Site History & Details

Site Updates

29 November 2024: I may have missed a couple of updates lately. Mainly just small adjustments to existing pages. No new pages built of late. Today I added a free idea to the Ongoing Plans, memorials, events page.

18 October 2023: I have made occasional edits over the past year but no major alterations to any specific pages. Today I have reorganised the page "Captain Owen Owen's Account". Swapping out some articles with better quality scans and adding some others I had stored away. Still working away in the background collecting data that I will eventually add to the site. I also added a grave photo and some articles and obituary to "Passenger history: Alfred W Darlington".

16 Oct 2022: Been away from the website for a little while but I still have quite a few ongoing projects planned for research etc. Today I have just updated the "Ongoing Plans, memorials, events etc" page with some more ideas I have had and the inspiration for them. I have updated the page "Passenger history: Benjamin & Lucy Groom" to include information about a book authored by descendent Ray Groom. I have added a PDF authored by a descendant to the "Passenger history: Austin family" page. And on the "Cape Wickham Lighthouse, King Is" page (under the header Netherby History in the side menu) I added a PDF of the edition of LAMP Summer 2021 - The Quarterly Journal of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, which features an article by Denise Shultz who had contacted me for permission to use some images and information for her article about the Netherby and Cape Wickham lighthouse. I have added a link to a biography by a descendant to the "Passenger history: Townsend & Thomas" page.

29 July 2021: Added screenshots from a family memoir blog to the "Passenger history: Wigley" page along with a letter to the editor by the family in 1936. Added some images and screenshots from websites to the "Passenger history: Austin family" page. Just trying to get a lot of stuff I have had in my hard drive folders onto this site so I don't lose track of it all !!

28 July 2021: Added a photo and wiki tree entry to the page "Passenger history: Exton Family" as I came across them during a search. Created a new page "Passenger History: John Goldsworthy". I haven't been contacted by his descendants but wanted to store some Roots Chat discussions where possible descendants have been trying to find a link.

22 July 2021: Added a couple more news snippets and a letter to the editor to the "Passenger history: William Attwood" page & linked it to the crew manifest as letter refers to a crew member. Rebuilt the Crew Manifest page completely to include a longer list with all current known resources, along with article snippets, photos and scanned letters from Merseyside Maritime Museum. Added a couple more article snippets and 150th photos to the "Passenger History: Yorston" page. Added a slightly better quality scan of the Hickmott account to the page "The Lighthouse Keeper, Hickmott's Account". Added a letter to the editor to the "Passenger history: Townsend" page. Added a snippet to the "Passenger history: Grimes" page. Added a snippet to the "Passenger history: Thomas Sanger" page. Added scans of two letters to "Passenger history: Thomas Duppuy" - interestingly referencing trying to save plants on board of the wreck. Added a snippet I found in The Bulletin to the "Passenger history: Townsend" page.

18 July 2021: Added new information to "Passenger history: Gordon Springett" (he was in the whaleboat with Parry) after contact was made by a descendant. Also created new page "Passenger history: Thomas Duppuy" following contact from a descendant. (Note I haven't yet added his link in the passenger manifest as that is a bigger job on my to do list!)

29 May 2021: Updated the 150th photos page to advise that the Photo Book Club is archiving the data for the two photo books I created so folks wont be able to order them any more.

4 Oct 2020: Following contact from two descendants, I have created a new page in the index "Passenger History: George & Annie Bulpit". Quite a tragic tale of two people after they survive the shipwreck.

26 July 2020: Added a You Tube video to the Home Page. It was sent to me by descendant Rob Swain and features a ditty about the Black Ball Line. I have also added some further thoughts to the page "Ongoing plans, memorials, events etc".

April 2020: I have been contacted by a descendant of John Parry who is only just discovering the story as she and her sister go through their late mothers papers. They have found A LOT!! They have created a Ancestry tree and given me access and also some old family letters. I am slowly editing the information I already had on my Parry page to include all of this. It is taking a bit of time. But the good news is that they had someone locate his grave and they have had the photos added to Find A Grave. I have been really quite excited about this contact and all this new information !!

