By Renee Wood
Healesville resident Mike McCarthy has received a top accolade at the Victorian Community History awards for his book written on the early settlement of South Gippsland.
Mr McCarthy has won the History Publication Award for ‘The Shadow of the Prom’ which documents ‘the times, tales and tramways’ of the settlers.
Mr McCarthy said it’s a huge honour for his work to be recognised in this way.
“It’s really immensely satisfying and gratifying to get to the end of a book and of course to get to an end this time with all that work and all that input to actually win the prize – it’s terrific and one of the great moments in my life I’d have to say that,” Mr McCarthy said.
The book, which was released in October last year, highlights the lives of the settlers, the towns they lived in with the common theme of tramways linking the pages together.
Several historical societies, public records and old newspaper articles were part of the research and the book is made up of a collection of stories, sourced pictures and maps and diagrams created by Mr McCarthy.
“There are some real stories in there attached to those tramways which relate to the early towns along the coast and their early formation, including some towns that got started but since disappeared, and most people would never heard of but they were there.
The retiree’s interest was sparked on the topic after growing up in Warragul and also having great interest in the region, but Mr McCarthy credits his research drive came from his mother.
“My mother many years ago dobbed me in to give a presentation to the local historical society in Warragul because I had the interest but I hadn’t done anything. I had read a bit and mum thought I was an absolute expert, so she told me she dobbed me in to give a presentation and I nearly died.
“In the end I negotiated about a 10 month gap and in that time I became an expert on on the saw mills and tramways of Warragul and the presentation went well, but I did all the research necessary to achieve that and basically I haven’t stopped since.”
The judges said the book ‘represents community history at its best’ and were enjoyed how it highlighted the role tramways played in small communities.
“The Shadow of the Prom is a beautiful testament to the value of painstaking, prolonged and passionate historical research into community history. Mike McCarthy’s labour of love combines history with studies of photography, geography and the history of technology to reveal the heart and soul of his beloved South Gippsland,” they said.
Mr McCarthy is grateful the judges appreciated how tramways played such a significant role and his research efforts that spanned over three decades.
“I think the big thing they appreciated, which surprised me, was the explanation of the importance of those early tramway links for the region to connect to the rest of the world,” he said.
