At Moorabool council’s next BaccChat event, a week before International Women’s Day (IWD), audiences will have the chance to learn about the experiences of European women during settlement of the Moorabool area.
Bacchus Marsh author Jenny Trewhella will bring to life her own family history, discussing her book Over the Log – a Tale of Pioneering Women, which focuses on the life of her great grandmother Betsey Trewhella.
“My dad’s family comes from Trentham where his father and uncle established an engineering business making Trewhella jacks,” she said.
“For me growing up holidaying in Trentham, hearing the stories of Uncle Will’s inventions, visiting the foundry and hearing the stories going back into the mid 1800’s, I wondered about the women and children. In particular Betsey and her family.”
A generation earlier than her inventor-relatives, Betsey and Ben Trewhella left Cornwall in England and ended up in Blackwood, capitalising on the gold rush.
Ms Trewhella said she wanted to create a record of what her great-grandmother did and thought.
“The book is based on my family history, and is also a work of my imagination to describe day to day true and possible events,” she said.
Ms Trewhella said she’s happy to be sharing Betsey’s story for IWD.
“Their stories need to be told to reveal their strength and resilience in a time so different from today,” she said.
Ms Trewhella’s BaccChat is being held at Lerderderg Library on March 2, and will include a talk on Betsey’s life accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation, a discussion on life in Cornwall England, and the Blackwood Gold Mines, a morning tea, meet and greet, and more.