1 March 2020: Created new page "Passenger history: James B Thompson" to hold an article about the Netherby that referenced him. Added a news snippet to the existing "Passenger history: Grimes Family" as I came across it in Trove today.

25 Feb 2020: Added some additional information and images provided by descendant Cass Turner to the existing page "Passenger history: Robert & Mary Nally". I also did some digging in Trove and found some really lovely obituaries for son Michael who was born on the Netherby - so I have added them too. Also created a new page Passenger history: Morris Family. I haven't been sent anything from this family (I know I met a descendant Ern at the 150th) but created the page to hold some obits and notices that I found in Trove.

11 Jan 2020: Following contact from a new passenger descendant Alan Schrader, I have built a new page Passenger History: Schrader Family today and added it to the index on the left. I have also corrected the spelling of the family name in the main page Passenger list & name corrections as for years we have had 3 different spellings listed. Great to finally have confirmation from a descendant!! I also created a new page called Passengers Historys. This name has always existed in the index on the left but I didn't have it linking to anything. It now links to a page that just explains what the Passenger History pages are and how I can create one for any passenger when descendants send me information. As always - all info is very much welcome.

15 Oct 2019: To shorten the navigation menu on the left a bit I have created a new page called "Find us on Social Media, Forums & Guestbook" which now holds the links to the Netherby accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with links to the old Proboards Forum and Guestbook. I can also add links to your social media accounts for pages or groups relating to your Netherby connections ie I have added a link to a Facebook Group I have for Massingham's. Also, on the "The Future - Ongoing Plans, memorials, events etc" page - I added some images I found on google that give a bit of an idea of how I imagine a memorial seat/wall/plaques at Netherby Cove. All ideas are very much welcome so let me know on the Facebook page.

23 Feb 2019: Have built a new page that I have been thinking about for a few years. 'Netherby nomenclature: Fact or Fiction'- Locations around Australia feature the name Netherby. Is there a connection to the wreck or not. I have started by adding some info I had been collecting for a while. I also have a lot of research from Ann Rutte that I need to go through and add. If anyone has any knowledge about towns or properties etc that are definitely named after the shipwreck, or places they have researched and concluded there is no link - please let me know and I will add it.

3 Feb 2019: I have been having a bit of a break from research and website building. Today I have added a Twitter feed at the bottom of the home page that links to the Netherby Twitter page. Also added the podcast that Wade Roskam made of the speeches on 14 July 2016 to the page 2016 150th Commemorations: Speeches. Added an update from a descendant to the Passenger history: Austin family page. Added an update from a descendant to the Passenger history: Adams (Eliza & John) page. Added an audio file interview with Jim Benn to the Passenger history: Skerman Family page. After extensive googling and you tubing I finally found the trick to removing the messed up formatting and shading from the table on page Calendar: From wreck to rescue & beyond. Yeay me! It looks much better now. Also fixed the formatting on the Passenger list & name corrections page.

27 June 2018: Added new article from October 1866 to the page "The Netherby Relief Fund: Charity & Aid". Its the final report by the Relief Fund committee and includes a complete list of subscribers and the expenditure, including rewards to John Parry and others.

17 June 2018: Added source information to the pages: 'Marshall H Webster, Surgeons Letter', 'Marshall H Webster, Surgeons Report', 'Hope Martin, Schoolmasters letter', and the 'Onward to Brisbane, or Stayed in Melbourne' pages after I finally found my typed versions from the 90s hiding in a folder with a letter from the lady who sent them to me! For the past few months I have been slowly working on a complete calendar of events from the night of the wreck, the time on the island, Parry's escapades, and what was going on in VIC and Melb in preparation for the rescued arrivals, oh and beyond - the journey of the City of Melbourne etc. I have published the new page today under the section - Netherby History: The ship, the voyage, the wreck, titled "Calendar: From wreck to rescue & beyond'. It has a few bugs causing weird white shading on some text. I am waiting for some tech advice to resolve that. But in the meantime - see what you think.

