The History of Lorne – Time to Brush Up

I’m sure that everyone will agree that these are certainly interesting times. At the time of writing, the Premier of Victoria, Dan Andrews has just announced Stage 3 shutdown measures in response to the threat of COVID-19. Basically, we are to stay indoors at all times with the exception of going to work, buying necessities and exercise. So many people have commented on social media lately that if we have to be in lock-down, “Lorne is a great place to be“.

So here we all are, in this “great place” we love, with lots of time for doing not much but bingeing on Netflix etc, doing jigsaws and reading. There seems to be a bit of “virtual socialisation” going on via video conferencing systems such as “Zoom” and “House Party”, but there still seems to be an awful lot of spare time in the day and it’s likely that there will be many more days of this to come.

We might think we are all relatively safe and the pandemic will wreak its worst in bigger cities, but it’s worth remembering that when the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1919 killed so many people worldwide, Lorne was not immune. At the School at Benwerrin, 22 of the 25 children died as a result of that pandemic. The property, “Keverall” in Armytage Street owned by Mrs Topp, was used as a hospital during that Spanish Influenza epidemic and was run by a local lady who was a nurse and had been authorised by the Winchelsea Shire Council to take charge.

That’s piece of local history relevant to these times. Maybe now is the time that you could brush up on the history of this place we all love, Lorne. The Lorne Historical Society has introduced two initiatives to help you while away the time and improve your knowledge of Lorne.

The first is a weekly history quiz. Each week a series of 10 questions will be posted on “The One and Only Lorne Community Noticeboard” on Facebook and also on the Lorne Historical Society’s Facebook page. Answers are to be submitted via email to info@lornehistoricalsociety.org.au. Each week there will be a prize for each entrant scoring 10 out of 10 correct answers. The prize will be an image of your choice or an image from a theme of your choice from the Society’s collection. This will be delivered to you electronically.  

The quiz has been going for a couple of weeks, but so far no one has achieved 10 out of 10.  Here are the questions for week 3.

  1. In which year did the Lorne School win the Recorder Band Championship?
  2. What was the natural disaster that was a significant factor causing the barque “Hinemoa” to come aground at Pt. Grey in 1908?
  3. The Aquatic Club held a social evening at the club house at 8 pm on Saturday August 10th 1963.  Members were asked to invite and bring another couple.  What were the ladies asked to bring?
  4. Where were church services held in Lorne before All Saints Anglican Church was built?
  5. What was the name of the drug ship that visited Lorne in April 2003?
  6. Which hotel in Lorne was destroyed by fire in 1919?
  7. Name the Smith brothers who designed and operated the Arab coffee shop, opened in 1956.
  8. What type of American bomber crashed into the ocean near Aireys Inlet on Tuesday 26th 1962?
  9. Where was the Lorne Bowls Club located prior to its move to the grounds of Mantra?
  10. Who was the first female mayor of the Surf Coast Shire? 

Good luck and don’t forget to send your answers to info@lornehistoricalsociety.org.au.

The second initiative of the Society is to offer you the chance to purchase a copy of Doug Stirling’s excellent book, “Lorne a Living History“.  Doug, now in his mid-nineties, was born and grew up in Lorne. He has captured his memories of Lorne from first settlement through the periods of the timber and fishing industries, the construction of the Great Ocean Road and Lorne’s growth as a tourist town. This book is a great read, an easy and informative read and contains the answers to many of the questions which will be presented in the quiz.

Doug probably sums up the experience of his book in these words, “Over the course of more than 150 years there are so many great stories about entertainment and special events in the town, it is beyond the scope of this book to do them justice, but if you close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine the town as it was from the stories I have taken you through in this book you may begin to understand the magic of a real community, bound together by isolation and yet making the most of everything country and seaside life offered back then and still does today.“

If you would like to order a copy of this book, we can arrange to post it to you at no charge or arrange for you to collect it. The cost is $25 including postage. To order please contact us via email at info@lornehistoricalsociety.org.au or telephone me on 0417 514 807.

Good luck with the quiz and as for brushing up on your history of Lorne while hunkered down at home, do yourself a favour and order a copy of Doug’s book.

Peter Spring
Lorne Historical Society