Quoting from "Return to Rainbow" Ian Woods Page 4. Out over the bow hill. Three miles west of Rainbow, "Rainbow Rise". Established 1899. Croajabrim.
Have I found old Rainbow Rise and a map of it?
Don't jump to conclusions just yet, read on!
More...
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Thank you very much, Don...
This map is very large, and it isn't something you can print out easily, so I decided to do a web page on this map.
The map covers from out past the airport, all the way up to Gray Street, the end of Dart's Avenue, and the Showgrounds. That is pretty much everything.
The date is hard to determine as there have been numerous updates. May need a professional map reader to fully interpret it.
Mr. Taverner from what I remember was a politician involved in the railway being extended to a choice of either Kenmare or Rainbow. I think he had some sort of financial interest in it, as Rainbow won out. You will see two Taverner Streets, one appears to be west of Rainbow, out Rainbow Rises Road, and one at Rainbow.
Image 1
This is the full image, however you will need to download the PDF version below to make full use of this map. I do actually have it in approx. double the resolution presented here, (10,924 x 7,824 pixels) but can't see the point of offering it, as this resolution will even give you the creases in the paper. Current resolution for this PDF is 6,667 x 4,775 pixels.
Image 2
Is this second image of the Taverner Street west of Rainbow?
Is it three miles out?
Image 3
Around the Federal and Taverner St, Rainbow area.
Image 4
Showgrounds area.
Measuring the distance from the Pot Of Gold to Solly Road.
Let us take another approach.
Three miles is 4.82KM. Using Taverner Street and the Pot Of Gold, as a base line, what is three miles west of Rainbow?
And the satellite view.
Could Rainbow Rise be out near Solly Road somewhere?
Now measuring the distance to the "old town" out towards Nhill.
From the Pot Of Gold to Kruger's corner is 1.57miles.
However if I was marking the centre of town, I would be putting a pin in at King, and Federal street, or the Eureka corner. Very close to the Post Office, so that should be acceptable. 1.41 miles.
Trevor has placed it a little further out, just south of the Airport. His explantion is detailed in the text below.
Trevor Bretag has produced a very interesting second map.
Happy with what you have added. I believe the first settlement in Rainbow was south west of the current town (attached image). This matches the lower left of Image 1 of your map. Image 2 is an enlargement of the Darts Avenue area. The remains of several buildings were still there in the late 50's before the 50 mph bend was constructed.
Also interesting to see that the current Golf Course was originally designated as a Sanctuary for Game. I think that Hare Coursing (The pursuit of hares with greyhounds) may have happened in this area.
Trevor:
The road was altered to take out the sharp bend and the top of the hill was also cut away and used as filling to lessen the grade of the road. My parents referred to the location as Bow Hill, not sure whether that was the common name for the location. It is interesting to note that the Rainbow Township map also has "Rainbow Rise" pencilled in on the map just to the right hand side of "9 of B" (above Timber and Water Supply Reserve).
You can see the hand written "Rainbow Rise" nearly in the center of the above map, in the reddish are. Resolution is a little hard to see on the map, so I have blown it up for you.
Combination Map
We now have two sections of one map that are displaying very different things. Even the map maker had trouble fitting all the details onto the map, so he drew up two different versions of the one area. This is the Taverner Street, Darts Avenue section.
You will see names of original block owners on one section, and block numbers on the other, simply because it was becoming too crowded to place it all together.
It also becomes very difficult to mentally collate it all. And on top of that, today you have house numbers into the mix as well.
What I have done to make life easier on myself and others, is to build a single map that has the block, names, and added the Google street numbers.
Map 1 is this redrawn section, which shows up on the left hand side of the large map.
Map 2 shows this section is the correct location.
Map 3 has the google street address numbers on it.
These three maps cover the area from Riggs Street, to Norman Street, (Strauss Lane) and to the end of Darts Avenue.
No, it doesn't print out well, but is very useful for large on screen display.
I hope this makes life a little easier for anyone trying to decipher the original block owners with the current house number IDs.
Click on any image below to see it in full size.
Additional Maps of Interest
Trevor Bretag had a couple of other Maps that I feel may be of interest to readers.
He gave me the URLs of the downloads, but even though I have a fast NBN service, they would never download for me. So he emailed them to me in no time.
Just click on the links below to download them.
The Lake Albacutya Map No. 1 is very interesting. It shows the Lake divided into a number of different holdings for grazing of the lake.
Location of the stone quarry.
From Trevor Bretag:
For your information, I have attached a screenshot of the old quarry site at Rainbow. My grandfather Herman Victor Putt worked at the quarry and as a stonemason. The stone for most of the limestone buildings in Rainbow came from this site.
Location of the stone quarry can be seen on the Werrap Parish Map. It is just west of Rainbow on the southern side of the Pigick Road.
Don's Current Conclusions.
Please have a read through the comments on this post, (Below) which have helped me to draw these conclusions.
With a second slightly different map appearing with what I call the enlarged "Taverner-Federal-Insert", I feel it is just the map maker doing what is convenient for him. This means the original suspected position of Rainbow Rise, out over Bow Hill, three miles west, is completely wrong. There was nothing out near Solly Road, or even just over Bow Hill.
What is does mean is that Rainbow Rise was about 1.5 miles south west of Rainbow. Even the original block owners are listed on these maps.
And if anything, it appears to be down hill to me. Can anyone verify the height of these two locations, just because we can?
Why was the town shifted?
Mr Taverner?
Lands or Railway surveyor?
Because it was simply not a good spot to run a railway line through?
All of the above?
None of the above?
In a FaceBook Private Group? Then you won't have a share button.
Please share this story with your family and friends so that they can read about the Rainbow Township, its history, and what it has to offer tourists.
Thank you very much, Don...
I’ve just been talking to Frank Thomas and he cant remember any existence of a street out there for that matter he disagrees that it’s 3 mile out but rather less than two mile. So we have to agree with Trevor and say it’s a view of darts avenue.
Thanks for the feedback Tyler. Yes, running out of alternative theories now.
I’ll update this post today to reflect this.
Cheers Don…
Gday,
Is image 2 not just a blown up section of the darts avenue/ Tavener street corner blocks that haven’t got further information? Instead of a seperate township…
I am glad you asked this question Tyler because that is the reason I discarded this map for so many years. Then I thought about Mr. Taverner. He held a position as a pollie or Land Commissioner, I forget now, but I know he had a lot to do with the railway coming to Rainbow as opposed to Kenmare. And I know I have posted about him before so I will eventually come up with an answer to that one.
Is this potential site three miles from rainbow out the Bow Hill? It doesn’t look that far, but I assume someone, maybe me, will end up doing accurate measurements!
I have compared both sections of the map to each other, and it looks very much like that could be the same. Blocks with names on them in one section are blanks in the other. The measurements appear to be the same.
But if we can definitively rule out this as being Rainbow Rise, then at least we have achieved something.
The other thought is, was the old township out past the golf course on Lake Road? I know where George Cowell lived, there were many old house footings in that area. But then, that isn’t out over Bow Hill.
The reason I posted this info was to get a healthy debate going and to draw some sort of definite conclusion, while some of our ancestor’s stories still remain with us.
Don…
The bottom left of image 1 is “Old Rainbow”. Image 2 is an enlarged view of Dart’s Avenue (Bow St and Taverner St Intersection).
Thanks Trevor, I have also thought this.
From the Pot Of Gold to Kruger’s corner is 1.57 Miles South West, so the previous descriptions of the location don’t seem to be accurate.
Do you have any further information on this that may help us?
Don…