13 June 2018: Excited to have located a new version of a shipping list over the long weekend while browsing FamilySearch.org. This is now the 4th handwritten one we have on this website and it appears by all accounts to be the actual list of those who definitely travelled on the City of Melbourne steamer to Brisbane on 31 July 1866. All the crossed out names match descendant's knowledge and my own research about who definitely remained in VIC. I have added all the scans to the new page "Resource: City of Melbourne list - Melb depart". I have renamed the original City of Melbourne passenger list page to "Resource: City of Melbourne list - Bris arrivals". Updated the huge "Passenger list & name corrections" page which is basically my cross referenced data base of the passenger list taken from every resource possible. Created a new page "Passenger history: Alfred William Lee" to hold a series of news articles and family notices I found on this passenger.

10 June 2018: Updated 'Passenger history: Dr Marshall Hall Webster' (which is combined with 'Passenger history: Eliza Stutchbury'), to add photos of headstone, news articles, and images of Marshall's father George and his memorial fountain. Added a new link to a genealogy page I came across to the 'Passenger history: Skerman family' page and updated the Skerman entries in the 'Onward to Brisbane, or stayed in Melbourne' page. Added a couple of new articles to 'Passenger history: George Massingham'.

9 June 2018: Added a poem by Stephen Whiteside to the 'Other references (books etc)' page. Updated the 'The Netherby Gazette: A journal of the voyage' page with a link to the Trove scanned version and some article snippets that referenced the Gazette over the years.

2 June 2018: Created new passenger pages: 'Passenger history: Watkins family', and 'Passenger history: Martin Thomas'. Updated the 'Passengers List & name corrections' page to include links to those new pages.

13 May 2018: I have spent the past few weekends building a whole new page named 'The Netherby Relief Fund: Charity & Aid' where I have outlined the incredible amount of generosity and benevolence shown by the people of Melbourne when the rescued passengers were landed. While doing this I became a tad obsessed with who the gentlemen were who stepped forward to be on the relief fund committee so I have included a full list, photos or portraits and mini bio's on that page, but I have also created an extra page ('Relief Fund Committee - who were they?') just to hold all the information I found about each man - all from Melbourne's elite and pioneer crowd. See the menu on the left under the new heading 'Rescued - Taken to Melbourne - Charity Provided' for both new pages. I also rebuilt the page 'Passenger history: John Parry' to include more information from a few more news articles I located that referenced more details about where he landed in the whaleboat and the details about who he obtained assistance from. I added those news articles to a new page under the Newspapers index named 'Articles about John Parry's heroic feat'.

1 May 2018: I have added several more images to the 'Rescued Arrived in Melbourne' page, including a huge 1861 map that I have marked up showing the various locations where everyone was housed. Also found a fabulous 1866 visitors guide to Melbourne so have added that. And completed the story with a slideshow of photos and sketches around Melbourne from the era - showing what our ancestors would have seen.

15 April 2018: Added some new links to the Links page - just some handy genealogy resources. Created new page "Passenger history: Exton Family".

8 April 2018: Just some mini work done today. Added two news articles to the Newspapers index from 1937 and 1974. Added a 1928 news article by George Leggett, son of salvager Capt Richard Leggett to both the Newspapers index and also to the Lighthouse Keeper, Hickmott's Account page. Created a new page 'First Hand Accounts - John Sadleir', to hold a snippet from a book about the police officers recollections of visiting the rescued passengers in the exhibition building. Created a new page 'First Hand Accounts - George J A Evans' to hold a letter to the editors by George - he walked with Parry to the lighthouse but did not go in the whaleboat across the strait. Also added the letter to George's passenger history page. Created new page 'First Hand Accounts - Anon member of the Parry party' featuring a letter to the Queenslander by an unnamed member of the group who walked with Parry to the lighthouse and went across the strait in the whaleboat. Added a couple of useful links to the Links page. Added a few more letters to the 'Passengers letters to newspapers' page.

2 April 2018: I was in a researching mood this Easter long weekend so, based on some snippets of info a descendant, Alan Harvey, left on the Netherby 1866 Facebook group in 2016, I did some digging and created a new page for "Passenger history: Edwin & Selina Gill" and learned a whole lot about the history of garden nurseries in Victoria into the bargain!

