Not everyday we bring in more chairs for our kitchen, with Sandy,Jessica, Stephanie, Karen, Patrick, Barbara, Mathew, Shane, Linda and lucky last Lisa, with yours truly as well.
It was a good opportunity to get some shots with Sandy’s Camera and fill up my blog files with some more family snaps.
Probably the last chance to use Sandy’s Sony W55, as time is ticking down to hours before my long awaited lay-buy will be finished and I will be a proud owner of my new pride and joy the Sony W150.
My mate Neale is going to Rochester tomorrow and I’ve been invited along to pick some some free computer gear from a deceased estate, thanks from Bendigo Free Cycle. On the way we are dropping in to Dick Smiths to pick up the camera and try it out on our road trip. Should be a lot of fun, and with a freshly charged battery from Sandy’s camera and my newly acquired memory card should be able to give the new camera a bit of a workout.
HISTORY OF ROCHESTER ………..The Rochester information has been cut and pasted from the net
The area around the Campaspe River, which was known as Yalooka, had been home to the Pinpandoor Aboriginal Tribe for Thousands of years when in 1836 New South Wales Surveyor General Major Thomas Mitchell located and named the Campaspe River.
The Port Phillip District as Victoria was then known was opened to settlement by Governor Bourke and by the mid 1840’s several large holdings had been taken out in the area including "Restdown Plains" and "Cornelia Creek’ which shared a common boundary near where the town of Rochester now stands. Early Settlers were mostly sheep farmers.
In 1852 Dr John P. Rowe who had previously sold his medical practice in Hobart, took over the lease of "Restdown Plains". Patrick O’Dea the lessee of the "Cornelia Creek" run, leased a small inn which had been built by J. P. Rowe on the eastern bank of the Campaspe River near the boundary of the two runs.
A small settlement known as "Rowes Camp" soon grew up around "O'Dea’s Inn". Traffic through the area increased dramatically with the Central Victorian Gold Rushes. The coach road and stock route from Hopwoods and Maidens Punts across the Murray River at Echuca & Moama passed by "ODea’s Inn", which was the second point for changing the Coach Horses after Strathallan.
During a visit to "Restdown Plains", Governor Hotham named the settlement "Rowechester’, a latinised version of "Rowes Camp". When the settlement was made official on October 24th 1855 a government clerical error led to the proclamation of Rochester which has remained to this day.
In 1864 the Melbourne to Echuca railway reached Rochester with the station being on the west bank of the river, which led to the focus of the town to shift from the eastern side of the Campaspe to where it remains today.
The coming of the Railway also led to the breaking up of the large pastoral leases and the advent of cropping on smaller holdings. In a few years Rochester became one of the leading wheat producing centres in the new State of Victoria.
In 1864 the Echuca Roads Board was established including the Rochester district and on May 26 1871 it was proclaimed a Shire. On 27th November 1909 after years of heated debate the separate Shire of Rochester was proclaimed. As fate would have it in 1994 Rochester Shire was amalgamated with Echuca and other surrounding shires to form the new Shire of Campaspe.
Drought and Flooding was an early problem for Rochester and the surrounding farming community. In 1890 the Campaspe Weir was completed on the Campaspe River about seven kilometres south of Rochester, around the turn of the century the then Water Supply Department constructed a weir on the Goulburn River near Nagambie with a diversion channel carrying water for storage in the Waranga Basin near Rushworth. The Waranga- Mallee Channel was completed in 1909 allowing Rochester access to Goulburn Valley water.
The availability of a reliable water supply led to a rapid expansion of farming activities including horticulture and cropping. After the Second World War dairying became established in the district as did tomato growing. Both industries have developed considerably and are important contributors to the area’s economy today.
In 1940 the Rochester Co-operative Butter & Canning Co. built a cheese factory in the town. Over the years it expanded until in 1963 it amalgamated with the Murray Goulburn Co-operative. This factory has gone from strength to strength after having completed $12 million & $40 million expansion programs from 1994 to 2000 it is now one of Australia's major dairy processing plants, with total milk intake over 750 million litres and peak daily intake in excess of 3 million litres and now employing over 200 people.
In 1954 Rochester celebrated its centenary with a visit from a newly crowned Queen Elizabeth 11 on Friday March 5th. Over two thousand people thronged the streets, crowds the like of which were not seen again until the 1994 celebrations for cycling legend Sir Hubert Opperman’s 90th birthday and the unveiling of his life size bronze statue.
Sir Hubert was born in Rochester on May 29th 1904 at what is now 1 Moore Street near the Rochester Hospital.
In 1964 construction of Lake Eppalock on the Campaspe River near Heathcote was completed. The lake provides a major water storage for the Campaspe Irrigation Area and is extensively used for recreation purposes. It also assists to control flooding in Rochester, which had at times been under as much as a metre of water in thc town centre. In 1967 a pumping station at Corop, 17 kilometres south east of Rochester was opened to pump excess water from Greens Lake into the Waranga Mallie Channel.
Rochester has continued to develop into a modern service centre for the surrounding agricultural area and looks forward to the future with confidence.
END OF CUT AND PASTE
New Family Photos
BACK AGAIN SOON STAY TUNED……………………………………….
