Smeaton Presbyterian Church

a little bit about the Smeaton Presbyterian Church ...

we came across this Church on our way to Newstead a couple of weeks ago. It is situated just north of Smeaton on the Creswick-Newstead Rd.

The following information is from the website 'about Smeaton'.

The Smeaton Presbyterian church was built and opened in 1860. Messrs. J. Hepburn, W. McAlpine, W. Anderson, S. Moore, W. H. Clarke and W. Miller made up the building committee.

The estimated cost of the building was 1,200 pounds. After Captain Hepburn donated 5 acres of land and 150 pounds, the settlers and their employees willingly contributed the rest.

The church was built of locally made brick by local brick-makers, and carted by local volunteers.

Around 1890, the outside brickwork was given a coat of cement, which has improved with age. In 1938 the grey stained exterior was described as “not altogether displeasing”.

Captain Hepburn founded Smeaton in 1838, naming it after his hometown in Scotland, only three years after Melbourne was founded in 1835 a huge significance for Smeaton considering many towns settled afterwards are no longer in existence.

The small community of Smeaton has had many trials and tribulations in its long history, but as always the community has banded together and survived.

There is also a Facebook Page for "The friends of Smeaton", hit the LIKE button so you can keep up with the events that are happening in and around Smeaton!



...

antique, classic, vintage or just plain old?

Am sure no one can resist checking out the 'old cars' at any festival or show ..... and checking them over at the Ballan Autumn Festival was of course - no different!

To be honest, a vintage car is commonly defined as a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930 known as the "Vintage era". There is little debate about the start date of the vintage period—the end of World War I is a nicely defined marker there—but the end date is a matter of a little more debate. The British definition is strict about 1930 being the cut-off, and is widely accepted while some American sources prefer 1925 since it is the pre-classic car period as defined by the Classic Car Club of America.

Others see the classic period as overlapping the vintage period, especially since the vintage designation covers all vehicles produced in the period while the official classic definition does not, only including high-end vehicles of the period. Some consider the start of World War II to be the end date of the vintage period.

A true "classic car" is an older car; the exact meaning is variable. The Classic Car Club of America maintains that a car must be between 20 and 40 years old to be a classic.

To the layman, a "Vintage Vehicle" is just a very old style vehicle regardless of its year of make. To the connoisseur of these fine vehicles it would be sacrilege to call all the vehicles at the Ballan Festival, "Vintage"! 

Many of the vehicles we saw were quite 'young' and so the term 'vintage' would certainly not apply. But no matter their age or condition, everyone enjoyed these vehicles that were on display and some of them even took part in The Parade.  The owners take good care of their vehicles and deserve recognition for the care and attention in takes to keep them in tip top condition.

The following images were taken at The Ballan Autumn Festival on March 25 2012:

Previous blog posts on the Ballan Autumn Festival - 2012:

The Ballan Autumn Festival.

The Quilt Show.

The Wood Chopping Event

the final blog post on The Ballan Autumn Festival will be uploaded within the next day or so and will be of THE PARADE.