Chris Ganly
Author
BOOKS
Gold on Mercers Hill
That well known auriferous place
Major Mercer
No ordinary Life
They Once Raced Here
The lost racecourses of Victoria
IN THE PRESS
Friday 12 February 2016
A local newspaper in Geelong, The Geelong Indpependent covered Chris's book on the front page.
Read the article online here.
http://geelongindy.com.au/indy/2016-02-12/lost-gold-mine-below-newtown/
Friday 15 April 2016
Newtown's Gold Rush
A few months back I had an interview with Geelong Coast (GC) Magazine. Their latest edition is just out and the interview and 4 page story is in there.
BIO
Chris was born and raised in Geelong until he attended University in Melbourne. Following that, work saw him living in various countries and cities but mainly in Melbourne until a couple of years ago when he returned home to Geelong.
With a long family history in Geelong and as a resident of Newtown he knows the area well and has developed a passion for the history of the region.
Gold on Mercer’s Hill was his first work and came about following a conversation one Saturday afternoon with his neighbor in Newtown.
He was somewhat surprised to learn that gold had apparently been prospected for in a nearby street, Prospect Road. The suggestion being that Prospect Road was in fact named for the gold mining activity that had taken place there.
That one chance conversation sparked his interest to discover what had taken place, where it had been and what, if anything, was left behind. Chris says that when he started the investigation into the story that he didn’t intend to write a book but one thing led to another and before he knew it he had something of a story that he thought others might be interested in and enjoy.
His second book follows on the discovery of whom Mercer's Hill is named. Major Mercer is the biography of Major William Drummond Mercer and is the culmination of two years research and investigation into the life and times of Major Mercer.
We will probably never know why William Mercer duelled with the honorable Andrew Ramsay in Ghazipur in 1801. The fact that he did, and lost his life, changed the lives of all around him. One of those was his five year old son, William Drummond Mercer.
Major Mercer is the story of how it came to be that a man
from a prominent Scottish family came to Port Phillip in the first formative years of the colony and played a key role in its establishment and subsequent separation from New South Wales.
Beyond this, it’s the story of a man who travelled successfully around the world and built a legacy for his own family.
History in Geelong - The Blog
Mar
10
This week I was lucky enough to go on a field trip with my father to Snake Island on the North Western side of Corio Bay, Geelong. As a very keen birder he took me to see the site of a number of things. For me the highlight of the vist was a close up look at two rusted-out hulks at an old pier on the island.