About the author
Maureen Jones has a Social Work degree from Latrobe University and in her writing has combined her interest in social issues with her passion for biography and local history.
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She is particularly interested in uncovering women’s stories and the role women played in early Victorian and Tasmanian history.
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In writing her books she has developed skills in researching primary resources such as early land documents, Wills and diaries as well as consulting to the full the various online resources for family and local history.
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In addition to having published five books she has collaborated with her husband in producing a family history Weaving the Threads. She is hoping to record the history of their twenty years farming and living in South Gippsland.
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She lives in Montmorency, Australia and published that suburb’s first comprehensive history.
Eric Rooks Farm
The Nillumbik Gift
In 2020 Eric Rooks’ property at Diamond Creek was bequeathed to the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). This property is part of the Green Wedge in the Shire of Nillumbik, and had been in the Rooks’ family for four generations. One hundred and sixty years of the family’s history is tied up in this property, but before that the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people had travelled, celebrated and lived on this land for thousands of years. In this book the author traces the Rooks’ journey from their arrival in Diamond Creek to Eric’s last days at the farm. The farm will now be known as Isaac Rooks Memorial Reserve in honour of Eric’s great grandfather. It comprises 27.395 hectares (67.69 acres) and Eric wanted it to be readily available to the people of the Shire of Nillumbik. His dream was that it could be developed along the lines of Gulf Station in Yarra Glen, east of Diamond Creek. Gulf Station had been settled about ten years before the Rooks’ farm and was placed in the hands of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) in 1976. Eric Rooks’ collection of documents and photographs has enabled this story to be told.
Montmorency
farm on the Plenty
In this book Maureen Jones, lays out the history of Montmorency from its earliest years as a hunting ground for the Wurundjeri willam people, through its uptake by white settlers, to the unique suburb we know today. Ownership of the land remained in the hands of one family for four generations spanning seventy years, before the land evolved into the suburban development we treasure.
Using official land records, genealogical and local history resources, it has been possible to piece together the stages of growth of this suburb and the people who influenced its growth.
By adding memories, anecdotes, photographs, and newspaper cuttings a fuller picture emerges.
This book is a tribute to the Wurundjeri willam people, our pioneers and especially our residents, both young and old who have shared their knowledge and love of this place.
166 pp $40 plus postage
Wool on the Water
Captain Theisz-Murray Darling Pioneer
In this book the author brings to life paddle steamer Captain Henry Theisz and his time on the busy 19th century water way the Murray Darling river system. She also tells the reader with insight how residents of Echuca, at the time the largest inland port in the country, were both part of the shipping trade and progressively had to handle its decline as rail transport came to the fore. The book tells the story through the lives and the foibles of Captain Theisz, the wool traders of Echuca and Theisz’s brother in law George Hansen a blacksmith whose trade was at the heart of life in the town and on the river.
We learn that travel on the river in all its different moods was not always easy but exciting and challenging when the river was high and depressing when in drought. The book shows the struggle the boat owners and captains such as Theisz had with wool traders who were experiencing their own challenges as trade changed in the late 19th century.
74 pp $25 plus postage
Naming the woman
Mary Morgan's Story
Naming the Women follows four generations of women of the line of Mary Morgan who was convicted of stealing cotton and cloth in London in 1834. She was transported to Van Diemen’s Land for seven years along with her eight children who were all considered free. She had her last baby on board ship. Her great granddaughter returned to London with her husband to be presented to King George V almost one hundred years later. This story tells of the particular difficulties and triumphs of each generation and reflects the social history of its time and the difficulties women in particular faced.
64 pp $20 plus postage.
Jouney to Taatooke
Emily Gavan's Story
Emily Gavan was one of twelve children of Rev. John Gavan a Church of Ireland Minister in Wallstown, County Cork, Ireland. As collector of tithes, he and his family were embroiled in the disturbances which put the Gavans on a collision course with their tenants and left four men dead.
On the death of her father in 1841 Emily Gavan, with her sister Julia, left their home and family in Cork to begin a new life in the Port Phillip district of Australia. Taking on the role of governess to begin with Emily soon moved to acquiring land in Broadford and becoming one of the few women squatters. Her sister Julia would go on to marry Rev. Browne, the Archdeacon of Launceston. Several of Emily’s sisters followed and this is the story of the lives and times of this family.
116pp. Published 2010 Price $20 plus postage
Mountain, Scrub and Plain
This is a history of St. Joseph’s Parish, Foster, Toora and Fish Creek on the occasion of its 60th anniversary 2000.
The area has experienced many waves of migration, population fluctuations, moving parish centres, families remaining or moving on. Each individual has made his or her mark on the parish community.
In 1850 the first Mass was said in a woolshed in Tarraville by Bishop Goold and the following year the first Catholic Church to be built in Gippsland was at Tarraville. Up to 1887 Gippsland was part of the Diocese of Melbourne, after which the Diocese of Gippsland was centred in Sale.
The church in Foster began around 1884 in an old house donated by John and Bridget O’Dea. Over the years each little town built their own simple wooden churches. Boundaries shifted, communities waxed and waned and there have been many changes. Future generations will continue to celebrate their faith, not necessarily as we do now, or have in the past, but in the way of the future.
53pp. Published 2000 Not available
bessie Wingrove
& Early Eltham
Bessie Wingrove was born in Eltham in 1870, the sixth child of Charles and Katherine Wingrove. Charles and Katherine had already lost two toddlers but this child would live and thrive and make her mark in education. In 1854 Eltham was a village of a few hundred people which had come in to being because of nearby gold diggings.
Charles took up land in Eltham, land which had long been a favourite camping ground of the local Wurundjeri people. In 1857 Charles was appointed to the Eltham Roads Board as secretary and set about building his new house. Over the years Charles and Katherine had ten children and Charles went on to become the Shire of Eltham Secretary and Engineer for more than four decades.
Bessie attended Eltham State School, then East Leigh, a private girl’s school in Prahran. In October 1887 she was attending Ruyton Girls School when she sat for the matriculation examination at University of Melbourne. Bessie won a scholarship to Trinity College by gaining first place in English, French and German and the Modern Languages Exhibition. Bessie then studied for her Diploma of Education gaining honours in the Theory and Practice of Education.
Bessie had a long career in teaching, never married, and returned to Eltham to the family home which survives today. She died in 1955 and is buried in St. Katherine’s cemetery at St. Helena along with most of her siblings, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents and great grandparents.
She had lived a long and interesting life at a time when women were fighting for equality in education and career choices.
15pp Not available
"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale"