Hi Lorraine, Silly little bit of trivia about James Maiden. Maiden's Punt was the name of one of the earliest Victorian Post Offices, opened on 1st March 1848, but uniquely, the post office was actually on the New South Wales side of the Murray, near present day Moama, and was named after James Maiden, who operated a punt service across the river. On 1.1.1855 it was transferred to the New South Wales Postal Department, and a new Victorian Post Office names Hopwood's Punt (lated renamed to Echuca) opened on the Victorian side of the river. (Source: Victoria: The "Butterfly" and "Barred Oval" Cancellations 1850-1855. JRW Purves) Mike Skurrie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lorraine Key" <keyman@net2000.com.au> To: <AUS-VIC-NE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 2:33 PM Subject: Re: [AVNE] Mr. Maiden > Hi Denise > Do you have any other information on Mr Maiden. > His name was James Maiden and I'm researching the family. > Regards Lorraine > > Denise McMahon wrote: > > > the real version is in On This Day in the North EAst - G Jones > > > > on 27th February 1868 the north east had an earthquake. Only lasted 4 or 5 seconds but enough to scare the daylights out of grandma. > > > > Buildings shook and the cuppa rattled. > > > > The Waves appeared to moved in a north to south direction, Beechworth, Stanley, Chiltern and WAng all reported rockin'rollin. > > > > It had happened in 1858 when a quake rolled across from Campaspe to the Murray in 58. > > Mr. Maiden was rowing across the river near present day Moama, and according to tales at the time, the tidal wave nearly overturned his boat! > > > > Was it compulsory to have life jackets???? > > > > Denise >

Mike. Would you mind explaining what your source is please - i.e. cancellations? Has this something to do with Post offices (or stamps -(g) Denise ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Skurrie" <mskurrie@bigpond.net.au> To: <AUS-VIC-NE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 7:47 PM Subject: Re: [AVNE] Mr. Maiden > Hi Lorraine, > > Silly little bit of trivia about James Maiden. > > Maiden's Punt was the name of one of the earliest Victorian Post Offices, > opened on 1st March 1848, but uniquely, the post office was actually on the > New South Wales side of the Murray, near present day Moama, and was named > after James Maiden, who operated a punt service across the river. On > 1.1.1855 it was transferred to the New South Wales Postal Department, and a > new Victorian Post Office names Hopwood's Punt (lated renamed to Echuca) > opened on the Victorian side of the river. > (Source: Victoria: The "Butterfly" and "Barred Oval" Cancellations > 1850-1855. JRW Purves) > > Mike Skurrie > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Lorraine Key" <keyman@net2000.com.au> > To: <AUS-VIC-NE-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 2:33 PM > Subject: Re: [AVNE] Mr. Maiden > > > > Hi Denise > > Do you have any other information on Mr Maiden. > > His name was James Maiden and I'm researching the family. > > Regards Lorraine > > > > Denise McMahon wrote: > > > > > the real version is in On This Day in the North EAst - G Jones > > > > > > on 27th February 1868 the north east had an earthquake. Only lasted 4 > or 5 seconds but enough to scare the daylights out of grandma. > > > > > > Buildings shook and the cuppa rattled. > > > > > > The Waves appeared to moved in a north to south direction, Beechworth, > Stanley, Chiltern and WAng all reported rockin'rollin. > > > > > > It had happened in 1858 when a quake rolled across from Campaspe to the > Murray in 58. > > > Mr. Maiden was rowing across the river near present day Moama, and > according to tales at the time, the tidal wave nearly overturned his boat! > > > > > > Was it compulsory to have life jackets???? > > > > > > Denise > > > >

Hi Denise, Source (and another by same author, Victoria: The "Barred Numeral" Cancellations 1856-1912.. JRW Purves; both now long out of print) are books listing the postmarks used at all (or hopefully all) Victorian Post Offices during this period; there were 50 numbers in the butterfly series, 109 in the barred ovals and 2100 barred numerals. His effort (99.9 % successful) was to link the name of each Post office to the number on the postmark it used. A few (insane, in my opinion!) stamp collectors collect the postmarks (I've got about eight or nine hundred). Back then, stamps were meant to be heavily postmarked to prevent their fraudulent reuse. The postmarks bore a number, unique to the office using it; these were applied to the stamp on the front of the envelope. Another postmark (usually) circular, with the Post Office name and date was separately applied to the back of the envelope. Maiden's Punt "butterfly" looked something like this (if you can imagine a continuous line in the shape of a butterfly drawn through the ends of the horizontal lines): 7 __________ ___________ ___________ __________ __ __ V Wooragee's Barred numeral (without a continuous line through the ends of the horizontal lines): _____ _________ ___________ 778 ___________ _________ ______ (both not to scale) Mike S ----- Original Message ----- From: "Denise McMahon" <helendmc@powerup.com.au> To: <AUS-VIC-NE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 8:58 PM Subject: Re: [AVNE] Mr. Maiden > Mike. Would you mind explaining what your source is please - i.e. > cancellations? > Has this something to do with Post offices (or stamps -(g) > > Denise > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mike Skurrie" <mskurrie@bigpond.net.au> > To: <AUS-VIC-NE-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 7:47 PM > Subject: Re: [AVNE] Mr. Maiden > > > > Hi Lorraine, > > > > Silly little bit of trivia about James Maiden. > > > > Maiden's Punt was the name of one of the earliest Victorian Post Offices, > > opened on 1st March 1848, but uniquely, the post office was actually on > the > > New South Wales side of the Murray, near present day Moama, and was named > > after James Maiden, who operated a punt service across the river. On > > 1.1.1855 it was transferred to the New South Wales Postal Department, and > a > > new Victorian Post Office names Hopwood's Punt (lated renamed to Echuca) > > opened on the Victorian side of the river. > > (Source: Victoria: The "Butterfly" and "Barred Oval" Cancellations > > 1850-1855. JRW Purves) > > > > Mike Skurrie