30 March 2018: Added a grave photo and notes to the "Passenger history: Aplin family" page.

11 March 2018: Added some photos to the page "2016 150th Commemorations: Speeches" so the page isn't just a wall of text. Did a bit more work on the Crew Manifest. This is a work in progress. Just did a bit of a count - the website now consists of 103 pages of data. Thank you to everyone who has provided information over the years to build it up. Always seeking more - especially stories about your ancestors.

10 March 2018: Nice big updates to the section of the site titled "Netherby History: The ship, the voyage, the wreck" including the following. Created new page "The Voyage: UK to AUS" to hold the history boards made by Ernst Rutte for the 150th commemorations. Updated the "About the ship" page to include Ernst's history boards and information sourced from the King Island Museum. Rebuilt "The types of passengers" page. Created new page called "The wreck site today: Netherby Cove" featuring photos of the cove, cairn and signage and some pieces of the wreck itself. Created new page "Cape Wickham Lighthouse, King Is" featuring a fantastically detailed history of the lighthouse keepers by Karen van Harskamp (thank you!), along with historical and current photos of the lighthouse.

29 January 2018: Have given myself a bit of a Netherby break after working solidly on the site and the photobooks ever night and weekend for 2 years. But today was feeling a bit inspired to neaten up some pages. Started with the page named "Ann Rutte's Newsletters & Plans 2010-16" where I added a couple of photos from Ann's original descendant get-togethers and also a group of her newsletters I found from 2010. I then moved on to the page named "2016 150th Commemorations: Speeches". I have added the transcripts of every speech made over the 4 days. I will add some photos next week.

7 Nov 2017: After spending the past couple of years building passenger history pages for everyone else - I thought I would go back to the very beginning. I built this site back in 2005 to share my own relative's letter about the wreck. At the time I threw a page together about George Leake Massingham with a smattering of info that I had on him. So the past few weekends I have completely rebuilt his page - into 4 pages - the letter, his stories about the wreck, his life, and his career as a travelling photographer. You can view it at "Passenger history: George Massingham". Also updated some links and errors on the "Passenger list & name corrections" page.

15 Oct 2017: After receiving some new information and photos from descendant Natalie, I have updated the page "Passenger history: Barnett Family".

29 Sept 2017: I have been fully immersed in Trove for the past two weekends - utterly fascinated by the life of a man named Alexander Brand Webster. He was 24 when travelling on the Netherby. After a year or two gold fossicking he joined his brother in Brisbane where they started what went on to be the oldest longest running family merchant business in QLD history with branches across the state. In his spare time he also started a large tug boat and excursion steamer business that resulted in the first tourism accomodation on Bribie Island - he built the wharf too. Was on the board of the QLD bank (during the big bank collapse of the 1880s recession and appeared at the Royal Commission), the president of The Queensland Club (in a building still standing today), president of the Chamber of Commerce, on the board or committees of about 10 societies, was a magistrate and auditor, formed a trustee company and acted as executor of many deceased estates, entertained the Prince of Wales in 1920 (yes the one that later stepped down as King for Mrs Simpson) at a grand ball at his house til 4am, also managed to have two wives and a load of prominent society children. Phew - no wonder he finally passed away at his holiday home while relaxing at 80yrs !!! I have never been contacted by his descendants (yet) but I felt compelled to write a lengthy biography on him and also two additional pages of news articles. See "Passenger History: Alexander Brand Webster" As I work on these many passengers histories from our shipwreck it occurs to me how so many stories and events in Aus history would not have actually occurred - if none of them had survived that wreck in 1866 !!

17 Sept 2017: I have finally finished the 2 big photobooks I have been building for the past 12 months. One is a full history of the shipwreck and its passengers featuring as much as possible from this website. The other is a wonderful keepsake filled with memories from the 150th commemorative events on King Island in July 2016. Click on the "2016 150th Commemorations - Photos and photobooks" link on the left menu for all the info on how to view and order copies.

10 Sept 2017: Created new page "150th Photos" containing some group photos and a link to my Smugmug photo album that contains a series of daily albums for the 150th with contributions from myself and other attendees. Rebuilt the page "Salvaging the wreck" to include more news articles and advertisements for the salvage efforts, a story about the anchor, more information about the bell, and the launch of the Netherby Room by the King Island Historical Society. Added several more articles and letter to editor on the page "First Hand Accounts - Captain Owens Account". Added an obit to the "Passenger History - Grimes Family" page that I spotted in the King Island Museum collection. Added two old news stories from King Island news that were on display at the KI Museum to the "Passenger History - Skerman Family" page.

