This is my Grandfather a brief history is available about him on this site
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/3157/daniel-harvey-collection
His father, Malachi, was an Irish immigrant to Australia in the 1800's, landing at Geelong, Victoria and walking to Ballarat, part of our Gold History in Australia. He met and married Elizabeth McNally, also an Irish immigrant or possibly a "Currency Lass", the name given to first generation Australian girls.

They moved to Boort Victoria where they raised their 11 sons on a farm they carved out of the virgin bush. Each son had an indoor and outdoor job to assist in the running of the home and farm. Daniel's ended up repairing family clothes and linen and delivering the bread and post by horseback on his way back from school. Later he assisted in the clearing of the Bush and was then apprenticed to a Blacksmith. Dan's brothers were Jack, Frank, Mick, Dick, Ted, Peter, Gus, Hugh, Arthur and Matt, this is not in order of their age.

Shortly after Dan finished his apprenticeship, he arrived at work one day, to find that his boss had taken off for a Gold Rush at Wedderburn Victoria, this formed part of the Gold Triangle in Victoria, Dan had not been paid his last wage and decided to follow his boss, which he did on his bicycle. Years later Dan described this monstrosity to me, no brakes with solid iron tires, an unsprung metal seat covered in leather and he rode this over dirt tracks approximately 200 miles. He found his boss, got his pay and left for Melbourne another considerable distance.

His early working life is written up in the Melbourne Museum site (see above).

To a small child Grandpa was a giant with beautiful hands, I was utterly fascinated with his long fingers. He passed this trait onto his son Hugh. I used to love watching him sketch an idea that had suddenly come to him, he would take up a piece of paper and his fountain pen and without pause draw what he had in mind. He encouraged me greatly in my own artistic endevours so I am reasonably competent at painting. When I went for a drive with him, he would suddenly say "What do you see?" and I would have to describe something to him. If I had missed something such as tree in bloom, or an eagle soaring on the currents, a yacht under full sail. He would stop the car and just sit there until I gave him the right answer. Looking back I think that this training in observation helped me a lot in my profession of Nursing. After one particular drive when we had had a bit of an argument about 'seeing the wind', he came around to my home and gave me a beautiful book of Van Gogh's paintings with the comment "He could see the wind".


Something that is rarely mentioned in regards to Daniel was the fact that he had many strings to his bow. He was a qualified Carriage maker and Wheelwright and photos of some of the wagons he made are depicted on the Melbourne Museum Website. His hobbies included Photography and many of the photos shown there are his work. I have in my home two articles of Furniture he made, the pride of place is Dresser he made for his wife,Maud, on the occasion of their marriage in 1901, it was made without nails, the other is an auto-tray made about the 1930's. Another of his hobbies was the restoring and upholstering of old furniture, which he would buy at Sales. Not that everything he turned his hands to was perfect, I'll not forget the day when Grandma was busy baking, mentioned to him that the kitchen tap was leaking. Unconcerned Grandpa got out a spanner and new washer, and proceeded to undo the tap without turning the water off at the mains connection. The resultant mess of the fountaining water on the carefully cooling cakes and bread was a sight to behold, Grandma was purple with anger, all I could do was laugh.