The election was not the only major event taking place in Australia on Saturday night.
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Or at Murtoa's Railway Hotel for that matter.
In the room next door to where Independent candidate Ray Kingston held his election night party with supporters, more than 100 people gathered from South Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Gippsland for the Rabl family reunion.
Organiser Paula Clark (nee Rabl), is the great-granddaughter of Dr Heinrich and Helene Rabl (nee Degenhardt).
"A hundred years ago this week, we lost three of our family members to the Spanish Flu," she said.
"My great grandfather and great grandmother, and also their daughter-in-law Jesse Van Der Feen, who had come in from Sea Lake to have her second child.
"The child lived, and that was Joe Rabl, my grandfather. Joe would have celebrated his hundredth birthday on Saturday."
Mrs Clark said the Rabls were early settlers of Murtoa.
"Helene's father Fred was one of the first group of five or six settlers," she said.
"It's been very interesting exploring and filling in the gaps on the family trees for the Rabls, Degenhardts and Van Der Feens."
Mrs Clark still lives in the family home in Murtoa.
"It's been great to show the extended family the original home, and we have an old quince tree in the garden that Helene and Heinrich planted over 100 years ago," she said.
"Everyone who attended the reunion is going home with a little piece of quine paste from that very tree."
Many German dry-climate wheat farmers migrated to Murtoa from South Australia after the Land Act of 1869 broke up much of the area into 320 acre blocks.
The first party of four German farmers arrived in the district in 1871 and returned to settle permanently the following year.
Dr Rabl was born in Bavaria in 1957 and emigrated to Australia in 1884. He served as Murtoa's physician before his passing.
His son, Dr Siegmund Rabl served the district for 49 years until he passed away in a road accident in 1968.
A memorial clock and plaque commemorating Siegmund was unveiled in town in 1972.
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Alexander Darling
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
