Dear members and visitors
Due to the changing government advice regarding COVID 19 the Committee of our Society decided to close our research rooms at the old Kilmore Courthouse from Monday 23 March 2020, for the foreseeable future.
We will be able to continue limited research service by email. But it may take longer to undertake the research.
Please keep safe and follow the government’s advice.
Committee
Kilmore Historical Society
The current pandemic of coronavirus has already caused the cancellation of a great many activities, and the Committee of Kilmore Historical Society has decided that we must unfortunately follow suit.
Therefore please note that:
– The April and May general meetings with guest speakers are CANCELLED.
– The Open House tour planned for April is CANCELLED.
As we have no meetings in winter, our next scheduled meeting is the AGM in September. We hope that conditions will have improved by September, but at this stage we are tentatively assuming it will go ahead. We will notify members if these plans change.
Many thanks to the reader who contributed background information on the cover of the latest Kilmore Connections. Unfortunately the person who did so left no identifying details.
The lady in the picture is Julia Kenny (1842-1920). The spinning jenny was made for her by her son Jack.
More information on the Kenny family can be found in the 1968 publication “A Brief History of Pyalong”. John Kenny, farmer, was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1844 and and emigrated to Australia in 1866 with his mother and siblings. His other brothers, Michael and Patrick, were already at Pyalong. Julia was born Julia Mc Donald in County Wexford. She worked as a housekeeper at High Camp prior to marriage.
The married couple lived for some time on a hundred acre property at Glenaroua. They had seven children, who all attended the Glenaroua school. Mr Kenny was for 33 years a councillor of the Pyalong Shire.
Julia is buried in the Kilmore Catholic Cemetery.
Thank you to Rose King and Barbara Wilson, who conducted a special tour of Kilmore Cemetery to celebrate International Women’s Day, focusing on the lives of the women of Kilmore. This special event attracted 46 people, including 25 members. The women covered included Jane Copeland, who had been part of the original Sullivan’s Bay colony of 1803, and Margaret Still, who left a graphic account of the 1851 bushfires.
Kilmore Historical Society 