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| Philip Boulton |
The ghost of my great grandfather Philip Boulton hovers whenever I visit Clunes, Victoria's historic gold-mining town which has achieved renewed fame for its annual Booktown event. Philip was the manager of the Union Bank of Australia at Clunes in its glory days and his son Stephen, who was born there in 1890, features in my latest book Brothers in Arms: The Great War Letters of Captain Nigel Boulton, RAMC, & Lieut Stephen Boulton, AIF.
So ... I'm thrilled that my article about Philip's connection with that town, Booktown's Boulton Ghosts, has been published in today's inaugural edition of 'Backstory'.
'Backstory' promotes itself as 'a history journal with an eye on the future'. It's an intriguing online publishing initiative of Swinburne University, with many of Swinburne's senior writing students playing their part as co-editors. Its raison d'etre is well-explained in its Editorial, with the overall goal being to foster the art of story-telling in various formats - orally through interviews, and in writing through fiction, non-fiction, poetry and reviews with a historical theme. My article, in the non-fiction section, was peer-reviewed by two readers and my citations were adjusted to fit Swinburne's Harvard-style guidelines.
Although I was once a consultant to the former Chancellor of Swinburne University, Richard Pratt, and was also a member of its Board of TAFE, it was by pure coincidence that I came across 'Backstory' via social media and offered up my story for consideration. You don't need to have a Swinburne connection - the journal invites all writers of history to submit relevant articles.
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My family currently owns the Union Bank in Clunes. I have been managing the building as Bnb. I have heard several stories about the bank, the most common being that the bank manager was shot by a bush ranger.
ReplyDeleteI would appreciate any information on the history of the bank.
Thanks for your interest in my story. I'm afraid I don't have the history of the bank at my fingertips and it would take quite a bit of researching. I suggest you go on to the Trove website of the National Library of Australia and do an 'advanced search' of the old newspapers.
ReplyDeleteI did a quick search for your 'manager shot by a bushranger' story and the nearest I found was an ex-manager of the Clunes branch shot at the Union Bank's Roeburne branch in WA.
Best of luck - I'm sure you'll find your exploration of history an enjoyable undertaking.