Bulletin

Issue: September 2005

News

John Furphy Memorial Lecture

La Trobe University recently presented the Inaugural John Furphy Memorial Lecture at its Shepparton Campus. Titled The Parthenon throughout the Ages, the lecture was delivered by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Osborne.

Professor Osborne is an epigrapher and historian, whose research has given us new understandings of life in ancient Athens. Among his works are the four volumes of Naturalization in Athens (1981-83) with Sean Byrne and Lexicon of Greek Person Names, II: Attica (1994).

Professor Osborne's work has earned him many distinctions, including an Honorary Doctorate from Athens University and Fellowship of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, an Aristotle Award for Services to Hellenic Studies and an Alexander S. Onassis Research Fellowship.

The John Furphy Memorial Lecture has been established in memory of John Furphy (1842-1920), a man very successful at adapting farm machinery to suit the dry conditions of the Goulburn Valley. His iron swingletree, spike roller, and grain stripper were among his notable early products.

His greatest success, however, was the Furphy water cart which made the family name a household word in farming districts of south-eastern Australia by the time of the First World War. During the war, through the association of the water cart with rumour, 'furphy' emerged as soldier's slang. In 1985 the cart was acclaimed by the Institution of Engineers, Australia as an 'outstanding example of agricultural engineering ingenuity'.

John Furphy expressed his philosophy in his 'Good better best' message on the cast iron ends of the water tank. He took his sons into partnership in 1893, and the firm of J. Furphy & Sons continues in Shepparton today.

A new book which challenges many furphies about the origin of the word 'furphy'- and gives a 'full and authentic account' of the history of the famous water cart - will be published in October. It has been written by La Trobe Emeritus Professor in English, John Barnes, and Andrew Furphy, a descendent of John Furphy.

The authors say the water carts, made for over 90 years, are now collectors' items. Their tank ends, with intriguing moral and political messages in cast iron, are prized as wall plaques. 'In the eyes of later generations they symbolise a rural past of simple verities and individual effort.'

The book, to be distributed by Woods Lane Pty Ltd, will be available from bookstores or www.furphys.com.au