26 Aug 2017: Created new page "Passenger history - Berry brothers". Archived the old "Passenger list & name corrections" here, and created brand new one here. My first attempt at building a table in coding so there are a couple of visual issues I will work on. But from here on it will be more easily editable and hopefully more readable for people in the table view. New page created & linked under "2016 150th Commemorations" - the all important "Attendance Register".

16 Aug 2017: Created a new page "Resource - Alternative Passenger List". This one has had me baffled for a while since I found it on Ancestry.com with no notes about its origin. Many of the names are crossed off but there is no pattern as to whether they are people who went on the City of Melbourne to QLD or remained in Vic.

15 Aug 2017: Finally completed the page "Passenger history: John Parry". This one took some time ! Fixed up the page "Rescued arrive in Melbourne" as some text and images were overlapping the navigation index. Built new page titled "Onward to Brisbane, or stayed in Melbourne". This page will be ongoing as I (hopefully with everyone's help) try to ascertain exactly who went to QLD as there is much conjecture about the exact numbers. Have started with two lists on the page for those whose destinations are definitely known.

13 Aug 2017: Edited the home page to added various artists impressions (including those by descendants and King Island residents) of the Netherby to the photo scroller. Added one of the paintings to the "Passenger History: Pinnuck Brothers" page too. Created "Passenger history: Edwin Bellgrove" page. Created new First Hand Account page for Edwin's letter to his father.

6 Aug 2017: Added a new photo and articles including obits to "The Lighthouse Keeper, Hickmott's Account" page. Created new pages "Passenger history: William Attwood", "Passenger history: Henry Bluett".

5 Aug 2017: Added more information to "Passenger history: Reginald Evans". Created new pages - "Passenger history: Wigley Family" and "Passenger history - Gordon Springett", "Passenger history: Rerden Family", "Passenger history: Barnett Family".

30 July 2017: Added more content to the page "Passenger History: Thomas & Townsend". Added extra content to "Passenger history: Newbrook" - entries from the shipping lists and possible anomalies.

26 July 2017: Created new pages "Passenger history: Townsend & Thomas" and "Passenger History: Skerman family". Both still have a bit more to be added including photos from the 150th.

23 July 2017: Added all of Ann's newsletters since July 2016 to new page "Ann Rutte's newsletters 2016 onwards". Created new pages "Passenger history: Grimes Family", "Passenger history: Newbrook family", "Passenger history: Parsons family", "Passenger history: Alfred & Elizabeth Seymour". Added a King Island Courier news article to Don Charlwood's page. Added a few new articles plus photos from the Australia Day Awards 2017 to the 150th News Articles page. (If anyone spotted any other articles before or after the 150th I would love copies!).

9 July 2017: Created a Twitter account @Netherby1866 and added a link in the index on the left. If you ever tweet something Netherby related be sure to tag the account and use the hashtags #Netherby1866 and #NetherbyShipwreck. Created a series of new pages to take Netherby into the future. "Ann Rutte's Newsletters 2016 onward", "Ongoing Plans" (for future events and plans), and "Tips for planning a commemorative event" - where Ann Rutte and I hope to make a list of tips about how Netherby 2016 was planned and what went right, what went wrong, what systems could be put in place for future events etc. To keep the Facebook page moving into the future Ann and Ernst Rutte have changed its name from Netherby2016 to Netherby1866. The link in the index on the left has been updated.

18 June 2017: Added new information to "Passenger history: Bartling family", including a marriage certificate from descendant Christine Rose, and a death and funeral notice for Fredericka from Trove searches I have been doing for various passengers.

16 June 2017: Published new page "Passenger history: Pinnuck brothers". Still working on commemorative photobooks and will be adding a lot more to the website soon - stay tuned.

