Wangaratta Family History Society

 

 

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ABOUT US

Wangaratta Family History Society was formed in 1985 to support and promote family history research both within Wangaratta and North East and to assist members in their wider family research.

We have had a number of different homes in the last 23 years but are now well situated in the Wangaratta CBD above the Visitor Information Centre.

Our Society has been active on a number of Indexing Projects of cemeteries and other records of genealogical interest within the district including a CD of the burials and headstone transcriptions of the Wangaratta Cemetery.
Several other projects are currently underway or scheduled.

We are constantly looking to improve and increase our holdings, our facilities and technology, and to encourage and promote family history research within the community of Wangaratta and North East Victoria.

 

HISTORY

The first inland exploration of the North East region of Victoria was by Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in 1824. They crossed the river, which they named the Ovens, some 15 miles south of the present city.

A later expedition by Surveyor Thomas Mitchell forded the Ovens in 1836 close to the later townsite, charting a route which in effect became the first Sydney to Melbourne road.

The first settler in the Wangaratta district was George Faithful who arrived in 1838 with his flock of sheep and herd of cattle. Others, including Joseph Docker who took up the deserted Bontherambo run and Thomas Rattray who established the first punt service across the Ovens, soon followed and the settlement of the Wangaratta district commenced and flourished.
The small settlement was almost deserted during the rush to the gold diggings in the early 1850s, however recovered to prosper on the back of the through traffic and the increasing demand for food, supplies and transport.

An eclectic mix of early settlers, pastoralists, speculators, fossickers and others attracted to fertile valleys and gold diggings, contribute to a very rich and colourful history in the North East of Victoria.


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