History & heritage

At the AGM of the Lord Howe Island Historical Society and Museum on October 18th, President, Robyn Warner, stepped down after twenty years in the role. Robyn has been an enthusiastic and effective leader at the Museum and, during her time, has overseen many improvements to the building and displays. Robyn’s report from the AGM is reproduced here.    

Wayne Krause. The family would like to thank Chappie and Sharon for being here and for Chappie taking the service. Les specifically asked if Chappie could do this a couple of years ago because of his personal friendship with Chappie and the impact Chappie had on the Island Les loved ... Leslie Allen King was born in Petersham, NSW, on 30 August 1921, the only son of Norm and Maggie King.

If you’re interested in Celtic music, here’s an event not to be missed: the Celtic Piping Club is hosting an event at the Ray Bradfield Room in Castlemaine on Saturday 4 November, starting at 8pm.   Internationally acclaimed duo Colm Broderick on uilleannn pipes and Francis Cunningham on concertina will be performing.  

Adrian Callinan and Kathleen Purcell met each other at a football game in Melbourne in 1946. Kathleen had several suitors lining up to woo her, but she fell for Adrian, a dashing flyboy just back from the war.

The Corryong Historic Machinery Club is welcoming returning participants, visitors and locals to its 2023 Rally this weekend; the first event since 2019 following the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires, the pandemic and a ‘big wet’.

There was anticipation in the air as two time capsules from 25 years ago were unearthed last week ... School captains, Meiha Burns and Daisy McGlone, led the formalities, with vice captains, Lainie Hawken and Hayley Rooney, principal Fiona Miller and principal of 1998, Glenn Hall, giving an insight into school life past and present.

Port Broughton’s ornately decorated hotel and its stately Norfolk Island pines, the Alford Institute Hall, churches at Bute and a farmhouse at Mundoora are among 46 sites which could be heritage listed by Barunga West Council ... Council has proposed new planning rules to protect the area’s local heritage, which would make it the first council to utilise South Australia’s code amendment process for this purpose.

The exhibition is of Orthodox icons and includes pieces from eleven Australian collections, including six public institutions: Mona, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Art Gallery of South Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Sydney, and the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, Caboolture.   Contributions from private collectors come from Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, and London ... This exhibition is the most significant collection of Orthodox icons presented in Australia that can be recalled ... The overall effect is surely one of surprise for the uninitiated and awe inspiring for the person who understands the genre.

Back in 2021, the Birchip Cemetery Trust received $22,000 from the Department of Health’s Cemetery Sector Governance Support Program to upgrade the original lawn cemetery and a further $18,000 from the “Cargill Cares Cropping for the Birchip Community” program ... concrete plinths could be installed in all six rows of the initial lawn cemetery to rehouse the plaques that used to sit on individual concrete blocks or directly on the lawn.

Corryong College teacher, Stephen Learmonth ... has undertaken his own project to record the biographies of other servicemen from the region and the Corryong Courier will be printing a selection of these stories in the lead up to Remembrance Day this year on November 11 ... Frank Leslie Butler was born on the 13th of April, 1919 at Tallangatta, Victoria.

The Vintage Drivers Club of Victoria organised a tour through parts of Western NSW with a stay of a couple of days in White Cliffs. The Club had liaised with the White Cliffs Historic Vehicle Club and met for an evening meal at the Pub.

Patrick Goldsmith. They came in their thousands to celebrate 150 years of the Edithburgh jetty across Saturday and Sunday ... Those who had wandered down the street, or driven from further away, to join the celebrations were met with a hive of activity, including shearing and diving demonstrations, museum open days and market stalls offering an array of food and drink options.

Excitement is building for this year’s Dunolly Gold Rush Festival to be held on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October. The weekend will kick off on Saturday 21 October with the Dunolly Gold Rush Music Festival ... There will be a variety of stalls, prizes, great music in the Rotunda, the favourite “Hold the Gold” competition, Festival merchandise sales, displays of classic cars ...

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) (Queensland Section) is marking the momentous 80-year anniversary of its Charleville Base this October. Established in 1943, the Charleville Base services a waiting room of more than 622,000 square kilometres, connecting the residents of this significant South-West Queensland region to leading, and often lifesaving, health services ... As part of the 80-year anniversary, the RFDS (Qld) will also celebrate the individual 20-year anniversary of two of its nurses, Joanne Mahony and Diane Dowrick.

Gale force winds, icebergs and sheer mind-numbing monotony ... for a few thousand of Australia’s WWI servicemen, this was their war. An endless round of escort and blockading with the ever-present threat of a torpedo from underneath. I am of course referring to those clean-cut young men from the Royal Australian Navy.

The cover of the newly released Maldon Museum 2024 calendar is a photograph of a beautiful watercolour of the Beehive Mine by David Relph Drape ... The Maldon Museum has a unique photograph collection and the calendar has a distinctive photograph of Maldon for each month.

Police officers have an important, but sometimes dangerous job in the community; for this reason Police Remembrance Day marks those officers who have either been killed on duty or died whilst serving. First commemorated in 1989 it occurs on 29 September each year.

A draft strategic plan to bolster the Hume and Hovell Track has been released ... [following] consultations and workshops with tourism groups, community members, local councils, Aboriginal organisations, and agencies including the National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Forestry Corporation.

The red dust at Barellan is a long way from the sparkling water of a pool but former Olympic swimming champion Shane Gould was taking a keen interest in the sound of a single furrow plough slicing through the clay at the Barellan Good Old Days Festival at the weekend ... She was a keen spectator at the single furrow ploughing completion on Sunday at Barellan, drawing heavy horse and bullock teams.

The Rockliff Liberal Government is a proud supporter of Legacy and this week we proudly welcomed the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay to Tasmania ... “It was an honour to be in Pozieres, France, as part of the Frank MacDonald Memorial Prize Tour when the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay began on April 23": Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Guy Barnett.

The Goomburra Town Hall is inviting local families who may have family members who served for their country to donate a paver for the Memorial Garden. There are two Honour Boards in the hall and the committee are replicating these by developing a memorial garden with named pavers of service personnel.

Will Hunter. It is feared a historic crane located on an allotment listed for sale as part of a Department for Infrastructure and Transport land disposal in Port Wakefield may be at risk. The allotments … were listed for sale with Ray White Yorke Peninsula after Wakefield Regional Council advised DIT it had no interest in acquiring any of the land identified for disposal.