27 March 2017: I contacted Maryborough Family Heritage Institute about the existing copies of the Netherby passenger list (which were originally sent to me by Larry Lingard Davis) to see if they had cleaner higher resolution copies. They advised that the copies they held were the same that I had minus Larry's notes about occupation. They then advised they had found much clearer scans on Ancestry.com. So off I went for a search and I have downloaded those versions and added them to the page titled "Resource: Netherby Passenger Manifest". In the same location in Ancestry.com I located another alphabetical list with names crossed off. I am trying to determine if this may in fact show who boarded the City of Melbourne and therefore be a more complete list that the existing City of Melbourne register which we know contains a lot of names who did not go to QLD. Watch this space. ALSO - still seeking a complete crew manifest. Ann has compiled a partial list. I have not found any listing on Ancestry or any other archival sites.

26 March 2017: After quite a few weeks of data matching I have published an alphabetical passenger list on the page named "Passenger list & name corrections". A lot of work. As always - any corrections are welcome.

24 March 2017: Currently doing a huge rebuild of the passenger list which will soon make an appearance on the "Passenger list & name corrections" page - coming soon - watch this space!!!. To compliment that I have created new pages featuring each of the main resources used to research and build the passenger list. Those new pages are: "Resource: Netherby Passenger Manifest", "Resource: City of Melbourne list", "Resource: List in The Queenslander News", "Resource: Passengers petition to Capt Owens" and I have relocated an existing page "Passengers letters to newspapers" under those resources.

21 March 2017: Added extra data to "Passenger history: Adams (Eliza & John)", "Passenger history: John Parry" and "Passenger history: Denning". Created new pages "Passenger history: George Hackney", "Passenger history: Yorston Family". Renamed "Exhibition Building_Relief Fund" page to "Rescued arrive in Melbourne" and have included information and pictures about the various buildings the rescued passengers and crew were housed in. Created new page "The Netherby Relief Fund" to hold the news articles specific to the fund, fundraising efforts and private donations.

19 March 2017: Deleted typed list of passengers petition from "Passengers letters to newspapers" page and replaced it with the scanned version straight from the Netherby Gazette. Added Captain Owens letter to the editor about his crew, and the reply from the Relief Fund to 'Captain Owens Account" page. Created new page "Passenger history - John Parry" - its still mostly under construction - just adding stuff to it as I find it. Made some improvements to the "Exhibition building & relief fund" page adding photos and pictures of the various buildings the passengers were taken to after the rescue.

12 March 2017: Located the original screenshots of the article that was used for the full passenger list. Have added it to the following pages - 'Passenger Manifest', 'Passenger list & name corrections, and newspaper', and 'The Queenslander 28 July 1866' (I will also go through it line by line and compare with the typed passenger list which was originally borrowed from the typed translation on Trove and there are many mistakes - give me time to complete that project!!!). Added new news articles 'The Colonist 14 August 1866' and 'The Age 23 July 1866'. Added a lot of new links to the 'Related Links' page - where I have found entries on Ancestry.com and similar pages that refer specifically to passengers. Created an 'In Memoriam' page for shipwreck author Don Charlwood. Created "Passenger History - George Peters" page (linked under the Crew Manifest). Created 'Passenger history - Alexander Brand Webster'. Created 'Passenger history - Thomas Sanger'.

19 January 2017: Created Passenger History pages for Thomas Arkle, Eliza & John Adams, Ernest Barry, Charles & Maria Denning, Evans (George & Emmeline), Evans (Reginald William Cotton), Benjamin & Lucy Groom, Henry Robinson, Robert & Mary Nally. Don't forget folks - I am happy to add absolutely anything about your families to these pages. Just email me the details.

15 December 2016: Added 1974 news article to "Passenger History - Cubbin Family" and also added it as a separate page to the Newspaper Reports Index.

13 December 2016: Created new pages "Passenger history - Aplin", "Passenger history - Alfred W Darlington", "Passenger History - Bartling Family", "Passenger History - Cubbin Family" (this one is in progress, more to add from Jenni Cover).

10-12 December 2016: I have reformatted the passenger list on the "Passengers stories & names corrections" page and added more notes regarding spelling corrections that have come to me by email recently. As new "Passenger History" pages are built they will be linkable by clicking on a passengers name in the manifests.

