history of the first WW1 Volunteer from Mt Victoria, Louis Charles Andrew Meurant, wounded at Gallipoli on the 5th May 1915.
Mt Victoria Memorial - A Tribute to the Brave
The Lithgow Mercury of Friday December 15th 1916 (p6) reported the minutes of the Mount Victoria Progress Association.
A motion was put to the meeting by Mr Sheppard and Seconded by Mr Rook:
“Subscriptions should at once be called for with the object of installing a roll of honour in the pavilion with the names of all of the men who have enlisted from Mount Victoria and District.”
The creation of the monument grew from this initial motion.
The design was by Oswald G Rienits (son of H Rienits, The School, Mt Victoria)
Builder: Thomas Lanfranchi, Plasterer: James A Teer
The Memorial was unveiled on the 3rd of June 1918
Anomalies
At unveiling the deaths of the enlisted men were recorded with a cross next to the deceased name. As the monument was conceived, constructed and unveiled over a two and a half year period a lot changed with regard to the lives of the men. Late 1917 through till the Armistice was a bloody time with many battle casualties. Weariness and disease, symptoms of a long campaign also took toll of the men.
Not all local servicemen are recorded on the monument.
Undoubtedly worthy individuals from Mt Victoria and surrounds were omitted.
Those Recorded
The names gathered “by subscription” included enlistments in the Army, Navy and the fledgling Australian Flying Corps (AFC).
They were from Mount Victoria, Bell, Hartley, Hartley Vale, Little Hartley, Hampton, Lowther, Mount Wilson, Mount Irvine, The Kanimbla Valley and other areas, at least 2 were from British Regiments.
Some were ex students of The School run by H. Rienits in Mt Victoria.
Committee member of the Mt Vic Museum, Paul Gray, has identified Seventy nine of the eighty listed as part of his own family history research into the Meurant family. Paul can be contacted on paul@mountvictoriamuseum for further information
1940s aerial view of Mount Victoria. This photograph is larger than the museum's A4 scanner so a diligent volunteer scanned two images (upper and lower) then joined them together using graphics software.
Museum volunteers can learn about many aspects of the care, preservation and display of heritage objects. Society membership is only $10 per year plus a $1 joining fee for new members.