Maureen Donnellon, The Buloke Times
Historical Society members met at the Museum archives on Wednesday, August 9, for their annual meeting, marvelling that 40 years had passed since the first meeting was held at the Birchip High School in 1983 where a good crowd led by Mr George Gould agreed that a museum was needed and a Society was formed.
Three of those original members are still members and office bearers.
Election
Mr Brian Lea took the chair for the election of office bearers.
Mr Warren King agreed to continue as president , Mrs Dorothy Reid is vice-president, Mrs Maureen Donnellon continues as secretary and Miss Elaine McCallum will remain as archivist and treasurer. All other attendees and members join the committee for the coming year.
It was very heartening to welcome a new member, Mr Hayden Collins, to the Society and quite overwhelming to receive a wonderful donation from another member.
Activities
The report for the year 2022 to 2023 showed that many activities had been undertaken and a lot of research for families had brought in some much needed funds.
Families helped through index files and newspapers, including Paton, Easdale, Everitt, Holland, Balding, Hunt, Miskin, and Gay. Many sports files and newspapers were scrolled through to help update local sports teams, while Birchip newspapers were indexed up to 1990, a very tedious and painstaking task, by Elaine McCallum, but extremely essential for research tasks.
We had a very successful weekend Conference run by The Royal Historical Society of Victoria which we shared with Nullawil and Donald Societies, and attended by others from Victorian societies.
Dorothy Reid continued on the quest for grants towards digitisation of artefacts and photos. We had successful displays and open days at the Museum and the Railway Station during the Mali Heart Festival in March.
Many articles have been printed in the “Buloke Times” including one on the Restoration of the Stump Jump Plough. A proposed Consolidated School in 1920s before the Higher Elementary School in 1924 was researched. The original brick buildings of the present P12 school will reach 100 years in 2024. Let’s hope the school is preparing to celebrate. Some interesting photos were received from the relatives of a former Welsh worker Les Brooks from 1945 to 1955, showing our town in those days, the diary of the Senior Citizens trips was received from Frances Forrester, and photocopied photos of the staff at O’Gilpins’s shop in its very early days before it became Jolly’s, then Landmark, Nutrien Ag. and now Mallee Branded.
Information was researched on Bills’ Trough for the Wall Art, and local politicians were contacted about our concerns with funding reduced for Trove research. Information was provided on the historic artefacts and buildings around our town, for Blake Lee’s project.
A lot of detailed information was collated for the Pre School /Kindergarten/ Infant Welfare Centre history and for the recent 50th Reunion of the 1973 Reserves Premiership football team. Booklets celebrating the end of season functions have been collected for the museum by Sharee Dobson and are very valuable for our sporting research.
Members are working with the Buloke Tourism Board in an effort to have the Mounted Machinery Trail become a reality and Sunset Taylor Park enhanced.
House history
The history of the house where Cathy Young now lives was requested and shows it to be one of the oldest houses still in town and was once the home of Sister Duster who opened her private hospital there. It was called St Burford’s Hospital in the 1920s. Further research into the unusual name of the hospital has shown that the same Sister Duster opened a private hospital in Stawell with the same name. I have yet to find a St Burford anywhere else. The search continues. The beautiful red glass front door has the name “Fernleigh” etched on it. We wonder what it had to do with Sister Duster?
One of our latest acquisitions is the last of the two concrete lions that once sat proudly on top of the newsagency where Hayden Collins once worked. So nice to have a pet arrive with him, but it is a sad looking unrecognisable creature badly in need of concrete restoration.
Students
We have had a group of school students visit this year, and once again they were amazed to find that you don’t have to be dead to be acknowledged in the archives, just have to be born, have lived, played sport, run a business etc. Some found themselves and their families. We have a group coming this week too.
There are lots of tasks for anyone keen to join for $20 annually, or to become a friend of the Museum for $20 if unable to actually attend meetings or live elsewhere, but have once been a part of the town or have been helped in the past. Please remember us if you belong to organisations with annual allocations, and enjoy history or you have a few dollars to share.
Our futures depend on our history and sharing it for the benefit of all. We meet on the second Wednesday evening of the months from February to December and would be very happy to have more come along.
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 25 August 2023.