2 October 2016: New sub-pages created under the Passenger Manifest page including "Passenger history - Austin Family" and "Passenger history - Lingard Family". Will slowly be creating as many pages for individual passengers and families - dependent on what is sent to me. If you want to share your family story please pass it on to me and I will add it here.

30 Sept 2016: Have just discovered that the site view is screwed up on some browsers. I build it on an Apple iMac and this week I happen to view it at work on Microsoft and was horrified to see it look a mess with banners oversized and covering text etc. I am busy fixing that as best as I can. If you are ever finding that images or text overlap each other etc - please email me via the link above and let me know or pop a note in the discussion forum and let me know what system and browser you are viewing it on. Thanks !! Changed to a set banner at the top and a new sepia parchment background. I have also started removing borders around text boxes as that seems to be the cause of the visual problems in browsers.

25 Sept 2016: On the 2016 150th Commemorations page I have commenced building a public attendee register to include the names and relationships of everyone who joined us on King Island in July.

8 Sept 2016: Created a new website index - site navigator to show every page on the site - hopefully this helps people find previously lost pages that were hard to find. Still working on the many updates and photos following the big 150th.

July 25 2016: Coming down from the high of the 150th commemorations ! What an amazing week on King Island it was. A real joy to meet everyone and hear their stories. I have created a new link on the left side called 2016 150th Commemorations. Linked from that page is the page with all of Ann Rutte's fantastic newsletters over the years and the timetable for the commemorations, a new page with news articles from the event, and a link for photos (coming soon). Please feel free to send me anything you would like to add to that page - your memories of the weekends events, photos etc. I will also be rebuilding the photobook that you all signed and will let people know how they can obtain a copy soon.

July 3 2016: Some page updates to include information I developed for the photobook, including fantastic maps from Merv Pope and David Peters, and amazing paintings by Jason Roberts. Ann and Ernst Rutte spent considerable time creating story boards for the history of the voyage and various passengers stories for displaying on King Island during the 150th Commemorations. I have started utilising these storyboards on various pages including "The Netherby - Ship History" page, and "The Netherby Gazette" page. I have created a new page titled "Passenger History - Marshall H Webster" - currently linked from his entries in the First Hand Accounts, and the Crew Manifest. On the "Passengers Stories & Name Corrections" page - I have started to add links to various passengers which will take you to either the history boards created by Ann, or individual pages created by myself based on info sent to me by descendants.

June 3 2016: With the 150th anniversary fast approaching, I have been busy trying to copy the contents of this website over to a photobook which I will have published and donate to the Sea Chest which will be left at the King Island museum to be opened by descendants in a few more decades. I have updated the 2016 Commemorations page with Ann's latest newsletters 29 and 30, and added the most current timetable for the 4 days of celebrations. For anyone interested in a copy of the completed photobook - I will pass my details around on the island. I can also keep it in draft and add photos from the anniversary weekend to it if people would like to share the photos with me.

April 17 2016: Added Ann's April 2016 Newsletter to the 2016 Commemorations Page - the anniversary is closing in on us! Please come to the discussion forum to discuss the plans. Added more articles to the "Salvaging the Wreck" page thanks to Ann's digging around the very addictive Trove website again !

March 2016: Added Ann's March 2016 newsletter to the 2016 Commemorations page. Added link to Roadknight family Facebook group to the Related Links page. Added photos of George's letter to his pages (thank you to the museum in Hobart !). Added a text only full site guide to this page and to the Home page.

Feb 2016: I have consolidated the navigation menu by removing all the individual links to newspaper articles over to a single index page of links under the button "Newspaper Reports". Have added a heap more articles from Trove website, my hardrive and from Ann Rutte. I have done the same with all of the first hand accounts by George Massingham, the ships surgeon, the schoolmaster, the lighthouse keeper, Captain Owens etc. Changed the Netherby-history page to include links to extra pages about the passenger types and shipping departure articles, plus a page about the salvage of the wreck and added articles about the anchor and the bell. Created a "Passengers Stories & Name Corrections" page for all the snippets of information people have sent me over the years about their ancestors. Created a "Passengers Letters" page featuring letters to the Captain, Surgeon and various letter to the editor of newspapers. Created a new cleaner banner for each page. New page created for the "Exhibition Building & Relief Fund". Added Ann's January 2016 newsletter to the 2016 Commemorations page plus a new updated Quick Guide for King Island.

