Hello Just adding my 2c worth. The signatures were gathered by a group of ladies with something to do with a church group (I have forgotten who) but they did not get to every place in Vic. As far as I know not up to the North East at all. Perhaps there were members in the places like Walhalla but not in Sale? There is a Hayfield, in the Merton/Mansfield area. regards Loretta EUROA Farmers Arms Hotel MUSEUM 25 Kirkland avenue / PO B ox 299 Euroa 3666 Australia http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/retmcp/web/euroamuseum.html At 10:24 PM 17/03/2008 +1100, Debbie wrote: >* The rational and actual physical process of who and how the >petition was signed is of great interest. One of the things that I >find most interesting is that areas of a remote and isolated nature >(like Omeo, Walhalla and Orbost) have a high percentage of >signatures - while other areas with denser settlement patterns and >population and an easier terrain - like Sale - have no signatures. It really is a bit weird. There is one Sale signature - she was visiting Brunswick at the time. There are NONE for Maffra, Stratford, Heyfield (see below), Briagolong, Yarram etc. You get a few for Foster, none for Leongatha. You get a few for Rosedale (probably an appropriate number for the town), and then Traralgon, Morwell etc are big and Warragul is appropriate. Bairnsdale has a lot. So what happened in Central Gippsland. Did someone lose the signatures? Did the newspapers in some areas campaign against it? (I would have thought that would be counter-productive). I wonder did the churches play a role? Or the Temperance movement. Or, more likely, did some leaders in each community take it on. And where they did, signatures were collected. And no-one put their hand up in Central Gippsland? Still seems a bit strange. Women in the Shire of Avon (and presumably elsewhere) had the vote in local government elections from the 1860s. So they must have known suggestions that "we'd all be ruined" if women were given the vote, were wrong. (The Heyfield ones seem to suggest there was a similar locality name around Buxton / Merton - although not far enough north to be the one still known around Myrtleford.) And speaking of women and the vote - Stratford Historical Society hopes to have the 1860s and 1888 shire voting rolls (including the women) out by May. Regards Linda ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AUS-VIC-GIPPSLAND-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message