Jan 2016: Have added quite a bit to George's genealogy page over the past few months. Have also added a new page for the "crew manifest" (Thanks Ann). Have moved the 2016 Commemoration's page to a more prominent location in the index so people can locate it faster as we get closer and closer to the ceremony on King Island this July. You will find a table of planned events and this will be edited often in the next few months, in addition to starting a logistics table to get an idea of who is arriving when so we can better plan each event.

July 2015: Have finally made contact with George's descendants - very exciting after all these years!! Great grand daughter Suzanne has provided me with a lovely photo of George, his wife and daughter that I have added to his genealogy page. Also the new information that I didn't know - that the original copy of the letter is now held at the Hobart Maritime Museum which is really exciting - knowing it will be forever preserved.

April/May 2015: Have added quite a lot of info to George's Genealogy page including a recently found photo, his birth certificate, copy of his Netherby book, his family tree and his career data. Very keen to track down his direct descendants in time for the 150th. Have also created slideshows featuring his photo collection held by the State Library of Victoria. Created a new page called Other References where I am putting scans from various shipwreck books etc. In the Related Links page I have added PDFs of the Skerman's and Lingards family histories. Have sent an ad to The Herald Sun's desperately seeking page for Massingham descendants but hopefully mentioning the Netherby will draw out more people as well.

Sep/Oct 2014: Have added several more newspaper articles to the "Newspaper reports" page. Started work on the Passenger Manifest page - this will include news articles where the passengers names were listed, the QLD immigration record, and notes that people have sent me over the years about their ancestors. Also started work on the Netherby Gazette page including uploading a PDF version. On the 2016 Anniversary Newsletters page I have started adding all of Ann Ruttes newsletters for easy reference. On the Netherby page I have added the Ship Survey, some images of passengers tickets and other information about the Black Ball line. Added Google Map images made by Larry Lingard-Davis to the "Timelines & Maps" page.

8/4/13: Have upgraded the Proboards Guestbook and Discussion Forum and it now allows you to post photos in the threads without the need for a 3rd party photo hosting site. Updated links in the navigation bar on the left for the Facebook group and Discussion Forum. Please do join us on these two sites to assist with stories and planning for the 150th commemorations. I have also resolved the website building issues I have had since moving from Windows to Mac so I can recommence the adding of a heap of info to this site and the discussion forum. Added new links to Massingham Facebook Community Page - hoping to track down relatives via this one.

1/4/12: Due to ongoing spam issues making the current guestbook unmanageable for me, I have closed it and relocated it to the discussion forum. You do not need to register to post in the new guestbook - you can post as a guest. I have also created a "guestbook archives" there and moved all the original comments from 2005 to 2012 over there so I didnt lose all that valuable content from everyone who has visited this site. To get to the new guestbook you can still click on the navigation link on the left!!

16/4/11: Added links to Ann's Facebook Pages and Reunion Page to assist in bringing together descendants of Netherby passengers for the big reunion on King Island in 2016!! Added a page to archive Ann's reunion newsletters.

19/1/07: Added a discussion forum for descendants of Netherby passengers to get together, share information, plan a 150th anniversary celebration, chat, and more. Clink on the link and join us there. I have also moved with the times and changed the resolution of the site from the old 800x600 to 1280x960.

8/4/06: Added Links page, Time Line page, and Netherby Gazette page. Alphabetised the passenger list for easier searching.

2/4/06: Changed the title banner and fixed the navigation bar to get rid of the blue. Changed fonts to Times New Roman as the Script font was causing major viewing problems in different browsers.

10/9/05: Published the following pages - Home; George's Letter (from my grandmother); Surgeons Letter, Surgeons Report, Schoolmasters Letter, Immigration Agents Letter (each from Catriona Robinson), Passengers Petition to Captain (from Melbourne State Library), Melbourne Argus Article. The Genealogy, Time Line and Related Links buttons have been added to the navigation buttons but the pages are not completed. Still to come are transcripts from the Captains report, news articles, maps paintings, alphabetical passenger manifest and more. If you have something to contribute - please leave your details in the guest book and I will contact you.